AN ABOVE AVERAGE CREATURE FEATURE WHICH LEADS TO... A WHOLE BUNCH MORE CREATURES AKA ATTACK OF THE SUBTERRANEAN B-MOVIES... AGAIN








Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)

I've said it before: I really don't like creature features, although I will watch one or two if it's supposed to be really good. The Tremors movies are a definite exception. I think they're well made, if silly, and entertaining with just enough jokes to make the scares not so intense. And again I rely on my friend Tim Forston, for his perspective on this movie (He loves all the Tremors movies) but there will be a LOT of teasing on my part. It's what I do. Thankfully he has the sense of humor and has not bombed my house - yet. And he starts:

Tim: The worms have turned - and headed to a country that no doubt is much cheaper as far as taxes on the movie makers go. The sequel opens in Mexico...

Me: HA! Got you! I thought everything looked a little too... green to be Mexico so I checked and it was actually filmed in Valencia, CA (big raspberry).

Tim: Whatever. Anyway, the movie says we're in Mexico - we see an oil worker sitting atop a raised oil pipe, sliding along, fearing for his life. If you saw the first movie or even just read the review, you already have a pretty good idea of what he's running from...

Me: Don't you mean sliding from?

Tim: <sigh> Whatever. Anyway, you'd be proven correct pretty quickly when he looks back and sees a mound of dirt following along behind him.

Me: Yeah, you gotta watch out for that killer dirt.

Tim: Are you going to be serious?


Me: Am I ever?

Tim: He gets to the end of the convenient pipe and sees the equally convenient row of barrels to hop across leading him to the convenient again van with the door standing open to take him to safety.

Me: Good thing you know how to spell convenient, huh?

Tim: Shush. It should be pretty obvious that this is not going to end well. After hopping about three barrels you get a nice full shot of a Graboid out of the ground eating said oil worker. We go straight to the good stuff in this sequel, no waiting half the movie to get a good view of the monster. Now the premise for this movie is pretty simple. An oil field (Petromaya) in Sonora Mexico has been infested with Graboids, 28 of them as a matter of fact.

Me: How the hell did you count them? They're under ground - you got a sonar system on you?

Tim: They have killed several workers and forced the company to shut down production. So they come up with a plan: Find the two heroes from the first Graboid incursion and try to get them to take care of their problem. For a fee of course. They offer $50,000 per exterminated Graboid. And they are told the Mexican Army will give them any supplies they ask for. Why the Mexican Army doesn't want the job we may never know.

Me: Probably because the movie's in California.

Tim: Val (Kevin Bacon) turns them down, as we are told he is happily married now (he married Rhonda the graduate student) so why would he want to die?

Me: Great confidence there.

Tim: So they go to Earl (Fred Ward).

Me: In the time that has passed since the first movie, both Earl and Val appeared in a lot of magazines and a Graboid video game was even made, although neither saw any profit from it so they took the money they made and split - Val with the new wife, and Earl running an Ostrich ranch for whatever reason - comedic value?

Tim: Earl's dead set against it, but is convinced by a new character, Grady Hoover (Christopher Gartin) that this is his big second chance at fame and fortune. Since his Ostrich farm isn't doing that well, he agrees. They travel to Mexico...

Me: Valencia.

Tim: All right already! They travel to pseudo Mexico and we find out ole' Earl isn't as dumb as an Ostrich farm might suggest. With a combo of RC cars and dynamite what could go wrong?

Me: Well for one thing...

Tim: I wasn't asking you. They meet Kate (Helen Shaver), a biologist, and are successful in killing several Graboids, having it down to a science - even having the whole place hooked up with seismometers so they know where all the Graboids are every second. How could this possibly go wrong?

Me: Well for one thing...

Tim: Suddenly they get surrounded by a few Graboids at once and instead of trying to kill them one at a time since they are parked and safe on a rock, they say 'screw it' and decide to call in backup. Who you might ask?

Me: I didn't.

Tim: Stop it. They call everyone's favorite survivalist...

Me: Realist.

Tim: What. Ever. They call in Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). He is now divorced (his wife couldn't deal with him since the Cold War ended) and spends his time eating TV dinners and watching old war movies. He could really use an adventure and this one comes just in time. When he arrives, he reveals he has a Mexican Army deuce and a half truck laden down with all kinds of Graboid killing toys and over 2 1/2 tons of high explosives. He also brings 150 lbs. of MRE's (meals ready to eat)...

Me: Also explosive. Ooh, I get to tell a story now... I live in Oregon and we're famous for... very little. But when Earl and Grady hide beneath their umbrellas to keep from being covered in Graboid guts, I remember (way back in my itty bitty childhood) when a whale washed ashore in Florence in 1970, where some of my hubby's family lived. Now they thought of burying the poor thing but that was not going to happen. So they thought hey, what better way to make smaller chunks to bury than blow it up first? 

Let's use, oh, a half a ton of dynamite should do it. What followed was one of the funniest videos you'll see, um, today. It. Is. Hilarious. A simple local news broadcast of this explosion quickly turned into a mad scramble for cover as whale blubber covered not only the whole beach but part of the town - we're talking broken windows, cars, whatever it happened to hit. 

Tim: Well that was... totally not relevant to our movie. Anyway, Burt is ready for war. What could go wrong?

Me: Well for one thing...

Tim: I'm not talking to you.

Me: Then stop asking that.

Tim: He gets about a day of standard Graboid killing in before, as the preview states, the worms turn.

Me: So did Walt Disney in 1937 - great cartoon too...

Tim: These huge, blind, subterranean killing machines suddenly turn into something much, much worse. They are now bipedal, heat seeking killing machines that can reproduce exponentially just by eating enough food.

Me: Wasn't that the raptors in Jurassic Park?

Tim: Not even close.

Me: After killing a particularly large Graboid they discover that it has been hollowed out by... something. Apparently that's where the first bipeds had come from and they just multiplied from there. They also find out from the biologist that these creatures are Precambrian. If I hadn't traveled to Montana with the hubby for our anniversary last year I wouldn't have a clue what that meant. Precambrian, according to the theory, spans from the formation of the Earth to about the appearance of the first hard-shelled animals. 

We went to East Glacier Park, which has the Triple Divide Peak - the point where two of the divides in North America converge. What is pretty cool about this is that the peaks ABOVE the divide are Precambrian, meaning that the TOP of the divide is actually much older than the land beneath it. Pretty cool, huh? Okay back to the worms, um I mean raptors, um, I mean...

Tim: They communicate by screaming at each other, hence they are given the name 'Shriekers'. Of course our heroes quickly run out of ammo and have to improvise to kill them all. And to find out how you must watch the movie.

Me: Um, no, we watch 'em so they don't have to, remember?

Tim: Trust me, you will love the usual Tremors overkill. With an awesome closing line from Burt. "Some people say I am over-prepared, paranoid, maybe even a little crazy. But they never met any Precambrian lifeforms did they?" I think this sequel was really good and right up there with the first one. You do miss finding out what happened to Perfection Valley (the location of the first movie) and its residents, but it's okay - we get to find out in Tremors III.

Me: Oh goody.

Tim: All in all I give it two thumbs up - no matter what Shoy says.

Me: Hey wait a minute...

Tim: Plus it is also my daughter's favorite so it has to be good.

Me: It was good - especially since sequels seem to diminish in a lot of movie franchises and this doesn't. What Tim is not telling you is that they figure out that since the 'Shriekers' can only see heat signatures, they trick 'em by hiding behind CO2 in order to set them up with explosives (a la Burt) and the results... are quite impressive. All 'Shriekers' are destroyed... that is, until Tremors III. Which I'm sure we will be reviewing...

Oh and in case you think I'm a little hard on Tim, he's so fun to tease and so easy going about it that I just can't resist. That doesn't mean that Tremors isn't a good movie worth viewing, it means I have almost as much fun giving Tim a hard time about it as I do watching the movie. Tune in 'cause part three is soon to come and yes, I will be there for some good natured ribbing - it's what I do.

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MAJOR BEEFCAKE, SWOONING WOMEN AND REVENGE SERVED VIOLENTLY

The Boondock Saints (1999)

In 1974 a particularly violent film (for its time) shocked audiences with the idea that one man could so callously kill in the name of revenge. It was called Death Wish and starred one of the major actors of the time, Charles Bronson. The story was of a home invasion by three would-be thieves who are enraged when they find little money. In retaliation they beat and rape the mother and daughter of Bronson's character. The mother dies, the daughter, forever traumatized. The whole theme was controversial - is it right or wrong to go out for your own justice or depend on the police? The theme caught like wildfire - there were five Death Wish movies in all.

I Spit On Your Grave (1978), another type of vigilante movie, was about a beaten and raped woman who systematically stalks and kills each of her attackers. Again the question being - was she in the right?

So we fast forward to 1999. Twin brothers Connor and Murphy McManus (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) are good Irish Catholics who work in a meat packing plant. On St. Patrick's day they celebrate in their favorite pub, and are told by the tearful bartender that the pub is closing because it has been taken over by the Russian Mafia. In fact, some heavies from the Mafia come in to close the place early. There's a scuffle and the twins are marked by the very large Mafia dudes (guess they were doubly heavy) for death. 

The next day the bodies of the Mafia men are discovered in an alley. The local police postulate several theories, none of them even remotely logical as to how the two died. In comes special FBI Agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe), brought in since the dead men were recognized as Russian mob guys. He not only recognized immediately that the local police aren't trying very hard to solve the case but that something very interesting had happened in this alley. He was right.

The scene plays out - Conner and Murphy are attacked, one handcuffed to a toilet, the other taken into the alley to be shot. Conner (the one with the toilet) rips it from the wall and from the roof drops it on the man about to kill his brother. He then jumps down and both dispatch the men. They are now considered vigilantes and are targets of criminals and authorities. And thus the movie continues in this vein.

I don't think I have to really detail what happens in this movie - you know that they decide that fighting bad guys and cleaning up their neighborhood is their 'calling' and the FBI Agent who at first is determined to bring them to justice eventually decides that they ARE the justice doing what he really wants to do but can't.

The interesting parts of the movie are the scenes where the brothers are revealed to be quite intelligent - they are not thugs - in fact they know at least six if not more languages and are very religious. The agent can find nothing to fault them at the time - they did act in self defense - and lets them go.

They subsequently decide to clean up other bad guys - using techniques they've observed in movies. With incredible luck, even though massive screwups take place they win each time and many in several Mafia 'families' die. The FBI agent acts out each scenario as it takes place in slow motion behind him, making the scene look like a violent type of Tai Chi - very strange. It's also strange that they felt the need to point out that the agent was a homosexual - that seemed superfluous to the plot and had nothing to do with his abilities or character.

Impossible and overdone..

One Mafia boss decides to end the brothers once and for all by getting released from prison a real monster. His name is Il Duce and apparently he makes Hannibal Lector look like a boy scout. Shackled from head to toe and kept in a cage he is somehow paroled and instructed to take the brothers out. But as he's about to do that as they are ready to dispatch yet another bad guy, he hears them recite their family prayer - it's a ritual they use before every, um, murder. Instead of killing them, he puts his hands on their shoulders and finishes the prayer with them. Il Duce is their father.

The last Mafia boss, Papa Joe, is about to be acquitted for about the umpteenth time in court. The brothers, together with their 'da' walk into the courthouse and in front of the whole room dispatch Papa Joe. They walk out, free men and heroes to most of the spectators.

Okay people didn't like this movie at first but it's become kind of a cult movie, with a sequel following. I had several problems with it though (and I'm sure the female population will hate me for this). Two brothers, good Irish Catholic boys decide that murder is no big deal? And there were some goofs. One, everyone who's a fan of Norman Reedus knows he has his first name tattooed on his chest, yet in the movie his name is Murphy. Which is why the first rule of tattooing is never NEVER have a name tattooed on yourself, even if it's your own.

The scene where Connor throws the toilet from the roof also has some goofs - we see him haul it up and get ready to hurl it. The top of the tank comes off and falls first. We see that the toilet has no seat or seat cover. Yet when the toilet hits the mobster, it has both a seat and seat cover.

Again I have a problem as to why they made Dafoe's character a homosexual - not because of the sexual orientation, but because it has nothing to do with the plot or his character. Toward the end of the movie he shows up as a prostitute in drag to sneak into a mobster's house but that still doesn't explain why they made a point of showing him to be gay. Is it to show that intelligent FBI agents can be gay? We already know that. It was an unnecessary plot point is all.

Having Billy Connolly as the violent 'da' of the boys was also confusing and unnecessary, as the first time he finds the boys they have a shootout where each are injured - what was the point of that?

The language was also rough and unnecessary. These are supposed to be very intelligent and religious men. But this movie is far from the top when it comes to language - on a list of movies with multiple 'F' bombs, this movie has more than The Devil's Rejects, less than Pulp Fiction, more than Platoon (another Dafoe movie), and less than Goodfellas.

I guess I'm just not crushing on the brothers McManus.

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MISSED ANNIVERSARIES, THANK YOUS, GETTING OLDER AND OTHER STUFF

Happy Belated Blog Anniversary To Me

In June of last year I was watching a whole lot of movies and feeling really tired of the silly mistakes, plots, special effects and other annoyances and I had a whole lot of opinions. Having no shame to speak of and a lot of time on my hands, I took the advice of a good friend, Tim Forston, who suggested I start a blog. Umm, a what? I am technologically impaired. I didn't used to be that way. 

Heck, way back when, after we got rid of our Commodore 64's and our PC 286's I was adept at finding out what made computers tick - even if by sheer luck (or accident). I had no qualms about taking off the cover of my computer and adding different components or trying to troubleshoot what the heck was happening with our build-it-yourself system this week. 

And it would work. Mostly. Now if I turn on the computer and a weird screen pops up, I cower like a baby and hope I have the tech number somewhere close by. I have gone from adept to total dweeb.

Anywho, as I was saying, I had no idea what a blog was, much less that I could actually have one. It's easy, says Tim and with his help I was up and running June 19, 2012. I have made 576 (this is 577) entries and had 36,460 hits which absolutely amazes me and I thank you. 

So far, above and away the most popular movie entry people seem to have liked was the sick revenge movie Victim (2010) which has stayed at the top of the list ever since, well, ever since I discovered there were lists. As of 5/17/14, it is still number two on the list...

It's not just America tuning in either. My countries list has included Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Australia, India, Argentina, China, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Phillipines, Korea and Russia. Other countries seem to pop in and out, depending on the material.

This blog has been fun and therapeutic at the same time - nice combination. If you haven't heard me gripe before, I'm now disabled, and pretty much housebound and so it's either get re-acquainted with the world of soap operas (no no no no no), sit around and eat (that would be fun if I had any kind of appetite), stare out the window and hate the world that gets to go out and enjoy the very scenic area I'm lucky to live in, or do what I do a lot anyway - give my opinions on the good, the bad and the ugly in my favorite movie genre - horror. If you think there can't possibly be that many horror movies, well, I've been going for over a year now and I still have a huge list of pending movies to do. And I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

Whether it's picking apart a plot (or no plot), finding errors in continuity or careless dialogue I seem to find a plethora of goodies in all kinds of movies that are supposed to be frightening. I just find them pretty damn funny. Every once in a while I like to step out and put some real life horror but I don't really do it that often since real horror is no joke and I would rather entertain than depress people. I mainly put that kind of thing up to kind of contrast and compare why people that scream that horror movies are much too violent are way, way off as to the true source of such violence. People kill people, not movies.

Life's a bitch and so am I.

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TRUE LIFE IS MUCH SCARIER THAN FICTION

Child Murder In The United States Part Two (Certain Images May Be Disturbing) Updated 5/14

Boy In The Box: Despite the huge publicity at the time and sporadic re-interest throughout the years, the case remains unsolved to this day, and the boy's identity is still unknown. He was approximately 4 to 6 years old, whose naked, battered body was found in a cardboard box in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1957. The boy's body, wrapped in a plaid blanket, was inside a cardboard box that once contained a baby's bassinet from J.C. Penney. He is also commonly called "America's Unknown Child". The story has been profiled on the television series America's Most Wanted. The television series Cold Case, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Law & Order: SVU have all used fictionalized accounts of the story as the basis for episodes.

Although a foster home was under scrutiny, there have been several hypothesis concerning the crime, none ever panning out. From being a child of an unwed mother, a very shameful thing for that time period, to a fantastic story of a child being sold, then abused, tortured and killed by the one who bought him, there still is no credible account or reason as to why this should happen to a small boy.

The second major theory is one brought forward in February 2002 by a woman identified only as "M". She claimed that her abusive mother purchased the unknown boy, named "Jonathan ", from his birth parents in the summer of 1954. Telling a horrific story of extreme abuse that ended in his murder, she claims her mother cut the boy's hair (police had reported that the boy's hair had shown a recent cut with bruises around the head) to conceal his identity and made her own daughter help dump the body - even being seen by a passing motorist who, had testified to witnessing this in 1957.

Police considered the story quite plausible, but were troubled by "M"'s testimony, as she had a history of mental illness. When interviewed, neighbors who had access to the house denied that there had been a young boy living in the house, and said that "M"'s claims were "ridiculous."

The murder continues to be considered unsolved as of 2014.

JonBenet Ramsey: JonBenet Ramsey's story is arguably one of the most well-known stories in the United States. She was killed only a few months after she turned 6 on December 26, 1996.. Her mother discovered the girl was missing and found a ransom note, at which point police were contacted. A search of the house found the girl’s body in a wine cellar, strangled to death.

Mr. Ramsey, Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We do respect your bussiness [sic] but not the country that it serves. At this time we have your daughter in our posession [sic]. She is safe and unharmed and if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter. You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. 

Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank. When you get home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 am tomorrow to instruct you on delivery. The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence a [sic] earlier delivery pick-up of your daughter.

Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them. Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as Police, F.B.I., etc., will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. 

If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies. You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, she dies. You can try to deceive us but be warned that we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics. You stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to out smart [sic] us. Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back.

You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities. Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours. It is up to you now John!

Victory! S.B.T.C

A sick and worthless piece of paper as her body had already been found. Media coverage of the case has often focused on JonBenet's participation in child beauty pageants, her parents' affluence and the unusual evidence in the case. Reports have also questioned the police's overall handling of the case. Several defamation suits have been filed against several media organizations by Ramsey family members and their friends over reporting of the murder. In October 2010, the case was reopened. 

New interviews were conducted following a fresh inquiry by a committee which included state and federal investigators. Police were expected to use the latest DNA technology in their investigation. It was announced January 27, 2013 that a grand jury found sufficient evidence to indict the parents in 1999 on charges of child abuse resulting in death, but the District Attorney refused to sign the indictment, leaving the impression that the grand jury investigation was inconclusive.


In October of 2013, the unsealing of the four-page indictment 14 years after the grand jurors convened revealed that they voted to charge both John and Patsy Ramsey with child abuse resulting in death and being an accessory to a crime, including first-degree murder of their daughter, though never directly accusing them of killing her. Being convicted of "knowingly and recklessly" causing child abuse resulting in death is a Class 2 felony that could have carried a sentence of four to 48 years in prison, though the three-year statute of limitations had long expired by the time the public ever heard about the indictment.

Barbara and Patricia Grimes: The sisters, 15 years old and 13 years old, disappeared December 28, 1956 in Chicago. Their bodies were found the following January. They had left their house to walk to the Theater to see an Elvis Presley movie and were never seen alive again. The hunt for them was one of the biggest in Chicago history but to no avail. A construction worker found them by pure chance. According to the autopsy, they probably died the day they disappeared - guessing (as well as pathologists could in the 50's) that they died of exposure. There were conflicting summaries that due to the appearance that they were probably still warm for some time before dying, possibly being alive as much as ten days later.

The confrontation of the two hypothesis caused the firing of one of the Coroners. Also, the corpses contained various bruises and marks, including three puncture wounds in Barbara's chest that may have come from an ice pick, which were never fully explained. It was theorized that Barbara Grimes had been sexually molested before she was killed and although the pathologists initially denied the claim, the Chief of Detectives confirmed that the Chicago crime lab had reported finding that while Barbara Grimes did have sexual intercourse around the time of the murders, there was no evidence of violence or sexual molestation.

On January 14, 1957, the parents of Patricia Grimes' classmate Sandra Tollstan received two telephone calls around midnight. When picking up the first phone call, nobody at the other end spoke. On the second phone call, 15 minutes later, a seemingly frightened voice asked "Is that you, Sandra? Is Sandra there?" but before the parents could bring their daughter to the phone, the caller had hung up. Ann Tollstan, the mother of Sandra Tollstan and the one who answered the second phone call, was convinced that the caller's voice belonged to Patricia Grimes.

The suspicion of a drifter eventually didn't pan out. A 17 year old suspect was given a polygraph and failed it, after which he allegedly confessed. However, at the time giving a polygraph to a minor was illegal so he was never formally charged and was let go. A few years later that same young man, Max Fleig, was sent to prison for the unrelated murder of another young woman. A total of four suspects were considered, later one was to be revealed as connected to the murders, however no one went to trial or was convicted of the murder of either sister to this day.

Amber Hagerman: She was only 9 years old when she died January 15, 1996. She was abducted while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas. A neighbor witnessed the abduction and called the police. Her disappearance ignited a huge search that brought in the FBI. Her body was found by a man walking his dog four days after she’d gone missing. Her throat had been cut, and evidence showed that she’d been alive for two days before being killed. Her killer was never found, and her homicide remains unsolved. The high-profile case and ensuing call from Amber’s parents for tougher laws for sex offenders, including a national offender registry, led to the creation of the AMBER Alert, a national bulletin distributed via TV and radio when a child goes missing. The alert’s name is technically “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response,” but it was named after Amber.

Recently, owners of smart phones were startled to find that Amber alerts now were a part of their messaging system. For a while, certain providers did not give customers a way to either adjust the type of warnings (tornadoes and other disasters were included also) or shut them off until July of this year. A California state-wide Amber alert by smartphone scared quite a few people with its loud tone - that was for the abduction of the two Anderson siblings, the older one being rescued safely and now is back at home with her father.

As of 2014, despite many theories and supposed suspects, the case still has not been solved.

The 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders: This refers to the deaths of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas, on December 6, 1991, after which the shop was set aflame. Shortly before midnight on Friday, December 6, 1991, a patrolling Austin police officer noticed a fire coming from an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop and reported it to his dispatcher. After the fire was extinguished, firefighters discovered four bodies with three stacked on top of one another. All were bound and gagged with their own clothes as they were found undressed. Each victim had been shot in the head, thus leading police to determine that they had likely died before the fire was started.

The bodies were of 13 year old Amy Ayers (sometimes spelled Ayres), 17 year old Jennifer Harbison, her 15 year old sister Sarah, and 17 year old Eliza Thomas. The initial investigation spanned nearly eight years with over 50 people, for reasons unknown, confessing to the crime. Two men who confessed to the murders were convicted, but they were released by 2009 due to lack of evidence. No new charges have been filed and local media coverage remains ongoing. As of 2011 the Austin police department has five cold-case detectives working on the case.

The I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop was located in a strip mall at the corner of Anderson Lane and Rockwood Drive. A nail salon currently occupies the space. In the parking lot there is a plaque that reads: 'In loving memory of Amy Ayres, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas. Forever in our hearts.'

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TRUE LIFE IS MUCH SCARIER THAN FICTION

Child Murder In The United States Part One

I've posted at length about the horrors visited on children (and women) the world over. However the US has a very dark history when it comes to the treatment of our small ones, and because of the printed page and the development of better media and especially things such as computers and the internet, crimes in the United States are unfortunately very easy to research and it's quite frightening how often this particular crime happens. 

I'm not talking things such as Sandy Hook - that is a different kind of animal. That was more of a horrid individual who went on a shooting spree where the victims happened to be children (and it's not the first).

This is about the taking of life of those helpless to even begin to defend themselves. Sometimes performed by people they trust, other times by total strangers, with all our advancement we still can't seem to properly protect the most innocent of our population. As the list is, unfortunately, extremely long and growing every day, here are just a few.

Polly Hannah Klaas: On October 1, 1993, Klaas invited two friends for a slumber party. Late in the evening, a man (Richard Allen Davis) entered her bedroom, carrying a knife. He tied the two friends up, pulled pillowcases over their heads and told Klaas' friends to count to 1,000. He then kidnapped the weeping Klaas. Over the next two months, about 4,000 people helped search for her. TV shows such as 20/20 and America's Most Wanted covered the kidnapping. It was discovered that Davis, after being released from a traffic stop as the police officers were unaware that he was wanted at the time, murdered Polly and buried her in a shallow grave. 

Davis was convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and four special circumstances (robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and a lewd act on a child). Davis provoked national outrage by taunting his victim's family by extending his middle finger to TV cameras. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison, in Marin County, California. Having survived an apparent drug overdose while in prison, and attacks on him by several other prisoners, Davis is now in solitary confinement, and continues to assist his attorneys in various appeals over the last 17 years (as of December, 2013) and has more appeals ahead of him before the sentence passed can be carried out.


His attorney has complained that California's seeming inability to implement any executions in a timely manner has forced Davis "to endure the uncertainty and ever-present tension on death row for such an extended time constitutes cruel and unusual punishment". (?!?)

The Klaas family started the Polly Klaas foundation dedicated to finding missing children - it is still active today, with a count of 8,500 children returned to their homes. In the wake of the murder, politicians in California and other U.S. states supported three strikes laws, and California's Three Strikes act was signed into law on March 8, 1994.

Marcy Renee Conrad: This case, although solved, still has a massive amount of 'why's attached to it to this day. Marcy disappeared at the age of 14. Her death was the work of a 16 year old high school student by the name of Anthony Jacques Broussard. The boy was large for his age, and though he’s frequently described as having a gentle demeanor in news reports, Broussard was reportedly troubled ever since finding his mother dead in the shower after coming home from elementary school. 

Conrad reportedly ran with a bad crowd, a group at school who called themselves The Stoners, and she frequently ran away from home. Conrad’s mother had reported that the girl had run-away the day before her death.


After the murder, Broussard loaded Conrad’s body in his pick-up truck and made his way into the hills surrounding town, dumping her remains in the bottom of a ravine. After hiding the body, Broussard told several classmates about his crime–many of whom did not believe him, and to verify his act, Broussard guided groups of kids to the body as proof.

As word of the body spread, at least thirteen kids filed out  into the hills to see Broussard’s grizzly work. Witnesses included Conrad’s former boyfriend, who brought his 8-year-old brother in tow. To Detective Sgt. Garry Meeker of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department, it was not the killing of 14-yearold Marcy Renee Conrad that was so unusual, at least not these days.

''Not the crime itself,'' said the 42-year-old sergeant, who has been a police officer all his working life, like his father before him. ''The unusual aspect was what followed, the kids going up there. That was the unusual aspect.''
At that, he said, it was only the extremity of the crime, the strangulation of a young girl, that made the callousness and silence of the teen-agers so out of the ordinary. For two days they had gone up into the hills by the carload, as if on an outing, to take a look at the body lying half naked in the woods.

"Even the straightest kid in school knows which kid is dealing dope; they don't care or want to get involved," Sergeant Meeker said. "They know all the stuff that's going down. You take the straightest, straight-A, civic-minded student in that school, he's going to know all that, and he's not going to tell. But when it reaches the point of murder, I mean, when you're talking about a 14-year-old girl..."

This brought into question California statutes regarding juvenile sentencing for violent crimes, as Broussard's actions were particularly heinous. After kidnapping her, he raped and strangled her, leaving her body in a ravine. If that was all, this story would not have been so shocking in this day and age. But Broussard, evidently extremely proud of what he had done, invited friends from Milpitas High School to view Conrad's corpse. 

Reactions varied. Some poked at the body with sticks like curious children, others thought it was a mannequin, a bad joke. They goaded each other into touching the body. They removed patches from her half-removed jeans, and one–16-year-old covered her body in plastic bags and leaves to give Broussard 'a head start' on the police. Most simply went about their day and pretended that nothing was wrong.
When the story finally broke, and Broussard went into police custody, Milptas became the center of a media firestorm with reporters from across the country swarming into town to get a scoop on Broussard’s crime, and on the decayed moral fiber of those who stayed quiet. A 1981 article from the Sarasota Herald Tribune records many of the teens’ reactions, most of them echoing the same chilly reserve. Even homicide detectives put on the case were shaken by the teens’ apparent apathy, claiming that the kids “must have ice water in their veins.”

He was only caught after two students finally went to the police about it. The others said they 'did not want to get in trouble'. Broussard pled guilty and was sentenced to 25 years to life. A report said that Mr. Broussard had no remorse... Dr. Howard H. Lee, a staff psychiatrist, characterized Mr. Broussard’s many complaints of mental problems as "overkill." He said Mr. Broussard appeared to be without feelings about human life and was without emotion, as if nothing touched him.

He was denied a new trial in 1985, and has repeatedly been denied parole. As of April 2013 Broussard is still incarcerated at California's Folsom State Prison.

Adam Walsh: Probably one of the best known (and most tragic) unsolved child murder case in the United States. He disappeared from a Sears store on July 27, 1981. Adam's severed head was found by two fishermen in a Vero Beach, Florida, canal on August 10, 1981. The rest of his body was not recovered. John Walsh himself was considered by authorities as a prime suspect as the police investigation started to become exhausted. After about a week, he was later absolved of any foul play following a highly emotional press statement that was televised nationally. A drifter named Ottis Toole was commonly believed to be the abductor and murderer although evidence was not able to support this and his confession was later recanted. 

Toole died in prison, aged 49, of cirrhosis of the liver while serving a life sentence for other crimes. Afterwards, Toole's confession has been viewed as reliable, since he accurately described details only the culprit would know. Adam's kidnapping and murder prompted John Walsh to become an advocate for victims rights. 

Adam Walsh's murder was among those that helped to spur the formation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). As a result of his advocacy, he was approached to host the television program America's Most Wanted. The Code Adam program for helping lost children in department stores is named in Walsh's memory. The U.S. Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act on July 25, 2006, and President Bush signed it into law on July 27, 2006. 

The signing ceremony took place on the South Lawn of the White House, attended by John and Revé Walsh. The bill institutes a national database of convicted child molesters, and increases penalties for sexual and violent offenses against children. It also creates a RICO cause of action for child predators and those who conspire with them.

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