How to Get Away With Murder (Circa 1970 Texas)
Under a Cloud of Rain: A Nick Noelle Mystery
Viewers of the two-time Golden Globe-nominated TV series How to Get Away with Murder–dubbed #HTGAWM by Twitter fans–might tell you getting away with murder is as easy as showing up to a law class, especially with a criminal defense professor’s guidance. But in Nick Noelle’s detective days, there was another way to get way with murder: being rich and famous.
But with no DNA testing to link someone to a crime scene and no cellphones to capture GPS data placing them near a crime scene, it was a lot easier to get away with murder in the 1970s, even if you weren’t wealthy.
One of the most notorious blue-collar criminals of the Noelle era, Dean Corll (called the the Candy Man), killed around thirty boys in and around Houston between 1970 and 1973. The crimes, which were only exposed after Corll was shot by his accomplice, became known as the Houston Mass Murders, earning the city the title of the murder capital of the country.
Simply being accused of murder in Texas during the ’70s was another story. The detectives I talked to who served on the Houston police force then said if someone (often a minority) did something as innocuous as crossing the street, they might just pick that person up and nail him or her with murder just to throw minorities in jail. Sadly, because of racism and discrimination, a lot of innocent people were put in jail during that time for crimes they didn’t commit.
It’s highly unlikely that 1970 Texas murderers were taking selfies to create alibis like the aspiring HTGAWM criminals, but this TV series is drenched in shifty police work, something I broach lightly in Under a Cloud of Rain. Noelle might be rebellious in his approach to finding the serial killer compared to his partner’s by-the-book Bible-thumping MO, but he knows all too well what discrimination feels like from his humble upbringing.
In the book, Houston society is defined by oil big wigs like the Brunswicks who have no qualms about using their money to play judge, jury, and executioner. And no one would even consider interrogating the well-bred aristocracy about a series of mass murders.
While I was developing characters for Under a Cloud of Rain, I needed an adversary who personified the cultural norm of the Lone Star State that brushed the behavior of the high-minded upper class under the rug. Someone who challenged the hardheaded do-gooder detective Noelle. When Chief Cullen says, “Obviously our good ol’ boy has forgotten how things are done here in Texas,” he embodies the culture of 1970s Houston that looked the other way when it came to the hoity-toity wealthy.
I can’t help but wonder if history would have played out the same if the Candy Man’s family had been oil titans rather the poor candy peddlers...
Viewers of the two-time Golden Globe-nominated TV series How to Get Away with Murder–dubbed #HTGAWM by Twitter fans–might tell you getting away with murder is as easy as showing up to a law class, especially with a criminal defense professor’s guidance. But in Nick Noelle’s detective days, there was another way to get way with murder: being rich and famous.
But with no DNA testing to link someone to a crime scene and no cellphones to capture GPS data placing them near a crime scene, it was a lot easier to get away with murder in the 1970s, even if you weren’t wealthy.
One of the most notorious blue-collar criminals of the Noelle era, Dean Corll (called the the Candy Man), killed around thirty boys in and around Houston between 1970 and 1973. The crimes, which were only exposed after Corll was shot by his accomplice, became known as the Houston Mass Murders, earning the city the title of the murder capital of the country.
Simply being accused of murder in Texas during the ’70s was another story. The detectives I talked to who served on the Houston police force then said if someone (often a minority) did something as innocuous as crossing the street, they might just pick that person up and nail him or her with murder just to throw minorities in jail. Sadly, because of racism and discrimination, a lot of innocent people were put in jail during that time for crimes they didn’t commit.
It’s highly unlikely that 1970 Texas murderers were taking selfies to create alibis like the aspiring HTGAWM criminals, but this TV series is drenched in shifty police work, something I broach lightly in Under a Cloud of Rain. Noelle might be rebellious in his approach to finding the serial killer compared to his partner’s by-the-book Bible-thumping MO, but he knows all too well what discrimination feels like from his humble upbringing.
In the book, Houston society is defined by oil big wigs like the Brunswicks who have no qualms about using their money to play judge, jury, and executioner. And no one would even consider interrogating the well-bred aristocracy about a series of mass murders.
While I was developing characters for Under a Cloud of Rain, I needed an adversary who personified the cultural norm of the Lone Star State that brushed the behavior of the high-minded upper class under the rug. Someone who challenged the hardheaded do-gooder detective Noelle. When Chief Cullen says, “Obviously our good ol’ boy has forgotten how things are done here in Texas,” he embodies the culture of 1970s Houston that looked the other way when it came to the hoity-toity wealthy.
I can’t help but wonder if history would have played out the same if the Candy Man’s family had been oil titans rather the poor candy peddlers...
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