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The Scream Murder: A True Teen Horror Story is the latest true crime documentary released on Hulu. High school students Brian Lee Draper and Torey Adamcik’s murder of classmate Cassie Jo Stoddart is examined in the documentary.

Scream writer Kevin Williamson explained his inspiration for the movie came from real life serial killer Danny Rolling. Danny Rolling is also known as the Gainesville Ripper. When coupled with the writer’s own personal fear of home invasion, he found his inspiration for the script to his horror movie Scream.

Little did Williamson know, one decade later life in Pocatello, Idaho would imitate his creation.

The Night the Lights Went Out

In 2006, high school student Cassie Jo Stoddart was murdered by two of her fellow classmates. These two boys are Brian Lee Draper and Torey Michael Adamcik. Not only were they classmates, but they were friends of Stoddart and her boyfriend, Matt Beckham. In fact, it was Beckham who invited them over to Stoddart’s aunt’s house the night they killed her. 

The four watched movies at the house until Draper and Adamcik left around 9:30p.m. to go to the movie theater. Little did the couple know, the two boys didn’t really leave the house at all.

Following their “departure”, the lights in the house kept flickering on and off. Furthermore, Beckham reported the two heard strange noises from the basement. He asked his mom if he could stay for the night to quiet Cassie’s fears of being alone. Unfortunately she said no. In addition, Cassie turned down Mrs. Beckham’s counteroffer to spend the night at her home instead. She wanted to stay faithful in her responsibility to watch the home as she promised her aunt.

Once Matt left for the night, the lights went out, and The Scream Killers executed their carefully thought out plan. 

The next morning Cassie’s relatives returned home. Her 13 year old cousin found her in a pool of blood in the living room, deceased. The medical examiner later counted approximately 30 stab wounds focused around her upper torso. Twelve of those wounds were potentially fatal.

The Apprehension and Video Tapes

The 16 year old high school students were apprehended soon after the Scream inspired murder. It was when they were in custody when the extent of their sick obsession and plans were discovered. Brian Draper was first to confess to the killing. He led the police to the abandoned area where the two had buried their bloody clothing, masks, boots, and knives they used to kill Cassie.

There was one more thing the police had found. This was perhaps the most important and condemning piece of evidence in the cache; a video tape the two boys had made.

The high school juniors said on these videos how they wanted to recreate the opening Scream murders in real life. On their video they also spoke of their “Death List”. It some became apparent Stoddart was not their only intended victim. On their discovered “death list”, there were at least five names of other fellow students who they planned to kill.

The video then cuts to footage from the night of the murder. The video picks up right after the two got into Torey’s car. The boys were clearly exhilarated from their kill. Draper boasted jubilantly;

“We just killed Cassie. We just left her house. This is not a  fucking joke.  …I stabbed her in the throat. I saw her lifeless body. It just disappeared. Dude. I just killed Cassie. Oh, oh fuck. That felt like it wasn’t even real. I mean it went by so fast.”

Draper and Adamcik’s goal was to start with Cassie’s murder, and then go out in a blaze of glory that would put the Columbine High School shootings to shame.

Consequences and Punishment

No longer was this like the horror movies they loved so much. These confessions sealed their fate, and the evidence was inescapable for the high school juniors. 

The judge who presided over both of their trials showed his humane side when he regretted the fact both Draper and Adamcik were so young when they committed their crime. Nevertheless, he had a job to do, and both received life sentences without parole. The judge followed up his sentence with “I’m convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that if you were released that you’d kill again.”

Currently Draper and Adamcik are serving their life sentences at Idaho State Correctional Institute in Ada County, Idaho.

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In 1985, a murder case rocked the small town of Niantic, Connecticut. A pregnant wife was found strangled in the bedroom while her husband was away on a sailing trip.  The crime went unsolved until a witness came forward to give investigators a clue, in of all places, a VHS copy of a horror movie.

[Editor’s Note: This article is taken from our archives. It was originally published in 2022]

Ed and Ellen Sherman appeared to be a happy couple around town, both professionals; Ellen a publisher, Ed a teacher at the local community college.  Although they appeared to be the epitome of community grace, their private lives told a different story.  Ed was a philanderer who often partook in wife swapping and sex parties. Ellen seemed not to mind and often engaged in the activities herself.

Enter Nancy Prescott, Ed’s mistress, who became pregnant and had a child during their affair. Ellen, at her limi,t told Ed to leave Nancy so they could start afresh.

Ed agreed, and the couple tried to reignite their marriage, Ellen herself becoming pregnant.

But on a Sunday in August 1985, while Ed had gone on a sailing trip with four friends, he got a call from police on the boat’s radio, saying his pregnant wife was dead. She was discovered by a male family friend whom Ed had asked to look in on her that night.

At first glance, it indeed looked as if an intruder had come into their home and squeezed the life out of Ellen, then made a hasty retreat; in fact, the air conditioner was still turned on.

Ligatures around Ellen’s neck provided the medical examiner with enough proof to determine she had been strangled with her own underwear. But the further investigation would also show that she had been strangled before the panties had gone around her neck. Medical examiners determined that she had been killed earlier that Sunday.

The question remained: who would do this? And as is usually the case, investigators look first to the spouse as a suspect. But Ed had been away on a sailing trip on Sunday; he had a solid alibi, with four witnesses. He couldn’t have done it. How could he be in two places at once?

Ed had even spoken to his wife on the night of the murder at a friend’s house, and they all heard him on the phone.

Forensic scientists were baffled, especially Dr. Henry Lee of the Connecticut State Crime Lab. That i,s until someone came forward with a tip that would blow the lid off the case.

The witness said she had run into Ed at the local video store on the morning of his sailing trip. She says Ed recommended a horror movie called Blackout, a mystery about a disfigured man named Allen Devlin, who, early on, may have brutally killed his wife and children and then manipulated the crime scene to thwart investigators.

In the film, Richard Widmark, Detective Joe Steiner, is confounded and sets out to prove that Allen is, in fact, responsible for the brutal killings.

Spoiler: Remember the air conditioner? In “Blackout,” the killer uses a clever trick to throw investigators off. He turns up the appliance to its highest setting and leaves it running.

The extremely cold temperatures slow down the rigor mortis process and the body’s decomposition, which can cause investigators to inaccurately estimate the true time of death.

Both Widmark in the film and real-life investigators in the Sherman case discover this murderous hack. In the Sherman case, where the coroner determined the time of death to be Sunday, they surmised that with the air conditioner running, the time of death was actually two days prior, on Friday.  This means Ed could have done it before leaving for his fishing trip.

Still, Ed had called his wife from miles away the night of the murder and his friends could attest to that. Except unbeknownst to Ed, there was someone else on the phone, one of the gentleman’s daughters who reported that she picked up the receiver to make a call and heard him talking, only he wasn’t talking to his wife, he was talking over the ringing on the other end: the call was a fake.

According to the show Forensic Files (full episode below), Ed strangled his wife to death with his bare hands after dinner on Friday. He then wrapped the underwear around her throat to try and mislead investigators into thinking it was a sex crime.

After that, and inspired by the movie Blackout, he then turned the air conditioner to high to slow down the decomposition process ultimately misdirecting the Coroner and the true time of death. He then left for his friend’s house for the fishing trip and mocked a call later that night all within earshot of his friends, but unaware someone else was listening.

Ultimately, thanks to the movie Blackout, investigators concluded that with the frigid temperatures, the actual time of death was not on Sunday, but two days earlier, when Ed was still at home.

Ed Sherman was arrested for murder. Prosecutors argued that Ellen had given up on their marriage and wanted a divorce. She, being the primary owner of the business, told Ed he could have his girlfriend and the sailboat, and nothing else.

During the trial, jurors were very interested in knowing more about Ellen’s time of death. Based on the forensic evidence, they determined that Ed had the time and the motive to commit the murder, and six years after the crime, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Ed never admitted guilt, and three years after the conviction, he died in prison after suffering a heart attack.

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Rose McGowan and Marilyn Manson began dating at the height of their careers in 1997. This was when the young actress began to skyrocket after her role in Wes Craven’s Scream in 1996 and Phantoms in 1998. Manson had just released his second album, Antichrist Superstar.

Each of their dark aesthetics complemented the other. Manson featured his darkly beautiful girlfriend in his 1998 music video, Coma White. The two then shared a sexy scene together in McGowan’s wildly successful movie Jawbreaker in 1999. The two were cemented as Hollywood’s most twisted couple.

However, the two came to an end in 2001. McGowan explained in a statement released from her publicist, “There is great love, but our lifestyle difference is, unfortunately, even greater.”

The Allegations

It was years later, in 2021, when rape allegations were brought against the controversial rock star. Actress Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen, 2003) released on her Instagram account a post that accused Marilyn Manson of being her abuser. Little did Wood know her bravery would inspire more than a dozen other women to speak up and claim sexual and physical abuse against the musician. 

McGowan’s Stance

McGowan said she did not experience abuse during the time she was with Manson. However, she did add that it does not mean such behavior didn’t happen with others. Just because she did not experience violence with him, she explained her own personal experience does not invalidate the claims of others. 

Additionally, she is proud of the women who came forward and reported the allegations of abuse.

During an interview on the podcast We Need to Talk, McGowan talked about the prior relationship. When McGowan’s judgement was questioned by a viewer regarding relationships with alleged abusers, she firmly stated, “I read the investigative files. You haven’t. That’s all.”

McGowan Inspiring Others

Rose McGowan has been a strong leader of the “Me Too” movement. The movement began in 2006, but picked up momentum in 2017. “Me Too” focuses on speaking out against sexual abuse, harassment, and assault. It aims to empower survivors, and help them find strength to step up and speak out against their abuser.  

In 2017, McGowan claimed film producer Harvey Weinstein had raped her. Furthermore, when she reported the crime, she faced repercussions that negatively affected her film career. Since then, McGowan has been a prominent leader in exposing sexual misconduct in Hollywood.