Category: true crime
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Slides from the Peoples Temple Publication Department
I am fascinated by cults and by what attracts people to them. I am particularly intrigued by the Peoples Temple, which had the seeds of being a meaningful agent of good social change if it had not been led to such a destructive ending by a troubled leader. The California Historical Society has published a digital library of photos from the Peoples Temple Publication Department. The catalogue of over 2,000 images portrays insights into the group, its activism and its final home in Guyana.
March in Los Angeles for Farr 
Summer trip: in church 
Cabins 
Bedroom -
The Camden Town Murder, or What Shall We Do for the Rent?
The Camden Town Murder or What Shall We Do for the Rent? by Walter Richard Sickert, ca 1908 From the Yale Center for British Art:
This is one of several paintings Walter Sickert made in response to a gruesome murder of a prostitute that took place in Camden, North London, in September 1907. Sickert, who had worked in the area for several years, was intrigued by the unsolved case, using the title The Camden Town Murder for a group of paintings between 1908 and 1909. None of these works depict an actual murder, with the woman in this painting popularly supposed to be sleeping rather than dead. Sickert’s use of the alternative title in parentheses—a wry parody of Victorian narrative paintings—confirms the artist’s refusal to confirm a single meaning for this enigmatic picture. What is never in doubt, however, is Sickert’s commitment to subject matter that many of his contemporaries would have seen as sordid, rendered in a markedly modern style.
Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
For a full discussion on the painting and the series, visit Walter Sickert: The Camden Town Murder and Tabloid Crime by Lisa Tickner published by the Tate.
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Madame Tussaud & Her Waxworks
Tour of Madame Tussauds London – 1998
Tour of Madame Tussauds London Chamber of Horrors – 2022
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Crime Scene Cleaning
The US company Spaulding Decon cleans up after crime scenes, hoarders and meth labs and has an interesting YouTube channel, Crime Scene Cleaning, that follows the cleaners on some of their jobs. With the hoarder cleanups, it is unbelievable to see how some people live and how it can affect their neighbors. The videos are not for the faint of heart.
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Paranormal TV: Psychic Investigators, Season 2
In season 1 of Psychic Investigators on Prime Video, I found that the psychics did not influence the crime investigations. Rather, they paralleled them with their insights, and the show demonstrated how uncanny it was that they were correct in the end.
I was expecting the same in season 2, but the show delivered a different take on the topic. In these episodes, psychics directly influenced crime investigations, which was fascinating. If the psychics had not been involved in the cases, they would not have gotten solved. This was what I was originally expecting of the show—that psychics investigated crimes and helped solve them—so I was delightfully surprised to see it.
I would certainly recommend season 2—and, so far of what I watched of season 3—if you want to see psychics making a difference in solving crimes.
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Paranormal TV: Psychic Investigators, Season 1
I am mostly done watching season one of Psychic Investigators on Prime Video, and I am really enjoying it. When I started watching it, I was expecting it to be about psychics who crack unsolved crimes. So far, it isn’t like that at all. Instead, it is a true crime show that details how police investigate and solve murders, with a psychic giving his or her predictions alongside the investigation. In most episodes, the investigator or detective may accept the psychic’s input but doesn’t solve the crime with it. Only after the crime has been solved do the police look back and confirm how bizarre it was that the psychic was so bang on.
I am a sucker for stories about spirits and ghosts communicating from “the other side,” and Psychic Investigators has this kind of content in spades!
The Devil's Muse 