leeward

any way the wind blows…

leeward - any way the wind blows…

Kansas City Chiefs Jovon Belcher

A week ago today, football fans were shocked by the news that Chiefs linebacker killed his girlfriend and mother of his 3 month old daughter, Kassandra Perkins, and then went to the Chiefs facility and committed suicide. As fans, we feel an affinity to players, and our initial reactions are the shock, denial, wonder, and regret we would feel if this tragedy happened in our own circle of friends or family.  Then the excuses start to come in from all angles. It’s the Gun Culture. It’s the CONCUSSIONS. It’s PEDs. The Jovan known to his friends, coaches, and team mates couldn’t have done this so it must be due to something else. It is none of these, it is very simply a case of domestic violence and there were signs of trouble so slight that they are only truly visible with the aid of hindsight.
Let’s eliminate the excuses to start with… NFL players are the most drug tested employees anywhere and Jovan has never had any substance issues. Neither has Jovan had any concussion related injuries in his four years with the Chiefs. Rest assured the gun didn’t kill Kassandra although the NINE bullets certainly caused her death. Jovan was a big strong linebacker and could have chosen any number of weapons or manner of death as many wife murderers do. The argument that if he didn’t have the gun handy she would be alive just doesn’t make any sense. He could have strangled her with his bare hands, stabbed her with any number of kitchen implements, or bashed her head in with any available object. This wan’t impersonal or  distant this was the murder of the mother of his baby, and he shot her NINE times, with his own mother as a witness.

Will the real Jovan please stand up.

According to a law enforcement official close to the investigation — and contrary to published reports — Belcher spent Friday night “partying” with another woman at the Power and Light District, a bar area in downtown K.C. He returned home between 6:30 and 7 a.m., at which point he and Perkins argued. Then, with his own mother in the house, Belcher used a handgun to shoot the mother of his baby girl nine times. He then drove to the Chiefs’ practice facility in a Bentley so new it had temporary plates.

Read More: David Epstein’s poignent article in SI

It turns out Jovan had another life that most people closest to him didn’t see. See the clues “partying with another woman” got home at 6:30 or 7 and then argued with Perkins. Do you imagine that was a first? Does this sound familiar?

My favorite Colorado girl in the big time @byLindsayHJones has reported extensively on this tragedy for USA Today.

 

Tell me if you have heard this before

While thinking about blogging my mind went in about twenty directions at once and this was one of the branches. I want to get back in the habit of writing often about any thing so I jotted down a quick list of spouse and girlfriend murderers.

If I can’t have her no one can:

O.J. Simpson  murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman and was famously acquitted in the bizarre trial that launched CourtTV with gavel to gavel coverage. O.J. had been abusive and controlling and couldn’t handle Nicole having a life apart from him.

 

Preppie George Huguely killed his girlfriend in an alcoholic and jealous rage. Yardley Love was a star lacrosse player at the prestigious University of Virginia. George was the boy born with a silver spoon who had serious anger issues. Their bright futures both came to an end when he beat her to death.

A wife and a baby cramps my awesome life

Rae Carruth was a star wide receiver at the University of Colorado and for the Carolina Panthers. He was living his dreams and had rock-star status in Charlotte. But he didn’t want to be saddled with child support and another baby. To remove the problem he set up  the strangest murder for hire plot resulting in the death of Cherica Adams. Rae’s unborn son, Chancellor, survived though he has cerebral palsy from the lack of oxygen while his mother was bleeding from gun shot wounds. The story of Chancellor and Cherica’s mother Saundra Adams is a beautiful ray of hope in the face of tragedy.

Scott Peterson had the all American boy next door life including his marriage to beautiful wife Laci. By all accounts the perfect couple; the perfect marriage. Then one Christmas Eve a very pregnant Laci disappeared. It seems a wife and a baby (Connor) stood in the way of his glamorous, make believe life as an affluent and successful ladies man. As the investigation unfolded over several months Scott’s secret life was revealed and the narcissist underneath the facade was exposed. He is currently on death row at San Quentin where he spends 23 hours a day in solitude. Plenty of time to reflect on the “perfect life” he destroyed. Laci’s family joined the fight for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act enacted in 2004.

Neil Entwistle hid his mounting financial troubles from his wife Rachel until he could hide no longer then he shot and killed her along with their young daughter, Lillian, then fled the country back to his homeland in the UK. He is now serving life without parole.

Michael Blagg described his family as ideal and everyone else agreed.

“Two years ago, I had everything,” says Michael Blagg, Jennifer’s husband. “I had a great job, wonderful family, incredible wife and daughter. Everything was going perfect for me.”

Prosecutors believed a secret life that included addiction to computer porn coupled with ongoing spousal abuse was about to result in Jennifer taking Abby and leaving Blagg. He couldn’t tolerate that and he killed them dumping their bodies in the landfill.

My secret life is more important

Steven Suepple was the underachieving brother in a successful family. A banker with a wife and four adopted children, financial struggles to keep up led him to embezzle more than a half million dollars from his employer. As his world was crumbling, he bludgeoned his wife and children to death and then committed suicide.

And then there is the bizarre story of Christian Longo. When his multiple cons fell apart, the wheeling, dealing, and scheming no longer fooled anyone, and the whole truth of the financial mess he created was unraveling he murdered his wife and children and fled to Mexico. There he lived the high life, partying and posing as New York Times journalist Michael Finkel. Longo made his way to the FBI’s Top Ten Wanted list. Longo is on death row in Oregon where he continues as a con-artist and extraordinary manipulator.

Sadie, Madison, and Zachary Longo

Beautiful, talented, successful Tara Grant was strangled by her underachieving controlling husband Stephen who was having an affair with the Au Pair. After the murder the tale of Stephen’s attempts to dispose of the body and elude arrest are odd and comical. Once again, the truth is stranger than any fiction. Several books have been published on this crime and the chase, confession, and trial. The best source is Grant’s confession after he was arrested frostbitten and exhausted in the Michigan woods.

The list goes on and on…

 

True Crime on twitter follow me! @leebrown @truecrimelibrary @bethkaras