Month: February 2020

Audiobook Review: Chase Darkness With Me

Billy Jensen’s book, Chase Darkness with Me is part memoir and part how-to guide for wannabe twenty-first century citizen detectives who want to join Jensen in finding missing persons and helping to solve America’s more than 200,000 unsolved homicide.

As a memoir, the book provides an origin for Jensen’s fascination with unsolved homicides, and how that led him into the world of true crime television and podcasts. He also writes of his friendship with the late Michelle Macnamara, author of I’ll be Gone in the Dark. Jensen writes how her efforts helped lead to the capture of a suspect in the crimes of the infamous Golden State killer, who committed a series of rapes and murders in the 1970s.

In the past few decades, the nationwide solve rate for murders has plummeted from above 90% to a little more than 60%. Jensen attributes the change to a couple of factors. First is a decline in trust for the police. Second is the shift in how people get news and information. In past decades, newspapers and TV newscasts would carry information about homicides, as well as pictures of unidentified suspects  the public might know. However, as people have begun to curate their own news, these sources have been viewed less and less.

Jensen began to have success in helping locate killers from cold cases by launching social media campaigns that reached people who had turned off their television. He was able to do this by leveraging skills he’d learned when newspapers began to decline at the turn of the century. In the book, he tells the stories of several murders and missing person cases where he used social media to reach people who may have the key to solving a case.

He does a good job structuring each chapter and giving appropriate time to each incident. He also does show a healthy introspection about his motives and about the way these campaigns affect the investigation and the families of the victims.

He also writes about how familial DNA databases like 23andme and ancestry.com may hold the key to solving murders, as with their popularity, it’s quite likely  many killers who have left DNA evidence could be located through family members who have signed up for these services, although he discusses many challenges on that point.

The how-to-section at the end of the book mostly serves to re-enforce lessons gleaned from the narrative portions of the book but adds a few handy tips on technical details.

In addition to the sort of social media detective work Jensen has specialized in, he mentions other tasks that can aid the capture of criminals, including volunteering to digitize old police records and helping build family trees for those who’ve used familial DNA databases to trace killers.

Jensen also does spend a good deal of time discussing  how to do citizen detective work responsibly and ethically. He sees a great opportunity for citizen detectives to bring closure to victims and justice to killers who’ve thought they got away with it. However, he knows that a few irresponsible people could ruin things for everyone.

He advises those who’d like to be Batman that they can be. They just can’t be the vigilante that plays by his own rules. They have to be the Adam West 1960s Batman and play by the rules.

Jensen is also honest that Citizen Detective work is often time-consuming and frustrating. He pegs his own success rate at cases he became involved in at under 20 percent. In addition, running social media campaigns to locate someone who saw something gets to be expensive. However, America boasts a growing affluent retiree population that’s looking for something to do with their time. Jensen thinks for many retirees this may be an answer to how to deal with all the time on their hands.

If there’s one thing I’d caution potential readers/listeners on in these highly polarized times is that Jensen goes off into dictum expressing his opinion on a variety of controversial subjects, including religion and political issues (though thankfully not opinion on politicians). Some are related to crime such as gun control and the death penalty and others are not. The good news/bad news about these portions is that he makes assertions and offers no evidence to support them. The bad part is that it seems he’s taking for granted that his view of the world is correct and that his entire audience agrees with it. The good part is that because his views aren’t key to the central premise of the book, you can move on rather than getting bogged down spending hours on irrelevant side trails.

Still, despite my disagreements with Jensen on some things, I walked away from the book admiring his desire to make the world more just and the practical steps he’s taken to do so. If you’re interested in true crime, in becoming a citizen detective, or if you’re a mystery writer looking for realistic methods that your characters could use to solve crime without a badge, this definitely is a worthwhile read.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

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EP3074: Dragnet: The Big Tie

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith investigate a burglary where several hand-painted ties were stolen.

Original Air Date: April 12, 1955

Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.net

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EP3073: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: Pearl Carrassa

Edmond O'Brien

Johnny searches for the beneficiary of a murdered insured woman’s policy.

Original Air Date: April 25, 1950

When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com

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EP3072: Sherlock Holmes: The Return of the Jack of Diamonds

A 17th Century Highway Man haunts the Hampstead Heath.

Original Air Date: April 25, 1948

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AWR0094: Escape: Operation Fleur De Lys (Jack Webb Centennial)

Amazing World of Radio

Two OSS Agents (Jack Webb and Elliot Lewis) parachute into occupied France to organize resistance to the Nazis to support the Allied invasion. However, their efforts are threatened by a leak.

Original Air Date: July 14, 1947

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EP3071: Michael Shayne: The Freeman Murder Case

A poet who’d asked Phyllis for feedback on her work is a suspect in a murder case.

Original Air Date: August 26, 1946

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EP3070: It’s a Crime, Mr. Collins: The Pink Elephant

A newspaper editor friend of Greg’s asks his help when a newly released racketeer threatens to kill him.

Original Air Date: August 26, 1957

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EP3069: Box 13: The Haunted Artist

An artist comes to Dan for help because he believes a ghost is breaking into his apartment at night and altering his painting.

Original Air Date: February 6, 1948

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AWR0093: One Out of Seven (Jack Webb Centennial)

Amazing World of Radio

Jack Webb hosts and performs the roles of all news figures in a news and commentary program in two episodes.

First, a profile of segregationist Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi. Second, a commentary on incidents of racial, ethic, and religious bigotry occurring around Brotherhood Week.

Original Air Dates: February 6 and 27, 1946

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Video Theater 175: Racket Squad: Family Tree

A man decides to turn the tables on a genealogist (Hugh Beaumont) who he believes is conning his wife (Francis Bavier.)

Original Air Date: August 21, 1952

Season 2, Episode 49

EP3068s: Lux Radio Theater: Double Indemnity

An insurance agent plots to murder an insured man and split the money with the widow.

Original Air Date: October 30, 1950

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Radio Show Review: The Danny Kaye Show

The Danny Kaye show starred singer/comedian Danny Kaye and premiered in January 1945. It remained on the air until 1946 and was sponsored by Past Blue Ribbon Beer.

Kaye was a talented performer, and the show was good whenever he was given an opportunity to sing, to do zany skits, or do things that suited Danny Kaye’s talents. Yet, the show didn’t often let Kaye do that in its first season.

The first seventeen episode January-May season had the series as half a good musical/variety show and half a lame sitcom about making the show.

The series featured Eve Arden and Lionel Stander as Kaye’s sidekicks. Arden was a few years away from stardom with Our Miss Brooks, and Stander could be fun in the right role. However, they’re not  given much to work with.

The first season has some groan-inducing and tedious moments, but it’s more than made up for by the hilarious moments and Kaye’s crazy singing.

The second season that began in the fall of 1945 saw some big production changes that made the show better with a focus on Kaye interacting with guest stars, and with Butterfly McQueen becoming the show’s main comedic regular for about one scene a week.

Unfortunately, while most of the first season is in circulation, the second season is scarce. Two of the available episodes are shows for which Kaye was absent during a USO tour and had Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny filling in.  While they both did fine, they were essentially doing their own thing.

However, those episodes we do have with Kaye show a much-improved series. There’s one episode from January 25, 1946 where Kaye is his own guest star.  The episode for March 1, 1946 with Orson Welles as the guest star is my favorite as Welles critiques and analyzes the song Kaye sings at the start of each episode. The Carmen Miranda episode (February 15, 1946) is also really fun as well.  The Arthur Treacher episode (May 24, 1946) is kind of ho-hum, but still these four episodes suggest that Kaye’s second season was a good improvement on the first one.

Overall, these episodes are worth listening if you’re a Kaye fan. If you do start at the beginning and are disappointed by the weaker parts of the first season, check out what survives of Season 2 for a better experience.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Danny Kaye show is available for free download here

EP3068: Dragnet: The Big No Tooth

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith investigate a series of Sunday hold-ups of hotels.

Original Air Date: April 5, 1955

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EP3067: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Story of the Ten-o-Eight (Rehearsal)

Edmond O'Brien

Johnny goes to Buffalo to investigate a box car robbery.

Original Air Date: April 18, 1950

When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com

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EP3066: Boston Blackie: The Professor and Rufus Blow a Safe

Richard Kollmar

A scientific criminal blows a safe inside a bank at the same a construction crew is doing demolition.

Original Air Date:June 15, 1949
Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.net

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