Post your Mind Benders
- Thread starter KenpoTess
- Start date
M
Melissa426
Guest
Not really a quiz, but it makes you think!
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
> President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
> complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
>
> On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus
> and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus
> had jumped from the top of a ten-storey building intending to commit
> suicide.
>
> He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell
> past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast
> passing through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the
> shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been
> installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building
> workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his
> suicide the way he had planned.
>
> "Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "Someone who sets out to commit
> suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not
> be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That
> Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would
> not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the
> medical examiner to feel that
> he had a homicide on his hands.
>
> In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was
> occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously
> and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that
> when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the
> pellets went through the window striking Mr. Opus.
>
> When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the
> attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B."
>
> When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were
> both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was not
> loaded.
>
> The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife
> with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.
> Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that
> is, assuming
the
> gun had been accidentally loaded.
>
> The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
> couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal
> accident.
>
> It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
> support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the
> shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his
> father would shoot his mother.
>
> Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the
> murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now
> becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald
> Opus.
>
> Now comes the exquisite twist.
>
> Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald
> Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
> attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off
> the ten-storey building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a
> shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had
> actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as
> a suicide.
>
> A true story from Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
> President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
> complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
>
> On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus
> and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus
> had jumped from the top of a ten-storey building intending to commit
> suicide.
>
> He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell
> past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast
> passing through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the
> shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been
> installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building
> workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his
> suicide the way he had planned.
>
> "Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "Someone who sets out to commit
> suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not
> be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That
> Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would
> not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the
> medical examiner to feel that
> he had a homicide on his hands.
>
> In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was
> occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously
> and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that
> when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the
> pellets went through the window striking Mr. Opus.
>
> When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the
> attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B."
>
> When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were
> both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was not
> loaded.
>
> The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife
> with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.
> Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that
> is, assuming
the
> gun had been accidentally loaded.
>
> The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
> couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal
> accident.
>
> It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
> support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the
> shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his
> father would shoot his mother.
>
> Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the
> murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now
> becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald
> Opus.
>
> Now comes the exquisite twist.
>
> Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald
> Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
> attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off
> the ten-storey building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a
> shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had
> actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as
> a suicide.
>
> A true story from Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt
S
shaolinchi
Guest
wow, what a strange twist and strange story!
That is an amazing and awesome story Melissa, thank you for sharing it.
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- Apr 16, 2004
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It sounded like a short story that Edgar Allen Poe would write. Or Twilight Zone would put on as a short. TW
