More links in the theme

Madoff, Walking Free? The continued if limited freedom enjoyed by Bernard Madoff of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, shaping up with crime-of-the-century proportions, continues to astound me. Around here, if you're busted making off with as little as a measly $1 million, you get sentenced and go to jail on the spot.

No Deal It looks like Cleveland's most infamous unsolved murders, the so-called Torso Murders, won't be made into a horror movie starring Matt Damon after all.

The L.A. Times on Edmund Pearson While reviewing True Crime: An American Anthology edited by Harold Schechter, the L.A. Times warmed my heart by paying particular attention to the chapter penned by Edmund L. Pearson. The review of the anthology written by Richard Rayner contains lots of kind words for our Pearson, the Grand Master of the genre.

Does Psychopathy Show Up On MRI? A doctor is examining the brains of inmates to look for signs of psychopathy on MRI images. Fascinating stuff. A recent New Yorker piece by John Seabrook looked at the project and includes the latest scientific thinking on what causes evil, or psychopathy rather, which will add an umpteenth theory to our Western philosophy on the question. Methinks Mr. Madoff's would make an interesting brain for study.