Closed for Business... Mostly

Hey, Gang!

Anyone who's been reading this blog (thank you!) has probably figured out by now that it's closed for business... mostly.  I may still come in and wander through the halls the odd time; respond to some comments and maybe even post new material at some point in the future... but for the most part, I think I'm done with keeping up with these blood-smeared maidens.

Quite honestly, the darkness grew too thick at times. Although true crimes (and the women who commit them) has always been and continues to be a point of fascination for me, I am no longer certain that dwelling here really makes the dark spots any brighter.

I will leave everything here (mostly) as it is so that folks can continue to view the information.

Thank you again for reading. It's been great discussing these case files with you all!

Kind regards,

Miss Kitty

Brenda Ann Spencer: "Switched to overload"

Brenda Ann Spencer fired 36 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle through her bedroom window at a bustling schoolyard on January 29, 1979. Her shooting spree left two adults dead, and another nine people wounded (eight of them children). The rifle had been a Christmas present from her father, Wallace Spencer.

Amid the six and a half hour standoff, which eventually led to her arrest, she was asked what had compelled her to do such an unfathomably horrible thing. Young Brenda, only 16 years old at the time of the shootings, provided an equally horrifying response:

"I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."

Like many people my age, my first exposure to the life and crimes of Brenda Ann Spencer came courtesy of the highly popularized song, "I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats. Singer/songwriter Bob Geldof had been in the midst of giving a radio interview when news of the tragedy came through on a Telex machine. Although the song has become a Monday morning radio classic across the globe, it is important to remember that it all began with a messed-up young woman, a telescopic rifle, and the haunting phrase which has since become ensconced in popular culture.

  

                                           Image: Nykta                                                    Image: margoaquato

"I don't remember, but I'm sure that I did it."

While Brenda has, in recent years, provided a somewhat clearer explanation for her terrible crimes than her initial 'Mondays' claim, it doesn't look like this broad is getting out of the Big House any time in the near future. Still very clearly detatched from what she did on that frosty morning back in '79, she claims to remember very little about what transpired that day, and nothing at all about the actual shootings.

Ashley Smith: "Wishing I were free..."

Today's post is not about a woman who committed murder, but rather about a woman who was murdered by the "justice" system.

Ashley Smith first came into contact with the system in 2003 when she was only 15 years old. She was incarcerated for series of petty crimes which included throwing crab apples at a postal carrier and pulling fire alarms. Originally sentenced to 30 days for the infarctions, Ashley ultimately served over 4 years in "treatment," and was transferred a staggering 17 times among 9 different prisons in 5 provinces due to the "unruly behaviour" she exhibited. She was involved in more than 800 "incidents," and attempted to harm herself at least 150 times.

Karla Does Christmas

The beautiful young lady in the photograph above is Karla Homolka's little sister, Tammy, who died tragically on Christmas Eve, 1990. An evening of holiday merriment at the Homolka home turned dark when Tammy  died as a result of being drugged and raped by older sister Karla and her fiance, Paul Bernardo. Although Tammy's death was initially ruled an accident, an unfortunate consequence of consuming too many holiday cocktails, the awful truth about what really happened that night was eventually revealed.

Years later, Karla testified against Bernardo (her estranged husband at that time) as he stood accused of two counts of first-degree murder in the sex-slayings of 14 year old Leslie Mahaffy and  15 year-old Kristen French. Behind closed doors with her lawyer and the police, and then again on the witness stand, Karla confessed that she helped Bernardo procure young victims to appease his desire for brutal sex with under age girls. She also confessed that one of those victims had been her own sister, Tammy.

In her 2005 interview with CBC Radio-Canada, Karla Homolka told reporter Joyce Napier that she has a particularly hard time coping with what she did around the holidays, presumably because of what she did to Tammy:

I think about it all the time. At every anniversary, every Christmas, all the time.

Teacher Homolka: Rumour or Reality?

"Schoolgirl Killer" now a teacher?

Surely, this cannot be...

In her $3 e-book Finding Karla, Paula Todd made a strong case for why she ventured to seek out 

Karla Homolka, the woman who had reportedly fled to Guadeloupe with her new husband and child after serving a controversial 12 year prison sentence for her role in the sex-slayings of three Ontario teenagers.

Bloggers were now reporting that Homolka was teaching schoolchildren in the Caribbean. Karla Homolka teaching children?

[...] If there was a chance she was teaching children, many Canadians would want to know. And the only way to know was to find her.

Indeed, they would. Presumably, concerned parents in her new country of residence would want to know, as well. An estimated 65000 - 70000 copies of the 38-page booklet were purchased online; clearly, the public was eager to learn what "Karly Curls" was up to. However, after speaking with Homolka in person, Todd seemed convinced that the Teacher Karla myth was as good as debunked.

Howdy, Miss Kitty!

Howdy, Folks!

Just a quick note to make my new Blogger account official... From here on in, I'll be posting and responding as Miss Kitty. I decided to make the change due to convenience issues with the login; rest assured, I am still me. 

Or, maybe I'm not? You just can't trust anybody these days! ;)

Bye Bye, Bébé Douceur

Karla Homolka's online business, Bébé Douceur, has disappeared.

Apparently, now that her clientele knows she did 12 years in prison

for rape and murder sucked all the fun out of hocking diapers.

Note: Children's faces have been obscured for their protection.

CBC Radio-Canada Interviews Karla Homolka

I was able to cobble together a web-ready version of this hard to find

interview using raw video files contributed by kouheikun @ WKH2012.

PART 1

PART 2

Note: Small portions of this videotaped interview are missing;

a complete (translated) transcript is provided after the jump below.

Immediately following her release from prison on July 5, 2005, Karla Homolka and her lawyer, Sylvie Bordelais, sat down with CBC Radio-Canada reporter Joyce Napier for an interview.

Before Canada's Most Hated Woman even opened her mouth, people across the nation were incensed that she had chosen to conduct the interview in French. This meant that the majority of people who lived in the province of Ontario, where she committed her crimes, were forced to accept the first (and probably only) public statement she has ever made concerning her role in the the rape-murder spree that dominated headlines in the early 1990s.

I've read this interview a number of times, and if I were asked to summarize it in the simplest of terms, I would say: low self esteem  (+) desire for relationship (x) rape-murder spree that captured global headlines and rocked an entire nation (=) out of prison in time to birth a child for each innocent life she stole (?)

Fatal Error. Cannot compute.

The Fifth Estate: Hunting Magnotta

Poor Luka Magnotta; details relating to his case are being profiled by one of the most respected investigative news programs in Canada, but he won't be able to watch it because he is languishing in jail, awaiting trial for murder. 

CBC's The Fifth Estate is set to air "Hunting Magnotta" on Friday, November 30th. The following description was pulled from their web site:

"A year ago virtually no one knew anything about a young man named Luka Magnotta. Then came the horrifying discovery of the body of Jun Lin in Montreal, followed by a feverish international manhunt and then the arrest in Berlin. Luka Magnotta now stands charged with the murder of the young Concordia University student from China.

The name Luka Magnotta seemed to appear from nowhere in May of this year. But if he was unknown to the wider public, for 18 months before his arrest, he was being tracked... by a group of Internet users who were horrified over videos they believed he'd made, which depicted the killing of kittens and apparent threats to do worse. In an exclusive interview with Mark Kelley, the online investigators share for the first time the details their attempts to chase Magnotta down through the deep web and alert authorities as they tried to stop a man they considered dangerous.

The hundreds of cryptic online postings Luka Magnotta uploaded to the web paint an unsettling psychological portrait of a disturbed young man who shocked the world to its core, and reveal much about his life growing up as Eric Newman. But Magnotta would disclose much more to the few people who knew him personally, two of whom share their stories exclusively with the fifth estate. What became apparent to everyone who knew him is that Magnotta appeared to have an obsessive narcissistic need to be noticed, and exhibited increasingly erratic, possibly threatening behaviour online, ringing alarm bells for those who knew him and watched his chilling story unfold."

Source: The Fifth Estate: Hunting Magnotta

Knowing what I know about this clown-turned-killer, it must be killing him to know that people are talking about him while he has absolutely no control over how his image is being affected by what's being said. To me, he will never be legendary, or even notorious; to me, he will always be little more than a socially inept misfit who ventured to make a name for himself by absorbing the essence of everything around him.

For all his primping, posturing, and manipulation, Magnotta was unable to achieve recognition based on his own merit; it took the death of an innocent to capture the attention this pathetic waste of human skin craved so profoundly.

I can't wait to see what The Fifth Estate has uncovered about the "hunt" for Magnotta, which began long before he ever came into contact with victim Jun Lin.

The Fifth Estate: Karla Homolka

Thanks to the tireless staff at WKH2012, this long lost episode of  the award-winning documentary series The Fifth Estate is accessible once again. 

As I watched the program (which I hadn't seen in years), all the same feelings of horror, sickness, sadness, and rage stirred in me anew. The Fifth Estate illuminates Homolka's role in the sex killings of three Ontario teenagers in shocking clarity; the sheer gall with which an unaffected Homolka recites the details of her crimes is nothing short of astounding. 

Bernardo & Homolka: Worst of the Worst

Macleans just released the results of a poll which probed readers' minds to determine the worst of the worst in the Canadian crime arena. As expected, the diabolical duo topped the list, beating out reviled criminals like Clifford Olsen, Russell Williams, and even Robert Pickton, who confessed to killing more than 40 women.

"The case of Homolka, who secured a controversial 12-year sentence in exchange for testifying against her husband, is perceived as a miscarriage of justice by 52 per cent nationally, but only 29 per cent in the Atlantic provinces. (The survey of 1,510 randomly selected Canadian adults was conducted from Oct. 29 to 30, 2012, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.)

Still, there is no such regional divide when it comes to the crimes of Homolka and Bernardo—who continues to serve his life sentences in protective custody in Kingston. The pair were rated among the worst of the worst in every part of the country. And, as with Pickton and Olson, public revulsion over their misdeeds is unlikely to fade anytime soon. They were convicted not just in law, but in the court of public opinion too."

Source: Macleans 

Document Library

I created this page in the hopes of making it easier to sift through the collection of important and/or official documents, transcripts, letters, and images amassed by Mascara and Murder.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

What are you looking at?

As there has been some discussion of late regarding how people "surf" in to Mascara & Murder (and what they might find when they get here), I thought I would share some information about the current visitor profile.

From what I have observed (I watch very carefully), the overwhelming majority of visitors to this blog don't arrive here accidentally; most "hits" can be tracked back to a web source or keyword relevant to the material presented here. 

Top 10 Posts (All-Time)

Top 10 Posts (Week of Nov. 4, 2012)

Top 10 Search Keywords (All-Time)

Top 10 Search Keywords (Week of Nov. 4, 2012)

Karly Curls 2.0

Karla Homolka honeymooning in Hawaii with Paul Bernardo

Like countless other teen queen's of yesteryear, Karla Homolka continues to evolve with the times. The woman who once dreamed of being showered with gifts and affection from "Big Bad Businessman" and serial rapist Paul Bernardo, now seems content in raising her three young children in relative anonymity. I use the term "relative" because I don't believe that it's possible for her to live completely under the radar, and not for the reasons that you might think.

Most who have followed the case know that Karla's unassuming life as a mother and teacher has received a lot of media attention following the release of Paula Todd's e-book Finding Karla. However, full credit for unearthing Homolka in Guadeloupe cannot be given to Todd, as she merely proved correct a number of long-standing theories that had been freely available online. Not even the savvy staff at the popular forum WatchingKarlaHomolka (now WKH2012), who first confirmed her new location, can lay exclusive claim to bragging rights concerning the scoop.

So who is really responsible for finding Karla? The answer is: Karla Homolka herself.

Lori Homolka: "It's so easy to con people."

Mascara & Murder has received hundreds of hits using the search terms "Lori Homolka." Given the fact that people seem rather curious about her, I wanted to provide some fuel for the discussion.

About two years ago, I came upon a small, Internet window through which to view the life that Lori has been living since her family was thrust into the spotlight in the most sensational criminal trial in Canadian history. Please note that Lori now goes by the name "Logan," presumably to escape some of the attention focused upon the now infamous Homolka family.

In most cases, the families of depraved individuals like Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka tend to feel victimized themselves, or struggle with issues of guilt by association. This being said, I always get a really bad taste in my mouth when I recall the way that Lori encouraged Karla to alter her appearance in order to come back and live with the family in St. Catharines after her release from prison.

In a letter to her imprisoned big sister, she wrote:

"People are so stupid, Kar. Even if they bumped into you, they'd never know it was you, especially since you're supposed to be spending all your time in jail. They would never know. Just like if you came back to St.Cath. That would be the last place people would expect you to be, especially when I tell everyone you'll never, ever come back here.

See, that's my plan. People wouldn't know if it was you... People wouldn't know if it was you if they even had a conversation with you. People really are dumb. It's so easy to con people."

"Remembering Taylor on Halloween"

Residents of Armstrong, B.C. gathered last night to remember Taylor Van Diest

on the first anniversary of her October 31, 2011 murder
(Photo: Amy Jackson-Shelling)

(Photo Credit: Jeff Bassett, Globe and Mail)

"The candlelight walk began on the corner of Bridge Street and continued down Pleasant Valley Road and Rosedale Avenue until the railroad tracks, where a trail has been constructed in honour of Taylor.

The 'Taylor Jade Van Diest Memorial Trail' was Taylor’s twin sister Kirstie’s idea, and 270 pumpkins lined the rocky path along the railroad tracks, where residents laid down roses as they passed."

Castanet News 

I have been following this case since first hearing the awful news last Halloween... So fucking sad.

A beautiful, vivacious girl in the prime of her life was killed after setting out to meet up with friends for some good, old-fashioned Halloween fun. She had her costume on when she was attacked, which made the last photos she appeared in so eerily ironic it sent chills down my spine; Taylor posed for a few shots before leaving the house that evening, soaked in fake blood.

Matthew Foerster, her accused killer, is currently awaiting trial. May he rot in prison, and then burn in Hell. 

More Information...

Timeline: Van Diest Murder

Global BC

Emotions still strong on 1 year anniversary of Van Diest murder

AM1150 News

Bernardo's First Love

Paul Bernardo's relationship with high school sweetheart Nadine B. was explored to a certain extent by Scott Burnside and Alan Cairns in Deadly Innocence.

It's actually quite startling to compare his first serious relationship to the one which ultimately produced three dead teenagers. The crucial difference between Nadine and Karla Homolka is the fact that Nadine knew enough to walk away from the serial rapist in the making while Homolka did everything she could to keep him by her side -- including offering up her sister for the Christmas Eve rape that ended her life.

The Smirnis Brothers: Where are they now?

The Smirnis brothers were childhood friends of Paul Bernardo who lived across the street, and later became an integral part of his eventual capture. It is widely known that Van Smirnis introduced Bernardo to the easy money lifestyle of smuggling alcohol and cigarettes across the U.S./Canadian border. 

Steve and Paul had a falling out in the early 80's after Steve became briefly involved with Paul's love interest at the time, Nadine B. The relationship between Paul and Steve was never fully repaired, although Paul travelled to Texas to attend Steve's wedding in 1987.

In the summer of 1990, Alex Smirnis and his wife provided information to police about their suspicions that Paul may have been the Scarborough rapist. However, their tip was ultimately dismissed by police after interviewing Bernardo.

Two years later, Van Smirnis contacted police about Bernardo much in the same way that his brother had, suspecting that he may be the Scarborough rapist. Paul was again questioned by police, who decided (again) that the bright, professional young man before them couldn't possibly be the monster they were looking for. Paul wasn't arrested until February 17, 1993, after forensic testing had confirmed his involvement in several of the rapes in Scarborough.

Van Smirnis appeared on the Maury Povich Show after Paul was sentenced, along with a number of other folks associated with the case, including Karla Homolka's aunt, Patti Seger; the first person that Karla spoke to about the murders. The transcript of this interview is available through WKH2012.

At present, the Smirnis brothers are all alive and well, and can be found on Facebook.

Bernardo-Homolka tweet not trending

Paul & Karla pose for a holiday photo

next to an image of slain little sister, Tammy Lyn,
who died on Christmas Eve, 1990

Screen capture from Lena Dunham's Twitter
October 17, 2012

 Acclaimed actress and filmmaker Lena Dunham is currently under fire due to her not-so-funny idea for a Halloween costume to 380,000+ followers on Twitter. Dunham is best known for creating and starring in the HBO series Girls. On October 16, she wrote to fellow  actors/comedians Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak:

"You guys go as killer Canadian couple Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka. I’ll be her sister they murdered. Scariest! Luv U!"

Homolka Clone on TV's Dexter

Is Dexter's "Hannah McKay" based on Karla Homolka?

A new character appears in Season 7 of the wildly popular television series Dexter bears an eerie resemblance to convicted killer Karla Homolka. 

Although it has not been (and probably won't be) confirmed, this would make all the sense in the world given the attention Homolka and her case have received recently, in spite of her efforts to live life anonymously following her release from prison.

"Hannah was apparently involved with an older man named Wayne Randall while the duo went on a killing spree until caught. In order to avoid jail time herself, she turned state's evidence on her accomplice insuring that he was put away while she could start a new life."

Source: Dexterama

 "Here’s where the real parallel could be between the two parties: Hannah may have been much more involved in the killings with Randall than she initially told to police, and this is something Dexter is going to have to find out a little bit more of as the season progresses. Based on the video, we are starting to think that Dexter and Hannah could go down the relationship route here. Both parties clearly have some sort of dark passenger that they have dealt with for several years, but on the surface it does look like Hannah has found a way to get over it. Is this truly the case, though?"

Source: Carter