Home Invasions, pt. uno....

It all starts with the sanctity of home. And the rude violation of that sanctity. In your home you feel deeply protected, even for those who don't own guns or have layers upon layers of home security. There is always that feeling of privacy and foolproof boundaries. And it can all be undone in an instant if someone, or a group of nefarious someones, decides to break in.

Home Invasions have always fascinated and disturbed me, from an early age. I read Bugliosi's Helter Skelter when I was eleven, In Cold Blood maybe a year or two later, but it goes back even further, with stories my great grandmother told me when I was five, or six. She was a sadistic loon, a very sick woman, but that's another story for another time. My parents often left me in her care, for whatever reason, I can't recall. I would occasionally freak out with terror when she told me these bedtime stories-- but now looking back those stories helped shape who I am for better or worse. One of the stories was about a black man (yes, she was absolutely 100% cerified Southern racist) who road the trains from place to place and he would sometimes hop off in the middle of the night, rapacious, eyes glowing with the 'devil's light', and slip into a random sleepy neighborhood, looking for a house to break into. Sometimes he would just grab something to eat out of the fridge while a family was asleep, or take a nap on their couch,and leave without ever being noticed, but other times he would rape and murder every living soul within that abode. And yes, she really did tell her six year old great-grandson about a black man rape fantasy. Fucked up for sure and she was adamant they were true stories as well.

So I've been a true crime/crime fiction fan for most of my life. I've even attempted to write some myself, but could never focus myself to finish most of my projects. Anyway, hopefully I will try to be consistent with this blog... Next post, I want to get into specific home invasion crimes that have captivated my attention over the years, and talk some about the different types. There are the obvious ones like drug/gang home invasions, probably the most common type. Then there are the thrill killers, who just want to create mayhem. The purest fictional vision of this I can think of is the movie The Strangers. But in real life there are usually other motives, mostly to rob and murder is the need to cover that lesser crime up. The Clutter family massacre began as simply a robbery, but descended into the pure madness of thrill killings. It's hard to even pin the Tate/LaBianca home invasions as pure thrill kill. In my mind a lesser known example might be the Mont Vernon home invasion that occurred October, 2009. Four teenagers broke into a home and killed one of the two occupants. One survived, but they didn't realize it until they were caught a few days later.... I'll get into that case in Home Invasions, pt. 2.