Daily Rotten Archives January 27, 2005 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 Alleged spree shooting inside auto plant CNN | Submitted by: Jim Jones "An auto worker wired a shotgun to his body and burst into a Jeep assembly plant, killing a supervisor and wounding two other employees before killing himself... After entering the plant at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, [Myles Meyers] had pointed the gun at a woman in the plant's body shop office and ordered her to summon three other people, telling her he did not plan to hurt her, police Chief Mike Navarre said. 'He gave her three names. He told her who he wanted and who he was going to shoot,' Navarre said. She summoned one of the three men, Michael Toney, who was shot and wounded. Supervisor Roy Thacker, who was on the list of three, was killed after he went to the office on his own, while a third man who was not on the list, Paul Medlen, was wounded later, authorities said. Meanwhile, the woman then ran out of the office and warned co-workers over the radio, police said." Read article... Shipman victim list prepended BBC | Submitted by: heystoopid "Harold Shipman killed up to 15 patients in his early career, bringing his total murder toll to an estimated 250 people, the Shipman Inquiry has revealed. Chairman of the inquiry Dame Janet Smith said Shipman unlawfully killed three men at Pontefract General Infirmary (PGI) in the 1970s... She said between 1971 and 1998, Shipman killed an estimated 250 people... The report has discounted claims from an ex-prisoner that Shipman confessed to 508 deaths when he was in HMP Preston. Dame Janet rejected comments made by John (Jonathon) Harkin saying the figure was too high, adding: 'Nor in my view can any reliance be placed on Mr Harkin's account.'" Read article... Cannibal wifekiller slated for hanging Independent Online | Submitted by: awgrudno "A Kenyan court on Tuesday sentenced a Masai tribesman to death by hanging for stabbing to death his pregnant wife, then eating her liver and part of her heart. Police who arrested Lolwakenju Lengironi in September 2001 in a Nairobi slum found him with blood on his mouth, standing near the mutilated body of his wife, Mangenyan, court papers said... His lawyers argued he was under the influence of alcohol and temporarily insane at the time." Read article... Man admits contract murder by lion BBC | Submitted by: optional "The trial of three men accused of feeding a black former farm worker to South African lions has been adjourned after one of them admitted involvement. Mark Scott-Crossley, Richard Mathebula and Simon Mathebula, pleaded not guilty to murder, but Richard Mathebula acknowledged assaulting Nelson Chisale. The three are accused of tying Mr Chisale up and throwing him into an enclosure used for breeding lions. The post-mortem examination found that Mr Chisale was mauled to death. Richard Mathebula, 41, told the court in the courthouse in Phalaborwa, on the edge of Kruger National Park: 'I followed instructions given to me by my employer [Mark Scott-Crossley].' He also alleged that Mr Scott-Crossley threatened that he would also be thrown to the lions if he told anyone." Read article... Japan kills unofficial WWII reparations fund BBC | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Japan has announced the closure of a fund set up to help women from neighbouring countries forced into military brothels during World War II... The Asian Women's Fund was set up in 1995, based on cash donations from the Japanese public. The fund paid 2m yen ($19,470) each in compensation, plus medical and welfare support, to 285 so-called 'comfort women' in the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan. It also gave medical aid to 79 Dutch women who were forced into having sex by Japanese troops in Indonesia. The government met administration costs but refused to finance it, saying the issue of sex slaves was dealt with under post-war peace treaties. An estimated 200,000 women from across Asia were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II... Many former sex slaves have refused to apply to the fund, arguing that the Japanese Government should pay them directly. Tokyo has also not offered an official apology to former 'comfort women', and refused to even recognise them until 1992." Read article... Penis-pump judge charged KOCO-TV 5 Oklahoma City | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The charges against ex-District Judge Donald Thompson cover three alleged incidents that occurred inside the Creek County courthouse during the summer of 2003, special prosecutor Richard Smothermon said... Before the hearing, authorities obtained a court-ordered DNA sample from Thompson to determine whether it matches fluids found in his old courtroom and office. According to an affidavit accompanying the search warrant, the tests confirmed that the fluids were semen. Thompson is accused of using a device called a 'penis pump' during two murder trials in 2003. Jurors in the murder trial of Kurt Vomberg said they heard what sounded like a bicycle pump or blood-pressure pump. Court reporter Lisa Foster told authorities she saw Thompson attach and use the device almost daily during that trial, and that the sounds can be heard on the audiotape she made, the affidavit states." Read article... Murder suspect working the old gay panic defense Grayson County News-Gazette | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "[Joshua W. Cottrell]'s attorney told the jury his client was acting 'in self-preservation' after a 'predatory and unwanted homosexual' advance by [Guinn Richard Phillips].' ... the prosecution argued that Cottrell, 21 at the time of the alleged killing, now 23, murdered Phillips, 36, because Phillips was a homosexual and had made a series [a series? couldn't just walk away after the first try?] of unwanted and unprovoked sexual advances toward him... [Defense attorney Scott Drabenstadt] told jurors that Phillips had 'crossed a line' when he tried to get Cottrell to kiss him and then engage in oral sex with him. He also told jurors that Cottrell, acting out of a sense of fear and 'self-preservation' struck Phillips... Drabenstadt spent a good part of Wednesday and Thursday trying to show Phillips as a 'promiscuous sexual predator who attempted to prey on a 21-year-old young man in a locked motel room.'" [Oh dear God the door was locked?!?!] Read article... New education secretary starts with the dykes Planet Out | Submitted by: shauners "The unaired episode of Postcards from Buster shows the title character - a cartoon bunny - on a trip to Vermont's maple sugar farms. While visiting, Buster meets several characters, including two lesbian couples... Education Secretary Margaret Spellings attacked the show in a letter to Pat Mitchell, PBS president and chief executive... [and] then demanded a refund of government money that had funded Postcards from Buster. PBS responded the same day, saying the nonprofit network would not distribute the episode to its 349 stations. 'Ultimately, our decision was based on the fact that we recognize this is a sensitive issue, and we wanted to make sure that parents had an opportunity to introduce this subject to their children in their own time,' said Lea Sloan, vice president of media relations at PBS." Read article... Subpoenaed documents allegedly shredded at city hall KGTV 10 San Diego | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The U.S. Attorney's Office is looking into allegations that San Diego city employees illegally destroyed documents that were part of a federal investigation... Last year, federal subpoenas ordered two dozen city employees to turn over certain records dating back to 1996. New City Attorney Mike Aguirre pledged to help federal investigators and found 25 boxes of records he says were supposed to be turned over months earlier. Last week he dropped another bombshell on City Hall - allegations of wholesale document destruction at financial manager Mary Vattimo's office - in violation of the subpoenas... One city worker 10News spoke with said shortly after the first subpoenas came out in April of 2004, paper shredders were literally breaking down at offices in City Hall and at the City Attorney's Office because people were shoving too many documents in them. He said maintenance crews were working overtime fixing the shredders." Read article... Perhaps Lynndie wasn't lying after all MSNBC | Submitted by: sonofdubya "Female interrogators tried to break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay by sexual touching, wearing miniskirts and thong underwear and in one case smearing a Saudi man's face with fake menstrual blood, according to an insider's written account... [former Army Sgt. Erik R. Saar] said he witnessed about 20 interrogations and about three months after his arrival at the remote U.S. base he started noticing 'disturbing' practices... About 20% of the guards at Guantanamo are women, said Lt. Col. James Marshall, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command. He wouldn't say how many of the interrogators were female... some officials at the U.S. Southern Command have questioned the formation of an all-female team as one of Guantanamo's 'Immediate Reaction Force' units that subdue troublesome male prisoners in their cells, according to a document classified as secret." Read article...