Thursday, May 31, 2007

Patricia Cornwell, the FBI agents and Cornwell "stealing" autopsy reports

Quotes taken from Sachs' web-site http://www.patricia-cornwell-biography.net/index.html#biostart

All right, let's roll once again!

"Patricia Cornwell's first well-known lesbian affair was with FBI agent Marguerite or 'Margo' Bennett, who was teaching communications at Quantico. Margo Bennett was married to Eugene Bennett, another FBI agent, and had two children. Patricia Cornwell has admitted in interviews that she has given money and gifts and done favours for these two FBI agents - which is important as a part of Cornwell's broader history of bribing government officials, and as a part of Cornwell's influence at the FBI regarding the cover-up of her own crimes."

Patricia Cornwell gives money to a lot of people and to a lot of organisations. It's called 'charity', not 'bribery.'

"Patricia Cornwell was named in the court papers as the person whose adulterous lesbian affair with Margo, was the cause of the destruction of their marriage, and also of pushing Margo's husband Eugene into a murderous rage. Cornwell had encouraged Margo Bennett to end her marriage, and also encouraged Margo to snitch out her husband to the FBI on vengeful claims of expense-padding, claims which led to the termination of not only the FBI careers of her husband Eugene, but also Margo herself, and this scandal led to the first of Eugene Bennett's prison sentences."

Well, if you steal $17 000 from the FBI and try to shoot someone, you'll end up in jail. That should be pretty obvious. You don't need Cornwell nor a "scandal" to end up in jail if you do something like that. Of course some people pinned this all on Cornwell. But as far as I know, Cornwell hadn't met with Margo in years and wasn't even in town when the shootout took place.

If you know better, do correct me. I pretty much go by the things that Cornwell has said (BBC radio interview at Radio 4 - Front Row 06/05/2002) and by what I think about these things.

Here's what Douglas Thompson (http://www.dougiethompson.com/PatriciaDanielsCornwell_page3.htm ) says:

"His [Eugene Bennett's] wife told the FBI that he had stolen $17,000 from them. He admitted falsifying expenses and obstructing justice and spent a year in jail. All along he had ranted to anyone who would listen that his daughters, aged seven and nine, were going to be 'brought up by lesbians'."

Isn't it obvious why Eugene Bennett makes this comment about his daughters possibly being brought up by lesbians? He wanted to get the custody of these children and possibly avoid prison. How sane is he supposed to be then? If someone ruined his and Margo's FBI-careers, it was Eugene Bennett himself.

Eugene Bennett was planning to kill Cornwell and at least two other people and when Cornwell wasn't in town (she had moved) Bennett took a priest hostage, threatened his family and made him call Margo and ask her to come there. Would the Bennett children be better off with their crazy father than a lesbian couple? I don't think so.

"Another major scandal with an FBI agent, involved Cornwell's relationship with famous FBI behavioural scientist Bob Ressler. Ressler is the veteran profiler of numerous famous murderers, including killers Charles Manson, the Son of Sam and John Wayne Gacy, and Robert Kennedy's killer Sirhan. Cornwell was introduced to Ressler in 1990, with the idea that Cornwell would help develop a book on Ressler's life and work. After a number of meetings, it was clear the relationship between them was sour. Disliking each other, they did not pursue the book project further."

Cornwell and Ressler didn't get along, that's true. But the reason Cornwell and Ressler didn't pursue the book project was the fact that Ressler was trying to take credit for cases he hadn't even worked on (like Ted Bundy) and Cornwell disliked that and thus she left the project.

"That first crime novel solidified the pattern of Cornwell's not being fully original in her writing. 'Postmortem' was Cornwell's fictional re-hash of the South Side Strangler murders that bedevilled Richmond in the late 1980s. . . . It seems as well that Cornwell's book inspired another murder in Sarasota, Florida, where police felt the murder was a copycat of Cornwell's gruesome book."

Right, as if there'd be something strange about the fact that a writer uses real life events in his/her book. If you search long enough you'll find tons of mystery- and crime novels based on something real.

Copycat killers could and can just as easily get their ideas from movies or other books (like something by Val McDermid or Karin Slaughter for example?). Maybe someone indeed did copycat Cornwell's books but I don't think it's fair to try and blame that on Cornwell. It's not her fault that some crazy person starts killing people. And if Cornwell 'copied' the events of real murders to her book, isn't it more likely possible that the copycat was copying the real murderer, not the one Cornwell made up for her book?

" 'Body of Evidence' has a mentally disturbed character named Al Hunt who commits suicide. Al Hunt, however, is a real person. Al Hunt is a Wall Street Journal employee who had met Cornwell briefly, and refused to give her a job."

Pick up a phonebook. See how many people named 'Al Hunt' you can find. Or how many people have the same name as you do. While you're at it, see how many "John Smith's" you can find. :)

As far as I know, writer's are pretty much allowed to use whatever names they want to. And that's how it should be. It's hard to think a name for a character that no actual person could possibly have. Well, at least if you're not writing fantasy and name your characters 'Bloombasticouisus' or something like that.

"Patricia Cornwell committed one of her gravest crimes while kibitzing there with the Virginia coroners. She stole the private autopsy reports of the murdered children of two families, the victims in the well known New Kent Parkway rest stop murders of October 1989. Patricia Cornwell copied, essentially verbatim, the secret autopsy reports on victims Annamaria Phelps and Daniel Lauer, ruthlessly exploiting this tragedy to create Cornwell's third book, 'All That Remains', in 1992."

Well, the stuff about autopsies in Cornwell's books could easily be from any autopsy ever done. Nowadays privacy about autopsies doesn't seem to be such a big deal - has anyone seen the tv-show called 'Autopsy'? They show and talk about real things.

If Cornwell can so easily bribe her way in so that she's allowed to do whatever she wants in the morgue then why would she bother to steal anything? Cornwell knows the people there, I don't think that she would have to bribe or steal anything to get research-help from her friends.

And if Patricia Cornwell hadn't written a book that in some ways seems similar to these real murders, someone else would have. So quit milking it, Sachs.

Just in case Patricia Cornwell wouldn't happen to have anything better to do than to Google her own name and she happens to find this blog: If you decide to send "thugs" to paint swastikas onto my house, could you please tell them to paint the wall in the back? That wall could really do with some paint. Thank you, come again! ;D

But seriously: Every author uses experiences from real life - from their own life or from stories they've heard/read - in their books in some way. If there's something that makes a writer really happy or sad or angry, there's a chance that the writer will write about that thing in some form. Because that's where books come from - from the writer's heart, mind and soul.

Regards!
Sandy
"We don't like it when you tap the glass."

Patricia Cornwell, Jodie Foster and Demi Moore

Once again the quotes are taken from Dr Les Sachs' web-site unless mentioned otherwise.

This is one of my favourites. Sachs tells us that Patricia Cornwell has been stalking Jodie Foster and getting into fights with Demi Moore and all sorts of funny things (at least I laughed my butt off while reading these hilarious writing of dr Sachs').

"One of the actresses who briefly considered a role as Cornwell's main fictional character was Demi Moore. Cornwell later bragged about being in a hot tub with Demi and smoking cigars."

First of all, I think that Demi Moore would have been a terrible choice to play Scarpetta. I mean she's a great actress and all but no, no way she should've been cast as Scarpetta.

I read that Cornwell took Moore to the morgue, to Quantico and to dinner. Yeah, they were smokin' cigars in a hot tub but so what? Heck, if I were smoking cigars with Demi Moore in a hot tub I'd brag about it too! I'd go knock on every door in my neighbourhood, I'd put my hands on my hips and I'd say:
"- Nah-nah, I was in a hot tub with Demi Moore!"
So let Cornwell brag about it if she wants to.

"The most bizarre episode from Cornwell's California jaunts, was her emotional crush upon actress Jodie Foster, who was also considered as a potential lead actress in a Cornwell movie script. Cornwell had a crush on Foster, and pursued her obsessively in a weird, stalking way that must have been very disturbing to Foster. This is described in a January 1997 Esquire article by Jeanette Wells, 'Jodie, Jodie, Jodie'."

Jodie Foster as Scarpetta would-have-been-so-obvious! Next!

Now, let me see. The Esquire magazine... Oh, yes! This indeed seems to be a magazine with reliable information in it (that was sarcasm, just in case someone didn't get it). What next, "Aliens ate my spaghetti"?

Cornwell wasn't "pursuing Foster", she was trying to talk her into playing Scarpetta. The fact that Cornwell sits drinking coffee or having dinner at the same restaurant that Foster walks into doesn't mean that Cornwell was stalking her.

But, just for fun, let's assume for a moment that Cornwell was stalking Foster. Ok, what's so weird about that? I bet that Foster has a lot of stalkers. Men, women, whatever. Many celebrities have stalkers. Sachs just so happened to forget to mention that.

"Cornwell and Jodie Foster met briefly, but the meeting did not go well. Foster seems to have found Cornwell somewhat disgusting, and did not want to pursue the project further."

Was Sachs there? How is he supposed to know how the meeting went or what Foster thought of Cornwell? Can Sachs read people's minds? And what does Foster have to say about this? Has anyone asked her? If someone knows, let me know.

"Just like with the FBI agents, Cornwell began offering sizeable bribes and gifts with the idea that Brafstein would induce Jodie to meet Cornwell again and then they could start a relationship."

Like I said before, Cornwell was probably just trying to talk Foster into playing Scarpetta. Foster said "no" and Cornwell tried again, maybe offered a better deal to Foster or something. Seriously, I don't understand how someone could possibly believe a word of Sachs' writings. Well, too bad for those who do. They'll be fooled. Big time.

"As the 1990's came to a close, her Hollywood foray a failure, Cornwell went back to identifying Virginia as her main home, though she travelled among several places and in fact was at home nowhere. She deepened the political and campaign contributions that made her more of a political force with Republicans and especially in Virginia, befriending Virginia's Governor of 1997-2001, Jim Gilmore. Gilmore, right-wing friend of George Bush, ended up renting Cornwell's Virginia mansion and sleeping in the same bedroom where Cornwell had trysted with lesbian lovers."

Read carefully now. If you read the last sentence too fast you'll get the idea that Cornwell and her "lesbian lovers" are sleeping in the same bed with Gilmore. Ok?
Now, that you've read it slowly and carefully: If you rent someone's house, you're bound to end up sleeping in the same bedroom that the previous tenant or owner has slept.

Of course I'm sure that there were/are a lot of bedrooms in Cornwell's houses but I'm pretty sure I'd pick the same one Cornwell had used. Not because of the fact that it would be the same one where "Cornwell had trysted with her lesbian lovers" but because I'm sure it would have the nicest view and so on. And if it didn't, I'd change.

You know, like Goldie-what's-her-name, the little girl in the fairy tale. '-This one's too hard, this one's too soft... Hey, this is perfect!'

By the way, I'm sure that the three bears ate that little Goldie-what's-her-name who broke into their house, ate their food and then just took a nap in their bed (how rude is that?!). I don't blame the three bears. I would've eaten her too.

Regards!
Sandy
"We don't like it when you tap the glass."

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Patricia Cornwell vs Leslie Sachs

I'm sure everyone has already heard of this. But just in case someone hasn't, here's the story in few words: Dr. Leslie Sachs calls in his web-site author Patricia Cornwell a "Jew-hating neo-Nazi" and a lot of other things.

Here's what I think about these things. Bear in mind that these are just my thoughts but I think there's some sense in them. And forgive me for my bad english and spelling-mistakes, please.

First of all: Sachs calls himself "an expert on American corruption." I would love to know what excactly makes him an "expert on American corruption." As far as I know, he is just a history professor.

Sachs calls Patricia Cornwell a "neo-Nazi" who wants to become "a lesbian Adolf Hitler". When Cornwell's lawyer Joan A. Lukey (she's a very nice lady, by the way) asked Cornwell about her attitude toward the Jewish community, Cornwell pointed out that she has a lot of Jewish friends and agents and that she is married to a Jewish person.

I can't really say why exactly Sachs makes such a big deal out of Patricia Cornwell's sexuality. Probably because he wants to be able to say that Cornwell is betraying the gay community by financing the republicans and the Bush party and that Cornwell's lesbianism is being hidden by the press because Bush and friends don't want people to know that one of their family friends is a lesbian.

If that is true, then why on Earth did Cornwell say in an interview that she is in "a stable, long-term relationship" and when the interviewer asked her if her lover is a woman, Cornwell replied: "Yes. So to all these people who think I'm all screwed up about relationships: I'm in one." This kind of makes me think that Sachs is barking up the wrong Bush...

If memory serves me right the article was written by Andrew Billen. But I may be wrong. There was a link to this article in Wikipedia.

And so what if Cornwell is a lesbian who gives money to the conservative party? I thought that in free countries people are allowed to finance and vote for whichever party they want to no matter what their sexual orientation may be.

Then the boob job.
Sachs mentions that Cornwell has had plastic surgery on her nose and on her breasts. It's hard for me to understand why Sachs exactly mentions these things but I suppose it is because he wants to make Cornwell seem unperfect in every possible way.

I don't know and I don't care wheter or not Patricia Cornwell has had plastic surgery on her breasts and/or on her nose. Believe it or not, I do have better things to do than to stare at Cornwell's breasts and nose.
But so what if Cornwell has had some work done on her face? Who cares? Many people, celebrities and non-celebrities, go under the knife. If you're going to tell me that Cornwell is the only one who has had a boob job or a nose job then why don't you just shave my legs and call me a Dolly Parton!

In his book "True crimes of Patricia Cornwell" (not published yet but I did have the questionable "pleasure" to read an early draft of it sent to me by a friend who got it from Sachs through e-mail), Sachs spends quite a lot of time telling us how unattractive and male-like Cornwell is in real life, how she has a "face of an addict or a long-time drunk", how she is "high as a kite" and so on, and so on.

What Sachs failes to mention is the fact that the day he met Cornwell, Cornwell had most likely had trouble sleeping and that she had to get up that day at 4.00 AM. I don't think that there are too many people who manage to look attractive after suffering from stress, sleepless nights and busy days. And as we all know, sleeplesness also can easily make one appear to be "high" or irrational.

Sachs mentioned that he has a "drop of Jewish blood" in his veins. It seems to me that he thinks that because of that he can say that Cornwell is a Jew-hater because she is trying to stop Sachs from keeping up his offending web-site.

If someone calls you a "money whore" and a "neo-Nazi" and a lot of other extremely nasty things, wouldn't you take some actions, like Cornwell did, to stop that? Like he said himself, Sachs only has a "drop of Jewish" blood in him, so one really can't describe Cornwell's activities to try and shut Sachs' cyberstalking-web-site down as an attack against the Jewish community.

I'm pretty sure that Cornwell (and anyone else who would become a victim of this type of stalking!) would sue anyone putting that kind of stuff on the Internet no matter what their religious background may be.

This "Cornwell hates Jews"- hoax just proves how desperate Sachs is in his tries to blacken Cornwell's reputation.

Sachs also makes a big deal about the fact that Cornwell has said in some interview that she can "literally get away with murder" if she wants to. I believe that this statement has been taken completely out of it's original context. If you think about it, you'll realize that every single crime scene investigator could get away with murder if they wanted to because they know what to do and what not to do in a crime scene.

As we all know, Cornwell has spent a lot of time recearching crime scene investigation and police work. If you hang around with police and CSI-members and study their work as long as Cornwell has studied you can easily say that you can get away with murder.

Cornwell stalking people? Yeah, right.
Sachs has said that he has been contacted by women who say that they have been stalked and harassed by Patricia Cornwell. First of all I have to believe that Cornwell is a bit too busy to be stalking people.

I would be interested in hearing what these women actually have to say (if these women even exist outside Sachs' head). It would also be interesting to know that how are we supposed to know that these women are telling the truth? What if they just saw Sachs' web-site and thought it would be fun to make fun of him?

And then: How are we supposed to know that Sachs didn't "seduce" these women into telling lies for him by promising them money and fame (kind of like he did when he suggested to AP reporter Zinie Chen Sampson that if she takes his side on this story -BAM- she'll win a Pulitzer and will never have to work again) after this is all over?

The obvious
I do think it is extremely obvious why Sachs is doing this. First of all he is jealous. Almost next door to him lived a woman, who had suddenly became famous and rich, while Sachs himself was stuck in writing books about how to buy used cars cheap.

Sachs keeps on saying how his book, "The Virginia ghost murders" was praised by the publishers and readers and reviewers. If this is true, then why did he have to put up his own publishing company to get his book published? And how many people in the end actually have read his book, which Sue Feder's reviewer called "sleazy and dull"?

I think that Sachs' ultimate goal was (and still is) to get publicity for his book. Now many people might think: "Hmm, I'd like to read Sachs' book and compare it to Cornwell's "The Last precinct" and see for myself." Gee, I'm sure he never meant for that to happen!

Sachs calls himself a "gentle" man. Yeah, right. He did sound extremely "gentle" and reasonable when he told Cornwell's lawyers (as they had sent him an e-mail informing him that Patricia Cornwell has filed a lawsuit against him) to "take their Nazi-threats and shove them up their asses" and when he said that the thing that really "makes Cornwell all hot and wet between the legs" is jailing and threatening other people. Yes, yes, these certainly seem like the writings of a "gentle", reasonable, stable and a nice man that Sachs says that he is.

Is Sachs crazy? A little bit. But above all, he is extremely jealous, bitter and paranoid. Tinfoil, anyone?

Regards!
Sandy
"We don't like it when you tap the glass."