Why do you enjoy reading true crime?

[MaryJo]

For myself, I prefer some of the television documentaries on true crime better than the books.
Haven't analyzed why, but perhaps because there are so
many other things I still want to read, and often the
shows do a very good job.
Then again, for awhile some of the scenarios were so
awfully depressing we backed off. One can learn a lot,
though, especially as a writer.

[Susan]

MaryJo, I like TV shows about true crime, too, but some are better than others. I like it when they interview relatives of the victims and the detectives who actually investigated the crime, even if it's years later. But some shows do this faux-reality thing with actors playing the detectives.

One show, can't remember which, actually interviews the perp (in prison or out if s/he wasn't convicted.) It's interesting to hear what they say. And try to evaluate whether they're lying or not.

[MaryJo]

Susan wrote: "MaryJo, I like TV shows about true crime, too, but some are better than others. I like it when they interview relatives of the victims and the detectives who actually investigated the crime, even i..."

Susan, For myself I liked hearing about the cases that were older much more, because there seemed to be better
closure after more time had passed, and more objectivity. The interviews with family and investigators add a great deal to the cases for sure, and I also agree that some re-enactments are better than others.

One of my favorites was about the history of forensic science, covering 11 - I think - methods now used in solving crimes, and featuring both a case in the pioneer stage of using that science, and a modern one.
The re-enactments were very good. Who knew fingerprinting went back 120 years to a murder case in Argentina????

[Susan]

Hi MaryJo, I agree that older cases seem to work better. But sometimes relatives and friends of the victims have died. Great point about the fingerprinting. If you like historic cases, here's one I blogged about. The Butchers of Kansas.
http://darkdeeds.susanfleet.com/blog_...

[MaryJo]

Susan wrote: "Hi MaryJo, I agree that older cases seem to work better. But sometimes relatives and friends of the victims have died. Great point about the fingerprinting. If you like historic cases, here's one I..."

Thanks for the recommendation Susan. I now recall the name of that series. It was Catching Killers, should anyone like to try and locate it on Netflix.

[MaryJo]

Susan, I just checked your blog. What is especially interesting about the story is the close resemblance to an article I was sent a few months ago.
The gist of it was a story Laura Ingalls Wilder never released or made known until late in her life. She related that her father joined a group of locals who realized there was an innkeeper's family in their territory who was murdering their guests, and one night- because an official law and order was far away - they took care of them. Laura said her father never spoke of it, but he overheard him make a comment to her mother saying, "They'll never be found."
Interesting....
Maybe a crime tv show should be produced on frontier mysteries!

[Susan]

MaryJo, so happy you read my blog piece. I'm not familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder. Is she a true crime writer?

I like to include posts on "historical" as well as more recent true crime stories. I did a post on one in the 1920s, about Osage Indian murders in Oklahoma during the oil-rush years.
http://darkdeeds.susanfleet.com/blog_...

[MaryJo]

Susan wrote: "MaryJo, so happy you read my blog piece. I'm not familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder. Is she a true crime writer?

I like to include posts on "historical" as well as more recent true crime stories...."

Well, Susan, you are an enigma! Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of the most beloved writers of young girls books of all times, The Little House on the Prairie series, strongly based on her own childhood on the plains of the Midwest in the late 1800s.
The TV series done in the 1970s was based on her books.
My understanding is her reputation writing these books
was a huge reason she never went public with that story. Of course after reading your blog, I wonder if
the story sent to me was entirely accurate.

[Susan]

Uh oh, sorry MaryJo, I never read Little House on the Prairie series. Never read Nancy Drew mysteries either. First book I remember reading by myself was Mickey Never Fails, a Walt Disney book, when I was five years old. I still have the book.

I got a library card when I was in first grade. An exciting event! Wow, I could go there and take out as many books as I wanted for free!!

[Kirsten]

Something about the Hillside Stranglers courtesy of The Lineup:

http://www.the-line-up.com/media/the-...

[Kirsten]

The Leopold and Loeb case - one of the first "thrill kill" cases:

http://www.the-line-up.com/thrill-kil...

[Kirsten]

Cue the X-Files music...

3-YEAR-OLD BOY CORRECTLY POINTS TO WHERE HIS BODY WAS BURIED IN “LAST LIFE”

http://www.the-line-up.com/media/a-3-...

[Susan]

Another master manipulator was Phillip Markoff, AKA the Craigslist Killer. I blog about that case here.
http://darkdeeds.susanfleet.com/blog_...

The case was cited in today's Boston Herald in an article about recent murder of prostitute near Boston.

[Patsy]

We love Homicide Hunter Lt. Kenda on ID channel.

[Kirsten]

Patsy wrote: "We love Homicide Hunter Lt. Kenda on ID channel."

Absolutely! Mom & I love him and some of his Kenda-isms.

[Kirsten]

The Line-Up (from Open Road Media) has an article about 6 Victorian True Crime books:

http://www.the-line-up.com/media/vict...

The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief by Ben Macintyre

Mr Briggs' Hat: A Sensational Account of Britain's First Railway Murder by Kate Colquhoun

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

Did She Kill Him?: A Victorian Tale of Deception, Adultery, and Arsenic by Kate Colquhoun

London 1849: A Victorian Murder Story by Michael Alpert

The Murder of Helen Jewett by Patricia Cline Cohen

[Kirsten]

From "The Lineup":

7 DISTURBING BOOKS ABOUT SERIAL KILLERS

http://www.the-line-up.com/8-disturbi...

From Ted Bundy to the Genesse River Killer, get inside the heads of history's most notorious serial murderers.

The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story by Ann Rule

Note: Ann Rule sadly died last night.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-n...

Body Dump: Kendall Francois, the Poughkeepsie Serial Killer by Fred Rosen

The Misbegotten Son by Jack Olsen

Love Me to Death: A Journalists Memoir of the Hunt for Her Friends Killer by Linda Wolfe

Silent Rage: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer by Michael Newton

Forever and Five Days: The Chilling True Story of Love, Betrayal, and Serial Murder in Grand Rapids, Michigan by Lowell Cauffiel

Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Next Door by Roy Wenzl

[Jennifer]

The first true crime book I ever read was "Fatal Vision" and thinking about it still gives me nightmares. I bought it at a used book store in New London, NH, and devoured it while at a conference. Another highly absorbing book, as has been mentioned before, is Ann Rule's "The Stranger Beside Me". I'd also like to mention "The Deaths of Cindy James", which I read when my husband was away for the weekend, and has also remained in my mind as very frightening.