Monday, November 30, 2009

Cops: Suspect in officer killings may be dead

Seattle house surrounded after gunman slays 4 officers in coffee shop

NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 9:50 a.m. ET Nov. 30, 2009


SEATTLE - A suspect in the slaying of four police officers who were gunned down in a suburban coffee shop was surrounded by police at a Seattle house early Monday, wounded and possibly dead, police said.

Negotiators were trying to communicate with Maurice Clemmons, 37, using loudspeakers, explosions and even a robot to try to prod him from hiding. At one point, gunshots rang through the neighborhood, about 30 miles from the original crime scene.

"We have determined that in fact he has been shot," said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff. "He may be deceased from his gunshot wound."

NBC News reported Monday that police had not been able to make contact with Clemmons.

Clemmons, who has a long criminal history — including a long prison sentence commuted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago — became the prime target Sunday in the search for the killer of Lakewood police Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42.

Authorities had speculated early Sunday that the gunman might have been wounded at the coffee shop by one of his victims. Troyer said interviews with others detained in the investigation confirmed that theory.

'You need to man up'

Police surrounded the house in the Leschi area of the city late Sunday, and a negotiator used a loudspeaker early Monday to call him out by name, saying: "Mr. Clemmons, I'd like to get you out of there safely. I can tell you this, we are not going away."

Any response from inside the house was inaudible from the vantage of a photographer for The Associated Press. But shortly thereafter, police began using sirens outside the house, and there were several loud bangs before the negotiator resumed speaking, saying: "This is one of the toughest decisions you'll make in your life, but you need to man up."

By 3 a.m. Pacific time, the loudspeakers and explosions had fallen silent. Seattle Police spokesman Jeff Kappel said Clemmons has never responded.

Clemmons is believed to have been in the area of the coffee shop around the time of the shooting, but Troyer declined to say what evidence might link him to the shooting.

Investigators say they know of no reason that Clemmons or anyone else might have had to open fire on the four as they sat working on their laptops early Sunday morning, catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts.

"We're going to be surprised if there is a motive worth mentioning," said Troyer, who sketched out a scene of controlled and deliberate carnage that spared the employees and other customers at the coffee shop in suburban Parkland, about 35 miles south of Seattle.

"He was very versed with the weapon," Troyer said. "This wasn't something where the windows were shot up and there bullets sprayed around the place. The bullets hit their targets."

'He was just targeting cops'

The Seattle Times reported that investigators have no indication that Clemmons had a motive aimed specifically at any of the particular officers who were shot.

"He was upset about being incarcerated," Troyer told the newspaper. "He was just targeting cops."

Officer Richards' sister-in-law, Melanie Burwell, called the shooting "senseless."

"He didn't have a mean bone in his body," she said. "If there were more people in the world like Greg, things like this wouldn't happen.

Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas. He was also recently charged in Washington state with assaulting a police officer, and second-degree rape of a child. Using a bail bondsman, he posted $150,000 — only $15,000 of his own money — and was released from jail last week.

Documents related to the pending charges in Washington state indicate an unstable and volatile personality. In one instance, he is accused of punching a sheriff's deputy in the face, The Seattle Times reported. In another, he is accused of gathering his wife and young relatives and forcing them to undress, according to a Pierce County sheriff's report.

"The whole time Clemmons kept saying things like trust him, the world is going to end soon, and that he was Jesus," the report said.

Troyer said investigators believe two of the officers were killed while sitting in the shop, and a third was shot dead after standing up. The fourth apparently "gave up a good fight."

"We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight ... that he fought the guy all the way out the door," Troyer said.

The Seattle Times reported that the four officers were wearing bulletproof vests at the time.

Sentence commuted

In 1989, Clemmons, then 17, was convicted in Little Rock for aggravated robbery. He was paroled in 2000 after Huckabee commuted a 95-year prison sentence.

Huckabee, who was criticized during his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 for granting many clemencies and commutations, cited Clemmons' youth. Clemmons later violated his parole, was returned to prison and released in 2004.

On Sunday, Huckabee issued this statement on his Web site: "Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington state."

There was no indication of any connection between Sunday's killings and the Halloween night shooting of a Seattle police officer.

Authorities say the man charged with that shooting also firebombed four police vehicles in October as part of a "one-man war" against law enforcement. Christopher Monfort, 41, was arrested after being wounded in a firefight with police days after the Seattle shooting.

The officers killed Sunday had received no threats, sheriff's officials said.

"We won't know if it's a copycat effect or what it was until we get the case solved," Troyer said.

Fish freezer with corpse 'passed 20 inspections'

The Irish Times - Friday, November 27, 2009

JOHN FALLON

HEALTH INSPECTORS and Department of Marine officials carried out up to 20 routine inspections of a large fish shop freezer but failed to notice a man’s body hidden there for five years.

The body of 52-year-old Patrick McCormack was hidden in a bin in the walk-in freezer at the back of a fish shop in Galway after he was killed by a criminal associate.

The body was discovered in June 2007 when the fish shop owner went to tidy the large freezer ahead of an inspection by the Department of the Marine.

A 45-year-old Galway man, Edward Griffin, from Cimín Mór, Cappagh Road, Knocknacarra, is serving eight years for the manslaughter of McCormack. Griffin, who worked in the fish shop for several years, left a few months before the body was discovered.

The Central Criminal Court heard this year that Griffin and McCormack were in the drugs business but had a row which led to Griffin killing McCormack with a wheel brace.

The court was told that McCormack was formerly known as Patrick Wynne but had changed his name by deed poll in 1995.

A coroner’s court hearing in Galway was told yesterday by a brother of the deceased that the man who died also used the name Richard McCormack.

Christy McCormack asked west Galway coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin to include the alias Richard McCormack on the death certificate. He said his late brother had taken out a loan along with his mother for £56,000 some years ago and that a bank was insisting that another brother repay it.

Dr McLoughlin said that he could only include the two names on the certificate for which there was proof. He suggested that Mr McCormack go to the solicitor who had arranged the deed poll for the deceased man and take the trail from there. The deceased man’s brother said he was very unhappy with this and left before the inquest was concluded.

Ali Jalilvand, owner of the Mermaid Fishmongers at Henry Street, told the inquest how he had discovered Mr McCormack’s body when he went to carry out a routine inspection. Mr Jalilvand, an Iranian, who has lived in Ireland for the past 30 years, said he became sick when he discovered the body hidden in a bin underneath boxes of frozen fish.

He said that the freezer was a large walk-in room and, questioned by Dr McLoughlin, estimated that health and marine officials had carried out 15 to 20 inspections of the freezer during the time the body was there.

The time of McCormack’s death was between June 9th and September 30th in 2002.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis said that it had taken several days for the body to thaw before he could carry out a postmortem. McCormack’s hands had been tied and he had visible injuries. He had 40 injuries, 17 of which were to the head, with three being fractures. Cause of death was given as blunt force trauma to the head and face.

Vietnamese man dug up wife's corpse 'so he could hug her'

A Vietnamese man dug up his wife's corpse and slept beside it for five years because he wanted to hug her in bed, it has been reported.

Published: 11:30PM GMT 26 Nov 2009

The 55-year-old man from a small town in the central province of Quang Nam opened up his wife's grave in 2004, moulded clay around the remains to give the figure of a woman, put clothes on her and then placed her in his bed, Vietnamnet.vn said.

The man, Le Van, told the website that after his wife died in 2003 he slept on top of her grave, but about 20 months later he worried about rain, wind and cold, so he decided to dig a tunnel into the grave "to sleep with her".

His children found out, though, and prevented him from going to the grave. So one night in November 2004 he dug up his wife's remains and took them home, Vietnamnet reported.

The father of seven said neighbours did not dare visit the house for several years.

"I'm a person that does things differently. I'm not like normal people," he was quoted as saying.

Stasi propaganda film featured children aged five simulating war games

A propaganda film made by the Stasi secret police in East Germany has surfaced showing children as young as five being made to simulate war games using miniature tanks and machine guns.

By Allan Hall in Berlin
Published: 7:00AM GMT 27 Nov 2009


The black and white footage entitled The Sun Always Lives shows boys fighting with live ammunition as shells and smoke bombs explode around them.

The film was made in 1977 and features members of the Communist party's Young Pioneer youth movement and was filmed at one of their summer camps in the resort of Lubmin am Greifswalder Bodden.

It was intended to be show in schools "to instil true Socialist patriotic values in the young".

The film lasts for 21 minutes with the young participants mimicking the military manoeuvres of the People's Army of East Germany.

At the end of the film a live shell from one of the mini-tanks hits a wall. At this point the voice-over for the film says: "Show your soldierly face for the Socialist Fatherland as these brave warriors do!"

Hubertus Knabe, 50, director of the museum at the former Stasi museum in Hohenschoenhausen in Berlin, where dissidents opposed to the regime were caged in often appalling conditions, was shocked by the film.

He said: "This is a perversion of childhood by the Stasi of a kind I haven't seen before. All kids played with toy guns but this was meant to turn them into child soldiers of the sort who have raped and killed in Africa in recent years. To let little kids loose with real guns to prove a political point seems about as sick as it can get for me.

"The intention of the Stasi was to sharpen up the potential for violence of the next generation at an early age. The readiness for violence was prepared with the mother's milk, as it were."

The children who took part in the films were often recruited into the agency and groomed for high political office.

The film was found in the Birthler Archive, the repository of the remaining files and documents of the Stasi which was shut down at the same time as the East German state 20 years ago.

It is being screened tomorrow (sat) at a cinema in Berlin along with other propaganda films of the Stasi and other secret service organisations in former Communist Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Statewide survey shows "ball tapping" problem widespread



Posted: Nov 25, 2009 12:33 AM
Updated: Nov 25, 2009 5:22 PM


Bob Segall/13 Investigates

It's a disturbing game with devastating consequences, and a new WTHR survey suggests it is rampant in Indiana schools.

"Ball tapping" is the act of intentionally hitting or kicking a male in the genitals. Earlier this month, an Eyewitness News investigation showed the game has become commonplace in some area schools, resulting in serious injuries for students.

As part of the investigation, WTHR also conducted a statewide survey of school nurses. The results are in, and they show the problem of ball tapping is more common and widespread than many school officials had realized.

"New perspective"

School nurses from 163 Indiana schools participated in the anonymous survey, and 33% of those nurses said they're aware of ball tapping happening at their school within the past twelve months.

But a closer look at the statistics shows the problem is much more serious in some schools than in others.

23% of school nurses who work at the elementary level say they've seen or heard of ball tapping at their school. That number nearly doubles in high schools, where 43% of school nurses say they've seen it.

And in middle schools, 62% of school nurses said they're aware of students engaged in ball tapping.

"I would have expected it to be a low number," said Mary Conway, president of the Indiana Association of School Nurses. "I would not have expected [school nurses] to have had much experience with it at all … because I think it's something most kids won't talk about with a nurse. I'm very surprised by this whole issue and it's given me a new perspective."

Among the 72 middle school and high school nurses who participated in WTHR's survey, 50% said they had seen students who came to the school clinic seeking assistance related to an incident of ball tapping. Half of those nurses also reported they had observed the problem several (more than two) times each school year, and about 10% said it happens at their school on a daily or weekly basis.

Some nurses offered comments with their survey responses. A sample of those comments provides insight into what those nurses are dealing with:

•"This is not a new situation. It has popped up periodically in our school system from year to year. Students seem to think it is "funny" or "harmless". We have gone to a great length to educate our students (esp. middle school aged students) that this is not acceptable conduct and that it can result in horrible injury. It seems to be a middle grade mentality type of thing. We have issues with both boys "tapping" other boys, and girls "tapping" boys because it gives an immediate reaction."

•"I have had on occasion had a student come in complaining of pain in that area, and never a reasonable explanation of why he hurts in that area. I am better informed to possibly identify that this is taking place."

•"I have seen it done both maliciously and just as guys goofing around. I heard from one student that he had to have one testicle surgically removed after being kicked in his genitals during summer school. Our school may treat this as an assault if a student or family complains that it is done in a malicious manner. It is probably more often overlooked as horseplay."

•"I had a case early this school year of an injured boy, with that type injury, but it was claimed to be accidental & no adults witnessed it. Now, I wonder."

•"We had a local male pediatrician talk to the boys about this last year and we have seen a dramatic decrease in incidence of this behavior since then. He talked specifically about the physical harm that occurs and it was very effective. I would recommend a similar discussion at other schools experiencing this problem."

"Just want to fall and cry"

Jake Arend doesn't need survey results to convince him ball tapping is a serious problem.

Classmates began hitting him in the groin when he was in sixth grade and it continued for years.

"I was just the scrawny kid everybody picked on to make themselves look better," Arend said. "If you get hit in that area, you just want to fall and cry, but I tried not to."

By the time Jake got to Danville High School, he says he was being ball tapped every week – sometimes even three or four times a day.

"Sometimes it would be just the flick of a wrist, and there was one time I actually got hit in the area with a socket wrench," he recalled. "When I got hit with that, I actually just hit the ground and just laid there in the fetal position for five to ten minutes for the pain to go away, then I got up and went to class."

Jake never told his parents and he never told his teachers, fearing the bullies at school would hit him ever harder if they got in trouble.

"I just thought 'It's pain. I'll deal with it,'" said Arend.

When Jake graduated in May 2009, he thought all that pain would be a thing of the past. It was just getting started.

Emergency surgery

In late October, Jake was rushed to Hendricks Regional Hospital in Danville where doctors performed an emergency operation. Years of enduring ball tapping had finally taken its toll. Undetected scar tissue had completely sealed off Jake's urinary tract, resulting in horrifying pain.

"It was a pain like I've never felt before. It was like taking a knife and just jamming it down in your stomach and dragging it all the way down through your genital area," he said. "The urologist said the signs can go undetected for years until it hits you like it hit me."

Doctors placed a catheter in Jake's urethra and told him he will need another operation to fix all the damage caused by repeated blows to the groin.

For Jake's father, that recent trip to the emergency room was the first time he had ever heard of ball tapping. "I never in a million years would have thought this was happening to him," said Eddie Arend. "Evidently it's happening at a lot of schools. It's not just his school."

School nurses confirm that's true.

"A real wakeup call"

"It's a more serious problem than what I had imagined," Conway said. "I had no idea the kids were that violent with it. Watching your video, I was appalled and the survey is somewhat surprising."

Conway says the Eyewitness News investigation and survey should be "a real wakeup call" to schools and school nurses across Indiana. She says the IASN board of directors will further research the issue because Conway believes more education and awareness is needed for teachers, administrators and school nurses to help protect students. 52% of school nurses who completed the 13 Investigates survey said they had never heard of ball tapping prior to learning of WTHR's investigation.

"I'm surprised nothing has really been said about it," admitted Conway. "I think any issue that impacts health in a permanent way needs to be addressed."

Jake's father says parents must address it, too.

"A lot of times as parents, do we forget to talk to our own children? I guess we do," he said. "There's nothing I wouldn't do to take away his pain. I just never knew it was happening and the sad truth is, [Jake] has to pay the rest of his life for this."

It's a costly and terribly painful lesson Jake wants other students to remember.

"If you're in school right now and you're dealing with it, don't be afraid to say something," Arend said. "Ask teachers, go to counselors, ask the nurses … I wish I told somebody."

For advice about how to talk to your kids about ball tapping, see WTHR's original investigation.

6 Killed In Holiday Weekend Traffic Accidents

Nov 30, 2009 7:01 am US/Central

Several Others Were Injured

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ― Six people were killed and several others injured in traffic accidents over the holiday weekend in the city and suburbs.

About 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, a vehicle traveling north on Cicero Avenue swerved into the southbound lanes and struck a vehicle at 6931 S. Cicero Ave., police said. The vehicle continued southbound and struck a pedestrian at 6659 S. Cicero Ave.

The pedestrian, Elias Nunez, 21, of 4246 W. 103rd St. in Oak Lawn, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition. He was later pronounced dead at 9:28 a.m. Thursday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

Fire Media Affairs Cmdr. Will Knight said four others were also hurt in the crash, prompting a five-ambulance response to the scene. The driver of the vehicle was allegedly intoxicated and taken into police custody following the crash.

Anthony Morales, 31, of the 5500 block of South Homan Avenue, was charged with felony aggravated DUI and cited with following too closely and failure to reduce speed, according to police News Affairs. He was also cited for leaving the scene of a property damage accident.

Judge Maria Kuriakos-Ciesil set Morales' bond at $300,000 during a Saturday hearing, according to a court spokeswoman.

The crashes continued all day Thursday, including a motorist striking a wall on the Eisenhower Expressway at Pulaski Road Thursday afternoon; a vehicle hitting a cyclist Thursday evening in the 5600 block of West Lawrence Avenue and a man in a pick-up truck crashing into a house in the 9300 block of S. South Chicago Avenue Thursday night. The man was pinned inside the vehicle and hospitalized in critical condition.

Early Friday morning, as Black Friday shoppers backed up traffic in west suburban Aurora, a woman was hit by a car near the suburb's outlet mall.

On the South Side Friday night, eight people inside a Buick Regal were injured when the vehicle crashed into a tree in the 900 block of West Garfield Boulevard. Six of the injured were children.

About 7 a.m. Saturday, Spero Zappas, 63, of Joliet, was driving an orange 2006 Pontiac Solstice north on Interstate 55 near southwest suburban Plainfield when he attempted to pass a semi truck in the right lane at a high rate of speed, state police said. Zappas lost control of the Solstice and the car went airborne into a ditch, ejecting him from the vehicle. Zappas was dead on the scene, and may have been racing another vehicle at the time of the incident.

Around the same time, Giovanni Herrera, 18, of 1630 Whitcomb Ave. in Des Plaines, was pronounced dead at Resurrection Medical Center after a crash on Kennedy Expressway on the Northwest Side, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

Herrera was driving a 2004 Chrysler Sebring west on the Kennedy Expressway, near N. East River Road, when the car struck a westbound 2006 Chevrolet at 5:59 a.m. Saturday, Illinois State Police Sgt. D. Stokes said. He somehow lost control of the Sebring, leaving the road and striking a light pole, Stokes said.

In Aurora Saturday afternoon, a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle traveling west on Sullivan Road collided with a Chevrolet crossover SUV turning onto eastbound Sullivan Road from a religious temple around 1:45 p.m. in the 1100 block of West Sullivan Road, according to a statement from the Aurora Police Department.

Miguel Gomez-Ortiz, 29, of the 1000 block of Cascade Drive, Aurora, was killed in the accident, police said. He was wearing a helmet, but it was dislodged on impact with the SUV.

Saturday night, a 2004 Nissan was traveling south on Interstate 57 when the driver attempted to abruptly change lanes and crashed about 11:40 p.m. near 127th Street, an Illinois State Police District Chicago trooper said.

The Nissan spun out, hit a guardrail on the left side of the interstate then rolled in the right lane -- partially ejecting the driver.

The driver – Kevin Edwards, 19, of 6206 White Birch Lane in Matteson – was pronounced dead at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey at 12:07 a.m. Sunday.

Just after midnight on Sunday, Dustin Avenarius, of Brisbin Road in Yorkville, was traveling on Hopkins Road in rural Kendall County when his pickup truck went off the road, striking a tree and then catching fire, Toftoy said. Avenarius was pronounced dead on the scene.

9 Slain In Bloody Holiday Weekend

Nov 30, 2009 5:25 am US/Central

2 Incidents Of Murder-Suicide On Friday Alone

CHICAGO (CBS) ― It was a violent and deadly holiday weekend in the Chicago area, with nine people reported slain between Wednesday and Sunday nights.

The violence began around 5 p.m. Thanksgiving eve, when Shannon Moore, 18, was found lying on the ground with gunshot wounds in the hallway of a building at 537 E. 44th St.

A witness who saw Moore involved in an argument went to call police, and as he was going to make the call he heard multiple gunshots, Perez said.

Moore was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 4:45 p.m. Saturday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

In the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day, a shooting at an Englewood gas station left one man dead.

Ricky Coleman, 21, was shot at the gas station at 810 W. 59th St., and was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. at Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. The man was in the street when an unidentified gunman approached on foot and fired several shots at him about 12:30 a.m., police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.

On Friday, two separate incidents of murder-suicide were reported, including a newlywed couple on the city's West Side and a Markham man who shot himself after shooting his ex-girlfriend and another man in south suburban Sauk Village.

At about 9:10 p.m., Sauk Village police responded to a call at 22454 Jeffrey Avenue on Friday night and found a woman who had been shot. In a nearby driveway, police also found 43-year-old Robert Allen of Carthage, Miss., fatally shot.

The suspect, Paul Gunn, was later stopped by police in the area of 162nd and Dixie Highway in Markham. Gunn, who was armed, turned the weapon on himself and died of a gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken to Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, where he was pronounced dead at 10:44 p.m., according to the medical examiner's office.

The woman who was shot was reportedly Gunn's girlfriend or ex-girlfriend, according to a source.

Earlier that day, a woman was found murdered in an East Garfield Park neighborhood apartment, possibly shot to death by her husband—who then took his own life.

Claudette Coleman, 30, was found fatally shot in her home at 3429 W. Madison St. Police responded to the apartment building where she lived just before 2 a.m. -- three hours after Coleman's husband was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on the street at 3311 W. Monroe St., police said.

Antwone Coleman, 28, also of the Madison Street address, reportedly shot himself and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:20 a.m., according to the medical examiner's office.

At least two others lost their lives to gunshots in the Chicago area on Friday, both on the West Side.

During an armed robbery on the West Side, Anthony Bryant, 40, was fatally shot at about 11 a.m. Friday, News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said.

Bryant was at a home in at 2741 W. Wilcox St., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. A second man, in his 30s, was with the victim, although he was not harmed, Ursitti said. News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said the robber got away with a cell phone and cash.

Nearby, an Austin man was also fatally shot in his home on the West Side.

Robert Barber, 36, was shot at 435 S. Central Ave. and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4:07 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. He had a gunshot wound to his chest, authorities said.

The violence on the West Side continued on Saturday.

On Saturday, 29-year-old Roy Williams died after being shot multiple times by two men in the North Lawndale neighborhood. The shooting occurred shortly after midnight on the 1300 block of South Central Park Avenue, Perez said.

After he was initially shot while sitting in his car, he tried to drive away from his assailants but he crashed into a parked car and was shot again, before collapsing in the street and dying about 40 minutes after he was found by emergency personnel, Perez said.

In the same night, at about 2:30 a.m., police found a Dolton man fatally shot in the South Side's Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.

Corday Keys, 29, of Dolton, was fatally shot at 1858 W. 80th St., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. He was dead on the scene.

Police responded to a call of shots fired at the 80th Street address at 2:30 a.m. and found Keys in the street with multiple gunshot wounds to the head, back and arms, Perez said. He also said Keys is believed to have had gang affiliations.

In south suburban Summit, a man also died early Sunday after he was fatally shot less than one mile from his home.

Treondes Spriggs, 28, of 7651 W. 62nd St., was shot at 7543 W. 61st Pl., a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said.

Spriggs was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood where he was pronounced dead at 5:05 a.m., the spokesman said.

Addison Man Killed Wife, 2 Sons, Then Himself

Nov 26, 2009 8:40 pm US/Central

Police Say Father Left Note That Showed He Was "Obviously ... Distraught"

ADDISON, Ill. (CBS) ― Four members of what one neighbor called a "wonderful'' west suburban family -- including two boys aged 12 and 8 -- were found dead in their home Wednesday in what has been ruled a murder-suicide, autopsies have determined.

The four, according to the DuPage County Coroner's Office, were identified Thursday. They are:

• Thomas E. Mangiantini, Sr., 48. He died of a single gunshot wound to the mouth and his death has been ruled a suicide.

• Elizabeth A. Mangiantini, 46. She died of a single gunshot wound to the head and her death was ruled a homicide.

• Angelo Mangiantini, 12. He died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head and his death was a homicide.

• Thomas E. Mangiantini, 8. He died of a single gunshot wound to the head and his death was also a homicide.

The family lived at 225 S. Wisconsin St. in Addison, according to the coroner's office. The two boys were the sons of Thomas and Elizabeth Mangiatini, the coroner's office said.

Addison police responded at 6:30 a.m. to a 911 call from the home in the 200 block of South Wisconsin Street. The call came from inside the home from a woman later found dead inside, police said.

When police arrived three or four minutes later, they had to force their way in because the home "was completely secure,'' Addison Police Chief Timothy Hayden said.

Inside, Elizabeth Mangiantini was found in the hallway of first floor, he said. The two boys were found together upstairs, while their father was found in a hallway near the master bedroom on the second floor.

Hayden said two guns and several shell casings were found near the bodies. Police also found a one-page, hand-written note from the father. Hayden declined to discuss the contents of the note, other than to say it's "obviously clear from the note that he was distraught."

There had been no prior disturbances at the residence, police said.
All the family's cars were in the driveway and there were Christmas decorations outside of the beige and brown Cape Cod-style home on Wednesday.

The two boys attended school in Addison School District No. 4.

Schools Supt. John Langton would not confirm which school the boys attended but said there will be crisis counselors available Monday when classes resume.

Close friends of the family describe them as loving.

"I was extremely shocked," said Jacque Graziano, "It hit me like a brick wall when I found out. We just want other relatives to know this family was loved."

Neighbors said they hadn't seen any indications of problems at the house and often saw the boys riding their bicycles.

One neighbor, who asked not to be named, said the family was involved with Boy Scouts. She called them "wonderful people.''

When the woman's house flooded last year, Thomas Mangiantini "was the first one to ask us if we needed help. He was the first one to knock on the door.'"

"Something seriously bad happened, and Tom would never have done anything like this had he been of right mind," Graziano said.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Michael Shermer "Why People Believe Strange Things"

There is No God (And You Know It)

Posted: October 6, 2005 04:31 PM

By Sam Harris

Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture, and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern the lives of six billion human beings. The same statistics also suggest that this girl’s parents believe -- at this very moment -- that an all-powerful and all-loving God is watching over them and their family. Are they right to believe this? Is it good that they believe this?

No.

The entirety of atheism is contained in this response. Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity. It is, moreover, a job that the atheist does not want.

It is worth noting that no one ever need identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (eighty-seven percent of the population) who claim to “never doubt the existence of God” should be obliged to present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. Only the atheist appreciates just how uncanny our situation is: most of us believe in a God that is every bit as specious as the gods of Mount Olympus; no person, whatever his or her qualifications, can seek public office in the United States without pretending to be certain that such a God exists; and much of what passes for public policy in our country conforms to religious taboos and superstitions appropriate to a medieval theocracy. Our circumstance is abject, indefensible, and terrifying. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high.

Consider: the city of New Orleans was recently destroyed by hurricane Katrina. At least a thousand people died, tens of thousands lost all their earthly possessions, and over a million have been displaced. It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Katrina struck believed in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while a hurricane laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Only the atheist has the courage to admit the obvious: these poor people spent their lives in the company of an imaginary friend.

Of course, there had been ample warning that a storm “of biblical proportions” would strike New Orleans, and the human response to the ensuing disaster was tragically inept. But it was inept only by the light of science. Advance warning of Katrina’s path was wrested from mute Nature by meteorological calculations and satellite imagery. God told no one of his plans. Had the residents of New Orleans been content to rely on the beneficence of the Lord, they wouldn’t have known that a killer hurricane was bearing down upon them until they felt the first gusts of wind on their faces. And yet, a poll conducted by The Washington Post found that eighty percent of Katrina’s survivors claim that the event has only strengthened their faith in God.

As hurricane Katrina was devouring New Orleans, nearly a thousand Shiite pilgrims were trampled to death on a bridge in Iraq. There can be no doubt that these pilgrims believed mightily in the God of the Koran. Indeed, their lives were organized around the indisputable fact of his existence: their women walked veiled before him; their men regularly murdered one another over rival interpretations of his word. It would be remarkable if a single survivor of this tragedy lost his faith. More likely, the survivors imagine that they were spared through God’s grace.

Only the atheist recognizes the boundless narcissism and self-deceit of the saved. Only the atheist realizes how morally objectionable it is for survivors of a catastrophe to believe themselves spared by a loving God, while this same God drowned infants in their cribs. Because he refuses to cloak the reality of the world’s suffering in a cloying fantasy of eternal life, the atheist feels in his bones just how precious life is -- and, indeed, how unfortunate it is that millions of human beings suffer the most harrowing abridgements of their happiness for no good reason at all.

Of course, people of faith regularly assure one another that God is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent? There is no other way, and it is time for sane human beings to own up to this. This is the age-old problem of theodicy, of course, and we should consider it solved. If God exists, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil. Pious readers will now execute the following pirouette: God cannot be judged by merely human standards of morality. But, of course, human standards of morality are precisely what the faithful use to establish God’s goodness in the first place. And any God who could concern himself with something as trivial as gay marriage, or the name by which he is addressed in prayer, is not as inscrutable as all that. If He exists, the God of Abraham is not merely unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man.

There is another possibility, of course, and it is both the most reasonable and least odious: the biblical God is a fiction. As Richard Dawkins has observed, we are all atheists with respect to Zeus and Thor. Only the atheist has realized that the biblical god is no different. Consequently, only the atheist is compassionate enough to take the profundity of the world’s suffering at face value. It is terrible that we all die and lose everything we love; it is doubly terrible that so many human beings suffer needlessly while alive. That so much of this suffering can be directly attributed to religion -- to religious hatreds, religious wars, religious delusions, and religious diversions of scarce resources -- is what makes atheism a moral and intellectual necessity. It is a necessity, however, that places the atheist at the margins of society. The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.


A History of God

The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

By Rob Broomby
BBC News


Last updated at 02:18 GMT, Sunday, 29 November 2009

When millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable British soldier smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the horror so he could tell others the truth.

Denis Avey is a remarkable man by any measure. A courageous and determined soldier in World War II, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp connected to the Germans' largest concentration camp, Auschwitz.

But his actions while in the camp - which he has never spoken about until now - are truly extraordinary. When millions would have done anything to get out, Mr Avey repeatedly smuggled himself into the camp.

Now 91 and living in Derbyshire, he says he wanted to witness what was going on inside and find out the truth about the gas chambers, so he could tell others. He knows he took "a hell of a chance".

"When you think about it in today's environment it is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous," he says.

"You wouldn't think anyone would think or do that, but that is how I was. I had red hair and a temperament to match. Nothing would stop me."

He arranged to swap for one night at a time with a Jewish inmate he had come to trust. He exchanged his uniform for the filthy, stripy garments the man had to wear. For the Auschwitz inmate it meant valuable food and rest in the British camp, while for Denis it was a chance to gather facts on the inside.

Evil

He describes Auschwitz as "hell on earth" and says he would lie awake at night listening to the ramblings and screams of prisoners.

"It was pretty ghastly at night, you got this terrible stench," he says.

He talked to Jewish prisoners but says they rarely spoke of their previous life, instead they were focused on the hell they were living and the work they were forced to do in factories outside the camp.

"There were nearly three million human beings worked to death in different factories," says Mr Avey. "They knew at that rate they'd last about five months.

"They very seldom talk about their civil life. They only talked about the situation, the punishments they were getting, the work they were made to do."

He says he would ask where people he'd met previously had gone and he would be told they'd "gone up the chimney".

"It was so impersonal. Auschwitz was evil, everything about it was wrong."

He also witnessed the brutality meted out to the prisoners, saying people were shot daily. He was determined to help, especially when he met Jewish prisoner Ernst Lobethall.

'Bloody marvellous'

Mr Lobethall told him he had a sister Susana who had escaped to England as a child, on the eve of war. Back in his own camp, Mr Avey contacted her via a coded letter to his mother.

He arranged for cigarettes, chocolate and a letter from Susana to be sent to him and smuggled them to his friend. Cigarettes were more valuable than gold in the camp and he hoped he would be able to trade them for favours to ease his plight - and he was right.

Mr Lobethall traded two packs of Players cigarettes in return for getting his shoes resoled. It helped save his life when thousands perished or were murdered on the notorious death marches out of the camps in winter in 1945.

Mr Avey briefly met Susana Lobethall in 1945, when he came home from the war. He was fresh from the camp and was traumatised by what he'd witnessed and endured.

At the time both of them thought Ernst was dead. He'd actually survived, thanks - in part - to the smuggled cigarettes. But she lost touch with Mr Avey and was never able to tell him the good news.

The BBC has now reunited the pair after tracing Susana, who is now Susana Timms and lives in the Midlands. Mr Avey was told his friend moved to America after the war, where he had children and lived a long and happy life. The old soldier says the news is "bloody marvellous".

'Ginger'

Sadly, the emotional reunion came too late for Ernst - later Ernie - who died never even knowing the real name of the soldier who he says helped him survive Auschwitz.

But before he died Mr Lobethall recorded his survival story on video for the Shoah Foundation, which video the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. In it he spoke of his friendship with a British soldier in Auschwitz who he simply called "Ginger". It was Denis.

He also recalled how the cigarettes, chocolate and a letter from his sister in England were smuggled to him in the midst of war.

"It was like being given the Rockefeller Centre," he says in the video.

Mr Avey traded places twice and slept overnight in Auschwitz. He tried a third time but he was almost caught and the plan was aborted.

He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when he came back from the war and has only recently been able to speak about what he did and what he saw.

He admits some may find it hard to believe and acknowledges it was "foolhardy".

"But that is how I was," he simply says.

Fla. police eye Mich. in holiday killings probe

By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer Travis Reed, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 31 mins ago

JUPITER, Fla. – Investigators in Florida alerted Michigan authorities to be on the lookout Saturday for a man accused of shooting four relatives to death after a Thanksgiving dinner in South Florida.

The suspect, Paul Michael Merhige, 35, sought a physician in the Detroit area in the past year, Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said, but he was unsure why he needed the doctor.

Merhige is believed to be driving a royal blue 2007 Toyota Camry with a rear spoiler and Florida license plate. He is accused of killing including his pregnant sister and her twin sister, as well as his 6-year-old cousin and 79-year-old aunt.

There had been "ongoing resentment" in the family, but investigators weren't sure what specifically prompted Thursday's shooting.

Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for Merhige on Saturday night and a $10,000 reward was offered for information leading to his arrest.

Police said Merhige left briefly before returning to the home where 17 relatives had gathered in Jupiter, a small beach town about 90 miles north of Miami. The town is known as a home to celebrities including Michael Jordan and Burt Reynolds.

Pascarella said police first received a 911 call from a neighbor, then another from someone inside the home. The home, in a well-kept new subdivision with brick-paved driveways, is owned by local TV videojournalist Jim Sitton and his wife. The home was surrounded Friday by yellow crime scene tape and police crime unit vans.

Sitton's daughter Makayla had gone to bed before the rampage, police said.

"God packed a lot of sweetness into that little body," Sitton said. "She's just our life. I don't know how we are ever going to recover."

Messages left a phone number listed for Sitton and his wife were not returned Saturday. He told The Palm Beach Post on Saturday that he saw no "red flags" when the two were sitting near each other during Thanksgiving.

Sitton also previously told local media said his daughter was supposed to perform in a holiday production of "The Nutcracker." The Florida Classical Ballet Theatre had two shows Friday.

"Makayla was part of our family, and as one of the youngest dancers, she was to be one of Mother Ginger's Children," artistic director Colleen Smith said. "She was a beautiful, dear girl. She was a beam."

The other victims were Merhige's twin sisters, Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight, and an aunt, Raymonde Joseph. Merhige's brother-in-law Patrick Knight was in critical but stable condition at a local hospital. Another man, Clifford Gebara, 52, was grazed by a bullet.

Carla Merhige was a real estate agent in Miami.

"She was a wonderful agent," said Joanna Sherman, a manager at Coldwell Banker Residential real estate. "She was very active in the community and in charities. She was just a genuine, beautiful individual. She always had a smile for everybody."

Neighbors in the Palm Beach County community were shocked as police processed the home.

"Our kids walk the streets by themselves," said Nicole Kemp, 67, who did not know any of the victims. "I thought it was the safest place to live. I guess it doesn't matter, if there's a maniac here."

Why Ireland Is Running Out of Priests

By Bryan Coll / Belfast Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009

Wanted: Clean-living young people for a long career (women need not apply). Responsibilities: Varied. Spiritual guidance, visiting the sick, public relations, marriages (own marriage not permitted). Hours: On call at all times. Salary: None, bar basic monthly stipend.

He hasn't placed classified ads in the Irish press just yet, but according to Father Patrick Rushe, coordinator of vocations with the Catholic Church in Ireland, "we've done just about everything" else to attract young men to the priesthood. And yet, the call of service in one of Europe's most religious countries is falling on more deaf ears than ever.

Earlier this month, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, made a grim prediction about the future of the church in Ireland: If more young priests aren't found quickly, the country's parishes may soon not have enough clergy to survive. He told the congregation at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin that his own diocese had 46 priests aged 80 or over, but only two under 35 years old. It's a similar story all over the island. According to a 2007 study of Catholic dioceses in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, about half of all priests are between the ages of 55 and 74.

Ireland's ties to the Catholic Church run deep. The ordination of a family member was once regarded as a moment of great prestige, especially in rural areas. Even as recently as 1990, over 80% of Irish people said they attended Mass at least once a week. But the country's relationship with the church began to change dramatically in the mid-1990s when Ireland's economy began to take off, ushering in years of unprecedented growth. Soon, disaffection replaced devotion among Ireland's newly rich younger generation. Most devastating of all, however, were the sex-abuse scandals involving pedophile priests that surfaced around the same time. Criticism over the handling of the case of Father Brendan Smyth — a priest who had sexually abused children for over 40 years — even led to the collapse of the Irish government in 1994. (Prime Minister Albert Reynolds was forced to stand down amid public anger over the lengthy delays in extraditing Smyth to Northern Ireland, where he was wanted on child abuse charges.)

But more was still to come. Last May, the government published the findings of a nine-year inquiry into child abuse at church-run schools, orphanages and hospitals from the 1930s to the 1990s. The report, which described "endemic sexual abuse" at boys' schools and the "daily terror" of physical abuse at other institutions, shook Ireland to its core and left the reputation of the church and the religious orders that ran its schools in tatters. Then, this week, another government inquiry found that the church and police colluded to cover up numerous cases of child sex abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, prompting the head of the Catholic church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, to apologize to the Irish people. "No one is above the law in this country," he said. There are now calls for similar inquiries to be held in every diocese in Ireland.

The scandals have undoubtedly made it difficult to bring new men into the priesthood. Father Brian D'Arcy, superior of the Passionist Monastery in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, says the only way to reverse the trend may be to relax the strict rules governing priests' lifestyles. Top of his list? The vow of celibacy. "Of course it would be a big help if priests were allowed to marry or if we could ordain married men," he says. Earlier this month, he says, a priest in the Derry diocese, Father Sean McKenna, announced to his congregation that he was in a relationship with a woman and was stepping down. His parishioners gave him a standing ovation. "Good men are being driven out by foolish [rules]," D'Arcy says.

But some clerical leaders say that allowing married or female clergy won't solve the problem. "They're easy solutions on paper but the crisis is deeper," says Father Patrick Rushe, vocations coordinator for the 26 dioceses in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He points out that the Anglican Church, which permits both married and female clergy, is also facing a shortage of vocations. "[Becoming a priest] is a lifetime commitment and a sacrifice. I think that's what's putting people off. It's not just celibacy," he says.

The church's solution was to launch a recruitment campaign last year, holding special Masses, workshops and conferences aimed at attracting young men to the priesthood. The initiative seems to have paid off, at least in the short term. Last September, a total of 38 Irish men began to study for the priesthood at seminaries in Ireland and Italy. The figure may pale in comparison to the 100 or so new seminarians who signed up annually in the 1960s, but it was the highest intake for the church in a decade. Five years ago, there was only one ordination in Northern Ireland out of a Catholic population of 700,000 people. "You're not just going to pull somebody off the street and they'll suddenly become a priest," Rushe says. "It's a decision that can take a long time to make."

Vincent Cushnahan, 29, currently the youngest serving priest in Ireland, says the church also needs to carry out structural reforms, such as cutting the number of parishes (and, therefore, the number of priests required to fill them) and giving greater responsibilities to lay people. In some Irish parishes, for example, non-ordained church members are now responsible for roles such as youth ministry.

Cushnahan knows how hard it is for the church to recruit young men these days — becoming a priest was a difficult decision for him to make. "I had to forsake married life, my own house, money," he says. "[Being a priest] can be more isolating and counter-cultural than it has been in the past. It's more challenging, but also more rewarding because of that."

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Beethoven – “Moonlight Sonata“ (Piano Sonata No. 14)



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is popularly known as the "Moonlight" Sonata (Mondscheinsonate in German). The work was completed in 1801 and rumored to be dedicated to his pupil, 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom Beethoven was, or had been, in love. The name "Moonlight" Sonata derives from an 1832 description of the first movement by music critic Ludwig Rellstab, who compared it to moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.

Beethoven included the phrase "Quasi una fantasia" (Italian: Almost a fantasy) in the title partly because the sonata does not follow the traditional sonata pattern where the first movement is in regular sonata form, and where the three or four movements are arranged in a fast-slow-[fast]-fast sequence. Instead, the Moonlight sonata possesses an end-weighted trajectory; the climax is held off until the third movement. To be sure, the deviation from traditional sonata form is intentional. In his analysis of the Moonlight sonata, German critic Paul Bekker states that “The opening sonata-allegro movement gave the work a definite character from the beginning…which succeeding movements could supplement but not change. Beethoven rebelled against this determinative quality in the first movement. He wanted a prelude, an introduction, not a proposition.” By placing the most dramatic form (sonata form) at the end of the piece, Beethoven could magnify the drama inherent in the form.

Form

The sonata has three movements:

Adagio sostenuto
Allegretto
Presto agitato

The first movement is written in a kind of truncated sonata form. The movement opens with a partial Phrygian tetrachord in the left hand and triplet figuration in the right. A melody that Hector Berlioz called a "lamentation" is played (mostly by the right hand) against an accompanying ostinato triplet rhythm (simultaneously played by the right hand). The movement is also played pianissimo or "very quietly", and the loudest it gets is mezzo-forte or "moderately loud". The movement has made a powerful impression on many listeners; for instance, Berlioz wrote that it "is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify." The work was very popular in Beethoven's day, to the point of exasperating the composer, who remarked to Carl Czerny, "Surely I've written better things."

The second movement is a relatively conventional scherzo and trio; a moment of relative calm written in D-flat major. This key signature is equivalent to C-sharp major, that is, the tonic major for the work as a whole, though the key of D-flat is used rather than C-sharp because it has fewer symbols written in the key signature, with five flats rather than seven sharps. Of the second movement, Franz Liszt described it as "a flower between two chasms."

The stormy final movement (C-sharp minor), in sonata form, is the weightiest of the three, reflecting an experiment of Beethoven's (also carried out in the companion sonata, Opus 27, No. 1 and later on in Opus 101) placement of the most important movement of the sonata last. The writing has many fast arpeggios and strongly accented notes, and an effective performance demands lively and skillful playing.

Of the final movement, Charles Rosen has written "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing."

It is thought that the C-sharp minor sonata, particularly the third movement, was the inspiration for Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu. The Fantaisie-Impromptu is also in the key of C-sharp minor, with a middle section of D-flat major, similar to the three movements of this sonata.

The musical dynamic that predominates in the third movement is in fact piano. It seems that Beethoven's heavy use of sforzando notes, together with just a few strategically located fortissimo passages, creates the sense of a very powerful sound in spite of the overall dynamic.

Beethoven's pedal mark

At the opening of the work, Beethoven included a written direction that the sustain pedal should be depressed for the entire duration of the first movement. The Italian reads: "Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino" ("One must play this whole piece [meaning "movement"] very delicately and without dampers."). The modern piano has a much longer sustain time than the instruments of Beethoven's day. Therefore, his instruction cannot be followed by pianists playing modern instruments without creating an unpleasantly dissonant sound.

One option for dealing with this problem is to perform the work on a restored or replicated piano of the kind Beethoven knew. Proponents of historically informed performance using such pianos have found it feasible to perform the work respecting Beethoven's original direction.

For performance on the modern piano, most performers today try to achieve an effect similar to what Beethoven asked for using pedal changes only where necessary to avoid excessive dissonance. For instance, the Ricordi edition of the score posted at the external link given below does include pedal marks throughout the first movement. These are the work of a 20th century editor, meant to facilitate performance on a modern instrument. "Half pedaling"—a technique involving a partial depression of the damper pedal—is also often used to simulate the shorter sustain of the early nineteenth century pedal. Charles Rosen suggests both half-pedaling and releasing the pedal a fraction of a second late.

Shark Attack (Graphic)

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 film directed by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a serial killer who seemingly operates with impunity. It stars Michael Rooker as the nomadic killer Henry, Tom Towles as Otis, a prison buddy with whom Henry is living, and Tracy Arnold as Becky, Otis’ sister. The character of Henry is loosely based on real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.

The film was shot on 16mm in less than a month with a budget of only $110,000. The film was ranked #2 on Bravo's 13 Scariest Movie Moments

Origins

In 1984, executive producers Malik B. Ali and Waleed B. Ali of Maljack Productions hired a former delivery man for their video equipment rental business, John McNaughton, to direct a documentary about gangsters in Chicago during the 1930s. Dealers in Death[1] was a moderate success, and was well received critically, so the Ali brothers kept McNaughton on as director for a second documentary, this time about the Chicago wrestling scene in the 1950s. A collection of vintage wrestling tapes had been discovered, and the owner was willing to sell them to the Ali brothers for use in the documentary. However, after financing was in place, the owner doubled his price and the brothers pulled out of the deal. With the documentary cancelled, Waleed and McNaughton, decided that the money for the documentary could instead be used to make a feature film. The Ali brothers gave McNaughton $110,000 to make the film, with the provisos being that it was to be a horror film with plenty of blood.

McNaughton knew that with the budget he was to be working, there would be no way he could make a horror movie about aliens or monsters, and he found himself stumped for a subject matter until he saw an episode of the TV show 20/20 about the serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. It was then that McNaughton decided the subject for the film would be a flesh and blood human.

In the meantime, the Ali brothers brought Steven A. Jones onto the project as a producer, and Jones hired Richard Fire to work as McNaughton's co-writer. With producer, writer and director in place and with the subject matter decided upon, the film went into production.

Truth from fiction

With the film's influence derived from the real life case of Henry Lee Lucas, the character of Henry shares many biographical concurrences with Lucas himself. However, as the opening statement makes clear, the film is based more on Lucas' violent fantasies rather than the crimes he was convicted of. Similarities include:

Henry Lee Lucas became acquainted with a drifter and male prostitute named Ottis Toole, whom he had met in a soup kitchen in Jacksonville, Florida. In the film, the character's name is "Otis" and the two met in prison.
Henry Lee Lucas became the lover of Toole's 12-year-old niece, Frieda Powell, who lived with Lucas and her uncle for many years. As in the film, Frieda Powell preferred to be addressed as "Becky" rather than her given name. However, in the film Becky is Otis' younger sister and is considerably older than the 12-year-old Frieda Powell.
As in the film, Lucas' mother was a violent prostitute who often forced him to watch her whilst she had sex, and occasionally dressed him in girl's clothing. Also in the film, Lucas' father also lost both his legs after being struck by a freight train.
In prison, Lucas confessed to over 600 murders, claiming he committed roughly one murder a week from 1975 to 1983. The vast majority of these claims turned out to be false as Lucas was simply confessing to every unsolved murder brought before him. Doing so ensured better conditions for him, as law enforcement officers would offer him incentives to confess to crimes he did not commit. Such confessions also increased his fame with the public.

In the end, Lucas was convicted of eleven murders and sentenced to death for the murder of Frieda Powell. His death sentence was later commuted to life in prison by the then Governor of Texas George W. Bush in 1998. Lucas died in prison of heart failure on March 13, 2001.

Production

Henry was shot on 16mm in only 28 days for $110,000. During filmmaking, costs were cut by employing family and friends wherever possible, and participants utilized their own possessions. For example, the dead couple in the bar at the start of the film are the parents of director John McNaughton’s best friend, whilst the bar itself is where McNaughton once worked. Actress Mary Demas, a close friend of McNaughton’s, plays three different murder victims: the woman in the ditch in the opening shot, the woman with the bottle in her mouth in the toilet, and the first of the two murdered prostitutes. The four women Henry encounters outside the shopping mall were all played by close friends of McNaughton. The woman hitchhiking was a woman with whom McNaughton used to work. The clothes Michael Rooker wears throughout the film were his own (apart from the shoes and socks). The car driven by Henry belonged to one of the electricians on the film. Art director Rick Paul plays the man shot in the layby; storyboard artist Frank Coronado plays the smaller of the attacking bums; grip Brian Graham plays the husband in the family-massacre scene; and executive producer Waleed B. Ali plays the clerk serving Henry towards the end of the film.

Actor Michael Rooker remained in character for the duration of the shoot, even off set, not socializing with any of the cast or crew during the month long shoot. According to the costume designer Patricia Hart, she and Rooker would travel to the set together each day, and she never knew from one minute to the next if she was talking to Michael or to Henry as sometimes he would speak about his childhood and background not as Michael Rooker but as Henry. Indeed, so in-character did Rooker remain, that during the shoot, his wife discovered she was pregnant, but she waited until filming had stopped before she told him.

Because the production had so little money, they could not afford extras, so all of the people in the exterior shots of the streets of Chicago are simply pedestrians going about their business. For example, in the scene where Becky emerges from the subway, two men can be seen standing at the top of the stairs having a heated discussion. These men were really having an argument, and when the film crew arrived to shoot, they refused to move, so John McNaughton decided to include them in the shot.

After filming was finished, there was so little money left that the film had to be edited on a rented 16 mm flatbed which was set up in editor Elena Maganini's living room.

Henry and the censors

Although the film was made in 1986, it was not released until 1989 partly due to repeated disagreements with the MPAA over the movie's violent content, partly due to the executive producers not knowing how to market it, and partly their not thinking it was a very good film. The film was given an X rating by the MPAA but ultimately released in the United States without a rating.

In the United Kingdom, the film has had a long and complex relationship with the BBFC. In 1990, distributor Electric Pictures submitted the film for classification with 38 seconds already removed (the pan across the hotel room and into the bathroom, revealing the semi-naked woman on the toilet with a broken bottle stuck in her mouth). Electric Pictures had performed this edit themselves without the approval of director John McNaughton because they feared it was such an extreme image so early in the film, it would turn the board against them. The film was classified 18 for theatrical release in April 1991, but only if 24 seconds were cut from the family massacre scene (primarily involving the shots where Otis gropes the mother’s breasts both prior to killing her and after she is dead). Total time cut from the film: 62 seconds.

In 1992, Electric Pictures again submitted the film to the BBFC for home video classification, again with the initial 38-second edit. In January 1993, the BBFC again classified the film 18, waiving the 24 seconds they had cut from the theatrical release. Instead however, they cut four seconds from the scene where the TV salesman is murdered, meaning a total of 42 seconds were supposed to be removed from the home video release. However, BBFC director James Ferman overruled his own team and demanded that the family massacre scene be trimmed down to almost nothing, removing 71 seconds of footage. Additionally, Ferman re-edited the scene so that the reaction shot of Henry and Otis watching TV now occurred midway through the scene rather than at the end. Total time cut from the film: 113 seconds.

In 2001, Universal Home Entertainment submitted a completely uncut version of the film for classification for home video release. The BBFC waived the four seconds cut from the murder of the TV salesman, and 61 of the 71 seconds from the family massacre scene (they refused to reinstate the 10 seconds of the scene where Otis molests the mother after she is dead). Additionally, they partly approved the 38 second shot of the dead woman on the toilet, but they demanded that the last 17 seconds of the shot be removed. Based upon this, Universal decided to remove the shot entirely. Total time cut from the film: 48 seconds.

In 2003, Optimum Releasing again submitted a fully uncut version of the film for classification for home video release. In February 2003, the BBFC passed the film completely uncut, and in March 2003, the uncut version of the film was officially released in the UK for the first time.

BBC Outnumbered





Two bodies found after flat fire

Last updated at 14:55 GMT, Saturday, 28 November 2009

Two bodies have been found in a flat following a fire in Earlsfield, south-west London.

The bodies of an adult and child were discovered in the bedroom of a second-floor flat at Willow Tree Close.

They have not yet been identified and it is not clear whether they were male or female, London Fire Brigade said.

Emergency services were called to the flat at about 1925 GMT on Friday. It took 20 firefighters an hour to control the fire, which damaged half the flat.

The flat is on the second floor of a three-storey block, the fire brigade said.

Crews from Wandsworth, Tooting, Battersea and Wimbledon fire stations attended.

The cause of the fire is being investigated by fire officers and the police.

Man arrested after fatal stabbing

Last updated at 10:11 GMT, Saturday, 28 November 2009

A 45-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man was stabbed to death outside a house in Merseyside.

The 38-year-old man had been in a house on Birkenhead Road, in Seacombe, with people he knew when a fight broke out at about 1700 GMT on Friday.

The fight spilled out on to the street where he suffered the fatal injury. He died later at Arrowe Park Hospital.

Merseyside Police said the murder suspect was from the Wallasey area.

Forensic examinations are being carried out at the scene and house-to-house inquiries have begun.

Police said CCTV would be examined to try and establish what had happened and high visibility patrols had been stepped up in the area to reassure the community.

A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out later.

Anyone with information should contact Merseyside Police or Crimestoppers.

Pesticide man charged with murder

Last updated at 11:36 GMT, Saturday, 28 November 2009

A man has been charged with murdering his wife in their Southampton home and drugging three other people.

Margaret Kibuuka, 40, was found dead with stab wounds at the home she shared with her husband George in Richville Road, Shirley, on 8 November.

Mr Kibuuka, 47, was also found injured at their home. He had a stab wound and had drunk pesticide, it later emerged.

He is accused of murder and three counts of administering a stupefying drug.

Medical staff at Southampton General Hospital, where Mr Kibuuka was treated, suffered reactions to the pesticide seeping through his skin.

Firefighters wearing chemical protection suits were called to the couple's home to take away hazardous materials after Mrs Kibuuka's body was found.

She originated from Uganda but had lived in the UK with her husband and their four children for a number of years.

Woman pulled into alley and raped

Last updated at 12:20 GMT, Saturday, 28 November 2009

A 19-year-old woman has been raped in east Belfast.

She was walking back from a shop along Newtownards Road, near Dee Street, at about 0530 GMT on Saturday when the attacker came up behind her.

He dragged her into an alleyway behind a pub and assaulted her.

Police are seeking help from a taxi driver who had brought the woman to the shop from a fast food outlet. She was dressed in pyjamas and a coat.

The teenager received medical attention following her ordeal.

Sweden woman's 'murder' committed by elk not husband

Last updated at 13:54 GMT, Saturday, 28 November 2009

A Swedish man who was arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife has been cleared, after police decided she was probably killed by an elk.

Ingemar Westlund, aged 68, found the dead body of his wife Agneta, 63, by a lake close to the village of Loftahammer in September 2008.

He was immediately arrested and held in police custody for 10 days.

Now the case has been dropped after forensic analysis found elk hair and saliva on his wife's clothes.

Mr Westlund told Expressen newspaper: "My family and I have been dragged through a nightmare."

His wife had last been seen taking the family dog out for a walk in the forest. When she failed to return her husband went out to look for her.

Although the murder investigation was dropped five months ago, details have only just emerged and the police plan to hold a news conference next week to explain what happened.

The European elk, or moose, is usually considered to be shy and will normally run away from humans. But Swedish Radio International says the animals can become aggressive after eating fermented fallen apples in gardens.

Bizarre calf mutilations found on Colorado ranch

Thu Nov 26, 1:55 pm ET

SAN LUIS, Colo. – A creepy string of calf mutilations in southern Colorado has a rancher and sheriff's officials mystified.

Four calves were found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks. The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.

But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools of blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.

Two officers from the Costilla County Sheriff's Office have investigated the mutilations but say they don't know what's killing the calves.

"There's nothing really to go by," said Sanchez, who's ranched for nearly 50 years. "I can't figure it out."

A spokesman for the sheriff's office told The Pueblo Chieftain that investigators doubt a person butchered the calves because there is no blood at the scene.

"I've butchered a cow before and I know what kind of a mess it leaves," Sgt. James Chavez said.

Some in the area believe the mutilations are the work of aliens. An area UFO chaser, Chuck Zukowski of Colorado Springs, has been to the Costilla County pasture to investigate.

He told the paper there have been other unexplained calf mutilations in the area, including three in March. One of the other calves, found dead on a ranch near Trinidad, had its ears removed, Zukowski said.

"We're trying as much as we can to find a pattern," said Zukowski, who runs a UFO Web site called ufonut.com.

Sanchez said he has sold off his 32 remaining calves out of fear more would be mutilated. He hasn't decided how he'll manage the remaining 40 animals in his herd.

"It's a big loss for a small rancher," he said.

Hitler's favorite car makes comeback?

By Dave Graham Dave Graham – Tue Nov 24, 3:19 pm ET

BERLIN (Reuters) – A car expert says he has tracked down Hitler's favorite Mercedes to a garage near the town that helped the Austrian-born Fuehrer become a German citizen.

Classic cars specialist Michael Froehlich said he found the bullet-proof touring car after charting its postwar travels from Austria to Las Vegas and back to Munich, where Hitler burst onto the political scene with a failed putsch in 1923.

"It was the best car in the world at the time. Better than the Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls Royce or whatever," Froehlich told Reuters from his office in Duesseldorf. "It was his favorite car: the one he used most often, which he used for parades."

After being commissioned by a Cypriot buyer to find the vehicle, Froehlich discovered it had been bought by a farmer near Braunschweig, where in 1932 local Nazi officials got Hitler a civil servant's job so he could claim citizenship.

"I thought it was an interesting job, but on the other hand I wasn't too thrilled, because my parents and grandparents suffered greatly under his regime," Froehlich said of the commission.

The dark blue car, which Froehlich said had spent decades in the basement of the Imperial Palace Casino in Las Vegas, was recently sold by the heirs of a Munich brewing tycoon before he traced it "in under two months" to northern Germany.

Froehlich said reports the buyer was Russian were mistaken, and rejected the notion that past owners of the vehicle with the number plate "1A 148 461" were admirers of the dictator.

"They weren't Nazis from what I can see, I think it's something they saw as a business investment," he said. "I can well imagine that an old Hitler banger has a certain value."

Froehlich declined to name the car's price tag, or give details about the buyer, but said the 1935 edition custom-made vehicle could fetch "more than 10 million euros ($14.91 million)."

Though he had not yet had outside confirmation of the car's authenticity, the owner's paperwork left no doubt, he added.

"The Mercedes sales register shows this 770 K model was ordered for the Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich in 1935," he said.

Only 88 of the series were ever made and the Braunschweig car showed all the special modifications made for Hitler, who had to be driven because he had no "Fuehrerschein" -- a German word made up from "driver" and "license" -- Froehlich said.

Woman sees image of Jesus on her iron

Fri Nov 27, 1:54 pm ET

METHUEN, Mass. – A Massachusetts woman who recently separated from her husband and had her hours cut at work says an image of Jesus Christ she sees on her iron has reassured her that "life is going to be good."

Mary Jo Coady first noticed the image Sunday when she walked into her daughter's room.

The brownish residue on the bottom of the iron looks like the face of a man with long hair.

The 44-year-old Coady was raised Catholic. She and her two college-age daughters agree that the image looks like Jesus and is proof that "he's listening."

Coady tells The Eagle-Tribune she hopes her story will inspire others during the holidays. She says she plans to keep the iron in a closet and buy a new one.

Scientology : The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power

By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the world. On the day last June when his parents drove to New York City to claim his body, they were nearly catatonic with grief. The young Russian-studies scholar had jumped from a 10th-floor window of the Milford Plaza Hotel and bounced off the hood of a stretch limousine. When the police arrived, his fingers were still clutching $171 in cash, virtually the only money he hadn't yet turned over to the Church of Scientology, the self-help "philosophy" group he had discovered just seven months earlier.

His death inspired his father Edward, a physician, to start his own investigation of the church. "We thought Scientology was something like Dale Carnegie," Lottick says. "I now believe it's a school for psychopaths. Their so-called therapies are manipulations. They take the best and brightest people and destroy them." The Lotticks want to sue the church for contributing to their son's death, but the prospect has them frightened. For nearly 40 years, the big business of Scientology has shielded itself exquisitely behind the First Amendment as well as a battery of high-priced criminal lawyers and shady private detectives.

The Church of Scientology, started by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to "clear" people of unhappiness, portrays itself as a religion. In reality the church is a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner. At times during the past decade, prosecutions against Scientology seemed to be curbing its menace. Eleven top Scientologists, including Hubbard's wife, were sent to prison in the early 1980s for infiltrating, burglarizing and wiretapping more than 100 private and government agencies in attempts to block their investigations. In recent years hundreds of longtime Scientology adherents -- many charging that they were mentally or physically abused -- have quit the church and criticized it at their own risk. Some have sued the church and won; others have settled for amounts in excess of $500,000. In various cases judges have labeled the church "schizophrenic and paranoid" and "corrupt, sinister and dangerous."

Yet the outrage and litigation have failed to squelch Scientology. The group, which boasts 700 centers in 65 countries, threatens to become more insidious and pervasive than ever. Scientology is trying to go mainstream, a strategy that has sparked a renewed law-enforcement campaign against the church. Many of the group's followers have been accused of committing financial scams, while the church is busy attracting the unwary through a wide array of front groups in such businesses as publishing, consulting, health care and even remedial education.

In Hollywood, Scientology has assembled a star-studded roster of followers by aggressively recruiting and regally pampering them at the church's "Celebrity Centers," a chain of clubhouses that offer expensive counseling and career guidance. Adherents include screen idols Tom Cruise and John Travolta, actresses Kirstie Alley, Mimi Rogers and Anne Archer, Palm Springs mayor and performer Sonny Bono, jazzman Chick Corea and even Nancy Cartwright, the voice of cartoon star Bart Simpson. Rank-and-file members, however, are dealt a less glamorous Scientology.

According to the Cult Awareness Network, whose 23 chapters monitor more than 200 "mind control" cults, no group prompts more telephone pleas for help than does Scientology. Says Cynthia Kisser, the network's Chicago-based executive director: "Scientology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroristic, the most litigious and the most lucrative cult the country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members." Agrees Vicki Aznaran, who was one of Scientology's six key leaders until she bolted from the church in 1987: "This is a criminal organization, day in and day out. It makes Jim and Tammy ((Bakker)) look like kindergarten."

To explore Scientology's reach, TIME conducted more than 150 interviews and reviewed hundreds of court records and internal Scientology documents. Church officials refused to be interviewed. The investigation paints a picture of a depraved yet thriving enterprise. Most cults fail to outlast their founder, but Scientology has prospered since Hubbard's death in 1986. In a court filing, one of the cult's many entities -- the Church of Spiritual Technology -- listed $503 million in income just for 1987. High-level defectors say the parent organization has squirreled away an estimated $400 million in bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Cyprus. Scientology probably has about 50,000 active members, far fewer than the 8 million the group claims. But in one sense, that inflated figure rings true: millions of people have been affected in one way or another by Hubbard's bizarre creation.

Scientology is now run by David Miscavige, 31, a high school dropout and second-generation church member. Defectors describe him as cunning, ruthless and so paranoid about perceived enemies that he kept plastic wrap over his glass of water. His obsession is to attain credibility for Scientology in the 1990s. Among other tactics, the group:

-- Retains public relations powerhouse Hill and Knowlton to help shed the church's fringe-group image.

-- Joined such household names as Sony and Pepsi as a main sponsor of Ted Turner's Goodwill Games.

-- Buys massive quantities of its own books from retail stores to propel the titles onto best-seller lists.

-- Runs full-page ads in such publications as Newsweek and Business Week that call Scientology a "philosophy," along with a plethora of TV ads touting the group's books.

-- Recruits wealthy and respectable professionals through a web of consulting groups that typically hide their ties to Scientology.

The founder of this enterprise was part storyteller, part flimflam man. Born in Nebraska in 1911, Hubbard served in the Navy during World War II and soon afterward complained to the Veterans Administration about his "suicidal inclinations" and his "seriously affected" mind. Nevertheless, Hubbard was a moderately successful writer of pulp science fiction. Years later, church brochures described him falsely as an "extensively decorated" World War II hero who was crippled and blinded in action, twice pronounced dead and miraculously cured through Scientology. Hubbard's "doctorate" from "Sequoia University" was a fake mail-order degree. In a 1984 case in which the church sued a Hubbard biographical researcher, a California judge concluded that its founder was "a pathological liar."

Hubbard wrote one of Scientology's sacred texts, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, in 1950. In it he introduced a crude psychotherapeutic technique he called "auditing." He also created a simplified lie detector (called an "E-meter") that was designed to measure electrical changes in the skin while subjects discussed intimate details of their past. Hubbard argued that unhappiness sprang from mental aberrations (or "engrams") caused by early traumas. Counseling sessions with the E-meter, he claimed, could knock out the engrams, cure blindness and even improve a person's intelligence and appearance.

Hubbard kept adding steps, each more costly, for his followers to climb. In the 1960s the guru decreed that humans are made of clusters of spirits (or "thetans") who were banished to earth some 75 million years ago by a cruel galactic ruler named Xenu. Naturally, those thetans had to be audited.

An Internal Revenue Service ruling in 1967 stripped Scientology's mother church of its tax-exempt status. A federal court ruled in 1971 that Hubbard's medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could no longer be called a scientific treatment. Hubbard responded by going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection for Scientology's strange rites. His counselors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, franchises became "missions," fees became "fixed donations," and Hubbard's comic-book cosmology became "sacred scriptures."

During the early 1970s, the IRS conducted its own auditing sessions and proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency's employees. By late 1985, with high-level defectors accusing Hubbard of having stolen as much as $200 million from the church, the IRS was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scientology members "worked day and night" shredding documents the IRS sought, according to defector Aznaran, who took part in the scheme. Hubbard, who had been in hiding for five years, died before the criminal case could be prosecuted.

Today the church invents costly new services with all the zeal of its founder. Scientology doctrine warns that even adherents who are "cleared" of engrams face grave spiritual dangers unless they are pushed to higher and more expensive levels. According to the church's latest price list, recruits -- "raw meat," as Hubbard called them -- take auditing sessions that cost as much as $1,000 an hour, or $12,500 for a 12 1/2-hour "intensive."

Psychiatrists say these sessions can produce a drugged-like, mind-controlled euphoria that keeps customers coming back for more. To pay their fees, newcomers can earn commissions by recruiting new members, become auditors themselves (Miscavige did so at age 12), or join the church staff and receive free counseling in exchange for what their written contracts describe as a "billion years" of labor. "Make sure that lots of bodies move through the shop," implored Hubbard in one of his bulletins to officials. "Make money. Make more money. Make others produce so as to make money . . . However you get them in or why, just do it."

Harriet Baker learned the hard way about Scientology's business of selling religion. When Baker, 73, lost her husband to cancer, a Scientologist turned up at her Los Angeles home peddling a $1,300 auditing package to cure her grief. Some $15,000 later, the Scientologists discovered that her house was debt free. They arranged a $45,000 mortgage, which they pressured her to tap for more auditing until Baker's children helped their mother snap out of her daze. Last June, Baker demanded a $27,000 refund for unused services, prompting two cult members to show up at her door unannounced with an E-meter to interrogate her. Baker never got the money and, financially strapped, was forced to sell her house in September.

Before Noah Lottick killed himself, he had paid more than $5,000 for church counseling. His behavior had also become strange. He once remarked to his parents that his Scientology mentors could actually read minds. When his father suffered a major heart attack, Noah insisted that it was purely psychosomatic. Five days before he jumped, Noah burst into his parents' home and demanded to know why they were spreading "false rumors" about him -- a delusion that finally prompted his father to call a psychiatrist.

It was too late. "From Noah's friends at Dianetics" read the card that accompanied a bouquet of flowers at Lottick's funeral. Yet no Scientology staff members bothered to show up. A week earlier, local church officials had given Lottick's parents a red-carpet tour of their center. A cult leader told Noah's parents that their son had been at the church just hours before he disappeared -- but the church denied this story as soon as the body was identified. True to form, the cult even haggled with the Lotticks over $3,000 their son had paid for services he never used, insisting that Noah had intended it as a "donation."

The church has invented hundreds of goods and services for which members are urged to give "donations." Are you having trouble "moving swiftly up the Bridge" -- that is, advancing up the stepladder of enlightenment? Then you can have your case reviewed for a mere $1,250 "donation." Want to know "why a thetan hangs on to the physical universe?" Try 52 of Hubbard's tape- recorded speeches from 1952, titled "Ron's Philadelphia Doctorate Course Lectures," for $2,525. Next: nine other series of the same sort. For the collector, gold-and-leather-bound editions of 22 of Hubbard's books (and bookends) on subjects ranging from Scientology ethics to radiation can be had for just $1,900.

To gain influence and lure richer, more sophisticated followers, Scientology has lately resorted to a wide array of front groups and financial scams. Among them:

CONSULTING. Sterling Management Systems, formed in 1983, has been ranked in recent years by Inc. magazine as one of America's fastest-growing private companies (estimated 1988 revenues: $20 million). Sterling regularly mails a free newsletter to more than 300,000 health-care professionals, mostly dentists, promising to increase their incomes dramatically. The firm offers seminars and courses that typically cost $10,000. But Sterling's true aim is to hook customers for Scientology. "The church has a rotten product, so they package it as something else," says Peter Georgiades, a Pittsburgh attorney who represents Sterling victims. "It's a kind of bait and switch." Sterling's founder, dentist Gregory Hughes, is now under investigation by California's Board of Dental Examiners for incompetence. Nine lawsuits are pending against him for malpractice (seven others have been settled), mostly for orthodontic work on children.

Many dentists who have unwittingly been drawn into the cult are filing or threatening lawsuits as well. Dentist Robert Geary of Medina, Ohio, who entered a Sterling seminar in 1988, endured "the most extreme high-pressure sales tactics I have ever faced." Sterling officials told Geary, 45, that their firm was not linked to Scientology, he says. But Geary claims they eventually convinced him that he and his wife Dorothy had personal problems that required auditing. Over five months, the Gearys say, they spent $130,000 for services, plus $50,000 for "gold-embossed, investment-grade" books signed by Hubbard. Geary contends that Scientologists not only called his bank to increase his credit-card limit but also forged his signature on a $20,000 loan application. "It was insane," he recalls. "I couldn't even get an accounting from them of what I was paying for." At one point, the Gearys claim, Scientologists held Dorothy hostage for two weeks in a mountain cabin, after which she was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown.

Last October, Sterling broke some bad news to another dentist, Glover Rowe of Gadsden, Ala., and his wife Dee. Tests showed that unless they signed up for auditing, Glover's practice would fail, and Dee would someday abuse their child. The next month the Rowes flew to Glendale, Calif., where they shuttled daily from a local hotel to a Dianetics center. "We thought they were brilliant people because they seemed to know so much about us," recalls Dee. "Then we realized our hotel room must have been bugged." After bolting from the center, $23,000 poorer, the Rowes say, they were chased repeatedly by Scientologists on foot and in cars. Dentists aren't the only ones at risk. Scientology also makes pitches to chiropractors, podiatrists and veterinarians.

PUBLIC INFLUENCE. One front, the Way to Happiness Foundation, has distributed to children in thousands of the nation's public schools more than 3.5 million copies of a booklet Hubbard wrote on morality. The church calls the scheme "the largest dissemination project in Scientology history." Applied Scholastics is the name of still another front, which is attempting to install a Hubbard tutorial program in public schools, primarily those populated by minorities. The group also plans a 1,000-acre campus, where it will train educators to teach various Hubbard methods. The disingenuously named Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a Scientology group at war with psychiatry, its primary competitor. The commission typically issues reports aimed at discrediting particular psychiatrists and the field in general. The CCHR is also behind an all-out war against Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac, the nation's top-selling antidepression drug. Despite scant evidence, the group's members -- who call themselves "psychbusters" -- claim that Prozac drives people to murder or suicide. Through mass mailings, appearances on talk shows and heavy lobbying, CCHR has hurt drug sales and helped spark dozens of lawsuits against Lilly.

Another Scientology-linked group, the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, holds antidrug contests and awards $5,000 grants to schools as a way to recruit students and curry favor with education officials. West Virginia Senator John D. Rockefeller IV unwittingly commended the CBAA in 1987 on the Senate floor. Last August author Alex Haley was the keynote speaker at its annual awards banquet in Los Angeles. Says Haley: "I didn't know much about that group going in. I'm a Methodist." Ignorance about Scientology can be embarrassing: two months ago, Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, noting that Scientology's founder "has solved the aberrations of the human mind," proclaimed March 13 "L. Ron Hubbard Day." He rescinded the proclamation in late March, once he learned who Hubbard really was.

HEALTH CARE. HealthMed, a chain of clinics run by Scientologists, promotes a grueling and excessive system of saunas, exercise and vitamins designed by Hubbard to purify the body. Experts denounce the regime as quackery and potentially harmful, yet HealthMed solicits unions and public agencies for contracts. The chain is plugged heavily in a new book, Diet for a Poisoned Planet, by journalist David Steinman, who concludes that scores of common foods (among them: peanuts, bluefish, peaches and cottage cheese) are dangerous.

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop labeled the book "trash," and the Food and Drug Administration issued a paper in October that claims Steinman distorts his facts. "HealthMed is a gateway to Scientology, and Steinman's book is a sorting mechanism," says physician William Jarvis, who is head of the National Council Against Health Fraud. Steinman, who describes Hubbard favorably as a "researcher," denies any ties to the church and contends, "HealthMed has no affiliation that I know of with Scientology."

DRUG TREATMENT. Hubbard's purification treatments are the mainstay of Narconon, a Scientology-run chain of 33 alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers -- some in prisons under the name "Criminon" -- in 12 countries. Narconon, a classic vehicle for drawing addicts into the cult, now plans to open what it calls the world's largest treatment center, a 1,400-bed facility on an Indian reservation near Newkirk, Okla. (pop. 2,400). At a 1989 ceremony in Newkirk, the Association for Better Living and Education presented Narconon a check for $200,000 and a study praising its work. The association turned out to be part of Scientology itself. Today the town is battling to keep out the cult, which has fought back through such tactics as sending private detectives to snoop on the mayor and the local newspaper publisher.

FINANCIAL SCAMS. Three Florida Scientologists, including Ronald Bernstein, a big contributor to the church's international "war chest," pleaded guilty in March to using their rare-coin dealership as a money laundry. Other notorious activities by Scientologists include making the shady Vancouver stock exchange even shadier (see box) and plotting to plant operatives in the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Export-Import Bank of the U.S. The alleged purpose of this scheme: to gain inside information on which countries are going to be denied credit so that Scientology-linked traders can make illicit profits by taking "short" positions in those countries' currencies.

In the stock market the practice of "shorting" involves borrowing shares of publicly traded companies in the hope that the price will go down before the stocks must be bought on the market and returned to the lender. The Feshbach brothers of Palo Alto, Calif. -- Kurt, Joseph and Matthew -- have become the leading short sellers in the U.S., with more than $500 million under management. The Feshbachs command a staff of about 60 employees and claim to have earned better returns than the Dow Jones industrial average for most of the 1980s. And, they say, they owe it all to the teachings of Scientology, whose "war chest" has received more than $1 million from the family.

The Feshbachs also embrace the church's tactics; the brothers are the terrors of the stock exchanges. In congressional hearings in 1989, the heads of several companies claimed that Feshbach operatives have spread false information to government agencies and posed in various guises -- such as a Securities and Exchange Commission official -- in an effort to discredit their companies and drive the stocks down. Michael Russell, who ran a chain of business journals, testified that a Feshbach employee called his bankers and interfered with his loans. Sometimes the Feshbachs send private detectives to dig up dirt on firms, which is then shared with business reporters, brokers and fund managers.

The Feshbachs, who wear jackets bearing the slogan "stock busters," insist they run a clean shop. But as part of a current probe into possible insider stock trading, federal officials are reportedly investigating whether the Feshbachs received confidential information from FDA employees. The brothers seem aligned with Scientology's war on psychiatry and medicine: many of their targets are health and biotechnology firms. "Legitimate short selling performs a public service by deflating hyped stocks," says Robert Flaherty, the editor of Equities magazine and a harsh critic of the brothers. "But the Feshbachs have damaged scores of good start-ups."

Occasionally a Scientologist's business antics land him in jail. Last August a former devotee named Steven Fishman began serving a five-year prison term in Florida. His crime: stealing blank stock-confirmation slips from his employer, a major brokerage house, to use as proof that he owned stock entitling him to join dozens of successful class-action lawsuits. Fishman made roughly $1 million this way from 1983 to 1988 and spent as much as 30% of the loot on Scientology books and tapes.

Scientology denies any tie to the Fishman scam, a claim strongly disputed by both Fishman and his longtime psychiatrist, Uwe Geertz, a prominent Florida hypnotist. Both men claim that when arrested, Fishman was ordered by the church to kill Geertz and then do an "EOC," or end of cycle, which is church jargon for suicide.

BOOK PUBLISHING. Scientology mischiefmaking has even moved to the book industry. Since 1985 at least a dozen Hubbard books, printed by a church company, have made best-seller lists. They range from a 5,000-page sci-fi decology (Black Genesis, The Enemy Within, An Alien Affair) to the 40-year-old Dianetics. In 1988 the trade publication Publishers Weekly awarded the dead author a plaque commemorating the appearance of Dianetics on its best-seller list for 100 consecutive weeks.

Critics pan most of Hubbard's books as unreadable, while defectors claim that church insiders are sometimes the real authors. Even so, Scientology has sent out armies of its followers to buy the group's books at such major chains as B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks to sustain the illusion of a best-selling author. A former Dalton's manager says that some books arrived in his store with the chain's price stickers already on them, suggesting that copies are being recycled. Scientology claims that sales of Hubbard books now top 90 million worldwide. The scheme, set up to gain converts and credibility, is coupled with a radio and TV advertising campaign virtually unparalleled in the book industry.

Scientology devotes vast resources to squelching its critics. Since 1986 Hubbard and his church have been the subject of four unfriendly books, all released by small yet courageous publishers. In each case, the writers have been badgered and heavily sued. One of Hubbard's policies was that all perceived enemies are "fair game" and subject to being "tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." Those who criticize the church -- journalists, doctors, lawyers and even judges -- often find themselves engulfed in litigation, stalked by private eyes, framed for fictional crimes, beaten up or threatened with death. Psychologist Margaret Singer, 69, an outspoken Scientology critic and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, now travels regularly under an assumed name to avoid harassment.

After the Los Angeles Times published a negative series on the church last summer, Scientologists spent an estimated $1 million to plaster the reporters' names on hundreds of billboards and bus placards across the city. Above their names were quotations taken out of context to portray the church in a positive light.

The church's most fearsome advocates are its lawyers. Hubbard warned his followers in writing to "beware of attorneys who tell you not to sue . . . the purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win." Result: Scientology has brought hundreds of suits against its perceived enemies and today pays an estimated $20 million annually to more than 100 lawyers.

One legal goal of Scientology is to bankrupt the opposition or bury it under paper. The church has 71 active lawsuits against the IRS alone. One of them, Miscavige vs. IRS, has required the U.S. to produce an index of 52,000 pages of documents. Boston attorney Michael Flynn, who helped Scientology victims from 1979 to 1987, personally endured 14 frivolous lawsuits, all of them dismissed. Another lawyer, Joseph Yanny, believes the church "has so subverted justice and the judicial system that it should be barred from seeking equity in any court." He should know: Yanny represented the cult until 1987, when, he says, he was asked to help church officials steal medical records to blackmail an opposing attorney (who was allegedly beaten up instead). Since Yanny quit representing the church, he has been the target of death threats, burglaries, lawsuits and other harassment.

Scientology's critics contend that the U.S. needs to crack down on the church in a major, organized way. "I want to know, Where is our government?" demands Toby Plevin, a Los Angeles attorney who handles victims. "It shouldn't be left to private litigators, because God knows most of us are afraid to get involved." But law-enforcement agents are also wary. "Every investigator is very cautious, walking on eggshells when it comes to the church," says a Florida police detective who has tracked the cult since 1988. "It will take a federal effort with lots of money and manpower."

So far the agency giving Scientology the most grief is the IRS, whose officials have implied that Hubbard's successors may be looting the church's coffers. Since 1988, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the revocation of the cult's tax-exempt status, a massive IRS probe of church centers across the country has been under way. An IRS agent, Marcus Owens, has estimated that thousands of IRS employees have been involved. Another agent, in an internal IRS memorandum, spoke hopefully of the "ultimate disintegration" of the church. A small but helpful beacon shone last June when a federal appeals court ruled that two cassette tapes featuring conversations between church officials and their lawyers are evidence of a plan to commit "future frauds" against the IRS.

The IRS and FBI have been debriefing Scientology defectors for the past three years, in part to gain evidence for a major racketeering case that appears to have stalled last summer. Federal agents complain that the Justice Department is unwilling to spend the money needed to endure a drawn-out war with Scientology or to fend off the cult's notorious jihads against individual agents. "In my opinion the church has one of the most effective intelligence operations in the U.S., rivaling even that of the FBI," says Ted Gunderson, a former head of the FBI's Los Angeles office.

Foreign governments have been moving even more vigorously against the organization. In Canada the church and nine of its members will be tried in June on charges of stealing government documents (many of them retrieved in an enormous police raid of the church's Toronto headquarters). Scientology proposed to give $1 million to the needy if the case was dropped, but Canada spurned the offer. Since 1986 authorities in France, Spain and Italy have raided more than 50 Scientology centers. Pending charges against more than 100 of its overseas church members include fraud, extortion, capital flight, coercion, illegally practicing medicine and taking advantage of mentally incapacitated people. In Germany last month, leading politicians accused the cult of trying to infiltrate a major party as well as launching an immense recruitment drive in the east.

Sometimes even the church's biggest zealots can use a little protection. Screen star Travolta, 37, has long served as an unofficial Scientology spokesman, even though he told a magazine in 1983 that he was opposed to the church's management. High-level defectors claim that Travolta has long feared that if he defected, details of his sexual life would be made public. "He felt pretty intimidated about this getting out and told me so," recalls William Franks, the church's former chairman of the board. "There were no outright threats made, but it was implicit. If you leave, they immediately start digging up everything." Franks was driven out in 1981 after attempting to reform the church.

The church's former head of security, Richard Aznaran, recalls Scientology ringleader Miscavige repeatedly joking to staffers about Travolta's allegedly promiscuous homosexual behavior. At this point any threat to expose Travolta seems superfluous: last May a male porn star collected $100,000 from a tabloid for an account of his alleged two-year liaison with the celebrity. Travolta refuses to comment, and in December his lawyer dismissed questions about the subject as "bizarre." Two weeks later, Travolta announced that he was getting married to actress Kelly Preston, a fellow Scientologist.

Shortly after Hubbard's death the church retained Trout & Ries, a respected, Connecticut-based firm of marketing consultants, to help boost its public image. "We were brutally honest," says Jack Trout. "We advised them to clean up their act, stop with the controversy and even to stop being a church. They didn't want to hear that." Instead, Scientology hired one of the country's largest p.r. outfits, Hill and Knowlton, whose executives refuse to discuss the lucrative relationship. "Hill and Knowlton must feel that these guys are not totally off the wall," says Trout. "Unless it's just for the money."

One of Scientology's main strategies is to keep advancing the tired argument that the church is being "persecuted" by antireligionists. It is supported in that position by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Council of Churches. But in the end, money is what Scientology is all about. As long as the organization's opponents and victims are successfully squelched, Scientology's managers and lawyers will keep pocketing millions of dollars by helping it achieve its ends.