1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae]

[AmesJainchill]

Originally Posted by Icelander

During his undercover work in Miami, Agent Ledoux also got authorisation to carry a personally owned S&W Model 39 that he had modified by Armament Systems and Procedures for concealed carry.

Whose idea was it to carry an ASP? Yours or the players and where did he hear of it?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by AmesJainchill

Whose idea was it to carry an ASP? Yours or the players and where did he hear of it?

It was my idea. I don't know where I first heard of it, probably some interview in the 90s where someone related to a Bond movie in some way was asked what gun James Bond would carry if he lived today.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

In the spring of this year, I emerged from the guest room in a couple of friends' house carrying that book.

"Oh," they said, "Maybe we shouldn't leave that in the guest bedroom, it might upset some people."

"Eh? This is my own copy, I didn't notice yours in there."

Agent Maria Lucia Estevez (PC) worked on the coding and design of ViCAP as a graduate student at Stanford and later as an FBI employee at Quantico, working in the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. Pierce R. Brooks was a mentor to her and strongly supported her decision to become a Special Agent instead of remaining technical support staff. She'll at least have known of Ressler since 1982-1983 and worked with him as part of a small staff (less than 12) for almost three years, from 1985 until earlier in the current year of play, 1988.

Granted, she would have been doing data entry, coding, database design and such tasks, while he was a renowned investigator, profiler and consultant. But she should at least be very familiar with his work and able to provide atmospheric commentary.

What would early FBI commentators have to say about the suspect in custody, Victor Jude Dufresne (some notes on his crimes), and the possibility of an accomplice or a mentor, Dufresne's cryptic 'Big Bad Wolf'?

Victor Jude Dufresne (23), dubbed the 'Werewolf of the Village' by sensationalist press, was born on the 22nd December, 1965, in Allagash, Maine. He was a quiet, introverted kid, very smart, religious and bookish. All sources agree that as a child, Victor was likable, if a bit quiet, handsome, kind, courteous and respectful. Despite spending most of his time with his nose buried in a book, Victor never lacked for friends and when he was older, girls with a crush on him. Investigators have only turned up reports of one early girlfriend in Aroostook County (and that one may have been merely a crush and not a relationship) and one short relationship in Chicago, but it is still early days of the investigation into Victor's background.

Unlike his father, Abel Dufresne, who is a decorated Marine veteran, the local lawman and used to be the most avid hunter in the county, Victor was not all that fond of sport, the outdoors or hunting. As a result, he did not share many activities with his father and from all accounts, they appear to have been rather distant. His mother died when he was five. Victor spent a lot of his childhood with his paternal grandmother, Celeste Dufresne, until she died when he was twelve. After that, he was probably closest to his two maternal uncles, Clayborn and Harvey Allen. All through childhood, Victor's most intimate friend near his own age was probably Clayborn's son, his cousin Courtney.

Victor was also very attached to Father Jerome Prudhomme, the priest of St. Charles Catholic Church in neighbouring St. Francis, and briefly considered becoming a priest, even attending a seminary for some months. Father Prudhomme is respected in the area, but not liked, as he is strongly against hunting for sport and condemns it frequently from the pulpit as a 'violent and vicious vanity'. Victor's father and uncles attend the smaller St. Paul's Mission Church in Allagash itself, with Father Andrew Hughes, a more easy-going and comfortable clergyman than his superior, as evidenced by Father Hughes' hobbies of deer hunting, fishing and convival dining with his parishioners.

After deciding that he did not have a religious vocation, Victor Dufresne was accepted into the University of Chicago as an anthropology major. He dropped out after a year and as far as his family knew, he went to New York City in order to pursue a career as an artist. After three years in New York, Dufresne was arrested for murder in Central Park and quickly became the lead suspect in the 'Werewolf of the Village' case, especially after his teeth conclusively matched bite marks on the last victim and appeared to match several others.

[Icelander]

In our day, the trendy hazardous cutting or lacing agent in illicit cocaine is levamisole, which has caused several deaths. Of course, a famous one which is almost as old as drug legislation is strychnine, rat poison, which has been and is used to adulterate cocaine.

What chemicals might there be in 1988 cocaine from Florida, Montréal, Massaschuttes or New York that might cause dangerous side-effects to an otherwise healthy person?

Obviously, cocaine is not healthy even uncut, but assuming a habitual user, it's something he has survived so far. I'm looking for something more dangerous than a habitual couple of grams combined with heavy drinking. On the other hand, it can't hurt to get ideas on how cocaine (maybe laced with something) could plausibly accidentally kill a new user almost immediately, perhaps someone drunk who tries a single snort.

Are there any common household drugs or frequently used medications in the 80s which react violently to cocaine and/or common adulterants in it?

[Icelander]

Does anyone know if the recommended treatment in the 1980s of serious hypothermia, in cases where immediate hospitalisation isn't possible, would differ from modern best practice?

If one should have access to it, would one want to make use of a sauna, steam room or hot tub?

[Anaraxes]

Hm. A pretty technical question outside my area of expertise.

But most of the research on hypothermia treatment was done from the 60s to the 80s, so I suspect state-of-the-art practices in 1980 were about the same as the routine practices today.

Use of a temperature-controlled water bath is useful, but only if it's merely warm to the touch (40-45 C max), rather than hot. Keeping the limbs out of the water may be useful, because they can warm up too fast, and it's really the core temperature that you're after. The hot tub could be useful; the sauna and steam room are probably too much. (At least as they're usually used; if they have thermostats to set the heat to only a little above body temperature, it's a least a warm place to stay.) Too much heat, too fast, is actually detrimental.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Does anyone know if the recommended treatment in the 1980s of serious hypothermia, in cases where immediate hospitalisation isn't possible, would differ from modern best practice?

If one should have access to it, would one want to make use of a sauna, steam room or hot tub?

After a recent experience with hypothermia (and a big thanks to the Franklin County Sheriff Department and Franklin County Fire Department), you want to get the victim out of any wet clothes, wrap them up in warm blankets (heated, if possible - and nowadays they have heated beds and forced hot-air-heated blankets, but those might not be available in the 1980's), and put hot packs on their neck. Heating the neck heats the carotid arteries and jugular veins, so that the heat can be efficiently and quickly distributed to the body core. Put in an IV and drip warmer than body temperature fluid into their veins.

That's pretty much what I got right now.

Luke

[khorboth]

I was trained by the Boy Scouts or America for treating hypothermia in the field in the late '80s and early '90s. In the '80s, they recommended a non-hypothermic person strip to underwear and crawl into the sleeping bag/bed/blankets with the hypothermic person to share body heat. This recommendation has since been removed because of the danger of the second person succumbing to hypothermia as well.

As far as I know the recommendations to use a heated car or building remain unchanged. We were consistently told to run a warm, but not hot bath if that was an option. This was to be only a last resort, however, because there were (anecdotal) stories of people dying of shock if the water was too warm.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Icelander

If one should have access to it, would one want to make use of a sauna, steam room or hot tub?

To reiterate - absolutely not.

A sauna might be handy as a tool, but only for warming blankets, towels, sheets, etc that are then brought out to wrap around the patient, never ever for putting the patient in.

A hypothermic patient's ability to temperature regulate is broken, and putting them in an environment warmer than "warm" can kill them faster than leaving them somewhere cool-but-not-cold.

I presume some hot tubs can be dialed down to "warm" but I know some don't for hygenic reasons. Even those that can be brought down to merely "warm", they're still deep and generally have jets - and your hypothermic patient is not in any condition to support their head reliably above water nor manage their position against water currents.

A steam room would be difficult to use even to heat blankets as things would become damp, and that's bad for someone who's struggling with temperature regulation.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Hm. A pretty technical question outside my area of expertise.

But most of the research on hypothermia treatment was done from the 60s to the 80s, so I suspect state-of-the-art practices in 1980 were about the same as the routine practices today.

Use of a temperature-controlled water bath is useful, but only if it's merely warm to the touch (40-45 C max), rather than hot. Keeping the limbs out of the water may be useful, because they can warm up too fast, and it's really the core temperature that you're after. The hot tub could be useful; the sauna and steam room are probably too much. (At least as they're usually used; if they have thermostats to set the heat to only a little above body temperature, it's a least a warm place to stay.) Too much heat, too fast, is actually detrimental.

Originally Posted by Bruno

To reiterate - absolutely not.

A sauna might be handy as a tool, but only for warming blankets, towels, sheets, etc that are then brought out to wrap around the patient, never ever for putting the patient in.

A hypothermic patient's ability to temperature regulate is broken, and putting them in an environment warmer than "warm" can kill them faster than leaving them somewhere cool-but-not-cold.

I presume some hot tubs can be dialed down to "warm" but I know some don't for hygenic reasons. Even those that can be brought down to merely "warm", they're still deep and generally have jets - and your hypothermic patient is not in any condition to support their head reliably above water nor manage their position against water currents.

A steam room would be difficult to use even to heat blankets as things would become damp, and that's bad for someone who's struggling with temperature regulation.

The sauna and steam room are the same room, with adjustable temperature and humidity.

It can explicitly be set to any desired humidity and warm temperature, slightly over the desired body temperature.

In 1988, getting another warm body mostly unclad and wrapped around the patient was almost certainly taught everywhere. I learned it in the 90s, after all. And it's clearly the movie/TV/RPG friendly treatment, providing reasons for sexual tension and/or almost defenceless protagonists.

Having a healthy, naked person cradle the patient in a warm hot tub* or bath actually seems like it would be very effective in a case where it was fairly clear that the patient was likely to die much faster than any help could get there if her core temperature was not elevated.

Of course, Agent Estevez's ritual has hopefully accomplished that, but in case Agent Corelli is not relying solely on a miracle, getting Ms. Danzig into a warm bath might appeal to him.

I suppose Agent Estevez would be in favour of warm baths or a sauna. She knows that the ritual should have restored Ms. Danzig's ability to regulate her body temperature, but that she and the three agents are all still pretty cold.

*Ironically, the small indoor one was established last session as being without massage jets or bubble-generating devices, hence Dr. Allen's and Dr. Pinault's possesion of marketing brochures for top-of-the-line jacuzzis.