Also known as "white heat" films and "the real thing," the snuff film myth lives on like Bigfoot, despite the fact that no law enforcement agency in America has publicly admitted to ever locating one. Alan Sears, former executive director of the Attorney General's commission on pornography during 1985-86, agrees with the more than two dozen law enforcement agencies I interviewed. "Our experience was that we could not find any such thing as a commercially produced snuff film," says Sears. "Our commission was all-inclusive and exhaustive. If snuff films were available, we'd have found them."
This sentiment is echoed by Ken Lanning, a cult expert at the FBI training academy at Quantico, Virginia. "I've not found one single documented case of a snuff film anywhere in the world. I've been searching for 20 years, talked to hundreds of people. There's plenty of once-removed sightings, but I've never found a credible personality who personally saw one."
Yet the rumour of snuff persists. The scenarios are invariably the same - a remote jungle village in South America, a deserted beach in Thailand, the landscaped garden of a German industrialist, a lonely Everglades swamp. The victims are usually women, often performing a sexual act, their deaths sensational and unexpected.
One of the most resilient snuff rumours concerns convicted "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz, who allegedly filmed the murders of some of his victims. Maury Terry, author of "The Ultimate Evil," a book about Berkowitz and cult killings across America, tells me, "Its believed Berkowitz filmed his murders to circulate within the Church of Satan. On the night of the Stacy Moskowitz killing, there was a VW van parked across the street from the murder site under a bright sodium street lamp.
"Witnesses have confirmed this, although the van never appeared in the police report. Berkowitz or an accomplice filmed Moskowitz's murder, using the street lamp to light the subject as she sat in her car across the street." The 20-year-old Moskowitz was killed in 1977 in Brooklyn.
Terry says the film was apparently made for Roy Radin, the Long Island impresario and "wannabe Cotton Club financier." "Radin was known for his huge porno collection and wanted to add a snuff film to it. I've heard there are ten...
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...hit… we ran out of film."
Another voice whispers, "Did you get it all?"
"Yeah, we got it all."
"Let's get out of here."
The sound of breathing ends.
The reason why the film was a scam?
1. Who would promote a film that showed the actual murder of one of its crew?
2. How can a single camera show several POV shots but not lose the continuity of the action?
3. How can police and the Manhattan district attorney interview a woman who has been murdered on screen?
Robert M. Morgenthau, the district attorney for Manhattan, announced in a news conference that he had determined the on-screen murder of a woman as being a hoax. "It is nothing more than trick photography," he said, adding, "the actress is alive and well." Prompted by continued complaints and petitions, Morganthau's findings were the conclusion of a month long investigation, in which the 'murder victim' had herself been located and interviewed by police.
Shackelton, too, had been traced via the Monarch Releasing Corporation and admitted, after threats of 'considerable forfeiture', that it was not a real woman who was murdered. It appears that controversy sells tickets.
On June 19th of 1990, Robert Baltovich’s girlfriend Elizabeth Bain went missing. Elizabeth told her family that she was going to check the tennis schedules at her school, the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. She never returned, but her car was eventually recovered. It was found with blood on the backseat, with forensic tests showing that it was Elizabeth’s. With no clear evidence, the “solving” of the case was completely based on eyewitness testimonies, which eventually had Robert arrested for the murder of his girlfriend.
On the evening of Ms. Heggar¡¦s death she was alone in her house. Eddie Ray Branch, her grandson, testified that he visited his grandmother on the day that she was killed. He was there till at least 6:30 p.m. Lester Busby, her grandnephew, and David Hicks arrived while her grandson was still there and they saw him leave. They then went in to visit with Ms. Heggar. While they were there, Lester repaid Ms. Heggar 80 dollars, which he owed her. They left around 7:15 p.m. and went next door to a neighboring friend¡¦s house. David Hick¡¦s went home alone from there to get something but returned within ten minutes of leaving. Because he was only gone for 5-10 minutes, prosecution theorized TWO attacks on Ms. Heggar because he could not have killed his grandmother during this 5-10 minute period alone. At 7:30 p.m., 15 minutes after the two had left, an insurance salesman called to see Ms. Heggar. He knocked for about 2 or 3 minutes and got no reply. Her door was open but the screen door was closed. Her TV was on. He claimed to have left after about 5 minutes and then he returned the next morning. The circumstances were exactly the same. With concern, he went to the neighbor¡¦s house and called the police. His reasoning for being there was because the grandmother¡¦s family had taken out burial insurance three days before she had died.
(New Orleans). All the evidence that was found is very unclear, but the next suspect in the murder is Joseph Mumfre.
While Williams Heirens is known for many crimes, his most famous ones are the murders of 3 females. On June 5, 1945, 43-year-old Josephine Ross was found dead in her apartment. She was found with multiple stab wounds across her torso and neck. Her head was wrapped in one of her dresses (Blanco). On December 11, 1945, 31-year-old Frances Brown was found naked in the bathtub of her apartment. Her head was wrapped in her nightclothes, with a knife jammed into her neck, and a bullet in her head. Her neck was slit when she discovered a 17-year-old in her apartment robbing her. After he cut her throat, he shot her in the head to make sure that she was dead. He then proceeded to wash the blood off of her body and wrap her head in her pajamas. After he killed her, he took her lipstick and scrawled on the wall, “Catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.” On January 7, 1946, 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan was reported missing from her home. Police later found dismembered parts of her body scattered throughout Chicago’s sewage drains. When sewage workers first found her head, they thought it ...
The first shooting occurred on July 29, 1976 and the second months later; and the third one month after the second. At this point, Berkowitz had shot six people but the New York Police Department did not see any relation between the shootings. In January 1977, Berkowitz struck again by shooting a couple while sitting in a car. This event caused police to start a search for a .44 caliber killer. A .44 caliber gun is the type of gun that Berkowitz used in all of his murders. He continued to elude police, he even began taunting them. Berkowitz started leaving note addressed to the NYPD captain near all of his crime scenes. In the letters he spoke to police telling them of how he was recruited to commit the murders and addressed himself as the “Son of Sam”. This is how Berkowitz attained the name The Son of Sam Killer.
Subsequently to that, in the same year the following to Hinman’ murder in which Atkins participated , the assassination of Sharon Tate who was pregnant, Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger took place. According to the forensic evidence the crime was describe as brutal (Wikipedia). During Atkins declaration she confesses to be the killer of Tate during her statement. “She stated that she had stabbed Tate because she was ‘sick of listening to her, pleading and begging, begging and pleading’” (Wikipedia). During trail the audience saw a lack of remorse about the crime committed by her and the Mason Family. During one her declaration she confesses t...
"DAVID BERKOWITZ (SON OF SAM)." Crime and Investigation Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. .
On December 18th 2015 Netflix aired with great popularity a 10 part documentary series called “making a Murderer” The documentary, written by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demo, present the case of Steven Avery; a convicted murderer exonerated on DNA evidence after serving 18 years for the assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. The writers present the series in a way that suggest that Avery was framed by the Manitowoc Country police department. and present that the police planted evidence to frame Steven Avery because he had been exonerated from the previous crime. The ethical problem with this as is presented by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker, is that the documentary argues their case so passionately that they leave out important
In this documentary, we never go into the minds of any of the people, but only get to interpret what we see and hear. This documentary was filmed in Jacksonville, Florida where Brenton Butler, a 15 year old African American boy was accused of the murder of Mary Ann Stephens. The main people in this documentary are Ann Fennell, Patrick McGuiness, Brenton Butler, and detectives Williams, Glover, and Darnell. Ann Fennell and Patrick McGuisness are the two defense attorney’s on Brenton’s behalf. Brenton Butler is the boy being accused of murder. Detectives Williams, Glover, and Darnell are the detectives in department 3 the violated many laws and policies while holing Brenton in
The plot of “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” takes the viewer on a journey as Jesse Metcalfe, an “award-winning” reporter, is convinced that DA Mark Hunter is fabricating DNA evidence to win convictions. After watching DA Hunter in a murder trial, Metcalfe requests a videotape of the murderer’s interrogation and a date from ADA Crystal; reluctantly, she agrees to both. After reviewing the video, Metcalfe and his cameraman, Corey Finely, approach the news editor about conducting an investigative story on DA Hunter and the fabrication of DNA evidence; the editor declines the story, which causes Metcalfe and Finely to mastermind a plan to catch Hunter in the act. The plan was to use a current murder case and plant circumstantial evidence pointing to Metcalfe. After acquiring a copy of a police report for a prostitute’s murder, Metcalfe and Finely round up th...
Charles Manson and the Manson family committed gruesome crimes that shocked Los Angeles in 1969. The actress Sharon Tate and four others were ritualistically slaughtered in her Hollywoods Hills home. The murderers had left cryptic messages on the walls in the victims blood, and law enforcement were stumped by the multiple stab wounds found on the victims. The next day a married couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, who were successful shop owners, were found in their Las Feliz home murdered in the same way as Sharon Tate and her friends.
Bardsley, Marilyn, Bellamy Patrick. “Murder of JonBenet Ramsey.” Crime Library. Turner Entertainment Networks, (2010). Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
...lice or lawyers used their integrity. The police skirted around the law and use evidence that the witnesses said was not correct. They had a description of the suspect that did not match Bloodsworth but, they went after him as well. They also used eyewitness testimony that could have been contaminated.
On the evening of May 5, 1993, three boys from West Memphis, Arkansas, were last seen riding their bikes together. In the early evening, Chris Byers' stepfather, John Mark Byers, reported that his stepson had not come home and he was becoming worried. The police were also notified of two other boys who had been with Chris and were considered missing, Michael Moore, and Stevie Branch. The police and the parents of the missing children searched the neighborhood unsuccessfully until 3AM the next morning. The bodies of the three eight year old boys were discovered in a wooded area in Robin Hood Hills the next day at 1:30 PM. The boys had been hog-tied and severely beaten. Their naked bodies were located in a shallow creek in an isolated patch of woods behind the Blue Beacon truck wash. However, the question that remains until this day is whether justice was served in this case. Perhaps you are not familiar with the West Memphis Three, otherwise known as the Robin Hood Hill Murders. Most people would not of heard of this case unless they were citizens of the small town; however, HBO produced a documentary, "Paradise Lost," which graphically showed this case in a different light. This Peabody Award winning documentary brought the story of this crime and its aftermath into the national spotlight in 1996. The implication it left was that satanic panic, public hysteria and media sensationalism was responsible for the convictions in the case, not solid evidence. This is a shattering account of what a fundamentalist community in the south can accomplish toward the blatant destruction of American justice.
In the quiet New York town of Savona, Eric Smith, age thirteen, intercepted four year old Derrick Robie on his way to a park recreation program and offered to show him a shortcut. Hesitatingly, Derrick set off with Eric. He never made it to the park. That same day the little boy's savagely beaten body was discovered outside the park area (Seifert 98).