Category: Crime

  • More on Richard Henderson Jr.

    The other day we discussed Richard Henderson Jr. the 20-year-old who confessed to bludgeoning his family to death on Thanksgiving. I had mentioned that in 2001 he was arrested on suspicion of being part of a Columbine-like plot and I asked if anyone had further information on that. Well, my readers came through in spades.

    First, I got an e-mail from someone we’ll call T-Rock…

    The high school is Lakewood Ranch High School. It is located in Eastern Manatee County, in Bradenton, FL.

    The plan in 2001 was to have one kid pull the fire alarms, while the other 3 kids layed in ambush in the courtyard, ready to pick off any students and faculty that were running out of thier classrooms. Luckily to say that never happened.

    T-Rock also had some other choice things to say about Henderson, but we’ll save that for another time.

    Then reader Starviego came through big time with a plethora of news links.

    Suspect named in 2001 plot:

    Four teens had an ominous plan in the spring of 2001: Get guns, pull a fire alarm at Lakewood Ranch High School and shoot as many students as possible before killing themselves.

    Richard Henderson Jr., now charged with killing four family members, was one of those teens, and he had taken a major step toward making it a reality: He had obtained a handgun and brought it to the school.

    The local plan came to light in March 2001 when police found Henderson with a gun at a Manatee McDonald’s restaurant. They arrested him on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a weapon on school property. There’s no indication Henderson ever fired the gun.

    But authorities questioned him and his friends at length. The friends gave versions of the plots that varied slightly but had consistent themes.

    The group that included at least one girl talked of their plans in telephone conference calls over a period of a week, the report said. They planned to take muscle relaxers and do one of two things.

    In one scenario, they would sit in a circle and shoot each other one by one. The teens all agreed that “life sucks” and that they didn’t like their parents. One girl, the report said, “did not want to grow up to be like her mother, her father or the adults that are around her.”

    The other plan, which the teens each denied when confronted by sheriff’s investigators, involved pulling the fire alarm at Lakewood Ranch High and shooting students who had wronged them. The teens said “the rednecks” picked on them and treated them like “freaks” and deserved to be shot, the reports say.

    Henderson had written a suicide note and will, and signed it on Feb. 28, 2001. He was caught by police with the loaded handgun on Friday, March 2, 2001.

    “She felt that Richard Henderson Jr. was serious about this,” the report quoted one girl as telling authorities. “She also felt he would have done the shooting on Monday morning at school. She felt this because she understands how Richard Henderson Jr.’s mind works. When he sets his mind to something … he would continue to think about it until it became serious. Then he would really do it, and it would become reality.”

    What did Henderson get for his troubles? Five years probation

    Though he was 15, Henderson was tried as an adult in the 12th Circuit Court. Records show he was sentenced to five years’ probation.

    But, according to the state attorney’s office, Henderson violated his probation when he committed another crime at the age of 19. Henderson, according to court records, was charged with aggravated assault and violation of an injunction after he went to his wife’s home in Bradenton on Dec. 5, 2004. There, he threatened to cut her throat if she didn’t go into the house with him. His wife was not injured, but Henderson cut his left wrist with a steak knife, according to the warrant.

    What did he get for that? Only four months behind bars…

    Henderson pleaded guilty to assault in the incident, said Dawn Buff, a prosecutor who worked on the case.

    A judge allowed Henderson credit for time served for the assault and violation of probation charges, Buff said. He had spent four months in jail by then.

    But that’s not all…

    Earlier, on May 5, 2004, Henderson was accused of domestic battery and aggravated assault charges. But the charges were dropped on Oct. 12, 2004, court records show.

    “The reason we didn’t proceed with that is because the victim reported the incident very late,” Buff said.

    And it seems like that this kind of behavior is nothing new

    “Even when he was a kid, he’d grab animals out here and rip their legs off and just laugh about it. So he was kind of troubled in the first place,” Henderson’s uncle, Jeffrey Stringer, said.

    So it should be no surprise to anyone that this psychopath murdered his family on Thanksgiving and slept next to his dead mother in her bed that night.

    So after all the crimes that Henderson committed, why was he allowed to walk the streets? Do any of the judges who previously sentenced Henderson have any regrets? They should.

  • Richard Edgar Henderson Jr.

    Family bludgeoned to death:

    Earlier today, I read the story of Richard Edgar Harrison Jr., the 20-year-old accused of bludgeoning his family to death on Thanksgiving.

    If you haven’t heard the story yet, here are the details…

    Police say Henderson told them he killed his 11-year-old brother Jake first in a bedroom.

    Then he went to his 82-year-old grandmother’s bedroom, asked her to fetch something from a drawer and killed her.

    He lured his father, Richard, 48, into the living room to play video games, and killed him there before beating his mother, Jeaneane, 42, as she sat playing poker on a computer in her bedroom.

    “Henderson said he put the pipe in his bedroom, took a shower, wrote a note and spent the rest of the night lying in his parents’ bed staring at the ceiling,” a detective’s report said.

    “Henderson said that he killed his family because they wouldn’t let him leave.

    “He said that he was not angry at his family and that after he had hit his brother, he had to kill everyone.

    “Henderson planned to collect money to buy enough drugs or poison to kill himself,” according to the report.

    Henderson was arrested on Sunday night walking along a busy road and charged with murder.

    But here’s the part that caught my attention…

    In 2001, Henderson was part of a Columbine-style murder-suicide plan that was to have taken place at a local high school but was foiled by police, sheriff’s officials said.

    Henderson, who was 16 at the time, was among four to six students involved in the plot, and was arrested on concealed weapons charges.

    I couldn’t find anything else on the web about this without knowing the name of the school. And since Henderson was a minor at the time, I doubt his name would have been mentioned in the press. If anyone has any information about this alleged plot from back in 2001, please let me know.

    In the meantime, maybe they’ll start dealing out harsher sentences for would be school shooters in order to avoid another situation like this.

  • Dr. Broom Fallout

    Dr. Broom Fallout

    McGill receives sanctions for hazing incident:

    McGill University, the Canadian university that is home to the hazing ritual known as Dr. Broom, has had the hammer dropped on them by the Quebec Student Sport Federation in the wake of the aforementioned Dr, Broom hazing scandal. To refresh your memory about the good doctor…

    An 18-year-old rookie alleged he was sexually assaulted with a broomstick by a veteran player while others looked on and cheered. The rookie filed a complaint and left the university shortly afterwards.

    Anyway, McGill has been fined $30,000, its team has been banned from having any home games televised in 2006 or 2007, they’ve been banned from hosting a Quebec conference playoff game in 2006, and the team will be on probation for a year.

    I don’t know how McGill ranks within Canadian college football programs, but if this were to happen in the states the NCAA would probably not even bat an eyelash.

  • Your winner and STILL Champion…

    Your winner and STILL Champion…

    Group ranks most dangerous U.S. cities Camden, New Jersey, named at top of list:

    For the second year in a row, the cesspool on the Delaware known as Camden, NJ has been named the most dangerous city in the U.S.

    Camden beat out Detroit for the second year in a row. Damn Detroit. Can’t you win at anything?

    All kidding aside, I’m actually pissed about this. Camden is much deserving of this tag. It makes New Jersey look like a horrible state.

    I grew up in New Jersey, and I’m damn proud I grew up there.

    Unfortunately, cities like Camden and Newark give the rest of the state a bad name. Cities that are just across rivers from Philly and New York make people think that all of New Jersey is like that, when in reality, New Jersey is a very beautiful state filled with beaches, farm country, and very nice communities.

    So, thanks again, Camden for making my home state look like crap to the rest of the country.

  • Esmie Tseng revisited

    Esmie Tseng revisited

    Friends argue 16-year-old girl needs help, not prison, following her mother’s murder:

    This is another story that I’ve been following here. It’s the story of Esmie Tseng, a 16-year-old Kansas girl who is accused of stabbing her mother, Shu Y. Tseng, to death. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a chance to post the previous entries since The Great Website Meltdown of 2005.

    What makes this story attention-getting is the support she is getting from friends and strangers alike who do not want her tried as an adult, which is basically what this article is about.

    I have yet to hear an official motive for the killing, but it may be because I haven’t researched too hard. I just post dribs and drabs of what I get through the media. However, Esmie’s mom has been portrayed as this overbearing mother putting way too much pressure to succeed on her daughter…

    “Her mom leaves a note on her bed that basically said, ‘If you don’t take the state championship, we’re taking the piano away,’” Horwitz said. “(Esmie) puts in (her journal) a couple times that the only thing that defines her is piano and her escape from life is to sit down and play Bach for a few hours.”

    While her mother sounds like a control freak, it’s still no reason to stab her repeatedly if that is, in fact, the motive.

    Unless I hear a better explanation of why she killed her mother, I have no problems at all with her being tried as an adult.

  • Zarate accomplice pleads guilty

    Zarate accomplice pleads guilty

    Teen accomplice pleads guilty in body dump case:

    One of the teen accomplices of Jonathan Zarate pleaded guilty to improperly disposing of human remains and hindering apprehension.

    This is the 16-year-old accomplice known as “V.B.” the friend of Jonathan Zarate’s brother who is only identified as “J.Z.”.

    “V.B.” faces up to four years in juvenile detention. “V.B.” and “J.Z.” allegedly tried to help Jonathan Zarate dispose of Jennifer Parks’ body in the Passaic River.

  • Zarate attacks prison guard

    Zarate attacks prison guard

    ‘Trunk killer’ teen erupts, blackens jail guard’s eye:

    This is a story that I’ve been following here for a while.

    Unfortunately, I haven’t reposted any of the previous entries since the Great Site Meltdown of 2005. Let me bring you up to speed.

    18-year-old Jonathan Zarate invited his 16-year-old neighbor Jennifer Parks over to watch TV. He killed her by bludgeoning her and repeatedly stabbing her. He then dismembered her body, stuffed her in a trunk, hid the trunk in his parents’ Jeep for 24 hours, then solicited his teenage brother and a friend to help him dump the body into the Passaic River.

    At the time of the original postings, I got a lot of comments saying that either he couldn’t have possibly killed her or comments that attacked the victim. Well, Zarate’s latest escapade is that he attacked a prison guard unprovoked…

    Jonathan Zarate, 18, of Randolph, allegedly punched a 26-year-old corrections officer three times in the face and head as he was being escorted back to his cell after a shower Thursday at 8:30 a.m., Warden Frank Corrente said.

    “This was unprovoked. He has issues with authority and has been a management issue since his arrival,” Corrente said of Zarate. “He shows violent behavior.”

    Yeah, someone with this kind of rational behavior couldn’t have possibly killed someone. Yeah, right.

  • Dyleski enters plea

    Dyleski enters plea

    Dyleski pleads not guilty: (Log in info)

    Nearly four weeks after his arrest, Scott Dyleski pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murder in the killing of Pamela Vitale, a former high-tech executive and the wife of a well-known local defense attorney.

    The 17-year-old, who has been charged as an adult in the crime, entered his plea as he stood in “the cage,” a metal and glass structure that is reserved for defendants in custody.

    The District Attorney’s Office has charged Dyleski with murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He faces up to 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

    Outside the courtroom Wednesday, three friends of Dyleski said they had showed up to support him. Immediately surrounded by cameras and reporters, they described him as kind and said they were shocked when they heard about his arrest.

  • Still More on William Freund

    Report: Orange County gunman was social outcast, even on the Internet: (Log in info)

    This is basically an article about how the Aliso Viejo shooter William Freund found as little social acceptance on the web as he did in real life…

    Freund only opened up on the Internet, which he accessed from his computer-filled bedroom at his parents house. The Times said he played online games, discussed movies and TV shows such as “The Outer Limits,” posted reviews of online businesses, bought and sold video games and paintball supplies on eBay.

    He left pleas for friendship on some Web sites.

    “I’ve never really had a friend,” Freund wrote in one profile. “I’ve never had someone I can share more intimate conversation with, or just have a good time with.”

    In more troubling messages, he discussed guns and, in the weeks before his death, talked about his thoughts of suicide.

    “I think the only thing to do is go admit myself to a hospital I feel like I need to kill myself,” he wrote in an Oct. 19 post on wrongplanet.com, a Web site for those with Asperger’s syndrome.

    In one message, Freund said he planned to “Start a Terror Campaign To hurt those that have hurt me,” and added: “My future ended some time ago.”

    Actually, it’s wrongplanet.net, but anyway, I find it hard to believe he couldn’t even find one friend. Granted he had a disorder that limited his social skills, I find it hard to believe there wasn’t one person out there that he couldn’t find a connection with.

    I previously wrote about how some of the moderators at wrongplanet.net tried to contact Freund’s family after posting on their forum. If no one on that forum cared for him, then why did they try to help him?

    According to the article, Freund was ridiculed on the Something Awful forums…

    In a firearms forum on the Web site somethingawful.com, Freund talked about staging a “Halloween shootout” to get even with pranksters who vandalized his pumpkin last Halloween.

    That was met with ridicule.

    “I can imagine this mongoloid, sitting on his creaky porch, one strap on his overalls, leaping up and running to the defense of his precious 24-ounce pumpkin,” read one response.

    Freund’s comments got him banned from the Web site three days before his rampage.

    There are two problems with the internet. There are a lot of idiots who post ridiculous messages on forums just to get attention, and there are people who feel the need to belittle others to make themselves feel good.

    So it was hard to tell that this was a credible threat or not. And if Freund was planning on sitting out on his porch with a shotgun, then again it goes to show that the attack was premeditated.

    However, the questions still remain why did he target the Smiths, and where did he obtain the shotgun?

    The article seems to almost excuse Freund’s killing spree because of the harassment he received combined with his disorder. Asperger’s does not limit your ability to determine what is right and wrong. Freund must have had some other issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if they dug a little deeper and found that he was researching school shootings or other killing sprees.

  • Something Awful about William Freund

    One of my readers left a comment yesterday letting me know that someone who is believed to be William Freund posted the following message on the Something Awful Forums

    I have a problem. I live in orange county and am trying to buy hevi-shot buckshot, or just winchester if they dont have it. Im 19 Year old And Every shop I go to That has it (grants guns, Saddleback gun store,Yeti gunsmith) Claims its a waste of money and birdshot is better for personal defence.They always ask me why I want to buy hevi shot for my remington 870 home defense,Like im buying some Armour piercing bullets or something.

    Shesh!

    Is there something against buckshot in the shotgun world, To me bird shot is like less than lethal, you use it if you want your attacked to run around after you shot him, If i have people like last halloween, Bringing out a rifle and shotting my garage and my dads leg (broke the bone and everything) I dont think birdshot will cut it.

    Basically IM asking

    1. Is birdshot ok for defence

    2. Any orange county shop that you know doesnt give you a mouth if you try to buy hevi shot buckshot.

    3.Why is buckshot like the new ak-47 barrel, its taboo.

    Im currently at work atm, And dont think I could get my dad to show his legs on the internet…So no pics,sorry.

    If William Freund, in fact, posted this, it goes to show that the attack was premeditated and not something brought on by his mental illness.

    I’m still curious as to why he picked the Smith’s as his victims. Was it random, or was there some sort of connection?

    TOF to reader Hugo.