Court TV

Okay, so I've already written about my (slightly) neurotic obsession with QVC as a child.  However, this wasn't the only channel on television that I ever had a fling with.  In fact, my next thematic obsession was to swing from campy to carnal--I became a Court TV addict.

I'm not such a fan of truTV, Court TV's new name and format.  It adds in reality shows that I don't care about.  I basically need a channel devoted to playing reruns of Forensic Files, The Investigators, Masterminds, and any other show like this (I'll take a Psychic Detectives in a pinch).  For some reason, this sort of televised misery told in a systematic, unemotional way lulls me to sleep.  Some people watch the news or reruns of Sex and the City, but give me misery, mayhem, and the guy who says "blunt force trauma" in that oh-so-special way.

I started my true crime kick when Court TV did a special one Christmas when I was spending a lot of time at my G'ma Helen's house.  Late at night, they were doing a "12 Serial Killers of Christmas" special.  I got introduced to all of the big names in mayhem and terror:  Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, Eichmann, BTK (before he was caught), the Boston Strangler, the Manson Family, the Son of Sam...a motley crew of death dealers.  Anyone who had ever had a well-publicized trial was fair game.  Their televesion introductions made me want to know more.  This was something different, this was something...dare I say it...cool.  Although I liked the story of Eichmann being abducted from Argentina by the Israelis to stand trial (and that his final meal was a bottle of red wine), the stories that affected me the most were Dahmer and Gacy by scaring the absolute shit out of me.  What Bundy did to co-eds, these two freaks did to me.

But, regardless of how they scared me, I wanted to know more, like a violence junkie.  Because, as GI Joe knows, knowing is half the battle.  Plus, the stories, well, I just had to know more.  Motives, methods, victims, styles, years, numbers...if I could quantify it, then maybe I could understand it.  Because when you're nine, you think that everything can be understood if you just get enough information.

That makes me sound like a creep, but most people are interested.  I just put my fascination from a young age up front.

I eventually became fascinated with all sorts of true crime statistics and stories, but those are tales for another day.