# Urban legend comes to horrible life. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705 "2003-03-03T03:34:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/1 "2003-03-03T03:34:59Z")
[Warning: Disturbing news story.](http://pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?d1401_BC_PA--MissingOrgans&&news&newsflash-pennsylvania) No ice water. No note to get yourself to the hospital, but reminiscent of the Missing Organ UL in a horrible way. Some reports state that the police have not ruled out organ theft as the motive. There are some seriously deranged people out there. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/2 "2003-03-03T03:48:24Z")
If the organs were stolen for medical uses (rather than for something weird), who would buy them right off the street like that? ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/3 "2003-03-03T03:54:13Z")
My take: It doesn’t sound like they were harvesting organs for profit. What use could they have for a lung? Is it even possible to transplant a lung? I suspect it may just be a bizzare mutiliation by some very sick people. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/4 "2003-03-03T03:57:39Z")
I agree with your WAG, samarm. But lungs can indeed by transplanted, I must point out. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/5 "2003-03-03T03:57:59Z")
**samarm** , lung transplants happen all the time. The young girl who just died had been given a heart-lung transplant. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/6 "2003-03-03T03:58:35Z")
Hah! Beat ya. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/7 "2003-03-03T04:04:29Z")
Huh. I just tried to follow the link in the OP, and it says the news story is no longer available. Is it possible they pulled it because it was false? ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/8 "2003-03-03T04:09:06Z")
It has been moved around on the site, for some reason. It can be found here: [http://pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory\_ssf.cgi?d1401\_BC\_PA--MissingOrgans&&news&newsflash-pennsylvania](http://pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?d1401_BC_PA--MissingOrgans&&news&newsflash-pennsylvania) ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/9 "2003-03-03T04:10:41Z")
Nope, not there either. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/10 "2003-03-03T04:11:13Z")
Thanks to **Coldfire** et al for correcting me about the lung transplant thing. I had no idea they could do that. Consider my ignorance on that subject fought successfully. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/11 "2003-03-03T04:12:50Z")
Wow, they must be in the process of moving things around _right now_. It was there a minute ago. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/12 "2003-03-03T04:14:29Z")
I found it…I clicked on “Breaking PA News”, and it was in the list. strangely, the link for it was highlighted as a visited link. Very strange site. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/13 "2003-03-03T04:17:31Z")
OK, found the same story on a different site (NEPA News): [http://www.nepanews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7237269&BRD=2212&PAG=461&dept\_id=465812&rfi=6](http://www.nepanews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7237269&BRD=2212&PAG=461&dept_id=465812&rfi=6) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/14 "2003-03-03T04:19:06Z")
I can still get it. Maybe it’s cached on my 'puter. Here’s another link with essentially the same story. [http://www.nbc10.com/news/2013673/detail.html](http://www.nbc10.com/news/2013673/detail.html) I also think it was just a crazy-assed psycho. I mean, who could you sell these organs to? ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/15 "2003-03-03T04:26:41Z")
My thoughts… If you were going to target someone for organ harvesting, wouldn’t you pick a younger victim? The circumstances (“trash-strewn, abandoned rowhouse”) seem to point to a grizzly murder, rather than a more clinical medical type operation. In reality, how much could you expect to sell a 60 year old lung and heart for, even given that you had the right connections? It’s a very sad story, and obviously must be very distressting for the guy’s family, but IMO it probably isn’t related to organ harvesting. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/16 "2003-03-03T04:57:03Z")
Is anyone else reminded, albeit in a rather different light, of the killer in _Silence of the Lambs_? ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/17 "2003-03-03T05:45:38Z")
Which, the tailor or the chef? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/18 "2003-03-03T06:03:49Z")
I’d guess the chef, getting some lights. Sorry. Anyway, I do know you can sell organs in places like India and Indonesia. Trying to sell them here would be massively stupid: The police would take an active interest in such things, especially if there’s a hot case (and organs do spoil pretty quick) involving organ removal. So given the age of the victim and the near-impossibility of selling organs here, I’d guess it was fetishistic homicide. Like Jeffrey Dahmer, with a definite MO linked to the killer’s sexual appetite. Which means it won’t stop until the killer is in jail or dead. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/19 "2003-03-03T06:06:00Z")
Grizzly murders always bother me. I mean, the way they shot Gentle Ben in that meth lab raid keeps me up at night. ---
**Author:** ![aenea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@aenea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aenea)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legend-comes-to-horrible-life/158705/20 "2003-03-03T13:45:45Z")
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