Pure Murder - Corey Mitchell - Interviews

Does Heavy Metal affect a true crime murder writer?

Does that excuse senseless murder?

Read this

INTERVIEW WITH PURE MURDER AUTHOR AND METALSUCKS CONTRIBUTOR COREY MITCHELL

http://www.metalsucks.net/?p=5675

It begins

"It is the true story of the brutal murders of two teenage girls, Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, who were abducted, raped, strangled, and stomped to death by a group of six teenage boys in Houston in 1993. The girls were running late for their curfew and decided to take a shortcut through a public park when they stumbled across a gang initiation."

Or read this interview

http://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/pure-murder-virtual-book-tour-my-interview-with-author-corey-mitchell/

Washed in the Blood - Shelton Williams

Washed in the Blood, 2nd ed.

By Shelton L. Williams. Denton: Zone Press, 2007. Illus with photos and facsimiles. 188 pages. Paperback $15.95 ISBN 0-9777558-6-X http://www.zonepress.com/

Shelton Williams’ account of the 1961 “Kiss and Kill” murder case outside Odessa is presented with a cold eeriness invoking Hitchcockian surrealism. In the first 2-page chapter, teenager Betty, whose desire, invitation, planning, and assistance is clear, is shot in the back of the head at a quiet, sparse oil field by her friend Mack who somehow finds it okay to be her instrument of death.

Betty’s cousin, Shelton, narrates the real-life drama in this “intersection” of their lives. We are introduced to teenage life in West Texas, football competitiveness near the height of Odessa Permian’s dominance, school cliques, the usual religious hypocrisy and adolescent sexual frenzy, and Betty’s angst of being stuck there. The town and the principal characters are detailed with the informative, yet simple, style common at kitchen tables, front porches, and automobile backseats. Shelton takes you there – through the relationships, the murder, the town’s reaction, the trial, and in this 2nd edition, two extra chapters. Part of Shelton’s success is his unvarnished portrayal of the innocent, the boredom, the anger, and anxiety of Betty and the ultimate cast throughout the city.

Why read the book, maybe because the story could arise from any place, like yours, and the good writing makes you turn the pages.

Getting Away With Murder - Bill Neal

Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier:

Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials.

By Bill Neal, Introduction by Gordon Morris Bakken. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2006. xix, 308 pages. 49 b/w photos, 3 illustrations, 1 map. ISBN 0896725790 $27.95 cloth http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/ ttup@ttu.edu

Bill Neal tells us how they did it. Neal has been a prosecuting and defense attorney for decades in West Texas, out where the lawless Wild West is still warm. He’s not the Bill O’Neal of a similar topic.

Laws are one thing, but the rules of popular justice, vigilantism, absconding witnesses, a quick getaway, fear of retribution, financial interests of the jury, race, the statute of limitations, personal friendship, the Victorian code, inexperienced prosecutors, lynching before justice ran its course, and, well, “didn’t the victim deserve it anyway” all played their roles. Neal focuses on legal matters, especially in the courtroom, generally cases you’ve not heard of before – they’re outrageous.

Neal populates his book with bank robbers, sheriff murderers, knife-wielders, gamblers, poison artists, angry mothers, and mail-order brides. In amongst them are lawyers, judges, and sheriffs trying to bring community stability.

Friendship goes a long way. Bill Richards in 1891 aided the legal “organization” of Cottle County, so his friend could get a friendlier trial environment in the new county.

Imagine in 1916, the guy who entered a crowded courtroom, shot and killed another guy on trial for murder, and wounded a witness and defense attorney for good measure. After four trails, he was scot-free. Neal brings us forward. Even in 1940, after a car thief- murderer confessed and was convicted, an appellate judge reversed the matter because he was not so sure that kicking and stomping somebody (namely Mrs. McHenry) to death was not based on too much inference.
You shake you head today over some outrageous dismissal, but that’s along tradition.
Neal’s examples are fresh and well written.