Mannahatta

Well, I can see why Dorinda is fed up with Sonja and the so-called family crest. I know I am. LOL For starters, it's doubtful that the Morgan family that Sonja was married into ever boasted of having a family crest. Maybe a distant ancestor might have had one, but these Morgans have been Americans for centuries - not European royalty. And then there's the obvious fact that a lone horse does not constitute a family crest. So basically the slippers are just a way for Sonja to market her affiliation with an already existing shoe collection, and to have a story line where she can spew faux outrage that the dignity of her illustrious family has been besmirched. Oh, and play the role of the misunderstood victim....again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/science/dna-family-trees-cold-cases.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront Interesting article...Apparently the same DNA sleuthing that was successfully used to track down the Golden State Killer is now being used to help solve other cold cases: "In the last seven days, genealogical sleuthing techniques that are old to a handful of genealogists but new to most law enforcement have led to arrests in Washington State and Pennsylvania and unearthed a lead in a 37-year-old murder in Texas. All three cases were only revived when crime scene DNA was uploaded to GEDMatch, the same open-source ancestry site used in the Golden State killer case." And thanks for the heads-up. I now know to erase "The Last Defense" and the latest episode of Murder Comes to Town.

And according to all TV meteorologists - temperatures reaching the 80s, or better yet the 90s, is a cause for great celebration. Weird that it can now happen any time during the year - even in northern climes? Not even worth mentioning. Let's all go to the beach!

After watching this last episode I feel compelled to paraphrase Alice Roosevelt Longworth's famous quote in regard to her father, Theodore Roosevelt: Bethenny always wants to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening. She just can't help herself. Bless her heart.

Actually it occurred in the afternoon. And her facial expression didn't convey a need for haste as much as a look of self-righteous triumph. Generally I try to see other people's points of view. But in her case she seemed to believe that her station in life gave her special powers - like damning me to Hell. LOL But thanks to everyone's feedback here I feel so much better! I guess I'll venture out later. Give that food shopping thing another try.

Some people make me regret leaving my home.....So I pull into a crowded U-shaped gas station and there is a black SUV following me. I drive around the U and pull in front of an available gas pump. The black SUV is now a few yards in front of me, stationary, and at a perpendicular angle. A woman in her Sunday best gets out and tells me she was backing into that very pump. There was no way for me to know this as I drove into the space, plus I'm already in the space. Also, she had been right behind me when I had driven into the station, so it wasn't like she had been waiting a long time for it. Naturally I'm a little surprised at her request. I hesitate a moment and she immediately says "I'm a pastor." I'm thinking "What does that have to do with anything?" (I hate it when people try to pull rank, especially when it's of the holier-than-thou nature.) So now she has irked me, but I politely tell her it will just take me 5 minutes. (I have a small car and I'm using a credit card so it actually took me less time.) She then loudly makes this pronouncement: "I'm a pastor and you're going to Hell." Whaaa? I asked the obvious question: "I'm going to Hell because you can't wait 5 minutes?" So she drove away to another pump probably feeling very Godly and smug. In fact, I suspect she's probably always on the look-out for opportunities in which she can feel Godly and smug..... All I can say is that I pity the people who are in her congregation. That woman was nothing more than a narcissist hiding behind the cloak of religiosity. Nevertheless, her creepiness did have an effect on me. I had planned to do some food shopping but instead I fled to the tranquility of my home. Sometimes those random encounters with creepy people really shake me up.

I wouldn't be surprised if production was involved in arranging for those girls at the club to be "found" by Jenni. Why else would she suddenly be interested in finding not just one but two girls for Paulie? I've already read how production ordered the Sammie doll. But of course the show had to make it look like it was Paulie's bright idea. And I also have my doubts about those other woman who were supposedly stalking them at the club. They looked too young to care about that whole crew. Plus they were laughing when the bouncer - who was also smiling - came to take them away. Of course the show has to make it look like wild and crazy times always follow this group. That said - the way Ron acted is all on him. What a self-pitying jerk. I feel sorry for his baby.

I was confused by the initial reporting until I read this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/us/golden-state-killer-case-joseph-deangelo.html?action=click&contentCollection=Health&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article Apparently, the site that the detectives used is called GEDmatch. People don't send them an actual DNA sample. Instead they upload their genetic profile to the website. (But, of course, this profile has to be obtained by first sending their actual DNA sample for testing to other sites such as ancestry.com, etc.) GEDmatch, which is free and oddly enough operates out of a private house, just provides people with an additional means to put out their DNA info into cyberspace with the goal of finding relatives - close or distant. (Be careful what you wish for!) So the detectives made up a name, submitted the DNA test results (obtained from a well-preserved sample from a 1980 murder), and found someone who shared enough of the GSK's DNA profile to be considered a relative. What followed was good old-fashioned, time-consuming, labor-intensive detective work. Pretty amazing. Now if they could just find the Zodiac killer....

He was only a police officer from 1973 to 1976 so your utility worker theory may prove to be true. As happy as I am that this monster has been caught - and his arrest is a great tribute to all the people who never gave up - I'm so angry at the idea that he had been married, had children, owned a home, presumably had once worked- in other words - he was just going about his life all these years. But I guess it's better late than never.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5656217/Suspected-Golden-State-Killer-responsible-12-homicides-50-rapes-ARRESTED.html Apparently he wasn't exactly flying under the radar as at least some of the neighbors were creeped out by his ticking time bomb demeanor. It really makes one wonder what he's been up to all these years and how the people closest to him never suspected him. Apparently he had been married and divorced, and has 3 adult daughters. I wonder if he had given any of them any of the so-called trophies he had stolen - some valuable, some just odd. Not just jewelry but items like a full set of dishes. I haven't read Michelle McNamara's book. Did she give clues about a specific suspect?

Congratulations on 26 years and counting, Suprsuprelevated! Your wedding sounds like it was a wonderful, stress-free way to start a marriage. I get peeved by people who set up gift registries without much thought. Then complain about all the stuff they're stuck with. Or they select things like extremely expensive china sets for twelve. They probably won't get a complete set of it, and they probably won't be able to afford and/or want to complete the set themselves. Plus if they have kids they're not going to be using it anyway. I knew a bride who sold off items received from the gift registry at a yard sale - for pennies on the dollar. Soon after the wedding they realized they didn't really need or want these items but neither felt like returning the stuff to the stores. (They were loaded anyway so the idea of having a yard sale was to her just a fun way to spend an afternoon slumming it.) In fact, years ago I bought a really nice Wedgwood crystal decanter at a yard sale for a few bucks and was told that it had been a wedding gift. I couldn't help but feel bad for the person who went to the trouble of selecting and paying for this gift only to have it sold off to a stranger like it was no different than a used tee shirt. And the woman who sold it to me was young so it wasn't like it had been hanging around her home for years gathering dust. Great deal for a bargain hunter such as myself but a waste for the original parties involved. Maybe gift giving for weddings will eventually become obsolete. People tend to have enough stuff. If they need anything it's cash.

(Sorry I couldn't figure out how to quote the post you were responding to, Suprsuprelevated.) Anyway.... I hate going to stores that don't have cashiers! There's a CVS near me that must be raking in a bundle. It's open 24 hours, 7 days a week and there are always plenty of cars in the parking lot. When they first opened up they had around 4 or 5 cashiers. Then they were down to one cashier. Now there are no cashiers. (But they do have a person who stands at the door to greet you and probably to make sure you're not giving yourself a five finger discount on the way out.)......Now I'm not talking about the ever dwindling numbers of Mom and Pop stores - but a thriving chain store like CVS can afford to pay a few people a living wage to work the registers. So when I see a chain stores without a cashier, I figure it's the result of automation. Because automation has been a major factor behind job loss over the last few decades. So my local CVS doesn't hire cashiers simply because now they don't have to! Sure - why hire someone at any wage when they can let the customers do all the work? So after a long, hard day at your regular job better get used to rolling up your sleeves to work the registers, and just pray they don't come up with a way for us to stock the shelves. LOL

Great list, Flowergirl. Most of those cases sound terrifying but the Lena Baker case was especially tragic. I had never heard of that one before......The ID show, American Monster, recently had a memorable episode about Audrey Marie Hiley. Her son was interviewed in it and you just had to feel for the poor guy. Some clips of old family movies were shown as well. On the surface Hiley appeared as normal as normal could be. I find murderers who have that ability to deceive to be endlessly fascinating.....Come to think of it this list is probably not the best thing to read right before I go to bed. lol

I went on a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary about 10 years ago and found it to be absolutely fascinating. I remember the recorded tour said that when it first opened (in 1829) the prisoners weren't even allowed to talk. The idea was that they were doing penitence - hence the name penitentiary - and should be reflecting on their crimes and how to make themselves better people. It was a novel concept at the time. However, this particular practice of not allowing talk was abandoned within a few years after a number of the prisoners started to go mad from the isolation.... When ESP opened up, and for quite a few years after, its construction was state of the art - the largest building in the US, the first with indoor plumbing (in each cell which were all scheduled to be flushed once a day) - and hence it was a major tourist destination even back then. If anyone is in the Philly area I recommend stopping by: https://www.easternstate.org/ ..........You're right, Funky-Rat, we need to come up with some better ideas for our prison system. Right now we have hardened gang members thrown in with first time drug offenders, and the main thing they have in common is that majority of them will get released one day, and in worse shape than ever. And when you think of how high the incarceration rates are in the US - that's a major societal problem.

Yep, that's the guy who used to be her teacher. Nowadays I don't think that a school would be as tolerant of a teacher having an affair with a student/ ex-student. At least I hope that they wouldn't be. Plus she was pretty young when she first met him and apparently had a crush on him. Fiancee or not, it just irked me how Weed made it sound like she was the aggressor so therefore his response was inevitable. (Granted the age difference wasn't as great between Hearst and Weed - but that's the same thing Mary Kay Letourneau would say about Vili.) That said, I was a teenager in the 70's and and looking back I remember it as being the golden age of poor boundaries. One little aside, I remember when the Post Office had Patty Hearst's Wanted poster on display. Ah, memories...

It's on CNN. It's called "The Radical Story of Patty Hearst". At least one of the airing times is 10 PM (EST) on Saturdays but I'm sure they repeat it throughout the week or watch it online. Not sure how many parts it has but as of yesterday they're up to Part 4. One fun fact that completely skeeved me was how at the time of her kidnapping, Patty was living with a former teacher. It's unclear exactly how old she was when the actual sexual relationship began (15, 16, 17?) but in his interviews he made sure to emphasize that she was the one who pursued him. WTF? Right now I'm watching Evil Lives Here, S3;E6, "the Soap Star's Secret". If ID ever decides to repackage this series they should rename it "Denial Lives Here". So you have this little sociopath running around the home, writing lists of the animals he's tortured and killed, etc, etc. The mother wants to channel all his "energy" into something positive. So what does she do? She enrolls him in karate classes! (Of course these classes come in handy later when she and the step-father try to put him on punishment and tell him he can't ride the motorcycle she bought for him.) And when the actor-brother, Thom Bierdz, receives an illustrated letter from his younger brother, depicting in graphic sadistic detail the ways he wants/plans to kill him, his natural response is : "I didn't think anything of it." Look, I have the utmost sympathy for their plight. They did at least take little Troy to therapists although that apparently didn't help. (Though I wonder how open the mother was in disclosing his behaviors.) And I'm not sure what society has to offer that can really effectively deal with a sociopath (when they're not incarcerated and out among us). But I also find the denial of the family members to be absolutely fascinating. In fact, what I like about this show (in addition to the creepy music) is that they just let family members talk and talk and talk. It's very revealing.

Lol. If only he were so honest.....The sad part is that he will probably get responses.

Wow. Regarding Mr. Funky's maternal grandmother - that was some scary shit. There seem to be a thousand and one ways for a sociopath to make the lives of others miserable - legal and otherwise. Family members who can emerge from that legacy without becoming completely unhinged or in denial have my utmost respect. And I agree about the genetic predisposition playing a partial role. Thanks for sharing. All of which brings me to another issue I have with Paris's mother, Charity. Apparently the audience for her forgiveness/denial tour are not only adults. She also talks before kids! Although the kids have incarcerated family members, it seems to me that she is just exploiting them for her own purposes. How on earth is her story going to help them? I can see how it might either scare them or make them feel guilty for feeling normal anger. Or, if there are any budding sociopaths in the audience, it might make them feel entitled to forgiveness should they act out in a heinous manner. I understand that she's gone through a lot, but someone with so little insight shouldn't be able to go on the lecture circuit like she's a paradigm of wisdom. https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/murder-destroyed-charity-lees-family-forever-altered-her-concept-of-justice/Content?oid=2246452

https://www.popsugar.com/home/Heather-Dubrow-New-House-42191774 I wanted to see her house too. The latest I could find was this article from 12/8/17. It was a bit disappointing since the photos are mostly either construction shots, close-ups of decorative details, and family shots. That said - you still get a sense of the look they were going for: grand, monochromatic, and cold. (I actually feel sorry for those kids having to grow up in that house.) The Dubrows probably thought they had achieved timeless elegance with all the marble, metal, black and grey upholstery, and cavernous spaces. But I've got news for them - it's all going to become dated in 10 years anyway. LOL I think all the money they put into it just magnified the limits of their taste. Plus, if it's resale that they're interested in, those mega mansions aren't moving like they used to. There's already a glut of them.

And don't forget Tinsley.....Or they can just change the name of the show to "Real Alcoholics of New York".

https://pagesix.com/2017/12/24/luann-de-lesseps-arrested-in-palm-beach/ Although she's proven to be fairly shame-proof in the past - this is kind of sad. I guess she can't hold her liquor as well as I thought. Aside from the alcohol I wonder what was the trigger? Well, at least now she and Tinsley have something to bond over.

Well, the grandmother, Kyla Bennett, did wind up inheriting the (trucking?) business of her daughter's father - the same guy who was murdered. The grandmother creeped me out from the start, but apparently her carefree, smiling manner has served her well in life. And what about her rationalization for those violent, misogynist graphic novels she was sending to Paris in prison? How evil can you get? I wonder how the other daughter turned out. Another weird thing - among many - the mother, Charity, seemed to like to style her young son's hair as if he were a girl. It wasn't just that Phoenix's hair was long. In one scene he had barrettes in his hair. It was as if - in her usual unaware, oblivious manner - she was turning him into a replacement for her murdered daughter. That scene with Charity speaking with a group of women was also very strange. The women all looked like they wanted to run for the nearest exit. A motivational speaker she is not.

Well, I watched "The Family I Had" last night. Made by two independent filmmakers - it's definitely not your usual ID fare. I don't want to discuss the specifics for those who haven't seen it, but I will say that the story of inter-generational familial psychopaths, and the mother's denial (wrapped up in forgiveness), unfolded in a way that was absolutely chilling. So don't let those ads turn you off! It was fascinating.

As I fell down the internet rabbit hole about this case, I came across this article: http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-07/local/me-64883_1_lyle-menendez Apparently the option of outright acquittal isn't always available: ".... the judge dealt a severe setback to the defense, turning down a request for a jury instruction offering the option of an acquittal. Weisberg said the facts of the case did not meet the legal standard: that a reasonable person would have feared imminent death on the night of Aug. 20, 1989, when the brothers shot and killed their parents." This makes sense as the defendants weren't pleading that they were not guilty. The trial was to determine the severity of the charges, based on whether or not the defendants felt their lives were in danger at the time of the homicides.

https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1994/03/dunne199403 Quoting Dominick Dunne from the above link: "....I have heard straight from the mouth of a Menendez relative, with whom I met clandestinely during the trial, that the brothers’ account of the molestation was false, gleaned from books they read in jail, beginning with Paul Mones’s When a Child Kills: Abused Children Who Kill Their Parents, a study of true cases and how they were defended in court. Pamela Bozanich, the cool, no-nonsense prosecutor, made the point during the trial that much of the defense strategy was suggested by Mones’s book: “In one of the incidents related in the book, which dealt with sexual abuse as the basis of parricide, there was mention of Vaseline in the incident. There was mention of sex used to punish the child. There was talk about the defense attorneys’ need to collect all photos, diaries, letters, and everything in order to substantiate the abuse. There was indication that the defendant in this case was scared that he was homosexual. . . . There’s information on page 66 that the father’s sex was getting rougher, that the sex included being poked with pens and pencils … that the particular person was dressed up in sweaters in order to make him look younger for purpose of testifying.”...." I for one would love to know what are the actual facts of the case. This series leaves out a lot of what Dunne covered, and Dunne left out or didn't believe a lot of what the series now presents as fact. I would really need to know more about those photos.... ("Blood Brothers" was written in 1995 and got fairly good reviews. But apparently there's a lot of price gouging going on at Amazon due to this series. The current price for it ranges from $42.49 to $162.49. Last week the prices were even higher. Guess I'll have to wait a while for the prices to go back to normal.)