TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Gamemakers defend Columbine game

    Gamemakers defend Columbine game

    (Guest post by Alyric)

    This story is a bit unusual in that there is no crime being blamed on video games – rather, the video game is based on a crime.

    For those of you who have been fortunate enough not to hear about it, Super Columbine Massacre RPG is a game created by Danny Ledonne. You will not find a link to it on this site; not now, not ever. Essentially, the game allows you to play as Harris and Klebold in a virtual recreation of the massacre at Columbine High School. Not only that, the content in the game and the author himself glamorize what they did. This was, sadly, hero-worship; a tribute, of sorts. Trench has covered this story previously.

    The game has been around for a while, but just recently it made headlines again. According to Newsweek, a Utah Gamemaker Competition dropped the Columbine game from consideration. In response, six of the fourteen finalists have quit in protest, and seven sent letters requesting the game’s reinstatement.

    To be fair, I suspect that most or all of these finalists are ignorant of the true nature of SCMRPG and many of the remarks made by Danny Ledonne. Still, making such a public demonstration of support for something you aren’t familiar with is dangerous at best.

    Consider a quote from the article by Jonathon Blow, one of the finalists that dropped out after SCMRPG was removed from the competition. “As long as we persist in believing that games are just for kids … we’re not going to get where we need to go.”

    This quote, I can only imagine, broadly assumes that the game has been removed for violent content. Mr. Blow, this has nothing to do with violence, only the standards of public decency, and respect for the families that lost loved ones on that day. The game constantly refers to Harris and Klebold as “brave boys”, and runs a tribute montage to them after their deaths. How could the Slamdance Festival afford to be seen as supporting that?

    If the lack of respect showed by Danny Ledonne towards the families of the people murdered at Columbine wasn’t bad enough, consider his refusal to respect the wishes of the organizers of the event; from the second article – But SCMRPG! creator Danny Ledonne has told other finalists that he plans to go to the festival anyway and distribute copies of his game.

    Kudos to Peter Baxter, president of the event, for not caving into the pressure.

  • Metal Molester

    Metal Molester

    Randall S. Shesto II

    Band singer charged for sex with girl, 15, he met on MySpace.com:

    The green-haired gentleman pictured above is not the Joker. His name is Randall Shesto II, aka RJ Nailwounds. He’s the 20-year-old lead singer for the heavy metal band Nailwounds from Wisconsin. He was arrested for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl he met on MySpace. The girl snuck out of the house to meet Shesto, and it only went downhill from there…

    Shortly after 1 a.m. Jan. 12, Shesto picked up the girl and drove to a remote area in the Town of Scott, where he pulled off the road into a field entrance and the two had consensual sex in the back seat of his car.

    The two were then driving on Mapletree Road north of Brazelton Drive about 1:40 a.m. when Shesto veered off the road and crashed the car, according to the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department. Both suffered minor injuries in the crash.

    Shesto is charged with sexual assault of a child which has a 25-year max. Shesto is out on bond.

    Here is Shesto’s MySpace. It’s been set to private but thanks to Mr. A we have the Google cache of Shesto’s MySpace. And here is the MySpace for Nailwounds.

    And remember kids. Coloring your hair is so not metal. \m/

  • Lincoln-Sudbury suspect bragged of knives

    Lincoln-Sudbury suspect bragged of knives

    Accused killer boasted of vast knife collection:

    John Odgren, the suspect in the Lincoln-Sudbury High School stabbing, had previously bragged about his rather extensive knife collection…

    John Odgren is a private kid who spent hours exploring the vast woods around his secluded Princeton home, neighbors said, sometimes carrying a machete.

    One neighbor said the quiet teen appeared menacing as he stalked along the winding country road with a machete in hand whacking at brush. “He just acted odd,” said the neighbor. “He’d sit in the woods all day. He spent all last summer walking in the woods.”

    But another said Odgren seemed like a typical country boy who enjoyed the outdoors: “He didn’t seem like a punk. He didn’t seem like he was too big for his britches. He seemed like a nice kid.”

    A student at Sudbury named Julia, who is making a crime film, said Odgren was fascinated by crime. “He said if we needed any props for the movie he had knives,” she said.

    For the sake of argument, let’s just say that his Asperger’s is what caused him to kill James Alenson. Then if his parents knew he had a predisposition to fly off the handle, why did they allow him to have a knife collection? Why would you let any 16-year-old have a knife collection, including a machete, anyway?

    The article said he was picked on too. I don’t care. I bet James Alenson was picked on too. He was a quiet kid who played the clarinet. You’re going to tell me that no one picked on him?

    There’s only one victim here, and his name is James Alenson.

  • More out of Sudbury

    More out of Sudbury

    Student charged with murder in fatal stabbing at suburban school:

    The name of the suspect of the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School stabbing has been released. He is 16-year-old John Odgren of Princeton, Mass. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges yesterday in court. Which I find kind of strange considering that when police arrived Odgren had blood on his hands, proclaiming to police “I did it. I did it”. Odgren also allegedly said, “Is he OK? I don’t want him to die.” Odgren’s attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, is claiming that Odgren has Asperger’s Syndrome and is obviously going to use that as his defense.

    “The defendant has a history of fairly serious psychological diagnoses and has also suffered from hyperactivity dysfunction for many years,” Shapiro said. “What is clear is John has a serious disability.”

    Asperger’s is not an excuse for murder, and to claim so does a great disservice to people with Asperger’s. If this kind of defense continues, pretty soon people will think that all people with Asperger’s are potential killers. Not only that, but you could also have people who don’t have Asperger’s claiming that they do just so they can use it as a defense.

    In Massachusetts, anyone age 14 or older is automatically tried as an adult. Alenson was stabbed in the heart and the abdomen and had cuts on his neck. This was no accident.

    Students say assailant talked about murder, bombs:

    Classmates of Odgren sure aren’t painting him as some poor misunderstood kid…

    Just hours after a classmate was stabbed to death in a school bathroom, two Lincoln-Sudbury High School juniors yesterday said the student now accused of the killing often wore a trench coat to school and talked about murder, forensics and how he wanted to make a bomb.

    Brianna Hogge, also a junior at L-S, said “Jack” was “always asking how to get away with killing people and talking about how to make acid to make bombs. He was a really creepy kid.”

    Hogge said the student “was always talking about murder, overly interested in forensics and not happy things.”

    She said the young man had, in the past, talked to many students and some teachers about his unusual interests.

    I wouldn’t be surprised that if his claims of Asperger’s and asking if the victim was ok were all part of a plan to try to get away with murder.

    Speaking of the victim…

    Kin: Slain boy was ‘all-around good kid’:

    James Alenson, the studious, sweet-faced freshman brutally stabbed to death yesterday morning at Lincoln-Sudbury High School, was remembered yesterday as an excellent kid and straight-A student who never made trouble with anyone.

    He was just a nice kid. He was just an excellent kid, an all-around good kid, said the murdered boy’s grandfather, James Grotton of New Hampshire.

    Alenson, 15, had just moved with his family to Sudbury in September from Natick, where he completed eighth grade at Wilson Middle School. He has a brother and sister. “He’s a straight-A student,” said Eryn Hearn, 14, a Natick High freshman. “We’re all shocked.”

    His former classmates remembered Alenson as always toting around his clarinet and keeping to himself. A copy of his 2005 middle school year book shows him smiling with social studies teacher Niall Carey for the annual geography bee.

    “You’d see him with (the clarinet) all the time,” said former classmate Anton Wilson, 14, of Natick. “He’s a nice kid who’s quiet.”

    Does that sound like a kid who deserved to be stabbed to death?

  • Lawsuit’s a loser

    Lawsuit’s a loser

    MySpace Lawsuits Called Losers:

    It seems I’m not the only one who thinks the latest lawsuit against MySpace is without merit. So does law professor Eric Goldman.

    First, Goldman says, it’s a stretch under the legal definition of causation to assert that MySpace contributed to a crime that didn’t occur on its premises.

    Second, he said, the law “routinely insulate[s] Web sites for liability for torts committed outside their network.” Thus, he points out, AOL was not held liable for child porn generated elsewhere and distributed through its network.

    Why bother with the lawsuit then? Goldman speculates, “Given the obviously futile nature of this lawsuit, this lawsuit may be more about publicity than about seeking justice.”

    As Goldman points out, the risk of high-profile lawsuits like this is that they may encourage ill-conceived, knee-jerk legislation. The problem is even the most extreme restrictions seem reasonable if the purpose is “protecting kids.” How many politicians, for example, would have the courage to oppose something like “The Boil Pedophiles Alive Act of 2007”? Not many, I suspect.

    Let’s hope this lawsuit never goes any further.

  • Sex offender poses as 12-year-old to enter middle school

    Sex offender poses as 12-year-old to enter middle school

    Sex offender applies for school as a boy:

    That charming gentleman pictured at right is Neil Havens Rodreick II. He’s a 29-year-old man who tried applying to an Arizona middle school as a 12-year-old boy. I

    t’s believed that he did that in order to lure children into dangerous and vile relationships. If you think he couldn’t pass as a 12-year-old, think again because he fooled at least two other men.

    One of those men, 61-year-old Lonnie Stiffler, was claiming to be Roderick’s grandfather when they tried getting him into the school. Stiffler and 43-year-old Robert James Snow were shocked to find out that they were having sex with a 29-year-old man and not a 12-year-old boy. Roderick allegedly kept them fooled by using makeup and shaving his body hair.

    Well, we don’t have a MySpace for Roderick, but thanks to LiLO we do have the MySpace for Robert Snow.

  • Memphis discovers craigslist sex ads

    Memphis discovers craigslist sex ads

    Selling Sex Online:

    It seems that the Memphis media has heard about craigslist hookers. In their blistering expose they inform a local busybody about the existence of craigslist prostitution and, of course, he’s outraged about it. The article even goes so far as to call the people placing ads “perverts”…

    One Memphis man said he would make a generous offer to a mother and daughter who would have sex with him.

    Some perverts bold enough to post their phone number on their ad. We responded anonymously to a couple of the ads and got responses back within five minutes.

    All in all, this article is quite humorous for its naivety, but this part I found kind of disturbing…

    We sent an email to the CEO of Craigslist to ask why these ads are allowed on the website when it clearly states in their terms of use pornographic pictures or messages are not allowed on the site. Jim Buckmaster never emailed us back.

    So if it’s against craigslist’s TOS, why do they allow it to continue?

  • Mass. school stabbing

    Mass. school stabbing

    Student charged with murder in fatal stabbing at suburban school:

    In case you haven’t heard by now, there has been a fatal stabbing at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

    James Alenson, a 15-year-old freshman, was stabbed by a 16-year-old student and was pronounced dead at 8:12 a.m Eastern Time at Emerson Hospital in Concord.

    The incident appeared to stem from a fight between the two. The suspect is in custody and is not being named at this time and has been charged with murder. I’ll bring you more details as they become available.

    ToF to Jade, Soobs, and Joker.

  • Petitioners seek juvenile trial for Eric Hainstock

    Petitioners seek juvenile trial for Eric Hainstock

    Petitioners: Hainstock is not an adult:

    217 petitioners from as far away as Italy are appealing to prosecutors to have Eric Hainstock tried as a juvenile. If you recall, Hainstock was arrested for the shooting and killing Weston Schools principal John Klang. The petitioners argue that since Hainstock was 15 at the time of the shooting that his brain was not fully developed and did not have the ability to make “good judgments”. I argue that the petitioners’ brains aren’t fully developed. Any 15-year-old knows that killing someone is against the law and will get you put in jail. Then again, consider the source. These are the same people who felt Eric Schorling was just misunderstood.

    Wisconsin law states that a 15-year-old that commits first-degree murder receives a mandatory trial as an adult. They can be tried as a juvenile under special circumstances, but in my opinion, those circumstances do not apply to Hainstock. Hainstock had an abusive father, but he didn’t shoot his father. He shot a man who was just trying to do his job. John Klang’s family no longer have him in their lives. Justice demands that Hainstock is removed from society. Let’s bring back personal responsibility to the world.

  • Men caught in 14-year-old’s bed

    Men caught in 14-year-old’s bed

    Men Arrested In MySpace Sex Case:

    These two attractive gentlemen are Jover Mabaet and Dennis Keomoungkhoune of Portland, Oregon. Both are 21 and have been arrested for engaging in sexual activities with a 14-year-old girl they met on MySpace. The victim’s father caught them both in bed with his daughter. To make matters worse, Mabaet was already under investigation for possibly having a relationship with another underage girl and Keomoungkhoune is already a registered sex offender.

    Now, I couldn’t find a MySpace for Keomoungkhoune, but I did find one for Mabaet. According to the article, he’s 21, but on his MySpace, he claims to be 17.