I posted this a while back. That Gene Dude sent it to me again. It’s worth a repost for those who may have missed it.
For those who have served on jury… this one is something to think about…Just when you think you have heard everything!! 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 for 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.
Thanks Gene
They actually made a story for this on the old Homicide: Life on the Streets show. I remember it had Steve Allen as the father and his wife (whose name I can’t remember off the top of my head) as the mother. It was quite well done.
That Gene Dude, great story buddy. Jonco, buy an “M”, just kidding.
I ran out of M’s… So I borrowed one from an M&M Now I have a M&N. Thanks!
Actually, there is only one sentence in this post that is completely true:
“I posted this a while back. That Gene Dude sent it to me again. It’s worth a repost for those who may have missed it.”
The story was told by Dr Mills to an audience, but in 1987, and it was in fact made up by Dr Mills to illustrate a point about how small changes in the facts can greatly change the legal outcome.
However, it is indeed worthy of a repost for its inventiveness alone.
More, if you want it, here (Snopes)
I like the story, but I’d say the father was guilty of reckless homicide, and the son was guilty of attempted murder as well as attempted suicide. If he didn’t change his mind, he would have crawled out of the safety net and continued falling. The father was a violent bastard, and the son was a loser, probably because of his dysfunctional parents. 🙁
If true. what would be the odds? However, I don’t buy into it.
Good story, though.
“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”
Yeah, that would fly with a prosecutor.
This was in the openening scence of P. T. Anderson’s Magnolia. Fantastic movie.
Wasn’t this family on Jerry Springer last season?
this story did make it into the Darwin Awards back in the mid to late 1990s. if it’s not true, then they were fooled too.
Check out Wikipedia for details.
…dave
I like how “As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted”– heck of an interuuption.
““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”
Yeah, that would fly with a prosecutor.”
The wife also agreed. So it should hold up.