I thought that the end of the Cold War meant the end of espionage and the Jack Ryan series written by one of my favorite authors, Tom Clancy. As a matter of fact, the last book I read about Jack Jr. growing up was not as exciting without the backdrop of a little reality called the Cold War. Espionage and covert operations didn't seem real anymore. The tearing down of the Berlin Wall, although a happy occasion, soon meant bye bye Clancy to me. I had not picked up a spy book since then.
If I had time, I would do more recreational reading. These days, I would prefer to pick up books in the true crime genre. My favorite television shows and movies are mostly based on true crime or about true crime. I watch Dateline, 48 hours and 20/20 when the shows are about murder. I've read books about the most infamous serial killers.
One of the first movies I watched that was about a serial killer was called Citizen X. It was the first time I heard about criminal profiling. The killings took place in Russia. It was intriguing. What was fascinating was how the profilers described the criminal and what the police should be looking for. I started to watch true crime shows after that about murders and forensics and trials and justice.
The crimes and the shows are especially interesting when they happen in Silicon Valley. I remember right after I stopped working for the City of Palo Alto but still had the pulse on the city, I heard about a murder that happened in the neighborhood. It turned out that the husband killed the wife because she was about to disclose to their oldest son that he had a different father. Their dwindling finances were also a trigger. Imagine that kind of story coming out of affluent Palo Alto. There were a couple of true crime shows that narrated it, and I caught one of the shows late one night. I saw a videotape of the interrogation, and the husband behaved strangely. The lead detective on the case was a face I recognized because I saw him plenty of times at the police department at city hall.
There was a more recent one that happened in Vallejo, and Dateline featured that story about 2 months ago. The female victim was killed by a jealous and angry woman whose rage was misplaced. She thought her baby daddy was having an affair with the victim. The killing wasn't a snap decision because the perpetrator calculated her every move. However, she did not calculate the digital footprint, digital monitoring and technological advances in crime fighting today. She got caught because of her mistakes. These are the kinds of details that capture my attention and keep me engaged. I am so addicted.
My latest passion has been to watch Criminal Minds. This show is fictional, and so I didn't watch it for many seasons. I didn't watch it because I didn't really know what it was about either. The first time I watched an episode, which was earlier this year, I became hooked. Now I can't stop watching them. There is a channel that shows marathons of them a couple of times a week, and I become glued. I do work at the same time of course, but I just guzzle this stuff up. It's about the BAU of the FBI. The BAU or Behavioral Analysis Unit are not just criminal profilers or forensic psychologists. They run a criminal investigative analysis. If I were to change careers, I would go to Quantico, Virginia, and become a forensic psychologist.
Murders usually have to do with love, sex, and/or money. You might now know why I stay out of drama because drama usually involves one of these elements. When analyzing the crimes, I'm sure you have to pay attention to the details and apply your knowledge. You also have to be persistent.
This brings me to the title of my blog. I watched Zero Dark Thirty on DVD this past Sunday, and it was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. The movie is about the almost 10-year pursuit of Usama Bin Laden and the persistence needed to accomplish such a difficult mission. My other career choice, in addition to forensic psychology, is that of a spy. Although Hollywood dramatized the movie, the parts I'm sure are true have to do with the analysis and the persistence.
This movie highlighted that for me. It also highlighted the fact that espionage is not dead. Although the type of espionage in the Tom Clancy books is not the same as the espionage and covert operations in ZD30, it's just as exciting. Once I have had more than enough of the true crime shows, books, and movies, perhaps I should start turning my attention to espionage.
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