All in the Details
It's all in the details. As on Thursday when a New York Times website headline said "Up to 35 Feared Shot at Indiana Factory." Indeed, early reports warned of such a high number of casualties, but it turned out to be less awful than first feared. Ahead of All-the-News-that's-Fit-to-Print, Reuters had gotten the facts mostly right with "Two Dead, Several Wounded in Ind. Factory Shooting", while the AP told us in their headline "Three Dead After Indiana Shooting," though in the story they only had two people killed. Surprise, a less-than-gruntled-employee killed another and then himself; six others were hurt.
Details, as in the re-opening of the Boston Strangler case. According to a new forensic report on one of the eleven rape-stranglings committed in the early 1960's and confessed to by Albert DeSalvo, he didn't do it. The DNA evidence is clear. It should also be noted that despite his confession, there was no physical evidence placing DeSalvo at the scene of any of the murders, he didn't look like the suspect described by witnesses, and he was never on the 300-name suspect list.
DNA evidence apparently has linked a 52-year-old truck painter to at least four of the 49 so-called Green River killings of prostitutes in the Seattle area in the early 1980's. Other indictments may follow. The man was originally checked out in 1984, because his truck had been seen in the area where the bodies were found, and he had been seen in the company of at least some of the victims. In 1987, a court ordered a saliva test. Nothing happened. The saliva was retested in March. The results came back two months ago. The man was arrested last week. Every police jurisdiction from Canada to Mexico is checking the man against their missing/murdered prostitutes cases. The numbers climb toward a hundred.
There's no question about Bruce Morris' guilt. He killed a man who stopped to give him a ride. He was convicted and sentenced to death. But a funny thing happened on the way to sentence. The written instructions to the jury offered them a choice of death of a life sentence "with" the possibility of parole. It was supposed to say "without" as the judge had several times instructed the jury. Still, the California courts were comfortable with the sentence, but the federal appeals panel said it wasn't fair, and ordered a re-sentencing. Ironically, Mr. Morris has asked that all appeals be dropped and that he be allowed to be executed.
And finally, speaking again of unseemly deaths, the family of the American Airlines pilot killed by terrorists who wanted him buried at Arlington National Cemetery were happy when the Pentagon gave into their request, after pressure from the National Security Council. But they were unhappy when the Pentagon then informed them that because he was only 52 and not 60 when he died — and even though he had served in the Navy for eight years and had been a Naval reservist for another 17 years — he would be buried in the same plot with his veteran father, and the headstone would be changed. The White House "hoped" publicly that everything would be worked out between them. And not to be outdone cheerleading an obvious hero, members of Congress threatened legislation to force the Pentagon to give the poor man his own ground. The Army finally relented. Imagine what might be accomplished if the same brio were applied to matters meaningful to the nation.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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