True Detective Magazines

By Lynn A. Granata

       For many years, the true detective magazines were loaded with the most appalling content that you could ever imagine.  

           They are true stories, written by true law enforcement commentators who were at the scene of the grisly crimes they had to encounter.

        Some of the stuff will make your hair stand.  A lot of serial killers were featured in them.  One of the most notorious of a serial killer was none other than John Wayne Gacy.

Although I don't really know much about Gacy's background, in the magazine, there is a lot information about his grisly acts of violence.  Gacy was born in Michigan, had a tough life growing up. His father called him degrading names such as "sissy"and then made him dress like a girl.

         He grew up and then became a sexual predator.  The only problem is with that though, he targeted young people of the same gender.

       He dressed as a clown and lured young boys into his home.  Then sexually assaulted them, killed them, and then disposed of their remains under his cement basement floor.  It is believed that he killed over 30 boys this way. I think most of these crimes occurred between 1976-79.

          Not all that were missing were found, their remains still remain unaccounted for right to this day. Gacy was probably tried and convicted in a non capital punishment state. 

   Did he ever get the death penalty? I don't remember whether he did or not.  Either way, one thing's for certain, he is locked up somewhere where he may never see the light of day ever again.

Aileen Wuornos:

Was She Really a "Monster"

Or Just a Helpless Victim?

By Lynn A. Granata

    One thing is for certain, though, she became the most notorious if not one of the first well known female serial killers of the late 20th Century.

 Aileen Wuornos got off to a very rocky start in life. Her mother Diane, was a tragic victim of domestic violence. Her father was a hardened life long criminal. She in fact never got to know either of her biological parents. She and her brother Keith were abandoned by their parents while they were infants. Aileen and Keith were raised by their grandparents. Diane, Aileen's mother dropped them both off at grandma's house one day and just left them there for good.

No, this was no doting grandparent's home, far from it.

Aileen and Keith were more or less treated as unwanted visitors, guests, and intruders.

Lauri Wuornos, Aileen's grandfather was an abusive alcoholic who gave regular belt whippings to both children and dubbed it "discipline."

Once Aileen turned 14 she got pregnant and then left home.

This is when her permanent downward spiral began. She turned to drugs, hitchhiking, and prostitution; she was born in Troy, Michigan.  But, her vagabond lifestyle wasn't conducive to Michigan's frigid cold weather in winter. She figured out a way to cope and she hitchhiked to Florida. There she met an older man of means, named Lewis Fell. The relationship at first, began as a quick romantic wedding, but then soured quickly. Fell was smitten at first, but then once Aileen began to show the dark side of her personality, the marriage to Fell came to a screeching halt. Fell annulled Wuornos as fast as he married her. They were married for only 9 weeks.

Aileen Wuornos with brief husband Lewis Fell.

A few years went by, and Keith died from throat cancer. Aileen attempted suicide with a firearm. Eventually she recovered. But she then kicked off her own little life of crime. Aileen walked into a Daytona Beach convenience store clad in a bikini, and robbed the store at gun point. She then served her first 3 year lengthy prison sentence. Wuornos began a lesbian love affair with Tyria Moore, after they met at a bikers bar in Daytona Beach called the Last Resort Saloon.

Tyria Moore

From 1989-1992, a string of middle aged men were being found dead in a nearby Dade County Parking Rest area.  Each man was reported missing, and they all had a similar pattern of their whereabouts. They traveled the same road, for example, they were all middle-aged fathers, husbands, and working men that carried cash in their pockets. They were found dead as they were reported missing, not collectively all at once.

Wuornos was found guilty of first degree murder with a deadly weapon, ( a .22 caliber revolver) her blood, finger prints, and DNA lifted from the crime scene all tested positive. Wuornos, used many of her own strategies during her second trial. She testified that these men all raped her, and sexually abused her. 

However, she lost her case, after 2 tries a jury found her guilty of 7 counts of murder in the first degree. In Florida the death penalty is the only punishment for murder in the 1st degree. Aileen was sentenced to die by lethal injection. Her victims had picked her up and figured she was a highway hooker. She went with them to the swampy area, parked, took out her revolver, and shot her victims at point blank range. Then she took their cash and left, returning to a motel where she and her lover Tyria Moore lived together. 

Tyria betrayed Wuornos, it's been said, because she was instrumental in bringing her lover to justice by co- operating with the police in aiding them with Aileen's capture and arrest. Moore agreed to plea bargain, so that she wouldn't be charged as a conspirator to Aileen's charges. Moore knew about Aileen's working as a prostitute, because she often questioned Aileen about how she got all this cash. Aileen after much coaxing finally broke down and told Moore what she was doing.

Conclusion

         Aileen Wuornos was born on February 29, 1956 to Diane Wuornos and Dale Pittman. During her turbulent train wreck life, all she knew was hatred, abuse, drugs, beatings, forced into prostitution, and death by lethal injection. A lot of experts have postulated that she was neglected and should have been brought to the Department of Child Protective Services. Instead she was dumped in the lap of a non-loving family, her own grandparents and an estranged aunt and an older uncle.  She and her brother Keith were told that they were their sister and brother. Nevertheless, these two extended family members took just as much a part in the grisly abuse as did their mother and father. Aileen wanted to die by lethal injection, because she had tremendous faith in God. She prayed all the time she served on death row. She wanted to go to heaven, and truly believed in a divine power greater than this life could ever provide to her. 

May her soul RIP.

Aileen Wuornos at the time of her execution

Death Penalty Inmates that were Botched Executions

By Lynn A. Granata

Over the last few decades there are literally hundreds of thousands of accumulated condemned inmates awaiting execution on death row.

Clayton D. Lockett from Oklahoma was one of them. He was executed last year in an Oklahoma State Penitentiary. 

But, his execution went horribly wrong.  Because of the state using the wrong cocktail of drugs which all of a sudden, deviated from the norm.

Lockett's death by lethal injection took an hour.  When it ordinarily takes 10 minutes or less.

Lockett apparently wanted to commit suicide because he knew that the state was using cheaper less useful drugs. He feared his own botched execution.

 He tried to starve himself, it was learned. But when the "hangman" came for him in the early hours of April 29, 2014, he refused to comply.  So they tasered him. 

Once Clayton was subdued, it took the paramedics 45 minutes to locate a vein, they tried all areas possible, both his arms, legs, and feet, before they finally settled on the femoral vein in his right groin-Ewww! Lockett's veins were inaccessible. 

He was dehydrated because he hadn't eaten for 48 hours. The scary part is while he was on the gurney.  He convulsed and spoke he tried to get up off of the gurney, even though he was in restraints. He died from a heart attack an hour after he was tinctured with the lethal concoction. 

Also, in Ohio there were several death row inmates who took longer than usual because of the different mixture of lethal drugs. 

Later on it was discovered that the prison was getting these drugs from prison doctor's who made them up themselves.  Before the drugs were imported from Europe. Europe, however, discontinued making them and shipping them to American Penitentiaries. In Europe, drug manufacturers and pharmacies are growing increasingly against the death penalty.

Death by lethal injection is legal in 38 states.  But, the drugs now have been banned until further notice. Executions have been suspended until they can find another way to supply the proper drugs again. The death penalty to me personally is Barbaric, and I don't believe in it.