There are 399 Web Log Items in 50 pages and you are on page number 46 |
| P.S. |
One very important reminder. I see that some of you are putting your complete home addresses on my Guestbook. Please don't do that. If you want to subscribe to the newsletter, go to my other address AnnieR37@aol.com. Anyone on the Internet can read my Guestbook, and I don't want some weirdo to know who you are or where you live. We take these addresses off just as soon as we can, but it worries me that they are on there for even a few minutes.
Remember this website is for the exchange of ideas and comments. I you have a family secret, or want to leave your address GO TO MY OTHER ADDRESS--not my Guestbook.
Remember to read the instructions and the warnings on any site on the Internet for your own protection.
Worriedly,
Ann |
| Posted by Ann on Friday, March 11, 2005 at 22:18 |
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| 3/11/05 |
Friday Night.
What a couple of days for true crime readers or anyone concerned with criminal behavior. First, Michael Jackson with yet another "sudden illness" that prevents him from showing up in Court, and then there he is in his pajama bottoms,limping along. Funny, how his bad back disappeared when he turned suddenly to wave to his fans. His delusional approach to the truth is almost pathetic. Almost. Not quite. The damage he has done to children who idolized him will probably never be fully revealed. And the damage done to him by an angry, cruel, controlling father is kind of skimmed over. I do feel sorry for his mother as she tries to pull the tattered pieces of their family together.
The shooting at the Fulton County courthouse is horrifying. I have been in that courthouse many times, up those marble steps and through the doors, AND the metal detectors just beyond. That a rape defendant who was discovered only yesterday with two knives strapped ot his legs was allowed to walk to his trial with no hand-cuffs, no leg shackles, and with only one female deputy to control him is truly shocking! My sympathy goes out to the judge's loved ones, the court reporter's family, and the slain deputy's family. I will pray for the deputy who is still in critical condition. I was shocked to see the news about Don O'Briant, an Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist , who was pistol whipped by the escapee and had his car stolen. I know Don and he is a very nice guy. I'm glad he is alive, and that he absolutely refused to crawl into the trunk of his own car. I'm sure he would be dead by now if he had not made a run for it. Coming hard on the heels of the murder of the Chicago judge's family, we have to wonder who is running the legal show? I remember when we went to trials and no one sent us through metal detectors or searched our purses. But then, the King County Washington Courthouse had a triple fatality shooting ten years ago after a divorce hearing and everything changed. It is true all over America that our courts can be dangerous, and it is a sad thing.
What do we do? First, I say--as I have always said--look after the babies now who are in danger of becoming criminals because of their blunted lives under the age of five. And second, we must take precautions against those who grew up angry with the world.
This week, they are tearing down the old Public Safety Building in Seattle, the building where I was once a young and somewhat naive police detective. If I could have one memento from the wreckage, I would ask for the plaque in the cement outside the Fourth Floor entrance that read; "Where there is no vision, the people perish. But he who keepeth the law, happy is he."
We must keep the law, and mourn those who tried to protect the public and perished as they did so.
I'm leaving for Portland, Oregon, in the morning and hope to see many of you tomorrow or Sunday. Saturday at Fred Meyer's new Interstate store from 3:30 to 5:30, and Sunday at Murder by the Book from 5 to 7 p.m. Donna Anders and my daughter, Leslie Rule, will be with me and happy to sign their books, too.
In the meantime, think about what you would do to save your friends and neighbors if an emergency arose, and not least, be alert and prepared to protect your own safety. The criminal minds among us are still a very, very, small percentage of the population and most people DO care about one another. Don't get jaded or bitter, but please be careful out there.
Ann |
| Posted by Ann on Friday, March 11, 2005 at 22:11 |
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| 3/9/05 |
Yes, I got the message about "time for a new newsletter." My constant decision has to be: "Should I work in the new books (2) or stop and write a newsletter?" I'm back to a seven-day-a -week work schedule, which I promised myself I would never do again. I WILL do the newsletter, just as soon as I can catch a breath!
Please ignore the people who come on my Guestbook and post stuff about their own websites or whatever they are. They are parasites who have no reason to be on my website, and we will erase them ASAP. Ditto anything that wants to sell you something or introduce you to foreign ladies seeking husbands in America. The Internet is what it is, and there will always be people who hop into your space without invitation.
Thanks to all of you and the Associated Press, there aren't many cases I don't know about. The cases I have looked at and discarded for one reason or another--timeliness, too much publicity, too gory and ugly, too far in the past, too easily solved, etc. are: David Camm, the Picton Pig Farm Murders, JonBenet, O.J, BTK, Coril Eugene Watts, Robert Yates, Robert Hansen, Clifford Olsen, Paul Bernardo and Homolka, and many others. I can only write TWO books a year, working full-time, so often I just have to keep concentrating on what I am currently working on. I DO appreciate all of you who think of me,a nd I save your emails in my "Possibles" box for future consideration!
Lots of people still want me to "investigate" unsolved cases, and that's what Jessica Fletcher of "Murder She Wrote" used to do. I am not a detective. I have to wait until a case has ended in a conviction before I can write a book! I'm always taking a gamble when I pick a case, and go to the trial(s). If there is an acquittal, I may have spent months taking notes and doing background, and then I cannot write the book. So far, that hasn't happened--but it's always a possibility.
What am I really grateful for? The many people who respond to my request for insight into people involved in the cases I may be writing. They really help me to know the victims--and the accused! Their names will never be revealed--unless they want them to be.
We had a piddly little amount of rain in Seattle today. Imagine! We, who live by pounding rain all winter--usually--are about to be termed an emergency drought area! I'm really getting nervous with all this sunshine! But, then, Mt. St. Helens erupted again last night, sending plumes of ash into the sky. So far, it has never come north but goes east over Washington State. I still have a two-pound coffee can filled with ash from the last eruption 25 years ago. But I had to travel east of the Cascade Mountains to Moses Lake to scoop it up. One of my friends, who lived in Idaho, had to shovel her house out from under about six inches of ash in 1980!
For the reader who asked me to write about areas other than the Northwest, I already have!.
I've had criminal cases in Kansas, Florida, Georgia, Delaware, New York State, Arizona, Texas. Colorado, and California that became books. I will continue to go where the most interesting and baffling cases turn up. My True Crime Files often ARE about the Northwest because that was my "territory" for the 14 years I worked as this area's correspondent for True Detective and four other fact-detective magazines. I wrote 1400 articles during those years when I was raising my five children on my own. With that many little kids and even less money, I couldn't leave my home territory. As they grew up, and I made a little more money, I branched out and was finally able to travel farther than my home base.
Please remember to look at all the sites on these webpages when you have a question. Chances are good that I have already answered your questions. Over the four years that we have had the website, I've kept adding to the answers of most frequently asked questions.
One thing that keeps popping up. A lot of readers say they cannot find a certain book I have written. Please know that all 24 of my books are in print. And any bookstore will be glad to order them for you if they are temporarily sold out. Usually, you will have the book within about 10 days Each title and each cover is listed and shown on the "Ann's Books" section. Also, if a book is not in your library, ask your librarian to order it for you. It is probably somewhere in their extended system and they will get it for you. I am trying constantly to get every one of my books into books on tape for those with sight problems.
I'm beginning to feel old. :*) Young readers write to tell me that they've been reading my books since they were children! I guess it was inevitable. :*( I've been writing true crime for more than 30 years now, learning new things and new ways to research every year. )
And it's amazing--as I am still approaching 40. Big lie, but play along with me.
Have a happy and serene night,
Ann
P.S. For those readers in the Portland/Vancouver area, hope to see you at Fred Meyer's Interstate Store this Saturday (the 12th) from 3:30 to 5:30. My daughter, Leslie Rule, who writes true GHOST books will be with me, as well as my friend, Donna Anders, who has seven psychological suspense novels. We'll be happy to sign books and visit. On Sunday, we will be in Portland at Murder by the Book from 5 until 7.
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| Posted by Ann on Wednesday, March 09, 2005 at 22:20 |
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| March 7 |
Another amazing spring day in Seattle. We've gone so long without rain that all of us natives are sure the sky is about to fall because this just is not NATURAL. It sure is nice to have sunny days, but I miss the sound of rain pounding on my skylights.
I've been watching and watching for the hundreds of daffodil bulbs we planted two years ago to bloom. Alas, I'm afraid that the moles have had juicy snacks all winter because most of the daffodills never showed. All my bulbs in containers are doing fine, but the ones in the ground have disappeared. I can't wait until the annuals start to appear in garden stores and the soil is warm enough to plant. One of the earliest and loveliest things that blooms in the Northwest is a quiet little bush called Daphne Odora. The flowers are tiny and creamy white and dark pink, and they smell so good! Kind of a combination of honey-suckle and jasmine. I always pick a few and keep them on my desk and next to my bed at night.
People often ask me how I cope with writing about such tragic stories, and I explain that I handle it by balancing my life with flowers, my collection of all kinds of angels,
prisms that make rainbows, wind chimes, and music--"oldies but goodies"--I'm afraid I just don't get rap and stuff by Brittney and her genre. I do like melodies and words that I can understand, but that must make me an "old foof." Guess I am. For those of us slightly over 40--:*)--have you ever listened to a song on an easy listening station and guessed that it was only about 15 years old, and been shocked that it was 35 or 40 years old! I have.
Of course, the company of my writing dogs and writing cats brings a lot of serenity to my office--except for Buns who loves to race full tilt across the office skid across my desk and papers and land in the garden window. If I'm writing something scary--which I often am--his sudden leaps make me jump out of my chair!
I've been pretty good about sticking to my writing, and I'm making good progress on WORTH MORE DEAD. As I've said, the input I get from readers who have known many of the people I'm writing about is amazing! I wonder how I ever found out so many facts in the olden days before the Internet. I'm currently seeking more information on ex-Marine (seventies) Roland Pitre and his wife, Cheryl. He has lived in New Orleans, Whidbey Island, Cherry Point, N.C. and also in a couple of prisons.
The biggest missing link I have right now is information about a registered nurse named Debbie Sweigart. She would be about 50 now if she was still alive. She last worked at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, but I believe she came from Minnesota originally. She lived East of Lake Washington in one of the suburbs between Renton and Bellevue and was a very attractive blond woman. Someone called me about Debbie a few years ago--but I cannot find her address or phone number. I hope that she may see this and get back in touch--either by email or by calling 206-248-0811. I'm also looking for anyone who may have known the late Teresa Perez of Denver.
My next hardcover book as most of you know will be about Dr. Bart Corbin, a dentist in Dacula, Georgia, who has been arrested and charged with the murders of his wife, Jennifer, and his former girlfriend Dolly Hearn. I will be traveling to his trials in Georgia later this year. I don't have a title for this book yet. Titles are the hardest part of writing a a book for some reason. Either they're too long, too short, too shocking, too boring, or someone else has already used them. Although you cannot copyright a title, nobody wants to write a book with the same title as another book--or two.
A lot of you asked if I go out on book tours and sign in other states, and I sure do. I've been to almost every state at least once, and some several times. But this next year, I will be so busy going to trials and writing that I probably won't do a book tour in 2005. And, as tempted as I am with the invitations that I get about speaking at conferences and conventions, I have had to let those go by, too. Too much writing to do! Remember that I will be glad to sign books if you send them to me at P.O. Box 98846, Seattle, WA 98198, with a note on what to say in each book and a stamped, addressed, return mailer. I'll sign them and get them right back to you.
No BTK books from me. No BTK. I'm still getting lots of requests about him and asking me about doing a book about him and his victims, but I'm just not emotionally ready to take on another cruel serial killer after spending so many years researching and writing Green River,Running Red.
And no pig farmers in Vancouver, B.C. Same reason.
No Scott Peterson. It's been covered enough, although I am interested in reading the book written and published recently by his half-sister, who just discovered her real mother a few years ago. (Scott's mother evidently gave up two children for adoption before she had him.)
In the continual search for 'Why?" people like Scott or Ted Bundy or other infamous killers turn out the way they do, this book BLOOD BROTHER may have a few answers.
One book I heartily recommend for women (men, too) in terms of beefing up your personal safety is Gavin De Becker's THE GIFT OF FEAR. Common sense combined with an awareness of where danger may lie and how to barricade yourself against it can save your life. And I want you all to be safe. I would be very happy to turn to writing comedy or novels, knowing there was no more crime. But I know that's an impossible wish.
Tip for parents: Always give your child a "family password" that they will recognize if anyone other than you tries to pick him up from school or a playground. Tell them never to go with anyone unless that person knows the password.
It's been quite a day for trials. I've been listening to Court TV with one ear while I've worked--waiting for the jury on Robert Blake and hearing testimony reports in the Michael Jackson trial. If I were to bet, I would bet that Blake will be convicted on the least serious charge he is accused of, and that Jackson will be acquitted. Not fair for Jackson, but I cannot believe that his career will ever rise from the ashes of this mess. That may be his punishment. He seems to me to be a very sick person, and someone in complete denial. But he may just slip out of the charges against him. Would I let MY child go to an overnight slumber party with Michael Jackson? Never! He is obsessed and deluded and dangerous for the well-being of children. I cannot imagine that either Blake or Jackson could survive long in prison.
Speaking of deluded, some folks from the U.K. are putting faulty information about Diane Downs on the Internet again. Much of it sounds like "Diane-Speak," and she may be warming up for her parole hearings that are now only four or five years away.
Lately, I've been getting a lot of emails from people who want me to investigate various unsolved cases. Of course, I don't do that. I'm not a detective. And I'm not a ghost-writer either for people who have stories to tell and want me to tell them, without using my name.
My mail is always interesting--sometimes maddening, sometimes hilarious, often sad, sometimes full of information that I am delighted to receive, and very, very, often heartwarming and kind. I never know who's going to be in my in box, or in my mail box at the Post Office.
Some communication isn't fun at all--like the man who called my listed phone FIFTEEN TIMES the other night, beginning at 3:30 a.m. , leaving so many messages that he completely clogged up my Voice Mail as he talked until the beep sounded, and then he called again. If, as he insists, he has personally solved the most mysterious cases in America, he should be talking to the police and the FBI instead of me. Didn't get much sleep that night, so now I have to unplug the ringers at night. I know this probably is part of my job description, but phones ringing before 9 a.m. Seattle time are not my favorite things!
Willow and Lucy are barking and telling me they're hungry, and they think they smell possums and raccoons sneaking up, so I had better go tend to them.
Talk to you soon,
Ann
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| Posted by Ann on Monday, March 07, 2005 at 19:18 |
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| Wednesday Night |
10 p.m. Wednesday Night.
I started this morning with the radio interview with the Witchita station at 6: 30 a.m my time. And I had an hour-long TVshow this afternoon. Didn't get much writing done, but tomorrow is another day.
One of the high points of today for me was meeting a lot of readers who came to KOMO-TV for Northwest Afternoon today! And special thanks to Dickie who gave me a great "fuzzy" red scarf she knitted!
As for tutoring or mentoring fledgling writers, I'm afraid that may have to wait until I am retired. My days are awfully full now, and I tend to work seven days a week to meet deadlines.
I always recommend a really good book for those who are just beginning to wonder about publishing and how they should go about it. It's called and I'm sorry for the title--but it's part of a series--THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO GETTNG PUBLISHED--written by Sherri Bykovski, a NYC literary agent. Costs about $14 and well worth the price. In addition, subscribe to Writer's Digest magazine, and The Writer magazine. They will tell you about writers' conferences near you. Go to them! Take night classes, if you work in the day time, in writing at colleges near you. Learn to accept rejection at first as part of the process. Writing is very hard work, but you can do it. If you're aiming for true crime, don't ask me or anyone how to do it. You have to be a kind of detective and figure it out for yourself. If you cannot do that, you really can't hope to be a true crime writer because we have to dig, dig, dig, and find ways to find out information! Go to trials! Watch how reporters in each new venue get copies of court records or daily bulletins. We really do all help each other. Take courses in community colleges on Crime Scene Investigation.
Again, no BTK book for me! I cannot do another serial murder book right now because Green River, Running Red was so difficult emotionally for me! I'm working on two new books about "family" murders.
I will get to my next newsletter very soon. Every day, I have to decide between that and Worth More Dead, the next true crime files book in the series. If you haven't sent your name and STREET OR P.O. BOX ADDRESS, please send it now for the free newsletter. I'll put it on this website too, but I can have more pictures in the mailed version.
I watched Dateline tonight and was fascinated by the story of Scott Peterson's sister--who had the same mother as he did, but who had been placed out for adoption. It answered a lot of questions for me. I suspect her book will be very interesting. I believe it's called BLOOD BROTHER.
Always remember that my readers are the gentlest people on earth, so tell your husbands--if you have one--not to worry when you read true crime. I have found that it is the kindest people who are most fascinated by the cruelest. We just cannot fathom why anyone would get pleasure or release from harming another living creature, and we are trying to stop this kind of acting out. If we don't understand their stories, we'll never be able to find a way to stop the steady progression of cruel fantasy.
I do appreciate your mail, and your willingness to have me answer questions en masse in this web blog.
Remember, if you have books you want me to sign, just send them to me at P.O. Box 98846, Seattle, WA 98198. I don't have a secretary, so please enclose a self-addressed, return mailer with the postage to send it back AND a note on what you want me to say. There is no limit on the number of books you can send. I sign them when I take a break from writing to watch something dumb on TV. I like to watch the Game Show Channel because it makes me feel really young to watch those old 70's shows!I will sign and return your books ASAP. My son, Mike, works for me and he carries books from the mail and back to the mail for me.
Have a wonderful Thursday!
Ann
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| Posted by Ann on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 at 22:36 |
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| Diane Downs Hoax Site |
Because Small Sacrifices showed on television again recently, as it often does, I've had several emails with questions from readers.
You can find an update on Diane and where she is now, and on her grown children on the Updates section of this website.
This is the site where the allegedly new information about her wrongful conviction (NOT!) appears, and what they say about her and about me there. It is in this letter from a loyal reader, but I've had other references to it so I want to respond.
"Ms. Rule,
First off, I am a big fan. I own everyone of your books. One thing that has
always made me like your books is that I trust you and believe that what you
are writing is the truth. Without that true crime is not true crime. I was
looking on the web for an update on Diane Downs. I found a website @
www.patrickcrusade.org. It had a very large article on Diane Downs as a
"wrongfully convicted person". If even half of what they say is true then
this poor girl was railroaded. They say everyone lied and Christie Downs was
brainwashed. They even have your name in their article several times as
being one of the most untruthful ones. To hear them tell it your whole book
was a work of fiction. I was wondering about a taped conversation in which
Christie Downs said that her mother did not do it. At first this all kind of
shocked me, then my common sense kicked in. Why would everyone involved in
this case have lied about Diane Downs? Not just prosecutors and police.
Nurses, doctors, caregivers, psychiatrists, and friends. The article also
says that a man actually confessed to doing it and the missing gun was not
the actual murder weapon. I wondered what you thought about this. In my
opinion, it is very slanderous to you. Now your true fans would not believe
it, but it even caused me some wonder. You should check it out.
Donna "
O.K. There is nothing new here. These are the same claims that Diane has been making since her conviction 21 years ago! She sometimes tells so many lies that even she forgets what the truth was. No one confessed to the murder, but Diane and her father have perpetuated this story for years.
No one ever, ever, brainwashed Christie. In fact, therapist were so very careful NOT to influence her one way or another as it took her nine months to regain her speech after her stroke (caused by massive bleeding from the gunshots her mother fired into her body), and to be able to speak of her memories of the night of the shooting.
None of these people lied. They would have absolutely no reason to lie. Why would detectives, doctors, psychiatrists, other witnesses etc. etc. all get together to make Diane sound guilty?
As for the gun used to shoot the Downs children, it has never been found. However, there were casings at the crime scene along the road next to the river and the extractor and the ejector marks left on those casings matched (under a scanning microscope) the extractor and ejector marks on bullets found on Diane's waterbed in her condo where she lived with her children. Those bullets had been worked through the mechanism of the same gun used to shoot her children--but not fired. How would a strange bushy-haired man have had access to her condo AND also be at the shooting site? No, Diane was the one who was using that gun.
Did Christie say on tape that Diane did not shoot her? I've never heard that. And I listened to all the Diane tapes.
Did I lie? Absolutely not! Why would I go out of my way to persecute a poor woman who had lost her children and lived through such an ordeal? My initial reaction when I heard the news was shock and pity for her.
I don't believe this "Save Diane" site mentions the towel bandage that she had lain her arm on as she shot herself--hoping to hit only soft tissue, but accidentally breaking her arm bones. The blood patterns on that towel show that she carefully wrapped the triangular toweling around her arm before she drove to the hospital at 5-7 miles an hour! She didn't see the car that was behind her, with the driver wondering why she was going so slowly. There are so many indisputable facts that tie Diane to the shooting. Again, please read Small Sacrifices if you are puzzled by the site, and you will see, I believe, why I have absolutely no doubt about her guilt.
Christie Downs went to see Diane in prison when Christie turned 18, but it was not to bond with her. It was to shout at her and finally be able to vent at a monstrous mother whom Christie saw shoot her brother and her sister, and then herself. She never saw her again.
Diane was--and is--a woman who has multiple personality disorders: Anti-social, narcissictic, and histrionic. Like Susan Smith, Diane so obviously plotted to kill her children so she could win back her married lover. (I guess Susan's lover was single.)
I researched Small Sacrifices very carefully, and I sat two feet away from Diane during her trial.I watched her smile, snap her fingers, and sing along with the tape of "Hungry Like the Wolf" when it played in court. Even if she was not guilty, how many mothers would be cheerful about hearing the song that Christie said was playing when her little sister died, and her brother sustained a paralyzing bullet to his spine? Why did Diane brag from the witness stand that she always preferred married men for lovers?
Diane comes up for parole in about five years now, and she might get out.But those who believe she was railroaded are obviously accepting the whole massive package of lies that have been old news to those who really understand this case.
I would not have said any more about this 1983 shooting of three young children by their own mother, were it not for so many readers writing to me about this site. When people say that I lied,it gets my dander up!
Thanks for listening!
Ann
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| Posted by Ann on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 at 11:18 |
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| P.S. |
Oh, I forgot,
Someone sent me a site and I can't remember what it was now--where Diane Downs's supporter claim all kind of ridiculous things. They say I never interviewed Diane. Not true. I interviewed her in jail the night before she gave birth to her "cheer-up baby," that she had deliberately conceived because she needed a friend!!!
The other claims are so much fol de rol. If you have time, read Small Sacrifices for the first time or read it again for the real truth.
To include Diane Downs in the "Wrongly Convicted" is absolutely silly.
Sometimes, if enough years go by, people can be convinced that black is white, and lies are truth. All you have to do is go back to the original sources.
Ann |
| Posted by Ann on Tuesday, March 01, 2005 at 22:17 |
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| Kind of Boring Tonight |
Tuesday Night.
Have you ever had one of those days where nothing quite works out? Of course you have! I tried to write all day today, and ended up with only two pages because I had so many interruptions! And I was pretty cranky by 7 p.m.!
Tomorrow--for those in the Northwest viewing area, I'll be on Northwest Afternoon from about 3:15 to 4 at KOMO-TV on Channel Four in Seattle. We're going to re-visit Diane Downs, Ted Bundy, Charles Campbell, and a strange case called "One Trick Pony" from Yakima, Washington. Tomorrow morning at (gasp) 6:30 a.m. my time, I'll be on an FM radio station in Witchita (The A.M. Show with Tracy) talking about the BTK.
Since I last posted my reasons for NOT writing about the BTK, I've had a 100 or more emails asking me to do it. I still won't. It's just too close in time to the Green River Killer book. Concentrating on such horrible cruelty is very hard on the writer, and I hope you understand? Please scan back to my earlier posts about this?
On the lighter side, the Raccoon Brothers (2) showed up as a trio last night to get their puppy crunchies that I put out on my deck, followed by the Possum Sisters. I know many of you will think I'm nuts--but they're all pretty endearing. They still drive Lucy and Willow, my dogs, crazy. They cannot understand why I would put food out for wild critters.
It was truly upsetting today to see the revenge upon the Chicago judge who made the best decision--the ONLY decision--that she could last year. Now her husband and mother have been killed, execution style. Sometimes, the bad guys are extremely scary, even those who are locked up--but who still have access to hit people. Still, we have to keep warning the public of what they have done, and hope that no one else will be sacrificed.
Often, people say to me that we see so much more violence than in previous generations. I don't believe that. We have only to look back at Leopold and Loeb, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Albert Fish, Al Capone, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, William Heirens, the Lindbergh Kidnapping, and dozens of other horrific cases. People haven't changed; it's is the media who have changed. The crimes and horrors are on TV and radio and in tabloids and newspapers so we THINK it is more dangerous now We are bombarded with it at every turn, often by reporters, some of whom, don't really appear to FEEL the tragedy, but who are looking for the big story. But we have always had a tiny portion of our population who have violent streaks and no consciences at all, and we will continue to be shocked by their cruelty. I think our goal should be to identify children who are in danger of growing up to be killers like the BTK or The Green River Killer and try to stop their obsessions before they ever grow to such dangerous proportions. Easier said than done, of course.
As for BTK, of course everyone who knew him is saying, " He seemed so normal, I knew him from church, I never suspected him. . .and so forth." It will always be like this. These guys do not stand out like sore thumbs. They deliberately act in the backgrounds and shadows of our lives. It IS shocking, but it is a fact of life.
To all of you who have sent blessings, I want you to know that I really appreciate them! Writing about the bleakest side of human nature, I treasure the bright wishes of people like you, and you mean a lot to me. I still maintain that 98% of human beings are basically good and kind. It's those who go beyond that limit who both fascinate and horrify us.
Please take care of the animals who need you where YOU live. I know I sound like Bob Barker, but that's not all bad. If you are lonely, get a pet. Nothing will make you happier and feeling more like you mean something to somebody. I sometimes wonder about people who tell me they are lonely, and I suggest that they get a pet, and tney say, "Oh, that would be too much trouble."
The fact is that loving someone or some thing always entails trouble or inconvenience--but I'd rather be involved than be lonely! I could not live without my pets, and the wild ones who drop by for a snack.
Don't have any more pithy comments tonight. I think I'll take the dogs and go on up to bed~
Talk to you soon.
Ann
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| Posted by Ann on Tuesday, March 01, 2005 at 22:13 |
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