I'm near Houston, and I've read quite a lot of true crime accounts that have happened there and in the surrounding area. The trouble is I can't think of the titles of the books! Maybe if I describe them, someone will know the books.
One was about two doctors (or doctor and nurse or therapist?), husband and wife, that were going through a messy divorce and custody battle. The relationship was so nasty that one of the children, the oldest boy, shot and killed the father. The question was whether the mother put him up to it. She admits some culpability -- poisoning the kid's mind -- but she denies telling the kid to do it. Anyway, the boy who was only eleven or twelve was one of the youngest kids in Texas ever to be put on trial.
Another crime that occurred in Houston was the wife who ran over her estranged hubby, killing him. Her defense strategy made this otherwise run-of-the-mill case quite interesting.
Perhaps the most famous case that happened in Houston was that of Ash Robinson, wealthy oilman, who had his daughter's widower, John Hill, killed because he felt his erstwhile son-in-law had had something to do with his daughter's mysterious death. It's the subject of Thomas Thompson's Blood and Money. But really the most interesting part is Joan Robinson Hill's death: it could've been murder or it could have been accidental or even natural -- there's still plenty to debate about what caused her demise. But all this happened back in 1969 and the early 1970s, so it's almost historical true crime!
posted 1 year ago. ( reply )