The prompt for day 12, a Friday, gives me the option to write a poem that plays with the idea of a tall tale. This could have been a mythical character, one I made up, or I could add to a real person’s biography.
My dictionary says play with means “to handle, change, or deal with (something) in a careless way.” It is a serious topic: crime, specifically murder. While I used mythical American comic book superheroes in place of real-life investigators/detectives during the reign of terror of serial killer Gary Ridgway, and the 20-year chase by said law enforcement, I hope my poem is not so careless as to upset or offend anyone.
Metaphor for Murder
Superman came, leaping, flying,
x-ray visioning. Batman came kung foo fighting,
as Wonder Woman and journalists
(Clark Kent?) did their thing.
The Green Lantern watched
at the green river shores as Aquaman,
and the whole damned Justice
Society (or League) of America
formed up
as the Green River Task Force.
Add J-Edgar’s FBI gang, and all
the cops—superheroes were
chasing a serial killer: one death,
then twenty-one, then forty-something
raped and strangled: all women
and girls. Forty-eight, then 49,
some say 71, maybe as many
as 90. No one knows.
Not even the magical
Justice Society of America
or any such task force.
Nineteen years later before some
non-superhero, a Danny DeVito-like
lab-rat scientist used DNA
to convict Ridgway (alive today)!
The limelight shined on, and
the superheroes garnered cred,
and confessions from
the second-most prolific
serial killer in United States history
(standing accorded by “confirmed” murders).
Look both ways at the merging of fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, truth and lies.
Mind the gaps for what magic science has yet to discover and journalism to uncover.
Our Literary Journey 
What a pity that the murderer himself was not a tall tale but a reality. Your poem certainly underlines how long and difficult it was to find and arrest him, despite the best efforts of the law.
(I remember that Clark Kent was always described as ‘mild-mannered’ in contrast to his Superman self. I don’t think many reporters today are mild-mannered!)
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Excellent points, Rosemary.
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This is excellent, Bill.
Sincerely,
David
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Thank you, David. I hope all is well with you and yours. 🙂
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Well done, Bill, and (IMO) drives home the fact that entirely too much time and money are spent on keeping Gary Ridgway et al alive.
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I understand and agree, up to a point. The plea deal process is a tough pill for me and many, but I have no good answers.
Ted Bundy was executed about 20 years after his first murder (and he was interviewed by Keppel and Reichert to help with the Green River investigation).
Serial killers, both male and female, are not as rare as I would have assumed.
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Excellent, Bill. I’m with Nancy… guys like him with 100% proof of guilt should not be kept roomed and boarded and fed…
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Thank you, Dale.
It is hard to know that our “plea deal” process allows such things.
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My pleasure.
And yeah, these plea deals are beyond my comprehension.
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Some. In this case they wanted him to tell all. He had killed so many, he could not remember. I have lived there and I have walked the shores of the Green River. Fortunately, I did not know then what I know now.
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I know what you mean. What an awful person and yes, good thing you didn’t know!
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