When I first started thinking about this blog, I noticed that one popular genre of longread was the crime investigation story. Many of these were CSI-esque and focused on twisting tales of lawlessness and the detective's vigilant pursuits of the perpetrators. I quickly came to realize that, for me at least, these stories were a low priority on the reading list as they were typically one-off cases or felt like glorified crime TV.
Initially, I passed over this article because I figured it was just the latest in this line of longform journalism. But this article goes beyond just the details of the crime story to see what that story tells us about society. So while you won't find many crime story longreads on the blog, this one is worth your time.
"Murder by Craigslist" by Hanna Rosin
Published in the Atlantic, August 14, 2013
Eric
That's fucked up. Clearly the guy is an idiot. Does it really surprise the author what he found? Is it really going on a limb that everyone as someone no matter how screwed up?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's that they had someone who would miss them -- I think most people, after a certain period of time, will have someone who is wondering why they haven't heard/seen them. I think why this is different is that the killer screened the people trying to find those with weak traditional ties (such as family). And moreover, the nature of the way that these men had very close ties -- walkie talkie and texting (which for a man his age is definitely not the norm) -- shows that people find outlets for social interaction in ways that are new and interesting and are part of how people cope with other types of social disconnectedness. But all in all, definitely a fucked up story.
ReplyDeleteEric