User:Matthewedwards/CSI

The following episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigationhave all been inspired by real life events:

• "Bite Me" (season 6, episode 3) -- based on the murder of Kathleen Peterson and subsequent murder trial of her husband Michael Peterson (Ramsland, 2008. pp 1-12)
• "Felonious Monk" (season 2, episode 17) -- based on the 1991 massacre of 9 people, including 6 monks and a nun, at the Wat Promkunaram Bhuddist temple, Arizona. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 13-26)
• "Shooting Stars" (season 6, episode 4) -- based on the 1997 events where 39 members of Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide together. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 27-38)
• "Double-Cross" (season 7, episode 5) -- Inspired by the investigation of Gerald Robinson, for the muder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in a hospital chapel, 1980. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 39-50)
• "Blood Drops" (season 1, episode 7) -- Episode initially hints at the slaughters linked to Charles Manson in 1969 and Jeffrey MacDonald in 1970, but majority is based on the murders of the 2000 murders of the Flores family in Pico Riviera, CA. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 51-63)
• "Anatomy of a Lye" (season 3, episode 21) -- Storyline is taken from the murder of Gregory Glen Biggs by Chante Jawan Mallard, who, after hitting him with her car and got him lodged through the windshield, drove home, parked the car in her garage and left him to die. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 65-76)
• "Post Mortem" (season 7, episode 7) -- The Miniature Killer storyline that played out throughout season 7 was partly is inspired by the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of intricate crime-scene dioramas created by Frances Glessner Lee that are actually used to help train the Baltimore Homicide Investigation unit. These dollhouses are explored in detail in the documentary Of Dolls and Murder. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 77-86)
• "Justice Is Served" (season 1, episode 21) -- In 1978, Richard Trenton Chase, murdered six people and consumed their blood and insides, sometimes liquidising them in a blender. He also ate rabbits. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 87-96)
• "Coming of Rage" (season 4, episode 10) -- Based on the Jason Sweeney murder in Philadelphia, 2003 . Jason, 16, was lured by the promise of sex from his girlfriend, Justina Morley, 15. He was ambushed and beaten to death with a hatchet, a hammer, and a large rock by Domenic Coia, Nicholas Coia, and Edward Batzig Jr. Justina Morley plead guilty and testified against the other three. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 97-108)
• "Overload" (season 2, episode 3) -- On 18 April, 2000, Candace Newmaker, 10, was suffocated during attachment therapy "rebirthing" session (Ramsland, 2008. pp 109-118)
• "I Like To Watch" (season 6, episode 17) -- Peter Braunstein, who set two fires in an apartment building on the night of Halloween, 2005, and then impersonated a NYC Firefighter to gain access to "check for smoke damage". For the next 13 hours he sexually assaulted the female resident. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 119-129)
• "Face Lift" (season 1, episode 17) -- Mary Hardy Reeser, who in 1951, died when she apparently sponteously combusted. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 131-139)
• "Crash and Burn" (season 3, episode 17) -- Priscilla Joyce Ford, sentenced to death for killing six people and injuring 23 more, driving down a Reno sidewalk on Thanksgiving Day in 1980. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 141-146)
• "Meet Market" (season 7, episode 14) -- The bones of British broadcaster Alistair Cooke and others had been surgically removed before cremation by employees of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, New Jersey, a tissue-recovery firm. The thieves sold the bones for use as medical-grade bone grafts. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 147-156)
• "I-15 Murders" (season 1, episode 11) -- Keith Hunter Jesperson killed eight women over five years, and left messages in restroom along his truck routes detailing the murders. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 157-166)
• "Unfriendly Skies" (season 1, episode 9) -- In 2000, four months before the episode aired, Jonathan Burton stormed the cockpit door of Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, Utah. The 19-year-old was subdued by eight other passengers with the help of others and with such force that he died of asphyxiation (Ramsland, 2008. pp 167-173)
• "Who Are You?" (season 1, episode 6) -- In 1974, Adrienne Piriano was killed by Hercules Butler, who buried her in his backyard and covered her body with concrete. Her body was found in December 1987m when construction workers dug it up while renovating the house. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 175-182)
• "Burked" (season 2, episode 1) -- he events in this episode closely parallel the real life murder of Ted Binion and the prosecution's case thereof; in both cases the victim was the son of a wealthly casino mogul (Lester "Benny" Binion and Sam Braun in the real and fictional cases respectively), allegedly ingested an incapacitating but non-lethal cocktail of Xanax and black tar heroin, before being "burked" - smothered by a pair of assailants, one of whom knelt on the victim's chest. Both victims also had large quantities of silver buried in an underground vault in the Nevada desert: Binion's in Pahrump, Nevada and Braun's in Blue Diamond, Nevada. The show's producers, Anthony E. Zuiker and Carol Mendelsohn acknowledged this similarity and claimed that the episode was an homage to the case in the DVD commentary for the episode. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 183-190)
• "Empty Eyes" (season 7, episode 18) -- Murders of eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital in 1966 by Richard Speck (Ramsland, 2008. pp 191-200)
• "Chaos Theory" (season 2, episode 2) -- Elements from the investigation into Chandra Levy's disappearance (Ramsland, 2008. pp 201-209)
• "Table Stakes" (season 1, episode 15) -- Sante Kimes and her son Kenny murdered Irene Silverman, a NY socialite, and plotted to assume her identity and assume ownership of her $7m mansion. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 211-219)
• "Sounds of Silence" (season 1, episode 20) -- In 2000 and 2001, two students of Gallaudet University, a D.C. university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, were killed. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 221-232)
• "$35K O.B.O." (season 1, episode 18) -- 1995 Mothers Day murders of Doris Carasi and Sonia Salinas, by Donna Lee and Paul Carasi, son of Doris and Salinas' baby daddy, at Universal CityWalk, LA. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 233-241)
• "Fallen Idols" *season 7, episode 17) -- Not clearly associated with any specific incident, episode is based on growing number of female teachers becoming sexually involved with their students. Cf Pamela Rogers Turner; Amy Gail Lilley, 36, got involved with a 15-year old female student; Elizabeth Miklosovic, who pled no contest to assault charges of a 14-y-o girl, whom she claimed to have married in a pagan ceremony; Erin McLean, had an affair with Sean Powell, a senior, and whose husband shot Powell with a rifle. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 243-249)
• "Gentle, Gentle" (season 1, episode 19) -- similarities to the JonBenét Patricia Ramsey murder case, in that the investigation initially appeared to be an inside job, and the existence of a suspicious ransom note. (Ramsland, 2008. pp 251-263)

Ramsland, Katherine (2008). True Stories of CSI: The Real Crimes Behind the Best Episodes of the Popular TV Show. New York: Berkley Boulevard. ISBN 0-425-22234-9.