Fun_People Archive
9 Aug
News of the Weird - excerpts 8/14/92

Date: Sun,  9 Aug 92 11:03:58 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: News of the Weird - excerpts 8/14/92

	WEIRDNUZ.236 (News of the Weird, August 14, 1992)
	by Chuck Shepherd

	Lead Story

	* Billy Milligan, 37, was recently hired to direct a $3
	million film based on the life of a serial rapist who
	plagued Columbus, Ohio, in the late 1970s and who is
	now in prison.  Milligan has never directed before. 
	His only qualifications for the job are that he was a
	serial rapist, himself, in the 1970s and was on hand
	when Hollywood director James Cameron shot Milligan's
	own life story, "The Crowded Room."  (Milligan was
	found not guilty by reason of insanity and served ten
	years in mental institutions until his 20 multiple
	personalities "integrated" into one.) [Columbus
	Dispatch-AP, Jul92] 

	Police Blotter

	* Des Moines, Wash., police, frustrated by their
	inability to convict prostitutes in sting operations
	unless sex actually occurred--yet prohibited themselves
	from having sex with prostitutes--revealed in April
	that they had hired convicted rapist Robert Berdue, 29,
	to do the dirty work for them. [Detroit Free Press-
	Seattle Times, 4-10-92] 

	* In April, Velma Ann Wantlin, 28, was given a citation
	by police in Houma, La., for improper use of the 911
	line after she called to report that her husband was
	preventing her from watching the season finale of
	"Knots Landing." [Tuscaloosa News-N. Y. Times, 4-11-92]

	* On May 15, Laguna Beach, Cal., policeman Jon "Crash"
	Fehlman was injured again on the job--this time
	suffering a broken leg when a motorist hit his parked
	patrol car while he was alongside frisking a suspect. 
	Since "Crash" joined the force in 1985, he has been
	driven into by colleagues in a chase exercise; suffered
	bruised heels chasing a prowler; been hit by a
	ricocheting bullet during target practice; been rear-
	ended by a truck; had his patrol car door slam on his
	knee (breaking the leg in two places); and been
	disabled with poison oak, smoke inhalation, and
	wrenched knees and elbows. [San Jose Mercury News-
	Orange County Register, 5-26-92] 

	* Shawn O'Neill, 42, was arrested in Escondido, Calif.,
	in March and charged with robbing Hussar's Jewelers. 
	He had already been convicted of robbing it twice in
	January and was awaiting sentencing. [Escondido Times
	Advocate, Mar92] 

	* Jenny Soukup, 17, was charged with conspiracy to
	assist in a drive-by shooting in Russell, Kan., in
	February.  Several hours later, out on bail, she was
	crowned winter sports queen at Russell High School as a
	result of a vote taken before the shooting incident.
	[Independence Examiner, 2-20-92] 

	* In July, New Orleans police arrested Donald Simmons,
	53, and Cheryl Collins, 38, for breaking into parking
	meters, after videotaping the couple's crime.  The
	police said the two would walk along a street and
	passionately embrace every few yards but that that was
	a ruse.  In reality, there was a parking meter between
	them, and Simmons would open it with a key and slip the
	money to Collins, who would put it into a bag under her
	skirt--all in about 12 seconds' time.  A police officer
	said Simmons admitted to having practiced the scheme
	since 1985. [Washington Post, Jul92] 

	The Litigious Society

	* An Indiana appeals court ruled in April that a
	railroad employee's estate was entitled to federal
	railway worker compensation payment because his death
	occurred in the line of duty.  The employee was shot by
	a 13-year-old boy as he leaned out the window of his
	train for the purpose of passing a note to a co-worker
	reading, "Eat a bag of shit." [Baltimore and Ohio RR v.
	Taylor, 1992 WL 62770] 

	* Emoke P. Adams, 53, filed a lawsuit in Cuyahoga
	Falls, Ohio, in April against neighbor Theresa Bartlett
	for $25,000 for negligently squirting her with a garden
	hose.  Adams cited "permanent" physical problems and
	emotional trauma resulting from the incident. [Akron
	Beacon Journal, 4-17-92] 

	* In March, the families of murder victims Michael and
	Susan MacIvor began a battle in Tavernier, Fla., over 
	which would get Michael's estate.  The crucial legal
	question was which of the two died first.  Both were
	found, bound and strangled, in their home in 1991.  If
	Michael died first, Susan's heirs would get his estate,
	because she would have gotten it had she survived him. 
	If Susan died first, Michael's estate would go to his
	family. [Tampa Tribune, Mar92] 

	* Shauna Raisch filed a lawsuit in Tampa, Fla., in July
	against the National Cosmetology Association, alleging
	that she was unfairly denied her rightful place on the
	1992 U. S. Ladies Hairstyling Team bound for the
	cosmetology olympics in Tokyo in October.  Raisch
	claimed that, after being chosen for the team, she was
	kicked off by her supervisor for being 20 minutes late
	to a meeting. [St. Petersburg Times, 7-3-92] 

	The Weirdo-American Community

	* Joseph J. Kim, a physician on the staff of the
	University Hospital in Columbia, Mo., was charged in
	May with sexual assault against at least two female
	patients whom he told he was "preparing for surgery." 
	He told one that, to prepare her to breathe properly
	during the operation, he would have to blindfold her
	and insert four objects down her throat.  The third
	object allegedly was his penis. [Missourian, 6-4-92] 

	Least Competent Person

	* Ronald Sturkes was charged in Hicksville, N. Y., in
	June with irregularities in taking his driver's license
	test.  After becoming well known to motor vehicle
	department employees by protesting his failure on the
	driving portion of the test, Sturkes--27 years old and
	white--allegedly arranged for a 55-year-old black man
	to impersonate him in taking the written test.
	[Edmonton Journal, 7-11-92] 

	The Diminishing Value of Life

	* In Cleveland in April, Henrietta Page, 46, was
	charged with stabbing her husband to death as a result
	of an argument about whether the dog could sit on the
	couch. [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4-5-92] 

	END

© 1992 Peter Langston