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5 true crime stories way more A DV E R T I S E M E N T

interesting than another Ted

Bundy movie
Hollywood is obsessed with true crime–and with rehashing the same
stories. Here are some less notorious cases that we’d love to see get
adapted.

[Photo: r Maxim Bilovitskiy/Wikimedia Commons; Bettmann/Getty Images]

BY KC I F E A N Y I A N D DA I SY KO R P I C S A N D KC I F E A N Y I 4
 MINUTE READ

 As twisted as it sounds, people love murder–and the

 glut of true-crime stories that have permeated pop
culture is evidence enough. The popularity of shows
 like Making a Murderer, The Jinx, and American Crime
Story, as well as podcasts Serial and My Favorite
Murder highlight our grim fascination with all things
suspicious death.

So if it’s clear there’s high demand for true crime, why

are so many stories regurgitated ad nauseam?

This year alone, there’s going to be yet another reboot

of The Amityville Horror, bringing the grand total to a
mind-numbing 20 films; four depictions of the Mason
family murders; a reimagining of the Black Dahlia
murder, which already inspired an episode arc on
American Horror Story in 2011 and a 2006 feature film;
and a documentary and narrative film about Ted
Bundy directed by the same person.

It’s a depressing fact, but there’s not a dearth of real-

life crimes with hairpin plot twists just waiting to be
adapted for the big or small screen. So as long as
Hollywood continues to dip its toe in the bloodbath,
here’s a fresh crop of cases for them to consider.

MARY BELL: THE 11-YEAR-OLD SERIAL KILLER

In Britain in 1968, 11-year-old Mary Bell strangled two
young boys in the span of two months. Bell came
from a broken home with a teenage sex worker for a
mother and an active criminal for a father. When she
and her accomplice Norma Bell (no relation) were
arrested by police not long after the second murder,
Mary reportedly replied, “That’s all right by me.”
During the trial, Norma appeared distraught. Mary,
on the other hand, was said to have been defiant,
showing zero remorse. Court psychiatrists described
her as “intelligent, manipulative, and dangerous.”
Norma was found not guilty, while Mary was found
guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished
responsibility. She served 12 years–briefly escaping
prison at one point–and was granted anonymity and
a new name upon her release. She gave birth to a
daughter, and it was reported in 2009 that she had
become a grandmother.

Mary Bell [Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

THE MURDER OF ANGELA SAMOTA

Texas college student Angela Samota was raped and
stabbed to death in her apartment in 1984. Her case
went cold until her friend and roommate Sheila
Wysocki decided that was unacceptable. While
watching the O.J. Simpson trial a decade after
Samota’s death, talk of using DNA samples caught her
attention. Knowing there was blood and semen
collected from the Samota crime scene, Wysocki
called police incessantly, asking them to take another
look at her friend’s case. She got nowhere and decided
to get her private investigator license so she could
gain access to the samples herself. In 2006, Wysocki
finally convinced the police to reopen the case. It took
two years to process the DNA, but in the end, it
matched with Donald Bess, a convicted rapist who
was found guilty and sentenced to death. Wysocki is
still working as a private investigator.

I Solved My Best Friend’s Murder | CHA…

THE OLD LADY KILLER

Between 1998 and 2006, professional wrestler Juana
Barraza murdered around 48 elderly women in
Mexico. She flew under the radar for so long because
no one suspected a woman to be the culprit. She pled
guilty to one murder and denied the rest. When asked
what her motive was, she simply replied, “I got angry.”
Barraza grew up in a poverty-stricken village near
Mexico City. Her defense lawyer claimed that her
alcoholic mother gave her away to a man in exchange
for three beers when Barraza was 12. The
criminologist assigned to the case asserted that
Barraza targeted older women because she identified
them with her mother.

A DV E R T I S E M E N T

Juana Barraza, la mataviejitas | Asesin…

THE MAN WHO ALMOST GOT AWAY WITH

MURDERING HIS FAMILY
John List killed his three kids, wife, and mother in
1971 inside their New Jersey mansion. The family was
a bit reclusive, and List had skipped town following
his crime, so the bodies weren’t discovered until a
month later. List disappeared for 18 years and
remarried, but was finally captured with the help of
an episode of America’s Most Wanted. He claimed that
he killed his family because they were under crushing
debt from the house and medical expenses. A
psychiatrist who testified in the trial said List saw
only two choices: Go on welfare or send his family to
heaven. It was later discovered that the very house
that burdened List had a skylight that was rumored to
be an original from Tiffany worth more than enough
to make up for any financial strains. It’s unclear if List
knew of his near priceless treasure. He died serving
five consecutive life sentences without parole in 2008.

John List [Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images]

THE FLORIDA LOTTO MURDER OF ABRAHAM

SHAKESPEARE
In 2006, Abraham Shakespeare bought a lotto ticket
in Florida and won the $30 million jackpot. At first, he
was very generous with his friends and family, but
soon started to feel like he was being used. A woman
named DeeDee Moore offered to help him manage his
money. She wound up swindling him into giving her
control over all of his assets. After a few weeks of not
hearing from Shakespeare, his family grew concerned
and attempted to reach him. Moore forged a letter to
his family reassuring them that he was okay. The
problem was, Moore didn’t know that Shakespeare
was illiterate. The police were notified and they found
Shakespeare’s body buried on Moore’s property.

Florida Lotto Murder Trial: Bizarre Mo…

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PRESENTED BY

0 9- 0 6 -2 3

Ben Shelton is quickly A DV E R T I S E M E N T

becoming an ace for On

Shoes’ big swing on tennis
On co-CEO Marc Maurer, along with doubles partner Roger Federer, are
storming into the U.S. Open with a new collection and a roster of rising
stars wearing its shoes.

[Photo: On]

BY J E F F B E E R 4 M I N U T E R E A D

Late Tuesday night at New York’s Arthur Ashe

Stadium, 20-year-old Ben Shelton beat Frances Tiafoe
 to become the youngest American to reach a U.S.
Open semifinal since Andy Roddick in 2003. And he

did it wearing Roger Federer’s shoes. Sort of.

Back in March, Shelton joined defending U.S. Open

champ Iga Świątek to become a brand ambassador
for the cult athletic shoe brand On.

These two, along with the legendary Federer, are

helping On reach its goals to push beyond its success
in running. The brand sees tennis as an
underestimated and under-invested sport when it
comes to performance footwear, and a potential key
to boost its overall cultural footprint in the United
States.

On
@on_running · Follow

There’s no feeling quite like taking home a win

on home turf. @iga_swiatek has done it again

wta @WTA
Stop scrolling.

@iga_swiatek has hardware

#BNPParibasWarsawOpen

4:44 PM · Jul 30, 2023

1.8K Reply Share

Read 39 replies

If the On brand were a tennis player, its last few years

could only be described as a straight-set win, six-love.
Earlier this month, in its latest earnings report, the
Zurich-based company hit its sixth consecutive
quarter of record growth, with sales up more than
52% to more than $500 million. It may have been born
in Europe, but its future success hinges on this side of
the ocean, and the Americas region has become On’s
biggest market and growth-driver, with sales up 60%
in the second quarter, making up nearly 67% of the
company’s total net sales. On co-CEO Marc Maurer
says that’s why the company chose to go public with
its IPO in the U.S. back in 2021. “We deliberately
decided to do it in the U.S.,” Maurer says, “because it’s
the biggest and the most important market to us, and
that really helped us to ignite the brand much more,
and we saw a very big impact.”

Maurer credits the brand’s success to its mission of

using performance footwear and apparel to inspire
people to get out and moving. Founded in 2010, it
began with a devoted following among Swiss trail
runners thanks to its CloudTec soles, which quickly
caught on with city dwellers as well. That’s where the
shoes caught the eye of tennis legend Roger Federer.
“My wife and seemingly everyone else on the streets
of Zurich were wearing On, so I picked up a pair
myself and was instantly impressed by how A DV E R T I S E M E N T

comfortable they were,” says Federer.

He called up the founders and invited them out to

dinner. “At the time, I was between sponsorships and
toying with the idea of creating my own shoe line. But
I was blown away by the On founders and how they
were building something completely new and
different. I knew I wanted to be part of that. In 2019, I
officially joined the company as a co-entrepreneur.”

On | THE ROGER Clubhouse Mid

Its roots are in running, but over the past year or so,
On has been positioning itself as the next great tennis
brand, and views the sport as the key to maintaining
its impressive win streak.

A DV E R T I S E M E N T

Maurer says tennis was the next logical choice not

only because one of the best to ever play the game
happened to have an employee office badge, but
because tennis style seamlessly blends between
performance, style, and casual athletic fashion more
than any other sport. Adidas’ iconic Stan Smith model
is a prime example. Combine that with the tidy
collared shirts and warm-ups common to tennis, and
it complements the style goals On has had from the
very start, in creating functional, performance-based
gear that is as stylish on the street as it is in sport.

“This is a similar story to when On started in 2010,

where there was extremely little innovation on the
running side for roughly 20 years,” says Maurer. “We
feel we were one of the first brands to start to really
drive this innovation, and you had Hoka at roughly
the same time, then Nike released the Vaporfly and so
on. But this was all post-2013, 2014. And in tennis, we
feel we are in a similar position right now, where
there has been very little innovation, and we think it’s
a big market, not just on the performance side, but
also how we can impact your all-day. We definitely
feel there’s an opportunity, and we want to attack it
with the best.”

Britt Olsen, On’s general manager of Americas, says

that the opportunity in tennis is massive. “I can’t tell
you how many times I’m sitting with some of the
biggest retailers in the country, and nobody can tell
me where there has been innovation in tennis,” she
says. “Here we have one of the greatest tennis players
of all-time on our side, we have up-and-coming talent
that want to be a part of what we’re building, and
there is a market there for innovation. So it makes
perfect sense.”

To that end, On will be its hyping tennis line, called

the Roger Collection, as the 2023 U.S. Open kicks off,
which follows close on the heels of the brand opening
its second New York store, this time in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, marking its fourth retail location in the U.S.
and its 23rd store globally, with future openings
planned for Miami, Chicago, Austin, and Portland,
Oregon.

Federer, who won five U.S. Open titles over his career,
sees a lot of potential in this year’s big push behind
On’s tennis products. “What I see as On’s biggest
opportunity is galvanizing the energy it’s built
around running and extending its reach to even more
athletes around the world,” says Federer. “What the
brand is doing in tennis is a perfect example of that,
seizing a massive opportunity to inspire a new
generation of fans. The close collaboration On has
with its athlete partners is unique, especially when it
comes to product development, which is what will
enable the brand to continually create innovative,
high-performance shoes for play at the highest
levels.”

Game on.

Now accepting applications for Most Innovative

Companies.
Apply by October 6 for your chance to be featured!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Beer is a senior staff editor covering advertising and branding. He
is also the host of Fast Company’s video series Brand Hit or Miss More

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