Jenny Ashford is a horror, true crime, and paranormal writer, graphic designer, and podcaster. Her most recent books are a three-volume true crime compilation collectively known as The Faceless Villain: A Collection of the Eeriest Unsolved Murders of the Twentieth Century. Volume One was published in 2017, Volume Two in 2018, and Volume Three in 2019. Her other books include four paranormal nonfiction books: The Unseen Hand: A New Exploration of Poltergeist Phenomena, The Mammoth Mountain Poltergeist (with Tom Ross), House of Fire and Whispers: Investigating the Seattle Demon House, and The Rochdale Poltergeist (both with Steve Mera); as well as three horror novels, Red Menace, Bellwether, and The Five Poisons; two short story collections, Hopeful Monsters and The Associated Villainies; and a graphic novel, The Tenebrist. A second edition of The Associated Villainies was published in 2019, featuring four new stories, an enhanced print layout, and an audio book version. A second edition of The Five Poisons was published in 2020. Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Nightmare Collective, History Is Dead, 2012AD, ChimeraWorld #3, and ChimeraWorld #4. Her horror blog, Goddess of Hellfire, contains writing news, short stories and articles, and her reviews and opinions on horror films and books. She also co-hosts a podcast with Tom Ross called 13 O'Clock, on which they discuss true crime, unexplained mysteries, paranormal weirdness, horror movies and books, food, and other fun, creepy topics. They recently collaborated on a 13 O'Clock cookbook. Jenny's graphic design work can be seen on everything from books and business cards to posters and packaging. She runs an online store called Gravecake selling products with her designs, and also has a board-and-card game concern called Giallo Games, which produces games based around the beloved Italian horror/crime genre, among many other themes.
In the summer of 1971, a young teenager would go missing and later turn up murdered, the first casualty of a short series of possibly related homicides whose victims have come to be known as the Waverly Three. It was Sunday, June 13th, 1971, and fourteen-year-old Valerie Lynn Klossowsky had been spending Sunday having a … More The Waverly Three
It was Friday, March 5th, 1971, and eighteen-year-old Palmer Junior College student Judith Anne Haecker had plans to hang out and have drinks with her friends at her one-room apartment on 15th Street in Davenport, Iowa. Judith had been spending the day with her parents, who lived only a few blocks away, but they gave … More Judith Anne Haecker
In the winter of 1971, in Durham, North Carolina, two young people would go missing in what would prove to be the tragic first chapter of a true Valentine’s Day massacre. Twenty-year-old nursing student Patricia Mann and her boyfriend, nineteen-year-old North Carolina State University student Jesse McBane, were a happy, good-looking couple who had plans … More Jesse McBane and Patricia Mann
In September of 1969, as the leaves began their spectacular fall transformation in central Vermont, the beauty of the landscape would be marred by the gruesome double murder of a vacationing couple. James and Iola Hipp were retired and had planned a months-long trek from their home in Lutz, Florida up the coast into New … More James and Iola Hipp
Forty-eight-year-old Dorothy H. Miller worked for Bolick Realty in Burlington, Iowa, the only female realtor in town. On August 15th of 1969, Dorothy Miller received a phone call from a man calling himself Robert Clark and requesting a tour of an available property on Grand Street later that night. Dorothy, wary of showing houses to … More Dorothy Miller
In the summer of 1969, a hard-working North Carolina grandmother would be mercilessly stabbed to death in her home, for reasons which are still a complete enigma. Fifty-five-year-old Elizabeth Hilts Grant was a widow who had lived alone in a house on Robinhood Road in Winston-Salem since the death of her husband in 1953. The … More Elizabeth Hilts Grant
On Wednesday, July 9th, 1969, the Veach family—parents Bill and Etta, and children Billy and Patricia—were spending a quiet, normal evening at their home in Des Moines, Iowa. The kids went to bed at their usual times, but Bill and Etta stayed up until around two a.m., and nothing at all seemed amiss. The next … More Patricia Ann Veach
On December 20th, 1976, a teenage boy walking near one of the supports of the three-hundred-foot bridge spanning the Lehigh River in White Haven, Pennsylvania, came across a ghastly tableau: two open suitcases with a severed head, a torso, and a dead baby spilling out of them. A third, unopened suitcase lay nearby. When officers … More Evelyn Colon: Beth Doe
In the early days of 1977, a suspected serial killer would begin a strange run of crimes in Atlanta, Georgia. Dubbed the Lover’s Lane Killer, this individual manifested many of the same traits as the Zodiac, as well as the Phantom Killer of Texarkana, attacking random couples parked in cars and shooting them dead. The … More Atlanta Lover’s Lane Murders
On the first day of June 1975, twenty-three-year-old teacher Ellen Choate left her home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and set out for Bangor, Maine, where she was supposed to start a new job on June 2nd. At some point along her journey, she vanished without a trace. It would be more than two years before she … More Ellen Choate
