Lovers' lane

A lovers' lane is a secluded area where people kiss, make out, or engage in sexual activity.[1] These areas range from parking lots in secluded rural areas to places with extraordinary views of a cityscape or other features. The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the phrase "lovers' lane" from 1853.[2]

For other uses, see Lovers Lane.
Sign for a Lovers Lane in Maybole, Scotland

While some traditional paths still maintain the name, in more recent generations "lovers' lanes" are often found in cultures built around the automobile—lovers often make out in a car or van for privacy.

Crime

Due to the typically isolated location of most lovers' lanes, they have occasionally been the setting for violent crime.[3] For example:

  • Serial killer Charles Barr targeted couples at lovers' lanes in Memphis, Tennessee in 1923. He was executed for the crimes in 1926.[4][5]
  • 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.[6]
  • 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.[7]
  • 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.[8]
  • In 1963, a lovers' lane site at Fuller's Bridge, Sydney became notorious as the location of the bodies of 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.[9][10]
  • Several of the Zodiac Killer's victims were murdered in lovers' lanes in northern California.[11]
  • Victims of the Monster of Florence were couples murdered in lovers' lanes near Florence, Italy.[12]
  • Several attacks perpetrated by the Son of Sam serial killer also took place in such settings.[13]
  • 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.[14]
  • Two Mercer University students were killed by Andy Cook at a lovers' lane location in Georgia on January 2, 1995.[15]

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lovers' lanes.

References
  1. "lovers' lane". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
  2. "lover". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. Mikkelson, David (2 December 1998). "The Hook: An escaped killer interrupts a young couple's make-out session". snopes.com. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  4. "Trial Last Chapter in Memphis Murders". New York Daily News. October 12, 1924.
  5. "Charles Barr 24th Victim State Chair". Kingsport Times-News. August 22, 1926.
  6. "Justice Story: Cheaters slain on lovers lane on Duck Island near Trenton, N.J." New York Daily News. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  7. Newton, Michael (2013). The Texarkana Moonlight Murders: The Unsolved Case of the 1946 Phantom Killer. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-476-60578-4.
  8. Cross, Gary S. (2018). Machines of youth : America's car obsession. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. 87. ISBN 9780226341644. OCLC 1004264026.
  9. "Media Release: Who Killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler?" (DOC). Film Australia. 7 May 2007. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  10. "Logie Awards". Australian Television Information Archive. 2007. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  11. "'Zodiac Killer' Breaks Long Silence". The Lexington Herald (Kentucky). April 26, 1978. p. 6.
  12. Preston, Douglas (July 1, 2006). "The Monster of Florence". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
  13. "Son of Sam shoots couple at a Brooklyn lover's lane". nydailynews.com. 2017-07-28 [July 31, 1977].
  14. "CSI Atlanta exclusive: Lovers' Lane serial killer remains elusive". www.cbs46.com. October 17, 2019. Archived from the original on August 22, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  15. "Man convicted of killing Spencer valedictorian executed Thursday night". ledger-enquirer.com. February 21, 2013.
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