A former coworker, a mousy woman who hardly ever spoke to anyone in the two months she worked in the same building as me, was arrested about four years ago for “severe” abuse of her pre-teen daughter. The news delicately refused to otherwise describe the abuse, so I’m sure it was pretty awful 
Hhhmm… I lived in the town that made Whitey Bulger infamous. Even though he was known throughout the neighborhoods, I never did see him personally.
One time I was in a bar in the same neighborhood, and was not paying attention to two men who walked by me. Then I heard two shots, and saw the two fellas heading for the door. They killed a man, who was using a pay phone. The management said no one could leave, yet people were pushing their way out. I informed them that I was underage, and they let me go by, walking around the dead man on the floor. It is funny, when I try to find out anything on this shooting (old newspaper archives, death records, etc) I cannot find a thing.
Zombie thread or not - the vice-principal of my high school was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography. This was in the late 90s. Yes, it was in the news. He pops up in the news again every once in a long while, usually for something child-porn related. What a disgusting man.
Some of you might be unaware of this, but in the 60s, some parents really were against their male school age children growing their hair long (over their ears). Continuing arguments became the norm. On time, I cited for example, some friend’s of their’s son (he wasn’t really a friend, I met him twice and he was too much older than me for us to hang out together) who had long hair. My parents’ standard response was “When you get all As and Bs like David Fine then you can have long hair!”
Imagine my joy the time I pulled the “Can I grow my hair long like David Fine?” bit again, they responded as usual, and I said, “Well, what if I…?” and gave them the newspaper with a photo of David Fine on the front page. He had made the FBI’s Most Wanted List for blowing up a physics lab or building at the University of Wisconsin as part of some Anti-War thing.
A former colleague and dog training partner of my husband’s was recently on the news thanks to an armed standoff with police. Poor guy started melting down a few years ago - something like late onset paranoid schizophrenia, as far as I know. At one point, Former Colleague was camped at our house, after he began confessing his imaginary misdeeds to his wife. He went back home - after giving us the current K9 - but continued to deteriorate. (And things were BAD even then : we had a memorable road trip to my mom’s July Fourth picnic, with a guy who kept insisting that the GBI was following us. And he went walkabout around Mom’s woods and orchard, while I kept listening for a gunshot. I was sincerely afraid that he would eat his gun that day. But he didn’t seem to be a threat to anyone except himself.)
Anyway, fast forward to the past winter, when his wife called my husband, begging for him to come help. Former Colleague had threatened the wife, who managed to get out of the house and call 911. Tony went, in the hope that maybe he could talk the guy out of the house safely, but neither of us expected a good outcome. The law enforcement on scene had all worked with the guy. They knew he was armed and paranoid and delusional. Electricity was cut to the house, tear gas was deployed, etc. Finally, Former Colleague was arrested, with no shots fired. He’s finally at the secure mental hospital for state inmates. I hope he’s getting treatment, but it took months to even get him from jail to the hospital because he flatly refused to submit to the TB test. I very much doubt that he’s any more compliant as a patient than as an inmate…
Less drama but more trauma: when I was a teenager, my step-sister’s husband killed two people while drinking and boating. (He was operating the ski boat, and towed the victims into the path of another boat.) Back then, the criminal penalties were pretty minor, but the incident became a catalyst for the state’s current BUI laws.
Not as notorious a case as some, but…
About 15 years ago, I had a coworker who was let go, and he went into Sheriff Joe’s Posse. There was a story in the papers not long after, about him having a prisoner he was transporting escape. I think he must have pissed off the reporter, or something, because the article mentioned his full name three times, and it wasn’t that long of an article.
I’ve brought this up several times before, but I occasionally worked with Bernd Brandes, the willing victim who volunteered to be killed and eaten by Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal.
I can think of two right away:
When I was in college, one of my favorite teachers from junior high was convicted of child sexual abuse (specifically of groping a couple of his female students). The abuse occurred several years after my time, and I’m unaware of any inappropriate behavior during the time he was my teacher.
More recently, a former colleague was convicted of obstruction of justice and abuse of a corpse, related to his assisting his SO with the burial of a man murdered by the SO. He was present when the man was killed, but he was found not to have participated in the killing. The body was buried in the basement of a building owned by my former colleague.
The old thread made me look up this guy, whom I used to work with who recently was sentenced to life in prison for killing his business partner. He was always really slimy.
Lacuae Matata: I am happy to hear that your former friend is getting help. I had a similar situation with a close friend.
Some of these stories are scary.
I once worked for a very well know doctor. I did not actually work with him, I would do some of his travel reports, and other expenses. I would see him around a couple of times a month. He was convicted of murdering his wife in a public park, and trying to make it look like a random attack. It made the national news, and I just saw it mentioned on a crime show this past weekend. Creepy.
A longtime classmate of my brother’s lured his father into a patch of woods in our neighborhood and fatally stabbed him over 30 times right after high school graduation. He has paranoid schizophrenia and claimed that voices in his television were subliminally telling him to commit the murder–the state rejected the insanity defense and gave him life in prison but he’s currently in a mental hospital anyway. It was in and out of the news for awhile every time the trial moved to a new phase. My brother claimed he knew from the time they were 9 that something was wrong with this kid, but I don’t know if I believe him.
One of my former middle school English teachers was arrested several years ago for molesting students. The accuser was in the grade behind my brother. It made the Washington Post a few times. He pled guilty and did a few years with the rest suspended, but he must have violated his parole because I looked at his court record and he had to go back in for a year and just got out again a few months ago. According to the sex offender registry, he’s listed as a Level 3 offender (the worst) and is working at a Jiffy Lube about 15 minutes away.
I guess you can kinda see how it would appeal to a sex offender to work at a place called ‘Jiffy Lube’.
Yes. I was onboard the USS Philadelphia during the Persian Gulf collision in 2005.
As a junior officer onboard, I knew everyone responsible, including the Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, and Chief Engineer, all of whom were fired due to their failure to take proper actions during and before the incident.
The crew was pretty happy to see all three go.
Did the crew think of them as incompetent prior to this incident?
Small world! My husband’s cousin was also involved in that scandal - his parents ended up going into major debt to defend him. Small nitpick - it was on the news for far more than 5 mins and actually caused/contributed to the disbanding of the Airborne Regiment, the evolution of my current trade (Public Affairs) within the military, affected the reputation of the Forces for years and caused the resignation of several high-ranking members, including one Chief of Defense. In short - a big deal
News links: Somalia Affair
This guy I went to high school with made national headlines when he was arrested. Wasn’t really his “badness,” though, that made such a splash. (A lot of people may remember the headlines.)
I also went to college in San Diego with Andrew Cunanan. We ran in the same (gay) circles. I did not know him well enough to hang out though. (Whew.)
I’ve lived this one more times than I care to remember. One of the first was having dinner with Jeffery MacDonald a couple months before the murders. Last was a couple years back when the guy who runs the place I usually had lunch got nabbed for bank robbery. No peepers or creepers but I’ve crossed paths with some seriously violent offenders over the years.
I used to volunteer at a prison, so I knew quite a few after the fact.
I know this guy.. And I know The young son, who is now out of prison.