What a depressing run of documentaries I’ve been watching lately. When I paint, that’s what I do, I side-eye documentaries. Usually true crime.
Why do I subject myself to films I characterize as depressing? Because I find it fascinating when anyone can hold a different opinion of one’s guilt or innocence after watching the same thing I just watched.
I find anyone that thinks OJ was innocent to either have severe problems with the dissemination of facts, or they have a remarkable ability to brainwash themselves.
OJ was “too nice a guy” to ever have committed that crime- but an entire police department was evil enough to frame an innocent man.
Oswald didn’t shoot Kennedy- he just shot officer Tippit while fleeing from the site of the assassination because… because… Oswald didn’t shoot Kennedy!
The case of Michael Peterson, that narcissistic gay fop who murdered his wife in Durham, North Carolina, is infuriating. He has family members that insist he is innocent. One only has to listen to the 911 call and you can point to him as the suspect.
He enters the home and sees this –>
He calls 911 and says “she fell down the stairs.”
Set aside the evidence that she has blood on the bottom of her feet (indicating that she walked in her own blood), she has Peterson’s bloody sneaker print on her back (the crime scene photo shows that she would have been found by Peterson on her back), there are two distinct sessions of bleeding (fresh blood cast over dried blood), there is an attempt to wash blood off the wall (why?), there is blood spatter on the upper inside of Peterson’s shorts (indicating that he was standing over her when blood was cast), she has 3 impact wounds on the very top of her head (entirely impossible from a fall down stairs), the crime scene is older than the timeline than Peterson gives… etc. etc.
Setting all of this aside, who in the hell would stumble upon this and immediately think this was a victim of someone who had “fallen down the stairs”?
The guy is guilty, beyond all reasonable doubt. How could his family not see this?
Is it self-hypnosis?
A documentary I watched called Life With Murder is the epitome of this phenomenon. It is a tough watch.
In 1998, parents Brian and Leslie Jenkins came home to an unexpected silent house. Neither of their two kids seemed to be around. Brian went down in the basement and found their daughter in a pool of blood. The mother made the frantic 911 phone call.
Their 18 year-old daughter Jennifer is dead, shot three times in the head, twice in the chest. Their son Mason is missing.
He took off, on a horse (??), fleeing the scene.
Mason was just reunited with his family on Christmas, two weeks prior, after spending time in jail for robbery.
Mason is charged with Jennifer’s murder. The parents do not believe the authorities.
During questioning, Mason blurted out that he would have never “blown his sister’s head off.” The interrogator asked quietly, “who told you her head was blown off?”
Mason was caught in a Columbo moment, revealing something he could have never known unless he was there. He then began to weave a wild tale of seeing men get out of a van with guns and there was a home invasion, and he was kidnapped.
The parents believed him.
Of course, that story fell apart when it was found to be inconsistent with a note that Mason left at the house that supposedly explained his absence.
Mason then wove a new tale. He killed Jennifer by accident. The gun just went off.
The parents believed him.
When asked how the gun could go off accidentally, 5 times, he said after the accident he wanted it to look like a murder, so he shot her 4 more times and left the house.
The father believed him. (The mother was losing confidence in her son’s stories. But she visited him in jail diligently. She loved her son.)
Finally, the documentary reveals that Mason fessed up that it was his plan to kill the entire family (authorities found a forged will that left everything to Mason), but he couldn’t do it and the gun accidentally went off, killing his sister.
The documentary ends with the family spending the day with their son on his birthday (the jail allows for visitations in an apartment they have set up for day long visitations, complete with kitchen and bedrooms.)
Here’s the happy family—>
Look at that guy. Are they kidding?
The mind is a terrible thing.
Rope.
Isn’t that Vincent d’Ofreno?
Funny you should say that, Grool.
I also watched a Leopold and Loeb documentary.
I remember seeing part of this and thinking at the time “just how stupid are the parents”? Love is a pretty powerful emothion and can effectively shutdown the more logical circuits of the brain depending on the circumstances. It’s also tough to believe that you sired/borne such a monster. As for the Oswald didn’t kill Kennedy, Teddy Kennedy was just confused and disoriented when he left her to drown crowd most of them deep down know the truth but will refuse to acknowledge it because they’d lose their special value as one of the few who know the truth and they couldn’t take the ego blow.
Mom knows. See how she is looking at him. She knows and is sick at heart. She may love him, but she doesn’t like him.
Dad looks clueless.
Love the True Crime stuff…I even watched the Canadian Version
the other Night on Hulu…It’s like a Flannel Version of the USA
shows 😉
Also a big fan of Crime Fiction…James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly
and so on…Don’t like the gory stuff like Patterson.
This is why death penalties should be implemented shortly after conviction. People (I use that term loosely) like him have lost all rights to breathe.
Rabid dogs need to be put down.
BFH: The PBS Leopold and Loeb documentary was really exceptional. If you have not seen the movie “Compulsion” I highly recommend it for its amazing portrayal of this case. Orson Welles is riveting from his first appearance on the screen as the defense attorney who represents the two killers. Also, find Clarence Darrow’s three day closing argument and read how his oratorical skills saved these two thrill killers from the electric chair.
Any opinions about Dr. Sam Sheppard? Guilty as hell, or innocent because of the blood splatter evidence?
Even his cell is a joke. Kinda plush for the fat bastard.
Vincent D’Ofreno! OMG they must have been separated at birth.
The apple doesnt fall far from the tree.
Those are dangerous stairs!
Some parents are sick pups, and have use for a sociopathic son – so they create one.
Not unusual at all. It’s just a matter of degrees of the sociopath they create.
Mr. Hat you need to start watching some old movies.
Better for you than all the blood and guts.
And the bad guys always get the chair.
Fur — If you watch enough of that stuff you’ll start getting all paranoid. Don’t immerse yourself in it.
Here, watch these instead: (just as compelling)
BBC Historical Farm Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSpqpwJ__Ek&list=PL3RIdzHpeSiKP3Q1WnLA29fakBoXNeIfZ
There’s some 50+ episodes starting with stone masters rebuilding a 1500 castle, followed by intriguing years spent on a Tudor/Monastery, Victorian, Edwardian and WWII-era farms. The only blood and guts you’ll see are from poultry and pig slaughters — as it should be.
Don’t let the devil pollute your mind with human evil.
I can guarandamntee ya’ that they each have a bunch of screwball women lined up to mary them. I have known a few people who worked at McNeil Island federal penitentiary and there is no shortage of sociopaths in the world.
Wow. Now do a Bigfoot expose.
Got hooked off any PBS before the Dem/Clinton years. Moppet Ken Burns BS and the re-writing History Channel.
Any mind is a terrible thing to waste (left out of a reversed racist ad from the 60’s).
Not hard to believe. It’s the same mindset that the supporters of Obama, Hillary, Mueller, the whole crooked FBI and Lib-Tards in general have. Willful ignorance and a blindness to the truth that is sitting on their chests punching them in the face.
Guess the parents figure the loss of one child is enough to bear, so they’ve convinced themselves #2 is innocent…. they can comfortably claim that so long as he’s behind bars. Bet they’d reevaluate if his bedroom was across the hall.
Peterson’s first wife also died by “falling down the stairs.” He should have changed his MO.
Poor woman. She didn’t deserve to be murdered. Living in the area and following the Peterson trial – the OJ crime of the South, I have never seen the crime scene until now.
It’s horrifying and proves how much effort it took to end this woman’s life. Peterson is indeed an insufferable, elitist prick. His real judgement – an eternity in Hell.
Mrs. Peterson’s sister fought for a conviction and won. Peterson spent only 8 years in jail, and now he’s free as a bird, as a convicted felon. He should have gotten the needle for such a heartless, heineous crime.