Tales from the Morgue: The Pied Piper of Tucson series
Note: This series was first published on tucson.com in 2010 and updated in 2018 in Tales from the Morgue. In newspaper terms, the "morgue" is the archive of the paper.
(18) updates to this series since Updated
At the request of several readers, Tales from the Morgue presents the story of the Pied Piper of Tucson.
The bones of the missing sisters, Gretchen and Wendy Fritz, were found in the desert after an informant led police to them. The informant accu…
Richard Bruns had implicated two other people in the death of Alleen Rowe. These people were John Saunders and Mary French.
The attorney for Charles Schmid, accused in the murder of three teenaged girls, felt that news coverage of the case would keep Schmid and the …
The Schmid case was sensational enough to put Tucson in the public eye. Time magazine did an article on the case, which was summarized in the …
On Nov. 24, 1965, at the preliminary hearing for Charles Schmid in Justice Court, Richard Bruns testified for more than four hours and was exp…
Mary Rae French and John Saunders both pleaded guilty for their parts in the murder of Alleen Rowe.
The trial can't start until there is a jury. Jury selection for the Schmid trial proved to be a difficult undertaking.
As the trial of Charles Schmid Jr., accused of murder in the deaths of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz, began, Schmid's attorney, William Tinney, dis…
Charles Schmid was on trial for murdering Gretchen and Wendy Fritz. The chief witness against him was Richard Bruns.
On Feb. 28, 1966, Charles Schmid Jr.'s mother testified as a defense witness for her son.
The jury took only two hours to reach a verdict in Charles Schmid Jr.'s trial for murder in the deaths of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz.
Charles Schmid was officially sentenced to death for the murders of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz on March 25, 1966. Schmid spoke publicly at the s…
As if the Schmid case wasn't talked about enough already, in April 1966, there was buzz that F. Lee Bailey would join in Schmid's defense.
Charles Schmid Jr. was not granted a plea change in the Rowe murder case and was sentenced to 50 years to life.
Charles Schmid Jr. did his best not to stay in prison. He appealed his convictions to the Arizona Supreme Court, but they were upheld.
Charles H. Schmid Jr. may have been spared the death penalty by the Arizona Supreme Court, but other prisoners did not spare him.
Richard Bruns turned in Charles Schmid for murdering teenage girls in the mid-1960s, helped police find the bodies of two of the girls and testified against him. Now he's telling his story.
Johanna Eubank
Online producer
Charles H. Schmid Jr
Murderer Charles H. Schmid Jr. brought more notoriety to the street and Tucson.