Literally Reruns: Magpie by Hugh Cron

When I was a little kid I fell for the “No such thing as a perfect crime” nonsense. Ye gods the stupid stuff we force on children; no wonder we are all such messes. This lie was supported by endless hours of TV court shows, Mainly Perry Mason when I was small, Matlock for the later generations.

We were taught that even when criminals were not caught, that there’s a form of justice in the end. Now, I am not smart enough to assure anyone that there is a Supreme Being Supreme Court that settles all accounts, but I can express my belief that depending on that sort of thing to rectify unpunished evil does not go too far to heal the pain of the families of murdered children. We need it to be better, yet to date there has been no indication that the situation will improve.

A lot of that is evident in this jewel, Magpie by our site jewel Hugh Cron. “Jamie” is a sociopath who gets his kicks by killing people. But he isn’t your basic just fallen off the turnip truck killer. The untraceable, unsolvable nature of his crimes are one hell of a lot easier to understand than the orderly mayhem you see on law shows. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it, unless the killer does what Jamie decides to do. Not out of remorse, but for the kick.

We now invite Hugh to tell us what he feels about this work now that he has two years between it and himself. I’m curious to learn if he believes that there is more hope in helping this sort of problem out in the person or that detection (or pre-detection) is the only option because it is already too late for the Jamies of our world.

Leila

Hi Leila,

Thanks as always, I still get a helluva buzz out of these.

Good on you for giving me an easy question!!

I think there will always be killers out there, no matter whether they will be caught or not. I’d love to say that detection was the way to go but how would that be policed? If a wee mutant in a Nursery School was causing concern, could anything be done to intervene?? Probably not until it was too late.

I will never understand folks who kill random people, if there is reason I can probably understand that but just to kill because they want to see how they feel or for a pure power trip, is an absolute travesty.

So basically, I have no answer to your question except to say that there are those who will kill for no reason, those who will for a reason and a whole load of fucked-upness in between.

Thanks again Leila!!

Hugh

Magpie