Author: bdt5164

We have probably all heard the story of Jack The Ripper. This tale is over a century old and the true identity of this killer still remains unknown to this day. These string of murders, in fact, occurred in the summer of 1888 in the Whitechapel District of London, England and have made this area infamously known for being the birthplace of the villainous British serial killer Jack The Ripper. This serial killer got his name from the gruesome way in which he would murder his victims. He targeted primarily prostitutes and he would kill his victims by first slashing their throats and then disemboweling them. Jack The Ripper took the lives of a total of five young women in the summer of 1888. In fact, the first person to fall victim to the wrath of Jack The Ripper was Mary Ann Nichols. This woman was found on her back with her throat severely slashed and her organs partially removed. This marked the start of the Whitechapel murders and the hunt for the infamous criminal mastermind behind these series of attacks. The second victim in this line of murders was Annie Chapman. Her throat had also been slashed, however, this time instead of removing her organs Jack The Ripper had removed just her womb. British law enforcement analyzed the way her womb had been removed and began to draw conclusions on who the suspect could possibly be. They believed that after considering the manner in which her womb had been removed the only person who could have performed this act was someone in either the medical field such as a doctor or someone with extensive anatomical knowledge of the human body. The third victim, Elizabeth Stride, was different from the last two as only her throat had been slashed and her organs had been left intact. Authorities theorized that someone had intervened in Stride’s killing, therefore, helping explain why Jack The Ripper was not able to complete this killing as he intended. The fourth victim on the list was Elizabeth Eddowes. Jack The Ripper had slashed her face and throat, removed her uterus, and had both of her kidneys expelled. Ripper’s last and final victim was Mary Kelly and she had been murdered more violently and brutal as the rest of the victims. Kelly was found with her throat slashed, was disemboweled, and she was even skinned from head to toe. Eight suspects were found by police as the person behind these crimes, however, none of them were convicted. Eyewitnesses at some of the crime scenes claimed that Jack the Ripper was a man, however, some theorize that Jack The Ripper could have possibly been a woman which also helps explain why she was able to stay under the raider and avoid police for so long. The killer behind the Whitechapel murders may forever remain unknown. Jack The Ripper’s letters to police will forever make him a staple in crime history as they were extremely trivial and misleading. The story of Jack The Ripper even today still continues to fascinate me even to this day. Without modern cameras and technology, cases such as these have become very hard to solve. I strongly feel that today we as Americans take technology for granted as it has helped solve some of the most difficult of crimes.

 

Have you ever been scammed? Maybe even hacked? Or maybe you haven’t? Or maybe you actually have and haven’t even noticed? Cybercrime is an issue that continues to face Americans each and every day. In an article titled These Cybercrime Statistics Will Make You Think Twice About Your Password: Where’s the CSI Cyber team when you need them? it states, “With 1.5 million annual cyber attacks, online crime is a real threat to anyone on the internet. That number means there are over 4,000 cyber attacks every day, 170 attacks every hour, or nearly three attacks every minute,” (These Cybercrime Statistics Will Make You Think Twice About Your Password: Where’s the CSI Cyber team when you need them?). That means every day you get on your computer or log into the internet you risk the possibility of being potentially hacked or being scammed by a random phishing website. There have been instances where even I have been on the internet and I have been spammed with pop up windows and random emails saying that “IF YOU TAKE THIS SURVEY YOU CAN WIN A FREE IPHONE”. I know these are fake and I am smart enough to not take these offers. I warn you today about these potential phishing schemes because I was almost scammed over the summer by a PSU phishing website scheme. I usually do not give in to the pressures presented by these fake phishing sites. However, over the summer I was almost scammed by someone on the internet claiming to be a college professor here at Penn State. They contacted me over email claiming to be a Penn State college professor named professor Morgan from the English department at Penn State. They also claimed to be in desperate need of an undergraduate assistant who could take care of some of her busy work while she was gone. She told me that she needed me to do a set of tasks for her before she returned back from her trip from Australia. The first task she asked me to complete was to buy blank checks from the store and then try to send money over to an account attached to her business. Professor Morgan informed me that if I continued to complete the tasks she asked from me that I would be certified to work as her personal assistant for three hours a week for a paycheck of $200. Myself, being new to college and everything, believed this opportunity to be real due to the fact it came from my PSU email and it was from a professor. Over time I became to become very skeptical of this offer and decided to call the Penn State office. After calling PSU to confirm whether or not this offer was legit, they told me that the opportunity I was pursuing was a phishing scheme that had also been sent to other students like myself. If I were to go even further with this scheme I could have gotten myself into serious legal trouble and would have lost money in the process. From this experience, I have become very conscious of what I believe to be true on my Penn State email. To all my readers, my legal fanatics, and my fellow peers please be mindful when you’re on the internet as you never know who is on the other side of that screen.

Have you ever thought about faking your own death? Probably not, but for some people this idea has crossed their conscious. Pseudocide, also known as the act of faking one’s own death, may seem like a taboo concept but it not a not a rare one. According to an article titled Playing a Risky Game: People Who Fake Death for Big Money by Emmet Pierce,“ In 2016, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF) conducted a survey in which insurance companies were asked if the faking-a-death problem was slight, moderate or severe. Fake death fell into the moderate category,” (Pierce). Statistics on how many people a year fake their own death is very unclear as many of the “pseudocides” go unreported. Life insurance companies actually purposely do not report “pseudocides” in order to deter others from attempting it and to protect their companies from bad press. People who fake their own deaths will do because of financial issues, to avoid law enforcement and jail time, and even to“restart” a new life. Let me be clear, faking your own death is not considered a crime, but it could lead to future legal consequences. It comes to no surprise that majority of pseudocide cases are attributed to life insurance fraud. This is primarily due to the fact that some life insurance policies can guarantee some individuals up to $100,000 and in cases of wealthier individuals a payout into the millions. This form of fraud is very profitable as it can allow individuals to acquire extensive amounts of money without exerting very much effort. Therefore, life insurance companies who come into situations where their clients’ deaths appear to be mysterious or unexplained private investigators will be hired. Hiring private investigators to ensure that deaths reported by families of the deceased are in fact valid and not fraudulent. Cases of pseudocide always make huge headlines including the faked death of Alexandra Hatcher. This Virginia native attempted to commit pseudocide with the help of her husband to cash out on a life insurance policy worth over hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hatcher’s death certificate had claimed that she had sustained a life-threatening fall, however, that was not true as Hatcher was actually alive and well. In her efforts to defraud her life insurance company of hundreds of thousands of dollars, she forged her own death certificate and published her own death notice in the daily press. She continued about her scheme by using counterfeit checks to purchase and resell vehicles to other dealerships for cash. Luckily, law enforcement was able to catch onto the Hatcher’s plan and her and her husband were arrested before they were able to continue on with their lucrative scheme. Both were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, possessing and uttering a counterfeit security of an organization, and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. They both are currently facing up to thirty years in prison.

I personally would never think about faking my own death. I could not live a happy life without my family and friends by my side. Yes, you can capitalize off of faking your death, but its not really worth it in the end as what you will ultimately lose in the process outweighs the future benefits. For me family and friends are more important than money because thats something money can’t buy. Therefore, to all my common readers, legal fanatics, and those who have ever thought about faking their own death…how far would you go and is it all really worth it at the end of the day?

 

White-collar crime is a term many of us have heard of but may not completely understanding. White-collar crime is defined as the commision of crime by someone of high authority, such as government official or business professional, for monetary gain. Some of the most famous white-collar criminals include Charles Ponzi, Kenneth Lay, and John Rigas. The white-collar criminal I want to focus on today is Charles Ponzi the pioneer of the word “Ponzi scheme”. A Ponzi scheme is a scheme were investors are promised a large profit from their investment into a successful business, but in the end are only getting paid back in older investments made by other investors. Ponzi was known widely in the 1920’s for this scheme as it allowed him to profit close to $250,000 a day. He strategically executed this scheme by purchasing discounted postage stamps with money given to him by investors and then selling them at regular price. This, in the end, helped make Ponzi millions of dollars and made his name a household name in the realm of white-collar crime. Ponzi was exposed to the world when his publicists began to see through the lies within his scheme and exposed him to the press. Charles Ponzi pleaded guilty eighty-six counts of mail fraud, owed over $7 million back to his investors,  and was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. While in jail, Ponzi had gone completely broke and had all his assets seized by the American government. Many would agree that Charles Ponzi lived a life dedicated primarily to making quick money and benefiting from the naiveness of others. If I were to be charged with a crime, I honestly believe that it would have to be some form of white-collar crime. This ranges from minor crimes such as forgery to more extreme crimes such as embezzlement. Committing white-collar crime is so much of a less severe than crimes such as murder that I do not look at those who commit white-collar crime entirely as criminals. Yes, they did commit a crime but is it really as severe as murder or aggravated assault? The answer is no.

Some white-collar criminals, in some cases, will steal small amounts of money from numerous banking accounts and walk away with millions. The average person would probably not only not notice but also might not even care if forty cents went missing from their bank account. In this scenario, a white-collar criminal could steal forty cents from 200,000 banking accounts and walk away at the end of the day with a total of $8,0000 in hand. This is extremely mind-blowing given how much money can be made from just pressing a few buttons on a laptop. I bet these guys that hack into these accounts just run one program which allows them to access hundreds of thousands of accounts and withdraw funds. This $8,000 could all be made in one single day. If someone were to do this every single day for one year he or she would profit close to $3 million. This is why one should certainly be cognizant of all their accounts as they never know whether or no they will become the next victim.

 

Being sentenced to life in prison is a death sentence of its own because once you are sentenced you will never see the light of day ever again. This is the reality for Broward county, Florida native Lionel Tate who was given the death penalty without parole for killing six year old Tiffany Eunick at 14 years old. From this incident, Tate became the youngest person in American history to receive the death penalty without parole. Growing up Tate developed a fascination with the WWE and would enjoy imitating their moves and pretending as if he were one of the wrestlers on the screen. One day Lionel Tate was left alone with six year old, Tiffany Eunick,  as they were supposed to be being watched by Eunick’s mother Deweese Eunick. While the two were downstairs alone, Deweese Eunick was upstairs sleeping. She then heard noises coming from downstairs and later urged the two to be quiet. After about forty-five minutes of them playing, Tate went upstairs to inform Eunick mother that her daughter was no longer breathing. The autopsy conducted on Eunick showed she had suffered a fractured skull, internal bruising, and a total of three broken ribs during the attack. He was later charged with first-degree murder.

Tate’s trial took place in January of 2001 and was one of the first cases to involve an adolescent suspect and the death penalty. The disturbing part of this case is that the prosecution was planning on trying to charge Tate as an adult. The defense argued that Tate was simply just mimicking what he saw on tv and was not trying to intentionally harm Eunick. During the entire trial, Tate never took the stand and a video demonstration was used in its place. However, the corner that Tate threw Tiffany into in the video was virtually impossible because in that corner was a treadmill. This led the jury to not believe Tate’s story and only made his case even worse.

Lionel unfortunately was tried as an adult and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The victim’s mother even believed that Tate’s sentencing was too harsh. She believed that even though justice was served  it was still unfair to hand a child a life sentence. The rest of Tate’s childhood was lost as he would spend the rest of his days in prison. Fortunately, in 2005 the court then ruled that since Tate was not given a psychological evaluation during his trial he was offered a plea deal of one years house arrest and 10 years probation. After accepting the plea deal, Tate soon was caught with a firearm and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Sentencing juveniles to life sentences is something I do not think I will ever be able to understand. As a kid, I did things that now that I look back on I regret so much. For example, when I was younger I ended up setting my backyard on fire after accidentally forgetting to completely put out the campfire I had started. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the fire department did have to come and put the fire out. After my parents found out, they grounded me for two months and I had all my privileges taken away. I look back at that moment and have realized that I never should have started that fire in the first place. As kids we make mistakes and I think that is what Lionel did. He made a mistake, but unfortunately it cost another person’s life. To my legal fanatics, my common readers, and my future criminals please realize that the things you do today can potentially affect your future forever. We as college students are way too young to let our lives be thrown away over avoidable behavior and situations, I urge all my fellow classmates and scholars to be cognizant of their actions and behaviors while on campus.