Crime rates in America may be falling, but the appetite for true crime coverage?
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rates → fall → coverage
And this fall, there's plenty for fans of the topic to choose from, whether it's streaming (like Netflix's "Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story"), podcasts ("Crime Junkie"), popular broadcast series (CBS News' own "48 Hours"), the big screen ("By Any Means"), and even good old-fashioned Court TV, it's practically everywhere.
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it → be → Means
Many trace the genre's mass appeal back to the 1960s, when Truman Capote wrote "In Cold Blood" about the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas.
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Capote → trace → Kansas
"I read Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' when I was probably 17, 18; it hit me as no other book has ever hit me," said Jean Murley, a professor at the Savanah College of Art and Design, who studies the true crime phenomenon.
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who → read → phenomenon
"I just became more and more fascinated with it – the sort of drama, the fact that these stories were real, horrifying."
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stories → become → drama
One such real and horrifying story was the hatchet-deaths Lizzie Borden was accused of back in 1892, which took place in the very Massachusetts house where we sat for our interview.
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we → accuse → interview
"It was a very high-profile crime at its time, with a woman at the center of, you know, two acts of horrific violence," said Murley.
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Murley → know → violence
"And it has continued to be super-interesting, because she was never convicted.
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she → continue → ?
Nobody was ever convicted for those crimes."
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Nobody → convict → crimes
"It's an open case, yes," said Murley.
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Murley → say → ?
Murley says it's no wonder why we as humans are naturally drawn to these tales of murder, mayhem and mystery.
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we → say → murder
"For women in particular, of course, there are all of the reasons for anybody to be interested in true crime," she said.
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she → be → crime
"True crime deals with the biggest emotions within the human experience …
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crime → deal → experience
We're talking about facing mortality.
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We → talk → mortality
We're talking about violence."
All of which are topics that Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark tackle each week as hosts of the wildly popular "My Favorite Murder" podcast.
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Kilgariff → talk → podcast
"We were recording in my little one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood with no air conditioning and a lot of cats," said Hardstark.
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Hardstark → record → cats
"I really just wanted a hobby.
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I → want → hobby
And we loved talking about those things, so, let's give it a shot!
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's → love → shot
Let's just talk into microphones instead of at each other.
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's → let → other
"I think we thought no one was listening," said Kilgariff, "and that we were just kind of talking to each other and, you know, a group of people that were kind of like-minded, but that it wasn't really anybody."
But people were listening – a LOT of them.
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people → think → them
But is it really okay to build an entire entertainment empire on people dying?
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it → build → people
And who are all of those listeners, who call themselves "murderinos"?
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who → call → themselves
According to Kilgariff, "It's people who care and try to show up with a kind of presence and an awareness.
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who → accord → presence
Our audiences are, when we do live shows, clapping 'cause everyone's so excited to, like, be together.
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everyone → do → shows
But then you can turn a corner, and everything gets really quiet."
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everything → turn → corner
Hardstark said, "True crime as entertainment, at first, worries a lot of people.
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crime → say → people
We want it to be about the victims, because we understand as women how vulnerable we are.
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we → want → women
We're not entertained by true crime.
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We → entertain → crime
What we want is all the information about human experience that we can get."
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we → want → that
A place you can get a lot of that information is CrimeCon, held this year in a place that knows all about the topic: Sin City – Las Vegas.
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that → get → topic
CrimeCon is a yearly get-together for fans of the genre, and the folks who make the content that those fans can't get enough of.
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fans → make → enough
Folks like "48 Hours" correspondent and "Sunday Morning" contributor Erin Moriarty, who could barely walk through the convention without being mobbed.
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who → walk → convention
Moriarty said, when she first heard about CrimeCon, "I was worried about coming here.
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I → say → CrimeCon
These are real people whose lives have been drastically affected by these cases.
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lives → affect → cases
There are people who have been wrongfully convicted.
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who → be → ?
And they all have something to say.
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they → have → something
And I did not want to be part of anything that would make fun of that or trivialize it.
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that → want → it
Thanks to the internet, a lot of these CrimeCon attendees also spend their free time trying to actually solve the crimes using publicly-available information.
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lot → spend → information
"We know that, in some cases, if there are the sleuths online, they are so adept at tracking people down, that they might be able to get clues," Moriarty said.
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Moriarty → know → clues
"What I get concerned [about] was, in the Idaho case, the Bryan Kohberger case, there were people who went beyond sleuthing, and they pointed their finger at innocent people.
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they → concern → people
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
