True Crime Heroes

Journalism has always played an important role in society. We rely on newspapers, television and magazines to stay up to date on current events. When crimes are reported journalists set out to uncover the truth. While conducting their own interviews they can bring to light information that was overlooked by law enforcement, and generate new leads. In some cases it is their dedication that leads to an arrest.

#5 Jerry Mitchell

In 1960 the paths of Mary Horton and Felix Vail crossed in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Mary, a former homecoming queen, immediately fell in love with Felix and just a year later in 1961 the couple married. Despite Felix being adamantly against the idea of having children, Mary gave birth to a son on their first anniversary.

Mary confided to her friends that the marriage was rocky, and that she and Felix often didn't see eye to eye. She wanted to keep her family together and remained hopeful, refusing to give up on the man she married. Her decision to stay would ultimately cost her her life.

On October 28, 1962 the family traveled to the Calcasieu River with their boat to enjoy a day of fishing. Shortly after 7:00 PM Felix claims that Mary fell from the boat when he swerved to avoid a tree stump in the water. Despite his best efforts to save her she drowned. Her body was discovered days later by police and local volunteers.

Felix was arrested on suspision of murder but charges were dropped after the coroner ruled Mary's death as an accidental drowning. He was given a $500 fine for reckless operation of a motorcraft and released. Because Felix never wanted to be a father, and his wife was no longer alive to care for the infant, Felix abandoned their 3 month old son at his parents house and went about his life as a free man.

Nearly fifty years later Jerry Mitchell, an award winning journalist would get a phone call from a woman named Mary Rose. Rose explained to Mitchell that her daughter, Annete Craver, was married to Felix in 1983 and subsequently vanished without a trace in 1984. She also told the reporter that another woman, Sharon Hensley was dating Felix when she vanished in 1973.

Mitchell immediately began looking into the details of Mary's death and the mysterious disappearances of the two women who were involved with him in the years following. He discovered that when Bill Vail was eight years old he overheard his father confessing to Sharon Hensley that he had killed Mary.

Detailing the story of Felix being a possible serial killer Mitchell wrote a book titled "Gone" in 2012. After the book was published witnesses came forward saying Felix had also confessed to them that he had killed Mary. A man who was on one of the search and rescue boats when Mary's body was found also came forward with photo's of her body, which clearly depicted a homicide.

Felix was taken into custody on May 17, 2016 in Texas and extradited to Loiusiana to face charges of second degree murder. At seventy-seven years old he was sentenced to life in prison. He was never charged regarding the disappearances of Annete Craver or Sharon Hensley.

#4 The Boston Globe

In 2002 The Spotlight Team at the Boston Globe published an article highlighting sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The following year this article would receive a Pulitzer Prize for exposing the atrocities.

The team of journalists focused on a former priest, John Joseph Geoghan. Geoghan was ordained in 1962 and began his work as an assistant pastor at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Saugus, Massechusets. While there, accusations of abuse were brought to the attention of church officials, but they were quickly dismissed.

From 1966 to the mid 1990s Geoghan had been involved with six different parishes, all of which were aware of the allegations of abuse that followed him. In 1984 he had been placed at St. Julia’s parish despite an auxiliary bishop expressing written concern about Geoghan’s behavior. The Globe outlined just how far the Catholic Church went to conceal the priest's crimes when it was discovered that instead of notifying authorities the church sent him to mental institutions to be “cured”.

Eighty -four civil lawsuits had been filed against Geoghan and the details of the lawsuits had been under a court ordered confidentiality seal that was granted to church lawyers. The Boston Globe motioned the court to make the documents accessible to the public, and although the Catholic Church appealed, the motion was granted.

In total over 130 victims came forward with allegations of abuse against Geoghan, many of which were encouraged by the article published by The Globe. Had eight journalists not taken the initiative to investigate what was happening within the walls of the Catholic Church, Geoghan, along with four other members of the church, may have never been held responsible for their crimes.

#3 Christine Pelisek

In 2006 Christine Pelisek , a crime reporter for LA Weekly, began her journey to catch a serial killer. She received a tip from someone with the coroner's office about thirty-eight suspicious deaths in the last four years. All of them were women.

After some persistence Christine was able to get a list of the victims and she started to look for connections. She discovered that two of the women were linked by DNA and ballistics. Detectives believed seven more women on the list, killed in the 1980s, could also be linked. All of the victims were African American. Many of them were addicted to drugs or involved in prostitution. Because police initially thought that the murders were drug related, the possibility of a serial killer in the area was never reported through the media, and the murders continued.

The elusive killer took a fourteen year break after attacking Washington. Pelisek created public interest in the murders while writing for LA Weekly. This led to the LAPD forming a task force in 2007 to finally catch a serial killer that had essentially been ignored for over twenty years. Pelisek published a detailed article about the killer she called “The Grim Sleeper” in 2008. This article would be the first time the public would hear of a serial killer in their neighborhood.

Determined to get answers Christine interviewed more than 100 people on the streets of LA. In 2009 she came across a woman named Enietra Washington, who had been shot in the chest and brutally attacked by a man in 1988. The man had pushed her from his vehicle and left her to die, taking a photo of her battered body as a trophy before he sped off.

With DNA evidence from twelve of the murders but no match police resorted to genealogical databases to find a match. They located the suspect’s son, which led them to a man named Lonnie David Franklin Jr. On July 7th, 2010 an arrest was made. In Franklin’s garage they found over 1,000 photos of women, including Washington. They also found the murder weapon. Franklin was convicted on ten counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. On March 28, 2020 he was found unresponsive in his cell at San Quentin, he was 67.

#2 Mary Brown

On November 28, 2018 Julie K. Brown published a series of articles in the Miami Herald. The piece was called “Perversion of Justice” and it detailed how Jeffrey Epstein evaded life in prison when he was faced with a 53 page federal indictment in 2007.

With the help of Alexander Acosta Epstein served a lenient 13 month sentence under a non-prosecution agreement. This agreement allowed Epstein to avoid a thorough FBI investigation that would have surfaced even more victims and allegations. Breaking federal law Acosta sealed the agreement until it was approved, preventing the victims from contesting it in court.

Brown identified 80 women who were abused by Epstein from 2001 to 2006 in Florida and New York. Eight of those women came forward and agreed to be interviewed. The Herald petitioned New York state for sealed documents related to the case and obtained thousands of court and FBI records along with witness statements.

It was discovered that there were over 100 girls alleging abuse against Epstein. Before “Perversion of Justice” was published many details were not public knowledge. This included statements from four of his victims who recounted the abuse. Her coverage of the illegal plea deal as well as these statements renewed interest in the case. Before long a large scale trafficking ring was uncovered.

On July 6, 2019 Epstien was arrested and charged with sex trafficking. On August 10th he was found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. Although it was ruled a suicide by hanging there is a lot of controversy surrounding his death and it is under FBI investigation.

#1 Mable Norms Reese

Mable Norms Reese was the owner, editor and reporter for a Florida newspaper called the Mount Dora Topic from the 1940s to the 1960s.

When four young African American men were accused of raping a woman in 1949 Reese immediatley interviewed the sherrif to cover the story. Believing everything sheriff Wiilis McCall was telling her​ ​she wrote her articles for her paper.

In 1951 her perspective changed when she learned that McCall not only gunned down one of the defendants before their arrest, but shot two of the men while transporting them to a new trial. One man died, and the surviving man denied the sheriff's claims that the men jumped him.

Not one to settle for injustice Reese began to expose the truth about the sheriff, who she learned had ties to the KKK. After publishing her articles Reese was targeted by the KKK. They bombed her house twice and set a cross on fire in her front lawn. Immediately following the attacks Reese published a photo of her holding her dog in front of the burning cross, a statement that she would not be silenced. Even after her dog was poisoned two days later she persisted.

The remaining two men were ultimately sentenced to life in prison. Walter Irvin was released in 1968 and died the following year. Charles Greenly was paroled in 1962 and lived with his family until his death in 2012.

In 2016 Groveland Mayor Tim Louks along with the Lake County Commission issued a public apology to the surviving families of Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shephard, and Walter Irvin. They began lobbying for a pardon.

On January 11, 2019 all four men were granted pardon in a unanimous vote by the state of Florida.

The courage and relentless reporting of Mable Norms Reese may not have led to an arrest, but it shed light on the corruption of a racist sheriff and the wrongful conviction of four young men.