Manipulation
Have you ever written someone in jail? The woman who spoke
about Manipulation of the Mind at Crime Con does so for research. We manipulate
and are manipulated. Manipulation is attempting to change your mind or
behavior to get you to do what I want. TV does it. Political candidates do it.
For instance, a prisoner wrote her and started with Dr., then Kimberlie, then,
Kim, then Kimmie, then dearest. That tries to make an emotional connection.
Other common techniques are playing on insecurities. They talk you up so you
want them by you. They lie then deny. They move the goalpost—lose five pounds,
but 10 would be better. They use fear and threats. They are passive-aggressive,
giving backhanded compliments. They use the silent treatment. They recruit
others.
She said Florida is one state that pays nothing to inmates.
Typically, wages range from 14 cents to $2/hour for prison maintenance labor.
In Massachusetts, half of an inmate’s wages go to pay for expenses after
release and in New Mexico, 15-50 percent goes to a Crime Victims Reparations
Fund, discharge money and family support. Jobs can be outside the facility. In
Nebraska, for instance, inmates clean the governor’s mansion. Trustees work at
our Capitol. Inside prison jobs might include cooking food, washing laundry or
custodial work.
The Thing About the Thing About Pam
Russ said he was not guilty to police 77 times. They did the
lie detector test after he had been up 36 hours and held in an 8x10 room for 24
of them. Joel's 12-year-old son, while hearing him read aloud about the case,
even said, "That lady did it." Joel called her lies Pam-isms. Here's
one: I got it, but I didn't. In Missouri, it usually takes 10 to 14 years for a
case to be overturned in appeal. Theirs took less than two. Joel seemed overly
humble to me. I don't know if you can defame the dead, but the lesbian story
should not be how Betsy is known. Pam-ism.
Exhumations
Exhumations have been done as many as six times on one body.
Sometimes there may be a letter in the casket. Casket tags have to match and
the toe tag from the first post-mortem. Sometimes plots are sold more than
once? You must seek permission for exhumation because it is a vital record.
Forensic Entomology
There are only 30 forensic entomologists in the country.
Only two are in aquatics. They study insects on dead things. Been here long?
Yes, it began in the 13th century in China. A veterinarian is the most trusted
expert witness today. Not even a doctor, the Crime Con presenter said. The
study of lice, mites and tics can provide links to places and time. Paths of
travel on cars can be studied. Better wash yours well if you committed a crime.
There are stinging studies and neglect (elderly, children). Entomophobia causes
car and plane wrecks. Gravesite tophonomy is a real thing. Insects can
dig six feet. Water and plastic are barriers to the forensic studies.
They are harder to study in freezing weather. There are three body farms to
study the decomposition of a human corpse. He talked about dolphin
poaching—arrows, gunshots, heads bashed in with gaffing hooks. He believes in
maggot therapy. He said we all eat two pounds of insects a year, not knowing
it. There is a hotel bedbug detector site.
Capital Punishment
Describe the death penalty in one word. This was a question
a Crime Con presenter asked. He studied the 46 executions in 2010 and wrote a
book. There have been 16,032 done since executions began, which was 1608. They
have been bludgeoned, burned at the stake and fastened to a wagon wheel and
dropped from a large height. The reasons were murder, burglary, adultery,
piracy and witchcraft. In 1834, Pennsylvania got uncomfortable with the death
penalty and banned public executions. There are 130 people on Death Row there
now; they have executed three since 1976. The last public execution in the U.S.
was in 1936 in Kentucky. 20,000 people have been known to show up for one. 27
states still have the death penalty and 23 do not. Some have a moratorium. In
Alabama and Florida, a judge can overrule a 12-0 jury that convicted. Eleven
people were executed last year and there are 2,474 people on death rows.
California has 700 on death row and executed 13 in the last 30 years. South
Carolina has reinstituted the firing squad where death is said to come in 15
seconds. Lethal injections can take 20 minutes.
Anthrax
Remember the anthrax crimes three weeks after 9/11? The
investigation included looking for mysterious deaths, searching biocontainment
labs, interviewing veterinarians and using bloodhounds. There was no human DNA
or prints on the pre-stamped envelopes with a Trenton postmark. The ink was
common. He used a bogus return address. When two postal employees died of the
five killed, the criminal was upset. He was a fan of blue-collar workers, but
not Tom Brokaw, the New York Post or Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahay.
Seventeen people were injured. The presenter took a vaccine to protect himself
from getting the disease caused by the bacteria.
From a show on TV afterwards. There was a million-dollar reward. 2,200
workers in the USPS facility were concerned. Dogs on Capitol Hill
got Cipro before they did. Postal machines were running at 35 m.p.h., possibly
spewing spores. Their class action suit was dismissed.
Ryan Duke
Look for the Ryan Duke trial this week in the 2005 death of
Tara Grinstead, a former Georgia beauty queen and teacher. There was nothing
missing at her home and a glove was found with her DNA and the alleged
killer's, Ryan Duke. The gloves had his DNA and were said to pick up dog poo,
in the defendant's defense. There was apparently a scene in the bedroom where
later plastic off of a lamp was found. Duke’s friend Bo Dukes is in prison for
this case. This was the announcement nobody knows yet that can be proven: He
did not call from a pay phone to her home.
Gen Why
Gen Why talked about a police officer named Chris Horner and
whether he was murdered or committed suicide in Florida on Cemetery Road in
1998 after reporting an abandoned car. Six years later, an inmate said he did
it with many others. They were bank robbers and Horner stumbled upon their car.
His body radio was not working. He knew one of the men and they must have
decided to kill him because of that. Some of his co-workers thought it was
suicide because he was face down with a gunshot wound behind his left ear and
there was no sign of a struggle. He worked three jobs, had six kids and a
wife charged with Food Stamp fraud. They had $40,000 in credit card debt. He
had only been a police officer for 14 months. Thank goodness the jail dude’s
aunt threatened to rat his story out if he didn’t do so himself.
Susan Powell
Red flags on the Susan Powell case. She left a note in case
something happened to her, husband was known to lock her out and he didn’t work.
He acted like he did by posting a Realtor ad with the wrong phone number. He
googled Amanda Knox and stain removers. Her life insurance was $3.5 million.
Washington lost a multimillion case for the way it handled the visitation. The attorney said she always has a theme song
for each case. This one was “Get Together” by the Youngbloods--Make the
mountains ring or the angels cry. There was a “Death Lies Here” sign in thug’s
shed. They have checked a mine for Susan’s body, but gas was poured down it. The
kids had mentioned she was by the bushes and by the blueberries. There are
35,000 pages on the case at
https://www.ksl.com/article/25263938/west-valley-city-photos-documents-relating-to-the-susan-powell-case
Paul Holes
Paul Holes said for people seeking answers in a cold case to
keep showing that the family wants answers and work your way up the chain of
command if you need to.
911
A 911 dispatcher with a million calls under his belt said
there are seven calls to 911 in the U.S. every second. Once a week he gets a
call from a drive-through from someone unhappy with his order. He said because
9 took a long time to dial on a rotary phone that the U.S. used 911 instead of
999 that Britain did.
Real Killer
In Real Killer, Rodney Lincoln was sent to prison after a
murdered woman’s daughter at age 7 identified him as her mother’s killer. His
conviction was reviewed as one of six out of an initial 1,400 cases in an
innocence project. When the daughter was old enough to read reports and
newspapers, she saw a sketch that really looked like someone else. After
36 years, the Missouri governor commuted his sentence. Lincoln said he can’t
describe the joy, but he felt it.
Long Island Killer
Dirty cop or Long Island Killer? James Burke is a former
Suffolk County Police Chief who got shrouded in accusations of being involved
in Long Island serial killings after rumors of his prior involvements with
local sex workers came to light. Burke refused to let the FBI examine the
killings. He assaulted Christopher Loeb, an admitted heroin addict who had
broken into Burke’s department-issued vehicle to steal his duffle bag that Loeb
claimed contained sex toys and porn. In 2016, Burke was sentenced to 46 months
in federal prison after pleading guilty to depriving a person of civil rights
and conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice. That same year, an escort came
out to pose allegations of rough sex by him. She saw him use drugs. Between
1996 and the 2010 discovery of one set of human remains at Oak Beach in Suffolk
County, 10 people fell victim to suspected homicide. Shannan Gilbert left the
home of a client and was driven to Oak Beach by a driver, who later received a
call from the client to take Gilbert home after she reportedly became
irrational and erratic. Although multiple searches were conducted in the
vicinity of where Gilbert was last seen, her body was not discovered until 18
months after she was first reported missing. More remains were discovered along
Ocean Parkway. All worked as Craigslist escorts and were last seen between July
2007 and September 2010. Several months later, the remains of another
woman who worked as an escort were discovered several miles east of where the
Gilgo Beach Four were found. More remains were found there. One was a female
toddler, another was an Asian male in female clothing, and eventually the
baby’s mother known as “Peaches” due to a bitten heart-shaped tattoo of a peach
on her body. Current Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison has
now at long last established a multi-agency task force that includes
representatives from the FBI, New York State Police, Suffolk County District
Attorney’s office and the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office to reinvigorate the
investigation and bring the person or persons responsible for these crimes to
justice. FYI. Many of the torsos were found apart from the rest of the bodies.
There is a body location map.
Undercover Agent
Bob Delaney went undercover as Bobby Covert, odd, yes, but
it was a deceased person’s name at birth and he would now like to meet his
family. He was a N.J. trooper who went undercover to bust the mob. He and five
others opened a trucking company and an arrest record was created for him. He
said it was like wearing a costume. Yes, he got scared to the point of throwing
up and getting diarrhea. Some mobsters got arrested and became informants. Some
told him thank you for breaking the chain. He later was a referee in kids’
basketball and then the NBA. It was therapy. He does see good in society. He
defines organized crime as an ongoing conspiracy which uses fear and corruption
in an attempt to make money and/or gain power within a community/society.
“Nowhere is Italian in there,” he said. He discusses PTSD
back to the days of Sophocles when he wrote warriors did not know how to act.
In the Civil War it was called a soldier’s heart. The WWI term was shell
shocked; WWII was battle fatigue. For Korea and Vietnam, it was flashbacks. He
has a book called Heroes are Human, Lessons in Resilience, Courage and Wisdom
from the COVID Front Lines.
Genomics
The test kit for a target test of consensual DNA of an
inferred relative in the investigation of the Golden State Killer cost $217.
Six worked the DNA angle. It took 63 days. Regular police work over 43 years
cost $10 million, took 650 detectives and agents over 200,000 hours. He was not
a suspect before the DNA test. DNA
databases are 80 percent white. The
Wisconsin DNA Databank is responsible for receiving, verifying acceptability
and processing reference DNA samples from convicted offenders and a subset of
arrestees. It contains over 300,000 offender and arrestee DNA
profiles. Under California law,
law enforcement is required to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested on
suspicion of a felony crime. Even if the individual is never convicted or
charged, the state may keep a DNA sample just based on the arrest. The color of
your eyes on your license could come into play when they run an ancestry
possibility study.
Reasonable Doubt
I can understand where someone may move things around so the
victim's death would not look like a suicide. But not when she is tied and
taped. This was in the Reasonable Doubt session. As a potential juror, you have
to wonder if the lineup was suggestive (one person with a hoodie, one person
with short hair and being THE suspect) and whether witnesses are visually
impaired. There's something rare called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome that may have
affected one case.
Interviewing
Fil Waters, a Houston detective with a 96 percent solve
rate, talked about interviewing. First, investigators need to establish control
and then share a little bit of themselves. “I’m a father, too.” It is about
finding the right person who did the wrong thing.
Three Large Cities
A panel of homicide detectives from large cities said it
takes speed, strength and smarts. One had a pic of dog poop on a person’s phone
to establish their alibi. Google geofencing is the hot thing. I am awaiting a
Google takeout of myself. Cases go cold because of bad crime samples,
uncooperative witnesses and heavy caseloads.
Finding Justice
Funding Justice is helping solve crimes in Las Vegas. It’s
like crowdfunding cold cases (philanthropy). Vegas solves 94 percent of murder
cases. A Mississippi woman is funding the investigation of all unidentified
remains there.
West Memphis Three and Wrongful Convictions
I watched the talk on the West Memphis Three and Wrongful
Convictions (they begin with tunnel vision). They still did not convince me the
owl killed that North Carolina lady.
Genetic DNA
There was a speaker from Othram and they can use
one-trillionth of a gram for DNA.
Black Widower
Anyone remember the freak man on Dateline who was married
six times and four of the wives died? He was acquitted of No. 2 and it was
called a suicide. Not so lucky on No. 6. One had cancer and one had open heart
surgery. He had kids with the first one. He wore pigtails and a Tony Romo shirt
in court. He claimed to shoot an intruder when it was really somebody he set up
to do it. A neighbor outside happened to be on his cell phone and the shots can
be heard and timed. Freako did not call 911 for 15 minutes. Busted. Also, there
were no gunshots in the ski mask when he said he shot the “intruder” in the
head. I was glad to hear there is a slayer statute where the murderer is not
entitled to the estate if he killed the decedent. Unfortunately, his conviction
has been overturned in Nevada. Something to do with priors.
Sheryl McCollum
She once wrote a
letter to J. Edgar Hoover about being an agent. He told her to stay in school,
that there were not a lot of females back then.
Jeffrey Epstein
He would give a finder’s fee to the young girls who would
get paid to “massage” him. This web of girls was three or four a day no matter
where he was—New York, New Mexico, Florida or the island. Sea urchins were
planted around that island so girls could not escape, because an attorney went
there and tried to. He had moles in the FBI. It was all about control. He was
the type who every day had two sprays of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter on his
muffin. Not one, not three. Girls opened doors for him. He attempted suicide
once before the final one and guards were arrested for not checking on him. He
influenced them was the word used. All victims who wanted to got to speak at
his dismissal case since his suicide allowed no trial. There were many correct
judge rulings in this absurdity—no bail and this. When they were about to
chicken out, the attorney got them a wig and they were allowed to come in back
doors to avoid the media. It was ruled that court drawings could have no
distinguishing features.
I didn’t watch Gil, Coursen, romance scams, Kim Goldman,
detecting lies, Cats, Nancy Grace, Chris Hansen or Delphi because they are
repeat guest of prior years. The serial killer one was awful. There was one
about bias, but now I can’t find my notes.
