From “Good Fellas” and “The Sopranos” to “Law and Order” and “Crime Scene
Investigation,” Americans
are obsessed with crime as a dramatic form. And from the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby to the throat-slashing
death of Nicole Brown
Simpson, the popularity of the media’s sensational coverage has proven time and again that Americans do not pull back from
a prurient interest in the
graphic and morbid details of death.