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Update on the stabbing case:

Teen pleads guilty to lesser charge in Slender Man attack
IVAN MORENO Associated Press August 21, 2017
MILWAUKEE (AP) — One of two Wisconsin girls charged with repeatedly stabbing a classmate to impress the fictitious horror character Slender Man pleaded guilty Monday, but she still faces a trial in the case next month focused on her mental health.

Anissa Weier, 15, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree homicide as a party to a crime, with use of a deadly weapon. She initially faced a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the 2014 attack on Payton Leutner in park in Waukesha, a city west of Milwaukee.

Weier spoke at length during the hearing, telling Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael O. Bohren that she understood her plea and its ramifications. She also explained her motivation for participating in her classmate's stabbing.

"I believed that if I didn't go through with it, Slender Man would come and attack and kill myself, my friends and my family. Those I cared about the most," she said.

The plea means her trial next month will look only at whether she is legally responsible for the crime or not guilty because of mental illness. She could face 10 years in prison if she's found guilty. If not, she'll spend three years in a mental hospital. ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/teen-ple...ender-man-attack-153701495.html?.tsrc=fauxdal
 
Update on the stabbing case:

Teen pleads guilty to lesser charge in Slender Man attack
IVAN MORENO Associated Press August 21, 2017
MILWAUKEE (AP) — One of two Wisconsin girls charged with repeatedly stabbing a classmate to impress the fictitious horror character Slender Man pleaded guilty Monday, but she still faces a trial in the case next month focused on her mental health.

Anissa Weier, 15, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree homicide as a party to a crime, with use of a deadly weapon. She initially faced a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the 2014 attack on Payton Leutner in park in Waukesha, a city west of Milwaukee.

Weier spoke at length during the hearing, telling Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael O. Bohren that she understood her plea and its ramifications. She also explained her motivation for participating in her classmate's stabbing.

"I believed that if I didn't go through with it, Slender Man would come and attack and kill myself, my friends and my family. Those I cared about the most," she said.

The plea means her trial next month will look only at whether she is legally responsible for the crime or not guilty because of mental illness. She could face 10 years in prison if she's found guilty. If not, she'll spend three years in a mental hospital. ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/teen-ple...ender-man-attack-153701495.html?.tsrc=fauxdal
10 years or 3 years, it's not much for pre-meditated murder.
 
Ah, thanks for reminding me...the victim did survive.

Thank all that's good that she did. It's an awful case; as the mother of a currently 12 yo daughter, I've found the case particularly poignant.

I had a nightmare with a slender man type figure in it at the weekend, absolutely horrible t'was; the sort that makes you afraid to go to sleep again. It's fading a bit now, thank goodness; there wasn't even that much to it, tbh, but it was most disturbing.
 
There isn't really any question of doubt over The Slender Man being an online creation. A modern meme-like entity. A creepy pasta myth, created as a collage of many existing myths and characters.

There's elements of MIB, of stick figure men, of Jack Skellington and others. When hearing of Slenderman I can't help thinking of the aesthetic of The Gentlemen from the all-silent episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, named 'Hush'.


gentlemen-3.gif


The suits. The poise of the hands.

But that's just it, no one myth or intellectual property is an absolute match for Slenderman. When you ask somebody to create a myth they borrow from many from many sources. But since that original forum creation Slenderman has taken on a life of its own. Many many interpretations and creepy pastas telling variations on a theme.

The two girls who claimed to be doing his bidding had likewise seemed to have created a legend of their own for him. This idea of 'proxies' and his living in a mansion in the woods. People have just run with this concept, and tried to add to the legend.

Hearing from a friend of mine (who trawls some of the weirder parts of the internet) I understand there's even some truly disturbing erotic fiction based around the Slenderman. No idea who found the want/need for that, but I suppose that disturbing evolution was inevitably going to happen eventually...

There are those of course who would propose that The Slender Man is just an aspect of something which plausibly could be real. That there are so many legends of tall, thin, spindly limbed figures lurking in the shadows that all of these stories could very well be interpretations of some ancient entity - something old and largely forgotten - which has in some way served as inspiration to all of these tales.

But The Slender Man itself is clearly a modern meme.
 
If you're into slenderman, you'll want to get one of these which is the latest fashion. Apparently. Just the £450.

Link
MAIN-Net-a-porter-giving-the-people-what-they-want.jpg
 
slenderman wouldnt be seen dead in denim, strictly two-piece black suit, 3-button jacket, slender fit
 
Update on the stabbing case:

Teen pleads guilty to lesser charge in Slender Man attack
IVAN MORENO Associated Press August 21, 2017
MILWAUKEE (AP) — One of two Wisconsin girls charged with repeatedly stabbing a classmate to impress the fictitious horror character Slender Man pleaded guilty Monday, but she still faces a trial in the case next month focused on her mental health.

Anissa Weier, 15, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree homicide as a party to a crime, with use of a deadly weapon. She initially faced a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the 2014 attack on Payton Leutner in park in Waukesha, a city west of Milwaukee.

Weier spoke at length during the hearing, telling Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael O. Bohren that she understood her plea and its ramifications. She also explained her motivation for participating in her classmate's stabbing.

"I believed that if I didn't go through with it, Slender Man would come and attack and kill myself, my friends and my family. Those I cared about the most," she said.

The plea means her trial next month will look only at whether she is legally responsible for the crime or not guilty because of mental illness. She could face 10 years in prison if she's found guilty. If not, she'll spend three years in a mental hospital. ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/teen-ple...ender-man-attack-153701495.html?.tsrc=fauxdal

Update.

A jury in the US state of Wisconsin has determined that a girl who admitted to participating in a stabbing in 2014 to please the horror character Slender Man was mentally ill during the attack.

Anissa Weier, now 15, had pleaded guilty in August to being a party to attempted second-degree homicide.

But she said she was not responsible for her actions on grounds of insanity. She will be sent to a mental hospital.

The victim, a classmate, was stabbed 19 times in May 2014 but survived.

She was found crawling from woods by a cyclist near the city of Waukesha, a western suburb of Milwaukee. She had stab wounds to her arms, legs and torso.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41292913?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
A long-form account of the Slender Man killing that focuses on the trial and what was revealed:

Living with Slenderman
BY KATHLEEN HALE
Three little girls, an Internet boogeyman, and a stabbing in the woods on a sunny afternoon.
Inside the trials of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier.


All illustrations by Vicki Nerino
True Crime
JANUARY 8, 2018

According to court documents, the little girls had been planning the kill since Christmastime. The original idea was to do it at Morgan’s birthday sleepover. Twelve-year-old Anissa, a boyish brunette with long arms and a layered pageboy cut, had read online that it’s easier to murder people when they’re asleep. It was the perfect opportunity: all three of them would be sharing the same bedroom.

Like most suburban middle schools around Wisconsin, Horning Middle School gave its students iPads for educational purposes. Anissa’s Internet history showcased your typical online fare (bunnies eating raspberries), as well as more unusual attractions. On her Google Plus page, she Liked videos such as one in which a cat slowly beats to death a live mouse, and reposted a tutorial on how to kill someone with the wrong end of a lollipop (jam it into their eyes, their neck, all the soft spots). She also posted multiple “psychopath tests,” which she had taken and, according to her captions, failed (meaning she scored positive for psychopathy). In December of 2013, Anissa fatefully introduced Morgan to Creepypasta Wiki, a fan fiction horror website, where users can read and contribute to each other’s ghost stories. One of the most popular crowdsourced monsters on Creepypasta was called Slenderman, a tall, looming, faceless figure in a black suit.

Morgan, who wore glasses, long blonde hair, and child’s size 10-12 clothing had one other friend, Payton, nicknamed Bella to distinguish from another Payton in their class. Morgan and Bella had been best friends since fourth grade. But Slenderman stories scared her best friend, so Morgan turned increasingly to Anissa. The two lived in the same apartment complex, and grew close during bus rides to and from school. Together they pored over Slenderman fan art, doctored videos of Slenderman “sightings,” and the thousands of amateur ghost stories on Creepypasta. Gradually, they pieced together that Slenderman resided only three hundred miles away in a mansion located at the center of Wisconsin’s Nicolet National Forest. Worse, he intended to kill them, or their families, if they didn’t first sacrifice a human being in his name.

Given their options, the girls decided to kill someone, and although each would later blame the other for choosing their specific target, they decided that it had to be someone Morgan loved. So Morgan invited Anissa and Bella to her slumber party, and made a list in her science notebook that was later introduced as evidence in court.

SUPPLIES NECESSARY:

PEPPER SPRAY

MAP OF FOREST

CAMERA

SPRAY BOTTLE

CHEESECAKE

THE WILL TO LIVE

WEAPONS (KITCHEN KNIFE…)

Full Article:
https://hazlitt.net/longreads/living-slenderman
 
40 years? She was 12 when this happened.
She is going to a psychiatric hospital rather than prison so hopefully they would work towards curing her.

On that note, I don't understand this part.

Members of her defence team sought to have her moved to an adolescent health facility, but Judge Michael Bohren discounted her youth in the sentencing.
"What we can't forget is this was an attempted murder," Mr Bohren said.
What is to be gained by sending her to an adult psychiatric hospital aged 15? I am not trying to diminish what happened. It was horrifying. But if she was psychotic and schizophrenic she couldn't really help it. I am not sure some sort of revenge retributive punishment is really appropriate.
 
She is going to a psychiatric hospital rather than prison so hopefully they would work towards curing her.

On that note, I don't understand this part.


What is to be gained by sending her to an adult psychiatric hospital aged 15? I am not trying to diminish what happened. It was horrifying. But if she was psychotic and schizophrenic she couldn't really help it. I am not sure some sort of revenge retributive punishment is really appropriate.

What we have here is a case of elected prosecutors and judges seeking headlines to show that they are tough on crime.

What will she be like after 40 years? Don't get me wrong, she obviously needs serious treatment but I can't see how a minimum 40 year incarceration order has anything to do with treating a psychiatric problem or rehabilitation.
 
On that note, I don't understand this part.


What is to be gained by sending her to an adult psychiatric hospital aged 15? I am not trying to diminish what happened. It was horrifying. But if she was psychotic and schizophrenic she couldn't really help it. I am not sure some sort of revenge retributive punishment is really appropriate.


I know what you mean.

It's very difficult, obviously. Because this was a plotted, calculated attempt to kill. It was planned out.

She needs psychiatric care, unquestionably. But that kind of sentence? To enter the real world after release at the age of 55? With no experience of an outside world, with many of the natural opportunities of life far beyond her? That's not right.

How many employers are going to be willing to employ a 55 year old with no qualifications or experience of work?

Is it right to refuse her the possibility of having kids or a family?

The point of psychiatric care would hopefully be to cure her. To rehabilitate her.

If she has to fulfill the whole of that term it makes that concept much, much harder.
 
What we have here is a case of elected prosecutors and judges seeking headlines to show that they are tough on crime.

What will she be like after 40 years? Don't get me wrong, she obviously needs serious treatment but I can't see how a minimum 40 year incarceration order has anything to do with treating a psychiatric problem or rehabilitation.
Yes, as I was posting that I did wonder where the figure of 40 years comes from! It does seem arbitrary I agree.
 
Her intention was to slaughter an innocent child. Why are you people even focusing on her welfare? If the perp can be recycled, all well and good. But think of the victim, fer chrisakes. The perp intended with all her might to murder and failed. Had she succeeded, would you all be crying foul for a 40 year sentence? I think not.
 
Her intention was to slaughter an innocent child. Why are you people even focusing on her welfare? If the perp can be recycled, all well and good. But think of the victim, fer chrisakes. The perp intended with all her might to murder and failed. Had she succeeded, would you all be crying foul for a 40 year sentence? I think not.

I have thought of the victim but the perp was 12 years old and of unsound mind. That should be taken into account but obviously wasn't by the police, prosecution or judge.
 
the perp was 12 years old and of unsound mind. That should be taken into account but obviously wasn't by the police, prosecution or judge.
It was. It would seem excessive to all but the victim and her family, who would most probably be regretting that capital punishment was no longer an option for the judiciary. The crime was absolutely the most appalling act imaginable. It's not an issue of "oops. we all make mistakes". My heart goes out to all involved.
 
It was. It would seem excessive to all but the victim and her family, who would most probably be regretting that capital punishment was no longer an option for the judiciary. The crime was absolutely the most appalling act imaginable. It's not an issue of "oops. we all make mistakes". My heart goes out to all involved.

Capital punishment for 12 year olds? what civilised person would believe in that?

Its not a case of oops a mistake, its a case of severe mental illness.
 
It was. It would seem excessive to all but the victim and her family, who would most probably be regretting that capital punishment was no longer an option for the judiciary. The crime was absolutely the most appalling act imaginable. It's not an issue of "oops. we all make mistakes". My heart goes out to all involved.
As I already said, the crime was horrifying and I am not trying to diminish it. I still do not think children should be sent to adult institutions. Especially if they are severely mentally ill. Once she is old enough to be transferred then sure. And I stand by saying that the 40 years seems arbitrary to me. What if she hasn't been cured after 40 years and is sent out into the world still thinking that fictitious characters are telling her to kill people? What if she is better after 10 but still has to live in a secure hospital for another 30 years at gigantic expense?

I am not and would not try to make out the perpetrator has more rights than the victim and that her welfare is more important. It isn't. But it does have some importance, especially since she is a child herself (still), and will be out when she is still of working age.
 
Her intention was to slaughter an innocent child. Why are you people even focusing on her welfare? If the perp can be recycled, all well and good. But think of the victim, fer chrisakes. The perp intended with all her might to murder and failed. Had she succeeded, would you all be crying foul for a 40 year sentence? I think not.


Probably not. But thankfully they survived. I have absolute sympathy for the victim, here. And I'm sure that the knowledge of knowing that they won't need to worry about encountering their attackers for 4 decades will be of some comfort. Not that it can ever make up for this.

The problem is that we're talking about a kid with diagnosed mental health issues. When you start to add schizophrenia into the situation it more than simply 'and evil child who did this'. That's a person who also needs help. Medication. Rehabilitating.

10 years from now they may be in a situation where they are no longer a danger, actually rehabilitated, but still serving another 30 years for a crime committed whilst seriously mentally ill.

People have been jailed longer for actually killing somebody in their right mind. That's worth considering.

I want you to consider the murder of James Bulger, by John Venables and Robert Thompson. They were both 10 years old and not deemed to be mentally ill. They were given less than a decade at sentencing.

Now granted Venables has been in and out of prison since, under separate new identities. The reason for that is clearly very unpleasant. Arguably the terms should have been longer, but because we were talking about children? That was not plausible. Plus neither child was considered mentally ill.

That was a horrible actual murder. It's worth comparison.

The objection here is purely to the point that by the time that the term is completed this girl will be a 55 year old woman. She will have missed out on large portions of a life. If she *can* be rehabilitated that is significant.
 
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