News from the Weird department

[mae]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news...63/detail.html

John Odgren, who suffers from a form of autism and depression, is accused of stabbing 15-year-old James Alenson to death at the school three years ago.

"He was fearful and anticipatory that something was about to happen and that he needed to be prepared for that," forensic psychiatrist Dr. Montgomery Brower said.

Brower said that's why Odgren brought a knife with him on Jan. 19, 2007 -- the day Odgren fatally stabbed fellow student 15-year-old James Alenson.

In Stephen King's Dark Tower series, of which Odgren was fanatic, the number 19 -- as in Jan. 19 -- can portend significant, perhaps dangerous events.

"That was connected with his belief that the world of Stephen King was going to become part of his real world," Brower said.

[flaggwalkstheline]

oh dear

always some more annie wilkses ready to come out of the woodwork (sigh)

[Brice]

Sounds like this weirdo was part Annie Wilkes part Charlie Decker.

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

Oh please don't let this info get out to the mainstream jackasses of the world. Someone will start petitioning for the banning of the DT series.

[lophophoras]

Actually this already hit the news about two weeks ago.

[mae]

Actually this already hit the news about two weeks ago.

Right, but it's a developing story, as it's an ongoing court proceeding.

[SynysterSaint]

Go ask Marilyn Manson or J.D. Salinger: this shit happens all the time and it won't kill anyone's career or books.

[SynysterSaint]

Although I agree that someone will blow their top and blame Stephen King for it.

[flaggwalkstheline]

I say let em try and ban our favorite books
it'll get em extra attention and more people will read them because of it

[Candice Dionysus]

I say let em try and ban our favorite books
it'll get em extra attention and more people will read them because of it

I suppose that's a good attitude to have - it's kind of true, as well. They say no press is bad press. Most of the people who do end up reading them will see that there's nothing in there that would make a normal person do something as insane as that, anyhow. This Odgren fellow was probably mentally unstable for a long time to begin with, on some level. A series of books can hardly be blamed for his actions.
I mean, he could just as easily latched on to any other book, be it Twilight, Lord of the Rings, Catch-22, or even Harry Potter, and substituted 19 for something else and so on. He chose The Dark Tower, so be it. [shrug]

[pathoftheturtle]

Black Sabbath's "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
"I tell you to end your life
I wish I could but it's too late."
The Real Lyrics:
"I tell you to en-joy life
I wish I could but it's too late."

The Story: I got this one right, but some fool somewhere didn't, because this was used by some idiot as an argument for Ozzy being responsible for the death of that kid who killed himself and his parents blamed Suicide Solution instead of lousy parenting. If you watch the Don't Blame Me video, Ozzy talks about it. Someone came up to him and said, 'Isn't it true that in Paranoid you say, 'I tell you to end your life?!'' Ozzy corrected them immediately, citing his altered pronunciation as the reason for the screw up. But he left out the part about their lack of basic human intelligence.
- Submitted by: Chris DeNicola

~ http://www.amiright.com/misheard/sto...ksabbath.shtml

[razz]

Sorry, this probably doesn't belong here, but I thought I'd share, given the content:
http://tinyurl.com/33dqgv4

Fifteen year-old John Odgran was sentenced to Life in Prison after the murder of a classmate, James Alenson. Aside from suffering from several Mental illnesses (listed; "Asperger’s syndrome, anxiety, attention deficit disorder and mood disorders that include symptoms of bipolar disorder and depression"), Odgran was the target of constant bullying and harassment from peers.

But what caught my eye:

According to the testimony, he also tended to regress into what was called a “world of his own making” typical of patients with Asperger’s, a mild form of autism. Odgren’s world was weaved from the fantasy stories of violence and crime he had read, particularly in Stephen King novels.

Odgren was also fixated on the number 19, a symbolic number from King’s “The Dark Tower” series that serves as a beacon of some type of event. Odgren was so obsessed with the number he would calculate it in his own daily life, in license plate numbers and in his birthday (9-1-90). It made him fear something was going to happen, three behavioral specialists said, testifying for the defense.

And on Jan. 19, Odgren was especially paranoid, the lawyers said – it was the 19th day of the month, the 19th day of the year. It was also the day the killing occurred.

Shapiro and the behavior specialists said that Odgren’s paranoia about the date pushed him into a trance, and that he had a “mental meltdown.” He later told one of the psychiatrists that – while he had only fragments of memories – he recalled two stab wounds, and the feeling of warm blood on his hands. He also told a counselor, after the killing, that he had nightmares of Alenson staring at him in the bathroom, with a knife in his chest.

But Dr. Alison Fife, a psychiatrist testifying for prosecutors, said that while Odgren was mentally ill, he was aware of his actions and could control them. She told jurors that Odgren would have mentioned his delusions after the attack, or his fear of the number 19 or The Crimson King, a villain in the King series, if he had just snapped out of a trance.

Dig in Noel Sheppard.

[Brice]

Sad and pathetic, but there's no telling what the kid would have latched onto without The Dark Tower. Like all these sort of things he just needed a catalyst and he'd have found it in something else if not this.

[Darkthoughts]

"Aware of his actions and could control them" obviously not. I'm surprised that came from a psychiatrist!

Interesting article, cheers Razz.

[razz]

Honestly, it annoys the shit out of me when such things happen, and they treat the killer like a mad down that needs put down. He's as much a victim as Alenson.

[Darkthoughts]

It is a shame, my best friend is a psychiatric nurse and he said that the amount of murders that happen after mental health teams have tried their hardest to say to authorities - this person is at risk, they need to be on x meds or need to be temporarily sectioned - only to be ignored and then the person in question has an episode, well it's a staggering amount rather than a rare occurence.

There needs to be far more support for the mentally ill. It's an issue like homelessness that is all too easily swept under the carpet.