Links in the Theme

DNA Solves a Mystery from 1987 A co-ed was cruelly murdered near Bowling Green State University in Ohio 21 years ago. Now DNA has cracked the case - and exonerated a long-time suspect.

Orlando Crime Blog Orlando, Florida may be the tourism capital of the Sunshine State, but it is experiencing an alarming crime wave. The criminal justice reporter for the Orlando Sentinel has started an online Homicide Report. It includes a "Murder Map" with a shocking number of red dots scattered all over it. Reporter Willoughby Mariano remarks: "Since I started this blog, I've received a lot of messages from readers who want to get out of town because of the growing violence. At first, I had trouble taking most of them seriously.... Looking back, I was a fool...."

D.B. Cooper's Parachute? The New York Times has the skinny (though Steve Huff was there yesterday).

Inside BTK's Mind A cognitive-behavioral therapist who read Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer [Amazon; B&N] by John Douglas gave it an enthusiastic recommendation: "This book makes it quite clear that Dennis Lynn Rader was a self-made man." The review points out that a profiler wrote an eerily accurate analysis of BTK nine months before he was identified (and once again Steve Huff was there months before the arrest with his own spot-on take as well).

Truman Capote's Russian Fans enjoyed a piece I wrote in which I tried to bring him down a peg or two. The site is fun to navigate blind and translate; click on the links at left and you'll eventually find a nice photo gallery.

Lifetime's Green River Killer Movie The two-part dramatization airs at the end of this month (Sunday, 3/30 and Monday, 3/31). Meanwhile, photos and details are here. It's based on David Reichert's Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer [Amazon; B&N].

Postscript I finally subb'ed that photo of me in an ugly old sock cap for a more recent picture. The photographer offered to airbrush my face to get rid of my wrinkles! After scraping my self-esteem off the floor of his studio, I told him I rather like my wrinkles, thank you.

Comments

[Kevin M. Sullivan]

Laura...the former picture has you looking little more than a mere child; a child far too young to be discussing decapitations, impalements and what have you! Your current picture, however, looks great and is more suited to your vast knowledge of these things. In other words, it looks "right". And by the way, what wrinkles?

[Inspector Winship]

I thought you looked cute in that "ugly old sock cap" but your new pic is quite nice. If D.B. Cooper is still alive then he's probably burned through the cash paying for the nursing home he's in now. Is there any way to identify the parachute beyond "it looks right?" A serial number or something like that?

[Laura]

Thanks, fellas, you're too kind. Yep, now I look old enough to know what I am talking about. Which is just fine by me! :)