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Paul Bernardo/Karla Homolka........Rapists and murderers. Killed 3 girls here in Ontario, one of them her sister. He was also known as the Scarborough Rapist......Real sickos.
The Susan Smith case in Union SC. I live near that area. The morning the news hit and her wild story about a black man stealing her Mazda with her two young sons in the car with all the sobs and tears was horrible. The news released the car description and license tag number.
At my work we would ride through shopping centers, grocery stores before work and during lunch looking for the Mazda. Then the truth came out. Susan Smith had murdered her two sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. The two boys were strapped in their car seats and she launched the car into the John D. Long lake.
She is in prison in Columbia SC and has been on her best behavior for several years with the parole pending soon. Past infractions in prison contacting STD, drug use, self-mutilation and having sex with a prison guard and a prison captain.
Smith was sentenced to life with possibility of parole in 30 years! Smith is eligible for parole in November 2024. She will be 53 years old. I sincerely hope the Union County Sheriff's Department, the ex-husband and father of Michael and Alexander will be at the parole hearing to object to this parole.
Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker (September 27, 1940 – December 13, 2019) and Roy Lewis Norris (February 5, 1948 – February 24, 2020), also known as the Tool Box Killers, were two American serial killers and rapists who committed the kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of five teenage girls in southern California over a five-month period in 1979.
Paul Bynum, the chief investigator of the murders committed by Bittaker and Norris, committed suicide in December 1987. He was 39 years old. In a ten-page suicide note, Bynum specifically referred to the murders committed by Bittaker and Norris as haunting him, and of his fear they may be released from prison.
The audio cassette Bittaker and Norris created of themselves raping and torturing Ledford remains in the possession of the FBI Academy; this recording is now used to train and desensitize FBI agents to the raw reality of torture and murder.
I don’t recall the case, but it was probably on Dateline, Paula Zahn or one of those shows. A dismembered body was found and the detectives were interviewing their prime suspect. They believed she killed the victim in one place and then disposed of the body elsewhere. She finally confessed, but instead of giving them the details of the crime, motive, etc, she focused on how hard it was to dispose of the parts. I remember her exact line – “Do you know how heavy a head is?” She went on and on describing how heavy it was and how far she had to carry it. It just struck me as a very odd thing to focus on, given how horrible the crime was.
I don’t recall the case, but it was probably on Dateline, Paula Zahn or one of those shows. A dismembered body was found and the detectives were interviewing their prime suspect. They believed she killed the victim in one place and then disposed of the body elsewhere. She finally confessed, but instead of giving them the details of the crime, motive, etc, she focused on how hard it was to dispose of the parts. I remember her exact line – “Do you know how heavy a head is?” She went on and on describing how heavy it was and how far she had to carry it. It just struck me as a very odd thing to focus on, given how horrible the crime was.
I remember that detail too, but can't link it with which murder it was (it was one of the Podcasts for True Crime Brewery). For some reason the one where the two female partners murdering the old recluse man who gave them his house up on a mountain comes to mind, but that totally could be me getting things all mixed up in my mind. I'll try to do a search on it and see what I can find.
Ah, yeah--that was it. Called "Beheading on Mount Baldy" (sometimes my faulty memory surprises me!). If you do a Google search on that (Beheading on Mount Baldy), it's the first link where it describes how the killer, Marcia Johnson, shoots Jack Irwin in the back of the head. Then she goes on to describe what happened and that's where she talks about how heavy a head is.
I've pasted it a link to it, but never sure if those will come up right.
When a case grows cold, is it mainly due to the shrewdness of the perpetrator(s) or to luck that favors the perpetrator(s)?
I think it's a mixture of both though I personally suspect it's less common for it to be due to the shrewdness of the perpetrator (criminals think they're smarter than detectives, but a good detective can outsmart the best of them). Unfortunately I think the "luck" part often involves sloppiness (or cover-up) in police work. The Burger Chef murders come to mind with sloppiness. If you listen to the podcast of that case on True Crime Brewery there's indication that things definitely could have been done better and more efficiently.
The Stephanie Lazarus case comes to mind with cover-up, something still hotly debated. "The Lazarus Files" does a good job of pointing out either incredible incompetence on the part of the LAPD or (probably) instances where things found were then "covered up". When she was found out, how the detectives and others involved who broke the case were treated after that further indicates that they did not take well when it was discovered one of their own was found to be a murderer and would have preferred for it to have been left covered up.
While listening to that book the author described another case and I'm horrible with names so I can't remember it, with a woman who appears to also have been killed by LAPD officers; again, sloppy work with the investigation and clues which indicate that evidence which pointed to police officers having been involved was covered up. Maybe someone can remember the woman's name--she was an alcohol addict who frequented a neighborhood bar. She was there when a group of police officers showed up after a fellow officer's funeral. Things got rowdy; her friend, who offered to drive her home because she didn't have a car, left but she wanted to stay and hang out with one of the officers with whom she was getting friendly. He ended up leaving the bar with her. Witnesses say they saw her and two of the police officers in the parking lot. She was found in a different parking lot (some drug addiction place) brutally murdered and residents living in the apartment nearby provided statements of what is presumed to have been a fight/argument which preceded the murder.
With DNA and the prevalence of cameras, it appears to be a bit tougher to get away with murder; I desperately hope that is the case. I'm in favor of cameras in every public place, but some are against that due to "privacy" issues. I don't feel that what goes on in public should ever be "private". But I imagine that some might be worried that there may be a snowball effect and cameras could get placed in private areas perhaps. I personally try to live my life like someone is always watching me because I believe that ultimately someone is (the Living God); so it really wouldn't be a huge deal to me even if somehow cameras were to be thrust into private areas. There's some paranoid people out there that say that's already going on (like with computers and cell phones). *Shrug* Whatever. If it is, they're not getting a great show out of this recluse! (I'm sure they'll quickly move on to someone's else's life where they have more "action").
I wonder if there's been any study between the number of cold cases prior to when DNA and public cameras became prevalent and after that. I'd be intrigued if it actually has helped solve more cases because it sure seems like it has.
Last edited by Basiliximab; 03-30-2022 at 03:54 AM..
The Stephanie Lazarus case comes to mind with cover-up, something still hotly debated. "The Lazarus Files" does a good job of pointing out either incredible incompetence on the part of the LAPD or (probably) instances where things found were then "covered up". When she was found out, how the detectives and others involved who broke the case were treated after that further indicates that they did not take well when it was discovered one of their own was found to be a murderer and would have preferred for it to have been left covered up.
OJ was a big one but Son of Sam has the most lasting impact...even though I was 14 at the time...Elephas where he struck was just blocks from my house...
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