Juana Barraza is a criminal in Mexico who is also known as the "Old Lady Killer" due to the murders she had committed. She was sentenced to 759 years in prison for killing 42 to 48 older women. The press estimates her murders to be in between 29 to 49 women. Barraza was born in… Continue reading Juana Barraza – The Old Lady Killer
Ironic situations are one of the most gripping parts of any detective story. One of these occurred in real life in December 1926, when popular mystery writer, Agatha Christie, disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The author wrote a note stating that she was going on vacation and drove away from her home in Berkshire, England. Shortly… Continue reading Agatha Christie – An Author’s Mysterious Disappearance
Born in Michigan in 1956, Aileen Wuornos is quite possibly the most infamous female serial killer in America’s history. Aileen murdered 7 men in just under a year, at first claiming that these men had raped her. She had been a sex worker at the time and maintained for some time that all of the… Continue reading Aileen Wuornos
…or, at least that’s what my sleepless nights would suggest. It’s 12:44am local. I’ve been up for 90 minutes, and for no good reason. My normal day starts at 0500, so this is some straight-up bullshit for the second time in three nights. A few years ago, I would have only been up at this… Continue reading I’m Afraid of the Dark…
The detective must always be memorable. Whether he (or she) is funny, misguided, inept or super intelligent, these traits have to endear the detective to the audience. Fictional detectives are expected to be slightly out of the ordinary. They must have some small habit, mannerism, eccentricity, interest or talent – something that sets them apart… Continue reading 12 Rules for writing a Detective Novel
Edgar Allan Poe is a name that most heard at school due to his classic literature fiction. His books are famous all around the world and is well known for his detective short stories. One of the characters Poe wrote about was C. Auguste Dupin; a gentleman living in Paris and by profession a detective… Continue reading C. Auguste Dupin
The hardboiled sub-genre emerged during the Golden Age of detective fiction, the 1920s. Authors such as Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett can be called its founding fathers, as they were almost exclusively responsible for the increase in the sub-genre’s popularity. The private investigators in these stories, were normally highly intuitive and not… Continue reading Classic American Private Investigators
What is Criminal Psychology? Criminal psychology is a subsection of legal psychology that studies the psychological characteristics of the formation and development of illegal activity and the possibility of preventing it. Some of the main factors contributing to the formation of illegal consciousness are the negative impact of the social environment, pedagogical neglect and character… Continue reading Criminal psychology
I’ve long enjoyed reading novels written in first-person, especially the noir tales of complex, atypical moral codes. Telling readers your story from the main character’s perspective, from inside their head, is an immensely powerful weapon that draws the audience in for the long haul. I may toy with writing the first-person point of view someday,… Continue reading The Power of First Person
The only thing a person expects after one’s death is for it to be the end of his/her body, but in earlier times, that was not always the case. Early in the 18th and 19th centuries, it became difficult to protect the bodies of the dead. A concept called ‘Body Snatching’ was in practice where… Continue reading Body Snatchers
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