Obsessed with True Crime discussion
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Things We've Learned Reading True Crime
I learned today reading Terror in the Streets that in the 1940s, each police district had its own private radio station to talk to the "radio cars." The officers would call in to the station to ask for reinforcements the way you or I would call DJ Dave Dahmer to request a song.
Fishface wrote: "I learned today reading Terror in the Streets that in the 1940s, each police district had its own private radio station to talk to the "radio cars." The officers would call in to th..."Interesting.
I also learned that as that book was going to press, indeterminate sentencing was considered the ray of hope illuminating a broken penal system. The original idea of indeterminate sentencing was that if you went in for a violent sex crime, for instance, they'd sling you in a hospital for the criminally insane and you wouldn't be released until you were totally cured (hah!). These days it's considered one of the thorniest problems to be solved, because in practice it means nobody serves as much time as they were told they would at sentencing.
I learned in For the Defense that there is a difference between a stutter and a stammer. A stutter is talking like Porky Pig; a stammer is when you open your mouth and can only say "..."Who knew!?
I learned reading Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found that Crime and Punishment was based on a real case. Needless to say I rushed to add that gentleman -- Pierre-Francois Lacenaire -- to our TC database. Apparently Dostoyevsky made Roddy Raskolnikov's crime scene identical in almost every detail to the real one.
I STILL have never read Crime & Punishment,,,, Maybe I can make that a goal for the year
I learned reading The Manson Women A "Family" Portrait that there were 4 convictions, not 2, in the killings of Manson Family members James and Lauren Willett. Along with the 2 Aryan Brotherhood guys, Manson Family members Nancy Pitman and Priscilla Cooper pleaded guilty to killing them. In fact they were all arrested together.
The Mammoth Book of Tasteless and Outrageous Lists informs me that fashion designer Hugo Boss hit it big because of his ultra-snappy SS uniform design. Wow.
Never name your son -- or daughter -- Dana MacKay. I read in The Mammoth Book of Tasteless and Outrageous Lists that a man by that name -- the greatest Elvis impersonator of them all -- was murdered under somewhat unclear circumstances in 1993. 
Co-victim/wife Mary Huffman, and Dana Mackay
Here's the thing though: I was looking the story up on Google and I immediately found that a woman by that name was murdered in 2013. In that case the killer was her husband -- John WAYNE Mackay.
Dana Mackay
In the same book, I learned that the "Best By" date on your perishable food containers was invented by Al Capone!
Fishface wrote: "In the same book, I learned that the "Best By" date on your perishable food containers was invented by Al Capone!"Really? That is insane
Not as crazy as when I learned that Patrick WAYNE Kearney became a serial killer after he apparently got bored with being an aeronautics engineer.
Fishface wrote: "Not as crazy as when I learned that Patrick WAYNE Kearney became a serial killer after he apparently got bored with being an aeronautics engineer."Boredom? Seriously? that is horrifying
I don't know that he ever said that, but clearly his life was not stimulating enough as it was -- highly-paid dream job, good social support, nice place to live. He had to start gutting people like fish on top of that to give his life more pizzazz.
Beth wrote: "What not to do to get caught."Any favorite tips?
We've discussed not burying your victim's bones in the back yard when you have a dog, so yes, let's hear some other ideas!
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My favorite is the one about the importance of wearing gloves when you're duct-taping the garbage bags onto the remains. I never knew before the FBI pointed it out that you can't use adhesive tape without leaving your fingerprints on the sticky side.
I just learned that Joel Rifkin has only 180 more years before he can try for parole for the first time.
It is just as unlucky to be named "Carmen Colon" as it is to be named "Frances Brown."
Not only should you not marry anyone named Peterson; I just found out you can't even park next to anything named Peterson. Biggie Smalls was shot and killed at the Peterson Automotive Museum, for crying out loud.
Wow. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
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Greenwich, CT is an excellent place to move if you want to die of a cataclysmic head injury.
I was gratified to learn reading The World's Greatest Crimes of Passion that not only did Thomas Hardy base Tess of the D'Urbervilles on a true crime; he went so far as to climb a tree to watch the real killer's execution. He was only 16 and it left a lifelong impression on him. A disturbingly gleeful one, in fact. That might help account for some of the story arcs in his other novels...
I learned by reading the stamp inside the TC library book I just returned that there is, or was, such a thing as the General Motors Public Relations Staff Library. How specialized is that!?
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The body never burns completely. If you're going to light it on fire, do it as a statement, not to conceal the evidence.
This is old news but I just found out about it. What a glicknob this guy is, even on his very best day:http://www.news.com.au/world/josef-fr...
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And hope you remembered not to save anything to the cloud.
If you see something going on, don't wait until you know more. CALL THE COPS. I'm looking at you, Sue Myers! 
I learned that Intensity by Dean Koontz is apparently based on the exploits of Ed Kemper. Anyone read it?
While reading A Hundred Little Hitlers: The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America I stumbled across information that led me back to my work territory. I knew the Michigan Grand Dragon used to live just north of the town where I work, in Cohoctah Township, but a reference I found to Alan Berg's murder said that Bob Miles, the above-mentioned Grand Dragon, was once considered the 3rd-biggest hatemonger in the USA by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The article also cited the fact that he ran his operation out of the Mountain Church of Jesus Christ The Savior, right on his property, and it said they burned crosses as part of their services. Apparently they lacked any sense of irony.I want to point out that there are no mountains of any sort in Cohoctah Township.
And look at the reverent history they put on his Find-A-Grave page!
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1...
I would have thought that economic circumstance is one of the largest contributers of crime in today's society.
Well, think of the opioid crisis. Inadequate health coverage makes it more cost-effective for docs to endorse disability payments and prescribe narcotic painkillers than to use drug-free interventions like physiotherapy. There's no shady physical therapist hanging out in downtown Detroit selling back-alley free weights, but lots of drug dealers. And it's more affordable for the opiate addict to go downtown for heroin than to go to rehab not covered by the health plan. Better health coverage could potentially prevent most of those people from ever becoming addicts, or forcing them onto disability.
I learned while watching UNSEEN that Tony Sowell accents the second syllable in his last name, as in "You did that so well!"
I just learned reading Briar Patch: The Murder That Would Not Die that Jim Henson, of "Muppets" fame, was a classmate of Nancy Shomette, one of the murder victims in the story (renamed Ellen Chauvanne).
I also learned in the same book (Briar Patch: The Murder That Would Not Die) that in 1985, while giving an interview to a reporter, Melvin 'Dave' Rees (called Bernard Breese in the book) admitted to 2 more horrific murders not normally mentioned when you read about him. Almost exactly on the 1st anniversary of the Northwest Branch Park murders, which were still unsolved, Dave picked up 2 teenaged hitchhikers and killed them, following up with his trademark corpse raping number. You will be seeing them anon in the TC anniversaries...
I learned this morning while reading Crime Archive: John Christie that it's apparently possible to examine a woman's vagina through a microscope. I genuinely yearn for an explanation of that statement.
Fishface wrote: "I learned this morning while reading Crime Archive: John Christie that it's apparently possible to examine a woman's vagina through a microscope. I genuinely yearn for an explanation..."Erm, this brings up all sorts of imaginations as far as how it could be accomplished...
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Obsessed with True Crime
Books mentioned in this topic
The Mile End Murder (other topics)Most Likely to Succeed (other topics)
The Mile End Murder (other topics)
Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door (other topics)
John Christie: Crime Archive (other topics)
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And this guy is his brother Pat, an aeronautics engineer and, in his spare time, a serial killer:
So much for the idea that serial killers are all down-at-the-heel, underemployed losers from abusive families.