Tuesday, February 27, 2007


I went to “Welcome to the Rock”, a website that introduced the island of Alcatraz, out in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz Island is one of the most famous and popular tourist destinations of the US. This is because the visitors to the island could not only travel around the remnants of the prison, but could also find out about the Indian occupation of 1969 - 1971, early military defenses (the first U.S. fort on the coast), and the West Coast's first (and oldest operating) lighthouse. But Alcatraz Island was well known for the federal prison from 1934-1963, which confined infamous prisoners such as Al Capone and Robert Stroud.

I knew this place since I watched a movie "The Rock", which was starred by Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. I thought that is a good method to open up an old prison to the public. People can visit Alcatraz Island to learn about the life and culture of prison. That is a very useful place to educate youths about how terrible it is if you do some bad things. I am interested in Alcatraz Island so much that I hope I can visit San Francisco soon. I think that a trip to Alcatraz Island will be a very exciting experience.

Monday, February 19, 2007



I went to " FRIENDS OF THE JAMES FARM ". James was one of the most famous robbers in US history. He robbed the banks and killed people around the mid-US. However, people who lived in James' hometown loved him very much, so they throw the guys who killed James for the reward of the government to jail and changed them for murder. Nowadays, people restored the house where James was born to a museum for a memorial of him.

That is a very interesting and unbelievable story; a murderer or a bank robber becomes a hero in people's mind. That is too immoral to imagine James was a person who lived in civil war time. But people still love him now, and maybe forever.

Thursday, February 15, 2007


My favorite character in "Snow Falling on Cedars" is Art Moran, a county sheriff. He and his deputy, Abel Martinson, were the first people who found Carl Heine's body. Also he went to the deceased's house and told this misfortune to the Heines' family. Furthermore, Art was the first witness of the tail. His testimony was very conscientious and careful. Art Moran was an experienced and skilled sheriff. When he and his deputy arrived at the scene, they did not see Carl. At that time, nobody knew where Carl was or what happened. There was not any clue to help them to solve the case. But they saw that Carl's fishnet was still in the water. Art was a very observant person. He detected that was unusual immediately. As expected, they found Carl's body in the fishnet. Because of long time it soaked, the body decayed very serious. Art's deputy, Abel, an inexperienced 24-year-old policeman, felt sick and unacceptable. The sheriff told him to try to control him. After investigation, Art went to the victim's family to say what happened. That was too hard to speak about. But he had to do, because of his job. He thought a lot of ways how to say this sad news of the death to a pitiful family. Art was a very kind person. Sending news of a death caused him to suffer. So he did not know what he should do while Ms.Heine was crying. The sheriff just said that he would call Ms.Heine's sister as an excuse, and then he left

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I went to "US murder rate down, youth killings up", on CNN.com, and it said that the 1997 murder rate in United States declined to its lowest level in 30 years, but young Americans were killing each other with firearms with greater frequency. The author fiqured out that the gun killings by young people from 18 to 24 increased from about 5,000 in 1980 to more than 7,500 in 1997. But firearm murderers by 25-year-olds and older were going down by half, to about 5,000 between 1980 and 1997. According to the story, Americans 18-24 were the most likely murder victims with a rate of 33.2 per 100,000 people.
That is a big number of teenage crimes. The youths are more likely to be impetuous than married people. They cannot control their emotions very well. Also, government could not limit guns in force, so youths can get guns very easily. The schools should guide teenagers to know which way is good. We cannot give them too much pressure. They need our care.

Thursday, February 01, 2007


I went to Court TV Crime Library . There is a report which is about a woman, Katherine Knight, killed her lover. Furthermore, she skinned and ate him as a monster. Knight was a middle-aged housewife, mother and grandmother. She used to work in slaughterhouses when she was young. She always kept knives in a very private place.
I was very shocked when I watched this unbelievable event. I felt sick, too. The photo of Knight smiling looked like she was very kind. You could not connect her to so-called "abnormal murderer". I though that the murder had a relation with her ex-job, as butcher. So one's environment could influence one's life.