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.
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. The 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.
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