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.
Fifteen-year-olds Diane Compagna and Anne Psaradelis had spent Thursday, July 12th, 1973 at Hampton Beach, approximately fifty miles from their homes in Merrimack, New Hampshire. At around four-thirty p.m., the two girls were spotted trying to thumb a ride back home, but it was the last time they were seen alive. At first, authorities and … More Diane Compagna and Anne Psaradelis
Seventeen-year-old Susan Wickersham drove to the Sage Room Restaurant in Bend, Oregon on the afternoon of July 11th, 1973. Her mother worked there, and Susan was just dropping off her mother’s car, after which she planned to have some friends pick her up and take her back home. A server at the Sage Room, Denice … More Susan Wickersham
Nineteen-year-old Robin Jeanne Hoinville-Bartram and her friend, eighteen-year-old Anita Cunningham were roommates, and both studied graphic art at the Prahran Technical College in Melbourne, Australia. On July 4th, 1972, the girls packed their bags and set out to hitchhike the twenty-five-hundred miles to Bowen, Queensland to visit Robin’s mother. Over the ensuing months, the two … More Robin Jeanne Hoinville-Bartram and Anita Cunningham
May 2nd, 1972 dawned in the home of the Palmieri family in Staten Island, New York; it was just a typical day for the family of six, consisting of dad Vincent, mom Annette, and their four children: Patrick, Sal, Angela, and Vincent Jr. Thirty-six-year-old Vincent Palmieri, who worked at a print shop in Manhattan, bid … More Vincent Palmieri
Thirty-seven-year-old Donald Goines had a checkered past, to put it mildly. Born in Detroit, Michigan to middle-class parents who owned a laundry business, Donald became somewhat troubled as a teenager. At the age of fifteen, he falsified his identification and joined the Air Force, eventually going on to fight in the Korean War. While Donald … More Donald Goines
It was about quarter to eight on the morning of Tuesday, March 21st, 1972, and fourteen-year-old Marilyn Wallman was riding her bicycle to the bus stop near her family’s farm in Mackay, Queensland. Her two brothers, Rex and David, were only a few minutes behind her. A little more than half a mile from home, … More Marilyn Wallman
The year of 1972 was barely two days old when a Midwestern war veteran would be shot to death for no apparent reason whatsoever. It was the evening of Saturday, January 1st: New Year’s Day. Fifty-five-year-old Edwin Harry Jacobs, who had served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II, was spending some … More Edwin Harry Jacobs
Sixteen-year-old Maria Lena Ybanez had been living a less-than-ideal life in Davenport, Iowa with her foster parents, Kathryn and Bernie Ybanez, who in the summer of 1973 were undergoing a bitter divorce, as well as enduring the loss of Kathryn’s five-year-old niece, who had been hit by a car a short time previously. Kathryn Ybanez … More Maria Lena Ybanez
As the summer of 1968 ended and autumn took hold, the City of Lights would host a mysterious murder that would eventually lead to a scandal that reached the highest levels of French government. On October 1st, the body of thirty-one-year-old Stevan Marković was discovered in a public dump in a village on the western … More Stevan Marković
In the autumn of 1967, nineteen-year-old WRAF aircraftwoman Rita Ellis was getting ready for a babysitting job on the RAF Halton base in Buckinghamshire, England. She had joined the WRAF the previous April, and by the time November rolled around, she was working for the St. Mary’s Hospital catering department on base, though she periodically … More Rita Ellis
