Thomas B. Sawyer: Writing for Murder She Wrote

Thomas B. Sawyer

Novelist, screenwriter, playwright Thomas B. Sawyer was Head Writer/Showrunner of the hit CBS series, Murder, She Wrote, for which he wrote 24 episodes. Tom has written 9 network TV pilots, 100 episodes, and has been Head Writer/Showrunner or Story Editor on 15 network TV series. He wrote, directed and produced the cult film comedy, Alice Goodbody, is co-librettist/lyricist of Jack, an opera about John F. Kennedy, backed by the Shuberts, that has been performed to acclaim in the US and Europe. He is publisher of Storybase 2.0 writer’s software.

The best-selling mystery/thriller, The Sixteenth Man, is his first novel. Both his book, Fiction Writing Demystified, and Storybase are Writer’s Digest Book Club Selections. His new thriller, No Place to Run, will be published in April, 2009. He’s taught writing at UCLA, at other colleges and universities, at numerous major writers conferences, and online at Writers University. Mr. Sawyer has been nominated for an Edgar and an Emmy.

WRITING FOR MURDER, SHE WROTE
Or
Creating 264+ Murders Using Three Motives – and No Blood, Violence, Crazy People or Forensics
By Tom Sawyer, Head Writer/Showrunner

Oddly, though not entirely unusual, the way I became a writer for MURDER, SHE WROTE before it began to air was the result of my agent sending the show’s co-creator, Peter Fischer, a non-mystery pilot script I’d written for CBS. Peter ‘saw’ something in it – presumably, that I could write scenes that worked – and he gave me a ‘blind assignment’ to write an episode. Meaning, I had to first come up with a story that was acceptable. He invited me to come in and view the very impressive half-hour film they’d produced in lieu of a full-on pilot, and to me, anyway, Angela Lansbury’s specialness, her presence, was awesome.

So Peter and I met. Pleasant, witty, like myself a former East Coaster, I have to say – in terms of instant impressions – that what struck me most tellingly about him was his spotlessly clean desktop (in contrast to my own, which has always been a colossal mess of scraps and disorganized piles that periodically reaches critical mass, requiring a half-day or more for me to clean up). Peter’s had not a single sheet of paper, not a pile anywhere – and it remained that way for the seven years I worked with him. Which is not, incidentally, a knock. A direct corollary of this clearly anal trait, I would learn, was that unlike any other showrunner with whom I’d been associated, Peter always had several scripts in the drawer, finished and ready to shoot. In series TV, this is rare to the point of nonexistence. On most shows they’re constantly hanging on by their fingertips, often writing the scripts as they’re being shot.

All that aside, MSW looked to me like a hit, and I said so. I also offered that given my limited writing credits in the genre (a QUINCY and a MIKE HAMMER), he’d probably have to hold my hand. He assured me that that wouldn’t be a problem and, in response to my question about the approach, the show’s style, Peter explained – as I feared – that he envisioned it in the mold of traditional Agatha Christie puzzle mysteries – what are known in the mystery genre as ‘Cozies’. You know – the character who behaves badly toward all the other players, and is detested by all, who is then – surprise, surprise – murdered – and all of them have motives which at the end are tediously, routinely – for me, anyway – explained by the sleuth, who has gathered them all in the drawing-room. Which prompted – with no hesitation – a remark from me, the sheer chutzpah of which I really didn’t wonder at until I recalled the incident several years later. And having wondered, I realized that it was pretty much the way I’ve operated for most if not all of my life: “Peter, I have to tell you, when I was a kid I read a couple of Christies and one or two locked-room mysteries, and they bored the shit out of me. I’m not going to write that for you.”

His response betrayed no sign that I’d offended. “Okay. What will you write?”

“I’ll write The Maltese Falcon.”

Peter replied without missing a beat: “That’ll be fine.”

And that’s what I did for the next twelve years – seven of them with Peter’s on-the-job blessing.

Though I never discussed that initial encounter with him, I think his not taking offense was because the two of us were speaking a kind of writer’s genre-shorthand, the subtext of which Peter, with his extensive background in whodunnits, certainly understood better than I. He knew exactly what I was saying-without-saying-it because for all of us who are ‘into’ that form, Hammett’s Falcon was/is the paradigm – the seminal modern detective novel – for several reasons – most significantly in that unlike the more traditional mysteries, and Falcon is indeed a mystery – who killed Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, as well as Capt. Jacoby of the SS La Paloma, and gunsel Floyd Thursby? – there were no clues, and almost no emphasis on suspects. Instead, Hammett took the reader on a journey, involving a bunch of marvelously colorful characters in pursuit of a McGuffin, and at the end, and happily without the tedious old-hat convention of the drawing-room climax, we did indeed get our closure about who did what to whom. But – and this further differentiated it from all the others – we almost didn’t care who the murderer was, so interesting were the journey, the people and their stories.
That was the matrix I used for all of the twenty-four MSW episodes I wrote, and for the nearly one hundred scripts I developed with other writers. Basically, my approach was that each was a play, about something, in which a murder had to take place. And for me, the play was the thing. I almost didn’t care about the details of the murder, because our main challenge was to make the method, circumstances and surrounding characters seem different from the last six or seven episodes. Oh, we provided clues and suspects, so that the viewers had a reasonably fair chance of solving the mystery before Jessica Fletcher nailed the bad guy. But I invariably placed the emphasis on that underlying drama, the interplay of characters with conflicting agendas, that (hopefully) provided an entertaining setting for the inevitable murder. Also consistent with the show’s ‘bloodless’ approach to violence, which was never shown, we steered way clear of another dark side – sociopaths and psychopaths, as in serial killers and the like. Happily for me because, despite their popularity in fiction, I find crazy people and other such stuff tedious in the extreme since they’re unfixable, their motives irrational – not, from my perspective, interesting enough to try getting inside their twisted heads. Not people I can, nor wish to try relating to. All that the police – or your detective – can do is catch them which, even with the fashionable cachet of forensics, I find basically uninteresting.

Thus, on Murder, She Wrote, we employed three motives for the killings: money, sex or power (sometimes together). A fourth, really a non-motive, was the occasional ‘victim-by-mistake.’ Essentially, to avoid predictability we tried to rotate these, as we did with the murder method (gunshot, knife, poison, etc.).

Like so much of my life-view, I assumed all the writers on the show regarded its structure the same way. I was therefore surprised when, some years later, I mentioned my take on it to one of them, and he revealed that his method was almost diametrically different, citing among his own rules that, somewhere in Act Two, his murderer had to make what would prove to be a fatal mistake.
Which proves, I suppose, that there is more than one way to do it right.

Though about that, I’m still not convinced.

Oh, and one other thing. Around the set, we referred to Cabot Cove, Maine as The Murder Capital of America (I have a coffee mug inscribed: “If you lived here, you’d be dead by now”). And Jessica Fletcher was known as The Angel of Death.

I mean – this nice lady just happens to be in the vicinity of a murder every week for twelve years…?

 

www.ThomasBSawyer.com

WRITING FOR MURDER, SHE WROTE
Or
Creating 264+ Murders Using Three Motives – and No Blood, Violence, Crazy People or Forensics
By Tom Sawyer, Head Writer/Showrunner
Copyright © 2009 by Thomas B. Sawyer
Oddly, though not entirely unusual, the way I became a writer for MURDER, SHE WROTE before it began to air was the result of my agent sending the show’s co-creator, Peter Fischer, a non-mystery pilot script I’d written for CBS. Peter ‘saw’ something in it – presumably, that I could write scenes that worked – and he gave me a ‘blind assignment’ to write an episode. Meaning, I had to first come up with a story that was acceptable. He invited me to come in and view the very impressive half-hour film they’d produced in lieu of a full-on pilot, and to me, anyway, Angela Lansbury’s specialness, her presence, was awesome.
So Peter and I met. Pleasant, witty, like myself a former East Coaster, I have to say – in terms of instant impressions – that what struck me most tellingly about him was his spotlessly clean desktop (in contrast to my own, which has always been a colossal mess of scraps and disorganized piles that periodically reaches critical mass, requiring a half-day or more for me to clean up). Peter’s had not a single sheet of paper, not a pile anywhere – and it remained that way for the seven years I worked with him. Which is not, incidentally, a knock. A direct corollary of this clearly anal trait, I would learn, was that unlike any other showrunner with whom I’d been associated, Peter always had several scripts in the drawer, finished and ready to shoot. In series TV, this is rare to the point of nonexistence. On most shows they’re constantly hanging on by their fingertips, often writing the scripts as they’re being shot.
All that aside, MSW looked to me like a hit, and I said so. I also offered that given my limited writing credits in the genre (a QUINCY and a MIKE HAMMER), he’d probably have to hold my hand. He assured me that that wouldn’t be a problem and, in response to my question about the approach, the show’s style, Peter explained – as I feared – that he envisioned it in the mold of traditional Agatha Christie puzzle mysteries – what are known in the mystery field as ‘Cozies’. You know – the character who behaves badly toward all the other players, and is detested by all, who is then – surprise, surprise – murdered – and all of them have motives which at the end are tediously, routinely – for me, anyway – explained by the sleuth, who has gathered them all in the drawing-room. It prompted – with no hesitation – a remark from me, the sheer chutzpah of which I really didn’t wonder at until I recalled the incident several years later. And having wondered, I realized that it was pretty much the way I’ve operated for most if not all of my life: “Peter, I have to tell you, when I was a kid I read a couple of Christies and one or two locked-room mysteries, and they bored the shit out of me. I’m not going to write that for you.”
His response betrayed no sign of being put off. “Okay. What will you write?”
“I’ll write The Maltese Falcon.”
Peter replied without missing a beat: “That’ll be fine.”
And that’s what I did for the next twelve years. Though I never discussed that initial encounter with him, I think his not taking offense was because the two of us were speaking a kind of writer’s-shorthand, the subtext of which Peter, with his extensive background in whodunnits, certainly understood better than I. He knew exactly what I was saying-without-saying-it because for all of us who are ‘into’ that form, Hammett’s Falcon was/is the paradigm – still the seminal modern detective novel – for several reasons – most significantly in that unlike the more traditional mysteries, and Falcon is indeed a mystery – who killed Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, as well as Capt. Jacoby of the SS La Paloma, and gunsel Floyd Thursby? – there were no clues, and almost no emphasis on suspects. Instead, Hammett took the reader on a journey, involving a bunch of marvelously colorful characters in pursuit of a McGuffin, and at the end, and happily without the tedious old-hat convention of the drawing-room climax, we did indeed get our closure about who did what to whom. But – and this further differentiated it from all the others – we almost didn’t care who the murderer was, so interesting were the journey, the people and their stories.
That was the matrix I used for all of the twenty-four MSW episodes I wrote, and for the nearly one hundred scripts I developed with other writers. Basically, my approach was that each was a play, about something, in which a murder had to take place. And for me, the play was the thing. I almost didn’t care about the details of the murder, because our main challenge was to make the method, circumstances and surrounding characters seem different from the last six or seven episodes. Oh, we provided clues and suspects, so that the viewers had a reasonably fair chance of solving the mystery before Jessica Fletcher nailed the bad guy. But I invariably placed the emphasis on that underlying drama, the interplay of characters with conflicting agendas, that (hopefully) provided an entertaining setting for the inevitable murder. Also consistent with the show’s ‘bloodless’ approach to violence, which was never shown, we steered way clear of another dark side – sociopaths and psychopaths, as in serial killers and the like. Happily for me because, despite their popularity in fiction, I find crazy people and other such stuff tedious in the extreme since they’re unfixable, their motives irrational – not, from my perspective, interesting enough to try getting inside their twisted heads. Not people I can, nor wish to try relating to. All that the police – or your detective – can do is catch them which, even with the fashionable cachet of forensics, I find basically uninteresting.
Thus, on Murder, She Wrote, we employed three motives for the killings: money, sex or power (sometimes together). A fourth, really a non-motive, was the occasional ‘victim-by-mistake.’ Essentially, to avoid predictability we tried to rotate these, as we did with the murder method (gunshot, knife, poison, etc.).
Like so much of my life-view, I assumed all the writers on the show regarded its structure the same way. I was therefore surprised when, some years later, I mentioned my take on it to one of them, and he revealed that his method was almost diametrically different, citing among his own rules that, somewhere in Act Two, his murderer had to make what would prove to be a fatal mistake.
Which proves, I suppose, that there is more than one way to do it right.
Though about that, I’m still not convinced.
Oh, and one other thing. Around the set, we referred to Cabot Cove, Maine as The Murder Capital of America (I have a coffee mug inscribed: “If you lived here, you’d be dead by now”). And Jessica Fletcher was known as The Angel of Death.
I mean – this nice lady just happens to be in the vicinity of a murder every week for twelve years…?
Books by Thomas B. Sawyer
*     *     *

My weekly review of Castle will be featured tomorrow. Please stop by to see how I graded their police procedure.< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >

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Officer Robert Powell: I Can Screw You Over

Drugs: What They're Called On The Street

 

NFL player Ryan Moats stopped for a red light, but proceeded through after he’d determined it was safe to do so. What was his hurry? His beloved mother-in-law, Jo, was in the hospital, just seconds away from death.

Moats and his wife had received the devastating news and were on their way to the hospital when Dallas police officer Robert Powell observed Moats’s stop-and-go at the traffic light. Powell then activated his emergency equipment (that’s cop speak for turned on his lights and siren) and followed Moats into the hospital parking lot. That’s when things really got ugly.

Let’s examine the officer’s actions. Was he right or wrong for holding Moats for 13 long, agonizing minutes while his mother-in-law lay dying? You be the judge.

Was Officer Powell in the right for:

1) Ordering Moats and wife to remain at their car?

2) Moat’s wife refused to stay at the car. Powell draws his weapon.

3) Threatening to take Moats to jail if he doesn’t produce his insurance documents.

4) Moats pleads his case, but Powell tells him to shut his mouth.

5) A second officer confirms Moats’s story about his mother-in-law, stressing the urgency. Officer Powell remains relentless, refusing to allow Moats the opportunity to be at his mother-in-law’s side.

6) Officer Powell threatens to issue a separate ticket to Moats for parking illegally in the hospital parking lot. (In most areas, the police may not issue a traffic summons for handicap parking violations on private property).

7) A hospital nurse comes out to say that Moats’s mother-in-law is dying that very second, and that’s Moats is needed inside. Officer Powell responds by saying, “All right. I’m almost done.” Then he finishes writing the summons, and proceeds to lecture Moats about running the red light.

8) Officer Powell tells Moats he can “screw him over” if he doesn’t cooperate.

Moats’s mother-in-law passed away before he reached her room.

Chief David Kunkle has apologized for Officer Powell’s actions. Officer Powell is currently on paid suspension, and has offered a written apology to the Moats family.

Here are the unedited in-car videos of the Moats traffic stop.

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

* Tomorrow, our guest blogger is Thomas B. Sawyer, head writer of the Murder She Wrote television series.

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Weekend Road Trip: Jason Odell Is For The Birds

Jason ODell

 

I shot these photos in three different locations:

1) St. Augustine Alligator Farm, St. Augustine FL
2) Venice Rookery, Venice, FL
3) Ft. Desoto State Beach, St. Petersburg, FL

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm is a fantastic private zoo that has a large boardwalk over a pond stocked with hundreds of alligators; some over 10 feet long. The birds nest there because of the protection of the alligators from small animals that might otherwise raid their nests.

The Venice Rookery is a small island open year-round in Venice, Florida. A variety of species nest there, including great blue herons and anhingas.

Fort Desoto State Beach is not only a great place to get a tan, but there are numerous shorebirds there, including migrant terns, skimmers, and avocets. My images of the laughing gulls were shot there.

Please enjoy,

Jason

Egret

Egret

Egret

Egret

Egret

gallinule

wood stork

white ibis

great blue heron

laughing gull

*Jason Odell is the son of author Terry Odell. You can see more of Jason’s work here.


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Friday’s Heroes: Remembering The Fallen

Friday's Heroes - Remembering the fallen officers

Corrections Officer Mark Parker, 44

Orange County Florida Sheriffs Office

Officer Mark Parker died on March 19, 2009, from gunshot wounds sustained on January 10, 1984. On that day, a suspect entered a courthouse with the intention of shooting the police officer who’d issued him a traffic citation. The shooter eventually killed two police officers, fired at the judge, and exchanged gunfire with another deputy.  Officer Parker was unarmed, but used his body to shield innocent civilians. He was 19 when he received the bullet wounds that left him paralyzed and under round the clock care for the remainder of his life.

The suspect was convicted of murdering the officers. He was executed for his crimes in 2000. Officer Parker attended the execution.

Sergeant Mark Dunakin, 40

Officer John Hege, 41

Sergeant Daniel Sakai, 35

Sergeant Ervin Romans, 43

Oakland California Police Department

Sergeant Mark Dunakin, Officer John Hege, Sergeant Daniel Sakai, and Sergeant Ervin Romans were all shot to death by a suspect, a parolee, who had an extremely violent history. The suspect was also wanted for a parole violation at the time of the shootings. SWAT members eventually terminated the threat by killing the suspect.

*Thanks to ODMP


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Disaster Equipment

Special circumstances call for special tools. Here’s a few used by police and rescue personnel.

 

Street Thunder megaphone capable of delivering clear voice at distances of up to 900 feet. This particular megaphone is also equipped with a police siren. $80

 

Chemical resistant HazMat boots $50

 

Tactical gas mask $190

 

Homeland Security Field Guide $22

 

Incident command board with built-in radio and cell phone pouches, dry-erase board, and other handy hidey-holes. Designed to hang from vehicle window. $160

 

Disaster rescue kit especially suited for areas prone to floods, earthquakes, or other natural or man made disasters $80

*     *    *

Thanks to Galls for today’s images

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Richard Castle: Hedge Fund Homeboys

 

This week’s episode of Castle, Hedge Fund Homeboys, was a mix of good and bad police procedure. But the show still delivered a fair bit of entertainment, if you could bear watching a medical examiner who’s character is so awful she’d be booted off the set of the Mickey Mouse Club.

Spoiler Alert!

Lets get right to it. A teen’s body was found in a rowboat, in the Lake in Central Park. The kid had been shot once in the chest.

1) The medical examiner is seen standing in knee deep water, reaching into the boat feeling the victim’s neck – several times. What the hell was she doing? And why was she standing in the water to do it?

Simon says, “No way!” Not even Paula Abdul would be this goofy.

2) The entire time the M.E. was palpating the dead teen like a pastry chef kneading dough, some guy was frantically mopping the boat seat with a fingerprint brush. He looked like he was painting a barn. Who was he? The medical examiner’s investigators don’t dust for prints. And if they did, they’d know how. I hate to say it, but I think I’d rather see Paula Abdul playing the part of the M.E. She makes more sense…Straight Up.

3) Detective Beckett conducted a pretty decent interview with the drug dealer.

Good scene.

4) One of the teens who was present when the boy was shot described what happened when the bullet hit the kid’s body. She said, “His body crumbled to the ground.” Excellent description, because that’s what happens. People DO NOT fly backwards when hit by bullets. If there were that much force behind the round the shooter would experience the same reaction. He’d also fly backwards.

Good information!

5) Several potential murder suspects were questioned, at length, without being advised of Miranda.

This is a sure-fire way to lose a case. They should have been advised of their rights. I know the writers knew better, because Beckett advised one kid of his rights later in the show.

6) A suspect’s attorney was allowed inside his client’s jail cell. Also allowed inside the cell were Detective Beckett and Castle.

No way. The prisoner would be brought out to an interview room. Attorneys have been known to bring annoying little things to their clients, such as guns and drugs. And after seeing this totally doofus attorney, I’m sure he’d deliver both. Oh, and Beckett still had her gun on her side. Police officers are not permitted to bring their weapons inside a jail or prison.

7) Beckett is questioning a suspect in her home, in front of her parents, where she grabs the girl’s purse and dives in looking for evidence. Her comment, “I could get a warrant.” Well, I have news for her. Without permission to search the purse she needed that warrant to perform the search.

I wasn’t feeling this one, Dawg. Not at all.

8) Beckett tells someone she needs a photo to accompany an APB (All Points Bulletin) I believe that acronym has been replaced everywhere by BOLO (Be On The Lookout). I don’t know of any agency that still uses it.

9) Beckett is seen filling out paperwork. Good. That’s a huge portion of the job. BUT, she tells Castle she’s completing the forms to dismiss a suspect’s murder charges. Well, Detective B., that’s up to the prosecuting attorney to handle. Cops just cuff ’em and stuff ’em. They don’t let have the power to let them go.

10) Beckett is seen raking a murder suspect over the coals, and she did it with the suspect’s attorney sitting next to him. No way an attorney would allow anything even remotely close to this. This one made about as much sense as…

All in all, I still liked the show. Although, I’m still waiting for the next poker game.

*     *     *

*I’m guest blogging over at Terry Odell’s site today. Please stop by to see why I say, It’s Not All Donuts and Paperwork.

http://terryodell.blogspot.com/


Save

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Rebekah Aidukaitis: An Atypical Police Tour

Rebekah Aidukaitis

As a corporate wife, Rebekah Aidukaitis has seen much of the country. Using this to her advantage, she now writes romantic suspense, romantic comedy and family humor, deftly incorporating setting and socio-economic backdrops to compliment each plot. Her recently completed manuscript, Hickory Grove, explores the connection between a Midwest artist torn between saving her marriage or an abducted child, and the perverted abductor bent on destroying her life. Available now to agents everywhere. When not writing, Rebekah is a volunteer with several community organizations. She currently lives in Indiana with her husband and four children.

Atypical Police Tour

A Police Department tour is a must for every Cub Scout. As a den leader, I set up a tour with the community relations officer in our town and arrived February 2, with eight seven-year-olds and their parents, ready to see all the exciting, secret stuff beyond the lobby. We weren’t disappointed. This tour was VERY informative.

Richmond Indiana Police Department

The officer appeared in full dress uniform, definitely impressing the boys, and happily showed us every room, from the weight room to the interrogation room (letting the parents spy on the kids through the one-way glass, and vice versa). That was fun. But there were portions of the tour that seemed a bit odd.

As we entered the Juvenile Division, one of the boys made a funny comment about the officer’s name. The officer jokingly took the boy in a head hold, which caught some parents off guard. But we were okay. This was a police station after all, so we were safe, right? He let the boy go. Then the officer started telling the boys about the kinds of crimes that land juveniles in jail, or sometimes even in the mental institution on the edge of town. At that point a boy raised his hand and announced to the group that his brother lives at the mental institution. The room went silent. Awkward.

On we went to the lab, which led to the evidence storage room. Pausing for a few moments outside the door, the officer told us the importance of evidence and why we couldn’t go in, giving us a graphic description of items that have been held there and the crimes committed with these weapons. Every parent cringed, wanting to cover their boy’s ears, pushing toward the hallway to continue the tour at the drunk tank and the two locked cells there. That was a bad move. Standing in the hallway, I think the officer took relish in telling us why they don’t use those cells anymore. Apparently a teenager was brought in on a Friday and locked in one of the holding cells. Inexplicably, they were forgotten about all weekend with no food, water, or toilet facilities. Since then everyone is transported directly to the jail across the street. Wonderful. That gave us such confidence in our civil servants.

But the tour didn’t stop there. Anxious to show us the city’s cutting edge equipment, we were brought to another room with a fifty thousand dollar drying machine. Here again, we were told the gruesome details of bloody shirts, semen-coated clothing, and the crimes associated with these messy pieces of evidence. Then he pointed out the refrigerator in the corner to talk about the rape kits kept inside. Maybe not so appropriate for young boys.

Last stop was the Detective Division, where we were warned not to discuss anything in that room once the tour ended. I didn’t see anything as bad as what I heard. In order to show the determination of some detectives, the officer related a story about a detective’s daughter who was murdered (more grisly details), and how that detective vowed not to retire until the case was closed. Twelve years later, the detective solved the crime, retiring the very next day. Great, a happy ending. I’m sure the parents appreciated that as they swept their boys out the door, mourning the loss of innocence.

Over the past few weeks, some of the parents and I have shared a good laugh over these events, but the general consensus remains the same: next year we’re going to the fire department instead.

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Weekend Road Trip: Paul Beecroft at the Archives of Falconry

International Festival of Falconry at the Englefield Estate, England

 

Paul Beecroft is employed by the Thames Valley England Police as a Coroner’s Officer.

Just over two weeks ago I left the UK and travelled to Boise, Idaho and spent 4 days at the Archives of Falconry. For those of you that are not aware (probably most) I am a Falconer and have been for many years. I have an avid interest in Falconry history and I am the UK Research Associate for the Archives. In simple terms the Archives is a Museum.

It was founded in 1986 by the Peregrine Fund and is located at The Fund’s World Centre for Birds of Prey. The Archives owes it existence to Lt. Col. S. Kent Carnie, an American Falconer who started it from a very small office at the Peregrine Fund and over the years it has expanded to become what it is today. The goal of the Archives is to collect evidence and the history of falconry worldwide and document the falconer’s role in raptor conservation.


Bronze Peregrine

The Archives’ collections include valuable paintings, books, and artifacts related to falconry from around the world. Historical materials date from 1495 and include collections from every nation where falconry is practiced. International scholars and researchers regularly make use of the Archives, which is the only one of its kind in the world.


Display

Display of falconry hoods

American Kestrel

Arab Falconry Wing

Harpy Eagle

Snake River Canyon

The Archives is open to the public so if you are ever in the area do pay it a visit. You can be assured of a warm welcome.

Paul Beecroft

“I see dead people.”

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Friday’s Heroes: Remembering The Fallen

Friday's Heroes - Remembering the fallen officers

 

Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels, 33

Turner County South Dakota Sheriffs Office

 

Deputy Chad Mechels was shot and killed on March 15, 2009, while checking on the well-being of a citizen. When the deputy approached the residence, he was fatally wounded by a 19 year-old man. Deputy Mechels leaves behind a wife and two young children.

Parole Officer Jeffrey Woolson, 41

New York Division of Parole

 

Parole  Officer Woolson was killed in an on-duty automobile accident on March 19, 2009.

*Thanks to ODMP

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Police Lights: Can You See Me Now?

flashing blue lights

 

Single beacon lights were first put into use on police vehicles in the early 1940s. The first strobe light was devised in 1931 to study moving objects. Strobes were first used on police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances in the early 1960s.

The light bar on my first police car consisted of two rotating white spot lights mounted inside a long, red, Plexiglass container. A small motor sat in the center of the unit. A chain similar to a bicycle chain hooked to a gear on the motor and to gears mounted on the bottoms of each light. The faster my car went, the faster my lights turned. Sometimes, the lights stuck in place and I’d have to roll down my window (during a pursuit or other emergency situation) to smack the fixture with my fist to start it turning again.

The devices have come a long way since.

 

This teardrop light comes with a leather hood to disguise the light when not in use. A half-hood is also available for the rear portion of the light. The half-hood is employed to prevent blinding the driver with bright light when the device is used inside the car. A strong temporary-mounting magnet is fixed to the bottom of the halogen light. The fixture is powered by a cigarette lighter. $40

 

Mini-strobe lights offer better visibility at greater distances. $30

 

This is the controller and switch that’s used to make headlights flash alternately (Wig-Wag lights).  $20

 

Lightbar capable of using only front, rear, or both sets of lights. Highly visible. Also equipped with front white takedown, and side alley lights. $1,000.00 each.

 

Three hole outlet for powering all those extra lights, cellphone, and flashlight chargers. $17

 

Streamlight flashlight w/charger $120.00

 

Streamlight Lantern/charger $140

*Thanks to Galls for providing today’s photos. Galls, a new friend of The Graveyard Shift, is one of the largest police supply companies in the world.  I’ve used and worn many of their products over the years.


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