Awesome Cases American Crime Should Cover In The Future

It’s Tuesday and if you are like me, you’re probably hoping that FX had one more episode of American Crime: The People vs. OJ Simpson stashed away. Unfortunately, they don’t, and we’ll probably have to wait another year before American Crime returns.

While American Crime did an awesome job of taking us deep inside the OJ Simpson case, I couldn’t help but wonder what other awesome cases have taken place in the last 20-30 years. It’s been announced that Hurricane Katrina will be the story for next season, but what do you think should discussed on season 3 and beyond? While you think about it, let’s reminisce about all of the awesome cases American Crime can cover in future seasons. 

– Casey Anthony (2008) –

In 2008, two year old Caylee Marie Anthony was reported missing when her grandmother, Cindy, told police that she had not seen Caylee for 31 days and that Casey’s car smelled like a dead body had been inside it. Casey Anthony, Caylee’s mother, told several lies about the whereabouts of her daughter, including that the nanny kidnapped her. She was charged with first-degree murder in October 2008.

In December of that year Caylee’s skeletal remains were found inside a trash bag in a wooded area near the family home.  The trial lasted from May 2011 to July 2011. Prosecutors said that Casey Anthony wanted to rid herself of parental responsibilities and killed Caylee using chloroform and duct tape. The defense claimed that Caylee drowned in her grandfather’s pool and her grandfather disposed of her body. The defense said that Casey’s upbringing was a dysfunctional one, which included physical and sexual abuse. 

Casey was found not guilty of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. She received time served and was released in July. 

– Natalee Holloway (2005) –

Natalee Holloway went missing in May 2005 while on a school graduation trip to Aruba. She was last seen with locals Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. The three men say that they dropped Natalee off and don’t know what happened to her afterwords. They were each arrested multiple times during the investigation, but were released due to insufficient evidence.

After an extensive search on land, air and water, Holloway’s body was never found. On December 18, 2007, Aruban prosecutors announced that the case would be closed without any charges made against the former suspects.

The Aruban prosecutor’s office reopened the case on February 1, 2008, after receiving video footage of Joran van der Sloot, under the influence of marijuana, saying that Holloway died on the morning of May 30, 2005, and that a friend had disposed of her body.[21] Van der Sloot later denied that what he said was true, and in an interview with Greta Van Susteren (the contents of which he later retracted) said that he sold Holloway into slavery. I would love to get America Crime’s take on what really happened.  

– Scott Peterson (2002)  –

Laci Peterson, who was 8 months pregnant, was reported missing on Christmas Eve of 2002. Laci’s parents maintained that there was no way that Scott could be responsible for Laci’s disappearance, because he loved her so much. All that changed when it came out that Scott was a serial cheater, most recently with a massage therapist named Amber Frey.  To make matters worse, Scott Peterson told Amber, 2 weeks before Laci’s disappearance, that he “lost his wife” and would be spending his first Christmas without her. 

On April 13, 2003, the remains of a late term male fetus were found on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay in Richmond’s Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, north of the Berkeley Marina, where Peterson had been boating the day of Laci’s disappearance. The next day, April 14, 2003, a partial female torso missing its hands, feet, and head was found in the same area. It was identified as Laci’s, and the fetus was hers.

Prosecutors believe that Laci was suffocated in their home before being dumped in the bay. 

Ultimately Scott Peterson was found guilty of first degree murder with special circumstances for killing Laci and second-degree murder for killing the fetus she carried. He is currently on death row.

– Lorena Bobbitt (1993) –  

In June 1993, Lorena Bobbitt claimed that her husband, John, raped her. After he fell asleep, Lorena went into the kitchen, grabbed a knife,  entered their bedroom where John was sleeping and cut his entire penis off. She then took the severed penis, drove away and tossed it out the window of her car. She eventually called 911 on herself. After an extensive search, John’s penis was found. It was taken to the hospital where he was being treated, and reattached after a 9 hour long procedure.  

Lorena was taken into custody. When she was arrested the night of June 23, she told the police, “He always have orgasm [sic], and he doesn’t wait for me ever to have orgasm. He’s selfish,” but it was during the trial that she revealed that her husband repeatedly sexually assaulted her. She also claimed that he physically and emotionally abused her throughout their marriage, once even forcing her to have an abortion.

Lorena was taken into custody. When she was arrested the night of June 23, she told the police, “He always have orgasm [sic], and he doesn’t wait for me ever to have orgasm. He’s selfish.”

Other Cases…

A few other cases I’d love to see covered on the show would be Dr. Kevorkian, The Oklahoma City Bomber (Timothy McVeigh), Jon Benet Ramsey, The Michael Jackson trial, The R. Kelly trial and Rodney King. What about you?