.collection of things not to forget

Madonna Badger, Mother In Deadly Connecticut Fire That Killed Five, Reportedly Attempts Suicide

2012-01-27T19:31:00.002-05:00

Huffington Post- The mother who tragically lost her three young daughters and parents from a horrifying Christmas Day fire in Connecticut reportedly attempted to commit suicide last week, a relative told the Daily News.

Madonna Badger was hospitalized after the attempt, and a relative told the News, "She is okay...She is out (of the hospital) and somewhere safe. It's just terrible--nobody could really hold up well under the circumstances."

Badger and her contractor were the only two survivors to escape from the fatal fire that killed her children Lily, 10 and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah, as well as her parents Lormer and Pauline Johnson.

More than 500 mourners gathered for the funeral, where Badger referred to her daughters as her "girl tribe." During her eulogy, Badger told mourners:

My girls are in my heart. They're right here. And that's where they live now...In all the incomprehensible loss and chaos, all I can hang onto is that love is everything.

The relative said that Badger had seemed to be slowly coping with the tragedy, but "once all of that is gone and you're left to face what's happened, it's terrible."

The fire started from embers in a bag of ashes and destroyed the $1.725 million home that Badger had been renovating.

Cops: Accused 'Cannibal' Tried to Kill Self in Fairfield

2012-01-27T19:27:00.002-05:00

Fairfield Citizen- The man accused of eating the brains and eyeball of a Bridgeport man who he killed with an ax had tried to commit suicide earlier this month in the aisle of a CVS pharmacy on Black Rock Turnpike.

On Jan. 12, Tyree Lincoln Smith was discovered bleeding heavily from his left wrist, which he slashed with a box cutter, and then collapsed on the floor of the CVS at 1968 Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield police said Thursday.

The suicide attempt occurred about a week before Bridgeport police found the decomposing body of Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez on Brooks Street in that city.

Smith, 35, had been discharged Jan. 9 from St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport and came to the store to fill several prescriptions, police said. The pharmacist told police he asked Smith for his prescription health card, and Smith spent about 10 minutes looking in his wallet for it. Smith was calm, according to the report, but when he was unable to find the card, the pharmacist asked Smith if he wanted to go back to St. Vincent's for assistance in filling the prescriptions, which were very expensive.

Smith spent another 15 minutes waiting in the pharmacy area and then left. However, a store employee found him a short time later on the floor in a pool of blood. The employee called 911 and kicked the box cutter away from Smith's grasp.

An ambulance was called to take Smith to the hospital and Fairfield police referred the case to the Greater Bridgeport Community Mental Health Center.

"This just shows that each and every day, whenever an officer responds to a call, they really don't know the all the background," Fairfield Police Chief Gary MacNamara said. "Our officers go to help someone, and unbeknownst to them, this guy later will be a suspect in a gruesome murder."

Komisarjevsky Sentenced to Death

2012-01-27T18:32:00.002-05:00

NBC- The man who killed three women in a 2007 Cheshire home invasion was sentenced to death on Friday and addressed the court before that sentence was handed down.

Joshua Komisarjevsky will be joining Steven Hayes on death row for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, in their Cheshire home in 2007. He is scheduled to be executed in July, pending appeals.

"I will never find peace within. My life will be a continuation of the hurt I caused," Komisarjevsky said in court. "The clock is now ticking and I owe a debt I cannot repay."

Komisarjevsky said he walked out of court condemned to die by 12 members of the community.

"It's a surreal experience, being condemned to die," Komisarjevsky said.

Forgiveness is not his to have, he said, and he needs to forgive his worst enemy -- himself.

Before the sentencing, Judge Jon Blue said sentencing another human being to death is the most somber task a judge can have.

Then, the court heard some emotional victim impact statements from the Hawke and Petit families.

As Dr. William Petit read his statement, a slideshow of his family played on the screen.

Jennifer didn't pray to God to change her Multiple Sclerosis, but for the strength to deal with it, he said.

Hayley would be in her first year of medical school if she was still alive, he said.

"I miss the car rides and chats I miss her kind and gentle soul,” he said.

Michaela came into the world smiling, Dr. Petit said. He recently received a card from one of Michaela's friends. It said it was sad to know that she wouldn't be in 10th grade this year.

"I miss her running to the door and yelling 'Dada's home,'” Dr. Petit said.

Jennifer Hawke Petit’s father, Rev. Richard Hawke gave a videotaped victim impact statement and it was played in court.

Komisarjevsky watched the video as Hawke spoke directly to him and said he’s presided over many funerals, but never dreamed he would bury his daughter and grandchildren. It was the worst thing he’s had to go through.

"Was it worth the price?" he asked at one point.

If Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela could endure the pain that Komisarjevsky put them through, their families can endure the pain of the trials, Rev. Hawke said.

“You have not only destroyed your family, you have destroyed your own and destroyed a noble family name,” Rev. Hawke told the man who killed his family members.

The statement from Jennifer’s mother, Marybelle Hawke, was also played in court and she said the love of family will carry them through.

As Cynthia Hawke-Renn’s statement was played, Komisarjevsky watched. Calling her parents to tell them that her sister and nieces were dead and her brother-in-law was badly injured was the hardest phone call she ever had to make, she said.

The murders took a huge emotional toll on Cynthia's family. It has also taken a financial toll.
The victims' fund ran out when the defense fund for Komisarjevsky is endless, she said.

Dr. Petit’s father, Bill Petit Sr. read his statement through tears and said he called Michaela's voice mail on the morning of the home invasion and his call went to voice mail.

"It was the last time I'd hear her voice," Bill Petit Sr. said.

His son will never walk his girls down the aisle and he'll never know the joy of grandchildren, he said.

Johanna Petit-Chapman, Dr. Petit's sister, was the one who had to identify the girls’ bodies. She said Komisarjevsky set the tone for this crime, torturing the family for hours.

She also said she was angry about statements the defense team made.

"He beat a sleeping man with a baseball bat and he calls him passive?" Chapman said.

The Petit and Hawke families left court before the sentence was handed down.

When Komisarjevsky spoke, it was the second time he did so during his trial.

His lawyers fought for jurors to hear videotaped testimony from Komisarjevsky’s 9-year-old daughter, but the defendant he made a plea against it.

Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela, while Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit to death. He has only admitted to the sexual assault, but then said in court that he did not rape.

Last month, a jury delivered the death verdict for Komisarjevsky after finding him guilty of the crimes. On Friday, the judge handed down that sentence.

Suspect in Westport Jewelry Store Murder Kills Self

2012-01-27T18:09:00.002-05:00

The man suspected of killing a Westport jeweler has killed himself in prison.

Andrew Levene, 41, was arrested on Monday in Spain. He was accused of killing Yekutiel Zeevi, the owner of YZ Manufacturers, LLC, at 431 Post Road East in Westport, while pretending he was going to buy several large diamonds he had arranged to buy earlier that month, according to the affidavit. He was also accused of stealing approximately $300,000 in diamonds, and fleeing the United States to Europe.

The U.S. Embassy in Spain confirmed Levene died in a Spanish prison. Someone from the consulate visited Levene in the prison on Wednesday.

Word of Levene's death drew a quick response from Westport town leaders.

"The death of the accused murder suspect by his own hands will not diminish the extraordinary efforts demonstrated by the Westport police, state and federal authorities, and Spanish police in tracking him down," said Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff. "Not only has the suspect taken the life of a beloved Westport resident and caused immeasurable pain to the Zeevi family and friends here, he has now inflicted the same pain on his own family, also innocents in this tragedy. It is a cowardly confirmation of his guilt," Joseloff said.

U.S. Embassy officials notified Levene's family of his death Wednesday.

2012-01-27T17:44:00.001-05:00

STAMFORD -- A voice recognition expert testified Friday that the 911 caller who first alerted police to the homicide of Anna Lisa Raymundo on Nov. 8, 2002, was self-represented defendant Sheila Davalloo.

The incriminating testimony comes on the fourth day of the Stamford murder trial in which Davalloo is defending herself against accusations she stabbed Raymundo nine times inside her Shippan condo.

Prosecution witness Tom Owen, a forensic voice identification expert, testified Friday morning that computer programs determined Davalloo placed the 911 call at 12:13 p.m. on the day Raymundo was found killed.

Owen had tried to determine who made the 911 call in 2004, but at the time his software couldn't match Davalloo with the caller's voice. Owen said he retested Davalloo's voice last year using newer, digital methods. Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney James Bernardi asked Owen whether he came to a different determination during the second test.

"Yes," Owen said. "That Sheila Davalloo is the person that made the 911 call."

Owen played the 911 call for jurors, and interspersed the statements with voice recordings made of Davalloo in January 2004. On the 911 recordings, a woman tells a call-taker that a man attacked her neighbor on Harbor View Drive. The call was made from a pay phone at a fast-foot restaurant on Shippan Avenue. Raymundo's condo was actually on Harbor Drive.

After telling jurors that Davalloo made the 911 call, Owen displayed his voice recognition software on a large television screen so the court could see how the programs objectively measure different vocal patterns. His testimony will continue into Friday afternoon.

Cameras Allowed at Murder Trial

2012-01-27T17:37:00.003-05:00

STAMFORD -- Over Sheila Davalloo's objections that she would suffer stage fright if they were there, a state Superior Court judge in Stamford ruled Wednesday that cameras can be present at trial when Davalloo defends herself against a murder charge next week.

Judge Richard Comerford told Davalloo -- who was previously sentenced in New York to 25 years in prison for attempting to kill her husband in 2003 -- she did not offer any compelling reasons for keeping cameras out of the courtroom during the upcoming trial, expected to last three weeks.

Davalloo is accused of stabbing and bludgeoning 32-year-old Anna Lisa Raymundo at the victim's Shippan condominium in November 2002 over a common love interest at Purdue Pharma, where the two worked.

Comerford scheduled the hearing regarding cameras after two local news outlets asked that they be allowed to record all or portions of the trial.

According to new court rules, as of Jan. 1, any criminal trial or hearing, except those involving sexual offenses or proceedings that according to state law must be closed to the public, can be photographed, videotaped or recorded. Prior to the beginning of the year, cameras were almost only allowed at arraignments for nonsexual crimes.

When asked if she objected, Davalloo, 42, formerly of Pleasantville, N.Y., but who is now being held on $1 million bond at the York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic, said that the cameras will give her "performance anxiety."

Davalloo also said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of having lived through the Iran-Iraq War and the cameras will make her very nervous throughout the trial, set to begin Tuesday.

Davalloo spent her childhood in the war zone in Iran before immigrating with her family to the United States. She received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Stony Brook University on Long Island, N.Y., and a master's in public health from New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y.

"I cannot speak in front of a camera. ... I really don't think I will be doing very well with a video camera pointed in my direction," she said to Comerford.

Foreseeing that revelations of a sexual nature will be coming out at trial, Davalloo said she would not want that information broadcast on television.

Authorities said Davalloo killed Raymundo because of a love triangle. A male co-worker dated both of them, and he eventually grew to be more serious with Raymundo. Prosecutors accuse Davalloo of killing Raymundo because she was obsessed with her co-worker and wanted to eliminate her rival.

Davalloo faces 25 to 60 years in prison if convicted of murder.

Prosecutors in Westchester County used a similar motive to convict Davalloo of trying to kill her husband, Paul Christos, several months after the Raymundo homicide. During a trial in 2004, she was found guilty of stabbing her husband twice during a game involving handcuffs and blindfolds, and once again outside a hospital. Davalloo was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Four years later, Stamford police charged Davalloo with the Raymundo murder, saying DNA and other evidence linked her to the crime scene. Prosecutors said Davalloo made the 911 call that alerted police officers to Raymundo's homicide.

Titanic: 100 Years Later

2012-01-14T16:21:00.005-05:00

ABC News- The captain of the cruise ship that hit a rock and toppled over has been detained for questioning by Italian authorities as Titanic-like tales of survival emerged among angry passengers.

Three people died when the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia struck a reef and sank onto its side off of the small island of Giglio early today. The U.S. embassy in Rome said none of the 126 Americans on board the ship are among those who were seriously injured.

The gleaming ship was carrying 4,234 passengers and crew when it struck rocks off Italy's west coast during the night, tearing a 160-foot long gash in the hull.

Most of the ship's passengers were ferried to safety, but dozens were unaccounted for. Some may be safely on land, but officials feared some may have been trapped in the ship.

"The place where they might be is in the belly of the ship," Coast Guard Capt. Cosimo Nicastro told Sky TG24 TV.

Divers cautiously tried to inspect the ship which lay on its side half submerged, but the search was called off by darkness.

Many passengers fumed that they were left to fend for themselves as the ship keeled over and the electricity went out. There were few crew members to help and when they did try to help often got in the way of evacuations, passengers said.

The ship's captain Francesco Schettino was detained by authorities and questioned along with the ship's first bridge officer, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. ANSA said the captain could face criminal charges.

There are reports in the Italian press that Schettino took the Costa Concordia close to the harbor of Giglio island many times in the past so his passengers could take photographs.

Harrowing tales of chaos ensued for several hours as the crew and passengers tried to scramble to safety.

A passenger interviewed in the nearby port of Santo Stefano told ANSA that the pianist playing next to the restaurant while dinner was being served jumped into the sea after the ship slammed into the rock, and others followed him.

American Mark Plath, who had leaped off the ship and swam to rocks, told Sky Italia that he was woken up by loudspeakers shortly before 11 p.m. saying there was a power outage, but not to worry about it. About a half hour later, another announcement said they were still working on the power outage, but he noticed the ship was listing about 15 degrees.

When he went outside, he found about 500 people on the fourth floor deck.

"We were trying to get outside. People had children with them, people were pushing, people were yelling, people were pushing back. It was difficult to stay in control because so many people were upset," Plath said.

Lynn Kaelin of Seattle, Wash., told ABC News the ship's hallways were so crowded "We couldn't see where we were going. People were crying and screaming. No one was telling us what to do, at all."

Karen Kois, also of Seattle, said she knew to get warm clothing, although others were barefoot and lightly dressed.

"I had a sweater on under a raincoat. I gave it to a baby who had nothing," she said.

As for the pushing and shoving, Kois said, the crew "told us go one way, then the other. We didn't know what to do. They were just standing looking at us."

When they succeeded in reaching a life boat, it took 45 minutes to launch it, with the ropes tangled and the little crafts tilted. "And it's pitched black," Kois added.

Above them was the clatter of helicopters trying to pluck people from the decks.

"Have you seen 'Titanic?' That's exactly what it was," said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles. She and sister and parents all had dark red bruises on their knees from crawling along nearly vertical hallways and stairwells to reach rescue boats.

"We were crawling up a hallway, in the dark, with only the light from the life vest strobe flashing," her mother, Georgia Ananias, 61 said. "We could hear plates and dishes crashing, people slamming against walls."

She said an Argentine couple handed her their 3-year-old daughter, unable to keep their balance as the ship lurched to the side and the family found themselves standing on a wall.

"He said 'take my baby,'" Mrs. Ananias said, covering her mouth with her hand as she teared up. "I grabbed the baby. But then I was being pushed down. I didn't want the baby to fall down the stairs. I gave the baby back. I couldn't hold her."

Many of those who arrived on shore with blankets covering their elegant, but not very warm, dinner clothes, lashed out at the ship's crew.

"They are without shame! Without shame!" one passenger shouted after making it to land.

Giuseppe Romano, a 57-year-old carabinieri on the cruise, said, "We lived apocalyptic scenes. There was a strident sound followed by a bang and plates and glasses started flying in the restaurant."

"After the first bang, the crew members said there was a fault and that we should stay calm... Then we heard another bang and I think that the ship hit the rocks again. Then the lights went out," Romano said.

"An officer on the ship asked me to help the people. Immediately afterwards I with other men stated taking people off the ship. During this whole apocalyptic scene we saw few crew members," he said.

Mike van Dijk, a 54-year-old from Pretoria, South Africa, said crew members delayed lowering the lifeboats even thought the ship was listing badly.

"We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the side," said van Dijk. "We were standing in the corridors and they weren't allowing us to get onto the boats. It was a scramble, an absolute scramble."

The ship's owner was as mystified by the crash as the passengers.

"At the time of the collision with the rock the captain of the Costa Concordia was on the command bridge," said the Director General of Costa Crociera Gianni Onorato speaking to journalists at the port of Porto Santo Stefano.

Onorato said the liner was on its regular, weekly route when it struck a reef.

"The ship was doing what it does 52 times a year, going along the route between Civitavecchia and Savona," Onorato said.

This Day in History

2012-01-13T13:12:00.005-05:00

Jan 13 1943
Hitler declares "Total War".

Jan 13 1959
Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, lines up 71 Batista supporters in front of a trench and machine guns them. They are then buried by a tractor without any verification that the prisoners were killed.

Jan 13 1962
Television comedy pioneer Ernie Kovacs drives his "unsafe at any speed" Corvair into a utility pole on Santa Monica Boulevard, killing him instantly and turning The Nairobi Trio into a Duo.

Jan 13 1979
The Young Men's Christian Association files a libel suit against the Village People for their popular Y.M.C.A hit.

Jan 13 1982
Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River, killing all but four passengers and one flight attendant.

The aircraft was carrying 74 passengers and five crewmembers when it crashed during the failed takeoff attempt. The aircraft struck the 14th Street Bridge, which carries Interstate 395 between Washington, D.C. and Arlington County. It crushed seven occupied vehicles on the bridge and destroyed 97 feet of guard rail before it plunged through the ice into the Potomac River. The crash occurred less than two miles from the White House and within view of both the Jefferson Memorial and The Pentagon.

The accident killed 78 people, including four motorists on the 14th Street Bridge. The survivors were rescued from the icy river by civilians and professionals.

Jan 13 1987
New York mobsters Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno and Carmine "Junior" Persico sentenced to 100 years of prison for racketeering, along with six others. All were members of the Mafia "board of directors"

Jan 13 1991
Forty-two people are killed in a soccer stampede and melee at Johannesburg, South Africa.

Jan 13 1998
A woman taking a tour of the White House applies spray paint to two early 19th century marble busts modeled by Giuseppi Ceracchi. No clear motive exists for the vandalism, and it it not clear how spray paint was brought through White House security. Spokesman Mike McCurry stated, "it looks like a bad rouge job on the busts".

Connecticut Christmas Fire: Granddaughter Writes Poem for Deceased Family

2012-01-13T12:36:00.009-05:00

ABC News- A 12-year-old girl whose grandparents died in the Christmas Day fire in Connecticut that also claimed the lives of her three cousins has written a poem about her grandmother, whom she called Nana.

Morgan Johnson's poem is titled "The Nana Who Lived in the Car" because Johnson's late grandmother, Pauline Johnson, had told the girl that she felt like the old woman who lived in a car -- instead of the storybook woman who lived in a shoe -- because she spent so much time driving between family houses.

"Three of them now play in Heaven, And the Nana drives them around in her car there, With a stuffed animal bunny and a G," wrote Morgan, who lives in Kentucky.

Morgan called her grandfather, Lomer Johnson, "G." Before his death, Lomer Johnson had fulfilled a life-long dream of playing Santa Claus at New York City's Saks Fifth Avenue, at the encouragement of his granddaughters.

"She had four granddaughters, Who loved them so, The Nana the bunny and the G," she wrote. "She ate and cooked foods of all different kinds, And had a very kind and pretty mind."

Johnson's three other granddaughters, Lily, 10, and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah were killed in the fire. The only survivors were the girls' mother, Madonna Badger, and her friend, Michael Borcina, a contractor who had been working on the home.

"That poor woman lost her whole family in one fell swoop," Stamford Interim Fire Chief Antonio Conte said at a news conference Tuesday. "I can't imagine how that feels."

The fire began sometime after 3 a.m. Dec. 25 while the occupants of the house were asleep. Officials said the fire was started by fireplace embers that had been cleared out of the fireplace and put in either a mud room attached to the house or a trash enclosure next to it.

It is unclear whether there were smoke alarms in the house, which was in the middle of an extensive renovation.

The Connecticut medical examiner said that the five family members died of smoke inhalation and that Lomer Johnson also suffered from blunt head and neck trauma, which may have been the result of a fall he took when he stepped out a second-floor window onto a roof in an attempt to save one of his granddaughters.

Johnson had apparently found one of the girls and led her to a second-floor window.

"He had actually made it outside the structure. He had gone through a window in the rear," Conte said.

Johnson apparently sat the girl on a pile of books next to the window so that he would be able to step outside and then pull her out of the house. But when he stepped out on the roof, he fell face down between two beams that had been covered with a material not strong enough to hold his weight.

"It looks like she was placed on the books so he could get her from outside," Conte said. "When he stepped out that window, his life ended."

The girl's body was later found, still sitting on the books. Another one of the children was later found on the third floor and the other was found on a second-floor stairwell landing with her grandmother.

Officials this week described the panic in the house during the fire and desperate attempts by Johnson, Badger and Borcina to save the girls.

The Stamford Fire Department released tapes on Thursday of firefighters' radio transmissions from inside the house, as reported by ABC News' New York affiliate WABC.

"We have victims trapped on the second floor, we're going to rescue mode with a ladder," a firefighter can be heard saying. "We've got a report from one of the victims, there's people in that window."

Firefighters struggled as they were repeatedly met by walls of fire in the house, forcing them back. The flames and smoke engulfing the house were too strong for them to reach the family members.

"You have heavy fire right above your head -- back out, back out!" a firefighter said. "All units on the interior, all units on the interior, back out. Back out!"

The house was torn down after being deemed unsafe by fire officials.

Morgan Johnson's full poem is printed below:

"The Nana Who Lived in a Car"

There once was a Nana who lived in a car
She traveled so very, very far
With a bunny and a G.

She traveled to places cold and hot
To where it was sunny and where it was not
With a bunny and a G

She ate and cooked foods of all different kinds
And had a very kind and pretty mind
And so did the bunny and the G

She had four granddaughters
Who loved them so
The Nana the bunny and the G

Three of them now play in Heaven
And the Nana drives them around in her car there
With a stuffed animal bunny and a G.

Riley Fitzpatrick, 7, says a prayer for the Badger family in front of 2267 Shippan Ave.

The house as it looked on google map, September 2008.

Joran Van der Sloot Gets 28-Year Sentence for Peru Killing

2012-01-13T12:22:00.004-05:00

USA Today- Joran Van der Sloot, a key suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in 2005, has been sentencded to 28 years for killing a Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino.

The court, taking into account the time he has spent in jail, says he would be eligible to be freed in June 2038.

The prosecution has requested a 30 years sentence, but the court said it had reduced it by two years because of Van der Sloot's "sincere confession" that led to a speedy conclusion of the case.

Van der Sloot, 24, pleaded guilty on Thursday to killing of Stephany Flores, 21, last year in a rage at his hotel room in the Peruvian capital.

Van der Sloot was implicated in the disappearance of 18-year-old Holloway during a class trip to Aruba.

On Thursday, a county judge in Birgmingham signed an order declaring Holloway legally dead.

Van der Sloot was briefly charged in her disappearance, but the case was never prosecuted.

He faces federal charges in Birmingham for allegedly trying to extort $250,000 from the Holloways for information about Natalee's whereabouts.

This Day in History

2012-01-12T13:22:00.006-05:00

Jan 12 1865
General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15, entitling the household of each freed slave "a plot of no more than forty acres of tillable ground" along the Carolina coastline between Charleston and Jacksonville. After the Confederate surrender, the Johnson administration makes a halfhearted attempt to follow through on the acreage, but all efforts to parcel out the land in question are abandoned just a few months later.

Jan 12 1914
Industrialist Henry Ford offers the incredible sum of a $5 per day wage for unskilled labor (previously $2.34), but only to married white Christian men willing to subject themselves to surveillance and random home inspections by the company's Sociology Department.

Jan 12 1928
Murderer Ruth Snyder executed in the Electric Chair at Ossining. Photographer Thomas Howard catches the moment of death with a camera secretly strapped to his ankle, and the photo runs on the front page of the New York Daily News.

Jan 12 1965
At 10:58 a.m. PST, scientists conduct what they called a "controlled excursion", burning up a nuclear rocket in Nevada and putting a radioactive cloud over Los Angeles.

Jan 12 1966
Premiere on television of the homoerotic comedy "Batman" starring Adam West and Burt Ward.

Jan 12 1971
The first episode of "All in the Family" made television history by broadcasting the sound of a toilet flushing.

Jan 12 1979
One of the Hillside Stranglers, security guard Kenneth Bianchi, is arrested in Bellingham, Washington for a pair of rape/strangulations. After he moved north from Los Angeles he made the mistake of continuing his high profile hobby.

Jan 12 1993
A transcript of the infamous 1989 intercepted phone call between Camilla and Prince Charles is published by the Sun. "I'll just live inside your trousers or something".

This Day in History

2012-01-11T18:37:00.003-05:00

Jan 11 1892
After sampling the services of many adolescent women in the tropics, the fifty year old painter Paul Gauguin marries Tehura, an awfully cute 13 year old Tahitian girl.

Jan 11 1960
Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas kills his 74 year old mother. He tells Toledo police that he raped her corpse, but later recants this. The murder ends his career as a serial killer; he is variously attributed to having killed between 100 and 600 people. The truth is probably below 100.

Jan 11 1962
In the Peruvian Andes, an avalanche buries 3,000 people alive as the volcano Huascaran erupts.

Jan 11 1964
The US Surgeon General warns against smoking for the first time. It's amazing how many dumbshits need to be told that inhaling smoke is harmful.

Jan 11 1966
Numerous people, including the mayor of Wanaque and their police chief, observe a UFO over Wanaque Reservoir, burning holes in the ice. The Air Force explained it as a weather balloon, but later withdrew that claim and called it a helicopter.

Creepy in Greenwich: Part One

2012-01-05T21:17:00.006-05:00

Part One- 14 Lincoln Avenue

Lincoln Avenue, close to the heart of Greenwich and just off of the prestigious Greenwich Avenue, is home to a house full of very traumatic history.

A family of 3, all stricken by a rare disease, Marfan's Syndrome, all found slain at number 14 on this street.

The two children, one boy and one girl, were found shot dead while apparently sleeping, then the mother was found with the gun in her hand and was shot to death as well.

This is in 1982.

I was born in 1985, and have never heard any mention of this town tragedy in all my years (now 26) as a resident. I only came about researching this event after my mother mentioned something like that happening in town years ago.

I very much wonder if whoever's living in the house is aware of this, I'm sure they must be do to laws and all... But I can't imagine living in a house with such a history!

----

Here's an original Norwalk Hour article, dated September 4th, 1982:

And an original New York Times article, dated September 4th, 1982:
3 IN GREENWICH ARE FOUND SLAIN AT THEIR HOME

A woman and her 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son were found shot to death in their Greenwich, Conn., home yesterday morning, and the police later said the mother, who had a recent history of depression, apparently had killed the children and herself.

The police said all three were afflicted with Marfan's Syndrome, a genetic disease of the ocular, skeletal and cardiovascular systems that had severely impaired the children's eyesight and had rendered the mother legally blind.

The slayings were the first in the affluent suburb 20 miles north of New York City in more than six years. Greenwich, a community of sedate homes and landscaped corporate headquarters, has 60,000 residents and a reputation as one of the country's safest cities.

The police said the victims, 43-year-old Linda V. Sandor and her children, Michelle and Scott, had each been shot once in the head. They were found in separate upstairs bedrooms of their recently purchased eight-room, $130,000 home at 14 Lincoln Avenue in central Greenwich, at 10:40 A.M. by a stepson, Richard, who called the police. Husband Reportedly at Work

Mrs. Sandor's husband, Michael, a Greenwich building contractor, had left the house about 8 A.M. and was at work when the slayings occurred, according to the Greenwich Police Chief, Thomas G. Keegan, and his deputy chief, John J. Cornelius.

''Both children had been shot once in the head, while in their beds, apparently asleep,'' Chief Keegan said. Mrs. Sandor, he said, was found fully clothed, lying beside a .38-caliber handgun that was apparently used in the killings. It had been purchased by Mrs. Sandor at a local gun store on Thursday, the chief said.

''Preliminary investigation and testing indicate that the fatal wound to Linda was self-inflicted,'' said Chief Keegan, who added that there was ''no evidence of foul play.''

The chief said that Mrs. Sandor ''had been suffering from severe depression and had attempted suicide earlier this year.'' A factor in that depression, the Chief said, may have been the disease that had afflicted the family. The woman was becoming progressively more blind and may not have wanted her children to suffer further, the Chief said. Both children wore heavy corrective lenses.

The family had moved into the three-story frame home from the Glenville section of Greenwich in July and was not well-known to neighbors. Mr. Sandor had been renovating the white-shingled home, whose small yard yesterday was strewn with lumber, concrete blocks and other building materials.

The itch Is Back

2012-01-05T18:36:00.005-05:00

Courtesy of yoube: Casey Anthony Speaks Out For The First Time On Video Diary

She has some nerve vlogging herself, hasn't she heard she's the most hated woman in America?

It makes me sick watching her... I guess she feels obligated to do her little videos as to not dissapoint her fanbase.
Wait, what?

ORLANDO -- We have confirmed that the YouTube video featuring a woman who looks and sounds like the Orlando mother acquitted of murdering her daughter, Caylee, is none other than Casey Anthony.

And now attorneys who are already suing Anthony hope to use this video in their lawsuit. Sources close to Casey Anthony's defense team confirmed Thursday.

Attorney Cheney Mason says Anthony is maintaining memoirs and notes primarily for future counseling. She did not upload the video to YouTube, nor did she authorize anyone to do it. Mason says whoever leaked the video did it illegally or criminally.

The 4-minute, 20-second video posted Wednesday features Casey Anthony with a shorter, blond hairstyle. The woman in the recording gives the date as Thursday, October 13, 2011.
----------------------------

The really sad part is that she gets more views on her "counseling" blog than I probably ever will. I guess if I kill my child then I could be famous too, hey-whatdyaknow?

The only vlogging I want to see of her in the future is the one that captures her assasination.

This Day In History

2012-01-04T20:22:00.002-05:00

Jan 4 1964
The Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo kills his final victim, Mary Sullivan, age 19, at her Charles Street apartment.

Jan 4 1986
Phil Lynott, founder of heavy metal band "Thin Lizzy", dies from heart failure brought on by a drug overdose.

Jan 4 1997
Rumors run rampant through Israel, particularly over talk radio, that a UFO will land at Tel Aviv on the following day. The predictions are purported to have been made by spoonbender Uri Geller. Thousands flock to the beaches, but no saucers.

This Day in History

2012-01-03T20:25:00.003-05:00

Jan 3 1946
William Joyce, the "Lord Haw-Haw" who broadcasted Nazi propaganda to Britain during World War II, is hanged for treason in London.

Jan 3 1958
The editor of the scandal magazine Confidential, Howard Rushmore, murders his wife and then suicides in the back of a taxicab in NYC.

Jan 3 1961
Three technicians -- John Byrnes, Richard McKinley, and Richard Legg -- are killed when the SL-1 experimental nuclear reactor explodes in Idaho Falls, Idaho. McKinley's corpse is found stuck to the containment dome ceiling, impaled on a control rod. The crewmen's radioactive bodies are so hot they have to be buried in lead-lined caskets.

Jan 3 1962
Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.

Jan 3 1967
Jack Ruby dead of natural causes.

Jan 3 1987
Four non-cancerous polyps are removed from President Ronald Reagan's colon.

Jan 3 1990
Manuel Noriega surrenders at the Papal Nunciature. He is brought to Miami and charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.

This Day In History

2011-12-27T23:36:00.000-05:00

Dec 27 1992
Harry Connick, Jr., was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City after telling authorities he had an unloaded 9mm pistol in his luggage, which he said he had forgotten that his sister had given to him.

Dec 27 2000
Quality Assurance Engineer Michael "Mucko" McDermott shot and killed seven of his coworkers (four men, three women) at Edgewater Technology, an Internet consulting company in Boston. Mucko, a quiet three-hundred-pound loner, fired off 37 rounds with his rifle and several with the shotgun, shooting his victims repeatedly in the head and back.

5 Killed in Christmas Morning House Fire

2011-12-25T22:55:00.004-05:00

Who could fathom such a thing happening on Christmas morning? What a world..

LA Times-A Christmas morning house fire in an upscale Stamford neighborhood killed five people, three of them children, leaving neighbors and firefighters in tears.

Firefighters rescued two people from the blaze: Madonna Badger, 47, the mother of the children, and a man whose identity was not available. Badger is a New York advertising executive. Police later said the man was a contractor renovating the home, and the two dead adults were Badger's parents, who were visiting for Christmas.

Neighbor Charles Mangano said he saw rescuers walking Badger and the man away from the house toward an ambulance.

"I heard her say, 'My whole life is in there,' as she walked out," Mangano said. "They were both obviously in a state of shock."

Neighbors in the Shippan Point neighborhood, which juts into Long Island Sound, said they were awakened by screaming and ran outside to see fire consuming the house.

"I heard someone yell, 'Help, help, help me!' and I started sprinting up my driveway," Mangano told the Advocate of Stamford. Firefighters were already there.

"I just came out as a neighbor," he said. "There's really nothing I could do."

Stamford Fire Chief Antonio Conte said firefighters got the call at 4:52 a.m. and arrived to find the house engulfed. They rescued Badger and the man, but could not reach the other five.

"There was so much flame and heat it drove the firefighters back," Conte said. "They tried several times. We knew all five were in there. We just couldn't get to them."

Conte became emotional as he talked about the fire.

"I've been on this job 38 years," he said, his voice cracking. "Not an easy day."

Stamford's fire marshal is investigating, but Conte said it would probably take several days to determine what happened.

Badger had three daughters — a 10-year-old and 7-year-old twins. Her husband, Matthew Badger, was in New York City. Police said they drove him to Stamford on Sunday.

Badger bought the three-story, 3,300-square-foot, five-bedroom house overlooking Long Island Sound in December 2010 for $1.72 million. The house had been undergoing extensive renovations, neighbors said.

Becki Anderson, 43, of Stamford grew up in the home and said her parents sold it to Badger.

"Our hearts go out to Madonna and her family," Anderson said. "Our entire community is shocked and stunned."

Anderson said she and her husband took a long walk Christmas afternoon, and everyone they met was talking about the fire.

"Everybody's speaking in hushed tones, and it's sad," she said. "I don't think it matters it's Christmas. It would be sad any day of the year."

Badger, an advertising executive who founded the New York-based Badger & Winters Group, gained fame for Calvin Klein underwear and Obsession perfume ads. She founded her company at the age of 30.

Stamford, a city of 117,000, is about 25 miles northeast of New York City.

"It is a terrible, terrible day," Mayor Michael Pavia said. "There probably has not been a worse Christmas day in the city of Stamford."

This Day In History

2011-12-24T14:39:00.000-05:00

Dec 24 1865
Southern whitefolk unite together to form a service organization wherein they consort with other southern whitefolk. Members participate in festive cruciform fire ceremonies and lively negro butcherings. By the 1920's membership in the Ku Klux Klan reaches an astonishing 2 million.

Dec 24 1954
Rock musician Johnny Ace plays a little .45 calibre solitaire (Russian Roulette) at City Auditorium in Houston after a concert. Blammo. He thought it would impress his girlfriend, perhaps it did.

Dec 24 1985
Fidel Castro announces that he has given up cigars.

Dec 24 1989
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega seeks asylum at the Papal Nunciature. American troops try blasting him with rock music and the sounds of rabbits being slaughtered, but he takes two weeks to emerge. The isthmus groundhog does not see his shadow and is taken by the US Army to Florida lockup where he still resides.

Dec 24 1997
It is revealed that actor Woody Allen (age 62) was married to his adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn (age 27) in Venice, Italy yesterday. She becomes her own stepmother, and Woody his own neurotic son in law.

Dec 24 1997
Disgruntled (former) postal worker David Lee Jackson takes seven hostages at a Denver mail sorting facility. He holds them for over nine hours before surrendering to police. Jackson had been fired 18 months previously for threatening his superior.

Attack On a 77 Year Old Woman

2011-12-23T20:16:00.005-05:00

This story hits us personally.. Our good family friend's daughter is the grand-daughter of the woman attacked... (Her ex's mother is the victim).

How horrible to have happened during the holiays. Our friend is all shaken up, and I feel so horrible for her daughter- I hope she doesn't lose her grandma on the holiays.

BRIDGEPORT - An elderly Bridgeport woman is seriously injured after police say a man attacked her with a broken bottle as she was crossing the street.

Police say Marvin Narcisse stabbed an elderly woman while he was in his underwear.

Witnesses say the 77-year-old woman was walking across Williams Street earlier today when a man ran from across the street in his underwear, tackled her to the ground and beat her.

Residents in the area say they intervened to help the victim. "I kept stomping on him because he kept reaching for the lady," says one resident. "I kept stomping on his face."

The suspect was taken into custody, and faces attempted murder charges. He is being held on $1 million bond.

The woman was rushed to the hospital. Officials have not released any information on her condition or her identity.

Man Hit, Killed by 2 Cars in Norwalk

2011-12-23T20:11:00.001-05:00

(12/23/11) NORWALK - Norwalk police say a man was killed after he was hit by two cars early this morning.

Investigators say James Shaw, 21, of Norwalk, was walking on the Route 7 connector just after midnight.

Police say an officer saw Shaw walking and shined a spotlight on him to help other drivers see him. They say Shaw then crossed into the road where he was stuck.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 203-854-3000.

Driver in Fatal New Canaan Crash Found

2011-12-23T20:06:00.003-05:00

(12/23/11) NEW CANAAN - New Canaan police have located the driver involved in a deadly accident.

It happened last night around 10:30 p.m. near Ponus Ridge and Lakewind roads.

Witnesses say the driver, Michael Savage, 37, ran away from the scene. He was later found at Stamford Hospital with only minor injuries.

Police say the passenger, a relative identified as James Jackson Savage, 74, of Seattle, did not survive.

Officials say it's too early to say if drugs or alcohol played any role in the accident, or if Savage will be facing criminal charges.

This Day In History

2011-12-23T11:05:00.001-05:00

Dec 23 1888
After an argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh takes a razor and removes a portion of his left ear. Their quarrel regarded the prostitutes in Arles who seemed to prefer Gauguin over Van Gogh; the painter delivered his ear to one Rachel, who preferred Van Gogh. She fainted.

Dec 23 1972
Magnitude 6.25 Earthquake destroys central Managua Nicaragua, 10,000 die.

Dec 23 1985
In a school playground, James Vance presses a shotgun to his chin and pulls the trigger. He and cohort Raymond Belknap had forged a suicide pact while listening to Stained Class by Judas Priest. But where Belknap succeeded, Vance fails. He survives, destroying his face. He later uses his disfigurement to his advantage, terrorizing small children on his bicycle. Both kids' parents file suit against the band, but a judge ultimately rejects their subliminal message theory. Vance dies from painkillers on Thanksgiving three years later.
( The Story of James Vance & Judas Priest ) ..Click the link to watch the movie.

Dec 23 1994
Actor Christian Slater arrested while trying to board a plane with a semiautomatic firearm.

Dec 23 1995
Bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple cult who had committed suicide are found on a plateau in the French Alps. Their bodies are charred and arranged in a star formation. Causes of death included stabbing, asphyxiation, gunshot, and poisoning. In 1994, 53 other members had suicided in similar fashion.

This Day In History

2011-12-22T15:02:00.001-05:00

Dec 22 1984
Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 teenage boys on the NYC subway after one of them tells him to give him five dollars.

Dec 22 1996
An alien cadaver of height 5 centimeters is found at the Kibbutz Achihod, Ahyud Israel. Scientists at Israel's Technion Institute in Hafnia determine that not enough material is present to conduct "proper tests" but the alien's composition is chiefly cow manure.

Dec 22 2001
Richard Reid attempts to blow up an American Airlines transatlantic flight by igniting a plastic explosive concealed in his shoe. Other passengers beat the living daylights out of him.

Police: Man Defecated In Parking Lot Before Robbing Bank

2011-12-22T11:28:00.004-05:00

NEW MILFORD — A 55-year old man was arrested Friday after allegedly defecating in the parking lot of a bank before robbing it, police said.

Russell Mace of New Milford faces charges of conspiracy to commit fifth-degree larceny, fifth-degree larceny, second-degree breach of peace and two counts of risk of injury to a child, police said.

A woman came into the Union Savings Bank at 41 East St. on Friday afternoon and told a teller that she had seen a man in the parking lot pull down his pants and defecate.

Moments later, Mace came into the bank and demanded money, said New Milford Police Lt. Larry Ash.

The teller handed Mace several thousand dollars, Ash said.

Police recognized Mace on the bank's surveillance footage. Mace had prior active warrants for a purse snatching crime, Ash said. They found him in New Britain.

His wife Erin Mace, also of New Milford, was arrested at the same time. She also had active warrants for her role in alleged purse snatching crimes, Ash said.

Police said Russell Mace was also charged with two counts of risk of injury to a minor because his 1-year-old and 4-year-old children were in the car at the time of the bank robbery.

Police said the children were also present during the alleged purse snatching crimes. The children are now in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, Ash said.

Police are also investigating whether Erin Mace was involved in the bank robbery because she was present in the car as well, Ash said.

Bail was initially set at $500,000, but when he was arraigned Monday, it was reduced to $150,000, Ash said.

He is due back in court Jan. 4.

.collection of things *not to forget*

Madonna Badger, Mother In Deadly Connecticut Fire That Killed Five, Reportedly Attempts Suicide

Cops: Accused 'Cannibal' Tried to Kill Self in Fairfield

Komisarjevsky Sentenced to Death

Suspect in Westport Jewelry Store Murder Kills Self

Cameras Allowed at Murder Trial

Titanic: 100 Years Later

This Day in History

Connecticut Christmas Fire: Granddaughter Writes Poem for Deceased Family

Joran Van der Sloot Gets 28-Year Sentence for Peru Killing

This Day in History

This Day in History

Creepy in Greenwich: Part One

The itch Is Back

This Day In History

This Day in History

This Day In History

5 Killed in Christmas Morning House Fire

This Day In History

Attack On a 77 Year Old Woman

Man Hit, Killed by 2 Cars in Norwalk

Driver in Fatal New Canaan Crash Found

This Day In History

This Day In History

Police: Man Defecated In Parking Lot Before Robbing Bank

.collection of things not to forget