fact or fiction

Is it fact or merely fiction? Fact or Fiction explores the myths and beliefs we hold about copycat killers, eyewitnesses testimony, what makes a murderer and more.

Based on a True Story.... Top Story - July 2018.
There’s nothing quite like settling down at night to watch a horror movie with a few friends, a buttery popcorn bucket overflowing on your lap, a plush blanket draped over your legs and an eerie soundtrack playing through the speakers to get you in the mood for the next few hours of screams and slaughters. And nothing quite like seeing "Based on a True Story" popping up over the screen to give you a chill that you won’t quite shake during the movie or even days after. It’s an unsettling stray hand brushing against you that, yes indeed, this could happen to you, just like it happened to these innocent victims on the screen.
By carlie rice8 years ago in Criminal
Overcoming Fear: Personal Impressions of Plagues and Poisonings
It sounds bleak, but let's face it: There are so many ways to die. It can require mental skill and determination to not be afraid. One of the ways one could go? Death by poison. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book, actually.
By Wade Wainio8 years ago in Criminal
Five Famous Necrophiles
The subject of necrophilia is one that is near and dear to my sordid spirit; there is something in the obsessive love for an idealized (albeit dead) paramour that strikes us as the very height of deeply touching romantic love. We have written not one, but TWO small books (our novel Buried, as well as The Men Who Loved the Dead, an unpublished monograph on the subject.) about romantic necrophilia; "romantic necrophilia" as distinguished from "opportunistic necrophilia," or one of the other classifications given by Dr. Anil Aggrawal in his excellent text Necrophilia: Medico-Legal and Forensic Aspects. (Which, when I borrowed it through Interlibrary Loan, no doubt left the library staff even more leery of me than they previously had been.) Necrophilia is a practice both odious and morbidly fascinating at the same stroke; mix in the idea of someone who simply cannot let go of their loved one at their passing; who will steal the body, painstakingly preserve it as it decays, build to it a shrine, speak for it, breathe for it, imbue it with a reanimated existence (in their psychopathic brain scape, of course) and you have the makings for a never ending slew of morbid gothic potboilers. The practice was known in the ancient world. Greek tyrant Periander, Herod the Tetrarch (who had his wife Mariamne "preserved" in honey, where after he made love to her until the remains passed the point of being detestable) and other ancient world grotesques indulged in it. For our purposes, we will recount a small list of some of our personal faves. So, without further adieu, let us recount the Wretched Romances of the Rotten, as we present for your edification and delectation, "Five Famous Necrophiles of Morgueland." (All men recounted here, but the curious should also not discount the contributions made by such female necro- pioneers as Joan of Castile and Karen Greenlee. No chauvinists we.)
By Tom Baker8 years ago in Criminal
How Does Prejudice Affect Justice?
Throughout history, prejudice has come in many different forms and styles. The most widespread misconception among our population was that the idea that black people were inferior to white people and women were inferior to men. Also, the pride of the black people—as many white people hated them, they feared and hated whites. We see that throughout history a white man's word over a black man's word must have been the truth, or at least accepted as the truth.
By Tyler Black8 years ago in Criminal
Facts About Serial Killers and Psychopaths
Even amongst the worst of criminals, serial killers have a particular mystique—their crimes are often the most shocking, and their psyches the hardest to understand. But there's a lot more to these criminals than a desire to kill—some of these facts about serial killers and psychopaths may surprise you.
By Nicola P. Young8 years ago in Criminal
The Hypothetical Confessions of a Border-Jumper IV
Heat. That’s all I think of when I look back to that 2015 Christmas Day. The heavy weight of it that just wouldn’t lift as I walked out of O.R. Tambo airport. Heat around me. Heat all over me. Heat inside of me. Heat engulfing me. The hottest December of my life, when all my ploys and hopes burned up into ash.
By M Z8 years ago in Criminal
Did the Titanic Ever Sink?
Almost everyone knows the story of the RMS Titanic, "the unsinkable ship" that sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. The boat is infamous for its mass death toll of 1,517 and its lack of life boats. What if I were to throw out the idea that maybe those 1,517 people lost their lives, not on the Titanic, but on a sister ship of the giant ocean liner?
By Sage Sandoval8 years ago in Criminal
The Legend of the Racketeer Nickel
In 1883, the new nickel continued flaunting the face of Liberty into the American consciousness, but because of its size and design, it also brought a plague upon the Federal Mint, causing it to shut down for a spell.
By r. nuñez8 years ago in Criminal
Gunshot Wounds
Everyone knows guns are dangerous. The fact that guns haven't changed much over the last 100 years will attest to that. But there is a lot more going on than just a hole in your body when you get shot. A 9mm handgun is a typical self-defense weapon and is often used by police departments. Bullets from these guns travel at 900 mph and all of that energy is absorbed by the target hit. The shock wave of the bullet greatly expands the area hit and then as the bullet passes through, the area hit collapses on itself. This effect causes major damage to the body, even where the bullet doesn't come into contact. This video demonstrates the shattering properties of a bullet, and the fluid-filled containers clearly show what happens to fluid-filled organs, like the bladder or heart. Most bullets do not go straight through a body. They ricochet around the body causing damage until they stop. Even bullets that do exit the body will ricochet, putting the exit wound in a completely different area than the entrance wound. The entrance wound will usually be smaller than the exit wound because the bullet has to punch its way out. The exit wound may be star-shaped.
By Monica Bennett8 years ago in Criminal
10 of the Creepiest Murder Cases You've Never Heard Of
Jack the Ripper. Elizabeth Bathory. Charles Manson. These are all names of some of the most famous serial killers to ever live. Truth be told, the names of high profile murderers always raise a little chill down our collective spines. To a point, people like to talk about murders simply because they're like real, modern-day ghost stories.
By Ossiana Tepfenhart8 years ago in Criminal
5 Traits of a Serial Killer
(Key words in bold are at the bottom.) I'll start with the basics... Psychological Profiling is a description of the likely suspect including how they look, their hobbies, interests, background, even down to the sex of the perpetrator by evidence that is collected at crime scenes.
By N A8 years ago in Criminal
What Really Happened at 215 Colony Drive? Part One
When you live in a place long enough, you tend to form a bond with it. You know the entire place inside and out like the back of your hand, and it knows you just as well, if not better. It quietly witnesses you eat your meals, dream your dreams, cry your tears, celebrate your achievements, and live out your life, unaware that everything you do is documented within the cracks and crevices of the structure, just as a human brain documents memory. It has seen the real you. The person that only comes out when you can take solace in the confines of your safe haven, raw and unedited, beyond the façade that is shown to the rest of the world. It knows your habits, the good and the bad. It keeps your secrets hidden from prying eyes without ever passing a judgment. If the walls of our homes could speak, they could tell the true stories of our lives.
By Stephanie Engel8 years ago in Criminal