Have you ever known a murder victim?

That's freaking horrible and hilarious.

 

That is f'd up. Would think he has to be messed up.

 

Who grabs a gun because someone pissed on a mailbox?

 

People with Confederate ancestry and an affinity for flags.

 

Texas.

 

Someone fairly close to me was murdered this past Janurary. He was my brother-in-law's first cousin, was exactly my age and -- with us living in the same city and having mutual family here -- we became pretty good friends. We played on the same softball team and bonded while he was going through a painful divorce. He and his wife later reconciled and married each other a second time. He was also a prominent young heart surgeon and was murdered last winter by the middle-aged son of an elderly patient who'd been a lifelong smoker and had emphysema -- and who my friend was unable to save. The patient's son showed up at the hospital without an appointment and demanded to see him. My friend took the time to meet with him, and the guy shot him in the abdomen before fatally shooting himself. Truly tragic -- he left behind two young daughters the same ages as my own kids, as well as a toddler son and a pregnant wife. He now has a third daughter who was born several months after he died and who will never know him. There was a lot of local news coverage when it happened, some national coverage and hundreds of people at his funeral. It's been about 9 months and I'm still having trouble processing the whole thing. Going to his funeral last year, I kept expecting to hang out with him later. Won't be happening.

A student of mine was also murdered about 10 years ago. He lived in the city of Boston but -- through a voluntary desegregation program (METCO) -- attended the suburban school where I teach. He was in my elective course and was a really great kid. Not the most dedicated student, but he got by. However he was one of the most likeable, courteous, respectful students I've ever had and I wished I could have had him in my class every year. A few weeks after school got out, the principal called to tell me he'd been shot on the street in Roxbury by a gang member who seemingly misidentified him as being in a rival gang (he was not in any gang and had never even been close to getting in trouble in his life). Just horrifying. His killer got life without parole.

And someone I kind of knew when I was a kid was murdered. Her dad directed a lot of children's community theatre productions in my hometown and his daughter and I were in one of those plays together when we were in middle school. Several years later when she was either a senior in high school or already in college, she was murdered visiting her brother in LA by someone who murdered several other random women over a 3-month period. I hadn't really seen her or even heard much about her in the years between the play and the murder, but it was obviously pretty shocking when I heard about her murder.

Finally, while not a murder victim, a guy who was a year behind me in high school, and who I knew a little bit, murdered his mother about 15 years after graduation. Bludgeoned her and then set the house on fire to cover up the evidence. Cops apparently found him hiding in a dumpster behind a nearby supermarket. He's doing life without parole now. I didn't know him well, but of the people I went to school with, I wouldn't have picked him out to be the guy who'd do something like this. He seemed pretty normal. But he must have had some serious psychiatric issues that manifested badly in the decade after high school.

 

Schools in Mass were segregated 10 years ago?

 

No. When I say "voluntary desegregation program" -- I'm referring to a program where participating suburban schools admit, by lottery, a certain number of students of color from the City of Boston. The idea is to provide them with the opportunity for a better education while helping the suburban school benefit from increased racial diversity. Students are chosen by lottery -- their parents generally enter them in the lottery as soon as they're born.

The METCO program has been around since the mid-1960s and was created as a response to lack of educational opportunities for minorities in Boston's public schools, which were very much de facto segregated (hence Judge Garrity's busing order in 1974). Of course, the busing order as implemented led to further chaos -- leading to massive white flight to the suburbs or private and parochial schools -- and didn't end up obviating the need for a program like METCO.

 

One of my college roommates, I found out later, was shot and killed back in his hometown. Ran into a friend of our other roomie, asked about him.

"He's disabled, now. A buddy was home from the Marines, was showing him his sidearm. Accidentally shot him in the chest. He ended up with brain damage because of lack of oxygen."

Me: "Jesus! That's rough. What about (our other roomie)?"

"Oh, he's dead. Got shot in Toledo by a gang-banger."

This was, like, five years after I moved out and lost touch with them.

 

I had a case about 7 years ago where my company was being sued after it brought on a group of employees from a competitor. The case was all set to go to trial and then was put off for a couple of months. During the interim, our second most important witness, a woman who I had spent a ton of time with, was killed by her husband.

He tried to make up a story that she must have been carjacked, but right after he reported her missing, he came to our offices, rifled through her desk and tried to get on her work computer. When they called me to ask for my advice as to whether he could look at her computer for clues, he quickly left the office. Needless to say, it didn't exactly take Columbo to solve the case.

I don't remember the motive -- it might have been insurance, mistress or both, but she was a super nice person.

 

Don't know any murder victims per se, other than a teen girl (prominent softball player) who was killed by a drunk driver -- driver was found guilty.

One of my older brother's friends is in jail for attempted murder. Tried to kill his lover. The friend of the older brother went to Panama City Beach with me (and my family) when I was still a teenager. I'm now 34.

Two football players I covered are on trial for murder. Drug deal gone wrong, apparently. Public defender's office wants me to testify on ex-football player's behalf. I only interviewed the kid like twice (when I was a writer) and couldn't pick him out of a lineup.