commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Mental illness is a many-faceted phenomenon and one of the facets can be either violent acting-out or the desire to violently act out. Although we generally think of schoolyard mass murder scenarios – whether “successful” or “nipped in the bud” – as a “guy thing”, a new potential mass schoolyard shooting at Radnor High School in Wayne, Pennsylvania alerts us to the fact that the dark desire to wreak havoc on campus must also be considered  a “girl thing”.

In this case, the 17-year-old girl in question, who of course is not being identified at present, is both lucky and unlucky. She’s unlucky because she has a history of mental illness. But she’s extremely lucky because 1) she was apprehended well before she could have put her plan into action (she apparently didn’t even have any guns or explosives) and 2) the authorities are treating her with at least a modicum of consderation and respect.

First of all, she is being charged as a juvenile — the charges being making terrorist threats — and second, the psychiatric evaluation she is receiving appears to be geared toward helping her; at least that what Radnor Township Police Superintendent Bill Colarulo has implied:

“She is getting the help she needs,” Colarulo said.

David Lohr of Huffington Post writes:

Police in Pennsylvania say they have arrested a 17-year-old girl who had a “fascination” with school shootings and wrote about her desire to “flood the halls with corpses.”

“I could be the first female shooter,” the teenager wrote in her journal, according to Radnor Township Police Superintendent Bill Colarulo. “I’m homicidal, and I’m fine with that.”

I can’t help but wonder if this child, who is a senior at Radnor High School in the city of Wayne, perhaps wanted to be caught, and that her aggressive statements and gestures were, at least partly, a cry for help.

After all, although the exact details of how this transpired have not been revealed, she was arrested after school administrators at Radnor High discovered and confiscated her journal before contacting the police. Thus, she does not appear to have been particularly secretive.

That being said, there is no doubt that her aggressive statements were extremely inflammatory and certainly require the authorities to approach this with utmost seriousness.

“She made references to killing a teacher, killing her fellow students in a certain manner and … injuring herself,” Police Superintendent Colarulo told reporters Monday evening.

One of her journal entries read:

“I want to trap them, pick them off one by one. Blow up the cafeteria, shoot everyone in classrooms … Imagine the power, the bullets leaving the gun with a loud bang, piercing kids around me, the way they collapse, their blood splattering the floor … the screams.”

Most of us have heroes and the “sterling examples” of mass murder prowess in the minds of many wannabe and/or future mass murderers are the two disaffected teens from Columbine High School in Colorado, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, whose rampage in 1999 led to the deaths of 12 students and one teacher, before they turned their guns on themselves. At the time, it was one of the deadliest school shootings to occur in the U.S. It is noted that the enigmatic Adam Lanza, who also admired Klebold and Harris, killed 26 people including 20 first graders in 11 minutes in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of 2012.

According to Colarulo, the 17-year-old girl who wrote that she wanted to “flood the halls with corpses,” was fascinated by the Columbine High School massacre.

The Police Superintendent informs that the teen even went so far as to write a letter to the parents of one of the Columbine shooters, the content of which has not yet (and may never be) revealed.

“There are always warning signs,” said Colarulo. “If you want to go back and reference the Columbine incident, there were numerous warning signs that went ignored, that went unnoticed and nobody took the proper action and made the report.”

Although no weapons have been connected to the girl or at her home, Colarulo stated that “it was important to take immediate action.”

“We would be remiss if we didn’t take these threats seriously.”

I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.

“As soon as it was recognized that these writings were bizarre and dangerous the appropriate steps were taken,” Colarulo said. “That’s what we hope people will do from now on.”

The girl’s parents are cooperating with the police.

Debbie Singer is a parent of a junior at Radnor High. She “told NBC10 her daughter and other students knew the suspect had a fascination with the Columbine massacre.”

“It’s very sad and it’s sad for the girl,” Singer said. “The rumor was this was going to happen at the pep rally.”

Now this last statement is clearly only a rumor. There’s no way the girl could have put her plan into action at a pep rally without weapons.

I would hope that this troubled child receives appropriate psychiatric help and is not required to spend any appreciable amount of time in juvenile custody. To require her to spend time in a mental hospital, however, would not seem unreasonable given the gravity of her “fantasies”.

She is currently being held in custody, presumably at a “regular” juvenile facility.

* * * * *

Although I’m not convinced this girl would have ever “lowered the boom” or even would have succeeded in building the arsenal of weapons required to launch a major (or even a minor) attack, it is certainly worrisome that we now have at least one example of a mentally disturbed female fantasizing vividly about committing mass murder. Where there is one girl, there could easily be (and probably are) others.

At the very least, this suggests that the desire among certain radically disaffected students to commit mayhem at their junior high and high schools is now so widespread that it is deeply engrained into the fabric of youth culture, a most worrisome proposition that MUST be taken seriously.

Police Superintendant Colarulo makes a very good point when he says:

“As soon as it was recognized that these writings were bizarre and dangerous the appropriate steps were taken. That’s what we hope people will do from now on.”

In other words, keep your eyes and ears open and don’t hesitate to go immediately to the proper authorities when something seems or feels wrong. It seems to me that there’s little doubt that some (and perhaps most) of the school mass murder scenarios of the past few decades could possibly have been avoided if those near and dear to the shooters (and that includes their teachers) had been more vigilant. Of course, it’s easy for me to open my big mouth. It’s much harder to stay alert for signs of a a potential disaster in the making.

by BJW Nashe

The George Zimmerman trial got off to a dramatic start when attorneys delivered opening salvos laced with jokes and profanity. Prosecutor John Guy’s first words to the jury were,  “Good morning,” followed immediately by a quotation of Zimmerman’s own words spoken just prior to the killing of Trayvon Martin: “Fucking punks. These assholes always get away.” Guy emphasized that “those were the words in that grown man’s mouth as he followed a seventeen-year-old boy.” To further drive home the point, Guy repeated the phrase “fucking punks” three times.

Zimmerman’s defense counsel Don West tried to counter by opening with a “knock knock” joke. “Knock knock… Who’s there?… George Zimmerman… George Zimmerman who?… Ah, good. You’re on the jury. West’s attempt at humor fell flat, and confused many of us. Zimmerman is no doubt hoping that West is a better attorney than he is a comedian. Louis C.K. will not be calling any time soon for tips on new material. West continued with a line of reasoning that presumed the sidewalk to be a weapon. How could Martin be considered “unarmed,” in other words, when he had the sidewalk at his disposal, which he could allegedly slam Zimmerman’s held against? With this kind of logic, we surely have nothing to fear.

Courtroom drama is nothing new. People have always enjoyed the theatricality of a good trial — especially highly publicized proceedings such as the State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman.The O.J. Simpson trial seemed to set a new standard for judicial entertainment in our era. Now more than ever — with cameras in the courtroom, feeding directly into our media-saturated culture — we expect pure conflict, raw emotion, surreal moments, strange outbursts, and just plain bad behavior. We seek the raw impact of reality TV, in all of its inglorious, trashy, and often ridiculous splendor.

In court, many Americans are more than happy to oblige. Compared to some of the recent antics seen in courtrooms across the country, the Zimmerman trial so far is rather tame. But there’s still plenty of time for scandal and drama to develop. Hopefully, reason will prevail amidst all of the antics. Meanwhile, consider the following bizarre incidents, which seem better suited to the Jerry Springer Show than to the Halls of Justice.

Nazi Dad in Court. Earlier this month, in the middle of a child custody battle, Heath Campbell decided to wear a Nazi uniform to court in New Jersey. Campbell was petitioning afamily court judge to allow him to see his youngest son. The father claims he lost custody of three older children because he gave them Nazi-inspired names. The state claims there is a history of violence in the home. Campbell was in the news back in 2008 when he raised a fuss because a supermarket refused to write his son’s name on a birthday cake; the kid’s name is “Adolf Hitler Campbell.” Asked whether his Nazi costume would help or harm his child custody case, Campbell replied, “If they’re good judges and they’re good people, they’ll look within, not what’s on the outside.”

Spastic Fits and Coprophilia in Court. On June 5, Tyler Lee Rodgers made a spectacle of himself in the Torrance courtroom where he was being tried for attempted murder. Rodgers ischarged with slashing a store clerk’s throat during a robbery in Manhattan Beach, California.  While three witnesses testified during the hour-long proceeding, Rodgers veered from appearing calm and composed, to rocking back and forth in his chair, demanding medication, smacking his forehead on the defense table, and then being unable or unwilling to rise and be escorted out of the courtroom. He kept repeating, “I want my radio.” The bailiff and deputy had to restrain and drag the spastic defendant off to a holding room. The District Attorney accused Rodgers of “putting on a show,” and pointed out that doctors had deemed the 19-year-old to be healthy and sane. Rodgers has a history of strange behavior in court. Last year, his trial was suspended for a psychiatric evaluation after he put feces on his face in the holding room. He also reportedly ate his own feces during a previous courtroom appearance. This is probably too much even for the Springer show. Other defendants must be wondering, if eating your own feces in court will not get you declared insane in Torrance, what will?

Courtroom Butt-Slap. Former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson was reprimanded during an early June court appearance when he reached over to playfully whack his attorney on the rear end as they both stood in front of the judge. Johnson was at a hearing in Broward County Circuit Court after being charged with violating probation in regard to a domestic violence case. Johnson had reached a plea deal that would have kept him out of jail, in lieu of counseling and community service. One quick butt-slap in the courtroom, however, changed all of that. Judge Kathleen McHugh scolded the football star for goofing around in her courtroom, and sentenced him to 30 days in jail. There is no word on whether the attorney will file sexual harassment charges. Best to keep one’s hands to oneself in front of the judge!

Flipping the Bird in Court. Penelope Soto of Miami appeared to be struggling with anger management issues during a court appearance in February of this year. At one point she grew so agitated that she gave the judge the finger and blurted out, “Fuck you.” Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat was not amused. He sent Soto to jail for 30 days on a contempt charge. Soto had been arrested for drug possession when she was allegedly found with Xanax. Her court hearing was only intended to determine the appropriate bail. But one thing led to another, the bird was flipped, the judge was irked, and Soto ended up spending time behind bars before her case was even heard. When Soto was subsequently released after apologizing to the judge, she explained that she was under the influence of alcohol and Xanax at the time of her outburst. Evidently the disinhibitory quality of these substances outweighed whatever calming effect they were supposed to induce!

Phone Sex in Court. American jurisprudence reached a new level of salaciousness when defense attorneys in the Jodi Arias murder trial played a lengthy phone sex recording for the jury. Among other things, the kinky conversation included the victim, Travis Alexander, telling Arias how he would like to tie her to a tree and sodomize her. The courtroom phone sex was a field day for the heavy-breathing press, but it failed to sway the jury in Arias’s favor. They found her guilty of first degree murder.

Defendant Punches Attorney in Court. In October 2012, Lamarcus Williamson of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to assault, robbery, and drug charges pertaining to an incident involving a female college student. When the judge announced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, Williamson turned and punched his defense attorney in the face. Despite being handcuffed, Williamson was still able to land a knockdown blow. This did nothing to improve his standing with the court. The judge tacked on some additional time to his sentence.

Refusing to Take the Oath. Last October, Otis Jackson Jr., the former General Sessions Court Clerk from Nashville, Tennessee, rejected an offer that could have led to the dismissal of official misconduct charges against him, preferring to go ahead and face trial. During the hearing, Jackson shocked the courtroom by initially refusing to raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth. Special Judge Walter Kurtz told Jackson: “In 30 years and six months, you’re the only person I’ve ever run across that refused to be sworn in court, which I find kind of odd and inexplicable.” After coaxing Jackson to go ahead and take the oath, and even threatening him  with contempt, the defendant simply stated: “I shouldn’t be here.” After several minutes of awkward drama, Jackson finally gave in, and said he would “do his best” to tell the truth.

Dazed and Confused, with Orange Hair. In July 2012, Batman shooter James Holmes made his first public appearance in a Colorado courtroom since his movie theater gun massacre. He looked strangely dazed and unresponsive, with his unruly hair still dyed bright reddish-orange. His demeanor alternated from a sleepy, nearly comatose expression, to a bizarre bug-eyed stare. According to Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers, there would be no information provided as to whether Holmes was on drugs or some kind of medication. Holmes was being held in solitary confinement and was brought to the courtroom via an underground tunnel. He was also wearing a bullet-proof vest.

The Judge is Packing Heat. In February 2012, a Superior Court Judge in Lumpkin County, Georgia, shocked the courtroom when he pulled out his pistol and brandished it in order to“make a rhetorical point.” Judge David Barrett was presiding over a case in which a woman brought charges of rape and aggravated assault against a former sheriff’s deputy from Fall County. When the victim took the stand to testify, Barrett told her that she was “killing her case” because she wasn’t cooperating fully. The judge then pulled out his gun and pretended to hand it over to her, reportedly telling her, “You might as well shoot your lawyer.” The District Attorney objected and approached the bench to ask the judge to put the gun down. Now that’s what I call a trial. It should be noted that Georgia law allows judges to carry concealed handguns in the courtroom, but it’s a crime to point a gun at another person if there’s no reason to do so.

Rage Against the Machine. In 2007, Anthony Viscussi from Everett, Washington, found himself in a Snohomish County courtroom facing charges of assaulting a woman. He displayed such bizarre behavior, including angry outbursts and screaming at witnesses, that the judge had to have him removed to a holding room, and then strapped to a chair so he could be wheeled in and out of the courtroom. Viscussi was also forced to wear netting over his head and a mask over his face, Hannibal Lecter-style, to prohibit him from spitting at corrections officers. In jail, officers reportedly needed to don riot gear in Viscussi’s presence. Pepper spray was often used to subdue him during his violent rages. A psychologist testified that Viscussi suffers from schizophrenia exacerbated by methamphetamine use. We might sympathize, were it not for the fact that he was accused of beating a woman with a metal rod in front of her 6 year-old son.

by Darcia Helle

A recent article in Rolling Stone magazine titled The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass prompted me to write this piece. I wanted to keep my professional distance but, when I sat down to write, I found it nearly impossible to keep my outrage from bleeding into my words. This is Jesse’s story, though it could belong to anyone.

In August 2012, Jesse Snodgrass was a 17-year-old high school student at Chaparral High School in Temecula, California. Jesse was troubled, though not in the way that leads to criminal problems. Jesse has Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism. He also suffers with Tourette’s syndrome and bipolar disorder. Because of these challenges, Jesse was an easy target for bullies. Throughout his school years, he’d been taunted, teased, and called “retard”. The anxiety caused Jesse to turn inward and injure himself; he would bang his head, scratch and punch himself during the worst times.

Needless to say, making friends was a momentous struggle for Jesse. Under the best of circumstances, socializing can be a challenge for teens. Add psychological problems to the mix, and you can pretty much guarantee that child will be shunned. Jesse had only one friend in school, a developmentally-challenged boy also in special education classes. But the boy and his family had recently moved to another state, leaving Jesse on his own. To further complicate matters, Jesse’s parents had lost their home and they had to move to a new school district. The loss and disruption set Jesse back and worried his parents.

All of this would have been difficult but tolerable for Jesse had it not been for what happened next. Early in the school year, Jesse was approached by another new student called Daniel. To Jesse’s amazed delight, Daniel wanted to be his friend. And this, right here, is what derailed Jesse and almost destroyed him. This boy calling himself Daniel was not a boy at all. He was actually Deputy Dan Zipperstein, and he was on a mission to get kids to sell him drugs, whether they wanted to or not.

This practice of undercover school stings started in 1974 with the LAPD. Youthful-looking cops pose as teenagers. They attend classes, turn in homework, go to house parties, and generally insinuate themselves into the lives of these kids. As a rule, only the superintendent and one or two others are aware of the sting operation. Neither the teachers nor the school principal know the new kid is actually a cop. And no child is off limits.

By the 1980s, the anti-drug fervor caused by the “war on drugs” made school stings a favored practice with law enforcement. San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore once boasted this method of wrangling in and arresting teens was “almost too easy”. The stings are highly organized events, with names such as Operation D-Minus and Operation Jump Street. In the case of Jesse and Chaparral High School, it was Operation Glasshouse.

Jesse and Daniel attended art class together. By all accounts, Jesse’s psychological issues were obvious. He required extra attention and guidance during class. He clearly struggled with the material. He spoke in a kind of flat monotone, and was slow to respond during conversations. While some of his classes were mainstream, he was a special-ed student. There could be no doubt in Deputy Daniel’s mind that Jesse was a child with developmental problems, not a drug dealing threat. Still Daniel pursued Jesse relentlessly.

t began with Daniel attempting to bond with Jesse. He told Jesse about his problems at home, about how his parents didn’t understand him and how he was always in trouble for no reason. Once Jesse felt comfortable with Daniel, and no doubt thrilled to have a friend confiding in him, Daniel went into destructive mode. He asked Jesse to get him some weed, because he was stressed and needed to relax his mind. Jesse wanted to be cool and helpful in his friend’s eyes, but he knew nothing about marijuana, and so he stalled. Daniel, though, kept pushing to the point of insanity. As the weeks passed, Daniel sent Jesse 60 text messages, all focused on getting Jesse to fulfill his “promise” of getting the marijuana.

Jesse felt trapped. He wanted nothing more than to make his friend happy. And, to some extent, he understood the need for self-medication. He was on medication himself and, to Jesse, there wasn’t much difference between the pills he took to feel better and the marijuana Daniel claimed to need to make himself feel better. Still, he had no idea where or how to get the stuff.

Jesse’s anxiety built along with Daniel’s insistent hounding. One day the pressure became unbearable, and he raced to the boys’ bathroom where he burned his arm with a lighter. Later that same day, Daniel handed Jesse a $20 bill in exchange for a promise that Jesse would bring him the weed.

Now Jesse believed he had no choice but to keep his promise. Days passed, and each day Daniel pestered him for the weed that he had no idea how to purchase. Finally, he remembered there was a marijuana dispensary near where his parents shopped. Jesse went there with the $20. Unsure what to do next, he hung around until he found someone who agreed to get the bag of weed for him. Jesse handed the person the money and received a baggie of marijuana. At that moment, he was probably elated to have succeeded for his friend, as well as terrified to have the marijuana in his possession.

Jesse wanted Daniel to come to his house to make the exchange but Daniel refused. Instead, Daniel asked Jesse to meet him at a nearby strip mall before school. Jesse asked his father to drop him off there. To Doug, Jesse’s father, this was an exciting moment. His son had made a friend and was going to hang out for a bit before school. He was thrilled that Jesse was adjusting to his new school, and happily dropped him off with a smile and a wave to Daniel.

In that parking lot, Jesse nervously handed Daniel the baggie of marijuana. Daniel was careful not to show his disappointment at the meager contents, which turned out to be about a half-gram; $5 worth of marijuana. The two drove to school together, and later that day Deputy Daniel gave the baggie to another deputy to be taken in as evidence.

Evidently, Daniel was undeterred at the measly amount of weed Jesse had given him. Two weeks later, he gave Jesse another $20 for which he received an even skimpier amount of marijuana. Daniel then asked Jesse to sell him some Clonazepam, which is a benzodiazepine Jesse took for his anxiety. Jesse refused, because that was his medication and he needed it. Despite Daniel’s persistence, Jesse remained adamant that he would not sell his medication. Eventually Daniel lost interest in both Jesse and their friendship, and he moved on to other kids at the school.

Daniel’s behavior hurt Jesse. He thought he’d finally made a friend, but Daniel no longer seemed interested in him at all. He didn’t understand what he’d done wrong. Things would only get worse and more confusing for Jesse.

On December 11, 2012, five armed police officers wearing bulletproof vests stormed into Jesse’s art class calling his name. A police helicopter hovered over the school. Jesse was immediately handcuffed and dragged out in front of his classmates. Fifteen other kids were arrested at Chaparral High School that same day.

At the police station, Jesse waived his Miranda rights. He didn’t understand those rights, but agreed because he wanted to cooperate with the police. He did not want to be a problem to them. When asked about selling drugs, he denied the charge. Deputy Daniel Zipperstein was then brought into the interview room, which further confused Jesse. Deputies had to break the situation down and explain several times to Jesse that he’d “sold” drugs to Deputy Zipperstein when he’d taken money in exchange for the marijuana. Still, Jesse could not make sense of the situation, which became even more disconcerting when he was ushered to the hospital for drug testing along with a half-dozen other kids who’d admitted to doing drugs within the past 24 hours.

At the hospital, a cop asked Jesse, “Are you mentally retarded?” to which Jesse replied that he had Asperger’s. The cop reportedly groaned but made no effort to intervene. Instead, Jesse was brought to Juvenile Hall and placed in a holding cell.

Throughout this ordeal, no one – not the police and not any of the school officials – notified Jesse’s parents of his arrest. Frantic with worry when he didn’t return home, his mother finally made contact with someone at the school who informed her of the situation.

When Catherine, Jesse’s mother, made contact with the police, she was informed that Jesse would be detained a minimum of two days. During this time, the Snodgrasses would not be allowed to see him. Catherine explained her son’s situation, detailing his tendency to self-injure when anxious. When she dropped off his medications at Juvenile Hall, a female officer told her, “You know, Mama, the kids here love it. They get three square meals and a bed. They love it here, and they keep coming back.” The sarcastic implication that Jesse was destined to become a career criminal had to be surreal to the Snodgrasses.

Imagine what it must have been like for Jesse’s parents that day. They sent their child off to school, with every expectation that he would be supervised in an environment meant to help kids thrive. Instead, their son is swept up in an arrest under highly questionable circumstances, and not one person bothered to let them know. Jesse’s special needs aside, these are minors. They cannot be absent a day without a parent’s consent. They cannot go on field trips without a parent’s consent. Yet, these same parents are not told about undercover police stings or the arrest of their child. We are supposed to send our children to school in order to provide them with the necessary tools to succeed in life. Instead, police and school officials are teaming up in order to set them up for failure.

Jesse’s case seemed to get even crazier after his arrest. Two days later, when his parents were finally allowed to see him, Senior Deputy District Attorney Blaine Hopp strode into the room where the Snodgrasses waited with other parents and announced, “This should be a wake-up call to all of you. Your children are drug dealers.”

Jesse was charged with two felonies – one for each marijuana sale. Despite the probation department having recommended Jesse be released, Hopp fought for Jesse to be retained in custody for at least one month. Hopp insisted each child arrested posed a danger to the community. The judge, fortunately, did not agree and ordered Jesse’s immediate release.

During his two days in a cell, Jesse had regressed horribly. For the next six weeks, he barely spoke. He sat still, sometimes waving his hand in front of his face like he’d done as a toddler. Eventually, he told his parents he wanted to die. He had emergency therapy sessions and adjustments to his medications. His parents kept all-night vigils to ensure he would not hurt himself. And through all this, the school was threatening to expel Jesse for the drug offense.

In a rare moment of relative sanity throughout this ordeal, the criminal judge cited Jesse’s autism as “unusual and exceptional circumstances”, and sentenced him to informal probation with 20 hours of community service. This meant that, if he kept out of trouble and did his community service, his record would then be wiped clean. The Snodgrasses accepted the quickie plea deal in part to protect Jesse from the trauma of a trial, but also because they had a second fight on their hands. The school still wanted to expel Jesse and his parents weren’t going to let that happen.

Few families in their situation fight back. Sometimes it’s a financial issue. Lawyers are expensive. But often it’s because of shame. Parents feel their children are in fact guilty of some terrible crime. They’re embarrassed. But Jesse’s parents had been fighting for Jesse’s rights from his early years, and they weren’t about to back down. “We have nothing to be ashamed of, Jesse has nothing to be ashamed of,” Doug Snodgrass stated. “The people who do this, they’re the ones who should be ashamed.”

In February 2013, Jesse endured a six-day hearing to fight the school expulsion. Witnesses who’d been part of his trusted school support team now testified against him, assuring Jesse knew right from wrong and therefore knew what he was doing when he sold Deputy Zipperstein marijuana. Michael Hubbard, the school district’s Director of Child Welfare and Attendance, who was one of only three administrators with prior knowledge of the sting, testified about his faith in Operation Glasshouse and Jesse’s subsequent arrest. He stated, “I didn’t believe it was coercion or entrapment for any of the kids.”

In March 2013, Judge Marian Tully’s 19-page ruling said otherwise. “The district placed Student in an extremely difficult social-problem scenario that would have been difficult even for typical high school students.” Judge Tully ordered that Jesse be allowed to return to school immediately.

Throughout all this, Jesse’s emotional and mental health declined horribly. He suffered panic attacks and nightmares. He continually scratched at the back of his hand, gouging a deep groove. He was diagnosed with PTSD and dealt with paranoia. Perhaps most telling of the damage done is this: while driving with his parents, he would crumple to the floor any time they passed a police car. His faith in the people he’d been taught to look toward for help had not only shattered, but turned into intense fear. The very sight of a police car sent him spiraling downward.

Back at school, Jesse was faced with the school counselors who’d testified against him but now offered smiles. The other kids shunned him even more than usual. And in a stunning example of idiocy, the school district filed an appeal to fight the administration’s ruling. They wanted Jesse expelled.

Readers might assume that Jesse’s case is an anomaly. Most of the kids arrested must be troublemakers, drug dealers, little criminals in the making. In reality, that doesn’t appear to be the case at all. These kids are not bad, they’re just kids. Every teenager wants to fit in. It’s human nature. Kids do things for each other because they want to be liked. Often the decisions they make aren’t particularly smart, but they’re far from criminal masterminds.

Stephen Downing, a former LAPD Deputy Chief who now works with the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, had this to say about school drug stings, “This is not about public safety – the public is no safer, and the school grounds are no safer. The more arrests you have, the more funding you can get through federal grants and overtime.”

Using our children for financial gain is what this is about.

These high school drug stings are typically shrouded in secrecy. The public is not given details. We are, however, given 15-second media hype and provocative headlines designed to make police look as if they’ve infiltrated a major drug ring.

In the case of Operation Glasshouse, officials declined to divulge the quantities of the drug sales, insisting that the amount confiscated was beside the point.

Is any of this helping our kids? Do the arrests put these kids back on the right track?

The answer to those questions appears to be a resounding no. State Director Lyman said, “These kinds of practices push students out of school and toward the criminal justice system. It is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.”

This should come as no surprise. Once arrested for their crime, these kids are expelled from school. They have a criminal record, even if they’re lucky enough to escape without being sentenced to do time in a juvenile facility. If they manage to get their GED, most colleges won’t accept them. Most employers won’t hire them.

This is only part of the long-term problem. These kids have suffered absolute betrayal at the hands of people they trusted. The school system, which is supposed to be protecting them, has allowed them to be set up. The police, who they are taught to respect, have pursued them, used them, set them up for absolute failure. The children have learned the hard way not to trust anyone.

Studies have shown these stings do more bad than good for communities. In 2004, questions about these tactics led the LAPD to abruptly shut down its 30-year-old undercover School Buy program. But Riverside County, where Jesse lives, is undeterred by the controversy. In December 2013, one year after the raid that swept Jesse into the system, 25 high school students in the cities of Perris and Meniffee were arrested in a new sting. Among those students was a 15-year-old special-ed student who reads at a third grade level. Jonathan Greenberg, the Perris Superintendent, deemed the operation “an unqualified success”.

As for Jesse, he graduated high school at the end of last year. He still suffers with PTSD and various setbacks. When asked his thoughts about all that happened, he had this to say, “They were actually out to get us.”

Indeed they were.

As I ponder this case, I can’t help but consider adults in similar circumstances. How many adults share their medications, despite knowing it’s wrong? Your coworker asks for one of your painkillers because he threw his back out over the weekend. Your friend asks if she can buy some of your sleeping pills because she has severe insomnia and can’t afford a visit to the doctor. In these circumstances, we’re dealing adults who know right from wrong, and we are not dealing with entrapment. Still, adults do these things all the time. Does supplying a prescription painkiller or a sleeping pill to a friend make you a drug dealer?

I am unable to find one single redeeming factor in all of this. As a teenager, I did a lot of stupid things. That’s all part of growing up. Social psychology and neuroscience has proven that adolescents are most inclined toward risky reward-seeking behavior and most vulnerable to peer-pressure. This combination naturally predisposes teenagers toward riskier behavior. Had an undercover cop been placed in my school, my life might have been much different than it is now.

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

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

The characters await you.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Until you’ve actually murdered someone with your bare hands, you have no way of knowing how hard it really is. (My disclaimer here is that I have no intention of ever finding out.) We’ve all seen horror films where no sooner do you think your victim is dead and gone, he or she comes back to life with a vengeance. Sometimes it happens over and over again in films. I suppose the only way to be sure, unless you’re a doctor, is to stay with the body for a good long time to make sure your victim doesn’t wake up.

David Michael Kalac, 33, of Port Orchard, Washington, which is across Puget Sound from Seattle, appears to have done something of this sort either late Monday or Tuesday. Police believe that Kalac killed his girlfriend Amber Lynn Coplin in a domestic dispute at their Port Orchard apartment.

The police apparently believe it was not premeditated first-degree-murder though why they think this is not readily apparent.

What sets this slaying apart from your typical domestic dispute ending in the death of one of the parties is what the alleged slayer Kalac did after poor Amber was finally dead. Or maybe it’s what many violent killers feel the need to do these days before running from the law – while planning your escape you take the time to photograph and post images of the deceased party’s body complete with evocative text.

M. Alex Johnson, Alexander Smith and Phil Helsel of MBC News report:

Kalac is accused of killing his 30-year-old live-in girlfriend, Amber Lynn Coplin, late Monday or Tuesday. Photos showing a woman’s naked body with red marks around her neck were then posted to the online forum 4chan and a person claiming to be the killer stated, “Turns out it’s way harder to strangle someone to death than it looks on the movies.”

In an affidavit of probable cause filed Wednesday morning, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office states that Amber Coplin’s body was found Tuesday afternoon in the apartment she shared with the suspected killer.

Kalac’s 4chan postings have since been deleted but they certainly created a stir while they were up. Understandably, numerous site users doubted the authenticity of Kalac’s posting leading him to reply:

“Check the news for Port Orchard, Washington, in a few hours. Her son will be home from school soon. He’ll find her, then call the cops. I just wanted to share the pics before they find me.”

And share them he did.

The police affidavit stops short stating a cause of death, but says “Coplin’s body showed obvious signs of “homicidal trauma”, which, of course matches the graphic images that appeared on 4chan.

Oddly, Kalac seems to have felt the need to communicate not only with the often faceless cyber crowd, but also with the investigators and Amber Coplin’s son.

His “driver’s license was beside her head, with the word “dead” scrawled on it, according to investigators. The statement “she killed me first” was written on the bedroom wall, and “bad news” was written on the window blinds.”

You get the clear impression Kalac is trying to wring every possible ounce of notoriety out of his horrific act.

Amber Coplin’s body was found by her teenage son, who called his father shortly before 3 pm on Tuesday. The boy’s father then called 911.

Once he finally decided to clear out of the apartment, Kalac left with his clothes, laptop and cellphone, apparently in Coplin’s 2001 Ford Focus which was missing, along with its keys.

His grandstanding notwithstanding, based on his text messages, Kalac may have felt (and be feeling) the same post-homicide regrets that we’ve been seeing so often in the past week. The investigators traced two texts he sent to a friend, which although not without a certain tinge of bravado, do seem to reveal the suspect’s point-blank realization that he’s messed up in a manner which allows for no recourse.

According to the affidavit, his first text read:

“S— is all f—-d now. You’ll see me in the news.”

The second continued, “There will be no more me. ever, You’ll read about it. That’s all.”

Once he finally vacated the Port Orchard apartment, Kalac headed South. Just after 1 am on Wednesday, Coplin’s Ford Focus was reportedly spotted in Portland and the local police report that a driver thought to be Kalac was pulled over during a traffic stop. He escaped, however, when he “suddenly roared off” in the Focus. They police “pursued him across a bridge and down a major road before calling off the chase when the driver began swerving into oncoming traffic.”

Based on these facts, Kalac appears to be desperate, determined and, perhaps, oddly capable. It will be interesting to see how long he remains on the lam, but I certainly don’t expect him to pull an Eric Frein. In his Portland escape, the fact it was the middle of the night probably helped him get away. And, given his seemingly compulsive need to communicate with both friends and strangers, it wouldn’t be too surprising if he continues to send out texts or other communiques periodically, which would make it all the easier for law enforcement to pinpoint his location.

You would think that by this point the police have probably contacted the recipient of his earlier texts with all due requests, warnings and instructions. I’ve never thought of a Ford Focus as being a first-rate getaway car but so far it’s worked for Kalac. I’m also curious as to how he managed to avoid crashing and burning when he “swerved into oncoming traffic” while eluding the police chase. His luck will run out though, more likely sooner rather than later.

Update:

Kitsap County sheriff’s Deputy Scott Wilson in Washington state said police in Portland, Oregon, about 160 miles away, found the dead woman’s car abandoned late Wednesday afternoon. There was no sign of Amber Lynn Coplin’s live-in boyfriend, David Michael Kalac, 33, Wilson said.

2nd Update:

David Michael Kalac gave it up as a lost cause and surrendered at about 8:50 (PST) pm last night and is said to cooperating with the authorities.

“We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.” (Probably an exaggeration. Although there are certainly plenty of serial killers, I feel confident they are still a very small segment of the population).

“You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You’re looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!” (God? Or the Devil? Or just a demented sicko?)

“Sometimes I feel like a vampire.” (Figure of speech or did Bundy actually feel this way?)

“Murder is not about lust and it’s not about violence. It’s about possession.” (Possession equals absolute control.)

“There lots of other kids playing in streets around this country today who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and month, because other young people are reading the kinds of things and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today.” (Bundy liked to blame society for his problems. This is a cop-out of the first order.)

“I’m the most cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch you’ll ever meet.” (This may well be true.)

“I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence just like me. And without exception, without question, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography. “ (Probably an exaggeration but another good example of Bundy blaming his murderous ways on society and outside factors.)

“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.” (Ted was apparently not an advanced student of the “rules of attaction”.)

“What’s one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?” (Bundy was in a flippant mood, either that or he was a firm believer in population control.)

“I don’t feel guilty for anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt.” (I too feel sorry for people who are obsessed with their feelings of guilt; however, there are some things that one should feel guilty about.)

“I just liked to kill, I wanted to kill.” (Speaks for itself.)

“… I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has and society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me, that’s for sure.” (A rare moment of honesty.)

“Well-meaning, decent people will condemn the behavior of a Ted Bundy, while they’re walking past a magazine rack full of the very kinds of things that send young kids down the road to be Ted Bundys.” (Once again, Bundy is making excuses for his aberrant behavior.)

“I’m as cold a motherfucker as you’ve ever put your fucking eyes on. I don’t give a shit about those people.” (Another moment of lucidity.)

by Lise LaSalle

Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old Canadian tourist who was found dead in a downtown Los Angeles hotel’s rooftop water tank in February 2013. Lam was from Vancouver, British Columbia and had traveled alone to Los Angeles on January 26, 2013, intending to stay a few days before making her way to Santa Cruz, California. She was last seen on January 31, 2013 by workers at the hotel, but on February 19, a maintenance worker found her body in one of the four 8-feet-tall, 4-foot diameter tanks on the hotel roof. A crew had gone to check the tanks because some of the hotel patrons were complaining of low water pressure.

Authorities had searched the roof of the hotel earlier during an investigation into her disappearance but had not opened the four cisterns. It was not even considered a possibility at the time.

The historic Cecil Hotel was located near Skid Row and it did not take long for the mystery to take a turn for the occult when Elisa was found dead because of the strange circumstances surrounding the event and of a surveillance video of Lam inside an elevator pushing buttons and behaving oddly.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

We’ve all known people whose lives have slowly (or sometimes rapidly) unraveled. Although I was mostly blissfully unaware of this problem as a young man acting and re-acting to the pitfalls and perils of life, as I’ve gotten older I’ve become painfully aware that when things go wrong (as they most assuredly do from time-to-time), it’s imperative to take stock of the situation, find a way to limit the damage if at all possible (cut your losses) and try to right your “ship of life” so that you can dig out and start moving in a positive direction.

But what if things go so badly wrong that you simply cannot “dig out” but rather fall farther and farther into an abyss that seems without limit?

WFTV reports:

This would appear to be what happened to “30-year-old Sean Petrozzino, a quadruple amputee whose parents, Nancy Petrozzino, 64, and Michael Petrozzino, 63, were found dead in their home in the Andover Cay subdivision of Orange County, Florida on Tuesday.”

The Petrozzino parents’ deaths have been ruled homicides and although their son, Sean Petrozzino, has not yet been charged with any crime, he has been named a person of interest and I suspect it’s only a matter of time before the other shoe drops.

It’s unclear what evidence the investigators have tying Sean to the crime other than the fact that he has vanished and certainly didn’t report his parents’ demise. Thus, sadly, the circumstantial evidence against him seems rather strong.

It’s also odd that Sean, who was living with his folks in the Andover Cay subdivision in Orange County, had only moved back in with them about ten days ago. Thus, the fact that Nancy and Michael’s death occurred so soon after he moved in, combined with the fact that he’s missing, would appear to be what has led the authorities to deem him a “person of interest”.

WFTV writes:

The bodies of were found after deputies went to the house on Heming Way in the Andover Cay subdivision, south of Curry Ford Road, to do a well-being check when Nancy Petrozzino didn’t show up for work, authorities said.

“We do believe he has a firearm. He’s considered dangerous and they believe he is in the south Florida area,” said Jane Watrel, with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

The unraveling of Sean’s life began when he was in high school when he contracted a rare form of bacterial meningitis that ate away at his limbs and forced doctors to amputate his arms and legs.

Thus, through no fault of his own, Sean’s luck turned very bad when he was at a very vulnerable phase of his life. When he got sick, his south Florida high school rose to the occasion and raised money to help pay for an astounding 13 surgeries. As part of his rehabilitation, he and his family moved to the Orlando area.

It’s unclear how he has supported himself over the years, but in 2006 he purchased his own home and managed to pay his mortgage through the teeth of the meltdown of 2008, but was foreclosed upon in 2012.. According to records, he owed $200,000 to the lender and, at some point, abandoned the house without notifying the proper parties.

Thus, the unraveling that began when Sean came down with his devastating illness appears to have taken a quantum leap when he was unable to keep his house. Of course, we know nothing regarding whatever “slings and arrows” he may have faced between the age of 22, when he purchased the house, and this week when he MAY HAVE shot his parents.

It would appear that being forced to move back home at the age of 30 could have thrown him into a tailspin. There’s an almost incomprehensible difference, though, between moving back home as an adult and shooting one’s parents.

A former neighbor of Sean’s, Michael Vitale, spoke highly of him and was thoroughly surprised by the investigation, stating:

“There was nothing to have me doubt his integrity or honesty or anything that he might be a threat to anybody’s family here.”

According to the authorities, Sean was last seen in a 2012 red Toyota Camry with Florida tag 112VZY, and is believed to possibly be in the Jupiter or Coral Springs area.

In a cruel but no doubt necessary gesture, “on Wednesday, investigators released a photograph of Sean Petrozzino taken at an ATM at a Wells Fargo Bank in Orlando on Tuesday morning. Investigators said they wanted people to look at the physical characteristics of his hands so that someone might be able to identify him.”

Sean’s parents appear to have been “just folks”. His father Michael worked at Disney World and his mother Nancy was an apparently very popular second-grade teacher at Andover Lakes Elementary School.

“It’s just unbelievable, something you can’t comprehend,” said Richard Reeder, a grandparent who was at the school Wednesday.

Andover Lakes Elementary School Principal Angela Zambaux sent a message to parents that said, “I am very sad to report that we have lost second-grade teacher Mrs. Nancy Petrozzino today. She died in her home today.”

“I was shocked when I found out it was her. Literally, my kids cried for hours yesterday,” said neighbor Jennifer Satmaria. “My one daughter didn’t even go to school today. She woke up with a migraine because she cried so much yesterday. She was just an awesome lady.”

* * * * *

So why do bad things happen to good people? And why do good people sometimes turn bad (or at least do very bad things)? And why must a man’s (or a woman’s) life all too often unravel to the point of no return? This is the great mystery of life (and death) that religion strives to explain. But no person or institution can explain it satisfactorily.

But when a truly unlucky soul such as Sean Petrozzino loses control (if that’s what happened), we can only grieve for him and for his victims and for everyone like them who is damned by a malevolent fate.

by BJW Nashe

These days, if you’re going to start robbing banks or convenience stores, you need to put some effort into personal style and fashion. You are certain to be caught on surveillance video at some point during your escapades. Soon your appearance will be on the Internet for all to see–much like celebrities who grace the red carpets of awards shows. So there’s no excuse to neglect the fashion component of your criminal activity.

Lately we have seen criminals exploring a wide variety of styles — from glamorous cross-dressing to casual grunge to silly disguises — with varying degrees of success. No matter what, they have definitely been turning heads at the FBI. Here are some notable examples:

On May 20, a woman robbed a bank in Stuart, Iowa while wearing a striking green gown described as a “mullet dress,” since it’s short in front and long in the back. Surveillance footage shows that the slim, 5’4“ woman had long, dark reddish-brown hair, and carried a handbag slung over her shoulder. Authorities are still trying to figure out if the suspect is an actual woman, or a transvestite. Either way, all agree that as a pure fashion statement, this robbery was a big success.

Leonard Brown Jr., known by police as the “Stretchy Pants Bandit,” was caught on camera robbing a bank in Ceres, California in September 2012. His ensemble included a dark wig and women’s “flashdance-style” aerobics clothing. No one doubts that this was a large black man dressed as a female. And RuPaul doesn’t have anything to worry about, in terms of being upstaged by “Ms. Brown.”

According to the FBI, a woman known as the “Plain Jane Bandit” has robbed seven banks in Southern California since July 2012. She earned her nickname by pulling jobs without any makeup, and usually wearing sweats, with no hairstyle to speak of. Sometimes in the world of crime, “non-style” is a style in itself.

The “AK-47 Bandit” is a traditionalist. In 2012 he hit one bank in North Bend, Washington and then another in Chino, California. This past March, he managed to shoot and wound a police officer while robbing a bank in Vacaville. He tends to wear a black ski-mask, dark earth-toned shirts and trousers, and always carries an AK-47 assault rifle. It is a forceful, functional look that works well in any bank robbery.

Colton Harris-Moore, known as the “Barefoot Bandit,” led police on a two-year crime spree involving stolen cars, boats, and planes. For obvious reasons, he wasn’t shoplifting any shoes. Perhaps his barefoot antics indicated a willingness to dispense with clothing altogether, and head in the direction of fully nude crimes. We’ll never know, however, since Harris-Moore was eventually captured, and is now reduced to wearing flip-flops in a Washington State prison.

In July 2010 a man was caught on camera robbing a New York City bank while carrying a large bouquet of flowers. The note he reportedly handed over to bank personnel demanded cash, and stated, “Don’t be a hero.” The flowers, by all accounts, smelled lovely, and added an element of mystery and romance to the crime.

In Australia, a woman known as the “Buxom Bandit” was caught on camera with a male companion holding up a gas station with a knife. She earned her nickname for two obvious reasons, which were barely covered by the plunging neckline of her top. If you got it, flaunt it–especially when it comes to armed robbery.

 The “Geezer Bandit” looks like an 85 year-old man as he shuffles up to the bank teller and demands cash. His wrinkled face is partially obscured by sunglasses and a baseball cap, though. After his most recent robbery in California, he was seen sprinting across the parking lot. The authorities think the geezer look might be a disguise.

The “Fat Clown Robber” in Redding, California became an Internet sensation in late March when security cameras videotaped his botched attempt to bust into a convenience store in the middle of the night. The huge gut, stocking cap, and colorful pajama bottoms are a sure way to make a spectacle out of yourself during any crime. And if you fall flat on your face when trying to make your getaway, you will no doubt gain some “fans.”

So there you have it. Any wannabe armed robbers out there might want to take this lesson to heart. If you’re going to stick up a bank or a gas station or a convenience store, your “look” matters. The cameras will be rolling. Soon the cops will give you a nickname. Then the fashionistas will start weighing in. It may be your last chance to make a statement, before you end up in a faded prison jumpsuit.

compiled by Patrick H. Moore

Based on the photographic evidence, 18-year-old Isabella Guzman of Aurora, Colorado is quite an attractive young lady. Her Facebook page contains selfies which seem to combine poise and a natural loveliness that are striking. Nonetheless, Isabella now stands charged with 1st-degree murder for slashing her mother, 47-year-old Yun-Mi Hoy’s, throat and stabbing her a total of 79 times in the upstairs bathroom of their suburban home on the evening of August 28, 2013.

It’s not yet clear what specifically caused Isabella to go berserk as if she were a psychopathic monster. Yet she did.

There had been signs since Isabella’s early childhood — when she was sent for a period of time to live with her biological father after her parents separated — that all was not right between her and her mother, but no one expected matters to deteriorate to this point of no return. After Isabella’s arrest in a parking garage the following day 16 hours after the slaying, homicide detectives were unable to offer any clues as to a motive for the brutal act. Isabella’s stepfather, Ryan Hoy, however, informed them that raising the teenager had been a challenge.

In fact, Ryan Hoy told the detectives that on the day of the murder, Isabella’s mother had called the police because of the ongoing strife between Isabella and her mother. Hoy stated his step-daughter had become “more threatening and disrespectful” toward Yun-Mi Hoy in recent days. In fact, according to the arrest affidavit, Isabella Guzman had allegedly threatened Yun-Mi Hoy in an email telling her, “You will pay.” The police had reportedly told Isabella that her mother could kick her out of their home if she did not shape up.

In an attempt to ameliorate the situation, Isabella’s father, Robert Guzman, had spoken to her about her “teen rebelliousness” about three hours before the 911 call.

“I went to talk to her because her mother was worried and wanted me to talk to Isabella,” Guzman told 7News. “So, I went to talk to Isabella and we sat down in the backyard looking at the trees and the animals and I started to talk to her about the respect that people should have for their parents. And I was trying to let her know that she should be obedient to her parents, not rebellious, that she should try to listen more and everything was going fine.”

“In the conversation, I thought that I made progress,” he added. “But obviously it didn’t do nothing, because hours later, this thing happened.”

*     *     *     *     *

The police report states that Aurora police dispatch received a 911 call just past 10 p.m. on August 28 from Ryan Hoy. Hoy told dispatch that Yun-Mi Hoy had come home from work about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and had taken a shower. Soon after, he heard a “thumping” and his wife calling his name. Hoy moved quickly to investigate but he couldn’t get in the bathroom, because — according to the affidavit — Guzman was holding the door closed from the inside. A separate report states that Hoy could not get in the bathroom because the door was locked.

In any event, Hoy could see blood seeping out from under the door. Hoy raced downstairs to call the police, and when he returned he said he saw Isabella — dressed in a pink sports bra and turquoise shorts — standing in the bathroom doorway holding a knife. His wife on the floor, covered in blood. There was a baseball bat beneath her.

“He never heard Guzman say anything, and she didn’t speak to him as she exited the bathroom,” the affidavit says. “Guzman was just staring straight ahead when she walked past him.”

After Isabella fled, Ryan attempted to revive his wife, but to no avail. Her throat had been slashed and by the coroner’s count, she suffered 31 stab wounds to the face and an additional 48 to her neck.

*     *     *     *     *

Although Isabella may still have been in the area when the police arrived, she managed to elude capture. At 11:30 a.m. the next day, officers were called to a parking garage at 2851 South Parker Road based on a report that a body had been spotted inside a car. That proved to be a false alarm, but the police did detect items that they linked to the previous evening’s violence.

More cops arrived and began to canvass the area. Eventually, someone spotted Guzman trying to walk out of the garage. She was then taken into custody, and on Friday, she was formally charged with first-degree murder, appearing before Arapahoe County Judge Stephen F. Collins, who ordered her to remain in custody without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder. During the proceedings, Isabella sat there silently in an orange jumpsuit, a bandage on her right wrist.

*     *     *     *     *

Isabella Guzman looks neither poised nor particularly attractive in her mug shot. Rather, she looks like someone who may just be starting to catch on to the enormity of what she has done — now that it is too late.

Update:

Isabella Guzman, 18, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to first-degree murder charges for stabbing her mother 79 times. The troubled teen entered the plea during a hearing in early December, according to Arapahoe County court records. She was later sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo for a psychiatric evaluation.

It appears from court records that officials expect Guzman’s psychiatric evaluation to be lengthy. A judge scheduled the next hearing in the case for Feb, 28, but said Guzman does not have to appear, she does have to appear for another hearing March 21.

According to an arrest affidavit filed against Guzman, she had been feuding with her mother in the days leading up to the attack.

Hoy’s husband and Guzman’s stepfather told police that two days before the attack, Guzman threatened her mom and spit in her face.

2nd Update:

Michael Roberts writes that a judge has accepted  Guzman’s not guilty by reason of insanity plea and she has been remanded to a state hospital in Pueblo, Colorado where she will receive treatment. Naturally, it is far to early to know whether she will everbe released back into the community.

commentary by Patrick Moore

It’s well-known that a lot of disturbing crime originates in Florida. In recent months, however, Florida may not have have kept up with the rust belt states in terms of sheer unadulterated evil. It seems like every time I take a deep breath, there’s another horrific case coming at us from either Michigan, Ohio or Pennsylvania.

Today’s Atrocity Exhibition comes to us from Chester County in the Keystone State, good ol’ Pennsylvania, and it’s so disturbing that the county District Attorney, Thomas Hogan, referred to it as “an American horror story.”

MaryClaire Dale of the AP writes:

A Pennsylvania couple went car shopping, bought pizza and engaged in sexual activity as the woman’s unresponsive 3-year-old son lay dying after weeks of escalating abuse that ended in three days of systematic torture, authorities said Thursday.

Jillian Tait, 31, and Gary Lee Fellenbaum, 23, were charged Thursday with murder in the death of Tait’s son, Scott McMillan, and aggravated assault in the beating of his older brother.

According to the prosecutor, Tait and Fellenbaum are accused of laughing with cruel joy while hanging Scott upside down and “striking him repeatedly with a frying pan” as a prelude to beating him to death.

“It was an unspeakable act of depravity,” said DA Hogan. (No one is going to disagree with him.)

The relationship seems to have begun routinely enough. They were both employed at the American institution that seems too epitomize a society in decline, Walmart. At some point sparks flew, and then Jillian and Gary moved in together in a trailer park near Coatesville, 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Now if it had just been the two of them, the worst they could have done would have been to abuse and/or slay each other.

But such was not the case. Jillian had two boys; one of them, 3-year-old Scott, is the victim in this matter. Scott’s older brother, who is 6, was also abused but survived. Gary had an 11-month-old daughter with his estranged wife Amber, and they odd thing is, she and the child lived there with Gary and Jillian and her two boys.

Like all addictive behavior, child abuse gets worse as it progresses. According to the prosecutor, it started out with Gary administering spankings that then morphed into “concentrated, repeated, escalating abuse.” Then, “over three days he was systematically tortured and beaten to death.”

Thus, it was much like a dope or alcohol binge. You start off with a “hit” or a drink and then you have another and pretty soon to keep the “party” going, you have to keep taking more and more and more…

Among other things (according to the three adults who apparently didn’t try to minimize their conduct while talking to the authorities), little Scott was “punched and beaten with blunt and sharp objects, whipped, taped to a chair with electrical tape and beaten, hung up by his feet and beaten, and suffered other acts of violence.”

The crowning act of cruelty appears to have been hanging the two boys up by their feet one at a time and beating them while they were upside down. Jillian and Gary told police they found this to be very funny and were laughing while hitting the boys.

Scott’s older brother realized that if he didn’t resist, Jillian and Gary would go easier on him, so he practiced a sort of passive resistance. Sadly, Scott was too little to adopt this approach and his struggles during this ordeal appear to have incited his killers to up the ante.

When Scott eventually lost consciousness, his tormentors placed him on an uninflated air mattress. Then they went shopping, picked up a pizza, took a snooze, woke up and had sex, according to Jillian.

Then Jillian decided to check on the boy and discovered he wasn’t breathing which led Amber Fellebnbaum to call 911. By the time the authorities arrived, Scott had been unresponsive for hours and had even been put in the shower for more than 30 minutes in a futile attempt to wake him up.

Curiously, investigators found no evidence that drugs or alcohol had been involved. Thus, it appears that Jillian and Gary were stone cold sober as they systematically brutalized the 3-year-old, which prompted DA Hogan to say, “This is just evilness.”

Amber Fellenbaum, was charged with child endangerment for allegedly failing to help the child. Her infant was not harmed, and is now in the custody of relatives along with Jillian’s 6-year-old.

Jillian and Gary were arraigned on Thursday and are being held without bail. They’ll be back in court this coming Friday. Amber’s bail has been set at $500,000.

* * * * *

Marc Levy and Kathy Matheson of the AP report that Gary’s mother, Paula Fellenbaum, doesn’t believe Gary could possibly be guilty of the charges:

“I believe he’s being railroaded. He liked kids. He never had an issue. I don’t understand it at all.”

Through tears, Paula also described her son as a hard worker who was “trying to make his way in the world.” He had recently visited his grandparents and everything seemed fine.

Shannon Taylor of West Caln Township provides some insight. She remembers that Tait was a “normal, goofy, everyday funny girl” when they used to hang out a few years ago.

“I never would have pictured her hurting a fly,” Shannon said. She did mention, however, that when she encountered Jillian working at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, she seemed “pretty rough looking,” adding, “she just looked like she just didn’t care about herself really.”

It seems pretty clear that the Tait-Fellenbaum alliance somehow brought out the “demons” that both of these individuals had lurking within.

This is scary stuff. A single bad influence can ruin a person, and two bad influences affecting one another can result in the full catastrophe, which is apparently what happened here. It seems unlikely that anyone is going to go easy of Jillian and Gary, assuming the charges are substantiated.

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 facts of which are provided by  Lachlan M. and Javier Yepes at Cracked.com, we cover 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

According to Wikipedia, 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.

The following 10 somewhat bizarre yet prophetically fatal facts about Ted Bundy (Monster Smooth) during his youth and young adulthood come to us from Bukisa.com and Wikipedia. Bukisa’s interpretations of these facts have been, in some cases, 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 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 incredibly diabolical life.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

There may be no task in our modern day society more demanding than foster parenting. If I go way back to my misty origins, I find myself attending a small Midwestern elementary school. One day when I was in, I believe, the sixth grade, two newcomers, Clifford and Alan, joined our class. They were fraternal twins and they were foster children. They were huge compared to us. Clifford must have weighed in at a solid 210. The report was they were living with a farm family somewhere in the township.

They seemed to be decent kids but I was always careful around them, especially on the football field. Somehow, I understood that these boys had done some hard traveling and I certainly didn’t want to aggravate them.

I bring this up because Clifford and Alan were probably, in many ways, typical foster children. I know nothing about their foster parents but suspect that when they signed on to care for these boys, they probably knew very little about them. Obviously, caring for foster kids is challenging and can be risky, not only to the foster parents but to other foster children in the case of a “bad apple” foster kid.

This is what happened to a 5-year-old foster child named Dominic Elkins who lived in Logan, an Iowa town with a population of just over 1,500.

Grant Rodgers of the Des Moines Register reports that Dominic was killed by his 17-year-old foster brother Cody Metzker-Madsen “in August 2013 while the two were playing outdoors alone at the home of their Logan-area foster family. The teen testified that he was in his “own world” at the time of Dominic’s death. He believed the boy was a goblin commander that he needed to kill.” Later evidence showed that Cody beat Dominic with a brick before drowning him.

“A goblin commander that he needed to kill.” My first response to this is that it seems unlikely that a “killer” is going to make up something this outlandish unless he believes it.

Cody faced murder charges and he went to trial claiming that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. What made his case different from many similar situations, in which the perpetrators of homicides invoke the “insanity defense”, is that in this case, his was a “bench trial” rather than a “jury trial.” What this means is that the defendant waives his right to be tried by a jury of his peers and instead agrees that the judge will serve as both “judge” and “jury”. In some countries, it’s always done this way. For example, in the Oscar Pistorius case, Judge Thokozile Masipawas also served as the jury.

Therefore, in Cody’s case, the decision as to whether to accept his claim of “not guilty by reason of insanity” fell squarely on the shoulders of his judge, Kathleen Kilnoski, who, relying heavily on forensic psychological opinion, ruled that Cody was “legally insane” when he killed Dominic.

Grant Rodgers writes:

Cody Metzker-Madsen likely faces years in psychiatric care after a judge on Friday found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in the death of the teen’s 5-year-old foster brother.

Such verdicts are rare, but it’s the second time this year a defendant in an Iowa murder case has successfully used the insanity defense.

Key was the fact that according to the psychologist, who testified on Thursday, Cody’s “lack of emotion when he described his attack on Dominic was evidence he was in a psychotic state at the time.”

In making her decision, Judge Kilnoski stated:

“During his interview with (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation) agents, and in his evaluations … and during his testimony at trial, Cody Metzker-Madsen appeared to be unaffected by the gravity of his acts against Dominic. He was animated in describing his battle against the goblin, he became testy when confronted with his lies and inconsistencies. However, it is not clear he appreciates, even now, the consequences of his action.”

Thus, unless Cody is an awfully good actor, even to this day his battle to the death with the “goblin” is real; the fact he killed Dominic is not.

Somewhat bizarrely, he sat taking notes as Kilnoski gave her ruling, which was his habit throughout the seven-day trial at the Harrison County Courthouse.

What is interesting to me about Judge Kilnoski’s decision is the fact she based her decision on logic rather than outraged emotion, which could very well have happened if Cody had appeared in front of a jury. Among other things, the judge said that she based her decision “largely upon (the)testimony and watching the teen throughout (the) trial”.

“During this trial, the court heard extensive evidence about Metzker-Madsen’s history of staring episodes, epilepsy, oppositional behaviors, attention deficits, lies, fantasy characters and possible hallucinations. This is a young man who has never been mentally normal.”

The judge also noted that “blood spatter evidence in the trial showed the teen attacked Dominic, smashing the boy’s jaw, knocking out teeth and causing multiple bruises.”

It’s important to note, that Judge Kilnoski made her decision despite the fact that Cody showed an “extreme indifference to human life.” (Several witnesses gave accounts about the teen’s inability to understand his violent acts.

I suspect some people will be outraged by the judge’s decision to follow logic rather than emotion, but what these people don’t understand (or are unwilling to accept) is the fact that a “not guilty by reason of insanity” verdict in no way means that the defendant is “getting off easy”.

On the contrary, Cory now begins a long journey through the state’s psychiatric care system for the criminally insane. He will undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville, a medium security facility, which will include an opinion on whether he is dangerous to himself or others. Obviously, at this point he probably does pose a “clear and present danger” which means he will be kept in a psychiatric facility until that is no longer the case.

In fact, there are two people still at the Coralville facility who arrived after being found not guilty by reason of insanity, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections. The Coralville facility doubles as a Classification Center and a hospital-prison for the criminally insane known as a “forensic patient hospital”.

Grant Rodgers writes:

“One person has been held there since September 2004 and the other since April 2010. They are considered patients at the facility’s forensic patient hospital; Scaletta declined to release their names.”

I am reminded of a dark story once I was once told about a man who got his testicles cut off at the Atascadero Classification Center, which was the California state prison designation center in the 1970s, and also doubled as a state hospital for the criminally insane.

My point is that these “forensic patient hospitals” are not cheery places. In the case of Cory, he could be kept in the Coralville “patient hospital” until he no longer poses a danger”. Given his acute mental condition, it could be a cold day in hell before that happens.
In the event that Cory’s condition improves to such a degree that he is no longer “a danger”, he will be allowed to leave the prison facility and will be placed under the control of the Iowa Department of Human Services.

This has been the pathway of Thomas Barlas Jr., 43, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Cerro Gordo County District Court in August after stabbing and killing his father, thinking he was Jesus and he had killed Satan. Barlas is now being held at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute, which does sound a bit cheerier than the Coralville forensic prison hospital.

Of course, I could be wrong about Cory and he could follow the expedited path of Bardas and wind up in a less frightening facility before too much time has passed. But given his apparent “out of touch” mental state and the fact he killed an innocent 5-year-old boy, I would be surprised if this happens any time soon.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Regular readers of All Things Crime Blog are probably aware that we have the habit of occasionally posting Karla Homolka articles, some of which are fairly extensive. On a Wednesday morning in July, as I blearily crawled to my computer and logged onto the blog, I noticed that our “Karla” posts were going through the roof. When this happens, it generally means that the criminal in question is “in the news”.

I wondered if perhaps some disaster had befallen Karla, but when I googled her name, I discovered that the disaster had befallen (or rather may befall) yet another Paul Bernardo victim.

The grim truth is too horrifying to approach directly so instead I will try to approach this from the side, ferret-style. What is the most horrible fate that could possibly befall a father or mother? Well, obviously there are lots of potentials horrors that could drive a parent to strong drink, but one of the worst possible fates would be for your daughter to marry a notorious convict serving a lengthy prison sentence for murder or some other horrible violent crime..

For example, in the event my daughter decided to marry Russell Williams or Charles Manson, I would probably have to garrote myself.

But suppose the lucky man leading my daughter astray was Mr. Disreputable himself, the Scarborough rapist and serial killer Paul Bernardo?

I would start by using logic and common sense. After all, being married to a serial killer serving an extended period of incarceration could hardly be a “walk in the park”. If that didn’t work, I might resort to bribery. And if that failed, I would plead, I would beg; I would use circuitous logic and reverse psychology. I would do anything and everything to spare my dear daughter the dreadful fate of marrying Bernardo or any other dangerous convict.

Nevertheless, the despicable Bernardo had succeeded in smiting a pretty young thing with his redoubtable charms and a prison marriage may be in the works.

Sam Pazzano and Randy Richmond of QMI Agency write:

From a prison cell, serial sex killer Paul Bernardo has charmed and manipulated an attractive, university-educated woman into planning to marry him, the Toronto Sun has learned.

The 30-year-old London, Ont., woman admitted she has been writing letters to the Scarborough Rapist, telling friends the schoolgirl killer is “innocent” and was a bystander to the rapes and torture slayings of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.

Sporting a recent ankle tattoo that says “Paul’s girl” in cursive writing, she has been corresponding with Bernardo since last fall.

First of all, how in the hell can you be an innocent bystander to 25 rapes and a couple of hideous murders. The answer is: You can’t. Not unless you were roped and tied like the character in Elton John’s Sugar Bear song (“Someone Saved My Life Last Night”), in which case you likely would have been a victim yourself.

The bride-to-be seems to be a bit confused. She has informed friends that she has wedding bands and has described “Paul” as someone who’s serving time “for the most horrible crimes you could imagine.”

“He is a kind man, a Christian, a very nice man,” the lucky bride-to-be told the Sun.

And a friend has quoted her as saying: “He told her not to tell her parents until after they were married.”

Fortunately, there is some evidence that the fetching young woman is reconsidering her cockeyed plan.

In fact, her parents insist that “reality has set in” and that their daughter is reconsidering.

A key element in Bernardo’s seduction scheme appears to have been calling his betrothed “the most beautiful woman in the world.”

Her father believes she was vulnerable because: “She has had a number of bad relationships that undermined her self-esteem despite her brilliance. She is looking for someone who will love her unconditionally.”

Dad thinks that the woman’s intelligence, emotional fragility and belief in her own street smarts made her the perfect victim for Bernardo. He explained that his daughter also believed in Bernardo’s innocence.

“He has convinced her that he didn’t do this (rapes or murders). But, after the conversation last week, I think she has changed her mind.

“It was very easy for him to get her locked into a train of thought. I’ve been very explicit that he actually did these things and reality sunk in this last week in a big way.

“I am getting the feeling that from the way she was defending him in the beginning that now reality has finally kicked in and she realizes, ‘What have I got myself into?

“I told her the media have something that indicates (you are planning to marry him) and she says, ‘Well, he doesn’t get out for three more years (2018, first eligibility for parole).” 

But with the relationship now coming to light, the woman said she “did something that got people upset and she is rethinking … and struggling with it.”

In an interview, Bernardo’s beloved appears to have been evasive, but never indicated she didn’t want to marry him or that the wedding plans had been (or were being) called off.

In an odd twist, the woman admitted asking her pastor about forgiveness, although she never referred to Bernardo by name.

She quoted the pastor as saying, “It is not for another person to judge his brother.

“And I said, ‘But what about the worst thing ever, could that be forgiven?’ ” she recalled.

And the pastor apparently said, ‘As soon as that person committed the act, God has already forgiven him.”

Remember that, ye haters of Homolka…

* * * * *

Paul Bernardo is now half-a-century old. The pretty boy is not nearly so pretty anymore, but could still be considered reasonably attractive for someone tipping the mid-century mark. He is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, and was declared a dangerous offender in 1995 after pleading guilty to 32 sex-related crimes, including 12 rapes in the east end of Toronto dating to 1987.

Hey! All you people that like to paint Karla as the truly dark one and Bernardo as the vixen’s victim should realize that whatever you may think about Homolka does not change the fact that Bernardo did some really rancid shit.

In Canada, all inmates, with the exception of those on disciplinary restrictions or at risk for family violence or identified as Special Handling Unit cases, are permitted “private family visits” of up to 72 hours duration once every two months. Spouses are included within this category which means that if Bernardo’s beloved lawfully weds him, they would presumably have the opportunity to screw like bunnies, which means, unless Uncle Paul has drastically changed his ways, his young lady would soon be introduced to, shall we say… No, we shall not say.

The CSC can neither confirm nor deny any nuptial plans for an inmate.

CSC informed the Sun via email: “Once an inmate makes a request to marry while incarcerated, the institutional management along with the inmate’s case management team will assess the request to make sure it would not pose a risk to the security of the institution, staff and public.

“The institutional head is the authority responsible for determining if a marriage will be accommodated within the facility,” the statement continued.

CSC has “no jurisdiction over whether two people can obtain a marriage licence.” Canadian marriages are governed by provincial legislation.

It is noted that Bernardo is eligible for day parole on Feb. 17, 2015, and full parole on Feb. 17, 2018. It is anticipated that due to his notoriety, he is unlikely to ever be paroled. Furthermore, as a dangerous offender, Bernardo has no entitlement to statutory release.

* * * * *

I feel for the young woman’s parents. On the other hand, Bernardo marrying at this late date would be rather amusing in a dark and twisted way. And just think of the thousands of women all across North America who have secretly longed “to make beautiful music” with Uncle Paul. They are bound to be more than a little miffed.

The fact that Bernardo has convinced his betrothed that he did not commit the rapes and murders suggests that he’s as wily and oily as ever.

But in fairness, perhaps Bernardo would “treat her right” if she marries him. As the old saying goes, the “proof is in the pudding”. And conjugal prison visits could well be a “real turn-on” for Miss Naive Lovely, should she prove to be one of those that requires her sexuality to be leavened with “a bit of the old kink.”

Click on the following links to read previous Karla posts:

Watching Karla Homolka: Karla Just Did As She Pleased

Watching Karla Homolka: The Game Gets Real

Watching Karla Homolka: Karla Stacks the Deck

Karla Homolka Psychological Evaluation, Part One: Abuse Victim or Just Plain Evil?

Watching Karla Homolka: It’s a Family Affair

Was Karla Homolka a Normal Child? The Answer Is a Resounding No

Is Karla Homolka the Most Hated Woman in North America?

The Karla Homolka Files: A U.S. Perspective on Karla Homolka’s Plea Bargain

Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo: Canada’s Most Notorious Serial Killer Case

by BJW Nashe (Back by Zombie Demand)

Many of us are well aware of the impending zombie apocalypse. Who knew that it would begin in Temecula? Then again, so many of our apocalyptic scenarios seem to originate in California, and Southern California in particular. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.

News agencies today are reporting that in Riverside County a man has been arrested after stealing a big rig and colliding with several other vehicles on the highway. The man claimed he was being chased by zombies. Nobody was killed during this bizarre episode, which apparently caused a chain reaction crash on Interstate 15, but two people were seriously injured. The man arrested is identified as Jeremiah Clyde Hartline. According to the Temecula Patch, Hartline is being charged with assault with a deadly weapon, along with other felonies including auto theft, reckless driving, hit-and-run resulting in injury, driving without a license and multiple sentence-enhancing great bodily injury allegations. There’s been no further word on the zombies.

Is it any wonder that this is how the zombie war should start? Some strange incident occurs out on the highway, followed by the authorities willfully ignoring the true nature of the danger at hand, just to avoid widespread panic. Next thing you know, we are in an all-out fight for our lives. Who knows what would have happened if Hartline hadn’t engineered the whole freeway smash-up, in order to escape his undead pursuers? Or what if he did not in fact escape? What if he is now one of them? Our “Patient Zero.” Who knows what lies in store for the people of Temecula? The jail where Hartline is being held could rapidly turn into zombie central. All of California may soon be threatened.

For now, we are unable to ascertain whether these were flesh-eating zombies that chased Hartline, or if they were just trying to get their deteriorating hands on some of his crystal meth. Probably safe to assume both. And we don’t know if the zombies came from some secret biological warfare facility run by the government, or whether the horde was infected by some mysterious virus from outer space. Or something even worse. No accounts of UFO sightings or alien visitations have yet accompanied Hartline’s illegal highway escapades. Law enforcement, of course, is keeping a tight lid on the wider implications of the whole story. They are probably waiting for Homeland Security to step in and take over.

Here’s the official version (or cover-up) of Hartline’s arrest, as reported by the Temecula Patch:

 According to the California Highway Patrol, Hartline, a transient, was picked up by a trucker — Daniel Martinez — in Tennessee en route to San Diego, where the long-haul driver picked up a load of strawberries.

At around 6 p.m. on Saturday, Martinez parked his 18-wheeler at the CHP’s commercial vehicle compliance station just off northbound I- 15, according to the CHP. While Martinez was outside his tractor-trailer, making adjustments, Hartline began to have visions of zombies coming after him, said CHP Officer Nathan Baer.

He told City News Service the defendant was ‘altered,’ possibly under the influence of a controlled substance, and slid behind the wheel of the truck, throwing it into gear and accelerating onto the freeway.

“Hartline thought that zombies were chasing him and clinging to the truck,” Baer said. “Hartline swerved the truck side to side to shake the zombies off.”

Less than two miles into the wild ride, near the exit to Temecula Parkway, the defendant sideswiped a Toyota Tacoma pickup, causing that vehicle to collide with a Toyota 4Runner pickup, which hit a Mercedes-Benz, according to Baer.

“The Tacoma overturned, while the Mercedes sedan and 4Runner spun into the center divider,” the officer said.

“The big rig veered to the left, out of control, striking a Ford Taurus and a Honda Accord before jackknifing and blocking all four traffic lanes, according to the CHP.

Baer said Hartline leapt from the semi and ran to a van that had stopped nearby, climbing inside and allegedly attempting to steal that vehicle, according to the CHP. The driver detained the young man until officers arrived, according to the CHP.

Hartline was treated for minor injuries at Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta and transported to jail.

The occupants of the Tacoma — Kyle Schlosser of San Jacinto and Sarah Small of Hemet — were seriously injured in the crash and remain hospitalized, according to Baer.

He said the occupants of the other vehicles suffered minor to moderate injuries, for which they also received treatment.

The freeway was closed for three hours for the cleanup and investigation.

We don’t need to read too closely between the lines to understand the seriousness of the horror unfolding in Temecula. What were the results of the “investigation?” Was Hartline “infected,” or just scared out of his wits? How can we be sure he was only hallucinating? Why are precise details of the zombie attack being hushed up, or left unexplored?

This has the potential to make Max Brooks’s World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War  seem like a quaint bedtime story (i.e., The Twilight Saga). And yet World War Z may give us some idea of what we may be in for. Here are some excerpts that the CHP and Temecula Police Department and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department might want to pay attention to:

“I found ‘Patient Zero’ behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town. . . . His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds. . . . He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was ‘cursed.’ I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was . . . cold and gray . . . I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.” —Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China

“Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth.” —General Travis D’Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

If you live anywhere within a 100 mile radius of Temecula, there may be still time to prepare. But the clock is ticking. Start stockpiling weapons, ammunition, food, and first aid supplies. If you haven’t read the Zombie Survival Guide, I don’t know how to help you… What have you been doing? Reading mysteries? Or “teen paranormal romance?” You may be a lost cause, at this point. Here are ten quick tips for surviving a zombie attack, so you are not totally unprepared:

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don’t need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

You will notice that stealing a big rig and causing a pileup on the highway is not listed here. This was strictly improvisation on the part of Mr. Hartline, who was clearly thrown into panic when faced with the zombie menace. His approach is by no means recommended for anyone. There’s no need to go crazy here; reason must be allowed to prevail.

In any case, we feel certain that everyone in Southern California should leave work immediately. Stay away from school. Avoid all institutions. Go home and barricade yourselves safely inside your homes, before it’s too late. Trust no one outside of your immediate circle of “survivors.” Keep your own counsel, and maintain a “bunker mentality” until further news filters out from Temecula. It’s going to be a long night.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

You’re asleep and your loved one is sleeping next to you. The house is quiet and it is dark and outside it is night — a night like any other night, or so you supposed when you went to sleep. But you were wrong even though you were right. In the night there is good and there is evil just like during the daytime. On this particular night evil was afoot in human form and it drew near to your house and then it came inside your house and it wanted to take what you had worked for and then, as it was rummaging through your belongings in the basement, it came across a bigger prize – a lovely child, your child, your 5-year-old daughter – and it spoke to her and she spoke back and you awoke. Maybe the voices woke you or maybe it was your protective motherly instinct but you sprang from sleep while fear like no other shot to the core of your being and your loved one awoke and…

Brady McCombs of AP writes:

When the father rushed outside in his pajama pants and hoodie he saw the terrifying sight of his 5-year-old stepdaughter in the arms of a stranger who was carrying her away across the front lawn. The man had snatched the girl out of her bed in the basement moments earlier after coming in the house through an unlocked door, police said.

What was strange about this was that when the father confronted the child stealer and demanded he give back his daughter, the thief neither protested nor resisted. Instead, he simply handed her to the father and fled.

The mother called 911 in tears and she spoke:

“There was a man in my home and he took my 5-year-old daughter. I happened to wake up and he had my daughter outside. My husband ran out there and got her from him. But he took my daughter.”

The dispatcher asked the mother if she had gotten her child back and she said she had but at the same time she could not overlook the fact the intruder had invaded the sanctity of her home:

“Yeah, but he’s out there somewhere. He came in my home…He took my daughter from my house.”

The police arrived, set up a perimeter, and with the help of K-9s, launched a search of the neighborhood. They found the suspect in another home two blocks away. The man had crawled into the house through a doggy dog in an attempt to hide. The second set of homeowners had dogs of their own who spotted the doggy door invader and yelled for the police who were nearby to come get him.

And get him they did, capturing the man outside the second house after one of the K-9s chomped down on his shoulder.

He was identified as Troy Morley, age 48, a resident of the community of Roy, which was 45 miles to the north of the middle-class neighborhood in Sandy that the man had targeted. Mr. Morley has been charged with child kidnapping, burglary, trespassing and resisting arrest.

Sandy Police Sgt. Dean Carriger believes that the 5-year-old girl was not “targeted” by the kidnapper but was rather randomly selected.

“It obviously was a very scary, traumatic situation,” Carriger said. “The sanctity of our home is huge and for somebody to enter that and grab your child, it’s got to be one of the worst nightmares a parent could face. … If those parents were not awakened to go out and investigate, he could have easily left undetected with the girl.”

Odd that the Sergeant would say “he could have easily left undetected with the girl”, when it seems pretty clear that he “would have”, sentiments with which the victim’s family’s spokesman, Miles Holman, certainly agrees with.

“Thirty seconds later and it would have been all over. He would have been long gone.”

Mr. Holman said that the family is doing well considering the circumstances.

* * * * *

What this brings to mind is the fact that there are two Utahs. There is the family-values-centered Church of Latter Day Saints Utah, with whatever problems and issues it may or may not have, and there is the other Utah, which as we’ve seen countless times here on All Things Crime Blog, is plagued by rampant heroin and meth addiction. This is a Utah where mothers murder their new born children and young children overdose on their parents’ methadone. This is also the Utah that produced the kidnapper of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart who was snatched out of her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 and was held captive for nine months before being found. And now this second Utah has produced a second child snatcher who thankfully was apprehended before he got away.

The two Utahs are represented quite clearly in the remarks of various individuals who spoke about the attempted kidnapping:

“Things like that just don’t happen around here,” said Melissa Johnson, 26, a resident of Sandy, a city 90,000 strong, which is predominantly Mormon. Melissa is currently living at her parents’ house which is right next door to where the attempted abduction occurred.

Melissa said her younger sibling heard screams and commotion that morning and came to sleep with her downstairs for safety. Melissa said her family is part of the same ward as the family that was nearly victimized:

“I’ve been thinking that the Heavenly Father had a hand it. He was protecting them. . . I just hope it won’t be traumatizing for the little girl.”

Naturally, the neighbors are traumatized. A mother of three, who lives down the street, said she and her husband are considering an alarm system.

“That is your biggest fear as a parent,” Parry said April Parry. “It can happen anytime, that’s what makes it scary.”

Thus, the second diabolical Utah lurks around the fringes of the first family-values-centered Utah.

To the dismay of a mental health professional named Andrea Shearer, the two Utahs lived in close proximity in her neighborhood in Roy to the north. Troy Morley was her next door neighbor. Ms. Shearer said she and her neighbors “weren’t the least bit surprised to find out the man known as a super creep had been accused of trying to abduct a girl.”

Ms. Shearer explained that her children were not allowed to interact at all with Morley based on a series of bizarre and inappropriate conversations. She further explained that Morley had been caught sneaking into backyards, including hers, which led her to obtain a no trespass order from the police.

Based on what Ms. Shearer said, it appears that Morley had the peculiar but unmistakable “meth head” qualities. She said he said a satanic cult caused his wife to leave him, and that there were “critters crawling through the attic.”

“He scared me. I’m so glad he’s gone,” said Shearer.

It appears there are an awful lot of satanic cults creeping around the fringes of “normal” folks and communities. Either that or the vast majority of them are simply figments of peoples’ imaginations.

Utah should not feel alone in that there are two Utahs. Every state has its own dark double filled with drug addicts, perverts and violent criminals. And sometimes the two sides may exist within the same family or even within the same individual. The mystery of evil and its many manifestations would appear to be the driving force that triggers crime; without which, in our spare time, we would all simply watch games, play on our computers and take the children to the park.

by Peter Prasad

Why write a crime thriller?

The modern-day sonnet comes packaged as a crime thriller. Imagine Shakespeare counting syllables on his fingers, trying to make the rhythm work. It imposes form and structure on creativity. If you can seed your plot with an exciting story line and credible characters, then you might have something worth reading purely for entertainment value.

All literature is escapist, like bath beads in a sudsy tub, with the promise of being transported far away on a flight of imagination, rich with thrills and danger. Isn’t it amazing how reading can make a hero’s quest appear so real in the space between your ears. It’s been so since before recorded time when we sat around the fire, gnawing on a haunch, transported beyond cave and daily cares.

Crime thrillers are the morality plays of our generation. Good versus evil, and in the end order and the rule of law prevail. And that makes it easier to get up and go to work tomorrow. We’ve kept the wolf in the forest at bay one more day.

Which brings me to Cicero’s Dead by Patrick H. Moore. (http://www.amazon.com/Ciceros-Dead-Pa…)

In my Amazon review I said:

Jade wants to find her brother. Her dad, Cicero Lamont, has died mysteriously. She needs help. She calls LA’s newest hardboiled detective Nick Crane. Crane uncovers motive and opportunity like a surgeon wielding a Glock. His colorful sidekicks add accuracy and flavor to this hard-edge thriller.

Prepare for lean, direct storytelling about tough, cynical characters that dance from LA to San Francisco. Author Patrick H. Moore, a seasoned private investigator and crime writer, crafts an elegant first novel, soon to be followed by another Nick Crane thriller. Five stars. It pays homage to the classics and turns up the heat on what you expect from a hardboiled mystery.

In my day, a Boy Scout had to be able to build a fire with two matches. A rifleman had one shot at six hundred yards. A torn shirt and two sticks made a splint so you could hobble your fanny back home. Have hope. Seventy percent of American movies begin with a book. And a crime thriller is a great way to cut your teeth, or shall I say author’s chops.

On’Ya readers & writers, and all the little children who beg for one more page at story time.

About Peter Prasad — I write crime thrillers – post-modern with a twist. So, I sweat bullets and laugh at myself, drunk on life. I’m captivated by my own imagination, looking for zinger dialog and blazing story.

The Goat-Ripper Case (Sonoma Knight) is a sexy romantic crime thriller in the heart of Sonoma wine country. Jake Knight, Afghan vet and new PI, goes after a wine cheat and saves the governor.

GURL-POSSE KIDNAP is a drug deal gone wrong. It morphs into murder, kidnap and redemption as Jake helps his client see the light.

GUT-CHECK GREEN has environmental terrorists raiding a wine party. They stymie a task force sent to hunt them down. Only Jake can identify and chase them, going up against a vicious killer, the Pencil Man.

CAMPAIGN ZEN 500bc-2012 is a look at the history of the ballot box, told in tavern doggerel. Pour a jar and read aloud, then vote as often as you can.

About me? Florida native, San Francisco resident, father, husband and Boy Scout in recovery, world traveler, Zen poet, Africa & Tokyo ad guy, start-up & solar guy, ocean energy champion, a writer for 40 years.

I love the poem cadences of Kipling, the dialect of Mark Twain, the heart of Vonnegut and the thrillers of John D. MacDonald. His PI, Travis McGee, was birthed on a Beach Club bar stool where I grew up.

So jump in; life is a participatory sport. If you’re an emerging writer, load up on life experiences on which to craft your art. Thanks for reading. O’ya dear readers.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

In a case that’s sure to ignite boatloads of anger on the part of true crime followers everywhere, Melinda Lynn Muniz, 25, of Plano, Texas, has been arrested and charged with capital murder in the suffocation death of her fiancé’s daughter, even though she claimed she had been assaulted by an unknown male on the morning of the incident.

In an attempt to deflect suspicion, Muniz allegedly went so far as to stage a break-in on January 9th at the apartment she shared in the 1500 block of J Place with her fiancé Mitch Ford. The investigators, however, simply are not buying her story and have stated that her explanation is full of holes.

According to the arrest affidavit, Muniz was found on the floor of another room with her mouth taped shut and her pants pulled down. Meanwhile, Mitch Ford’s daughter, two-year-old Grace Lillian Ford, was found unconscious in her crib, her mouth covered with duct tape.

Although Grace was rushed to the hospital where she hung on to a slender thread of life for the next three days, she was pronounced dead on January 12th. The child’s death was ruled a homicide on January 22 by the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office.

A particularly damning bit of evidence is a surveillance video showing that Muniz went to a nearby dollar store on Jan. 9th, the morning of the incident, and purchased duct tape, zip ties, kitchen shears, and cotton swabs just hours before police were called to her apartment. As Muniz tracks down her items of infamy at the dollar store, she has little Grace riding with her in the shopping cart.

Ouch! Assuming the authorities are correct, and at first glance it appears that they might be, some folks are going to ask, “What sort of monster would do this? This is purely inhuman and if convicted, this woman should receive the death penalty.”

In piecing the story together, law enforcement discovered that Muniz and her erstwhile fiancé Mitch Ford had quarreled on the morning of January 9th over text messages and a topless video on Muniz’ cell phone that Ford believed she had sent to her personal trainer. As you might imagine, Ford was none too pleased and had told Muniz they were going to break up just before he left for work that morning.

Thus, the motive… Muniz is hurt and angry over the fact Ford says he’s going to leave her, even though she’s reportedly the one who sent a topless video to her personal trainer. (Given that I am of prurient nature, I can’t help but wonder if it’s an aerobic topless video, or merely a series of come-hither poses.) So Muniz decides, ‘I’m gonna fix you, you bastard!’ What better way to fix him than by murdering his little girl?

Of course, if this is all true, Muniz is in very serious trouble. And, the prosecution’s case is strengthened by the fact that the appropriate medical tests failed to corroborate Muniz’s claim that she had been sexually assaulted.

There are several more interesting wrinkles to this already curious tale:

On Jan. 10th, one day after the incident, Muniz reportedly told the investigators that she had memory loss and, “could not remember the last couple of months and said her memory should come back in a couple of days.”

One, of course, wonders how Muniz could remember being assaulted while in the throes of a two-month amnesia episode. But perhaps it only affected her long-term memory.

And the grieving fiancé Mitch Ford also appears to be a bit strange. He recently informed the authorities that he had met with Muniz after his daughter’s death despite the fact he was advised not to by police and his attorneys. In the affidavit, the police write that Ford stated that Muniz continued to act as if she did not recognize him. He questioned her about her claims of amnesia in his car, and later had drinks with her at a restaurant in McKinney where she continued to act as if she didn’t remember the last year-and-a-half. Thus, Muniz’s claim of two months of memory loss was elongated into a whopping 18 months by Ford.

There is, of course, one more missing piece to this evening of drinks and memory loss. This is the fact, according to Ford, that he and Muniz had sex in his car down the street from her house at the end of the evening. In other words, Muniz remembered how to have sex and did the deed in a car with a man she did not recognize.  Ford also stated that as Muniz was leaving, she asked him if anything was going to happen to her. Ford told the authorities that he told Muniz that Grace had died, but gave her no other specific information.

And just so it’s permanently on the record, repeat after me: Mitch Ford had sex in his car with an amnesiac – the same amnesiac who allegedly murdered his innocent 2-year-old daughter, approximately one week after the homicide.

*     *     *     *     *

Although Grace Ford’s family refused to be filmed, they issued the following written statement:

“God will make sure justice is served to the fullest. What this monster did is as evil as it can get. There is no excuse.”

In this case, by justice being served to the fullest, I assume the Ford family means the good old DP. Some folks apparently believe that the DP will fix everything – right all wrongs and generally bring closure, no matter how profound the disaster.

There is little doubt, however, that the Ford family was on to the fact that something was rotten in the Muniz-Ford household.

According to the affidavit, Grace’s grandfather actually contacted Child Protective Services two days before the January 9th incident, and asked them to reopen the case, telling CPS that a pattern of abuse had begun when Muniz and Ford moved in together.

CPS reportedly paid visits to the apartment on J Place on July 20, 2013, Nov. 1, 2013, and Dec. 19, 2013. CPS apparently was unable to confirm any abuse. A spokesperson said the repeat visits were appropriate to determine if anything had been missed.

“CPS has been called in three times since July; that raises a red flag for anyone reading the story, I’m sure,” said Gracie’s aunt, Stephanie Beltran. “Unfortunately, CPS didn’t protect Grace. Absolutely [more should have been done]. I think we’re all angry about that.”

The deceased 2-year-old’s mother, Emily Ward, also refused to speak on camera but stated that she hopes her daughter’s murder will bring changes that serve to “force CPS to better protect children.” Ward also said that she had accused Muniz of handling her daughter roughly and inflicting bruises in the past, as well as intentionally overdosing the child with Benadryl.

Although Emily Ward, as a grieving mother, has the right to say anything she wants about the case, I do wonder why little Grace wasn’t with Emily or other relatives, given the fact that everyone apparently knew that the child was being abused.

Muniz is being held at the Plano City Jail on $1 million bond.

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

Since the early days of All Things Crime Blog, I’ve been on the soapbox telling all and sundry to beware of child molesters and pedophiles. Now, I’m not sure whether to be pleased or appalled, but it turns out that an English family-oriented amusement park called Puxton Park has a strictly enforced policy that does not allow single men or women into the park. At all! Stay away!

Anyone who has been following the English Paedophile Sweepstakes is aware that pedophilia is apparently a huge problem in Merrie Olde England – perhaps even larger than it is here in the U.S. Still, never did I suspect that paedophobia would reach such heights that singles would be completely banned from a public commercial venture that primarily caters to children.

A married father of three named Matthew Richards, who had previously visited the park with one of his grandchildren, found this out the hard way on Thursday when he arrived alone to see the falconry exhibit and was turned away at the gate.

Tina Rowe of The Western Gazette writes:

A bird enthusiast made a 25-mile trip to see a falconry display at a family leisure park only to be told that single adults are banned – for fear of paedophiles.

Married man Matthew Richards, 54, a father of three grown-up children, was staggered by the rule at award-winning Puxton Park, a family-oriented leisure attraction near Weston-super-Mare.

Matthew was understandably miffed and stated:

“I was frankly amazed. I was told the rule applies to single men, and women, for the protection of children.

“I couldn’t see anything about the rule on the brochure which I picked up at another attraction.

“We have taken one of our grandchildren there before, and I saw that the falconry was there and thought it would be interesting to go back and see the displays.

“They are advertising adult memberships as gifts so I can’t understand it.”

Is it somewhat odd that Matthew is making such a big deal out of this? After all, aren’t virtually any precautions, no matter how stringent and seemingly draconian, well worth it if it results in even one innocent child being protected against the soul-destroying assault of a paedophile? And I’m certainly not suggesting that there is anything wrong or unnatural about Matthew; rather, if I was in his shoes, I would simply chalk it up as one more liberty lost because the “bad people” have the habit of spoiling things for everybody else.

On the other hand, Matthew did drive 25 miles to see the falconry display so his disappointment is certainly understandable.

As a child-themed park, Puxton Park has many attractions that appeal particularly to young children, including its adventure park for youngsters aged four years and upwards.

When questioned, Puxton Park claimed the rule was “in line with all other parks”.

Wait a minute! Just how bad is the plague of the paedophiles in Merrie Olde England. For better or worse, it’s almost inconceivable that American theme parks would have rules of this nature.

Here’s what Alistair Mead (love those English names), the managing director of the park, had to say:

“There is a lot in the headlines about paedophiles and things that are going on with children.

“We have done our research and in line with all other parks we don’t let single men or women in.”

“We make it quite clear that if people want to go to the falconry they have to get a prior appointment, and we would take them down to the falconry centre.

“It is in the leaflet. I think if I did a survey of 100 of our customers they would agree that we are doing the right thing.”

So that’s the $64 million dollar question… If a survey of 100 customers was carried out, would they agree that discretion is the better part of valor in this instance and that the rule is a good one?

Now the fact of the matter is that although the “no singles” rule is stated on Puxton’s website, it is buried at the end of a long list of prices and is not apparent on the Home Page or even in the “Rules of Admission” section which gives helpful information such as washing your hands after touching the animals, especially before eating.

The buried statement reads as follows:

“We are sorry but we are unable to let single men or women without children into the park.

“If you are here to meet someone let one of our reception staff know and they will happily do a tannoy announcement asking them to come and meet you.”

Matthew Richards, however, is not giving up easily. “I almost feel discriminated against. I could understand it if it was for the attractions that young children only enjoy, but the falconry is of interest to all.”

True. But as they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Or in the case of protecting a young child from molestation, an ounce of prevention is worth 20 tons of cure.

To wit: Just today, Rachelle Blidner of the New York Daily News reports:

Just today in Merrie Olde Michigan (oh God, not Michigan again), John Balyo, the former Christian radio host of WCSG in Grand Rapids (oh God, not another Christian paedophile) was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison for raping an 11 year old boy.

With the help of a twisted man named Ronald Lee Moser, age 42, whom he paid to set him up with the child, Pastor John persuaded the child to perform oral sex on him in a motel room Ugh! A veritable lover’s tryst. (This apparently all took place at a Christian music festival. Ah, ye generation of vipers.)

* * * * *

So in a world gone so wrong that paedophiles appear to be almost omnipresent, is their really anything wrong with taking extreme measures to protect the children like they are in the British child-oriented amusement parks?

And just for the moment, think about the numbers. I have no idea how many kids come to Puxton Park on a daily basis so let’s just guess conservatively that 1,000 little children come there daily during the summer months. Puxton is a big park with lots of attractions.

If 1,000 little ones come there, I would estimate that anywhere from 10 to 30 paedophiles would probably be there shadowing them if they were allowed in the gates. And of those 10 to 30, sooner or later one or more would succeed in catching a parent napping and spiriting off one of the children. Am I wrong? Possibly. I admit that I could be way off.

But as I said earlier, when it comes to paedophilia, an ounce of prevention is worth 20 tons of cure.

by Mike Roche

Chad Oulson, 43 and his wife Nicole, 33,  of Land O’ Lakes, Florida decided to sneak away for an afternoon matinee screening of the movie Lone Survivor.  Chad, who had a day off from his job as a finance manager, joined his wife, Nicole, who played hooky from her job at USAA to enjoy the movie with her husband. Their three-year-old daughter was in pre-school.

Curtis Reeves, 71, a retired police captain, and his wife traveled from their retirement home to the same movie theater in Wesley Chapel, Florida, to watch Lone Survivor. The two couples sat one row apart. Before the movie started, one moviegoer was dead, one wounded, and a third escorted out of the theater in handcuffs and charged with murder.

Theatergoers complain of the frustration of inconsiderate patrons distracting them at the movies. How many times during a riveting scene have we been offended by the  jabbering  of an inconsiderate couple, or the intrusion of the bright lights emitted from a texting cell phone, or — even worse — when someone answers their cell phone in the middle of a movie. Many years ago, movie theaters assigned ushers to police the conduct of their patrons. Violators guilty of inappropriate conduct were illuminated by the beam of a flashlight, and a stern warning was bellowed by an acne-faced usher. Repeat offenders were not tolerated and were quickly shown the door.

On Monday, January 14, 2014, while waiting for the movie to start, Chad Oulson broke out his cell phone and began texting his three-year-old daughter who was in preschool. The three year old is destined for the gifted and talented program (GATE) and one has to wonder how many preschools allow their three-year-old pupils to engage in texting with mom and dad. Sitting nearby, Curtis Reeves reportedly became annoyed at the texting and requested the offender to stop. Oulson ignored repeated requests and continued his texting activity, apparently with his three-year-old daughter. Reeves, enraged by this insolence marched out to the lobby to alert management of this violation of the moviegoer’s code of acceptable conduct.

Reeves returned to his seat. It is unclear whether the theater’s management actually intended to intervene. Oulson reportedly confronted Reeves as to his tattling and then the simmering agitation escalated. A Pascoe County Sheriff’s report indicates that Oulson allegedly threw popcorn at the elderly Reeves, and according to Reeves, Oulson struck him in the face with an unknown object. Reeves then withdrew his .380 caliber pistol and aimed it at Oulson. Nicole Oulson perceived the danger and reached toward the gun. Reeves pulled the trigger and the bullet traveled through Nicole’s hand and into her husband’s chest. Chad Oulson collapsed and died on the floor despite the heroic actions of two nurses from the audience. Nicole Oulson was taken to the hospital where she was treated and released.

Curtis Reeves sat and placed the weapon in his lap. He was taken into custody by an off-duty Sumter County Sheriff’s deputy. Reeves spent 20 years as a police officer and retired at the rank of captain. He will now no doubt spend the rest of his life retired behind bars in a jail cell. Unlike the title of the movie, there are no winners, or real survivors in this tragic story – only losers. Either one of couples could have de-escalated the situation by simply moving a few rows away. Oulsen could have put his phone away or walked out to the lobby to continue his texting.

From retired Captain Reeves’ standpoint, this was hardly the time to pull a gun. No one’s life was in danger. Instead, pride overruled common sense, two wives will never again share their bed with their husbands, and a gifted three-year-old has lost her daddy.

Update:

Theater shooter Curtis Reeves has been out on bond since July and the preparations for his trial are proceeding at the slow pace of the moon. At the latest pretrial conference, the judge set March 2, 2015 as the probable starting date for the trial. Don’t hold your breath, though. According to Aaron Mesmer of FOX 13 News:

The defense still has to depose, or interview, 81 of the state’s 100 potential witnesses and both sides are also still waiting for state forensics officials to give them several items, including gunshot residue from the clothes of the victim, Chad Oulson.

Considering the fact that the shooter, Mr. Reeves, is getting up there in years (he was 71 at the time of the shooting), his defense team may well delay matters as long as is humanly possible. The older he gets, the harder it is going to be for a jury to convict.

Please click here to view Mike Roche’s previous posts:

Alex Hribal Was Desperate and Said He Wanted Someone to Kill Him

Columbia Mall Shooter Darion Aguilar Followed the Model of Notorious Mass Murderers

Peter Lanza Speaks: The Lethal and Unvarnished Truth about His Son Adam

FHP Officer Jimmy Fulford Fields Pipe Bomb Intended for Young Mother with His Bare Hands and Dies Instantly

Fire Department and California Highway Patrol Go 9 Rounds: Win, Lose or Draw?

The Boston Bombers: A Tale of Two Troubled Brothers

Don’t Text at the Movies, The Life You Lose May Be Your Own!

Killers and the Catcher in the Rye

Mike Roche has over three decades of law enforcement experience. He began his career with the Little Rock Police Department, and spent twenty-two years with the U.S. Secret Service. The last fifteen years of his career were focused on conducting behavioral threat assessments of those threatening to engage in targeted violence. He is the author of three novels and two nonfiction works on mass murder and also rapport building. Retired, Mike is currently a security consultant at Protective Threat LLC, and an adjunct instructor at Saint Leo University. He resides in Florida with his family.

Mass Killers: How you Can Identify, Workplace, School, or Public Killers Before They Strikehttp://www.amazon.com/Mass-Killers-Identify-Workplace-School-ebook/dp/B00GHZWC1M/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389112969&sr=1-2&keywords=mass+killers

Face 2 Face: Observation, Interviewing and Rapport Building Skills: an Ex-Secret Service Agent’s Guide http://www.amazon.com/Face-2-ebook/dp/B009991BII/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354630000&sr=1-6

The Blue Monster  http://www.amazon.com/The-Blue-Monster-ebook/dp/B0054H8TMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1312641741&sr=1-1

Coins of Death http://www.amazon.com/Coins-Of-Death-ebook/dp/B005RPZ256/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1317860179&sr=1-3

Karma! http://www.amazon.com/Karma-Mike-Roche-ebook/dp/B0054H4OAG/ref=la_B00BHEIF78_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389724285&sr=1-4