when a case gets you
So I'm a true crime fan. This is nothing new; I think half of my posts this summer were about the Last Podcast on the Left, a horror/true crime podcast. And as someone who likes true crime, I do like learning about a lot of cases, a lot of atrocities, a lot of terrible shit that happened. It's a kind of morbid fascination, and let me tell you, a little creepy to pull out this info at the supper table, but, eh.
But only a couple of cases have really gotten to me. I mean, all of them have gotten to me in the sense that I am horrified by them, but I'm talking, did further research on my own, watched documentaries, maybe wrote something based on it? Basically they (and i'm not saying this is healthy, it probably isn't) consume me for a little bit. Especially if I end up writing something either based on it or inspired by it.
The first case that did this was Columbine. This one actually got me before I started listening to LPOTL (their Columbine episode isn't actually all that good, it's an earlier one and it could be better), and it completely horrified me. I'm American, and it's 2018, and I'm used to hearing about school shootings. But there was something about Columbine that raised my resting heart rate a little bit, you know? It was horrifying, and every shooting, mass or school or single-victim, that comes around is horrifying, but there was something extra about Columbine that got me hard. Maybe it's because it, while it wasn''t the first, was the first with live, extensive coverage, maybe it's because it really kicked it all off, I don't know. All I know is that it sickened me and it got me.
To a lesser extent, when I learned about Carl Panzram. The LPOTL episodes on this one are really good; I think it's a three-part series, and they did a good job. I haven't done as much digging on Panzram. I do have his memoir. Haven't read it yet though. Pretty sure it's mostly the fact that he was from Minnesota that got me with him, because as a North Dakotan we just kind of claim everything Minnesotan as our own because we have nothing. Which is I guess good in this scenario.
But lately it's been a different kind of case. This one's different because I think they're innocent. It's the West Memphis Three. This is a case that I vaguely knew about prior to listening to the LPOTL episodes (I'm pretty sure my mom mentioned it at some point, possibly when they were released in 2011, because she's just a year younger than the youngest of the three, Jason Baldwin, and a huuuuuuge Eddie Vedder fan), but I didn't know any real details until LPOTL's three-part series. And it horrified me in a different kind of way. It horrified me because I thought they were innocent, and because I thought they were innocent that added an extra level of horror--whatever fucker killed those kids never paid for any of it. They got three kids with long hair to pay for it for them. And it's been consuming me a little bit. But mostly in a way that I'm constantly sad about it, not in a way that I'm sitting half-adrenaline-rush-half-gonna-be-sick kind of way.
But that's a true crime thing that's been getting me lately. I'm sure there'll be more cases that will get to me, and I'm sure that I've got at least a month left of this WM3 thing before it dissipates to join Columbine and Panzram.
But only a couple of cases have really gotten to me. I mean, all of them have gotten to me in the sense that I am horrified by them, but I'm talking, did further research on my own, watched documentaries, maybe wrote something based on it? Basically they (and i'm not saying this is healthy, it probably isn't) consume me for a little bit. Especially if I end up writing something either based on it or inspired by it.
The first case that did this was Columbine. This one actually got me before I started listening to LPOTL (their Columbine episode isn't actually all that good, it's an earlier one and it could be better), and it completely horrified me. I'm American, and it's 2018, and I'm used to hearing about school shootings. But there was something about Columbine that raised my resting heart rate a little bit, you know? It was horrifying, and every shooting, mass or school or single-victim, that comes around is horrifying, but there was something extra about Columbine that got me hard. Maybe it's because it, while it wasn''t the first, was the first with live, extensive coverage, maybe it's because it really kicked it all off, I don't know. All I know is that it sickened me and it got me.
To a lesser extent, when I learned about Carl Panzram. The LPOTL episodes on this one are really good; I think it's a three-part series, and they did a good job. I haven't done as much digging on Panzram. I do have his memoir. Haven't read it yet though. Pretty sure it's mostly the fact that he was from Minnesota that got me with him, because as a North Dakotan we just kind of claim everything Minnesotan as our own because we have nothing. Which is I guess good in this scenario.
But lately it's been a different kind of case. This one's different because I think they're innocent. It's the West Memphis Three. This is a case that I vaguely knew about prior to listening to the LPOTL episodes (I'm pretty sure my mom mentioned it at some point, possibly when they were released in 2011, because she's just a year younger than the youngest of the three, Jason Baldwin, and a huuuuuuge Eddie Vedder fan), but I didn't know any real details until LPOTL's three-part series. And it horrified me in a different kind of way. It horrified me because I thought they were innocent, and because I thought they were innocent that added an extra level of horror--whatever fucker killed those kids never paid for any of it. They got three kids with long hair to pay for it for them. And it's been consuming me a little bit. But mostly in a way that I'm constantly sad about it, not in a way that I'm sitting half-adrenaline-rush-half-gonna-be-sick kind of way.
But that's a true crime thing that's been getting me lately. I'm sure there'll be more cases that will get to me, and I'm sure that I've got at least a month left of this WM3 thing before it dissipates to join Columbine and Panzram.
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