Have you Ever Personally Known a Murderer?

[Martinus]

This thread makes me think:  How would Languish feel if I were to buy out a cruise liner and take you all on a trans-Atlantic cruise?

Any survivors of the real-life flame war would be eaten by katmai and Jaron.

[jimmy olsen]

Pedophiles: My sister's boyfriend was convicted of molesting my niece seven years ago. My niece was five. Yes, my sister is still dating him. He got help, after all, so he's fine now.

WHAT THE FUCK

Yeah, kind of our reaction, too.

DCYF or whatever the state org of Ohio that handles children is okay with that?

[Ed Anger]

This thread makes me think:  How would Languish feel if I were to buy out a cruise liner and take you all on a trans-Atlantic cruise?

Exciting and new adventures!

[Syt]

This thread makes me think:  How would Languish feel if I were to buy out a cruise liner and take you all on a trans-Atlantic cruise?

There's already a game like that.

[jimmy olsen]

This thread makes me think:  How would Languish feel if I were to buy out a cruise liner and take you all on a trans-Atlantic cruise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU

[merithyn]

DCYF or whatever the state org of Ohio that handles children is okay with that?

He was on probation for five years, during which time he wasn't allowed contact with the girls. (Which was fine, because my dad was alive during that time, and he would have shot both the boyfriend and my sister if he'd known that the girls were anywhere near the guy.) After his five years of probation and weekly therapy sessions were over, he was registered as a sex offender and allowed contact with the girls again.

[Malthus]

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.

Isn't there a legal (not to mention, moral) obligation in Canada to report crimes, at least the more serious ones? Or do you think that murdering a gay guy because he hit on you is alright and you felt sorry for the murderer?

I was in grade 10 at the time. My main reaction was to wonder why the hell he was telling me this stuff.

It never occurred to me to go to the cops. For one, at the time I was a grade 10 stoner and he was a respected elderly professor. For another, what exactly could I tell them - that this guy told me of some disturbing stuff he'd done, murdering a man in world war 2? There would be exacly zero proof of any crime except some kid's second-hand account, and that of something that happened a very long time ago. Even if I'd reported it, I hardly imagine anything would have been accomplished. 

If it makes you feel any better, the reason why he killed the guy made no difference whatsoever to my not reporting him.

[Malthus]

Martinus, I'm not sure why you're so up in arms about this.  The guy wasn't killed because he was gay, he was killed to cover up the assault.

I don't have patience for "gay panic" bullshit. I'm incensed by the fact that while most people, in theory, accept that gay panic defense is bullshit, in practice, they become sympathetic or at least understanding when it is being cited - like, implicitly, Malthus and Tim have done in the way they retold/reacted to the story.

The guy is a cold-blooded murder. He murdered an innocent, unconscious person because he was "disgusted" with being an object of sexual advances from another man. I don't have an ounce of pity for that bastard, yet Timmy finds it "sad" that the guy is still feeling remorse. Well, he shouldn't be feeling remorse - he should be feeling a needle from a lethal injection.

I will continue being "so up in arms" every time I encounter anyone coming from a "Yes, but" (either explicitly or implicitly) position when it comes to a "gay panic" situation.

I'm in no way sympathetic. What difference does it make why the two got into a fight? I'd feel exaclty the same if the future prof hit the other guy over a girlfriend.

[jimmy olsen]

Just ignore him, that's what I did, he'll believe what he wants to believe and there's not much we can do about it.

[Jaron]

The sympathy is because he clearly is not a man who would ordinarily be capable of murder, but overreacted (it was a very different time), and accidently killed a fellow human being. He was probably very young, panicked, and tossed the body overboard.

He hardly needs to be classified with Manson.

[Malthus]

Way I understood it was that it there was, at first, no serious intention to kill - the guy made a pass (allegedly) and the future prof punched him. The punch knocked the other guy into a bulkhead (I suppose on a cramped ship, that's easy to do) and stunned him.

The murder part was in tossing him overboard. He did that purely to save himself from punishment for the fight. That's akin I suppose to a guy who shoots a clerk after robbing a store, so the clerk can't identify him. It's a cowardly and dispicable thing to have done, and it isn't surprising the fellow felt a lot of guilt over it, even forty years later.

Marty is angry about the wrong thing. He's up in arms about the reason for the punch, which is quite irrelevant - the actual murder was not the punch, it was tossing the guy overboard. The punch could have been thrown for any reason - a fight over a woman, or cards, or what-have-you. The future prof tossed the other fellow overborad not because he was gay, but to cover up his own crime in fighting with him.

[sbr]

Marty is angry about the wrong thing.

I haven't been here long but that doesn't seem to be a rare occurrence. 

[katmai]

This thread makes me think:  How would Languish feel if I were to buy out a cruise liner and take you all on a trans-Atlantic cruise?

Any survivors of the real-life flame war would be eaten by katmai and Jaron.

Uh Syt is the cannibal here.

[Martinus]

This thread makes me think:  How would Languish feel if I were to buy out a cruise liner and take you all on a trans-Atlantic cruise?

Any survivors of the real-life flame war would be eaten by katmai and Jaron.

Uh Syt is the cannibal here.

Ok Syt would eat everybody and use you and Jaron as rafts.

[Martinus]

Marty is angry about the wrong thing.

I haven't been here long but that doesn't seem to be a rare occurrence. 

Who the fuck are you? Another sock?