The real Richard Farley was scarier looking. What an ugly, disgusting pathetic tub of lard! If that thing were chasing me, I would vomit all over him.
I wish I could find more on the case though. Crime library doesn't have anything on it, but I would think it would be a prime case for them to write on.
See the link below.
http://massmurder.zyns.com/richard_farley.html
[deleted]
Very true. My dad actually worked at TRW where the shooting occured. I was only about two at the time. I remember very little about it except my mom telling me about it when I was a bit older. He was on his way home and got stuck in traffic during the rampage, but my mom couldn't get in touch with him so she feared the worst. There was a memorial at the building for all the people killed, but now that the office buildings have been torn down, I'm not sure what happened to the memorial garden.
share[deleted]
DEAN M. SHAPIRO
AUTHOR/EDITOR/PUBLICIST
(504) 376-8919
[email protected]
TO: angelus-1
I am contracted to write an article for Court TV's online Crime Library on Richard Farley and am having a bit of trouble getting detailed information. I live in the New Orleans area and don't have access to the files on the case or articles from the San Jose-area newspapers that covered the incident. If you have any personal information related to the case and could pass it on to me I would be most grateful. I will list you in my article's bibliography as one of my sources.
Thank you very much.
Dean M. Shapiro
DEAN M. SHAPIRO
AUTHOR/EDITOR/PUBLICIST
(504)376-8919
[email protected]
TO: Angelus-1
I sent you an email earlier requesting information, if you have any, on Richard Farley. I then noticed when the message got posted that it was listing my old email address "veritath". Please note that I no longer use that email address and my current one is listed above. Thank you.
Dean Shapiro
Wasn't he a psycho, though... j.applebaum..your dad actually was on the scene? Interesting to hear from someone who was there...I only wish the stalker had died, too.
share.....except for the fact that the shooting did NOT occur at TRW. Next time you try and spin a yarn....at least get your facts straight.
shareWow........He's UGLY and WEIRD.
shareThe guy was twisted; probably still is. When he first met Laura, she was twenty-two years old, and he was thirty-six. And yes, he certainly wasn't "Hollywood" handsome, like Orlando Bloom or Wentworth Miller, which must have added to Laura's replusion, but it would have been more than that. Even the most handsome man in the world becomes hideous when he refuses to accept reality and becomes a stalker. Richard said he knew that Laura wasn't attracted to him, but he was charmed by her smile, and refused to give up until she either went out with him or he died. For a while, he dated another woman (even moved in with her at some point), but continued to stalk Laura. He once rented an apartment next to hers, and even would show up on her front doorstep, dressed and ready for a "date". He even convinced himself that they spent a ski vacation in Vail together. In the end, after the shoot-out at the company, he told officers that this whole thing was about Laura- it was all her fault. I bet to this day, he is sitting in jail, convinced he was wronged by Laura Black because she refused to be intimidated and controlled by him.
The title of this film explains Richard's motives very clearly: he wanted to make Laura love him at all costs. Love cannot be given from threats and fear. Without much saying, it should be earned. At the very least, had Richard accepted that Laura did not wish to date him, he would have gained Laura's trust and respect as her co-worker and friend.
--------------
Everyone dies but not everyone gets to live.
On January 17th 1992 Richard Farley was convicted of seven counts of first degree murder and four attempted murders. He currently resides on death row at San Quentin Prison, California.
The appeals process in California can last over twenty years, so in the event of all Farley's state and federal appeals failing, he will probably be executed in another decade or so.
Call me twisted, but I'd love to watch Richard Farley get executed even though I'm usually repulsed by those things. The guy was so despicable.
shareI really can't believe the review from Kathy Collins on this movie. She seems to ADMIRE this killer and blame Laura Black for his craziness!! Even if she did "point her finger and laugh at him" that doesn't justify such craziness as EXECUTING innocent people. Wow...VERY disturbing assessment of this movie.
share[deleted]
This Katchy C/ must be a twisted reviewer! Where did you read HER reviews on?:)
shareI just saw Kathy Ciollins's IMDB review, she was one of the reviewers and I recall her review, it was the one that implied that Laura was the kind that expected it and Richard was understandable...I thought her review was actually kinda weird ("anybody who bakes blueberry bread"(Richard Farley) "has his moments").
share[deleted]
DEAN M. SHAPIRO
AUTHOR/EDITOR/PUBLICIST
(504) 376-8919
[email protected]
TO: Vincent Elgar
I am contracted to write an article for Court TV's online Crime Library on Richard Farley and am having a bit of trouble getting detailed information. I live in the New Orleans area and don't have access to the files on the case or articles from the San Jose-area newspapers that covered the incident. If you have any personal information or knowledge related to the case and could pass it on to me I would be most grateful. I will list you in my article's bibliography as one of my sources.
Thank you very much.
Dean M. Shapiro
DEAN M. SHAPIRO
AUTHOR/EDITOR/PUBLICIST
(504)376-8919
[email protected]
TO: Vincent Elgar
I sent you an email earlier requesting information, if you have any, on Richard Farley. I then noticed when the message got posted that it was listing my old email address "veritath". Please note that I no longer use that email address and my current one is listed above. Thank you.
Dean Shapiro
[deleted]
'Whacked' isn't quite how I'd put it, though I would agree with the basic premise that Farley is one sick SOB. Everything mentioned about Farley, though, is correct. I'm surprised that Richard Thomas was cast to play him, though Thomas did an absolutely brilliant job of playing the narcisstic psychopath Farley. The real Farley looked nothing like Thomas - as another poster said, he was a "fat, lumbering pile of lard". Farley indeed insisted, during his trial, that Laura was responsible for the violent deaths of 7 people and the wounding of herself and so many others. Narcissists like Farley are unrepentant, sociopathic monsters. Everything is about them alone, and what they want. The do not care what they have to do to get it - even if that means violating other people's rights. I hope Farley gets his date with the needle at San Quentin before he expires from old age. It is almost 20 years since Farley murdered those people, so the time must be getting close.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
Here is a picture of the real Laura Black:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Farley
I think she was petite. She looks kind of cute in this picture. In the California newspaper articles about this, it said that Farley was obssessed with Laura's smile for 4 years while working with her even though she never had a relationship with him. In this picture, she has a very pretty smile I think.
[deleted]
[deleted]
Thanks for that link. I was wondering what he looked like. Here's a link that also shows a picture of the real Laura Black.
shareEvery time I see the actor who plays farley, i get creeped out.
share[deleted]
i dont remember the movie much except she sort of led him on, she went to this place where he had a big picture of her on his wall and she didnt react.
But it's JOHN-BOY!(Walton)
By he way, I read about that back in the late 80s and remember that pic. She looked like a slightly idfferent Karen Carpenter [who herself already was dead.]
That actually was of course a major story..and I'd read about that "real fatal attraction"..
http://massmurder.zyns.com/richard_farley.html
What is this, a joke? The link doesn't work. There was a dumb page that also linked to this nonexistent link.
Here a picture the scum bag http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/Richard_Farley.jpg
here new picture of scum Richard http://arre.st/Jails/WVJails.info/images2/RichardFarley3681326.jpg
D.H.F.F
Now is the end of days and I am the Reaper:Silent hill
The real Richard Farley was scarier looking. What an ugly, disgusting pathetic tub of lard! If that thing were chasing me, I would vomit all over him.
I disagree. Ted Bundy was a handsome serial killer - his behavior was anything BUT excusable. I think Farleys looks make him a narcissist - thinking a beauty would give him the time of day. It's the way our culture works. Besides Farley's stalking, it was quite presumptuous of him to think Laura would date him. I think his rampage was his pent up frustration due to his weirdness and looks. On the other hand, unattractive people date all the time - if they have a like able personality. Farley wasn't even like able. He was annoying and didn't respect Laura. She said "no."
_____________________________
What??!!
Richard Farley's looks were not pertinent to the overall stalking and murders. I read that he had dates with women and even lived with one for a bit during his four-year stalk of Laura Black. In less than those 48 months, he had mailed Laura over 200 desperate letters (1-2 per week), while witnesses observed him watching her from multiple locations on a regular, ongoing basis. Laura moved 4 times during that period, but Farley would find her new address and phone number. As in the movie, he also accessed her locked office, desk drawers/cabinets, and gained private personnel records. It's not that Farley couldn't get a date (or get laid); it was that he, within his psychopathy, was obsessed about specifically acquiring Laura. And like you pointed out, good-looking stalkers exercise inexcusable behavior as well.
It is presumptuous to assume Laura thought Farley was physically repulsive. When Laura Black first met Farley, he was younger looking than in photos referenced here and was actually an average looking engineer of 36 - he wasn't as puffy and hairy as the photos taken 4-8 years later...after we also know the ugliness of his crimes. I have not read that Laura ever declined his advances due to his physical appearance. My understanding is that Farley hit on Laura very quickly and aggressively. She was only 22, right out of university, far from family and friends, and taking on her first critical career position where an instant interoffice romance surely seemed like a bad idea. An older coworker - nearly 15 years her senior - is suddenly "putting her to the screws" by pressuring her for her personal time, to go on a date(s). It would scare off most young ladies at that point. Had Laura actually dated Farley even once, his aggressiveness would've likely led her down the same path of fearful avoidance. It may have triggered even more rage within Farley if he felt she "led him on" by allowing a date or two. Sadly, it seems it was a no-win situation. There are now laws and more resources to help with this kind of situation, but not so much in 1984-88.
Attractive psychopaths, sociopaths, and pedophiles can use their pleasant looks to get them even further along in their predatory plans; the general public tends to immediately trust a pleasant countenance and, consequently, feels safe around these predators before they really should. The "creepy" guy/gal down the hall might actually make the sweetest lover, while the "hottie" guy/gal down the other hall, might actually become an absolute monster. Or...it could go the other way.
Richard Farley in an alternate reality: If he had been patient (and mentally stable), perhaps he and Laura Black would have gotten along at work and learned to trust one another; they may have shared great times and finally taken a step toward dating...then considered marriage and a family. After all, similar situations happen in this reality.
I've worked with people who have taken time getting to know their coworkers platonically, attractive or not. After time proves someone to be trustworthy, kind, and to their liking (humor was big with the ladies where I worked), they will sometimes date and even go on to get married. I had one "hot" female coworker that married the unattractive "nerd" for his friendship, intelligence, sweetness, humor, and love. She told me that, initially, she was not attracted to him upon sight, but after time, they knew they were meant for each other and are still together a decade later. I also had a male coworker who was handsome (and rich) marry an older, stout, plain (but feisty) software programmer after they fell in love over a three-year period. These "not initially obvious" couples were attractive from within, but trust and time revealed it.
Basic bottom lines: Don't judge "a book by its cover" and give ALL new relationships time to develop long-lasting trust. And always trust your gut.
"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
Honestly, Bundy wasn't all that handsome---he had truly creepy eyes, and frankly, his looks are overrated---plus he was a fckg psycho, regardless of his so-called looks. Good post with some interesting and on-point observations, though.
shareRichard Thomas's portrayal of Farley was brilliant!