Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Let’s See That Bathroom.

Within a few days of the Raleigh News & Observer’s March 24 and 25, 2006 stories hyping Crystal Mangum’s lies about what went on in a bathroom in a house on N. Buchanan Blvd owned by Duke University, I began hearing from Durham Police officers and people who’d been in the bathroom in times past..

They were all saying the same thing.

It wasn't their disbelief of what Mangum was saying based on the impossibility of four people having a violent struggle in a bathroom with none of them getting a cut or worse, although many of them mentioned that.

What they were all saying was that if I could just see the bathroom, I’d find it impossible to believe four people could all have all squeezed in there and had room to even breathe, much less do what Mangum was claiming.

Since news organizations always want to describe “the crime scene” I really thought in a few days we’d be reading descriptions of the bathroom and watching TV news reports showing it .

But we never read descriptions of the bathroom or saw it.

The Raleigh News & Observer busied itself with searching the “criminal records” of teenagers on the Duke lacrosse team and reporting on its front-page the names and ages of those “convicted” of carrying open beer cans.

The N&O even reported Mangum had “earned an ‘A’ in a hard course” at NC Central.

But nothing about the bathroom.

It’s been the same with all the other news organizations.

Why didn’t they show us the bathroom last March? Why won’t they show us now?

I’ve just sent the following email to WRAL – TV general manager Jim Hefner. I hope many of you will contact news organizations and ask them to let us see and read about that bathroom. I explain to Hefner why it’s important that happen.

John
_________________________________

Dear Mr. Hefner:

Right from the time Crystal Mangum first made her false charges about being gang-raped in that bathroom, people who'd been in it in times past were unanimous in saying they didn't see how four people could've squeezed into it, much less done all the things Mangum said happened.

People who've been in the bathroom in times past have said if we could see the bathroom, the public would understand that.

But as far as I know, the public has never been shown the bathroom by a news organization such as WRAL.

I hope you'll consider doing that now.

The public has a right to see that bathroom just as we have a right to know why Durham Police told us horrific "crimes" had been committed there when even Mike Nifong now admits there never was any evidence of a crime.

Showing the bathroom will be consistent with WRAL's history of showing alleged or actual crime scenes to your viewers. It will also help all of us who must live together in Durham better understand a very important part of what was a terrible hoax played on a community where most people try to get along.

Thank you for your consideration of my request which I'm publishing at my blog, www.johnincarolina.com

I'll also publish in full there your response.

Sincerely,

John in Carolina
www.johnincarolina.com

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are so right. With the resources available on the web, we should at least have a diagram of the house and the bathroom.

Anonymous said...

See the bathroom photo from
60 Minutes. Count the tiles.

Anonymous said...

The bathroom was not shown because it would have destroyed the narrative. Like the current silence of the G88, absence becomes proof that the "something happened" position cannot be defended. It's the dog that didn't bark.


Brant Jones

Anonymous said...

I grew up in and later lived with my wife in houses similar to 610 Buchanan, a typical bungalow constructed in the 1930-1950 period. As a former real estate appraiser I have also appraised dozens of similar houses. Here is what the bathroom looks like: Entire room is a maximum of 70 square feet with 3 fixtures (tub/shower combo, commode, washstand or vanity)and small linen closet. The footprint of the fixtures and linen closet will occupy at least 50 square feet leaving an "open space" of approximately 20 square feet, or just a little larger than the backseat of a midsized sedan.

Accepted by many, into this space three 200 lb men and one woman performed all the crimes alleged in March 2006.

When my wife and I saw the picture of 610 N. Buchanan we immediately knew somebody was lying. How this almost physical impossibility was overlooked by so many is astounding, but as one poster (9:47 am) said, "it would have destroyed the narrative."

JJH DU '74

Anonymous said...

That is one of the things the players pointed out immediately... that it was physically impossible for that 'hoax' to have taken place inside that bathroom, Just one of the dozens of things people refused to believe...


Duke Lax Mom AND SO VERY PROUD OF IT!!!!

Anonymous said...

There are two bathrooms
inside the 610 house. It
has undergone renovations
and additions. The question
of size was never as easy
as it seems. All the more
reason for Duke to reveal
the dimensions and further
put to rest Crystal and
Gottlieb's fantastic lies.

Anonymous said...

let's not look there. Let's not at how Crystal chose three totally innocent young men?

The cover-up continues with the help of the local press