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So nutty they named it twice
Links:
http://www.weirdnj.com
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Source
Links:
http://www.weirdnj.com
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String of uncommon crimes draws nation's eyes to Syracuse
By WILLIAM KATES
Associated Press Writer
July 9, 2004, 8:19 PM EDT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- An old man hunts down young girls and women and keeps them as sex slaves in a secret underground bunker in his backyard. A father is convicted of raping his daughter, who later is found hanging dead from her bedpost by a dog leash.
A man kills his girlfriend and keeps her dead body in a rented storage shed for 14 years. A 5-year-old girl abducted off a city street while walking to a friend's house is later miraculously saved when a passer-by hears her muffled cries from underneath a tarp at an abandoned warehouse.
These aren't the story lines for this year's wave of Hollywood crime movies. It's a rundown of the sensational crimes discovered over the past several months in this usually peaceful upstate New York city.
And if that weren't enough, now the city may have a possible serial killer.
"Unusual crimes happen all the time in different places, but usually it's always some place else. I guess it's just our turn," said Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh, who could probably use an agent after his many recent appearances on national television about Syracuse's string of headline-grabbing crimes.
The recent rash of bizarre crimes began in April 2003 with the arrest of 68-year-old John Jamelske, a retired handyman who admitted keeping five women as sex slaves between 1988 and 2003 in a concrete bunker he built under the backyard of his suburban Syracuse home. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 53 and were held captive anywhere from two months to three years. Jamelske is serving 18 years in prison.
Jamelske's story was told to national audiences on "America's Most Wanted," "Dateline," "Good Morning America," and CNN.
In May _ even though Jamelske had been in prison for nearly 10 months _ his sordid saga was revisited by "Oprah."
Authorities were kept busy in the months that followed:
_In October, 2003, Timothy Lucie, a self-employed furniture salesman, was charged with raping his 11-year-old daughter, Valerie. After the sexual attack, the girl was found hanging in her bedroom in what police and prosecutors say was a suicide. Lucie was convicted in June and is serving 50 years in prison.
_In April, George Geddes was charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of his former girlfriend, Margaret Reome, who disappeared in February 1990. Geddes was charged after FBI agents and deputies found the woman's rotting body stuffed inside a container at a rental storage facility. Geddes, a twice-convicted thief, had rented the storage area since 1993 but violated his probation by failing to tell authorities about it.
_Also in April, A 5-year-old girl was kidnapped near her Syracuse home. A passer-by looking to buy industrial property found the girl 24 hours later, bound in duct tape and crying underneath a tarp at an abandoned warehouse outside the city. Her abductor remains at large even though the case was featured on "America's Most Wanted."
_In June, Nicholas Wiley, a convicted sex offender who was released from state prison in January, was charged with murdering two Syracuse women. Wiley told detectives there were more victims but police have not found any others, although they are investigating the disappearance of 18-year-old Tammy Passineau after Wiley mentioned her by her first name.
Senior Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio downplayed the run of high-profile cases.
"Believe me, there are other cases just as bizarre that no one ever hears about because the media doesn't focus on them," said Trunfio.
"Syracuse is a pretty safe place, so when something happens here, something out of the ordinary, it's more likely to alarm and upset the public. People here haven't been hardened. They haven't become lackadaisical about crime. When something strange happens here, it gets everyone's attention," said Trunfio.
According to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, the rate of both overall crime dropped by 6.5 percent and violent crime fell 9 percent in Syracuse in 2003 from the previous year. Although numbers aren't available for 2004, Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Tom Connellan said the trend has continued. The rate of decline was greater than the statewide drop of 3.5 percent for overall crime and 5.6 percent for violent crime.
"It is a random occurrence. There is no pattern. There is no explanation for these types of crimes," said William Pooler, an associate sociology professor at Syracuse University and the spouse of a federal appeals judge.
What's on the increase is the number of reality shows and series on television and cable that are devoted to crime, cops and courts, said Pooler, offering an off-the-cuff theory.
Pooler doesn't have any empirical evidence, only anecdotal, but he wondered if some criminals commit atrocities just to see if they can get their crimes dramatized on television. Jamelske's case was dramatized on episodes of "CSI," and "NYPD Blue."
"People want to be thrilled and titillated, and crime stories do both. And usually, if it's a strange or bizarre crime, the media latches on to it and keeps it going. Look at the Jamelske case. The guy's been in prison for months, but his story just keeps going and going," Pooler said.
Trunfio flat out rejected the idea.
"They're not thinking, `If I make this sensational, I'll get it on TV.' I doubt if many of them even watch programs like `Law and Order.' They always have other reasons for committing their crimes. Most are just evil," Trunfio said.
"Jamelske didn't even think what he was doing was a crime. He thought it was normal," he said.
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