Laura James's Profile | Typepad

This is Laura James's Typepad Profile.

Join Typepad and start following Laura James's activity

Join Now!

Already a member? Sign In

Laura James

Detroit, Michigan

Newspaper reporter turned trial lawyer and historical true crime devotee.

Interests: history, journalism, true crime

Recent Activity

I have solved a 175-year-old murder mystery - Praslin!

Le mystère de Praslin est résolu. Après des années d'études aboutissant à un coup de génie, j'ai découvert le véritable mobile des crimes impliquant Théobald de Choiseul-Praslin, duc de Praslin et Fanny Sebastiani-Praslin, duchesse de Praslin. Cette nouvelle théorie du... Continue reading

Posted Feb 10, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Legends of True Crime Reporting: Bernard O'Donnell

Bernard O'Donnell was a true crime essay writer whose work appeared in magazines and newspapers around the world in the middle of the 20th century. I recognized his name when I found this tattered old 1950s paperback collection of his... Continue reading

Posted Jan 27, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

When, where, and why women kill: The Stats

"In revenge and in love woman is far more barbarous than man." - Nietzsche It is interesting to pull back from the study of individual cases to look at the broad patterns of crime and put the individuals in context.... Continue reading

Posted Jan 24, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Review - My Brother the Killer

My brother the killer: a family story by Alix Sharkey [Amazon GoodReads B&N HarperCollins] is an absorbing and well-written memoir by a journalist who staggered from the blow of having his younger brother arrested for a shocking murder. The disappearance... Continue reading

Posted Jan 20, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Review - A Killer by Design - Another Profiler's Story

Here is another solid entry in the bourgeoning genre of FBI profiler memoirs. A killer by design: murderers, mindhunters, and my quest to decipher the criminal mind (Hachette 2021) is by Ann Wolbert Burgess. In an informal, at-the-next-barstool tone, she... Continue reading

Posted Jan 19, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

An Insulting Read: The strange new book 'Murder at Teal's Pond'

If there were a literary award for genre outliers, I might nominate Murder at Teal's Pond [Amazon Goodreads B&N] for the Barely True Crime Award because it manages to flout so many genre conventions in one short book. The premise... Continue reading

Posted Jan 18, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Review - Crimes of Passion by Howard Engel - Art Requires Blood!

Howard Engel, an award-winning mystery writer, studied true crime stories for years. Eventually his notebook reached a critical mass, resulting in this interesting book of curated true crime stories. The book is Crimes of passion: an unblinking look at murderous... Continue reading

Posted Jan 6, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Review - Murdered by His Wife (Bathsheba Spooner)

Murdered by his wife: An absorbing tale of crime and punishment in 18th-Century Massachusetts by Deborah Navas (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999) tells the story of black widow Bathsheba Spooner. It is one of my all-time favorite case studies and... Continue reading

Posted Jan 5, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Review - Advocates of Murder

Advocates of Murder by Charles Boswell and Lewis Thompson (New York: Collier Books, 1962) is derivative; the authors did not cite their sources and added fictional flourishes, and their essay on a case I know well is full of mistakes.... Continue reading

Posted Jan 4, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

"True Crime" - Some notes on the definition of the term

There seems to be a lot of confusion among authors, publishers, and audiences these days about what, exactly, is "true crime." So let's revisit the basic definition of "true crime." What is the "true crime genre" exactly? There is a... Continue reading

Posted Jan 3, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Review - Bizarre Beauties by Brad Steiger

“True Crime on Random” is what I call my favorite section of John King Books, a famous used book store – warehouse is more like it – the pride of Detroit. That’s where I found this old gem with its... Continue reading

Posted Jan 2, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Review - The Last Stone by Mark Bowden

The Last Stone by Mark Bowden is a recommended study of a cold-case interrogation that took more than a year and solved the mystery. This title was my introduction to author Mark Bowden. (I'm behind on my research.) I was... Continue reading

Posted Jan 1, 2022 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Book Review: Berlin Criminal Court History.... or, For the Gold Medal in the Femme Fatale Competition, Germany Presents...

Death in the Tiergarten: Murder and Criminal Justice in the Kaiser's Berlin (Harvard Univ. Press 2004; WorldCat) is a really nice history of the courts of Berlin, Germany's capital since 1871. It stands out in the genre of court histories... Continue reading

Posted Dec 17, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Honest Abe for the Femme Fatale

Some of the finest trial lawyers known to world history appeared in the defense of a murderess. Some were made famous by doing so. Others were already famous when they represented a femme fatale only to become forever famous (Hypereides,... Continue reading

Posted Dec 11, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Which Ann Rule book was set in Buffalo? A little literary mystery

In our recent interview with Harold Schechter on the true crime genre, a book by Ann Rule came up in the conversation. The book was about a case in Buffalo. I can't remember anything else about the story, and Google... Continue reading

Posted Nov 11, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

A true crime quarantine book list to like

I liked the recommendations of this young true crime fan who put together a fantastic true crime reading list.... while simultaneously amusing me with the idea that the popularity of true crime is a new phenomenon. Ha! "Since the mid-2010’s,... Continue reading

Posted Nov 9, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Where in the hell is Edgar Lustgarten?

Edgar Lustgarten is the greatest true crime narrator of all time. Here is my tribute and description of his books. But I can only find one tantalizing audio clip of the world's most famous true crime radio announcer. It's a... Continue reading

Posted Nov 8, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, Esquire, and the Femme Fatale

Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, noted London barrister and son of Charles Dickens, became famous for his defense of an infamous femme fatale. Hear the crazy story of Kitty Byron on CLEWS! https://www.buzzsprout.com/.../9487899-dickens-for-the... #clews #truecrime #charlesdickens #henryfieldingdickens #dickens #kittybyron #femmesfatales #theoldbailey Continue reading

Posted Nov 6, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

CLEWS - The Podcast! - One month in and we're already Global

The first season of CLEWS: The Podcast is all about the world's worst femmes fatales. Barely a month old, and with only five episodes, CLEWS is already global. Besides the USA, we have listeners in Germany, Canada, the UK, India,... Continue reading

Posted Nov 5, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

An interview with Harold Schechter on Ed Gein, Belle Gunness, Graphic Novels, and True Crime Today

Our inaugural podcast interview is with Harold Schechter, whose first true crime book came out in 1990. Back in the day, true crime was mass market paperback and hard to find. You had to sneak to the back of the... Continue reading

Posted Nov 4, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

The aesthetics of horror, or One reason the femme fatale is so interesting...

In her new book Murderesses in German writing, Susanne Kord (Chair of German, UCL) tells us that Dr. Zelle, speaking on the aesthetics of horror, concludes that the enjoyment of horror only becomes possible once the ethical dimension is neutralized.... Continue reading

Posted Nov 1, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

The witch was a librarian! And vice versa! On 'The Salem Martyr'

This Smithsonian oil painting is based on the true story of the 1656 Boston execution of "witch" Ann Hibbins. The woman who posed for the artist was her descendant, per the New York Historical Society. This descendant was at the... Continue reading

Posted Oct 28, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Here is where the word Google really came from... a CLEWS exclusive!

Mr. Google was a character in the novel #Brainstorm from 1944 by New York magazine writer #CarltonBrown. #Google says it got its name from a "brainstorm"... hmmmm.... very suspicious, I'd say. From what I can tell, nobody has ever pointed... Continue reading

Posted Oct 25, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Time of day - first clew to murder!

When historical homicides were sorted by the time of the day at which they occurred, an interesting pattern emerged. In one sweeping study of homicides in New Spain (Mexico, California etc.) between 1747 and 1821, more than twice as many... Continue reading

Posted Oct 22, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

0

Countess Tarnowska, The Russian Enchantress

"I am a martyr to my own beauty. For any man to behold me is for him to love me. The whole pathway of my life is strewn with the bodies of those who loved me most." -Countess Marie Tarnowska... Continue reading

Posted Oct 20, 2021 at CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

21

More...

Subscribe to Laura James’s Recent Activity