Word: serializing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Windsors" is like a prime-time serial, it is one that, before Lady Diana Spencer joined the cast, was having ratings problems. The characters had become predictable: no more wildly inappropriate flings for Princess Margaret; prickly Princess Anne had turned goody-goody; crusty Philip made nary a gaffe; and the Queen, as ever, was placid perfection. For Charles, the role of bachelor Prince was becoming old hat; the public grew tired of a succession of Charlie's Angels but never a bride. Then, like an inspired casting director, Charles picked an unlikely ingenue for the role of Princess: the girl...
...smudged print lifted from an orange Toyota in Los Angeles to one taken from a 25-year-old drifter with a record of drug and auto-theft arrests. Two days later, Richard Ramirez was caught and charged with one of 15 murders attributed to the Night Stalker, the serial killer who had been terrorizing the city for the past seven months...
Ramirez, 25, resembles victims' descriptions of the Night Stalker. Like the attacker, he is tall and thin, with black hair and bulging eyes. Most significant, he has badly decayed teeth. Victims had said the serial killer's teeth are markedly yellowed and gapped; police identification artists had even composed a separate sketch of his mouth...
Before finding Ramirez's fingerprint, investigators had been baffled by the lack of a discernible pattern in the attacks. Serial murderers usually seek out a particular kind of victim, but the Night Stalker assaulted people ranging in age from 16 to 84. He had killed men and women, Asians as well as whites. In two cases he reportedly left behind written messages. Police confirmed that the killer had a distinctive trademark, but to avoid copycat assaults, they were tight-lipped about what...
Authorities said that Ramirez has a criminal record for auto theft, drugs and other, "relatively minor," charges, but that none of his past offenses resembled the violent nature of the recent assaults. Psychologists who have studied serial killings suspect that the Night Stalker shared at least one trait common to mass murderers. "Once they start to murder, the act becomes habitual," says J. Reid Meloy, a San Diego forensic psychologist. "As it becomes habitual, it becomes easier...