FBI Most Wanted

Since this blog is primarily about writing and crime, here's a little more on the crime side of things.  This is the FBI's Most Wanted list as of this morning:

Yaser Abdel Said - wanted for murdering his own two teenage daughters in 2008.
Shanika S. Minor - wanted for murdering a pregnant woman and her full-term baby in 2016.
Victor Manuel Gerena - wanted for armed robbery of $7mil in 1983.
Alexis Flores - wanted for the abduction and murder of a 5-yr old girl in 2000.
Luis Macedo - wanted for a murder in which his gang attacked someone for not giving the gang sign in 2009.
Jason Derek Brown - wanted for armed robbery and the murder of an armored car guard in 2004.
Fidel Urbina - wanted for the rape and assault of one woman, and the rape, assault, and murder of another woman while he was out on bond for the first crime in 1998.
Eduardo Ravelo - wanted for racketeering, money laundering, drugs, etc. in 2008.
William Bradford Bishop, Jr. - wanted for murdering his wife, his mother, and his three sons in 1976.
Robert William Fisher - wanted for murdering his his wife and his two sons in 2001.

If you have any information about any of these people, contact the FBI.  I don't really need to tell y'all to stay the hell away from these psychos if you see them.  Let the feds deal with them.

Now, for an opinion moment.  I'm not sure what the criteria is for putting someone on the top ten, but I've seen worse shit than some of these people have done on First 48.  I know there has to be a 'worst' list, but why one asshole makes it on there and another doesn't is beyond my pay grade. 

Another opinion moment.  You'll notice, I'm sure, that asshole #6 committed additional crimes while he was out on bond.  Out.  On bond.  :lengthy list of expletives deleted:  That's a post for a whole other day.

I have other opinions about this, but I'll keep them to myself.  What do you think?

Wicked Wednesday!

No matter what other things get in the way, the wicked continues.  Today, we have the story of Carl "Charlie" Brandt. 

In 1971, a 13-yr old Charlie took a gun, shot his father in the back, and slaughtered his mother.  He beat his sister severely, but she escaped.  He spent a year in a psych hospital and for some reason, was released into the custody of his father who promptly moved the kids to Florida. They were never to speak of it again.

Flash forward to 2004.  Charlie and his wife, Teri, lived in the FL keys, but a hurricane was approaching, so Teri's Niece, Michelle, invited them to hunker down at her home in Orlando.  They were only supposed to stay a couple days.  When no one could reach the couple or the niece, a friend was sent over to check on them.  The front door was locked, so she went around to the side.  And through the garage door windows, she saw good ol' Charlie hanging from the rafters with a bed sheet around his neck.

She called police.  Thank goodness for her, she did not go inside.

The police found Teri first.  She'd been stabbed multiple times in the chest.  Further inside the house, they found Michelle.  She'd been stabbed, decapitated and her heart had been cut out.

Every considered Charlie a quiet but quirky man.  They never envisioned the kinds of horrible things he was capable of.  But once they knew what he could do, the authorities looked for other things he might've done.  And they found similar crimes elsewhere.  Apparently, the head cutting off and heart removal thing was his MO.  Twenty-six unsolved murders have been attributed to this one man.

And it all could've been halted with the death of his mother in 1971.  If only someone had been paying attention.  If only someone had realized that a psychotic teen is not going to grow up to be a well-adjusted member of society. 

Indications are Teri, at the very least, knew what her husband had done all those years ago.  Whether she thought she could change him or he convinced her he was 'cured', no one will ever know.  Perhaps the night he came home covered in blood - he claimed to have been 'fishing' - if she had reported him to the police, more women wouldn't have died at his hands. 

There's a registry for sex offenders in the United States.  Why isn't there one for murderers?

Just wondering.

Wicked Wednesday - The End of the Con

Around the area, there's been a news story I've been following.  At first, the news broke that a woman and her crippled daughter were missing from their Springfield, MO home.  The woman was a 48 year old single mother who cared for her handicapped, 19 year old daughter.  The poor child had muscular dystrophy and leukemia, which left her unable to walk or to take care of herself.

Over the weekend, we heard that DeeDee Blancharde and her daughter, Gypsy, disappeared from their Habitat for Humanity home.  (The one they were given after they lost everything after Hurricane Katrina down in LA.)  Everyone was looking for information as to their whereabouts.  A picture was included of DeeDee and her poor, sickly-looking daughter, holding a puppy together.  Both had big smiles like they hadn't a care in the world.

Next came the horrible, sad news that DeeDee's body had been found.  She was a victim of a horrific stabbing.  Poor, wheelchair-bound Gypsy remained missing.  The search was on.

Next, they said they'd located Gypsy in a suburb of Milwaukee, WI.  She was taken into custody with 'a person of interest'.  The person of interest was a man Gypsy had supposedly met online.  His location was the one from which nasty messages were left on the FB page of the victim after her death.  How many times have we seen the innocent taken advantage of by internet predators?  So sad.

His stepfather claims there's no way the guy could've done it.  He wouldn't hurt a fly.

Except when they got him in custody, he confessed to stabbing the mother multiple times and slitting her throat - saying the whole thing was Gypsy's idea.  Gypsy confessed to at least being in the house at the time of her mother's murder and doing nothing to stop it, or call for help, or anything.  Not surprising since she was all crippled and unable to do for herself. 

Then, in a stunning turn of events, the sheriff of Greene County, MO held a press conference.  (You can read about it all here.) Gypsy isn't 19 - she's 23.  She isn't sick or crippled or wheelchair bound. She's a healthy adult.  Chances are they weren't even from Louisiana. Before Gypsy hightailed it for the great North, she grabbed thousands of dollars in cash from DeeDee's safe. The mother and daughter duo have been scamming people for years.

Maybe Gypsy got tired of playing the part.  Maybe Gypsy wanted a bigger cut.  I guess we'll find out more as the story continues to unfold.  All I know is that DeeDee ran her last con job.  She just never got the chance to realize she'd trained her daughter too well in the world of criminal enterprise.  Here's hoping that Gypsy can't run a con on the criminal justice system and she gets the justice she deserves.

Update from last night after I typed this post: "Things are not always as they appear."

Statute of Limitations? WTF?

As you all know, I watch a lot of true crime.  I was stunned a while back during an episode of Cold Justice when the ladies were hampered because they needed to be able to prove 1st degree murder in the case or it wouldn't go anywhere.  Why?  Well, in New Mexico, the statute of limitations for 2nd degree murder is 6 years. 

:jawdrop:

Six years. 

So, if you kill someone in the state of New Mexico, if you can keep the body from being found, or keep the authorities from coming after you for the crime for more than six years, OR you can plan a murder but make it look like it was a random act and then hide it, you're home free.  Congratulations.  You killed another human being - but because you didn't plan it and you hide the crime well - you get a free pass. 

Friday, Cold Justice did an update show.  The officers and detectives in that particular cold case are working hard to get the statute changed.  The House in New Mexico voted to change the statute.  The Senate didn't.  WTF?  In what world does this even make any sense?  Lobbyists for the defense attorneys?  Cutting costs in the judicial system by trying fewer cases?  :shrug:

So, I went online and searched for how other states handle this.  I mean, surely, it's just New Mexico, right?  Sadly, no.  Oh, all of the states have no statute of limitations on 1st degree murder.  Many others include 2nd degree murder in that.  But not all. And I'm like 'someone lost their life, but after a few years, it's okay?'  Seriously, WTF? And don't get me started on the SOL* for rape and child abuse.

Flash forward to last night.  A woman in L.A. was murdered back in 1985.  Her killer was a female officer with the LAPD.  Somehow :scoff: the case wasn't investigated properly until 25 years later.  They used DNA to nail the chick, but... BUT... when the family tried to sue the LAPD for not doing their jobs, they were told the SOL had expired in 2000.  YEARS before the officer was even tried for the crime.

Now, in some cases, there's a loophole there.  The SOL can run out, but you get a grace period for actually finding out a crime has been committed.  For instance, in Michigan, the SOL for medical malpractice is 5 years (or it was), but you get 6 months from the date of discovering the doctor screwed up if you don't find out until after the initial 5 years has passed.  It's not something they make widely known, but it's there. (Again, or it was.)  Apparently, there was no such loophole in CA, so the family of that poor woman got screwed by the LAPD, and then screwed by the state of CA. 

See, this is why I love Wyoming.  There's no SOL for any crime up there.  Now, if only they were warmer and wetter, I might've thought harder about living up there.

I'm actually okay with SOL for some misdemeanors.  I mean, a kid steals a pack of gum and thirty years later, they get punished for it?  That seems silly.  Still, the store was out money, so maybe even after thirty years, restitution should be paid.  I don't know about the little shtuff.  I do know that murder - first, second, manslaughter, vehicular, involuntary - is murder.  Someone lost their life and there should be some punishment for that at some point along the way. 

Of course, I also think 'attempted murder' punishments are totally bogus - especially when the only reason it wasn't MURDER was because the person they tried to kill was too tough to die. So they get a lighter sentence?  Feh.  I've seen too many true crime shows where the victim only survived through sheer will, but their attacker benefited.  That's bull.  But that's me.

What do you think?

*Funny, the acronym for statute of limitations is the same as the acronym for shit outta luck.  Which is what the victims of these untried crimes are.

Wicked Wednesday - Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow...  What to say about them that hasn't already been said a million different ways.  Simple.  They were crooks.

Yeah, pretty obvious, I guess, but when I say crooks, I mean crooks.  They weren't movie stars or folk heroes or anything one should probably aspire to.  They weren't Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty cutting a dashing figure through the early 20th century.  Hell, they weren't even people you might, maybe, be able to kinda elevate to a Robin Hood status if you squinted and tilted your head sideways.  The majority of the people they robbed were small shop owners and the majority of the people they killed were officers of the law - men trying to protect the citizens who later romanticized their killers.  Bonnie and Clyde were crooks.  And scum.

And romanticizing scum doesn't sit well with me.  (Don't even get me started.)

Anyway, let's look at the facts.  Bonnie Parker was a smart girl who went as bad as a rancid peach.  Maybe it was because her father died when she was little.  Maybe her mother didn't love her enough.  Whatever it was that sent her down the path of criminal behavior, it stuck and it stuck good.  Perhaps she was just a sucker and got pulled down a bad path by a manipulative sociopath...

Like any good sociopath, Clyde Barrow seemed to enjoy the criminal lifestyle.  One might even say he was pretty damn proud of himself.  Until the law caught up with him.  Then he cried his way out of it, lied about being part of it, and generally made a whiny ass of himself.  So basically, he was only proud around his gang, and only a leader when his feet weren't to the fire. 

Some hero. 

So when you look back at this duo and their gang of thugs, don't do it through the Hollywood lens.  These two weren't anything worth celebrating.  They were just wicked.

Wicked Wednesday - The Roermond Witch Trials

Yesterday afternoon, a friend of mine mentioned that she was distantly related to someone who was accused of being a witch at Salem.  I'm related to one of the jurors at one Salem witch trial, so we had a little fun there.  Later, as I was thinking of what to write about for Wicked Wednesday and scrolling through my bookmarks when I stumbled upon a bit of information I discovered years ago (researching another book) about the witch trials in a place called Roermond.

Roermond took place in what was the Spanish Netherlands with the first recorded trial in 1522.  They were big on the witch thing back then in that particular place, so that wasn't the last.  Several more took place between 1525 and 1611.  But the biggie was held in 1613. 

Not much is known about the trials.  Most of the information has been lost to time.  But, from what I can gather, 64 witches were arrested and accused of causing all manner of things they couldn't possibly have done.  (Like every other witch trial in every other place.)  Of course, it didn't help that at least one of the accused 'confessed'.  Yeah, I bet they did.  :eyeroll:

Over the course of a month, the good people of Roermond burned two witches a day until all 64 were dead.  There's nothing about how the awesome burgh of Roermond suddenly became free from strife afterwards, of course, but those things rarely make the news.

Funny.  You'd think that after supposedly killing around a thousand people and six thousand critters, someone would've noticed how much healthier everyone was.  Then again, if they were witch enough to kill, they should've had some magic to get them out of being killed themselves.  Strange how that works. 

Anyway, if that ain't wicked, I don't know what is. 

Have any of you ever been accused of something you didn't do? 

Wicked Wednesday - The Cleveland Strangler

I found today's Wicked Wednesday candidate when doing a search for serial rapists.  Sadly, it's harder to find info about serial rapists than serial murderers - not because there are fewer of them, but because not enough work is being done to track these sick bastards down.  But enough about that...

Today I'm going to talk about Anthony Sowell - a.k.a. The Cleveland Strangler.  Sowell was a serial rapist who turned to murder and other nastiness.  From 2007-2009, he terrorized an untold number of women and murdered at least 11 of them.  (Some of whom were found inside his home during the investigation.) 

In 2009, he was arrested and charged with 85 counts of murder, rape, and kidnapping.  He tried the old 'insanity plea' thing at first, but once he realized no one was buying it, he changed his plea to guilty.  In 2011, he was convicted and received the death penalty as his sentence.  (Whether he's languishing on death row, or his sentence was carried out yet, I don't know.)

Unfortunately, the justice system already had this guy behind bars once - for a rape in 1989 - but they released him after 15 years and he took advantage of his freedom to continuing raping and progress to killing. 

The authorities are still trying to link him to other rapes through DNA evidence - dating back to 2005 when he was released from his previous incarceration.

To borrow a family euphemism, they should've cut his ippy-pippy off.

Wicked Wednesday - Dana Sue Gray

In my novel, Dying Embers, I follow the fictional Emma Sweet as she travels the country finding her old flames, and bringing herself what thinks of as justice - but what's really just revenge for slights both real and imagined.  But at least she's got that sense of justice - albeit twisted - to back her up.

This week's Wicked Wednesday candidate only has a petulant need for things as her excuse.

Back in 1994, Dana Sue Gray decided she wanted stuff, but she didn't want to have to go through the trouble of actually working to get it.  Instead, she hit on the idea that she could kill old woman and take their stuff.  Or to be more exact - take their credit cards and rack up charges while she gave herself the lifestyle she wanted. 

Using strangulation, beating, and knifing, she did away with at least 3 older women and attempting to strangle a fourth.  That attempted murder was her undoing.  Not only did the shop owner fight her off, but she got a good look at her attacker.  Once her description got around, it wasn't hard to find this woman who was withdrawing large sums of money from her victims' bank accounts and spending their money like it was a windfall. 

In the end, though, she got the only thing she'd every really earned - a life behind bars.

Wicked Wednesday - Paul Keller

Since my upcoming book - Dying Embers - has a serial killer who uses fire to commit her murders, I thought I'd take some time to talk about the man who is currently known for setting the most fires in U.S. history - Paul Kenneth Keller.

During a six-month stretch in 1992-1993, a series of arsons cropped up in Washington State.  They weren't limited to a key geographical area.  They weren't kept to a certain type of home or business.  They were crimes of opportunity and there didn't seem to be any end to them.

Until one witness - who wasn't all that certain of what she'd seen - underwent hypnosis.  During her calm and relaxed state, she was able to recall enough details of the suspect for a sketch artist to come up with a reasonable facsimile of the arsonist. 

And when a man saw the sketch, he feared the worst - that the drawing was his son, Paul Keller.

Since his son worked for him at his advertising business, he went back over the logs of Paul's outside sales work.  Sure enough, Paul had been in the towns where the fires occurred around the times when they occurred.  Then the father went over the profile of the suspect, and sure enough, Paul met the key characteristics of this psycho.

When authorities captured Paul Keller, he denied everything - until the officers complimented him on his work.  Then he opened up and told them everything.  I watched some videotape of his confession where they'd taken him to some of the crime scenes, and he seemed proud of himself for the fires he'd set.

He admitted to 76 fires.  In one of those fires - at a retirement home - three people died.

Paul Keller was convicted of the arsons and the murders.  He'll be up for parole in the year 2079.  They interviewed him in prison, and he seemed to know what he did was wrong, but he almost reminded me of the David Donald Sutherland character in Backdraft - totally without remorse and with a certain amount of glee behind his eyes.

One site I read while doing research for this post called all his other fires 'victimless crimes' because no one died, but he did around $20 million in property damage.  Personally, I don't see that as victimless.

Have you seen Backdraft?  It's a pretty awesome movie, plus it has Kurt Russell.  :le sigh:  And Sutherland plays a particularly creeptastic firebug.  :shudder:  And just to make it clear, my villain - Emma - isn't a firebug, per se.  She uses fire, but she isn't drawn to the flames.  It's just a convenient and horrific way to put an end to all her old flames.  Consider it her idea of poetic justice.  ;o)

True Crime Friday - This Just In

Yesterday, police in San Francisco responded to a report of a supposedly suspicious package left on the sidewalk.  Okay, I'm not sure what exactly was suspicious about a suitcase left next to the garbage, but that's the world we live in.  (I left a suitcase next to my garbage before we moved because it was broken and covered in cat hair.)

Anyway, when responders opened the suitcase, it was filled with people parts.

A search of the nearby area found more body parts.

Medical examiners determined they were all human, but they're unclear whether the parts all belong to one person.  They aren't releasing further details of race, age or gender at this time.

Since this is 'just in', there really aren't many more details.  I did find it interesting that while every other news source reported the pertinent facts, USA Today felt the need to add to the headline that the discovery was 'near' the headquarters of Twitter (although it was nearer to a pharmacy than Twitter, so I don't know what that means), and they juxtaposed themselves by saying not only that it was in an 'up and coming area' but also that it was a troubled area with lots of homeless people. 

This is why I try to read multiple sources - because you never know who's putting a slant on something and whether that slant is actually germane to the news.

Anyway, if you live in the San Francisco area and saw someone pulling a large, I assume heavy, suitcase down the sidewalk only to leave it buy a pile of trash, call the SFPD or something.

What do you think of slanted news?  Do you even notice it, or do you have one news source you trust above all others?  Personally, I've become untrusting and cynical in my advancing years, so I see something one place and I have to go check to see what other places have to say on the subject.

Wicked Wednesday - The Green River Killer

Today's Wicked is a particularly nasty SOB, who managed to elude police for almost twenty years after his first known murder.  Gary Ridgway - better known as The Green River Killer - was convicted of 49 murders, but confessed to over 70 and is suspected of more than 90 murders.  The first in his long line of killings dates back to 1982.

But that's not where his evil started.  When he was 16, he lured a 6 year old boy into the woods and stabbed him.  The boy lived to tell the tale of Ridgway laughing afterwards and talking about how he had always wondered what it felt like to kill someone.

From what I could research, Gary left little boys alone and chose the remainder of his victims from a wide pool of woman and girls employed in the oldest profession.  Despite his religious fervor and apparent distaste for these women, he spent a great deal of money spending time with them before and during the years he killed them.

Thanks to the advances in technology, authorities were finally able to connect DNA evidence to Gary Ridgway.  He was arrested in 2001.  After a plea deal for information leading to the whereabouts of some of his victims' bodies, he is spending his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The deaths attributed to Gary Ridgway span the years of 1982 to 1998.  But there still remains suspicion that his last murder may have actually been in 2001.  Whether or not that is true is something we may never know. 

The unfortunate thing is that Ridgway was actually investigated as The Green River Killer back in 1983, but there didn't seem to be insufficient evidence to actually arrest the dude.  The sick thing he passed a lie detector test - which is probably why they're still not admissable in court.  After all, if a sicko like Ridgway can pass one, who know how many other criminals would escape justice?

In this case, DNA put the right man away - probably almost 20 years too late, but he'll never kill another woman.  Personally, I'd be happier if he was extra-crispy, but I understand the plea bargain in this case.  The families of those missing women deserved to know where their loved ones went. 

What do you think about lie detector tests?  Do you think you could pass one?  Personally, I think I'd fail them all - even telling the perfect truth - because I totally spazz in confrontational situations. 

Wicked Wednesday - Wrongful Imprisonment

I was watching one of my true-crime shows yesterday (forget which one), when the subject of the episode turned out to be a couple of men who actually didn't do the crime for which they'd been imprisoned for 13 years.

Now this was a rerun from 2002, so this happened a while back, but it went something like this:

A pretty, young blonde was raped and murdered inside a pizza establishment.  The police searched for her attacker and hit on the idea that maybe it was these two guys.  So they brought the guys in for questioning.  They said they didn't do it.  The one guy's girlfriend gave him a solid alibi.  The other guy?  Well, they grilled him for two days and at the end of the two days, he confessed.  And he named his friend as his accomplice.  They were both convicted and sent to prison.

Flash forward to 2000 when a convicted freak confessed to killing a young, blonde woman inside a pizza establishment years before. 

The Innocence Project got involved.  They had an independent lab re-test all the evidence, and discovered that the DNA didn't match the two men convicted, but it sure did match the convicted freak.  So these two men - one of whom confessed to the police years ago - we set free.

Except the friend - the one who didn't confess?  He'd been attacked while he was in prison and now he's brain damaged to the point where he will need constant care for the rest of his life.

As for the guy who confessed, he'll have to live with that for the rest of his life, but it's still a better deal that his buddy.  Why did he confess?  Well, the police officers involved threatened him with death row if he didn't confess.  They threatened to make sure he got a cell with a man who would rape him if he didn't confess.  And they promised the guy he could get a lighter sentence if he just told them what they wanted to hear.  After two days of constant grilling, he gave in and confessed.

The guy who actually did it was on parole for some other crime.  When he was released for that, he vowed that he would kill the first woman he could.  It turned out to be that poor blonde girl.  In the interview, he seemed pretty pleased with himself.  Oh, and when they caught him, he was already serving time for something else.

The detective who cooked up the idea that he could badger a young man into confessing, and the officers who helped?  They declined to be interviewed, but I hope they paid for what they did.  I know the police have a difficult job getting at the truth, but I think in some cases they forget that the truth is what they're actually after and instead go for a conviction at any cost.

What do you think?  Would you ever confess to a crime you didn't commit?  What would make you forget your innocence and go to jail instead? 

Wicked Wednesday - The Real Buffalo Bill

I don't know about you guys, but I love the movie Silence of the Lambs. (No, I have not read the book yet.  It's on the list.) 

If you haven't seen it, it's about a young agent tracking down a serial killer the press has dubbed 'Buffalo Bill'.  (Don't know why.  Maybe that's in the book.)  Anyway, this morning, as I was searching for something to write about in today's Wicked post, I discovered the serial killer that Buffalo Bill was based off.

Eddie Gein

Curiously enough, they didn't catch Eddie because they were looking for a serial killer.  One site says he was being investigated after a robbery at a hardware store.  Another says the police went to his place because the hardware store owner had disappeared and Eddie's receipt was the last one she printed before she went missing.  :shrug:  Whatever way the authorities ended up at his place, once they were there, they got the shock of their lives.

Yep, Eddie Gein was a sick freak.  And yes, he was making an outfit out of the skin of his victims (both living at the time of meeting Eddie, and dead - since he was also a grave-robber) - ala Buffalo Bill.  Except, instead of a wedding dress, he was supposedly making a woman suit so he could dress up and pretend to be his mom. 

Apparently, in addition to being the inspiration for Buffalo Bill, he was also the inspiration for the killer in Psycho, and in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

Ed was brought to trial in 1957, but was found incompetent, and shoved into a mental facility.  Eleven years later, he apparently got right enough in the head to stand trial for real, and was found guilty of just one murder.  (Something about time and costs and I guess, 'what the hell, one murder puts him away for just as long as all the murders'.)  But he was also found legally insane and spent the remainder of his life in a place for the criminally whackadoodle.  He died there in 1984. 

Good, one less sicko freak in the world.

Have you seen Silence of the Lambs?  Have you read it?  My mother refuses - even though I keep telling her it's not as gruesome as she thinks and probably not as grisly as some of the Bones episodes she watches.  (She loves Bones.)    What about Psycho or Texas Chainsaw Massacre?  I've seen Psycho, of course, but never TCM.  I love suspense - Hitchcock was the master of suspense - but I'm not a fan of horror movies.

True Crime Friday - Cold Justice

Cold Justice is a show that's making headlines and doing some good in the world of unsolved murders.  It follows two investigators - Kelly Siegler and Yolanda MClary - as they go around the country trying to help local police departments solve murders that have long gone cold. 

I love these gals.  They're unflinching in their pursuit of justice.  They're unafraid of the criminals they encounter.  And they're sympathetic to the victims' families.  Kelly used to be a prosecutor.  In fact, I've seen her once on another true crime show where she played an integral part in investigating the crime.  Yolanda was a police investigator.  Together they make one hell of a kick ass team. 

But they aren't alone in their efforts. They bring in various top investigators to assist.  One in particular, Johnny Bonds, stands out.  That man seems to know just the right things to say to get information out of people.  Hell, if he questioned me, I'd probably tell him my whole life story without blinking.  (Lucky for me, he'd be totally bored by my non-criminal past.)

One site referred to the show as a mix of Rizzoli and Isles with CSI and Cold Case, but true.  I can agree with that. 

Sure, I don't always agree with some of their determinations.  If you were here, you would hear me telling the gals how to do their jobs.  But I'm an armchair quarterback when it comes to this stuff.  They're the real thing. 

And tonight is the beginning of new shows!  So, check your local listings.  Here it's on TNT at 8pm (9 eastern).  I can't wait.

Plus, I follow their Facebook page - which is neat because they post updates to the crimes they've been investigating.  The sad thing is that oftentimes, people will post about unsolved murders in their own towns - even in their own lives - and unfortunately, they're only two people doing the best the can.  I think there should be more people out there like Kelly and Yolanda - digging deeper to see what the truth really is.

Are there any unsolved murders that you know about?  Would you contact the Cold Justice team to have them investigate? 

Do you armchair quarterback shows like this, too, or is that just me?

True Crime Friday - The Shift

Today I'd like to talk about the show The Shift.  I only just found this show earlier this year on REELZ and then they took it off the afternoon crime show lineup.  Now I find out it's not on anywhere anymore, and hasn't been in production for years.  Crap.

Anyway, it's a show following the work of a team of homicide detectives in Indianapolis, as they try to solve the murders that come their way.  Each show usually does one crime - from the call through the investigation and interviewing.  Sometimes they get their man, sometimes they don't.  Always it shows their dedication and commitment. 

I find the show fascinating because it provides a glimpse into real police work. 

I'm a little bummed they stopped making it.  I'm definitely bummed they stopped showing it because I know I haven't seen every episode yet.  And I got my mom hooked on this show in June.  I know she hasn't seen all the episodes yet.  Lucky for you - if you haven't seen it yet - snippets of the episodes are available at the above link.

I wish I'd found it sooner. 

Anyway, if you stumble across it in your TV surfing, give it a whirl.  If you're into true crime, like me, you'll enjoy watching. 

Wicked Wednesday - The Cannibal of Ziębice

This story just goes to show you that sometimes the nicest person you know could be inviting you to dinner - as the main course. 

Karl Denke lived in the town of Munsterberg, Germany in the early 1900s.  And from the historical accounts, he was nice guy.  He helped people.  He attended church.  He was even good to all the little children - earning himself the nickname 'Father Denke' amongst the locals.  He didn't drink or carouse with women.  Plus, he helped the indigent and the homeless and the needy.  What a great guy.

Except...

One night in 1924, an indigent man showed up at the police station covered in blood, claiming the lovely Father Denke had tried to kill him.  When they went to Denke, he said he had attacked the man, but only because the bum attacked him first.  Still, the police needed to look into the case and brought Karl to the station.  The next morning, they found that good ol' Karl had hanged himself.  Still, it was just a bum's word against such a fine, upstanding citizen.

Except...

When they went to Karl's apartment, they found quite the butcher shop Father Denke had going on.  A full-service one with all the tools and equipment necessary to dismember a human body.  And they found one hell of a larder - complete with body parts pickled in jars.  All told, they figured Karl had taken apart and processed at least 40 people in his little shop. 

I'm guessing that's where all the homeless people went after he 'helped' them.

Nice guy, eh?  Kind of makes you wonder what the guy next door is doing at all hours of the night.  And what's that smell?  Wasn't it nice of him to bring you some homemade sausage last week?

Yeah, I'm not hungry anymore either.

True Crime Friday - Ripped from The Headlines

Last Saturday in Mississippi, someone called to report a car on fire.  When responders arrived, they found a woman burning alive.  Someone had knocked her on the head, doused her with lighter fluid - including spraying it down her throat and up her nose - and lit her on fire.  She lived long enough to supposedly give information to the responders that may help catch her killers.

One report I read said she had burns over 98% of her body.  There was little chance of her surviving, but she hung on long enough to say something to the people who were helping her.  I hope it was enough.

See now, this is something a writer cooks up in their head to make their killer extra vicious.  It's not something normal human beings do.

In fact, it's something this writer did to make her villain extra vicious.

And the fact that someone out there thought this was a thing to do to someone for real makes me sick.  And it's creeping me out that a plot point I dreamed up for the book I'm working so hard on editing has a mirror in reality.  I never dreamed anyone would actually do something like this. 

In my story, the villain gets what's coming to them.  I hope the animals who did this get what's coming to them, too.

Anyone with information on the murder is urged to contact the Panola County Sheriff's Office at 662-563-6230.

Wicked Wednesday - Pig Farm Murders

I don't know if any of you watch the show Criminal Minds, but they had an episode a while back about two brothers who were killing people and feeding them to their pigs.  Of course, the show made it even more twisted and gruesome, but it was based on some very real events.

Yes, events.  Plural.  It's happened more than once.

One I remember distinctly because it happened in my home state of Michigan.  Back in 1985, two men from the Detroit area decided they were going hunting up north.  They ended up in the Mio area.  From what I read, it seems like the two townies decided to hit a bar in Mio one night.  Trouble ensued as it often does when rural folk get a 'you ain't from around here, are ya' mentality.  It ended with the two men dead, their bodies dismembered, and then the pieces fed to pigs. Two brothers were arrested and convicted of the crime.

Another - and this one more likely to be the inspiration for the Criminal Minds episode - happened in Canada.  One particular pig farmer seemed to have picked up women from Vancouver's seedier side, killed them, and then fed them to his pigs.  There are like 26 counts of murder against him - although he's only been tried for six.  Apparently, someone testified they found him covered in blood with a corpse hanging nearby, so it's a pretty safe bet he did it.  In a conversation he had with an undercover officer, he said he needed to kill one more to make it an even 50.  I guess he wanted a nice flashy number.  He got 25 years without parole - the maximum sentence in Canada at the time.

Pretty gross stuff.  And considering the last guy was in the habit of selling his pork to his neighbors, it kinda put ya off eating meat you didn't buy in the store, eh?

Wicked Wednesday - Rural Myth

When I was a little girl, I was told a story about a horrible crime someone had committed outside a little town not very far from where we lived.

It seems two boys went out fishing one day and never went home again.  Their bodies were found mutilated and tied to a tree.  Their killers were never found.

The story always came with the spoken (or unspoken) reminder: And this is why we don't talk to strangers.

The rumor was never confirmed, but I grew up knowing it as truth.  Researching it now, I wonder if there was any fact behind the rumor, or if someone had picked up the story of the Oakland County Child Killer, and morphed it into something more grisly and dramatic and local.  (As rumors and myths will often morph - especially in the days before internet.)

I know it sounds awful to tell a little girl a story like that, but honestly, I wasn't scarred by it.  Unless you count my fascination with true crime stories and fictional suspense.  ;o)

Have you ever had someone tell you a story about the area where you live that you think might not be true?  Have you ever tried to research it online?

(BTW, my parents weren't the ones who told me this story.  I'll have to ask my mother if she remembers ever hearing it and who might've told it to me.  Probably one of my older siblings trying to scare me into being more careful about who I talked to.  Lord knows, I talked to everyone when I was a kid.)

Updated: I talked to Mom and she confirmed that this did happen, gave me a last name of one of the victims, and I found a write up of it online.  The killer(s) were, in fact, caught and they all pointed the finger at the one 'slow' kid in their midst, so he was the one tried for it.  (Although how one teenager did all those things to those two boys is beyond me.  Methinks justice wasn't quite served in this case.)  And although it happened around the same time as the Oakland County Child Killings, and it happened just north of Oakland County, this crime was unrelated to those.

Wicked Wednesday - Death by Oatmeal

I'm very interested in genealogy, so I occasionally spent time doing Google searches on various family members to see what I can turn up.  Sometimes I find something worthwhile, sometimes I find nothing.  Occasionally, I find something that has nothing to do with anyone actually related to myself or my husband, but that is worthwhile anyway.

Case in point: While looking for some of Hubs' relatives, I searched some old newspaper archives using the keyword Sanderson.  In the archives, I found some curious information about the case of Rudolphus Sanderson (no relation as far as I can tell) who passed away in his bed.

1898:  It seems Rudolphus had been an infirm older gentleman with a younger wife.  While he lay in his sick bed, she was fond of entertaining - usually men other than her husband.  But she always made sure she took care of old Rudolphus - right up until the day he died.

Afterwards, the coroner discovered something amiss.  It seems that perhaps old Rudolphus had gotten some help shuffling off his mortal coil.  In fact, it appeared that somehow he may have been ingesting ground glass.

And since his loving wife brought him his food...

From what I managed to glean out of old newspapers that often aren't transferred well, the ground glass was in the oatmeal she brought his for breakfast every morning. 

Since I can't get the PDF's of the newspapers to load as I write this post, I really can't tell you whether she was convicted or not.  I think I remember reading she got away with it.  But I can't be sure.  (I may be thinking of another old murder I found.)

Think about it, though.  She fixed his meals, she brought him his meals, she stood to profit by his death - both by inheriting everything he owned and by gaining the ability to carouse without hindrance.  And it's not like ground glass is hard to come by.  Hell, you can make your own.  Means, motive, opportunity.  She had it all.

And after he was dead, she really did have it all.

What do you think?

Update 11/26/14 6:52am:  I finally got the newspaper archives to work this morning.  I couldn't find the end of the trial - which ran into early 1899 - but it seems like there was conflicting testimony from two different medical examiners.  One said Rudolphus had ground glass in his stomach at the autopsy.  The other said he died of natural causes.  The defense seems to have tried to explain away the presence of glass by asserting the glass - if it was there at all - fell off the jar the stomach was placed in when it was removed from the deceased.    Additionally, they tried to shift blame for the man's death from the wife to the prosecution's primary witness - the maid.  I still don't know if she was convicted, but as of January 10th, it was looking like the defense might've inserted enough reasonable doubt to get her off.