From: "Martin F. Abernathy" <abemarf@aol.com>
Date: Thu Mar 22, 2001 3:36pm
Subject: "Telepathic" Gunman Kills 2 In N. Carolina

LAWYER DESCRIBES DEFENDANT'S BELIEFS,
OPENING ARGUMENTS MADE IN CHAPEL HILL SHOOTING SPREE--
LAWYER: DEFENDANT SAW SELF AS TELEPATH

Charlotte Observer, Thursday, October 26, 1995
by ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press
Page number 3C

HILLSBOROUGH - A man charged with killing two people during a random
shooting spree in Chapel Hill believed he could hear other people's
thoughts, a defense lawyer said Wednesday. Wendell Justin Williamson
also thought he, and he alone, could save the world from destruction,
public defender James Williams told the jury during opening remarks in
the double-murder trial.

Williamson, 26, has admitted firing the shots Jan. 26 that killed
restaurant worker Ralph Walker, 42, and UNC-Chapel Hill student Kevin
Reichardt, 20. Williamson has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic
with delusions, and he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A
prosecutor said Williamson is a calculating killer who planned his
actions and took 600 rounds of ammunition when he went on a well-planned
murder spree.

Williamson carried 75 eight-round clips of ammunition, wore a black
T-shirt with a skull on it and taped his boot laces so they wouldn't
trip him, District Attorney Carl Fox told the jury.

Key to Williamson's defense is his belief that he was a telepath. ``He
felt if he was not acknowledged as a telepath, something would happen
that would destroy the world,'' Williams told the nine-woman, three-man
jury.

Williamson is charged with two first-degree murder charges and could
face the death penalty if convicted. He also is charged with wounding a
police officer, shooting into a dwelling and attempted murder for shots
fired at other people.

-----

WAS GUNMAN'S BEHAVIOR AN EARLY WARNING? FORMER LAW STUDENT'S ACTIONS
DREW ATTENTION WELL BEFORE HE OPENED FIRE IN CHAPEL HILL.

Charlotte Observer, Wednesday, November 1, 1995
Associated Press
Page number 1C

HILLSBOROUGH - The former law student charged with shooting two people
to death in January had acted strangely as early as his freshman year in
law school, fellow students testified Tuesday. Wendell Williamson, 26,
of Clyde is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He was
arrested after stalking people along Henderson Street in Chapel Hill on
Jan. 26, firing an M-1 military rifle.

Williamson has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity and his defense
lawyers began calling witnesses to trace the defendant's mental history.
The last of 32 prosecution witnesses was a police officer who testified
that Williamson's fingerprints were on the weapon and its ammunition. J.
Patrick Huber, a 1994 UNC-Chapel Hill law graduate, testified that he
heard Williamson howling and saw him hit himself on Sept. 29, 1992,
outside the law school building.

``His face was extremely distorted,'' Huber said. ``He was very red.''
Police officers took Williamson to the university hospital, where he was
interviewed the next day by a psychology graduate student. ``He was
making me very nervous,'' testified Joseph McClintock, the student who
interviewed Williamson. Williamson told him there was a ``thing'' that
lived in his spinal cord that could punish him for thoughts and
behaviors. The voice once told Williamson to stop smoking, McClintock
said.

The thing told Williamson what others said about him and had a voice
that was likable and honest. ``He said I would like the voice,''
McClintock testified. But the ``thing'' had the power to punish
Williamson, McClintock said, and one punishment was the ability to make
Williamson's underwear smell bad.

``The thing doesn't want him to go to law school,'' the psychologist
testified. ``He should beg for money until some girl came along and took
him home.'' During the testimony about voices, the psychologist was
interrupted when voices from a citizen's band radio conversation were
picked up by the courtroom public address system.

A UNC psychiatrist testified that Williamson was released in 1992 by a
judge despite doctors' opinions that he should remain hospitalized. Dr.
Christina Mickiewicz testified that medical staff thought Williamson was
schizophrenic and that he was still psychotic several days after the
incident in which he hit himself and howled.

-----

JURORS HEAR TAPED ADMISSION OF SLAYINGS-- DEFENDANT ASKED FOR
RECOGNITION AS TELEPATH AFTER CHAPEL HILL SHOOTING SPREE

Charlotte Observer, Friday, November 3, 1995
by ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press
Page number 1C

HILLSBOROUGH - The former UNC-Chapel Hill law student who admits killing
two people during a Chapel Hill shooting spree talked to a jury Thursday
without taking the witness stand. ``I killed the people,'' Wendell
Williamson said at one point on a poor-quality tape that was played
during his first-degree murder trial. He also said he was telepathic.

``I would be satisfied with one of two things - the death penalty or
admission that I'm a telepath,'' Williamson said on the tape. The tape,
made during a police interview, was played by defense lawyers, who tried
last week to have it excluded from evidence. Williamson, who has been
diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, has pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity. The defense finished calling witnesses by midafternoon
Thursday and was expected to rest today after the prosecutor
cross-examines a witness.

Closing arguments will follow - either today or Monday. The father of
one victim bowed his head, and the sister of another victim cried as the
tape was played. Williamson stared at his attorney's table as he
listened to himself talking rapidly about being telepathic. Williamson,
27, is on trial in Orange County Superior Court on first-degree murder
charges in the deaths of restaurant worker Ralph Walker, 42, and Kevin
Reichardt, 20, a UNC lacrosse player from Annapolis, Md. If convicted,
he could face the death penalty.

Nicole Wolfe, a psychiatrist at Dorothea Dix Hospital, a state-run
mental institution. ``He did not appreciate the wrongfulness of his
conduct.'' Williamson also is charged with wounding a police officer,
shooting into a dwelling and attempted murder for shots fired at other
people. On cross-examination, Wolfe told District Attorney Carl Fox that
there was no medical test for insanity and that someone could be a
paranoid schizophrenic and not be violent or legally insane.

Legal insanity is a condition in which a mental illness renders a
defendant incapable of telling right from wrong.

``He knew shooting people was wrong, but the reasons why he shot them
were different,'' Wolfe said. She also said the shootings were the only
way Williamson knew to tell the world of his telepathic powers. ``He was
so delusional he thought he might have to shoot hundreds of people in
Chapel Hill in order for the knowledge he was a telepath to get out of
town,'' Wolfe said. ``He thought he would get a Congressional Medal of
Honor for the act.''

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MARtin F. ABErnathy [abemarf@aol.com]