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Posted on 05/01/2002 4:03:29 PM PDT by FresnoDA
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—Thomas K. Arnold
Talk show host Rick Roberts made headlines with his KFMB-AM radio show about Damon and Brenda van Dam’s allegedly swinging lifestyle. But he wasn’t the only radio personality—or media outlet—to cast a critical eye on the backstory of the Danielle van Dam kidnapping case.
John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, whose John and Ken Show airs weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. on Los Angeles station KFI-AM, devoted three shows to the case, even traveling to San Diego to broadcast from the van Dams’ Sabre Springs neighborhood. The week before that, they were the first to cast aspersions on the van Dams, a full day before the Roberts broadcast.
The Millennium Children’s Fund had just announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of Danielle. Fund administrator Douglas Pierce had visited with the van Dams, and the next day he called a press conference in Los Angeles at which he voiced suspicions about the couple’s behavior. For an hour, Pierce blasted the van Dams for their apparent lack of emotion and general rudeness to him.
“I don’t know how much was true and how much was hysterical, but that’s what made it fascinating. We tried to unravel it on the air,” Kobylt says. “In retrospect, I think he did peg their personalities very well—the lack of emotion, the detachment, the obsession with the media message—and perhaps he got the vibe that they live a different life than most people.”
As soon as Pierce finished on-air, John and Ken introduced their next guests: an angry Damon and Brenda van Dam, who lambasted Pierce as a nut case. “We had scheduled them in advance, but when they heard Doug was on the show, they canceled, only to change their minds right before show time,” Kobylt says.
After the interview, John and Ken picked apart the conversation and spoke critically about the van Dams’ lack of emotion and their defensiveness about questions pertaining to their own behavior and actions the last night Danielle was seen. The next day, the swinger story broke in The San Diego Union-Tribune—furthered that evening on San Diego radio by Rick Roberts.
“It’s a very dramatic story,” says Kobylt. “Everybody got obsessed with it pretty quickly... We have a pretty fair audience in San Diego—we’ve even made it into the top 10 on occasion—and we started getting calls from people who live in the neighborhood and know the van Dams. As a result, it might as well have been in L.A. I tend to look at the whole [Southern California] area as the same, anyway.”
(By press deadline, the van Dams could not be reached for comment by San Diego Magazine.)
Quoting the proverbial unnamed sources “close to the probe,” the Star reported that later-arrested suspect David Westerfield “was aware of the van Dams’ sexual activities and had approached Brenda about hosting a sex-swap party in his house.” The Star said Brenda had admitted to police “that the couple belonged to a swingers’ club called Club CB” and that sources say she “flirted outrageously and danced with Westerfield” the Friday night Danielle disappeared. “He [Westerfield] knew that Brenda and her friends were sexually involved, and he wanted to be part of the action, but for whatever reason, he was not invited by Brenda to accompany her and her four friends back to her home that night for more partying and sex,” the Star says it was told by a source.
Yes, the kids are in a TERRIBLE situation. I can't imagine what they must be going through. To have complete strangers saying their parents possibly had a role in their sisters death..i hope they don't hear about that, or are protected from it until they become much older.
I'm probably the first one who brought up the ex-brother-in-law (X-BIL). Remember, you didn't know what x-bil meant. Besides, the media would have uncovered that he was in the military. They didn't because he wasn't. I doubt very seriously given the sensationalism involved, that the media would have seen fit to sweep an AWOL charge under the carpet like they did for Clinton.
I suspect you are baiting the vd slammers with that comment! It's interesting because you bring up a point...the hollywood/enquirer/major blockbuster hit agenda has been what? Who broke the swinging rumor/theory/story/fact?
BIG protect the children from strangers bump
I pondered that too... and THAT seems more likely..but we'll see I suppose.
15 Q. How many officers were in the general area when
16 you contacted Mr. Westerfield, total?
17 A. I'd say seven, including myself.
Now, that's a lot of manpower to question one man. Further in the testimony, they reveal that they had already interviewed everyone else in the neighborhood, so those seven officers were there to interview one man. David Westerfield. At that time, 9 a.m. on Monday the 4th, he was their prime suspect. On the 5th, they impounded his vehicles.
So the disappearance was reported around 10:30 the 2nd, and everyone but Westerfield was eliminated as a suspect by 9 a.m. on the 4th. That's a lot of clearing to do: did the police pull everyone off all their other assignments to do this lightning-quick investigation?
Technically, pedophiles don't always have child porn to get turned on. Some are able to hide their evil forever..what about the priests? The most common belief is that rapists/pedophiles etc., have artifacts that encourage their behaviour..but that's not a requirement..or a factor in all cases.
This post is worth a repeat in case ya missed it mom! It talks about some pedophiles collecting material that is not illegal.. With all the speculations being said about the vd's..is it fair to ask the following: "I wonder if DW had a bunch of JC Penney catalogues in his house?"
The following was posted by VAlPal
To: FresnoDA
SOURCE First three paragraphs not included in this post.
Many of these offenders have extensive collections of child pornography or child erotica that feed their fantasy world. These photos and drawings will typically be cut outs from newspapers and magazines that other people would find inoffensive or even innocuous. Pedophiles will frequently videotape children from television shows and commercials. They will also attend sporting events in schools and surreptitiously tape these events. Undoubtedly, the notorious video clip of JonBenet Ramsey participating at a Colorado beauty pageant has found its way into the video libraries of pedophiles across the country.
These collections of pornography are often considered the pedophile’s most valued possession (Lanning, p. 28). The collection represents years of work and symbolizes, in tangible form, his inner most sexual fantasies and thoughts. The collection will consist of slides, commercial photos, souvenirs, toys, Polaroids and virtually any other type of material that relates to or displays any minute reference to child sex. Child erotica collections will vary in quality and quantity, often depending upon the economic status of the collector. Police have found that the older the pedophile, the more extensive the collection will be. Since true child pornography requires a clandestine effort to obtain, the majority of these collections will be erotic in nature as opposed to pornographic. And often the focus will be upon one or two aspects of sexuality. Preferential child molesters especially, preserve these types of collections and will do anything to safeguard them. Offenders have been known to make formal requests to the police agencies to return these items after their case has been adjudicated.
The pedophile collector falls into three general categories: closet, isolated and the sharer. The closet collector maintains and views his erotica in secret and does not molest children. This type of collector builds his collection in a clandestine manner and keeps its existence a secret. Sometimes, he will maintain this collection for years without the knowledge of a live in spouse. The isolated collector is actually engaged in molestation and will display the material to a victim. The sharer-collector trades and displays the material with others and may do so for profit. He also will molest children and keeps company with other pedophiles. Since other criminals, like burglars, muggers, car thieves, rarely collect artifacts relating to their criminality, why do pedophiles collect? The answer to that question lies in the psychological characteristics of his condition. He has a twisted sexual compulsion for children whose origins are separate and apart from criminality. His deviance is defined as criminal only because society has deemed it so. Some pedophiles believe that they have done nothing wrong and are simply more enlightened than the general public. They feel they are part of a special progressive movement and one day society will come to accept, what they see as, their sacred ritual of adult/child sex.
From a practical standpoint, collections serve crucial needs for the pedophile. First, child erotica and pornography are utilized in his crimes. The pedophile will display this material to a victim in order to lower his inhibitions and introduce him to the possibilities of sex with an adult. This is a very important step in the seduction process. Secondly, the pedophile will use the material for his own sexual gratification. Often it is used in the arousal phase prior to sexual activity with victims. Still others will use photographs of the abuse to blackmail their victims into further sexual activity. After engaging in sexual acts with an adult, a complex set of emotions engulfs the victim. These emotions include humiliation, attachment to the offender and fear of exposure. The victim becomes extremely fearful that his friends and family will learn of the sexual activity and he will suffer harsh consequences. Pedophiles are familiar with these feelings and will use those emotions against the child. Pornography plays a pivotal role in the child sex offender’s life. But most importantly, it is the tool of his trade used to induct his victims into his sexual fantasies. This is why law enforcement is always on the alert to the onslaught of pornography on the web. [1] Authors Best and Luckenbill discuss the characteristics of loners, colleagues and peer deviants in Organizing Deviance (1992). [2] Reported by CNN January 28, 1997.
Yet the "swinging" aspect of the van Dam situation does have a greater true injustice in it. For a marriage is a Contract, and a two-party contract of a special type, and priviledged in many regards because of that specialness. It is not a contract to be trifled with, and Society, to maintain a proper and awesome regard among all for the specialness of that marriage contract, must act to enforce its most important terms, even when the two parties within it may themselves agree not to.
Now there are many that stray from that contract but the conduct of "swingers" is especially egregious and it is a major dissing of the specialness of that contract. Therefore I am for holding the van Dams and any other established and regular swingers to account in court for violation of that special contract of marriage.
Let them not take us all down into their mud, and pervert's view of marriage, for society can not abide the consequences of disregard for marriage's specialness, not for contracts in general.
Protect children from their parents
If it weren't so serious,it would be laughable. It is more than curious that all were eliminated and one was fingered SO RAPIDLY !!!!!!
I may be naive, but I can't imagine a responsible team of investigators willing to give the quick glance treatment to the "friends" of Damon and Brenda. It is illogical, questionable and unusual.
If nothing else, they should have wanted to nail down details of the hours preceding the crime and verify a number of stories. How could they possibly be convinced that the perp acted alone or that other people had not contributed; perhaps even unwittingly?
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