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Strange Deaths

Human catapult 'missed the net'

A man died after a catapult stunt went wrong and he missed the net that was supposed to catch him, a court heard.

Kostadin Yankov, 19, died during the stunt on 24 November 2002 at Middlemoor Water Park in Fiddington, Somerset.

The device operators, Richard Wicks, 33, from Burnham-on-Sea, and David Aitkenhead, 45, of Bridgwater are accused of being grossly negligent.

They both deny the charges of manslaughter. The case at Bristol Crown Court continues.

The catapult was designed and built by the two defendants.

Mr Yankov, known as Dino, was studying biochemistry at Oxford University.

Opening the case, Phillip Mott QC said: "Dino was thrown from a human catapult on that day.

"He missed the net towards which he was thrown, he hit the ground and was killed."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/3661253.stm

Published: 2004/04/26 17:10:09 GMT

© BBC MMIV
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Anyway I was tempted to stick this under 'dumb cops' but it probably deserves to go here as it is strange too:

Fatal stabbing baffles police

By Kelly Ryan
May 1, 2004

A BIZARRE case involving a dead millionaire and his stamp-collecting accountant has stumped experts.

A Melbourne coroner said this week it was unlikely he would be able to rule whether wealthy widower Arthur Reynolds Pegram was murdered or committed suicide.

The 82-year-old's body was found, fully dressed, in the bath of his North Balwyn home on May 22, 2001.

Suffering terminal cancer and with a year at the most to live, Mr Pegram was originally thought to have died of natural causes.

But an autopsy showed the former engineer had 26 stab wounds to the chest, with two fatal wounds to his heart.

He had three fractured ribs, and was believed to have died several days before he was found.

No weapon was found nearby. Yet one of the world's leading forensic pathologists has been unable to eliminate the possibility that Mr Pegram killed himself.

A coronial inquiry into his death has heard that an exhaustive police investigation revealed Mr Pegram's tax agent had borrowed ,000 from the elderly man.

North Balwyn accountant James Franklin Shaw used the money on stamps for his extensive philatelic collection. And there was no evidence he had repaid the loan, despite his having told police he had done so, the court heard.

Camberwell Detective-Sergeant Geoff Enright told coroner Phillip Byrne that Mr Pegram's death remained "a true mystery".

Mr Byrne asked the detective: "Doesn't the fact that there was no weapon in the immediate vicinity make it difficult to conclude he took his own life?"

Det-Sgt Enright replied: "Exactly. I find it incredible that that could happen."

The court heard Mr Pegram was stabbed with a fine, sharp instrument, such as a screwdriver or knitting needle.

Tweezers used by stamp dealers and collectors had been found to be similar, but did not fit the pattern, Det-Sgt Enright said.

Forensic pathologist Dr David Ranson, a world expert in his field, said there were cases of people who had been stabbed in the heart continuing to carry out activities.

Dr Ranson said he believed Mr Pegram would have lived for a matter of minutes after suffering his stab wounds.

Dr Ranson agreed that the lack of a weapon was a potentially significant problem in understanding the case.

But he said that on pathology facts alone, he could not rule if Mr Pegram's death was caused by another party or was self-inflicted.

Mr Shaw was excused from giving evidence to the inquiry on Thursday, on the grounds that he could incriminate himself.

In explaining the procedure, Mr Byrne told Mr Pegram's relatives that Mr Shaw was entitled not to give evidence.

"It may seem an unusual situation that a person for whom the finger of suspicion may point can be excused from giving evidence," Mr Byrne said. "The irony is, that is precisely why they are excused."

Mr Byrne indicated that he expected to hand down an open finding at a later date.

He said he could not rule that Mr Pegram was a victim of foul play, "let alone point the finger".

Bruce Pegram, 81, said outside court that he did not believe his brother killed himself.

"He was affable and a nice old fellow," he said.
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http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9437133%5E26462,00.html

How could they even suspect natural causes in the first place? Did they mis the 26 stab wounds?

Emps
 
Wasn't Detective-Sargeant Enright a character in the early series of 'Macmillan and Wife'?
 
Det-Sgt Enright replied: "Exactly. I find it incredible that that could happen."
Click to expand...

There was a case about 10 years ago where a man was found dead in his garage with multiple (8 I think) holes drilled through his skull and into his brain with a power drill, the police concluded that that was self inflicted, though my friend said that he thought it had the flavour of the IRA about it.
 
Deepcut- how does a squaddie shoot him/herself TWICE with a pistol set to non-repeat? :mad:

Sherlock Holmes once proved that a man had committed suicide and not been murdered by finding the gun in the river under the bridge where the victim was found dead.

He'd noticed a fresh dent in the stonework of the bridge where the pistol had hit it on its way downwards, weighted with a stone on a short string.

Wonder where Conan Doyle got the idea, and whether he tried a dummy run!
If so, there is a similarly dented bridge somewhere. ;)
 
The suicide in 'The Mystery (or possibly adventure) of Thor Bridge' was a woman. And a hot-blooded Latin-American beauty at that. She had committed suicide in such a way as to throw suspicion on the Governess that she, wrongly, believed was having an affair with her husband.

Cujo
 
Garlic shelf collapse kills 15

Fifteen Chinese workers were killed when storage shelves stacked high with garlic collapsed in central China.

Some 34 workers were buried by tonnes of garlic after 10-metre (30 foot) high shelving broke at Chenzhai Cold Storage in Zhengzhou city, Henan province.

Xinhua news agency said a major rescue operation was launched - with 15 bodies recovered and 19 people pulled out alive and taken to hospitals.

The owner of the cold storage warehouse is being held by police, said Xinhua.

Chinese newspapers said the accident happened on Wednesday morning as the workers were stacking garlic cloves.

Rescuers worked throughout the day and into the night to dig out the workers weighed down by the garlic and metal beams.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to local sources.

Thousands of people are killed by accidents at work in China every year.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/3689067.stm

Published: 2004/05/06 08:29:06 GMT

© BBC MMIV
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Having peeled bucketloads of the stuff at work I cant say anyhing to that
 
May 7, 2004

Two Die in Bizarre St. Martin Shooting

Email to a Friend Printer Friendly Version

Two people are dead, and one critically injured in the small Saint Martin Parish community of Stevensville.
The sheriff's office isn't releasing names at this point, but we know it happened after a domestic dispute.
A woman shot at her boyfriend as he was leaving in his car. He lost control and crashed into a neighbor's yard, killing the man standing in it. After seeing this, the woman fatally shot herself.

Her boyfriend remains in critical condition. Investigators aren't sure if his injuries are from the crash, bullet, or both.
KATC will keep you posted as this story develops.
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http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1850785&nav=EyAzMxCB
 
It does sound like a suicide but there are a litle too many similar cases but if it is a "bizarre ritual" what is going on? Are guys botching auto erotic asphyxiation or are they being lured into it and then being murdered? Or is it just a coincidence?

Bizarre ritual may have led to death

By Kara Lawrence and Harald Henschien
May 10, 2004

A SYDNEY man has become the latest of four foreign nationals to die under bizarre and similar circumstances in a Thai holiday spot.


Mr Hall's passport was found with his dead body inside a Pattaya apartment block.


Thai police are still investigating the cause of death of Troy Anthony Hall, found dead in a tiny Pattaya apartment on Wednesday.

Mr Hall's father said he had been led to believe his son's death was a suicide and the pattern was possibly owed to some sort of ritual.

The seaside resort town, 140km south of Bangkok, is also known for its seedy underside of sex and drugs.

Mr Hall, 39, a car dealer from Liverpool, was found with a black plastic bag wrapped around his head and his hands bound behind his back with shoelaces. He was naked from the waist up and a suicide note was found.

It was addressed to a friend of his, Gary, who lived in the same unit block and read, in part: "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you my full intentions but I can't go back to Aust., even for one day."

Pattaya police have investigated several remarkably similar incidents in the town in the past eight months.

In October last year, a Dutch national was found dead with a plastic bag around his head. The next month a French citizen was found the same way. In December, a Danish man also died in similar circumstances.

All three of these deaths occurred within a rough 1km radius.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday would only say the matter was being investigated by Thai police and Mr Hall's family in Sydney had been notified.

Mr Hall's father said suicide was consistent with the depression that his son had suffered in the past.

His son had worked buying and selling vehicles until he got a drink-driving conviction and had his licence cancelled for a year.

He could not work without a licence, so his son had left for Thailand in April 2003, deciding to spend some time over there until he got his licence back.

Mr Hall's father said he had spoken to his son recently on the phone and he did not seem unhappy.
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http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9518192%5E2,00.html

Emps
 
Dispute over power of ghosts and witches claims life

Ahmedabad, May 12 (IANS) :

In a bizarre incident, a youth was hacked to death by a fellow cowherd in Gujarat Wednesday following a dispute over whether a ghost was more powerful than a witch, said police officials.

The incident took place in a village near Dabhoi town of Vadodara district in central Gujarat, some 110 km from here.

"The debate (over who is more powerful between a ghost and a witch) resulted into fisticuffs, which led to one Balubhai picking up an axe and hacking one Shanabhai to death," said a police officer.

Jayant Pandya, director of the Gujarat chapter of Bharat Jan Vignan Jatha, or Indian people's science road show, an organisation committed to fighting superstition, described this incident as an example of how superstition rules the psyche of villagers.

"This is one of the glaring examples of how superstition has eaten into the core of village life in Gujarat," Pandya told IANS.

"This is just the tip of an iceberg.

"Superstition is rampant in the villages of central and north Gujarat. As per our estimate, from eight to 10,000 people are sacrificed at the altar of superstition in villages here every year," he added.
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http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=16554
 
Frighteningly cold blooded:

Tempers flared, wife killed husband with ax

They say she later taught fourth-grade class and then cleaned up
May 15, 2004



BY MARSHA LOW
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER




The end came on the afternoon of Mother's Day. Nancy and Robert Seaman were celebrating at home in Farmington Hills with their older son when they began to argue.

The yelling grew so intense, the son left for his Downriver home. Within 10 minutes, Nancy Seaman was at the Commerce Township Home Depot purchasing an ax, said Farmington Hills police, who reconstructed the night and following days through evidence and interviews.

Police say Seaman then returned to the rambling Tudor in the Ramblewood subdivision. She walked into the kitchen and slammed the ax into her husband's head.

Then she dragged her husband's body a short distance into the attached garage and began stabbing him with a knife and smashing him with a sledgehammer, police said.

The next day, Seaman taught her fourth-grade class, and then stopped at Home Depot a second time for cleaning materials to wipe up the mess, police said.

On Friday afternoon, Seaman, 52, stood before 47th District Judge James Brady. Clad in a green sweatshirt, she pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder. She faces life in prison if convicted.

Robert Seaman, 50, was left with 20 stab wounds, a crushed skull, a fractured clavicle and a slashed throat.

Nancy Seaman's attorney said Friday that she had endured a lifetime of physical abuse from her husband, including hitting, kicking and knifing.

Administrators at Longacre Elementary School told detectives that the friendly and award-winning teacher appeared disheveled and out of sorts on Monday, according to Police Chief William Dwyer.

After the final bell rang Monday afternoon, police said, Nancy Seaman returned to the Home Depot. Videotapes from the store and receipts found in her purse revealed bleach, a tarp, duct tape and products used to scrub her home were purchased with cash.

On Tuesday night, a relative filed a missing person's report for Robert Seaman. By Wednesday, an out-of-town relative called police suggesting foul play. Police went to the Seaman home.

There they found Robert Seaman's body in the back of the couple's black Ford Explorer. His body was wrapped in the tarp, tightly coiled with duct tape. A knife was discovered inside the tarp.

"In the classroom she displayed a friendliness. She had a close relationship with her students, and she was well-liked," Dwyer said.

"But then there was another side," he said. "She'd be outraged, violent. She threw things."

Employees at her husband's business, Put One in the Upper Deck, an indoor batting cage in Northville, told police she had a temper.

Inside the Seamans' gated neighborhood, details of the couple's relationship have residents buzzing.

"This is one of the most exclusive subdivisions in Farmington Hills," said Tom Bryant, a Ramblewood resident. "Things like this don't happen here. People are wondering if it was a lover who killed him."

At the district court Friday, family members wept, rubbed their eyes and smiled at one another. They declined to comment about the couple or the details of the crime.

In court, Nancy Seaman's attorney, Don Ferris, said she had suffered a broken hand and wrist because of abuse by her husband. At least once, her husband slashed her hand with a knife. Robert Seaman, Ferris said, made a habit of hitting and kicking his wife.

"Her sons will testify that she made repeated trips to the emergency room but never reported her husband," Ferris said.

"Her son will say that when he goes to buy her blouses, he buys long sleeves because she always has bruises."

Friends and acquaintances told police detectives that Robert Seaman was cheating on his wife. But Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Tom McAndrew said there is no evidence that Seaman mistreated his wife.

"There was no evidence of physical abuse to her," McAndrew said. "Her bruises could have been self-imposed. And she was trying to clean up and roll his body in a tarp. She lied to her son about where her husband was."

The Seamans were preparing to divorce, Dwyer said. Nancy was living on the upper floor of their home, Robert on the first floor.

Both are native Michiganders. Robert attended a private college in the West and earned an engineering degree. It is unclear where Nancy attended school before she began teaching.

They married in 1973 and had two sons. The older is 26, married, works as an engineer and lives Downriver. The younger is 22 and set to graduate from Purdue University on Sunday.

Nancy Seaman has been in custody since Wednesday night. Dwyer said she has spoken very little and spends time just staring.

Before a courtroom full of family, Seaman never once turned back to meet their eyes. She didn't stop to say good-bye to her child.

Her preliminary exam will begin at 9 a.m. May 24.
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http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/farm15_20040515.htm
 
Thursday, 20 May 2004

Unidentified man lynched by mob

Abuakwa (Ash), May 20, GNA- An angry mob at Moseaso in the Amansie West district of Ashanti on Tuesday lynched an unidentified man and set his body ablaze after he had attacked and inflicted several cutlass wounds on a farmer, Kwabena Gyebi on his farm.

Gyebi is now on admission at the Nkawie Government Hospital and is reported to be doing well.

Briefing the Ghana News Agency about the incident at Abuakwa, Police Chief Inspector Clement Agyare said Gyebi and seven others were on the farm harvesting cocoa when the deceased emerged from the bush and without provocation, attacked him with a cutlass.

He said the unidentified man inflicted deep cutlass wounds on the victim but was overpowered by the other farmers who beat him until he became unconscious.

Chief Inspector Agyare said when word got to the people of the town they rushed to the farm and burnt his body. He said the assemblyman of the area later informed the police who went to the scene to retrieve the charred remains of the deceased.

No arrest had been made.

Chief Inspector Agyare said the matter was being investigated.
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http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=58159
 
Woman 'overdoses' on liquorice

BBC News

Experts have warned people against eating too much liquorice.

It follows the case of a 56-year-old woman who was admitted to hospital after overdosing on liquorice.

The woman from Yorkshire went into muscle failure, a potentially fatal condition, after eating too much Pontefract cake.

Writing in the Postgraduate Medical Journal, doctors said she had been eating the liquorice sweets to relieve chronic constipation.

"She had been eating a packet of sweets a day, about 200mg," said Dr Raja Hussain of Pontefract General Infirmary.

"Her potassium levels were dangerously low and her muscles were very weak. She also had high blood pressure, which is dangerous because it can lead to stroke."

Dr Hussain and colleagues at the hospital restored the woman's potassium levels, using an intravenous drip and tablets.

"She was up and walking about within four days," Dr Hussain told BBC News Online.

The active ingredient in liquorice, glycyrrhizic acid, is found in a variety of products, including herbal remedies.

Manufacturers claim it can relieve constipation, cold, flu and allergy symptoms and may even help people with chronic fatigue or ulcers.

It is also found in smaller quantities in confectionery, toothpaste and some herbal teas.

Cigarette and drugs manufacturers sometimes use it to improve the taste of their products.

Some brands of chewing gum can contain 24mg of glycyrrhizic acid while some herbal teas can contain up to 450mg per litre.

A report by the European Commission published earlier this year suggested that people should not consume any more than 100mg of glycyrrhizic acid a day.

Studies have shown that it can increase blood pressure or cause muscle weakness and chronic fatigue. Other problems include headaches or swelling.

Recent research suggested it can also lower testosterone levels in men, affecting their mood and sex drive.

"Like everything else, liquorice is good for you in moderation," said Sinead O'Hara, principal pharmacist at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. "But too much of it is quite toxic."

Haribo, one of the companies that manufacture Pontefract cake, said people shouldn't eat too much of it.

"Haribo advises, as with any other food, liquorice products should be eaten in moderation," said marketing manager Christian Freund.
 
Pedantry alert:

I love the way that report seems to think that Pontefract (or 'Pomfret' or 'Pomfrey' etc) 'cake' is singular actually like a cake (or indeed like Cake, Brass Eye fans!).

They're little sweets about the size and shape of a 2p piece but fatter, Pomfret cakes, plural. You could conceivably have too many of them but not too much of it.

I was dragged up not a million miles from Pontefract myself and I'm pretty sure this is correct : are they not that well-known elsewhere?

http://www.oldtimeconfection.com/Pontefract cakes.jpg

And very nice too.
 
May I state that I already knew you could overdose on liquorice. The only thing I don't know is how to pronounce it. Some say 'lickoriss' some say 'lickorish' so which is it? I say the latter, by the way.

Also I heard that if you get stopped by the police and tested for cannabis and come up positive you can contest it in court with the statement that you really love nutmeg and must have had too much over the days before being tested. Three whole nutmegs will kill you but you can have a hell of a lot without going so far and coming up with a positive test for cannabis.

If this isn't true then someone had better correct me before it becomes a staple plea!;) :D
 
I'm suprised this doesn't happen more often:

Circus performer falls to her death

Monday, May 24, 2004 Posted: 0852 GMT (1652 HKT)



(CNN) -- A circus performer working without a net died Saturday after falling about 35 feet during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show, while hundreds of children and parents watched in horror.

A statement from Ringling Brothers said Dessi Espana, 32, was pronounced dead seven hours after the fall at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"Despite all the efforts of the staff at Regions Hospital, her injuries were too great," the statement said.

Witness Eric Neel told KSTP-TV she was twirling from a chiffon scarf when something went wrong.

"She's about 35 feet in the air and all of a sudden it gave way from the ceiling and she fell down on her head on the concrete," he said.

A spokesman for the Ramsey County Medical Examiner said Sunday morning an autopsy had not yet been performed.

A circus spokeswoman said Espana had been performing the act -- in which she climbs two long strips of cloth hung from the ceiling and performs aerial acrobatics -- for the circus since January, although she had performed it elsewhere before then.

An investigation into the cause of Saturday's mishap was under way, said Kim Brock.

"At this point, there's no evidence to indicate that it was anything but a bad accident," said Joe Neuberger, commander of the St. Paul Police Department.

Brock said it was the first death of a circus performer during a show for the 134-year-old company in at least 10 years.

Funeral arrangements had not been finalized.

Espana's husband, Ivan, and other family members performed together in the Ringling Brothers show, according to her biography on the company's Web site. Dessi and Ivan's two children -- ages 5 and 7 -- also traveled with them and were sometimes included in their acts. Espana's Bulgarian parents were also circus performers.

The show did not stop after Espana's fall around 3:15 p.m., Neel said.

"They just kind of tried to keep everybody distracted, and they ended up putting her on a backboard and took her out and then went on with the show," he said.

According to her biography, Espana once held a world record for twirling 75 hula hoops while appearing on the TV show Live With Regis & Kathie Lee. She held the record until 1999.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/05/23/circus.accident/index.html
 
Toddler Run Over by 12-Year-Old Driver


LARGO, Fla. (AP) - A 2-year-old girl was run over and killed when she chased after her father, who was letting a 12-year-old boy drive a car in a parking lot.

The boy was getting his first chance to drive Saturday. The idea was to clear a parking area at the apartment complex to give kids a place to play outside. The victim's three older siblings were at a party celebrating their neighbor's eighth birthday in Largo, 20 miles west of Tampa.

Summer Wolfe was knocked down by the passenger door when the car in which her father sat lurched backward, and she fell under the front wheel. She was pronounced dead after being airlifted with her mother to Bayfront Medical Center.

Kevin Wolfe lost control when he was told his youngest child was dead.


``He punched the closet really hard,'' said Darrington Miller, 13. ``He went to the kitchen and swept all the knives and forks and plates and everything'' to the floor.


Police questioned the 12-year-old boy but did not file charges. Investigators said the boy was driving with Wolfe's approval but did not have control of the car.
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http://cnn.aimtoday.cnn.com/news/st...ff/story/0001/20040523/1308548319.htm&sc=1110
 
And a strange life - I read about this a while ago and it is interesting to see it crop up again:

Bizarre Details of Athiest Madelyn Murray O'Hair's Life

LAST UPDATE: 5/25/2004 6:23:40 AM
Posted By: Walker Robinson


Life magazine called her the most hated woman in America, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. She is the atheist who helped get public prayers and bible readings thrown out of public schools. She also helped change television talk shows, created a multi-million dollar empire, and was held captive then murdered here in San Antonio.

O'Hair's sawed-up body was not discovered for years and the bizarre details trickled out in court documents and jailhouse interviews.

News 4 WOAI has learned new information on her life and death from a notorious San Antonio character, Ted Dracos, a well-known and feared reporter here in the 1980s. He is now a writer living in the Hill Country.

"When her mother was pregnant with her, her mother jumped off a roof to abort the fetus," Dracos told News 4 WOAI.

O'Hair was born Madalyn Mays. She had a desk job and was married to a U.S. Marine during World War II. That is when she got pregnant by another man, a bomber pilot who happened to be Catholic.

"Some say his Catholicism and the fact he would never divorce his wife was a reason why Madalyn was so vociferously hateful of Catholics and specifically The Pope," Dracos said. O'Hair's body turned up on a ranch near Dracos' home.

"Finding out that she died within 20 miles from where I live," Dracos said, "I just felt like a story that needed to be told."

Dracos started digging into her life. The best known part is a 1963 Supreme Court decision.

"She singlehandedly, through her son, got school prayers banned by the Supreme Court," Dracos said.

O'Hair claimed her son was coerced to listen to The Bible being read in the public schools.

Dracos found some bizarre twists before O'Hair started building her atheist empire. At one point, she fought with Baltimore Police and then fled to Hawaii to avoid being arrested. Dracos found O'Hair then became involved with a psychic who claimed to push gemstones out of his body.

From Hawaii, O'Hair took off for Mexico to avoid jail again. That is where Dracos found O'Hair took over a kind of university for American dropouts.

Dracos said she tried to change it into the world's first atheist university. That did not happen, but in Mexico she met the man she later married. Dracos said he was an alcoholic and FBI informant named O'Hair.

Madelyn Murray O'Hair later was the first guest on the first Phil Donahue talk show, and she ripped pages out of a Bible.

Donahue grabbed a microphone to take questions from the crowd of stunned housewives.

"From that point on in Donahue's career, he was out in the audience," Dracos said. "In fact, Madalyn created the kind of shock talk TV."

"She raised big money from donors with every TV appearance, and every confrontation," Dracos said.

Over 30 years in Austin, O'Hair built a multi-million dollar atheist foundation. She later hired David Waters to work on her newsletter.

"He was a true monster, an ex-con," Dracos said. "Waters once beat a teenager to death with a post."

O'Hair apparently did not know about it, until he started stealing from her.

In August 1995, Waters and two accomplices kidnapped O'Hair, her son atheist son, Jon Garth Murray and granddaughter, Robin.

They were held in a northwest San Antonio hotel for a month, until Waters forced Jon Garth to use atheist money to buy more than 0,000 in gold coins.

"When the first half million showed up, the kidnappers strangled O'Hair and the others and cut up their bodies in an Austin storage unit," Dracos said. The gold was also stored there.

A couple days later, three thieves from San Antonio happened to be breaking into storage lockers in Austin, and happened on the gold.

"Within a year and a half they had spent every dime they had on shows in Las Vegas, cars, and big screen TVs and guns," Dracos said.

"One guy spent 00 in one night on lapdances," Dracos said.

Meanwhile, Waters wound up with nothing. He killed off one accomplice, and left most of his body in a field near Dallas. Then, Waters buried the man's head and hands with the Murray O'Hairs on that Hill Country ranch.

More than five years later, Waters was dying of hepatitis and made a plea bargain. He led investigators to the bones.

Dracos has more details in his book, "Ungodly."
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http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=FFD564D3-6E5E-4293-8633-465D281F12BF
 
Brain scrambled on the Mind Scarmbler

Girl, 7, Falls to Her Death From a Ride at Playland in Westchester

By PATRICK HEALY

Published: May 24, 2004



YE, N.Y., May 23 - A 7-year-old girl was thrown to her death from a ride at the Playland amusement park here on Saturday after she somehow wriggled out from her seat's protective lap bar and turned around to wave to her friends, the Westchester County Police said Sunday.

The girl, Stephanie Dieudonne of New Rochelle, N.Y., suffered massive head injuries from a short fall to the ground from the Mind Scrambler ride. Park officials said she was the first child in 15 years to die at Playland, Westchester's answer to Coney Island.

The police and park officials said that there was no malfunction and that park employees and the park's safety procedures bore no fault for Stephanie's death. Instead, they said, it seemed that her own enthusiasm and giddy confidence had prompted her fall.

Stephanie, who emigrated from Haiti three years ago, was a fearless girl who loved the rides at Playland, said Clermann Dieudonne, a relative. After a winter spent away from the park, she was eager to return Saturday for her first trip of the season, Ms. Dieudonne said.

So, accompanied by two friends and a 39-year-old baby sitter, Stephanie spent the day tramping through the park. She rode the Mind Scrambler several times during the day, and around 6:45 p.m., she and her two friends climbed onto the 30-year-old indoor ride for another spin, park officials said.

Though only 7, Stephanie was tall enough to meet the Mind Scrambler's 48-inch height requirement. She climbed into a car alone and was secured by a park employee before the ride began. The ride whips customers around in a circle while their individual cars spin under strobe lights to a throbbing disco beat.

Joseph Montalto, the director of Playland, said the girl took more risks with each ride on the Mind Scrambler.

The ride was shut down Saturday, and its permit to operate, which had been active and up-to-date, was suspended, Mr. Montalto said. He said the ride would remain closed until inspectors from the State Department of Labor complete an investigation.

Mr. Montalto said the Mind Scrambler and every ride at the park are inspected each morning before customers are allowed on. He said the motor, safety bar and locks on each car's door seemed to be working properly.

The Mind Scrambler is one of the park's 10 most popular rides, Mr. Montalto said, ridden by about 130,000 people every year. The lines usually spill out through the wooden railings guiding riders toward the door, but on Sunday, it remained shut and people wandered by to point and ask, "Is that the one?"

"It scared some of the kids, but they still wanted to come out," said James Dugan of Rye, as he and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, ushered nine suntanned boys at the park off of the bumper cars. Ms. Dugan said she had been coming to the park for years.

Ms. Dugan said of the rides: "I've had to scream and yell at my kids to sit down. They won't sit still."

The last time a child died at Playland was 15 years ago, Mr. Montalto said, when a girl riding a roller coaster choked on her chewing gum. Amusement park experts from across the country said the park's safety record has been pristine throughout its 76 years of operation.

Playland, which is owned and operated by Westchester County, was conceived as a getaway for Westchester residents. The county had wanted to build a more upper-class version of Coney Island, hiring prestigious architects and promising neighbors before the park opened in 1928 that no jazz , only soft classical music, would be played.

Today, Playland hardly fits that mold, patrons said. "This is the spot to get away when you're living in Co-op City all your life," said Kelly Fitzgerald, who remembers summers years ago when she and friends took buses from the Bronx to Playland.

To Stephanie, the rides and arcades were pieces of paradise, Ms. Dieudonne said. "This is a place that she loves very much," she said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/nyregion/24rye.html
 
Smoking drove man to kill family

A man who killed his wife because she would not quit smoking has been detained indefinitely under the mental health act.

John Jarvis stabbed his wife, Patricia, and sons Stuart, eight, and John 11, at home in the Winslow Hotel, Blackpool in March 2003.

The couple's 13-year-old daughter was present but not injured.

On Monday Jarvis admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The couple, who married in 1986, had argued shortly before the killings about her smoking which had become an obsession for Jarvis.

The court heard Jarvis killed his wife on 27 March 2003 saying he was "going to fix" her smoking habit.

She was stabbed and had her heart cut out to prevent resuscitation.

Jarvis admitted stabbing Stuart so he would not have nightmares about his father killing his mother.

He then went upstairs to kill John saying he was going to join his mother.

Jarvis washed himself and the weapon and stabbed himself. A police officer heard him say: "I tried to stab my heart out but my blade was too blunt."

Police found a bloodstained Jarvis in bed with his wife with the Bible open at the passage relating to the devil and 666 being the "mark of the beast."

Jarvis had written an e-mail after the death saying "Smoking by my wife - to all it may concern" adding that he had "given her and the boys absolute freedom".

Judge Peter Openshaw accepted the manslaughter plea but added Jarvis had not escaped justice and may never be released.

Jarvis spent two weeks unconscious following a road crash when he was 19 which left him with a mental illness which was undetected until the killings.

But the judge also said: "The nature of the crimes which the defendant has committed have not been diminished. They were and remain truly dreadful, vicious and brutal,"

Detective Superintendent Ian Jones, who led the Lancashire Police investigation, said the attacks had been ferocious and Jarvis was a "cold and calculating individual."

He paid tribute to the surviving daughter speaking of his "great respect and admiration" for the strength she had shown since the tragedy.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/3743017.stm

Published: 2004/05/24 15:10:03 GMT

© BBC MMIV
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God this is brutal:

Grisly murder of 3 children stuns neighborhood

Police describe 'gruesome' scene at city apartment

By Stephanie Hanes, Ryan Davis and Richard Irwin
Sun Staff
Originally published May 27, 2004, 11:18 PM EDT

The bodies of three young children -- one decapitated, two partially decapitated -- were found in an apartment in a quiet Northwest Baltimore neighborhood Thursday, and detectives were questioning a man about the murders.

The mother of at least one of the children found the bodies hours after they had returned from elementary school, encountering a scene that stunned even veteran city police officers.

"There's blood all over my apartment," police dispatch reported a woman saying in a 911 call made around 5:25 p.m. "They've killed my family!"

Police said the call was probably made by a neighbor helping the mother, who has difficulty speaking English.

Mayor Martin O'Malley visited the scene Thursday night and urged members of the community to "reach out to one another, support one another."

As of Thursday night, the man being questioned by detectives was described by police as "a person of interest only" and had not been charged with any crime. He was picked up a couple of blocks from the scene and was described by police as cooperative.

Police said they believe the man had some sort of dispute with the children's relatives, and the mother had pointed investigators to him.

Deputy Police Commissioner Kenneth Blackwell said police are also "looking elsewhere," implying that there may be more suspects. Late Thursday night, police were also trying to determine if there were signs of forced entry.

The fire department's Medic 14 was the first to arrive at the Art Deco-style apartment complex in the 7000 block of Park Heights Ave. late Thursday afternoon.

"You can imagine their feeling when they saw what was inside the apartment," said fire department spokesman Kevin Cartwright.

The emergency workers found them on the floor in two different rooms -- two 9-year-old sisters and one 10-year-old boy. Police did not immediately identify any of the children Thursday night.

They were a trio that neighbors said always seemed to be together -- playing in the nearby willow tree, asking for the phone number for Chuck-E-Cheese.

The first police officer to enter the apartment was overcome by the scene, which Blackwell described as "gruesome," and "something I've not seen before in all the years I've been a part of the agency."

Blackwell said investigators recovered a weapon from outside the apartment, but would not elaborate on the type of weapon or where, exactly, it was found. No weapons were found inside the apartment and there was no trace of drugs or drug use, he said.

Police picked up a priest from St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Central Park Heights to counsel grieving family members.

"You've got three young kids, 10 years of age or younger, who have obviously done nothing wrong," Blackwell said.

The 1930s-era Samester Parkway Apartments -- which was listed in 1998 on the National Register of Historic Places -- is on the southern edge of a neighborhood considered largely Orthodox Jewish, in a section that now has a mix of white, black and Hispanic residents.

Neighbors described it as a safe place, one unaccustomed to the swarm of police cars and de tectives present there Thursday. Police records back that notion: not once in the past six months have officers responded to G-2 or any other unit at the apartment complex, according to a police spokeswoman.

"This is highly unusual for this neighborhood," Blackwell said.

Gregory Carter, who lives in another apartment in the building, hadn't heard about the slayings until he was called by a reporter at work. He described the crime as "unbelievable."

Carter said he doesn't know any of his neighbors' names but believed there was only one family in the building with children -- on the first floor, where the killings occurred. He said he had seen the children the day before, describing them as "carefree kids."

"Every time I saw them, they was playing cheerfully out in the yard," Carter said. One time, he said, the children came upstairs and knocked on his door asking for a phone number for Chuck E. Cheese.

Theresa Hopson, 58, who lives nearby, said that she knew the children and would often see them playing together under a willow tree near her apartment window.

"They were beautiful children," she said. "When you saw one, you saw all three. They appeared to be very close to each other.... It's devastating, absolutely devastating."
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/lo...n0527,0,6611180.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
 
Seems like decapitation is in at the moment and I think we all have our favourite politician wed like to nominate for getting the chop:

Headless candidate found in Italy

The headless corpse of a candidate in upcoming local elections in southern Italy has been found two days after he disappeared on his way to work.

Carlo Cirillo, 43, was running for a seat on Pompeii's city council in elections to be held on 12-13 June.

Police, who are still searching for his head, are not ruling out any lead.

But some officials said a Naples-area mafia known as the Camorra could be behind it and are calling for the council election to be suspended.

Mr Cirillo, who was married with two children, was last seen when he set off for work on Monday.

When he failed to turn up, his wife plastered posters with his photograph around the local area in the hope someone knew where he was.

His body was found near a road on Wednesday night, Italian television reported. It appeared his head had been cut off with an axe or hatchet.

Mobsters

Mr Cirillo was running as part of a coalition of parties from the left and centre in Pompeii, the modern town that has grown up near its ancient namesake buried by the Mount Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD.

Italian news reports said there was no immediate indication that his murder was linked to organised crime.

But some politicians were quick to blame the Camorra crime syndicate.

"The horrible assassination of this candidate is the tip of the iceberg of Camorra groups which work to influence the electorate," Michele Florino, a senator from the National Alliance party, told Reuters.

The Pompeii council has in the past been suspended because of suspicions that Camorra mobsters had infiltrated its ranks.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3755625.stm

Published: 2004/05/27 21:17:27 GMT

© BBC MMIV
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I did think the Mafia violence had dropped off and the police certainly aren't ruling out other motives so one to watch i suspect........

Emps
 
Teen Mom Charged With Killing Infant

Chili Powder Reportedly Suffocates Baby

POSTED: 4:20 pm CDT June 1, 2004
UPDATED: 7:02 pm CDT June 1, 2004

IRVING, Texas -- Police Tuesday charged a young North Texas mother with murdering her 5-month-old daughter.


According to police, Angela DiSabella contributed to or directly caused her child's death.

Investigators said the infant choked to death Monday on either ground chili peppers or chili powder.

"The baby's breathing was blocked by chili peppers ... It didn't appear to be an incidental-type situation," Officer David Tull said. "The actual ruling on it was homicide."

Police said that when they arrived at the 19-year-old's residence at the Dakota Hill apartments, she was alone with her daughter.

Officials said DiSabella was being held on 0,000 bond and facing capital murder charges.

Officials released no further details about how the child died.
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http://www.nbc5i.com/news/3369411/detail.html
 
It does sound like "Jerry Springer Xtreme" and a touch of nominative derteminism too.

N. Sac woman crushed to death as fight escalates over check

By Elizabeth Hume -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Wednesday, June 2, 2004


A fight between friends over a check escalated Monday night into a woman being crushed to death against her North Sacramento mobile home as her teenagers watched, authorities said.

Kathleen Hickey, 35, and Michelle Wong, 37, were good friends. They had agreed that Wong would receive her mail at Hickey's address in the Village Green Mobile Home Community in Del Paso Heights, said Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Justin Risley.



But that friendly agreement turned fatal at about 7 p.m. Monday, according to police, who gave the following account:

Wong and Hickey got into a fight over a check that supposedly came in the mail.

Hickey struck Wong.

Wong ran to a nearby mobile home to tell her boyfriend, David Slaughter, 41. He became enraged.

The boyfriend decided to take things into his own hands and went over to Hickey's home with a crow bar, Risley said.

Slaughter broke out the windows of Hickey's 1987 Chevrolet and smashed her sliding glass door. He then turned to leave in his 1994 blue Ford Taurus.

Hickey ran after him. She jumped through the driver's side window of his car and attacked Slaughter. Struggling with the woman, Slaughter lost control of his car, hitting another mobile home.

At that point Hickey's 15-year-old son ran out to help. Her 14-year-old daughter followed.

As his mother clung on, Hickey's son broke out the Ford's passenger window. Trying to rid himself of his two assailants, Slaughter put the car into reverse.

He accelerated the car, pushing Hickey against her home.

Officers arrived to find her bleeding from the stomach. Hickey was transported to UC Davis Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Slaughter was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter. No other charges have been filed.
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http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/9508668p-10432605c.html
 
I love some of the more unusual crimes: "using a dangerous ordnance while intoxicated"!! Pity there is no crime for massive stupdity :(

Man Dies in Explosives Accident

Gypsum man arrested for involuntary manslaughter.

GYPSUM, Ohio (AP) - A man whose friend was killed by shrapnel from a homemade explosive device has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and using a dangerous ordnance while intoxicated.

Mark Gulau, 35, of Gypsum, ignited gun powder that had been packed with paper towels into a pipe welded onto a steel plate, said Sgt. Randy Riedmaier, an Ottawa County sheriff's detective.

Jeffrey Bodi, 34, of Oak Harbor, was sitting on tires 20 feet away in a corner of a garage when the device blew apart and a piece of pipe hit him in the face early Sunday.

Bodi died instantly of head injuries, said Tom Schultz, a coroner's investigator. The autopsy was done Sunday, but Schultz said he was awaiting toxicology results.

The explosion was so powerful that detectives found pieces of pipe embedded in the side of a nearby house and in the front of a tractor trailer.

"Whatever it was, it threw shrapnel in many different directions," Chief Deputy Bob Bratton said.

Gulau was being held without bond in the Ottawa County jail pending a court appearance. He faces up to five years in prison and a ,000 fine if convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Five or six adults were at the home where the explosion occurred around 2 a.m. Sunday, but no one else was injured, Riedmaier said.

Gypsum is about 40 miles southwest of Toledo.
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http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/news/531_explosiondeath.html
 
Officials: Inmate's Suicide Included Bizarre Notes On Body

POSTED: 12:04 pm EDT June 3, 2004

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- An apparent suicide in the Seminole County Jail is turning into much more Thursday afternoon. Jail officials say the man's last act included bizarre notes written on his body.


The inmates name was Randolph Mora, a high-profile suspect involved in an extremely bizarre murder case. Mora, 26, had been locked up in the Seminole County Jail since last October, charged with the murder of Scott Quinn, a bail bondsman and gun dealer from Sanford.

Shortly before two o'clock Wednesday morning, Mora was rushed to Central Florida Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead about an hour later. Channel 9 Eyewitness News has been informed that Mora overdosed on painkillers and anti-depressants.

"We're looking into that. That will be part of the autopsy, to see if anything like that turns up," says Steve Olson, Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Mora left behind a few messages written on his body and on pieces of paper found in his possession.

"But as far as what the contents specifically said, we can't go there. One dealt with the case in Sanford, the other was a message," says Olson.

The case in Sanford was very bizarre. Police say Mora killed Quinn out of jealousy, after finding out Quinn had been having an affair with his girlfriend. Police found hundreds of guns and explosives in Quinn's home, forcing a two-day neighborhood evacuation.

Police say Mora was rumored to be a mid-level cocaine dealer, who might have had Quinn as a client.

"He was awaiting trial. He was going through the legal system on this case. While he was awaiting trial, he was here at our jail, held under no bond. Then this happened this morning," explains Olson.
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http://www.wftv.com/news/3377719/detail.html
 
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