Just stumbled upon this:
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a strange death. Here is the story:
"On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his dispondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter not the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this.
"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands. "The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed the wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus.
"When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her - therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidently loaded.
"The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now, becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus."
There was an exquisite twist. "Further investigation revealed that the son, Ronald Opus, had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window.
"The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide."
31 Comments
heavyprints said almost 2 years ago
That can’t possibly be true. It’s far too awesome.
Terror said almost 2 years ago
i feel like this would make a perfect scene in the new SAW movie. mind boggling...
DCAY said almost 2 years ago
wow
David_M said almost 2 years ago
I dont believe.
Kevin The Crook said almost 2 years ago
how fucking bizarre
jimiyo said almost 2 years ago
saw that episode on Bones
Derisory Designs said almost 2 years ago
haven’t any of you ever seen magnolia? That monologue is the opening 10 minutes of the movie
drewg said almost 2 years ago
that’s one fucked up family.
4Sevens said almost 2 years ago
Snopes confirms it as fiction.
cyanide said almost 2 years ago
still a fun read
Kolby said almost 2 years ago
I think its true.
I read it in one of the bathroom books a few years ago.
RustyEight said almost 2 years ago
Because we all know bathroom books are the authority on suicides lawlawlawl
Kolby said almost 2 years ago
I said I think its true. Not its true because the book said so.
Universitee Apparel said almost 2 years ago
good twist.
illdthedj said almost 2 years ago
yah and they show the whole thing, that was crazy
Geoff May said almost 2 years ago
Not exactly, but pretty close.
andrE w. said almost 2 years ago
truth
derek said almost 2 years ago
I work in a forensic toxicology lab and i can tell you some people end up dead in very strange situations.
mitchbones said almost 2 years ago
Even though snopes, a credible source on myths says its fiction. What do you have to back up your belief.
I’m a skeptic at heart so its hard for me to believe such a tale.
Robmcbride said almost 2 years ago
So the son was Ronald and he tried to commit suicide but was hit by a shotgun blast from a weapon he loaded. Had he not loaded the weapon, he would of landed in a net and been safe?
I get confused sometimes, but I think that’s what it said.
corefolio said almost 2 years ago
yup.
jeff kardos said almost 2 years ago
hahah thats the best thing i have ever heard
4Sevens said almost 2 years ago
If you go to the snopes link and read what their research reveals, it does say that part of the story was true. That being that there is a Don Harper Mills, and that he did tell this story at a meeting of the AAFS way back in 1987. In an interview ten years later he reveals that the anecdote was a work of fiction for the purpose of entertaining the audience and showing how altering a few small facts can greatly alter legal consequences.
Snopes.com is the last word on urban legends. It’s a great story and being retold as an event that actually happened has the effect of making it monumentally greater.
designisvoice said almost 2 years ago
Yeah .. Magnolia is an AWESOME movie.
G-rant said almost 2 years ago
is it bad that I laughed hysterically out loud in co-op today when I read this?
Derisory Designs said almost 2 years ago
word.
Johnny D said almost 2 years ago
I remember reading this... haha.. made me laugh again
downrodeo said almost 2 years ago
wot a story. nice find, dude.
horsebites said almost 2 years ago
Noodz.
shantyshawn said almost 2 years ago
That’s friggin' wild. It reminds me of the guy in NYC back in the mid 80's that killed himself by hitting himself in the head with a hammer 23 times. After 1, I think I’d be thinking sleeping pills and a vodka chaser.
make planes not waste said almost 2 years ago
Yea I was going to say that