wednes | Another Fascinating Wednes Factoid:

Occasionally, people ask me why I am so interested in horror, murder, abnormal psychology, and serial killers. On the surface, I'd suggest that there's no real reason people are interested in this or that...that it just kind of happens. Realistically though, that's not very true. If you want to read the grisly reasons, they are detailed below.

My interest in such things begins right about here, with the mysterious man or men called The Oakland County Child Killer or alternately The Babysitter. I was a little kid in the 70's in Oakland County MI when all that craziness was going on. Parents flipped the hell out over it too. I'm sure that it affected me profoundly to be taught to be afraid of serial killers at such a young age. It was the beginning of a pervasive "Don't go with strangers" campaign on Tv and radio. Plus, he took four kids in a relatively short time; this leads to insane, urgent press coverage.

The craziest thing about The Oakland County Child Killer is that they never caught him. He might even have moved around and killed in other states. They don't know. I even have a Serial Killer (true crime) trading card of him as the shadowy Babysitter. But since I don't have a scanner, you'll just have to take my word for it.
So today I hear that one of the guys they questioned in the 1970's is being questioned again about some shenanegans he got up to in Washtenaw County (which is where I live now, incidentally). In the 70's, my Mom told me that Walt was one of the suspects in the case and that we had to be extra careful in case he came to get us. yeah...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(deleted comment)

LOL, so more like the Boston Stringler? That's funny in a nostalgic kinda way.

I watched an appalling amount of TV as a kid, so now TV is my barometer for all of society. That's why I talk about it so much. It's a fascinating record of social trends, political correctness, and attitudes within various demographics.

The Babysitter was thought to drive either a VW Beetle or a white van. Sadly, both of those were popular in those days.

That's really interesting. I grew up in Ann Arbor, but I don't remember hearing about that case at all. My parents never watched TV news, so maybe that's why. I think I was totally unaware of the Viet Nam war for the same reason. I do remember when I was in Kindergarten ('73-'74) learning about kidnappers. Someone must have said something about kidnappers using vans to abduct kids, because for a while I had a picture of people going around in large moving vans picking up kids. I also remember my friend's older sister talking about the Boston Strangler. I had no idea what a strangler was, but I remember picturing him as having really long stringy arms and legs. It's weird how children's minds work.

I think that guy kind of ruined it for us. After that whole business kids were generally less able to go out and do fun stuff. Then, to make things worse the whole Tylenol scare happened and suddenly you couldn't even leave your house. Halloween was suddenly a scary time when every apple had a razor blade. Kids didn't get to be innocent anymore, and between the Fear of Nuclear War in The Day After and the fear of Iranians with the Iran Hostage Crisis, we got lots of fear with a side order of lack of trust.

At least some of us still had pretty girls in math class. ;)

Oh, you! *girlish giggle*

It's true, there was not a lot of innocence back then. Everybody pissed about Vietnam and yeah...that Tylenol/Visine/tamper-o-rama thing was nuts. We had to take our halloween candy to the police station and they'd metal detect it. And they used to take our pixie sticks away. They said people might put drugs in them. I got older and was like "what kind of a maniac is gonna give his drugs away for free."

I've always had a fascination with serial killers and aberrant psychology. I'm pretty certain this stems from growing up in the Seattle area. When I was a kid, they caught Ted Bundy. I remember hearing alot about that case, and hearing people speculate about whether or not he was guilty. I actually knew people that knew him. By the time I was a teenager, we had the Green River Killer, and for a long time it seemed they would never solve the case. It was a scary time to be a woamn living in the Pacific Northwest.

Wow...that's wild. Have you seen the Green River Killer movie where Cary Elwes is Ted Bundy? It's kinda good.

But yeah, it's amazing how that kind of stuff affects people even years later. Peter Vronsky talks a bit about it in his last book, which is excellent. Of course, killers also inspired Jason Moss and all his shenanegans. That one is a fascinating read.

I remember having to go to a school seminar with my parents where they taught us to use secret code words and made us "role play" with pretend kidnappers. It was AWFUL. But that was in the early 80s so it wasn't specifically related. Although Royal Oak was a sketchy place back then, not the swank yuppie town it is now.

I was in Hazel Park at the time, which is even more ghetto now than it was then. I forgot about the code words though, that was huge for a time. My family didn't move to Royal Oak until I was in high school.

But which SCHOOL did you go to? That makes a HUGE difference when calculating cool punk kid points, you know... ;)

Let's see:

Longfellow elementary grade 2-6
St Mary Magdalene grade 7 and 8
Webb Jr High grade 9
Hazel Park High grade 10
Kimball HS grade 11-12

I know the exact spot where Timothy King was found. I can take you exactly there anytime you want.

Thank you, no. That is one of the few cases I'm not interested in the "hands on" stuff.

I had never heard of this guy until recently.
And even so, apparently my sisters boyfriend knew a guy (or he was the guy) that actually knew the killer. He had worked with him somehow. *i have no idea if any of this is true* but he said the guy died. My sister begs him all the time to call the cops or tipline or whatever, but he refuses. *shrugs* it's good to think he might be dead.

in other news, i wonder what my infatuation with horror flicks from the 70s/80s stems from.

There was indeed a guy who was one of the front runners (as it were) who died in the 90's. I can't imagine having information like that and not giving it up. The parents of those kids...not to mention anyone who was frightened by him/them deserves some closure.

i think so too, that's why i kind of think it can't be that true. who could have that information and not do something to help? :/

Another Fascinating Wednes Factoid:

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I totally understand...

Re: I totally understand...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject