Forensic Files is educational TV that might enhance your safety

As I have said before, I have recently become a fan of the TV series Forensic Files. Each episode is a half hour and typically about a hard-to-solve actual crime, mostly murders. In some cases, the story is about a wrongly-convicted person getting exonerated by forensic science. In many cases, those involve poring over the evidence files and double checking every bit of it years later.

One episode was about a crime solved because the spouse of the deceased spotted the solution on a Forensic Files episode. Another seemed to be a murder by a person who thought they had learned enough from Forensic Files shows to commit the perfect crime. They were mistaken.

Anyway: I have a number of lessons learned. Attractive females especially need to get and watch all the episodes of this show so they will be more careful. They seem to be the most popular victims. Girls age 3 through high school are also frequent targets in the Files programs. Am I trying to make you paranoid? When it comes to the little girls whose stories I have seen on Forensic Files, yes.

Don’t live in garden apartments. Too many others there who can observe you from close range and get into the apartment. Better to be in a taller building with interior hallways on a floor above the second.

Don’t assume someone is a cop. Don’t let anyone in your apartment that you are not sure of being safe. Don’t jog or walk where no people are around. Wilderness camping and or hunting or fishing may seem idyllic, but it is probably one of the easiest ways to murder someone.

I have seen almost no episodes where the woman escaped the killer by self-defense. The one who succeeded ran away and did not have far to go. An ounce of avoiding the situation to begin with is worth a ton of self-defense training. Even carrying a gun may not help. The first indication anything is wrong seems to be getting your head bashed in from behind without warning, or suddenly having a cord around your neck, or being shot.

Often, the rapist killer says get into the car and you won’t get hurt. Don’t get in the car. Run right now. Your best shot at escaping is in the first minute; most likely your ONLY shot. I think they taught us that in the military.

Only killers who live in the house clean up the scene of a murder. Strangers just leave.

Your spouse increasing your life insurance is a really bad sign. So is a wealthy person marrying a poor person without a pre-nup that precludes the poor person becoming rich in the death of the wealthy spouse.

A surprising number of intra-family murders were preceded by the deceased expressing “if anything happens to me” messages in recordings, letters to friends, comments to friends and correctly predicting the murderer. If you have any such thoughts, stand up, leave the house, and get to a safe place right now. Get a concealed-carry permit and even if you don’t get one, get a gun and ammo. As I said, a surprising number.

If you get really sick and the doctors can’t figure out why, ask them to check for poisoning. They have to be looking for it to find it.

I find the shows quite fascinating. After a while, you start saying the words before the announcer. He says, “The floor appeared to have been scrubbed.” Experienced viewers immediately say, “Get out the Luminol.”

Suspect refuses to give a DNA sample? Follow him around until he discards a soda can or cigarette.

You also don’t have to watch many episodes before you become a quasi blood-spatter expert.

Killing someone and trying to make it look like an accident or suicide or murder by someone else? Forget about it. You’ll leave a zillion clues and screw it all up. Way too complicated.

You will probably upgrade your personal safety by watching. Do you think that’s a stretch? My middle brother once thwarted a burglary. A man called saying he had a delivery and asked if someone would be there to receive it on a particular day. We were going to be out that day because of some event that had been announced in the paper—maybe my marriage. But my brother told the guy, “Yes, several of us will be here that day.” 

No delivery was ever made. What TV show taught my brother that? Would you believe Get Smart? “It was the old ‘delivery man gambit,’ 99.”