“I hope that none of us ever does anything so bad that no one can ever forgive us.” Matthew Aaron
Last February The Last Dime Museum requested to be my friend on Myspace. After a quick look around I knew I’d be writing a story about it, I just didn’t realize it would be another eight months before I got around to it. Yesterday I called Matthew Aaron to talk about his museum, which is actually more a photographic display of his murderabilia collection than an actual museum, and we killed more than an hour talking about art, crime, and punishment. It’s a thought-provoking Q&A, which you’ll be able to find in Metromix and on indy.metromix.com on Thurs., Oct. 22 (the first of five or six solid weeks of Taffy contributions to the publication I used to call home).
During our conversation, Aaron hit on something timely that I wanted to share. Far from being an apologist for the people he interacts with, the murderabilia collector thinks that the attention given to capital cases allows criminals to be turned into outlaw celebrities, a problem exacerbated by years or decades spent on death row. He noted that the trial of Desmond Turner, one of two suspects in the Hamilton Street Murders, began this week, and that he didn’t want Turner to receive undue attention.
“I hope something turns around for Carl Brizzi and Hoosiers don’t end up paying for these people to sit on death row for ever and it turns into something like Charlie Manson where he gets fans and people think he’s Jesse James. There’s something real wrong with that and if we don’t change that we’re doomed to be stuck in a situation where John Wayne Gacy’s artwork is worth more than Nancy Noel’s. Boy, Nancy would hate me if she read that. An Ed Gein autograph sells for $10,000. Charlie Manson makes little spiders out of his socks. Something like that is worth $500 in this market and it’s his old, dirty sock.”
Maybe if Slayer wrote a song about Nancy Noel she’d experience an increase in sales.
A long-time acquaintance of mine, Austin Considine, is covering the trial for True/Slant and hopes to produce a documentary about the crime. I’ll be following his coverage as well as that of the Indianapolis Star.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:26 am
This nice Catholic girl has always been fascinated with murderabilia (great word, by the way). I’m really enjoying Austin Considine’s coverage of the trail.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
This is literially a matter of life and death.
My family is white. This entire true story revolves around my family. I believe it does not involve these 2 men who are being accused.
There are 2 men, black men, who are on trial, recently one of them, Desmond Turner, was removed from being up for the death penalty. The prosecutor said he thought he would have a much better case if he did not seek the death penalty for Mr. Turner. My question is, if he was so sure Mr. Turner murdered 7 people, and he has the evidence, a strong case why not seek the death penalty?
The other man, James Stewart, has not gone to trial yet, meanwhile Mr. Turner’s trial is ongoing.
They are accused of murdering, execution style, 7 people in Indianapolis Indiana, 3 years ago.
Here is the catch……….
In 1975, a brother died, David Neil Bridwell – Marion County. I think it was ruled a suicide. 2 years later, another brother died, Frank Walters- Marion County. I am not sure of what the ruling on his death was. 3 years later, a husband died, Larry Petty – Bartholmew County. Ruled as a self inflicted accidental gunshot wound to the back of the head (hmmm wonder how that sort of an accident could happen), maybe about 5 years later another brother died, Timothy Norwood – Marion County. The ruling was murder, but the case was never solved. (although I am not sure about the year of his death.) Now, another husband, Magno Albarran(sic) – Marion County and his family were all murdered.
Doesn’t this sound too much for being in one family? The chances of this happening in one family are astronomical, and when you put the similarities of each one, the changes of it happening are even greater. When you put the chances of it happening on one side of the family, the chances are even greater.
The other half of the story……….
All of the deaths were men (excluding the ones 3 years ago). All were American born (excluding the deaths 3 years ago) All of the men involved were abusive, extremely abusive, husbands. Each had children who would survive (with the death of their father each child would be take care of via widow’s benefits on Social Security, wouldn’t they?) Each of the of them supposedly had large amounts of money on them at the time of their deaths (at least from what I have been told by Frances Norwood, the mother/mother-in-law. None of the bodies were found with money on them. All of the men who died, their wives were/are estranged from my family, excluding Kim, the wife of those who died 3 years ago, and would remain so to this day. Kim was the last child my mother would ever have, and was also abused more severe than any of the other women. All of the men who died were either divorced or in the process of a divorce when the death occurred. All of the men who died, were connected on the mother’s side of the family.
Please, I know there is something so wrong in all of this. The news reported that so many people knew the murders were going to take place (so far all they have reported are white people that have testified – it is possible black people have testified, and the media hasn’t been reported it. Before the trial, a boy spoke on the news, stating that he had told Mr. Turner and Mr. Stewart, that Magno had a lot of money all of the time.
When asked why he told Mr. Stewart that, he said he didn’t know why.
The news has reported, during this trial, that many people on that block knew Mr. Turner was going to rob and murder this family. Please, I believe Mr. Turner and Mr. Stewart are being railroaded. I could be wrong, and if they did murder this family I believe in an eye for an eye. However, if they didn’t, someone else has blood on their hands but the court system will not allow the history of deaths or situations before their deaths occurred to be heard.
I believe if the jurors heard this past history, and the evidence of that past were presented, Desmond Turner and James Stewart just might get an actual honest trial.
One more thing, when I spoke to the detective who investigated the Hamilton Street murders, she told me it didn’t matter what had happened in the past, they were not going to investigate any futher, they had the killers.
I have talked to “b”rizzi, to the “public” defender, to the news media … who will listen?
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I guess if the police had thought about this as much as I have over the years they would have realized the first death to the last deaths occurred 36-38 years difference – possibly the same year the mother, Frances Norwood, was born in “1936″. There have been 11 deaths. She had 11 children. Since she is big into numerology, let’s add the 1+1 together. What we get possibly represents the 2 son-in-laws that are dead, Larry Petty and Magno Albarran. Larry, the husband of the youngest daughter, from one group of children sired by Roy Edward Bridwell (a total of 4 children),and Magno Albarran,and the husband of her youngest daughter, ex-wife Kimberly Norwood.
It has taken me almost 30 years to figure this last part out. But then, maybe I just watch too much t.v.? Do serial killers really murder for obscure reasonings they can only justify?
But then, at this point, it doesn’t mean much to Mr. Turner since he was found guilty.
Everything I have thought about over the years, and this newest revelation is all purely coincidense. Of course, nothing worth looking into.
I hope Mr. Stewart’s attorney will be kinder to Mr. Turner, and at least have this looked into.
How many more coincidenses will end up being in this? My gawd, I have written more facts than brizzi had evidence.