MovieChat Forums > Cold Case (2003) Discussion > Favorite sympathetic murderers

Favorite sympathetic murderers

posted 12 years ago by emaxwell1313
60 replies | jump to latest

In Cold Case, we've seen lists of people's favorite complete monsters and favorite cases about subhumans with zero redeeming qualities of any kind. And so I was wondering about going the other direction entirely.

As in, what would be the episodes being most notable for having a murderer who actually is a genuinely good and decent person in general and makes honest efforts to do the right things but becomes a murderer because they made a grave mistake when placed between a giant rock and a super hard place, so to speak ? The murderers who simply snapped or made a serious mistake when placed in excruciating circumstances and whom your heart truly went out for and could sympathize and empathize with the most despite their having done something that was truly and completely wrong ? And you ended up think "this was not right at all, but I could actually completely understand it". 2 examples for me would be Rosie Miles in Fly Away - sympathetic to the point the DA's wouldnt actually press charges- and Ginny Williams in Blackout - I didnt even like seeing her get arrested.

[–] cherry877 12 years ago

Omg Blackout was so sad! It was hard to watch some parts...I wish she wasn't arrested. What did her mom say right before she killed her? Something about her son? I couldn't hear.

[–] emaxwell1313 12 years ago

Something like this I think - and this is paraphrasing, not exact quotation:

Ginny: You're strength is fading, you cant help yourself anymore

Lauren: Your son didnt seem to think so - then Ginny loses it and drowns her

It was kinda short, dont know if this was exactly right but something like this

Who would you also list as more sympathetic murderers ?

[–] t_smitts 12 years ago

Don't forget James Hogan. I was actually writing a story about him that I still wanna finish one day.

Anyway, here's a list of other sympathetic doers, besides them:

http://www.coldcasepedia.com/search-character?type_op=and&type%5B% 5D=177&qual=57&gender=All

If you hover over their picture, you can see the younger version. Click on their name to see which episode they're from.

[–] sjmajors2001-278-697743 12 years ago

I like Dom from Boy crazy and Mitch from Offender. Mitch's character, you can reaaly see the frustration he feels, knowing that his son' killer is still out there. And in Wishing, this whole episode just makes you feel sorry for everyone involved. And in Justice, the little boy, but he wasn't charged. I felt like there was some inconsistancy there. I don't understand why Dom was arrested if Sam was practically braindead anyway. I guess those are the ones I feel most sorry for?

[–] calibutterfly_83 12 years ago

I felt most sympathetic for Dom as well... that ending was so sad. Definitely made it one of my favorite episodes.

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[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

in the end james didn't want to kill his grandma but didn't dare to stop sherry when she smothered her..

[–] ARH 11 years ago

James Hogan here too. Ever since that episode I've watched Silas Weir Mitchell's career.

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[–] emaxwell1313 12 years ago

BTW, I just found out it was "why dont you go ask your son about that" - right before Ginny drowned that creepy as hell old woman.

[–] Razor187 12 years ago

Art Balducci

And so Governor Devlin, because even the cost of freedom can be too high, I REFUSE your pardon!

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[–] d_henderson1810 12 years ago

The murderer I most felt sorry for was the brother in "Time To Crime".

Yes, he shouldn't have got a gun, or driven his dad's car, and it was wrong for him to attempt to murder someone.

But his motivation was to keep his parent's marriage together, and he accidentally shot his sister dead. You could see that he was cut up about it afterwards.

This child was 12 at the time, and had to live with the fact that he shot his sister. That would be hard to deal with for so long.

The child wasn't at all evil. His intentions were good, but his methods were terrible, and had fatal consequences.

[–] sheilagermaro 12 years ago

It's sad to see an otherwise decent person go to desperate measures due to the actions of second, third or even fourth party, usually someone incredibly selfish, ignorant or just plain evil. Aside from Time to Crime (the mother and her boyfriend), there's also Wishing (the girl who falsely accused Colin and his father), The Promise (the councilman), Boy Crazy (the doctor), Committed (the doctor), Fly Away (the social worker) and Justice (the rapist), just to name a few.

Sanity is like parachutes: just because you lost yours doesn't mean you can have mine.

[–] kdogg369 12 years ago

One of mine is Cy Tinsdale from the River. It didn't shock me that he was the doer. What shocked me was why he did it. As a favor to his friend so that the doctor's family could get his life insurance money.
I don't know what charges he would face,at the end of the day,it was nothing more than an assisted suicide.

[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

I agree Cyrus was balmed by everyone bt ended up doing the right thing..one of the best episodes..

[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

hmmm i find it hard to compare the mother (and maybe the girl in wishing)to the other people..the mother was not a bad person she only screwed up with her relationship but when she realized it it was too late..and as i told before, what happended in time to crime was only the killer's fault in my opinion..

[–] narragansett55 12 years ago

Agree with this one. It's the first episode I thought of.

[–] redwood-1 12 years ago

I'd have to say that guy who killed his teacher in "The Key" because the teacher ended up flirting with him at that party.

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[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

I don't agree i don't find it a strong motivation for killing someone (such as the rape of your sister in Justice for exemple) and in the present he nearly blames his mother for being in the park with his sister..

[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

I was talking about Time to Crime sorry..

[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

I really didn't feel sorry for him indeed

First, if he was so intelligent (as his sister says..) to understand what was going on with her mother, he also should have realized that shooting a man wasn't the best thing to do to stop the relationship

Second, apart from the fact of shooting for a relationship, he planned a mass homicide. He didn't know his sister was there but he knew other innocent people (the basketball players) were there and could have killed'em all

Third, in the present day he says her mother she should've told him he was at the park, as if she could imagine her son goes out killing people in the night!

I find the coldcase squad was too sympathetic with him because of his age and because he was after all a good boy..but let's see other young doers (for exemple ariel in slleopver (were treated far worse when it was not more than manslaughter..)

[–] kconway-578-894145 12 years ago

I think, so far, I was most sympathetic with the boy who accidentally killed his sister in a "Time to Crime," the guy who killed the woman he loved in "The Letters," and the mom/nun who killed her son in "Boy in the Box."

Although they were wrong, it was heartbreaking the situations they were put through, which is why they appealed to me more.

[–] nikki112 12 years ago

Dom from Boy crazy and the guy with the bombs in the music boxes.

[–] Tolyngee 12 years ago

Justice. I found this ep very hard to watch.

A girl's younger brother murders a serial rapist that raped his sister. Even Lilly sat there and put words in his mouth and coached his story during his confession to make sure it fit justifiable homicide. No one was going to charge him. The man was a lawyer, too, so he knew what he was doing when he confessed.

All in all, I found the ep hard to watch.

[–] dirtbunny199 11 years ago

I remember that episode & also thought it was crap. The kid knew full well what he was doing & the squad gave him a pass. Just like when they let those kids from the military academy get a pass ("The Plan"). Sure, they'll arrest Dom, who was just putting poor little Samantha out of her misery in "Boy Crazy" but they'll let those kids walk because they were molested or in the case of "Justice" because his sister was raped. I didn't like their 'pick & choose' way of arresting doers.

[–] oomba 11 years ago

Agreed about Justice. That was straight up murder 1. Vigilante justice, no matter how much we might justify it, is still a crime. Dude should've been booked. He probably would've been given plenty of leniency - probably not even convicted given his age at the time - but still...I was rubbed kinda wrong on it.

And the guy I really felt sorry for was Cyrus from The River (season 3 episode 22). His buddy begged for murder so that his family could get the insurance money. He was practically forced into it. Hope he gets a sympathetic judge.

[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

I agree about Cyrus don't know why nobody talks about him..he turned to be a great friend..

[–] sjmajors2001-278-697743 11 years ago

He as sympathetic. Quite honestly, The River just isn't as memorable of an episode to me though as some of the others. It wasn't bad. It's just that there are so many more great episodes, that I usually forget about this one.

[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

As for me i think it was a great episode.the matter is that we generally ( i think so..) tend to consider episodes with children or people with problems (see Wishing) as better than the others because we tend to sympathize more with these categories..

[–] sjmajors2001-278-697743 11 years ago

Very true, and I do sympathize with the doctor and the doer. It was well written. I think the acting has something to do with it too. I think actors did an incredible job portraying certain characters, and so others are forgotten. I am not saying the acting was bad on this, I just think the acting on episodes like Wishing was exceptional. I think Cold Case did a great job finding good actors, especially for some of the younger characters. I just can't forget them. I like your take on that.

[–] t_smitts 12 years ago

I think you're thinking of a different show.

[–] myndchanger 12 years ago

LOL! you're right. Sorry.

[–] christianturba4 11 years ago

KEn bream from Revenge, who shot the man who had molested his son.

In this episode, i put a little blame on her wife. She blamed her husband for the fbi thing and for losing Kyle in the store, but don't forget she told her sister (and so uncle ED) they had money on their account, leading to the kidnapping, and then put such a pressure on her husband that he finished killing Rudy tanner. SO her ingenuity sort of made her lose both her son and her husband (who's arrested because of the murder)

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