Birthday Wishes to Binh Calambro

While watching my grandkids, I often think of Binh; wondering if he would have had kids by now, if he'd have been as happy as my grandkids, and just what his life would have been like had it not been cut down so early in his life.

According to everyone I've interviewed, court records, and newspaper articles, Binh was a great kid and his smile was infectious. While I never got to meet him while he was alive, I do feel I miss him. 

His birthday is November 19 and this year - November 19, 2019, he would have been thirty. Thirty years old. If there's a Heaven, I know you are in it. Bless you and everyone you touched in both life and in death.

Mitchie Delivers a Rose to Binh Canto Calambro

Binh Canto Calambro

Born: November 19, 1989

Murdered: January 25, 1994

Binh Canto Calambro

Born: November 19, 1989

Murdered: January 25, 1994

Comfort Maria Calambro Style

Maria and I have always had an unusual relationship; what else could there be between the woman who did the last and most unimaginable thing to her son and the person who was going to tell the world about it?

Back in 1995, she said no to my interviewing her. She had nothing to lose, she was already convicted and her appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court had been heard and ruled on, but she didn't want to deal with it. She did, however, want a friend.

She said she "would eventually tell [me] everything" but I assured her I would respect her wishes and simply be her friend unless and until she changed her mind. What was on public record, though, was fair game. I also said I wouldn't lie or try to tell her story; I was interested in sharing only the real story.

The next letter? She asked if I was the writer telling her story and could I send her the book? Yep. It's been strange.

A year into our relationship, I suffered a miscarriage and my son, Isaiah, escaped to what I pray is a better world. It was natural to tell my friend I was no longer pregnant which also would explain my somber letter.

Dear, sweet, Maria... she made and sent me this beautiful card and sentiment. Our family lost a lot when we evacuated our home to toxic mold but whatever was in the garage or car was fair game; Maria's card has been with me through the worst of times and even today, while sharing it with you and knowing she is no longer a mother because of what she did, it's comforting to know someone else cared about my son and fitting that it's someone who's son, Binh Canto Calambro, I wish I had gotten to love in life rather than death.


INSIDE CARD: May you be comforted by the kindness of those who love you. With deepest sympathy, [Maria] P.S. Psalms 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

In the Beginning

original note cards I could arrange into the entire book

Behind the scenes, there's a common theme with the U-Haul Murders and, in the long run, it belongs in a Coen Brothers' movie; it's that ironic: crazy coincidences that you just can't make up.

For me as a writer of fiction, mothering, and homeschooling articles, this was evidenced by everything being dropped over and over again into my lap, urging me to tell the story I tried to give away. Fate says otherwise.

And yet, if only it was that easy. It's now been more than two decades I've been interviewing, researching, learning, listening, reading, and writing.

The Carson City, Nevada, we knew was on the edge of the capitol city where wild horses roamed... which meant we didn't at that time have cable and, in fact, our TV would only either show the picture or emit sound on local channels, but never both. The radio was no better.

Because of this, the actual U-Haul Murders in January, 1994, went unnoticed in our house. I had seen a blip of Maria Calambro briefly later that month while the news covered the controversy of her leaving jail to attend her son's funeral (there's no surprises in true crime--Maria killed her four-year-old son, Binh) and why it stayed in my mind, well, we now understand.

It would be December of '95, when by chance a free trial week of the Nevada Appeal was delivered to our door. On the cover was Duc Cong Huynh, who made good on his threats and was found dead, hanging in his jail cell. Always some controversy for the masses, this became important because he was on suicide watch. 

My mom and I devoured the newspaper--living in the boonies does that to you--and while reading, I had a premonition: author Gary Provost would absolutely love this story littered with what he calls "...and then's."

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ethan and Joel Coen Live Here. Or yeah.

If a crimewave raised Arizona and crossed Fargo, you might say to yourself, "Oh brother," and wonder where thou art. Or you might be caught up in the U-Haul Murders where everything is unbelievable yet absolutely completely true and dark humor lurks in the worst of places. Watch out, even Judge Mills Lane couldn't make this shit up. 

This is THE script written for the legendary Coen Brothers. Can you hear me now Ethan and Joel? Hit me up. 

More than two decades of ironic coincidences, interviews, researching, writing, crying, wishing, hoping, dreaming, and going back and forth on how this should be published and in what format would have you believe the story is and has been over for a long time. But, alas, no. It grows and changes... yet stays the same: weird. 

What doesn't make it into the book or the script, I'll share here now and then during freewriting sessions. 

Additional U-Haul Tragedies: Part One

Through no fault of U-Haul and it's family, businesses, and subsidies (the majority of the time), the U-Haul products and services have been used to hide crimes, cover up murders, move stolen goods and various victims to other locations, and one was set up as (what they hoped would be) a permanent and jimmy-rigged refrigerated storage unit for an unlucky--and un-living--individual (gotta keep the body hidden and the smell hidden even better).

Of course, there's the U-Haul Murders (us) in Reno, Nevada, 1994. Duc Cong Huynh and Alvaro Calambro killed two innocents: Peggy Crawford and Keith Christopher-and then went on a crime spree that included robberies, hostages, and high speed car chases--even a major California earthquake. Things don't get much worse than this particular case.

This one helpful guy, Joshua Luck, was rewarded after helping his neighbor load his moving trailer with a free trip to California. Unfortunately, his luck ran out when Andres Serrato coldly murdered him, then stashed him in the trailer as he made his move.

Stay tuned for part two-and no worries, sadly, there are no shortages of U-Haul stories...