Modus Operandi (15 page)

Some fences specialize in one or two particular items such as art, antiques or jewelry, but most fences are general-ists and can easily adapt to market conditions. The successful fence learns how to wheel and deal. He must examine

Who Came First?

It has been said many times that if there were no fences there would be no thieves. If there were no one to accept stolen property, burglars or thieves wouldn't steal. We can tell you that this is absolutely and unequivocally not true. Many thieves work without the aid of a fence, and others simply use the fence as a middleman.

For example:
A burglar or thief steals money, credit cards or checks and passes them in retail establishments or through telephone orders. Some thieves sell stolen property to unsuspecting fences. In this particular instance, the fence becomes a noncriminal receiver of the property, as he has no idea that the merchandise is stolen. Also, even the most scrupulous and honest pawnbrokers, secondhand merchandise peddlers, auctioneers and junk dealers buy stolen property on occasion, that is, property that they
know
to be stolen.

If all fences were to disappear in the next three seconds, many thieves would shift to stealing merchandise that didn't need a fence to dispose of it. If there were no fences, there would still be all sorts of thieves and maybe some new kinds that we don't have now.

the ways that his property is bought and sold, paid for and transferred. A successful fence has the ability to make buying and selling stolen property appear no different from a normal, legitimate business. For example, a fence dealing in stolen automobiles will know a great deal about the laws governing registration, title searches, vehicle inspection, and transportation of vehicles.

The knowledge necessary to appear legitimate often comes from previous careers. A successful jewelry fence, for instance, is likely to be a former jeweler. A fence of stolen cars was once an automobile dealer. A fence of stolen art and antiques might be an artist himself. This is especially true when the fence deals exclusively in one type of commodity. But, a fence who is a generalist may employ specialists from time to time for merchandise such as art or jewelry.

Sooner or later, in order to go into business, the fence must go public, that is, become known to thieves, customers, police and others as a fence. Becoming public with the police involves getting questioned, investigated and searched; being handcuffed, booked, fingerprinted and photographed; facing a line-up; being brought before a judge, placed in a cell and bailed out; and of course, being officially and publicly known as a criminal. However, this can be beneficial to the fence, because within the criminal community an arrest or conviction is normally considered to be good evidence that the fence's relationship with the police is not too cozy and that he is not a rat —at least by the criminals' standards.

The most important part of being a successful fence is avoiding capture: The fence applies himself to buying and selling stolen property in such a way that makes him appear no different from other business owners. The most common way to do this is to accept stolen property as a supplement to a legitimate business such as a pawnshop, a consignment shop, or a used furniture or appliances store. It should also be remembered that unknowing legitimate businesses are sometimes used by criminals as fences. A good sob story can help a convincing thief unload a "hot" item to an unsuspecting mom and pop pawnshop.

Depicting a Professional Fence

The fence must have genius, that is, ingenuity, cunning, resourcefulness, energy and a mysterious power, sometimes referred to as personal magnetism or charisma. He must be able to manipulate thieves, because he depends on them to be profitable.

Like con men, the fences characterized in your works should be colorful and flamboyant. Basically their character has a lot to do with the way they negotiate, and negotiate they will! Who else could convince a con man to take $30 for $300 worth of retail goods? In addition to being flamboyant and charismatic, fences are outgoing, gregarious and knowledgeable of retail and wholesale prices.

So remember, when writing about fences, make them smart, colorful, flamboyant entrepreneurs and, of course, successful! Place them in legitimate businesses, in cities, in the suburbs, make them black or white, cooperative with the police investigators, but keep them one step ahead of the police. Make them wheelers and dealers, and good listeners, but most importantly make them stand out, so that they will be remembered in your works.

Criminal homicide occurs when the death of a human being is purposely, knowingly and/or recklessly caused by another. To make a charge of criminal homicide, the detective must first prove that a homicide actually occurred.

Medical Examiners

The forensic detective investigates a criminal homicide to determine the
manner
of death (the circumstances surrounding a death), while the medical examiner or coroner will determine the
cause
of death (the medical reason for death). The medical examiner or coroner will determine that death was due to homicide, suicide, an accident or a medical condition. A medical examiner must be a medical doctor, preferably a forensic pathologist. But a coroner, in some states, is not required to have a medical degree; they

As early as
a.d
. 1250 societies took action to apprehend and punish a person for taking the life of another intentionally. In China, the first documented mention of an autopsy listed how postmortem examinations should be conducted. It gave details on how a person's body should appear if he were involved in a drowning or a fire and explained the difference between blunt object wounds and stab wounds. The Chinese were also the first to use fingerprints to document people.

One of the first noted medical examiners in history was Antistius, the physician who examined the body of Julius Caesar. Antistius determined the cause of death to be one stab wound to Caesar's chest. He further documented that Caesar received twenty-three stab wounds at the hands of his assailant.

Autopsies developed in Europe around 1507. The first recorded coroner's examination in the United States was in New Plymouth, New England, around 1635, based on autopsies practiced in England.

Once it has been determined what killed a person, it is up to the detective to determine how and why a person died. And, of course,
whodo
nit.

Killing and the M.O.

When someone commits a crime, whether it's stealing a car or killing a person, the M.O. will change from scene to scene but remain consistent in other forms. Let's follow a homicide detective trying to make sense out of a series of killings that bear similar yet different traits.

Victim #1

Victim #1 was found dumped in a secluded wooded area and buried in a shallow grave with his hands tied with

a small piece of clothes line. His mouth was filled with a piece of cloth, with another tied securely over the mouth and around the back of the head. The victim had numerous stab wounds to the chest, and the body revealed significant amounts of pre-mortem injuries, especially defense-type wounds on the hands and arms. The defense wounds were from striking out at the murderer. No signs of sexual assault were found.

It was determined that the victim was abducted while walking home from a part-time job at a convenience store. All the victim's jewelry and money were found on the body.

Victim #2

The second victim was again a male (about the same age as Victim #1) and had his hands bound with duct tape. A piece of duct tape was securely fastened over his mouth. The victim showed no signs of a struggle and had been strangled. Upon examining the body further, it was evident that he had been sexually assaulted and his neck chain was missing. The victim in this case was found dumped in the same area near the first victim.

Given this minimal amount of information, do you see a similar M.O.? The first victim was found with his hands secured with rope. The second was secured with duct tape. From this we can determine that our suspect exhibited
learned behavior.
While trying to secure the first victim, the suspect had problems, evidenced by the bruising on the hands and arms. This is also why he used duct tape on the mouth of the second victim.

The first victim was stabbed to death with the knife that was used to capture him. Our suspect lost control of the situation, and fearing apprehension, stabbed the victim. He panicked, drove the body to a remote wooded area, and disposed of the body. Our suspect intended to sexually assault the first victim, but because of the struggle and fear of detection, this did not occur.