Werewolf XXI: The Sand Harbor Homicides

[Quincunx]

—WARNING—This thread contains pseudo-psychological babble, inaccuracies, generalizations, and other elements which will offend you if you are sensitive to psychological labeling. If you are inclined to judge horror flicks as documentaries, don’t read this either.

 

Welcome to Werewolf XXI - Serial Killers! The prison system is a mite overcrowded, so the lodgings are unconventional. . .

 

For this OOC thread, provide name and description, timetable and outline of convictions (and crimes you concealed from the authorities, if you like), and pseudo-psychiatric assessment. A reminder—serial killers have reasons. Some of you might want to kill everyone and everything—others may have no reason to slay anyone within the facility. Some of you might be convinced of your own innocence. . .but that should not go in “my character believes” in OOC, unlike most threads, because. . .

 

. . .in-character posts will be in the first person! Sample sentences/grammar refresher: “I lifted the file cabinet off of my foot but I never felt pain.” “She laughed at me!” “What we say should happen, happens.” “Someone took our tablets and gave us different ones, but in the same bottle.” “Nothing is ours.” This frees us all to make monologues from our individual, insane viewpoints without awkward writing. (Third-person omniscient view, when you’re supposed to be controlling only one character, stretches credibility and the pace of the thread.)

 

NO OOC in IC thread. This includes OOC accusations—accusations will be excised and placed in OOC thread. I foresee some intense posting in the IC thread and nothing would spoil the atmosphere quicker than a matter-of-fact OOC line. I’ll announce the turning of phases here, also.

 

You will be assigned rooms in the order in which you sign up, and can have PM alliances with the person before and after your post, as your rooms will be adjacent and you can drum on the walls, shove notes into the vents, etc. Anything else that occurs will happen in the ‘day room’ and will be visible to all, hence in the IC thread.

 

Monday and Tuesday: Day. Wednesday: Night. Thursday and Friday: Day. Saturday and Sunday: Night. Katzaniel perfected this timeline and I like it.

 

IC thread opens on Monday, June 6; characters accepted until Wednesday, June 8.

[Quincunx]

From the ‘Rhadamanthus’ newsletter, Summer 2004, by Harold Hanrahan:

 

Spotlight on--Dr. Ligeia Tuttle

 

B.S. Health Administration, Penn State, 1977; Doctor of Psychology, Penn State, 1985.

 

Dr. Tuttle is a twelve-year veteran of the Sand Harbor Rehabilitation Facility, and has served as supervising psychiatrist for seven years. Under her leadership, Sand Harbor’s release rate skyrocketed from under 10 percent to over 40 percent within five years, while re-admissions decreased by half. She pioneered the Executive Interface medical management program and travels around the tri-state region teaching the method, as well as continuing to perform entrance and exit interviews with all patients. Among her most prestigious awards are the Liebniz fellowship (1998) and nomination for the Everburning Candle lifetime achievement award (2003). She and her husband, Jon, have no children.

 

Lissa and Jon Tuttle were successful copy-writers and small publishers, but they were best at writing fiction. Jon, a.k.a. Harold Hanrahan, began printing ‘Rhadamanthus: Today’s Correctional Outlook’ in 1989 and distributed it free of charge to minor bureaucrats in the state’s prison system. After a few years, Lissa put on a three-piece suit and a ‘classical’ name with title, then lectured to the not-so-minor bureaucrats and secured small grants for the new, as-yet-unbuilt Sand Harbor Rehabilitation Facility. They lived comfortably on grant money until earlier this year, when the state decided to transfer several of its most dangerous, unresponsive inmates to Sand Harbor. The Tuttles quickly rented a run-down motel, reversed and reinforced the door locks, bolted all the motel furniture to the floor, and made every possible preparation to avoid telling the truth.

[Quincunx]

Jeremy LaVaughn, Caucasian male, 44, separated. Admitted November 1999.

 

27 murders, of no particular group, spread out in clusters of three to four murders in a week, over twenty-one years. Turned himself in after triple slaying of an 8-year-old girl and her parents, claiming that the girl was “impure” and the parents ought to have been monitored by the law. Convicted and sentenced to more-than-life imprisonment.

 

Assessment of the state:

 

Patient suffers from schizophreniform disorder. Complains of delusions (mark: patient realizes these are delusions but feels “powerless” to resist) of paranormal powers and a compulsion to ‘feed’ these powers by human sacrifice. Has had one schizophrenic episode while in this facility, three years and one month after admission—bent ½” thick metal reinforcement bars and assaulted another patient with his filed incisors. Patient has since had his teeth capped.

[Quincunx]

Holly Lin, Asiatic female, 26, widowed. Admitted February 2005.

 

On four separate occasions, murdered people with her bare hands in the midst of a crowd (marriage, two funerals, shopping mall). Family paid blood-money to hush up the first three incidents but she was arrested at the fourth, public venue. Plea bargained for 10 years’ imprisonment.

 

Assessment of the state:

 

Patient suffers from a peculiarly violent panic disorder. In her interview, professed a love of large social gatherings but nonverbal signals did not agree. Further questions revealed that at such gatherings she initially had panic attacks but felt suddenly “free” and enjoyed the euphoria. She appears to have no memory of attacking other people or latent hostility towards them, perhaps a fugue state? Strongly recommend that she be sedated before initial group therapy sessions; re-evaluate at six months.

[Lady Celes Crusader]

Interesting. I promised to be careful when I'll type her replies.

 

Name: Audrey Delanoe

Age: 36

Gender: Female

Race: Caucasian

Marital Status: Single

Admitted April 1998

 

Stabbed seven (7) persons with butcher knife while having sexual intercourse with them for a period of three years. Victimes were from both genders. Youngest victim was 14 years-old while oldest victim was 25 years-old. Kept her victims' body parts in freezers either as food or as sexual toys. Neigbhours called the police when suspeicious smell emerged from the appartment. Prior to the murders, was arrested on five occasions because of her prostitution. Is serving a 235 years jail sentence.

 

Assessment of the state:

 

Several interviews allowed us to concluded that she's a narcissist sociopath. Denied to be sexually abused as a child and burst in hysteria when asked. Had been drugged and beaten by her pimp when she was a prostitute. Considers other people as nothing more than objects to serve their purpose in her own fantasies. Subject should never be left alone with other patients.

[Patrick]

OOC: I have exams next week and shall only be able to play full-time starting on Friday, if that can be accepted I'll play this character.

 

Name: Thomas McKinston

Age: 47

Gender: Male

Race: European

Marital Status: married with three children

Admitted: October 2003

 

 

From his personal journal he started to write December 2003, while in prison:

 

"I was born in Edinburgh, Great Britain to parents, who emigrated to the United States when I was seven years old. I grew up in Los Angeles and after completing secondary school I went to Police Academy, from where I graduated in 1985 as an inspector in the homicide branch of the L.A.P.D. In 1987 I took Sarah West as my wife and in the following seven years we had three children: Simon, Laura and Jim."

 

After twelve years of succesfull service I retired from the force and became a consultant for a firm working on a contract for the Police Department to come up with reliable psychological profiles for serial killers. It was on the 7th of July, 1999, that during a lunch-break my co-worker John Grishalle proposed to me an interesting theory of his. He said that a normal person could not kill without having a guilty conscience afterwards. I made a bet with him that I later came to regret, of trying to convince him otherwise. During the course of the second half of 1999 and 2000 I interviewed more than 200 murderers in prisons around the US to try to prove John wrong."

 

"Most of the interviewees were clearly non-normal and I had to disregard them for the purpose of the bet, but some of them were clearly extremely intelligent people, who I could not understand why had commited the crimes they were in prison for. One man in particular touched me a lot. He reminded me of the killer seen in the film Se7en. On the surface he was a totally normal man, and you could have known him for years and not suspect him of the nineteen murders he had commited. He had been a university professor of psychology and had killed his victims to be able to study their panic reactions when they realised that death was getting near for them."

 

"He was called Kevin Young, and I interviewed him three times during the summer months of 2000. He was really open with me and even gave me a copy of his PhD after my third visit. His PhD was about parallels between abuse during childhood and mental disorders in adult age. I could not help but think about my father, who after his accident at work had turned a drunkard, and eventually died of alcohol-poisoning, when I was eleven years old. When he was drunk he sometimes beat me, although in the mornings he always regretted doing what he had done."

 

"It was around this time that I started having strange thoughts. I decided that I would visit Kevin once again, so that he can maybe help me analyze my thoughts. But when I went to visit him in September of 2000, I found that he had died in the prison's hospital three days earlier. Apparently he had had cancer for the last three years."

 

"It was on the way back from San Francisco, where he had been kept in prison when I picked up a hitch-hiker."

 

From the police report after Thomas McKinston's confession:

 

"The suspect, Thomas McKinston, came in voluntarily to the central Los Angeles Police Department and confessed on the 17th of July 2003 to the killings of fourteen people, of all age groups and genders in the last three years. The suspect accurately described the locations where the bodies had been hidden and the methods with which they had been killed. The first victim, Stephen Brach was picked up on the 7th of September 2000, next to the road between San Francisco and Los Angeles..."

 

...

 

"None of the bodies had been found prior to the suspect's confession and the suspect had continued his professional and personal life in a totally normal way after he had started the alleged murders."

 

Article in the Los Angeles Times on the 17th of October 2003:

 

Ex-cop gets jailed for 14 murders

 

Thomas McKinston, an ex-inspector of the homicide department of the L.A.P.D. pleaded guilty yesterday to the murders of 14 individuals between September 2000 and May 2003. The jury delivered the sentence after a mere two hours of deliberation. The sentence was of 30 years in prison, with possible parole after 15 years in case of good conduct.

 

Police department spokesman Harold Greene had revealed that the suspect had been extremely cooperative during the investigation, but that he had been unable to give a reason for the murders. Due to his expertise in homicide investigations, none of the bodies had been found prior to his confession, and had it not been for his confession the Police Department would not have had enough evidence to jail him.

 

McKinston's lawyer and family were unavailable for further comment.

 

Assessment of the state:

 

Several interviews conducted by reknowned psychologists did not reach any conclusion as to why he had commited the murders. They were totally coldly, precisely carried out murders, as Thomas had described them, but he himself could not give any reason for them, while he still cooperated in every possible way with the psychologists. He even accepted to be hypnotized and to pass lie tests, but they did not produce any new results. In prison he has acted normally and has even continued his work on a book he had been working on before going into prison on profiles of serial killers, into which he has incorporated observations even about himself. At times his ex-colleagues both from the P.D. and from the firm he had worked at afterwards come and talk with him, and his advice has helped to catch two serial killers, since he entered prison.

Edited June 3, 2005 by Patrick Durham

[Mynx]

Name: Tabatha Johnston

Age: 10

Gender: Female

Race: Caucasian

Admitted: March 2001

 

Killed all 5 members of her family with a large hunting knife owned by her father when she was 6 years old.

Was found in the living room of her house, cradling the blade as she rocked and hummed to herself, the remains of her parents and 3 older brothers surrounding her. She has not spoken a word since she was found and whenever given paper to write, draws images of a dark shadow over a small child which appears to be herself.

 

Assessment of the State:

Appears to have a Conduct Disorder but is hard to tell as she refuses to write or speak. She will only draw and the image of the shadow over the child suggests that perhaps something in her dreams drives to her kill.

Does not appear violent to other patients and whenever amongst others only stands in corner and watches them solemly. Despite this supposed innocence, the patient should be watched carefully at all times.

[Venefyxatu]

Name : Duncan Clarke

Age : 26

Race : Caucasian

Gender : Male

Marital status : Single

 

Admitted August 11, 2004

 

In school, Duncan was always the class nerd; the only reason he was left alone by most of the others was that they all wanted to be on his good side during the exams. Generally seen as not very social, nobody ever suspected that it was him who drove the class bully to commit suicide. The feeling of power he got from knowing he could make someone else take their own life was an instant addiction, however.

He started hanging out in chatrooms, spending all of his time honing both his acting and computer skills. He loves pretending to be someone else, chatting with someone for months on end, perfecting the lie in every small detail while slowly driving them to commit suicide. It doesn't matter whether it takes months or more than a year, the time spent chatting is time he spends gathering every little scrap of information he can get on his victim as well, both to feel closer to them and to be able to check how they killed themselves afterward.

He was caught after the Jelksen twins suicide (which he greatly enjoyed) - a routine check revealed him to carry a folder with detailed information on both of the girls, including some explicit pictures. The officer who found the folder was rather close to the twins, so he got deeper into the matter, pulled some strings and had Duncan arrested.

Duncan confessed everything he'd done, from the first to the last suicide, and was the first person ever to be convicted to 1789 years of imprisonment for making other people commit suicide.

 

 

Assessment of the state :

 

Subject seems sometimes proud, sometimes indifferent to being single-handedly responsible for 43% of suicides in his state and has claimed a few times that it made him feel "all-powerful". He sometimes expresses guilt and regret, claiming that he would never start again if given the chance, and sometimes claims exactly the opposite. Neither claim could be concluded to be false. Should not be left unsupervised with easily influenced persons.

[Sweetcherrie]

OOC: I'm also working through my exams and projects, and will try to post as often as possible, I just really don't want to miss this one.

 

Name: Brenda Daniels (aka Black Widow)

Age: 25

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Female

Marital Status: Widowed (5 times)

 

Admitted June 2003

 

Brenda is a trained nurse, and is very pro-euthanasia. She has “helped” 24 of her richest patients cross to the other side. The patients always trusted her completely and the reason that she has been able to do “her work” for so long is that she also has a meticulous memory for the various medications and their “side effects” (especially the negative ones) that were at her disposal. Brenda is a very charming lady and managed to catch 5 older husbands in her web. All of her husbands died mysteriously after 5 to 18 months after the wedding. The combination of the fact that she killed all her victims by poisoning them and that she is five times a widow, have given the newspapers enough reason to call her “Black Widow”.

 

Since she has committed her crimes in various states, she is currently waiting for the judge to decide if she will “only” be in prison for the rest of her mortal life, or will be send to a different state to be sentenced to death.

 

Assessment of the State:

Several interviews conducted by the state’s best psychiatrists had as many different outcomes. One report labels her “Highly dangerous” and advises against contact with other prisoners, another says that she acted out of pure free will, and that she is as sane as a serial killer can be.

Edited June 9, 2005 by Sweetcherrie

[Katzaniel]

Jason Ulmer, Caucasian Male, 48, divorced. Admitted March 2000.

 

After a painful divorce from his wife of 21 years at the age of 43, Jason began frequenting internet matchmaking services and chatlines. After he had little success in achieving second dates, he began to get frustrated. Two years passed and he was soon lying about himself, becoming younger and more attractive every week. Soon he was going after young girls, finding them the most easily deceived. He spent most of his time (having a cushy, unionized desk job), keeping ten or twenty on the go at one time. When some of these were actually convinced to meet him in person, he raped and killed them, moving on to the next. Those that did not show any signs of wanting to be with him were soon dropped. He started pardoning himself by claiming in his own mind that each of them wanted to sleep with him, even after discovering how old he was, and that he was cleansing society of girls who would become indecent young women.

 

Jason had murdered 23 girls, all below the age of 17, before being caught in 1999.

 

Assessment of the state:

 

-- To be editted in later. --

[Lady Celes Crusader]

Quincunx: Do you expect us to play right now or to wait for a more appropriate moment before we start roleplay?

[Quincunx]

Start arriving as you wish, in your own vans or with others. If there's time in the free RP phase, I'll toss in the first group therapy topic, but until then you will have a brief interview, then be escorted into the day room to mingle (under Jon's supervision).

[Patrick]

The first time I'll be able to post is Friday night CET, as I finish my exams that day. For the moment I'm still in the middle of studying.

 

But right now I have the time for a shortish arrival post.

Edited June 7, 2005 by Patrick Durham

[Patrick]

I was lucky to have ten minutes of free time in which I could squeeze that short post in, but I shall definately be missing in action until friday afternoon at least (that is friday morning for US people and early saturday for people on the other side of the globe).

[Quincunx]

That was swift, Patrick. I was trying to arrange it so you wouldn't have to post 'til week's end. *knocks on wood, for luck on your finals* I promise to give you no more excuses to not study.

 

You can interview with Dr. Tuttle or mingle in the day room. There won't be time to have everyone interview and have Dr. Tuttle respond so be sure to transport yourself out of the room after you're done.

Edited June 8, 2005 by Quincunx

[Lady Celes Crusader]

Errr... I think there's a bit of confusion between Sweetcherrie's and my character. Sweetcherrie's is actually the on who puked while mine is the hyena.

[Sweetcherrie]

erm...if my post is too Scarlet Pen just let me know and I will change it.

[Venefyxatu]

Can't post, gotta run, if the internet isn't blocked in school I'll post from there later today.

 

 

*rushes off*

 

Edit : One exam down, one to go for today. I love it when they go smoothly

Edited June 9, 2005 by Venefyxatu

[Quincunx]

Day Phase begins. Please remember to place OOC votes in this thread. Votes will be tallied and. . .executed 48 hours from this post's time-stamp.

[Sweetcherrie]

*puts her head back on her body and edits Brenda to be a female with a last name*

 

Thanks

[Katzaniel]

Actually, I wonder if this wouldn't be better in the Scarlett Pen? Then none of us would have to hold back what these people are actually thinking. In fact, both of Celes' posts and certainly mine, I'm sure, belong in the Scarlett Pen... it's really hard to censure a psychopath...

 

EDIT: Do we need an IC excuse for votes? And are we using actual werewolves then? Does that mean the WW would not necessarily recall the murder, and I can have my character think about the murder without giving away his guilt or innocence?

Edited June 10, 2005 by Katzaniel

[Mynx]

Ah, the joys of being an "innocent" (hah hah) ten year old who doesn't know any really bad words

 

*grins*

[Patrick]

My exams are finally over! I can better concentrate on the game now.

[Lady Celes Crusader]

I agree with Katz about putting this over the Scarlet pen. Believe it or not but I did hold back, or at least try to. It is very hard to show the monstruosity of both necrophilia and pedophilia without shocking anyone as the very nature of these crimes is shocking. In fact, murder is a shocking crime by itself.

[Sweetcherrie]

ditto, I've used totally different words than what I felt like using. moving it would probably make it more interesting for all the players.