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-old Eleanor “Nora” Fuller had been born in China but later lived in San Francisco with her mother and three siblings. The previous year had been a rough one for the Fullers, as Nora‘s parents had recently divorced. Money was tight, and Nora was obliged to quit school in 1902 and begin looking for work. … More Nora Fuller
St. Augustine, Florida was founded by the Spanish in 1565, and is considered the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the United States. Because of its age and colorful history involving bloody battles and pirate raids, the town is packed full of marvelous eerieness: the Huguenot cemetery, crumbling and atmospheric, like something out of a … More Athalia Ponsell Lindsley & Frances Bemis
In 1997, in the northeastern United States, a truly bizarre murder mystery would begin to unfold whose every detail seems to suggest ever more improbable scenarios and whose outcome appears just as muddled today as it did when it first occurred. Fifty-year-old Judy Smith was a successful home-care nurse who lived in a wealthy suburb … More Judy Smith
In the summer and autumn of 1994, in a wooded park in Ohio, two teenage girls would be found dead more than three months apart, but only eight-hundred yards from one another. To this day, it is unclear whether their murders were related, and both cases have tragically gone cold. Fourteen-year-old Sarah Rae Boehm lived … More Sarah Rae Boehm & Kathryn Menendez
It was around nine p.m. on the evening of Tuesday, February 10th, 1987 when thirty-seven-year-old Peggy Hettrick left her job at a clothing store called the Fashion Bar at the Foothills Mall in Fort Collins, Colorado, and began walking back to her nearby apartment. Her regular roommate, Barb Kohler, was out of town, but another … More Peggy Hettrick
In the last summer of 1982, a little girl would be abducted only a few feet from her home and be found dead weeks later. Her murder would become instrumental in the establishment of a more codified law enforcement response to missing children cases, and serve as the basis for the 1983 passage of the … More Rachael Runyan
Many crimes over the years have been described as a “loss of innocence” of one particular city or town, and in the case of Austin, Texas, this crime is unarguably the horrific quadruple murder that took place on the night of December 6th, 1991. Seventeen-year-old girls Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison worked at the I … More The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders
In the Midwestern United States, in the summer of 1981, an extraordinary case would make headlines around the nation, a crime that would explore the uncomfortably gray area between the arguable breakdown of the rule of law and the conspiratorial actions of an alleged group of fed-up vigilantes. Residents of the tiny town of Skidmore, … More Ken Rex McElroy
In the winter of 2000, in a Colorado suburb still reeling from a notorious mass murder, a shocking double homicide in a sandwich shop would devastate the community anew. It was the eve of Valentine’s Day, February 13th, and sixteen-year-old high school sophomore Stephanie Hart-Grizzell had spent the Sunday evening doing homework before saying good … More Stephanie Hart-Grizzell & Nick Kunselman: The Subway Murders
It was March 27th, 1971, and off-duty special constable David Nathan was taking a stroll on an island in the River Trent in Staffordshire when he spotted something that appeared to be part of a bag of cement poking out of the soil. Curious, he retrieved a spade and began digging. Unfortunately, what Nathan found … More Pink Socks, aka Fred the Head
