Porn actress' death may have been in 'snuff' film

AP via Houston Chronicle ^ | April 24, 2004, 3:16PM | no byline

[weegee]

WHITEMARSH, Pa. -- A Canadian porn actress found stabbed to death last month may have been killed while shooting a film that was to have simulated the murder of a woman during sex, prosecutors said.

DNA clues and a scrawled note referring to a "snuff" video connect photographer Anthony J. Frederick to the death of 23-year-old Natel King, whose body was found in a trash-filled ravine in March, District Attorney Bruce Castor said at a preliminary hearing Friday.

Frederick's attorney, Daniel-Paul Alva, said his client had nothing to do with snuff videos.

"We don't know who killed her," he said. "What we do know is that my client is in the unsavory business of photographing women in very compromising positions. But that kind of business was entered into voluntarily by the victim."

Frederick, 46, was being held for trial on first- and third-degree murder charges. His assistant, Jennifer Mitkus, 29, was held on charges of lying to authorities and hindering apprehension.

King, who was from the Toronto area, disappeared Feb. 29 after posing for Fredericks in a hard-core bondage shoot that had been arranged over the Internet, authorities said. Her body was found nearly a month later, naked and slashed and still wearing bondage devices.

Castor said police found a note in a camera bag in Frederick's home that served as a contract between a photographer and an actor. It listed various types of video and photo shoots and used the phrase "snuff vid."

A snuff video is a pornographic film depicting someone being murdered, but prosecutors believe King was supposed to only simulate death in the video.

Detectives obtained several bloodstained items from Frederick's car and from his apartment in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken, and the DNA matched that of Frederick and King, authorities said.

Authorities said still photos Frederick provided to police after his arrest show King displaying bondage paraphernalia similar to a leather device found with her body.

[Slings and Arrows]

Is there really such a thing as a snuff film?

[weegee]

The FBI's lead investigator on the project has said that he doesn't believe that such films were ever made.

I think there have been incidents where a murderer did record his activities even if he didn't intend to/actually distribute his videos. The book Killing For Culture addresses the concept in a very scholarly manner (it even deconstructs some of the footage in mondo films).

Didn't one of these men who castrated another man met over the internet film his activities?

Snuff films are illegal true but so is are videos that show children being sexually molested. It doesn't stop some people from making such videos for their own enjoyment. Porn shoots in general used to be illegal yet there was still an underground production. Videotape is like polaroid photography; no one else has to see the work in order for it to be "produced".

Yes I am aware of the "Charlie Sheen" incident. He obtained a Japanese shock series that was completely fictional (one of the stories even dealt with the mutilation of a mermaid). What is more surprising is that he hasn't been raked over the coals for trying to watch a snuff film. He acted the hero for turning it over to investigators.

Those "Guinea Pig" videos are now available at major electronics stores (like Fry's).

I have not seen any of the films but I am aware of what they are. I think they are discussed in the book.

[SAJ]

This whole business was a central theme in Joe Wambaugh's old novel ''The Glitter Dome'', 20 yrs ago.

[weegee]

As to whether anyone has knowingly killed someone on film, the Guiness Book Of Records had a film book published in the 1970s. Reportedly there was a German film made during WWII that had some prisoners used as extras and they "accidently" walked over a landmine while the cameras were rolling.

Now I will leave it up to you to decide if Nazi Germany was willing to kill some unfortunate POWs or Jews for "art".

[weegee]

Ah but Bud knew what was going to happen and invited to media to film him. He produced his own snuff film even if the media was a pawn in his game.

[weegee]

Porn films gone wrong. Ted McIlvenny, director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and caretaker of what is probably the world's largest collection of sex movies--289,000 films and 100,000 videos--says that in his 25 years of following the porn business he's seen exactly three films in which someone was killed on camera. In two cases the death was unintended: (1) a guy died of a heart attack while being beaten during an S&M scene; and (2) a man accidentally strangled himself during an autoerotic asphyxiation.

[weegee]

Anomalous weirdness. McIlvenny says the third film involving an actual death was a bizarre religious number from Morocco in which a hunchbacked kid was torn apart by wild horses while men stood around and masturbated. Sick, but not intended as commercial pornography.

[Long Cut]

"I think there have been incidents where a murderer did record his activities even if he didn't intend to/actually distribute his videos."

Yes, that has happened. It still fell outside the FBI's definition of a true "snuff" film, in that the film was not produced for sale or distribution to an audience.

Let's face it...there really isn't much of a profit-to-risk ratio in producing such a film...after all, it would involve documenting evidence of a capital crime! While there may be people out there who would pay for it, I'm not sure (and I hope to Hell) there aren't enough to risk a ride in "old Sparky" for.

The way I heard the Sheen story, he recieved the film in the mail, he claims anonymously. It might be true; if he DID deliberately order what he thought was a snuff film, why would he have gone to the police in the first place?

[weegee]

Home videos by psychopaths. A commonly cited case involves Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, who in the mid-80s murdered at least 11 women in Lake's California cabin and made videos of several victims begging for mercy. I have not been able to confirm that anyone was actually killed on camera in this or similar cases, but wouldn't be surprised.

[weegee]

Is there much commercial traffic in child pornography? Or do people make it more for themselves or to swap?

[BradyLS]

I was thinking the same thing. A shame. Reminds me of Dana Plato's appearance in her final days. She was 37 going on 47 when she committed suicide.

[Long Cut]

From SA's link above...

"None of the above constitutes a snuff movie as the term is usually understood. It's not out of the realm of possibility that one will yet turn up. But the notion that there is some sort of snuff movie industry out there, complete with film crews, lab technicians, and, God help us, sacrificial actors; that these people film themselves committing capital crimes and sell the result to strangers; and that for nearly 30 years they've succeeded in concealing all traces of their handiwork, strikes me as absurd."

Put that way, it really doesn't pass the smell test.

[XHogPilot]

Child suicide bombing is a legal business?

Well of course it is. It's actually rewarded by the PLO!

[ladyinred]

Oh my, this is just horrible. Next they will say she knew she was going to be murdered in the film, so it was her own choice. What is done in the privacy of the bedroom is no ones business you know.

[Long Cut]

"Is there much commercial traffic in child pornography? Or do people make it more for themselves or to swap?"

I can proudly say I have no idea. I'm sure that it exists, on some level, especially overseas, but I'm purely speculating.

[Squantos]

Looks like this "actress" took her work home one time too many ........One of Clintons success stories for employing more women no doubt.............Sad.

Stay safe LC !

[weegee]

As I say, video eliminates all personnel except for the filmmaker/murderer and victim. This has existed since the 1980s as an affordable technology. Bob Crane bought into video cameras in the 1960s to record his sexual fetishes.

When hardcore films were illegal there were still labs that would process and print such illegal works.

Wear a mask and the murderer is an unknown. Even todays Islamofascists making snuff recruting videos mask their identities.

[Long Cut]

Yeah, but back then they got caught regularly, too. Even today, those dealing in kiddie porn get caught quite frequently.

People involved talk. They give up associates without hesitation to avoid prison, especially the molestors, who know what to expect. They get caught at other illegal activities, and spill the beans to make deals.

I'm not saying that something won't eventually turn up, but don't you think that by now something would have?

The Islamokazis wore masks, true; but some of them (in the Dan Pearl video) were nonetheless identified later. We could expect the FBI to use all the means at its disposal to identify anyone it thought might have been involved in a snuff film if one were to turn up. I'm not so sure that those who might make one would be inclined to take the chance, especially since, once you sell such a thing, you have no way of knowing where it'll end up. It's probably a big reason why none have been found yet.

[AntiGuv]

Oh, OK. Thanks! I've seen one of the simulated ones which I didn't care for in the slightest (a lecherous co-worker acquaintance who later rightfully got arrested for possession of kiddie porn cajoled me into checking it out). At least, I'm 98% certain it was simulated.

[Lael]

I'm not saying that something won't eventually turn up, but don't you think that by now something would have?

Not necessarily.

Think about it...a so called "Snuff Film-Video-DVD" would command a PREMIUM...not likely to cater to 'street people' who need Goldstein's 5 MILLION $$$$.

Besides...how do you know 'Goldstein' isn't "working off" some criminal liabilities...and even if he isn't...you gonna risk asking him for the DOUGH, knowing about ...ECHELON, PATRIOT, etc., etc., etc.,...

The "jury" is still out concerning "SNUFF"!

I think and act as if SEX is an affirmation of our Humanity, Spirituallity, and G-D given command to Adam and Eve...

And for the life of me, can't understand the psychology of the "Snuff Video".