Mass Murderers and the Movies

    The finding of more bodies in Belanglo Forest just south of Sydney got me thinking their has never been a movie made of Milat and his murder spree.The likes of Bundy,Gacy, Ed Gein,Charles Manson have all had movies made on there macabre exploits.Ed Gein,the 1950s farmer and serial killer would be hollywood's most popular murderer. He has inspired Texas Chainsaw Massacre,Physcho, and Silence of the Lambs.

Ivan Milat and Belanglo Forest News

   There has always been speculation that many more Milat victims are buried in Belanglo.Solicitor Leon Sokulsky, who represented Milat as a junior lawyer in the 80s, explains in his book Innocent Until Proven that he believes there could be hundreds of other victims buried in the forest.They include girls who went missing from the Belmont area, near Newcastle, in the early 80s.
The skull and other bones have been discovered on the weekend in the forest, south of Sydney, that Milat used as the dumping ground for the bodies of the seven backpackers.

  The Milat story may continue to get bigger in the weeks too come and Hollywood may yet become interested. I think of the victims families and how they feel seeing their loved ones murderer being catapulted to big screen fame but a story is a story I suppose, no matter how painful it is for some. We all have our pain and have to deal with it. Just some its hard to forget when it has to be relived in a movie.

Quotes

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.
 

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Kahlil Gibran

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.  Kenji Miyazawa

Unable are the loved to die.  For love is immortality.  ~Emily Dickinson

Flashback to the loved ones lost

    The first bodies found in the original investigation were of two British backpackers, Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters. They had been missing for five months after leaving Kings Cross to travel south together looking for work. While in Germany, Manfred and Anke Neugebauer listened anxiously to the news, wondering if first bodies found were those of their son Gabor and his girlfriend Anja who had disappeared without trace after leaving a Kings Cross backpacker's hostel just after Christmas Day, 1991.
   Herbert Schmidl, in his home in Regensburg, near Munich, listened also hoping that neither body was that of his only daughter Simone, who had been missing since leaving Sydney in 1991.
   Several hundred miles south of Belangalo, in Frankston Victoria, Pat Everist, wondered if it was her daughter Deborah and her friend, James Gibson that were laying dead in the forest. They had been missing since 1989.

Mass Murderers

 Ted Bundy

  Ted Bundy was active for five years between 1973 - 1978, during that period he twice escaped from county jails before his final apprehension in 1978. It took more than a decade of denials before Bundy confessed to some 30 alleged killings, although it is believed that he killed a total of 35; the span of his admitted killings was 1974 - 1978. His primary method of killing was to bludgeon his victims with a heavy object before strangling them to death. He was also a rapist and necrophile. Ted was executed for his final murder in Florida in 1989. Bundy's murders spread over a number of American states including Washington, Idaho, Utah and Colorado

Movie The Deliberate Stranger 

Mark Harmon played Ted Bundy

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. 

   He was a serial rapist and killer, convicted and executed for the rape and murder 33 boys and young men. Chillingly, he was in operation at the same time Ted Bundy, starting a year earlier in 1972 before his arrest in 1978. He is perhaps better known by his name 'The Killer Clown' because of his frequent block parties for children, where he would dress up as a clown complete with makeup; calling himself 'Pogo the Clown

To Catch a Killer

Brian Dennehy stars as John Wayne Gacy

Jeffrey Dahmer

  Dahmer was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. At the time of his arrest, few people imagined the polite man with blond hair, blue eyes and thick glasses was capable of killing, dismembering and cannibalizing 17 young men. But his murders remain among the most gruesome in American history. Most of his victims were poor Asian, African-American and Latino men from the Milwaukee area.

  Dahmer 2002, this movie tells the emotionally riveting story of a man who turned his darkest fantasies into a horrifying reality

Ed Gein 

Gein stayed to himself. No one knew that he spent hours obsessed with sexual fantasy and reading about the female anatomy. The human experiments performed in Nazi camps also fascinated him. His mind filled with images of sex and dismemberment and as the mental images merged into one,

 Police went to Gein's farmhouse in hopes of finding Bernice Worden. The shed was the first area searched.  Inside the shed was a woman's naked corpse hanging upside down, the body disemboweled, and the throat and head missing. It was the body of Bernice Worden.    Next came the search of Gein's house. The police officers waded through piles of garbage and an unfathomable amount of junk with only oil lamps to guide them. As the officers eyes adjusted, the junk began to take a recognizable form, one that was more horrific than anyone could have ever imagined. Everywhere they looked they saw various body parts, some used as household items such as skulls made into bowls, jewelry made from human skin, lips hanging, chair seats with human skin upholstery, facial skin that was well preserved and resembled masks, a box of vulva's among which was his mothers, painted silver.

    Bufffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs was a combination of three real life serial killers Ed Gein, who skinned his victims and Ted Bundy , who used the cast on his hand as bait to make women get into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement

 Charles Manson

Manson and his gang of four people most notoriously killed actress Sharon Tate in 1969. The Manson Family, which was mostly composed of naïve and troubled young women, was convicted of killing seven people in total. The charismatic leader dreamed of a racial revolution that would eventually result in the Manson Family ruling the world.

USA War against Drugs

Our behind the news look this week is the war going on against drugs.South America,Afghanistan,Mexico and the U.S border and how even celebrities like Paris Hilton are being brought down by the cocaine, the cartels supply.

    Drug Gang Massacre

    On August 26th 2010 work began under heavy security of the gruesome task , identifying the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants killed in Mexico's biggest drug-gang massacre only 100 miles from the U.S border. The bodies were found blindfolded and slumped against a wall at a remote ranch near San Fernando.

  A lone survivor, 18-year-old Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, staggered wounded to a marine checkpoint on a highway and told authorities about the slaughter

  His family said that Lala left his remote town in the Andes mountains two months ago in the hopes of reaching the U.S.

"I told him not to go but he went," one of his brothers, Luis Alfredo Lala told Ecuavisa television from Lala's home town.

  Lala's parents already live in the United States and send money home to the family, and Lala had been the primary caretaker for his eight siblings and his grandmother.

   In its most recent study, the National Human Rights Commission estimated nearly 20,000 migrants are kidnapped each year based on the number of reports it received between September 2008 and February 2009 — numbers the federal government has dismissed as unreliable.

In an April report, Amnesty International called the plight of tens of thousands of mainly Central American migrants crossing Mexico for the U.S. a major human rights crisis.

 Some Success

Successful arrest and gun seizure Mexico

August 1st 2010 there was some success for authorities.When  in Mexico City we saw the gunning down during a U.S military raid of Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villareal, a principal leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Coronel, had gotten his start in criminal activity working for Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was responsible for sending drugs from Central and South America to the U.S. market.

The U.S. State Department and the FBI were offering $5 million for information leading to Coronel's capture,

Although the Ignacio Coronel Villareal Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization is based in Mexico, the scope of its influence and operations penetrate throughout the United States, Mexico, and several other European, Central American and South American countries," according to the FBI, which lists Coronel among its most wanted. Coronel was indicted by a federal grand jury in Texas in 2003. That year, a U.S. federal arrest warrant was issued for Coronel charging him with conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute and conspiracy to import a controlled substance.

 La Barbie Charged

        Federal authorities have charged alleged drug cartel leader Edgar Valdez-Villarreal -- known as "La Barbie"  and five other defendants with trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Mexico into the United States between 2004 and 2006, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court Friday. Valdez-Villarreal, who remains at large, is alleged to be a top member of the Arturo Beltran-Leyva cocaine cartel.

Authorities have issued a $2 million reward for information leading to his capture. He is currently believed to be in Mexico, a Justice Department statement noted.

Colombian Drug Cartel




 Celebrities And Cocaine

Paris Hilton

US socialite Paris Hilton was arrested last night in Las Vegas for possession of cocaine. The hotel heiress was a passenger in a vehicle which was stopped by police outside Las Vegas' Wynn Hotel

It was stopped when officers saw what they thought was marijuana smoke coming from the car.The driver - a friend of Hilton's - was arrested for DUI pertaining to drugs, not alcohol.

  After further interaction between Hilton and authorities, it was discovered she was in possession of cocaine, police said.

Hilton was detained and released from the Clark County Detention Center at around 2:30am local time Saturday and was released on her own recognisance.

Lindsay Lohan

Lohans previous charge on possessing cocaine a couple of years ago.

After Lohan  failed a field sobriety test. During a prebooking search, police found cocaine in one of her pant pockets, according to Sgt. Shane Talbot, a spokesman for the Santa Monica police.

  The 21-year-old actress was booked on two misdemeanor charges of suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, driving on a suspended license, and on two felony charges of possession of cocaine and transport of a narcotic.

.
George Michael

It was the latest in a string of bizarre automotive and drug-related mishaps that have raised fears for Michael's safety.

He was charged after plowing his Range Rover into a branch of Snappy Snaps in Hampstead, north London, in the wee hours of July 4. The dent in the wall is still visible, and someone has added one word of graffiti: Wham.

 Afghanistans Poppy Fields

Guarding the Poppy Fields

Working in the Poppy Fields

  

President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan calls for continuing the destruction of poppy fields, although experts and his top envoy to the region have called the practice counterproductive.

The dilemma of Afghanistan's poppy production has long  been a thorn in the side of civilian and military strategists. The crop makes up 90% of the world's opium, which is used to make heroin, and a third of the nation's gross domestic product, according to the United Nations. Opium profits fuel the insurgency, but so does destroying the poppy crops of poor farmers.

    The military also began targeting opium traffickers, as opposed to growers. Former Afghanistan counternarcotics coordinator Thomas Schweich says that formula succeeded in driving down opium production by 6% last year, and the number of acres under cultivation dropped 19%.

Afghanistan and Vietnam

   Afghanistan is looking more and more like another Vietnam. A political war that no one wants a part of, except the U.S government and its faithful little puppy dogs including Australia.They have just substituted the threat of communism with the threat of terrorism.

Soldiers on the Streets

Gunfire Afghanistan

 The war in Afghanistan

 began on Oct. 7 2001. Two international military operations are taking place simultaneously. Operation Enduring Freedom is a U.S.-led combat operation involving a number of coalition partners, whilst the second operation is the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which was created by the UN Security Council at the end of 2001.

    The main reason cited for the invasion in 2001 was in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York. The aim was to find Osama bin Laden and put him on trial along with other Al-Qaeda members. Another aim was to end Al-Qaeda as an entity and remove the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which harboured the terrorist organisation and supported them.

Osama Bin Laden Still At Bay

Latest News

    NATO warplanes bombarded strongholds near the Afghan capital, killing two dozen rebels, the alliance said Thursday, as a foreign soldier lost his life in violence elsewhere in the country. The soldier, whose nationality was not revealed, died in a Taliban-style improvised bomb attack on Wednesday,

Seventeen American troops have been killed so far this month. July was the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly nine-year war, with 66 killed.   The death brings to 437 the number of international troops who have died in the Afghan war so far this year.There are 141,000 international troops in Afghanistan fighting under the command of

US General David Petreaus.

  The troops are concentrated in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

It's a critical time for both Afghanistan and the United States.

  The latest increase in troops ordered by President Obama,USA now has nearly 100,000 U.S troops in Afghanistan - even as public opinion at home shows growing skepticism about the war. With more than 1,200 U.S. deaths over the past nine years, Americans are asking - what are we doing in Afghanistan? Another challenge for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is government corruption. Kandahar  is one of the major poppy growing provinces in a country that produces 90 percent of the heroin in the world. President Obama has insisted that, if conditions on the ground permit, America will begin the process of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011.

No Glory

A poem by Wendy Darling

 Tonight I lie upon my bed

Many things ran through my head

Things I had done and now regret

Things I wish I could forget

One time that always gives me pain

I wish that I could do again

We are all included to a man

When we voted yea to Vietnam

The politicians convinced us all

Our boys must fight or we would fall

We all believed the communist scam

Australia next after Vietnam

Loved ones waved their sons good-bye

Knowing some would live and others die

Ideas changed and it was'nt long

When we decided this war was wrong

We did not cheer them home again

But greeted thenm with blame and shame

Backs were turned at the R.S.L

Those boys from Nam could go to hell

Over thirty years have come and gone

But I can't forget what we have done

When on their backs the blame was laid

For a war the politicians made

Tonight I heard a tragic story

Of a boy from Nam who received no glory

Recurring dreams he could not stand

He died today by his own hand

Vietnam

Vietnam War

  In the 1950's the United States began to send troops to Vietnam. During the following 25-years the ensuing war would create some of the strongest tensions in US history. Almost 3 million US men and women were sent thousands of miles to fight for what was a questionable cause. 

   In total, it is estimated that over 2,5 million people on both sides were killed.

     Initially, the United States had little interest in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, however as it became clear that the Soviet Union and communism were a threat.The isolating of communist movements took an increased importance. These concerns were ultimately formed into the doctrine of containment and domino theory. 
    First spelled out 1947, containment identified that the goal of Communism was to spread to capitalist states and that the only way to stop it was to “contain” it within its present borders. Springing from containment was the concept of domino theory which stated that if one state in a region were to fall to Communism, then the surrounding states would inevitably fall as well. These concepts were to dominate and guide US foreign policy for much of the Cold War.

    In 1950, to combat the spread of Communism, the United States began supplying the French military in Vietnam with advisors and funding its efforts against the “red” Viet Minh. 

 Australia in Vietnam

      The Vietnam War was the longest major conflict in which Australians have been involved; it lasted ten years, from 1962 to 1972, and involved some 60,000 personnel. A limited initial commitment of just 30 military advisers grew to include a battalion in 1965 and finally, in 1966, a task force. Each of the three services was involved, but the dominant role was played by the Army.

   
   In the early years Australia’s participation in the war was not widely opposed. But as the commitment grew, as conscripts began to make up a large percentage of those being deployed and killed, and as the public increasingly came to believe that the war was being lost, opposition grew until, in the early 1970s, more than 200,000 people marched in the streets of Australia’s major cities in protest.
  

Mexico in the News

                              Mexico is it Safe

Mexico — White beaches, colonial cities, Mayan pyramids, world-class cuisine — these are some of the obvious draws that bring 22 million foreigners to Mexico each year

 "Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year," said a State Department warning dated July 16 . It notes that roughly a million Americans live in Mexico , and that resort and tourist destinations don't see the violence of border areas or drug trafficking corridors.

  However, it adds that more than 22,700 people have been killed in drug-related violence since late 2006, and that gunfights are a feature of streets in a number of cities. Drug traffickers have "kidnapped guests out of reputable hotels" in the bustling city of Monterrey , it adds, and         drug-related murders climbed 

tenfold in Durango in recent years.

   On July 2nd 2010 a massive shootout between rival drug and people-smuggling gangs left 21 people dead just 12 miles south of the border with Arizona. The clash erupted in a remote area along a prime smuggling corridor in Sonora state.

Mexicans Dying in Desert 

Hotel California on the Arizona and Mexico border is where Mexican citizens congregate waiting to enter the US weather legally or illegally.

  The Arizona morgue

in Pima County is overflowing with bodies that will probably never be identified. The bodies of 57 suspected illegal immigrants found dead in the desert have been brought in so far this month, the highest number in 5 years. "We keep hoping we have seen the worst of this, of these migration deaths,"said  the county medical examiner . "Yet we still see a lot of remains.” The morgue handles bodies from Tucson and the surrounding deserts.

   A record-breaking heatwave may account for many of the desert deaths, but human rights advocates say tougher immigration enforcement is also to blame, as it pushes migrants trying to enter the US into more desolate areas where they need to walk for days to find a road.

  National Guard troops are headed to the Mexican border next month to beef up security along the border fence. As part of President Obama's new border plan, the 1,200 troops will spend a year in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, where they'll help border patrol agents monitor and prevent illegal border crossings.

    

Gulf of Mexico Oil  Latest 

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has become the largest accidental release of oil into water in history, according to figures from the federal government. Federal scientific teams estimated Monday that the ruptured BP well has spewed about 4.9 million barrels -- or 205.8 million gallons -- of oil. About 800,000 barrels, or 3.3 million gallons, of that were collected by vessels hired by BP to recover the oil.