Sword and Scale

Any untimely death is a tragedy, but when the victim is young, beautiful, and an all-around wonderful person, the whole thing seems to be much worse. Unfortunately, there are two high-profile cases in the news this week that fit this too-familiar mold. We walk you through the backstory of both of them, told by those who knew the victims best. We also speak to high profile crime experts Levi Page, host of The Levi Page Show and frequents HLN contributor and Cathy Russon from CourtChatter.com...

What happens when a family's grief slips into malice and madness, when a mother is so hell-bent on being portrayed as a victim that she begins victimizing everyone who doesn't see her as one? Welcome to the sad story of Morgan Ingram's untimely death and the circus of insanity that followed and continues to this day. When Morgan's car was keyed in 2011, a bizarre narrative began to unfold which consisted of a maniac serial-stalker who would terrorize the Ingram family for months...

When 20-year-old Morgan Ingram tragically died in 2011, the family couldn't deal with their grief. What followed was a bizarre and prolonged Internet campaign of hate which has attempted to ruin the lives of at least a dozen people. Sword and Scale followed the rabbit hole to see where it would go, and we soon found that the pattern of behavior can be traced back to a mysterious individual named Sarah Afshar who interviewed Morgan's mom seems to have some sort of close relationship with...

This week we're joined by former ex-inmate Glenn Langohr, who spent 10 years behind bars at some of California's toughest level 4 prisons, before reinventing himself as a best-selling author. His latest book, Prison Riot, takes the reader through the details of an actual prison riot he was involved in at California's Solano State Prison. We also talk to Professor Natasha A...

Usually we find the stories we want to talk about on Sword and Scale. This week the story found us, in the form of a cry for help from the surviving sister of Kimberly Renea Mabry, whose mutilated body turned up in a Rockford Illinois creek in 1995 and whose killer remains at large almost 20 years later. We bring you her story and ask for your help in solving this bizarre cold case that all but everyone has forgotten about...

A deliberate murder that took 8 years of planning and plenty of hard work to accomplish. It involved a man, his truck, and an underground bunker in the Washington mountains. Peter Keller was described as a survivalist with a distrust of authority by his family and friends, but none of them had any idea he would ever resort to what he did...

Lauren Giddings had just graduated law school and was getting ready for a new life when she suddenly disappeared from her apartment in Macon, Georgia. As her friends and family desperately tried to find her, they were surprised to see Lauren's reclusive neighbor on the news overreacting to word that a dismembered body had been nearby. The shaggy, bearded introvert was questioned by police in one of the strangest and most infuriating interrogations ever caught on tape...

In this episode of Sword and Scale we recap the last month's most bizarre stories in the genre of true crime. Quite a few people in trouble have gotten in trouble with the law lately because of their poor choices and bizarre behavior. Although to them it may be no laughing matter, everyone else is left thinking "just what on earth were they thinking?" We also catch up with Cathy Russon from Court Chatter who fills us in on all the courtroom drama behind the Julie Schenecker murder case...

How much to you trust your friends? How much do you know your friends? What would they do for you? What would you do for them? In this episode of Sword and Scale we examine a story of betrayal involving new age cults, sound healing, apocalyptic scenarios and a self-serving meth-head who has left a trail of destruction in her wake. Welcome to the story of Eric Preimesberger's unfortunate premature death, and the people responsible for killing him and hiding his body...

Elliot Rodger's privileged background and his family's ties to Hollywood didn't help him get accepted by those around him. Instead his awkward behavior and creepy mannerisms made girls want to ignore him and guys want to bully him. For most of his life he endured what he described as a torturous and tormented life, so on May 23rd he took his revenge on the world that had created "such an injustice", in what he called his "day of retribution"...