I've already told you about Jerry Mitchell, the Mississippi reporter who uncovers new evidence in decades-old murder cases from the civil rights era. Here's a link to the famous reporter's secrets in Jerry Mitchell's Reporting Tips. Number one: "Be willing to listen to lunatics...."
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This article is the kind of historical true crime article to print and relish. Caleb Crain's piece originally appeared in Legal Affairs. How's this for a catchy title: In Search of Lost Crime: Bloated bodies, bigamous love, drunk stenographers, and other literary pleasures of the 19th-century trial transcript. Crain relays some very juicy crime stories he's encountered in very old trial transcripts that are a treasure unto themselves. Trust me -- print and enjoy. It's worth the paper.
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The title isn't nearly as amazing as the stories in Early Tales of Lethal Domestic Violence By Females in Colorado. Six femmes fatales are detailed, including the lady who served a mere 24 hours in jail for murdering her fiance, the "fallen woman" who murdered her lover, and other love triangles turned deadly. The famous Aspen, Colorado, murder case involving skiier Spider Sabich and singer Claudine Longet is featured.
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Would you believe me if I told you that the two murderesses featured in the recent hit movie Chicago were just the twin tips of the iceberg, and that in Chicago, in the 1920s, it was literally impossible for any prosecutor to win a murder conviction against a woman, especially a pretty woman, as no male juries were willing to pronounce a female guilty of murder? Would you believe that dozens and dozens of women were acquitted of murder charges despite overwhelming evidence that they'd shot and killed their lovers and husbands? Here's the story of the murders behind "Chicago."
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Sometimes true crime stories attract the strangest folk with the most curious interests. Clews had a story posted a few weeks ago about a "cuckold" husband whose cheating wife was executed for adultery in New England centuries ago. Suddenly a lot of people were coming to Clews after searching Google, or GoogleBlogSearch, for the word "cuckold." Just that one word as a search.
Well, I scratched my head for a while, wondering why on earth anyone would do a Google search for just that one word, when I discovered a whole new fetish that I hitherto never could have imagined would exist.
I was using "cuckold" in its old-fashioned sense: a weak man married to an adulteress. It turns out some people like it that way. Here's an article from Answers.com that explains why cuckolding is a modern sexual fetish. If this article doesn't make your jaw drop, then you must have it wired shut.
Well, I can't top that last one for a link, so I'll quit for the day. Enjoy!
By a strange coincidence, Chicago was on the tv while I was reading this. I always enjoy your posts, and (manual trackback) I've linked to this one: http://qalmlea.blogspot.com/2006/03/chicago-and-other-tapdances.html
Posted by: Qalmlea | March 23, 2006 at 10:55 PM