True Crime in Quotes

"Serial murder may be a much older phenomenon than we realize. The stories that filter down about witches and werewolves and vampires may have been a way of explaining outrages so hideous that no one in the small and close-knit towns of Europe and early America could comprehend the perversities we now take for granted. Monsters had to be supernatural creatures. They couldn't be just like us."

~John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, true crime authors

"People with narcissistic personality disorder not only have to be the center of attention, they create drama in their lives. They are a one-person wrecking crew." 

~Candice DeLong, Deadly Women, Vicious Vixen

"Somebody framed me." 

~Ed Gein

“The killing was a means to an end. That was the least satisfactory part. I didn’t enjoy doing that. That’s why I tried to create living zombies with uric acid in the drill [to the head], but it never worked. No, the killing was not the objective. I just wanted to have the person under my complete control, not having to consider their wishes, being able to keep them there as long as I wanted.”

~Jeffrey Dahmer

"If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well."

~Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking

“As far as I’m concerned,” said Judge Mills Lane, “they committed one of the most heinous crimes that I’ve been involved in, both as a prosecutor and a judge. I was a judge for eight years and a prosecutor for twenty. Everyday they breathe, there’s no justice. And that’s the way I feel about them.” 

~Judge Mills Lane, The U-Haul Murders

"Hell, I've been sued for things I didn't even know happened, but [Nevada is] one of the least sued highway patrols in the western part of the country.” 

~Former Col. Mike Hood, NHP

"Propofol is, in a nutshell, the world's most powerful anti-breathing drug." 

 ~Mystery Detectives, Needle in a Haystack,

James Colaw State Attorney (his quote)

"We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow."

~Ted Bundy, serial killer quotes

"Homeschooling is a godsend for abusive parents, they can get away with their crimes longer." 

~Candice DeLong Deadly Women

“I seen Dracula movies. I watch a lot of those. But I don’t drink people’s blood; I drink animal blood, sometimes I don’t cook it, I eat it. People, no, but I look at people, and I think... maybe soon.”

~Alvaro Calambro, The U-Haul Murders

"If they want him, he'll be there to perform his civic duty. However, I don't htink he has a good enough handle on the justice system to make any informed decisions."

~Stephani McLaughlin says about her 17-year-old pet TURTLE,

Max, when he was summoned for jury duty. According to 

Newsweek, May 14, 2001, Max could not be reached for comment

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Books We've Read: The Devil in White City

 Murder, Magic, and Madness

at the Fair that Changed America

1893 may have been a dynamic year for Chicago, boasting the World's Columbian Exposition (that we forevermore know as the "World's Fair") that put to shame all others--giving us the "Cracker Jack" among other truly exceptional inventions--but it was the events that happened behind the scenes that forever changed lives.

The fair was just the proper breeding ground for disasters ... including a serial killer.

The Devil in the White City

~by Erik Lawson

That something had occurred in that summer of the world's fair was beyond doubt, but darkness too had touched the fair. Scores of workers had been hurt or killed in building the dream, their families cosigned to poverty. Fire had killed fifteen more, and an assassin had transformed the closing ceremony from what was to have been the century's greatest celebration into a vast funeral. Worse had occurred, too, although those revelations emerged only slowly. A murderer had moved among the beautiful things..."

Books We've Read: Under the Banner of Heaven

What makes brothers have the same psyche that says it's not only okay to kill, but it's demanded from most high?

Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, the story of "violent faith," when in the early summer of '84, two brothers on the orders of God killed a mother and her infant daughter.

Under the Banner of Heaven examines the religion, the crimes, and the history of how everything got to this point. Travel the story which includes the infamous Nauvoo and Warren Jeffs.

Under the Banner of Heaven

~by Jon Krakauer

..."I've always been interested in God and the Kingdom of God," [Dan Lafferty] says. "It's been the center of my focus since I was a young child." And he is certain God intended for him to kill Brenda and Erica Lafferty: "It was like someone had taken me by the hand that day and led me comfortably through everything that happened. Ron had received a revelation from God that lives were to be taken. And if God wants something done, it will be done..."

True Crime Fanatic: What We're Reading from the Local Public Library

True Crime Fanatic: What We're Reading 

Twisted Triangle by Caitlin Rother. My second read-it's as good as the first time. Who doesn't want to get into the minds of an amazingly accomplished writer, a crazed FBI agent, and a woman-also an FBI agent-who refused to go down TWICE? "[Our minister] has got explosives around his waist. I'll kill us all. Come on, let's talk, or we'll all die," he said, the frustration in his voice rising. "Do you want to die?" Audible book FREE with Audible trial Twisted Triangle: A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband's Revenge http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1574-5-realities-when-your-life-sensational-news-story.html 

In Contempt Christopher Darden “…Object. Object. Object!” This was the trap they’d been waiting to spring for nine months. How hard is it to fin some witness to come in and corroborate the defense claim that Fuhrman had used the word in the past ten years? If they could lead Rosa Lopez into saying that she saw a Bronco where there was none, how hard would it be to find someone to testify against the most reviled police officer in L.A.? “Object,” I said. But Marcia [Clark] didn’t object. 

 Silent Coup Len Colony and Robert Gettlin “The booty also included information on a more legitimate problem that was vexing the Joint Chiefs, how the Vietcong seemed to learn in advance of the bombing raids what arms caches and base camps the Americans had targeted…” 

 The Game of the Foxes Ladislas Farago The United States? Hitler shrugged. It was too remote and too little involved in the affairs of Europe. He did not care, he said, what happened in America. Canaris was visibly relieved that Hitler was not extending the ban on the far side of the Atlantis. For strange as it was, for a country so remote and neutral, the United States loomed enormously in the affairs of the Abwehr. 

 A Man Named Dave Dave Pelzer And yet it all seemed surreal to me, how Mother could turn her hatred against her other children. Part of me had always feared for them. As a young boy surviving in darkness, I had known what to expect from Mother, to the point that I could predict her moods. Thinking ahead, staying a step or two ahead of her, not only kept me alive and gave me a protective armor, but became a way of life for me. Before Kevin was born, I was never sure if Mother would suddenly strike out against Ron, Russell, or even Stan. Before I was taken away, as I sat o my hands in the basement, I would cringe whenever I heard my brothers come through the front door and walk into the house as if they were entering a minefield…. 

 The Lost Boy Dave Pelzer “After the effects of the trial had worn off, my insides became numb. I fully realized that Mother could not physically harm me. But I still felt an eerie sensation that told me Mother was somewhere out there, coiled like a rattlesnake, wanting to reach out and strike with a vengeance.” 

Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Everything to Gain …this book deals with health—emotional and spiritual as well as physical. What can each of us do to protect our health, to live more years and to have more life in each year? What problems or priorities help or hinder us toward our goals? How are our habits shaped by our families? Our religion? Our background? 

 Death of a Tycoon Nick Davies “Sometimes I don’t know why I go on. Everything I try, people turn against me… I’ve got no friends, no one I can turn to… no one to share my life with… sometimes I think I should just end it all, throw myself out of the window… I sometimes feel I can’t go on.” 

Mengele Gerald L. Posner and John Ware “…SS men came and took two children away. They were two of my pets, Tito and Nino. One of them was a hunchback. Two or three days later, an SS man brought them back in a terrible state. They had been cut. The hunchback was sewn to the other child, back to back, their wrists back to back, too…” 

The Twisted Cross Joseph J. Carr “… the murderer of millions and destroyer of an entire continent, adored child star Shirley Temple! Hitler’s favorite movie, which was shown over and over in the fuehrer’s headquarters, was Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Perhaps his love for Snow White was not so strange after all, however, for Hitler was fanatical over the concept of ‘purity,’ especially aryan racial purity…” 

Love and Death Max Wallace and Ian Halperin “People with PhD’s saw [Kurt Cobain] the day he left [rehab] and nobody, nobody, expected that he would leave, let alone that he would be suicidal,” [Courtney Love] told [Tom] Grant. “And I don’t think that he was really suicidal when he came home. But whoever he was with drove him to it.” 

 In My Father’s Name Mark Arax “They packed the place that first Saturday night, the curious ogling the spot where Dad went down, where the bullets reamed the wall.” 

The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien “The average age in our platoon, I’d guess, was nineteen or twenty, and as a consequence things often took on a curiously playful atmosphere, like a sporting event at some exotic reform school. The competition could be lethal, et there was a childlike exuberance to it all, lots of pranks and horseplay. Like when Azar blew away Ted Lavender’s puppy. “What’s everybody so upset about?” Azar said. I mean, Christ, I’m just a boy.”

Super Bowl Sunday LI (51)

Because we already have enough weirdos outside our doors.

A yearly celebration of America's favorite sport combined with great food and drinks-an accident waiting to happen. Or is it? It's no accident you driving drunk. It's no accident when your child is killed by a drunk driver. At some point, someone chose to drink and had not made prior plans to stay off the road. It's not an accident and it can be prevented.

Drunk driving and child graves are the reason there is something called "responsible driving" and it starts BEFORE you take your first step. It starts BEFORE you get to the party. It starts when you have a ride already lined up.

Note to sober self: with the first sip, your rational decision-making is already dwindling; make plans now.


Bless you today and always.

True Crime Fanatic

PS: Go 'Niners! (that's what die-hard fans say)

Churchill's Secret Agent

In war, ordinary men become soldiers, on extraordinary man became a hero.

“There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”

~Winston Churchill

Churchill's Secret Agent

a novel based on a true story

~by Max and Linda Ciampoli

"One extraordinary man" doesn't come close to all the heroes you'll meet in this story, however it is novelized-fiction at it's finest: there's action, exotic locations, war, blood, suspense, terror, defeat, surrender, and heroes. 

When the Nazi's invaded France, Marc left school to join the military. Because of his extensive education-based upbringing by a nearly non-existant dad and a mother who wasn't allowed near her son, Marc quickly found himself in the elite Alpine infantry. On skis.

Enter Winston Churchill. Marc's godfather gave word to his longtime neighbor that Marc was needing to do more for the Allies. The neighborly Churchill summoned Marc to England and into extensive and difficult training that would come to bear the ending of war in France and in fact, the very life of a hero.

Sometimes known as Michel Carbonell, Marc flew in planes and under the sea to get to most destinations where he often had to parachute to relative safety in order to spread false rumors the Nazi's would pick up on or to give money to the Resistance in hopes to defeat the enemies as quickly as possible.

Twice captured and twice escaped, Marc suffered loss of vision, broken limbs, and enough blood and gore to make a "normal" person crack. Marc wasn't normal. 

By the near-end of the war in France, Marc is back up and on his best secret mission yet: he and trained-by-him special soldiers are going to give the last push back to the Nazi soldiers hidden in the rockiest mountains. That's when a lone bullet hits its mark and ... 

Easy to read, the somewhat new information and excitement over a young hero and a vulnerable nation surviving due in part to one of the most well known person during the times, Winston Churchill, Churchill's Secret Agent delivers all it promises and more, though it falls flat at the end. But a dull ending is forgivable since the true ending goes with the fall of the Nazi regime and another win for the Allies. rated 4 bloody knives

Once upon a time--for real--Oprah was not known world-wide, and we didn't realize yet that Ann Rule would be the undisputed Queen of True Crime (was true crime writing even a genre yet, really?). I was sitting with my brother-in-law, Tony, and our friend, Mike, and talking about Oprah's name and where on Earth it came from (shoot, where did SHE come from?), when a voice on television caught our attention.

It was Ann Rule, talking with Diane Downs, a convicted murderer of her own children, a psychopathic beast if ever there was one.  

This was back in the day where there was no Internet, no instant look-up, and even television was limited for most of us.

 It happened that I had read Ann's story, Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (Signet), before the airing of this episode, causing me to sit spellbound throughout the interview (to this day, Diane Down's story is the most incredulous, mind-numbing true crime story I've ever studied).

 I now was hooked to Oprah, Ann Rule, and true crime faithfully.

Fast forward: Oprah is a country of her own, Ann Rule has put true crime on the writing genre map more than any other true crime writer, and I've remained faithful and dedicated to true crime, mostly advocating for victims through writing with sincere passion (even the years I was offline and out of whack).

I am pleased to say that though I have made a difference in lives, I am more honored and amazed at what a difference each of the families have made in my life. It takes a lot for a family to share their most intimate and painful secrets and to see them published for the world-talk about a near-crime within a crime, and yet, they do. 

For victims and their families, I dedicate this blog to finding the missing, solving the unsolved, and justice.

~~~

If you have a crime to share, we can promise nothing, but we give time, hope, exposure, and someone who cares; email us.