Writers Beware! Be careful what you google. I heard a report today of a man who'd been murdered with a bullet to the head, then dismembered and loaded into three suitcases, which were then tossed into Chesapeake Bay. Police have taken his wife into custody as the primary suspect. Apparently, they obtained her work computer history and found that ten days before the murder she had googled "How to Commit a Murder." They also found searches for "fast-acting poisons" and local "gun laws."
It occurred to me that as a writer I have googled some pretty suspicious stuff, "fast and slow-acting poisons, Strychnine, chloral hydrate, weapons of all sorts, corpse beetles, bombs, concealed gun laws, pressure points, blood volume in the human body, etc., etc. Hopefully, no one of my acquaintence will disappear under mysterious circumstances or I might find myself hoist by the petard of my own computer search history.
And now of course I'm wondering, how suspicious are you?
Thanks, I just replaced my hard drive.
ReplyDeleteI figure since this whole island has something like ten murders a year, I'm pretty safe.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if one of those murders *just happens* to involve the fiendish methods in my work (and all that research starts looking like evidence), I supppose it could get all Basic Instinct up in here.
Except, I suppose, that I'd wear pants to the interrogation...
Heavens. If you've got other people googling on your computer, too, it can also be pretty hairy. I shudder sometimes when I try to search anything and the browser "guesses" what I'm trying to write based on previous searches. Searches that I know *I* didn't do. Scary what my daughter looks up sometimes.
ReplyDeletecharles, i used to have a good source at cook county morgue. the guy was on vacation when i asked about the amount of strychnine needed to kill a man. the guy was ready to run an id check on me--i was calling from my job--so i hung up. i called the milwaukke morgue and got the info in about ten seconds. who the hell knows how things are now with the patriot act, homeland security, echelon, and rumsfeld's naked wrinkle dance skirting the world in youtube.
ReplyDeleteGood points to which I fall back on ye olde Damn the topredoes line.
ReplyDeleteYou seem saner than most, which is either a good cover or just plain true. . . . .
Like I tell the inmates, I'm squeaky clean and never broke a law in my entire life.
ReplyDeleteooo me gosh....mine would be Goth blood, alot of goth actually.
ReplyDeleteif you delete your cookies, I think it will clear that problem right up....hihihihi...:)
Steve, thank you for wearing pants.
ReplyDeleteSusan, good idea.
Kate, I'll have to tell you about the "history" on my computer after I left my 18 year old son home alone for a week.
Wayne, I bet the "new morgue guy" is still telling stories about his call from The Chicago Mangler.
Erik, I'm as sane as Wayne.
JR, I'm sure of it. (See comment above to Erik).
Etain, thanks for the hint on the cookies. I'll make sure I eat mine right away.
Strychnine, etc.? You're not upset with me about anything...are you? ;)
ReplyDeleteFortunately the most anyone would get out of my cookies are a love of Pink Floyd, info on local attractions & birds & a desire to make my squealing fan belt shut the hell up.
Clearing the cache should take care of that, right?
ReplyDeleteI heard that even erasing the cache left a trace....
ReplyDelete