{"id":8384,"date":"2016-04-08T19:37:57","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T02:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384"},"modified":"2016-04-08T19:37:57","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T02:37:57","slug":"30-more-years-of-crime-in-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384","title":{"rendered":"30 More Years of Crime in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When I\u00a0 began this blog in December 2012, I arbitrarily chose to examine crime in Los Angeles during the years from 1900 to 1970.\u00a0 Now, however, I think it is time to expand the purview to include the decades of 1970, 1980 and 1990 to encompass all of the last century. In terms of crime in the City of Angels, the last three decades of the 20th Century are enormously interesting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 1970s have been called one of the most violent decades in U.S. history. Homicide rates climbed at an alarming rate and people felt increasingly vulnerable.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8387\" style=\"width: 333px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8387\" class=\"wp-image-8387\" src=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/dirtyharry.jpg\" alt=\"dirtyharry\" width=\"323\" height=\"182\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8387\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hollywood contributed to popular culture, and helped fuel the debate on crime and punishment, with a slew of vigilante films like <em>Dirty Harry<\/em> and <em>Death Wish.\u00a0<\/em>The films\u00a0 showed bad guys being blown away by impressively large weapons.\u00a0 It was cathartic, but not terribly realistic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was during the &#8217;70s that the bogeyman got a new name when FBI Investigator Robert Ressler coined the term &#8220;serial killer&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Serial Killer Rodney Alcala TV Gameshow Appearance\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/12PXvKfWdZs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 1978 convicted rapist and registered sex offender, Rodney Alcala, appeared on the<em> Dating Game. <\/em>Why wasn&#8217;t he more thoroughly vetted by the show&#8217;s producers? I have no idea. Even more astounding than his appearance was the fact that he won! The bachelorette who selected Rodney ultimately declined to go out with him&#8211;she found him &#8220;creepy&#8221;. He&#8217;s currently on California&#8217;s death row and is believed to have committed as many as 50 murders.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8391\" style=\"width: 198px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8391\" class=\"wp-image-8391\" src=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ramirez_108a.jpg\" alt=\"ramirez_108a\" width=\"188\" height=\"223\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8391\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Ramirez aka the Night Stalker, flashes a pentagram on his palm.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some people joined cults where they banded together with like-minded folks for spiritual comfort and to retreat from the scary world-at-large. But there is not always safety in numbers, and evil can assume many guises. In 1978, over 900 members of the People&#8217;s Temple died in a mass suicide commanded by their leader, Jim Jones. The group was living in Guyana when they drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. The People&#8217;s Temple may have been founded in Indiana, but like so many other cults before them they established a presence in L.A.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8389\" style=\"width: 326px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8389\" class=\" wp-image-8389\" src=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Jim_Jones_in_front_of_the_International_Hotel.jpg\" alt=\"Jim Jones of the People's Temple\" width=\"316\" height=\"210\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Jones of the People&#8217;s Temple<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A crack cocaine epidemic swept the country in the early 1980s.\u00a0 It decimated communities and cost many people their lives. Crack\u00a0 was inexpensive, easily accessible, and even more addictive than regular cocaine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 1980s gave rise to a &#8220;satanic panic&#8221; which resulted in some of most bizarre prosecutions we&#8217;ve seen in this country since the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s. The McMartin Preschool abuse trial was the most costly ($15 million) ever in the U.S. and resulted, rightfully I believe, in no convictions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Surprisingly, there was a decline in crime during the 1990s, and it has been attributed to a variety of factors including: increased incarceration; increased numbers of police, growth in income; decreased unemployment, decreased alcohol consumption, and even the unleading of gasoline (due to the Clean Air Act). Despite the decline, there was still enough murder and mayhem to make us uneasy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8390\" src=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/oj-simpson-murde.jpeg\" alt=\"oj-simpson-murde\" width=\"221\" height=\"264\" \/>Here in L.A. there was the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the so-called Trial of the Century. If you remove fame, wealth, and race and reduce the crime to its basic elements you end up with nothing more than a tragic domestic homicide&#8211;the type of crime which is altogether too common everywhere&#8211;yet the case continues to fascinate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Heidi Fleiss, the Hollywood Madam, made news in 1993. At her pandering trial actor Charlie Sheen divulged that he had spent in excess of $53,000 for services rendered by Heidi&#8217;s girls.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Please join me as I explore the entirety of 20th Century crime in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Joan<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I\u00a0 began this blog in December 2012, I arbitrarily chose to examine crime in Los Angeles during the years from 1900 to 1970.\u00a0 Now, however, I think it is time to expand the purview to include the decades of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[645,646,2,3,6,161,266,342,1412,1549,616,615,263,259,994],"tags":[1553,1560,1551,1552,1550,1559,1556,1558,1557,1555,1554],"class_list":["post-8384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1900s","category-1910s","category-1920s","category-1930s","category-1940s","category-1950s","category-1960s","category-1970s","category-1980s","category-1990s","category-cops-behaving-badly","category-end-of-watch","category-hanging-2","category-homicide-2","category-unsolved-crimes-of-los-angeles","tag-charles-bronson","tag-charlie-sheen","tag-clint-eastwood","tag-death-wish","tag-dirty-harry","tag-heidi-fleiss","tag-jim-jones","tag-mcmartin-preschool","tag-o-j-simpson","tag-peoples-temple","tag-robert-ressler"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>30 More Years of Crime in L.A. - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"30 More Years of Crime in L.A. - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I\u00a0 began this blog in December 2012, I arbitrarily chose to examine crime in Los Angeles during the years from 1900 to 1970.\u00a0 Now, however, I think it is time to expand the purview to include the decades of &hellip; Continue reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-09T02:37:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/dirtyharry.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deranged\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deranged\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384\",\"name\":\"30 More Years of Crime in L.A. - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-09T02:37:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-09T02:37:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c18256d5a584c7608f013fad6028886b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"30 More Years of Crime in L.A.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/\",\"name\":\"Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae\",\"description\":\"True 20th Century tales of murder, mayhem, political corruption, and celebrity scandal\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c18256d5a584c7608f013fad6028886b\",\"name\":\"Deranged\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/048764fa0b0bc6ce442bdec9a2093f84bef0c1ab801114e87e1d40ef7c46ccd6?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/048764fa0b0bc6ce442bdec9a2093f84bef0c1ab801114e87e1d40ef7c46ccd6?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Deranged\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"30 More Years of Crime in L.A. - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"30 More Years of Crime in L.A. - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae","og_description":"When I\u00a0 began this blog in December 2012, I arbitrarily chose to examine crime in Los Angeles during the years from 1900 to 1970.\u00a0 Now, however, I think it is time to expand the purview to include the decades of &hellip; Continue reading &rarr;","og_url":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384","og_site_name":"Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae","article_published_time":"2016-04-09T02:37:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/dirtyharry.jpg"}],"author":"Deranged","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deranged","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384","url":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384","name":"30 More Years of Crime in L.A. - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-04-09T02:37:57+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-09T02:37:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c18256d5a584c7608f013fad6028886b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=8384#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"30 More Years of Crime in L.A."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/","name":"Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae","description":"True 20th Century tales of murder, mayhem, political corruption, and celebrity scandal","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c18256d5a584c7608f013fad6028886b","name":"Deranged","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/048764fa0b0bc6ce442bdec9a2093f84bef0c1ab801114e87e1d40ef7c46ccd6?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/048764fa0b0bc6ce442bdec9a2093f84bef0c1ab801114e87e1d40ef7c46ccd6?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Deranged"},"url":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?author=1"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8384"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8410,"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384\/revisions\/8410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}