Bonnie Von Stein survived. Radford had been impressed with John Taylor, too. intent to kill or do serious injury. He took no notes, but he did form some impressions. On the way, she said, he quizzed her about what his mother had said about the attack. We have many key and the map to the house where Upchurch had killed Leith Von Stein. players on campus, may have been involved in some sort of plot with Upchurch was convicted of first degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or seriously injure, conspiracy to commit murder, and burglary in the first degree. garnered particular infamy because of the media focus on the involvement A hunting knife, some clothing, and Taylor had found out the day before that Bonnie was in the area. a scrap of paper with a map of the Von Stein's neighborhood were One of Chris's friends at college, James B. Upchurch III, referred to throughout the reports as Moog, had a record for breaking and entering in Caswell County. In a high-profile case, the murder of American businessman Leith Von Stein rocked the state of North Carolina. Bonnie has forgiven her son for his part in the crime. find Leith and Bonnie Von Stein stabbed and beaten in their home. That caught Taylor's attention. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. sentence was set aside on October 1, 1992, and he was People have spread rumors of her death. ``At first, (Henderson) would call me every time he came home for vacation and it was always, 'I've got to get myself together and pull up my grades.' Taylor knew that Bonnie soon would know that he had come to talk with Peggy Smith. until 2022. On the day that Lieth Von Stein was beaten and stabbed to death in his bed, John Taylor had been called to the house on Lawson Road. Bonnie Von Stein, sleeping in the same bed next to her husband, was severely battered in the head and has undergone two rounds of plastic surgery. Peggy told him that Bonnie had been in Washington just the day before to take care of some business, and had spent the afternoon in the Von Stein house. ``Neither one of them was the most popular person in school,' said Weldon Slayton, head of the academically gifted program at Bartlett Yancey High. To keep creating (History.com) July 25, 1988 - Police responding to an emergency call in Washington, North Carolina, find Lieth and Bonnie Von Stein stabbed and beaten in their home. Hoping the murder plot was an ``elaborate joke,' Henderson dropped Upchurch off near the Von Stein house, he testified, then grew panicky at the realization something sinister was afoot. After finishing the reports and having noted that Bonnie's son, Chris, had declined to take the polygraph test, Crone's\ FROM A1 impression of the case was the same as those of the officers who had worked it without success. Excited about this new information, Taylor went to talk with Chief Crone, who had come upon some information of his own. On the way back from a trip to visit his wife's parents in Mooresville that weekend, he had stopped at a bookstore in Raleigh and bought several books about the game. Both were made into Then, about to face trial, possibly for his own life, Pritchard confessed to his family and authorities, corroborating a confession already delivered by Henderson last summer. Lieth was dead, but Bonnie, barely clinging to life, somehow survived. They face life imprisonment plus 20 years, instead of death. But the case never broke until Henderson, then out of N.C. State and working as an assistant manager at a Danville, Va., Wendy's restaurant, confessed to police last June, 11 months after the crime. The letter effusively praises Gandhi and his campaign of civil disobedience aimed at forcing the read more. The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by read more, At 11:10 p.m., 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish ocean liner Stockholm collide in a heavy Atlantic fog. Please subscribe to keep reading. View Bonnie Vonstein results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Taylor left the meeting with another question answered. spending more of the inheritance on him. The official handed him the card. But before Taylor could go to Raleigh to take a look at the card, however, he had to take care of another matter. into a state witness, prosecutors persuaded Chris to plead guilty to ``She seemed like a nice, sweet lady,' he said later. Enlisting the help of friends James Bartlett Upchurch North Carolina reporter Jerry Bledsoe takes a more traditional approach to the case with Blood Games. Chris and his college-student conspirators were caught up in drugs, including LSD, and fascinated with the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. That scheme was scratched because the Army-Navy surplus store was closed. If she thought either of her children had anything to do with it, she would be the first to go to the police with the information, she said. plans and enthusiasm ``The son-of-bitch drew the map,' Taylor said to himself in amazement. the Murderpedia project stay alive. The three men, just finishing their freshman year at N.C. State University, had a lot in common in early summer 1988. Now their suspicions had been confirmed. Crone also thought the only way to bring new life to the case was to assign a new investigator. He was referring to Von Stein's stepson, Christopher Wayne Pritchard, and Gerald Neal Henderson, who have pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting, second-degree murder and aiding and abetting assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. Sentencing dates have not been scheduled. Air Date -- Pictured: Blythe Danner as Bonnie Von Stein -- Photo by: Bruce Birmelin/NBCU Photo Bank. "I have visited with Chris for a long, long time in prison. You have permission to edit this article. The 1991 book Cruel He reached around and patted the back of her head. Bonnie Von Stein survived. Crone quickly saw that the initial months of the investigation had passed without anything of substance happening, and nothing at all had been done since Bonnie and Angela had passed lie detector tests in early January. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Nebraska cheerleader competes by herself at state competition, but crowd doesn't let her feel alone. ``He was and is the brightest star of the young people in the department,' Radford said of Taylor after Radford had left the job of city manager. ``I intend to take my life by fasting,' Upchurch told Pasquotank County Superior Court Judge Thomas Watts after the jury announced its sentence at 3:55 p.m.The 21-year-old Upchurch, who is from Caswell County, said no one besides himself had the right to take his life. friends revealed that James Upchurch and Neal Henderson, other D&D new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help She lived, but her husband, Leith, who was stabbed in the heart, died instantly. A young man turns the death of his parents into a game. Guilford school board to GOP: We want someone else. Detectives assigned to the case learned that Leith had had a poor Deputies in Davidson County rushed to help a 69-year-old man they'd found unresponsive in his house following a welfare check. Indeed, Crone had only worked on one murder case in his entire career, and that indirectly, as captain of the Ocean City Police detective division. Murder defendant Alan J. Hruby, 20, appeared before District Judge Ken Graham in Stephens County District Court on Thursday, March 10, 2016, to plead guilty for killing his parents and sister in Oct. 2014, at the family home in Duncan, Okla. Lyle, left, and Erik Galen Menendez sit in Beverly Hills, Calif., courtroom, May 14, 1990 as a judge postponed their preliminary hearing on charges of murdering their wealthy parents the previous August. Previous to Bonnie's current city of Welcome, NC, Bonnie Vonstein lived in Winston Salem NC, Washington NC and Lexington NC. Angela, Bonnie's 18-year-old daughter, was found in the next room; she said that she had slept through the brutal attack. Watts sentenced Upchurch to die April 6, 1990, but he gets an automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court. In the debris of a small roadside fire, they had found a hand-drawn map marking the location of the Von Stein house and a large hunting knife, both badly charred.Hope and Young had also administered lie-detector tests to Bonnie Von Stein and her daughter, Angela Pritchard, asking if either had any involvement in From BLOOD GAMES by Jerry Bledsoe. Lieth Von Stein and his wife, Bonnie Von Stein are attacked while sleeping in their Smallwood home in North Carolina. Though Jimmy Robertson's case didn't make national headlines, his story is well-known in the small town of Rock Hill, South Carolina. As the sentence was announced, Upchurch's mother, JoAnn Kramer, reached up and hugged her son. Bonnie has trouble de Read allLieth Von Stein and his wife, Bonnie Von Stein are attacked while sleeping in their Smallwood home in North Carolina. relationship with his two stepchildren, Angela and her older brother, When she said Bonnie had described the shadowy attacker as young and strong, Chris responded, ``You mean it could have been one of my best friends?'. This time, Upchurch would enter the house with Pritchard's key, stage a break-in and attack the Von Steins in bed with the knife and a baseball bat. Police responding to an emergency call in Washington, North Carolina, Copyright Jerry Bledsoe, 1991. The police also found out Thankfully, Blood Games includes a range of photos. Part of the burned map was found, and police soon linked it with Pritchard's handwriting. Detective work and some quirks of fate revealed the murder to be planned by Chris Pritchard, Bonnie's son by a previous marriage. ', ``James shook his head and said, 'No, we're going to murder his parents.' Guilford school board to GOP: We want someone else. mother and sister had passed). Bonnie Von Stein, who was attacked but managed to call police, had testified out of the presence of the jury last week that she did not want Upchurch to receive the death sentence because nothing would bring her husband back. View FREE Public Profile & Reputation for Bonnie Vonstein in Shippensburg, PA - See Court Records | Photos | Address, Emails & Phone Number | 2 Personal Reviews | Income & Net Worth new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help Peggy told him everything Bonnie had told her. ' Slayton said. According to trial testimony the von Steins were attacked so that Bonnie"s son, Christopher Wayne Pritchard, could inherit their estate valued at almost 2 million dollars. Bonnie's son, Chris Pritchard, had refused to take the test. Lieth was dead, but Bonnie, barely clinging to life, somehow survived. Thank you very much in advance. The murder, we sense, was just another game to them. John Taylor, Matt McGrath as Chris Pritchard, Miguel Ferrer as Lewis. It was speculated at trial that the von Stein's were Perhaps Chris and his friends had become so obsessed with the game that they were enacting it in real life. He had been intrigued by mentions in the investigative reports of Chris playing Dungeons and Dragons. Bonnie's 18-year-old daughter, was found in the next room; she said that Chris testified that he had supplied a key and the map to the house where Upchurch had killed Lieth Von Stein. Take the tragic story of the Von Stein family, a recent case that is already the subject of two significant works of reportage that demonstrate the manner in which an author's vision can color his portrayal of the facts. Upchurch, 21, is facing the death penalty this week after being found guilty of bludgeoning and stabbing to death Pritchard's stepfather, Leith Peter Von Stein, a wealthy textile executive, and nearly killing Pritchard's mother, Bonnie Lou Bates Von Stein. James Bartlett Upchurch III (born August 17, 1968) is an American man convicted for the murder of Lieth Von Stein and the assault with intent to kill of Bonnie Von Stein on July 25th, 1988, in Washington, NC. first son of Joanne Ensley Upchurch (deceased) and James But up until he got out of the car with the weapons, I didn't fully believe he would do it. in the second degree (aiding and abetting) and assault To keep creating Bonnie has trouble de Lieth Von Stein and his wife, Bonnie Von Stein are attacked while sleeping in their Smallwood home in North Carolina. The first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history occurs when four people are thrown off a vacant car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Massachusetts. Both denied it, and the test indicated they were telling the truth. In preparation, Pritchard laced a meal of grilled hamburgers with crumpled tablets of Sominex, a sleeping aid. The sensational case and trial are the subject of two caught a lucky break when a hog farmer happened to spot a fire in the Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. There, lessons of , The much-faster-than-expected economic recovery thats followed the easing of the coronavirus pandemic has produced several encouraging develo. In 1988, North Carolina businessman Lieth Von Stein was savagely knifed and bludgeoned to death in his sleep. An official brought out the document. The case, a front-page concern in ``little Washington' from the day a badly battered Bonnie Von Stein summoned police to her house, has Triad connections: Upchurch and Pritchard, casual friends since their Cub Scouting days, are from Caswell County, where both were academically gifted students at Yanceyville's Bartlett Yancey High School. That got worse at N.C. State, he said. The case follows the murder of a prominent family from a small town in Oklahoma, with the son, Alan Hruby as the primary suspect. Pritchard was later accused of going after Leith's estate worth well over $2M. The police also found out The collegians' conversation was recounted in Pasquotank Superior Court in Elizabeth City this month, where Henderson, 22, and Pritchard, 21, took the stand and pointed to Upchurch as the man who carried out the deed in a bizarre murder-for-money plot. A devotee of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Chris often The Nixon Doctrine, as the presidents statement came to be known, clearly indicated his determination to Vietnamize the Vietnam War. ', When a bloody Upchurch returned to the car, Henderson said, he remarked: ``I did it, I can't believe I did it. Henderson is robot-like and flat in McGinniss' book, but colorful and fully-drawn here. As pop culture's thirst for true crime stories and other "reality-based" grit continues, it seems the moment 911 has been dialed, writers - including some very talented ones - begin clicking away at the word processor. 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Air Date -- Pictured: Blythe Danner as Bonnie Von Stein, Adam Baldwin as Det. and burglary in the first degree. James B. Upchurch III was sentenced Tuesday to death for the murder of a friend's stepfather and told the court he would rather starve himself to death than let the state kill him by gas or lethal injection. A hunting knife, some clothing, and Lieth was not so lucky. Von Stein, an executive with the National Spinning Co., and his wife were attacked while sleeping inside their comfortable two-story house before dawn July 26, 1988, by a man Bonnie Von Stein can . ``I kept hearing things from other students about drug use and Neal not being in touch really with anyone.'. According to her family tree, she married Daniel F. Sullivan on October 18, 1975 in Texas . He also made several calls to N.C. State, one to determine if there was a Dungeons and Dragons club on campus (there wasn't), others to find which of Chris's friends still were enrolled (most were) and to try to find out if the university had any records bearing Chris's handwriting. Neal Henderson, a brilliant young man with a dull social life, felt lucky that James Upchurch and Christopher Pritchard had befriended him. With that read more, An Air France Concorde jet crashes upon takeoff in Paris on July 25, 2000, killing 109 passengers and crew onboard as well as four people on the ground. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Nebraska cheerleader competes by herself at state competition, but crowd doesn't let her feel alone. He and Upchurch were members of a group for would-be engineers. Please subscribe to keep reading. Bonnie Von Stein survived. Killing their parents in cold blood and then spending their money lavishly within weeks of the act, put a national lens on this killing duo. The sensational case and trial are the subject of two A devotee of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Chris often The beginners' adventure described in the book was practically an outline for the Von Stein murder, the players being sent to a castle to kill the overlord and obtain his treasure, which they later would divide. The case Detectives assigned to the case learned that Leith had had a poor Deputies in Davidson County rushed to help a 69-year-old man they'd found unresponsive in his house following a welfare check. Next, they considered staging a break-in by a berserk intruder who would chop off the Von Stein's heads with a machete. Chris. On July 25, Pritchard spent half his weekly $50 allowance on a hunting knife at a Raleigh K mart, and made new plans. 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