The new software that I use for this blog has a nice feature. It shows me what search terms people used that led them to this site.
I learned that a lot of people are looking for homicide totals for New York. So I made of pdf of a chart from my book which shows all the murders in New York from 1900 – 2007, and also indicates how many were solved each year.
If you look on the left it’s under the section called Information.
The picture was taken at one of the Property Clerk warehouses. The barrels contain homicide evidence.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Eric // Sep 7, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Thank you for adding this, and for writing an excellent book about unsolved homicides in NYC. The picture infuriates me, just as the picture of piles of rape kits that the NYT published a few years ago did. The neglect of these items, which represent untold suffering, is appalling. I know that Senator Clinton proposed a bill to fund the testing and improved storage of rape kits–whatever happened to this bill?
It might make sense to include the victim’s name (and a picture) on each of these barrels, in addition to the numbering system. Not only is this a logical way to categorize them, it might remind the keepers of evidence of the people they represent.
2 Stacy Horn // Oct 22, 2008 at 9:39 am
Eric, I’m sorry for not answering sooner — thank you for the compliment about my book!
Actually each of those barrels contain evidence for more than one crime, generally around 10 or more if I’m remembering correctly. Also, not everyone is neglectful about the victims, it’s probably not even correct to say most. I met a lot of people doing the best they can.
Honestly, the best solution is to have an independent party take over storing the evidence. It’s not even about how good a job the police department is doing — they shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. They naturally have a bias about the outcome, and therefore should not be holding all the evidence cards.
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