Author Archives: Garry Rodgers

About Garry Rodgers

After three decades as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police homicide detective and British Columbia coroner, International Best Selling author and blogger Garry Rodgers has an expertise in death and the craft of writing on it. Now retired, he wants to provoke your thoughts about death and help authors give life to their words.

WHAT MAKES CONSPIRACY THEORISTS TICK?

A1A conspiracy theory is the belief that a plot by powerful people or organizations is working to accomplish a sinister goal—the truth of its existence secretly held from the public. Conspiracy theorists see authorities—governments, corporations, and wealthy people—as fundamentally deceptive and corrupt. Their distrust of official narratives runs so deep that they connect dots of random events into what they believe make meaningful patterns, despite overwhelming conflicting evidence, or absence of supporting evidence, to their conclusions.

Aside from a lack of common sense, what makes these guys tick?

A3First, let’s look at what Time magazine identified as the prominent conspiracy theories believed by the American public. These were identified in a recent poll. I’m not kidding you. Some people actually swallow these crazy concoctions.

From lowest to highest percentage they are:

10. The Reptile Elite — Among us are flesh-eating, blood-drinking, shape-shifting, extraterrestrial reptilian humanoids bent on enslaving the human race. The British Royals and the Bush family are part of the group, as was Margaret Thatcher.

9. The CIA and AIDS — Thinking is that the Central Intelligence Agency was out to destroy homosexuals and blacks so they invented the deadly HIV virus and injected it in place of hepatitis vaccinations.

A148. Holocaust Revisionism — Most deniers accept that the internment camps existed, but claim the numbers of people murdered are greatly exaggerated. General Eisenhower saw this coming when he forced hundreds of civilian witnesses to tour the camps and bear the truth to the world.

7. Jesus and Mary Magdalene — These folks claim Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a married couple, but Jesus occasionally shared her with his disciple, Peter. They attribute this to the Gnostic Gospels which were discovered in 1945 and claim it’s being covered up by the Vatican. Mainstream scholars dismiss as the Gnostic Gospels as even being authentic.

6. The Moon Landings Were Faked — According to this crowd, none of the Apollo missions happened. They were filmed on a Hollywood lot, or possibly at area 51. Watch this clip of Buzz Aldrin punching conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel in the face. Click Here

A95. Secret Societies Rule the World — If you’re a member of the global elite, then you’d already know this. And you might belong to one or more of many groups; the Illuminati, Freemasons, Skull & Bones, Opus Dei, Bilderberg Group, or maybe even have a seat on the Council of Foreign Relationship. Sorry, your Costco card won’t cut it.

4. Paul McCartney is Dead — Supposedly the Beatles covered-up the real Sir Paul’s death in 1966 and an imposter has been in his place ever since. Maybe I’m Amazed, because I saw a recent clip of Paul McCartney in front of tens of thousands at Hyde Park takin’ a swing at Pretty Woman with Bruce Springsteen. If he’s an imposter, he’s some good at it.

3. Area 51 and Aliens — There’s a real Air Force base at Groom Lake, 150 miles north of Las Vegas, where all sorts of black op aircraft are tested. Like most military installations, public access is restricted, but you can get a good look at it on Google Earth. The resolution is excellent but I couldn’t find any saucer-shaped craft or ET-looking creatures. Oh, right… they keep them inside… or maybe back at Roswell.

A42. 9/11 Cover-Up — Apparently 42% of Americans believe the attacks on the New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania were orchestrated by some arm of the U.S. Government. Sad.

1. The JFK Assassination — The mother of conspiracy theories.  Times’ poll reports that only 32% believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. So two-thirds of Americans truly think their 35th President’s murder is unsolved? How can that be?

Well, it comes down to mindset.

I’m not saying that conspiracies don’t happen—even at a mass scale. The Holocaust was a massive conspiracy to exterminate the Jews. The Nazis totally believed the Jews were a threat to their existence. It was an article of faith within the Third Reich.

A159/11 was a monstrous conspiracy—by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The Russian Revolution was a conspiracy. So was the American Revolution—fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Nixon conspired to hide Watergate. Abraham Lincoln was murdered through a conspiracy. So was Julius Caesar. And don’t forget Stalin, the Mexican Drug Cartels, and Scientology.

If some conspiracies are true, then how do you determine which ones are false? The more these characteristics apply, the more likely the theory is wrong:

  • “Proof” of the conspiracy emerges through dot-connecting without any hard, physical evidence.
  • Execution requires large and complex elements.
  • The agents require nearly super-human powers.
  • Everyone maintains secrecy.
  • There is a grandiose ambition for control.
  • The plot ratchets from small to large events.
  • Everything has a sinister overtone.
  • Facts and speculation are mingled without assigning degrees of probability.
  • The theorist is extremely suspicious of authority—government and private.
  • The theorist refuses to consider alternative explanations, seeking only confirmation of the theory.

I understand the mindset of real conspirators. It’s all about self-preservation. But what about the tin-foil crowd?

A12In American Conspiracy Theories, political scientists Joseph Uscinski and Joseph Parent conducted an “extensive empirical study” on the subject and found: Conspiracy Theorists are often caricatured as a small demographic composed primarily of middle-aged white male internet enthusiasts who live in their mother’s basements—but that’s wrong. Conspiracy theories permeate all parts of society and cut across age, gender, race, income, political affiliation, educational level, and occupational status.

What gives? How does a cross-section of otherwise normal people get so distorted in their thoughts and believe in really weird things?

A13Quassim Cassam is a professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick. He’s embarking on a study on why people believe in outlandish theories. Part of this work is to answer why people get pushed to extremes like joining ISIS.

Professor Cassam says: It seems to be because of the kind of thinker they are, or to put it bluntly, because there’s something wrong with how they think. It’s the peculiarities of their intellectual constitution—in a word, their intellectual character. It’s what social psychologists call a conspiracy mentality.

Cassam goes on: The gullible rarely believe they’re gullible and the closed-minded don’t believe they’re closed-minded. Closed-mindedness is the toughest intellectual vice to tackle because it’s in its very nature to be concealed from those who have it. There’s no reasoning with those kinds of people.

A5I found an article in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology where Dr. Jan-Willem van Prooijen of the University of Amsterdam summed it: Conspiracy theorists tend to have one thing in common—they feel a lack of control over their lives.

Part of my John F Kennedy Assassination book research was checking the online chat boards on the JFK forums. Lemme tell you—there are some whacko, nut-jobs out there.

I believe there are four reasons why people believe JFK’s murder was a conspiracy. These reasons probably apply to most conspiracy theories and theorists.

  1. A17They don’t have the correct information to understand the case facts.
  2. They haven’t got the personal knowledge, or experience, to properly interpret the evidence.
  3. They simply want to believe in a conspiracy.
  4. They don’t have the mental capacity for objectively processing thoughts.

There’s no reasoning with those kinds of people.

THE GRIM SWEEPER – MAKING A KILLING IN CRIME SCENE CLEAN-UP

A14Crime scene cleaning is extremely profitable for those who can handle difficult and unpleasant working conditions. In fact, this niche market of the multi-billion dollar janitorial and restoration industry is the fastest growing segment. Crime scene clean-up technicians are some of the highest-paid hourly workers, but they’re not the ones making the real money in death’s bloody aftermath. Let’s find out who is and exactly how this lucrative business works.

A10What got me curious about crime scene clean-up is when the Huffington Post asked me to write a feature article titled The Surprisingly Simple Clues Left Behind at Crime Scenes. The piece complimented the debut of a new Esquire Network TV series called Spotless which centers on a guy who runs a crime scene cleaning business that contracts for the Mafia to “sanitize” their hits.

A17I’ve seen some horrifically messy death scenes as a homicide cop and coroner and I’ve worked under unspeakably nasty conditions. But once I finished the forensic process, it was someone else’s job to clean-up. I used to think Boy, I’m glad it’s not me.

I never gave much thought to who was contracted, what equipment they used, what regulations they had to obey, what time it took, and certainly not how much it cost. I got my eyes opened when I looked into the business of crime scene cleaning.

First of all, it’s known in the industry as Crime and Trauma Scene Decontamination and Restoration—CTSDR. Secondly, they clean a lot more than just homicide and other death scenes.

A16These professionals are handsomely paid to also remove and restore the effects of dead animals and their droppings, insects who hatched from decaying bodies, damage from police tools such as fingerprint powder, luminol, tear gas, pepper spray, and the cutting of materials during preservation of evidence. They deal with mold from marihuana grow-shows, deadly chemicals from meth labs, drug litter like contaminated needles, and body fluids across the spectrum.

Their workplaces are everywhere imaginable—mansions to rooming houses, schools, offices, daycares, fields, playgrounds, boats, busses, trains, factories, shops and malls, cruise ships, vehicles, jail cells, police vehicles, hotels, and even on airplanes.

A18You’d think that a grisly murder scene would be the most difficult and expensive situation, but those experienced in clean-ups say the life-long hoarder’s home is the worst—especially the animal hoarders—the crazy cat-ladies who die alone and then… you know… They call this “Gross Filth”.

There’s a fair overhead in the scene-clean business. A significant amount of equipment and training is required—specialized vehicles for transporting hazardous biological waste, mandatory certification by government departments, licensing requirements, expensive tools like ozone machines, steam injectors, and chemical foggers to destroy odors and pathogens, biohazard suits and containers, respirators, chemical-spill boots, gloves, goggles, as well as commercial disinfectors, solvents, and neutralizers.

A4Employee turnover is high. Despite the high pay, burnout is inevitable. It takes a special person to fill the role. Strong stomach. Ability to detach emotionally. And serious attention to detail. Ever present is the danger of infection from a disease like HIV and hepatitis. Adherence to regulations like OSHA, WHMIS, DOT, EPA, NIOSH, Workers Comp, and  professional industry governing bodies—the American Bio-Recovery Association, the National Crime Scene Clean-Up Association, and the National Academy of Crime Scene Cleaners—is required.

There’s a tremendous amount of information on the Crime Scene Clean-Up industry available online and two interesting books have been published, giving an insider’s look at the business:

So, yeah, yeah… these guys have a shitty job — you’re thinking — Get to the point. What do they charge? How much do they make?

A13Well, this seems to be a fairly guarded secret in the crime scene clean-up circles. I did some more internet searching, then made some phone calls. The standard answer was:

“The cost of remediating biohazards can vary dramatically from situation to situation, so we are not able to provide phone estimates or quote rates without coming out and doing a proper assessment which we charge an hourly fee for. By the way, are you insured?”

A21Drilling down on the net, I found these sites which reported the average technician’s wage (not the business owner’s) as:

A22Then I found an article from the Toronto Star reporting on Christian Cadieux who owns and operates Crime & Trauma Scene Cleaning. Cadieux is 32 and charges $300.00 per hour just to estimate. Then he bills out from there. He likes to get six to eight good insurance jobs every month that make him sixty thousand dollars. Per month. That’s $720,000.00 per year. Christian also puts on five-day training courses on the side for $2,499.00 per student. When this article was written, he had four in the class.

Christian Cadieux plans to retire at 40.

SERIAL KILLER, PAUL BERNARDO, SELF-PUBLISHES ON AMAZON

B10Paul Bernardo is Canada’s most notorious serial killer. In 1995, Bernardo was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of manslaughter. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a Dangerous Offender designation, giving him zero chance of parole. Bernardo also confessed to committing violent rapes—perhaps over thirty. Today, he’s in solitary confinement at Millhaven Institution, a maximum-security penitentiary near Toronto, Ontario. And this week, Paul Bernardo hit #1 on the Amazon BestSeller list by self-publishing an eBook spy-thriller titled A MAD World Order.

So HTF did this happen?

Before threatening to set Amazon on fire with what’s left of my hair, I decided to check out what Bernardo wrote. Here’s Amazon’s product description:

B11The top echelons of the Russian government lament for the glory days of their superpower status. Resorting to desperate and nefarious means, a secret cabal has strategized a plan to return Russia to a world power. By a fate not of his choosing, one man finds himself caught, and involved in the Russian plot.  Mason Steele with his best friend Kyle Boorem founded Social Mall. It is a 3-D social media website. It is targeted by the by the Russians for a hostile takeover to get the off-the-books financing for their operation, and the FSB uses the local Russian Mafia as its covert operatives.  NSA has picked up al-Qaeda chatter of an impending catastrophic strike against the United States. Given the size and sophistication, it is concluded small dirty-bombs are involved.  Mason prepares a plan to rescue his co-founder, revenge the attacks against them, and stop the theft of his company. Unrestrained by rules or laws, he takes the battle to the Russian Mafia in San Francisco and across the globe.

Yeah, whatever I thought. Different flavor on an old ice cream bucket. But I wonder if the guy can actually write? 

B17Now, I’m sure as hell not going to buy this monster’s work, but I did have a free “Look Inside” on the Amazon site. After skimming the first twenty pages, my impression was Hmmm. Crappy cover. Story kinda sucks. Not much of a hook. Slow… not sure how this is gonna keep anyone in it for the advertised 631 pages. But the editing’s pretty goodespecially for a self-pub. It’s fairly clean for punctuation. Grammar’s okay. Don’t see any obvious spelling mistakes. And the formatting is professional. Can’t see how anyone sitting alone in a jail cell did this, so there’s no doubt Bernardo had some experienced help putting this thing on the market. 

Now setting aside the legal, moral, and ethical issues of a human piece-of-shit like Paul Bernardo being allowed to publish from a jail cell, let me remind you what this animal did before becoming a BestSelling novelist.

B7Bernardo was the Scarborough Rapist who viciously attacked women in the Greater Toronto area in the early 1990’s. A pretty-boy who later score 35 out of 40 on the psychopathy checklist, he tangled up and married an equally evil Karla Homolka. The pair compounded each other’s sick fantasies which led to them drugging, raping, and killing Homolka’s younger sister.

14 year-old Leslie Mahaffy was their next victim. They abducted Leslie and took her to their house where they videotaped themselves raping and murdering her. Then they cut Leslie’s body apart with a circular saw before encasing her pieces in concrete and dumping them in a lake.

Kristen French, 15, was third. Bernardo and Homolka filmed Kristen’s terror over a three day period, then dumped Kristen’s naked body in a ditch.

Bernardo was caught through DNA. Before the video tapes were discovered, the prosecution cut Homolka a deal, letting her cop to a 12-year manslaughter sentence in exchange for testifying against her now-divorced husband. And that’s the sum of the Paul Bernardo story.

How—in a sane world—is cesspool scum like Bernardo allowed to still breathe, let alone be allowed to profit from his mind? His eBook lists at $5.97 USD so he pockets $4.18 per copy. How many copies is he selling? Well, as I write this, A MAD World Order is #1 on Amazon.ca in the Spy Thriller category and #45 on Amazon.com in the War Fiction category. To me, that says a lot of sold books and a lot of coin.

Bernardo screenshot

And it’s getting a ton of reviews—over 600 on Amazon’s Canadian site, so far. The vast majority are 1-Star hates, but some people are sticking up for the right of free speech and uncensorship.

Here’s a sample of what they’re saying: 

By Paula McLeod — Hello to the powers that be at Amazon… seriously what were you thinking??? I realize that as an American company that you have very little interest in what goes on north of the border. I also understand the extra work involved in checking up on a vendor prior to allowing them to flog their wares on your site is time consuming but come on…really??? In case you were not aware; there is the little thing called “Google”. How about it??? Do not allow this waste of a life to profit in any way after all of the horrific things that he has done. I do not make idle threats…I will not spend my hard earned money on products that are sold by a company that support a sadistic piece of trash, serial killer, serial rapist, dangerous offender. You must remove this immediately or I will cancel my account and never purchasing anything from your site again.
By Robert Truszkowski — It’s not so simple. Amazon publishes OJ Simpson’s “If I did it”, Charles Manson’s autobiography, Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, and many other deplorable works, and/or works by deplorable people. We live in a society that is so conflicted. We want to be safe from hateful garbage, and we seem willing to fight in far off lands for freedom and democracy, but it’s a catch-22. Don’t want to read crumby fiction by a twisted freak? Don’t! But it’s a slippery slope once you start banning books.
By Sandy M. — WTH Amazon would even allow this b@stard to sell anything on their site, shows me that Amazon is very sick. Anyone that would support what that good for nothing a-hole has blood on their hands from the 3 girls he murdered after raping them repeatedly, as well as all the other women he raped but were fortunate to get away before he killed them too. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka should not be breathing. DON’T BUY INTO THIS SICK B@STARD’S CRAP! Murderers and rapists should not be making money from anything!
By Sarahon — To all the upset with the following book…get over it. Yea he is in jail…yes he committed a crime..and now he is serving that time. For life. Yes he is going to make money..however he will never get to touch it because he is incarcerated..those not familiar with the wat it works..if you make revenue while in prison.. You can’t have it until your out. Not to mention the amount of money he would still owe for victims restitution. That money will never reach his hand. Further more at least he is not wasting tax dollars abusing the system. He is at least doing something. The book..amazing read. Loved to story. Very interesting and intrigued me. Buy the book based on the description.. Not the author. Lets help pay those victims family’s for what’s happened.
By Mica — Too bad there isn’t a minus star! Cannot believe Amazon/ca would publish a book by a convicted killer/rapist currently serving 25 years without parole and allowing him to pander to his self-grandizement. Did anyone bother to check out the name when he came into the system or does anyone work for Amazon old enough to remember the horror of what he and his then wife did? I remember. I remember the total state of disbelief most Canadians felt over what this perverted psycho did. I will seriously look at changing my shopping source for ebooks if this book remains on your available list.
By Amazon Customer — Kudos to Amazon! I am so HAPPY ,that Amazon decided to carry this book on their site, without prejudice. It is up to readers (buyers) to decide whether a certain book is appropriate or not. That is NOT the job of Amazon. Thank you Amazon for recognizing the difference. I will continue to buy items from Amazon because of this. Thank you Amazon for carrying Hitler’s Mein Kampf as well. By the way, I haven’t bought this book. I have not decided yet. I may or may not. That decision is still mine. Oh yes, I am Canadian.
By Amazon Customer — Amazon, you are taking too long. The damage is growing by the minute.
By Amazon Customer —Ignore the people who choose to hate. To deny someone access to selling their work just because of criminal convictions is criminal. Plain and simple. Amazon, all the power to you.
By Scott M. — Had it not been for all the bleeding hearts bringing attention to this book, I would have never known it existed nor would I care. Now that you all have, I think I’ll buy it as a collector item. Not because I really care about the content of the book, but as a reminder of the notorious, heinous crimes he committed and people like him still exist in our world. Yes, had we brought back capital punishment when we had the chance, this wouldn’t be an issue. The best way to boycott is not give it attention. Now every news media outlet is letting the world know. This could very well now be Amazons new best seller. Good job everyone.

B15Hey! Scott M. The voice of reason! (I know this guy from chats around the net. He’s a bright dude.) Scott’s 100% right about the capital punishment issue, but I’m not going to turn this into a death sentence debate. And I’m not going to turn this into a free speech debate either. To me, there’s something bigger that’s the real issue. That’s HTF was a convicted serial killer in isolation inside a maximum security, federal institution allowed access to outside help to self-publish? 

And there’s no doubt that Paul Bernardo had some help. I’m no stranger to self-publishing and I can tell you that his manuscript reeks of higher help.

So what’s Corrections Canada’s position on this? 

Here’s their official statement:

B19The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has been made aware of the (Bernardo’s) e-book that has been published and understands the content may be offensive to some. Offenders are not permitted to profit from recounting of their crimes, however, we are advised that this e-book is a fictional piece that does not relate to this offender’s specific crimes. Materials contained in this book may provide additional information relevant to decision-making regarding the offender. While inmates incarcerated in federal correctional facilities have limited access to computers, they do not have access to the internet or email. They are able to communicate with members of the public in writing and are entitled to privileged correspondence with their legal counsel. 

My understanding of A MAD World Order is that the content does not refer to Bernardo’s personal crimes and that’s fine. It’s a novel and many novels are graphically violent. (You should read mine.)

But come on, Corrections Canada. Limited access to computers? No access to the internet or email? Only communicate with outsiders by writing? Except with their lawyer? 

I’m calling bullshit.

008It’s taken me four years to become a relatively competent fiction writer and that involved thousands of internet hours in learning the craft of fiction writing and researching material. Hundreds more in drafting a manuscript in Word. Hundreds of emails in networking with editors, proofreaders, formatters, cover designers, marketers, and peer writers. And the time learning the computerization necessary to upload to Amazon…

Nope. Paul Bernardo had help. Lots of help. From the outside, which he didn’t get telepathically. Remember—this guy was already locked up before Amazon was formed.

Jeff Bezos didn’t visit Bernardo in jail to self-publish this novel.  Bernardo sent it to them, ready to go, and Amazon is perfectly within their rights to keep selling it for him. I hope Amazon acts morally and takes it down, but don’t bet on them trashing a BestSeller.

The real issue is the failure of the system to control incarcerated serial killers like Paul Bernardo.

Corrections Canada. Do your fuckin’ job!