

Take a look below for 15 songs based on true crime stories. Whether they’re based on the infamous true crime accounts of notorious killers such as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer or lesser-known stories found in local newspapers, the motives behind murder fascinate us and inspire some of the best songs. Countless musicians have used the gripping stories of well-known serial killers for their songs. He was executed in Texas in 2014 through lethal injection.Īs Rea was fighting her legal battles, Witherspoon was also discovering that her assault years prior was committed by a serial killer.Curiosity about the human mind has led to a mass interest from people about why some decide to become murderers. Sells was never formally charged for Joel’s murder. Since her exoneration, Rea has become an advocate, working with organizations that help women who feel they have been wrongfully convicted and are fighting to prove their innocence. “I just felt like Joel was right there with me and he was just so happy,” Rea said after she heard the verdict. She was found not guilty and the state of Illinois granted her a certificate of innocence.

The prosecution, which has always maintained that Rea killed her son, claimed Sells’ confession was a fabrication.
#Year what makes a serial killer written trial#
Rea, armed with a new defense team through the Center on Wrongful Convictions, used Sells’ audio-taped confession at her second trial in 2006. But prosecutors decided to retry the case.

Meanwhile, Rea had been in prison for two years when an appellate court ruled to vacate her conviction based on a technicality.
#Year what makes a serial killer written tv#
Rea’s defense claimed Joel’s blood transferred to her clothes during her struggle with the intruder.Īuthor Diane Fanning was exchanging letters with Tommy Lynn Sells when she asked the incarcerated serial killer about details from Julie Rea's TV interview where Rea said she did not kill her son. The prosecution presented a largely circumstantial case, focusing on Rea’s ex-husband’s testimony, pinning Rea’s motive on a bitter custody battle, and on the fact that Rea had Joel’s blood on her clothes that night. She was indicted on first degree murder charges in 2000. Rea, who has always maintained her innocence, was the primary suspect for years. Nothing had been stolen, the house was neat, and there were no signs of forced entry, according to investigators working the case. Investigators couldn’t find signs of the struggle Rea described at the crime scene. Rea told police she thought Joel had been kidnapped, but when officers arrived at the house, they found the boy dead on the other side of his bed. The murder weapon, a steak knife pulled from Rea’s kitchen, was left on the floor outside of Joel’s bedroom. Rea said she struggled with the intruder all the way to the backyard where he backhanded her and walked off into the night.

She said she ran to her son’s bedroom and encountered an intruder with a ski mask on and no sign of Joel. The boy’s mother, Julie Rea, said screams woke her up. 13, 1997, the 10-year-old was found murdered in his bedroom in the middle of the night. Joel Kirkpatrick's father and friend remember him as a "brilliant" and "very happy and smiley" boy.
