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First up, it might be spamming but if Tony or Mr Snuggly want to delete the number of words here from my overall word-count, I have no objection whatsoever. Secondly, I apologise if anyone's seen this before but it is so strange that I felt I had to share it with those who haven't read it before.
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for
Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in
San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the
story.
On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus
and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending
to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency).
As he fell past the ninth floor, his fall was interrupted by a shotgun
blast through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had
been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and
that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of
this."
"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit
suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he
intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below
probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide.
But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused
the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands.
"The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was
occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was
threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the
trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through a window
striking Opus."
"When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt,
one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge,
the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the
shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to
threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder
her - therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is,
the gun had been accidentally loaded."
"The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal
incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun
threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would
shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son
for the death of Ronald Opus."
There was an exquisite twist. "Further investigation revealed that the
son [Ronald Opus] had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the
ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through
a ninth story window."
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
Timing, it's all in the timing.
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for
Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in
San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the
story.
On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus
and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending
to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency).
As he fell past the ninth floor, his fall was interrupted by a shotgun
blast through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had
been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and
that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of
this."
"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit
suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he
intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below
probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide.
But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused
the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands.
"The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was
occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was
threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the
trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through a window
striking Opus."
"When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt,
one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge,
the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the
shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to
threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder
her - therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is,
the gun had been accidentally loaded."
"The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal
incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun
threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would
shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son
for the death of Ronald Opus."
There was an exquisite twist. "Further investigation revealed that the
son [Ronald Opus] had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the
ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through
a ninth story window."
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
Timing, it's all in the timing.
Page:
Well, well well.
How intresting.
To shoot a moving target with a shotgun, is hard enough. To do it by complete accident.
Bah.
Timing? You couldnt time it better even if you were paid.
Very intresting.
How intresting.
To shoot a moving target with a shotgun, is hard enough. To do it by complete accident.
Bah.
Timing? You couldnt time it better even if you were paid.
Very intresting.
Heh, amazing.
>As he fell past the ninth floor, his fall was interrupted by a shotgun
>blast through a window, which killed him instantly.
As soon as I read that I thought of Magnolia too! It's a great film but I had to watch it twice to 'get it'..! Especially the ending. That woman who Julianne Moore plays freaks me out too.
I only watched it because it happened to be on Sky the same night Goldie from BB said "Magnolia's my fave film..", at least he's got taste in something! :)
>blast through a window, which killed him instantly.
As soon as I read that I thought of Magnolia too! It's a great film but I had to watch it twice to 'get it'..! Especially the ending. That woman who Julianne Moore plays freaks me out too.
I only watched it because it happened to be on Sky the same night Goldie from BB said "Magnolia's my fave film..", at least he's got taste in something! :)
I find that genius
I loved that speech.
Yup.
Goatboy wrote:
> It's worth watching Magnolia just for the beginning, tales of
> coincidence and it starts with the suicide/murder case. I first
> thought "Nah, that's rubbish" but, like you've posted, it
> did happen.
Isn't Magnolia the film with the "Respect the ****, tame the ****" speech?
> It's worth watching Magnolia just for the beginning, tales of
> coincidence and it starts with the suicide/murder case. I first
> thought "Nah, that's rubbish" but, like you've posted, it
> did happen.
Isn't Magnolia the film with the "Respect the ****, tame the ****" speech?
What a great story!
I'll keep that in mind.
It's worth watching Magnolia just for the beginning, tales of coincidence and it starts with the suicide/murder case. I first thought "Nah, that's rubbish" but, like you've posted, it did happen.
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