From an article published by WSB TV at their website, titled Reward Issued for Information in Cobb Fires, a bit of MSM (MainStream Media) reportage for ya:

A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information about recent fires at three Cobb County stores that authorities say were apparently deliberately set.

Anyone with information about the fires, that were reported Friday at a CVS pharmacy, Kroger and Publix grocery stories, was asked to call the Georgia Arson Hotline at 800-282-5804.

Investigators have determined that the blazes were an act of arson…

There is an implication in offering a reward for info about all three fires that one person was responsible. I believe, due to all three locations being commercial and in the same general area, that one person probably was responsible. The first thing I thought of was Joseph Wambaugh’s book about John Leonard Orr, Fire Lover. Orr was considered an expert in arson investigation, and the southern California fireman developed this expertise by being a prolific arsonist who tended to target commercial establishments.

Arsonists are very much like serial killers, and sometimes they become serial killers — they have a jones for power. So anyone who might have information to offer about this recent spate of suburban terrorism really should call that arson hotline and try and get the guy who is trying to burn the strip malls out of Cobb County off the streets. I grow as tired of the soulless windswept expanses of suburbia and Village of the Damned-looking kids playing soccer at dusk in every cul-de-sac as the next guy, but I’m kind of fond of CVS and their large selection of colorful tabloids, caffeine pills, cold medicines and Timex watches. That, and they always have those special pills that I obviously need.

Seriously, though — arsonists, like serial killers, rarely stop of their own accord. So be vigilant, and help, if you are able.

Appropos of nothing, I want to introduce the three people who might not know to ScaredMonkeys.com. I wouldn’t tack this unrelated note on my arsonist entry but for the fact that Tom, one of the two guys who created that very popular blog, is an Atlanta-area resident. That, and the Scared Monkeys have been all over the Natalee Holloway [Google search] story like newsprint on sweaty fingertips. Give a look-see, if for no other reason than to enjoy the photos of scared monkeys, always a treat.

Jeff Dauler, co-host of The Bert Show on Atlanta’s Q100, has decided it’s time to sue Jennifer Wilbanks.

Here’s some of what he says at the site:

I am exploring the possibility of filing a class action suit against the couple to prevent them from earning anything related to her actions. Members of the class could include professionals and volunteers who gave up time and goods to aid in her search, media outlets who devoted airtime to the story, citizens who altered plans or routines out of fear, or business owners who may have lost income…

The Bert Show insists that this is not a joke.
Sounds like Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter might not even think it’s a bad idea — here’s what he said about Jennifer Wilbanks and her fiance John Mason selling their story to the media:

“I guess that says more about this whole case than anything else that has happened. I’m really sort of disgusted by the whole thing…”

On this page at SueJennifer.com Jeff Dauler posted text from a variety of e-mails he’s received about this endeavor; I do think he showed some credibility by posting some negative messages as well:

• “…Instead of signing book deals, Ms. Wilbanks should be in Aruba assisting law enforcement in the search for missing teenager, Natalee Holloway. Maybe the reality of seeing Miss Holloway’s family in pain would jolt Jennifer Wilbanks back into reality…”
• “…Your an idiot Jeff. If someone wants to pay them for their story then what business is it of yours. Get over it already.”
• “…I was kidnapped, sodomized and raped by a man when I was 19 years old. Jennifer Wilbanks’ giant fib mocked and made fun of something that changed my life forever. I personally would like to see her prosecuted for filing a false report about being sexually assaulted/ raped. She completely made a mockery out of something I have personally experienced and I feel that she should have to pay for all of the rape victims that MUST endure the second victimization.”
• “…How would you like some uppity shock jock personality causing drama in YOUR life because of a stupid mistake that you made? Don’t be an a**hole like so many other has-been radio personalities. You’re not going to profit from this stunt like you think you will, and more than likely you’ll probably just set yourself up for more trouble than you think. The media may think that this is everybody’s business, but it isn’t…”

The writer who mentioned Natalee Holloway [link: The Vanishing of Natalee Holloway] made a good point. One that could be made with any missing persons case currently causing a family and the surrounding community pain and fear…

I suggest to anyone who is interested that you take a look at The Charley Project, or The Doe Network. At the Charley Project there are over 5,000 missing persons listed — here’s a link to their page for missing persons from Georgia. There you will find stories like that of Michael Daniel Knight, who disappeared from Atlanta in 2002, or Paula Ann Wade and her son Brandon Lee Wade, who vanished in 2002 from Valdosta, Georgia.

Jennifer Wilbanks sold her low comedy to the highest bidder, when perhaps she could stand to acquaint herself with the myriad ghosts of the missing still trailing their loved ones through life — the faces of people found at the sites mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Some of her profits from selling her story could even be donated to organizations devoted to finding missing adults and children. Look those families and friends in the eyes and confront the truth. Understand that however unintended, her act mocked the mysteries those families live with daily.

If Jeff Dauler wants to be taken more seriously he might want to make a links page — links to sites like the Charley Project, the Doe Network.

A few suggestions are listed below.

• The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
• The World Missing Children Organization.
• ID-Wanted.org.
• Unsolved Mysteries on Lifetime TV — Missing Persons Page.
• The North American Missing Persons Network. — affiliated with the Doe Network.
• I Care — Missing Persons & Cold Cases — an ezboard discussion group.

From my own entry:

Between approximately 1909 and 1912 possibly as many as 20 women of color were strangled and then brutally slashed to death. Only one victim of the killer escaped - she described her assailant as a well-dressed African-American man…

The Atlanta Ripper may have killed as many as 20 or more women. I ended the blog entry by listing many of their names, so that they were commemorated to a new century. It is likely far too late for anything like justice for the long-dead victims of the mysterious “well-dressed African-American man” who struck down women of color in the night back in those sepia-toned days, so it seemed at least right to make sure that they were no longer neglected, hidden in the dusty folds of time.

I ended the entry before the list of names with the following:

These women lived in a time and place that didn’t treat their awful deaths with the gravity they deserved because of their skin color. One hopes a similar occurrence today would bring about a very different response from authorities, and a legacy that stays in the public memory with more permanence, like the Atlanta Child Murders some 60+ years later…

“One hopes,” I wrote, thinking that surely multiple murders of any group nowadays would not go unnoticed.

Then I read about Precious Armani.

From an article published in the AJC on the ides of March, 2004 (3/15), by Saeed Ahmed, titled Vigil honors slaying victim:

(Precious) Armani, whose legal name was Samuel Eugene Daily, was a 37-year-old preoperative male-to-female transsexual: She lived full time as a woman but had not undergone surgery to complete her transformation.

She was found slumped in the driver’s seat of a rented white Chevrolet Cavalier parked outside Bennington Towers, a Buckhead high-rise in the 2400 block of Peachtree Road. She had been shot in the head. Police would not say whether there had been a struggle…

Precious was murdered at the beginning of March last year, and the article was about a service in her memory.

The death of Precious Armani, to my knowledge still unsolved, is tragic enough, but the most astonishing part of the article is at the beginning, in the second paragraph — I’ve added emphasis…

Armani’s death was the 10th known homicide of a transgendered person in Atlanta and the 14th in the state since 1990 ó placing Georgia fourth in the nation among states with the highest number of violent deaths of transgendered people.

All 14 deaths remain unsolved, according to TransAction, an Atlanta-based transgender advocacy group…

From an article written by Penny Weaver in 2001, published at ntac.org, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition website, titled Police probe two trans slayings in Savannah:

On Oct. 15, 1999, the body of “Sissy” Charles Bolden, 36, of Savannah was found in the woods in west Savannah’s Ogeecheeton neighborhood. Bolden was wearing women’s clothing and had been shot to death.

The body of Billy Jean Levette, 46, was found in a secluded wooded area in west Savannah near Jimmy Deloach Parkway on Nov. 20. He was lying face up with a wound to the back of his head, his pants pulled half-way down and shirt pulled up, according to police.

Detectives will not confirm the cause of death, citing the ongoing investigation.

Levette had been employed as a cosmetologist. He was wearing lipstick and eyeliner in an arrest photo from police files. Officials said he and Bolden both were known “streetwalkers” and each had a criminal history including charges on solicitation of sodomy…

At a website called transfm.org I found a list of several more of these unsolved murders, some of the victims named, some still John/Jane Does:

• Edna Brown
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot to death
  • Date of Death: December 24, 1990
• Unknown person wearing wig
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Killed by blow to head
  • Date of Death: October 29, 1991
• Huriell “Gypsy” Lockett (David King)
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot in the head
  • Date of Death: October 14, 1991
• Rhonda Star (Ronnie Dean Lyles)
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot to death
  • Date of Death: October 29, 1991
• Jean (Woodrow) Powell
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot in the back
  • Date of Death: November 8, 1991
• Unidentified crossdresser
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot to death
  • Date of Death: December 20, 1992
• Anthony Swain
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot to death
  • Date of Death: November 8, 1992
• Derry Glenn
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot to death
  • Date of Death: December 19, 1992
• Quincy Favors Taylor
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Cause of Death: Shot to death
  • Date of Death: October 11, 1995

I doubt that the list of victims above, which actually ends with Precious Armani, is exhaustive.

What it adds up to is this; since 1990 at least 12 (I was unable to track down the extra two to make the 14 that Saeed Ahmed reported) Georgia residents have been shot to death. All the above were transgendered. I am not certain, but I believe many, if not most of them were African-American. Most appear to have been murdered in the fall or winter.

There have been no news conferences, no major reports in any televised newscasts about this unexplained string of murders. I do not know if any of the investigations, including the one into Precious Armani’s murder, are still open.

In early 1900s Atlanta black men and women were still under the thumb of institutionalized racism in the form of Jim Crow laws. They lived in their own neighborhoods, had their own papers. The white Atlanta police even attempted to enlist “colored” detectives, perhaps for the first time, to investigate the Atlanta Ripper murders because, undoubtedly, they didn’t consider it work important enough to bother the caucasians on the force. It is a sad fact of history that this was how things were in Atlanta in 1910, 11, 12.

But it seems like things don’t necessarily ever change; they just shift around. For now, who is worried about 12 dead transvestites? Who is concerned that there might be a human being, or more than one, out there, capable of the cold-blooded dispatching of more than one man whose only true desire in life might have been to be born with a different body than the one he had? Their sisters-in-arms are; but is anyone listening?

In his remarkable book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil author John Berendt portrayed the larger-than-life “Lady Chablis” of Savannah. Lady Chablis, a transgendered person, was arguably the heart and soul of Berendt’s book, which otherwise recounted the trials of Jim Williams for the murder of homosexual hustler Danny Hansford. Anyone who read “Midnight” came away with an indelible picture of the complex, big-hearted, savvy Lady Chablis — a compelling portrait of a real transgendered person that owed much to Berendt’s lyrical prose, but as Lady Chablis’ ensuing minor fame proved, also was essentially true to its subject.

Not all transgendered people are like the charismatic Lady, but her presence along with the success of more than a few movies in the past decade with drag queens as the center of the drama would lead one to think that the place of transgendered people in society might be changing.

But I read the list of dead above, and come to the second victim, after “Edna Brown” — “unknown person wearing wig”. And it hits me — there are still segments of our society it is easier to see in those terms. Not as someone’s (possibly estranged) son, who wished in his heart of hearts he’d been born a daughter, not as someone’s best friend. No, we forget the flashing brilliance of the Lady Chablis in that moment, and it’s just some unknown dead person who was found wearing a wig.

Transgendered men have more than once referred to themselves as a sisterhood, which makes sense, if you think about it. But viewed in the context of the list of names above it occurs to me that at the moment, the (wo)men I’ve mentioned in this blog entry have a larger sisterhood.

One that reaches back across a century, into the early 1900s. A sisterhood with the women who were born women from post-Reconstruction Atlanta. A bond of mystery, and at the moment, injustice.

With The Dark Side: A True Crime Weblog which is now my primary blog as linked from here, I’ve discovered that I’m not the only weirdo out there who thinks and writes about high-profile and yes, Cap’n Strickland, occasionally bloody crimes in the news. I started Dark Side in it’s present form on December 29th, 2004. And then, boom, the hits kept a comin’. So now, almost 5 months later, it’s about to click over to 100,000 hits.

I don’t just cover Atlanta-based crimes, but hey, this is Atlanta — there does end up being plenty of local fodder for me to study. The Fulton County Courthouse Massacre [Google search], the disappearance and death of a nurse from Roswell, Leslie Beebe [Atlanta Metroblog search], Jennifer frickin’ “Runaway Bride” Wilbanks [Metroblog search], and yes, the Corbin Case [Dark Side search, Metroblog search].

I found after I started writing about that stuff that folks love it. If “love” is the right word. More than in my personal blog, planethuff.com/steve, where I will take risks style-wise or just be an idiot, I decided that I wanted to write accessible and detailed entries about these crimes for Dark Side, and if they had an internet element, highlight that with mucho linkage. What happened is once I levelled off with 1,000 hits a day, I realized I had a lot of work to do.

All in all the success of a personally-constructed blog is gratifying and a good thing, but it can make you feel weirdly obsessive and paranoid. Add to that the fact that I write about crimes, many of them yet to be solved… I am certain at least one or more suspect has read my blog entries about their deeds, may even be reading as we speak. I know families of victims read, so I take care to be as sensitive as I can when writing about their loved ones. I get disturbing comments the public never sees, because I delete them, and a ton of cryptic e-mail. Fun and scary, but also absorbing, even mentally exhausting.

Add to that a dose of multiple sclerosis and wintertime blues, and you have one absentee Atlanta metroblogger.

But now I’ve returned, and I promise I’ll be good — no egregious cross-posting of verbatim posts from my other blogs and I’ll take care with the gruesome details of my opera performances… and the crimes I cover. Look for a new entry about the Corbin Case coming soon, and more coverage of this most local of high-profile tragedies in the upcoming months as it goes to trial in Gwinnett county.

But I can guaran-damn-tee you this, yo — my fingers will, as Gawd is mah witness, never type another “Runaway Bride” weblog entry again. Cross my heart, take it to the bank. Why can’t what happened in Duluth stay in Duluth?

Don’t answer that.

Atlanta Opera’s ‘La Boheme’ - review at the ajc.com/accessatlanta critic’s blog:

“…Philosopher Colline gets a haunting song near the end, which bass-baritone Alfred Walker delivered with youthful fortitude(…)Steve Huff and John Davies made the most of their brief walk-on parts…”

For one thing, John Davies, who plays dual roles, bass character parts Benoit, the Bohemian’s landlord, and Alcindoro, Musetta’s wealthy, elderly lover, is a complete pro with years in the business - he’s sung with Domingo and I don’t know who else. To get mentioned in the same sentence with John, who is very entertaining to boot, is awesome. Alfred Walker is a remarkably talented young bass - I guess I can say he’s young, he’s 3 years younger than me. Alfred’s vocal technique is nearly flawless, to my ears and eyes.

I only had two freakin’ lines. The version you read above is not the same as the newspaper’s printed version, alas, but I don’t even care. Of course this link is going out to everyone I can think of.

Just two lines. Damn…I can think of a lot else to say, but what I quoted above is enough.

You’ve only got one more chance to come see Boheme - tomorrow, Sunday, February 13, 2005, at 3. There are negatives in the review I linked, but I think the positives, including the fact that Boheme is a great “first” opera for neophytes, and the sound of the Atlanta Opera Chorus, which is a force of nature - I can say that now that I’m not a member anymore.

• The Atlanta Opera’s Website.
• The Atlanta Civic Center’s Website.

(I have a new blog in addition to my personal one - www.planethuff.com/darkside - it’s exclusively devoted to “true crime” stories, often, but not always, with a local twist.)

Today it struck me, not for the first time, how so much information - events, such as certain crimes - has not made it on to the web yet. There is a strange cut-off point going backwards, around 1995, where researching subjects like the ones I cover at www.planethuff.com/darkside becomes a good deal more difficult. Old news stories are buried in online archives, usually services requiring pay, and some stories are completely neglected, unless an enterprising and vigilant family member gets a free geocities site and gets a photo and a testimony up there.

In 10 years that will most certainly no longer be a problem, though. Now, you can check out the victim’s memorial sites, often designed to emphasize the preciousness of the life lost - as they should be - and then go and see what the accused killer’s family has to say…

In this instance, it’s very pointed, and leaves this reader a bit mystified. A quote from the main page:

“…OUR purpose is to ask you to keep an open mind and think beyond what is published in the press and the Caringbridge.com website…” (Jennifer’s memorial page, maintained by her sister, Heather Tierney ~ S.H.) “…An innocent man is being persecuted who is, himself, a victim. He needs our support and he needs our help. We ask that you encourage him as he goes through the excruciating pain that is being forced upon him and to help him.

The case of the death of his wife is like an iceberg ñ only the tip is visible. What little fact makes it into the media is heavily and creatively edited. We ask you to keep an open mind and to know that for each “pseudo-fact” reported by the media or spread by other parties, there are many others to contradict it.

A gag order has been imposed upon all parties to the case.

Sadly, and as much as we would like to, we are not at liberty to correct the many half-truths, innuendo and outright lies that have previously been spread by some parties to the case.

We will take the high road…” (emphasis mine ~ S.H.)

The first thought that comes to mind is, ‘well, he is innocent until proven guilty…’. Then it occurs to me…is it the high road?

Like this:

“… The purpose of this website is not to seek sympathy for the family, whitewash Bart with emotional vignettes, or to spread anger, hatred and prejudice…”

The emphasis on “this” was not added by me. In that one sentence above, the true sentiment behind friendsofbartcorbin.org seems blatantly self-evident. The “whitewash(…)with emotional vignettes” is a direct slap at the caringbridge site devoted to Jennifer’s memory. In fact, it is a rather cutting and ugly thing to say - it seems to not only refute the implied message that is definitely found at the caringbridge site, where Jennifer’s death is referred to as a “crime”, but it ridicules the overall makeup of the site. Have the Corbins seen any other memorial sites? They all fit that bill - very few of us find it necessary in death to present a slavishly balanced portrait of our loved one. I wouldn’t, and the Barber family damn sure shouldn’t. It amuses me too that after reading those words I went on to read a site that was pretty much all whitewash…but I get ahead of myself.

On this page, the writer of the site’s text issues a blatant fiction -

“…(W)e’re willing to present a balanced view, and are happy to report that Bart was present and he does exist!”

that’s a blatant fiction in my book simply because the entire point of the site is to present a less-than balanced view of Barton Corbin. So don’t lie. Defense attorneys wouldn’t do that - everyone in the legal system is forced to admit it’s adversarial. The truth of the matter is, you will not find anything remotely resembling a “balanced” portrait of Jennifer or Barton at the websites devoted to them. And I for one certainly didn’t expect it, either.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff to read at friendsofbartcorbin.org, I’ll say that. There’s a good deal of a siege mentality at work. It’s hard for all the protestations regarding Bart Corbin’s basic saintliness - (He even provided free dental care for the Barbers, Jennifer’s family!) - to not sound brittle and over-emphatic after a while.

Strangest of all at the moment, to me, is the letter they link from the first page. The letter was written to Pastor Steve Woods of the Sugar Hills United Methodist Church, after Jennifer Corbin’s memorial service, by a person referring to themselves as a member of the “extended Corbin family.”

This is a letter written by someone in reference to a memorial service for a woman who, no matter how she died, still died of a gunshot wound to the head in the prime of her life. Homicide or suicide, it’s still an earthshaking tragedy. Yet Ms. Tims, the letter writer, felt so indignant at how poor Dr. Corbin was obviously viewed by all at the service that she had to give Pastor Woods the following piece of her mind:

“…The words spoken on Friday are the most un-Christian in spirit I have ever heard uttered in a House of God. For all that the words spoke of love, most of the speakersí hearts were full of an accusation that was transparent to all. That would constitute a lie in my understanding of Scripture. I believe that the Bible contains guidance on bearing false witness and an instruction to love your enemies more than yourself, be they real or perceived…”

Really? The MOST un-Christian in spirit?

Ms. Tims, I feel it is safe to say, is probably on in years, and therefore I won’t pick her hyperbole apart too much. But she seems to make Pastor Woods, and I guess others, out to be minions of Satan in her own mind, after that service. The “false witness” reference is quite confused, calling those who by Dec. 10, 2004 felt Dr. Corbin was a murderer liars, yet reminding them to love their enemies in the same breath - if the man is innocent, he’s not the enemy, is he?

Loretta at misfitting.com feels the key to the personalities of these men who have become famous through their bluebeard-like tendencies - high-profile wife-killers like Scott Peterson, accused killers like Bart Corbin - lays in understanding their malignant narcissism. I agree with her to a point - I just don’t think narcissism is the only answer. Antisocial tendencies play a part, perhaps even several other co-morbid problems like bipolar disorder, or a tendency towards schizoid delusions.

Reading the letter by Ms. Tims, that member of Bart Corbin’s “extended” family, reading the words on each page at Barton’s site, I begin to wonder something about that narcissism, though. No one who acts out of an abnormal psychopathology grows into who they are like a hothouse flower. It’s very rare for someone to wake up one day and just go kill another person. There is always a tightly laced web of influences at work throughout the perpetrator’s life that play some part.

Going over the writing found at that site designed by Bart Corbin’s friends, and most assuredly family, I begin to wonder if that malignant narcissism is a bit more like a disease that gets carried in the blood. Subtly present in an alarming number of kinfolk, it occasionally metastasizes in one of them, and like cancer it kills…but takes another life as proxy for the carrier.

(An addendum, 10:00 pm…tonight, through sheer happenstance - I was checking my referrals for The Dark Side - I found the following site: http://www.friendsofbartcorbin.com/. It is not affiliated with either the Corbin or Hearn families, and the site builders say they are not covered under the gag order. And if they were friends of Doc Corbin once, it damn sure looks like they aren’t anymore…)

Leslie didn’t show up for work the next day, and did not use her checking account, credit cards, or pick up her paycheck. Her 2000 Volkswagen Jetta disappeared with her.

Leslie was planning on a Christmas trip to her home state of New York. She was described by those who knew her as outgoing, vivacious, a life of the party type. The Derby’s manager described her as hugging “everybody” whenever she came in to have drinks with friends. And even in photos published, it seems you can see this could be true - she has a big, open smile and rosy cheeks, looks like she’s in the middle of laughing.

Leslie was found dead on December 21, 2004, in unincorporated Sandy Springs, Georgia, near the intersection of Forestwood Lane and Forestwood Drive.

In this AJC article, published Dec. 23, 2004, by Doug Nurse, Lynn Mahovsky, a resident of the subdivision, said the following:

“…”It wasn’t there Monday…”

Meaning Monday, December 20, 2004, the day before a neighborhood resident named James Bailey found Leslie, slumped over the steering wheel, and called the police. Mrs. Mahovsky is referring to Leslie’s silver Volkswagen Jetta.

If that is the case, then why, in this article published in the Hudson, NY Register-Star, (Beebe was originally from Hudson NY area), on December 22, 2004, did reporter Susan Gibbs write the following:

“…Beebe’s car had been parked in the Sandy Springs location for several days (emphasis mine ~ S.H.), when James Bailey, a man who lived nearby, decided to investigate. Bailey opened the door when he saw a blond woman slumped behind the wheel of the silver Volkswagen Jetta. He realized she was dead and called authorities…”?

Could have been sloppy reporting. An epidemic of it, spread somehow to Henry Farber of the AJC, who wrote this article, published on December 24, 2004, where he quotes Mr. Bailey:

“…’The car was out there about a week,’ (emphasis mine ~ S.H.), said James Bailey, who lives in a house across the street from the parking spot. He found the body and called police.

‘I assumed the car was with the neighbors,’ Bailey said Thursday. ‘My assumption is that she was in the car the whole time’ after her disappearance…”

What is hard to determine is who would have been in a better position to notice these things. If the Mahovskys lived a bit down the block from where Leslie’s car sat, they may not have noticed it as readily as someone who lived directly across the street, as appears to be the case with Mr. Bailey. If it’s a question of geography, then, Lynn Mahovsky could be mistaken about the Jetta not being there on December 20, and Mr. Bailey more accurate in his account.

It’s a nice neighborhood, the 30328 zip code where Leslie’s car was found with her body inside. If she was already deceased when the car was parked there, the person who left the car and put her behind the wheel was fit - Leslie was 5′7″ and weighed 140 - and probably didn’t look too out of place in an upper-middle-class suburb.

There has been no local coverage of Leslie’s death and disappearance for several days. Police are keeping mum, as is Leslie’s family, apparently at the request of the Fulton County Police. The discrepancy in accounts I noticed and outlined above could be easily cleared up, I’m sure. But I figured it was worth it to note it, and to also be one writer locally who reminds a few readers that this happened, and to the public it is still a mystery.

For her family’s sake, a mystery one hopes is cleared up much sooner than later.

(This subject and others are covered in-depth in my crime blog, www.planethuff.com/darkside.)

Guest performers will include pianist Sue Wilson, and mezzo-soprano Marcy Meredith.

Below is the invitation card Minka sent out to friends and acquaintances;

so you can consider yourselves invited as well. The concert is free and open to the public.

Minka Wiltz a professional actress who originally trained to be a singer, beginning while still in elementary school as a member of the Young Singers of Callanwolde. While she has kept her acting career going on various Atlanta stages, Minka is gearing up to do the first of the three-round Metropolitan Opera District Auditions for Georgia coming up later this winter. This concert is part of her preparations.

I probably embarrass her when I say this, but she is one of the more naturally talented opera singers I’ve ever had the pleasure to know, and that includes some folks who have sung at the Met. Just come and see why, before tickets to a Minka show cost $50 for balcony like they do for Jessye Norman or Kathy Battle.

From Ms. Rule’s blog entry, dated January 8, 2005:

“…My next hardcover book will be on the cases of Jennifer Corbin and Dolly Hearn in Georgia, ones that many of you may have heard of. Tragic, tragic stories. There is a gag order out on this from the judge, but I won’t be publishing any book until AFTER the trials, so any information that comes in to me won’t be known to anyone but(…)me. As you know, I don’t want to write anything before its time and interfere with the trials. I’ll be heading for Georgia later in the year…”

If there is a way to ensure Jennifer’s and Dolly’s stories make it into the national consciousness in a more or less permanent way, this is surely it.

Opinions vary as to the quality of Ms. Rule’s writing; that’s kind of spurious, as what she is doing is not intended to be high literature, but reportage. I’m pretty picky and I’ve never had a problem with it. I feel there’s one thing I’ve gotten consistently from her chronicling of major crimes - she is a compassionate soul.

I’m reading Serial Killers: The Method and Madness, by Peter Vronsky right now, and here’s what he says about Ann Rule:

“…Ann Rule’s classic account of [Ted] Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me, pioneered a whole new resurgence of true-crime literature. It introduced the general public to the concept of serial murder, even though the term never appeared in the text of her 1980 book…”

It never occurred to me before, but I think Vronsky is right. Ann Rule knew Ted when he was just that charming psychology student working the phones as a volunteer on a crisis hotline. After realizing he and the killer “Ted” were one and the same, Ann reacted just like I think I would; she started paying very close attention to the news where Ted was concerned. She was already a writer, so it only made sense that the book would eventually follow. And really, it’s a pretty good book.

I also found an ajc article, published on January 2, that mentions Ms. Rule’s interest in the Corbin case. Here’s the link, but since the ajc requires registration, I’ll give you what is, to me, a notable quote:

“…(T)here is a good possibility of a true crime book. Best-selling Seattle author Ann Rule says she’s considering the case.

‘The reason I’m interested is the fact that two women died in an apparently similar manner in a way that women usually don’t kill themselves,’(emphasis added ~ S.H.) says Rule, who has written best sellers on Ted Bundy and other killers…”

The above quote is so notable because of this:

“…Of people who commit suicide, 73% are white men. Of that number of men, 80% commit the act with a firearm. My point is that while women have used guns in suicides, the percentages are low compared to men. Statistically, the chances that two women, in the space of 15 years, will commit handgun suicides while in relationships with the same man, are really, stupidly low…”

What I quoted directly above was posted by me at www.planethuff.com/darkside, on December 30, 2004.

I am not saying Ms. Rule read my crime blog and repeated it; good Lord - if you think that, you have no clue about what an encyclopedia about crime and the statistics relative to it Ann Rule must be at this point. The woman has been doing this thing for a while. She and I drew the same conclusion because you find it’s true, if you know even a little more than the average person about this stuff.

There was one other thing in the article linked above that bugged me. Bet it will bug you too:

“…The story of suspicious deaths and attractive, talented people caught in a web of obsession and jealousy has national media beating a path to Gwinnett County.

“This case has all the elements we’re looking for,” said Marcy Erhard, a spokeswoman for the CBS News show “48 Hours…”

I mean, Marcy Erhard did realize she was talking about human beings, didn’t she? Real people who, attractiveness aside, were far more to their families than mere “elements” of a “story?”

I guess it makes it easier to keep things at arm’s length, makes it easier to avoid thinking about the very real wounds sustained by the ones left behind. Such objectification is a defense.

If you have not been, I suggest you check out the memorial websites for Mrs. Corbin and Ms. Hearn.

• www2.caringbridge.org/ga/jennifercorbin/
• www.kudcom.com/dolly/

Both sites have guestbooks you can sign. In addition, there is at CrimeNews2000 a discussion group for people following the Corbin/Hearn case, and FindCarrieCulberson.com has a messageboard for Leslie Beebe. Sign up and participate, or just read, if you follow such things. Sometimes it’s just people posting links to various news articles, but occasionally people start discussing things, and it gets really interesting.

Either way, pay a visit to the victims sites for sure, and let them know you’re thinking of them.

(I also have an entry up mainly discussing the death and disappearance of Roswell nurse Leslie Beebe at my crime blog.)

To note something from my original place in the Atlanta metroblog universe, I will be in the Atlanta Opera Co’s upcoming production of La Boheme, making my official credited debut with them in a small role (I’ve done two uncredited solos with them in past productions as a chorus member). This came about at a time when I was feeling rather depressed about singing, and how my MS could affect it, so it’s a joy to be able to do it.

Go to the AOC’s website linked above for further details as to ticket pricing and seating for the Opera. Boheme is among my top 3 favorite operas, and even if I’m not the lead tenor in this production, it will be a great pleasure and honor for me to be a part of it as a ’secondary’ principal.

(What you read below can also be found in a different form in my new ‘true crime’ blog, www.planethuff.com/darkside.)

Jennifer Corbin’s internet friendship with “Hearn” took a strange turn shortly before her death, when “Hearn” revealed that she was a woman, not a man as Jennifer appears to have assumed or possibly even was told.

It appears that Jennifer had no romantic interest in her, but she said that what “Hearn” did was show her she didn’t have to be unhappy for the rest of her life. It indicates to me that Jennifer felt both loneliness and had compassion that she remained friends with this person even after she may have felt deceived.

The full details can be found in this article in the AJC. Here’s an interesting quote from the article that says a lot to me:

“…In cyberspace, people can take on any identity they choose. For months, Jennifer assumed that she was corresponding with a man. Just before her Dec. 4 death, she was surprised to learn that she had been communicating with a woman, according to her family.

Jennifer’s last conversation was on the phone with this friend. They talked until 12:30 a.m. …”

“Any identity they choose.” Too true. Cyberspace is truly new place in human experience. A place that allows the inadequate and insecure to present themselves as far more than the actual sum of their parts. A place that lets people change identities as easily as clothes. It lays bare the worst in human psychology, the strangest.

I quote another paragraph from the article here, because it may tell a huge chunk of the story, in the end:

“…On Thanksgiving, Barton discovered his wife’s Internet correspondence, in which she had discussed her marriage, according to Tierney.

It is unclear if Barton Corbin saw the contact’s last name or realized that the person was a woman, Jennifer’s family said. They say they did not know about Barton Corbin’s connection to Dolly Hearn until after Jennifer’s death, and they don’t believe Jennifer was aware of it either…”

When I based my title of yesterday’s entry on that Harlan Ellison story, (if you read sci-fi or horror you should read Harlan’s work. It has elements of what we now call the gothic, of William Burroughs-esque sci-fi/beat prose-poetry, a certain punk sensibility that, considering Harlan’s age, was way ahead of it’s time when he first started publishing in the late 50’s - early 60’s), I had no idea how accurate that might seem in light of today’s article.

Sure it’s not yet known whether Barton Corbin knew that “Hearn” had revealed herself to be a female, but think about the psychological thunderclap that could have set off in the head of a man who might be sociopathic and neurotic enough to have faked Dolly Hearn’s suicide back in 1990. Not only is his wife having a spiritually intimate friendship via the web with another person, possibly expressing her true worries, concerns, fears, her unhappiness with him, but the person signs off as “Hearn”? DAMN. Most men would be mortally freaked out, but a man crazy enough to have already allegedly killed once? It could have been like a wrathful ghost unfurling itself from the pit of his psyche, like a terrible rattling of bones in his closet. Because, if you read the article, you will see that the fact that the woman in question goes by “Hearn” is pure coincidence:

“…That the Missouri woman says she shares the same last name with Dolly is ‘a bizarre coincidence,’ said Leigh Hearn, who is married to Carlton Hearn Jr., Dolly’s brother. ‘We don’t know a relative in that area…’”

Maybe, if he is guilty of any of this, the good doctor’s mind did an almost Poe-like sort of math, a homicidal alchemy occurred as he read those e-mails. It was Barton Corbin’s own personal “Tell-Tale Heart.”

There is still too little known about the death of Leslie Beebe, at least publicly.

I am not sure what law enforcement agency is investigating her death, but I have to say my wife and I have been less than happy on occasion with the Roswell, GA’s police department, due to what seems to be a lack of action on their part in investigating the theft of Dana’s identity. Neither Dana nor I have written much about it lately, but she still receives turn-downs for credit she never applied for. Admittedly, I think we’re dealing with a rather thick-witted attempt at identity theft, one that could probably be a lot worse, but we’ve heard very little from the Roswell detective assigned to the case. I know it’s likely a boring, less-than-glamorous assignment, but it’d be nice to know when progress has been made. If the Roswell PD is investigating Leslie’s death I hope they are as aggressive in pursuing it as any other police department would be. Leslie was a woman in her mid-20’s with a good education and a decent job, she disappeared from a pretty safe part of the northside of the Atlanta area, Alpharetta. She was a low-risk victim. Therefore her murder - and the police have admitted they are treating it as a homicide - should be of great concern, because it could indicate a rather confident, intelligent killer. The kind that could kill again, particularly if it was a stranger murder.

S’all I’m sayin’.