Obsessed with True Crime discussion

Precious Victims by Weber, about Paula Sims. I don't know why, but this particular case of infanticide, combined with Paula's personality, is still haunting me. If I were involved in that case in any way, I doubt I'd ever stop thinking about it.

A close one is the Sylvia Likens case, but I haven't found a decent, non-exploitative book about it.

What cases are haunting *you*?

Hoo boy, where do I start!? All the unsolved ones of course. Especially the Cleveland Torso Murderer. I know the country was full of homeless drifters at the time, but how is it possible that so few of the victims were identified? Is it too late to get DNA now and clear that up? Is there any chance that the guy Eliot Ness thought did it was the right man? So many questions...

Fishface wrote: "Hoo boy, where do I start!? All the unsolved ones of course. Especially the Cleveland Torso Murderer. I know the country was full of homeless drifters at the time, but how is it possible that so fe..."

What about the solved ones? Unsolveds are a different beast. But solving a crime doesn't mean comprehending it.

Plenty of those haunt me too. I have a zillion questions about what anyone is thinking when he sacrifices someone to Satan hoping for, IDK, valuable prizes.

Fishface wrote: "Plenty of those haunt me too. I have a zillion questions about what anyone is thinking when he sacrifices someone to Satan hoping for, IDK, valuable prizes."

Commerce with unseen forces is an archaic belief. It's incomparably less mysterious to me than, say, family annihilators.

Kristina wrote: "Fishface wrote: "Plenty of those haunt me too. I have a zillion questions about what anyone is thinking when he sacrifices someone to Satan hoping for, IDK, valuable prizes."

Commerce with unseen ..."

But a belief that made sense 500 years ago, when most of us were utterly at the mercy of forces completely beyond our control -- well, appealing to deities made more sense in those days. Betting on the loser, as Satan surely was in the only book most people ever read, was only somewhat less understandable.

But a guy wiping out his while family? None of the reasons I've heard about that are baffling to me. It's incredibly sad but not hard to follow.

Fishface wrote: "Kristina wrote: "Fishface wrote: "Plenty of those haunt me too. I have a zillion questions about what anyone is thinking when he sacrifices someone to Satan hoping for, IDK, valuable prizes."

Comm..."

Well, I can't comment on the fact that wiping out your own kids isn't baffling to you. That isn't the word I'd use to begin with.

As for the archaic and the primal, you seem to underestimate its force. Vronksy explains this position at length, in most of his books, but certainly in Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, so I'll just leave it there. If you disagree with him, it'd be an interesting academic paper/research project.

If you say so