One of my favorites was "The Heiress at Harvard", about wealthy Frances Glessner Lee, who started forensic science at Harvard. I've heard about her "nutshells" before: she created extremely intricate dioramas of crime scenes, little miniature dollhouses basically, and used them to teach crime scene investigators how to properly process a crime scene. Even though Lee died in 1962, her nutshells are still in use at the Maryland Medical Examiner's office.
The last story in the book, "The BTK Killer's Daughter", was absolutely depressing. I've heard of "CrimeCon", where true crime aficionados go to network with other like minded folks and meet some victims and their families. When I first heard about CrimeCon, I thought "oh, that sounds like fun, I should try to go one year!".
No. Nope. Don't want to go now. It sounds utterly heartbreaking. Some of the victims of less publicized crimes go in an attempt to drum up interest in their loved ones' cases. The thought makes me absolutely sick for those poor families and friends. I just can't even imagine going around, begging people to care.
