On January 15, 1947, a mother was walking her three-year-old daughter through Leimert Park of Los Angeles, California (“The Haunting Murder Case of Black Dahlia”). That morning was supposed to be a normal day. As the mother walked past the vacant lot she noticed a mannequin lying there. She went over to examine the mannequin, but to her horror, it wasn’t what she thought it was. The mannequin was actually the dead body of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short. The body was completely drained of blood and naked. Short’s body was sawed into two pieces and severely mutilated (“Black Dahlia”). Short’s nickname was “The Black Dahlia”- also the name of the case. The Black Dahlia is LA’s most infamous crime because, after 70 years, the LAPD still haven't found the …show more content…
Hansen owned a nightclub called the Florentine Gardens on Hollywood Boulevard (“The Final Suspects”). Short was a waitress who worked at the Gardens for a period of time. This was how the two met and Hansen fell for her. Elizabeth, at the time, didn’t have a permanent spot where she could stay. Hansen, being the ladies’ man that he was, invited Elizabeth to stay at his house. Elizabeth and her friend Marjorie Graham moved into his house in October 1946. However, Elizabeth did not stay there for long, she only stayed for two weeks in October and ten days in November of 1946. Rumors spread that Hansen tried to “bed” Elizabeth, but he was unsuccessful in his attempt (“The Final Suspects”). As a result, he kicked the two of them out. When questioned by the police, Hansen denied that he ever had feelings for Elizabeth. The killer sent an envelope to the Los Angeles Examiner which had Elizabeth’s the belongings. Inside the envelope were “Elizabeth’s birth certificate, business cards, photos and an address book with the name Mark Hansen on the cover” (“The Haunting Murder Case of Black Dahlia”). Hansen said that he gave the address book to Short as a
On the night of August 31st 1986, Angelique Lavallee a battered 21 year-old woman in an unstable common law relationship was charged with murder. She shot her spouse, Kevin Rust in the back of the head while he was leaving the bedroom. Angelique was in fear for her life after being taunted with the gun and was threaten to be killed. Hence, she felt that she had to kill him or be killed by him. The psychiatrist Dr. Shane, did an assessment and concluded that she was being terrorized by her partner. Dr. Shane concluded that Angelique was physically, sexually, emotionally and verbally abused. As a result, in the psychiatrist’s opinion, the killing was a final desperate act by a woman who seriously believed she would be killed that night. This in turn identify her as a
Numerous murders have taken place throughout history and sadly, plenty of these murders go unsolved. One of these unsolved murders is the murders of Barbara and Patricia Grimes in 1957. There have been plenty of suspects, but nobody was ever convicted of the murders of the sisters. However, after reviewing possible suspects for the murders of the Grimes sisters, the true identity of the killer has been revealed as Max Fleig.
"The True Story of The Black Dahlia Murder." About.com Crime / Punishment. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014. .
“The day that it happened, it was on every station. Because at that time it was one of the first notable mass murders,” recollecting on the day that drove people in a frenzy, feeling anxious about what came next, Lloyd Aubuchon remembers the tragedy that was infamously known as the Manson Family Murders. He sits back and visualizes the memory that occurred on August 9, 1969, “it was all over, and at that time the news wasn’t like it is now. Back then you had an assigned newshour, usually in the morning or evening” (Aubuchon). The home rented by notable director Roman Polanski with pregnant wife and upcoming actress, Sharon Tate, was invaded by unknown perpetrators. While Polanski was in Europe, Tate had guests accompany her, including stylist
Sue Grafton once stated: “Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right.” This is clearly the thought the Boulder Colorado police conceived in the case of little beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. As many have observed from the onslaught of media coverage, the day after Christmas 1996, six year old Jon Benet Ramsey was found buried under a white blanket, bound, beaten, and strangled to death in the wine cellar of their Boulder home. With such a strikingly rare and glamorous story of a six year old beauty queen dead, who was a part of a “perfect American upper-middle class family”, combined with a lack of a lead and ever mounting suspicion piling up against the parents it was no surprise to find that it was fuel to the media and soon stories sold and became a matter of competition between the press. So, like wildfire, this heart-breaking story spread, stretching across the nation, shattering the souls of the world. News broadcasts, magazine and newspaper articles, and television specials all shaped and molded peoples perceptions of this beautiful child’s murder, especially her parents, John and Pasty Ramsey’s involvement or lack there of. The police and FBI’s merciless quest to connect Jon Benet’s murder to her parents, seemed to cause the them to overlook important evidence, or at the very least dismiss suspicious findings that would otherwise send red flags to investigators. There are many contributors as to why this case remains unsolved including lack of investigative expertise, failure to protect valuable evidence, and focusing too much on the parents as suspects but, ultimately, the over involvement of...
These murder cases stayed unsolved for decades, and their resolution may give some sense of closure to the long-suffering families of the victims. But these triumphs are largely symbolic. By congratulating ourselves too much for them, we risk neglecting the challenges of the present.
Scott Peterson was an educated man from California Polytechnic State University where he graduated with a B.A. in Agricultural Business. He was married to his wife Laci Peterson who was also pregnant with their unborn son. In December of 2002 Laci Peterson went missing in the Modesto, California area where she shared a home with Scott. Once the investigation of Scott’s missing wife started authorities began to suspect Scott as a suspect in her disappearance. In April of 2003 a fetus and a female torso that was missing hands, feet, and a head were found on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay area was where Scott was boating the day of Laci’s disappearance. The body was later identified as Laci Peterson and the fetus as Laci and Scott’s unborn son. Scott was also arrested in the month of April shortly after the discovery of Laci and their son’s body and was later sentenced to the death penalty. Over the course of this paper I will cover the whole event of the disappearance of Laci Peterson, relating it to a sociological theory, the impact the event had on our society and how the media had influence over this national event.
with a wasted face, dressed all in black. He sees her at the back of
Mestel, Rosie. "New angle on a killer?" Earth Apr. 1997: 22+. Academic OneFile. Web. 15 July 2015.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s short detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, to be surprised, the murderer is an orang-outang, which proves animals are wild, violent and uncontrollable. The author Poe presents quality of the animality action mostly as wild and unexpected of human nature. Therefore, animality refers to behavior associated with scary animal creatures. However, despite some writings that seem impossible, Poe believes in highlighting the reality of human behavior in most of his literature works. Where the character would contradict Poe’s belief on human behavior, he uses an animal character instead to emphasize on it. Poe stresses on the issue of animality by emphasizing the differences that lie between humans and animals. He presents
Stein, Sarah Land. "The Cultural Complex of Innocence: An Examination of Media and Social Construction of Missing White Woman Syndrome." Order No. 3530740 The University of Southern Mississippi, 2012. Ann Arbor: ProQuest.Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue begins with “propositions” (Poe 2) to help the reader follow the reading through the use of critical thinking like that of a chess or card player. The chess player must wait and contemplate each move of another player, while the card player is more prone to memory perception. Poe then introduces his acquaintance Dupin and expounds on his abilities. Then “Extraordinary Murders” (5) begins the sequence of the detective like story. The murders were written about in the local paper and giving no clue, leaving the mystery unanswered. The next day many testimonial references were given in the paper and their account of the murders exposed, still without any evidential clues. The evening paper reveal the police have no way of solving the crime, but arrest Le Bon simply because he was the last individual to see the murdered alive. Dupin’s “peculiar analytical ability” (3) begins to kick in and he begins to belittle the ability of the investigators and plans an “examination” (9). After receiving permission, Dupin and Poe (or the narrator as such) went to the Rue Morgue. They carefully scoured the neighborhood and the outdoor area before entering the house and room where the murders took place. Dupin was very intense and refrained from speaking for several hours contemplating on all he had seen. Then Dupin spoke and completely expounded his analysis of the murders, the means of entrance and exit, and the ability that it would take to complete what had been done. When he centered in on the agility, strength, ferocity and lack of motive (14), Dupin revealed the hair he found revealing the intruder and murderer. To draw the orangutan’s owner to him, Dupin posted an announcement in the news paper. ...
In the late 1940’s, the United States was filled with much prosperity after the second world war ended. This prosperity meant an abundance of wealth was being distributed to many people around the nation. On the contrary, this wealth did not mean happiness or stability in everyone’s life. In fact, the murder of the beautiful, young aspiring actress, Elizabeth Short, demonstrates this idea. Short’s death was due to a person that lost their sanity, although they seemed to have everything they needed in life. Her death became an infamous murder mystery case when the media dubbed her as the Black Dahlia. The Black Dahlia’s killer is thought to be unknown by many, but the evidence provided from the case makes it obvious that the killer is an intelligent
On December 10, 1945, Frances Brown, a divorced woman, was discovered with a knife stuck in her neck and bullet wound to the head, after a cleaning woman heard a radio playing loudly and noted Brown's partly open door, in her apartment at 3941 North Pine Grove, Chicago. Frances had been violently stabbed, and authorities thought that a burglar had been discovered or interrupted. No valuables were taken but someone had written a message in lipstick on the wall of Brown’s apartment:
Judith Wright's poem `The Killer' explores the relationship between Humans and Nature, and provides an insight into the primitive instincts which characterize both the speaker and the subject. These aspects of the poem find expression in the irony of the title and are also underlined by the various technical devices employed by the poet.