I'm not sure if Robert Bloch had the McCray incidents in mind when he wrote the original novel version of "Psycho", but the influence it had on Hitchcock's movie is clear.
Great piece! I was married to a woman who grew up in Aptos and whose dad was the public defender of Santa Cruz County during the murder capital period. Dad invited one of the serial killers (no longer remember which one) to live with him and his family and do odd jobs for them after he got him off murder charges. Imagine being a teenage girl in that home!
That's the thing, Michael, dad got him off on a technicality, and may well have known that he was guilty! The killer did kill again, and was convicted that time.
Indeed — and he's being held in a facility in Atascadero, I believe, only a couple of hours south of here. Apparently he's been whiling away the years making recordings of audio books for other prisoners...
I was the cat who read it the first time around. It remains a great piec-, I mean meow meow where's my food hooman caretaker BIRD! chatter chatter chirp.
The truly scary thing is that under the right circumstances how much is each person capable of? One of the things I loved about watching Mindhunter was that it showed the best investigator was the guy who could get inside the mind of the killers and think like they did
I don't read a lot of horror. In my whole life I have read two horror books: “One of us” and “Spares”…….. The question comes naturally:
… …”what am I still doing here?”.,,,,….
I really like your writing style, music choices, exchange of ideas on culture in general. True honor and joy for me to be part of your club book.Thank you.
This, however, is a true story. Does this former hotel really exist? How much horror in there!!
Beautiful conclusion on the reason for “Why Horror”. I never thought about it. It is true! It adds nothing Horror to life which is already violent and horrendous in itself (the case for saying "reality surpasses fantasy”).
Look at the wars. Endless, multiple (there are currently 600 hotbeds of military conflict in the world) with horrors, violence, rape, massacres. How humanity managed to create an existence whose main characteristic is violence.,?
In "Spares", the grand finale of a horror the cruel war - takes place in a forest. The forest is always present in the narrative, as a horror, a nightmare, a place to avoid.…I have often reflected on the "why". Why did you choose the forest???
Only in fairy tales is the bunny good, the fox clever and the deer beautiful. In reality the bunny lives in constant, trembling fear and the fox hunts the bunny to eat it. They are scenes of normal everyday life, the true essence of that place and not just flowers and beautiful landscapes. It's a kind of storage of more primitive instincts.
“This is why horror is so important. It's about the deep stuff. It's about us. Our secret selves, the inner lights. The things we truly feel, that make us who we are, even if we have to keep them hidden inside.
And it's also the only genre with the balls to look the die song in the eye.”- bello.
Thank you! And yes, that hotel exists and everything in the piece is true. Or if not proven, I've noted that it's speculation. The world is a strange and dark but interesting place — and the question of why behave so badly to each other so much of the time... I wish we knew the answer! Thank you for the question, and the comment, and for reading...
I often, perhaps overly, think about how easy it is and would be to have a single event change me for the bad. We walk mostly unmindful to our existence within a set of rules but surprisingly often even the most law abiding of us can find an excuse to change the dynamic of the reason for conformity. I have been sorely tempted by people into going down a dark path whilst knowing I would have found excuses to make right what I was being asked to do.
As we talked of before, the terror lies in the stripping away of choice, of power.
In reference to calling you Mike, guess what my wife just called me🤔
LOL — tell her it's fine. And yes, I also often think about how tiny a flap of a butterfly's wings it would have taken for my life (and the life of other people) to have been very different, often in dark ways. It's one of the things that makes being the parent of a teenager quite so ****ing stressful ;-)
“Sing the die song”. Haunting. Life is a series of what-ifs. If the car crash didn’t occur then would thirteen souls be spared? What motivates men like Kemper and Mullins? Something bad that happened in early childhood? Or was it simply a chemical imbalance, “bad wiring”, inherited upon birth?
Anyway, wonderful piece, Michael! And, if I may, congratulations on Time Out! I received my copy (116) the other day and breezed through it. I’m a sucker for first person narrative and lean prose. Great story concept: kind of I am Legend meets the Leftovers (one of my all time favorite tv shows) and great ending! Really enjoyed it! Left me wanting to find out more about the why and how.
Thank you, Pat! Glad you enjoyed the piece and delighted to hear that you liked TIME OUT. Especially pleased with the comparison to THE LEFTOVERS, which — as I've said here — I think was terribly under-rated...
Unless it's been mentioned or you have read it, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime https://a.co/d/d1NjD9Q is a jolly good read about whats been wrong about some of the most deranged people out there.
Its not always upbringing. Actually, it hardly ever is just that.
I remember reading this. I am not a cat.
Excellent - you must be one of the three people I wonder who the others are... ;-)
I'm not sure if Robert Bloch had the McCray incidents in mind when he wrote the original novel version of "Psycho", but the influence it had on Hitchcock's movie is clear.
You're right, of course... that sentence is misleading :) Have edited. Thank you!
Great piece! I was married to a woman who grew up in Aptos and whose dad was the public defender of Santa Cruz County during the murder capital period. Dad invited one of the serial killers (no longer remember which one) to live with him and his family and do odd jobs for them after he got him off murder charges. Imagine being a teenage girl in that home!
Thank you, Ian! And wow — that's quite a thing to do! You've got to be pretty bloody convinced the guy was innocent :)
or hopeful for a murderous outcome...
That's the thing, Michael, dad got him off on a technicality, and may well have known that he was guilty! The killer did kill again, and was convicted that time.
HOLY COW. That's... NOT GOOD! I'll bet wife and child had something to say to him when that happened... Jeez!
Great article. Although now I am going to have to go and read up on the activities of Ed Kemper. Your 'grand guignol' comment has piqued my interest.
Well, be warned. Dude was not right in the head ;-)
No apparently not. Apparently he suggested the authorities should torture him to death instead of imprison him!
Kemper is due for parole this year. Eek.
Indeed — and he's being held in a facility in Atascadero, I believe, only a couple of hours south of here. Apparently he's been whiling away the years making recordings of audio books for other prisoners...
I enjoyed the depiction of him throughout the series MINDHUNTER, if enjoy is the right word.
I haven't actually seen that... by the time it came on I'd decided I'd had enough of serial killers for a while. Despite then writing this piece ;-)
Great series!
For my money, it's the best series on Netflix, particularly the first season.
I agree as to the genre.
As a German who left just before the Berlin Wall fell I’m in love with “Kleo” on Netflix.
I'm two episodes into that and loving it!
I can’t wait for part 2!
I was the cat who read it the first time around. It remains a great piec-, I mean meow meow where's my food hooman caretaker BIRD! chatter chatter chirp.
It's not dinner time yet. Hush.
*ever so gently pushes all your important papers off the table while maintaining eye contact*
The truly scary thing is that under the right circumstances how much is each person capable of? One of the things I loved about watching Mindhunter was that it showed the best investigator was the guy who could get inside the mind of the killers and think like they did
Stare not into the abyss, etc ;-) But yes... I read the book, and it was very good.
I don't read a lot of horror. In my whole life I have read two horror books: “One of us” and “Spares”…….. The question comes naturally:
… …”what am I still doing here?”.,,,,….
I really like your writing style, music choices, exchange of ideas on culture in general. True honor and joy for me to be part of your club book.Thank you.
This, however, is a true story. Does this former hotel really exist? How much horror in there!!
Beautiful conclusion on the reason for “Why Horror”. I never thought about it. It is true! It adds nothing Horror to life which is already violent and horrendous in itself (the case for saying "reality surpasses fantasy”).
Look at the wars. Endless, multiple (there are currently 600 hotbeds of military conflict in the world) with horrors, violence, rape, massacres. How humanity managed to create an existence whose main characteristic is violence.,?
In "Spares", the grand finale of a horror the cruel war - takes place in a forest. The forest is always present in the narrative, as a horror, a nightmare, a place to avoid.…I have often reflected on the "why". Why did you choose the forest???
Only in fairy tales is the bunny good, the fox clever and the deer beautiful. In reality the bunny lives in constant, trembling fear and the fox hunts the bunny to eat it. They are scenes of normal everyday life, the true essence of that place and not just flowers and beautiful landscapes. It's a kind of storage of more primitive instincts.
“This is why horror is so important. It's about the deep stuff. It's about us. Our secret selves, the inner lights. The things we truly feel, that make us who we are, even if we have to keep them hidden inside.
And it's also the only genre with the balls to look the die song in the eye.”- bello.
Thank you! And yes, that hotel exists and everything in the piece is true. Or if not proven, I've noted that it's speculation. The world is a strange and dark but interesting place — and the question of why behave so badly to each other so much of the time... I wish we knew the answer! Thank you for the question, and the comment, and for reading...
Fascinating article again Mike.
I often, perhaps overly, think about how easy it is and would be to have a single event change me for the bad. We walk mostly unmindful to our existence within a set of rules but surprisingly often even the most law abiding of us can find an excuse to change the dynamic of the reason for conformity. I have been sorely tempted by people into going down a dark path whilst knowing I would have found excuses to make right what I was being asked to do.
As we talked of before, the terror lies in the stripping away of choice, of power.
In reference to calling you Mike, guess what my wife just called me🤔
LOL — tell her it's fine. And yes, I also often think about how tiny a flap of a butterfly's wings it would have taken for my life (and the life of other people) to have been very different, often in dark ways. It's one of the things that makes being the parent of a teenager quite so ****ing stressful ;-)
“Sing the die song”. Haunting. Life is a series of what-ifs. If the car crash didn’t occur then would thirteen souls be spared? What motivates men like Kemper and Mullins? Something bad that happened in early childhood? Or was it simply a chemical imbalance, “bad wiring”, inherited upon birth?
Anyway, wonderful piece, Michael! And, if I may, congratulations on Time Out! I received my copy (116) the other day and breezed through it. I’m a sucker for first person narrative and lean prose. Great story concept: kind of I am Legend meets the Leftovers (one of my all time favorite tv shows) and great ending! Really enjoyed it! Left me wanting to find out more about the why and how.
Thank you, Pat! Glad you enjoyed the piece and delighted to hear that you liked TIME OUT. Especially pleased with the comparison to THE LEFTOVERS, which — as I've said here — I think was terribly under-rated...
Unless it's been mentioned or you have read it, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime https://a.co/d/d1NjD9Q is a jolly good read about whats been wrong about some of the most deranged people out there.
Its not always upbringing. Actually, it hardly ever is just that.
Hmm — thank you! Just bought it... I will look forward :)