"I have to stop watching all these crime shows; I'm getting so paranoid."

[BlueIris]

Says my mother after watching her third straight hour of American Justice and then calling me at my house because she's freaked out. Does that ever happen to anyone else--consuming just a little too much of the TC stuff and then wondering if you're living next door to a Ted Bundy wannabe? I think I'm beyond that kind of thing at this point, even though I've read that America has far fewer unsolved murders each year than most would suspect, because I've been exposed to so many crime stories I've gotten a little desensitized. Just curious.

[frogmarch]

1. I understand where your

mother is coming from, because I freak out after watching too many programs about hard-to-diagnose diseases. TC shows don't affect me that way, but that could be because I live in a small, quiet town (the last place you'd ever think a MURRRRDERRR could happen...) Yikes, now I'm starting to freak out too.

TC shows have made me lots less clueless. Years ago, a (very, very) peculiar (and creepy) guy who used to frequent my workplace showed me a skull he said he'd found while hunting for agates. After I grilled him about it, he said he thought it must have weathered out of a Lakota burial mound. Judging from the size of the skull, the teeth and the skull sutures, I was convinced the skull was that of a juvenile. I was a fossil preparator at the time, and for a variety of reasons, to me the skull didn't appear to be old enough to have come from a burial mound. I told the old guy he should contact the state archaeologist or law enforement and have it checked out. The next time I saw the guy, I asked him if he had, and he said he'd put it back where he'd found it, although I suspected he hadn't, because he collected unusual things. Still,I let it go at that, even though it irked me to think of the skull lying outside, weathering away.

Years later, after having watched lots of TC shows, I remembered the incident and kicked myself for not having pursued the matter. The guy had died in a car accident, but I thought maybe his widow had kept his collections. I considered contacting her myself and asking her if the skull was among them, but instead I contacted the state archaeologist. He got right on it, but the widow insisted she had never seen the skull and knew nothing about it, so the state archaeologist had little choice but to drop the matter. He wished I'd contacted him or the police at the beginning, because when I described the skull to him, he thought it might have been from a fairly recent individual.

Anyway, thanks to True Crime programs, I'm not the clueless dummy I used to be.

[BlueIris]

2. ...egh. That's messed up.

I'm sorry that you had to go through an encounter like that. I've met some weird folks in my day, but, but--!! No one who might have been carrying around evidence of an unsolved murder.

[XanaDUer]

3. THis is a great post.

No, I have not found that I am more paranoid or weirded out than I ever was. I probably DO watch waaaay too much TC shows, however.