I’m almost done watching the documentary based on the “citizen detective” work that Michelle McNamara killed herself doing, and it definitely has me appreciating what I’ve avoided doing in my own unpaid obsession to put context around the ability of a local Sheriff’s Office to euthanize someone on life support in a private hospital room without first getting input from his family.
The main thing I’ve avoided doing (which killed McNamara) is to ride a chemical rollercoaster of uppers and opiates on the path to writing a book about a psychopathic killer–one that, to her credit, this citizen detective helped catch after her death at the age of 46.
One 47 second clip I recorded from the documentary about early efforts in California to identify GSK is worth watching (link) because it shows how and why some counties and towns, like Montecito in Santa Barbara County, had Sheriffs that chose to ignore what was right in front of them–can’t threaten those property values!
In Western Montana it was a citizen who shot and killed our famous serial killer, Wayne Nance, and for a more modern perspective on serial killing I wrote this post a little over a year ago highlighting current speculation from our community that a serial killer might be operating in a series of deaths that local law enforcement have never publicly connected.
When my own co-worker became one of the dead bodies briefly investigated as a possible homicide in the same neighborhood where gunshots rang out earlier this morning, additional targeting came MY way for continuing to notice the pattern that no one else in authority wants to publicly talk about.
Two days before gunshots kicked off Friday in Midtown, four bail bondsmen rolled into Missoula and gunned someone down at Town Pump off Reserve Street. If the Sheriff’s Office still shared mugshots with the public we’d know what this dude looks like instead of imaging DOG, the Bountyhunter.
Will legislating harder next legislative session help stop this dumb shit from happening with regards to the specific threat of bondsmen going cowboy at a gas station? Because, back in 2022, Troy Downing apparently understood the threat after a lethal incident in Butte.
A bill designed to curb reckless and dangerous bounty-hunting tactics in Montana has advanced to the state Senate and backers say it’s likely to pass in the coming days.
It passed the House on an 83-17 vote in late January, was endorsed by the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs on Thursday and the full Senate is expected to vote on it soon. Its sponsor in that chamber is Butte Democrat Ryan Lynch.
A few changes have been made so if approved by the Senate, the bill must return to the House for another vote. But its biggest proponent, Montana Auditor and Insurance Commissioner Troy Downing, is confident it will win final approval and be signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte.
Downing, a Republican, proposed the legislation in response to a botched bounty hunt in Butte that turned fatal and other violent incidents.
My hunch is that legislating harder will NOT stop what’s happening because what’s happening is a cyclical ride on the “4th Turning“, and when you know that maybe the details of societal collapse will be a little bit easier to process.
Thanks for reading!