True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Funeral Van Transporting Body Catches Fire on Florida Highway

By HardBoiledNews Staff

ORLANDO, Florida — They almost threw the cremation in for free.

A Florida funeral home van carrying a body burst into flames as it drove along an Orlando highway.

The Florida Highway Patrol says the conflagration erupted on the I-4 near SeaWorld at 11 a.m. last Saturday.

Pictures from the scene showed the white van completely engulfed in flames with thick black smoke billowing out its windows.

Authorities said the driver managed to pull the body out of the burning vehicle before it was inadvertently cremated, according to WKMG-TV.

No one was hurt in the blaze.

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.

Fast-Fingered Thieves Steal $100K of Gibson Les Paul Guitars at Truck Stop

By HardBoiledNews Staff

13 of these custom guitars walked off the truck into the night

WHITELAND, Indiana — It’s a sour note for some guitar players.

Guitar maker Gibson says nearly $100,000 worth of custom Les Paul guitars disappeared from a truck at a rest stop in Indiana.

The company says a pallet holding 13 brand new Gibson Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom Silverburst guitars was the only thing that was taken from the Sweetwater Music truck at the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, Indiana.

“Somehow out of a truck full of guitars, this ONE pallet was singled out and stolen at a truck stop,” says Sweetwater Chief Supply Chain and Merchandising Officer Phil Rich. “Totaling close to $95,000 in guitars, we feel this person knew exactly what to look for and when.”

The axes, named for the guitarist for the prog-metal band Tool, were on their way to the Fort Wayne, Indiana headquarters of Sweetwater Sound, where they were to be delivered to the 13 customers who had custom-ordered them.

“These guitars were the dream guitars of 13 Gibson and Adam Jones fans, who had been patiently waiting for them to be delivered,” says Gibson’s Cesar Gueikian. 

Anyone with information regarding the guitars should contact Detective Kenny Polley of the Whiteland Police Department at KPolley@whitelandpd.us or (317) 535-8100.

Last week, Gibson and Jones launched a multi-year partnership and collaboration to produce a limited edition of 79 guitars modeled after his 1979 Silverburst Les Paul. Gibson said that upon release, all of the guitars immediately sold out worldwide.

An additional 179 Adam Jones Les Paul Custom guitars featuring silkscreen artwork on the back of the headstock and a custom hardshell case was also released.

‘Sociopath’ Bodybuilder Charged With Tossing Girlfriend Out of Sixth-Floor Window

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Shmuel Levine is accused of tossing gal pal Danielle Marrano out the window of her apartment

NEW YORK — A barbarous bodybuilder has been charged with brutally beating his girlfriend and then throwing her to her death out a six-story window.

Shmuel Levine, 34, was indicted Monday in the murder of 37-year-old Danielle Marrano a week after cops found her dying on the sidewalk outside her apartment in Queens, prosecutors said.

Friends who knew the pair, described Levine as a steely-eyed sociopath who showed little emotion.

“He seemed like a sociopath,” Joe Falcone, a friend of the victim since childhood told the Daily News. “He was a weird and cold person with no personality that I could put a finger on.”

Prosecutors say the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Levine spiralled out of control on Oct. 26, putting Marrano in a chokehold and pulling her hair so hard that clumps came out in his hands. He slammed her into her apartment’s walls and then allegedly threw her out the window.

Investigators initially believed she jumped to her death in a suicide bid, but later determined she had been thrown. Prosecutors said the dental hygienist had four fatal skull fractures, at least two of which were caused by Levine’s beating.

Marranos’s neighbors said she and Levine, whom she had dated for about five years, had a volatile relationship.

“They were always screaming all day,” said neighbor Phyllis Reggio. “The neighbors told us they always heard them fighting, all the time.”

Levine claimed to cops that the fatal argument started when Marrano told him she had cheated on him, according to court records.