I go to the Cold Case Center [link I had is broken] to see which cold cases made the news. It’s interesting to browse the titles of the articles alone, and to see which parts of the country are active. Actually, it’s interesting how many there are daily, compared to two years ago, when I first discovered the site.

Brian DePalma is making a movie about the Black Dahlia. It’s a horrifying case. If you’re not famliar with it, just google “black dahlia,” but it’s got to be among the most famous cold cases.

Brian DePalma, I don’t know. He made “Obsession,” a great movie which is a remake of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. But there’s too often an unseemly side to his movies. Something which enjoys the violence just a little too much. I mean, on the one hand, it’s a tawdry story, so he’s perfect, but the story is always told the same way, the same tawdry way, to fit into the popular noir mold. I’d prefer a fresh look.

It’s like when I wrote my book, I had to fight that familiar cop book image everyone has of them, and of all murder investigations. It’s not like what we think. It’s hard to tell the truth (not that I have “the truth,” but you know what I mean).

Lt. Panzarella told me that he had to carry around a letter from Chief Anemone in his pocket, which gave him permission to ask for the files for old murder cases.

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy

They told me pretty much the exact same thing, except they would also add imagination and I would have to agree.