Murder on the theatre stage

An Austrian actor accidentally slit his throat on stage during a performance of Mary Stuart, a play about Mary Queen of Scotts.

The actor meant to use a blunt, prop blade to cut his throat during a suicide scene. The audience cheered what they thought to be realistic special effects, and only realised something was amiss when the actor hobbled off stage to get help.

Medics say if he had placed any further pressure on the blade, he could have severed an artery and died on stage.

Police are investigating to find out how the prop blade got replaced with a real one.

Hmmm… Sounds like attempted murder ala Brandon Lee to me.

[ Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7777086.stm ]

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Today’s insanity: woman sentenced for virtual murder

We’ve covered before how the digital world and the legislative world are moving at wildly differing paces, but here’s a story that’s going to make you stop and pause for a bit.

A Japanese woman has been sentenced, but not yet formally charged, for the virtual “murder” of an online ex-husband. Wha…? Ok, let me roll that past you a little more slowly.

Allegedly, the couple were only married within the confines of the virtual world of Maple Story (funky online game…check it out if you want!), and the man suddenly served her digital divorce papers (yes, I know…I don’t get it, either). Apparently, being divorced in such a brusque and sudden manner is bound to make anyone upset. So she killed her ex-husband’s digital persona—also known as an avatar in virtual circles.

Mind you, the only bit of this whole story that makes ANY sense at all is that she’s not being jailed for murder, but for the crime of hacking.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.

You can stop laughing now, btw. Being charged could mean a five year prison sentence or a $5,000 fine.

My favorite quote from the article?

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

[Link: Yahoo! News - Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby, via Kotaku]

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Today’s insanity: man decapitated and disemboweled on bus

A man travelling about a Greyhound bus in Canada was stabbed, beheaded, and disemboweled by another passenger. Allegedly, the killer paused to display the head to the other passengers, who had evacuated the bus, before calmly dismembering and disemboweling the victim. The man was arrested when he attempted to escape the bus.

…the bus stopped and the passengers scrambled to disembark while the
suspect allegedly began methodically carving up the man’s body.

The attacker severed the man’s head with a large hunting knife and held the head up by the door for others to see.

The weirdest part of the article?

[Public Safety Minister Stockwell] Day called it bizarre and extremely rare.

You think??

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Today’s insanity: body parts left in bag on porch

Ok, so maybe the image is a little tasteless. Chalk it up to my tasteless gene. Anyhow:

Two sisters in Greenville, South Carolina, USA, were each greeted with a bag on their porch that contained human hands and feet.

One of the sisters currently lives at an apartment at the Andover Park complex on Cleveland Street and her sister lived at a house on Rose Avenue until about a week ago.

A bag containing a human and a human foot were found outside each of the homes on Monday morning.

The police are trying to get a grip on the matter, but can’t really put a finger on any suspects at the moment, despite checking in a wide radius. They hoped that someone would be able to hand a suspect in, but it was all in vein. Nobody finds the situation humerus at all, but a good rule of thumb would be to hunt for missing persons, and there the police feel they’ll keep their noses to the grindstone. The two sisters’ knee-jerk reaction was to scream bloody murder, but cooler heads prevailed. They don’t know who’d have the heart to do such a dreadful deed. We can certainly hope that the Greenville police are able to deliver with a suspect, and that some vigilantes don’t try to muscle in on the action.

Thankfully, there wasn’t a vehicle accident involved, or else they’d have had to call a toe truck.

Can anyone who spleen to me whether you actually have the guts to do something like this?

[Link]

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