My cousin murdered a man. Back in 2016, he had been hanging out in his backyard. Another man, who had the misfortune of being the wrong color, according to my cousin, came by. My cousin, so offended by this man’s state of being, ended his life by stabbing him multiple times. My cousin then turned himself in when he went to check in with his parole officer. He’ll be in jail for the rest of his life.
It’s weird for me. I grew up around him. When we were little, my siblings and I often spent summers either at my aunt’s, his mother’s house, or my grandparents, which wasn’t far away. He wasn’t like the most level headed kid but he wasn’t spending time torturing animals or setting fire to people’s houses. His brother, though, who had been adopted by my grandparents and was not raised by my aunt, did do shit like that. I hated having to spend time with my younger cousin. Alas, only one of them has been convicted in a court of law of murder and it was, surprisingly, the nicer one. (Nicer is relative. They were both really racist)
A former co-worker of mine was watching TV in her house. Just up the street, some guy started taking pot shots at a guy that was stealing his Jeep. A bullet hit my co-workers house and hit her. She died a few hours later. The shooter was originally charged with assault, the charges were upgraded to 2nd degree murder later. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, he was paroled after 5. He has since been arrested twice for possession of a handgun, he lost that right with his felony conviction.
In 1972, my six year old cousin was playing in the woods near his house. A man caught him, strangled him, and bashed in his head with a rock. He was found to be insane and several years later was released.
About 35 years ago when I was a kid a local drug store owner shot and killed a robber with a shotgun during a robbery; it was apparently the second or third time he’d been robbed, possibly by the same guys. My friend’s mother was driving us to a convenience store a block away to buy snacks on the same day and we got caught up in the traffic formed by the police barricades and flashing lights outside the store; the shooting had happened maybe half an hour before we drove by.
Obviously the news and trial were a big story at the time. He was found not guilty and returned to work in the same store. A couple years later after the buzz had died down I went to that store to buy something expecting that guy to have moved away. Nope, it was still him behind the counter, dressed like Mr. Rogers completely harmless-looking.
Was this guy a murderer? No, not according to the courts. Had he brought a shotgun to work for the purpose of killing people? Yes. Did he kill someone where I was standing a couple years earlier? Yes. Did he still have the gun a few inches away and intend to do it again? Didn’t know, but it felt unnerving being there… and he may have wanted it that way. The last line of the article I linked to reads:
“But as he regained his freedom, Kesler refused to answer the key question that remained after his trial: whether he would still keep a gun in his store.”
Not a murderer, he was found not guilty and is still allowed to own a gun and to protect his life and property. I just wonder if he got his gun back and how many notches are on it.
I used to play D&D with this friend of mine (part of a group). He had a falling out with the group around 2012. Since he was just a D&D buddy, I didn’t stay in touch. He was murdered along with several other people in the same incident.
He knew the murderer and even mentioned him being crazy, but this was a family member of his. Said family member (and eventual murderer) was known to the police, so they weren’t covering for him.
I hope I don’t know any murderers! Certainly I don’t know of any who have been identified.
I feel this is incorrect. I believe that if it was shown that he wanted to kill people the case would have gone in a different direction. I think he brought the gun in to protect himself from people who might wrongfully try to kill him. There is a big difference between the two.
BTW, it seems as though the gun did and is doing a very good job at protecting the store owner.
I’ve known one victim and two murderers, although murderer #1 I only met twice – she killed the victim I knew. Murderer #2 was an abused wife who shot the husband to protect their daughter.
He sold the store in 2003, and Google revealed a pharmacist with this name who practices in the NYC area, but it’s probably not the same person. His (then?) wife, Mary, does have a Linkedin page.
Almost 20 years ago, my cousin’s son, high on meth, slit his girlfriend’s throat, then slashed his own wrists.
Around the same time, give or take a year, my brother’s best friend’s brother pulled over for someone on the side of the road flagging him down. He got stabbed in the chest for his charity. I recall that the murderer was a tweaker, but I’m not sure we ever found out what the motive was (if there was one at all).
I once had to run to a domestic altercation with a deceased person. When my ambulance got there, I discovered that the body was a guy that I’d literally known over half my life. He wasn’t a close friend, but we’d gone to junior and senior high school together.
He and his brother had been drinking, and got into an argument. His brother killed him.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I had met one of the girls responsible for the murder of Shanda Sharer. We had a mutual friend. I also knew someone who was on the periphery of the crime, a girl named Kary, who was my brother’s girlfriend’s next-door neighbor, and who at one time wanted to go out with me.
Over 20 years ago we had a contractor at work that I used to chat with, once in a while, when we were outside having a cigarette. Shortly after he left I heard that he had murdered his housemate and, creepily, had driven around with the body in the trunk of his car for a week. As ever in reports of such cases - he didn’t seem like the kind of guy that you would expect…
For several years I lived with a guy who ended up committing a highly publicized shooting spree on Thanksgiving. He’s been in jail (not prison - county jail) for something like 10 years, awaiting trial. His brother ended up jumping off the Skyway Bridge as a result.
A gentleman I worked with was murdered , along with his girlfriend, by a guy who pretended to be interested in buying his car. Shot them both in the street. Don’t know if he was caught.
What a sad, disgusting state of affairs that so many of us have been touched by heinous crime.
Both for me - neither was a close acquaintance but I knew them.
A neighborhood kid, a bit older and somewhat of a bully, got into trouble with gambling. He went to the home of a woman he did odd jobs (raking, shoveling, etc.) seeking money to pay his debt. She wouldn’t help, and he beat her to death with one of those souvenir bats. This was on a Thursday. On Friday he kicked the winning field goal for our HS. Over the weekend the cops went to his house just to see if they saw anything. He gave himself up, and did maybe 30 years in Rahway.
Another classmate was stabbed in some sort of fight. He tried to run to the hospital, which was a few blocks away, but bled out on the way there. I don’t recall whether anyone was ever charged with murder, but it sounds like murder to me.
When I was in the second grade, there was a kid in first grade who lived right down the street from me that I used to play with. When school resumed after Christmas he never returned. He and his mom were found a few weeks later murdered in their condo by his father (later captured). It was a strange and brutal way for a bunch of first- and second graders to learn about death.