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.
Early in the spring of 1998, a priest would be slaughtered in cold blood for reasons which are still unclear, though everything from cult sacrifice to a crime of passion to a vast conspiracy has been put forward in the years since. Sixty-seven-year-old Father Alfred Kunz was a traditionalist, Roman Catholic priest who served at … More Father Alfred Kunz
In the winter of 2000, in England, a young woman who occasionally resorted to sex work would be found dead in a particularly grisly fashion. It has been speculated that her murder may be linked to several other killings and disappearances that took place from 1999 until 2002, some of which have been attributed to … More Zoe Parker
In the very early summer of 1960, a heinous triple murder at a camp site would sear itself into the cultural framework of Finland, and eventually become one of the most infamous unsolved homicides in the Western world. It was a Saturday in early June, in a town called Vantaa, not far from Finland’s capital … More The Lake Bodom Murders
In the winter of 1938, in Kingston, Pennsylvania, a recent graduate of Wilkes-Barre Business College headed out to a job interview that would turn out to be a literal dead end. Margaret Martin was nineteen years old, by all accounts a quiet, intelligent, and pious young woman with many friends. She had been training to … More Margaret Martin
Seventeen-year-old Raonaid Murray lived in Glenageary, South Dublin, Ireland with her parents and two older siblings. She had done well in school, and was planning to go on to University College Dublin, possibly to become a writer. In the meantime, she was working part-time at a ladies’ fashion boutique in the coastal town of Dún … More Raonaid Murray
The streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin were dark and sparsely populated as Edwin Smith made his way home at a little past midnight on Saturday, August 23rd, 1960. But just as he steered his vehicle past the four-hundred block of North Plankinton Avenue, the quiet night was shattered by the sound of a woman screaming for … More Ida Lowry
The first half of 1946 saw the brief but horrific reign of one of the most infamous unapprehended serial killers in American history, one whose terrifyingly random attacks on couples parked in lovers’ lanes caused a panic among the residents of Texarkana and the surrounding areas, and later inspired, not only a popular urban legend … More The Phantom Killer: The Texarkana Moonlight Murders
If the year of 1932 dawned fairly quietly on the unsolved murder front, by the time spring rolled around, a crime occurred that easily made up for the months-long respite, just in terms of sheer weirdness. It was right around the first of May. Thirty-two-year-old Lilly Lindeström lived in the Atlas neighborhood of Stockholm, Sweden, … More Lilly Lindeström: The Atlas Vampire Case
January 28th, 2001, at least in the United States, was Super Bowl Sunday; the two NFL teams playing that day were the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants. Eighteen-year-old Jill-Lyn Euto had been planning on spending the day with her mother and sister at her mother’s home on Butternut Street in Syracuse, New York, … More Jill-Lyn Euto: The Super Bowl Sunday Murder
It was the evening of October 31st, 1963 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Seventy-year-old Katherine Lillian Armstrong, who usually answered to her middle name, was preparing to go to the nearby Methodist church for choir practice, as she did every Thursday evening. Lillian, a retired headmistress and lifelong spinster, had been a member of the congregation … More Katherine Lillian Armstrong: The Halloween Murder
