Where My Macabre Began: Charles Manson

At the age of approximately 15, my personal preoccupation with the true crime genre began, and it came about through my interests in music. At that time, I was discovering many of the "classics;" the likes of Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, and more. I was especially enamored with The Beatles; we're …

Harbor Terrace, Part Four: Carl H. Drew

CW: DISCUSSION OF VIOLENCE *NOTE: STARRED NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED OUT OF RESPECT FOR THEIR PRIVACY. HAVEN’T READ PART THREE YET? READ IT HERE. "Surely many would find what we involved ourselves in, as objectionable." - Carl Drew Carl H. Drew grew up on a farm in New Hampshire. It's been very difficult to find much …

Harbor Terrace, Part Three: Robin Marie Murphy

CW: Some discussion of violence, mentions of sexual violence Scroll to the bottom for a glossary of people in this story. *Note: Starred names have been changed out of respect for their privacy. Haven't read part two yet? Read it here. A Tough Girl Although 17 year old Robin Murphy would eventually serve as the …

Harbor Terrace, Part Two: The Murder of Barbara Raposa

CW: Some discussion of violence Scroll to the bottom for a glossary of people in this story. *Note: Starred names have been changed out of respect for their privacy. Haven't read part one yet? Check it out here. Twenty year old Barbara Raposa's murder is typically discussed as a part of the same cluster as …

An (Almost) Empty Town

I love abandoned places. Urban Exploration photography is one of my favorite things. As a person who values solitude, the absence of people appeals to me, of course. But it's more than that; the decaying structures where humans once existed and the traces left of them are fascinating, even beautiful. Especially really old ones, and …

Anger, Blame, Empathy, and Understanding in the Wake of Extreme Violence

CW/TW: Discussion of suicide and violence I felt compelled to write this opinion piece after recently reading Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple by Rebecca Moore, who is the sister of two prominent Temple members, Carolyn Layton and Annie Moore. After reading this book, I think that, in my anger over the death of so many …

My Weird Obsession with Number Stations

You know how your senses can take you back to a place and time? Smells, scents, tastes...they can provoke a flood of memories, good or bad. A Vietnam veteran might flinch when a car backfires, because at that moment he's back in the dark, muggy jungle with bullets whizzing past his head. The same can …

A Neolithic True Crime Case

In September of 1991, adventurers Erika & Helmut Simon were hiking through the Alps near the border between Austria and Italy. They stumbled across what they thought, at first, to be a recently deceased fellow hiker partially frozen into the icy ground. They alerted the authorities, who removed the body and transported it to the …

Jonestown

Those who dive into the true crime genre often know that feeling when a particular story gets to you. We are actually a compassionate bunch generally speaking, but not every case has the same gut-twisting effect as those particular ones. When I first heard of Jonestown, I was up for hours doing research, both sickened …