The weapon a murderer uses could easily give him away. But there is a weapon used in fiction which could never be linked to a crime. An icicle would disappear before an investigator could link it to the injuries on a body. But could it actually kill someone? An icicle properly made might be a potentially lethal weapon. It would conveniently disappear after use, and probably wouldn’t leave any marks on the bone. ibid.
Trace evidence is the latest development in the forensic armoury. ibid.
You don’t even need to touch anything to leave your DNA behind. ibid.
DNA and other trace evidence will disappear when mixed with samples left by hundreds of other people. So the cleverest murderers plan to commit the crime in a public place. ibid.
The perfect murder is possible in real life but the killer cannot make the tiniest mistake. ibid.
There are about 600 murders in the UK each year. That’s around 2 per day. And globally about 50 people are murdered every hour. Murder appals and repels us but it also fascinates. So what makes people murder? Are some people born to kill or are the driven to it by circumstance? The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide, narrator Michael Mosley, BBC 2017
There are different types of murderer … mainly reactive, compulsive, then there are the cold-blooded ones. ibid.
Psychopath: ‘Almost no activity: there was no difference in the way they processed emotional and neutral images.’ ibid.
Another type of killer: those who suffer from schizophrenia. ibid.
It seemed obvious that a violent unloving childhood had played a crucial part in creating a killer: the question was, how? ibid.
You’re familiar with the tragedies of antiquity, are you? The great homicidal classics? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, director Tom Stoppard, 1967
13,795. I can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and I can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can’t do you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory – they’re all blood, you see. ibid.
November 29th 2009: a quiet town in Cheshire is rocked by the discovery of a woman’s body. Her suspect is on the run, and the clues to the murder are on a social networking site. Social networks have become a twenty-first century global phenomenon, but in wrong hands there is a dark side. In the space of a year five British women were brutally murdered, all of them linked to the sinister misuse of a social network. Murder on the Social Network, 2011
The police discover that Chapman had ten social networking accounts and six thousand young female friends. ibid.
On America’s east coast a massive search is under way for a serial killer still at large. One of the most prolific killers New York police have ever hunted. America’s Serial Killer, Channel 4
Four of the dead were sex workers who had advertised their services online. ibid.
He’s a man people feel comfortable with. ibid.
Criminal profilers agree he knows the local area, has a job and is probably married. ibid.
They all lied on camera about the crimes they themselves committed. The Lying Game: Crimes That Fooled Britain, ITV 2014
Experts call this display of happiness Duping Delight. ibid.
Murder’s the darkest and most despicable crime of all. And yet we’re attracted to it. Grisly crimes like these would appal us if we encountered them in real life. But something happens when they’re turned into stories and safely placed between the covers of a book. A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley I: The New Taste for Blood, BBC 2013
This preoccupation with murder has a very long history. ibid.
Murder: this new art: see De Quincy. ibid.
Melodrama: this stylised form of theatre was performed here at the Old Vic in London (the Blood Tub) ... A heady mix of music and acting ... rather like pantomime. ibid.
Two new developments in the fight against crime: there was forensic science and the coming of a new kind of hero – the detective. A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley II: Detection Most Ingenious
In his essay called The Decline of the English Murder, George Orwell lays out the characteristics of an absolutely enjoyable crime. ibid.
The first girl detectives appear in the 1860s. ibid.
The Ripper’s crimes were soon drawing in the crowds. ibid.
Edwardian press barons were demanding a murder a day for the pleasure of their newspaper readers. And even more so in the two decades between the wars when there was a great explosion of crime in the novels of the golden age of detective fiction. And the very best of it written by women. A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley III: The Golden Age
They made armchair detectives out of all of us. ibid.
The antithesis of Sherlock Holmes – he was a fastidious little Belgian called Hercule Poirot. ibid.
Another seemingly harmless amateur detective – the village busy-body Jane Marple. ibid.
In real life most murder was driven by poverty, alcohol or abusive relationships. ibid.
Alfred Hitchcock: The Lodger ... A lot in common with the sensation novelists of the 1860s. ibid.
A significant strand of our national psyche ... We still can’t resist this guilty pleasure. ibid.
Nucky, I’m nothing but a murderer. Boardwalk Empire s1e1, Jimmy, HBO 2010
You won’t see it coming. Ray Donovan s1e2: A Mouth is a Mouth starring Liev Schreiber & Paul Malcomson & Jon Voight & Eddie Marson & Dash Mihok & Steven Bauer et al, Ray to Mickey, Showtime 2013
I want you to kill my father. Ray Donovan: New Birthday s1e7, Ray to Sully
We’re going to take out Carmine Lupertazze. The Sopranos s4e13: Whitecaps s4e13 starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Tony to Chris, HBO 2002
They’ve killed your son Paolo! The murderers! The Godfather II 1974 starring Robert De Niro & Al Pacino & Robert Duvall & Diane Keaton & Talia Shire & Morgana King & John Cazale & Marianna Hill & Lee Strasberg et al, director Francis Ford Coppola, woman at funeral
And this is for you. ibid. Vito to Don Ciccio
Tom, you know you surprise me. If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it’s that you can kill anyone. ibid. Michael
I killed my father’s son. The Godfather III 1990 starring Al Pacino & Andy Garcia & Diane Keaton & Talia Shire & Sofia Coppola & Eli Wallach & George Hamilton & Joe Mantegna & Richard Bright & Bridget Fonda & Raf Vallone & Franc D'Ambrosio et al, director Francis Ford Coppola, Michael’s confession
I never killed anybody that didn’t deserve it. King of New York 1990 ***** starring Christopher Walken & Laurence Fishburne & David Caruso & Steve Buscemi & Wesley Snipes & Victor Argo & Giancarlo Esposito et al, director Abel Ferrara, Frank to rozzer
It’s rumoured that Bricktop’s favourite means of dispatch involves a stun-gun, a plastic bag, a roll of tape, and a group of hungry pigs. Snatch 2000 ***** starring Brad Pitt & Vinnie Jones & Jason Statham & Stephen Graham & Alan Ford & Dennis Farina & Adam Fogerty & Mike Reid & Vinnie Jones et al, director Guy Ritchie
Feed him to the pigs, Errol. ibid. Bricktop
You’re always going to have problems lifting a body in one piece. Apparently, the best thing to do is cut up the corpse into six pieces and pile it all together. And when you’ve got your six pieces, you got to get rid of them. ’Cause it’s no good leaving it in a deep-freeze for your Mum to discover now, is it? Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You’ve got to starve the pigs for a few days. Then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You’ve got to shave the heads of your victims and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies’ digestion. You could do this afterwards of course. But you don’t want to go sieving through pig-shit now, do ya? They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs two-hundred pound in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pound of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, As Greedy as a Pig. ibid.
For most of the guys, killing’s got to be accepted. Murder was the only way that everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked. Everybody knew the rules. But sometimes, even if people didn’t get out of line, they got whacked. I mean, hits just became a habit for some of the guys. Guys would get into arguments over nothing and before you knew it, one of them was dead. And they were shooting each other all the time. Shooting people was a normal thing. It was no big deal. Goodfellas 1990 ***** staring Robert De Niro & Ray Liotta & Joe Pesci & Lorraine Bracco & Paul Sorvino & Frank Sivero & Frank Vincent & Tony Darrow & Mike Starr & Chuck Low & Frank di Leo & Johnny Williams & Samuel L Jackson et al, director Martin Scorsese, Henry Hill