Hello all,
I was recently hired on full time at Discovery, to work with Investigation Discovery, Turbo and the Military Channel. As a result, I will no longer be able to devote time to this blog or any other true crime outlet I have been known to write for in the past.
I am glad to have been a part of this group and I greatly appreciate having had the opportunity to blog along side some of the greatest people in the genre. I think Corey did a great job of assembling everyone here and I am sure the site will continue to be a great success.
For those of you who would like to keep up with me, you can visit me at www.davidlohr.net or you can drop by my MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/david_lohr. I also have a mailing list where people can keep up with my projects. To join, simply send a blank email to: davidlohr-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Most of the things I'll be doing for Turbo and the Military Channel will be behind the scenes, however you can still read my Investigation Discovery blog, the Criminal Report Daily, at: http://blogs.discovery.com/criminal_report
I will try to pop back in here now and again to comment on articles and catch up with old friends. In the mean time, I wish you all the best.
Regards,
David Lohr
It has been a busy week in serial killer news. To start, the Portland Chapter of the Parents Television Council is demanding that KOIN 6, a local CBS affiliate, cancel the television show Dexter, which depicts the life and crimes of a fictitious serial killer. (Apparently Snow does not realize that no one is forcing her or anyone else to watch.)
In Indianapolis, Kenna Quinet, an associate professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, recently had an article, “The Missing Missing: Toward a Quantification of Serial Murder Victimization in the United States,” published in the Journal of Homicide Studies. As a result of her research, Quinet believes serial killers claim as many as 1,832 victims in the United States each year.
Convicted Russian serial killer Alexander Pichushkin received an unwelcome Valentine’s Day gift, in the form of a rejection letter by Russia's Supreme Court, in regard to an appeal he recently filed, claiming his sentence was "harsh and unfair."
Suspected serial killer Gary Michael Hilton, 61, made sure his dog would be cared for while he was in prison, by modifying his plea agreement to stipulate that his dog would be placed in a good home. According to the Associated Press, the dog's new owner is "someone close to the case," whom Hilton did not know prior to his arrest.
Lastly, in Florida, the Broward Sheriff's Office released a sketch of the man who robbed a woman at the Town Center Mall in August. Police believe the same man could be responsible for the December 13, 2007, murders of Nancy Bochicchio, 47, and her 7-year-old daughter – a case that John Walsh, host of the popular television show America's Most Wanted, believes is connected to another unsolved murder. Criminal profiler Dr. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin recently profiled the killer for Investigation Discovery. Click here to read her analysis of the case.
That's all folks! If you would like to read more on any of these or other recent serial killer cases, visit Serialkillernewsbriefs.com.
It should come as no surprise to my regular readers that the most infamous resident of Pennsylvania’s Rockdale Township, Edward Gingerich, 42, is back in the news yet again. For those not familiar with Gingerich, he is the first Amish man to ever have been convicted of murder. His crimes, however, did not end at mariticide. After serving a laughable two and one-half years for murdering his wife, Gingerich was arrested again in April 2007, for concealment of the whereabouts of a child and criminal conspiracy. Gingerich is again in trouble with the law, this time for illegal possession of a firearm.
According to state police, Gingerich, who is prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm, was hunting with a gun on November 26, 2007. On Feb. 12, Vernon Township District Judge Michael Rossi arraigned Gingerich on a second-degree felony for possessing a firearm and ordered him to be held in the Crawford County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.
It was just four months ago that Gingerich entered a “no-contest” plea to criminal conspiracy when he concealed the whereabouts of a child, a second-degree misdemeanor. During his sentencing hearing, on December 5, 2007, Gingerich was sentenced to six months’ probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine.
His charges in that case stemmed from an incident that occurred in April 2007, when he accosted his estranged 17-year-old daughter and took her to a camp in McKean County, where state police later found them. As a result of the incident, Gingerich was excommunicated from his Amish community.
“Anybody from the Brownhill Amish who accepts Ed will be shunned,” said John Otto, a New Order Amish man living in Crawford County, in a recent interview with the Post-gazette.com.
Gingerich first became known to police in March 1993, when, in the presence of his young children, he murdered his wife and gutted her, placing her lungs, kidneys, stomach, liver, spleen, bladder, uterus, and heart in a pile next to her body.
Two years later, a jury found Gingerich guilty of involuntary manslaughter. But, the jury also found that Gingerich was mentally ill. As a result, he was sentenced to a minimum of two and one-half years and a maximum of five, with credit for time served.
Gingerich was released from prison on March 19, 1998. Following his release, Gingerich moved to a community for troubled Amish in Evart, Michigan, where he remained until in December 2006, when he moved to a psychiatric center in Goshen, Indiana. Gingerich stayed at the center approximately one month before returning to Pennsylvania.
Gingerich is scheduled to appear in court again on February 21, for a preliminary hearing regarding his most recent charge. If convicted, Gingerich faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Given his past history, I doubt this is the last we will hear of Edward Gingerich.
Press Release Source: Discovery Communications
Discovery Times Channel Becomes 'Investigation Discovery' In January 2008
- Channel Is Currently #1 Ad-Supported Cable Network For Audience Growth In 2007 -
Discovery Times Channel will become "Investigation Discovery," starting Sunday, January 27, 2008. Investigation Discovery (ID) will continue the network's heritage of providing in-depth documentaries and series that challenge viewers on the key issues shaping our culture and defining our world. Investigation Discovery will also expand partnerships with leading news organizations to bring increased analytic, fact-based investigative and current affairs programming to the network's 50 million U.S. households.
Investigation Discovery will build on the audience growth that has led Discovery Times Channel to earn the largest P2+ delivery gains -- triple digits over the past 10 months -- among all ad-supported cable networks for 2007 to date compared to the same period last year. The channel has also logged 14 consecutive months of double- and triple-digit total day household ratings increases (average: 79%).
"With Investigation Discovery, the company continues an organized, sequential repositioning of our emerging network portfolio. The strategy is to build faster growing and more compelling consumer propositions that can also drive the businesses of our advertising and distribution partners," said David Zaslav, president and chief executive officer of Discovery Communications. "Global consumer interest for fact-based investigations and current affairs documentaries is large and growing. Discovery has a great programming tradition in this category, and Investigation Discovery will have over 200 hours of premiere programming in 2008, and the ability to distribute original content on the U.S. channel and across our networks in 173 countries internationally."
Investigation Discovery is the latest in the company's emerging networks portfolio to benefit from increased individual focus and investment.
For 3Q07, The Science Channel and Military Channel's programming slates earned double-digit total day delivery increases vs. 3Q06. The Science Channel logged household delivery +23%, total viewers + 35% and P25-54 +39%. Military Channel earned household delivery + 63%, total viewers + 56% and P25-54 + 45%. And as announced earlier this year, in 2008 Discovery Home Channel will become Planet Green -- the company's global, multiplatform initiative featuring the first-ever 24-hour television network dedicated solely to green lifestyle programming reaching over 50 million homes and aligned with treehugger.com and planetgreen.com.
"The new name, Investigation Discovery, correlates directly to the programs that have earned such tremendous viewership gains this year, while keeping the essence of the channel's DNA in providing in-depth content focused on issues facing our world today," said John Ford, president and general manager of Investigation Discovery. "The new branding for the network aims to engage our loyal audience with compelling content that only Discovery can provide with credibility, intrigue and exceptional story-telling."
Investigation Discovery will unveil its full programming line-up, new logo, on-air branding campaign and robust website in early January 2008.
Discovery Communications launched Discovery Times Channel as a joint venture with The New York Times Company in 2003. Since then, Discovery Times Channel has nearly quadrupled its distribution from 14 million to 50 million U.S. homes and has won numerous critical and industry awards, including three Emmys, an Overseas Press Club Award and three National Headliner Awards. The New York Times Company ended its partnership with the channel last year.
About Discovery Communications
Discovery Communications is the number-one nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers in over 170 countries. Discovery's 100-plus worldwide networks are led by Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, The Science Channel, Discovery Health, Military Channel and HD Theater, with digital media properties including HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery Communications is owned by Discovery Holding Co. (Nasdaq: DISCA - News, DISCB - News), Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, Discovery's founder and chairman. For more information please visit www.discoverycommunications.com/.
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Source: Discovery Communications
As many of you know, Time Warner will be relaunching CourtTV as TruTV on Jan. 1, 2008. I have received hundreds of emails from readers in the past few weeks who want to know how the rebranding will affect the current content being offered by CTV both on air and on the net.
Based upon the memos I have received, a number of changes are in the works, some of which you will see on Jan. 1, while others will not be made until the spring of 2008. Regarding the online content, all of the afternoon trial coverage will be moved from CourtTV.com to CNN.com/crime. In addition to online trial coverage, CNN.com will also inherit CrimeLibrary.com. I am not aware of any changes to TheSmokingGun.com.
As a result of the changes, many online staffers at CourtTV.com have already been let go, and the entire staff at CrimeLibrary.com, myself included, has been notified that their positions will be terminated within the coming weeks. It is my understanding that Crime Library will no longer provide daily crime news and that the site will be used for archival purposes. According to an internal memo, CNN.com has no plans to add additional staff to operate it.
As part of Time Warner’s rebranding, TruTV will continue to air live trial coverage during the day, but prime time will focus on “real engagers.” According to a recent press release, some of the new programs will include:
Sky Racers: “When working in the most crowded airspace in the country, being a news helicopter pilot in Los Angeles means rushing to a story the moment it breaks. These pilots assist police during high-speed pursuits, all while using aerial acrobatics to jockey for position. This new series puts viewers inside the cockpit with Desiree Horton, a rare female news pilot and one of the best in the business.”
One False Move: “This gripping series will follow people whose jobs and adventures take them to the brink of disaster—like rescue crews that blast two miles below the Earth's surface or perform daring rope maneuvers hundreds of feet above ground. As this show will prove, a single mistake can be deadly.”
The Real Hustle: “This series from Objective Productions/Crook Productions shows how an elite team of experts can steal a person's money, possessions and even identity. It features Apollo Robbins, an expert pick-pocket and personal security consultant; Ryan Oakes, a sleight-of-hand and psychology specialist; and Dani Marco, a professionally trained actress skilled in distraction techniques. Taking on savvy New Yorkers, this trio will offer insider knowledge into the mechanics and psychology of how a con is executed.”
Neighbors 911: “From Granada America and executive producer Curt Northrup (Nanny 911) comes this new series in which former Green Beret Myke Hawke goes into the homes of people whose feuding has escalated into all-out conflict. Hawke is the judge and jury as he uses video evidence to force neighbors to confront each other and resolve their differences.”
Ski Patrol: “This exciting series from Bunim/Murray Productions (The Real World) gets viewers up-close and personal with the men and women who work in some of the most extreme environments in the country. They do everything from dynamiting snowdrifts to daring, out-of-bounds rescues to busting unruly snowboarders looking to party on the slopes.”
Black Gold: Few jobs have higher stakes than those of “wildcatters” in Texas, where oil prospectors race one another to tap into the last remaining U.S. reserves. From Original Productions' Thom Beers, an executive producer of the hit series Deadliest Catch, this show will follow several of these wildcatters and their crew of roughnecks as they risk lives, limbs and hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to strike oil.
Already popular shows, such as “Forensic Files,” “Haunting Evidence” and “Psychic Detectives,” will also continue to air.
The changes are a result of the network’s desire to target “real engagers,” whom they describe as males aged 35 to 45, in part because advertisers have a preference for that particular demographic.
Whether the new changes will succeed is yet to be seen. In the meantime, at least two new Web sites will be available Jan. 1 to pick up Crime Library’s daily crime news traffic—Discovery Channel is putting together a new crime Web site, set to launch on Jan. 1, and another new true crime venture, not affiliated with either site, is set to launch that same day at 320Sycamore.com. So regardless of what happens with CTV and Crime Library, readers will have other options to explore in the coming weeks.
“If it is the dirty element that gives pleasure to the act of lust, then the dirtier it is, the more pleasurable it is bound to be.” -- Donatien-Alphonse-Francois de Sade
Last month, Teaneck, N.J., police arrested 24-year-old Anthony Merino, a lab technician at Holy Name Hospital, for allegedly having sex with a 92-year-old woman's corpse.
Approximately one-week prior, the Associated Press published an article about a teacher in Tuscola, Texas, who was placed on paid leave and faced criminal charges for allegedly distributing a book to minors about a murderer who has sex with his victims' bodies.
That same week, the Wisconsin Legislature took no action on a proposed bill that would formally criminalize necrophilia. Why, you might ask, was such a bill even proposed? Because of three young men from Wisconsin – brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke, both 20, and their friend, Dustin Radke, also 20 – who concocted a bizarre scheme in August 2006, to dig up a young woman’s body so Nicholas could have sex with her corpse.
The three men were arrested after attempting to dig up the corpse and were charged with attempted theft and attempted third-degree sexual assault. However, during their trial, the men's defense attorneys successfully argued that the sexual assault charges had to be dismissed, because the law reads that the victim must be alive or that their death must occur as a result of a sexual assault. The judge had no choice but to rule in the defense's favor, and the attempted sexual assault charges were dropped. Instead, the judge recommended the three men be charged with criminal damage to property.
There have been multiple other cases of necrophilia in the news this past year. If you take the time to set up a Google alert, you’ll be astonished at just how often these incidents occur.
The famous European Psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Guislain, first coined the term “necrophilia” in 1860. At that time, necrophilia was used to define a category of “insane destroyers.” Dr. W. A. F. Browne, first superintendent of Crichton Royal Dumfries, invented the word “necrophagy” fifteen years later. Dr. Browne defined necrophagy as an instance of cannibalism, without any erotic connotations. The final definition of necrophilia came in 1901, when a man by the name of Alexis Epaulard wrote a paper on vampirism and necrophilia. Within his work, Epaulard suggested that anyone who loved corpses, platonically or not, should be called a “necrophile.” Epaulard also introduced the term “necrosadism” as a designation for those who mutilated corpses.
Today necrophilia is simply defined as the erotic attraction to corpses. The age, gender, and or species of the corpse, have no relative bearing. The corpse may be young or old, male or female, human or animal. The individual preference lies with the perpetrator and may vary consistently from case to case. Those most prone to committing acts of necrophilia generally have an uncontrollable obsession, a usually erotic interest, or are stimulated by corpses. It is unknown as to when these urges first manifest, and popular opinion seems to vary on the underlying causes.
The medical community considers necrophilia to be a “paraphilia” - a condition in which an individual’s sexual arousal and fulfillment depend upon fantasizing about and/or engaging in sexual behavior that is atypical and extreme. Paraphilias can revolve around a certain object, such as undergarments or shoes, or a particular act, such as self-mutilation or voyeurism. Someone suffering from a paraphilia can be distinguished by his or her preoccupation with an object, or his or her behavior to the point of being dependent on that object or behavior for sexual gratification. In most cases, these individuals find it impossible to achieve sexual gratification unless they fantasize about their Paraphilia.
The origin of necrophilia remains unclear. Ancient Egyptians are believed to have indulged, as well as the Mochica people, a Pre-Inca civilization from about 100 to 700 A.D. Cases have also been found in New Guinea and the Middle East.
One of the first documented cases dates back to the 1800s, when Sergeant Bertrand, a 25-year-old soldier in the French army, was arrested for grave robbery. The evidence against him was somewhat questionable, but his own words revealed the extent of his depravity.
“From my earliest childhood, I masturbated without knowing what I was doing,” Bertrand allegedly told authorities after his arrest. “I did it openly, without hiding myself. Towards the age of 8 to 10, I began to think of women. The desire for them developed in me only towards my 13th or 14th year. Then I knew no more restraint and masturbated seven or eight times a day. The mere sight of an article of feminine attire was enough to cause an erection. During the act of masturbation my imagination transported me to a roomful of women, all at my disposal. I would in my mind torture them in every possible way, according to my desire. I would imagine them as dead before me, and would defile their corpses.”
Bertrand said that when his fantasies ceased to fulfill his desires, he started having sex with the bodies of dead animals. This, however, was only a temporary solution and over time it did little to hinder his “darker” desires.
In 1847, Bertrand was walking through a graveyard, when he happened upon a fresh grave. Unable to control his desires, he exhumed the corpse and began to mutilate it. According to his later confessions, it was during this act that he experienced one of the most intense orgasms of his life.
From there, Bertrand continued to exhume and mutilate corpses for sexual gratification, but as with the dead animals, it eventually became harder for him to achieve sexual gratification. He later confessed that during one particular excursion he discovered yet another way to obtain pleasure from a corpse.
“When I arrived at the cemetery, I dug up the corpse of a girl from 15 to 17 years of age. There, for the first time, I gave myself up to the mad embrace of a dead body. I cannot describe my sensations, but all the joy procured by possession of a living woman was as nothing in comparison with the pleasure I felt. I showered kisses upon all parts of her body, pressed her to my heart with a madman's frenzy. I overwhelmed her with the most passionate caresses. After having regaled myself with this pleasure for a quarter of an hour, I started to cut the body open and pull out the entrails, as I'd done with all the other victims of my madness. Then I replaced the body in the grave, covered it lightly with earth, and returned to the barracks by the same road I had come.”
Bertrand’s secret lifestyle came to an end in 1849 Paris, when he was caught exhuming a freshly buried corpse. While he was unable to recall exactly how many corpses he had exhumed during his three-year spree, he surmised that the figure was somewhere between fifteen and twenty.
In March 1849, following a military court marshal, Francois Bertrand was sentenced to one year in a military mental hospital. It is unknown what happened to Bertrand after his release. It is highly unlikely that he was cured; however, there are also no records to indicate that he was ever arrested again. The most feasible explanation would be that he simply honed his skills and continued to fulfill his desires throughout the remainder of his life, without detection.
Bertrand, however, was not the first or the last to indulge in the darker side of human nature. During the 1930’s, Count Karl Tangler Von Cosel, a 60-year-old Russian ex-patriot, moved to the United States and settled in the Florida Keys. Within a year of his arrival he fell in love with a nurse. However, their romance was to be short lived and she died not long after their meeting.
Devastated by her death, Von Cosel attempted to revive her using electricity, but his attempts were futile and he eventually gave up, placing her in a mausoleum. However, unbeknownst to anyone, he later recovered her corpse and brought it back to his home.
From that point on, Von Cosel became a recluse and rarely strayed from his home, preferring to spend all of his time with his dearly departed love. Von Cosel may have gotten away with his dirty deeds had police not been tipped off that the mausoleum was empty. Upon securing a search warrant for Von Cosel’s home, investigators were shocked to find him in bed with his dead lover’s corpse.
Police were stunned when they discovered Van Cosel had given his dead lover new breasts, arms and legs, and an artificial vagina, that he had been using for sexual intercourse.
In his defense, Von Cosel said that he had been building an airship, in which he was planning to fly his deceased lover into the stratosphere, so that “radiation from outer space could penetrate her tissues and restore life to her somnolent form.”
Following a brief trial, Von Cosel served a minimal sentence for his actions and lived the remainder of his life as a lonely recluse.
Perhaps the most famous necrophile of the 20th century was not a male, but a female named Karen Greenlee, an embalmer's apprentice at Memorial Lawn Mortuary in Sacramento, California. In 1993, Greenlee made headlines around the world when she was caught in a hearse with a male corpse she was supposed to deliver to a cemetery two days prior.
When police took her into custody, Greenlee was in a daze and high on prescription drugs. Charged with interfering with a burial, the case may not have gone any further, had Greenlee not left a lengthy letter inside the casket, in which she confessed to having sexual relations with at least 40 deceased males.
“Why do I do it? Why? Why? Fear of love? Relationships? No romance ever hurt like this ... It's the pits. I'm a morgue rat. This is my rat hole, perhaps my grave.”
When confronted with the letter, Greenlee admitted that she had previously been caught breaking into funeral homes, but that she had been allowed to run away. The funeral directors allegedly let her go because they feared the bad publicity. In addition to funeral home break-ins, Greenlee also admitted to entering fresh tombs and molesting corpses.
Greenlee allegedly told police she achieved her sexual gratification by rubbing her clitoris against the dead men's limp members. She also said the smell of a freshly embalmed corpse excited her.
Because California did not have a law against necrophilia, Greenlee was sentenced to 11 days in jail and fined two hundred and fifty-five dollars for stealing the body and the hearse. The judge also recommended that she seek medical treatment for her “odd” sexual fetishes.
Necrophilia is as prevalent in today’s society as it ever was, perhaps more so. Type the word into Google and you’ll get over 700,000 hits. In the last decade alone dozens of websites have popped up on the web where people can intermingle and share their hidden desires. One website in particular, Rob's Necrophilia Fantasy, claims to provide visitors with “information on necrophilia and related sexual interests to broaden your own personal awareness of your own sexuality, and human sexuality in general for research or personal enlightenment…”
Another website, Necrobabes.org, is run by a woman named Vicki, who writes on her site: “Basically, I've always enjoyed playing dead. This fantasy started at an early age, but, now I have a way to share my fetish, with my friends.”
In reality, a fantasy is just that, a fantasy. But I think I’ll stick with the living for now…
Police Accuse Walter L. Smith Jr. in the Rape and Murder of His 22-year-old Sister
SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. — Earlier this month police charged a teen boy with killing and raping his sister and beating his 2-year-old cousin with a sledgehammer. During an interview with The Associated Press, Spotsylvania County Sheriff Howard Smith said the case was “one of the more brutal cases” he had ever investigated.On September 3, hospital staff notified police that a woman had brought in a 2-year-old suffering from a fractured nose and skull. When police questioned the woman she told them her daughter had somehow sustained the injuries while with a babysitter at a relative’s house in the 8200 block of Brock Road.
When detectives went to the scene, the babysitter, 22-year-old Betsy Mary Smith (pictured above), was nowhere to be found. Upon further investigation, one of the officers noticed that a bedroom door inside the home had been padlocked shut. Concerned that Betsy could be in danger, one of the officers used a hammer to break the lock. Upon entering they discovered Betsy’s dead body on the bedroom floor, in such a state that even veteran investigators cringed at the sight of it.
When police questioned Betsy’s brother, 16-year-old Walter L. Smith Jr., he made the startling revelation that he had beaten his sister to death with a sledgehammer and then had sex with her corpse. During the attack his 2-year-old cousin began to cry, at which time he also hit the toddler with the sledgehammer. Afterward, Smith locked the child, along with her 1-year-old brother, inside the bedroom with Betsy’s body, where the children remained for approximately 12 hours, until Smith decided to release them.
Smith was unable to provide police with a motive for the crime.
“He don't remember nothing he did,” Smith’s mother, Mary Smith, told FoxNews.com. “He was out of it or something like that. It was an accident. He doesn’t remember that stuff.”
Police charged Smith with first-degree murder, rape and malicious wounding. During an initial court appearance last week, a judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether Smith is competent to stand trial. If convicted in his sister’s murder, Smith faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
Smith is currently being held at the Rappahannock Juvenile Detention Center.
Authors Note: I apologize for posting late today. I have been sick as a dog with the flu all week.
Classic Bitches in Heat, Back Door Girls, and Peaches and Cream – those are just a few of the pornographic films available from TVX Home Video, Inc. According to the company’s website, it sells wholesale porn flicks to video stores and distributors. The company president, Bob Burge, currently stands at the forefront of a disturbing lawsuit that was recently filed in a Florida court, alleging that his company used a copyrighted image of a young teenage girl, without her knowledge or consent, on the cover of a pornographic DVD titled Body Magic that was distributed through several online websites.The victim in this case is 18-year-old Lara Jade Coton, a student and photographer from England. Lara was just 14 when she posted an artistic image of herself on the website Deviantart.com – an image TVX would later use on Body Magic.
“It was taken during a family holiday and was tastefully done,” Lara said in an interview with Metro.co.uk on Monday. “It's unbelievable it is being used in this way … I had been experimenting with light when the photo was taken. I was very proud of it and that's why I put it on the website.”
Lara found her image being used on the DVD cover earlier this year when she received an e-mail from a blogger seeking permission to use the photo. Lara was appalled when she followed a link to the website and saw her photo being used as a marketing tool for the porno flick.
“I don't know if you can see the descriptions too well but it is quoted as ‘Hustlers Highest Rated and a 'pleasure to watch,’” Lara wrote in a May 25, 2007, entry in her blog at Deviantart.com. “The back of the cover was disgusting. I looked it up on the Internet and found out that Hustler.com was stocking it and a range of other dirty video websites that took pleasure in this. What I also found was that there was a note on the back saying ‘everyone associated with this DVD is 18 or over.’ 18 or over? Yeah right. I contacted Hustler and they gave me the name of the company - TVX Films.”
Not only did TVX have the audacity to use her image, they allegedly took the time to alter it by removing a watermark from the image prior to publishing it on the DVD cover. On January 29, 2007, Lara sent an e-mail to TVX notifying them of the infringement.
“I am absolutely disgusted that you’ve used my artwork for such a subject,” she wrote. “I was fourteen at the time the picture was taken and I had no clue until today that you were using it in such a way.”
The following day Burge allegedly sent Lara this rude e-mail:
“To date their [sic] have only been a couple hundred dvd’s [sic] sold throughout the world so the picture is of little importance so I’ll be glad to have them change the art.”
On February 2, 2007, Lara sent a second e-mail, requesting compensation for the unauthorized use of her image and also asking for a written statement that her image would no longer be used by TVX. That same day Burge allegedly sent the following response:
“Not only will you not be compenstated [sic] for your photo, we have turned this problem over to our attorney. It seems the company my graphic company got the photo from on the Internet is a public domain operation. You knew this when you originally sent us your scheming letter. Nice try tools. We are still going to remove you from the art, not because of your claim, but let’s face it your picture means very little to the film.”
Lara immediately responded to Burge and informed him that the image had been used only at the Deviantart website and that the image had contained a watermark copyright and the page on which it appeared also contained a copyright indication.
Burge allegedly sent this response:
“We have already confirmed your face and image will be taken off the DVD insert page and my website. As soon as the art has been reprinted we will then send it to all our distributers [sic] and have them return any product on their shelfs [sic] so that we can remove the DD cover.
“I’m sure by the end of the month your face will be history. We have stopped selling the DVD until the cover is replaced. We have further check out your name and its not like it’s a house whole [sic] name. Actually, removing your image will help improve the sell [sic] of the DVD…So far it bombed.”
Several other e-mails were exchanged between Lara and Burge, but his response was generally always the same and he continued to belittle her. Lara further explained the situation in a May 25, 2007, entry on her blog:
“[He] claimed I was 'scheming' and had set him up – placing the image on a public domain so companies can steal it and I can sue them... er, what? I actually had this image on only one website for a few years until I joined flickr - just DeviantART and it was clear that wasn't a public domain when underneath each of my pictures there is a disclaimer CLEARLY stating the obvious (that's it's copyright)... and ALSO i had a bloody © symbol and my name written across my dress!!! Isn't that enough to warn anyone off anyway? When I asked for compensation he said ‘AS FOR COMPSENSATION; YOUR SILLY’ and this was one of the end comments he made: ‘THEY ARE REMAKING THE COVER AS WE SPEAK SO YOUR TEN SECONDS OF FAME WILL SOON COME TO AN END.’ My so-called ten seconds of fame was from a porno DVD? No thanks.”
One of the last correspondences Lara received was from A. J. Cohen, a man who claimed to be the graphic artist who found her image on the Internet. Cohen e-mailed Lara on February 3, 2007:
“Your image has immediately been removed from any TVX DVD packaging, DVD face art, website as well as having all sales personnel instructed to stop selling it immediately,” Cohen wrote.
Regardless of the promises Lara allegedly received from Burge and Cohen, the DVD continued to sell on the Internet. During the months of May and June 2007, Lara’s attorney, Richard A. Harrison, placed multiple orders online for Body Magic at several different adult websites. In each instance her counsel received a DVD without Lara’s photograph on the cover; however, the DVD itself still bore her image. Seems TVX was trying to pull a fast one.
On July 31, 2007, Harrison filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tampa, Florida, accusing Burge and TVX Films of copyright infringement, civil conspiracy, misappropriation of her image, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Excerpts from that lawsuit can be found at Thesmokinggun.com.
“We're asking a jury to award damages, including punitive damages, for the outrageous conduct of Burge and TVX,” Harrison said in a PRNewswire article posted to Cameratown.com. “We're also asking the court to stop these pornographers from using the picture and to impound any copies of the movie or other materials on which Lara Jade's picture appears.”
It is interesting to note that this is not the first time TVX has been accused of theft. In 2006, rumors circulated around the Internet that TVX had pirated the pornographic film BabyFace and was redistributing it. On December 27, 2006, a person claiming to be a spokesperson for TVX posted this response to Adultdvdtalk.com:
“We could scratch our heads all day and try to figure out public domain, yet the films being released through TVX Films (not the bootlegged tvxdvd.com) are indeed not stolen in any way whatsoever. I wish you could visualize the time we spend researching who owns what, who has rights to what titles and for how long (and in what format) the rights extend. Many of the obscure classic titles and the validity of the true owners sometimes find us also in grey [sic] areas, and many films we were going to release this year - we did not, simply because we questioned the true ownership. Anyone with any questions on TVX film ownership, a more personal explanation of each film or our current library in general are welcome to email - bob@tvxfilms.com, anytime.”
I am trying to visualize the hours they spend conducting research, but in light of the current situation I am having a difficult time doing so. Perhaps this is one of those “grey areas”?
Yesterday I contacted Lara, but because of the pending lawsuit she was reluctant to discuss the case. However, before referring me to her attorney, she did have this to say:
“The DVD has made my life stressful since I found out. Before I had a lawyer I was [so] emotionally distressed that I couldn't do anything about it or the way Bob had treated me.”
Unfortunately, Burge did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
To make a victim out of this young woman and then blame her for a lack of sales is appalling. It is my hope that the judge who receives this case leaves both Burge and TVX penniless for the emotional trauma they have put Lara through. Nuff said!
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Lara is a very talented photographer and I wish her the best. Her work can be seen at LaraJade.com.
Last week, I covered a case for Crime Library that took place in Florida, where a group of thugs raped a woman and then forced her son to join in the sexual assault. The details of the crime are horrific and, in the aftermath, we are left with some serious questions in regard to the offenders. But, before we get into that, I will give those of you unfamiliar with the case a brief rundown of what occurred and what has transpired since I originally covered it.On the night of June 18, ten gun-wielding thugs forced their way inside a woman’s West Palm Beach home in Dunbar Village, a 17-acre public-housing complex in the 1700 block of Division Avenue. Once inside, the suspects, all believed to be between the ages of 14 and 18, beat the woman’s 12-year-old son and then, with him present, they gang raped, sodomized, and beat the woman. Afterwards, the sick sons of a bitch forced the woman, at gunpoint, to perform oral sex on her son.
Afterwards, the teens poured household-cleaning agents into the victims’ eyes and then they grabbed a few hundred dollars in cash and jewelry, and fled the scene. The victims, whose vehicle had recently been stolen, had to walk nearly a mile to a hospital for medical treatment.
When police arrived at the scene of the crime, they were able to recover DNA evidence and fingerprints, which led them to arrest Avion Lawson, 14, Jakaris Sansay Taylor, 15, and Nathan Walker, 16.
“Some of them had sex with me twice, some of them had sex with me three times. They're beating me up. They make me do those things over and over,” the female victim told WPTV-Ch. 5 last week. “The man with the big gun, he put the gun inside of me. They said, ‘If you yell, we kill you and your son.’”
Lawson and Walker have been charged with armed sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, sexual performance by a child, armed home invasion, and aggravated battery. Taylor was arrested on charges of home invasion robbery with a firearm, wearing a mask while committing an offense, sexual battery, and armed sexual battery with multiple perpetrators. All three are being held in the Palm Beach County Jail, without bail.
The victims are active members of their church, and neither had any connection to the three teens who have been arrested in connection with the crimes. At this time, police believe the mother and son were random targets.
After the victims were released from the hospital, they left the Palm Beach area out of fear for their safety. The West Palm Beach Police Department has set up a fund so that donations can be made to the family. According to Shelley Parker, police victim services coordinator, donations have been pouring in from around the globe.
“I think the nature of the crime, it's something no one wants to believe happens,” Parker told Sun-Sentinel.com Saturday. “It also speaks for the violence that's happening in the inner-city community.”
According to Wikipedia, the Dunbar Village Housing Project was built in the 1940s for low-income African-Americans. The name for the projects was taken from African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Currently, the area is often referred to as Dunbarland, and is considered to be a haven for criminals. Last year alone, police responded to 658 calls at the projects. Unfortunately, crime there has been on a steady increase since Congress stopped providing $160,000 in yearly funding for security in the projects.
Citoya Greenwood, 33, who lives in Dunbar with her 4-year-old daughter, when speaking with The Associated Press last week, described the fear that law-abiding residents of the neighborhood often feel.
“I try to be in my house no later than 7, and I don’t come out,” Citoya said. “I don’t even answer my door anymore. On the Fourth of July, we didn’t know if we was hearing gunshots or fireworks.”
In the same article, City Commissioner Molly Douglas complained that whenever city officials replace street lamps in Dunbar, local thugs shoot them out, prompting city officials to consider installing bulletproof lights.
“Isn’t that quite a commentary on what the situation is there?” Douglas told the AP. “Dunbar Village is a hell hole. They shouldn’t have to live in fear. More officers are hitting the streets, but I just bow my head sometimes and think we just couldn’t possibly have enough officers ever to take care of all of this.”
It is unlikely that law and order will be established in Dunbar any time soon. I have too few pages to get into all of the contributing factors behind the violence there. Getting back to the story at hand, State Attorney Barry Krischer has announced that he will be referring all of the cases to a grand jury, guaranteeing adult sentences should the perpetrators be convicted.
“It is, to my mind, the worst crime I've seen in 37 years in the business,” Krischer told Sun-Sentinel.com last week. “This is as low as you can go. As the elected state attorney, the strongest statement I can make about how awful this crime is, is to ensure they get adult sanctions.”
Anyone who wishes to contribute to the family can send money to any Wachovia Bank, and request that it be placed in the St. Ann’s Victim’s Assistance Fund. Donations can also be mailed to: St. Ann’s Catholic Church, 310 N. Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Checks should be made payable to the Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund.
So, the question of the day is this: How do we, as a fair and just society, handle these young, violent offenders? If they are tried as juveniles, the punishment will most likely pale in comparison with the crimes; however, if tried as adults, they will probably spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Personally, I think they are all prime candidates for the death penalty, but I am of the opinion that any crime which involves rape, murder, or molestation should be considered for said punishment.
What do you think? Are these criminals a permanent menace to society or can they redeem themselves and become contributing members? Leave your comments below.
I spent the last few days debating on what I wanted to write about on my “featured blogger” day. I write about current cases for CourtTV’s Crime Library five days a week, and I had already made up my mind that I was going to do something different here. At first I wasn’t sure what that would be, but then it kind of fell into my lap over the weekend.I recently purchased a new house and when I was moving some of my belongings yesterday, I stumbled across a tattered old folder that had fallen behind my file cabinet some years ago. Inside, I found a stack of forgotten letters I had received from convicted serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson from about 1999 to 2002.
Jesperson, AKA the “Happy Face Killer,” has claimed to commit as many as 160 slayings across the United States. The number goes up or down, depending on his mood or how much attention he is seeking. According to police records, Jesperson committed his first murder on January 23, 1990, when he snuffed out the life of 23-year-old Taunja Bennett. Officially, Jesperson did not kill again until the summer of 1992, when he killed a Jane Doe and dumped her body 10 miles north of Blythe, California. Assuming that timeline is correct, the contents of a letter Jesperson sent me in 2001 are all the more interesting.
According to his own words, Jesperson was driving to Sacramento, California, in March 1990, when he decided to stop in Shasta to rest. While there, he met a woman he identified only as “Dawn.”
“She was out cheating on her husband, and I was more than willing to have her cheat on her husband with me,” Jesperson wrote. “So, we went driving out in the country and parked for some excitement. Everything went good until she stopped sucking my d--k and said she wanted to go back home. I got mad and reached around her neck and tried to break it, but I had no leverage and could only strain it.
“Reality set in, and I backed off after hearing her baby cry. She had gone out with her newborn still sucking her nipples. The baby had been sleeping while we were frolicking in my 1974 Chevy Nova. I didn't want to murder the baby, so I quit trying to kill Dawn and reasoned that I would just drop her and her baby in town and leave for work in Sacramento, which I did.”
When Jesperson arrived in Corning, he was allegedly arrested for the incident. During questioning, he told investigators everything that had happened—up until the point when he put his hands around Dawn’s neck. Jesperson denied trying to break her neck and willingly returned to Shasta to be questioned by the police there.
“When I arrived in Shasta, the sheriffs arrested me, and I told them the story on how we met and who bought the beer. We went on a drive around to see the proof.”
According to Jesperson, the story Dawn told matched his own, up until the point where she started to give him oral sex. Not wanting to admit cheating on her husband, Dawn allegedly left that part of the story out.
“Because I had told the truth for the most part, they were compelled to believe me more than they believed her. She couldn't tell 100% of the truth because she feared what her husband would say about her tramping around. The police would normally believe the victim and I would go to prison, but because I had lied less and all of the known facts were supporting my story, they had to release me.”
For all intents and purposes, Jesperson went on to murder at least seven women after the incident with Dawn. Looking back on it, Jesperson admits that if he had been arrested, there might have been some drastic changes in his life of crime.
“If Dawn had told the entire truth and had not been afraid of exposing herself, I would have been arrested, convicted of a felony and deported back to Canada before I murdered my second victim.”
If Jesperson’s story is true, he might have lucked out and gotten away with an attempted murder. Nonetheless, I doubt that it would have suppressed his urge to kill. In fact, in an earlier letter that Jesperson sent me in 2000, he discussed the evolution of a serial killer.
“To become a serial killer is different to everyone. Some have similarities, and this is how the FBI puts profiles on all of us. Realistically, every murder is different and yet the same. Mostly we use the way we kill over and over because it works. With small deviations to the overall plan on how we kill. The police call this ‘experimentation’—not satisfied with how they died, we have to fill out new fantasies with each murder. But this is their way to try to explain the deviations. As if the police were in the game we were playing. But as us killers see it, the police are not even in the game.
“We don't think of capture or what sentence we will get ’til we are caught—we just continue to do what we are doing and pay attention only to the task at hand. Only we control that moment in time. I don't see us as predators. We don't seek out our victims. Our victims seek us out. We have something they want.
“Only a few times did I seek out someone to kill to satisfy my urge. I was broke. I was looking for some money. So, I sat and waited for my victim to want me to buy her. I did, and when it was over, I took what I gave her away and all she had on her.”
I don’t necessarily agree with Jesperson's take on his victims seeking him out because he has “something they want,” but it could be a matter of perspective. Perhaps that is what he tells himself so he can sleep at night.
Jesperson quit writing to me in 2002 because he was under the false impression that I was working on a book about him with Sondra “The Queen of Serial Killer Journalism” London. Truth be told, it was never something I had even discussed with London. In fact, I had sent copies of Jesperson’s letters and drawings to Jack Olsen when he was working on I: The Creation of a Serial Killer. Sadly, Jack died just as he was putting the finishing touches on the book. He was a true friend and is, in part, responsible for helping my find my niche in true crime. But that is a story for another day.
Jesperson’s words give us unique insight into how his mind works and what drove him to kill. I have many other letters he wrote me, all of which are just as detailed and insightful. If there is enough reader interest, I might consider putting together a Part Two on this deplorable, yet fascinating, serial killer.
