Old Classmate: Attempted Murder

[publius]

If you remember, a couple years I posted about a in-law relation of mine to a cousin got in financial trouble and tried to rob a bank and is now cooling in prison for quite a little stay. Well, today, I learned something else shocking about a girl I went to school with growing up all the way through high school. She was a couple years older than me, and I lost touch after I went to college, but knew she still existed from others who knew her.

She lives in town, a small (but not as I small as it used to be, alas), and a couple of nights ago she was sitting on her front porch, guzzling beer, and decided to start taking pot shots at passerby with her .25 automatic. Passerby she didn't even know. They had built a little strip mall type of affair right across the street from her house, which now houses this work-out gym type of place. She got to shooting at women as they drove into the parking lot of the place, passing by her house. No men, just women.

The police got there and they took "slow and easy" with her and get her separated from her pistol without incident, but she did put up a fight when they tried to get the cuffs on here.

And now she's charged with several counts of attempted murder along with a slew of other charges and sitting in jail without bail.

When I heard this, my mouth fell open. I didn't know about it until today, and somehow none of the local news stations, save one, said a thing about it -- friends scoured the papers and found very little. In the old days, her father was sort of prominent in town, but he's been dead for nearly 10 years now. The one station that did carry it was the least likely to be influenced by any such considerations. But I just don't know.

At any rate, it looks like she just flat out flipped her gourd. She was married and divorced and has a son who is in his late teens, but that divorce was several years ago. She may have been in financial trouble, maybe about to lose her house or something but no one knows for sure.

Anyway, under questioning about why she did it, she said the women (whom she didn't know) were talking about her and plotting against her. So it sounds like clinical paranoia. If under severe stress, maybe financial, that could be the trigger.

But this just blows me away.

-Richard

[iquestor]

Yikes!

Two years ago a good friend of mine from HS (whom I hadn't seen since, we graduated in 84) decided to start shooting his 12ga shotgun into the trailer across the street. He didnt hit anyone but the police came soon, and he barricaded himself in his house. Later he made a run for it, and turned to fire at a policman, and was gunned down. Apparently he had done a little time in prison for drugs and had a crack problem afterwards.

He was a great friend in HS, I dont know what happened. :(

[novaderrik]

was she drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon?

i bet that, at the very least, there was some sort of illegal chemicals in her body. people just don't generally go that crazy without pharmaceutical help..

[Tog]

Though not as severe as taking potshots at people...

When I started at the grocery store, we had a notice up on the wall about not accepting checks from a particular person. He was a person I went to school with and even hung out with a time or two at lunch.



Another guy from my school days stays at our hotel on a regular basis. The church pays for his room and he doesn't recognize me at all. He's talked to me a few times, and something clicked one day. He asked about people from school and said we should hang out. I had two days off and when I got back, he had no idea who I was. He does drink quite a bit, and I suspect other things as well.

One night he came down to get some of "those copper scrubbies to clean the microwave in the room." I told him we didn't have any, but we did have some nylon pads that work really well. He said it had to be the copper ones. Copper scouring pads are a favorite for use in crack and meth pipes because they don't burn like steel wool and you need a screen to at the end of the pipe.



I worked with a guy at the store who knew the man accused of stalking and plotting to kidnap Steven Spielberg several years ago. The guy I worked with said he remember that other person as "Way scarey, even in school."



Finally, we had a case (http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-11-01/news/30348011_1_man-shot-sexual-relations-murder-and-unlawful-possession) a few weeks ago where Man 1 came out of his trailer while his neighbor (Man 2) was mowing the lawn. Man 1 shot Man 2 once in the leg and once in the back. Man 1 justified it as self defense because Man 2 had been attacking him telepathically for months.


You never know where the crazy will strike.

[profloater]

Scary stuff especially when you know the person. But that is exactly what happens every time. We now in UK have a ban on all hand guns after a man with a licenced gun, shot children and their teacher in Dunblane. He had been turned down as a scout leader and got bitter apparently. I have seen the gun lobby reaction that now in the UK only the gangsters have guns. We gave up the right to carry weapons a long time ago, my great grandfather used to carry a swordstick for self protection in London. The thing is I can easily imagine road rage getting fatal if we had guns as I believe it does in the states. Domestic disputes too. Yet in Switzerland where nearly every home has a gun by law, in a cupboard, casual shootings are almost unknown.

[AndreH]

Scary stuff especially when you know the person. But that is exactly what happens every time. We now in UK have a ban on all hand guns after a man with a licenced gun, shot children and their teacher in Dunblane. He had been turned down as a scout leader and got bitter apparently. I have seen the gun lobby reaction that now in the UK only the gangsters have guns. We gave up the right to carry weapons a long time ago, my great grandfather used to carry a swordstick for self protection in London. The thing is I can easily imagine road rage getting fatal if we had guns as I believe it does in the states. Domestic disputes too. Yet in Switzerland where nearly every home has a gun by law, in a cupboard, casual shootings are almost unknown.

I am very happy that from my old school class I haven't heard anythin like that. I have graduated from school in 1984. We had a 20 year and a 25 year anniversery reunion with almost 80 % of the people showing up. Haven't heard anything like that.

Yeah...guns and gun control, people behaviour. I find it rather interesting how different people react. Simply compare US, Canada, Norway, Switzerland. They all have relatively liberal (in the old meaning of that word) gun laws. But still are totally different in the number of incidents that happen. I not want to start a discussion about it here, because we will not be able to resolve it. Just sayin it is interesting how people act and it would be more interesting to understand the reasons.

[Buttercup]

She got to shooting at women as they drove into the parking lot of the place, passing by her house. No men, just women.

Would her first name happen to be Kelly?

She was a serious hater of other women.

My guess? She's angry with other women for rejection and failures she's experienced. They are younger, prettier, have it better (in her mind). She's been cheated, done wrong, etc. They will pay.

[Fazor]

Scares ya if you think too much about people like this woman. So I try not to think about them, though I do approach everyone with a sense of suspicion and self-defense. For instance, had some guy come to my door the other morning. Was pushing a lawn mower down the sidewalk, and just wanted to know if I would pay him to mow my lawn. My "No, thanks." really mean "I don't want you on my door stoop, let alone in my yard. I think you're really surveying my house to see if it's worth robbing. Go away before I get my gun." :-P

[Tog]

Our neighbors are like that. They thought our yard had gotten too wild, so they came over one day while were out and mowed it for us. I'm not worried about them robbing us or anything. The day the woman dies across the street I found out the guy next door used to jump over the tree she hit, so he's been here a while.

My issue is that he's got three travel trailers his his driveway, all of which have residents, and all of those sit in the front yard every weekend drinking beer and being loud. They also ask to come into the back yard and pick apples from our tree. It's these other people I'm not too sure about.

A few weeks back, I was about 11 PM. I work nights, so that was sleeping in. The GF wakes me up by saying, "Babe, gt your gun."

She was raised around them, and knows I was, so this isn't something we joke about, ever. I grabbed it and came into the living room but I didn't see anything going on. I asked her what was up, and she said someone was trying to break in. I looked over at the door and the knob was turning. THen someone pounded on the door with the palm of their hand.

Seeing that they weren't trying all that hard to break in, I grabbed a really bright little flashlight I have and shined it through the window in the top of the door. I hit him in the eyes with it and he staggered back and said, "Who's in there?"
I said, "No one who knows you, get off my porch."
He answered with "Lee? Open the door."
This went back and forth until I turned on the porch light. He looked around, then backed away with his hands out in front saying, "Sorry. Sorry, man. My bad"

He was just a drunk at the wrong house, but if It had been the night before, I wouldn't have been there. How much harder would he have tried to get in when "lee" didn't answer? Would she have grabbed the gun? Between what I write, and what she reads, we don't need to stretch our imaginations much to see that not end well in a number of ways.

[starcanuck64]

The fall after graduating from HS I heard a story on the news about a couple I guys I'd gone to Junior High with. They and an older guy stole a muscle cars, robbed a gas station and told the attendent to call the cops becuase they wanted a high speed chase. They got it and all three died in a wreck after their car left the road at an estimated 150mph.

[Buttercup]

Didn't know him personally (about 5 years younger), but a former schoolmate became essentially a drug lord in our hometown's overlying region. He planned and ordered the murders of at least 5 other people (some previously involved in drug trade with him; 1 or 2 others planning on reporting him to cops), one of whom was a toddler (mother murdered and they killed this child too). :( Terry was one of those murdered; I knew him, just 1 grade ahead of me. Said ex-drug lord is now serving life in prison without parole. He was cold-hearted and vicious. His nice and amiable mother worked as a bank teller for years; I also knew her. She has understandably had great difficulty dealing with it all...

[Donnie B.]

Years after I left the area, my home-town family doctor was the target of a murder-for-hire attempt. Fortunately it was detected and stopped before the actual attempt took place. Pretty surreal, though.

[publius]

was she drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon?

i bet that, at the very least, there was some sort of illegal chemicals in her body. people just don't generally go that crazy without pharmaceutical help..

Heh, I remember Pabst Blue Ribbon having a reputation back in my young and crazy days. In college, we all got some just to see. Tasted awful, and the rest I won't elaborate on.

There was no mention of any drugs -- just a lot of beer -- but I'm sure more details will come out through the grapevine. At this point, I'm thinking she just went crazy and the drunken state maybe lubricated whatever demented state of mind she was in.

-Richard

[swampyankee]

When I was in seventh grade (the kids are like 12-13 years old), one of my classmates set fire to the partitions in a boys' bathroom (it was an old school; the partitions were painted wood). After getting released from his new school (it had bars on the windows and you didn't get to go home), he was caught trying to tunnel into the local pharmacy.

[jrkeller]

While I can't think of anyone that I know from years past that has done anything like the rest of you mentioned, the area I live in now is known for some strange and horrific crimes.

Clara Harris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Harris_(criminal))
Lisa Nowak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Nowak)
Andrea Yates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Yates)

All less than five miles from my home.

[Trebuchet]

I had an acquaintance in Jr. High who later became an actual murderer. The case was originally thought to be a suicide, but after the autopsy they decided it was unlikely the victim could have shot himself twice in the head, disposed of the gun, and then set his car on fire.

The guy was caught not too much later after he had burglarized a business, shooting the guard dog in the process. With the same gun. Then selling what was obviously merchandise from the store. I don't recall him being real bright when I knew him, either.

I have a vague recollection of someone else I knew from the same school also being a killer, but can't put my finger on it. It was a long time ago.

[Tog]

The case was originally thought to be a suicide, but after the autopsy they decided it was unlikely the victim could have shot himself twice in the head, disposed of the gun, and then set his car on fire.

That would take an extraordinary amount of focus and a better than average tolerance for pain.

[swampyankee]

Anybody whose circle of acquaintances is large enough will probably include at least one violent criminal and at least one victim of violent crime or self-inflicted violence.

My wife and I both had acquaintances murdered, a classmate (in CCD) of my daughter hanged himself, and I have at least one aunt who was the victim of domestic abuse, as was (at least) one of my neighbors.

[jrkeller]

About five years ago, a colleague from work killed herself. In the morning around nine, we had a meeting to discuss this project we were working on. She didn't make it to the meeting, but did call in. By noontime she had taken her life. As far as I can tell, I was the last person to talk to her, when we said our goodbyes. Since she sat just a few cubicles away, I told her I would see her later and that was the end of the meeting.

[CJSF]

was she drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon?

i bet that, at the very least, there was some sort of illegal chemicals in her body. people just don't generally go that crazy without pharmaceutical help..
This is not true at all. Although psychotic breaks usually happen to people in their 20s, and get less common and less severe after that, it can happen to anyone. And if she already suffered from some other form of mental illness (i.e., personality disorders, schizophrenia, clinical depression), stressors can certainly trip one over the edge with little or no help from drugs (including alcohol).

CJSF

[slang]

When I was a student I found out that an ex-classmate (highschool'ish) had murdered his ex-girlfriend after she broke up the relationship, in the city where I was studying.. That is to say, I found out a year or so after the murder happened. I think he was the quietest guy in class.

[Paul Beardsley]

When I was at school, aged 11 IIRC, a boy in the year above me stabbed his mother to death. I remember seeing the news headline before I realised I knew him slightly. From what I can gather, she had it coming. He was not a violent boy before or after the event; it was a case of killing her being the only way to "make it stop".

I'm told he later worked as a Dalek operator. And I just spent ten minutes working out that any comment I make about this is going to sound flippant and distasteful.

Decades later I worked for Marconi, twice. I was later told that someone who had briefly been my manager joined the ranks of the infamous Marconi Suicides, but I haven't been able to get confirmation of this.

[Fazor]

A girl that I apparently graduated with (she was a grade behind me, but a promising student that graduated early. I didn't know her) was murdered by her boyfriend after they broke up. That was about a year after graduation.

That same year, a guy who was in my brother's grade (so, a Jr at the time) murdered a classmate.

That same, same year, though much sooner after graduation, a classmate that had been in the same school as me since preschool was killed in a freak accident when she went swimming in a lake where some workers had left an exposed power line under the water. Her mother was also killed in that accident. Her long-time boyfriend was good friends with some of my good friends. Poor guy was devastated.

That same year (get the pattern yet?) I ran into a girl out in Pittsburgh who knew me from highschool. When she told me her name, I recognized it, but I would have never known who she was if she hadn't come up to me and asked if I had gone to school there. A week later, she was killed in an automobile accident. (Her boyfriend was driving drunk. I think they both died.)

Two years after graduation (damn! Broke the pattern.) a guy that was in my best friend's grade (a year ahead of me) murdered his ex gf, her new boyfriend, then killed himself. There's been countless suicides. Etc.

Lots of stuff to talk about, if one sits around and talks about such things. None of it is all that "freaky" though, considering the people involved come from a pool of 2,500 plus that were students in highschool at the same time as I was.

[mfumbesi]

Scary stuff especially when you know the person. But that is exactly what happens every time. We now in UK have a ban on all hand guns after a man with a licenced gun, shot children and their teacher in Dunblane. He had been turned down as a scout leader and got bitter apparently. I have seen the gun lobby reaction that now in the UK only the gangsters have guns. We gave up the right to carry weapons a long time ago, my great grandfather used to carry a swordstick for self protection in London. The thing is I can easily imagine road rage getting fatal if we had guns as I believe it does in the states. Domestic disputes too. Yet in Switzerland where nearly every home has a gun by law, in a cupboard, casual shootings are almost unknown.
You do know the joke about "bad" food being eaten around world and only the English speaking countries tend to get health issues.

So to your question............Speaking English is what really gets you in the end [/joke]

[Jim]

While I can't think of anyone that I know from years past that has done anything like the rest of you mentioned, the area I live in now is known for some strange and horrific crimes.

Clara Harris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Harris_(criminal))
Lisa Nowak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Nowak)
Andrea Yates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Yates)

All less than five miles from my home.

Hey, unfair! Lisa Nowak may have lived in Clear Lake, but she did the crime in Florida.

But then, there's this one. Christine Paolilla (http://www.toobeautiful.org/clc_2008Oct14.html)

(Have you seen the horse patrols in Bay Oaks?)

[Jim]

This one's kinda tame by comparison, but interesting.

A classmate in high school was grossly over weight. (I saw him get into a VW beetle once and the poor car tilted 30 degrees on his side.) He used it to his advantage, starting the story that his weight was so dangerous he'd probably be dead before he turned 20, As a result, his teachers passed him even if he was failing. Poor kid.

He made it past 20, and became one of the biggest (no pun) pimps in Fort Worth. And he got his start in high school, selling dates (and that was all... at least, at first) with some of the more popular girls in school.

[jrkeller]

Hey, unfair! Lisa Nowak may have lived in Clear Lake, but she did the crime in Florida.

But then, there's this one. Christine Paolilla (http://www.toobeautiful.org/clc_2008Oct14.html)

(Have you seen the horse patrols in Bay Oaks?)

Lisa Nowak's planned her crimes in Clear Lake and she started her journey in Clear Lake, so IMO it's a Clear Lake Crime.

I can't believe I forgot Christine Paolilla. I've never seen the horse patrols.



And now we've got the double murder last weekend.

I feel like I've moved back to Detroit (That's where I grew up).

[Jim]

Interesting reasoning.

And the one in the parking lot, Hwy 3 at El Dorado. Our daughter is taking an evening class once a week and that's where she and her friends meet to carpool. She'd seen the guy who got shot several times before.

[jrkeller]

And let's not forget the Toddville Road Murder Mansion (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjacques/sets/72157617599276541/).

[rigel]

Back in 5th and 6th I had a best friend before I moved to the other side of town. I did not keep up with what is was doing. 3 years later, he admitted to choking a girl to death. He had hidden her body under the shed in his backyard. She been missing for 5 months.