Too Close to Home

[lilafran]

Hi.....

I've always loved to read about crime, both true and fiction. I am fascinated by investigation, forensics, and the meticulous way investigators can begin with so little, and with hard, sometime very tedious work, solve a crime.

Recently, though, crime hit way to close to home. For about 2 years my home town and the State capitol, separated by a 20 mile bridge over swampland, were victimized by a serial killer who was caught after he had killed 7 women, although the number is not definitive because the police think that he is responsible for several more deaths that they are attempting to link to him through DNA..His victims were young, successful, educated women who, ordinarily, were very cautious, according to their famililes. A couple of the bodies were discovered under the bridge near the swamp and one was found about a mile from my house in a wooded area. This area of Louisiana was terrified, and because I have a nineteen year old daughter who went out a lot, it was more frightening. She and her friends began to travel in groups, and the awareness in town was high. Gun sales and self defense classes were sky high, and many didn't go out after dark for a long time.

Reading in the pages of a book about the Ted Bundy's in the world is one thing, but looking over your shoulder wondering if the man in the car next to you could be the killer is a whole lot different.

Derrick Todd Lee was caught about a year ago, a supposedly, affable young man who walked up to many who remembered him after he was caught, and never suspected.

He's been tried in Baton Rouge, but the whole affair is far from being over......this man change the lives of so many in the two cities involved that are noted for their warmth and hospitality......

Lila

[lady cop]

sadly, serial killers are not rare in the US...there are approx. 27 operating at any given time in this country. most of them are transient. but as in lee's case, not all. he's a rara avis, one who is home-grown and/or operates in his own back yard. it is very much an American phenomenon. the FBI at Quantico has specialists in this discipline, and there are many excellent books out there. i am very conversant with bundy's case. and we have a particularly nasty thing here named danny rolling who ought to be executed without much further delay. he butchered 5 U. of Fla. college students. and i mean butchered. i watched entire bundy and rolling trials. with utter fascination and horror.

[lilafran]

Lady Cop,

My daughter will be studying criminology in the Fall. I think it's a fascinating field. Could you tell me a little more about the "home grown killers"?

Lila

[weeder]

Son of Sam was prowling the area I lived in in the middle 70s.It was a horrible feeling
sitting in a car after a date or dinner with a friend. .Being a nervous wreck. I used to jump right out of the car and run into the building. Awful

[lady cop]

well Lila, now i am fully engaged...my favorite topic in the world is homicide/criminology. i could go on ad infinitum. what is your daughter's goal? law school? law enforcement? the home-grown killer is compelled by impulses he cannot control (only rarely is it a female)..bundy probably killed a teenage neighbor when he was 15. it escalates. it is controlled for a while, but the frenzy goes out of control. bundy the perfect example. if they do not get caught or die, (green river) they will move on when it gets too hot in the area. but not all of them. some cannot leave their familiar hunting grounds. lee knew he'd get caught. so did bundy eventually. they challenge LE and think they will outsmart LE. but they always make a mistake. i am 99% sure bundy wanted to be captured .the transient serial killers, usually truckers, are opportunists, they pick up high risk females (hookers) who may not be missed. they do it for sport.

[lilafran]

I was a teen when Bundy was on his butchering spree, but don't remember the actual news coverage. He skipped over Louisiana to my knowledge. I did read Anne Rule's book which I enjoyed. I, also, read John Douglas' book years ago about his interaction with Bundy. Why do you think so many serial killers/killers come from in and about Washington State? Or am I wrong? It seems that everytime I hear about killers, many are from Washington.

Lila

[lady cop]

actually, bundy was not a butcher, just a prolific gsrden-variety sex strangler a la the boston strangler, desalvo. statistics do not bear out washington state preponderance, but they have had their infamous ones. bundy went from washington to utah to colorado to florida. as for ann rule, i have never been very impressed...she has been dining out on having BRIEFLY known bundy on a suicide hotline, for years, she is a reporter, nothing more, nothing in her books that wasn't gleaned from news reports and trial transcripts.then paraphrased, but good for her. i can see why the public likes to read her. try anything by Robert Ressler, and your daughter might find him compelling. he was FBI profiler. the real deal.

[lilafran]

My daughter is leaning towards law school, but has several friends in law enforcement who have been sharing their experiences with her and she may change her mind. I guess by the time Bundy got to Florida, he had gotten quite brutal. Have you had any personal experience with a serial killer? What do you think about the accuracy of profiling?

Lila

[lady cop]

i personally know over 20 murderers. one is definately a vicious serial killer. FBI profiling seems sometimes to be pretty predictable, "loner, white (lee the exception there), blah blah. transient. inadequate" *yawn*. as for the serial killer i do know very well, he is young, very polite, cooperative, and one of the few people i have met in my career with dead shark eyes, nobody home. and i do not mean insane. i mean cold. we have video tapes of him up and down the eastern seaboard shooting and slitting the throats of college kids trying to make a little money in fast food or convenience stores. and begging for their lives. just kids.

[lady cop]

bundy in florida...he escaped from colorado jails twice. he could have gone anywhere. but he went to florida, a state guaranteed to execute him. he went to a college sorority,Chi Omega, sneaked in, beat and raped three females, horribly, viciously, a bloody mess, (with a log), he left deep bites. 2 died. this crime was bound to create panic and chaos. then he went way afield of his MO...he kidnapped a 12 year old girl from a schoolyard. and raped and murdered her. an alert patrol cop got him on a driving violation. found burgler tools and other suspicious items. ran his prints, they had a wanted killer. bundy thought he was smart. there is a myth he was so brilliant and personable...not so. he was an arrogant ass and fired his own attorneys. the bite marks and the only living witness convicted him. when it was finally his time he was a sniveling coward who tried to trade his life for where the bodies were buried. nope, too late for that teddy. he went to his execution whining and crying. doesn't bother me a bit. i spent 12 hours with a death row inmate who was about to be executed who told me plenty about ted. he was a dead man walking, and spent 18 years on the row, and had no reason to lie, he wanted to talk. so i picked his brain.