Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

Message board

* FAQ    * Register   * Login 



This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.
Author Message Previous topic | Next topic
~Guest 2944
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 4:17 pm
Posts: 794
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 9:14 am 
 

What are some of your favorite true crime stories?

One of mine is the Axeman of New Orleans. His killing spree lasted from 1918 to 1919 in New New Orleans, Louisiana USA. The killer mostly targeted Italian Americans and killed his victims with an axe they owned. In a few cases he used a straight razor. A letter reported to be from the killer was published in newspapers. He picked a particular day and a certain time just after midnight. He stated at that date and time if a house had Jazz music playing the residents would be spared from being killed. It is reported hundreds of houses had Jazz music blasting at that time. There were no murders that night. The killer was never arrested or identified.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axeman_of_New_Orleans

Top
 Profile  
Pincushion
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:04 pm
Posts: 93
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 12:19 pm 
 

This might not be the type of crime you were expecting, but I enjoy stories about art forgers. For example, Tom Keating, who despised art dealers and how they exploited artists.

Wikipedia wrote:
Keating perceived the gallery system to be rotten – dominated, he said, by American "avant-garde fashion, with critics and dealers often conniving to line their own pockets at the expense both of naïve collectors and [of] impoverished artists". Keating retaliated by creating forgeries to fool the experts, hoping to destabilize the system. Keating considered himself a socialist and used that mentality to rationalize his actions.

He planted "time-bombs" in his products. He left clues of the paintings' true nature for fellow art restorers or conservators to find. For example, he might write text onto the canvas with lead white before he began the painting, knowing that x-rays would later reveal the text. He deliberately added flaws or anachronisms, or used materials peculiar to the 20th century. Modern copyists of old masters use similar practices to guard against accusations of fraud.

In Keating's book The Fake's Progress, discussing the famous artists he forged, he stated that "it seemed disgraceful to me how many of them died in poverty". He reasoned that the poverty he had shared with these artists qualified him for the job. He added: "I flooded the market with the 'work' of Palmer and many others, not for gain, but simply as a protest against the merchants who make capital out of those I am proud to call my brother artists, both living and dead."


Ironically, Keating became famous posthumously and his forgeries are sold for large amounts of money. The prog rock band Big Big Train wrote a song about his life called "Judas Unrepentant", which is where I first heard about it.

Top
 Profile  
into_the_pit
Veteran

Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 7:40 pm
Posts: 2948
Location: Hedonist Occupation Government
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 7:24 pm 
 

Pincushion wrote:
This might not be the type of crime you were expecting, but I enjoy stories about art forgers.


if you're interested in this kind of things, there's this german guy (couple in fact) called beltracchi:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Beltracchi

also from germany, the murders in hinterkaifeck:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinterkaifeck_murders

the case is still unsolved today, and there's still a very vivid community around dabbling in theories.
_________________
Blort wrote:
"The neo-Hegelian overtones contrast heavily with the proto-Nietzschean discordance evident in this piece."
"Um, what work are you examining here?"
"Chainsaw Gutsfuck."

Top
 Profile  
Morrigan
Crone of War

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 7:27 am
Posts: 10527
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 7:39 pm 
 

We have this thread that's more or less the same thing (or enough overlap, anyway):

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=116531&start=320

Please us that :) thanks
_________________
Von Cichlid wrote:
I work with plenty of Oriental and Indian persons and we get along pretty good, and some females as well.

Markeri, in 2013 wrote:
a fairly agreed upon date [of the beginning of metal] is 1969. Metal is almost 25 years old

Top
 Profile  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 28 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

 
Jump to:  

Back to the Encyclopaedia Metallum


Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group