One to think about

[happy daze john in oz]

Do you like to read a good murder mystery? Not even Law and Order would attempt to capture this mess. This is an unbelievable twist of fate! 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-story 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.

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-story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son, Ronald Opus, had actually murdered himself. So the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.



A true story from Associated Press.

[happy daze john in oz]

Thank you Marian but the way the world id today we need some fun>
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An Arab sheik was admitted to hospital for heart surgery, but prior to the surgery the doctors needed to store his blood in case the need arose.
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> As the gentleman had a rare type of blood it couldn't be found locally so the call went out.
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> Finally a Scotsman was located who had a similar blood type. The Scot willingly donated his blood for the Arab.
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> After the surgery the Arab sent the Scotsman as appreciation for giving his blood a new BMW, diamonds & US dollars.
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> A couple of days later, once again, the Arab had to go through corrective surgery.
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> His doctor telephoned the Scotsman who was more than happy to donate his blood again.
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> After the second surgery the Arab sent the Scotsman a thank-you card and a box of Quality Street chocolates.
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> The Scotsman was shocked that the Arab did not reciprocate his kind gesture as he had anticipated.
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> He phoned the Arab and asked him: "I thought you would be generous again, that you would give me a BMW, Diamonds & money, but you only gave me a thank-you card and a box of chocolates ."
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> To this the Arab replied: "Aye laddie, but I now have Scottish blood in my veins.'un if only in such a silly manner.