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To: maysa@Citadel.edu
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Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 09:30:55 -0500 (EST)
From: CIT::CHANM 3-FEB-1994 10:23:46.73
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Subj: Weird
WEIRDNUZ.297 (News of the Weird, October 15, 1993)
by Chuck Shepherd
Lead Story
* Alphonso Johnson Quinn, 36, was arrested near Bowie,
Md., in September and accused by police of being the
"crossbow rapist" who had terrorized several women in
their homes. According to Police Chief David Mitchell,
Quinn committed the crimes to improve his business; he
sold "home security systems," and his sales literature
referred to the need for protection from the crossbow
rapist. [Washington Times, 9-15-93]
The Halls of Justice
* Reinero Torres, Jr., 53, twice this year successfully
defended himself in court in Sebring, Fla., first on a
worthless-check charge and then for assault. However,
in August, on a third charge, for theft, for which he
also acted as his own lawyer, he lost. A jury
convicted him of having stolen, from the courthouse
library, the books he had used in preparing his
defenses to the first two charges. [Tampa Tribune,
Aug93]
* A judge in Riverside, Calif., ruled in September that
David Reese, 39, must pay his ex-wife $982 a month in
child support for their two children, aged 9 and 5,
even though he learned recently during the heated
divorce proceeding that the children were really
fathered by a "family friend" and are not his.
[Columbus Dispatch-Orange County Register, Sept93]
* In April, Baltimore, Md., circuit judge Thomas J.
Bollinger rejected a recommended 20-year prison
sentence and instead sentenced a man only to probation
on a rape conviction. Bollinger's rationale was that,
since the woman and the man were friends, and she was
raped only after she voluntarily lay down on his bed
fully clothed to sleep off a drinking binge, it was not
really rape. Analogizing the matter to a property
crime, the judge said, if "I grab your purse," it's
"robbery," but "if you . . . leave your pocketbook on
the bench, and I take it," it is merely "larceny"--
which is less serious. And in Newport, Wales, two
months earlier, a judge said he would sentence a 15-
year-old boy only to probation for raping a girl of the
same age, provided that he pay her about $700 so she
could take a vacation and get over the incident.
[Baltimore Sun, 4-24-93; St. Louis Post-Dispatch-
Reuters, 2-7-93]
* In July in Bristol, Conn., Kathleen Driscoll filed a
formal complaint accusing ex-lover Richard LaMothe of
being the person who made a series of harassing phone
calls to her. In addition to telephone company records
that tended to support her charge, Driscoll said that
one call, in March, consisted only of silence
punctuated by a very large belch, which Driscoll
positively identified as LaMothe's. [National Law
Journal, 8-16-93]
Cries for Help
* Leona Vanatta, 66, was charged with robbing the Trans
World Bank, of which she is a regular customer, in San
Fernando, Calif., in September. She arrived at the
bank expecting that her monthly Social Security funds
($242) had been direct-deposited; when informed that
the funds were not yet available, she pulled out a gun
and said, "Now can I have my money?" She took the
$242, hopped on her bicycle, and started to pedal home
but was quickly apprehended. [San Jose Mercury News-L.
A. Daily News, 9-6-93]
* A federal appeals court upheld the conviction of
Rodney Hamrick in June on mailbombing charges. Hamrick
ultimately confessed to the crime, but the first piece
of evidence that led investigators to him was that he
had written his return address on the bomb package. [U.
S. vs. Hamrick, 995 F.2d 1267 [4th Cir. 1993]
* In September, Gwen Laymon said in New Orleans that
her recently-arrested son, Eric, accused in a drive-by
shooting of a 12-year-old girl, could not possibly have
participated in the incident. She told reporters that,
at the time of that shooting, Eric was at a nearby
housing project participating in another shooting.
[Times-Picayune, 9-2-93]
* Vincent J. Branciforte, 39, was arrested for
possession of child pornography in Clearwater, Fla., in
September. Originally, police had intended to question
him about taking photographs on a public beach of
little girls showering nude--although possession of
such photos is not illegal in Florida. However,
according to police, when they visited his home to
question him, Branciforte said, "I know why you are
here," went outside, fished around in his garbage can,
and handed police other photographs that are illegal to
possess. "Had he not given us those pictures," said
Capt. Frank Palombo, "we'd have nothing." [St.
Petersburg Times, 9-29-93]
* In a case report in a 1993 issue of the Journal of
Forenisic Sciences, an Aberdeen, Wash., coroner
described the death of a depressed, 28-year-old man who
killed himself by tying a thick nylon rope from his
neck to a tree stump, getting into his truck in a rural
area, fastening his seat belt, and accelerating until
he decapitated himself. [Journal of Forensic Sciences,
1993]
The Weirdo-American Community
* Lightbulb eater Jim Rose was forced to postpone his
33-city tour in September for one month, because he was
still recuperating from his last show in The
Netherlands. To satisfy TV and radio stations there,
Rose had ingested five bulbs in one day (versus his
usual limit of no more than one every 24 hours) and had
to be treated for stomach cramps and bleeding bowels.
[L. A. times, 9-15-93]
I Don't Think So
* Timothy Ray Anderson filed a lawsuit against a
McDonald's restaurant in Milwaukee in May for injuries
he suffered when a security guard shot him in the
stomach as he attempted a robbery. Wrote Anderson's
lawyer in the complaint, "The mere fact that you're
holding up McDonald's with a gun doesn't mean you give
up your right to be protected from somebody who wants
to shoot you." [Milwaukee Journal, May93]
Copyright 1993, Universal Press Syndicate. All rights
reserved. Released for the personal use of readers.
No commercial use may be made of the material or of the
name News of the Weird.
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