By Katherine Ramsland
I never aspired to be a travel writer, but I love to travel
and I write nonfiction, so it was inevitable that the two would merge. For the
past year, I’ve published monthly “Crime-trotting” columns for Darlene
Perrone’s Destinations Travel Magazine
online. This opportunity developed from sheer serendipity.
I met Darlene at the Bedford Springs Resort Hotel in Pennsylvania.
Not long afterward, a mutual friend told me that Darlene was looking for
writers. Since I was on my way to New Mexico for a Georgia O’Keeffe pilgrimage
at Ghost Ranch, I pitched it to Darlene.
I figured that not many people had been to Ghost Ranch, just
north of Abiquiu, where O’Keeffe once had a home. This seemed like the perfect
place to get photos and anecdotes. But while I was there, I discovered a
little-known fact about the ranch. The pair of brothers who’d first settled it
had murdered a number of cattlemen to steal their herds. Eventually, one
brother killed the other and got hanged for his crimes.
Thus was born my column. Ghost Ranch might have inspired
Georgia O’Keeffe in the gentle art of landscape painting, but it was founded by
serial killers. Then, in Santa Fe, I located the “first house” in the country.
It turns out that a murder had happened here as well. When I wrote about it, we
learned that these dark elements appealed to readers.
So, each month I look for places where fascinating crimes
occurred that also offer touristy things to do. For example, a large house in
Villisca, Iowa, was the scene of a sensational mass murder a century ago, and
you can take a tour. Then, there’s the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, MA,
which has been turned into a “crime-scene” bed and breakfast. I also wrote
about the Jesse James Farm, where the outlaw is buried and a museum stands, and
surprised many people with the story of a massacre at Frank Lloyd Wright’s tourable
Wisconsin estate, Taliesin.
One of my favorite stories occurred in Deadwood, South
Dakota. This is where Wild Bill Hickock was assassinated under peculiar
circumstances. The town retains much of the flavor from those days. It’s had a
resurgence of interest since the HBO Show, Deadwood,
was developed around some actual people and events.
The column is fun, but there’s a difficult part: deciding
when a place is appropriate for “murder tourism” and when it’s not. I’m aware
that there’s a Jeffrey Dahmer tour in Wisconsin, for example, but we thought that
featuring it seemed tasteless. In fact, I know quite a few places with serial
killer associations. However, we prefer incidents where there’s some
psychological distance between the event and the idea of a visit. This
certainly limits what I can write about, but it’s also a challenge.
So, from my experience, here are the top five things I can
suggest for travel writing:
1) Learn
some basic photography concepts and skills. I knew very little about taking
pictures when I first started, but since then, I now know a lot about
perspective, DSL-R cameras, enhancement software, and best times of day for
shooting.
2) Be
vigilant for opportunities. I happened to be presenting at a conference in
Tucson, and the driver who picked me up at the airport mentioned a hotel
downtown where the John Dillinger Gang had been arrested in surprise ambush. I
found a way to get downtown to get the story. It became one of my columns, and
the hotel was quite photogenic.
3) Think
about travel practicalities. I can find stories to write about, but if people
can’t get there, or it’s set in an inaccessible place, that’s not appropriate
for crime-trotting. For example, the house where the Clutter family was
slaughtered in 1959 in Kansas is a private home. Yet, it was the subject of
Truman Capote’s best-selling In Cold
Blood, so it was the perfect tale for my column. Instead of focusing on the
house, I had photos from several buildings in town that Capote described in the
book.
4) Focus
on variety. I go from Southwestern deserts to the Midwest plains to New England
to an international location (my self-designed Jack the Ripper tour). Right
after I wrote about the upper crust Taliesin rampage, I traveled to Gibsonton,
Florida, where carnival people once wintered, to describe the murder of a man
known as Lobster Boy.
5) Be
mindful of the psychology of travel. There are hardcore murder tourists who
want the gruesome details, but this magazine does not cater to them. It’s a
column that provides the typical traveler with something curious and unique. We
don’t want to upset or annoy people, we want to provide interesting glimpses
into history and locale.
These are the lessons from my year as a travel writer. Next
up is a column on the century-old crime museums of Europe. Crime-trotting can
be found at: http://destinationstravelmagazine.com/
Katherine Ramsland has published over 1,000 articles and 54 books. She teaches forensic psychology and criminal justice at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, writes a blog for Psychology Today and a travel feature for Destinations Travel Magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment