What I Learned from the Murder Channel 1

True crime is having a moment.  One could think of the assortment of true crime books, TV shows and podcasts as trash entertainment, and many do. But I think they can be viewed as educational. And, even though I make light of the topic, I am not kidding. (I am not going to discuss the comfort watching crimes getting solved can offer to those who suffered the consequences of criminal acts that have not be solved. That is far too serious a topic.)

For me, my affection for true crime stories started with books by Ann Rule, expanded into Discovery/Investigative ID television and landed in the world of true crime podcasts. Once I started writing crime novels, I viewed them as professional reading and viewing. Yes, consuming all the true crime media is one way to do research, but for me it also confirms that what I am writing is, sadly, not outlandish. People harbor secrets, put on facades and do horrible things. Which brings me to the educational aspect of true crime and thoughts of things I would have done differently after consuming all this media.

Back in the 1970s, I stopped to see a friend in Denver on a cross-country drive. I went along with her to a meeting of recently divorced men and women and accepted a date with one of the few male members who it later turned out had never been married. Unlike me, he had not accompanied a friend. Today, any viewer of what I like to call the Murder Channel would have seen that as a Red Flag. I wasn't worried. My friend didn't know the guy but others in the group did. It seemed like a safe decision. Not so safe that my friend didn't feel the need to get his fingerprints on something when he came to pick me up. We thought that was funny. 

I'd never been in a car with a gun rack in the back but I don't recall there being any rifles in it. I'm not sure I would have worried if there had been. I was an East Coast girl discovering life Out West.

We were in suburban Denver so going to a bar in a Holiday Inn that featured entertainment didn't seem that unusual.  The date actually went pretty well for a while. Until, as the cliche goes, it didn't. I don't think I had to ask to be taken home. He was happy to get rid of me.

I only remember one moment of the ride back to my friend's house. We stopped for a red light. It was the 1970s. There was nothing around. He pointed to a police car monitoring the intersection and said, "This is your last chance. You can jump out of the car and run over to get help you or," he changed the direction of his finger and pointed into blackness, "I'm going to drive you that road and murder you."

My response? "No, you're not." I stayed put.

Spoiler alert: he did not kill me. 

But, he could have. I know that now. Thanks to the murder shows.

A Little Background on Swoon '64

The Writing in Time Mysteries feature modern-day amateur detective Tracy Shaw looking into unsolved crimes from the past. I started the Writing in Time Mysteries because of a desire to record the times I grew up in. I might have called them Writing in My Time Mysteries. Maybe I should have. I wanted to set them in the city I grew up in and to tell the story against the backdrop of events—good or bad—that are part of Philadelphia’s social history. Picking the first topic wasn’t hard. Few events united the city like the saga of the 1964 Phillies.

I hoped to create a parallel between the story and the event. If the Phillies had a swoon, the characters needed to experience a swoon as well. Swoon ’64 is not a baseball novel but the action takes place during the fall of 1964, the end of the baseball season, the time of a record-breaking September swoon of the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Why swoon and not slump? From what I can gather, sports teams recover from a slump. But a swoon is terminal. The tournament, the competition, the season is coming to an end and there is no time for recovery. Such was the situation for the 1964 Phillies. Thus, it had to be the same for the characters.

No need for details but at the end of the season with twelve games to play, the Phillies needed one win to clinch the National League Pennant. (There were no playoffs back then.) They lost ten in a row and tied for second place.

Why did I pick this background event? 

I grew up in a family that loved baseball in a city that loved the Phillies.  Or, maybe Philadelphians loved to hate them. I don’t really know. I was too young to understand the intricacies of the relationship between a city and its team that, for several years in the late 1950s, had a lock on the basement spot in the National League. And, not only did they clinch last place for four years in a row, they did so in a spectacular fashion. In 1961 their record was 47-107-1 and, yes, that is the right order. Win-Loss-Tie.

The memory of the excitement of 1950’s Whiz Kids’ first-place finish was just that, a memory. The hope of revenge for their 4-0 World Series loss to the New York Yankees was fading.

So, I imagine that expectations started to rise when in 1962, after four straight years of finishing 8^th in an eight-team league, they climbed into seventh position—in the expanded ten-team league. Their win percentage climbed over 500. Okay, it was 503 but for the first time since 1953, the team posted more results in the win column than in the loss column. I can’t imagine that hope wasn’t high when in 1963, they finished the year in fourth place. For two years in a row their win percentage was over 500 and trending in the right direction.

And then came 1964. A year when it all went wrong. After a season of high hopes, sadness fell over the city. In Swoon ’64, the heartbreak of losing a pennant pales in comparison to the pain felt by the four local families affected by the murder of a twelve-year-old boy on the night of Game 10. The arc is the same for the characters and the Phillies. Swoon ’64 is a murder mystery. 

I like to write traditional mysteries with a puzzle to solve. The answer in this novel is found in the characters who have made critical mistakes, not on the ball-field but in life, and found themselves in a swoon.

Who might like to read Swoon '64? Fans of traditional mysteries anywhere. Philadelphians who like to read books set in their city. Folks from all over who might like to read about the town. Readers interested in life in the mid-1960s. People who like characters who add a little humor to a story. A narrator can entertain without ever forgetting the underlying tragedy. 

Who won't want to read Swoon '64? Anyone looking for blood and guts and violence.

If you think you’d like to read Swoon ’64, it is available on Amazon both in paperback and ebook format. Here is a shortcut: www.tinyurl.com/Swoon64

 

You Just Never Know

I don’t have an Oscar story but I do have a Dolby (then Kodak) theater story. 

I needed some fake Oscars for a party at SLA in 2002 or so.  Still in my business clothes from the conference, I  hopped on the subway to Hollywood and Highland, loaded up on fake statuettes and found I couldn’t get back to the subway. The sidewalk was blocked for an AFI Tribute to Tom Hanks. 

I knew I could cut through the theater lobby. So, looking as if I knew where I was going and had every right to go there, I walked along the side of the red carpet. The crowds awaiting stars' arrival had their backs to me. No one noticed me except a lovely young guy with a headset and a clip board. Instead of being displeased when I told him I was headed for the subway, he was thrilled and offered to escort me. 

I looked really important as he walked me through the theater.  He did that not because I was "someone" but because I rode the subway. He rode the subway too!

You just never know what will impress someone.