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.
On July 11th, 1963, a man named Roy Rogers was fishing in the Keene Creek Reservoir, east of Ashland, Oregon, when his hook snagged on something that he at first believed was a blanket roll. Upon closer examination, however, the roll was found to contain the decomposed remains of a little boy. The child had … More Stevie Crawford: Jackson County John Doe
Twenty-year-old Tim McKillop, a lineman for Mountain Bell Telephone, was driving to Scottsdale, Arizona on May 23rd, 1962 to visit his girlfriend Joyce Sterrenberg, also twenty years old and employed at Mountain Bell as an operator. The couple had recently announced their engagement, and planned to marry on April 1st of the following year. Joyce … More Tim McKillop & Joyce Sterrenberg
February 2nd, 1962 was a Friday night, and pretty high school senior Judi (sometimes spelled Judy) Reeder was planning her usual night out with friends in Bend, Oregon. The seventeen-year-old got into her car in the early evening and headed toward town, but she evidently never made it to her destination. The following morning, her … More Judith Reeder
In Great Britain, on Bonfire Night of 2001, a woman would be savagely stabbed to death after setting off fireworks with her family. It was the evening of November 5th, and twenty-five-year-old Michaela Hague was celebrating Guy Fawkes Day at home in Pitsmoor, Sheffield, with her partner of six years, Mick Holmes, and their five-year-old … More Michaela Hague
Thirty-three-year-old Mohammed Basharat had worked as a driver for Little Horton Taxis on Park Lane in Bradford, West Yorkshire for fourteen years. He was an unusually large man, standing six-foot-five, who his workmates affectionately called “Bash.” He was the father of four children, ranging in age from nine to thirteen. On the afternoon of Friday, … More Mohammed Basharat
As 2001 wore on, more possible hate crimes continued apace in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Fifty-one-year-old Abdo Ali Ahmed originally hailed from Yemen, but had lived in the US for thirty-five years, and was an American citizen. He had worked as a farm laborer in the rural agricultural community of Reedley, … More Abdo Ali Ahmed
In the wake of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC, fear and uncertainty became the norm around the nation, and appallingly, some Americans chose to channel this fear in the most destructive manner possible: by attacking innocent human beings in some sort of delusional attempt to get revenge … More Adel Karas
In the summer of 2001, in Jacksonville, Florida, nineteen-year-old Vickie Cook was spending the evening of Saturday, June 30th at home with her two young daughters, Jazmin and Alexis, and also babysitting two other children. Vickie, described as a smart young woman with a great sense of humor and a fierce devotion to her kids, … More Vickie Cook
On the last day of January 2001, another sex worker would be found dead in Canada, this time not in Edmonton, Alberta, but in Victoria, British Columbia—more than a thousand miles away. Thirty-nine-year-old Roberta Jean Elders was a mother of two who had worked as a prostitute for some time, and had been living at … More Roberta Jean Elders
In January of 2001, in the cold northern climes of Edmonton, Alberta, a young woman would turn up murdered, her death another grim statistic in the disturbingly long list of missing and murdered Aboriginal and mixed-race women and sex workers in Canada. Kelly Dawn Reilly was twenty-three years old in 2001, and like many women … More Kelly Dawn Reilly
