Sick Killers

By Mark W. Danielson

There’s an old saying that when you have your health, you have everything. Ben Small's post this week confirms how illness can affect your moods. The worse your physical condition, the more irrational and emotional you become. Think how rabid animals act, and then multiply this several times over for terminally or mentally ill people. If they are angry at the world and have nothing to live for, you have a recipe for disaster . . .

Sick killers leave sick crime scenes because they have lost their sense of morality. In an instant, minor annoyances can trigger violent and irrational behavior. Charles Manson and his followers proved this when they gruesomely murdered Sharon Tate.

Emotion also plays an enormous role in murders committed by sick people, which is why passionate crimes tend to be particularly gory. Think about Jack Nicholson’s infamous character in The Shining. The longer Nicholson's psychosis continued, the more frustrated he became, and the more determined he was to complete his murderous task. Death came to anyone who got in his way. His character was dead-on for people in desperate situations.

But even prescription medication can affect a person’s moods and rational thought. People who blow off their prescription warning labels are setting themselves up. Whether they commit a crime or become a crime victim matters not; taking drugs can impair their judgment and permanently change their lives.

Of course, alcohol and other mind-altering drugs will numb the brain and dull the senses. Too many people have committed acts of stupidity and/or become crime victims because they were doped up. Some drugs alter minds so deeply that the police must resort to using taser guns to contain them. If you're walking down the street and see someone with crazy eyes, avoid them at all cost.

The lesson here is that your murderous characters are likely to be affected directly or indirectly by any of these elements. As such, they are worth mentioning in your story. Novelists have a responsibility to enlighten their readers with reasons for their characters' behavior. The more your readers understand this, the more believable your story, and the more they can relate, the more likely they are to buy your next book.

One last thought -- if you're writing while you're ill, realize that while it may not be your best work, but it may provide some valuable insight into your characters' flaws.

Crime of the Century

By Chester Campbell

The 20th century produced several cases that have vied for the "crime of the century" title. The Lindbergh kidnapping occupied headlines for months back in the thirties. The Charles Manson murder spree in 1969 still pops up occasionally when one of the principals generates a bit of news. And, of course, the O.J. Simpson case dragged on forever following the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole in 1994.

Although the 21st century is young, we already have a crime of the century nominee. This one isn't a murder in the normal sense, though several people have been killed. The body count could become astronomical when they start tallying up all the birds and fish and turtles. Yep, we're talking oil spill here.

For several years, my wife and I spent two weeks each March and October at a condo on the pristine white beach at Perdido Key, Florida. We aren't swimmers, but we walked barefoot in the sand most days and spent hours on the balcony watching the breakers sweep onshore. Just the thought of what will happen if that gummy reddish-black muck washes up on Perdido Key turns my stomach.

Just the possibility of what may happen has already had adverse effects on the area. Luxury condos at nearby Gulf Beach, Alabama are renting for rock-bottom prices. I've always done well at book signings in the Pensacola area and was looking forward to this fall when my new book comes out. Maybe the people will find reading mysteries a good antidote to worrying about the terrible crime that's taking place in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP is ready to attempt another method or two at stopping the flow of rogue oil that continues to pour from the well on the ocean floor. If these don't work, maybe they should try stuffing a bunch of Washington bureaucrats into the pipe. That should cause enough confusion to plug up anything that might be gushing around.

From all that's been said, neither the oil company nor it's bureaucratic overseers were prepared for such an accident. Hopefully they have learned enough to make sure it doesn't happen again. But before it's over, this is likely to go down as the worst disaster ever suffered by America's southern coast. And it may even infect parts of the east coast as well.

Speculation is that Nashville will not fully recover from the effects of last month's flood for twenty years. The Gulf Coast may be in for a similar fate.