Crime postings are especially popular. So what I have done is put the postings about major crimes on this compound posting. There is the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018, but most of those are not specifically about what would be considered as ordinary crime. The sections here are all about murder with the criminal action of an individual. There are insights into every case that are not seen anywhere else. There are two sections on the O.J. Simpson case, with two opposite perspectives.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F KENNEDY MADE REALLY SIMPLE
2) NAMES FROM THE SON OF SAM
3) THE ZODIAC KILLER AND THE UNABOMBER
4) THE WANNABE JACK THE RIPPER
5) THE TORONTO BILLIONAIRE MURDER MYSTERY
6) FIRE ON THE MORRO CASTLE
7) MAYBE O.J. SIMPSON REALLY DIDN'T DO IT
8) A NIAGARA FALLS PERSPECTIVE ON THE O.J. SIMPSON CASE
9) THE REAL STORY OF THE ALABAMA PRISON ESCAPE
10) THE GREAT PRISON ESCAPE OF NEW YORK STATE
1) THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F KENNEDY MADE REALLY SIMPLE
Surely the subject of more conspiracy theories than anything else is the November 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald was officially determined to have acted alone as the assassin. But ever since then the majority of Americans have believed there is more to it than that. Some believe that there was more than one gunman, and that it wasn't Oswald who fired the fatal shot. Others believe that, while Oswald was the only gunman, he had support and was doing the assassination for some larger purpose.
Kennedy was being driven through Dallas in an open convertible, waving to the crowds who had lined the streets to see the popular president. The motorcade had just passed the building where school textbooks were stored and was proceeding down a slope when three rifle shots were fired from the sixth floor of the building. One shot missed, one hit both the governor of Texas and Kennedy, and then the fatal shot struck Kennedy in the head. At that point there was grass on both sides of the road, known as the "grassy knoll".
This view from Google Street View is from the place where Kennedy was hit looking back at the building, to the left, from which the shots were fired.
Oswald, an employee of the school textbook building, almost escaped but the owner of a shoe store, having heard about the assassination on the radio, noticed a suspicious man duck into his store as a police car went past, and then go into a nearby theater. After assassinating Kennedy, Oswald had shot and killed a police officer who attempted to question him.
I am certain that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone with regard to the actual shooting. Those stories about a "second gunman", whether on the "grassy knoll" or in the school textbook building from where Oswald fired the shots, have been thoroughly debunked. The supposed sound of gunshots in the background on an audio recording has also been explained.
Communist countries inevitably come into play in virtually any Kennedy assassination theory. Oswald had earlier defected to the Soviet Union before changing his mind and returning to the U.S., bringing his Soviet wife with him. Before the assassination Oswald had visited both the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City. There was a very anti-Communist, particularly anti-Cuba, mentality at the time in the U.S.
The following image, from Google Street View, is of the apartment building where Lee Harvey Oswald lived in Minsk.
When I landed in the U.S. people were still talking about this assassination. Some children at school told me "Everybody knows that the Mafia did it".
There is a theory that the Italian Mafia was behind the Kennedy Assassination but it was because his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had started an extensive campaign against organized crime, and not because of any foreign connections. In this theory Oswald's earlier defection to the Soviet Union would make it appear that Communists were behind the assassination.
There were two groups of people for whom Fidel Castro's 1958 overthrow of the Cuban Government had been catastrophic. These were the anti-Castro Cuban exiles and the Italian Mafia.
Cuba, before Castro's revolution, had been a playground for the Mafia. The leader of the country, Fulgencio Batista, had been a close associate of theirs. If ever the Mafia had their own country it wasn't Italy or the United States, it was Cuba in the 1940s and 50s. In 1946 a great meeting of Mafia leaders was held in Havana. The location was absolutely ideal, close to America but beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. The Mafia had a vast amount of money invested in all kinds of resorts and casinos. Frank Sinatra was a regular performer.
But it all came to an end with the 1958 Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro.
Not long after the Cuban Missile Crisis Lee Harvey Oswald had started an organization called the "Fair Play For Cuba Committee". He is widely believed to have been planning to move to Cuba, leaving his wife behind, and killed Kennedy so that he would be a hero in Cuba.
Fidel Castro had overthrown the pro-U.S. government of Fulgencio Batista in 1958, driving many Cubans to leave for the U.S. These anti-Castro Cubans attempted to invade and liberate the country. The attempted invasion, known as the Bay of Pigs, was supported by the U.S. but ended in disaster.
Fidel Castro had visited the U.S. after coming to power in Cuba and had been very popular. But then Kennedy had demonized him, and had backed the Cuban exiles in their attempt to invade the island.
But why would Kennedy demonize Castro after he had been so popular in the U.S.?
Kennedy is known to have had friends in the Mafia. Before becoming president he visited Cuba and Mafia friends reportedly set up the married future president with prostitutes. ( Source- Smithsonian Magazine, "When The Mob Owned Cuba"). It was known that Kennedy was less than saintly in his private life but his indiscretions were with high-class women, the likes of Marilyn Monroe. These encounters, while married, with common prostitutes could be very damaging.
Is this why the Mafia set him up with prostitutes? Knowing his lustful ways and that he might be president someday, this gave the Mafia something to hold over Kennedy. At least to some extent he would have to do their bidding. The 1960 election turned out to be very close and it is generally believed that the Chicago mob helped him win Illinois.
In 1963 the Cuban exiles in the U.S. and the Mafia must have been very disappointed. After the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis, Fidel Castro was firmly entrenched in power. The U.S. had supported the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, but not with it's own ground military force.
It became clear that the only way to remove the Castro government, so that the exiles and the Mafia could get their country back, was for the U.S. to actually invade Cuba. Kennedy had demonized Castro and supported the Bay of Pigs at their obvious request but, with Soviet nuclear missiles removed from the island, Cuba was no threat to the U.S. and Kennedy wasn't about to invade it, risking a world war.
But what if the exiles and the Mafia could find a pressing reason for the U.S. to invade Cuba? There was one thing that was within their power to do. What if they could have the U.S. President assassinated and make it appear that the Castro government was behind it? Kennedy had threatened to attack Cuba if the nuclear missiles were not removed.
It was widely known that the U.S. Government under Kennedy had enlisted the Mafia about the possibility of assassinating Fidel Castro. I don't think anything became of it and it's real purpose is so that Cuba would not welcome Americans who arrived or tried to move to Cuba, which was a popular idea in the 1960s. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was making life difficult for the Mafia and there could have been a, perhaps unspoken, arrangement in which the Mafia would eliminate Castro in return for the U.S. Government easing up on it. But this opened the idea of Cubans assassinating Kennedy in return, or maybe the Mafia killing Kennedy and making it look as if the Cubans were behind it.
That is where a character like Lee Harvey Oswald comes in, he described himself as a "patsy" after being arrested. He had earlier learned to speak Russian before defecting to the Soviet Union. But I cannot see that he spoke Spanish or had ever been interested in Cuba.
So why did Oswald suddenly shift his attention to Cuba? Neither his founding of the "Fair Play For Cuba Committee" nor his visits to the Cuban and Soviet Embassies in Mexico City apparently accomplished much.
Could he have undertaken those actions to make it appear that he was getting instructions from the Castro government? He could have kept his visits to those embassies in Mexico City a secret but he didn't.
Could members of the Dallas Mafia, knowing of his earlier defection to the Soviet Union, have sold him on Cuba? They could have told him how hated Kennedy was in Cuba, since many members of the Mafia had been to Cuba, and that he would be a national hero there if he killed Kennedy.
They must have known that, given Oswald's erratic nature and his earlier re-defection from the Soviet Union, he would likely be denied permission to move to Cuba. When Oswald returned to Dallas they would tell him that there was one sure way that Oswald could not only get into Cuba, but also be a national hero there. It was to assassinate the U.S. President, who had demonized Fidel Castro, supported the Bay of Pigs invasion, and then confronted Cuba in the Missile Crisis the year before.
In April 1963, seven months before the assassination of Kennedy, a shot was fired at retired General Edwin Walker, who lived in Dallas. He was sitting at his desk by a window and the single shot hit the window frame. Oswald is widely believed to have fired the shot, although not until after the Kennedy assassination. The general was known for his outspoken right-wing views, and had in fact been relieved of his command over it.
But I find this to be a little bit strange. Oswald was clearly a very good shot with a rifle. If he could hit Kennedy's head at long range then how could he miss this shot, at much shorter range? He fired two shots at Kennedy, before the fatal third, why didn't he fire again at Walker? But the bullet fired at General Walker was the same type as Oswald's rifle would use.
Maybe Oswald didn't fire this shot, even though he told his wife that he did, or did fire it but purposely didn't hit Walker. It could have been done to build Oswald's legend as a genuine anti-fascist for his future life in Cuba after the assassination of Kennedy.
The fact that an Italian-made rifle was used in the assassination of Kennedy is interesting. It could be a false clue to divert attention away from the Italian Mafia. It made it look like someone, probably the Cuban exiles or someone other than the Mafia who had a grudge against Kennedy, was trying to make it look like the Mafia was behind it. If the Mafia really was behind it, but trying to keep it a secret, then why would they have Oswald use an Italian rifle?
Oswald's Soviet-born wife, Marina, was well-known in the Russian community around Dallas. Cuban exiles would have heard about Oswald's earlier defection to the Soviet Union and that he liked guns. Having been in the U.S. Marines he would be a good shot with a rifle at a distance. The following year, 1964, was an election year and Kennedy was sure to campaign in Dallas. Oswald just happened to get a job in the school textbook building that Kennedy's motorcade would pass, and from where the fatal shots would be fired.
Given Oswald's pro- Castro activities and then his escape to Cuba after the assassination would make it clear that Cuban Communists were behind the killing. The U.S. would use that as a reason to invade Cuba and depose the Castro Government, the same as it invaded Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. The Cuban exiles and the Mafia would have their country back.
Fidel Castro, according to the Wikipedia article about him, thought that Kennedy had been assassinated by a right-wing conspiracy and was concerned that Cuba would be blamed for it.
But why would the Mafia choose Oswald as the assassin and what exactly were they thinking? To understand that we have to go back thirty years before the assassination and when we do it all fits together perfectly. This is the clue that investigators were supposed to notice but I cant see anywhere that they did. The Warren Commission report on the Kennedy Assassination was written by very unimaginative bureaucrats.
In 1933 Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate president-elect Franklin Roosevelt. That means it was after Roosevelt had been elected but before he actually took office. Zangara was a bricklayer and had immigrated from Calabria, in southern Italy. It was this assassination attempt that the Mafia was thinking of when it set Oswald up to assassinate Kennedy with an Italian-made rifle to make it look as if Castro was behind it, but set it up to look as if the Mafia was behind it, who really were behind it.
There are so many similarities between Zangara's assassination attempt on Roosevelt and Oswald's assassination of Kennedy that it could not possibly be a coincidence. Like Oswald Zangara gained marksmanship skills in the military, having served with the Italian Army in the First World War. Like Oswald Zangara was working close to the site of the assassination attempt. Like Kennedy Roosevelt had been in an open car, with another politician, when the assassination attempt took place. Kennedy had been with Texas governor John Connolly, who was wounded. Roosevelt had been with Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who was killed. Oswald fired from a sixth floor window, Zangara fired standing on a chair. Like Oswald Zangara was politically leftward. His final words, before execution, was to excoriate Capitalism and express solidarity with poor people.
All of these similarities could not be a coincidence. The attempted assassination of Roosevelt took place in Miami, which has always been America's Cuban center. Since an Italian leftist had tried to assassinate FDR in Miami, it would look to those investigating the Kennedy assassination like Cuban agents had set Oswald up with an Italian rifle, and so many similarities, to assassinate Kennedy but make it look like the Mafia had been behind it. Also considering that Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, was organizing a crackdown on organized crime.
Meanwhile the Mafia would be one step ahead of everyone else. It really would be the Mafia that was behind the assassination of Kennedy. But it would look to U.S. investigators like Cuban agents were behind it, but trying to set it up to look like the Mafia was behind it. The U.S. would take the assassination of it's president by a foreign government as an act of war. U.S. forces would then invade Cuba, and depose the Castro government, and the Mafia would have Cuba back.
The plan was for Oswald to escape, and later be traced to Cuba. But even if he didn't escape investigators were supposed to notice the striking similarity between Oswald and Zangara, which could not possibly be a coincidence, and take it as an act of war by the Castro government, which tried to set it up as if the Mafia had killed Kennedy because the Mafia had been involved in supposed plots by the U.S. Government to assassinate Castro.
This scenario explains Jack Ruby. The most intriguing thing about the Kennedy Assassination is that Oswald was himself shot to death two days after killing Kennedy. It was announced that Oswald was being moved from one police station to another. News reporters were waiting in the parking garage of the police station. As Oswald was escorted past them, a man among the reporters pulled out a pistol and shot Oswald to death.
The shooter was Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner with a criminal background who was heavily in debt and dying of cancer. He would die in prison for the shooting. His stated reason for killing Oswald was so that Kennedy's widow, Jackie, wouldn't have to go through his trial.
Jack Ruby is known to have been acquainted with members of the Dallas Mafia, as well as with off-duty police officers, through his nightclub. He was as strange of a character as Oswald, if not more so. Maybe he thought, or the Mafia told him, that he would be a hero for killing the man who killed Kennedy. Maybe he thought his friendships with police officers would help him after he had killed Oswald. According to one account that I once read while being restrained and arrested after shooting Oswald Ruby shouted to the police, "Hey guys it's me, Jack". There is information online that Ruby visited Mafia friends in Cuba, in 1959.
Notice the similarity here. Jack Ruby was convinced he would be a hero in America for killing Oswald, just as Oswald was convinced he would be a hero in Cuba for killing Kennedy. It makes it appear that they were convinced by the same people.
The assassination was successful but the exiles' plan was for Oswald to escape, and later be traced to Cuba or trying to enter Cuba. Convertibles were popular during the 1960s and Kennedy would be waving to the crowds that would certainly come to see the popular president from the open car. Oswald wouldn't be in the crowd but in the school textbook building. It would take some time to determine where the shots came from, initially focusing on the crowd, and this would give Oswald the chance to escape, which he almost did.
Many people have speculated that Jack Ruby, already dying of cancer, had the job of silencing Oswald after he had fired the fatal shots because Oswald, as an ex-Marine, was the one that was a good shot with a rifle. In the same way, during the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul, the would-be assassin didn't know that there was another gunman standing near him who would shoot him after he had shot the pope, purportedly to save the pope's life but really to silence the assassin from revealing who was behind the assassination attempt.
But if Jack Ruby was to similarly silence Oswald then why wasn't it done immediately? Jack Ruby was nowhere around when the assassination took place and Oswald had already been in police custody two days when Jack Ruby managed to silence him, by pretending to be a reporter in the police station parking garage. Ruby had made a great show of grief after Kennedy had been killed, closing his nightclub, but that could have been part of the "Plan B", silencing Oswald, after he had failed to escape to Cuba and had been arrested.
The plan was for Oswald to escape and later be traced to Cuba. Oswald's home and belongings would be searched and He left behind the "backyard photos" of himself holding the rifle that would kill Kennedy, obviously so that people in Cuba would know for sure that he was the assassin. He almost did escape but when he was caught they had to find a way to silence him before he could reveal who was really behind the assassination.
CONCLUSION
What I want to do here is to add the concept that the real reason Kennedy was assassinated was to bring about a U.S. military invasion of Cuba that would depose the Castro Government by making it appear that it was behind the assassination. Many people with influence, the Mafia and the anti-Castro Cubans, had lost so much that they could regain by bringing this about.
Also that the Kennedy assassination was modeled on the assassination attempt on Franklin Roosevelt thirty years before. The plan was for Oswald to escape after the assassination, and later be traced to Cuba. But even if Oswald didn't escape investigators were to notice this clue, which they apparently didn't, and blame the assassination on Cuba.
Of course if this clue had been noticed, and resulted in a U.S. invasion of Cuba, it could have started a world war.
Has anyone ever noticed that George W. Bush, a native of Texas, would follow exactly this same pattern, except that the Kennedy Assassination would be replaced by 9/11 and Fidel Castro would be replaced by Saddam Hussein. Maybe George Bush instinctively knew what the Kennedy Assassination was really about. Fidel Castro remained in power but what might have happened was played out against Saddam Hussein instead. His country was invaded and he was deposed on the basis of his involvement in 9/11. The theories about Oswald not acting alone were reflected in Saddam's supposed "weapons of mass destruction".
Another separate thing that I have never seen written about the Kennedy Assassination is that not far from the site of the assassination in Dallas lived an eight-year-old boy, named John Hinckley Jr. He would one day attempt a presidential assassination of his own. His assassination attempt would resemble not Oswald's sniper shots at Kennedy but Jack Ruby's waiting for Oswald, and then opening fire.
Kennedy had won the 1960 presidential election by defeating Richard Nixon, who would later be president himself. Ironically Nixon, while not assassinated, would also be brought down by the obsession with Cuba. Cuban exiles were prominent among the Watergate burglars, who were allegedly looking for evidence that the Democrats were receiving funding from Cuba.
This Mafia dynasty in Cuba, during the 1940s and 50s, doesn't get a lot of historical attention. But it was the primary reason for the Castro revolution that overthrew the Batista government, and brought the world to the edge of nuclear holocaust during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It led to the assassination of Kennedy, which inaugurated the modern era of mass shootings. Charles Whitman's sniper shootings, from the University of Texas Tower, very much resembled Oswald's firing at Kennedy which took place elsewhere in Texas. This is generally considered as the first modern mass shooting. Finally, it resulted in America being really shaken by Watergate.
2) NAMES FROM THE SON OF SAM
In 1976 and '77, there was a serial killer in New York City called "The Son of Sam". This was the name that he gave himself in letters sent to newspapers. He killed six people and wounded seven, using a .44 caliber handgun.
The Son of Sam wrote bizarre letters to the news that caused all of the printed copies to sell out. One letter was left with the body of one of his victims. New York City underwent possibly the largest manhunt the world had ever seen. He never killed anyone on Manhattan, all of the victims were in the Bronx, Queens and, Brooklyn.
The shootings were clearly ethnically targeted. Despite the demographics of New York City, none of the victims was black or Hispanic or foreign-born.
I walked into the house one day, August 11, and my mother gave me the news, "They've got him".
On May 30, 1977, a letter was received by Jimmy Breslin of the New York Daily News. In the letter, the Son of Sam gave some clues, "Here are some names to help you along. Forward them to the inspector". Many tips continuously came in, and the killer was caught on August 10, but the clues, consisting of four names, was never solved.
His capture was assisted by a parking ticket. He parked too close to a fire hydrant in Brooklyn, and then aimed shots at a woman but missed. She had seen him walking toward her from the direction of the car, and that the police had shortly before ticketed the car. That soon led to his being caught.
Upon capture, he quickly admitted to the killings and pleaded guilty.
I think I have solved the four names that the Son of Sam sent as clues to the New York Daily News. The names are as follows:
"The Duke of Death"
"The Wicked King Wicker"
"The Twenty Two Disciples Of Hell"
"John Wheaties"
The Son of Sam was giving a clue as to where he lived and worked. He lived in an apartment building, on Pine Street in Yonkers. He was arrested at night as he entered his car parked outside, apparently on his way out to another shooting.
The name that he gave himself in the letters, "The Son of Sam", is itself part of the clue. "Sam" turned out to be a neighbor named Sam Carr who had a dog in his yard. The killer's first story upon capture is that he took the barking of the dog as demonic instructions to kill. He had once wounded the dog with a bullet.
As for "John Wheaties", Sam Carr had a son named John and a daughter named Wheat. It was Wheat Carr who was the police dispatcher in Yonkers at the time. "Wheaties" was the name of a popular breakfast cereal.
The short side street that ran alongside Sam Carr's house, and ended on the street just behind the apartment building where the Son of Sam lived, was Wicker Street. That explains "The Wicked King Wicker".
The names that the Son of Sam gave as clues contain two titles of royalty and nobility, king and duke. The name of New York comes from England's King Charles II granting the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.
Pine Street, on which the Son of Sam lived, was a short street. At the end of the street, which he would have passed on his way into the city, was another large apartment building. The actual address of the building is on the main road, North Broadway. But the back was facing Pine Street.
This building is built in what is known as the Tudor Revival Style, which typically features the half-timbering that was popular in England centuries ago. Image from Google Street View.
The large building with the black roof in the following image, marked by the white dot, is the apartment building where the Son of Sam lived. Wicker Street, marked by the purple dot, is the short east-west street to the left. The large house on Warburton Ave., just north of Wicker Street, with the rust-colored roof, the yellow line points to it, is where Sam lived. His dog would bark in the area behind the house.
If you enter a search into the satellite imagery for 22 Pine Street, you can see that it points to this Tudor Revival apartment building. Although it's front, which would be the address, faces North Broadway. But if it's address was on Pine Street, it would be 22 Pine Street. if Wicker Street extended to Pine Street this is where it would intersect. Image from Google Earth.
But since no address was posted at the back the only people who would know that, in the days before Google Maps, would be those who worked at the Post Office, and that is exactly where it turned out that the Son of Sam worked.
So this explains where the king in "The Wicked King Wicker", as well as "The Duke of Death", comes from. The address of the rear of the apartment building shows where "The Twenty Two Disciples of Hell" comes from. This Tudor Revival-style apartment building was not the one that the Son of Sam lived in, but was the other apartment building on the street. But this is where Wicker Street would intersect if it extended to Pine Street.
If someone would have put all of this together, they would have zeroed right in on where the Son of Sam lived, as well as worked. If all of this had been run through the crude computers of the time, it might have noted that there was a family with a Sam, a John and, a Wheat living at the intersection of a Wicker Street.
In an earlier letter, left at the scene of a shooting, the killer wrote that "Sam sometimes locks me in the attic, where I watch the world going by through the window". He also wrote that "Sam sometimes locks me in the garage". But the "Son of Sam" did not live in this house, it was a clue as to where he did live.
The house in the following image is "Sam's" house, with two attic windows facing out to the main road, and the dual garage in front. Behind the house was where the dog was barking that he initially said was what was telling him to kill. The apartment building where he lived can be seen behind that. Image from Google Street View.
The following image, from Google Earth, shows behind the house, where the dog would bark.
When the police located his car, outside his apartment building, they noticed a rifle in the car. If a serial killer, the subject of probably the largest manhunt in history, really didn't want to get caught then would he not only give away these clues of where he lived and worked, but also leave a rifle visible in his car? The killings were done with a handgun and not with a rifle.
The Son of Sam made no effort to escape from the police, quickly confessed to the crimes, and pleaded guilty.
The subject of a possible satanic cult sacrificial killings later arose, of which David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam. had been a member but not the only one who committed the killings. It was pointed out that some of the police sketches of suspects in the early killings did not look like him.
The two sons of Sam Carr, Michael and John who both died under mysterious circumstances after all of this was over, were supposedly involved. There is a park and public garden 2 km from where the Son of Sam lived that was known as a gathering place for satanists in the 1970s but, in prison interviews, he did take full responsibility for the killings.
3) THE ZODIAC KILLER AND THE UNABOMBER
The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, died in prison, in June 2023. "The Unabomber" wasn't a title that he gave himself. From a remote cabin in the woods of Montana he mailed homemade package bombs often to universities and airlines, and others he associated with allowing nature and society to be destroyed by modern technology. The name of the FBI file on him was "Unabom" with the "Una" meaning "universities and airlines".
The Unabomber was pretty smart. He received a scholarship to enter Harvard at age 16, after skipping two grades in school. After graduation from Harvard he went on to get a PhD in mathematics. He was hired as a professor at the prestigious University of California at Berkeley, in the San Francisco Bay area.
But he apparently didn't have the personality to be a teacher, and later resigned. He moved back with his parents in Illinois for a while before choosing to live a very isolated life in the cabin in the woods of Montana. It was while living there that he undertook his long campaign of sending package bombs by mail.
It reportedly resulted in the most expensive manhunt in U.S. history, but it came up completely empty. I remember reading once about someone sending a wooden package bomb, primarily to universities and airlines, on average about once a year. A sketch was made of a man wearing a hood and dark glasses, who was seen placing a package in a parking lot, which exploded when picked up.
The government had no idea who was doing it. The idea did arise that the Unabomber might have some connection to the University of California at Berkeley, because that was the only place that was targeted more than once. Ironically the first person to arrive to aid the person injured by the second bomb was the one who had been injured by the first bomb.
These mail bombings began in 1978. The Unabomber was finally caught in 1996. He had written a manuscript describing his views of how technology was destroying society. He wrote to newspapers and promised to cease mailing bombs if they published it. The Unabomber would write to his brother describing his ideas and his brother, and his wife, recognized his writing in the manuscript. The brother decided that he had to turn him in to save innocent lives.
After the background of the Unabomber was uncovered, something interesting became apparent. There had been a serial killer in the San Francisco Bay area that got a tremendous amount of media attention but was never caught. It was the Zodiac Killer. I know that the FBI eliminated the Unabomber as a suspect in the case of the Zodiac Killer, but the parallels between the two are just plain eerie.
The Zodiac Killer is confirmed as having killed five people, usually with a handgun and wounding others who survived. There were unconfirmed speculation of other killings and letters from the Zodiac that were determined to be hoaxes. Most of his victims were couples on dates. It seems like classic incel killings. A guy who resents not having a girlfriend kills people who are having fun on dates.
What is unusual about the Zodiac Killer, relative to other serial killers, is that the timeframe of his confirmed killings was short, actually less than a year from December 1968 to October 1969, yet he continued writing to authorities for several years afterward.
This is exactly the same timeframe that the reclusive and unsocial future Unabomber was teaching at nearby UC at Berkeley. He left California some time after resigning his position, moving in with his parents for a while before moving to the remote cabin in Montana.
The Zodiac Killer was known for the cryptograms that he sent to newspapers. Like the Unabomber would later do with his manuscript the Zodiac Killer threatened killings if they weren't published. Some of the cryptograms have not yet been solved, one required a team of mathematicians and programmers to solve. The Zodiac Killer must not only have been pretty smart, but very good with both words and mathematics. The characters in the cryptograms that the killer made up himself look like symbols used in mathematics.
The letters and cryptograms that the Zodiac Killer sent have quite a few misspellings. But how could someone who could come up with these unsolvable cryptograms not know how to spell?
When the future Unabomber was in university he amazed teachers with his ability to solve complex math problems. When he was finally arrested a diary, written in code, was found in his cabin. He was also very good with languages, I know that he could speak at least German and Spanish. Wouldn't he be just the one to come up with the very complex and difficult cryptograms of the Zodiac Killer? Two are still unsolved and one took the team of mathematicians and programmers to solve.
The FBI claimed that the fingerprints of the Unabomber and the Zodiac Killer don't match. But could they be sure that they had the Zodiac Killer's fingerprints? Someone clever enough to create these cryptograms is probably smart enough to wear gloves. A call to a police station by the killer was traced to a photo booth, and prints were found on the phone. But it could have been anyone else's prints. Maybe he waited for someone else to use the phone, so that person's prints would be on it, and then handled the phone carefully with gloves. When he killed his final confirmed victim, a taxi driver, he was seen carefully wiping the car down before leaving.
The Unabomber hunted animals in the woods while living in his remote cabin. Nowhere do I see that the Unabomber was into guns while growing up. His father did show him how to survive in the wilderness and he might have fired a gun, but nowhere in anything written about his life did I see anything about an interest in guns.
But yet he was adept enough with a gun to survive mostly by hunting by the time he moved into the wilderness. It seems that he must have gotten some hunting practice somewhere. Could it have been as the Zodiac Killer in California?
Hunting is usually done with long guns, shotguns and especially rifles, which are more powerful and accurate than pistols. A pistol is intended only for close range. Yet the Zodiac Killer killed with a pistol and, when the Unabomber was arrested he was found to have only a pistol.
Like the Unabomber the Zodiac Killer threatened bombings if what he sent to the news wasn't published. He also made a schematic diagram of a bomb. The Unabomber threatened an airliner just as the Zodiac Killer had threatened a school bus.
One parallel that I find really interesting is in the signatures of the two killers. The Zodiac Killer had his own "crosshairs" symbol, like a plus sign superimposed on a circle. The Unabomber signed his correspondence with F.C., for "Freedom Club". What is so interesting is that they both used their signatures on their correspondence in exactly the same way.
Another convincing link is letter writing. The Zodiac Killer wrote so many letters. The Unabomber was also a prolific letter writer, often to his brother. When the Unabomber was in prison he spent much of his time writing letters, some to answer those that were sent to him.
Following is a copy of the Zodiac Killer's 340 character cryptogram. Part of the "crosshairs" symbol is at bottom. Credit to the Wikipedia article "Zodiac Killer".
The clue as to how to decode it is in the second half of the last line. After that is "ZO". We know that he must be signing his name, Zodiac, but the characters must be moved around, according to some pattern.
Now consider the Unabomber's name. It was unknown why the killer called himself "Zodiac".
Theodore Kaczynski
If we start with reverse alphabetical order and take one letter, the Z, continuing in reverse alphabetical order we take two consecutive letters, the OD. Continuing in reverse alphabetical order we go back to one letter, the I, and then to the two consecutive letters, the AC, it spells "Zodiac".
Starting from the end of the name, the "i", if we take the required letters and skip the four letters between each time we end up with "The Zodiac". So there are groups of 1, 2 and, 3 letters, separated each by four letters, to get "The Zodiac".
But how would we know this? The Zodiac Killer gave us a clue in that he committed four attacks but only the first, second and third were against couples. The fourth attack was completely different in that it was against a taxi driver. Remember that everything about this is a cryptogram. The actual cryptograms don't give any real clues, they just point in this direction.
When a person signs their name to a document they sign at the end of it. Look at the last line and the second half of the second-to-last line. The capital "I" at the end has a minus sign, -, extending from it's left side. Is this a sign to start on his name in reverse order from the final "I", as described above?
This ending of the cryptogram spells his name, "Kaczynski". It has several mathematical symbols. The last line starts with MD, which means doctor. It also contains a rearranged "PhD" and the MD could be a clue that this means doctorate. Some letters are reversed so what looks like a "9" could be a reversed "P". "MI" is the abbreviation for Michigan, where he got his PhD.
It is interesting that the Zodiac Killer put a 9 in the final line because he sent in a map with his logo of a circle divided into four quadrants. The origin point was Mount Diablo, with north defined as 0, east as 3, south as 6, and west as 9. The University at Berkeley is due west of Mount Diablo. Image from Google Earth.
That explains the mystery of why he would call himself "Zodiac" but his correspondence never mentions anything to do with astrology. Being so much into cryptograms it was because the letters of his name could be rearranged to spell "Zodiac".
I believe that the misspelled words in the Zodiac Killer's letters were clues as to which letters are substituted for other letters in the cryptograms.
The Zodiac's letters state that the cryptograms reveal clues to his identity. But the two that have been decoded offer no such clues at all, just descriptions of how much he enjoys killing. Maybe that is because the clues are not within the cryptograms, rather the cryptograms themselves are the clues.
The clue in the cryptograms is that the killer is obviously very accomplished at mathematics. The first place we would think to look for a mathematician is probably a university. All of the three couples that were attacked by the Zodiac Killer were all around college age, this is another clue pointing toward a college or university.
Look at the sites where the three attacks on college age couples took place. The name of all three begin with a "B". Since the killer was a cryptographer surely this must be a clue. Theodore Kaczynski has no "B" in his name, his middle name is John. There is a "B" in the ending of the cryptogram above.
The killings of couples took place at Benicia, at Blue Rock Springs Park, and at Lake Berryessa. Two of the sites begin with "Be" and the other begins with the color blue.
If the Zodiac Killer was so adept at cryptography wouldn't it make sense that the sites of his killings would have some cryptographic significance?
So the victims were around university age and we know that a university would be the place to look for a mathematician who would be adept at such cryptography. There is a university nearby, UC at Berkeley. The name of the school begins with "Be" and it's school color is blue, along with California Gold. The university actually has it's own shade of blue, known as "Berkeley Blue".
The Zodiac Killer's final confirmed victim was a driver for the Yellow Cab Company and the taxi was a golden yellow color just like Berkeley's other color. The shooting took place very near the Golden Gate Bridge, as if to leave no doubt that the color of the cab stands for the gold that is the university's other color, blue and gold.
This means we should be looking for a mathematician at Berkeley University, whose name can be respelled as "The Zodiac".
The Zodiac Killer killed with a gun but there is one known exception. The attack at Lake Berryessa took place with a knife. Why would someone who kills with a gun suddenly decide to use a knife? Killing with a gun is so much easier and safer than with a knife. With cryptography being so important here, and the first two letters "Be" pointing to Berkeley, could it be a clue that the Zodiac Killer also has a "K" and an "N" in his name, Theodore Kaczynski?
The Zodiac Killer boasted of killing 37 people, which is generally considered as a gross exaggeration. But remember that this is all about cryptography that reveals his identity. "University of Berkeley Theodore Kaczynski" has 37 letters.
Crossword puzzles are usually square. But the cryptogram above has 17 spaces across and 20 spaces down, which adds up to the same number of people The Zodiac said that he killed. "Theodore Kaczynski" has 17 letters and University of (or at) Berkeley has 20 letters.
The solved 408 character cryptogram also has 17 spaces across. I am surprised that no one seems to have taken note that both cryptograms are 17 across. The 408 character cryptogram was divided into thirds, and each sent to a different newspaper. Each third has 8 characters down. Why would he do this? Was it because "Berkeley" has 8 letters. Also an 8 resembles a "B" and the three shootings of couples were at places that begin with a 'B".
I think this leaves no doubt that the Zodiac Killer became the Unabomber. This is not entirely a new idea but these connections I cannot see have ever been pointed out.
What I had wondered about is why he called himself "The Zodiac", but his letters never mention anything about astrology or stars, and why he took a taxi for his final known murder if he had a car, and killed the taxi driver instead of a couple. Now we know.
I am sure that there is more than this but a lot of what was sent in was sent by other people. Besides I have had enough of writing about, and thinking about, this psychopath. However it is interesting that in 1978, just before the bombings of the Unabomber began, a letter was received, from supposedly the Zodiac Killer, stating "I am back with you".
4) THE WANNABE JACK THE RIPPER
In 1964 and 65 there were a series of murders in west London that evoked Jack the Ripper, whose murders were committed on the other side of London. The bodies of six prostitutes were found at various locations. The murders are usually referred to as the "Hammersmith Nude Murders" because the bodies were found in the Hammersmith area and their clothing had been removed. But unlike the murders of Jack the Ripper these were committed by strangulation and impact. The killer was never caught although, as with Jack the Ripper, there has been endless speculation and a list of possible suspects.
In another story a 15 year old boy was working at a store in the Welsh town of Abertillery, in 1921. His name was Harold Jones. A young girl who lived nearby was sent over to buy animal feed. The girl never returned home and her body was found the following day. There was traces of corn chaff on her body that matched the corn chaff on the floor of a nearby shed. The shed belonged to the store and Harold Jones was the one who had the key to it.
Harold Jones was accused of the murder and put on trial. The people of the town stood by him, believing that one of their own couldn't have done this, and he was found not guilty. When he returned home he was received like a hero. He clearly very much enjoyed the attention and made a speech.
But within a short time another young girl in the town disappeared. This time her body was found in the attic of the home where Harold Jones lived. He had lured her into the house and killed her when he had been home alone and apparently didn't have chance to dispose of the body so he hid it in the attic.
He was convicted and, while in prison, also confessed to the first murder. Britain had the death penalty at the time but he wasn't eligible for it because the crimes had been committed before he turned 16. He seems to have served 20 years in prison. There is conflicting information about what happened to him after his release. He served in either the military or the Merchant Navy. Britain was pressed by the war in 1941 and I wonder if he was released in exchange for service.
He is known to have lived in London afterward, but is reported to have occasionally returned to Abertillery. By the 1960s his crimes had been mostly forgotten and he was living under a different name. Harold Jones died of cancer in 1971. While the police were investigating the Hammersmith Nude Murders what they were not aware of is that Harold Jones was living close by.
No one seems to have considered Harold Jones as a potential suspect during his lifetime. He was born in 1906 so would have been in his late 50s when the Hammersmith Murders were taking place. He was added to the list of potential suspects, by the media not the police, long after his death.
What is interesting about the Hammersmith Murders is that flecks of paint were found on several of the bodies, but this didn't begin until after it was announced in the news that a serial killer was at work. From what I can gather the flecks of paint on one body matched that inside a transformer housing that the body was found near.
Has anyone ever thought that Harold Jones was purposely leaving clues? I cannot see this anywhere. Killers like this usually can't resist playing games with the public and authorities. Jack the Ripper famously sent taunting letters to the police. I remember the letters from the "Son of Sam" to the media.
Remember the corn chaff that was found on the body of Harold Jones' first victim back in Abertillery, which matched the corn chaff on the floor of the nearby shed. The paint flecks represented that corn chaff and the transformer housing represented the shed.
There is a police sketch of the likely Hammersmith killer, based on information provided by a witness. It looks like it could be Harold Jones, based on the mugshot that was taken in 1921. I believe that he purposely allowed himself to be seen as another clue.
It was known that Harold Jones liked to read when he was young. What I surmise is that he must have read about Jack the Ripper, whose murders took place more than 17 years before his birth. This is what gave him the idea of killing girls. Notice that the first known victim of Jack the Ripper, Mary Ann Nichols, had her throat slashed and her body was found in an alley. Harold Jones' first victim, in Abertillery, was found in an alley and his second victim had her throat slashed.
Blood is messy and visible and it didn't make sense to kill the second victim by slashing her throat in his own home. This is what got him caught when the police searched house-by-house, and noticed blood stains. Why didn't he kill her by strangulation or impact, like the first victim? The obvious answer is that he had made a hero out of Jack the Ripper, and was compelled to imitate him.
Then, in later life while living in London, came the murders to imitate Jack the Ripper. Serial killers usually don't begin killing in their late 50s, without ever having killed before. It is known that Jack the Ripper had some kind of medical skill, since he removed the internal organs of one victim. Lacking such medical skill the killer in Hammersmith removed their clothing instead. This also left no doubt that there was a serial killer at work.
The Hammersmith killer, just like Harold Jones in Abertillery, always moved the bodies from where they were killed. Several of the victims were mysteriously missing front teeth, and this could be another clue. The Wikipedia article on Harold Jones states that he once expressed the ambition to be a professional boxer, and this must have been reported in the news. In the early days of boxing, before the use of mouthpieces, missing front teeth were common. The final victim in Hammersmith is known to have disappeared on January 11, which was Jones' birthday.
It is not known for certain how many were killed by Jack the Ripper but the six in Hammersmith were an approximation of the number. It is also bizarre how he drained the blood from the second victim in Abertillery, which is what got him caught. This looks like an effort to imitate Jack the Ripper's removal of the one victim's internal organs.
The murders of Jack the Ripper were seasonal, taking place in the autumn of 1888. He had to use a knife because it was easier to conceal. Walking around Whitechapel with something that could be used for a blunt instrument would have drawn attention. In the autumn he would have been wearing some kind of jacket or covering, which made it possible to conceal the knife. The Hammersmith killer didn't have any difficulty concealing a blunt instrument because he was driving a car. He would also have been biased against blood because that was what got him caught back in Abertillery.
5) THE TORONTO BILLIONAIRE MURDER MYSTERY
Barry and Honey Sherman were murdered together at home in Toronto, on December 13 2017 after 9 P.M. The murder was completely bizarre. They had both been strangled and were seated, and supported by belts, on a railing by their basement swimming pool. The underwater lights in the pool were found on. All other lights in the house were off. There was no sign that the house had been burglarized or that anything had been stolen.
The first theory was that it was a murder-suicide. But no one around them had seen significant tension in their marriage, and they had all kinds of upcoming plans and travels. Barry was 75 years old and not in particularly good health. It seemed physically impossible that he could have done this to his wife, and then to himself. A murder-suicide would have been much simpler and easier with a gun.
The next theory was, of course, that the murder had to do with their wealth. Whenever a wealthy person is murdered the first suspects are anyone who had anything to gain from it. Their children had money of their own. Anyway, Barry Sherman was 75 years old and it just wouldn't make sense for anyone who was set to inherit his wealth to kill him. He would die someday anyway.
The next theory after that was any enemies that they may have had. Despite their philanthropy not everyone liked Barry and Honey Sherman. The pharmaceutical industry is litigious. Corporate rivalries, lawsuits and possible family feuds were investigated. But nothing at all came out of it that would provide a suspect in their murders.
At the time of the murders the Shermans were trying to sell their home. It was not because of financial difficulties, they were planning to build an even more extravagant home. While Barry and Honey were working at their company a realtor was showing potential buyers around the house. There had been quite a few showings but Barry Sherman had expressed disappointment with the amounts offered.
On the night of the murder, December 13, 2017, Barry Sherman, who reportedly usually stayed at the company until 11 P.M., was home by 9. Honey also arrived early at home separately. In the usually busy house there was nothing going on, and no-one else around that night.
Barry Sherman was a hard-driving and penny-pinching businessman. In the real estate industry a realtor gets a significant cut of the sale price as a commission. It is not unheard of for a potential buyer who has been shown the house to secretly contact the homeowner to make a deal, leaving out the realtor. It is not allowed but it does happen.
Could Barry and Honey have uncharacteristically gone home early, on the night that they would be murdered with no one else around, because they were doing something that they didn't want anyone to know about?
The evidence is that they were surprised when they separately entered the house. The killers were inside waiting for them. The alarm system had been turned off. The killers were clearly familiar with the house.
If the killers weren't already inside they could have been hiding by the door. But that would take the risk of being seen and they were more likely already inside.
What I find very interesting is that, when Barry Sherman was surprised by the killers at his door, he dropped some paperwork that was found later, as well as his winter gloves. The paperwork was a copy of the real estate appraisal on the value of the home.
Why would they be coming home uncharacteristically early, also uncharacteristically with no one else around, and bringing a copy of the real estate appraisal with him, when his real estate dealings had always taken place in his office at his company?
Could it be that someone who had been shown the home had secretly contacted him about making a deal, without the realtor? The real motive was to murder them. That would explain how the killers were obviously familiar with the house. While in the house with the realtor they may have managed to shut off the alarm system and set up a way to enter later.
Just a thought-while they were being shown the house someone working with the killers could have called the realtor and distracted her for several minutes while one of the killers shut off the alarm system and set up some way to enter later.
It is virtually certain that there was more than one killer in the house. That is where the anonymous but famous "Walking Man" comes in, walking with the unusual gait of kicking up his right foot as he walks. He was captured by home security cameras walking quickly along the sidewalk right around the time that Barry Sherman arrived home.
He was probably working with the killers but wasn't there when the killings took place. This was done to make the police think that it was a single killer. The gait is completely faked and done because artificial intelligence can recognize a person by the way they walk.
Another false clue, just in case the "Walking Man" didn't get noticed was a man who was captured by a security camera at the house across the street from the Sherman home. On the day of the murders, earlier in the day, this man parked in front of the Sherman home and, apparently when no one was home, walked to the house and back to his car three separate times, before driving away.
I would look carefully at all the people who were shown the home by the realtor.
The murders were done for some bizarre reason that makes no sense to anyone but the killers. Clearly they wanted the bodies to be found. Nothing was apparently stolen and no one seemed to gain anything from it. Both kept somewhat regular schedules and it would have been far easier to shoot or abduct them elsewhere.
A quick Google search would have told the killers that the couple had business rivalries, had been involved in lawsuits, and had potential enemies. Not to mention family members that would inherit their wealth. This would shield the killers from suspicion since they didn't seem to gain anything material from the murders.
6) FIRE ON THE MORRO CASTLE
A ship is actually a terrible place to have a fire. In a building fire people in the building usually only have to get outside the building and they are safe. On a ship they still have to worry about surviving in the water. There is usually no limit to the amount of water that can be poured on a building fire. On a ship the water collects in the hull and can sink or capsize the ship.
Ships are made of steel but steel rooms and corridors have an alien feel and produce an unpleasant echo. Steel is also not a good insulator. So the walls are typically covered with some kind of panels. Since they cannot be nailed to steel they must be glued, and this is what is flammable.
Possibly the most infamous ship fire is that of the Morro Castle in 1934, and the controversy around the radio operator afterward. I remember watching a documentary about this when I was a teenager.
The Morro Castle was an American passenger ship that was named for the castle in Havana. A fire started while the ship was close to arriving in New York.
The radio operator on the ship, George White, was considered as a hero afterward. In all of the confusion he had risked his life to stay at his post and send out the SOS distress call.
After the disaster, George White drew attention by really basking in the adulation and giving numerous radio and newspaper interviews. He reportedly didn't attend any of the services for those who had died.
It then emerged that George White had a considerable criminal record going back to his early teens. He later went to prison for murder. Interestingly, although he was never convicted of arson, he was suspected of starting fires at places where he worked both before and after the ship disaster. In a separate case he was convicted of the attempted murder of a coworker by an explosive device.
While we cannot state with certainty that George White set the fire on the ship, I do notice another strike against him. His assistant, George Alanga, was disliked by the company as a communist or socialist agitator who was always complaining about pay and working conditions and had tried to organize labor strikes. According to one account that I read, Alanga had been told that he was being terminated when the ship got back to New York.
Could George White have lit the fire, probably by a timer device, with the motive of getting attention by playing the hero and knowing that Alanga, who he didn't like, would likely get the blame if it was determined to be arson? Why did he send Alanga to get permission from the captain to send an SOS instead of going himself?
The fire began near vital cables and soon put out the lights on the ship. Could George White, with his knowledge of radio and electricity, have done this purposely? The ship was near shore when the fire started. The objective could have been not a loss of life but a scary situation where the ship had it's lights put out by a fire, and with George White emerging as the hero.
Where would George White get the idea of being a hero in a ship fire?
What I cannot see pointed out about him is that he grew up not far from the site of the 1900 Hoboken Pier Fire. One account is that he was born in 1901, the year after the fire, and must have heard a lot about it while growing up. A lot of cotton bales were piled on the dock, alongside many barrels of various flammable liquids. There was a dry wind from south and a disaster was waiting to happen. No one knows how the fire started but somehow it did. The fire raced along the dock and onto four German ships. Several hundred people were killed in one of America's worst disasters.
The fire on board the General Slocum, four years later, was on the other side of New York City but was far worse. More than a thousand people died. Most of the victims got off the ship, only to drown in the East River because they couldn't swim. It was the worst thing to happen to New York City until 9/11. Bodies washed up on the shore of the river for days.
Both disasters had their heroes who helped rescue people. In a case like this it is helpful to look at what happened while the person was growing up. What I have never seen written about the assassination of John F Kennedy is that not far away lived an eight year old boy named John Hinckley Jr, who would later try to assassinate Ronald Reagan.
George White would also have been nearby, and in his early teens, when the Black Tom Explosion occurred in 1916. This was the sabotage of a vast amount of ammunition before the entry of America into the First World War. It was accomplished by deliberately set fires along a pier.
However it must be said that, in a fire like this, there is a bias toward arson. The fire might have been accidental but that implies carelessness and is ultimately the responsibility of the ship's management and leadership. It is much easier to blame the fire on arson by a disgruntled crew member.
7) MAYBE O.J. SIMPSON REALLY DIDN'T DO IT
This section contains subsections.
While writing about the 1994 murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, and the ensuing chase and "Trial of the Century" of her estranged husband O.J. Simpson, I noticed an avenue that does not seem to have been explored during the investigation and trial.
8) A NIAGARA FALLS PERSPECTIVE ON THE O.J. SIMPSON CASE
There is a whole dimension to the O.J. Simpson Case that I cannot see anyone has ever brought up.
What about where O.J. Simpson went to high school? You may be wondering what that could possibly have to do with it. He graduated from high school in 1965, 29 years before the double murder and the chase took place.
But look at the following two images, from Google Earth. The building in the foreground, with the red roof, is the high school that he went to. The island in the background is Alcatraz.
O. J. Simpson was going to high school here when the great escape from Alcatraz happened. The tall building in the background partially blocks the view of the island from the school today but that wasn't there when the escape happened, in June 1962. It must have been a prominent topic of discussion at O. J.'s school.
Could it be just a coincidence that the murders happened on the anniversary of the Alcatraz Escape, June 12? O. J. Simpson's number when he played for the Buffalo Bills was 32 and the murders happened on the 32nd anniversary of the Alcatraz Escape.
What is so intriguing about the Alcatraz Escape is that it is not known whether the escapees survived. Three prisoners, two of which were brothers, pulled off an elaborate escape plan. They got off the island on a raft that they secretly made by sewing raincoats together.
The exact time of their escape at night is not known, and that is where the question of their survival comes in. The deciding factor is considered to be the tide. If the tide was on the way in they would likely have ended up somewhere on the shore of San Francisco Bay and could well have escaped. But if the tide was on the way out they probably would have been swept out to sea and it would be unlikely that they survived.
The authorities searched for the escapees. But a search like this takes a lot of money and effort, as well as attention away from other crimes, and they didn't put anywhere near as much effort into the search as they would have were it known for sure that the escapees had survived.
A whole industry emerged around speculation about what became of the Alcatraz escapees if they survived. It has become part of American folklore.
So what does Niagara Falls have to do with this? When someone goes over Niagara Falls there is a very good chance that their body will never be found. What that does is make Niagara Falls, NY the fake suicide capital of the world. On the U.S. side there are few people around at night and many places where one could get into the water.
It is not uncommon to read about someone who complained about suffering from sadness and depression, or being heavily in debt, then took a trip to Niagara Falls and was never seen again. It was presumed that they jumped over the Falls. Sometimes they did, but then sometimes they didn't.
I find that this provides a perspective on the O.J. Simpson Case.
Just as with the Alcatraz Escape case that he must have been very familiar with, O. J. Simpson knew that the authorities would put much less effort into looking for him, if he faced arrest for the murders and had to escape, if they thought he was likely dead. O. J. didn't have a tide like the Alcatraz escapees but what he did have was fake suicide. O. J. could pretend to be suicidal. Remember that he had been an actor as well as an athlete.
O.J. Simpson went to the home of his long time friend, Robert Kardashian, after being charged with the double murder, but before he was required to turn himself in, allegedly to avoid the media. The police knew that he was there.
According to one report a delay was requested in when he had to turn himself in because he was "suicidal" and had to see a therapist. I cannot see that this therapy ever took place. What happened instead is that O.J. Simpson suddenly left the Kardashian residence with his old Buffalo Bills teammate, Al Cowlings.
After the departure of O.J. Simpson, meaning that he was now a fugitive, Robert Kardashian read his alleged suicide letter to the media. It didn't specifically mention ending his life but stated "I can't go on" and "Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life, great friends".
I have always thought that this reading of a friend's suicide letter to the media, before knowing that he was dead, was just a little bit bizarre.
That's not all that was bizarre. Robert Kardashian then reported that O. J. Simpson, who had long been close to the Kardashian family, had expressed his intention to commit suicide in daughter Kim's bedroom, who wasn't home at the time. Robert Kardashian had talked him out of it, because the room would then be essentially haunted. After O. J. had left he went and told the whole world about it.
Could it be that this was part of the plan? That it wasn't worth the effort to launch an all-out search for O. J. because he was probably dead by now anyway? Instead of the tide that the Alcatraz escapees had, to convince the authorities that they were probably dead, O. J. Simpson had being suicidal.
Long before that Robert Kardashian had been a lawyer. He would certainly have been called as a witness in the case. But what he cleverly did was reactivate his law license and serve as one of O. J.'s lawyers. That meant the police couldn't question him about the case nor could he be compelled to testify.
Writing these letters while at the Kardashian house sounds like something a lawyer advised him to do. Remember that he had a scheduled trip to Chicago, and he left right after the murders. The police called him in Chicago. He could have written these letters on the plane back from Chicago.
On the Chicago flight the crew reported that O. J. continuously drank water and used the bathroom. This could be part of the suicidal act also, that he had already taken some kind of pills and was washing it out of his system.
While fleeing with Al Cowlings driving, O. J. made the apparent mistake of making a phone call. Cell phones were still new but the location of a call could be approximately triangulated. The vehicle was moving south on the highway, seemingly going toward Mexico. A news helicopter caught sight of the vehicle and began to follow it. When they realized that they had been seen it seems that they turned around, possibly hoping to get lost in the dense traffic of the city.
What followed is the chase that I am sure no one who followed it will ever forget. I remember turning on the television to watch the news. I thought that this was a preview out of a movie that O. J. had made. I knew about his ex wife and the waiter who was returning her glasses being murdered shortly before. I thought this couldn't possibly be happening in real life. But then I changed the channel and it was the same thing on every channel.
The Ford Bronco was moving slowly along the highway, which had been quickly closed to all other traffic. About twenty police cars, with their lights flashing, were following it. They were holding off trying to stop it because O. J. was in the back seat with a gun to his head. In the air above the police cars was a formation of news helicopters.
People all across America dropped what they were doing to watch. It was absolutely surreal. It was difficult to believe that this was really happening. 9/11 was a shock but it wasn't difficult to believe that it was really happening.
Unfortunately the outside world watched it too, although maybe not live. Five years before the Berlin Wall had come down and it seemed like global democracy had triumphed. People were looking to America to see what a democratic society should be like. Then this had to happen. This surreal episode didn't do democracy any good. It wasn't the two murders, that could happen anywhere. It was the whole society was wrapped up in this difficult to believe spectacle. I am sure that the nearby presence of Hollywood was a factor and this probably wouldn't have happened like this in another city.
The pursuit ended at O. J.'s house. He went inside for a while and police waited until he emerged. O. J. was found to have been carrying in the car a fake beard, a passport and, a significant amount of cash. He wouldn't have this if he was really going to commit suicide.
Holding the gun in the Ford Bronco was part of this plan. So now he wasn't going to get away and pretend that he committed suicide. But there is one more thing that has to be remembered about his youth. It is that his mother worked in a psychiatric hospital. This brings us to Plan B.
The decade before John Hinckley had drawn attention to the insanity defense by being found "not guilty by reason of insanity" for trying to assassinate Ronald Reagan. While no one wanted to be confined to a psychiatric hospital it was probably preferable to prison. Holding the gun in the car also spared his friend and driver, Al Cowlings, who would otherwise be helping a fugitive to escape. But his "Dream Team" of lawyers lived up to their title and got him acquitted without using the insanity defense.
Could this really be a coincidence? O. J. Simpson was going to high school a short distance away when the great escape from Alcatraz took place. The murders for which he was charged happened on the anniversary of the Alcatraz Escape. The number that O.J. wore, while playing for the Buffalo Bills was 32 and the murders happened on the 32nd anniversary of the Alcatraz Escape. O. J. wrote goodbye letters to throw off his pursuers just as the Alcatraz escapees put handmade dummies in their beds to throw off their pursuers. O. J. bought a disguise just as the dummies in Alcatraz were disguised to look like the escapees. There were three Alcatraz escapees just as O. J. had two close friends helping him, Robert Kardashian and Al Cowlings.
O. J. escaping in Al Cowlings' vehicle very much resembled the escaping from Alcatraz on the raft. The Alcatraz escapees had the tide to discourage an all out search for them because they likely didn't survive just as O. J. had his fake suicide scenario, remember again that he had been an actor as well as an athlete.
If only O. J. Simpson had still been in Buffalo, where he and Al Cowlings had been teammates on the Buffalo Bills. He could have written the goodbye letters and then made a quick trip to Niagara Falls and vanished, and this surreal spectacle could have been avoided.
As far as whether O. J. did it, if everything that was reported in the news was correct then O. J. Simpson absolutely murdered his ex-wife and the waiter who was returning her glasses. The question is whether everything that was reported in the news was correct. A lot of the "evidence" against O. J. is very subjective, such as his supposed demeanor and reactions. There were people claiming to have seen O. J. on the day of the murders and then selling their stories to tabloids. People with any connection to this case were using it to boost their own careers, most notably it introduced the world to the Kardashians.
Race was a heavy factor, there had been the very destructive racial uprising in Los Angeles two years before and now a black man was accused of murdering two white people. There was a police department that was, at the time, notorious for planting evidence and racism. I find it interesting that, 25 years before, the Manson Family had murdered high profile white people nearby in exactly the same way and made it look as if black people did it.
As for Buffalo, where O. J. played for the Bills, the Perry Projects are now in the process of being demolished. A musician emerged from this housing project, named Rick James. The first Manson mass killing was a get-together with actress Sharon Tate. Rick James had been invited but didn't attend, allegedly because of too much partying the night before. What if Rick James had been there? He would have been one of the victims and the world would never have heard of a Superfreak. But it would have changed the whole intended dynamic if they had also killed a black person. What if Rick James had been carrying a pistol and might have prevented the murders?
By the way, my personal opinion about the Alcatraz Escape is that they probably survived and escaped. I checked the phase of the moon for the night of the escape and it was nearing First Quarter, between New Moon and half moon. The Quarters are when the tides are weakest, known as Neap Tides, because the moon and sun are at right angles and thus pulling against each other. The tides are strongest at New Moon and Full Moon, known as Spring Tides, because the sun and moon form a straight line with earth and are thus pulling together. At any rate I am sure that they were aware of the tides, that a rising tide would push them toward shore but a lowering tide would pull them out to sea. They managed every other detail of the escape and I doubt that they missed this.
9) THE REAL STORY OF THE ALABAMA PRISON ESCAPE
This section contains a subsection.
For eleven days, starting on April 29, 2022, the U.S. was transfixed by the escape, from an Alabama jail, of a male prisoner with a female guard. The prisoner was Casey White and the guard was Vicky White. Despite having the same surname the two were not related.
On what was reported to be her final day of work before retirement, Vicky White said that she was transporting Casey White to a mental health evaluation, as he was awaiting trial for murder. It turned out that no such evaluation was ever scheduled. Vicky White had bought a car, a Ford Edge, using an alias. She left the car in a shopping center parking lot overnight. She then drove Casey White to the parking lot. They abandoned the police car and drove off in the Ford Edge.
The two were ultimately caught in Evansville, Indiana. They had abandoned the Ford Edge, in Tennessee, and had bought a pickup truck. They then decided to abandon that, in Evansville, after buying a Cadillac. But they made the mistake of abandoning it in the bay of a car wash, where Casey White was caught on security camera with his clearly visible tattoos. Another security camera caught them driving off in the Cadillac.
In the U.S. most prisons are operated by the state, although there are also federal prisons. The local "holding centers", for people who have been arrested but not yet convicted, are operated at the county level, and run by the Sheriff's Department. Short prison terms might also be served at the local holding center, as opposed to being sent away to a prison. It was such a Sheriff's Department that Vicky White worked for, not the prison system. A sheriff's department generally patrols rural areas and towns that don't have their own police department.
My information about the case is solely based on what I have read in the news. The conclusions here about the case are based on the presumption that what has been reported in the news is correct.
Vicky White was supposedly on her last day at work when she escaped with prisoner Casey White. She had sold her home and had been talking, at work, about moving to "The beach". From northern Alabama "The beach" can only mean moving southward, particularly to Florida. There were no beaches to the north of where she was located.
This was a diversion. The escaping pair drove due northward, ending up in Evansville, Indiana. The talk about "moving to the beach" was set up to lead the search for them in the wrong direction.
Just before the escape Vicky White bought a car, using an alias. The car was a reddish colored Ford Edge, which is a SUV. The car was their getaway vehicle. She left the car in a plaza parking lot overnight. The following day she said she was taking Casey White for a "mental health evaluation". She drove to where the Ford Edge was parked and got into that car, abandoning the patrol car in which they had left the jail.
The reddish Ford Edge was carefully chosen as the escape vehicle, this was the second diversion. With a limited supply of money, and the price of fuel so high, why would she choose a SUV to escape in? When they were caught they were found to have camping equipment. Vicky White lived in a rural area and so would be familiar with the natural environment. The rear seats of a Ford Edge fold down, and the front seats can be moved forward. I believe that Vicky White intended for them to sleep in the car.
A Ford Edge is a smaller SUV. If she had bought a van that might make it obvious that they were planning to sleep in it. Casey White was 6 feet, 9 inches tall (205.75 cm), and who would think of someone that tall sleeping in a vehicle? It would avoid the security cameras and possible scrutiny of staying in hotels.
Surely they weren't planning on camping in the woods, where a bright red vehicle would stand out. That was why Vicky White bought a bright red vehicle, knowing full well that her purchase of the vehicle would be discovered even though she used an alias.
The car was found abandoned in Tennessee. Part of the car had been painted a dark green, the ideal color to hide in the woods. Notice that their final car, the Cadillac that they were caught in, was about the same dark green color that they had started to paint the Ford Edge. Some reports have it that the Ford Edge had developed mechanical troubles. I think it more likely that they had given up on painting the car and were worried that an amateurish partial paint job on the car would draw attention.
Their next vehicle was a pickup truck, which they apparently bought in cash in Tennessee. This was the vehicle that they abandoned in Evansville, at the car wash where they were caught on security camera. But why did they abandon the pickup truck when there was no report that it had mechanical troubles, or that police were looking for them in a pickup truck? The obvious answer is that a pickup truck isn't suitable for sleeping.
One of the mysteries of this case is why Vicky White stayed in a hotel the night before the escape. She had sold her home and had been staying with her mother. Interestingly, even though she was close to her mother she reportedly never told her of any plans to retire to "The beach". This might be the last she would ever see of her mother, so why would she spend it in a local hotel?
This was the third diversion. She wanted to make it look like she was making a "dry run" of checking into a hotel, seeing what kind of identification they ask for, where security cameras might be located, and so on. This was to deceive police into looking for them or their car at hotels. But instead of driving a red SUV and staying at hotels while moving southward they would be driving a dark green SUV and camping in the woods while moving northward.
According to some news reports the two had made a "dry run" of their escape from the jail, Vicky White leaving the building in a patrol vehicle with Casey White, but hadn't been gone for long. This was done to make investigators after the escape think that she was in the habit of making a "dry run" before actually doing something. This would make them think that her stay in a hotel, on the last night before the escape, was a "dry run" for the two staying in hotels after the escape, but she was actually planning that they would be sleeping in the car.
CASEY WHITE TAKES OVER
I believe that, as time went on, Casey White, the escaped prisoner, took more control. Vicky White had planned the escape well. Casey White had quite a criminal record but doesn't seem to have been good at avoiding getting caught.
After being caught Casey White told police that they had stopped at a motel in Evansville to "get their bearings" and decide what to do next. This reveals that the initially well-planned escape seems to have gone awry.
To stay at the motel in Evansville they found a homeless man and paid him to rent a room for them for two weeks. They had reportedly already been there one week when they were caught. Finding a homeless man to help them was awkward, time-consuming and, risky but now they only had the pickup truck, not a vehicle that they could sleep in.
While in Evansville they bought a Cadillac, paying for it in cash. The car was like a dark green that wouldn't stand out if they were camping in the woods, about the same color that they had tried to paint the Ford Edge. But now they had to dispose of the pickup truck, and that is what got them caught.
Going to a car wash and leaving the truck in one of the bays was absolutely crazy. Maybe Vicky White was getting tired and wasn't fully alert by this point.
Of course the owner of the car wash would check the security video to see who left the pickup truck. I don't know why criminals often get tattoos but there was the unmistakable image of Casey White, with the prominent tattoo on his forearm clearly visible. Security cameras at the car wash also got the car that Casey White got into, the dark green Cadillac, although not the plate number.
Police looked around Evansville and a car of that make and color was seen in a motel parking lot. The car was watched, to see who got into it and, sure enough, it was them. After a chase of about 2 miles (about 3 km) northward on Highway 41, the car ended up in a ditch.
One of the eeriest things about this escape is that, just before the end of the chase, Vicky White made a call to the 911 (emergency) line. She may have made the call inadvertently, not realizing that she made it, but what went on inside the car, both before and after the crash, was recorded.
The two drove off the highway and through an industrial parking lot. Then, surrounded by police and Marshals' cars, went across a grassy area. Vicky White's southern-accented voice can be heard twice expressing alarm, to Casey White, about the airbags in the car going off, suggesting that they "get out and run" and also a reference to "that (expletive) motel". Her words are not very intelligible but I believe what she was saying to Casey White is "We never should have stayed in that (expletive) motel".
After the crash into the ditch, with Vicky White mortally wounded from a self-inflicted gunshot, the voices of the police officers outside the car can be heard on the phone call, saying that "she has a gun", "she is still breathing" and, "her finger is on the trigger". They disarmed her, and got her out through the sunroof of the car. She died in hospital. Casey White surrendered peacefully.
10) THE GREAT PRISON ESCAPE OF NEW YORK STATE
There is a side to New York State's great prison escape that I did not see anywhere in the news.
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