Why I didn't go camping, as a child.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:16 am

When I was a small child, one of the ghastliest crimes in the history of our community occurred. The case remains infamous to this day, not only for the attrocity of the crime but for the events following, and the less than brilliant methods the authorities seemed to have used in the case. Who do I think done it? I don't know. I do know it scared my mother badly, and she didn't let me join the Boy Scouts, for fear of camping trips.

Here's a web site with some information:

http://www.geocities.com/welkerlots/scouts.htm

missy · Post by **missy** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:54 am

I don't have time to read the entire site right now, but will later......

Interesting - I attended "Fort Scott" for 2 weeks every summer for 6 years. This was affiliated with the Archdioses of Cincinnati - but you didn't have to be Catholic to be a camper. There weren't tents, but 18 cabins of 10 kids (except for senior cabin, which had 30 in it), duplicated for two camps - one for girls and one for boys. Age 8 - 15 for campers.

The camp was closed in the early 80's because it was on the same aquafer as the Fernald Uranium Processing plant.

Which could explain quite a lot................

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:17 am

I remember that news.
That and other random sociopath attacks over the years that make one feel way less secure in life.
But, you gotta live anyway.

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:30 am

emmline wrote:I remember that news.
That and other random sociopath attacks over the years that make one feel way less secure in life.
But, you gotta live anyway.

The really scary thing, emm, is that there are a lot of these kinds of things that happen on a regular basis...
THe ones that everyone hears about are the ones that make it to the media. The reason that some make it to the media and some don't is because in the cases where the media is notified, law enforcement is using the media to reign in the perpitrator...there are times when the media is not a useful tool, and in those cases, you will hear nothing about the case, the killings, or the results thereof...
According to the FBI's Investigative Support Unit(formerly Behavioral Sciences), in the United States there are always between 25 and 50 active serial killers at any given time...
Fewer than half of these are ever caught...(here's a fairly interesting site...Here's another, John Douglas's, co-founder of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit and father of forensic profiling, website.)

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:55 am

Back when I was about 5, Elmer Wayne Henley and Dean Allen Corll killed about 27 boys a couple of streets over from where we lived.

http://tinyurl.com/jyt87 (TinyURL of a google map)

They did their dirty work there at 2020 Lamar in Pasadena..we lived south and east of Lamar over on Pauline. We moved clear across town, but I didn't really know why until I was much older.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:16 am

This apparently occured some years before I was born, so I'd never heard of it until today. However, I "enjoy"* reading about murder mysteries, so thank you for posting it.

*"Enjoy" is not the right word, exactly.

the website wrote:In the months and weeks leading up to the murders, strange things began to occur (none of it reported to authorities), beginning with the discovery of a man's effigy...swinging from a tree by it's neck.

That's creepy.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:11 am

My earliest recollection of a serial killer was the murder of eight nursing students in Ann Arbor. It was a big deal around here because at that time there were two large nursing colleges in Kalamazoo.
I can't seem to find any information on it though.

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:25 am

Why couldn't that have happened in central Indiana? Then I wouldn't have had to join the boy scouts. I didn't do well in the scouts. They gave me negative merit badges.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:27 am

SteveK wrote:Why couldn't that have happened in central Indiana? Then I wouldn't have had to join the boy scouts. I didn't do well in the scouts. They gave me negative merit badges.

You were a gay atheist?

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:29 am

SteveK wrote:I didn't do well in the scouts. They gave me negative merit badges.

Are those called demerit badges?

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:30 am

Tyler Morris wrote:The reason that some make it to the media and some don't is because in the cases where the media is notified, law enforcement is using the media to reign in the perpitrator...there are times when the media is not a useful tool, and in those cases, you will hear nothing about the case, the killings, or the results thereof...

I always wonder if this is the reason people think the 50's were safer:
the media wasn't used as an investigative tool back then, so far fewer
people heard about the crimes that went on.

gonzo914 · Post by **gonzo914** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:40 am

Why I don't go camping even now --

Mountain lion attacks

Tim Treadwell

Venomous snake bites

Camping would be much nicer if things that could kill and possibly eat you didn't live where you camp. (And also if it had bathrooms, electricity and cable, but the lack of those amenities is a secondary reason for not camping.)

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:40 am

Let's see - in Spokane in the last few years we've had Robert Yates, who killed prostitutes so he didn't get caught for a long time because nobody really cared - http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/yates.html. This is in reverse chronological order, so go to the bottom and read up.

And the one in the news right now is Joseph Duncan who killed most of a family just outside of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, about 30 miles from here, and took Shasta Groene and her brother Dylan and abused them before killing the boy. Here's a recent story from the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... lay23.html

Of course the west side of the state had the Green River killings. I'm sure there's lots more that we don't know about.

We also had a serial rapist in the early 1980s, Kevin Coe, who turned out to be the son of one of the more prominent local familes. Come to think of it, he's probably due to be released soon. Scary.

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:52 am

Back to camping --

I really don't like camping either, but if I didn't go camping I'd never go on any vacations with my husband. He doesn't like to sleep in strange beds and eat in restaurants every day, so he doesn't like motels. I don't like going down the road to the restroom, and I really don't consider it a "vacation" if I still have to cook and wash dishes! We have a small trailer but the new van doesn't have a hitch so if we take that now we would have to take the 91 Blazer that is cramped and looks like the devil, and leave the van in the driveway where it would probably be vandalized.

We have this big tent that attaches to the back of the van so we can sleep in the vehicle and use the tent as a sitting room - but there's still no private bathroom. Ordered the tent from here: http://www.stylinconcepts.com/parts.asp ... milyid=185 At least we can stand up in it but still.

I broke my toe while camping because I was worried about bears. We had our trailer and were in Yosemite, and they had told us to put all our food in the bear lockers at the campsite instead of leaving it in the trailer. The pad where we pulled the trailer into had big concrete barriers to define the parking space, and when we were parked there wasn't enough room to step down from the trailer step straight to the ground. The barrier was just a bit higher than the step, so we could either step on the step and then step up a bit onto the concrete, or step on the step and take a really big step to the ground on the other side of the barrier. Well, I was getting ready for bed and wanted to check to make sure I had put all the food away, so I opened the trailer door, stepped onto the step, forgot about the concrete, and swung my left foot out to take a normal step down. Don't ever kick concrete - it hurts!!

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:17 am

Cranberry wrote:
SteveK wrote:Why couldn't that have happened in central Indiana? Then I wouldn't have had to join the boy scouts. I didn't do well in the scouts. They gave me negative merit badges.
You were a gay atheist?

No. I confused hawks and sparrows; I fell out of the canoe and I dropped the biscuit mix in the creek. Then the next day......