Lovers' lane

Crime

The typically isolated locations of most lovers' lanes have occasionally made them subject to violent crime. For example:

• The serial killer Charles Barr targeted couples at lovers' lanes in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1923. He was executed for the crimes in 1926.
• Three couples were attacked at a remote lovers' lane in Duck Island, New Jersey, between 1938 and 1942. Clarence Hill confessed and was convicted of the murders two years later.
• A series of unsolved murders and violent crimes in 1946, dubbed the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, began with two attacks which targeted couples at lovers' lanes in the Texarkana area.
• In Palos Verdes, California, a gang of teens robbed multiple cars on a lovers' lane in October 1955, and were caught raping a thirteen-year-old girl.
• In 1963, a lovers' lane site at Fuller's Bridge, Sydney, became notorious as the location of the bodies of the CSIRO scientist Dr. Gilbert Stanley Bogle and Margaret Olive Chandler, the wife of one of his colleagues. The cause of death, while indicative of poisoning, could not be definitively determined, and apart from Mrs. Chandler's husband, Geoffrey, who was considered the prime suspect by the New South Wales Police, no one to date has been charged. The Bogle-Chandler case has baffled law enforcement and forensic experts up to present day.
• Several of the Zodiac Killer's victims were murdered in lovers' lanes in northern California.
• Victims of the Monster of Florence were couples murdered in lovers' lanes near Florence, Italy.
• In 1971, Patricia Mann and Jesse McBane were kidnapped from one lovers' lane and murdered at another. The next year, another couple narrowly escaped a similar kidnapping from a lovers' lane.
• Several attacks perpetrated by the Son of Sam serial killer also took place in such settings.
• Three couples were shot with a .38 caliber pistol by an unidentified perpetrator in the Atlanta Lover's Lane Murders of 1977, resulting in three deaths.
• Two Mercer University students were killed by Andy Cook at a lovers' lane location in Georgia on January 2, 1995.

In popular culture

• A lovers' lane is typically the setting of "The Hook", an urban legend about a young couple menaced by a hook-handed killer.
• Lovers' lanes have featured in numerous popular songs; tracks with that title have been released by Squirrel Nut Zippers (1995), Georgio (1987), FireHouse (1990), The Other (2006) and Hunx and His Punx (2011). The Go-Betweens' 1988 sixth album was titled 16 Lovers Lane, and the 1992 debut album by M.C. Brains was similarly titled.
• Films titled Lovers' Lane were released in 1924, 1999, and 2005. Episodes of the television series 77 Sunset Strip (in 1964), Roseanne (in 1988) and Cold Case (in 2004) also had this title.

References

References

1. {{Cite Merriam-Webster. lovers' lane
2. {{OED. lover
3. Mikkelson, David. (2 December 1998). "The Hook: An escaped killer interrupts a young couple's make-out session.".
4. (October 12, 1924). "Trial Last Chapter in Memphis Murders". [[New York Daily News]].
5. (August 22, 1926). "Charles Barr 24th Victim State Chair". [[Kingsport Times-News]].
6. (11 December 2011). "Justice Story: Cheaters slain on lovers lane on Duck Island near Trenton, N.J.". [[New York Daily News]].
7. Newton, Michael. (2013). "The Texarkana Moonlight Murders: The Unsolved Case of the 1946 Phantom Killer". McFarland.
8. Cross, Gary S.. (2018). "Machines of youth : America's car obsession". University of Chicago Press.
9. (7 May 2007). "Media Release: Who Killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler?". Film Australia.
10. (2007). "Logie Awards". Australian Television Information Archive.
11. (April 26, 1978). "'Zodiac Killer' Breaks Long Silence". The Lexington Herald (Kentucky).
12. Preston, Douglas. (July 1, 2006). "The Monster of Florence".
13. (15 February 2020). "Couple's abduction, torture, murder remains a Valentine's Day mystery in Durham almost 4 decades later".
14. link
15. (2017-07-28). "Son of Sam shoots couple at a Brooklyn lover's lane".
16. (October 17, 2019). "CSI Atlanta exclusive: Lovers' Lane serial killer remains elusive".
17. (February 21, 2013). "Man convicted of killing Spencer valedictorian executed Thursday night".