The programs I’m talking about are things like Forensic Science, Medical Detectives, Real Detectives, and - I don’t know what to call these types of programs - but shows displaying actual cases that have been solved, displaying actual tape and photographs of clues, weapons, crime scenes, crime scene inspections and the materials used to find clues.
Programs like those with real retired car thieves showing how to break into cars, disable alarms, get through the Club, show what levers in steering columns start the car, how to use screwdrivers or vice grips to snap the locking pins in ignitions.
Programs detailing serial killers, how they got caught, how the detectives found them, what mistakes they made and what profiles are used. Like White serial killers select a race and tend to stick with it while Black serial killers tend to cross the racial lines. This knowledge can be used by budding serial killers to confuse the law by using different techniques, learning by the mistakes of those who got caught and learning how not to leave clues laying about.
Dahlmer got careless and kept the bodies about in stinking drums of acid. Another one kept killing in his car and leaving very distinct fibers on the corpse, while another kept wearing the same shoes with distinctive tread patterns and one guy had 3 different types of tires on his car and insisted on dumping the bodies off of dirt roads, near his car.
A lot of killers were caught because they held onto evidence, like spools of duct tape, cord, blood stained clothing, and allowed bodies to bleed out into trunks where no amount of cleaning could get up the traces. All of these mistakes were detailed. Even how blood soaks into car seats and can be cleaned up off of the surface materials, but soaks into the padding and stitches used on the seams.
One show explained exactly how to remove the serial numbers on a gun so they could not be raised at all and showed how simple filing or grinding them off allows them to actually be raised with an acid. Another show not only showed how a killer shot a guy with a shotgun, which he later cleaned and kept, knowing that buckshot and no rifling in the gun barrel made it nearly impossible to trace, but he kept the leftover shells, which could be traced back to the shop they were bought at, and matched with the charge fired into the dead guy. They also showed how different types of bullets could be traced back to the manufacturer and then to gun shops because of trace elements bullet makers add to their gunpowder to identify their brand.
I never knew that before.
I never knew how letter bombs could be made until they had a detective show detailing how a bomber was caught and showed how he made the simple ignition contacts out of tinfoil. On another show, dealing with pipe bombs, they showed how they traced the bomber through the serial numbers in the end caps of the pipe he used, showing that each piece was bought at the same store. I never knew metal piping was registered. In the same show they showed how he built the bomb and made the detonation trigger from cardboard, batteries, tape and tinfoil as well as how he layered the bomb with nails and tape for shrapnel.
They even mentioned places where one could buy the black powder to make the bomb, and then pointed out that all black powder is traceable back to the maker and then to stores which carry it.
Over thirty years of TV, programs have gone from hiding key details to displaying everything and I have noticed a whole lot more copycat crimes showing up after something spectacular happens. When the first school shooting happened, I knew that there would be another and sure enough, it came about.
See, my feeling is that there are enough idiots and psychopaths out there that they will look at something on the news or on these programs and say ‘cool, that looks like fun’ and go out and do the stuff. Especially kids. Now, not only are programs showing how crimes were committed, but the mistakes the criminal made to get caught and what methods used to detect evidence. In short, if you wish to commit a perfect crime, watch TV and learn by the mistakes of others.
You want to be a serial killer? Keep changing your races, methods, and dispose of your clothing, wear gloves, don’t slaughter them in your car, don’t keep rolls of materials used in the murders, don’t handle plastic bags with bare hands and don’t keep the roll of bags either because they can match tear off lines. To dispose of trace DNA you’ll leave behind in a murder rape, burn the body. Don’t leave their clothing laying about, change your shoes, don’t leave cigarette butts, and frequently change the type of rope you use and don’t keep it laying about your house.
If you shoot someone, buy the shells out of town and don’t keep the extras laying about, buy a cheap gun from a gun show at the end of the day from a private owner willing to give you a bill of sale without your name on it or no bill of sale at all and not require you to fill out papers. Then remove the serial numbers in the way shown to prevent the gun from ever being traced and check it for additional numbers.
You see what I mean? These programs are teaching devices for criminals to be. How Not To Get Caught, 101.
They showed the entrapment cars for car thieves, and anyone smart enough would know to roll the window down before starting the car to provide an escape rout if the car turns out to be rigged. If the windows do not go down, then abandon the car, fast. If power windows, hold the door open, start the car and roll the windows down then.
I find these programs fascinating and impressive, but after a time, I realized that they had taught me a whole bunch of ways to not get caught doing crimes and how to steal cars, get through sliding glass doors and what signs cops usually see on a car that indicate it quite possibly will be stolen.
I’m just asking your opinions how you feel about this and what you think should be done. We all have read stories about kids learning how to make pipe bombs off of the TV, going out and making some just to see if it could be done and getting almost blown up when they screwed up.
I even know how to make a pipe bomb out of wooden matches! Where to buy assorted fuse by the yard, and how to use a cigarette as a time delay ignition source.
So, all opinions are welcome because I’m in the process of writing an article about this and realized that I would like the opinions of others to round things out.
Thanks.