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Carolina Crimes:: Case Files of a Forensic Photographer
In this intense insider's study of murder in South Carolina, Lt. Rita Y. Shuler leads us through the dark twists and turns of twelve homicide cases that gripped the state during her career as a forensic photographer with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Shuler's fascination with the criminal mind began with her exposure as a young girl to a 1953 double-homicide that shocked South Carolina. When she came face to face with the original case records twenty-four years later on her first day of work as a forensic photographer she was immediately hooked on a profession that took her deep into the investigation of hundreds of cases. Shuler's firsthand experience with forensic evidence of crime scenes and the court system gives her a unique perspective on murder and its horrifying effects on public and private lives. By combining analysis of court transcripts and official statements and confessions from murderers with her own personal interactions with the key players in some of these tragic dramas, Shuler allows the reader to see into the criminal minds of notorious killers like Pee Wee Gaskins, Rudolph Tyner, Ronald Rusty"? Woomer and Larry Gene Bell. Shuler's study is a must for everyone fascinated by the criminal mind and by the most famous murder cases in South Carolina's recent past."
192 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 29, 2021
A selection of crime cases committed in South Carolina, told from the perspective of the author, a forensic photographer, who photographed most of the evidence in these cases. There was nothing interesting to say from the photography angle, but the cases themselves were interesting to read about.
January 7, 2023
This book was disappointing. I had hoped for insight into forensic photography. It was a catalogue of murder crimes in Carolina
October 25, 2022
Fascinating assortment of SC murders from the perspective of a female forensic photographer who worked on the cases. I appreciate Shuler’s attention to detail without being too graphic. I remember some of these crimes so it was very interesting to learn what was happening behind the scenes. Great read! I highly recommend for fans of true crime.
February 18, 2023
Last year I read and reviewed this author's "The Lowcountry Murder of Gwendolyn Elaine Fogle." The author (a retired Special Agent with SLED - the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) was instrumental in the opening of that cold case and the eventual arrest of the guilty man. I was mainly interested in the story of the victim - a young woman who was my contemporary, but whose lifestyle was a generation removed from my experiences during the same years. I concluded that (for better or worse) changes come slowly to rural areas and small towns.
In this book Ms Shuler examines a number of South Carolina murders and shows how the availability of forensic expertise helped local police identify victims and catch killers. Her writing lacks polish, but like most people involved in law enforcement she has some startling stories to tell and her passion for justice gives her writing a first-hand feel sometimes lacking in true crime books. She was a participant as well as an observer.
All the crimes she highlights happened in small towns because that's where most people in South Carolina live. It's a small state and one of the poorest in the country. Tourists to Charleston and Hilton Head bring in some money and jobs, but they can't replace the huge sewing factories that closed when the work moved to Asia. The many military bases brought in by long-time Senator Strom Thurmond have mostly closed. When they were open, the hordes of young men they shipped in sometimes added to the crime numbers. One of the most vicious murderer/rapists in this book was an Army MP and one of his victims was the wife of another MP.
These are ugly crimes in state that prides itself on its southern charm and friendliness. Indeed, it seems to be stuck in a time-warp, with many of the place names sounding like home towns of the original English settlers. Bath. Dorchester. York. Windsor. It's a state that looks back, not forward.
SLED was created in the 1940's when it became apparent that more crimes could be solved if police had the knowledge and equipment to utilize advances in criminal technology. It grew in the haphazard way common to southern governments. Shuler was an x-ray technician who trained herself in forensic photography so she could work at SLED. One of the first directors started as a sixteen-year-old deputy, chasing moonshiners. Another started as a chain-gang guard. In South Carolina, the past is never far away.
Most of the victims are women or children. Men are murdered, but in fights or feuds and their enemies are known. Females are more likely to be victims of random killers, the most difficult crimes to solve. None of the victims or the killers come from wealth and most are from working or poor families.
The murderers are black or white, the SC population being about evenly divided between the two. All their lawyers have stories of harsh pasts and those stories are probably true to some extent. Some of them seem unbelievably stupid and some are clearly mentally ill, although not in the legal sense. Their violent acts seldom have any rationale understandable to a normal person and their paltry monetary gain never explains their actions.
I like this book because it's impossible to read it without thinking about the justice system and how it works or doesn't work to protect the innocent and to punish the guilty. The author traces the changes in South Carolina laws and how they were affected by Supreme Court rulings. If you are opposed to the death penalty, you'll find her feelings offensive. I wasn't, because her opinions reflect my own - revulsion and sadness at the idea of putting people to death, but a firm conviction that it is the only fair punishment for some crimes.
As this author shows clearly, justice is administered unevenly in her state and this is true of all states. There are laws that clearly outline which murderers have earned the death penalty and which have earned life in prison with no hope of parole. And yet several of the most vicious killers in these cases were sentenced to twenty years in prison. Since most were in their twenties when they murdered, these men were set free (or will be) in their forties, perhaps sooner.
The most incredible example of the randomness of the system is serial killer Peewee Gaston. He claimed to have murdered over one hundred people, although the police were only able to verify a dozen of them. He murdered relatives and strangers. Men, women, and children. He was sentenced to die in 1976, but wasn't executed until 1990. Then it wasn't for any of the murders he committed as a free man, but for murdering a fellow prison inmate, himself a convicted murderer. Could there be a greater irony?
It's a gut-wrenching book, although the author does her best to respect the victims and their relatives. Saddest is the lasting effect on the friends and relatives of the victims. They survived, but life will never be the same for them. To lose a loved one in any way is terrible. To lose a loved one through a violent, senseless crime is even worse.
There's a heavy emphasis on the investigations and how the SLED experts were able to help local police officers. Those who watch TV cop shows may not be surprised as I was at the importance of shoe prints in the investigative process. The smooth-soled leather shoes that were once the norm have been replaced by athletic shoes and each is as individual as a human fingerprint. You can wear gloves to commit a crime, but unless you can fly you'll leave footprints and they may send you to prison.
DNA is important now, but so are old-fashioned methods such as looking for traces of old impressions on a piece of paper. If you're going to write ransom notes, better start with a clean sheet of paper, not the next sheet on the notepad you've been using. I appreciated the author's clear explanation of nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA. Nuclear DNA is still the big dog, but advances in the use of mitochondrial DNA for investigative purposes has aided law enforcement in bringing crimes home to the guilty person.
Not surprisingly, there's little humor, but I had to laugh at the story of the elderly lady who owned a liquor store, but also sold liquor out of her nearby house. Her family claims that she sold that booze to people who couldn't get to her store before closing time. Common sense tells you she was selling to kids not old enough to legally buy alcoholic beverages. Caught in a bind, the local sheriff had to pretend he'd never heard of her after-hours activities. Not likely, but what else could he do?
This book doesn't present a full report on any of these crimes or the investigations or court cases that followed. It shows a pattern of a certain type of crime and how the justice system in one state struggles to punish the guilty, protect the innocent, and give some measure of justice to the victims. It will never be a perfect process because it depends on humans and we aren't perfect. It must and should be done and I admire the hard-working people whose passion for justice keeps them going.
In this book Ms Shuler examines a number of South Carolina murders and shows how the availability of forensic expertise helped local police identify victims and catch killers. Her writing lacks polish, but like most people involved in law enforcement she has some startling stories to tell and her passion for justice gives her writing a first-hand feel sometimes lacking in true crime books. She was a participant as well as an observer.
All the crimes she highlights happened in small towns because that's where most people in South Carolina live. It's a small state and one of the poorest in the country. Tourists to Charleston and Hilton Head bring in some money and jobs, but they can't replace the huge sewing factories that closed when the work moved to Asia. The many military bases brought in by long-time Senator Strom Thurmond have mostly closed. When they were open, the hordes of young men they shipped in sometimes added to the crime numbers. One of the most vicious murderer/rapists in this book was an Army MP and one of his victims was the wife of another MP.
These are ugly crimes in state that prides itself on its southern charm and friendliness. Indeed, it seems to be stuck in a time-warp, with many of the place names sounding like home towns of the original English settlers. Bath. Dorchester. York. Windsor. It's a state that looks back, not forward.
SLED was created in the 1940's when it became apparent that more crimes could be solved if police had the knowledge and equipment to utilize advances in criminal technology. It grew in the haphazard way common to southern governments. Shuler was an x-ray technician who trained herself in forensic photography so she could work at SLED. One of the first directors started as a sixteen-year-old deputy, chasing moonshiners. Another started as a chain-gang guard. In South Carolina, the past is never far away.
Most of the victims are women or children. Men are murdered, but in fights or feuds and their enemies are known. Females are more likely to be victims of random killers, the most difficult crimes to solve. None of the victims or the killers come from wealth and most are from working or poor families.
The murderers are black or white, the SC population being about evenly divided between the two. All their lawyers have stories of harsh pasts and those stories are probably true to some extent. Some of them seem unbelievably stupid and some are clearly mentally ill, although not in the legal sense. Their violent acts seldom have any rationale understandable to a normal person and their paltry monetary gain never explains their actions.
I like this book because it's impossible to read it without thinking about the justice system and how it works or doesn't work to protect the innocent and to punish the guilty. The author traces the changes in South Carolina laws and how they were affected by Supreme Court rulings. If you are opposed to the death penalty, you'll find her feelings offensive. I wasn't, because her opinions reflect my own - revulsion and sadness at the idea of putting people to death, but a firm conviction that it is the only fair punishment for some crimes.
As this author shows clearly, justice is administered unevenly in her state and this is true of all states. There are laws that clearly outline which murderers have earned the death penalty and which have earned life in prison with no hope of parole. And yet several of the most vicious killers in these cases were sentenced to twenty years in prison. Since most were in their twenties when they murdered, these men were set free (or will be) in their forties, perhaps sooner.
The most incredible example of the randomness of the system is serial killer Peewee Gaston. He claimed to have murdered over one hundred people, although the police were only able to verify a dozen of them. He murdered relatives and strangers. Men, women, and children. He was sentenced to die in 1976, but wasn't executed until 1990. Then it wasn't for any of the murders he committed as a free man, but for murdering a fellow prison inmate, himself a convicted murderer. Could there be a greater irony?
It's a gut-wrenching book, although the author does her best to respect the victims and their relatives. Saddest is the lasting effect on the friends and relatives of the victims. They survived, but life will never be the same for them. To lose a loved one in any way is terrible. To lose a loved one through a violent, senseless crime is even worse.
There's a heavy emphasis on the investigations and how the SLED experts were able to help local police officers. Those who watch TV cop shows may not be surprised as I was at the importance of shoe prints in the investigative process. The smooth-soled leather shoes that were once the norm have been replaced by athletic shoes and each is as individual as a human fingerprint. You can wear gloves to commit a crime, but unless you can fly you'll leave footprints and they may send you to prison.
DNA is important now, but so are old-fashioned methods such as looking for traces of old impressions on a piece of paper. If you're going to write ransom notes, better start with a clean sheet of paper, not the next sheet on the notepad you've been using. I appreciated the author's clear explanation of nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA. Nuclear DNA is still the big dog, but advances in the use of mitochondrial DNA for investigative purposes has aided law enforcement in bringing crimes home to the guilty person.
Not surprisingly, there's little humor, but I had to laugh at the story of the elderly lady who owned a liquor store, but also sold liquor out of her nearby house. Her family claims that she sold that booze to people who couldn't get to her store before closing time. Common sense tells you she was selling to kids not old enough to legally buy alcoholic beverages. Caught in a bind, the local sheriff had to pretend he'd never heard of her after-hours activities. Not likely, but what else could he do?
This book doesn't present a full report on any of these crimes or the investigations or court cases that followed. It shows a pattern of a certain type of crime and how the justice system in one state struggles to punish the guilty, protect the innocent, and give some measure of justice to the victims. It will never be a perfect process because it depends on humans and we aren't perfect. It must and should be done and I admire the hard-working people whose passion for justice keeps them going.
September 11, 2019
Fascinating book!
This book relates the stories behind several murders in South Carolina as told by forensic photographer, Rita Shuler. Ms. Shuler also details her experiences as an employee of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. This book is a great read for those interested in true crime.
This book relates the stories behind several murders in South Carolina as told by forensic photographer, Rita Shuler. Ms. Shuler also details her experiences as an employee of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. This book is a great read for those interested in true crime.
July 8, 2019
Great insights to a the works of a forensics photographer and SLED. The book was written in a easy to read layman format. Simple description for all the machine and techniques used in the investigation.
August 16, 2019
Very interesting read for somone from South Carolina.
January 5, 2023
easy and entertaining read
I finished the book in about 4 hours. The author does not waste words. Unfortunately, there is no offering of motive in these crimes.
I finished the book in about 4 hours. The author does not waste words. Unfortunately, there is no offering of motive in these crimes.
January 5, 2024
Author provided synopses for several cases they had been involved with. Provided information about some of the techniques used.
April 23, 2008
I expected perhaps a little more sensationalism and tricky forensic discoveries, but it covered only a few cases, and some of them were not that interesting, although she did include some basic information on different methods. I remember some of these cases and locales, so that was interesting. What stuns me over and over when reading these things is the randomness often involved. I also hate more than anything when children are involved.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews