The movie J. Edgar and the Lindbergh kidnapping

I’ve been reading the reviews of the new movie J. Edgar and I am surprised to learn that some of the critics are panning it.  For example: this review.  To me, J. Edgar is one of the best movies ever made, if not THE best.  The problem is that the story of J. Edgar is told through the eyes of the director, 81-year-old Clint Eastwood.  Younger people may not agree with Eastwood’s interpretation of events.

Here is a quote from another review:

It’s the graying Hoover we meet first, dictating his somewhat suspect memoir to a series of young agent-stenographers because he feels that “it’s time this generation learned my side of the story.”

That story begins with a rarely examined event in American history, the 1919 Palmer raids against anarchists and other supposed radicals. In response to a series of bombings, U.S. Atty. Gen. A. Mitchell Palmer in effect took the law into his own hands, collaborating with the 24-year-old Hoover and the newly formed FBI to attack people for their ideas without evidence of crimes. It’s the first of several examples we see in the film of what can happen when unchecked governmental power falls into the hands of the ruthless and the self-righteous, when influential people believe, as Hoover did, that “sometimes you need to bend the rules a little to keep our country safe.”

There is an early scene in the movie when Emma Goldman, a famous anarchist and radical, is shown in court where she refuses to answer questions. In 1919, she was just out of prison after serving a two year sentence for “conspiring to induce men not to register for the draft.”  Not a single review, that I have read, mentioned the Emma Goldman character.  Why is Emma Goldman important?  Emma Goldman was deported to Russia because America didn’t want Bolsheviks, anarchists and radicals back in those days.  If she were alive today, Emma would be leading the Occupy Wall Street movement and she would be a hero to the progressives.

Before I went to see the movie on Friday, I imagined that the plot would dwell on the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr.  They were included, but the most important plot thread was the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in March 1932.  In one scene of the movie, the discovery of the body of the 18-month-old baby is shown.  The body was decomposed and nothing was left but a skeleton; it was found near a road and within sight of the house.  There is a brief moment when the skeleton is shown with the white Lindbergh house visible in the background.  The movie does not show, nor mention, that any effort had been made to bury the body.  Who kills a baby and then leaves the evidence behind, where it can easily be found?  

Beth Twitty confronted Joran van der Sloot in prison and it was all caught on camera

Update Nov. 9, 2010:

Entertainment Tonight had more on Monday night about Beth Twitty’s  confrontation with Joran van der Sloot back in September.  This part of the documentary showed that Joran abruptly ended the session and walked out. (Apparently, the story that the confrontation was stopped by prison officials is untrue.) After Joran walked out, Beth broke down and cried.  Throughout the  confrontation, Joran had kept his cool and didn’t get emotional as he said all the right things, like “I should have learned from my mistakes, yada, yada, yada…”

After Joran was out of the room, Beth talked to herself, with tears streaming down her face, as she accused Joran of taking everything from her: her daughter, her husband, her life, etc., etc., etc.   It never occurred to her that SHE was the one who took everything from Joran and ruined HIS life.  He was 17, with his whole life ahead of him, when Beth decided that he had murdered her daughter.  Joran spent time in jail twice, but was released each time for LACK OF EVIDENCE. 

My original post:

Last night I watched bits of the documentary aired by the TV show Entertainment Tonight after the show purchased the film from the Dutch network SBS6.  In the documentary, Beth Twitty, the mother of Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba five years ago, confronts Joran van der Sloot in prison in Lima, Peru.  The whole thing was very strange, to say the least.  

Dorothea Puente house in Sacramento

Dorothea Puente house at 1426 F St. in Sacramento, California

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

It’s Halloween and time for ghosts and haunted houses.  Today I went to see where Dorothea Puente buried the bodies of 7 of the 9 people, that she had allegedly murdered, in the back yard of her house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento. 

Oprah’s interview with Mark Fuhrman, the detective in the O.J. Simpson case

Yesterday Oprah did one of her best interviews when she talked with Mark Fuhrman, one of the detectives in the O.J. Simpson murder case.  This was Oprah’s second interview of Fuhrman.

The most astonishing thing that Mark Fuhrman said in his interview with Oprah was that O.J. “didn’t go there to kill two people.”  He went on to explain that O.J. “had a history of stalking” Nicole and spying on her. He said that Nicole “saw him hiding in the bushes,” and this was what led to the murder of her and Ron Goldman. He said that O.J. “knew of her relationship with Ron Goldman.”

Since O.J. didn’t go to Nicole’s condo with the intent to kill her, according to Fuhrman, this means that it was not first degree murder.  

Joe Tacopina says Joran van der Sloot has “disintegrated” in last five years

Last night on the Joy Behahr TV show, Joe Tacopina said that Joran van der Sloot was a nice guy five years ago when he was accused of being responsible for the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, but after five years of accusations without any evidence, Joran slowly disintegrated and turned into a completely different person.  Joran is being held in Peru for the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez, a crime to which he has confessed. Joe Tacopina was formerly a defense attorney for Joran van der Sloot and he still sticks up for him, although he is much too high priced for Joran now.  

Dr. Oz TV show and acid reflux disease…

Yesterday I tuned into the Dr. Oz TV show just in time to hear Kim Kardashian tell Dr. Oz that her father Robert Kardashian died from esophageal cancer which was brought on by acid reflux disease.  You can read about esophageal cancer here. On the show, Dr. Oz explained the cause of esophageal cancer, but didn’t offer any solution for preventing acid reflux disease.  

Criminal Museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I’ve been reading about the Natalee Holloway Resource Center that opened on June 8th in the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, DC.  That reminded me of several trips that I took to the German town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber which has something called the Criminal Museum.  I am putting up the photos that I took in the Museum. Click on the photos to see a larger size.

Who planted date rape drugs in Stephany Flores Ramirez’s Jeep?

Now that Joran van der Sloot has tearfully confessed to the murder of Stephany Flores Martinzez, it seems unlikely that Joran would have given her a date rape drug while the two of them were in Stephany’s Jeep before going to his hotel.  The Flores family made a big deal out of telling the press that there were date rape drugs and/or wrappers found in her Jeep.  Obviously, they wanted to protect Stephany’s reputation by claiming that she was drugged before Joran took her to his room for sex.  According to the Flores family, Joran’s alleged motive was that Stephany said “No” even after she was drugged and that’s why he became enraged and killed her.

Joran van der Sloot has confessed

I just heard on Fox News that Joran van der Sloot has confessed to the murder of Stephany Flores Martinez.  He told investigators that he went out for coffee and when he came back, he found her using his laptop computer.  Stephany had googled his name and was reading about his alleged murder of Natalee Holloway. This was what caused him to go into a rage and kill her. Joran said that they argued about her invasion of his privacy on his laptop and then he attacked her.

Mark Fuhrman goes to Peru and gets the truth about the Joran ver der Sloot case

Mark Fuhrman is a Fox news contributor and he made a trip to Peru to get the facts about the murder of Stephany Flores Martinez for Greta van Susteren’s “On the Record” TV show.