Inspired by 1) Dan Cassino’s fantastic round-up of essential true-crime comics/graphic novels from yesterday; and 2) a recommendation from an Exhibit B. customer for a DB Cooper young-readers book, I’m wondering what media true crime isn’t traditionally associated with — but should be. Come the day the store opens to in-person customers, I won’t really have anything “for kids” — but when I think about when I started reading and caring about true crime, I was a kid! Leafing through my parents’ Bloodletters & Badmen, eating popsicles in front of Unsolved Mysteries…like, I wasn’t in pre-K, but I was a kid, and I wonder if adults assume kids can’t or shouldn’t handle this material, when in fact it’s a big part of learning about the world and how to manage its many (often evil) variables. (NB: I do not have my own kids and this is probably a key, wide plank in the “and that’s for the best” platform; AMA!)
I’ve also noticed that there’s not a lot of ancillary “product” in the space — at least, not that doesn’t feel disrespectful. Like, I couldn’t find a true-crime wall calendar when I went looking at the end of last year — but should there be one, one that’s not prurient or flip? Weegee photos, maybe, or non-lethal art heists?
And are there ways to fold museum-tour concepts — you know, where you get the headset and you walk through the, uh, exhibit — into true crime? A shop colleague of mine and I are noodling that while trying to stay on the right side of that line between “creative” and “creepy” information packaging…maybe the point is that medium doesn’t matter, as long as it’s thoughtful. Y’all are thoughtful, and I’d love to hear your takes. — SDB
A few years ago I did a gelocated audio tour of Austin, TX that was a co-pro with the app company Detour(which sadly no longer exists), and Radiolab. It was a walking tour of the city while telling the story of the Servant Girl Annihilator killings. I found it fascinating. It was such good storytelling, and I got some interesting views of the city I might not have otherwise seen. It was a very old case, and so it didn't have an ick to it that a more modern case might have. I'm also a lighting designer, so getting to learn about and see the moontowers was amazing. I'd love to do more of this kind of experience, but I do recognize the delicacy that it would need to be handled with. Heist ones seem like they'd be super fun.
Somewhere in my heaps of journals I have a list I made (for fun, not for a class) entitled "modes of text." It was five pages long, and had everything from fortune cookie fortunes to license plate holders (not to mention vanity plates) to epic poems. I really enjoy the idea of true crime popping up in an unexpected format, as long as it was opt-in and not, say, one of those advertising placards on the side of a bus.
This is an interesting subject. I am originally from Dallas, and lately there has been some discussion on whether or not to preserve some locations from the Bonnie & Clyde's history in a neighborhood that is rapidly changing. Would it be appropriate to make them historical landmarks of some kind? Stops on a self-guided tour of famous local crime locations? Or is that wildly offensive?
Has anyone produced true crime coloring books for kids? Staying away from the killers, but that leaves so many options! We could teach them about gambling on the Robin Hood app before they’re out of pre-K!
Ok, bear with me... pop up book - fir adults. I think the format would suit the mysteries and revelations of the genre, plus all the weird little digressions and odd trivia.
After Tower, I think more animation could be great, as it can replace hokey traditional documentary cliches (cf. SDB's Primetimer article).
I wonder if it's not a matter of just...not calling certain topics "true crime"? Like, a lot of true crime is also something else -- history; memoir; cultural anthropology -- and vice versa (op. cit. Watergate, Tammany Hall). I'm not proposing we, like, bring back Viewmaster photo cards about serial killers (although someone is going to steal that idea if they haven't already), but if it's non-lethal kidnappings of the 1930s or something? Because that's economic history, of a sort; kidnappings were rife during the Depression, as income generators, and while it wasn't un-traumatic, often victims weren't physically harmed, much less killed.
I'm no closer to knowing the answers here but it's a fascinating question. - SDB
Does anyone else remember the trime crime trading cards from back in the 90s-early aughts? I had a whole big set until one day I decided I was being a creep and got rid of them. True crime guilt is real!
Honestly, what I really want is novellas (which is one of the reasons I enjoy true crime comics so much). There are plenty of stories that are interesting, but 50-75 pages interesting, not 250 pages interesting. Length leads a lot of otherwise good true crime authors to do either (a) a whole bunch of tablesetting about the time and the place, or (b) give me a complete biographical breakdown of the criminals and cops involved, when, often, neither of these things is what I'm looking for. I just finished, for instance, "The Woman Who Stole Vermeer," which is 50 pages of art heists in the midst of 200 pages about the IRA. That one worked better than most because the IRA stuff is interesting (if not new to anyone who read "Say Nothing,") but I would have loved to get the 75 page version that was just the heists and the trial. Problem is that there isn't a market for those that I know of. So, once Sarah is done with her new calendar business, she needs to start the non-fiction equivalent of "Hard Case Crime."
If anyone is, like me, interested in preserving true crime sites and has 2 million bucks, the La Bianca house is for sale. . . . . .https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M26646-59630. It would make a lovely. . . .what? Museum? I just want to preserve the properties, I don't know what the hell to do with them afterward.
I would totally buy a wall calendar of crime broadsheets/penny dreadfuls. The woodcut style art and all.
A few years ago I did a gelocated audio tour of Austin, TX that was a co-pro with the app company Detour(which sadly no longer exists), and Radiolab. It was a walking tour of the city while telling the story of the Servant Girl Annihilator killings. I found it fascinating. It was such good storytelling, and I got some interesting views of the city I might not have otherwise seen. It was a very old case, and so it didn't have an ick to it that a more modern case might have. I'm also a lighting designer, so getting to learn about and see the moontowers was amazing. I'd love to do more of this kind of experience, but I do recognize the delicacy that it would need to be handled with. Heist ones seem like they'd be super fun.
Somewhere in my heaps of journals I have a list I made (for fun, not for a class) entitled "modes of text." It was five pages long, and had everything from fortune cookie fortunes to license plate holders (not to mention vanity plates) to epic poems. I really enjoy the idea of true crime popping up in an unexpected format, as long as it was opt-in and not, say, one of those advertising placards on the side of a bus.
This is an interesting subject. I am originally from Dallas, and lately there has been some discussion on whether or not to preserve some locations from the Bonnie & Clyde's history in a neighborhood that is rapidly changing. Would it be appropriate to make them historical landmarks of some kind? Stops on a self-guided tour of famous local crime locations? Or is that wildly offensive?
Has anyone produced true crime coloring books for kids? Staying away from the killers, but that leaves so many options! We could teach them about gambling on the Robin Hood app before they’re out of pre-K!
Sarah, I think a Weegee calendar would be amazing!!! I misread your question- baaad student...
Ok, bear with me... pop up book - fir adults. I think the format would suit the mysteries and revelations of the genre, plus all the weird little digressions and odd trivia.
After Tower, I think more animation could be great, as it can replace hokey traditional documentary cliches (cf. SDB's Primetimer article).
I wonder if it's not a matter of just...not calling certain topics "true crime"? Like, a lot of true crime is also something else -- history; memoir; cultural anthropology -- and vice versa (op. cit. Watergate, Tammany Hall). I'm not proposing we, like, bring back Viewmaster photo cards about serial killers (although someone is going to steal that idea if they haven't already), but if it's non-lethal kidnappings of the 1930s or something? Because that's economic history, of a sort; kidnappings were rife during the Depression, as income generators, and while it wasn't un-traumatic, often victims weren't physically harmed, much less killed.
I'm no closer to knowing the answers here but it's a fascinating question. - SDB
Does anyone else remember the trime crime trading cards from back in the 90s-early aughts? I had a whole big set until one day I decided I was being a creep and got rid of them. True crime guilt is real!
Honestly, what I really want is novellas (which is one of the reasons I enjoy true crime comics so much). There are plenty of stories that are interesting, but 50-75 pages interesting, not 250 pages interesting. Length leads a lot of otherwise good true crime authors to do either (a) a whole bunch of tablesetting about the time and the place, or (b) give me a complete biographical breakdown of the criminals and cops involved, when, often, neither of these things is what I'm looking for. I just finished, for instance, "The Woman Who Stole Vermeer," which is 50 pages of art heists in the midst of 200 pages about the IRA. That one worked better than most because the IRA stuff is interesting (if not new to anyone who read "Say Nothing,") but I would have loved to get the 75 page version that was just the heists and the trial. Problem is that there isn't a market for those that I know of. So, once Sarah is done with her new calendar business, she needs to start the non-fiction equivalent of "Hard Case Crime."
If anyone is, like me, interested in preserving true crime sites and has 2 million bucks, the La Bianca house is for sale. . . . . .https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M26646-59630. It would make a lovely. . . .what? Museum? I just want to preserve the properties, I don't know what the hell to do with them afterward.