True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Lawyers For Only Woman On Federal Death Row Seek Stay After Contracting Coronavirus

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Lisa Montgomery could be the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years

WASHINGTON — Attorneys for a Kansas woman on death row for brutally killing a pregnant woman and cutting her unborn baby from her womb, are seeking a delay of her execution after they contracted COVID-19 while working on her case.

Lisa Montgomery was convicted of strangling a Missouri woman who was eight months pregnant in 2007 and taking her unborn baby, who survived.

She is currently the only woman facing federal execution after Attorney General William Barr recently scheduled her execution in Indiana for Dec. 8.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Montgomery’s attorneys revealed that they contracted coronavirus while travelling to work on her case, and are experiencing debilitating symptoms after visiting her.

The lawyers, Amy Harwell and Kelley Henry, said in a lawsuit that because Barr scheduled Montgomery’s execution during the pandemic, they had to travel from Nashville to Texas twice, after which both of them tested positive for the virus.

“They are sick because Defendant Barr recklessly scheduled Mrs. Montgomery’s execution in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the federal lawsuit.

The court documents said Harwell and Henry are now both bedridden and unable to work on the case.

The suit asks Montgomery not be put to death until her attorneys recover and can prepare her clemency application. The Trump administration has rejected the request for a reprieve due to their illnesses.

The 52-year-old Montgomery, of Melvern, Kansas, was convicted in 2007 of strangling 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in northwest Missouri and kidnapping her unborn baby after cutting her from her womb. The child was later found safe.

Montgomery would be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in 67 years. She is the only woman among the 55 prisoners on federal death row and is scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 8.

Dad Jailed for Shaking Baby Son, Now Charged With Murder After Boy Dies at 20

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Dominick Pittsenbarger struggled with severe brain injuries his entire life .

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Missouri — Justice is patient.

A heartless father who spent eight years behind bars for shaking his infant son so badly he was left with permanent brain damage, has been charged with his murder now that the boy has died at the age of 20.

Olin Shane Tannery pleaded guilty in 1999 of  violently shaking and squeezing his six-week-old son, Dominick Pittsenbarger,, because he wouldn’t stop crying. The boy suffered multiple rib fractures, a fractured vertebra and a series of brain injuries and doctors thought he wouldn’t survive.

But Dominick did live, although his injuries left him severely impaired for the rest of his life. Tannery was sentenced to 13 years in prison and was released in 2007 after serving eight.

Dominick — who had been adopted by Wendell Pittsenbarger and took his last name — died in April, and prosecutors took another look at the case. Last week, a grand jury indicted the now 39-yera-old Tannery for second-degree murder. He is being held on $500,000 bond.

Olin Tannery

Dominick used a wheelchair through much of his life, but when he was in middle school, a coach taught him how to shoot a basketball.  He fell in love with the sport and spent countless hours shooting baskets on a goal at their home, Wendell Pittsenbarger told the Kansas City Star. He graduated from Smithville High School in 2017.

“I love that boy and still miss him dearly,” Pittsenbarger said. “I think about him all of the time.”

 

Caregivers Forced Disabled Residents Into Fight Club, Leaving 1 to Die: Suit

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Carl Debrodie was forced to fight other residents at his senior home

FULTON, Missouri — The sadistic staff of a care home forced a developmentally disabled resident to spar with other residents and then left him to die when he began having seizures following one brutal brawl, a bombshell lawsuit alleges.

Carl DeBrodie’s body was found entombed in a block of concrete in a Missouri storage locker, months after he had died at the home of one of Second Chance Homes’ employees, the Fulton Sun reported.

In a civil lawsuit, DeBrodie’s family alleges that he had regularly been forced to engage in a kind of fight club with other Second Chance residents, solely for the amusement of staff members.

During the course of many beatings, the suit said DeBrodie suffered multiple broken ribs and routinely had black eyes and other facial swelling.

Sometime between Oct. 25 and Nov. 24 in 2016, the suit alleges employee Sherry Paulo, took DeBrodie and another resident to her home to perform unpaid manual labor and to fight each other.

While there, DeBrodie, 31, went into a seizure. But instead of calling for help, the suit alleges that Paulo and her husband, Anthony Flores. Sr. placed him in a tub under a running shower, failing to perform CPR even though he was convulsing and had blood coming from his mouth.

“Carl remained in the bathtub for two or three days until he was ultimately placed into the city of Fulton trash can, encased in concrete and placed into a storage unit,” the suit said.

DeBrodie was declared missing until the following April, when employees at Second Chance told authorities that he may have wandered off. His body was found days later.

No one has yet been charged criminally in the case. The civil suit names 18 defendants in all, including state social workers for allegedly failing to monitor his case well enough.

 

Dad Killed in Senseless Bar Fight Over Dog’s Weight

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Scott Beary was shot when he told man he couldn’t believe his dog weighed 290 pounds

FLORISSANT, Missouri — A Missouri father of three was senselessly shot to death after a dumb argument at a bar over the weight of dog turned violent, police and witnesses said.

Scott Beary’s death dealt a double-blow to his family coming five days after they had buried a daughter who was born prematurely and died after just two weeks.

And so far, the gunman has been allowed to go free because the state’s “stand your ground” laws have complicated matters for prosecutors.

The deadly turn of events occured when Beary, 43, had stopped in Show Me’s Sports Bar and Grill in Florissant with a pal last Wednesday after getting off work, police said.

Beary, who was described by friends as “a big, lovable guy,” got into a conversation with some other patrons. The mood turned when one of the men boasted that he had a German shepard that weighed 290 pounds and Beary expressed disbelief, witnesses told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“I know, it sounds ridiculous,” witness Carl Leavy said. “[Beary] said, ‘I’m 325 pounds, I can’t even fathom a dog as big as I am,’

The man insisted Beary go out to his car where the dog was to see for himself, but Beary then took a phone call and never left the bar, witnesses said.

The dog owner and his pal — who witnesses say pulled the gun — went outside and soon returned in an “agitated” mood. As the bartender sought to usher them out, Beary went to settle his tab and tried to calm things down by saying “no hard feelings.”

The gunman then called Beary a “fat fuck,” Leavy said. Beary turned back towards the man, who pulled out a gun and shot Beary in the chest. Another man, Ryan Jacobsmeyer, was also wounded.

Other patrons managed to disarm the gunman and held him until police arrived. The 54-year-old man was initially taken into custody, but was released on Friday. Prosecutors say they were unable to immediately charge him due to the state’s “stand-your-ground” laws. The investigation is ongoing, however, and charges may still be filed.

His name has not been released by police because he has not been charged.

Beary, who worked as a construction worker for a firm that did emergency repairs in disaster zones following hurricanes and tornadoes, leaves behind his wife and three teenage children.

Tanning Salon Kingpin Sentenced to 20 Years in Bizarre Kidnap

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Massage and tanning tycoon Todd Berman was sentenced to 20 years

ST. LOUIS — The former CEO and founder of a national chain of tanning salons and massage parlors was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a bizarre and terrifying kidnapping of a thief who stole his marijuana.

Todd Beckman, 53, admitted he directed his cohorts in November 2016 to bring the bound and gagged victim to his home where they held unloaded guns to his head and repeatedly pulled the trigger, before extracting a ransom from his parents.

Beckman ran Bam Brands, which operated franchises of Tan Co., MassageLuXe, Xist Fitness and LifeXist in 11 states. But he also running a large scale marijuana business, shipping 50- to 80-pound bundles of weed to his office in Missouri.

But Beckman took a violent turn after the victim broke into his home and stole 24 pounds of marijuana and $15,000 cash, authorities said.

A month later, Beckman dispatched brothers Caleb and Blake Laubinger to break into the victim’s home, bind him with zip ties and bring him to a basement where Beckman pistol-whipped the man and fired the unloaded gun at his head numerous times.

They then called the victim’s parents, demanding cash not to kill him. Two days later, the parents agreed to send $27,000 for their son’s release.

Beckman and the others were arrested soon after. He pleaded guilty last November to one felony count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

Drunk Charged in Choking Death After Mistaking Neighbor’s House For His Own

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cops say Michael Augustine was blotto when he bumbled into his neighbor’s house

RAYTOWN, Missouri — A drunken Missouri man who accidentally stumbled into a neighbor’s house thinking it was his own, has been charged with strangling his neighbor to death after confusing him for an intruder.

Police in Raytown found Michael Augustine, 43, on top of 60-year-old Clifton King in the front yard of King’s house as they responded to a call for an intruder.

“That’s right. I f—ed him up!” Augustine told the officers as they checked for King’s pulse, the Kansas City Star reported.

Police say Augustine reeked of booze and was slurring his speech. He was charged with first-degree manslaughter

A neighbor told WDAF-TV that King was a military veteran.

“He served our country and that was not an honorable way to treat him,” the woman said. “I think that it’s sad. It’s sad! Someone had to give up their life because someone was so messed up they didn’t know it wasn’t their home.”

Involuntary manslaughter  carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a minimum sentence of three years.

 

Burned Bagel Triggers Major Airport Evacuation

By HardBoiledNews Staff

No one likes a burned bagel

ST. LOUIS — A burned bagel prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people from the airport in St. Louis into the frigid night after triggering off alarms across a terminal.

The overly toasted bagel sparked the evacuation of terminal 2 at St. Louis Lambert International Airport around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, forcing between 300 and 400 Southwest Airline passengers outside where temperatures had dipped to around 11 degrees.

The matter was quickly resolved anad the airport began rescreening people after about 30 minutes.

“For a while, I was convinced I wasn’t going to make the flight. We’re on the last flight to Boston, and I was convinced I wasn’t going to make the flight. But they turned it around very, very quickly, got everyone through security, and it turned out to be, at least for me, a non-issue,” passenger Claude Greer told KDSK-TV.

No Scrubs: Man Shoots at Woman Who Refused To Give Her Phone Number

By HardBoiledNews Staff

KANSAS CITY — Time to develop a thicker skin.

Cops are searching for a man who fired a gun at a woman who refused to give him her phone number after he started hassling her in the street.

The 22-year-old woman said she was walking to church in Kansas City Thursday afternoon, when two men pulled up next to her in car. One of the men started yelling at her, but she ignored him and called her mother on her cellphone instead.

“He was like, ‘Can I have your number?’ I said no and kept walking. So he kind of pulled up a little bit in front of me and then shot at the ground right next to me,” the woman told WDAF-TV.

The woman, whose name was withheld, said he then yelled at her in a nasty tone that she “better watch how she talks to people.”

No one was hurt, but the woman said she was quite shaken up.

“I know it’s going to take a while, but I hope it doesn’t stop me from living my life,” she said.

She told investigators that the car was a black Nissan or similar sedan model, with Chiefs flags flying in the windows on both sides of the car. No arrests have been made.

Former NBA Star Kermit Washington Pleads Guilty in Charity Scam

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kermit Washington played five seasons with the Lakers including 1977, the year of the infamous punch

KANSAS CITY — Former NBA star Kermit Washington has pleaded guilty to pocketing close to $250,000 meant to help needy people in Africa as part of a broad charity scam.

Washington, 66, played 11 seasons in the NBA but is most famous for landing a roundhouse punch on Houston Rockets great Rudy Tomjanovich in a 1977 brawl that shattered his face and ended his playing career.

He admitted that he used money earmarked for his charity, Project Contact Africa, to pay for his own expenses and pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft and filing phony tax returns. He faces up to eight years in federal prison.

The case against Washington was closely connected to separate fraud investigations involving NFL Hall of Famer Ron Mix and a man who pleaded guilty to running one of the biggest software piracy cases ever prosecuted in the U.S.

Mix, 79, who became a worker’s compensation attorney after his playing days, was accused of funneling money into Washington’s charity as kickback payments for athlete clients the retired hoopster had steered his way. He pleaded guilty in 2016 to falsely claiming the payments as charitable donations on his tax return.

Washington also took money from Reza Davachi, 43, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to selling over $100 million in pirated software. He admitted using the Project Contact Africa Paypal account to process payments, avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees as the transactions were considered charitable donations.

A 6-foot-8 power forward, Washington  averaged 9.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game during his career during which he mostly played for the Los Angeles Lakers but also had stints with the Celtics, the Clippers, the Trailblazers and the Warriors.

But he never lived down the infamy of delivering the 1977 on-court punch that ended Tomjanovich’s playing days.

Tomjanovich, 69, went on to coach the Houston Rockets for 13 seasons from 1991-2003, winning two championships.

 

 

‘I Blew Half His Face Off’ — Loudmouth Killer Boasts to Undercover Cop

By HardBoiledNews Staff

KANSAS CITY — It’s the kind of thing you probably don’t want to be blabbing about all over town.

A Kansas City drug dealer landed himself in major trouble when he admitted the details of a grisly slaying he committed a few days earlier to an undercover cop he was selling drugs to, prosecutors allege.

Orval Johnson, 24, was meeting with the officer for the fourth time to sell him cocaine in March and made the eye-popping confession when the cop noticed a gun hanging out of Johnson’s pants and asked what was going on.

“They tried to rob me out there the other day and shit,” Johnson allegedly said, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. “I had to kill that bastard, blew half his fucking face off.”

“He tried rob me and kill me and my bitch, I blew half his fuckin face off,” Johnson allegedly continued. He then told the cop that he had his girlfriend “play the rape thing,” meaning she’d shot the man in self defense because he tried to rape her.

A review of recent killings in the area quickly turned up the shooting death four days earlier of 30-year-old Ricky Boswell in which a woman told cops she shot him because he had tried to rape her. Turns out the woman was Johnson’s girlfriend.

After being taken in for questioning, Johnson admitted that he had met with Boswell to sell him cocaine, but that Boswell pulled out a gun to rob him. The two men scuffled, and Johnson said he told his girlfriend to give him his gun. She shot Boswell and when he then tried to attack her, Johnson admitted he shot him several times, killing him. He then wiped his DNA off the gun and concocted the rape story with his girlfriend to cover his tracks.

Johnson has been charged with distribution and possession with intent to distribute drugs, possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and being a drug user in possession of a firearm. He has not been charged with Boswell’s killing.

 

At the time of his death, Boswell had only been out of jail for three months after serving four years in a murder case.

 

Missing Man’s Corpse Sat Unnoticed in Car for 8 Months at Airport Parking Lot

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Randy Potter allegedly sat dead in a busy parking lot since January

KANSAS CITY — A man who went missing eight months ago has been found dead inside a car parked at a lot at the Kansas City airport where he apparently shot himself in January and had sat unnoticed ever since.

Randy Potter’s family is outraged that his body hadn’t been discovered sooner as it sat in a busy parking lot for months. When he was found, his body was so decomposed investigators couldn’t immediately tell its gender or race, the Kansas City Star reported.

Police believe Potter committed suicide not long after he was last seen on Jan. 17 and his truck was found on the ground level of a short- and long-term lot. His relatives say they had approached airport authorities early on in their hunt for him and were told if his 2014 Dodge Ram pickup were in one of their lots, it would be found.

But it wasn’t until someone noticed a foul stench coming from the vehicle.

“How is it possible, in America?” said Potter’s wife, Carolina. “A truck sitting there for eight months? He could have been found a lot sooner if everybody had done their job.”

The family has hired a lawyer. Kansas City police say they are investigating what had gone wrong, although they noted that airport authorities had 25,000 parking spaces to check.

“How many thousands of people drove by the vehicle? How many people walked by?” Potter’s niece, Melissa Alderman told the paper. “It’s disgusting. And it’s infuriating. It’s a total disregard for human life.”

Day Care Operator Charged With Trying to Kidnap Infant to Put Up for Adoption

By HardBoiledNews Staff

JOPLIN, Missouri — It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.

A woman running a Missouri day care center has been charged with plotting to kidnap a 5-month-old baby in her care and give her to another family in Arkansas in an illegal adoption, authorities said.

Lasonya Poindexter, 30, ran the daycare out of her home with her younger sister and began taking care of Ashley and Christian Still’s daughter a few days a week in April, federal prosecutors said.

In June, Poindexter allegedly contacted a couple in Lincoln, Arkansas and began making arrangements for them to adopt the little girl she was caring for even though her parents had no intention of giving her up, prosecutors said.

Over the coming months, authorities say Poindexter made at least four 100-mile trips to Arkansas to bring the baby to meet the prospective new parents, who were unaware that she had no authority to do so. The duped couple went so far as to build a nursery in their home.

Lasonya Poindexter

Investigators say Poindexter told the couple that the baby had been the product of a rape and that the mother had left the child with Poindexter asking her to find it a home. She told them that the mother wanted a “closed adoption” and didn’t want to meet them.

But the couple eventually grew suspicious as Poindexter’s story about who would pay for the adoption changed and she repeatedly declined the couple’s offer to drive to Missouri to see the child.

The plot unraveled in July when the prospective mother spotted a photo of Ashley Stills with the baby through Poindexter’s daughter’s Facebook page. Further review of other photos revealed that Stills appeared to be the baby’s mother. When the woman messaged Stills, she discovered the baby had not been put up for adoption and the Stills contacted authorities.

When confronted by the prospective mother, Poindexter later told authorities that she considered offering them another child in her care.

She has been charged with attempted kidnapping.

Liberal Bumper Stickers Triggers Road Rage Gun Incident in the Ozarks

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Laura Umphenour’s car features these stickers

OZARK, Missouri — A conservative motorist was arrested after pulling a gun and waving it at the driver of a car bearing liberal bumper stickers, causing her to crash, police said.

Police in Ozark, Missouri say Edward Burns, 48, pulled up alongside Laura Umphenour’s car and flashed an “L” hand sign at her. When she then flipped him the bird, he responded by pulling a Smith & Wesson .380 handgun from his waistband and pointing it to her.

Umphenour said she was startled by the sight of the gun, and swerved, striking Burn’s vehicle and then slamming into the guardrail. When cops arrived, Burns at first denied pulling the gun, but then fessed up.

“I made a bad choice,” he told police, according to the Kansas City Star. He added he thought the woman’s bumper stickers were “stupid.,”

Edward Burns told cops he felt triggered by Umphenour’s bumper stickers

According to the police report, Burns said he is a conservative.

Umphenour’s car features bumper stickers such as “Hillary Clinton 2016,” “Right to work is a rip off,” “Resist,” “Coexist” and “Because of my faith I vote for Democrats.”

Burns was charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon and was released on $5,000 bond.

Black Gunman Eyed as Serial Killer in Slayings of 5 White KC Hikers

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Frederick Demond Scott has been charged in the death of two men and is a top suspect in three other killings

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A 22-year-old Missouri man is being eyed as a possible serial killer responsible for the shooting deaths of five middle aged men who he may have targeted because they were white, authorities said.

Frederick Demond Scott, who is black, has been charged in the fatal shootings of two of the victims and is considered a top suspect in the death of three others who were all gunned down along a popular hiking trail in Kansas City.

Police say it is not clear if the attacks were racially motivated, but in 2014, Scott was arrested for threatening to shoot up a high school “Columbine style” and “kill all white people,” according to the Kansas City Star.

He was sentenced to six months in jail but later had the sentence suspended and was put on probation. His mother told the paper that her son suffered from paranoid schizophrenia but refused to get treatment.

The victims, who ranged in age from 54 to 67, were killed on and around the Indian Creek hiking trail between August 2016 and August of this year. Several of the shootings appeared to be ambush killings in which the victims were shot in the back of the head. Some were killed while walking their dogs, with the animals remaining by their sides until their bodies were found.

Police say Scott boasted, “they didn’t see it coming,” when questioned by detectives.

Investigators got a break in the case after the fifth killing, which occurred on a city street in broad daylight, when they located surveillance footage showing Scott follow the victim a bus before he was shot.

Scott was later linked to the scene from DNA detectives lifted from a iced tea bottle and a cigarette butt found at the scene of the final killing. The DNA also matched that found on a t-shirt left at the scene of an earlier killing.

People who knew Scott said he had never been the same following the shooting death of his half-brother, Gerrod Woods, in a robbery in 2015. The killer in that case, who is black, was recently sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Innocent Man Released After 17 Years as Lookalike Suspect is Discovered

By HardBoiledNews Staff

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.”

 

St. Louis Doctor Found Dead in Island Paradise

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Dr. John McGurk was found dead on the rocks near the Blue Horizon resort

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos — A Missouri doctor was found dead near his resort hotel in an island paradise in the Caribbean after having gone missing for several days, police said.

John McGurk, 32, an internal medicine specialist from St. Louis, was found on Friday on the rocks just above the shoreline near the Blue Horizon resort on Middle Caicos, the Royal Turks and Caicos police said.

The island chain lies just north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

McGurk had checked into the hotel last Monday and was reported missing on Wednesday after hotel staff realized no one had seen him since he had arrived, police said.

 

Investigators believe McGurk, who worked at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, may have fallen while taking a hike near the hotel.

Authorities were initially unable to recover McGurk;s body because of where it had fallen and the tides. The U.S Coast Guard was called in to assist.

McGurk began practicing in 2014. He graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and finished his residency in internal medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Washington University School of Medicine.

Wife, Son-in-Law Charged in Slain KKK Imperial Wizard’s Killing

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Klan boss Frank Ancona’s body was found over the weekend after he’d been shot in the head

LEADWOOD, Missouri — The wife and son-in-law of a slain Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard have been charged with shooting him in the head and dumping his body in the woods, police say.

Frank Ancona’s body was discovered along the bank on the Big River in central Missouri on Saturday, a day after his car was found parked in the nearby Mark Twain National Forest.

Authorities said they believed the 51-year-old Ancona had been shot in his sleep because he had told his wife he wanted a divorce.

“It may have been a marital issue,” St. Francois County Prosecutor Jarrod Mahurin told the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Malissa Ancona, 44, and her son, Paul Jinkerson Jr., 24, were charged Monday with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse.

Malissa Ancona (r) is believed to have helpedhe son, Paul Jinkerson kill her husband because he wanted a divorce

Detectives say Jinkerson shot his stepfather in the early morning hours on Thursday in his bedroom. Malissa Ancona then helped Jinkerson move her husband’s body and dump it near the Big River.

A search of the Ancona’s home revealed substantial blood evidence in the bedroom and a pile of clothes was found burned near where the Klan leader’s car had been left, a criminal affidavit said.

Ancona is the Imperial Wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights, a Missouri chapter of the KKK. He rose to national attention in 2014, when he said the protests in Ferguson, Missouri against the police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown had awoken a “sleeping giant” and threatened “lethal force” would be used to protect white people and police from “terrorists.”

 

Malissa Ancona told police he was last seen on Wednesday when he got a call from work asking him to make a delivery in another part of the state. But investigators later determined he had not been contacted by the company.

Police also found that a safe in the Anconas’ home had been broken into with a crowbar and its contents taken. Ancona’s collection of guns was also missing.

 

Missing KKK Imperial Wizard Found Dead in Missouri

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Klan boss Frank Ancona had warned that protests in Ferguson, Mo. had awoken “a sleeping giant”

LEADWOOD, Missouri — A Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard who disappeared last week has been found dead in Missouri, police said.

The body of 51-year-old Frank Ancona was discovered on the banks of the Big River in central Missouri a day after authorities found his car parked nearby. Investigators found evidence of “a burn pile,” near the car and officials were awaiting the results of an autopsy.

Ancona is the Imperial Wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights, a Missouri chapter of the KKK. He rose to national attention in 2014, when he said the protests in Ferguson, Missouri against the police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown had awoken a “sleeping giant” and threatened “lethal force” would be used to protect white people and police from “terrorists.”

His wife, Malissa, told police he was last seen on Wednesday when he got a call from work asking him to make a delivery in another part of the state. But investigators later determined he had not been contacted by the company.

The Daily Journal newspaper reported that police found that a safe in Ancona’s home had been broken into with a crowbar and its contents taken and police say they do not suspect burglary.

Ancona’s collection of guns was also missing, but the gun he usually carried was left at home, which he relatives said was suspicious, the newspaper reported.

Ancona’s wife said that when her husband left, he said he wanted a divorce and had taken some belongings with him.

“Frank and I weren’t getting along too well,” Malissa told KFVS-TV. “We were working on our marriage. He told me when he got back he was filing for divorce and took a bag of clothes with him.”

Ikea Shoplifter Stuffs Frying Pan in Skin Tight Leggings, Fools No One

By HardBoiledNews Staff

ST. LOUIS — She had junk in her trunk and then some.

A cheeky St. Louis shoplifter tried to walk away from an Ikea with a large frying pan shoved down her skin-tight leggings.

Naturally, Sierra Coleman didn’t get far before store security caught up to her and attempted to detain her in the store parking lot, where the whole farcical episode was caught by a passerby’s cell phone video camera.

Despite the large pan sticking out of the back of her pants, the 28-year-old Coleman was resistant to the idea that she’d done anything wrong.

“It’s a misdemeanor,” Coleman yells. “Only 30 dollars!”

One of the clearly bemused security guards reminds Coleman: You have IKEA property in your pants.”

Sierra Coleman seriously underestimated the amount of room she had in her pants

Bystanders were also pretty amused by the spectacle, with one asking: “Is that a pot in the back of your pants?”

Matters became more tense when one of the guards accused Coleman of scratching a biting him. She was eventually arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft and assault, according to the Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis.

Grinch Stabs Frosty in Not So Merry Christmas Attack

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Cameras caught the assault on Frosty by a vandal

Cameras caught the assault on Frosty by a vandal

ST. LOUIS — The war on Christmas is real!

A late-night grinch ran into a Missouri man’s yard and maliciously stabbed an inflatable Frosty the Snowman yard ornament and the whole brutal assault was caught on tape.

Jeff Diggs says he was horrified to find Frosty severally wounded in what he said looked like a “mob hit style assault” just weeks before Christmas. Diggs’ security camera footage shows Frosty sink slowly to the ground as the air escapes out through the wound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxKzNwEPEB0

The footage shows a white male, possibly in his 20s, with a bandana covering his face, hop out of the passenger side of an older model dark colored two-door small size pickup truck,” before shanking the lawn ornament on its right side.

“Frosty received a total of 9 stitches from the stabbing. He is doing well and recovering from his injury,” Diggs wrote on a Go Fund Me page he set up to raise cash to a local children’s charity in Frosty’s honor.

“He insisted on going back to work immediately because he believes in the magic of the holiday season and hopes that all people will come together and learn to love and respect each other regardless of our differences!” Diggs wrote.

 

World’s Worst Wedding Photographer Charged in Sleazy Porn Scam

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Mario Ambrose Antoine, also known as 'Mario Sixstring' and 'Mario Ferrari'

Mario Ambrose Antoine, also known as ‘Mario Sixstring’ and ‘Mario Ferrari’

RAYMORE, Missouri — A sleazy Missouri wedding photographer has been indicted for duping dozens of women into having sex with him by making them think they were going to be paid for appearing in pornographic films.

Federal prosecutors say Mario Ambrose Antoine — who is also known as “Mario Sixstring” and “Mario Ferrari” — promised to pay women he met online tens of thousands of dollar to appear in adult films.

According to the indictment, the 33-year-old Antoine created online aliases in which he would promote himself as a talent manager, photographer or videographer who worked for fictitious companies with names like “Playboy Worldwide,” “Playboy Asia” and “Dash Agency.”

He told his victims that the films would appear only on websites overseas.

Starting in 2011, Antoine is alleged to have “auditioned” dozens of women in and around Kansas City for possible employment by having them have sex with him on camera.. He even went so far as to use phony tax forms and other documents to make the businesses look legitimate. He continued running the scam for four years.

When the women didn’t receive payment and complained, Antoine is alleged to have sent sexually explicit images to their employers and boyfriends. In some cases he blackmailed his victims by saying they could either pay him thousands in cash or have sex with him or else he would send pictures to their loved ones.

Antoine allegedly preyed on his victims online by posing as “Nikki,” and complimenting them on their looks and asking if they were interested in modeling. Nikki would bring up adult modeling and tell the women they could make tens of thousands of dollars posing for pictures and videos that would only be available on private websites in other countries.

Nikki would then direct the women to a house in Raymore, Mo. where they would meet with Antoine to film sex scenes.

Prosecutors say that in 2015, Antoine studied up on the law surrounding what he was doing, conducting Google searches for “rape by deception,” “rape by deception kansas,” and “illegal to trick girls into sleeping with you,” and viewed websites and law journals.

Antoine was charged with 12 counts of wire fraud, two counts of cyberstalking, two counts of online enticement and other charges. While dozens of women may have fallen prey to Antoine’s scam, the charges relate to six different women he duped.

Much of what Antoine is charged with occurred while he was out on probation from a 2013 state conviction related to a wedding photography business he ran. He was found guilty of scamming brides by taking their cash to take pictures at their weddings but not showing up and then refusing to give the money back.

 

 

 

Report: Mizzou Frat Trained Pledges How to Use Date Rape Drugs

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Delta Upsilon's house at the University of Missouri

Delta Upsilon’s house at the University of Missouri

COLUMBIA, Missouri — A scandal-plagued fraternity at the University of Missouri has been investigated for allegedly handing pledges date rape drugs and teaching them how to use them.

The troubling allegation against the Delta Upsilon fraternity comes a month after the Greek organization was suspended on campus following an episode in which some of its members were accused of yelling racial slurs at black students.

That has led other students to come forward to the school’s Civil Rights and Title IX office to report various accounts over the past 15 months of underage drinking, hazing rituals and — most alarmingly — the alleged use of date rape drugs.

“Active members of delta upsilon fraternity allegedly provided each new member with three pills and instructed them to drug women for the purpose of incapacitating them prior to engaging in sexual activity. it has been alleged that new members are required to engage in such conduct in order to complete the initiation process,” read documents obtained by the Columbia Daily Tribune.

The documents contain reports from police and the school’s department of student life, including claims from women who believed they were drugged. In one account, a woman who was discovered without pants in a residence hall with feces smeared on the wall near her, said she had been drinking at Delta Upsilon. But her friends said she had been acting strangely and believed she may have been drugged.

Delta Upsilon’s national office called the allegations about the use of date rape drugs”deeply concerning but said they were “unsubstantiated.” It noted that no formal charges have been brought against the chapter or that no reports of sexual assault had surfaced.

“Such rumors are disgusting and egregious,” the national office said in a statement.

The group said the only active investigations against the chapter revolve around the late September incident in which racial slurs were used and earlier alcohol violations that involved two other fraternities. “Delta Upsilon is working closely with the university to investigate these alleged incidents,” the statement read.