True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Customs Agents Nab $2.8 Million in Cocaine-Crusted Corn Flakes

By HardBoiledNews Staff

CINCINNATI — Definitely not the breakfast of champions,

Customs agents in Cincinnati made an eye-opening discovery when they found dozens of boxes of cocaine-soaked breakfast cereal.

Authorities say they were first alerted to the illicit load by “Bico,” a narcotics detector dog who flagged a large shipment of cereal headed from Peru to a home in Hong Kong. 

“When officers opened the box to take a closer look, they saw that the cereal contained white powder, and the flakes were coated with a grayish substance,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.

Testing revealed that the cereal flakes had been soaked in cocaine. In all, the shipment contained about 44 pounds of cocaine coated corn flakes, which could have a street value of up to $2.8 million.

Cincinnati Port Director Richard Gillespie said that smugglers will hide narcotics in anything imaginable and that agents are prepared for anything.

Video Shows Car Fly Off Road Into Row of Vehicles in Ohio Auto Lot

By HardBoiledNews Staff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlzj_Sckh2U

BEDFORD, Ohio — A 28-year-old mother of three was killed in a spectacular crash when she lost control of her car and flew off a roadway and into a row of parked cars in an auto dealership lot.

Police say Janelle Black, of Cleveland, was speeding around a turn on an elevated roadway Saturday night when she lost control and went airborne.

Her car smashed through two light poles before rolling over nearly a dozen cars inside a Nissan dealership parking lot. The engine from her car was found on the hood of a parked vehicle.

She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead.

Inmate Who Survived Botched Execution Dies on Death Row of Covid-19

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Romell Broom

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio death row inmate who survived a botched execution in 2009 has died of possible complications of COVID-19 while waiting on death row, the state prisons system said.

Ohio unsuccessfully tried to put Romell Broom to death by lethal injection on Sept. 15, 2009. The execution was called off after two hours when technicians could not find a suitable vein, and Broom cried in pain while receiving 18 needle sticks.

Broom returned to death row, where he fought unsuccessfully to avoid a second execution, but his most recent execution date, set for June, was postponed until March 2022 after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine issued a reprieve.

At the time of the 2009 procedure, Broom was only the second inmate in the U.S. to survive an execution.

The 64-year-old Broom is suspected to have died of COVID-19, but an official ruling will come when the coroner issues a death certificate.

Broom’s attorneys had filed arguments with the U.S. Supreme Court that he should be spared a second execution attempt.

Broom survived the 2009 execution “only to live with the ever-increasing fear and distress that the same process would be used on him at his next execution date,” attorneys Timothy Sweeney and Adele Shank said in a statement.

“Let his passing in this way, and not in the execution chamber, be the final word on whether a second attempt should ever have been considered,” they said.

Broom was sentenced to die for raping and killing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in 1984 as she walked home from a football game with two friends.

Ohio Gunmen Shoot Up Home Sporting ‘Dump Trump’ Signs

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The pro-Trump shooters took aim at this sign

GREEN, Ohio  — Things are getting pretty tense out there.

Police are hunting for a pair of Trump supporters who stole an Ohio man’s “Dump Trump” yard sign and then fired a couple of shotgun blasts through his window.

The Summit County Sheriff’s office says the homeowner reported that an unknown suspect entered his yard the day after election day and stole a “Dump Trump” sign. A second suspect then shot into his home at a “Dump Trump” sign that was displayed in the front window, blowing out the window and damaging the siding on the house.

Sheriff’s deputies recovered two shotgun shells near the house. 

The man said he had been receiving unusual things in his mailbox before the shooting including photographs of his “Dump Trump” sign and brochures supporting the president.

Disgraced Judge Kills Ex-Wife He Brutally Beat in Front of Kids in 2014

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Disgraced judge Lance Mason had served nine months for beating his ex-wife in 2014

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — A disgraced former judge has been arrested for fatally stabbing his ex-wife after serving time for brutally beating her in front of their kids, cops said.

Lance Mason, 51, allegedly stabbed his estranged wife, Aisha Fraser Mason, a sixth-grade school teacher, at his home on Saturday, police said. He then fled the scene in his SUV and rammed a police cruiser, severely injuring a Shaker Heights police officer as he got out of the vehicle.

The officer, Adam Flynt, is expected to live.

Mason was thrown off the bench after the vicious attack on his wife in 2014 that left her with a broken orbital bone that required reconstructive surgery.

Investigators said Mason punched Fraser Mason 20 times and slammed her head against the dashboard of his car five times, while the couple’s children were in the back of the car. Mason, who previously served in the state legislature, was a sitting Cuyahoga County judge when the attack took place.

After his 2014 arrest, police found a large arsenal of weapons and ammunition in his home.

Mason served nine months of a two-year prison sentence and went to work as a minority business development director for the mayor of Cleveland’s office after his release. He was fired after his arrest on Saturday.

Fraser Mason filed for divorce two days after the attack. The divorce case was still pending at the time of her death.  She also won a $150,000 judgement in a civil case against her ex-husband.

As part of his petition for release, Mason penned a letter to Fraser Mason saying he “failed as a husband, father, and a man,” and promised that once he realized he was “broken” he became a better father and man.”

“My responsibility was to love and protect you,” Mason’s letter said. “Instead of loving, protecting and providing for you and our daughters, I have provided a terrible example, and exposed you to rage and violence.”

4 Charged in Stunning Execution of Ohio Family of 8 Over Custody Dispute

By HardBoiledNews Staff

George Wagner III, Angela Wagner, George Wagner IV and Edward Wagner are charged in the  execution slayings of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio in 2016

WAVERLY, Ohio — Nearly three years after eight members of a rural Ohio family were found shot execution-style in their mobile homes, authorities have charged four members of another family long acquainted with the victims.

The brutal, execution-style slayings of two generations of the Rhoden family in Pike County in Appalachia in April 2016, had perplexed authorities who had dedicated thousands of hours of detective work and had interviewed over 550 people in the effort to track down the killers.

“We promised the victims’ families that the day would come when this case would be solved, and today is that day,” said Attorney General Mike DeWine. “These suspects developed a calculated plan to execute the victims in the middle of the night and then carefully cover their tracks. Their alleged plan was sophisticated, but not sophisticated enough.”

George “Billy” Wagner III, 47, Angela Wagner, 48, George Wagner IV, 27, and Edward “Jake” Wagner, 26, were charged with eight counts of aggravated murder and face the death penalty.

DeWine said the killings appeared to have stemmed from a custody dispute over the five-year-old daughter of Jack Wagner and 19-year-old Hanna May Rhoden.

“There was an obsession with custody of the children. There was an obsession of control of the children,” DeWine said. He dismissed a long-standing theory that the murders were connected to a marijuana business relationship between the families that had gone sour.

Additionally, authorities arrested Angela Wagner’s mother, Rita Newcomb, 65, and Billy Wagner’s mother, Fredericka Wagner, 76, on charges of obstructing justice, perjury and forging custody documents.

Suspicion had long been cast on the Wagner family, but DeWine said efforts the clan had made to cover their tracks had slowed the investigation. At one point, members of the Wagner family had moved to Alaska, purportedly to get away from the glare of the investigation, but had since moved back to Ohio.

The case dates backs to April 2016, when authorities found  seven members of the Rhoden family, plus the fiancée of one of the Rhoden victims, each shot numerous times  at four different mobile homes in Pike County.

Among the dead were:: Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, his ex-wife Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, and their three children, Hanna Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20. Frankie Rhoden’s fiancée, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20, was also killed, along with the elder Christopher Rhoden’s brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44, and cousin Gary Rhoden, 38.

 

Most of the victims were killed as they slept. Three young children at home at the time of the murders were left unharmed.

The turning point in the case came last week, when authorities determined that one of the Wagner’s had built a homemade silencer for a gun.

“The Wagners were friends with the Rhodens and had been for years. They knew the layouts of the Rhodens’ homes, and they knew the victims’ routines. It is our belief that the suspects used this knowledge to meticulously plan these horrendous, cold-blooded murders,” DeWine said.

The indictments allege that the suspects purchased ammunition, a magazine clip, bags to catch spent shell casings and a bug detector in preparation for the crimes.

Jake Wagner is also charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor for having sex with Hanna Rhoden when she was 15 and he was 20.

Sweet-Toothed Thief Steals $1,600 Worth of Cookies From Girl Scouts

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Noel Hines refused to pay for all the cookies she took

NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — What a cookie monster!

A heartless Ohio woman with a sweet tooth is behind bars for stealing $1,600 worth of cookies from a Girl Scout troop, police say.

Noel Hines has been charged with taking a large delivery of Girl Scout cookies to sell for a local troop back in March, but then never handed over any of the cash from selling them, the North College Hill police said.

For six months, the organization tried to get hold of Hines to pay up, but she never responded. Even when cops got involved, Hines refused to discuss paying for the sweets or giving them back.

So cops charged her with theft and arrested her last week while she was in court on unrelated charges.

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles,” the department said in a Facebook post.

 

Ohio Man Calls Cops to Report He is Being Chased by a Pig

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cops were convinced the man reporting the pig was dead drunk and hallucinating but they were wrong

ELYRIA, Ohio — Now, if he said it was six-foot rabbit named Harvey, that would be a different story.

An Ohio police department thought they had a drunk with a wild imagination on their hands when they received a call from a man who claimed he was being followed by a pig.

But when officers responded, they discovered a completely sober man who was indeed being followed by a pig.

The North Ridgeville Police Department says they got the call at 5:26 a.m. on Saturday from a man who said he spotted the porcine pursuer as he walked home from the train station in Elyria.

“Night shift responded to the obviously drunk guy walking home from the bar at 5:26 in the morning. He was at least drunk enough to call the police on himself while hallucinating,” the department wrote on its Facebook page.

But when they go there, “they found a very sober male walking … from the actual Amtrak train station in Elyria, not the bar. Oh, and he was being followed by a pig.”

After wiping egg off his face, a patrolman “managed to wrangle (I think this is the correct word to use) said pig into his cruiser and he is currently secured in our pig pens…..er, dog kennels. Whatever.”

The cops weren’t too ashamed to make themselves the butt of their own joke in the end.

”We will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they’re funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard,” the department wrote. “Have a great day.”

The following day, the department said the pig had been returned to its owner.

 

Quick-Thinking Good Samaritan Lays Gunman Flat for Cops to Pick Up

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The brave bystander was happy to lend a leg to trip up a gunman cops were pursuing

COLUMBUS, Ohio — That’s some fancy footwork.

A Good Samaritan is being credited by cops with helping take an armed gunman off the streets when he stuck his leg out and tripped up the crook as he fled from police.

The brave bystander, identified only as Bill, was standing outside a public library in Columbus, Ohio when the suspect darted by with cops giving hot pursuit.

“I figured OK, this is a chase,” Bill said of watching officers chasing the man and yelling, “Gun, gun, gun!”

“I saw who you guys were chasing and I could see he was holding something in his waistband but he had a pretty good lead,” Bill said. “So I got in his way to slow him down.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXK4Re7VS2Q

As the man passed, Bill craftily stuck out his leg, which sent the teenage suspect flying and allowed cops time to catch up.

Police said the teen was armed with a Glock 9mm pistol with an extended clip, which he dropped as he fell to the ground. The department thanked Bill “for sticking your leg out for us” and added that the move may have saved the 18-year-old’s life in the process.

“Community involvement, be it by courage, bravery and/or fancy footwork, helped take a criminal off the streets of Columbus,” said the Columbus police, according to WCMH-TV.

 

Urine Trouble: Woman Jailed for Failing Drug Test With Someone Else’s Pee

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kiana Wallace asked the wrong person for their urine sample for a drug test

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — If you are going to fail a drug test, better to do it with your own piss.

A red-faced Ohio woman admitted in court that she used someone else’s pee for a drug test, but then shockingly tested positive for drugs.

“Let me get this straight,” Belmont County Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Fregiato said, according to WTOV-TV. “To avoid the positive test with your own urine, you used someone else’s urine which turned out to be positive also. That’s bizarre.”

Fregiato accused Kiana Wallace of making a mockery of the court and its drug and alcohol testing system. He then threw the book at Wallace, sentencing her to 1 1/2 years in prison.

Wallace was sentenced to six months in jail last January 2017 for drug possession.

 

Radical Professor at Kent State University Charged With Lying to FBI in ISIS Probe

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kent State University history professor Julio Pino has been under investigation about alleged ties to ISIS

CLEVELAND — A radical professor at Kent State University has been charged with lying to the FBI during a probe into his possible connections to the Islamic State.

Julio Pino, 58, who has taught history at the Ohio university since 1992, is charged with falsely telling investigators he didn’t know a man he messaged with online and egged on as he discussed killing people, including a judge involved in his custody case.

“I’m playing the game backwards.  and winning! . . . I will kill 100s of people if they take my rights as a father away!” the man, identified in court papers only as J.E. said.

“Devour them, [J.E.],” Pino replied.

In January 2016, the man was charged with threatening a judge. Around that time, the FBI launched a probe into Pino, questioning his students about whether he attempted to recruit any of them to join ISIS. At the time, Pino called the allegations preposterous.

A Muslim convert, Pino has long been a lightning rod for controversy. In 2002, he wrote a newspaper column, eulogizing a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. Nearly a decade later, he shouted “Death to Israel” at a lecture by a former Israeli diplomat.

There have been calls to revoke his tenure, but the school always refused on first amendment grounds. The school has suspended him following the filing of charges on Monday. His attorney told Cleveland.com, that his client is planning to retire.

Drunken Wannabe Arsonist Wags Tongue at the Law

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Amber Legge — and her tongue — do not seem to be taking being arrested very seriously

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Take your law and shove it.

That’s the attitude Amber Legge had on display when she was arrested in Ohio for allegedly threatening to burn a woman’s house down and driving drunk.

Legge, 32, had gotten into a fight with the owner of a Huber Heights home after going there at 3:15 a.m. Friday to demand money she believed she was owed.

“(The victim) indicated that Legge then returned to her residence…began calling her a ‘dope friend’, threatened to beat her, burn her house down, and contact Children’s Services,” the police report read, according to the Dayton Daily News.

As police arrived at the scene, Legge took off, but was pulled over later when officers determined she was under the influence.

Man Gets 27 Years For Impregnating Twins, 14, and Their 12-Year-Old Sister

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Rapist Arnold Perry abused his friends’ trust by impregnating their three daughters

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A twisted child rapist was sentenced to 27 years in prison for impregnating a pair of 14-year-old twins and their 12-year-old sister.

Arnold Perry, 34, had been a friend of the girls’ family and would periodically stay at their home when he had nowhere else to go, prosecutors said.

One of the twins had an abortion after her pregnancy was discovered, but the other two victims ended up having their babies because they were too far along when it was discovered they were pregnant, prosecutors said.

“These girls will suffer the rest of their lives because of this,” Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin said, according to the Youngstown Vindicator.

Perry pleaded guilty in November to two counts of first-degree felony rape and a third-degree felony count of sexual battery for the attacks, which took place in 2015 and 2016. He had faced 25 years in jail, but the judge gave him two years above the recommended sentence.

Prosecutors say Perry had been convicted of similar crimes as a juvenile.

 

Facial Tattoos Likely to Be Dead Giveaway for This Fugitive

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Michael Mann’s distinctive facial tattoos definitely make him stand out

CINCINNATI — Well, he shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Police in Cincinnati are looking for a man with rather distinctive tattoos covering his face, including a dollar sign over his left eye.

Michael Mann, 34, is wanted on aggravated burglary and domestic violence after allegedly climbing into an unlocked window of his ex-girlfriend’s house on Jan. 9 and choking and slapping her several times. Cops say the victim has a child with Mann.

Mann is described as 6-foot-3 inches and 185 pounds. Cops say he has a history of domestic violence, aggravated robbery and drug charges.

Dealer Who Declared Himself ‘El Chapo Jr. During Police Standoff Gets 12 Years

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Daniel Jones burned his stash on Facebook Live, boasting ‘No evidence on me buddy!’

DAYTON, Ohio — A man who called himself “El Chapo Jr.” and brazenly boasted that he as the biggest drug dealer in the Dayton area on Facebook Live while holed up in a house surrounded by cops has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.

Daniel Jones, 29, had engaged in an hours-long standoff with cops in March 2016 at a Harrison Township apartment complex and even tried to burn his stash of three kilos of fentanyl to get rid of the evidence.

But in the meantime, police watched as Jones flashed wads of cash and talked about his drug-dealing prowess while streaming video live on Facebook, even declared, “No evidence on me buddy,” as he burned the drugs, prosecutors said.

Ultimately, SWAT Team officers and federal agents stormed the apartment, arresting Jones and recovered a handgun as well as the remnants of the burnt fentanyl. They also found $3,000 in cash on Jones and more than $100,000 cash throughout the apartment.

He pleaded guilty last April to one count of possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl and one count of possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony.

Jones has 16 prior felony convictions and is awaiting trial in an assault case and for being found with marijuana in his rectum while in a county jail.

Jones had sought leniency from the judge, saying he took responsibility for what he had done and asking for chance to turn his life around.

“I’m not glorifying or excusing my behavior,” Jones wrote in a letter to the judge. “But I don’t need a decade or two to realize what I did was horribly wrong.”

U.S. District Judge Walter Rice said he while he believed Jones was being sincere, he “totally lacks tools and ability to carry those promises into reality.”

Motorist Critically Hurt as Teens Toss Sandbag Off Highway Overpass

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Teens tossed the heavy sandbag from this overpass

TOLEDO, Ohio — A motorist was critically injured when a sandbag tossed from an overpass by a group of young teens smashed through his windshield and struck him on the head, cops said.

Marquise Byrd, of Warren Michigan, was in the passenger seat of a pal’s car when the sandbag crashed through the windshield late Tuesday, the Toledo police said.

He was taken to a local hospital in critical condition with head injuries, police said.

Pedro Salinas, 13; Sean Carter, 14; Demetrius Wimberly, 14; and William Parker, 14, were arrested and charged with felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and was booked in the Lucas County Juvenile Detention Center.

Authorities said that if Byrd died, the boys would face much steeper charges.

“If that would happen then the state would be bringing forward some sort of homicide charge against all four who were involved,” Lori Olender, deputy prosecutor of the juvenile division, told the Toledo Blaze.

Investigators said they believed the teens had thrown other things at other cars that night but no one else was hurt. Typically, highway overpasses have high fences to prevent objects from being thrown onto the roadway, but the particular overpass is under construction and currently has no fence.

400-Pound Man Charged With Crushing His Autistic Step-Grandson

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Dylan Davis (l) died after 400-pound Donald Martin Crushed Him

MT. ORAB, Ohio — A 400-pound Ohio man has been charged in the death of his autistic step-grandson after pinning the boy down when he started acting up, cops said.

Donald Martin Jr., 58, was charged with reckless homicide in the death of 11-year-old Dylan Martin Davis on the family farm in rural Ohio last Friday, the Brown County Sheriff’s office said.

“It appears that the 11-year-old was deceased as a result of positional asphyxiation or compression,” Sheriff Gordon Ellis told WLWT-TV. “There was some type of altercation between the 11-year-old and his grandmother and the step-grandfather stepped in and restrained the juvenile.”

Prosecutors said the boy was held down for several minutes, after which he became unresponsive.

Police said the boy had had some kind of temper tantrum before the incident, and his father told the station his son had grown more prone to outbursts.

“He was getting older. Sometimes his anger was getting stronger and sometimes he had to be physically restrained,” Sam Davis said.

Davis said his son and Martin had always gotten along, so he was shocked by what had happened.

“I feel sad. I feel angry. I feel confused. I wish it never would have happened,” he said.

 

Martin was released on $100,000 bond.

Thief Drives Off With Utility Vehicle With Worker Dangling From Bucket at Back

By HardBoiledNews Staff

CINCINNATI — A city maintenance worker using a bucket truck to hang Christmas decorations was taken for one hell of a ride when someone stole the truck with him in the bucket.

Cops say Dennis Smith, Jr. hopped behind the wheel of the utility truck Friday and sped off as the worker clung to dear life inside the extendable bucket at the rear.

The worker managed to phone into his office to tell them what was going on and workers there called police.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pSYG1gwS1o

“We just got a call from our maintenance worker that he is in our bucket truck on Vine Street and somebody stole the bucket truck,” the caller said, according to WLWT-TV.

“A bucket truck?” the shocked dispatcher responded. “So he’s still with the vehicle? And the vehicle has been taken?”

Cops were soon in hot pursuit, but the thief wouldn’t stop until officers used spiked strips to puncture the vehicle’s tires, forcing it to crash.

Smith was charged with theft and kidnapping. The utility worker was uninjured.

10-Year-Old Boy Steals Car, Leads Cop’s on Three County, 100 Mph Chase

By HardBoiledNews Staff


MILAN, Ohio — He’s gone straight from playing with Hot Wheels to being hell on wheels.

A 10-year-old Ohio boy led cops on an hour-long chase in a car he stole from his mother’s boyfriend at speeds clocking over 100-miles-an hour

And it was the second time in two weeks that he had taken his mother’s car on a joyride which ended after he got three flat tires, police said..

Police say they got a call from the boy’s mother on Thursday morning, saying she was giving chase in another car but that she needed help stopping her son, Cleveland.com reported.

That led to a 45-mile chase along a major interstate through three counties that only ended with a police officer ramming the boy’s vehicle and spinning it around.

At one point, Ohio State Highway Patrol officer pulled up alongside the boy and motioned for him to stop, and he simply shook his head.

Dashboard camera footage showed how the boy later went off the road to avoid spike strips police had put down and then drove on the outside of the guard rail for several minutes.

When cops finally got the boy to stop, they were forced to smash the side window to pull him kicking and screaming from the vehicle. Police say the boy spat at cops as they took him into custody.

When asked why he did it, cops say the boy replied that he was bored.

Bartender Charged in St. Paddy’s Pub Tumble That Left Underage Girl in Coma

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Megan Keefe suffered severe head injuries in fall at Spirits bar in downtown Cleveland

CLEVELAND — An Ohio bartender has been criminally charged or serving drinks on St. Patrick’s Day to an underage girl who later fell from a second-story balcony and suffered severe head injuries.

Authorities say Carisa Buehner, 29, was tending bar at Spirits in downtown Cleveland when 20-year-old Megan Keefe and her friends came in and ordered drinks. Arview of surveillance footage showed that Buehner served Keefe three vodka drinks that day without asking for ID, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Keefe later tumbled headfirst from the bar’s second floor balcony and smashed her head into a granite railing 15 feet below. The fall tore a chunk of granite off the railing and left Keefe with a bleeding on her brain and fractures to her skull, vertebrae and eye socket.

Her family says she remains in a coma and is currently in a long-term care facility. They say the family has already incurred over $1 million in medical bills and expect it will cost over $10 million to care for her for the rest of her life.

Buehner was charged with with selling alcohol to someone under 21 years old, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Keefe’s family has filed a lawsuit against the bar and the state liquor authority is still investigating whether to revoke its liquor license.

Dad Chasing Daughter While Wearing Clown Mask Sparks Neighborhood Panic

By HardBoiledNews Staff

BOARDMAN, Ohio — A man trying to discipline his 6-year-old daughter by chasing her around while wearing a clown mask, sparked a panic is his town, leading a neighbor to fire a shot into the ground, cops said.

Vernon Barrett Jr., donned the mask to chase his 6-year-old daughter around the neighborhood in Boardman, but she grew so terrified that she hopped into a stranger’s car and ran into a stranger’s house, shouting “A clown is trying to get me,” cops said.

The led Dion Santiago to run out of the apartment with a gun and fire a single shot into the ground the frighten the clown away, WKBN-TV reported.

Barrett was hit with child endangerment and inducing panic charges while Santiago was charged with using weapons while drunk, cops said.

He told cops the girl’s mother is in jail for child endangerment after being convicted of breaking four of the child’s ribs.

Teen Hospitalized After Dad Orders Him to Fight Local Bully

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Carlos Conner

CLEVELAND — That’s one bad dad.

A Cleveland father has been charged with child abuse after driving his 16-year-old son to confront a bully triggering off a fight that left the boy badly hurt, cops said.

Police say Carlos Conner, 35, had insisted his son confront his tormentor, but that the teen landed on his head on the pavement when the bully picked him up and threw him down on the sidewalk.

Doctors say the boy suffered bleeding on the brain, but is expected to live.

Relatives say the boy’s beef with the bully has been simmering for years

“This has been going on for a year and half, you don’t think my brother could’ve forced him to get out the car a year and a half ago? Here, here he is, I’m going to bring you right to him, fight him. My brother’s not a bad guy,” Conner’s sister Cynthia told WKYC-TV.

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

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

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.

Son of ‘Monkey Head Doctor’ Admits Stealing Thousands from Ailing Mother

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A monkey who survived a head transplant

JEFFERSON, Ohio — The son of man known as the “monkey head doctor” has pleaded guilty to forging checks and stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his ailing mother.

Michael A. White, 57, of Geneva, Ohio, pleaded guilty to one count of forgery just days before his case was set to go to trial, the Ashtabula Star Beacon reported.

White was charged with forging his elderly mother’s name on checks and other documents starting in 2011. She died in 2013 at age 79.

White’s father, Robert J. White, was a globally renowned neuroscientist most noted for successfully transplanting the head of a living monkey to another monkey’s body in 1970.

Dr. Robert J. White

The surgery earned him the nickname “Dr. Butcher” among animal rights activists. He died in 2010.

 

Ohio Man Charged With Beating Wife Using His Prosthetic Leg

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Richard Wilson is accused of using not one, but two of his prosthetic legs to beta his wife

SANDUSKY, Ohio — Legally, it sounds like he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

A man is accused of attacking his wife his prosthetic legs during a knock-down, drag-out fight in their Ohio home.

Sandusky police say 63-year-old Richard T. Wilson Sr. was arrested Saturday after his wife, Ronna Wilson, told them he blew his top when cops showed up at their house the day before in response to a report of him being disorderly.

She told investigators that her husband hurled one of his prosthetic legs at her, striking her in the head, and then threw her to the ground. He then tried beating her with his other prosthetic leg, but she was able to block the blows, although she suffered injuries to her wrist.

Richard Wilson was charged with domestic violence. The Sandusky Register reported that Wilson denied the allegations to police and became agitated with the woman for “getting him in trouble.”