s&d: True Crime! books

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/

Gacy is the one serial killer im too freaked out to read about. maybe one day.

Oh I watch the Aunt Diane doc yesterday. What opinions do you guys hold on what happened? To me it seems pretty cut and dry but I tend to have black and white vision until I listen to other people.

Also, do you guys ever listen to to Dan Zupansky's True Murder podcast? Each week he interviews a true crime author about the subject of one of their books. Not always thrilling listening but definitely a good source discovering new books.

there was a press conference yesterday for that guy who admitted to 7 murders in NW IN
it felt like a true crime book
also reminded me of the situation in cleveland where they found a bunch of bodies no one was even looking for
sad

reminded me of this too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpGfQ0EUgWk

Over the weekend read Joseph Wambaugh's "The Blooding" as an e-book, about the Colin Pitchfork murders in the UK, the first crime where genetic fingerprinting was used to prove that someone *didn't* do it. The book is primarily about the DNA component and the horror of the crimes, but definitely shows how a not-very-bright suspect that the police really like for the crime can be made to confess to it even if he is innocent.

There's a really good Frontline documentary about false confessions. US police are very good at getting innocent people to confess to murders.

Also well-covered in John Grisham's "The Innocent Man," where the police basically asked the suspect, "Well, let's say you DID do it, how would you have done it? Like if you did it in a dream, how would it happen?" then had him sign it as an actual confession.

caught up on the serial podcast, love it want more now

Bringing the Shirley Collins performance even more into the context of this thread: http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2013/04/new-programme-the-tale-of-the-poor-murdered-woman-an-interview-with-shirley-collins/

<3 her so much

I often wonder about the underlying neurology of 'serial confessors'. You know those people who call police tip lines and confess to murders they clearly had nothing to do with?

Oh I watch the Aunt Diane doc yesterday. What opinions do you guys hold on what happened? To me it seems pretty cut and dry but I tend to have black and white vision until I listen to other people.

― smoochy-woochy touchy-wouchy, (sunny successor), Tuesday, October 21, 2014 1:40 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the only explanation that makes sense to me is that she for whatever reason decided to kill herself and all the kids, premeditated. the accidentally got too fucked up self medicating theory kind of works but why would she keep driving when she had so many chances to get help? plus that one couple who saw her face when she was driving the wrong way and said she had a look of steely determination on her face or w/e they said.

i wasn't totally convinced by the self-medication theory either. i thought she might have had some kind of psychotic episode or maybe a very severe migraine in combination with the alcohol and the marijuana exacerbating any mental symptoms she was experiencing. i can't remember if they said the level of THC in her system was consistent with having smoked marijuana that morning though.

This looks promising-:

Piper KermanVerified account ‏@Piper

#CJreform #OITNB MT @DebKilroy: @MichelleLA22: Tenacious - A magazine created by incarcerated women http://bit.ly/1AbdOqP #prison

And this:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/why-innocent-people-plead-guilty/

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29835159

eeesh. got as far as the cat torture and stopped.

I should have flagged that. I'm sorry.

The author of that article wrote a book about her experience. Might be interesting?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/07/justice/mcstay-case/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

they arrested someone in the mcstay family murders and it was the guy who supposedly received a phone call from mcstay that night but 'didn't answer it' and 'regretted not picking up'

so he alone killed all 4 of them in their home & there were no signs of struggle.......will be interesting to know what evidence they have on this dude

i finished kitty genovese and started lost girls. true crime is my life now i guess.

:D