Mystery Authors Who Plotted Real Murders

In a made-for-reality-TV tale, romance novelist Nancy Brophy, who once wrote an essay "How to Murder Your Husband," was recently arrested for the actual murder of her husband. It is rare for murder mystery writers to be plotters of real murder, but there have been some noted instances. Anne Perry, one of my favorite authors for her Thomas Pitt and William Monk historical mystery series set in Victorian England, is a convicted murderer, for example. Born Juliet Marion Hulme in 1938 England, Hulme/Perry was convicted at age 15 in 1954 for participating in the murder of her friend's mother but, due to her young age, served only a five-year sentence. At the time of the murder, Hulme's parents had moved the family to New Zealand, but they were in the process of divorcing, and Hulme was going to be sent to South Africa to stay with relatives. Hulme was obsessively close to her friend Pauline Parker at the time (Hulme denies implications of a lesbian relationship), and the two girls did not want to be separated. Somehow their shared devotion and fantasies came to include eliminating Pauline's mother. The two went for a walk with Pauline's mother on an isolated path where Hulme dropped an ornamental stone so that the older woman would lean over to retrieve it. Pauline had planned to hit her mother with half a brick wrapped in a stocking, and the two girls assumed that one blow would kill her. But it took more than 20 blows. After her release from prison, Hulme became a flight attendant, lived in the U.S. for a bit, and eventually settled in a Scottish village with her mother. She created a new name, Anne Perry, using her stepfather's surname and launched a successful writing career with her first mystery novel, The Cater Street Hangman, published in 1979.  The 1994 film "Heavenly Creatures," with Kate Winslet as the teenage Juliet Hulme, is based on the Hulme-Parker murder. Here's an even creepier killer author story:  Noted Chinese crime writer, Liu Yongbiao, 53, received the death penalty this year for the murder of four people in a case that had gone unsolved for nearly two dozen years. The author and an accomplice had killed a couple and their grandson in November 1995 at their family-owned hostel in order to cover up the murder of one of the guests during a robbery. Police finally were able to crack the case by using DNA evidence from a cigarette at the crime scene. "I’ve been waiting for you all this time," Liu told officers when he was arrested in August 2017 at his home. He later admitted that he had used the gory details of the crimes as inspiration for his novels. Maybe he wanted to get caught; his novel The Guilty Secret is about a writer who commits a string of murders!  If you don't hold her past against her, check out Anne Perry's many excellent books at https://www.amazon.com/Anne-Perry/e/B000APAS2A

Honeymoons Can Be Murder

I took a brief hiatus from posting to celebrate my youngest son's wedding, but my mystery addict side, seeing the newlyweds' besotted bliss, began to speculate on the honeymoon's place in murder fiction. Some noted mystery/thriller writers have certainly plotted how a love story can transform into tragedy. Best-selling author James Patterson, for one, penned Honeymoon, in which an FBI agent John O'Hara investigates the alluring "black widow" Nora Sinclair, who practices a deadly sorcery on the men she enthralls, including O'Hara. In First to Die, which launched his Women Murder Club series, Patterson brings together a team of four female sleuths--a homicide inspector, a medical examiner, an assistant D.A., and a crime desk reporter--to catch a killer stalking newlyweds in San Francisco. Honeymoon to Nowhere by Akimitsu Takagi, a Soho Crime novel, adds international flavor with a Japanese setting: Etsuko insists on marrying a shy young university lecturer despite her parents' objections that his father was a war criminal and his deceased younger brother a murderer, but then, on their wedding night, the groom leaves in response to an urgent phone call and is still missing in the morning. For a tropical taste, check out Jaden Skye's Death by Honeymoon, first book in the Caribbean Murder series: Cindy and Clint are enjoying a dream honeymoon in Barbados when Clint is drowned in a freak ocean accident. Returning home to her wealthy husband's unfriendly family, Cindy begins to question how well she knew her husband when an anonymous photo of a woman she has never met arrives in the mail. Digging into Clint's e-mails and files, she discovers secrets from his past that convince her that Clint was murdered, and she returns to Barbados to find out what really happened. Of course, mystery queen Agatha Christie leads the way in the famous Death on the Nile, with Hercule Poirot seeking the murderer of a new bride among a river cruise boat's many suspects. For true crime tales of honeymoon murder, check out Listverse.com's 10 cases of spouses committing murder on their honeymoons. One important lesson for honeymooners: If your new beloved convinces you to get a big insurance policy before the honeymoon, avoid romantic trysts near the cruise ship railing or cliff's edge. For details, see http://listverse.com/2018/01/02/10-newlyweds-who-killed-their-spouses-on-their-honeymoons/

Sleepwalking Murder in Fact & Fiction

My brother was a sleepwalker, and I still remember with unease my childhood encounters with him in the night--appearing silently in my room, shuffling past down a dark hall, mumbling to unseen companions as he moved blind-eyed through his dream world. The strange phenomenon of sleepwalking has been the basis for real and fictional murder mysteries. One of the most famous cases of homicidal sleepwalking was that of Kenneth James Parks, a married 23-year-old Canadian man who left his bed in the early morning hours of May 1987, and, still asleep, drove to his in-laws' home where he assaulted his father-in-law and stabbed his mother-in-law to death. The next thing he said he could recall was arriving at the police station, saying “I think I have killed some people...” Despite skepticism of his sleepwalking defense, his consistent story, lack of motive, the testimony of sleep specialists and abnormal EEG readings resulted in his acquittal by a jury. Sleepwalking has captivated fictional mystery writers as well. In last year's The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian, Annalee Ahlberg goes missing, and her daughters assume another sleepwalking incident. Annalee's husband flies home from a business trip, and search parties comb the nearby woods, but only a small swatch of nightshirt fabric hanging from a tree branch is found. Drawn to a detective who continues to stop by, her older daughter begins to wonder about the detective's motives, why no body has been found, and why incidents seem to occur when her father is absent. Another eerie entry from 2013 is The Nightwalker by Sebastian Fitzek: Leon Nader had been violent as a young man while sleepwalking but believes he has been cured by psychiatric treatment—until his wife disappears from their apartment. Nader fits a movement-activated camera to his forehead, and when he looks at the video the next morning, he makes an unimaginable discovery about his nocturnal personality. In 2011, B. Michael Radburn published The Crossing set in Tasmania. Traumatized by the disappearance of his daughter, Taylor Bridges' marriage breaks down, and he exiles himself to Tasmania's Glorys Crossing as the only national park ranger in an isolated town slowly disappearing under the rising waters of a new dam project. Taylor is a chronic sleepwalker, and when another young girl of the same age as his lost daughter goes missing, he begins to worry about his unknown behavior while sleepwalking. Among the more traditional novels about sleepwalking homicide are The Ivory Dagger by Patricia Wentworth, in which her sleuth Miss Silver solves the case of a young woman, prone to sleepwalking, who is accused of murdering her wealthy (but disagreeable) fiance, and I've Heard That Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark, in which a young woman who begins to doubt her new husband's suspicious nighttime wanderings, especially since he is connected with a vanished former girlfriend, a drowned wife, and bodies newly discovered on his estate. For more true stories of homicidal sleepwalking, see https://www.thoughtco.com/homicidal-sleepwalking-is-it-real-4098185

True Crime, or Fact Stranger Than Fiction

We're in an era when the lines between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood (alternative facts for some), seem more blurred than usual. When it comes to murder, the fictional tale is certainly easier to swallow, with mysteries solved, with good and evil clearly delineated, and with resolution cathartic and triumphant. On the other hand, the best of the true crime genre, going beyond prurient and sensational tabloid fare, exposes disturbing realities and forces readers to consider tough questions involving family, society and justice--often without clear answers. Consider Kate Summerscale's The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer, winner of the 2017 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime Book. In 1895, Robert Coombes (age 13) and his brother Nattie (age 12) kill their mother and go on a 10-day spree--eating at coffee houses, visiting the seaside and attending the theater. When their mother's decomposed body is finally discovered in an upstairs bedroom, Robert coolly confesses to stabbing her, while Nattie takes a plea and gives evidence against his brother. In his insanity defense, the court hears testimony about Robert's severe headaches, his fascination with violent criminals, and his passion for "penny dreadful" pulp fiction violence. He seems to feel no remorse, his laughing courtroom demeanor chills, and neither the prosecution nor the defense can find a motive. He is sentenced to Broadmoor, the infamous criminal lunatic asylum. Released as an adult, he moves to Australia and joins the army during World War I, becoming a band leader and stretcher-bearer, and earning medals for his courage under fire. He also later informally adopts a neighbor’s child when he sees the child abused. The journey from child killer to wartime hero is one of the tale's great mysteries, certainly unimaginable by Victorian theories about the "Wicked Boy." Another impressive fact crime book about the same time period is The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson, intertwining the story of the architect of Chicago's 1893 World’s Fair with one of the earliest serial killers, contrasting harbingers of our "modern" age. I also loved Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, a Southern Gothic murder set in Savannah, GA, high society. And of course, there's In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the 1966 classic that launched the genre with an exploration of a family massacred in a small Kansas town and the dark hearts of two killers, a great read even if later criticized for sacrificing factual truth to storytelling truth. For more examples of top true crime writing, see https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/73638-the-10-best-true-crime-books.html

Some Murder Mysteries Inspire Historic Change

In a previous post, I talked about the new fascination with "true crime," and I think it's only fair here to acknowledge the positive side to our lurid interest. Some murders not only inspire fictional bestsellers and highly rated television shows, they generate lasting legal and social change. For example, the public outcry after the 1964 New York murder of Kitty Genovese, stabbed to death in front of her apartment while 37 witnesses watched and did not intervene or call police, led to the development of the current 911 system. After the 1981 Florida abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh, his parents John and Reve Walsh established the pioneer Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children, launching a national movement that led to the Missing Children's Act to add missing children to the FBI's National Crime Information Center database in 1982 and creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 1984. When 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped from her home in Petaluma, CA, in 1993, and later found murdered by a parolee with a history of abducting and raping women, public outrage backed a “three strikes” ballot initiative mandating an automatic 25 years to life sentence for three-time felons. The California’s state legislature was inspired to pass a three-strikes version of its own, and by 1999, 24 states as well as the federal government had enacted some type of three-strikes law. But here's a favorite history-making murder: In 1799, Gulielma “Elma” Sands left her Manhattan boarding house and vanished, until her body turned up in the Manhattan Well. Amid wide publicity, fellow boarder and lover Levi Weeks was put on trial for the crime. It was not only New York’s first scandalous murder mystery, it was the first "dream team" defense: Levi's well-off brother hired two founding fathers, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and future Vice President Aaron Burr, along with future Supreme Court Justice Harry Livingston to defend Levi. The defense created a reasonable doubt strategy--presenting alternative suspects and theories (including suicide), attacking the victim's character, establishing Levi's alibi and planting doubts about prosecution witnesses--that would inspire future defense lawyers. And it was the young nation's first recorded criminal trial, as the court clerk transcribed into the wee hours, when exhausted jurors decided "not guilty." To read about more surprising murders that made history, go to http://listverse.com/2015/03/22/10-murder-mysteries-that-made-history/

Our Obsession With True Crime Tales

True crime stories, especially those focused on possible miscarriages of justice, are making their own headlines right now, and I admit to binging on Netflix's controversial "Making a Murderer," which raises questions of official misconduct in the murder convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey; the "Serial" podcast about Adnan Syed's 15-year-old murder conviction, which helped win him a hearing to seek a new trial; and now the FX miniseries about the O.J. Simpson case. Add in the growing number of TV true-crime series and fictionalized crime shows, and you may see a new addiction to televised reality mayhem. True-crime writing, on the other hand, is an old genre, littered with both lurid hack jobs and Pulitzer Prize-worthy insight. On the list of must-reads, I would recommend Pulitzer-winning The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer about murderer Gary Gilmore's life and death; Edgar Award-winning The Devil in the White City, in which Erik Larson chillingly parallels a 1893 Chicago World's Fair architect building the fair's White City with serial murderer H.H. Holmes building a murder castle; Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi's famed take on the Manson murders; The Onion Field, LAPD veteran Joseph Wambaugh's gripping tale of a policeman murdered in a Bakersfield onion field and its aftermath; In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, a literary exploration of the tragic intersection of two killers and a rural Kansas family; Homicide by David Simon, creator of "The Wire," about real detectives on the mean streets of Baltimore; and Mind Hunter by John Douglas, the eminent FBI profiler's exploration of twisted criminal minds. All have had tremendous impact. But before you jump into the grim details, you may want to ask yourself why you can't resist peeking at gory crime scenes and disturbed minds. See if you recognize yourself in these theories about our true-crime obsession by best-selling authors, journalists, psychologists, sociologists, movie directors and more: http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/question/216997-why-are-people-obsessed-with-true-crime

Famous Unsolved Crimes That Inspire Writers

Writers (and movie makers) repeatedly use certain famous unsolved crimes for inspiration, and the public responds. Why do these crimes fascinate? Just consider this short list of six well-known unsolved murders: Jack the Ripper's Whitechapel prostitute butchering; Lizzie Borden's suspected axe attack on her parents; the Black Dahlia case of a young woman's mutilated corpse in post-war L.A.; the Northern California Zodiac Killer with his cryptic messages; Dr. Sam Sheppard and the "bushy-haired intruder" he said killed his wife; and child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey, dead in her own basement at Christmas. The murders are all horrific, yet horror alone is not enough to sustain long-term interest. These mysteries intrigue for several basic reasons: the attractiveness and vulnerability of the victim, the shocking nature of the prime suspect, baffling and provocative clues, and the unknown motive for frightful acts. Focusing on victims, JonBenét Ramsey fascinates by being both innocent six-year-old and prematurely sexualized beauty contestant, while Black Dahlia Elizabeth Short provokes fears and prejudices about women venturing alone into the urban jungle. When it comes to suspects, what is more bizarre by traditional social conventions than spinster Victorian Lizzie Borden with a bloody axe or prominent osteopath Sheppard bludgeoning his wife to death? And the unsolved cases of both Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer are full of enticing clues, including those that the killer himself communicated publicly, tauntingly, only to escape capture. In all cases, the motive remains the biggest mystery, the one that keeps writers and readers busy profiling likely killers in order to decipher the "why" behind the awful "how." There is nothing more intriguing, or terrifying, than a monster hiding in plain sight. For a longer list of famous unsolved crimes, read http://list25.com/25-most-frustrating-unsolved-crimes-ever/5/