My heart aches for John Ramsey. I want to give him a huge hug. He spoke and met with authorities up there while in Denver. Stupid Boulder still won't release the DNA. He said they can afford to issue a picogram (one trillionth of a gram) to some place like Othram. Back in the day, it took a dime size. He offered to raise a million dollars to pay for the test and was still told no. To me this indicates it's an inside job in the police or DA office. His attorney of 28 years was with him. A new team is on the case, but the Colorado Investigative Bureau is not known for speed.
An FBI profiler said the murderer is either angry or jealous
of Ramsey or it was a kidnapping gone wrong. A retired detective said someone
wanted ransom, is male, sadistic and psychopathic. Whoever is "pure,
demonic, evil." Ramsey said he didn't know anyone in his company or in his
life who approached that kind of evil. He believes there is a 70 percent chance
of solving with DNA examination. But Boulder says they need to keep some for
the future defense attorney. Ramsey said that is an obsolete reason because of
new technology. He has never ever gone back to the Boulder house. Just can't.
One thousand children are murdered every year. There are
18,000 police jurisdictions. The chief is on an island. The Boulder one didn't
want help. Ramsey was worried that Moscow, Idaho, could be a Boulder, but that
chief used the FBI and state police. Boulder was just plain negligent.
He said he met Elizabeth Smart's father and asked how he
could go on when she was missing for months Jon Benet was missing for six
hours. Smart had a gut feeling she was alive.
Ramsey said leads were a nuisance to Boulder police. He said
leads on a phone today are primitive.
His attorney believes there is DNA on the garrote. There were splinters
on Jon Benet and in Jon Benet. They are both more hopeful than they have ever been
on finding the killer. The moderator who is a friend and author said she knows
many things, like two cops in a meeting saying they knew it was the parents. It
kind of stuck on them. Until it didn't. They were not given a subpoena for the
grand jury though they volunteered. They would have had to be shown all
statements made about them. Was that why--something made up/fake news? If I was
a grand juror, I'd be outraged, it was said. Ramsey said they have nothing to
hide. They are innocent. The police even wanted to withhold Jon Benet's body,
but she did manage to get released for her funeral. The media didn't seem to
report anything favorable toward the Ramseys.
There is a petition for Colorado to adopt a version of the
federal Homicide Victims' Families' Rights Act so loved ones can request a
review using today's investigative tools. The last petition to the governor for
a cold case review and new eyes got 55,000 signatures when Ramsey was hoping
for 500. The Ramsey family has been slandered and mistreated for 29 years. IT
IS TIME FOR JUSTICE. As Ramsey said, there has been “monstrous untruth of
them.”
Aurora
Two Aurora retired police officers go around the world
talking about what went wrong and right at the theater shooting. The killer had
the guns legally and 3,000 rounds of ammo. Twelve were killed (one as young as
6). Police officers took 27 victims to hospitals themselves. The loser scouted
sites and picked the theater for the maximum kill rate. It was a midnight movie
with 350 people in theater 9. 1,100 people were in the entire building.
Remember when you see a movie and spot someone on the front row seat near an
exit, it could be suspicious. Leave. He put a clip on the door. He had satin
sheets on his bed, so the policeman said you know he is weird.
911 couldn't hear the address because of all the shots. The
first call alone had 37 rounds. They now train to know those sounds. Some
moviegoers thought it was part of theatrics. The next call was from a
16-year-old employee who knew the address. 126 Aurora officers were sent and
they needed more from Denver. Aurora is usually used for backup. The first
arrival was in 2 minutes and 42 seconds, considered quick. Lanes were down from
6 to 2 due to construction. One off-duty officer had a key to the building from
having worked there.
Complicating the matter was they didn't know if the one guy
acted alone. He was spotted because he didn't have a police-type gas mask and
he placed his gun on top of his car. Police don't do that. He wanted to
live--even carried tourniquets. They train that if there is 1, there is 2. If
there are 2, there are 3, and so on.
The movie kept playing because employees ran out. It was
dark, there was gas; there was death all around.
Police don't go out and hurt people; they save lives. One
made four separate trips to the hospital with six critically ill. In 49
minutes, all were evacuated out of the theater. One hospital was on diversion,
but still managed to care for every patient. 76 rounds were fired inside. A
lady in an adjoining theater took a shot to the face.
All with surviving type wounds lived. One even had organs
falling out. There were 70 non-fatal injuries. 20 taken by ambulance, 12 by
private vehicle and one who walked.
A photo showed the lines of bullets. You can see he aimed at
those escaping. He had target practice sheets in his dumpster.
People with badges and stethoscopes are heroes.
Marcia Clark
Marcia Clark's first time at Crime Con. To discuss her book
"Trial by Ambush" about the Barbara Graham trial. This was made into
a movie called "I Want to Live" with Susan Hayward, who won best
actress. The crime took place in 1953 and is very complicated to me. She had
been poor and neglected. Her mom kept throwing her out and she made money by
being a dice girl and shill. The victim was believed to have some of her
son-in-law's money, but it was not found. She was living in the former home.
She did have money and jewelry in her purse. She and her husband had been
vaudeville skaters and champs. The verdict took two days for all on trial and
they got the death penalty. It only took two or three years for them to die.
She had a 5-year-old son. At the time of her death, her hair and clothing were
being described. The defense attorney said she only testified to flaunt herself
and seduce the male jurors. Her attorney objected, but it was overruled. Marcia
looks a little shiny and her hair is a mess! She is working on another book.
Matt Murphy
Matt Murphy, my favorite presenter, talked about a Marine
who was a serial killer and the defense blamed it on fetal alcohol
syndrome. He learned the subject matter
from their writings and found ways to contradict them. For instance, one said
we don't use the words mental retardation. He has video of him doing so. The
Marine really had a normal life. These took place in California and Chicago.
The women were stabbed or shot. One in a trunk tried to send mental signals to
family. She did escape and amazingly a car was driving by in the desert to help
her. The trial lasted six months and their families came from faraway places.
The capture: A rookie cop sees a sex worker in an argument
and the dude has a firearm. He made the arrest when it matched up with some of
the cases. He retrieved the gun one day before it was to be destroyed. One of
the victim's roommates IDs was found with the Marine.
His first two convictions were commuted. But Matt says there
are no free murders and got him to California for the others.
THE BEST LINES WERE THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY.
"THE TRUTH AND BULL SHIT."
Matt hates what they did with BK; he wanted it to go to
trial.
He said one takeaway is we learned what a philtrum is. Fetal
alcohol victims have a smooth one, low birth weight and can't extend their
fingers. He had a photo where the Marine could extend.
He said so-called expert witnesses do it for the money, are
stupid or because they are against the death penalty. For instance, they even
had his report card. One said he made Fs. But F meant fair.
Matt said serial killers perfect their technique as they go.
He went from binding with twine to leather to handcuffs.
Marine hung himself in jail. He told Matt his PowerPoint was
good before going to jail.
Joseph Scott Morgan
New Orleanian Joseph Scott Morgan talked about post-mortem
interval assessment. There are seven cardinal signs of death. Lack of respiration (does breath fog a
mirror?), lack of pulse or heartbeat, fixed pupils, unresponsive to painful
stimuli, cold skin, rigor or livor mortis (blue/purplish—I was livid comes from
this), overt decomposition (odor, skin marbling or slippage, bloating). In the
first hour of death, the body loses two degrees, then one degree up until the
12th.
The death investigator is an advocate for them—the
voiceless. He was nervous for his first media interview. He was a professor so
the reporter told him to just teach him.
He told a story of a fellow on his team that saw a hand of a
supposed deceased move. Turns out it was the time of AIDS and the first responders
didn’t want to deal with the blood from the slit wrists. The wrists were
stitched, the person got blood and survived.
His exams are done on the scene—may be a road (could have
been driven over) or open field: blood, onlookers, weather, maggots. Rain,
humidity and barometric pressure affect the body temp.
He talked about the catacombs in Paris. They are multiple
stories of stacked human remains due to overflowing cemeteries.
Luigi Mangione
That creep Luigi Mangione’s began with a virtual timeline.
He had a fake ID at a hotel, paid cash at a Starbucks before the murder and
discarded the cup (evidence), rode an e-bike in Central Park, ditched it,
caught a cab where he is on video and then is spotted at the McDonald’s in
Pennsylvania. He printed the gun, we know, and the silencer, did not know. He
thought about the murder since August per his journals. He was in San Francisco
thinking about killing someone from an architectural firm that builds
healthcare facilities. He read about the Unabomber. He switched plans and
followed Brian Thompson the night before he shot him. I would call this
terrorism because it intimidates the population, people in similar jobs. Dude
was class president and valedictorian and from a wealthy family. His cousin is
in the Maryland legislature. He most certainly could have taken a different
route to expose his issues. Some think United Health Care PAC gives to
politicians so they would not be interested in laws that would hurt United
Health Care. I looked up Louisiana’s and
it is pictured. Some think he is telegenic and could have been a spokesman for
something of substance. I think he looks disgusting. His likeness was used to
model a shirt on Shein. He thought he was representing people who don’t have a
voice. I tell you everybody has a voice. Thompson’s family is still scared to
come out. Dude thought some of the company’s policyholders were being murdered
when denied, which could be true, but we don’t live vigilante style. Idiots are
contributing to GiveSendGo even though dude’s family is wealthy. I will never
ever use that site. GoFundMe does not accept such legal fundraisers. Ending: If
you were dude, how would you explain your stupid rationale to Brian Thompson’s
family?
And while I'm at it, why do South Carolina legislators
choose judges? Not popular vote. This would seem to the father of Logan to not
be well served because many of the legislators are attorneys who will represent
someone before said judges and not get a fair trial. They would likely be
thankful to legislators who put them in. Makes no sense to me.
Josh
I never pass up the opportunity to listen to Josh
Mankiewicz’s session. He just renewed his contract. He turned 70, has been in
the business 50 years and with Dateline, 30. He said love triangles are
Dateline’s favorite part of geometry.
What’s different about Dateline journalism is there is no rush. They can
interview someone two to three hours, plus talk beforehand. Mankie is happy he
played a part in getting focus on minority crime stories. For example, there
was a guy from Ghana who smoked dope long before it was legal in some places
and a Russian guy was in the story. This episode came at a time when there were
fewer story ideas and got high rankings. It was originally thought that
minorities, people with access and those who were breaking the law and became a
victim were a tough sell. Turns out that compelling and well told stories are
all that is needed. All of the cast has different styles. Dateline wants them
to sound like them and act like themselves. They asked for applause for those
who listen live, stream or do the podcast. I was shocked that live did not win;
I do not miss it. There have been 3,000 episodes and Mank has his favorites. He
got asked about Keith and says he always posts he is going over to Keith’s to
watch on Friday night. He’ll act like it is a long journey, with a camel, sea
plane or canoe. He’ll also mention Boggle; he just thinks Keith is the Boggle
type. He also made caricatures of the cast during the Olympics. He said back in
the day, the news wanted people to cry; it would always be shown. Now, they
like to give the interviewees a moment to leave the room or get a tissue. It’s
hard to be in front of strangers with lights and cameras and makeup. Collecting
themselves is more valuable than crying, he said. He was asked the most
chilling killer and it was the guy who killed the people on the yacht. He said
a memorable time was almost getting a beatdown in a Montana prison. Someone
asked why are criminals so stupid. Mankie recalled someone buying a burner
phone with a gift card registered to him. Dumb ones make it so much easier to
solve.
Peter Van Sant
Peter Van Sant is so tall. He spoke of a Washington case
about a dog trainer, heiress and body guard. A lady’s ex stalked her and she
later got involved with her bodyguard who killed him. She was six feet tall and
he was 5’6.” From far off, people thought she had a child. The panel believed
she groomed the new boyfriend to kill. She wanted ex gone gone, not just to
have papers of restraining orders. There
was even reverse stalking where new bf put drugs under ex’s vehicle. The body
has never been found and there is talk that a hole was pre-dug. Murderer even
returned some bolt cutters to Lowe’s but is on video at Walmart buying tarp and
shin guards to protect from the dog trainer’s animals at 4 a.m. There is a
freemichieloakes website. Why can’t the courts just handle everything without
the public? Karen Read, Luigi. Stalking is horrific. Last Friday’s Dateline was
a guy who wanted his wife gone and blamed an ex-boyfriend as the stalker, but
got caught and last night’s “48 Hours” was the man in an affair with someone’s
wife being the stalker of her husband and killing him.
Leo Schofield
Leo Schofield is convicted of murdering his wife of 18 in
Florida in 1987 after six months of marriage. Someone else has confessed. He
was a serial killer. She didn't come home from work and was found by her
father-in-law with 26 stab wounds in a drainage ditch. She lost a half gallon
of blood. The trailer neighbor lied about things and no blood was found in
their home. The killer's brand of cigarettes was found at the site. There were
other fingerprints on the car. Leo remarried a social worker in prison. Leo
forgave the killer.
The Delphi Murders
These families have been around since my first time. This
small town of 1,000 got 70,000 tips. They said information was their main
weapon. In Indiana, jurors can ask questions. The prosecutor didn't want them
to go to the scene. They could have been tampered with and the bridge was
risky. I noticed he had an error on his slide. It was a trail where he put
trial. Ugh.
These are family members of Libby and Abby. They said there
will be generational trauma. I never thought about this. Their grandkids will
one day see crime scene photos. They have a hard time with graduations of their
classmates, and now weddings.
They said people will never know who they were before the
murders. They said they wouldn't want the job of a judge week after week.
There is an annual Operation Christmas Child for Abby.
There is a Hulu episode out about this case. The defense
attorneys were recording themselves. The dad of one of the victims said he has
worked 40 years and never recorded himself at his job and found that odd.
There was a sketch of the suspect where he worked in CVS.
They hinted to look behind you in the store and try to remember something about
a person to practice helping with a sketch if you ever need to. I am going to
do this.
Daybell Vallow
Colby Ryan, son of Lori Daybell Vallow, thinks his mom is a
monster. She sent him a message through moderator Nate Eaton that said Matthew
25 today. He is very upset that his brother was found in a bag and his sister
was just remnants. Lori told him she wanted to be cremated. Nate's reporting on
the missing of DeOrr Kunz is still my favorite Crime Con story. He has really
gotten some stories in Idado of all places. This and the Idaho 4.
Fatal Attraction
I'd Kill To Be You. It is about those obsessed with
another's life so much that they want to take it. You enjoy someone's demise.
This girl had an acquaintance who had a boyfriend and child. She had
psuedocyesis, which is a phantom pregnancy (even had extended stomach) and went
with her mother to the hospital. Later she killed and burned down her
acquaintance's house. She took her baby and went to live with her mother for
six years. Now, the mother knew she wasn't pregnant and knew her friend was
killed, but never reported the situation. Mom was eventually charged with
felony child concealment. She got three years of probation. This talk mentioned
why people are obsessed with true crime. It's about helping solve, seeing the
technology and learning to protect yourself. Like after a recent episode, I
really watch where I park and probably always should have. And I'll never get
in a boat without someone knowing.
Missing Babies
There are 342 missing babies, 0 to 6 months from 1964-2024.
Either from home, a health-care facility or parking lot or something. The
profile of a taker is may appear pregnant. They usually live in the same
community and study the environment. A family told their story from 40 years
ago. Someone acted like a social worker and asked the mom to go knock on the
door of a place and she drove off. She was canvassing military housing. Some do
get solved such as when one young man thought he just didn't feel right growing
up. He started researching.
They said there is an uptick in Hispanic caseloads of
missing people and think it could be someone acting as ICE to take them.
Manners of Death
There are five manners of death and 1,000s of causes.
Manners are natural, accidental, suicidal, homicide and undetermined. This
pathology assistant speaker showed some famous autopsy photos. Lisa Marie
Presley had a small bowel issue. She once had gastric bypass and had had
plastic surgery two months before and was on opioids because of that. So much
is revealed in an autopsy. Princess Diana was worked on at the scene; that's
how they do it in Paris. She was talking on the scene. She might have made it
at a hospital if arriving faster like we do in the USA.
Idaho
Stacy Chapin, mother of Ethan from the Idaho 4, was on stage
with the Othram lady. Othram was
contacted to do the DNA that turned out to be BK after saying they could do a
profile in 48 hours or less. The evidence was escorted from the airport to
them. Officials walked the lab and saw the chain of custody and left it there.
Their team does not know the case due to confirmation bias. They all agreed to
work over Thanksgiving. BK's DNA was narrowed to Pennsylvania and Italian
heritage. If perpetrators knew the
greatness of Othram, they may think twice about committing a crime. Some have
been solved after 47 years. They solved five yesterday! SOLVING A CRIME IS A CHOICE,
SAID THE OTHRAM LADY. Do you hear that, Boulder? She said she has spoken with
John Ramsey, but is not allowed to discuss cases until law enforcement
does. CODIS (Combined DNA Index System)
is free, but not as extensive. CODIS still confirms Othram's findings. Chapin
said an Idaho police officer called them every night. She said she walked off a
lot of her grief. Even her dog was tired. One day she and her husband decided
their other two triplets didn't deserve to have parents that were derailed. Othram
said if they had only solved this case, it would be enough. Those two ladies
really connected. She hopes universities will implement their software and
funding and grants will be obtained.
Colorado DA
DA in Colorado spoke about Columbine, Aurora and Kobe Bryant
(Colo. does not use the word rape). He said the theater shooting was the
largest, most logistically challenging, most media scrutinized prosecution in
Colorado. On Columbine, he said his mother would have never let him disassemble
clocks to make bombs. Colorado uses judicial districts, not counties for DAs.
It's the only state with term limits for them. Praise the Lord. He showed the
mini theater that was built for the Aurora trial, which lasted from January to
August. There was one victim who people thought would be President one day. He
said the trial is still on YouTube except for jury selection. He said the
newspaper never liked him and he couldn't get an endorsement even if unopposed.
He was funny. His team did keep track of social media comments and used some of
the questions people were posting. Post to help your prosecutors, he said.
Cults
Cults are counterfeits of faith. They exploit religion and
make it feel like devotion. Polygamy is legal in half of the world.
Boston Marathon
It was quite the serious police work. It took 101 hours and 25 minutes to solve.
The presenter showed a lot of sights and sounds. The carjacked victim could not
speak English, so that didn’t help much.
The one in the boat rolled over his brother in the car. I don’t ever
speak their names. The hurt police officer was taken to the hospital with an
emergency brake on the ambulance the whole way, driven by a police officer, and
it was not to a Level 1 trauma center and his life was still saved. Boston was
actually shut down/shelter in place. Lots of jurisdictions were involved, all
Type A. We know about the boat scene, but I didn’t realize there was a ladder
near the boat and the man in the home had gone outside to smoke and let his dog
out. I don’t know how the loser survived with all the bullets fired. The street
was full of cop cars, only cop cars. It was almost impossible to move on the
road, as Boston and surrounding city streets are narrow. I was never more
frightened to drive than in Boston. This part was new to me: the exhaustion,
hunger and thirst of the police during the search. The presenter said the
dispatcher had an accent like Cliff Clavin on steroids. That was true! You hear
the boat owner tell him, “I’m absolutely not going to the boat.” But so many
cops did! A robot first removed the tarp.
27,000 were in the marathon and once the bomb went off,
there was no cell service. They still to this day don’t know why. It was
refreshing to see crowds yelling good job and clapping for the police. The dead
brother’s issue may have been he was a boxer and was mad he didn’t get in a
national tournament due to lack of citizenship. The capture was on Patriots’
Day, a big deal in Boston.
Susan Smith
What I didn't know about Susan Smith is the community handled it well when she
blamed a black man for carjacking her. If a black man had stolen the kids, she
was the victim. If she gave them away, she would be a bad mother. Most
carjackers don't kill kids. Apparently she liked a co-worker who didn't like
kids and she wanted to start fresh with him. He called it shaking the Etch A
Sketch. She also had sex with his father. She wore his Auburn sweatshirt in initial
appearances. She and her husband were estranged. Her stepfather abused her at
16. He was a huge Republican Party leader.
The sheriff was her godfather. She is up for parole every two years and
has had sex with prison guards. She enjoyed media attention, but they dressed
her frumpy for court. Court workers had new hairdos and wardrobes. She did not
get the death penalty; only one or two women in S.C. had at that point. Her
husband and mother wrote books. The prosecutor advised David Smith not to look like
he was trying to make money off of the deaths of the two boys. But the defense
had a copy the first day of trial. He donated the money to children's
charities. There was a bomb threat during the trial. When the test video of it
taking six minutes for the kids to drown was shown, Susan was playing tic tac
toe. They thought Detroit might provide a car, but they wanted media rights, so
they got one undercover. The prosecutor said when choosing whether TV coverage
should be allowed, he would look like he had something to hide if not allowed,
and would appear to be a glory hound if it was. He said having a sketch artist
makes good Christmas gifts.
Herb Baumeister
Herb Baumeister, a suspected killer of 13 gay men near
Indianapolis allegedly killed himself in Canada. Their scattered remains
totaling 9,800 are on a shelf at a university. Handcuffs are on some of the
bones. It is the largest amount of fragments since 9/11. He was a business man
with a double life as a serial killer. His son found a skull at their Fox
Hollow home and the dad said it belonged to his doctor dad as an educational
item. He apparently lured these men from bars to his swimming pool and
strangled them with a hose. The mother of one of the victims kept her landline
because that is the only number he knew. The government there would not fund
DNA searches and put it on the families. The sheriff is not giving up.
Lineups
A panel featuring favorite Matt Murphy showed that police
lineups are very difficult. We are more capable of recognizing our own
race. They showed how three people
differed on stage in the race, height, weight and age. This leads to false
convictions, which I am really beginning to wonder about. In one lineup, people
were so sure of the guy, but he was at work making sales and they got his
fingerprint on credit card papers to prove so. Some people are super
recognizers. They never forget a face.
