imyourmausoleum's reviews
1690 reviews

 David Russel Williams was born in the UK in 1963. Soon after, his family moved to Canada. He joined the Canadian military in 1987, ultimately achieving the rank of Colonel. Williams got up to all types of secret shenanigans. He was a pedo, stealing the underwear of children. He did nearly 100 home invasions, creeping around in the rooms of underage children. He even dressed in the items he stole from them. Eventually, he moved on to rape and murder. Idiotically, he kept a record of what he was doing. Williams is currently serving time at a prison in Canada.

Interestingly, Williams attended the same school as another notorious figure, Paul Bernardo, who was two years ahead of him. I learned a lot of facts about this person that were not covered on the Dateline episode in which this book was featured. I found this book to be a pretty solid true crime book. 

 This was a wonderful book about the Metropolitan Museum and the author's perspectives on the collection. I really enjoyed listening to this book. 

 This book covers the Johnson family: Duane, Sandy, Sherrie, and Michael. The family lived in Omaha, Nebraska. The family took ill suddenly one September morning, exhibiting symptoms of food poisoning or flu. Three other members of the family stopped by, but left promptly once Sandy told them she thought her family had the flu. Those three members became ill later that same day, exhibiting the same symptoms. One of those, an 11-month-old boy, died. Duane died the day after his nephew. A subsequent investigation into the root of the mysterious illnesses led back to the Johnson house, where tainted lemonade was determined to be the culprit. All signs pointed to a deliberate poisoning by DMN, a highly toxic chemical that can alter DNA and cause cancer. I won't spoil the book with the identity of the poisoner, but it was an interesting investigation. This book was informative and included more details than the episode of Forensic Files that it was on. 

 

Emma Gill died after seeking an abortion from Dr. Nancy Guilford in 1898. Emma found herself in a sexual relationship with a man above her social class. The pair wanted to terminate the pregnancy. Unfortunately, as abortion was illegal in the United States, they traveled around to find someone willing to covertly perform the procedure. Equally as unfortunate, they found Dr. Guilford, who had skipped bail and was hurting for money. She agreed to perform the procedure on Emma for a stiff fee, despite the advanced stage of pregnancy. Emma contracted an infection, killing her. Her body was dismembered and dumped. The whole story was tragic and avoidable. Access to sterile medical environments, with qualified medical professionals, and the legal right to access medical care would have prevented Emma's death...and so many others.
 
This is a very relevant book to our current time where women's right to access medical care and reproductive issues are being undermined by men with no business commenting, those who have no concept of science and biology, and those pushing one religious agenda. It is easy to see how dangerous the criminalization of abortion can be. Making access to medical procedures will not stop the medical procedures. It will simply kill women. Women will be regulated to seeking black market medical care from unqualified people, just like Emma Gill did. I was pleased with this book, which is less than 300 pages and only about six hours to listen to on Audible.

 

 Karla Brown was found murdered in the home she and her boyfriend were moving into in 1978. Police felt that the crime scene was staged, due to various inconsistencies in the condition of the body and circumstances surrounding the findings. Her boyfriend had a rock-solid alibi, clearing him from suspicion. Fingerprints at the scene all belonged to Karla or her boyfriend, except one. After four years, police would be able to nail down a suspect and take the case to court. This case was notable for the consultation the local police did with FBI behavioral analysts.

This case was featured on Forensic Files, Season 4, Episode 8 if you are interested in watching. The book provided a lot of details not covered in the show. This was a solid true crime book, despite the age of the crime and date of publication. It is interesting to see how advances in investigation have progressed since the 1970s. New technology at this time is commonly used in the modern era. It is a great reminder of how far science has come. 

 Polly Klaas was taken from her home at knifepoint on October 1, 1993. She had invited two friends over for a sleepover, and the girls opened her bedroom door to find a stranger glowering in the hallway. He tied the girls up before asking who lived there, where the valuables were, and why there were so many people. He left the home with Polly, all while her mother and younger sister were asleep in the next room. The search for Polly and the mystery man brought about a lot of changes to police operations. The all-points bulletin was issued on the California Highway Patrol channel, and after this incident, policies were changed so that broadcasts could be heard by officers across all agencies within a specific area. This may have made a difference in Polly's case if other officers had been aware of what was going on. The three strikes law was implemented in California after this, because this man really should have never been released from prison to roam the streets. The use of alternative light sources, think luminol and fingerprinting techniques, were tried during this incident and put into practice in the aftermath.

The perpetrator in this case was Richard Allen Davis. He was born in 1954 to two abusive, alcoholic parents. His father was mentally unstable, which probably did not help matters much. Davis himself would later be diagnosed with schizophrenia. Davis began his life of crime before he was a teenager. He was around 40 at the time of this incident and had been in and out of jail and prison.

I started this book yesterday at work and finished it today. It was a bit long, but was extremely detailed about the crime, the investigation, and the people involved in the case. I really enjoyed learning about all the changes made in the wake of this incident. This was a solidly written true crime book. 

 This was an interesting book about the marriage of science and crime. I have had this on my shelf for a while, and finally got around to it. Forensic medicine has improved so much, and advancements continue every day. It was neat to look back at the history of it and learn about some mysterious older cases. 

 I have read and watched quite a bit of things about the sinking of The Titanic, and I cannot say that I learned a lot of technical information from this book that I did not already know. However, the personal accounts that the author pulled from newspaper interviews, letters, journal entries, and court hearings contained valuable information for painting a picture of the lives of people in this time period, from different classes, and the experiences from the wreck. This book took quite a while to listen to, but is only around 300 pages for those interested in physical copies. 

 Francis Mawson Rattenbury was born in Leeds in 1867. He began his career as an architect in the UK but moved to Canada in 1891. He designed the Parliament Building in Victoria, Canada, which is beautiful. He also designed the Fairmont Empress Hotel, another beautiful building, and did work for the railway company. He married Flory, before divorcing her amid a cheating scandal. He treated Flory exceptionally poorly, especially after leaving her. He married his mistress, Alma, in 1925, immediately following his divorce. That saying "you lose them how you get them" applies here, as Alama began an affair with their chauffeur/handyman, George Stoner. Rattenbury was assaulted in a fit of jealousy by Stoner, subsequently dying. This book covers the relationship between Alma and George Stoner, the murder of Rattenbury, and the court case. I will not spoil the conclusion here, but it took a turn I was not expecting.

I have had this book on my Audible for some time, and finally got around to it at work yesterday. I have been slowly working my way through all of the things I bought during the last big sale. This book was something like six hours of listening time. It kept me entertained for my shift, and definitely threw me for a loop there towards the end. I was pleased with this book 

 

General Electric was founded in 1892 in New York by some heavy-hitting names: J. P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, Charles Coffin, and Henry Higginson. General Electric was one of the first twelve companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. GE saw their fair share of scandals, from having to divest from RCA and NBC, the dumping of waste into the Hudson River, air pollution, and pollution of the Housatonic River. GE is considered a defunct company as of April 02, 2024, though there are spin off companies still operating.

This book is extremely informative if you are interested in large companies. I didn't realize GE was in operation for as long as they were. I think the most interesting part of this book, for me, was the sections on pollution. I set my goal for 100,000 pages this year, and this book was 800 pages. A nice little drop in my page count bucket.