#earle nelson

[gregorygalloway]

Shadow of a Doubt was released on 12 January 1943.

Loosely based on Earle Nelson (considered “the first serial murderer in American history whose crimes were subject to widespread media attention”) who had been executed in 1928 for 22 murders, the script was written by Sally Benson, Alma Reville (Alfred Hitchcock’s wife), and Thorton Wilder.

Shadow of a Doubt was an immediate success and it’s status has improved over time; it is described as Alfred Hitchcock’s “first indisputable masterpiece.” Hitchcock himself often cited it as his favorite of his own films.

Thorton Wilder was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Motion Picture Story (although Gordon McDonell - husband of Margaret McDonell, head of David O. Selznick’s story department - is now cited as developing the idea).

[shirleyjackass]

Really weird sigh of relief after learning the gorilla killer was white....

[calendarofanxiety]

January 13, 1928 GORILLA MAN Earle Leonard Nelson known as The Gorilla Man (as well as The Dark Strangler) was an American serial killer. He was arrested on June 16, 1927 in Wakopa, Manitoba, Canada not long after murdering 2 women. Nelson's final victims were 14-year-old Lola Cowan murdered on June 8, 1927 and a housewife Emily Patterson whose husband discovered her body on June 9 hidden underneath their bed. Nelson was incarcerated in a local jail in Wakopa" and he escaped from jail that same evening. However he made the mistake of trying to catch the same train that was transporting members of the Winnipeg police. He was then recaptured and arrested again the next morning by an officer from the Crystal City, Manitoba police department. He was executed by hanging on January 13, 1928 (aged 30) in Vaughan Street Jail in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

[morbidology]

During 1926 and 1927, a travelling rapist and murderer killed twenty-two women in America and Canada, starting in San Francisco and ending in Winnipeg, and in the meantime travelling as Far East as Philadelphia. Most of the victims were landladies who advertised rooms to rent, and their naked bodies were usually found in the room they were offering. For a long time the police were not even aware of what the killer looked like, but eventually a woman to whom he had sold some jewellery - taken from a victim - was able to describe him as a polite young man with a simian mouth and jaw. The police eventually caught up with Earle Nelson, simply because he was unable to stop killing, and left a well-defined trail of corpses behind him.

[vervedoff]

Bestial ~ Harold Schechter

nf