Things I learned from watching this drivel

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I know this is years later but I just watched the film and a lot of people might still want to address these issues. Here is my take on it all. First off I must say that you do have valid points, but you are also looking at them through recent eyes. I don't know what your age is, but I'm nearly 60 and I had very old parents, my father who was born in 1914 and my mother in 1918 and I grew up hearing stories and I've watched enough films and read enough history to feel I can share some stuff.

1. Many people already addressed this - that he didn't marry them. He did ingratiate himself into their boarding houses, killed them, and ran off with their cash and jewelry. And, to be honest, my father who married my mother, other than the wedding photos (two photographs) was never photographed as he was the one behind the Polaroid. Also many people back then just didn't have cameras...they'd get them professionally done which was costly...and most times they only had a treasured couple photos. It would also been easy to take the marriage photograph and there would be no photos, period.

2. Uncle Charlie stated that he was at the end of his rope and basically wanted to off himself before he thought about going to live with his older sister. He really was contemplating suicide lying on the bed and really didn't give a damn about the money. He was more about killing the women and taking away what was left to them by their husbands...that is why he freely gave to the church guy and was why, I figured, they were throwing him a great party and letting him speak.

3. Back then people really didn't question other people's motives. For all we know he gave her a nice cover story and it was bought. A lot of people didn't trust the banks right after the depression, either. They'd stuff it in their mattresses and hide it all over the yard in coffee cans and whatnot. He might have said it was an inheritance, too.

Odd - it won't take all my comments - so I'll continue.

4. That's how people tailed them back then - they followed. They didn't always have photos.

5. The guy had a head injury as a child and that changed the way he thought. He wasn't thinking rationally and being worried and paranoid is normal for anyone, especially one that is wanted for multiple murders.

6. To be honest...my now ex didn't even think of having my wedding ring engraved - and my engagement ring wasn't. Men typically didn't think of that sort of thing especially since he didn't buy it new. The jeweler usually would probably ask, "Do you want it engraved?" to the man. It's not that far-fetched to think he'd look as he was probably not giving women jewelry.

7. People would actually take their life savings from point A to point B and redistribute it in a bank. There would be no alarms sent out as the bank guy undoubtedly trusted this man as he was a relative of a long-time employee.

8. Yes...but this confrontation of a murderer happens all the time in films and it even happens all the time in real life still.

9. It was a great honour to have your home hand-picked by a government entity or wherever to do a story. It was like getting in the pages of LIFE magazine. Nowadays people have Nigerian scams they still believe in. They weren't really doing anything nefarious.

10. Bad news for the entire town to hear would have been a scandal. Having him at another place wouldn't have been that horrible - but seeing it with your own eyes back then would have been different in a way. Plus having him dragged off in front of her would have been traumatic for anyone.

11. People have been sabotaging all sorts of things then and still now. Did you ever watch any films with people getting pushed down stairs or the rugs on the stairs bunched up to create a fall?

continued again

12. Undoubtedly for a very smart woman she didn't exactly think - she did what a lot of people do...and panicked. Personally I would have laid on the car horn until someone came or looked around for an ax in the garage. You'd figure something would have been in there that could cave in that flimsy door. But I've also never been locked in a small enclosed space that is already chock full of carbon monoxide gas - maybe you lose consciousness very quickly.

13. That's how life works - you run and you're guilty. That's why cops still shoot criminals that are fleeing. If you have two criminals and one is fleeing and the other is hanging around in a nice neighbourhood with his family - which one are you going to think did the murdering?

14. There weren't cell phones back then and when you weren't at the place at the time, you didn't get in touch with them. This made for some really fun films where people were a phone call away from being helped - and killers always cut the phone wires so you couldn't call out. A whole lot of films have this going on.

15. Yes, the train went too fast right out of the station - but most people wouldn't jump off a speeding train. A lot of women can't get out of a man's grip...men generally overpower women with upper arm strength.

16. Considering it was a small town with only the one train coming in a day and leaving (or so it seemed as he was the only one getting off the train originally), "fleeing" isn't exactly the word I would use.

17. He was just caught up in the moment - a lot of these films have the murderer going a bit whackadoo at some point in pleasant conversation.

18. I thought he basically lost his footing and fell. It happens. Oh well.