Detectives, Give us your opinion

[Magnum440]

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, Annual Awards
Forensic Science President, Dr. Don Harper Mills, astounded his audience
with the legal complications of a 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-storey building intending to commit suicide.
Mr. Opus left a note to this effect, indicating his despondency.

As he fell past the ninth floor, Mr. Opus' life was interrupted by a shotgun
blast passing through a window. The blast killed him instantly.

Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been
installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers
and that Mr. 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." However, that Mr. Opus
was shot on the way to certain death, but 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, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied
by an elderly man and his wife. They had been arguing vigorously and the
old man was threatening his wife 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 Mr. Opus.

When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt,
one is guilty of the murder of subject "B."

The old man and his wife were both adamant in saying that they thought the
shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit to
threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention of
murdering her. Therefore, the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an
accident; that is, if the gun really had been accidentally loaded.

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who had seen 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. 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 at some time on the near future. Since the loader of the
gun was aware of this, he (the son) therefore could be deemed guilty of the
murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger.

The case now became one of murder on the part of the son for the death of
Mr. Ronald Opus.

However, further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald
Opus. Ronald had become increasingly despondent over the apparent failure
of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off
the ten storey 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.

(A true story from Associated Press)

[cajunguy]

Always entertaining - HOWEVER . . .

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/opus.htm

and

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/ronaldopus.htm

or do a Google search at

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...&q=Ronald+Opus

This has roamed the internet since 1994 when Dr. Mills told the story in an attempt at humor. He made the whole thing up.

(Sorry, I had to be a party pooper. Things are a little slow at work today.)

Still a fun read though.

.

[Retdetsgt]

I thought that was familiar....

[Virginian]

The story gets much more complicated than that! Here's the rest of what you need to know about the case.


Many, many years ago
When Ronald Opus was twenty three
He got married to a widow
Pretty as could be.

This widow had a grown up daughter
With flowing hair of red,
The old man fell in love with her
And soon the two were wed.

This made the old man Ronald's son in law
And changed his very life.
Now his daughter was his mother,
For she was his father's wife.



To complicate the matters worse
Although it brought him joy,
He soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy.



His little baby then became
A brother-in-law to the old man,
And so became Ronald's uncle,
Though it made his very sad.

For if he was his uncle,
Then that also made him brother
To the widow's grown up daughter,
Who of course was his step-mother.

Father's wife then had a son
Who kept them on the run,
And he became Ronald's grandson
For he was his daughter's son.



Ron's wife is now his mother's mother
And it makes him blue.
Because although she is his wife,
She's now his grandma too.

If his wife is his grandmother,
Then he is her grandchild.
And every time he thinks of it
It simply drives him wild.

For now he has become
The strangest case you ever saw,
As the husband of his grandmother,
He is his own grandpa!

[Magnum440]

Sounds like some of our Kentucky families.

[Ducky]

Do they all live on the same tract of land in the country that holds 8 trailers?

[cajunguy]

I'm soooooo confused!!

.

[Virginian]

I think the old man is guilty of a double homicide, because he killed both his son and father!

[2209]

Anytime there is the following line in an email: "this is a true story" you should automatically go to www.snopes.com and get the real-deal on what happened.

[Sheriff]

I'm sorry, I find it hard to believe that anybody could read this story and for one second believe it is true. All of the circumstances as described could never happen in a million years.

[Magnum440]

I agree Sheriff, but didn't say I believed it. Too darned old to start believing anything I read, and half of what I see. Just thought it was a funny thing to post to get reactions.

[Sheriff]

I agree Sheriff, but didn't say I believed it. Too darned old to start believing anything I read, and half of what I see. Just thought it was a funny thing to post to get reactions.

Ohh, I know. I didn't for one second think you believed it.