Nancy Grace Is The Queen Of True Crime And I Got To Ask Her Everything

Nancy Grace is the host of “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” and she’s been bringing justice to victims of violent crime for years — both through her television programs and before that in court as a prosecutor. She’s opinionated and thorough. Empathetic and vulnerable.

In an interview with me yesterday, she didn’t hold back on her thoughts on how the Nancy Guthrie case is being handled in Pima County — but first, Grace dove into the new ransom notes sent to her friend Harvey Levin at TMZ.

“I think the last two are bids for money by hyena,” Grace told me Tuesday.  “Is it real? If it is real, why don’t they just accept the 1.2 plus million dollar reward for information leading to Miss Guthrie’s whereabouts?”

The “Crime Stories With Nancy Grace” host did not like how the author of the recent notes sent to TMZ insinuated the Nancy Guthrie case was going cold.

“Just because some ‘a-hole’ out of nowhere that floats down out of the ether says it’s cold does not mean it’s cold,” Grace said.

TMZ received two more ransom notes from a repeat sender claiming to know where the 84-year-old is. The other ransom notes that came with a deadline to TMZ are from the kidnapper, according to what the FBI told Levin. Grace has her theories on those notes, too.

“I think one likely scenario is that Miss Guthrie passed away before they could see a proof of life,” Grace said. “I thought there was a good chance the deadlines were the kidnapper. Then Savannah confirmed that when she said she believed it. Now why would Savannah believe it? Savannah is very smart. I worked with her at Court TV. She’s not just a pretty face. She’s genuine. She’s real. What you see on TV is real. She really is very kind and gracious, but she’s also a trained lawyer. So for her to come out and say she thought the two ransom notes were real tells me that the FBI and that Harvey Levin is correct. The FBI does think they’re real, because I’m sure Savannah consulted with them and is convinced that they are real. Now, I don’t think that bodes well for Ms. Guthrie. It does not mean she’s passed away, all right, but it does not bode well.”

Grace has been following the Guthrie case as she’s followed thousands of cases over her decades-long career. The one case she may be best known for is the Casey Anthony case. Grace covered that case on HLN every day, fighting for justice for two-year-old Caylee Anthony, whose remains were found in December 2008 — months after the toddler was reported missing, which itself came 31 days after she was last seen.

“I felt like someone needed to be the voice for Caylee, because all the focus was on ‘Tot Mom,’ Casey Anthony, and Caylee seem to be just like a peripheral player. And I didn’t like that,” Grace said.

Grace herself was the victim of a crime when her fiancé was murdered in 1979. The mom of twins — who has been married to her husband since 2007 — still battles the grief and emptiness from the crime that ultimately changed the trajectory of her life.

After her fiancé’s death, Grace went back to school to become a prosecutor. She worked in inner-city Atlanta, and she says on a “fluke” landed a TV show with Johnnie Cochran, the famous defense lawyer for O.J. Simpson, who led the “Dream Team” that got Simpson acquitted of murder.

“Cochran and Grace” aired on Court TV — and the rest is history.

For the full interview, be sure to check out “Talking with the True Crime Queen Nancy Grace” on That’s So Criminal.