Now if this doesn't suggest some RPG possibilities...

[ffutures]

Pointed out by ps238principal, the Vidoq Society is a REAL organisation of criminologists that get together to eat lunch and fight crime:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3489805/The-Vidocq-Society-Murder-on-the-menu.html

It's a lot more official than e.g. the Black Widowers, and cases have to be (a) at least two years unsolved and (b) presented by law enforcement professionals, not private eyes or amateur sleuths, but it apparently works.

Now if this doesn't suggest some interesting ideas for RPG scenarios, fanfic, etc. people really just aren't trying...

Comments

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they've been used in at least one TV show as a plot device. Maybe Murder She Wrote.

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

One of the three co-founders just died this last Friday. No mystery about it, though - unless there's some way to induce mesothelioma in somebody on purpose. And even if there was a homicide, their rules only allow for cold cases, so at least those two years before the Society got involved, although I suppose in a fictional version exceptions could be made.