True Crime
True Crime, Cold Cases, and the Thrill of the Chase
By Julie Tollefson
With a background in journalism, an interest in history, and years of experience as a police reporter for local news organizations in Ohio, is it any wonder that award-winning writer Jane Ann Turzillo tried her hand at writing true crime books? Now with 10 books to her name — including the Agatha-nominated Unsolved Murders and Disappearances in Northeast Ohio and Wicked Women of Ohio — Jane offers five tips for the aspiring true crime author.
1) Develop a “hanging” file — Jane, whose reporting career also included freelance articles ranging from historical to business to restaurant reviews for many publications in northeast Ohio, collects story ideas everywhere she goes. When a news article catches her interest, she clips it. When an audience member at one of her presentations shares a tip, she takes notes. She reads other true crime writers and pays attention to the stories they tell. She calls on her own memories of cold cases and unsolved crimes. All the bits and pieces she collects go in her “hanging” file of potential stories to tell.
If an idea is interesting enough and if she thinks enough source material exists to do the story justice, she sets off to track down the information she needs to tell the most complete story she can.
2) Dig in — Underpinning all compelling true crime stories is research. Once you have an idea, prepare to follow every little clue wherever it leads you.
“It’s called being nosy,” Jane says.
She belongs to a couple of historical newspaper subscription services — GenealogyBank and Newspapers.com. They often provide the initial information, giving names of victims, perpetrators, and family members, as well as a description of what happened.
But! “Just because it’s in the newspaper, doesn’t mean it’s accurate,” Jane says. “And just because family members say it, doesn’t mean it’s accurate.”
For confirmation, Jane looks to additional sources: Police reports, historical societies, transcripts of court cases, ancestry and genealogy databases, marriage and divorce records, and wills.
“More and more are online,” Jane says, making the pursuit of the truth a little easier, though you may have to pay for some records. “To me, it’s the thrill of the chase. I love doing the research. Every one leads you in a different way. You just have to keep your mind open. Every case is different.”
Don’t forget to check your local library and the library’s special collections. Librarians will be happy to lead you to more sources that you haven’t considered yet.
“They’ve helped me get prison records,” Jane says. “There are city directories. There’s a plethora of stuff to look for.”
When you’re reading newspaper reports about a crime, make note of all the names. Victim, family, next-door neighbor, law enforcement personnel.
“Then go back and look for those names in other newspaper articles so you can learn something about them,” she says.
And don’t neglect social media. All manner of information can be found on social sites.
3) Define your focus — For Jane, telling true crime stories means ultimately focusing on the people who were harmed by the crime.
“I want people to know who the victim was, who their family was, and what was taken away, maybe from all of us,” she says. “When these people were murdered, we don’t know what they could have become.”
Imagining the story from the victim’s perspective comes naturally for her and arises from her own experience when a crime hit close to home.
In Northern Ohio Cold Cases, which will be released in February, she recounts the story of an executive who worked for her father’s company, a man she had known all her life. After her father’s death, the man stepped up to run the company. Then he was murdered.
“When they took him, my dad’s company went downhill,” she says. “It’s not just one person that something happens to. It’s a whole lot of people.”
4) Cultivate sources — Jane’s work as a police reporter for news organizations gave her the inside scoop in a lot of ways when it came to writing true crime.
“I was really lucky with the departments that I reported on,” she says. She became friends with a detective in one township. The police chief in another believed in working with journalists, not making enemies of them.
“I would go right into their department, see all the incident reports for the week. I would ride with them on the weekend. I did that for about eight years, and I learned a lot,” Jane says.
To make those kinds of connections for yourself, check with your local sheriff’s office or police department to see whether they have a citizen’s academy program. These programs, often multiweek classes, offer an insider’s view of law enforcement processes and procedures. Some give participants the opportunity to ride along with officers on patrol. Also ask whether your local law enforcement agency has a public information officer or other staff member who works with the public and may be happy to answer your questions.
5) Find your angle — Jane’s goals are always to be as accurate as possible and to make the story interesting. Sometimes the police who investigate the crimes are interesting, but sometimes the criminals star, as in Wicked Women of Ohio and Wicked Women of Northeast Ohio (the state apparently had so many wicked women she’s written two volumes!).
“I don’t have a degree in psychology. I don’t try to say why I think they did this, but I think that it always just kind of comes out,” she says.
Her books, which recount events from the mid-1800s to 2000, are organized around themes and vary in tone. Ohio Train Disasters, a National Federation of Press Women’s contest winner for nonfiction history, focused on the victims who died in the wrecks. Ohio Heists, in contrast, presents stories of daring and ingenuity on the part of the thieves. Some feature only unsolved murders and disappearances. In others, all the crimes have been solved.
Though her goal has never been to solve an unsolved crime, it has happened as a result of her work. In Ohio Heists, Jane tells the story of a young man who, fancying himself a Thomas Crown Affair kind of guy, embezzled a load of money from the bank where he worked and then disappeared. After the book came out, a tipster emailed her an obituary. Though the name of the man in the obituary was different from the bank robbery suspect, his parents' names were the same and in fact his mother’s name was rather unusual: Ruthabeth.
Her interest piqued, Jane found the Facebook page belonging to the man’s daughter and scrolled through photos the woman had posted of her dad. There, pictured in his younger days, was the same man Jane had written about. She contacted the U.S. Marshals in northern Ohio.
“They confirmed it,” she says, “but it was because somebody had read a cold case. I was just glad that my book helped to bring that case to a close.”