Crime stories

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ct/20070724/cr_ct/serialkillerontrialforcollegestudentsstabbingdeathin1974;_ylt=AnVWEv_1boVTDM0uOMvY1hFbIwgF

The name Coral Eugene Watts sounds vaguely familiar from the many books I've read about serial killers, but I'm not very familiar with his case. From what I gathered from the article, he's a woman-hating killer in the vein of Ted Bundy, with, according to his latest confession, almost as high a body count. Prosecutors in a 30-year-old murder case that has been tied to Watts are worried that his confession will be prejudicial, establishing him as a violent offender. That he's already in prison on a similar offense should be evidence enough that he has the inclination toward violence. But like I said, I'm not familiar with the case or Watts' history, but I'm intrigued, and will have more when I find out more.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070724/ap_on_re_us/serial_predator;_ylt=AgGfTnUK73WQKCODMaqxyM9bIwgF

A trial is under way for a suspect in the "Baseline" crime spree, but on shaky evidence. Prosecutors have implied they have the defendant's DNA from the body of a rape victim, but the defense disputes this. Also, the two rape victims failed to pick the defendant out of a lineup months ago, and only now identify him as their attacker, exactly the type of inconsistent eyewitness testimony that any good defense attorney enjoys ripping to shreds. The story doesn't say anything about the many other offenses for which the suspect is on trial, only that he has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

I was watching a show about Ed Gein, the inspiration for Psycho, a few nights back. He is one of very few murderers who has successfully pleaded insanity. Under the thumb of his religious fanatic mother, Gein had an isolated existence, dropping out of school at 14 to work on his family's farm. His mother drove away his few friends because she didn't approve of their less devout families, and he spent his life worshipping her, fearing her and loathing her. The two women he killed were middle-aged businesswomen, like his dead mother. The bodies he dug up from the local cemetery were middle-aged women. Gein was a classic necrophile. He killed his victims with a long-range shotgun, and his energies were devoted to desecrating their corpses. As psychologists have suggested, he probably hated his mother on some level for her domineering nature, but due to his fear and childlike idolation of her, he wouldn't admit it, even to himself. Instead, his hatred was taken out on female corpses. Gein was judged incompetent to stand trial, seemingly unaware of his actions and their consequences. At one point during his hearing, a journalist recalls him saying, "What are they going to do to me?" He was kept in a childlike state his entire life, due to his overbearing mother who wouldn't let him out into the world, and after she died, he was left alone with his twisted fantasy life, unaware of how to cope without his mother's guidance. Left on his own, he descended into madness unabated by contact with the real world.

Job status

I went in for my review at the scheduled time, but my boss, being the forgetful person that he is, apparently forgot about it. I still took some time to tell him that I was ready to leave the company. Showing genuine concern for my welfare, which shocked me, he insisted that I stay for another month or so, until I found another job, and submit a formal letter of resignation for that time. So I'll be staying until the end of August, trying to make it through.
This job has been a great opportunity for me as my first real job just out of college, but I just can't do it anymore. All day I read through the muck of people who can barely write, just to send it to a luxury hotel to better improve their kiss-ass service techniques and therefore scam more money off the spoiled rich clients that are the only ones who can afford to stay there. I'm not aiding in anything blatantly unethical, like letting Scooter Libby out of prison or defending corporations in exploiting their workers, but I don't feel right about what the company does. Maybe I'm overreacting. I do that sometimes. But I'll stick around for a while longer, letting my bosses know that I'm not comfortable there and intend to leave as soon as I can.

Fighting back against lame come-ons

It's happened again. Another barely literate guy tries to "compliment" me on MySpace: "had to let u no i love ur pix u got a great bodyn ur to me bad grl look is a big turn on" Had this guy bothered to read my profile, which they barely do, but I can hope, he would have seen that I prefer a guy to be somewhat articulate and interested in what I am interested in before I will talk to him. I've seen text messages more coherent than this email. And he sends yet another message, which reads: "i need to no
Body: do u draw cuz i wanna get another tat n i want a nice bloody goth pic but i no no1 to draw me 1" For the record, "no" and "know" are two very different words.
If anyone has read the great comic strip Pearls Before Swine, there is a zebra character who is constantly foiling his insanely stupid crocodile predators with the simplest logic. My dad told me that the zebra reminds him of me, and I can see parallels between the zebra's battle with the crocodiles and my battle with stupid guys trying to snare me with lame and futile methods. I was walking last weekend, and some guy pulled over in his SUV. Thinking he was going to ask for directions, I stopped. But no, the guy just wanted to tell me I was "very attractive." While nicer than some of what I've gotten over the years, some guy who had no idea who I really was tried to flatter me into his pants solely based on how I look. He probably thought that because he was slightly articulate, I would have responded, but his motives were the same as any catcaller, and I walked by him just as I have with so many others before him. I'm sure I've been classified as a bitch by these guys, but they don't respond to anything but the most obvious rejection. With some guys, if you just make eye contact with them once, they'll think you're interested. So anyone who gets unwanted advances from this type of guy has to be firm, even a little mean, to get the point across. Besides, why should we care what these idiots think about us?

The human thirst for revenge

I was watching a show about the Yosemite Killer today, and a family member of one victim said she just wanted the killer "gone." I took this as a request for the death penalty. In another show I saw about Pedro Lopez, who murdered as many as 200 young women in South America, the families of the victims were all but forming a lynch mob to track him and murder him. Maybe it's because I've never lost a loved one to a violent crime, but all of this is a little unsettling to me. Grief makes people do crazy things, but why should bloodlust be among them? Wasn't the desire to take a human life what caused the problem in the first place? As rational human beings, we should be able to rise above the baser instincts that the rapists and murderers of society let themselves fall prey to. Some advocates of capital punishment say that it's about more than revenge, but with both FBI profiler John Douglas and one of Ted Bundy's would-be victims expressing a desire to "pull the switch," it makes me doubt that it's about anything but revenge. The desire for revenge lives in all of us, but we're a civilized society. Haven't we grown beyond the medieval practice of public hangings? As FBI profiler Robert Ressler says in his book Whoever Fights Monsters, the thousands of dollars spent by the state to execute Ted Bundy to sate the bloodlust of the outraged public could have been put to much better use, such as building crime labs, training law enforcement officials and research.
Onto the personal front. The guy I met a month ago, who I thought could be the love of my life, told me he can't be involved with anyone right now. We still talk, but he said he might not even be in the area much longer, and I feel like the forces of luck have conspired against me yet again. I may have found the perfect man, but I just found him at the wrong time.

Sex crimes in Iraq

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070703/ap_on_re_us/iraq_rape_slaying;_ylt=Ag9MHQvO2VlOwkQF8np.C5BvzwcF

A US soldier accused of raping, murdering and burning the body of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl may finally face his day in court. Though I'm opposed to the Iraq war, I recognize that this type of war crime is not unique to Iraq. Soldiers dating back to the Middle Ages, and likely even earlier, have used combat to cover for more personal crimes, and were sometimes rewarded for their efforts. Goya's classic art series "The Disasters of War," from the 1800s, chronicles countless atrocities committed by soldiers. The motivation of this particular soldier in Iraq is unclear, but it appears to be a mixture of opportunity, a conquering warrior syndrome and a sense of entitlement. He saw a helpless young woman who was a member of an enemy nation and took advantage of her, then burned the evidence and killed the witnesses, the girl's family. The only thing that makes him and the brutality of his crimes different from an ordinary rapist and murderer is his military status, and the enemy status of the victims. If he was a civilian living in the United States, he'd likely be executed for the same actions.
Scooter Libby won't be going to prison, because "President" Bush thinks that a 30-month sentence is too harsh for leaking the identity of a CIA agent, thereby endangering her life. But he claims that with the fine and the "damage" to Libby's reputation, Libby will not get off free. I'm not inclined to trust George W. Bush after what he's done with his presidency, and this feels like cronyism and currying favor among the conservatives he's alienated, as some have suggested. The fact that the CIA agent's husband, a US ambassador, was a vocal critic of Bush's Iraq policy leads to more suspicion of just how aware Bush was of Libby's crimes and how much he allowed to happen. There are rumors that Libby will get a full pardon, and while this won't be the first questionable presidential pardon, from Ford pardoning Nixon to Clinton letting Marc Rich off the hook and Bush Senior absolving Iran-Contra criminals, it will be another black mark on Bush Junior's presidential record.
Personal note: DC's Summer Masquerade Ball is less than two weeks away, and I still don't have an outfit. I'll be using my day off tomorrow to hit the stores in hopes of finding one, and waste time today when I should be working searching online for inspiration. But whatever I end up wearing, I can't wait for SMB. All the years I've gone, I've had an amazing night, and it looks like this year will be bigger and better than ever, with three floors and a rooftop deck, bands, models (including the goddess Julie Simone), fetish carnival games and the usual crew of kick-ass DJs and my good friends. And I might get to bring the latest object of my adoration, one I have high hopes for. I just hope this one doesn't turn out to be one in a long string of disappointments.

Putin's regime throws up a smokescreen

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070702/wl_nm/russia_berezovsky_dc;_ylt=AjcRZnSbP2XIb6GpuR4GJZ10bBAF

A friend of a Russian dissident who was poisoned under mysterious circumstances has been charged by Putin's administration for "plotting to overthrow the government," because of a comment he made in a British newspaper that only force could changed the undemocratic Russian regime. I guess freedom of speech isn't valued in today's Russia any more than it was under Stalin. With Putin and his associates under suspicion for the dissident and former Russian secret service officer's murder, they've charged an emigre with a crime for the sole purpose of distraction, and making the victim look bad through association with a man who they have charged with treason.
On the personal front, I had a great weekend. On Saturday I went to EN, where I got a dose of body paint and had a great time hanging out with Azure and some newcomers, and an impromtu photo shoot with Larry B. On Friday I went to a Bound special event, where I had a second encounter with a guy I met at Bound on my birthday. We had been emailing in the interim, but I really feel something with this guy. He's very hot, which helps, but he's also smart, interesting and sounds like he gets me, which is very rare in people I've met. I had other friends there, but I couldn't stop talking to him. I know my instincts have been wrong before, and I've ended up getting badly hurt because of it, but I'm hoping for something different with this one. Soon I'll either be putting up elated posts about the amazing new guy in my life, or I'll return to my lovelorn state with posts to match.