There are 399 Web Log Items in 50 pages and you are on page number 12 |
| Continued from post on Guestbook |
Continued from my post. I should have started here, I guess. Anyway, the problem with mentally ill people really makes me feel bad. One lady in New York sends me registered mail about how many people are spying on her, and she is so frightened that she sleeps on the roof of her apartment house. SHE believes all of this is real, but I know she is taking ordinary events and twisting them in her poor sick mind into evil stalkers. I don't know her, or if she has any relatives, or if people at her job have noticed her behavior. To live in constant fear is a terrible thing, and she needs help--but I have never found anyone more resistant to getting help than those suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. I've been getting several emails a day for a few years from a man in the Boston area who sounds completely psychotic, and his delusions are dark, gruesome and bloody. But he gets so angry when I try to suggest he needs help. If there are any psychiatrists or psychologists tuning in, do you have suggestions for what I can do? The guy in Boston is scary because I'm afraid I may see his name in the headlines one day as a mass murderer.It's hard for me to just turn away from people who are so mentally ill.
I'm still receiving tons of mail from grieving families who feel that they have received no justice after someone they loved has been killed. They want me to write books about their cases, but there is no way I could ever write enough books to answer all their pleas, and most of them cannot be written for legal reasons. Lois Duncan Arquette, that wonderful author of teenage books like I Know What You Did Last Summer, and also of a book about her murdered daughter, Kait: Who Killed My Daughter? maintains a website for people who want to get the word out about unsolved homicide or kidnapping cases. It's at www.realcrimes.com If you need help, please look there. Also, it is an important website for those interested in true crime cases.
I don't know what the answer is about the M.D. couple whose small daughter allegedly disappeared from their hotel room. It IS beginning to look as though things are not what they seem.
Remember, for anyone who would like a small signed memento from me: paperback sample covers, business card, a few posters I can give away, just send me a 9X12 self-addressed, stamped, return envelope and a note on who to sign the cover to, and I'll send all the extras I have until they are gone. My mailing address is P.O. 98846, Seattle, WA 98198. And don't forget about the mouse pads! Leslie and I are still helping support the rescue kittens and cats at our local no-kill, privately operated shelter with all of the proceeds. The form for the mousepads is on my homepage. They cost $8.50 apiece.
I've been half-way watching "Tori and Dean In Love," and I find it the most self-indulgent, show-offy thing Tori Spelling has done--and that's saying a lot. She stole her husband from a woman who had a child and a newly adopted child, and seems to have no pangs of conscience over that. I'm surprised at how vulgar she can be--both in her language and in the things she shares with her viewing audience. I guess it basically comes down to "No Class."
Looks as though O.J. may finally be going to prison for a while. Speaking of no class. Did anyone see his latest interview about Nicole, and hear his rude comments about her? Talk about sociopaths--he's the poster boy.
Well, I'd better wash some clothes and pack a small bag. It feels so good to just leave the worries that seem to hang around home behind.
Remember to check my homepage in about two or three weeks to see where my friend Donna Anders, author of Sketching Evil (November) and I will be in November. We hope to rent a car after appearing at a book fair in Charleston and head toward Georgia. I haven't found my map yet, but I think S.C. is pretty close to Georgia? Right?
Talk to you soon,
Ann
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| Posted by Ann on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 19:17 |
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| Saturday Night |
Dear Arfs, Visitors, Drop-ins, Friends of all kinds,
I know I haven't been a very good blogger for most of 2007. It's usually been about 9 to 10 p.m. when I've finished writing for the day ( 7 days a week), and my best intentions to add to my weblog sort of evaporated. Now, I'm on vacation and have some breathing room, and although I'll never catch up, I can make a stab at it. I'll be leaving for some short trips around Eastern Washington and the Oregon Coast next week, but I'll take my little three pound wireless laptop with me, and try to add some things along the way.
Each time I finish a book, I gather all the research materials and put them in plastic bins. As I do, I find letters I meant to answer. I always print out emails when I don't have time to answer, confident I will get to them. These last two weeks, I've been chagrinned and sad to see how many really nice emails I have never managed to answer. As I've said before, I read every email, every letter, and every post on my guestbook. It's being able to respond at the length I'd like to that's the problem. I always feel as though I have thousands of friends out there, people I would enjoy knowing as close personal friends. Wish there were world enough and time to really get to know them all!
If you have written me and I haven't responded, it was because I had work piled up over my head. You could try writing again, and maybe now I will have time to respond.Whenever there is a murder case somewhere in the world that has even a minimum of coverage, several people write to me suggesting that I write a book. When it's in the headlines, hundreds of people write--and I can't get back to everyone. Please know that I appreciate that you thought of me! I always write two books a year. At least so far. In my True Crime Files, I can cover from 5 to 7 cases a year in a much shorter version than if I were writing a hardcover book. To move to the head of the list for a hardcover book, a case has to be very complicated, something that will interest almost every true crime reader, and something that has been solved, or is about to go to trial. I do want to know BEFORE trial and AFTER arrest because it's necessary for me to attend the whole trial when I'm writing a hardcover book. If the trial is already over, I've missed the best possible "stage" I can view as I begin to research a case. All the characters in that case will usually take the witness stand, and I will get to see them all for myself. So please let me know before a trial--if you can.
Right now, I feel as though I never want to write about another serial killer again. Back in 1980, I may have been the first author to write about a serial killer (Ted Bundy) but we didn't call them serial killers then. That came later--in about 1983. Since then, I've written five books and innumerable articles about them. After Green River, Running Red, I never wanted to write about another killer who killed the same victim type again and again and again. Maybe I'll change my mind--but not yet.
I'm more interested in cases where the defendant is someone you would never, ever, expect to be a murderer. And that is usually someone who kills a person with whom they have been emotionally involved--someone they have appeared to love.
I do not want to cover gruesome cases. We might say they're ALL gruesome, but I mean cases that involve torture, decapitation, bodies in freezers, dumpsters, refrigerators, trunks, or in pieces. These give me nightmares, too. I am much more interested in exploring complicated emotional disorders--in doing a kind of psychological autopsy on the killer(s), and trying to figure out how they grew up to be without conscience.
That brings us to Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald. He first appeared in a book called Fatal Vision many years ago, and was convicted of killing his pregnant wife, and their two small daughters at Fort Bragg, N.C. He was a Green Beret doctor, handsome, charming, and intelligent. I have never doubted his guilt, especially after seeing him laugh and make jokes on the Dick Cavett Show when a normal, grieving father would have been somber and serious. MacDonald clearly LOVED the fame--even infamy--and attention, even though his "loss" was so recent at the time. His affect was all wrong. So was his story about the hippies he said broke into his military housing. So was the stab wound in his own chest, carefully placed where any M.D. would have known it wouldn't do much harm, and so were the slashes in his wife's pajamas that matched the knife thrusts. So were the blood types of the smears on his tiny daughter's bed. MacDonald had his fans from the beginning, and he did well working in an ER room in California before he was convicted. People there vouched for him. But, whenever I see him, I still recognize the odd stare of someone without conscience. He is a lot older, but still handsome, and he has convinced a woman to marry him, and stand beside him. Why attractive, intelligent, often wealthy women choose to align themselves with "celebrity killers" is a whole other subject to be dealt with another day in another blog. I would be scared to death to be married to a free Jeffrey MacDonald--because I believe he will kill again if he gets out and someone gets in the way of what he wants. He may be a wonderful boyfriend/husband when he is behind bars. If he should get paroled, he will, in my estimation, still be dangerous. There is no conscience showing through his clear blue eyes. Never was. Never will be.
Someone asked once again about Diane Downs and her father's website. Gregg Olsen interviewed her father and brought Wes Frederickson's same old, tired, untrue stories about "the bushy-haired stranger" to peoples' attention again. I'm sorry Gregg did that, but I will say again that there is nothing new about Diane Downs's case. There was sufficient physical evidence to convict her of shooting her three children back in 1983, and there is no way to explain that away. There is voluminous circumstantial evidence showing Diane's motivation, her plans, and the way she carried out one murder and two woundings (Three if you count her shooting herself in the arm to make her look innocent.) All I can do is ask that you read Small Sacrifices carefully, and I think you will see what I mean. I interviewed Diane personally, exchanged a number of letters with her, sat right behind her in her trial in Eugene, Oregon, for many weeks--and talked to all the detectives, prosecutors, many of Diane's lovers, etc. etc. She is due to come up for parole in a few years. I don't know why people still ask if Diane was guilty??? I haven't seen anyone ask if Susan Smith was guilty when she drowned her two sons ten years afer Diane shot her children. Yet their cases, background, motivation, et al are almost identical. As mothers, we don't want to believe a mother would kill her children to get a man to come back to her--but, alas, some mothers have done just that.
I don't think Britney Spears would go that far, but I do believe that she is seriously mentally ill--and that she should not have custody of those two little boys--or even all those little dogs--at this time. I'm no fan of Kevin Federline's either, but given the choice, I think he's not nuts--and she, poor thing, is. If anyone who wasn't a star walked around without panties (wearing a blouse that barely covered her "pooter," as we call it in my neck of the woods) shaved her head, slept with a different man every week, drank in public until she passed out, shut out the mother who cares for her, attacked cars with clubs and umbrellas, wiped her greasy fingers on a dress worth thousands of dollars, bought one house and luxury car after another, etc. etc., she might be committed. Britney needs to be committed--not to a luxury rehab ranch but to a mental institution where she will get the meds she needs and the therapy she needs. I just hope her little boys will survive until that happens. I've heard the argument that her sons are safe because she hires nannies, but I don't buy it. Who checks on the nannies? And last week, she left to go party before the newest nanny even arrived. That is what we called "Injurious living conditions" back in the day when I was a cop. It's easy to be mad at her because she is so self-involved, but at this point, she's more to be pitied than censured (as the old, old, song goes)
Has Paris changed her spots since she was in jail? I haven't seen any sign of it. She could do a lot of good in the world if she cared to reach out.
And Lindsay Lohan is another young star who is rapidly destroying herself. In her case, I blame her parents--they never seemed to have parented her. She looks grown up, but she's acting like a spoiled, lost--and addicted--12-year old. I think she is the most in danger of simply dying, and then we'll see years of docudramas about her the way we are now seeing Anna Nicole Smith re-run again and again.
I used to worry that these--and other--young glamorous stars would influence teenage girls. Now, I think that any teenager with an ounce of sense can see what happens to young women who drink, drug, sleep around, and disrespect themselves and others. Who would want to go there? The Britneys, Parises, Nicoles, and Lindsays don't seem to be having much fun at all. At 30, they will look like they're 45--if they are still around.
I'm glad I'm not an actress; it seems hazardous to your health. Look at Angelina Jolie. She is another example of someone who has lost her way and looks skeletal and in need of psychiatric help. I only hope she doesn't adopt any more children until she can stay home long enough to be there with the ones she already has.
Well, that's my soapbox for Saturday night. Our Popular Culture has been skidding dangerously toward negative images. Maybe it's because I'm an "Old Foof" but I don't think so. Maybe we all need to re-evaluate what is important in life
I don't believe it is $12,000 handbags, having anything you want without working or saving for it, or keeping your eyes averted when you pass someone who needs help.
What I love about my guestbook is that it is full of people who really do care about others, who have overcome adversity, and who still have a sense of humor despite it all. No, I'm not against funny stories of things that have happened to my Arfs. I love those, and they often make me laugh out loud--especially Mickie's adventures! I'm just a person who doesn't much like the kind of jokes people used to tell around the water cooler at the office and now forward in emails.
Have a lovely Sunday, and I hope the weather is as nice where you are as it is where I am.
Love,
Ann
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| Posted by Ann on Saturday, September 08, 2007 at 20:12 |
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| Test pattern |
Just testing here to be sure I can add my blog. If it works, I'll be right back,
Ann |
| Posted by Ann on Saturday, September 08, 2007 at 19:02 |
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| Answers and Opinions for Thursday |
Hi Arfs,
The old guy who was talking about Bundy was probably just weird, or maybe guilty of something else. He had some facts kind of correct, and others he gleaned from other serial killers' stories. Ted stole a van from Florida State in Tallahassee and that was the vehicle that he was driving when he kidnapped Kimberly Leach. They found fibers matching his clothing and the carpet in the van on her body. He left her body in an abandoned pig shed near Lake City. When he was captured later
, he had ditched the van, and stolen a VW bug, and he was heading west, using stolen credit cards. A Pensacola cop named David Lee spotted him and ran a Wants and Warrants check on the Bug, chased the stolen car and wrestled with Ted, finally overcoming him. Ted NEVER threw anyone off a bridge. That was Wayne Williams, the alleged Atlanta Child Killer. I have heard from a few thousand people who fancy themselves somehow once involved with Ted Bundy. To many, he's kind of like Jack the Ripper, almost fictional now. The serial killer who really put bodies in with pigs is the guy in Vancouver, B.C. So the odd duck the docs met was confabulating and I don't think he ever met Bundy! But he sounds dangerous. Thanks for understanding about simmering down to nothing on politics here! I'm not sure that jokes belong on here, either. It seems a waste of good guestbook time to me. Maybe those who want to pass on jokes could get the email addresses of those who want to hear them? I know they get in my way when I'm trying to read the guestbook, and it's like a big roadblock to be confronted with a bunch of jokes. Personally, I don't much care for them as forwards either. I'm more interested in real people and what they are doing and feeling. One of my friends is one of Spector's defense attorneys, but I haven't had a chance to talk to her. He strikes me as a very bizarre man, and one I would not go home with--for any reason! But I've been so busy writing that I can't watch Court TV much.
I've been watching Dr. Phil tonight, and he seems to have rounded up a bunch of angry, dystfunctional folks to start the new season. I don't believe I would want to go on his show and tell all my secrets to the world. Would any of you?
Tomorrow, I hope to move all the plants out of my original sowing area and put them in all the bare spots in my garden. I am hoping my resident moles have moved on. I save my vacuum cleaner bags full of dog and cat hair and plant them in the middle of mole trails, and it seems to discourage them. I know they need to eat often, but I wish they would tunnel under my weedy yard instead of my garden areas!
It's only 9 p.m. and it's been really dark for more than an hour. I love autumn but I hate to see the days grow so much shorter so rapidly.
Bev did a great job of giving me local color and her impressions of the Mary Winkler trial this summer. I have finished writing about the minister's wife now, and it will be in Smoke, Mirrors and Murder. I see that Oprah will be interviewing Mary next week. That should be interesting, as she's never talked to anyone in the media before.
The cases in Too Late to Say Goodbye were apparently on one of the channels earlier this evening. I am looking at some very, very, undiscovered stories for my next book. I may have to avoid mentioning them because I'd really like to have my books come out before they are covered before trial on TV. I always like to share what I'm writing about, but that openess may have to be a thing of the past!
I've been trying to post and to blog for more than an hour, and this is my last try. So I'll stop for tonight, and hope that this last effort will go into my web log.
All my best!
Ann
www.annrules.com
If you have questions about contents of Ann's books or case information Write to Ann Rule. If you have questions or comments about any TECHNICAL area of this website please send them to Our Web Author .
Copyright © 2007 by Rule Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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| Posted by Ann on Thursday, September 06, 2007 at 21:43 |
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| P.S. from Guestbook |
See, even I cannot post too often on my guestbook!
I mean to say to Rae that I have finally learned to take the seeds out of the packets. But I just didn't have time to move the plants from my funky little greenhouse out into the bare spots in the garden. They're snap dragons, cosmos, zinnias, strawflowers and poppies. I'm hoping if I plant them now, they will come back next year.
I have so many things to do that I didn't have time for all summer.
Sigh.
Time to see Dr. Phil and two mean sisters slug it out--or maybe watch the Netflix movies I've had for three weeks?
I'm catcing up, and I have had some GREAT suggestions for the next hardcover--but not until I grab me some slow-down time.
Love to All,
Ann |
| Posted by Ann on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 at 20:17 |
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| September 3 |
Finally. . .
Hi Everyone,
It feels so good to be back blogging. All of us possessed writers have to keep writing, even though we're technically on vacation. And, boy, do I need a vacation!I'm not quite there yet, even though I've finished the first three steps toward getting
Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder on the way to its printing. My harshest critics have all given it it about THREE thumbs up, so I hope you will feel the same way. Seven truly incredible cases --from a bad cop trying to wipe out his own family to Mary Winkler, the "preacher's wife," in Tennessee. I am happy with this book, and glad I gave up the whole summer of 2007 to finish it.
My garden looks odd. I planted a lot of seed packets.
Some are just now saying "Hi THere!" when frost is looming ahead. I'm most blessed to see the blooming of the seeds that Jenn Corbin (one of the two victims in
Too Late to Say Goodbye) saved. Her sister, Heather Tierney, gave me a baggie full of Jenn's "mystery seeds. I have at least 200 blooming marigolds, thanks to Jenn, and many, many, other plants that are new to me. To me, this means that life goes on, and that Jenn is blooming, too, in Heaven--and that Bart Corbin, her faithless, cruel, husband could not destroy her spirit.
I' ve spent the last four days desperately looking for pictures I cannot find. I have them all on my computer, but I cannot find the old snapshots. I have prayed, cried, searched, for 48 hours. In my genre--true crime-- I have come to know that I sometimes tussle with dark forces. In the end, it always works out--but it can be dicey . Please say a little prayer that I will find what seems to be lost?
I am with all of you who watched "Flip This Housez" yesterday
Well,I've lost half my blog, and I don't know why. It's late. I'll try again tomorrow.
All my best,
Ann
If you have questions about contents of Ann's books or case information Write to Ann Rule. If you have questions or comments about any TECHNICAL area of this website please send them to Our Web Author .
This page was last updated on 06/16/2007
Copyright © 2007 by Rule Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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| Posted by Ann on Monday, September 03, 2007 at 22:38 |
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| Safety for Dogs! |
Hi,
I'm about three days from being ALL done with Smoke,Mirrors, and Murder and then I'll really be back blogging again--hopefully from my vacation spots.
I haven't checked on how valid this is, but I'm sending it out to you anyway.
If you have a dog... read this and PLEASE send it on Written by:
Laurinda Morris, DVM
Danville Veterinary Clinic
Danville , Ohio
This week I had the first case in history of raisin toxicity ever seen at MedVet. My patient that ate half a canister of raisins sometime between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday. He started with vomiting, diarrhea and shaking about 1AM on Wednesday but the owner didn't call my emergency service until 7AM.
I had heard somewhere about raisins AND grapes causing acute Renal failure but hadn't seen any formal paper on the subject. We had her bring the dog in immediately. In the meantime, I called the ER service at MedVet, and the doctor there was like me - had heard something about it, but.... Anyway, we contacted the ASPCA National Animal Poison Control Center and they said to give IV fluids at 1 times maintenance and watch the kidney values for the next 48-72 hours.
The dog's BUN (blood urea nitrogen level) was already at 32 (normal less than 27) and creatinine over 5 (1.9 is the high end of normal). Both are monitors of kidney function in the bloodstream. We placed an IV catheter and started the fluids. Rechecked the renal values at 5 PM and the BUN was over 40 and creatinine over 7 with no urine production after a liter of fluids. At the point I felt the dog was in acute renal failure and
sent him on to MedVet for a urinary catheter to monitor urine output overnight as well as overnight care.
He started vomiting again overnight at MedVet and his renal values have continued to incr ease daily. He produced urine when given lasix as a diuretic. He was on 3 different anti-vomiting medications and they still
couldn't control his vomiting. Today his urine output decreased again, his BUN was over 120, his creatinine was at 10, his phosphorus was very elevated and his blood pressure, which had been staying around 150,
skyrocketed to 220.. He continued to vomit and the owners elected to euthanize.
This is a very sad case - great dog, great owners who had no idea raisins could be a toxin. Please alert everyone you know who has a dog of this very serious risk.
Poison control said as few as 7 raisins or grapes could be toxic. Many people I know give their dogs grapes or raisins as treats including our ex-handler's. Any exposure should give rise to immediate concern.
Laurinda Morris, DVM
Danville Veterinary Clinic
Danville , Ohio
Even if you don't have a dog, you might have friends who do. This is worth passing on to them.
Willow and Lucy send their bow-wow greetings!
Ann |
| Posted by Ann on Friday, August 24, 2007 at 15:10 |
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| Tuesday Thoughts |
Hi ARFs!
A few quick comments before I hit the computer for work!
Thanks to so many of you who have bought mousepads! We've been able to pay most of the rent for the kitty rescue place this month!
My daughter Leslie and i have our heads together, thinking of a new medium when we can work together. Both of us would love that. Keep your fingers crossed.
Talked with Deb P., and she is already thinking of finding a new pup. Anyone in the Buffalo or Western N.Y. area have an adorable pup to help fill her and her kids' empty place? Gabby was a Golden Retriever and came into Deb's life magically at a football game-but I think they would be glad to hear about all breeds. And I still think someone near Buffalo must have a special job where Debbie wouldn't have to be on her feet much; she still suffers from the after effects of arsenic--kind of like arthritis pain. She's brave,smart, bubbly, and loyal to a fault. Her life deserves some POSITIVE input,I'm still hoping we will get a movie from Last Dance, Last Chance! She and I will share in any profits from that. Unfortunately, the cable shows took my story and used it without paying, as usual. Once again, I am so touched with how people on the GB are always taking care of other people without a thought for themselves! I think it's Lynda who is being such an angel to her dad. Wish her siblings would help share the burden a little! (I may be wrong on names--my biggest lapse because I get hundreds of emails every day, and forget).She will have many "stars in her crown," as the old hymn says--just like Pam, Heather, Micki, Pattie,Jenn Tenn Jan. . .Well, I could go on and on. Ever notice when you help others that your own pain gets less? I see the case in New England. Thought provoking. Another subject. It makes me sad that so many athletes who are in trouble are African-American. It's just because so many of them are superb athletes, but my dad, the coach who arranged the first black/white game EVER in college,always said that sports were a way to reinforce the best image possible of minority races, and these guys have betrayed their roots when they could have done the opposite.My childhood home was always open to sports heroes, and great examples for me and my brother, Don.
Yes, I do remember Pete Rose, some of Joe Namath's hi-jinks, and a whole lot of white athletes who haven't been shining examples either, but I felt so bad when I looked through photos on one of the sites of disgraced sports figures and the first 13 were black. I didn't know what color Michael Vick was when I heard about his cruelty to dogs. He and others have cheated all the kids who idolized them! I still remember how I thought O.J. Simpson was such a great guy, and how shocked I was at who he relly was. I'm just grateful for Joe Louis and Mohammed Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard and Jackie Robinson! They have held the banners high and made people proud. When God gives someone great talent and luck, they have a duty to live up to their images!
Sad to hear that Lindsay Lohan was arrested once again with drugs and alcohol while driving. SAnd just out of rehab. She's only 21, and you have to wonder if she can survive at all. With parents like hers, maybe she never had a chance, despite her beauty and her talent. She must be such an unhappy young woman.And Britney. So sad. So crazy, and cutting off the only people who really love her.
Better get to work,
Ann
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| Posted by Ann on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 11:58 |
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