Just when you thought you had heard it all: (fwd)

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This is *way* bizarre...

Forwarded message:
Date:         Fri, 27 Oct 1995 17:42:17 PDT
Reply-To: Conservative Christian Discussion List <CONCHR-L@VM.TEMPLE.EDU>
From: "LCDR Dale M. Courtney" <dmcourtn@NPS.NAVY.MIL>
Subject:      Just when you thought you had heard it all:

Just when you thought that you'd heard it all -- comes this:


>On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald
>Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
>The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building
>intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his
>despondency).  As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was
>interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him
>instantly.  Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a
>safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect
>some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to
>complete his suicide anyway because of this.
>
>Ordinarily, Dr. Mills continued, a person who sets out to commit
>suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not
>be what he intended.  That Opus was shot on the way to certain
>death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode
>of death from suicide to homicide.  But the fact that his suicidal
>intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner
>to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.  The room on the
>ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by and
>elderly man and his wife.  They were arguing and he was
>threatening her with the shotgun.  He was so upset that, when he
>pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and pellets went
>through the window striking Opus.  When one intends to kill
>subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the
>murder of subject B.
>
>When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were
>both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded.  The
>old man said it was his long standing habit to threaten his wife
>with the unloaded shotgun.  He had no intention to murder her -
>therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident.  That
>is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
>
>The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
>couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to
>the fatal incident.  It transpired that the old lady had cut off
>her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of
>his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with
>the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.  The case
>now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of
>Ronald Opus.
>
>There was an exquisite twist.  Further investigation revealed that
>the son, one Ronald Opus, had become increasingly despondent over
>the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder.  This
>led him to jump off the ten- story building on March 23, only to
>be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window.
>
>The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.