CLEWS The Historic True Crime Blog

Starkweather 50 Years Later

Starkweather 50 Years Later The Lincoln Journal Star has produced an outstanding special report that revisits the murder spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. The excellent production made possible by the internet, Starkweather: 50 Years Later, includes the original newspaper coverage; detailed stories on all who lost their lives; an interview with Del Harding, the reporter who covered the case from the beginning; photos, videos, and much more. 

One post I wrote here at CLEWS, What Ever Happened to Caril Fugate?, has received many comments from those close to the tragedy, because after fifty years people are still arguing about her degree of culpability. Commented Del Harding himself: "Based on my extensive personal knowledge of the case, I have NO doubt at all that she was guilty."

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CLEWS Index Many have told me that CLEWS is hard to navigate, so I'm working on an index, which will probably take me a while to finish, so CLEWS is on hiatus for a few days while I make those pages.

New and best true crime blogs

Gotham Murders True crime author Paul LaRosa (Nightmare in Napa, Tacoma Confidential, Death of a Dream) who is also a producer for 48 Hours Mysteries, has taken on the ambition of chronicling each and every murder in New York City this year. The blog is The Murder Book 2008 and after only a couple of weeks I now suspect it will be available in more permanent form at the conclusion of his fascinating project. These are the sorts of cases that our crime networks do not cover, and LaRosa has an eye for the most interesting details of a story and I'll look to him for additional insights on the death of one of my favorite actors (sniff), Heath Ledger.

Southern Stories One of my favorite correspondents and an author with impeccable taste in true crime stories, Robert Waters, author of several books and most notably the bestseller Outgunned!, has begun a blog where he will post short true crime essays, a favorite of mine and confessed favorite of many of you as well. It's Kidnapping, Murder and Mayhem, so there's no mistaking the theme.

The Best True Crime Blogs As the true crime genre increases its presence on the internet in positive ways, CLEWS and all sorts of other true crime blogs were nominated for an In Cold Blog Capote Award for Best True Crime Blogger of 2007 and also for Best True Crime Blog of 2007. I've already cast several votes (not all for myself, of course). You can weigh in at In Cold Blog. 

ABA Journal Top 100 Blogs

The American Bar Association Journal has come up with a list of the top one hundred blogs for lawyers, by lawyers - out of an estimated 2,000 t0 3,000 blogs - and CLEWS made the cut!

Several other crime-related sites (or "blawgs," as the ABA would have it - blawgs, get it?) have been named, including --

Blonde Justice

Capital Defense Weekly

Crime & Consequences

Crime Scene Kansas City

Grits for Breakfast

Meeting the Sin Laws

Sentencing Law & Policy

Simple Justice

The Chicago Syndicate

If you had the time and inclination, this is where to cast your vote for your favorite.

Speechless

Your correspondent has new Clews in the offing but none are ready today. If you like, check out the latest Clews posted by CrimeRant -- the one that leaves even the CrimeRant crowd speechless~!

Or check out the latest edition of the History Carnival - Carnival 52 - which has a great organization this time round and maybe could be a great template for future carnivals. Scroll down for historians telling stories of "Violence and Crimes" - like A Jigsaw of School Shootings.

A Teaser, and celebrating 200,000 Hits

A little confession: Robert Mitchum is my favorite actor of all time. What feminine knee does not bend at the sound of his voice? The mere memory of it is enough prompting to leave a note, FIX WIFE'S SOUND CARD on Mr. James's desk.

I have a poster from his "Grass is Greener" movie. In my old law office I had a little shrine set up... my coworkers teased me about it but they also cut out any Robert Mitchum pictures they came across in People magazine to add to my collection. :)

So I'm triply interested in a new documentary in the works. Robert Mitchum once starred in a highly fictionalized account of a true murder case involving a West Virginia man who was the ruination of women across the country. A new documentary will look at the truth behind the nationwide headlines in the real case.

If you know the murderer I'm talking about, I'll be impressed. Details are coming soon, so watch this space.

Meanwhile Clews officially rolled the odometer again at 200,000 page views, which is two tears in a bucket on the internet, but some of these stories seem to strike a chord. The 200,000th hit was for the Google search "interesting murder cases."

The most popular posts, the ones showing up daily, day after day, in my site search statistics, are these:

The Lawson family murder on Christmas Day 1929, generating daily interest ever since.

Toni Jo Henry - one of the most beautiful women the US has ever executed, and a heartless murderer.

The Cold Case Against Dr. Mercer - a physician is going on trial in Michigan for murdering his wife decades ago. I believe he's going on trial soon, judging from the traffic, so I put a big fat caveat on that post.

Amazingly, a story I wrote years ago now about Countess Marie Tarnowska, the woman who inspired so much bloodshed, Russia's Helen of Troy, continues to be one of the most popular pages on this website. It's the sexiest and most sensational murder case I've ever read bar none. The story continues in More Marie. I would love to write a book about her. The short version of the story on my website has generated tens of thousands of hits in two years.

But what a research puzzle it would be. Most of her story took place in Kiev. She was put on trial for murder in Venice, and retired to London, leaving an amazingly long trail of dead and ruined lovers. I've seen photos of her in old crime encyclopedias, and I wholeheartedly agree with the French journalist who remarked that "she has the best figure in Europe."

There is a book about Countess Tarnowska in Polish, translated from a book in Russian I haven't been able to find. I took 2 years of Russian in college (and about all I remember is that Russian is a very hard language to learn!). I also know someone fluent in Polish who might be sweet-talked into translating it for me. I just have to get him out of prison first.

Blog Awards for the True Crime Set

From the Trenchcoat Chronicles, the first crime blog on the internet --

Help get crime blogs nominated

I normally don't care for awards. But LiLO has noticed that crime blogs are woefully underrepresented in the mainstream blogging community. She has suggested that we could get more exposure by some of us getting nominated for the 2007 Bloggie Awards. Just the crime blogging community's involvement probably won't be enough so I call upon you dear reader to help our blogs get nominated. Here are my suggestions for the 2007 Bloggie Award nominations. Feel free to nominate any of these choices.

Best European Weblog:
The Year 'Round

Best Canadian Weblog:
T.O. Crime

Best American Weblog:
Any of the rest of the True Crtime Blogroll

Best Topical Weblog:
Blogging the Unsolved
Crime in Charlotte, NC
Home Sweet Home
MyCrimeSpace
Parents Behaving Badly
Ricky Holland Vanished
The Cellar
TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Best Writing of a Weblog:
CLEWS
Crime Rant
Crime Scene Blog
crimeblog.us
Heart
Huff's Crime Blog
Malefactor's Register
slabtown chronicle
T.O. Crime

Best Group Weblog:
crimeblog.us

Best Community Weblog:
CrimeNe.ws

Best-Kept Secret Weblog:
CLEWS
Lost in Lima Ohio
News of Doom
TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Best New Weblog:
Crime Rant
The Year 'Round
MyCrimeSpace

Lifetime Achievement: (Webloggers who have been blogging at least since January 1, 2002.)
TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Weblog of the Year:
Any on the True Crime Blogroll

Remember, these are just my suggestions. Fell free to vote for whomever you want. But please hurry. Voting for nominations closes Wednesday January 10th at 10PM Eastern Time.

I wholeheartedly agree with his nominations. Thanks so much Trench and others who have nominated CLEWS as well-written and best kept secret. I write about some pretty obscure stuff I know and it's not everyone's cup of tea. But what's fun is hitting on a subject that matters very much to a very few sometimes. I'll continue to write this blog whether I get awards or readers or not. Some of these posts are like writing a book that will only sell eight copies. But those eight readers devour every bite and to them it matters very much. Those tend to be the most interesting mysteries of all.

Crimeblog.us and a new feed

It's very flattering to have your work so highly thought of that others spread it around, but....

I'm not quite sure how many people read CLEWS via my RSS feed, but unfortunately I had to change the specs so the RSS feed only includes the first few lines of a post; too many sites (crimeweblog.com, crimeblogs.org, etc., run by whom, I haven't a clew) disregard the little (c) and copy essays wholesale for their own sites, forcing the change. If you're normally reading my feed and find the truncated version to be a pain in the butt, please let me know and I can check into other options.

On a brighter note, I'm thrilled to have been invited by Steve Huff to be one of several new contributors on one of the most popular crime blogs in existence. There've been many occasions where I've itched to write or remark on the day's crime news, but they don't always fit the strict parameters of CLEWS. Now I can contribute those pieces to Crimeblog.us. My first post over there concerns the case of Jaroslaw Ambrozuk, a story that's already gotten a lot of play here and there; I tried to add something original to the conversation with some legal analysis of the case. And here's a hat-tip to true crime writer Gary Boynton for telling me about that story and others.

Hopefully these changes will mean my work will appear where I want it to appear.

As always, thanks for stopping by to get your Clews!

Celebrating 100,000 hits

Technically they're "page views," and I know Typepad does not account for them all, but it's nice to officially roll the odometer. I started this site in April 2005 to keep my brain occupied while I pamper my two sons. Meanwhile, in the early mornings, sometimes very late at night, and sometimes at hours that other people haven't seen in years, I've been indulging myself on my research passion -- true crime cases, the older the better, and the people that wrote about them very long ago, and the folks who write about them today. I've never tried to be ambitious -- just unabashed. And what do you know, some other people find some of this interesting.

The five all-time most popular posts all involve "wicked" women. My post on What Ever Happened to Caril Fugate? is by far the most popular page on this website, although the sarcasm occasionally proves too subtle. Countess Tarnowska develops hits from Europe on a near-daily basis, as does my post about Nagyrev. The Witchcraft Trial of Bridget Cleary is about a "witch" who was burned to death in Ireland in 1894 and is a very popular post. A documentary about the case airs every few weeks in the UK. The Lizzie Borden of the Southland, a confessed murderess and all-around heartbreaker (judging by the crazy email I get from the men in her life) by the name of Stephanie Barron, is incarcerated in Texas. Every time a cable channel shows "Women Behind Bars," a lot of men fall in love.

I was recently offered a nice opportunity by The Ivy Group, a UK-based book packager that has asked me to put together a book proposal for a true crime encyclopedia, which it's going to try to sell at the Frankfurt book fair this weekend. I wrote a table of contents -- consisting of one true crime case per year from 1750 to 2006 -- the Case of The Year, going back 256 years! -- it's a gift book and relies heavily on artwork -- and what a job that was. The selection process was fun, and I found an incredible amount of historic true crime information on the internet. I'll have my fingers crossed. If the project sells, Clews will have two covers. And I'll maybe inspire even more people to write up full-length treatments of some of the cases I've found. I often get such notes from historians, professors from New England most prominently.

I plan to continue my study of old true crime cases and the work of current, classic and long-forgotten true crime authors in my spare time. That might be in shorter supply, though, as I look ahead at things going on in my life. My dear husband works for an automotive supplier that decided yesterday to move its headquarters to the east side of Detroit (Mt. Clemens) next year, while offering him a large raise and promotion, so there's a bit of family uproar at the moment. Will he get a new job? Will I go back to work and let him experience the joys and isolation of the stay-at-home lifestyle for a while? Will we move 50 miles across town? I'd hoped we could put off the day we leave this beautiful old farmhouse and my acres of wildlife gardens, a kitchen window that oversees a small valley of 80 acres of recovering farmland, with a wetland panorama, with visits from coyotes, deer, foxes, pheasants, and cranes, with nesting blue herons, snakes and frogs and salamanders in the lawn. It will eventually be a subdivision, though, and it would just kill my soul to see that happen, I absolutely hate Sprawlville. I'm glad we have plenty of notice, if we leave, for it will take me a year to say goodbye and turn the page, but I mean to enjoy it more, hike it every day this winter.

But it will be too cold to venture outside soon enough, 40 degrees being the limit for my boys, so I plan to spend plenty of time in my library this winter too, the virtual one as well as the one that features an occasional faint odor of dust or mold, to see what I see, and share the stories with you.

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me, if only by stopping in for a visit.

 

On Hiatus, Links, and a Poem

I'll be beachcombing on Lake Huron for a while and won't be back to Clews until the middle of August or so. My email will probably be bouncing by then. When I'm back, I'll have some more interviews with true crime authors and more eye-popping murder cases from times past.

Keep it between the ditches!

Laura

For the Free Father Robinson Club

Noted true crime author Fred Rosen made my day today! He left a note on Clews saying he is writing a book for HarperCollins about the murder conviction of Father Gerald Robinson.

Hallelujah! Someone who knows what he's talking about will examine the case that's kept me up at night.

And from a kind Clews visitor, some interesting links --

Priest's abuse accuser says limitations law doesn't apply -- Toledo Blade

Priest has attorney for appeal -- Toledo Blade

For the Deadwood fans in the house

Sheesh, mention Deadwood on your blog and the stampede ensues! For you folks I found a fascinating and authoritative History of the Homestake Gold Mine, that piece of turf exploited by George Hearst on our most very favorite TV show. This essay, complete with photos, was prepared by the current owners of the mine, The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, or DUSEL (an outfit whose home page makes deep mining look downright pretty.)

For the True Crime Nuts

I've added a new list at the bottom of the left-hand column. It's a blogroll of published true crime author websites. Some of them offer fascinating content and are worth exploring. If I've forgotten your favorite crime writers, kindly leave their URLs in a comment to this post.

A Poem

I like this shivery poem about a forgotten, nameless victim.

She turned, and looking on the bitter view

Her eyes were welded shut by mortal pain.

Into transparent salt her body grew,

And her quick feet were rooted in the plain.

Who would waste tears upon her? Is she not

The least of our losses, this unhappy wife?

Yet in my heart she shall not be forgot

Who, for a single glance, gave up her life.

--Anna Akhmatova, “Lot’s Wife” (Richard Wilbur's translation)

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2464/poemanna.html