The 2nd Day Of Fall With A Full Moon Shining Bright Over Texas

No need to wait for the sun to arrive to light up the place this second day of fall of 2010. As you can see, a full moon is sitting on the roof next to my chimney, which only last night erupted with a rainbow.

That chimney sees a lot of celestial activity.

I was cranky last night after a sudden downpour ruined my attempt to go on a sunset bike ride from Gateway Park, in search of some salubrious aerobicized solitude and Fort Worth homeless people.

When I got back here I saw my DVR was in record mode. So, I watched Survivor, followed by Hell's Kitchen. Hell's Kitchen was especially hellish last night.

Being overstimulated by an especially hellish Hell's Kitchen had me up til past midnight, last night, reading a book I got whenever it was I went to a Fort Worth library and successfully found it open.

The book is "For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago." The Leopold/Loeb murder of Bobby Franks is a rather well known crime, from way back during the Roaring 20s. But, the movie version did not really tell the real story, in all its shocking horror. Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 "The Rope" did not even use the real names of the killers. I believe there is a second, later, movie version, that may have been more accurately based on the real story.

As far as I know I've only known one sociopath of the ilk of Leopold/Loeb. That particular sociopath has not killed, as far as I know, her particular sociopathic bend is the "Thrill of Thieving and Lying," which has gotten her in trouble with the law a time or two, with a conviction or two and some jail time.

I like the True Crime genre. Particularly books telling the story of a crime from a different era.

The sun is almost due to arrive. The birds should already be in tweet mode. I may be miscalculating the time of the sun's arrival. It has been getting later every morning since sometime way back in June.

Going swimming is in the immediate schedule, followed by being a webpage making machine all morning long til my easily worn out brain needs a rest.

A Beautiful Child's Horror

I've long liked reading true crime books, with Ann Rule being my favorite true crime writer. But, sometimes it is way too disturbing reading these type books.

With Ann Rule's books part of what made them interesting to me is so many of her books are about murders about which I am familiar due to living in the northwest where many of the crimes Ann Rule details take place.

Ironically, parts of the story in the latest true crime book I've read took place here in Texas and Oklahoma, at locations with which I am familiar. The book I'm referring to is titled "A Beautiful Child" by Matt Birkbeck.

It tells the disturbing story of the girl you see in the photo. In the late '80s, that girl, who went by many names, but who for most of her life was known as "Sharon Marshall" was a bright and beautiful high-school senior in Florida. Top of her class and the leader of her ROTC unit who scored well on the SATs, earning a full scholarship to Georgia Tech.

A few years later, she would be dead and the details of her life would gradually come to light, to the shock of the people investigating her death.

In the early '70s, "Sharon" had been kidnapped at the age of 4 or 5 by a psychopath named Franklin Delano Floyd. Floyd raised her as his daughter. But, as the police and FBI investigating her death would come to find out, he was molesting her for her entire life.

A few years after Sharon graduated high school, Floyd took her to Louisiana and married her.

Soon afterward, Sharon gave birth to a son, Michael. Later, DNA testing would prove Floyd was not the father.

In 1990, Sharon was killed by a hit-and-run driver (most suspect Floyd). Sharon did not die from her injuries and was coming out of her coma when she received a late night hospital visit from Floyd. She was dead the next morning.

Later, Floyd kidnapped Michael from his school, and killed him a few days later. Following the kidnapping, photos were discovered in a vehicle Floyd had stolen in Dallas which revealed the true horror that had been Sharon’s life. Photos of Sharon being sexually abused and molested from the age of 4 or 5 til her early teens.

Floyd is now on death row in Florida for the murder of an exotic dancer in the mid '90s, a conviction made possible due to other photos discovered at the same time as Sharon’s molestation photos.

Floyd had been convicted of and imprisoned for the rape of a 4 year old girl in the early 60s. He was let out of prison a few years later. To me that is as great a crime as any other part of the story. Child molestation should get the death penalty in my Draconian world view.

"Sharon's" true identity is still unknown. Somewhere in America there may be a mom and dad still wondering what happened to their little girl. They would not be wondering and "Sharon" would still be alive, if Floyd had never been allowed back out of prison. Appalling. And it happens way too often.