Crime Maps

(above: the house where John List murdered his mother, three children and his wife and then disappeared.)

I've created a flickr group called crime maps.

I created this group because I have been interested for a long time in the mostly unrecognized violent history of our neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Imagine if you could see a map with icons representing every crime that had been committed in the past century on any given block in New York City. First off, I'm sure such a diagram would be almost unreadable due to all the information.
Real estate agents would be hard pressed to sell that apartment which had been a crime scene. And a person might begin to feel unsafe anywhere with such knowledge of past criminal activities. But what a deeper understanding one would have of the best and worst parts of a place, the tragedies, the broken dreams, the anger and hopelessness. The courage and determination of investigators, or good samaritans. A deeper appreciation of the random odds of being in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

This group will probably not be able to compile such a map, but I hope that by sharing aerial views of various notorious places, we might realize the everyday settings of these acts, their unpredictable appearances, and how life goes on in such places. Our public places are littered with monuments to many forgotten heroes of the past; let us not forget those people who have tragically suffered, or the places we live where they were done wrong.

crime maps