What Cold Cases are Really Solvable?

[GUT]

G'day again Ausgirl

You have set me off having a fresh look at my notes on the deaths of the Murphy's that have come to be known as the Gatton Murders.

The investigation was a real ****-up, wasn't it?

40+ people tramping over the place, burial with nary an examination, exhumations, if they couldn't find a way to do it wrong they invented one.

[GUT]

G'day Ausgirl

I think that even if Gatton is ever solved there will be many who say that the solution is wrong, just like Jacky.

[Ausgirl]

Oh, and I do think EAR/ONS is totally solvable. Somebody knew this guy! There must be familial or direct DNA still around somewhere, which will clinch the ID!

Websleuths is perfect aversion therapy for the Ramsey case. I can't even look at it any more. I think the case is so badly skewed and politicised that even if a non-familial killer is found, there'll still be some who would remain convinced Patsy and John are guilty.

There's pitfalls to clinging to theories like life itself.

[Ausgirl]

The 31-year old cold case murder of Australian teenager Michelle Buckingham was solved not long ago by the Melbourne cold case unit, headed by the "Great Man", Det. Sen. Sgt. Ron Iddles.

It wasn't an accident, or luck. The team went back to the beginning and re-assessed all of the evidence and re-interviewed as many people as they could, found a few leads and followed through.

Steven James Bradley was finally arrested in March this year, for Michelles' murder.

I'm a huge fan girl of Ron Iddles - he got things done! Sadly, he's retired from active duty is now working for the police union.

..I meant to add, sometimes it's time passed that allows for witnesses to speak up, or just fresh eyes with the benefit of hindsight. It surely has to be increasingly difficult as the years go by and people personally connected with the crime pass away, police resources are allocated to fresher crimes and evidence is lost, etc.

I keep hoping that some scrap of something surfaces to help solve the Gatton Murders here in 1898. That case really does my head in. But, as it is with JtR, I think its probable that *too* much time has passed for that happen.

[Mayerling]

I tend to think that it is by sheer accident when an old "classic" case is unravelled. We now think that we know who killed poor little Etan Patz in 1979, but they still have problems fully bringing it home to the probable killer (who was incarcerated for a different murder in a neighboring state). Similarly "Baby Jane Doe" was finally identified last year, and a relative found and arrested - but the trial is still in it's discovery and pre-trial stage. Those are the only two cases I can think of.

In addition, we have recently had a disaster in Brooklyn where a huge number of homicide convictions are being thrown out from the 1990s because the "successful detective" on the case used threats and force to get "witnesses" to back up his arrests of innocent suspects. The D.A.'s office at the time may have been aware of all this, but winked at it - it was good for their statistics on successful prosecutions!

Jeff

[Errata]

This is rather disturbing.

Yeah it is. He was caught after a botched suicide attempt about a week later and obviously went to jail. When he got out, he decided to make sure no one was ever in the position he was.

A lot of things makes someone a predator, and not all predators are made of the same stuff. He was obsessed with bondage and S&M for as long as he could remember. But this was before the internet in a small southern town. Any time he expressed interest or asked questions he was shut down. Called a pervert, sent to Bible camp, threatened with military school... And this was before the internet, certainly libraries didn't carry books on the topic, and there was no place for him to get information. He found a few adult magazines, he saw the pictures, they aroused him, but he didn't understand the context. And then he read some "letter to the editor" thing in Playboy or the like about a man who uses a next door neighbor girl to fulfill his fantasies and evidently that seemed like a solution to him. Obviously ignorance about his own fantasies wasn't the only factor, but it was a big one.

In prison he found out what he was, how it worked, why he didn't have to do what he did. When he got out he set up a dungeon. It is one of the safest in the nation with a sterling record. It is prominently advertised with pictures of some of the more dare I say "family friendly" images, and he runs "no questions asked" classes twice a month where anyone can come in and learn how to be safe. And as a peculiar part of one of my old jobs, I referred people to him all the time. And he gives speeches around the nation about how withholding information about any facet of sexuality doesn't save anyone. All it does is endanger people and allow those with truly dangerous fantasies to run around undiscovered and unstopped. He uses himself as an example, both as how information might have saved him, and how being shut down at every turn allowed someone who was becoming dangerous to escape notice. How child molesters often start in their teens, and because no one will listen to them about sex they are allowed to molest their entire lives without getting caught. How kids die because they try things they don't know how to do safely.

I'm not saying I'd leave my kid with him, but he's never committed a crime since. And his victim agrees with him on this. She donated pictures of her from after the attack so he could show people the damage he did, damage he didn't intend and didn't think about at the time. And I agree with him. I used to see the damage all the time. Withholding information doesn't help. My parents answered every question I ever asked. The answered those questions fully and completely, and offered to help me find more information on anything I needed to know more about. It didn't make me do those things. And frankly having your Dad explain sexual fetishes in excruciating detail to you is a really good way to never develop those fetishes. Just sayin. But my parents' theory is that if a child is old enough to ask the question, they are old enough to have it answered. So yeah I sent teenagers to the dungeon for education. And I've had more that one parent livid with that, but my job was never to help parents hide things from their children. Especially children who are already showing up in clinics because they did it wrong and got hurt.

So yeah. It is disturbing. Nor is it particularly unusual. Which is also disturbing. But something good (albeit strange) came out of it, and all parties are satisfied as to how to deal with what happened. So kind of a happy ending.

[Barnaby]

I only say that because a girl in town was tied up in elaborate bondage knots and filmed while this guy spanked her with a paddle. It was her babysitters boyfriend, so he stole her key to the house and used this girl to experiment. All of which was a "suggestion" in a magazine, maybe Playboy or the like. Some fantasy in a letter before they started monitoring those things.

And I know the guy who did it. And it's a story with a very peculiar but somewhat happy ending.

This is rather disturbing.

[RivkahChaya]

I see zero chance of that note being authentic. No terror group would ever call itself a 'small faction'. If it's two college students sharing a single pistol, they're still The People's Liberation Army, and represent the will of the populace.

Let's not forget, whoever wrote the note knew the amount of Jon ramseys bonus. It had to be someone in the family or someone very close.

It still could be a coincidence. They might arrest someone some day who thought 118,000 miles per second was the speed of light.

[Errata]

Errata's comment about a teenager makes me wonder if it was a family friend, though, who possibly did, or left behind, something, that caused the family to suspect the son.

I only say that because a girl in town was tied up in elaborate bondage knots and filmed while this guy spanked her with a paddle. It was her babysitters boyfriend, so he stole her key to the house and used this girl to experiment. All of which was a "suggestion" in a magazine, maybe Playboy or the like. Some fantasy in a letter before they started monitoring those things.

And I know the guy who did it. And it's a story with a very peculiar but somewhat happy ending.

[Abby Normal]

Let's not forget, whoever wrote the note knew the amount of Jon ramseys bonus. It had to be someone in the family or someone very close.

[Ginger]

There's a book by an FBI profiler I read some time ago on famous cold cases wherein he states that the note that was left strikes him very much of something a teenager would write.

I see zero chance of that note being authentic. No terror group would ever call itself a 'small faction'. If it's two college students sharing a single pistol, they're still The People's Liberation Army, and represent the will of the populace.

[RivkahChaya]

That probably means, more or less, that it sounds like somebody's inelegant attempt to copy the types of notes you see in Hollywood movies, and, among other things, mixing genres-- James Bond bad guy in part of the note, film noir in other parts, and the weird ransom amount, plus asking for it mainly in highly traceable $100s.

It wouldn't have been all that difficult to ask merchants to report anyone spending $100 bills, particularly since Christmas was over. People rarely spend $100s, especially since debit cards for things like car repairs and other big expenses.

ETA: for UKers less familiar with the case, here's the wiki page on the JonBenet case. The text of the note is there, and a link to the handwritten note is at the bottom.

[kensei]

Errata's comment about a teenager makes me wonder if it was a family friend, though, who possibly did, or left behind, something, that caused the family to suspect the son.

There's a book by an FBI profiler I read some time ago on famous cold cases wherein he states that the note that was left strikes him very much of something a teenager would write.

[RivkahChaya]

Anyone know if he ever admitted to lying, or is he still out there going "No, it was me, why won't anyone believe me?!"

I think no one is giving him a forum, so it's unknown, but his ex-wife produced photographs of him in another state at the time of the murder.

It turned out there was a warrant for him in California on a charge of :drumroll: child molestation, and I presume he's in prison still, although I suppose he may be out. I don't want to start Googling him, because I have a lot to do today.

I'll admit to being in the "parents did it" camp for a long time, but I don't think so anymore, although I wouldn't be shocked and some bizarre scenario where the parents initially thought the son was involved, and began a cover-up, which they decided simply to deny, rather than come clean about, when they realized their son was not involved. (Not saying that's what happened, just that it wouldn't shock me.)

Errata's comment about a teenager makes me wonder if it was a family friend, though, who possibly did, or left behind, something, that caused the family to suspect the son.

[kensei]

Admittedly, not sure on Toschi's current stance on Allen as Zodiac suspect. A quick online skim brought up only old info. But presumably he must have still been on board as recently as 2007 when the movie came out with Mark Ruffalo playing him.

On Jon Benet- That weird little guy John Mark Karr confessed to killing her a few years back, and was quickly dismissed as a false confession when various things showed it couldn't have been him. Anyone know if he ever admitted to lying, or is he still out there going "No, it was me, why won't anyone believe me?!"