What is a 'murder book'

[Lucas_Jackson]

We were watching a crime show last night and in it they made reference to, and showed, a murder book. It was a folder about an inch thick.

This wasn’t the first show we’ve seen referring to this. But what exactly is a murder book? Wikipedia says:

A murder book is a comprehensive case file kept by law enforcement detectives for a specific homicide investigation. It serves as the master record of the crime, housing the entire paper trail from the initial dispatch and crime scene evidence to the eventual arrest of a suspect.

But no mention of the size except for “housing the entire paper trail”, which makes me think it would not fit in a 1" binder.

So, is ‘murder book’ just the name for the boxes of files about an investigation or is there really a CliffsNotes version condensed down into a folder.

And if so, what’s its purpose?

[Keith1]

I’d suggest Wikipedia pretty much summed it up. It’s documents relating to a case. One would suppose that a crime that took 2 days to investigate & make an arrest would have a ‘book’ that takes up considerably less space than a crime that took several years to solve.
It’s purpose is self evident; someone can refer to the documents for information with regards to the case. Files could be paper, electronic, photos . . .

[Lucas_Jackson]

The reason I’ve asked is, every time it’s represented in the movies or TV show (that I’ve seen anyway) it’s always represented as a small folder. Crimes in those shows are not solved in two days.

I would assume that a DA would need access to more than a Reader’s Digest version of the case files.

Are case files and a murder book the same thing or different things?

[Velocity]

I have no background in law enforcement but I would guess that the vast majority of murders are actually pretty simple matters that don’t involve much complexity at all - where the circumstances and killer are obvious. Even 1 inch thick is still already quite a few pages.

[solost]

@Lucas_Jackson

Are case files and a murder book the same thing or different things?

Your Wiki quote says it’s the same thing:

@Lucas_Jackson

A murder book is a comprehensive case file

@Velocity

I have no background in law enforcement but I would guess that the vast majority of murders are actually pretty simple cut-and-dried matters that don’t involve much complexity at all. Even 1 inch thick is still already quite a few pages.

I would guess that the concept of a ‘murder book’ as a thick binder with many pages is more in the realm of fiction-- the cold case that the detective couldn’t solve and still keeps them up at night, constantly adding to the book until they finally break the case.

[DPRK]

I pulled a random Bosch novel, and the murder book was described as a “thick blue plastic binder with three inches of documents inside” on a cold case that Bosch’s mentor had been obsessed with for twenty years…

[LSLGuy]

How big is a “patient medical file”? As big as it needs to be.

Which means that back in the pure paper era it was as many manila folders w metal prongs as needed. A 5" record set had 5 manila folders, a 1" record set had one, and a 12" set had 12. And only the most recent was pulled out and handled routinely. The others sat on a shelf in the back room and were only referred to when needed.

My take is cop shows show a notional idea of the latest freshest part of a complete murder book. Whether that folder is #1 of 1 or #12 of 12 so far is immaterial to the progress of the show. The working detectives are adding only to the latest one and if it ever gets to arrest & prosecution, the whole stack of separate folder(s) is given to the DA.

Nowadays it’s a disk folder on a document server.

[Moriarty]

@Lucas_Jackson

So, is ‘murder book’ just the name for the boxes of files about an investigation or is there really a CliffsNotes version condensed down into a folder.

My exposure to criminal cases is via criminal defense work, where I get access to the evidence in the case (called “discovery”).

It’s never been condensed down into any sort of book or folder. Anytime I’ve reviewed discovery it’s a collection of police reports and maybe pictures or recordings. I’ve never heard the term “murder book” used. The only thing added when there is a death is some sort of coroner’s report describing the condition of the body and the cause of death.

@LSLGuy

in the pure paper era it was as many manila folders w metal prongs as needed.

We used to have a file room in my old firm. The biggest cases were housed in banker’s boxes.

@LSLGuy

Nowadays it’s a disk folder on a document server.

Yeah, nowadays we get a link to download the evidence (sometimes from www.evidence.com - seriously). My assistant puts it on Dropbox, which makes it very convenient to review on my phone, or to send to the client.

[Lucas_Jackson]

@LSLGuy

My take is cop shows show a notional idea of the latest freshest part of a complete murder book.

Yeah, I get that. I’m not calling out cop shows as being inaccurate. Not knowing anything about it, I’m used to seeing (for instance) a rookie cop getting stuck with solving an old case and being led to a room that had boxes and boxes (like in Moriarty’s post) of case info - it’s almost a trope. Maybe that’s the thing that’s not common, and thin murder books are the norm. ::shrug::

Thus my question. I did find this:
“Murder books are used internally by police and prosecutors to build the case, map timelines, and track the investigation. It is not handed over in its entirety as discovery because it contains police tactics, unvetted leads, and sensitive internal strategies”

[Elmer_J.Fudd]

I don’t think the murder book contains the evidence (like the files or banker’s box); it just references it. It details what leads and suspects were investigated. It is essentially the first draft for a podcast ten years in the future.

[Loach]

@Moriarty

@Lucas_Jackson

So, is ‘murder book’ just the name for the boxes of files about an investigation or is there really a CliffsNotes version condensed down into a folder.

My exposure to criminal cases is via criminal defense work, where I get access to the evidence in the case (called “discovery”).

It’s never been condensed down into any sort of book or folder. Anytime I’ve reviewed discovery it’s a collection of police reports and maybe pictures or recordings. I’ve never heard the term “murder book” used. The only thing added when there is a death is some sort of coroner’s report describing the condition of the body and the cause of death.

@LSLGuy

in the pure paper era it was as many manila folders w metal prongs as needed.

We used to have a file room in my old firm. The biggest cases were housed in banker’s boxes.

https://i.ibb.co/xtwsVyTN/IMG-2245.jpg

@LSLGuy

Nowadays it’s a disk folder on a document server.

Yeah, nowadays we get a link to download the evidence (sometimes from www.evidence.com - seriously). My assistant puts it on Dropbox, which makes it very convenient to review on my phone, or to send to the client.

All of this is my experience. My time as a detective was in SVU so I had more experience with sexual assault and juvenile cases but I was part of several murder investigations. There was never a murder book. This thread is the first time I’ve heard the term. What we had was an initial report most likely written by the first responding officer. Then every new part of the investigation is attached as a supplemental report. Sometimes there are dozens of attachments for a complex case. Condensing that into a murder book seems redundant, a lot of extra work and a chance to make mistakes. I guess it could be a lawyer thing at the prosecutor level when prepping for a trial but I don’t see the point from a police point of view.

We also used evidence dotcom. It’s the Axon website. We didn’t use it for reports but it does have all of the bodycam, dashcam and other video/electronic evidence.

[DPRK]

If no one has heard of it, it is quite possible that Michael Connelly made it up. The Black Echo came out in 1992, and there does not seem to have been much mention of such a thing as a “murder book” before then.

Two hours of typing and smoking and drinking bad coffee later, a bluish cloud hung near the ceiling lights over the homicide table and Bosch had completed the myriad forms that accompany a homicide investigation. He got up and made copies on the Xerox in the back hall… Then he got a new blue binder out of the office supplies closet… and hooked one set of the typed reports onto the three rings… When he was done, he reread his work. He liked the order the paperwork gave the case. On many previous cases he had made it a practice to reread the murder book each morning. It helped him draw out theories. The smell of the binder’s new plastic reminded him of other cases and invigorated him.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

@DPRK

If no one has heard of it, it is quite possible that Michael Connelly made it up.

I’ve read all the Bosch books. I thought it sounded like a real thing. It sounds like a good idea. Unless someone loses/steals/alters it, that is. (heck he even had a novel where someone altered the records in the closed secure storage room, that’s monitored by cameras to prevent such a thing, so who knows?)

But Law and Order mentions no such book.

[DPRK]

I looked up “murder book” on Google, and there seem to be not many (relevant) pre-Connelly mentions, is what I mean. Obviously file folders and banker’s boxes have always been around, but not the name “murder book”.

[Lucas_Jackson]

According to https://nationalcaseclosed.org/ it was in the early 1980s that the modern law enforcement meaning was born. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) invented and formally named their standardized homicide case binders “murder books”.

Murder Book - A Profile of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Homicide Case Management Framework

In the early 1980s, the LAPD developed a homicide investigation case file structure, entitled the Murder Book, to bring organization and standardization to homicide case files. The uniform structure of the Murder Book allows anyone involved in a homicide investigation, including detectives, supervisors, and prosecutors, to review and locate key investigative reports, photos, and other materials in a standardized manner. Retired Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Homicide Detective John Skaggs discusses each component of the LAPD Murder Book case management framework. The webinar is intended for police departments that do not have a standardized case file structure for their homicide investigations or those that are seeking to improve an existing case file structure.