#historic true crime

[morbidology]

On August 23, 1937, Dorothy Lucas, a new mother, was shopping in Chicago with her three-month-old daughter, Diane. In a momentary lapse of judgment, Dorothy left Diane in her pram outside the grocery store as she hurriedly paid for an item. Upon returning, she found Diane missing. Miraculously, Diane was found unharmed 23 hours later, thanks to an anonymous tip received by authorities revealing her whereabouts.

Days later, the Lucas family received an anonymous letter from a self-described 28-year-old woman. She confessed that her husband and daughter had recently passed away, and upon seeing Diane alone outside the shop, her heart broke. Initially planning to raise Diane as her own, she had a change of heart upon witnessing Dorothy's anguish. She concluded with:

“My only crime, if you can call it such, was too much motherly love.”

[sarahhudgins]

Salisbury Evening Post, July 10, 1922, page 7

There's some weird shit in old newspapers.

(He's lying to cover up being a piece of shit, but his lie is hilarious.)

[my-52-weeks-with-christie]

Rough on Rats: One Doctor's Suspicions

Dubious of Gertrude’s lucky escape, Dr. Kaltenbach swiftly sussed out Gertrude’s choice of water over coffee was inconsistent with her regular suppertime eating habits. With this nugget of knowledge stuck in his craw, Dr. Kaltenbach continued to care for the rest of the poison-stricken Taylor family — who now needed to contend with making funeral arrangements for their patriarch, Dillon. And…

[eyesaremosaics]

The face of the Gibson girl, the classic gilded age beauty—Evelyn Nesbit

Evelyn Nesbit was an American artists' model, chorus girl, and actress. She is best known for her career in New York City, particularly her involvement in an abusive and ultimately deadly love triangle between railroad scion Harry Kendall Thaw and architect Stanford White, which resulted in White's murder by Thaw in 1906.

Stanford White was the architect who designed the Madison square garden. He befriended Evelyn and her mother when she was a young poor art model trying to help support her family by posing for photographers and painters alike. Stanford groomed Evelyn, and one night he brought her back to his house, plied her with champagne, and then proceeded to drug and rape her. He continued to abuse her for a period of time after this. He told her to keep it a secret.

She dated John Barrymore, and they were each others first loves. The relationship was short lived, but neither ever forgot the other.

Evelyn married Harry Kendall Thaw, and eventually she confided the assault to her new husband. Though Evelyn felt relieved to finally speak it aloud to another human being, Harry obsessed over exacting revenge on White.

At 11 pm Thaw fired three shots into Stanford White’s head, killing him instantly. White was ironically attending the rooftop theater at Madison square garden.

[radiojamming]

I might copypasta my family's true crime incident from 1883 that I did a write-up on for Reddit, if you guys are interested. :D

[oooohno]

One of my favorite Sachiro x Nana selfship hcs is our love for listening to podcasts when we’re walking our dogs together. We take turns picking episodes and we always end up either learning things together or learning more about each others’ interests

[haveyouheardthispodcast]

[artigas]

fuck the “my favorite murder” podcast ad on my dashboard right now. fuck the marketability of branding people “murderinos,” fuck the pop culture obsession with serial killers, fuck white women thinking that making a few bland jokes is enough to absolve themselves from contributing to the fetishization of despicable and violent men. i know people like true crime and I know there’s probably an ethical way to indulge that interest but I’m so sick and tired of people mining tragedy for content. it’s disgusting to build humor off of human atrocity, it’s disgusting to reduce the violent murder and sexual predation of other human beings to an entertaining spectacle. years ago, i tried getting into true crime podcasts and the first podcast I tried began with the real, recorded footage of a small child calling the police after discovering her father had massacred her entire family. she was crying. she was scared. she was a baby. and I was just listening to a recording of a child crying on the worst day of her life while I was standing in line at a goddamn Home Depot. the banality of where I was, listening to such profound suffering, made me ashamed of myself. I couldn’t finish it. I wanted to cry, I wanted to throw up, I hated every second of it. fuck the culture of glorified violence and human apathy that’s brought us to the point where somebody can live with themselves and still make a profit off a podcast titled “my favorite murder” or mine the real, irreparable trauma of human tragedy for likes and subscribers. fuck that. fuck that.

[morbidology]

In 1931, Charles Bannon became the eighth white man to be lynched in North Dakota following his slaying of a rural family of six. Bannon worked as a hired hand on the farm of A.E. Haven near Shafter, N.D. 

In February 1930, Bannon slaughtered the six-member family and buried their bodies in the barn. He continued to live on the farm for nine months during which time the murdered family was not noticed to be missing. Bannon was apprehended in November when he attempted to sell some of the Haven livestock at a local market. He was questioned about the family’s disappearance and, after their bodies were found, charged with their murders.

Bannon was lynched in February 1931.

[sarahhudgins]

I'm doing a bit of historical research into Anson County, NC, and each rabbit hole is deeper than the last. I've already found two murderers to research, two sets of safe crackers, and an entire town burnt to the ground. And that's just between 1900 and 1925.

I haven't even looked at when Kilpatrick's Calvary and Sherman's troops marched through the area in March 1865...

[my-52-weeks-with-christie]

Rough on Rats: The Alleged Cimes of 13yr. old Gertrude Taylor

“A jealous hate is different—that rises out of affection and frustration…..I think people more often kill those they love than those they hate. Possibly because only the people you love can really make life unendurable to you.” (Pg. 113) This Crooked House quote references the real-life case of Constance Kent. Who, at the age of sixteen, took her nearly four-year-old half-brother Francis to the…

[scholarofgloom]

[acesammy]

ok.. you think Sam bloodfreak winchester would have the normal tumblr???? Sam really into true crime winchester???? Sam dabbles in witchcraft winchester?????? Sam would be like ‘I actually don’t think the Winchesters were that bad :/’ and the next comment would be ‘op steals bones btw’

[olivegardenhunter]

for the love of god as someone who has studied international humanitarian law for the last 5 years. I BEG of you, naruto fandom, to stop throwing around words like war crimes and genocide like it means nothing. and PLEASE stop directly applying real world standards onto the systems created in the Naruto universe. I'm not saying don't compare them at all, but please recognise that the Naruto universe very much have their own established systems with their own laws and standards that are not a perfect parallel to our world. and it's for this reason that you cannot hold the Naruto universe to the same standards you hold in the real world.

criticism and comparisons are good, absolutely, but recognise that there are different standards, particularly when it comes to morality, that are established in-universe. and finally, PLEASE understand that some of the things you argue in absolutes are things that continue to be debated even in the real world in the first place! some of the standards and morals that you hold the Naruto universe to aren't even fully agreed on in real life. please just recognise all these nuances and differences when you want to make a meta about the Shinobi system by applying real world standards.

keep writing up metas about the Shinobi world and keep comparing it to the real world and critiquing and analysing and dismantling what it is. but please just be a bit more careful and nuanced when you directly critique and interpret naruto using real world standards and logic. it is important to acknowledge that there are different lenses you can view media through, and that our morals and standards just happen to be one lens. it is far more interesting anyway to critique and find fault with the shinobi system through its own logic and by following its own universe's rule.