by Lise LaSalle

Convicted murderer and former Toronto police officer Richard Wills killed his former girlfriend Laviana Mariani in February 2002, and was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2007. He had desperately tried to delay justice and in 2004, he was even assessed by a psychiatrist in the hope of being declared not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder. Instead of answering Wills’ prayers, the mental health specialist had determined that he was suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder and that he knew he was doing wrong when he killed his lover.

Laviana had been found face-down in a garbage can hidden behind a basement wall in Will’s home in 2002, and he was the last person to have seen her alive. She had been bludgeoned and strangled to death.

It takes a very troubled mind to attack and murder a former lover in an unprovoked fit of passion, and in the case of Richard Wills, his whole persona and character did not seem to have many redeeming qualities. Instead of presenting a contrite front, his behavior was always shrouded with sarcasm, repulsive actions and total disregard for the well-being of others and for the figures of authority he tried incessantly to antagonize.

During his pre-trial and trial in Newmarket, Ontario, our killer cop kept grossing out courtroom observers. He frequently interrupted proceedings by loudly passing gas and belching and once brought things to a temporary halt by reaching into his pants and pulling out feces.

He had made a practice of urinating in the police car used to drive him to court every day from the jail.

When he was particularly disruptive, Justice Michelle Fuerst would confine him to what court observers called “the rubber room,” a special area where he could see court proceedings on a special screen but not disrupt them. During his trial, Wills repeatedly lashed out at Fuerst with sexist comments and ridiculed one of his lawyers with a racist epithet.

He fired five lawyers during his publicly funded case, which dragged through the system for more than five years. He also threatened from the prisoner’s box to punch out prosecutors Harold Dale and Jeff Pearson.

While in jail during his trial, Wills had a very difficult rapport with other inmates in his ultra-high security wing. Famous inmate and biker Frank (Cisco) Lenti would repeatedly heckle him to the delight of other inmates. A 25-year police veteran is never welcome in prison, but Wills’ repulsive behavior and the fact that he killed a woman was not earning him any favors on the inside.

In fact, when Wills ended up at Kingston Penitentiary after having been found guilty, he managed to disgust the staff and the high-security inmates so much that he was transferred to another prison. Two sources said that whatever he did in his maximum-security cellblock was disturbing enough to depress his cellmates Paul Bernardo and Colonel Williams.

Wills and Bernardo were neighbors in the same segregated range of the penitentiary, along with Russell Williams, former commander of CFB Trenton who was sentenced in 2010 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for two sex murders.

According to Corrections Canada, Wills was transferred to a maximum-security facility in B.C. for a ‘’fresh start.’’ They probably celebrated when he left because solitary confinement prisoners in Kingston were kept in 2.5 by 3 meters cells and could talk but not see inmates in adjoining cells. So his loud singing, ‘feces swinging’ habits and flatulence fetish must have made him too close for comfort.

Wills was found guilty but he testified that Mariani, 40, died in an accidental fall in his Richmond Hill home. According to him, he panicked and decided to put her in the wall to keep her close to his heart. After all, she was the love of his life.

When they met, they were both married and after 6 years of togetherness, Wills decided to divorce his spouse, but when Mariani reneged on the deal to leave her husband, he smashed her head with a baseball bat and choked her with a rope.

Sgt. Craig Vaughan who had interviewed Wills when Mariani disappeared because he was the last person to have seen her alive on Feb. 15, 2002, had found “his behavior was bizarre. She had only been missing 1 1/2 days, her car was still missing and there was nothing medically wrong with her. But he was crying uncontrollably,” Vaughan said, testifying at Wills’ first-degree murder trial.

“He took off his clothes so that I could check his person, to ensure there was nothing. He took off his shirt, pants, his shoes and started to take off his underwear. I told him to stop,” Vaughan recalled. “He was trying to take charge of the investigation.

He said “help me, clear me and then I’ll help you in every way I can.”

Vaughan said Wills, who came to York police Richmond Hill station directly from his 14 Division shift, referred to the “brotherhood of police officers probably 30 times” during their chat.

Vaughan then quoted Wills as saying: “Whatever you do for me, I’ll do for you 10-fold.”

It was pretty obvious that he thought that his status as a “law enforcement officer” would dig him out of that hole and allow him to escape justice. “Wink Wink Nudge Nudge”. But he had underestimated the honesty of his colleagues who did not let him off the hook.

Pleading not guilty because of an accidental fall would not do the trick, so he became more creative in his efforts to stop the wheels of justice in their tracks. He started by pointing the finger at Mariani’s husband: “Our plans were that I would get my divorce done first and she would wait six months to a year, and then move out on her own,” then into Wills’ home, the court heard.

Vaughan asked if anyone, aside from Wills’ ex-wife, who left him eight months earlier, and her father who was accused of making threatening phone calls to Mariani, disliked her.

“No. I don’t want to point any fingers, but why didn’t he (her husband) call,” Vaughan testified, quoting Wills.

It led him nowhere so he proceeded to delay justice differently. Before his trial, Wills liquidated his assets and transferred most of his money to his wife and three children before applying for Legal Aid.

After representing himself during his preliminary hearing, a court ordered the province to allow for special funding so he could obtain legal representation.

He ended up with 13 lawyers, including seven who were publicly funded, two “friends of the court” and one who worked pro bono, according to a 2008 report by Ontario Ombudsman André Marin. Three of his attorneys were paid for privately.

Mr. Marin referred to the case as “a perfect storm of mischief” and “misjudgment”.

Among a sea of allegations, the law society accused his attorney, Mr. Hamalengwa to deliberately overbilling the government by nearly $145,000 for his work on the case.

As if it was not crazy enough, Wills reached out to National Post reporter, Joseph Brian through voice-mails to ask him to visit him in jail. He thought he had “what it takes” to help in his defence against this murder charge.

Brian called Wills’ teenage daughter who was acting as a go-between (isn’t it lovely to involve one’s own daughter in this type of legal mess?) and made an appointment to visit him in jail.

He was told that the police were “bum-rushing” him through the legal process and that he was innocent.

It was an offer any good reporter could not refuse in a high-profile case. He had to listen to what Richard had to say. Wills’ antics in the witness box had earned him a national reputation as a callous accused with a pathologically high self-regard, a preposterous alibi, and dubious sympathy for the woman he claimed to love.

But when he called the reporter, he was still an alleged murderer, a police officer no less, and Brian wanted the inside track. Driving toward the provincial facility in Lindsay, Ont., he wondered why Wills had chosen him. Wills had read about Brian in Lawyer’s Weekly. Having already fired several of his own lawyers, he was particularly tickled by the image of bumbling barristers made to look incompetent by an intrepid journalist. In his mind, he was a victim in need of a champion and he saw Brian as a modern Bob Woodward. The relationship was drowning in ignorant, ridiculous melodrama from the start.

Wills, then aged 48, was about six feet tall with dark hair and a greying beard. As soon as he appeared behind the glass in the visitation room, carrying a stack of legal books, he asked Brian to read from a sheet of legal paper, on which he had written in pencil. It read (and please don’ laugh):

WANTED: Person(s) possessing these qualities: 1. The allegiance of a mercenary (each new cause is the only cause until accomplished.)

2. The dedication of a Jesuit priest (burned at the stake for their cause, true to the very end)

3. The tenacity of a wolverine (once the fight is on, the fight ain’t over till it’s over)

4. The elusive intelligence of a Pentium 12 computer (equipped with the wisdom of how to apply such a gift)

5. The longevity of a Timex watch (takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’)

6. The courage of Neil Armstrong (courage of one’s convictions)

7. The ability to discern the differences between right and wrong, with the fortitude to tell the world. If so, please step up to the plate now in the interests of justice.

At the bottom of the page was the following addendum: “Wannabees, falldowns, Judases, rats, weasels, etc., need not apply within, however these persons are of great demand within the York Regional Police Force and the Newmarket Crown Attorney’s office.”

It did not take long for Brian to back out of this uncomfortable interview where Wills could not give him a decent answer to any of his questions about the logistic of the crime itself.

Wills kept talking about building trust, but he was thoroughly evasive on important questions; such as whether he knew anything about her death, or whether he knew what was in the plastic bin when he turned himself in, or why he turned himself in, or if the box had been in his house for the entire four months of her disappearance. (He implied that the box was NOT there when police searched his house on Feb. 17, 2002). He just answered those questions with prolonged silence in cinematic fashion.

When the guards tried repeatedly to end the meeting, he barked at them to leave them alone, but he used stronger language. He knew his rights.

He dropped tantalizing hints about forensic evidence, but never followed with details. He said that when police found Ms. Mariani’s car, there were apparent blood and semen stains in it, and also fingernail clippings, although he did not explain. He also said there were lip marks on the car’s vanity mirror. “Those lip marks are mine,” he said. This detail did not come up in court, and to this day, it makes no sense but if anyone is likely to have kissed a mirror, it is Richard Wills. So that was it for Joseph Brean who left to never return.

Richard Wills’ last bid to delay justice was swiftly denied when an Ontario Court of Appeal panel upheld his first-degree murder conviction in 2010.

Justice Michael Moldaver vindicated the trial judge, Justice Michelle Fuerst, in the decision to deny the appeal, as well as Crown prosecutors, Harold Dale and Jeff Pearson, and the jury for their actions while condemning Wills for “his strategy in delaying and obstructing the course of justice.

“You viewed the court process with disdain and did everything to subvert it and make a mockery of the proceedings,” Moldaver said, speaking on behalf of his fellow judges on the panel, Janet Simmons and Paul Rouleau.

Wills “baited the trial judge” throughout his 18-month trial in a bid to derail the proceedings.

“That verdict is entirely reasonable and supported by the evidence,” Moldaver said in dismissing the appeal. “There has been no miscarriage of justice.”

“You took steps to mislead the police and tried to point the finger of blame at Linda Mariani’s (innocent husband Domenic),” said Moldaver.

But Wills had showed up at his appeal, hoping to delay justice one more time. He had told his inmate hearing panel that he was too depressed to conduct his own appeal of his murder conviction.

Wills, 54, had no proof of his psychiatric condition and his adjournment bid was denied.

Moldaver called it “another futile attempt to delay the proceedings.”

“Thank God, it’s over,” wept Mariani’s mom, Anna Valeri, as soon as the judge declared her long ordeal finally over.

This hunk of burning love will be eligible for day parole on June 7, 2024, and for full parole on June 7, 2027.

by BJW Nashe

The first two photographs in this post are courtesy of San Francisco-based photographer Frank Gaglione. You can see more of Frank’s work at his website.

What’s going on with these people?

Sheila Isenberg, a New York reporter who interviewed three dozen women for her book, Women Who Love Men Who Kill (iUniverse, 2000), found that murder groupies can come from all walks of life. She noted, however, that the ones she wrote about had two things in common: all were Catholic, and all were abused as children. Clearly, those particular women have deep issues that need to be addressed–probably too many issues for any one therapist to tackle. But who knows? Maybe not all of these serial killer groupies are hopelessly troubled. Perhaps some are best seen simply as extreme examples of the young women we noticed growing up who always seemed to be attracted to the “bad boys,” and to living life on the edge. But being young and alive and daring doesn’t mean that the crazy act has to be re-run forever. Maybe it’s not too much to ask that these young thrill-seekers eventually turn things around and become gasp productive members of society. But it turns out that when you’re a self-styled serial killer groupie, it may not be all that easy to shed the urge to provoke shock and outrage.

Which leads us to one serial killer groupie who has made quite a splash in the news over the past few years. A young art and fashion student from San Francisco, Samantha Spiegel was first profiled in an SF Weekly story on December 8, 2010. The piece was striking because Ms. Spiegel presents such a disconcerting combination of physical beauty, high-class roots, boatloads of sophistication, and serious psychological turmoil. Hers is a tale of rampant drug abuse and risky sexual behavior and over-the-top murder-infatuation. She wrote letters to convicted murderers such as Charles Manson and Richard Ramirez. She fell in love with Richard Allen Davis, who sits on death row for kidnapping, raping and murdering 12 year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, in what was a highly publicized case at the time. Reading the piece, one wonders whether this is all a mad put-on, a kind of conceptual artwork in progress, a crazy attention-getting scheme, a truly dangerous form of psychopathology, or all of the above?

What are we to make, for instance, of the following letter to Charles Manson?:

“How are you holding up these days, Charlie? My name is Samantha Spiegel. I have always been extremely fascinated by you and Helter Skelter — incredibly so. In fact, I’m going to be reading [Vincent] Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter after my roommate. This always sounds crazy to people, but your ideals, your ideas — everything makes sense. You have lived quite a life and I really do respect that and in a way admire that. I may not have lived as much as you have, but I haven’t had it easy always. I completely relate to you and Helter Skelter.”

Palahniuk himself couldn’t top this. Not surprisingly, several other publications picked up on the SF Weekly story. It’s hard to resist this level of bizarre, scandalous titillation.

But Samantha Spiegel has apparently moved on. Perhaps the serial-killer groupie thing was just a phase. She’s currently busy working in San Francisco, making her own specialized contribution to the rich culture of that fine city. Obviously, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. In an October 25, 2011 sex column feature in The Daily Californian, Ms. Spiegel was identified by name and interviewed in her current guise as “Madame Farrah Habiba,” a leading high-class escort in the city. She talks about her new tattoos from Amsterdam, her BDSM tendencies, her new “master” who is a professional forensics psychologist, and her previous “dating” of Richard Ramirez and Richard Allen Davis. If you’re interested, Farrah Habiba now has a sleek web page at Wix.com featuring sexy photos and information. Farrah is described as “a sophisticated, intellectual, highly sexual VIP escort,” who is “available for double-date bookings with another beautiful raven-haired VIP playmate and escort!”

 “How are you holding up these days, Charlie?”

Link to the Mirror News story on Samantha Spiegel, originally posted on June 3, 2011:

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Apparently neither the children of Georgia nor their parents have gotten the message that schoolyard bullying has had its day and that it’s time for children (and adults) to learn to treat one another with respect. Wishful thinking on my part? Well, perhaps, but let’s not forget that there was a time when women were disenfranchised (weren’t allowed to vote), not to mention the fact that as recently as the 1950s and 1960s, Jim Crow was the de facto law of the land throughout much — if not all — of the South.

With respect to bullying, however,we still have a long ways to go as the recent events in Carroll County, Georgia, graphically demonstrate.

Michael Walsh of the New York Daily News has the story:

A little girl, third grader Aolani Dunbar, 8, of Rootville, Ga. has been bullied unmercifully by her classmates for the last three years. In other words, she’s been targeted by her so-called “classmates” ever since she started school. The viciousness  of the harassment intensified after Aolani had extensions put into her hair on Sept. 28. The other children, egged on by two small, aggressive boys, began pulling her hair — HARD!

“The following Monday, kids started teasing her, telling her she was stupid to have a wig on her hair,” said Sarah Charles, Aolani’s mother. “We called the school on Tuesday saying that her hair was being pulled.”

The school either did nothing or did not do enough. The bullying and hair-pulling continued. Aolani’s mother continued to call Rootville Elementary School for the next two weeks, asking for the school to launch a real investigation. But either the message did not get passed on or the school did not care enough to take steps to solve the problem. In any event, according to Aolani’s family, no effective steps were taken to protect the girl from her tormenters.

Although Sarah Charles appears to have been quite diligent in calling the school administrators, she did not catch on to how severe the hair-pulling was for quite some time. Also, Aolani apparently kept the degree of the damage to herself for over two weeks. Then on Oct. 15, Sarah noticed an “ungodly smell” coming from Aolani’s head.

Sarah and other family members began removing the extensions to see what was causing the odor.

“There was a humongous sore,” Charles said. “The doctor at the emergency room had never seen anything like that.”

You can imagine the shock and sorrow Sarah must have felt when when the surveyed the damage. The continuous tugging and yanking had actually torn off part of Aolani’s scalp.

The massive wound on the crown of the child’s head was so serious that it was treated in the emergency room as if it were a burn.

Doctors say Aolani’s hair might never grow back on the damaged part of her scalp and she may need a skin graft. She also had to have the rest of her head shaved to avoid infection.

Although Aolani is recovering physically, she is still a wreck psychologically. She has been out of school for nearly three weeks now suffering from “severe headaches, anxiety and extreme humiliation.” She will be transferred to another school within the same district, according to Sarah.

*     *     *     *     *

WSB-TV, the first station to cover the case, reported that Aolani shaved her head to decrease the risk of infection. Several family members and friends shaved their heads as well in a gesture of solidarity.

The family said that two little boys were responsible for encouraging a larger group of students to “have a tug” at her hair. One of the boys got an in-school suspension, but the other has not been disciplined.

The Carroll County School District released a statement saying the “administration immediately investigated and dealt with the students who had engaged in the behavior and appropriate disciplinary action was taken against them.”

*     *     *     *     *

Yeah, right. Until the boys choose another victim to pick on. But I am reminded of what our friend Pitchforks points out in his post, “Leading Lambs to Syllabic Slaughter.” Pitchforks argues that it’s really rather senseless “to let the buck stop” with the child perpetrators. When children act out in cruel fashion, says Pitchforks (albeit far more eloquently than I am capable of), they are reflecting what they have been taught by their parents at home. Their cruelty doesn’t come out of nowhere. The parents are largely to blame and should be called out for their lousy parenting.

Suppose the parents of the two little boys who instigated the vendetta against Aolani were required to serve 300 or 400 hours of community service to demonstrate that they “get it” and will do their level best to ensure that their kids stop picking on the weaker children.

Of course, it will be a cold day in hell before this happens. Or will it? Time will tell, my friends. In the meantime, children like Aolani who are somehow perceived as being different or weird or somehow unacceptable to the mindless majority will continue to be scapegoats in this dishearteningly cruel world.

by Starks Shrink

On June 18, 2014, at the age of 22 months, Cooper Harris succumbed to hyperthermia inside a hot SUV in Atlanta, Georgia, still strapped into his car seat.

Georgia is hot in the summer, and typically starts in early May there. I did my residency at Emory University Hospital and lived very near to where this tragedy occurred, so when I read about the death, I wasn’t all that surprised. In Atlanta, I didn’t even leave my Walkman (yes, Walkman) in the car for the day because the heat was so oppressive and destructive that my REO SpeedWagon tapes were ruined the one time I forgot and left them in my vehicle. Given this, it’s not hard to understand how people could be saddened, but sympathetic, to a man who claims to have forgotten to drop his only son at daycare, leaving him strapped into the car seat that would become his deathbed.

Car deaths of small children are regrettably not uncommon in hot climes. Last year, there were at least 44 on record in the US. Even extremely responsible people can forget their children or underestimate the effect of heat in a closed vehicle. So, when a tragedy like this occurs, people are typically sympathetic to the negligent parent, if only because they know it could have happened to them. DUIs have historically engendered the same feelings in many people because a large percentage of people have driven at least once when intoxicated.

Justin Ross Harris, Cooper’s father, the purportedly forgetful parent who left the child in his hot SUV for nearly 7 hours, was charged not only with child cruelty, but with felony murder. The public was outraged to the point that an online petition, demanding that Cobb County drop the charges, garnered thousands of signatures in just a few days. County officials, however, countered with innuendos that damning evidence would soon be revealed and hinted at allegations that Harris had googled facts about car deaths due to hyperthermia prior to the incident.

Now the public was completely confused. A dead child and an apparently grieving family, but with strong hints from police that the death was intentional. As more information came to light, the evidence seemed increasingly damning to both parents, at least based on what the media chose to report. Social media was on fire with heated discussions and the online petition was soon withdrawn.

At Justin “Ross” Harris’s probable cause and bond hearing last week the prosecution and defense presented their versions of the events, and curiously, it seemed more like a trial than a mere hearing. The prosecution provided circumstantial as well as forensic evidence, while portraying Harris as a murderer who premeditated the death of his child.

The Prosecution’s Case:

Among the forensic evidence provided are security videos which depict Harris’s movements on that fateful day. They show him leaving the fast-food restaurant where he shared breakfast with his son, and then minutes later, arriving at his office about a mile from the restaurant. The visual evidence shows that Harris leaning over to the passenger seat to retrieve a laptop computer before exiting the vehicle. Tapes also show that Harris, contrary to his statements to investigators, returned to the vehicle on his lunch hour, opened the driver side door and deposited a package. Police claim that Cooper’s head would have been plainly visible above his rear-facing car seat at this juncture.

When Harris returned to his office after depositing the package, tapes depict him pausing and turning to watch a man walking near his SUV. At 4:16 PM, after leaving his office, Harris can be seen getting into his vehicle and immediately pulling out of the parking lot. After 6 minutes of travel, he pulled into a shopping mall parking lot, removed Cooper’s body from the car and laid him on the ground. A passerby assisted in attempts to render aid to the child. According to a detective on scene, the interior of the vehicle had a foul stench and the child was in full rigor mortis. The detective also stated that Harris was on his cell phone when police arrived, refused to terminate his conversation, and was so uncooperative with officers that he was cuffed and placed inside a police cruiser. It is noted that Harris was carrying $27,000 worth of life insurance on Cooper.

Those are indisputable facts in the case. Circumstantial evidence is what compelled prosecutors to charge Harris with felony murder and what caused the public to change their opinion about him. Prosecutors demonstrated that prior to Cooper’s death, Justin Harris had googled how long it takes for an animal to die in a hot car and had viewed an online video depicting the rising heat in the interior of a vehicle that was intended to warn the public about potential danger to pets. It was also revealed that he had been “sexting” with as many as 6 women he had made contact with through a dating website, one of whom is a minor, and had even been sexting from his SUV on the morning Cooper died.

The prosecution testified that Justin’s wife, Leanna, indicated that the couple was having marital and financial difficulties due to irresponsibility on Justin’s part. They pointed out that Harris had been passed over for a promotion at his current job, and had not been offered a position he had recently interviewed for at another company. The prosecution additionally brought out the alleged fact that Harris had been visiting a couple of Reddit sub forums, one that hosts death videos, and one dedicated to discussions about the pleasures of child-free life.

They also claim that Leanna was supposed to pick up Cooper from day care and that she went to the day care center after a brief phone conversation with Justin. When she discovered that he wasn’t there, her first reaction was one of horror, and she told others that Justin must have left Cooper in the car. When Harris left his office at 4:16, shortly after his phone conversation with Leanna, he claimed that he was going to a 5:00 movie with friends, despite the facts that he had previously told friends he would be late, and the theater was only a few miles from his office.

The prosecution (and much of the public) concludes from all of these pieces of evidence that Harris had researched how to kill his child and had planned and carried it out on June 18th in order to free himself of the burden of fatherhood, while solving his financial issues at the same time.

Case for the Defense:

There could be myriad explanations for the circumstantial evidence, and even the forensic evidence lends itself to various interpretation of Harris’ actions on that day. In my opinion, the prosecution has inadvertently made the defense’s case for them. If I were making the case for the defense, I would not attempt to dispute any of this evidence. What it clearly indicates to me is that Harris is a man with markedly poor impulse control, an unsettling self-absorption, and a disregard for consequences of his actions. He was described as being upset over his work situation, but given that the computer activities that police described occurred on his work computer, he can’t be described as the most conscientious of employees.

Perhaps, both he and his wife had researched car deaths because this wasn’t the first time Harris had inadvertently left Cooper in the car. In fact, despite Leanna’s admissions, comments at the day care center, and some rather bizarre statements at Cooper’s funeral, she has not been charged with anything. Perhaps Harris realized his marriage was in jeopardy and simply visited child-free forums to see what his life would be like if divorced. If I were his defense lawyer, I would give Harris a psychological evaluation with the expectation that a psychologist could testify to his habitual irresponsibility due to poor impulse control, evidence that could be introduced at trial. Although he perhaps has some form of personality disorder, that would not make him guilty of murder; at most, it would make him a poor husband and negligent father, which would tend to move his culpability, at worst, into the realm of some form of negligence-induced manslaughter.

I am not claiming to know what happened on that fateful day, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that this is a tragic accident caused by a habitually negligent man and we, the public, should not rush to judge this man until we’ve heard all the facts and arguments.

Please click here to view The Starks Shrink’s Other Posts:

Why Beautiful Murderesses Inflame the Passions of the True Crime Fan

Going Postal Goes Fed-Ex!

How to Raise a Serial Killer in 10 Easy Steps

The Julie Schenecker Tragedy: Negligence, Finger-Pointing and the Death of Children

Luka Magnotta: Man, Boy or Beast?

The Disturbing Truth about Mothers Who Murder Their Children

Teleka Patrick Needed a Psychiatrist, Not a Pastor!

Rehabbing the Wounded Juvenile Will Save Their Souls (and Ours)

Skylar Neese and the Mean Girls Who Killed Her

by Darcia Helle

Allow me to tell you a story about a woman born into the most dismal of circumstances. Her mother is a young teen when she marries a violent man. He is soon arrested and convicted of the rape and attempted murder of a 7-year-old girl. By some reports, her father is schizophrenic. Her mother decides parenting is too difficult and soon abandons her.

Life gets no better for this woman. She’s never given a chance to succeed. Under these circumstances, it’s human nature to feel sympathy for this woman right?

Now what if I tell you this woman became a serial killer? Does that change how you feel about her?

This woman’s name is Aileen Carol Wuornos, and she is considered our most famous female serial killer. She was born in Rochester, Michigan on February 29, 1956. She confessed to, and was put to death for, the murders of six men.

Aileen’s history is murky, surrounded by half-truths and suppositions. The truth is bad enough and needs no distortion. Her parents – Diane Wuornos and Leo Dale Pittman – were married in1954. Sources differ on Diane’s age at the time; she was either 14 or 15-years-old. All sources agree that Pittman was a violent man. He had beaten his grandmother repeatedly, and his favorite pastime as an adolescent was to tie the tails of two cats together, sling them over a clothesline, and watch them fight.

Diane gave birth to Aileen’s older brother Keith in 1955. She promptly became pregnant again but, two months before Aileen was born, Leo Dale Pittman vanished from their  lives forever. Here again accounts differ. Most state that Pittman had been arrested and went to prison, though at least one source has him enlisted in the military in order to avoid petty criminal charges. Either way, Diane left him and Aileen never met her father. At some point, Pittman was arrested for and convicted of the rape and attempted murder of a 7-year-old girl. He died in prison in 1969. Most sources say he hung himself, although there are also rumors that he was strangled by another inmate.

While still a young teenager, Diane found herself the single parent of two babies, and the ex-wife of a child rapist. Those early years appear to have been disastrous for all involved. Unable to cope with her responsibilities, Diane handed Aileen and Keith over to her parents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos. Aileen was four-years-old.

Lauri and Britta raised their two grandchildren alongside their other children. Oddly, Keith and Aileen believed Lauri and Britta were their parents. No clear explanation seems to exist as to how or why these two children were able to simply forget the woman they’d call Mommy so completely.

Britta Wuornos was an alcoholic. Some accounts describe her as “strict”, while others call her abusive. Lauri Wuornos had little patience and would often whip Aileen with his belt. The environment was far from ideal for two young and troubled children. In 1962, when Aileen was six, she and her brother Keith used lighter fluid to set fires. Aileen was badly burned on one occasion and left with permanent scarring.

Some sources say Aileen was selling sexual favors at school by the age of nine, though this information is sketchy and probably not reliable.

Aileen Wuornos claimed that both Lauri and Keith sexually abused her from an early age. There is, of course, no firm evidence for this. Neither her grandfather nor her brother ever made any such admissions, and Aileen did not have the kind of family or social support she needed to turn to for help.

At around the age of 12, Aileen discovered that Mom and Dad were actually her grandparents. This information caused even further turmoil in the children’s lives. They acted out, but no rational adult stepped in to help.

When she was just 14-years-old, Aileen became pregnant. She claimed Keith was the father, though, again, there is no proof of this. She was sent away to a home for unwed mothers and, in 1971, gave birth to a boy who was put up for adoption.

In July of 1971, shortly after Aileen gave birth, Britta Wuornos died of apparent liver failure due to alcohol abuse. Lauri wanted nothing to do with raising his grandchildren alone, and insisted Keith and Aileen be made wards of the state. The two were removed from the home, and soon afterward Aileen ran away. With no education, no family or friends to help her, and no reasonable means of supporting herself, Aileen turned to petty crime and prostitution.

In May of 1974, at the age of 18, Aileen was arrested for disorderly conduct, drunk driving, and firing a weapon from a vehicle. And this was only the beginning.

Within the next couple of years, Aileen’s brother Keith died of throat cancer and her grandfather committed suicide. Aileen was 20-years-old and completely alone, so she stuck out her thumb and took to life on the road.

While out hitchhiking, Aileen was picked up by a 69-year-old, wealthy yacht club president named Lewis Fell. He was love-struck and almost immediately proposed, which might have been the only bit of luck Aileen ever experienced. They were married in Georgia, with the wedding announcement even making it into the society pages. But Aileen was unable to settle into married life. She got into bar fights and was soon arrested for assault. Approximately one month after the wedding, Lewis Fell realized his mistake and had their marriage annulled. In his divorce petition, Fell claimed Aileen had beaten him with his cane.

Aileen continued along her path of destruction for the next decade. She drank too much, did drugs, sold her body, committed robbery, and vandalized property. In 1981, she was so distraught over the breakup with her boyfriend that she planned to commit suicide. She bought a gun and got drunk in preparation, but then changed her mind and instead robbed a grocery store while wearing her bikini. She was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. After serving 18 months, she was released from prison and went to live with one of her male prison pen pals. This relationship didn’t work, and Aileen was once again on her own.

Aileen was lonely and angry at the world when, in 1986, she met 24-year-old Tyria Moore at a biker bar in Florida. Their attraction was instant and mutual. Aileen went home with Tyria that evening, and the two spent the entire weekend in Tyria’s bedroom. From then on, the two were inseparable. Tyria, known as Ty, provided the unconditional love Aileen had been missing all her life. For a time, Aileen seemed to find an anchor in the raging sea of her life.

But her fairytale was not all bliss. The couple led a nomadic lifestyle, sleeping in cheap motels or in the woods. Aileen continued selling her body for money to survive. While Ty later claimed begged Aileen to stop prostituting herself, there is no evidence that she made an effort to help support them in any way, legal or otherwise. In fact, at the start of their relationship, Ty quit her job in order to spend more time with Aileen. While Aileen was out hooking to buy them food, Ty was typically at the bars drinking away what little money they had.

After a few years of this, Aileen was struggling to support them. Money was tight and problems arose. Aileen feared that Ty would abandon her, as everyone else in her life had. She felt desperate and would do anything to hold on to the one person that she’d ever truly loved. This volatile mix of emotions led Aileen straight to the crisis she’d been working toward all her life.

On November 30, 1989, in Tampa, Florida, Aileen was picked up by Richard Mallory. And this is where it all goes horribly wrong. Until shortly before her execution, Aileen maintained that Mallory tried to rape her, and that she shot him in self-defense. Mallory was known to frequently pick up prostitutes along the interstate. He also had a criminal record, having been convicted of rape in the past, but this information was not introduced when Aileen was eventually brought to trial. Regardless of any initial intent, on that day in November, Aileen shot Mallory three, or possibly four times, stole his money and his car, and drove straight back to Ty.

Aileen told Ty about the murder right away, though Ty later claimed she hadn’t believed her. Still, Tyria didn’t appear worried about where the money and car had come from. The two women packed up Mallory’s Cadillac that night and left the motel in a hurry. Once they’d relocated, they wiped their prints from the car and ditched it near Daytona.

After Mallory’s murder, life for Aileen and Tyria returned to their version of normal. Even so, their lack of money was always a point of stress for Aileen. When Tyria’s sister came to stay with them, Aileen was convinced Ty would leave with her sister and go back to Ohio. Jealousy, fear, insecurity, and anger pushed Aileen over the edge. During that three-week period, she robbed, shot, and killed three more men.

On July 4th, 1990, Aileen and Tyria, during a particularly heated argument, crashed the car they were driving in Orange Springs, Florida. They fled the scene on foot, but a witness described both women to the police. The vehicle they’d wrecked belonged to Peter Siems, a missing 65-year-old retired merchant seaman. The interior of the car showed signs of a struggle. Police obtained a number of palm and fingerprints from the car, and the women’s descriptions were circulated throughout Florida.

Eventually, police connected the murders, realizing they had a female serial killer on the loose. By mid-December, 1990, a number of leads led them to Tyria Moore. They also had three other names – Lee Blahovec, Lori Grody and Cammie Marsh Greene – all of which matched the description of the second woman. When Aileen used her Cammie Marsh Greene ID to pawn a camera that had belonged to Richard Mallory, she was required by law to provide fingerprint identification. She later pawned a set of tools matching the description of those missing from David Spears’ truck. Those fingerprints from the pawn shops matched fingerprints taken from the crashed car belonging to Peter Siems. The information was passed on to the National Crime Information Center, where they were able to connect Aileen Wuornos’s name to the three aliases. By January 5, 1991, the police finally had names for their suspected serial killing females and were ready to move in.

By this time, Aileen had lost her struggle to hold on to Tyria. Devastated over the breakup, Aileen was once again on her own.

On January 8, 1991, two undercover cops spotted Aileen at the Port Orange Pub. They bought her a few beers and later offered her a ride, which she declined. She left the pub around 10 p.m., and they followed her to a biker bar called The Last Resort. There the undercover cops sat with her and bought her a few more beers. The cops left at midnight, but kept Aileen under surveillance. She spent her last night as a free woman sleeping on an old car seat at The Last Resort.

The following afternoon, the decision was made to arrest Aileen rather than to risk losing her. The two undercover cops offered to let Aileen use their motel room to clean up. She accepted the offer, but when she walked out of the bar with them she was arrested on what police told her was an outstanding warrant for Lori Grody, one of her aliases. They did not let on that they knew her true identity. No mention was made of the murders, and the media was not told that Aileen was their suspected serial killer. The police were being extra cautious because they had no murder weapon and had yet to find Tyria Moore.

The following day, on January 10, 1991, Tyria was found. She’d been living with her sister in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Tyria was read her rights but not arrested or charged with a crime. In short order, Tyria gave Aileen up as the killer. Despite later interviews where she claimed not to have believed Aileen’s first murder confession, Tyria told the cops she’d known about the murders from the very beginning. “I told her I didn’t want to hear about it,” she told the police. “And then any time she would come home after that and say certain things, telling me about where she got something, I’d say I don’t want to hear it.”

The next day, Tyria Moore went back to Florida along with the police, not as a criminal, but as a witness to help them ensure Aileen Wuornos’s conviction.

Tyria was put in a motel in Daytona and told to contact Aileen at the prison. Her cover story was that her mother had given her money to come back down to Florida in order to pick up the rest of her belongings. Phone conversations were taped, and Tyria was instructed to tell Aileen the police had been questioning her family about her and the Florida murders.

The first call was made on January 14. Aileen had yet to be charged or even questioned about the murders, and remained under the impression that she’d only been arrested for a weapons violation under the alias of Lori Grody. When Tyria voiced her concerns, as scripted by the police, Aileen reassured her, saying, “I’m only here for that concealed weapons charge in ’86 and a traffic ticket, and I tell you what, man, I read the newspaper, and I wasn’t one of those little suspects.” Aware that prison phones were monitored, Aileen did her best to speak in code. She went on to say, “I think somebody at work – where you worked at – said something that it looked like us. And it isn’t us, see? It’s a case of mistaken identity.”

The calls continued for three days and Tyria played Aileen well. Knowing Aileen would do anything to keep her safe, and to keep her love, Tyria used that advantage as she cried and even suggested she should just kill herself. In listening to the conversations, it seems apparent that Aileen knew something wasn’t right. She even asked Tyria if someone was with her during the conversations. Tyria naturally denied any such thing and played up her fear skillfully. She begged Aileen to tell the cops the truth. On the morning of January 16, 1991, Aileen did just that and confessed to killing six men.

Throughout Aileen’s confession to police, she reiterated two points. First, she adamantly declared Tyria Moore innocent, taking full blame and responsibility for the six murders. The men she admitted to killing were: Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddan, Troy Buress, Dick Humphreys, and Walter Gino Antonio. She denied killing Peter Siems, whose murder police believe she’d committed but whose body was never found. The second point Aileen continually made was that none of it was her fault, not the murders and not the circumstances of her life leading up to them. She insisted all the men she’d killed were aggressive and had either assaulted, threatened, or raped her.

Her public defender, Michael O’Neill, continually advised Aileen to stop talking. She ignored him. Exasperated, he finally said to her, “Do you realize these guys are cops?” Her reply was, “I know. And they want to hang me. And that’s cool, because maybe, man, I deserve it. I just want to get this over with.”

Once the media picked up the story, Aileen Wuornos found instant infamy. Book and movie deals were offered to detectives, relatives, Tyria Moore, and Aileen herself. For a while, Aileen was the media darling and everyone wanted a piece of her. For the first time in her life, people were interested in what she had to say. She relished the limelight, and no doubt enjoyed perfecting and embellishing her story as she went along.

Within two weeks of her arrest, Wuornos and her attorney had sold movie rights to her story. Investigators did the same. Aileen Wuornos’s tragic life story resulted in several books, two movies, and even one opera, called Wuornos by Carla Lucero.

Aileen’s newfound fame brought her an unlikely champion for her cause. Arlene Pralle, a 44-year-old Born Again Christian, ran a horse breeding and boarding facility in Ocala, Florida. After seeing Aileen’s photo and story in the newspaper, Arlene wrote Aileen a letter that began, “My name is Arlene Pralle. I’m born-again. You’re going to think I’m crazy, but Jesus told me to write you.”

Arlene provided her phone number and, on January 30, Aileen called her collect. The two formed an instant bond. Arlene became Aileen’s confidant and defender. On Arlene’s advice, Aileen asked for and received new lawyers. The first public defense team, according to Arlene, was attempting to profit from Aileen’s story. She wanted Aileen to have lawyers who’d work hard to protect her, not to make money off her.

Arlene began speaking to media and tabloids. She appeared on talk shows and arranged interviews for Aileen. When asked about their relationship, Arlene said, “We’re like Jonathan and David in the Bible. It’s as though part of me is trapped in jail with her.” To another reporter, Arlene said, “If the world could know the real Aileen Wuornos, there’s not a jury that would convict her.”

On November 22, 1991, Arlene Pralle and her husband Robert legally adopted Aileen Wuornos because, according to Arlene, God told her to.

Through her defense team, Aileen agreed to plead guilty to the murders of six men in exchange for six consecutive life sentences. But the prosecution was determined to get the death penalty and wouldn’t make the deal. They decided to try her for the murder of Richard Mallory first, since that was their strongest case.

Aileen Wuornos’s trial began on January 14, 1992, with Judge Uriel Blount presiding. The combination of evidence and witnesses for the prosecution was damning. Dr. Arthur Botting, the medical examiner who’d autopsied Mallory, testified that Mallory had taken 10-20 minutes to die an excruciating death. Probably most difficult for Aileen was Tyria Moore’s testimony. Tyria told jurors that Aileen had not seemed upset, nervous, or drunk when she’d returned home and confessed to killing Mallory that day. Not once during her testimony did Tyria meet Aileen’s eyes.

Aileen was damned further by a Florida law called ‘Williams Rule’, which allows prosecution to introduce evidence from pending cases providing they demonstrate a criminal pattern. This enabled the prosecution to tell jurors about the other murders Aileen was suspected of committing, vividly painting her as a vicious serial killer.

Against her lawyer’s advice, Aileen insisted on testifying on her own behalf. The story she told the jury about the night she killed Richard Mallory barely resembled the initial story she’d told on her videotaped confession to police. She now claimed Mallory had raped, sodomized, and tortured her. When the inconsistencies of her story were pointed out on cross-examination, she became agitated and visibly angry. She invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination a total of 25 times.

On January 27, 1992, the jury took less than two hours to return with a verdict: guilty of first-degree murder. As the jury filed out of the courtroom, Aileen shouted, “I’m innocent! I was raped! I hope you get raped, scumbags of America!”

The penalty phase of Aileen’s trial began the following day. Expert defense witnesses testified that Aileen was mentally ill, that she suffered from borderline personality disorder, and that her tumultuous childhood had stunted her emotional growth. Jurors, though, were having none of it and unanimously recommended death. On January 31, 1992, Judge Uriel Blount sentenced Aileen Wuornos to death by electrocution.

That would turn out to be Aileen’s one and only trial. On March 31, she pleaded guilty to the murders of Troy Buress, Dick Humphreys, and David Spears. In her statement to the court, she said, “I wanted to confess to you that Richard Mallory did violently rape me, as I’ve told you. But these others did not. [They] only began to start to.” On May 15, Judge Thomas Sawaya gave Aileen three more death sentences.

In June of 1992, Aileen pleaded guilty to the murder of Charles Carskaddon, for which she received her fifth death sentence.

Finally, in February 1993, she pleaded guilty to the murder of Walter Gino Antonio and was sentenced to death for the sixth and final time.

No charges were brought for the murder of Peter Siems, whose body was never found and whom Aileen still maintained she had not killed.

When evidence was brought to light that Richard Mallory, Aileen’s first victim, had served 10 years in prison for rape, Aileen’s attorneys felt jurors would have viewed that case differently had they been told. For a time, there was speculation of a new trial. But that was not to be. Aileen’s conviction was upheld.

Once sentenced to death, Aileen never wavered in her request that her execution be carried out as soon as possible. For that to happen, she needed to convince the Supreme Court that she was sane and understood what she was asking. In her letter to the Florida Supreme Court, she wrote, “I’m one who seriously hates human life and would kill again.” About this time, Aileen also confessed to murdering Peter Siems, stating she’d killed all seven men for the money. She stressed that she was not a thrill killer as most serial killers were, and had only murdered the men in order to eliminate witnesses. She was a thief, not a killer. Despite confessing to this last murder, she never told anyone and didn’t appear to know the location of Siems’s body. During this same interview, she retracted her claim of killing Mallory in self-defense. She handed everything over in a tidy package so that her execution would not be delayed.

The Court reviewed her letter and all the information, and subsequently allowed Aileen to fire her attorneys and stop her appeals. She was also allowed to choose lethal injection over the electric chair as the manner in which she’d die.

Because the case remained in the media spotlight, Governor Jeb Bush issued a stay of execution and ordered a psychological exam. The execution of mentally ill inmates is against international law. After three psychiatrists deemed Aileen Wuornos sane and able to understand her situation, Bush lifted the stay.

The day before her execution, Aileen gave her final media interview to British producer Nick Broomfield, who had put together a documentary on Aileen in 1993. The interview so rattled Broomfield that, outside the prison afterward, he stated, “My conclusion from the interview is, today we are executing someone who is mad. Here is someone who has totally lost her mind.”

Aileen Wuornos refused her last meal. She was ready to die, resigned to her fate, and maybe even looked forward to the release death would bring.

At 9:47 a.m. on October 9, 2002, Aileen Wuornos was put to death at Florida State Prison. Her last words were, “I’d like to say I’m sailing with the Rock and I’ll be back like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6, like the movie, big mothership and all. I’ll be back.”

In the end, Tyria Moore, the woman Aileen would and did do anything for, both betrayed and abandoned her. Arlene Pralle, her adoptive mother, also abandoned her, and didn’t even know Aileen’s execution date. The only person who remained by Aileen’s side until the end was a childhood friend. The two were committed pen pals throughout Aileen’s prison stay, and they spent some of Aileen’s last hours together

Tyria Moore was never charged with any crime. While it is likely Aileen did commit all the murders on her own, Tyria herself admits to knowing about them from the start. Had she immediately notified the police after Richard Mallory’s murder, Aileen would not have been free to keep killing. Had Tyria gotten a job and taken some financial pressure from Aileen, perhaps things would have turned out differently. Instead, Tyria played a passive-aggressive role, happy to live off the money Aileen brought home after robbing and killing her victims.

Tyria Moore was just the last in a steady line of people who failed Aileen, helping to turn her into the killer she became.

Please click to below to view Darcia’s Helle’s many excellent posts:

“Met Her on the Mountain”: Cold Case Social Worker Hog-Tied, Raped and Killed in Appalachia

Jovial Private Bartender Snaps; Assaults and Drags Obnoxious 84-Year-Old Club Patron

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Great Gasoline Mass Murder

Edward Elmore Rode the Legal Railroad to 30 Years on Death Row: His Crime? Simple! He Was Black and Poor

 “The Wrong Carlos”: Non-Violent Manchild Executed for Murder He Did Not Commit

The Electric Chair Nightmare: An Infamous and Agonizing History

Autopsies: Truth, Fiction and Maura Isles and Her 5-Inch-Heels

Don’t Crucify Me, Dude! Just Shoot Me Instead! Spartacus and Death by Crucifixion

To Burn or Not to Burn? Auto-Da-Fé Is Not Good for Women or Children!

The Disgraceful Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass: Keep the Narcs Out of Our Schools

Why Should I Believe You? The History of the Polygraph

“Don’t Behead Me, Dude!”: The Story of Beheading and the Invention of the Guillotine

Aileen Wuornos, America’s First High-Profile Female Serial Killer, Never Had a Chance

The Terror of ISO: A Descent into Madness

Al Capone Could Not Bribe the Rock: Alcatraz, Fortress of Doom

Cyberspace, Darknet, Murder-for-Hire and the Invisible Black Machine

Darcia Helle lives in a fictional world with a husband who is sometimes real. Their house is ruled by spoiled dogs and cats and the occasional dust bunny.

Suspense, random blood splatter and mismatched socks consume Darcia’s days. She writes because the characters trespassing through her mind leave her no alternative. Only then are the voices free to haunt someone else’s mind.

Join Darcia in her fictional world: www.QuietFuryBooks.com

By Clarence Walker

“Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob” – Oscar Wilde.

As people our lives’ value lies in our contribution to a greater good by taking a stand to become part of something on this earth much greater than ourselves. With passion and intelligent risk-taking, we as people can help make the world a better place for those in pursuit of equal opportunities, happiness and freedom of expression to enjoy life to its fullest. Which brings to mind the rebels in our society such as the mafia. The mob’s dark underworld conjures up murder, brutality, assassins, and all sorts of evil deeds these men have carried out.

But if the mafia’s money was the root of all their evil deeds, apparently there’s good within the evilness of the blood money they made. According to Thaddeus Russell’s newly released book: “A Renegade History of the United States: 7 Ways the Mafia made the United States a Better Place”; had it not been for the mafia, our American society of today might be a different place in which to live without nearly the freedoms and tolerant attitude that characterize our modern pluralistic society.

Russell writes, “Imagine America with no racial integration or freedom to be gay in public. In my book, I show that all you have to do is imagine American history without organized crime.” Russell’s splendidly written book tells compelling stories of the unsung heroes who were big-time gangsters, while simultaneously illuminating historical struggles between the struggle for social control, the specter of racism, and the grab for power to monopolize the flow of money flow into mainstream economy. Money was the great equalizer combating everything that was wrong in America.

“A Renegade History of the United States” takes its reader into America’s past all the way into the “belly of the beast” showing how the downtrodden, arguably immoral citizens using illegal mob money, rose from the ashes to accomplish more for civil rights and personal freedom than anyone could imagine.

The following stories from Russell’s book shows how gangsters made America a better place:

New Orleans

Had it not been for the mob, Louis Armstrong, the legendary Jazz singer, may have never gotten the opportunity to make history by becoming a world-renowned singer and jazz musician.

During the 1900s, hundreds of Sicilian mafiosi controlled the New Orleans economy, particularly the brothels, saloons and  popular speakeasies that defined New Orleans as the bastion of pleasure of the south. When “respectable” Americans ridiculed the music called “Jass” as black and criminal jungle music — many others were receptive to pay cash money to hear and dance to this new form of music.

New Orleans Sicilian Henry Matranga, head of the Matranga family, exploited the opportunity by opening up buildings in the Storyville district near the French Quarter. It was in the Storyville district in 1917 where teenager Louis Armstrong earned his first pay for playing the trumpet to huge crowds in brothels owned by the Sicilian-Matranga mob family.

The book details how in Chicago and New York,  Italian and Jewish gangsters owned numerous jazz clubs — one notable gangster was Al Capone. Mob-owned clubs on State street in Chicago frequently used musicians like Armstrong, King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman, who with the help of many others, turned jazz into a national phenomenon.

According to scholar Jerome Charyn, “There would have been no “Jazz Age” and very little jazz, without the white gangsters taking black and white jazz musicians under their wing.”

Prohibition

Organized crime is the credited source for making prohibition the most unsuccessful moral reform movement in American history. When the U.S. government passed the Eighteenth Amendment prohibiting the sale of alcohol, Italian and Jewish organized crime syndicates transported liquor throughout the Pacific Coast, the Atlantic seaboard, and the Gulf of Mexico. During prohibition, organized crime made untold millions selling liquor in thousands of speakeasies, saloons and sex brothels.

Unable to control humanity’s thirst for the mind-altering drink, the government finally legalized alcoholic beverages but not without getting in on the action by making huge sums of money through the liquor sales tax.

Broadway, New York City

Arnold “The Brain” Rothstein became filthy rich investing in speakeasies, underground casinos and horse racing tracks. He is also known as the man who fixed the 1919 World’s Baseball Series (the infamous Black Sox scandal). Rothstein financed the opening of several renowned businesses including the famous Selwyn Theater on 42nd street that attracted millions of patrons to Broadway. It’s popularity rose to staggering heights and Broadway became the first entertainment capital in America.

Las Vegas Strip

There’s no argument when people call Las Vegas the most visited tourist destination in the United States. Russell’s book explains that the Las Vegas strip would be just another street in the desert were it not for the gangsters. In the 1930s Meyer Lansky, leader of a Jewish crime organization known as the Syndicate, controlled the majority of the gambling operations in the Western hemisphere. He owned top-notch casinos in Miami, Saratoga Springs, New York and Havana, Cuba.

Around 1945, Lansky built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Eventually he turned the operation over to Bugsy Siegel, a rising star in Lansky’s syndicate who ran the mob’s operations in Los Angeles. With the Flamingo’s smashing success, the strip was flooded with mob-owned hotel-casinos thus making Las Vegas a worldwide attraction. Organized crime in Las Vegas is such a part of its history that a popular mob museum was built two years ago to showcase mob history.

Hollywood

When Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera and projector, he created the Motion Picture Patents Company called the ‘Trust’ to make movies based on Christian-American values. But on the Lower East Side of New York, Jewish entrepreneurs used Edison’s invention to make their own films which were shown in thousands of five-cent Nickelodeans all across the United States.

These Jewish outlaw filmmakers made movies with violent, sexy content, which were far more entertaining than Edison’s wholesome, purified movies. Furious over the rip-off, Edison, with help from police acting on a city ordinance in Chicago, ordered the Jewish theaters closed down; fire and bloodshed followed.

A goon squad hired by Edison beat up directors and actors, forcing movie-goers out of the theaters and set fire to city blocks where the so-called immoral movies were playing. Apparently Edison underestimated his competition. Gangsters “Big” Jack Zelig, “Lefty Louie” Rosenberg, “Gyp the Blood” Horowitz, and leaders of the notorious Yiddish Black Hand stepped in to eliminate Edison and the city enforcement attempt to censor what could be shown in these independently-owned movie theaters.

The war continued. Gangsters stole expensive film equipment out of Edison’s warehouses in the Bronx, Philadelphia and Chicago and then ignited a fire that grew into a raging inferno that destroyed the properties.

By 1915, the Edison ‘Trust’ group disbanded and the Jewish outlaw filmmakers moved west, where they made bigger and better movies. The outlaws, with the help of their friends, were assisted by another group of Jewish gangsters that helped them to dismantle Thomas Edison and the city laws of Chicago, and in the end, they won the battle.

Who were these mighty men? Do these names ring a bell in today’s motion picture industry? Here they are:

(1) Marcus Loews of Loews Theatres and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

(2) Carl Laemmle of Universal Pictures

(3) Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures

(4) William Fox of Twentieth-Century Fox

(5) The Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack.

Slavery, Racism, Interracial Sex, and the Mafia

During mid-19th century, concert saloons gained popularity in U.S. cities. These breezy places with swinging doors offered liquor, music, lewd dancing, and sex for sale. High on the list was sex between blacks and whites. Several salons in larger northern cities was owned by crime syndicates. Blacks with mob front money and Italian and Jewish immigrants were affiliated with the mob.

Even during Jim Crow era, when the lynching of blacks was a weekly event, thousands of black men had sex with white women in brothels. It is reasonable to conclude that organized crime fronted these places with ‘dirty’ money.

The mixing of races in dance halls owned by Jewish and Italian crime syndicates was so prevalent the Ku Klux Klan waged fierce opposition to close these lurid places down. If owners failed to comply with local government regulations, the KKK burned down these establishments. But nothing could stop the syndicates’ desire to make a buck through enabling inter-racial sex. Unphased, organized crime re-grouped and started all over again.

Gay Freedom

Although under-reported by mainstream media, gangsters were instrumental in fostering and protecting the gay subculture during World War Two and the 1950s. Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino (right), heads of the largest and most powerful New York crime families, invested in gay bars during the early 1930s.

Most New York gay bars was owned by the mob. One place called The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village had been a non-gay business for many years until members of the Genovese family purchased the spot and converted it into a gay bar.

The Stonewall manager, Ed “The Skull” Murphy, was a homosexual and ex-convict.

Protected from police harassment and potential assaults, white gay customers’ preference for sex with blacks and Latinos gave the Stonewall a reputation as the most racially diverse club — gay or straight—in New York city.

Russell’s book reveals a little known piece of compelling history about America’s gay revolution. “The famous raid on the Stonewall in 1969 that gave rise to the Gay Liberation movement was a federal sting operation directed at the mob.”

Over the next decade, Ed Murphy, the Stonewall gay manager, and the Genovese family funded the Gay Pride marches that became annual, international demonstrations of sexual freedom across the United States and foreign countries. Murphy rode the route every year in New York in an open-top car wearing a crown and a sash that declared him “The Mayor of Christopher Street.”

America have had endless heroes and even more unsung heroes when it comes to the mob.

Remember this important piece of history. When the CIA needed someone to kill Cuban president Fidel Castro, who did they call on? You guessed it, it was the mob. (This particular endeavor was, of course, unsuccessful and Castro is still alive today.)

When presidential contender John F. Kennedy needed help to win the primary in West Virginia when running against Hubert Humphrey in the 1960 Democratic primaries, mafioso Sam Giancana struck a deal with Frank Sinatra for Giancana to sway mob-infested unions to vote for Kennedy. With the help of mob influence, Kennedy ultimately won the U.S. presidential election.

The late Gambino crime boss John Gotti once said, “the mob is American as ‘apple pie’. And like it or not, that’s no lie.

Any comments? Contact journalist Clarence Walker at:cwalkerinvestigate@gmail.com P.S.

Click here to view Clarence Walker’s previous post on the O.J. Simpson case and modern forensic techniques:

O.J. Simpson Trial 20 Years Later: Advanced Forensic Science Might Leave Little Doubt as to Simpson’s Guilt

Clarence Walker is a veteran news writer and freelance investigative journalist for online internet news publishers and offline hard copy publishers. He has written previously for New York-based True Crime Magazines, National Law Journal, Houston Chronicle, and Houston Forward Times Weekly Community Newspaper. He has also appeared in John Walsh’s America’s Most Wanted Crime Magazine & TV Show. Mr. Walker has served as a crime historian for Houston, Texas-based Channel 11 TV’s Cold Case Murder Series, hosted by reporter Jeff Mcshan. Mr. Walker currently divides his time between Houston and Southeast Arkansas, and is working on a series of crime books and as a story research producer for cable TV true crime drama shows.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

In one of his satirical moments, the iconoclastic rock star Frank Zappa sang: “America drinks and goes home.” My sense is that he was primarily referring to what is now known as Mid-America’s (known in the 1970s as The Silent Majority) penchant for getting looped at parties and events and going home and passing out. There’s no doubt that Zappa’s vision was as dark as his guitar playing was brilliant, but I’m not aware of him ever alluding in one of his songs to actually “whacking the kid”, especially not by leaving the poor child to die of hyperthermia in a torrid SUV.

At Ross Harris’s hearing on Thursday, the prosecution describes him as having two sides: the churchgoing family man on the one hand, and the conniving killer on the other who researched death by hyperthermia in cars online, and then went ahead and executed his 22-month-old son Cooper by leaving him strapped into his car seat for seven long, agonizing hours of a broiling Atlanta day.

When the prosecution first announced it was charging Ross Harris with felony murder, people were outraged and a petition asking Cobb County to drop the charges quickly gained tremendous traction. Now, however, as the prosecution has divulged a potpourri of forensic and circumstantial evidence, public sentiment has turned decisively against Ross and people are out for blood. The fact that a policeman’s testimony vividly described the boy’s painful death also helped to swing public sentiment against Ross Harris: “the little boy had desperately struggled to free himself from the car seat inside the hot SUV. Scratch marks on the boy’s face and abrasions on the back of his head are signs of a frantic effort to get out of the seat. Search warrants released the next day stated that the belts were at the tightest setting.”

Here are a few representative comments from the All Things Crime Blog Facebook page in which folks practically scream for vengeance:

“Bullshit….no accident, this man and his sorry pos wife deserve to be strapped inside a blistering hot car until they fry as their poor son was made to do. 22 month olds are not quiet; he took him to breakfast and went back to his car at lunch, not to drop off lightbulbs, but to check on the murder progression. They deserve to die. Cooper deserves justice. I’m hoping this isn’t another Casey Anthony case where a murderer walks.”

“I can’t image what that sweet little angel went through my heart breaks with every new piece of evidences that comes out I hope he rots in hell for what he has done.”

“All signs point to premeditated murder. I hope they both fry.”

Now as we all know, Facebook folks often express themselves with great vehemence, but for every person who “lets it all hang out”, like commenting on a criminal case is an extreme sport, there are probably ten folks who quietly believe Ross is guilty and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

And now that Ross’s “goose is in the process of being cooked”, public sentiment, to some degree, is beginning to turn against his wife, Leanna Harris, who has reportedly made a number of comments that leave people scratching their heads and wondering if she might not have been in on the evil scheme (Please note: I’m not certain there was an evil scheme and like ATCB contributor, Starks Shrink, I would caution that the jury, not the media and the public, should decide whether to acquit or convict.

Christian Boone of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes:

Based on her own, sometimes confounding words, along with evidence disclosed at her spouse’s probable cause hearing Thursday, many are wondering whether there’s another side to Leanna Harris.

The 30-year-old dietitian, who two years ago moved to Georgia from Tuscaloosa, Ala., has not been charged with any crime. But police have disclosed that, like her husband, she had researched children dying in hot vehicles prior to her son Cooper’s death, telling officers it was her “worst fear.”

Investigators described her behavior the day of her son Cooper’s death as odd, if not suspicious.

When informed by workers at her son’s day care facility that Cooper had never been dropped off, she calmly responded, “Ross must have left him in the car. There’s no other explanation,” according to Cobb County Police Det. Phil Stoddard’s testimony Thursday.

According to Det. Stoddard, when Leanna was reunited with her husband at police headquarters after he had been charged with murder, she asked him, “Did you say too much?”

Criminal defense lawyer Esther Panitch chimes in with: “There isn’t enough to make her a co-conspirator … yet.”

In America, if you’re child dies tragically (especially under arguably suspicious circumstances), you apparently have an obligation to “beat your breast” and howl in agony, which is precisely what Leanna Harris has not done. Rather, she has comported herself with marked stoicism.

Christian Boone writes:

At Thursday’s hearing, she stared blankly ahead, chewing gum as prosecutors delivered one bombshell after another.

When she called home June 18 with the grim news of Cooper’s death, her mother could be overheard on the phone: “Why aren’t you crying? Why aren’t you reacting?”

Her response, according to Stoddard: “I must be in shock.”

And then, of course, there was Leanna’s eulogy at Cooper’s funeral last Saturday in Tuscaloosa which has raised eyebrows among those that don’t know her based on her saying that she wouldn’t bring her son back even if she could.

“He’s in the most peaceful, wonderful place there is,” Leanna Harris said.

Let’s hope so…

The 250 mourners at the service, however, gave her two rounds of applause, and it needs to be pointed out that Harris’ statement is by no means extraordinary among those who believe the afterlife is God’s greatest gift.

Personally, I’m holding out for reincarnation. In the next life I plan on being either a judge, a prosecutor, a defense attorney, or possibly even a stealthy and cunning criminal. But that’s still down the road apiece… But don’t worry, folks; I’ll get it right next time…

The bottom line, however, according to veteran legal observers is that police are looking at Leanna Harris’ potential culpability in her son’s death. Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds has stated that the investigation continues and “much work remains,” which certainly sounds ominous if your name is Leanna Harris.

Esther Panitch explains: “Knowledge of a crime isn’t prosecutable. A cover-up is.” Panitch, for one believes that Leanna “needs to make a deal before the state finds more evidence against her.”

In her eulogy, Leanna made statement that support her contention that Cooper is now “in a better place.”

“Some of you might wonder how I’m standing here today and I ask myself the same question. I should be crumpled into a pile of tears and snot on the ground. (The Lord) is standing behind me, holding me up.”

She then spoke about the difficulties she encountered during her awkward teen years:

“Junior high and senior high — they weren’t the happiest times (for me). He won’t have to suffer through the death of his (grandparents). He won’t have to suffer through the death of me and Ross.”

To me, Leanna statements simply sound like the remarks of a severely depressed woman.

The irony built into this case is that fact that even though Leanna has remained loyal to Ross up to this point, and stated at the eulogy, “Ross is and was a wonderful father,” under Georgia law, the spousal privilege shielding a wife from testifying against her husband, and vice-versa, doesn’t apply in cases of domestic violence or the death of a child.

* * * * *

Whatever her knowledge of Ross’s activities and/or motives may or may not be, and notwithstanding her stoicism throughout this ordeal, Leanna Harris is facing some very tough choices. Or as The Band once sang:

Save yourself
Or save your brother
Looks like it’s one or the other
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in.

Click here to view Starks Shrink’s previous post on the Cooper Harris hyperthermia death:

The Overheating Death of Cooper Harris: Murder or Tragic Accident?

by Lise LaSalle

On March 10th, 2014, the Canadian newspapers, especially in Ontario, were abuzz with headlines such as “Toronto panhandler loses stabbing appeal of man who refused to give cash’’ and “Panhandler loses appeal of her second-degree murder conviction.’’

The ‘Panhandler’ they are referring to in these articles is Nicole (Nyki) Kish who was charged and convicted of second-degree murder on March 1st, 2011 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years in the stabbing death of Ross Hammond.

Kish was not a panhandler but a young lady who had worked hard to be able to travel and experience life on the road as many others have done at her age. She had no criminal record and was an artistic girl who loved to sing and write songs. She was also an advocate for many causes dear to her heart. At the time of the encounter with Hammond, Kish was with her boyfriend and hanging out with some transient young people exploring the wild side of life. At times, some of Kish’s companions would ask a brother to spare a dime but it was not her way of life and she was by no means a panhandler standing in the street asking for money.

Nicole has steadfastly maintained her innocence since the 2007 death of Ross Hammond after a large street brawl near the Toronto intersection of Queen and Bathurst. In fact, the scene of the ‘crime’ was such a melee that despite all of the merchants and street witnesses who were present, none of them actually saw the crime. We know that Hammond ended up dead and that the scene was very chaotic. Numerous witnesses did see Mr. Hammond with a knife in his hand, and they all stated that he was drunk, angry and very abusive the night he was killed. That is the only certainty in this case. But no one saw anyone stab him. A young man called Jeremy Woolley was also stabbed — very likely by Hammond.

Hammond was stabbed in the chest 4 or 5 times and he did not die immediately. When the police showed up, they questioned him as they waited for the ambulance. He was asked twice about the knife and both times, he answered, “No comment’’.

On the night Ross Hammond died, Nicole Kish had been in Toronto for only a day and was walking on busy Queen Street celebrating her 21st birthday with her boyfriend and other young people.

Ross Hammond and his work buddy George Dranichak were downtown that night with some of their colleagues having a drink to try to boost their morale as the company they worked for was struggling. The media referred to them as ‘Internet marketers’ and described Nicole and her friends as ‘panhandlers’. This image was pushed hard by the media and because of some recent problems Toronto the Pure had been having with panhandlers and street safety in general, they were instantly wrongly perceived. The City wanted to rid its streets of dangerous people and well-dressed jocks like Hammond and Dranichak could do no wrong.

In reality, the two men were mostly purveyors of porn, and Dranichak, who was in the country on a visa, had a history of violence in the US. It was in his best interest to avoid trouble and any negative perception from the media or the police. Thus, his account of the events was sketchy to say the least, and nonsensical at times.

On the night of Hammond’s stabbing death, he and Dranichak, who were highly intoxicated, walked to a bank machine to withdraw some cash. They were approached by a woman identified as Faith Watts who allegedly asked them for some change. At a preliminary hearing, Dranichak testified that he and Hammond made sexually derogatory remarks and asked her to perform certain sexual acts if she wanted the money. He admitted that their persistence had caused the confrontation.

During his early interrogations, Dranichak never said that she demanded $20, but two years after that fateful night, he came up with this figure in an attempt to justify their outrage and inappropriate outburst.

Watts was carrying a knife and had taken drugs that day. She quickly got into a pretty heated argument with the two men and they traded insults. Her boyfriend joined in to help her. He ended up being pushed around and then beaten unconscious and Watts admitted pulling a knife because she was afraid. Nine spots of Hammond’s DNA was found on Watt’s clothing. Kish and Watts were similar in appearance and were often confused by witnesses including Dranichak who could not distinguish between the two of them at times.

Bystanders took notice of the fight and many joined in. There were surveillance cameras along the streets but they were lost while in police custody: the footage of one was recorded over and the other was lost entirely. Detective Giroux, who was working on the case, said that by the time the evidence box where the video was placed came into his possession, the video had vanished. Justice Nordhiemer attributed the loss of the video to the “frailties of human nature.’’

The fight was in full force on both the south and north sides of the street, and some think that Dranichak was the south side combatant with Hammond on the north side one. But as Dranichak heard police sirens, he made a coward’s escape leaving his friend behind. He jumped in a cab. Behind him was a guy named Hal Amero, who was known to have been involved in 18 knife fights, and could easily have killed Hammond. Kish was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, in the middle of the melee probably trying to help and pull people away from the attacker.

Witnesses reported seeing this Hal fellow throw a knife in a drainage sewer but the police never followed up on this tip.

Because Kish was stabbed in the arm during this attack, Justice Nordheimer  said that since she had been stabbed, there is an ‘’irresistible inference’’ that she must have killed Hammond. And the fact that Watts had blood from the victim on her clothes and boots was attributed to the ‘’limitations of physical evidence.’’ Although the knife belonged to Watts, Nordheimer suggested that it had changed hands three times before fatally wounding Hammond. What a strange roundabout way to avoid a straight line to the truth.

The police, the media and the Crown wanted the ‘panhandler’ case solved so that the good citizens of Toronto would feel safe again. So no one protested that strange and bizarre way of arriving at the conviction of a 21-year-old girl who just happened to be stabbed. And, this same girl stayed at the scene of the crime until the police and medical help arrived. Wouldn’t she have fled the scene like the others if she had anything to hide?

So, we might ask, how did the police end up charging Nyki Kish for this crime?

The facts  

• Out of 20 witnesses, no one saw Hammond being stabbed.

• Consequently, no witness saw Kish stab Hammond.

• Kish’s blood was on the knife Ross Hammond used to stab her.

• Ross Hammond’s blood was also on the knife.

• Hammond had cuts on his hands that were bleeding profusely.

• Hammond was stabbed multiple times.

• Hammond was conscious when police arrived. He never said Kish stabbed him and on a video (this one did not vanish) he stated, ‘’No comment’’ when asked about the knife.

These are the known facts.

And with this, the Canadian police charged Nyki Kish and a Canadian Court found her guilty.

What witnesses saw

Some witnesses saw a young man while leaving the scene stopping to show another witness that he had been stabbed by lifting his shirt. He also bragged about having been stabbed in earlier fights. His image is captured on a video showed by the media. But the police never found him or did they even look for him?

A video from a nearby pasta store was used to describe or ID four “major” participants. At the same time, many other “participants” were there at the scene but for some reason these other persons are allegedly “unidentifiable”. The police did not bother to question or ID Hal Amero, the likely killer, or his brother ‘Twitch’, for that matter, the two people who were later described by three separate witnesses as being the guys who, while leaving the crime scene, stopped to chat and brag about being stabbed, and even showed the stab wound(s) to all three.

The pasta video clearly shows Hammond and proves, apparently, that he not only had no knife, but that he had not yet been stabbed.

As the judges eliminated the other suspects, and with an assist from the defence, resolved that the Watts knife was the murder weapon, they seemed to think that they proved beyond any doubt that Nyki carried the knife across the street. 

Such a leap of nonsense

It was a bench trial (no jury) and you would think that a judge would have seen through this nonsense, but Kish was nonetheless found guilty of second degree murder.

The overwhelming question in this whole saga for me was why on earth didn’t Nicole Kish take the stand to tell her story? When the police first came around to question her, she was medicated and told by her family and legal aid not to say anything. When the trial came around, her lawyers told her not to testify. She wanted to tell her side of the story very badly but they insisted that she remain silent.

Fifty witnesses presented confusing and contradictory testimony on the witness stand so the last thing Nicole’s lawyers wanted was for her to testify and sound like she was not being truthful or to simply confuse the matter even more. Because they had no jury to persuade, they probably were very confident that a judge could never find her guilty on such mixed and flimsy evidence or lack thereof.

But her not testifying was perceived negatively by the family of the victim and the public at large, who believed that the only reason she did not take the stand was because she had something to hide. It must have been excruciating for her to remain silent under these circumstances but lawyers are supposed to know best.

For reasons unknown even to her own defense attorneys, Faith Watts, who owned a knife and allegedly started the whole saga, as well has having numerous spots of Hammond’s DNA on herself while Kish had only a tiny speck of blood on her shoe because she walked near the ambulance where Hammond had bled, was allowed to return to the States and was not charged.

The media had damaged the public perception of Kish’s character, and when she was out on bail, she was prohibited from speaking publicly about the case. So no one heard about who she really was and that violence is not part of her makeup. She has always been a fighter for causes but never a violent fighter. Despite the negative media coverage, Nicole’s conviction sparked a ‘’Free Nyki’’ campaign advocating her release.

As an appellant, she raised two grounds of appeal: First, that the trial judge accepted and relied on unreliable evidence by concluding that she was the female armed with a knife on the south side of the street. Second, the judge failed to consider important exculpatory evidence that could have contributed to the existence of a reasonable doubt. Most significantly, the judge did not consider the possibility that Faith Watts, Jeremy Wooley, or the unknown third man involved in the final fight could have been the stabber.

The Ontario Appeals Court declared that it is not necessary for Kish to have done the actual stabbing to convict her on the 2nd degree murder charges. The OAC says that even if Wooley had done the stabbing, Kish was convictable simply by being involved in the melee on that side of the street.

[125] If Wooley administered the fatal stab wounds, the appellant would still be
guilty of second degree murder as a party (to the second fight, and as the transporter of the knife).

Justice Nordheimer put together a scenario which patently does not describe (by ALL accounts) a confusing, nighttime street melee where a good number of the principals and witnesses are inebriated, including the eventual victim.

There is also “hint” in the appellate decision that their own hands were tied because the defence did not attack Nordheimer’s simplified scenario; all the defence offered, really, was that “Faith Watts may have done it.”

Odd things about the rejection of this appeal

The Pasta video is used to confirm that Hammond was not injured or armed at the time he appears in it. Nonetheless, it could logically be argued that Hammond was carrying the knife and was already bleeding from a chest wound. The video is not of high enough quality for the court to really conclude anything about Hammond.

All four judges ignored the fact that Hammond was in possession of a knife and had it with him when lying wounded on sidewalk. Watts had testified that it was her knife which she used to scare Hammond to protect her boyfriend and that Hammond took it from her. No other witnesses ever saw a girl with a knife on the north side. And the ones who saw a girl on the south side admitted they could have easily mixed the two girls up.

After testing Kish’s items five times and finding no Hammond DNA, they tried a 6th time and it was fruitful. There was a trace of Hammond’s DNA near the sole of her shoe. Meanwhile, Watts has Hammond’s DNA all over her. She also had a bite mark on her arm and when she was arrested, she head-butted a police officer. In court, the Crown claimed that Kish was the aggressive one. Watts, who had a criminal record in California with more than a dozen arrests for drugs, theft and altercations with law enforcement, and the two males, Fresh and Wooley, who had entered in Canada illegally, were deported before Kish’s trial.

If Kish is the accessory then who was she accessory to and why did they release this killer without any charges? Remember that Watts admits to owning and brandishing the knife, which in any case is too short to have caused the fatal wound, but could have caused the minor back wounds.

It seems that the review of this case involving two well-dressed men and ‘panhandlers’ fell flat on its face. Brother can you spare a Dame?

Nyki’s parents are her champions and they visit her every week. Their goal has always been to make sure that their daughter comes out of this ordeal with the least amount of damage possible and to keep some normalcy in her life. Her mother Christine reads her a lot of stuff from Facebook, she plays her songs that have been written for her, and prints a lot of pictures and art made by supporters. They spend a lot of time talking on the phone.

Nicole’s sister is 7 years old and was 6 months old when Nyki got bail and spent 3 and 1/2 years on house arrest. They are extremely close and she has been visiting her at the Kitchener prison with the rest of the family on a regular basis. They even have sleepovers right there in the prison in the private family visiting house, where they live like a regular family for three day stretches. They cook, dance, make art and sing songs, watch movies and play in the backyard.

Nyki’s friends also visit her regularly. She is lucky that her family lives only an hour away as many women prisoners rarely get visits due to distance.

When the news of the rejection of her appeal came down yesterday, her family and her supporters were devastated. Nicole will remain strong because of her family, friends and supporters, who now are ready to continue the fight in the court of public opinion and this time, Nyki will lead the parade. It’s time to turn the tide and get this Dame a break!

I feel for the tragic passing of Ross Hammond and do not want his memory in any shape or form tarnished but in my opinion, his death is as much of a mystery as Nyki’s conviction.

Excerpts from “A Message from Nyki”

So the system is more corrupt and broken than even I believed. I believed in the appeal I just lost. I have believed since the day I was charged that somewhere within the system one of the many pairs of eyes that comprise it would see what has happened and stop it. Now last night I found myself lying awake wishing that I was guilty like they say I am, terrible as it sounds because then I could at least understand. But then I let my tears out and I stopped wishing such a terrible thing…

In my frantic state on my birthday in 2007, I did not even realize that anyone had been hurt but me. I screamed and screamed for those police to come and I was so angry at them when they came and told me that I was not their priority. But I called for the police, I did not run away that night, I had no reason to.

I never spoke about that night again though. This system has told me not to for this reason or that every single day since. But now, I have no reason not to speak. There are no avenues or safeguards in the system left to hold on to. I am confronted with the reality that I am systemically abandoned.

* * * * *

I am sorry I don’t reply to all the kind and caring letters I receive and I am sorry that I have left people fight for me outside without fighting beside you in here. I lost my hope but I have again found it and I will never let it go again, to speak not just for me but against the whole insane state of the institutions of law and justice. There is no equality or justness within them.

Thank you for the continued love and support of everyone out there who care about the truth or who care for me or who care about people doing the right thing. I’ll do my best to do the right thing too from in here. And that starts by ending the silence I’ve let occur.

So much love and solidarity

Nyki Kish

comnentary by Patrick H. Moore

It’s well known that sex accompanied by strangulation, known as erotic asphyxiation,  is an increasingly popular pastime among the young, the kinky, the just plain adventurous, and sometimes the not too smart. A few older guys and gals also apparently don’t turn up their noses at the giddy pleasure. The Reverend Gary Aldridge, of Montgomery’s Thorington Road Baptist Church, died on June 24, 2007 from “accidental mechanical asphyxia”; he was “found hogtied, wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask.” This is even weirder than the sad passing of film star David Carradine, whose death has been described in the following manner:

David Carradine died on June 4, 2009 from accidental asphyxiation, according to the medical examiner who performed a private autopsy on the actor. His body was found hanging by a rope in a closet in his room in Thailand, and there was evidence of a recent orgasm; two autopsies were conducted and concluded that his death was not suicide, and the Thai forensic pathologist who examined the body stated that his death may have been due to autoerotic asphyxiation. Two of Carradine’s ex-wives, Gail Jensen and Marina Anderson, stated publicly that his sexual interests included the practice of self-bondage.

This is all well and good but it doesn’t answer the question of what do you do when you accidentally strangle your partner to death during the sex act and are left with his or her still hot but very dead body. Not being a practitioner of erotic asphyxiation, I cannot answer this highly pertinent question from personal experience. In September, however, an Italian lover by the name of Andrea Pizzicolo found himself confronted with this prickly situation when his lovely 18-year-old Romanian lover, Lavinia Simona Ailoaiei, accidentally expired during an erotic game the two of them were playing.

David Lohr of the Huffington Post writes:

A man who allegedly killed a Romanian teenager, had sex with her corpse and then dumped her body, was arrested in Italy. During a weekend press conference, prosecutor Vincenzo Russo, said murder suspect Andrea Pizzicolo was arrested at his home in Arese. The 41-year-old accountant shares the residence with his 5-year-old daughter and an unidentified woman.

According to the investigators, Pizzicolo killed his 18-year-old lover sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. He also didn’t cover his tracks very well. The young woman’s naked body was discovered Sunday in a corn field in Lombardy.  Pizzicolo hadn’t bothered to remove the self-locking plastic ties that were bound tightly around her neck. He left her unclothed corpse with a towel draped over her head, a mistake because the the towel led police to a nearby hotel, where Pizzicolo had allegedly rented a room Friday night.

When the  authorities searched Pizzicolo’s home, they allegedly found plastic ties similar to those that were found on the victim. Pizzicolo was escorted down to the police station. After four hours of determined interrogation, the Italian allegedly confessed. According to Prosecutor Vincenzo Russo, Pizzicolo stated:

“I’ve lost my mind, I went on tilt.”

Pizzicolo apparently then confessed that he had met the teen, who had just turned 18, on the Internet. Their rendezvous on Friday at a motel north of Milan was only their second date. Pizzicolo told the investigators that they engaged in an erotic sex game, in which Pizzicolo put the plastic ties around her neck. According to Pizzicolo, she struggled to breathe during their game and, despite his best efforts, he was unable to remove the ties and she expired.

According to Russo and the Head of the Flying Squad of Lodi, Alessandro Battista, the investigators have learned that Pizzicolo transported Ailoaiei’s body to another hotel, where he allegedly had sex with her dead body before he dumped it. The teen’s cellphone and other belongings were found in the trash bin of a restaurant near the second hotel.

Strangely, Ailoaiei is not the first victim to have been dumped in the outskirts of Lodi. According to La Repubblica, in 2011, a Moroccan woman was found dead in the area with her head and hands removed from her body. Roughly 10 years earlier a 25-year-old woman was found naked and strangled. Neither case has been solved.

The authorities have not indicated there is any connection between those two cases and the Pizzicolo case.

Pizzicolo has been charged with murder and committing obscene acts on a corpse.

The victim’s ex-boyfriend decried the alleged acts and remembered Ailoaiei as a “compassionate loving” girlfriend.

“I did not expect her to get hurt … I really miss her and love her,” AdmYn AdrYano, told The Huffington Post on Monday. (It almost sounds like he was in the motel room with them.)

*     *     *     *     *

Although Pizzicolo is charged with murder and committing obscene acts on a corpse, it seems to me that unless it can be proved that he intended to kill the 18-year-old victim, a more proper charge would be some form of aggravated manslaughter. As to the “committing obscene acts with a corpse” charge, I don’t believe it just be given much weight at sentencing. (Note: This is what I believed prior to the update based on this single case. See Update below).

As for the poor deceased victim, it’s hard for me to comprehend why she would practice erotic asphyxiation with an older gentleman whom she barely knew. Good god, it was only their second date.

Update:

Andrea Pizzocolo may have been responsible for other violent attacks, according to police.

More charges may be forthcoming against Andrea Pizzocolo, 41, who was convicted for the death of an 18-year-old woman, police said at a news conference.

A man has come forward to describe how in August he rescued a young woman who was tied in the same fashion as the earlier victim, police said.

And as many as 10 other similar cases are under investigation.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Here and there I’ve pointed out that many criminals were physically and/or sexually abused as a child. It’s easy to say: “Well, they should have gotten help,” but the fact is that even with psycho-therapeutic help later in life, the sexual abuse victim may not be able to recover and may ultimately turn to crime himself (or herself). In my experience in our legal practice, the crimes usually are limited to drug trafficking and occasionally, sex crimes. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, however, as the case of Utah police officer Joshua Boren clearly demonstrates.

In January of this year, after returning home from a Christmas trip to Disney World, Joshua Boren killed his wife Kelly Boren, 32, his mother-in-law Marie King, 55, his son Jaden, 7, and his daughter Haley, 5, at their home in Utah. He then committed suicide.

The five bodies were discovered in bedrooms in the family home in Spanish Fork, a city of about 37,000 located 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, after Boren, 34, failed to turn up for a night shift.

New information has now been released, not about the “nuts-and-bolts” of the actual shootings, but rather regarding Boren’s motivations which clearly seem to stem from his abusive childhood. The AP reports that just hours before Boren became unhinged and destroyed the entire family, he had received text messages from his wife Kelly in which she threatened to leave him and take their kids. The Deseret News reported that in the text messages, Kelly Boren also confronted her husband about having raped her and told him their marriage was over (http://bit.ly/1oC8lWG ). At that juncture, the couple already had been separated for some time.

Joshua Boren’s therapist, who apparently remains unnamed, informed the authorities that Boren had drugged his wife and videotaped himself sexually assaulting her on more than one occasion.

I will never fully understand why sex criminals seem to be obsessed not only with committing their horrible offenses, but seem equally obsessed with videotaping the acts. I realize that having the permanent record close at hand allows them to resort to the tapes in order to “get off” whenever they feel like it, but the risk of the tapes being discovered either by law enforcement or significant others is huge.

In this case, Kelly Boren discovering the tapes in 2013 undoubtedly sped up the dissolution of their marriage and ultimately led to her decision to take the kids which, tragically, was instrumental in their deaths. According to Spanish Fork Police Lt. Matt Johnson, when Kelly Boren learned she had been drugged and raped on several occasions, she confided in a few friends, but she did not report the assaults to police because she didn’t want to ruin her husband’s law enforcement career.

The night before she was killed, Kelly Boren brought up the alleged sexual assault again, texting the word “rape” to her husband four times, the documents show. “I hate my life because (of) you,” she texted. “You killed a part of me.”
She wrote in another text: “I don’t want to live in fear and hate and anger.”

The next morning, Kelly Boren told her husband she would take the kids, prompting Joshua Boren to reply by text: “Don’t involve the kids, they are innocent.”

The police report reveals that Joshua Boren was sexually abused as a child, struggled with drug addiction as a young man, and after becoming addicted to pornography, struggled with this addiction throughout his life. To make matters worse, he harbored a deep-rooted hatred for his mother because after his father committed suicide when Joshua was 5, his mother began using drugs and took up with several men, one of whom reportedly sexually abused him. Joshua’s sister told the police that Joshua blamed his mother for not protecting him.

The unidentified therapist told police Boren was like a “3-year-old boy stuck in a big man’s body.”

The police report states: “Josh was a very troubled individual that felt like he was about to lose his wife and children.”

Boren worked as as a Utah County sheriff’s deputy for seven years before moving to the Lindon Police Department where he had been on the force for only three months when the murder-suicide occurred.

He used the service firearm to kill his family and the toxicology reports show that he was stone cold sober when he went berserk.

There is some evidence that Boren was “close” to the children he murdered. Although he had been separated from his wife for some time, friends and family report that he still came over every morning to get the kids ready for school and preschool. He also picked them up every afternoon and according to Lt. Johnson, “he was praised as being an excellent father.”

Predictably, Boren’s savage attack on his “loved ones” stunned the community, as well as friends and family. Lt. Johnson stated that investigators didn’t find anybody who suspected he would be capable of such an act.

*     *     *     *     *

I’m struck by several things. First, I don’t really buy the claim that nobody ever suspected that Boren would be capable of acts of going off the rails. Someone this troubled most likely have given off tell-tale signs. And his therapist, who I’m also mildly suspicious of for reasons I don’t understand, stated that Boren was like a “3-year-old boy stuck in a big man’s body.” (I hope that Dr. Starks will check in on this issue; shouldn’t the therapist of a “walking time bomb” and sex criminal know that something is seriously amiss.

Second, in their police report, law enforcement seems to treat Boren with considerable gentleness considering the truly heinous nature of his actions. Although I could be wrong, if he had been a civilian, I don’t think we would be witnessing the same solicitude.

Third, what is deeply troubling is the fact that volatile situations like this often seem to be catapulted beyond the point of no return over the custody of the children issue. The whole family might still be alive if Kelly Boren had not stated in no uncertain terms that she was taking the kids. This is not to say she didn’t have every right to take the kids based on the sexual assaults; it’s just unfortunate that she didn’t proceed more slowly and carefully. Based on Boren’s reportedly positive daily interactions with the kids, he does not appear to have posed any immediate threat to them; in fact, it could be argued that the seemingly loving care he extended toward them could have been his attempt to be the good father he never had. This is a complex issue, however, with no easy answers.

What Kelly Boren should have done, I suppose, is gone to the police and turned over the “rape tapes” which, at least in theory, would (should) have quickly led to Boren’s arrest.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Note: There are rumors that David Lee Simpson’s trial is apparently either under way or about to begin but I can’t find any actual corroborating evidence.

It is well-known that a great many of the women who closely followed the Jodi Arias trial despise the very ground (or currently concrete) that she walks upon. I imagine it is some combination of the fact that she brutally slaughtered the fresh-faced Travis Alexander — with his boy next door good looks and his apparently pleasing motivational-speaker ways — combined with the fact that Jodi is perceived by many as a prevaricating, promiscuous, manipulative, anal-sex loving, prima donna.

It turns out, however, that there are some men wandering about this land who actually prefer Jodi to Travis, and in some cases even had (or still have) powerful crushes on the allegedly good-looking young murderess. Fortunately, I do not fall into that category. With my monk-like ways, I am largely indifferent to Jodi’s personal appearance and simply find poor Travis to be very dead. That much is clear. My feelings toward him are no different than my feelings toward any unfortunate soul who has the bad luck to be murdered as a result of a love affair gone wrong.

But this brief post is not about me and my feelings for Jodi and poor Travis. This post is about an arguably dangerous man named David Lee Simpson, a 48-year old resident of Bath, New York, who is charged with three felony counts of computer tampering and two felony counts of stalking, based on online threats he made against HLN’s Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell and an unnamed Phoenix  newswoman. David Lohr at Huffington Post has the story:

According to Maricopa County prosecutor Edward Leiter, Simpson — who had apparently become infatuated with Jodi — became so incensed and hostile toward Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell because of the negative things they were saying about Arias both before and during the course of the trial that he tweeted in June that he wanted to tie them to a “tree naked and leave them to suffer all night” and then “slit their throats.” Although this may or may not have been quite enough on its own to land Simpson in the slammer, he made it much worse by allegedly telling a co-worker at an auto repair shop in Bath that he wanted to gut one of the TV commentators “like a deer.”

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has reiterated that Simpson made the threats because he was “infatuated with Jodi Arias” and was upset with all the nasty things that the two broadcasters were saying about her while covering her  murder trial.

The coffin nail for Simpson was that during a (not so) routine traffic stop on July 17th, the police searched his vehicle and allegedly found guns, handcuffs, zip-ties, binoculars, a knife and a police radio. The detectives also found a news article about the Newtown shooting.

“This suspect was on his way south with enough weapons in his car to do serious harm to someone,” Arpaio said at a press conference following Simpson’s arrest.

Now although I usually take what Sheriff Joe says with a grain of salt, this time he may be on the level. Simpson appeared in court on Oct. 16 at a pre-trial conference hearing before Maricopa County Superior Court judge Margaret Mahoney. At the hearing, Simpson’s lawyer, Casey Martin, told the judge he has been in talks with the prosecutor about a possible plea deal for his client.

In response, Judge Mahoney ordered both parties to appear at a settlement conference to discuss the matter.

Simpson, who was extradited to Arizona in July, had previously entered a not guilty plea to the charges.

As is well-known, Arias — the unwitting motivation behind Simpson’s alleged actions — was convicted in May of killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The jury determined she stabbed Alexander nearly 30 times, slit his throat and then shot him in the head at his Arizona home. The Arias jury, however, failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether she should receive life in prison or the death penalty. A second sentencing phase jury is scheduled to commence deliberations this coming September. If this jury fails to reach a verdict, the death penalty is off the table and the judge will sentence Ms. Arias.

*     *     *     *     *

At Simpson’s settlement conference, a resolution was not reached which is why it is now preceding to trial.

I don’t have a strong sense of what would be a fair resolution in the David Lee Simpson matter. The threats alone certainly need to be taken seriously, but then, when you toss in Simpson’s “stalking arsenal” complete with the Newtown news article, the profile of a potential psycho-killer begins to emerge. Would 5 years in prison be enough? 1o years? If he was to receive a 5-year term to be served in the Arizona State penitentiary, it would cost the Arizona taxpayers somewhere in the vicinity of $150,000. Would this be a samll price to pay to protect the public? It’s a difficult question that doesn’t lend itself to easy answers. A Psychological Evaluation is certainly in order and, I would think, will most likely occur at some point in the proceedings.

by Patrick H. Moore

Social media is on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days. It certainly was the first thing on 31-year-old South Miami resident Derek Medina’s mind last summer after he’d shot and killed his 26-year-old wife Jennifer Alonso, and without further ado, began posting on Facebook about what he had done, why he had done it, and how he was going to prison for killing her.  Since then, however, he has pleaded not guilty based on a claim of self-defense. His attorneys are claiming that Ms. Alonso was on a “bath salt” derivative at the time of the shooting and had become deranged and dangerous, the implication being Medina had no choice other than to shoot her.

We’ll get to the defense’s claim in a bit. First though, let’s review the slaying and Medina’s strange need to immediately inform everyone on Facebook.

At 11:11 am on the morning of the shooting, the following post appeared on Medina’s Facebook site:

“Im going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people you will see me in the news.”

No one is required to employ the King’s English on Facebook and I certainly don’t fault Slayer Derek for garbling his syntax and punctuation. What I am impressed by is all the information he packs into a mere 27 words. Let’s break it down. First he says:

“Im going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife…”

This is a tad bit melodramatic. Without knowing more about the case, it seems unlikely that Derek would get the death penalty for shooting and killing his wife, unless there are unknown aggravating factors. He is, however, likely to pull a life sentence.

The second part of the sentence says:

“… love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people…”

These sentiments on Derek’s part show that he is not entirely without redeeming features. He “loves” his FB buddies, is going to “miss” them, and remembers — like all good friends — to remind them to “takecare” and in the same breath gives FB a shout-out. There’s no reason to think he’s not sincere about all of this.

The Derek completes his thought by saying, perhaps prophetically:

“… you will see me in the news.”

A great many people who use FB enjoy posting endless details about their everyday actions believing that the everyday and commonplace equals “real news.” In Derek’s case, by killing his wife, he has transcended the desire to create news and has actually become the “news”.

So, in essence, in the first and last sections of his sentence, Derek provides two salient bits of news: 1) that he has killed his wife and is going to pay a heavy price for it. and 2) the news that he is has become the “news”. In between these two important points, Derek more or less bids farewell to his FB crew. It is almost a poignant moment.

But wait, Derek is not through yet. A few seconds after his grammatical tour de force, Derek posts a photograph with an enigmatic caption. The photo is of his dead wife. She has either died in an awkward position or Derek has staged her awkwardly for maximum effect. She is lying on her back on the floor, wearing a black leotard. Her legs are bent backwards and there is blood on her left arm and left cheek. The picture of his dead wife is accompanied by the caption: “Rip Jennifer Alfonso.” I can’t help wondering what the “Rip” is all about. It could, of course, mean “Rest in Peace” but it could also mean “Rip” as in “rip her apart” or “rip into her” which is obviously what the bullet(s) did.

The photo was up for more than five hours before the Facebook people removed the page late Thursday afternoon.

In his post, Derek couldn’t resist trying — at least to some degree — to justify the murder. He claimed that his wife was punching him and that he wasn’t going to take any more abuse. It should be mentioned, however, that YouTube videos linked to his Facebook page earlier this week show him working out in a martial arts studio, punching and kicking a heavy bag.

Derek and Jennifer first married in January 2010. They divorced in February 2012 and then remarried three months later.

On his Facebook page Derek claimed he had appeared in the Miami-based crime drama “Burn Notice.” The evidence shows, however, that his name doesn’t appear in the online credits for the show.

Without belaboring the obvious, it appears that if he couldn’t act in a crime drama, he had to create his own.

The police questioned various individuals who were gathered outside the couple’s condominium and although some of the bystanders were crying, no one seemed to have an explanation for why the couple’s troubles had brought them to this fatal impasse.

After completing his FB posts, Derek turned himself into the authorities.

*     *     *     *     *

The issue — as I see it — is simple yet complex. Can living an existence that is weirdly divided between living in the “real world” and living in the world of social media cause some unstable individuals to, in effect, lose sight of what is real and what is not to such a degree that they kill or do some other crazy thing for absolutely no reason other than to be able to post about it on FB or some other social media platform? Perhaps…

Fortunately, most of us, no matter how addicted we become to social media, manage to maintain some hold on reality.

Here is what Medina’s attorneys are claiming :

In a surprising twist, Derek Medina’s defense attorneys want to independently test the victim, Jennifer Alfonso’s remains for a drug called Alpha PVP, which can be abused for its ecstasy-like effects.

“We want to be able to do a toxicology scan of her tissue samples to see if there’s any trace of having that inside of her,” defense attorney Saam Zangeneh told the Daily News.

Medina has previously claimed he killed his 26-year-old wife in self-defense. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder Dec. 4, WTVJ reported.

The defense says it found “suspect pills” in a jar for garlic supplements in the couple’s South Miami townhouse. He said surveillance footage shows her reach into that cabinet about 2:30 the morning of the murder.

“We had them analyzed by a company. The result was there were 10 pills that had Alpha PVP, the active ingredient in bath salts,” Zangeneh said.

The medical examiner already performed a toxicology report which came back clean. But Zangeneh says that the test only scans for marijuana, cocaine and so forth. They think the Alpha PVP, a “new drug,” may have been overlooked.

“You cannot find what you’re not looking for,” he said.

The Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney said that defendants have the legal right to conduct their own analysis of the state’s evidence in any criminal case.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Although one might expect crime fans to get a little jaded from a steady diet of horrific offenses that shock both the mind and the emotions, this courageous group displays a remarkable hardiness in its ability to keep bouncing back for more. Call it TRUE CRIME GRIT. There seems to be certain pleasures along the way — say for example the clear satisfaction many crime fans experience when vigorously denouncing certain criminals and their appalling actions. The animus directed at the fatal triumvirate of Arias, Anthony and Homolka is a prime example of the fever pitch of hatred that the crime community manifests in certain select cases.

I found this out the hard way when I was universally chastised just this week, in a moment that was construed as (and may well have been) moral weakness, for voicing a modicum of sympathy for Casey Anthony in her present incarnation as one of America’s most hated females.

It’s no exaggeration to state that as the recipient of a volley of left hooks, short rights, uppercuts and even perhaps a few rabbit punches, I was rocked back on my heels and left reeling, metaphorically speaking. What was amazing to me was the fact that some of my closest friends here on All Things Crime Blog thought it was all a put-on, that I was simply tweaking the tiger’s tale in order to stimulate feedback and readership.

Alas, would that this were the truth! No, the sad fact of the matter is that in my moment of moral turpitude, however fleeting, I felt actual sympathy for Anthony. As a result of the drubbing I took over paying allegiance to an “incorrect party line,” not to mention the fact that I temporarily believed Anthony’s defense team’s claim that poor Caylee’s death was accidental, I had to hide in a root cellar for 24 hours full of remorse and contrition, contemplating my naval and counting my rosary beads.

I emerged from this exile fully aware that I have no idea whether Caylee Anthony’s death was the result of premeditated murder on her mother’s part or an accident probably stemming from Casey Anthony’s negligence.

I realize I may be the only person in America who doesn’t know with certainty precisely what happened on that awful day. For this I apologize. My only defense is the fact I attended graduate school at an excellent American university in the late 1980s and, as a literature major, I was steeped in deconstruction and post-structuralism – theories (or philosophies if you will) that counsel the student to embrace uncertainly and accept the claim that it is often very hard to separate “truth” from “fiction” or to know most anything with absolute certainty.

I must also apologize for the moral lassitude that drove me to focus on these infernal theories when I could have been seeking truth and certainty by focusing on “moral fiction” and sound philosophy. So I hope that I can and will be forgiven. If not, it’s back to the root cellar.

In the meantime, I would like to briefly describe a crime (or rather a series of crimes) by an American mother so heinous that the crimes of Arias, Anthony and Homolka would seem to pale in comparison. At the same time, I wish to suggest that the single perpetrator of these truly awful multiple murders will not stimulate nearly the degree of hatred that the three allegedly pretty ladies engender in our dedicated crime followers. The reason the hatred directed at this multiple child murderer will be relatively short-lived is because she is in no way sexy (at least not to my jaundiced eye) and her murder technique was completely mundane, albeit very effective.

Her name is Megan Huntsman. She was a resident of Pleasant Grove, Utah prior to being arrested and taken into custody for MURDERING HER SIX OR SEVEN NEWBORN BABIES (her own) between 1996 and 2006. Her estranged husband, Darren West, fresh from spending more than eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to meth trafficking charges, made the grisly discovery April 12 while engaged in the mundane task of cleaning out the garage of the home he had shared with Huntsman. He told police he found a dead infant in a small white box covered with electrician’s tape.

This was the tip of the iceberg and when law enforcement searched the garage they found the corpses of seven babies wrapped in shirts or towels inside individual boxes in the garage.

At the time of the discovery, the Pleasant Grove police were either unaware of Huntsman’s motive for killing her babies or they wished to remain silent until they’d had time to investigate further. Now, however, Police Capt. Mike Roberts has divulged the mother’s motive to the Associated Press.

Brady McCombs of the Associated Press writes:

A Utah mother told authorities that she killed six of her newborns and stored their bodies in a garage because she was addicted to drugs and didn’t want to deal with the responsibility of raising them, police said Tuesday, revealing a suspected motive for the first time.

Megan Huntsman, 39, was heavily into a meth addiction when she strangled or suffocated the infants from 1996 to 2006, Pleasant Grove Police Capt. Mike Roberts told The Associated Press.

She wasn’t worried about potential health problems caused by her drug abuse while pregnant, she simply didn’t want to care for them, he said. “It was completely selfish. She was high on drugs and didn’t want the babies, or the responsibility,” Roberts said. “That was her priority at the time.”

Authorities think a seventh baby found in her Pleasant Grove garage after an April search was stillborn.

Police had previously declined to discuss a motive in the case, saying only that it had been uncovered during interviews with Huntsman.

Huntsman is being held at the Utah County Jail. She has been charged with six counts of first-degree-murder and her bail has been set at $6 million. She has not yet entered a plea.

Strangely, although Darren West lived with Huntsman during the decade when Megan Huntsman killed their children (he was not yet doing federal time for meth trafficking), according to Captain Roberts, he is not a suspect in the babies’ deaths. Although investigators apparently readily admit that they are nonplussed as to how he could have been unaware of the pregnancies and deaths, they reportedly don’t plan to bring him in for further questioning. (I suppose it’s possible that Darren West could have been unaware of one or two of his ex-wife’s pregnancies, but it seems unlikely that he could have been in the dark as to all of them).

Captain Roberts, however, has stated that the investigation is still open. Results of a psychological examination of Huntsman haven’t been disclosed.

DNA results revealed Tuesday showed that all seven babies were full term and that five were girls and two were boys. Those tests also confirmed that West was biological father of the infants.

Previous tests from the Utah state lab found that the babies were likely dead anywhere from two to 10 years or more, Roberts said.

* * * * *

To my knowledge, this is the most egregious case of baby-killing perpetrated by a single mother in modern times. I am certain that folks will (and should) be outraged by Megan Huntsman actions and that the good folk on Facebook will make their typical “fry her” comments. I strongly suspect, however, that her case will soon be forgotten for the simple reason that she is not a very pretty lady and her children had not lived long enough to reach the “cute and adorable” stage (or at least there are probably no pictures of them looking radiant and adorable). Remember Dr. Starks’ admonition that for a crime to reach true high-profile status, not only must the perpetrator be attractive, but the victim(s) must also be good-looking in order to fire the imaginations of dedicated followers of crime and to inspire the media to engage in saturation coverage.

I hope I’m completely wrong; I hope M. Huntsman is reviled in a fashion that makes the hatred directed at “the three pretty ladies” seem like a mere warm-up drill. So prove me wrong, Crime Fans of America. Show me that you judge a crime solely on its merits, not on the basis of good looks and that “sexy thang.” If I might paraphrase the various 20th century European philosophers who dedicated their lives to trying to discern what is truly real, a crime should judged solely on the “crime-in-itself”, not on its superficial trappings.

Click here to view our previous post on Megan Huntsman multiple baby killings:

Utah Mom Kills Her 7 Newborn Babies One-by-One

by Patrick H. Moore

Three mindless Oklahoma teenage boys — ages 15, 16 and 17 — shocked Duncan, Oklahoma, a normally quiet community of 25,000 in southern Oklahoma not far  from the Texas border, by randomly shooting and killing Christopher Lane, a popular Australian baseball player studying at East Central University (ECU).  This was yet another Facebook murder, only this time — unlike in the case of Derek Medina — the “village idiots” advertised the murder in advance by posting on the Facebook page of one of the alleged killers:

‘‘Bang. Two drops in two hours.”

Fortunately, the boys were apprehended prior to gunning down their second intended victim.

According to Watoday.com.au, an Australian online publication, the U.S. authorities have stated that the boys were on a ‘‘killing spree’’.

Duncan police chief Danny Ford said that the accused killers drove to a second house to murder a second unrelated victim just hours after shooting Lane in the back and leaving him to die on the side of a road.

“I think they were on a killing spree. We would have had more bodies that night if we didn’t get them. They wanted to be Billy Bob Badasses.”

Chief Ford stated that Lane, who grew up in Melbourne on Australia’s southern coast, was murdered on Friday afternoon when he left his girlfriend, Sarah Harper’s, house and went for a jog along Country Club Road in an upscale section of town.

To say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time is an understatement. The three boys, trolling in a black car with a white sticker on the driver’s windshield, spotted him randomly.

‘‘They followed him,’’ Chief Ford said. ‘‘They came up from behind, shot him in the back with a small calibre hand gun and sped off.’’

Witnesses saw Lane stumble and fall to his knees, then drag himself to the side of the road. A neighbor woman tried CPR while another woman driving by stopped and called 911. Police and paramedics were at the scene within minutes and transported Lane to a nearby hospital. It was too late; he was pronounced dead within the hour.

The big break came four hours later when a terrified parent phoned in the message that several juveniles were coming over “to kill their son’’. The police raced over and apprehended the three teenagers in the black car in a church car parking lot near the the second intended victim’s house.

The boys were arrested without incident, with one allegedly confessing that they had murdered Lane. According to Chief Ford, the other two boys stone-walled it but the one confession combined with the witness statements led law enforcement to search the car. The turned up a shotgun but the murder weapon has yet to be found. They did find ammunition for the handgun hidden in a fuse box under the hood of the car. In addition, surveillance footage taken minutes after Lane was shot, allegedly showed the boys hiding a weapon in the air  cleaner.

In a bizarre turn of event, after shooting Lane and prior to their arrest,one of the boys kept an appointment with juvenile authorities for a previous brush with the law.

Chief Ford stated that there is no evidence linking the boys to drugs or gang activity.

‘‘I know everybody thinks there has to be a reason, but I’ve been in this business for 30 years and there doesn’t have to be a reason with these kids. It is a sad, sad thing what happened with that young man.’’

At the time of the shooting, Lane and his girlfriend — who had been together for four years — had only been back in the US for three days after visiting his family in Australia.

A few hours after Lane’s death, Sarah Harper posted a tribute of Facebook saying she had ‘‘amazing memories’’ and cherished a ‘‘last adventure together.’’

‘‘I love you so much babe. From 2009 until forever you will always be mine and in a very special and protected place in my heart,” she wrote poetically.

Lanes friends and teammates have begun changing their profile pictures on Facebook to images of Lane. One friend wrote that he had been a generous friend and ‘‘brother’’ to his ECU teammates.

‘‘I don’t think any of us know how or what we are supposed to feel right now about one of our best men Christopher Lane but I do know that we were extremely blessed to have him sent across the world and into each of our lives,” Marshall Veal wrote.

‘‘He brought a light to each of us and will be greatly missed. Laney would have done anything in the world for all of us and we would do the same, he was a best friend, teammate, and most of all a Brother.’’

A former Australian teammate wrote:

‘‘You are one of the most genuine blokes I’ve ever had the privilege to get to know.’’

The ECU athletics director, Dr. Jeff Williams wrote:

”The ECU family is saddened to hear about this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Lane family and friends. We will do everything possible to support his family and teammates during this sad time.’’

Essendon Baseball Club, Lane’s Australian club also paid tribute to him.

”Essendon Baseball Club is deeply saddened by the passing of Christopher Lane. Chris was a truly talented and highly respected young man whose friendship was valued by all who had the good fortune to know him. His loss is felt by each and every member of the Essendon family and our thoughts and prayers are with the Lane family during this incredibly difficult time.”

Lane’s body is expected to be flown back to Australia later this week.

*     *     *     *     *

The fate of the “three idiot boys” will very likely depend on whether they are tried as adults or juveniles. If it is the former, they are likely to face premeditated first degree murder charges. If the latter, they would presumably be held in juvenile detention until they turn 21.

One wonders if this murder would have even happened were it not for Facebook and social media. The boys appear to have been titillated by the thought of titillating their Facebook friends by broadcasting their intended crime(s) in advance. It’s easy to imagine them driving around after killing Lane congratulating each other and fantasizing about how impressed everyone was going to be, particularly after they “sealed the deal” with murder #2.

It will be interesting to see if this Facebook killing spawns subsequent similar bravado killings.

Update:

In March of this year, an Oklahoma judge ruled Wednesday that two teenagers charged with first-degree murder must face a trial in the shooting death of an Australian baseball player.

Prosecutors say a third suspect will testify against them.

Police and prosecutors say the boys targeted Christopher Lane, 22, last August as a way to overcome a boring summer afternoon. Chancey Luna, 16, and Michael Dewayne Jones, 18, were ordered to stand trial, while prosecutors said James Francis Edwards Jr., 16, will testify against them and be charged with a lesser crime.

The following 10 somewhat bizarre yet prophetically fatal facts about Ted Bundy (Monster Smooth) during his youth and young adulthood come to us courtesy of Bukisa.com and Wikipedia. Bukisa’s interpretations of these facts have, in some cases, been augmented and/or altered by Patrick H. Moore.

1)  Ted Bundy was not his birth name.

The man the world would come to know as Ted Bundy Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home For Unwed Mothers (now the Lund Family Center) in Burlington, Vermont on November 24, 1946. His mother Eleanor Louise Cowell (known for most of her life as Louise) moved to Tacoma when Ted was four and changed his last name to Nelson. Within a year, his mother met Johnnie Culpepper Bundy. When they married, Johnnie Bundy legally adopted Theodore and changed his last name to Bundy.

2)  Ted Bundy thought his mother was his sister for many years.

To avoid the social stigma of having an illegitimate grandchild born to a young mother, his grandparents claimed him as their own. They told Ted that Louise was his sister and not his mother. Although Ted likely suspected that something didn’t quite add up, he did not definitively discover the truth of his maternal parentage until the end of high school or early in college.

3)  No one is really sure who his biological father was.

Louise gives us two different stories. The name affixed in the father slot on Ted’s birth certificate was Lloyd Marshall. However, she later spoke of being seduced by a war veteran named Jack Worthington. There’s still another option, however, though it may be mere speculation. Some members of Bundy’s family think that his grandfather Samuel Cowell may also be his biological father. Samuel Cowell was a tyrannical bully and a bigot who hated blacks, Italians, Catholics, and Jews, beat his wife and the family dog, and swung neighborhood cats by their tails. He once threw Louise’s younger sister Julia down a flight of stairs for oversleeping. He sometimes spoke aloud to unseen presences, and at least once he flew into a violent rage when the question of Ted’s paternity was raised.  Bundy described his grandmother as a timid and obedient woman who periodically underwent electroconvulsive therapy for depression and feared leaving their house toward the end of her life.

i don’t want to belabor the obvious but it sounds a bit dysfunctional to me.

4)  He showed violent tendencies as young as three years old.

Ted showed an unsettling predilection for violence from a very early age. His maternal aunt Julia recalls lying down for a nap and waking up surrounded by knives with a smiling 3-year-old Bundy at her side. If this is true, it is totally freakish and as Bukisa says, paints an eerie, strange picture of an eccentric (in the worst sense of the word) toddler arranging knives around his sleeping aunt.

5)  Bundy’s grandfather (who he thought was his father and indeed may have been) tortured animals.

AND, Bundy describes incidents of his grandfather Samuel abusing the family dog. Samuel would also swing neighbourhood cats around by their tails, and Ted himself reportedly mutilated animals with the ubiquitous knives that seemed to fascinate him so much. Ouch!

6)  Young Ted was active in the Methodist Church and even served as Vice President of the Methodist Youth Fellowship.

Oddly enough, despite his anti-social and no doubt sociopathic tendencies, Ted, like John Wayne Gacy, was a joiner. In addition to the Methodist Church (Note: Patrick H’s family went to the Methodist Church in Campbellsport, Wisc for several years when he was a kid and he narrowly escaped becoming a serial killer), Ted joined the Boy Scouts of America club. It all seems like somewhat of a charade, however, a fact Bundy seemed to intimate when he later stated: “I didn’t know what made people want to be friends. I didn’t know what made people attractive to one another. I didn’t know what underlay social interactions.” you get the sense that Ted may have been thinking all the wrong thoughts both in Church and at Scout meetings. He was often described as shy and introverted at this age.

7)  His criminal activities began before he finished high school.

Ted tendency to be dangerously different, which manifested early with his penchant for knife arranging, was always apaprent in one way or another. According to some reports, he was a habitual liar. and a compulsive shoplifter. Although Bundy’s later claims must be met with some skepticism, he did say that he had gone the voyeuristic route at a young age and was a “peeper”. Bundy was arrested twice as a juvenile but the records were later expunged.

8)  He majored in Psychology in University and graduated with a degree in 1972.

Despite what might be called demonstratively anti-social tendencies, Bundy also had a confoundedly conforming side. Just like any up and coming lad, he was off to college after graduating high school in 1965. He went through a period when he was engrossed in Oriental Studies and later seems to have settled on Psychology. He was a desultory student at first, though, which he believed cost him the love of his life, a well-appointed and well-off California girl, possibly from the San Francisco Bay Area, who for reasons of decorum, shall remain nameless. After his first and perhaps only love broke up with him for his lack of ambition, he rededicated himself to Psychology and earned his degree in 1972. He was well-liked by his professors and graduated with honors. He started dating a young mother (a relationship that lasted six years) while covertly re-establishing his relationship with his former girlfriend who dumped him. Ted ultimately proposed to the first woman and she accepted. Then two weeks later, he dumped her and began his killing spree. Nonetheless, he did not end his six year relationship to the woman with child until he was arrested for kidnapping in 1976. The general consensus is that most of his victims looked like his original girlfriend who dumped him (long dark hair parted in the middle).

9)  He volunteered at a suicide crisis center alongside a now famous crime author, Ann Rule.

In conjunction with his psychology classes, he volunteered at a suicide crisis center where, it is believed, he quite effectively talked people out of killing themselves. At this point, Bukisa can only state: “Completely bizarre.” At the crisis center, Ted worked closely with Ann Rule who is now a well known crime writer. Ironically, at a certain point, she began researching the crimes Ted was committing, not knowing it was her friend who committed them. She later published a very readable book called : The Stranger Beside Me detailing her relationship with Ted, his numerous crimes and his trials.

10)  Ted was heavily involved with the Republican Party.

Whatever his faults and they were legion, Ted was an activist. In 1968, he managed the Seattle office of Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential campaign and attended the Republican Convention in Miami. After his graduation in 1972, he went to work for the state Republican Party. He was later involved in a minor scandal when the Democrats discovered that stealthy Ted had been following one of them around posing as a college student, taping their speeches and pirating the information back to his home office.

So where do we go from here? Hopefully, as time permits, we will have the chance to take a close look at various phases in Monster Smooth’s life.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Silicon Valley has long been world famous as the pulsating heart of the hi-tech industry. It is the home of venture capital and its top executives make staggering amounts of money. One of these execs, Forrest Timothy Hayes, a married, highly-respected Google employee and father of five, has drawn his last fat paycheck a bit earlier than he anticipated.

It seems that Forrest was living a double life cavorting with a high-priced call girl named Alix Catherine Tichelman, formerly a journalism major at Georgia State university, on his private 50-foot-yacht, Escape, which he kept docked in the Santa Cruz Harbor. In addition to presumably engaging in the pleasures of the flesh with Alix, Mr. Hayes apparently enjoyed having her inject him with heroin.

This backfired on Nov. 23rd of last year when Alix, apparently inadvertently, allegedly injected him with an overdose on board his yacht, according to city police Deputy Chief Steve Clark. The case was apparently hushed up at the time, or at least it didn’t make the news. The police, however, began a criminal investigation.

Evan Sernoffsky of SFGate writes:

Santa Cruz police said Tichelman had an “ongoing prostitution relationship” with the victim, met him the night he died and injected him with heroin. Footage from a security camera on the yacht showed Hayes “suffering medical complications and going unconscious,” officials said.

Rather than call for help from authorities, Tichelman allegedly gathered her belongings, including drugs and paraphernalia, and at one point stepped over Hayes’ body to “finish a glass of wine,” before lowering the blinds to conceal the body and leaving.

The case hit the news Wednesday and made national headlines when Santa Cruz County prosecutors charged Alix with manslaughter.

The noted Loyola Law School professor and former AUSA Laurie Levenson, has suggested that prosecutors typically downgrade charges to manslaughter when they “don’t think they can prove malice, which means she realized the risk that he would die and disregarded it.”

This is apparently because pleasure seekers injecting heroin are rarely trying to kill themselves even though the risk is always there.

Levenson said authorities could pursue an involuntary manslaughter charge, or what some experts refer to as a “clueless killing” involving recklessness, as opposed to the more serious charge of voluntary manslaughter which generally refers to a death in the heat of passion or during a sudden quarrel.

Law enforcement cleverly lured Alix, 26, into their web on Friday by coaxing her to the Santa Cruz when an officer posed as a customer and offered her $1,000 for sex

On Wednesday, she appeared in court to face the manslaughter charge, along with counts of transporting drugs and destroying evidence. She remained in jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail, and was scheduled to return to court next Wednesday for arraignment.

Forest Hayes, who hailed from Dearborn, Mich. had been married for 17 years and had worked at several world famous tech companies including Sun Microsystems, Apple and finally Google.

“I was really devastated when I heard about it,” Todd Zion, who worked at Google for a short time under Hayes, told The Chronicle on Wednesday. “He was a great boss. I never had a chance to thank him.”

An unidentified person wrote on the online memorial page, “There are simply no words to describe this. I had the unique opportunity to work for Forrest at Apple and Google. He is one of the best bosses I have had – caring and thoughtful.”

Sad that Hayes, whose good side was apparently exemplary, is now dead because he couldn’t control his appetites. This hammers home the danger of dabbling in hard drugs, even if one is not an addict.

Alix kept a modeling page on Facebook which reportedly contained dozens of pictures of her posing seductively in racy outfits. In one post she wrote a poem titled “Heroin” with the opening line, “This private downward spiral – this suffocating black hole.”

Kara Heminger, a 28-year-old Atlanta resident, stated on Wednesday that she and Tichelman were friends and had modeled together.

“I knew she had problems. It was like she was running from something,” Heminger said. “I just thought she was back on drugs or something. A lot of her friends are very, very shocked about the accusations.”

Santa Cruz Assistant District Attorney Rafael Vazquez said police are still investigating the case and that the charges may change.

* * * * *

This is truly a cautionary tale. It would appear that Forrest Hayes was set with a great job, plenty of money, a big family and so on, and yet he threw it all away for “kicks.” Of course, we don’t know what his non-work personal relationships were like or whether he resorted to Alix because of personal problems at home or simply because he was an inveterate pleasure seeker.

Observing the pictures of Alix, however, makes it very clear that she was into something vaguely resembling “heroin chic” and suggests that Forrest Hayes was helplessly trapped in her web. Or to state it a bit more crudely: Forrest wanted a “bad girl” and that’s exactly what he got. Be careful what you wish for, my friends. Of course none of us would fall prey to such a femme fatale, would we?

It also attests to the growing problem that heroin is becoming nationally as the “old reliable killer” continues to dig its claws into white America, not unlike what occurred in the overdose-laden 1970s, when the well-heeled California suburbs were riddled with heroin casualties.

by Starks Shrink

On July 2nd 2005, Oklahoma resident Sheilla Shea took a knife and stabbed her six year old son, Patric, to death in front of her other three children, one of whom wrestled her to the floor and took the knife. Her 10-year-old son ran across the street to Shea’s mother-in-law’s home to tell her what had happened. The mother-in-law, Pauline Shea, told police the police that Sheilla suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. When police spoke to Sheilla, she admitted that she had fatally stabbed Patric and had intended to kill all her children and herself. She apparently believed that someone was trying to kill her children and decided that if she killed them first, it would be more humane. Certainly, not a rational thought but there are very few of those when someone is in the grip of psychosis.

Sheilla Shea wisely followed her attorney’s advice and waived a jury trial. Her case was heard by a judge and he rendered a verdict of guilty by reason of insanity. I know states vary with respect to the actual availability of guilty by reason of insanity verdicts, and I imagine our resident attorney and legal expert, Rick, will check in on this account. Had Sheilla opted for a jury trial, the results could have been disastrous, based upon recent comments in social media. Instead, she was committed involuntarily to a psychiatric facility, where she remained in custody for nine years until she was released just last month.

I first heard of Sheilla Shea just last week and only because she appeared on a television show about Justin Ross Harris and the car seat death of his child Cooper. When interviewed, Sheilla claimed that she knew what Harris was going through because she had also killed her child. Apparently, she also gave an interview on “Dr. Drew” about the horrific event. I have not seen the interview, nor have I been able to find it online. Why did she make a statement about Harris? I believe that she is not judging his culpability, only expressing her empathy with a parent who knows they have fatally harmed their child, be it through neglect or as a result of mental illness.

My curiosity piqued, I dug a little bit into this case and was left with a number of questions that were never answered satisfactorily but invite discussion.

Pauline Shea, Sheilla’s mother-in-law, told police that Sheilla was acting “off” and had told her and other people that she thought people were trying to crawl in through her window. In the days prior to the killing, she had kept the children indoors out of fear for their safety. This makes me ask the question: why didn’t Pauline do something? If she knew that Sheilla had schizophrenia, wouldn’t fantasies like this raise a red flag that something was seriously amiss?

Additionally, I discovered that a year prior to Patric’s death, Shea’s husband, Milton Eugene “Gene” Shea, was arrested for the production and possession of methamphetamine. This is when Pauline states that Sheilla “went off the deep end”. After Gene went to prison for his drug crime, Pauline claims that she took Sheilla to a mental crisis center, where she remained for up to three weeks while Pauline cared for her children. Twice during that period, reports were filed with health services. One report stated that Sheilla was being abused and forced to take drugs, and another claimed that she was abused and someone attempted to set her on fire. An ensuing investigation determined that the children were in no immediate danger and they referred Sheilla to counseling services. It’s my best guess that Sheilla herself was having delusions and made the reports herself. The investigation did note that the living conditions in the home were substandard – also a sign of mental illness. There are no indications that Sheilla herself ever abused methamphetamine, and in fact her mother-in-law claims that the couple often fought over his drug abuse.

In 2011, Sheilla was granted a conditional release which was intended to reintegrate her into society and build her self-reliance. She lived in her own apartment, filled her own prescriptions and attended her counseling appointments. This is a vital part of the treatment to ensure that the client will become and remain compliant with their treatment plan. Last month she was granted a full release from the psychiatric hospital. In essence, she is now a free woman. Her meth-cooking husband died in 2011, her children have forgiven her and understand, after extensive counseling themselves, that their mother was an extremely ill woman and incapable of acting differently. The public, however, is relentless. After her interview on HLN aired, many people were calling for her to be put into prison and worse. Their rationalization was that in the interview, Sheilla appreciated the enormity of her actions and didn’t seem mentally ill. Part of me wants to scream “DUH”; she’s been in a mental hospital for nine long years. They stabilized her medication so that she was no longer psychotic, and she underwent extensive therapy to deal with the after-effects of her actions, once she was able to fully understand what she had done. The rational part of me sees that the public-at-large does not understand serious mental illness/psychosis and how devastating it can be to the person who has to live with it.

I’m not sure why Sheilla Shea decided to go public with her story. She says she would sell her soul to have Patric back. I would hope that people could learn from the story of her family’s tragedy and intervene when someone is showing clear signs of mental illness. Regrettably, the masses seem to only scream for blood and ignore the stark reality that mental illness is a serious problem that we as a society need to provide care for in order to prevent occurrences such as that which befell Patric.

Please click here to view The Starks Shrink’s Other Posts:

The Overheating Death of Cooper Harris: Murder or Tragic Accident?

Why Beautiful Murderesses Inflame the Passions of the True Crime Fan

Going Postal Goes Fed-Ex!

How to Raise a Serial Killer in 10 Easy Steps

The Julie Schenecker Tragedy: Negligence, Finger-Pointing and the Death of Children

Luka Magnotta: Man, Boy or Beast?

The Disturbing Truth about Mothers Who Murder Their Children

Teleka Patrick Needed a Psychiatrist, Not a Pastor!

Rehabbing the Wounded Juvenile Will Save Their Souls (and Ours)

Skylar Neese and the Mean Girls Who Killed Her

adapted by Patrick H. Moore

The world has changed greatly since the 1960′s and — generally speaking — individuals are held to a much higher standard of conduct with respect to sexual “indiscretions” and other form of blatant or serious criminal misconduct. In this post, the idea of which comes to us courtesy of Lachlan M. and Javier Yepes at Cracked.com, we will discuss three celebrities who “got away with murder”, figuratively speaking, in previous decades but would probably get far more than “a slap on the wrist” if they were apprehended for these crimes in today’s world.

We will start with legendary rock guitarist Jimmy Page before moving on to Vince Neil of Motley Crew and —surprise surprise — Sean Penn.

Jimmy Page Kidnapped a 14-Year-Old Girl and Kept Her Prisoner for Several Years

In addition to his fantastic career with Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page turned in a monumental body of excellent studio work in the mid and late ’60s. He played on Tom Jones’s pop smash “It’s Not Unusual”, The Kink’s monster hit “You Really Got Me” and Van Morrison instant ’60′s classic “Gloria”, before going on to stardom with Led Zeppelin.

According to Lachlan M. and Yepes, in 1972, Page was hanging around a nightclub and laid eyes on 14-year-old Lori Maddox. Page sent roadie Richard Cole to Maddox’s table with the message, “Jimmy told me that he’s going to have you whether you like it or not.” The roadie then grabbed her and chucked her in the back of a limo.

From there, it was on to Page’s house, where the “affair” was quickly consummated. Page may have been sleazy but he was not unintelligent and he knew that if the word got out, hecould be in serious trouble. So for the next few years, although Maddox reportedly traveled with the band at times, she was kept out of the public eye as much as possible so that the relationship wasn’t brought to the attention of the authorities. Even in the wild ’70′s, you could still go to jail for something like this.

Page got away with it and never went to jail or got arrested. Lori Maddox may still be infatuated with him and calls him “romantic.” Perhaps this is a case of the Stockholm syndrome. Here are Maddox’s own words from Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga:

 “It was magnificent. Can you believe it? It was just like right out of a story! Kidnapped, man, at 14!”

Motley Crue’s Lead Singer Vince Neil Killed Someone While Drunk Driving and Only Got 30 Days in Jail and a Large Fine

Motley Crue has sold 90 million albums over their 30-year career. Known and loved for their hard rocking and hard-partying ways, the Crue consumed enough cocaine to put dozens of cocaine dealers’ children through college

Their shenanigans were so over-the-top crazy that it made them caricatures but no one seemed to care. After all, it was the hedonistic ’80s. But not everything they did was lovable. Certainly not the time they killed  a man.

On December 8, 1984, lead singer Vince Neil was enjoying day 3 of a three day party at his Vegas pad. The booze was running low so he jumped in a car with his rocker friend Razzle and drove to a liquor store. Out of control crazy, he soon lost control of the car and collided head-on with a Volkswagen coming the other way. Razzle died instantly, and the two people in the other car were hospitalized. One reportedly suffered brain damage and was comatose for a month.

Neil was convicted of DUI and vehicular manslaughter, which could have resulted in up to 10 years in prison. Being a superstar, Neil hired a “weasel lawyer” and paid him a lot of money. The lawyer talked the sentence down to 30 days in jail, five years’ probation, and $2.5 million in fines. Neil only served 20 of those 30 days because Motley Crue had a tour scheduled.

To his credit, Neil certainly realized how fortunate he was, stating:

“I wrote a $2.5 million check for vehicular manslaughter when Razzle died. I should have gone to prison. I definitely deserved to go to prison. But I did 30 days in jail and got laid and drank beer, because that’s the power of cash. That’s f_____ up.”

It is noted that Neil’s contrition has not stopped him from driving under the influence on one of more occasions since then.

Sean Penn Tied Up and Physically Abused Madonna

Sean Penn is one of our most well-respected actors. Who can forget his roles in “Milk”, “Mystic River” and “Dead Man Walking.” He is also a noted progressive who vehemently opposed our involvement in the war with Iraq.

Therefore, it’s easy to think of him as not only a fine actor but someone who cares about humanity.

In Penn’s earlier years, however, he was known for his violent and aggressive outbursts. The incident that could have resulted in severe repercussions including substantial prison time was the time he assaulted and battered Madonna in 1988.

Their marriage was a stormy affair and Penn’s heavy drinking certainly didn’t help. Finally, in 1988, after he flew into a rage over Madonna’s supposed affair with Warren Beatty, she called the marriage off. Penn responded by turning into an abusive nutcase. Although accounts of the beating vary with respect to details, here is the story according to Lachlan M. and Javier Yepes:

After he got good and drunk (again), Penn climbed into Madonna’s house, where she was alone. He then grabbed her, tied her to a chair, and assaulted her for hours, both physically and emotionally. He then went out for more booze, came back, and kept up the beating. Madonna only escaped after telling Penn that she had to go to the bathroom, which meant he had no problem battering, beating, bloodying, and bruising the supposed love of his life, but felt it would have been too degrading to make her pee in front of him.

While Penn was arrested, the charges were dropped because Madonna didn’t want to generate a media circus, which may have been the one and only time in her life that Madonna actually wanted the press to go away. A couple of decades of political activism and two Oscars later, and the world barely remembers an incident that would turn most people into a pariah.

*     *     *     *     *

In today’s world, any of the above three incidents would result in some serious prison time. For kidnapping and carrying on a sexual relationship with Lori Maddox, Jimmy Page could easily get 20 years or more in prison. For his DUI vehicular manslaughter, Vince Neil would probably be looking at two to three years minimum. As for the violent Mr. Penn, he would be lucky to escape with a year’s county time, depending on whether the authorities wanted to make an example of him.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

In one of the most appalling cases of child abuse resulting in the death of a toddler that I have ever heard about, the apparent main “bad actor”, the mother’s boyfriend, Joshua Beard, 20, of Arlington, Texas appears to be a rather normal looking young man, while the mother and reportedly reluctant participant, Alexis Botello, 17, is definitely a wholesome looking young lady.

Sebastian Murdoch of the Huffington Post writes:

A young Texas couple have been arrested in the murder of an 18-month-old child who was brutally abused before being stomped to death and buried under a bridge wrapped in a blanket, police said.

Joshua Beard, 20, and Alexis Botello, 17, had only been dating for a few months prior to the death of Botello’s daughter, Tylea Moore, on July 4.

An Arlington, Texas, police affidavit obtained by The Huffington Post states that Beard called the toddler a “little demon” while striking her repeatedly and that he also abused the mother when she attempted to stop him (Note: The following description is not for the faint at heart):

“Botello said Beard was pushing and yelling at Tylea. Botello kept yelling at him to stop, that she was just a baby and didn’t understand. Beard then started yelling and hitting Botello.

“Botello went into Tylea’s room and picked her up. Tylea looked awful. Her bottom was swollen, she had bruises on her ribs, chest, arms, legs, and even on the top of her feet. She also had bite marks all over her. Tylea had two cuts on her mouth, one on the top lip and one on the bottom lip.”

After that, according to Botello, Beard began punching her and then allegedly grabbed the toddler and slammed her down on the bed so hard that she bounced off and landed on the ground. Then he continued to hit the child with closed fists and began stomping on Tylea’s stomach “over and over again,” according to the police report.

A short time later, the child died.

Although the mother Botello appears to have tried hard to stop Beard from killing her daughter, there is no doubt that she was complicit in attempting to cover up Tylea’s death.

Once Beard had completed his “dirty work” and the child was dead, the young couple went to a Walmart where they bought gloves and two shovels. According to investigators, they were easily identified leaving the store on a surveillance video.

They then dug a grave under a bridge in a remote area near Springtown, wrapped the little girl in a small blue blanket and buried her, according to police.

In a decision that may well save her from serving years in a Texas state prison, Botello had the good sense to go to the police some time after Tylea’s death. Botello admitted her involvement and led law enforcement to where they’d buried the child under under the bridge.

Beard has been charged with capital murder. His bail has been set at $1 million. For her part, Botello is facing adult charges of tampering with evidence of a human corpse and injury to a child. Her bail has been set at $125,000, a fraction of Beard’s.

* * * * *

Tylea’s father Chris Moore, a U.S. Marine, refuses to believe Botello was a willing participant in the crime. He states rather touchingly:

“I hope that they see that she was in an abusive relationship. I mean, we have pictures of bruises all over her.”

It’s unclear to me whether the pictures Chris is referring to were taken after Beard batted her around while he was killing Tylea, or if they stem from earlier abusive actions on Beard’s part.

Chris appears to still carry a torch for Botello and last saw Tylea when he was home earlier this year on leave from the Marines. Chris was also there when Botello was arrested.

“My heart dropped…whenever I watched them put the cuffs on her and put her in the car and say I couldn’t talk to her anymore…I screamed at her and told her I loved her… I can’t believe there’s evil like that in the world.”

Oddly, Chris stated he and Beard grew up in the same neighborhood and even hung out together as kids.

* * * * *

Although Chris Moore stated that he “can’t believe there’s evil like that in the world,” this may be a bit disingenuous considering that as a US Marine, he could hardly be unaware, if he stopped to think about it, that bodies of fighting men such as the Marines would not even exist unless “there was evil such as this in the world.”

Of course, many people are in the habit of making a moral distinction between “state-sanctioned violence” such as that which occurs in warfare and random, unsanctioned violence such as that which was perpetrated by this fiend, Beard. This, I would think, is a moral/ethical dilemma which is routinely rationalized away by most people who decry individual violence but accept sanctioned, military violence as a matter of course.

I got a call yesterday morning from an old and dear friend, a Vietnam veteran who searched tunnels and walked point in Vietnam, and eventually had his leg blown off when he stepped on a mine. He killed a few Vietnamese during his tour of duty and, of course, witnessed the deaths of many Vietnamese and more than a few Americans. Some of the Vietnamese who died were women and children who were gunned down without cause by members of his company.

When he returned to the U.S., he was never the same and remains a PTSD veteran to this day. The war scarred him irrevocably and he has had a very hard life as a result of it. He has never truly gotten over the guilt of seeing his fellow American soldiers gun down women and children more or less for the fun of it.

There is another moral dilemma for us to deal with here. What should be done with Beard, assuming he is guilty as charged, which certainly appears to be the case? As our number one death penalty state, I strongly suspect Beard, if convicted, will be eligible for Death Row. Many Americans will whole-heartedly hope that he “fries”, and my initial instinct is to agree with them, even though I generally oppose the death penalty. Upon reflection, though, I realize that to “murder” Beard in a state-sanctioned act of ritualized violence will not solve a thing and will only detract from what remains of our communal humanity.

Furthermore, something no doubt happened to Beard in his development to transform him into the evil man who beat that poor child to death. So I would think life in prison without the possibility of parole would be sufficient punishment and will emphatically send the message that crimes of this nature will never be tolerated.

Meanwhile, a little child has been crushed out existence, a young mother has had her life irrevocably transformed for the worse, a US Marine is grieving and god only knows what the “bad actor” is thinking.

by Starks Shrink

You’ve decided you want the fame of being a serial killer but don’t want to commit the awful crimes. No problem, you can still raise your very own serial killer. It takes dedication and commitment but with this handy guide, you can be the proud mother of a notorious serial killer. Since murderabilia seems to be so popular, you may even make a few bucks on the side.

I’ve addressed this guide to the moms because they seem to figure prominently in the serial killer’s psyche, though you will have to be careful not to become his first victim. You will need to raise a male child, which will lead to the highest probability that you will succeed in creating a little monster.

1.  Step one is to select the killer’s father. You will need to do this carefully. Choose an abusive alcoholic that will assist you in abusing the child when he is a toddler and then disappear into obscurity once the child has been sufficiently marred. You may have to endure considerable abuse in the presence of the child for the first couple of years. This will imprint the child with images of a dominant male and a woman who is unable to protect him. He will fear men and loathe women while at the same time craving their attention.  **Note, you do not need to physically bear the child; adopting him from a close relative and keeping it on the down-low is equally effective.

2.  Dress the young boy as a girl and send him out amongst his peers. You could give him a girl’s name too, but then he might just turn into a country singer, and that’s definitely not part of the plan. Be sure to sneer and berate him as he parades around in dresses. This will confuse his gender identity which will lead to sexual confusion later in adolescence and young adulthood.

3. Try to drop the boy on his head frequently as an infant and toddler, or try to inflict head injuries through the frequent beatings you will administer without warning for minor infractions, such as spilling is cereal at breakfast. Do not get medical care for head injuries; they will heal on their own and the trauma can contribute to lesions and neurological disorders.

4.  Be careless about his toilet training; alternate harsh discipline with periods of inattention. This will confuse the boy and foster bed wetting. Allow him to sleep in his wet bed for several days at a time before loudly condemning the child as a failure for not catching on to toilet training. Invite other youths in his neighborhood to the house during these episodes to ensure he will have an extremely limited social circle and few healthy interactions.

5.  Create an atmosphere of promiscuity and disposability in human relationships. You will need to frequently invite unsavory men into your bed and engage in loud, animalistic sexual behavior in front of the child. Preferably, keep the toddler’s bed in your own room while this is occurring. Children often equate the sounds associated with sexuality to violence, which will serve him well later on. You will also cultivate his voyeuristic side, a key component in a serial killer.

6.  Send the child for extended visits to elderly relatives who have very strict, Calvinistic tendencies which will contrast markedly with the chaos in your own home. The boy will come to see religious practices and the accompanying rigidity as punishment. The contrast to his own abnormally chaotic home will make his usual existence seem quite normal to him, thus warping his sense of what is acceptable to society in general.

7.  Drugs and alcohol need to play a large part in the child’s upbringing. However, you need to appear functional to those outside the home so that others will not interfere and remove the child from the home before you’ve completed your mission. Leave alcohol and marijuana within easy reach of the child. He will move on to other substances on his own.

8.  Befriend a seemingly kind male who is a known child molester and invite him frequently to your home to babysit the child. The child will cling to this one kind anchor in his pathetic life and be lulled into participating in unnatural sexual practices. He will likely never report it. The abuse will confuse his sexuality even further, wracking him with guilt and hatred for both the molester and foryou for allowing it to occur, even encouraging it.

9.  Collect or allow the child to collect a variety of stray animals. Be sure to abuse them within the home. Do not feed them and never clean their cages. Act as though their life is worthless. If the boy gets attached to an animal, be sure that it is removed from him by force and cruelly destroyed. However, by this point, it is doubtful that you will have to resort to barbarism yourself as the child will enjoy having a sentient being upon which to vent his anger and lack of self-esteem. He will embark on that long heralded hallmark of sociopathy — animal abuse. Never comment upon the abused animal corpses you may find around the home — let it be his secret as that will engender his mounting sense of power and control.

10.  Cultivate a fascination with fire. Again, this is an area that will likely develop on its own if the previous steps are adhered to correctly. But you can encourage this by leaving lighters, matches and accelerants lying haphazardly around the domicile. Accidentally set kitchen towels alight in the boy’s presence to pique his interest and fascination with pyromania. Pyromania can be considered powerful as well as destructive and the youth will learn to lust for both.

If you’ve adhered to all these suggestions faithfully, you are well on the way to harboring the next great serial killer. Success is not guaranteed, though; serial killers are an elusive and rare breed and children can be remarkably resilient. But consistent chaos, belittling and social isolation will certainly make your chances of succeeding far greater. And as a side note, keep any drawings or art projects the child may create along the way, taking great care not to let him think you cherish them, as that could destroy all of your hard work. Instead, save them for after his arrest or death, since murderabilia has become a growth industry and you should reap some rewards for your efforts, in addition to the self-satisfaction you will attain from seeing your child achieve your dreams.

Please click here to view The Starks Shrink’s Other Posts:

Schizophrenic Child Killer Sheilla Shea Would “Sell Her Soul” to Bring Her Son Patric Back

The Overheating Death of Cooper Harris: Murder or Tragic Accident?

Why Beautiful Murderesses Inflame the Passions of the True Crime Fan

Going Postal Goes Fed-Ex!

How to Raise a Serial Killer in 10 Easy Steps

The Julie Schenecker Tragedy: Negligence, Finger-Pointing and the Death of Children

Luka Magnotta: Man, Boy or Beast?

The Disturbing Truth about Mothers Who Murder Their Children

Teleka Patrick Needed a Psychiatrist, Not a Pastor!

Rehabbing the Wounded Juvenile Will Save Their Souls (and Ours)

Skylar Neese and the Mean Girls Who Killed Her