Norman and Lillian Barnes, who for nine years challenged the Army’s contention that their son Kenneth had deserted, have finally received official word that he died nine years ago. Kenneth Barnes disappeared from Fort Gordon, Ga., on Nov. 10, 1972. A body believed to be his was traced to a grave in Augusta, Ga., in April 1981. Last week investigators confirmed the identity of the body. –New York Times
Air Force Sergeant James Goodyear, 37, died on September 16, 1971 in Orlando, Florida. Sergeant Goodyear died just three months after completing a year long tour of duty in Vietnam. He left behind his wife Judy Buenoano Goodyear and her son Michael Buenoano. Judy received $28,000 in military life insurance benefits and military death benefits to help support the family. When her son Michael turned eighteen, he joined the US Army. On his way to his post in Georgia, he stopped in to visit his mother Judy, she fed him, and afterwards he became ill. The illness led to a crippling condition that left him paralyzed in his lower extremities and he was subsequently discharged from the Army as a Private. Michael was disabled and Judy was taking care of him. On May 13, 1980 Judy took Michael for a canoe ride. Judy reported to local authorities that her canoe capsized and her son Michael had drowned. She collected $125,000 in military life insurance benefits for her son’s death.
Judy Buenoano was executed in the State of Florida on March 30, 1998.
In June 1983, Judy was suspected in the car bombing of her fiancé John Gentry of Pensacola, Florida. She stood to gain $500,000 in life insurance money for this death. Judy Buenoano was first convicted of the attempted murder of John Gentry. As a result of her involvement in the attempted murder of John, investigators looked into the ‘accidental deaths’ of her husband James Goodyear and her son Michael. They exhumed John’s body a decade later and an autopsy revealed he had been poisoned with arsenic. Testimony revealed long-term arsenic poisoning had actually caused her son Michael’s disability. And when Judy drowned him, he was wearing an extra 15 pounds of weighted braces. Judy reportedly admitted to being involved in the 1978 death of her boyfriend Bobby Joe Morris as well. She received $50,000 in life insurance benefits for his death. Judy Buenoano was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. She was executed by the electric chair in Florida on March 30, 1998. Judy Buenoano was motivated by money, profit, and greed.
Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, was convicted on August 29, 1979 of the murders of his wife, Colette, and his two daughters, Kimberley and Kristen, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The murders occurred on February 17, 1970 while Captain MacDonald was serving as a doctor for Green Berets in the Army. Captain MacDonald was court martialed but a military judge did not find sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial. Captain MacDonald was honorably discharged from the Army. After persistence from Colette’s family, prosecutors in Fayetteville, North Carolina began to pay attention to the homicide case and eventually charged Jeffrey MacDonald with the murders of his family. MacDonald was found guilty by a jury of his peers and received three life sentences. Jeffrey MacDonald maintains his innocence to this day and continues to appeal his convictions.
False Witness:
Trailer: Special Forces Captain and Princeton man Jeffrey MacDonald has been in Federal prison since 1979 for murdering his wife and two young daughters in his quarters at Ft. Bragg eight years earlier, but his conviction might be vacated pursuant to evidence. -False Witness, YouTube Movies (December 4, 2012)
Special Forces Captain and Princeton man Jeffrey MacDonald has been in Federal prison since 1979 for murdering his wife and two young daughters in his quarters at Ft. Bragg eight years earlier, but his conviction might be vacated pursuant to evidence presented for the first time in Federal Court in September, 2012. -False Witness, YouTube Movies (December 4, 2012)
Investigation Discovery:
An army surgeon, Jeffrey MacDonald, is the lone survivor of a brutal 1970 home invasion that claims the lives of his wife and daughters. But authorities doubt his story of murderous hippies and believe MacDonald is the culprit. -The Accused, People Magazine Investigates (January 9, 2017)
The ID Original Movie, FINAL VISION tells the true story of Jeffrey MacDonald, a handsome, Ivy League-educated U.S. Army Green Beret doctor, who was convicted of brutally murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters in the middle of the night. -Final Vision, Investigation Discovery (December 3, 2017)
ID Go: A writer is enlisted by a former Green Beret who stands accused of murdering his family to cover his trial and proclaim his innocence, but the tables turn when the writer has doubts. -Final Vision, Investigation Discovery (December 10, 2017)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch all of the Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. Download the ID Go app and binge away. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $2.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict.
After U.S. Navy sailor disappears in 68, the Navy claims he went AWOL. But his sister works for over 30 years to prove that he was really killed. -Cold Case Files
The 1968 disappearance of Ensign Andrew Lee Muns, 24, US Navy, was long a mystery. But his family never gave up. As a result, the case was reopened by the Navy in 1998 at the urging of Muns’s sister, Mary Lou Taylor. Muns’s body was never found and the Navy listed him as a deserter after $8,600 was discovered missing from a ship safe. He was not eligible for burial at Arlington National Cemetery because he didn’t have an honorable discharge. His family wanted to set the record straight in an effort to honor his name. An NCIS Cold Case Squad investigation revealed that cashier and payroll clerk, Andrew Muns, caught Michael LeBrun stealing from the ship’s safe. Muns threatened to report him and LeBrun panicked. He punched him, Muns punched him back, they struggled, and LeBrun overpowered Muns and strangled him in an effort to silence him. Then he needed to get rid of the body. LeBrun wanted to throw him overboard but was afraid others would hear the splash and the body would float. He threw his body in a muck tank instead knowing it would not be inspected for a year and a half. LeBrun eventually pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in September 2005 for killing Andrew Muns. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Andrew Muns was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full honors and the flag was given to his family.
“Capt. Howard Levy, 30, a dermatologist from Brooklyn, is convicted by a general court-martial in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, of willfully disobeying orders and making disloyal statements about U.S. policy in Vietnam. Levy had refused to provide elementary instruction in skin disease to Green Beret medics on the grounds that the Green Berets would use medicine as ‘another tool of political persuasion’ in Vietnam.” Read more from This Day in Historyhere.
Brothers Larry and Danny Ranes grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. They were the product of a divorce after their father abandoned them and left one day to start a new relationship with a woman in Florida. In high school, Larry and Danny dated the same girl, Paula. She went back and forth between the two brothers. She really liked Larry and Danny really liked her but after graduation, Larry enlisted in the Army in 1962. One night, Larry got drunk and because one of his buddies stole his chips, he flipped out on all his friends. It was reported that he ran after them with a knife, was hauled off by the military police, and spent the rest of his stint in the brig until he was discharged. When he got home, he had nowhere to go and no sense of direction; he felt disgraced. Paula was now dating his brother Danny so he started dating someone else, an older woman. He eventually proposed to her but she rejected him. He was devastated and felt completely aimless and done with life.
Gary Smock, 34, was found tied up and murdered in his vehicle on the side of the road in Kalamazoo, Michigan on May 30, 1964. Gary’s wife reported him missing and while she was at the police station, she learn that his car has been spotted on the side of the road and he was dead. He had been tied up, robbed, and shot in the head with a 22 caliber. Detectives begin their investigation by piecing together the last hours of Gary’s life. That same morning, a group of fisherman found Charles Snyder, a gas station attendant who had been shot in Elkhart, Indiana. It appeared to be another robbery/homicide. Investigators wondered if the two murders were connected considering the motive was robbery and a 22 caliber was used in both crimes. On April 6, 1964 Vernon LeBenne, 23, was found robbed and shot at a Battle Creek, Michigan gas station he worked at part-time. Vernon was an active duty Air Force member stationed at the Fort Custer Training Center in Michigan. When he was found the next day, he was still alive but in a coma; he died twelve hours later. The police were never able to question him but were concerned all three murders were connected.
Five days later, Larry Ranes called the police claiming that he wanted to commit suicide. Police arrived at his home and found him alive. He was taken to the police station, questioned, and admitted to killing Gary Smock and Charles Snyder. Larry admitted killing Gary because he was upset that he was making noise in the trunk of his own car. He then admitted to driving to Elkhart and robbing and killing a gas station attendant Charles Synder. Ironically, he was waved through a police roadblock with Gary’s body in his trunk. The police didn’t suspect him because he was cool, calm and collected. Larry also admitted to killing airman Vernon LeBenne. Initially he declined a defense attorney so the prosecution ordered a psychiatric evaluation. He told the psychiatrist that he never thought his life would amount to much especially after getting discharged from the military. He had no sense of direction. He admitted feeling worthless and that it sent him into a bad place. He tried to take his own life before and was sent to a hospital for two weeks but he felt that nobody paid attention to his needs.
In September 1964, Larry was charged with Gary Smock’s murder. The defense claimed he was temporarily insane at the time of the crime. They claimed that he was taking his resentment’s towards his abusive, alcoholic dad who abandoned him out on Gary Smock. The jury didn’t buy it and he was found guilty of murder in 1964 and sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile with Larry out of the picture, Danny married his high school sweetheart Paula. They had two children but Paula still daydreamed about Larry and wrote to him while he was in prison. Danny eventually found the love letters between his brother and wife and the two of them begin fighting regularly; Danny left the marriage. Danny decided to move to Wyoming and while there, he committed a crime. He abducted a couple of teenagers, released them and then turned himself in. It is believed that he secretly hoped Paula would like him more now that he committed a crime like his brother Larry. Paula and Danny tried the relationship again and had a third child but it didn’t work. After divorcing Paula, Danny committed another crime and was arrested for felonious assault of a child.
In 1971, seven years after Larry’s murder conviction, he appealed his case and was granted a re-trial. Meanwhile Danny is released from prison in 1972 for his felony crimes and moved back to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Danny learned Larry was back in the papers because of his re-trial and within a month, he committed another crime. A man reported his wife and child were missing and the next day a woman reported that she found a baby walking around unsupervised covered in blood. The police found his mother Patricia Howk stabbed to death in the woods; she had been murdered but there were no suspects. A few months later, some citizens found a car in the woods with two dead decomposed bodies inside: Linda Clark and Claudia Bidstrup from Chicago, Illinois. They were on their way to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Police were concerned that these two murders were connected to Patricia Howk. Finally, Kalamazoo Police received a tip that helped them solve the cases. Brent Koster informed investigators that he was an accomplice to the violent rapes and murders of Linda Clark and Claudia Bidstrup with Danny Ranes.
Brent Koster testified that Danny bragged about killing Patricia Howk. He claimed he admitted to attacking her as she was getting in her car. Patricia fought back so he stabbed her in the back and twisted the knife until she was dead. On July 6, 1972, Linda Clark and Claudia Bidstrip pulled into the gas station where Danny Ranes was working. Danny pretended to check their oil but instead took one of the spark plug wires out. The car wouldn’t start so he told them to pull around the back of the gas station. After they were isolated, the pair pulled knives on them and took turns raping them. They murdered them a few hours later and dumped their bodies near the Kalamazoo River. Brent Koster agreed to a plea deal in exchange for his full cooperation and during this exchange admitted to one more murder. The two picked up, raped, and murdered Patricia Fearnow who was hitchhiking on the campus of Western Michigan University. Brent Koster was sentenced to life for the second degree murder of Linda Clark. Danny Ranes changed his ‘not guilty’ plea to ‘no contest’ and received two additional life sentences for the murders of Linda Clark and Claudia Bidstrup. And finally Larry Ranes’ insanity defense fell apart and he pleaded guilty to the murder of Gary Smock and was sentenced to life.
For one family in Michigan, winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing. But when one competition heats up, they end up doing the unthinkable. The small, Midwestern town the family calls home will come face to face with multiple rounds of pure evil. -Investigation Discovery
Jay Arneson, U.S. Army Veteran (photo courtesy of Find a Grave)
“Iva Kroeger was a housewife with dreams of owning her own business, and took over her friend Mildred Arneson’s motel in Santa Rosa, California. Iva murdered Mildred and buried the body in her basement, then claimed Mildred moved to Brazil and left her the motel. Shortly afterward, she also murdered Mildred’s husband, Jay. Iva and her husband Ralph, whose role in the murders is unknown, were both convicted of first degree murder. Ralph died in prison, and Iva was released after serving 13 years.”
Dates: December 15, 1961, January 1962, August 20, 1962 Location: Santa Rosa, California and San Franciso, California Offenders: Iva Kroeger & Ralph Kroeger Victims: Mildred Arneson (motel owner), Jay Arneson (68 y.o. disabled Army veteran) Motive: Greed, money Pathology: Murder by strangulation, dug a hole in the basement of her San Franciso home, and buried two victims Disposition: Iva Kroeger sentenced to death for 2 counts of first degree murder, later changed to life imprisonment with parole, served 13 years; Ralph Kroeger convicted of 2 counts of first degree murder on March 26, 1963, sentenced to life in prison Status: Iva Kroeger paroled in 1974, deceased in 2000; Ralph Kroeger died in prison Red Flags: Claims she fled an abusive marriage, dutiful wife to new husband Ralph Kroeger, kept everything neat & clean, engaging personality, sweet, kind, and caring but it was a front, obsession with nursing, worked in nursing homes with the vulnerable, first arrest was for impersonating a nurse, pulled a gun on a repairman because she didn’t want to pay her bill, stole $1,400 from a nursing home in San Jose in 1954, used aliases in various scams, master of the sob story, faked a limp, told people she had cancer, claimed she was crippled in a streetcar accident, said she was going blind, kidnapped her own son’s two children & then abandoned them on the streets of Oakland, California, stole $8,000 from a joint account with husband Ralph Kroeger, quoted as saying “If you act crazy, you can get away with anything because people will think you are eccentric,” during murder trial, claimed to be the mother of God, sang, threw things and constantly interrupted the witnesses and judge, psychiatrists testified that she was sane, but deceitful and manipulative, arrested in 1985 for threatening a man with a gun in Florida, two stolen nurses IDs found in her possession, wanted the life Mildred had, strangled her victims, abuser, user, strong desire not to pay for anything, psychopath but not always cool, calm and collected, lied constantly with complete conviction, won’t admit to any wrongdoing, and police record going back to 1945
Naughty by Monte Schulz (Book):
This crime noir novel, set in the 1950s, was inspired by the real life story of Iva Kroeger and her husband, indicted for the murders of Mildred and Jay Arneson in 1962. -Monte Schulz, Mr. Media Interviews By Bob Andelman
Investigation Discovery:
Selfish women will sometimes sell their souls to the devil to get what they want. A scorned lover weaves a web of lies, a teenage Goth orders a reign of terror, and a gold-digger buries secrets in her basement. -Souls of Stone, Deadly Women (S7, E18)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch all of the Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. Download the ID Go app and binge away. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $2.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict.
Army soldiers George York and James Latham went Absent without Leave (AWOL) from Fort Hood in Texas on May 24, 1961. In two weeks, they killed seven people in multiple states:
Edward Guidroz (bludgeoned to near death), Louisiana
Althea Ottavio (robbed and strangled), Georgia
Patricia Hewitt (robbed and strangled), Georgia
John Whittaker (robbed, shot, and killed), Tennessee
Albert Reed (stole car, murdered), Illinois
Martin Drenovac (stole gas, murdered), Illinois
Rachel Moyer (molested and murdered), Colorado
Otto Ziegler (murdered), Kansas
On May 24, 1961, York and Latham deserted for the last time. They set out for York’s Florida hometown. Somewhere along the way, they morphed into indiscriminate killers. -NY Daily News
“John Bennett, a black man, was hanged for rapinga white girl in Austria. During the six years between his trial and death, eight other soldiers were executed, all of them black. Six white prisoners were on death row during those years. Some had killed little girls or had killed more than once. None were executed. President Dwight Eisenhower commuted the sentences of four. Two were spared by the courts. Today, six soldiers are on military death row–four black, one Asian, one white.” (update: 4 soldiers are on death row now)
“Evidence in Bennett’s case revealed mental defects in the young man and his family, defects that today would probably spare his life. He also almost certainly suffered from epilepsy, which his defenders cited as further evidence of mental illness. Even Dr. Karl Menninger, the country’s preeminent psychiatrist, twice sought to save the life of this ‘undistinguished epileptic Negro soldier.‘ The court-martial was held in Austria. The trial lasted five days, with little defense. The jury deliberated just 25 minutes.“
Read more from Richard A. Serrano (LA Times) here or here and check out Serrano’s book ‘Summoned at Midnight: A Story of Race and the Last Military Executions at Fort Leavenworth’here.
Maria Ridulph, 7, disappeared on December 3, 1957 in Sycamore, Illinois. She was found stabbed to death a few months later. Air Force veteran John Tessier (aka Jack McCullough) of Seattle, Washington, 17 at the time, was convicted in 2012 of the kidnapping and murder of Maria and sentenced to life in prison. It was the oldest cold case in the country to be solved but soon that victory would be lost and conviction overturned on appeal. A prosecutor found evidence that supported McCullough’s long-held alibi that he had been 40 miles away at the time of the disappearance. As a matter of fact, the former Captain was enlisting in the Air Force and left for active duty service a few days later. A certificate of innocence was issued and Jack McCullough was set free on April 15, 2016. Despite the past sexual abuse of minors allegations, which McCullough doesn’t deny, he wants to clear his name of the homicide. McCullough is suing the State of Illinois for wrongful conviction. The case remains unsolved to this day.
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 