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.
Explore the case libraryTHE CASE LIBRARY
20 of 236 cases
More media formats first · Book-only cases last in each section
U.S. cases, plus the Bernardo–Homolka case in Canada.
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.
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.
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.
2013
Kari Hunt was killed by her estranged husband in a Marshall motel room in 2013. Her daughter tried to call 911 but the telephone system required an outside-line prefix. Her family’s campaign helped change emergency dialing requirements for covered multiline phone systems.
1995
Sixteen-year-old Adrianne Jones was murdered in Texas in 1995. Investigators eventually identified David Graham and Diane Zamora, whose promising military-academy futures made the case national news. Prosecutors described jealousy and a plan to eliminate a perceived romantic rival. Both were convicted of murder.
1993
Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña were attacked and murdered while taking a shortcut home in Houston in 1993. A group of gang members participated in the crimes. Their deaths led to multiple trials and years of reporting about the victims and the defendants’ sentences.
1991
Wanda Holloway tried to arrange the killing of the mother of a girl competing with her daughter for a cheerleading position. She believed the death would keep the rival out of competition. The man she approached contacted authorities, and recordings exposed the 1991 Texas plot before anyone was killed.
1996
Nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, in January 1996 and was found murdered. Her case inspired a local broadcast-alert effort that grew into the AMBER Alert system for abducted children.
1999–2000
Retired television executive Steven Beard was shot in his Texas home in 1999 and later died from complications. Investigators uncovered a plot involving his wife, Celeste, and Tracey Tarlton, who fired the shot. Tarlton testified against Celeste, and the prosecution argued that the killing was arranged for financial gain.
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.
1995
Singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was shot by former fan-club president Yolanda Saldívar in 1995 during a dispute involving their business relationship. Saldívar was convicted of murder. Biographical films and reporting also document Selena’s career and the impact of her death on fans and family.
1995
Regina Hartwell was murdered in Austin in 1995, and her body was left in a burned vehicle. The investigation connected her death to Justin Thomas and a circle involving drugs, money, and complicated personal relationships. Thomas was convicted of murder, while testimony exposed the events leading to the killing and its concealment.
1996
Six-year-old Devon and five-year-old Damon Routier were stabbed to death in their Texas home in 1996. Their injured mother, Darlie, said an intruder had attacked them. Prosecutors rejected that account, and she was convicted of Damon’s murder. Disputes over the physical evidence and interpretation of her behavior sustained public debate about the 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.
1998
Forty-nine-year-old James Byrd Jr. was murdered in Jasper, Texas, in June 1998 after three white men chained him to a pickup truck and dragged him along a road. The killing and subsequent trials exposed racial divisions and helped spur hate-crime reforms.
2001–2002
Enron’s collapse exposed misleading accounting and business practices while employees and investors faced serious losses. Reporters and investigators examined the company’s culture, leadership and financial claims. The Smartest Guys in the Room follows the rise and failure of a business once celebrated as an innovator.
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.
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.
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.
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