s&d: True Crime! books

xpost 'fun' as in reading about a theory I hadn't read before, not fun in terms of murder etc

did they ever print a Murder Can Be Fun book? -- a compendium of all the issues of that zine? I only had a handful of issues

xpost---VG, I hope there is a book like that; great idea for one, anyway. Anybody read Ellroy's My Dark Places? "Part memoir, part investigative reporting":

On 21 June 1958, Geneva Hilliker Ellroy left her home in California. She was found strangled the next day. Her ten year-old son James had been with her estranged husband all weekend and was informed of her death on his return. Her murderer was never found, but her death had an enduring effect on her son - he spent his teens and early adult years as a wino, petty burglar and derelict.

Only later, through his obsession with crime fiction, triggered by his mother's murder, did Ellroy begin to delve into his past. Shortly after the publication of his groundbreaking novel WHITE JAZZ, he determined to return to Los Angeles and, with the help of veteran detective Bill Stoner, attempt to solve the 38-year-old killing.

ok I'm living in the Black Dahlia rabbit hole now

Finished the Wolfe book - but a) the last third of it basically regurgitates interviews from John Gilmore's 'Severed', b) he makes it way more complicated than it needed to be, and c) it seemed very handwavey to me in general. I think he's a good writer, but even not being a huge BD nerd I just got this vibe that he was working really hard to make connections stick

So I went to the library yesterday afternoon and picked up the Hodel 'Black Dahlia Avenger'.

This one's even more tenuous right from the getgo because those photos that belonged to his Dad that Hodel says OMG IT'S THE BLACK DAHLIA...they don't look like Elizabeth Short really at all except for having black hair and a flower in her hair. But Hodel's dad was a MEGA creep and they have a really fascinating family history so I'm more reading it for that than anything else. As a Black Dahlia book I dunno how much value it has.

that ellroy book sounds great, has anyone read it?

I read it a long time ago but I don't really remember it :/

i read half of it. no reason i didn't finish it other than i don't finish most books. i liked what i read.

the Ellroy book is like the nuttiest bio this side of Klaus Kinski. Highly fucked up and very entertaining

This one's even more tenuous right from the getgo because those photos that belonged to his Dad that Hodel says OMG IT'S THE BLACK DAHLIA...they don't look like Elizabeth Short really at all except for having black hair and a flower in her hair. But Hodel's dad was a MEGA creep and they have a really fascinating family history so I'm more reading it for that than anything else. As a Black Dahlia book I dunno how much value it has.

― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, September 22, 2014 5:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah that's a fascinating book, mainly like you said just for the twisted family history. Hodel's case for his dad being the killer of Elizabeth Short is laughable, even more so now that he's written a follow-up book accusing his dad of being the Zodiac murderer as well.

the book is literally called MOST EVIL

xpost I saw something about his Zodiac theory last night. I'm just to the point in the Black Dahlia Avenger where he's listing every unsolved murder from that period and pinning it on his Dad, along with the two kidnapping/disappearances, and it's like, shhhhhhh, it's ok we KNOW your Dad's a creep, shhhhhh, just let it go

and then I was looking up stuff about the Sowden House & found out this guy had cadaver dogs on the property and they did soil analysis to find out if bodies were buried in the back yard. What a surprise they came up with a big fat zero

I found Larry Hamlisch's website; honestly the most amusing thing about all of this reading is finding out how bitchy the authors are towards each others theories. Hamlisch seems the bitchiest -- he blogged every chapter of the Wolfe book in semi allcaps for most of it.

the proprietariness that these guys have over their halfbaked ideas is just hilarious to me

Reading this right now: fantastic, crammed with details about media coverage, loads of stuff you can't get from YouTube. It had me in tears.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0813337259/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Sorry. Book is "Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the riots changed Los Angeles and the LAPD". By Lou Cannon.

interesting!

that's cool i was looking for something ilke that

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/us/btk-killer-to-write-book-about-murders.html?_r=0

WICHITA, Kan. — A serial killer said in a letter from prison that he was cooperating with a book about the 10 people he killed in the Wichita area to help the victims’ families monetarily.

“I can never replace their love ones, my deeds too ‘dark’ to understand, the book or movies, etc. is the only way to help them,” wrote Dennis L. Rader, who during his killing spree called himself “B.T.K.,” which stood for “bind, torture, kill.”

In a four-page, handwritten letter labeled “From the Desk of: Dennis L. Rader,” he explained that he was barred from profiting from his crimes by a court settlement, The Wichita Eagle reported. Mr. Rader, a former code compliance officer, signed over his media rights to the families of the people he killed from 1974 to 1991 after he was sent to the state prison in El Dorado in 2005.

Mr. Rader said “the long work on a book is close to a deal.” A percentage of any profits will go to the families, said James Thompson of Wichita, one of the lawyers representing most of the B.T.K. victims’ families.

Katherine Ramsland, the author corresponding with Mr. Rader on the project, envisions an academic book that will help investigators and criminologists understand serial killers.

“I’m trying to make this a serious effort that will have some benefit for people who study this kind of crime,” said Ms. Ramsland, a forensic psychology professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania who has written 54 mostly academic nonfiction books.

Mr. Rader wrote that he turned down many requests by the news media to talk with him in the last nine years because he was trying to stay true to the court agreement with the victims’ families.

“I mean to burn no bridges,” he wrote, “and hope someday to open up. People like me, need to be understood, so the criminal professional field, can better understand, the criminal mind. That would be my way helping debt to society.”

what a great way for him harness his inherent egomania O_o

haha that was my first thought too.

Still, let's not pretend we're not all going to read the hell out of that book.

Just finished Catherine Pelonero's Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and Its Private Consequences. I only really ever had a very superficial knowledge of the Genovese murder -- mostly the conventional wisdom stuff -- so it was very revealing for me. Had no idea her killer was both still alive and the longest-serving inmate in the NY system.

It was mentioned on another thread but the new This American Life-affiliated podcast "Serial" is essentially a true crime story in serialized form and is pretty good if you can get past the TALisms.

At least the first "season" is a true crime story, they might go another direction after this.

might be tough to keep people listening if there's not at least some kind of whodunnit or big reveal promised. episode 3 of Serial already felt like they were dragging things out a bit, but I agree overall it's pretty great and true crime heads will definitely be hooked

Oooo I love true crime, podcasts, and TAL!

I have scarcely ever listened to TAL. I found out about Serial almost by accident, but I got all caught up on the 3 episodes so far today and I'm fully on board.

phil d. i just started kitty genovese!

you guys

Robert Kolker's Lost Girls

cannot recommend it enough. you gots to read this srsly

Ooh this looks great

one of those rare true crime books that values the lives of the victims over their deaths.

jesus aunt diane and the cheshire murders were like my life u guys, guess i shldve talked abt them here

― johnny crunch, Sunday, September 21, 2014 2:44 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these were great and i only watched them cuz this thread hipped me to them-thanks this thread!

The first ep of Serial didn't grab me, but orig found listed (on TAL) as a pilot for the series, and we know how pilots usually are, so I'll keep listening for a while (positive response from everybody I know who's followed the eps, and Patton Oswalt very excited about it on Twitter). Here's the link for all three eps so far: http://serialpodcast.org/

who *have* followed, geez

i ordered the Lobster Boy book off Amazon, shd arrive tomorrow :D

also started reading Richard Rayner's A Bright and Guilty Place a true crimer abt LA in the 30's

Omg lobster boy!! One of my favorites! Like quadruple twisted into infinity for the role the writer of the book plays in the story. I'm ashamed to find it so fascinating when its so hard and gruesome but here I am.

I guess filing it under: 'things real people have done to one another' is a bit more charitable so welcome to the family.

I'm listening to the Serial podcast and not finding the 'craft of storytelling' intrusive at all. Good story so far!

LL you are part of the reason I bought it finally!

I think last time I looked it up it was out of print? idk. Awnyway the new American Horror Story has a lobster-boy character & it reminded me to look up the book again & voila!

Aw that makes me feel useful.
My mother would be proud on a number of levels (she's the one who helped my friend and I watch Sybil at the age of 10 :)

hey did i ever tell you guys about the true crime story that dealt with some locals from our area my mom knew?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gauger

i found the first part of _lost girls_ to be totally amazing, this generous humanist journalistic take on ppl who are usually completely marginalized and anonymized. the post-murder stuff felt rushed and much slighter in comparison. still, highly recommended.

yeah, true. the in-fighting between the moms was kind of a bummer.

Wow---I've read/heard about other cases along these lines, but this is one of the most extreme:
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-woman-vanished-20141012-story.html

anyone read John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster? going for a quid on kindle today

I did! It's really good. Lawyer makes a very good case that the search warrant that got Gacy arrested did not cover the items that were seized at the time nor were they in plain sight, but nonetheless says he was guilty as sin.

great thanks, just bought

I just started reading Lost Girls!

:D

well, I mean content :( but yay

omg Serial podcast is so good! very transporting, ie i am engrossed from start to finish

not finding it draggy at all. it's such a nebulous case that even the minor details have weight

am bummed the detectives wouldn't interview on record tho :(

tell you what, only 2/3 way through but that james ellroy book is fantastic. started reading on a crummy epub scan but ended up paying full wack for it. just the most out-there horribly gripping story ive read in ages. his whole "I opened the door. I ran. It was dark. I stopped." short sharp noir sentence style bugs me a little so don't think i'll read anything else but this book is up there as an all-time great for me (no spoilers!)

span off from this article in case anyway wants the condensed read, before he starts investigating it himself (i think it's before then, not 100%)

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/200707/james-ellroy-murder

also, this is free on uk amazon today: Landed On Black - Zach Fortier. dunno if any good, sounds ok like that massive david simon book

Serial Ep. 3, "Leakin Park," getting me going ("Dig there, and you'll find one body while lookin' for another""Oh, they found my uncle's body there too")A site for seekers:
http://baltimorecrime.blogspot.com/2010/11/bodies-of-leakin-park.html
All eps here (scroll down)
http://serialpodcast.org/