s&d: True Crime! books

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

Reading Robert M. Lombardo, Organized Crime in Chicago. The author had an uncle in the Outfit. Starts with Chicago's beginnings as a gambling capital, goes on into Prohibition to the present day. Published in 2013, it has loads of colorful facts, lots of stuff that was taboo ( like mob neighborhoods and hang-outs) until now. I'm on the chapter about black gangsters. They had saloons and gambling houses and even white people went to them to hear the new "jazz" music. 200 pages, it's a quick read but packed with stuff esp. about gambling.

theres a cnn special on the mcstay case @ 9 est tnight

i'm pretty good at armchair crime solving sometimes, but i feel like this guy talking about a phone call he didn't answer an hour after the "family left" the house is such an obvious red flag i can't believe more people didn't notice it, like one of those details that with hindsight seems so false and wrong and too right for that particular guy,

w/ hindsight it def does but according to this guy, he and joey mcstay talked on the phone dozens or twenty times or w/e that day, and im assuming the phone logs back that up? so if there were calls all right up to the last faked one, its sensible it wouldn't stand out

also, not sure if mcstays cell was found still in his house? thats what im assuming. otherwise if it was found with the remains out in Victorville near where the arrested dude lives, then maybe the cops have the fake call pinging out there cuz it was in the killers possession and he called himself from his own home. thatd obv be p dumb but wouldn't surprise me really

reminds me that The Serial's convicted/maybe at least partially framed dude said to have called himself etc and much else re phone logs, incl. iffiness (xpost, but now w own thread)

yeah i'm sure the logs back that up, it just seems like....why would he call that guy? if he was in trouble (the speculated reason for the call from merritt himself iirc?) he had his brother and dad or, idk, 911.

i finished lost girls. i thought it was kinda meh. i think i'll read the hijacking book next.

great article on Texarkana's "Phantom Killer":
http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/the-story-of-the-phantom-killer-a-texarkana-murder-mystery

Totally fascinated by the story of Ann and John Bender. It's a real-life version of The Mosquito Coast
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/Love-and-Madness-in-the-Jungle.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-death-of-john-bender-suicide-accident-or-murder/

I finally got around to reading "Lost Girls" and it made me depressed and angry. I posted on FB after reading it that for all the mystery-fan conjecture over the years about "How to commit the perfect murder," it's depressingly easy in this country: Kill transients and sex workers.

It seems like the Long Island police department is hopelessly corrupt and the locals are keeping their mouth shut, too, which isn't helping

haven't read any of these but you guys might like them http://longform.org/lists/best-of-2014#crime

The bank-robbing family article is the best one. Texas Monthly's crime writing is always A+

I guess it's kind of an obvious recommendation but carrere's The Adversary will knock your socks off.

not heard of this but buying now - don't be afraid to be obvious on this thread!

damn no ebook to buy, only thing out there is an unreadably blurred pdf scan

I watched the doc on this thing -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Cruces_Bowling_Alley_massacre

it was ok, didn't really truly quench my true crime thirst cuz theres really minimal info w/r/t suspects and it is mostly just very sad