Author Tammy Mal Brings Forgotten Pennsylvania True Crime Stories to Light

Bethany Latham

The Susquehanna County author has published books about local PA crimes from the 19th century to the turn of the 21st

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May 18th will mark the 70th anniversary of the death of Charles E. Homeyer of Factoryville, PA. His cause of death was electrocution at Rockview Prison in Bellefonte. His crime was the murder of his wife, Anna. Anna was the sixth wife of Homeyer, a man who scoured the newspapers' lonely hearts columns to find wealthy women to seduce.

The Homeyer murder trial was held at the Wyoming County Courthouse in Tunkhannock, about nine miles from the Factoryville home where Anna Homeyer's remains were found. The trial was eventually moved to Montrose, where a jury found Homeyer guilty.

In small towns, real-life horror stories are not soon forgotten, yet I had never heard of the Homeyer case despite being local to the area. That is until I discovered Tammy Mal's book Disposable Income: A True Story of Sex, Greed, and Im-purr-fect Murder. Published in 2014, it was Mal's first full-length true crime book.

Mal has published several true crime books since Disposable Income, focusing squarely on Pennsylvania. Most of her books cover crimes that happened in the distant past. In Murder in Susquehanna County, Mal writes about cases including the Margaret and Mary O'Mara murders in 1873. Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre--But Forgotten--Murders details some of the state's strangest murders that happened in the 1930s.

Mal's most recently published book, Shared Circumstances: The McCabe-Riley Case A True Story of Friendship Betrayal and Murder covers the murder of Wayne County farmer Michael Riley in 1886.

The one more recent murder case Mal has investigated and written about is the 1994 murder of Joann Katrinak and her infant son in Catasauqua. In researching the case for her book with the planned title "Reasonable Doubt," Mal discovered evidence to suggest that the woman who was convicted of the murders, Patricia Rorrer, is not guilty. The title of the book became Convenient Suspect: A Double Murder, a Flawed Investigation, and the Railroading of an Innocent Woman.

Tammy Mal's books are available in print and ebook formats.

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Bethany Latham reports news that matters to you in your daily life and your work life. Unbiased reporting of news that's of interest to Pennsylvania residents and people across the United States. Email: btlatham@protonmail.com

Wilkes-Barre, PA
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