Murder victim in a very controversial case. Four-year-old Missy and her Five-year-old brother, Eddie disappeared from their bedroom in their mother's apartment sometime during the night. The next day, Missy's body was found on a vacant lot. Five days later, Eddie's body was found on an embankment overlooking the Van Wyck Expressway. Missy had been strangled, but the manner of Eddie's death could not be determined due to excessive decomposition. Their mother, Alice, an attractive, flashy woman who was separated from their father, immediately fell under the suspicion of the police. They didn't like her bar-hopping, promiscuous lifestyle or her lack of emotion in their presence. And they especially didn't like her form-fitting clothes. This was 1965, a time when women were supposed to be like Harriet Nelson, not like Madonna. She was arrested and tried twice for Missy's murder, after winning an appeal on her first conviction, and was ultimately convicted of manslaughter. She was convicted of first degree murder in Eddie's death, but the verdict was once again overturned on appeal. The DA opted to not try her for this crime again. Many people think that the evidence at her trials was weak and that she was convicted mostly for her lifestyle and her defiant courtroom attitude. She served less than four years in prison and ultimately married one of her rich boyfriends. The mystery of the childrens' deaths will probably never be solved. This case was the subject of the book "The Alice Crimmins Case" by Kenneth Gross and the loosely-based TV-movie "A Question of Guilt", starring Tuesday Weld.

Murder victim in a very controversial case. Four-year-old Missy and her Five-year-old brother, Eddie disappeared from their bedroom in their mother's apartment sometime during the night. The next day, Missy's body was found on a vacant lot. Five days later, Eddie's body was found on an embankment overlooking the Van Wyck Expressway. Missy had been strangled, but the manner of Eddie's death could not be determined due to excessive decomposition. Their mother, Alice, an attractive, flashy woman who was separated from their father, immediately fell under the suspicion of the police. They didn't like her bar-hopping, promiscuous lifestyle or her lack of emotion in their presence. And they especially didn't like her form-fitting clothes. This was 1965, a time when women were supposed to be like Harriet Nelson, not like Madonna. She was arrested and tried twice for Missy's murder, after winning an appeal on her first conviction, and was ultimately convicted of manslaughter. She was convicted of first degree murder in Eddie's death, but the verdict was once again overturned on appeal. The DA opted to not try her for this crime again. Many people think that the evidence at her trials was weak and that she was convicted mostly for her lifestyle and her defiant courtroom attitude. She served less than four years in prison and ultimately married one of her rich boyfriends. The mystery of the childrens' deaths will probably never be solved. This case was the subject of the book "The Alice Crimmins Case" by Kenneth Gross and the loosely-based TV-movie "A Question of Guilt", starring Tuesday Weld.

Bio by: Find a Grave