Most people like a story based on real events. The key phrase there is “based on”. That’s not to be confused with “is a” because most people find the true story to be a bit dull. Many writers base the works on real events but, like Hollywood does now, they change them to make them less boring and more into what they think the public wants to see, whether that would be a villain or a hero. In the stories about the city of Tucson all of the writers did what they thought would make the best story.
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” the writer takes a real story, and rather than retelling it, creates a character out of it. Arnold Friend is originally portrayed as a relatively laid back individual who becomes enthralled with a girl named Connie. Connie also seems to be intrigued at first, but later it seems like she forgets about him. By the end of the end of the story it shows that Arnold Friend wasn’t just sweet on the Connie, he was obsessed. All of the stories seemed to agree that he was a short guy who was so self conscious about his height that he bought oversized boots and filled them with trash to give himself a few more inches, but that he was still considered cool and mysterious. While “Where Are you going, Where Have You Been” only covered the main character the others were focused on some aspect of the story. The “movie” about the story was interesting. The “director” focused on some pointless aspects of the story and changed it to include things people today would understand without all of the parts showing how crazy Arnold Friend was, as well his jealousy of Orlando Bloom, while still making it end so that the story made some sense.
Each author took the story of Charles Schmidt and wrote what they thought would be the most interesting, or considered to be the most important aspect of his escapades. All agreed it was important to include the fact the “Smitty” was around 5’3 in height and greased his hair back, and was generally spoiled by his family. They also though it important to include how he was also popular and told elaborate stories about what he had done even though he was a liar. The only other thing they all thought was important to include was the state of mind most parents were in at that time. All most every parent considered it to be too much hassle to pay attention to their kids and generally let them do as they pleased without asking to many, if any at all, about what their kids were up too.
The author of “Murder in the Desert” was Bill Schafer who was actually the prosecutor on the State v. Schmidt murder trials. He included every important aspect of the trial focusing mainly on the inclusion of attorney F. Lee Bailey. He thought this attorney was bright and one of the best attorneys in the country. Bill Schafer began with the arrival of Mr. Bailey and telling about how short he made the trial. He tells the story of bodies being found in the desert, and of the boy Charles Schmidt who was considered to be polite and popular, and a former state champion gymnast. It gives little to no detail on the murder but continues on to the story about the trial where Bailey fought to have many things excluded from evidence because they were not relevant in some way, or he considered them to have been obtained illegally. Then it includes how he convinced the jury that without a body one of the murders he was being tried for wasn’t even possible to convict him of simply because runaways were common in the town and they couldn’t prove she was dead. Then he tell how all of a sudden Schmidt changed his plea in a bargain with the author , but later reneged on that deal and demanded a retrial and asked the prosecutor, and author of the story to represent him. He lost every appeal all the way up to the state supreme court, but continued to stay in contact with Mr. Schafer, even congratulating him on a promotion he received.
