You Just Discovered Your Beloved Grandmother Committed Murder! Now What?

Superfly said:

Exactly. That's stupid. All it's doing is potentially opening up the family to restitution lawsuits.

Just shut up about it. Anybody who would be upset is long dead.

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Yeah, because we wouldn't want the victims family to get any of Grannies inheritance. Clearly, their legal right to restitution is less important than you getting blood money you didn't earn.

rhinefire said:

Your beloved grand mother has passed on of old age decades ago. You were going through some of her personal belongings no one ever knew she had. You find her letter of personal confession to committing a murder many decades ago when she was a teenager. All parties connected are long ago deceased but family members like you are of course living on. The murder case was never solved. What is the right thing to do with this letter of confession?

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Attempt to exploit it for money.

Slyhunter said:

like charging your grandmothers inheritors for the financial retribution of the crimes out of your inheritance up to and including 100% of your inheritance and then some.

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If that is what they entitled to they then should receive it.

I think that it would make a good book.

rathi said:

Yeah, because we wouldn't want the victims family to get any of Grannies inheritance. Clearly, their legal right to restitution is less important than you getting blood money you didn't earn.

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The victim's family DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HER. She's been dead for like 100 years. Sheesh, dude. I don't give any more of a **** about the money than I give a **** about something that happened 100 years ago with a relative that I didn't even know.

You go knock on the door of the victim's family and say, "Hey, my dead great, great gramma killed your dead great, great gramma." What do you think they are going to do? Dissolve in a pool of tears? Or go back to their meatloaf and not give it another thought, because they didn't know the great, great gramma anyway?

Superfly said:

The victim's family DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HER. She's been dead for like 100 years. Sheesh, dude. I don't give any more of a **** about the money than I give a **** about something that happened 100 years ago with a relative that I didn't even know.

You go knock on the door of the victim's family and say, "Hey, my dead great, great gramma killed your dead great, great gramma." What do you think they are going to do? Dissolve in a pool of tears? Or go back to their meatloaf and not give it another thought, because they didn't know the great, great gramma anyway?

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It doesn't matter if the victims family never knew her. Concealing the truth so that you can hold onto money that isn't legally yours is profoundly immoral.

rathi said:

It doesn't matter if the victims family never knew her. Concealing the truth so that you can hold onto money that isn't legally yours is profoundly immoral.

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Well, murder is profoundly immoral, too, but I would look past that in this situation as well, so I guess that makes me profoundly immoral. :shrug:

And the money is not the only reason, or even the main reason, for not saying anything about the letter. There is no good reason to say anything about the letter. Anybody involved is dead. Chances are that there isn't a single person alive that knew any of the parties involved, so it's just an exercise in futility. Pointless. But if you are just looking to give away money for no reason other than to absolve yourself or your dead great grandmother of any kind of guilt, let me give you my Paypal information. I'll be glad to help lighten your load. Being as how I am profoundly immoral and all. I'll probably use my ill-gotten gains for hookers and blow.

Superfly said:

Well, murder is profoundly immoral, too, but I would look past that in this situation as well, so I guess that makes me profoundly immoral. :shrug:

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Glad we are in agreement then.

And the money is not the only reason, or even the main reason, for not saying anything about the letter. There is no good reason to say anything about the letter. Anybody involved is dead. Chances are that there isn't a single person alive that knew any of the parties involved, so it's just an exercise in futility. Pointless. But if you are just looking to give away money for no reason other than to absolve yourself or your dead great grandmother of any kind of guilt, let me give you my Paypal information. I'll be glad to help lighten your load. Being as how I am profoundly immoral and all. I'll probably use my ill-gotten gains for hookers and blow.

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Telling the truth is not giving money away. Restitution will be paid according to the law as determined by the courts. Its especially hypocritical given that you have no problem with the court awarding your money based on your birthright, but get all shirty about anyone else legally getting some money. I suppose if you discovered that Grandma secretly had another kid, you'd conceal that as well to cut them out of their legal right as well.

What if you discover the person murdered was your spouses grandmother?

rhinefire said:

Your beloved grand mother has passed on of old age decades ago. You were going through some of her personal belongings no one ever knew she had. You find her letter of personal confession to committing a murder many decades ago when she was a teenager. All parties connected are long ago deceased but family members like you are of course living on. The murder case was never solved. What is the right thing to do with this letter of confession?

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Frame it.

rhinefire said:

Your beloved grand mother has passed on of old age decades ago. You were going through some of her personal belongings no one ever knew she had. You find her letter of personal confession to committing a murder many decades ago when she was a teenager. All parties connected are long ago deceased but family members like you are of course living on. The murder case was never solved. What is the right thing to do with this letter of confession?

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If nobody yet lives with any stake in this, then nothing is really served by making it public. Burn pile.

If there was anyone still living who had a NEED to know about this, it would be different.

Goshin said:

If nobody yet lives with any stake in this, then nothing is really served by making it public. Burn pile.

If there was anyone still living who had a NEED to know about this, it would be different.

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Who says nothing is served by making it public? What most of the people who have posted that "nothing is served" if there are no members of the victim's family still living; are failing to appreciate that in a murder the plaintiff in the legal action is "the people" which includes all of us, and not just the victim's family. So if even when a cold murder case is cleared, we are all served by this.

Who knows, maybe somewhere there is the grandchild of a cop who worked on an unsolved murder in the interest of justice who might appreciate knowing that the case his grandfather worked so hard on was finally solved? Maybe there was someone else who lived out their life as a suspect of the murder, who's personal life was destroyed by this, who even if they are no longer living, might have their name and reputation cleared by this information? And why doesn't anyone acknowledge that the reason the letter was written was to acknowledge the murder in hopes that the information would one day be shared? Obviously grandma didn't really want the secret to never be known, or she would have kept it a secret. In any event, when is the truth not to be considered a virtue? Especially when the truth does no harm? The ironic thing about those who would keep this truth a secret are in effect assuming grandma's guilt on their own conscience.

What an interesting exercise in ethics. At fist I was just going to post that the only logical thing to do was post the letter on facebook, same as sharing your kid's first doo-doo, and what you favorite color is. But then I changed my mind after reading some of the unethical responses. This should be a no-brainer.

rhinefire said:

Your beloved grand mother has passed on of old age decades ago. You were going through some of her personal belongings no one ever knew she had. You find her letter of personal confession to committing a murder many decades ago when she was a teenager. All parties connected are long ago deceased but family members like you are of course living on. The murder case was never solved. What is the right thing to do with this letter of confession?

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Well - she's dead so it's not like she's going to get tossed in the clink. If someone took the time to write it I'd imagine they'd want me to make it known - a post partum confession if you will.

I see nothing wrong with coming out and being *honest* about such a thing. Is it really too hard to ask that someone do that? Imagine if you (general you) were a family member of someone long since killed and never learned the truth - but if you had, it would have helped you let go of that unknown element, that mystery.

My ex boyfriend had a cousin that went missing under mysterious circumstances 15 years ago and it would be tragic if they *never ever* find out the truth all because the person involved was old and dead when the truth was discovered.

Seriously - some humanity, people.

Aunt Spiker said:

My ex boyfriend had a cousin that went missing under mysterious circumstances 15 years ago and it would be tragic if they *never ever* find out the truth all because the person involved was old and dead when the truth was discovered.

Seriously - some humanity, people.

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I don't mean to be insensitive here, but who is going to remember that this cousin even existed, in 100 years? That's the point I'm getting at. This all would have had to have happened 100 years ago.

Superfly said:

I don't mean to be insensitive here, but who is going to remember that this cousin even existed, in 100 years? That's the point I'm getting at. This all would have had to have happened 100 years ago.

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Where on earth did you conclude that? That's senseless.

People DO remember people - family, etc. How you think it wouldn't be possible and that no one would care is beyond me. Maybe you don't think you'd notice or care - but I actually care very much about my family's past.

Not everyone lives in a disconnect.

Aunt Spiker said:

Where on earth did you conclude that? That's senseless.

People DO remember people - family, etc. How you think it wouldn't be possible and that no one would care is beyond me. Maybe you don't think you'd notice or care - but I actually care very much about my family's past.

Not everyone lives in a disconnect.

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Who do you remember that was alive 100 years ago? We have a life expectancy of about 70. Who are we going to remember from 100 years ago?

Superfly said:

I don't mean to be insensitive here, but who is going to remember that this cousin even existed, in 100 years? That's the point I'm getting at. This all would have had to have happened 100 years ago.

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Lets turn the exercise around. What if the letter acknowledged some great act of humanity like helping slaves escape to freedom? But at the time grandma didn't feel that she could share that information.

So then 100 years later would you still say that the information would not be worth sharing?

Or let's flip it back again the other way. What if Grandma at been the first lady of the President at the time? Still going to say that nobody would care about this history?

Superfly said:

Who do you remember that was alive 100 years ago? We have a life expectancy of about 70. Who are we going to remember from 100 years ago?

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That's not the point of being honest, actually. What's the reason *not* to say anything?

But glad you asked. 2013 was actually the 100th year anniversary of my Great Great Grandfather stepping off the train into Kentucky. He bought a farm - and now my family owns a span of farmed land that services several industries with tobacco and other crops. About 80 years ago my husband's family bought a large area of land in California, part of it became a winery and the other part became a surburban stretch of Freemont.

People do have family histories, you know, and make an effort to preserve them.

Not everyone lives disconnected from their past.

There's no reason to hide something like that - none. Even if it was 500 years ago, I'd still say it's silly to pretend it's terrible and disastrous to be honest about it.

Sell it to a tabloid for a decent sum.

Del Zeppnile said:

Lets turn the exercise around. What if the letter acknowledged some great act of humanity like helping slaves escape to freedom? But at the time grandma didn't feel that she could share that information.

So then 100 years later would you still say that the information would not be worth sharing?

Or let's flip it back again the other way. What if Grandma at been the first lady of the President at the time? Still going to say that nobody would care about this history?

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Let me get back to you on this. You have a good point. I'd think that the good history would want to be told, and the bad history should be buried, but again - you have a point. Let me chew on it some.