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Forum URL: http://www.webbsleuths.com/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: more and more JBR
Topic ID: 2141
Message ID: 24
#24, RE: And Yet Another Pubic Hair Case
Posted by Rainsong on Feb-17-04 at 07:32 PM
In response to message #20
Evidently you still don't understand.

Duct tape is used quite frequently in homicides. So are ligatures. Unless there is something special, some way they are used which is not necessary for the commission of the crime, or they are made from special materials (rope braided from goat hair, tape printed with a caduceus) they are not 'signature.'
One major criteria you are overlooking is the uniqueness of 'signature.' No two criminals are going to have the same signature.

Pattern, used in the context John uses it does not equate to signature.
MO can be pattern. Choice of victim can be pattern. Area where crimes are committed can be pattern. But when a cop takes a look at two disparate crime scenes and recognizes the victims have been killed in different manners but both have been found with the same "irregularity (such as I listed previously)," then you can say they are signature crimes.

Look at Jack the Ripper. His signature was not that he killed prostitutes, but that he ripped them to shreds.

>So the pubic hair is, in my opinion, a "signature", and that
>is strictly my own opinion and not Rainsong's nor Don
>Bradley's. I don't think anyone can say it is or is not a
>signature unless they know for certain how it got there.
>But on the other hand they can say whatever they want
>whether it makes sense or not.

Sorry, but I can say with a degree of certainty that pubic hair is not a signature since they are found far too often at scenes of sexual assaults. If, however, a clump of pubic hairs are found at several crime scenes and all the clumps are placed in the victims hands or over their navels (for example), then you would have 'signature.'

Mikie, the two things to remember about signature are these; unique to the series of crimes (thus to the criminal), and not necessary for the commission of the crime.

Rainsong