Michael Mayo - American Murder: Criminals, Crimes, and the Media

The Americans certainly are great hero-worshippers, and always take their heroes from the criminal classes.

W hen Oscar Wilde wrote these words in a letter on April 19, 1882, he was referring to Jesse James. Wilde was in Missouri on a coast-to-coast lecture tour of the country and, to judge by the other letters he wrote then, was having a whale of a good time. Jesse had been shot a few weeks before, just a few blocks from where he was staying. By the time la belle Oscar hit town, the locals were stealing everything that had any connection to the famous outlaw and selling the items at public auction.

Wilde marveled at the prices they were getting for Jesses coal scuttle, dust bin, and boot scraper, and he was delighted by the excitement Jesses murder had generated. Perhaps the famous writer and future jailbird (they nailed him on a gross indecency rap in 1895) recognized a kindred spirit. The great train-robber and murderer, as Wilde referred to him, had been famous for years, and for good reason. Jesse was no slouch when it came to self-promotion, and he had legions of defenders both locally and nationally. In death, though, he was transformed into something much greater and Wilde was on hand to witness it.

Jesse was one of the first celebrity murderers. Over the years, he became such an icon in American popular culture that the truth of his many crimes has largely been forgotten. Perhaps more accurately, the truth has been eclipsed by storiesstories people want to hear and see again and again.

The simple truth is that the idea of murder fascinates us.

I came to this book as a writer, film reviewer, and omnivorous consumer of crime fiction. I knew a little about almost all of these cases. I knew a lot about a few of them. Almost all of it was wrong. The difference between historical truth and what we assume to be true about the past is vast. What do you think when you hear these names?

• Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate: Most people probably imagine two good-looking misunderstood kids in love who somehow went wrong and spun out of control. Dont believe it. They killed one of Charlies friends who had helped them hide out and Caril Anns baby sister because she wouldnt stop crying.
• Bruno Hauptmann: Revisionists have cast him as an innocent carpenter who was framed by the powerful men who supported Charles Lindbergh. Not a chance. There isnt a single piece of hard evidence anyone else had anything to do with the kidnapping and murder.
• Lizzie Borden: No nice middle-class girl could savagely slaughter her upstanding parents. If they made her miserable enough, she could.

Deliberately taking a life is the ultimate crime. It happens a lot in this country, and its mostly men who do it. But all murders are not created equal, either in the eyes of the law or for the purposes of this book. If one drug dealer kills another drug dealer, for example, nobody but their families is likely to care. If a guy gets liquored up and goes home and kills his wife, it is sad but unremarkable. If she fights back and kills him, then weve got one less drunken jerk to deal with.

But when a murder is really significant, for any number of reasons, it acquires more weight and importance. When, lets say, the victim is famous, or when there are great numbers of victims, or when the victim or the murderer is unusually attractive or wealthy, or when the method of the murder is particularly horrifying, well, everything changes. The whole country takes notice and we pay attention to each step of the process.

It begins with the first reporting of the crime and the revelation of the details. If those details are sufficiently shocking, our interest is piqued. Then the evidence accumulates as more clues are revealed. By this point, we are actively trying to learn the most recent revelation. We want to know more, and the mediaprint, broadcast, Weball want to be the first to pass along those precious bits of information.

At some point, law enforcement will identify a suspect and attention will focus on that person. Usually, the next steps are arrest, indictment, and trial, though if the suspect is wealthy or famous, he may be able to prolong those phases.

We tend to think the trial and verdictor verdicts when appeals or civil trials followare the end of the story, but theyre not. The stories in this book rarely end neatly. There are few clear-cut cases here, though many of these murderers are pretty damn rotten. Even if the trial ends with a conviction and the sentence is carried out, more stories are going to be told about the murder and the murderer. As time passes, those stories can take several forms because the major players can be cast in widely different stereotypical roles.

Murderers, even the sickest serial killers, may be perceived as a glamorous, romantic figures. Or, if theyre unattractive, they may be seen as brutish villains. Victims may be completely blameless and sympathetic, but if the case involves sex and the victim is a woman, she may be perceived as somehow deserving what she got.