Sweaty Pursuits: Air McNair Errs In the Worst Possible Way
Don't cheat. At best, it's a complete violation of a partner's trust. At worst, you end up dead with everyone knowing the tawdry circumstances that led to your demise. Unluckily, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, who was murdered by his 20-year-old girlfriend before she turned the gun on herself, suffered the most extreme consequence of being governed by one's crotch. The grim lesson offers little comfort to the wife and children he left behind.
It went down in Nashville, the city where McNair reached his most notable triumphs as the leader of the Tennessee Titans. Police report that McNair and Dave & Buster's waitress Sahel Kazemi had been dating for a couple of months, which is a thorny detail when one considers the existence of his aforementioned spouse. The mistress committed the murder/suicide in a condominium he naughtily shared with her. The fact it took place in the illicit love nest just makes the tragic event even more sordid.
Unfortunately, the circumstances of his death will cloud memories of what he accomplished in life. The 2003 NFL co-MVP was most renowned for his toughness. There was a stretch where McNair was so beat up that he couldn't even practice: he'd spend the week coping with pain before suiting up on game days to get beat up even further. While his numbers over his 13-year career don't quite warrant inclusion in the Hall of Fame, he got close enough that pundits have to make a point of mentioning that he won't get in.
He was also getting recognized following his retirement last year for his charitable foundation. But sadly his legacy won't be based around his attempts to help underprivileged children. Now, he'll always be remembered as the roughneck quarterback whose mistress flipped out after he, perhaps, told her something she found disagreeable about their relationship's future.
Fans won't immediately recall McNair's humble beginnings. Nor will they think of his rise against adversity, from abject poverty in a single-parent household to second-tier college football to pro success. They'll primarily recall his wretched end.
It's true that most affairs don't end like this one did, namely in a Fatal Attraction situation -- only with an unhappier ending. But this severe case highlights what can be lost due to a tangled affair. After all, McNair was set to cruise through the rest of his life, riding on his past glory. The pain he suffered as a player entitled him to a pleasurable second career as a popular luminary.
Universally beloved by Titans fans, he had the chance to spend his post-football days not paying bar tabs or full price for luxury sedans. On top of that, McNair had just opened a restaurant in Nashville, and locals were assuredly ready to patronize it to capacity even if it wasn't very good. It was just another way he would have been cashing in on earlier toils.
It's actually a good lesson: McNair proved that it's impossible to get away with getting what you want all the time. It makes not having a virtually limitless buffet of tail seem appealing. Either way, sports big shots should ignore cynics who claim men are only as faithful as their options.
McNair could have gotten happy and chubby, growing old in his adopted town. But he instead died at 36 while leaving his community, and the rest of us, with nothing more than a cautionary tale. And as a result, four sons are without a father.
Anthony Bialy is SG's no-jocks-required Sweaty Pursuits sports columnist. He follows sports religiously even though he's quite bad at them. He ran cross country and played rugby in college, and was horrid at both. He schedules his life around his favorite NHL team's games, and sadly lists his alma mater winning the NCAA basketball championship as his happiest moment. He likes other things besides sports, too, and requests a minute to think of them.
This Little Piggy Went to... Appeals Court
This week, and hopefully in the weeks to come, I'm here to bring you some of the big news stories from your friends to the north. As I'm writing this, I am stuffed full of poutine (with bacon and onions), chugging a Maudite, and watching the Edmonton Oilers. Now that I've got the bad Canada jokes out of the way, let's get on with the news.
Canada has never really been known for churning out brutal murderers, but every now and then, they pop up.
Today, The Crown announced that it would be seeking new charges to be laid against notorious pig farmer/prostitute solicitor/lunatic Robert Pickton.
For those of you who aren't really aware of the case, here's a little history:
The setting: east downtown Vancouver.
Sixty-one women, mostly prostitutes and drug addicts, had disappeared from this area since 1983. Numerous public outcries had accused the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of ignoring the growing number of cases. Many feared that a single, disturbed person may be behind the rash of abductions. Finally, in 1999, the RCMP began to take things seriously.
In the spring of 1999, two Vancouver detectives teamed up with two RCMP detectives to review the file pertaining to the 31 missing women. In August of that year police began investigating an account by a woman, not a prostitute, who said that a man snatched her from the stairwell of a hotel in Vancouver's downtown eastside. The woman jumped from her captor's moving vehicle to escape.
Now, we jump ahead to 2002 and introduce the star of our story, Robert William Pickton. Picktons pig farm, located just outside of Vancouver in Port Coquitlam, quickly became the focal point of the police investigation. Seven murder charges would be filed that summer. More charges would be filed in September and October, and, by the end of the year, the total would reach fifteen.
After years of sitting on their back-bacon-loving duffs, the RCMP (and their team of anthropologists) were up to their eyes in pig shit and very tiny pieces of dead hookers ... and probably loving back bacon a little less. The search of Picktons farm uncovered disturbing new evidence, and eventually brought the number of charges up to twenty-six.
And so, in December 2006, the trial began. The prosecution decided to proceed with the six strongest cases, reserving the other twenty for a later date. The trial, which lasted just over a year, captivated and disgusted the nation. Week after week, a nation which normally considers itself fairly safe and well-balanced, was exposed to a monster hiding among them. Finally, in December, the jury returned with their verdict.
Pickton was acquitted of the first-degree murder charges. All six of them. Not to fear, the jurors werent complete muppets. They found Pickton guilty of six second-degree murder charges, and he was sentenced to six concurrent life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years. He is set to rot in jail until he dies. Somewhere, someone is taking bets on a mess hall shanking.
And that brief synopsis brings us to now.
The Crown filed an appeal today, hoping to re-try Pickton in an effort to get the first-degree convictions. They have asserted that Justice James Williams erred in presiding over the case, and that his errors led to the rejection of the first-degree charges.
The notice of appeal filed by the Crown is called a "Crown appeal against acquittal" even though Pickton was found guilty on six counts of second-degree murder. The Crown will argue in the Appeal Court that Pickton should not have been acquitted by the jury on six counts of first-degree murder.
In laymans terms: The judge fucked up, and they want a chance to really nail Pickton to the wall.
Picktons lawyers are also expected to file appeals this week. They will obviously be trying to keep him out of jail, rather than having him locked away for the rest of his natural life.
Oh, and if you were wondering what happened to the other twenty murder charges
youre not alone. As of this writing, there are no firm plans to try Robert Pickton for the other murders to which he has been linked. He is already going to jail, and his chances of ever walking free are on par with my Oilers chances of winning the Stanley Cup this year. It has been suggested, at least on talk radio and in lunch rooms, that the cost and effort of additional trials would be better used to assist the people Pickton preyed on for years, the desperate women of downtown Vancouver. Right now, the focus remains on the current trial and what will no doubt be a lengthy appeals process.
Rest assured I'll be back with updates as the story progresses.
FreakPirate really hates talking in the third person, but desperately wanted to put some italics at the end of this story. I hope you've enjoyed hearing about Canada and I'd love to hear your responses and criticisms.
Oh, and I still eat Canadian pork.
What? It May Have *Not* Been Steroids?
While the doctor may not come out and say it, it seems that brain damage from concussions may have played a role in WWE wrestler Chris Benoit's murder spree slash suicide.
The only reason to bring this up is strangely, CNN, much like every other news agency in the world, doesn't like to follow up sensational stories with new, non-sensational information. While they, Fox, Nancy Grace, spent a fucking week telling us about the evil of steroids (sure, thanks for the news flash), this story didn't even hit CNN's headline page; instead relegated to a by-line click down below (nor was there a follow-up to the SG story that generated over 200 comments.)
Like the WWE, the NFL has a long history ignoring concussions (though the NFL bans and tests for steroids), which have lead to (among many others) the retirement of Steve Young (former QB for the San Francisco 49ers) and Merril Hoge (former FB for the Pittsburgh Steelers.) Hoge, currently a TV analyst, has talked about being so light sensitive that he needed special lighting in the studio. And concussions may have played a part in the suicide of Andre Waters (former safety for the Philadelphia Eagles); again, among others. They probably contribute to an average post NFL lifespan 15 years shorter than the average of the rest of us.
Concussions aren't as sexy as steroids; much like civilian deaths aren't as sexy Mission Accomplished, and people found innocent aren't as sexy as people who aren't (ask Richard Jewell.)
Chris Benoit chose to take steroids, chose to participate in an form of entertainment that exposed him to horrific brain damage, and in doing so, it lead to him murdering his wife and child. This isn't a story trying to make excuses for his actions. But in a world that is increasing complicated, with a media that is rapidly degenerating into a group of corporate stenographers, a little follow-up is in order.
Parking Garages, Scary For 90 Seconds - Not Minutes
So it seems they've based an entire horror movie on that scene from many other horror movies where a person finds themself alone in a dark, sinister-seeming parking garage.
I think we can agree, that if you find yourselves in this position in a movie you are in very serious trouble. You will at some point break into a run and then, just at your moment of escape, you will fumble and drop your keys while trying to get into your car. Then you'll get stabbed in the neck and/or face region. Repeatedly.
The best you can hope for is that instead of a killer, and the above scenario, you'll meet a mysterious trenchcoated man who will give you some secret information. He will say stuff like, "Don't you see how big this is?" "Or, "This goes all the way to the top." Or, "Just who do think it was that paid for all those bagels?"
If you see this guy, relax, he'll be the one in danger. Just try not to get in the way of the blowgun dart or the black-gloved hand that stabs him through the fence he was standing in front of.
Here's the problem with these scenes and probably, this movie. I've been in hundreds of parking garages in my life and they all tend to be incredibly well-lit. Either that or they're open at the sides in which case tons of sunlight, moonlight, lamplight, etc., spills in. I'm assuming the exception is The Ukraine at like, 3 am. I'm sure there are some scary garages over there, however, a sum total of none of the films I see are set in the Ukraine.
Garages, even at night, also tend to have overly helpful attendants who point you towards spots you already saw. I'm sure in an attack situation they'd at the very least be able to call the cops or blow a whistle or something.
They're certainly not busy replacing the burnt out and flickering bulbs that help set that scary mood. Nor are they working on the world's loudest dripping pipes, whose drips collect into large oil-covered puddles. Two things sue-conscious owners tend not to let hang around for long in the real world.
TheCoolerKing begs you to avoid making jokes about how the real horror is trying to remember where you parked.
Pregnancy is Not a Promise
Ugh.
Here's a story about a fucked up situation where clearly *something* is not right, but lacking evidence prosecutors are trying to go after a woman for "murdering" a stillborn baby.
A 37-year-old taxi cab company owner from Ocean City, MD has been charged with murder after she sought emergency care for complications of a late-term pregnancy loss. . . .
the medical examiner has already certified that the fetus she is charged with "murdering" was stillborn. She's up on murder charges because of a 2005 state law that treats the killing of viable fetuses as murder.
Now, clearly in this particular case something weird is going on:
Inside a trunk in the living room, they found the remains of two fetuses in two plastic bags and what appeared to be a placenta in a third bag. In a vanity under the bathroom sink, they discovered a 26-week-old, 2 1/2 -pound stillborn child wrapped in a blood-smeared towel. And in the upper section of a Winnebago parked outside were the remains of a fourth tiny body.
Whether the weirdness is some kind of horrific unlicensed abortion practice, or the remains of a series of home abortions, or something else entirely, isn't clear. Presumably whatever the explanation is, the woman and her husband are a little nutso.
But what is clear is that none of that weirdness--fetal remains, a placenta, a stillborn baby, medical care following an at-home stillbirth with an undelivered placenta, or even bizarrely implausible statements about not being pregnant--is actually illegal. And the law in question, as reported--that killing a viable fetus is murder--is unconstitutional (for the time being, anyway) under Roe v. Wade.
So what we've got is a case where a weird situation is being prosecuted under an ill-advised and fucked-up law, and where the understandable "something's wrong, and someone oughta be held accountable" reaction is being pursued despite the obvious injustice of holding women accountable for stillborn babies, and the obvious potential problem of setting a seriously messed up precedent.
This sort of thing drives me batshit. On the one hand you've got DAs being extremely cautious about rape prosecutions because they're difficult to prove; on the other, you've got (other) DAs going after women because their pregnancies didn't result in a healthy baby.
Part of this is doubtless simply because some DAs are cautious, and others are stupid assholes. But you can't help suspecting that it's also just got a wee little bit of something to do with a broader culture that thinks that women's bodies and the things that happen to them are a spectator sport, and that the women themselves are the last people we oughta trust about what's actually happened.
Bitch_PhD knows it's a cliche, but still wishes that people would commit the phrase "U.S. Out of My Uterus" to memory. "Keep Your Laws Off My Body" is a good one, too.
Hi-Tech Investigative Report: Dolphin Murders Rock California
San Diego: some call it a slice of heaven. But if you're a dolphin, the peaceful Californian city has become a killing field; an ocean of sorrow, loss, and regret; the epicenter of hell.
Try and look beyond the coastal climate that seems to soothe the human spirit; ignore the abundance of breathtaking flora that perfectly compliments the glorious Spanish-style architecture. Beneath the surface of this placid hippie-mecca something unspeakably evil lurks. Rather, someone, and he surely possesses a black, cruel heart if he has one at all. For lack of a better name, we can only call him the Dolphin Slayer.
Take a breath, this gets intense. Between May 29 and June 5, five dolphins washed ashore along the coast of San Diego; all the victims of murder most foul. According to the AP:
The first dead dolphin washed ashore with lacerations on its pectoral fin. The next showed up with a fatal bullet wound. Within a week, there were three more with bullets in their heads.
The victims were found within a 6 mile stretch between Carlsbad State Beach and Oceanside Harbor, just a few miles north of San Diego proper. Officials say this kind of dolphin mass-murder is a first. Statistics indicate that only one dolphin shooting typically occurs throughout the nation each year. Since the 1960s, San Diego has had only one such incident, about five years back.
"This was so unusual," said Kerri Danil, a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration biologist who worked on the necropsies. "With each one I thought that was going to be it so I was really surprised when we got other calls with injuries indicative of bullet wounds."
According to the necropsy results (apparently thats dolphin-speak for an autopsy), all of the dolphins were healthy and well-fed, with bellies full of fish. The poor, sad bastards never knew what hit em. The necropsy also indicated that the bullets could have all been fired from the same gun, though conclusive ballistics testing has yet to be performed. Officials are offering a $2500 reward for the capture of this inhuman murderer (though he is most-likely human).
This guy offered up an unimpressive theory about the killings:
It usually turns out to be a fisherman," said NOAA spokesman Mark Oswell, adding there have been cases when fishermen take out their frustrations on dolphins and other mammals that eat their catch.
Taking into consideration all the available evidence, and drawing upon my vast knowledge of bad police procedural shows, Ive come up with several alternate theories, that -- no pun intended -- blow Mr. Oswells out of the water.
First, lets consider the crime scene. A quick check of the Interweb tells me that Carlsbad State Beach is less than 50 miles from Tijuana (see above); and we all know about the ongoing Mexican Drug War. Could the dolphins have been taught to smuggle drugs? Maybe they turned on their masters, or weren't performing up to expectations so their cartel contact decided to cut his losses and off the aquatic offenders. This fits with the execution style killings.
Another theory is that these killings were perpetrated by someone trying to make a statement. Consider this: in 2001, Dolphins were discovered to partake in homosexual relationships; the males have often been found blowing each other. Try and follow my natural leap of logic: someone who believed that homosexuality is a choice rather than a part of nature -- or "god's will" -- might be angered by this. That someone, probably an outspoken advocate of homosexuality as sin, might want to silence the dolphins
or he may have been after revenge. Keep in mind the last time a dolphin was killed in SD was five years ago: shortly after the discovery of homo-dolphins. Potential suspects could include priests, pastors, deeply religious closeted gays, or televangelists. It would certainly be worth investigating Ted Haggard.
And then theres the final possibility, which, with the added video evidence provided below, seems to make the most sense to my sleuth-like senses. We know dolphins can be gay, and there is evidence to support that they are pleasure driven beings. For years now, there have been reports of man-dolphin love affairs; someone even posted a detailed how to manual to help an adventurous would-be dolphin-lover initiate a sexual encounter.
Do the math, if you will. Im suggesting a man -- probably white, early '40s, single or possibly divorced -- initiated a love affair with a dolphin. At some point, probably after at least one successful lovemaking session, the dolphin would have spurned his advances, pushing the already off-kilter 'everyman' over the edge. Since the killing spree began with a knife and the killer quickly switched to a gun, this shows that what may have been a crime of passion has turned serial, and that the Dolphin Slayer's methods are evolving rapidly.
We can only expect the aquatic body count to pile high in the coming weeks. With that in mind, I suggest the authorities begin their search amongst known dolphin-philes, starting with this guy:
Aaron_Lariviere tries to think of his powers of evidence-free investigation as a blessing rather than a curse.
A Sticky Wicket: Murder on the Pitch
Theres a different sort of March Madness going on.
While many sports fans in America have been filling out their brackets for the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament, much of the rest of the world (an estimated 2 billion viewers) have been focusing on the Cricket World Cup, held this year in the West Indies. In one of the greatest matches in history, cricket powerhouse Pakistan was defeated by Ireland. That the match took place on St. Patricks Day only made the victory more storybook.
What happened next was even more shocking. Bob Woolmer, Pakistans coach, was found unconscious on the floor of his hotel room and died hours later in a Jamaican hospital. Instantly, rumors began to swirl that the Woolmer was murdered, with one former Pakistani player placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of game-fixers at crickets highest levels.
"Bob must have seen how Pakistan team went about its business against West Indies. You could sense it from their body language that something was amiss. I believe he was writing a book and he would have come off with sensational disclosures.
"I surely feel that he has been bumped off. It was the betting mafia which eliminated Hansie Cronje. It was the same betting mafia which killed "Cadbury" the well-known bookie from Pakistan who later settled in South Africa. "Cadbury" body was cut into pieces. Now that has been the fate of Woolmer."
Sarfraz openly claimed that captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, along with Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik were involved in betting.
Last Monday, it seemed that some of the conspiracy theories might be justified when police determined that Woolmer was strangled, with more than one person involved in the murder. Many stories have centered on a book that Mr. Woolmer was reportedly set to publish.
Now that police have confirmed that the coach was indeed murdered speculation will mount that his death came because he was about to lift the lid on illegal behaviour in the world of cricket, especially after three years as the coach of Pakistan, who have been dogged by allegations of corruption and match-fixing.
Mr Woolmer was about to publish a memoir that many believe contained damning allegations about world cricket. He was South Africas coach when Hansie Cronje, the teams captain, was exposed as a cheat who took £125,000 in 2000 to throw matches.
Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), would not rule out corruption as a motive. We dont know whether this is corruption-related at this stage, he said. We believe that in the past few years we have been able to keep corruption under control.
As the investigation enters its second week, players from Woolmers own team have been interviewed and fingerprinted by local authorities, and some have found a hint of racism in the coverage, if not the investigation, of this murder. The players on the Pakistani team have been cleared by Jamaican police, a fact that has received less press than the initial accusations of both murder and game-fixing.
The fact that three members of Pakistan's squad, including the captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, were questioned by police on Saturday was blazed in banner headlines. That police immediately confirmed the questioning was routine and declared that the entire team was free to leave the country was buried in the columns below.
But never mind the facts, it's easier to stick to stereotypes. We all know that south Asians take their cricket too seriously (which they do), that corruption is rife in these societies (which is true), and that wiliness and duplicity are part of the oriental (or Muslim) character (which is idiocy).
Since the Irish humiliation, the Pakistan cricket management - the chairman of the cricket board, the selectors and the captain - have all resigned. This represents an instance of rapid accountability exceptional in either the cricket world or in Pakistani public life. Significantly, it leaves Pakistan cricket entirely in the hands of its "patron in chief", General Musharraf.
Over the next month, the final eight teams remaining--including current champs Australia and top ranked South Africa--will battle it out for the right to hoist the Cricket World Cup Trophy. Hopefully, attention can return the battle on the pitch, rather than the one that is sure to waged in the courts and newspapers
True Stories by Rob Corddry: A Dummies Guide to Murder
So youve murdered someone, huh? Well, youve just gained entrance to a varied, distinct and very exclusive club, more secret than Skull and Bones and gorier than a bus station toilet. How did you find yourself here? Did the incident take place ten years ago during a friendly fire accident in the Gulf or are you getting blood on your keyboard right now, having just dispatched a hooker or transient to the next realm? Perhaps you knew your victim? Regardless, you never really get to know someone until you cut them open and dance in their entrails, right? How can you be sure their insides even exist? What, are you going to take some Doctors word for it? Youre too smart for that!
If any of this sounds familiar, I offer you this dummies guide to murdering someone and getting away with it, both legally and emotionally. I say emotionally because unless you have truly transcended human morality, the harshest judge of all is not the grizzled old judge sitting behind the bench but, rather, that grizzled old judge sitting in your heart (not literally please dont hurt yourself).
First, lets get the facts straight:
1. Who did you kill?
2. What did you do to them?
3. Why did you do it?
4. When did it happen?
5. Where?
6. Do you have a secret room?
Healing begins only after you begin to answer these tough questions. Lets try to answer these questions using Bob as an example.
1. Bob murdered a neighbors daughter.
2. Bob killed her by tying her up using the intestines of another young girl he had previously murdered and then tickled her until she choked on her own tongue.
3. Why? Well, Bobs as a classic excuse. According to him, she was very flirtatious. She was always playing in her own backyard which she KNEW Bob had a clear view of if he sat on the roof of his tool shed and craned his neck to clear the ten foot security fence that separated their properties. She also dressed provocatively, wearing t-shirts that prominently displayed her forearms. Forearms are a weakness for Bob and the little bitch knew that! he is fond of saying.
4. Bob has a pretty good idea of when the murder occurred because he had waited patiently for his wife to go out of town on business before he killed. So, in his own words, the murder probably took place during some whore convention!
5. Finally, Bob has the convenience of answering the last two questions at once: He killed her IN his secret room.
After you have answered these questions you are ready to take stock of your emotional well being. Bob decided that he doesnt care because he believes himself to be the reigning king of blood and kings are beyond reproach. But perhaps this is your first murder and you are racked with guilt. In this case you have a choice to make. Do you learn from this guilt and truly become a better person, never to murder again? Or do you embrace the void within and start taunting your local police force with cryptic letters cut from newspaper type? Regardless, do not return to the scene of the crime! There are no answers for you there! Only cops!
This time of discovery is crucial and its important that you take your time. Do not make any mistakes! As a matter of fact, now is a good time to painstakingly review the littlest details of your crime, making sure you made no errors. Remember, in todays high tech world, every piece of clothing or flake of skin is a potential fingerprint. This is why its best to murder in the nude after a salt scrub or skin peel. And sand off the palms of your hands! Thats just common sense!
Are you sure you wont be caught? Have you decided that you want to learn from this experience? Good. But what can you possibly learn from ritualistically poisoning someone incrementally for a year until they die? Youd be surprised!
The first thing you have to learn is that no matter how different you feel, youre just like everyone else. Except that youre a murderer.
The second thing you have to remember is that its possible for your karma to actually improve. You may be able to come out of this a better person! Just kidding.
So remember, youve embarked on a very important journey. See this thing through! The greatest murderers of all time got away scot free: Jack The Ripper, The Zodiac Killer (I think), The Guy that actually killed Kennedy, etc. If you truly have what it takes, you too, can enjoy membership in this very exclusive club. Happy Killing!
Next week: Make your own spooky Halloween skeleton. Ingredients: Acid, a person.
Rob Corddry is an actor. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
Porn Star Arrested for Murder
Police arrested former porn star Timothy J. Boham, accusing him of killing a wealthy Colorado business man. Boham attempted to escape by crossing into Mexico, but when border patrol agents intervened, his plan fell apart. The dumbass informed the officers he needed to get into Mexico to escape American authorities armed with a murder warrant. Genius.
The victim, John P. Kelso, 43, was found in his Congress Park home Monday morning by a housekeeper. Detectives think Kelso was killed sometime over the weekend.
"It appears at this time that the victim and the suspect were acquainted with each other," Denver police spokeswoman Virginia Quiñones said.
After police found the victims body, they obtained a warrant for Bohams arrest as a first-degree murder fugitive.
Boham worked in the gay porn industry under the name Marcus Allen. He appeared in the blockbusters Little Big League, Ripe, and Never Been Touched (which Im now dying to see.) He also worked as a model, but a shitty attitude hurt his career.
According various reports, Boham chased women and hated gays, despite being a gay porn star.
Boham told Lara Holland, who lived in an apartment a floor below Boham, that he "sanitized" his apartment by thoroughly scrubbing it because a gay man had lived there previously, she said.
"He hated (gays)," she said. "He hated their lifestyle."
The victim was rumored to be gay, which could become an issue at trial; prosecutors may take advantage of hate-crime statutes. Boham also faces a lifetime of irony; the gay-hating Boham may spend the rest of his days having his ass gingerly torn apart by fellow prisoners. Good luck with that.
OJ Simpson "Hypothetically" Kills Wife in New Book
Publishers offered O.J. Simpson $3.5 million dollars to write a tell-all about the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Simpson, who was found not guilty in his notorious criminal trial, but later found responsible for his ex-wifes death in civil court, will write the book as if he did slaughter his wife and an innocent bystander.
Simpson is not actually confessing to the murder rather, hes writing a hypothetical book which the Enquirer reports is tentatively being called If I Did It.
The early part of the book tells how Simpson fell in love with Nicole and how the marriage collapsed, reports the tab. He goes on, according to the article, to describe in gruesome detail the killing of his ex-wife and Goldman; he stipulates that the murder scenes are hypothetical. But, notes the tab, the descriptions are so detailed and so chillingly realistic that readers are left with little doubt as to what really happened.
Simpson still owes the Brown and Goldman families millions of dollars from the civil judgment, but none of the money from the book deal will make it to their pockets; Simpson allegedly vowed to spend the $3.5 million as quickly as possible in order to avoid paying up.
Photo Location
Go To Brazil For Rape, Murder And Assault On Election Day
In another example of how Brazil is party central, a Brazilian law allows you to get away with the most heinous of crimes, as long as you do it out of eyesight of the police. The law does not allow police to arrest anyone five days before and two days after an election, unless they are actually caught in the act of committing the crime. It was designed to ensure fair elections because local politicians in the past would have their opponents arrested on election day and locked up until the polls closed.
Today Adriano Saddi Lima Oliveira thinks it is the best law in the world. Oliveira is a 23-year-old law student who confessed to hiring hitmen to kill his mother. He had his mother killed because she was tossing away the family inheritance on her boyfriend. Police would very much like to arrest the killer but they cant because elections are on Sunday. They hope to arrest Oliveira next week.
In the election, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva looks to have been forced into a second-round runoff with former São Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin. The runoff will be on October 20th, so grab your knives and buy a ticket to beautiful Brazil!
O'Reilly on Osama's Death List?
Bill O'Reilly loves being in the spotlight. His bombastic, combative style ensures that his guests can barely get a word in edge-wise, and his "no-spin zone" seems to be spin free only if it agrees with whatever preconceived notion O'Reilly had before the conversation even begun. All of which makes him the sort of man who attracts plenty of boos (which I was fortunate enough to participate in). But is it enough to make him a legitimate target for al-Qaeda operatives? H seems to think so.
The loofah-loving Fox News host is raising plenty of eyebrows around the office after telling Barbara Walters in an interview with ABC's 20/20 that, "the FBI came in and warned me and a few other people at Fox News that Al Qaeda had us on a death list." O'Reilly describes the experienceas well as other violent threats he says he's received from various "kooks"as "disconcerting."
Which is just the sort of thing that gets ratings boosted and armchair generals riled up to support another invasion. The only problem? It's completely untrue.
A high-level exec at another cable news channel was less circumspect. "That sounds like absolute bullshit to meit's typical O'Reilly," he says. "We've never received any similar warnings from the FBI or any other government agency, and we've done plenty of reporting to piss off Bin Laden."
UPDATE: A skeptical federal law enforcement official told Radar this morning: "I'm not aware of any FBI agents warning anyone at Fox News of their presence on any list....For that matter, I'm not aware of any Al Qaeda hit list targeting journalists. Agents from the D.C. field office, FBI headquarters, and a hostage negotiator went to Fox's offices in New York last month to advise them specifically on the Gaza kidnapping [of Fox employees Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig]. But they only talked to management, they didn't talk to any individual journalists."
Spokepeople at CBS News and ABC News also said their networks had not received warnings. Although a spokesman for the FBI did not immediately return calls, an official at the agency's New York City office said she had never heard of the bureau issuing the caveat. "I'm not aware of that," she said.
So why would O'Reilly go on record making up something like that? It certainly boosts his own importance (at least in his mind) and gives him yet another topic to rant about. Or maybe he's just gone completely off the deep end? Whatever the reason, his paranoia seems totally unjustified.
Murder Charges Dropped Against John Mark Karr
Prosecutors dropped charges today against self-professed murder John Mark Karr. Karr admitted murdering six year old JonBenet Ramsey, but his attorney announced the Boulder DA will not pursue the case.
"The warrant on Mr. Karr has been dropped by the district attorney," public defender Seth Temin said in a statement he read to reporters outside the Boulder, Colo., jail. "They're not proceeding with this case."
Temin continued, "We are deeply distressed that they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand, with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him and no independent factors leading to a presumption that he did anything wrong."
Temin conveniently forgot his client had his own ass dragged from a Thai prison to Denver after announcing during a press conference he accidentally killed Ramsey. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for Karr, his own DNA samples did not match the DNA samples taken from the crime scene.
In a statement released Monday, Boulder D.A. Mary Lacy said, "My office has spent the past week conducting follow-up interviews and forensic testing to establish whether John Mark Karr was present in Boulder on December 25-26, 2006.
"The DNA associated with the victim in this case does not match John Mark Karr. The family of Mr. Karr cooperated by providing circumstantial evidence that Mr. Karr spent Christmas with his family in Atlanta, Georgia."
Concluding the statement, Lacy said, "Our role in the investigation of JonBenet Ramsey's murder has been to follow up on all legitimate leads that we have received from law enforcement and concerned citizens. This case is not closed, and we will continue to investigate leads and pursue justice.
"Regarding the status of John Mark Karr, a safety plan has been established. We cannot comment further on this issue."
Karr may still face child pornography charges currently pending in the state of California.
Photo Location
In Iraq, the Murders Go On
The fighting in Iraq continues, despite any premature claims of victory by our commander in chief. This time, it's Shia pilgrims on a holy day.
Gunmen have opened fire on Shia Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad, killing at least 20 and injuring 300, officials say.
Tens of thousands of Shias are making the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of revered Imam Musa Kadhim in the Kadhimiya neighbourhood.
Officials said the gunmen were thought to be Sunni extremists. Shia militiamen are guarding some of the pilgrims.
[...]
Defence Minister General Abdul Qader Jassim told Reuters news agency 30 suspected militants were arrested and 14 police injured.
Qassem al-Mussawi, head of joint operations at the prime minister's office, said there had been some shooting but the situation was "under control".
Armed Shias of the Mehdi Army militia could be seen protecting some of the route.
Some Sunni leaders accused Shias of provoking the attacks and said security officials allowed militiamen to attack Sunni homes.
"We demand that the government stand up to these saboteurs," said a statement from the Sunni Islamic Party.
Iraq is a quagmire. The only thing that was able to keep these people, with centuries of hatred between each other, together was the iron first of Saddam Hussein. Even though most are thankful that he is gone, the power vaccuum created by his absence is allowing these old rivalries to flare up in spectacular, tragic violence. Take a close look at what neoconserative ideology has wrought; Iraq was supposed to be the centerpiece of a vibrant democracy that would reshape the entire Middle East into a Western-friendly zone.