Predator Hunters

Casey Anthony's trial may have to be pushed back.

2011-05-06T09:34:00.002-04:00

Today's update: There are two motions still undecided and they can't pool a jury until its all settled. #1 - the press wants immediate access to jury selection location. #2 I don't think there's been a decision on accepting this new scientific technology that can sniff out odors. In this case, the prosecution is going to argue that Chloroform was found in Casey's trunk and that there was a search on her computer for how to make Chloroform about two months before the child went missing.

I haven't yet done the research but Florida seems trigger happy to crucify this woman. I still have a problem with this being death penalty case. In most cases where a child is killed, a person will definitely end up in prison for 25 to life or life without parole. It has to be a really severe case to end up on death row for that... like maybe a lifetime of physical or sexual abuse that ends in murder.
Plus, I can't get my head around the fact that there is no physical evidence to even connect Casey to the remains and "homicide by unknown means". Life maybe but the death penalty? I don't get it. If I didn't know better, I'd say the prosecution is pushing for death because of Casey's behavior alone, not her actions.

I get outraged when a child is killed but since in this case they cannot guarantee she was in fact killed because as I've mentioned before, finding her inside two trash bags and that tape wrapped around her skull does not prove she was murdered. The tape wasn't around her nose or mouth. It was wrapped around her forehead. At least that's what has been reported.

I'm so glad they will be televising the trial. We'll see.

Florida v, Casey Anthony

2011-05-04T10:21:00.002-04:00

In my opinion, this trial is going to be the trial of the century. Thanks in part to the media and in another part to Casey Anthony's behavior, most Americans have already formed the opinion that she is guilty but we have some serious problems in this country based on comments I've read by those who find her guilty.

First dilemma: The prosecution has no "cause of death" for this child.
Strictly from a legal standpoint, not being able to determine cause of death should automatically eliminate this case from being a death penalty case. Example: how can we place a defendant on death row if the coroner can't determine a cause of death? Who's to say the child did not die naturally or accidentally? We do not convict individuals to death row for accidental death. Unless by some miracle, the prosecution springs on us a true and determination as to the real cause of death and it turns out to be homicide then then depending on the circumstances of that homicide still question whether or not this is a death penalty case. Death penalty cases are typically reserved for pre-meditated murder.

The defense has one huge hurdle: Casey's waiting 31 days to report her child missing. By default this automatically causes people to presume guilt but in an interview with both of Anthony's lead attorneys, they claim they will be introducing a "Dynamic" explanation for that wait. They are clearly playing that topic very close to the vest and yet display almost excitement for the information they've learned through Casey and their investigation that demonstrates a very acceptable reason for this wait. For that reason alone, this case will be a real knuckle biter.

I was hoping that the trial would start in three days and now thanks to the reasonable order by the judge to not reveal where the jury pool will come from to the press, the press is pissed and has filed a motion above the trial judge's head to have that information available as soon as possible. This boils down to the rights of the press and public to know vs. the defendant's 6th amendment right to a fair trial. Let's face it, the media is very pushy and are constantly looking for the big news break. If they find out well in advance where the jury will be pooled, there's a real danger that the press will hound them with facts and rumors of the case which will taint the jury, thereby hindering Casey's "Fair" trial.

I can't wait for this one to start. OJ pales in comparison to this one. Sorry OJ, you're old news now.

Child molester gets probation thanks to Judge

2010-09-10T12:11:00.004-04:00

Plea deal means probation for child sex crimes

More and more we see our justice system be the catalyst of expanding statistics on victims and perpetrators of sex offenses, especially against our children. When we will rise up and demand that this stop right now!??!? If you've ever been a victim of child molestation, I am so sorry for the injustice and I grieve for the two young ladies that may well spend the rest of their lives in hyper-vigilance, fear, depression, PTSD, and any number of other effects. Sex offenders are repeat offenders and the punishment should fit the crime. If the victim suffers for life, so should the offender.

What was he thinking?

2010-09-07T07:52:00.002-04:00

A young man trying to cross the very busy I-85 was struck and killed by a car to no real surprised so authorities are wondering why he was attempting to cross the interstate. Are you like me and thinking suicide?

Suicide in my area of North Carolina has increased recently. A young man shot himself in the head while his family sat in the next room. A young woman in college was drugged and raped by multiple men but when the university failed to do anything about it, her depression reached the point where she locked her bedroom door in her mother's home and over dosed. A friend of mine that I went to school with just last week hung himself.

There could be a number of reasons why the suicide rate is increasing but in my honest opinion it happens most often due to lack of support and the pitiful excuse for a mental health system in this state. Parents are too busy these days to take an interest in their child's feelings or actions and therapy is virtually non-existent for those that need it most which is a socioeconomic issue right now. Worrying about how to put bread on the table can be very depressing and given the current state of the economy, it's difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Where's the help going to come from if most of the programs set up to help the needy are being cut or under-funded? Even with the Democrats (known as the spending party) in control, these programs are the last to be funded. So what's the answer?

Bored? Call on a monster...

2010-06-17T16:20:00.003-04:00

If you're one of those folks that likes the macabre or morbid pastime activities, you can actually write to these serial killers. Believe it or not, they have hundreds of fans in the world and though I don't really understand it personally, I certainly do not judge those that do. It may well be like slowing down while passing a serious car crash. Are people slowing down out of respect or to see if they can see the horror of it?

Anyway, here's some of your favorite addresses. Don't ask me for any more please.

Kenneth Bianchi #SD14266961
Washington State Penitentiary
P.O. Box 520
Walla Walla, WA 99362-0520

David Berkowitz #78A1976
Sullivan Correctional Facility
Box 116 Riverside Drive
Fallsburg, NY 12733

Edmund Kemper #B52453
California Medical Facility
1600 California Drive
P.O. Box 2000
Vacaville, CA 95696-2000

Charles Manson #B33920/4A 4R-23
P. O. Box 3476
Corcoran, CA 93212

Richard Ramirez #E37101
San Quentin Prison
San Quentin, CA 94964

Joel Rifkin #95A6514
Clinto Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 2000
Dannemora, NY 12929

Danny Rolling 521178
Union Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 221 State Road 16
Raiford, FL 32083-0221

Terrible Quotes

2010-06-17T14:20:00.003-04:00

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions.
(Barry Lopez)

I am the Devil! And I am here to do the Devil's business.
(Tex Watson)

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
(Eric Hoffer)

Wow what a trip!
(Manson "family" members Susan Atkins, after licking Sharon Tate's blood from her hands)

I always had the desire to inflict pain on others and to have others inflict pain on me. I always seemed to enjoy everything that hurt. The desire to inflict pain, that is all that is uppermost.
(Albert Fish)

The sixth commandment - 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' - fascinated me . . . I always knew that some day I should defy it.
(John Christie)

Man's destructive hand spares nothing that lives; he kills to feed himself, he kills to clothe himself, he kills to adorn himself, he kills to attack, he kills to defend himself, he kills to instruct himself, he kills to amuse himself, he kills for the sake of killing.
(Josef de Maistre)

You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You're looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!
(Ted Bundy)

I can't judge any of you. I have no malice against you and no ribbons for you. But I think that it is high time that you all start looking at yourselves, and judging the lie that you live in.
(Charles Manson)

Aye, but isn't the man who chooses the bad in some way better than the man who has the good forced upon him?
(Alex from A Clockwork Orange)

Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved. . . . Love endures by a bond which men, being scoundrels, may break whenever it serves their advantage to do so; but fear is supported by the dread of pain, which is ever present.
(Niccolo Machivelli, The Prince)

All universal moral principles are idle fancies.
(Marquis de Sade)

If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, ‘You Only Live Once.’
(Sydney J.Harris)

A great numb feeling washes over me as I let go of the past and look forward to the future. Pretend to be a vampire. I don't really need to pretend, because it's who I am, an emotional vampire. I've just come to expect it. Vampires are real. That I was born this way. That I feed off of other people's real emotions. Search for this night's prey. Who will it be?
(Sean Bateman in The Rules of Attraction)

Hatred is a very underestimated emotion.
(Jim Morrison)

We're not evil because of the evil we do, but we do evil because we are evil.
(Casanova in The Addiction)

Sometimes I feel like a vampire.
(Ted Bundy)

I write of the great eternal truths that bind all men together the world over. We eat, we shit, we fuck, we kill, and we die.
(Marquis de Sade)

You never truly know somebody until you fight them.
(Seraph in Matrix Reloaded)

Miserable creatures, thrown for a moment on the surface of this little pile of mud, is it decreed that one half of the flock should be the persecutor of the other? Is it for you, mankind, to pronounce on what is good and what is evil?
( Marquis De Sade)

There is a beast in man that should be exercised, not exorcised.
(Anton Szandor LaVey)

If you want to accomplish anything interesting, you are going to have to go hard.
(Henry Rollins)

I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.
(Herman Mudgett)

I don't believe in man, God nor Devil. I hate the whole damned human race including myself.
(Carl Panzram)

You made my shitlist!
(Malory in Natural Born Killers)

What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

Man is the cruelest animal.
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

I believe in death, destruction, chaos, filth and greed.
(Danny Vinyard in American History X)

This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. This makes us secret and rotten.
(D.H. Lawrence)

Being evil is being 'not moral', practicing immorality, resisting tradition, however reasonable or stupid tradition may be.
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

Sometimes a little evil is necessary to accomplish a great thing.
(Charles Manson)

Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.
(W.H Auden)

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
(John Milton in Paradise Lost)

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
(Niccolo Machiavelli)

Praised be what hardens!
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look for long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
(Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now)

For everything to be consummated, and for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hatred.
(Albert Camus, The Outsider)

How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?
(Tyler in Fight Club)

You're young, you're drunk, you're in bed, you have knives; shit happens.
(Angelina Jolie)

True debauchery is liberating because it creates no obligations. In it you possess only yourself; hence it remains the favourite pastime of the great lovers of their own person.
(Albert Camus)

You scare the shit out of people so they can't see how scared you are.
(Gia in Gia)

Tongue piercing not new!

2010-06-12T09:46:00.002-04:00

in Colonial America, Quakers struck out against those following the wrong religion...
For first offense, one ear cut off...
For second offense, second ear cut off...
For third offense, a hole bored into one's tongue with hot iron!

Can this be true???

2010-06-12T09:32:00.002-04:00

On September 14th, 1602, George Praun was executed in Nuremberg and his head placed on a stone. According to the executioner, Praun's head spun around with his tongue moving and mouth opening and shutting several times for a good half quarter of an hour (approximately 7 1/2 minutes).

Interesting facts of the macabre

2010-06-08T10:11:00.004-04:00

1 - Ripped from the burned corpse of Adolf Hitler in Berlin following the war, Moscow claims to retain his jaw bone in the Russian Federation Archives to this day.

2 - One of Napoleon's teeth was extracted and auctioned off to an American in 1995 for a total of 3,910 quid.

3 - Back in the 1780's, the corpses of Dutch criminals who had been hanged for their crimes were left suspended from the gallows for months on end until the disintegrating flesh and body parts eventually dropped into deep holes that had been dug out beneath the scaffold for that very purpose.

4 - A little unknown fact about the notorious serial killer known as H.H. Holmes from Canada... He had buried some of his victims in the cellar of his home but ingeniously rid himself of them later by digging up the bones, had a medical friend reconstruct the bones in order, and then sold the skeletons to a surgical school. No one knows how many.

Human Trafficking

2010-06-04T11:08:00.003-04:00

Things in this country seem deem these days because of the economy and the number of homeless people roaming the supposed richest nation in the world. One thing most people overlook or even know about the the number of women and children transported here from foreign nations for the sole purpose of slavery both in work and in sex industries.

"Human Trafficking Defined The TVPA defines “severe forms of trafficking,” as:
a. Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or
b. The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. A victim need not be physically transported
from one location to another in order for the crime to fall within these definitions. Rand om Fact or in Transnational Traffic king The globalization of markets and labor forces, and the concomitant relaxation of travel barriers have spawned new trafficking scenarios and routes, including some that appear to defy easy explanation. A greater variety of nationalities have been documented recently among trafficking victims in destination countries. While at first glance these linkages may appear difficult to understand, it seems that traffickers are seizing upon any targets of opportunity for exploitation and relying on vast distances and cultural and linguistic
differences to increase the vulnerability of victims. This random factor of transnational
trafficking will increasingly appear as the economic and logistical obstacles involved in
transporting new victims to distant lands diminish.

In the last year:
Zambian girls were trafficked to Ireland for commercial sexual exploitation. Filipina women were trafficked to Cote d’Ivoire for commercial sexual exploitation. Vietnamese children were trafficked to the United Kingdom for forced involvement in drug smuggling. Thai men were trafficked to the United States for labor exploitation and debt bondage. Dominican women were trafficked to Montenegro for commercial sexual exploitation. A Kenyan woman was trafficked to Mexico for commercial sexual exploitation. Chinese women were trafficked to Afghanistan for commercial sexual exploitation. Russian students were trafficked to the United States for forced labor, selling ice cream".

Red light district in Amsterdam

The question in this country is about changing the laws. Right now, most convictions for human trafficking are not called human trafficking but rather child prostitution which implies the children are somehow to blame. Little or no punishment is given to these thugs responsible for enslaving these children and women and most of the time, these victims are promised a new and better life in America in order to lure them here under false pretenses. At least these crimes should be punished the same way treason should be because it is a form of betrayal to the current American laws that outlaw slavery and the extortion of women and children... especially children. Once these individuals are brought here, they fear law enforcement because they fear being deported into horrendous conditions though none so degrading as sex slavery. They are taught by their owners here to distrust authorities and brain washed into believing they will be severely punished for speaking "out of turn" about their situations. It's more than sad, it's deplorable.

If you don't feel you can do anything about it, please at least write to your congressmen(Women) and Senators about this issue and the desire to change laws to prosecute these people to the fullest extent of the law, which is lacking right now.

Don't just sit and shake your head or say a small prayer about this issue... get involved. History proves in this country that this is the only way to make change, when people join one another and cry out for such change.

The fact that America is involved in this type of atrocity is despicable and dishonorable.

The "first" serial killer?

2010-05-29T15:59:00.003-04:00

Most don't know of Sawney Beane. After disappearing off the face of the earth with his fiance who took up shelter in an ocean side cave where they had many inbred children. As the children grew big enough, they incestuously bred children of their own. They lived on the flesh of passers-by. Usually travelers who would not readily be missing. Even the children helped slaughter these victims and it is said that they slaughtered over a thousand victims before being caught. No one thought to search the cave which had a entrance that became impassible during the high tides. Once discovered, dozens of corpses where found skinned and hanging from the ceiling of the cave and all members of the family were finally put to death.

You can read about this horrific story in a book called "Human Monsters" by David Everitt. Excellent read that includes the world's most vicious murderers.

Books found

2010-05-27T14:31:00.001-04:00

I found my books on true crime so I'll be posting soon about the most interesting stories and facts. Bare with me.

Catholic church losses all credibility

2010-04-24T20:31:00.002-04:00

Watch this news video... it pretty well sums it up for everyone ever abused by priests.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/video/article300101.ece?vxSiteId=6247211d-66e0-4454-b73a-3f1610efa39a&vxChannel=Latest&vxClipId=1347_SUN43684&vxBitrate=300

2010-04-24T20:24:00.002-04:00

Republicans and the Church see eye to eye

2010-04-22T14:39:00.003-04:00

Religious leaders in New York State continue to fight a proposed child abuse law that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children. According to The New York Times, opposition to the law, known as the Child Victims Act, is being led by the Catholic Church, and a loose coalition that includes leaders of the Hasidic and Sephardic Jewish institutions in Brooklyn.

The impetus for the Child Victims Act was the Roman Catholic Church child sexual abuse scandal that has rocked New York, as well as much of the country, over the past decade. Because of the current statute of limitations, hundreds of claims filed in recent years against Catholic priests and dioceses in New York have been dismissed.

Currently, the deadline for bringing such a lawsuit in New York is 5 years after a victim turns 18. The Child Victims Act would give victims a one-year exemption from the statute of limitations. Regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse occurred, they could file suit in civil court. At the year’s end, time limits on such claims would be restored, but with a wider window: Instead of a five-year period after turning 18, victims would have 10 years to file claims.

The Child Victims Act has been proposed before, but never passed. Republicans in the state Senate had always been able to block the bill. But, the Democrats now control the legislature. What’s more, Gov. David Paterson is a proponent of the act, and would likely sign it if it is passed.

Read the rest of the story.

Don't be planting Gnomes in your yard this year

2010-04-22T13:24:00.000-04:00

A "CREEPY gnome" said to wander around a village at night is terrifying locals so much that many fear leaving their homes after dark, according to reports.

Locals in the Argentinean town of General Guemes claim the "gnome" – which wears a pointy hat and walks sideways like a crab – has been seen walking their streets by many people, UK newspaper The Sun reported.

Local teenager Jose Alvarez claimed to have filmed the gnome on his mobile phone while chatting to friends in the middle of the night.

See the video here

The Name Wayne may have run it's course?

2010-04-22T11:43:00.003-04:00

Thanks to another weird news site, I have had to agree that the middle name Wayne seems awfully prodent to those charged and or convicted of murder in this country. See for yourself and note that these killers were posted back in 1997 so who knows what the update would be...

Michael Wayne Adams (Virginia)
Timothy Wayne Adams (Texas)
Shannon Wayne Agofsky (Texas)
Thomas Wayne Akers (North Carolina)
Matthew Wayne Almand (Florida)
Stephen Wayne Anderson (California)*
Joshua Wayne Andrews (Virginia)
David Wayne Arisman (California)
Dennis Wayne Bagwell (Texas)*
Timothy Wayne Barnett (Alabama)
Michael Wayne Baxter (Maryland)*
Kenneth Wayne Beck (Missouri)
Gerald Wayne Bivins (Indiana)
John Wayne Blair (Tennessee)
Scott Wayne Blystone (Pennsylvania)
Donald Wayne Booth (Texas)
Elvis Wayne Botley (California)
Steven Wayne Bowman (South Carolina)
Larry Wayne Brigman (Minnesota)
Ricky Wayne Brown (Florida)
Michael Wayne Brown (Oklahoma)
Michael Wayne Brunner (Kentucky)
Edward Wayne Bryant (Oklahoma)
Dennis Wayne Bryant (Virginia)
Estell Wayne Buck (Ohio)
Bradley Wayne Cagle (Texas)
Curtis Wayne Campbell (Oklahoma)
Seth Wayne Campbell (Texas)
Darren Wayne Campbell (Oregon)
Mark Wayne Campmire (Connecticut)
Michael Wayne Carter (Indiana)
Rodger Wayne Chastain (California)*
Douglas Wayne Clark (Texas)
Ronald Wayne Clark, Jr. (Florida)
Darryl Wayne Claughton (Alberta)
Ira Wayne Cloninger (Virginia)
Timothy Wayne Coalson (Georgia)
Kevin Wayne Coffey (Texas)
David Wayne Cole (Pennsylvania)
Michael Wayne Cole (North Carolina)
Timothy Wayne Condrey (North Carolina)
Joseph Wayne Cook (North Carolina)
Billy Wayne Cope (South Carolina)
Alvin Wayne Crane (Texas)*
David Wayne Crews (Tennessee)
Donald Wayne Darling II (Alabama)
Christopher Wayne Davis (Louisiana)
Gary Wayne Davis (Kentucky)
Jerry Wayne Dean (Kentucky)
Aryan Wayne Duntley (California)
John Wayne Duvall (Oklahoma)*
Dennis Wayne Eaton (Virginia)*
Dale Wayne Eaton (Colorado)
Timothy Wayne Ebert (Texas)
Michael Wayne Eggers (Alabama)
Gary Wayne Etheridge (Texas)
Michael Wayne Farmer (Maryland)
Ellis Wayne Felker (Georgia)*
Darrell Wayne Ferguson (Ohio)*
Matthew Wayne Ferman (Ohio)
Lewis Wayne Fielder Jr. (South Carolina)
Michael Wayne Fisher (Pennsylvania)
Earl Wayne Flowers (North Carolina)
Terry Wayne Freeman (Illinois)
Percy Wayne Froman (Alabama)
Ronald Wayne Frye (North Carolina)*
Morris Wayne Givens (Alabama)
John Wayne Glover (Australia)*
Richard Wayne Godwin (Oregon)
Arthur Wayne Goodman, Jr. (Texas)
Richard Wayne Gorrie (New Zealand)
Jeffrey Wayne Gorton (Michigan)
Keith Wayne Graham (California)
Coleman Wayne Gray (Virginia)*
Charles Wayne Green (Arkansas)
Kenneth Wayne Gregory (Florida)
Christopher Wayne Gregory (Texas)
Ralph Wayne Grimes (Kentucky)
Anthony Wayne Grimm (Illinois)
Randall Wayne Hafdahl (Texas)*
Conan Wayne Hale (Oregon)
Kenneth Wayne Hall Sr. (South Carolina)
Michael Wayne Hall (Texas)
Steven Wayne Hall (Alabama)
Bradley Wayne Hamrick (Washington)
Jerald Wayne Harjo (Oklahoma)*
Emmanuel Wayne Harris (Arizona)
Robert Wayne Harris (Texas)
Nathaniel Wayne Hart (Texas)
Jerald Wayne Harvel II (Oklahoma)
Mark Wayne Hauseur (California)
Billy Wayne Hayes (Tennessee)
Carl Wayne Heath (Maine)
Brandon Wayne Hedrick (Virginia)
Michael Wayne Henry (Texas)
Rodney Wayne Henry (Kansas)
David Wayne Hickman (Texas)
Donald Wayne Holt (Maryland)
Jeremy Wayne Hopkins (Texas)
Bryant Wayne Howard (Oregon)
Christopher Wayne Hudson (Australia)
Calvin Wayne Inman (Texas)
Derek Wayne Jackson (Pennsylvania)
Kenneth Wayne Jackson (Texas)
Eric Wayne Jacobs (California)*
Allen Wayne Jenecka (Texas)*
Mark Wayne Jennings (Virginia)
Robert Wayne Jiles (New York)
Timothy Wayne Johnson (North Carolina)
Terry Wayne Johnson (Florida)
Jason Wayne Johnson (Texas)
Mark Wayne Jones (Ohio)
Tyler Wayne Justice (Texas)
Kenneth Wayne Keller (Texas)
Gary Wayne Kleypas (Kansas)
Bruce Wayne Koenig (Maryland)
Derrick Wayne Kualapai, Sr. (California)
Dudley Wayne Kyzer (Alabama)
Ronald Wayne Lail (North Carolina)
Monty Wayne Lamb (Texas)
Robert Wayne Lambert (Oklahoma)
Jonathan Wayne Larrabee (South Dakota)
Jeffrey Wayne Leaf (Oklahoma)
Bobby Wayne Ledbetter (Alabama)
Darrell Wayne Lewis (Arizona)
John Wayne Lewis (Oklahoma)
Christopher Wayne Lippard (North Carolina)
Kenny Wayne Lockwood (Texas)*
Mark Wayne Lomax (Texas)
Christopher Wayne Luttrell (Kentucky)
Darrell Wayne Maness (North Carolina)
Shelly Wayne Martin (Maryland)
Donald Wayne Martin (Texas)*
Randall Wayne Mays (Texas)
Steven Wayne McBride (Minnesota)
George Wayne McBroom (Arizona)
David Wayne McCall (Texas)
Rocky Wayne McGowan (Kentucky)
Robert Wayne McMillion (Florida)
Jason Wayne McVean (Colorado)
David Wayne Mears (Michigan)
Wesley Wayne Miller (Texas)
Jimmy Wayne Miller (Texas)
Don Wayne Moody (Texas)*
John Wayne Moore, Jr. (Missouri)
John Wayne Moses (North Carolina)
Dustin Wayne Nall (Texas)
Jack Wayne Napier (Kentucky)
Michael Wayne Nelson (Florida)
David Wayne Nelson (Alaska)*
Oral Wayne Nobles (Massachusetts)
Danny Wayne Owens (Alabama)
Bryan Wayne Padd (Arizona)
David Wayne Pallister (England)
Jeffrey Wayne Paschall (Utah)
John Wayne Peck (Virginia)
Douglas Wayne Pepper (North Carolina)
Michael Wayne Perry (Tennessee)
Jason Wayne Petershagen (Texas)
Michael Wayne Poe (Tennessee)
Curtis Wayne Pope (Texas)
Bruce Wayne Potts (Texas)
Lonnie Wayne Pursley (Texas)*
Donald Wayne Rainey (Mexico)
Gary Wayne Ray Jr. (Oklahoma)
Earl Wayne Reynolds (Virginia)
Michael Wayne Richard (Texas)*
Randy Wayne Richards (Canada)
Barry Wayne Riley (British Columbia)
Robert Wayne Rotramel (Oklahoma)
Roy Wayne Russell (Washington)
David Wayne Satterfield (Texas)
Christopher Wayne Scarber (Kentucky)
Patrick Wayne Schroeder (Nebraska)
Randy Wayne Seal (Florida)
Michael Wayne Sears (Virginia)
Timothy Wayne Shepherd (Texas)
Kenith Wayne Sherrill (Washington)
Donald Wayne Shipe (Virginia)
Dallas Wayne Shults (Tennessee)
Mark Wayne Silvers (South Carolina)
Daryl Wayne Smith (West Virginia)
Justin Wayne Smith (Texas)
David Wayne Smith (Virginia)
Richard Wayne Smith (Texas)*
Richard Wayne Snell (Arkansas)*
Ronald Wayne Spencer Jr. (Texas)
Richard Wayne Spicknall (Alabama)
Jerrell Wayne Stanley (Texas)
Randall Wayne Stevens (Illinois)
John Wayne Stockdall (Missouri)
Michael Wayne Summers (Missouri)
John Wayne Surratt Jr. (North Carolina)
Gary Wayne Sutton (Tennessee)
Bobby Wayne Swisher (Virginia)*
Charles Wayne Thomas Jr. (Texas)
Reginald Wayne Thomas (Texas)
Michael Wayne Thompson (Indiana)
John Wayne Thomson (Washington)
Andrew Wayne Toler (Texas)
Robert Wayne Vickers (Arizona)*
Russell Wayne Wagner (Maryland)*
Billy Wayne Waldrop (Alabama)*
Jerry Wayne Walker (Kentucky)
Anthony Wayne Walker (Ohio)
Jessie Wayne Walker (North Carolina)
Chadwick Wayne Wallace (Illinois)
Daniel Wayne Warfield (Virginia)
John Wayne Warrener (Colorado)
Alexander Wayne Watson Jr. (Maryland)
Louis Wayne Watters, Jr. (Texas)
Anthony Wayne Welch (Florida)
Coy Wayne Wesbrook (Texas)
Melvin Wayne White (Texas)*
Larry Wayne White (Texas)*
Timothy Wayne Widman (Pennsylvania)
Michael Wayne Williams (Virginia)
Richard Wayne Willoughby (Maryland)
Kenneth Wayne Woodfin (Virginia)
Bobby Wayne Woods (Texas)
William Wayne Wright (Texas)
Darrell Wayne Wright (Texas)
Jerry Wayne Wright (Tennessee)
Robert Wayne Wyant (Virginia)

Smoking and Police can burn you

2010-04-22T11:39:00.001-04:00

Still More Reasons Not to Smoke, Beyond What the Surgeon General Told You: In February, the cigarette of a 46-year-old woman in Parkersburg, W.Va., accidentally set fire to her long hair, and she later died at the West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. Also in February, Dennis Crouch, 53, who had earlier chased his wife with a knife during an argument in Daytona Beach, Fla., resisted police when they arrived, provoking one officer to fire her Taser, which struck a cigarette lighter in Crouch's shirt pocket, setting fire to his upper body. (His burns weren't serious.) [WCAU-TV (Philadelphia)-AP, 2-14-06] [Orlando Sentinel, 2-22- 06]

Weird but true as usual

2010-04-22T11:37:00.001-04:00

News of the Weird has several times visited the issue of people (mostly men) who are dissatisfied with their bodies because of the imagined unsightliness of their limbs or their genitals and who seek voluntary amputation ("body integrity identity disorder"). In March, three men were arrested in rural North Carolina and charged with castrating several such needy men who had read about the unlicensed "surgeons" on the Internet and traveled from other states (and one foreign country) to get relief. (Under North Carolina law, the specific crime is "castration without malice.") [Asheville Citizen-Times, 3-31-06]

Country music can cause mental telepathy

2010-04-22T11:35:00.000-04:00

Matt Brownlee, 33, with a long record as a drunk driver, was acquitted of criminal DUI charges in Ottawa, Ontario, after psychiatrists concluded that his latest accident was the result of a sincere belief that singer Shania Twain was helping him drive the car. (A 1996 brain injury might have given him a disorder in which he believes that celebrities communicate with him telepathically.) (2) Following a hung jury in England's Winchester Crown Court in April, Linda West faces retrial in the 2005 death of her husband, which she said was accidental, in that her gun slipped while she was energetically performing a Shania Twain number ("Man! I Feel Like a Woman") in what she described as the couple's sex game. [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 3-28-06] [Daily Telegraph (London), 3-30-06]

God interfers with legal sentencing

2010-04-22T11:31:00.000-04:00

Scott Smith petitioned a judge in February not to make him wear the electronic ankle monitor as part of his five-year probation because his Brotherhood of Christ sect regards electricity as one cause of why people disobey God. (The judge's decision was not reported.) [UPI, 2-2-06] [UPI, 2-24-06]

Katherine Ramsland (author) and TruTV articles

2010-04-17T18:39:00.003-04:00

You have got to read the articles on TruTV by Katherine Ramsland, one of the best writers I have ever encountered. I've written to her a few times and she is very personable as well as most talented. Her writings on TruTV are fascinating and all about killers, murder, and notorious criminals of all sorts. She is a forensic psychologist/writer who also teaches at a University. I wish I could take her class but alas, she teaches at an all-girl school and that's just not my style.

She is also one of the only persons that has been allowed to tour and learn from the body farm, now no longer allowing tours. The body farm is a huge number of acres full of decomposing bodies under differing circumstances to aid investigators and coroners on the elemental effects of dead bodies in an effort to reveal time of death and other evidence found from body decomposition.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/about/authors/ramsland/index.html

Mercy therapists... don't forget your ethics rules

2010-04-17T16:03:00.006-04:00

A British prisoner who got a therapist pregnant in a psychiatric unit was sent to jail as she went into labor. There are strict ethics rules from the APA about fraternizing with clients and yet this prisoner is the one who really got into trouble but then again, maybe there are looser rules in England. This is NOT what this (me) forensic psychologist's therapeutic treatment of prisoners will be, thank you.

http://weirdnews.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XL&zTi=1&sdn=weirdnews&cdn=newsissues&tm=21&f=20&tt=3&bt=1&bts=1&st=24&zu=http%3A//www.lep.co.uk/news/Sex-liaison-mental-health-patient.3888417.jp

Molester with an excuse

2010-04-17T15:59:00.002-04:00

A 57-year-old New Hampshire man pleaded guilty to soliciting 13-year-old boys over the Internet claims he was molested by Bigfoot as a child. An unsympathetic judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Mentally ill or just stupid? You decide...

http://weirdnews.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XL&zTi=1&sdn=weirdnews&cdn=newsissues&tm=105&f=20&tt=3&bt=1&bts=1&st=24&zu=http%3A//www.wjla.com/news/stories/0308/506664.html

Wall of Fame

2010-04-17T15:30:00.007-04:00

I have to brag a moment. I have a wall of fame in which I write to stars and ask for autograph photos. Now sometimes it takes months to hear back from them but more times than not, they write back and include a photo. I now have Ashley Judd, Shirley MacLaine, Betty White, Keanu Reeves, Jodi Foster, Whoopi Goldberg, Jane Fonda, Jim Carrey, Roxanne Dawson (Star Trek Voyager), David Naughton (American Werewolf in London), Dave Doreman (comic book artist), Todd McFarlane (comic book artist) Jada Pinkett Smith, Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU), Clive Barker (Writer), Philip Zimbardo (Lucifer Effect book), Bernie Wrightson (Artist mostly for comics), and John Russo (original Night of the Living Dead creator).

If you're interested in contacting these folks for autograph photos, just do a web search for (Star name) address and google will take you to a page that has likely two addresses, one for their agent and one for their personal address. You will have more luck getting a legitimate autograph photo from the artist's house address but remember these addresses change frequently and they are less likely to respond. If you write to their agent, you will likely get a response but be warned that the autograph photo may well be a pre-print which is a gloss copy of their original.

I am currently waiting to hear back from Kate Beckinsale and Sandra Bullock which will be difficult since she is now actress of the year.

You can always find autograph photos of many of these artists off of Ebay but then who wants to pay for them when they will happily send you one personally which means more in my opinion.

911 being abused?

2010-04-17T15:01:00.003-04:00

Well I've heard of people calling 911 for non-emergency purposes but this one takes the cake. Here a fellow who has run out of minutes on his cell and has called 911 for phone sex. Yep, that's right. Phone sex because 911 is free even if you've run out of minutes. I don't recommend it but it's interesting to see and hear this story so check it out http://www.trutv.com/video/tsg-presents/emergency-phone-sex-line.html?link=truTVshlk

Long over due update

2010-04-15T23:35:00.002-04:00

Despite anxiety - this is not about murder and mayhem. I wanted to update readers on my current life as it were. I decided not to move across the country to go to school so I'm home attending Argosy University. I'm working on my Master's in Forensic Psychology and so far, I'm loving it. Also so far, I haven't really learned anything new or else I'm a genius. I have yet to open a book even though some of them cost me more than $100 a piece.

Anyway... it's been so long since I've shared some creepy facts or other serial killer facts that I'm feeling pretty guilty. Unfortunately it will have to wait a bit longer because I am currently living out of boxes. I'm not settled yet so I can't break out my notorious books which is where I get so many of my facts and fables about the depraved degenerates of the world.

Rest assured, as soon as I get my own place, I will unbox everything and I'll start this bad boy back up. Until then, check out my links on the right. There are some pretty great blogs about crime and psychology other than this one.
Thanks for reading my blog and I'll be sure to let you all know when I'm back up and running. Meanwhile, scroll down for some creepy facts and murderous tales.

The Wall, finally

2010-03-02T11:58:00.003-05:00

I finally found a true copy of Pink Floyd's The Wall which includes ALL of the songs that were in the film. Check it out if you want it http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4126146/Pink_Floyd_-_The_Wall_Film_Soundtrack_Fan_Edit_%28FLAC__3CD%29

Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List

2010-03-02T10:22:00.001-05:00

Just in case you'd like to know who your masters are:

Dutch Queen Beatrix,
Queen Sofia of Spain
Prince Constantijn Belgian Prince
Philip Ntavinion Etienne, Belgium
Joseph Akerman, Germany
Friends Alexander, United States (NSA)
Roger Altman, United States
Arapoglou, Greece (National Bank of Greece governor)
Ali Bampatzan, Turkey (Deputy Prime Minister responsible for economy)
Francisco Balsemao bidet, Portugal
Nicholas Bavarez, France
Franco Bernampe, Italy (Telecom Italia)
Xavie Bertran, France
Carl Bildt, Sweden (Secretary)
January Bgiorklount, Norway
Christoph Blocher, Switzerland
Alexander Bompar, France,
Boten Anna, Spain
Henri de Kastios, France
Juan-Luis Themprian, Spain
Clark Edmunds, Canada
Kenneth Clarke, Great Britain (TD Bank Financial Group)
Luc Cohen, Belgium
George David, Greece
Richard Ntiarlav, Great Britain
Mario Dragan, Italy (Italia VANCA d)
Elntroup Anders, Denmark
John Elkan, Italy (Fiat SRA)
Thomas Enders, Germany (Airbus SAS)
Jose Entrekanales, Spain
Isintro phenomena casket, Spain
Naial Fergkiouson, United States (Harvard University)
Timothy Gaitner, United States (Minister of Finance)
Ntermot convergence, Ireland (AIV Group)
Donald Graham, United States (Washington Post Company)
Victor Chalmperstant, Netherlands (Leiden University)
Ernst hirsh Ballin, Netherlands
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. (Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan)
Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, Netherlands (CC NATO)
James Jones, the U.S. (National Security Advisor to the White House)
Vernon Jordan, United States
Robert Keigkan, United States
Girki Katainen, Finland
John profit Britain (Royal Dutch Shell)
Mustafa Kots, Turkey (Group Kots)
Roland GT, Germany
Sami Cohen, Turkey (Journalist)
Henry Kissinger, United States
Marie Zose Ktavis, United States (Iudson Institute)
Neli Kroes, the Netherlands (European Commissioner for Competition)
Odysseas Kyriakopoulos, Greece (Group S & B)
Manuela Fereira mode, Portugal (PSD)
Bernarntino Leon, Spain
Jessica Matthews, United States
Philip Meis Tant (EIB)
Frank MakKena, Canada (TD Bank Financial Group)
John Mikelthgoueit, Great Britain (journalists, The Economist)
Tieri Montmprian de France (Franse Instituut) Tieri Montmprian de France (French Institute)
Mario Monti, Italy (University Louitzi Bokoni)
Angela Miguel Moratinos, Spain (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Craig dirty, U.S. (Microsoft)
Egkil Miklempast, Norway
Mathias A, Germany
Olive Denis, France (Le Nouvel Observateur)
Frederick Ountea, France (Societe Generale)
Avg Ozntemir, Germany (Green Party)
Tomazo Pantoa-Siopa, Italy
Papalexopoulos Dimitris, Greece (Titan)
Richard Pearl, United States (Αmerican Enterprise Institute)
David Petreous, United States (head of the Central Administration of the U.S. Armed Forces)
Pint Manuel, Minister of Finance of Portugal
Robert Pritsarnt, Canada (Totstar Corporation)
Romano Prodi, Italy (former Italian Prime Minister)
Heather Raisman, Canada (Indigo Vooks & Music Inc.).
Eivint Reitan, Norway
Michael Rintzier, Czech Republic
David Rockefeller, U.S.
Dennis Ross, United States
Ruby Barnet, United States
Alberto Rouith-Gkalarthon, Spain
Susan Sampantzi Ntintzer, Turkey
Ιntira Samarasekera, Canada
Rountol Solten, Austria
Jürgen Stemp, Germany
Pedro Solbes Mira, Spain (Ministry of Finance)
Sampatzi Saraz, Turkey (banker)
Sanata Seketa, Canada (University of Canada)
Samer Lawrence, United States
Peter Sutherland, Ireland
Martin Taylor, UK
Peter Thiel, USA
Agan Ourgkout, Turkey
Eye Vanchanen, Finland, (Prime Minister)
Daniel Vazela, Switzerland,
Jeroen van der Veer, Netherlands
Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium (ex-Prime Minister)
Paul Volker, the U.S.
Jacob Valenmpergk, Sweden
Marcus Valenmpergk, Sweden
Nout Wellink, the Netherlands
Viser Hans, Netherlands
Martin Wolf, Great Britain (Financial Times Journalist)
James Wolfensohn, United States (the former World Bank President)
Paul Wolfowitz, United States
Fareed Zakaria, United States (Analyst Journalist, Newsweek)
Robert Zoellick, United States (President World Bank)
Dora Bakoyannis, Greece (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Anna Diamantopoulou, Greece (PASOK MP)
Papathanasiou, Greece (Minister of Finance)
Alogoskoufis, Greece (former Minister)
David, Greece (businessman, president of Coca-Cola 3E)

Thanks to survivalistboards.com

This is killing me

2009-08-20T06:46:00.001-04:00

Now you know that it's been a while since I have written about crime and psychology and maybe I'll get back to that but until then, it's my platform for what bugs me.

The latest: There are 5 songs in Pink Floyd's The Wall movie that are not on the soundtrack and I've even been to England looking for a soundtrack that has these five songs but can't find them anywhere.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Sick of Obama bashing

2009-08-20T06:02:00.003-04:00

Where are all the people that voted for him? Why aren't these folks speaking up on his behalf? I'm sick to death of hearing why his healthcare plan WON'T work. Let's see your plan. All talk and no do.
Everyone is afraid the poor are finally going to get what's coming to them. Well guess what... we already pay for elderly care through taxes and medicaid so why not a system that takes care of the poor? Grow up people... it's not going to be free but it would be fair.

No time to toil

2009-07-08T12:34:00.002-04:00

Well I'm in graduate school now and time seems to be slipping through my fingers as I work on this Ph.D. I already have a residency coming up in September in Jacksonville, FL. It seems like just yesterday I was enrolling for a bachelar's degree.

Gaduation

2009-04-10T09:59:00.001-04:00

I graduate in 3 more weeks and then it's off to grad school right away. I've been accepted into a BS to PhD program. I can't wait to get started. Let's just hope the money is there to complete the process.

Psychological Thrillers

2009-02-22T08:40:00.002-05:00

Movies run in my home nearly 24/7 and I love psychological thrillers or suspense films. Movies I would recommend are:

Afro Samuria
88 minutes
Mirrors
One last call
Righteous Kill
I am legend (both versions)
There will be blood
No country for old men

For the People by the People

2008-10-13T15:21:00.003-04:00

There's no such thing as for the people by the people anymore. It's for the Republicans by the Republicans and for the Democrats by the Democrats.

What's the difference?

Republicans like to lower taxes and let American citizens fend for themselves.

Democrats want to raise taxes and impliment programs to help the poor.

WWJD?

I remember when we were all wearing What would Jesus do bracelets. I ask myself this... why do republicans not do anything to help the poor? Why do democrats help the poor?

I think everyone here knows what I'm about by reading my posts. I'm democrat. I believe that once upon a time if someone we knew were homeless, we'd do what we could to help them. If someone we knew were without food, we'd help them out.
Now, we are so self-centered, self-righteous, and self-absorbed that we no longer help these people out so unfortunately we need the Government to FORCE us to do the right thing.

Think about it. You could lose your job next week. What are you going to do when your children are hungry and you have no way to feed them? What are you going to do when you get sick or injured but have no insurance? What are you going to do when you lose everything?

With McCain you can expect to struggle beyond belief. I know because I've been there during the Bush reign. Thank God I had family to help.

With Obama you can expect the government to help you get back on your feet.

So once again... what would Jesus do? Maybe Jesus would help like the good ole days.

If you've never struggled, you're probably Republican... am I right?

Life's update

2008-10-02T12:37:00.003-04:00

It's been a year since I've been active in this blog and I do apologize. School is getting tougher and I've moved 4 times in two years so I've been very busy.

I am currently looking for a grad school program for PhD in Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, or Forensic Psychology. The choices in Forensic Psych are VERY limited in this country still and I found that hard to believe after learning all we have about deviance over the years.

I want to teach college and conduct research. That's the ultimate goal. I can't take my eye off the ball for this one. It's my future and that's more important than anything else in my life right now.

I will get back to posting just as soon as I get some time. Many strange things have happened in the news that we need to talk about.

Grad school

2008-09-11T09:33:00.004-04:00

These are the schools I'm considering for graduate school. Any thoughts that might help me decide?

Alliant International University	University of California, Berkley	North Carolina State University	University of Florida

Los Angeles, CA	Berkley, CA	Raleigh, NC	Gainsville, FL.
rentals nearby
work nearby - possibly at school	assistantships and fellowships.	assistantships and assistant teaching	assistantships and fellowships.
PsyD - Forensic Psychology	PhD - Psychology (doesn't state)	PhD - Developmental Psychology	PhD - neurobehavioral and cognitive sciences, and social psychology
GRE general 4128	GRE - 4833	GRE and GRE subject test - 5496	GRE - 2016
Statement	Statement	Essay	Statement
3 Letters	3	3	3
hard copy	hard copy	hard copy	online
$70	$70	$70	$70
some research available	Research Available	Research Available	Research Available
15-Jan	3-Dec		2-Jan

Finally looking at the truth!

2007-08-21T11:13:00.000-04:00

Check this story :: Link :: It's nice to see some people are paying attention to the not-so-mainstream news; the real news!

Reading between the lines

2007-08-19T18:29:00.000-04:00

According the Department of Justice's own records, 85 per cent of the cost of combating drugs in American is spent combating Cannabis (also known as marijuana) despite politicians raving about crack cocaine being the "biggest" drug problem. Why is this? Plain and simple... prejudice against economic status and race. Because poor and/or African Americans make up the largest consumers of crack cocaine, it seems reasonable to conclude that the propagated message that "crack is bad" helps society to target those people for potential use and incarceration for such use. Big mistake!

Nearly 80 per cent of our prison inmates are incarcerated for drug use. Those arrested and convicted for crack cocaine possession are much more likely to go to jail and will statistically spend twice as much time for possessing less of the drug than those convicted of marijuana. Again, why? You give us a better reason and I'll certainly consider it.

It's interesting to me to see society stigmatize not only these groups but also those of us that see what's really going on by calling us crazy or just conspiracy theorists.
African Americans have been targets of the criminal justice system for as long as blacks have been here and to deny this is the same complacent mentality it takes to perpetuate it.

Crack cocaine and black Americans are not the problem in this country. Social status regulation is. The rules of the land need to be turned back over to the common man/woman and taken out of the hands of the real drug dealers; Big Pharmaceuticals, as well as those addicted to green-backs who are hyper-subjected to the whims of Capitalist fat-cats that are willing to pay.

Think about this...

Politicians and the Department of Justice claim unanimously that our "war on drugs is in an effort to prevent deaths and crime" and yet every year in this country, cigarettes and alcohol cause more deaths and crime than all illicit drugs combined.

If it doesn't make sense... don't buy it regardless of who's trying to sell it.

Creepy Facts Vol 3

2007-08-19T13:38:00.000-04:00

Seems that about 70% of you visiting this blog are particularly drawn to the Creepy Facts so I've decided it's past time for me to post some more for you. Hope you approve!

1) Only one woman has ever been executed in Queensland, Australia and this may be why... in 1886, Ellen Thompson was hanged for murder but the drop was too long. Her neck tore and she profusely bled out in front of all witnesses.

2) Speaking of Oz, Tasmania used to be a prison state so between 1826-1827, more than 103 people were hanged.

3) England is the mother of torture as far as history books tell it but Demark reportedly introduced torture as part of common crime punishment in 1157.

4) Decapitation was introduced as a legal method of execution in England in 1076 by William the Conqueror. His first victim? Earl Waltheof, brother-n-law to the Conqueror, was executed for conspiracy to murder the King. (How ya like them apples?)

5) The last decapitation and hanging in the United Kingdom was in 1820 when the execution of the Cato Street Conspirators too place. Who were they? A group of Spencean Philanthropists, named after the British radical speaker Thomas Spence who attempted to murder all the British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in 1820.

6) The bodies of dead women were used to test the effectiveness of the prototype guillotine. (Why not the bodies of men? Defiling women was still no biggie in the world run by men. Sorry ladies.)

7) Did you know that the Paris catacombs contain at least three million corpses? (And they say we're running short on fossil fuels. pfffft!)

8) In the seventeenth-century, the English military punishment for blasphemy was to have one's tongue bored through with a red-hot iron. (ouch! painful piercing.)

9) As you may know, Blackbeard was killed by Lieutenant Maynard during a hand to hang fight but what you may not know is that the Lieutenant sailed home with the pirate's head hanging from his ship's bowsprit.

10) Interesting criminal justice system methods can be noted throughout history but rarely deviate from the common theme still practiced today, except this one:
In the Anglo-Saxon days a man who was declared an outlaw was truly considered outside the law. This meant he was already considered dead so anyone, by any means, at any time could kill him as he no longer held any civil rights whatsoever. And that's not all... any of his friends that attempted to shelter him could be subject to the same ends.

System failure or abusive mom? You decide.

2007-08-05T15:02:00.003-04:00

A South Carolina woman was found in her apartment, distraught and wailing over her children as police officers entered on July 31st. Her 1-year-old and 4-year-old had died of heat exhaustion and dehydration.

The day before, the woman was told to work a double shift at the group home where she worked but her baby-sitter had just cancelled on her. As a single mother, police say the woman was either told to come to work or be fired or she was afraid to call in sick. So, she brought her two children with her, leaving them in the car with battery operated fans, food, and beverages but in 88 degree weather, it was not enough. When she returned to her children after the second half of the double, the children were unconscious and had a weak pulse.

The history here is that she was no stranger to the justice system having been arrested more than once for issues related to domestic violence or hindering police. She was considered a wonderful employee who was doing her best to meet the needs of her employer and her children.

It is not known if she had insurance to take care of the children’s medical needs, if she was having financial difficulties, or if the domestic violence issues pertained to a prior live-in or ex-husband. What we do know is this woman was under enormous stress.

Read the story Here!

While reading this story on CNN, the first thing I thought was how the system had once again failed. This woman’s family, neighbors, and employers all claimed she was a very conscientious worker and mother who was always seen with her children as loving, laughing, and caring.
Clearly she needed help long before tragedy and her thinking was distorted to say the least. If it is true that her employer stated or implied that she would lose her job if she didn’t agree to work the double shift, should the employer be held responsible for any of this?

If we live in a society that places people in a position where they must work under unreasonable expectations of the employer for fear of losing a job, while at the same time, having to agree to this type of demand in order to afford to live and pay for effective child care, what message are we sending?

I hate reading or watching the news because you just aren’t given enough details to make an educated determination of these types of cases, although most of us do anyway. When reading this story, many will surely say “that woman was just stupid or crazy”, without giving any or much consideration to her circumstances. The system often leaves so many with a lose/lose choice.
Example: Had the woman been told to work or be fired, what were her options? She utilizes a trusted friend to babysit so it stands to reason that she could not afford child care on a more formal means like daycare centers/businesses. So she could simply tell the employer “no” because of lack of childcare but then would she be able to care for her children with no income?

What would you have done?

Clearly there are several problems in this particular story and until we address and eliminate all those problems outside the home, we cannot determine the difference between those people that are mentally disturbed from those that are being influenced by outside sources.
The point is, not everyone who does something we find horrific can be excused or explained away as being “crazy” or having mental disorders. Life stressors increasing in this country are pushing more and more “normal” people over the edge.

I've got a thought. What would happen in this country if the minimum wage were increased to $10 an hour and a mandatory increase for inflation every 3 years, institute national healthcare, and institute national childcare?

Now I know,... all the conservatives and many liberals even are shouting "how are we going to pay for that?" Well... I'm no good at math but if someone out there can make a reasonable estimate, would it cost, say... more than 450 billion dollars a year? After all... we're almost at that level of spending for the war so I'm just curious.

If more people can work without worrying about money or job loss, how many would not become subjected to domestic violence, child abuse, or mental break down? How many would be more mentally and physically fit to contribute back and produce more to the economy?

Update: National Healthcare is now a reality. Seems the only real complaint is the Act forcing people to acquire an insurance policy with someone or else be penalized via tax returns but the reasoning behind this stipulation is that it's not fair for those with insurance to be forced to pay for those without. If this happens, the price of medical care and subsequently insurance will cost more to cover the cost lost by uninsured and really, who is this stipulation going to effect? The wealthy can afford insurance, the poor will be given Medicaid, and those that can't afford insurance will be given help by the government. So who's left? What's your thoughts?

Serial Killers Have Nick Names

2007-08-05T00:43:00.002-04:00

Richard Angelo - The Angel of Death

Joe Ball - The Alligator Man

Gertrude Baniszewski - The Torture Mother (A horrific but true account of group conformity on the demands of a leader. Remember Sylvia Liken and the torture she indured: Read Her Story!)

Elizabeth Bathory - The Blood Countess (Everyone's favourite villian with a reported 610 murders)

Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez - The Lonely Hearts Killers

The Bender Family - The Bloody Benders

David Berkowitz - Son of Sam, The 44 Caliber Killer!!!

Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono - The Hillside Stranglers

Andreas Bichel - The Bavarian Ripper

Richard Biegenwald - The Thrill Killer

Jake Bird - Tacoma Axe Killer

Arthur Bishop - Roger Downs

Wayne Boden - The Vampire Rapist

William Bonin - The Freeway Killer

Werner Boost - The Doubles Killer

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - The Moors Murderers

Jerry Brudos - The Shoe-Fetish Slayer

Ted Bundy - The Campus Killer

Vernon Butts - The Freeway Killer

Harvey Carnigan - The Want-Ad Killer

David Carpenter - The Trailside Killer

Richard Chase - The Vampire of Sacramento

Andrei Tjikatilov - The Rostov Ripper, Citizen X, The Mad Beast

John Reginald Christie - Monster of Rillington Place

Douglas Clark - The Sunset Strip Slayer

Nicolas Claux - The Vampire of Paris

Alfred Cline - The Buttermilk Bluebeard

John Collins - Coed Murderer

Rory Conde - The Tamiami Strangler

Adolfo De Jesus Constanzo - Godfather of Matamoros

Dean Corll - The Candy Man

Juan Corona - The Machete Murderer

Richard Cottingham - The Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde

Dr. Thomas Cream - The Lambeth Poisoner

Theresa Cross - Jimmie Knorr

Gordon Cummins - Wartime, Jack the Ripper, The Blackout Ripper

Jeffrey Dahmer - The Milwaukee Monster

Karl Denke - The Mass Murderer of Munstberg

Gilles de Rais - The Original Bluebeard, The Bestial Baron

Albert DeSalvo - The Boston Strangler, The Green Man, The Measuring Man

Nannie Doss - The Giggling Granny

Theodore Durrant - The Demon of the Belfry

Nikolai Dzumagalies - Metal Fang

Larry Eyler - The Interstate Killer

Albert Fish - The Cannibal, The Moon Maniac, Werewolf of Wisteria

John Wayne Gacy - Pogo the Clown, Killer Clown, The Fat Man

Carlton Gary - The Stocking Strangler

Ed Gein - The Plainfield Ghoul

John Wayne Glover - The Granny Killer

Cleo Green - The Red Demon

Vaughn Greenwood - The Skid Row Slasher

Georg Karl Grossman - The Berlin Butcher

Fritz Haarmann - Vampire of Hannover, Butcher of Hannover, Werewolf of Hannover

John Haigh - The Acid Bath Murderer, The Vampire Killer

Archibald Hall - The Monster Butler

Donald Harvey - Angel of Death

William Heirens - The Lipstick Murderer

Johann Hoch - The Stockyard Bluebeard

Colin Ireland - The Gay Slayer

Keith Hunter Jesperson - The Happy Face Killer

Ted Kaczynski - Unabomber

Patrick Kearney - The Trash Bag Murderer

Edmund Kemper III - The Co-Ed Killer

Bela Kiss - The Monster of Czinkota

Paul Knowles - The Casanova Killer

Vasili Komaroff - The Wolf of Moscow

Joachim Kroll - The Ruhr Hunter

Peter Kurten - The Vampire of Dusseldorf

Henri Landru - The French Bluebeard, Bluebeard of Paris

Posteal Laskey - Cincinnati Strangler

Edward Leonski - The Singing Strangler

Major Ray Lisemba - Rattlesnake Lissemba

BobbyJoe Long - The Classified Ad Rapist

Pedro Lopez - The Monster of the Andes

Richard Macek - The Mad Biter

Jean -Thierry Mathurian - The Old Ladies Killer

Archie McCafferty - The Mad Dog

William McDonald - The Sydney Mutilator

George Metesky - The Mad Bomber

James Miller - "Deacon" Jim

Charles Manson - Jesus, Charlie

Herman Mudgett - H.H. Holmes The Torture Doctor

Joseph Mumfre - New Orleans Axeman

Earle Nelson - The Gorilla Murderer, The Dark Strangler

Anatoly Onoprienko - The Terminator

Thierry Paulin - The Monster of Montmarte

Marcel Petiot - Henri Valery

Louise Pette - The Dutchess of Death

Thomas Piper - The Boston Belfry Murderer

Rudolf Pleil - The Death Maker

Heinrich Pommerencke - The Beast of the Black Forest

Harry Powers - Herman Drenth, American Bluebeard

Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker

Melvin David Rees - The Sex Beast

Stephen Richards - Nebraska Fiend

Edward Rulloff - The Educated Murderer

Gerald Schaefer - The Killer Cop, The Florida Sex Beast

Charles Schmid - The Pied Piper of Phoenix, The Pied Piper of Tucson

John Scripps - The Tourist from Hell

Joseph Smith - The Brides in the Bath Murderer

Timothy William Spencer - The Southside Slayer

Lucian Staniak - The Red Spider

Peter Sutcliffe - The Yorkshire Ripper

Vicytor Szczepinski - The Doorbell Killer

Joseph Vacher - The French Ripper

James Watson - Bluebeard

Carol Eugene Watts - The Sunday Morning Slasher

John Williams - The Ratcliffe Highway Murderer

Randall Woodfield - The I-5 Killer

If you can think of any that aren't on this list, help me out and I'll add them.
I'll add more personal information about each of these poor, twisted souls as throughout the next two weeks so check back!

Minor Mistakes Can Cause Major problems

2007-08-03T21:30:00.000-04:00

I don't normally report my own experiences on this Blog but something happened today that made me start thinking about parenting so... today's entry is about the dark side of parenting.

I went into the grocers to pick up a few things and ran into a police office I knew just after checking out. While standing there talking to her, fully engaged in discussing the state forensic technician position, a woman's voice was heard that instantly over powered that of the officer's in my head.

The lady had been talking to the bag boy and said: "My son is the one that's spoiled." I'm not sure why but any time I hear someone mention they've spoiled a child, my ears perk up and a feeling of dread comes to heart. So, this statement drew my attention so much, I couldn't even tell you what else the officer spoke about. Just as my curiosity had peeked, the woman's conversation with the bag boy continued down an ever increasingly dreaded path. I turned to see the face attached to this voice and there stood a rather attractive; I'd say, middle-class woman standing with three equally beautiful young children ranging from roughly 5-13 years of age, all girls, all with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes. It was clear these were the children of the woman talking but I saw no "son".

I listened curiously to see where the conversation would lead and though I couldn't hear what the bag boy was saying, the woman's next statement was "Well, because he loves me more" and I was immediately perturbed. The bag boy must have made some corrective gesture because the woman then stated "Yes, I guess you're right. He just shows me more love than these." I remember feeling so much that I wanted to say "Ma'am, if you showed your girls as much love as you obviously do your son, they might demonstrate equal reciprocation", but I kept my mouth shut and instead, just sighed. I looked at length at these three beautiful children, all but one could barely reach above the check out counter and I thought, how terrible for these girls that there they stand not even a foot from their mother and knowing full well that if I could hear the woman so clearly, these children had to hear her and yet the woman was as cavalier as the day is long.

I was angry and felt helpless at the same time. As a by-stander, what I interpreted of this woman's statements was that here she was, standing right beside three precious young ladies and she was admitting openly in front of them that she was partial to the son and even though he was the one not with her while the three girls were, she was more aware of him than them.

Many people might hear this story and really give it no thought because these girls were surely well taken care of. They didn't look damaged or wanting for anything really. It's just that it made me think about how thoughts meant through casual conversation, with no ill intent, can cut like a knife through the heart of a child and though there's no way to know if these particular children will be damaged from them or even if they were paying any attention, they could just as easy be affected but no one will ever know. No one but me, that is.

When it's all said and done, I may very well have been the only one affected but my point to all of this is that I know firsthand what every word of a beloved parent means to a child. Those things we say as adults, whether children are around or not, are often said with little regard for how these words are received. Since most adults are like this, we easily forget what it was like to be a young child. As children, we so desired love and approval from those we cared for and trusted most.

Children are very observant even when we're sure they aren't paying attention, so it's important that we try to put ourselves back in the shoes of our early childhood and think "how would this sound to me coming from my mom?" If we can do this more often, we may never have another child that grows up feeling inadequate and a disappointment to mom or dad. Such beliefs can prevent a child from reaching their true potential and learning to love him/herself.

Just keep it in mind.

International Extradition Problems

2007-07-02T13:48:00.000-04:00

by: Lisa D. Featherston

Extradition means the legal surrender of a fugitive to the jurisdiction of another state, country, or government for trial (Lexico Publishing Group, LLC., 2006). “The consensus in international law is that a state does not have any obligation to surrender an alleged criminal to a foreign state, as one principle of sovereignty is that every state has legal authority over the people within its borders. Such absence of international obligation and desire of the right to demand such criminals of other countries has caused a web of extradition treaties or agreements to evolve; most countries in the world have signed bilateral extradition treaties with most other countries” (Wikipedia, 2006).

In 1909, the United States and France agreed upon such a treaty to address these issues. The treaty grants extradition of any person who has been charged with or found guilty of certain offenses (including murder) committed in the United States, who has fled to France. This may only be done if such evidence of criminality, according to the laws of the United States or France, would justify his or her apprehension and commitment for trial (White, 1909). A similar treaty was created between the U.S. and Canada on December 3, 1971 (Ford & Sharp, 1971). These treaties were meant to be mutual agreements for the extradition of known or suspected criminals on either county’s soil but years of struggle with this issue have proven these treaties to be anything but declarations created in good faith.

For a long time the United States Government has continually struggled with the French and Canadian Governments to regain custody of individuals who have been accused or convicted of serious crimes on American soil but fled to these countries. Both Canada and France claim to reject the methods of capital punishment in the United States and cling to this dispute as justification for refusing to honor the extradition treaties agreed upon by both sides. Because of this refusal to comply, both France and Canada have become a place of asylum for those wishing to escape justice in America, thereby holding up the process of justice in the United States.

The Extradition Treaty between France and the United States of America grants extradition of any person who has been charged with or found guilty of certain offenses (including murder) committed in the United States, who has fled to France. This may only be done if such evidence of criminality, according to the laws of the United States or France, would justify his or her apprehension and commitment for trial (White, 1909).

On March 28, 1979, the mummified remains of Holly Maddux were found folded up and stuffed in a trunk surrounded by packing pellets and newspapers dated September15, 1977; just three days after Holly was last seen alive, in the closet of a renowned counterculture guru by the name of Ira Einhorn. Evidence against Enihorn was overwhelming and compelling. As the pieces of the puzzle began to unravel, it was clear that Holly discovered Ira’s self centered and brutal demeanor towards her and decided to leave him. After doing so, Einhorn phoned Holly up and told her if she didn’t come see him straight away, he would throw her belongings onto the street. That was the last anyone saw of Holly Maddux until her body was discovered six months later (Geringer, 2005).

Arrested and charged with first degree murder, Ira Eihorn was release on just a $40,000 bail, which a Montreal socialite quickly posted on his behalf. In January, 1981, while awaiting trial, Ira Einhorn fled to Ireland but was discovered under an assumed name in 1985, so he took off again. He traveled throughout Europe, always one step ahead of US authority and eventually, after16 years on the run, Einhorn was found, in France, remarried, and under yet another assumed name. Celebration back home did not last long as it appeared that the U.S. authority’s luck had just run out. France had no intention on allowing Ira Einhorn to be extradited back the U.S. in order to be brought to justice (Geringer, 2005). The French Government clearly disagreed with the process of American Justice, which in 1993 found Einhorn guilty of 1st degree murder after his trial commenced in his absence; a process in American known as abstentia.

“French custom finds such a process unfathomable. The fact that Einhorn was tried in absentia goes against the French code of honor; the fact that he was given the death sentence without legal representation is considered brutal. Furthermore, France does not condone capital punishment” (Geringer, 2005). For the next four years, the United States would struggle through every legal avenue available to win extradition of this killer and finally by the summer of 2001 Ira Einhorn was brought home to America after authorities agreeing to allow a retrial and to revoke the death penalty in his case (Handlin, 2001).

It is clear that American Justice was held captive by Ira Einhorn and the French Government; Einhorn, who sought to use the loop holes and the differing beliefs of the French to avoid answering for his crimes in the U. S., and France because of their refusal to respect the United State’s right to create and maintain a system of justice without interference from outsiders.

This kind of travesty of justice clearly sends the wrong message to criminals of violent crimes in America. It is a clear message to all that anyone can avoid trial and judgment in the United States if they are willing to flee to any country opposed to capital punishment. Many have argued through the years about the legalities or morality of capital punishment but the United States is a country set up for the people, by the people. The policies in which they choose to adopt in order to deal with crime are chosen and upheld by the people for the safety and security of all Americans.

The debate over capital punishment is not the intent of this paper but rather an issue that will be discussed and debated for many years to come. It is understood, however that each country has the right to choose its own system of justice and in an effort to work together internationally, these treaties prove vital in controlling crime on a more global scale. The Crime Programme; the United Nations office responsible for crime prevention, criminal justice and criminal law reform, defines and promotes internationally recognized principles in such areas as the protection of victims, independence of the judiciary and extradition. “More than 100 countries have relied on its criminal justice standards and norms for the elaboration of national legislation and policies in matters of crime prevention and criminal justice, leading to a common foundation in the fight against international crime that respects human rights” (UNODC,2005).

On June 4, 1985, detectives made a quick search of a remote cabin in California, formally occupied by Leonard Lake and Charles Ng only to find they were dealing with the horrendous crime scene of two of America’s most vicious serial killers. Search of the property wielded insurmountable evidence of several slaughters, humans being held captive and video tapes of both suspects torturing and killing several men, women and even a baby. In total, authorities found evidence of at least 11 murders committed by the pair (Bellamy, 2006).

Once in custody, Leonard Lake ingested a capsule of cyanide and died during questioning. Charles Ng packed a suitcase with clothes, a .22 handgun, ammunition, a significant amount of cash, a California driver's license and a Social Security card; both in the name of Mike Kimoto, and then hopped on a United Airlines flight to Canada. For more than a month, Ng managed to elude authorities and remain at large until he attempted to steal some groceries from a local store in Calgary and was confronted by police. There was a struggle leaving on officer shot in the hand and Ng being hauled away for theft when word of his capture spread quickly (Bellamy, 2006).

Excitement by the authorities and the victims family’s back in the U.S. were quickly dispelled when John Cosbie, the Canadian Justice Minister, announced that under the terms of a 1976 extradition treaty with the United States, he would refused the request for Ng's extradition because Canada, having abolished capital punishment, would not extradite any prisoner charged with a capital crime that carried the death penalty (Bellamy, 2006).

For the next six years, a battle waged on between the American and Canadian Governments with America on the losing end. Meanwhile, Charles Ng spent his time studying American law and over the course of what would turn out to be one of the longest and the most expensive campaigns ever in American history to bring an individual to justice, he would use every loop hole in American justice to his advantage (Bellamy, 2006). In all, it would be a total of 13 years before Charles Ng would be taken to trial for his crimes, primarily because of Canada’s refusal to uphold the extradition treaty agreed upon in 1976.

Since the American judicial system affords every right possible to the accused in an effort to prevent an innocent person from going to prison, Ng was allowed dozens of appeals and motions that prolonged the extradition as well as his trial once he was finally brought back. Finally the American Government decided to bluff the Canadians by agreeing to drop their efforts to have Ng brought to justice and Canada realized he would be a free man living amongst Canadian citizens, they quickly decided they did not want such a killer in their midst’s and agreed to the extradition (A&E, 2004). Charles Ng now sits on death row after being convicted of 11 murders.

These two cases presented here are merely two of more than a dozen examples of fugitives fleeing justice from United States. These kinds of cases oppose the fundamental intent of the extradition treaties formed by the United States and other countries. Society has the need to seek justice when such vicious crimes are committed in order to retain the feeling of safety and security amongst their neighbors. One’s very peace of mind is hindered when those who kill are allowed to simply run from justice and live a peaceful and fulfilling life in another country as free individuals. It is for this reason, if no other that this issue needs to be resolved between these Governments.

The United States does not have the right to interfere in the criminal justice system of other counties and nor do other countries have the right to interfere with the American justice system. According to the United Nations Guiding Principles for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the Context of Development and a New Economic Order; Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, “The independence of the judiciary shall be guaranteed by the State and enshrined in the constitution or law of the country. The judiciary shall decide matters before them with impartiality on the basis of facts, in accordance with the law, without any improper influences or pressures” (UNCJIN, 1985).

These extradition treaties are a vital effort to avoid conflicts of this nature and to simply allow Governments to proceed with their own form of justice within their own land accordingly and without interference of opposing Governments, such as Canada and France. Breaking these treaties or fighting these treaties during an attempt to bring an individual to justice is not the appropriate forum in which to make amendments or address disagreements. Once these treaties are agreed upon and signed, they should be upheld. This would allow justice to proceed without interruption and without sending a message to the criminal community that crimes can go unpunished if you can escape to a country that disagrees with your nation's form of justice. This causes undue hardship on the survivors and the community and also undermines the fabric of society sense of safety.

References:

A&E, American Justice (television programming). American Justice: The California Killing Field. (Aired March 5, 2004).

Bellamy, Patrick (2006). A Costly Endeavour. Retrieved on January 14, 2006 from http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/ng/endeavour_7.html

Ford, President Gerald and Sharp, Mitchell: Pour Les Etats-Unis D’Amerique (1971). BILATERAL EXTRADITION TREATIES: Canada. Retrieved on January 14, 2006. http://www.internationalextradition.com/canada_bi.htm

Geringer, Joseph (2005). Counterculture Killer. Retrieved on January 14, 2006. http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/einhorn/lib_4.html

Handlin, Sam (July 25, 2001). Ex-radical turned killer faces a legal quagmire of his own making. CourtTV.com. Retrieved on January 14, 2006 from http://www.courttv.com/archive/news/2001/0723/einhorn_ctv.html

Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. (2006). Retrieved on January 14, 2006 from http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Extradition%20

UNCJIN (1985). United Nations Guiding Principles for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the Context of Development and a New Economic Order; Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary. Retrieved on January 23, 2005. http://www.uncjin.org/Standards/UNRules.pdf

UNODC (2005). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: Crime Programme. Retrieved on January 23, 2006. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/crime_cicp.html

White, Henry (1909/1911). BILATERAL EXTRADITION TREATIES: France. (Article 1). Retrieved on January 14, 06. http://www.internationalextradition.com/france_bi.htm

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2006). Extradition treaties or agreements. Retreived on January 24, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extradition

Learned

2007-06-29T23:08:00.000-04:00

By The Collective

Smaller than a breadbox
But bigger than a thimble.
My detention started without end
In the cellar of God’s temple.

Blinded by the dark pitch
Held tightly to the corner.
Sharing the darkness with the rats
I learned to be a mourner.

Choice of binds or choice of freedom
A promise to remove the tether
But only if I could finally learn
To yield to whips of leather.

“Now child, save up your strength,
With this water and crust of bread.
Your next lesson will come very soon
And your sins will finally be shed.”

Journal Entry #1

2007-06-11T19:06:00.000-04:00

I’ve started reading Dr. Zimbardo’s “Lucifer Effect” and it is well written though getting through it will not be a speedy process with my workload. Just reading the first chapter has me feeling a lot with a non-stop stream of thoughts running through my head.

One question that has always plagued me is how any human being can commit such cruelty on another.

So far, this book is making a pretty convincing argument for social psychology and the implications of a power structure that begins with someone with power making decisions that those with less or no power have to carry out.

It’s only fair to remember that I have not gotten very far in the book and it is more likely than not that many of the questions or issues that I raise will be addressed later as I continue reading.

For now I can’t help but think and share some of my own personal thoughts and observations about evil and the people who engage it.

Somewhere in my head I can rationalize the possibility of a soldier obeying an order, even though that notion has seen its resistance from society because it is seen as an excuse to avoid responsibility. The military succeeds as they do, in-part because they virtually brainwash the willing into believing in command sturtures that simply don’t allow for free will. For whatever reason, I contend that I can understand. Individual actions may not be absolved under such circumstances but consideration of intent and the source of this intent is a reasonable, ethical process.

Those in an employment situation may also feel they have no choice but to obey the demands of the executive in charge for similar reasons as a soldier would but with some differences. As a soldier, you are taught that following orders can mean the difference between life and death. Obviously at work this is not the case… or is it?
Remember that your job is your pay and your pay is your livelihood. The threat to survival cannot be said to be nearly the same as in the military on mission but there could be a threat there nonetheless. All of us have heard of someone retaliating because they were fired. Can we really so easily mark these people down as "crazy" because of what they did? How can we judge the value that person placed on their job and the perceived consequences to their survival if they lost it? The point is, it is not absurd that an employee would obey their superior to protect their job.

Another reason may be because a sense of responsibility deferment comes into play. What I mean is, whether conscious or unconscious, a sense of security is derived for those who possess positions under the leadership of another. When that leader takes on the responsibility of ordering any action, they are by definition taking responsibility for such an order, which also means the results of such an order. This is why it is always vital that those elected or otherwise selected for positions of power to be equipped to evaluate the consequences of their orders. Most leaders are not that equipped despite their vast resources and support structures. Even in a democracy, there are a few drastic situations that can be determined by just one person's orders or action which will devastate millions of lives. With such a lack of fail-safe protocols in place, we may all need to be concerned.

Everyone is capable of violence, I believe this. Just like I believe everyone has a dark side. It’s kind of like the yin and the yang within I suppose but what allows some to act and other in the same situation not to, I just cannot fathom. I am anxious to see how Zimbardo explains this phenomenon and as of this moment, I have my doubts that he can.

In studying behavior, environment, genetics, conscience, free will, and events in my own life, I can surrender to the idea that any single act or word may serve to alter one’s path dramatically. Einstein called it the butterfly effect and it just makes sense to me but there’s no comfort that can be derived from this theory when there are lives damaged or lost. There’s no way possible to pin-point exactly what seemingly benign incident is ultimately responsible for sending one person onto the path that will end up devastating another. Human nature requires responsibility in order for our minds to accept a lot of those things which seem to be the direct results of another human being’s -- unprovoked, actions, otherwise we struggle with the feeling of being stuck somehow.

Just as it was when we were children and we did something stupid, our parent would ask us “why did you do that?” and we would answer, “I don’t know”. I know right now that I was not the only one whose parent would not or could not accept "I don't know" for an answer. There had to be a reason and no doubt there was a reason even if we weren’t aware of what that reason was.

I believe that human beings inherently want to find cause for evil actions in a desperate attempt to maintain our security and sense of confidence. Our minds are like computers and every detail needs to be programmed for a computer to respond appropriately, otherwise there’s chaos or simply shutdown.

In psychology there is a phrase called “radical acceptance” and I think of this as the catch-all for those things in which we simply cannot explain and subsequently work through. Many people are able to do this but I have struggled with it all my life. I can’t imagine any scientist being able to, because by nature, we ask “why” and strive to answer that question. In a real sense, it is the element that gives our lives substance. Those that aren't scientists by nature may have an easier time with this potential paradox. Meanwhile, it’s the one element that keeps me going and the one that is systematically killing me too.

Where are their attentions focused?

2007-06-11T16:35:00.000-04:00

As of May 27, 2007 - Tax Payer's Homes

New Orleans, LA

As of May 27, 2007 - White House, Washington, D.C.

George W. Bush's Home

It's easy to make decisions for others if the consequences don't affect you...

"Darkness Visible"

2007-06-10T14:44:00.000-04:00

Exciting news for psychology majors and professionals...

Phil Zimbardo has written a book based on his years of research to help us understand 'How Good People Can Turn Evil'. The book is called The Lucifer Effect.

Also... FYI -- The project that started it all; The Stanford Prison Experiment will go into film production this October so keep an eye out for that.

Art Interpretation. What does it mean?

2007-06-10T13:30:00.000-04:00

Darkness

I'm looking for information on Art Interpretation of abuse survivors.
If you have any ideas for me as to where to look,
whether it be websites or books, please share what you can.
Though the above drawing is a depiction of the comic book character Darkness, it is not meant to suggest disturbed imagery.
There are other drawings from this artist that I will add later that were drawn as representation art during therapy.
I have always been curious as to what I should be seeing in the artwork that I may be missing.

By the way... this artwork is mine.
Although self-analysis may prove impossible,

my curiosity is a general one.

Warning: Advocacy can be hazardous to your health!

2007-06-10T01:21:00.000-04:00

While cruising around the Net like I always do, I came across this article that just left me gob smacked. It was so well written and sparked the infuriation I hold for the injustices and prejudices society places on other human beings they deem different.

Here's that wonderful article I told you about...

stigma: 1. a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation. 2. a characteristic mark or sign of defect, degeneration, etc. (1989 Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language).

Stigma is an attitude or belief that fuels discrimination and stereotypes a broad, diverse group of people, robbing them of the opportunity to live, work and thrive in the community because of unwarranted fears. An interesting point to be made here is that the word stigma is derived from the word stigmata, and according to Christian theology the stigmata which the Christian Messiah bore were a direct result of "the sins of the world"... therefore the sins, or the stigma, were not his sins or his stigma, but the sins and the stigma of those who needed a scapegoat.

This psychological mechanism of blaming others for one's own sins, which psychiatrists call "projection," is described anecdotally in the Jewish Talmud in Megillah 25, which relates the story of an anti-vice crusader who accused the inhabitants of Jerusalem of committing the very same crimes of which he himself was guilty (Psychiatry and the Talmud, Vol. I, No. 1). Oftentimes the most vile forms of stigma are perpetuated by the very people who claim to be "advocates for the mentally-ill." These are the most dangerous forms of stigma because they are promoted under the guise of advocacy. Here is a classic example put forth by the Executive Director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, Mary Zdanowicz, who continues to promote the medieval belief that "the mentally-ill" are "plagued by demons":

"individuals with the severest forms of mental illness - schizophrenia and manic depression - will now have the opportunity to regain productive lives in their communities, free of the demons that plagued them as the result of an untreated brain disease... Kendra's Law will help prevent decades old scenes of these individuals huddling over steam grates in the cold, animatedly carrying on conversations with invisible companions, wearing filthy, tattered clothing, urinating and defecating on sidewalks or threatening passersby."

Upon reading this statement I marvelled that anyone would believe that "the mentally-ill" regularly defecate on city sidewalks (I have never seen such a sight), and I wondered if the people she was actually referring to are people who are so desititute and poor that they obviously talk to themselves because no one else will. And that Ms. Zdanowicz still promotes the medieval belief that "the mentally-ill" are "plagued by demons" is nothing short of alarming in this day and age.
This is just a small part of the statement that was released by the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Virginia, following the passage of Kendra's Law in New York State, which, in my humble opinion, is an affront to Kendra Webdale's memory because it boldy implies that all those who will be bound by this law are capable of committing the same heinous crime that Andrew Goldstein committed (pushing Kendra Webdale into the path of an oncoming train). According to my 1989 Webster's Dictionary Kendra's Law is a classic example of scapegoating:

scapegoat: 1. one who is made to bear the blame for others.

The deception inherent in this law is revealed by the fact that this law would not have even applied to Kendra Webdale's attacker, because he was denied treatment at every psych facility he went to, even though he pleaded for help. In fact, when a newspaper reporter asked him why he did it, his response was: "Do you think I can get some help now."
I can't help but wonder if what really pushed him over the edge wasn't a "mental illness," but the frustration over his apparent inability to get treatment everywhere he went, even though he pleaded for it. I've seen people lose it for lesser reasons.

What an irony that the advocates of forced treatment have shamelessly exploited Kendra's death to further their own agenda, even though reports about Kendra indicated that she, herself, would have been against such a law. That would be equivalent to calling the death penalty, Martin's Law, because of Dr. King's murder, even though Dr. King himself was against the death penalty.

Why do rare occurrences like the Kendra Webdale incident consistently make front-page headlines (for days on end), yet the regular occurrence of "the mentally-ill" killed by law enforcement officers nationwide are consistently relegated to pages five or six (whenever they are reported)? In fact, "the mentally-ill" are so often killed by police officers that as far back as 1996, some states have had to include a new category under their listings as the cause of death: "Suicide by Police." Of course, this is nothing less than the sanitized equivalent of "mercy killings."
This is the picture that the media routinely portrays about people labeled mentally-ill. And this is the catalyst for CineMania. As the New York Post so casually stated in its July 21st editorial: "Dont walk around the street minding your own business because some sad nut might think that you're Satan and a brick will be part of your cranium." And as if to add insult to injury, the TAC boldly carries on this long history of stigma under the guise of "Treatment and Advocacy."

How ironic that the word stigma is derived from the word stigmata... because that is truly an appropriate analogy for what it feels like to be stigmatized. It's like being nailed to the cross and being made to pay for crimes that you did not commit.

These materials are presented strictly for educational purposes only and therefore constitute a fair use of copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law.

CineMania authorizes the use of this article (2005).

Friends always keep their promises

2007-06-06T22:29:00.000-04:00

There's just something about this story that warmed my heart. I wonder what that says about me.

(1/10/06 - CINCINNATI, OH)

The mummified body of a woman who didn't want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said.

Johannas Pope had told her live-in caregiver that she didn't want to be buried and planned on returning after she died, Hamilton County Coroner O'Dell Owens said Monday.

Pope died in August 2003 at age 61. Her body was found last week in the upstairs of her home on a quiet street. Some family members continued to live downstairs, authorities said. No one answered the doorbell at Pope's home Monday afternoon.

Read the rest at: This Link

Things that make you go, huh?

2007-06-06T22:26:00.000-04:00

1995 -- In Kansas City, Mo., in June, Keith Smith, 26, was convicted of strangling and stabbing to death a minister, in whose house he lived, and his housekeeper. In a videotaped statement to the police at the time of the murders, Smith said the mayhem was caused by "Chucky," the murderous doll in the movie "Child's Play."

1996 -- Earlier this year, Michael J. Lewis Sr., serving time in Missouri for a gas station robbery, called the county attorney's office just out of curiosity, to find out why he had never been prosecuted for a 1993 bank robbery with which he had been charged. The prosecutor discovered that the file had been misplaced and that only a few months remained to bring Lewis to trial before the statute of limitations would run out. In June, Lewis, already serving 10 years, plea-bargained to another 10.

1996 -- Mike Marcum, the Missouri guy who made News of the Weird in 1995 after he stole six power company transformers he said were necessary to make his time machine (so he could find out the winning lottery number and come back and buy a ticket), called a radio show from Nevada in October 1996 and said he was only 30 days away from finishing his invention. His Missouri landlord had evicted him for various electrical misadventures in his apartment.

1996 -- A 63-year-old man died in May in West Plains, Mo.; he had set himself on fire in a suicide attempt, but the pain was so great that he ran into a pond to douse the flames and drowned.

1994 -- In September, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Washington, D.C., announced that it had issued 60 citations and $90,000 in fines for unsafe workplace conditions at the Federal Building in Kansas City, Mo., which is the regional OSHA office.

1996 -- In September, according to police in Junction City, Kan., David Bell, 30, just released from jail for car theft, walked out the door and stole another car to get home. And in October, William B. Singleton, 24, just released from jail in Belton, Mo., on a larceny charge, allegedly broke into a vending machine in the lobby of the police station and stole a 60-cent Strawberry Twisteroo while he waited for his ride to arrive.

1995 -- In March, in Rich Hill, Mo., Mr. Edgar Allen Poe, age 75; in April, in Charlestown, R.I., Mrs. Eleanor Rigby, age 80; in May, of a fall just after he reached the summit of Mount McKinley, Mr. Brian McKinley, age 37; and in Anchorage, Alaska, in September, Mr. Phillip Morris, of lung cancer at age 45.

Great tips and other tid bits...

2007-06-02T10:39:00.000-04:00

For more than a year now I have been trying to sit and write a book based on actual events. It has proven difficult despite my known and affirmed writing ability. Part of my struggles are based on the self-critical analysis that goes on in my own mind as I am writing. Second guessing yourself may be a natural process but it can be debilitating when you're trying to write a novel.

I was recently lucky enough to come across an extraordinary article written by a wonderful writer and Psychologist by the name of Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD., entitled "The Writer's Inner Critic Part II: A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to Dealing with the Inner Critic (or: How to Stop Awfulizing and Start Writing)." You will no doubt find her website "Archetype: The Fiction Writer's Guide to Psychology" a great benefit whether you are a writer, psychology major, or enthusiast.

The site is chalked full of useful and intelligent information, not to mention the layout and design are fabulous.

Another resource for those of you wanting to write about crime and psychology, Katherine Ramsland offers a book entitled "The Criminal Mind: A Writer's Guide to Forensic Psychology" which is well written and equally useful.

So... utilize your resources, stop procrastinating, and write something new for me to read already!

Antisocial personality disorder

2007-06-01T00:46:00.000-04:00

From Kendra Van Wagner
Symptoms and Treatments

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder:

May begin displaying symptoms during childhood. Such behaviors include fire setting, cruelty to animals, and difficulty with authority.
Often have legal problems resulting from failures to conform to social norms and a lack of concern for the rights of others.
Often act out impulsively and fail to consider the consequences of their actions.
Display aggressiveness and irritability that often lead to physical assaults.
Have difficulty feeling empathy for others. This inability to consider the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of other people can lead to disregard for others.
Display a lack of remorse for damaging behavior.

Treatment

Those with antisocial personality disorder rarely seek out treatment on their own.
Individuals generally receive treatment only after some type of altercation with the legal system.
Cognitive therapy can be useful in helping individuals gain insight into their behaviors and to change maladaptive thought patterns.
Effective results usually occur only after long-term treatment.

CSI in a Box

2007-05-11T14:42:00.000-04:00

While I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburg back in 1994, human anatomy class taught us how to utilize the three-dimensional facial reconstruction technique in an effort to identify the deceased.

The three-dimensional process is initiated by placing the skull on a workable stand, where the skull can easily be tilted and turned in all directions.
The skull must be positioned in the Frankfort Horizontal position.
By utilizing proper tissue depth data determined by race, gender, and age.
Artificial eyes are placed in the skull’s eye sockets, centered and at the proper depth.
The tissue markers are glued directly onto the skull.
Clay will be systematically applied directly on the skull, following the skull's contours; paying strict attention to the applied tissue markers.

This process can take days or even months depending on the condition of the skull and the ability of the artist.

Now, a Canadian startup company, HumanCore has developed a new human anatomy software to do the job in about 30 minutes. This software has already attracted the attention of law enforcement forces in the U.S. and in Canada.

I'll be anxious to see this technology in action. Due to the incredible speed of this process, Investigators should have a serious advantage in time senistive cases they would not have otherwise had before.

Interactive Autopsy

2007-05-10T04:14:00.000-04:00

This site allows you to perform an interactive autopsy.

This site is very well done and informative while remaining appropriate for those of us with weak stomachs. It takes you through each step of a typical autopsy and you do the work. You even weigh the organs once they have been removed.

Check it out here.

Bizarre & Creepy Facts Vol. 1

2007-05-10T00:46:00.000-04:00

1. In 1542 London, Margaret Davey was boiled to death in a large cauldron, which was her legally-ordered punishment for poisoning the family that employed her.
(ouch)

2. Were you aware that both Utah and Idaho still use the firing squad as a method of execution? On January 26th, 1996, John Taylor; a convicted rapist and murderer was executed in this manner.

3. Witchcraft remained a punishable crime in the US until 1951.

4. Peach, cherry, plum, apricot and apple pits all release the poison hydrogen cyanide into your stomach if you ingest them.

5. Hart Island, off the shore of the Bronx in Long Island Sound, is where the city of NY buries its unclaimed dead. During the Civil War the island was used to house Confederate prisoners, but since the late 1860s it had been the final resting place for New York’s indigent and unknown while the property is overseen by the Depart. Of Corrections and the prisoners from Riker’s Island are ferried in each day from nearby City Island to work there.

Historical Execution in 399 B.C.

2007-05-03T20:53:00.000-04:00

Socrates was condemned to death in 399 B.C. by the city of Athens for corrupting the youth with his philosophy. His gentle execution by a cup of hemlock was recorded for all time by his student Plato in Phaedo. Poison hemlock grows wild in Israel, and has since the Bible times.

Plato recorded in the story of Socrates' death by a cup of hemlock (Conium maculatum). It causes paralysis of the motor nerves with some numbing, beginning in the lower extremities. As the symptoms progress up the body, paralysis reaches the diaphragm and heart and the victim dies. Until the final moment, the mind is untouched by the drug and fully aware. Judah the Prince, a scholar of Greek culture, almost certainly knew of Plato's account of Socrates' gentle and dignified death. Yet Judah the Prince insisted on refinements of the Talmudic formula (pouring molten lead in the mouth) that would guarantee that the condemned died from having molten lead poured in his mouth and from no other cause.

Humans have always been afraid of change!

History of the Gallows

2007-05-03T20:24:00.000-04:00

The gallows proper had their beginning in early August of 1873. The Fort Smith Weekly New Era of August 6, 1873, reported that "Captain C. E. Perry, U.S. Jailer has received orders to erect the gallows for the execution of prisoners sentenced to be hung here shortly." The article also noted "the fatal structure may already be seen going up near the old powder magazine just inside the garrison walls." The only other known description of the location of the first gallows was published in the New Era of August 20, 1873, which placed the scaffold "at the opposite end of the grounds near the magazine."

The area in which the gallows stood was the southwestern corner of the five-sided fort. Each of the corners was to have been originally crowned with a blockhouse or bastion. When the fort's role was changed in the 1840s from that of a frontier defense to a supply depot it was decided to utilize these sturdy foundations for more practical structures. Therefore the foundations of bastion #1 (Northwestern corner) were modified and a two-story stone commissary warehouse constructed upon them. The Southwestern bastion (#2) was later crowned with a very similar structure housing the quartermaster warehouse. In September of 1846, Colonel Arbuckle negotiated a contract which converted the southern blockhouse foundation (bastion #3) into a very sturdy magazine for the storage of munitions. It was against the face of this structure that the two successive gallows were constructed. In October of 1873, after the final closure of Fort Smith by the army, three commissioners appointed by the Secretary of Interior to appraise the buildings of the fort described the structure as follows:

Pentagonal (Magazine) Stone 2 faces 30 ft. 2 faces 20 ½ ft., one 15 ft. used for storage of powder belonging to citizens. Good condition. Valuation - $400

Approximately two years later at the first hanging carried out under Judge Parker in September 1875, an extra edition of the Independent described the building and area: "In one corner of this wall stands an old pentagon-shaped building, with iron doors and pointed roof, built of solid masonry…." By 1896, years of disuse had taken their toll, and a traveler report that "the scaffold is on a line with the wall, and beyond is a grotto of heavy stone masonry 50 feet in diameter. This was once a bomb-proof magazine, but the top is now off and cavities in the masonry show where the big timber rested that supported the heavy roof of rock and earth."

The gallows at best could be considered a crude device and was the source of much controversy. Frank Strong, General Agent of the Attorney General, noted in his Report of the Inspection of the Fort Smith Federal Jail that:

"The arrangements for executing criminals are crude and unsightly. Unless some reasons exist (certainly to me unknown) for preserving intact the rude appliance by means of which so many criminals have been executed, it should be replaced by a newer arrangement, decently enclosed, where those who are sentenced to death may meet their fate amid surroundings more suggestive of the sacredness and majesty of the law than are the weather scarred beams and boards now devoted to the purpose."

Mr. Strong's reactions were shared and amplified by the citizens of Fort Smith. They felt that the large number of executions occurring here had unjustly slandered their fair city. The newspapers were quick to point out that no one was ever sentenced there for a crime committed in Arkansas, much less in Fort Smith. On September 1, 1896, the Federal Court for the Western District of Arkansas lost its jurisdiction over Indian Territory, rendering the gallows excess property. A congressional act on February 26, 1897 transferred the bulk of the property once used by the court, including the gallows, to the control of the city of Fort Smith. Former hangman and jail guard George Maledon approached the city council with a request to purchase the trapdoor from the gallows for use in his travelling display. While there is no record of the council's reaction to this request, shortly thereafter, in the summer of 1897, the mayor ordered that the gallows be dismantled and burned. The Weekly Elevator supported this action, stating, "this removes an object which, unsightly and gruesome as it might be, was, nevertheless an interesting one to strangers from abroad." Shortly thereafter, the old fort wall at the site of the gallows was torn down, and Parker Avenue was extended through the location of the gallows enclosure. At the time the gallows was removed, a more romantic mind wrote these words to mark the end of the structure:

"The Passing of the Old Government Suspender: Fare thee well old gallows! Whether thou has been a necessity in the suppressing of crime, or whether thou art a lingering relic of the dark ages that has lapped over our modern civilization, remains to be decided by that divine tribunal before whose law must stand the mighty nations of the earth as well as their weakest subjects."
After the wall surrounding the old fort was removed, the city of Fort Smith constructed streets through the grounds of the old fort, and right through the location of the gallows. For over fifty years there was no trace of the gallows, and it remained only as a memory.

In the mid 1950s, as interest in the American West grew, the city of Fort Smith formed a commision to study the possibility of restoring the site of the first fort, the courtroom, and the Gallows. In 1957, Public Restorations, Inc., reconstructed the 1886 gallows. As the original location was still underneath Parker Avenue and a trucking warehouse, this initial reconstruction was located immediately to the south of the Barracks / Courthouse / Jail building, approximately 75 yards away from the original location. The reconstruction was based on the one historic image of the 1886 gallows, and descriptions in historic newspapers.This reconstruction remained in place until 1981, when it was torn down, and the National Park Service built a reconstruction on the original location. The second reconstruction remains in place today.Archeology done at the site of the gallows in the early 1980s was not able to locate any trace of the original wall or gallows structure.

Today, nooses are hung on the gallows only on the anniversaries of historic executions.

History of the Guillotine

2007-05-03T19:21:00.000-04:00

The history of the guillotine started long before the French Revolution, but when and where exactly, nobody knows. Guillotine like machines seem to have functioned in Germany, Great Britain and Italy before 1300, but there is no clear evidence to prove this. The earlier machines replaced the axe, but the guillotine replaced the sword.

1307
According to Holinshed’s Chronicles published in 1577, this guillotine like machine was used at the execution of Murcod Ballagh near to Merton in Ireland 1/4/1307.

1400
The Halifax Gibbet, a precursor to the guillotine was used in Halifax, England, at executions on market-days. May have functioned as early as 1280. The last execution with the Halifax gibbet took place in 1648.

1564
The Maiden was constructed and used in Scotland. It was based on the Halifax Gibbet.

1789
10/10/1789 On the second day of the Assembly debate about the Penal Code, Dr Guillotin submitted a proposition in six articles which included a recommendation that death, without the accompaniment of torture and by means of decapitation, should become the sole and standard form of capital punishment in France.
1/12/1789 Dr Guillotin presents his six articles for the second time.

1. Offences of the same kind will be punished by the same kind of penalty.
2. In all cases where the law imposes the death penalty on an accused person, the punishment shall be the same, whatever the nature of the offence of which he is guilty; the criminal shall be decapitated; this will be done solely by means of a simple mechanism.
3. In view of the personal character of crime, no punishment of a guilty person shall involve and discredit to his family. The honour of those belonging to him shall be in no way soiled, and they shall continue to be no less admissible to any kind of profession, employment and public function.
4. No one shall reproach a citizen with any punishment imposed on one of his relatives. Whosoever ventures to do so shall be publicly reprimanded by the judge. The sentence imposed on him shall be written up on the offender's door. Moreover, it shall be written up on the pillory and remain there for a period of three months.
5. Confiscation of the condemned person's property shall in no case be imposed.
6. The corpse of an executed man shall be handed over to his family on their request. In every case, he shall be allowed normal burial and no reference shall be made on the register to the nature of his death.

1791
3/6/1791 The Assembly approved a text providing that "Every person condemned to the death penalty shall have his head severed".

1792
10/4/1792 Roederer (Procureur général syndic) and Tobias Schmidt (a german harpsichord maker) reached a happy accord: 960 francs was to cover the cost of manufacturing the machine, the sum moreover providing for a leather bag in which to dispose of the severed head.
11/4/1792 It was on this Friday afternoon, the first real guillotine was set up, in the Cour du Commerce, rue Saint-André-des-Arts. It was tried out on sheep and calves. The blade was not the oblique one yet. It may have been curved like that of an axe, or even straight. Tobias Schmidt the maker of this prototype, had his workshop there, just opposite the printing office in number 8, where Marat had Ami du Peuple printed.
15/4/1792 The first test on human corpses at a combined hospital, prison and old peoples home, at Bicêtre. 3 cadavers were beheaded successfully.
19/4/1792 Guidon went out to Bicêtre to fix the newly conceived blade in position.
21/4/1792 The improved machine was again tried out at Bicêtre. Three corpses were carefully selected from the military hospital in order to obtain, if possible, well-built men who had died in an accident or of some short illness which had not caused them to grow thin.
25/4/1792 Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier was executed on the place de Grève. Sanson operated the machine in dead earnest for the first time. It was not well received by the crowd who called for the return of the gallows.
5/6/1792 The architect Giraud submitted his report requested by Roederer. The report said: "Although well conceived in itself, it has not been perfected to the fullest possible extent. The grooves, the tongues and the gudgeons are of wood; the first should be made of brass, the others of iron; the hooks to which are attached the cords holding up the mouton are only fixed with round-headed nails; they should be fixed with strong nuts and bolts."
21/8/1792 The guillotine was installed at the place du Carroussel, where it stayed until May 7th 1793 with some interruptions, such as the execution of the king, which took place at Place de la Révolution
23/09/1792 French Revolution Calendar is declared as official calendar of FranceDates in parenthesis are dates in this particular calendar

1793
21/1/1793 (2 Pluviose year 1) Louis Capet (Louis XVI, king of France) was executed at Place de la Révolution (now place de la Concorde)
16/10/1793 (25 Vendémiaire year 2) Marie Antoinette (Queen of France) executed at the Place de la Révolution (now place de la Concorde) Near the gate of the Tuileries garden.

1794
9/6/1794 (20 Prairial year 2) The Guillotine is installed on the place de la Bastille, but only for a very short time. On June 11th. it was moved to the barrière du Trône (now Place de la Nation).

1806
01/01/1806 The French Revolution Calendar is banned

1843
Nicolas Roch, grandson of Antoine, replaces François Desmorets as executioner at Lons-le-Saulnier.

1847
Louis Deibler succeeds Clément Sanson, who is dismissed. He is the first man to graduate from assistant executioner to executioner for all France.

1853
Nicolas Roch is promoted to executioner at Amiens. He is the successor to Henri Ganier.

1854
4/4/1854 M. Joseph Tussaud returns to London with a guillotine he had bought from Clément Sanson. The guillotine was to become a part of the Tussauds Waxworks.

1870
Leon Berger, an assistant executioner and carpenter, improves and develops a new guillotine between 1870 and 1872. Among the improvements are the spring system, which stops the mouton at the bottom of the groves, and the lock/blocking device on the lunette. The new release mechanism for the blade, was also developed by Berger. All guillotines built after 1870 are made according to Berger's design.

1872
Nicolas Roch now occupys the post of executioner at Paris itself. His five assistants include MM. Berger, Ganier and Desfourneaux.

1878
Roch installes a wooden shield at the top of the machine, to mask the knife from the sight of the approaching victim. A novelty suppressed by M. Deibler, when he replaces Roch.

1879
Louis Deibler succeeds Nicolas Roch.

1898
Anatole Deibler succeeds his father Louis Deibler.

1905
June 28th Languille is executed at 5.30 a.m. Dr Beaurieux conducts an experiment on the severed head. Read his report.

1932
May 7th: Prisoner Eugène Boyer receives clemency just as the assistants of Anatole Deibler are conducting him to the guillotine on Bvd. Arago outside the Santé prison.

1939
February 2nd Anatole Deibler collapses with a fatal heart attack while waiting for his train at Métro Porte de St Cloud. He was setting off to execute Pilorges in the provinces.
The last public execution in France. On June 17th Weidmann is guillotined outside the Prison St. Pierre in Versailles.
24/6/1939 In accordance with a new law executions are no longer held in public, but have to take place (in Paris) in the yard of the Santé prison.

1951
André Obrecht is chosen from more than four hundred applicants when the post as Bourreau falls vacant.

1976
Marcel Chevalier succeeds André Obrecht, and remains on duty until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

1977
The last official use of the guillotine in France. On the 10th of September Hamida Djandoubi is executed.

(May it never be used again.)

©Jørn Fabricius

"Karla" met with hostile audience.

2007-05-03T03:00:00.000-04:00

Canadians are not happy at all with American film maker, Joel Bender. The protests were so heated and massive that major sponsors such as Visa and Canada Air threatened to pull out of the World film festival this past fall if the movie "Karla" was shown as planned so the showing was canceled.

The film hardly glorifies the horrific crimes committed by Paul Benardo and Karla Homolka but victim's rights groups were outraged as soon as the project's announcement was made.

In a strange twist to the Karla Homolka case, the only nation that apparently will not welcome Karla with open arms is the United States.

Karla is reported to be in search of a passport and place to go but the US says "No way!"

Canadian PressPublished: Friday, January 13, 2006
Schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka was seen applying for a passport at a Montreal office Thursday.
Homolka was freed from prison in July after serving a 12-year manslaughter sentence for the sex killings of teenagers Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French in 1990s.

She was under a host of conditions, but a Quebec judge lifted all 14 restrictions Nov. 30 - two of which required her to contact police of any travel plans and change of address.
Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant tried to restrict Homolka's movements, but was unsuccessful.

According to Montreal criminal lawyer Jean-Pierre Rancourt, Homolka could jet off and see the sights nearly anywhere in the world despite her crimes.
The only country that wouldn't welcome her with open arms is the United States.

"A person with a criminal record, especially for the kind of crimes she committed, will never be accepted in the U.S.," Rancourt said.

Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders

2007-05-02T22:21:00.000-04:00

Anna Salter understands how sexual predators think and operate. She has spent over two decades studying, interviewing, and treating sexual offenders and their victims. Her book, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders—Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children, is an accessible, powerful work that strikes at the heart of our common misinformation and misunderstandings about sexual offenders, their behaviors, and dangers.

This really is a fantastic true but scary book. Every parent and concerned adult should read this. Some parts were very descriptive however necessary, especially when talking about sex offenders. This is an incredibly courageous and honest book.

Dr. Salter includes her own personal and professional comments about some of the offender's she interviews and from reading this book, one can't help but realize that she remains patient and strong in her commitment to gather the information needed to write such an informative book. I respect her ability to refrain from strangling some of these guys.

Read the book and you'll agree!

Fantastic reading like no other

2007-05-02T01:57:00.000-04:00

As an aspiring Forensic Psychologist, I have read my share of medical books, science books, articles, journals and of course, True Crime novels but please know there are few that truly inspire my passions for the profession as the books I've read by Dr. Kathrine Ramsland, Ph.D.

The latest in my purchases is The Science of Cold Case Files.
A must read for anyone in the field or even fans of true crime and A&E's Cold Case Files.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Science of Cold Case Files(r) reveals the absorbing true stories behind the pioneering A&E television series, and the intrepid detectives whose investigations resulted in the resolution of the most baffling of crimes-sometimes decades after they were committed.

From handwriting analysis, facial reconstruction, fingerprints and K-9 detectives, state-of-the-art DNA technology, and old-fashioned perseverance and police work, here is a detailed look at the methods used in forensic detection. Featuring the most fascinating Cold Case Files(r) on record, some of these cases have never been seen on television. Plus, this book offers an inside look at the intriguing clues found in cases that remain unsolved to this day.

Author Biography:
Katherine Ramsland has a master's degree in forensic psychology from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She has published numerous books, including The Forensic Science of CSI and biographies of Anne Rice and Dean Koontz. Ramsland also spent a year as a research assistant to former FBI profiler John Douglas, the results of which were published in The Cases That Haunt Us. Currently, she writes forensic science articles for Court TV's Crime Library.

Amazon Fans Click Here!
Barnes & Noble Fans Click Here!

Highly recommended:
You should also read all her contributions
to CourtTV's Crime Library Here!

Bizarre & Creepy Facts, Vol. 2

2007-05-01T14:13:00.000-04:00

1. In some states of the USA, felons were hanged by being jerked violently upwards by means of an appropriately weighted mechanism, instead of the traditional method of dropping through a hatch.

2. There was no thought of commuting William Taylor's death sentence when, in 1893, the routine second charge of two thousand volts surged through him but nothing happened. Instead, the badly burned and unconscious man was carried into an adjoining room and given morphine and chloroform to keep him alive. Meanwhile the technicians worked desperately until the fault was rectified; then, still unconscious, he was carried back to the chair, strapped down, and electrocuted. ( A great example of cruel and unusual punishment )

3. Marianne Bachmeier was nicknamed the 'Avenging Mother' by the press when, in March 1981, she walked across the courtroom in Ludeck, Germany, and fired seven bullets into Klaus Grabowski, who was being tried for the sexual murder of Marianne's seven-year-old daughter Anna. Making no attempt to escape, she was arrested and, having gained much public sympathy and support, was later sentenced to six years in jail for manslaughter.

4. The first time a human body was publicly dissected was in Venice in 1308.

5. The first woman to die in the electric chair was Martha Place, executed in Sing Sing prison on March 20th, 1899.

Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler

2006-08-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

The Cornell Law Library has made available Dr. Henry A. Murray analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler with predictions of his future behavior and suggestions for dealing with him during WWII and after Germany's surrender

Cornell Law Library is pleased to share this report in a pdf version of its original format. The Law Library added the montage of photographs on the home page and this explanatory material, but the rest of the site is devoted to the OSS report from 1943. The report is part of our Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection.

Definitely some interesting information about one of history's most notorious murderers.

Church Dumps Sunday School Teacher for Being Female

2006-08-21T13:36:00.000-04:00

WATERTOWN, N.Y. Aug 21, 2006 - The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job outside of the church.

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.

Copyright © 2006 ABCNews

Oh my damn! How does one even respond to this kind of ignorance? If you are a glutten for punishment and wish to read the whole story... by all means, click here!

Truth is stranger than fiction

2006-06-06T18:38:00.000-04:00

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Truth proved to be stranger than fiction for a high school criminology class investigating a fake crime scene after students discovered a real body on a field trip.

Teacher Sue Messenger has been planting fake skeletons with bullet holes and other evidence at mock crime scenes for more than 20 years to give her students a firsthand look at what crime scene investigators do.

"I think they kind of went into shock and disbelief, but also, you have to say it's completely bizarre," Messenger said. "I mean ... what are the odds that we would be out here?"

The discovery Monday at Fort Lauderdale's Holiday Park by 29 students from St. Thomas Aquinas High School jolted the class.

"It was a good crash course," said student Juan Cantor, 15. "The first thing we thought was, 'That's a real good dummy she set up."'

The body of the man, in his mid-50s, was not immediately identified. He appears to have died recently of natural causes, Fort Lauderdale police Sgt. Andy Pallen said.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Story of David Crespi: Father stabs twin daughters to death because HE wanted to die?

2006-04-20T11:11:00.000-04:00

By: GREG LACOUR AND FRED KELLY

David Lauren Crespi, a Mecklenburg County man accused of stabbing his twin 5-year-old daughters to death Friday, has suffered from depression for years and recently told his parents he didn't like a new medication he was taking, Crespi's father told the Observer on Saturday.

The depression, which began about four years ago, was one of a handful of medical problems the Wachovia Bank senior vice president suffered from, said his father, Lauren Crespi of Angels Camp, Calif.

David Crespi was taking antidepressants, and he recently had trouble getting to sleep, Lauren Crespi said; the new medication was to help cure his insomnia. His son last year conquered an even bigger threat: Doctors diagnosed testicular cancer, which is now in remission, Lauren Crespi said. David Crespi had planned to visit a doctor for a checkup Friday.

Regardless, David Crespi's father -- along with friends, former co-workers and neighbors in the affluent Deerfield Creek neighborhood in southeast Mecklenburg County -- said Saturday he can't imagine why his son would have done what he's accused of doing.

Lauren Crespi said he visited his son in North Carolina for Thanksgiving. The family enjoyed a visit to Old Salem in Winston-Salem, and "there were no signs of trouble."

"I just don't understand why he turned on the children," Lauren Crespi said. "I just don't know what snapped."

David Crespi, 45, remained in the Mecklenburg County jail Saturday, charged with two counts of murder. He's scheduled to make his first appearance in District Court on Monday.

Police arrived at David Crespi's home on Creek Pointe Drive on Friday afternoon, after a dispatcher told them a man had called 911 and said he'd stabbed his twin daughters to death and was about to kill himself.

Officers found David Crespi outside and arrested him. Inside, they found Samantha and Tessara Crespi. Both were pronounced dead at the home.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police declined Saturday to disclose details about the possible motive or weapon used; Sgt. Lee Ann Oehler said she could not comment on what led to the killings. Police wouldn't release the 911 recording, saying it's part of the investigation.

David Crespi's wife, Kimberli, was out getting a haircut when the twins were killed. The three other siblings -- Jessica, 17, Dylan, 14, and Joshua, 9 -- were at school, authorities said.

The twins were born in Sacramento, Calif., David Crespi's longtime home, on Oct. 16, 2000. Tessara loved the color purple and dancing, while Samantha loved lambs, pink poodles and the color blue, according to their obituary; both enjoyed dressing as princesses.

A funeral is set for Tuesday at St. Matthew Catholic Church in the Ballantyne area, with other services and burial later in Sacramento.

Neighbors of the Crespis described them as a kind of anchor for their neighborhood, though they'd lived there only about five years. Most of their neighbors had lived there for an even shorter time, and the Crespi children commonly played outside with other children.

"The majority of us don't have family nearby," said a friend and neighbor who didn't want her name used. "So we become each other's family."

On Saturday, a few homes down the street from the Crespis', a group of eight women planned to make dozens of pink ribbons in honor of Samantha and Tessara and distribute them throughout the neighborhood.

The family was active at St. Matthew, where David Crespi served on the church's finance committee, said Monsignor John McSweeney, the pastor. McSweeney said he spent Friday with Kimberli Crespi and the remaining children, and that the shocked congregation would remember Samantha and Tessara during services today.

The shock extended across the country, as friends and former neighbors in the Sacramento area learned the news.

Michael Crowley, who said he's known David Crespi for at least a decade, said his friend's recent Christmas card and letter led him to believe everything was going well.

"If you had to interview the model family, they would be who I would think of," Crowley said. "I can't tell you how inconceivable this is."

David Crespi comes from a family of high achievers. He, his brother and father all hold degrees from California State University, Sacramento, where David Crespi graduated in 1983 with an accounting degree. His brother, John, is an agricultural economics professor at Kansas State University.

David Crespi was a straight-A student in college, his father said, and passed the certified public accountant's exam as a senior in college.

He rose to vice president and chief financial officer at Sacramento Savings Bank before it closed in 1994. He later worked as an administrator at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and as an executive at The Money Store, a Sacramento-based home equity lender, before moving to Charlotte to work for Wachovia, where he was in the bank's audit division.

Richard Slaymaker of Gold River, Calif., worked with David Crespi for about three years in the early 1990s, when the two were finance managers for the housing agency. Slaymaker said his former colleague isn't just a skilled professional but a respected and well-liked man.

"He was dedicated but had the ability to make everyone like him," he said. "He was such an outstanding person; I knew we wouldn't be able to keep him."

"No matter what kind of problems would come up, he could deal with them. What happened yesterday is so out of the norm, it doesn't make sense." -- Staff writers Franco Ordoñez, Ken garfield and melissa manware contributed.

UPDATE!!

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Samantha and Tessara Crespi, the 5-year-old twins police say were killed by their father, were both stabbed more than a dozen times, according to recently released autopsy results.

David Crespi, 45, was arrested in January at his southeastern Mecklenburg County home and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

David Crespi is accused of killing his twin daughters, Samantha and Tessara.

The autopsy reports that both girls had cuts on their hands, but detectives have not said whether they were defensive wounds or if the twins were held down when they were stabbed.

Crespi is being held at Raleigh’s Central Prison on suicide watch. Police say he had a history of depression and had attempted suicide on several occasions.

No trial date has been set. Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek the death penalty.

Okay... a couple of things here. First of all: "suffered from depression for years and recently told his parents he didn't like a new medication he was taking, Crespi's father told the Observer", this sounds like a prelude to a defense to me. Let's blame it on the medication!

Also: "No matter what kind of problems would come up, he could deal with them. What happened yesterday is so out of the norm"... Out of the norm? You think? Maybe this will be a supporting witness to the "blame the medication" defense?

Cold as ice killer

2006-04-20T11:07:00.000-04:00

By: Marie Fox
Evil rapist Trevor Hamilton was last night facing a life behind bars for the murder of retired librarian Attracta Harron.

The farm labourer from Co Tyrone showed no emotion as a jury found him guilty of killing Attracta with a hatchet or axe while on probation for the horrific rape of a woman three years earlier.

A judge branded Hamilton a "grave danger" to all women and warned he faces what could be the longest jail sentence ever handed out in Northern Ireland.

The case made legal history when the jury was allowed to hear evidence of his past criminal record, including the shocking attack on the 29-year-old woman.

Although the jury had been made aware of Hamilton's criminal record, the media was banned from reporting the details during the six-week trial.

The ban was lifted yesterday after legal arguments from the Belfast Telegraph, BBC and UTV.

Judge Mr Justice McLaughlin told Hamilton (23) he had "demonstrated appalling cruelty" when he killed Mrs Harron on December 11 2003 and when he had attacked and raped the teenager earlier.

The judge told Hamilton that he agreed with the jury's verdict without reservation and warned him it would be a "long day before you see freedom again".

He added: "I can assure you it is a very real possibility that you will never be released in your own lifetime."

Hamilton had been released for less than four months from a young offenders' centre and was still on probation when he savagely murdered Attracta as she walked home from morning Mass.
He had been locked up for the rape, indecent assault and attempted buggery of his first victim.

Mrs Harron's husband Michael and family members were in a packed courtroom at Dungannon Court House to hear the guilty verdict and were clearly relieved and pleased at the outcome.

Attracta (65) disappeared while walking to her home from Murlog Parish Church in Lifford just across the border in Co Donegal.

The mother of five was last seen crossing Lifford's bridge. Her decomposed body was discovered four months later in a shallow grave in a riverbank not far from Hamilton's house.

Her skull had been smashed by blows from an axe or hatchet. She had been stripped of all her clothing and possessions except her wedding ring and was wrapped in a meal bag shroud.
Hamilton, from Concess Road, Sion Mills, had denied murder.

It took the jury of six women and six men around four-and-a-half hours over two days to find him guilty.

The accused remained expressionless as the verdict was delivered but visibly blushed at the judge's stinging words.

Choking with emotion, Mr Justice McLaughlin told the jury that the trial had taken a toll on him as well as them and it would be something they would remember for the rest of their lives.

The judge also praised the meticulous work of those involved in the investigation.

Hamilton will be told later the minimum tariff he can expect to serve.

Ruling will force meds on man on death row

2006-04-20T10:54:00.000-04:00

The Texas judge's aim is for a killer from Colorado to become mentally well enough to be executed.
By Jeremy P. Meyer Denver Post Staff Writer

A Texas judge who stopped the execution of a mentally ill man from Denver has ruled the inmate should be forced to take anti-psychotic medication that would make him well enough to be executed.
The ruling is the latest episode in the saga of Steven Kenneth Staley, who in 1989 ran away from a Denver halfway house and ended up on Texas' death row after killing a restaurant manager in front of police.

Staley's actions resulted in a million-dollar lawsuit against the halfway house, and now the issue of his sanity has touched off a debate about the ethics of executing the mentally ill that could ultimately be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Putting doctors in the position ... to give (inmates) treatment for the sole purpose of getting them executed should not be permitted," said New York attorney Ron Tabak, who chaired a task force about seriously mentally ill people and the death penalty. "Once someone has been found to be incompetent to be executed, that should" change his sentence.

Prosecutor Jim Gibson of Tarrant County, Texas, disagrees, saying medication shouldn't be withheld just because someone is on death row.

"We have an interest in making sure that our prisoners aren't lying around in their own urine and hitting themselves in the face," Gibson said. "Our interest is in seeing that the judgment of the court and jury is carried out. Part of that might be getting (Staley) well enough."

The judge's order will be stayed until May 5 to give Staley's defense attorney time to consider his next legal move.

Staley's journey to Texas' death row began in Colorado, where, in September 1989, he and another inmate walked away from Denver's Williams Street Center halfway house and went on a crime spree across four states that involved numerous holdups and two murders.

Staley was serving time for aggravated robbery and motor-vehicle theft.

Staley, now 43, was caught during a botched robbery of a Fort Worth restaurant in October 1989. He fatally shot the restaurant's manager, Bob Read, after taking him hostage. Staley was found guilty of the murder.

The other escapee, Tracey Duke of Arvada, is serving three life sentences in the robbery and murder. Duke's girlfriend, Brenda Rayburn, was with the men, pleaded guilty and was given a 30-year sentence.

Staley has no family left. He has a history of mental illness, but his mental health wasn't a factor in his initial trial, said his attorney, Jack V. Strickland Jr. of Fort Worth.

Staley's mother was a schizophrenic who attempted to stab Staley and his sister and once tried to pound a wooden stake into Staley's chest, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

His father was an alcoholic who was killed in a car accident, the newspaper's report said. His grandfather committed suicide. As a teenager, Staley also attempted suicide, the newspaper reported.

Last year, the Texas court of appeals gave Staley a reprieve about five hours before he was to be executed when questions arose over whether jurors in his 1991 trial were given proper instructions.

In February, Staley won another reprieve six days before he was to be executed. This time, Texas District Judge Wayne Salvant considered an argument about Staley's competency.

Salvant is the same judge who issued Tuesday's ruling. Strickland is considering his next legal move and believes the case is likely to wind up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I think it's Orwellian," Strickland said. "I think the state has an interest in making people competent to stand trial or during a period of incarceration, but I draw the line that the state ... make them competent solely for the purpose of killing them."

Am I the only person who thinks the judicial system in the state of Texas has spun out-of-control? These people will do anything imaginable in order to execute an individual, which is absurd. Never in my life have I encountered a more idiotic system who state motto should read, "ata boy". Texas has become an embarrassment to this country for the way they run their Criminal Justice system!

Informant in slaying relieved of sex counts

2006-04-20T10:43:00.000-04:00

BY PETE SHELLEM
Of The Patriot-News

A district judge has dismissed charges filed against a convicted child molester who was a key police informant in a 10-year-old murder case that is now coming under scrutiny.

District Judge Robert Jennings III dismissed sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault charges Tuesday against Donald "Goofball" Walborn, 52, who was released from Dauphin County Prison later that day.

Walborn had been accused of molesting a mildly retarded 19-year-old man at a rooming house on Camp Street in August shortly after his release from state prison, where he had served time for molesting two 12-year-old girls in 1994.

Assistant District Attorney Jason McMurry said his office was still weighing whether to refile the charges.

Walborn played a key role in the case against David Gladden, who was convicted of the March 11, 1994, murder of M. Geneva Long, 67, at her apartment on North Second Street.

Walborn had been incarcerated with Gladden, who is mentally retarded, before the murder.

Walborn claimed Gladden talked to him about robbing and possibly killing Long, a recluse whose beaten body was found by firefighters extinguishing a fire in her home.

Walborn never testified against Gladden, but was classified by police as a "reliable confidential informant." He received a major break for his cooperation when he was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison for the two rapes.

Gladden is serving a life term for Long's murder.

Andrew Dillon, a serial killer who later pleaded guilty to killing four elderly women, was living next to Long at the time she was killed, but was not mentioned during Gladden's 1995 trial.

Long had been killed in much the same manner as Dillon's victims.

Gladden's attorney, Royce L. Morris, is asking the court to give him a new trial, and prosecutors are awaiting the results of DNA tests being performed by the state police.

It really just ticks me off when the police screw up this bad because the only explanation for this one is, stupidity!!

Prosecutor Owns Up to Going After Innocent Man

2006-04-20T10:39:00.000-04:00

BY RITA RADOSTITZ

Ruben Cantu, 18 years old, was convicted of capital murder in San Antonio in 1985 and executed in 1993. Many people – including Sam Millsap, Bexar Co. district attorney at the time of Cantu's conviction – now believe that Cantu was innocent. A 2005 article in the Houston Chronicle led the current DA, Susan Reed, to open an investigation. However, her tactics – including threatening to charge one of the recanting witnesses with "murder by perjury" – have led all the witnesses to hire attorneys and clam up. And it is now unclear whether any real investigation will take place.

Wrongful convictions in capital cases are, unfortunately, not unusual. The Death Penalty Information Center (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) lists 123 cases since 1973 in which convicted inmates have been released from death row because of innocence. What is very unusual is a prosecutor who takes full – and personal – responsibility for the mistake.

Sam Millsap has done just that. Last weekend, speaking at the Faces of Wrongful Conviction conference at UCLA, Millsap introduced himself to the audience of mostly criminal defense attorneys and activists as the man "who is at least partially responsible for the execution of the first innocent man in the State of Texas." (Millsap later qualified his comment by conceding that Cantu is the first innocent person executed in Texas that we know about.) He then accepted full responsibility for the mistake: "What I accept responsibility for was that I made the decision to prosecute [the Cantu] case as a death penalty case. That was a mistake. That was a serious mistake."

Millsap described the effect of learning about the evidence pointing to Cantu's innocence from the Houston Chronicle reporter as "painful beyond description." He says he is speaking out in the hope that other prosecutors who have made similar mistakes will have the courage to review their possibly flawed decisions. At the time of Cantu's trial, Millsap felt that "the only thing a defendant is entitled to is a fair trial." But he believes that Cantu received a fair trial. So the fact that Texas executed an innocent person (who, it happens, was a juvenile at the time of his alleged crime) has led Millsap to conclude that what we owe all the citizens of Texas is more than merely a fair trial. We need to ensure that the execution of an innocent person cannot happen again.

Update on the case of woman slahing baby's throat

2006-04-13T11:53:00.000-04:00

Natalie Rodriguez, 23, of Chelsea, was facing first-degree murder charges but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping in the December 2002 death of Xavier Antonio Miranda.
Under the plea deal, she could be released from prison in 29 years.

Original Story Here!

Mom Allegedly Accepted $600 For Son To Be Sexually Abused

2006-03-30T14:48:00.000-05:00

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. -- A mother confronted a neighbor who allegedly raped her 7-year-old son and threatened to call police, but reportedly accepted $600 to let the man molest her son again, authorities said.

The 30-year-old unemployed mother was charged Tuesday with capital sexual battery and child abuse. The neighbor, Nicholas Quiles, 48, has been charged with capital sexual battery. Both are being held without bail. It couldn't immediately be determined Thursday if they had lawyers.

Story Link Here!

Money motives disgust me and this woman should go to prison at LEAST as long as the perp. Both prove to be despicable human beings if this story proves true.
What price tag would you be able to put on your child's life?

Burned alive for being pregnant

2006-03-03T18:05:00.000-05:00

Teen arrested in slaying of girlfriend
CENTRAL FLORIDA THE AREA IN BRIEF

WINTER GARDEN -- Human remains found burning by the side of the road in Winter Garden a week ago were those of a teen killed by her boyfriend, a police spokesman said late Thursday.

Dane Abdool, 19, of Ocoee was arrested on one count of first-degree murder after police said he admitted killing Amelia Sookdeo, 17, of Winter Garden.

Amelia left her house through her bedroom window Feb. 24 and got into his car, Abdool told police, Sgt. Bobby Butler said.

They were driving down County Road 545 when an argument began because Amelia thought she was pregnant, Butler said.
That's when Abdool pulled her out, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire, Butler said. By the time police arrived about 4:15 a.m., only a torso remained, Butler said.

Amelia's mother called Winter Garden police about 8 a.m. Saturday to say her daughter was missing. The clothes found on the human remains matched Amelia's, and tire impressions found near the body matched Abdool's car, police said.A preliminary investigation by medical examiners revealed no evidence of a pregnancy, Butler said.

Copyright © 2006, Orlando Sentinel

I cannot even adequately comment on this story. My heart bleeds for this girl and her family.

Hundreds of Mentally Ill to Be Executed in America: Amnesty

2006-02-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

Abid Aslam, OneWorld US Wed Feb 1, 7:12 PM ET

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 1 (OneWorld) - Amnesty International is asking that hundreds of mentally ill people facing the death penalty in American prisons have their sentences commuted.

Ten percent of the first 1,000 people executed in the United States since 1977 suffered from illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to post-traumatic stress disorder and brain damage, the leading rights watchdog and opponent of capital punishment said in a report released Tuesday.
Another 3,400 people remain on death row and 5-10 percent of them have mental illnesses, Amnesty said, citing estimates by the National Institute of Mental Health.

The revelations coincided with hearings Wednesday in which U.S. senators heard about the death penalty from relatives of crime victims.

Ann Scott, whose daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered in 1991, likened the killer to an animal and said he should be ''put away.''

''I, me, want this bully gone. I want him to disappear off the face of this earth. I want him to rot in hell for eternity,'' she was quoted in a news report as saying of her daughter's murderer, Alfred Mitchell. ''He is a bad seed that never should have been born. He is an animal and when you have an animal that attacks people, you take it to the pound and have it put away.''

Vicki Schieber, whose daughter Shannon was raped and murdered in 1998, disagreed and told the Senate panel she did not want her daughter's killer to be executed.

''Responding to one killing with another killing does not honor my daughter, nor does it help create the kind of society I want to live in, where human life and human rights are valued,'' she said. ''I know that an execution creates another grieving family, and causing pain to another family does not lessen my own pain.''

Her daughter's killer, Troy Graves, was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.
The Amnesty report and Senate hearings reflect increasing scrutiny of the death penalty in the United States.

Last October, a Gallup poll said that 64 percent of Americans favored the death penalty--still nearly two-thirds of the population but the lowest level in 27 years. Approval of the death penalty peaked at 80 percent in 1994, Gallup said.
Amnesty, in its report, urged an immediate moratorium on all executions involving the mentally ill.

The inmates in question suffered ''serious mental impairment'' either before or while they committed their crimes, Amnesty said, adding that their execution stood at odds with a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to execute criminals who are mentally retarded.

Read the rest of the story here.

Mental Illness is a huge problem in this country that we still do not address to its full capacity. Why are services for the mentally ill still unobtainable on such a wide scale? It is a fact that in this country, those that need the services most are those that can't afford them. This needs to change and change quick.

Money cannot buy happiness? No... But it certainly can buy choices in a capitalist nation!