Child Killer Coming to a Neighborhood Near You

by Stacy Dittrich

He sat on his front porch steps in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, on a sunny day in May 1975 when he spotted 5-year-old Jason Foreman (pictured, left) walking in front of his house. Bored, then-16-year-old Michael Woodmansee thought to himself, “I wonder what it would be like to kill someone?” Without blinking an eye, Woodmansee called out to the young boy, brought him inside his home, and proceeded to stab him in the chest. Seven years later ,he tried to murder a 14-year-old boy. Now, 35 years later, Woodmansee is about to be released.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Don’t even think the word “rehabilitated,” because I can assure you it will not apply in this case. Unfortunately, it will take the murder of another child to wise up the criminal justice system. Believe me, it will happen. All Woodmansee (pictured, right) knows is prison, and he clearly isn’t wired right. The details of the horrific murder Woodmansee committed are nauseating. Only after his arrest did police discover Jason’s remains and learn how he had met his fate. Jason’s bones were sitting on Woodmansee’s dresser. He had written journals throughout the years giving investigators a front-row seat to his crimes.

Many say Woodmansee actually consumed Jason’s remains, but that hasn’t been proven, as the journals are still sealed. Regardless, the vicious disregard for human life and consequence shown by Woodmansee is truly frightening. Let’s not forget, it was impossible to prove whether or not Jason was sexually assaulted. The fact that Woodmansee targeted another male in his second attack tells me there is a strong possibility his crimes were sexually motivated. But, Woodmansee will never admit to that.

Woodmansee was sentenced in 1982 to 40 years in prison. To date, he has only served 28 years, but Rhode Island law states that the sentences of inmates can be shortened by good behavior and prison jobs. The prosecuting attorney in the case, Susan McGuirl—now a Superior Court judge—told the Providence Journal that Woodmansee’s early release was “shocking,” and added, “He should of gotten a life sentence, but, stupidly, I allowed a plea bargain to go so I wouldn’t have to put up with the agony of hearing all the evidence at the time.” (Raise eyebrow and shout a big WTH here.)

I truly hope Judge McGuirl will be prepared to stomach the details of any future murders committed by Woodmansee, because, frankly, she didn’t do her job and did a great disservice to the community, the victim’s family, and parents everywhere. It was her job to know that early release would be a possibility and explain it to the victim’s family at the time. It is highly doubtful they would have agreed to this had they known. The community in South Kingstown is outraged, and they are protesting, with good reason. I submit that not only should they protest this monster’s release, but they should demand Judge McGuirl’s disbarment.

For those of you who believe in rehabilitation, I’ll refer you to the case of Joel Yockey (pictured, left) who was sentenced to 25 years for kidnapping and raping a young girl. The parole board deemed him rehabilitated and let him out after only serving seven years. Within two weeks of his release, he kidnapped Kristen Jackson, 14, raped her and dismembered her body. Some of her remains have never been found. 

There’s your rehabilitation.

Woodmansee himself might take pause before his release. Just recently, when speaking to ABC news radio, Jason Foreman’s father, John, stated emphatically, “I do intend, if this man is released anywhere in my vicinity or if I can find him after the fact, I do intend to kill this man.”

Can you blame him? Some legal analysts say John Foreman can’t be prosecuted for making the threat for a myriad of reasons. Most importantly, they said there isn’t a jury on the planet that would convict him.

Bottom line: The criminal justice system failed miserably in this case. I can only hope that the Rhode Island criminal justice system will redeem itself before this animal is released in August.

Tweet

Remembering Notorious B.I.G. on 14th Anniversary of His Unsolved Murder

by Cathy Scott

"My son's albums, to me, are a celebration of his life." Voletta Wallace, a couple of years after her son's murder on March 9, 1997, said those words in a telephone interview about the murder of Biggie Smalls. She's proud of what her son accomplished in his short life but frustrated that his murder remains unsolved.

Fourteen years after the slaying, the music of Biggie Smalls–a k a Christopher Wallace–is as big as ever. But his murder doesn't appear any closer to being solved than it was shortly after his murder following a VIBE magazine party outside the Petersen Automotive Museum, in Los Angeles, on the eve of the release of Biggie's double-disc album, ironically titled "Life After Death."

No one knows what else Biggie, a New York-based rapper who performed as The Notorious B.I.G., would have accomplished had he not been cut down that fateful March night. He was embraced by his Brooklyn community and rap fans worldwide. What we do know is that Biggie's music, after his death, topped the charts and sold millions of CDs. Like Tupac Shakur before him, Smalls is bigger in death than in life. Biggie was known for his semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling and his easy style of rap.

Shakur was killed in Las Vegas six months before Smalls in what some have called eerily similar drive-by shootings. Biggie and Tupac unfortunately became tragic victims of the culture of violence depicted in their lyrics.

Smalls, who died at 24 years old, had been mentoring younger rappers, including hip-hop singer Lil' Kim. On the 14th anniversary of the shooting, Lil' Kim posted her sentiments on Twitter: "On this very day a great soul was laid to rest. Now on this very day we celebrate the rebirth of a beautiful Life! R.I.P Biggie Baby."

Smalls' record producer, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, also took to the pages of Twitter to remember his friend: "Today is #BIGGIEDAY–send me all your videos, links, photos, exclusive content. ALL things BIGGIE so I can tell the world!!"

Spreading the word about her son is music to Mrs. Wallace's ears, to keep her son's legacy alive. But, while Biggie's music keeps his memory on the forefront, his mother, a single mom who worked as a pre-school teacher to support her son, holds out hope his killer (composite sketch, right) will one day be found and brought to justice. Despite the length of time without a named suspect (although a task force in L.A. has been, for several months, looking into the cold case), she keeps the faith.

"I'm not only hoping," Mrs. Wallace told me, "but I am praying that they catch the dog who killed my son. I can't wait. I know that's a trip [to Los Angeles] I'm waiting to take ... to look the murderer in the face."

Cathy Scott's book, The Murder of Biggie Smalls, is a biographical and true crime account of his life and death.

Tweet

'The Bitch made me do It!' Defense

by Pat Brown

You know, if it weren't for all those bitches in the world, we would have a whole lot less crime.

Consider poor Joran van der Sloot. Twice, bitches have messed up his life. First, Natalee Holloway dies on him while trying to force him into sex on the beach (or after falling off a balcony while stupid drunk), and now he is languishing in a South American prison because another bitch, Stephany Flores Ramirez, took her pants off and snooped on his laptop. Geez, what's a guy to do with hos like this in the world? Joran can only hope that the jury will understand his temporary insanity and realize that he only bludgeoned and choked Stephany to death because "The bitch made him do it."

Mayor Marion Barry, the long-serving Washington, D.C. politician, had his career ruined by another bitch, Rasheeda Moore, who enticed him away from his wife to her hotel room and stuck a crack pipe in his mouth. "The bitch set me up," defense didn't work very well for Barry because the jury couldn't get it that Barry was sucked in by this siren. Post-prison, Barry got reelected and the second time he was caught with drugs, his career was dealt a death blow. Apparently, this time the bitch split before the cops showed up and left him high and dry with nobody to blame but himself for getting caught.

Convicted serial rapist, Sammie Lee Nichols, was just a teen when he unfairly got 149 years to life when two bitches took advantage of him on separate occasions, forcing sex on this underage kid. He explained to the jury how he had been a victim of statutory rape. In fact, he was so terrorized by these adult women's sexual assaults on him that he had to hold a gun to their heads during the acts just to protect himself from further harm. I guess, in this case, the bitches did it to him.

One of the hallmarks of a high level of narcissism and psychopathy is not taking responsibility for one's actions and always blaming someone else for one's poor choices or crimes. It is always someone else's fault. Many serial killers have an interesting way of twisting their crimes into a "Bitch made me do it" scenario. "All I was did was knock at her door and when she answered, she got all nasty toward me." Of course, it will be proven later in court that Mr. Handyman was carrying duct tape, rope, and a knife in his tool bag.

Serial killer David Bullock blamed one of his many victims, saying "He started messing with the Christmas tree, telling me how nice the Christmas tree was, so I shot him." He also used "The bitch made me do it" excuse, claiming one of his female victims "laughed in his face," causing him to have to shut her up with a firmly applied pillow over the offending wordhole and a bullet to the mouthy bitch's brain. Sometimes, the victims don't have to do anything except be who they are. Thugs like Daniel Rodriguez and Daniel Aleman, who were charged with a hate crime in the brutal assault of a gay man, simply believe their victims "deserve the beat down."

Women, though, almost always get blamed by the offenders who attack, rape, and kill them. If a woman was walking home from work on an isolated road, jogging alone at dusk, or exiting a bar at closing time into the parking lot, the perpetrators of crimes against them will say she was asking for it; if she had any sense of decency, she wouldn't have been there, and since she wasn't decent, she deserved what she got.

The truth is, when you get caught doing nasty things to defenseless women, pretty much all you have to salve your ego is to tell yourself and everyone else, "The bitch made me do it."

Note: Female offenders also toss blame around to avoid accepting responsibility for their crimes. They may say, if they murder their husband, "The bastard made me do it," and claim he was abusive or that she feared for her life (due to the fact women are more vulnerable in a domestic situation, this can sometimes be true). Women who are part of serial killer teams may claim their partners forced them into it or they fell under his spell. However, women more often than men to claim a psychiatric disorder as an excuse. And, oddly, women are more likely than men to simply tell the truth: it was fun, I was sick of him, I got tired of taking care of the baby, I killed them because my boyfriend didn't want my kids around.

Tweet

Another Eye Witness: In-Car Cameras

by Andrea Campbell

Signaling for a car to pull over. A car with strangers. Stopping a car. Approaching a strange car. Not knowing who or what you will encounter, a routine stop—maybe not. It sends chills down my spine. Does the officer’s heart beat just that much faster as he approaches a car on foot? 

On May 20, 2010, police officer Bill Evans (pictured above left) stopped a white van with Ohio license plates at 11:36 a.m. on I-40 in West Memphis. Soon after, Office Brandon Paudert (pictured below right), the police chief’s son, joined him at the stop on an off-ramp—mile marker 275—near College Boulevard. Both Evans, 38, and Paudert, 39, were members of a criminal interdiction team, which stops cars in a city where two interstates meet. “There are lots of drug dealers and criminal elements passing through that city," said Oakland Police Chief Rick Jewell, a former assistant chief in West Memphis. "There's a lot of drugs and a lot of money.” Word has it that drug interdiction is dangerous business. 

Deadly Stop
A few minutes later, one of the two suspects wrestled Evans to the ground. A gunshot from an AK-47 followed and both officers went down. The suspects sped away. Chief Paudert arrived on the scene to find his son, a seven-year veteran with the West Memphis force, shot in the head and the neck, lying dead on the pavement with his service weapon in hand. Evans was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis but died of gunshot wounds. 

More Chaos
A manhunt ensued and 90 minutes or so later, the white minivan was spotted at a local Walmart. Lots of gunfire was exchanged, leaving Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby shot in the arm and his chief deputy, W.A. Wren, shot in the abdomen. The suspects, identified as Jerry Kane, 45, and his son Joseph, 16, were both killed.  An overhead video of the Walmart parking lot shootout is on YouTube. 

But another important piece of evidence, an eyewitness, is a dash cam video shot from a police SUV that shows the Kane teenager firing an AK-47 before exiting with his father. 

Mobile Video
According to the January issue of Evidence Technology Magazine, the significance of video as evidence during police murder investigations has played out multiple times across the United States. Tampa, Florida also saw Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab murdered during a traffic stop. Apparently, Kocab’s video system recorded the events leading up to the killing—an audio version as well of the killer, a woman in his company, which led to identification information.

In a recent survey of police agencies nationwide, 94 percent of respondents said they feel that, “Mobile video recording is a technology that is here to stay.”

On-duty Deaths
In 2010, 61 officers were murdered by gunfire and on-duty deaths were up last year by 26 percent—that’s high. This year, the statistics are getting off to a worse start as 11 officers were shot in a single 24-hour period in January. 

More Bad News
Even though an increasing number of officer deaths have been caught on dashboard cameras, several problems exist. To begin, many times the images are dicey. Sometimes the identification ratio is nonexistent. Alan Slamon, President of the Law Enforcement & Emergency Services Association (LEVA), which trains police analysts, claims that it is an uphill battle because there are no regulation standards for operation, format or storage, rendering many systems difficult if not impossible to analyze. 

And under the present economic downturn and restraints, when cities are laying off policemen, they cannot afford to train or maintain upkeep of a video-management system. There are only fifteen vendors offering in-car video police recording systems where originally 40 firms existed six years ago.

On a brighter note, the National Institute of Justice is working on rectifying the standards by supplying a selection and application guide for law enforcement agencies.

Body-Worn Cameras
One other option that is pretty cool is the body-worn camera system. Post Falls, Idaho police department uses both the in-car camera and the body type. Police Chief Scot Haug estimates that his officers spend less time in court and the department gets fewer complaints from the public because the recorder catches such a perfect record. The body-worn system is produced by VieVu, a Seattle, Washington, company and sells for around $750. When motor officers need to leave their vehicles it gives a whole new perspective. 

In Memory Of

Robert Brandon Paudert, a sergeant, is the son of the West Memphis Chief of Police and is survived by his wife and three children.

Officer Thomas William (Bill) Evans was a nine-year veteran of the department, a was a member of the Drug Interdiction Unit, and the nephew of the West Memphis Chief of Police. He is survived by his two children.

Memorial photos courtesy of The Officer Down Memorial Page and Police Special site.

Tweet

Who Killed Dawn Viens?

by Cathy Scott

This week, investigators, working with a crew of firefighters and coroner's office personnel, used jackhammers to dig up the concrete floor and tear down the interior walls of the Thyme Café, owned by Dawn and David Viens. They also used a cadaver-sniffing dogs. They were looking for Dawn.

Unfortunately, they didn’t find her–not yet, anyway. Dawn, in her late 30s, was reported missing 16 months ago after she was last seen at the restaurant in the quaint village of Lomita, California. It’s the latest turn of events in a case that has left her distraught family and friends searching, to no avail, for her body. Police, on March 3, filed a murder charge against her 47-year-old husband David.

Earlier in the week, David, after learning he was a suspect in his wife's disappearance and as a way, apparently, to evade police, dove off of an 80-foot cliff.

That day, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies had received information that Viens had been driving near the rugged Pacific coastline. Fearing he might attempt suicide, a patrol unit was dispatched, found him and began following his car. When Viens spotted the black-and-white in his rear-view mirror, he sped toward a lighthouse parking lot, parked and jumped out of the car. Also there was Kathy Galvan, Viens’ live-in girlfriend. Deputies witnessed the pair wrestling with each other, intervened, and that’s when Viens broke free and jumped off the cliff to the beach below.

But David had not plunged to his death. He was life-flighted, in a helicopter, to a local hospital. Doctors, following surgery to repair massive internal injuries and broken bones, put him in a medicinally induced coma to keep swelling of his brain to a minimum. He was in intensive care and classified as in critical conditon.

After the jump, Sheriff's Lt. Dave Coleman described surviving such a jump as “amazing.”

"That was a pretty steep cliff, and he landed squarely on the rocks below,” the lieutenant told AOL News. “The area is steps away from the Trump National Golf Course.”

Then, Coleman told AOL News, “We intend to talk to him in the hospital. He has carried a tremendous amount of guilt for some time because he knows he killed her. He will be arrested and charged with Dawn's murder."

And that’s exactly what they did. Once Viens was lifted from the coma, authorities once again interviewed him. Then the case was sent to the district attorney’s office, and, on March 3, the charge of murder was handed down against David Viens for the death of his wife.

Concerned family and friends had reported Dawn missing about three weeks after she was seen, for the last time, at the couple's restaurant in the quaint village city of Lomita. The couple had previously owned Basil & Rosemary's, also in Lomita, but it went out of business. After her disappearance, David remodeled the restaurant, prompting sheriff's deputies to search there for Dawn's body.

In 2005, Viens was arrested in Florida and ultimately served prison time for drug trafficking, according to the Daily Breeze. At the time, Dawn described her husband to authorities as a "middle dealer" and, "due to the dealing," the couple were able to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. 

Just after David’s failed attempt at suicide, a handmade note was posted on the cafe's front door, along with flowers left there, that read, “RIP Dawn Viens.”

Indeed. It is a sad but compelling case. And so it is that I am letting the cat out of the bag and reporting here that the Dawn Viens story is my next true crime book, which will be my ninth nonfiction book. It has all the elements, and my agent agrees.

If you knew Dawn or David, frequented one of their restaurants, or have any information about the couple, please feel free to contact me at: Cathy At CathyScott dot com.

Photo credit of Dawn Viens: LACrimeStoppers

Tweet

How to Poison a Small Country

by Deborah Blum

Late last year, the news service Reuters reported a story with the headline "Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Quadruples Infant Death Risk." As the opening paragraph further explains, if pregnant women are exposed to high levels of arsenic, their babies are more likely to die in the first year than "infants whose mothers had the least exposure to the toxic mineral."

At first look, this might appear to be one of the world's most obvious findings. The element arsenic is one of the oldest known naturally-occurring poisons on Earth, found scattered through rocky beds of minerals around the place. It was reportedly identified by the Roman Catholic scholar and alchemist Albertus Magnus (also known as St. Albert the Great) in 1250 and almost immediately recognized for its homicidal potential.

The murderous Borgia family, of 15th century Italy, was notorious for its ruthless use of arsenic to eliminate enemies, but the Borgias weren't alone in recognizing its potential. Arsenic was so commonly used to remove unwanted relatives during the 18th and 19th centuries that it was nicknamed "the inheritance powder." A metallic element, arsenic kills by disrupting cellular metabolism to such a degree that it can literally poison every cell in the body. The body stores arsenic in tissues (bioaccumulation), meaning that it is dangerous both in acute and chronic exposures.

There's no surprise–and one might think, no news value–in the fact that prenatal arsenic exposure might pose a serious health risk. Except that this finding doesn't derive from one more neatly controlled laboratory study. It comes from what I'm going to call a living experiment, in which the test subjects turn out to be human beings and those statistics about infant risk are actually based on tallying up dead children.

To explain: During the 1970s, international aid agencies came up with what seemed like a brilliant plan to stem a plague of water-borne illnesses in the Asian country of Bangladesh. Cholera, typhoid, dysentery were killing citizens by the thousand. As the pathogens responsible lived in surface water, public health officials decided the answer lay in cleaner supplies underground. Aid organizations joined together to install wells in disease-troubled villages, reaching down into the germ-free ground water below. They chose simple, relatively inexpensive tube wells, placed thousands of these over-sized drinking straws into the shallow aquifers.

At first, it seemed to work like a blessing. Infant mortality rates dropped by 50 percent as the rate of water-borne diseases dropped. But by the mid-1990s, a strange epidemic of other illnesses began to appear–some symptoms rather like cholera (lethargy, severe stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea), but others wickedly their own: such as a roughening and darkening of skin, a corrosion appearance of lesions on hands and feet:

In fact, as a team of researchers from adjacent India concluded in 1995, these were classic symptoms of arsenic poisoning. As it turned out, no one had done a good geological survey of the bedrock surrounding the aquifers. And with the best of intentions, the live-saving wells had been drilled into area unusually rich in naturally occurring arsenic.

As an ingredient in the complex recipe that makes up the Earth's crust, arsenic is relatively rare, about 1.5 parts per million over all, and is usually brought to the surface as a waste byproduct of mining other ores. The problem is that it's not distributed evenly around the planet. Arsenic-dense mineral deposits cluster unevenly. To be fair, we often discover them only when illnesses appear; we now can state conclusively that one such region lies beneath the Ganges River Delta, where Bangladesh and the West Bengal province of India come together. Others are known in Thailand, Taiwan, in an underground swath across mainland China, in the Latin American countries of Chile and Argentina, and in states of the American West such as New Mexico and Nevada.

As a result, in Bangladesh, the nice little tube wells drew poison-laced water right into the homes and lives of millions and millions of people. Earlier this year the World Health Organization described the problem in Bangladesh as "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history."

This conclusion was reinforced by a comprehensive report in the British medical Journal, Lancet, which concluded that some 77 million Bangladeshi had been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic and that such exposure was responsible for more than 20 percent of the deaths in a population study group from the region. "The results of this study have important public health implications for arsenic in drinking water," the authors noted, with some understatement.

The use of well water has reduced the deaths from waterborne illness. It hasn't, as hoped, eliminated that problem. The rivers and streams of Bangladesh, too often contaminated by raw sewage, remain carriers of often deadly illnesses. And for this reason, many people living in the country still prefer to use well-water.

And for this reason, Bangladesh now serves a living laboratory for the study of arsenic exposure. The Reuters story is based on a study, "Arsenic Exposure and Risk of Spontaneous Abortion, Stillbirth and Infant Mortality" in last November's issue of the journal Epidemiology. "We observed clear evidence of an association between arsenic exposure and infant mortality," Dr. Anisur Rahman of Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden and colleagues wrote.

Let's call this exposure with a capital E. Some of pregnant women tested had blood arsenic levels above 1,000 micrograms per liter. In the United States, normal levels are considered to be between zero and 15 micrograms per liter. Do you wonder that all did not end well with those pregnancies? As Rahman points out, the mechanism for arsenic-induced infant mortality is not known and that further study might eventually yield some protective treatments for people living in poisonous regions.

But I suspect that these mothers would not have chosen to participate in this accidental experiment, and would far have preferred that we understand arsenic another way. I do appreciate that we try to gain from mistakes, get smarter, do things better. But the poisoning of Bangladesh also makes me appreciate a very old saying attributed to the 12th century French abbot, St. Bernard of Clairvaux: "L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs." It translates, roughly, as "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Tweet

A Cautionary Tale: Chinese Slave Labor

by Lisa R. Cohen

There are perhaps no worse crimes than those perpetrated against defenseless children. I include in that group adult men and women whose mental impairment leaves them childlike and just as vulnerable. In a way, when they are abused they might even suffer in an added dimension, because they’re not as physically appealing, not as cute and cuddly, which can make support, sympathy and outrage harder for a community to muster.

That’s why this weekend’s Los Angeles Times front-page story about the enslavement of mentally impaired adults in Chinese factories was so disturbing. Reported by my good friend Barbara Demick, the Beijing bureau chief for the Times, the piece tells a chilling story.

A 30 year old named Liu Xiaoping, whose look and demeanor is more boy than man, told Demick how he was enticed away from his home, held captive and forced to work for one of the many brick factories in the Chinese countryside. Xiaoping and his family recounted stories of horrific mistreatment, clearly evidenced by physical scars and wounds that have yet to heal, as shown to Demick by Xiaoping's mother in the LA Times photo (below right).

“His hands are as red as freshly boiled lobster from handling hot bricks... without proper protective gloves. On the back of his legs, third-degree burns trace the rectangular shape of bricks...punishment for not working hard enough. Around his wrists, ligature marks tell of the chains used to keep him from running away at night,” Demick writes.

This man wasn’t just punished; he was branded, like cattle. And he was treated worse than them.

Xiaoping was the microcosm story in Demick’s piece, a human face for the more widespread travesty found in a wave of brickworks springing up around the country. Demand for housing material in a Chinese building boom has outstripped supply and overwhelmed the work force needed to create that supply. Adult strength capable of hauling backbreaking loads of bricks, coupled with the feeble mind of a child who cannot fight back, makes for the most desirable of manual labor. 

So, the worst kind of villains have created their own industry that recruits workers who have no way to fend for themselves. Liu Xiaoping and his family talked of him being tricked by a bowl of soup and promises of a living wage. Instead, his family told Demick, he endured beatings, torture and was chained at night, guarded by attack dogs.

And Demick heard stories of others, each one seemed more horrific than the last, of women sold by psychiatric hospitals as sex slaves, of a young man beaten to death after he tried to escape. Workers who were allowed one bath a year and who ate dog food they shared with the boss’s canine.

Like child victims, the mentally disabled make terrible witnesses; unlike children, authorities can dismiss their disappearances as voluntary. Such an adult face staring out from the Chinese equivalent of a milk carton just doesn’t have the same public impact. So police just don’t make them a priority. Demick’s heartbreaking story ended with He Wen, another human face – one his family hasn’t seen in months. He Wen’s father still searches for him, has traveled to factories all over the region where his son was spotted, and though he gets reports of his son’s sightings, always seems to have missed him. There are cases where such victims are transported thousands of miles away.

Kudos to Barbara Demick for spotlighting this terrible crime wave in China. As we become ever more enmeshed in that country's burgeoning economy and culture, we also need to continue to bring attention to its unsavory practices.

Tweet

The Psychology of Rape

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.

On February 11, 2011, intrepid 60 Minutes reporter Lara Logan fell victim to an attack in Egypt as she covered the unrest and overthrow of the Egyptian government. She suffered a brutal sexual attack by a gang of men shouting accusations suggesting she spied for Israel. A group of women and members of the Egyptian army rescued her. Logan flew home and remained in a hospital for five days with severe internal injuries. Since January 30, 140 correspondents have been injured or killed while covering the unrest in Egypt. The list includes reporters Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour. Katie Couric described being "man-handled" while reporting in Egypt.

Sexual assault, like that sustained by Lara Logan, occurs about once every minute in the United States. In fact, one in ten rapes in the U.S. involve multiple assailants attacking a victim. In South Africa, Lara Logan's birthplace, one in three rapes involve multiple perpetrators.

Why do men around the world rape women? Rape researchers typically fall into about three different camps. Feminist researchers see anger and hatred for women as the primary cause of rape. Behaviorists focus on research showing that rapists respond to deviant sexual stimuli, unlike non-rapists. Evolutionary biologists see rape as biologically programmed to ensure that men with strong sex drives reproduce. In an attempt to understand the complexity of rape, Dr. Gordon Nagayama Hall found four main types of rapists:

• Type 1: The Aroused. Impulsive, he becomes aroused by deviant sexual stimuli such as bondage or cruelty to women.
• Type 2: The Conqueror. Often the date rapist. He believes women enjoy rape. Misinterprets signals from the woman. For example, if she invites him to her dorm room, he assumes she wants rape.
• Type 3: The Angry. Motivated by rage toward women. Acts out the anger in sexual attacks. Considered the most dangerous kind of rapist.
• Type 4: The Abused. The repeat offender. Likely abused as a child. Difficulty establishing long-term relationships.

Dr. Hall cautions against simple explanations for rape. Evolutionary biology theories do not explain the sexual assault of infants or senior citizens. Feminist theories don't explain how men with meaningful long-term relationships with women can then go out and rape strangers. He believes that by studying the multiple reasons for rape, researchers can reduce it's frequency and design better treatment methods for offenders.

I suggest the best place to begin rape prevention strategies is with our children. A recent study of 1,600 juvenile sexual assault offenders found:

• Just 33 percent of these boys perceived sex as a way to demonstrate love or caring;
• 23.5 percent believed that sex was a way to establish power and control;
• 9.4 percent found sex to be a good way to dissipate anger;
• 8.4 percent believed sex to be a way to punish others.

In a study of college men, 35 percent admitted they would violently rape a woman who had rejected a prior advance if they were assured of getting away with it. Many men and women believe a woman deserved rape if she was intoxicated, led the man on, or invited him into her bedroom. In a 2003 study, men who were highly competitive and win-oriented reported more sexual aggression and held beliefs that supported rape. This impulsive type may have much in common with the hostile group who attacked Lara Logan.

In a small town in Texas a high school cheerleader was dragged into a room and raped by two star football players. The victim, H.S., reported the crime. The boys were arrested, released and returned to the football team, while H.S. returned to cheerleading. In an act of protest, H.S. turned her back on the football player who raped her and refused to cheer for him. H.S. was kicked off the cheer team. Her family sued and the judge ruled that H.S. must cheer for her rapist. I offer another explanation for rape, of both the physical and legal kind. It appears many men, in positions both lofty and low, possess the emotional intelligence of a kumquat.

Tweet

DNA Manipulation

by Andrea Campbell

When technology gets better, there will always be someone who wants to defeat the system. It’s comforting to know that progress is continually being made in order to stay ahead of the criminals.

We’ve talked a lot about biometrics and DNA. These are thought of as irrefutable biological characteristics that help to define and identify just who we are. That’s why when I saw the headline, “DNA Paternity Test Almost Fooled,” I had to know more.

Who’s Your Daddy?

Paternity tests use DNA to allow people to discover their origins, such as who are my mother and father? DNA has longed been used for this process and there are reasons that someone would not want to be found—mainly child support payments. In 2007, someone found a way to confuse the identification system temporarily and it has now prompted a new methodology because of this person’s brash moves.

Apparently the fraud attempt was predicated by a DNA paternity test.

The paternity test is done just as one would do for a crime suspect—samples of saliva cells are collected from the mouth. In this particular case, Dr. José Antonio Lorente Acosta, Director of the Laboratory of Genetic Identification at the University of Granada, carries out forensic tests just like these as commissioned by the court in cases of paternity, and for the identification of possible criminals, or else to contribute to DNA databases such as in the case of trying to locate missing relatives.

In this 2007 case, epithelial cells were collected from the interior of the mouth by a person undergoing a paternity test, which gave an incongruous result. The research team questioned their procedure and found they had not changed anything. The suspect washed his mouth and, “... after repeating the analysis, there was only one possible conclusion: In the mouth of that man there was DNA from two different persons,” says Dr. Acosta. They, of course, arranged to meet the subject again and found out that shortly before he took the test, he mixed his saliva with someone else’s that he had concealed on his person in a small container, hoping to mislead detectives. As it turns out, the test was repeated and he was found to be the biological father in that particular case of judicial investigation. This case prompted a modification of all future tests, as now it would be compulsory for the donor to wash his mouth out, but this time in the presence of a witness.

The Grim Sleeper Case

A Los Angeles' serial killer who was thought to have killed at least 10 people, was caught by detectives who used a familial DNA search and that, and new databases, has made somewhat of a breakthrough. Only Colorado and California currently have laws specifically allowing the use of familial DNA match. The practice has drawn criticism from privacy advocates who fear that innocent family members will be targeted if they have the misfortune of being related to a criminal.

The research policy, however, is restricted to major violent crimes, and only after all other investigative methods have failed. Apparently the majority of the Grim Sleeper’s killings were committed in the 1980s. Unfortunately the crimes restarted after a 13-year absence, with the latest one occurring in 2007. This prompted Los Angeles' police to look for a “similar” DNA profile. Hoping they might find a relative for leads, after running several tests, some DNA was identified as the suspect’s son. The after-effects of this case and use of familial DNA will surely set precedents for its future use, as well as new policies as other states adopt the process. First published in Forensic Magazine.

Take That Robbers: DNA Mist

This new technology is fairly genius and was discovered in the Netherlands. We’ve all seen in films where the bank puts explosive dye packs in the money bag in order to mark the criminal after it explodes. They open the bag to get the money and are showered with indelible ink. Now there is a DNA spray mist! The applicator is positioned on the door of a bank or other business that has funds. Every person who enters is misted with a DNA spray that has no odor and is completely unnoticeable. The synthetic DNA compound settles onto hair, clothing and skin without knowledge. Of course, somewhere on this person is a trail that has a fluorescent marker that can be detected using ultraviolet light. Not only that, but the DNA can be made unique to a particular location. Good thinking that.

All photos are Clipart.com

Tweet

Ponderous Plodding toward Justice for Caylee Anthony

Casey Anthony

by Diane Fanning

Sometimes the gears of justice turn so slowly that they appear to be frozen in place. This month, Casey Anthony hit a milestone: 853 days in custody since her arrest in October 2008. She now has the distinction as the longest-serving female inmate in the population at Orange County corrections center, the area's county jail.

Nonetheless, with the trial less than three months away, it appears that justice is about to catch up to her and grind her to bits. Recent events look very grim for the defense.

Casey's attorney, Jose Baez, was fined by the judge for missing a deadline last December and has missed yet another one. He is under investigation for the second time in the last three years by the Florida Bar Association, and the prosecutor's office has launched a parallel tampering investigation sighting Baez in the crosshairs. The prosecutors are now asking the judge to hold the attorney in contempt of court.

A much ballyhooed defense witness, volunteer searcher Laura Buchanan,  is at the root of the tampering issue.  She signed a form swearing that Caylee's remains were not at the location where they were later found.  She wrote: "It is my opinion that the remains of Caylee Anthony were not there during the time of our search.  I personally searched near the privacy fence and worked my way towards and then beyond where the body was found.  I did not notice anything unusual."

Caylee Anthony

This statement supported the defense's claim that Caylee was placed in that spot after Casey was already in jail. Therefore, someone else committed the crime. However, Ms. Buchanan had a Texas Equusearch form in her possession that she should not have had. Buchanan has now admitted to altering that form after meeting with the defense. She said, "I can't say that to be true because I still to this day don't know where she was found, what area or what she was near."

On top of that, matters have not gone well for the defense recently in the motions they filed. Baez wanted the lying and stealing history of his client kept out of the courtroom.  Judge Belvin Perry, however, said, "The state may be able to introduce evidence of collateral acts--such as lying and stealing--which are inexorably intertwined with the crime charged if necessary to adequately describe the deed, provide an intelligent account of the crime charged, establish the entire context out of which the charged crime arose or adequately describe events leading up to the charged crime."

From Casey's MySpace page

Perry also ruled that Casey's MySpace entries in her "Diary of Days" were admissible to show Casey's state of mind at the time of the crime. He did exclude use of the Jib Jab cartoon about the case. He also stood with the prosecution on the issue of Casey's tattoo, "La Bella Vita," declaring that any possible prejudicial affect was far outweighed by the probative value.

As to the testimony of the Anthony's neighbor, Brian Burner, about his shovel, Perry said, "There is nothing inherently prejudicial about borrowing a shovel, nor is a shovel 'gruesome' evidence that would intend to inflame the passions of the jury."

Anthony Lazzaro

Although the judge tossed out testimony from Anthony Rusciano about sexual relations with Casey and ruled the same on details of her sexual liaison with Anthony Lazzaro, he did allow that her relationship with the latter Anthony during the time period in question was "highly relevant," viewing her demeanor at the time and in light of the fact that she never mentioned to him that her daughter was missing.

The defense motions to exclude evidence seem never ending.  We haven't heard resolutions to all of them yet.  I can't imagine the judge throwing out Casey's statements to the police in which she lied about the nanny and her daughter's whereabouts in the summer of 2008, but I am anxious to her the judge's ruling.

The case looks--almost--like a cakewalk for the prosecution. The one sticking point may be proving to the jury's satisfaction that Caylee was a victim of homicide. Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia could not determine a cause of death because of the ravages of decomposition. Intuitively, it is obvious that Caylee was murdered; her body was found stuffed in a laundry bag and tossed in an overgrown area.

Will that be enough for the jury? Or will they demand more before convicting Casey Anthony of premeditated murder? We will find out soon, enough, because the trial is scheduled to start in May.

Diane Fanning is the author of Mommy's Little Girl, the only published book about the murder of Caylee Anthony.  When the Casey Anthony trial begins, currently scheduled for May, you'll find daily updates of the case on Diane Fanning's blog, Writing is a Crime.

Tweet

Jane Doe and a Serial Killer?

by Cathy Scott

They tagged the body “Jane Doe” after the discovery in a rustic grave on the desert floor near Florence, Arizona. The dead female, estimated between 15 and 18 years old, became Doe case number 2278dfaz.

The body was discovered on May 10, 1997, by hunters in the remote desert area. In an odd twist, Arizona authorities years later admitted that they'd misplaced the corpse of Jane Doe, but not before a facial reconstruction could be created, using the skull, to help identify the body. It was then placed in a county cemetery, but the exact location of the plot was not noted on the paperwork.

Three months after the discovery of Jane Doe’s remains, the wife of Craig Leslie Jacobsen, who was eventually convicted in the Las Vegas murder of 20-year-old salsa dancer Ginger Rios, led police to Ginger’s grave in the same vicinity off the Florence Calvin Highway, a 30-mile dirt road between Florence and the Riverside-Kearny area not far from Tucson. The wife knew exactly where the body was, because she had been in the van with her husband, along with their baby, when he drove Ginger’s body to Arizona to bury her.

Jane Doe

Jacobsen eventually told police that the Jane Doe remains, buried not far from Ginger’s body, were those of a missing woman named Mary Stoddard. Thus, the body was formally ID’d and police believed the case had been solved. On the body’s right baby finger was a yellow metal ring with two clear stones and a light purple stone. On the left hand was a ring fashioned with two twisted gold wires with the letter "M.” Police believed it stood for “Mary.”

But seven days before Jane Doe was discovered, 15-year-old Christina Marie Martinez disappeared, on May 3, 1997, on her way to a local laundromat.

Thirteen years later, in the summer of 2010, according to the Doe Network, police finally learned the true identity of Jane Doe. The ring’s “M,” they also learned, actually stood for “Martinez.” The family, for all those years, had not realized and had not been told that the remains of a young Jane Doe were found just days after Christina's disappearance. It was the same day Christina would have turned 16.

Ginger Rios (left)

For Ginger Rios, her interaction with Craig Jacobsen, also known as John Flowers, started out innocently enough when, on the afternoon of April 4, 1997, she drove with her husband to Jacobsen’s Spy Craft shop near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to buy a how-to book on cleaning up their credit so they could buy a house. Ginger left Mark Hollinger, her husband of five months, in their car, telling him, “I’ll be right back.” Jacobsen had a second Spy Craft shop in Phoenix just blocks from where Christina Martinez was last seen.

With three deaths in his wake–Jane Doe, Mary Stoddard and Ginger Rios–all evidence points to Craig Jacobsen being a serial killer. Yet, he has not been charged in Christina Martinez’s murder nor in connection with Mary Stoddard’s disappearance.

Now, however, evidence is reportedly being gathered in an effort to charge Jacobsen with Christina’s murder.

I interviewed Jacobsen after Ginger’s disappearance and before his arrest. He told me he was angry with Ginger for causing him trouble and that he didn’t appreciate it. He, too, wanted to find her, he said. His words, in light of Ginger's death, were chilling.

Jacobsen was arrested in Los Angeles in August 1997. A day after being interviewed by Las Vegas police about Ginger’s murder, Jacobsen was found comatose in his cell, hanging from a bed sheet, inside the Los Angeles County Jail. He survived.

Shortly after Jacobsen’s arrest, his wife suddenly offered, in an apparent move to help save herself from being named an accomplice, led police to the desert where her husband had buried Ginger’s body.

In light of the evidence against Jacobsen, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, in downtown Las Vegas, at the time publicly vowed to seek the death penalty against him. Yet, months later, in a surprise move, Jacobsen was offered a plea bargain in Ginger’s case in exchange for a lesser penalty of 25 years–this, despite two confessions for two separate murders and damning evidence against Jacobsen. Then, a couple years later, his guilty plea was withdrawn and a judge allowed him to instead plead guilty by reason of insanity. Today, Jacobsen sits in a Northern Nevada prison hospital with an uncertain release date.

In the meantime, Ginger Rios’s family remembers the good times and the dreams their daughter had for her future. “She wanted to get her own musical group and have her own show here in Vegas,” her mother, Denise Rios, said. “She was taking professional voice lessons.”

“She said to me once,” her mother added, 'One day, Mom, I'm going to be Miss Las Vegas.’”

Seeing Jacobsen take a plea deal, only to have it tossed out, was hardly justice for Ginger’s parents. They understandably have said they want Jacobsen put away for life.

Time will tell whether Arizona law enforcement will do right by Christina Martinez, which would be justice for Ginger as well, and pursue charges against Jacobsen for the murder of Jane Doe, a k a Christina Martinez.

Tweet