KlavdiaVavilova

Little did I know when I posted in this thread ^^^ about using genealogy websites to make DNA matches with missing persons and Does that right around that time they were solving the GSK case with that exact method. With all the trawling we did of local newspapers for tidbits, its a pity no one apparently came across the news story about the Sacramento area cop who was a dead ringer for one of the Maggiore sketches fired for shoplifting dog repellent and a hammer six months or whatever before the murders started ... he would've been everyone's fave suspect immediately. Enjoy the retirement you deserve, Joe.

SO fyi .... apparently he's been arrested. DNA match. Press conference midday Sacramento time. *hyperventilates*

Of course it could be argued the Australian use of the word in this case is the original and actual meaning of the word (theoretically, there are many examples of the big L Liberals drifting from small-l liberalism, "Conservative" is a better word for them these days) and it's the American use of the word which is out of step, just like the red/blue as political signifiers is opposite in the US to what they mean everywhere else. Anyway, totally off topic ... :-D To add to the republican thing, in the 1880s it would have specifically referring to anti-Royalist Irish and Irish independence, not really an aspiration for Australia as such.

I don't know when linguists pinpoint the emergence of the modern Australian accent but it's plausible to me the 1880s accent was more identifiably British/Irish than today's. And that accent choice is one often made in Australian historical productions, see for eg Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly ... Y'all just need to watch more shitty aussie period pieces to get used to it! I live in Redfern which is mentioned in various contexts so I suppose my interest level was high enough to get me through it on that basis, although I basically agree with your assessment on quality. Now, I'm trying to think of an excellent true crime tv/film from here .... can't really.

[Columbo voice] One more thing ... [/voice] .... thinking of "citizen sleuths" the area where such folks are legit solving crimes or mysteries is missing people. There's been a lot of them solved by just lots and lots of late night internet trawling of various pages of Does on one hand and missing people on the other. I've been following the DNA Project where amateur (at least in the sense of not being cops) enthusiasts have just started comparing DNA of Does to DNAs uploaded on ancestry sites for insight. Their first case "Lyle Stevik" hasn't been solved yet (it's only been a couple of weeks) but there are strong DNA clusters in some counties in New Mexico and he was at least 1/4 Native American so investigations can be re-directed there. Their second case identified the woman within a couple of hours of the sequencing being done. It was quite moving this morning the wake up and see the Wikipedia page for "Buckskin Girl" changed to something with her real name, Marcia King and real photo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Marcia_King Anyhow, I don't think they have but I hope they've got a camera crew trailing them - would make a great documentary. With an actual resolution for once ... https://dnadoeproject.org/

I recommend the Marcia podcast for the additional content and also her reading the ads : "Husbands and boyfriends come and go ... but a Casper mattress is forever!"

How about ... "Marcia Clark Investigates the First 48." I believe there is a companion podcast.

I've tipped a few things lately, don't want to look greedy. It actually has no connection whatsoever to Forensic Files except to undermine your faith in the entire forensic field and reflect on all the episodes you innocently watched where the "science" has turned out to be bunk sending innocent men to gaol ...

Just dropping in to say I've seen the first 2 eps of the HLN series on GSK and its definitely the stronger of the two in my opinion, there isn't the unnecessary padding of the citizens sleuths and it lays out the info in a very coherent way. So if anyone wanted more on this case it is worth checking out and not the slightest whiff of Nancy Grace-ness despite the network. As another aside sine this ep also discussed a book, I just finished "The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist" by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington. OMFG! I can never watch an episode of Forensic Files the same way again. Parts of it were just jawdropping, so that's recommended if you like your true crime to make you absolutely infuriated about the world.

I watched "Wild Wild Country" on Netflix today - you may be all culted-out but might be a good one. It features the most entertaining absolute sociopath in true crime docos of 2018 at least.

Oh and in case I come off TOO into this ... Nancy Grace is covering the case on her podcast thingo and I have no intention of listening. Everyone has to draw the line somewhere ....

Both Larry Crompton and Richard Shelby wrote books about the case, which for a long, long time were the only major sources of information available so .... grateful, I guess but I would now bump them down into 'real completist' territory and put the Winters book above them. It has all the same information, minus their idiosyncratic blind spots and omissions. Plus a lot more info has been released since they were written.

Sorry for the long post coming up ..... I read about GSK first in Michelle McNamara's article in Los Angeles magazine which was a couple of years before she died, and I've been tooling around the message boards and websites since. I respect Morf and Keith but, yeah, those investigation sections were clunky af. The badge, the recording ... that's all pretty old stuff. When you read the bits from the book I had the same cringey reaction to the writing but didn't notice it/them at all when I was reading it, probably too wrapped up in the topic. It's upsetting to me to think of the To Do list she left for the book. Oddly enough, probably her biggest breakthrough (a previously unknown probable victim contacted her with usable information, the "green corvette incident" if anyone wants to google it) is not even mentioned in the book, possibly she was leaving it until last to write up, possibly it went nowhere or possibly law enforcement is still working on it and didn't want it included for some reason. Frustrating not to know. I do think this case is somewhat more suitable for "citizen sleuths" than many just because of the sheer volume of attacks, especially with ~ 50 rapes which left living witnesses meaning there is a lot more bits of info than you have with a serial killer (plus the Visalia Ransacker if you want to go down that rabbit hole). The information vacuum that's present in most cases is not here, there's almost too much. There is a lot of grunt records work that can be done basically, which even a well-resourced law enforcement is not going to run to ground. And also: there is DNA which puts a useful "put up or shut up" cap on the dead end theorising. Unlike the Zodiac, say, where you can go round in circles with your pet suspect for decades never being able to be proven right or wrong, in this case ... you got a suspect who has the right shaped thighs and worked in real estate and had a sister called Bonnie, Holes (who is retiring this month BTW) will run him and exclude him (or not- happy days, you're a hero). I'm glad of the raised profile, but hopefully the extra attention won't up the crank quotient so much that LE stops being so open to tips. It's really amazing to me this case hasn't been so well known up to now. Not that there's a serial killer olympics or anything but he dwarfs Zodiac and most others in activity. Great tribute has to go to Jane Carson-Sandler, Debbi Domingo and Michelle Cruz in particular as victims/relative of victims who have really gone out their way to try and raise the profile of the case for years. They are on the message boards, have twitter and youtube accounts, go to that CrimeCon thing, will do any interview asked of them -which can't be easy but they are just indefatigable. Michelle posted that her father died last week, without knowing who killed his daughter Janelle. It's those sort of things that make solving it a little bit more personal than most true crime I "consume." There is another doco out starting 18th March on HLN and if you thought 4 eps was too much, this one is 5 ... which thrills me as an obsessive but we'll see how well they do filling the time. Given the size of the case, there's definitely enough material but true crime docos are not exactly known for their snappy use of time. The trailer looks reasonably decent but we'll see. McNamara and a doco is going to be enough for 95% of people but if you happen to be one of the other 5% I do recommend The Case Files of the Golden State Killer/Ear Area Rapist book written by Kat Winters with Keith Komos (it was the book they keep panning past next to his computer in the show). It's basically the GSK encyclopaedia, goes through every attack with what is known about each. It's ten bucks on kindle.

Probably folks have said this on the socials but Scientology is definitely not illegal in Australia. There was a High Court (our SCOTUS) case which established they were a religion and so we're stuck with them and their tax exempt status. They have schools which like any other private school gets taxpayer money - don't get me started grrr. They actually had a bit of a moment here in the 90s when Tom Cruise was married to Our Nicole and they were spending a lot of time in Sydney, a bunch of celeb hangers on and the socialite set "converted." That fad seemed to disappear with the marriage. Around the same time, in the main street of Sydney just near Town Hall and on the facade of a building was a gigantic volcano with a video in the centre that played ads for Dianetics non stop. Very 1984-ish. The volcano propaganda hasn't been there for about 15 years but you can still see where the video used to be so I'm reminded of it every time I'm in town. So yeah Scientology is not illegal here :-)

EAR/ONS/GSK is one of my "pet cases" I like to think waaaay too much about and 2018 is a bountiful year for ~content~ what with Michelle McNamara's book, podcasts and FBI and Sacramento police dribbling out new tidbits. So I'm looking forward to this five part docuseries in March, assuming I can find some way to acquire it down here in Australia .... http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2018/02/13/hln-renews-search-for-golden-state-killer-in-unmasking-a-killer-premiering-march-18/