True Crime

[cantienne]

In COFFINS. I don't understand that! Thirty-two dudes, including her son, in her basement in coffins - there must have been some sort of stacking going on, unless her basement was huge. How did she stack them? How did she even move the damn things around? I'm guessing she didn't have whoever make them come into the basement and be like, "Oh, just place that one on top of the two over there at the corner. Thanks!" Did she stack and then heave the body in? Could she do that if they were above, like, chest level?

It never occurred to me, but now that you mention it..."I use these coffins to store my large sacks of wet cement. Never you mind what the smell is." Did no one wonder why she bought 32 zinc coffins in the first place?

On the subject of female serial killers, I can think of very few who used gory means (not poison or suffocation), didn't work with a male partner, and had a crazy "I love pain" motive (as opposed to killing for financial gain or jealousy). I came up with Enriqueta Marti, Darya Saltykova, and Delphine LaLaurie. The Saltykova and LaLaurie cases were so long ago (centuries) that it makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction; both tortured and killed servants.

[satellite]

cantienne said:

I came up with Enriqueta Marti, Darya Saltykova, and Delphine LaLaurie. The Saltykova and LaLaurie cases were so long ago (centuries) that it makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction; both tortured and killed servants.

And Elisabeth Bathory, if legend is true.

I got a good true crime photo book from the dollar rack at Borders over the summer, I think it's called Illustrated True Crime. It was published in England so it had a bunch of English and European crime that we don't hear too much about here in the states in addition to North American stuff, like a whole section on The Moors Murders and a few photos of the Kray brothers. I love The Krays movie and I'm so annoyed that they won't release a region 1 DVD. I ordered from amazon.uk and hacked my DVD player, but I think a region 1 release would have a wider audience.

[Deleted]

foiegras said:

luciano said:

Changing subjects: Japan had a cannibal killer named Issei Sagawa who ate this Dutch woman and described it really grossly. It took a while before I could go back to eating tuna and creamy corn is now something that I will never touch. The reaction to his crimes was weird, though - dude wrote restaurant reviews and was a guest speaker in various places due to his crime. Yep, free guy. Just walking the streets like nothin' after he checked his own ass out of a mental institution.

And if I'm not mistaken, wasn't he featured in porn that was capitalizing on his notoriety? Yeah, his crime essentially made him a pop-culture celebrity. (And his victim was a woman who just had the misfortune of becoming his object of obsession - he basically stalked and killed her and ate her so she would always be with him. Adorable, no?)

Papa Segawa was incredibly rich (head of a conglomerate that has dozens of enterprises under him), and literally sold everything in his life he could get his hands on to get a not guilty by insanity for his son.

[Shanmac]

This thread is my new obsession. And nightmare, because it's scaring the crap out of me.

I remember seeing something on Marybeth Tinnings on TV when I was a kid. Even then, I was completely horrified. What the hell was her husband doing/thinking during this time? Did he never find it suspicious that all their babies died -- but only after he left her alone with them? And I realize she used different hospitals, but after two babies, you'd think people would know who she was and start to wonder. And ... how the hell was she able to adopt children? I just ... it boggles my mind. I've read a couple online articles about her, but none of them say how she killed the babies (just that the hospital couldn't find anything wrong with them). What did she do to them? Smother them? *Shudder*

Gaaah. The CrimeLibrary "Girl in a Box" story is the stuff of nightmares. That poor woman.

I knew Tracey Gold was married to Roby Marshall. "Blind Faith" and "Small Sacrifices" (the movies; I've never read the books) haunted me when I was a kid. Every single time I hear "Hungry Like the Wolf," I think of how that's what was playing when Diane Downs shot her kids (and that scene with Farrah Fawcett rocking out to that as it's played in the courtroom -- eek!).

[Deleted]

foiegras said:

mugsy said:

There was one about a woman who had about 5 or 6 babies die of SIDS. One of her biggest supporter was doctor doing SIDS research, and based mostly on her case, he determined that SIDS had a hereditary factor. This sent parents of SIDS babies into a panic if they had another baby, and many of those babies were put on special breathing monitors for their first year (friends of ours included).
Turns out, of course, that this mother was suffocating her children - they were anywhere from a couple months to almost 2 years old - because she liked the attention she got. Apparently the first death was actually SIDS and that's when she got "hooked" on sympathy. Ugh.

Is this the Marie Noe case?

I was thinking Waneta Hoyt. ("Exhibit A" - the crime show with Graham Greene as host - did an episode on her.)

[scarlet]

This book has some good NYC cases. I read it years ago and the Kitty Genovese story still gives me chills.

[Deleted]

You would think this stuff would not freak me out with growing up as a homicide investigator for a dad, but yikes. I really should not read this right before bed.

I should find some links to some of his old cases, they are actually kind of interesting. You know how most people gather around to share heart-warming stories at Christmastime? In the Borokat family, all of my cousins would crowd around Dad as he would tell a nice story about the guy who was fed into a woodchipper (yes, it really does happen!). Ah, good times.

Why was the thread made for only pre-90s cases?

[Shanmac]

Oh, I forgot to mention -- one of my friends put up a picture of Gacy in his clown garb as his default MySpace picture. I discovered this yesterday. I may have to delete him.

Speaking of Gacy, a woman I used to work with once told me her husband believes his brother was killed by him. They never found him (just, apparently, teeth ... sweet Jesus). Apparently the brother is not to be mentioned in front of hubby's family. I guess they just pretend he never existed. So sad.

I really should not read this right before bed.

Yep. Me neither.

I think it's pre-1990 just because modern-day cases might be more "touchy,"/have the potential to create conflict, and it's possible that board members might have connections to them -- or, at the very least, stronger feelings. But ... I could just be talking out of my ass. I don't know.

[shriekingeel]

He tried to blame it all on some local woman named Helena Stoeckley—and continues to maintain that defense to this day.

I never knew that about the McDonald case, because I only followed it casually. I always thought he blamed it on the "bushy-headed stranger," which is almost a True Crime subcategory of its own.

[nitenurse]

The Moors Murders were a horrible time in the UK. Kind of took away a feeling of innocence. Myra Hyndley is dead. Interesting thing is while in prison she became a lesbian, Roman Catholic, and died of Cancer. Ian is still alive and hopefully rotting in hell.

Clifford Olson is still locked up in Canada. Never hear too much about him. His wife and son were given new identities and relocated. I know the children shouldn't pay for the sins of the father but still it's nice to know what's swimming in peoples gene pools.