Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

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KKK Prison Guards in Florida Convicted in Plot to Murder Black Inmate

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From left: Charles Thomas Newcomb, David Elliot Moran and Thomas Jordan Driver

LAKE CITY, Florida — A pair of Florida prison guards who were secretly members of the KKK have been convicted of plotting to murder a black inmate after his release.

Prosecutors said the plot dated back to 2015, when David Elliot Moran, 49, and Charles Thomas Newcomb, 45, and a third guard who had previously pleaded guilty, tried to enlist the help of an FBI informant to kill the inmate.

The men were infuriated by the inmate after he bit the third guard, Thomas Jordan Driver, 27, who, like the others, is  a member of the Traditionalist American Knights branch of the Ku Klux Klan, during a fight. The three guards believed the prisoner was infected with HIV and hepatitis.

One version of the plot involved injecting the inmate with insulin and then forcing him face down into a river with a fishing pole in his hand to make it look an accident. Another involved shooting him and chopping his body into pieces.

But the scheme was quickly foiled after recorded conversations between the three former guards and the FBI informant revealed the murder plot.

“These Klansmen plotted to murder a black inmate after he was released from prison, but swift action and clever investigative tactics on behalf of investigators foiled their plot and may have saved a life,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

At the time of the murder conspiracy, Driver and Moran were guards at the Department of Corrections Reception and Medical Center in rural north Florida. Newcomb was a former correctional officer who had been fired in 2013 for failing to meet training requirements.

Driver pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder in March and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The head of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Frank Ancona was shot and killed in Missouri earlier this year and his body dumped by a river. His wife and son-in-law have been charged in his death.

 

Ohio Man Hid Dead Girlfriend in Freezer as New Gal Pal Assumed Her Identity

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Arturo Nova (L) and Katrina Layton

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A man stashed his dead girlfriend’s corpse in a freezer in his Ohio home for months while his new gal pal assumed her identity, using her credit cards and even taking care of her dog, authorities said.

Arturo Novoa, 31 and Katrina Layton, 34, have so far been charged with corpse abuse as investigators try to determine the cause of death of Shannon Graves, 28, who had last been seen alive around Christmas time.

Youngstown prosecutors said that around the time police believe Graves vanished, Layton moved in with Novoa and began using Graves’ car, phone and credit cards and taking care of her dog.

The creepy caper came undone when Novoa asked a friend to keep a padlocked freezer, police said. But the friend grew suspicious and called police after finding Graves’ remains when he pried the freezer open.

Shannon Graves had last been seen around Christmas

Novoa and Layton are each being held on $1 million bond.

Hell on Wheels: Cop Narrowly Avoids Rolling Death

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STURBRIDGE, Massachusetts — That was as close to hell on wheels as one Massachusetts cop ever wanted to get.

A state police officer narrowly missed a grisly fate when a pair of wheels came off a passing tractor-trailer, crushing the rear end of his patrol car.

Police say the officer was parked in a constructions zone early Monday morning, when the truck came roaring by and left behind a pair of wheels that snapped off from the tractor.

Officials say the truck did not stop, and investigators are trying to figure out who was behind the wheel. They are asking anyone who may have seen a truck driving along I-84 missing an entire set of wheels, to call the Massachusetts State Police.

15,000 Minks Die After Suspected Animal Rights Activists Set Them Free

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15,000 mink were found dread and 14,000 more are missing

EDEN VALLEY, Minnesota — Some 15,000 mink have died after suspected animal rights activists broke into a Minnesota mink farm and set loose tens of thousands of the animals from their cages, authorities said.

The Stearns County Sheriff’s office says the break-in occurred early Monday at Lang Farms with the unknown culprits dismantling a section of the farm’s exterior fence and then opening up cages housing 40,000 minks.

The mink are farm raised, so are domesticated and cannot survive in the wild as they rely entirely on humans for food and water, police said.

Nearly 50 area farmers helped the Lang family recover as many as they could, but 15,000 were found dead and an additional 14,000 remain missing. Only 11,000 have been recovered, police said.

“We just threw mink in pens to try to get as many back as we could. And now they are killing each other,” Dan Lang told the St. Cloud Times. “And they’re still dying. They are still dying from heat stress.”

Police say the loss has been valued at $750,000. Lang said the emotional loss was worse.

“I’m so sick of crying. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I wish these people that did this would come here every day for two weeks, and they could help pick up the dead ones.”

The press office for the Animal Liberation Front, a militant animal rights group, said it had not received any claim of responsibility for the break-in at Lang Farms.

 

 

Grand Jury Probes Death of Oklahoma Inmate Left Strapped to Chair for 2 Days

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Garfield County Detention Center in Oklahoma

ENID, Oklahoma — A grand jury is investigating whether officers at an Oklahoma jail are responsible for the death of an inmate who was found dead after being strapped in a restraining chair for two days.

Anthony Huff, 58, had been arrested for public intoxication in Enid, Oklahoma in June 2016 and placed in the chair two days after he was booked and was found dead 48 hours later. The official cause of Huff’s death was complications from chronic alcoholism, authorities said.

A civil rights lawsuit filed by his family last month said jail officials knew from prior arrests that Huff suffered from congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and other ailments, but left him in the chair without his medication or adequate food or water for two full days.

Anthony Huff

The Oklahoman newspaper said the grand jury is investigating whether officers committed a crime by leaving Huff in the chair for so long.

According to the suit, filed in federal court in Oklahoma City, Huff “died due to conditions related to his withdrawal from alcohol and the effects it had on his body and system.”

The suit names the  Garfield County sheriff, jail administrator, the county commissioners, the Garfield County Detention Center, the jail medical provider and a jail nurse for actual and punitive damages.

The suit says there had been a recorded pattern of abuse of inmates at the jail and that some guards had complained to the jail administrators about it. County officials, the sheriff and the jail administrator deny any wrongdoing.

Man Charged With Killing Gal Pal Whose Body Parts Washed Up in NYC

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Jenny Londono was last seen on June 25

HACKENSACK, New Jersey — A 40-year-old New Jersey man has been charged with murdering his stunning nightclub manager girlfriend and chopping her body into pieces that he dumped in the Hudson River.

Bergen County prosecutors say Raphael Lolos, of Bergenfield, New Jersey, was arrested Friday in the death of 31-year-old Jenny Londono, parts of whose body had washed up on the shores of New York City on July 27.

Police were able to link the remains to Londono through a distinctive sanskrit tattoo she had on her right hip. A leg that is believed to have been hers was found floating in the Hudson days later.

Investigators found traces of Londono’s blood in Lolos’ bathtub, sources said. Prosecutors say he had been using her credit cards up until the day he was arrested.

After he was detained, authorities say he suffered a “medical episode” and was hospitalized.

Raphael Lolos

Friends say Londono had only recently opened the Luna Lounge in Englewood, New Jersey after working as bartender at a separate club nearby.

Lolos has been charged with murder, desecration of human remains, hindering apprehension, credit card fraud and stalking.

 

Man Kept Wife’s Corpse in Freezer for 8 Years to Collect Her Social Security

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TAMPA, Florida — That’s just cold.

The survivors of a dead Florida retiree agreed to pay the government the proceeds of the sale of the man’s condo after it emerged he had secretly kept his dead wife’s corpse in a freezer for eight years so he could continue to collect her social security benefits.

Prosecutors say that in all, Allan Dunn had collected $92,088 in benefits from when his wife Margaret died in 2002 until his own death in 2010.

But instead of alerting officials that his wife had passed away, Dunn stuffed her body in a freezer in the couple’s Sun City Center home and continued to collect her social security checks. The truth emerged after he died.

Upon his death, his only asset was the condo he and his wife shared and his heirs — who were unaware that he had covered up his wife’s death and kept her stashed in the freezer — agreed to waive their rights to inherit the property and to hand over the proceeds from a sale.

The unit was sold and after paying back taxes, sales costs, and cash owed to the condominium association, the remaining $15,743.14 were handed over to the government.

 

Deadly Snake Cargo Unleashed Following Truck Crash in South Texas

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SOMERSET, Texas — Snakes!

A vehicle carrying dozens of deadly snakes and an alligator, overturned in southern Texas, spilling its potentially lethal cargo on the road, in an episode that is the stuff of nightmares.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s office said the truck was carrying rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins, when it suffered a blowout Thursday southwest of San Antonio and flipped over, KSAT-TV reported.

Wildlife wardens worked feverishly to corral the creatures, but had only succeeded in rounding up 23 of the 30 reptiles that had been on board. The alligator was among the animals that remained at large.

The driver and a child who was in the car when it flipped, were hospitalized. Authorities contacted homeowners in the area to alert them to the presence of unaccounted for deadly animals.

Love Triangle Ends With Three Dead at Canada Nudist Camp

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DRUMMONDSVILLE, Canada — A love triangle at a Canadian nudist camp turned deadly when a 76-year-old jilted lover gunned down his ex-paramour and her new beau, before turning the gun on himself.

Authorities say Denys Carpentier marched onto the grounds of the Quebec nudist/swingers playpen, Adam et Eve, and opened fire on Suzanne Gareau, 50, and his old pal, Rodrigue Tremblay.

Carpentier is believed to then have turned the gun on himself.

“It’s probably linked to a love triangle,” Sgt. Claude Denis of the Sûreté du Québec told Canada’s National Post.

Friends at the campground, about 100 miles north of Montreal, said Gareau and Carpentier had recently split and she had shacked up with his old friend Tremblay, 77, instead.

 

Carpentier (l) had been in a long-term relationship with Gareau before a recent split

But Carpentier, who was plagued with jealousy and had been very possessive of Gareau when they were together, flew into a fit of rage.

Adam et Eve describes itself as a campground for “liberated people” and contains a mix of trailers, bungalows and cabins surrounding a main complex.

It also has a disco, walking trails, a hot tub and a swimming pool.

“It’s a very sad event that has happened, but it has nothing to do with nudism,” federation spokesman Michel Vaïs told the Post. He said Adam et Ève opened in 1972 as a nudist camp, but eventually became a destination for swingers.

Innocent Man Released After 17 Years as Lookalike Suspect is Discovered

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KANSAS CITY, Kansas — A man was freed after spending 17 years in jail for a purse snatching he didn’t commit when authorities found out he had a dead lookalike with the same name who may have been responsible for the crime.

The eerie coincidence landed Richard Jones behind bars in 1999 for a 19-year stretch for the Kansas robbery in which the only evidence pinning him to the crime was the victim identifying him as the thief.

At the time, prosecutors and the witness didn’t know there was another man out there who bore an uncanny resemblance to Jones, shared his first name and also lived near where the crime occurred, while Jones lived across the state line in Kansas City, Missouri.

But when Jones’ lawyers caught wind of the other man, they showed the witness the other man’s picture and he admitted he could not tell the two men apart.

Last week, a judge agreed and tossed Jones’ conviction out.

While there was no evidence that the other man committed the crime — he denied any role during a hearing before the judge — the bizarre situation poked holes in the sole bit of evidence against Jones.

The judge ruled that the photo array that was used by police to show the robbery victim was improper as it  included no one else who remotely looked like Jones.

“Everybody has a doppelganger,” Jones lawyer, Alice Craig told the Kansas City Star. “Luckily we found his.”