Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Cops Find Massive Stash of 553 Illegal Guns at Ex-Con’s California Home

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This stash of guns gives new meaning to the word arsenal

AGUA DULCE, California — He was ready to be an army of one.

Police in California were stunned to discover over 550 firearms stashed in the home of an ex-con after receiving a tip that he was amassing a large arsenal of weapons.

Officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff found the weapons cache last week when they executed a search warrant at the home of Manuel Fernandez in a rocky, mountainous community 45 miles north of LA.

In the first search, cops uncovered 432 handguns, long rifles and assault rifles at the 60-year-old Fernandez’s home. Fernandez is a convicted felon and is therefore barred from legally possessing guns.

A warrant executed at a second home belonging to a female acquaintance of Fernandez’s netted another 30 illegal firearms. A subsequent search of Fernandez’s home revealed an additional 91 guns that were hidden within the house.

Detectives also seized computers, cell phones, and hard drives from the residence.

Due to the large number of firearms found, detectives called in the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to help trace where they all came from.

Fernandez has been charged with felony possession of firearms, possession of an assault rifle, felon in possession of ammunition and possession of a large capacity magazine. He was released on bond.

 

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Pirate Named Sinbad Charged in Raid That Left 16 Fishermen Dead or Missing

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Cops say Sinbad led the raid off the pirate-plagued waters between Guyana and Suriname

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — A notorious pirate leader known as Sinbad has been charged with organizing a bloody attack in the Caribbean that left more than a dozen fisherman dead or missing.

Premnauth Persaud — a much-feared pirate who goes by the name of Sinbad — was arrested last week in Guyana and has been pegged as the mastermind behind the late April attack on a fleet of small fishing boats off the coast of neighboring Suriname.

Of the 25 sailors aboard, only nine are believed to have survived. Four bodies have been recovered and a dozen more are missing, police say.

According to survivors, the pirates boarded the ships and began hacking away at crew members with cutlasses. Others were thrown overboard and then hit on the head with oars  Some victims had weights strapped to their legs before being thrown into the water, the Guyana Chronicle reported.

Earlier this week, Persaud, 43, and fellow pirate, Nakool “Fyah” Manohar, 39, were charged with the murder of two of the sailors slain in the cross-border raid. A third man, 19-year-old Alexander Denhart, has also been charged for taking part in the attack.

Premnauth ‘Sinbad’ Persaud

Investigators have said they believe the attack was launched in revenge for the drive-by shooting of Manohar’s brother — who was also a pirate leader — in Suriname in March.

In all, cops believe eight or ten pirates took part in the attack, in which they also stole fuel, fish and equipment.

Detectives say Manohar and his family began plotting the raid on the day of his brother’s funeral. Several of Manohar’s relatives, including his son, have already been arrested in Suriname. Cops are hunting for other well-known pirates who go by the names, “Dick,” “Bolo,” and “Crackhead.”

Piracy has long been an issue in the waters off Suriname and Guyana, although the number of incidents reported had been in decline in recent years.

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Air Force Captain Who Disappeared With Top Secrets Found After 35 Years

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Air Force Capt. William Hughes deserted in 1983 and had been feared to have defected to Russia

FAIRFIELD, California — An Air Force captain with top secret clearance whose disappearance 35 years ago raised the specter he had given sensitive missile secrets to the Russians, has been found, authorities said.

Capt. William Howard Hughes, 66, was declared missing in 1983 after failing to return to Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque, New Mexico following  a temporary assignment at NATO headquarters in the Netherlands.

A probe revealed that Hughes had withdrawn $28,500 from his accounts at 19 different bank locations in Albuquerque before he disappeared. His car was found at the Albuquerque airport.

He was finally located on June 5, when investigators conducting a passport fraud probe in California interviewed a man who claimed to be Barry O’Beirne. But after questioning him about inconsistencies in his story, he admitted he was Hughes.

He told investigators that at the time of his disappearance, he had been depressed about being in the Air Force and decided to leave. He said he moved to California and had lived there since as Barry O’Beirne.

 

At the time of his disappearance, Hughes had top secret security about matters relating to NATO. His family told reporters at the time that they thought he had been abducted.

In 1984, a report in the Los Angeles Times speculated that Hughes had possibly defected to the Soviet Union and given them sensitive information about NATO defense systems.

Authorities say they have no reason to believe at this point that Hughes had given information to the Russians but were continuing to investigate.

He is being held at Travis Air Force Base in California.

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Teen Loses Hand in Sword Fight, Is Then Slapped With Severed Limb

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What started as a road rage incident quickly escalated into a full-on sword fight

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates — Well, that certainly got out of hand.

A teenage motorist lost his hand after a road rage incident in the United Arab Emirates sparked an out-of-control sword fight, authorities said.

To add insult to injury, the man who chopped the teen’s hand off, picked up the severed extremity and used it to slap the victim across the face, Gulf News reported.

A criminal court heard this week how the road rage incident in January led to the sprawling, bloody sword fight in a park in the UAE’s third largest city of Sharjah.

The rumble involved two groups of teens, a dozen in all and all of them under the age of 16, prosecutors said.

The victim who had his hand chopped off had been trying to protect himself from a sword blow and had put his hands up in front of his face, his lawyer, Abdullah Salman, told the court.

After his hand hit the group, his attacker allegedly picked it up and began beating him with it, the court heard.

The victim’s pals were able to rush him and his severed hand to a local hospital where doctors were able to reattach it.

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Killer Croc Slays Pastor During Lakeside Baptism in Ethiopia

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The killer croc sprang from the waters of Lake Abaya during a baptism ceremony

ARBA MINCH, Ethiopia — God works in mysterious ways.

A protestant minister performing a lakeside baptism in Ethiopia was killed when a crocodile leapt up and dragged him into the murky waters.

“He baptised the first person and he passed on to another one. All of a sudden, a crocodile jumped out of the lake and grabbed the pastor,” local resident Ketema Kairo told the BBC.

Docho Eshete was conducting the baptism ceremony for about 80 people on Sunday morning at the edge of Lake Abaya in Arba Minch in the southwestern Ethiopia when the crocodile leapt from the water and attacked him.

Fishermen and townsfolk sprang into action to save him but were unable to wrest his body from the crocodile in time. Using fishing nets, they managed to prevent the crocodile from taking the pastor into deeper water and were eventually able to pull his mangled body to shore.

“They only managed to get his dead body,” said Eiwnetu Kanko, a police officer from Arba Minch, 300 miles south of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The pastor died from bites to his legs, back and hands, officials said. The crocodile escaped.

Abaya is Ethiopia’s second largest lake and is known for having a large crocodile population. The lake’s reddish brown waters make it hard to spot a crocodile until it surfaces.

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15-Year-Old Student Driver Runs Over and Kills Two Men in Parking Lot

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The student driver got a lead foot at the worst time

PHILADELPHIA — A 15-year-old student driver accidentally killed two homeless men in a shopping center parking lot where her mother was giving her a lesson behind the wheel, cops said.

The incident occurred Monday evening in the parking lot of a Dollar Tree store in Philadelphia.

Witnesses say the two men were trying to help the teen navigate into a parking spot when the SUV suddenly lunged forward, pinning them against a wall.

“She was navigating into a parking spot and made a mistake. The vehicle lunged forward, striking two men who were seated at the wall of the dollar store,” Philadelphia Police Capt. Mark Overwise told WPVI-TV.

“My heart is ripped out. I lost two of my best friends,” pal Tim Stewart said.

Cops haven’t filed charges against the girl. Student drivers must be 16-years-old to receive their learner’s permit. The girl was in the car with her mother and two others at the time of the accident.

 

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Texas Teen Couple Charged With Hiring Hit Man to Kill Boy’s Parents

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Nicholas Shaughnessy and Jaclyn Edison are charged with hiring a hit man to kill his parents

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas teen and his girlfriend have been charged with hiring a hit man to kill his jewelry dealer father during a home invasion in March, police said.

Nicholas Shaughnessy, 19, and his live-in gal pal, Jaclyn Edison, 19, have been charged with criminal solicitation to commit capital murder. He is being held on $3 million bond, while she was held on $1 million bond.

According to the Travis County Sheriff’s office, Nicholas’ mother, Corey Shaughnessy called police in the early morning hours of March 2 to report that an intruder had entered their home in Austin and that numerous shots had been fired.

When cops arrived, they found her husband, Theodore Shaughnessy, 55, and a family dog dead of multiple gunshot wounds. Investigators later determined that the plot involved Corey being killed as well, but she was not harmed during the break-in.

A statement from the family’s lawyers said Corey stood “firmly behind her son.”

“These allegations are not consistent in any way with the young man we have come to know,” the statement read, according to the Austin Statesman. “Nick has been living with his mother since this tragedy occurred. Ms. Shaughnessy stands firmly behind her son. We will review the evidence as it becomes available to us.”

The gunman has yet to be found, but cops said they were following numerous new leads and expect to identify and apprehend the killer soon.

Theodore Shaughnessy was the owner of Gallerie Jewelers in Austin. In the months before the shooting, investigators say Nicolas Shaughnessy approached multiple people asking if they were willing to kill someone for cash. The teen estimated that he stood to inherit about $8 million from the life insurance policies for his parents, plus the sale of their home and the jewelry store.

 

Shaughnessy and Edison stood to walk away with $8 million if his parents both died

Authorities say they found ammunition in the defendants’ home in College Station that matched casings found at the crime scene.

 

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Man Who Dropped Pants in Court to Prove Innocence in Rape Case Found Not Guilty

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Desmond James had the evidence in his pants all along

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — Call it a case of junk justice.

A Connecticut rape suspect was acquitted after dropping his pants and exposing himself to the jury to prove that his member didn’t match the description given by the victim.

Desmond James, 26, was cleared of three counts of sexual assault  showing that his equipment didn’t fit the accuser’s description of her attacker being a black man whose penis is lighter than the rest of his skin.

“If it’s not the light one, it’s not the right one,” his lawyer, Todd Bussert, told the New York Post.

James became a suspect after the victim picked him out of a photo lineup in 2012. At the time she said she had been raped by a “dark-skinned black male with big lips and black-people hair,” Bussert said.

“There were a number of troubling aspects in terms of the allegation. It evoked negative racial stereotypes,” he said. “We felt in general that it didn’t describe our client.”

In the end, the only evidence Bussert presented was to have James stand in the middle of the courtroom and drop his pants.

Bussert said the whole thing was very “embarrassing” for James, because court workers had filled the room to watch his testimony.

“If your liberty is at stake, he was willing to do that,” Bussert said.

While he was exonerated in this case, James is already serving a 65 years for breaking into a house and raping a 10-year-old girl.

 

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

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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.

 

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Man Caught Making Bogus Biker Gang Kidnap Claim to Cover up Affair

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Larry Wayne Price at first blamed the Pagan biker gang as part of his bogus kidnap story

BLUEFIELD, Virginia — A man who was reported missing by his wife and later told cops he’d been kidnapped and drugged by a motorcycle gang after being found on the side of a road, has been charged with making it all up to cover up that he’d run off with his mistress.

Larry Wayne Price, 38, was reported missing by his wife to the Bluefield, Virginia police on April 14, triggering a full-scale manhunt involving helicopters, police dogs and hundreds of law enforcement officials, federal prosecutors said.

Later that day, a driver spotted Price wandering down a country road carrying $3,800 in cash in his pocket, and he was taken to a local hospital where he began spinning a series of wild tales to cops.

At first, he Price told detectives he had been abducted by two, unknown men, drugged and held against his will until he was thrown out of a van near where he was found. He said that while he was held the men took him to Hawg Pit Cycles in West Virginia, which he owns, where they took  his keys and made off with the contents of his safe, including a knife and a gun.

Larry Wayne Price

But when the FBI reviewed security video from the shop, they saw no sign that anyone had gone into the store during the night in question. That’s when Price began to change his kidnap story, saying he had been kidnapped by members of the Pagans motorcycle gang and that he thought he may have been kidnapped because he owed someone money.

When asked to whom he owed money, Price said he wanted to “plead the Fifth” but then said he thought it best to say “that he made it all up, he needed to clear his head, and say he disappeared on his own.”

It was only then that investigators were able to determine that Price had spent the time with another woman who manages a restaurant he owns. The woman eventually told cops that she and Price had begun plotting in February to disappear and start a new life together and that he had spent his time missing with her at a house her father owned.

Around the same time, a  $10.5 million, 26,000-square-foo mansion Price owned in Billings, Montana was seized by three local entrepreneurs to whom he owed $11 million, the Billings Gazette reported.

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