Posts Tagged ‘true crime’
“Warning: this guide contains highly offensive language and discussion of content which may cause offence”*…
Salty language, systematically sorted…
Ofcom [the UK’s communications regulator— essentially their FCC] commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct research to help them understand public attitudes towards offensive language on TV and radio. This document serves as a Quick Reference Guide summarising views towards the acceptability of individual words on TV and radio…
For example…
And there’s more: other sections unpack the relative offensiveness of “references to body parts,” “sexual references,” “political references,” “references to race, nationality, and ethnicity,” “references to sexual orientation and gender identity,” “religious references,” and “Non-English words” [mostly South Asian].
Public Attitudes to Offensive Language on TV and Radio: a Quick Reference Guide… a report that doubles as a remarkable lexicon.
See also: “Cursing and the Bloody Class Struggle.”
* from the title page of this report
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As we curse carefully, we might recall that it was on this date in 1888 that The “From Hell” letter was postmarked. Received the next day by George Lusk, head of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, it purported to be from the serial killer we know as Jack the Ripper, who enclosed half a preserved human kidney. The police and Lusk’s group received hundreds of letters pertaining to the Ripper case, many dozen supposedly from the killer himself. The “From Hell” letter is one of the few that has been seriously considered to be genuine.
“What I desire of a poem is a clear understanding of motive”*…
I’m not a Hollywood scriptwriter, but if I were, I know what screenplay I’d write. Imagine a violent murder at the epicenter of early Santa Clara Valley—soon to be renamed Silicon Valley in the popular imagination—and an innocent man sent to Death Row at San Quentin. But a famous literary critic emerges as the super sleuth who gets him freed, amid dark evocations of scandal involving corrupt politicians and murky underworld figures.
You don’t need to imagine it, because it really happened. It’s like the movie Chinatown—in fact, it took place during the same era as that scrumptiously vintage film—but with intriguing literary twists and turns. And, like Chinatown, it possesses all the same overtones of a brutal California origin myth. It would make a riveting film. But in this case the story is true.
On Memorial Day in 1933, a woman’s [Allene Lamson’s] naked body was found, apparently bludgeoned to death, in her Stanford campus home. Within an hour of their arrival on the crime scene, the police had already decided that the husband [David Lamson]—always the prime suspect in a case of this sort—must be the murderer.
…
The police never took any other explanation seriously. A student named John Venderlip had seen a suspicious character near the Lamson home the morning of the crime, as well as the night before. But no effort went into investigating this lead. The possibility of accidental death was ruled out, too, although it would later play a decisive role in the case.
This web of speculation and insinuation proved sufficient to get a conviction after a three-week trial that was front page news day after day. The jury only deliberated for eight hours before delivering a guilty verdict. The judge handed out the death penalty—a court-mandated hanging within 90 days. And David Lamson was sent off to San Quentin to await his imminent execution on Death Row.
And that would seem to be the end of the story. But it wasn’t. And the main reason for this surprising turn into the biggest crime story of its day was a mild-mannered poet and literary critic named Yvor Winters…
In the 1930s, Yvor Winters legitimized literary studies at Stanford—but Hollywood should make a movie about his skills as an amateur detective. A remarkable story from the remarkable Ted Gioia (@tedgioia): “When a Famous Literary Critic Unraveled Silicon Valley’s Most Sensational Murder Case.”
And for further (entertaining, but wholly fictional) accounts of a literary critic’s sleuthing, see Edmund Crispin‘s Gervase Fen novels…
* Yvor Winters
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As we consider the clues, we might remind our selves that if the history of the universe was condensed into a year, the Milky Way would form on this date (May 15), life on earth would appear on September 21, and the dinosaurs would go extinct on December 30. Modern humans would evolve on December 31 at 11:52 PM and Columbus would discover America at 11:59:58 PM. (For more detail: the Cosmic Calendar)
“And now that I have some wood, I will begin the erection of my settlement”*…
Family game nights, game nights in bars, game nights with friends– game nights are back! And Board Games for Me can help…
It is a great time to enjoy board games. Great publishers are turning out a wide variety or high-quality games. Crowd-funding sites, such as Kickstarter, are allowing independent designers to create unique and interesting games. Internet video series, such as TableTop, are demonstrating how fun board games can be to a huge audience.
This rise in popularity leads to one frustration, finding games that fit what you are looking for can be difficult. Few people have the time to wade through the flood of games that are available to find something you will enjoy. Board Games for Me aims to make things easier for you by allowing you to easily search through several games and find ones that are the perfect fit for you. We want you to spend your time playing games, not searching for what you want to play next.
So, give it a try. You can have results back in less than a minute. What are you waiting for? Get out there and play more games!
* Sheldon Cooper, playing Settlers of Catan in Episode 100 of Big Bang Theory
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As we roll the dice, we might recall that it was on this date in 1991 that Pamela Smart was convicted Coral Gables, Florida of conspiring to murder her husband Greg. A 24-year-old part-time heavy metal radio DJ (she hosted “Metal Madness”, as “Maiden of Metal” on local station WVFS), Pam had seduced 15-year-old Billy Flynn, then threatened him with an end to her sexual favors if he failed to help her get rid of Greg. Flynn obliged, with the help of three friends. All five conspirators were quickly arrested, tried, and convicted.
Flynn, who is serving a 30 years, has apologized and asked for a reduction in sentence. Smart, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, continues to maintain her innocence.
One can only wonder if regular game nights might have prevented this tragedy.
Pamela Smart taking the oath at her trial
Words with Fiends…
The values of the letters in Scrabble were assigned according to the front page of a US newspaper in the 1930s. Is it time the scoring system was updated to reflect today’s usage?
All Scrabble players know that Q and Z are the highest scoring tiles. You can get 10 points for each, in the English language version of the game.
But according to one American researcher, Z really only deserves six points.
And it’s not just Z that’s under fire. After 75 years of Scrabble, some argue that the current tile values are out of date as certain letters have become more common than they used to be…
Read the full, unsettling story at the BBC.
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As we reshuffle our tiles, we might recall that it was on this date in 1950 that a nine-member gang stole $1,218,211.19 in cash, and over $1.5-million in checks, money orders and other securities from the Brinks Building in Boston. The largest robbery in the history of United States (at the time), it was quickly known as “the crime of the century”– and as “The Great Brinks Robbery.” The crew was meticulous, and left almost no clues at the scene; their ingenious plan was to sit on their spoils for six years – time enough for the statute of limitations to expire. In the end, all nine were arrested– but most of the money was never recovered.
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