Category:
Crime

Your Daily Loser & Jury Duty for May 12th

Your Daily Loser - During an argument back in October of 2006, Chytoria Graham picked up her infant son and swung him like a baseball bat, hitting her boyfriend, and fracturing the baby's skull (the boy survived). She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. So why is she back in the news? Because Chytoria is appealing her sentence and claims the public defenders who represented her at trial were ineffective. She's also just been released on bail.

Jury Duty - Some people just don't see the line between acceptable and not acceptable. Todd Marcum, of Salem, Oregon, is one of those people. Marcum was arrested for putting an electronic, shocking dog collar on his children. And not because they were misbehaving, but because he thought it was funny. The Story. // The Mugshot.

Posted By: Nethie - Tue May 12, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Babies, Crime, Domestic, Family, Your Daily Jury Duty, Your Daily Loser, Goofs and Screw-ups

Midwest Division’s Friday Feast

Turtle Huntin’; Batesville, Ind.: Turtle Huntin’ offers you “the ultimate outdoor adventure,” through guided turtle hunting instruction and hunts. You can read all about turtle hunting at their website, but for a “minor charge” you too can turtle hunt like the pros. Turtle Huntin' Link fixed 2333 May, 9, 2009.

Garbage Clocks; Evanston, Ill: An Evanston man has been featured by CBS Sunday Morning and Thrillist for his clocks made out of garage sale junk. His clocks are available for purchase on Etsy. Thrillist

131 Years of Prayer; La Crosse, Wisc: At the Adoration Chapel of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin; the Sisters have prayed at a consecrated host, the Holy Eucharist, for the past 131 years. Since 1878 the Sisters have prayed at the Holy Eucharist in shifts around the clock. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

11 Year Old Steals Car; St. Cloud, Minn.: An 11 year old was arrested in St. Cloud Minnesota for stealing a car in Waite Park, Minnesota and driving it to the next town. Charges are pending. WCCO

Shoplifter Wrote Address On Job App; Dayton, Ohio: A man shoplifting at a clothing store filled out a job application with his real address before he left and set off the alarms. Chicago Tribune via the Associated Press.

Another BB Gun Robbery, Deadly; Chicago Ill: Ernesto Garcia decided to use a BB gun to rob a gas station. The weapon looked like a real handgun. So, one can assume that the police thought it was real when he refused to put it down. Garcia was shot eight times by the Chicago Police Officer. Garcia was a suspect in 25 other robberies. Chicago Tribune

Posted By: chris_cantwell - Fri May 08, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Boredom, Cops, Crime, Death, Guns, Religion

Midwest Crime Round Up

Out of Work Teachers Sell Meth; South Bend, Ind: Twin sisters and out of work school teachers, Maria and Michelle Stancati, have plead guilty to dealing methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school. Indy Star

Ex-Public Defender Busted in Child Sex Internet Sting;
Marion County, Ind: Ryan W. Snyder, former Marion County Public Defender, was caught in an internet sex sting in February 2008. He has been sentenced to two years in prison. Indy Star

Three Arrested in BB Gun Home Invasion;
Wauwatosa, Wisc: Three high school students were arrested in a home invasion after demanding $1,200 at gunpoint. The suspect with the weapon brandished what looked like a handgun, but was really a BB gun. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Teen Declines Sex for Money, Utilities Shut Off;
Chicago, Ill: A West Side teen was solicited for sex for money by her landlord. When she turned him down, he shut off the gas and electric. He now faces charges for interfering with a public utility. Chicago Breaking News

Driver Painting Nails Kills Motorcyclist;
Lake Zurich, Ill: According the News Sun Sun Times News Group, Laura Hunt of Morris IL, “told police that she was painting her fingernails and did not notice the light was red.” According to one Officer her vehicle knocked the victim "a couple hundred feet." Sun Times News Group

Posted By: chris_cantwell - Wed May 06, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Addictions, Crime, Death, Drugs, Law, Weapons

Birds in his pants

It's definitely a recurring theme in weird news since an example of it was included in my "name that list, #15" (things people smuggle by stuffing down their pants). However, I've never seen a picture of it before. But the Smoking Gun has obtained a photo of a California man, Sony Dong, who was caught trying to illegally smuggle 14 live Asian songbirds into the country by hiding them beneath his pants.

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 06, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Crime

Mugshots of Moonshiners

Mugshots of Southern moonshiners, from Life Magazine (Jan 1, 1940):


During 1939, agents working out of Atlanta destroyed $423946-worth of illicit distilling apparatus. But this comparatively small figure represented 4325 stills, with a total estimated capacity of 650000 gallons per day.
Of the convicted moonshiners above, most famous is Theressa Brown (fourth row, center). Known to agents as "Queen of the Bootleggers," she has been arrested 22 times, mostly for liquor-law violation, but once for arson, once for shooting her husband.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 26, 2009 - Comments (12)
Category: Crime, Inebriation and Intoxicants, 1940s

Bertillon Measurements

You've probably heard of the Bertillon System, one of those discredited "scientific" theories detailing how body measurements indicated racial and/or criminal aspects of a person.

Well, here's how the NYC Police Department went about securing Bertillon measurements, circa 1908--courtesy of the George Bain Collection at the Library of Congress.

image

image

image

image

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 06, 2009 - Comments (6)
Category: Crime, Fads, Science, Anthropology, Experiments, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1900s

Motor Patrol

For those of you who are wondering about the possible ancestors of the famed TV show CHiPs--and there must be at least six of you--here comes the 1950 film MOTOR PATROL. I watched it recently, and it's not as goofy as many cheap films of this era. But the fact that ninety percent of the action and intrigue does NOT involve motorcycles has to count for something.

Isn't that fellow in the white suit really channelling Clark Gable pretty badly?

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 28, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Stupid Criminals, Movies, Regionalism, 1950s, Motorcycles

Angry Santa

Here's a treat from weird news of Christmases past. Published in the Miami Herald, Jan 4, 1984:

A disgruntled investor dressed as Santa Claus abducted his broker from a Christmas party and punished him for 12 days in a homemade torture chamber because $500,000 in deals had gone sour, police said Tuesday. Broker Robert J. Haye, 49, of Mount Lebanon was freed by police Monday at a farm 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. He was found chained and handcuffed to a bed in the makeshift torture chamber...
Haye was kept in a small trailer inside the building that contained the bed, an electric chair and a pine box resembling a coffin with spikes inside, police said. He had been drugged and shocked repeatedly, police said.
"Over the 12 days, he was beaten and tortured," said Detective Lt. Leo O'Neill. "His nose was broken. He was placed in the chair at various times and interrogated. He had been given junk food. We were lucky to find the victim alive."

Phillippi was arrested at his home, and police later recovered the Santa Claus suit.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 25, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Christmas

The Bad Sleep Well

We've been alerted to the serial killer in Japan who's taking revenge for corporate fraud, as described in this article in today's NY TIMES. But what no one seems to have noticed is that we've already seen this scenario in a film. THE BAD SLEEP WELL is one of Akira Kurosawa's masterpieces, and details how a man whose father was killed by corrupt businessmen exacts his revenge. Here's the excellent trailer.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 22, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Business, Crime, Death, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Movies, Foreign Customs, 1960s, Asia

Cow-Costumed Woman Chases Children

We here at Weird Universe have been warning our readers for quite some time about the danger posed by cows who attack. (See here, here, and here.) It has now become apparent that this threat extends to women dressed up as cows.

Evidence: Michelle Allen of Middletown, Ohio was taken into custody for disorderly conduct that included chasing children, urinating on a neighbor's front porch, and causing traffic problems -- all while wearing a cow costume.

In case you have any desire to imitate Michelle this Halloween -- and I suspect many people will be doing so -- it looks like Amazon has a similar cow costume in stock.

(Thanks to everyone who forwarded us this story!)

Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 01, 2008 - Comments (6)
Category: Crime, Cows

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Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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