Probably the most interesting suicide case

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

I found this extremely interesting, however I do not know how legit it is. At the very least, it's a great story.

From Tumblr--

On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect, indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him instantly.

Neither the shooter nor the descender was aware that a safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.

“Ordinarily,” Dr. Mills continued, “a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide.”

That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor, whence the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr. Opus.

When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded. Then old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s murder. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

[Aethix 129]

It's a great story, but I'm pretty sure that's all it is. If it were real, the fact that Opus was the couple's son would have probably turned up much earlier than it did.

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

I think it did. This was just the thought process of the investigator. It's not like this all took place as "evidence" came in. I think the scenario was just written to give the reader some suspense. But then again is could be bull.

EDIT- Wikipedia says its an urban legend, but a great one at that imo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Opus

[Ganny 285]

Disproving potentially false information from Tumblr with potentially true information from Wikipedia

ALL UP IN HURR

[Ammonsa 308]

the fact that it's not real makes this not interesting at all. It's as interesting as me writing a story about the same thing.

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

Yeah I once read this book that wasn't based on a true story and when I found out it was fiction I was so pissed that I was once interested in it. What a waste of interest points. :<

[pheonix561 2080]

goofy