The Lies They Tell

Ashley Todd's performance was worthy of a Razzie.

Philadelphia, 2009, 911 dispatchers receive this frantic call, "My name is Bonnie Sweeten. We're in the trunk of a black Cadillac, my daughter and I. Someone has taken our car. This happened between Street Road and Southampton in Bensalem." "We were rear-ended. When I got out of the car, that's when they took us and put us in the Cadillac." "Two black men, I'd say they are at least 6 feet tall. One could be taller." Sweeten's story fell apart almost as soon as she told it. There were no ominous black men, no black Cadillac. The intersection where the alleged kidnapping took place does not exist. Actually, she was with her daughter, on their way to the happiest place on earth, Disney World. She stole over a million from family, friends, clients, and her employer, and tried to escape responsibility. She was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison. She was arrested again in 2022 for similar crimes.

January 27, 2015, in Stellenbosch, South Africa, was the last day on earth for Martin van Breda (54), his wife, Teresa (55), and their son, Rudi (22). Their daughter, Marli (16), narrowly survived but suffered amnesia. The last "victim", a son, Henri Van Breda (20), only suffered minor scratches. The family lived in a luxury gated community, De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate. According to Henri, the attacker was a black man wearing dark clothes and a balaclava-type mask. The attacker was laughing while swinging an axe in an overhead motion. There was possibly a second intruder, but Henri wasn't sure. There was no forced entry, and the weapons came from inside the home. Henri's injuries were self-inflicted. Henri van Breda was convicted of the murders and sentenced to three life sentences.

On October 25, 1994, in Union City, South Carolina, Susan Smith strapped her two young sons, 3‑year‑old Michael and 14‑month‑old Alexander Smith, into their car seats and let her Mazda Protege roll down a boat ramp into John D. Lake, drowning them both. She then told police that an armed Black man in his 20s, wearing a plaid jacket and jeans, had hijacked her car with the children inside.

Expert sketch artist Jeanne Boylan said the sketch of the carjacker was so generic it was useless.

For nine days, she pleaded publicly for their safe return before confessing to the crime. Susan Smith was sentenced to life in prison. She was eligible for parole in November 2024, but it was denied. Her next parole hearing is scheduled for November 2026.

Here is Susan Smith "missing" her boys, and a short synopsis of the case.

In 1989, Boston, Charles "Chuck" Stuart ordered the killing of his pregnant wife, Carol. They were leaving a birthing class when she was shot in the head. He was shot in the chest. Carol died the next day. Their baby boy, who was delivered via cesarean section, died 17 days later. Chuck called 911 from his car phone and told the dispatcher that a black man, who wore a tracksuit, had threatened him at gunpoint to drive to Mission Hill, a racially mixed neighborhood, where he shot them both. Chuck's story had more holes than fish-net stockings. When he was found out, Charles Stuart could not own up to his crimes and jumped off a bridge to his death.

You can hear his 911 call below.