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Committing the perfect crime
One of the first things we learned as rookie police officers in the Tulsa Police Academy was how easy it is to commit the "perfect" crime. Perfect in the sense that there's no way the perpetrator can get caught. With the technological advances we've seen in the past couple of decades, especially DNA testing, it's not nearly as easy as it used to be but it's certainly still possible. In fact, it only requires three steps.
Leave no physical evidence behind that links you to the crime, make sure there are no eyewitnesses and, most importantly, keep your mouth shut. These are three pretty simple steps but they're deceptively difficult to carry out. The first step has always been the easiest to do until DNA testing was discovered. The principal physical evidence investigators looked for at a crime scene were fingerprints or something the criminal might have left behind.
If no fingerprints could be lifted and no physical evidence discovered, it was likely that the crime would grow cold fast. It's amazing how many criminals would screw up even this step. Most of us have seen television shows detailing the stupidity of many criminals. One of the true classics is the bank robber who wrote his "hold-up" note on the back of his bank deposit slip. Bada-Bing. He didn't get very far.
Today it's more difficult than ever to leave behind a "clean" crime scene because of DNA testing. Your complete DNA code can be determined from almost anything found at the scene that came from the suspects person, from the epidermal layer of one's skin to a single strand of hair from your head. Of course, the drawback to DNA testing is that investigators have to have a suspect to match the DNA findings up with. No suspect, no solution to the case.
Making sure there are no eyewitnesses to the crime has been made more difficult by the extensive use of video cameras. Most businesses today are monitored by video cams that are constantly recording everything that's going on. Unfortunately, some businesses have them but don't turn them on and some turn them on but don't record. I assure you that your face on a video that shows you in the commission of a crime will get you convicted faster than anything. On the other hand, if there are no eyewitnesses to your crime and no video camera in operation, you're two thirds of the way there.
The third step should be the easiest but almost always proves to be the most difficult. People, it seems, just cannot keep their mouths shut. Because of this need to talk, they eventually end up telling someone about their crime. Most of us know that if you want something to be all over town the next day, all we have to do is to tell one person. The story literally takes on a life of its own after that. More crimes are solved due to "loose lips" than any other reason.
Here's what all of us need to understand about criminal investigations. If there's nothing to investigate, there's no solution to be found. Even Sherlock Holmes had to have some sort of evidence to go on in order to solve a crime. If there is no physical evidence left at the scene that would connect a suspect with that crime, if there were no eyewitnesses to the crime (including video and audio devices) and if the criminal keeps his mouth shut, he can't be convicted and, in most cases, won't even become a viable suspect because the investigators have nothing that will hold up in a court of law. Ask the family of Jimmy Hoffa about this. Hoffa just disappeared one day, never to be heard from again.
Everyone assumes he was abducted by either organized crime or disgruntled union workers and killed but no one knows for sure. There has never been anyone arrested for the murder of Jimmy Hoffa because we still don't know if he was murdered or not.
Of course, he most likely WAS murdered. After the murder, his remains were either cut into small pieces with a chain saw and disposed of in different places or he was placed in a body bag weighted down with concrete blocks and dumped in the middle of a large body of water (hence the phrase "swimming with the fishes"). We don't know for sure because there was no physical evidence to pursue a suspect with, no eyewitnesses, and whoever was involved kept their mouth or mouths shut. It's that simple.
One of the trends that has developed in the column writing business over the past years has been to write about upbeat things. I have done a lot of that myself. However there is an underbelly to the world we live in that is just as much a part of the world as all the good things that go on. We have plenty of writers telling you every day about all the good things that are happening in the world. I'm going to spend a little more time talking about the other side of the coin. Next week's column is titled "Murder on a Sunday morning."
Stella Busch of Arapahoe notified me earlier in the week that a faithful reader of this column, her good friend Norman from Vidor, Texas underwent successful triple bypass heart surgery at the young and tender age of 82. Best wishes to you Norman. My thoughts and prayers are with you.