Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

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I can only sleep with NCIS on. Mark Harmon's terrible acting puts me to sleep. Kolker really did a great service with Lost Girls. By focusing solely on the victims as humans rather than prostitutes he carved a profile of the killer.
 
Glad I'm not the only weirdo who is lulled to sleep by the id narration


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The book arrived today and I'm enjoying it, it's engrossing.

I did find some errors in the chapter on Shannan, none of them huge, but it does make me think that some of the locations/timelines discussed in the book shouldn't be taken as absolute fact. To clarify: World Party Girls was run out of an office in a mixed use neighborhood known as the heights, not far from where the guy who ran it lived. It was primarily a call/dispatch center. The head of that operation *did* open up a Kebab restaurant, but it was off of Newark Avenue all the way down in Hoboken right near the Hoboken PATH and Carlo's Bakery, not Newark Avenue in Jersey City (the two avenues aren't connected, but their having the same name may have led the author to mistakenly believe in was in the Journal Square PATH area). Also, Alex and Shannan moved in together on the western slope of JC Heights, not downtown. At the time of her death I believe they weren't living together, and Shannan had an apartment of her own in downtown JC. None of these details are particularly important, but it makes me wonder if there's anything important in the book that's incorrectly reported. That said, it's well-written and appears deeply researched.
 
marble said:
The book arrived today and I'm enjoying it, it's engrossing.

I did find some errors in the chapter on Shannan, none of them huge, but it does make me think that some of the locations/timelines discussed in the book shouldn't be taken as absolute fact. To clarify: World Party Girls was run out of an office in a mixed use neighborhood known as the heights, not far from where the guy who ran it lived. It was primarily a call/dispatch center. The head of that operation *did* open up a Kebab restaurant, but it was off of Newark Avenue all the way down in Hoboken right near the Hoboken PATH and Carlo's Bakery, not Newark Avenue in Jersey City (the two avenues aren't connected, but their having the same name may have led the author to mistakenly believe in was in the Journal Square PATH area). Also, Alex and Shannan moved in together on the western slope of JC Heights, not downtown. At the time of her death I believe they weren't living together, and Shannan had an apartment of her own in downtown JC. None of these details are particularly important, but it makes me wonder if there's anything important in the book that's incorrectly reported. That said, it's well-written and appears deeply researched.
Click to expand...


BBM

'Not sure I've ever heard/read that Shannan had an apartment of her own. Was this mentioned in media coverage?


Also, I did quite a bit of research regarding Ruiz (Kebab restaurant owner), it's in a thread around here somewhere. I always found it interesting that 1) none of the patrons of his sex business were ever disclosed, 2) that his sentence was brief, and 3) Shannan was suppose to appear in court (regarding the Ruiz case) when she went missing.
 
marble said:
The book arrived today and I'm enjoying it, it's engrossing.

I did find some errors in the chapter on Shannan, none of them huge, but it does make me think that some of the locations/timelines discussed in the book shouldn't be taken as absolute fact. To clarify: World Party Girls was run out of an office in a mixed use neighborhood known as the heights, not far from where the guy who ran it lived. It was primarily a call/dispatch center. The head of that operation *did* open up a Kebab restaurant, but it was off of Newark Avenue all the way down in Hoboken right near the Hoboken PATH and Carlo's Bakery, not Newark Avenue in Jersey City (the two avenues aren't connected, but their having the same name may have led the author to mistakenly believe in was in the Journal Square PATH area). Also, Alex and Shannan moved in together on the western slope of JC Heights, not downtown. At the time of her death I believe they weren't living together, and Shannan had an apartment of her own in downtown JC. None of these details are particularly important, but it makes me wonder if there's anything important in the book that's incorrectly reported. That said, it's well-written and appears deeply researched.
Click to expand...


If what you are saying (highlighted in red) is true, well then that might indeed be important, due to that Alex Diaz in news report Dec 16, 2010, is saying things that indicate that they DID live together at the time she disappeared, so did he lie about that? and if he did WHY did he lie about it?

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2010/12/boyfriend_and_the_driver_of_sh.html

Quote:

Another man, the boyfriend of Shannon Maria Gilbert, told The Jersey Journal today that he initially thought Gilbert, of Christopher Columbus Drive in Jersey City, had left him when she didn't return home.


Quote:

Gilbert's boyfriend, Alex Diaz, 28, of Jersey City, said he last saw her on April 30.

"I was waiting and waiting (for Gilbert to come home)," Diaz said yesterday. "After two days, I thought she was not coming back."

Thinking that Gilbert had left him, Diaz, who now lives with his father on Duncan Avenue, said he called Gilbert's sister to see if she had returned home to her parents' home in Ellensville, N.Y.

Diaz said he also reached out to the driver, which was when the driver learned that Gilbert had never returned home.



And here in an April 30, 2011 news report:

http://www.newsday.com/news/breaking/gilbert-vanishing-reaches-one-year-mark-1.2849214

Shannan rented a $1,200-a-month condo in an up-and-coming section of Jersey City. Diaz, who lived with her, said she was taking online courses offered by Phoenix University.
 
I'll try to dig up the link for the bolded passage- I read in a newspaper report, I think the Jersey Journal (which has a reputation for being terrible at fact-checking articles themselves) that Diaz was back living at his parents' house in Jersey City when Shannan went missing. Since there are two other articles you found saying they were living together on Columbus Drive downtown then I'll go with that. I can't think of any reason Diaz would have to lie so if he said he was living there he probably was.
 
fred&edna said:
BBM

'Not sure I've ever heard/read that Shannan had an apartment of her own. Was this mentioned in media coverage?


Also, I did quite a bit of research regarding Ruiz (Kebab restaurant owner), it's in a thread around here somewhere. I always found it interesting that 1) none of the patrons of his sex business were ever disclosed, 2) that his sentence was brief, and 3) Shannan was suppose to appear in court (regarding the Ruiz case) when she went missing.
Click to expand...

Historically Jersey City has been as insanely corrupt. Like, *insanely* so. You name it, it's been covered up here. If you're interested in some fairly recent examples, google Operation Bid Rig III ( overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bid_Rig ) and Jersey City Police Steroid scandal ( http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/hundreds_of_nj_police_firefigh.html ) We've also had 3 off-duty police officers involved in hit and run accidents that killed people in the last 4 years. Two of those were covered up (one wasn't only because it happened in NYC). It may be changing somewhat with a new mayor who wasn't part of the machine. Given what I have seen, I would not be surprised if there were a lot of names on those client list that were connected to city government and/or law enforcement departments and that's why the charges were relatively light and none of the names on the list saw the light of day. A favor for a favor.
 
Why is there no page number for this thread?
 
Because it's the only page in the thread :D
 
I remember a previous "Lost Girls/Kolker" thread (with several posts that exceeded 1 page) which existed before the Trisha interview. I'm assuming it was removed by mods, but I don't know the reason/s for it's departure.
 
I'm looking forward to reading the book. Glad to hear it humanized the victims.
 
Great book. I have it on my kindle. Read it summer of 2013 right after it came out and have reread it twice. I remember thinking it had the makings of a good movie. I so wish this case could be solved. I am interested in watching the show that is to come out on this case, also discussed in these threads somewhere and hoping it and this movie may advance the case somehow.
 
There will be no shortage of articles, books, and movies about the LISK. Everything except an arrest.
 
Well I will continue to hope that publicity of any kind will be helpful. I also hope the clean sweep in Suffolk County may aid in the process of investigating these killings. These young women did not deserve to die and the killer needs to be apprehended before he can snuff out any more young lives.
 
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