tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34291663208262525102024-02-06T23:19:49.979-06:00As I travel this lifeA wandering commentary on the crazy little thoughts that go on in my head and the crazy little events that go on in this world.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-39284248202995375902013-08-24T16:44:00.000-05:002013-08-24T16:44:18.905-05:00Andrew Urdiales<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6e73; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">A young Andrew Urdiales</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6e73; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">As is usually the case with serial killers, Andrew Urdiales was described as a loner, and as someone "who had difficulty engaging in small talk". When he graduated from Thornbridge High School in Doloton, Ill., in 1982, he was given the graduating senior label of "social outcast." By all accounts, he had few friends, and joined the U.S. Marine Corps a short time after completing high school. Over the next eight years he was stationed at Camp Pendleton and other locales in southern California.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6e73; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">During his stint in the Marines, Urdiales claimed to have fallen in love with a 15-year-old girl whom he had gotten pregnant. He said that marriage had been out of the question because he had been fearful of the girl's parents and what the Marine Corps might have done to him, in a judicial or disciplinary sense because of the girl's age. As a result, they had both agreed that the girl would get an abortion.</span><br />
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"I loved her and still love her," Urdiales later told a psychiatry professor at Yale University. "But the law and the state of California and the righteous and the Marine Corps might not see it that way."</div>
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According to court records there was significant evidence of mental illness on both sides of Urdiales' family, that he had been sexually abused by relatives, and that he had been physically and emotionally abused by his parents.</div>
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Urdiales received several promotions while in the Marines but was later demoted when those under his leadership refused to obey his orders. He received an honorable discharge in 1991 and moved back to Chicago to live with his parents. Urdiales would return to California in September 1992 for a short visit and again in March 1995. Each visit would leave behind victims.</div>
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Robbin Brandley, 23</div>
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<b>January 18, 1986</b> at approximately 10:30 p.m., a security guard making rounds at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., spotted a figure lying on one of the student parking lots. As it was dark he thought perhaps it was a mannequin that a student may have left there as a prank. So he simply drove past. Having second thoughts, he turned around and drove back to check it out.</div>
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Upon exiting his vehicle, the guard noticed that the figure lying on the pavement next to a Chevrolet Citation and lying in a pool of blood wasn't a mannequin at all. It was the dead body of a young woman.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Soon two students on the way to their cars happened upon the grisly scene and recognized the young woman as that of Robbin Brandley, 23, a communications major who had left a recital and after party in the fine-arts building just minutes earlier. Brandley had been wearing a long print dress with flower designs, but it had been pulled up above her stomach, revealing bikini underwear and knee-high stockings. A purse, later determined to be Brandley's, lay on the pavement nearby. The asphalt around her body was wet with her blood.</span></div>
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Among the first law enforcement officials to arrive at the scene was Detective Michael Stephany of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Stephany observed immediately that Brandley had been stabbed numerous times, mostly in her neck, chest and back. He also noted that she had sustained cuts to her hands, which he theorized were defensive wounds. It would later be determined that the victim was stabbed at least 41 times. The killer left no evidence. No DNA, fingerprints, hair, or clothing fibers were found at the crime scene. This murder would remain a mystery for the next 11 years.</div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>When Urdiales made his confession to the arresting detectives, and led them through significant details of each of the killings, he claimed that college student Robbin Brandley was his first murder victim. Urdiales remembers that while Stationed at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, he had become upset regarding relationships with some of the people on the base and decided that he wanted to rob someone. He had armed himself with a "big old hunting knife," about 11 inches long, and driven to Saddleback College where he had waited in a darkened parking lot for a victim. He explained that the victim "could have been anybody," and that the victim he had chosen had been "just a random female." The victim had turned out to be Robbin Brandley.</i></span></div>
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<i>After he saw her, he crept up behind her and placed his hand over her mouth, demanding her purse. After she had given it to him, he had begun stabbing her in the back. When she had fallen to the pavement, Urdiales began stabbing her in the chest. At one point the knife had become stuck in her ribs, and, in order for him to remove it, he had had to place his foot on her body to brace it while he struggled to extract the knife. When he had finished, Urdiales said, he had left the young woman there to die.</i></div>
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<i>With blood on his hands, jacket and jeans, Urdiales said, he had known he had to get back on the base undetected. He subsequently rubbed grease from his car's engine on his hands and clothes to conceal the blood, and told military police at the guard station at the base's entrance that his car had broken down and that he'd had to make repairs.</i></div>
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<i>Urdiales told the detectives that he had later picked up a prostitute in Hollywood, with whom he'd had sex, and that he was carrying the same knife that he'd used to kill Brandley. That prostitute, he said, "was lucky."</i></div>
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Julie McGhee, 29</div>
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<b>July 17, 1988</b>. <span style="line-height: 18px;">Julie McGhee, 29 and a prostitute, disappeared after being picked up by an unknown male in the Cathedral City area of Riverside County. Her remains, stripped of identification, were later found in a remote desert area. Identifying her body was made more difficult by the mutilation of her body by coyotes and possibly other animals. Cartridge cases for a .45-caliber handgun were found near McGhee's body. McGhee's slaying was initially investigated as a single, isolated homicide.</span></div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<i>According to court records that detailed his confession, Urdiales said that he had killed Julie McGhee, in Cathedral City, Calif., near Palm Springs, and that she had been his second murder victim. He described how he had picked up McGhee in an area frequented by prostitutes, and had driven her to a remote construction site, out in the desert, where they had had sex. A short time later he had told McGhee to get out of his car, after which he had shot her in the head. He claimed that he had not felt anything after committing the murder. He commented about how "quiet and peaceful" it had been in the desert where he had shot McGhee. Afterward, he said, he had driven to a bar where he had drunk "some beers and watched the girls dance."</i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Mary Ann Wells, 31</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>September 25, 1988</b>. A</span>nother prostitute, Mary Ann Wells, 31, was picked up by someone in nearby San Diego County and driven to a deserted industrial complex within the City of San Diego. Her body was found later, shot once in the head. As in McGhee's death, a cartridge case was left behind at the scene of Wells' murder. A condom found at the scene had Wells DNA on it, as well as DNA from another person—believed to be the killer's—but this discovery lead nowhere in the days prior to dependable DNA testing/matching. </div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<i>Andrew Uridales stated to police, that he had picked up Mary Ann Wells and had driven her to an industrial area in San Diego where they had had sex. Afterward, he said, he had shot her in the head and taken back the $40 he had paid her. He then dumped her body in an alley where it was later found, along with the condom he had left behind.</i></div>
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Tammie Erwin, 18</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>April 16, 1989</b>, another prostitute, Tammie Erwin, 20, was picked up and driven to a remote area near Palm Springs where she was shot three times and her body dumped. Again investigators found cartridge cases near the body. </span>At about this point <span style="line-height: 18px;"> investigators were beginning to see a possible link between the deaths. </span></div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 18px;">Andrew Urdiales </span>said he had paid Tammie Erwin for sex on at least one prior occasion. This particular day he picked up Tammie Erwin and had driven her to a vacant lot near Palm Springs where she performed oral sex on him. Urdiales said that he did not recall having argued with Erwin as he had argued with some of his other victims, but he did remember shooting her as she had stood outside his truck as he prepared to leave. He had been inside the pickup when he shot her, and, as she had stood there holding her head, he shot her a second time, which brought her to the ground. Before he had driven off, he said, he had shot her a third time.</i></div>
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Investigators from Riverside and San Diego counties began comparing notes. They realized that they had a serial killer on their hands: ballistics tests showed that the cartridge cases from the McGhee, Wells, and Erwin murders scenes all matched. Each of the women had been killed with the same gun, but they lacked, at this point, both the weapon and a suspect to whom they could link it.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Unlike the prostitute killings, there was no link between the prostitute shootings and the murder of Robbin Brandley. Brandley wasn't a prostitute; she was a college student. Brandley also had not been shot; she had been repeatedly stabbed. For the next three and a half years there were no additional murders that police could attribute to the same killer. It appeared that as quickly as he had surfaced, so had he vanished. Hope was slim to none of ever finding this killer.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Jennifer Asbenson, 19</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>September 27, 1992</b>. Jennifer Asbenson, 19, a nursing assistant in Palm Springs, worked the night shift at a home for disabled children. On this particular night before heading to the bus stop to catch the bus that would drop her off near her place of employment, she stopped into a store to make a quick purchase. However, when she returned to the bus stop she was just in time to see the last bus that headed her direction, pull away from the bus stop without her. Now she had no way to get to work. A few minutes later</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> a man pulled up in a car and asked her if she needed a ride. As he didn't appear threatening she accepted the ride. She said that she "didn't feel any sense of fear," and thought that he "was so nice and so charming." He dropped her off for work in time for her shift, which ran from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m.</span></div>
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<b>September 28, 1992. </b>The next morning when Jennifer got off work, the man was waiting outside the children's home. She told police, as well as reporters, that she was not frightened by the man and accepted a ride home from him. She felt that if the man were dangerous, he had had every opportunity to have shown that the night before. </div>
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However, this ride would turn out to be a much different ride than the one before. He almost immediately put a knife to her throat, tied her hands behind her back and then drove her into the desert. When they arrived at a remote location, Jennifer's nightmare truly began. </div>
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He cut off her shorts and bra, and shoved her underwear into her mouth. He then forced her to perform sexual acts, and attempted to rape her but was unable to perform the task. He strangled her until she passed out and then he revived her. He kept screaming for her to say she loved him and when she complied with his request, he would hit her about the head screaming for her to "say it like you mean it" before again choking her into unconsciousness. Eventually he opened the car door and told her to get out, but maintained a hold on her by yanking on her hair. At one point, he yelled for her to walk ahead of him. Jennifer saw an opportunity and bolted. The next thing she knew he had grabbed her by the hair of her head and was dragging her, half naked, on the ground back to the car. He then forced her into the car's trunk and drove away.</div>
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Jennifer was absolutely convinced that she was going to die. She states that in her panic to live, she was able to miraculously get her hands free from their bonds. She then desperately searched for the trunk's release mechanism. Working in the dark with her heart pounding, she popped the trunk open. Then she felt the car slow down and knew that he must have seen the trunk pop open through his rear view mirror so she quickly grabbed it and pulled it shut again. The car regained its original speed. She then waited for a few more minutes, again popped the trunk open and jumped out onto the road. </div>
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As she ran half naked down the road, she ventured a look behind her and saw Andrew running after her carrying a machete. Just as she turned a small bend in the road, she saw a truck, stood in its path and frantically waved her hands for it to stop. The truck was carrying two Marines. When her abductor saw the two Marines helping her, he fled. The Marines drove her to safety and she reported her terrifying ordeal to the police.</div>
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While physically, Jennifer was going to be just fine, emotionally this ordeal had taken a heavy toll on her. For much of the next 6 years, Jennifer would opt to live in hospitals rather than face a world with Andrew Urdiales roaming free in it. She stated that a hospital setting was the only place where she felt safe.</div>
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Thankfully today Jennifer Asbenson is thriving. She works with victims of similar crimes.</div>
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However, Andrew wasn't going to stop just because one girl got away.....</div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<i>Andrew Urdiales said that after having offered Asbenson a ride to work that fateful September evening in 1992, he had asked her for her telephone number, and she had given him one. Problem was, he said, it had been a fake number and when he tried to call her but discovered the number she had given him was not the correct number, he grew angry. He said that while waiting for her to get off work so he could offer to take her to breakfast and give her a ride home, he had begun "feeling upset about the number or something...something was just kind of building up, you know. Tension." He made his offer to give her a ride home and she accepted.</i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>While they were driving, Urdiales said he had reached over and grabbed Asbenson by her hair and showed her a gun, after which she had become "pretty much submissive from that part forward." He forced her to turn around and tied her hands behind her back.</i></span></div>
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<i>"I think," he said, "before we started moving after I tied her hands up, I reached over and I kissed her. I just put my lips on her mouth and then I just started, you know, I was trying to make out with her."</i></div>
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<i>At some point, Urdiales said he forced Asbenson to perform oral sex on him. But Urdiales failed to attain an erection, both when he forced Asbenson—who feared for her life—to perform oral sex and when he attempted to rape her after cutting off her clothes and undergarments. Livid, Urdiales began to choke Asbenson.</i></div>
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<i>"She kept kicking and...her saliva was coming out of her mouth...her face was turning blue and then red," Urdiales said. "It was just a battle for awhile."</i></div>
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<i>After his hand had become tired from choking her, Urdiales said, he had forced Asbenson out of the car and threatened her so that she would make another oral sex attempt. Failing again in that regard, he said, he had forced Asbenson into the trunk of his car and had driven off. When Asbenson had escaped, he said, his first thought had been to shoot her, but he had driven away instead because of the presence of too many other vehicles on the roadway.</i></div>
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<i>"So that was the last time I saw her," Urdiales told the detectives. "I don't know if somebody else picked her up and finished what I started."</i></div>
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Denise Maney, 32</div>
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<b>March 11, 1995</b>. A nearly three year gap had occurred after the kidnapping, rape and attempted murder of Jennifer Asbenson. In March of 1995, Urdiales returned to Palm Springs for a vacation. While there he picked up prostitute Denise Maney in the same area where he had previously picked up McGhee and Erwin. </div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<i>Urdiales described how he had driven Maney into the desert, eventually turning off onto a deserted side road where he stopped and ordered her to take off her clothes and perform oral sex on him. He said that after getting "tired" of the oral sex, he had grabbed Maney by her hair and forced her to go to the front of his car and lie face down on the ground. He tied her hands behind her back and forced her to perform fellatio again. Because he "wasn't really feeling satisfied," he then forced her onto her knees and abused her anally with his fingers, causing her to scream from the pain.</i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">"And that went on for awhile," he said. "I just kept doing that to her." </span>Tired of abusing Maney, <i>Urdiales forced her to walk toward the desert. At one point they stopped, she turned around, and he forced the gun into her mouth.</i></div>
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<i>"And then it went off," he related. He said it blew off the back of Maney's head. "Then she fell and she was still...gurgling...making a lot of noises."</i></div>
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<i>Urdiales recounts that he had gotten back in his car and started to drive away, but stopped and returned to where Maney lay dying.</i></div>
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<i>"I didn't really think," he said. "I just kind of like wiped clean my hand...and I stopped, turned around and I went back to her."</i></div>
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<i>He said that by this time, he had become "angry" and "very upset," and took out his knife. As he detailed what happened next, he began using both the singular pronoun "I" and the plural pronoun "we," prompting some people, including Robbin Brandley's relatives, to later question whether he may have been assisted by another person in carrying out his gruesome crimes.</i></div>
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<i>"We took the knife out and we went back toward...to where she was lying...we just started stabbing for some reason," he told the cops, according to court records. "Just on the body several times, in the chest maybe, stomach...I remember I made a slashing motion by the throat...then we went back to the car. And I—we—we picked up her clothes. Then we were driving, we just started driving."</i></div>
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Laura Uylaki, 25</div>
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<b>April 14, 1996</b>. A Cook County, Ill., prostitute was picked up off a street and driven to the Wolf Lake area straddling the Hammond, Ind., and Chicago border. At some point Laura Uylaki was shot twice in the head with a .38-caliber revolver. Then her killer threw her nude body into Wolf Lake where it was later found on the Chicago side. Police theorized that the killer had taken the victim's clothing and other items to hamper their efforts in identifying her. </div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>According to court records, he stated that he had met Laura Uylaki sometime during the winter of 1995, and that they had gone out on dates a few times. He said that they'd had sex on two occasions at Wolf Lake, using a sleeping bag Urdiales said he kept in the back of his truck. It had been in April 1996, he said, that he picked up Uylaki and they again went to Wolf Lake. Along the way, an argument broke out between them. When they arrived at Wolf Lake, Urdiales took his .38-caliber revolver, which was loaded, from beneath the driver's seat and was "showing it to Laura" when it went off and shot a hole in the roof of his pickup.</i></span></div>
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<i>"Laura got mad and all hell broke loose," Urdiales told the detectives questioning him.</i></div>
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<i>Urdiales said that Uylaki had attempted to grab his gun, and had broken his left index finger during the struggle. Unable to gain control of the situation, Uylaki had jumped out of the truck and had tried to run away. Following her, he had fired a couple of rounds in Uylaki's direction as he ran after her. At some point, she fell to the ground. Urdiales went over to her and discovered that she was dead. It was then that he had made the decision to toss her body into the lake. He further stated that prior to throwing her body in the lake, he had undressed her and taken her clothes with him. On the drive back to Chicago, he said, he had thrown the clothes out of the truck from the passenger side.</i></div>
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Cassandra Corum, 21</div>
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<b>July 14, 1996</b>. The nude body of prostitute Cassandra "Cassie" Corum, 21, was found floating in the Vermillion River in Livingston County, Ill., near the town of Pontiac. Duct tape had been placed over her mouth, and she had shot been once in the head. An autopsy later showed that she had also been stabbed seven times in the chest and head. Her wrists had been handcuffed, and duct tape had also been used to bind her ankles. Corum had disappeared from a bar in Hammond, Ind., after having been seen talking with a man, and had left with him in his pickup truck.</div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<i>Urdiales said that he had known Cassandra Corum for about two years before killing her. The night of her murder, Cassandra and Urdiales had met at a bar in Hammond, Ind. At some point, the couple had driven to Wolf Lake to have sex. </i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Urdiales remembers that Corum had said something that angered him—he couldn't remember what—resulting in him striking Corum in the face several times with his hand and fist. Urdiales' anger, the cops noted, seemed to be a recurring theme. Frightened by his violence, Corum panicked and had begun to fight back, which is what had prompted him to handcuff her hands behind her back. Urdiales had then removed her clothing, and described Corum as seeming "numb with anxiety and fear" and "passive and submissive." He had then bound her feet with duct tape and placed duct tape over her mouth. He said that as he drove south on Interstate 55 with a terrified, bound and naked woman lying on the front seat of his truck, he had been "still pissed off" about whatever Corum had said.</i></span></div>
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<i>He decided to exit the interstate after driving for about two hours as he was beginning to get tired. Eventually he crossed a bridge that led to a small park where he finally stopped. He said that he grabbed the gun from beneath his seat and then he and Corum had gotten out of the truck. Once they had reached the back of the truck Corum had turned to face Urdiales, as if she had planned to say something. Urdiales shot her. Even after she had fallen to the ground, Urdiales said, he was still angry with her and so he took out his knife and stabbed her "a few times." He then threw her body into the river from the nearby bridge. On the drive home, he tossed her clothing out the truck windows. He stated that he had not felt any sympathy for Cassandra Corum.</i></div>
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<i>"She was just a whore," he said.</i></div>
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Lynn Huber, 22</div>
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<b>August 2, 1996</b>. Only a few yards from the location where Laura Uylaki's body had been found, the nude body of Lynn Huber, 22, of Chicago, was found floating in Wolf Lake. As with most of the other victims, Huber had been a prostitute, and the killer had left none of the victim's clothing or identification near the murder scene.</div>
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<b><i>(Andrew Urdiales tells his recollection of the events of that night.)</i></b></div>
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<i>Urdiales said he <span style="line-height: 18px;">met Lynn Huber during the summer of 1996 in Chicago where she had been working as a prostitute. As with Uylaki, Urdiales said that he and Huber had had sex on two occasions. On an evening in late July or early August 1996, Urdiales said that he had seen Huber carrying a large garbage bag, and that he had stopped and offered her a ride which she accepted. He said that he had driven into an alley so he could have sex with Huber. He claimed she had begun arguing with him and started "acting kind of ditzy" before trying to get out of the truck. Urdiales said that he had grabbed her and had shot her in the head with the gun he kept under the driver's seat.</span></i></div>
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<i>Urdiales said that after he'd killed her, he placed her body in the bed of the truck and drove to Wolf Lake. He remember that while he was removing Lynn Huber's clothing, he pricked his finger with a needle. He said that pricking his finger had made him angry, prompting him to take a knife and stab the body repeatedly. He said that he had stabbed Huber "a lot of times" in the back, and afterward had shot her again. He then took her nude body and threw it in the lake. The garbage bag that Huber had been carrying was still in his truck so after he looked through the contents to discover it only contained clothing, he donated not only the bag of clothing but the clothes that Ms. Huber had been wearing to the Salvation Army because Huber "won't need them anymore."</i></div>
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<b>November 14, 1996</b>. Officer Warren Fryer with the Hammond, Indiana police stopped a man driving a pickup truck after observing that the driver was parked outside a suspected crack house on the 800 block of Becker Street with a prostitute known to the police. Officer Fryer called for backup and waited for additional police to arrive before moving on the suspicious person. As the officers approached the pickup the driver, Andrew Urdiales, 31, was "cooperative." During their conversation Urdiales told the officer that he had served in the Marines. At some point, Officer Fryer noticed a revolver inside the pickup and alerted his fellow officers.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">The revolver was a snub-nosed, chrome-plated .38 special and was fully loaded. Since Urdiales did not have a permit for the gun, he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and the revolver was confiscated.</span></div>
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The police noticed that the vehicle was "spotlessly clean" both inside and out. Rolls of duct tape were also found inside the vehicle.</div>
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Urdiales was soon released on the concealed weapon charge, but was later convicted of a misdemeanor for the unauthorized possession of a handgun.</div>
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<b>April 1, 1997</b>. On this date a call came into the Hammond Police Department and as luck would have it, the call was routed to Officer Fryer. It was a disturbance call about a man and a woman fighting at a motel, then known as the American Inn, at 4000 Calumet Avenue in Hammond. According to police, Urdiales told an officer that the woman, a prostitute, had stolen something from him. The prostitute, however, also known to the police, told Fryer that Urdiales was "kind of kinky" and that the altercation arose because Urdiales had wanted to take the woman to Wolf Lake, handcuff her in the back of his pickup and have sex with her. Fryer told the prostitute, "Geez...don't do that. We're finding girls up there dead."</div>
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A police report about the incident was written and filed, but no one was arrested in this incident. Later, Officer Fryer ran a computer check on Urdiales. The results included the November 1996 incident involving the unauthorized possession of a handgun. At that time, Officer Fryer wrote a supplemental report that included all of the information he knew about Urdiales to date and forwarded it to the detective division. Because Officer Fryer had made the Wolf Lake connection to the murdered prostitutes, copies of the reports were in turn forwarded to homicide detectives with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) with the hope that the information might be useful to them. Following their review of the documents, CPD Detective Don McGrath asked Hammond police for Urdiales' confiscated revolver.</div>
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Once Detective McGrath received the revolver he took it to a gun expert. The ballistics test results showed that it was the same gun that had been used to kill Laura Uylaki, Cassandra Corum, and Lynn Huber. McGrath now knew for certain that he had a serial killer on his hands.</div>
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<b>April 22, 1997. </b>Detective McGrath and his partner, Detective Raymond Krakausky, began a stakeout in an alley near the home belonging to the parents of Andrew Urdiales which is where Urdiales had lived following his discharge from the Marine Corps years earlier. It was a working-class neighborhood where lined with bungalows. Not long into their stakeout, Urdiales came out out the house to go to his job as a security guard at a downtown Chicago Eddie Bauer store. The two detectives walked up to Urdiales and told him that they needed to speak with him about the incident in November 1996 in which his gun had been confiscated. Calmly Urdiales told them that it was his understanding that the matter had been resolved. Detectives McGrath and Krakausky insisted there were still some outstanding issues pertaining to the .38-caliber revolver. Finally, Urdiales agreed to accompany the two detectives to their offices.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Urdiales told the detectives that he had purchased the revolver about five years earlier in Calumet City for $300. When asked if it had ever been out of his possession, he said that it had not and stated that it had been under his exclusive control until it had been confiscated by Hammond police officers. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">The detectives informed Urdiales that they were investigating some murders involving a .38-caliber gun. They showed Urdiales photos of Huber, Uylaki and Corum. Initially Urdiales denied ever seeing the three women, but when McGrath told him that the bullets used in their murders matched his gun, he paused for a moment and then responded that he guessed he would not be going to work that day. He took off his security badge, loosened his tie, and began untying his shoe laces. He then provided the detectives with details of his murders of Uylaki, Corum, and Huber. He then admitted that there were "some matters" that police in California "might be interested in." Until that moment, none of the police in any of the jurisdictions had connected the dots that would lead them to believe that the murders in Illinois and California were at all related.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">Urdiales went to trial in Cook County, Ill., in 2002 for the murders of Laura Uylaki and Lynn Huber and was convicted of first-degree murder in both cases. He was sentenced to death. However, Governor George Ryan commuted all Illinois death sentences prior to leaving office in 2003, resulting in Urdiales being resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.</span></div>
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In 2004, Urdiales was convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of Cassandra Corum, and again received a death sentence. He is currently on death row in Illinois, but has appealed his death sentence. He will eventually be extradited to California to face charges in the murders of Robbin Brandley, Julie McGhee, Mary Ann Wells, Tammie Erwin, and Denise Maney after the evidentiary segment of his appeal in Illinois has concluded.</div>
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In July 2009, under a state law that allows for multiple murders connected to one another to be prosecuted together, prosecutors in California agreed to consolidate the five California murder cases into one, with Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy of the Orange County District Attorney's Office prosecuting the case.</div>
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Detective Don McGrath, testifying at Urdiales' sentencing for the murder of Corum, recalled that Urdiales had told him as he escorted Urdiales back to lock-up on one occasion that he was happy that he had been caught.</div>
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"'Well, you know, I'm kind of glad in a way that you caught me,'" McGrath quoted Urdiales. "'I was starting to get the urge again.'"</div>
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It's my personal opinion that serial killers are the same as wild animals. Some wild animals can be taken in a babies and with the right amount of love, discipline and training can become the best pets in the world. While others no matter how much you love them, discipline them or attempt to train them - they will always be wild. Those are the animal equivalent of a serial killer. A person who is a hunter by very nature and who kills for no other reason than to kill - not for food - not in self defense - not in defense of another - just for the thrill of killing. </div>
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Nearly every serial killer has an excuse for their behavior. Bad childhood. Sexually abused. Physically abused. Or my personal favorite "no one ever loved me". Maybe because serial killers are technically human, they have a need, or sense that they should have a need, to offer an explanation for their actions. Or maybe they just want something to say that might spare them the death penalty when they come to trial.</div>
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However, there is absolutely no excuse in the world that when offered would make me think, "Oh! Well, in that case, you should be immediately set free!"</div>
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But that's just me.</div>
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<i>(I'd like to acknowledge the following resources which contributed to the making of this article.)</i></div>
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<i>CBS News</i></div>
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<i>The Capistrano Dispatch</i></div>
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<i>Orange County Weekly</i></div>
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<i>Orange County District Attorney's Office</i></div>
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<i>Chicago Tribune</i></div>
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<i>Los Angeles Times</i></div>
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<i>State of Illinois Supreme Court</i></div>
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<i>True TV</i></div>
Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-67876178941421496952013-01-22T15:13:00.000-06:002013-01-22T16:41:58.035-06:00Kevin Lee Green - Wrongfully ConvictedSeptember 30, 1979 is a date that I doubt Kevin Lee Green will ever be able to forget. That's the day his life would change forever.<br />
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In 1979, Kevin Green was a 21 year old Corporal in the Marine Corps and lived with his pregnant 20 year old wife, Dianne in Tuston, California.<br />
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By all accounts, including Kevin's, he and Dianne Green had a rocky marriage. The police had been called to their apartment on more than one occasion to settle their arguments which sometimes led to physical contact. But according to Kevin, at the time of this horrific event, he and Dianne were trying to work their problems out. Dianne was nearly term with her pregnancy and they were hopeful of a happier future.<br />
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In the early morning hours on this date, Kevin decided to make a run to the local Jack in the Box to get something to eat. He states he went to the one across the street but that the drive through was backed up so he elected to go to another location that was about 15 minutes away for his food. Both sides have speculated on this decision. Both sides have their own views on this. Kevin says the one across the street was busy so he opted to go to the other one where he might be waited on quicker. Dianne and the prosecutors took the view that he wanted to be able to say he was gone long enough for a stranger to have entered his apartment and brutally attack his wife.<br />
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From the very beginning, Kevin has stated that when he walked out of their first floor apartment, he noticed a black man in the parking lot and when he returned, the same black man was about to enter a van parked in their parking lot. When Kevin walked past this man, he ducked his head down so Kevin wouldn't be able to see his face.<br />
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When Kevin entered their apartment, he found Dianne in their bedroom. She had been raped, strangled and viciously hit in the head with a round object. Kevin thought initially that she had been shot in the head but it would be discovered later that she had in fact been hit in the head with a wooden object such as a table leg with the bolt used to attach the leg to the table making the round wound to Dianne's head that first led Kevin to believe she had been shot.<br />
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Kevin called police and an ambulance and stayed with Dianne. Several hours after arriving at the hospital, the baby girl Dianne had been carrying died and the decision to perform an emergency C-Section was made although the doctor's feared Dianne might not make it through the surgery. She lapsed into a coma and Kevin stayed with her.<br />
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Eventually Dianne woke from her coma but her brain was damaged to the point that she had no memories of the event. She had forgotten how to speak and needed constant care and rehabilitation.<br />
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Kevin and Dianne moved into her parents home until she could recover.<br />
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From the very beginning the police zeroed in on Kevin to the exclusion of all others. When Dianne was attacked, there were other very similar attacks in the area. All women lived in ground floor apartments. All women were beaten about the head. All women had been raped. All but one had died. Yet the police still focused their entire attention on Kevin.<br />
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The doctors had warned Kevin and Dianne's parents to allow Dianne to form her own memories of that night. They strongly warned them that if they helped her at all, their suggestions would become a part of Dianne's memory. That she would incorporate those suggestions into her newly formed memory and it would be as real as if she had actually remembered the event.<br />
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No one knows for sure, but it has always been my belief that one or both of her parents planted memories into Dianne's head. Maybe they didn't mean to - maybe they were just both so convinced that Kevin was guilty that they didn't see the harm in planting those memories. They may have been so afraid that if her memory never returned, Kevin might walk way unscathed that they felt it would be the lessor of two evils for them to help their daughter form a new memory than to allow Kevin to walk around free.<br />
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While I do not subscribe to the following theory, Dianne's parents may have been completely innocent of malice. They may have simply answered her questions and when Dianne put all those answers together, she formed a new memory. Questions like "Did Kevin ever hit me?" "Is Kevin the violent type?" "Were we happy as a married couple?" I'm sure Dianne had tons of questions.<br />
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Whichever of the above scenarios are factual, Dianne did eventually form a memory of that night and she called the police to tell them.<br />
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She states that she and Kevin violently argued earlier in the evening. He wanted sex and she did not. So according to her "new" memory, he beat her, raped her and then beat her some more. That was all the police needed to hear.<br />
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Kevin was tried and convicted of second degree murder for the death of their unborn child, the attempted murder on Dianne Green and assault with a deadly weapon for the attack. On November 7, 1980 he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.<br />
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Kevin Green would sit in prison from November 1980 until October 1996. 16 years for a crime he didn't commit.<br />
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Kevin could have gotten out of prison well before 1996. The problem? He steadfastly refused to admit his guilt and show remorse to the parole board for something he didn't do.<br />
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The prosecutions case was built upon the witness testimony of a woman who had major brain damage and at best a faulty and highly suggestible memory. Then there were the police reports from earlier domestic disturbances, interviews with neighbors who had heard them fighting and semen recovered from Dianne Green that matched Kevin Green's blood type. Remember back in 1979/1980 DNA was just a twinkle in its daddy's eye so blood type was the best they could do. Unfortunately for Kevin, type O is a very common blood type.<br />
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As stated earlier in this piece, during the same time that Dianne Green was attacked there were a series of other very similar attacks in this area. The attacks had begun about 10 months before Dianne Green's attack and there were 20 in all. The police had dubbed him the "Bedroom Basher". <br />
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1996 DNA was just beginning to be used as a tool to detectives. Cold case detectives gathered the evidence from the 20 attacks and sent DNA off for testing. Against all odds, a match is found. A convicted Sex Offender named Gerald Parker who is set to be paroled in a month from prison. Detectives have to move fast if they want to get to him before he gets released.<br />
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They set up an interview with him and they bring their 20 cases with them. Parker isn't interested in speaking about any of the cases. Until they get to the Kevin & Dianne Green case. It seems that Parker was a Marine himself and it has always bothered him that he found out that he had done this to a fellow Marine.<br />
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Parker remembered everything about that night and that crime. And he told the police everything he remembered. Apparently the only thing in Parker's life that he cherished was the fact that he had been a Marine. It was the only good thing he had ever done.<br />
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Because of the new DNA evidence and Parker's confession, Kevin Green was released. Eventually he would be paid $100 for each day he served in prison.<br />
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The bulk of his nightmare was over. Now he had to deal with a wrongful death suit that his now ex-wife Dianne had filed and won while he was in prison. She had won a multi-million dollar judgment from him. Kevin had to hire an attorney and fight to have that judgment overturned. The court over turned the judgment and suggested Kevin settle out of court with Dianne. Which he did. Personally, I would never have given her a dime. But apparently Kevin was a better man. He has said that while he was a victim in this situation it was nothing compared to the damage Dianne suffered during this ordeal. He has repeatedly excused her attitude, opinions and actions over the years. He feels she has every right to be angry, frustrated and bitter.<br />
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Kevin said one of the first things he did when released was to visit his infant daughter's grave. He said he felt he had to go there and tell her in person that he was out of prison and that he didn't kill her - that Gerald Parker had done it.<br />
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To this day, while Dianne will admit that maybe Kevin didn't strike the proverbial "final" blow, he had indeed beaten and raped her that night and in her mind he deserved everything that he got. She vehemently states that at the least had he not left the door unlocked perhaps none of this would have happened to her.<br />
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When I watched footage of both Kevin and Dianne, it was difficult to watch Dianne. She was so full of bitterness, anger and revenge while Kevin was forgiving, kind and understanding.<br />
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Would I have reacted to this situation like Kevin or Dianne? I'm not sure. I would like to say Kevin but I don't know. I guess none of us do until we go through it.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com140tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-50326234125120085762011-12-15T10:46:00.000-06:002011-12-15T11:52:23.871-06:00Rich & Beautiful - a Texas Murder<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 1981 Farrah Fawcett did a made for TV movie called "Murder in Texas". I remember watching it and loving every second of it! Today's post will be about this murder mystery that still has folks talking in Houston over 40 years later.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This story has so many twists, turns and characters that it makes your head spin. Forgive me - and feel free to correct me - should I overlook, skip or miss something.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Joan Robinson Hill was the only child of Ashton "Ash" Robinson, a very influential and rich Texas oil man and his socialite wife, Rhea Robinson. Joan was beautiful, smart and quite the catch in the Houston social circuit. She was an accomplished equestrian who often preferred the company of her horses to that of humans. The fact that she was a very spoiled child is not in dispute.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At some point in the 1950's, Joan met John Robert Hill, a handsome plastic surgeon and they married in the late 1950's producing a son named Robert Ashton"Boot" Hill.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Hill was certainly not born into Houston high society. Or any other high society for that matter. He had worked his way through college and then medical school. He was, by all accounts, a very gifted and dedicated pianist. Joan's father was never a fan of the man or the marriage and evidence would suggest that the feeling was mutual.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"On Tuesday, March 18, 1969, Joan Hill, a 38-year-old Houston, Texas, socialite, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">became violently ill for no readily apparent reason. Her husband, Dr. John Hill, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">at first indifferent, later drove her at a leisurely pace several miles to a hospital </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">in which he had a financial interest, passing many other medical facilities on the way. When checked by admitting physicians, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Joan's blood pressure was dangerously low, 60/40. Attempts to stabilize her failed and the next morning she died. The cause </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">of death was uncertain. Some thought pancreatitis; others opted for hepatitis."</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;"><br /><br />(Read more: <a href="http://law.jrank.org/pages/3212/John-Hill-Trial-1971.html#ixzz1gc2jv5pn" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">John Hill Trial: 1971 - Motive: Failed Divorce, Outburst Leads To Mistrial, Retrial Unnecessary - Joan, Robinson, Kurth, and Death - JRank Articles</a> <a href="http://law.jrank.org/pages/3212/John-Hill-Trial-1971.html#ixzz1gc2jv5pn" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">http://law.jrank.org/pages/3212/John-Hill-Trial-1971.html#ixzz1gc2jv5pn</a>)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">Ash Robinson would have his daughter's body exhumed twice in order to have private autopsies performed at his expense. A total of 3 autopsies were performed. All of them with varying results and conjectures.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">It is now believed by many in the medical field, that Joan may well have died from Toxic Shock Syndrome. However, in 1969 with the medical professionals unable to agree with a final diagnosis and TSS not even a known condition, the death looked mighty suspicious to a wealthy and powerful father grieving over the loss of his only child. Especially since Ash Robinson hadn't wanted his daughter to marry John Hill to begin with. Another red flag was the fact that John Hill had a mistress and wanted to divorce Joan so he could marry his mistress. However, Dr. Hill was bound by a pre-nup which clearly stated that should they divorce - he gets whatever he brought into the marriage, but nothing more. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">All the classic signs for murder were there. Husband who came from nothing but had grown to love the "good life" and would do anything not to give it up. Wife who thought they could "work it out" and refused to give her husband a divorce so he could marry his mistress, Ann Kurth. Ann had issued an ultimatum. "Marry me or leave me alone". And the icing on the cake? If he divorced Joan - he got nothing. If she died - he got everything.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">When John and Joan Hill bought the house at 1561 Kirby Drive in Houston, it had its own checkered past (and future). The Hill's bought the house in 1966 for $80,000 and Robert Hill spent an additional $100,000 just on creating a music room for his piano. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">It was not, and reportedly had never, been a "happy house". The previous owner died from cancer in the very room where Joan lay dying from her mysterious illness. The owners before them, had all been embroiled in messy divorces and/or depression with some reporting they were on the brink of suicide when they sold the house. As for the Hill's, according to Robert, they were a happy couple until about a year after they moved into the house on Kirby Drive. Their troubles began when John started his affair and ended with both of their deaths. Both deaths either began or ended in this house.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">Connie Hill, John Hill's wife at the time of his death, and his son with Joan continued to live in the house after John's death until the middle 1980's. At that time, Connie Hill remarried and Robert left for college so they sold the home to an attorney. As near as I can tell, it has been sold at least twice since then. All times to attorneys.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">Within weeks after Joan's death, Robert Hill married Ann Kurth and moved her into the house at Kirby Drive.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">Ann would later testify at John's trial that one night in a drunken rage, he admitted to her that he had regularly injected Joan with her own urine killing her. She testified that he also admitted to her that he had also killed both his father and brother.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">If he did indeed kill her by injecting her with her own urine, it would certainly explain why none of the autopsies were conclusive. It would also explain why no known foreign toxins were found to suggest a poison. I'm sure in 2011, doctors would be able to detect and possibly suspect this method of poisoning, but in 1969, they could not. Our urine is nothing more than natural toxins that our body is disposing of in order to prevent our being poisoned. If you take those concentrated toxins and reintroduce them into your body, you are in effect being poisoned to death quite naturally by toxins that are not foreign and thereby undetectable. At least in 1969 medical standards. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">Joan languished completely bedridden for nearly a week before she was finally brought to a hospital and died. She had been exhibiting flu-like symptoms for a week prior to becoming bedridden. During this time, she told her father and others who inquired about her health that her husband was taking excellent care of her. He was taking daily urine samples for testing and was injecting her twice daily with a vitamin cocktail that should make her feel much better soon. However, that was not the case.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Other sources state that Dr. Hill had taken feces samples from very sick patients and had put them into a petri dish creating a deadly bacteria which he then injected into pastries which he fed to his wife. At the trial, Ann Kurth-Hill testified that one day when she was at the apartment which John kept for his "second life", she had seen 3 petri dishes in the bathroom. When she asked John about them, he brusquely informed her that it was "just an experiment that he was working on."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">Ash Robinson dedicated his time and considerable resources and influences to the goal of proving Dr. Hill murdered Joan. He made daily calls to the prosecutor's office, the attorney General's office, Congressman and noted physicians. He had Joan's body exhumed on at least two occasions for private autopsies. He had the house and occupants on Kirby Drive under surveillance and even had a private investigator digging into John's past and family.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">He had a stroke of luck when Ann decided to come forward with John's alleged drunken confession. After only 9 months of marriage, John Hill had unceremoniously dumped Ms. Kurth and she was not happy about it. He was finally able to convince the prosecutors to charge John Hill with the murder of his daughter.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">After months of badgering, intercessions from noted lawmakers and persistence on the part of Ash Robinson, the prosecutors dug around until they found a Texas law that allowed them to use </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">the extremely rare charge of "murder by omission," in effect, killing someone by deliberate neglect.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">The trial began in February, 1971 and lasted 11 days before a mistrial was declared. Of course, Ann Kurth-Hill testified. One of the Hill's neighbors, Vann Maxwell, also testified that shortly before Joan became ill, she had told Vann that she was intending to file for divorce. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> John Hill had filed for divorce in December, 1968 but had withdrawn his petition when it came to light that he would not only risk losing everything in a contested divorce but also his reputation and personal medical practice might severely suffer if it became public knowledge that he had participated in an affair. He instead elected to enact a "reconciliation" with his wife.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">The Defense attorneys had thought it highly inappropriate that Ann Kurth-Hill was allowed to testify at the murder trial of her ex-husband. However, the presiding Judge decided to allow it with the condition that he could stop her testimony at any time. </span></div>
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The main thrust of Kurth's testimony was given over to a vivid account of an incident in which, she said, Hill had attempted to kill her. It came just one month into their marriage. They were out driving when, Kurth claimed, Hill deliberately smashed her side of the car into a bridge.</div>
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"What happened next?" asked Prosecutor McMaster.</div>
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"He pulled a syringe from his pocket and … tried to get it into me." Kurth said that she managed to knock the syringe from Hill's hand, but that he then produced another hypodermic needle.</div>
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"And what did he do with that one, if anything?" queried MeMaster.</div>
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Kurth, who several times had to be admonished by the judge for her overly theatrical presentation, crescendoed, "He tried to get that syringe into me!"</div>
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Here the prosecutor speculated. "Was he attempting to treat you? Or harm you? Do you know?"</div>
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"Yes, I knew." Kurth hesitated, as if unsure what to say next, then blurted out, "Because he told me how he had killed Joan with a needle."</div>
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Defense attorney Haynes leapt to his feet, demanding a mistrial on grounds that the defense had not been given an opportunity to prepare themselves against a direct accusation of murder. (This was the first that Haynes had heard of any syringes). Judge Hooey, plainly worried by this turn of events, at first denied the request but did order a recess. During the adjournment, however, Hooey had second thoughts. The tenuous legal precedent by which Kurth had been allowed to testify, and then her foolhardy outburst, convinced him that if he allowed the trial to continue there were clear and palpable grounds for appeal. Accordingly, 11 days into the hearing, he granted the mistrial.</div>
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Interestingly enough, the jurors, when polled afterward, indicated that they were inclined to believe John Hill innocent. Ann Kurth's story hadn't impressed them at all.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;"><br />Read more: <a href="http://law.jrank.org/pages/3210/John-Hill-Trial-1971-Outburst-Leads-Mistrial.html#ixzz1gcStIj84" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">John Hill Trial: 1971 - Outburst Leads To Mistrial - Kurth, Judge, Hooey, and Haynes - JRank Articles</a> <a href="http://law.jrank.org/pages/3210/John-Hill-Trial-1971-Outburst-Leads-Mistrial.html#ixzz1gcStIj84" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">http://law.jrank.org/pages/3210/John-Hill-Trial-1971-Outburst-Leads-Mistrial.html#ixzz1gcStIj84</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">The retrial was set and reset 3 times. However, before the trial could begin, John Hill, now married for a third time to Connie (I can find no information as to her maiden name) was gunned down in the foyer of his house in what has always been believed to be a contract killing. Of course, Ash Robinson was always the name that came up whenever anyone mentioned this. Although no one ever officially linked Ash to the murder of John Hill, it should be noted that following this latest death in his family, Boot Hill cut all ties to Ash Robinson. Rumor is rampant that Boot believed his grandfather had hired someone to murder John Hill. Proof that these rumors were valid is the fact that in 1977 both Connie and Boot Hill brought a civil suit against Ash Robinson for the wrongful death of John Hill.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-align: left;">Ultimately, 3 people were arrested for the murder of John Hill. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Bobby Vandiver and girlfriend Marcia McKittrick admitted complicity, but claimed that they had been hired by a notorious Houston brothel madam, Lilla Paulus. When Vandiver was shot by police in an unrelated incident, McKittrick, promised a 10-year sentence, agreed to testify against Paulus. Additional testimony was provided by Paulus' own daughter. She told the court of overhearing her mother say, "Ash Robinson is looking for somebody to kill John Hill." Eventually Paulus was convicted and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment in 1975.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">When the wrongful death civil suit was finally brought to trial after a nearly 10 year battle, Lilla Paulus' daughter declined to testify, leaving Marcia McKittrick as the main witness against Robinson. A polygraph examination indicated that she was being truthful in saying that Robinson had caused the death of John Hill. A similar test suggested that Robinson was being truthful when he said he hadn't. Given this welter of confusion, the jury acquitted Robinson of collusion in the death of his son-in-law, and the suit was quashed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">The movie that I watched back in the 1980's left no doubt in anyone's mind that John Hill had murdered his wife. It further showed Ann Kurth as a victim in this story. However, after researching the matter, I am of the conclusion that while John Hill may indeed have poisoned his wife, Ann Kurth was certainly no victim.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Did John Hill murder his wife or did he just seize an opportunity when it presented itself to him? Perhaps John didn't murder his wife. Perhaps she became sick with something that would lead to her death if left untreated and John simply elected not to get her medical treatment but to allow whatever ailment she had to consume her. Then he is left a widow with their minor son to care for. For a man desperate to get out of a marriage, this must have seemed to be a win-win situation for him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">As for the other players in this story, no one seems certain of Connie Hill's whereabouts but one thing is fairly obvious. She apparently was a good person who believed in her husband's innocence and took care of Boot until he was an adult.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Robert Ashton "Boot" Hill supposedly went on to graduate law school becoming a criminal prosecutor. Later he became Chief of Legislative Affairs for the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">So is this story an unsolved mystery where the murderer gets away scott free, then the grieving father hires someone to murder him? Or is this a case of a greedy doctor who wanted to marry his mistress without losing any of "his" worldly possessions and seizes upon an opportunity to become a widower when his wife contracts toxic shock syndrome?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Either way, it doesn't bode well for the character of Dr. John Hill.</span></span></div>
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<br />Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-25524387163161259142010-09-06T16:29:00.000-05:002017-12-16T08:19:10.529-06:00Memphis Murder Mystery<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Here are the facts. In the very early hours of July 19th, 2010, Lorenzen Wright was shot at least 12 times. July 28th his body was found in a wooded area off a road in southeast Memphis which was a regular short cut route that Lorenzen used whenever he was going to his mother's house. It is also a fact that Lorenzen's mother filed a missing person report with the police on July 22. However these are about the only absolute facts surrounding this case. Rumor, innuendo and conjecture have elevated this case to a new high and throughout it all the one name that is constantly bandied about in all of the rumors is that of Lorenzen's ex-wife, Sherra Wright.</span><br />
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If you poll the people who actually knew Lorenzen Wright the one common thread would be the fact that he loved his 6 children above all else. If you poll the general public about what they know of Lorenzen, you won't hear that he was a druggie or a dog fighter or a woman beater. You will hear that he loved his kids, he loved his parents, he loved his hometown of Memphis, TN and he loved basketball. You might also hear that since an injury to his hand which prevented him from playing his beloved sport, he has fallen on some hard times financially.</div>
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Lorenzen Wright didn't come from a drug and/or alcohol addicted family. He came from a hard working middle class family who tried to stay as far away from crime as possible. Lorenzen's father was a coach at a local school. During a game a fight broke out and Mr. Wright broke it up and threw the offender out of the gym. The offender came back with a gun and shot Mr. Wright. His injuries left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Still, it was Mr. Wright who coached Lorenzen and helped him develop the amazing skills at the game that would eventually get him to the professional level.</div>
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I don't know how or when Lorenzen and Sherra Wright met, fell in love and married. What I do know is that they separated for good around September or October, 2009 and their divorce was final sometime in late January or early February 2010. Lorenzen was ordered to pay well over $20,000 a month in child support for his 6 children with Sherra. According to Sherra's divorce attorney (Gail Mathis) the one and only payment he made was in November, 2009. She does, however, admit that Lorenzen has been giving Sherra money here and there since that time but had not actually been paying the full amount every month as ordered by the Court. At time of his death it was rumored that he had a job playing with an European team and was to leave for Europe after the summer to begin training. Things were beginning to look up for Lorenzen.</div>
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He had all of his children for most of the summer at his home in Atlanta this year. His oldest daughter had a beauty contest that she couldn't miss so he asked his best friend and room mate, Michael Gipson, to drive his kids back to Memphis so his daughter could attend the pageant and then he had planned to fly into Memphis a few days later to pick them up again and head back to Atlanta. Michael reported that Lorenzen delayed him from leaving Atlanta with the kids for nearly half an hour because Lorenzen insisted on kissing each of the kids goodbye and chatting with them before they left. He also stated that during their drive back to Memphis, Lorenzen kept the cellphone ringing as he kept checking in on them to make sure everything was okay.</div>
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Now we are into the unknown area. This part of the "story" gets muddled with rumor and conjecture. It has been said by several sources that when Lorenzen came to Memphis to pick up his kids he had his new girlfriend, Alexis Bradley, with him. It has been said that he dropped her off at his mother's house and then went over to his ex-wife's house the night of his murder. Reliable sources state that it was Lorenzen's intention to pick the children up at 8:00 a.m. on July 20th and then drive back to Atlanta.</div>
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So why would he go to Sherra's house the night before? Rumor has it, she called him and talked him into coming over late in the evening so they could talk while the kids were asleep.</div>
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Sherra's story about this final night of Lorenzen's life changes every time she tells it. She first says Lorenzen arrived around 11:00 p.m., they talked until around 2:00 a.m. and then he left but she didn't know what he was driving. Then he arrived around 11:00 p.m. with another man whom she did not know and they chatted until around 3:30 or so and then he left but she didn't see what he was driving. Next, it was he came over around 11:00 p.m. and they had sex and she went to sleep and sometime while she was sleeping, he left but still she didn't know what he was driving. <strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Note: The 911 call that Lorenzen made as he was being murdered came into the call center shortly before midnight.</em></strong></div>
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I have seen Sherra Wright's house in Collierville, TN (a suburb of Memphis). It is one of those newer homes that is shaped in an "L" with the double garage sticking out from the body of the house in the front. In order to park in the driveway or the garage, one would have to drive past the windows on the entire front of the house and park directly in front of the front door. I'm talking maybe 2 feet from the entrance to the house.</div>
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Sherra moved into this house after she and Lorenzen separated. She and Lorenzen had been having a rather difficult divorce. Am I to believe that Lorenzen had a key to her house? Am I to believe that he didn't pull up and park in front of the door and then ring the doorbell? If he did, then when she opened the door, not only would she see Lorenzen but she would see the vehicle he was in as well as anyone who might have been sitting in that vehicle waiting on him. It would be impossible not to. Also, since in every story, she has him arriving after the kids are in bed, she would have been the only person to answer the door.</div>
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Whichever story you believe, there's two common catches with all of them. First she never mentions that he was driving her van while he was in town and secondly she never states in any of her stories that she and Lorenzen decided to postpone him coming the next morning at 8:00 a.m. to pick up the kids. So why is it when he didn't show she didn't start making some phone calls to try to find him? I only have 2 kids but I know that when they were young and their father was supposed to come get them at 8:00 a.m. if he didn't get there by 8:30 a.m., I was on the phone to him, his mother, his father, his best friend, anyone and everyone who might be able to tell me where he was and why he wasn't at my house to get his kids as promised! Yet, she didn't do any of this.</div>
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His mother, finally filed a missing persons report on the 22nd of July. Rumor has it, Sherra told Mr. Wright that Lorenzen had gone to Europe on a vacation so is that what she did? She simply told the kids and Lorenzens friends/family that he had changed his mind? Also, this part of the story makes me believe that he didn't have Alexis with him because if he had, the whole "he changed his mind and decided to go to Europe on vacation" thing would have lasted a minute instead of lasting 3 days because it is highly doubtful that anyone would believe he just flew to Europe leaving Alexis stranded at his mother's house.</div>
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Let's get to the other reasons as to why Sherra is in the proverbial hot seat in this case.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The druglords and death threats.</strong> Once Lorenzen was listed as a missing person, Sherra suddenly remembers a weird thing happening. She tells the police that approximately 6 weeks prior to his disappearance, 3 large black men come to her door demanding to know where Lorenzen is. According to Sherra, Lorenzen owed these druglords LOTS of money for fronting drugs to Lorenzen.</div>
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She stated to the police that they identified themselves to her as druglords and that they carried guns on their persons. She further adds drama to the story by stating that they threatened her children if she told anyone that they had come by. Really. I think most normal mothers having experienced this would have packed her kids up in the van and headed to the police station. At a minimum, a normal mother would have called his parents and told them that the kids had been threatened. But did she do that? Did she tell anyone about this? Nope. Or at least not until after Lorenzen became a missing person. According to Sherra the only people she told were Lorenzen and her divorce attorney.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Missing person report</strong>. Why is it Lorenzen's mother was the one to file the missing person report? One would think that the mother of his children would be the first to realize something was amiss when he neither came to pick the kids up at the arranged time or even to call. Also why would Sherra even try to talk his mother out of filing a police report? She tried every trick in the book to keep anyone from filing a report. Everything from he went on vacation to he was suicidal and just wanted to be alone.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Sherra's new boyfriend</strong>. Many people have surmised that Sherra had him killed because he had moved on with his romantic life and found a younger prettier girlfriend. I doubt that. I think this was all about the money. Besides Sherra had a boyfriend. And apparently the boyfriend and Lorenzen had not gotten along well. There is a story about when Lorenzen came at the beginning of the summer to get his children, the boyfriend was there and a few words were exchanged. The boyfriend allegedly went outside and scratched Lorenzens car at which time Lorenzen soundly decked the guy. Bit of bad blood there?</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Barber</strong>. First it is reported that while the police were investigating Lorenzen as a missing person, his barber contacts them to tell them that during the time frame that Lorenzen is thought to be missing, he had come into the barbershop to get his hair cut. He was in the company of another man whom the barber refused to identify but would say was of a questionable character. Now Lorenzen was last seen on a Tuesday and the barber insisted Lorenzen came into his shop that following Saturday right at opening when there were no other customers in the shop. Conveniently, once Lorenzens body was found and identified the barber changed his story to say it was before he went missing. His bad. I can see where a person might get a Saturday confused with a Monday. Can't you?? The rumor mill has it that Mr. Barberman was close friends with Sherra's new boyfriend. It also states that Mr. Barberman is DEEP in financial troubles not only with his business but because he apparently has multiple children with multiple women and is into multiple child support payments totaling a hefty monthly amount.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Neighbors</strong>. More than one neighbor reported to the police that they heard, on numerous occasions, Sherra either outside in the front yard or walking up and down the street, screaming into her cellphone to Lorenzen about money issues. "Where's my check?" type of calls. One neighbor reports that on one occasion she and Sherra were going to their mailboxes at the same time and when Sherra apparently didn't find a check in hers, she whipped out her cellphone and called Lorenzen. The conversation that followed was loud, abusive and threatening.</div>
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Another neighbor reported that on the night Lorenzen was killed, she saw Sherra with two black men holding a rather animated conversation in her front yard very late at night.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The fire-pit</strong>. Yet another neighbor stated that around 4:00 a.m. the night Lorenzen was killed, she peered over the privacy fence that separated their houses to see Sherra dropping objects into her fire-pit. She stated the flame was so tall that initially she thought Sherra's house might be on fire. This was one of the hottest nights of the entire year so why would Sherra even entertain starting a fire in her pit if she wasn't trying to destroy evidence? Also, why at 4:00 a.m. for any reason?? A source close to the investigation tells me that when the police searched the fire-pit behind Sherra's house, they did find a melted cellphone but have not positively identified it as having belonged to Lorenzen.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The guns.</strong> Apparently Lorenzen and Sherra had 3 guns between them. Lorenzen had 2 and Sherra had 1. Lorenzen's guns are accounted for. Sherra's gun has somehow mysteriously disappeared.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Suicide Theory.</strong> When Lorenzen was considered a missing person, Sherra apparently tried to convince his mother and other friends/family that it was possible that Lorenzen had committed suicide. I would say 12 bullets to the head is a bit of a suicide overkill.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Insurance.</strong> A source very close to the family has told me that although Lorenzen was having financial difficulties he made sure that his extremely large insurance policy was always paid on time. His children were the sole beneficiaries of that policy. Let's see now. Sherra is not getting her fat check regularly and her fat lifestyle is about to suffer because of it. She has to berate Lorenzen on a regular basis to get any money at all. Lorenzen has a big policy that will give her children a few million if Lorenzen dies. Solution to problem here??</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The former personal assistant</strong>. Wendy Wilson at one time was a personal assistant to Lorenzen. Apparently the difficulties between Sherra and Lorenzen dated back some years. Lorenzen had made it a habit to record all calls in or out with Sherra and he had given the tapes to Wendy for safe keeping. When Wendy listened to the tapes, she told Lorenzen and his parents that they should go to the police because Sherra had made numerous threats on them. When Lorenzen didn't go to the police, Wendy did. She filed a police report. After Lorenzen's body was found, Wendy went public with the tapes and again went to the police about them.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">However, her good deed did not go unpunished. According to www.myfoxmemphis.com, She has filed a lawsuit against three people, Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins, blogger and radio host Thaddeus Matthews and attorney Gail Mathes. According to Wendy, Thaddeus Matthews gave her personal cellphone number out on both his blog and his radio show which resulted in hundreds of calls to it that were harassing and threatening in nature. It would appear that Sherra has formed a bit of a retaliation group in Memphis. They use smear and fear tactics to back down those who might hold a piece of the puzzle IF that piece doesn't bode well for Sherra.</strong></div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The van and his personal possessions.</strong> Lorenzen was using Sherra's van while he was in town. Neighbors reported seeing him drive up in her van. They reported seeing him leave in the van a few minutes later. Then in the morning, the van's still there?? Hmmm. Sherra reported to the police that she didn't know what vehicle he was driving or if he was in some other person's car with them. Also, Lorenzen's wallet was found at Sherra's house along with another of his cellphones.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Box of drugs and cash.</strong> The day before they found Lorenzen's body Sherra told the police that on the night of his murder he came to her house with a box filled with drugs and cash. He took it with him when he left. My sources tell me that the box did indeed exist but it was filled only with drugs (no cash) and that it belonged to SHERRA. Lorenzen was taking it to dispose of it because he didn't want drugs in his house around his children. A box filled with drugs would be one reason to kill someone don't you think? Sherra needed to get that box filled with drugs and would probably do whatever necessary to get it back. Especially if the drugs were on consignment. Very bad things happen to people who take the drugs and never bring the money to their supplier. Or maybe the drugs belonged either to the boyfriend or Mr. Barberman? Either way, it would not be a happy ending if Sherra allowed the drugs to be destroyed by Lorenzen. Another absurdity to this story is the assertion by Sherra that Lorenzen brought the box filled with cash and drugs into her house and showed it to her. From what I've been able to gather, they weren't exactly close best friends at the time of his death.</div>
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The night Lorenzen died a 911 call was made from his cellphone a little before midnight. The operator heard a man utter an expletive and then heard at least 10 gunshots before the call was disconnected. When they found Lorenzens body they did not find the cellphone with it. What they did find was his very expensive jewelry/watch still on his body and a large amount of cash still in his pocket.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Custody fight.</strong> Let's assume for a second for the sake of argument that Sherra, Mr. Barberman and Sherra's boyfriend were the culprits in this murder. Lorenzen is lured to Sherra's house (he told his mother before he left her house that he was headed over to Sherra's so this part of the story is undoubtedly true). He fights with her about money and he tells her he is going back to his mother's house and will see her in the morning. Rumor has it that Lorenzen had planned to take the children back to Atlanta and was then going to file for full custody of them. The rumor states that Sherra had fallen into a very rough crowd and was using drugs on a regular basis. It was Lorenzen's plan to get the kids to Atlanta, file for custody in Georgia and then cut all ties with Sherra. This particular rumor holds a lot of weight with me because it is coming to me from friends of the Wright family.</div>
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What if during their heated argument, Lorenzen let that fly? What if he told her to have the kids stuff ready tomorrow because they are coming with me to Georgia and I'm going to get full custody of them? People tell things they never should when they are mad. This could easily have happened. Then he storms out of the house. She calls boyfriend and Mr. Barberman. Or perhaps she didn't have to call them. Perhaps they were at her house the whole time? Boyfriend and Mr. Barberman get in their car and chase after Lorenzen. Doesn't matter if they are chasing him because he has the box of drugs or has threatened to take the kids (thus effectively ending any cash cow they had) or a combination of both.</div>
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They catch up to him on the shortcut he always used to get to his mothers house and they convince him to pull over. Men do stupid stuff in the heat of the moment. A woman would never pull over on that isolated stretch of road. There are no houses or businesses on that strip of road at all. It is narrow and heavily wooded on both sides. Men however, are convinced that they can handle themselves and since he had already taken the boyfriend down a notch once in a fight, what was to convince him this fight wouldn't end the same way? He probably didn't even realize that Mr. Barberman was in the car with the boyfriend.</div>
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Lorenzen stops the car and leaps out of it and heads back to boyfriends car intent on having it out with him. Then he sees boyfriend isn't alone AND boyfriend has a gun - Sherra's gun. Lorenzen calls 911 on his cellphone and before he could cry for help, boyfriend unloads the gun on his head and then they drag him out of the road and beyond the treeline to a field where they take his cellphone, one of them drives Sherra's van and they go back to Sherra's house where the neighbor gets a look at the three of them having a very animated discussion in the front yard. After they leave, Sherra starts a fire in her fire-pit and burns the cellphone and probably their bloodied shirts.</div>
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She then has to "cover her tracks" so she tells the kids and Mr. Wright that Lorenzen changed his mind and decided at the last minute to go to Europe for a little vacation. She starts talking about the druglords and how Lorenzen didn't pay his child support. She tried to convince people that it was Lorenzen not her, who was involved in illegal activity and hooked on drugs. She implies that perhaps he went off to commit suicide? She smeared his character and reputation as much as she could to shove the focus off of her and onto Lorenzen. After the police search her home, she gets a criminal attorney and refuses to cooperate any further with the police to find the killer of her children's father. Within weeks of his death, she moves closer to Lorenzen's mother's house supposedly so she could help her cope with her grief.</div>
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Memphis has had its fair share of murder mysteries during its long history. This one, at least to me, is really no mystery. People always say don't listen to rumors. I'm here to say rumors and old wives tales usually have their origin in some grain of truth. You just have to take all of them and sit them next to the facts that are known and the next thing you know, a truth will emerge. Like that old saying "where's there's smoke there's fire".</div>
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Sherra, the boyfriend and Mr. Barberman may all be completely innocent of any involvement in this murder. However, they still should not sleep too soundly. There are hundreds of people sitting in Prisons all over our country who have been convicted of murder where the only evidence at trial was circumstantial. There are people sitting in prison convicted of murder without a body. This trio of characters needs to be extremely proactive in assisting the police in whatever way humanly possible to find the real killer if in fact they are innocent.</div>
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The Memphis Police Department has an 80% solve rate on their murders. That's pretty impressive considering the shear volume they deal with every year. The Memphis District Attorney's office has a 95% conviction rate. These are numbers that this trio needs to take very seriously if they want to spend the rest of their lives as free citizens.</div>
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But that's just me.</div>
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<b><u>UPDATE:</u></b></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">(As of December 16, 2017) </u> Another arrest. This time the arrestee is none other than Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife, Sherra Robinson Wright. She was arrested in her California home where she had been living with her brother after running through the entire $1M life insurance payout on her husband. At last count, which was 10 months after Lorenzen's death, she had exactly $5.03 left. Link below. The link contains a video which offers far more information than the written article.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">http://www.fox13memphis.com/top-stories/lorenzen-wrights-ex-wife-arrested-in-california-in-connection-to-his-murder/664748522</span></span></div>
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<b><u>(As of December 7, 2017) </u></b> An arrest has been made. The bond had been set at $1M but has since been revoked. The man charged, Billy R. Turner, was a Deacon in the same church that Sherra Wright attended. This man has a LONG rap sheet dating back to the early 90's. An anonymous source, directed the police to a small lake in northern Mississippi where the murder weapon was found and from that they traced the crime back to Turner. The article I have pasted, lists him simply as indicted but he has since been formally charged and arraigned. He bonded out but his bond as since been revoked and as such he is now sitting in jail awaiting his trial. </div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">http://wreg.com/2017/12/05/sources-arrest-made-in-lorenzen-wright-case/</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b><u>Another article regarding Turner's arrest:</u></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2017/12/05/lorenzen-wright-billy-turner-killing-arrest-memphis-things-know/924947001/</span></span></div>
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Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-82462973468444284102010-07-26T08:44:00.000-05:002010-07-26T08:58:06.682-05:00Update on Murder Investigationhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/nyregion/26family.html?_r=1&th&emc=th<br />
<br />
The article above from the NY Times states that now the police are not so certain C.J. was the killer. I have to inject a "what did I say" in right about here.<br />
<br />
They are now looking at his mother as a possible suspect. They say the portion of a handwritten note they found was in her handwriting, not in C.J.'s as previosly thought. The only words discernable were "am sorry". They further say that initial autopsy results discovered "some pills" in her stomach so perhaps that would indicate she was trying to commit suicide.<br />
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"Some pills"?? I don't know about you but if I am going to commit suicide by taking pills, I'm going to take far more than "some pills". I am going to take a boat load of pills. Also, I'm not going to set my house on fire while I wait for them to work. What if they don't work quickly enough? Besides if she is going to kill her children and then commit suicide why set the house on fire anyway? That's the part I just don't get. Someone explain to me why if you are going to commit suicide why set the place on fire? Who cares at that point if they find the bodies? I mean, the murderer is dead so what are they going to do? Also, what is the use of even writing a suicide note if you're going to burn the house down and destroy it?<br />
<br />
None of this makes any sense to me at all.<br />
<br />
I'd like to go on record as saying that NO one in that house committed these murders. It was someone she knew and she let them into the house and they committed these crimes. They say the father of the 2 year old has been cleared as a suspect. So what about his associates? Would it really be the first time that a person hired someone else to do the dirty work? What if he owed money to some unsavory folks?<br />
<br />
The mother worked as a security guard part time. What if she saw or overheard something that was too delicate to allow her to walk the streets with that knowledge? What if they came to her apartment to find out exactly what she knew and what she intended to do with that knowledge and they wound up killing them all.<br />
<br />
I keep going back to the father of the 2 year old. My main reason is the fact that the way these children were killed was very personal. Slashing someone's throat, especially the throat of a child, is a very personal and rage filled act. Usually murderers are more detached from their victims and will shoot them or tie them up and then set the house on fire. The amount of pressure needed to exert a deep enough cut that all the necessary arteries are severed is rather high. This is one reason I never thought C.J. did it in the first place. In order to do it quickly and effectively, one would have to pull the head up with one hand and then, while exerting some considerable force, slash the throat. <br />
<br />
It is also extremely coincidental to me that the only person in that apartment whose throat wasn't cut was the 2 year old. To me that might indicate that whoever did this, couldn't bring themselves to slash that little guy's throat. To me that indicates a connection to that child. An absence of rage at him. To me that indicates the father of that child had something to do with this. Either he personally committed the murders (it wouldn't be the first time a murderer had fooled the police) or he personally knows who committed the murders.<br />
<br />
I would be extremely surprised to find out that there were enough pills in Mrs. Jones stomach to effectively commit suicide. Rather I think they are going to find she was on depression or anxiety medication and that is what they will find. She had been going through some tough times financially and was only working part time when she died. That coupled with trying to raise 4 children alone is more than enough to necessitate a script for mood elevators.<br />
<br />
It seems to me that when ordinary people are murdered, the level of police work is very low. There are no celebrities or wealthy well-connected people calling city hall on a regular basis to push them to solve the crime so they look at it at face value, make their call, close the case and move on to the next one. One less large family sucking out the taxpayers money on assistance. It seems that unless there is crystal clear, in your face, evidence pointing to a suspect or unless a tip gets called in that works out immediately, they can't seem to be bothered with spending any length of time looking for the killer.<br />
<br />
From all reports I've seen, Ms. Jones had no close family in New York. They are not a rich family with high connections. They are ordinary folks.<br />
<br />
Ms. Jones mother, Marcia Anderson, stated it best when she said, “My grandson is not a killer and my daughter is not a killer. She could never harm her babies.”<br />
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I believe you Ms. Anderson. I just hope the police do. <br />
<br />
But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-1741081847394823322010-07-24T11:28:00.000-05:002010-07-24T11:28:25.030-05:00Carl Rodgers - Becky Marzo Afterthought (cont from earlier post)Below are cases of missing women who fit the general description of Becky Marzo and were missing around the same time as Becky. Also I have gone forward to show that there are continuing cases of missing women in that same general area. As I don't have access to police data bases, these are all that I could find which means in all likelihood there are others that I simply don't know about.<br />
<br />
Now are all these cases related? I have no idea. However, I am suggesting that perhaps some of them may be and if that's the case, then Becky's may be as well.<br />
<br />
However, I will go with my original thought that Becky has skipped town and will probably never resurface. Especially after hearing that because of her actions Carl committed suicide. Or at least if she has any shred of conscience anyway.<br />
<br />
2003<br />
Becky Marzo - 12-2003<br />
Areerat Chupracivh (body found. Have suspect but no charges) 4-2003<br />
Carrie Ann Polega - 10-2003<br />
<br />
2004<br />
Gail Masset - 11-2004<br />
Christine Rudy - 11-2004<br />
Tarena Hopgood - 5-2004<br />
Irene Schaefer - 8-2004<br />
Beulah Ware - 3-2004<br />
<br />
2005<br />
Christina Thomas - 2-2005<br />
<br />
2006<br />
Deidre Harm 6-2006 (body found) suspect was serial killer Christopher Revak who had close and constant ties to Wisconsin.<br />
Jennifer Kesse 1-2006<br />
Shannon Fischer 12-2006<br />
<br />
2008<br />
Unidentified skeletal remains found on 11-23-2008. Could have been dead for approximately 5 years or 2003.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-78429565096289981812010-07-24T09:06:00.000-05:002010-07-24T09:06:06.943-05:00Did 14 yr old really kill his family and then commit suicide?http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/nyregion/24family.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th<br />
<br />
The above article from the NY Times indicates that the police are convinced that a 14 year old boy slashed his siblings throats, killed his mother and then committed suicide by slashing his own throat.<br />
<br />
I have questions and concerns about this case.<br />
<br />
C.J. Jones was a very slight (some have described him as scrawny) 14 year old boy. Could his much larger mother not have fought him off? How did he manage to kill all these people without anyone getting away and running out of the door? It's not as if he did this during the night when he may have been able to sneak up on them while they slept. This was done around dinner time. Everyone was awake. The neighbors downstairs heard running and crying and furniture toppling over. There was a chase and a struggle going on in that apartment. Why the neighbors didn't go up there to check it out is beyond me.<br />
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How is it that everyone that has spoken describe C.J. as a quiet and helpful young man who helped his mother take care of the family. Who ran errands for his mother and watched his younger siblings as they crossed the street. He helped a neighbor tend to a vegetable garden. He is described over and over as doting when it came to his family.<br />
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His school has released information (which I find odd that they would release such information about a minor especially when a police investigation is ongoing) that they had recommended the boy be put into a special school for disabled youths. But they don't define "disabled". Was he homicidal, was he suicidal, was he slow, was he stupid, was he just behind all his fellow students perhaps? They don't say. <br />
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They have said that he attacked a vice principal. Attacked? As in murderously attacked? As in the vice principal grabbed his arm and he wrenched free? <br />
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The police have been quick to release this type of information as well as numerous stories detailing C.J.'s love of fire and of starting them. They released information that they found a mostly burned note attached to a lighter and (conveniently) all they could read were the words "am sorry". Was he sorry that he murdered his family or was he sorry that he hadn't done his homework and his mother had scolded him?<br />
<br />
I'm getting weird feelings about this whole thing.<br />
<br />
First off, leaking news that school officials wanted him to go to a school for the disabled but then not defining what exactly was disabled about C.J. leads the public to believe that C.J. was a murderous child running amoke. <br />
<br />
What if he wasn't? What if he had a learning disability with a propensity to get easily frustrated as is often the case? <br />
<br />
What of his attacking the vice principal? Please define attack. If he was being disruptive and the principal grabbed his arm and (using both hands) he wrenched it away forcefully, that technically could be considered as an attack. If the vice principal was in his face and he shoved him to get him out of his face, that could be considered an attack. I need clarification on this. He very well may have horribly attacked the principal but I'm just not certain of that. I am more convinced by the lack of detail in all these leaks that perhaps C.J.'s propensity towards violence and his "disturbed" psyche may well have been embellished.<br />
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Then there's the fire thing. A neighbor months before the murders saw C.J. on the stoop setting fire to a small piece of paper. When she reprimanded him, he put it out and stopped. Wow. This sounds like a rabid murderer to me. <br />
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A fellow student at his school stated that C.J. liked to play with fire. Now how would they know this? For one thing it has been stated that C.J. had no friends. Everyone at school taunted him because he wore the same clothes over and over to school. Because he had suffered an accident one of his eyes was messed up and he was teased about that. Doesn't sound to me as if he had any classmates that were close enough to him for them to know his secret addiction to setting fires. I mean surely on his first day in class the teacher said, "Class this is our new student. Please introduce yourself and tell us something about you" and at that point I'm sure he didn't reply, "Hi! My name is C.J. Jones and I love to start fires!"<br />
<br />
Now before anyone starts saying that he was a loner just like the Columbine kids, let's remember that C.J. didn't kill the kids that were taunting and alienating him, he is accused of killing the people he loved and who loved him. Big difference. <br />
<br />
Now let's get to the actual crime. According to police, he murdered his 30 year old mother, his 10 year old sister, his 7 year old sister and his 2 year old brother before slashing his own throat. Actually the 2 year old brother died from smoke inhalation and burns later at the hospital. As I stated earlier, it was not during the middle of the night when all of the above were soundly sleeping. It was during waking hours and by the neighbors accounts, there was a lot of commotion going on in that apartment. <br />
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Exactly how, armed only with a common kitchen knife, did he manage to chase down each member individually and kill them without any of them running out of the door while he was busy killing another? Did he make them form a line and wait patiently for their turn?? <br />
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How did he accomplish this without his mother picking up something and whacking this kid in the head with it? It just doesn't seem feasable to me. Something just isn't right with this scenario.<br />
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Here is my biggest problem with this. He then slashed his own throat.<br />
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How many teenage suicides have you ever heard of where it is done by slashing their own throats? Very few. Slashing their wrists, shooting themselves, hanging themselves, jumping out of windows, etc. But rarely from slashing their own throats. <br />
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As a matter of fact in their article "Atypical Suicidal" Doctors Shetty, Padubitri and Bhandarkar state that, "Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The incidence and pattern of suicide vary from country to country. Cultural, religious and social value plays a vital role. Hanging, poisoning, drowning are the common methods of committing suicide. Suicide by incising one's own throat remains rare, and only a few cases have been reported in the forensic literature". <br />
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Based upon what I've read and articles that I've been able to uncover pertaining to teen suicides, two-thirds of all suicides under 25 were committed with firearms. The second most common method was hanging, third was poisoning or suicide by overdose.<br />
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The police reported that he was found slumped over a bed and the knife was found beneath him. <br />
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So he killed his entire family, then set the apartment on fire, apparently wrote a note that he knew was probably going to be burned up in the fire and then, WHILE STANDING, slashed his own throat and slumped on the bed. What?<br />
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Does any of that sound the least bit credible to you?? It doesn't to me. Am I the only person who finds this a bit difficult to swallow?? Is it just me or do the police appear to be determined to pin this on C.J. and close the book??<br />
<br />
But that's just me. Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-86654695220724125812010-07-19T15:15:00.000-05:002010-07-19T15:21:36.327-05:00Justice for Terry King<div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are a few things surrounding the death of Terry King in his Cantonment, Florida home on which everyone can agree. They agree that on November 26, 2001, Terry King lay in his recliner napping after work. They agree that as he lay sleeping he was bludgeoned to death by a metal baseball bat and his house set afire in an attempt to destroy evidence. Those are pretty much the only facts that all involved can agree on.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Terry King was 40 at the time of his death. Before the boys were born, he had married their mother, Kelly Marino, who according to all sources made her living as a pole dancer/stripper. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On Vance Holmes site, he includes what appears to be a transcript from an interview between Connie Chung and Terry King's father</span><span style="font-size: small;"> who states the following: "<b>WILBUR KING:</b> Well, their mother -- what can I say about the mother? When the four boys were there. After the four boys were born, the mother deserted the home and went to live with another man. This man beat her up. And she came back to Terry. And then she left Terry again. And so my son Terry had four boys to raise, had no one to help except the family. And the family did what they could for Terry, but it wasn't enough. And so the boys did not get the home care that they needed while they were young". </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In an interview with Larry King Live, Kelly Marino mentions her 4 children. However, I can find no mention of their names or what has happened in their lives like who they live with, how their lives have gone since they were deserted by their mother, if they remember their father or even if they know he's dead. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As far as I can tell, while Terry and Kelly were still together, they allowed all 4 boys to go into a boys home because Terry and Kelly were having financial difficulties. That facility closed a few months later and the boys all had to go to separate foster homes. Apparently, the only two that Terry ever took back were Alex and Derek. The mother never took any of them.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When Kelly left the second time she never came back. Not to live and not to visit. This left Terry a single father.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although Terry apparently liked to "farm" his kids out to foster families quite often, by all accounts Terry was not an abusive person and was a hard worker. The boys said his habit was to come home from work and sit in his recliner and nap. They have never alleged physical abuse and have indicated that while Terry might not have been a nurturing father and they moved frequently, he nonetheless made sure they had decent clothes to wear, food and a roof over their heads.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When Derek was about 6 it has been stated that he became more than Terry could handle and Terry turned him over to a foster family named Lay. Derek lived with them for about 8 years. Derek has stated in interviews that he enjoyed living with that family and that they treated him as one of their own. However, for whatever reason, Derek began to act out and the family gave him back to Terry. Within seven weeks after Derek came home Terry King was murdered.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alex has stated that oftentimes his father would take him to work at the printing company and he would sleep there while his father worked. Alex didn't attend school regularly and by his own admission had no friends or outside contact for much of his early life. He and Derek had been apart for so long that they had failed to develop the usual brotherly bond and they neither saw one another nor corresponded during the 8 years that Derek lived with the foster family. Extended family is never mentioned anywhere as having maintained a regular contact with the boys. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other than Terry there was one constant presence in Alex' life. The presence of a convicted pedophile named Rick Chavis. It's not clear exactly how Rick and Terry became friends or even how close they were as friends. It is further not known if Terry had any knowledge that Rick was a pedophile. What is known is that in a pinch Terry would ask Rick to babysit with Alex from time to time beginning when Alex was 7 years old. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to a handwritten confession by Alex (found on the Smoking Gun website), Rick began a sexual relationship with him at about the age of 12. Rick lived in a mobile home not far from Terry King's house. It was filled with video games, big screen TV's and an assortment of others games and electronics that young boys love. It was here that Rick encouraged both the boys to smoke pot and it was here that Rick sexually abused Alex eventually convincing Alex that he was gay and in love with Rick.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In this same written statement by Alex, he says that Rick had convinced him that Terry was a "very abusive" father because of the icy stare Terry would give to Alex when he was angry. Rick gave Alex $20 and a key to both his gate and trailer and said that anytime Alex could no longer stand living with Terry he could come live with Rick and he would hide him until he turned 16 at which time he could decide on his own who he wanted to live with.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This was the crazy mixed up situation that Derek walked into when he returned from the foster family. He was told by Rick and Alex that Terry was abusive and was convinced by them that the only way out was to kill Terry. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The timing couldn't have been better for this plan. After all, I'm sure, Derek carried his own anger and resentment towards Terry for having been given away to a foster family while Terry kept Alex. It also might appear to a child that just as he was becoming accustomed to a "real family" life, he was yanked away from that and back into Terry's house. After 8 years, it must have been like going to live with rank strangers.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All the reports that I view and read on this matter have one thing in common. They all pity poor Alex. Proof of this must include the fact that Rosie O'Donnell and the boys own mother campaigned relentlessly to get ALEX acquitted. To get his confession thrown out of court. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A professor of journalism named Kathy Medico took a special interest in Alex and after his release brought him into her home to live with her and her family. She has also co-authored a book about the entire matter.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">No one overtly campaigned for Derek. Certainly no one ever visited the Larry King show or was interviewed by Connie Chung on Derek's behalf. Lisa Altdan and Dan Daley were the only 2 people to my knowledge who lifted a finger to keep in touch with Derek. They sent him books and wrote letters to him. Mr. Daley embarked on the long car drive to Florida from Texas every chance he got to visit Derek and even offered Derek a place to live once he got out which Derek took him up on. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It was on Mr. Daley's isolated land that Derek finally was given a moments peace to reflect, to grieve, to plan for his future, to dream about what might be, to exhale. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While I have no doubt that Alex was abused and extremely badly influenced by Rick, I also have no doubt that Derek was a puppet and a pawn for both Rick and Alex in their quest to live together. After all, with Terry dead and Derek in prison, who would possibly be left to stand in their way? </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Understandably Alex was a child and not responsible for the creation of this conspiracy. That notwithstanding, Derek was caught up in protecting and avenging his brother and perhaps in the process, avenging his own personal rage against Terry.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The most believed version of what happened comes from interviews with both the boys after their release and from court documents taken at their trials and appearances.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They considered shooting Terry but decided it was too noisy and there was always a risk of simply wounding him and giving him a chance to fight them off. Then they considered a hammer but they couldn't find one in the house. So they finally decided on the aluminum baseball bat. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Derek and Alex both now admit that Derek swung the bat while Alex stood by and watched. Alex even described the sounds coming from his dying father to the Court. The Coroner said that Alex' description of the "death rattle" was the best description he had ever heard and that because of this, Alex had to be in the room with him when he died. He simply could not have made that up.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Once Terry was dead, Derek then went into his dad's bedroom and set the bed on fire. They then hurried to a neighborhood store where they called Rick who promptly came and picked them up. Rick drove them into the edge of Alabama and told them to strip their clothes off. He then put the boys in the trunk with their bloody clothes to avoid anyone from seeing them in Rick's car and drove them to his house. Rick apparently had a trap door in the floor of his bedroom covered up with a small roll of carpet. Beneath the house was a lamp and that is where the boys hid on each occasion that the police came to Rick's house looking for them during the two days between the murder and the time Rick turned them in to the police.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alex states that the first thing Rick did once they got to his house was to wash all their clothes to remove the blood. He then coached them on what to tell the police and 2 days after the murder, he drove them to the police station and sat outside while they confessed to their fathers murder.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have read of conspiracy theories as to why Rick wasn't convicted of murder in this matter or of any sex related charges as he was tried before the boys and was acquitted of capital murder and sex related charges. I have heard that he was friends with the then Sheriff, that he knew things about some of the police there that they didn't want to get out. Various and sundry theories. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I, for one, find it hard to believe there was ever such a conspiracy. The legal system hounded Rick relentlessly until they were able to finally put him away in March, 2003. He was sentenced to five years in prison for witness tampering (coaching the boys and destroying the forensic evidence by washing their clothes) and 30 years for accessory to murder. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">According to CNN.com, "Derek King, 14, will spend eight years in state prison, and his 13-year-old brother Alex will spend seven years in state prison. The sentences announced by Circuit Court Judge Frank Bell came after they agreed to plead guilty to arson and third-degree murder in the slaying of their father, Terry King. This agreement represents a reduction of the second-degree murder convictions the boys were given in September and which Bell threw out. The pleas and sentences came out of a court-ordered mediation that reached resolution Wednesday. Attorneys entered mediation after Bell tossed out a jury conviction just before a sentencing last month that could have put the boys in jail for life".</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;"> There was a vast and thundering uproar from the public when it was announced that these two angelic looking children had been convicted of 2nd degree murder and faced life sentences in an adult prison. Both sides were able to move the boys from an adult prison to a juvenile facility where they served the remainder of their sentences.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">CNN also reported that, "(Kelly)Marino's attorneys filed a motion for a competency hearing for the boys just before Thursday's hearing, but Bell ruled that because those attorneys were not the attorneys of record they had no standing with the court to file motions. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"A big issue was made out of the children's competency in court today," one of Marino's attorneys, Ron Johnson, said after the sentencing. "She's not saying they're crazy. She's saying they (were) 12 and 13 years old and she thinks it's only reasonable for them to be evaluated by a psychiatrist before they enter a plea agreement to such serious charges." </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Marino told reporters that she believed the boys' guilty plea was involuntary because they "don't know the seriousness of this." She also said she had talked with the boys "a million times" and they had repeatedly assured her they did not commit the crimes of which they were accused. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Johnson also claimed the process was illegal, but mediator Bill Eddins said he was "confident" that the process was legal and proper. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Prosecutor Rimmer dismissed Marino -- who left the family when the boys were very young -- saying the King brothers "would not be going to the state pen if she'd paid more attention to them in their playpens." </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Alex was released on April 9, 2008. When asked if he wanted his mother to pick him up. He replied quite simply, "No". He was met by Kathyrn Medico and to my knowledge lives with her and her family to this day.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Derek was released on March 7, 2009. He was met by his mother and Mr. Daley.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">I watched an update on this story yesterday. It was called Second Chances and the correspondent was Keith Morrison on Dateline NBC. It showed 2 very attractive young men. Alex seemed to smile more readily than Derek. Derek still shows signs of reticence around others. His eyes still appear solemn even when he smiles. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Derek reminds me of a pit bull puppy I found when he was a few months old and had been mistreated by every human he had ever met. I have had that puppy for over a year now and still, he mistrusts most humans. He shakes, growls and hides when too many unfamiliar faces are in the room. My vet tells me he may always be that way and recommended I put him down. Rather than putting my dog down, I changed vets. I can see a small change in him from when I first found him. I believe there's hope for him.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">I would like to think the same thing about Derek. I would like to think that after a while he will let down his guard just a little at a time until one day he finds himself with more friends and truly loved ones than he can handle and a life that is filled to the brim with joy and happiness.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">It goes without saying that I wish the same thing for Alex. I just feel that Alex is far more narcissistic than Derek and as such will aggressively pursue a life that will please him. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">So was there justice for Terry King? Many would say no. I'm really on the fence about it. Alex, Derek and Rick either have been or are being punished for their roles in Terry's death. Was it enough? I'm not sure. Is it ever really enough? Terry was brutally murdered - can anything bring him back or make up for that? I don't think so. The best we can hope for is that out of this tradegy there comes some goodness and that Terry King's sons lead a most productive and socially acceptable (and long) life. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;"> </span> </div>Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-66044843697571736722010-07-08T08:16:00.000-05:002010-07-08T08:16:06.636-05:00LiLo's AngstToday's blog is about crime. However, not the usual serial killer/simple murderer crime that I love to blog about. Today's blog is about Lindsey Lohan crime. Yep. After watching her court appearance yesterday on TV in its entirety (it was like a train wreck and I simply could not turn away from it), I felt the urge to address this drama queen.<br />
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When LiLo was arrested this last time, I was stunned that she only got probation and the ankle alcohol monitoring bracelet. I mean come on!! In ONE year this chick was arrested for not one but TWO DUI's, she hijacked an SUV and careened down the public highways chasing the middle aged mother of her assistant, she was caught with cocaine in her possession and even admitted to being under the influence of cocaine during her second arrest. Probation and bracelet?? <br />
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Had that been ME, I would have been forced to surrender my license and go to the pokey for a year or better. But she is a "star" so in my opinion, she was given preferential treatment. I guess the judge figured someone had to support that family of hers and with Lindsey in jail what would the Lohan family do? They might be forced to move to an apartment (shudder) or (God forbid) trade their vehicles in for something horrendous like perhaps a Camry! No, the judge couldn't do that to them! So, probation, required education classes and ankle bracelet it is!<br />
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In watching Lindsey yesterday, I was aghast at her behavior. I kept waiting for the judge to ask Lindsey's attorney to get her client under control or risk contempt charges. But the judge simply ignored Lindsey's tantrum when her sentence was read. <br />
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Now, you may be thinking "Tantrum? The poor child had just been sentenced to 90 days in jail! Anyone would have reacted the same way!" To that I say "Nope". Lindsey wasn't sentenced to life without parole or given a death sentence for pity's sake! She got 90 days in the slammer in a private cell no less. And let's not forget that in California, the state will allow those in private cells to bring in personal items for their own comfort. Since the law is vague as to defining "personal items" it has been abused time and time again by celebrities.<br />
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Lindsey cried loudly, she talked while the judge was speaking, she turned in her seat and spoke to people in the courtroom, she talked to her attorney, she continuously displayed her nails which had "F-U" painted on them.<br />
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Then it came time for her to address the court. Now at this time, every citizen knows, this is your one and only moment to make the judge your friend. Did Lindsey do that? Nope. She whined. "I did everything I was supposed to do" "I tried to balance work and my sentence as best I could" "I thought I was in compliance"<br />
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Hmmm. "I did everything I was supposed to do". Obviously you didn't. And if you didn't know that, perhaps the attorney sitting next to you should have made that abundantly clear. You were supposed to abstain from ALL alcohol yet your bracelet went off on two separate occasions. The first one, you convinced the Court, was a misreading and they gave you that one. However, the second one immediately after the MTV awards? They didn't go for your explanation. <br />
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Then there was the inconvenient matter of attending the required alcohol classes. How did you address that little matter? You stated in court that you were too busy with work to be bothered with those. The court allowed you to even travel outside the country on more than one occasion and you thank them by not attending or even attempting to attend your required classes. Guess you figured who needs alcohol classes? You seem to know everything there is to know about consuming alcohol so a class about it would be rather redundant, don't you agree? <br />
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And how about those annoying court dates? Seriously. Would anyone cut their vacation on a tropical island short just to go back to LA and sit in a stuffy court room and be forced to listen to people talk? I mean, like she'd even understand what they were talking about unless they gave her the transcript and it was heavily illustrated.<br />
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We have all heard (ad nauseaum) of her parents from hell. News flash Lindsey! LOTS of people had horrible parents. Thousands of people in this country had parents that would make yours look like Ozzie and Harriet yet they don't snub the court. Most of them will never even appear in a court room. So, my advise to Lindsey is to drop the "poor me" act. She has used the last ounce of public pity in that department. At least as far as I'm concerned.<br />
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In reality, she's actually one lucky gal.<br />
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She's lucky she didn't kill or permanently maim someone while driving drunk.<br />
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She's extremely lucky that she was busted in LA, where she was let go after her first DUI arrest, only to do it again two months later.<br />
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She's lucky because when she was busted in May, carrying cocaine, she didn't have enough for a felony charge.<br />
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Want to talk about being lucky? How about the fact that when she was arrested again in July, the arresting officer actually threw away the powder which was concealed in a Clinique Sun Care card, because he thought it was a crushed mint. (really, I'm not making that up)<br />
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Lindsay did admit to being under the influence of cocaine and alcohol and she was lucky again - serving just 84 minutes in jail for hijacking an SUV and chasing down the middle-age mother of her assistant.<br />
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At this point, her attitude could have been, "Wow, I can't believe that cop just threw my cocaine away thinking it was crushed mint!" or, "Wow, I was in the pokey less time than it takes to watch one of my films!" ... Thank you, God, Now I think maybe I'll get my act together."<br />
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But alas, this was not the case. Instead, she just kept feeling sorry for herself. After all, this is LiLo's drama, and we are all just so blessed to be allowed to live in it.<br />
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But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-60732570127981949572010-04-27T00:01:00.000-05:002010-04-27T00:01:15.676-05:00A murder in my pastWhere to begin? If you have read my very early posts you have probably reached the correct conclusion that I was raised in a medium sized town by strict overly protective parents who monitored my TV viewing, my phone calls, my clothing and my friends (among other things). When I got my driver's license and a car, I developed a stellar ability to lie to my parents about my whereabouts. <br />
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I met these guys who owned a jewelry store. They were Vietnam vets and artistic hippies who designed and made mostly Native American silver jewelry. Really beautiful stuff. I had never met anyone like these guys. I used to go to their shop immediately after school and would stay until they closed engrossed in every word they said and soaking it all in.<br />
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One day Barry and Terry (sounds like a vaudeville act doesn't it?) asked me if I would like to go to a demonstration with them. (They were deeply involved in Native American causes) We would leave on Friday and come back late Monday. Sure, why not? So, I lied to my parents and told them I was going with my best friend to their lake cabin and would be back on Tuesday and off we went. I knew there was no phone at the cabin so my parents wouldn't be able to call and check and they completely trusted my best friends parents so all was great.<br />
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We traveled to Rapid City, Iowa prepared to demonstrate. This was June 27, 1975. I remember this date because it was my soon to be husband's birthdate. Once we got up there we discovered that there was not going to be a demonstration. Instead the plan was to BOMB THE MOUNT RUSHMORE TOURIST CENTER! uh nope. I don't think I'll participate in that. Talk about my daddy grounding me?? Once we discovered what they had planned, we decided to drive to the Pine Ridge Reservation.<br />
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When we arrived, things were really tense. People had been found dead in ditches. People had disappeared from their homes with no sign. Dinner on the table, TV still on but literally no one home and never seen again. Sniper shootings were becoming the norm. The reservation was out in the middle of nowhere. There were NO jobs on the reservation so anyone who wanted to work had to find a way into the nearest large city which is Denver (some 350 miles away). At one time the government had a bus that came to the rez twice daily to take residents into town and back again after work but once the Indians refused to part with the mineral rights to their lands, the government stopped the bus, effectively cutting the rez off from the rest of the world. <br />
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Then and now, Pine Ridge per captita is the poorest place in America with the highest crime rate in America. The unemployment rate is upwards of 95% at any time. Running water and inside bathrooms are a luxury. Many of the shacks have cardboard exterior walls and plastic windows. This in a state that sees record snow fall and temperature drops in the long winters.<br />
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At the time there was a real and bloody war raging between the two factions on the rez. The purebloods who refused to sell any part of their land to the government no matter what and the halfbreeds who wanted to sell the mineral rights off so that the poverty levels on the rez would be drastically reduced. <br />
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When we got to the rez it was abuzz with activity. Several AIM (American Indian Movement) groups from California and Oregon had come up. They were planting gardens and making repairs on some of the shacks. They helped the elderly to can vegetables and chop wood for the wood heating stoves. They were making a difference and I thought it was great. But there were also hired guns there who were like security guards to protect the purebloods (or traditionals) from what they called the "goon squads" who were thought to be carrying out the executions of purebreds in an attempt to intimidate them to sell the rights. Leonard Peltier was one of these armed guards. <br />
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During this period, the FBI COINTELPRO conducted a full-fledged counterinsurgency war against the American Indian Movement (AIM)—complete with death squads, disappearances and assassinations—not dissimilar to those conducted in third world countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala.<br />
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During this "Reign of Terror," some 64 local Native Americans were murdered and nearly 350 were subjected to non-lethal but serious physical assault. <br />
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Virtually all of the victims were either affiliated with AIM or their allies, the traditional tribal members. <br />
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The FBI had jurisdiction to investigate major crimes, yet these deaths were never adequately investigated or resolved. Nor did the FBI agents take any measures to curb the violence of the GOONs, with whom they closely collaborated.<br />
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I didn't know Leonard well but what I saw of him, I didn't like. He was, I think, from Louisiana and had been in serious trouble most of his life. He was, I thought, an opportunist who was there for the free room and board and the thrill of carrying a gun and acting like a bad ass. I will say it netted him LOTS of sex (though certainly not from me). I found him lacking in any type of class and didn't find him all that intelligent. But I stray.<br />
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I met this beautiful Canadian Indian (I believe she was a Micmac) named Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. She was like a beacon of light. She smiled and laughed and swung her thick lustrous hair about. She was tender and respectful to the elders and seemed to really care about helping them in any way she could. I really liked her. Unlike most of the Indian women I met that weekend, Anna Mae made me feel welcome. The rest of them treated me like I had a serious case of the cooties. They watched me and whispered but did not make me feel welcome. <br />
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After we got back home, I couldn't wait to go back. Didn't matter to my naive stupid self that people were being murdered and thrown in ditches all over the place up there, I just wanted to go back and hang out with the Indians.<br />
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We went back up there again in either late July or August, 1975. This time, the Anna Mae that I saw was not smiling and happy. She looked as if she had aged 10 years and was quiet and seemed on the verge of either tears or rage at all times. I heard through the grapevine that she had been publicly accused of being an FBI informant and had been threatened with her life by Leonard. <br />
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It was becoming somewhat public knowledge at Pine Ridge that Anna Mae was sleeping with Dennis Banks (the AIM leader at that time) although his wife was not aware of this fact, yet. I have always felt that this is the main reason that someone was able to spread gossip that she was an informant and make everyone believe it. No one approved nor liked the fact that she was sleeping with the married leader of the Pine Ridge AIM. The other women didn't like her to begin with, this just cemented their feelings.<br />
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I have always wondered why Anna Mae stayed in that situation. She had two beautiful daughters back home in Canada who were small at that time. Why didn't she just go home to her children or for that matter go back to California or Oregon where she had real friends who didn't think she was an informant. Why stay? There was no reason for it that I could see.<br />
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Things had heated up considerably. There were daily fights among the AIM members. No one trusted anyone. The only good point was one night when we sat around a campfire and several of the men had guitars and sang for us. Jackson Browne and Dan Fogelberg were among these men. That was a glorious night.<br />
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However, a couple of days later, we heard that the FBI had raided the house where Anna Mae was staying and she, Dino Butler and several others had been arrested. We decided it was time to go home.<br />
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So I went back to the safety of my home. I went back to being the daughter of a well respected and successful businessman with a mother who didn't work outside the home. I went back to worrying what I would wear that weekend and to planning my wedding for late that fall. I did that while Anna Mae was being kidnapped, tortured, then taken to the top of a bluff where she was put on her knees, shot in the back of the head and tossed down the bluff into a ditch. Witnesses (those convicted after 35 years) have said she cried, prayed and begged for her life and to see her children one more time. They kept her for nearly a week before finally killing her.<br />
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Anna's body was found on February 24, 1976. They buried her in an unmarked pauper's grave after cutting her hands off and sending them to the FBI for fingerprint identification. Although Anna Mae had been shot in the back of the head, the coroner determined she "died from exposure".<br />
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Even before her body had been found, Dennis Banks told John Trudell that Ann Mae had been shot in the back of the head and thrown in a ditch. <br />
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Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted in 2004. Dick Marshall was acquitted this week on charges that he provided the gun used to murder Ann Mae. Thelma Rios and John Graham have been indicted (9-10-09) on murder, rape and kidnapping charges in Anna Mae's case.<br />
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35 years is a very long time for 2 little girls to have to live with the knowledge that their mother was raped, kidnapped, tortured, shot in the head and dumped in a ditch by "someone". I am very sad that this happened but I am very happy that her daughters have some sort of closure. I'm sure Anna Mae is happy about it too.<strike></strike>Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-32888737393878017012009-12-30T09:42:00.000-06:002009-12-30T09:42:10.127-06:00MothersFrom the title of this post, one might assume I am going to blog about my mother. Well, one would be wrong. Were I to do that, I'm afraid, this site would ban me for life!<br />
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Instead, I am going to blog about other mothers in the news. Today while I had my morning coffee, I clicked on the news page and what I found both amazed and depressed me. There was a boy found in an Idaho canal allegedly killed by his step father, a woman in Texas (of course) who cut off her 2 year old son's genitals while on cocaine, meth and zanax, another mother who beheaded her 4 year old son with a common kitchen knife. Great way to start the day wouldn't you say??<br />
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I want to expound on the Idaho child for a second. As I read the article, I was shocked at the family's history of murder and abuse. First "mom" (Melissa Jenkins) had 3 children all by different fathers. The oldest child (Robert Manwill) is the one found in the canal. His father sought and received custody of this child back in 2008 but the mother received visitation rights (when you continue reading her history with children you will wonder how she EVER obtained visitation). The boy was on a visitation with his mother when he disappeared. The middle child of this woman was taken away from her by that child's father also in 2008 and the mother has visitation rights however, she is never allowed to be alone with the child (good thinking on the part of that dad). The baby of the "family" is the offspring of "mom's" current husband (Daniel Ehrlick Jr.) who is a convicted felon with a previous history of battery convictions. <br />
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Back in 2008, mom was convicted of slamming the baby's head against "a solid surface" which resulted in fracturing the baby's skull. This is what prompted the other dad's to seek and gain custody of their children. The mom was given probation for this act. Had the Court given her the punishment she deserved and immediately stepped in and removed the child from her home, I have no doubt that this baby's half brother would never have been found floating in a canal. But, as I've stated before in my blogs, children are treated as possessions in this country. If you fracture your dogs skull and get caught, you will never get that dog back. You fracture your child's skull and you get probation AND the kid comes home to live with you so you can finish the job.<br />
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Another interesting (but sad) note is that this little boy's father (Charles Manwill) had another child. In 1993 his then wife fatally stabbed the 4 year old boy in the chest. This guy really needs to let someone else pick his women. He's not doing too well in this department.<br />
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Now on to the Texas woman who castrated her son. Katherine Nadal was high on meth, zanax and cocaine when she took a knife and completely removed her infant sons genitals. She blamed it on their small dog and continues to deny she ever "harmed" her son. The genitals were never found and there is speculation that she either fed them to the dog or flushed them down the toilet. At any rate, this child is looking at years of surgery and even more years of therapy to deal with this mutilation. In one of the first examples of emotion in any of these cases, the father had to be escorted from the courtroom when the verdict was read. Katherine shouted out "I didn't harm my child" when the verdict was read. When the father heard her, he stood up and lambasted her before being escorted from the Courtroom. HURRAH'S FOR HIM! He screamed at her that she had abused him in the womb by being high while she was pregnant. This 23 year old received 99 years in prison. The Court remarked that they wanted to make sure she was well beyond child bearing age by the time she gets out. <br />
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Texas has a rich and plentiful history of bizarre ways to kill your children. They really do. If I were a child and my parents even mentioned moving to Texas, I'd run!! Must be something in the water??<br />
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But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-53417691106169946672009-12-30T09:39:00.000-06:002009-12-30T09:39:38.641-06:00Jon & Kate plus 8, Kate plus 8, Jon plus Hailey, whateverReality show update here!! Unless you're a Buddhist monk or live in a cave high in the Andes, you know who these folks are. Well, today's blog is to update you on the latest shenanigans of reality TV's most "affable" couple.<br />
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My daughter and I watched the entire first season (along with the however many specials that aired prior to the first season). We loved it! We loved that they lived in a small house overflowing with babies and baby items. We loved that Jon and Kate seemed to work as a team to care for all of these babies. Albeit a highly dysfunctional team, but a team nonetheless. <br />
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Initially, Kate's verbal slamming of Jon was attributed (in our minds) to her overwhelming daily routine (that was before we found out that they had scads of help 24/7. Back in the early years, Kate denied that they had any regular help). We marveled at Kate's extraordinary organizational skills. I mean, I only had 2 children and yet my floors most certainly did not get cleaned immediately after each meal. We thought this woman was amazing!<br />
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Then came season two. TLC began airing more and more of Kate's verbal punches to Jon and gradually the story emerged that Kate had constant help from a multitude of caregivers. No wonder she had time to do the floors 3 times a day (IF she was indeed the one doing the floors and not one of her workers). Still, we tried to watch it that season but only made it through maybe 4 of the shows before we stopped watching. Kate berated Jon at every turn and worse, she talked smack about him to her kids! One of the older twins became an overly aggressive smart mouthed little terror and the babies (now toddlers) were shown pushing one another and crying all the time and biting, it became not so great of a show. It became like a video that you make to get Supernanny to come to your house and show you how to parent.<br />
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Now that you're caught up on that, let's jump forward to the latest news on the Gosselin family.<br />
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Just days after TLC announced its decision to take Jon out of the show renaming the show "Kate plus 8", Jon gets "an epiphany" (he actually used that term) and decides to lock TLC out of his family home and shuts down shooting. He gives interview after interview stating that his getting fired had NOTHING to do with his actions. He insists that he did this for the protection of his kids. Right.<br />
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Someone needs to tell Jon Gosslin that had he done this even a month ago, maybe then some idiot who lives with Buddhist monks in a cave MIGHT believe it, but the timing was just a touch suspicious for anyone else to come close to believing that he stopped shooting (which by the way, is what puts food on his children's table) because of his "concern" for the kids. <br />
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He certainly appeared fine with it as recently as a week before he was fired. He happily showed up to film and did his thing never uttering a single word about his concerns for his children and the effects the show was having on them.<br />
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I believe that were Jon a woman, they would have pulled the plug on that show long ago. No one likes to watch a woman being verbally and emotionally abused. No one likes to see a daddy talking smack about the mommy to the kids. However, it appears that it's okay to show mommy as the abuser. If Jon were a woman, I think he would be diagnosed with "battered woman syndrome". I truly do. Kate has beaten him down repeatedly over the years. I actually think that what I saw on TV was her being on her "best" behavior. Can you imagine how she treated him once the camera crew left??<br />
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It was really no surprise to me to see him become a party guy once he left (or she kicked him out whichever). If you look at women who break free from their abusive husbands, they oftentimes will run the streets wild for a period. I'm not saying Jon handled this whole thing well or intelligently. Because he certainly did NOT. What I am saying is that it didn't surprise me in the least.<br />
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However, he is not showing the kids how to be an adult. Neither is Kate, but at least she appears to be concentrating on being a mother where Jon is concentrating on being a frat boy. Albeit now, an unemployed frat boy.<br />
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My bet is now that the news of his dismissal has hit the airwaves, all his trips to ski and weekends at the vacation homes of famous designers will abruptly end.<br />
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Which brings up another point. This summer, Jon spent a long weekend with a famous designer. Said designer wanted to hire Jon's kids to model and be the spokespeople for his line of children clothing. Jon had NO problem with that. He was all over it. Now being a mother myself, which would I prefer for my kids? Having a TV crew follow them around while they do what they do all day anyway or trying to make 8 kids be still so as not to mess up their hair and make up and then be still some more so they can have their pictures taken all day long??<br />
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I've done the take the kids to the studio for pictures thing when my kids were small and trust me, it was a nightmare just getting that done occasionally. To try to make that happen every day??? Oh hell no!<br />
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Then we have the "Jon stole all our money from the bank and I can't pay the bills now" versus, "Kate has a million dollars hidden away and I only took $22,500 out of the bank which was my paycheck". Hmmmm. First, Jon, it has surfaced that $22,500 is the FAMILY paycheck NOT all yours. Secondly, the money that Kate socked away actually was earned because of HER book and personal appearances. Which would make it HER money NOT yours to squander on designer clothes and loose women (aka Hailey Glassman). If you want YOUR money then you should have taken 1/10 of that sum which would have only been $2,250 and left the rest for Kate to spend keeping food, shelter and clothing for the kids that YOU helped bring into this world. Course, you might have had to stay home a couple of nights a week rather than party, but hey, that's what parents do all over the world in order to support their kids.<br />
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So my conclusion with the Jon side of this is that he has behaved in the worse possible way during this split with Kate. Battered or not, he has shown the world (and his kids) that he is extremely self centered, a doormat, whiny, "nothing is my fault", rather party than parent kinda guy who takes money out of his children mouths in order to support his new "swinger" lifestyle. Not much love for you there, Jon. I was rooting for you when I first heard that you had jumped ship on Kate, but now I'm thinking she should have booted your behind years ago.<br />
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Now onto Kate. Where to begin?? I will say that Kate Gosselin is one smart cookie when it comes to parlaying having 8 kids into living in a multi million dollar home. However, I am wondering how much of the money that THE KIDS earn every week actually goes into an account for the kids?? My bet? Zero. I don't know if Pennsylvania has laws in effect to force parents to put aside a certain amount of the kids earnings like California and New York have. I doubt they do. Which means Kate can spend the money any old way she pleases.<br />
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The stories about Kate's abusive nature have been rampant. Even before the separation. Stories like why you never saw the grandparents on their show or any of their aunts and uncles save for Kate's sister in law and brother who were suddenly erased from the show early on. <br />
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Kate's MO appears to be "as long as you keep your mouth shut about anything that I say and do, you can remain in the lives of my children. However, come even close to criticism and you are out!!" She has systematically cut off all of the kids relatives. These kids will grow up without having that extended family connection simply because Kate is just so hard to get along with.<br />
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My parents prevented me from being close to my multitude of cousins growing up and I missed that so much! Especially once I became an adult and looked the cousins up and tried to have a relationship with them. It was impossible. They were total strangers to me and it always hurt me to listen to them talk about "remember when we were kids?" stuff with the other cousins. There was just this whole other world that they all shared that I was and would never be a part of. That's what the Gosselin kids are facing. <br />
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Kate is perhaps the most narcissistic person on TV. She seems to think the world really does revolve around her and her wants and needs. It's a good thing that she had so many kids because the chances are great that a big majority of them are going to grow up to hate that woman. At least with this many kids, she may possibly get one of the bunch that will come see her on a regular basis once they're grown.<br />
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Just wait for the teenage years! Wow! Now I'd watch that show! They are going to tear Kate Gosselin up when they become teenagers. She is going to have to hire full time bodyguards in order to just keep them in the house on a school night! She thinks it's hard to corral 8 toddlers? Just try to corral 8 teenagers. I feel for her there!<br />
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, Personally, I have always thought that social services should have stepped in and put a stop to this show a long time ago. When they were just doing a couple of specials a year, it was fine. But now with them filming all the time, it's too much. These kids need to be kids and they certainly don't need for the world to be watching them all the time. Especially with the divorce turning as ugly as it has. They need some private time and not just when they're asleep. They don't need the world (and their classmates) to see all of this. It's just not right.<br />
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Before I end this tirade, I'd like to blog a bit about Kate's "holier than thou" attitude.<br />
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Remember Octomom? I have seen numerous clips of Kate on the Larry King show and Kate on the Today show, on The View and various other shows where Kate repeatedly looks down her nose at Octomom. Seriously looks down her nose at Octomom. Now I myself, feel enormous disdain for Octomom and firmly believe that instead of having scores of kids, she needed to be in a mental health facility but that's just my opinion. I don't get on TV and label myself the supermom of all supermoms either.<br />
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She gets on "Christian" television shows and professes to be this immaculate Christian while all the time she is abusing her husband, exploiting her children, talking smack about people she has never met and being an all round bitch. Not impressive in my book.<br />
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But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-48751979930177574762009-11-09T08:28:00.000-06:002009-11-09T08:28:50.763-06:00Update on Children in Prison postRobert Barnes wrote a piece for the Washington Post that caught my attention this morning. The article is entitled "High Court to look at life in prison for juveniles". (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR2009110900702.html?hpid=topnews)<br />
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It states that today the Supreme Court will decide if sentencing juveniles to prison without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional. However, they are only asking that the juveniles who have committed non-homicide crimes be included in this. Surprisingly, there are currently 111 people in prisons across our country who were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole while they were juveniles for non-homicide crimes which would leave the subject of my earlier post out in the cold. I was really disappointed in that but at least this current development is a step in the right direction.<br />
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I was tremendously surprised that there were that many in our prisons and also that they were sent away to die in prison for non-homicidal crimes. What didn't surprise me is that Florida has 70% of these people. This was a result from Florida's rash of crimes against tourist back in the 1990's. As much as I would love to blame this on Jeb Bush, I was saddened to learn that he was not governor during these times. Instead the blame should rest squarely with Bob Martinez and Lawton Chiles.<br />
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There were (to my surprise) state representatives from 19 states who showed up to contest this. Of course, Florida was present but Louisiana was perhaps equally vocal in its opposition. I honestly cannot understand why anyone would oppose this. <br />
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The two cases being reviewed from Florida concerns Joe Harris Sullivan a convicted rapist (who maintains to this day that he is innocent) and Terrance Graham who was convicted after he was caught in a burglary while on probation.<br />
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Sullivan and Graham are supported by a wide-ranging group of organizations: the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and academics and social scientists who argue that juveniles cannot be held responsible for their actions in the same way adults are. For the same reason, they say, younger teenagers are not entrusted with decisions such as voting, marrying or drinking.<br />
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But the states supporting Florida said the penalty is reserved for the worst offenders. "It is a rare and agonizing decision to sentence a juvenile to life-without-parole," said a brief filed by Louisiana and other states. "But rare does not mean unconstitutional. Rather, rarity is an index of mercy -- of reluctance to take this severe step."<br />
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The National District Attorneys Association, supporting Florida, said that while life without parole for juveniles might be unusual, "permanent incarceration for the most violent, hardened juvenile offenders is by no means 'cruel.' "<br />
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Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote that the immature actions and developing nature of a juvenile meant that "it is less supportable to conclude that even a heinous crime committed by a juvenile is evidence of irretrievably depraved character." He added: "It would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed." <br />
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Until a crystal ball is invented with which we can foresee the future, there is no way that we can state without pause that a child will NEVER be able to be rehabilitated. We simply cannot do this and should not even try.<br />
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I am completely against the giving of a life without possibility of parole or any sentence coming even close to that for a juvenile. I am also against the sending of minors to adult prisons. It wasn't until 2005 that our country stopped allowing minors to be executed for their crimes!! 2005!! Good God!<br />
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I can understand where this all started. There was a time not too awfully long ago, when gangs would take juveniles and "train" them to do illegal things because they knew if the juvenile was caught, he would go to juvie and then be back on the streets whereas his adult counterparts could face "the chair". This led to a rash of juveniles being recruited by gangs and other illegal groups and also to a rash of crimes, oftentimes violent, by these juvenile "armies". <br />
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However, allowing a child to grow up and die in prison is not the deterrent that the "powers that be" might have hoped for. This experiment failed miserably and needs to be stopped!<br />
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Why did it never enter into their heads to up the pressure on the adults who were recruiting these minors? Are our police in this country so inept that they can only catch juveniles in these situations? I mean really! Get these gangs off our streets and out of our neighborhoods and there will be no one to recruit these juveniles and without the recruiters, the vast majority of these juveniles either won't be arrested for anything worse than the stealing of a bike or a fight in the alley.<br />
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Let's look at it from a financial standpoint. To predict the cost to taxpayers to convict a juvenile is almost impossible. It depends on the nature of the crime and the depth and length of the trial. However, I can list a few costs that are pretty much across the board. There is the cost of the public defender and his/her staff. There is the cost of trial exhibits, the costs of finding witnesses and obtaining their statements. There are motions to be drafted, filed and argued. Subpoenas to be drafted, filed, executed and followed up on. Then comes the actual trial, conviction and sentencing phases. It is estimated that this can go as high as $700,000 per trial. Even higher if DNA or other specialized tests are performed and even higher still if expert witnesses are called.<br />
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Above all that, is the cost taxpayers pay for the other side. The prosecution. We have to have at least one prosecutor involved. There are police to investigate and come up with witnesses, witness statements, evidence and the testing of said evidence. There is a Judge to be paid and court costs, a court reporter. We have to house this juvenile while all this is going on. The cost can be pretty extreme.<br />
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It cost a minimum of $33,000 a year to keep a person in prison. That's an adult criminal. It costs more for a juvenile because of the extra protection and isolation that the juvenile has to have until he/she becomes an adult and is then thrown into the general population. But we will go with the $33,000 number. <br />
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Let's say the juvenile spends 20 years in prison. That's a pretty low number since if you are convicted at the ripe age of 17, there is a very good chance that you will live to be well over 37 years of age. But we will just go with that number for the sake of argument. 20 x $33,000 = $660,000.<br />
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So, $700,000 + $660,000 = $1,360,000 This number does not take into consideration increases in the prices of trial or imprisonment. Nor does it take into account the extra cost of housing a minor OR the extra cost of providing said minor with health care, dental care, vision care, or other "benefits" afforded them during their time in prison. It most certainly does NOT take into account any appeal cost.<br />
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Now let's look at the cost of sending that juvenile to an institution until they are an adult or rehabilitated. If you break it down, it costs an average of $93.22 a day to house an adult in prison. It costs approximately $618.00 to house an adult in a state mental health facility. That is a vast and enormous difference in price. On the surface it would certainly appear that the money saving is in sending the kids to prison. <br />
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However, remember that you are sending them to prison for the REST OF THEIR LIVES. You are providing them with health care for the rest of their lives. You are providing them with other benefits for the rest of their lives. Also, bear in mind that these prices are for adults and that juveniles in prison require extra's that are not reflected in this price.<br />
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Another thing to consider is supply and demand. The more people who use a facility, the lower the cost of that facility becomes. Simple economics. That's one reason private facilities cost so much more. Fewer people go there. If the government entered into a contract with a facility for their juvenile offenders, they would receive an awesome discount and this price would go down accordingly. Also, remember that this juvenile won't be spending the next 50 years in that facility. There is a more obtainable end in sight with this scenario versus prison.<br />
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So, if you take into account just the base cost of prison where they will simply be warehoused against the cost of sending them to a state facility where they could get help and perhaps be rehabilitated and get out in time to actually have a life ahead of them, it is on the surface less expensive to send them to prison. But as I said, factor in the health care and other benefits given to them during their lifetime in prison and it comes out pretty even. <br />
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Another good side effect of not sending them to prison is the room it will make for adult criminals in there making our need to release early due to overcrowding a little better.<br />
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I don't really care if it is more expensive, I just want us to stop sending our children to prison for the rest of their lives. Period.<br />
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But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-73789707441053592582009-11-01T08:45:00.000-06:002009-11-01T09:07:47.628-06:00Anti Hate LawsThis country has enacted and continues to enact strong laws protecting the gay and lesbian communities, the black community, the religious communities, the Latino communities and every other sort of "minority" community it can think of. The communities that our government is steadfastly ignoring or refusing to protect are the elderly communities and the children communities. If you murder an elderly person or a child, your sentence is vastly less than had you murdered a 30 year old. Sad, but true. Especially in the instance of murdering a child. And most especially if the child was yours.<br /><br />If I kill an adult white male, I will get far less time than if I kill an adult black male or an adult gay or lesbian IF the prosecutor can plant a seed of doubt in the jurors minds that I might not like black people or gays and/or lesbians. Would they have a difficult time dredging up past statements by me to that effect? <br /><br />Probably not. I think nearly everyone at some point in their lives have made racial statements or has rolled their eyes at some gay/lesbian comment or media report. I think practically everyone at some point in their lives has uttered a racial joke or a joke about gays/lesbians. I really do. We do it in the privacy of our homes or with our friends/relatives/co-workers and then we forget all about it. Because we weren't doing it to incite violence or to spread hatred.<br /><br />However, if the prosecutor is worth his/her salt, they should be able to dig up a person or two who heard the statement(s). That's all it would take for my sentence to be doubled.<br /><br />Now, why is it that as the laws are written, a black person or a gay/lesbian person cannot (or are not) charged with these extra offenses if they kill me? I am reminded of Malaika Tamu Griffin. She has appeared on America's Most Wanted because she was a fugitive for quite some time. <br /><br />This was a black woman who hated white people and eventually shot and killed her white neighbor in front of witnesses. She then disappeared and was a fugitive from justice for over 5 years. When the police entered her apartment, they found numerous magazines, articles and journal entries written by Griffin pertaining to her intense hatred of white people and the possible eradication of the white race. <br /><br />They also found scores of weapons, ammunition and other items which obviously pointed to the fact that Ms. Griffin was not a passive believer but fully intended to actively involve herself in this process.<br /><br />Was she charged under the hate crime laws? No, she was not. She was charged and convicted (once they found her) of simple 1st degree murder, vehicle theft and aggravated robbery. The vehicle theft charge stemmed from the fact that after she (unprovoked) shot and killed an unarmed man in his own driveway, she committed a car jacking in order to secure a getaway vehicle. <br /><br />With ALL of this abundant evidence including eye witnesses to the crime, it still took the jury over 7 hours to deliver a guilty verdict. Huh? She received life in prison. However, why didn't she receive the extra punishment that a white person would have received had they been in her shoes?<br /><br />This is not the only case of this type out there. I could pull up case upon case of such hate crimes against unprotected "classes". However, this is perhaps the most famous due to the fact that AMW aired her profile twice before she was caught.<br /><br />This is my take on the entire situation. If a crime is committed against an elderly person, a child, (in very rare situations) a woman, or on an adult who is severely handicapped, then give them lots of extra time. <br /><br />But if the crime is against one adult to another, give them equal time. We don't need to send a message to our citizens and the world that in this country the only people we protect are minorities or gays/lesbians or religious people or whatever. <br /><br />We need to give the message loud and clear that we don't tolerate beatings, lynchings, rapes or murders PERIOD. End of chat!<br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-52031182728908062162009-11-01T07:20:00.000-06:002009-11-01T09:11:18.806-06:00Children in Prison.<a href="http://www.feministing.com/archives/018500.html">Sara Kruzan: Life Without Parole for Killing her Pimp</a><br /><br />Let's discuss the video that I have linked to this blog and the fact that we have children sitting in prison for life.<br /><br />A 16 year old girl who had been raped by her pimp since she was 13 thinks there is no way out for her from this hellish life except to kill her pimp. She gets life without parole and then some. Fair? Is this justice? Let's take a look at that.<br /><br />Now don't get me wrong on this, I hate my taxpayer dollars being spent on long drawn out trials just as much as the next person. I truly do. <br /><br />I hate it SO much whenever a defendant gets on the stand and wastes taxpayer money and the Courts time by sobbing about what a crappy childhood they had or how they were entangled in the clutches of drug addiction or alcoholism or how they were abused by their husband/wife (whoever). My normal reaction is "so what"?? LOTS of people in this world are abused, raped, beaten, drug addicted, alcohol addicted and still they manage to see another way out of their situation. It happens every stinking day. These people don't resort to murder to get out of their situations.<br /><br />However, in ever-increasing frequency you run across a person who truly had no other avenue available to them and this is the situation with this young woman.<br /><br />She was raised by a neglectful (to put it mildly) mother. She had no father in her life. She was an isolated 11 year old when she met her future pimp. He treated her very well for a couple of years and worked his mind control "magic" on her before raping her at the age of 13 and then putting her out on the streets as a prostitute. Her hours were from 5 to 5. <br /><br />Now where was her mother during this? My daughter was once 13. Do you think for a second that I would allow her to be gone during those hours? Uh, no. For that matter do you think I am going to allow her to run around with a grown man when she is 11 without me being present at all times? Uh, no. Neither of these scenarios would have happened. Not on a dare! However, no adult stepped in to protect this child. They in effect threw her to the wolves without a second thought.<br /><br />Sara had NO ONE to protect her. She was a child left to her own devices and made to look out for herself. I don't care how "street smart" you are, when you are 11, your decision making abilities are not to the point that you can protect yourself from every situation that crops up. Not nearly. <br /><br />For Sara, there was no trusted adult anywhere in her life that she felt she could turn to and ask for help. She absolutely fell through the cracks in her life. So, she did the only thing she could think of to do in her 13 year old mind. She murdered her pimp to put an end to this hell.<br /><br />When she was sentenced, the judge told her that she had no "moral scruples". SHE WAS 11 YEARS OLD WHEN HE GOT HIS HANDS ON HER! Where in the world (or at least in her world) would she possibly have had moral scruples taught to her? Who in her world had the ability to show by example or to teach these to her? Who in her world even possessed them? <br /><br />After she got to prison she had to look these words up in a dictionary because she didn't even know what they meant. Does that sound like a hardened killer to you?<br /><br />Even she admits she should be punished for what she did. Even she admits that what she did was wrong. Why should she have to spend the rest of her natural life in prison when it is her mother and the pimp who should be punished. Well, the pimp did get his sentence, but her mother is free as a bird and able to do as she pleases while the daughter that she created sits in prison.<br /><br />This is just not right!!<br /><br />To date, over 2200 children have been sentenced as adults and sent to adult prisons in this country. <br /><br />Prisons (at least in America) were initially created as a way to rehabilitate the criminals who could still be rehabilitated and only as a last resort to warehouse those individuals who needed to remain off the streets for the safety of the general public. Sara is no threat to the general public. She is a shining example of someone who could very easily be rehabilitated.<br /><br />I'm all for the 3rd strike laws. If you didn't learn anything the first two times, then by the third time, you need to go away permanently. That's my take on it. But if you are a child, I don't care what heinous act you have committed, there is always the possibility, however slight, that you can be rehabilitated and at some point in your life, you can lead a productive and law abiding life! We aren't a country of psychics! How can anyone say with complete certainty that a child can NEVER be reformed? No one knows that!! And by locking that child up with adult offenders for any period of time, we are insuring that they are lost forever.<br /><br />Stop sending money to other countries so their children can be educated and fed and clothed and protected! SPEND THAT MONEY IN OUR OWN COUNTRY SO OUR CHILDREN CAN BE PROPERLY FED, CLOTHED, HOUSED, PROPERLY EDUCATED AND MOST OF ALL - PROTECTED!<br /><br />Start sending these children to juvenile facilities. Not the ones we currently have in place. They are nothing more than junior prisons and warehouses.<br /><br />Let's spend the money to create facilities where the children will be emotionally, psychologically and physically cared for. Let's give them the tools that they obviously did not get from the adults in their lives to deal with life's numerous situations without resorting to violence. Let's up their opinion of themselves a notch or two. MOST of these children can be salvaged. MOST of these children can learn from their mistakes no matter how horrendous they were and can go forward and be productive law abiding citizens.<br /><br />Many of them would need to be housed in a mental health facility for sure. But the money we would save down the road would far exceed the money we will spend to house these children in adult prisons for the rest of their lives.<br /><br />What is wrong with this country???? Why do we turn our backs on our own children while all the time we are sending Angelina Jolie to foreign countries to help their children?? Why are people like Oprah and Madonna opening schools for girls in foreign countries while we have a staggering number of girls in this country every day who are being pushed into prostitution, raped, beaten, molested, etc. Are our girls not worth the time and money?? Are their girls more valuable than ours??<br /><br />I am sick of this! Spend your time and money HERE. Save OUR children. Let other countries worry about their own children until we have taken ours back.<br /><br />What hypocrites we are and don't think the rest of the world doesn't see that. We seem to be the only people in the world who doesn't.<br /><br /><br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-67907788750672968822009-10-01T08:42:00.001-05:002009-10-01T14:04:09.791-05:00Savage GraceSeveral weeks ago while up late not being able to sleep (for whatever reason) I ran across a movie starring Julianne Moore called "Savage Grace". It was such a strange and unbelievable story that I had to immediately purchase the book upon which the movie is based. The book (by the same name) was riveting. It is written in a documentary style which is rather difficult to read at first, but it is such an intriguing story that I simply couldn't put it down! After I caught onto the rhythm of the style, it was quite pleasant reading actually.<br /><br />It is the story of Brooks, Barbara and Antony Baekeland. Brooks grandfather (Leo) invented plastic (Brooks himself invented a parachute but that is the extent of his contribution to society). <br /><br />Barbara was a stunningly beautiful, highly violent and manically energetic woman who decided she needed to have sex with her son (Antony) in order to "cure" him of his homosexual tendencies. Barbara came from a long line of mentally unstable people. Her mother had a severe mental breakdown before Barbara was born. Her father committed suicide. Her only sibling, a brother, also committed suicide. <br /><br />Antony was a very attractive and artistic young man who didn't have a dogs chance of surviving in the world into which he was born and eventually died while in prison.<br /><br />The book is filled to the brim with interviews with such luminaries as Dominick Dunne, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Jim Jones, Sam Green, Patricia Neal (the actress), Sir Cecil Beaton, Georges Bernier, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Peter Gimble, plus assorted Guinnesses, Vanderbilts, Astors and titled Europeans.<br /><br />Brooks says in the book that because of his grandfather, Brooks was able to live his life with "fuck you money". They never owned a house. They traveled like gypsies around the globe renting one place after another in whatever country they decided to land for anywhere from a month to a year at a time. Antony was raised with adults and was taught from early childhood to speak and react as an adult. Brooks was insistent that instead of Antony learning to recognize a butterfly (as an example) he was instead taught to recognize it as a Papilio (the Latin term). He wanted to make sure that Antony learned the scientific terms for all things rather than what Brooks considered to be the "slang" terms for them.<br /><br />As a matter of fact, throughout Antony's short life (he was around 30 at the time of his death) he was treated as a pet more so than a child. At dinner parties (one in particular), he was offered up to read a chapter from "Lady Chatterley's Lover" to the guests in attendance. I believe he was 10 at the time?<br /><br />I think the book enthralls me so much because it is such an example of the idle rich and their skewed moral courage (or lack thereof). Had anything similar to this occurred in an inner city family, it would not have been made into a movie starring Julienne Moore. It would undoubtedly not even have made the nightly news.<br /><br />I think because of their vast sums of money, we expect more from these types of people. We expect them to have just a little more common sense, intelligence and morality than the common ghetto dweller. However, as this book shows, very often, they certainly do not.<br /><br />Brooks Baekeland was a self proclaimed author who never published a book. He however, did invent a specialized parachute for high altitude jumping that is used by every military authority in the world for this purpose. <br /><br />During such a long life as he enjoyed with all the financial resources at his disposal, one would expect so much more from him. Especially if he truly were nearly as smart and creative as he proclaimed himself to be. <br /><br />Whenever he spoke of Barbara's painting talent, he says he stood behind her when she painted and instructed her. When he talks of her writing ability, he states he instructed her and edited her words. No one on earth was anywhere near the intelligence level as Brooks, or at least in his own mind.<br /><br />Barbara was an entertaining genius by all accounts. It was said repeatedly that if she felt a dinner party was "going south", she would come up with ingenious ways to liven it up. Thus making her parties the must attend functions in many countries.<br /><br />Their lives were the fodder of at least 2 successful novels. One of them entitled "The Merry Month of May" 1971 by James Jones who also authored "From Here to Eternity" among others, was reviewed by the New York Times. <br /><br />The reviewer for Time magazine noted in his review, his feeling that the book's characters were not very believable. The Saturday Review (John W. Aldridge) notes in his review, "Even with all due allowance for his evident faith in human credulity, Jones cannot really expect us to believe any of this." Little did they know, that the main characters in the book (the Gallagher family) were indeed the Baekelands and everything in the book was factual. Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.<br /><br />I think the reason this is the subject of my post, is because when I googled Antony Baekeland, I got scores of articles about Barbara or Leo but absolutely nothing about Antony. This movie, this book, this horrific story is NOT about Brooks, or Leo or even Barbara so much as it is about Antony. Yet he is treated as an afterthought, he is treated as a minor player in the whole thing. Had it not been for Brooks and Barbara and their miserable failings as parents and human beings, there would be no book or movie and perhaps Barbara would be alive today. Although Barbara was indeed murdered, Antony is the real victim in this saga.<br /><br />As I see it, Antony's (and Barbara's) deaths were due in large part to three situations. <br /><br />1) His mother. Barbara was not only having sex with him from the time he was a teenager until he murdered her, but she was cruelly manipulative and very often violent with him. He had no one to shelter him from this treatment and as this was all he had ever known, he felt he had no escape from it. Much like a "Battered woman syndrome" situation. <br /><br />The few times that he did move away from his mother, she allowed him to stay for a few months and then would pull him back with threats of cutting off his money. <br /><br />I think his state of mind where Barbara is concerned, could best be shown in the following. At one point, Sam Green had lunch with Tony. Sam had been Barbara's lover for a short time and some sources state, he was sexually active with Tony as well although after the book and movie came out, he denied ever having been intimate with Tony.<br /><br />Tony was desperate to talk with someone, anyone, about what his mother was doing to him sexually and manipulatively. Sam advised him to get away from her and stay away from her. Tony's response was utter shock, "Where will I go? What will I do?" <br /><br />Sam's response was, "Do what people all over the world do.....get a job!" Tony was stunned. No one in his immediate family worked, or had ever really worked. He didn't really know anyone besides the domestic help that worked. His overly pompous, braggart of a father certainly had not set an example of this to him, nor had his status seeking, party girl of a mother. <br /><br />2) His father, Brooks. Brooks throughout the book, brags incessantly about how rich he is, how super intelligent he is, how he succeeds at every little thing he attempts. He scorns Antony at every turn. He offered no assistance, when it became clear that Antony had mental issues. Severe mental issues. As an example, there was the times Tony tried to kill his mother even going so far as to drag her by her hair into traffic in the hopes of throwing her beneath an oncoming car, leaving her partially bald, bruised and with numerous broken bones in her hand as a result of him repeatedly slamming the gate on her hand as she held on for dear life. Brooks steadfastly refused to pay for a stay in a hospital or for psychiatric treatment touting psychiatrists as charlatans. It should be noted here that his brother, Dr. Fred Baekeland was a rather prominent psychiatrist at the time. <br /><br />Even when Antony was writing and calling his father literally begging him for help, Brooks ignored the letters and calls or would berate him on the few occasions that he actually accepted the calls. Brooks in essence abandoned his son leaving him to fend for himself knowing Tony lacked the proper mental equipment to do so. <br /><br />Brooks literally sentenced Barbara and Nina (the maternal grandmother who was the last of Antony's victims to be stabbed) to their fates. He also assured Tony of his fate as well. Tony should never have been incarcerated at Riker's Island Prison. <br /><br />For that matter, he should never have been released from Broadmoor without supervision. He should have remained in a mental health facility until he died or at the very least, he should have been sent to a halfway house with constant appropriate supervision.<br /><br />However, that's not what happened.<br /><br />3) There were a group of Barbara's friends who visited Tony regularly during the nearly 8 years that he was in Broadmoor. They felt that he was changed. They felt that killing Barbara was the only thing he could think to do in order to stop the torture both sexually and emotionally that she had inflicted upon him during his life. They felt that he was no threat to anyone else. <br /><br />So they campaigned relentlessly to get his release. Even to the point of getting the American Consulate involved in the saga. <br /><br />Eventually, they won his release. However, when the British Courts demanded that someone be made responsible for him upon his release, NONE of them stepped up to the plate and volunteered. Thus, he was sent to live with Barbara's elderly mother in New York and was given absolutely NO conditions of supervision or continued mental health care. Again, Brooks flatly refused to finance medical treatment for Tony.<br /><br />Without the medicines which had kept him on a somewhat even keel while in Broadmoor, within a week of his stay with Nina Daly, he decided that she was nagging him too much about the noise he would make during the night as he stayed up all night playing his music. <br /><br />He also had erected a shrine of sorts to Barbara in Nina's tiny living room (which was where he slept as she lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment). He would, according to Nina, conduct occult type ceremonies to Barbara there.<br /><br />Nina had fallen and broken her hip not long before Tony was released and she was slowly on the mend from that. One morning nearly a week after he came there, he threw a phone at Nina causing her to fall to the floor, fearing he might has re-fractured her hip again, he decided to kill her to put her out of her misery. <br /><br />In his mind, he thought that to be the most humane and decent thing he could do for her. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a knife and began stabbing her repeatedly but the blade kept hitting bone and she didn't die. Furious because he couldn't kill her, he finally called for an ambulance to come get her. He remarked to the police when they arrived that he hated it when they just wouldn't die!!<br /><br />This was the crime that eventually led to him being sent to Riker's Island Prison where they found him with a plastic bag over his head dead one afternoon shortly after he had returned from a court hearing in which his bail was again denied.<br /><br />All of these "friends" of Barbara's knew what she was doing to Tony for years! They admit in interviews that either Barbara or Tony and sometimes both, had admitted to them that they were having sex. They knew that Barbara was violent and erratic and mentally ill herself. They knew that Brooks had deserted both of them. Yet not one of them ever admits to coming forward and telling Barbara that she should stop treating Tony that way or volunteering to take Tony or in any other way, trying to help Tony. <br /><br />Only when he finally gets to a place (Broadmoor) in which he can get the help he needs and is doing well, do they decide to form a committee to "help" him.<br /><br />I honestly don't know how they sleep at night. I don't know how Brooks could live with himself. <br /><br />What a complete and utter waste of space Brooks and Barbara Baekeland were. Utter waste of air.<br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-77097156212865877602009-08-06T09:22:00.000-05:002009-08-06T10:42:25.485-05:00Update & reprint of former postBelow is a reprint of a former post of mine. It would appear another woman is missing. What does this woman looks like? Blonde hair, average height and build. Walked out of her office in Riverside Alabama at lunch and was never seen again although her car remained in the parking lot. Odd.<br /><br />So here is my previous post and I have updated the timeline to include Kelley Howard in the list. I will update this post as new information is uncovered.<br /><br />-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Since October, 2008 or so, I have noticed reports of missing women and bodies found in and around Birmingham, Alabama. A couple of the missing women have been found alive. Women who decided to start over or were running from the law (such as the case of the Alabama woman who disappeared after being charged with child neglect or the Alabama preacher's wife who disappeared and then surfaced in New York living under an assumed name). But there are many who have not been found alive and well. There are also bodies that have been found but not identified. I have not included any of these women in my list below.<br /><br />When I decided to write this post, I tried to find reports of these bodies and missing women, but could only come up with a few. Most of the time, I find the Internet highly over rated when it comes to research. Or at least FREE research. Honestly I think it's more of a "users" issue.<br /><br />So below is the list I have been able to compile. I will update this list as necessary. Hopefully I can become more adept at "keywords" because apparently I kinda suck at it right now.<br /><br />I have only gone back as far as 2006. However, when I have more time available, I intend to take a closer look at the years 1995 - 1999 because most of the missing women I have found were from that time period but right now, let's concentrate on more current dates. Fodder for my next post I suppose.<br /><br />2006<br />Sherry Milton. Age 26, white-blonde - from Tuscaloosa. Disappeared 08/2006 while visiting in Birmingham. Her car was found the next day in the Ensley area (near the same spot that a more recent missing woman's - Nadia Kersh - car was found abandoned). Sherry was slender and had collar length light brown or dark blond hair (this is the most common thread among all of these women).<br /><br />Lori Ann Slesinski. Age 24, white-brunette - from Auburn. Disappeared 06/2006. They found her brand new car on fire 5 days after she went missing. Again, slender with shoulder length blond hair.<br /><br />2007<br />Britney Jenae Wright. Age 19, white-blonde - from Vernon. Disappeared 07/2007. She was last seen at her residence. All of her personal items were still there when the police investigated. She has not been seen or heard from since that date. She again fit the general description of the other women.<br /><br />2008<br /><br />Pamela Pendley. Age 42, white-blonde - from Hueytown. Disppeared while on a business trip to Pamama City, FL on 1/27/08<br /><br />Lisa Green. Age 44, white-blonde - from Brookwood. Disappeared 07/2008 from a convenience store. Now Lisa is well over the "normal" age bracket if these are all connected. However, Lisa is a slender blond who easily could be mistaken for someone years younger in that she dressed & wore her hair in a style much younger than her age and her facial features belie her age well. Lisa was last seen at a grocery store in Brookwood.<br /><br />Jennifer Lee Hampton. Age 21, white-blonde - from Florence. Disappeared 9/2008. Jennifer was last seen at a hotel where she was attending a conference for work. Same general physical description as the others.<br /><br />Shannon Ellis. Age 31 - from Birmingham. Disappeared 9/2008. Had darker hair but otherwise is the same general physical description as the other ladies.<br /><br />Nadia Kersh. Age 23, white-light brunette - from Homewood. Disappeared 10/2008. Her abandoned car was found blocks from where Sherry Milton's car was found. Same description. Slender, blond or light brown hair above the collar length.<br /><br />Brianna Parish. Age 21, white-blonde - from Daphne. Disappeared 11/2008. Body located. Last seen at a local bar. Killer unknown.<br /><br />Emily Phillips Milling. Age 23, white-blonde - from Leeds. Disappeared 11/2008. Body located. Suspect has been arrested but no conviction or confession at this time. Same description.<br /><br />Layla Adkins. Age 32, white-blonde - from Leeds. Disappeared 11/13/08.<br /><br />2009<br />In January a body of a young female was discovered just off Rocky Ridge Road. She was nude and her clothes were near her body. She has not as of yet been identified. Police have stated that she was not at her location for very long after her death. (NOTE: THIS YOUNG LADY WAS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE WHICH DEFIES ALL CONNECTION WITH THE OTHER LADIES. HOWEVER, AS NO ONE HAS YET TO BE ARRESTED FOR THIS, I AM LEAVING HER ON THIS LIST).<br /><br />1/09/09<br />Sherry Ann Sellers, white blonde, age 50, average height and build. Missing from Norther Tuscaloosa county.<br /><br />6/02/2009<br />Kelley Howard, white-blonde and of average height and build. She left her place of employment at lunch. She has not been seen or heard from again. Her car remained in the parking lot. <br /><br />That's all that I have been able to find from the general area at this point. How many more are out there that I have not been able to find out anything about? My rule of thumb has always been if I can find 1 then there are probably 2 more out there. Also, there are numerous others in bordering states along the border with Alabama that I have not included such as Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee. I haven't even looked at Georgia.<br /><br />None of the above may be related or they may all be related. Also, there are other missing women and found bodies, that I have run across during my informal searches that I neglected to bookmark and now cannot find them.<br /><br />Alabama doesn't have the history of making serial killers that some other states "enjoy". We had a few home grown serial killers. Daniel Siebert (killed 13 total - 5 of which were actually in Alabama), Donald Wayne Darling (I can't find a total on his victims) and Jack Trawick (6 known kills). We had the 18 year old girl (from Alabama) and her much older husband who traveled around Alabama and the surrounding states killing people and then in the early 1900's we had the infamous "Axe killing" serial killers. These were a small group of black men who roamed Birmingham, Alabama killing folks with an axe. I guess I should include Rhonda Belle Martin in this list. I hesitate only because she killed only family members. She poisoned 6 and attempted to poison another 9 before she was caught and eventually executed in 1957.<br /><br />Am I excited about the possibility of an Alabama serial killer on the loose? Lord no! However, I am curious about it. As I said before, I will research the '90's timeline and see what else I can come up with. Maybe the northwest and states with cold/wet climates are not the only places that breed serial killers? We shall see.<br /><br />Be on the lookout for updates on this subject. Gruesome as it may sound, this subject matter intrigues me greatly. I mostly hang with the ultra liberal crowds and our hottest debates have always been about environment causing predatory behavior.<br /><br />You see I believe that predatory behavior and the ability to act upon that behavior, is born - not caused in 99% of these cases. I believe that people are just more evolved animals who, for the most part, have learned how to restrain their basal animal instincts or channel it into more socially acceptable ways.<br /><br />However, from time to time there comes along the human who for whatever reason either cannot or will not restrain that urge. When that occurs ultimately a serial killer is born into our society.<br /><br />I never understood people who were shocked at this occurrence. After all it is animal nature to prey on the weaker animals. Only in the (true)animal kingdom is it done normally just for food or survival. Somehow once it crosses over into the human arena, it becomes more for sport than survival. It's more a case of "I do it because I can" scenario.<br /><br />That is the part that intrigues me. The total and complete lack of empathy for their victims. The part of them that actually enjoys the pain and fear that they are inflicting upon their victims. The complete and utter control they have over their victim(s). The part of them that doesn't even attempt to explain their behavior. the "it is what it is" kind of attitude.<br /><br />Many of these killers mouth excuses "my parents beat me" or "I felt I had no control in my life and this gave it back to me" but I have always felt they were simply mouthing what they had read or what shrinks had told them as a last ditch effort to either make themselves appear less of a monster or as an attempt to influence their possible future endeavors to either get out of prison or at a minimum off death row.<br /><br />Then you have the unbelievably evil and frightening people like David Parker RAY and Cindy HENDY a/k/a the "Toy Box Killers". Of all of the serials, David and Cindy are perhaps the most frightening of the lot if for no other reason than the shear enjoyment they felt for this "hobby" and also for the fact that they lived in total obscurity for decades before being caught.<br /><br />We can study these killers from here to eternity and we will never know how to actually spot them early on and prevent them from allowing their killer instincts to run rampant. We simply must admit and accept the fact that there are people born into this world with this need and drive to kill & torture. The best that we can hope for is that we will be more vigilant in protecting ourselves from them and in our ability to catch them early.<br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-73531664960283987872009-07-23T22:53:00.000-05:002009-07-23T22:54:57.995-05:00My last blogThis may very well be my last blog. No one apparently reads it. I keep a journal so why on earth would I need to blog?? Just in case this is my last blog.........enjoyed it while it lasted! See ya later!Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-50404309670976712462009-07-16T07:24:00.000-05:002009-07-16T09:36:30.667-05:00Crazy Dog Lady??In my life I have experienced more than my fair share of death. Beginning when my brother and I found our grandfather shortly after he committed suicide by shotgun when I was 7. Since then, I have had 3 husbands die; my father; my best friend in the whole world; 3 boyfriends (3 seems to be the magic number with me doesn't it?); my beloved sister & the usual aunts, uncles, classmates. Yet, I carried on and dealt with each of them. Of the above deaths, my sister's death has affected me the most I think. However, with the exception of my sister, none of these has affected me nearly as much as the recent deaths of my 2 dogs. How strange is that?<br /><br />Cole (short for Nat King Cole) was a 158 pound black Huskador. Gorgeous dog. Each of his eyes were half sky blue. He was handsome and so very smart. I bought him and his twin sister (Bennett - short for Tony Bennett) when they was 6 weeks old way back in 1997 and Cole was my shadow until June, 2009 when I had to have him put down. Bennett accidentally hung herself trying to jump a fence when she was about 2. Unfortunately, had she not done this, I would have had to have her put down because she was EXTREMELY mean.<br /><br />Quincy (short for Quincy Jones) was a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Thick red hair, I called him my Irish boy. Smartest dog I've ever seen. Of the two, he was by far the most attached to me and I was the most attached to him. Cole loved me but Quincy adored me. I rescued Quincy back in 1997 from my mother. Quincy was born in 1994 and for the first years of his life, he lived in my mother's yard. She lived in the country on some acreage and he had the full roam of it. However, she wasn't the best at making sure he had food and water and she never allowed him to come inside no matter how harsh the weather might be. She didn't pet him or spend time with him. Finally, on Thanksgiving in 1997, my daughter and I went outside to play with him and noticed that his water bowl was frozen solid and there was not a sign of food anywhere. We looked at one another and put him in our car and took him home to Memphis and he stayed with me until May, 2009 when I had to have him put down.<br /><br />The hardest two things I have ever had to do was have these guys put down. I struggled with both of them longer than I should have for their sakes.<br /><br />Quincy had glaucoma to the point where he couldn't see 2 inches in front of his face any longer; his hips had gone out on him and towards the end he could only drag his back feet; he had suffered from diabetes for the past 3 years requiring twice daily shots of insulin; he had become incontinent. The last 4 months of his life, he was in considerable pain all the time.<br /><br />Within 2 weeks after Quincy died, Cole developed bone cancer in his shoulder. The last week of his life all he could do was lay around. He could no longer walk to the yard to do his business, he had the most difficult time walking anywhere. He was in a lot of pain.<br /><br />I find it more than coincidental that Cole would develop cancer shortly after Quincy died.<br /><br />Cole and Quincy were two peas in a pod for over a decade. You never saw one without the other. They took their doctor visits together, they took their naps together, they played together, they lay side by side in the yard and watched the world together. <br /><br />When I lived on a lake, every morning they would go down to the lake and Quincy would lay on the dock while Cole swam in the lake, then they would go for a run for an hour or so until time for me to call them in so I could go to work. They always came back together. There were times when a pack of stray dogs would come into our land and Cole and Quincy would stand side by side as they backed those strays off and oftentimes it would come to a fight and Cole and Quincy would be slugging it out side by side. They always won.<br /><br />Every Sunday for over a decade, I would put them in my car and we would go for a ride. Sometimes it would only be for an hour and sometimes we would ride all afternoon. Always, we would stop at either Sonic or Burger King afterwards where I would buy them each a bag of french fries (I know - not good for them) and once they had eaten their fries, we would head for the house.<br /><br />It was amazing at the shear volume of words they completely understood. It wasn't the "tone" of my voice that they understood or body language - they completely understood much of what I said. My children and friends used to try so hard to trick them by saying words they were familiar with in different tones or by going into another room and saying something like "want to go for a ride?" to see if they got reactions and they always did. They could be sound asleep and if I said "want to go for a ride?" or "treat" or "bedtime" or any hosts of other sentences with which they were familiar, they would immediately jump up and pay attention. They understood. You'll never convince me otherwise.<br /><br />I have had a lot of emotional pain in my life as has everyone. For 12 years whenever I cried, no matter where they were, they would always come to me and comfort me. They slept in my bed, they went with me whenever I visited friends, they went with me on vacations, they went with me to the park, they went with me whenever I had to go the doggie grocery store so they could pick out their food and treats, they even attended my dinner parties that I used to have at my house as well as my yearly Christmas parties. They knew to never get around people food or close to people when they were eating. They would get a safe distance away and would both sit there side by side watching people eat but they would never approach the people or get near the food. I could put a plate filled with steak on the floor and walk outside and when I came back they would be sitting at a distance staring at it, but they would not touch it. I would like to say I taught them this, but I didn't. It was just a natural thing that they knew. They knew if they were good when the people were eating that I would reward them afterwards and I always did. They were the best friends I have ever and will ever have.<br /><br />I told them everything and they listened. That's the greatest thing about dogs. They listen to whatever you want to tell them and they never ever pass judgment or try to give you advise or tell you how silly or stupid you are for feeling that way. They just maintain eye contact and listen and then once you're finished, they give you lovin.<br /><br />Quincy used to sing with me and Cole used to love to dance with me. We used to sit by the lake and after we moved from the lake, they would sit on my deck with me, for hours each of us in our own thoughts. Quincy on one side of me and Cole on the other. We'd sit there for hours and watch the sun go down over the lake and the geese on the water. No need for conversation. We were just enjoying the view and the company. Occasionally I would pet them and occasionally they would lick my hand. We were just comfortable being together.<br /><br />I couldn't go with them when it came time for each of them to die. I just couldn't. They loved me and trusted me to always take care of them and I felt that I had let them down. I just couldn't go. My son in law (God love him) did it for me. They are both buried in my daughter and son in laws back yard beneath a tree.<br /><br />When I first got them, I asked the vet what their life expentancies were and he said that for Cole it would be 6-8 years and for Quincy it would be 8-10 years. Cole made it 12 years and Quincy made it 15 years. I'm thankful about that but I sure wish they could have made it much longer.<br /><br />I can't tell you how much I miss these guys. I have since found two strays puppies and have taken them in. They are cute. They aren't Cole and Quincy. I try to love them but I compare them constantly to Quincy and Cole. They will never be as handsome or as smart or as good as Quincy and Cole. If I live to be 1000 years old I will never again find dogs as smart and good as them.<br /><br />Quincy was always a good dog. His only vices were the litter box (he loved brownies) and the garbage. I found that as long as I kept the kitchen garbage can empty and kept the litter box where he couldn't get to it, we were good. Those were his only shortfalls.<br /><br />He had another issue which I wouldn't really call a shortfall and that was to open doors. Quincy loved my cats (Miss Billie Holliday and Hank). Whenever they wanted to go outside, Quincy would take his paw and hit the door knob until he heard it click and then he would take his mouth and pull the door open for them. Unfortunately, he never saw fit to shut it behind the cats so there was more than one time that I woke up in the morning to find the back door standing wide open. It became my habit after a period of time to make certain that the deadbolts were turned as well as the knobs before I went off to bed.<br /><br />Cole, was a very BAD puppy for the first full 2 years of his life. He ate my inside plants, he ate my shoes, he ate my phones, he ate my extension cords (while they were plugged in) he ate a hole (literally) through to the outside brick in my den, he ate the frames around my kitchen door, he ate his glass water bowl, he ate my steam cleaner, he ate the siding off my house - getting the picture??? He was BAD. My vet had told me that if I could just not kill him until he was 2 he would be a great dog. I kept telling myself that every day after work when I would come home to find that he had gotten my closet door open and he was found surrounded by my shoes with one hanging out of his mouth. I kept telling myself that when I would have to come home at lunch everyday and clean the carpets because he had overturned all of my houseplants and played in the dirt. But the vet was right. When he was 2, he turned into the perfect dog. Never again did he chew anything he wasn't supposed to. Never did he do anything bad again for the rest of his life. He was the perfect dog.<br /><br />When he was maybe 1-1 1/2 years old, I tried to keep he and Quincy in my back yard while I was at work (hoping to keep the damage inside my house to a minimum). I had a decent sized yard with a privacy fence all the way around. I also had an abundance of mature oak trees in the back yard which prevented sunlight from getting to the yard. A perfect place for them to be in the heat of summer. I bought them kiddie pools (one for each because they didn't care to share) and they would play in it - Cole liked to just lay in his. <br /><br />I worked about 10 blocks from my house. EVERY day - EVERY day one of my neighbors would call me at work to tell me that Cole was at his house. I would get in the car and go home to find Quincy being a good dog in our back yard while Cole would be either at Bill's house or at Larry's house or next door at Steve and Tina's house being loved on and fed. We lived in a small very tightly knit neighborhood and we all had dogs that we were obsessive about. I would brag and brag about how good Quincy was not to get out and how bad Cole was to get out until one day Steve and Tina told me that Quincy got out every time Cole did BUT Quincy knew the sound of my car and whenever he would hear it rounding the corner, he would stop eating his treats and high tail it back to the back yard where he would be waiting for me - like a good dog. I spent every weekend and God knows how much money trying to fortify that fence so they couldn't get out. It never worked so they went back to staying in the house while I was gone.<br /><br />God I miss those guys. I can't believe I'm using my blog to talk about it. I just can't seem to get over it. I still walk past their favorite places to lay and I think for just a second that I see them. They both liked to sit beneath my desk whenever I was on the computer, and still I am very careful as to where I put my feet because I don't want to step on them. I still think about it being time for Quincy's shots and I still sometimes hear the very distinctive sound of Cole's fingernails on the floor as he is walking to the bedroom at bedtime. I still have the last bottle of insulin and his needle in my fridge and I have Cole's pain medication in my purse. I don't think I'll ever get rid of either. It's all I have left of them.<br /><br />For 12 years, every night of my life when it became 10 o'clock, Quincy and Cole would come to me and Quincy would bark and do this silly little dance he did where he would turn in quick circles and I knew it was time for bed. They would follow me as I turned off the lights and checked the doors and then they would run and jump on the bed each getting into their favorite spots. I started out with a full size bed when they were smaller, then I upgraded to a queen size and finally to a king size mattress. Cole was 158 pounds and Quincy was 112 so I had to have a bed large enough basically for 3 people and still I would wake up in the mornings clinging to the side of the bed to keep from falling off while they were sprawled out on my pillows. The last 2 year's of Quincy's life he could no longer jump onto the bed so I took an old rectangular coffee table, I cut the legs down some and then I put it at the foot of my bed so he could climb onto it and then onto the bed. The last 6 months or so of his life, he couldn't even do that any longer and he would just lay on a doggie bed that I had made for him which was next to my bed so I could reach my hand down and pet him.<br /><br />Years ago, I discovered that if I kept the TV on tuned to the cartoon network while I was at work, they were very good all day. If I forgot - destruction would occur. If I had the TV on but on a different channel - destruction would occur. They liked their cartoons. When my son got out of the Army back in 2002, he came to live with me. I told him that the TV had to be on the cartoon network while I was at work and he laughed at me and said that was crazy. One day, he left the house while I was work and he turned off the TV. He came home and the house was in a shambles. He thought it was a fluke so the next day when he left the house, he left the TV on but it was not on the Cartoon Network - again shambles. So the next day he left the TV on cartoon network and when he got home - perfection. He became a believer at that point.<br /><br />I used to think sometimes that it would be great when I could have the bed all to myself and when I didn't have to buy Quincy's insulin and needles anymore (not cheap) and when I didn't have to schedule my day around his shots and their bathroom breaks and when I didn't have to buy 100 pounds of dog food a month, 2 large boxes of treats a month and 60-62 cans of wet dog food a month. Not to mention the vet bills! The last year of his life, Cole had to have a very large tumor removed from his paw and Quincy had to have a super large tumor removed from his chest - neither of which was anywhere near cheap.<br /><br />But I found the money for it somehow. I had to. They were my best friends. As melodramatic as it sounds, they were my soul mates. I've never had a person who loved me as much as they did or was as loyal as they were or as forgiving or as patient or as trusting. I never will. I love them with all of my heart and soul and I always will. I have turned into this crazy dog lady that I used to make fun of.<br /><br />I remember many times working in offices when I would see a secretary with photo's of her dogs or cats plastered around her desk and I would think CRAZY. I would think how sad that they have pictures of animals on their desks and not people. They must be lonely souls. I didn't get it. Now I do. But I wish I didn't. This is more pain than I want or need. <br /><br />My foster son (Dusty) lived with me off and on since 2002 and he loves to say that when he dies he hopes he comes back as one of my dogs because Cole and Quincy had a good life. <br /><br />I hope they did. I tried as hard as I could to give them a good life. I just miss them more than I ever imagined I could ever miss anything or anyone (other than my sister).Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-33913882250380297532009-07-02T09:23:00.000-05:002009-07-02T09:57:40.238-05:00Michael and ElvisAs everyone knows by now, Michael Jackson has passed away. <br /><br />In my mind there are two people who forever changed the face of music by their popularity and by their unbelievable success and hard work. Those two people would be Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Now don't get me wrong, there are others FAR more talented and innovative than these two. Many others. However, for whatever reason Michael and Elvis struck a cord with the common folks and as a result catapulted to the most outrageous success and immortal status.<br /><br />Their individual endings were nearly exact. Both had placed their trust in a doctor who, I believe, abused that trust and both paid the ultimate price for it. <br /><br />Both of these men were simple men. I realize they didn't live like simple men but in their hearts they were ordinary men who had accomplished extraordinary things. By ordinary simple men I mean this: In all the tabloids and "news" programs throughout the years you have never heard anyone ever say that either Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley was rude or mean to anyone. Never. You also never hear that either of them ever refused to help anyone when asked. Never. <br /><br />You hear about their excesses and their weird behavior and their weight issues (Elvis too big - Michael too small) but never have you ever heard that either one of them ever abused anyone.<br /><br />That brings up the children issue with Michael. I, for one, never believed those stories. I always felt that they were made up to extort money from Michael. Now, I am the first to admit that his having kids over all the time for sleep overs was inappropriate and beyond weird, but I don't believe he behaved inappropriately with them. I believe he took that time to act as a child with them and do the things he never got to do as a child. I really do. IF anything untoward happened with these children, I blame their parents for it because their parents placed those children in that position. I liken it to my taking my young child to the zoo and then unlocking the door to the lion's den and putting my child in there and walking away. Then when I come back, my child has been eaten alive and I want to punish the lion??? I know that is rather simplistic but truly the responsibility for our children's safety ultimately lies with the parent. <br /><br />I am most certainly not saying that if Michael did something wrong with the children that he should not be punished - not at all. However, I don't believe he did anything other than play with them as if he were their age. Last time I checked being weird was not against the law.<br /><br />Then you have Elvis. He was an overly kind and gentle man who, like Michael, never seemed to grow up. He, like Michael, paid (in my opinion) too much attention to what his parents said and always obeyed them without question. He, like Michael, lost the ability very early on to go out and have fun like all the other young people and had to resort to paying stores and amusement parks and theaters to shut down so that he and his friends could have fun or shop or watch a movie without being bothered. It's a shame really. I don't understand people's need to intrude on a stranger simply because they've seen them on TV or in the movies or heard their voice on a record. I have never understood that and I never will. What's the purpose of bothering them? Will they remember you 2 hours later? No. Will they become your BFF? Hell, no. They will look at you as a bother and a nuisance that you are and will wish you to go away and leave them in peace.<br /><br />I can remember seeing Al Green, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Four Tops, Booker T, Rufus Thomas, Johnny Taylor, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and others out and about in Memphis. I can remember seeing Elvis at the Cadillac dealership on Union Avenue where he bought his cars. No one bothered him. People would sneak peeks at him but no one approached him uninvited. No one invaded his space. The local folks loved him but we also knew that he wanted some space and we gave it to him. Elvis was very approachable and never was unkind to anyone who approached him but in my memory anyway, the only people I ever saw approach him were tourists. <br /><br />I remember once sitting at the Arcade Restaurant on Main street in Memphis with my parents and my brother eating breakfast and Elvis walked in with Jerry Schilling and George Klein and some other older guy. They walked past us and sat in the booth behind us. My brother and I knew who Elvis was and we wanted to turn around in our seats and stare but our father put a stop to that quickly. He told us that Elvis was just another patron of the restaurant and that's the way he wanted it so we were to leave him to eat in peace and if he wanted to speak to us, he would. That was the opinion of everyone locally back then. And we respected that.<br /><br />I hate it that Michael is gone. I remember when he was 6 and singing with his brothers. I remember when he was a teenager and came out with his first solo album (which I bought). I remember when he came out with Thriller (which I bought) I remember his entire life almost as if he were a cousin or something because we grew up together. Not together but at the same time. He was a year younger than me and I watched him from afar dating and marrying and falling from grace and climbing back up and I watched his successes and his failures. In a strange way, I will miss him. Even though I never knew him, I will miss him. <br /><br />In a strange way, I miss Elvis. Whenever the world makes a genuinely nice person and that person is taken from us too soon, they will be missed as if we knew them intimately.<br /><br />And in my opinion, both Michael and Elvis were genuinely nice people. May they both rest in peace.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-7361067487226352722009-05-30T09:43:00.001-05:002009-05-30T11:23:17.087-05:00Reality TV & the kids they exploitI simply could not let this firestorm about Jon & Kate slide by without adding my two cents worth.<br /><br />Let's compare reality shows/kids for a minute.<br /><br />You have Octo-mom who can't get anyone even remotely interested in having her on TV (she really should have shopped around BEFORE she got pregnant)<br /><br />Then you have Jon & Kate. WOW! What a train wreck. When the show first aired and the babies were like 6 months old or something, I really liked the show. I hated the way Kate talked to Jon and slapped him on nearly every episode but I liked the chaos of their lives and I liked that they lived in a smallish house with crappy furniture and admittedly had neighbors, relatives and the like helping them with the kids. I liked that Jon seemed clueless as to what to do with the kids BUT he tried. However, I hated that no matter how hard he tried Kate was never satisfied.<br /><br />Even back then, you could see where this was going. I just hoped I was wrong. I wasn't. I watched the show sporadically until one episode, Jon and Kate took all the kids to a toy store for Christmas shopping. Kate was SO publicly abusive to Jon (screaming at him across the aisles in front of a multitude of strangers, etc.) that I was so uncomfortable, I just couldn't watch it any more. I had also begun to tire of the way she talked badly about Jon to his children. She said things like "Daddy should help mommy more and maybe then mommy could have more time for you" things like that which were completely and utterly inappropriate comments to make to your children but especially inappropriate because they were on national TV.<br /><br />Then there were the blatant snubs towards their families. Comments like "we just don't feel that it's appropriate that my parents be involved in the children's lives" WTF?? Apparently this "little spat" originated because Kate's parents (a preacher and his wife) got their church to gather up love offerings for the Gosslins when Kate was pregnant and what the Gosselins received was just not up to par with Kate's standards so she told her father to go back to his church members and tell them that either they can buy brand new all matching stuff OR they can just give them cash and they will do the shopping. He refused and Kate took all the love offerings and donated them to a thrift store. She then cut them out of their grandchildren's lives. Yet she travels the church circuit giving speeches (for a fat fee I might add) about how to have a large happy Christian family and marriage. Hmmmm.<br /><br />Yet, as I stated, in the early episodes, I liked the fact that they didn't have a huge fancy house & didn't drive fancy cars. I liked the fact that Kate was so amazingly organized and so very adept at time management. I loved the fact that if Jon and Kate needed to go somewhere (without the kids) it took all morning to shuttle the kids to various relatives and friends before they could get on their way. They really seemed like a team back then. <br /><br />It was painfully obvious who the team leader was, but they seemed to work well together regardless. It's not an issue with me if the woman is the "team leader". Not at all. There are people on this earth who need direction and others who give direction. It's just a fact of life. Jon obviously is one of those who needs the direction and Kate is one who loves giving it so I thought they were a good match. However, Jon always seemed to me to be the type of passive-aggressive person who would only take so much and then without overt warning would just go out and misbehave. Like when you're a teenager and your parents forbid you to hang out with a certain friend and you give them lip service but still you sneak around and hang with them anyway? Apparently, I was correct in my assumption because it appears that is exactly what Jon has done.<br /><br />Who can blame him really? I know what he did was inappropriate at best. He is the one who committed to this marriage/arrangement and as such he should either honor that commitment or get out altogether. You truly can't have it both ways. Now I'm not saying he "did anything" with those women he has been photographed with while he hung out at bars until all hours of the morning. I'm not. However, when you're married, you should avoid even the appearance of cheating at all costs. That's one of the unwritten rules about being married. He chose to ignore that rule and now he is paying the price. Unfortunately so are the children.<br /><br />I found myself on a site that had a montage of photographs of this family throughout the years. There were about 80 of them altogether. As I skimmed through them, I was struck by the fact that in every single photo, one of the twins (who knows which one) never smiled. In every single photo, she looked angry and sullen. I then thought about the episodes I had watched and it dawned on me that even on the show, this child (again I forget the child's name) was always the one that created a scene. Always the one who talked back to her mother and was rough with the smaller kids. Do her parents not see this?? <br /><br />Then shortly before the "scandal" broke out about Jon, I found myself flipping through channels and I saw they were on. I hadn't watched in a long while so I decided to give it a try since the kids had grown so much. To my amazement and astonishment, there they were in this million dollar home with Kate in the kitchen cooking breakfast with her perfectly coiffed hair and dressed impeccably. No sweats, tee shirts and make up free face for this "reality" mom. I'm sure every mother of 8 gets up on a Saturday and before she feeds her brood of children, puts on her makeup, dresses in designer jeans and a designer sweater and does her hair so she can cook pancakes for her children while wearing cute little high heel boots. Silly me! <br /><br />I didn't watch it long because it was just sad. The kids were squabbling, Kate was dressed to kill, Jon was outside playing with the dogs and their interaction with one another and the kids just seemed all so fake and forced. Then maybe 2 weeks later the "scandal" broke and I thought "now I get it".<br /><br />The kids are no longer a happy bunch of kids who seem oblivious to the cameras. Jon and Kate no longer seem to be a team. Their life no longer seems admirable or even interesting. Who cares about peeking into the lives of a family who lives in a million dollar home and wears designer clothes and their children who appear starved for affection and privacy? Not I.<br /><br />There is another show on TLC about an Arkansas couple with 18 kids. A family called the Duggans. I have watched this show since its inception as well. As with Jon and Kate, I grew tired of it after a while and began to catch it about once or twice a year just to see what's changed. <br /><br />These people are either Academy material or they really are a close loving family. Never do you ever hear mom and dad take barbs at one another. Never do you see the kids literally fighting to get someone's attention. The older kids help the younger kids without having to be told and seemingly without resentment.<br /><br />Mom and dad don't raise their voices and they don't belittle. They dish out discipline and lessons with an even tone and follow with hugs and "I love you's". Mom and dad hug one another and praise one another (and the children) numerous times in each episode. They laugh and smile often and seem to genuinely love one another. <br /><br />They also live in a very large house when on the first year or so they lived in a tiny house. However, the difference is, they built the large house and they paid cash for it as they went along. They got the entire family, their church, their neighbors, their friends and relatives involved in building this house. TLC came in after the house was maybe 60% finished and helped finish it out and decorate it but this family did the rest without the aid of "commercial backers". <br /><br />Their show follows mom and dad as they go to thrift stores to buy their kids clothes and toys. It follows them to the grocery store where they buy in bulk. It follows them on family trips where they pack their old school bus with enough food and snacks that they don't have to stop at restaurants to eat. It shows them pinching every penny they come across and making every cent count.<br /><br />I'm sure they get commercial "freebies" like TLC coming in and finishing their home up for them. However, it's not as in your face and prevalent as Jon and Kate's situation. I get the feeling that if I were to drive up to their front door and ask to drop off a few bags of gently worn clothing that the mom would flash that big smile of hers and thank me for the gift. I feel equally as strong that should I drive up to Kate's house and extend the same offer, I would be escorted off the property by security.<br /><br />I just generally like the Arkansas family so much better. Their kids seem happy and content and well loved and well cared for. The parents are never seen without at least one kid in tow. Usually many more than one. And they seem to honestly give these kids attention. Not like Kate who seems annoyed whenever she is trying to talk to the camera and one of her kids tries to interrupt. Arkansas mom (I don't remember their first names) takes the interruption with a smile and a soft voice.<br /><br />To sum up their parenting ability, I would like to go back to when they were finishing up their house. At the time TLC arrived on board the upstairs rooms had not been framed out yet. They sat down with the family and asked them how many bedrooms they wanted upstairs for the kids. The parents said they felt that was something the kids should decide. The kids had their little meeting and their decision was they wanted TWO bedrooms. One for the girls and one for the boys. There was none of this "I want my own room" stuff. They all wanted to still be in the same room with one another. Their only request was that the boys and girls not have to share a bathroom. I was blown away!<br /><br />My problem with kids on reality TV is the exploit factor. It is painfully obvious to me that at least one of Jon and Kate's kids resents the exposure. She obviously wants to be able to enter her teenage years without a camera in her face and without the sign of celebrity that hangs over her head all the time. Jon and Kate are in for a world of hurt when these kids reach their teenage years. Kate will discover really quickly that she will not be able to control them and they will not respect her. She is concentrating so hard on her "career" and celebrity status that she is sacrificing her parental bond with these kids. Kids may be slow but they're not stupid. They either already know or will soon discover that they are the breadwinners in that family and they will use that to their advantage. Kate will be outnumbered and since she doesn't have the kind of relationship with her kids where they can talk about anything OFF CAMERA, she will find herself in another Jon situation whereby she won't know what they're doing until the Enquirer tells her about it. By then, it's too late. <br /><br />She cut her parents off because they gave her crappy presents and don't think that her kids won't cut her off at some point for some equally stupid reason. She is raising them to be callous and materialistic and to think that they are more special than anyone else and she will unfortunately reap the rewards for her behavior.<br /><br />The Duggans, I think, will get their kids raised to a certain age and then they will disappear into the sunset where they will enjoy their grand kids and each other for the rest of their lives. Mr. Duggan still sells real estate. Unlike Jon, Mr. Duggan kept a job through this entire thing. He is smart enough to know that one day this will all go away and he will still have a family to provide for.<br /><br />I hate that all of this has happened to Jon and Kate, I really do. I honestly was cheering for them for the first couple of years of their show. I honestly wanted this to have the happiest of endings. Unfortunately, I don't think it will. I think Kate will divorce Jon and marry someone more befitting her celebrity status. Perhaps her bodyguard? (or maybe not - after all he is the "help") Jon will go on to live a college guy lifestyle whereby he can hang out in the bars with all these young folks and date young girls and only sporadically keep a job. Kate will belittle him every time she opens her mouth around the kids and will give her kids caustic messages to give to their daddy when they spend the weekend with him. Eventually the gravy boat will disappear and Kate will find herself (unless she marries extremely well) back working at a hospital just to keep the lights on. <br /><br />It's sad and I hate it. But that's the way life goes.<br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-73149805877931871202009-05-24T07:23:00.000-05:002009-05-24T09:49:12.607-05:00Life ExpectanciesI recently read a brief article about the life expectancy of the rich versus the poor in our country. It didn't really go into detail as to the why's - it was just statistical. Apparently the rich, as well as, the upper middle class tend to out live the poor and lower middle class by quite a number of years.<br /><br />That got me to thinking and then to writing. Why would they outlive the poor? One reason would be genetic, I'm sure. Genetics can and oftentimes is "trained". Let me explain in a very layman way.<br /><br />Along with genetics, diet and nutrition would rank right up there among the reasons the rich outlive the poor. In my explanation, genetics and diet/nutrition works hand in hand. <br /><br />If a person is fed a superior diet from the time they are born, their chances of attracting a myriad of diseases fall dramatically. Diseases such as heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, osteoporosis, certain tumors, gout, even Parkinson Disease according to some articles I uncovered on the internet. Their chances of catching and dying from common illnesses which normally attack those with compromised immune systems fall off the chart as well.<br /><br />As with a good breed of dog, people lineage can be bred to be superior. If a persons lineage is full of generations of well nourished ancestors, their genetics grow stronger with each new generation. Or that's what I believe anyway.<br /><br />I understand that there are many rich people who die from heart disease and cancer every day of the year. However, in comparison to the poor of this country, the numbers are not exactly equal - at all.<br /><br />When talking about diet and nutrition, it should be noted that fresh fruits, vegetables and chemical free good cuts of meat are not a staple on the poor person's table. There is no bowl of delectable fruit sitting on the granite countertop of the island in the kitchen for the poor or fresh vegetables sitting in the independently cooled vegetable section of their sub-zero fridge for the poor. There is generic canned corn and maybe a can of peaches in syrup in the cabinet. The fridge contains more frozen pizza's, TV dinners that were on sale and animal by-products than New York strip steaks and Halibut to be sure. Macaroni and Cheese is not a main dish in a poor person's house and it is not made with organic macaroni and freshly grated cheeses, it comes from a box with powdered "cheese" and is used as a side dish to supplement the fatty, bone shard riddled piece of meat that is being served for dinner.<br /><br />Another reason for the disparity would be stress. I completely understand that rich people have stress in their lives. Everyone has stress. However, I believe there is good stress and there is bad stress. I further believe that the rich have more good stress in their lives than do the poor as well as, the knowledge and ability to participate in a variety of ways in which to effect a positive reduction in their stress levels.<br /><br />Rich people stress over their jobs and whether their children will get into Harvard and whether the wife will be elected chairwoman of the auxiliary club and whether the husband has grown far too attached to his new and very pretty secretary or whether they should buy the E or the S series Mercedes. This may sound like a superficial list, but these stresses are very real to the rich. As such, they are very stressful to them. They also have the normal stresses that comes with family life.<br /><br />The poor also have job stress. They stress about whether their factory or restaurant is going to lay off workers or close altogether. They stress over whether they will be able to get a job at all. They stress out over whether their welfare check is going to be cut off since their teenager got a minimum wage job at the corner "stop and rob". They stress over their children finishing high school and college just as much as the rich do. But they also stress over their children living long enough to finish high school. They stress over whether the lights will get turned off or whether they will have enough money to pay the light bill AND buy groceries. They stress over whether the doors and windows are locked securely enough that they won't be killed in their sleep by an intruder. <br /><br />Do you know that in some neighborhoods in this country, people do not sleep in their beds at night? They sleep on the floor next to their beds so that if a bullet goes through their walls or windows the bed will act as a buffer zone and they won't be killed by the bullet. It's true. Iraq isn't the only war zone connected to our country.<br /><br />They stress over whether or not their car will still be in their driveway when they wake up in the morning taken either by a thief or the finance company. They stress over their kids playing outside for fear of a drive by shooting or a predator on the prowl for children as the pedophiles very rarely live in the well to do neighborhoods. They stress over whether or not, the husband will come home drunk and decide to beat on the wife and kids. They stress over the wife falling off the wagon and turning back to the drugs she worked so hard to kick. They stress over the kids getting involved in drugs, alcohol and gangs and a multitude of other illegal activities and unsavory associations. <br /><br />They stress over whether to pay to have their tags renewed or use the money to finish paying their rent and gamble on their ability to avoid getting a ticket before their next paycheck so they can tag the car. That is, provided they don't get a utility shut off notice in the meantime. They stress over whether the police will show up at their door before they are able to pick up the check they bounced at the Piggly Wiggly for groceries.<br /><br />They stress over everyday things in life that the rich take for granted. Things such as food, shelter and safety.<br /><br />The rich know how to take a break from the stress and "rejuvenate" their bodies and souls from the stress they encounter. They go on spa vacations and travel to various resorts. OR they go to their country home or their mountain home where they spend their weekends and summers relaxing by the pool or the ocean soaking up the sun and allowing the stress to evaporate.<br /><br />The poor don't have this option. Nor have they gotten into a habit of taking stress busting weekends away from home. This is usually because they have never been introduced to this creature but also because they can't afford it. By the time they pay for the basics in life, their money is gone and they've already eaten into the next paycheck as well. <br /><br />The poor and the working poor are always just one check away from being homeless. There are no stocks to sell or CD's to cash in or vacation homes to put on the market should they run into a cash flow problem. There is only used furniture, used cars, title pawn shops and cash advance stores to give them any emergency money. <br /><br />Before I leave stress, let's cover the environmental stresses of being poor. Rich people live in beautiful neighborhoods far away from the hustle and bustle of the main drags of the city. They live on quiet streets where everyone has a beautiful house and an even more beautiful lawn with beautiful vehicles parked in the perfect driveways. Once they retire for the night, there is silence and when they awake they are able to go onto their veranda, deck or patio and sip their coffee while admiring their surroundings and the peace of their home and neighborhood. The air that they and their children breathe is the purest money can buy. Their homes are not close to dump sites or high voltage electrical lines or factories. There are no open sewer lines or rat and crackhead infested houses in their neighborhoods. Their home is an oasis of peace to which they can retreat from the stresses of the office and/or school.<br /><br />The poor? Their environment is normally either on a main drag or very close to one. They endure the constant noise of the sirens, their neighbors parties, their neighbors fighting, the ever constant bass coming from the SUV with the darkened windows parked in front of their house listening to their music at 3 in the morning. As they try to sleep they listen to the sounds of gunshots and dogs barking. <br /><br />When they get up and have their coffee, it's not clean air that they breathe. Their air is polluted with the many vehicles that constantly clog their streets. Chances are high that their house is close to a factory or an interstate which brings even more pollution and noise into their lives. Their street is littered with garbage thrown from vehicles and from the residue of wild dogs who have rummaged through the household garbage for food to eat. Chances are, there is at least one overgrown empty lot, vacant and condemned house and shut down business on their street. They can't allow their children to play outside without shoes because of the broken glass that litters their street. <br /><br />Their environment is anything but a retreat from the stresses of the "office and/or school". Once they leave the external stresses and pull into their driveway, they have to be ready for a whole new set of stress factors that they and their family have to endure and survive.<br /><br />So now that we've covered genetics, diet and nutrition and stress, let's move on to medical care.<br /><br />You wouldn't believe how many upper middle class and rich people that I personally know who believe with all their hearts that medical care in this country is available to everyone and is equal to everyone. It boggles my mind.<br /><br />Let me give you an example. Christina Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer and cured due to a special type of MRI that can detect the cancer far in advance of it's "dangerous" stage thus allowing the physicians to treat it and cure it with amazing results. This special MRI is not available to those with most types of insurance. She admitted this in the article I read about this situation. She admitted that she had to write a check for the procedure in order to get it done. <br /><br />Now do you think for one minute that if a poor person walked into the doctor's office that he would even tell them about this procedure? No. It would never happen because for one thing, the doctor would know that this person would never be able to afford it and for another thing the doctor that regularly treats the poor probably wouldn't even know about the procedure. <br /><br />Just because you are a practicing physician does not mean that you are of the same quality as all the other doctors. <br /><br />Trust me on this one. I have had insurance and I have been without insurance and as a result, I have gone to good doctors and I have gone to "cheap" doctors and the "cheap" doctors don't know as much about medicine as I do sometimes. I have used the "cheap" doctors on two occasions and on one of them, I walked in with a minor complaint and within a few days had developed the flu that was completely unexplained any other way than by my coming in contact with that doctor's office.<br /><br />Years ago when I was between jobs and had no insurance, I asked around for the name of a cheap doctor because I needed a new prescription for some medicine that I took regularly for my high blood pressure and my refills had run out. <br /><br />It wasn't a narcotic so I didn't feel getting a new script would be a challenge. All I needed was a cheap doctor who would give me a new script. Easy enough I thought.<br /><br />I asked the check out lady at my neighborhood grocery store, I asked the guys who washed my car, I asked the lady who cleaned my friends house twice a week and whom I knew lived in the projects and required my friend to give her cash each week. She told me about this doctor on Winchester Road near Getwell who only took cash and didn't require an appointment.<br /><br />So I got up one morning and dressed in my best "go to the doctor" outfit drove to this doctor's office where I stood (I was NOT about to sit) for a couple of hours waiting for my turn. The waiting room was filled to the brim. I probably couldn't have sat had I desired to due to the amount of patients waiting their turn with the doctor.<br /><br />The patients waiting were colorful to say the least. <br /><br />After more than two hours had passed, the door to the office opened and in walked 2 men in dark suits and 2 uniformed police officers. The men in suits walked to the receptionist window while the police officers turned to us and asked us all to leave quietly stating that the doctor would not be seeing any more patients that day.<br /><br />The next day on the news there was a picture of the doctor and his office along with a short news story about how he was selling scripts for narcotics without an exam and also (as it turns out) without a valid license as his had been revoked years ago.<br /><br />Why would these people go to a doctor like this when there are highly competent doctors all over town? Because he charged $20 for an office visit while my normal doctor that I used when I had insurance charged $85 for an office visit. Plain as that. <br /><br />The people sitting in the waiting room of this doctor's office knew that he was a quack. They knew that there were better doctor's all over town. But they also knew that they might be able to round up $20 a whole lot quicker and easier than they could round up $85 plus the charges for any lab work or other procedures that a competent doctor might require during his exam.<br /><br />This is just one example of why the poor die before the rich. When you are forced by circumstance to have your medical health "monitored" by this type of doctor, you can bet that you will either be misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all should any disease be growing in your body. <br /><br />When all you can put your hands on is a $20 bill, you will get a $20 diagnosis which will probably include a script for something to mask the symptoms so you can continue to clean some rich woman's house so she doesn't have to.<br /><br />And don't even try to say that every major city has a "welfare" hospital and free clinics as a way of saying that medical care is equal and available to all, because if you even go there, I will scream.<br /><br />Let's touch on those for just a second. First let me share another personal experience I had. My second time to use (or in this case, attempt to use) a cheap doctor. In Memphis there is a "free" clinic that is owned by a group of churches. It has highly qualified and reputable doctors and nurses who donate their time to this clinic. It is in a beautiful setting and is easily accessible for those who take public transportation. <br /><br />However, if you have any type of health insurance or HAVE HAD INSURANCE WITHIN THE PAST 6 MONTHS, they will NOT see you. At all period. Also, if the company you work for offers health insurance and you don't participate (probably because you can't afford to AND pay your rent), they won't treat you.<br /><br />While I was laid off from a law firm that I worked at, I developed bronchitis. I called my doctor who told me his prices and I called my friends who gave me their doctor's numbers and I got their prices and finally a neighbor who was a student and had not had health insurance for quite a while told me about the Church Health Clinic. <br /><br />I called them and they told me that if I wasn't covered, the visit would be free. Hot dog!!<br /><br />I took a shower and dragged my sick body to the clinic where I waited in a nicely furnished and very comfortable waiting room for my turn. After wasting an hour sitting in a waiting room wishing to God I was back home on my couch, it was my turn. <br /><br />I gave them my paperwork, they looked at it and promptly informed me that since I had been covered so recently, they could not help me but if I remained uncovered for 6 months, to please feel free to come back and they would be happy to help me. WTF?!<br /><br />So what did I do? I went to my regular doctor and wrote him a hot check, got a script, went to the pharmacy where I wrote them a hot check to get my medicine and then went home where I got well enough to get a job so I could pick up the checks. <br /><br />Then there are the welfare hospitals. The good news is, if you get shot or stabbed or have some other kind of violent "accident", those are the very hospitals to which you want to insist on being taken. However, if you suffer from anything else, STAY AWAY! They are understaffed and poorly staffed in every other area. The emergency room is the only place in those hospitals where you will receive decent care. The rest of the hospital will likely make you sicker than you were when you checked in.<br /><br />So, that's my take on the life expectancy variations between the rich and the poor. It never ceases to amaze, disgust and sadden me when I see these Hollywood stars pushing for aid to the poor of third world countries and/or politicians trying to get billions of dollars of our tax money sent to other countries so we can stamp out hunger and childhood diseases in these countries.<br /><br />WHAT ABOUT US? What about the working poor in this country who are forced to die from diseases that if caught early enough or treated properly wouldn't necessarily be fatal? <br /><br />People live for decades with heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes and an assortment of other diseases. People are cured every day from various kinds of cancers that were detected early and properly treated. There are many diseases that stem either directly or indirectly from improper nutrition and people in this country suffer from them every day.<br /><br />Can we not be concerned for OUR people for a change?<br /><br />I have a friend back home who is a pediatric surgeon. He participates in the doctor's without borders thing and goes on a trip every year in this capacity. I asked him once why he was spending his money and time operating on children in other countries for free when there are so many in this country who could benefit from his services and he told me that it was a legal issue.<br /><br />He said that in the third world countries he doesn't have to worry about being sued if the end results weren't exactly what the patient and/or the patient's family had anticipated. He said that in those countries the hospitals are so thrilled to have the doctors at their facility that there is no cost for them using those hospitals whereas in this country no hospital is going to donate their facility for their use. It just wasn't financially feasible plus it would expose them to legal ramifications should the doctor get sued.<br /><br />How very sad is that? How very sad that children, men, women have to die every day in this country because of our legal system? How very sad that they have to die every day while wonderfully competent doctors like my friend go to third world countries to save their citizens while our citizens die by the thousands. <br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-9363491437629858292009-05-07T10:39:00.000-05:002009-05-07T11:50:58.130-05:00Mr. Man (again)It's a good thing that no one (other than my ONE reader) knows who I really am because my posts concerning Mr. Man would probably get me locked away.<br /><br />As I stated in my earlier posts, I live in a 2 story house. As I live on the decline of a large hill, the top story would actually be considered ground level and the bottom story would be considered a daylight basement.<br /><br />Mr. Man made his appearance on the top floor of my house for a couple of months. My son and nephew live in the daylight basement and they never experienced anything out of the ordinary. That is until my landlord (who happens to be a preacher) sent his secretary over one day with the plumber and the secretary performed a "mini" exorcism upstairs. This was the day or so after my book case flew off the wall (written about in a previous post).<br /><br />For a while everything was quiet. Then things started happening downstairs while upstairs remained quiet.<br /><br />My son was in his office (downstairs) one night and began to feel odd. He thought it might be a good idea to go lay down. He got up from his desk and was walking down the hall to his bedroom when he felt something push him from behind and he fell onto the floor banging up his face, arm and leg. LOTS of blood from all three locations. He was bruised for days afterwards.<br /><br />Then maybe a week later, he was in bed waking up and he distinctly heard a woman (from the other side of the bed) say "Brrr" as if she was cold. He said he was terrified to roll over in the bed for fear that he would see someone in the bed with him! (LOL) He quickly reached out and turned on his bedside lamp but he saw no one. Then as he sat up and looked around, he heard a woman say "what's your name"? He said he weakly replied to her and then beat a trail for the living room!<br /><br />Yesterday, I went in to his room to see if he was okay because it was after 3 p.m. and he was still asleep. He said he wasn't able to sleep anymore. He said there are numerous shadow people down there and noises and voices. <br /><br />I think that Mr. Man decided to live downstairs. Although it would appear that he brought a friend of two with him. One of which is obviously a woman.<br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-80975742853900664202009-04-29T18:22:00.000-05:002009-04-29T18:35:27.112-05:00HE'S BACK!Today I felt kinda off. Not really sick but not really well. A little light headed and felt my energy level was WAY down. So around noon or so, I laid down to take a nap.<br /><br />I dreamed I was taking a nap. Then I dreamed I woke up and when I pulled the covers back there were 4 surgical screws embedded in my left knee just above the knee cap. It didn't hurt and there was no blood in the bed. I gingerly touched the tops of them and noticed in my dream that if I touched them, it hurt. I could actually feel the screws within my bones. <br /><br />The rest of my dream was weirder still and involved me going around all day long trying to find out how and why someone had inserted surgical screws in my knee. No one had a clue. <br /><br />My mother was in my dream. (which automatically turned it into a nightmare). She was laying on her bed and I went in there to ask her about the screws and she had company. Her company was this mail clerk from work who is rather odd. <br /><br />One of those people who thumps the Bible but when she smiles the only thing that smiles is her mouth? One of those people you would not be at all surprised when you turned on the TV set and there is a bulletin about a serial killer on the loose and you see a composite sketch of HER face? You know the type. <br /><br />Mother tells me that she was just telling Sara about the screws. I looked at Sara and she was smiling alright but her eyes held pure evil.<br /><br />So, eventually, I awoke from my nap and went into the living room on my way to the kitchen to get me something to drink. I stopped and told my mother about my dream. When I got to the screw part, she interrupted to tell me that she also had taken a nap and when she awoke there were 2 screws laying on the seat of her walker. She couldn't imagine where they had come from.<br /><br />Very odd indeed. <br /><br />This house is, I believe, demonic. It "takes naps" but eventually the evil awakens and things go from weird to monstrous in a short span of time. It concerns me as to what is coming up next for us.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429166320826252510.post-64165687403397979372009-04-29T08:26:00.000-05:002009-04-29T11:45:01.931-05:00Today's rambling thoughts...................I have been skimming (not reading in depth - just skimming) this whole "situation" with the tortures and the lawsuits against the independent contractors who flew the prisoners to the "torture site" and I am absolutely Gobsmacked about it all.<br /><br />Why are they being sued? Did they actually know for certain (in the legal sense) that they were taking these fellows to be tortured? And even if they did, the GOVERNMENT paid their bill. I'm sorry but if the government tells me they will pay me to do something, I should be able to pretty much rest assured that it must be legal or at the very least that they won't come back on me in the future. <br /><br />Am I wrong? Did the contractors have a legal obligation to do their own due diligence about the situation? The very fact that the government is buying their services should be enough to convince anyone that whatever they were doing was legal and that if, down the road, something were to blow up about it, that the Government would be the blowee NOT the contractor.<br /><br />The same applies to the soldiers who performed the tortures. Now don't get me wrong here, I am completely against torture. I don't think these prisoners should be coddled but I also don't believe that they should be tortured either. With medical technology the way it is, I don't know why torture is even still in existence. Don't we have drugs that will render the user incapable of lying or something of that nature? I'm sure if anyone has such a thing, the government would be it!<br /><br />But I digress, this post is not about the right or wrong of torture or flying someone down to be tortured. It is about putting the blame where the blame belongs and not sacrificing workers for doing what their bosses told them to do.<br /><br />This is one thing that always bothered me about the Holocaust. I will admit that the Nazi hunters tried their best to go after the top dogs. However, they also went after the common guards and other workers who were doing as they were ordered to do. I'm sorry but if I have to make a choice between a stranger and my family, guess who wins? Hands down. No contest. This was not a normal everyday thing. This was during an intense war and I'm so sorry but things that would never fly during peacetime, should be overlooked (simple as that sounds) during wartime. Fry the bosses, not the workers!<br /><br />The very same thing applies here. If I am in the military and my boss (or whatever they call them) gives me a direct order, I do it or I face a court martial and my life and career is ruined. <br /><br />Now I do know that there is an out in extreme circumstances for these soldiers that allows them to refuse a direct order if that order is contrary to military law but seriously do you think if you are in the midst of battle and far away from any JAG office for protection (provided they would even give it) and surrounded by men who are willing to follow these orders (and they are armed) that you are going to stand up and start spouting from memory whatever article it is that allows you to refuse to obey a direct order? I'm guessing not. I know I wouldn't. What would be the use of it? They would shoot you and call it "friendly fire" or some such nonsense. There is a time and place for everything and starting a heated debate (solo) against men with guns is neither the time nor the place.<br /><br />I'm not even sure that I'm okay with punishing the soldiers who went overboard with their orders to torture. If indeed one can go overboard with torture. Torture is torture. To me it really doesn't matter to what extent you take it. Once you begin to torture, everything after that point is still torture. How can anyone say for example that waterboarding is okay but stripping the prisoners down and humiliating them while taking pictures of them is NOT okay? In my mind, once you get a person involved in a grisly act (such as torture) and they get caught up in it, should you punish them for taking it to excess? YOU wrote the script for this movie...can you honestly complain when the actors improv? I mean seriously. <br /><br />Article 3 of the Geneva Convention states "that even where there is not a conflict of international character the parties must as a minimum adhere to minimal protections described as: noncombatants, members of armed forces who have laid down their arms, and combatants who are <span style="font-weight:bold;">hors de combat</span> (out of the fight) due to wounds, <span style="font-weight:bold;">detention</span>, or any other cause shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, with the following prohibitions:<br /><br /> (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; (this would include water boarding)<br /> (b) taking of hostages;<br /> (c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment (this would be the stripping and taking pictures part)<br /> (d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples. <br /><br />So, my problem with all of this (sans the torture part) would be that these people are being thrown to the wolves, so to speak. They were following their orders and they did as they were told and now they are being sued and arrested and their lives ruined but the very people who paid them and/or gave them their orders are still vacationing in their summer house in the Hamptons and living their lives as if none of this ever happened. <br /><br />WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?<br /><br />Am I the only person who sees this? Am I the only person who believes that if a soldier or independent GOVERNMENT contractor is doing exactly as they were ordered and it is later discovered that what they were ordered to do was illegal, the person who signed the order should be punished???? Am I?<br /><br />Baby Bush and his Klan took full advantage of the country's panic and rage over 9/11 for years thereafter. Anytime, Baby Bush wanted to do something constrictive or hateful, he would throw in the "war against terrorism" thing and whatever he wanted to be done was done! 99% of the crap he pulled would never have flown had 9/11 not happened and he knew that. Sometimes that very fact almost gives the conspiracy nuts a touch of credibility. <br /><br />Let's touch on that subject for a second (or two). Conspiracy nuts. I completely believe in conspiracies. I really do. I'm not stupid enough to think that guys like Baby Bush kick and scream their ways to the top of the power chain and then sit around and have tea. <br /><br />I know that once they get there, the real struggle begins in order for them to STAY in power. Climbing the ladder is sometimes much easier than staying on top of it because when you're climbing it you have a little bit of anonymity that you simply don't have when you are on the top of the ladder and everyone is looking up. <br /><br />You know that someone below you who is trying to climb that ladder will eventually reach the top at some point unless they are kicked off the ladder so you have to constantly be on guard and figure out ways to kick the hardest climbers off the ladder unobserved. <br /><br />That's where the conspiracies come in. They've been around for centuries, I would bet since the beginning of time. Didn't Abel have his own little mini-conspiracy when he killed Cain and then lied about it? He in essence kicked Cain off the ladder so he could be on the top.<br /><br />So, I believe there are conspiracies. The problem I have with the conspiracy nuts is that they see conspiracies everywhere. If they go to McDonalds and order a quarter pounder without pickles and they get home and there are pickles on it, a conspiracy is born! I'm not at that point. To be fair to them, I can understand that once you start researching these conspiracies, you might tend to become a touch overly paranoid about everything. Still, they creep me out. <br /><br />I guess I'm like the average Joe running around the country. I know conspiracies exist. I have witnessed many many of them in my lifetime (Davidian Branch, President Kennedy's assassination (and that of his brother), the assassination of MLK, Jr., Bay of Pigs, the unofficial Colombian war, just to name a few)but I don't wig out when I get pickles on my cheeseburger. Like I said, I'm not at that point yet.<br /><br />So, to close this tirade, let's punish the order givers rather than the order takers. Let's find out exactly who WAY up the chain of command came up with this bright idea and let's severely shorten his chances to vacation at the Hamptons (if you get my drift). I think with all my heart that until (and unless) we show the big dogs that they will be held accountable for their decisions, this is only the tip of the iceburg. <br /><br />Think about it. If I am in a powerful position and I'm thinking it might be a good idea to take these guys to some isolated place and torture them and humiliate them just to see IF they have any real knowledge that could help the country and I know that if that turns out to NOT be a good idea it's no big thing because I won't get punished, some poor working class smuck will go to jail for it, I have NO motivation to even try to think this through. No motivation. <br /><br />Like a child with the cookie jar. If my mother is one of those "whatever" moms, what's my motivation for not ruining my appetite by scarfing down several cookies before dinner? None. BUT if my mom is a no-nonsense by the rules mom, I'll definitely think twice before I climb up on that stool and reach my hand out for the cookie - you can bet on that.<br /><br />Our country (and every country) needs to be run like the no-nonsense by the rules mom. If you know the rules and you choose to break them, you WILL BE PUNISHED - I don't care WHO you are. And I believe that the higher up in the government you are - the more severe should be the punishment. Those with more authority also have more responsibility to not only know but stringently observe the rules.<br /><br />But then again, here come the conspiracies. It stands to reason that the more authority you have, the more secrets you know and if they punish you too much, you might just "slip" and tell some of those secrets. All we have to do for proof of that point is look at the mob debacle. Once the government got close, rats came out of the walls en force! <br /><br />In conspiracy land, that would account for all the suicides and "accidents" that have befallen many a politician in our country's history - and their girlfriends (anyone remember Marilyn?) <br /><br />So what's the solution? There is none. As long as people are in power, there will always be corruption and conspiracies and murders and theft and abuse. The only thing we can ever do as humans is try our best to align ourselves with the people who are most likely not to fall into these traps. <br /><br />It's obviously not a foolproof solution as nearly everyone can be had for some price. Either by money or blackmail or intimidation or offer of power or whatever. Most of us have our price. The few folks that I am aware of who could not be had, have been executed or met with untimely "accidents". <br /><br />Examples would be Sir Thomas More (my personal favorite) or William Wallace or for a more common man, how about Kareem Bellamy, a common man who spent 14 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. He could have been paroled but he steadfastly refused to admit to something he didn't do. <br /><br />Although he is alive and well, I have included him on this list simply because he could have admitted to guilt and been released. Freedom would have been his price, but he couldn't be bought. <br /><br />Can you imagine the things he has missed because of his refusal to be "bought"? He missed his children growing up, he missed the everyday simple things we all take for granted like privacy, talking on the phone whenever he wants, going to the mall, going to McDonalds, watching a ballgame in person, wearing whatever he wants, being completely alone whenever he wanted to be. <br /><br />There are many others in history who fit into this category. Unfortunately, most of them never had a movie made of their lives or books written about them or even still many (if not most) of them never even made their choice not to be bought public knowledge choosing rather to live their lives privately.<br /><br />How about Frank Serpico? This man is one priceless man. No one was going to buy his silence. His life would have been much easier had he chosen to turn his head but he did not. It nearly cost him his life, but he pushed on.<br /><br />We need to hear more about these kinds of people in the news. We don't. We hear about the crooks and the thieves and the murderers. <br /><br />The "press" is now more jaded than the politicians and evangelists in this world. They outright lie, they embellish the truth with prejudicial adjectives and headlines. They NEVER follow up and on the very rare occasions that they are called to task for their frequent misreporting, they print the retraction (if indeed there ever is one) in very small print WAY in the back somewhere next to the ads for fertilizer. They also are hair trigger quick to report that someone has been named a "person of interest" and they go on to post their photograph and their address and all manners of private information about them but then when it is determined that person is not at all a suspect, we never hear about that to the same extent, if at all. <br /><br />I am all about freedom of speech and freedom of the press and even freedom of religion. However, when you abuse that freedom, you need to be held accountable. These people act as though these freedoms give them carte blanche to say and do whatever they feel like saying and doing. It does not! There are safety nets in place for this. Your freedom ends where another persons freedom begins. They conveniently forget this fact. <br /><br />I can truly say whatever I want to say as long as I stress that this is my personal opinion. I cannot color it to imply it is fact or that I have proof of it. I must state that it is my opinion. The newspapers, magazines and TV networks do not do this anymore. <br /><br />At one time, journalists were admonished about including personal adjectives to a story that might in any way color the readers or listeners opinion of the matter. At the end of every newscast would be an editorial piece that lasted a minute or two but that was as close to editorializing as they got. Now? All bets are off. The news spends more time on the sex life and dressing habits of stars than they do about what's going on in our world these days. Then on the off chance that they do throw in a piece or two about world events, it's always full of images of crying injured babies or dead bodies or some racial strife. They keep things fueled at all times. It sells papers I guess. But then again, it also hardens the people who see and read it too. <br /><br />We wonder why the world is in the shape it is. A large part of it is that we have all become jaded. We have all become obsessed with getting our 15 minutes of fame (at any cost). <br /><br />Turn on the television to nearly any channel at any time and you will see a show "starring" some unknown person about their daily lives. Or about their weight loss "journey" or about their dating quest. Your second choice would be to watch a show filled with cops and murderers and lawyers and bad guys. Your third and final choice (on commercial TV anyway) would be to watch a show filled with nurses and doctors all about their love life and the back stabbing politics of their jobs with a patient or two thrown in for good measure. I choose to watch premium channels or movies.<br /><br />There have been some extremely good, well written and well acted shows that have come out on commercial television. However, they didn't make it very far with some having been canceled before the 4th episode (one was actually replaced with reruns of the Bachelor). There were 2 in particular that I got so hooked on and couldn't wait for them to come on. Those would be Jericho and The Riches. Those that were not so lucky were shows like Daybreak (replaced with reruns of the Bachelor after only 4 shows), Life on Mars, Smith (called the worse show on TV after 3 shows - how can you tell it's the worse show on TV after only 3 episodes? Would this say that Snoop Dogs "reality" show is more elite? Or that Kimora Lee Simmons show is more stellar? That's a scary thing! <br /><br />However, back to The Riches and Jericho, with a LOT of letter writing and screaming, they were given another season but then we were left out in the cold with no wrap up show or anything to show for our loyalty. Just an end. Is that how you treat loyal viewers? Really? <br /><br />I remember when the Fugitive, MASH, Friends, Six Feet Under were canceled. Their final shows wrapped it up for us. It gave us endings and let us know what happened to the characters that we had invested so much time and energy in. It gave us closure and left us feeling sad that it was gone but satisfied because they respected our loyalty enough to wrap up the story lines. Those days are long gone.<br /><br />And commercial television has the audacity to whine about the drastically dropping numbers of viewers who are going over to premium television! Are they really that stupid? To me it's crystal clear. Who in their right mind would rather pay an extra 12 bucks for a premium channel than watch a commercial channel that they can get either for free or for an extremely lower rate within their basic package? I can tolerate the commercials just fine. Everyone I know could. No on that I know of has switched away from commercial television because of the commercials. No one. We all switched because of the CONTENT. Commercials are fine with me. It gives me time to grab a drink or go to the bathroom or answer the phone or whatever. I actually prefer having commercials so I don't have to miss any of my show while I'm letting the dog outside. I certainly would rather watch commercial than premium for the price but there's nothing on those channels that I would watch anymore (exception being Desperate Housewives and Dancing with the Stars).<br /><br />Programmers, newspapers, magazines, politicians, law makers and enforcers are all lowering their standards and we are not only allowing it, we are encouraging it by our passive behavior. <br /><br />But that's just me.Erniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683522662836627571noreply@blogger.com0