True Crime Campfire True Crime Campfire

There’s an old saying: A gilded cage is still a cage. Meaning, you can be in what looks like an enviable situation—all your needs met, plenty of pretty toys to entertain you—and still feel like you’re in prison. The human soul doesn’t take well to being kept in a box, no matter how nice the box may be. There’s a pull toward freedom, even if you have to risk everything to answer it. This is the story of one of the strangest murder cases in American history—a 1920s true Hollywood story about what can happen when a pretty pet gets restless and starts looking for a way to stretch its wings. 

Sources:
"The Man in the Attic" by Denise Noe, CrimeLibrary.com
LAist: "The Murderous Lover Who Lived In A Silver Lake Attic. A True Story" by John Rabe 
Investigation Discovery's "A Crime to Remember," episode "Guess Who"

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Romantic jealousy is, for the most part, fundamental to the human experience, one of the uglier strands in the tangled mess that makes up a heart. Some people manage to overcome it completely, most of us will be familiar with the occasional hot stab of possessiveness. And some people will let jealousy consume them like a wildfire. If that person is also broken in a hundred other ways, then chances are, somebody’s gonna get hurt. Join us for a story of stalking, rage, betrayal and double murder. 

Sources:
Paula May, “First Degree Rage”
Paula May, “Raging On”
Investigation Discovery's "Dead of Winter," episode “Cold Blue”
https://www.wataugademocrat.com/news/convicted-felon-former-officer-dies-while-serving-sentence-for-25-year-old-murder/article_122572e8-7598-58ce-b4ee-8d36d0f5f428.html
Court papers: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/nc-court-of-appeals/1435151.html

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In Dostoevsky’s book Crime and Punishment, the character Raskolnikov says, “All people seem to be divided into 'ordinary' and 'extraordinary'. The ordinary people must lead a life of strict obedience and have no right to transgress the law because they are ordinary. Whereas the extraordinary people have the right to commit any crime they like…just because they happen to be extraordinary.” Spoken like a true psychopath, my dude. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that Raskolnikov murders an old woman in that book—not just for the money, but to prove to himself how “extraordinary” he is. That the rules most of us abide by aren’t for him. Today’s case is about a modern-day Raskolnikov—a self-proclaimed intellectual whose grandiose narcissism hid a deep well of rage and insecurity, and led him to not only commit a brutal murder, but to tell us all about it on his blog. 

Sources:
The New Yorker, David Grann: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/02/11/true-crime
Taipei Times: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2007/09/23/2003380130
The Guardian, Elizabeth Day: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/16/crimebooks.features
Sky TV's "Killers: Behind the Myth," episode "Bala: The Novel Killer"

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We've talked about a lot of notorious criminals here on True Crime Campfire, but do you think any of today's villains will still be widely known in three-hundred years? Will their names be known to almost everyone, and conjure up vivid if not exactly accurate images of a time long past? The subject of this week's story is a man whose brief but spectacular criminal career wrote him a place in history—not to mention on the hit TV show “Our Flag Means Death.” Time for some true crime on the high seas!

Download the game "June's Journey" on Apple iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/junes-journey-hidden-objects/id1200391796

"June's Journey" on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.wooga.junes_journey_hidden_object_mystery_game&hl=en&gl=US&pli=1

Sources:
Stephan Talty, Empire of Blue Water 
Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates
Angus Konstam, Blackbeard

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Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley follows a young man named Tom, whose deep-seated jealousy and ambition leads him down a very dark path. He wants the jet-set lifestyle his trust-fund friends are living, and he sets out to get it using his intelligence and skill at deception. Tom Ripley is a pretty realistic depiction of a psychopath. To get close to the wealthy people he envies, he puts on a convincing mask of helpful friendliness. But underneath, he’s scheming with every breath—biding his time. And no one is safe around him. Join us for the story of a real-life Mr. Ripley, a man who was good at being charming, but bad at being good. A man who left one person dead, one heartbroken and defrauded, and a pretty little town in shock. Join us for the true story behind the BBC drama The Sixth Commandment--the tale of an aspiring vicar whose pious exterior hid a heart of darkness. 

Download the game "June's Journey" on Apple iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/junes-journey-hidden-objects/id1200391796

"June's Journey" on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.wooga.junes_journey_hidden_object_mystery_game&hl=en&gl=US&pli=1

Sources:
A Plot to Kill by David Wilson
ITV News: https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2019-08-09/sadistic-killer-admitted-interest-in-the-extremes-of-death
Daily Beast, Nico Hines: https://www.thedailybeast.com/gaslight-killer-ben-field-who-conned-his-elderly-lovers-is-convicted-of-murdering-peter-farquhar
Bucks Herald, Sam Dean: https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/must-read/ben-field-the-baptist-ministers-son-who-became-a-calculated-and-manipulative-murderer-in-maids-moreton-821818
UK Daily Mail, Rory Tingle and Josh White: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6984549/Church-warden-callously-videoed-hallucinating-lecturer-trying-murder.html

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When we left you at the end of part 1, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo had begun a killing spree that took them from Tacoma, Washington, through Arizona, Louisiana, and Maryland. By October 2002, they had killed or wounded 10 people, with Muhammad pointing his finger and Malvo pointing his gun. Malvo believed himself to be a soldier in the fight to free the marginalized people of the world. Muhammad made him his acolyte, traveling across the country, playing him anti-American propaganda through headphones as he slept, putting him through a grueling physical regimen, as well as making him eat a sparse vegetarian diet. Muhammad told him that white people were “devils” and that they had to prepare for the oncoming race war. For 30 days, they would kill 6 white people a day, until the US government agreed to their terms and paid them off to go away. Join us now for part 2 of this chilling true story.

Download the game "June's Journey" on Apple iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/junes-journey-hidden-objects/id1200391796

"June's Journey" on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.wooga.junes_journey_hidden_object_mystery_game&hl=en&gl=US&pli=1

Sources:
Vice documentary "I, Sniper"
The History Channel's "Crime of the Century," episode "The Beltway Snipers"
King 5 News:https://www.king5.com/article/news/dc-snipers-first-intended-victim-speaks-out/281-332833536
Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/opening-shot-146761
Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/lee-boyd-malvo-10-years-after-dc-area-sniper-shootings-i-was-a-monster/2012/09/29/a1ef1b42-04d8-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/10/01/timeline-dc-sniper-attacks/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/11/01/gun-store-cant-account-for-weapon-tied-to-sniper-case/ee54a3d2-a53c-44e8-9423-50ce4115c28b/
WUSA 9 News: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/20-years-later-paul-laruffa-survivor-of-dc-snipers-malvo-muhammad-is-not-obsessing-but-hell-never-forget-either/65-055e1e42-c72e-4bab-b393-286eefe88037
NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/us/polite-but-dogged-sniper-suspect-offers-defense.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss a href="https://wtop.com/supreme-court/2019/10/beltway-sniper-victim-hopes-lee-boyd-malvo-gets-chance-at-rehabilitation-before-scotus/"...