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 1980, a young woman would go missing from her hometown of Nashua, New Hampshire and later turn up dead in the deserts of Arizona. Though she remained unidentified for decades, referred to as Pima County Jane Doe or “Flower Girl,” she was finally given her rightful name in the summer of … More Brenda Gerow
July 29th, 1981 was a significant day in British history, as it was the wedding day of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, who would famously go on to become the much beloved Princess Di. London was thronged with spectators to the lavish event, and among the crowds was a small family known as the … More Vishal Mehrotra
On August 29th of 1960, a little girl in Oregon would disappear from a bean field, though her fate would not be discovered until weeks later. Seven-year-old Alice Louise Lee was playing in a field of green beans on that summer morning in late August. The field was part of Swan’s bean yard, north of … More Alice Louise Lee
On January 12th, 1981, a dog sniffing around a privately-owned, wooded area near Houston, Texas discovered the partially buried and decomposed bodies of two probable teenagers who remained unidentified until very recently. The victims had apparently been murdered about two months previously, and the amount of time that had passed since their deaths meant that … More Harris County Does
In the autumn of 1969, British Columbia, Canada would see the first occurrence in a more than fifty-year series of murders and disappearances of largely Aboriginal women from particular stretches of Highways 16, 97, and 5, an area which over the ensuing decades would come to be known by the eerily evocative name of the … More The Highway of Tears Murders
Before 1965 came to a close, a businessman would disappear without trace on a freezing cold night in Iowa, and his case would bleed over into the following year. Fifty-two-year-old Donald Amos Nervig was the co-owner of a speedometer and electrical services company in Des Moines. On Tuesday, December 14th, he reportedly told a coworker … More Donald Nervig
In the spring of 1980, twenty-two-year-old university student Jessie Earl was elated to have finished her exams, and was looking forward to taking a little break. A second-year graphics student at Eastbourne College of Art and Design in Sussex, England, Jessie lived alone in a small bedsit, but on Wednesday, May 14th, she called her … More Jessie Earl
Thirty-eight-year-old shoe-shine man Israel “Chuck” Fowler shared a house on East Clark Street in Pasco, Washington with thirty-seven-year-old waitress and seamstress Celeste Dixon—who had only arrived in town three days previously—and twenty-nine-year-old Robbie Jean Harris, who worked as an exotic dancer at the nearby Kingfish Club. On the night of August 11th, 1960, two other … More Truman H. Brown, Celeste Dixon, Israel Fowler & Robbie Jean Harris
On the HBO series Deadwood, which aired from 2004 to 2006, British actor Ian McShane portrayed one of the main characters, a saloon owner and ruthless pimp by the name of Al Swearengen. The series took some dramatic license with the real man behind the character, however, and by all accounts, the historical Al Swearengen … More Al Swearengen
In the spring of 1922, a shocking crime occurred that would capture the public imagination for decades to come, mostly due to its deeply unsettling details that were seemingly ripped straight out of a horror movie. On a remote Bavarian farmstead known as Hinterkaifeck, forty-three miles north of Munich, lived the Gruber family, consisting of … More The Hinterkaifeck Murders
Crime Immemorial 