CO - In-depth Report by ProPublica/Marshall Project on CO Serial Rape Investigation - serial rapist Marc O'Leary

[marble]

This is a very long but very good investigative piece on how a string of rapes carried out by serial rapist and stalker Marc O'Leary were investigated and eventually solved.

https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story

Lots of interesting (and horrifying) things to ponder are included in this piece, such as:

• Victim-blaming
• False accusations
• False confessions
• Some excellent detective work by a few LE members
• Some terrible and downright victimizing detective work by a few other LE members
• Issues regarding the danger in determining guilt or innocence based on demeanor, emotional expression, confusion, etc. (- for both accusers and the accused)
• Issues with police department balkanization
• Issues with information being withheld or not shared across departments and jurisdictions
• Methods and planning employed by a serial stalker/rapist
• DNA and touch DNA

etc. etc.

I urge everyone to consider reading this all of the way through.

 

[Doghairrules]

I missed this case the first time around, but just got caught up. I can't believe the Lynnwood police treated a rape victim the way they did.

Netflix has a new mini-series based on this case:

Netflix's 'Unbelievable' Spotlights Colorado Cops Who Stopped Serial Rapist Marc O'Leary

 

[Seattle1]

"Unbelievable" --8 Episodes on Netflix

Netflix’s Unbelievable deals with rape in a way television has never done before — and it’s powerful

Closely following the details of the 2015 ProPublica and Marshall Project story by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, its cold reality makes it a refreshingly honest portrayal of rape. But it also presents a challenge: How do you make a show with such difficult subject matter entertaining and not totally devastating?

 

[arielilane]

Timestamp 30:47

I told him that our profilers were very interested in him because of how intelligent he was and he seemed to like that.

You know, you hear psychologists say, you know, rape is a crime about power and control. That's not accurate.

Power and control are a means to an end. What has turned me off is fear.

Talked about how his pendulum would swing and he could not control it. He would have to fill that need and that's the monster talking to him.

You know, after a while the the monster kicks in and he never won any of these battles with

the monster.


And Grusing saw that monster [music] up close. OLeary described his feelings after one of the rapes.

I still remember this moment is that's when he leaned back and smiled.

I got some sort of satisfaction out of it. It was like I was just eating Thanksgiving dinner.

OLeary says even as a child he had rape fantasies but didn't act on them until he was in the military on a tour of duty

in Korea where he tried but failed to rape two women back in the states. He was determined not to fail again.

So I got to do it for real and just be done with it. And then he decided that he was going to use his military training

to figure out a way to stalk his victims, to not be caught, and to satisfy this urge that would come.

Brought up one woman he'd been planning to attack.

Julie P. Remember her? The single mother who had no idea OLeary was stalking her.

checked out her house a couple of times.

I knew she had an alarm system, but um she never used it. He was lining her up for an assault.

And so I was walking around the back of her house one night. So just as I was walking by her back balcony, um she opened the door.

I saw him out there and I said, "What the are you doing here?"

Uh get out of here. I'm going to call the police. And I just watched him. He just turned around, went down the stairs, uh went out to the back, climbed over the fence, and left.

Hunted | Full Episode​

"48 Hours" goes inside the mind of a serial rapist hunting his victims while two detectives were hunting him.