From: outlawpoet - (outlawpoet@stealth.hell.com)
Date: Fri Mar 14 2003 - 21:21:25 MST
I'm a little late here, but there are some unusual things about the Elizabeth Smart case which we may or may not see come to light.
First of all, here in Salt Lake, the fellow being accused of the deed is pretty well known around here by people who walk or bike ride as "Jesus" a panhandling institution. He's pretty much harmless, if a little religious and wierd. He also happens to look a bit like the pictures. Hence the name.
Originally, when she went missing, the pictures they put up were relatively old, (a few years) which struck me as strange. More recent pictures were certainly available. One point here is that the parents are conservative upper class Mormons, and she had recently sublimated into the subculture gothic. Current pictures may not have been judged to reflect well on the family. (this information comes from a associate of the kids in the family)
The local attention was pretty much incredible, with posters on literally every single storefront. There is almost no way I can see that Elizabeth Smart could have walked around SLC without being recognized unless she and/or her captors tried very hard to disguise. It's worth noting that most people here dont' really consider the kid's rights as compared to the parents. We have a lot of 'correction camps' for under 18 kids which are basically involuntary moral rehab. So the runaways around here tend to book it for the border. My sister ran away twice while living in Utah, but this of course got a lot less press since my parents didn't press charges, or involve the press, and aren't very rich a la the Smarts.
So take most of what you get with a lil grain o salt. Most likely you aren't getting the whole context with the National or even local news, like you didn't already know :-)
Yours in Utah,
Justin Corwin
outlawpoet@hell.com
The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. - Eden Philpotts
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