Have you Ever Personally Known a Murderer?

[Josquius]

One of my great (or was it great great....I dunno) uncles was in the chindits during the war and so did some pretty damn nasty things that went over and beyond standard war. I only met him a few times though when I was a kid, I remember he had a katana, which was awesome.
Apart from him most of my killing family members died before my time. I don't think any of them could have been counted as full on murderers though.

[Jaron]

I can't even think of a criminal that I personally know, much less a murderer.

Goody Two shoes

[Valmy]

Gang members, rapists, thieves...yes...I don't think any of them ever actually succeeded in killing anybody though.

[dps]

Yeah, I knew a murderer.  I think I posted about this before on the old board, but a guy I worked with did a murder-for-hire.  I knew him when I was in H.S. and working part-time for the city.  There were a couple of the full-time guys who drank a good bit on the job, and eventually they got fired for it.  One of the guys was the son of the City Manager who made the decision to let them go (after repeated warnings to them and some of the other employees), so you can see that they had a pretty serious problem.  A year or so later, the son and another local drunk (not the same one that lost his job at the same time) were hired to kill a woman by the victim's nephew and his wife, so the she wouldn't inherit any of his grandfather's money.  They paid the 2 guys a case of beer to do it.  Needless to say, they didn't cover their tracks very well, and when they got caught, immediately ratted out the nephew and his wife.  They turned state's evidence, and basically got off with time served.

[Neil]

Well that would make him a killer, but not a murderer.

For me it depends on what you mean by "personally".  I've dealt with several in court, even had brief conversations.

No, he confessed to murder - not killing in the line of duty.

What happened was this.

When I was in grade 10, my biology class teacher assigned us the project of interviewing a real-life scientist. This was easy for me, because my dad was a scientist. Of course I thought it would be lame beyond words to interview my own dad, so I asked him to recommend someone he knew to interview. He recommended a fellow who was a teacher of his many years ago - a guy on the verge of retirement, who he said was "quite a character".

I went to interview this guy, and he was, indeed, quite a character. We hit it off very well (of course he knew my dad well), and we ended up talking for hours.

Somehow, the topic of his WW2 service came up - he had been a volunteer in the Canadian navy, serving on the ships escorting convoys across the Atlantic. He talked about this for a while, then for some reason I do not understand he told me that, while serving on the ships, he'd killed a man. Allegedly he thought the other fellow was making a sexual advance to him, so he'd hit him - knocking his head against the steel bulkhead. In a panic, he'd pushed the unconcious guy overboard. It was at night in the middle of winter in the North Atlantic, and he wasn't spotted. The guy was reported missing and that was that.

Well, this was more than a bit freaky, and certainly not what one could report for a grade 10 biology project. I asked my dad about it and he said that yes, he'd heard that story before. Apparently, sort of like the ancient mariner, he had this urge to confess his crime over and over again. His guilt must have been consuming him all those years.

Martinus is going to go apeshit when he reads this.

[jimmy olsen]

One of my great (or was it great great....I dunno) uncles was in the chindits during the war and so did some pretty damn nasty things that went over and beyond standard war. I only met him a few times though when I was a kid, I remember he had a katana, which was awesome.
Apart from him most of my killing family members died before my time. I don't think any of them could have been counted as full on murderers though.

Chindits?

[Admiral Yi]

Chindits?

For shame Timmy.

[katmai]

Chindits?

For shame Timmy.

yet not shocking.

[Ed Anger]

he likely thinks it is some sort of gum.

[katmai]

he likely thinks it is some sort of gum.

Dammit now i want some.

[Ed Anger]

he likely thinks it is some sort of gum.

Dammit now i want some.

tastes like mutton.

[katmai]

I want to say no, but unsure. I mean the original question.

[derspiess]

I can't even think of a criminal that I personally know, much less a murderer.

Ditto.  I came to knowing any criminals was a buddy of mine in Delaware who had gotten a DUI.

[Ed Anger]

A twist to the question: How many registered sex offenders do you know?

I know 1 personally, the brother of one of my friends. No, I won't give a link to his registration on the county website.

[Admiral Yi]

Zero.