Obsessed with True Crime discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archive
>
Off-Topic -- the Coincidences Discussion - 2016
Not just me! I looked it up when I was still working in Emergency Services at CMH and a guy came in with "187" printed right across him -- it was a gang tattoo...
Here's a funny coincidence: I was still wondering whether Ivy Toms, a pharmacist murdered by Edward Hickman and his friend Welby Hunt (see Stolen Away: The True Story of California's Most Shocking Kidnap-Murder), was the only guy in American history to have been named Ivy. Well, it turns out that there was at least one other: Ivy Methvin, father of Henry Methvin, who I learned about by reading Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. So now I know.
Here's another from last night. I watched part of SIX DEGREES OF HELTER SKELTER last night while walking on the treadmill -- mostly the info about how Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate came to rent the Cielo Drive house -- and after the workout I started on Chapter 8 of The Dating Game Killer: The True Story of a TV Dating Show, a Violent Sociopath, and a Series of Brutal Murders. Two paragraphs in, whose name did I come across but Roman Polanski's.
I was driving to work this morning, listening to the moldy oldies station; they were playing "Blue Moon" just as I drove past the Mourad Grill and looked up at their sign to see the specials. What did it say but "BLUE MOON ON DRAFT."
Fishface wrote: "I was driving to work this morning, listening to the moldy oldies station; they were playing "Blue Moon" just as I drove past the Mourad Grill and looked up at their sign to see the specials. What ..."That was definitely a coincidence.
I thought yesterday of a friend of mine who passed away, and noted to myself that it's been a while since anything had happened to remind me of him. Well, later that day a doctor's office called and asked to confirm that we were talking about the same person, who had a pretty common name, by telling me the birthdate. The person has the same birthdate as my friend.
Oh, and I was watching THE MIST last week on home video for the first time since I saw it on the big screen. I was amused to see the protagonist, played by Thomas Jane, compare one of the other characters to Jim Jones. Another movie I saw quite recently, THE VEIL, stars Thomas Jane playing a character modeled after Jim Jones.
Today I brought in a list of upcoming TC anniversaries to add to the discussion, as usual. One of them was the death of Winston Moseley, the killer of Kitty Genovese.Now, I rarely read the local paper -- it's kind of a joke compared to the Detroit Free Press -- but today a co-worker asked me to grab it out of the lobby because she wanted me to see that someone we both knew was listed, mugshot and all, in the "Crime Blotter" section. As I was paging through looking for the article, what did I find on Page 7A but an article about a 15-year-old girl who was raped on live-streaming Facebook while something like 40 people watched without intervening. And there was a photo of Kitty Genovese and an explanation of the Good Samaritan law. This photo, in fact:
I pointed it out to my co-worker who said she had never heard of Kitty G. "She's the reason we have 911," I said in astonishment. "Oh? Who is she?" I couldn't believe it. This is my only local TC buddy.
Have you seen 'Witness', the documentary by Kitty's brother? I thought it was quite good & debunked a lot of myths about the case.
Mod
I saw it. LOVED IT
I vowed to see it and immediately forgot to look it up.
Here's a funny little one. I was just adding books on Harold Shipman to the Harold Shipman shelf -- all but one of them had disappeared - and I discovered that someone named Harold Shipman wrote a book about Jack the Ripper.
Now this one totally threw me. I was driving to an appointment a couple of hours ago and I saw, coming the other way, a former client of mine from 4 jobs ago. "I wonder what she's up to these days?" I thought. I had already been reminded of her once recently when I saw a new billboard for the place she used to work. So on the way back from that same appointment, I pulled into a place to get some Easter grass and a bottle of cold water. There was a long wait at the checkout line, but finally the register at the far end opened up. I hiked down there and who was it but my old client. "I've been thinking about you lately!" she said.
Mod
Don't do it, kitteh! Don't fall prey to the demons of ale and gin!
Maybe not so much of a coincidence considering that both books are written by country music artists but it still was kind of weird to me...the last book I finished was This Life I Live: One Man's Extraordinary, Ordinary Life and the Woman Who Changed It Forever by Rory Feek which dealt with his wife's death from cancer. The next book I read was River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope by Naomi Judd who states she sent a gift to Joey and Rory during her cancer battle.
Fishface wrote: "That's close enough for me..."I think you and I notice these little things more than most people.
It's a kind of genius, in its nonfunctional way...
Tonight I was reading a Buzzfeed article (a quiz, actually) about Alice in Wonderland when a character on the TV show on in the background (Midsomer Murders) mentioned Alice in Wonderland.
Started reading Delta Lady: A Memoir by Rita Coolidge this morning. When checking out the reviews I noticed the book was published exactly one year ago today- April 7.
I just joined this group and I'm so happy this thread exists. I have to share with you the biggest coincidence of my life... I work at a library, and one day I was filling in for someone at our teeny-tiny branch. I was the only one working and its super quiet there, so I went to the shelves and randomly picked a book that looked interesting to read during my shift. I ended up reading almost all of it at work, and took it home to finish. When I was done with it that night, I went into the living room where my Mom was watching the news. It was May 6, 2013, the day that the 3 girls in Cleveland, OH were rescued from Ariel Castro. The book I had just finished reading was Room by Emma Donahue. I had no idea that was going on when I picked the book to read that day! I still think about how crazy it was.
A bunch of namey-namey ones this week. I was just talking about the former regional coordinator of PMTO, Phil Hall, with his replacement, and then opened The Devil's Daughter: The Epic Auto-biography of the Girl Who Was Told Her Father Is Ian Brady and saw that one of the news reporters who took the author to meet Ian Brady in his hospital prison cell was named Phil Hall.Also, just after finishing Denial: A Memoir of Terror, I opened The Ambition and the Power. The very first guy I saw called by his full name in here was Chet Atkins. Chet Atkins just happens to be married to the author of Denial: A Memoir of Terror.
I was just "pinning" a photo of a little girl born with four arms and four legs, who was believed by her family to be a living manifestation of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. As I typed in the description of the "pin," NPR changed over from "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" to the news report, and the announcer gave her name: Lakshmi Singh.
Yesterday (Easter) I had a house full of family but managed to get 6 pages read in my current book Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic. On page 25 I read: By the time I got back to my dorm and realized it was Easter Sunday, the impression had already been made.
I decided to pop a TC movie, SUMMER OF SAM, into the player last night -- Easter Sunday -- and was startled when the Samster said warmly at the end of a taunting letter to the police, "I want to wish all of you a very happy Easter."
I was just reading an obituary for a guy that used to do my taxes years ago and retired due to Alzheimer's disease. I thought it was funny that he died on April 15. For our non-American friends, April 15 is the day our income taxes are due.
Wow! I hope they put the date and his work history on his tombstone!I was listening avidly to a radio discussion of a book recently added to our TC shelves, Killers of the Flower Moon. They seemed to be saying (I came in at the middle of the piece) that they were focusing on a single family affected by the Osage reservation murders and the woman who dared to speak up about it after losing her mother and 2 sisters. Just as I passed the intersection of Grand River and Burkhart roads, they finally gave her name: Molly Burkhart.
Fishface wrote: "Wow! I hope they put the date and his work history on his tombstone!I was listening avidly to a radio discussion of a book recently added to our TC shelves, [book:Killers of the Flower Moon|29496..."
I haven't talked to the family so I don't know if they even caught the coincidence.
I find it hard to believe they could have missed it!
Fishface wrote: "I find it hard to believe they could have missed it!"You are right. I got to talk to the family today and they not only caught the irony, they also said he died about 7 minutes after Happy Hour would have ended. If you knew this guy he was a drinker and was kind of the life of the party, always had a joke. If he had any control over the situation I'm sure he would have thought it was funny.
A lot of people seem to think that their friends and relatives choose the moment they die. I wonder if that's true?
My grandfather died on his 98th birthday. I was actually there, having come for a visit, so I can confirm that he actually died on that day, not just 'around' his birthday. He had earlier confirmed with us that it was actually his 98th birthday. Did he figure that was enough? Hard to say.
I just started typing a progress note and I noticed the time signature: 4:19 on 4/19.
Fishface wrote: "I just started typing a progress note and I noticed the time signature: 4:19 on 4/19."That is weird.
K.A. wrote: "My grandfather died on his 98th birthday. I was actually there, having come for a visit, so I can confirm that he actually died on that day, not just 'around' his birthday. He had earlier confirmed..."I was working in a nursing home when a couple celebrated their 70th anniversary that afternoon with a big party. That evening the husband was found dead in his bed. Too much partying?
Fishface wrote: "A lot of people seem to think that their friends and relatives choose the moment they die. I wonder if that's true?"To a certain extent I think they do. I've seen it happen where family stayed at the bedside for days and then as soon as they stepped out for a meal or just to get something was when they took their last breath. I also saw it with my own mother-in-law, who had 10 kids and seemed to hold on til she had heard from every single one. There was one that lived in Chicago that we were waiting to get there when she called and said she just couldn't watch her mother die and had decided not to come. My mother-in-law was comatose but they held the phone to her ear while her daughter talked to her. She died about an hour later.
Interesting that you said that, Koren - the grandfather I described above actually passed away when my uncle and I stepped out for a few minutes to grab a bite to eat.
Koren wrote: "Fishface wrote: "A lot of people seem to think that their friends and relatives choose the moment they die. I wonder if that's true?"To a certain extent I think they do. I've seen it happen where..."
My dad waited until my mom went home to walk the dog.
My friend's mom waited until everyone left her hospital room. My other friend's dad waited until arrangements had been made to have him (my friend) move in with his mom so she would be taken care of after my friend's brother died.
My father-in-law was in a diabetic shock coma for weeks, and we had been visiting him almost every day. On the last day, my mother-in-law was the last person to stay with him most of the day, and when she went home a few hours later, we got the call that he wasn't doing so well. We raced to the hospital, but as soon as I walked in and noticed all the machines and IVs were off, I knew he was gone before I looked at him lying motionless with his eyes open. The night before, he cried when my husband and I told him we loved him. One final tear of goodbye. So heartbreaking.
Mod
Strange. President Obama was on TV as I was looking for my next book I want to read. I was looking at a book about Ellis Island at the exact moment Obama said Ellis Island.
OK, right after a guy named Blank left my house after a brief visit, I picked up my copy of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams and started reading "Afterlife." One of the characters in that story mentioned a co-worker named Blanck. Then I got in my car to run an errand, turned on the CD player and discovered that it was cued up to a song by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, called "Blank Generation."
Thursday was my anniversary. For some reason the song "After The Loving" by Englebert Humperdink (yes that is a real name) entered my mind and I was going to find the song on YouTube so Hubby and I could dance to it but ran out of time before I had to go to work and then forgot about it. Keep this in mind because it comes into play later. Today I'm listening to a book on tape Good Grief: Heal Your Soul, Honor Your Loved Ones, and Learn to Live Again by Theresa Caputo, the Long Island Medium. Chapter 14 is about coincidences and how they can be messages from loved ones that have passed on, such as seeing a butterfly and believing this is a message from someone. Ok. I'm listening and I actually hear her say that she was driving and thinking about her grandfather who had died and just as she was thinking about him a song came on the radio that was the song her grandmother and grandfather had danced to at her wedding. You guessed it. It was "After The Loving".
When was that even a hit? 1975? It's amazing to me that that song would be mentioned twice...
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Obsessed with True Crime
Books mentioned in this topic
Amityville: House of Lies (other topics)Amityville: House of Lies (other topics)
Cloris: My Autobiography (other topics)
Good Grief: Heal Your Soul, Honor Your Loved Ones, and Learn to Live Again (other topics)
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (other topics)
More...
In a related moment of weirdness, I noticed a string of Manson Family books had been removed for some crazy reason from the Helter Skelter shelf, and as I was adding them back I ..."
Only you would know that! And K.A.