Outliers Writing University Podcast Series

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 49: Familial/Genealogical DNA

GOLDEN STATE KILLER:
 
CBS News (4-22-17): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/golden-state-killer-connecting-the-dots-in-the-search-for-a-serial-predator/
 
Richmond University: https://jolt.richmond.edu/2019/10/30/familial-dna-testing-the-golden-state-killer-and-how-it-affects-you/
 
The Golden State Killer and DNA: https://dna-explained.com/2018/04/30/the-golden-state-killer-and-dna/
 
ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/US/dna-family-members-helped-solved-golden-state-killer/story?id=54800093
 
 
GRIM SLEEPER:
 
Grim Sleeper-Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Sleeper
 
LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-08-la-me-grim-sleeper-20100708-story.html
 
 
MISC:
 
Jody Loomis Case: https://www.newser.com/story/298585/suspect-in-1972-murder-kills-himself-hours-before-verdict.html
 
Familial DNA Used in Only 12 States: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/familial-dna-puts-elusive-killers-behind-bars-only-12-states-n869711

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 48: Three Famous Toxicology Cases

Poisons and drugs have been used as murder weapons for many centuries. Sometimes the poison itself does the killing and other times it simply facilities the use of another method. Here are three famous cases involving poisons and drugs.
 
Kristin Rossum: The American Beauty Murder
 
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Rossum
 
Murderpedia: http://murderpedia.org/female.R/r/rossum-kristin.htm
 
 
Stella Nickell: Product Tampering
 
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Nickell
 
Murderpedia: https://murderpedia.org/female.N/n/nickell-stella.htm
 
Daily News: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/wash-woman-poisoned-husband-planted-tainted-pills-1986-article-1.3163801
 
 
Kurt Cobain: Murder or Suicide?
 
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Kurt_Cobain
 
All That’s Interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/kurt-cobain-murdered
 
CBS News Photos: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/new-kurt-cobain-death-scene-photos/

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 47: Amnesia and Trauma

Can A Blow To the Head Cause Unconsciousness and Amnesia?
Q: How hard do you have to be hit on the head to be knocked unconscious? Is there a particular place on the head, that if struck would be more likely to cause unconsciousness? How long does it usually last? How hard do you need to be hit to cause partial or temporary amnesia? What sort of things do people forget in these situations? How long does it usually last? Are there any other physical symptoms a writer should be sure and include in a scene with head trauma?  
 
A: In medical terms a blow to the head, or anywhere else, is called blunt force trauma as opposed to sharp force trauma as would occur with a knife or some other cutting instrument. When the blow is to the head, it is called a blunt head injury.
The degree of force required to render someone unconscious is completely unpredictable and varies from situation to situation and from person to person. Though a minor tap on the head is not likely to cause unconsciousness in anyone, almost any blow of significant force can. It makes no difference where the blow strikes the head as far as causing unconsciousness is concerned. That is, a blow to the front of the head is no more likely or less likely to cause unconsciousness than would one to the side or back of the head.
The period of unconsciousness in a simple concussion, which is what loss of consciousness due to blunt force head injury is called, is measured in seconds or minutes. Unlike Hollywood where the bad guy is slugged in the jaw, knocked unconscious, and then written out of the script after that -- or at least the hero no longer has to worry about him -- is not what happens in real life. Think about every boxing match you’ve ever seen. One guy smacks the other one, knocking him unconscious, and 30 seconds later the guy is awake and complaining that it was a lucky punch. This is what really happens. 
Unconsciousness from a simple concussion can last several minutes and maybe even up to 10 or 15 minutes, though that would be unusual. Typically the person wakes up with a minute or so but might be slightly groggy or confused for a while, again for several minutes. But if he is unconscious for longer than a few minutes, the odds are that a serious injury to the brain has occurred or that bleeding into and around the brain has happened, Both of these situation are true medical emergencies. It doesn’t sound like that’s the situation you are posing with your questions.
Amnesia can indeed follow blows to the head. Typically the blow has to be powerful enough to render the person unconscious or at least woozy before amnesia enters the picture. But I should point out that other than the time period the victim is actually unconscious there is no loss of memory in the overwhelming majority of people who suffer head injuries. Amnesia is not rare but it is not common. But amnesia can occur after head injury, so you can absolutely use this in your story.
Amnesia comes in many flavors but they are usually divided into retrograde and anterograde types. Anterograde amnesia is very rare and is a situation where the person cannot form new memories. This was the subject of the excellent movie Memento. I won’t dwell on this since this is not the type of amnesia your questions deal with.
Retrograde simply means whatever came before. This type of amnesia is the most common in that the person forgets things that happened before the injury. This amnesia can cover events that occurred for only a few minutes before the injury, a few hours, a few days, weeks, or months, or can go back to forever. The person can forget some things and not others, such as he might not remember his name but might remember his address and phone number. He might remember some people but not others. He might recognize people but not be able to recall their names. 
Or he could have what is called global amnesia in which he remembers nothing, not his name, not where he is, not where he came from, and virtually everything else. This type of amnesia can be temporary or permanent. It may only last for a few minutes, hours, days, or months or in some people it can last forever and be a permanent loss of memories. 
When memories begin to return, they can come back suddenly and completely, partially, or in fits and spurts. The person might remember some things within a few minutes but other things might be lost in the cloud of amnesia forever. Virtually anything can happen so this means that your story can be crafted in almost any way you wish.
The other symptoms that can be associated with a concussion of this type are headaches, dizziness, poor balance, nausea, blurred vision, and generalized weakness and fatigue. These symptoms usually are minor and only last a few hours but they can become more problematic and last for many days and in some people for many months. There is no real treatment other than time and perhaps medications for headaches if they become chronic.

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Authors Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

Jeffery Deaver is the award-winning #1 international and New York Times bestselling author of the Lincoln Rhyme, Colter Shaw and Kathryn Dance series, among many others. Deaver’s work includes forty-seven novels, one hundred short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages. A former journalist, folk singer, and attorney, he was born outside Chicago and has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University. He was recently named a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, whose ranks include Agatha Christie, Elmore Leonard and Mickey Spillane. For more information, visit www.jefferydeaver.com.
Isabella Maldonado is the award-winning and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Nina Guerrera, Daniela Vega and Veranda Cruz series. Her books are published in twenty-four languages. Maldonado wore a gun and badge in real life before turning to crime writing. A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in her police department, she retired as the Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. During more than two decades on the force, her assignments included hostage negotiator, department spokesperson, and precinct commander. She uses her law enforcement background to bring a realistic edge to her writing. For more information, visit www.isabellamaldonado.com.

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Tori Eldridge

Tori Eldridge is the Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Norwegian author, The Ninja’s Oath, fourth book in the Lily Wong thriller series and the Brazilian dark fantasy, Dance Among the Flames. Her shorter works have been published in numerous anthologies including the Anthony Award winning Crime Hits Home. The first book in her new Hawai‘i mystery series, KULEANA, is set to release summer 2025. Tori was born in Honolulu where she graduated from Punahou School with classmate Barack Obama before performing as an actress, singer, dancer on Broadway, television and film, and earning a fifth-degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninja martial arts. Her literary works have garnered Anthony, Lefty, and Macavity Award nominations and the 2021 Crimson Scribe for Best Book of the Year. Tori is currently writing her next Hawai‘i mystery from Oregon where she dotes on her precious mo‘opuna (grandchildren). Learn more about her at ToriEldridge.com.
 https://torieldridge.com

GET TO KNOW Author Maddie Margarita

Maddie Margarita writes mystery/romantic suspense. She is the host of Lit Up! OC --a monthly writer’s salon in Southern California, and the Southern California Writers Association HUMP DAY BOOK TOUR, available on YouTube @SCWAwritersonline. When not writing, or talking, Maddie serves on the Board of the Southern California Writer’s Association and as President of Sisters-in Crime Orange County. A teaching artist at the Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center in Anaheim, CA., her short stories can be found in IT’S ALL IN THE STORY CALIFORNIA and BLOOD FICTION, both anthologies of short fiction.
https://maddiemargarita.com/

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Tamara Grantham

Tamara Grantham
Tamara Grantham is the author of more than twenty books and novellas, including many multi-award-winning fantasy novels for middle-grade through adult readers. Many of her novels launched as #1 bestsellers on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Some of her awards include two first place Rone awards, a Praiseworthy award, and an Indiefab book of the year award for fantasy. Born and raised in Texas, Tamara now lives with her husband and five children in Wichita, Kansas. When she gets a moment to relax, she enjoys reading fantasy novels and watching every Star Wars or Star Trek movie ever made. 
https://tamaragrantham.com/

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Laurie R. King

Laurie R. King is the third generation in her family native to the San Francisco area. She spent her childhood reading her way through libraries up and down the West Coast; her middle years raising children, renovating houses, traveling the world, and doing a BA and MA in theology.  (Her long autobiography goes into detail about how she uses these interests.)  King now lives a genteel life of crime, on California’s central coast.
Her crime novels are both serial and stand-alone. First in the hearts of most readers comes Mary Russell, who met the retired Sherlock Holmes in 1915 and became his apprentice, then his partner. Beginning with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Russell and Holmes move through the Teens and Twenties in amiable discord, challenging each other to ever greater feats of detection.
In the Russell & Holmes stories, King explores ideas—the roots of conflict in the Middle East and Afghanistan; feminism and early Christianity; patriotism and individual responsibility—while also having a rousing good time.  Various stories revisit The Hound of the Baskervilles and Kipling’s Kim, set a pair of Bedouin nomads down in a grand country house in England, and offer an insider’s view of the great quake and fire of 1906, all the while forging an unlikely relationship between two remarkably similar individuals who happen to be separated by age, sex, and background. King’s newest series, beginning with Back to the Garden, finds SFPD Inspector Raquel Laing working on Cold Cases that reach into the present.
King’s Stuyvesant & Grey series, also historical, follows American ex-Bureau of Investigation agent Harris Stuyvesant, damaged young Captain Bennett Grey, and Grey’s sister Sarah as they move through Europe between the Wars.
Five King novels concern San Francisco homicide inspector Kate Martinelli, Kate’s SFPD partner Al Hawkin, and her life partner Lee Cooper. In the course of the stories, Kate has encountered a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, and a manifestation of the goddess Kali.
King’s stand-alone suspense novels include A Darker Place, the story of a middle-aged professor of religion who investigates “cults” for the FBI, and encounters a movement that embraces the dangerous beliefs of alchemy. Folly tells of woodworker Rae Newborne, who comes to a deserted island to rebuild a house, and her life. Keeping Watch is the story of Rae’s friend Allen Carmichael, a Vietnam vet who draws on his combat experiences to rescue abused women and children—until he comes across a boy whose problems may rival his own. Califia’s Daughters (a paperback original by “Leigh Richards”) is a post-apocalyptic sort of tale set in a near future where women rule and men are fragile.
She has collaborated on nonfiction works including How to Write a Mystery with Lee Child, The Grand Game of Sherlock Holmes scholarship, and several short story anthologies.
https://laurierking.com/

GET TO KNOW Best0selling Author Joseph Badal

Joseph Badal
Prior to his literary career, Joe served six years as an officer in the U.S. Army, including tours of duty in Vietnam and Greece, from which he received numerous decorations.
After his military service, he worked for thirty-six years in the banking & finance industries and was a founding director and senior executive of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company for sixteen years.
Joe is an Amazon #1 bestselling author, with 18 published, award-winning suspense novels. He has been recognized as “One of The 50 Best Writers You Should Be Reading.” He was named Writer of the Year by the Military Writers Society of America in 2021, is a two-time winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best Fiction Book of the Year, a four-time Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal Winner, an Eric Hoffer Prize Winner, a Book Excellence award winner, a four-time “Finalist” in the International Book Awards competition, and a top prize winner on multiple occasions in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards competition, including “Best of Show” in 2021.
www.JosephBadalBooks.com.

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Reed Farrel Coleman

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-three novels including six in the Jesse Stone series for the estate of Robert B. Parker. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel and a four-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories. He has also received the Authors on the Air Book of the Year, the Scribe, Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. He is a former Executive Vice President of Mystery Writers of America and a former adjunct instructor at Hofstra University. Reed lives with his wife on Long Island. 
Reed’s Website: https://reedcoleman.com