Wednesday, May 4, 2011

WIVP (Witnesses In Viewing Position) and the like? (Bill James applies his statsgeekiness to crime solving)

Stats Geek Bill James Applies His Science to Serial Killers | Magazine


Bill James via Wired


In addition to wondering about slugging percentages and pitching records, though, James has long been asking questions like: Why do some crimes become more famous than others? How reliable are eyewitness descriptions? Was the real Boston Strangler caught? Which is why his latest compendium of knowledge isn’t about baseball; it’s about murder. Called Popular Crime, it’s an omnibus of serial killers, kidnappers, assassins, and the occasional terrorist. Most of James’ research is drawn from his mammoth library of true-crime books. And after reading extensively about the Boston Strangler, he started to second-guess the supposed experts—the cops, the lawyers, the authors. 
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