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Five murders and the movies they inspired

  • Story Highlights
  • "Death of a Cheerleader" was based on the story of two girls in California
  • The real-life kidnapper from "83 Hours 'Til Dawn" was released from jail in 7 years
  • "When He Didn't Come Home" only used some of the facts of the real case
  • David Graham's typed confession inspired a movie before he even went to trial
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By Kara Kovalchik
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Mental Floss

(Mental Floss) -- My favorite made-for-TV movies are those based on true stories, especially true stories involving jealous friends or spouses who go on sleazy killing rampages.

Tiffani-Amber Thiessen portrayed the beautiful and perky Jenny Monroe in "A Killer Among Friends."

Tiffani-Amber Thiessen portrayed the beautiful and perky Jenny Monroe in "A Killer Among Friends."

Here are five classics, along with the real stories behind the films:

1. "Death of a Cheerleader"

THE STORY: Tori Spelling stars as Stacey Lockwood, the "It" girl of Santa Mira high school.

Stacey has everything: looks, personality, wealthy parents, and a pack of snooty, sycophantic friends at school.

Kellie Martin is Angela, who just transferred To Santa Mira from a nearby Catholic school and longs to be part of Stacey's "in" crowd. However, although she is certainly intelligent and studious, Angela is awkward in all her attempts to befriend Stacey, who enjoys making scathing remarks about Angela's thrift shop wardrobe and rusted-out Pinto.

One night while hanging out with Stacey, Angie makes an embarrassing plea for friendship. Stacey cuts her down viciously with the ultimate high school threat: "I'm going to tell everyone at school that you're weird!" Angie whips out a butcher knife in a panic and stabs Stacey to death.

THE TRUTH: The movie remained pretty true to the details of the actual case, only the names were changed to protect...someone, I suppose. Kirsten Costas was the cheerleader in question; she was also a star on the varsity swim team at Miramonte High School in Orinda, California.

Her attacker was Bernadette Protti; both girls were 15 years old when the murder took place in 1984. It took police six months to determine that Protti was the killer, and one of her first questions after confessing was "Do I have to go back to Miramonte? I can't live if it is known. I would rather die."

Bernadette was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced as a juvenile. She was released from prison in 1992 at the age of 23, when she promptly changed her name and left California. Mental Floss: More stories behind TV movies

2. "83 Hours Till Dawn"

THE STORY: Robert Urich portrays wealthy land developer Bradley Burdock, whose idyllic life is turned upside down when his college coed daughter, Julie, is abducted and held for ransom. Not only has she been kidnapped; she is being held in an underground capsule with a limited amount of battery power to provide her air and light.

Kidnapper Peter Strauss is very proud of his carefully constructed Fiberglas and plywood tomb, which is equipped with every conceivable necessity: food, water, bed pan and feminine hygiene products. His ransom demand of $500,000 is ultimately met after a series of mishaps, and he phones the FBI to alert them of Julie's location while he attempts to leave the U.S. via motorboat.

When Julie is rescued, she is dehydrated and 10 pounds lighter after spending four days underground. Several days later, her kidnapper is arrested and brought to justice.

THE TRUTH: This movie was based on a book of the same name that was written by the kidnapping victim herself, Barbara Jane Mackle. Her abductor was Gary Steven Krist, who was assisted by his girlfriend, Ruth Eisemann-Schier.

Barbara passed the interminable hours underground by alternately singing aloud and praying. When she was finally rescued from her coffin-like prison by the FBI, her first words were "How are my parents?" Ruth Eisemann-Shier served five years in prison and then was deported to her native Honduras. Gary Steven Krist escaped the death penalty when Barbara testified on the stand that she was grateful to him for telling the FBI how to locate her.

He was sentenced to life in prison, which at that time (1968) meant he would be eligible for parole after seven years. Krist served 10 years, then fled to Haiti, where he eventually earned a medical degree at a Caribbean university.

He worked as a physician in rural Indiana until his license was revoked. In 2007 he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for trafficking cocaine. As for Barbara, she married her college sweetheart, had two children, and prefers not to dwell on the whole kidnapping "thing."

3. "A Killer Among Friends"

THE STORY: Tiffani-Amber Thiessen portrayed Jenny Monroe, the beautiful, perky and perfect daughter of Jean, played by TV movie über-mom Patty Duke. Jenny went off with her best friend Ellen one afternoon and never came home. Her body was found three days later in a creek, face down with a 100 lb. log across her back.

Ellen was as heartbroken and enraged as Jean over Jenny's death, and proceeded to not only personally try to track down the killer, but also move into Jenny's old bedroom and wear her clothes and try to take her place (only to make Jean feel better, of course).

Three years later, another girl with a heavy conscience contacted the police; she'd been in the woods with Ellen and Jenny and another girl named Carla that day, and the two brutalized Jenny, slapped her, chopped off pieces of her hair and finally drowned her.

Their justification was that Jenny had slept with their boyfriends, but it later came out at trial that the overweight and somewhat plain Ellen had long been jealous of Jenny's beauty and popularity and longed to "be" her. Ellen and Carla were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Mental Floss: A "Saved by the Bell" quiz

THE TRUTH: The movie is based on the 1985 murder of Michele "Missy" Avila of Arleta, California, who drove off with her best friend, Karen Severson, and another friend, Laura Doyle, and never returned.

Karen had always been overweight, shy and awkward, whereas Missy was petite and outgoing; when the two first met at age eight, they clicked because Karen was lonely and Missy was the only girl in her family and longed for a sister.

Over the years, it became obvious to many observers that Karen was deeply jealous of Missy's looks and popularity. No one knew exactly how deep her envy festered, though, until her arrest in 1989. Both Karen and Laura are still in prison as of this writing; Karen Severson was recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and is hoping to get a compassionate release in the near future.

4. "When He Didn't Come Home"

THE STORY: Patty Duke is once again a concerned mother ("Faye Dolan") who hasn't heard from her 20-something son, Timmy, for several weeks. He worked as an independent contractor and was on the road a lot, but he usually called his mom once a week.

She was particularly worried because Tim had recently become engaged to an up-and-coming Yuppie real estate developer ("Carolyn," played by The O.C.'s Kelly Rowan) who had a violent temper. Faye had seen Carolyn punch and slap Timmy during a visit to their apartment.

Of course, since Tim was an adult, it took forever for the police to consider him a missing person. Eventually, via a sting operation, Carolyn confessed to a friend that she'd stabbed Tim during an argument. She then hysterically ran to her parents' home and cried for help. Her dad and brother returned to her apartment and found Timmy still breathing. They smothered him, then rolled him in a carpet and carted his body out onto Lake Michigan and threw it overboard.

THE TRUTH: David Richmond of Oviedo, Florida, was the real body rolled in that carpet back in 1992. The TV movie was correct on some facts, and way off base on others.

Michele Roger was the object of David's affection, and while the pair lived together, they were never formally engaged. Michele was not a Yuppie entrepreneur; she worked as a topless dancer, which was a bone of contention between her and David.

There is no question that Michele used to slap David around (many of his co-workers testified about his black eyes and broken ribs), but Michele's attorney stated that she only struck out in self-defense.

Her family did assist in disposing of David's body (in a far more gruesome way than alluded to in the film), and Michele was ultimately found guilty of second degree murder and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. She was granted clemency in 1999 by an outgoing governor on the grounds that she had been a battered woman. Mental Floss: Eight forgotten kids shows sure to give you nightmares

5. "Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder"

THE STORY: Diane Zamora and David Graham (played by Holly Marie Combs and David Lipper) started dating as high school seniors in 1995 and became engaged to get married shortly afterward.

The pair were unusually serious and focused for their age; both were in the National Honor Society as well as the Civil Air Patrol, and had military careers mapped out for themselves. Zamora had been accepted into the Naval Academy, while Graham was headed for the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs after graduation.

One evening, after a track meet, David gave his teammate Adrianne Jones a ride home. The two allegedly stopped along the way for a "quickie," and Graham, wracked with guilt afterward, confessed his transgression to Zamora. She insisted that the only way to keep their love "pure" was to kill Adrianne.

They made a pact, lured Jones out of her house late at night, and first bludgeoned her then shot her twice in the head. The crime may well have remained unsolved had Zamora not gotten chatty during a dorm room bull session at Annapolis.

She bragged to her roommates that her boyfriend had killed for her to prove his love. The roommates, bound by the school's Honor Code, later reported the conversation to the Navy Chaplain, and Zamora and Graham were ultimately arrested.

THE TRUTH: This movie was based on David Graham's typed confession and was filmed before the couple went to trial. Not surprisingly, in the months leading up to their trial, the love bond between them vanished and each blamed the other for both the planning and the execution of the crime.

Adrianne Jones' mother asked the prosecution not to pursue the death penalty, as she didn't want two other mothers to lose their children. It was revealed during the trial that David had never had sex with Adrianne; he'd made up the story to make Diane jealous.

The two were sentenced to life in prison and each will be eligible for parole in 2036. In 2003 Zamora married (by proxy) a fellow Texas inmate named Steven Mora, whom she'd never met but knew via correspondence. They have since divorced.

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