Which topic for my essay?

Question

So for English class, we were given the topic of something that intrigues us and we have to write about it. I really didn't have to ponder very hard to come to the conclusion that I wanted to do my essay on a cold case that I really liked. However, once I started my research I stumbled upon another cold case I would love to write about. So therein lies the problem. I am torn between the two and my mom won't be home for the next few days and I can't ask her opinion. So here are my two options.

1. The Boy in the Box Murder
-- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1957 a little boy was found naked and beaten in a box. To this day nobody knows his killer ... or even his name.

2. The Murders of Barbara and Patricia Grimes
- Chicago 1957, two sisters head out for a fun night at the movie theatres. When there movie ends and they have not returned home, their mother reports them missing. What was once a search for two missing sisters turns into a murder case when their bodies are found on German Road. The case is unsolved.

Which one do you think would gain the attention of my peers as well as my teacher?

Answer 1

The Boy in the Box Murder -- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1957 is my choice. I actually lived in Northeast Philadelphia during 1957.The victim is commonly called "America's Unknown Child". The case attracted massive media attention in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, with pictures of the boy even being placed in every gas bill in Philadelphia. The story has been profiled on the television series America's Most Wanted. The television series Cold Case, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order: SVU have all used fictionalized accounts of the story as the basis for episodes. There were at least two (2) promising leads to the yet unsolved murder. The first one involved a foster care home that was chosen by a psychic as the house where the boy lived. It was believed that the child belonged to the stepdaughter of the man who ran the foster home. The boy's body was disposed of so that she wouldn't be exposed as an unwed mother. The 2nd theory involved a woman called "M". She claimed that her abusive mother purchased the unknown boy, named "Michael", from his birth parents in the summer of 1954. Subsequently, the youngster was subjected to extreme physical and sexual abuse for two and a half years, and then killed in a fit of rage by slamming him to the floor after he vomited in the bathtub. Neither of these two theories has been proven. Here are some verifiable facts… The Evidence -

- The boy’s hair was crudely cut and located throughout his body, indicating it was cut while he was deceased and naked or immediately before he died.

-His hands and feet were wrinkled indicating they were submerged in water for an extended time just before or after he died.

- The child may have had a chronic eye ailment

- He had not eaten 2-3 hours before death.

- The faded cheap flannel blanket he was wrapped in was made in either North Carolina or Quebec, Canada. It was also massed produced and shipped to multiple locations.

- His esophagus contained a dark, brown residue, possibly indicating he vomited shortly before death.

- He was severely malnourished.

- Cause of death was multiple blows to the head.

Web sites continue to seek interviews with residents of the Philadelphia area who are now at least 55 years old. It is hoped that with recent reconstruction photos and updated case details that someone's memory may be jogged. Another detail open to speculation is that the boy was named Jonathan. This case is chock full of researchable information and should have available Youtube Video. If you read the essay in class it will wow and mesmerize your peers. By adding some of the reconstructed photos with your writing, the final essay would be a sure fire success.

Answer 2

Both are, obviously, interesting, and both are similarly unsolved.



For the purpose of an English assignment, though, I'd choose the case that allows for the most input on your side. For which case can you generate the most plausible solution(s)? Which one is more likely to have been solved if it took place today, rather than in 1957?



Do you have enough information on either case to suggest why the case remained unsolved?



Your writing will be of more interest than the case itself.

Answer 3

Do some research on both of them and see which case provides the most information. Even though #1 in intriguing you won't be able to write much if that's all the evidence you can find. At least with #2 you have their names and bodies.

Answer 4

I would do the first one. I would have to know what happened to that poor child