In anticipation of Spring — and a whole new chapter of my life — I’ve been cleaning out my files. Now that Fool Her Once is published and I’ve gotten my delivery of hardcover copies as well as my e-book and audiobook editions, I’ve decided some stuff needs to go.
Look, not all authors are created equal, and I’m no Dostoevsky. The idea that anyone would want to preserve my notes/outlines the way they preserved the manuscript draft of The Brothers Karazamov (photo below) from 1880 is delusional.
So, I really don’t need all the hundreds of printed pages of revisions and edits that I’ve accumulated since 2015 when I decided to go ahead and write a third thriller.
Audio Lineup Scene
That said, sifting through the mounds of paper buried in boxes and files in closets and desk drawers brought back some memories about the writing of key scenes –and the real-life events that inspired them.
For example, there’s a scene in Fool Her Once that features my female protagonist’s husband, Zack, sweating through an audio lineup in a police precinct. What’s an audio lineup, you might ask, and how on earth did I get the idea to have one of those in my new thriller?
Well, an audio lineup is like a regular lineup where a victim views six or seven individuals behind a one-way mirror to pick out the perp who attacked or assaulted her/him. We’ve all seen plenty of those on TV.
In audio lineups, however, the victim only hears voices. A number of voices repeat the same phrase — maybe a phrase that was uttered by the assailant or rapist or mugger — and the victim has to pick the one that sounds like the perp.
Suspenseful Scene
In Fool Her Once, the victim is my female protagonist’s, Jenna Sinclair’s former boss and lover, Ryan who is badly beaten and kicked unconcious on the street outside Jenna’s apartment building. The main suspect, at one point, is Jenna’s husband, Zack (because, you know, it’s always the husband! According to cops, anyway.)
In any event, Ryan has told police he did not see his assailant, but only heard him yell, “Take that, you motherfucker.” So, when the NYPD detectives eventually come to speak to Zack, they ask him to take part in an audio lineup, mouthing that same line.
The suspenseful scene of the audio lineup with Ryan (Jenna’s lover) and Zack (Jenna’s estranged husband) separated by the one-way mirror was included in my outlines more or less from day one.
Real-Life Cases?
My initial research focussed on how such audio lineups were conducted so I could explain what was going on for the sake of the reader.
But I also wanted to find real-life cases where such an audio line up had actually been used. I already knew that it was rare for real-life convictions to be secured solely on the basis of ear witnesses. However, as luck would have it — for me — such an audio lineup had been used in the conviction of one Scott Carroll, aka the South Shore rapist.
In the 1980s, the 27-year old factory worker terrorized women in the affluent suburbs of the South Shore of Long Island, New York. He broke into their homes, confronted them in their beds, put pillowcases over their heads and led them outside to rape them.
N.Y. Judge Allows Audio Lineup
He wore a black ski mask and gloves and left no physical evidence at the scene of the crimes. The chief evidence against him was a recording of his voice from interviews with cops. It was played to his victims along with the same words repeated by four other men.
Six victims identified Carroll through his voice. The trial judge admitted the recorded voice lineup into evidence — and Carroll was found guilty of 31 charges including four rapes and an attempted rape.
So, yes, yay! Not only was an audio lineup the main basis for his conviction, but that conviction happened in Suffolk County, New York the jurisdiction in which my thriller was set.
Chills Up the Spine
Coincidentally, last Fall, just about the time the advance review copies of Fool Her Once were being printed and sent out to beta readers and reviewers, I read a news update about Carroll. He had died in Coxsackie Correctional Facility after serving 33 years of his 650-year sentence. He was 60 years old.
It sent a little chill up my spine knowing he’s mentioned in Fool Her Once. He’s in Chapter Forty-One where Lola, Jenna’s best friend and a New York City criminal court judge explains how audio lineups work: “Audio lineups were highly unusual, she said, but she knew of at least one conviction on Long Island that had been based solely on such a lineup.”
Ah Well, Welcome Spring!
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