Unforgotten Casebook — One case. Every angle. One place.One case. Every angle. One place.
Explore books, movies, podcasts, news coverage, and court records—organized by true crime case and real-life story, together in one place.
THE CASE LIBRARY
U.S. cases, plus the Bernardo–Homolka case in Canada.
1986
Seven crew members died when Challenger broke apart shortly after launch in January 1986. Investigators examined technical failure, engineering warnings and NASA’s decision-making. The book and documentary series revisit the crew’s lives and the institutional choices behind the disaster.
1983
Karla Faye Tucker and Danny Garrett killed Jerry Dean and Deborah Thornton during a 1983 attack in Houston. Tucker was convicted of capital murder. Her later religious conversion and requests for clemency brought international attention to the case before her 1998 execution, while the victims’ families faced renewed public scrutiny of their losses.
1983
Rozanne Gailiunas was attacked in her Texas home in 1983 and died from her injuries. Investigators eventually uncovered a murder-for-hire plot connected to Joy Aylor, whose husband had been involved with Rozanne. Aylor fled overseas before being brought back to face justice, extending the case across years and international borders.
1982
James and Virginia Campbell were shot while asleep in their Houston home in 1982. Their daughter Cynthia Campbell Ray and her former boyfriend David West were implicated in the killings. West testified about their plan, and Ray was convicted. The crime revealed a murder plot originating within the victims’ own family.
1982–2001
Robert Durst became the focus of investigations involving his missing wife Kathie, his friend Susan Berman, and neighbor Morris Black. He was acquitted in Black’s death after claiming self-defense, but convicted of Berman’s murder in 2021. The Jinx brought renewed attention to the overlapping cases.
1981–1985
Investigators searching Betty Lou Beets’s Texas property found the remains of two of her husbands, Doyle Wayne Barker and Jimmy Don Beets, buried near the home. Prosecutors said financial gain motivated Jimmy Don’s killing. Beets was convicted of his capital murder; the discovery of both bodies turned a missing-person investigation into a widely reported case.
1980
Betty Gore was killed with an axe in her Texas home in 1980. Candy Montgomery, who had had an affair with Betty’s husband, admitted the killing but said she acted in self-defense. A jury acquitted her. The contrast between suburban family life and the violence brought extraordinary attention to the trial.
1973
Billie Jean King used her position in professional tennis to press for equal opportunities and pay. Her televised match against Bobby Riggs in Houston became a widely watched confrontation over women’s abilities. All In recounts her broader life; Battle of the Sexes dramatizes the 1973 match and its context.
1970
An oxygen-tank failure forced Apollo 13’s crew and ground teams to abandon a lunar landing and improvise a way home. Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise survived the emergency. The book and film trace the teamwork, engineering and decisions behind the return to Earth.
1966
Gunfire from the University of Texas tower killed and injured people on and around the Austin campus in August 1966. The episode examines the attack and the investigation into Charles Whitman.
1961
High-school student Betty Williams disappeared in 1961. Investigators initially considered whether she had run away before information circulating among classmates shifted the inquiry toward murder.
1960s–2009
José Hernández grew up in a migrant farmworker family and pursued electrical engineering before joining NASA. After years of applications, he was selected for astronaut training in 2004 and flew aboard Discovery’s STS-128 mission in 2009. His memoir and A Million Miles Away explore the family support and persistence behind that journey.
Year not confirmed
Conbino Crasto was shot during a gas-station robbery in Cleveland, Texas. Surveillance video helped investigators search for three masked people connected to the attack.
Year not confirmed
Mandi Gordon, a mother of two, disappeared in Texas. Investigators followed security recordings and inconsistent accounts to a remote ranch as they searched for her.
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