wow

i had nearly broken my leg this morning after the ice storm last night. also after a decade or more i fell (albeit on some grass). my muscle spasms were severe after the near fall. the worst of it my pants were messed up. i'm going to take some flexeral.

ironic

it's ironic a sort of friend of mine was in my church this morning. the reason i find it ironic is because i joked that i'd share the gospel of Jesus Christ with her daughter

testimony my confirmation day

if i'd spoken in church the day i got confirmed it would've been this.... "PFFFFTTTTTT" as i HATED being the center of attention.

normal

i'm so glad i was able to act normally or as friends put it "chatty." i was worried i'd have to act 1 way due to my mom being there but i was able to act normal.

audition

when i was a senior in high school i auditioned for a school production. it was awesome and spontaneous. i liked it as i got to do something on my high school bucket list.

Death of Edgar Allan Poe

The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious: the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. On October 3, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him, Joseph W. Walker. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died at 5 a.m. on Sunday, October 7. Poe was never coherent enough to explain how he came to be in this condition. Much of the extant information about the last few days of Poe's life comes from his attending physician, Dr. John Joseph Moran, though his credibility is questionable. Poe was buried after a small funeral at the back of Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, but his remains were moved to a new grave with a larger monument in 1875. The newer monument also marks the burial place of Poe's wife, Virginia, and his mother-in-law, Maria. Theories as to what caused Poe's death include suicide, murder, cholera, hypoglycemia, rabies, syphilis, influenza, and that Poe was a victim of cooping. Evidence of the influence of alcohol is strongly disputed. After Poe's death, Rufus Wilmot Griswold wrote his obituary under the pseudonym "Ludwig". Griswold, who became the literary executor of Poe's estate, was actually a rival of Poe and later published his first full biography, depicting him as a depraved, drunk, drug-addled madman. Much of the evidence for this image of Poe is believed to have been forged by Griswold, and though friends of Poe denounced it, this interpretation had lasting impact. Chronology: On September 27, 1849, Poe left Richmond, Virginia, on his way home to New York. No reliable evidence exists about Poe's whereabouts until a week later on October 3, when he was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, outside Ryan's Tavern (sometimes referred to as Gunner's Hall). A printer named Joseph W. Walker sent a letter requesting help from an acquaintance of Poe, Dr. Joseph E. Snodgrass. His letter reads as follows: Dear Sir—There is a gentleman, rather the worse for wear, at Ryan's 4th ward polls, who goes under the cognomen of Edgar A. Poe, and who appears in great distress, & he says he is acquainted with you, and I assure you, he is in need of immediate assistance. Yours, in haste, Jos. W. Walker. Snodgrass later claimed the note said that Poe was "in a state of beastly intoxication", but the original letter proves otherwise. Snodgrass's first-hand account describes Poe's appearance as "repulsive", with unkempt hair, a haggard, unwashed face and "lusterless and vacant" eyes. His clothing, Snodgrass said, which included a dirty shirt but no vest and unpolished shoes, was worn and did not fit well. Dr. John Joseph Moran, who was Poe's attending physician, gives his own detailed account of Poe's appearance that day: "a stained faded, old bombazine coat, pantaloons of a similar character, a pair of worn-out shoes run down at the heels, and an old straw hat". Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in this condition, and it is believed the clothes he was wearing were not his own, not least because wearing shabby clothes was out of character for Poe. Moran cared for Poe at the for-profit Washington College Hospital on Broadway and Fayette Street. He was denied any visitors and was confined in a prison-like room with barred windows in a section of the building reserved for drunk people. Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though no one has ever been able to identify the person to whom he referred. One possibility is that he was recalling an encounter with Jeremiah N. Reynolds, a newspaper editor and explorer who may have inspired the novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Another possibility is Henry R. Reynolds, one of the judges overseeing the Fourth Ward Polls at Ryan's Tavern, who may have met Poe on Election Day. Poe may have instead been calling for "Herring", as the author had an uncle-in-law in Baltimore named Henry Herring. In later testimonies Moran avoided reference to Reynolds but mentioned a visit by a "Misses Herring". He also claimed he attempted to cheer up Poe during one of the few times Poe was awake. When Moran told his patient that he would soon be enjoying the company of friends, Poe allegedly replied that "the best thing his friend could do would be to blow out his brains with a pistol". In Poe's distressed state, he made reference to a wife in Richmond. He may have been delusional, thinking that his wife, Virginia, was still alive, or he may have been referring to Sarah Elmira Royster, to whom he had recently proposed. He did not know what had happened to his trunk of belongings which, it transpired, had been left behind at the Swan Tavern in Richmond. Moran reported that Poe's final words were "Lord, help my poor soul" before dying on October 7, 1849. Credibility of Moran: Because Poe did not have visitors, Moran was probably the only person to see the author in his last days. Even so, Moran's credibility has been questioned repeatedly, if not considered altogether untrustworthy. Throughout the years after Poe's death, his story changed as he wrote and lectured on the topic. He claimed (in 1875 and again in 1885, for example) that he had immediately contacted Poe's aunt (and mother-in-law), Maria Clemm, to let her know about Poe's death; in fact, he wrote to her only after she had requested it on November 9, almost a full month after the event. He also claimed that Poe had said, quite poetically, as he prepared to draw his last breath: "The arched heavens encompass me, and God has his decree legibly written upon the frontlets of every created human being, and demons incarnate, their goal will be the seething waves of blank despair." The editor of the New York Herald, which published this version of Moran's story, admitted, "We cannot imagine Poe, even if delirious, constructing such sentences." Poe biographer William Bittner attributes Moran's claim to a convention of assigning pious last words to console mourners. Moran's accounts even altered dates. At different points, he claimed Poe was brought to the hospital on October 3 at 5 p.m., on October 6 at 9 a.m., or on October 7 (the day he died) at "10 o'clock in the afternoon". For each published account, he claimed to have the hospital records as reference. A search for hospital records a century later, specifically an official death certificate, found nothing. Some critics claim Moran's inconsistencies and errors were due only to a lapse of memory, an innocent desire to romanticize, or even to senility. At the time he wrote and published his last account in 1885, Moran was 65. Cause of death: All medical records and documents, including Poe's death certificate, have been lost, if they ever existed. The precise cause of Poe's death is disputed, but many theories exist. Many biographers have addressed the issue and reached different conclusions, ranging from Jeffrey Meyers' assertion that it was hypoglycemia to John Evangelist Walsh's conspiratorial murder plot theory. It has also been suggested that Poe's death might have resulted from suicide related to depression. In 1848, he nearly died from an overdose of laudanum, readily available as a tranquilizer and pain killer. Though it is unclear if this was a true suicide attempt or just a miscalculation on Poe's part, it did not lead to Poe's death a year later. Snodgrass was convinced that Poe died from alcoholism and did a great deal to popularize this idea. He was a supporter of the temperance movement and found Poe a useful example in his temperance work. However, Snodgrass's writings on the topic have been proven untrustworthy. Moran contradicted Snodgrass by stating in his own 1885 account that Poe did not die under the effect of any intoxicant. Moran claimed that Poe "had not the slightest odor of liquor upon his breath or person". Even so, some newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of the brain" or "cerebral inflammation", euphemisms for deaths from disgraceful causes such as alcoholism. In a study of Poe, a psychologist suggested that Poe had dipsomania. Poe's characterization as an uncontrollable alcoholic is disputed. His drinking companion for a time, Thomas Mayne Reid, admitted that the two engaged in wild "frolics" but that Poe "never went beyond the innocent mirth in which we all indulge... While acknowledging this as one of Poe's failings, I can speak truly of its not being habitual". Some believe Poe had a severe susceptibility to alcohol and became drunk after one glass of wine. He only drank during difficult periods of his life and sometimes went several months at a time without alcohol. Adding further confusion about the frequency of Poe's use of alcohol was his membership in the Sons of Temperance at the time of his death. William Glenn, who administered Poe's pledge, wrote years later that the temperance community had no reason to believe Poe had violated his pledge while in Richmond. Suggestions of a drug overdose have also been proven to be untrue, though it is still often reported. Thomas Dunn English, an admitted enemy of Poe and a trained doctor, insisted that Poe was not a drug user. He wrote: "Had Poe the opium habit when I knew him (before 1846) I should both as a physician and a man of observation, have discovered it during his frequent visits to my rooms, my visits at his house, and our meetings elsewhere – I saw no signs of it and believe the charge to be a baseless slander." Numerous other causes of death have been proposed over the years, including several forms of rare brain disease or a brain tumor, diabetes, various types of enzyme deficiency, syphilis, apoplexy, delirium tremens, epilepsy and meningeal inflammation. A doctor named John W. Francis examined Poe in May 1848 and believed Poe had heart disease, which Poe later denied. A 2006 test of a sample of Poe's hair provides evidence against the possibility of lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, and similar toxic heavy-metal exposures. Cholera has also been suggested. Poe had passed through Philadelphia in early 1849 during a cholera epidemic. He got sick during his time in the city and wrote a letter to his aunt, Maria Clemm, saying that he may "have had the cholera, or spasms quite as bad". Because Poe was found on the day of an election, it was suggested as early as 1872 that he was the victim of cooping. This was a ballot-box-stuffing scam in which victims were shanghaied, drugged, and used as a pawn to vote for a political party at multiple locations. Cooping had become the standard explanation for Poe's death in most of his biographies for several decades, though his status in Baltimore may have made him too recognizable for this scam to have worked. More recently, analysis suggesting that Poe's death resulted from rabies has been presented. Funeral: Poe's funeral was a simple one, held at 4 p.m. on Monday, October 8, 1849. Few people attended the ceremony. Poe's uncle, Henry Herring, provided a simple mahogany coffin, and a cousin, Neilson Poe, supplied the hearse. Moran's wife made his shroud. The funeral was presided over by the Reverend W. T. D. Clemm, cousin of Poe's wife, Virginia. Also in attendance were Dr. Snodgrass, Baltimore lawyer and former University of Virginia classmate Zaccheus Collins Lee, Poe's first cousin Elizabeth Herring and her husband, and former schoolmaster Joseph Clarke. The entire ceremony lasted only three minutes in the cold, damp weather. Reverend Clemm decided not to bother with a sermon because the crowd was too small. Sexton George W. Spence wrote of the weather: "It was a dark and gloomy day, not raining but just kind of raw and threatening." Poe was buried in a cheap coffin that lacked handles, a nameplate, cloth lining, or a cushion for his head. On October 10, 2009, Poe received a second funeral in Baltimore. Actors portrayed Poe's contemporaries and other long-dead writers and artists. Each paid their respects and read eulogies adapted from their writings about Poe. The funeral included a replica of Poe's casket and wax cadaver. Burial and reburial: Poe is buried on the grounds of Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, now part of the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore. Even after his death, he created controversy and mystery. Poe was originally buried without a headstone towards the rear corner of the churchyard near his grandfather, David Poe, Sr. A headstone of white Italian marble, paid for by Poe's cousin Neilson Poe, was destroyed before it reached the grave when a train derailed and plowed through the monument yard where it was being kept. Instead, it was marked with a sand-stone block that read "No. 80". In 1873, Southern poet Paul Hamilton Hayne visited Poe's grave and published a newspaper article describing its poor condition and suggesting a more appropriate monument. Sara Sigourney Rice, a teacher in Baltimore's public schools, took advantage of renewed interest in Poe's grave site and personally solicited for funds. She even had some of her elocution students give public performances to raise money. Many in Baltimore and throughout the United States contributed; the final $650 came from Philadelphia publisher and philanthropist George William Childs. The new monument was designed by architect George A. Frederick and built by Colonel Hugh Sisson, and included a medallion of Poe by artist Adalbert Volck. All three men were from Baltimore. The total cost of the monument, with the medallion, amounted to slightly more than $1,500. ($31,600 in 2014 dollars) Poe was reburied on October 1, 1875, at a new location close to the front of the church. A celebration was held at the dedication of the new tomb on November 17. His original burial spot was marked with a large stone donated by Orin C. Painter, though it was originally placed in the wrong spot. Attendees included Neilson Poe, who gave a speech and called his cousin "one of the best hearted men that ever lived", as well as Nathan C. Brooks, John Snodgrass, and John Hill Hewitt. Though several leading poets were invited to the ceremony, Walt Whitman was the only one to attend. Alfred Tennyson contributed a poem which was read at the ceremony: Fate that once denied him, And envy that once decried him, And malice that belied him, Now cenotaph his fame. Probably unknown to the reburial crew, the headstones on all the graves, previously facing to the east, had been turned to face the West Gate in 1864. The crew digging up Poe's remains had difficulty finding the right body: they first exhumed a 19-year-old Maryland militiaman, Philip Mosher, Jr. When they correctly located Poe, they opened his coffin and one witness noted: "The skull was in excellent condition—the shape of the forehead, one of Poe's striking features, was easily discerned." A few years later, the remains of Poe's wife, Virginia, were moved to this spot as well. In 1875, the cemetery in which she lay was destroyed, and she had no kin to claim her remains. William Gill, an early Poe biographer, gathered her bones and stored them in a box he hid under his bed. Virginia's remains were finally buried with her husband's on January 19, 1885, the 76th anniversary of her husband's birth and nearly 10 years after his present monument was erected. George W. Spence, the man who served as sexton during Poe's original burial as well as his exhumation and reburial, attended the rites that brought his body to rest with Virginia and Virginia's mother, Maria Clemm. Posthumous character assassination: On October 9, the day of Poe's burial, an obituary appeared in the "New York Tribune". Signed only "Ludwig", the obituary floridly alternated between praising the dead author's abilities and eloquence and damning his temperament and ambition. "Ludwig" said that "literary art lost one of its most brilliant, but erratic stars" but also claimed Poe was known for walking the streets in delirium, muttering to himself and claimed Poe was excessively arrogant, that he assumed all men were villains, and that he was quick to anger. "Ludwig" was later revealed to be Rufus Wilmot Griswold, a former colleague and acquaintance of Poe. Even while Poe was still alive, Griswold had engaged in character assassination. Much of his characterization in the obituary was lifted almost verbatim from that of the fictitious Francis Vivian in The Caxtons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The Ludwig obituary quickly became the standard characterization of Poe. Griswold also claimed that Poe had asked him to be his literary executor. Griswold had served as an agent for several American authors, but it is unclear whether Poe appointed him to be the executor or whether Griswold became executor through a trick or a mistake by Poe's aunt and mother-in-law, Maria. In 1850 he presented, in collaboration with James Russell Lowell and Nathaniel Parker Willis, a collection of Poe's work that included a biographical article titled "Memoir of the Author", in which Poe was depicted as a depraved, drunk, drug-addled madman. Many parts of it were believed to have been fabricated by Griswold, and it was denounced by those who had known Poe, including Sarah Helen Whitman, Charles Frederick Briggs, and George Rex Graham. This account became popularly accepted, in part because it was the only full biography available and was widely reprinted. It also remained popular because many readers assumed that Poe was similar to his fictional characters or were thrilled at the thought of reading the works of an "evil" man. A more accurate biography of Poe did not appear until John Henry Ingram's of 1875. Even so, historians continued to use Griswold's depiction as a model for their own biographies of Poe, including W. H. Davenport in 1880, Thomas R. Slicer in 1909, and Augustus Hopkins Strong in 1916. Many used Poe as a cautionary tale against alcohol and drugs. In 1941, Arthur Hobson Quinn presented evidence that Griswold had forged and re-written a number of Poe's letters that were included in his "Memoir of the Author". By then, Griswold's depiction of Poe was entrenched in the mind of the public, not only in America but around the world, and this distorted image of Poe has become part of the Poe legend despite attempts to dispel it.

crazy hair

my hair is long and thick. it's hard to manage but i love it and how to do it

crazy

man did i have 1 hell of a childhood. from being thought of as a "missing child" to my epilepsy. least it was fun

odd

i saw a kid in a suit this morning in the bus station. he saw me going off to school in a Letterman jacket. we both looked odd and out of place but he's cute.

B.S.

my oldest younger brother said if the brother who is hoping for a job at the place his older brother (the 2nd boy in my family and 3rd kid in my family) works that if he (the younger brother) isn't going for a server job than it's not worth the job. that is what i call bull shit. i don't mean my brother should aspire to a server as that brother has severe speech issues (i had them as well but i grew out of mine). besides building a resume is hard and staring somewhere isn't easy.

Kidnapping of Carlina White

Carlina Renae White, also known as Nejdra "Netty" Nance, is an American woman who solved her own kidnapping case and was reunited with her biological parents 23 years after being abducted as an infant from the Harlem Hospital Center in New York City. The case represents the longest known gap in a non-parental abduction where the victim was reunited with the family in the United States. For years, Carlina was living with a woman she thought was her mother, who was in fact her kidnapper. She is portrayed by Keke Palmer in the Lifetime film, Abducted: The Carlina White Story. Abduction: Carlina was 19 days old when her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, took her to the hospital with a fever of 104 °F (40.0 °C) on August 4, 1987. She had swallowed fluid during her delivery and had an infection. A woman reportedly dressed as a nurse had comforted the parents at the hospital, but was not a hospital employee. The woman had been seen around the hospital for three weeks prior to the abduction. The baby disappeared during the early morning, around 2 am when the shifts were changing. The hospital had video surveillance, but at the time it was not working. There was no way of knowing what the woman in white looked like except for the description given by Joy White and Carl Tyson. The baby had been receiving intravenous antibiotics when, between 2:30 am and 3:55 am, someone removed the IV line and abducted her. A guard said a woman matching the suspect's description left the hospital at 3:30 am, and that no infant was visible, although the baby could have been concealed in the heavyset woman's smock. The case was the first known infant abduction from a New York hospital. A $10,000 reward was offered by the city of New York in 1987 for the return of Carlina. Flyers with the baby's picture were distributed nationwide, with no success in locating her. Her parents filed a $100 million suit against the hospital in 1989, and obtained a $750,000 settlement in 1993. Carlina's parents separated the year after the abduction and remarried. Life as Nejdra Nance: Carlina Renae White was raised as Nejdra "Netty" Nance by Annugetta "Ann" Pettway in Bridgeport, Connecticut, just 45 miles from where her parents had lived. White attended Thomas Hooker School and graduated from Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport. Pettway and White later moved to Atlanta, Georgia. White grew suspicious during her teens that Pettway was not her birth mother, because of her inability to provide a birth certificate. In 2005, when White was pregnant with her daughter, she requested Pettway to obtain her birth certificate so she could get health insurance. Pettway acquired a forged Connecticut birth certificate, which White attempted to use as proof of identity so she could obtain the health insurance, but the officials told her the document was forged. Later that evening, in a state of shock, White confronted Pettway, who broke down and confessed that she was not White's biological mother. The revelation was not entirely surprising to White as she had begun to notice that she did not share physical traits with Pettway. Pettway lied and told White that she had been abandoned by a drug addict. At age 23, White turned to sites such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, where she found that the images of the kidnapped Carlina resembled infant photos of herself as Nejdra and those of her daughter, Samani. She called the center's hotline and was able to contact her birth family. DNA profiling confirmed in January 2011 that she was in fact the missing Carlina White. Investigation and legal proceedings: In 1987, NYPD detectives questioned a woman in Baltimore, who witnesses had identified as having been seen in the hospital, without apparent result. After the confirmation that Nejdra Nance was really Carlina White, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a search for Ann Pettway. The statute of limitations for the state kidnapping law had expired in New York, but there is no statute of limitations for the federal law on kidnapping. An arrest warrant for Ann Pettway was issued by the North Carolina Department of Correction on January 21, 2011, for violating her probation from a conviction for attempted embezzlement. White stated, "I just hope that the officials be able to get her in their hands, so we can just hear her side of the story now." Pettway turned herself in to the FBI office at Bridgeport on the morning of January 23, 2011. She had driven from North Carolina to Connecticut to arrange for her biological son to be taken care of. Pettway told federal investigators that she kidnapped White after enduring several miscarriages because of the stress over whether "she would ever be able to be a parent." Pettway did not enter a plea at her arraignment at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan, where she faced between 20 years and life in prison for kidnapping. On February 17, 2011, a federal grand jury indicted Pettway on the kidnapping charge. On February 10, 2012, Pettway pleaded guilty to a federal kidnapping charge. As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors agreed to recommend to the judge a prison sentence of 10 to 12½ years, though the judge would make the ultimate decision on the length of the prison term. On July 30, 2012, Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Pettway, who was then 50 years old, to 12 years in prison. Aftermath: Upon being reunited with her biological parents, Carlina White's attorney advised her to ask them about the cash settlement from the hospital. Joy White and Carl Tyson both confirmed that most of this money had been spent during the years before their reunion, and that a trust fund that had been established was only obtainable if Carlina had been found before the age of 21. Joy White later stated that there had been a falling out over the issue of the money. In May 2011, public defender Robert Baum said that he met Carlina White during preparations for Ann Pettway's trial and that White agreed to testify on Pettway's behalf. By the following July, White became estranged from her biological parents. However, several months later, she contacted both of her biological parents individually, having had a bit more time to process the situation; she would later state publicly that the issue over settlement funds was "just a misunderstanding." While "Carlina White" is now her legal name, as it appears on official documents, she says that she will go by "Netty" in public, since technically, it was neither the name her biological parents gave her, nor the name given to her by the woman who raised her, but rather is "the name I gave myself."

dress

my latest dress for church is black velvet, has the kind of sleeves that's cuffs are open and is only to the knee in length.

glad

man am i glad i had help with my clothes after my baptism. my mom ran in after i got dunked. i'm happy as my jumpsuit was soggy and tight against my skin.

vegetarianism

i'm a vegetarian today. it's nice. i'm a healthy person. unfortunately it's making me go pee more

Murder of Riley Fox

Riley Fox was a three-year-old American girl who was reported missing in Wilmington, Illinois. Later that same day the girl was found dead in Forsythe Woods County Forest Preserve, a public park that was just a few miles from the family's residence. The girl was found in the park, face down in a creek. She had been bound, gagged, and sexually assaulted and then drowned. Fox's father was initially the prime suspect, but Scott Eby, a returning citizen who was on parole for previous crimes, was ultimately convicted for Fox's rape and murder. Disappearance: The night of the disappearance, Kevin, Riley's father, had picked up his kids from their grandmother's house around 1 am. Too tired to carry his children up to bed, he laid Riley down on the couch and Tyler, Riley's older brother, down on the living room chair. He then went to his room, watched TV and went to bed around 2:30, according to his statements to police. The next morning, Kevin Fox was awakened by Tyler, who informed him that Riley was gone, Kevin searched the entire house for Riley. He noticed that the front door and screen door were open. Kevin went next door to a friend of Riley's to see if they had seen the little girl. When the neighbors had not seen Riley, he then called the police. The Case- Kevin Fox: Kevin Fox, the girl's father, was initially charged in the young girl's murder, based almost solely on a videotaped confession that he had killed Riley. He spent eight months in prison before he was cleared of all charges due to DNA evidence that did not match his and the confession was ruled out based on coercion. Fox's attorney Kathleen Zellner was responsible for discovering that DNA evidence existed and getting the State to test it. The killer left a pair of mud-covered shoes at Forsythe Woods County Forest Preserve, which were collected by police. But the police never followed up on this piece of evidence. The shoes had the name Eby written on the inside, the last name of the actual culprit. They overlooked many other important case facts as well. The same night as Riley's abduction, another house on the same block was burglarized. The Fox family later sued the Will County detectives. Kathleen Zellner, the Foxes' attorney, won a $15.5 million jury verdict in a federal civil rights lawsuit. The verdict was later reduced to $8.5 million, which is still the highest verdict in the U.S. for 8 months of incarceration. Scott Eby: Scott Eby was later charged on five counts of first-degree murder and one count of predatory sexual assault after DNA evidence linked him to Riley. By the time the police caught up with Eby to charge him in connection with Riley's murder, he was serving two consecutive seven-year sentences. Eby later confessed to killing Riley after first breaking into another home on the same block as the Foxes'. Eby said he cut through the back screen door of the home and then pushed the door in. He found Riley lying on the couch and decided to kidnap her when he saw that her father was asleep. He said that he put Riley into his car and drove her to the park where he assaulted her on the floor of a restroom in the park. Then he killed her by drowning her in a nearby creek within the park. He subsequently pleaded guilty to Riley's murder and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Scott Eby was on parole and lived only about a mile from the Foxes' home at the time of Riley's murder.

rain

man is it rainy today. i'm glad i'm indoors all day. i'll be fine getting home.

MMR vaccine controversy

The MMR vaccine controversy started with the 1998 publication of a fraudulent research paper in the medical journal The Lancet that lent support to the later discredited claim that colitis and autism spectrum disorders are linked to the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Aspects of the media coverage were criticized for naïve reporting and lending undue credibility to the architect of the fraud, Andrew Wakefield. Investigations by Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer reported that Andrew Wakefield, the author of the original research paper, had multiple undeclared conflicts of interest, had manipulated evidence, and had broken other ethical codes. The Lancet paper was partially retracted in 2004, and fully retracted in 2010, when The Lancet's editor-in-chief Richard Horton described it as "utterly false" and said that the journal had been "deceived." Wakefield was found guilty by the General Medical Council of serious professional misconduct in May 2010 and was struck off the Medical Register, meaning he could no longer practice as a doctor in the UK. In 2011, Deer provided further information on Wakefield's improper research practices to the British medical journal, BMJ, which in a signed editorial described the original paper as fraudulent. The scientific consensus is the MMR vaccine has no link to the development of autism, and that this vaccine's benefits greatly outweigh its risks. Following the initial claims in 1998, multiple large epidemiological studies were undertaken. Reviews of the evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences, the UK National Health Service, and the Cochrane Library all found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. While the Cochrane review expressed a need for improved design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, it concluded that the evidence of the safety and effectiveness of MMR in the prevention of diseases that still carry a heavy burden of morbidity and mortality justified its global use, and that the lack of confidence in the vaccine had damaged public health. A special court convened in the United States to review claims under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program rejected compensation claims from parents of autistic children. The claims in Wakefield's 1998 The Lancet article were widely reported; vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland dropped sharply, which was followed by significantly increased incidence of measles and mumps, resulting in deaths and severe and permanent injuries. Physicians, medical journals, and editors have described Wakefield's actions as fraudulent and tied them to epidemics and deaths, and a 2011 journal article described the vaccine–autism connection as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". UK: Commenced before the Civil Procedure Rules were promulgated, the MMR Litigation had its status as group litigation achieved by the then Lord Chief Justice's practice direction of 8 July 1999. On 8 June 2007, the High Court judge, Justice Keith, put an end to the group litigation because the withdrawal of legal aid by the legal services commission had made the pursuit of most of the claimants impossible. He ruled that all but two claims against pharmaceutical companies must be discontinued. The judge stressed that his ruling did not amount to a rejection of any of the claims that MMR had seriously damaged the children concerned. A pressure group called JABS (Justice, Awareness, Basic Support) was established to represent families with children who, their parents said, were "vaccine-damaged". £15 million in public legal aid funding was spent on the litigation, of which £9.7 million went to solicitors and barristers, and £4.3 million to expert witnesses. Several British cases where parents claimed that their children had died as a result of Urabe MMR had received compensation under the "vaccine damage payment" scheme. United States: The omnibus autism proceeding (OAP) is a coordinated proceeding before the Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims—commonly called the vaccine court. It is structured to facilitate the handling of nearly 5000 vaccine petitions involving claims that children who have received certain vaccinations have developed autism. The Petitioners' Steering Committee have claimed that MMR vaccines can cause autism, possibly in combination with thiomersal-containing vaccines. In 2007 three test cases were presented to test the claims about the combination; these cases failed. The vaccine court ruled against the plaintiffs in all three cases, stating that the evidence presented did not validate their claims that vaccinations caused autism in these specific patients or in general. In some cases, the plaintiffs' attorneys opted out of the Omnibus Autism Proceedings, which were concerned solely with autism, and issues concerned with bowel disorders; they argued their cases in the regular vaccine court. On 30 July 2007, the family of Bailey Banks, a child with pervasive developmental delay, won its case versus the Department of Health and Human Services. In a case listed as relating to 'non-autistic developmental delay', Special Master Richard B. Abell ruled that the Banks had successfully demonstrated that "the MMR vaccine at issue actually caused the conditions from which Bailey suffered and continues to suffer." In his conclusion, he ruled that he was satisfied that MMR had caused a brain inflammation called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). He reached this conclusion because of two vaccine cases in 1994 and 2001, which had concluded that "ADEM can be caused by natural measles, mumps, and rubella infections, as well as by measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines." In other cases, attorneys did not claim that vaccines caused autism; they sought compensation for encephalopathy, encephalitis, or seizure disorders. Research: The number of reported cases of autism increased dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000s. This increase is largely attributable to changes in diagnostic practices; it is not known how much, if any, growth came from real changes in autism's prevalence, and no causal connection to the MMR vaccine has been demonstrated. In 2004, a meta review financed by the European Union assessed the evidence given in 120 other studies and considered unintended effects of the MMR vaccine, concluding that although the vaccine is associated with positive and negative side effects, a connection between MMR and autism was "unlikely". Also in 2004, a review article was published which concluded that "The evidence now is convincing that the measles–mumps–rubella vaccine does not cause autism or any particular subtypes of autistic spectrum disorder." A 2006 review of the literature regarding vaccines and autism found that "the bulk of the evidence suggests no causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism." A 2007 case study used the figure in Wakefield's 1999 letter to The Lancet alleging a temporal association between MMR vaccination and autism to illustrate how a graph can misrepresent its data, and gave advice to authors and publishers to avoid similar misrepresentations in the future. A 2007 review of independent studies performed after the publication of Wakefield et al.'s original report found that the studies provided compelling evidence against the hypothesis that MMR is associated with autism. A review of the work conducted in 2004 for UK court proceedings but not revealed until 2007 found that the polymerase chain reaction analysis essential to the Wakefield et al. results was fatally flawed due to contamination, and that it could not have possibly detected the measles that it was supposed to have detected. A 2009 review of studies on links between vaccines and autism discussed the MMR vaccine controversy as one of three main hypotheses which epidemiological and biological studies failed to support. In 2012, the Cochrane Library published a review of dozens of scientific studies involving about 14,700,000 children, which found no credible evidence of an involvement of MMR with either autism or Crohn's disease. The authors stated that "the design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate". A June 2014 meta-analysis involving more than 1.25 million children found that "vaccinations are not associated with the development of autism or autism spectrum disorder. Furthermore, the components of the vaccines (thimerosal or mercury) or multiple vaccines (MMR) are not associated with the development of autism or autism spectrum disorder." In July 2014, a systematic review found "strong evidence that MMR vaccine is not associated with autism". Disease outbreaks: After the controversy began, the MMR vaccination compliance dropped sharply in the United Kingdom, from 92% in 1996 to 84% in 2002. In some parts of London, it was as low as 61% in 2003, far below the rate needed to avoid an epidemic of measles. By 2006 coverage for MMR in the UK at 24 months was 85%, lower than the about 94% coverage for other vaccines. After vaccination rates dropped, the incidence of two of the three diseases increased greatly in the UK. In 1998 there were 56 confirmed cases of measles in the UK; in 2006 there were 449 in the first five months of the year, with the first death since 1992; cases occurred in inadequately vaccinated children. Mumps cases began rising in 1999 after years of very few cases, and by 2005 the United Kingdom was in a mumps epidemic with almost 5000 notifications in the first month of 2005 alone. The age group affected was too old to have received the routine MMR immunisations around the time the paper by Wakefield et al. was published, and too young to have contracted natural mumps as a child, and thus to achieve a herd immunity effect. With the decline in mumps that followed the introduction of the MMR vaccine, these individuals had not been exposed to the disease, but still had no immunity, either natural or vaccine induced. Therefore, as immunisation rates declined following the controversy and the disease re-emerged, they were susceptible to infection. Measles and mumps cases continued in 2006, at incidence rates 13 and 37 times greater than respective 1998 levels. Two children were severely and permanently injured by measles encephalitis despite undergoing kidney transplantation in London. Disease outbreaks also caused casualties in nearby countries. Three deaths and 1,500 cases were reported in the Irish outbreak of 2000, which occurred as a direct result of decreased vaccination rates following the MMR scare. In 2008, for the first time in 14 years, measles was declared endemic in the UK, meaning that the disease was sustained within the population; this was caused by the preceding decade's low MMR vaccination rates, which created a population of susceptible children who could spread the disease. MMR vaccination rates for English children were unchanged in 2007–08 from the year before, at too low a level to prevent serious measles outbreaks. In May 2008, a British 17-year-old with an underlying immunodeficiency died of measles. In 2008 Europe also faced a measles epidemic, including large outbreaks in Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. Following the January 2011 BMJ statements about Wakefield's fraud, Paul Offit, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a "long-time critic of the dangers of the anti-vaccine movement", said, "that paper killed children", and Michael Smith of the University of Louisville, an "infectious diseases expert who has studied the autism controversy's effect on immunization rates", said "clearly, the results of this (Wakefield) study have had repercussions." In 2014, Laurie Garrett, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, blamed "Wakefieldism" for an increase in the number of unvaccinated children in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, saying, "Our data suggests that where Wakefield's message has caught on, measles follows." Impact on society: The New England Journal of Medicine said that antivaccinationist activities resulted in a high cost to society, "including damage to individual and community well-being from outbreaks of previously controlled diseases, withdrawal of vaccine manufacturers from the market, compromising of national security (in the case of anthrax and smallpox vaccines), and lost productivity". Costs to society from declining vaccination rates (in US dollars) were estimated by AOL's Daily Finance in 2011: -A 2002–2003 outbreak of measles in Italy, "which led to the hospitalizations of more than 5,000 people, had a combined estimated cost between 17.6 million euros and 22.0 million euros". -A 2004 outbreak of measles from "an unvaccinated student returning from India in 2004 to Iowa was $142,452". -A 2006 outbreak of mumps in Chicago, "caused by poorly immunized employees, cost the institution $262,788, or $29,199 per mumps case." -A 2007 outbreak of mumps in Nova Scotia cost $3,511 per case. -A 2008 outbreak of measles in San Diego, California cost $177,000, or $10,376 per case. In the United States, Jenny McCarthy blamed vaccinations for her son Evan's disorders and leveraged her celebrity status to warn parents of a link between vaccines and autism. Evan's disorder began with seizures and his improvement occurred after the seizures were treated, symptoms experts have noted are more consistent with Landau–Kleffner syndrome, often misdiagnosed as autism. After the Lancet article was discredited, McCarthy continued to defend Wakefield. An article in Salon.com called McCarthy "a menace" for her continued position that vaccines are dangerous.

John F. Kennedy document hoax

In 1997, documents purported to prove an affair between President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, as well as other illicit relationships, were discovered to have been part of an elaborate hoax. Lawrence X. Cusack, known as Lex, had forged the documents under the guise that they had belonged to his father, an attorney who represented Monroe's mother Gladys Baker Eley as well as the Archdiocese of New York. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, then finishing work on his book The Dark Side of Camelot, vouched for the authenticity of the documents. The original manuscript of the book included many statements that were sourced by the documents. Before the scandal broke, there were plans for an ABC-backed TV special or film. Certain inconsistencies later raised doubts among ABC investigators. Inconsistencies in the documents included a typeface newer than the dates of the letters, and a ZIP code included before ZIP codes had been instituted. Led by Peter Jennings, ABC employees confronted Cusack with these issues on a live television broadcast. Soon after the telecast ended, Cusack was indicted on fraud charges and was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison. Later coverage: The story was featured on the February 11, 2011, episode of This American Life.

no church

i didn't go to church today as i'm tired, my family was tired and i was sore from the march yesterday

2016 Pike County, Ohio, shootings

On the night of April 21–22, 2016, eight people were shot and killed in four homes in Pike County, near Peebles, Ohio, 60 miles (97 km) from Columbus, and 90 miles (140 km) from Cincinnati. Their bodies were found later on April 22. Seven of the victims—six adults and a 16-year-old boy—were discovered to have been fatally shot execution-style in three adjacent houses, while the eighth victim—an adult—was found shot to death in a fourth house in nearby Piketon. Three young children, including two infants, were left alive during the killings. At least two shooters are believed to be responsible. All of the victims were members of the Rhoden family, and investigators believe the killings were premeditated and the perpetrators known to the family. On April 25, the Ohio Attorney General's office confirmed the presence of marijuana growth and cockfighting operations at some of the crime scenes, but did not confirm a direct connection to the killings. The ensuing investigation soon became the largest in Ohio's history. Details: The bodies were first discovered after Bobby Jo Manley, a sister of victim Dana Rhoden, came to feed pets at the homes. Police were first alerted to the bodies after receiving a 9-1-1 call about two bodies inside a home on Union Hill Road, at 7:51 a.m. EDT. Before the police arrived, Bobby Jo Manley discovered two more bodies in the second home on the property. Her brother, James Manley, went to check on their sister, Dana Rhoden, and discovered the third crime scene. The police found three victims when they arrived. At 1:26 p.m., a 9-1-1 call reported an eighth body, that of a male adult, at a fourth residence in the nearby village of Piketon. Three young children—ages 3, 6 months, and 4 days—were unharmed during the shootings, with the 4-day-old being found in bed with her mother's body. Seven adults and a 16-year-old were among those slain. The 4-day-old and the 6-month-old were placed under protective services, and the 3-year-old was put under the guardianship of his mother, who was not involved in the shootings. Victims- The eight victims were identified as: -Christopher Rhoden Jr. -Christopher Rhoden Sr. -Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden -Dana Lynn Rhoden -Gary Rhoden -Hanna May Rhoden -Hannah Hazel Gilley -Kenneth Rhoden The bodies of the victims were taken to the Hamilton County Coroner's Office in Cincinnati, where autopsies found that all but one of the victims were shot multiple times. Four of the victims were shot once, twice, or three times; one was shot four times; two were shot five times; and the eighth suffered a total of nine gunshot wounds. Death certificates released on May 28 clarified that six of the eight victims were shot in the head only; the other two, Christopher Rhoden Sr. and Dana Rhoden, were also shot in the head, but Christopher also suffered gunshot wounds to the torso and limbs, and Dana was also shot in the neck. Bruising was also found on some of the bodies, indicating the victims were beaten as well. Some of the victims were found shot in their beds. From the number of gunshot wounds on the victims' bodies, an estimated total of 32 shots were fired during the killings. The offices of the county coroner and the Ohio Attorney General announced that the full final autopsy reports will not be released to the public, citing security concerns. However, amidst lawsuits by media outlets, the coroner's office released heavily redacted versions of the final reports on September 23. On April 28, Gary Rhoden was the first of the victims to be buried, with his funeral proceedings being held in South Shore, Kentucky. Hannah Hazel Gilley was the next to be buried, on May 1 at Otway, Ohio. Funerals for the remaining victims took place on May 3 at West Portsmouth. A high amount of security was present during the May 3 funeral service. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine approved more than US$20,000 to help pay for the funerals. Investigation- Early stages: Police believe that more than one shooter may be responsible for the killings, since two of the crime scenes were within walking distance, a third located about a mile away, and the fourth about eight miles away. Investigators briefly considered the possibility of a murder-suicide, but it was discredited as none of the victims' deaths appeared to be suicides. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine stated that the killings were planned, premeditated, and "a sophisticated operation", citing the efforts taken by the shooter or shooters to cover up their tracks and remove any incriminating forensic evidence. All of the victims were identified as members of the Rhoden family. Surviving family members were urged by police to take precautions, and all residents of Peebles were advised to stay inside their homes the following night. An investigative task force of at least 100 members, led by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI), was assembled. More than 251 law enforcement officials were involved in the investigation overall, and sheriffs from 25 offices across Ohio offered to provide resources to Pike County. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration provided technical expertise to DeWine's office. At least five search warrants were executed, and more than 50 people were interviewed in connection with the killings, though no arrests were made so far. 79 pieces of evidence were examined, including a Facebook threat aimed at Christopher Rhoden Jr., which was posted before the shootings. Discovery of marijuana and cockfighting operations: On April 25, a spokesperson for DeWine's office also confirmed that marijuana was discovered at the three crime scenes on Union Hill Road, including an indoor grow house in which hundreds of marijuana plants were being grown, as well as chickens and equipment consistent with breeding chickens for cockfighting. An estimated total of 200 marijuana plants were recovered from the crime scenes and are believed to have been grown for sale and not for personal use. It is currently unknown if the marijuana was connected to the shootings, though investigators confirmed the possibility of the involvement of a Mexican drug cartel. Marijuana problems are a common occurrence in Pike County: in 2010, 22,000 marijuana plants were seized by authorities in Latham, 15 miles (24 km) west of Piketon; and a major marijuana growth site was discovered by police in August 2012, with about 1,200 marijuana plants being destroyed by investigators. In both cases, police suspected connections to Mexican drug cartels. On April 26, Dana Rhoden's father, Leonard Manley, stated that the victims knew their killer(s), citing the presence of Dana's two protective dogs. There was no indication that the dogs tried to attack anyone during the shootings, and there were no signs of forced entry at any of the crime scenes. Manley, who was not involved in the shootings, also said his daughter had no involvement in the exposed marijuana operations, saying that "they are trying to drag my daughter through the mud, and I don't appreciate that." Some family members have acknowledged Kenneth and Christopher Rhoden Sr. growing marijuana, but added that they were unaware of any high-volume growth occurring. Seizure of victims' properties: On May 3, following the funerals of the last six victims, authorities towed away at least three vehicles from property belonging to the Rhoden family; a spokeswoman for Mike DeWine said they were towed "as part of the investigation". Additional vehicles were towed the next day as well. They were all dropped off at the base of operations set up by the investigative task force. As of May 12, more than 500 tips were submitted during the investigation and 128 interviews were conducted. On May 12, DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader announced the state's intention to relocate the mobile homes where the killings occurred to a secure location, in order to preserve evidence and protect the mementos of the Rhoden family. Three of the homes were taken to a property in Waverly, where the investigative task force set up their command center, while the fourth will arrive at a later time due to complications in removing it. As of October 6, the homes were being stored in a warehouse that was once part of a chemical processing company. On November 24, dozens of family vehicles and farming equipment, which were seized and investigated earlier in May, were returned to the victims' relatives. August 2016–January 2017 developments: On August 4, during a court hearing relating to the custody of the 6-month-old and 4-day-old children left alive, Sheriff Charles Reader confirmed investigators' early suspicions that more than one shooter was involved in the killings. He also said that the two children remained in "grave danger" because of the investigation, and that the investigation was possibly the largest in the BCI's history in terms of manpower and resources. On August 13, KVIA-TV incorrectly reported that two men arrested in Hatch, New Mexico, for the shooting death of a police officer were also suspected in the Rhoden familicide. The men, in reality, were suspected of another shooting death in Londonderry, Ross County, Ohio. DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles S. Reader issued a statement saying that they were unaware of a link between the case and the New Mexico arrests, that there was no evidence confirming it, and that New Mexico authorities had not contacted them about a suspected connection. KVIA later retracted the error. On August 20, DeWine announced new information regarding the investigation. He confirmed family and community members' suspicions that the perpetrators were familiar with the victims, their homes, and the surrounding area. He also announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies had become involved with the investigation. In addition, DeWine speculated that residents in the area have more knowledge than what they are sharing to investigators. On August 23, officials in Kenton County, Kentucky, located about 100 miles (160 km) from Pike County, reported similarities between the Ohio shootings and a double homicide in Kenton County that occurred two weeks before. The victims, a well-known drug dealer and his girlfriend, were found fatally shot execution-style in their bed. The uncaught Kenton County killers, who were believed to be familiar with the victims' home, also left any children in the house unharmed. A total of 770 tips had been submitted to investigators as of September 23, according to court documents released on October 7. On September 28, WXIX-TV reported that the Rhoden family houses, all seized by the state as part of the investigation, were not being guarded properly. A news team had spent six weeks, starting from August 14 and ending in late September, watching the warehouse. Their surveillance reportedly turned up an absence of uniformed officers guarding the building, as well as a lack of security cameras and an unlocked, open main gate. DeWine responded to the claims, calling them "ludicrous" and asserting that the evidence was preserved and is not compromised. Reacting to the report, a former prosecutor from Hamilton County criticized the inadequate security measures and said, "Any evidence that they would pull out of that thing would be virtually useless." On October 1, DeWine said that investigators were getting leads in the case and that the state had enough physical evidence for prosecution. He also appealed to the public, explaining that there are people who know more about the shootings. On October 18, investigators officially ruled out the involvement of a Mexican drug cartel and believed the perpetrators were likely locals in the area. On November 14, Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader issued a statement urging people with knowledge of the killings to come forward. He followed up with a second statement threatening to arrest anyone who may be obstructing the investigation, including relatives, family friends, and neighbors. Reacting to the second statement, Dana Rhoden's father, Leonard Manley, said that he "held nothing back" during the investigation. Following his reelection to the position of sheriff, Reader reiterated this belief and added that people may be scared of providing information. On January 20, 2017, DeWine, on behalf of the Ohio Victims of Crime Compensation Program, denied a request by family member David Weisel to recover lost compensation related to the massacre. Media lawsuits against coroner's office: On July 22, the Cincinnati Enquirer filed a lawsuit against the Pike County Coroner's Office, asking for the full autopsy records of the victims. On August 12, a similar lawsuit was filed by The Columbus Dispatch. In both cases, DeWine called for mediation, which attracted criticism and accusations that it was a mere delay tactic. A lawyer representing both newspapers said there was no legal basis for law enforcement's withholding of information from the public. In a filing on September 6, DeWine responded to The Columbus Dispatch's lawsuit against the coroner's office, saying: Public release of information known only to law enforcement and the killer(s) directly threatens the success of the investigation. Among other consequences, releasing this type of information impedes investigators' ability to separate genuine leads from fake, which wastes resources; makes it difficult to analyze confessions, which are fact-checked against information known only by investigators; and devalues information provided by witnesses who come forward after public release. Reactions: Ohio Governor and 2016 U.S. presidential candidate John Kasich, who was briefed on the killings, described them as "tragic beyond comprehension". Cincinnati-area businessman Jeff Ruby offered a reward of US$25,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the shootings. On April 28, 2016, Ruby withdrew his reward, citing "recent complex criminal developments" in a post on Twitter. A proper reward of US$10,000 was later authorized on May 10, but announced by authorities ten weeks later on July 21 due to a "miscommunication and a misunderstanding" about public notification. On September 23, prompted by the lawsuits, the coroner's office released heavily redacted versions of the final reports.

wow

i was shocked at how nice everyone was to me when i started going to church. it was amazing. i'm also a little scary as i'm the 1 person who had many people at the baptism, wanting to faint after my confirmation and was happy person.

nervous

there were a couple times i wasn't nervous when people were excited or nervous. i don't know why. guess i was off in my own little world.

keep in touch

i promised several people i'd "keep in touch."

Bathtub hoax

The bathtub hoax was a famous hoax perpetrated by the American journalist H. L. Mencken involving the publication of a fictitious history of the bathtub. "A Neglected Anniversary": On December 28, 1917, an article titled "A Neglected Anniversary" by H. L. Mencken was published in the New York Evening Mail. It claimed that the bathtub had been introduced into the United States as recently as 1842, the first ones having been made of mahogany lined with lead. The article went on to describe how the introduction of the bathtub was initially greatly discussed and opposed until President Millard Fillmore had a bathtub installed in the White House in 1850, making the invention more broadly acceptable. The article was entirely false but was still being widely quoted as fact for years, even as recently as January 2008 when a Kia TV ad referenced the story with no mention of its fictional nature. In 1949 Mencken wrote: The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity ... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions.

Crystal Mangum

Crystal Gail Mangum is a woman from Durham, North Carolina, who is best known for making false allegations of rape against lacrosse players in the Duke lacrosse case. The fact that Mangum was an African-American woman working in the sex industry, while the accused were all white men, created extensive media interest and academic debate about race, class, gender and the politicization of the justice system. In February 2010, she was arrested on charges of attempted murder of her live-in partner, Milton Walker. She was eventually convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer. In November 2013, she was found guilty of second-degree murder after she repeatedly stabbed boyfriend Reginald Daye, who died ten days after she attacked him, and was sentenced to 14 to 18 years in prison. Early life: Mangum was born and grew up in Durham, North Carolina, the daughter of Travis Mangum, a truck driver, and his wife Mary. She was the youngest of three children. In 1996 she filed a police report alleging that three years earlier, when she was 14, she had been kidnapped by three assailants, driven to Creedmoor, North Carolina, and raped. One of those she accused was her boyfriend, who was 21 at the time. She subsequently backed away from the charges, a move relatives claimed was motivated by fear for her life. Mangum's father said he did not believe she was raped or injured, though her mother believed an incident could have occurred—but not in 1993. She thinks it is more likely to have happened when Crystal was 17 or 18 years old, shortly before she made the police report. Mangum's ex-husband, Kenneth Nathanial McNeill, believed the incident occurred as she said it did. After graduation from high school in 1996, she joined the US Navy. She trained to operate radios and navigation technology. While serving in the Navy, she married McNeill. Her marriage quickly broke down. She reported to police that her husband had threatened to kill her, but the charge was dismissed when she failed to appear in court. She served for less than two years in the Navy before being discharged after becoming pregnant by a fellow sailor, with whom she went on to have another child. By 2002 Mangum had returned to Durham and was working as an exotic dancer. In 2002, she was arrested on ten charges after stealing the taxicab of a customer to whom she had given a lap dance. This prompted a police pursuit at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, occasionally in the wrong lane. After being stopped, she nearly ran over a police officer, succeeding only in hitting his patrol vehicle. She was found to have a blood alcohol content of just over twice the legal limit. Ultimately, she pleaded guilty on four counts: assault on a government official, larceny, speeding to elude arrest, and driving while impaired, serving three weekends in jail, paying $4,200 in restitution and fees, and being given two years probation. In 2004 she gained an Associate's degree in Police Psychology from Durham Technical Community College, and subsequently enrolled full-time at North Carolina Central University to study the subject. Duke lacrosse case: In March 2006, she was hired as a stripper at a party organized by members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team. After arriving, intoxicated, with a fellow stripper at a house rented by three of the team captains, she became involved in an argument with the occupants of the house, and left. She then had an altercation with her fellow stripper that necessitated police assistance. At this point she made an allegation that she had been raped at the party. District Attorney Mike Nifong, up for reelection, pursued the case despite questions about the credibility of Mangum, and conspired to withhold exculpatory evidence that failed to demonstrate that Mangum had been raped by the Duke lacrosse players. It took almost a year for the state's attorney general's office to dismiss the charges and declare that the players were innocent of the charges laid against them by Nifong. In 2008, Mangum published a memoir, The Last Dance for Grace: the Crystal Mangum Story, written with Vincent Clark. The book gives her version of events. She continued to insist that she was assaulted at the party and says that the dropping of the case was politically motivated. The book also outlines her earlier life, reasserting her claim that she was raped at the age of 14. Arrests since lacrosse case: Just before midnight on February 17, 2010, Durham police were called to Mangum's residence by her nine-year-old daughter. When they arrived, they said they found Mangum and her live-in partner, Milton Walker, fighting. She reportedly set fire to some of his clothing in a bathtub in their presence. The building suffered heavy smoke damage. They arrested Mangum on charges of attempted murder, first-degree arson, assault and battery, identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting an officer, and misdemeanor child abuse. Mangum was ordered to remain in jail on $1 million bond. Her bond was lowered to $100,000 in May, and she was released from jail to live in a friend's house. She was required to wear an electronic monitoring device. On July 12, 2010, she was released from house arrest and required to move in with her mother. She was allowed to visit her three children but only under supervision of social services. Mangum was arrested again on August 25, 2010, and held on $150,000 bond for failure to comply with the restrictions on her child visitation order. On December 17, 2010, Mangum was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer. The jury deadlocked 9–3 for not guilty on the felony arson charge but was unable to reach a decision on it. After the verdict, Judge Abe Jones sentenced Mangum to 88 days in jail, which she had already served, and left the custody decision in the hands of social services. Durham Assistant District Attorney Mark McCullough announced on January 21, 2011, that he would not retry Mangum on arson charges. Second-degree murder conviction: Mangum was arrested on April 3, 2011, following accusations that she repeatedly stabbed and seriously injured a boyfriend, Reginald Daye. She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflicting serious bodily injury, a class C felony in North Carolina. Ten days later, Daye died in the hospital, and Mangum was indicted on a murder charge. Mangum was held in jail under a $300,000 secured bail bond, which was set prior to her boyfriend's death. On November 1, 2011, Mangum was deemed competent to stand trial for murder. On May 1, 2012, Mangum's attorney withdrew, citing the release by Mangum of confidential information regarding her case to her supporters. On February 20, 2013, Mangum was released on bail until trial. At the trial, Mangum argued that she stabbed Daye in self-defense, as she was being assaulted by him. The prosecution argued that the forensic evidence supported Daye's dying statement that he was attempting to get away from Mangum when he was stabbed. On November 22, 2013, she was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury of seven men and five women. Judge Paul Ridgeway sentenced her to serve a minimum of 14 years, 2 months and a maximum of 18 years in prison. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, she is projected to be released from prison on February 27, 2026. A version of the story of Daye's killing was featured in an episode of Wives with Knives, which aired December 12, 2012, during its first season on Investigation Discovery. Mangum appeared in the episode, having given a jailhouse interview to the show's producers in the summer of 2012. The interview focused mostly on the murder and not the Duke lacrosse case. Daye's murder was featured on an episode of Fatal Attraction, "Toxic Romance", which aired on TV ONE August 4, 2014 (Season 2 Episode 23).

Murder of Donna Jones

Donna Ellen Jones was a Canadian woman tortured to death by her husband, Mark Peter Hutt, in Ottawa, Canada, in 2009. The 33-year-old's body was found in the basement of her home at Barwell Avenue, badly scalded, beaten, with broken bones, and having been shot with air gun pellets. She died of septic shock from infection due to untreated burns. Hutt was convicted of murder in 2013. Early life: Jones was raised in a home where she was "belittled" by her father, who taught her that she ought to "honour your husband". She was self-conscious about her weight and appearance. She was a graduate of Carleton University and had a civil service job with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Her friends used terms such as "bubbly", "outgoing" and "an absolute sunshine" to describe Jones. Life with Mark Hutt: Jones met Hutt in the summer of 2005, when they were introduced by a mutual friend. She soon began to pull away from friends and family. Her previously outstanding performance at her job in the federal public service began to slip. Friends began to notice signs of domestic abuse, such as bruises on Jones' body, and overhearing phone conversations between Jones and Hutt where Hutt screamed abuse at her. He would frequently call her to check up on her when she was with friends. Before the couple's planned September 2007 wedding, friends planned a formal intervention, begging Jones to call it off, but when it didn't work, backed out of her wedding party. Two years later, Jones's weight had dropped from 162 pounds to 101 pounds. Hutt was emotionally and financially dependent on Jones. Hundreds of notes found in her home reveal Hutt’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde nature — in one calling Jones a “terrible wife,” in another insisting, “You are my angel.” Jones, previously frugal, was preparing to file for bankruptcy after she had indulged Hutt with his desires for a truck, an ATV, a snowmobile, a snowboard and other items. Several months before Jones's death, oozing burns on her arms appeared, seeming to have become infected, but Jones reportedly refused medical attention. Murder: Jones was found, dead, on a mattress made of couch pillows, in the basement of her house on December 6, 2009. Hutt admitted to dousing Jones with boiling water, but waited 11 days, after she was no longer breathing, to call 911. Though Hutt claimed Jones was alive and talking three hours before he called 911, forensic evidence indicated that she had died up to 12 hours before the call. Hutt claimed at first that Jones had fallen into a fire pit, then later that he had accidentally burned his wife 11 days earlier with a pot of boiling water and had tried to treat her at home after she refused to go to the hospital. About 40% of Jones's body had been burned. Although Jones spoke to a handful of people on the phone after the scalding, including her mother, she didn't tell anyone she was hurt nor call 911 herself. The Crown attorney argued Jones was protecting Hutt because of a “trauma bond”. Friends of Jones made a third-party complaint to police alleging Hutt’s abuse the day after Jones was scalded, but it was left uninvestigated until after her body was found. Trial: During the autopsy, 29 pellets from an air rifle were found lodged in Jones's skin. Forensic pathologist Christopher Milroy testified that the gun must have been fired from the short distance of a few feet for the pellets to have penetrated the skin. Some pellets were in Jones's body for quite some time and he said Jones showed signs of lead poisoning, although the level was not high enough to poison her. She was likely shot with at least two of those pellets after the scalding. She also had nine fractured ribs, a broken nose, two black eyes and many cuts, bruises and scrapes on her head, knees and legs. Milroy said these injuries were caused after Jones was burned on November 24, 2009. Jones's body had other injuries including seven calloused ribs, which suggested an earlier fracture likely caused by kicks, as well as two recent rib fractures, a broken left finger, fractured right wrist and an earlier forearm break known as a "nightstick fracture", caused by a blow to the arm raised in a defensive position. Joel Fish, medical director of the burn unit of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, testified as a burn expert. According to Fish, had Jones received proper medical treatment, she would have had a "virtually 100 per cent" chance of survival. Hutt's defence lawyer Lorne Goldstein did not contest that Hutt abused Jones, but pointed out that her many broken bones, bruises and cuts did not cause her death. Goldstein conceded that Hutt had tortured Jones "beyond comprehension". The defence presented no witnesses. Hutt pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of criminal negligence causing death. The Crown rejected his plea and argued he was guilty of first-degree murder. A jury took less than a day to deliberate and on June 7, 2013, found Hutt guilty of first-degree murder. Life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, the maximum penalty in Canada, is the automatic sentence.

Orange Blossom Murder Case

The Orange Blossom Murder Case is an investigation into the 1946 death of Carla McCinberg who was found dead in barn of an eight acre dairy farm. She was 21 years old at the time of her death and was said to be murdered by Johnaton Harley, 23, while the property was vacant. Initially, there was only one suspected murder, but four more bodies were found just two months later, near the Stanislaus River. After an interrogation by the local police department, Johnathon confessed in murdering the two gentlemen, Marley and Kenneth, 32 and 35, who attempted to come to the rescue of Carla after hearing multiple screams come from within the barn. On July 17, 1947, charges of murder, destruction of evidence, and defamation were filed against Johnathon and he was sentenced for 85 years.

awesome

i'm counted in the total of people in the women's march yesterday. i'm thinking of being an activist. i've got to do things so maybe i can get more involved.

bring my 2 lives together

my church friends want me to be like them and bring god (and the church) everywhere. i'm like no way. reason 1) many people are into LGBT rights. reason 2) i'm a human furnace and have scoliosis so i dress more casually. number 3) many of my classmates mock Mormonism. reason 4) they aren't Mormons themselves so why would they want to be involved in Mormonism?

lipread

i don't know how this specific thing happened. i can read body language and read lips. i'm no mind reader but i can guess what people are saying by gestures and lips. the way this came about is i went deaf for a week and i had to compensate for what my ears couldn't. the funny thing is now my ears are working at 110%. i can hear everything when i'm blasting music. whenever i go deaf is when i get sick.

women's march

apparently i was apart of the biggest march in human memory. we aren't even sure of how many people were there. i thought maybe globally there were 2 million but in reality i'm assuming there was a lot more than 2 million in the USA.

God in Mormonism

In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Mormons sometimes call Elohim, and the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus (his firstborn Son, whom Mormons sometimes call Jehovah), and the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit). Mormons believe that the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, and that the Father and Jesus have perfected, glorified, physical bodies, while the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body. Mormons also believe that there are other gods and goddesses outside of the Godhead, such as a Heavenly Mother who is the wife of God the Father, and that faithful Mormons may attain godhood in the afterlife. This conception differs from the traditional Christian Trinity in several ways, one of which is that Mormonism has not adopted or continued the doctrine that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are of the same substance or being. Also, Mormonism teaches that the intelligence dwelling in each human is coeternal with God. While Mormons use the term omnipotent to describe God, and regard him as the creator, they do not understand him as having absolutely unlimited power, and do not teach that he is the ex nihilo creator of all things. The Mormon conception of God also differs substantially from the Jewish tradition of ethical monotheism in which elohim (אֱלֹהִים) is a completely different conception. This description of God represents the Mormon orthodoxy, formalized in 1915 based on earlier teachings. Other currently existing and historical branches of Mormonism have adopted different views of god, such as the Adam–God doctrine and Trinitarianism. Early Latter Day Saint concepts: Most early Latter Day Saints came from a Protestant background, believing in the doctrine of Trinity that had been developed during the early centuries of Christianity. Before about 1835, Mormon theological teachings were similar to that established view. However, founder Joseph Smith's teachings regarding the nature of the Godhead developed during his lifetime, becoming most fully developed in the few years prior to his murder in 1844. Beginning as an unelaborated description of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being "One", Smith taught that the Father and the Son were distinct personal members of the Godhead as early as 1832. Smith's public teachings later described the Father and Son as possessing distinct physical bodies, being one together with the Holy Ghost, not in material substance, but in spirit, glory, and purpose–a view sometimes called social trinitarianism. Mormons view their concept of the Godhead as a restoration of original Christian doctrine as taught by Christ and the Apostles. Elements of this doctrine were revealed gradually over time to Smith. Mormons teach that in the centuries following the death of the Apostles, views on God's nature began to change as theologians developed doctrines and practices, though they had not been called as prophets designated to receive revelation for the church. Mormons see the strong influence of Greek culture and philosophy (Hellenization) during this period as contributing to a departure from the traditional Judeo-Christian view of a corporeal God in whose image and likeness mankind was created. These theologians began to define God in terms of three persons, or hypostases, sharing one immaterial divine substance, or ousia—a concept that some claim found no backing in scripture, but closely mirrored elements of Greek philosophy such as Neoplatonism. Mormons believe that the development process leading up to the Trinity doctrine left it vulnerable to human error, because it was not founded upon God's established pattern of continued revelation through prophets. Teachings in the 1820s and early 1830s: The Book of Mormon teaches that God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are "one", with Jesus appearing with a body of spirit before his birth, and with a tangible body after his resurrection. The book describes the "Spirit of the Lord" "in the form of a man" and speaking as a man would. Prior to the birth of Jesus, the book depicts him as a spirit "without flesh and blood", with a spirit "body" that looked the same as he would appear during his physical life. Moreover, Jesus described himself as follows: "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters." In another passage of the Book of Mormon, the prophet Abinadi states, I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—the Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son—and they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth. After Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven, the Book of Mormon states that he visited a group of people in the Americas, who saw that he had a resurrected, tangible body. During his visit, he was announced by the voice of God the Father, and those present felt the Holy Spirit, but only the Son was seen. Jesus is quoted as saying, Father, thou hast given them the Holy Ghost because they believe in me; and thou seest that they believe in me because thou hearest them, and they pray unto me; and they pray unto me because I am with them. And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one. The Book of Mormon states that Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are "one". The LDS Church interprets this "oneness" as a metaphorical oneness in spirit, purpose, and glory, rather than a physical or bodily unity. On the other hand, some Latter Day Saint sects, such as the Community of Christ, consider the Book of Mormon to be consistent with trinitarianism. Some scholars have also suggested that the view of Jesus in the Book of Mormon is also consistent, or perhaps most consistent, with monotheistic Modalism. Teachings in the mid-to-late 1830s: In 1835, Joseph Smith, with the involvement of Sidney Rigdon, publicly taught the idea that Jesus Christ and God the Father were two separate beings. In the Lectures on Faith, which had been taught in 1834 to the School of the Prophets, the following doctrines were presented: -That the Godhead consists of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (5:1c); -That there are two "personages", the Father and the Son, that constitute the "supreme power over all things" (5:2a, Q&A section); -That the Father is a "personage of spirit, glory, and power" (5:2c); -That the Son is a "personage of tabernacle" (5:2d) who "possess[es] the same mind with the Father; which Mind is the Holy Spirit" (5:2j,k); -That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit constitute the "supreme power over all things" (5:2l); -That "these three constitute the Godhead and are one: the Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power, and fullness" (5:2m); -That the Son is "filled with the fullness of the Mind of the Father, or in other words, the Spirit of the Father" (5:2o). Lectures on Faith were included as part of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. They were eventually removed from the Doctrine and Covenants by the LDS Church and the Community of Christ on the grounds that they had never explicitly been accepted by the church as canon. Most modern Latter Day Saints do not accept the idea of a two-"personage" Godhead, with the Father as a spirit and the Holy Spirit as the shared "mind" of the Father and the Son. Moreover, many Mormon apologists propose a reading of Lectures on Faith that is consistent with Smith's earlier or later doctrines, by putting various shadings on the meaning of personage as used in the Lectures. In 1838, Smith published a narrative of his First Vision, in which he described seeing both God the Father and a separate Jesus Christ, similar in appearance to each other. Teachings in the 1840s: In the endowment ceremony, introduced by Smith in 1842, the name "Elohim" is used to refer to God the Father. "Jehovah" is used to refer to the pre-mortal Jesus. In public sermons later in Smith's life, he began to describe what he thought was the true nature of the Godhead in much greater detail. In 1843, Smith provided his final public description of the Godhead before his death, in which he described God the Father as having a physical body, and the Holy Spirit, also, as a distinct personage: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." Even though this quote is included in canonized LDS scripture, some dispute its authenticity, particularly that of the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, since it was not consistent with the manuscript source's wording about the Holy Ghost and underwent various revisions and modifications before arriving at this final form. During this period, Smith also introduced a theology that could support the existence of a Heavenly Mother. The primary source for this theology is the sermon he delivered at the funeral of King Follett (commonly called the King Follett Discourse). The LDS Church believes that a Heavenly Mother exists, but very little is acknowledged or known beyond her existence. Lorenzo Snow succinctly summarized another portion of the doctrine explained in the King Follett Discourse using a couplet: "As man now is, God once was: / As God now is, man may be." Denominational teachings- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) holds Joseph Smith's explanation of the Godhead as official doctrine, which is to say that the Father and the Son have glorified physical bodies, while the Holy Ghost has only a body of spirit. The differences between the Mormon doctrine of the Godhead and that of Trinitarianism have set Mormonism apart, for which some Christian denominations reject Mormonism as a Christian faith. Leaders and scriptural texts of the LDS Church affirm a belief in the Holy Trinity but use the word "Godhead" (a term used by the Apostle Paul in Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20, and Colossians 2:9) to distinguish their belief that the unity of the Trinity relates to all attributes, except a physical unity of beings. Church members believe that "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit." According to LDS teachings, this theology is consistent with Smith's 1838 and subsequent accounts of the First Vision. These accounts state that Smith saw a vision of "two personages", the Father and the Son. Mormon critics view this 1838 account with skepticism, because Smith's earliest accounts of the First Vision did not refer to the presence of two beings. The church also teaches that its theology is consistent with the Biblical account of the baptism of Jesus which referred to signs from the Father and the Holy Spirit, which the denomination interprets as an indication that these two persons have distinct substance from Jesus. Smith taught that there is one Godhead and that humans can have a place, as joint-heirs with Christ, through grace, if they follow the laws and ordinances of the gospel. This process of exaltation means literally that humans can become full, complete, joint-heirs with Jesus and can, if proven worthy, inherit all that he inherits. Though humanity has the ability to become gods through the Atonement of Jesus, these exalted beings will remain eternally subject to God the Father and "will always worship" Him. Among the resurrected, the righteous souls receive great glory and return to live with God, being made perfect through the atonement of Christ. Thus, "god" is a term for an inheritor of the highest kingdom of God. LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley offered a declaration of belief wherein he reaffirmed the teachings of the church regarding the distinct individuality and perfect unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Community of Christ: See also: Community of Christ (differentiation from LDS Church) Trinitarianism has been adopted by the Community of Christ, which is part of the Latter Day Saint movement, but not part of Mormonism. Mormon fundamentalism: Mormon fundamentalists seek to retain Mormon theology and practice as it existed in the late 19th century. As such, the faith accepts the Adam–God doctrine, which identifies God the Father with Adam. Within Mormon fundamentalism, Jehovah and Jesus are considered distinct and separate beings. Restoration Church of Jesus Christ: In the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ, a liberal Mormon faith, the Heavenly Mother is accepted as a full member of the Godhead. Thus, the RCJC believes in a quadriune Godhead; the Godhead is referred to as the Holy Quaternity. Prayers are addressed to the Heavenly Parents in the name of Jesus Christ. Plurality of gods: Latter-day Saints believe in an eternal cycle where God's children may progress to become "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17) and thus become one with God or like God. This is commonly called exaltation within the LDS Church. In addressing this issue, former church president Gordon B. Hinckley, noted the church believes that man may become as God is. Hinckley said that growth, learning and gaining intelligence are eternal principles, and is one of the reasons why education is important to members of the LDS Church. Previous prophets or leaders of the church have made statements about their personal beliefs about exaltation. Joseph Smith taught, and Mormons believe, that all people are children of God. Smith further stated in the King Follett discourse that God was the son of a Father, suggesting a cycle that continues for eternity.

annoying

i find it annoying to put my bracelet on when i don't need to. like once i put it on to make someone feel better. sometimes i put it on because i feel like it. like in case of an emergency.

Keith Hunter Jesperson

Keith Hunter Jesperson is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and prosecutors. Many of his victims were prostitutes and transients who had no connection to him. Strangulation was his preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child. After the body of his first victim, Taunja Bennett, was found, media attention surrounded Laverne Pavlinac, a woman who falsely confessed to having killed Bennett with the help of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske. Jesperson was upset that he was not getting any media attention. He first drew a smiley face on a bathroom wall (hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime), on which he anonymously confessed to killing Bennett. When that did not elicit a response, he began writing letters to the media and prosecutors. His last victim was his long-time girlfriend, a crime that ultimately led to his capture. While Jesperson has claimed to have killed as many as 160 people, only eight murders have been confirmed. Early life: Keith Hunter Jesperson was born on 6 April 1955, to Leslie (Les) and Gladys Jesperson in Chilliwack, British Columbia, the middle child with two brothers and two sisters. His father was a domineering alcoholic and Jesperson claimed that his paternal grandfather was also violent. Les Jesperson denied being an abusive parent; however, while investigating for his book on Jesperson, author Jack Olsen was able to confirm much of the claimed abuse with other family members. He had a violent and troubled childhood under a domineering, alcoholic father. Treated like an outcast by his own family and teased by other children for his large size at a young age, Jesperson was a lonely child who showed a propensity for torturing and killing animals. Despite consistently getting into trouble in his youth, including twice attempting to kill children who had crossed him, Jesperson graduated from high school, secured a job as a truck driver, got married, and had three children. In 1990, after 15 years of marriage, Jesperson was divorced and saw his dream to become a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman dashed following an injury. After returning to truck driving, it was that year that Jesperson began to kill. In his younger years, Jesperson was given less attention than his siblings and treated differently by the rest of his family. After moving to Selah, Washington, Jesperson had trouble fitting in and making friends because of his large size. His brothers didn't help him, instead they nicknamed him "Igor" or "Ig", a name that stuck throughout his school years. Because of this, he was a shy child, content to play by himself much of the time. He would often get into trouble for behaving badly, sometimes violently, and would be severely punished by his father. This included beatings (sometimes with a belt in front of others) and, in one case, he received an electric shock from his father. At a very early age—as young as five—Jesperson would capture and torture animals. He enjoyed watching animals kill each other as well as the feeling he got from taking their lives. This continued as he got older. He would capture birds and stray cats and dogs around the trailer park where he lived with his family, severely beating the animals and then strangling them to death, something he claims his father was proud of him for. In the years following, Jesperson said he often thought about what it would be like to do the same to a human. That desire manifested in two attempted murders. The first happened when Jesperson was around 10 years old. He was friends with a boy named Martin, and the two would often get into trouble together. Jesperson claimed he was punished many times for things Martin had done and blamed on Jesperson. This led Jesperson to attack Martin, violently beating him until his father pulled him away. He later claimed his intention was to kill the boy. Approximately a year later, Jesperson was swimming in a lake when another boy held him under water until he blacked out. Some time later, at a public pool, Jesperson attempted to drown the boy, holding his head under water until the lifeguard pulled him away. Jesperson reported that he was raped at the age of 14. He graduated from high school in 1973, but did not attend college because his father did not believe he could do it. Although he was not successful with girls in high school, having never even attended a school dance or his prom, he did enter into a relationship after high school. In 1975, when Jesperson was 20, he married Rose Hucke, and the couple had three children—two daughters and one son. Jesperson worked as a truck driver to support the family. Several years later, Hucke began to suspect Jesperson was having affairs when strange women would call. Tension in the marriage increased and, after 14 years, while Jesperson was on the road Hucke packed up her and her children's belongings and drove 200 miles away to live with her parents in Spokane, Washington. The oldest child, Melissa, was 10 years old. Jesperson continued to spend time with his children when he was in town. The couple divorced in 1990. At the age of 35, standing 6'7.5" and weighing approximately 240 pounds, Jesperson began working toward the goal of being a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman, but an injury suffered while training ended his dream. He then sought work again as an interstate truck driver after relocating to Cheney, Washington. Jesperson soon realized that this job afforded him the opportunity to kill without being suspected. Crimes: His first known victim was Taunja Bennett on 23 January 1990, near Portland, Oregon. He introduced himself to Bennett at a bar and invited her to the house he was renting. The two were intimate before an argument that ended with him brutally beating and then strangling her to death. He established an alibi by going back out for some drinks, being sure to converse with others, before returning to retrieve Bennett's body and belongings to dispose of them. He was back on the road the next day. The body was found a few days later, but there were no suspects and no leads. It was two and a half years after his first kill when Jesperson killed again. On 30 August 1992, the currently unidentified body of a woman he raped and strangled was found near Blythe, California. He says the Jane Doe's name was Claudia. A month later, in Turlock, California, the body of Cynthia Lyn Rose was discovered. He claims she was a prostitute who entered his truck at a truck stop while he slept. His fourth victim was another prostitute, Laurie Ann Pentland of Salem, Oregon. Her body was found in November of that year. According to Jesperson, she attempted to double the fee she charged for the sex he had been engaged in with her. She threatened to call the police, and he strangled her. It was more than six months before his next victim was found in June 1993, another unidentified woman, a "street person," in Santa Nella, California, who he claimed was named "Carla" or "Cindy". Police originally considered her death a drug overdose. More than a year later, in September 1994, another Jane Doe was found in Crestview, Florida. Jesperson claims her name was Susanne. In January 1995, Jesperson agreed to give a young woman, Angela Surbrize, a lift from Spokane, Washington, to Indiana. Approximately a week into the trip, Surbrize became impatient and began to nag Jesperson to hurry up, as she wanted to see her boyfriend. In response, Jesperson raped and strangled her. He then strapped her to the undercarriage of his truck and dragged her, face down, "to grind off her face and prints." Her body was not found for several months—and then only after Jesperson gave details to police. Two months after murdering Surbrize, Jesperson decided that his long-time girlfriend, Julie Ann Winningham, was interested in him only for money. On 10 March 1995, in Washougal, Washington, Jesperson strangled her. She was the only victim he had a link to, which ultimately set police on his trail. Jesperson was arrested on 30 March 1995, for the murder of Winningham. He had been questioned by police a week before, but they had no grounds to arrest him after he refused to talk. In the days following, Jesperson decided that he was certainly going to be arrested, and after two failed suicide attempts, he turned himself in hoping it would result in leniency during his sentencing. While in custody, Jesperson began revealing details of his killings and making claims of many others, most of which he later recanted. Also, a few days before his arrest, he wrote a letter to his brother. In it, he confessed to having killed eight people over the course of five years. This led police agencies in several states across the country to reopen old cases, many of which were found to be possible victims of Jesperson. Although Jesperson at one point claimed to have had as many as 160 victims, only the eight women killed in California, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming have been confirmed. He is serving three consecutive life sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. In September 2009, he was indicted for murder in Riverside County, California, and was extradited to California to face the charges in December. Laverne Pavlinac: Early in the investigation of Taunja Bennett's murder, Laverne Pavlinac read the news reports surrounding Taunja Bennett's death and saw it as an opportunity to force an end to the long-term abusive relationship she had been in with her live-in boyfriend, John Sosnovske. She set up a meeting with the investigating detectives and gave a false confession, using the details she had read in reports to give a detailed story of how Sosnovske forced her to help him rape, murder, and dispose of Bennett's body. Pavlinac and Sosnovske were convicted of the murder in February 1991. To avoid the possibility of facing the death penalty, Sosnovske pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison, while Pavlinac was sentenced to no less than 10 years, much more than she had anticipated. She soon admitted to making it all up, but her claims were ignored. On 27 November 1995, more than four years since their conviction, Pavlinac and Sosnovske were released from prison after Jesperson and his attorney offered his confession with convincing evidence of his guilt. He had given police officers the location of the victim's purse. The purse had not been found, and its location was considered information only the killer would know. "The Happy Face Killer": Following Taunja Bennett's murder, as all the attention was going to Pavlinac and Sosnovske, Jesperson wrote a confession on the bathroom wall of a truck stop and signed it with a smiley face. When that did not create the attention he desired, he wrote letters to media outlets and police departments confessing to his murders, starting with a six-page letter to The Oregonian in which he revealed the details of his killings. He signed each letter with a smiley face. This led Phil Stanford, the journalist working the story for The Oregonian, to dub Jesperson "The Happy Face Killer". Jesperson's daughter: In November 2008, Jesperson's daughter, Melissa G. Moore, appeared on the Dr. Phil Show to talk about her father. She was also featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show on 17 September 2009, and a 20/20 special on 20 August 2010. In 2009 Melissa published a book titled, Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer's Daughter. Moore lived with her father until her parents' divorce in 1990. Moore noticed her father was different when she was in elementary school. Their house bordered an apple orchard, and her dad killed stray cats and gophers that wandered nearby. One day she watched, horrified, as he hung stray kittens from the family's clothesline. She ran to get her mother, and when they returned, the kittens lay on the ground dead. He had watched and laughed as the kittens clawed each other to escape, then he killed them. She wrote an article about her father for the BBC in November 2014.