The Bizarre Success of a Loser......
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Joined: Apr 2001
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From: Beaverton
The Bizarre Success of a Loser......
Can this be real?
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
president Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
complications of bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body
of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the
head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten story building
intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect indicating his
despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted
by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him
instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a
safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to
protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been
able to complete his suicide the way he had planned. "Ordinarily," Dr.
Mills continued, "A person who sets out to commit suicide
and ultimately succeeds even though the mechanism might not be what
he intended" is still defined as committing suicide.
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine
stories below at street level probably would not have been successful
because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he
had a homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor whence the
shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife.
They were arguing vigorously, and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man
was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his
wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mister Opus. When one
intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is
guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder
charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they
thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was his long
standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no
intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an
accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw
the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the
fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's
financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father
to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation
that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of
murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son was in fact Ronald Opus.
He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt
to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten
story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast
passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered
himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide. Very tidy
of him.
(A true story from Associated Press, by Kurt Westervelt)
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
president Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
complications of bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body
of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the
head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten story building
intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect indicating his
despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted
by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him
instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a
safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to
protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been
able to complete his suicide the way he had planned. "Ordinarily," Dr.
Mills continued, "A person who sets out to commit suicide
and ultimately succeeds even though the mechanism might not be what
he intended" is still defined as committing suicide.
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine
stories below at street level probably would not have been successful
because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he
had a homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor whence the
shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife.
They were arguing vigorously, and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man
was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his
wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mister Opus. When one
intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is
guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder
charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they
thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was his long
standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no
intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an
accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw
the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the
fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's
financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father
to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation
that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of
murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son was in fact Ronald Opus.
He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt
to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten
story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast
passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered
himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide. Very tidy
of him.
(A true story from Associated Press, by Kurt Westervelt)
that can't be true!!?
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 1,277
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From: Beaverton
Hmmmm ... guess it woudn't hurt me to do a little digging BEFORE I post this stuff 
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/opus.htm
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/opus.htm
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 59,373
Likes: 1,617
From: La Crescenta, CA
Sort of like the dead scuba diver in full gear who was found in the aftermath of a fire in the Angeles National Forest and had apparently been scooped out of the water by a water scooper plane and deposited on the fire. Methinks an urban legend. How do you string a safety net off the eighth floor of a building?
