Was Unsolved Mysteries trying to attack corrupt and lazy law enforcement?

[XCalibur]

Its amazing when you think how many cases over the years on UM were instances where deaths were ruled as suicides but the family tried to prove murder:

Jeffery Digman, Tony Lombardi, Rae Ann Mosser, that cop who was such a strong force against the Illinois mafia can't think of his name............

There were a few others that I can't remember the names but were the same way, -the one where the parents found the boy dead with the gun in his hand but the cylinder was unlatched.

- the one where the dad found the son dead on his couch...........

- Keith Warren......

And I know there were several more that I'm just not thinking of.

But I definitely think that one of the goals of this show was and possibly still is to say something about corrupt law enforcement. I often thought the independent pathologists hired by the family made convincing cases.

any thoughts on these cases?

[justins5256]

Personally, I don't think attacking or criticizing law enforcement was one of UM's goals. As much as I love UM, I believe that the primary goal of the program was/is the same of every other prime time television show of the era - to make money. The more compelling, intriguing and entertaining the stories are, the more people tune in, the more the ratings increase, the more sponsors you get, the more ad time you can sell, etc. In any serious discussion of UM's role on television, we should never lose sight of those facts.

In addition, I like to think that UM did have a "public service" element to it that was unique in that the show tried to help different groups of people - families of victims, families searching for lost loved ones, law enforcement searching for fugitives, etc. Perhaps this would be a secondary goal.

All that being said, there were certain stories - the murder vs. suicide arguments, the final appeals, and possibly to a certain extent the unexplained and lost treasure segments - that contained common threads of laziness, deception and possibly even downright corruption and coverup by various public officials.

By including these types of cases on the program, it is inevitable that some authority figures are going to be dragged through the mud. Afterall, if law enforcement had acted correctly and done their jobs, there would be no question that Glen Consagra and Patty Stallings were guilty and correctly imprisoned or that Tony Lombardi and Rae Ann Mossor did kill themselves. If the government was completely honest, we would know for certain that gold was recovered from Victorio Peak and we would know and understand what really transpired at Roswell in 1947. My point being that police/government incompetence, laziness and corruption go hand in hand in cases like these. The cases almost can't exist without those elements.

Now, you may be asking why throw law enforcement, the government, et al under the bus when the goal was to provide a public service? Refer to the first paragraph.

[RobinW]

One of the earliest cases I remember that exposed less-than-stellar police work from LE was the Michael Rosenblum case, and the Baldwin PD responded by refusing to participate in the broadcast and not allowing any officers from the department to be interviewed.

While most of the cases you cited involved people dying under suspicious circumstances and LE writing their deaths off as suicide, Michael Rosenblum was still a missing person at the time of the original UM broadcast and his remains were not found until a couple of years later. It's one thing for LE to officially close a case after someone is found dead, but it's pretty inexcusable for them to do nothing about a missing human being and I can see why the Rosenblum family would feel the need to turn to a TV show in order to help them find answers.

I think the reason the show just seemed to feature so many cases of lazy or corrupt LE is because... well, if LE had done their job, those cases wouldn't be "unsolved mysteries" and the show wouldn't have had material to work with. However, I wouldn't say UM was anti-law enforcement overall since the show did feature way more dedicated LE figures who legitimately tried their hardest, but just couldn't solve the case in question.

[M_86]

One of the segments that UM did call law enforcement into question was the Lauria Bible/Ashley Freeman case out of Vinita, Oklahoma.

From my research, it is reasonable to question law enforcement in their murders and disappearances. I'm still not 100% convinced that LE did not have some sort of involvement in that.

[Hambone2421]

I'm not sure if UM was or was not trying to attack lazy LE but, the LE investigating the Wendy Camp disappearance all needed to be blasted on tv.

[xxxxmattxxxx69]

Originally Posted by M_86

One of the segments that UM did call law enforcement into question was the Lauria Bible/Ashley Freeman case out of Vinita, Oklahoma.

From my research, it is reasonable to question law enforcement in their murders and disappearances. I'm still not 100% convinced that LE did not have some sort of involvement in that.

That whole case is a mess. "Well, we found Kathy's body but nothing else. Our work is done" Next Day Lauria's parents come and find Danny's body in minutes. How the **** do you miss that?

[Hambone2421]

Originally Posted by xxxxmattxxxx69

That whole case is a mess. "Well, we found Kathy's body but nothing else. Our work is done" Next Day Lauria's parents come and find Danny's body in minutes. How the **** do you miss that?

I see what your saying but I don't know if it was so much ineptitude as much as it was a small town police force who had never seen anything like this case before and did not know what to do. Having said all of that though, all police officers should know what to do in these situations. How you miss a body is beyond me unless someone put the body their over night which I doubt.

[88keys]

Personally, I don't think attacking or criticizing law enforcement was one of UM's goals.

I don't either. If I recall correctly, Kait Arquette's mother said that, when her daughter's story aired on UM, the show's call center received numerous tips regarding the case. The show would only release them to law enforcement (in this case, the Albequerque PD). The family never got to find out any of the info from those calls, because the police wouldn't release them. I think UM's goal, for the most part, was to work with LE, not against them.