Various and Sundry

[eldritchhobbit]

First of all, much love and many thanks to dodger_winslow, who surprised me with this gorgeous new icon. We loves it, Precioussss, yes we does!

Second, it looks like late next week I'll be making a day-long sojourn to Washington, D.C. to film some lectures for the Institute for Humane Studies to be released on YouTube, a prospect both exciting and daunting. Mr. De Mille, I'm not sure I'm ready for my close-up! So it goes.

Third, today's TeeFury shirt is a very clever Harry Potter design.

Fourth, sad news...
* R.I.P., Joanna Russ (1937-2011)
She was a pioneering science fiction author who will be read and remembered for a long time to come. I've taught her short story "When It Changed" (which won the Nebula Award in 1972) in many university courses, and it's never failed to impress and inspire.

* R.I.P., William Campbell (1926-2011)
He had a long and varied acting career, but to me he will always be Trelane, the Squire of Gothos, from Star Trek.


And last, news of possible interest...
In past years I've posted about the still unsolved 1977 Girl Scout murders in Locust Grove, Oklahoma, including a post about the anniversary of the tragedy and the results of new DNA testing.

Up until now, only one book has been published on the murders: Someone Cry for the Children: The Unsolved Girl Scout Murders of Oklahoma and the Case of Gene Leroy Hart by Michael and Dick Wilkerson, which inspired a Discovery Channel documentary by the same title. (A separate Cold Case Files episode also was devoted to the case.) I've just learned that a new book is forthcoming: Tent Number 8: An Investigation of the Girl Scout Murders and the Trial of Gene Leroy Hart by Gloyd McCoy. I'll be very interested to read it as soon as it's available.

I have to say that I find these photos of Camp Scott today rather chilling.


"I think 100 years from now, people will say, 'Well, what's the biggest case in Oklahoma history?' And people will say this case."
- former criminal defense attorney Gloyd McCoy on the 1977 Girl Scout murders

Comments

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

That's disappointing. I would really like to have known that the families could have gotten some closure from this--I'd like some, myself. I was 16 in 1977, a former Girl Scout (who'd attended camps like that one) and still living in Ponca City. I'm still not over this, myself, and I don't think I ever will be.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly in wishing there was some closure to be found. I'd had hopes about the new DNA test, but it seems that wasn't to be. I can't imagine how it was for you, especially as a former Girl Scout who'd been to just such places.

I was living in Tulsa at the time it happened. Not long after I became a Camp Fire Girl, and I remember how the echoes of this tragedy were always with us on our camping experiences (with security-minded adult troop leaders staying in the same room as the girls at night and all of us knowing why). Later in school I knew a family member of one of the victims.

I remember the coverage of the case remarkably well, even after all these years. Just the name of "Locust Grove" reminds me how we girls would talk about it - on the rare occasions we did - only in whispers.

[xtrustisyoursx.livejournal.com]

Having only moved to OK from Nashville a few months back, this is so eye-opening! Today I've basically read everything there is to read online about the girl scout murders.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

It's a very sad and horrifying moment in recent Oklahoma history, to be sure. And it's one I think many are yet to fully get over, since there's been no real closure even after all this time. It deserves to be remembered: thanks so much for reading about it!

If you'd like something a bit less awful, though, I offer this tribute to the town where I grew up. Hopefully it's less nightmare-inducing.

How are things in OKC these days (am I remembering correctly that's where you are)? It sounds like you've had some crazy weather lately.

[xtrustisyoursx.livejournal.com]

OKC is good. Still getting used to the lack of diagonal streets and the extreme amounts of space between things which make for lengthy travel times lol. Obviously the weather is the weather, though luckily most of the really bad stuff has gone south of the metro (which I understand is how it often happens.)

I had no idea you were from Tulsa. My girlfriend's best friend goes to law school at U of Tulsa, and though I've only visited 2 or 3 times, I really enjoyed the city and hope to spend some more time there.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

and the extreme amounts of space between things which make for lengthy travel times lol.

LOL! Audiobooks are your friend. ;-P

Very cool about your Tulsa connection! My mother graduated from the University of Tulsa. :) I have great memories of the city. If you haven't been to Philbrook Museum there, in particular, I highly recommend it. It's one of my favorite places in Tulsa.

[shagungu.livejournal.com]

I spent a lot of time last night after I heard, reading about Joanna Russ online, and pulling all her books off my shelf and stacking them next to my bed for rereading. Going to start with Souls, go on to When it Changed, and then go to We Who Are About To. I wish her essay on slash "Pornography By Women For Women, With Love," was online -- I think that the first time I ever heard of slash fiction was reading this essay in her book Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans & Perverts. I was blown away. Of course, it took over a decade for me to actually get start reading slash myself. I haven't seen any mention of her death on any of the ST coms I read; maybe I'll post a bit of a tribute myself. Someone on dreamwidth started a com to talk about her and discuss her work:

http://future-of-feminism.dreamwidth.org/

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope you do post a tribute! Thank you so much for posting the link to the community on Dreamwidth, and for reminding me of the reason we should read and reread her work. I agree with you about wishing that her article on slash were online! I need to reread that anyway. *makes note*

[cookiefleck.livejournal.com]

I looked through the Girl Scout websites and they are somewhat contradictory, a bit mumbo-jumboish in parts, and lacking in key info. Now that you piqued my curiosity, can you tell me: (1) were the girls raped or not (the websites give conflicting info), and (2) what evidence if any linked Hart to the crimes? The fingerprints?

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

According to the original autopsy report, all three girls were sexually assaulted.

I'll need to go back and look at the book/newspaper clippings to be sure about the evidence, but if I remember correctly, the fingerprint issue was controversial (as in some of the evidence "disappeared," one print definitely wasn't his, etc. - but I'm too hazy on the specifics to be certain). As I recall, the main evidence against Hart was the unusual style of knots in the bindings used at the camp site, which were the same type that Hart had used in previous assaults (rapes, not murders) to which he'd pled guilty and for which he'd been convicted. I'll check.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I'm back after rereading the original book on the subject. (I'm getting ready to read the brand new one next.) First, yes, the three girls were raped.

Second, no fingerprints linked Hart. The links were circumstantial: knots in the ropes that matched knots from his previous (confessed) assaults, pictures and other personal items found in a cave where crime scene materials (tape, newspapers, film used to cover the flashlight bulb, etc.) were also found, and similarities between the stealth he used in previous burglaries and the stealth used in the girls' campsite (where several tents were burglarized before the three girls were assaulted/murdered).

The physical evidence - hair, blood type, and sperm - were all consistent with Hart (in other words, none ruled him out), but none could be positively identified as his either, and even the recent DNA re-analysis came up as inconclusive.

What surprises me about the first book is that it suggests the investigators treated the murders as an either-or scenario; Hart did it or he didn't. Yet much of the evidence suggests more than one person may have been involved. Even though Hart was acquitted, the case was treated as if it were closed (when, even if Hart really had committed the crimes, a partner/co-conspirator might have been at large). I'm anxious to see what this new book says. Sorry for the long delay in replying!

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

OMG, I had forgotten all about that case. I was 11 when that happened, and happened to be at Campfire Girl camp (El Tesoro, about 45 minutes south of Ft. Worth) for two weeks.

We didn't hear what happened, but knew something was going on. All the adults were on edge and suddenly they wouldn't let us go out alone (we had to stay in the cabins or lunch area). The camp closed and they called our parents to come get us early. I'm assuming refunds were given, but I don't remember.

My parents just told me on the way home that some girl scouts had been murdered at a camp up in Oklahoma. And they never sent me to summer camp again.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Augh, that must have been so frightening, being at camp during all of that and then being sent home early, knowing something was going on but not knowing what. How very sad! And your poor parents! The "what ifs" must've been terrifying for them, too.

I was in Camp Fire, too! I went to Camp Waluhili on the lake at Ft. Gibson in Oklahoma. Probably the only reason I was allowed to go after this tragedy was that the adult troop leaders stayed in the same big cabin as the girls, and one of those leaders was my mother! I remember security being a big issue all of the time, though, and all of us knew why.

[abbie (from livejournal.com)]

Dr. Amy will be on the YouTubes! You'll do great! Win them over with your personality and pretty smile. :)

Noooooo Joanna Russ! I really liked that short story! So much so that I wrote a paper on it a few semesters ago. I think I told you that I found a audio recording of her reading some of her work, including When It Changed. She was a neat lady.

I remember you posting about the Girl Scout murders, and I think I read some things about it previously, but just now I went through that whole website... no words.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks for the vote of confidence! It's most appreciated. :)

I recalled that you'd written on Russ (a fantastic thing to do!); her writing really packed a punch, didn't it? I last taught her work in my "Single-Gender Worlds" class, and I recall several students listing her story as their favorite text in class. Once you read her writing, it stays with you - which means, I hope, that she will be remembered a long time.

Those murders remain like a raw wound even after all this time, I think. As some of the other comments above suggest, several of us remember where we were when it happened, and how it changed lives, even those not immediately connected to the tragedy. It's one of those events that defies you to wrap your brain - or your heart - around it. It sounds like the conclusion of the new book is going to be that we'll never know the whole truth; I hope that's not the case, but it seems that each year that passes makes this more likely. Thanks so much for your interest and time. I think most people who remember or know about it agree that those girls shouldn't be forgotten.

[agentxpndble.livejournal.com]

My goodness, that is quite the link salad you've tossed up today. :-)

Russ - Sweetie, you have absolutely, positively, GOT TO START COMING TO WISCON. It's a chance to meet these writers before they are lost to us!

Campbell - Oh, phoo. I really liked him.

Congrats on the Washington DC thing!

Those pictures of the camp are really pretty awesome, history aside. Along with the bird-chirping soundtrack, it's an amazingly poignant photo essay on abandoned structures.