Weird but true

[Guest guest]

From the realm of the truly bizarre, but true

(it's originally an Associated Press news story)...

 

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. The

decedent

had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit

suicide.

He left a note to that 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

decedent was aware that a safety net had been installed just

below at 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, "a person 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 nine stories below at street level,

but that

this suicide attempt 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.

 

The room on the ninth floor from whence 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

bullet 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. They both

said they

thought the shotgun was unloaded. 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 Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident,

that is,

the gun had been accidentally loaded. Wrong.

 

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.

 

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 had actually murdered

himself

so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

 

This story, like the son, has no morals.

 

 

With thanks to LAYLWARD (AT) OUHK (DOT) EDU.HK

The Open University of Hong Kong,

Kowloon, Hong Kong for sharing this.