Privelege

Kathryn Woods of Columbus Ohio seems to have come from a privileged background. Her father has for some time been the band and musical director of Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio, so it would seem that she at least comes from a musical background as well. Her father was doubtless proud when not long after her relocation to New York City, she informed him she had taken a role in an off-Broadway musical by the name of "Privilege". By the time he found out the awful truth, that the "Privilege" Kathryn had been appearing in was not the musical, but was in fact the name of a seedy underworld strip club, he was beyond disappointment, and shame. For it happens he did not learn the truth about her daughters New York City lifestyle until she was discovered by one of her two boyfriends dead, savagely stabbed, her throat cut so deeply that she had nearly been beheaded.

She had been involved with two men, in fact, one of whom had followed her from Columbus, and was evidently the man she was currently seeing, and who was in the fact the one who had discovered her body. He had been living with her, and had taken a job at a nearby apartment building as a doorman. The other boyfriend, with whom she had recently broken up, has been described as a trainer, a yoga instructor, and himself an employee of the strip club "Privilege" where she had been working.

As Kathryn had defensive wounds, and as well seemed to have skin under her fingernails, both men had been somewhat cleared of any suspicion of complicity. Neither had wounds, it seemed. However, the former boyfriend had been caught in an obvious and disturbing lie. He had attempted to call kathryn seven times prior to the murder, but Kathryn had not answered the phone. He claims he attempted to make this call several blocks from Kathryn's apartment, where the murder had transpired, but phone records told a different story. When they seemed to suggest the calls had actually been made just down the street from the apartment, a perusal of surveillance camera tapes in the area confirmed this. Suspicious, to say the least. Still, evidence of murder?

Or could it just be evidence of complicity? If so, why? The manner of Kathryn Woods murder brings to mind the murder of Nichole Brown Simpson, and the persistent rumors of her previous involvement with a Colombian drug cartel. This was never substantiated, but one important fact was asserted=the manner of execution directed toward the Columbian cartels victims, not the clean Italian Mafia tradition of a bullet to the back of the head, but in fact a blood soaked mutilation, meant to instill a sense of horror and revulsion in any who might deem to cross the gangs.

Of course, everyone knows the Medellin drug cartel was put out of business long ago. Or were they? That's what I thought until, not quite a week after the reports of Kathryn's murder surfaced, there was a large bust of a drug ring which did in fact have it's origins with a Colombian drug gang. Only it wasn't cocaine this time-it was heroin. As for the containers in which the large quantity of drugs had been hidden-they were dancing shoes. So evidently the Colombian drug cartels are not only still alive and well in Colombia, but are still in the business of engaging in drug exports to the US, in evidently mass quantities. Since the street value of the drugs seized was well over a million dollars, one can only wonder how much has made it here undetected.

So could this have something to do with the murder of Kathryn Woods? A drug cartel. There are certainly enough of them, and before the reports of the Colombian heroin bust surfaced, my first thoughts were of the much reported and yet relatively shadowy so-called Russian Mafia. But special consideration as well must be given to the Colombians, and the Mexicans. The Italian Mafia seems to have been reduced to a shadow of it's former glory days, and unfortunately this has left a vacuum which others have managed to fill voraciously, and with a great deal of bloodshed.

To a young woman, relatively naive and unschooled in the world of criminal conspiracies, it would be easy to be lured into the seductive realm of the gang world, especially when the promise of fame and fortune is held at a tantalizing distance. I think this is what happened in the case of Kathryn Woods, and I think that something went very, very wrong. Maybe she saw something she shouldn't have saw or heard something she shouldn't have heard. Maybe she walked in the wrong room at the wrong time, or perhaps she said the wrong thing to the wrong person. Quite possibly she just had the temerity to say no, to the wrong person at the wrong time.

As for the former boyfriend that attempted to call her seven times prior to the murder, from down the street he denied having been on at the time, maybe he was involved. Maybe he was trying to set her up. Maybe he was even trying to warn her. In a shadowy strip club, some people can get loose lips, once the alcohol starts to flow, and maybe someone hinted to him that there might be a contract out on his ex-girlfriends life. Maybe he was advised that her days were numbered.

Maybe he was the wrong person she said the wrong thing to.

Whatever the case, it would be interesting to look into the background of the strip club Privilege. Who exactly are it's owners? It's "silent partners"? What are their other areas of interest? Are they involved in the drug racket? Prostitution? Human sex slavery? If so, how did the hideous, barbaric murder of Kathryn Woods fit into the overall scheme of things. If it fit at all, and was not just an unfortunate coincidence, what door did her killers hope to shut back and lock up forever. It must have been something pretty serious to risk drawing the kind of attention such a grotesque murder as this would engender. On the other hand, it's hard to believe a murder like this could be done over something as simple and trivial, really, as jealousy, or a simple lovers spat. Possible, true. It happens, yes. But likely?

Sadly, Kathryn Woods, who may not have had any truly great talent beyond what a loving, doting family obligingly thought to nurture and grow out of blind devotion and faith, may have in her trek for stardom turned to a source that was questionable at the very least, and at worse, may have been the kind of source that quickly turns dreams into dust, and hope into despair.