Murder or Suicide?

Phantom7 · 08-05-12 at 09:51 PM

So this man accidentally killed himself while attempting to kill himself? I'm not sure if things went his way or not.

Also, would this be best at deep thoughts and laughter? I'm not sure where it fits.

**kolewan** · 08-05-12 at 10:10 PM

The pic doesn't work for me :/

Phantom7 · 08-05-12 at 10:14 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kolewan

The pic doesn't work for me :/

Really? How about this?

**L1b3rta** · 08-05-12 at 10:23 PM

Right click and manually open the link into the next tab.

**littlepebble** · 08-06-12 at 01:46 AM

Since people can't see the image, here's the full text:

Murder or Suicide?

Ronald Opus jumped off a building but a stray bullet hit and killed him. Was it murder or suicide? Forensic science is the only answer to this suicide attempt.

On March 23, 1994 a medical examiner looked at the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he had died from a shotgun wound to the head. Ronald had jumped from the top of a 10-storey building with the intention of committing suicide.

He had left a note behind before he jumped and as he fell past the ninth floor, a bullet was fired through the window, killing him instantly. Unknown to everyone, a safety net had been put up just below the eighth floor for some building workers so Ronald would never have been able to kill himself. Usually, when someone succeeds at committing suicide, regardless of changing circumstances, their death is still defined as suicide. Because Ronald was shot during a suicide attempt, and probably would have been saved by the safety net, the medical examiner felt he had a murder on his hands.

An old man and his wife lived on the ninth floor where the gun had been fired. The man had been threatening his wife during an argument. He was so mad, he pulled the trigger but missed his wife and hit Ronald instead. Even though he tried to kill his wife, he still killed someone else in the attempt so he's guilty of murdering Ronald. The man and his wife insisted they thought the gun was unloaded. It was a habit to threaten his wife with the gun and he had no intention of murdering her. If the gun was accidentally loaded, then the killing was an accident.

More investigating turned up a witness who saw the couple's son load the shotgun several weeks before the accident. Apparently, the old lady had cut off her son's money. So the son, who knew about his dad's bad habit of threatening Mom with the gun, loaded the gun so his dad would shoot her. He was guilty of murdering Ronald even though he didn't pull the trigger.

But get this...

The son was actually Ronald Opus. He had become depressed cuz his attempt to cause his mom's murder wasn't working out. When he jumped off the 10-storey building, Ronald had actually murdered himself. The medical examiner considered the death a suicide and closed the case.

**anomander** · 08-06-12 at 02:07 AM

Do any of you lot fancy buying Buckingham Palace off me? Cheap too!
Gawd your a gullible lot!! NONE of these kind of stories are true ..... They are urban myths people or anecdotes passed off as true
No there isn't a real suicide jumper who got shot in the head whilst falling!! ......no the murderer calling the babysitter ISN'T calling from the room upstairs ....No the old guy in the hospital didn't write an amazing poem ....... And no the women in the car waiting for her husband to return with some petrol on the lonely road ..the banging on the roof is NOT a criminally insane giant hitting it with her husbands head on the end of a pole!!!! Haha Christ are you lot all 7 year olds!! This is the second one in the last month you've fallen for!!

**eugene51** · 08-06-12 at 02:25 AM

I remember reading this in the Darwin Awards many years ago. A classic!

HollyVelocity · 08-06-12 at 04:01 AM

You can find a visual interpretation in the first 5 minutes of Magnolia as it sets one example of the movies' pretext. Great film too.

**WillowSun** · 08-06-12 at 05:12 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by anomander

Do any of you lot fancy buying Buckingham Palace off me? Cheap too!
Gawd your a gullible lot!! NONE of these kind of stories are true ..... They are urban myths people or anecdotes passed off as true
No there isn't a real suicide jumper who got shot in the head whilst falling!! ......no the murderer calling the babysitter ISN'T calling from the room upstairs ....No the old guy in the hospital didn't write an amazing poem ....... And no the women in the car waiting for her husband to return with some petrol on the lonely road ..the banging on the roof is NOT a criminally insane giant hitting it with her husbands head on the end of a pole!!!! Haha Christ are you lot all 7 year olds!! This is the second one in the last month you've fallen for!!

So... you're saying stories like some guy got nailed to a cross for a week and also got stabbed with a sword to help him along a bit before he finally croaked but 5 days later he got up and out and got on the p*ss with his 11 best mates - didn't happen? They wrote a book about it too you know!

**EvilToeKnee** · 08-06-12 at 05:28 AM

Is it wrong that I find this kind of humorous?

**GrimmCro** · 08-06-12 at 05:40 AM

Imagine the amount of circumstances that had to click together in order for karma to play itself out.

The son wants to kill his mother by using his fathers propensity to argue with his wife and in the process threaten her with a shotgun which they both know is always unloaded, thus rendering the whole gesture of waving the shotgun in his wife's face mute. To ensure his father kills his mother, he loads the shotgun but the murder never happens which pushes him literally over the edge. In his attempt to kill himself because he indirectly failed to kill his mother via dumb ass father, he fails to comit suicide only to be shot and killed by his father who was supposed to shoot and kill his mother who is the reason he tried and failed to kill himself but wound up dead anyway.

If it's not true, it's a brilliant piece of literature. If it is true, it just cements my point that aliens need to invade Earth before we ensure they have nothing to blow up upon their arrival.

Human stupidity, thou art as ridicilous as diverse.

**CyberKingdom** · 08-06-12 at 05:50 AM

Definitely in the deep thoughts and laughter section... mostly in the laughter part lol

xmania · 08-06-12 at 06:36 AM

Well a quick google of 'Ronald Opus' takes you to a wiki article that explains the history of this 'urban legend'

"The story was originally told by Don Harper Mills, then president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, in a speech at a banquet in 1987. After it began to circulate on the Internet as a factual story and attained the status of urban legend, Mills stated that he made it up as an illustrative anecdote"

Phantom7 · 08-06-12 at 11:52 AM

Ah, so it's fake. A friend of mine sent me this yesterday with no source or anything, and I thought it was very interesting. But fake or not, it's a good read.

So nobody was able to see the images? They work just fine for me.

08-06-12 at 02:07 AM	#6
anomander Reborn Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 3,987	Do any of you lot fancy buying Buckingham Palace off me? Cheap too! Gawd your a gullible lot!! NONE of these kind of stories are true ..... They are urban myths people or anecdotes passed off as true No there isn't a real suicide jumper who got shot in the head whilst falling!! ......no the murderer calling the babysitter ISN'T calling from the room upstairs ....No the old guy in the hospital didn't write an amazing poem ....... And no the women in the car waiting for her husband to return with some petrol on the lonely road ..the banging on the roof is NOT a criminally insane giant hitting it with her husbands head on the end of a pole!!!! Haha Christ are you lot all 7 year olds!! This is the second one in the last month you've fallen for!! Last edited by anomander; 08-06-12 at 02:10 AM.

08-05-12 at 10:10 PM	#2
kolewan The Perseverant Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 722	The pic doesn't work for me :/

08-05-12 at 10:14 PM	#3
Phantom7 Novice Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 195	Quote: Originally Posted by kolewan The pic doesn't work for me :/ Really? How about this?

08-05-12 at 10:23 PM	#4
L1b3rta Guru Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 5,987	Right click and manually open the link into the next tab.

08-06-12 at 01:46 AM	#5
littlepebble Elite Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 2,212	Since people can't see the image, here's the full text: Murder or Suicide? Ronald Opus jumped off a building but a stray bullet hit and killed him. Was it murder or suicide? Forensic science is the only answer to this suicide attempt. On March 23, 1994 a medical examiner looked at the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he had died from a shotgun wound to the head. Ronald had jumped from the top of a 10-storey building with the intention of committing suicide. He had left a note behind before he jumped and as he fell past the ninth floor, a bullet was fired through the window, killing him instantly. Unknown to everyone, a safety net had been put up just below the eighth floor for some building workers so Ronald would never have been able to kill himself. Usually, when someone succeeds at committing suicide, regardless of changing circumstances, their death is still defined as suicide. Because Ronald was shot during a suicide attempt, and probably would have been saved by the safety net, the medical examiner felt he had a murder on his hands. An old man and his wife lived on the ninth floor where the gun had been fired. The man had been threatening his wife during an argument. He was so mad, he pulled the trigger but missed his wife and hit Ronald instead. Even though he tried to kill his wife, he still killed someone else in the attempt so he's guilty of murdering Ronald. The man and his wife insisted they thought the gun was unloaded. It was a habit to threaten his wife with the gun and he had no intention of murdering her. If the gun was accidentally loaded, then the killing was an accident. More investigating turned up a witness who saw the couple's son load the shotgun several weeks before the accident. Apparently, the old lady had cut off her son's money. So the son, who knew about his dad's bad habit of threatening Mom with the gun, loaded the gun so his dad would shoot her. He was guilty of murdering Ronald even though he didn't pull the trigger. But get this... The son was actually Ronald Opus. He had become depressed cuz his attempt to cause his mom's murder wasn't working out. When he jumped off the 10-storey building, Ronald had actually murdered himself. The medical examiner considered the death a suicide and closed the case.

08-06-12 at 02:25 AM	#7
eugene51 Apprentice Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 390	I remember reading this in the Darwin Awards many years ago. A classic!

08-06-12 at 04:01 AM	#8
HollyVelocity Novice Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 146	You can find a visual interpretation in the first 5 minutes of Magnolia as it sets one example of the movies' pretext. Great film too.

08-06-12 at 05:12 AM	#9
WillowSun Therianthrope Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 5,017	Quote: Originally Posted by anomander Do any of you lot fancy buying Buckingham Palace off me? Cheap too! Gawd your a gullible lot!! NONE of these kind of stories are true ..... They are urban myths people or anecdotes passed off as true No there isn't a real suicide jumper who got shot in the head whilst falling!! ......no the murderer calling the babysitter ISN'T calling from the room upstairs ....No the old guy in the hospital didn't write an amazing poem ....... And no the women in the car waiting for her husband to return with some petrol on the lonely road ..the banging on the roof is NOT a criminally insane giant hitting it with her husbands head on the end of a pole!!!! Haha Christ are you lot all 7 year olds!! This is the second one in the last month you've fallen for!! So... you're saying stories like some guy got nailed to a cross for a week and also got stabbed with a sword to help him along a bit before he finally croaked but 5 days later he got up and out and got on the p*ss with his 11 best mates - didn't happen? They wrote a book about it too you know!

08-06-12 at 05:28 AM	#10
EvilToeKnee 3rd Street Saint Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: USA Posts: 771	Is it wrong that I find this kind of humorous?

08-06-12 at 05:40 AM	#11
GrimmCro Your Point Is Invalid Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Zagreb, Croatia Posts: 1,333	Imagine the amount of circumstances that had to click together in order for karma to play itself out. The son wants to kill his mother by using his fathers propensity to argue with his wife and in the process threaten her with a shotgun which they both know is always unloaded, thus rendering the whole gesture of waving the shotgun in his wife's face mute. To ensure his father kills his mother, he loads the shotgun but the murder never happens which pushes him literally over the edge. In his attempt to kill himself because he indirectly failed to kill his mother via dumb ass father, he fails to comit suicide only to be shot and killed by his father who was supposed to shoot and kill his mother who is the reason he tried and failed to kill himself but wound up dead anyway. If it's not true, it's a brilliant piece of literature. If it is true, it just cements my point that aliens need to invade Earth before we ensure they have nothing to blow up upon their arrival. Human stupidity, thou art as ridicilous as diverse.

08-06-12 at 05:50 AM	#12
CyberKingdom Master Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 1,105	Definitely in the deep thoughts and laughter section... mostly in the laughter part lol

08-06-12 at 06:36 AM	#13
xmania Newcomer Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 95	Well a quick google of 'Ronald Opus' takes you to a wiki article that explains the history of this 'urban legend' "The story was originally told by Don Harper Mills, then president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, in a speech at a banquet in 1987. After it began to circulate on the Internet as a factual story and attained the status of urban legend, Mills stated that he made it up as an illustrative anecdote"

08-06-12 at 11:52 AM	#14
Phantom7 Novice Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 195	Ah, so it's fake. A friend of mine sent me this yesterday with no source or anything, and I thought it was very interesting. But fake or not, it's a good read. So nobody was able to see the images? They work just fine for me.