I’ve been watching the McCann story for obvious reasons. After all, this crime stuff is my life.

My business.

I feel as though it’s JonBenet redux. Same thing all over again. Cute couple, cute kid. Professionals. Wealthy. Blue eyes, blonde hair.

Let’s hang’em.

Now there’s a claim that a “clump of hair” has been found in the car.

Is it hairs or a clump? Where does this stuff come from?

It’s that same mentality from Boulder: focus on the parents when all the other evidence runs cold.

Clint Van Sant, that MSNBC profiler, claims that the Portugal Police, about two or three years ago, beat a confession out of a set of parents when their child went missing, and one of the same investigators is working the McCann case.

If true, this is groundbreaking information.

Before I jump on the blame-the-parents-when-all-else-fails band wagon, I want to see more evidence.

As far as allowing the kids to sleep alone without a babysitter. Before you judge, take a look at a diagram of the setting. All these parents—the McCann’s friends who were there, too—left their children alone that night and took turns checking in on them. This was a confined area, to some extent. It was, as one of McCann brothers said recently (paraphrase), “Like putting your child to bed in the house and going outside with friends in the backyard for a BBQ by the pool.”

Look, let’s allow the system to flesh out the facts here. Looking at the property, the McCann unit was the last one of a group. The McCann parents and their friends had been doing the same thing every night: putting the kids down and setting out poolside for some adult time. If a predator had been stalking the family—and we know they do—he saw an opportunity.

That DNA in the car could have come from any number of hosts: clothes, toothbrushes, hair brushes, etc.

Where are the facts?

Just when you thought the freak show was over…

John Mark Karr, the wannabe killer of JonBenet Ramsey, found his way back into jail and into the news today.

Seems he had an altercation of some kind with his father.

Here’s a snip:

Officers received a 911 call late Friday from the house about an argument between Karr, his girlfriend and his father, Sandy Springs Police Lt. Steve Rose said.

Karr, who was arrested last summer in Thailand after making bizarre, detailed confessions in the 6-year-old beauty contestant’s death, was arrested in the domestic case shortly before midnight and charged with battery and obstruction.

Officers took Karr to a hospital after he complained of chest pains, and took him to jail late Saturday morning, Rose said. No other details were immediately released.

God only knows what they were arguing about. Maybe it was his new girlfriend’s bedtime. John wanted to let her stay up until 8 p.m., but his dad disagreed if she didn’t finish her peas.

Honestly, I don’t know who the girlfriend is, but last reports to CR had Karr trolling a mall with a teenager. I’m sure we’ll hear more on this.

Monday a.m. mini update:

Karr was released on a $3,000 bond yesterday afternoon — another Sunday ruined for his dad, no doubt.

Here’s the best snip of today’s news:

Sandy Springs Police Lt. Steve Rose said Wexford Karr, 86, was issued a simple battery citation because the father and son appeared to have exchanged blows. The older Karr was not arrested because of his age and because he wasn’t believed a flight risk.

All of this makes me wonder which is worse?

Pretending to be the killer of JonBenet Ramsey.

Hitting an 86-year old man.

Wearing manscara to your arraignment.

[CR Note: Thanks, Lilo, for the tip!]
 

The New York Post has obtained several e-mails written by our favorite transsexual wannabe, John Mark Karr, about his former days of teaching seven and eight year olds. They are vile. Evil. Full of inappropriate suggestions. But, at the same time, offer insight into the mind of this truly twisted man who at one time claimed he had killed JonBenet Ramsey.

“Today,” Karr writes in one e-mail, “a lovely 8-year-old girl came over to me and started to get into my lap. She ran her legs across me until she was pressing her crotch against my knee,” Karr wrote, noting: “It was sweet to gaze into her eyes. I wanted to kiss her all over her face, but I couldn’t.”

Read that last paragraph again with the thought that the parents of these children were sending their kids to Karr every morning. Makes you want to vomit, no?

The e-mails were supposedly written in March 2001 to an old friend of Crime Rant, Wendy “the Tape Lady” Hutchens. According to the Post, Tape Lady turned over the e-mails to the cops “after receiving them.”

Karr hasn’t denied penning the e-mails, but told The Post, “There was nothing in [them] that suggested anything sexual with a child because I detest sexual molestation. Wendy Hutchens misconstrued everything I said.”

He sounds like a drug addict trying to borrow money: I’m not going to use the money for drugs. Trust me. I’m not abusing these kids; I’m loving them.

What is very clear in this next snippet is that Karr was a danger to his community and preyed on these innocent children: “I have a 9-year-old . . . friend who loves to have her feet massaged and caressed. Many of my students are Hispanic. I have had some very affectionate encounters with some of them.”

In another, speaking of a 7-year-old girl Karr described as an expensive “doll with pigtails,” he said, “I love that little girl. I sat with her during recess today and gazed at her while we talked about things of interest to her. I wish so that I could rock her in my arms for hours until she falls asleep.”

In another: “If you only knew how much agony I endure because I love some of them so much and am not allowed to express that love. It kills me, but I must not do anything to jeopardize where I have gotten in my career.”

How is it we allow an animal like Karr to walk around society? I’m tired of these pedophiles getting treated by our court system like they’ve committed motor vehicle violations. In my last post, I wrote about a judge in Rockville (Connecticut) Superior Court who allowed an admitted child molester to walk free. We hear about it every day. When does it stop? I’ve sat in courtrooms and watched mothers convicted of dealing small bags of weed get five to ten years in prison away from their children, while we let predators walk away with probation and the sentences of a drunk driver. When do we do something to change this pockmark on our justice system? When do our elected leaders stand up and say enough is enough? Every time we turn around some pedophile who served a year or two is living across the street from a child who has turned up missing and/or dead. John Couey lived across the street from his victim, Jessica Lunsford. I’m so sick to my stomach over the death of 6-year-old Christopher Michael Barrios in Brunswick, Georgia, last week. Why is the child dead? Because a convicted child predator was allowed to live directly across the street from him.

Making fun of Tape Lady and Karr lightens the seriousness of the situation and perhaps allows us to explore these important social issues without being too disgusted by them. But if I may get very serious for a moment, I’ll say that drastic measures need to be taken in order to protect our children from these monsters. The question is, who is going to have the guts to do it?

Everyone has or gets an award. The Oscars, Emmys, Grammys — the list goes on and on. Earlier this year, Gregg and Matt started taking notes to offer Crime Rant readers our take on just who or what deserves an award for the goings on in our little corner of the world.

But what to call them? We dug around the TC archives, consulted with those who know best (Laura James, for one) and after considerable debate, decided on honoring Henry Trickey.

Yes, welcome to The Crime Rant Trickey Awards.

So before the drum roll, we want you to meet our man, Trickey. Here’s a mini bio: Henry Trickey was an investigative journalist when the term applied to no one in journalism. He had an inherent instinct to want the “inside,” or “exclusive” story that no other reporter could get. So important was his integrity as a journalist, soon after Trickey moved to Fall River and began covering the upcoming Lizzie Borden trial, he hired a private detective to obtain “insider information about the Borden investigation.” The information Trickey received seemed to explain the state’s case against Borden. According to the detective, Lizzie had a lover and was pregnant. When her father found out, he threatened to “throw her out of the house and disinherit her.” This, of course, would give Lizzie a motive to kill her parents. But it was found out that Trickey had been duped by the source (haven’t we all been?).

So in honor of True Crime’s tragic and unsung hero, we salute this year’s crime coverage, stories and major players with The Crime Rant Trickey Awards.

Ok, now that drum roll, please.

Crime Story of the Year

Iraq. Call it a war. An invasion. A civil war.  Whatever. We’ve had it with this debacle. The Iraq situation has got to be the crime story of the year for the simple reason that no other story has generated as much pain and produced as many victims as what is happening in Iraq. We don’t no where to send the Trickey, but a Pennsylvania Avenue address seems about right.

Runner up: The Duke Rape Case. One of these cases comes along every five to ten years, when race and status seem to work their way into a case that pits the American dream against everything that is wrong with this country, exposing the best and worst of our country.

Crime Media Disaster of the Year
 
Nancy Grace, the abominable motor mouth of the CNN Headline News show with her name attached, who has a lawsuit hanging over her head by the family of a former guest who later committed suicide. We like Nancy, but this time she’s gone too far. Wonder if she’ll be able to talk her self out of this mess?

Coming in a close second is Mary Lacy the Boulder, CO, prosecutor who went after John Mark Karr (and also refuses to prosecute anyone in the savage beating death of baby Jason Midyette). If there is a prosecutor in deeper trouble, he must be on the other side of the country – and another Trickey winner (Duke, anyone?).

Victims Rights Advocate of the Year

Janet Pelasara. Taylor Behl’s mother, Janet, has become a tireless advocate for victims’ rights, speaking out on behalf of Parents of Murdered Children, Violence Against Women, and other organizations. She is also working part-time for the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.

Runner-up: Mark Lunsford. Since his daughter Jessica’s death in 2005, Mark has gone on to speak out against the laws protecting child molesters and pedophiles in this country and fought for tougher laws protecting out children. The Jessica Lunsford Act was quickly drafted after Jessica’s death and was pushed through by lawmakers outraged that the man accused of killing her was a registered sex offender. It passed both the Senate and House unanimously.

True Crime Media Misdemeanor of the Year

Judith Reagan and OJ Simpson. We need not say anything more here.

True Crime Internet Site of the Year

Perverted Justice: (http://www.perverted-justice.com/) How can we ignore a website that has put so many pedophiles in jail and if not, at least made their faces recognizable. Any time we can promote the safety of children, we are glad to do it.

True Crime Book of the Year

AN INNOCENT MAN by John Grisham. We still think Robert Mayer’s THE DREAMS OF ADA is a better book about the case, but one can’t argue with success and the fact that the book has done a lot for true crime as a genre.

Hollywood Arrest of the Year

Mel Gibson. Need we say anything about a guy who claimed during the publicity of The Passion of the Christ that his movie had nothing to do with the persecution of Christ by Jews, but then went on an anti-Semite rage when arrested for a DUI.

Runner up: Rip Torn. Any idiot with money who gets arrested for DUI twice inside five years deserves more than just an award—but a pat on the back for giving us a really cool mug shot.

Dumbest Criminal of the Year
 
John Mark Karr. The creep who said he had murdered JonBenet Ramsey and had the media on him 24/7, deserves this award for, if nothing else, ordering the shrimp—instead of the lobster—while on his taxpayer financed trip in business class from Thailand back to America.

Runner up: Paris Hilton. Because as hot as she reportedly thinks she is, even she had to cool her heels in a police station this year.

That’s it for 2006! Did we get it right? Were there other books more deserving? A dumber criminal? What about crime of the year? Do you think the Amish school shooting or some other case should have been there? Let us know!