In this Sum it up I’d like to draw your attention to four websites or blogs that have kept me busy reading all week.
The first one is “the Civil Rights Cold Case Project.” On this site you can find information about cases related to the Civil Rights Era and some you will recognize since I posted about them here as well (Henry Dee & Charles Moore).
I quote from their “about” page: “Today in the American South, scores of civil rights murders remain unsolved, uninvestigated, unprosecuted, and untold. Those two legacies of violence and silence still haunt the region and continue to damage race relations in the United States.
Many histories have been written about the struggle for civil rights; many documentaries have been made about the movement and the resistance that rose up against it. But the history of the South and of the United States still has huge, important, undocumented holes where myths and mysteries reside, threatening to undermine the nation’s goal of putting racial conflict behind.
The Civil Rights Cold Case Project is an unprecedented collaboration bringing together the power of investigative reporting, narrative writing, documentary filmmaking and interactive multimedia production to reveal the long-neglected truth behind unsolved civil rights murders, and to facilitate reconciliation and healing.
The Project reporters have already produced extraordinary information in high-profile cases that prosecutors have used to build criminal cases against killers and conspirators who had walked free for more than 40 years. To date, every civil rights murder case that has been reopened and successfully prosecuted was the direct result of an investigation initiated by a journalist.”
A site worthy of your time. It has a blog, videos, stories and background information about the excellent team of writers!
The second one is “the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders Blog.” The axe murders occurred in June 1912 in the southwestern Iowa town of Villisca, when an unknown attacker entered the Moore residence, murdered the eight occupants of the house (including six children) with an axe and then disappeared. The victims were Josiah and Sarah Moore, their four children, and two friends who were sleeping over.
- Josiah B. Moore, 43
- Sarah Montgomery Moore, 39
- Herman Moore, 11
- Katherine Moore, 9
- Boyd Moore, 7
- Paul Moore, 5
- Lena Gertrude Stillinger, 12
- Ina May Stillinger, 8
Aside from the cruelty of the choice of weapon, all victims were hacked in the face. Rumours went around town and the strongest rumours centered around one man: Reverend Kelly. George Kelly was a traveling minister who happened to be teaching at the Children’s Day services on June 9, at the same Presbyterian church the Moore family was attending. He and his wife left the town early on June 10, the day the bodies were discovered. Despite this, he was acquitted after two separate trials.
The blog tells you the story but to get the timeline correct, you must go to the right margin. Go to the archives, click on more, and then you will see the entire list of posts sorted by month dating back to June 2007.
The third is from “ProPublica” and I highly recommend “Autopsies in the USA.” I quote: “Death investigations in the U.S. are often carried out in settings that bear little resemblance to the glitzy, high-tech morgues shown on television. When a death occurs under suspicious circumstances, the investigation into its cause is overseen by a coroner, often an elected official with no medical background, or a medical examiner, usually a doctor who specializes in forensic pathology. ProPublica, in partnership with PBS “Frontline” and NPR, surveyed almost 70 of the largest coroner and medical examiner systems in the U.S.”
“More than 1 in 5 physicians working in the country’s busiest morgues — including the chief medical examiner of Washington, D.C. — are not board certified in forensic pathology, the branch of medicine focused on the mechanics of death, our investigation found. Experts say such certification ensures that doctors have at least a basic understanding of the science, and it should be required for practitioners employed by coroner and medical examiner offices.”
The information is chilling but will give you the true story unlike CSI on television. Frontline has made the full program available on its website. Highly recommended reading and watching but keep in mind, we are discussing morgues and autopsies so beware…
Last but not least, I introduce you to “Path Wonk.” If you are wondering about the title, please do check the blog because it gets explained! The information is fascinating. The blog belongs to Jeremy K. Deisch, M.D., and he discusses cases in detail, with photographs, on brain cutting with stats and x-rays…
I have added a category in the right margin for my mind maps. If you click there, you will find all the posts that have mind maps.
Last, I’d like to draw your attention to two cases on DCC that are whipping up a storm in the comment section! The cases of Sharron Prior and Moira Holly Branagan are being discussed very lively by DCC readers and family members. Lately, we have been joined by people who used to live near both Sharron and Holly including former classmates. They are all brainstorming trying to piece together what happened and in what order. Was there school the next day? Was anyone absent aside from Sharron and Holly? Who of the old gang committed suicide or “lawyered up?” They have come up with interesting details and in part, confirmed my analysis of Holly’s murder. Who knows, we might be closer to the truth than ever before!
Till the next Sum it Up!