Strange things are happening in this country. Once you learn how to
read between the lines, you can gain a greater understanding of what's
happening, by following the news in your local newspaper. Here are a
few news articles that may cause you to suspect that not all instances
of bizarre behavior [which seem to be *so* widespread in this country]
are the result of mental illness or drug abuse.
=====
"...Moore believed he had been abducted and drugged, and that he had
an electronic device planted in his head"
-----
"Yoon was charged in 1986 with two counts of attempted murder for
deliberately running down two strangers with a van. Both his victims
were black. He explained to police that his girlfriend in Korea sent
him messages in his head, telling him she would marry him if he killed
black people..."
------
"Dr. Neil Blumberg told a federal court jury Duran thought attacking
the mist would save the world, Blumberg said..."
========
MAN ACCUSED IN PIPE-BOMB ATTACK IS COMMITTED TO WESTERN STATE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER -- FRIDAY, January 14, 1994
by Don Carter [P-I Reporter ]
Page number C3
TACOMA - A man accused of breaking into a Puyallup couple's home and
setting off pipe bombs has been committed indefinitely to Western
State Hospital. Pierce County Superior Court Judge J. Kelley Arnold,
who signed the commitment order, stipulated that John Michael Moore
cannot be released without court permission.
Moore, 49, was accused of entering the home of James and Montagna
Reidel early the morning of Oct. 5. The Reidels, awakened by their
dog, escaped through a bedroom window and weren't injured, but the
home was extensively damaged. Moore has been at Western State for
nearly a month. Arnold found him not guilty by reason of insanity Dec.
15, after hearing a report from Western State psychologist Carl
Redick, court records show.
Redick concluded that Moore suffered from ``a delusional disorder of a
persecutory type'' that made him believe James Reidel was involved in
a plot to harass him. Reidel technically was Moore's supervisor when
they worked together at Boeing in the late 1980s, but Reidel said they
were only casually acquainted.
Redick said Moore believed he had been abducted and drugged, and that
he had an electronic device planted in his head. Moore also thought
his Boeing supervisors didn't like his work performance, believed ``he
was experiencing religious persecution because Boeing believed he was
a homosexual,'' and thought his supervisors believed he was the devil,
the psychologist wrote. Moore, who is single, also believed his mother
was spying on him when she came to clean his apartment, Redick said.
A few days before the pipe bomb attack, Moore met Reidel in a
supermarket. Redick said Moore told him he hadn't intended to kill the
Reidels but that he wanted a confrontation to get the names and
addresses of Boeing workers he thought were persecuting him.
Copyright Copyright (c) 1994,The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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WHITE HOUSE GUNMAN MEANT TO SAVE WORLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER - TUESDAY, March 28, 1995
P-I News Services
Page number A3
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The man who opened fire on the White House with a
semiautomatic rifle in October decided to act after seeing visions of
a mist hovering over the president's mansion, a psychiatrist said
yesterday. Francisco Martin Duran, 26, of Colorado Springs, Colo., is
a paranoid schizophrenic who believed the mist would gain control over
President Clinton's thinking and lead him to do things that would
cause worldwide devastation, Dr. Neil Blumberg told a federal court
jury. Duran thought attacking the mist would save the world, Blumberg
said.
Duran's attorneys are fighting an attempted assassination charge by
arguing he is not guilty by reason of insanity. During
cross-examination, however, prosecutor Eric Dubelier suggested Duran
was lying about seeing hallucinations and hearing imaginary voices.
Duran is accused of pulling a semiautomatic rifle from under his
trench coat and firing at the White House from a Pennsylvania Avenue
sidewalk on Oct. 29.
Copyright Copyright (c) 1995,The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
======
MAN'S INSANITY PLEA ACCEPTED
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER - Tuesday, August 31, 1999
by ELAINE PORTERFIELD [ P-I Reporter ]
Page number B4
A judge accepted an Eastside man's plea of insanity yesterday for
setting a fire that killed his sister and nephew and badly burned his
father. Marc Gerson, 31 age, will be sent to Western State Hospital
for an indefinite stay. At a hearing yesterday before King County
Superior Court Judge William Downing, Gerson admitted he set the fire
Jan. 22 at his parents' Redmond home.
Gerson has suffered from mental illness for much of his adult life and
has undergone numerous psychiatric hospitalizations.
``The big issue was public safety, and now he's confined
indefinitely,'' deputy prosecutor Jim Rogers said. Gerson's family
agrees that indefinite confinement is the best solution, he said.
Gerson's case will be reviewed annually. ``Mark is definitely very sad
and upset and feels terrible'' about the fire, said Kevin Trumbold,
one of his attorneys.
Gerson told investigators he started the fire because demons told him
to. His sister, Jennifer Gerson, 34, and his 9-year-old nephew,
Richard Gerson, died in the blaze. Prosecutors charged Gerson with
piling blankets doused with gasoline outside the room where his sister
and nephew slept before setting the blankets on fire. His father,
Philip Gerson, was badly burned in a rescue attempt and was
hospitalized for more than a month .
Copyright Copyright (c) 1999,The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
======
MAN RULED INSANE IN SLAYING OF MOTHER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
The Associated Press
Page number A4
AKRON, Ohio - A man found naked in bed with pieces of his mother's
corpse was found innocent of murder by reason of insanity yesterday.
Henry Heepe, 50, had told police he killed his mother because she was
a vampire and had two hearts. Police found him in bed with several
body parts on Nov. 7. Barbara Heepe, 77, was beaten, strangled and
stabbed more than 50 times. Common Pleas Judge Jane Bond issued the
verdict and scheduled a commitment hearing for April 17. Police went
to the house shared by the mother and son after receiving reports that
a woman was screaming inside.
Copyright Copyright (c) 1995,The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
======
MENTAL PATIENT SENTENCED, 6-YEAR LEGAL TANGLE OVER
Anchorage Daily News
TUESDAY March 10, 1992
Author SHEILA TOOMEY Daily News reporter
Page number B1
A mental patient with a compulsion to kill black people was sentenced
to five years in prison and five years' supervised probation Monday
after the prosecution and defense joined forces to resolve six years
of official angst over what to do with Kwang Chol Yoon. In an
agreement with the state, Yoon, 33, pleaded no contest to one count of
attempted murder. He has already served the jail time and currently
lives at the Cordova Center, a half-way house in Anchorage. Superior
Court Judge Rene Gonzalez ordered that he remain there for up to a
year.
Yoon was charged in 1986 with two counts of attempted murder for
deliberately running down two strangers with a van. Both his victims
were black. He explained to police that his girlfriend in Korea sent
him messages in his head, telling him she would marry him if he killed
black people. Both his victims were injured, but not seriously. While
in jail, Yoon also attacked a dental hygienist.
Yoon has a history of paranoid schizophrenia, including
hospitalization and drug therapy in Korea. Psychiatrists who examined
him for the court here concluded he did not understand English or the
American court system well enough to participate in his own defense,
not even in an insanity defense, which his attorney planned to mount.
Ruled incompetent to stand trial, Yoon remained in legal limbo, mostly
as a patient at Alaska Psychiatric Institute. He twice walked away
from API and was returned by police.
According to Alaska law, a defendant found incompetent to stand trial
may not be held against his will for more than a year. If he remains
incompetent longer than that as Yoon did he must either be released,
agree to remain at API voluntarily, or be civilly committed against
his will assuming API agrees he is dangerous to himself or others. The
trouble was, once Yoon was stabilized on his medication, API no longer
considered him dangerous. Prosecutors and police did not agree, but
Yoon could not be prosecuted because he still had the language problem
and inability to understand the judicial system.
For a while Yoon agreed to be a voluntary patient. But in 1988, he
walked away from API, and after 60 days the hospital just listed him
as ""discharged.'' Police and prosecutors were infuriated. They
discovered he was free when he was rearrested in 1989 on a minor
assault charge. He had stopped taking his medication while free,
causing his mental condition to deteriorate, so API agreed to take him
back.
Then, in 1990, API precipitated a crisis by releasing Yoon, declaring
him no longer dangerous, a conclusion even his attorney at the time
called ""a quaint notion.''
Once again, prosecutors had him arrested and the process of evaluating
his competence to stand trial on the attempted murder charges began
anew. In December, prosecutors and defense attorney Andrew Lambert
agreed on a deal that included Yoon pleading to a single consolidated
attempted murder charge and getting no more than the presumptive five
years to serve. The possibility of additional suspended time and five
years of additional supervision was left up to the judge.
At one point Monday, it looked like the case was headed for more legal
wrangling before a special three-judge panel on an unusual motion by
the state. It's generally the defense that wants the panel to consider
some factor not normally allowed by law. But when Judge Gonzalez
unexpectedly ruled that an ""aggravator,'' which allows extra jail
time for a defendant who acts out of racial hostility, did not apply
to Yoon because of his mental illness, acting District Attorney Bob
Linton requested the three-judge review. He argued that Yoon's mental
illness diminishes his chances of rehabilitation and, if anything,
should be counted against him.
Without the aggravator, Yoon could not have been given the three years
of suspended time and five years of supervised probation. "With a
person this dangerous, we can't take a chance,'' Linton said. Gonzalez
agreed to submit the case for review. However, after the judge
recessed the hearing, Linton and Lambert both concluded they risked
losing more than they might gain from the sentencing review panel. The
lawyers quickly negotiated a new deal that added the extra suspended
time and probation by stipulating to an aggravator based on Yoon
having attacked more than one victim. Gonzalez agreed and Yoon's
custodian took him back to Cordova House.
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MARtin F. ABErnathy --- [abemarf@aol.com]--- 8/3/01
