This is the first I have heard any of this updated story
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24749716-23109,00.html
I have seen it discussed a few times here but must have not seen the thread regarding the girl.
Anyways I thought it was interesting. I think it is amazing how good our investigaters are sometime.
On a sidenote any updates on the possible zodiac killer down in Fresno?
Wait - that was real? I think I saw that on a fictional TV show.
Quite possible; they’ve been known to base their stories on real life. For example, I recall that CSI based an episode on a real person who drove into someone who ended up halfway through the windshield but not dead, drove home, and left the victim there in the garage for days to die. They did change some details though.
It was most definitely real, albeit like something from a TV show.
I always wondered what the whole story was, now it kind of makes sense. The police considered him a suspect, but why would he have let himself die? Article says he was in on it until he found out the bomb was real. They then forced him at gunpoint to go thru with it.
Felt bad for the guy, and even knowing the above I still kind of do. Such a twisted thing to do to somebody. Plus I saw the unedited footage of it blowing up and killing him (on liveleak). Not especially graphic (shot from far away), but very creepy and unsettling.
Bringing this over to MPSIMS.
I know they did a L&O “ripped from the headlines” story on that; I never saw the CSI one.
There’s also been a movie based on that. (I hate those promos for Law and Order saying that an episode is “ripped from the headlines”. Why the hell do people want to see a slightly ficitionalized version of a recent news story?)
To be fair, the stories on L&O only use the headline as a starting point. The final outcome is usually nothing like the real story.
This scenario could have easily been in a *Saw *movie or something.
Yeah, it’s called Stuck, of all things. Not very tasteful, but the lead is played by Mena Suvari and I wouldn’t mind seeing it. The only thing though, is that as usual the Hollywood take on the real life events aren’t even roughly close to the same. 
Regarding the OP; the agony of that poor man in the collar was one of the most horrific things I’ve witnessed. I hope they all rot in prison so that some measure of justice is served on his behalf.
You know that he was in on it, right?
I’ve read that in some places, but in those instances, that information had always come from the people that were eventually convicted. Since they didn’t strike me as too honest to begin with, I thought it was prudent to take their word with a grain of salt.
Had it been proven otherwise?
Not really.
He thought it was a fake bomb.
When he found out it was real, they had to put the collar on him at gunpoint.
I’m surprised that this was only 5 years ago - it seems like it happened in the '80s.
Obligatory Wiki article.
If he was *really *in on it, they would have just used a fake bomb.
According to this AP article:
This crime occurred towards the very end of my pizza delivery career, maybe just after. At the time it was unclear if the driver was involved, though I guess that hasn’t changed.
What struck me and my coworkers, aside from the depravity of the crime, was the way the news handled it. The tone of their voices, the way the story was presented, was more appropriate to a ‘escaped boa constrictor found in washing machine’ story. It was quite hideous to think that it could be one of us sitting there waiting to die, while the plastic-faced newsreaders treated the whole thing with less gravitas than a puppy run over by a drunk driver. That, and the thought that across America, people were leering at their TV, impatient to see a working man be murdered in grisly fashion, like a canned tiger hunt.
A CNN.com update on the case: New details revealed in 'pizza collar bomb' heist - CNN.com
What’s the update part? What new stuff did they learn?