Below is a review of The Bus Stop killer published by Penguin Books in 2011, written by Geoffrey Wansell. It recalls the eventful murders of Milly Dowler, Amélie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell and the full life story of the serial killer Levi Bellfield. This book outlines the massive, tedious nine-year investigation by police and prosecutors into Levi Bellfield, his eventual arrest and trial. It tells of Bellfield’s controlling, terrifying personality – “a man who went from charming to monstrous in a blink of an eye” – and his depraved stalking of young women. Levi Bellfield is the only man in modern British legal history to be given two separate whole life sentences. Geoffrey Wansell is a London-based author and free-lance journalist of eight books including the official biography of Frederick West through exclusive access to tape recordings. He also published biographies, including the playwright Sir Terrence Ratigan, a book which was short-listed for the Whitbread Prize as the book of the year. Geoffrey Wansell has been a full-time writer for nearly 50 years.
Ever since the genre of true crime began to rise in popularity in the United Kingdom, it was found that people find stories that include gorier details and more horrible acts of crime interesting as this seems to fascinate and excite the readers. This also meant that more true crime books of this kind were written to appeal to the audience. The genre become less of a way of informing the public of actual criminal
Summary David Simon elaborates to explain what happens in an interrogation room to readers in a passage from “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,” which caused a couple of television shows. Simon gives points of view from the perspective of the interrogator, which can be a detective or a police officer, as well as point of views from the suspect being interrogated. In his book, Simon bases everything he knows from the police station in Baltimore.
Pamela Colloff’s “The Innocent Man,” is an eye-opening, gut-wrenching essay in which Colloff beautifully takes a high complexity prejudiced case of a guilty murder verdict and successfully brings to light her inspiring character Michael Morton’s true innocence in a flawed justice system. Suspense, sadness and frustration are effectively provoked from the reader about Michael’s tragic nightmare which persists for over two decades of time. A nightmare which begins when Michael returns home from work on August 13, 1986, to find out his dead wife was beaten to death in their bed. This is only the beginning of what Colloff unfolds in her writing of Michael’s twenty-five-year agonizing battle behind bars. Step by step Colloff’s marvelous writing
The characterizations of Mr. Mead and the Police Car in the story “The Pedestrian” draws a clear distinction between our society and the futuristic society that the author, Ray Bradbury, intended to create in his story. This allows the readers to better understand what the author’s perspective of a world where humans rely too much on technology is like. An example would be the characterization of Mr. Mead as a weird person in the futuristic society because he enjoys walking. This could be seen in Mr. Mead’s conversation with the police, “"Walking, just walking, walking?" "Yes, sir." "Walking where? For what?" "Walking for air. Walking to see." "Your address!" "Eleven South Saint James Street." "And there is air in your house, you have an air
Every serial killer has their own twisted ways to doing their crimes. Richard Kuklinski is no different from other killers in this way. He started young, killing cats and other animals for the fun of it and to feel “empowered”. Different from other killers, he committed his first murder in middle school. Kuklinski beat a bully death and then disposed of it. A lot of their character traits relate back to their young family life. A common pattern in several serial killers is that their parents abused them in some way or the other. Richard Kuklinski, or the “Iceman”, is like these serial killers in the way that he was abused as a young boy. Although there are an uncertain amount of things that led Kuklinski to his brutal, senseless killings, some of the factors stand as: The abuse from his parents, his emotionless personality, and the money he earned from these killings.
Daniel Holtzclaw is a former Oklahoma City Police Department police officer. When he was a police officer, Holtzclaw sexually abused thirteen black women. He targeted women from poor, African American communities. Holtzclaw ran background checks on women with warrants or other criminal records and targeted those victims. The majority of Holtzclaw 's victims had criminal histories such as drug arrests. Holtzclaw 's crimes were unlikely to be discovered because rape is a highly underreported crime. Only one of the women filed a report. At least 68 percent of rapes are unreported. For every 100 rapes, only 7 will lead to an arrest and only 2 will spend a single day in jail. Men know that and they know it is very unlikely they will be arrested, a police officer like Holtzlaw knows this all too well. Holtzclaw used his power to rape women and he knew that the public would support him because he is a white heterozexual man, he is an exemplar man for the rape culture. Not only did he have the advantage of being a man, but also the advantage of being white and a police officer.
According to Walter Mosley, “Humans are fascinated with crime stories, real or imagined.” One literary work that proves this true is Oedipus the King by Sophocles. From this imagined crime story I learned that humans can be fascinated by imagined crime stories and that it helps us escape reality and go through a fantasy where there’s no problems or stress to worry about.
“The third stage of narrative development was characterized by the appearance of rogues… relying on cleverness more than force, and motivated more by profits than by passion” (Williams 14). Rogues defied whatever came in between their pursuit, whether it be law or authority (Williams 14). In the third stage of criminal literature, the protagonists were all rogues despite of their unlawfully ways, they “aroused reader sympathy” (Williams 16). Williams described these rogues as “outsiders, existing apart from the social structure either by choice or by fate” (William 16). He also described these rogues as “individualistic, opportunistic, self-reliant” as well as “defiant of authority and entirely free” (Williams 16). William argues that the evolution of these narratives took place in three stages: the first being the “early execution sermons and final confessions”, the second being “the incomplete narratives of life and, finally the full length rogue narrative” (Williams 17). Williams’ article describes how criminal literature changed from “promoting obedience, [to] encouraged defiance” (Williams
The media today, is highly selective in their constructions of offences, offenders and victims. Media representations of crime are moulded and women are portrayed in a way that is entertainment driven and is appealing to the audience. Despite the fact that women seldom stalk, murder outsiders or commit sequential murders- in fact they are rarely vehement, “accounting for only ten percent of convicted violent offenders- those who do so are highly newsworthy because of their novelty” (Jewkes 2011, p. 123) Present day media admits that because fierce women are comparatively uncommon, they are all the more appealing and diabolical to the audience as a result. The essay shall discuss the reason and presentation in the media of female offenders, female victims and women specific crimes.
Do you think that every crime has to be breathtaking to attract readers` attention? Not at all. “In Cold Blood” is a non-fiction novel of 1967 by Truman Capote, where a life story of the Clutter family is told. Exactly this story of crime can make you a philosopher – while reading, you will definitely think over the tragedy and the meaning of life. The Clutters met a lot of difficulties on their way to find happiness, but were murdered because of no reason. The police was baffled, as there were no evidences or even suspect, so when they found Bobby Rupp, he automatically became suspected until he did not pass the polygraph test. The officers are disappointed, as no connections between the murdered family and strange individuals, who could be involved in committing a crime, were found. Finally, one of the prisoners confessed and took his friends to the authorities. Men committed the crime following no purpose, so when they were caught, their behavior seemed to be the behavior of frightened sheep: they did not know what to do and how to manage the situation. However, I was disappointed in the reading as it was too long, did not answer all the questions, and is hard to understand.
Lisa Scottoline in the novel, Lady Killer, skillfully illustrates the reality between the law and relationships. Scottoline supports her demonstration by telling the story between Mary DiNunzio, her work, and friendships. Scottoline’s purpose is to capture the reader with realistic events that are normally not talked about in order to grasp the interest of her readers, and reveal the reality of criminal justice. Scottoline writes in a conversational tone for her young readers without previous knowledge about criminals nor law.
Though set in entirely dissimilar countries at different points in history, Margaret Atwood’s ‘Alias Grace’ and Hannah Kent’s ‘Burial Rites’ possess significant comparisons. Both for instance, are fictionalized historical novels following the tribulations of a female protagonist convicted of murder and both have been widely acclaimed for their incredible literary style which merges classic poetry, epigraphs, folklore and historical articles with fiction. The most striking parallel between each novel that can be drawn, however, is the way in which authors masterfully craft the stories of untrustworthy, cunning and deceptive criminals to elicit sympathy from their audiences. Readers of the novel and secondary characters alike are gradually pulled into sympathising with ambiguous and untrustworthy female leads, Grace Marks (Alias Grace) and Agnes Magnusdottir (Burial Rites). Despite the heavy suspicions of others and a lack of evidence to support their claims of innocence, these characters present artfully manipulated features of their defence stories to provoke empathy, sympathy and trust from those within the novel, and those reading it.
Criminology does not always limit itself to the “whodunit”. In many cases, criminologists analyze the motives of individual criminals and often ascertain (identify) the level of the “thrill factor” involved with a crime. Offenders are frequently inspired by the stimulation of danger and welcome the exhilarating challenges they find in outwitting others. Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery illustrates Edward Pierce’s ability to employ his intellect, manipulative nature, and personal wealth to satiate(indulge in, fill) his unquenchable thirst to mastermind the greatest theft of the Victorian era.
The novel "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood is a short story about Iris Chase Griffen and how she starts writing the story of her life for her granddaughter during the time of World War I. She tells the story with scenes from her present life as well as many flashbacks throughout her life. In the story, the protagonist, Iris Chase Griffen, has difficulty with the death of her sister, her unhappy marriage to her husband and her affair with Alex. During the story, she encounters her sister’s journals and ultimately learns that her husband, Richard was raping her sister Laura. Literature is to be known to have an emotional impact on the reader and this novel by Margaret Atwood is no different. There are several conflicts in this work, and they all help to convey themes of human nature vs. society and herself.
While American and British authors developed the two distinct schools of detective fiction, known as “hard-boiled and “golden age,” simultaneously, the British works served to continue traditions established by earlier authors while American works formed their own distinct identity. Though a niche category, detective works reflect the morality and culture of the societies their authors lived in. Written in the time period after World War I, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and “The Gutting of Couffignal”, and Raymond Chandler’s “Trouble Is My Business” adapt their detectives to a new harsh reality of urban life. In “hard-boiled” works, the detective is more realistic than the detective in “golden age” works according to the
The importance given to certain crimes in the daily newspapers and other media sources shows us proof to the fact that crime is a topic that has the public’s interest and is a focus of their worries (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). It goes on to discuss the fact that crime as reported on by the media increases the public’s levels of fears and that there is little or no correlation to actual levels of violent crime in our society today.