How to Save Your Daughter's Life

by Pat Brown

There once was a girl who, after having a fight with her boyfriend, left their apartment in a huff. While she as out wandering around, she decided she might as well check a few places to see if there were any jobs available she might apply for. She walked into the local bowling alley and talked with the manager. She filled out an employment form and they chatted. He was cute and sweet, and he asked if she wanted to hang out and go smoke a joint when he went on break. She was in a bad mood, so she said yes.

He directed her to a door that led into an unused area of the building. He said he would slip in through the back and let her in; he didn't want the other employees to see him sneaking out with her. She followed his directions. He let her into the other part of the building, and they sat down just inside on the floor and smoked the weed and chatted. Not so abnormal for a couple of young people (she was just twenty-two and he was about thirty).

After twenty minutes, his break was over, and he told her he had to get back to work. He instructed her to follow him out the back so he wouldn't get caught "playing hooky" with her. He indicated they would need to go down some stairs into the basement and out the back way.

Suddenly, the girl felt something was wrong. She felt the "gift of fear," as security specialist Gavin de Becker would call it. (Becker is the author of the book of that name in which he advises women to pay attention to their gut feelings about danger.) She told the man she wouldn't go out that way, and she stood next to the glass door at the front. 

He looked at her with dead eyes and said, "You think I am going to kill you, don't you?"

She looked straight back at him and said, "Yes, I do."

He let her out the  front door. Whether he did this because he knew she would put up one hell of a fight or because he admired her for being so direct with him, we will never know.

One thing I do know: I am happy to be alive, because that dumb girl who went off to smoke dope with a stranger was me.

(excerpt from How to Save Your Daughter's Life: Straight Talk for Parents from America's Top Criminal Profiler by Pat Brown)

For more on the book, listen to my interview on Elliot in the Morning.

                 

How to Save your Daughter's Life by Pat Brown available now in local bookstores and online at from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.


Included in this book, what parents of teen girls need to know about:

The Early Years
Partying, Drinking, Drugging, Casual Sex (Hooking Up), and Gangs
Date Rape
The Dangers of Social Networking and the Internet
Risky Relationships
Stalkers
Child Predators, Serial Rapists, and Serial Killers
The Sex Trade and Sex Trafficking

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10 Clues to the Modern Poisoner

Wikipedia Commons

by Deborah Blum

Ever since I wrote my story of early 20th century toxicologists learning to catch killers, The Poisoner’s Handbook, many people have asked me what has changed since then. The short answer is: not much as we might hope.

Contrary to what many people think, except in political killings, poisoners don’t make much use of  exotic new compounds. They use – as they always have – what’s at hand. They kill for the same old reasons -  for anger, jealousy possessiveness, greed. They are rare, as this analysis shows,  farmore rare than other forms of killing. And that’s probably the most important change. Poison homicides don’t occur as often as they did a hundred years ago, mostly because scientists are better at solving these mysteries.

But if you’re the kind of person who likes to be prepared against all possible harm, then I’ve put together this short list of warning signs based on a scatter of recent cases. Don’t take them too seriously, as I said, this kind of thing is rare. But still, there’s a few reasonable assumptions here. For instance, you  should probably pay attention if:

1. Your bowl of Rice Krispies tastes like  solvent.

In January, a southern California man poured the paint remover Goof Off into his wife’s evening cereal snack. After swallowing a spoonful, she turned to her daughter saying “Something’s in it. Something’s in it.” Her daughter called 911. When police came to the hospital, the husband fled the building (he was arrested later at a nearby convenience store). He pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

2. The coffee in your morning cup turns green.

In March a Kentucky man was charged with poisoning his estranged wife’s coffee. She called the police after she noticed the dark liquid in her cup had an oily greenish tint. A lab analysis found a sludge of rat poison in the bottom of the pot. He told  the police  that he was merely trying to make her a little sick. But she said friends had warned her that he planned to kill her after she started divorce proceedings.

3. Your coffee is, maybe, a little too bitter.

In 2010, a Long Island man pleaded guilty to killing his wife by putting cyanide in her coffee. The couple, who had two sons,  had separated after he told her that he’d realized that he was gay. But he later told police he’d also realized that he didn’t want her to be with anyone else.

4. Your iced tea is, maybe, a little too sweet.

In July, police brought murder charges against a Cleveland, Ohio woman, accusing her of poisoning her fiance with antifreeze in 2006. Although evidence of ethylene glycol – the key ingredient in antifreeze – was found early in the investigation, it took police years longer to build a conclusive case for the poisoning itself. Detectives said ethylene glycol, which is known both for  its strong, sweet taste and ability to destroy the kidneys, was mixed into the victim’s iced tea. She was ready, they said, for the relationship to be over.

5. Your mother mixes you up a cocktail when she has never done so before.

One of the more notorious recent poison killers, Stacy Castor of Clay, New York, was convicted of murder in 2007 for killing her husband with antifreeze.  She then tried to frame her daughter for the crime, writing a fake suicidal confession, and serving the girlan unexpected cocktail of orange juice, soda, and crushed painkillers. The girl told police that the drink tasted “nasty” but she swallowed at her mother’s urging. Her survival led to a break in the case.

6. Your husband insists that you take those “special” calcium supplements he’s found for you.

In 2010, a Cleveland, Ohio doctor was found guilty of murdering his wife with cyanide, which he had carefully injected into her calcium supplements. His wife died in 2005 after she collapsed from the poisoning while driving and crashed her car. Before she crashed, she had told a friend that she felt increasingly ill and wondered if it was related to the mineral supplements her husband had provided.The investigation suggested that he was tired of being married.

7. Your wife works at a pharmaceutical laboratory where certain supplies have gone missing.

In March of last year, New Jersey prosecutors charged a Bristol Meyers Squibb chemist with poisoning her husband with thallium stolen from her employer. They were at the time going through a divorce.  Thallium is a potent, systemic poison once widely used as a pesticide until it became considered too dangerous for general use.  Today it’s mostly found in manufacturing facilities only.

8. Your wife takes a sudden interest in growing her own salad greens.

In 2008, the wife of a Missouri police officer decided she was ready to end the marriage but didn’t want to go through a divorce. Instead, she served her husband salad mixed with leaves from foxglove plants in the garden. Foxglove contains the compound digitalis which, in the right dose, can stop the heart. She’d researched the poison in the internet, police said, but she got the dose wrong anyway. Her husband survived and she pleaded guilty to assault in 2010.

9. Your jilted lover adds some secretly acquired “herbs” to food in your refrigerator.

After a London man broke off a 15-year affair and decided to get married, his ex-mistress used an old key to enter his home and add seeds from the monkshood plant (sometimes called the Devil’s Helmet) to some leftover food in his refrigerator. The plant contains an extremely powerful neurotoxin. He died and his fiancee was in a coma for two days.  The killer pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to life in prison.

10. A cautionary note. If you see serious warning signs and ignore them, you may want to leave a letter.

In 2008, Wisconsin resident Mark Jensen was convicted of murdering his wife Julie by spiking her wine with antifreeze. The actual death had occurred a decade earlier and was at first thought a suicide. Jensen had been having an affair at the time and angry divorce discussions were underway. But Jensen had left a letter in case of her death, detailing her husband’s suspicious behavior. Wisconsin prosecutors were able get this “letter from the grave” admitted under a rule allowing evidence of the dead woman’s state of mind in response to the suicide claims.  Jensen was convicted of murder in 2008; the conviction was upheld in 2010.

And, finally: You begin to realize that your wife just knows way too much about poison. My husband hasn’t let me pour him a cup of coffee since I wrote the book.

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Janet Danahey Deserves Special Consideration for Clemency

Janet Danahey, N.C. Department of Correction

Photo Caption

by Diane Dimond

Any parent would agree that young people can do impulsive and thoughtless things.

But what if one of their stupidly spontaneous acts accidently turns deadly? Should society give that young person special consideration? Should it depend on the kid’s past good or bad character? Should the justice system treat them the same as career criminals?

The case that caused these questions to pop into my mind comes from Greensboro, North Carolina, and involves a young woman named Janet Danahey. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that what happened to Janet could happen to any one of our kids.

It was Valentine’s Day 2002, and since Janet and her boyfriend, Thad, had recently (and amicably) broken up, the then-23 year old got together with two girlfriends that night to play cards and drink some wine.

Their circle of friends was always playing pranks on each other and this night the three girls – Janet, Nicole and Adrianne – schemed about what kind of trick they could pull on Thad. They decided to sabotage his car and visited a grocery store looking for fish oil or something smelly to pour into the young man’s fresh air vent. They bought a bottle of clam juice and headed to Thad’s apartment building. When they discovered his car wasn’t there Janet grabbed charcoal lighter fluid and set a small fire atop an old futon outside Thad’s door. They could hear people inside the apartment and the idea was to knock and run leaving Thad’s roommates to stamp out the flames.

The night was windy and the fire soon engulfed the apartment building. Four people were killed – sisters, Rachel and Donna Llewellyn, ages 21 and 24; Ryan Bek, 25; and Elizabeth Harris, 20.

Janet never stopped to think what heartache would result from that childish and senseless act.

Janet admitted to police and to the father of Elizabeth Harris that she had set the fire and begged for forgiveness. But she was soon faced with the cold reality of North Carolina’s felony murder statute which dozens of other states also have on the books. Under the felony murder rule if anyone is killed during the commission of a felony (in this case – arson) the perpetrator of the felony can be charged with murder and sentenced to death. It holds even if the victim’s death was an accident.

Janet had to choose between pleading guilty and receiving life in prison with no chance of parole or going to trial where, if found guilty, she would automatically get the death penalty. She pleaded guilty. (The felony murder rule is applied differently depending on the jurisdiction, but, generally speaking, the underlying felony must present a “foreseeable danger to life.” In some cases, accomplices can also face the ultimate penalty too – if they exhibited “extreme indifference to human life” – but in Janet’s case, her two girlfriends never spoke to her again and were not charged. Janet assumed full responsibility.)

As you ponder this tragedy realize that before this happened Janet had been an exemplary child. As a high school student she was described as “sweet, responsible, and very respectful.” Janet had won the Girl Scouts top award, was active in several clubs including the Young Christian Society. She played the viola, carried the Olympic torch during part of the run to Atlanta’s 1996 Summer Olympic Games and she made the dean’s list in college. None of this, of course, absolves her of blame but the record shows Janet Danahey made one awful decision on one horrific night.

On the other hand, as prosecutors rightfully pointed out in court Janet was an intelligent college graduate – a woman who should have known that using an accelerant and setting a fire on a windy night could result in catastrophic damage. And, the state maintained, Janet and her friends exhibited complete indifference by leaving the scene without making sure the fire was actually put out.

Now, 10 years later, Janet’s lawyers note that she has been a model prisoner and they have filed a petition for clemency with the outgoing governor to have her sentence reduced to time served. The attorneys call what happened on that February night, “A joke … A foolish prank. A thoughtless act, but with no malicious intent.” They have asked for an adjustment: “To a sentence that is out of all proportion to the conduct involved.”

One of Janet’s most visible supporters is Elizabeth Harris’s father, Robert, who said he forgave Janet years ago. His words are part of the clemency petition:

I still picture Janet, standing with outreached hands, handcuffed, trembling, shaking almost violently, crying intensely, speaking almost incoherently, ‘These are the hands that are responsible for Beth’s death.’ My reactions were instinctive. I went over to her, held her tightly … (and) whispered …‘I forgive you, Janet’ several times.

At this writing there have been no comments from other victim’s family members so there is no way to know if they will challenge the clemency request.

As one North Carolina newspaper pal wrote me recently, “Two-and-a-half years per life doesn’t seem like much punishment for a deliberate act of arson that went bad.”

I guess I agree with that but I have this nagging feeling that our felony murder laws should be adjusted for people like Janet. I think only career criminals should get life in prison with no chance at parole.

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Book Excerpt: The Millionaire's Wife by Cathy Scott

Today's post is an excerpt from the first chapter of Los Angeles Times bestselling author Cathy Scott’s latest true-crime book, The Millionaire’s Wife: The True Story of a Real Estate Tycoon, is Beautiful Young Mistress, and a Marriage that Ended in Murder. George Kogan, a wealthy businessman, was cut down in broad daylight on an Upper Manhattan sidewalk. It's a fascinating read with lots of twists and turns.

A Cool Manhattan Morning

by Cathy Scott

A light rain fell over Manhattan on a weekday morning like any other. But life can change on a dime, and that’s exactly what happened as middle-aged business tycoon George Kogan hurried back to his ultra-chic Upper East Side apartment with a bag of groceries on each arm in anticipation of break- fasting at home with his young lover. The late morning of Tuesday, October 23, 1990, turned out to be anything but a typical day in the city.

On the busy sidewalk, George, who’d recently celebrated his forty-ninth birthday, turned the corner onto East Sixty- ninth Street and headed toward his mid-block building, between Second and Third. As he hurried down the tree-lined street, he didn’t notice anything unusual other than the cool morning temperature. He continued walking toward the canopied entrance to the co-op where he’d lived for the last two years with Mary-Louise Hawkins, a twenty-eight-year-old rising star in the public relations world. Across the street, carpenters noisily worked on the new Trump Palace high-rise apartment building. A few blocks away, Central Park was alive with pedestrians, bicyclists, and joggers as they coursed through the park’s major arteries to their destinations in New York City, where the drone of urban traffic awaited them. George enjoyed walking the neighborhood. He’d lose himself in the bustling sights and sounds of the city. And this day was no different.

Walking from the neighborhood Food Emporium, he looked forward to spending the late morning with Mary- Louise. Quiet breakfasts were how their relationship had moved from platonic to romantic, and they especially appreciated those moments. Plus, George was anxious to prepare for an afternoon meeting with his son, William, who was acting as mediator to nail down an agreeable divorce settlement with George’s estranged wife, Barbara, and bring to a conclusion the marriage that in essence had ended two years earlier.

As George headed home that morning, William telephoned his father’s apartment to confirm their afternoon appointment. Mary-Louise told him she’d have George return the call when he arrived home from the store. George was optimistic about the settlement and finally getting the lengthy divorce behind him, so he and Mary-Louise could move on with their life together. Also uppermost in George’s mind was settling the divorce to help repair the damaged relation- ship he’d had with William, who had sided with his mother after his parents’ separation.

As George continued his walk home, the usual cast of characters were out and about—nannies pushing babies in strollers, residents leaving their high-rises to walk their dogs, business people hurrying to the subway entrance just steps away. George, distracted with the nagging thought of the afternoon meeting, quickened his pace when his limestone building came into view.

He lived in the heart of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, once called the Silk Stocking District, so named for the attire worn by the rich people who had once lived there. Long gone was the 19th-century farmland, as well as the market and garden districts that had peppered the area. Left were skyscrapers, rows of stylish townhouses, mansions, and the occasional walk-up apartment building.

For a millionaire antiques and art dealer who had once had interests in a casino and several properties in Puerto Rico and New York, George lived a surprisingly modest life on New York’s well-to-do Upper East Side—broadly defined as the area from Fifty-ninth to Ninety-sixth Streets, east of Central Park. His living quarters with Mary-Louise Hawkins were definitely nice, although small, with just one bedroom and a marbled-bath washroom. And while the apartment had a prestigious address with the coveted 10021 zip code in a luxurious high-rise complex, it was not quite up to the elite level of Fifth Avenue, which serves as the symbol of wealthy New York, where George once lived with his now-estranged wife Barbara. Still, he admired the high-end building that housed his current apartment.

The Upper East Side has a legacy of outstanding eclectic architecture, including George’s pre-war apartment. The facade of his co-op, a mix of limestone and beige brick, created a grand entrance with its surround and above-the-door stone molding, with tall arched relief details and shallow columns on either side and carved renaissance-style capitals. Above that was a heavy, stately ornamental stone molding.

The variety of styles added a touch of grace and grandeur from a bygone era. As a connoisseur of fine antiques, George appreciated the artistry that went into the face of the building and enjoyed walking through the double-glass doorway, framed in oak, with its etched Art Deco design. What George could not know was that he would never again walk through that entryway, and the anticipated meeting with his son and his soon-to-be ex-wife to finalize the divorce was not to be. What happened next, he never saw coming.

As he neared the entrance to his Sixty-ninth Street apartment, his face flushed from the damp morning air, what he heard next was startling. It sounded like an explosion, most probably coming from the construction site across the street.

“What the—?” George cried out a nanosecond later, when it dawned on him what the noise really was. It was the distinct sound of gunfire.

No, no, no! he said to himself, and then, Mary-Louise!

The force of the bullets entering George’s back thrust him into a forward dive and catapulted him into the air; he landed in a skid on the rain-soaked concrete. He was face down just yards from his apartment lobby. Seconds felt like minutes.

Coins, bills, and groceries—a carton of eggs, a slab of cheese, a bottle of milk, pieces of fresh fruit—tumbled to the ground, along with George.

Sprawled on the sidewalk next to the wall, with his arms stretched out in front of him amidst the scattered groceries and money, George lifted his head and cried out, “Help me!”

The book is available at bookstores and online at Amazon.com.

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The Technology of Facial Recognition

by Andrea Campbell

Television and movies are famous for zeroing in on the technologies of the present and future. Some are outrageous such as the vertical mid-air computer manipulation screens and the holograms used for facial reconstruction--fascinating but most cities’ law enforcement and forensic science divisions are cash-strapped, so fantasy is more the reality. There is one thing though that criminal justice has been good at, and that’s compiling information, mainly data in regards to identification.

The History of Identification

In 1924, the Criminal Justice Information Services created an FBI Identification division that began with the collection of fingerprints. Prior to that, things were fairly unsophisticated and rather chaotic in terms of holes--states were responsible for their own mug shots and fingerprint collections and since information was collected manually, if a perpetrator crossed state lines, his slate was temporarily clean. The need for centralization and an organized repository wasn’t really met until as late as 1999. Instead of mug shots, photographs and criminal history traveling through the U.S. mail and processed manually, the IAFIS (Integrated Automated Fingerprint System), system improved all that. Now with the launch of IAFIS, it made it easy to search, process and store data electronically. Wherever a suspect went, his identification could follow.

The New Generation

With the advent of a growing demand for identification services, the FBI stepped up its criminal justice data system with its new Next Generation Identification or NGI program. Previously, the technology infrastructure was fast becoming obsolete. Just as you have to stay current with upgrading your computer software and equipment--with all the identification requests the FBI receives, they were struggling to fulfill their mission. So while NGI attempts to shore up its reputation, staying a global leader in biometrics is a feat. Because biometric submissions come from tribal, local, state, federal, international and other intelligence systems, the rapidly expanding database is a race--and the timeline for upgrade was posed as a multi-year time frame developed with incremental phases (or one step at a time).

Our Identification Rights

Generally what happens as new technologies evolve, its development has a tendency to stop on people’s rights, that is to say, their right to privacy, searches or just by being required to submit to varied forms of ID.

There are federal codes however, that provide much-needed authorization for such information and it can be found in U.S. Code, number 28 to be more precise, and it outlines how to acquire, collect, classify and preserve such identification and crime records. The exchange of this data between agencies must follow guidelines set out in section 534 of the same code, and section 3771 outlines the authorization for the FBI director to develop new approaches, techniques and devices.

Several of the program increments for the NGI platform have been completed like: increasing the true match rate of fingerprints to 99.6 percent and providing the ability to process less than ten prints as well. Another program named RISC (or the: Repository for Individual of Special Concern) was also completed that helps to ID wanted persons, suspected terrorists, persons of special interest and sex offenders. A National Palm Print directory is on the agenda for next spring, 2013, and Increment 4 called Rap Back, Facial and Scars, Marks and Tattoo search capabilities should be up and running summer 2014. The National Rap Back service is all about notifying searchers about folks who are already in the criminal system, and will include Facial and SMT--Scars, Marks and Tattoo--designs for investigation purposes.

Next Generation for Facial Recognition

A pilot program debuted in 2012 for facial recognition, but should be fully operational summer of 2014. This will make possible image-based facial recognition searches of the FBI’s national repository. What comes back from a search will be a list of candidates to investigate. The bank of photos are based on criminal mug shots that were taken as a part of the booking process during arrest. The concerns have been that photos from other sources like Facebook, or surveillance cameras would be used but the FBI site says they will not use those as sources. Currently the National Repository holds approximately 12.8 million searchable frontal photos. The FBI claim that only authorized criminal justice agencies can query, and the requests are processed in what’s referred to as a, “lights out” manner, meaning that no one person prepares the ranked candidates list--it is constructed without human intervention.

A government act called the “Interstate Photo System Privacy Impact Assessment” (PIA) is in a renewable phase as any evolutionary changes that have since come into fruition will be reevaluated since June 2008. States that have already sampled the facial recognition as part of a pilot program will still need to execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that reiterates why they need the information and how they intend to use it. The Facial Recognition pilot should be fully functional summer 2014.

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Why I Quit doing Media Interviews on Individual Mass Murderers

by Pat Brown

When the most recent mass murder occurred, I got the usual calls from the media networks - television and radio - to come and talk about the mass murderer and why he did what he did. I gave my opinion on the causes including psychopathy, lack of empathy, anger toward society, attachment disorder in his early years, and a childhood likely influenced by ultraviolent movies, negative fantasy and role-playing games, and excessively violent video games. And I spoke of the media attention that also encourages mass murder as a way to express rage and become famous at the same time. I did television and radio from daybreak to bedtime for three days straight.

I got my usual hate mail from a number of video gamers who don't get that what I am talking about is young children growing up in a world with far too much time spent in activities which are not of the most positive and wholesome variety; they think I am claiming all gamers will become psychopaths and killers. Not what I am saying at all, but some tend to be very sensitive about anyone who postulates that violent video games just might not be the best past time for our children, especially those with psychological issues.

But, then, there were those who pointed out that as part of the media giving the mass murderer all that attention, I was part of the problem. I had to admit they had a point. I have always avoided using the killer's name and been careful to say nothing nice about him. I have attempted to educate the public about the psychology and development of mass murderers, hoping to effect change in parenting of the future. But, I have to say, I always kind of felt like I wanted to go home and take a shower after talking about the killer. I did think I was contributing to some extent to his fame and I didn't like the feeling.

I finally decided I should step up the plate and take a stand. I will no longer do media interviews that focus on a specific mass murderer and give him the glory he wants. If parents need to do a better job of parenting, I need to do a better job of commentating.

So when FOX News Channel called yesterday, I just said, "No."

This morning the show went on without me. And when more television and radio producers called me throughout the day, I told them, "No." There was a stunned silence; us media folks know that refusing to do a show does not inspire producers to call you back and can be a career killer. Some people have written me saying I should continue because I will just be replaced anyway with someone who will say the mass murderer's name and won't explain what needs to be done to prevent mass murder in the future. They are probably right, that someone else will simply take my place, but, along with sleeping better at night, I hope that another media commentator or show host will stand up and just say "NO!" as well. And then another. Maybe a few years from now, no mass murderer will get his photo or his name or any details of his crime or life history in any media forum at all.

I may be unrealistic about such change, but I can hope, can't I?

How to Save your Daughter's Life by Pat Brown will be out on August 15, 2012.

Pre-order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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Jose Baez’ Book Reveals George and Cindy’s Telling Body Language

If what Jose Baez reports in his book is accurate about George Anthony’s initial reaction to hearing that Casey accused him of molesting her,  then George’s body language and verbal communication may very well point to his most likely allegedly molesting his daughter.

Jose states that when he initially confronted George, he observed that George hung his head and was silent. Then after a long pause, George  asked  Jose what else Casey said. In my view, most people who did not molest someone would be outraged. They would raise their tones and insist this was a lie. They would knit their brow in anger or open their eyes wide in shock. Jose does not report that any of this happened.

His observations appear to be in synch with George’s behavior on the stand when asked whether he molested Casey. On the stand, there was a long pause and he looked down, adding suspicion in many people’s minds, to his answer that he did not molest Casey.

The other thing which was revealing in Jose’s book is that two independent  qualified mental health experts - a psychiatrist and a psychologist said that Casey’s behavior was that of someone who was sexually molested.

If this is the case, then what Jose is alleging about George certainly may ring true in my view.

Until the DNA test showed otherwise, Casey believed George may have impregnated her and that Caylee was his baby.  Jose and everyone else thought it was odd that George was in the delivery room watching Caylee being born, something a father does not  usually do. That is reserved  for the father of the baby being born.

Jose was also surprised that Cindy didn’t know Casey was pregnant as he showed a photo of a very pregnant Casey in his book. Maybe Cindy was in severe denial or maybe deep down she  may have thought the baby was  fathered by George or Lee.

Jose’s book also says that Casey was afraid that George would molest Caylee.

Jose and everyone else who heard George  speak at Caylee’s memorial  and say  that he misses the :smell of Caylee’s sweat” thought it was very odd . It no doubt made many wonder if what Casey may have alleged about George molesting Caylee as possibly ringing true.

CINDY’S BODY LANGUAGE 

Jose also mentions  in his book how Cindy inappropriately insisted on holding his hand on several of their initial meetings,  which Jose thought was odd. To me this speaks volumes about the competiveness and jealousy and control issues Casey and Cindy had with one another. Cindy was initially trying to endear herself to Jose through her inappropriate touch as a form of one upsmanship and control over  Casey . It could have been seen as a seductive flirtation on her part.  Jose was Casey’s attorney, not her attorney. But her body language behavior indicated that she wanted Jose to like her. It may have been her means of trying to establish control over the situation and over Jose. But obviously it didn’t work.

Jose also confronts Cindy after the trial and asks why she didn’t call him to thank him for saving his daughter’s life as only her brother Lee called to thank him. Cindy allegedly lies to Jose and insists she thanked him when she never did. If this is true then we can certainly see the how lies and selfishness are a common theme with Cindy and Casey.

CASEY”S  LIES AND SELFISHNESS

There were several things in the book that did surprise me. One was the fact that both of the mental health experts did not find that Casey was a sociopath or a narcissist.

Based on Robert Hare’s Test on Sociopathy and observing Casey in action on video all these years, she seemed to show signals of narcissistic behavior to me. She was self -centered and it was always “ all about her”. Remember the jailhouse tapes? She never even mentions Caylee. She also shows no remorse.   

Jose even reported in his book that Casey acted with no remorse which is a huge signal for sociopathic behavior as is lying. Jose addresses Casey’s lying throughout the book.

Based on Casey’s selfishness I believe there is no way she would take the rap for her father, especially if he allegedly molested her. That is why I had a hard time wrapping myself around Jose’s argument that Caylee drowned. If that were the case, why didn’t Casey bring it up at the beginning?

CASEY’S LOVE OF FAME

 What is the most sickening is that Casey continues to abuse and disrespect others, especially those trying to help her. Look at what she allegedly did to the couple who had her hiding out in their home.  Casey now fancies herself as a star. In sych with her self absorption , she loves reading about herself online and reports say that she loved the SNL bit about her and her new dog.

CAYLEES ASHES SPLIT AND WORN ON CINDY AND CASEY’S NECK 

Perhaps the most disgusting news about Casey and Cindy is that they are both allegedly wearing matching necklaces  which contain Caylee’s ashes. How ironic that they have split Caylee  in half for each of them to own. Now both of these self absorbed women who in my view were  clearly jealous  and competitive of one another can now each have their own Caylee to wear.  

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Vagina Angina

by Donna Pendergast

Say it loud, say it proud, the vagina word (gasp) screams out from the crowd.

A scene the likes of which has never been seen before will unfold this evening as thousands of women converge on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol to protest the recent silencing of a women legislator who was banned from speaking on the house floor after saying the word vagina during a heated debate about abortion.

Last week Representative Lisa Brown was speaking against a bill that seeks to put new regulation on abortion providers and ban all abortions after 20 weeks. She ended her statement with the comment "Mr. Speaker, I'm flattered that you are all so interested in my vagina but no means no." The reaction was quick and severe. The next day Brown was censured and not allowed to participate in floor debate on the final day of session before the summer break. She was informed that she would not be allowed to give her opinion on a school employee retirement bill because she had "failed to maintain the decorum of the Michigan House of Representatives." In a separate move Representative Barb Byrum was also blocked from addressing the legislature on Thursday. The house forbid Byrum from introducing her amendment to the abortion bill which would have banned men from getting a vasectomy unless they could provide proof that it was a medical emergency.

The response from women was swift and overwhelming. Women across the country rallied in support of Brown and Byrum and newspapers across the country made note of the unprecedented ban. A rally was organized for the Capitol steps for tonight and women in masse RSVP'D to the event in a show of support. But it was about to get more interesting. The rally was to grow to a crusade and then to a scream. The scream was then to grow to an event. By The time of this post nearly 3000 woman had expressed their intent to attend the rally which by then had morphed to something never seen before.

In the event's latest incarnation the rally will be highlighted by several Michigan legislators Who will be joined by Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues" for a live performance on the Capitol steps. Carpools and bus transportation have been arranged for the masses and it is anyone's guess how many vaginas (gasp I said it) will turn out for tthe event. Whatever your feelings on the underlying hot button issue and subsequent ban, the event promises to be an extraordinary event. Women of both political persuasions intend to make sure that their voices are heard in this arena.

As for that troublesome "v" word, oh yeah that, in the play alone the word will be spoken 127 times tonight.

Oh my it promises to be an interesting night in Michigan and the heat being felt won't be coming from the warm summer night.

Statements made in this post are my own  and are not intended to reflect the views, opinion of the Michigan Attorney  General or the Michigan Department of Attorney General.

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My Anti-Fan-Fiction of Fifty Shades of Grey: When Christian killed Ana

Out on August 15, 2012

SAVE THE LIFE OF A YOUNG WOMAN - Link this post to any place young women go on the Internet who think Fifty Shades of Grey is a romance, that the exact type of guy we warn young women to run from is somehow now cool, exciting, and will change if you just love and understand him. The kind of man Christian Grey is, a serial sex predator, will get you abused, stalked, and killed. Women every day are filing restraining orders against this kind of controlling obsessive sadistic psychopath and a good many of them find themselves with gas thrown at them and set on fire, disappearing down mine shafts, and shot dead on the courthouse steps. Fifty Shades of Grey is one of the most dangerous pieces of fiction to get into the hands of young women that I have even seen. Make sure they read the story below to get the real ending of Fifty Shades of Grey which would never have made it to a trilogy if it were anywhere close to the truth. - Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

When Christian Killed Ana

Christian gazes down at me from above, my hands tied behind my head to the bed rail with that grey tie of his, my ankles bound with rope to the side rails at the foot. His expression is unreadable but as my eyes shift from his face to his chest and then to those jeans of his hanging deliciously off his hips, my inner goddess jumps for joy; heat rushes down there and I squirm desperately as I wait for Christian to touch me. Oh, shit, he is so hot.

He runs his hands through that slightly tousled hair of his.

"I'm bored with you, Ana," he says quietly.

I am stunned. How can he be bored with me? I have done everything he wanted, minus a few items I put a line through on the contract.

"But we have only been together a couple of months, Sir!" I had thought I was different then the train of other women he had been through. "I thought I was special."

Christian actually laughs. "Special? What would you think I would find so special about you?" He admonishes me. "You are a mildly attractive run-of-the-mill college girl with nothing particularly alluring or interesting about you."

Tears flood my eyes. "But, Sir, you said I was special, different, that you had never had vanilla sex or slept the night with anyone but me!"

"And you believed me, you little fool." He smirks. "Why don't you bite your lower lip again? You really think that drives me mad for you, don't you? It doesn't do anything but make me hate you." He reaches out out with both hands and grabs my nipples, twisting them cruelly. I yelp with pain.

Christian looks at me with disdain. "You don't think I have told each one of my girls how adorable they are? Don't you realize I told every one the same stupid things that I told you? You are all so easy to dupe." He sighs. "All of you who think you are going to be the one. You are going to change me. From what? From myself? I like myself just the way I am." He leans in and snickers. "Do you know, my dear Anastasia, that I was never abused as a child? Not once. But, oh, how easy it was to make you feel so sorry for me."

My inner goddess curls up into a ball. I feel sweat break out on my forehead. Panic starts rising in my chest. I look into the eyes of Christian Grey and see nothing there at all, nothing. Everything I thought he might have been has vanished and I realize I have been living in a dream. Reality hits. I am tied up, hand and foot, alone with a sadistic psychopath, a snake, a demon.

Christian's face appears inches away from mine behind my wall of tears. "You know all those things that weren't in the contract? Well, today you get to do them all." He smiles, so coldly, so evilly. "I am going to use you as my toilet, I am going to put my fist up your ass, I am going to whip you until your body is covered with marks and listen to you scream until you have no voice left to scream with."

He leers at me and suddenly he is holding a razor sharp knife against my cheek. I feel searing pain and he pulls the blade back, red with my blood, oh god, my blood, my blood, and he licks it off with that tongue that I used to adore.

"I am going to cut that annoying bottom lip off of you."

I start screaming uncontrollably and the hell begins. I am just a young girl and I thought I had my whole life ahead of me. I now know that I have never known true love nor had anyone actually make love to me.Why I ever thought I should be treated in such a demeaning and ugly manner, I do not know. All I know is that now I have no choice; then I did. I should have run; I should never have trusted a stranger, a stalker, a sadist who told me he was so taken by me that he would never hurt me. How stupid I was.

I will not tell you each and everything that happened that day, the hours of terror, the hours of humiliation, the hours of unending pain. I will just tell you what I see from above my body, well, above the pieces of my body. My bottom lip that I always bit, he cut that off first. It was then I knew for sure I was going to die. Next he removed my breasts and then he put them to his chest and danced around with them while I gazed down at the gaping holes on my own body. I cannot go on and tell you what he did next, but when I felt the knife cut through my throat, I wished I had valued myself a whole lot more than I did the day I met that psycho Christian Grey.

He is now placing my legs and arms in a suitcase. What is left of my body, a torso is what I believe they call it, is lying in the center of the bed. I am not tied up anymore, I note ironically. My head, yes, that is my head with the bottom lip missing and the eyes gone from their sockets, it is laying where it was tossed, in the corner of the room, like an old soccer ball with some of the air missing from it.

Christian finishes packing up my parts and he takes them from the room. I see him drive off in his car, and when he returns a bit later, he showers and dresses, immaculately as always. He leaves again in his fine automobile and I follow him down the street. He pulls into an upscale pub and glides over to the marble bar. He seats himself next to a pretty blonde, college age. She turns her head and I can see she is immediately attracted to him.

"I'm Christian," he says softly and he takes her hand. She does not pull it back. I cannot watch any more.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

June 16, 2012

Pat Brown’s ONLY THE TRUTH

Harkening back to the writing styles of the earlier American authors – John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, and Carson McCullers, "Only the Truth" is a story of soul searching, a psychological mystery which examines the question, “Whom should one love and when should one quit doing so?” Billy Ray, a lonely and rather slow, uneducated African-American man living in the mountains of Arkansas, runs across a mysterious young woman at the railroad tracks. She asks to go home with him and Billy Ray takes her with him as she requests. He comes to love this woman, Charlene, unconditionally. She is the only woman he has ever loved, and life is finally good for Billy Ray. Then Charlene shoots the neighbor and burns down the neighbor’s house. His happy life destroyed, a confused and devastated Billy Ray is at a loss. Is the woman he loves “just a troubled girl” or a psychopathic killer? Billy Ray sets out on a quest to find the truth, only the truth, whether it leads him to be able to save Charlene from a death sentence or it frees him from her spell.

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Courtroom Knife Wound Analysis Presents Challenges

by Andrea Campbell

In Urbana, Ohio, about 40 miles northwest of Columbus, a grisly murder took place in a rented duplex. Some dismembered remains of Jessica Rae Sacco were found in the shower. Gary Zerkle, the landlord, had been approached by Sacco’s mother who came looking for her 21-year old daughter after not hearing for too long. 

Zerkle took the key and went to check it out himself and once inside, encountered a locked bathroom door.

Jessica Rae Sacco

"I didn't think that was right," he said of the locked bathroom door. "Sometimes you get a gut feeling."

Reports say he removed the doorknob and pried open the door. It was the look behind the shower curtain that he wasn’t prepared for. "I pulled it back, and that was it," he said. "And I zoomed out the front door... I was trying to gasp for air."

Backstory

Police say that Sacco had moved to Urbana from California the year before. The duplex she shared with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Matthew Puccio rented for $360 a month. In the latter part of the year, Andrew and Kandis Forney, of Fenton, Michigan, began staying with them.

Allegedly, Puccio had killed Jessica Rae Sacco by placing a bag over her head and suffocating her. The Forneys and yet another couple, Christopher Wright and Sharon Cook, of Urbana, are accused of helping with her dismemberment. Reports from police say that some of her body parts were found miles away in Kentucky.

According to an article for the Huffington Post about the intent, “Police would not discuss a motive for the killing, which they believe occurred around March 22. Police allege the Forneys, Wright and Cook were in the apartment when Sacco was killed but failed to intervene. Police say Puccio and Andrew Forney moved Sacco's body to the bathtub and dismembered it.”

Left to right: Matthew Starr Puccio, 25
Andrew Peter Forney, 26 (helped with dismemberment)
Kandis Jenniene Forney, 25 (helped cover up) Christopher Wright, 37 (cover up)
Sharon Cook, 25 (cover up)

Follow-up form the police chief said that Sacco, took classes at a local college and had only been in Urbana about a year after she moved there from California. He said Puccio had only been in Urbana a few months. Both were unemployed.

While the evidence in this case has multiple witnesses and overwhelming physical clues because of the dismemberment, typically the science used to identify knife and saw mark wounds, and the examination and its interpretation in bone has received little more than a cursory consideration in the forensic science industry.

History of Saw Mark Analysis

In the 1970s two science researchers attempted to introduce the topic of saw marks and toolmark analysis in bone to make it more useful to the field of forensic science. Wolfgang Bonte was one of the first who made a concentrated effort to more closely examine and describe saw mark striae in human bone. His casework however suffered limitations in that he failed to understand and recognize saw cutting action. 

In 1978, another scientist, R.O.Andahl attempted to describe saw cut characteristics in metal and animal bone, but his work in medicolegal cases of human dismemberment pointed up the need to analyze these characteristics more fully as his examples were often too simple and less than accurate. There needed to be an improvement in understanding not only the different areas of toolmark characteristics but to have a standardized way to describe forensically the principles of tool action in a cut.

Present Case Studies

The problem with today’s analysis is that there are many differences between knife cut wounds and saw mark analyses on cut bone. The ability to accurately describe in a court of law the features involving dimensions, the elements depicting wounds, and how to discriminate between different classes of saws and knives is still a tricky element. There is no standardization, meaning, it does not have “forensic standing” as a element of crime—it cannot pass Daubert evidentiary standards—and therefore testimony in that regard is just one person’s opinion. Steven A. Symes, Ph.D is the first researcher to publish a doctoral dissertation on the topic of saw mark analyses of cut bone, completed in 1992. He worked on and aided over 200 dismemberment cases involving approximately 700 to 10000 knife cut wound cases. Symes sees the diagnostic potential of developing a methodology to describe the features of cut wounds but it has yet to be implemented fully.

Problematic Terminology

Symes believes that since knife wounds are second only to ballistic injuries as the major cause of violent death in America, the widespread use of meaningless and misleading descriptors such as "sharp", "single-edged blade" and “hesitation mark" (which erroneously implies behavior) are common and may result in serious misinterpretation by attorneys, judges and juries.

The sharp force trauma that appears as an incised wound can be completed with any tool that has a sharp edge. Most of the incised wounds are created by some class of knife and are recognized as sharp force trauma. Most wounds are commonly termed a “knife stab wound” (KSW). But the term KSW is often misused, particularly by anthropologists, since most wounds they examine are without soft tissue.

Incised knife cut wounds are often described as wounds to the bone but are not necessarily due to stabbing. A KCW in bone is indicated when a sharp edged tool superficially incises bone while traversing over the surface of the bone. Symes thinks that forensic students are taught stereotypical adages when it comes to terminology. The difficulties with testimony fall on the fact that, “anthropologists and pathologists conduct numerous saw and knife mark analyses on dry and fresh bone, most professionals are reluctant to examine this bone within the soft tissue." In an article entitled Knife and Saw Toolmark Analysis in Bone, “the reasons for this avoidance include, but are perhaps not limited to: 1) difficulties in examining and transporting decomposed tissues, 2) a lack of equipment or training to process the remains after soft tissue examination, and 3) a general avoidance, 4) a lack of interest in the soft tissues in general, or finally 5) it’s just too damn difficult. Unfortunately, the situation often applies to forensic anthropologists and occasionally to medical examiners and coroners.”

So while the Sacco case might not hinge on knife wound analysis and toolmark evidence, this area of forensic science needs to be further examined and documented for standardized testing and ultimately, courtroom testimony.

Resources:

Steven A. Symes, Ph.D. and Erin N. Chapman, M.S., et al. Knife and Saw Toolmark Analysis in Bone: A Manual Designed for theExamination of Criminal Mutilation and Dismemberment, December 2010

Rodriguez, Barbara. JessicaRae Sacco, Dismemberment: 5 Suspects Arrested In Horrific Ohio Slaying, April, 2, 2012

Taphonomy – Edged, Incised, Hacking, and Impaling Traumas (Caution, photographs may be disturbing) 

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