i read this book as a young beatles buff:
http://img3.etsystatic.com/000/0/6698079/il_fullxfull.321643311.jpg
completely unconvincing even to a teenager, but pretty entertaining.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 5 November 2012 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
I finished the Wineville murders book, Road Out Of Hell and I will go as far as to say it's one of the best books of its kind, in this genre, that I've read.
The story itself is literally unbelievable - a 13yo boy is for all intents and purposes abducted by his uncle, with full knowledge of his own mother, to live on a farm in the middle of nowhere where the uncle abused him constantly for 2 years, and abused and murdered at least 20 young boys. and coerced his own nephew into helping.
There are so many events that unfold that made me gasp or put the book down or have to walk away. the book is almost entirely told from the perspective of the boy. You go through what he goes through, which is why it's SO harrowing. It's like you're living it with him for so long. And the uncle is never exactly analysed or examined, because everything you need to know about him is witnessed by this boy.
He survived! It's insane. But that boy went on to be a wwii veteran, a husband, and adopted two at-risk boys who they raised as their sons. he told his oldest son everything when he was old enough. but he never passed any of the horror onto his family, because of a few key people who showed compassion for him when he needed it.
I'm honestly still open-mouthed at what went on at that ranch. The uncle was beyond Gacy levels of inhumanity. But that kid just seemed to have something in him that was built for survival. It's a really amazing story.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 8 November 2012 00:25 (eleven years ago) link
also those Best American Crime Reporting annual collections! any read the latest?
These were really good--I just found out the series has been cancelled, though, so last year's edition was the final one.
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 8 November 2012 01:35 (eleven years ago) link
u guys read this? im into it, read 200 pp in like a day
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514GoYVgT6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 30 December 2012 02:17 (eleven years ago) link
Happy Like Murderers, about Fred and Rose West
theres a booknotes youtube of the ppl who eat darkness writer & he namechecks gordon burn, whom ive never heard of, but it sounds like something worth looking into for me. i think i need these to be at least a lil literary or else i just cant really deal
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 2 January 2013 19:32 (eleven years ago) link
that People Who Eat Darkness looks intriguing
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
it's good; the perpetrator is such an enigma, and the best part is that the author recognizes it and doesnt at all try to pretend like he can fully explain him
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:01 (eleven years ago) link
i don't read a ton of these things, but i'm about halfway through ed sanders' The Family right now and it's pretty gripping.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:03 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0307279081/ref=aw_d_iv_books/185-7597314-6346743?is=l
The killer of little shepherds, not perfect but fascinating story about a French serial killer in the late 1800s.
Also rep for the aforementioned Charles bowdens works. On a similar subject, The daughters of Juarez:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0743292049
Basically reads like the fourth part of bolano's 2666 but grimmer for being true.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:14 (eleven years ago) link
Black mass isn't a bad account of whitey bulger's tenure as crime boss + his relaysh w the FBI. ymmv in terms of how fascinating you find mob stuff. I find most of it pretty tedious tbh but this was solid.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:18 (eleven years ago) link
"The Staircase" doc that carl agatha recommended upthread is finally on youtube if anyone's interested.
I just started watching - gripping stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oMpwP2e7fY
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 31 January 2013 17:14 (eleven years ago) link
killer of little shepherds was good in a "devil in the white city" kinda waypeople who eat darkness was pretty good but the author was annoying and i wished he had focused less on the girl's family
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 31 January 2013 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
xp there'er gonna be 2 new "episodes" of the staircase on sundance channel in march
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 31 January 2013 17:18 (eleven years ago) link
Awesome!!!!!
― carl agatha, Thursday, 31 January 2013 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
Thought I might have mentioned them already, but the two Lawrence Schiller bks on O.J. Simpson's trial and Jonbenet Ramsey are both pretty great - obviously subsequent events have dated them a little, but Schiller had tremendous access and a formidable research team, far more so than on average true crime bk.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 31 January 2013 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
gahhhhh only episode 1 of Staircase is online
fuckers
I'll have to investigate getting the rest of the episodes when I get home tonight. Jerks
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 31 January 2013 18:23 (eleven years ago) link
You can get the DVDs through Netflix. Add them. Move them to number one in your queue. And then ilx mail me as you watch it because hearing people's theories and opinions about the case develop as the documentary progresses is one of my favorite things ever.
re: OJ, the paralegal students I'm teaching this term were asking me a heap of questions about the OJ trial and I had to admit that I didn't know too much about it. Perhaps I shall read that book.
― carl agatha, Thursday, 31 January 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
i have no netflixes ;_;
but I have ways & means. this will happen imo
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 31 January 2013 19:34 (eleven years ago) link
So there are like three books on the Snowtown/Bodies In Barrels murders. Can anyone recommend any of them?
― hibernaculum (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 31 January 2013 19:41 (eleven years ago) link
carl agatha - bk is told very much from the defense team POV, if that helps or hinders, tho Simpson later tried to sue Schiller:
http://www.gba-law.com/press/oj-brills-content/
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 31 January 2013 19:41 (eleven years ago) link
Happy Like Murderers, about Fred and Rose West, are v good, intensely miserable. ― woof, Tuesday, October 23, 2012 2:45 PM (3 months ago)
u were not kidding abt 'intensely miserable'. guh. brb, need 2 look @ some kitten blogs or w/e
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 18:12 (eleven years ago) link
Homicide by David Simon (I know, kind of obvious)Bad: The Autobiography of James CarrMarching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail by Thomas McFaddenGomorrah by Roberto SavianoThe Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison by Pete EarleyNow the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II by Brendan Koerner
― Playoff Starts Here (san lazaro), Wednesday, 6 February 2013 03:16 (eleven years ago) link
i'm reading "wilderness of error" by errol morris. it's a weird book - obsessively detailed to the point of being boring sometimes, really short chapters with little cute illustrations at the start of each - but, without knowing too much else about the jeffery macdonald case, i think it makes a very strong case for macdonald's innocence or at least that he shouldn't have been convicted based on the evidence
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 17:15 (eleven years ago) link
Patton Oswalt was tweeting about this a few months ago - his wife is a True Crime writer who has taken exception to the book (I haven't read this, because I still want to read the book): http://www.truecrimediary.com/index.cfm?page=cases&id=186
― Walter Galt, Wednesday, 20 February 2013 17:31 (eleven years ago) link
I don't know why I capitalized "True Crime"
otm, her blog is fascinating.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 17:36 (eleven years ago) link
that's interesting but she hadn't read morris' book at the time of writing that post - in the book, he addresses some of the "telling details" she thinks point the finger at macdonald's guilt
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 17:39 (eleven years ago) link
I am never going to be able to remember what it was I read/saw/heard... oh god, was it maybe on Radiolab??? (to quote n/a: ugh radiolab ugh) but whatever it was, it really laid into Errol Morris's logic re: that book.
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 20 February 2013 18:42 (eleven years ago) link
God, nominate that for the least useful comment ever.
but, without knowing too much else about the jeffery macdonald case, i think it makes a very strong case for macdonald's innocence or at least that he shouldn't have been convicted based on the evidence
HE TOTALLY DID IT. I'm sorry, but I get a little crazy about this case.
This is a great article that discusses the case in depth and also goes into the Morris book: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/since-1979-brian-murtagh-has-fought-to-keep-convicted-murderer-jeffrey-macdonald-in-prison/2012/12/05/3c8bc1c6-2da8-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html
― Ulna (Nicole), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i know its been criticized and i don't know a ton about the case but he did interview a lot of people involved in the case who had serious questions/issues with how things were done. also it's just weird that errol morris wrote a true crime book.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 18:44 (eleven years ago) link
I need to read the Morris book to see how he addresses these things, but my understanding was always that the blood/hair evidence (with every family member having a different blood type), the perfectly circular puncture wounds in MacDonald's pajama top, and his lack of serious injury were kinda evidential slam dunks.
― this is called money bags (Phil D.), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 18:45 (eleven years ago) link
It bothered me that Morris admitted in the article that he left out facts that didn't support his idea that MacDonald was innocent.
― Ulna (Nicole), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 18:48 (eleven years ago) link
These paragraphs indicate to me that Morris is trying to get away with an awful lot of handwaving and speculation, far beyond the idea of "reasonable doubt":
“A Wilderness of Error” doesn’t dwell long on the blood evidence. Citing shoddy detective work — much of the initial police work was, indeed, sloppy — Errol Morris basically dismisses all of it as tainted. Outside the courthouse in Wilmington, he tells a camera crew that he doesn’t see “a shred of evidence” suggesting MacDonald’s guilt.It was an odd choice of language, considering. Shreds of MacDonald’s torn pajama top were central to the case against him: Broken pajama threads were not found in places they should have been if his story were true — near the sofa on which he was allegedly attacked, for example — but were found in places they should not have been, such as beneath Colette’s body.And then there was Murtagh’s smoking gun — his big triumph at trial.McDonald had told police that after he woke up, he put his pajama top on Colette’s chest. Forensics showed that 21 ice pick holes in Colette’s body lined up perfectly with 48 holes in Jeffrey MacDonald’s pajama top, when the pajama top was folded a certain way so that some punctures went through more than one layer of fabric. Murtagh argued that the only explanation for this was that MacDonald had delivered those blows himself to a dead or dying Colette. The jury bought it. But “A Wilderness of Error” finds this preposterous — the prosecution never established that this was the only way the pajama could have been folded to get that pattern of holes, Morris argues; conceivably, you could manipulate any piece of cloth into innumerable shapes that would produce the same pattern.I caught up with Morris during a break in the hearing, and told him that I thought he was wrong: I described an experiment I had done, in which I used two sheets of paper and a dart. I folded the upper sheet on itself, irregularly, like the pajama top, and then stabbed through it, counting carefully so as to make exactly 21 holes in the lower sheet but 48 in the upper.Then I tried to fold the upper piece of paper in a different way, so that all the holes still lined up. It becomes obvious almost immediately that you just can’t do it. Each change you make radically alters the relationship of one puncture hole to all the others.Morris listened, nodded.“That remains on my mind,” he said.Morris said he’d suspected that might be true and worried about it a little, but then decided it didn’t matter, because even if it seems “nonsensical” that the holes in Jeffrey’s pajama top align with the holes in Colette’s body through mere coincidence, the alternative is equally nonsensical: That Jeffrey MacDonald, while trying to get away with a murder, would be stupid enough to stab his wife through his own garment. Think about that, he urged me.
It was an odd choice of language, considering. Shreds of MacDonald’s torn pajama top were central to the case against him: Broken pajama threads were not found in places they should have been if his story were true — near the sofa on which he was allegedly attacked, for example — but were found in places they should not have been, such as beneath Colette’s body.
And then there was Murtagh’s smoking gun — his big triumph at trial.
McDonald had told police that after he woke up, he put his pajama top on Colette’s chest. Forensics showed that 21 ice pick holes in Colette’s body lined up perfectly with 48 holes in Jeffrey MacDonald’s pajama top, when the pajama top was folded a certain way so that some punctures went through more than one layer of fabric. Murtagh argued that the only explanation for this was that MacDonald had delivered those blows himself to a dead or dying Colette. The jury bought it. But “A Wilderness of Error” finds this preposterous — the prosecution never established that this was the only way the pajama could have been folded to get that pattern of holes, Morris argues; conceivably, you could manipulate any piece of cloth into innumerable shapes that would produce the same pattern.
I caught up with Morris during a break in the hearing, and told him that I thought he was wrong: I described an experiment I had done, in which I used two sheets of paper and a dart. I folded the upper sheet on itself, irregularly, like the pajama top, and then stabbed through it, counting carefully so as to make exactly 21 holes in the lower sheet but 48 in the upper.
Then I tried to fold the upper piece of paper in a different way, so that all the holes still lined up. It becomes obvious almost immediately that you just can’t do it. Each change you make radically alters the relationship of one puncture hole to all the others.
Morris listened, nodded.
“That remains on my mind,” he said.
Morris said he’d suspected that might be true and worried about it a little, but then decided it didn’t matter, because even if it seems “nonsensical” that the holes in Jeffrey’s pajama top align with the holes in Colette’s body through mere coincidence, the alternative is equally nonsensical: That Jeffrey MacDonald, while trying to get away with a murder, would be stupid enough to stab his wife through his own garment. Think about that, he urged me.
― this is called money bags (Phil D.), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 18:56 (eleven years ago) link
good article, Nicole, thanks
morris mainly focuses on the crime scene/evidence being poorly processed/tampered with and unfair practices by the prosecution and the judge in the trial as the main reasons why macdonald was falsely convicted. he also goes after the in-laws (who originally supported macdonald and then turned against him) pretty hardcore, especially the father-in-law, implying he was drunk and henpecked and obsessive.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 19:00 (eleven years ago) link
― Ulna (Nicole), Wednesday, February 20, 2013 12:48 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
ironically (or not?) this fits in with his overall theme in the book about narratives - he thinks it was not the evidence that convicted macdonald but that the narrative that he was guilty was easier for people to process
again, not supporting morris' theories here - i don't know much about it. i was thinking about also reading fatal vision and the journalist and the murderer.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 19:02 (eleven years ago) link
xxp I mean, if you're seriously arguing, "What's more likely, that this man put his pajama top on top of his wife and stabbed her repeatedly through it; or that an effectively impossible miracle of topography took place? I'd say the latter!" you may not be making the best case in the world.
― this is called money bags (Phil D.), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 19:04 (eleven years ago) link
gahhhhh only episode 1 of Staircase is onlinefuckersI'll have to investigate getting the rest of the episodes when I get home tonight. Jerks
fwiw there's a good torrent out there, I just downloaded all eight parts and a load of dvd extras in less than 2 hours
― nate woolls, Wednesday, 20 February 2013 22:05 (eleven years ago) link
ooh thanx!
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
I watched that first to on youtube and initially thought it was a reenactment - that dude is the fakiest-faker, so insincere - really interested to see the rest of it now.
― just1n3, Wednesday, 20 February 2013 22:10 (eleven years ago) link
Malcolm Gladwell takes down FBI profiling: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/12/071112fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all
― carl agatha, Sunday, 24 March 2013 01:38 (eleven years ago) link
man, i really hate that smartypants dude >:( (for no rational reason, surprise surprise)
fiiiiiiiiiiiine
I'll read it
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 24 March 2013 01:58 (eleven years ago) link
He's a smug fuck and I think that article is too short to authoritatively reach his conclusion BUT he's making some interesting points & I would like to read something more in depth that takes the same critical approach to profiling.
― carl agatha, Sunday, 24 March 2013 14:55 (eleven years ago) link
a friend put me onto a 2011 Australian mini series 'Killing Time' starring David Wenham - it's on Hulu Plus. Omg highly recommend. am kind of obsessed with Aussie underworld crime, so this is totally my ballpark.
It's based on the true story of 80's Melbourne underworld lawyer Andrew Fraser (mad murdering bastard Dennis Allen was one of his most famous clients, as well as the Morans, even Alan Bond) - he's still alive today, served time for cocaine smuggling and ended up informing on a notorious murderer to get his sentence reduced. Shaaaady character if there ever was one.
less soapy than Underbelly, well worth a look. Oh and script was edited by Ian David, who did my other favorite 'Blue Murder'. You want an eyebrow raiser of a true story, check that one out too.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 20:26 (eleven years ago) link
VG can u recommend me the best book on the Snowtown murders?
― brad palsy (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 20:27 (eleven years ago) link
that's a black spot in my aussie true crime ocd --- I haven't read a thing. Sorry, i've failed u :(
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 20:32 (eleven years ago) link
I just noticed the convo about MacDonald from a couple months ago. So here's a weird thing, my dad's best friend went to HS with MacDonald and they were best friends. At one point he dated Collette (iirc that was MacDonald's wife's name) and JM dated the girl my dad's best friend would later marry. Anyway, this man still to this day raises money for JM defense funds and swears up and down he's innocent.
― Airwrecka Bliptrap Blapmantis (ENBB), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
xpost there are 3 books about it and all three of them look like they could be either great or garbage. The movie kicked my fucking ass a couple of months ago so I wanted to do some follow-up...
― brad palsy (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 20:35 (eleven years ago) link
i read a shitty book about columbine and it made me feel awful especially as i was reading it during the boston marathon bombing stuff. now i'm reading "in cold blood" which is way better obv.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 20:39 (eleven years ago) link
I just finished (like, yesterday) Dave Cullen's book on Columbine which I thought was excellent: patient, lucid, cutting, and non-hysterical. Was that the one you hated?
― brad palsy (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 21:06 (eleven years ago) link