Subway Serial Killers?

Two women were killed on New York subway trains. Tanya Middleton in 1982 and Lorraine O'Garro in March 2015. Here are some facts about these deaths.

Tanya Middleton

Date: June 12, 1982
Time of Day: 10:15 AM
Train: Northbound IRT Pelham Bay
Traveling in The Bronx
Nearest Station: Hunts Point
Initial Classification by Police: Accident, "Walking Between Cars" (See Below)

Lorraine O'Garro

Date: March 23, 2015
Time of Day: 10:30 AM
Train: Southbound #1
Traveling from The Bronx
Nearest Station: 207th Street
Classification by Police: Accident, "Walking Between Cars"


As noted by a commenter at DNAinfo "The news this morning said she was walking between the cars and fell. I thought the doors between cars were now locked. Even so, I don't know how you can fall between the cars. I've walked through cars many times and a good thing for the world, I'm still around ... "

Having done it dozens of times myself , I agree. There are safety chains that prevent accidental deaths. 


The reclassification of Tanya Middleton's Death as Homicide 

Woman Killed by 1 Train Remembered as Joyful Mother

As reported in DNAinfo:

A preliminary investigation revealed that she might have fallen onto the tracks while walking in between subway cars and losing her footing, according to the NYPD.

I suspect "preliminary investigation" really means "no investigation."

O'Garro Family

Regular riders of the subway know how difficult it would be for a person walking between cars to fall to the tracks accidentally.

Readers of this blog know that killers had to lift the safety chains in order to throw women to their deaths.

I note that there is no mention of the safety chains in this report.

Let's review what could happen if the MTA and the NYPD did not automatically rule out the possibility of homicide.

Woman Fatally Struck by 1 Train, Officials Say

The following is a quote from  http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/

By Aidan Gardiner on March 23, 2015 12:41pm 

@aidangardiner

 

DNAinfo/Michael Ip

 

 

She was killed inside the 207th Street subway station in Inwood, police said.

MANHATTAN — A woman was fatally struck by a southbound 1 train in Inwood Monday morning, officials said.

The woman, whose age was not immediately released, was on the tracks when the train struck her in the 207th Street subway station near 10th Avenue about 10:30 a.m., MTA and NYPD officials said.

She was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

NYPD officials said they were still trying to figure out how she came to be on the tracks.

 http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150323/inwood/woman-fatally-struck-by-1-train-officials-say

Here, is my comment to this sad report as it appears on DNAinfo:

          RIP.

I await the MTA's release of the tape from the forward-looking cam installed in all subway train operators' booths.

You know, the ones that record these "walking on the tracks" people, the tapes used by MTA lawyers to prove the "accident" was the fault of the victim. The tapes routinely released to New York media and readily available for public viewing.

Oh wait!

I forgot.

There are no such cameras.

Gee, I wonder why.

 Welcome to all the new visitors to this site!

 © 2015 by James Graham

Subway Shootings: New York and Moscow

A recent fatal shooting at a New York City subway station was videoed and reported by the local CBS television channel.

But as explained in The New York Times, the video broadcast by CBS was not from an MTA surveillance camera.

It was recorded by a passenger on his mobile phone. 

Compare that to a shooting in a Moscow subway station.  

As can be viewed here security cameras—not a passenger's mobile phone—recorded an event very similar to the New York incident, a fight that ended with gunfire. 

Not only does Moscow have what New York does not—security cameras in stations that record crimes—but as reported by the Daily Mail Moscow even has security cameras inside subway cars. 

In one incident those cameras recorded an attack in which the victim was shot. Russian media published videos which clearly show the faces of the attackers. 

These Daily Mail photos are from the video:

So which subway system is run with greater concern for the lives of its passengers? 

To be sure, if a passenger is shot in the New York subway the police will react professionally. But this site is about track homicides, unwitnessed killings that are automatically blamed on the victim by a police force that is committed, when such events occur, not to law enforcement or arresting criminals, but to protecting the MTA.

As for management of the MTA I wonder if they are proud to lag so far behind the Russians in installing security cameras that can be used to record murders, including unwitnessed track murders. Or are they—and their lawyers—glad they can continue to blame victims for their horrific deaths? 

 © 2015 by James Graham