Extended Essay

“An Examination of the True Crime Genre’s Popularity Through the Use of Literary Elements” – an IB Extended Essay in Language A1 Isabel Johnson Candidate Number: 001502-028 May 2012 Session Advisor: Mr. Jones 24 February 2012 Word Count: 3,560 2 Abstract This essay examines the true crime genre through a literary lens using three elements of literature: plot, character and style. Its goal is to determine the affect that each of these elements has on true crime’s popularity and to use this information to draw conclusions about the reasons behind the success of the true crime as a literary genre. It is important to understand the popularity of true crime in an increasingly violent world where the line between the factual and the sensational is often blurred by the media. Three works of short true crime literature spanning the last two centuries are compared. Supplementary information found in primary and secondary sources is also used. Each literary element is defined and its affect of on the reader is addressed. The use of character allows the readers to assume the identity of the victim or murderer while reading, which serves as an insight into the mind of a killer or an outlet for violent fantasies. Plot is guided by the readers’ interest, strategically including only the most lurid details of the crime in order to retain their attention. Style presents the readers with a defense mechanism against the realities of crime, keeping the violence contained to the format of a story. Of the three, character is the most influential in true crime’s popularity as it makes the stories engaging and accessible. When combined, the three literary elements provide readers of true crime with a “contained chaos” – the chance to appreciate the horrors of brutal crimes from afar without ending up with any blood on their own hands. Word Count: 265 3 Table of Contents Introduction: A Definition of the True Crime Genre p. 1 Elizabeth Short and the Character Traits of a Victim p. 3 Plot as Exemplified in the Coverage of Helen Jewett’s Murder p. 6 An Examination of James Ellroy’s Uses of Style p. 8 Conclusion p. 11 Bibliography p. 14 Isabel Johnson 1 Candidate Number: 001502-028 An Examination of the True Crime Genre’s Popularity Through the Use of Literary Elements Introduction: A Definition of the True Crime Genre True crime literature is defined as a genre that “takes the form of nonfiction accounts of the dark and often deadly deeds perpetrated by human beings upon their fellows”.1 These stories, although based in fact, are often thought to be sensationalistic and play upon human fears and fascinations. This implication of truth has been enticing readers since before Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. Known as “crime ballads,”2 the first accounts of true crime were communicated orally throughout Europe before the invention of the printing press. These stories, however, were not just accounts of robbery or assault. True crime, both then and now, focused on particularly brutal crimes, often “ripped from the headlines”. Co-opted by America, the genre became something of a hybrid, “combining conventions from autobiography, political exposé, and crime news itself”. 3 While originally a genre with connections to religion, where crimes served as an opportunity to reinforce Christian values, in the eighteen-hundreds, 4 true crime became commercialized and purely exploitative. The genre gained respect in 1965 with the publication of In Cold Blood, Truman Capote’s “non-fiction novel” which gave true crime a publishing category of its own.5 Contemporary true crime literature often includes “a multipage insert of what are usually described as dramatic, shocking, or chilling photographs of the killer 1 Rosemary Herbert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 469. 2 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), xi. 3 Christopher P. Wilson. "True and True(r) Crime: Cop Shops and Crime Scenes In The 1980s." American Literary History 9, no. 4 (1997): 718-743. http://web.ebscohost.com. 720. 4 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), xii. 5 Ibid at xviii Isabel Johnson 2 Candidate Number: 001502-028 and the victim(s)...These photographs heighten the aura of reality so important to true crime readers”.6 The inclusion of the word “true” implies that other crime literature (i.e. fiction) is “false crime”. 7 The way the United States specifically looks at these ideas has changed. Crime has increasingly begun to exist in a realm of its own between fact and fiction due to the involvement of the media in its portrayal.8 The genre of true crime features accounts of real crimes that are presented as a story might be. In other words, works of true crime possess the same elements of literature that are also found in works of fiction. True crime writers are concerned with “finding a strong narrative story line, a hero, and a redemptive ending”.9 Common literary techniques employed include character, plot and style – the main focuses of this paper. Character is defined as “a complicated term that includes the idea of the moral constitution of the human personality...and the simpler notion of the presence of creatures in art that seem to be human beings of some sort or another”10 and pertains to those who facilitate the actions that make up the plot. At its most basic, the plot, which consists of the events in the story, is understood to be “an intellectual formulation about the relations among the incidents and is, therefore a guiding principle for the author”. 11 Style, the most abstract of the three, refers to the combination of two elements: “the idea [of expression] and the individuality of the author”12 which can be seen through a combination of the previous two elements. This essay argues that although the elements of plot, character and 6 Laura Browder. "Dystopian Romance: True Crime And The Female Reader." Journal Of Popular Culture 39, no.6 (2006): 928-953. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00328.x. 930-931. 7 Mark Seltzer. "Murder/Media/Modernity." Canadian Review Of American Studies 38, no. 1 (2008): 11-41. http:// web.ebscohost.com. 26. 8 Ibid at 26. 9 Walt Harrington. “The Writer’s Choice.” River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Literature. 10, no. 1-2 (2009): 495-507. doi: 10.1353/rvt.0.0053. 502. 10 Ibid at 88. 11 William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River:Prentice-Hall, 2000. 394. 12 Ibid at 500. Isabel Johnson 3 Candidate Number: 001502-028 style all contribute to true crime’s popularity, it is character that has the greatest affect on the appeal of the genre. The importance of character implies that readers possess the desire to assume the identity of either the perpetrator or the victim, thus making the story more personally relevant and therefore more compelling. Elizabeth Short and the Character Traits of a Victim Characters are the driving forces of modern crime novels. In true crime, the characters are even more important elements as they are not fictional creations but real individuals who must be portrayed with some degree of accuracy. The dominant trait of these characters is that they must be recognizable and realistic. In a study of female true crime readers, author Laura Browder reported that, the most common response from these women when asked about the characters was that they were “just like you, me, my brother, my next door neighbor”.13 These personal qualities must be created by the author in a process called characterization. Characterization is defined as the use of the written word to convey the “nuances normally portrayed by the living”14 and include physical appearance, body language and speech patterns. This technique is frequently used in fiction. Jack Webb gained popularity after working with the Los Angeles Police Department to produce Dragnet, a radio show that based its material on actual police cases and became one of the first crime dramas on television. In 1958, Webb wrote a book entitled The Badge: True and Terrifying Crime Stories That Could Not Be Presented on TV, from the Creator and Star of Dragnet. One case described in The Badge was the infamous “Black Dahlia” murder. This story required a great deal of characterization as little was known about the 13 Laura Browder. "Dystopian Romance: True Crime And The Female Reader." Journal Of Popular Culture 39, no.6 (2006): 928-953. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00328.x. 932. 14 Rosemary Herbert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 61. Isabel Johnson 4 Candidate Number: 001502-028 victim. Webb introduced her, saying that: “She was a lazy girl and irresponsible; and when she chose to work, she drifted obscurely from one menial job to another, in New England, south to Florida, and westward to the Coast”. 15 Elizabeth Short, the young woman who would become know as the Black Dahlia, is identified by Webb as a drifter. Throughout the eleven page excerpt, Webb tells of her movement around the country. It becomes clear that Ms. Short had a casual and carefree attitude, yet she was also dependent on those around her. She was unemployed, looking for work in Hollywood or on the radio, living with her friends or staying with a man for a few weeks, hanging around bars and nightclubs. In short, “she was careless about the company she kept”. 16 Like a traditional victim, Ms. Short is at once someone who invokes the reader’s pity but also seems to have elicited her fate due to her way of life. This mixing of positive and negative character traits is what makes contemporary characters in the crime novels so appealing. “You see a lot of good in the bad guys and a lot of bad in the good guys”17 says author Walter Mosley, of characters in crime fiction including his own. This fact is even more true for characters in true crime stories. As they are real people, the author need not create strengths and weaknesses but merely embellish and elaborate upon them. It is revealed within the first few pages of Webb’s account how Ms. Short was murdered, but what made the case notorious was the brutal nature of the crime as well as the fact that the killer was never caught. This does not stop the killer from materializing as a character in Webb’s book. The torture Elizabeth Short endured before her death allows Webb and his readers to make 15 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), 524. Ibid at 530. 17 National Public Radio. "Why We Love Crime Fiction." August 5, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=111581072. 16 Isabel Johnson 5 Candidate Number: 001502-028 assumptions about the man (or woman) who killed her. Not only did the killer bind her and nonfatally stab her with knives for several days, (s)he also slashed her face from ear to ear, whereupon she choked to death on her own blood. 18 The Black Dahlia’s body was then drained of her blood, cut neatly in half at the waist and tossed in a vacant lot. Webb makes sure to add details such as single drop of blood on the field19 and the fact that Ms. Short’s hair had been washed20 before her body was discarded. These observations contribute to the character of the unknown murderer, as well as adding a distinctly novelistic feel to the work. This exploration of character elevates true crime stories to a level of greater depth, which in turn, increases its popularity as a genre. “The zebra's always interested in how the lion kills, you know”21 says Rene Balcer, the executive producer and head writer of “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”. Balcer’s metaphor focuses on an integral part of why readers are attracted to the true crime genre. Truman Capote’s best seller, In Cold Blood was one of the first works to examine the intricacies of character by juxtaposing the events in the daily lives of the victims against the intrusion of a violent crime. 22 Many readers, especially women, 23 believe that true crime helps them become more aware of danger as well as understand the behaviors and mentalities of murderers. Glimpses into the world of a killer, such as the ones Webb provides in The Badge, serve as survival guides for some readers who believe that by understanding these characteristics as well as those of the victim, they will not fall prey to a similar crime. Alternatively, other 18 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), 531. Ibid at 526 20 Ibid at 531. 21 National Public Radio. "Why We Love Crime Fiction." August 5, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=111581072. 22 Rosemary Herbert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999), 469. 23 Laura Browder. "Dystopian Romance: True Crime And The Female Reader." Journal Of Popular Culture 39, no.6 (2006): 928-953. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00328.x. 932. 19 Isabel Johnson 6 Candidate Number: 001502-028 readers live vicariously through the crimes of others in the “bad men do what good men dream”24 scenario. In both instances, readers align themselves with the characters, an essential part of the genre’s appeal. This phenomenon of self-identification accounts for one of the main reasons readers continue to be drawn to true crime stories today. Plot as Exemplified in the Coverage of Helen Jewett’s Murder Plot is present in all works of literature. Although it varies from work to work, crime and mystery novels usually follow a certain model. The plot is both linear and chronological – the events follow a logical pattern and happen one after another as they would in real time. “A classic mystery plot has a clearly recognizable beginning, development section, climax, and resolution. At the start, a puzzle is presented”. 25 The same is true within true crime stories. In 1835, James Gordon Bennet started the New York Herald, which became known as “America’s first unabashedly sensationalistic newspaper”.26 The Herald’s popularity further increased after April 11, 183627 when the story of Helen Jewett, a prostitute murdered with an axe, was published. Bennet begins the story with the lines: “Our city was disgraced on Sunday by one of the most foul and premeditated murders, that ever fell to our lot to record. The following are the circumstances as ascertained on the spot”.28 The author then proceeds to describe the murderer and the night of the murder: 24 National Public Radio. "Why We Love Crime Fiction." August 5, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=111581072. 25 Rosemary Herbert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 331. 26 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), xiii. 27 Ibid at 68. 28 Ibid at 64. Isabel Johnson 7 Candidate Number: 001502-028 Richard P. Robinson, the alleged perpetrator of this most horrid deed, had for some time been in the habit of keeping (as it is termed) a girl named Ellen Jewett...On going up into her room quite late at night, he mentioned his suspicions and expressed a determination to quit her, and demanded his watch and a miniature together with some letters which were in her possession. She refused to give them up, and he then drew from beneath his cloak the hatchet, and inflicted upon her head three blows...cast the lifeless body upon the bed, and set fire to that. He then ran downstairs unperceived by any person, went out of the back door and escaped in that manner.29 This description makes up most of the action in the story, which is only five pages in length. The events occur in chronological order, starting with the night of the murder where all that occurs is constructed through evidence. Bennet’s “The Recent Tragedy”, as the story was called in publication, is an example of the inverted detective story. This plot device sees the reveal of both murder and murderer and then follows the crime-solving process alongside the detective or police.30 In the case of Helen, (or Ellen, as called by Bennet) the details of finding the criminal are sparse, in part because this might have bored readers in search of a thrilling crime story and also because Richard Robinson left a piece of evidence, his cloak, behind in Ms. Jewett’s room covering her body. While a single sentence describes the summoning of a coroner, formation of a jury and the performance of an autopsy,31 two pages are devoted to the description of the elegant brothel where the late Ms. Jewett worked. 29 Ibid at 64. Rosemary Herbert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 331. 31 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), 65. 30 Isabel Johnson 8 Candidate Number: 001502-028 Bennet plays to his audience’s titillation surrounding the nature of the crime. Ms. Jewett’s corpse is described on three separate occasions, each one noting her beauty and sensuality, even in death; for example: “For a few moments, I was lost to admiration at the extraordinary sight–a beautiful female corpse–that surpassed the finest statue of antiquity. I was recalled to her horrid destiny by seeing the dreadful gashes on the right temple, which must have caused instantaneous dissolution”.32 The loose plot of “The Recent Tragedy,” which revolves around the murder itself rather than the subsequent investigation, is common within the exploitative stories found in newspapers and magazines in the 1800s. The public, not unlike today’s audiences, wanted shock and thrill, not the methodical questioning and analysis that professional crime-solvers would have likely utilized. Anticipating this fact, authors like Bennet adapted their storytelling techniques to keep their readers interested. Bennet stated about Americans: “ [they] were more ready to seek six columns of the details of a brutal murder...than the same amount of words poured forth by the genius of the noblest authors of our times”. 33 Thus began the original deviation from the “full truth” that remains a part of true crime literature today. An Examination of James Ellroy’s Uses of Style The style of a work of literature cannot simply be determined by the descriptive language used; it is also a study of the way the author uses words. Style refers as much to the author’s voice as it does to the structure of the piece. There are several common styles of true crime writing. Two of the most popular originated as styles of crime fiction: noir and hardboiled. Noir crime stories, an American creation, depict a bleak world of violence, corruption and lust. Often 32 33 Ibid at 67. See also p. 65 and 68 for the other examples. Ibid at xiii. Isabel Johnson 9 Candidate Number: 001502-028 the resolution of the case leaves the reader questioning both the value of life and the true nature of humans.34 Hardboiled crime or detective stories are also an American invention that originated in the nineteen-twenties. Like noir, it presents a cynical worldview and usually features a lone male, unaffiliated with the law, trying to bring justice to a grim world using violent tactics that match those of mean streets that surround him. 35 Novelist and non-fiction writer James Ellroy has made use of both styles36 portraying the city of Los Angeles, his former home, as a dark and dangerous world where the damaged heros are only slightly more appealing than the villains they face. His literary style was heavily influenced by Jack Webb. When Ellroy was ten, his mother was murdered but the killer was never found. After receiving Webb’s book The Badge as a gift from his father on his eleventh birthday, Ellroy too became fascinated with the murder of the Black Dahlia and connected Elizabeth Short’s death to that of his mother’s.37 In 1994, he wrote “My Mother’s Killer” as an article in GQ magazine, the precursor to what would become his 1996 memoir My Dark Places. In the former, Ellroy describes his search to discover more about his mother’s death. He describes his mother as he might describe a character in one of his novels: “She had red hair. She drank Early Times bourbon and got mawkish or hellishly pissed off. She sent me to church and stayed home to nurse Saturday-night hangovers”. 38 When Ellroy writes about the Black Dahlia, he does so in a similar fashion: “She [Elizabeth Short] came west with fatuous hopes of 34 Rosemary Herbert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 156-157. 35 Idib at 199. 36 Idib at 132. 37 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), 707. 38 Idib at 709. Isabel Johnson 10 Candidate Number: 001502-028 becoming a movie star. She was undisciplined, immature, and promiscuous. She drank to excess and told whooping lies”.39 These two quotes reflect Ellroy’s use of the hardboiled style. This style is heavily reliant on characters, so much so that the voice of the author often becomes inseparable from that of his detective counterpart.40 Here, it is Ellroy who is the sleuth, alone in his pursuit of justice. He describes his late mother, Jean Ellroy, in the same unflattering light as the world around her. His diction mirrors his unfavorable attitude towards her, as both a mother and a victim. Like women in hardboiled crime stories, she is not portrayed as beautiful or delicate; she is a brassy, harddrinking woman in a world of men who were at best deadbeats and at worst vicious killers. The depiction of Jean’s postmortem body is equally bleak. Ellroy highlights the insect bites on her breasts 41 and the remnants of her assailant’s beard, skin and blood beneath her nails. 42 His use of the hardboiled style produces a narrative that re-creates a cruel world lurking below Los Angeles. This both repels and fascinates readers who, like the author himself, struggle with morbid curiosity surrounding crimes from the past. Rather than focusing on character, the noir style is heavily tied to imagery, tone and setting of the piece. In “My Mother’s Killer,” Ellroy describes the area where his mother’s body was dumped after she was murdered: “I left the squad room and drove to El Monte. The years then to now had been cruel...Arroyo High School needed a paint job. The playing field needed a trim. Weeds grew thick all around the X-marked spot. The town had compressed. Its old secrets had subsided into the memories of strangers”. 43 This bleak description is a trademark of the noir 39 Idib at 712. Rosemary Herbert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 202. 41 Harold Schechter. True Crime: An American Anthology. (New York: Literary Classics, 2008), 719. 42 Ibid at 718. 43 Ibid at 719. 40 Isabel Johnson 11 Candidate Number: 001502-028 style. While the weeds and lack of paint display neglect and despair, the town itself is described, as a place that is both small and secretive; the perfect haven for dark deeds. These details reinforce the general ideas about noir – a style in which the setting conveys a general attitude of corruption and sense of barely controlled depravity. The decay of the surroundings is no accident. True crime authors leave nothing to the imagination. Ellroy, an experienced storyteller, draws his reader in with these details. Noir and hardboiled styles both reinforce the idea that crime occurs in a world that is visibly dangerous, adding a layer of detachment between the events in the stories and the readers’ everyday lives. While descriptions of characters provide a look in to the psyche of both murderer and victim, styles like noir and hardboiled give true crime a slick, unrealistic feel, leaving readers and critics alike doubting, yet still intrigued by the idea of their authenticity. This is why style is so important to the success of the genre – it keeps the events just far enough away from reality but described in such detail that readers still crave more. Conclusion True crime is a genre that relies on the fears and curiosity of humans. “We need forgiveness and someone to blame...We are fascinated with stories of crime, real or imagined, because we need them to cleanse the modern world from our souls,”44 says the crime novelist Walter Mosley. Thus, true crime was born. This unique blend of grisly facts and sensationalized prose is undeniably appealing for many readers. 44 Walter Mosley "True Crime. (Cover story)." Newsweek 154, no. 6/7 (Aug. 2009): 27-29. http://web.ebscohost.com. Isabel Johnson 12 Candidate Number: 001502-028 The literary elements of character, plot and style help facilitate these stories as they would a crime novel. Characters are the strongest literary element used in true crime stories. In “The Black Dahlia,” Jack Webb portrays the victim, Elizabeth Short as a young woman whose luck of living on the fringes of society without encountering consequences finally ran out. Although the reader pities Ms. Short, hers is also a cautionary tale that some women may see as a personal warning or wakeup call. The fact that the killer remains unknown makes the danger seem very real but also gives a potential reader the opportunity to live vicariously through a character that remains free. The plot, or framework that supports the events in the narration, is used to describe the crime while keeping the reader interested. In the case of Hellen Jewett, James Gordon Bennet manipulated this description in “The Recent Tragedy”. To keep his readers’ attention, Bennet dwelt upon the salacious details of the crime. He described Hellen, whom he re-named Ellen, at length, focusing on her relationship with killer, the elegant brothel she worked in and her physical attractiveness. He also utilized the plot device know as the inverted detective story where the killer is revealed initially rather than at the end of the story. Style is the most literary of the three elements as it deals with not just the subject matter but the way the writer describes it in his or her voice. James Ellroy’s writing in “My Mother’s Killer” uses two styles, noir and hardboiled, that influence the tone and mood of his story. These details create the illusion of a dark and dismal Los Angeles, the city where Ellroy’s mother was killed. Unlike character, style gives true crime fiction a detached feel, keeping the events that occur in the literary realm rather than in the real lives of the readers. The use of these elements of Isabel Johnson 13 Candidate Number: 001502-028 true crime allow readers to shift between reality and imagination, providing a reading experience that is both expository and escapist in nature. Literary elements, specifically the use of character, are not the only reasons for true crime’s popularity. While this essay focuses on literary form, the classification of “true crime” extends to both film and television as well. Crime dramas that evolved from the likes of Jack Webb’s Dragnet have retained their popularity, while films about crime have become increasingly fictionalized, rejecting the premise of actual events for fast-paced thrillers that possess varying degrees of truthfulness. In the end, true crime’s popularity can not be attributed to a single aspect, literary or otherwise. At its best, the true crime genre is a look into the human psyche, examining our deepest fears and desires in a manner that is accessible and engaging. Word Count: 3,560 Isabel Johnson 14 Candidate Number: 001502-028 Bibliography Browder, Laura. "Dystopian Romance: True Crime And The Female Reader." Journal Of Popular Culture 39, no.6 (2006): 928-953. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00328.x. Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River:Prentice-Hall, 2000. Harrington, Walt. “The Writer’s Choice.” River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Literature. 10, no. 1-2 (2009): 495-507. doi: 10.1353/rvt.0.0053. Herbert, Rosemary, ed. The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Mosley, Walter. "True Crime. (Cover story)." Newsweek 154, no. 6/7 (Aug. 2009): 27-29. http:// web.ebscohost.com. National Public Radio. "Why We Love Crime Fiction." August 5, 2009. http://www.npr.org/ templates/story/story.php?storyId=111581072. Schechter, Harold. True Crime: An American Anthology. New York: Literary Classics, 2008. Seltzer, Mark. "Murder/Media/Modernity." Canadian Review Of American Studies 38, no. 1 (2008): 11-41. http://web.ebscohost.com. Wilson, Christopher P. "True and True(r) Crime: Cop Shops and Crime Scenes In The 1980s." American Literary History 9, no. 4 (1997): 718-743. http://web.ebscohost.com.