I agree with Slartibartfast's answer (the only answer that was posted before I wrote my answer) and its spirit of love. I will forego that route with my answer, though, if I may. Besides the most important things/people whom I love, my interest in trying to live in the spirit of The Golden Rule with my fellow human beings - - Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You, etc, these three events have interested me a lot. I've included great-to-me books/and a great-to-me movie about the events.
1) The sinking of the "Titanic"
- - but what REALLY interests me is that so few chronicles/movies/books, if any, address the fact that a ship was barely ten miles away from the "Titanic" during her demise -- this ship the "Californian," was in sight of the "Titanic," and saw her distress flares - - and the "Californian" chose to do nothing.
~ "The Other Side of the Night: The 'Carpathia,' the 'Californian,' and the Night the 'Titanic' Was Lost" book by Daniel Allen Butler
2) The December 30, 1903 'Iroquois' Theatre Fire Disaster in Chicago, Illinois, USA. This disaster need never have happened. I know I sound cliche but the fire seemed to be a disaster waiting to happen. It didn't wait too long since the fire disaster occurred about a month after the theater opened.
~ "The Great Chicago Theater Disaster: The Complete Story Told by the Survivors" book by Marshall Everett -- published in 1904, less than a year, obviously, after the disaster "Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903" book by Nat Brandt "Tinder Box: The Iroquois Theatre Disaster 1903" book by Anthony P. Hatch
3) The murder of Honora Parker by her teenaged daughter Pauline and Pauline's teenaged friend Juliet Hulme on June 22, 1954 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Juliet grew up to become the famous best-selling author Anne Perry. I'm surprised at seemingly how little its known that author Perry has murdered someone.
~ an excellent-excellent-to-me movie "Heavenly Creatures," based very factually on the case, was directed by pre-"Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson. The movie features amazing, very amazing, performances by Melanie Lynskey and pre-"Titanic" Kate Winslet as the teenaged friends. also, a non-fiction book by Peter Graham, "Anne Perry and The Murder of the Century"
This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at July 8, 2017 1:18 PM MDT
Hi WQ! I loved that movie "Heavenly Creatures." Not sure I should be admitting this but I am addicted to tv programs about murders and serial killings. Once I hear or see something about a murder, I research it ad nauseam. That stuff just fascinates me. I don't know why. I think I need help. TMI?
To me? Definitely not TMI! Ha! Because I'm the same way! I've been fascinated by the following (and even more) John Wayne Gacy the accused-but-acquitted Lizzie Borden Jeffrey Dahmer Rev. Jim Jones and Guyana's "Jonestown" the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas, USA; made even more infamous by the book and movie "In Cold Blood" Ted Bundy Charles Manson's "family" - - since, yes, I know, he didn't do any of the murders himself
LOL! It definitely counts. I have that channel on now! Although I haven't had a lot of time lately to watch, I'm addicted to it too. I think it fascinates me for the same reason. Have you ever read Caleb Carr's The Alienist?
For some reason I don't read as much as I watch on the subject. But I do like psychologically based crime novels and authors like Jonathan Kellerman.
Current ID favorites are Reasonable Doubt, Sin City Justice, I am Homicide, and Fear Thy Neighbor. And I am SUPER addicted to Snapped on the Oxygen channel!
I think you will like the book. It's a historical crime novel about the first serial killer in the history of NYC. Wonderfully written. Vivid details. The description from Amazon is not the greatest but here it is:
The year is 1896. The city is New York. Newspaper reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—a psychologist, or “alienist”—to view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy abandoned on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. From there the two embark on a revolutionary effort in criminology: creating a psychological profile of the perpetrator based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who will kill again before their hunt is over.
Fast-paced and riveting, infused with historical detail, The Alienist conjures up Gilded Age New York, with its tenements and mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. It is an age in which questioning society’s belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and fatal consequences.
WelbyQuentin 