AP: "Teen sweethearts blaze trail..." is some bullshit

How about the media fucks right off with headlines like this? "Police: Teen sweethearts blaze trail of crime across South."

It's the "teen sweethearts" bit that gets me. A couple of teens, one underage, are on a goddamned crime spree stretching from Kentucky to Georgia, so far, and journalists (the Associated Press being just one offender) slap them with a phrase more appropriate to a bobbysoxer and a greaser eating sundaes at a drive-through in 1958.

Because they're a semi-cute pair of young white kids they get "Bonnie & Clyde" comparisons and horseshit romanticized phrases ready-made for a promo for a Lifetime movie? Call anyone who does this what they are: dangerous, destructive--and self-destructive--criminals.

Any journalist who gives in to the impulse to glamorize such things would do well to recall Bonnie and Clyde's fate: turned into human swiss cheese, shredded by the guns of federal agents.

There's no romance in something like this. Only lunacy, and tragedy.

Phoenix Serial Killer Dale Hausner Dead at 40

From KPHO TV:

Hausner, 40, died of unknown causes at the Eyman state prison in Florence, officials said. Staff and medical personnel tried unsuccessfully to give him CPR.

Blogging this just to express how sad I'm not that this evil bastard is dead. Dale Hausner wasn't one of those serial killers who will go down in history with single name recognition and that is a great thing. He was a psychopathic meth head who killed and hurt for fun, though. I wrote about him at the time of his arrest in 2006 and interviewed people close to him. Occasionally that humanizes an otherwise horrible human being but not with Hausner. He was as evil as his convictions for first-degree murder, attempted murder and related charges indicated.

It's rare that I bother with such sentiments anymore, but I do hope hell burns hot for the bastard.

More about this murderous slimeball's crimes here.

[KPHO]

Creepy: 2 TN kids thought to have died in a fire actually missing

I take this day off from blogging for Observer Media. I didn't plan on blogging anything, but this AP story caught my attention because the more you think about it, the creepier it gets.

Bedford County, Tennessee authorities found the home of Leon and Molli McClaran in flames last Sunday. It was described as an intense blaze that caused the structure to collapse. It still smoldered Monday as EMS personnel discovered the McClarans.

Police also expected to find 9-year-old Chloie Leverette and 7-year-old Gage Daniel the McClarans' step-grandchildren.

The children weren't found in the rubble. Today the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has issued 'endangered child alerts' for the kids. Chloie and Gage haven't been seen since Sunday evening.

The blurb on TBI's missing child page for the children is essentially the same:

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has issued an Endangered Child Alert for the Bedford County Sheriff's Office for 9-year old Chloie Leverette and 7-year old Gage Daniel. The children were last seen on Sunday, September 23, 2012 at approximately 6:30 p.m. by a neighbor. Chloie and Gage lived with their grandparents at 730 Kingdom Road, Unionville, Tennessee. That home was destroyed by fire on Sunday night at approximately 9:30 p.m. According to State Bomb and Arson investigators, the children were not victims of the fire and their whereabouts are unknown at this time. If you have any information concerning the current whereabouts of Chloie and Gage, please contact the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.

I don't blog as much about crime as I used to and won't go too in-depth with this, it just bothers me because the last time I wrote about a case that began similarly--family members dead in some terrible way and two children vanished--it ended horribly.

I just hope those kids are found soon, and they're okay.