Maybe some sort of eye for an eye (or foot for a foot, although a whole life is much more valuable!!) for the lawn mower secretary?

For all the headlines about women being murdered, when you look at the statistics, males are more likely, by a huge margin, to be the victims. I think there is an upcoming murder though. Ever heard of John Kennedy?

The press likes to scare females with stories about "independent" women getting murdered. Compare with the actual numbers of women being beaten and/or murdered by the men in their lives which were, or are, under-reported. All in all, I'd have to agree with Balzac and Sal, "Our worse fears lie in anticipation."

I'm not really sure what value bringing a murder into Mad Men would bring. This isn't a soap opera. I see no story line. Random SC secretary is murdered. The rest of the secretaries are frightened. Okay, now what?

I actually recalled this horrific crime when Peggy's mom got the news that Peggy was moving into the city. She said something about "all the crime." The two young ladies who were murdered in August 1963 were around Peggy's age. It probably would not be in keeping with the show to have a character (even a peripheral character) murdered, though it would not surprise me at all if discussion of this crime seeps into a future episode. Usually every episode contains at least one reference to the news of the day, and it might be interesting to just see how the women of SC react to this crime, or whether it creates further tension between Peggy and her family trying to pressure her to move back to Brooklyn.

There's a difference between bringing the subject up as a newsworthy thing in the show and murdering one of the characters, which is what was suggested.

What do you think Penultimate? You started this topic. Do you have anything further to say?

Who said anything about a secretary? Although Mad Men is not a soap opera, stuff happens that can jolt you out of complacency in any setting.

Mad Men is a story, and a story can go anywhere the writer wants it to and not stay within the parameters of what the reader or viewer desires.

Well, since the majority of the females at SC ARE secretaries (Peggy's a copywriter), who else would it be? Are you suggesting random murder for any of the SC employees or only females, since the story you refer to was killing of females.

I hope it's Peggy.

I mentioned that my feeling was not directly related to the murder. I was actually thinking of Paul. I'm not sure why, maybe because there seems to be a sense of doom circling around him.

Speaking of murder: @Loves Mad Men - you're killing me! LOVE IT!

What if the murderer is a vampire? I'm thinking Kurt ("I drink the blood of the man, not the woman"). This would tie in with the whole blood theme of S3.

First victim - Harry Crane a.k.a. "Sissy Mary"

Your favorite heroine and mine, Elizabeth Moss, could have her very own spin-off, "Peggy the Vampire Slayer".

Episode 1: I Always Pick the Wrong Boys

Okay, let me get this right. Two career girls are murdered so that means that Paul will be murdered. Interesting.

I still don't see how a murder fits in with the SC storyline.

@Polar Bear...you crack me up.

Lois will probably accidentally murder herself, the writers make her dumber and dumber with every season. If there's another culprit, don't be surprised if there's a peg-leg-print at the scene of the crime.

This particular murder story stayed front page news in all the NYC papers for almost three months, until Nov. 22. So I would say, in that context, it fits.

It's possible this real story could be woven into the MM storyline.
It would be a tragic way to write out some characters.

Burt Peterson returns with a gun!

Wow, murder abides here on the board! Let's just call this "Bullet Park's Landing" and get it over with!

Paul gets murdered because career girls were murdered in NYC in 1963.

Don murdered his father, either accidentally or on purpose. Well, I guess accidentally would be involuntary manslaughter, but you get my drift.

Joan murders Dr. Rapist, but feels bad and uses her nursing/Red Cross/Korea/Office Manager training to bring him back to life.

Maybe we'll find that Gene didn't just die in the A&P, he was secretly murdered by Don, before leaving for the office, secretly switched his coffee with Tasters Choice and a little rat poison.

Zabadu-- don't forget, there's still a chance there's something wrong with Baby Gene. ;-)

Now there's a metaphoric name!

@fifty two - oh yes!! Sally will kill baby Gene with the Barbie and blame Bobby, who suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and rarely speaks in sentences. He will wind up in Sing Sing with only pigeons to pet.

Zab, you should put together a "silly predictions" list for a topic. Wednesday usually gets pretty goofy around here, I've noticed.

Speaking of which, did anyone ever predict that Duck would be back at another agency?

I have an idea about this, Maddicts: What about Peggy comes home to find her roommate, and maybe another girl Peggy's roommate had over, both murdered and her roommate raped, as well?

It would be horrendous, for Peggy to have to survive seeing that scene, but, well, what do you think?

Remember when Peggy's Mom said to her, "You'll get raped" about her move to Manhattan? Perhaps this was foreshadowing by Weiner and the writers?

@Stagekiss: Much more plausible scenario!!

You guys are sick. Funny, but sick!

@fifty-two: Yes, I think by Wednesday we're all suffering a little Mad Men withdrawal syndrome.

The more I think about this, as Peggy and her roommate (I forgot her name, forgive me) ARE career girls, and Peggy walking in on a gruesome murder scene, of her roommate and another career girl friend of her roommate's (or maybe we find out next week Peggy is living with 2 career girls now, so that they are able to afford to pay the rent each month-Manhattan was expensive, even back then-in fact, if you remember, Peggy comments on this to her sister, her mother and to Don, when she asks him for a raise), makes sense, and it being such big news in 1963, as Penultimate says, I don't think Weiner and Co. would want to miss out on the opportunity to weave the story into an episode.

*twittering with excitement over next week's episode*

*blushing* Awww, thanks zabadu! :-)

@Stagekiss - You're welcome! I can see how they could work the story in that way (and make Peggy feel even more guilty than she does right now about moving to Manhattan). I just couldn't see how killing off a major character would fit into MM without serious alterations to the subtext. But a peripheral murder? Yeah, I can see that.

You should write more!!

I never knew about this event but then I was born in 1965, perhaps though the mention of this is a precursor of what we now know as serial murder, the boston strangler, or Ted Bundy. also the Manson Crimes in California had yet too take place yet that was 1969 and everones attention went too how gruesome and heartless the crimes were, sexual crimes have a pulp element or the sensationalism of a horror story usually for most females in general, I don't think though any of the current cast women will befall a fate of rape or murder.

Hi everyone!
I don't want to ask a stupid question...but, do we know for sure Peggy moved to the City and has a roomate?

Well, she did ask Don for a raise and mentioned that Manhattan was expensive.

I don't remember the career girls murder, but I do remember the eight student nurses murdered by Richard Speck in July of 1966. Simon and Garfunkel referenced it in their "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night track from the Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme album of that same year.

@zabadu- Now, I'm REALLY blushing! Thanks! I'm thrilled to have found this talk blog. I'm enjoying the banter, dialogue and debate over my favorite show...I think Weiner should make a think tank of us. How many of us would love to be able to influence the show's storylines?

*waving my hands high in the air, excitedly*

You know, I don't believe they'll murder Peggy, but wouldn't it make for a bloody-good storyline to have the Career-Girls Murder directly affect a main Mad Men character? Heck, they inserted the historic news story of Flight 1 into the show, and had it directly affect Pete, a main character, as well as the lives of those who work at SC. I don't think it will be inserted as a periphery story at all, but it will have great significance in Peggy's life, but again, it's just my opinion.