True crime: 364.1523 and .1524

There is something rather infamous about this week in history,

because it marks the anniversaries of the rampage of Charles Manson’s

“family” in 1969, the Great British Train Robbery in 1963, the

resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, and the capture of “Old Harve”

Bailey in 1933.

Bailey once robbed the U.S. Mint in Denver of $500,000 -- a

considerable amount at the time -- but was accidentally captured in

Paradise, Texas. He was hiding at the same ranch as “Machine Gun”

Kelly and his gang, who had kidnapped businessman Charles Urschel.

The irony is, of course, that Bailey never used weapons and had

nothing to do with the kidnapping, but he spent more than 30 years in

Leavenworth for the wrong crime.

And what has this to do with libraries? The simple fact that true

crime, as a genre, is one of the most popular sections of the

library, and any librarian can rattle off the Dewey Decimal numbers

364.1523 and .1524 to point the curious reader in the right

direction.

Though the genre is as old as one of the first accounts in the

Bible (the fratricide of Abel by Cain), it has its roots in the

broadsides and ballads circulated about famous criminals and their

just and gruesome punishments. Even “Lizzie Borden took an ax ... “

falls into this category.

In 19th century England, many of the best writers took true crime

stories as a basis for a work of fiction. Robert Louis Stevenson’s

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” based on respectable cabinetmaker named

Deacon Brodie who led a double life of adultery, excessive gambling,

and robbery of his customers, is one example. And his equally eerie

“The Body Snatcher,” based on the real Burke and Hare who went from

“merely” robbing graves in order to sell cadavers to medical schools

to manufacturing them through murder, is another.

But these are fictionalized accounts. Scottish criminologist

William Roughead, and American Edmund Lester Pearson -- who was

obsessed by the Lizzie Borden case -- were among the first

chroniclers of true crime. The genre reached its peak with Truman

Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” which set the standard for all true crime

writing since.

From “Helter Skelter” -- Vincent Bugliosi’s exhaustive account of

the Manson family -- to Norman Mailer’s controversial but

prize-winning book “The Executioner’s Song” about the crimes and

punishment of Gary Gilmore, there have been numerous books about

crimes and criminals that have captured readers’ imaginations and

garnered critical respect and literary awards, as well.

Well-written, thoroughly researched and incisive, the best of this

genre are much more than a longer version of a story in the Police

Gazette. The accounts of Bundy, Dahmer, and Susan Smith are

fascinating, not so much for the grisly aspects of their crimes, but

because such behavior seems so mysterious and inexplicable.

And the best writers -- such as Joe McGinniss, Ann Rule, James B.

Stewart, Carlton Stowers, Jack Olsen and Richard Hammer -- illuminate

the minds of the criminals, as well as the minds and investigative

techniques of those who pursue them. We read the headlines and follow

the case on the evening news, but it is the in-depth narrative

accounts that give us the full story.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Sara Barnicle. For more information

on the Central Library or any of the branches, please contact the

Newport Beach Public Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2.