RICHARDSON, GERARD: Oddee online -
Who knew that something as small as a bite mark would lead to the overturning of a murder conviction of a man imprisoned for nearly two decades.
A 19-year-old girl was found dead in a Bernards Township ditch in New Jersey in 1994, and Gerard Richardson became the right man for the crime after prosecutors used bite-mark evidence to convict him.
But they were wrong, and DNA evidence helped prove that in October of 2013 with the help of the Innocence Project. The new evidence showed that the bite mark used to convict Richardson belonged to another male.
After nearly 20 years behind bars, Richardson was a free man.
Had his conviction held up, Richardson wouldn’t have been eligible for parole until May 2025. Oddee online report, ‘10 of the Worst Wrongful Imprisonment Cases’
RICHARDSON, JAMES: Oddee online - Herald-Tribune online - Janet Reno -
The 77-year-old Florida man recently returned to his hometown of Arcadia, where in 1967 he was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the poisoning deaths of his seven children.
He spent 21 years locked up for the heinous crime – his children died from lunches laced with pesticide – after being framed by authorities and alleged by prosecutors to have killed his young for insurance money.
Years later, the woman who had been babysitting Richardson’s children while he and his wife were away working confessed to the crime, so Richardson was freed from prison. Oddee online report ‘10 of the Worst Wrongful Imprisonment Cases’
Seven children poisoned by insecticide.
Their father charged with murder.
A white sheriff and a white prosecutor who, the story goes, framed a poor black fruit picker and brought shame to this town.
All those lawyers making a show at the trial and all those reporters asking questions about Arcadia that no one wanted to answer.
Nobody talks much about James Joseph Richardson or those seven dead children anymore.
That was 40 years ago, and just about anybody who had anything to do with it has died or moved on.
But suspicion lingers about Richardson, even after it was proven that the murder case against him was built on lies. Some still wonder whether it was Richardson who spiked the children’s lunch in October 1967 and finessed the legal system to avoid the punishment he deserved.
And now, the case that underscored the upheaval of the civil rights era in this small town is back in court.
Richardson is the first person to apply for a settlement under a new Florida law that awards the wrongly convicted.
Jailed for more than two decades, he stands to gain more than $1 million -- $50,000 for every year he spent in prison.
Opposing him, just as they did in 1967 and 1989, when he was set free, are prosecutors with the State Attorney’s Office. They are pointing to a provision in the new law that says the wrongly convicted must prove their own innocence to receive a payment.
It is nearly an impossible standard, especially in a case this old. Evidence was destroyed years ago and most of the witnesses are now dead.
Richardson’s attorney, Robert Barrar Jr., wonders: ‘How do you prove a negative? How do you prove that something didn’t happen?’
You can start with the baby sitter. Herald-Tribune article 8 March 2009, ‘Wrongly convicted man’s murder case raises questions’
This assigned state attorney has concluded that James Richardson did not receive a fair trial. That James Richardson did not receive justice at his trial. Janet Reno, state attorney at appeal hearing
RICHINS, KOURI: True Crime Recaps 2023 -
Kouri Richins: When a mom of three suddenly loses her husband she writes a children’s book about dealing with grief. Now she’s accused of poisoning him. True Crime Recaps: Grieving Wife or Cold-Blooded Killer? Kouri Richins, Youtube 9.26, 2023
We need to rewind a few years to the first time Kouri allegedly tried to do Eric in … Another brush with death on Valentine’s Day 2022: Corey allegedly attempted to dose her husband again. ibid.
Eric had a secret: he changed his will; instead of leaving everything to Kouri he put his sister in charge of his trust. ibid.
RICHTER, TRACEY: Diabolical Women TV -
A seemingly heroic mother actually takes the life of another woman’s son. Her motive: to target an ex-husband. Diabolical Women II: Tracey Richter, Channel 4 2023
December 13th 2001, Early, Iowa: She tells them [rozzer] she was home alone with her baby daughter and two sons when they became victims of a home invasion. Upstairs in the master bedroom investigators find the body of her alleged attacker on the floor.
She is taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. ibid.
RIDGWAY, GARY LEON: Crimes that Shook the World TV - Green River Killer: Born to Kill? TV - My Uncle is the Green River Killer TV - Deranged Killers TV - World’s Most Evil Killers TV - Catching Killers TV - Mind of a Monster TV -
This is the story of America’s longest running and most prolific series of murders. For over two decades the citizens of Seattle quaked under the shadow of the Green River Killer. A murderer so prolific that by the time he was caught over forty-eight women had lost their lives and been dumped like garbage in the waste-grounds of Washington State. Crimes that Shook the World, Channel 5 2006
All the victims had been dumped in or around water, but in September ’82 the Green River Killer changed his pattern – he started dumping bodies in urban waste-ground instead. ibid.
He left a stone in the victim’s vagina. ibid.
The murderer drove a pick-up truck. ibid.
Old evidence could be tested for DNA. ibid.
On November 5th 2003 Ridgway was brought to the County Court House to plead guilty to the murder of forty-eight women. ibid.
The most prolific serial murderer America has ever known whose nineteen-year reign of terror left the area surrounding Seattle littered with corpses. Born to Kill? Green River Killer, CI 2013
The forty-eight charges of murder that investigators could conclusively tie him to. ibid.
So what made the monster? Was it his unusual upbringing, or was Gary Ridgway born to kill? ibid.
‘I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight.’ My Uncle is the Green River Killer, Ridgway, CI 2015
‘My uncle admitting to killing forty-eight women.’ ibid. niece
Garry passed the polygraph test. ibid.