August 22, 2003
"My daddy killed my whole family"
There's nothing quite like the allure of crack (or so I'm told). The New York Times [free registration required] has an article about a Latin teacher at a private catholic high school who knifed his crack-buddy to death. Two lesbians killed their transgendered roommate for crack money, and when sentenced, the only thing that one of the accused had to say for herself was: "All I want is my methadone." Crack and smack - the drug cocktail of choice for discriminating murderers.
Other transgendered victims are in the news - two black transgendered people have been murdered in D.C.; it's unclear if this is a coincidence or the opening moves of a serial killer with very specific tastes. A suspect for the first murder was in custody when the second murder took place, so we can still hope that this isn't part of a pattern.
I'll agree that workplace shootings seem to be more common now than ever, but after a man in Ohio killed some of his co-workers over a dispute about vacation time, the reaction of his mother makes it seem too routine:
Shadle's mother, Rose Shadle, said her son was distraught over a long-term medical condition that could have cost him his leg."He always said, I'll kill myself first,' " Rose Shadle said. "I always told him never to take anyone with him - but he did. That's the worst thing about this."
Also in Ohio, not only does a mother who was "tired of living" decide to kill herself and take her children with her, but a 14-year-old stands accused of stabbing his 34-year-old aunt to death.
Speaking of kids killing relatives, a Las Vegas teen killed his grandfather after deciding it was just "his time to go". On the other hand, you've got kids killing complete strangers, as was the case when a 17-year-old in Pennsylvania who kidnapped, raped, and killed a 6-year old and may have been the case when a pair of teens beat a homeless man to death.
Some people think that male teens fighting is inevitable and part of their nature; if only a 14-year-old boy, punched to death by his mother knew that - maybe he could have fought back. The worst stories are about the ones who can't fight back, like a child tortured to death in Philadelphia, or four kids in Detroit who were attacked by their shotgun-toting father. Three of the four were killed; the surviving little girl could only say to rescue workers, "My daddy killed me. My daddy killed my whole family."
A teenager in Missouri received a 5-year sentence for his apathy; his 16-year old drinking buddy died with a blood-alcohol level of .402 after a night of drinking and popping Xanax, and he plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter for failing to call anyone and just watching the kid die.
From not caring at all to caring just a bit too much: a British man obsessed with a pop star was thrown in jail for 6 months for stalking when he threatened to hack her to death and displayed plenty of other bizzare behavior. At least a California man who stole and stockpiled over 150 pounds of human remains didn't include anyone else in his odd behavior (anyone alive, that is).
In Singapore, the forensic evidence seems to show that a man kept beating a woman in the head with a hammer as she was crawling to escape, but when a school worker is accused of decapitating a 6-year-old child on school grounds in a ritual murder and the school subsequently gets burned down by rioters, then you know you're in Uganda.
The "church" of Scientology asked for over US$2 million in punative damages and US$50,000 in compensatory damages from a lawyer who named the head of the organization as a co-defendant in a wrongful death case, claiming it harmed their reputation. They were awarded no punative damages and only $4,500 in compensatory damages.
Faring much better in court was an Australian man who was awarded AU$300,000 after he killed his brother's fiancee, as compensation for the state releasing him from a mental institution too soon. (In an attempt to restore some common sense to their legal system, the Australian government is appealing.)
What's up down under? This wasn't the only evidence of craziness in Australia that we've seen recently; in addition to your run-of-the-mill charred bodies in drainpipes, you've got the current escapades in local politics.
When a Casey counsellor found out that Olivia Watts, a Wiccan, was running for a council seat, he promptly declared that a satanic cult was trying to take over his town. When the Pagan Awareness Network president David Garland went on a local radio station to be interviewed about the ignorance of the counselor, the counselor demanded equal time - and used his on-air appearance to publicly question Watts' sexual preferences.
Ahh, politics.
Posted by stupefied
07:28 AM