I Started Writing To A Convicted Murderer Out Of Boredom, Now I REALLY Wish I Just Stayed Bored
By Vanessa Doe
Sighing, I got out of the car and walked to the front door, and into my house. I threw my belongings on the couch, and sat down. Grabbing my laptop beside me, I powered it on, the familiar whir of the machine comforting my loneliness. Some people watch crappy reality television to feed their guilty pleasure, I lurk on true crime forums, and judging by everyone else, I’m not the only one with this particular guilty pleasure. I scroll through the topic titles: “I think my neighbor killed his wife”, “What Do I Do? I have A Stalker!”, “I matched on Tinder with a serial rapist”, and so forth. I came across one title that stopped me mid-scroll: “I Want to Write to Charles Manson — Will I Get a Reply?”
I rolled my eyes, sure, write to the infamous Charles Manson, who probably gets a hundred letters a day — that’s original. I entertained the thought for a moment, what if I did write to someone in jail? Someone who is not as well known, but has had significant amount of media coverage? The thrill of it all excited me as I proceeded to do some Google searches.
I found someone: Rob Caygon. He was convicted in 2006 for second-degree murder, and would be released shortly for good behavior. He had one hell of a defense team, because after reading all those reports, it sure sounded like the three murders he was pardoned of was done by him, and not whomever else they accused. Picking up some spare paper from the coffee table, I began writing – no thinking, just writing. Twenty-minutes later I was sitting in the midst of crumpled paper balls, staring at two words on the paper in front of me: “Hello Rob, my name is Anna” – that was it. I was hit with a massive writer’s block.