True Crime

Author Amy Petulla uncovers the curious case that left two men dead and the incredible story still surrounded by controversy, speculation and myth.

In 1982, Tony West and Avery Brock made a visit to notorious Corpsewood Manor under the pretense of a celebration. They brutally murdered their hosts. Dr. Charles Scudder and companion Joey Odom built the castle in the woods in the Trion forest after Scudder left his position as professor at Loyola. He brought with him twelve thousand doses of LSD. Rumors of drug use and Satanism swirled around the two men. Scudder even claimed to have summoned a demon to protect the estate. The murders set the stage for a trial vibrant with local lore.

“Cold Case” Clay Bryant unravels a 20-year old cold-case murder. After a daring escape from certain death in a North Vietnamese prison, followed by years in a refugee camp in Thailand, Savang Phovixay and his family sought safety and a better life in the United States. That dream was shattered when their daughter Vieng disappeared in October 1987. In spite of substantial leads, she remained missing until 1989 when her skeletonized remains were found bound to a tree in rural West Georgia. The crime remained an unsolved tragedy for nearly two decades until Bryant took on the case in search of justice for Vieng and her family. 

Nearly two decades after the fact, tragedy meets justice.

One day in 1987, Fred Wilkerson up and vanished in Troup County, Georgia. It was a mystery beset with suspicious circumstances, but the evidence never led anywhere, and the case went cold, Wilkerson’s whereabouts unknown. That is, until a remarkable set of circumstances allowed author and investigator Clay Bryant to breathe life back into the case nearly two decades later. Diving into what had previously been overlooked, Bryant was able to locate and recover Wilkerson’s remains and successfully prosecute the killer, who’d crafted a calculating plot to take everything the victim had and murder him in order to keep it. The story concludes with the Wilkerson Family finally getting closure and the killer getting sentenced to life in prison. Join Byrant as he unravels this West Georgia cold case.

Author Phillip Andrew Gibbs guides readers on a tour of Macon’s seedy underbelly. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Macon was coming of age. Numerous industries, banks and retail businesses dotted the city’s landscape, and magnificent Greek Revival and Victorian homes graced the tree-lined streets of its affluent neighborhoods. For those who enjoyed the arts, there was the Grand Opera House which hosted operatic and theatre productions. The city was also home to two institutions of higher learning. To residents and visitors alike, Macon seemed to be a flourishing, sophisticated city well grounded in strong spiritual and moral principles. But there were flies in the ointment. Much to the dismay of the city’s ministers and educators there was a vibrant sporting life in Macon. Pool halls, gambling houses, and saloons operated well within sight of the front steps of the city’s churches. Worse yet, the city council had established in the early 1900s a red-light district known as Tybee that operated freely without interference from local authorities.

As Atlanta finished rebuilding after the Civil War, a new horror arose from the ashes to roam the night streets.

Beginning in 1911, a killer whose methods mimicked the famed Jack the Ripper murdered at least twenty black women, from prostitutes to working-class women and mothers. Each murder attributed to the killer occurred on a Saturday night, and for one terrifying spring in 1911, a fresh body turned up every Sunday morning. Amid a stifling investigation, slayings continued until 1915. As many as six men were arrested for the crimes, but investigators never discovered the identity of the killer, or killers, despite having several suspects in custody. Join local historian Jeffrey Wells as he reveals the case of the Atlanta Ripper, unsolved to this day.

Atlanta is the only American city to have been destroyed by fire as an act of war, and it has its share of salacious stories. Wealthy felons hosted elaborate parties inside the federal penitentiary.

Billionaire bootleggers and murderous rich boys practiced corruption that reached all the way to the White House. Fast and fearless drivers, complete with glamorous reputations and criminal careers, gave rise to auto racing. Join author Laurel-Ann Dooley as she navigates the underworld of Atlanta's past filled with kidnapping, bribery, wives hiring hit men and all sorts of criminal debauchery.

A True Crime Mystery Four Decades in the Making

On the cold night of January 27, 1976, twenty-two-year-old college student Kyle Clinkscales vanished after leaving his bartending shift at the Moose Club in LaGrange, Georgia. His disappearance baffled investigators and devastated his parents, John and Louise, who spent decades chasing rumors, suspects, and false leads in one of the South’s most haunting cold cases.

For years, Kyle’s story became a staple in true crime circles, a case that blended small-town secrets, whispers of foul play, and the agony of parents who refused to give up. Then, in 2021, a shocking discovery was made: Kyle’s car submerged in an Alabama creek, with his remains inside. Suddenly, the case once thought frozen in time was thrust back into the spotlight.

Was Kyle’s tragic end the result of a simple accident? Or was it a carefully staged cover-up, concealing a brutal murder that eluded justice for nearly half a century? With modern forensic analysis and renewed investigative efforts, this chilling mystery raises more questions than answers.

Dive deep inside the twists and turns of Kyle Clinkscales’s disappearance and discovery—exploring law enforcement missteps, local rumors, and the enduring fight of a family unwilling to surrender hope. More than just a Southern true crime story, Kyle’s case helped inspire legislative reform for families of the missing, proving that even decades-old mysteries can change lives.

Author James B Longshore details the forty-plus-year ordeal.