“There is no happiness without tears; no life without death. Beware, I will give you cause to weep.”

- Lucian Staniak - AKA The Red Spider

Brittany Murphy, Star of Clueless, Uptown Girls, 8 Mile, and King of the Hill, Dead at 32

November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009

Pic(k) of the Day

Cemetery workers charged after allegedly dumping corpses

Four cemetery workers have been charged with illegally dismembering human bodies after digging up more than 300 corpses and dumping them in a pit in order to resell the graves.

Illinois police discovered the decomposing bodies at the historic Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip where a number of prominent African Americans are buried, including Emmett Till, the 14 year-old boy whose lynching in 1955 for flirting with a white woman helped galvanise the civil rights movement, and blues legend Dinah Washington.

"What we found was beyond startling and revolting," the Cook county sheriff, Tom Dart, said.

The police say the bodies were dug up and dumped in an overgrown area fenced off from the rest of the cemetery, 20 miles south of Chicago. The graves were then resold with the four arrested workers believed to have made about $300,000 over several years.

Relatives of the dead descended on the cemetery to discover if their loved ones had been disinterred. They included Simeon Wright, a cousin of Till, who told the Chicago Tribune: "I've got several generations of my family buried there, and I've never had any problems. ... But this is a pretty ghoulish story."

Dart said that Till's grave appears to have been undisturbed but he was not sure about Washington's or that of the heavyweight boxing champion Ezzard Charles.

The principal target appears to have been older graves that had not been visited for many years so that the removal of the bodies would not be noticed by relatives.
Dart said the FBI has been called in and that forensic medical examiners are working to identify the remains.

"I've been in this business for 35 years, and I have never heard of employees committing these kinds of terrible acts," Vickie Hand, treasurer of the Illinois Cemetery & Funeral Home Association, told the Chicago Tribune. "There's no words that can express it; it's just absolutely unbelievable."

Read more here.

"King of Pop" Michael Jackson Dead at 50

(RTTNews) - Pop star Michael Jackson has died.

The Los Angeles California Coroner's Office confirmed that the well-known "King of Pop" was pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center.

The initial cause of death, officials said, was cardiac arrest.

Sources said the 50-year-old Jackson was transported to the hospital from his nearby rental home in Bel-Air shortly after an emergency call at 12:30 PM Pacific Time (3:30 PM Eastern).

Jackson was reported to be in a coma at the time of transport.

The L.A. Times reported that when paramedics arrived at the home, Jackson was not breathing.

Word of Jackson's death caused a crowd of hundreds of reporters and others to form at the hospital.

The Los Angeles Police Department said it has opened investigation into Jackson's death, although they said there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The L.A. County Coroner's Office will determine an official cause of death.

Jackson's death comes as the entertainer was preparing to kick off a comeback on July 13, including a series of 50 sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena.

Jackson was believed to be heavily in debt. He had not toured since 1997 and had not released a new album since 2001.

Jackson's professional career began at age 8 when he began performing with the family band called "The Jackson 5."

Jackson is survived by three children, sons Prince Michael 7, and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11.

by RTT Staff Writer

Read more here.

Michael Jackson
1958 - 2009

Fritzl jailed for life in dungeon incest case

ST. POELTEN, Austria (CNN) -- A jury in Austria has found Josef Fritzl guilty of raping and imprisoning his daughter for more than two decades and sentenced him to life in prison.

It was the maximum sentence for the most serious charge Fritzl faced: one count of murder, for allowing one of the babies he fathered with his daughter to die shortly after birth.

The eight-member jury returned a unanimous verdict on all counts. Fritzl, dressed in a gray suit, blue shirt and dark tie, stared blankly ahead and showed no emotion as the jury delivered its verdict.

The 73-year-old had pleaded guilty to all charges on Wednesday, but Austrian law requires a jury to return a verdict as well.

Fritzl will soon be moved to a detention facility for mentally abnormal offenders, where psychiatrists will evaluate him and decide on therapy. Until then, he will remain in a two-person cell in St. Poelten.

The man who kept his crimes a secret for 24 years until he was exposed last year made a final, emotional apology to the court Thursday morning.

"I am deeply sorry with all my heart for what I have done, but I cannot go back and change it," Fritzl told the court at St. Poelten, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) east of Amstetten, where he and his family lived.

The jury found Fritzl guilty of incest, rape, enslavement and false imprisonment of his daughter Elisabeth. It also found him guilty of two assault charges and murder in the death of the baby, one of twins, which died 66 hours after birth.

Fritzl initially pleaded not guilty to murder, enslavement, and one of the assault charges, and partly guilty to rape. He surprised his own lawyer by changing his plea Wednesday.

Prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser urged the jury Thursday to return a murder conviction. She called Fritzl's admission of guilt a ploy.

"This was not a confession by the accused. It was a change in strategy," she told the court.

Elisabeth Fritzl also wanted her father to be convicted, said her lawyer, Eva Plaz.

Both sides accepted Thursday's verdict and Josef Fritzl refused the option to appeal, court officials said. He could be considered for parole in 15 years, when he would be 88, said court spokesman Franz Cutka, but the Ministry of Justice will decide whether to allow it.

Fritzl's lawyer revealed Thursday that Elisabeth had been in court Tuesday, the second day of the trial. Defense attorney Rudolf Mayer said the elder Fritzl noticed his daughter's presence in the final hour of viewing Elisabeth's videotaped testimony.

Mayer said he was not disappointed with the verdict because it was a "logical consequence" of his client's admission of guilt. He said life in prison is a "very just sentence."

"In my eyes, no man is a monster, regardless of what he's done," Mayer told the BBC. "He's always a human, regardless of what he's done."

A technical expert testified at the trial that the underground chamber in which Fritzl kept his daughter and their offspring had low ceilings -- about 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) high -- and, for the first couple of years, only minimal sanitation. The cellar had no daylight or fresh air.

Prosecutors said Fritzl closeted Elisabeth in the specially designed cellar in 1984, when she was 18, telling other family members that she had run away to join a cult. He kept her there for 24 years, authorities believe, repeatedly sexually assaulting her and fathering her seven children.

Fritzl took three of the children upstairs to live with him and his wife, telling the family that the missing Elisabeth had dropped them off.

Elisabeth and the remaining children never saw daylight, prosecutors said, and Fritzl went away for long periods, leaving them without food. To punish them, prosecutors said, Fritzl sometimes turned off the power in the cellar for up to 10 days.

In addition, they alleged, Elisabeth was often sexually assaulted in front of the children.

One of the babies -- a boy named Michael -- died shortly after birth. Prosecutors charged Fritzl with murder in his death because he did not receive medical care.

Fritzl admitted Wednesday that he was in the cellar when the baby was born. He noticed the child was breathing heavily, he said, but he did not think the baby would die and decided not to seek help.

Fritzl told the court he was probably responsible for the child's death and pleaded guilty to his murder. He had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charge but said he changed his mind after hearing Elisabeth's videotaped testimony.

The prosecution said Thursday that Michael struggled for 66 hours before dying of respiratory problems. They said Fritzl knew what was happening but was indifferent.

Authorities have said that Elisabeth and her children now have new identities and are in a secret location. Asked at a news conference why other family members have not testified, officials said they did not wish to.

The case came to light in April 2008, when Elisabeth's then-19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill and ended up in the hospital. Hospital staff became suspicious and alerted police, who then discovered the family's plight in the cellar.



Read more here.

Andre Thomas undergoes evaulation after self-mutilation incident

By JERRIE WHITELEY

Herald Democrat

Andre Thomas’ attorneys say he will now get the mental health treatment they have begged for since he arrived on Texas’ Death Row in 2005.

Bobbie Peterson-Cate represented Thomas when Grayson County jurors convicted him of killing and cutting the heart out of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes, March 27, 2004. State authorities put Thomas in a prison psychiatric treatment unit after he pulled out his left eye and ate it on Dec. 9.

Read more here.

When I See Kitties Fly

By Daily Mail Reporter

While most cats are renowned for having nine lives, these moggies are clearly living on a wing and a prayer.

The cute little devils began sprouting bumps on their backs, which later turned into wing-like growths, during a recent spell of hot weather in China's Sichuan province.

One cat owner, known only as Feng, claims her cat's wings are a result of stress after he was 'harassed' by females looking to mate.

'At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings,' she told Huashang News.



'Many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow.'

And while she says her lovable Tom is no devil, his wings, which contain bones, make him look more like a 'cat angel'.

But genetic experts claim there is nothing angelic or magical about the condition, which doesn't hinder the cat's quality of life.

They say the wings can form through poor grooming, a genetic defect or a hereditary skin condition.

Michael Jackson turns 50, shadow of a superstar

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer Michael Jackson turned 50 on Friday, a shadow of the superstar once known as the "King of Pop" whose records thrilled millions before his bizarre personal life eclipsed his musical brilliance.

Unlike Madonna's 50th birthday bash and launch of another world tour earlier this month, the singer who wishes he was Peter Pan appears to have no special celebrations planned and a much-touted musical comeback has so far come to nothing.

A semi-recluse since his harrowing 2005 trial and acquittal on child sex abuse, Jackson has been living out of the spotlight for the past few months.

In a telephone interview with ABC television program "Good Morning America," Jackson said he will "just have a little cake with my children and watch some cartoons," and he added that he feels "very wise and sage, but at the same time very young.

Recent pictures of Jackson in Las Vegas showed him dressed in pajamas and slippers, and one had him sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a surgical mask.

Gay Zombies!

Afghan spider forces Army family out of home

By Stephen Adams

Days after Rodney Griffiths returned home from a four-month tour of Helmand province with 16 Air Assault Brigade, the family's pet dog Bella mysteriously died.

Son Ricky, 16, then spotted the giant spider, prompting the soldier's wife Lorraine to move the family out of their four-bedroom army home in Colchester, Essex.

Mother-of-four Mrs Griffiths, 37, said: "Ricky saw a huge spider and screamed to his sister Cassie. They tried to put a pint-glass over it but it was too big, they poked it with a coat hanger and the spider bit it. The dog came in, jumped on the bed and barked at it. The spider hissed and Bella went running out whimpering."

Days later the family took Bella to the vet with a high temperature and swollen stomach. She had to be put down. Mrs Griffiths said she thought her death "too much of a coincidence" although the vet could not say why the dog died.

After scouring the internet for spider descriptions they decided the culprit was a camel spider.

She said: "I think it must have hitched a lift back with my husband in June."

Read more here

Did Neo Cause 9/11 in The Matrix?

Written by Arya Ponto

The social networks are a-buzzin' today over this screen capture of Neo's passport from the first Matrix movie. Why is Neo's passport suddenly so popular, 9 years after the movie came out? Because some eagle-eyed nerd noticed that Neo's passport expires on—dun, dun, DUN—September 11th, 2001. Shocking!

Read more here.

Dungeon Children Will Not Testify in Dad's Trial

Josef Fritzl’s six kids kept for years in an Austrian dungeon will not be forced to testify in his trial, court officials announced Friday.

Wife Rosemarie, 69, will also be spared giving evidence.

Court boss Kurt Leitzenberger said: “They will not give statements. This decision is final.”

When asked what this would mean for the trial, he said: “The picture is almost complete anyway.

“Their statements might have helped us but most of it was clear from the beginning.”

Fritzl’s autumn trial will be held behind closed doors in Sankt Poelten, Austria.

The family’s lawyers warned this week they were too traumatized to give evidence.

Prosecutors insist statements from Fritzl’s daughter Elisabeth, 42 — who was caged as a sex slave for 24 years — will “provide enough evidence”.

But they had hoped her daughter Kerstin, 19, would help convict Fritzl, 74, for murder over the death of Elisabeth’s newborn.

Kelly Bundy has lost her boobs

Actress Christina Applegate will continue shooting her TV series "Samantha Who?" as she undergoes reconstructive breast surgery following a double mastectomy.

The 36-year-old star revealed on Tuesday she had both breasts removed after being diagnosed with cancer last month.

Applegate, who was given the all clear following the operation, is now scheduled to undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months.

A spokesperson for the star insists she will be "on a normal shooting schedule," adding that the procedure "is not affecting production."

Dungeon monster Fritzl trial in private

By ALEX PEAKE

DUNGEON incest monster Josef Fritzl’s trial will be held behind closed doors, a court official revealed yesterday.
The public and press will “quite certainly” be excluded to protect his victims in Sankt Poelten, Austria, he said.

It means the full story of how Fritzl kept daughter Elisabeth caged as a sex slave for 24 years may never be known.

Elisabeth, 42, had seven children by her evil father, 74.


Three were taken to live upstairs with Fritzl and wife Rosemarie, 69.

The others — Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, five — were held in the cellar with their mum at the home in Amstetten.

Most evidence will be from Elisabeth on video.

It is not known if the cellar children will testify, when the trial will start or the charges.

The public will be allowed in only for the formal start — set to last three days — and after the verdicts.

One Austrian legal expert said: “The authorities want to protect Elisabeth and her children and stop the trial from becoming some sort of ghoulish daily freak show.

More Monster Summer Fun

The Canadian Press

FORT CHIPEWYAN, Alta. — Information about a mutated fish caught downstream from Alberta’s oilsands region will be sent to a joint government-industry group that monitors the health of rivers and lakes.

The 2.5-kilogram goldeye caught last week in Lake Athabasca has two mouths, one beneath the other.


Two boys pointed the deformed fish out to Stuart Macmillan, Parks Canada’s manager of resource conservation at Wood Buffalo National Park, who studied it before handing it over to the Mikesew First Nation.

“We had just pulled up to the dock and some kids came over and said, `Hey, we’ve got a fish over here with two mouths,” Macmillan said Tuesday.

“It was really unusual. The fish has an obvious abnormality. I had never seen anything like that myself before. I can’t speculate on what might have caused it.”

Read more here.

A Cozy Basement for 5

A shocking image of Elisabeth Fritzl – the 42-year-old victim of Austria's worst recorded case of multiple rape and incest – was published yesterday. It shows an elderly looking woman with crudely cut hair that has turned completely grey. She has a deeply-lined face and tight lips which, doctors say, conceal a mouth full of badly decaying teeth. The drawing, published by the Austrian media, is said to be an "accurate artist's impression" of Elisabeth, based on interviews with doctors and police who have been caring for her since she escaped from the underground cell in which she was held captive for 24 years.


Elisabeth has not been seen in public since she was imprisoned in a windowless bunker beneath her father Josef's garden in 1984 and forced to become his sex slave. Fritzl, 73, who was arrested after apparently confessing to his crimes at the weekend, is in custody pending his trial.

Read more here.

Interesting Times Revisited

On this day in history, Elvis Presley died in his home at the age of 42, while sitting on the toilet. In the bathroom, he had been reading The Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus.

Spray-On Condoms?

Edison had his lightbulb, Ford had his Model T, and Jan Vinzenz Krause has his spray-on condom. Inspired by the mechanics of a drive-through car wash, the German sexual-health educator designed a custom-fitting male contraceptive using liquid latex and some materials from a hardware store. "I felt a little like MacGyver," he says of building the contraption.

As a teenager, Krause, now 30, had trouble finding the right size condom, which set him on a quest to aid other similarly befuddled young men. In 2001 he developed an online condom adviser, which provides printable measuring tapes and instructions to help men determine which condom, out of all the brands available in Germany, will fit the best. According to Krause, more than 300,000 people have used the free service.

The site's popularity put Krause in touch with students and sex-ed teachers across Germany, who expressed a common frustration. "They told me, 'Mr. Krause, I don't understand why the industry doesn't develop a condom which fits you perfectly,' " he says.

Hence his idea for a spray-on condom. The prototype, which began testing last year, consists of a hard plastic tube with nozzles that spray liquid latex from all directions, much like the water jets in the tunnel of a car wash. According to Krause, there are numerous advantages to his spray-on condom. "The condom fits 100% perfectly, so the safety is much higher than a standard condom's, and it feels more natural."

Read more here

This Can't Be a Good Sign....

By Jim Kavanagh
CNN

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio (CNN) -- Camryn Jakeb Wilson was bathed in TV lights the day he was born, celebrated on the local news as Summit County's 2008 New Year's baby after his arrival at 12:33 a.m. on January 1.

Just 12 weeks later, he was bathed in warm water minutes after he quietly died in his mother's arms, the victim of shaken baby syndrome. Camryn's 9-year-old sister, Tabatha, asked why he needed a bath now.
"We have to get him ready to go to Jesus," a nurse softly replied. Tabatha took up a sponge to help.

Camryn's father, Craig R. Wilson, 28, of Cuyahoga Falls, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on murder and other charges August 20. Police say he confessed to shaking and squeezing the infant after arguing with his wife, Crystal Wilson.

But he has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and faces trial in September.

"There are no excuses for this to happen to any baby," Crystal Wilson, 26, told CNN. "This is murder. He had no reason to die. He died because he cried."

"It really is a tragedy," said Craig Wilson's defense attorney, Jonathan T. Sinn. "I mean, not only did Crystal and Craig lose a son, but Crystal lost a husband, and Craig's parents lost a son and a grandson. ... One day this was a happy, perfect family, and the next day it's been devastated."

The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome estimates as many as 1,400 babies annually are injured or killed by shaking.

Read more here