What More Can They Do to Him?

We were watching an episode of Evil Lives Here on ID the other night.  (If you haven't seen that one, it shows the events surrounding a murder or murders from the perspective of a family member of the suspect or some other person peripherally associated with the case.)  In this particular instance, they were speaking with the wife of a man convicted of murdering and raping a 17 year old girl. 

They got him and he's doing life without parole.  Which is always good. 

Anyway, after he was in prison, his wife and her friend finally opened up his locked shed and found all manner of disturbing stuff inside, including what one could assume were trophies from his other crimes.  Throughout the show, they'd hinted that maybe the one girl wasn't his only kill.  So, it made sense there would be other trophies. 

What didn't make sense was near the end of the program when the wife said something to the effect of 'well, he's already doing life without parole, what else can they do to him?' 

Derp.  It's not about what they 'can do to him'.  It should be about justice.

They could provide closure for the families of all the other women he might've killed.  They could close out some cold cases.  They could bring justice for those other victims. 

I mean, the first thing we couldn't figure out was why the police never opened up that damn shed during the investigation of that man and the wife ended up opening it after the conviction.  Umm, police work a little maybe?  Holy shit.

They talked about all the 'gifts' this guy had given to his wife and their daughters that could've been taken from his kills.  Nothing was done about that either.  (I know.  I used the google-fu and checked around to see if he'd ever been tried for anything else.  Nope.  And sure enough, they said that at the end of the program.  He's NEVER been tried for other crimes.) 

Argh.

And it wasn't like he only committed crimes in the state where he was originally convicted.  He was a long-haul trucker.  He could've committed crimes in multiple states - which, unless I miss my guess would make this federal - but no one has done anything.  Yeah, they can't add more years to life, but that isn't the point.  They could find a crime he committed in a death-penalty state and use the treat of that to get him to pony up the details of his other crimes, but no.  Not doing that either.  He's just sitting there, getting older, wrapped in the knowledge that he got away with murder(s).

This happened back in 1994.  23 years. 23 more years of people never knowing what happened to their sisters, their daughters, their loved ones.  Imagine their pain. 

Then imagine how, with the technological advancements of 2017 vs 1994, all of those trophies could help investigators figure out how many other women this dude raped and killed. 

But nope. 

I know the end of that thoroughly pissed Hubs and I off.  It was a whole WTF, jaw-dropping thing. 

Oh, wait a second... That's right... His victims were supposedly hookers and runaways.  (The girl he was convicted of killing was a runaway.)  I guess someone assumes they don't deserve justice.  Umm, yah. 

That's messed up.

What do you think?  

Crime Fighter Friday - Yolanda McClary

I don't know if any of you watch Cold Justice on TNT, but I've got a girl crush on these two women who go around the country trying close cold cases and bring murderers to justice.  This week, I'll focus on one and next week, I'll focus on the other.  I love them both equally, but someone had to come first. 

Yolanda McClary.  She's the law enforcement side of the duo.  (Kelly Siegler is the prosecutorial side.)  She's a former crime scene investigator from Las Vegas.  Yes, she is the real CSI - and is the basis for the red-headed gal on that show.  She totally rocks the red hair.  And she investigated over 7000 crimes in her 26 years with LVPD. 

She's gritty and tough - the way a cop ought to be - but she's sensitive to the victims' families and while she does have a heart of gold, it's clad in steel. And she's smart as a whip.  Naturally. 

Heaven forbid anything should ever happen to me or mine, but if it did, I know I'd want her investigating the crime. 

She kicks ass.

If you're interested in more about Yolanda, follow her on Facebook.  I do, and I love her posts.  She kinda makes me feel better about all the crime in the world because I know she's out there trying to solve it.

True Crime Friday - Fictional Crime

As you all know, or certainly suspect, I am a fan of true crime shows.  I like figuring out who committed the crime.  I love seeing them face justice.  I really love all the forensics and the investigation and the personalities involved in catching a killer.

But does this translate to fictional crime dramas?

Well, yes and no.  Certain shows I love, and others I can't tolerate.  It's a personal preference thing, so I'm not going to get into which shows are which.  I do love the ones that tend to stick closer to the reality of crime fighting.  And I'll drop a show if they stray too far from that, or the ones that smush the investigation into a tiny part of the show so they can focus on the drama going on in the lives of the characters. 

I don't watch shows like that for the interpersonal drama.  I used to watch soap operas for that, and I'm over it.

There were a couple shows I really loved that went off the air years ago: Homicide: Life on the Street and Under Suspicion.  The latter didn't last long, but I thought it was the best thing on TV.  And despite the write up at IMDB there, I didn't get the whole "...the unending prejudice faced by the only female detective in a male-dominated police squad..."  She was just a tough chick doing her damnedest to catch criminals.  The former was just gritty and felt 'real' to me. 

After all the true crime I've watched, though, I don't know if either show would hold the same appeal.  It seems true crime has kind of ruined fictional crime show for me.  (Not fictional crime books, though.  If that makes any sense.  Maybe the fictional crime writers try harder to get it right.  Or maybe I get sucked into the story and don't pay as much attention to whether all the procedures are as correct as they should be. :shrug:)

How about you?  Do you watch both fictional and true crime television?  Can you separate the two?  And finally, how do you feel if a writer doesn't get it exactly right?