BF Crime Books and Documentaries

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Cancelled
May 13, 2010
359
465
AFL Club
Adelaide
The Devil in the White City about HH Holmes and his murder castle in Chicago during the Worlds Fair during the 1890s. A sensational read about one of the most evil men in history juxtaposed against the man who organised the fair and the immense obstacles he had to overcome. Would definitely recommend, hard to put down.
 

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Schraderbrau

Cancelled
Oct 7, 2014
5,371
6,647
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Collingwood
It may have been mentioned earlier in the thread but recently I watched a documentary called the staircase which follows the defence team in the murder trial of a relatively successfully US writer. It's probably the best work on crime that I've seen or read. Highly recommended, you can find it on youtube as well.
 
I agree with others have said anthologies don't cut it ... need more detail ... some I've read...

Sins of the Brother ... Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy

... about Ivan Milat.

*****

The Satin Man and Search for the Beaumont children ... Both by Alan Whitaker

... on the Beaumont children disappearance
 

Nemisis

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 27, 2012
5,600
7,132
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
The NCA Bombing - A Mafia Murder? is one true crime book every Australian should read.
When a bomb was sent to a NCA officer in Adelaide 1994 - well written.
 

GoGoGadget

Debutant
Apr 7, 2008
121
37
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
If you like your drug smuggling prison stories about westerners doing time for making bad choices I highly, highly recommended you read "Marching Powder" and "The Damage Done"..

Crazy books..
 

Dan Cooper

Victory Salute
Sep 26, 2013
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Red Corner
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Boxing
Just finished reading this >

bigwig.jpg


Would recommend :thumbsu:
 

AtomicBlonde

Cancelled
Sep 23, 2010
3,550
1,884
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Essendon
http://documentarystorm.com/the-staircase/

6 Hour documentary about the trial of Michael Peterson. Amazing access to both sides of the case and Peterson is a great actor considering he is probably guilty of murdering his wife.

Don't know how you came to that conclusion, I thought he was innocent and even if he was guilty - he should not have been convicted on such bullshit non-evidence. Those were clearly lacerations on his wife's head, no evidence to support any form of beating, banging or knocking of the head. So unless he scratched her head and waited for her to bleed to death, he didn't kill her.

Peterson has since been released (due to corruption on the part of one of the State's "expert witnesses" during the trial) but still spent eight years locked up for a crime that he clearly did not commit.
 

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Dec 14, 2007
43,580
26,183
Adelaide
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Adelaide
Don't know how you came to that conclusion, I thought he was innocent and even if he was guilty - he should not have been convicted on such bullshit non-evidence. Those were clearly lacerations on his wife's head, no evidence to support any form of beating, banging or knocking of the head. So unless he scratched her head and waited for her to bleed to death, he didn't kill her.

Peterson has since been released (due to corruption on the part of one of the State's "expert witnesses" during the trial) but still spent eight years locked up for a crime that he clearly did not commit.
Based on the documentary it was difficult to see how he was convicted. However I think it is unlikely he is innocent.
 

sprockets

Cancelled
Crime Board Sleuth BeanCoiNFT Investor
Oct 15, 2004
5,562
9,546
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
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Richmond
Don't know how you came to that conclusion, I thought he was innocent and even if he was guilty - he should not have been convicted on such bullshit non-evidence. Those were clearly lacerations on his wife's head, no evidence to support any form of beating, banging or knocking of the head. So unless he scratched her head and waited for her to bleed to death, he didn't kill her.

Peterson has since been released (due to corruption on the part of one of the State's "expert witnesses" during the trial) but still spent eight years locked up for a crime that he clearly did not commit.
And will be retried, which is when we'll find out if he's guilty, not from watching a documentary. I've watched a number of trials and can tell you that many, if not most, expert witnesses slant their opinions based on which side is paying them and it can be very obvious to the unbiased observer. If the side paying the money doesn't like what an 'expert' tells them they'll usually move on until they find one that does and use them in court.
 

AtomicBlonde

Cancelled
Sep 23, 2010
3,550
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And will be retried, which is when we'll find out if he's guilty, not from watching a documentary. I've watched a number of trials and can tell you that many, if not most, expert witnesses slant their opinions based on which side is paying them and it can be very obvious to the unbiased observer. If the side paying the money doesn't like what an 'expert' tells them they'll usually move on until they find one that does and use them in court.

No news on a retrial yet (I doubt it will ever happen) and the corrupt "expert" was a blood analyst hired by and testified for the State. The trial was a farce on a number of fronts and having read as much as I can about it (not just relying on the doco), I just can't see how he attacked and killed her when there is no evidence to suggest she was even attacked in the first place.
 
Don't know how you came to that conclusion, I thought he was innocent and even if he was guilty - he should not have been convicted on such bullshit non-evidence. Those were clearly lacerations on his wife's head, no evidence to support any form of beating, banging or knocking of the head. So unless he scratched her head and waited for her to bleed to death, he didn't kill her.

Peterson has since been released (due to corruption on the part of one of the State's "expert witnesses" during the trial) but still spent eight years locked up for a crime that he clearly did not commit.
I didn't see any evidence from watching the documentary that makes me believe he is innocent or guilty. Based on that, I was surprised he was convicted of first degree murder. How can a deliberation last for five days with only circumstantial evidence, with all 12 jurors finding him guilty?

The documentary only lasted five and a half hours, which is extremely minor to the 60+ days the trial lasted for. I can therefore understand the jury were exposed to more information than I was, but I still cannot understand how they decided, beyond reasonable doubt, that Peterson murdered his wife Kathleen.

The other thing I find hard to believe is Hardin's statement that the 12 jury members weren't exposed to any media coverage during the trial. Sure, they all swore an oath that they weren't allowed to be persuaded by the media by watching TV, but I would be staggered if at least one of them wasn't persuaded by the media's involvement.

I thought Rudolph built a strong enough case for the defence to raise doubts in the minds of the jurors, so the verdict was extremely surprising. It's interesting that Peterson has decided to go through a different defence team. I can't see how it's Rudolph's fault he lost the case.
 

AtomicBlonde

Cancelled
Sep 23, 2010
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I didn't see any evidence from watching the documentary that makes me believe he is innocent or guilty. Based on that, I was surprised he was convicted of first degree murder. How can a deliberation last for five days with only circumstantial evidence, with all 12 jurors finding him guilty?

The documentary only lasted five and a half hours, which is extremely minor to the 60+ days the trial lasted for. I can therefore understand the jury were exposed to more information than I was, but I still cannot understand how they decided, beyond reasonable doubt, that Peterson murdered his wife Kathleen.

The other thing I find hard to believe is Hardin's statement that the 12 jury members weren't exposed to any media coverage during the trial. Sure, they all swore an oath that they weren't allowed to be persuaded by the media by watching TV, but I would be staggered if at least one of them wasn't persuaded by the media's involvement.

I thought Rudolph built a strong enough case for the defence to raise doubts in the minds of the jurors, so the verdict was extremely surprising. It's interesting that Peterson has decided to go through a different defence team. I can't see how it's Rudolph's fault he lost the case.

Good points.

Hardin set his pitbull Freda Black out to demolish MP's character simply because he was bisexual, I found all of her sneering and down right homophobic rants to the jury (re; the gay porn, hook ups) disgustingly unprofessional but they knew what they were doing. This is the south and they knew which buttons to push to get the jury onside - all of that ranting about MP's wife would never have stayed with him if she had known that he was bi was purely speculation and should have been stopped in its tracks. Narrow-minded southerners just couldn't comprehend anything other than a conventional marriage and it seemed the jury agreed. So much of the State's case was built around destroying MP's character because they had such a weak case to begin with.

I couldn't believe they had the corpse of his former neighbour trucked halfway across the country so that the same coroner who had performed his wife's autopsy could perform the new one the long-dead neighbour. It just seemed to me like they really had it in for him and just wanted to nail him for it regardless of what they could or couldn't prove. MP is a strange bloke and although I felt he was no doubt shady, I could never have voted for anything other than a "not guilty" verdict.

Rudolph represented Peterson during the hearings that finally got him released but has since said that whatever happens, he cannot afford to continue representing Peterson pro-bono. There doesn't appear to be any bad blood there and I too thought Rudolph did an outstanding job in all aspects except for creating an alternate theory (the accidental fall) - it wasn't needed.
 

AtomicBlonde

Cancelled
Sep 23, 2010
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Don't know if anyone here is familiar with the Ryan Ferguson case but it is another example of how corrupt American police departments and State officials throw the rule book out the window when they have weak cases against clearly innocent citizens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_W._Ferguson

Trailer for new doco:


Can't find the original 48 Hours episode that featured his case but this one covers his eventual release:
 

Schraderbrau

Cancelled
Oct 7, 2014
5,371
6,647
AFL Club
Collingwood
Peterson has since been released (due to corruption on the part of one of the State's "expert witnesses" during the trial) but still spent eight years locked up for a crime that he clearly did not commit.
They made a sequel of sorts on this.
 

Schraderbrau

Cancelled
Oct 7, 2014
5,371
6,647
AFL Club
Collingwood
It's interesting that Peterson has decided to go through a different defence team. I can't see how it's Rudolph's fault he lost the case.
I think it's common for this to happen on appeal because (a) it's good to get a set of fresh eyes to look at things (b) there are appeal specialists and trial specialists and (c) there is a potential conflict of interest for a lawyer who did the trial to do the appeal since lawyer incompetence can be a ground.
 

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