Jodi Arias Song

Album: not on an album (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Written by frontman Poppy Harpman of Poppy & the Usual Suspects, this song which was recorded by the band is one of a number of 21st Century murder ballads inspired by the cold-blooded killer who for a while became the most hated woman in America, following in the footsteps of Casey Anthony, who was likewise the subject of a number of murder ballads.

    Like Anthony, Arias was facing a capital charge, but even if she had been tried by a jury as dumb as that of the acquitted murdereress, there was no way she could have avoided conviction. After staging a burglary at the California home of her grandmother, stealing a gun in the process, she drove the near thousand mile trip to the home of her former lover in Mesa, Arizona, with three gas cans in the back of her rented car to avoid having to fill up at garages where she might be caught on CCTV. Arriving at his home, she bluffed her way in with the promise of sex, a promise she kept, then lured Travis into the shower on the pretext of taking photographs of him, but in reality to destroy DNA evidence. Then while his back was turned, she stabbed him nearly 30 times, nearly hacked off his head, and shot him in the skull.

    After leaving the crime scene she left several voicemail messages for Travis in a cynical attempt to deflect suspicion, which she knew would fall on her. At her trial, she spent a total of 18 days on the stand, as noted in the song. Arias was convicted, and was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
  • Harpman told a TV station that it took him a mere half hour to write the song, which he did at the request of his wife. It was recorded in his home studio. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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