Halloween is this week, so of course I have to talk about it. Luckily for me, my blog topic fits into halloween with spooky scary stories about serial killers pretty well. However, in honor of Halloween being this Saturday, I’m going to talk about some of my favorite fictional characters, as well as horror movies.

First up on the list is the movie The Shining. An old film, this movie was actually the first horror movie I’ve ever seen. I watched it with my parents when I was 11, and I won’t lie, I needed some moral support falling asleep afterwards. The movie revolves around a family of three; a husband, wife, and their young son who move to an isolated resort in the rough months of winter, the father got hired there as a caretaker. Now it’s a horror movie, so of course this place is haunted. The last caretaker of the place went crazy and brutally murdered his wife and daughters with an axe, before taking his own life. Slowly, the family starts to see supernatural things happen. Meanwhile, the father Jack, starts to lose it a little. It is a very thrilling movie that kept me on edge the whole time until the plot twist at the end, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something spooky to watch this season.

If you’re up for something even scarier and a lot more  gory, I have just the thing for you. Better yet, it has multiple movies! Theses movies are a part of the Saw series, a very messed up yet somehow still entertaining horror film with a very twisted killer. Basically, average people are kidnapped and wake up in some sort of room or situation. When they wake, they are played a video recording made specifically for them, from Jigsaw. Jigsaw is the killer. Essentially, he tells these people he has seen their wrongs and their actions make them unworthy of living. “Their actions” for example, could be drug abuse, but there are many things Jigsaw sees as an injustice. He is giving them one last chance to live and reform, if only they can complete his task. He then hides and watches his victims go through excruciating torturous tasks to fight for their lives, all which ultimately end up failing. The plot of the movie also circles around the investigation of the killer and trying to find him. This movie also has many turns and plot twists and is one of my favorites to watch when I’m looking for a scare.

I hope I’ve inspired you to at least watch something in the Halloween spirit this week, even if something like Coraline is more your speed(which is actually a pretty good movie).

Today I’ve decided to talk about one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. In my fall semester of my senior year, I interned at a courthouse. I got my internship through an elective career and internship class I applied to be in at the end of my junior year. The program is all about getting you an internship at somewhere in the career field you have interest in. I am majoring in criminology, and also wish to go into the legal field and potentially be a lawyer.

I interned at the Halfmoon Town Courthouse, a courthouse in a town about half an hour from where I live. I learned so much at this internship about many different career choices.

On some days, I would spend the day in the office with the town clerks, and learned how to do paperwork. I even got access to the DMV website and got to file a bunch of strangers parking tickets, or open plea letters addressed to the judges, or suspend peoples’ licenses with too many unpaid tickets

On court nights I’d sit with the judges. Wednesday nights were criminal court nights and Thursdays was traffic court. Traffic court had a lot more things like parking or speeding violations, and a lot of DUIs. Criminal nights were definitely my favorite, when inmates wearing jumpsuits were actually bussed from their prisons to have their cases overseen by the judge. I also witnessed a few people come before the judge intoxicated or under the influence when it was so obvious it was hard to watch. I became close with all of the staff there. One of my funniest memories was when one of the inmates was wearing neon orange crocs that matched his jumpsuit and the DA pointed it out to me. Not only did I get to sit with the judges and learn a bunch of cool new laws that were unknown to me, I also got to spend time with the ADA and the PD. Both let me sit in on negotiations and also conversations with clients(some inmates while still handcuffed).

Overall it was a great experience that also increased or reiterated my interest in the criminal law field. I am also glad to have had both such a great opportunity while also working with such great people, they actually invited me to their holiday dinner party which I brought my dad to which was really fun!

Today I’m taking a bit of a different approach. Instead of discussing a specific serial killer, I am going to share a fourteen year old girl’s story with you, or at least what is known of it.

I am not sure about the real girl’s name, just that she was fourteen and raped and killed in Norristown, Pennsylvania. A book was made, and then a movie, based off of her and her story.

For the sake of this post and trying to make it easier to follow, we’ll call the girl Susie Salmon,  because that is her name in the movie. The movie is called The Lovely Bones and besides a few flashbacks of how she was killed, most of the plot is with Susie already dead and in heaven, trying to help her family find her killer and gain some much needed closure.

Now let’s talk about the murder. Susie was walking home from school for dinner one night, and decided to take a shortcut through the cornfield in her town. In that field, she runs into George Harvey. She doesn’t know him personally, but recognizes him, and he explains that he is her neighbor. He is overwhelmingly friendly towards Susie, who was a polite girl, and he asked her if she wanted to see his fort he had built under the corn field. She accepted this offer, and they went underground, into his hideout. Little did Susie know, that one decision would be the end for her. After looking around and praising his work, Susie politely said she must be getting home to her parents for dinner. Harvey refused this, telling her to stay. This is when it dawns on Susie the mistake she has made, and she tries again to leave but Harvey gets insistent about her staying. She tries to make a run for it, but Harvey grabs her, she screams, and the screen goes black. She died.

You find out later in the movie that Susie being the victim to Harvey’s crime was not by random chance. He had actually stalked her and taken many photos of her on his camera in the neighborhood, he was always watching her. He had an obsession with Susie.

Although I don’t know for sure how much of this story is true, or how much it was embellished for film and entertainment purposes, I do know that a little girl was murdered, and that should not be overlooked. I won’t spoil the ending of the movie, but I would definitely recommend it.

I am from Saratoga Springs New York. I have lived here all of my life. So has my mom. She was born in February 1973. About five months later, a killer went wild on his victims for eighteen days straight on a killing spree.

Before last week, I had never heard of this serial killer, and he is from my home state! My local drive in was playing a special one night premiere of The Garrow, which I saw a preview for and had to see when I found out it was about a New York killer. Robert Garrow was a thirty seven year old killer, who stabbed four strangers to death on his eighteen day killing spree before he was caught.

Essentially, the movie acted out Robert Garrow’s childhood and then portrayed his killing spree, as well as his prison break (wait until you hear that one). He had an abusive father and no mention of a mother in the movie. His father “sold” him to a farming neighbor when he was nine years old. He would go and live on the farm Mondays through Saturdays and do all of the work he was assigned, and the farmer paid his father for it. Though Garrow had no say in the matter, it was mentioned that he preferred living at the neighbors because they did not abuse him like his father did, though they were aware of his beatings. One day his neighbor found him doing sexual things to the cows, and after being made aware, the movie reenacted his father nearly strangle him to death, which it is implied that this happened often. I believe the abuse he went through contributed to what he became.

As an adult, Garrow was married and had a son. He had a previous conviction of sexual assault, and July 11th through July 29th, he went about committing murder, often of couples he found. He would kill the men first, because they reminded him of his father, and then rape the girls. He would keep them alive for multiple days sometimes, often convincing himself they were in love with him. Only when the girls tried to escape, or betrayed him in his eyes, would he stab them to death. He was eventually caught and sent to prison after sexually assaulting two young girls, around the ages of nine and eleven. He was shot in the leg when he was caught, and appeared to have lost use of it as he was in a wheelchair in prison.

One day, his son came to visit him, and the guards allowed him to bring Garrow a huge bucket of unmonitored Kentucky Fried Chicken. In the bottom of the bucket was a gun, and with this, (and by also miraculously regaining use of his legs), Garrow prison broke.

Within a couple of days Garrow was found in a nearby woods. He wouldn’t come peacefully, and shot an officer. This sealed his fate. Robert Garrow was shot to death in 1978.