From the MORNING OREGONIAN printed September 6, 1904

Seattle, Sept. 5 – Frank S. Stevenson, a saloonkeeper at Snoqualmie, Wash., was found dead in a room over his saloon last night with a bullet hole through his heart. Although it is believed by some that he committed suicide on account of ill health, it cannot be explained how the revolver with which he was shot was found on a dresser six feet from him.

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MY SITE IS BACK UP!!!!!!!!!!!

VIA Chasers War on Everything

“Bus Rage” Ads Scrapped After Beheading, Greyhound Nixes Ads Touting Peaceful Upside Of Bus Travel After Passenger Was Decapitated – CBS News

There are many reasons I hate riding the bus, but until today, beheading wasn’t one of them.

Canadian police charge man over bus beheading

When Mr Caton and two others returned to the bus to check on the victim, he said they saw the attacker “cutting the guy’s head off and gutting him”. Moments later, police surrounded the bus and arrested the man after a nearly three-hour standoff, an official said. “He was taunting police with the head in his hand out the window,” said Mr Caton.

(Nothing like witnessing a violent crime to thrust you into the spotlight where you belong, eh Mr Caton?)

But wait, there’s more…

Teen sexually assaulted girl on school bus, police say

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s office said Branden Allen, 18, a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy were arrested on charges of sexual battery and false imprisonment.  Authorities say the two younger male teens boarded the parked bus and acted as lookouts as Allen “sexually battered the victim despite her resistance and protestations.”

BONUS!!  Priceless comment left on another blog in response to this news story – Slightly edited for rambling:

A former middle school teacher who repeatedly raped a 13-year-old male student in the school supply closet has never served a day in jail.  When Mohanlal couldn’t come up with the $610k he needed to make bond, the judge let him use property owned by him and his relatives as collateral.  That’s a pretty unusual exception, but if you’re going to bend the rules just be sure it’s for a good cause, like freeing a child molester.

The liens were never actually placed by the bonding agency, and last Thursday the prosecution filed a motion to haul Mohanlal’s ass (and probably the rest of him… court documents don’t specify) back to jail where he belongs.

The boy, now 18, says he “can’t understand what the judge was thinking.”  Well, perhaps the judge was simply considering the nuanced shades of gray present in any criminal case.  Even Mohanlal isn’t all bad; for instance, he always made sure he sent his victim back to class with a note excusing his absence.

Prosecutor: Bring child molestor back into custody CNN.com

Edwin Ramos is charged with murdering a father and two sons on a San Francisco street last month.  It appears that Mr. Ramos, now 21, “benefited from the city’s long-standing practice of shielding illegal immigrant juveniles who committed felonies from possible deportation.”

San Francisco Chronicle

Found this little gem in a vintage true crime magazine (circa oldentimes):

A 23-year-old journalist and college student has been sentenced to death by an Afghan court for publicly questioning the sexist practices of Islam. According to court records, Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh posed blasphemous questions in class and distributed an article in the same vein, to which the sick bastard added two — or possibly THREE — paragraphs elaborating his own concerns about Muslim oppression of women.

Since his sentence in January, an international outcry has persuaded the judge to allow Kambakhsh to appeal his conviction. Seems fair seeing as he had no legal representation at his trial.. but it’s been understandably difficult digging up a lawyer with the cojones to represent this kid.

So far the appeal has consisted of a pro se statement in which Kambakhsh argued that pursuit of truth is man’s highest calling, and thoughtful debate is the best method for illuminating reality. Is Islam so delicate that it must be protected from scrutiny? If our aim is truth (rather than bolstering traditional paradigms at the cost of reason), then we should have no qualms about careful examination of ideas and beliefs. Light doesn’t make truth different, it merely makes it visible.

Or at least I’m pretty sure that’s what he meant to say. But, perhaps after passing the gallows on his way into court, his appeal actually went a little more like this:

[Kambakhsh] rejected accusations from some of his classmates and teachers, that he had insulted Islam and the Koran and had distributed an article which said Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women. “As a Muslim … I never allow myself to do such a thing. These are totally lies,” he told the court.