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The Guardian
01-07-2025
- The Guardian
Murderland by Caroline Fraser review – what was behind the 1970s serial killer epidemic?
In 1974, the year Caroline Fraser turned 13, Ted Bundy committed his first confirmed murders. Bundy was handsome, charming, extremely intelligent and sociopathic – 'a sexual virus masquerading as a person'. There is persuasive evidence that he began killing much earlier but never this gluttonously. Almost all of his victims had long brown hair, parted in the middle. Sometimes he broke into the women's houses while they slept, or snatched them off the street. Sometimes he would put on a sling or plaster cast and lure them into his car to help with some fabricated task. If one refused, he tried another, convinced that he would never be caught because they would never be missed. 'I mean, there are so many people,' he reasoned. 'It shouldn't be a problem.' Fraser lived on Mercer Island, Washington, near Bundy's first hunting grounds. Recalling the moment he was first charged with murder in October 1976, she writes: 'Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who almost went out with Ted Bundy.' Bundy was one of at least half a dozen serial killers active in Washington in 1974. Within a few years, the state would produce the similarly prolific Randall Woodfield, known as the I-5 Killer, and Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. Its murder rate rose by more than 30% in 1974 – almost six times the national average. In Tacoma, the city where Bundy grew up, Ridgway lived and Charles Manson was incarcerated for five years before starting his Family, murder was up 62%. It was as if a malevolent cloud had enveloped the region. Fraser argues that the epidemic was related to a real cloud, containing sulphur dioxide, arsenic and lead, which emanated from the smokestack of a smelting facility in Ruston, outside Tacoma. Nobody knows what cursed constellation of genes, upbringing, social circumstances, brain chemistry and plain old evil makes serial killers do what they do, but Fraser advances the lead-crime hypothesis. Lead in the blood has been shown to deplete brain volume in the part of the prefrontal cortex that regulates behaviour, especially in men. Today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines more than 3.5 micrograms of lead per decilitre in a child's blood as a cause for concern; the CDC's first 'safe' threshold, in 1960, was 60 micrograms. Yet as far back as the 1920s, doctors observed that lead poisoning from paint made children 'crazy-like'. Fifty years later, the Ecologist asked 'Does lead create criminals?' and the CDC connected lead to 'functional derangements'. It was also connected to money. The Guggenheim dynasty built its fortune on mining and smelting metal – its company Asarco was once responsible for 90% of US lead production. Asarco acquired the Ruston smelter in 1905 and converted it to refine copper, bleeding waste metals into the sky through what was for a while the world's tallest smokestack. 'The unwitting populace breathes [lead], eats it, and becomes it,' Fraser writes. In 1974, researchers found that the Ruston smelter was pumping 25lbs of lead dust and 58lbs of arsenic into the air every hour. That same year, Asarco celebrated its 75th anniversary by reporting record profits. Murderland sets its sights much higher than true crime. Like Prairie Fires, Fraser's Pulitzer prize-winning 2017 biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, it's a big, ambitious story about the United States and the people it breeds. Then again, wasn't it a work of true crime, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, that kickstarted literary nonfiction 60 years ago? Two recent tales of money and murder – Patrick Radden Keefe's Empire of Pain and David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon – also border Murderland. It is as hauntingly compulsive a nonfiction book as I have read in a long time. It gets into your blood. The occasional overripe passage and portentous epigram (Dante, Dostoevsky) is a small price to pay. Fraser's lyrical present-tense prose is urgent yet tightly controlled as she digs into newspaper archives to create a pin-studded map of a country losing its mind. The bravura section about 1974, that annus horribilis, uses immersive day-by-day storytelling to braid the killings with the unravelling of President Nixon, the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and Fraser's own coming of age on Mercer Island, where she dreams of killing her father, a violent, autocratic Christian Scientist. By evoking the victims' lives and treading lightly around their grisly deaths, she avoids the clammy voyeurism that makes so many serial killer histories feel sordid. Fraser's narrative map is criss-crossed with red threads. She pulls in erstwhile Tacoma residents such as Dune creator Frank Herbert, who said that his home town's air was 'so thick you can chew it', and Dashiell Hammett, who fictionalised the city as 'Poisonville' in Red Harvest. We meet Thomas Midgley Jr, the 'one-man environmental disaster' responsible for both leaded gasoline and ozone-shredding chlorofluorocarbons, and Clair Patterson, the former Manhattan Project geochemist who used lead levels to accurately calculate the age of the Earth and then successfully campaigned to undo Midgley's sin. We jump back to the second world war, whose ravenous appetite for lead and copper fuelled an environmental catastrophe. I wasn't quite persuaded by the subplot about the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, an engineering atrocity whose careless design killed more people than Bundy, but I was never bored. Fraser evokes the fear and vulnerability of the age of serial killers – a time of unguarded hitchhikers, unlocked windows and police officers who have no idea who they're dealing with. Most perpetrators of sexual violence are known to their victims, but in the US during the 1970s, almost 300 men were compulsively trolling for strangers to abuse and kill. That number plummeted, along with the overall crime rate, during the 1990s, which happened to be after lead was removed from gasoline and most of the big smelters closed down. The one at Ruston fell silent in 1985, thanks more to market forces than to regulation: the price of copper had crashed. Can the serial killers' crimes be solely explained by the air they breathed, the water they drank and the metal in their brains? Surely not, but Fraser demonstrates enough correlation to make lead pollution a likely contributing factor. Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, who terrorised California in the mid-80s, grew up near Asarco's smelter in El Paso, Texas. Gary Ridgway was exposed to lead paint for three decades in his job spray-painting trucks. James Oliver Huberty, who shot dead 22 people in a McDonald's in California in 1984, was riddled with cadmium from his work as a welder. He had complained that the fumes were 'making me crazy'. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Murderland is full of mirrors. The incompetence of law enforcers is twinned with the weakness of environmental regulators. The killers' contempt for individual human lives finds an echo in the ruthless amorality of the corporations. In 1973, a fire destroyed the filtering system at the smelter at Bunker Hill, Idaho, octupling its emissions. An executive weighed the costs of temporary closure against the maximum likely settlement to affected families and kept it going. 'They're doing the devil's business, which is no different from what Ted does,' Fraser writes, hot with indignation. 'Like Ted, Bunker Hill has been killing people for years. It's second nature.' In Murderland, some killers get caught, tried and punished. Others just get rich. For both, it's a numbers game. Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser is published by Fleet (£25). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Seattle weather: Mostly sunny and 60s are sticking around
The Brief We will see mostly clear skies Monday evening with overnight lows in the mid to low 40s. Temperatures will be a few degrees lower on Tuesday, but still sunny and above average. SEATTLE - More sunny skies and warmer days are ahead this week in the Pacific Northwest, with highs remaining in the 60s. On Monday, it was a beautiful sunny day with highs this afternoon well above average, peaking in the mid to upper 60s. High pressure is over the Pacific Northwest to start the week, bringing sunshine and warmer temperatures. High pressure will build again by the end of the week, amplifying even more, which will warm temperatures into the low 70s for some spots. We will see mostly clear skies this evening with overnight lows in the mid to low 40s. A few spots in the South Sound could see areas of patchy fog. What's next Temperatures will be a few degrees cooler compared to Monday, but still above average. Mostly sunny skies with temperatures in the mid to upper 60s. The extended forecast is looking sunny and dry with highs remaining in the 60s. We will start to see conditions break down for the weekend, bringing back 50s and a slight chance of showers Sunday. The Source Information in this story is from FOX 13 Seattle Meteorologist Claire Anderson and the National Weather Service. Drunken night caught on bodycam costs Mercer Island cop his rank FEMA denies $34M in funds for WA bomb cyclone relief, gives no explanation 1997 WA cold case victim identified; Gary Ridgway not ruled out 2 charged in brutal Burien kidnapping, attempted murder Watch: Coyote gets 'booped' by its potential rodent dinner Red Robin launching Bottomless Burger Pass for National Burger Month To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national coverage, plus 24/7 streaming coverage from across the nation.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
WSDOT shuts down 103-year-old bridge in Tacoma, WA
The Brief Transportation authorities have shut down a Tacoma bridge. Fairfax bridge is 103 years old and showing concerning signs of wear. WSDOT has not set a definite reopening date. TACOMA, Wash. - The century-old Carbon River Fairfax bridge in Tacoma is shutting down due to concerns over structural integrity. WSDOT announced on Monday that they are shutting down all pedestrian and vehicle access to the bridge. The backstory Previously, the bridge had lane restrictions and a stop on EMS vehicles from using it for their responses. Built in 1921, the bridge exceeds the usually-expected 75-year service life of bridges in Washington. Dig deeper The average age of state-owned bridges is 51 years. "There is no funding available to replace the bridge at this point. Years of deferred preservation work due to limited preservation funding resulted in the updated weight restrictions and now the indefinite closure," says a representative with WSDOT on their website. The Source Information for this article comes from the Washington Department of Transportation in Tacoma. Drunken night caught on bodycam costs Mercer Island cop his rank FEMA denies $34M in funds for WA bomb cyclone relief, gives no explanation 1997 WA cold case victim identified; Gary Ridgway not ruled out 2 charged in brutal Burien kidnapping, attempted murder Watch: Coyote gets 'booped' by its potential rodent dinner Red Robin launching Bottomless Burger Pass for National Burger Month To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national coverage, plus 24/7 streaming coverage from across the nation.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
Man stabbed in Seattle's Rainier Valley while working on car
The Brief Police are searching for a suspect in a South Seattle stabbing that sent one man to the hospital Monday afternoon. The man was stabbed in the neck, forearm and elbow as he was working on his car, officers said. SEATTLE - Seattle police are searching for a suspect in a stabbing that happened in South Seattle's Rainier Valley neighborhood Monday afternoon. What we know Police said the victim, a 43-year-old man, was stabbed in the neck, elbow and hand while he was outside working on his car on Rainier Avenue South near South Rose Street. The suspect and victim were involved in some sort of altercation before the stabbing, according to SPD. Officers say the victim had a minor laceration to the neck and a larger, more serious defensive wound to his hand. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. Police did not locate the suspect at the scene, and officers could be seen searching the area near Rainier Avenue South at Sturtevant Avenue South. No arrests have been made. The circumstances leading up to the stabbing are under investigation. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000. The Source Information in this story is from the Seattle Police Department. Drunken night caught on bodycam costs Mercer Island cop his rank FEMA denies $34M in funds for WA bomb cyclone relief, gives no explanation 1997 WA cold case victim identified; Gary Ridgway not ruled out 2 charged in brutal Burien kidnapping, attempted murder Watch: Coyote gets 'booped' by its potential rodent dinner Red Robin launching Bottomless Burger Pass for National Burger Month To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national coverage, plus 24/7 streaming coverage from across the nation.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Yahoo
Seattle's historic Virginia Inn to close after 120 years
The Brief Seattle's historic Virginia Inn, an institution older than the Pike Place Market, is closing after more than 120 years in business. The restaurant and bar announced via social media that its lease has been terminated, with their last day set for Sunday, April 27. SEATTLE - The Virginia Inn, a Seattle institution older than the Pike Place Market, is shutting its doors after more than 120 years in business. What they're saying The century-old spot along 1st Avenue took to social media on Friday, writing, "This is the end." On Facebook and Instagram, the Virginia Inn spoke on its history dating back to 1903, and claimed their landlord, the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority, is terminating their lease due to failed negotiations for an equitable lease. "To our loyal customers and friends, it is with a heavy heart we inform you that the Virginia Inn will be permanently shutting our doors on Sunday, April 27th. Our lease has been terminated by our landlord, the Pike Place Market PDA, due to failed negotiations for an equitable lease," the Virginia Inn said in social media posts. "We are Pike Place's oldest institution; older than Pike Place itself. We have seen this city grow and change all around us. We have survived through Prohibition, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, the COVID pandemic, and many other events in between." The Virginia Inn is calling on loyal patrons to go take their grievances directly to Pike Place Market leadership and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. The institution's last day is set for Sunday, April 27. The Virginia Inn was one of the first art bars in Seattle, with the restaurant currently serving up regional Northwest cuisine and signature cocktails. It was also featured in the 1992 film, "Singles." Learn more about the Virginia Street staple on their website. The Source Information in this story is from social media posts from the Virginia Inn. Teen facing new charges for playground shooting in Federal Way 1997 WA cold case victim identified; Gary Ridgway not ruled out Family and neighbors of missing Arlington man rally and call for action Everett police arrest 23-year-old bikini barista assault suspect Seattle ranked 5th 'coolest' city in US Pacific Northwest ports brace for impact as China tariffs soar to 145% To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national coverage, plus 24/7 streaming coverage from across the nation.
