0
Usenet Posted 20 years ago
Screenwriting

Making Murder Look Like Suicide or an Accident

If you believe CSI it's become almost impossible to get away with murder because of the advances in forensics, and the only way you can is to be a super-villain who's even smarter and cleverer than the cops and the Medical Examiner.
This seems to be borne out by high-profile real cases covered in the media.
But what's the reality? Do all deaths get investigated down to this level of detail or only the ones that the cops have serious suspicions about?
Is it still possible to make a murder look like a suicide and get away with it?
(I hasten to add this is on topic, not because I want to get rid of anyone!).

You cannot compromise an artist's vision.
Ed Wood
  

Top answer

[nq:1]Is it still possible to make a murder look like a suicide and get away with it? [/nq] Wasn't there a recent thread about this, something about killing someone without rousing suspicion? Maybe looking there could help.

  • [nq:1]Is it still possible to make a murder look like a suicide and get away with it?
  • [/nq] Wasn't there a recent thread about this, something about killing someone without rousing suspicion?
  • Maybe looking there could help.
  • But it'd be a difficult trick to pull off - modern forensics are pretty sophisticated.
  • The villain would have to be a diabolical genius...
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

16 Answers
0
[nq:1]Is it still possible to make a murder look like a suicide and get away with it? (I hasten to add this is on topic, not because I want to get rid of anyone!).[/nq]
Wasn't there a recent thread about this, something about killing someone without rousing suspicion? Maybe looking there could help. But it'd be a difficult trick to pull off - modern forensics are pretty sophisticated. The vill
0
Curously, I'm just in the middle of a script that features a murder disguised as a suicide. Happily, it's set in 1895, when forensic science wasn't anything like as advanced as it later became. Mind you, if you're a murderer whose fake suicide is being investigated by Sherlock Holmes, you still have to be mighty clever to be in with a hope of getting away with it.

Bert
www.bertcoules.
0
[nq:2]Is it still possible to make a murder look like ... topic, not because I want to get rid of anyone!).[/nq]
[nq:1]Wasn't there a recent thread about this, something about killing someone without rousing suspicion? Maybe looking there could help. But ... off - modern forensics are pretty sophisticated. The villain would have to be a diabolical genius... I smell a thriller.[/nq]
The cha
0
[nq:1]If you believe CSI it's become almost impossible to get away with murder because of the advances in forensics, and ... away with it? (I hasten to add this is on topic, not because I want to get rid of anyone!).[/nq]
The reason that the crimes in TV shows and murders are complicated is not because complicated, intricate crimes are more likely to succeed (any more than complicated, intrica
0
[nq:1]If you believe CSI it's become almost impossible to get away with murder because of the advances in forensics, and ... away with it? (I hasten to add this is on topic, not because I want to get rid of anyone!).[/nq]
The ways and means of disguising a murder as a suicide was discussed in a recent thread (I still have the migraine to prove it). But you do raise an interesting point, one th
0
[nq:1]If you believe CSI it's become almost impossible to get away with murder because of the advances in forensics, and ... deaths get investigated down to this level of detail or only the ones that the cops have serious suspicions about?[/nq]
I think the part of your question "Do all deaths get investigated down to this level of detail" is the real crux of the matter. Yes, if all deaths were
0
[nq:2]If you believe CSI it's become almost impossible to get ... only the ones that the cops have serious suspicions about?[/nq]
[nq:1]I think the part of your question "Do all deaths get investigated down to this level of detail" ... on file. So the P.D.'s success had a lot more to do with his imbecility than with Super Science. -ml[/nq]
I remember the case. However, had the presumed per
0
Captured killer statistics I remember reading
is around 50%. Seems like someone is getting
away with it.
The one I read recently, kid on a play field was
just 'in the way'. The killer raced off. No one in the community would testify. So find a community
that has an 'honor' code that precludes 'squeeling' and you may get away with about anything.
0
Only the ones they are suspicious about AND they have the budget for, i.e. no forensics in small or poor communities unless there's something extraordinary. D. P. Doyle has spoken about the two-pronged CSI effect criminals becoming more savvy, and jurors holding unrealistic expectations for mountains of forensic evidence.
it's relatively easy to get away with killing old people, runaways, bums
0
[nq:1]But what's the reality? Do all deaths get investigated down to this level of detail or only the ones that the cops have serious suspicions about?[/nq]
No deaths get investigated to CSI-like levels of detail because CSI-like levels of detail don't exist.
The perception that it does has become a problem for prosecutors, and juries are less and less willing to convict on the basis of so

Related Questions