Talk:The Onion Field

What was their mistake?

example of what not to do when stopping and approaching a vehicle.

What did they do that they shouldn’t have? The article references this, so it should be at least mentioned if not described. —98.203.9.162 (talk) 03:44, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

I worked at a correctional facility that housed Greg.

I worked at a Correctional facility that housed Greg. Greg Powell aka "Onion" worked in the library. We never talked at any length but he was fairly mild-mannered and not a man you would suspect of the notoriety which Powell received. While Powell was not friendly or outgoing by any stretch, he was supportive of other inmates doing legal research in the Law Library. One thing that surprised me while working there was that, for the most part, inmates convicted of murder were most like the average man on the street. In most cases, they were just regular guys who had had a single incident of rage for which they would pay with the rest of their lives. The truly dangerous guys were the ones who had a history of armed robbery. These guys were thugs who got off on the terror and mayhem they had caused.

The other group of inmates that were surprising were so-called psycho-killers. While they did work hard to intimidate staff, once it was established that they were not effective with certain people, they were meek as lambs; certainly not lambs you'd ever want to turn your back on but certainly not the terrors you would expect. There were times when their powers of observation and insight into your personality were truly uncanny. But when that ability was acknowledged and ignored, again, those guys were not the intimidators you would expect. It was, however, easy to see how these individuals in circumstances where guys like this could easily terrorize already scared victims. What I took from this was that dealing with such people in the flattest possible affect would be the most effective way to deal with them.

The most unsettling thing that I ran into during my employment was that people I would later learn were child molesters were the most charming people you could meet. It was easy to see how they gained the trust of children and parents. The best advice I can offer to parents who are trying to decide between healthy caution and outright paranoia is a book by Gavin DeBecker titled "Protecting the Gift." It shows parents how to follow-up on their instincts and spot "red flags" when their intuition is taking a nap. The book also teaches practical skills to give your child to keep them safer.

Si TankaSitanka (talk) 03:58, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Genre

Why is this book described as a "Detective novel" in the right hand data box? The first sentence of the article states that it is a nonfiction book. I dare say it might be novelistic in style, but it isn't a novel. Wouldn't "True Crime", "Reportage" or even just "Journalism" be a better description?