True Crime

[Sunnyhorse]

You asked for it, folks, so here it is. Enjoy!

[Auroranorth]

Where shall we start? Jack the Ripper?

[SluttyMary]

No, I say we start with Tutankhamon

[Deleted]

blobbygirl said:

No, I say we start with Tutankhamon

My dear, that simply cannot be. I would like to talk about the premeditated murder of Otzi the Ice Man. ;D

[sugaree]

auroranorth said:

Where shall we start? Jack the Ripper?

Not Walter Sickert, the guy Patricia Cornwell thinks he was. Her book was an interesting read, but had some holes. Also, she tried to connect him to what seemed like every other gruesomely unsolved crime in Britain and northern France. I don't know when the man would have had time to paint--every waking minute of his life must have involving lurking, stalking, dismembering, or writing anonymous letters to the authorities.

What's interesting is some crime writers classify Jack as a highly organized killer, while just as many say he was the archtypical unorganized killer, literally a homicidal maniac. If he were organized (methodical, a planner, could pass as normal in society), it gives credence to the Walter Sickert theory, as well as other theories such as those pertaining to the royal family's doctors, William Gull and John Williams.

John Douglas believed that the killer was unorganized, and that he was most likely a Jewish immigrant who was institutionalized shortly after the Mary Kelly killing. This guy was not Aaron Kominski or John Pizer. This guy was too far gone to hold down a job like they did. IIRC, there is some confusion about the guy's name, possibly because he was too far lost in insanity to give his name. But it may have been David Cohen. It's been a while since I read this.

[raqs]

Oohh..... how about Jeffrey MacDonald?

[ramonaq]

Have there been any historical female serial killers? I'm not talking about moms a la Susan Smith (a genre we probably shouldn't talk about here), but real serial killers. I'm thinking something on a larger scale than Lizzie Borden.

[monkey]

I watched a PBS special on Typhoid Mary. Does she count?

[ramonaq]

Nah, I don't think so. I think there were socio-economic reasons why she kept working, refusing to believe she was the cause of the deaths and illnesses.

[CyberCathy]

The MacDonald story always interested me. I still remember that TV movie from years ago. Fatal Vision I think. Did they ever decide if he was innocent or not?

Right after the movie aired there was a family that lived two blocks away from us that was murdered by their father/husband with an ice pick. Pretty gruesome. That was the first time in my life I can think of an instance where someone emulated what they saw in the news. He's out now and is not supposed to return to the neighborhood. My parents are thrilled.

I used to be addicted to the Crime Library website. I never liked it once it partnered with Court TV. It wasn't as easy to read with too many ads.

So I suppose pre-1990 technically means no Dahmer, eh? Since that wasn't discovered until 1991.