Phantom Prospero

Insatiable Virgin Bride

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The bride tells her husband, “Honey, you know I’m a virgin and I don’t know anything about sex. Can you explain it to me first?”

“OK, Sweetheart. Putting it simply, we will call your private place ‘the prison’ and call my private thing ‘the prisoner’.

So what we do is: put the prisoner in the prison.

And then they made love for the first time.

Afterwards, the guy is lying face up on the bed, smiling with satisfaction.

Nudging him, his bride giggles, “Honey the prisoner seems to have escaped.”

Turning on his side, he smiles. “Then we will have to re-imprison him.”

After the second time they spent, the guy reaches for his cigarettes but the girl, thoroughly enjoying the new experience of making love, gives him a suggestive smile, “Honey, the prisoner is out again!”

The man rises to the occasion, but with the unsteady legs of a recently born foal.

Afterwards, he lays back on the bed, totally exhausted.

She nudges him and says, “Honey, the prisoner escaped again.”

Simply turning his head, He YELLS at her, “Hey, its not a life sentence, OKAY!

Edvard Munch - Madonna

2008-12-18T01:19:00.001-08:00

The Woman Who Keeps Getting Excessive Unwanted Attention

2008-12-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

Josef Fritzl

2008-11-18T17:09:00.001-08:00

Fritzl case
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The Fritzl case emerged in late April 2008 when a 42-year-old Austrian woman, Elisabeth Fritzl, stated to police that she had been sexually abused, raped, and physically assaulted by her father, Josef Fritzl, since 1977 and had been imprisoned by him for 24 years, since 1984.[1] Her father had held her captive in a small, soundproof and windowless cellar in the basement of the family home in the town of Amstetten in Lower Austria, claiming she had run away and joined a cult. During her captivity, she had given birth to a total of seven children, all of whom had been fathered by Josef. Three of them had been imprisoned along with their mother for the whole of their lives: daughter Kerstin, aged 19; and sons Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5. Of the other children, three had been raised by Josef and his wife Rosemarie in the upstairs home. He engineered the appearance of these children as foundlings discovered outside their house, giving the impression that their mother, Elisabeth, had abandoned them: Lisa at nine months in 1993, Monika at ten months in 1994, and Alexander at fifteen months in 1997. Alexander's twin, Michael, died three days after birth. When the eldest daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill in spring 2008, her father allowed her to be taken to a hospital, which triggered a series of events that eventually led to discovery.

Contents [hide]
1 Background
1.1 Josef Fritzl
1.2 Criminal record
2 Case history
3 Investigation
3.1 Discovery
3.2 The cellar
4 Key events
5 Aftermath
5.1 Elisabeth and her children
5.2 Josef Fritzl's comments
5.3 Judge's investigation
5.4 Austria's reputation
6 See also
7 References

Background
Josef Fritzl
Josef Fritzl was born on 9 April 1935 in Amstetten, Austria. In 1956, at the age of 21, he married Rosemarie, 17, with whom he had seven children: two sons and five daughters including Elisabeth, who was born in 1966.

Fritzl grew up as a single child without a father, who had left the family when Fritzl was four. He described his mother as “the best woman in the world” and “as strict as it was necessary”.[2]. Later Fritzl expressed a negative opinion of his mother. He said that "She used to beat me, hit me until I was lying in a pool of blood on the floor. It left me feeling totally humiliated and weak. My mother was a servant and she used to work hard all her life, I never had a kiss from her, I was never cuddled although I wanted it - I wanted that she would be good to me." In October 2008 Fritzl also claimed that he had locked his mother to her room without sunlight.[3]

After leaving an HTL technical college with a qualification in electrical engineering, he started work at a steel company in Linz. In 1967, he served a sentence for raping a woman. After prison, he obtained a job in a construction material firm in Amstetten where he worked from 1969-1971. Later, he became a technical equipment salesman, travelling throughout Austria. In 1972 he purchased a guesthouse and an adjacent campsite at Lake Mondsee, which he ran, together with his wife, until 1996. In addition to the apartment house in Amstetten, where he lived, he owned several other properties which he rented out. He was arrested in April 2008, aged 73, on suspicion of serious crimes against family members.[4][5][6][7]

In a recent report given by psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner, Fritzl's mother was described as unpredictable and abusive. Fritzl referred to himself as an "alibi" child, meaning that his mother only gave birth to him to prove that she was not barren and could produce children. Fritzl claims that his pathological behavior is innate. He admits that he planned to lock his daughter up during his prison stint for the earlier rape conviction so that he could contain and express his evil side. He said, "I was born to rape, and I held myself back for a relatively long time. I could have behaved a lot worse than locking up my daughter"[8].

Fritzl has been diagnosed as having severe combined personality disorder and a sexual disorder. His psychiatrist, Adelheid Kastner, recommended that Fritzl receive psychiatric care for the rest of his life.[9]

Criminal record
Fritzl was convicted for raping a 24-year old woman in the city of Linz in 1967 and sentenced to 18 months in jail. According to an annual report for 1967 and a press release of the same year, he was also named as a suspect in a case of attempted rape and known for indecent exposure. More than 25 years later, when he applied for the adoption of one child and foster care for two others, of children that his daughter Elisabeth had given birth to, his criminal record was not made available to local social service authorities since it had been expunged in accordance with Austrian law.[10]

Case history
Fritzl is suspected of having begun abusing his daughter Elisabeth in 1977 when she was 11 years old. At age 15, Elisabeth started a training course to become a waitress. In January 1983, she ran away from home and, together with a friend from work, went into hiding in Vienna. She was found by police within three weeks and returned to her parents. She rejoined her training course and, upon completion in summer 1984, was offered a job in the city of Linz.

On 24 August 1984, Fritzl allegedly lured her into the basement of the family home by asking her to help him carry a door.[11] According to Elisabeth's statement, he drugged her, handcuffed her, and kept her imprisoned in a hidden part of the basement until her release in 2008.

The day after Elisabeth's disappearance, her mother Rosemarie filed a missing person report. The following month, a letter in Elisabeth's handwriting appeared, postmarked in the town of Braunau. It stated that she was staying with a friend and was tired of living with her family, warning her parents not to look for her or she would leave the country.[11]

Over the course of the following 24 years, Fritzl apparently visited her in the hidden cellar on average once every three days to bring food and other supplies. At times in order to punish them, Fritzl shut off the lights to the basement or refused to deliver food for several days at a time [12]. After his arrest in 2008, he admitted that he repeatedly had sex with her and against her will. Elisabeth gave birth to seven children during her years in captivity, and did not once see daylight.[11] One child died shortly after birth, and three children - Lisa, Monika and Alexander - were removed from the cellar as infants to live with Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie. They adopted Lisa and became Monika's and Alexander's foster carers, with the knowledge of local social services authorities. Officials said that Fritzl "very plausibly" explained how three of his infant grandchildren had appeared on his doorstep. The family received regular visits from social workers, who did not hear complaints or notice anything to arouse their suspicions.[5]

Following the birth of the fourth child in 1994, Fritzl enlarged the prison for Elisabeth and her children from 35 m² (380 sq ft) to 55 m² (600 sq ft). The captives had a television, radio, and video cassette player at their disposal. Food could be stored in a refrigerator and cooked or heated on hot plates. [13] Elisabeth taught the children to read and write.

Fritzl told Elisabeth and the three children Kerstin, Stefan and Felix who remained in the cellar that they would be gassed if they tried to escape; investigators have concluded that the threat was empty and was primarily designed to frighten the captives as no actual gas pipes were found leading into the basement.[14] Fritzl stated after his arrest, that it was sufficient to tell them not to meddle with the cellar door or otherwise they would receive an electrical shock and die.[2]

According to his sister-in-law Christine, Fritzl would go into the basement every morning at 9 a.m., apparently to draw plans for machines, which he sold to firms. Often he stayed down there for the night — his wife was not even allowed to bring him coffee. A tenant, who rented a ground floor room in the Fritzl house for 12 years, said he heard noises coming from the basement but Fritzl passed it off as noise emanating from the gas heating system.[15]

Investigation
Discovery
On 19 April 2008, Kerstin, Elisabeth's eldest daughter, fell unconscious, and Fritzl agreed to seek medical attention. Elisabeth helped Fritzl carry Kerstin out of the dungeon and saw the outside world for the first time in 24 years. She was then made to return to the dungeon where she would remain for a final week.[11] Kerstin was taken by ambulance to a local hospital (Landesklinikum Amstetten) and admitted in serious condition with life-threatening kidney failure. Fritzl later arrived at the hospital claiming to have found a note written by Kerstin's mother. He discussed Kerstin's condition and the note with Dr. Albert Reiter.[16] Medical staff found aspects of the story to be puzzling and alerted the police on 21 April, who then broadcast an appeal via public media for the missing mother to come forward and provide additional information about Kerstin's medical history.[17][18] The police then reopened the case file on a missing Elisabeth. Fritzl repeated his story about Elisabeth being in a cult, and presented what, he claimed, was the "most recent letter" from her, dated January 2008. It was posted from the city of Kematen, in order to create a false lead.[11]

The police contacted Manfred Wohlfahrt, a church officer responsible for collecting information on religious cults. Wohlfahrt raised doubts about the existence of the cult. He noted that Elisabeth's letters seemed dictated and oddly written. The news covered some of these issues and Elisabeth watched the story, as it progressed, on the television in the cellar.[11] She pleaded with her father to be taken to the hospital. On 26 April, Fritzl released Elisabeth from the cellar along with her sons Stefan and Felix, bringing them upstairs. Fritzl told his wife that Elisabeth had decided to come back after a 24 year absence.[17] Governor Lenze told ORF that Fritzl had telephoned him and thanked him and the social services for looking after his family during his granddaughter Kerstin's illness.[5] Fritzl and his daughter Elisabeth went to the hospital where Kerstin was being treated on 26 April 2008. Following a confidential tipoff by Dr. Albert Reiter reporting that the two were at the hospital, the police detained Elisabeth and her father on the hospital grounds and took them to a police station for further interrogation.

Elisabeth did not provide police with more details until they were able to reassure her that she would be safe from her father and her children would be looked after. In the space of two hours, she told the story of her 24 years in captivity.[11] Shortly after midnight, police officers completed the three pages of minutes of the interrogation. Fritzl was arrested on suspicion of serious crimes against family members, facing possible charges of false imprisonment, rape, manslaughter by negligence, and incest. During the night of 26-27 April, Elisabeth, her five children and her mother Rosemarie were taken into care.

Fritzl confessed on 28 April to having imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and having fathered her seven children. Police said Fritzl had told investigators how to enter the basement prison through a small hidden door, opened by a secret keyless entry code. Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, had, apparently, been unaware of what had been happening to Elisabeth. It is believed she assumed, due to the letters in her handwriting, that her daughter had run away from home to join a religious cult.[17][19]

On 29 April, it was announced that DNA evidence had confirmed that Fritzl is indeed the biological father of all of his daughter's children.[20]

Fritzl's defence lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said that, although the DNA test proved incest, evidence was still needed for the other allegations: "The allegations of rape and enslaving people have not been proved. We need to reassess the confessions made so far."[21]

In their daily press conference, Austrian police said on 1 May that Fritzl had forced Elisabeth to write a letter the previous year indicating that he may have been planning to release her and the children. In it, she wrote that she wanted to come home but "it's not possible yet".[22] Police believe Fritzl intended to pretend he had rescued his daughter from her fictional cult.[23] In the same press conference, police spokesman Franz Polzer said the investigation would probably last a few months, as police plan on interviewing at least 100 people who had lived as tenants in the Fritzl apartment building in the previous 24 years.[24]

Investigators have only been allowed to work in the cellar for an hour at any given time, due to the lack of oxygen.[25]

The cellar
The Fritzl property in Amstetten consists of a building dating from around 1890 and a newer building, which was added after 1978, when Fritzl applied for a building permit for an "extension with basement". In 1983, building inspectors visited the site and verified that the new extension had been built according to the dimensions specified on the building permit. Unknown to them, however, Fritzl had illegally created additional room by excavating space for a much larger basement and concealed it by erecting walls. Around 1981 or 1982, according to his statement[2], he started to turn this hidden cellar into a prison cell and installed a washbasin, a toilet, a bed, a hot plate and a refrigerator. In 1993, he added more space by creating a passageway to a pre-existing basement area under the old part of the property, which nobody knew of apart from him.

The concealed cellar was soundproofed and consisted of a 5 m (5.5 yd) long corridor, a storage area, and three small open cells, connected by narrow passageways: a basic cooking area and bathroom facilities, followed by two sleeping areas, which were equipped with two beds each. It covered an area of approximately 55 m² (600 sq ft). The ceilings were no more than 1.70 m (5.6 ft) high.

The hidden cellar had two access points: a hinged door that weighed 500 kg (1,100 lb) which is thought to have become unusable over the years because of its weight, and a metal door, reinforced with concrete and on steel rails that weighed 300 kg (650 lb) and measured 1 m (3.3 ft) high and 60 cm (2 ft) wide. It was located behind a shelf in Fritzl's basement workshop, protected by an electronic code known only to Fritzl, which he entered using a remote control unit. In order to reach this door, five locking basement rooms had to be crossed. To get to the area where Elisabeth and her children were held, eight doors in total would need to be unlocked, of which two doors were additionally secured by electronic locking devices.[26][4][27]

Key events
The sequence of key events in this case is as follows:[11][28][17]

Date Key event
28 August 1984 Fritzl lured his 18 year old daughter, Elisabeth, into the basement and imprisoned her.
1989 The first child, Kerstin, was born, who was to live in the cellar until 2008.
1990 Stefan was born. He, too, was to stay in the cellar until 2008.
1992 Lisa was born. In May 1993, when she was nine months old, she was discovered outside the family home in a cardboard box, allegedly left there by Elisabeth, along with a note asking for the child to be cared for.
December 1994 The fourth child, ten-month-old Monika, was found in a stroller outside the entrance of the house. Shortly afterwards, a phone call was made to Rosemarie, apparently, from Elisabeth. The caller asked Rosemarie to take care of the child. However, it is assumed that Fritzl was able to use a recording of Elisabeth's voice to make the call. Rosemarie reported the incident to the police, expressing her astonishment that Elisabeth knew of their new and unlisted phone number.
May 1996 Elisabeth gave birth to twins. One died after three days and Fritzl is alleged to have removed his body from the cellar and cremated it. The surviving twin, Alexander, was taken upstairs when he was 15 months old. He was "discovered" in circumstances similar to those of his two sisters.
December 2002 Felix was born. According to a statement by Fritzl, he kept Felix in the cellar, together with Elisabeth and her two eldest children, because his wife was not able to look after another child.
19 April 2008 Fritzl arranged for the critically ill 19 year old Kerstin to be taken to a local hospital.
26 April 2008 During the evening, Fritzl released Elisabeth from the cellar along with her sons Stefan and Felix, bringing them upstairs, informing his wife that Elisabeth had decided to come home after a 24-year absence. Later that evening, after an anonymous tipoff during a visit to the hospital, Fritzl and Elisabeth were taken into police custody where she revealed her decades-long imprisonment during questioning.
13 November 2008 Austrian authorities decide that Fritzl will stand trial for the murder of Michael, Alex's twin who died shortly after birth.
14 November 2008 It emerged from the leaked murder investigation that Josef Fritzl fathered an eighth child with his captive daughter Elisabeth, who in November 1986 miscarried in the 10th week of pregnancy.[29]

Aftermath
Elisabeth and her children
After being taken into care, Elisabeth, five of her children and her mother were housed in a local clinic where they were shielded from the outside environment and received medical and psychological treatment. A local government official speculated on the need to give members of the Fritzl family new identities but emphasised that it was a choice for the family to make.[24]

Owing to their lack of exposure to sunlight, the former captives are extremely pale and cannot endure natural light. They are reported to have vitamin D deficiencies and are anaemic. They are likely to have underdeveloped immune systems, although it is yet to be determined whether their immune systems have suffered permanent damage.

Two weeks after the start of the treatment, the clinic head, Berthold Kepplinger, said that the family members needed to stay at the clinic for several more months, and that Elisabeth and the two children held captive in the cellar required further therapy to help them adjust to the light after years in semi-darkness. They also needed treatment to help them cope with all the extra space that they now had in which to move about.[30]

On May 14, 2008, a handmade poster created by Elisabeth, her children and her mother at the therapy facility was displayed in the Amstetten town center. The message thanked local people for their support. "We, the whole family, would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for sympathy at our fate," they wrote in their message. "Your compassion is helping us greatly to overcome these difficult times, and it shows us there also are good and honest people here who really care for us. We hope that soon there will be a time where we can find our way back into a normal life."[30]

Kerstin was reunited with her family on June 8, 2008, having been woken from her artificially induced coma at another hospital. Doctors say she will make a full recovery.[31]

On August 21, 2008, it was revealed that Elisabeth and her children were more traumatized than previously thought. Kerstin would tear at her hair in clumps, and was reported to have shredded her dresses before stuffing them in the toilet. Stefan is unable to walk properly, due to his height of 172.7 cm, forced to stoop in the 167.6 cm-high cellar. It has also been revealed that normal everyday occurences, such as the dimming of lights or the closing of doors, plunges Kerstin into anxiety and panic attacks. The other three of Elisabeth's children who were raised with their father-grandfather are being treated for anger and resentment at how their world has been turned upside down.[32]

Josef Fritzl's comments
When initially arrested, Fritzl claimed that his behavior toward his daughter did not constitute rape but was consensual.

Defence lawyer Rudolf Mayer forwarded extracts from the minutes of his talks with his client Josef Fritzl to the Austrian weekly News for publication.[33] According to these statements, Fritzl said that he "always knew during the whole 24 years that what I was doing was not right, that I must have been crazy to do such a thing", yet "it became a normal occurrence to lead a second life in the basement of my house".[2] Regarding his treatment of the family he had with his wife, he stated "I am not the beast the media make me to be". Regarding his treatment of Elisabeth and her children in the cellar, he explained that he brought flowers for Elisabeth and books and cuddly toys for the children into the "bunker", as he called it, and often watched videos with the children and ate meals with Elisabeth and the children. Fritzl decided to imprison Elisabeth after she "did not adhere to any rules any more" when she became a teenager. "That is why I had to do something; I had to create a place where I could keep Elisabeth, by force if necessary, away from the outside world". He suggested that the emphasis on discipline in the Nazi era, during which he grew up, might have influenced his views about decency and good behaviour. The chief editors of News Magazin noted in their editorial that they expected Fritzl's statement to form the basis of the defence strategy of his "top lawyer" Mayer. Critics have said his statement may be a ploy to prepare an insanity defence.[34]

Recent reports have brought to light Fritzl's premeditated plan to lock his daughter up not for discipline but for his own gratification [35].

Judge's investigation
Elisabeth Fritzl gave a videotaped testimony before Austrian prosecutors and investigators on July 11, 2008. Christine Burkheiser, a state prosecutor, and Josef’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, in an adjoining room took part in the process. The accused, Josef Fritzl, was not present but remained in St. Poelten jail. The testimony, which was not made public, will be presented at Josef Fritzl's trial which is expected to take place in autumn 2008. [36]

Judge Andrea Humer, who will preside over the trial, stated medical experts reported Elisabeth Fritzl and her children in "relatively good health". Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Josef Fritzl, 73, may be charged with murder or manslaughter, rape and kidnapping (false imprisonment).

Lawyer Christoph Herbst who represents Elisabeth Fritzl and family, said "fortunately, everything is going very well," as they spend time to answer the hundreds of letters sent worldwide. Felix, 5, brought up underground, has been learning to swim. One of Elisabeth's daughters, aged 15, attended a 4-day summer camp organized by firefighters with 4,000 other young campers. Other family members made day trips, including swimming outings, whereby care was taken to keep them out of reach of the paparazzi and to protect their privacy.[37]

On November 13, 2008, authorities in Austria released an indictment against Josef Fritzl. He will stand trial for the murder of the infant Michael, who died shortly after birth.[38], and faces between 10 years and life imprisonment. He has also been charged with rape, incest, kidnap, false imprisonment and slavery, which carry a maximum 20-year term. [1]

Austria's reputation
Describing the "abominable events" as linked to one individual case, Austria's Chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, said he planned to launch an image campaign to restore the country's reputation abroad.[39]
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Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday, 29th April, 2008

Father confesses to keeping daughter as sex slave in dungeon
Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font Austria's house of horrors ... Elisabeth Fritzl, her father Josef, and the basement where she was kept.

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April 29, 2008

Page 1 of 2 | Single page
An Austrian man has confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a windowless basement cell and fathering seven children with her, three of whom "never saw sunlight" until they were freed over the weekend, police said.

Josef Fritzl, now 73, also told investigators that he tossed the body of one of the children in an incinerator when the infant died shortly after birth, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs.

"We are being confronted with an unfathomable crime," Interior Minister Guenther Platter said.

Authorities said three of the surviving children - aged 19, 18 and five - were confined during their entire lives to the darkness of their cell by the suspect, whom Polzer said "managed to deceive everyone" until he allegedly confessed in police custody on Monday.

Police released Fritzl's full name and photograph at a news conference, after his identity was already widely reported by media.

He was an authoritarian who took care never to allow anyone near the cellar, Polzer told reporters.

The daughter, who is now 42, had been missing since 1984 and was found by police in the town of Amstetten, about 120 kilometres west of Vienna, on Saturday evening after police received a tip.

Police released several photos showing parts of the cramped basement cell, with a small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom. Investigators said an electronic keyless entry system apparently kept the daughter from escaping from the cell, which was made of solid reinforced concrete.

Fritzl appeared briefly in court on Monday in the city of St Poelten, where he was to be held in pre-trial detention. He faces up to 15 years in prison if charged, tried and convicted on rape charges, the most grave of his alleged offences under Austrian law.

"He admitted that he locked his daughter, who was 18 at the time, in the cellar, that he repeatedly had sex with her, and that he is the father of her seven children," Polzer said.

Three of the surviving children lived with the grandparents and were registered with authorities. The other three apparently were held captive in the cellar with their mother, Polzer told reporters.

Hans-Heinz Lenze, a senior local official, said Fritzl's wife apparently had "no idea" of what went on and was devastated.

"You have to imagine that this woman's world fell apart," he said.

Authorities said the victims and Fritzl's wife were under psychiatric care in an undisclosed location.

Austrians - still scandalised by a 2006 case involving a young woman who was kidnapped and imprisoned in a basement cell outside Vienna for more than eight years - expressed disbelief at the latest case.

"The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going wrong," the newspaper Der Standard said in a commentary.

Guenter Pramreiter, who owns a bakery just down the street, said Fritzl and his wife would regularly buy bread and rolls, though never in large quantities.

"They appeared normal, just like any other family," Pramreiter said. "I'm totally shocked. This was next door. It's terrible."

The case unfolded after a gravely ill teenager was found unconscious on April 19 in the building where her grandparents live, and taken to a hospital. Authorities appealed publicly for the mother to come forward to help diagnose the young woman's condition.

After receiving a tip, police picked up the 42-year-old woman - identified as Elisabeth - and her father close to the hospital on Saturday.

Police said Elisabeth appeared "greatly disturbed" during questioning. She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be cared for.

On Sunday evening, investigators found the area where Elisabeth and three of the children were held captive. Investigators said the rooms were at most 1.7 metres high. The area had a TV and small hot plates for cooking.

In a chronology of events outlined in a police statement, authorities said Elisabeth told them her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11. She told police that some years later in 1984, he sedated her, handcuffed her and locked her in the cellar.

A letter written by Elisabeth had apparently surfaced a month after her disappearance, asking her parents not to search for her.

Monday's developments recalled another case that shocked Austrians in 2006, when a young woman escaped after being largely confined to a tiny underground dungeon in a quiet Vienna suburb for more than eight years.

Natascha Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. Her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, threw himself in front of a train just hours after her dramatic escape.

Kampusch, now 20, issued a statement saying she wanted to contact Elisabeth to offer emotional and financial help.

AP

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This video is based on the Norwegian short film A Year Along the Abandoned Road, directed by Morten Skallerud in 1991. Time lapse photography was used to make the video 50,000 times the normal speed; the original film was 12 minutes long and was filmed over 105 days, and edited to fit the song length and scenes with the band members.

The subject of the short film was Børfjord, a semi-deserted fisherman's village in Northern Norway.

The opening sequense features a poem written by King Olav V of Norway:

When I look back
I see the landscape
That I have walked through
But it is different
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But it is the afterglow
Inside of you
Of all those you met
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A Year Along the Abandoned Road is a Norwegian short film from 1991 directed by Morten Skallerud. It was shot on 70 mm film and shows a whole year passing by in Norway's Børfjord in just 12 minutes. The camera was moved slightly each day, and so the film gives the viewer the impression of seamlessly travelling around the fjord as the year goes along, each day compressed into a few seconds. The film is traditionally the opening movie of the annual 70 mm film festival held at the Cinemateket film club in Oslo.

The film won the Norwegian Amandaprisen for best short film in 1991, and the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival in 1992.

The band a-ha used footage from the film in the music video for their song "Lifelines".

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These men are concreting steel pillars into the ground to stop vehicles from parking on the pavement in front of a down town shop. They are cleaning up at the end of the day.

How long do you think it will take for them to realize where their vehicle is parked?

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Toyota overtakes Ford for number-two spot in US
AFP - Friday, January 4CHICAGO (AFP) - - Toyota Motor overtook struggling Ford Motor Company for the number-two spot in the US market Thursday as the Japanese automaker managed to boost sales in a generally weak market.

It was the first time Ford slipped below second place since 1931.

Toyota's triumph came as Ford, Big-Three leader General Motors Corp and third-place Chrysler LLC shuttered plants and slashed low-profit sales to rental car companies amid massive restructuring programs.

The market share of the Big Three US automakers fell to 51.1 percent from 53.7 percent in 2006 as their combined sales fell 7.1 percent, according to Autodata.

Asian automakers now command 41.7 percent of the US market while European brands hold 7.2 percent.

Total adjusted light vehicle sales fell 1.8 percent to 16.3 million vehicles in 2007, Autodata reported.

GM held tightly to its leading position with 23.5 percent of the US market even as sales slipped 6.3 percent to 3,866,620 vehicles in 2007.

But GM is expected to lose its top position in global sales to Toyota when results are announced later this month.

Chrysler LLC meanwhile saw its sales drop three percent to 2,076,650 vehicles while its market share held steady at 12.9 percent.

While the Big Three have been sideswiped by a sharp drop in demand for their profitable but gasoline-guzzling trucks and sports utility vehicle, Toyota's fuel-sipping sedans -- including the popular gas-electric hybrids -- helped it reach its 12th consecutive year of record-breaking sales.

Toyota downplayed its new ranking and said it would have little impact on customer perceptions.

"It's an interesting fact but it's not the reason people buy vehicles," Bob Carter, vice president for the Toyota Division, told reporters.

Toyota officials said a worsening US economy prompted it to downgrade its growth projection to one to two percent in 2008 from an earlier estimate of around three percent.

Toyota's US sales rose 2.7 percent to 2,620,825 or 16.2 percent of the market in 2007 while Ford's sales fell 11.9 percent to 2,572,599 vehicles or a 14.8 percent share.

Autodata does not include Ford's Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover or Mazda brands when calculating market share.

Ford said two-thirds of the year's sales decline "reflected discontinued products" but warned that it expects the economic environment to "remain challenging in 2008."

"We are restructuring our business to be profitable at lower demand and changed mix and accelerating the development of new products people want to buy," said Jim Farley, Ford's vice president of marketing and communications.

"We have more work to do to reach our ultimate goal -- profitable growth for all. But we have made progress in a short amount of time in several key areas."

Farley said Ford will be accelerating its introduction of new and revamped vehicles to draw more customers into showrooms so that 70 percent of its sales will be of fresh models in 2008 and all of its models will be new or refreshed by 2010.

He also said Ford would be distracted by the loss of its number two spot and would be focused on stabilizing its share of retail sales and improving its reputation for quality and style.

"Where we stack up in comparison to the competition, I don't think that matters to customers and it also won't change the way we manage our business," Farley said in a conference call with journalists.

American Honda Motor Co announced record sales results for the 11th consecutive year with a 2.5 percent increase to 1,551,542 vehicles, which represents 9.6 percent of the market.

"This was definitely a challenging year to be in the car business, and 2008 isn't likely to be a piece of cake," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda.

"Honda continues to benefit from its position as the most fuel-efficient car company in America, and we have some great new products coming in the new year that will keep our momentum going."

Nissan Motor Co. saw sales climb 4.5 percent to 1,068,238 vehicles, boosting its market share to 6.6 percent.

Man Tucks In Pot-Belly For Hot Babe With Big Bouncing Boobs

2007-12-13T17:01:00.001-08:00

If picture below doesn't move, click on it to watch animated version.

One Day At The Airport

2007-11-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, there was boy named La Bi Xiao Xin(蜡笔小新)(Crayon Shin Chan).

Xiao Xin had a father called Homer.

Once when he was four year old, his father brought him to the airport on one fine Sunday afternoon.

They took the train to the airport. On the train, they sat inside the last carriage.

When they reached the airport, they exited the train station and went up the escalator. They found everything to be oddly familiar as prior to that, they had been going to the airport almost every Sunday for the last couple of years.

Only one thing was strange, everything was laterally-inverted, like images in a mirror.

For usually they would exit the station by the south end, but on that particular day, they exited the station by the north end instead.

When they came to departure hall level, Homer realised it was not the usual Terminal 2 which they were familiar with, but the new Terminal 3.

Homer brought Xiao Xin to the Skytrain station to take a sky-train to Terminal 2.

Here’s where the “misadventure” happened.

Xiao Xin ran ahead of his father into the train. His father followed behind and entered the train.

Inside the train, Xiao Xin turned around and couldn’t see his father. He couldn’t see his father because he didn’t turn a full 360 degrees but only 270 degrees. Thinking that his father did not enter the train, he panicked and dashed out of the train.

His father called out to him, “Xiao Xin!”

Xiao Xin heard his father’s voice, spun around and saw his father inside the train. He tried to dash back into the train. But alas, it was too late. The train doors had closed and the train started to make its way to Terminal 2.

Both father and son panicked.

Thank God there was an airport staff “manning” the station at that time. He said something to Homer which he couldn’t hear. But Homer could read his lips going, “… Terminal 2…”

Homer mistakenly thought that the airport staff would accompany Xiao Xin to take the next train from T3 to T2. He didn’t know that staff was supposed to be stationed at T3’s skytrain stop at all times. He took care of Xiao Xin while he waited for his father to return.

When Homer reached T2, he waited for the next train from T3 to arrive.

The next train came and the crowds that visited T3 came pouring out of the train. Homer did not see his son appear, this made him even more worried. He quickly hopped onto the train and made his way back to T3.

Even though the entire ordeal was only actually about 5 to 10 minutes, it felt like an eternity as Homer was worried sick and agonising over his son’s absence. He wondered if Xiao Xin felt the same way too, seeing that the train that came from T2 to T3 did not bring back his father.

Xiao Xin was a brave boy. While waiting at the spanking new T3 with the airport staff, he didn’t cry at all. His father was relieved to see him alright. He thanked the staff, picked up Xiao Xin, hugged and carried him in the train all the way to Terminal 2.

Thank God He kept Xiao Xin safe and sound. Amen.

Lamborghini Reventón

2007-11-14T20:01:00.000-08:00

The Lamborghini Reventón is a supercar that debuted at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show.

It will be the most powerful and expensive Lamborghini to date, costing one million euros. The official press release states that only 20 will be built, but it was later reported that the total number would be 100. The exterior styling was inspired by the F-22 Raptor.

Although the exterior is partially new, almost the entire mechanics (including the engine) are taken directly from the Murciélago LP640.

Rear view of the Lamborghini Reventón.

Initial reports suggest that the 6.5 litre V12 may receive a power boost of approximately 15 kilowatts (20 horsepower), bringing the new ouput close to 490 kW (660 horsepower).[4][2] In spite of this, and the car's carbon fibre components, the Reventón accelerates to 100 km/h (62 mph) in the same time as the Murciélago LP640 (3.4 seconds).

The instrument panel in the Reventón comprises of three TFT liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with two different display modes. The instruments are housed in a structure milled from a solid aluminum block, protected by a carbon fiber casing. The G-Force-Meter is completely new and it is one of the talking points of the Reventón. It displays the dynamic drive forces, longitudinal acceleration during acceleration and braking, as well as transversal acceleration around bends. These forces are represented by the movement of an indicator on a graduated 3D grid depending on the direction and intensity of the acceleration. Formula One teams also use a similar device to analyse dynamic forces.

By simply pressing a button, the driver can switch to the second, quasi-analogical display, where there are the usual circular instruments; speedometer and tachometer. The G-Force-Meter still remains at the centre of this display mode.

Lamborghini has also picked up some of parent company Audi's design language. For the first time, Lamborghini incorporated daylight running lights with the headlamps of the Reventón. Seven Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) at each headlamps flank the Bi-Xenon main beam and they stay lit whenever the car is in movement. Due to the high temperatures in the rear lower part of the car, special heatproof LEDs are used for the indicator and hazard lights, stoplights and rear lights with a triple arrow optical effect.

The Reventón is named after a fighting bull according to Lamborghini tradition. The car's namesake, owned by the Don Rodriguez family, is best known for killing famed bullfighter Felix Guzman in 1943. Reventón means "explosion" or "burst" in Spanish, when used as a noun. In automotive terms, it means "blowout, flat tire" when used as a noun (Harper-Collins Spanish Dictionary, 3rd ed., p. 640). When it was used as the name of a bull, however, it was intended to be interpreted as an adjective, a quality or property of that bull in particular. Then Reventón means "he who is used to making things burst".

Manufacturer: Lamborghini
Parent company: Audi AG
Production: 2008-
Assembly: Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy
Class: Supercar
Body style(s): 2-door coupé
Layout: Mid-engine, four-wheel drive
Engine: 6.5 L V12
Transmission: 6-speed e-gear
Wheelbase: 2665 mm
Length: 4700 mm
Width: 2058 mm
Height: 1135 mm

The Royal Tenenbaums

2007-11-08T23:37:00.001-08:00

The Royal Tenenbaums
Directed by Wes Anderson
Produced by Wes Anderson
Barry Mendel
Scott Rudin
Written by Wes Anderson
Owen Wilson
Starring:
Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum
Anjelica Huston as Etheline Tenenbaum
Gwyneth Paltrow as Margot Tenenbaum
Ben Stiller as Chas Tenenbaum
Luke Wilson as Richie Tenenbaum
Owen Wilson as Eli Cash
Danny Glover
Bill Murray as Raleigh St. Clair
Stephen Lea Sheppard
Music by Mark Mothersbaugh
Cinematography Robert Yeoman
Distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s) December 4, 2001
December 28, 2001
March 14, 2002
March 15, 2002
May 7, 2002
Running time 109 min
Language English
Budget $28,000,000 (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
The Royal Tenenbaums is the 2001 dramatic comedy about three genius siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure after their eccentric father leaves them in their adolescent years. A largely off-beat, ironic, absurdist sense of humor pervades the entire film. As with all of director Wes Anderson's work, the tone of the film is one of hilarious tragedy and revels in the small joys of conversation and camaraderie.

The film features an ensemble cast, including Anjelica Huston as Etheline Tenenbaum, Owen Wilson as Eli Cash, Luke Wilson as Richie Tenenbaum, Ben Stiller as Chas Tenenbaum, Gwyneth Paltrow as Margot Tenenbaum, Danny Glover as Henry Sherman, Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum and Bill Murray as Raleigh St. Clair. Alec Baldwin narrates.

Gene Hackman won a Golden Globe for his performance and Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson's screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award.

Plot
The movie begins at the point where Royal Tenenbaum is explaining to his three children Chas, Margot (who is actually adopted), and Richie that he and his wife, Etheline will soon separate. The scene then evolves into a short explanation of each of the Tenenbaum's lives. Each begins success at a very young age. Chas is a math and business genius who creates a business in his teens selling specially mutated "dalmatian" mice to dealers in Little Tokyo. He also has money stolen from his personal safety deposit box by Royal. Margot is awarded a $50,000 Braverman grant for one of her plays that she wrote at a very young age. She invites Royal to a birthday party where her first play will be shown, and Royal tells her the plot is "just not believable". Richie is a tennis prodigy, but is not artistically or mathematically gifted. He expresses his love for his adopted sister, Margot, through many paintings and also camps out in the African wing of the public archives, sharing a sleeping bag with her. Royal takes him on regular outings to dogfights, to which neither of the other children are invited. Eli Cash is the Tenenbaum's neighbor, and he makes himself one of Richie's best friends. Richie also has a pet hawk named Mordecai, which takes flight at the end of this montage, leading into the movie proper.

The action then skips ahead 22 years. Royal is kicked out of the hotel he had been living in for the past 22 years. All three of the Tenenbaum children are in a post-success slump. Richie is traveling all over the planet in a boat following a breakdown at a tennis match, presumably hiding from the world. He writes a letter to Eli saying that he loves Margot. Chas has become extremely overprotective of his two children, Ari and Uzi, following his wife's tragic death in a plane crash. Margot is married to a neurologist named Raleigh St. Clair, but soaks in a bathtub six hours a day. She hides her smoking habit, along with most of her past from her husband. Raleigh performs tests on Dudley Heinsbergen, researching a strange disorder he calls Heinsbergen syndrome. It involves elements of "Amnesia, dyslexia, color blindness, and an extremely acute sense of hearing." The movie then cuts to Etheline's situation. Her accountant, Henry Sherman, proposes to her.

Being kicked out onto the street, broke, homeless, and given the news that his wife, Etheline, is falling in love with her accountant, Royal tells Etheline that he has stomach cancer. Etheline calls each of the Tenenbaum children, the first time they have been together in 22 years. As soon as they meet, Royal discovers that things are very wrong in each of the children's lives. Chas has harbored hate against him for shooting him in the hand with a BB gun as a child (among other reasons). To Chas's dismay, Royal moves into the old house and sets up a large amount of medical equipment in Richie's room. Royal discovers that Chas is ridiculously overprotective of his children. He then decides to "breed a little recklessness" into Ari and Uzi. He takes them to a pool, horse riding, go karts around town, shoplifting a convenience store, throwing water balloons at cars and riding on the back of a garbage truck. When he gets back, Chas takes him into a closet and starts yelling at him for putting his kids in harms way. When Royal shouts out, "I think you're having a nervous breakdown!" Chas steps out of the closet to avoid breaking his chain of denial.

Margot, on the other hand, has issues of her own. Eli, whom Margot has been having an affair with, tells her that Richie loves her. Later, Raleigh comes to check things out with her. Royal observes the two, and discovers that she has been cheating on him with Eli and objects to Margot's treatment of Raleigh. Raleigh has his suspicions, too. He talks to Richie (who also loves her) about it, and (although it is not shown in the movie) they hire a private eye to spy on her. This forms a sort of "love quadrilateral." On the other hand, Royal starts to try to win back Etheline. Henry observes Royal eating a cheeseburger and decides to tell Etheline that he thinks that he may not have cancer. Royal starts using a variety of racial slurs to try to anger Henry. At one point, he calls him "Coltrane," and they start a fight over it. The fight is broken up by Etheline. Henry, suspicious, investigates Royal's supposed hospital, discovering it had closed years before and the doctor is an invention of Royal's. Henry then confronts Royal's partner in crime, Pagoda, and asks him how much Royal is paying him. Henry also discovers that Royal's cancer medication pills are just Tic Tacs in medicine bottles.

Henry picks an opportune moment, and tells the whole family that he knows that Royal can't have stomach cancer. He explains that it's extremely painful, and you can't eat "three cheeseburgers a day and fries if you have it." He also says that his past wife had died from it, so he would know what it looks like. Henry also mentions that the hospital he claimed to have been receiving treatment from is no longer operating. Having been discovered, Royal and Pagoda leave. Before he goes, Royal says that the past six days had been the best days of his life. Now even more broke than before, he and Pagoda get jobs as elevator attendants.

Richie and Raleigh then get the private eye report on Margot back. The following montage shows Margot at various points in her life: starting smoking, escaping from school, having a lesbian affair, getting married to a Jamaican recording artist for nine days, and having brief affairs with various men, including Eli Cash. Upon hearing the report, Raleigh says "So, she smokes." The news has a much more profound effect on Richie. He goes into the bathroom, shaves off his beard and most of his hair, calmly says "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow," and then slits his wrists, causing massive blood loss. Dudley finds him in a pool of his own blood, and Raleigh rushes him to the hospital. Soon after as the Tenenbaums sit in the waiting room, a visibly sad Raleigh acknowledges Margot's extramarital affairs in front of her and the family before leaving. Soon after, Richie escapes the hospital and meets with Margot. They share with each other their secret love.

Not long before, Royal and Etheline had signed the divorce papers making Etheline single. Henry and Etheline then plan their wedding. Before the marriage, Eli, high on mescaline and painted like an African priest, drives his car into the side of the building. Royal saves the boys, Ari and Uzi, from being run over, but their dog isn't so fortunate. Eli flies out of the car, through a window. An infuriated Chas chases after Eli through the building, breaking Father Peterson's ankle during the chase. When Chas catches up to Eli, he wrestles with him, and damages Richie's eye as he tries to pull him off of Eli. Chas throws Eli over a fence and turns around to realize that he's the only one chasing Eli. He then climbs over the fence and lays down next to Eli. Eli realizes that his problem has risked the lives of two children and Chas tells him he needs serious help. During the aftermath, Chas recognizes that Royal saved his children from death, mending their friendship. Royal then buys a dog from the firefighters that are at the scene for Ari and Uzi.

48 hours later, Etheline and Henry are married in a Judge's Chamber. Margot releases a new play based on her family, that gets fair attendance and mixed reviews with a snickering Royal among the audience, who is aware of the semi-autobiographical elements. Raleigh publishes a book on Dudley's condition entitled "Dudley's World." Eli checks himself into rehab somewhere in North Dakota. Richie starts a junior tennis program. Royal has a heart attack and dies quietly, at the age of 68. Chas is the only witness to his death, with the father and son having re-established their familial bond on Royal's deathbed. The funeral is small, but Royal's headstone reads "Died tragically rescuing his family from the remains of a destroyed sinking battleship." The movie closes with most of the characters walking away from the funeral to the tune of Van Morrison's Everyone.

Characters
Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) - A shamelessly selfish lawyer (briefly imprisoned) and a failure as a father. Intentionally, he shot his son Chas with a BB gun during a game, and consistently and irrelevantly feels he must point out that Margot is his "adopted daughter." He often took only Richie to dog fights while excluding Chas and Margot. Along with collaborator Owen Wilson, Anderson had Gene Hackman in mind for Royal Tenenbaum but the actor was reluctant to take the part. Hackman said that he prefers to disappear into a role, instead of having a role fitted for him to play. Because of this, Gene Wilder was offered the role as well, but turned it down because of his retirement.
Etheline Tenenbaum (Anjelica Huston) - A noted archeologist and author, and the mother of the Tenenbaum children, who "makes their education her top priority" and helps them climb to fame. Later on, Ethel finds love in Henry Sherman, her accountant, the complete opposite of her estranged husband Royal.
Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller) - A genius in international finance, Chas sued his father twice and had him disbarred because of the bonds his father stole from his safety deposit box when he was fourteen. His wife, Rachel Evans Tenenbaum, died in a plane crash and he has since become obsessed with the safety of his sons, Ari and Uzi. They have a dog named Buckley.
Margot Helen Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) - A playwrighting prodigy, Margot once ran away from home for two weeks and came back with half of one of her fingers missing. In the film, spent much of her time moping in her bathtub, watching television. She smokes, unbeknownst to anyone else in her family as she is infamously secretive. She is also adopted, as Royal is quick to point out.
Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) - A tennis prodigy, Richie is secretly in love with his adopted sister, Margot. While successful in his tennis career, Richie has a nervous breakdown on court in front of thousands of fans (the film implies his breakdown was because Margot and Raleigh were married the day before) and loses his desire to play tennis soon after. At the beginning of the film, he has been living on an ocean liner for several months. He drinks Bloody Marys with pepper throughout the movie, so much so that he carries a capped pepper shaker in his jacket pocket. The character of Richie is loosely based on former champion tennis player Bjorn Borg, who many consider to be the best tennis player ever. Borg shocked the tennis world by retiring at age 26 and wore the same style headband and trademark Fila polo as Richie and was rumored to have attempted suicide in the years after his exit from the game.
Eli Cash (Owen Wilson) - A "friend of the family" since the Tenenbaum children were very young, considered Richie's best friend, Eli has a burning desire to "be a Tenenbaum." He gained success as an author of Western novels; his latest work presupposes the outcome if Custer didn't die at Little Bighorn. Eli has been having an affair with Margot and has a drug problem. There are implied suspicions that Eli is an illegitimate child of Royal. Wes Anderson has stated that Eli Cash actually is based on two authors; Cormac McCarthy and Jay McInerney.
Henry Sherman (Danny Glover) - Ethel Tenenbaum's accountant and romantic interest. He confronts Royal on Royal's supposed stomach cancer with the family present. He reveals that his wife actually had stomach cancer, and Royal does not show any of the symptoms. Henry is the polar opposite of Royal.
Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray) - Husband of Margot Tenenbaum and a famed (and strange) neurologist in his own right. Anderson has mentioned that St. Clair was based on Oliver Sacks. He is constantly accompanied by his adolescent test subject Dudley Heinsbergen.
Pagoda (Kumar Pallana) - Friend and servant to the Tenenbaum Family. He also acts as an informant working for Royal to update him on his family. They met after Pagoda, an assassin in Calcutta, stabbed Royal; he earned his trust however when he then carried him on his back to the hospital.

Inspirations and Influences
The siblings of the Tenenbaum family are all highly intelligent and disillusioned, struggling with their own identities. They are loosely based on a rabble of similarly disillusioned siblings from the later books of famed author J.D. Salinger. The Glass family, comprised of seven child-prodigy-turned-adult-misanthrope characters, is the central subject of three of Salinger's four published books, and form the basis for the quirky and unhappy Tenenbaum family, as director Wes Anderson revealed in an interview with Premiere magazine conducted in January 2001.

In one scene, Etheline Tenenbaum urges her daughter Margot Tenenbaum to get out of the bathroom. A similar scene takes up a large part of J.D. Salinger's book Franny and Zooey, when Bessie Glass spends quite a bit of time bothering her son Zooey Glass.

Some members of the Tenenbaum family are actually modeled after members of Cinematographer Robert Yeoman's brother-in-law Walter Karnas' family. Certain small points of family members were exaggerated to make the character its own. The part of Royal Tenenbaum was written for Gene Hackman, but written after Walter Karnas himself. The same goes for the three Tenenbaum children, partially written after three of the Karnas children.

Etheline Tenenbaum, played by Anjelica Huston, was modeled after Wes Anderson's own mother. Anderson's mother similarly adopted archaeology after divorcing her husband. The glasses Etheline wears are actually Mrs. Anderson's. At one point during filming, Anjelica Huston asked Wes Anderson if she was, in fact, supposed to be playing his mother.

Two of the film's characters are thought to be modeled after popular culture icon Nico. The blonde hair and dark mascara of Nico is reflected in the styling of Margot Tenenbaum; additionally, Chas's son Ari shares a name with Nico's son. Nico's "These Days" and "The Fairest of the Seasons" are featured in the movie.

Ari and Uzi's beagle Buckley is a tribute both to singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley and, as a beagle, to the Peanuts character Snoopy. Buckley's replacement by a dalmatian named "Spark Plug" near the end of the film may be a homage to Peanut's creator Charles Schulz, who was given the same nickname by his uncle.

The name for the movie was inspired, in part, by longtime friend of Wes Anderson, Brian Tenenbaum who has appeared in several of Anderson's movies in bit parts. In the Royal Tenenbaums he is one of the paramedics seen at the end of the film.

Henry Sherman is the name of Wes Anderson's former landlord. When the character of Henry Sherman is introduced in the film, he is standing in front of an apartment with a sign that says "H. Sherman - Landlord".

The film also has many references to The Odyssey by Homer.[1]

According to Wes Anderson in the DVD commentary, the subplot in which Margot and Richie hide in a museum is a homage to the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg. In the book, the characters Claudia and Jamie run away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Soundtrack
Main article: The Royal Tenenbaums (soundtrack)
The soundtrack to The Royal Tenenbaums contains a style typical of other Wes Anderson films. Mark Mothersbaugh, a member of Devo, composed the score for the soundtrack as well as for many of Anderson's other films. The film also features many rock songs from the 1960s-'80s. Music from the film is regularly used on the radio program This American Life.[2]

There have been two soundtrack album releases for The Royal Tenenbaums. The first, in 2001, was well-received by most critics, though some songs were omitted; notably, Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", Van Morrison's "Everyone", John Lennon's "Look At Me", The Mutato Muzika Orchestra's version of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" and two Rolling Stones tracks.

In 2002, the soundtrack was re-released with three songs not found on the 2001 release, but the two songs found in the film by The Rolling Stones ("She Smiled Sweetly", "Ruby Tuesday") were still not included on the soundtrack. This is because while The Rolling Stones allow their music to be used in films, they rarely allow their material to appear on any soundtracks. The soundtrack was also still missing the Van Morrison track, which served as the closing credits song in the film.

Influences on popular culture
The narration and the way the film follows each family member is similar to Fox's critically acclaimed yet cancelled television sitcom Arrested Development. Jason Bateman, one of the show's stars, described the show as "The Royal Tenenbaums shot like COPS". Arrested Development's creator and head writer Mitchell Hurwitz said that when he saw The Royal Tenenbaums he already had the idea for Arrested Development in mind and thought "Well, I guess I won't be doing that"[citation needed] but subsequently changed his mind.

Mile High Club

2007-11-07T00:44:00.000-08:00

The mile high club (or MHC) is a slang term collectively applied to individuals who have engaged in sexual activity while on board an aircraft in flight. There is no known formally constituted club so named. However, since "membership" of the "club" is really a matter of an individual asserting they have qualified, the qualifications for membership are open to some interpretation.[1]

Some people attribute the allure of the club to the lower atmospheric pressure in the flight cabin, which they claim increases the intensity of orgasms. Another explanation is the vibration of the airplane, which may make arousal easier.[2] Others say they have fantasies about pilots or flight attendants, or a fetish about planes themselves.[3] For many others, perhaps the majority, the appeal of joining the MHC is the thrill of doing something taboo and the thrill of the risk of being discovered.[4]

History
The first and founding member of the MHC is generally considered to be Lawrence Sperry, inventor of the autopilot. In November of 1916 he reportedly was engaged in sexual activity with a woman while he was flying in his Curtiss flying boat over Babylon, New York, when they crashed (non-fatally) into the water. His status as founder of the club is a retrospective honor derived from the fact that he is the first person reported to have engaged in aerial sexual activity, and from his association with the development of the autopilot at Sperry Corporation.

It is not a literal honor, since they crashed from an altitude of only 500 feet (152 meters), and also because the term "Mile High Club" was not in use at the time. Conversely, sexual activity on the ground at elevations of 5,280 feet (1609 meters) or greater, does not qualify one for the club, under most interpretations of the rules (though a popular joke in Denver, Colorado—the "Mile High City"—is to comment on being members of the Club). [citation needed] Usually, anyone who has had sex on an airplane is considered a member of the Club, though some may consider being a mile in the air as a requirement.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has ruled that at least one accident was caused by a pilot engaging in sexual activity while piloting a small plane.[5]

In November 2007, Singapore Airlines asked passengers on its new Airbus A380 plane not to 'join the club' even in its first class suites, each of which is partitioned off and some include a double bed. The airline gave as its reason the fact that the partitions are not sound-proof and the suites are not completely sealed, and they did not want any other passengers to be offended .

Noted instances
Some incidents of people attempting sexual activity on planes become popularly known: in late 2006, a couple was arrested in part for refusing to stop overt sexual activity on a flight in a case that received widespread media attention.[7] The couple's lawyer claims that the couple was not engaging in sexual activity, but that the man was sick and resting his head on the woman's lap.

Sir Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, claimed that he joined the mile high club at age 19 (c. 1969) by engaging in sex with a woman in a lavatory. He found out after the fact that she was married, and they had no relationship beyond the encounter in the plane.[8]

On February 11, 2007, Lisa Robertson, a Qantas flight attendant, was dismissed after having sex with actor Ralph Fiennes in a business class lavatory during a flight from Darwin to Mumbai on January 24, 2007. Robertson at first denied the allegation, but subsequently admitted the encounter in an interview with the Daily Mail. She also said she had stayed with him at his Mumbai hotel.[9] Fiennes has refused to comment on the matter.[10]

Legality
The BBC ran an article investigating whether sex on a plane was legal. Their conclusion was that it would depend on many factors, such as whether or not the act occurred in sight of others. Also, for international flights the law could vary depending on departure and destination cities, what country(s) was being overflown at the time, and the nation of the carrier airline.[11] All these questions determine the jurisdiction that might have authority over the airplane and its occupants.

Charter flights
For those seeking a novel way to join the club, several[12] private charter companies offer the opportunity to book a flight for the express purpose of engaging in sexual activity. Some commercial enterprises cash in on people's interest in joining the club by offering special charter flights designed for the purpose[13] or by selling souvenir certificates and other items.[14] Some web sites also provide resources such as historical information about the club.

Lightning McQueen

2007-10-16T20:33:00.001-07:00

John Lasseter Returns to the Director's Chair for Cars
From Rebecca Murray,
Lasseter's Latest Comedy Features the Voices of Paul Newman and Owen Wilson
John Lasseter on the Inspiration for Cars: “This is a very personal story for me. I was working non-stop through the ‘90s making Toy Story, Bugs Life and Toy Story 2. Each movie took about four years to make and I was starting one overlapping as I was finishing another.
During this time, I also had four of my five sons. By the end of Toy Story 2 where we started to go into this period of me being this creative executive working with these other guys, my wife Nancy, bless her heart, was so supportive, and she kind of thought she was getting her husband back, you know, after this. ‘Oh, you’re not going to be directing now. She thought, ‘Be careful, John, one day you’re going to wake up and your boys will have gone off to college and you would have missed it,’ and she was right.
I decided to take the summer of 2000 - after Toy Story 2 was completed - off.
We bought a used motor home, piled all five boys, Nancy and I in it, and we went right out to the Pacific Coast, put our feet in the Pacific Ocean and we turned east. We had two months with no plan to get to the Atlantic, put our feet in the Atlantic, and turn around and come back.
Everybody thought we were nuts. ‘You’re going to be at each other’s throats.’ But actually what happened is that we got so close as a family. We loved it and for the first time in my life, I started kind of thinking of just the day I was living, right then and there. I wasn’t even thinking what the next day was going to be because honestly, we got on the road [and], ‘Where do you want to go? We’ll go this way,’ and we just went.
I got back from that journey and I had changed. I said, because I knew I was doing a movie about cars as a character, but I didn’t really know the story, I said, ‘That’s what I want the story to be about, what I just learned.’ That the main character learns ‘the journey in life is a reward,’ about living kind of each day. You can have your career, you can have all this stuff, but it’s about having family and friends around you to just share in your ups and downs of your life.”
The World of Cars: All other Pixar movies feature worlds within our world. Cars doesn’t. The action takes place in a completely make-believe world. “It was really just a choice of looking at cars being alive,” explained Lasseter. “We thought, ‘Well, we can either choose to tell a story with humans in it or do it without.’ We thought that doing it without might be a bit more of a challenge, but we kind of thought that it could be more fun that way. So we chose to develop the story as a world where cars are alive and there’s no humans.
We had a lot of fun thinking what humans need and what cars need and try to find the parallels. The obvious one is a restaurant to a human is like a gas station to a car, so it became one and the same. We tried to give it the feeling of both. Tire store to a car is like a men’s shoe store, right? I don’t know if you noticed that when Luigi had McQueen try on the tires that there’s a patch of asphalt in front of the mirror so you can see how good the tire looks on the asphalt. We have fun that way in really thinking through this world.”
Lasseter on Snagging Paul Newman as a Voice Actor: “In choosing voices for our movies, I always want really good actors whose voices lend themselves to the character we’re trying to do. We never ask actors to put voices on. I also love actors that can make a part their own - ad-libbing or whatever - because spontaneity is not something you normally find in an art form that takes four years to make something, where you craft something frame by frame by frame. But in the recording session, I always want the spontaneity, because I always love to make it feel unexpected or natural.
We called Paul Newman because he was one of the greatest actors ever, but also [because of] his love of cars and his love of auto racing. I thought that this is something where I’d really love to have him in the film. I wanted to have a lot of voices in the film from the automotive world of racing and outside of it and so on, and I thought he would be great. I thought he could lend a lot to the character of Doc Hudson. It was far more than that. When we talked to him and he said yes and we were finally working with him, he got so invested in this film. He really saw the dedication that I had to making this movie not only a great story with great characters that entertained everybody, but the details of the racing world and the automotive world I wanted to get right.”
John Lasseter had to make sure the racing scenes and all other car-related content was authentic in Cars. “I personally have seen every movie about cars and racing and I love the subject. Even other subjects that I love, when you watch a movie that the filmmakers don’t do their homework, and it’s a subject that you like… Like one statement of, ‘Oh, that’s wrong,’ then all of a sudden the entire movie has lost its credibility. I didn’t want that to happen with our film, so we got the details right.
[Paul Newman] became actually one of my most valued sort of racing consultants. Every recording session we had with him, we would talk with him about racing. He would talk and the passion that he talked about racing and the sport was so inspiring that it really helped evolve the character of Doc.
That scene where he’s finally talking about what happened to him, that really came out of these conversations that we had. He helped with that scene so much, and all the terminology. In fact, if you see in the credits, I gave him a ‘racing consulting’ credit because his working with me was so valuable to me.”
Owen Wilson as the Hotshot Rookie, Lightning McQueen: Each actor brought something special and unique to their character in Cars, including Owen Wilson who provides the voice of the film’s central character. “Owen Wilson was phenomenal to work with,” said Lasseter. “This character, the lead character, had to be kind of…you know, he’s a young rookie who is extremely talented and successful and the success has gone to his head in the wrong way. So, in some sense, I wanted to have an actor that can still make that really appealing, and that’s what Owen Wilson did so well. We always get actors to adlib and he’s so very smart and very talented. He’s a very talented screenwriter as well. He knows story structure and is clever that way, and so I encouraged him to adlib and stuff.
Early on, just when we settled onto the name ‘Lightning McQueen’, I thought, ‘Well, every boy is born into this world with his own set of sound effects.’ Right? Cars have a very different sound than a motorcycle, bombs, machine guns, flying like Superman, and all those sounds, and lightning and thunder, right? I had the tape rolling and so I said, ‘So, Owen, what was your sound for thunder growing up?’ He started going, ‘Kachow! Kachow! K-k-k-chow!’ I was sitting in the room laughing so hard, and he gave me this whole series of these funny [sounds] but totally him. I would have never thought of that! And so then we came up with the idea to start using that, like maybe the character would say it. We kept adding it to the story reels.
We had the idea that maybe he’d have a lucky sticker and then we thought that if it was Mylar, it could reflect light. And then, of course, he thinks he’s cool picking up chicks by reflecting light into their eyes, right? So out of that came this idea and then we told Owen about it the next time, ‘Just imagine it like sort of a lightning tattoo that you’re always striking the pose.’ And it just came out of that and became this catch phrase. And also my research into the whole NASCAR world, how everything is trademarked, right? All this merchandise is sold with a trademark. I thought that ‘Kachow!’ would be a great phrase for this character and it just grew out of this adlib he did.”
Lasseter says that although the name could be taken as a nod to car lover Steve McQueen, he actually named the character after his late friend, supervising animator Glenn McQueen. “My supervising animator that I worked with since Toy Story was named Glenn McQueen and he was a big car guy. He was so excited about this movie and starting to work on it, and he died of cancer early in this thing. I kind of named the character, knowing that with Steve McQueen and racing and all that stuff, it’s really named after Glenn McQueen, my supervising animator.”
Behind the Scenes at Pixar – How Projects are Chosen: “At Pixar, the movies are director-driven. What I mean by that is that really the stories that the directors choose, they writ e - and they come from their own hearts. We’re the only studio that’s like that. All the other studios are executive-driven. The movies are picked by executives in development and directors are assigned to them. So in the case of me, I pick stuff I like, you know? It’s like toys, bugs, more toys, and now Cars.
Cars was great. When I was making Bug’s Life I came up with the idea of doing something with cars. I grew up in Los Angeles. As you know, it’s car culture capitol. Cars are so important to everybody there. My dad was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership, so I’ve always loved cars.
At Pixar, we always choose the subject matter of our films that really lend itself to our medium of 3-D computer animation.
I love matching the technology with the imagery in a way. I thought that you’ve seen a lot of animated cars through the history of animation, but I thought we could really bring them alive with the chrome bumpers, the metal flake paint, the rubber tires, the glass, in a way that no one has seen it before. Just kind of feel like you can reach out and touch it. I thought this could be really something, something really special.”
Directing and Juggling Other Duties at Pixar: Lasseter became more involved in the production aspects at Pixar after finishing Toy Story 2 in 1999. Returning to directing with Cars meant he had to figure out how to really manage his time. “Of all the things I do in my job, that’s the most challenging. What I do, because directing a movie you’re involved with every tiny little aspect - it’s really 110% of your time and focus - and so what I’ve done is I work very closely with Andrew Stanton. He’s like my right-hand man at Pixar. Up until the recent merger with Disney, I was the Executive VP of Creative. I made him my VP of Creative, so he kind of helps out overseeing the other projects, as I got so focused on my film. We’d leapfrog that way. I helped him make Finding Nemo and let him just stay focused on that, and I was overseeing Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles and starting to develop Cars. We kind of do this, we work together this way at the studio.
Early on I wanted to make Pixar a place that was more than just ‘John Lasseter makes a movie’ It’s a studio with really talented people and directors, and that was really important for us. We made the choice after Toy Story 2 that I was going to take some time to help develop the studio and these other directors. Meanwhile, I was developing my next project: Cars. That’s why I started on December 1999, but I was sort of slowly developing it as all these other projects were being made. Already, after Cars, I was going to take time to work with all the other directors. We have more directors and more films to be made. That’s why it’s a natural thing with my new job working with Disney, I’ll be helping the directors down there, as well.”

Earthrise

2007-10-16T02:16:00.000-07:00

Before Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2

After Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2

Super-Toys Last All Summer Long

2007-10-16T01:53:00.000-07:00

By Brian Aldiss

The inspiration behind Kubrick's ongoing AI project, a tale of humanity and of the aching loneliness in an overpopulated future.

Though Brian Aldiss bristles at being pigeonholed as a sci-fi writer, the British author has won every major science fiction award. He has also sparked director Stanley Kubrick's imagination with the short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long." First published in Harper's Bazaar in 1969 and later anthologized, this tale of humanity in an age of intelligent machines and of the aching loneliness endemic in an overpopulated future is the inspiration behind Kubrick's ongoing AI project. Aldiss's story offers richly suggestive details that one hopes will make the cinematic cut. But just in case they don't, read the original.

In Mrs. Swinton's garden, it was always summer. The lovely almond trees stood about it in perpetual leaf. Monica Swinton plucked a saffron-colored rose and showed it to David.

"Isn't it lovely?" she said.

David looked up at her and grinned without replying. Seizing the flower, he ran with it across the lawn and disappeared behind the kennel where the mowervator crouched, ready to cut or sweep or roll when the moment dictated. She stood alone on her impeccable plastic gravel path.

She had tried to love him.

When she made up her mind to follow the boy, she found him in the courtyard floating the rose in his paddling pool. He stood in the pool engrossed, still wearing his sandals.

"David, darling, do you have to be so awful? Come in at once and change your shoes and socks."

He went with her without protest into the house, his dark head bobbing at the level of her waist. At the age of three, he showed no fear of the ultrasonic dryer in the kitchen. But before his mother could reach for a pair of slippers, he wriggled away and was gone into the silence of the house.

He would probably be looking for Teddy.

Monica Swinton, twenty-nine, of graceful shape and lambent eye, went and sat in her living room, arranging her limbs with taste. She began by sitting and thinking; soon she was just sitting. Time waited on her shoulder with the maniac slowth it reserves for children, the insane, and wives whose husbands are away improving the world. Almost by reflex, she reached out and changed the wavelength of her windows. The garden faded; in its place, the city center rose by her left hand, full of crowding people, blowboats, and buildings (but she kept the sound down). She remained alone. An overcrowded world is the ideal place in which to be lonely.

The directors of Synthank were eating an enormous luncheon to celebrate the launching of their new product. Some of them wore the plastic face-masks popular at the time. All were elegantly slender, despite the rich food and drink they were putting away. Their wives were elegantly slender, despite the food and drink they too were putting away. An earlier and less sophisti- cated generation would have regarded them as beautiful people, apart from their eyes.

Henry Swinton, Managing Director of Synthank, was about to make a speech.

"I'm sorry your wife couldn't be with us to hear you," his neighbor said.

"Monica prefers to stay at home thinking beautiful thoughts," said Swinton, maintaining a smile.

"One would expect such a beautiful woman to have beautiful thoughts," said the neighbor.

Take your mind off my wife, you bastard, thought Swinton, still smiling.

He rose to make his speech amid applause.

After a couple of jokes, he said, "Today marks a real breakthrough for the company. It is now almost ten years since we put our first synthetic life-forms on the world market. You all know what a success they have been, particularly the miniature dinosaurs. But none of them had intelligence.

"It seems like a paradox that in this day and age we can create life but not intelligence. Our first selling line, the Crosswell Tape, sells best of all, and is the most stupid of all." Everyone laughed.

"Though three-quarters of the overcrowded world are starving, we are lucky here to have more than enough, thanks to population control. Obesity's our problem, not malnutrition. I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell working for him in the small intestine, a perfectly safe parasite tape-worm that enables its host to eat up to fifty percent more food and still keep his or her figure. Right?" General nods of agreement.

"Our miniature dinosaurs are almost equally stupid. Today, we launch an intelligent synthetic life-form - a full-size serving-man.

"Not only does he have intelligence, he has a controlled amount of intelligence. We believe people would be afraid of a being with a human brain. Our serving-man has a small computer in his cranium.

"There have been mechanicals on the market with mini-computers for brains - plastic things without life, super-toys - but we have at last found a way to link computer circuitry with synthetic flesh."

David sat by the long window of his nursery, wrestling with paper and pencil. Finally, he stopped writing and began to roll the pencil up and down the slope of the desk-lid.
"Teddy!" he said.

Teddy lay on the bed against the wall, under a book with moving pictures and a giant plastic soldier. The speech-pattern of his master's voice activated him and he sat up.

"Teddy, I can't think what to say!"

Climbing off the bed, the bear walked stiffly over to cling to the boy's leg. David lifted him and set him on the desk.

"What have you said so far?"

"I've said -" He picked up his letter and stared hard at it. "I've said, 'Dear Mummy, I hope you're well just now. I love you....'"

There was a long silence, until the bear said, "That sounds fine. Go downstairs and give it to her."

Another long silence.

"It isn't quite right. She won't understand."

Inside the bear, a small computer worked through its program of possibilities. "Why not do it again in crayon?"

When David did not answer, the bear repeated his suggestion. "Why not do it again in crayon?"

David was staring out of the window. "Teddy, you know what I was thinking? How do you tell what are real things from what aren't real things?"

The bear shuffled its alternatives. "Real things are good."

"I wonder if time is good.

I don't think Mummy likes time very much. The other day, lots of days ago, she said that time went by her. Is time real, Teddy?"

"Clocks tell the time. Clocks are real. Mummy has clocks so she must like them. She has a clock on her wrist next to her dial."

David started to draw a jumbo jet on the back of his letter. "You and I are real, Teddy, aren't we?"

The bear's eyes regarded the boy unflinchingly. "You and I are real, David." It specialized in comfort.

Monica walked slowly about the house. It was almost time for the afternoon post to come over the wire. She punched the Post Office number on the dial on her wrist but nothing came through. A few minutes more.

She could take up her painting. Or she could dial her friends. Or she could wait till Henry came home. Or she could go up and play with David....

She walked out into the hall and to the bottom of the stairs.

"David!"

No answer. She called again and a third time.

"Teddy!" she called, in sharper tones.

"Yes, Mummy!" After a moment's pause, Teddy's head of golden fur appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Is David in his room, Teddy?"

"David went into the garden, Mummy."

"Come down here, Teddy!"

She stood impassively, watching the little furry figure as it climbed down from step to step on its stubby limbs. When it reached the bottom, she picked it up and carried it into the living room. It lay unmoving in her arms, staring up at her. She could feel just the slightest vibration from its motor.

"Stand there, Teddy. I want to talk to you." She set him down on a tabletop, and he stood as she requested, arms set forward and open in the eternal gesture of embrace.

"Teddy, did David tell you to tell me he had gone into the garden?"

The circuits of the bear's brain were too simple for artifice. "Yes, Mummy."

"So you lied to me."

"Yes, Mummy."

"Stop calling me Mummy! Why is David avoiding me? He's not afraid of me, is he?"

"No. He loves you."

"Why can't we communicate?"

"David's upstairs."

The answer stopped her dead. Why waste time talking to this machine? Why not simply go upstairs and scoop David into her arms and talk to him, as a loving mother should to a loving son? She heard the sheer weight of silence in the house, with a different quality of silence pouring out of every room. On the upper landing, something was moving very silently - David, trying to hide away from her....

He was nearing the end of his speech now. The guests were attentive; so was the Press, lining two walls of the banqueting chamber, recording Henry's words and occasionally photographing him.

"Our serving-man will be, in many senses, a product of the computer. Without computers, we could never have worked through the sophisticated biochemics that go into synthetic flesh. The serving-man will also be an extension of the computer - for he will contain a computer in his own head, a microminiaturized computer capable of dealing with almost any situation he may encounter in the home. With reservations, of course." Laughter at this; many of those present knew the heated debate that had engulfed the Synthank boardroom before the decision had finally been taken to leave the serving-man neuter under his flawless uniform.

"Amid all the triumphs of our civilization - yes, and amid the crushing problems of overpopulation too - it is sad to reflect how many millions of people suffer from increasing loneliness and isolation. Our serving-man will be a boon to them; he will always answer, and the most vapid conversation cannot bore him.

"For the future, we plan more models, male and female - some of them without the limitations of this first one, I promise you! - of more advanced design, true bio-electronic beings.

"Not only will they possess their own computer, capable of individual programming; they will be linked to the World Data Network. Thus everyone will be able to enjoy the equivalent of an Einstein in their own homes. Personal isolation will then be banished forever!"

He sat down to enthusiastic applause. Even the synthetic serving-man, sitting at the table dressed in an unostentatious suit, applauded with gusto.

Dragging his satchel, David crept round the side of the house. He climbed on to the ornamental seat under the living-room window and peeped cautiously in.

His mother stood in the middle of the room. Her face was blank; its lack of expression scared him. He watched fascinated. He did not move; she did not move. Time might have stopped, as it had stopped in the garden.

At last she turned and left the room. After waiting a moment, David tapped on the window. Teddy looked round, saw him, tumbled off the table, and came over to the window. Fumbling with his paws, he eventually got it open.

They looked at each other.

"I'm no good, Teddy. Let's run away!"

"You're a very good boy. Your Mummy loves you."

Slowly, he shook his head. "If she loved me, then why can't I talk to her?"

"You're being silly, David. Mummy's lonely. That's why she had you."

"She's got Daddy. I've got nobody 'cept you, and I'm lonely."

Teddy gave him a friendly cuff over the head. "If you feel so bad, you'd better go to the psychiatrist again."

"I hate that old psychiatrist - he makes me feel I'm not real." He started to run across the lawn. The bear toppled out of the window and followed as fast as its stubby legs would allow.

Monica Swinton was up in the nursery. She called to her son once and then stood there, undecided. All was silent.

Crayons lay on his desk. Obeying a sudden impulse, she went over to the desk and opened it. Dozens of pieces of paper lay inside. Many of them were written in crayon in David's clumsy writing, with each letter picked out in a color different from the letter preceding it. None of the messages was finished.

"My dear Mummy, How are you really, do you love me as much -"

"Dear Mummy, I love you and Daddy and the sun is shining -"

"Dear dear Mummy, Teddy's helping me write to you. I love you and Teddy -"

"Darling Mummy, I'm your one and only son and I love you so much that some times -"

"Dear Mummy, you're really my Mummy and I hate Teddy -"

"Darling Mummy, guess how much I love -"

"Dear Mummy, I'm your little boy not Teddy and I love you but Teddy -"

"Dear Mummy, this is a letter to you just to say how much how ever so much -"

Monica dropped the pieces of paper and burst out crying. In their gay inaccurate colors, the letters fanned out and settled on the floor.

Henry Swinton caught the express home in high spirits, and occasionally said a word to the synthetic serving-man he was taking home with him. The serving-man answered politely and punctually, although his answers were not always entirely relevant by human standards.

The Swintons lived in one of the ritziest city-blocks, half a kilometer above the ground. Embedded in other apartments, their apartment had no windows to the outside; nobody wanted to see the overcrowded external world. Henry unlocked the door with his retina pattern-scanner and walked in, followed by the serving-man.

At once, Henry was sur-rounded by the friendly illusion of gardens set in eternal summer. It was amazing what Whologram could do to create huge mirages in small spaces. Behind its roses and wisteria stood their house; the deception was complete: a Georgian mansion appeared to welcome him.

"How do you like it?" he asked the serving-man.

"Roses occasionally suffer from black spot."

"These roses are guaranteed free from any imperfections."

"It is always advisable to purchase goods with guarantees, even if they cost slightly more."

"Thanks for the information," Henry said dryly. Synthetic life-forms were less than ten years old, the old android mechanicals less than sixteen; the faults of their systems were still being ironed out, year by year.

He opened the door and called to Monica.

She came out of the sitting-room immediately and flung her arms round him, kissing him ardently on cheek and lips. Henry was amazed.

Pulling back to look at her face, he saw how she seemed to generate light and beauty. It was months since he had seen her so excited. Instinctively, he clasped her tighter.

"Darling, what's happened?"

"Henry, Henry - oh, my darling, I was in despair ... but I've just dialed the afternoon post and - you'll never believe it! Oh, it's wonderful!"

"For heaven's sake, woman, what's wonderful?"

He caught a glimpse of the heading on the photostat in her hand, still moist from the wall-receiver: Ministry of Population. He felt the color drain from his face in sudden shock and hope.

"Monica ... oh ... Don't tell me our number's come up!"

"Yes, my darling, yes, we've won this week's parenthood lottery! We can go ahead and conceive a child at once!"

He let out a yell of joy. They danced round the room. Pressure of population was such that reproduction had to be strict, controlled. Childbirth required government permission. For this moment, they had waited four years. Incoherently they cried their delight.

They paused at last, gasping, and stood in the middle of the room to laugh at each other's happiness. When she had come down from the nursery, Monica had de-opaqued the windows, so that they now revealed the vista of garden beyond. Artificial sunlight was growing long and golden across the lawn - and David and Teddy were staring through the window at them.

Seeing their faces, Henry and his wife grew serious.

"What do we do about them?" Henry asked.

"Teddy's no trouble. He works well."

"Is David malfunctioning?"

"His verbal communication-center is still giving trouble. I think he'll have to go back to the factory again."

"Okay. We'll see how he does before the baby's born. Which reminds me - I have a surprise for you: help just when help is needed! Come into the hall and see what I've got."

As the two adults disappeared from the room, boy and bear sat down beneath the standard roses.

"Teddy - I suppose Mummy and Daddy are real, aren't they?"

Teddy said, "You ask such silly questions, David. Nobody knows what 'real' really means. Let's go indoors."

"First I'm going to have another rose!" Plucking a bright pink flower, he carried it with him into the house. It could lie on the pillow as he went to sleep. Its beauty and softness reminded him of Mummy.

Copyright © 1993-2004 The Condé Nast Publications Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1994-2003 Wired Digital, Inc. All rights reserved.

Rob Zombie

2007-10-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Tiffany, for visiting my blog and commenting. This one is for you.
---------------
Rob Zombie

Birth name Robert Cummings
Also known as Rob Zombie,
Robert Wolfgang Zombie,
Born January 12, 1965 (1965-01-12) (age 42)
Origin Haverhill, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Genre(s) Alternative Metal
Groove Metal
Industrial Metal
Occupation(s) Songwriter
Singer
Screenwriter
Film director
Instrument(s) Vocals
Associated
acts Alice Cooper
Danzig
Powerman 5000
Scum of the Earth
White Zombie
Robert Cummings (born January 12, 1965 in Haverhill, Massachusetts), better known as Rob Zombie, is an American musician, film director, and writer. His uniquely gruff vocal style and fascination with horror movies has helped him become a distinctive element in American heavy metal. He is best known as the founder, lead singer and songwriter for White Zombie. In recent years, he has also established himself as a solo artist and branched into directing films. Throughout his solo career, Zombie has sold 15 million albums. [1]

Personal lifeRob and his brother Michael Cummings both share an interest in 1960s counter-culture, B horror movies, Western movies, and fantasy comics.[citation needed]

Rob Zombie has been a longtime fan of The Ramones, The Misfits, shock-rocker Alice Cooper, British heavy-metal pioneers Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and many more. Styles of these musicians continue to be a strong influence on him to this day.

Both brothers went to college, but Rob dropped out to pursue other interests. Rob attended Pratt Institute in New York. Rob got his start by working as a technician for Pee Wee's Playhouse. It was also during this point that he met future White Zombie band-mate Sean Yseult.

On October 31, 2002 he married long time girlfriend Sheri Moon (now known as Sheri Moon Zombie) after almost 13 years of dating. The two had met at Toad's Place, a concert venue, in New Haven, Connecticut through mutual friends.[2] Ten days before their planned wedding date, the couple decided to elope and get married on Halloween.

White Zombie (1985-1998)Main article: White Zombie (band)
White Zombie was an American band named after the 1932 film White Zombie, which starred Bela Lugosi.

Based in New York, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band in the vein of fellow New York band Sonic Youth; Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and fellow alternative rock icon Kurt Cobain have professed to be fans of their early work.[citation needed]

White Zombie was known for combining heavy-metal music with driving guitar riffs (as on "Super-Charger Heaven"), overlayed with lyrics heavily influenced by horror films and pseudo-Satanic imagery. Unlike other metal bands of the 1990s, White Zombie was almost exclusively a "fantasy" band, writing songs not about real life, but about surreal horror fantasies.

Following their signing to Geffen Records, White Zombie achieved considerable success, with two 2x platinum albums and a large number of their songs featured in movies and TV shows (notably Beavis and Butthead). The group officially disbanded in 1998 shortly after the release of singer Rob Zombie's solo album Hellbilly Deluxe.

Solo Career (1998-present)
In 1996, Rob Zombie collaborated with his long-time inspiration Alice Cooper on the song "Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn)" for the X-Files tie-in CD Songs in the Key of X. It was Zombie's first work outside of his band White Zombie. The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance the same year, but lost to Nine Inch Nails for their song "Happiness in Slavery".

Rob Zombie formed his own solo band in 1998. John Tempesta (drums) came directly from White Zombie, and was joined by Mike Riggs on guitar and Blasko (Rob Nicholson) on bass. They recorded and released Rob's debut solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe, in 1998, produced by Scott Humphrey. The album was a great success, selling three million copies domestically. This album contained the hit singles "Dragula", "Living Dead Girl" and "Superbeast". White Zombie dissolved after the release of Hellbilly Deluxe. Rob Zombie toured extensively to promote the debut album, releasing American Made Music to Strip By in 1999, an album of remixes from Hellbilly Deluxe.

Rob Zombie next released The Sinister Urge in 2001, again produced by Scott Humphrey. This release contained the singles "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)", "Feel So Numb" and "Demon Speeding". While the album still featured Rob's signature heavy metal sound, it was also more experimental than Hellbilly Deluxe, such as including brass instruments on "Go To California." The album has been certified platinum.

Rob released his first greatest-hits album, Past, Present & Future, in 2003, containing hit songs both from his solo band and White Zombie. It also featured a new song ("Pussy Liquor"), covers (The Commodores' "Brick House" and The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop") and unreleased songs ("Two-Lane Blacktop" and "Girl on Fire").

After a 2002-2003 world tour, Mike Riggs and John Tempesta left Rob Zombie to form a similar band, Scum of the Earth. This put plans for another tour or new album on hold for a while. However, between 2003 and 2005, Rob Zombie released 2 self-directed horror films, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.

In 2005, Rob Zombie returned to the music world by recruiting former Marilyn Manson guitarist, John 5, and former Alice Cooper drummer, Tommy Clufetos. Blasko and Humphrey remained, and the 5 began recording Educated Horses, which was released in 2006.

Stylistically, Educated Horses is Rob's most experimental release. In contrast to the heavy metal sound of his first 2 albums, this one has a more alternative metal sound to it. The single "Foxy, Foxy" can be described as his most "party-going" song. The other 2 singles, "Let It All Bleed Out" and "American Witch", featured his signature heavy sound. It was also his 1st album to not contain heavy amounts of horror - either in the artwork, songs, or even his physical appearance (Rob Zombie is dressed in regular clothes on the album cover, and his dreadlocks are gone). However, the songs "Seventeen Year Locust" and "The Scorpion Sleeps" featured song topics of creepy-crawlies.

20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection: The Best of Rob Zombie was also released in 2006 by his label, Geffen Records. It contains songs similar to his 1st greatest-hits album, but there are also songs on this release from Educated Horses. Sometime in 2007, Rob Zombie plans on releasing a White Zombie box-set and a Live CD/DVD, possibly containing footage from his most recent tour in 2006. He is currently not playing any concerts.

Blasko, Rob's bass player, left the band after the Educated Horses Tour, right before the American Witch Tour (The 2nd leg of the tour), to play bass with Ozzy Osbourne (he's done this before: in 2005, during Rob's musical hiatus). To fill in, Rob hired Piggy D. of Wednesday 13. Recently, Ozzy finished touring, and Blasko has mentioned that he wants to return with Zombie.

On May 31st, 2006, Rob Zombie was joined by guitarist Slash (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver), Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N' Roses) on rhythm guitar, Scott Ian of Anthrax on bass, Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on drums and special guest Ace Frehley of KISS also on lead guitar. The occasion was a 1-time supergroup tribute to KISS for the first annual VH1 Rock Honors Award Show. They played one song, "God Of Thunder," before handing it off to the honoree.

Film careerHouse of 1000 Corpses was Rob Zombie's directorial debut and his first horror film. It took four years to make (1999-2003), and was finally released by Lion's Gate Films in 2003, after Stacy Snider, then-head of Universal Pictures, sold the film to them, as she did not wish for Universal to release the film. It was later revealed that Snider is not a fan of horror films. It featured a shocking amount of violence and gore, a hark back to Rob's exploitation-film influences. It told the tale of a group of unlucky teenagers who stumble upon the Firefly Family, a family of sadistic and vicious murderers. The film was shot in a surreal and over-the-top style that alternated between dark and campy humor.

1000 Corpses' sequel, The Devil's Rejects, showcased a much different style. Whereas House was at times comedic and bizarre, Rejects was more dark, serious and gritty and was more of a Western revenge movie than an outright horror film. Released in 2005, Rejects had the Firefly Family on the run from the law and a particularly vengeful sheriff whose brother was murdered by them in the first film.

Rob Zombie contributed to the 2007 exploitation film Grindhouse, by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino by directing a faux trailer, called Werewolf Women of the S.S., starring his wife, exploitation veterans Udo Kier and Sybil Danning, and Nicolas Cage, who did his appearance for free as a favor. Zombie next directed Halloween, a reimagining of the 1978 classic, released August 31st, 2007.

He is also the executive producer of the forthcoming film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, based upon his comic book series, 'The Adventures of El Superbeasto' (which appeared in his Spookshow International comic book). USuperbeasto is animated and due for a 2007 release.

Director filmography
Year Film
2003 House of 1000 Corpses
2005 The Devil's Rejects
2007 Werewolf Women of the SS [Short]
Halloween

TV host
On Friday, October 13, 2006, Rob Zombie became the host of TCM Underground on the Turner Classic Movies channel with the screening of a double feature of Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space and Bride of the Monster. Until January 2007, Zombie hosted a different double bill every Friday night at two in the morning.[3]

Cultural ReferencesA Soup Named Stew references Rob Zombie in its song "Rob Zombie Pancake Breakfast".
MTV's Beavis and Butt-head promoted Zombie with their praise of his former band White Zombie during episodes.
The song "Feel So Numb" appears on the hockey game NHL Hitz 20-03.
In the video game Twisted Metal 3, Zombie's song "Meet The Creeper" is used in both the opening video and in the final stage of the game.
In the video game Twisted Metal 4, Zombie is featured as a playable character. Also, the song "Dragula" is the background music for the construction yard level and is the type of car that Zombie drives. Also, the song for the circus level is "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains".
In the video game Need for Speed: Underground, Zombie's song "Two-Lane Blacktop" is featured on the soundtrack.
In the computer game FlatOut 2, two of Zombie's songs are featured: "Demon Speeding" is used in both the opening video sequence and the ingame soundtrack. The second, "Feel So Numb", also appears on the ingame soundtrack.
The song "Superbeast" was featured in the trailer for the American theatrical release of Godzilla 2000: Millennium.
The song "Dragula" is featured in the video games Gran Turismo 2, Twisted Metal 4 and Sled Storm.
The song "Dragula" is featured in the movie The Matrix, played at the scene in the club where Neo first meets Trinity.
The popular vocalist and 70's rock icon Linda Ronstadt praised Rob in an August 2007 Associated Press interview for the Cape Cod Times, stating that her teenage son has exposed her to his music - loves it, and "There's real power and energy there."[citation needed]
The video game Jet Set Radio features the song "Dragula" on one of its levels. Also, the album cover for American Made Music to Strip By is a featured graffiti image in the game.
In the short film Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special, the track "Living Dead Girl" can be heard in the background when Lobo is talking to the Easter Bunny.
The song "Superbeast" is featured in the documentary and soundtrack Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows in reference to the WWE wrestler Triple H.
Former original ECW wrestler Chris Chetti used a remixed version of "Superbeast" as his entrance music for a brief period of time.
DJ crew X-Ecutioners recorded a cover of "More Human Than Human" entitled "(Even More) Human Than Human" on their Revolutions album. It featured vocals from Slug(of Atmosphere), Josey Scott (of Saliva), and Rob Zombie himself.
The song "Meet the Creeper" was featured in the trailers for the movie Jeepers Creepers 2.
The song "Never Gonna Stop" was used as WWE wrestler Edge's entrance music for about a year.
In the video game Twisted Metal 3, Zombie's song "Superbeast" is played during the Hollywood level.
Zombie's song "Living Dead Girl" is the opening song for Bride Of Chucky.
In the episode "The Good Buck" of Fox's animated series King of the Hill, Zombie is mentioned by a character who mistakes an image on his shirt to be Jesus, but in actuality the image is of Zombie. In the "Escape from Party Island" episode, Dragula can be heard in the background as a character escapes an island.
In the song "Hot Topic is not Punk Rock" by MC Lars, Rob Zombie lunch boxes are listed as being "not punk rock".
In the arcade game CarnEvil, "Superbeast" is heard playing in the background of the gameplay demo.
In an episode of the supernatural series Angel, Zombie's "Living Dead Girl (Subliminal Seduction Remix)" plays in a night club as Faith Lehane dances.
In the episode "Home Alone 4" of the comedy series Malcolm in the Middle, one of the characters, Richie, is seen wearing a T-shirt with the Hellbilly Deluxe album art on the front.
In Knocked Up, the main character portrayed by Seth Rogen is shown near the beginning of the movie wearing a shirt that depicts the album art for American Made Music to Strip By.

Vanessa Anne Hudgens

2007-10-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

Vanessa Anne Hudgens, (also known simply as) Vanessa Hudgens, (born December 14, 1988 in Salinas, California[1]) is an American actress and singer.

She made her screen debut in 2003 and appeared in the Hollywood films Thirteen and Thunderbirds, before reaching fame in the 2006 hit Disney Channel film, High School Musical.

Hudgens also began a music career and released her debut album, entitled V, in 2006.

In 2007, Hudgens became the spokesperson for Neutrogena.[2]

Photo controversy
On September 6, 2007, controversy erupted after nude photos of Hudgens surfaced online.

A statement from her publicist claims that the photos were taken privately and it was "unfortunate" that they were released on the Internet.[12] Hudgens later apologized, saying that she was "embarrassed over the situation" and regretted having "taken [those] photos".[13] Disney Channel spokeswoman Patti McTeague indicated that Disney will still be working with Hudgens, stating, "Vanessa has apologized for what was obviously a lapse in judgment. We hope she's learned a valuable lesson."

Horizon Towers Saga

2007-09-28T02:31:00.001-07:00

Business Times, September 28, 2007

All eyes on appeal against STB decision
Meanwhile, HPL suit against sellers is officially stayed

By MICHELLE QUAH

(SINGAPORE) The twists and turns in the Horizon Towers saga never seem to end: even as one legal showdown was averted yesterday, another dramatic court session is set to take place.

Today's session is expected to be a dramatic one, with HPL and its partners having applied to intervene - that is, participate - at this hearing.

Legal proceedings against the majority sellers of Horizon Towers were officially stayed yesterday - when the High Court granted an application to adjourn the hearing of a lawsuit which Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL) and its partners brought against the sellers.

HPL, Morgan Stanley Real Estate-managed funds and Qatar Investment Authority had sued former members of the development's sales committee for millions of dollars - and asked that all 272 owners who signed the deal also be bound by any judgement that may be made.

The buyers blamed the sellers for the en bloc sale not going through. The Strata Titles Board had, in August, rejected the application filed by Horizon Towers for a collective sale order - on the grounds that it was defective.

The STB's decision came just days before the sale completion deadline, which meant there was no time to appeal the decision or file a fresh appeal.

The majority sellers finally agreed last week to meet the buyers' demands to extend the sale completion deadline - and HPL and its partners reciprocated by applying for an adjournment of the legal proceedings against the sellers.

However, with the suit not withdrawn, the threat of legal action still hangs over the majority sellers. No date has yet been fixed for the next hearing.

All eyes are now on the next major court session: this morning's hearing of the appeal against the STB's decision, in the High Court before Justice Choo Han Teck.

The appeal will be between the majority sellers - represented by Tan Rajah & Cheah - and the minority sellers, who didn't agree to the en bloc sale.

The majority sellers say STB was 'wrong in law' to have dismissed their application. The board had rejected the application, without considering its merits, because it had three incomplete or missing pages.

But the majority sellers say these three missing pages were around at the time of the application, but were later not submitted due to a clerical error.

Today's session is expected to be a dramatic one, with HPL and its partners having applied to intervene - that is, participate - at this hearing. The buyers will be represented by Allen & Gledhill.

Another group of 13 Horizon Towers owners - who form part of the majority who agreed to the collective sale - have also applied to be parties to the appeal, on the grounds that they 'have an interest in the outcome of these proceedings'.

This group of 13 owners, which includes local singer Ho Yeow Sun and her husband Kong Hee - are represented by Rajah & Tann.

Judge Choo will hear the two applications to intervene first, before hearing the appeal against the STB's decision.

What the Modern Woman Wants By Amanda Chong Wei-Zhen

2007-09-26T02:33:00.000-07:00

The old woman sat in the backseat of the magenta convertible as it careened down the highway, clutching tightly to the plastic bag on her lap, afraid it may be kidnapped by the wind. She was not used to such speed, with trembling hands she pulled the seatbelt tighter but was careful not to touch the patent leather seats with her callused fingers, her daughter had warned her not to dirty it, 'Fingerprints show very clearly on white, Ma.'

Her daughter, Bee Choo, was driving and talking on her sleek silver mobile phone using big words the old woman could barely understand. 'Finance' 'Liquidation' 'Assets' 'Investments'... Her voice was crisp and important and had an unfamiliar lilt to it. Her Bee Choo sounded like one of those foreign girls on television. She was speaking in an American accent. The old lady clucked her tongue in disapproval.

'I absolutely cannot have this. We have to sell!' Her daughter exclaimed agitatedly as she stepped on the accelerator; her perfectly manicured fingernails gripping onto the steering wheel in irritation. 'I can't DEAL with this anymore!' she yelled as she clicked the phone shut and hurled it angrily toward the backseat.

The mobile phone hit the old woman on the forehead and nestled soundlessly into her lap. She calmly picked it up and handed it to her daughter. 'Sorry, Ma,' she said, losing the American pretence and switching to Mandarin. 'I have a big client in America. There have been a lot of problems.' The old lady nodded knowingly. Her daughter was big and important. Bee Choo stared at her mother from the rear view window, wondering what she was thinking.

Her mother's wrinkled countenance always carried the same cryptic look. The phone began to ring again, an artificially cheerful digital tune, which broke the awkward silence. 'Hello, Beatrice! Yes, this is Elaine.' Elaine. The old woman cringed. I didn't name her Elaine. She remembered her daughter telling her, how an English name was very important for 'networking', Chinese ones being easily forgotten. 'Oh no, I can't see you for lunch today. I have to take the ancient relic to the temple for her weird daily prayer ritual.'

Ancient Relic. The old woman understood perfectly it was referring to her. Her daughter always assumed that her mother's silence meant she did not comprehend. 'Yes, I know! My car seats will be reeking of joss sticks!' The old woman pursed her lips tightly, her hands gripping her plastic bag in defence. The car curved smoothly into the temple courtyard. It looked almost garish next to the dull sheen of the ageing temple's roof. The old woman got out of the back seat, and made her unhurried way to the main hall. Her daughter stepped out of the car in her business suit and stilettos and reapplied her lipstick as she made her brisk way to her mother's side. 'Ma, I'll wait outside. I have an important phone call to make,' she said, not bothering to hide her disgust at the pungent fumes of incense.

The old lady hobbled into the temple hall and lit a joss stick, she knelt down solemnly and whispered her now familiar daily prayer to the Gods. Thank you God of the Sky, you have given my daughter luck all these years. Everything I prayed for, you have given her. She has everything a young woman in this world could possibly want. She has a big house with a swimming pool, a maid to help her, as she is too clumsy to sew or cook. Her love life has been blessed; she is engaged to a rich and handsome angmoh man. Her company is now the top financial firm and even men listen to what she says. She lives the perfect life.

You have given her everything except happiness. I ask that the gods be merciful to her even if she has lost her roots while reaping the harvest of success. What you see is not true, she is a filial daughter to me. She gives me a room in her big house and provides well for me. She is rude to me only because I affect her happiness. A young woman does not want to be hindered by her old mother. It is my fault.

The old lady prayed so hard that tears welled up in her eyes. Finally, with her head bowed in reverence she planted the half-burnt joss stick into an urn of smouldering ashes. She bowed once more. The old woman had been praying for her daughter for thirty-two years. When her stomach was round like a melon, she came to the temple and prayed that it was a son.

Then the time was ripe and the baby slipped out of her womb, bawling and adorable with fat thighs and pink cheeks, but unmistakably, a girl. Her husband had kicked and punched her for producing a useless baby who could not work or carry the family name. Still, the woman returned to the temple with her new-born girl tied to her waist in a sarong and prayed that her daughter would grow up and have everything she ever wanted.

Her husband left her and she prayed that her daughter would never have to depend on a man. She prayed every day that her daughter would be a great woman, the woman that she, meek and uneducated, could never become. A woman with nengkan; the ability to do anything she set her mind to. A woman who commanded respect in the hearts of men. When she opened her mouth to speak, precious pearls would fall out and men would listen. She will not be like me, the woman prayed as she watched her daughter grow up and drift away from her, speaking a language she scarcely understood.

She watched her daughter transform from a quiet girl, to one who openly defied her, calling her laotu; old-fashioned. She wanted her mother to be 'modern', a word so new there was no Chinese word for it. Now her daughter was too clever for her and the old woman wondered why she had prayed like that. The gods had been faithful to her persistent prayer, but the wealth and success that poured forth so richly had buried the girl's roots and now she stood, faceless, with no identity, bound to the soil of her ancestors by only a string of origami banknotes.

Her daughter had forgotten her mother's values. Her wants were so ephemeral; that of a modern woman. Power, Wealth, access to the best fashion boutiques, and yet her daughter had not found true happiness. The old woman knew that you could find happiness with much less. When her daughter left the earth everything she had would count for nothing. People would look to her legacy and say that she was a great woman, but she would be forgotten once the wind blows over, like the ashes of burnt paper convertibles and mansions.

The old woman wished she could go back and erase all her big hopes and prayers for her daughter; now she had only one want: That her daughter be happy. She looked out of the temple gate. She saw her daughter speaking on the phone, her brow furrowed with anger and worry. Being at the top is not good, the woman thought, there is only one way to go from there - down. The old woman carefully unfolded the plastic bag and spread out a packet of beehoon in front of the altar. Her daughter often mocked her for worshipping porcelain Gods. How could she pray to them so faithfully and expect pieces of ceramic to fly to her aid?

But her daughter had her own gods too, idols of wealth, success and power that she was enslaved to and worshipped every day of her life. Every day was a quest for the idols, and the idols she worshipped counted for nothing in eternity. All the wants her daughter had would slowly suck the life out of her and leave her, an empty soulless shell at the altar. The old lady watched her joss tick. The dull heat had left a teetering grey stem that was on the danger of collapsing. Modern woman nowadays, the old lady sighed in resignation, as she bowed to the east one final time to end her ritual.

Modern woman nowadays want so much that they lose their souls and wonder why they cannot find it. Her joss stick disintegrated into a soft grey powder. She met her daughter outside the temple, the same look of worry and frustration was etched on her daughter's face. An empty _expression, as if she was ploughing through the soil of her wants looking for the one thing that would sow the seeds of happiness.

They climbed into the convertible in silence and her daughter drove along the highway, this time not as fast as she had done before. 'Ma,' Bee Choo finally said. 'I don't know how to put this. Mark and I have been talking about it and we plan to move out of the big house. The property market is good now, and we managed to get a buyer willing to pay seven million for it. We decided we'd prefer a cosier penthouse apartment instead. We found a perfect one in Orchard Road. Once we move in to our apartment we plan to get rid of the maid, so we can have more space to ourselves...' The old woman nodded knowingly.

Bee Choo swallowed hard. 'We'd get someone to come in to do the housework and we can eat out-but once the maid is gone, there won't be anyone to look after you. You will be awfully lonely at home and, besides that, the apartment is rather small. There won't be space. We thought about it for a long time, and we decided the best thing for you is if you moved to a Home. There's one near Hougang-it's a Christian home, a very nice one.' The old woman did not raise an eyebrow. 'I've been there, the matron is willing to take you in. It's beautiful with gardens and lots of old people to keep you company! I hardly have time for you, you'd be happier there.' 'You'd be happier there, really.' Her daughter repeated as if to affirm herself.

This time the old woman had no plastic bag of food offerings to cling tightly to; she bit her lip and fastened her seat belt, as if it would protect her from a daughter who did not want her anymore. She sunk deep into the leather seat, letting her shoulders sag, and her fingers trace the white seat. 'Ma?' her daughter asked, searching the rear view window for her mother. 'Is everything okay?' What had to be done, had to be done. 'Yes,' she said firmly, louder than she intended, 'if it will make you happy,' she added more quietly. 'It's for you, Ma! You'll be happier there. You can move there tomorrow, I already got the maid to pack your things.' Elaine said triumphantly, mentally ticking yet another item off her agenda. 'I knew everything would be fine.' Elaine smiled widely; she felt liberated. Perhaps getting rid of her mother would make her happier. She had thought about it. It seemed the only hindrance in her pursuit of happiness.

She was happy now. She had everything a modern woman ever wanted; Money, Status, Career, Love,Power and now, Freedom, without her mother and her old-fashioned ways to weigh her down... Yes, she was free. Her phone buzzed urgently, she picked it up and read the message, still beaming from ear to ear. 'Stocks 10% increase!' Yes, things were definitely beginning to look up for her... And while searching for the meaning of life in the luminance of her hand phone screen, the old woman in the backseat became invisible, and she did not see the tears.

Maggie Q

2007-07-17T01:58:00.001-07:00

Tara Fitzgerald

2007-06-28T02:39:00.001-07:00

Wardrobe Malfunction

2007-06-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

Sophie's breast-exposure steals the show at Cannes 2005
(Agencies)
Updated: 17th May, 2005

Former Bond girl Sophie Marceau

(1999's The World Is Not Enough) had a serious wardrobe malfunction Friday as she headed into a premiere.

French actress Sophie Marceau's dress slipped down one shoulder, exposing her left breast.

With camera shutters clicking away, her dress slipped down one shoulder, exposing her breast.

Marceau laughed it off gracefully with a Gallic shrug.

Candice Michelle

2007-05-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

Candice Michelle Beckman

(born September 30, 1978 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), better known as Candice Michelle or just Candice is a Costa-rican model[1], actress, and a professional wrestler, currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment under their RAW brand.

World Wrestling Entertainment
Diva Search and Raw (2004-2005)
Candice Michelle came to WWE as a contestant in the 2004 WWE Diva Search. Although she wasn't one of the final ten contestants to make it to the televised event, WWE hired Candice anyway and placed her on the RAW brand under the gimmick of a makeup artist. Initially, Candice Michelle's role was limited. She was never given an angle on RAW and she rarely made television appearances unless to participate in one of the program's occasional lingerie pillow fights or bikini contests that were held between Christy Hemme, Maria Kanellis, Stacy Keibler, and herself.

SmackDown! (2005)
On June 30, 2005, at the end of the WWE Draft Lottery, Candice Michelle was traded to the SmackDown! brand, where she became involved in a feud between Torrie Wilson and Melina Perez. Candice Michelle quickly became Jillian Hall and Melina's rival when she befriended Wilson. On July 24, 2005, at The Great American Bash 2005, Candice Michelle served as the Special Guest Referee for the Bra and Panties match between Torrie Wilson and Melina. Melina was victorious, and after the match, Melina pushed Candice from behind. This resulted in both divas attacking Melina and removing her bottoms as well.

Return to Raw (2005)
She was then moved to RAW in a trade along with Wilson, while Keibler and Hemme went to SmackDown!. From that point on, Candice and Wilson taunted Ashley Massaro (2005 WWE Diva Search Winner), bringing in Victoria to attack her as part of their "initiation" for the new Diva. This continued on until Trish Stratus returned from an injury to help Massaro retaliate against Candice and her two cohorts, who became known as the heel stable Ladies in Pink, and later known as Vince's Devils, which seemed to be a play on Charlie's Angels.

Candice then began a gimmick where she acted like a princess. She would go to the ring carrying a plastic wand and opening her jacket to the crowd while standing on the ring apron to reveal her risque' wrestling attire.

Candice's first shot at the WWE Women's Championship came at Taboo Tuesday 2005 where she lost in a Fulfill Your Fantasy Battle Royal.

2006
She would appear at New Year's Revolution 2006 in the first ever Bra and Panties Gauntlet Match, but was elimated by Maria.

After winning a Women's Battle Royal on RAW, Candice Michelle would get her first singles WWE Women's Championship match while a part of Vince's Devils, but lost to then-champion Trish Stratus on February 27, 2006. After this match, Candice Michelle slapped Wilson, blaming her for the loss.

Vince's Devils was short-lived because Torrie Wilson became a babyface diva once again when Candice Michelle and Victoria turned on her during Candice's Playboy cover unveiling.

This lengthy feud between Candice Michelle and Wilson led to a match in which Playboy's then-newest cover girl Candice Michelle would face off against the 2-time former cover girl (Wilson) at WrestleMania 22 in a Playboy Pillow Fight. Wilson won the match, but the feud continued on-and-off when Michelle was working backstage segments where she was Vince McMahon's "sex slave". In late 2006, they resolved the feud as they appeared in segments together and even worked together in some matches.

Candice also appeared in both of 2006's Saturday Night's Main Events on NBC. In the March 18 episode, she and Victoria lost to Trish Stratus and Mickie James in a tag team match. On the July 15 program, Candice was eliminated in the first round of a Divas' bikini bull riding competition, which was won by Michelle McCool.

On the July 17, 2006 edition of RAW, Candice was the Special Guest Referee during a tag team match between Trish Stratus & Torrie Wilson vs. Victoria & Mickie James . At one point, Mickie James got in Candice's face, but Candice retaliated by slapping her and tossing her out of the ring. Afterwards, Victoria tried to clothesline Candice but she ducked, allowing Trish to hit the Stratusfaction gaining the victory for her and Torrie Wilson. This incident resulted in Candice becoming a babyface, and the feud with Mickie and Victoria lasted a few weeks.

After Unforgiven 2006 Candice then began a short feud with Lita, even winning a match against her the night after, but going on to loose against her the next week after interference from Edge in the first round of the WWE Women's Championship tournament. She would later compete in the first ever Extreme Strip Poker segment on ECW on Sci-fi on October 10, 2006 representing RAW.

On November 27, 2006 edition of RAW, during the Women's Battle Royal, Candice suffered a broken nose when Victoria nailed her in the face with a savate kick. She had surgery on November 30, 2006 to repair her deviated septum.

2007
Candice returned at New Year's Revolution 2007 on January 7, 2007, when she went down to the ring with Maria to fight off Melina as she tried to interfere in the WWE Women's Championship match between champion Mickie James and Victoria. Candice made her in-ring return on January 22 when she and Mickie James defeated Victoria and Melina in a tag team match. Her next feud came when Melina claimed in her blogs that all Playboy cover models were not capable of fighting her in the ring. Candice took offense to this and challenged Melina to a Bra and Panties Match, which she lost. Two weeks after Candice would team up up with Mickie James to defeat Melina and Victoria.

In wrestling
Finishing and signature moves
Running spinning heel kick
Candylicious (Hanging figure four necklock)
Forward Russian legsweep
Go Daddy dance followed by an elbow drop
Diving crossbody
Headscissors Takedown
Wrestlers managed by Candice
Torrie Wilson
Victoria
Mickie James
Theme Music
Candice uses a WWE Productions theme, titled "All Eyes On Me".
Her theme music was promoted as being "Holla", performed by Desiree Jackson on the track listing of WWE Wreckless Intent, however that theme music was allocated to Kelly Kelly.

Personal Life
Candice married Dr. Ken Gee Ehlrich on May 7, 2005.

Media
Candice Michelle's Playboy magazine coverThroughout Candice's career, she has appeared in many television shows, magazine pictorials, fashion shows, and movies. Her film appearances include roles in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (uncredited as a dodgeball dancer), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, High Crimes, Province 77, and Horrorween[2]. In television, she has appeared on Party of Five, The Man Show, Playboy TV's Totally Busted, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Monk. Her most notable appearance was her appearance on Hotel Erotica. She has also posed nude for Ivolt.com and Playboy Cyber Club prior to joining WWE. She posed for the cover and a celebrity spread in the April 2006 issue of Playboy. She has also appeared as an import model. She was featured on an issue of Import Tuner magazine. Also before she got her big break in the WWE she was a foot fetish/bondage model for FM Concepts Inc under the name of Mackenzie Montgomery [3].

Go Daddy
Candice achieved a moment of notoriety in 2005 after appearing in a risqué TV commercial for GoDaddy.com that aired during Super Bowl XXXIX. Beckman played a woman petioning a broadcast censorship committee to appear in an advertisement who experiences a wardrobe malfunction. The ad was a parody of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy involving Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. From then on she was often referred to as "Miss GoDaddy.com" or the "Go Daddy Girl" by fans, and on WWE TV shows, where she also does the "Go Daddy Dance" (twirling her arm around her body) as part of her gimmick. In the following year she was featured in another Go Daddy commercial at 2006 NFL playoffs (this time as a window washer, cleaning windows seductively with her breasts contained in a bikini top), and she also appeared in another Super Bowl Go Daddy commercial during Super Bowl XL, in a parody where she seduced an ABC executive in order to procure an ad slot for Go Daddy. She appeared in the Go Daddy commercial for Super Bowl XLI in 2007, where the slogan was "Everyone wants to work in marketing" and depicts Candice dancing in a room getting champagne thrown all over her. Candice also appeared on American Choppers in 2007, promoting GoDaddy.com's new chopper and her new commercial.

Madonna

2007-05-02T01:30:00.000-07:00

Rose McGowan

2007-04-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

Rose McGowan (born September 5, 1973)[1] is an American actress known for her role as Paige Matthews in The WB television series Charmed and the cult-classic The Doom Generation. She has also appeared in several major Hollywood films, with leading roles in Scream, Jawbreaker and the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse.

Biography
Early life
McGowan is the second-eldest of six children (plus two half-siblings), born in Florence, Italy to parents Terri, an American writer of French descent, and Daniel McGowan, an Irish-born artist.[2][3] Daniel McGowan ran an Italian chapter of the Children of God to which both he and his wife held membership until 1978. McGowan spent her early childhood amid the group's communes, often traveling Europe with her parents. Through her father's art contacts in Italy, McGowan became a child model and appeared in Vogue Bambini and various other Italian magazines. Her parents returned to the States in 1979 and divorced when McGowan was 10. She subsequently relocated to Oregon and then Gig Harbor, Washington where she also met childhood friend actor Rey-Phillip Santos. McGowan did not speak English until she moved to the U.S.

McGowan's formative years were spent with her father in Seattle attending Roosevelt High School and Nova Alternative High School. At the age of 16, McGowan officially emancipated herself from her parents.[4] She pursued a possible career in the film industry during her late teens. She also enrolled in a beauty school as a back-up.

Career
GrindHouse, 2007

McGowan made her first appearance in a Hollywood film with a bit role in the 1992 Pauly Shore comedy Encino Man. Her role in the 1995 black comedy, The Doom Generation, brought her to the attention of film critics and she received a nomination for "Best Debut Performance" at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards. She was subsequently cast as Tatum Riley, the best friend of Neve Campbell's character Sidney, in the 1996 hit horror film Scream.

McGowan spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in low-budget and independent films, including roles in Southie, Going All the Way and Lewis & Clark & George. She appeared in the critically-acclaimed short Seed, directed by San Francisco-born filmmaker Karin Thayer, in 1997, and played opposite Peter O'Toole in the 1998 movie adaptation of Phantoms, based on a novel by Dean Koontz. Notably, she also starred in the 1999 black comedy, Jawbreaker, where she played a high school student who tries to cover up a classmate's murder. That role earned McGowan a nomination for Best Villain at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.

In 2001, McGowan was cast as Paige Matthews in the popular WB television series Charmed, as a replacement lead actress after Shannen Doherty's dismissal from the show. McGowan was offered to be a producer after the seventh season, but turned it down.[5] The series ended its run in May 2006. [6]

In May 2005, she portrayed actress/singer Ann-Margret in Elvis, a Golden Globe winning CBS mini-series about the life of Elvis Presley. That same year, McGowan lent her voice to the video game Darkwatch as a femme fatale named Tala. The game was published by Capcom for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

In 2006, McGowan had a brief role in Brian De Palma's Academy Award-nominated film The Black Dahlia. In 2007, she can be seen starring in the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse, released on April 6, 2007. Cast in utterly divergent roles, McGowan appears in both portions of the film, as dark, foulmouthed Cherry in Planet Terror, and as fair, girlish Pam in Death Proof. According to Variety magazine McGowan has signed on to play the tragic B-movie staple Susan Cabot in Black Oasis. Director Stephan Elliott (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) has penned and will direct the film based on a Premiere magazine article by John H. Richardson. Shooting will begin fall 2007.[7]

Modeling
McGowan was the face of American clothing company Bebe from 1998-1999. She was also the cover model for the Henry Mancini tribute album Shots in the Dark, which was released in 1996. In addition to clothing endorsements, McGowan has appeared on numerous magazine covers including Seventeen, Interview, Maxim, GQ, Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone. She has also been featured on Maxim, FHM and Stuff magazine's sexiest women lists.

Awards
In 1996 McGowan was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role in The Doom Generation. A few years later, at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, she was nominated for "Best Villain" for her role in Jawbreaker. In 2005 McGowan won her very first award "Best Sister" at the Family TV Awards, for her role on Charmed. In 2006, Blender included her on their list of the sexiest women of TV and film. [8]

Personal life
McGowan used to live in Seattle but currently resides in Los Angeles. The actress was in a very public five-year relationship with shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, and often appeared with him at celebrity events in extremely provocative clothing, such as the chain-mail transparent dress and thong she wore to the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.

McGowan later ended their two-year engagement over "lifestyle differences." She has since gone on to have relationships with fellow actor Kip Pardue, TV personality Ahmet Zappa and Men's Health magazine editor David Zinczenko. There is speculation that McGowan is currently dating director Robert Rodriguez.[10][11]

She has admitted sleepwalking as a child. "The weirdest spot I ever woke up was a snowbank in Montreal. Now I just speak Italian in my sleep."[12]

McGowan is known as an activist for Boston Terriers. She herself has two, Bug and Fester, and has personally donated to various Boston rescues. McGowan reportedly encouraged friends to donate to Boston Terrier Rescue Net, and according to BTRN: "Having fallen in love with Bug and Fester, her friends donated generously. It amounted to a considerable contribution, which will go a long way in helping BTRN and the needy volunteers who selflessly give to deserving Bostons." [13]

McGowan and a friend have recently started selling their own line of Pinken Mint purse caddies, which are hooks used to hang handbags from tables and chairs in restaurants as an alternative to resting them on possibly unclean floors. Celebrities such as Keira Knightly, Carmen Electra and Virginia Madsen have been known to use the caddies.

According to an article in the New York Post McGowan experienced serious injuries in a car accident early in 2007. Riding as a passenger her car was struck by another vehicle and the force of the impact drove her eyeglasses into her face. McGowan is quoted as saying, "I didn't realize I was hurt until I put my hand to my face and felt the flap of skin. My glasses had sliced me under my eye". After obtaining the services of a plastic surgeon McGowan is reported to be suffering no long-lasting consequences from the incident.[14]

Music
While dating Marilyn Manson, she appeared in a music video for the song "Coma White", and also performed backing vocals on the song "Posthuman". Both of these songs are available on the album Mechanical Animals. Manson later wrote a track that is rumored to be inspired by their failed relationship "(s)AINT" found on the Golden Age of Grotesque. McGowan appeared on a BT track called "Superfabulous" from his album Emotional Technology, which was also featured on the final Charmed soundtrack, The Final Chapter. The song has been featured in several films, including Win a Date with Tad Hamilton and Raising Helen. She wrote and recorded a song titled "Protection" which was featured in her 2001 film Strange Hearts. McGowan has also appeared in the Imperial Teen music video for "Yoo Hoo", which was featured on the Jawbreaker soundtrack.

McGowan has expressed interest in recording an album of her own. During an interview with Living TV she said, "I was actually thinking of going back and doing more soulful tunes and older tunes... and I would love to, when I have a little bit more time." In the Charmed episode "Sense and Sense Ability," McGowan performed, in character, a cover of the Peggy Lee classic "Fever". In 2007, it was announced that McGowan would be performing three songs from the Planet Terror portion of Grindhouse. These songs will be released on Terror's soundtrack by the Varese Sarabande label.[15] The songs are entitled "You Belong to Me", "Useless Talent #32" and "Two Against the World." A clip of the Dean Martin classic "You Belong to Me" can be found on YouTube.

Timothy McVeigh

2007-04-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001)

was a decorated Army veteran who subsequently was convicted of eleven federal offenses and ultimately executed as a result of his role in the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing. He is commonly referred to as the Oklahoma City bomber. The bombing, which claimed 168 lives, was the deadliest act of terrorism in U.S. history until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, and remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

Biography
McVeigh in boyhood.McVeigh was born and raised in Pendleton, NY (near Lockport, New York), he was the middle child of three and the only boy. He earned his high school diploma from Starpoint Central High School. His parents, Mildred Noreen ("Mickey") Hill and William McVeigh,[1] divorced when he was 10. McVeigh had been a registered member of the Republican Party in New York and was a member of the National Rifle Association while in the military.[2]

Religious beliefs
After his parents' divorce, McVeigh lived with his father, and his sisters moved to Florida with their mother. He and his father were devout Roman Catholics who often attended daily Mass. In a recorded interview with Time Magazine[3] he professed his belief in "a God", though he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "never really picked it [back] up." The Guardian reported that McVeigh wrote a letter claiming to be an agnostic.[4]

Military career
1990, Desert Storm.In May 1988, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.[5] He was a decorated veteran of the United States Army, having served in the Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal. He had been a top scoring gunner with the 25mm cannon of the light-armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles used by the U.S. 1st Infantry Division to which he was assigned. He served at Fort Riley, Kansas, before Operation Desert Storm. His superiors and friends thought of him as a model soldier. At Fort Riley, McVeigh completed the Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC), an Army school required for specialists and corporals to be promoted to sergeant. McVeigh had always wanted to join the Green Berets, the Army's elite special forces.

After his return from the war, he entered the program for training to become a Green Beret but dropped out after the second day of an early phase due to a lack of physical fitness (blisters from new boots acquired and used on a 5-mile march); after this failure, for reasons not fully established, McVeigh decided to leave the Army entirely and received his early discharge on December 31, 1991.[6] Before he left the Army he had emotional difficulties, and he cried during an appointment with his commanding officer.

In January 1992, McVeigh's records show he was in the Army reserve in Buffalo, New York, where he was sent to the Persian Gulf as a gunner. In the Gulf, he won praise and respect from those around him and earned both the Combat Infantry Badge and Bronze Star. He won a commendation for his action in shooting an Iraqi tank commander from more than a mile away.[7]

McVeigh was given his final honorable discharge from the Army reserve in May 1992.

Post-military activities and lifestyle
After leaving the Army, beginning in 1992, McVeigh's lifestyle grew increasingly transient. At first he worked briefly near his native Pendleton, as a security guard (Hoffman). A few months before the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, he returned to Junction City, Kansas, outside Fort Riley.

McVeigh experimented with methamphetamine.[8] Many of his associates leading up to the years of the bombing were involved in heavy meth use and/or manufacture. Methamphetamine use is associated with paranoid ideation and may have altered McVeigh's thinking, or even led to a pathological state of mind[citation needed].

"Most people using very high doses may become psychotic, because amphetamines can cause severe anxiety, paranoia, and a distorted sense of reality. Psychotic reactions include auditory and visual hallucinations (hearing and seeing things that are not there) and a feeling of having unlimited power (omnipotence). Although these effects can occur in any user, people with a mental health disorder, such as schizophrenia, are more vulnerable to them."[9]

Bombing
Working at a lakeside campground near his old Army post, McVeigh constructed an ANFO explosive device arranged in the back of a rented Ryder truck. The bomb consisted of about 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate (an agricultural fertilizer) and nitromethane, an explosive motor-racing fuel.

On April 19, 1995, McVeigh drove the truck to the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building just as its offices and day-care center opened for the day. Prosecutors said McVeigh strode away from the truck after he ignited a timed fuse from the front of the truck. At 9:02 a.m., a massive explosion collapsed the north half of the building. In the explosion, 168 people died and 850 more were injured.[10] The 168th victim, rescue worker Rebecca Anderson,[11] died after the initial blast, when it is believed that the back of her head was struck by a piece of debris that had fallen from the building.[12] Some of the victims were small children in the day-care center, which was on the ground floor of the building. (Later, McVeigh did not express remorse for these "collateral damage" deaths, but he said he might have chosen a different target if he had known the day-care center was there.[13])

According to the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), more than 300 buildings were damaged, and more than 12,000 volunteers and rescue workers were involved in rescue, recovery, and support operations.

Arrest, trial, conviction and sentencing
By tracing its serial number, the FBI identified the rear axle found in the wreckage as coming from a Ryder Rental Junction City agency truck. Workers at the agency assisted an FBI artist in creating a sketch of the renter who had used the alias "Kling". The sketch was shown in the area and on the same day was identified by manager Lea McGown of the Dreamland Hotel as Timothy McVeigh.

Shortly after the bombing, while driving on I-35 in Noble County, Oklahoma, near Perry, Oklahoma, McVeigh was stopped by Charles J. Hanger, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper from Pawnee, Oklahoma.[14] Hanger had passed McVeigh's yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis and noticed it had no license plate. He arrested McVeigh for driving without a license plate and carrying and transporting a loaded firearm. Three days later, while still in jail, McVeigh was identified as the subject of the nationwide manhunt.

On August 10, 1995, McVeigh was indicted on 11 counts, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, destruction by explosives, and eight counts of first-degree murder.[15] On October 20, 1995, the government filed notice it would seek the death penalty.

On February 20, 1996, the Court granted a change of venue and ordered the case transferred from Oklahoma City to the US District Court in Denver, Colorado, to be presided over by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch.

McVeigh instructed his lawyers to use a "necessity" defense and to argue that his bombing of the Murrah building was a justifiable response to what McVeigh believed were the crimes of the U.S. government at Waco, Texas, during the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex that resulted in the death of 76 Branch Davidian members.[16] As part of his defense, McVeigh's lawyers showed the controversial video Waco: The Big Lie to the jury at his trial.[17]

On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on all 11 counts of the indictment.[18]

On June 13, the same jury recommended that McVeigh receive the death penalty.[19] The U.S. Department of Justice brought federal charges against McVeigh for causing the deaths of the eight federal officers leading to a possible death penalty for McVeigh; it could not bring charges against McVeigh for the remaining 160 murders in federal court because those deaths fell under the jurisdiction of the state of Oklahoma. After McVeigh's conviction and sentencing (and after the Terry Nichols trial), the state of Oklahoma did not file the state charges in the other 160 murders against McVeigh, since he had already been sentenced to death in the federal trial.[20]

Death
McVeigh's death sentence was delayed pending an appeal. One of his appeals was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, which denied certiorari on March 8, 1999. He was ultimately executed by lethal injection at 7:14 a.m. on June 11, 2001, at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He had dropped all of his existing appeals, while presenting no reason for doing so. He was 33 years old.

McVeigh invited California conductor/composer David Woodard to perform a requiem (a Mass for those who are about to die) on the eve of his execution, and he had also requested a Catholic chaplain. Ave Atque Vale was performed under Woodard's baton by a local brass choir at St. Margaret Mary Church, located near the Terre Haute penitentiary, at 7:00 p.m. on June 10, to an audience that included the entirety of the next morning's witnesses. McVeigh chose William Ernest Henley's poem "Invictus" as his final statement. His final meal consisted of two pints of Ben and Jerry's mint chocolate chip ice cream. McVeigh's execution was the first of a convicted criminal by the U.S. federal government since the execution of Victor Feguer in Iowa on March 15, 1963.

His body was disposed of by cremation in the retort at Mattox Ryan Funeral home in Terre Haute under the direction of funeral director Kevin Nickles. The cremated remains were then given to his lawyer for disposition. McVeigh's remains were scattered in an undisclosed location.

Motivations for the bombing
American Terrorist by Lou Michel and Dan HerbeckMcVeigh claimed that the bombing was revenge for "what the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge."[21] He visited Waco during the standoff, where he spoke to a news reporter about his anger over what was happening there.[22]

McVeigh was considered by many someone with a long background in the survivalist movement. He frequently quoted and alluded approvingly to the controversial novel The Turner Diaries, which describes acts of terrorism similar to the crimes that he was convicted of perpetrating (Michel and Herbeck). Photocopies of pages sixty-one and sixty-two of The Turner Diaries were found in an envelope inside McVeigh's car. These pages depicted a fictitious mortar attack upon the U.S. Capitol in Washington.[23]

In a book based on interviews before his execution, American Terrorist, McVeigh stated he decapitated an Iraqi soldier with cannon fire on his first day in the war, and celebrated. But he said he later was shocked to be ordered to execute surrendering prisoners, and to see carnage on the road leaving Kuwait City after U.S. troops routed the Iraqi army. In interviews following the Oklahoma City bombing, McVeigh said he began harboring anti-government feelings during the Gulf War.[24] Some question the veracity of this claim in light of McVeigh's attempts to become a Green Beret after returning from Iraq.

Alleged accomplices
In addition to McVeigh, Terry Nichols was also convicted and sentenced in federal court to life in prison for his role in the crime. At Nichols' trial, evidence was presented indicating that others may have been involved. Several residents of central Kansas, including real estate agent Georgia Rucker and a retired Army NCO testified at the Terry Nichols federal trial that they had seen two trucks at Geary State Lake where prosecutors alleged the bomb was assembled. The retired NCO said he visited the lake on April 18, 1995, but left after a group of surly men looked at him aggressively. The operator of Dreamland Motel testified that two Ryder trucks had been parked outside her Grandview Plaza motel where McVeigh stayed in Room 26 the weekend before the bombing. Testimony suggested that McVeigh may have had several other accomplices, but no other individuals have been indicted for the bombing.

An ATF informant, Carolyn Howe, told reporters that shortly before the bombing she had warned her handlers that guests of Elohim City, Oklahoma were planning a major bombing attack. McVeigh was issued a speeding ticket there at the same time. However, other than this speeding ticket, there is no evidence of a connection between McVeigh and members of the MidWest Bank Robbers at Elohim City.

In February 2004, the FBI announced it would review its investigation after learning that agents in the investigation of the MidWest Bank Robbers (an alleged Aryan-oriented gang) had turned up explosive caps of the same type that were used to trigger the bomb. Agents expressed surprise that bombing investigators had not been provided information from the MidWest Bank Robbers investigation. McVeigh was given a one week delay prior to his execution while evidence relating to the Bank Robbers gang was presented to a court.

McVeigh eventually declined any further delays and maintained until his death that he had acted alone in the bombing.

Conspiracy theories
[edit] Islamic and Neo-Nazi conspiracy theories
In Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy, Stephen Jones, McVeigh's first, court-appointed lead defense counsel (prior to the death-penalty phase of the case), and Jones's co-author Peter Israel discuss several other possible suspects and continued to implicate Terry Nichols' brother, James.[25]

Jones and Israel suggest in Others Unknown that Terry Nichols had crossed paths with suspected Islamic terrorists during his frequent visits to the Philippines before the attacks. Nichols' father-in-law at the time was a Philippine police officer who owned an apartment building often rented to Arabic-speaking students with alleged terrorist connections. Former counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council Richard A. Clarke speculates on the improvement in Nichols's bomb-making techniques as a possible link to Philippines-based Islamist terrorists in Cebú and the southern islands, plus several telephone calls he made there long after he and his wife had come back to the U.S. together, in his 2004 account of the work he undertook for several administrations, Against All Enemies.

McVeigh's defense attorneys also submitted a theory to the court that Islamist terrorists and American Neo-Nazis conspired in the bombing. They pointed out that location and day of the attack indicated the possibility that those seeking revenge for the execution of Richard Snell may have been involved.[26]

In presiding over the trial, Judge Matsch rejected these arguments and did not allow them to be presented as a defense. There remains no credible documented evidence of Islamist or other foreign links to the Oklahoma City bombings.

Government persecution conspiracy
Various other analysts have suggested that the government was involved in a conspiracy behind the bombing, or that the government even planned the attack in order to justify persecuting right-wing organizations in a manner similar to Nazi prosecution of legislators after the Reichstag fire. Soon after the bombing an analysis by Brigadier General Benton K. Partin (Ret.) concluded that "the damage at the Murrah Federal Building is not the result of the truck bomb itself, but rather due to other factors such as locally placed charges within the building itself". Partin's report, released in the weeks following the bombing, was based on assumptions the bomb was fueled with diesel fuel, but did not account for the greater explosive strength of nitromethane in an improvised explosive device.

Some writers claim that seismographic records from a nearby research station shortly after the explosion may indicate possible multiple explosions, but other analysts claim that multiple readings within seconds more likely indicate shock waves from collapse of the building.

Jose Padilla
McVeigh and Jose Padilla were thought to have met at least once. Both of them at one time lived in the greater Fort Lauderdale, Florida area.[2][3] Following Jose Padilla's arrest, several media outlets pointed to a resemblance between Padilla and police sketches of an Oklahoma City bombing suspect known as "John Doe No. 2". [4] [5] [6]

Inside Job
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols claims that a high-ranking FBI official was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and that the original target of the attack might have been changed , according to a new affidavit filed in US District Court. Nichols also claims that the government is protecting the official and other conspirators "in a cover-up to escape its responsibility" for the attacks.[27]

Lee Boyd Malvo

2007-04-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

Lee Boyd Malvo

Born February 18 1985 ( 1985-02-18) (age 22)
Kingston, Jamaica
Charge(s) capital murder
Penalty life imprisonment
Status currently imprisoned in Red Onion State Prison
Occupation convicted capital murderer
Lee Boyd Malvo (alias John Lee Malvo or Malik Malvo) (born February 18, 1985), along with John Allen Muhammad, was arrested on October 24, 2002 in connection with the Beltway sniper attacks. A jury in Virginia convicted Malvo of capital murder on December 18, 2003, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on March 10, 2004. He has since pled guilty to six additional murders in Maryland, receiving six life sentences there, and is facing additional charges in several states. He has also confessed to a murder in Arizona. He was held at Red Onion State Prison, located in Wise County, one of Virginia's two supermax prisons, prior to his temporary extradition to Maryland in May 2005 for trial. In November, 2006, Malvo was returned to Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, where he will presumably be held for the remainder of his life. In all, Malvo is believed to have been involved in 16 murders and 7 additional attempted murders (23 murder attempts in all), of which the Beltway sniper attacks constituted 10 murders and 15 attempts. Victims included people from California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia.

Childhood
Malvo was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Una James, a seamstress, and Leslie Samuel Malvo, a mason. His parents were never married, and their relationship ended while Lee was an infant. His father rarely saw him after that, and his mother was often traveling to look for work. Lee was usually placed in the care of friends and relatives.

Lee attended York Castle High school under the name Lee Malvo in Jamaica before he and his mother emigrated to Antigua in 1998. His father said in 2002 that this was when he last saw his son.

Joining John Allen Muhammad
Una and Lee first met John Allen Muhammad in Antigua around 1999. Although Una and Muhammad had not been intimately involved, they developed a strong friendship. Later, Una left Antigua for Fort Myers, Florida, using false documents. She left Lee with Muhammad, planning to have him follow her later. Lee did join his mother for a short time in 2001. In 2002, Lee traveled to Bellingham, Washington, where he lived in a homeless shelter with Muhammad and enrolled in high school with Muhammad falsely listed as his father. Classmates have said he was good in school, polite, well-dressed, and willing to state his opinions, but that he did not make any friends. While in the Tacoma, Washington area, according to his statements to investigators, Malvo shoplifted the Bushmaster XM-15 from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, a dealer for Bushmaster Firearms, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor based in Windham, Maine. About the same time, Muhammad practiced his marksmanship on the Bull's Eye firing range adjacent to the gun shop. Under federal laws, neither was legally allowed to purchase or possess guns. During this period, Malvo converted to Islam.[1]

Interstate Rampage
Beltway sniper attacks
In the summer of 2002, Malvo and Muhammad were seen for a short time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Malvo's fingerprints were also found at the scene of a murder at a liquor store in Montgomery, Alabama, where another employee was seriously wounded, but survived. From there, the rampage and attempt to extort $10 million from the U.S. Government shifted to the Washington, DC area and surrounding portions of Maryland and Virginia. Several weeks of terror in the region ended when he and Muhammad were arrested while sleeping in their car in a Maryland Rest Area along Interstate 70.

Criminal prosecutions
When federal charges against Malvo under which he was initially arrested were dropped, he was transferred to Virginia custody and sent to jail in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was charged by the Commonwealth of Virginia for two capital crimes: the murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin "in the commission of an act of terrorism" (an addendum to Virginia law that was added after the September 11, 2001 attacks), and the murder of more than one person in a three-year period. He was also charged with the unlawful use of a firearm in the murder of Franklin. A Fairfax attorney, Michael Arif, was appointed to represent him.

Under a change of venue, the trial was moved over 150 miles away to the city of Virginia Beach in southeastern Virginia. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges on the grounds that he was under the total control of John Allen Muhammad. One of Malvo's psychiatric witnesses testified that Muhammad, a member of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, a black separatist movement, had indoctrinated him into believing that the proceeds of the extortion attempt would be used to begin a new nation of only pure black young persons somewhere in Canada. Most observers believe that the main purpose of the insanity defense was not to gain an acquittal but to introduce otherwise inadmissible evidence about Malvo's childhood and upbringing in order to humanize Malvo and make it more difficult for the jury to impose the death penalty.

After nearly 14 hours of deliberation, a jury in Virginia Beach, Virginia, convicted him of both charges on December 18, 2003. On December 23, 2003, a jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Franklin. On March 10, 2004, a judge formally sentenced him to life in prison without parole. The judge could not sentence him to any greater penalty than the jury had recommended.

During this trial, Malvo at times seemed uninterested in the legal proceedings, drawing pictures of the judge, lawyers and other people in the courtroom. The presiding judge, Jane Marum Roush of the Fairfax County Circuit Court, joked with courtroom artists about this incident, stating that their art might have to compete with the defendant's for newspaper and TV coverage.

On October 26, 2004, under a plea-agreement to avoid a possible death penalty, Malvo entered an Alford plea to the charges of murdering Kenneth Bridges and attempting to murder Caroline Seawell while Malvo was in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He also pleaded guilty to two firearms charges and agreed not to appeal his conviction for the murder of Franklin. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murder, plus eight years imprisonment for the weapons charges.

One Virginia prosecutor in Prince William County had stated he would wait to decide whether to try him on additional capital charges in his jurisdiction until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on whether juveniles may be subject to the penalty of execution. However, in light of the March 1, 2005 Supreme Court decision in Roper v. Simmons, the prosecutors in Prince William County have decided not to pursue the charges against Malvo. However, prosecutors in Maryland, Louisiana and Alabama are still interested in putting both Malvo and Muhammad on trial.

On March 1, 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution for crimes committed when under the age of 18. As Malvo was 17 when he committed the crimes, cannot face the death penalty, but still may be extradited to Alabama, Louisiana, and other states for prosecution. At the outset of the Beltway sniper prosecutions, the primary reason for extraditing the two suspects from Maryland, where they were arrested, to Virginia, was, in fact, the differences in how the two states deal with the death penalty. While the death penalty is allowed in Maryland, it was only applied to persons who were adults at the time of their crimes, whereas Virginia had also allowed the death penalty for offenders who had been juveniles when their crimes were committed.

In May 2005, Virginia and Maryland reached an agreement to allow Maryland to begin prosecuting some of the pending charges there, and Malvo was extradited to Montgomery County, Maryland under heavy security.

On June 16, 2006, Malvo told authorities that he and John Allen Muhammad were guilty of four additional shootings. The four most recently linked victims were also shot in 2002: a man killed in Los Angeles during a robbery in February or March; a 76-year-old man who survived a shooting May 18 at a golf course in Clearwater, Florida; a man shot to death while doing yard work in Denton, Texas, May 27; and a 54-year-old man who survived being shot August 1 during a robbery outside a shopping mall near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[1]

On October 10, 2006, Malvo pled guilty to the six murders he was charged with in Maryland. On November 8, 2006, he was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

On October 27, 2006, Malvo told police that he and Muhammad were responsible for the killing of a 60-year-old man on a golf course in Tucson, Arizona. He claimed that they shot Jerry Taylor while he was practicing chip shots on a local golf course. Tucson police had long sought to speak with Malvo about the March 19, 2002, death of Taylor, who died from a single long range gunshot.

Civil lawsuit
In 2003, Malvo and Muhammad were named in a major civil lawsuit by the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on behalf of some two of their victims who were seriously wounded and the families of some of those murdered. Although Malvo and Muhammad were each believed to be indigent, co-defendants Bull's Eye Shooter Supply and Bushmaster Firearms contributed to a landmark $2.5 million out-of-court settlement in late 2004.

The Real Plan (Updated from the May 2006 Maryland Trial)

In John Allen Muhammad's May 2006 trial in Montgomery County, MD, Lee Boyd Malvo took the stand and confessed to a more detailed version of the pair's plans. Malvo, after extensive psychological counseling, admitted that he was lying at the earlier Virginia trial where he had admitted to being the triggerman for every shooting. Malvo claimed that he had said this in order to protect John Allen Muhammad from the potential death penalty, because it was more difficult to achieve the death penalty for a minor. Malvo said that he wanted to do what little he could for the families of the victims by letting the full story be told. In his two days of testimony, Malvo outlined many very detailed aspects of all the shootings.

Part of his testimony concerned John Allen Muhammad's complete multiphase plan. His plan consisted of three phases in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metro areas. Phase one consisted of meticulously planning, mapping, and practicing their locations around the DC area. This way after each shooting they would be able to quickly leave the area on a predetermined path, and move on to the next location. John Allen Muhammad's goal in Phase One was to kill 6 people a day for 30 days. Malvo went on to describe how Phase One did not go as planned due to heavy traffic and the lack of a clear shot and/or getaway at different locations.

Phase Two was meant to be moved up to Baltimore, MD. Malvo described how this phase was close to being implemented, but never was carried out. Phase Two was intended to begin by killing a pregnant woman by shooting her in the stomach. The next step would have been to shoot and kill a Baltimore City police officer. Then, at the officer's funeral, they were to create several improvised explosive devices complete with shrapnel. These explosives were intended to kill a large number of police, since many police would attend another officer's funeral.

The last phase was to take place very shortly after, if not during, Phase Two. The third phase was to extort several million dollars from the United States government. This money would be used to finance a larger plan. The plan was to travel north in to Canada. Along the way they would stop in YMCAs and orphanages recruiting other impressionable young boys with no parents or guidance. John Allen Muhammad thought he could act as their father figure as he did with Lee Boyd Malvo. Once he recruited a large number of young boys and made his way up to Canada, he would begin their training. Malvo described how John Allen Muhammad intended to train all these boys with weapons and stealth, as he had been taught. Finally, after their training was complete, John Allen Muhammad would send them out across the United States to carry out mass shootings in many different cities, just as he had done in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. These attacks would be coordinated, and were intended to send the country into chaos.

John Allen Muhammad

2007-04-18T22:44:00.000-07:00

John Allen Muhammad
Born December 31 1960 (age 46)
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Charge(s) capital murder, terrorism, conspiracy, and the illegal use of a firearm
Penalty death penalty (pending execution)
Status awaiting extradition to Virginia
Occupation ex-soldier
John Allen Muhammad (b. December 31, 1960) is an American serial killer. With his younger partner Lee Boyd Malvo, he carried out the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, killing 10 people. This was an apparent attempt to extort $10 million. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens.

His trial for one of the murders (the murder of Dean Harold Meyers in Prince William County, Virginia) began in October 2003, and the following month, he was found guilty of capital murder. Four months later he was sentenced to death. While awaiting execution in Virginia, in August 2005, he was extradited to Maryland to face some of the charges there, for which he was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder on May 30, 2006. Upon completion of the trial activity in Maryland, it was planned that he next be returned to Virginia's death row unless some agreement is reached with another state or the District of Columbia seeking to try him. As of October 2006, he has not been tried on additional charges in other Virginia jurisdictions, and faces potential trials in three other states and the District of Columbia involving other deaths and serious woundings.

Early life
Born John Allen Williams in New Orleans, Louisiana, Muhammad enlisted in the Louisiana National Guard in 1978 and, after seven years of service, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1985. While in the Army, Muhammad was trained as a mechanic, truck driver and specialist metalworker. He qualified as an "expert" with the M16, the Army's standard infantry rifle. This rating is the Army's highest of three levels of marksmanship for a typical soldier. He was eventually discharged from military service following the Gulf War.

Changing his name to Muhammad in October 2001, he was a member of the Nation of Islam for a time; friends say Muhammad helped provide security for Louis Farrakhan's "Million Man March" in 1995, but Farrakhan has publicly distanced himself and his organization from Muhammad's actions[1]. It was theorized that Muhammad left the Nation of Islam around 1999 and then joined Jamaat al-Fuqra, a black militant Islamic group[2]. However, later investigations indicated that he moved out of the country and spent time in Antigua during this period, apparently engaging in credit card and immigration document fraud activities. It was during this time that he became close with a young teenage boy, Lee Boyd Malvo, who later became his partner in the serial killings.

After his arrest, authorities also claimed that Muhammad admitted that he admired and modeled himself after Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and approved of the September 11, 2001 attacks. One of Malvo's psychiatric witnesses testified in his trial that Muhammad had indoctrinated him into believing that the proceeds of the extortion attempt would be used to begin a new nation of only young, "pure" black people somewhere in Canada.

Muhammad is twice divorced; one former wife, Mildred Muhammad, sought and was granted a restraining order. Muhammad was arrested on federal charges of violating the restraining order against him, by possessing a weapon.

Sniper attacks
Muhammad was caught after police followed a lead in which an anonymous caller (presumably Muhammad) told a priest to tell the police to check out a liquor store robbery-murder that had occurred in Montgomery, Alabama. Investigators responding to that crime scene found one of the suspects had dropped a magazine with his fingerprints on it, these were subsequently identified as belonging to 17 year old Jamaican immigrant Lee Boyd Malvo, whose prints were on file with the INS. Malvo was known to associate with Muhammad. They had lived together in Bellingham, Washington for around one year, where Malvo used the alias John Lee Malvo. Identifying Muhammad led to the discovery that he had purchased a former police car, a blue Chevrolet Caprice, in New Jersey on September 11, 2002. A lookout broadcast to the public on that vehicle resulted in their arrest when it was spotted parked in a Maryland rest area on Interstate 70 by a truck driver.

Prosecution, convictions, death sentence, pending charges
In October 2003, Muhammad went on trial for the murder of Dean Meyers at a Prince William County service station near the city of Manassas. The trial had been moved from Prince William County, to Virginia Beach, approximately 200 miles away. Muhammad was granted the right to represent himself in his defense, and dismissed his legal counsel, though he immediately switched back to having legal representation after his opening argument. Muhammad was charged with murder, terrorism, conspiracy and the illegal use of a firearm, and faced a possible death sentence. Prosecutors said the shootings were part of a plot to extort $10 million from local and state governments. The prosecution said that they would make the case for 16 shootings allegedly involving Muhammad. The terrorism charge against Muhammad required prosecutors to prove he committed at least two shootings in a three-year period.

The prosecution called more than 130 witnesses and introduced more than 400 pieces of evidence intended to prove that Muhammad had undertaken the shooting spree and ordered Malvo to help carry it out. That evidence included a rifle, found in Muhammad's car, that has been linked by ballistics tests not only to 8 of the 10 killings in the Washington area but also to 2 others, in Louisiana and Alabama; the car itself, which was modified, prosecutors say, so that a sniper could shoot from inside the trunk; and a laptop computer, also found in the car, that contained maps with icons pinpointing shooting scenes.

There were also witness accounts that put Muhammad across the street from one shooting and his car near the scene of several others. And there was a recorded phone call to a police hotline in which a man, his voice identified by a detective as Muhammad's, demanded money in exchange for stopping the shootings.

Muhammad's defense asked the court to drop the capital murder charges due to the fact that there was no direct evidence. Malvo's fingerprints were on the Bushmaster rifle found in Muhammad's car, and genetic material from Muhammad himself was also discovered on the rifle. But the defense contended that Muhammad could not be put to death under Virginia's so-called trigger-man law unless he actually pulled the trigger to kill Meyers, and no one testified that they saw him do so.

On November 17, 2003, by verdict of his jury, Muhammad was convicted in Virginia of all four counts in the indictment against him: capital murder for the shooting of Dean H. Meyers; a second charge of capital murder under Virginia's antiterrorism statute, for homicide committed with an intent to terrorize the government or the public at large; conspiracy to commit murder; and the illegal use of a firearm.

In the penalty phase of the trial, the jury after five hours of deliberation over two days unanimously recommended that Muhammad should be sentenced to death. On March 9, 2004, a Virginia judge agreed with the jury's recommendation and sentenced John Allen Muhammad to death.

On April 22, 2005, the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed his death penalty, stating that Muhammad could be sentenced to death because the murder was part of an act of terrorism. The court also rejected an argument by defense lawyers that he could not be sentenced to death because he was not the triggerman in the killings done by Muhammad and his young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo.

"With calculation, extensive planning, premeditation and ruthless disregard for life, Muhammad carried out his cruel scheme of terror." Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald W. Lemons
It is not clear how many any other jurisdictions will be allowed to try him on the capital charges they have pending before he is executed in Virginia. In May 2005, Maryland and Virginia reached an agreement to allow his extradition to face Maryland charges, but Muhammad was fighting the action legally. He was held at the maximum security Sussex I State Prison near Waverly in Sussex County, Virginia, which houses Virginia's death row inmates. While awaiting execution in Virginia, in August 2005, he was extradited to Montgomery County, Maryland to face some of the charges there.

On May 30, 2006, a Maryland jury found John Allen Muhammad guilty of six counts of murder in Maryland. In return, he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without possibility of parole on June 1, 2006. Whether or not Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, and Washington State will move to try Muhammad, given his death sentence for murder in Virginia, remains unclear. In 2006, Malvo confessed that the pair also killed victims in California, Arizona, and Texas, making 16 and possibly 17 victims.

Civil lawsuit
In 2003, Malvo and Muhammad were named in a major civil lawsuit by the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on behalf of some two of their victims who were seriously wounded and the families of some of those murdered. Although Malvo and Muhammad were each believed to be indigent, codefendants Bull's Eye Shooter Supply and Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. contributed to a landmark $2.5 million out-of-court settlement in late 2004.

The Real Plan (Updated from the May 2006 Maryland Trial)
In John Allen Muhammad's May 2006 trial in Montgomery County, MD, Lee Boyd Malvo took the stand and confessed to a more detailed version of the pair's plans. Malvo, after extensive psychological counseling, admitted that he was lying at the earlier Virginia trial where he had admitted to being the triggerman for every shooting. Malvo claimed that he had said this in order to protect John Allen Muhammad from the potential death penalty, because it was more difficult to achieve the death penalty for a minor. Malvo said that he wanted to do what little he could for the families of the victims by letting the full story be told. In his two days of testimony, Malvo outlined many very detailed aspects of all the shootings.

Part of his testimony concerned John Allen Muhammad's complete multiphase plan. His plan consisted of three phases in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metro areas. Phase one consisted of meticulously planning, mapping, and practicing their locations around the DC area. This way after each shooting they would be able to quickly leave the area on a predetermined path, and move on to the next location. John Allen Muhammad's goal in Phase One was to kill 6 people a day for 30 days. Malvo went on to describe how Phase One did not go as planned due to heavy traffic and the lack of a clear shot and/or getaway at different locations.

Phase Two was meant to be moved up to Baltimore, MD. Malvo described how this phase was close to being implemented, but never was carried out. Phase Two was intended to begin by killing a pregnant woman by shooting her in the stomach. The next step would have been to shoot and kill a Baltimore City police officer. Then, at the officer's funeral, they were to create several improvised explosive devices complete with shrapnel. These explosives were intended to kill a large number of police, since many police would attend another officer's funeral.

The last phase was to take place very shortly after, if not during, Phase Two. The third phase was to extort several million dollars from the United States government. This money would be used to finance a larger plan. The plan was to travel north in to Canada. Along the way they would stop in YMCAs and orphanages recruiting other impressionable young boys with no parents or guidance. John Allen Muhammad thought he could act as their father figure as he did with Lee Boyd Malvo. Once he recruited a large number of young boys and made his way up to Canada, he would begin their training. Malvo described how John Allen Muhammad intended to train all these boys with weapons and stealth, as he had been taught. Finally, after their training was complete, John Allen Muhammad would send them out across the United States to carry out mass shootings in many different cities, just as he had done in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. These attacks would be coordinated, and were intended to send the country into chaos.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

2007-04-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

Yearbook photographs of the two perpetrators.

Eric Harris
Born April 9, 1981
Wichita, Kansas
Died April 20, 1999 (aged 18)
Columbine, Colorado
Status Deceased (suicide)
Parents Wayne Harris
Kathy Harris

Dylan Bennet Klebold
Born September 11, 1981
Lakewood, Colorado
Died April 20, 1999 (aged 17)
Columbine, Colorado
Status Deceased (suicide)
Parents Thomas Klebold
Susan Klebold
Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) and Dylan Bennet Klebold (September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999), both high school seniors, were the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre, the third worst school shooting ever. The school is located in Jefferson County, Colorado (near Denver and Littleton), U.S., on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and one teacher. Both Harris, 18 years old, and Klebold, 17, committed suicide after the killings.

Early life
Eric David Harris was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. His parents were Wayne and Kathy, and he had an older brother, Kevin. The family relocated often as Wayne Harris was a U.S. Air Force transport pilot; Kathy was a homemaker. The Harris family moved to the Littleton area in July 1993, when Wayne retired from the military.

The Harrises lived in rented accommodation for the first three years that they lived in the Littleton area, and it was during this time that Eric met and befriended Dylan Klebold. In 1996, the Harrises bought a house just south of Columbine High School. Eric's brother Kevin started at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Dylan Bennet Klebold was born in Lakewood, Colorado. His parents, Thomas and Susan, and older brother Byron, attended a Lutheran church with their children, with the boys attending confirmation classes in accordance with Lutheran tradition. At home, the family also observed Jewish rituals in keeping with Susan's familial heritage. [1][2][3]

Susan's grandfather, Leo Yassenoff, was an influential builder and philanthropist. Dylan's father, Thomas, was raised by a brother 18 years his senior, as each of his parents had died while he was young.

The family had resided in Deer Creek Canyon, south of Lakewood, since 1990. Thomas ran a small real estate business from home, whereas Susan was an employment counselor. Dylan attended Normandy Elementary School (grades 1 and 2), then attended Governor’s Ranch Elementary School where he was part of the CHIPS (Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students) program. [4]

High school
According to early accounts of the shooting, Harris and Klebold were unpopular outsiders and frequent targets of bullying at their high school. Some later investigation claims, however, that the notion they were unpopular and outsiders was largely a myth, although the idea had become ingrained in popular accounts. Regardless, they and their group of friends and/or people they knew had often been the target of bullying at Columbine, a fact that has been agreed upon by most investigators to have been the root of their anger. They were also said to have been part of a group who called themselves the Trenchcoat Mafia, although they had no particular connection with the group, and did not appear in a group photo of the Trenchcoat Mafia in the 1998 Columbine yearbook. [5] However, Harris' father claimed Eric was "involved with the Trenchcoat Mafia" in a 911 call he made on April 20, 1999. Harris had a brief romantic relationship with a woman seven years older than he, Brenda Parker, about a year before the shootings.

Klebold attended the high school prom three days before the shootings with a classmate named Robyn Anderson. [6] Klebold also wrote a love letter to a recipient whose identity the police have withheld, whom Klebold called "the one I truly loved", which referred vaguely to going away soon, suicide, and not being able to survive in this world. [7] The letter ended with a request for the girl to leave a note in Klebold's locker, which was near the school library (the place where Klebold and Harris killed most of their victims, as well as themselves). It is unknown if the girl responded.

Soon after they became friends, the two boys linked their personal computers on a network and both played many games over the Internet. Harris created a set of levels for the game DOOM which later became known as the "Harris levels". Harris had a web presence under the handle "REB" (short for Rebel) and other cyber aliases including "Rebldomakr", "Rebdoomer", and "Rebdomine," while Klebold went by the names "VoDKa" and "VoDkA". Eric's various websites hosted DOOM and Quake files, as well as team information for those he gamed with online. The sites also openly spouted hatred for the people of their neighborhood and the world in general. When Eric and Dylan began experimenting with pipe bombs, they posted results of the explosions on the websites.

Harris was a fan of musical groups such as Rammstein, KMFDM (Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid), Orbital, and The Prodigy. [8] Soon after the shooting, KMFDM posted material on their website condemning Harris and Klebold's violence and denying that their music had anything to do with it. [9]

In March 1998, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigator Michael Guerra looked at Harris' website after the parents of Brooks Brown, a fellow student of Harris and Klebold, discovered Harris was making threats aimed at their son following a falling out between them. Guerra wrote a draft affidavit for a search warrant, but the affidavit was never filed. This information was not revealed to the public until September 2001 by 60 Minutes, though it was known by the police the entire time.

The two boys got into trouble with the law early for breaking into a locked van and stealing tools. In January 1998, they were charged with mischief, breaking and entering, trespassing and theft. Eric and Dylan left a good impression on the juvenile officers, who offered to delete the boys' criminal records if they agreed to attend a diversionary program to serve community service, receive pyschiatric treatment, and stay out of trouble. Eric was forced to attend anger management classes where, again, he made a good impression. They were so well-behaved that their probation officer discharged them from the program a few months earlier than the due date. Of Eric, it was remarked that he was "a very bright individual who is likely to succeed in life," while Dylan was said to be intelligent, but "needs to understand that hard work is part of fulfilling a dream."

Despite these outward appearances of calm, as time went on, the boys' rage continued to grow. The two made a video for a school project that showed them pretending to shoot fake guns and "snuffing" students in the hallway of their school as "Hitmen for Hire". They both displayed themes of violence in their creative writing projects for school; his teacher said of a Doom-based tale by Harris, written on January 17, 1999, "Yours is a unique approach and your writing works in a gruesome way - good details and mood setting."[10][11]

While having a cigarette at the start of lunch break, Brooks Brown saw Eric Harris entering the school on the morning of the massacre and scolded him for skipping a class, because Harris was always serious about his academics and being on time. Harris reportedly said, "Brooks, I like you. Now get out of here. Go home." Having severed his friendship with him a year earlier due to Harris throwing a chunk of ice at his car windshield, Brown quickly evacuated the school grounds. Upon hearing the first gunshots after he had already walked some distance away from the school, he informed the police by a neighbor's cell phone.[citation needed]

Acquiring arms
As Harris and Klebold were both underage at the time, Robyn Anderson, an 18-year-old Columbine student and old friend of Dylan Klebold's, made a straw purchase of two shotguns and Hi-Point 995 Carbine for Harris and Klebold (at the time this was legal in Colorado). Anderson was never charged for her part in the straw purchase in exchange for her cooperation with the investigation that followed the shootings. After illegally acquiring the weapons, Harris and Klebold sawed off the barrels of the shotguns to a length below 18 inches, a felony under the National Firearms Act.

The shooters also possessed a TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun. The manufacturer of the TEC-DC9 first sold it to Miami-based Navegar Incorporated. It was then sold to Zander's Sporting Goods in Baldwin, Illinois in 1994. The gun was later sold to Thornton, Colorado firearms dealer Larry Russel. In violation of federal law, Russel did not keep records of the sale, yet he determined that the purchaser of the gun was twenty-one years of age or older. He was unable to identify the pictures of Klebold, Anderson, or Harris shown to him by police after the shooting. Two men named Mark Manes and Philip Duran were found to have supplied weapons to the two boys.

Some of the bombs that the boys made were crude and made with carbon dioxide canisters, galvanized pipe, and metal propane bottles. The bombs were primed with matches placed at one end of the bomb. Both the boys had striker tips on their sleeves. When they rubbed against the bomb, the match head would instantly light the fuse. The weekend before the shootings, Harris and Klebold had purchased propane tanks and other supplies from a hardware store for a few hundred dollars. Several residents of the area claimed to have heard glass breaking and buzzing sounds from the Harris family's garage, indicating they were constructing pipe bombs. Tony Fatre, a fifth-grader who lived next door to Harris, later told authorities that "Eric was always in there with the door closed."

More complex bombs, such as the one that detonated on the corner of South Wadsworth Boulevard and Ken Caryl Avenue, had timers. The two largest bombs built were found in the school cafeteria and were made from small propane tanks. Only one of these bombs went off, and that one only detonated partially. It has been estimated that had any of the bombs placed in the cafeteria actually detonated properly, the blast could have caused extensive structural damage to the school and resulted in up to 250 casualties.[citation needed]

Motivations
The two perpetrators, captured on Columbine High School's security cameras.A journal found in Harris's bedroom contained almost every detail that the boys planned to follow after 5:00 a.m. on April 20, 1999. In the perpetrators' journal entries, the pair often wrote about events such as the Oklahoma City bombing, Waco, and other events that occurred on April 19, including blurbs and notes on how they wished to "outdo" these events, especially what Timothy McVeigh did to Oklahoma City. The fact that the shooters initially planned and failed to blow up Columbine, and not just shoot students, is an indication of how they instead wished to overshadow the events that had occurred, respectively, four and six years earlier. It is believed that the original intended date of the attack may have been April 19, the preceding Monday, but due to problems with the creation of one of the bombs, or perhaps to avoid involving a close friend who was planning on being absent April 20, the date was thus moved back.

People who knew the perpetrators have often stated that they were not obsessed with Nazism nor did they worship or admire Adolf Hitler in any way (considering the attack was on Hitler's birthday), as has been speculated in the media. This speculation seems at odds with the fact that Dylan Klebold was partly Jewish, on his mother's side of the family. A journal of Eric Harris, released in July 2006, confirmed a strong admiration of Nazism, Social Darwinism and genocide.[12] It is believed that their earliest ideas may have first been discussed in January 1998 after Eric and Dylan were convicted of breaking into a van and each received ten months of juvenile intervention counseling and community service. They were released early from the program due to good behavior, a fact about which they later gloated in the memoirs they taped before the shootings.

The diary contained notes on "good hiding places" and areas with poor lighting that could be utilized. The attack was to start at exactly 11:17 a.m., when Eric had calculated the largest possible number of students would be located in the cafeteria.

Harris wanted to join the United States Marine Corps, but his application was rejected shortly before the shootings because he was taking the drug Luvox® (Fluvoxamine maleate, an SSRI antidepressant) that he was required to take as part of anger management therapy. According to the recruiting officer, Eric never knew of this rejection. Some theorized that Luvox's side-effects contributed to what happened: though some of Eric's friends theorized that he had stopped taking the drug beforehand, the autopsy reports showed that he had Luvox in his system at the time of death.[13]

Media confusion
Initially the shooters were believed to be members of a clique that called themselves the "Trenchcoat Mafia", a small group of Columbine's "outcasts" who wore heavy black trenchcoats. The Trenchcoat Mafia was originally a group of gamers and geeks who hung out together, who started wearing trenchcoats after the mother of one of the members bought her son a cowboy duster for Christmas. They adopted the name "Trenchcoat Mafia" after jocks began to mockingly call them that. It has since been discovered that Harris and Klebold were only friends with one member of the group, Chris Morris, and that most of the primary members of the Trenchcoat Mafia had left the school by the time that Harris and Klebold committed the massacre. Most did not even know the shooters, apart from their association with Morris.

Aftermath
A great deal of sociological investigation into high school subculture was done in response to the killings, with the hopes of determining what sort of factors led to the boys' actions and whether or not future massacres in other schools could be successfully prevented. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks some North American high school students attended compulsory seminars that encouraged tolerance and condemned bullying. The results of this have been debated. Some saw the increased emphasis on bullying prevention as helpful toward decreasing the chance of such an incident happening again. Others saw the programs as useless, either failing to lessen bullying or failing to decrease the chance of other school massacres. A third group of people saw the increased emphasis on bullying prevention as a beneficial result of the school shootings, but ultimately feel that since bullying wasn't the cause of the shootings, or at least not the sole cause, the seminars won't ultimately decrease the chance of another school shooting.

Harris and Klebold have affected U.S. culture in more tangible ways as well. Marilyn Manson dubs them "The Nobodies" in his song of that name from his 2000 album Holy Wood. Manson echoes the boys' reasons for their spree with lines such as "We are the nobodies, We wanna be somebodies, When we're dead, They'll know just who we are". Manson also having been blamed in the wake of the Columbine massacre by the media (even though Eric and Dylan did not listen to his music) criticizes their coverage of the event with the lines "Some children died the other day, We fed machines and then we prayed, Puked up and down in morbid faith, You should have seen the ratings that day".

In his "multi-media manifesto," Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung Hui referenced them as "the martyrs Eric and Dylan."

Cho Seung-hui

2007-04-18T22:26:00.000-07:00

Born January 18, 1984
Seoul, South Korea
Died April 16, 2007 (aged 23)
Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Cho Seung-hui
Hangul: 조승희
Hanja: 曹丞禧[1]
Revised Romanization: Jo Seung-hui
McCune-Reischauer: Cho Sŭng'hŭi
English pronunciation (IPA) :
[dʒoʊ sʌŋ'hi][2]

Cho Seung-hui (January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007), was the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre[3][4] of April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, according to police reports. He committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the building in which he had killed 30 of his 32 victims and wounded many more, both staff and students. Approximately two hours before his shooting rampage, it is believed that he killed two students in a campus dormitory.

Biography
Cho was born in South Korea. His family lived in Seoul, staying in a rented basement apartment. Landlord Lim Bong-ae states that "I didn't know what (Cho's father) did for a living. But they lived a poor life," Lim told the newspaper. "While immigrating, (Cho's father) said they were going to America because it is difficult to live here and that it's better to live in a place where he is unknown."[5]

Cho immigrated to the United States in September 1992, when he was 8 years old, with his two parents and an older sister. His older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho is a graduate of Princeton University and works as a contractor for the United States State Department office which oversees the money in American aid for Iraq after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[6][7][8] He was a lawful permanent resident of the United States and a South Korean citizen.[9] Cho had a permanent address in Centreville, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the western part of largely affluent Fairfax County, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Washington, D.C. and a few miles directly south of Washington Dulles International Airport.[10] Cho graduated in 2003 from Westfield High School in the Chantilly community of Fairfax County.[11]

Cho was an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, majoring in English, although he had told others he was a business major.[12]

Virginia Tech massacre
Cho killed two students, Emily J. Hilscher and Ryan C. "Stack" Clark, on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, a high-rise coeducational dorm, around 07:15 EDT (UTC-4);[13] police have not positively stated that Cho was the perpetrator of that shooting in addition to the later one, although forensic evidence confirms that that the same gun was used in both shooting incidents.[14][15] Within the next two and a half hours, Cho returned to his room to re-arm himself, mailed pictures, videos and documents to NBC,[16] and then crossed the campus to continue his rampage in a classroom building, Norris Hall, at 09:45 EDT (UTC-4).[4][13] Police identified Cho by matching fingerprints on the guns used in the shootings with immigration materials.[4]

The words "Ismail ax" were found written on his arm in red ink.[17][18] Police found a receipt for the Glock 19 pistol dated March 13, 2007.[19] Permanent residents in Virginia may legally purchase firearms as long as they provide proof of residency,[20] pass an immediate automated background check,[21] and answer a questionnaire,[22] although Virginia Tech students were forbidden from bringing firearms on campus on threat of expulsion.[23] Cho bought a second weapon, a Walther P22 pistol, on April 13, 2007.[13]

As police closed in on him in Norris Hall, Cho committed suicide with a gunshot to his head.[24]

Motive
No official motive for the shooting spree has been announced by law enforcement agencies.

According to television news reports on April 17, Cho left a note criticizing "rich kids," "debauchery," and "deceitful charlatans".

On April 18, 2007, NBC News received a package,[25] via overnight mail, containing a DVD-like disc with twenty-seven video clips, forty-three still pictures (each with individual captions), one audio clip, and a multi-page typewritten manifesto. The pictures, for the most part, depict Cho in military garb wielding an array of weapons, including a hammer, knife, and the two handguns found on his dead body. The majority of the video depicts Cho reading his manifesto aloud.

The package, addressed from "A. Ishmael" as seen on an image of the USPS Express Mail envelope (incorrectly printed as the Arabic name "Ismail" by The New York Times[26]) and apparently intended to be received on April 17, was delayed due to incorrect zip code and street address. It was immediately turned over to local authorities in New York and will be sent to law enforcement in Virginia.[25]

Early rumors and unverified speculation supposed that Cho Seung-hui was obsessed with fellow student Emily Hilscher and became enraged after his romantic overtures were rejected.[27][28][29] Hilscher's resident assistant Ryan "Stack" Clark tried to intervene. They became Cho's first two victims.[30] However, there is no evidence that Cho even knew Hilscher.[31] Hilscher's roommate, Heather Haugh, knew of no connection between the two or why Cho would have chosen West Ambler Johnson Hall as the starting place for his killing.[32]

Behavior and mental health
Photograph of Cho sent to NBC NewsIn 2005, Cho Seung-hui was temporarily detained for a psychiatric assessment, as he was suspected to be mentally ill and a danger to himself or others by a Montgomery County, Virginia district court. Virgina Special Justice Paul Barnett certified in an order that Cho Seung-hui "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness," and directed that as a "Court-ordered Out-Patient he follow all recommended treatments."[33] Following a psychiatric evaluation and medical exam which noted Cho's flat affect and depressed mood, he was told to undergo outpatient care and was released.[34][35] Some reports state that Cho is believed to have been taking psychiatric medications for depression,[36] but there is no record of this in federal prescription databases.[37]

A university spokesman described Cho as a "loner," and said university officials were having a difficult time finding information about him.[38] A Korean club on campus reported that he rarely joined or talked with them.[39] Cho had earlier been accused of setting a fire in a dormitory and stalking two women on campus so the women called the police.[40] Cho also reportedly took photos of female classmates from under his desk. [41]

Fellow students described Cho as a "quiet" person who "would not respond if someone greeted him." Student Julie Poole said that on the first day of a literature class last year the students introduced themselves one by one, but when it was Cho's turn, he did not speak. The professor, she said, looked at the sign-in sheet and where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. "We just really knew him as the question mark kid," Poole added.[42] Cho's grandfather stated that "My grandson Seung-Hui was very shy. I can't believe he did such a thing."[43]

According to an interview of both his roommates (who have thus far have only gone by their first names), John and Andy,[44][45] Andy describes two stalking incidents: Cho standing in the unlocked doorway of his room late at night taking photographs, and repeatedly placing harassing cellphone calls to Andy as "Cho's brother, Question Mark", a name he would also use when introducing himself to girls with whom he was allegedly obsessed. John declined to describe Cho as "mean", conflicting with another first-hand account. The roommates also said he repeatedly stalked their female friends.[46][47]

Stephanie Derry, a fellow student, said Cho never participated in class discussions. "He was just there, I can't even describe it. He would just sit and watch us, but wouldn't say anything. It was his lack of behavior that really set him apart. He basically just kept to himself, very isolated. I remember only once he smiled, but it wasn't very big."[48]

Lucinda Roy, one of Cho's English professors, described Cho as "an intelligent man" but seemed to be an awkward and very lonely and insecure man who never took off his sunglasses, even indoors. She described his behavior as at times "arrogant" and "obnoxious".[49] By fall 2005, Roy removed Cho from her class after he became angry in the classroom. She said she tried several different ways to help him, including a decision to refer him for counseling which was unsuccessful.[13] Roy would not comment at length on Cho’s writings, saying only that in general they “seemed very angry.” She said that he whispered, took 20 seconds to answer questions, and took cell phone pictures of her in class. After becoming concerned with his behavior and the themes in his writings, the professor started meeting with Cho to work with him one-on-one. She said she was concerned for her safety when she met with him. After notifying the legal authorities about his behavior, the professor urged Cho to seek counseling, but he refused.[50][51]

Professor Nikki Giovanni, who taught Cho in a poetry class, had him removed from her class because his behavior was so menacing, called the idea that Cho was troubled "crap," and described him as "mean." When informed of the massacre, she remarked, "I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," and "I would have been shocked if it wasn't."[46]

Media Package Sent to NBC

Picture from one of several videos Cho Seung-hui sent to MSNBC.Cho Seung-hui sent a media package to NBC which he mailed between the two seperate shootings. In the package contained videos, and written texts.

Cho says on one of the videos he sent to NBC:

“ I didn’t have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It’s not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you fucked, I did it for them… When the time came, I did it. I had to.[52] ”

The "multimedia manifesto", as it was referred to by MSNBC, also consisted of several pages of rambling text. MSNBC justice correspondent Pete Williams stated that it lacked logical governance, suggesting he was under severe emotional distress. The text railed against people of wealth, as well as Christianity and hedonism. The document referenced the Columbine killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The massacre occured on April 16 (four days before the eighth anniversary of the Columbine shooting).[53]

The manifesto also mentions teacher and accused possesor of child pornography John Mark Karr:

“ You wanna rape us John Mark Karrs? [54] ”

Attributed writings
Plays
In 2006, Cho wrote a short, profanity-laden one-act play entitled "Richard McBeef". It is about a 13-year-old boy, John, who accuses his stepfather, Richard McBeef, of molesting him and murdering his father. John repeatedly says he will kill Richard. John, Richard, and Sue, John's mother, become involved in a major argument. The play ends with Richard, who up until this point is passive, dealing John "a deadly blow".[55]

In a second play attributed to Cho, titled "Mr. Brownstone", three 17-year-olds named John, Jane, and Joe are gambling at a casino while discussing their deep hatred of their 45-year-old mathematics teacher, Mr. Brownstone, whom they claim raped them. Brownstone appears and, amid volleys of profanity, cheats them out of their casino winnings.[56][57]

Reactions to writings
Edward Falco, a playwriting professor at Virginia Tech, has acknowledged that Cho wrote both plays in his class. The plays are less than 12 pages long and contain a number of grammatical and typographical errors. Falco believed that Cho was drawn to writing because of his difficulty in communicating verbally. Falco said of the plays, "They're not good writing, but at least they are a form of communication."[58]

Another professor who taught Cho characterized his work as "very adolescent" and "silly", with attempts at "slapstick comedy" and "elements of violence."[59]

Classmates believed "the plays, were really morbid and grotesque."[48] Former classmate, Ian MacFarlane stated, "When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of."[60]

South Korean reaction
Cho’s actions startled Korean-Americans, and citizens in his native South Korea.[61] At the time of the massacre, approximately 93,000 South Koreans were enrolled in Universities across the United States.[61] A man in Seoul told The New York Times, “The parents went to the United States, and did everything to raise and educate their children. And then the son does something crazy like this.”[61] South Korea expressed its hope that this event wouldn't "stir up racial prejudice and confrontation" in the United States.[62]

Many South Koreans rushed to show solidarity with the victims. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun expressed shock “beyond description” and “deep bitterness.”[63][61]

Ikki Tousen 3 Part 2

2007-03-29T01:38:00.000-07:00

Ikki Tousen

2007-03-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

David Koresh

2007-03-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Born: August 17, 1959
Houston, Texas, USA
Died: April 19, 1993
Waco, Texas, USA
Occupation: Leader, Branch Davidians millennial cult
David Koresh (born Vernon Wayne Howell) (August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993) was the leader of the Branch Davidians religious sect, believing himself to be the final prophet, until a 1993 raid by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and subsequent siege by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended with the burning of the Branch Davidian ranch. Koresh, 53 adults (including two pregnant women) and 21 children died in the fire.

Early life
Koresh was born in Houston, Texas to a 14-year-old single mother.[1] He did not know who his real mother was until he was five years old. Bonnie Clark, his mother, became pregnant with Koresh after sleeping with a 20-year-old carpenter named Bobby Howell. The pair remained unmarried. Two years later his father met another woman and left.[2] He never knew his father and was raised by "a harsh stepfather".[3] Koresh described his early childhood as lonely, and it has been alleged that he was once raped by older boys.[4] A poor student because of dyslexia, Koresh dropped out of high school. By the age of 12, however, he had learned the New Testament by heart.[5]

When he was 19, Koresh had an affair with a 16 year old girl who became pregnant, but left him because she considered him unfit to raise a child.[6] He then became a born-again Christian in the Southern Baptist Church but soon joined his mother's church, the Seventh Day Adventist Church. There he fell in love with the pastor's daughter and while praying for guidance he opened his eyes and found the bible open at Isaiah 34 which stated that none should want for a mate; convinced this was a sign from God he approached the pastor and told him that God wanted him to have his daughter for a wife. The pastor threw him out, and when he continued to persist with his pursuit of the daughter he was expelled from the congregation.[7] A member of the congregation is reported to have said that he never "thought above his belt buckle."[8]

In 1981 he moved to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians, a religious group originating from a schism in the 1950s from the Shepherd's Rod, themselves excommunicated members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the 1930s. They had established their headquarters at a ranch about 10 miles out of Waco, which they called the Mount Carmel Center (after the Biblical Mount Carmel), in 1955.

Ascent to leadership of the Branch Davidians
In 1983 he began claiming the gift of prophecy. Koresh then had an affair with Lois Roden, the prophetess and leader of the sect who was then in her late sixties, eventually claiming that God had chosen him to father a child with her, who would be the Chosen One.[9] In 1983, Roden allowed Koresh to begin teaching his own message which caused controversy in the group. Lois Roden's son George intended to be the group's next leader, and considered Koresh an interloper. When Koresh announced that God had instructed him to marry Rachel Jones, there was a short period of calm at Mount Carmel, but it proved only temporary. In the ensuing power struggle, George Roden, claiming to have the support of the majority of the group, forced Koresh and his group off the property at gunpoint. Disturbed by the events and the move away from the philosophy of the community's founders, a further splinter group led by Charles Joseph Pace moved out of Mount Carmel and set up home in Gadsden, Alabama.

Koresh and around 25 followers set up camp at Palestine, 90 miles from Waco, where they lived rough for the next two years, during which time Koresh undertook recruitment of new followers in California, the United Kingdom, Israel and Australia. In 1985 Koresh travelled to Israel and it was there that he had a vision that he was the modern day Cyrus. The founder of the Davidian movement, Victor Houteff, wanted to be God's implement and establish the Davidic kingdom in Palestine, Israel. Koresh also wanted to be God's tool and set up the Davidic Kingdom in Jerusalem. At least until 1990, he believed the place of his martyrdom might be in Israel but by 1991 he was convinced that his martyrdom would be in the United States. Instead of Israel, he said the prophecies of Daniel would be fulfilled in Waco and that the Mount Carmel center was the Davidic kingdom.[10]

At the Palestine, Texas, camp, Koresh "worked it so that everyone was forced to rely on him, and him alone. All previous bonds and attachments, family or otherwise, meant nothing. His rationale was if they had no one to depend on, they had to depend on him, and that made them vulnerable."[11] By this time, he had already begun to give the message of his own "Christhood", proclaiming that he was "the Son of God, the Lamb who could open the Seven seals".[12]

Lois Roden died in 1986. Up until now Koresh had been teaching that monogamy was the only way to live, but suddenly announced that polygamy was allowed for him. In March 1986, Howell first slept with Karen Doyle, aged 14.[13] He claimed her as his second wife. In August 1986, Howell began secretly sleeping with Michele Jones, his wife's younger 12 year old sister. In September 1986 Koresh began to preach that he was entitled to 140 wives, sixty women as his "queens" and eighty as concubines, which he based upon his interpretation of the Biblical Song of Solomon.[14] Koresh then built up an entirely new theology around his "marriage" to Doyle. This theology was called the "New Light", with a doctrine of polygamy for himself, which he called "The House of David". According to this doctrine, Doyle was supposed to have a daughter named Shoshanna who would then be married to Koresh's firstborn son Cyrus. Doyle failed to conceive however, so Koresh then transferred his attention to his wife's sister. Former Davidian David Bunds said that Koresh's doctrine of polygamy "rose out of his deep desire to have sex with young girls. Once he was able to convince himself that it was God's will then he was able to be free of guilt and have sex with as many young girls as he could get his hands on."[15]

By late 1987, George Roden's support had withered. To regain it, he challenged Koresh to a contest to raise the dead, even digging up one corpse to practice on it. Koresh returned to Mount Carmel in camouflage, with seven armed followers. All but one - who managed to escape - were arrested by the local police who had been alerted by the sound of gunfire.[16] When deputy sheriffs arrived and ended the shoot-out, they found Koresh and six followers firing their rifles at Roden, who had already suffered a minor gunshot wound and was pinned down behind a tree at the Compound.[17] As a result of the incident, Koresh and his followers were charged with attempted murder. At the trial, Koresh testified that he went to Mount Carmel to uncover evidence of corpse abuse by George Roden. Koresh's followers were acquitted, and in Koresh's case a mistrial was declared.

In 1988 Roden murdered Dale Adair with an axe blow to the skull after Adair stated his belief that Koresh was the Messiah. Roden was convicted of murder and, as he owed thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, Mount Carmel was placed for sale. Koresh and his followers raised the money and purchased the property, which he subsequently renamed "Ranch Apocalypse".[18] A methamphetamine laboratory was discovered on the property, which Koresh reported to the local police department and asked to have removed.[19]

Name change
Koresh believed himself to be a modern-day Cyrus, who had delivered the Jews from Babylon. Koresh is the Hebrew word for "Cyrus". In the documentation involved, Koresh stated that the change was for "publicity and business purposes." The switch arose from his belief that he was now head of the biblical house of David, from which Judeo-Christian tradition maintains the Messiah will come. The name Koresh is a transliteration of the Hebrew name of Cyrus the Persian king who allowed the Jews who had been dispersed throughout Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar to return to their homelands. Both King David and Cyrus are referred to as Messiah (literally anointed one) in the Hebrew Bible (King David on several occasions, Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1), thus the names, "David" and "Koresh", Vernon Howell chose evidenced his belief that he too was an anointed one, a belief that stemmed from a vision he claimed to have received from God in 1985 during his trip to Israel. During the siege, Koresh would explain to the FBI negotiators that "koresh" had a deeper meaning:

Koresh: "What is Christ revealed as, according to the fourth seal?"
FBI: "Pale... a rider on a pale horse."
Koresh: "And his name is what?"
FBI: "Death."
Koresh: "Now, do you know what the name Koresh means?"
FBI: "Go ahead..."
Koresh: "It means death."[20]

Accusations of child abuse and statutory rape
Koresh advocated polygamy for himself, and asserted that he was married to several female residents of the small community.[21][22] Some former members of the cult also alleged that Koresh felt he could claim any of the females in the compound as his.[23][24] Evidently he fathered at least a dozen children by the harem.[25][26] Allegedly, his harem included girls as young as age 14.[27][28] The other adults at the compound were told by Koresh not to tell anyone else about this "because they wouldn't understand."[29]

The 1993 U.S. Department of Justice report sets out detailed evidence of historical child sexual and physical abuse. ATF Special Agent David Aguilera had interviewed former Branch Davidian Jeannine Bunds, who claimed that Koresh had fathered "...at least fifteen children with various women and young girls at the compound. Some of the girls who had babies fathered by Howell were as young as 12 years old. She had personally delivered 7 of these children. According to Ms. Bunds, Howell annuls all marriages of couples who join his cult. He then has exclusive sexual access to the women. He also, according to Mrs. Bunds, has regular sexual relations with young girls there. The girls ages are from 11 years old to adulthood.[30] In his book, James Tabor states that Koresh acknowledged on a videotape sent out of the compound during the standoff that he had fathered more than 12 children by several "wives", some of whom were as young as 12 or 13 when they became pregnant.[31] DNA testing of the women and children in the video who died in the subsequent fire confirmed that the children were his.[32] At the time, in Texas, the age of parental consent for a minor to marry was 14, as was the age for consent to sex. Kiri Jewell, daughter of Branch Davidian Sherri Jewell, claimed in testimony before Congress in 1995 that she was sexually molested at the age of 10 by Koresh, who then read to her from the Bible.[33] She originally related the incident in a 1992 custody battle, and the judge ordered that she be kept away from Koresh and Mount Carmel.[34] While conceding that Jewell's testimony may be "100 percent true", Schneider's attorney expressed doubts about her veracity.

Twenty-one children, aged from 5 months to 12 years, were released from Mount Carmel over a 3 day period at the beginning of the siege. These children were placed in the custody of the Child Protective Services and housed together in a single cottage. Over the next two months, these children were in the constant care of a multidisciplinary treatment team consisting of child care and mental health professionals from a variety of institutions and organizations, who carried out extensive evaluation and assessment. They concluded that the children had been raised in an abusive setting, and that Koresh's regime at Mount Carmel was clearly "a psychologically destructive environment for children."[35] Koresh deliberately undermined the traditional parent-child relationship and replaced it with a dependence upon a central figure, himself. The children related at various times that they had been instructed to call their natural parents "dogs" and to call Koresh "father." Children who were not biologically Koresh's or 'adopted' by Koresh were called "bastards." Koresh continuously undermined all relationships within the Branch Davidian community, including sibling relationships, husband and wife relationships, and friendships. Any attachment judged by Koresh to be more important to an individual than the dependence upon him or God was not tolerated. By 1992 the children were being taught to view Koresh as their father, and soon after they were taught that he was God.[36]

The children demonstrated inappropriate and age-inappropriate behaviors and significant gaps in general understanding, reflecting practices present in the compound. Very young children, including a six year old girl, knew an incredible amount about weapons, while they knew almost nothing about common age-appropriate concepts.[37]

The children were taught that Koresh's mission was to lead them into the final battle that would end the world and take them onto eternal glory. They used to chant: "We are soldiers in the army. We've got to fight. Some day we have to die. We have to hold up the blood-stained banner. We have to hold it up until we die."[38]

Child psychologists concluded that the children were significantly traumatized by previous harsh and inappropriate disciplinary techniques including severe corporal punishment, extended isolation and severe food restrictions. They were continually exposed to "harsh, capricious, and humiliating" disciplinary techniques.[39] Children, as young as 8 months, were beaten for trivial matters, and older children were beaten for not fighting hard enough in bouts arranged by Koresh between the children as part of their "paramilitary training". In the building where the children were first housed after leaving mount Carmel, one spotted the door to the basement:

"Do you have a whipping room down there?" she asked her new guardians. '"No, do you have one?" "Yes," said the little girl. "When they don't want everyone to hear us, they take us down there."[40]

The children were also threatened with death if they revealed aspects of life inside the compound to the "non-believers". As is typical when an abusive adult threatens a child, they were told that outsiders would not understand "our special ways". The children were convinced that Koresh would return from the grave and punish them if they betrayed the Davidians by interacting with, or disclosing information to, the "bad guys" (eg law enforcement and non-Davidians).[41][42]

TIME magazine cover, depicting the Waco Siege and David Koresh, May 3, 1993.Koresh was exploitive and manipulative of children and exposed them all to a variety of inappropriate sexual content - such as graphically describing intercourse and sexual technique in his hours-long sermons at which the children were present. Furthermore, the girls were socialized to believe that sex with Koresh, by age 11-12, was normal, appropriate, and desirable as part of "God's plan" as revealed to and by Koresh. All of the young girls were being prepared to be his wives and to view that as a healthy and desired position to be in. One of the older girls expressed distress, now that she had been released from the compound, that she would not be able to be picked by Koresh as one of his brides. Koresh created an environment which had "an unhealthy, malignant and predatory quality of sexuality", and all of the girls were 'groomed' for sexual activity at an early age.[43]

Several of the children mentioned dead babies, and stated that dead babies were kept in the freezer until they could be buried or burned. Amongst the children there was an ongoing secretive quality to these occasional allusions to births, dead babies, miscarriages, storage of dead babies in the freezer, burning bodies, a ceremony with a male baby underwater and other incomplete and unformed stories. When any of the children mentioned theses subjects, there was evidence of peer-group monitoring, group censoring and avoidance of disclosing any more information.[44]

Dr. Bruce D. Perry concluded that:
"The fact that the name of God and religion were used to obscure this exploitive and abusive practice make these activities even more heinous and destructive to the long term development of these children. The fact that responsible adults, either parents or 'academics', would minimize these activities is shameful. David Koresh systematically exploited the members of the Branch Davidian community, slowly but surely coercing that community to play out the tragic and destructive visions of his own disturbed inner world."[45]

Raid and siege
Waco Siege
On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) raided Mount Carmel. The raid resulted in the deaths of four agents and six Davidians. Shortly after the initial raid, the FBI took command of the federal operation and contact was established with Koresh inside the church. Communication over the next 51 days included telephone exchanges with various FBI negotiators.

As the standoff continued, Koresh, who was seriously injured by a gunshot wound, along with his closest male leaders negotiated delays, possibly so he could write religious documents he said he needed to complete before he surrendered. His conversations with the negotiators were dense with biblical imagery. The federal negotiators, for their part, treated the situation as a hostage crisis despite a two hour video tape sent out by the Davidians in which the adults and older children/teens appeared to explain clearly and confidently why they chose of their own free will to remain with David.

The 51-day siege of Mount Carmel ended when U.S Attorney General Janet Reno approved recommendations of veteran FBI officials to proceed with a final assault in which the Branch Davidians were to be removed from their building by force. In the course of the assault, the church building caught fire. The cause of the fire was later alleged by the "Danforth Report," a report commissioned by The Special Counsel, to be the deliberate actions of some of the Branch Davidians inside the building.[46]. However this hypothesis is disputed in the documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement," which argues that the fire was deliberately set when the FBI fired an incendiary device into the building after loading the building with CS gas, which is highly flammable.[1] At the subsequent trial of the surviving Branch Davidians, the jury listened to edited parts of a tape-recording from hidden microphones inside Mt. Carmel during the final attack and fire of 19 April. These consisted of sounds of static during which one could faintly hear a voice saying "...fire..." A government expert testified that through electronic enhancement, he had reconstructed some clearly incriminating comments, even if the jury couldn't hear them.[47] It later transpired that the FBI, when meeting Koresh's demands that milk be sent in for the children's wellbeing, also sent in tiny listening devices concealed inside the milk cartons and their styrofoam containers.[48].

Barricaded in their building, seventy-six Branch Davidians, including Koresh, did not survive the fire. Seventeen of these victims were children under the age of 12. The Danforth Report claims that those who died were unable, or unwilling, to flee and that Steve Schneider, Koresh's right-hand man, probably shot Koresh and killed himself with the same gun. "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" claims that FBI sharpshooters fired on, and killed, many Branch Davidians who attempted to flee the flames. Testimony by the few Branch Davidians who did successfully flee the fire supports this claim. Autopsy records indicate that at least 20 Branch Davidians were shot, including 5 children. The Danforth Report claims that the adults who died of gunshot wounds shot themselves after shooting the children.

David Koresh is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery, Tyler, Texas.

Branch Davidians believe that Koresh will someday return to Earth. Some hoped, based on Daniel 12:12, that this would occur 1,335 days after his death: December 14, 1996. The Hidden Manna faction believed that it would take place on August 6, 1999, then October 20, and now March 2012. Other survivors avoid date-setting.

Charles Manson

2007-03-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

Born November 12, 1934
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Charge(s) Murder
Conspiracy to commit murder
Penalty Life imprisonment
Status Incarcerated
Occupation Musician
Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934 as Charles Milles Maddox) was the founder and leader of the "Manson Family," a hippie cult he began in San Francisco in 1967.[1] He was convicted of having commanded certain members of his cult to commit the August, 1969, Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles. He is currently an inmate at Corcoran State Prison in California, having been denied parole 10 times.

Manson has spent most of his adult life in prison, initially for offenses such as car theft, forgery, credit card fraud and pimping. In the late 1960s, he migrated to California, wanting to become a musician; instead, he befriended some disenfranchised young people and began calling them his "family." He ordered them to carry out several murders, including that of movie actress Sharon Tate (wife of the Polish movie director Roman Polański). Tate was eight and a half months pregnant at the time. Manson was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. He is serving a life sentence but will be up for parole in 2007 at the age of 73. Manson has always maintained his non-involvement in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Manson was also friends with several notable musicians before the murders, including Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, and was a marginally successful musician who recorded several albums; his songs have since been covered by many artists.

Since his trial and conviction, Manson's name and image have been integrated into American pop culture, typically as a symbol of evil.[2]

Early life
Charles Milles Maddox was born at Cincinnati General Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 12, 1934 to a 16-year-old unwed girl named Kathleen Maddox. Shortly after her son's birth, Kathleen married William Manson, who provided the last name by which he is now known. William Manson was Charles' stepfather; by most accounts Manson did not know his biological father.

In 1939, his mother and his uncle, Luther Maddox, were convicted of sexual assault and holdup of a gas station. Luther served five years in the West Virginia State Penitentiary, dying there in 1949.

His mother was an alcoholic prostitute who (by Manson's account) sold him for a pitcher of beer. In and out of reform school as a youngster, he had a reported IQ of 109 and became a kind of institutional politician and manipulator by age 19.

From then on his continuous scrapes with the law landed him in prison. His record there described Manson as having "a tremendous drive to call attention to himself."[3]

Manson attended Walnut Hills High School as a child. When he was thirteen, his mother (who had become an alcoholic) attempted to put him in a foster home. When she was unable to find one for him, he ended up at Gibault School for Boys, a reform school in Terre Haute, Indiana. Within a year he ran away and back to his mother, who rejected him. He began living on the streets, supporting himself by petty theft; in 1951, after a string of arrests and escapes, Manson fled to California, where he was apprehended and placed in the National Training School for Boys in Washington, D.C., a Federal juvenile facility, for driving a stolen car across state lines. At least one psychiatrist there observed marked anti-social tendencies, and in that same year, Manson raped another boy. By 1952, Manson already had eight assault charges against him. After being transferred to the Federal Reformatory in Petersburg, Virginia, and later to Chillicothe, Ohio, Manson became a model inmate, resulting in his parole in 1954 at the age of 20. Following his release, however, he continued along a criminal path. His crimes quickly escalated to major offenses, including Mann Act violations. [Prior to the Tate-LaBianca murders, Manson had already spent more than half his life (approximately 17 years) in Federal prison — at one point in 1967 asking not to be released.] In January 1955, Manson married 17-year-old Rosalie Jean Willis, and decided to move to California. Soon after the wedding, Manson stole a car and was arrested. Willis became pregnant in April. Manson's parole was revoked in 1956 when he missed a court date. Soon after his arrest, Willis gave birth to their son, Charles Milles Manson, Jr. She then left town with a truck driver and Charles Jr. (Charles Jr. committed suicide in 1993.)

Manson's prison and probation reports showed a consistent theme:

(1950-52) "Tries to give the impression of trying hard although actually not putting forth any effort ...marked degree of rejection, instability and psychic trauma ... constantly striving for status ... a fairly slick institutionalized youth who has not given up in terms of securing some kind of love and affection from the world ... dangerous ... should not be trusted across the street ... assaultive tendencies ... safe only under supervision ... unpredictable ... in spite of his age he is criminally sophisticated and grossly unsuited for retention in an open reformatory type institution"; (1958-59) "Almost without exception [he] will let down anyone who went to bat for him ... an almost classic case of correctional institutional inmate ... a very difficult case and it is almost impossible to predict his future adjustment ... a very shaky probationer and it seems just a matter of time before he gets into further trouble."
Manson was paroled in 1958 after serving two years of a three-year sentence. In 1959, he was arrested again for passing stolen checks. Once again, he was given probation, which was revoked nine months later.

On June 1, 1960, Manson was arrested for solicitation of prostitution. He was ordered to serve his 10-year suspended sentence for passing stolen checks at the federal prison on McNeil Island in Washington state. While at McNeil, Manson was a cell mate of notorious 1930s bank robber Alvin Karpis who taught Manson to read music and to play the guitar. It is interesting what Karpis wrote about Manson in his memoirs "On the Rock: Twenty-five Years at Alcatraz" (written with Robert Livesey, published in 1980):

"This kid approaches me to request music lessons. He wants to learn guitar and become a music star. 'Little Charlie' is so lazy and shiftless, I doubt if he'll put the time required to learn. The youngster has been in institutions all of his life--first orphanages, then reformatories, and finally federal prison. His mother, a prostitute, was never around to look after him. I decide it's time someone did something for him, and to my surprise, he learns quickly. He has a pleasant voice and a pleasing personality, although he's unusually meek and mild for a convict. He never has a harsh word to say and is never involved in even an argument."
After Manson had become somewhat proficient on the guitar, he asked Karpis for help in getting a job playing in Las Vegas as Karpis had contacts with nightclub and casino owners there. Manson even told him he would be bigger than the Beatles, but in the end Karpis decided to leave Manson on his own regarding his music career. Manson was moved to a Los Angeles facility in 1967, a step which proved to be one of the most ominous prison transfers ever. Later Karpis added "The history of crime in the United States might have been considerably altered if 'Little Charlie' had been given the opportunity to find fame and fortune in the music industry."

Manson was finally released March 21, 1967, against his own expressed wish to remain in prison. While either in prison or on probation, he had stolen cars, pimped inmates, raped another inmate and forged federal checks. His prison reports continued with the same message:

(1961-62) "He hides his resentment and hostility behind a mask of superficial ingratiation ... even his cries for help represent a desire for attention with only superficial meaning"; (1964) "Pattern of instability continues...intense need to call attention to himself...fanatical interests"; then finally, (1966) "Manson is about to complete his ten-year term. He has a pattern of criminal behavior and confinement that dates to his teen years ... little can be expected in the way of change."
At 33 years old, he had spent more than half of his life in institutions and did not want freedom. "Oh, no, I can't go outside there...I knew that I couldn't adjust to that world," he said.

Manson started to attract a group of followers, many of whom were very young women with troubled emotional lives who were rebelling against their parents and society in general. This was the core of the Manson Family execution team whom he ordered to go to that address who happened along Sharon Tate, who was living there at the time (Manson knew the house as belonging to a man who rejected his record deal,Terry Melcher), killing Tate, her wealthy house guests, and the well-to-do LaBiancas, which was part of a plot by Manson to start a global race war.

The murders
The Manson Family was responsible for several murders, known collectively as the Tate-LaBianca murders.

The Tate murders
On the night of August 9, 1969, Manson directed some members of the Family, Charles "Tex" Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Linda Kasabian to go to the former residence of an acquaintance, record producer Terry Melcher, and kill whoever was on the premises.

They left their Spahn Ranch compound and arrived at midnight at the grounds of the Beverly Hills home of the film director Roman Polański and his wife Sharon Tate. Polański, highly acclaimed for his recent hit Rosemary's Baby, was in London working on his next film and had asked friends to stay with Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant. Before entering the house, the Manson family members shot dead Steven Parent, an 18-year-old friend of Tate's gardener, William Garretson, who was leaving the property and had seen the intruders while getting in his car. Kasabian, who was acting as the getaway driver, expressed horror at the murder of Parent and was told to remain outside and keep watch while the others entered the house.

The quotation, "I am the devil, and I have come to do the devil's work" has been attributed to Watson when Wojciech "Wojtek" Frykowski awoke from his slumber on the living room couch. They assembled the four occupants of the house into the living room. The intruders asked if anyone had money, and, in replying that she did, Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folgers Coffee Company, was led to her bedroom to empty her purse. She was led back to the living room where the four occupants of the house were tied together. Jay Sebring, a noted hairstylist and friend of the Polańskis was visiting, and when he attempted to defend Tate, he was shot by Watson, who then kicked him several times in the face.

Frykowski and Folger, who were staying in the house until Polański's return from London, were able to escape from the living room and were each pursued as they ran onto the front lawn. Quickly overtaken by the attackers, Frykowski was stabbed fifty-one times, shot twice. This was allegedly inspired by the Beatles song Piggies.

Linda Kasabian later received immunity for submitting evidence against the group. She told Manson, "I'm not you, Charlie. I can't kill anybody," and evinced shock and horror in court at finally seeing police photographs of the murdered victims.

The LaBianca murders
Main article: Leno LaBianca
The following night in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California, wealthy supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary were killed in their home, once again by members of the Family (Watson, Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten). On this occasion, Manson apparently went along to "show them how to do it" with less tumult, and pacified the victims, tying them up before returning to the car to tell his followers to commit the killings. Watson apparently killed Mr. LaBianca, and Krenwinkel and Van Houten took turns stabbing Mrs. LaBianca when she began to struggle. Between them, the two girls stabbed Mrs. LaBianca 41 times, including more than 20 stab wounds made after the woman was dead. Krenwinkel then added to the butchery, using a carving fork to cut the word "WAR" into Mr. LaBianca's chest. She then left the fork embedded in his stomach, soaking up some blood on a piece of paper and writing the phrases "RISE" and "DEATH TO PIGS" on the walls, as well as the misspelled "HEALTER SKELTER" on the refrigerator.

Other murders
Members of the Manson Family had previously been responsible for the death of Gary Hinman, a high school music teacher in nearby Topanga Canyon. Manson ordered the killing of Hinman after he denied the Manson Family money that Charles claimed Hinman owed them. Bobby Beausoleil was arrested for Hinman's murder a few days before the Tate slaying; later Susan Atkins confessed her part in the plot.

On August 16, 1969, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies descended upon Spahn Ranch and arrested Manson and most of the Family members on suspicion of auto theft (the Family were not, as yet, suspected of the Tate or LaBianca killings). Ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea offered to tell the deputies what he knew about the Family's activities, but disappeared before he could give them a statement. It is believed that on August 25 or 26, after the Family members were released due to lack of evidence, Manson directed Family members, including Steve "Clem Tufts" Grogan, to kill Shea. One of the enduring Family myths, presumably used to frighten members into submission, was that Shea was dismembered and his body parts buried in different places around the ranch. In 1977, the incarcerated and extremely remorseful Grogan directed law enforcement officials to Shea's body, and it was found in one piece, contrary to the horror story passed down through the Family. Grogan, who was paroled in 1985, is still the only former Family member to have been paroled after being convicted of a Manson-ordered murder.

Capture
Barker Ranch, on the outskirts of California's Death Valley, is known as the last hideout of Manson and his "family" after the gruesome Los Angeles murder spree. The local county sheriff's department and National Park Service officers had arrested Manson and his group in 1969 on suspicion of trespassing and vandalism. Some of the members of the organization were seen burning a mass of road-grading material and arson investigators suspected the crime to have come from Manson. At the time of the Manson arrests, the officers were unaware of other criminal actions by those they had in custody. They wanted to apprehend and prosecute the persons responsible for vandalizing road repair equipment in Death Valley National Park farther north, not knowing that they had Manson and his followers. Manson was ultimately discovered hiding beneath a sink in the Barker Ranch bathroom.

Possible motives
The murders initially seemed random, but some key motives were later identified:

Manson suffered from antisocial personality disorder, a disorder that makes the sufferer unable to feel remorse for their actions and lack a conscience.[citation needed]
Manson believed he exacted the work of The Book of the Law in instituting natural selection according to the principles of Aleister Crowley
Manson was hostile towards society; Manson got a "kick" out of death and control. During the trial, one witness commented that "he [Manson] doesn't know about love... love is not his trip. Death is his trip." When questioned, Manson replied, "My trip is that death is the greatest form of love."
Manson had been rejected by the music industry and wanted revenge. In 1968, Manson was introduced to record producer Terry Melcher, son of actress Doris Day, by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, who had picked up a couple of the Family members as they were hitchhiking. Manson and the Family moved into Wilson's house, where they lived for a year, and the Beach Boys recorded a song Manson wrote, calling it 'Never Learn Not to Love.' At the time, Melcher and his girlfriend, actress Candice Bergen, were living at the Tate house, and it was there Manson met him. Manson auditioned for Melcher, but Melcher decided not to sign him to a contract. Although Manson knew that Melcher and Bergen had moved to Malibu, Bugliosi suggested that Manson targeted the house because it represented his rejection by the show business community he wanted to enter, and that it was of no interest to him who his actual victims would be. It has also been rumored that Manson unsuccessfully auditioned for the Monkees, but this is an urban legend as he was in prison at the time of the auditions in 1965-66.
The killers were attempting to clear the blame from Bobby Beausoleil, who had been arrested a few days earlier as a suspect in the Gary Hinman murder. This was a motive stated by the killers during interviews with them, featured in a 1972 Manson film documentary. They claimed that the motive for the murders was to clear fellow Family member Bobby Beausoleil, whom they described as a brother to them. Stating that they were willing to sacrifice their lives, (meaning the death penalty) to clear his name, they committed copycat murders to cast doubt on Beausoleil's guilt. This motive was substantially discredited during the penalty phase of the trial, where it became apparent that the "free Beausoleil" motive was contradicted by other testimony of the killers. Additionally, despite declaring they would die for Manson, the other people accused claim to have waited until the main trial was over and the death penalty was being discussed, and then only on redirect examination, to introduce this as a motive. It was dismissed by the prosecution as an attempt to clear Manson by means of the other defendants taking the blame.
Manson regarded as foretold, by The Beatles, on The White Album,[1] an apocalyptic war of which he was destined to be both the uncanny cause and the ultimate beneficiary.[2] When, by his music, he (Manson) would have drawn to him the young, white female hippies of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, black men, thus deprived of the white women whom the political changes of the 1960s had made sexually available to them, would be without an outlet for their frustrations and would lash out in violent crimes against whites.[3] After a resultant murderous rampage against blacks by frightened whites would have been exploited by the Black Muslims to trigger a war of mutual near-extermination between racist and non-racist whites over the treatment of blacks, the Black Muslims would arise to finish off sneakily the few whites they would know to have survived. In this epic sequence of events, which Manson told his followers would take place in the summer of 1969 and which he termed Helter Skelter, after the White Album track of that name, the Family had little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city that was underneath California's Death Valley and that they would reach through a hole in the ground. As the actual remaining whites upon the war's true conclusion, they would emerge from underground to rule the now-satisfied blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world; Manson "would scratch [the black man's] fuzzy head and kick him in the butt and tell him to go pick the cotton and go be a good nigger." Laid out by Manson repeatedly, this scenario became such a part of the Family members’ communal belief that they stocked up supplies and searched for the hole in the ground before the crimes were conceived; but by mid-1969, Manson was heard to say blacks did not know how to start the events. He would have to show them.
In a series of books chronicling his life as an FBI agent, John Douglas submitted the theory that Manson really was innocent of plotting the initial set of murders. Douglas, who spent significant time interviewing Manson during his time as a special agent, believes that initially, Manson's sole goal in leading "The Family" was to live out the rest of his days as an isolated demi-god ruling over a group of impressionable young people who would do his bidding. In order to ensure that they remained loyal to him, Manson convinced them that he really was a deistic figure who would protect them during the coming Armageddon and rule over them in a peaceful society afterwards. Douglas' theory goes on to state that Manson's followers took his prophesying more literally than intended and carried out the Sharon Tate murders in order to spark Armageddon. According to Douglas, once Manson learned about the Tate murders, he felt he had no choice but to act as if he were still in control and go along with the LaBianca killings in order to protect his image and prevent his followers from turning on him.
In the trial, the prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, placed Helter Skelter as the main motive. [4] Evidence included testimony that, on the night of the LaBianca murders, Manson considered discarding on the street a wallet he apparently obtained in the LaBianca house; he "wanted a black person to pick it up and use the credit cards so that the people, the establishment would think it was some sort of an organized group that killed these people." [5]

Investigation and trial
The two cases were not well investigated by police, principally due to rivalries between the Tate team (older) and the La Bianca team (younger): the Tate team were not open to suggestions that the two cases were connected. As a result of this, Bugliosi himself played a significant and active role in gathering the evidence needed to convict.

Ronald Hughes, a young lawyer with an extensive knowledge of 1960s counterculture but no trial experience, was the final state-appointed attorney for defendants Manson and Van Houten (several other attorneys were appointed and then dismissed during the trial). He suggested to Manson that he should obtain a different attorney for himself, Irving Kanarek, and continued to defend Van Houten, apparently feeling that he could defend Van Houten more effectively. He hoped to show that Van Houten was acting under the influence of Manson, and to portray Manson as controlling her actions. This may have cost Hughes his life. In late November 1970, Hughes went camping near Sespe Hot Springs. He disappeared, and his decomposed body was discovered four months later. It is thought that other members of the Family killed him in reprisal for impugning Manson in court. One member of the Family described this as "the first of the retaliation killings".

During the trial, Manson and his followers courted media attention. Manson appeared at the trial with an "X" he had carved into his forehead with a knife. This was copied by his followers the next day. The pattern was modified several times and copied by his followers each time. Eventually the pattern was turned into a swastika and is now a permanent scar. At one point during the trial, Manson shaved his head, his followers again mimicking. The defendants, acting in concert with each other, deliberately disrupted the proceedings to the point where Judge Charles Older had them removed from the courtroom on several occasions. A monitor system was rigged up in the lockup so that the defendants could follow the proceedings. On several occasions, Manson verbally threatened both the judge and prosecutor Bugliosi in court, and at one point attempted to physically attack the judge. The defendants eventually became so disruptive that Judge Older banned them from the courtroom altogether.

Manson's followers tried to dissuade an estranged follower, Barbara Hoyt, from testifying against Manson at the trial by giving her a free trip to Hawaii - and a hamburger laced with LSD once she arrived there (the conspirators were under the mistaken belief that an LSD overdose was fatal). Hoyt was found in a drugged semi-stupor on a street near a Honolulu beach, hospitalized, and identified herself as a witness in the Tate-LaBianca trial once she recovered from her LSD trip. The involuntary overdose ultimately made Hoyt an even stronger witness for the prosecution, and she testified about Family discussions about the murders.

Although Manson himself was not present at the Tate/La Bianca killings, he was convicted on seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder on January 25, 1971, for ordering and directing them, and on March 29, 1971 was sentenced to death. Atkins and Krenwinkel were convicted on the same counts, as was Watson (who was tried separately from the others due to extradition problems), and Van Houten was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy. Some members of Manson's "Family" have claimed that the killers tried to implicate Manson in order to appear less guilty themselves. The death sentence was automatically commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court, in its decision in California v. Anderson 64 Cal.2d 633, 414 P.2d 366, (Cal. 1972), resulted in the invalidation of all pending death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972. The killers, giggling in court, were asked if they felt remorse, and gave answers that indicated they did not.

Aftermath
On March 6, 1970, Manson released an album titled Lie: The Love & Terror Cult to help finance his defense. The album was put out by ESP Records and included the song that had previously been recorded by the Beach Boys.

The Family survived the incarceration of Manson. After his arrest, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, one of Manson's shrewdest, toughest and most obedient followers, effectively took command of the management of the Family in his absence. With a handful of other followers, mostly women, she perched on the steps of the Los Angeles courthouse during the trial, shaved her head to protest his conviction and, copying Manson, gouged an X into her forehead as a sign of loyalty. She later explained: "We have X'ed ourselves out of this world." In 1970 the Charles Manson family recorded an album titled The Family Jams of songs written by Manson, although he didn't appear on the album.

On November 13, 1972, Michael Monfort, James Craig, Priscilla Cooper, Nancy Laura Pitman and Lynnette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme were held for the murder of James T. Willett and his wife.

By 1974, the original Manson "family" had dwindled to only Fromme and Sandra Good. Motivated by Manson's new ideology, they sent a series of threatening letters to heads of corporations, making threats unless they stopped polluting the environment.

On September 5, 1975, Fromme unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate US President Gerald Ford in Sacramento [6]. It appears that, although she managed to get close to Ford, by mistake the chamber of her Colt .45 pistol was empty. She was heard to say, "It didn't go off. Can you believe it? It didn't go off!" She stated she had committed the crime so that Manson would appear as a witness at her trial, and thus have a worldwide platform from which to talk about his apocalyptic vision. She escaped from prison in December 1987, apparently to try to reach Manson, but was recaptured two days later.

Manson gave two notable interviews in the 1980s: the first on June 13, 1981 at California Medical Facility by Tom Snyder for NBC's The Tomorrow Show, and the second at San Quentin Prison by Charlie Rose for CBS News Nightwatch (aired March 7, 1986). Rose's interview won the national news Emmy Award for "Best Interview" in 1987. [7]

Manson is currently incarcerated in California's Corcoran State Prison. His CDC inmate number is B33920. All of his applications for parole have been denied, most notably in 1986 when he appeared before the parole board with a swastika evident on his forehead. He is known for his theatrics when given the opportunity to appear in the media, and in one taped parole hearing said he wanted to go to the moon. He has been overheard in conversations with at least one of his former "Family" members saying that it doesn't matter what he says or does because he knows he will be kept in prison for the rest of his life, implying that at least some of his fanatical behavior is deliberate. During his imprisonment, Manson has received more mail than any other prisoner in the United States prison system. It is said that he gets over 50,000 pieces of mail a year–a combination of fan mail, hate mail, and mail from curiosity-seekers.

In January 2000, Manson was publishing messages on a now-defunct website run by Manson followers George Stimson and Sandra Good.

Parole hearings
Manson was entitled to a parole hearing in 2002, and was denied early release, in particular due to a "litany" of offenses ranging from drug trafficking to arson to assaulting guards. He is next eligible for parole in 2007.

Fromme, eligible for parole since 1985 following the 1975 incident, has consistently waived her right to a hearing.

Covers and tributes
The aptly named Italian record label Helter Skelter Records released the compilation Comin' Down Fast! : a gathering of garbage, lies and reflections on Charles Manson on CD and 10" vinyl in 1993, with contributions by David Peel & The Lower East Side, Motorpsycho, Starfuckers, Eugene Chadbourne, Jesus Fuck & Da Murderers, Controlled Bleeding, Skullflower and others.
Sonic Boom and Frank Kozik issued a 7" single on Sympathy for the Record Industry in 1994, featuring two different versions of Manson's song "Mechanical Man", one side with vocals by Kozic, the other side with vocals by Sonic, who also plays all instruments on both sides.
The compilation cassette Watching Satan : the legacy of Charles Manson : a 90 minute slice of modern folklore, released by Hypertonia World Enterprises, included covers and tributes by Seedjoy, Charles Rice Goff III, Abrahadabra, Sinister Attraction, Hope Organ, Anton Balsam, Squidbelly Phlegmfoot & The Plug Uglies, Neither/Neither World, ZBZ, The A.A. Experience, The Bill Jones Show, Plastic Eye Miracle, Geoff X. Alexander, GG Allin, Las Animas, The Arnold Incorporated, Dr. Maya, Anus Presley, David Barnes, Lord Litter and The Apostles.
The band Alkaline Trio, released a song on their album Crimson called "Sadie" about Susan Atkins, a murderer in the Charles Manson family who took part in the Sharon Tate murders in 1969.
In 1976, Throbbing Gristle made a film entitled "After Cease To Exist", inspired by a Manson song title
In 1982, Boston hardcore punk band Negative FX featured a picture of Charles Manson, with their logo digitally "carved" into his head, on their self-titled LP. It also featured pictures of Manson family members on the back.
Since 2003, a Orange county NY based Noise-punk band known as "Sparrows with Machine-guns" has done a cover of "Home is Where You're Happy" at live gigs only. They plan to record the cover for a 2007 full length album.
Sonic Youth, in cooperation with director Richard Kern, produced a video clip for their song "Death Valley '69," in which some of the band members acted out gory scenes reminiscent of the Tate/LaBianca murders.
In 2002, Dilute did a cover version of "Home is Where You're Happy" on If The Twenty-First Century Didn't Exist It Would Be Necessary To Invent It CD (5 Rue Christine [8])
Neo-psychedelica band The Brian Jonestown Massacre references the life of Manson in their songs "Arkansas Revisited" and "The Ballad of Jim Jones".
UK underground electronic music pioneers, Cabaret Voltaire, used Manson's voice from various radio interviews, which they used in their tracks "Hell's Home", "Kickback" and "Golden Halos" featured on their album "The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord" released in 1985.
System of a Down wrote the song "ATWA" on their Toxicity album about the media's viewpoints on Manson. (ATWA is an acronym used by Manson, meaning both "Air-Trees-Water-Animals" and "all the way alive.").
Ozzy Osbourne recorded "Bloodbath in Paradise" on his No Rest for the Wicked album about the California murders.
The music video for "Gave Up" by Nine Inch Nails was shot entirely at 10050 Cielo Drive in the summer of 1993 when their lead singer, Trent Reznor, had leased the property in Benedict Canyon from Rudi Altobelli. In the video, the song was performed in the living room of the main house, with the exterior of the house and grounds shown at the beginning and the end. Among the performers was a young Marilyn Manson, who gave Reznor the idea, and who also shot a video at Cielo. Reznor claimed to have no knowledge of the slaughter that took place at the house before moving in, and coincidentally he dubbed the studio "Le Pig", and recorded the album The Downward Spiral there, on which two of the tracks were named "Piggy" and "March of the Pigs".
In 1969, months prior to the Tate-LaBianca murders, The Beach Boys covered "Cease to Exist", retitling it "Never Learn Not to Love" and releasing it on the album 20/20 (with sole songwriting credit given to Dennis Wilson).
John Moran and Iggy Pop collaborated on The Manson Family: An Opera, which was produced by Philip Glass.
Crispin Glover performs a cover of "Always is Always Forever" on his album "The Big Problem"
Devendra Banhart covers "Home Is Where You're Happy" as a part of a medley with Lauryn Hill's Doo Wop (That Thing). He performed it at Bonnaroo and the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2006.
Guns N' Roses covered the Manson song "Look At Your Game Girl" on their album "The Spaghetti Incident?". The song does not appear on the track listings of the CD; it is a "secret song" that plays at the end of the last track. At the end of the song Axl thanks Manson, stating "thanks Chaz".
Skinny Puppy have used samples of Manson speaking and singing The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" (as well as samples of the actual song) in their song, "Worlock," from 1989's Rabies. Samples of Manson speaking can also be heard on "Convulsion," from 1990's Too Dark Park Members of Skinny Puppy (as Download) also recorded a soundtrack for the Jim Van Bebber film Charlie's Family (a.k.a. The Manson Family).
Hip Hop duo 'Heltah Skeltah', a break off from The Boot Camp Clik - share the same name as the infamous 'Manson Family' murder signature.
Cleveland, Ohio-based alternative metal band Mushroomhead references Manson in the song "Bwomp" off of their sophomore album "Superbuick". They say throughout the song, "If it was up to me, I'd free Charles Manson".
The British band Kasabian takes its name from Linda Kasabian, getaway driver and member of the Manson Family.
Argentine rock band Babasónicos have a song titled "Sharon Tate", after the actress murdered by Charles Manson and his followers, in their 1999 album Miami.
Neil Young's 1974 album On the Beach included a song Young had written from Manson's point of view titled "Revolution Blues". Young had met Manson while living in Topanga Canyon.
American skinhead band People Haters recorded a song "Charlie Manson´s eyes" for their 1995 released debut cd "A collection of hate".
The Acacia Strain sample Manson saying "Believe me, if I started murdering people, there'd be none of you left" in their song Passing the Pencil Test off of the album 3750
Negativland's 1989 album Helter Stupid sampled interviews with Manson during the title cut.
Gothic metal band Paradise Lost inlcuded a sample of Manson's voice from the British television commentary in "Forever Failure", a track from the album Draconian Times.
Pantera, An American heavy metal band, makes a reference to Manson by including his quote, "No sense makes sense" in the lyrics to the song "Uplift".
Superjoint Ritual, A heavy metal band led by Pantera's Phil Anselmo, mentions Charles Manson in their song "Dress Like A Target" stating "we're not hippies, we're slippys. Like the Manson Family". Their song "Creepy Crawl" is entirely about Manson, and the title of the song refers to Charlie's petname for breaking-and-entering.
Dragonland's song "Calling my Name" off of their 2004 album Starfall contains several clips of Manson, including the line "Believe me, if I started murdering people, there'd be none of you left".

Pop culture references and parodies
Marilyn Manson derived his stage name from the names of Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson.
Death Rap artist Necro utilizes the image and voice of Charles Manson quite frequently in his work. He is also known to reference the Tate-La Bianca murders on many of his songs. Most notably, the album The Pre-Fix For Death features an intro by Manson himself, whose presence is maintained throughout the whole of the album.
The Tate-La Bianca Murders have been dramatized in movies several times, most notably in 1976's Helter Skelter, starring Steve Railsback as Manson, and its 2004 TV movie remake, which starred Jeremy Davies as Manson, Bruno Kirby as Bugliosi, and Clea DuVall as Kasabian.
Manson appeared as a cartoon character in a South Park episode, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!", in which Manson returns to jail willingly after seeing several Christmas specials. He is also the only character in the episode to show concern over the death of Kenny.
Hardcore Rap N.W.A. Ice Cube lyrics refers Manson's name quote with a murder rate like Charles Manson on NWA's Straight outta Compton.
A lyrical passage in the heavy metal band Mushroomhead song "Bwomp" from their album 2001 album, "XX," says "If it was up to me, I'd free Charles Manson."
In the early nineties, The Ben Stiller Show filmed a mock episode of Lassie entitled "Manson," in which Charles Manson is portrayed as the family dog, and goes on to save Timmy from a snake bite down at the creek.
Also on The Ben Stiller Show, Manson was portrayed by comedian Bob Odenkirk.
American Death Metal Band Deicide, wrote the song "Lunatic of God's Creation" about the Charles Manson Murders.
Although the names were changed a movie about the Manson Murders was made called Live Freaky, Die Freaky. Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day played Charles Manson. Other punk rock icons were also parts in the movie as well.
In the episode "Tech Support" of the online cartoon Neurotically Yours, the character Foamy the Squirrel refers to his computer being "...as unstable as Charles Manson."
Family Guy briefly show him in a cutaway watching T.V. in jail
At the beginning of the U2 cover of Helter Skelter on the Rattle and Hum album, Bono says "This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. We're stealing it back."
In the movie Natural Born Killers, Manson is referred to as 'the king' by the serial killer character Mickey Knox.
The 3tards have a picture of Charles Manson in there logo with the words "Call me crazy but I love the 3tards" written under it.
For his 1974 album On the Beach, Neil Young wrote Revolution Blues through the eyes of a character inspired by Manson, whom Young had met in his Topanga Canyon days.
At the end of Thank You for Smoking, character Nick Naylor states, "Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk."
In the cartoon show, Futurama, when Bender gets bit by a were-car and they find out who made the original were-car, it was said that they took a part of Charles Manson's hippie van.
In the movie Liar, Liar, Jim Carey insists that the Judge's decision regarding custody of the children is a mistake and yells at him by saying "...Well maybe you can explain that to [the children] when they're adopted by the Manson Family!"

Ted Bundy

2007-03-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

1975 Utah mug shot

Born November 24, 1946
Burlington, Vermont, USA
Died January 24, 1989
Raiford, Florida, USA
Charge(s) Murder, Kidnapping
Penalty Capital punishment
Spouse Carole Ann Boone (divorced)
Parents Eleanor Louise Cowell
John Culpepper Bundy (father by adoption)
Children One daughter - Oct. 1982
Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy (November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history. Bundy raped and murdered scores of young women across the United States between 1974 and 1978. His total number of victims remains unknown to this day. After more than a decade of vigorous denials, Bundy eventually confessed to over 40 murders.

Bundy is believed to have been a sociopath. He is usually described as an educated and charming young man despite the brutality of his crimes. Typically, he raped then murdered, or murdered then raped, young women and girls by bludgeoning them, and sometimes by strangulation.

Early life
Ted Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont on Nov. 24, 1946, at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. The identity of Ted's father remains a mystery. Bundy's birth certificate lists a "Lloyd Marshall."[1] Louise Bundy, Ted's mother, would tell a tale of being seduced by a war veteran named "Jack Worthington". However, Bundy's family disbelieved this story, and expressed suspicion about Louise's violent, abusive father, Samuel Cowell.[2] To avoid social stigma, Bundy's grandparents claimed Ted as their son, believing his mother to be his older sister, and the boy with the name of Theodore Robert Cowell. Bundy would not learn the truth about his parentage until he was in high school.[3]

For the first few years of his life, Bundy and his mother lived in Philadelphia with his maternal grandparents. In 1950, Ted and his "sister" moved to live with relatives in Tacoma, Washington. Louise, possibly in an effort to obscure her son's illegitimacy, had his name changed to Theodore Robert Nelson.[4] In 1951, one year after their relocation, Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy at an adult single's night held at Tacoma's First Methodist Church.[5] A Navy veteran and cook at a local Veteran's Administration hospital, Bundy was eligible and lonely much like single mother Louise. In May of that year, Johnny and Louise were married and soon thereafter Johnny willingly adopted Ted, legally changing his last name to "Bundy".

In time, the Bundy family grew to add four more children, whom Ted spent much of his free time babysitting. Attempting to form a bond between himself and Ted, Johnny Bundy tried to include him in camping trips and other father-son activities, much to Ted's dismay. Ted showed his disinterest by remaining emotionally detached from his stepfather. In Ted's mind, he felt more like a Cowell than a Bundy and saw Johnny and the rest of the Bundy clan as beneath him. Ted became increasingly uncomfortable around his stepfather and made it clear that he preferred to be alone.[6] Much speculation has been placed on Bundy's early formative years, though little is definitively known. It is known that Ted was a good student at Woodrow Wilson High School, and was active in a local Methodist Church serving as vice president of the Methodist Youth Fellowship. He was involved with a local chapter of the Boy Scouts.

Socially Ted remained shy and introverted throughout most of his high school and early college years. He would later say that he "hit a wall" in high school; suddenly Ted was unable to understand social behavior, and his social development ceased.[7] He maintained a facade of social activity, but he had no natural sense of how to get along with other people, as he told Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, authors of The Only Living Witness: "I didn't know what made things tick. I didn't know what made people want to be friends. I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions."[8]

Before he was even out of high school Ted was a compulsive thief, a shoplifter, and on his way to becoming an amateur criminal.[9] To support his love of skiing, Bundy stole skis and equipment and forged ski-lift tickets.[10] He was arrested twice as a juvenile, though these records were later expunged.

Bundy described the part of himself that, from a young age, was fascinated by images of sex and violence as "the entity," and kept it very well hidden. Later, friends and acquaintances would remember a handsome, articulate young man. While a college student, he worked as a volunteer at a Seattle suicide crisis center, alongside fledgling crime reporter Ann Rule. Ironically, Rule would go on to write the most famous biography of Bundy and his crimes, The Stranger Beside Me.[11]

Bundy had one serious relationship with a fellow college student named "Stephanie Brooks" (pseudonym), whom he met while enrolled at the University of Washington in 1967. Following her 1968 graduation and return to her family home in California, Stephanie ended the relationship. Fed up with what she described as Bundy's immaturity and lack of ambition, they separated, although Ted obsessively stayed in touch with her through letters.[12] It was at this time that Ted decided to make a trip to Burlington, Vermont, the place of his birth. Making a visit to the local records clerk in Burlington, Ted finally discovered the truth of his parentage in 1969. Although it is unclear what impact this discovery had on Ted emotionally, it is clear that following his return from Vermont he began to treat Johnny Bundy with more obvious disdain.[13]

After his "discovery", Ted became a more focused and dominant character. He re-enrolled at the University of Washington, this time with a major in psychology, a subject he proved to excel in. Bundy became an honors student and was well liked by his professors at the university.[14] In 1969 he started dating Elizabeth Kendall (pseudonym), a quiet and shy divorced secretary who fell deeply in love with Bundy.[15] Liz and Ted would continue dating for over six years, until he went to prison for kidnapping in 1976.

Bundy graduated in 1972 from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology, a study choice motivated in part by his confusion about his own abberant personality[16], and soon afterward, he began working for the state Republican Party. While on a business trip to California in the summer 1973, Bundy came back into Stephanie's life with a new look and attitude; this time as a serious, dedicated professional who had been accepted to law school. Bundy continued to date Liz as well, and neither woman was aware the other existed. Bundy courted Stephanie once more throughout the rest of the year, and she happily accepted his proposal of marriage. Two weeks later, however, he unceremoniously dumped her, refusing to return her phone calls. He would later dismiss the proposal and break-up as part of a challenge he undertook, saying "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could have her." It was a few weeks after this breakup that Bundy went on his murderous rampage in Washington state.[17][18]

First wave of murders
One of the many unsolved mysteries regarding Ted Bundy is when he began to kill. Many Bundy experts, including Rule and former King County detective Robert D. Keppel, believe Bundy may have started killing as far back as his early teens: an eight-year-old girl from Tacoma, Ann Marie Burr, vanished from her home three miles from Bundy's house one summer night in 1961, when Bundy was 14. Shortly before his execution, however, Bundy denied killing Burr.[19] When talking to his lawyer the day before his execution, Bundy said that his first attempt to kidnap a woman was in 1969[20], and implied that his first actual murder was sometime in the 1972-73 time frame[21]. His earliest known, confirmed murders were committed in 1974, when he was 27.

Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974, Bundy entered the basement bedroom of 18-year-old Joni Lenz (pseudonym) , a dancer and student at the University of Washington. Bundy bludgeoned her with a metal rod from her bedframe while she slept, and sexually assaulted her with a speculum.[22] Lenz was found the next morning by her roommates in a coma and lying in a pool of her own blood. She survived the attack, but suffered permanent brain damage.

Bundy's next victim was Lynda Ann Healy, another University of Washington student. On the night of January 31, 1974, Bundy broke into Healy's room, knocked her unconscious, dressed her in jeans and a shirt, wrapped her in a bed sheet, and carried her away. On March 12, 1974 in Olympia, Bundy kidnapped and murdered Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year old student at The Evergreen State College, She was last seen walking to an on-campus jazz concert. On April 17, Susan Rancourt disappeared from the campus of Central Washington State College in Ellensburg. Later, two different CWSC co-eds would recount meeting a man with his arm in a cast — one that night, one three nights earlier — who asked for their help to carry a load of books to his Volkswagen.[23][24][25] Next was Kathy Parks, last seen on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis on May 6. (Oregon State is approximately 250 miles away from the scene of the Washington murders. Consequently, detectives for some time were unsure if they should class Parks with the other disappearances.) Brenda Ball was never seen again after leaving The Flame Tavern in Burien, Washington on June 1. Bundy then murdered Georgeann Hawkins, a student at the University of Washington and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, an on-campus sorority. In the early morning hours of June 11, 1974, she walked through an alley from her boyfriend's dormitory residence to her sorority house. Hawkins was never seen again. Witnesses later told of seeing a man with a leg cast struggling to carry a briefcase in the area that night.[26] One co-ed reported that the man had asked her help in carrying the briefcase to his car.

Bundy's Washington killing spree culminated on July 14 with the abduction in broad daylight of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington. Eight different people that day told the police about the handsome young man with his left arm in a sling who called himself "Ted". Five of them were women that "Ted" asked for help unloading a sailboat from his Volkswagen Beetle. One of them accompanied "Ted" as far as his car, where there was no sailboat, before declining to accompany him further. Three more witnesses testified to seeing him approach Janice Ott with the story about the sailboat, and to seeing Ott walk away from the beach, with her bicycle, and in his company. She was never seen alive again.[28] King County detectives were able to get a description both of the suspect and his tan Volkswagen Beetle. Some witnesses told investigators that the "Ted" they encountered spoke with a clipped, Canadian-like accent. From the witnesses police obtained descriptions of the man and his Volkswagen, and soon fliers were up all over the Seattle area. After seeing the police sketch and description of the Lake Sammamish suspect in both of the local newspapers and on television news reports, Bundy's girlfriend Liz Kendall, one of his psychology professors at UW, and former co-worker Ann Rule[29] all reported him as a possible suspect,[30] but the police, receiving up to 200 tips per day,[31] did not pay any special attention to a tip about a clean-cut law student.

The fragmented remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund were discovered on September 7, off Intersate 90 near Issaquah, one mile from the park.[32] Along with the women's remains was found an extra femur bone and vertebrae, which Bundy shortly before his execution would identify as that of Georgeann Hawkins.[33] On March 2, 1975, the skulls and jawbones (and no other skeletal remains) of Healy, Rancourt, Parks and Ball were found on Taylor Mountain just east of Issaquah.[34] Because Ball was not a college student and had disappeared from a bar rather than a campus, investigators had not initially believed her to be one of the "Ted" victims. Later, they would discover that she had been seen dancing at the Flame on the night of her disappearance with a man that matched the "Ted" description, including the sling on his arm.[35] Years later Bundy claimed that he had also dumped the body of Donna Manson there, but no trace of her has ever been found.

Second wave of murders
Bundy smiles for the cameras and pleads "Not Guilty" during a press conference announcing his indictment on first degree murder chargesThat autumn, Bundy moved to Utah to attend law school in Salt Lake City, where he resumed killing in October. Nancy Wilcox disappeared from Holladay, near Salt Lake City, Utah on October 2. Wilcox was last seen riding in a Volkswagen Beetle.[36] On October 18, Bundy murdered Melissa Smith, the 17-year-old daughter of Midvale police chief Louis Smith. Bundy raped, sodomized, and strangled her. Her body was found nine days later. Next was Laura Aime, also 17, who disappeared when she left a Halloween party in Lehi, Utah on October 31, 1974. Her remains were found nearly a month later by hikers on Thanksgiving Day, on the banks of a river in American Fork Canyon. She was found naked, beaten beyond recognition, sodomized, and strangled with her own sock. While in prison awaiting execution, Bundy confessed that he murdered an anonymous hitchiker whom he had picked up outside of Boise, Idaho, in the autumn of 1974, noting that he later dumped her body in a river. Prior to his confession, this murder had never been linked to him.

In Murray, Utah, on November 8, 1974, Carol DaRonch narrowly escaped with her life. Claiming to be Officer Roseland of the Murray Police Department, Bundy approached DaRonch at a mall, told her someone had tried to break into her car, and asked her to accompany him to the police station. She got into his car (but refused his instruction to buckle her seat belt), and they drove for a short period before Bundy suddenly pulled to the shoulder and attempted to slap a pair of handcuffs on her. In the struggle, he fastened both loops to the same wrist. Bundy then whipped out his crowbar, but DaRonch caught it in the air just before it would have cracked her skull. She then managed to get the door open and tumble out onto the highway, thus escaping from her would-be killer.[37]

About an hour later, a strange man showed up at Viewmont High School in Bountiful, Utah, where the drama club was putting on a play. He approached drama teacher Raelynne Shepard several times, eventually asking her to go out to the parking lot to identify a car. Shepard declined. The man asked another student in attendance, Katherine Ricks, to come out to the parking lot and help him fix his car. Ricks also declined. Shepard would see the man again shortly before the end of the play, this time breathing hard, with his hair mussed and his shirt untucked. Another student, Tamara Tingley, would see the man lurking in the rear of the auditorium. Debra Kent, a 17-year-old Viewmont High student, left the play at intermission to go pick up her brother, and was never seen again. [38] Later, investigators found a key in the parking lot outside Viewmont High. It unlocked the cuffs taken off of Carol DaRonch.[39]

In 1975, while still attending law school at the University of Utah, Bundy shifted his crimes to Colorado. On January 12, Caryn Campbell disappeared from the Wildwood Inn at Snowmass, Colorado, where she had been vacationing with her fiancée and his children. She vanished somewhere in a span of fifty feet between the elevator doors and her room. Her body was found on February 17.[40] Next, Vail ski instructor Julie Cunningham disappeared on March 15, and Denise Oliverson on April 6. While in prison, Bundy confessed to Colorado investigators that he used crutches to approach Cunningham, after asking her to help him carry some ski boots to his car. At the car, Bundy clubbed her with his crowbar and incapacitated her with handcuffs, later strangling her in a crime highly similar to the Georgeann Hawkins murder.[41]

Lynette Culver went missing in Pocatello, Idaho on May 6 from the grounds of her junior high school. While on Death Row, Bundy later confessed that he kidnapped Culver and had taken the girl to a room he had rented at a nearby Holiday Inn. After raping her, he stated that he had drowned her in the motel room bathtub and later dumped her body in a river. After his return to Utah, Susan Curtis vanished on June 28. (Bundy confessed to the Curtis murder minutes before his execution.)[42] The bodies of Cunningham, Culver, Curtis and Oliverson have never been recovered.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, investigators were attempting to prioritize their enormous list of suspects and, in an innovative use of technology for 1975, using computers to cross-check different likely lists of suspects (classmates of Lynda Healy, owners of Volkswagens, etc.) against each other, and then identify suspects who turned up on more than one list. "Theodore Robert Bundy" was one of 25 people who turned up on four separate lists, and his case file was second on the To Be Investigated pile when the call came from Utah of an arrest. [43]

Arrest, first trial, and escapes
Bundy was arrested on August 16, 1975, in Salt Lake City, for failure to stop for a police officer. A search of his car revealed a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, an icepick, and other items that were thought by the police to be burglary tools. Bundy remained cool during questioning, explaining that he needed the mask for skiing and had found the handcuffs in a dumpster.[44] Utah detective Jerry Thompson connected Bundy and his Volkswagen to the DaRonch kidnapping and the missing girls, and searched his apartment. The search uncovered a brochure of Colorado ski resorts, with a check mark by the Wildwood Inn where Caryn Campbell had disappeared, and a program from the Bountiful school play where Debby Kent had last been seen.[45] After searching his apartment, the police brought Bundy in for a lineup before DaRonch, Shepard, and Tingley. They identified him as "Officer Roseland" and as the man lurking about the night Debby Kent disappeared. Following a week-long trial, Bundy was convicted of DaRonch's kidnapping on March 1, 1976 and was sentenced to 15 years in Utah State Prison. Colorado authorities were pursuing murder charges, however, and Bundy was extradited there to stand trial.

On June 7, 1977, in preparation for a hearing in the Caryn Campbell murder trial, Bundy was taken to the Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen. During a court recess, he was allowed to visit the courthouse's law library, where he jumped out of the building from a second-story window and escaped. In the minutes following his escape, Bundy at first ran and then strolled casually through the small town toward Aspen Mountain.[46] He made it all the way to the top of Aspen Mountain without being detected, but then lost his sense of direction and wandered around the mountain, missing two trails that led down off the mountain to his intended destination, the town of Crested Butte. At one point, he came face-to-face with a gun-toting citizen who was one of the searchers scouring Aspen Mountain for Ted Bundy, but was able to talk his way out of danger. On June 13, Bundy was able to steal a car he found on the mountain. He drove back into Aspen and could have gotten away, but two police deputies noticed the Cadillac with dimmed headlights weaving in and out of its lane and pulled Bundy over. He was recognized and brought back to prison after having been on the lam for six days.[47]

Upon arrest, Bundy was placed in the smaller Glenwood Springs jail, rather than being taken back to Aspen. Somehow he had acquired a hacksaw blade and $500 in cash--Bundy later claimed the blade came from another prison inmate. He was able to saw through the welds fixing a small metal plate in the ceiling and, after dieting down still further, to fit through the hole and access the crawl space above. An informant in the prison told guards that he'd heard Bundy moving around the ceiling, but no one checked it out.[48] When Bundy's Aspen trial judge ruled on December 23 that the Caryn Campbell murder trial would start on January 9, 1978,[49] and changed the venue to Colorado Springs, Bundy realized that he had to make his escape before he was transferred out of the Glenwood Springs jail. On the night of December 30, 1977, Bundy dressed warmly and packed books and files under his blanket to make it look like he was sleeping. He wriggled through the hole and up into the crawlspace. Bundy crawled over to a spot directly above the jailor's linen closet--the jailor and his wife were out for the evening--dropped down into the jailor's apartment, and strolled out the door to freedom.[50]

Bundy was free, but he was on foot in the middle of a bitterly cold, snowy Colorado night. He managed to steal a broken-down MG, but it stalled out on a mountain road. Bundy was stuck on the side of Interstate 70 in the middle of the night in a blizzard, but a helpful driver gave him a ride into Vail. From there he caught a bus to Denver and boarded the 8:55 a.m. flight to Chicago. The Glenwood Springs jail guards did not notice Bundy was gone until noon on Dec. 31, 17 hours after his escape, by which time Bundy was already in Chicago.[51]

Bundy's final rampage: Florida
Bundy then caught an Amtrak train to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he got a room at the YMCA. On January 2nd, he went to an Ann Arbor bar and watched his beloved University of Washington Huskies beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl.[52] He later stole a car in Ann Arbor that he abandoned in Atlanta, Georgia before boarding a bus for Tallahassee, Florida, arriving on January 8. There, he rented a room at a boarding house under the alias of "Chris Hagen" and committed numerous petty crimes including shoplifting, purse snatching, and auto theft. He stole a student ID card that belonged to a Kenneth Misner and sent away for copies of Misner's Social Security card and birth certificate.[53] Bundy could have laid low at his rooming house until obtaining Misner's ID, but his compulsions overwhelmed him.

Just one week after Bundy's arrival in Tallahassee, in the early hours of Super Bowl Sunday on January 15, 1978, two and a half years of repressed homicidal violence erupted. Bundy entered the Florida State University Chi Omega sorority house at approximately 3 a.m. and killed two sleeping women, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. Levy and Bowman were bludgeoned, strangled, and sexually assaulted. Bowman's brain was visible through a hole in her skull. Two other Chi Omegas, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, were bludgeoned in their sleep and severely injured. The entire episode took no more than half an hour. After leaving the Chi Omega house, Bundy broke into another home a few blocks away, clubbing and severly injuring FSU student Cheryl Thomas.

On February 9, 1978, Bundy traveled to Lake City, Florida. While there he abducted, raped and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, throwing her body under a small pig shed. She would be his final victim. On February 12, Bundy stole yet another Volkswagen Beetle and left Tallahassee for good, heading west across the Florida panhandle. On Feb. 15, 1978, shortly after 1 a.m., Bundy was stopped by Pensacola police officer David Lee. When the officer called in a check of the license plate, the vehicle came up as stolen. When Lee went to apprehend Bundy, Ted then scuffled with the officer before he was finally subdued. Lee later reported that on the way to the jail, Bundy had told him that he wished that Lee had just killed him.[54] Before long, Bundy was identified and taken to Miami to stand trial for the Chi Omega murders.

Conviction and execution
Bite mark testimony at the Chi Omega trialBundy went to trial for the Chi Omega murders in June of 1979 with Dade County Circuit Court Judge Edward D. Cowart presiding. Despite having five court-appointed lawyers, he insisted on acting as his own attorney and even cross-examined witnesses, including the police officer who had discovered the body of Margaret Bowman.

Two pieces of evidence proved crucial. First, Chi-O Nita Neary, getting back to the house very late after a date, saw Bundy as he left, and identified him in court.[55] Second, during his homicidal frenzy, Bundy bit Lisa Levy in her left buttock, leaving obvious bite marks. Police took plaster casts of Bundy's teeth and a forensics expert matched them to the photographs of Levy's wound.[56] Bundy was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death. After confirming the sentence, Judge Cowart bid him goodbye:

"It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that current be passed through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I've experienced in this courtroom. You're an intelligent young man. You'd have made a good lawyer, and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don't feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself."
After the Chi Omega trial, Bundy was tried for the Kimberly Leach murder in 1980. He was again convicted on all counts, principally due to fibers found in his van that matched Leach's clothing[57] and an eyewitness that saw him leading Leach away from the school,[58] and sentenced to death. During the Kimberly Leach trial, Bundy married former coworker Carole Ann Boone in the courtroom while questioning her on the stand.[59] Following numerous conjugal visits between Bundy and his new wife, Boone gave birth to a girl she named "Tina" in October 1982[60]. Eventually, however, Boone moved away, divorced Bundy, and changed her last name and that of her daughter. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

In the years Bundy was on death row at Florida State Prison, he was often visited by Special Agent William Hagmaier of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Behavioral Sciences Unit. Bundy would come to confide in Hagmaier, going so far as to call him his best friend. Eventually, Bundy confessed to Hagmaier many details of the murders that had until then been unknown or unconfirmed. In October 1984, Bundy contacted former King County homicide detective Robert D. Keppel and offered to assist in the ongoing search for the Green River Killer by providing his own insights and analysis.[61] Keppel and Green River Task Force detective Dave Reichert traveled to Florida's death row to interview Bundy. Both detectives later stated that these interviews were of little actual help in the investigation; they provided far greater insight into Bundy's own mind, and were primarily pursued in the hope of learning the details of unsolved murders that Bundy was suspected of committing but had never been charged with.

Bundy contacted Keppel again in 1988. With his appeals exhausted (Bundy had beaten previous death warrants for March 4, July 2, and November 18, 1986),[62][63][64] and execution imminent, Bundy confessed to eight official unsolved murders in Washington State, for which he was the prime suspect. Bundy told Keppel that there were actually five bodies left on Taylor Mountain, and not four as they had originally thought. Bundy said that the fifth body was that of Donna Manson, the Evergreen State College student missing since 1974. Bundy confessed in detail to the murder of Georgeann Hawkins, describing how he lured her to his car with the crutches-and-briefcase routine, clubbed her with a tire iron that he'd stashed on the ground under his car, drove away with a semi-conscious Hawkins in the car with him, and later strangled her.[65]

After the interview, Keppel reported that he had been shocked in speaking with Bundy, and that he was the kind of man who was "born to kill". Keppel stated:

"He described the Issaquah crime scene (where Janice Ott, Denise Naslund, and Georgeann Hawkins had been left) and it was almost like he was just there. Like he was seeing everything. He was infatuated with the idea because he spent so much time there. He is just totally consumed with murder all the time."
Bundy had hoped that he could use the revelations and partial confessions to get another stay of execution or possibly commute his sentence to life imprisonment. At one point, a legal advocate working for Bundy, Linda Barker, had asked many of the families of the victims to fax letters to Florida Governor Robert Martinez and ask mercy for Bundy in order to find out where the remains of their loved ones were. To a person, all the families refused. Keppel and others reported that Bundy gave scant detail about his crimes during his confessions, and promised to reveal more and other body dump sites if he were given "more time". The ploy failed and Bundy was executed on schedule.

The night before Bundy was executed, he gave a television interview to Dr. James Dobson, head of the evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family. During the interview, Bundy made repeated claims as to the pornographic "roots" of his sexually driven violence. He stated that, while pornography didn't cause him to commit his crimes, the consumption of violent pornography helped "shape and mold" his violence into "behavior too terrible to describe." He alleged that he felt that violence in the media, "particularly sexualized violence," sent boys "down the road to being Ted Bundy's". After the interview was made public, many who knew Bundy as a sociopath had their doubts as to the validity of his "the pornography made me do it" claims. In the same interview, hours before his execution, Bundy stated:[1]

"You are going to kill me, and that will protect society from me. But out there are many, many more people who are addicted to pornography, and you are doing nothing about that."
According to Hagmaier, Bundy contemplated suicide in the days leading up to his execution, but eventually decided against it.

At 7:06 a.m. on January 24, 1989, Ted Bundy was executed in the electric chair. His last words were, "I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends." Then, more than 2,000 volts were sent through his body for less than two minutes. He was pronounced dead at 7:16 a.m.

Modus operandi and victim profiles
When discussing serial murder with Bob Keppel, Bundy said that serial killers change their habits with time and circumstance.[66] This proved true of Bundy himself. For example, Bundy entered into the homes of his first two known victims, Joni Lenz and Lynda Healy, but would not attack a victim in her home again until the night of the Chi Omega murders, shortly before his final arrest.

Nevertheless, he did have a modus operandi that held true for most of his criminal career. He would approach a potential victim in a public place, even in daylight or in a crowd, as when he abducted Ott and Naslund at Lake Sammamish or when he kidnapped Kim Leach from her school. Bundy had various ways of gaining a victim's trust. Sometimes, he would feign injury, wearing his arm in a sling or wearing a fake cast, as in the murders of Hawkins, Rancourt, Ott and Naslund. At other times Bundy would impersonate an authority figure; he pretended to be a policeman when approaching Carol DaRonch. The day before he killed Kimberly Leach, Bundy approached another young Florida girl pretending to be "Richard Burton, Fire Department," but left hurriedly after her older brother arrived.[67]

Bundy had a remarkable advantage as his facial features were attractive, yet not especially memorable. In later years, he would often be described as chameleon-like[68][69], able to look totally different by making only minor adjustments to his appearance, e.g., growing a beard or changing his hairstyle.

All of Bundy's victims were white females and most were of middle class background. Almost all were between the ages of 15 and 25. Many were college students. In her book, Ann Rule notes that most of Bundy's victims had long straight hair parted in the middle — just like Stephanie Brooks, his old flame. Rule speculates that Bundy's resentment towards his first girlfriend was a motivating factor in his string of murders.

After luring a victim to his car, Bundy would hit her in the head with a crowbar he had placed underneath his Volkswagen or hidden inside it. Every recovered skull, except for that of Kimberly Leach, showed signs of blunt force trauma. Every recovered body, again except for that of Leach, showed signs of strangulation. Many of Bundy's victims were transported a considerable distance from where they disappeared, as in the case of Kathy Parks, whom he drove more than 260 miles from Oregon to Washington. Bundy often would drink alcohol prior to finding a victim;[70] Carol DaRonch testified to smelling alcohol on his breath.[71]

FBI Special Agent Hagmaier stated that Bundy considered himself to be an amateur and impulsive killer in his early years, and then moved into what he considered to be his "prime" or "predator" phase. Bundy stated that this phase began around the time of the Lynda Healy murder, when he began seeking victims he considered to be equal to his skill as a murderer.

On death row, Bundy admitted to decapitating at least a dozen of his victims with a hacksaw.[72] He kept the severed heads later found on Taylor Mountain (Rancourt, Parks, Ball, Healy) in his room or apartment for some time before finally disposing of them.[73] He confessed to cremating Donna Manson's head in his girlfriend's fireplace.[74] Some of the skulls of Bundy's victims were found with the front teeth broken out.[75] Bundy also confessed to visiting his victims' bodies over and over again at the Taylor Mountain body dump site. He stated that he would lie with them for hours, applying makeup to their corpses and having sex with their decomposing bodies until putrefaction forced him to abandon the remains. Not long before his death, Bundy admitted to returning to the corpse of Georgann Hawkins for purposes of necrophilia.[76] He confessed to taking pictures of his victims. The Utah police who searched Bundy's apartment in 1975 missed a collection of photographs that Bundy had hidden in the utility room, photos that Bundy destroyed when he returned home after being released on bail.[77]

When Bundy was confronted by law enforcement officers who stated that they believed the number of individuals he had murdered was 37, Bundy told them that they should "add one more digit, and you'll have it". Ann Rule speculated that this meant Bundy might have killed over a hundred women. Speaking to his lawyer Polly Nelson in 1988, however, Bundy dismissed the 100+ victims speculation and said that the more common estimate of approximately 35 victims was accurate.[78]

Pathology of a madman
In December 1987, Bundy was examined for seven hours by a professor from New York University Medical Center, Dorothy Otnow Lewis. To Lewis, Bundy described his childhood, and especially his relationship with his maternal grandparents, Samuel and Eleanor Cowell. Along with the already established description of his grandfather as a tyrannical bully, Bundy described his grandfather as a bigot who hated blacks, Italians, Catholics, and Jews. He further stated that his grandfather tortured animals, beating the family dog and swinging neighborhood cats by their tails. He also told Lewis that his grandfather, who was a deacon in his church, kept a large collection of pornography in his greenhouse where, according to relatives, Bundy and a cousin would sneak into the greenhouse for hours reading it. Family members expressed skepticism over Louise's "Jack Worthington" story of Ted's parentage and noted that Samuel Cowell once flew into a violent rage when the subject of Ted's father came up.[79] Bundy described his grandmother as a timid and obedient wife, who was sporadically taken to hospitals to undergo shock treatment for depression.[80] Towards the end of her life, Bundy said, she became an agoraphobic.

In 1981 Dr. Louis Jolyon West, director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA and an expert on abused children, listened to audiotape interviews of Ted Bundy. Afterwards, West stated "Somewhere in that man's boyhood, a woman beat him with a stick."

Crime author and former Bundy co-worker Ann Rule states that Eleanor's younger sister recalls a horrifying but telling incident with the young Ted Bundy. After laying down in the Cowell's home for a nap, Bundy's aunt woke from sleep while a three-year old Ted was lifting her bedcovers to place kitchen butcher knives around her in the bed.

Bundy used stolen credit cards to purchase more than 30 pairs of socks while on the run in Florida. According to the authors, Bundy willingly conceded to being a foot fetishist, believing it to be an amusing little quirk.[81]

Ann Rule further noted that most of Bundy's friends were women, whom she believed Bundy had learned at an early age to control and manipulate. When one of his female friends or lovers did not react in the manner Bundy expected, he was simultaneously outraged and confused. In her conversations with him, she sensed that he believed that he was the, "... progeny of royalty dumped by mistake on the doorstep of a blue-collar family. How he loved the thought of money and status, and how inadequate he felt when he found himself with women who were born to it".

When Florida detectives begged Bundy to tell them where he'd dumped Kimberly Leach, to give her parents some closure, Bundy said "But I'm the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet."[82]

Victims
Below is a chronological list of the victims of Ted Bundy. Bundy never made a comprehensive confession of his crimes and his true total is not known, but before his execution, he confessed thirty murders to Bill Hagmaier. Ten of his victims remain unidentified.[83] All the women listed were killed, unless otherwise noted.

1973
May: Unknown, from Tumwater, Washington area.[84] (Confessed to Keppel before execution.)

1974
Jan. 4: Joni Lenz (survived). Bludgeoned in her bed as she slept.
Jan. 31: Lynda Ann Healy (19). Beaten & bludgeoned unconscious while asleep and abducted from the house she shared with other University of Washington co-eds.
Mar. 12: Donna Gail Manson (19). Abducted while walking to a jazz concert on The Evergreen State College campus, Olympia, Washington. Body never recovered.
Apr. 17: Susan Rancourt (18). Disappeared as she walked across Ellensburg's Central Washington State College campus at night.
May 6: Roberta Kathleen Parks (22). Vanished from Oregon State University in Corvallis while walking to another dorm hall to have coffee with friends.
Jun. 1: Brenda Ball (22). Disappeared from the Flame Tavern in Burien, Washington.
Jun. 11: Georgeann Hawkins (18). Disappeared from behind her sorority house, Kappa Alpha Theta, at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Jul. 14: Janice Ott (23) and Denise Naslund (19), both from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington.
Aug. 2: Carol Valenzuela (20). Last seen at a welfare office in Vancouver, Washington.
Sep. 2: Unknown hitchhiker (17-23). Abducted from Boise, Idaho.[85]
Oct. 2: Nancy Wilcox (16). Disappeared in Holladay, Utah.
Oct. 18: Melissa Smith (17). Vanished from Midvale, Utah on her way to a friend's house.
Oct. 31: Laura Aime (17). Disappeared from a Halloween party at Lehi, Utah.
Nov. 8: Carol DaRonch (18, survived). Escaped from Bundy by jumping out from his car in Murray, Utah.
Nov. 8: Debra (Debby) Kent (17). Vanished from the parking lot of a school in Bountiful, Utah, hours after DaRonch escaped from Bundy. Body never recovered.

1975
Jan. 12: Caryn Campbell (23). While on a ski trip with her fiancée in Aspen, Colorado, Campbell vanished between the hotel lounge and her room.
Mar. 15: Julie Cunningham (26). Disappeared while on her way to a nearby tavern in Vail, Colorado. Body never recovered.
Apr. 6: Denise Oliverson (25). Abducted while visiting her parents in Grand Junction, Colorado.
May 6: Lynette Culver (13). Snatched from a school playground at Alameda Junior High School, Pocatello, Idaho.
June 28: Susan Curtis (15). Abducted from the campus of Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

1978
Jan. 15: Lisa Levy (20), Margaret Bowman (21), Karen Chandler (survived), Kathy Kleiner (survived). The Chi Omega killings, Tallahassee, Florida.
Jan. 15: Cheryl Thomas (survived). Bludgeoned in her bed, eight blocks away from the Chi Omega house.
Feb. 9: Kimberly Leach (12), kidnapped from her junior high school and raped, Lake City, Florida.

Trivia
While on trial in Florida, Bundy carved his name in the courtroom's defense table. The Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, now the Orange County History Museum, contains the table (with the signature preserved under plexiglass).
While awaiting execution in Raiford Prison, the prisoner in the cell next to Bundy's was Ottis Toole, the former lover and murder partner of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.[86] Toole was also believed to be the individual who murdered six-year old Adam Walsh, the son of now-TV personality John Walsh.
The remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund, the two women who disappeared from Lake Sammamish State Park on July 14, 1974, were lost forever when the King County Medical Examiner's Office was relocated. Their families sued King County, and they received a settlement of $112,000 per family.
Thomas Harris was in court the day of the infamous bite mark testimony in Bundy's 1979 trial (he had a press pass). Harris was then inspired to create the character Francis Dolarhyde for his 1983 novel Red Dragon. For his 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs, Harris based the character of Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in part on Bundy. (His other inspirations were Gary M. Heidnik, Edmund Kemper, and Ed Gein.) Like Bundy, Bill would put his arm in a sling, approach the women he intended to murder by asking them for help, and then incapacitate them.

Biographical films
Three TV movies and one feature film have been produced about Bundy and his crimes.

The Deliberate Stranger, a two-part network TV movie, aired in 1986 and starred Mark Harmon as Bundy.
Written by Stephen Johnston and Directed by Matthew Bright, Ted Bundy was released in 2002. Michael Reilly Burke starred as Bundy.
The Stranger Beside Me aired on the USA Network in 2003, and starred Billy Campbell as Bundy and Barbara Hershey as Ann Rule.
In 2004, the A&E Network produced an adaptation of Robert Keppel's book Riverman, which starred Cary Elwes as Bundy and Bruce Greenwood as Keppel.

Jeffrey Dahmer

2007-03-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey Dahmer

Born May 21, 1960
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Died November 28, 1994
Portage, Wisconsin, USA
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer. He murdered at least 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 (with the majority of the murders occurring between 1989 and 1991). His murders were particularly gruesome, involving acts of necrophilia, dismemberment, and cannibalism.

Early life
Dahmer was born May 21, 1960, 4:34 pm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Joyce (b. February 7, 1936 d. November 27. 2000) and Lionel Dahmer. At age 4, he had surgery to correct a double hernia. His family soon moved to Bath, Ohio, where he attended Revere High School. He reportedly dissected already dead animals as a child.[citation needed] He became an alcoholic at the age of 14 and suffered from extremely low self-esteem. After years of constant fighting, Dahmer's parents underwent a divorce when he was 18. Dahmer committed his first murder at the age of 18, killing Steven Hicks, a 19-year-old hitchhiker. Dahmer invited Hicks to his house, and killed him because he "didn't want him to leave."

Dahmer attended Ohio State University, but he dropped out after one term. Dahmer's father then forced him to enlist in the United States Army, where he was to serve for a six-year enlistment, but he was discharged after two, due to his excessive drinking.

When the Army discharged Dahmer in 1981 they provided him with a plane ticket to anywhere in the country. "Dahmer told police he couldn't go home to face his father, so he headed to Miami Beach because he was tired of the cold,"[1]

In 1982, Dahmer moved in with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin, where he would live for six years.

In August 1982, he was arrested for exposing himself at a state fair. Four years later, he was charged again with public exposure after two boys accused him of masturbating in public. This time he was sentenced to a year in prison, of which he served 10 months.

In 1988 he was arrested for sexually fondling a 13-year-old Laotian boy in Milwaukee (who turned out to be the older brother of his future victim, Konerak Sinthasomphone), for which he served 10 months of a one year sentence in a work release camp and was required to register as a sex offender. He convinced the judge that he needed therapy, and he was released with a 5-year probation on good behavior. Shortly thereafter, he began a string of murders that would end with his arrest in 1991.

Later murders
One of Dahmer's victims escaped, only to be returned to him by police. When it was later publicized, there was widespread condemnation of the officers. In the early morning hours of May 27, 1991, 14-year old Milwaukee Laotian Konerak Sinthasomphone was discovered on the street, wandering nude. Reports of the boy's injuries varied. Dahmer told police that they had an argument while drinking, and that Sinthasomphone was his 19 year-old lover. Against the teenager's protests, police turned him over to Dahmer. They had no suspicions, but reported smelling a strange scent. That scent was later found to be bodies in the back of his room. Later that night Dahmer killed and dismembered Sinthasomphone, keeping his skull as a souvenir.

John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, the two police officers who returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer, were terminated from the Milwaukee Police Department after their actions were widely publicized, including an audiotape of the officers making homophobic statements to their dispatcher and laughing about having reunited the "lovers." The two officers appealed their termination and were reinstated with back pay. They were named officers of the year by the police union. Balcerzak would go on to be elected president of the Milwaukee Police Association in May 2005.

By the summer of 1991, Dahmer was murdering approximately one person each week. He killed Matt Turner on June 30, Jeremiah Weinberger on July 5, Oliver Lacy on July 12, and finally Joseph Brandehoft on July 19, just three days before Dahmer was finally arrested.

On July 22, 1991, Dahmer lured another man, Tracy[1] (Traci[2]) Edwards, into his home. According to the would-be victim, Dahmer struggled with Edwards in order to handcuff him. Edwards escaped and alerted a police car, with the handcuffs still hanging from one hand.

Edwards led police back to Dahmer's apartment, where Dahmer at first acted friendly to the officers, only to turn on them when he realized that the officers suspected something was wrong. As one officer subdued Dahmer, the other searched the house and uncovered multiple photographs of murdered victims and human remains including three severed heads. A further search of the house revealed more evidence, including photographs of victims and human remains in his refrigerator.

The story of Dahmer's arrest and the gruesome inventory in his apartment quickly gained notoriety: several corpses were stored in acid-filled vats, severed heads were found in his refrigerator, and implements for the construction of an altar of candles and human skulls were found in his closet. Accusations soon surfaced that Dahmer had practiced necrophilia, cannibalism and possibly a form of trepanation in order to create so-called "zombies". Dahmer admitted to eating the biceps of his eighth victim, Ernest Miller, whose skeleton he also kept, noting that human flesh "tasted like beef" to him.

Trial, imprisonment and death
Jeffrey Dahmer was officially indicted on 17 murder charges, which were reduced to 15. The murder cases were already so notorious that the authorities never bothered to charge him in the attempted murder of Edwards. His trial began in July 1992. With evidence overwhelmingly against him, Dahmer chose to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing that his necrophiliac urges were so strong that he could not control them.

The court found Dahmer guilty and sane on 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms, totaling 937 years in prison. At his sentencing hearing, in a stance unusual for serial killers, Dahmer expressed remorse for his actions, also saying that he wished for his own death.

Dahmer served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, where it is claimed he became more and more religious over time and ultimately declared himself a born-again Christian. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and another inmate named Jesse Anderson were beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while on work detail in the prison gym. According to popular reports of the incident, Dahmer was sodomized with a broom handle, but this did not occur. Dahmer died from severe head trauma in the ambulance en route to the hospital.

Much controversy surrounded both the decision to allow Dahmer such a privilege as work detail, as well as the pairing of Dahmer with Scarver, a man with a history of brutality who was incarcerated for murder.[citation needed] Before his murder, Dahmer escaped a previous attempt on his life. After attending a church service in the prison chapel, an inmate took a razor blade and tried to slash Dahmer's throat. Dahmer escaped the incident with superficial wounds.

After Dahmer's death and subsequent legal proceedings, Dahmer's remains were cremated and divided in half between his birth mother Joyce, and his father and stepmother. Popular myth states his brain was donated to scientific study, but it was not, having been too badly damaged in the assault to be of any scientific value.

Aftermath
After the murders, the Oxford Apartments were demolished and the site is now a vacant lot. At the time the apartments were demolished there were plans to turn the site into a memorial garden, but no garden exists on the site. The site is mostly overgrown with grass and a tall chain link fence surrounding the perimeter of the property and is generally considered to be in a poor neighborhood on the north central side of Milwaukee.

Lionel Dahmer published a book, A Father's Story, and donated a portion of the proceeds from his book to the victims and their families. Most of the families showed support for Lionel Dahmer and his wife, Shari. He has retired from his career as an analytical chemist and resides with his wife today in Medina, Ohio. He consults on the evolution versus creationism topic occasionally, and his wife is a member of the board of the Medina County Ohio Horseman's Council. Both continue to carry the name Dahmer and say they love their son despite his crimes. Lionel Dahmer's first wife, Joyce (Flint), died of cancer in 2000 at the age of 64. She was later buried in Atlanta, Georgia. Dahmer's younger brother David changed his last name and lives in anonymity.

In January 2007, evidence surfaced potentially linking Dahmer to Adam Walsh's 1981 abduction and murder in Florida.[3] However, Adam's father, John Walsh doesn't believe Dahmer was behind the killing, and instead believes Ottis Toole committed the crime.[4]

Known Victims
Name [1] Age Date of Death
Stephen Hicks 18 June, 1978
Steven Toumi 26 September, 1987
Jamie Doxtator 14 October, 1987
Richard Guerrero 25 March, 1988
Anthony Sears 24 February, 1989
Eddie Smith 36 June, 1990
Ricky Beeks 27 July, 1990
Ernest Miller 22 September, 1990
David Thomas 23 September, 1990
Curtis Straughter 16 February, 1991
Errol Lindsey 19 April, 1991
Tony Hughes 31 May 24, 1991
Konerak Sinthasomphone 14 May 27, 1991
Matt Turner 20 June 30, 1991
Jeremiah Weinberger 23 July 5, 1991
Oliver Lacy 23 July 12, 1991
Joseph Bradeholt 25 July 19, 1991

Attempted victim
Name [1][2] Age Date of Abduction
Tracy (Traci) Edwards 32 July 22, 1991

Pop culture references
References in film
The movie Jeffrey Dahmer: The Secret Life was released in 1993, starring Carl Crew as Dahmer.
In 2002, the biopic Dahmer, starring Jeremy Renner in the title role, premiered in Dahmer's hometown. The film, which portrayed Dahmer in a somewhat sympathetic light, met with protest from the victims' families, and quickly went to video.
Dahmer is mentioned in the Wes Craven film Scream 2 (1998), sarcastically as having been described as a nice, quiet guy by his neighbors.
Dahmer was one of the serial killers emulated by the villain in the movie Copycat (1995). Like Dahmer, the villain went to gay bars and drugged his victims' drinks; he also cuts off one victim's head with a surgical saw.
In the movie Demolition Man (1993), the criminal Simon Phoenix (played by Wesley Snipes) discovers Dahmer's name in a list of cryogenically frozen people and decides to release him, declaring, "Jeffrey Dahmer? I love that guy!" This scene is frequently deleted in modern broadcasts of the film due to the anachronistic reference.
In the 2005 movie, The Ringer, starring Johnny Knoxville, Knoxville acts as a mentally retarded person trying to win money in the special Olympics; throughout the movie Knoxville's character is known as "Jeffy Dahmor".
In School for Scoundrels (2006 film), the main character (portrayed by Jon Heder, who bears some resemblance to Dahmer) is called "Dahmer" by his girlfriend's best friend.

References in literature
Horror writer Poppy Z. Brite has written several works with protagonists inspired by Dahmer, including the short story "Self-Made Man" and the novel Exquisite Corpse, in which a pair of homosexual necrophiliac-cannibalistic lovers plot the murder of a young Vietnamese man.
Joyce Carol Oates's novel Zombie was based on Dahmer's life.[5]
In Chuck Palahniuk's novel Lullaby, a paramedic named John Nash references Dahmer. “You remember Jeffrey Dahmer... He didn’t set out to kill so many people. He just thought you could drill a hole in somebody’s skull, pour in some drain cleaner, and make them your sex zombie. Dahmer just wanted to be getting more.”
The comic book "Mindbomb", a psychological analysis of Spider-man's nemesis Carnage, has Carnage referencing himself walking down the street "making Jeffrey Dahmer eyes" at the people he passes. Writer: Warren Ellis, Pencils and Inks: Kyle Hotz, 1996, Marvel Comics.

Ed Gein

2007-03-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Edward Theodore Gein circa 1957

Born August 27, 1906
La Crosse, Wisconsin, US
Died July 26, 1984
Mendota Mental Health Institute
Charge(s) Murder
Penalty Not guilty by reason of insanity
Status Died in prison hospital
Parents Augusta Lehrke (1878–1945) and George P. Gein (1873–1940)
Edward Theodore Gein (August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), was an American serial killer. Though only two murders on his part were proved, he gained great infamy due to necrophiliac behavior (which involved the skinning of his murder victims and exhumed corpses, the decoration of his home with parts of corpses, and the creation of articles of clothing and furniture from the skin of corpses). Besides the death of his brother in 1944 under mysterious circumstances, six people disappeared from the Wisconsin towns of La Crosse and Plainfield between 1947 and 1957.

Biography
Childhood
Ed Gein was born to Augusta Lehrke (1878–1945) and George P. Gein (1873–1940) on August 28, 1906, in La Crosse, Wisconsin.[1] His parents, both natives of Wisconsin, had married on July 7, 1900, and their marriage produced Ed and his older brother, Henry G. Gein (1901–1944). Gein's father was a violent alcoholic who was frequently unemployed. Gein and his brother rejected their violent, aimless father, as did Augusta, who treated her husband like a nonentity. Despite her deep contempt for her husband, the atrophic marriage persisted. Divorce was not an option due to the family's religious beliefs. Augusta operated the small family grocery store and eventually purchased a farm on the outskirts of another small town, Plainfield, which became the Gein family's permanent home.

Augusta moved to this desolate location to prevent outsiders from influencing her sons. Gein only left the premises to go to school and Augusta blocked any attempt he made to pursue friendships. Besides school, he spent most of his time doing chores on the farm. Augusta, who was a Lutheran and fanatically religious, drummed into her boys the innate immorality of the world, the evil of drink, and the belief that all women (herself excluded) were whores. According to Augusta, the only acceptable form of sex was for procreation. She reserved time every afternoon to read to them from the Bible, usually selecting graphic verses from the Old Testament dealing with death, murder and divine retribution.

When Gein reached puberty, Augusta became increasingly strict, once dousing him in scalding water after she caught him masturbating in the bathtub, grabbing his genitals and calling them the "curse of man".[2]

With a slight growth over one eye and an effeminate demeanor, the young Gein became a target for bullies. Classmates and teachers recall other off-putting mannerisms such as seemingly random laughter, as if he were laughing at his own personal joke. Despite his poor social development, he did fairly well in school, particularly in reading.

Deaths of family members
By the time his father, George, died in 1940, Henry had begun to reject Augusta's view of the world. He had even taken to bad-mouthing her within earshot of his mortified brother. In March 1944, the brothers found themselves in the middle of a brush fire on the farm. When Ed ran to get the police, he told them he had lost sight of Henry, but then led them directly to his brother's corpse. Although there was evidence Henry had suffered blunt trauma to the groin[citation needed] and had two marks on the back of his head, the local county coroner decided he died of asphyxiation while fighting the fire.[2] Gein then lived alone with his mother. Less than two years later, on December 29, 1945, Augusta died from a series of strokes, leaving her grief-stricken son alone on the isolated farmstead.

Arrest
Police suspected Gein to be involved in the disappearance of a store clerk, Bernice Worden, in Plainfield on November 16, 1957. Upon entering a shed on his property, they made their first horrific discovery of the night: Worden's corpse. She had been decapitated, and was hanging upside down by the ankles and had been split open down the torso like a deer. The mutilations had been performed postmortem; she had been shot at close-range with a .22-caliber rifle.

Searching the house, authorities found
severed heads acting as bedposts in the bedroom;
skin used to make lampshades and upholster chair seats;
skulls made into soup bowls;
a human heart (it is disputed where the heart was found; the deputies' reports all claim that the heart was in a saucepan on the stove, with some crime scene photographers claiming it was in a paper bag);
a face mask made out of real facial skin found in a paper bag;
a necklace of human lips;
a waistcoat (which he called a "mammary vest") made up of a vagina and breasts stitched together;
other items fashioned from the parts of human bodies, including a belt made from nipples.
Above all, Gein's most infamous creation was an entire wardrobe fabricated of human skin consisting of leggings, a gutted torso (including breasts) and an array of tanned, dead-skin masks that looked leathery and almost mummified.

Gein eventually admitted under questioning that he would dig up the graves of recently buried middle-aged women he thought resembled his mother and take the bodies home, where he tanned their skin to make his macabre possessions. One writer describes Gein's practice of putting on the tanned skins of women as an "insane transvestite ritual".[3] Gein denied having sex with the bodies he exhumed, explaining, "They smelled too bad." During interrogation, Gein also admitted to the shooting death of Mary Hogan, a local tavern employee who had been missing since 1954.

Shortly after his mother's death, Gein decided he wanted a sex change, although it is a matter of some debate whether or not he was transsexual; by most accounts, he created his "woman suit" so he could pretend to be his mother, rather than change his sex.[4]

Harold Schechter, a leading expert on serial killers, wrote a best-selling book about the Gein case called Deviant. In this book, Schechter mentions that Plainfield sheriff Art Schley physically assaulted Gein during questioning by banging Gein's head and face into a brick wall; because of this, Gein's initial confession was ruled inadmissible. Schley died of a heart attack at the age of 43 shortly before Gein's trial. Many who knew him said he was so traumatized by the horror of Gein's crimes and the fear of having to testify (notably about assaulting Gein) that it led to his early death. One of his friends said, "He was a victim of Ed Gein as surely as if he had butchered him."

Gein was found mentally incompetent and thus unfit to stand trial at the time of his arrest, and was sent to the Central State Hospital (now the Dodge Correctional Institution) in Waupun, Wisconsin. Later, Central State Hospital was converted into a prison and Gein was transferred to Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1968, Gein's doctors determined he was sane enough to stand trial; he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the rest of his life in the hospital.

While Gein was in detention, his house burned to the ground. Arson was suspected. In 1958, Gein's car, which he used to haul the bodies of his victims, was sold at public auction for a then-considerable sum of $760 to an enterprising carnival sideshow operator named Bunny Gibbons. Gibbons called his attraction the "Ed Gein Ghoul Car" and charged carnival-goers 25 cents admission to see it.

Death
On July 26, 1984, Ed Gein died of respiratory and heart failure in Goodland Hall at the Mendota Mental Health Institute[5] At his death, he cursed the name of his mother and an unknown person named Anne. His gravesite in the Plainfield cemetery was frequently vandalized over the years; souvenir seekers would chip off pieces of his gravestone before the bulk of it was stolen in 2000. The gravestone was recovered in June 2001 near Seattle and is presently displayed in a Wautoma, Wisconsin museum.

Popular culture
Films
Gein's story was adapted into its own movie called In the Light of the Moon, later to be retitled Ed Gein for the US market. It starred Steve Railsback as Gein and Carrie Snodgress as Augusta.[6]
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield, directed by Michael Feifer, was released on DVD on March 6, 2007. It stars Kane Hodder as Gein.[7]
Film killers Leatherface, Buffalo Bill, and Norman Bates were all, in small part, based on aspects of Gein's crimes.[8]
In the film American Psycho, the main character Patrick Bateman mistakenly attributed an Edmund Kemper quote to Gein. The quote is "When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things: One part of me wants to take her home, be real nice and treat her right; the other part wonders what her head would look like on a stick."

Martin Bryant

2007-03-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Martin John Bryant (born 7 May 1967) murdered 35 people and injured 37 others in the Port Arthur Massacre, a killing spree in Tasmania in 1996. He is currently serving 35 life sentences in Hobart's Risdon Prison after pleading guilty.

Childhood
Martin Bryant is the elder of two children of Maurice and Carleen Bryant. Bryant was regarded as unusual in his childhood and in the early years of his schooling was diagnosed as having an IQ of 66 (which is considered to indicate mental disability) and put into special education classes. He was described by teachers at Marcellin College as unusually detached from reality and as either unemotional or as expressing inappropriate emotions. He was apparently a disruptive and sometimes violent child, and was severely bullied by other children. Bryant was referred for psychiatric treatment several times during his childhood. Reports from child guidance centres stated that he tortured animals and bullied his sister. In 1984 a psychological evaluation described him as mentally retarded and stated that he had a personality disorder.

Adulthood
Descriptions of Bryant's behaviour as a young man show that he continued to be disturbed. When his father, who had taken early retirement to care for him, died in an apparent suicide, ambulance officers described Bryant as quite excited by the search and unconcerned about the death.

Bryant was eligible for a disability pension due to his low IQ and lived on a pension for some years. He took on odd jobs as a handyman and gardener. One of these odd jobs led to him meeting Helen Harvey, heiress to a share in the Tattersall's Lottery fortune. Harvey befriended Bryant, inviting him to live with her. She was reported to spend large amounts of money on him. Harvey and Bryant moved together to Copping, where they lived until her death in a traffic accident.

Bryant was named the sole beneficiary of Harvey's will and came into possession of a mansion in Hobart and other assets totalling more than half a million dollars. In 1993 his mother applied for and was granted a guardianship order placing Bryant's assets under the management of trustees. The order was based on evidence of Bryant's diminished intellectual capacity.

Bryant travelled extensively both in Australia and internationally during this period, apparently seeking social contact with other travellers, but was frustrated at people's negative reactions to him.

Bryant had few friends. One of his few ex-girlfriends described how she was horrified by Bryant's obsession with the movie trilogy Child's Play. This kind of fear held by friends and girlfriends was reported in a number of psychiatric reports throughout his adulthood. After the offence, their recollections provided some indication of Bryant's mindset at the time of the Port Arthur Massacre. Shortly after the April 1996 massacre Bryant was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Although this diagnosis does not directly explain his violence it is thought the isolation Bryant experienced as a result of the Asperger's may have been a contributing factor.

Port Arthur Massacre
Port Arthur Bay

Bryant has provided conflicting and confused accounts of what led him to kill 35 people at the Port Arthur site on 28 April 1996. It appears his desire for attention (He allegedly told a next door neighbour "I'll do something that will make everyone remember me"), as well as mounting frustration at his social isolation, had made him unbearably angry. The possible trigger for the massacre, according to a psychiatric report cited by News Limited, was being prevented from selling home-made trinkets outside the Broad Arrow Cafe, when he was 9 years old.

His first victims, David and Sally Martin, who owned a guesthouse in the area, had apparently angered him by buying a guesthouse he wanted to buy. He shot them in the guesthouse before travelling to the Port Arthur ruins and opening fire on visitors. After he killed most of his victims at the site itself and the remainder during his escape, he returned to the guesthouse where police, unaware that the Martins were already dead, assumed that he had them as hostages and besieged the guesthouse. One potential victim was spared because when Bryant pointed the gun at him, their eyes met and Bryant immediately recognised him as someone he'd been acquainted with before and seemingly decided to let him live before moving on to continue the killings.

After 18 hours, Bryant set fire to the guesthouse and attempted to escape in the confusion. He suffered burns to one side of his body, was captured and taken to Royal Hobart Hospital where he was treated for the burns and kept under heavy guard.

As a response to the spree killing, the Howard government banned semi-automatic centerfire rifles, high-capacity repeating shotguns and high-capacity rifle magazines. In addition to this, heavy limitations were also put into place on low-capacity repeating shotguns and rimfire semi-automatic rifles. The Tasmanian state government attempted to ignore this directive but was threatened with a number of penalties from the federal government. Though this resulted in stirring controversy, most Government opposition to the new laws was silenced by media opinion and mounting public opinion in the wake of the shootings (see Gun politics in Australia for more information on the 1996 legislation).

Trial and imprisonment
Despite his mental dysfunction, Bryant was judged as fit to stand trial and a trial was scheduled to begin 7 November 1996, but Bryant, persuaded by his court-appointed lawyer, pleaded guilty to murder. As he admitted the crimes, Bryant laughed hysterically.[citation needed]

Two weeks later, Hobart Supreme Court Judge William Cox sentenced Bryant to life imprisonment and recommended that he should remain in prison until he dies.

He has attempted suicide 4 times while being imprisoned. For the first eight months of his imprisonment, he was held in a purpose-built special suicide prevention cell, in almost complete solitary confinement. He is still being held in protective custody for his own safety, a decade after his conviction. Recent reports from visitors have described Bryant as an 'overweight, shambolic wreck'.

On Monday November 13, 2006, Bryant was moved into Hobart's Wilfred Lopes Centre, a secure mental health unit run by the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services. The 35-bed unit for inmates with serious mental illness is staffed inside with doctors, nurses and other support workers. Inmates are not locked down and can come and go from their cells. Exterior security at the facility is provided by a three-wall perimeter patrolled by private contract guards.[1].

Media coverage
Newspaper coverage immediately after the massacre raised questions into journalistic practices. Photographs of Martin Bryant had been digitally manipulated with the effect of making Bryant appear deranged. There were also questions as to how the photographs had been obtained. The Tasmanian Director of Public Prosecutors warned the media that the reporting compromised a fair trial and writs were issued against the Hobart Mercury (which used Bryant’s picture under the headline “This is the man”), The Australian, The Age and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over their coverage. The Australian Press Council chair, David Flint, argued that because Australian newspapers regularly ignored contempt-of-court provisions, this showed that the law, not the newspapers, needed to change. Flint suggested that such a change in the law would not necessarily lead to trial by media.

Shizuka Arakawa

2007-03-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

Shizuka Arakawa (荒川静香, born December 29, 1981) is a Japanese figure skater who won the gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in the Ladies Singles event in Turin, Italy on February 23, 2006, and the 2004 World Figure Skating Championship. She is the first female skater who was born in Asia to win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating. She is the second oldest woman to win the Olympic figure skating gold (Yahoo, 2006 and NBC Olympics, 2006). On May 7, 2006 Arakawa announced her plans to retire from eligible figure skating (Reuters, 2006).

Star Trek mixed with The Simpsons

2007-02-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

Woman Gets Zapped And Raped

2006-12-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

This happened in a remote part of KL. Today after office hours, I heard from my sister-in-law that there is a new way to rape women. It happened to one of our good friends. The girl left the office after working hours and saw a little child crying on the road. Feeling pity for the child, she went and ask what happened. The child said, "I am lost. Can you take me home please?"

Then the child gave her a slip of paper which presumably stated where her home address was.

And the girl, being an average kind person, didn't suspect anything and brought the child there.

When she arrived at the child's home and pressed the door bell, she was shocked and knocked unconcious as the bell was wired with high voltage.

She woke up the following day and found herself in an empty house up in the hills, naked. Condoms were all thrown around with semen flowing. There were at least about 20 condoms! She did not even see her assailant(s). That's why crime nowadays is targeted on kind people like the lass.

This goes out to all you ladies out there: Next time if you encounter the same situation, never bring the child to the intended place. If the child insists, bring the child to the police station. A lost child is best sent to a police station.

Sonata may replace Crown as core taxi model

2006-11-28T01:18:00.000-08:00

Business Times, Wednesday, 16th August, 2006

By Samuel Ee

Japanese models could lose their grip on the main taxi market in Singapore as a Korean model looks set to make headway as a volume alternative with its competitive pricing and low running cost.

The Hyundai Sonata

is vying to replace the ubiquitous Toyota Crown

as a core taxi model. If all goes well, ComfortDelGro may even pick the mid-sized sedan to be the Crown's successor by as early as next month.

The Sonata has a two-litre turbo-diesel engine that complies with the environmentally friendly Euro 4 emission standard, while the current Toyota Crown only has a Euro 2 diesel engine.

From Oct 1, all new diesel-powered vehicles registered must meet the Euro 4 emission standard. Registering such a vehicle before this date will result in an 80 per cent rebate on the ARF registration tax. The rebate drops to 40 per cent from Oct 1 until end-2007.

But ComfortDelGro, which operates more than 70 per cent of the roughly 22,000 taxis in Singapore, is unlikely to meet the Oct 1 deadline and benefit from the higher rebate. This has been put down to supply issues but could also be because the taxi giant is in no hurry to replace its Crown cabs.

The Comfort fleet is mainly made up of relatively new Crowns, described as an extremely reliable workhorse. ComfortDelGro has two other taxi brands, Yellow-Top and CityCab, with mostly Nissan Cedric models

in the latter fleet.

Two Sonata diesel taxis have been undergoing product evaluation trials with ComfortDelGro drivers since late last year and they are equipped with specifications not found in the Crown, like ABS anti-lock brakes and automatic transmission.

'The current market price of the Hyundai is 22 per cent higher than the old Crown, which was based on older Euro II technology,' said ComfortDelGro group corporate communications officer Tammy Tan.

Feedback so far is understood to be satisfactory, both from the two cabbies as well as the car itself. Hyundai engineers here download data regularly from the taxis for monitoring by the head office.

'The two drivers seem to be happy with the amount of rental they are paying, the automatic transmission and the running costs of the Sonata,' said one source. 'The power is good and the car has a huge boot. Its interior is wider than the current Crown and has better legroom.'

ComfortDelGro will be sending a high-level team to Seoul soon to assess the Sonata's suitability.

'We have received an invitation to visit the Hyundai plant in Seoul to look at the vehicles. We may place an order for some Euro IV taxis but a decision has not been made yet,' said Ms Tan.

If successful in a tender to be called after the team's return, the purchase of the Hyundai model may alleviate Komoco Motors' falling passenger car volumes, which have recently been hurt by strong Japanese competition and a weaker yen.

But the Sonata is not the only ace in Komoco's deck. It is understood that ComfortDelGro may also consider the Chrysler Voyager

for evaluation as a limousine taxi. A limousine taxi has a higher flag-down fare than an ordinary taxi.

The transport group said no decision had been taken yet. But the main appeal of this full-sized multipurpose vehicle distributed by Komoco is not only its seven-seat capacity but also its disabled-friendly features. It has a sliding door for easy entry and seats which can be folded flat into the floor for wheelchair storage.

Interest in this large MPV model among taxi drivers is also said to be high.

Barely Breathing

2006-11-19T23:07:00.000-08:00

By SIMON ELEGANT/BEIJING
Air pollution kills more than 1,000 Chinese a day, which means cleaning Beijing's air for the 2008 Games poses an Olympian challenge

Posted Monday, Nov. 13, 2006
It starts out as a tickle in the back of your throat but before long it's that moment from Alien when the monster begins sawing its way through your chest. For some Beijing residents, a hacking, lung-ripping cough that leaves the sufferer unwilling to draw a full breath for fear it might set off another bout is as much part of the onset of Fall as red leaves at the Great Wall. Colds and the flu are common all over the world when winter threatens, of course. But this is something special, a by-product of Beijing's putrid air that serves as a painful reminder of how much damage China's invisible menace is wreaking.

Doctors in the city say the affliction, which affects newcomers like myself disproportionately, is sparked in part by the changing weather and the city's arid climate. But it is the city's heavy air pollution that seems to be the chief culprit in transforming what might be a seasonal irritation into something that can be truly frightening. For one thing, this cough simply won't go away. In my case it lasted for almost four weeks, often improving for a day or two only to return in full force. It's also scarily hard to control, even with medication: After a couple of weeks of hacking, my wife complained of a pain in her side and was told by the doctor that she had coughed so much that she had torn rib cartilage. In fact, he said, she was lucky not to have actually cracked a rib, an occurrence so common that she was routinely sent for an x-ray.

The effect of the Beijing air on newcomers is a vivid reminder of just how awful China's pollution problem is — and the grim toll it is taking on millions and millions of ordinary Chinese. Recent estimates by the state's Environmental Protection Administration put the annual number of premature deaths in China caused by air pollution at a massive 358,000.

Even though on Beijing's worst days you can actually taste the poison in the air — an eye stinging, throat rasping experience similar to breathing in anti-mosquito fogger — the capital is theoretically one of China's better cities when it comes to air pollution. Some days it doesn't even make the list of China's top 10 most polluted cities. Still, competition is fierce: China boasts 15 out of the world's top 20 most polluted metropolises.

The best hope of the city's residents for a cleanup is the fact that Beijing will host the Olympics in 2008. It's hard to exaggerate the importance to the Chinese authorities of an event they see as China's coming out party as a major world power. Yet, even with so much at stake and the executive power bestowed by authoritarian rule, Beijing'S doggedly dirty atmosphere may yet defeat the government's seemingly half hearted attempts to clean up. The capital remains a standout among Chinese cities in that it has no restrictions on the number of new cars hitting its streets. Shanghai for example limits new cars sales by charging for new license plates. In Beijing, there are no limits, and every day about 1,000 new vehicles boost the approximately 2.8 million total in the city.

If the city's experience during the recent China-Africa Summit is anything to go by, drastic measures may be required to clean up Beijing's air in time for the Olympics in August 2008. During that summit, which featured 42 heads of state, the authorities ordered half a million official cars off the roads and said another 400,000 drivers had "volunteered" to refrain from using their vehicles. The Air Pollution Index responded grudgingly, slowly falling until finally, on the last day of the meeting, it had dipped into a range considered normal anywhere else in the world. By the next day, though traffic was back to its usual chaotic state and the index had shot back into "unhealthy" territory. And Draconian measures to keep the air clean for a three-day summit would be considerably more difficult to impose over a 17-day sporting festival.

Still, the Chinese government has made it clear it will do whatever it takes for a successful Olympics. And if needs be, that will include ordering most of the capital's cars off the road for three weeks and shuttering factories. For those weeks anyway, Beijingers can be sure they'll be able to breathe easy. Other than that though, it looks as though we'll be stuck with poisonous air for the foreseeable future.

340km/h Police Lamborghini

2006-11-09T17:32:00.000-08:00

MSN Cars - Thursday, 02nd November, 2006
By Henry Biggs

A few years ago I remember seeing one of those “Police Slow” signs at the side of the road, upon which some wag had scrawled: “They are, aren’t they?”
Well if that gentleman or any other miscreant think they can outrun the long arm of the law, let me tell you, its reach has just got a lot longer thanks to a 640bhp Lamborghini Murcielargo LP640.

No more BMW 535d patrol cars for our boys in blue. Instead they will have a bellowing Italian 6.5-litre V12 and four-wheel-drive at their disposal, good for 211mph and 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds. That should have the joyriders giving up and coming quietly before they’ve even managed to hotwire the ignition. The world’s coolest cop car is going to be on display at the Metropolitan Police stand at the MPH ’06 show at London’s Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre which starts today and runs until November 5.
Top 10: MPH '06 supercars
Do you think the police should drive flash cars? Discuss on our message boards

Lotus Esprit S4 in police livery

And it’s not the first Charging Bull to wear “jam sandwich” livery. Last year the Met unveiled a Lamborghini Gallardo traffic car but perhaps with a mere 500bhp from its 5.0-litre V10 it’s no longer up to the job. And definitely outclassed these days is the Lotus Esprit S4 deployed as part of the thin blue line in 1994. Although, thanks to the Esprit’s low kerb weight, a mere 264bhp was still good enough for 165mph and 0-60 in 4.7 seconds. Well okay, the Murcielargo, like the Gallardo and Esprit is only a styling exercise designed to strike fear into the hearts of any ne’er do wells with a screwdriver and a hooded top.

Lamborghini Gallardos used by the Italian traffic police.

But the Italian Carabinieri don’t mess around with such half measures. The Roman cops simply ring Sant’Agata and ask for a couple of Gallardos to be delivered in a fetching shade of blue with some flashing lights on the roof. Yup, the patrol car you see here really does prowl the Salerno Reggio Calabria highway outside Rome waiting to catch flying Fiat 500s. And it’s not the first time such exotica have been used on patrol, in the ‘60s a Ferrari 250GTE was pressed into service. But hang on, what do they do with the bad guys once they’ve caught them? There aren’t any back seats.