No Country For Old Men’s Anton

Chigurh Is Most Realistic Fim Villain

Have you ever wondered how a therapist would diagnose some of the best villains in movie history? It turns out a scientific study has been conducted on the subject, and No Country For Old Men's Javier Bardem got a standing ovation for his portrayal of Anton Chigurh. First published in December 2013 in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, the study looked at over 400 movies made during the 95-year-period between 1915 and 2010. Researchers analyzed 126 fictional villains—105 male and 21 female—including The Godfather’s Michael Corleone, Psycho’s Normal Bates, and Misery’s Annie Wilkes. The objective wasn’t to compile a list the best criminals in psychopath movies, but rather to determine if these infamous villains were portrayed accurately. To do so, they enlisted senior forensic psychiatrists and cinema critics to analyze each character. They separated them into “primary” and “secondary” psychopaths, which is in line with other research. Primary psychopaths are a product of nature (their traits are genetic), while their secondary are products of nurture (i.e., environmental). The conclusion of forensic psychiatrists and cinema critics alike was that it was rare to have a realistic fictional portrayal of a true psychopath. Anton Chigurh fit the bill as an exception; he’s a bona fide example. Researchers cited his “incapacity for love, absence of shame or remorse, lack of psychological insight, inability to learn from past experience, cold-blooded attitude, ruthlessness, total determination, and lack of empathy.”

Forget Tears, Trucks, And Tequila: Why

Do We Like Country Murder Ballads?

Country songs largely are defined by their simple chord progressions and catchy riffs, enhanced by the vocal harmonies. And of course, the bridge and chorus. While they’re often mocked for their focus on tears, trucks, and tequila, the lyrics to a country song often deal with very real people facing very real challenges. Some of which aren’t that pleasant to think about. As Erica Wright points out in a recent Crime Reads article, if you tune your radio to a country station today, you might learn about a man driving to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding with “an old friend at his side,” aka his Colt .45. “L.A. County” is not Lyle Lovett’s biggest hit off his 1987 album Pontiac, but it’s the only one with a gruesome double murder told to a tune so jaunty that you’ll find yourself drumming on the steering wheel and humming along. A more famous murder ballad example might be “Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks in which best friends conspire to kill an abusive husband. [Poisoned black-eyed peas do the trick, and the cops never suspect a thing.] Then there’s Hardy’s “Wait in the Truck,” in which a stranger stumbles across a woman who’s been beaten up. “What is it about murder ballads that appeal to country music songwriters, performers, and fans?” Wright asks, somewhat rhetorically. “Is there a fantasy element involved perhaps? Often the victims in these songs are despicable, so it’s satisfying to hear about them getting their comeuppance. Revenge for domestic abuse is a common theme.”

DNA CASE

How Boston Strangler’s Identity Was Confirmed 50 Years After His Death

Albert DeSalvo—also known as the Boston Stranger— confessed to the serial killing of 13 women in the early 1960s, but it would take nearly a half century and improved DNA technology to prove he was the likely culprit. In 1965, DeSalvo claimed responsibility for the serial slayings in a conversation with convicted killer George Nassar, when both men were inmates at Bridgewater State Hospital undergoing mental health evaluations. At the time, DeSalvo was accused of unrelated crimes, including armed robbery, assault, and multiple sex offenses. “He began describing a crime and watching my reaction to see if it was too abhorrent to listen to,” Nassar told The Boston Globe in a 1995 interview. “Some of it was horrible, particularly the crimes of stabbing a Cambridge woman under her breasts." DeSalvo later confessed his crimes to attorney F. Lee Bailey, and also told investigators that he was responsible for the killings. He later retracted the confessions for unknown reasons, and he was never formally charged. In 1967, three years after the last murder attributed to the Boston Strangler, DeSalvo was sentenced to life behind bars in connection with the robbery, assault and sex crime charges he had been facing when he first met Nassar. He was fatally stabbed in 1973 by an unidentified assailant while in a hospital bed at Walpole State Prison, now known as the Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Cedar Junction. It wasn’t until July 2013 that investigators finally matched his DNA to that found on one of his murder victims, 19-year-old Mary Sullivan.

Seven Atmospheric Mystery

Novels Set In The South

The first authentic southern crime novel I ever read was the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill A Mockingbird. Since it was Harper Lee’s only published book at the time, I quickly gravitated to William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy. As I began to truly understand and appreciate the characteristics and contradictions of the south, I then got lost in everything written by James Lee Burke and Greg Isles. While I would never lump myself in with the likes of any of these true masters, it only seemed natural when I moved to Charleston in 2007 that I try my hand at southern noir. That evolved into six mysteries set in and around the lowcountry, including my Jack Connor series and a standalone titled Seven-Thirty Thursday. But…I digress. As an article in Novel Suspects noted last week, “There’s nothing quite like a great Southern setting—the lush nature, the Southern hospitality, the great food. But the South also has a long, complicated, and dark history, and more than a few secrets as well. If you’re looking for a mystery and suspense novel set in an interesting place that weaves together current events, history, and unique regional culture, pick up any of these thrillers set in the South.”

Eight Memorable Portrayals Of

Supreme Court Justices In Film, TV

The Supreme Court and some of its justices have been under scrutiny the last few weeks, so I did a little research on how Hollywood has treated the robed members of the highest court in the land. From Chadwick Boseman's turn as Thurgood Marshall in Marshall, to Wendell Pierce's role as Clarence Thomas in Confirmation, to Alec Baldwin's portrayal of Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson in the miniseries Nuremberg, a number of past and present members of the high court have been prominently featured in movies or TV series. The 1991 television film Separate But Equal retells the landmark Supreme Court desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education, which made it illegal for schools to be segregated by race. The film gives an inside look at the work that Thurgood Marshall (Sidney Potier) and his team did when researching and preparing for the case. The 2013 HBO film Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight [pictured] retells the story of the famous boxer refusing military induction during the Vietnam War, and focuses on the SCOTUS decision in Ali's favor. And in Woman In Gold, Jonathon Pryce plays Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who ruled in favor of octogenarian Jewish refugee Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), who’s trying to reclaim stolen artwork from the Austrian government. Here’s a list of some of the best from The Hollywood Reporter.

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Greenwich Mean Time

“A globe-spanning, mind-spinning thriller that will delight fans of Jason Bourne. Rōnin Phythian, an assassin with extraordinary powers and a code of his own, deserves a sequel. Make that sequels.” —Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of House on Fire

“Greenwich Mean Time is a rollicking good time of thrills and skills.” —New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry

"Over-the-top action..." —Publishers Weekly

"Original, riveting, and with more unexpected plot twists and turns than a Disneyland roller coaster, Greenwich Mean Time is a fun read for anyone with an interest in assassination and conspiracy psychic thriller novels."

—Midwest Book Review

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