A True Crime Farewell
Posted by Kristine Huntley on
Sep 18, 2009
Level 26ers,
I have some sad news—this will be my last blog for the True Crime section. I’ve so enjoyed exploring and talking about serial killers with you all in this blog, but the time has come for me to move on. I will still definitely be around on the site—I’m as eager for Book Two of Level 26 as you all are!—and will hopefully now have more time to interact with all of you. Josh Caldwell will be taking over for me here at Level 26 next week, and I hope you all will give him as warm a welcome as you’ve always given me. I know he’s going to bring a great new perspective to this section and the site in general.
For my final True Crime blog, I’d like to turn it mostly over to you and find out what draws you to serial killer stories, either real life ones or fictional ones. I have many friends for whom tales of serial killers are “too gory” or “too scary” or just “not my cup of tea.” Obviously, for those of us here, that’s definitely not the case.
For me, it’s a walk on the dark side, a chance to really see into a person with a really dark soul… without having to be face-to-face with an actual serial killer the way detectives, criminalists, and lawyers often are. Some people are armchair travelers, going to other countries in their minds by reading travelogues or watching documentaries on television. For me, reading novels about serial killers or true crime articles or books about them is a walk through a killer’s mind, a chance to cross that dark terrain and attempt to figure out just what makes these murderers tick.
I’ll turn it over to you now—what brings you here? What fascinates you about serial killers? And what first got you curious about them?
I’ll sign off now… if you’re a CSI fan and want to keep up with my writing, you can check out my reviews at www.csifiles.com. The new season starts next week. Big thanks for reading the True Crime blog and for all of your thoughtful comments!
I have some sad news—this will be my last blog for the True Crime section. I’ve so enjoyed exploring and talking about serial killers with you all in this blog, but the time has come for me to move on. I will still definitely be around on the site—I’m as eager for Book Two of Level 26 as you all are!—and will hopefully now have more time to interact with all of you. Josh Caldwell will be taking over for me here at Level 26 next week, and I hope you all will give him as warm a welcome as you’ve always given me. I know he’s going to bring a great new perspective to this section and the site in general.
For my final True Crime blog, I’d like to turn it mostly over to you and find out what draws you to serial killer stories, either real life ones or fictional ones. I have many friends for whom tales of serial killers are “too gory” or “too scary” or just “not my cup of tea.” Obviously, for those of us here, that’s definitely not the case.
For me, it’s a walk on the dark side, a chance to really see into a person with a really dark soul… without having to be face-to-face with an actual serial killer the way detectives, criminalists, and lawyers often are. Some people are armchair travelers, going to other countries in their minds by reading travelogues or watching documentaries on television. For me, reading novels about serial killers or true crime articles or books about them is a walk through a killer’s mind, a chance to cross that dark terrain and attempt to figure out just what makes these murderers tick.
I’ll turn it over to you now—what brings you here? What fascinates you about serial killers? And what first got you curious about them?
I’ll sign off now… if you’re a CSI fan and want to keep up with my writing, you can check out my reviews at www.csifiles.com. The new season starts next week. Big thanks for reading the True Crime blog and for all of your thoughtful comments!
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- 18 Responses
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- Matt
- Sep 29, 2009
- 11
NOOO! You are like the most awesomest True Crime blogger ever!!! I feel like crying now...Hope we can stay in touch!
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- Night Wanderer
- Sep 30, 2009
- 12
I'm sorry to see you go! I wish I could have been more on top of these blogs but my work computer blocks youtube and I only just got Comcast to fix my video problem at home yesterday. From what I have read, your blogs have been very thought provoking. There is just something about the abyss that calls to us and dares us to step closer. We promise ourselves that we only want to peek in and that scares us and thrills us at the same time. We tell ourselves that it is ok as long as we just look and don't fall in but we always think there is that chance we might stumble and fall head first. Hope to see you around!!
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- Matt
- Sep 30, 2009
- 13
Well said NW.....Well said...
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- Bozo the Clown
- Oct 1, 2009
- 14
It is curious that most comments--including Zuiker's--package their interest in serial killers as an intellectual curiousity or, at most, a walk on the "dark side." Yet what about the issue of the vicarious experience and the lurid thrill of symbolically participating in the unthinkable acts of "people" who wish to impose their sadistic fantasies upon the world? Why read Dark Origins which presents itself as a full immersion experience? If it was to gain insight into the mind of the psychopath, why not opt for more clinically authoritative texts? Perhaps there is a more personal psychic investment in reading Dark Origins than some people care to admit. To what extent is our own complicity?
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- Night Wanderer
- Oct 1, 2009
- 15
Matt- Go check out my first blog. I think you'll appreciate it =)
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- Tara
- Oct 2, 2009
- 16
I think the fact that we never really WILL know why they do what they do is the draw. No matter how much research or how many interviews they give... we'll never know what makes a person a serial killer, and it's the lure of the unknown...
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- 7hippiechick
- Oct 5, 2009
- 17
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- Lagean Ellis
- Oct 7, 2009
- 18
I have studied Serial Killers for years. I have a bit of a fascination with them. Each is so different.
It has helped me on cases, as a Criminal Investigator, to be able to get into the minds of criminals. I have yet to work a case involving a serial killer, but think I'd be better prepared. I have been able to put myself in the shoes of criminals, think like them, connect with them........ Freaky but really cool!
I'm an adrenaline junky, too, so getting inside their minds pumps me up.
It has helped me on cases, as a Criminal Investigator, to be able to get into the minds of criminals. I have yet to work a case involving a serial killer, but think I'd be better prepared. I have been able to put myself in the shoes of criminals, think like them, connect with them........ Freaky but really cool!
I'm an adrenaline junky, too, so getting inside their minds pumps me up.
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Ted Bundy: A Bio (Part 5)
Posted by Kristine Huntley on
Sep 17, 2009
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Ted Bundy: A Bio (Parts 3 & 4)
Posted by Kristine Huntley on
Sep 15, 2009
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Ted Bundy: A Bio (Parts 1 & 2)
Posted by Kristine Huntley on
Sep 11, 2009
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Read All About It: True Crime Books
Posted by Kristine Huntley on
Sep 8, 2009
Last week, I picked up Simon Baatz’s For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz Age Chicago. For those not familiar with the case, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two University of Chicago students who killed a fourteen-year-old boy named Bobby Franks in 1924. Published last year, For the Thrill of It tells the story from the brutal murder to the apprehension of Leopold and Loeb to the much-publicized trial (the men were defended by renowned attorney Clarence Darrow).
True crime is a thrilling subject for a book--what better medium to use to ponder, explore and try to get to the heart of a killer’s motives? The genre is incredibly popular--go to any bookstore, and you’ll find a whole section devoted to it, and a search for “true crime books” at Amazon.com produces pages and pages of results.
Books about true crime often hit the bestseller lists. Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me recounted Ted Bundy’s crimes from a unique perspective: Rule met Bundy in Seattle in 1971 and became friends with him. Rule is perhaps the best-known name in the true crime genre, having penned over two dozen true crime books, including entries on The Green River Killer and The I-5 killer.
Erik Larson perhaps isn’t a name associated with true crime per se, but his nonfiction tends to pair a big historical event--like the Chicago World’s Fair or the invention of the telegraph--with the tale of a real-life killer. In The Devil in the White City, he explored the twisted killings of H. H. Holmes, which took place in the shadow of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, while in Thunderstruck, he recounted Hawley Crippen’s murder of his wife and flight with his mistress--and how the telegraph brought him down.
Those are a few of my favorite true crime books--what are yours?
True crime is a thrilling subject for a book--what better medium to use to ponder, explore and try to get to the heart of a killer’s motives? The genre is incredibly popular--go to any bookstore, and you’ll find a whole section devoted to it, and a search for “true crime books” at Amazon.com produces pages and pages of results.
Books about true crime often hit the bestseller lists. Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me recounted Ted Bundy’s crimes from a unique perspective: Rule met Bundy in Seattle in 1971 and became friends with him. Rule is perhaps the best-known name in the true crime genre, having penned over two dozen true crime books, including entries on The Green River Killer and The I-5 killer.
Erik Larson perhaps isn’t a name associated with true crime per se, but his nonfiction tends to pair a big historical event--like the Chicago World’s Fair or the invention of the telegraph--with the tale of a real-life killer. In The Devil in the White City, he explored the twisted killings of H. H. Holmes, which took place in the shadow of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, while in Thunderstruck, he recounted Hawley Crippen’s murder of his wife and flight with his mistress--and how the telegraph brought him down.
Those are a few of my favorite true crime books--what are yours?
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Interview with Bill Haynes, Part 5
Posted by Kristine Huntley on
Sep 4, 2009
Level 26ers,
In the conclusion to our five-part interview with former criminalist Bill Haynes, Bill shares two of the cases that really stand out in his memory with us....
Level 26: Is there any one case that you worked or scene that you processed that really sticks out in your mind?
Haynes: I had this one where it was a guy that was hopped up on meth. He was on the hunt for some money to find more meth. He broke into this guy's house without realizing that the homeowner was home. The homeowner was a martial arts expert--an older guy, though, and the perp was a much younger guy. The older guy was a martial arts expert, but the younger guy had youth on his side. So anyways, he goes in there and burglarizes the home and gets surprised by the homeowner. They start fighting and the perp ends up grabbing a hold of a heavy vase and ended up beating the homeowner to death. So then this guy, who was all drugged up on meth, was trying to decide, "Well, what do I do now?"
He first tried to clean up the blood by using cleaning products and paper towels, so he smears all the blood all over the place. And then on the drywall, it's not going to clean off, so he goes into the victim's garage and gets a circular saw, and he starts trying to saw this blood off the wall. It was really bizarre. He doesn't get anywhere with that, so he decides to take the victim and put him in the bathtub and light the guy on fire. He gets some gasoline from the lawnmower and pours that on the victim in the bathtub and lights that on fire and then runs out of there naked or half-naked. So then the neighbors call in a house fire, the victim is partially burned in the bathtub, and then [the police] pick up this guy half-naked and covered in blood running down the street. Crazy.
It wasn't premeditated, so you go in to burglarize somebody, it takes a turn for the worse, now you're in a situation where you've killed somebody. What do you do? You get people acting in very bizarre ways. That's another thing people don't realize is that getting rid of a body is not easy. Covering up a murder is not easy to do.
Level 26: Wow! That must have been quite a crime scene!
Haynes: Yeah, it was just very bizarre. Another one I had was when I was training under Liz Devine. I'll never forget, I was driving into work and on the news I heard about a body in a duffel bag that had been discovered in an ivy embankment off the side of the road. I heard about that driving into work, and then sure enough when I got into work, Liz was like, '"Okay, come on, we're going over to the coroner's office. They found this body." So we go to the corner's office and it's this duffel bag that is literally like oozing out decomp juice. This was August or September. The corner's people estimated that based on the degree of decomp, this thing had been sitting out in the summer heat for like three months. We called it Liquid Man.
Literally, the decomp process was so far along that he basically liquefied. We open this bag up and there's nothing but this green, split pea soup-like liquid and skeletonized remains. The visual is bad enough, but it's the smell. It initiates an uncontrollable gag reflex. That's the only crime scene I ever went to with Liz Devine where I saw her react to the smell. Even a pro like her reacted. It was so bad!
Level 26: Did that murder get solved?
Haynes: I remember we put the body through something called a fluoroscope, which is basically an x-ray machine, and there was evidence of fragmented bullets in there, so the belief was that this guy was involved in some kind of a drug deal gone bad, and that he was shot and stuffed in this bad and left by the side of the road. But I never did hear back from the detectives on it.
That's another reality of it. The crime scene personnel are not there with the detectives all the way through, so sometimes they go cold and you never really hear about them. Or they pick somebody up and [that person] pleads out, so the evidence never really comes into play and you never really hear about it. So that was one of those ones for me. It just kind of fell off the radar.
Level 26: So if the evidence isn't needed, your part is done.
Haynes: Yeah, sometimes they just go cold, or they do pick somebody up and they plead out and you never really hear about it. You're already on to the next one.
In the conclusion to our five-part interview with former criminalist Bill Haynes, Bill shares two of the cases that really stand out in his memory with us....
Level 26: Is there any one case that you worked or scene that you processed that really sticks out in your mind?
Haynes: I had this one where it was a guy that was hopped up on meth. He was on the hunt for some money to find more meth. He broke into this guy's house without realizing that the homeowner was home. The homeowner was a martial arts expert--an older guy, though, and the perp was a much younger guy. The older guy was a martial arts expert, but the younger guy had youth on his side. So anyways, he goes in there and burglarizes the home and gets surprised by the homeowner. They start fighting and the perp ends up grabbing a hold of a heavy vase and ended up beating the homeowner to death. So then this guy, who was all drugged up on meth, was trying to decide, "Well, what do I do now?"
He first tried to clean up the blood by using cleaning products and paper towels, so he smears all the blood all over the place. And then on the drywall, it's not going to clean off, so he goes into the victim's garage and gets a circular saw, and he starts trying to saw this blood off the wall. It was really bizarre. He doesn't get anywhere with that, so he decides to take the victim and put him in the bathtub and light the guy on fire. He gets some gasoline from the lawnmower and pours that on the victim in the bathtub and lights that on fire and then runs out of there naked or half-naked. So then the neighbors call in a house fire, the victim is partially burned in the bathtub, and then [the police] pick up this guy half-naked and covered in blood running down the street. Crazy.
It wasn't premeditated, so you go in to burglarize somebody, it takes a turn for the worse, now you're in a situation where you've killed somebody. What do you do? You get people acting in very bizarre ways. That's another thing people don't realize is that getting rid of a body is not easy. Covering up a murder is not easy to do.
Level 26: Wow! That must have been quite a crime scene!
Haynes: Yeah, it was just very bizarre. Another one I had was when I was training under Liz Devine. I'll never forget, I was driving into work and on the news I heard about a body in a duffel bag that had been discovered in an ivy embankment off the side of the road. I heard about that driving into work, and then sure enough when I got into work, Liz was like, '"Okay, come on, we're going over to the coroner's office. They found this body." So we go to the corner's office and it's this duffel bag that is literally like oozing out decomp juice. This was August or September. The corner's people estimated that based on the degree of decomp, this thing had been sitting out in the summer heat for like three months. We called it Liquid Man.
Literally, the decomp process was so far along that he basically liquefied. We open this bag up and there's nothing but this green, split pea soup-like liquid and skeletonized remains. The visual is bad enough, but it's the smell. It initiates an uncontrollable gag reflex. That's the only crime scene I ever went to with Liz Devine where I saw her react to the smell. Even a pro like her reacted. It was so bad!
Level 26: Did that murder get solved?
Haynes: I remember we put the body through something called a fluoroscope, which is basically an x-ray machine, and there was evidence of fragmented bullets in there, so the belief was that this guy was involved in some kind of a drug deal gone bad, and that he was shot and stuffed in this bad and left by the side of the road. But I never did hear back from the detectives on it.
That's another reality of it. The crime scene personnel are not there with the detectives all the way through, so sometimes they go cold and you never really hear about them. Or they pick somebody up and [that person] pleads out, so the evidence never really comes into play and you never really hear about it. So that was one of those ones for me. It just kind of fell off the radar.
Level 26: So if the evidence isn't needed, your part is done.
Haynes: Yeah, sometimes they just go cold, or they do pick somebody up and they plead out and you never really hear about it. You're already on to the next one.
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Interview with Bill Haynes, Part 4
Posted by Kristine Huntley on
Sep 3, 2009
Level 26ers,
Reading about serial killers is one thing, but can you imagine what it’s like to be in the same room as one? Or to testify against someone who has committed multiple murders? Bill Haynes did just that when he took the stand to testify against California’s “60 Slayer.” Read his account below…
Level 26: What serial killer did you testify against?
Haynes: Ivan Hill. He was known as the 60 Slayer--he was active along the 60, the Pomona freeway. It was the late 80s, pre-DNA and definitely before CODIS. It might even have been a little earlier. He was picking up prostitutes, and he'd have sex with them and then he'd strangle them. All the sudden, the crimes stopped. For the most part [when that happens], you know either the guy died or he's in jail for something else. Nobody knew, but behind the scenes he'd gotten picked up on an armed robbery. He was convicted on that and was in prison.
While he was in prison, DNA analysis evolved, CODIS came into being, all this legislation was passed that you can take reference samples from people that have been convicted of violent felonies. So he's about to get out of prison on this armed robbery charge, and they pulled up his reference sample. Also in the meantime all this grant money comes in for all these different law enforcement agencies to go back to old cases and start doing DNA analysis on evidence from old cases and entering that into CODIS.
So this guy is sitting in prison, all the while all this DNA evidence from these serial rape-murders he committed was sitting in CODIS now, waiting to hit on a reference sample. So he's about to get out prison, they send us a reference sample, [I] process that--and I had done some of the work on the work on old evidence from the old cases--so his reference sample gets processed, entered into CODIS, and all the sudden, bing, bing, bing. So I was one of the people that did the DNA work on the old evidence and went and testified against him.
Level 26: What was it like sitting across from him in the courtroom?
Haynes: Again, I think the best term is surreal. For me, that's my worst nightmare, to be in that courtroom as the defendant, knowing not only is my liberty at stake here, but my life. And you realize that, here I am sitting on the witness standing, giving all this damning testimony, and here's this serial killer looking at me, probably thinking, "I just need to get that guy to shut the hell up."
Level 26: Is he still on death row or has he been executed?
Haynes: That process takes so long, that I can't imagine that it's already happened. Immediate the appeals process kicks in. I testified against him two years. I can't imagine that that will happen for twenty years.
Tomorrow: Bill shares some of his most unusual cases. And don’t forget to check out the CSI Files interview with Bill about his writing career!
Reading about serial killers is one thing, but can you imagine what it’s like to be in the same room as one? Or to testify against someone who has committed multiple murders? Bill Haynes did just that when he took the stand to testify against California’s “60 Slayer.” Read his account below…
Level 26: What serial killer did you testify against?
Haynes: Ivan Hill. He was known as the 60 Slayer--he was active along the 60, the Pomona freeway. It was the late 80s, pre-DNA and definitely before CODIS. It might even have been a little earlier. He was picking up prostitutes, and he'd have sex with them and then he'd strangle them. All the sudden, the crimes stopped. For the most part [when that happens], you know either the guy died or he's in jail for something else. Nobody knew, but behind the scenes he'd gotten picked up on an armed robbery. He was convicted on that and was in prison.
While he was in prison, DNA analysis evolved, CODIS came into being, all this legislation was passed that you can take reference samples from people that have been convicted of violent felonies. So he's about to get out of prison on this armed robbery charge, and they pulled up his reference sample. Also in the meantime all this grant money comes in for all these different law enforcement agencies to go back to old cases and start doing DNA analysis on evidence from old cases and entering that into CODIS.
So this guy is sitting in prison, all the while all this DNA evidence from these serial rape-murders he committed was sitting in CODIS now, waiting to hit on a reference sample. So he's about to get out prison, they send us a reference sample, [I] process that--and I had done some of the work on the work on old evidence from the old cases--so his reference sample gets processed, entered into CODIS, and all the sudden, bing, bing, bing. So I was one of the people that did the DNA work on the old evidence and went and testified against him.
Level 26: What was it like sitting across from him in the courtroom?
Haynes: Again, I think the best term is surreal. For me, that's my worst nightmare, to be in that courtroom as the defendant, knowing not only is my liberty at stake here, but my life. And you realize that, here I am sitting on the witness standing, giving all this damning testimony, and here's this serial killer looking at me, probably thinking, "I just need to get that guy to shut the hell up."
Level 26: Is he still on death row or has he been executed?
Haynes: That process takes so long, that I can't imagine that it's already happened. Immediate the appeals process kicks in. I testified against him two years. I can't imagine that that will happen for twenty years.
Tomorrow: Bill shares some of his most unusual cases. And don’t forget to check out the CSI Files interview with Bill about his writing career!
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