"Oh! What a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."  Sir Walter Scott

Direct correspondence to Rosalie Stafford, Editor, Web Mystery Magazine.

Around the Block:
Mystery Writers
Convention News
David Terrenoire

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Recovered Memory
Dr. Katherine Ramsland

A Fine Line: The Fascination of Serial Killers

The public has a gruesome fascination with serial killers, at once frightened and enthralled with the specter of someone who feeds an inner frenzy they cannot fathom.  Cops use the words serial killer reluctantly, knowing they conjure celluloid monsters whose exploits are big box office when, more often than not, the murderer appears as ordinary as margarine until the need to kill overwhelms.  Serial killers, both mythical and real, are drawn to prostitutes like tornados are to trailer parks.

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Article: BTK Killer

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Stalking the Strangler:
Almost a Year Cyber-Stalking BTK

Somehow, without exactly meaning to, I became with the return of BTK a kind of true-crime writer, and amateur profiler.

First, let me stress the word “amateur.” I never had any law-enforcement training, or any more classes in psychology or sociology than anyone else pursuing some kind of liberal arts degree.

No, I just became obsessed ...

I tried to let it go, really. But as Christmas unfurled its wings and cold winds swept in I found myself chewing on the mystery more every day. What kind of man does the things BTK did? What is his everyday life like?

Without realizing it I think I was utilizing my training as a performer, and beginning to insert myself into the head of a very real “character.”

... I had a malevolent daydream once where an older, balding gentleman with dark hair and a mustache, who was a bit jowly and wearing a tan members-only style jacket over a yellow and red plaid shirt, wore aviator-frame prescription glasses with a tint (not sunglasses, but regular glasses that perhaps darkened in the sunlight), was standing on the driveway outside, staring at me through the bedroom window.

This approximated a vision, I suppose, as I did not actually perceive him there – that would have been psychosis – but the image of this man came so vividly and forcefully into my mind that the hair stood up on the back of my neck and I forced myself to get away from the computer and watch a South Park DVD...

...MORE >>>>

Steve Huff, writer and opera singer, maintains the true-crime blog The Dark Side which averages 4,000 hits per day.  His eerily accurate description of the BTK Strangler – published well before Dannis Rader was apprehended – stunned followers of the BTK case.

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Article: BTK Killer

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Memories are funny things. Faded or forgotten, they can be refreshed and reorganized by seemingly unconnected new events. On a crowded sidewalk near Times Square, the smell of a vending cart’s hot dog can put you right back in the baseball stadium bleachers, wiping mustard from your cheek with the oversized sleeve of your father’s borrowed sweatshirt. These days, my triggered thoughts are a little darker. The sensationalized arrest of Dennis Rader has me remembering the years my family spent in Wichita, Kansas. 

My family moved to Wichita in 1978, just as the local police department there was playing – and replaying – the tape-recorded voice of a serial killer who called himself BTK. My parents had relocated us from southern Florida with expectations of a quiet, simple midwestern town. In many ways, we had that in Wichita, but always under the shadow of a real-life boogeyman.

...MORE >>>>

Alafair Burke, author of the Samantha Kincaid series, is a former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, who now teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School and serves as a trial commentator for television and radio programs

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Nonfiction Book Review by David Webb

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Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler

The press has told the story worldwide and CBS is already looking at turning it into a TV movie. A home invader in Wichita, Kansas commits ten torture-murders all the while sending the police taunting clues, even, in one letter, choosing the name he would be known by: "The code words for me will be . . . Bind them, torture them, kill them, B.T.K." Seventeen years after his last known crime the killer once again begins to taunt the police in "communications" sent to news media and left in public places. What made him return? Many people believe it was the upcoming publication of Robert Beattie's book, Nightmare in Wichita.

It's an ugly story, but one that is well worth telling, and Beattie tells it well. It's also one that I, however slightly, was personally involved with.

...MORE >>>>

David Webb is Media Director for Unsolved Crimes International an organization dedicated to publicizing unsolved cases. See Archives for his WMM column.

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Column – Mystery Writers Convention News

This issue we’re looking at three conventions, Malice Domestic, Mayhem in the Midlands, and Bloody Words.  I want to express my thanks to Carl Brookins for the Midlands report and Tania Hutchison for the news from up north, covering Canada’s Bloody Words conference...

“If you want privacy, go to the men’s room,” was Bill Deeck’s advice, the late patriarch of Malice Domestic.  There were a few dozen males scattered among the crowd, but the majority of Malice attendees were women.  In fact, I haven’t spent this much time around so many women familiar with firearms, poisons, and the gentle art of pushing someone down a flight of stairs since 1970, when I spent a few dark nights in an infamous roadhouse on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa.   But that’s another story.  As for these distaff authors and fans, I suspect their husbands sleep lighter than most, and do more housework.  ...MORE >>>>

David Terrenoire, writer, editor, copywriter, has been a spiker, a cook, reporter, an adman, an actor, a musician. His most recent mystery novel is Beneath a Panamanian Moon, published by St. Martin's Minotaur.

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Reviews – Fiction

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A Complete Shock

Winning The Agatha Award at Malice Domestic came as a complete shock to me.

In fact, because I had won “Best First” last year for Maisie Dobbs, I was very surprised when I received news that Birds of a Feather had even been nominated. The line-up was very strong indeed and, to tell you the truth, just being nominated alongside Margaret Maron, Laura Lippman, Donna Andrews, and Sudjata Massey filled me with awe. For the awards banquet, I was sitting next to Gillian Roberts, who asked me if I was nervous.

“Oh, no,” I replied breezily, “I don’t stand a chance of winning, so there’s no need for nerves."

...MORE >>>> 

Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs won Best First at Malice last year; the sequel, Birds of a Feather, won The Agatha Award this year.

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Article: Questionable Forensics

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There are many examples throughout history of authorities attempting to detect deception.  One of my favorites is that of certain priests in India circa 1500 B.C. A donkey’s tail was covered with carbon residue from an oil lamp and placed in a dark room.  The suspects were sent into the room and told that pulling the 'magic' donkey's tail would reveal the liar.  When the suspects came out, the priests examined their hands.  Anyone with clean hands had not touched the donkey’s tail. It was assumed that this was due to the suspects' fear of their guilt being discovered, proving they were liars.  A nice theory with some psychological validity, but what if if the guilty man had grabbed the donkey's tail to keep from falling in the dark or an innocent man simply couldn’t find the tail in the dark?  This probably would not have saved the innocent man – the test was just too convenient for the authorities.

In 1915 a Harvard professor named William Moulton Marston developed an instrument he termed a lie detector; it was a prototype polygraph based on blood pressure measurement alone.  Four other men, John Larson, Leonarde Keeler, John Reid, and Fred Inbau, over decades, further developed the polygraph machine and the accompanying interrogation techniques into the modern polygraph test.  Mr. Marston is not well known for his part in the development of the polygraph.  But he did achieve fame in another area.  He was the creator of the comic book character Wonder Woman who had a magic lasso that, when wound around a person, would force him to tell only the truth.  As you will see there have been times when the magic lasso would have been preferable to the polygraph machine.

The polygraph is not a "lie detector."  It is actually a "physiological reaction detector."  It can accurately measure: (1) cardio response, in terms of blood pressure variations, heartbeat, and pulse wave; (2) skin resistance, which is affected by the amount of perspiration; and (3) rate of breathing.

All these measurements are affected by human emotion...

...MORE >>>>

Daniel B. Young is a retired private investigator. In his twenty-year security and investigative career, he made 360 felony arrests and retrieved seven fugitives (on behalf of the victims).

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Column: Sharp Shootin' by BJ Bourg

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Sharp Shootin'

What I plan to do here is simply recount some selected stories from my law enforcement career that I hope will provide entertainment and, who knows, maybe even an idea or two for a story.

Now, this first story is one that I told Rosalie about a month ago to dissuade her dog Comet from joining the police force. The moral being that Police K-9 work is not as glamorous as it might seem. And so:  ...MORE >>>>

B. J. Bourg currently works as the Chief Investigator for a District Attorney’s Office.  His stories have been accepted for publication in Future’s Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Detective Mystery Stories, Mysterical-E, and The Writer’s Hood. "My Daughter's Keeper" appears in the Spring issue of Web Mystery Magazine, and "Heartbeat to Hell" appears in WMM's Summer issue (see Archives).

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Column: Dr. Anil Aggrawal

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Death by Drowning

Rama and Suresh, a young courting couple, were doing pleasure boating in the famous Badkhal Lake of Faridabad district on 6th Feb 1992. The time was around 4 pm. Fishing is not allowed there, but Suresh had surreptitiously brought a fishing rod with him, and when the boat was quite far away from everyone's gaze, he threw the line in the water. Little did he realize that he would come up against a most horrific and revolting catch. After some time he felt as if the line had got hooked to a great resistance. Anticipating a rich catch he tried to pull the line, but the line would not budge. However when both Rama and Suresh pulled the line, they were able to drag their `catch' up. The catch however caused Rama to faint immediately. It was not a super-sized fish, as both of them had been contemplating. Surprise of all surprises: at the end of the line was dangling the decomposed body of a young woman!

A preliminary investigation revealed that the body was of a woman named Gulabo, who was a resident of Hissar. She was married to a 35 year old man Birju, who was a farmer. They had been married for almost 10 years, and had a happy married life, but lately there had been some tension in the house. On a couple of occasions Birju had even beaten Gulabo in a fit of anger. Gulabo had threatened many times to commit suicide, if he did not stop suspecting her. On 3rd of Feb they had come to Faridabad to visit a relative. Their intention was to stay there for a day. Next day Birju returned to his native place, but Gulabo was not there with him. When the relatives and neighbors asked about her, he casually replied that she had run away with her paramour. He did not bother to report the matter to the police even.

This was the story that was given to me when the body was brought to me for post-mortem.

...MORE>>>>

Dr. Anil Aggrawal is a professor of Forensic Medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi.

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Column: Idea Man by Robert Schreib, Jr

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Idea Man

The idea is UPC-Bullet-Tagging.

Why not use nanotechnology to enable the CSI (Crime Scene Investigations) teams of all the police forces in the world to trace a bullet taken from a crime scene, or from the body of a crime victim, back to the specific person who originally purchased the bullet?

...MORE>>>>

Idea Man Robert Schrieb lives in Toms River, New Jersey.

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The Price of Justice – Part One: The Case of Neil Sayers

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The Case of Neil Sayers – Introduction

It is difficult to establish precisely what happened on the night of May 13th-14th, 1998. A young man, Russell Crookes – a student at Hadlow Agricultural College – was never seen alive after that night. His ‘best’ friends Neil Sayers and Graham Wallis – also students at the college – would admit to being the last people to see Russell alive. Nearly two weeks later Crookes’ mutilated, partially burned and decomposing body would be discovered in a shallow grave in woods that belonged to the college.

According to the first accounts of both Wallis and Sayers, the three young men had gone out after dusk on May 13th to different woods that were also owned by the college as they had often done before. This time they were keen to avoid a ball at the college. They said that they stayed there hanging out together until well after the ball had ended. Both Sayers and Wallis then said that after an argument they all returned to their student accommodation at Hadlow Agricultural College. At about 4.00 in the morning they saw the lights go on in Crookes’ room. They never saw him alive again. Nor did anyone else. For seven years Sayers has never deviated from that account. The same cannot be said for Wallis.

But these were friendships that would prove the adage: with friends like these who needs enemies? Either, both Sayers and Wallis cynically betrayed Crookes’ friendship at the cost of his life, or Wallis maliciously betrayed both his so-called friends, killing one and framing the other for the murder.

...MORE>>>>

Satish Sekar holds a BA Hons. degree in Sociology. A freelance journalist since 1990, his work has appeared in The Guardian and The Independent and has been used by television and radio stations throughout England and Wales.  The Lynette White/Cardiff Three case was the first case he worked on; since then, he has worked on several cases, many of which have succeeded.

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Non-Fiction Book Review by Dr. Katherine Ramsland

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True Witness: Cops, Courts, Science, and the Battle against Misidentification (nonfiction by James M. Doyle)

I don’t ordinarily volunteer to review books, but this one really must find its audience via whatever exposure it can get.  It’s rare when a story comes along that’s important, well-told, engrossing, and could also have a real impact on improving the state of the legal system.  True Witness uses the case of wrongly convicted Ronald Cotton, sent to prison for fourteen years based on the eyewitness testimony of Jennifer Thomson and ultimately exonerated by DNA evidence. This victory was largely the work of the Innocence Project, but fewer such cases might occur were the police to pay attention to the notion that eyewitness memory is just as corruptible as other types of evidence, just as delicate, and just as in need of proper handling. That’s the message of True Witness. Throughout his discussion of the issues about eyewitness testimony over the past century, Doyle, a veteran litigator, keeps this disturbing case effectively front-and-center. At the same time, he presents a history of one of the most important issues in the American system of justice.

While professionals in psychology who engage in research on forensic issues certainly know the name of Elizabeth Loftus, a noted expert in eyewitness accuracy research, few are aware of the long-running battle in this arena between psychologists and the courts.  In Doyle’s book, we meet Hugo Munsterberg, credited with the earliest eyewitness memory experiments during the 1890s, and his rise to fame under William James at Harvard University.  We see not just his work but his personality, his drive, his quirks, and his downfall at the hands of brilliant law professor, John Henry Wigmore, who has plenty of his own quirks.  This book is no dry account of experimental research but a fleshed-out tale that enlivens the debate between psychologists and the courts and shows just why there’s been such controversy over the key issues ...

MORE>>>>

Dr. Katherine Ramsland teaches forensic psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, and has published 24 books, including The Forensic Science of CSI and The Criminal Mind: A Writer's Guide to Forensic Psychology.

She writes for Court TV's Crime Library and co-wrote The Unknown Darkness with Gregg McCrary (ret'd FBI).

New books by Dr. Katherine Ramsland include The Science of Cold Case File;  Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers: Why They Kill; and A Voice for the Dead.

Dr. Ramsland's 25th book, the entire history of serial killers, will be published in October.

See Archives for WMM articles by Dr. Ramsland.

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Article by G. Miki Hayden

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Too Many Cases Decided on
the Basis of False Confessions

When a final reversal in the Central Park jogger case in 2002 revealed that false confessions were the key to the sensational convictions, the national consciousness and conscience were aroused in regard to the ongoing issue. Fifteen years ago, Antron McCrae, Kharey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Yousef Salaam, and Raymond Santana were each convicted of the brutal rape and near-death beating of a young woman in New York City's Central Park. All, the oldest of whom at the time was 17, had confessed. Twelve years later, all – having served their sentences of from 5 1/2 to 13 years – were exonerated by a state supreme court judge, vacating the original decisions in the case. A year previously, a convicted rapist and murderer confessed and his DNA matched the sample taken from the jogger.

How could this happen? ... MORE >>>>

A long-time trade journalist, G. Miki Hayden is a prolific writer, a former board member of the Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Miki's how-to book, Writing the Mystery from Intrigue Press (2001), received nominations for top mystery genre awards – the Agatha, the Macavity, and the Anthony – winning the Macavity. While Miki's advice to authors can be found periodically in Writer's Digest Magazine, she also teaches at the Writer's Digest online school.

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Column: Clio's Gallery

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Clio's Gallery

This year, HarperCollins has reissued four of the early Judge Dee novels by Robert van Gulik: The Chinese Bell Murders, The Chinese Gold Murders, The Chinese Lake Murders, and The Chinese Nail Murders.   These reissues are attractive trade paperbacks published under the Perennial imprint of HarperCollins and retailing for $12.95 each.

These four novels have several things in common.  Each novel contains a short preface introducing the reader to the time period, the physical setting, and the three interrelated cases.  The preface to The Chinese Nail Murders differs; it’s a biographical essay on Judge Dee.  To further help the reader, van Gulik provides a list of characters, per each case within the novel, and his own illustrations.   Additionally, there is at least one postscript per each book.   Usually, this ending discusses the role of the magistrate in T’ang China (the highest civilian source of authority and representative of the imperial government), the sources of the stories, and Chinese crime literature in general.  The reader ignores these materials at the risk of his or her reduced pleasure and understanding.

MORE >>>>

Karen Guest Whitehurst holds a history PhD from the University of Virginia; her area of expertise is early modern Britain – 15th to 18th centuries. While much of her scholarly work deals with the religious and political machinations of the early English Reformation (1520s-1550s), her current work focuses on the 18th century, the setting for her fictional character Richard Eden, earl of Avon and lord lieutenant of a West Midlands county.  Prof. Whitehurst is presently an adjunct English professor at Shepherd University where she teaches Written English II (Forms of Literature) and World Literature to 1600.

See Archives for WMM articles by Prof. Karen Guest Whitehurst.

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Column: Ann Flaherty, PI – On The Case

Ann Flaherty, a licensed private investigator in the state of California with over 25 years' experience in the investigative field, is the owner of the R.D.D. Detective Agency and is a noted authority on missing persons, fraud, scams, and elder abuse.

See Archives for other Ann Flaherty, PI: On The Case columns.

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Real World Investigations:  A Writer’s Perspective

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Impersonating a Police Officer is one of the big ones, and it’s a crime committed with astonishing frequency in fiction.  Thing is, it’ll get your license/registration revoked and your butt in jail if you get caught ...

...MORE>>>>

Meriah Crawford is a private investigator who lives and works in Virginia. Her company is called Rhino Investigations. In her other life, she’s currently studying in the Stonecoast MFA creative writing program.

See Archives for previous WMM columns by Meriah Crawford, PI.

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