Mia Zapata: Second Skin

It's difficult for me to imagine an individual more deplorable than a rapist - a "cold-blooded" murderer perhaps...but a  rapist murderer is beyond any adjective or phrase I could possibly fathom to adequately describe my contempt for.

Sadly, on this day in 1993, Mia Zapata - vocalist for the up-and-coming punk rock band, The Gits became one of the lesser-known members of the 27 Club.

I'm not especially crazy about The Gits, nor do I really know much of their music other than a handful of songs, including their 'hit', "Second Skin" which I really like, but I was still upset to learn the fate that was dealt to the much-loved Zapata in the early hours of a mid-Summer Seattle morning.

After having a few drinks with friends in a pub, Mia walked to the building where she lived and visited one of her friends who lived on the second floor above the studio space in the basement where she lived. It was approximately 2:00am when she was seen alive for the last time.

Her body was found at 3:30am - beaten, raped and strangled. According to the medical examiner, if she had not been strangled she would have died from the internal injuries sustained from the beating. It is believed that she was listening to her Walkman at the time which made her unaware of the attackers prescence.

The worst part about it all was that this case remained an unsolved mystery for a very long time as detectives were unable to locate the perpetrator. A saliva sample had been found from where it had bit her breast and the sample was kept in cold storage, waiting for the future technology to be able to trace the DNA and for another matching sample to be found.

The piece of shit was only found guilty in 2004 after he was linked to another crime involving domestic abuse on a woman and burglary. He was sentenced to 36 years in prison.

The remaining Gits went on to record a benefit album with Joan Jett  on vocals (with the band name Evil Stig) and local friends created a self-defense group called 'Home Alive'.

This, amongst other recent rape/murder cases involving young women, has really prompted me to reconsider my options whenever I think I can walk or catch public transport home at stupid o'clock in the morning. Which is a crying shame since I like nothing more than walking alone in the darkness when it's quiet and not another soul can be found; it was most certainly an activity I used to partake in rather frequently...but it's not worth the risk.

For the sake of these women  I always catch a taxi home nowadays. I implore all other women out there to consider doing the same - unfortunately there's just too much scum out there to ever really feel like you're safe, even though you should be. On second thought, I'll extend the plea to men as well since rape and violence aren't exclusively reserved for the female gender.