'Beheading' horror in (London) street

[truthpusher]

OK, I really debated whether or not the posting of this story had any value beyond just being an amazingly disturbing occurrence. I couldn't come up with any good reason, but thought the story was at least not worth ignoring. So here goes:

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/17262526?source=Evening%20Standard&ct=5

'Beheading' horror in street
------------------------------
By Richard Edwards and Chris Millar, Evening Standard
14 March 2005
------------------------------

A man was beheaded in a frenzied and prolonged axe attack in a London street today.

The axeman, smartly-dressed and in his thirties, felled his victim with one blow and then struck repeatedly "as if he was chopping wood".

The assault lasted several minutes near the Hampstead Theatre in Belsize Park. The attacker ignored his victim's screams and the pleas of two women passers-by and workmen. He stopped when police arrived. He then put down the axe near the body. He was described as looking "emotionless and cool" throughout.

(snip)

A scaffolder working nearby saw a man carrying an axe in one hand above his head as he ran towards his victim. The men were seen to exchange a few words.

Seconds later the axeman struck the first of a series of heavy blows which continued when the victim lay slumped on the pavement in a pool of blood.

complete story: http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/17262526?source=Evening%20Standard&ct=5

[JusticeForAll]

1. OK this is pretty gross and horrific...n/t

[Worst Username Ever]

2. Wow, pic

[redqueen]

16. A pic of the body... class... is this a tabloid?

What the hell is wrong with people?

Really... what the fuck?!

[ianrs]

20. thisislondon

is the web version of the Evening Standard, London's local newspaper, God help us. And yes, it's a tabloid, though with pretensions to seriousness. A dreadful paper, stablemate of the Daily Mail, :puke: although it doesn't quite sustain the levels of hatred and dishonesty to be found in the Mail.
Almost, though.

[toymachines]

3. freaky, i wonder what the guy did to "deserve" that

not that he deserved it, but what puts such cold blooded hatred into peoples hearts? at least he didnt competely lose it and go on a axe killing rampage on the streets of london.

[MnFats]

4. OK, I've had my mdr of gruesome for today....whew.

further evidence that there is no lower limit to the badness with which human beings treat other human beings.

[rocktivity]

26. Not yet, MnFats

Toddler Shoots Tot In Toy Dispute
Police Say Four-Year-Old Did Not Realize What He Did

NOW you've had your MDR of gruesome for today!

:headbang:
rocknation

[fob]

5. The article is riveting. Especially the people who confront the killer

When asked why he had done it, he told officers: "It's complicated. It's private."

[Rachels Dozer]

8. Yeah,

I bet!

[fob]

14. Did you read the story?

The axeman saw me but he just ignored me. He hacked his victim's head, cutting it as if it was a block of wood for a fire. His victim was unconscious on the ground, but he kept bringing his axe down on him.

"I begged him to stop and he just looked at me without emotion. There was no anger in his face, he did not seem crazy. He was just coolly finishing off his victim. He wanted to destroy him. ."

Another woman passing in a car stopped and pleaded with the man to stop his attack. He also ignored pleas from builders working nearby.

[zann725]

40. Welcome, Newbie!

n/t

[Blue_Tires]

9. what? was the guy banging his wife or something??

even if he was, in no way did he deserve this!!

if i go into 'dime-novel detective' mode, i would say this is an obvious crime of passion---only some deep-seated emotional turmoil can drive someone to do something this garish, when a simple gunshot would suffice...the perp wanted the victim to suffer, and he wanted him humiliated by doing it in broad daylight

[amazona]

13. agreed it's a crime of passion

Guns and even "good" knives are not so easily come by in London, so I suppose a rich out-of-touch-with-local-crime perpetrator has to use an axe these days. Ugh. Whatever happened to arsenic for these messy interpersonal situations?

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[GetTheRightVote]

6. The horror of * war is spreading thru out the world, * war at home now

:kick:

[TriMetFan]

7. Just plain old sick.

[slackmaster]

10. Good thing nobody got shot

:eyes:

[Mairead]

11. I was thinking the same thing.

Who will be the first to call for a ban on axes?

[billbuckhead]

23. In gun crazed America, the perp would have shot several more people

Yep, good thing nobody got shot like in America, home of the highest murder rate of "advanced" nations, highest prison rate and proud of it.

[NickB79]

32. It doesn't sound like that would have been the case

The article says he put down the axe when the police arrived. It says nothing about a chase or a struggle. It sounds like this guy just wanted to kill that particular man, and then waited for the police to put the handcuffs on him.

[Charon]

43. Crazed America

Or maybe a citizen would have shot him?

[rooboy]

36. Yeah, America doesn't have ANY murders thanks to guns... LOL n/t

[AtLiberty]

12. Rightwingers lament...

...if only this victim were armed with a concealed weapon...

[Mairead]

18. Could be. Sensible ones, though, will lament what I do:

that the murderer obviously felt that there was no good way to solve whatever problem he had with his victim other than to kill him.

[slackmaster]

28. It wouldn't have made the situation any worse for the victim

We can be sure that the thought of the victim possibly being armed with a gun never entered the axman's mind.

[NickB79]

31. Yes, it would have been so horrible

How tragic it would have been, a man acting in self defense shooting a nutjob chasing him with an axe. Oh, that poor axeman!

I'm a hardcore leftwinger on every issue except gun control, and I lament that the victim wasn't armed with a concealed weapon.

[sffreeways]

34. Of course because a gun would have made everything okay

no one around the area would have been hit with a stray bullet or ricochet because that never happens. Guns solve everything don't they...

[NickB79]

37. No, they don't solve everything

But they can be used in self-defense in certain circumstances. A person MIGHT have been hit by a stray bullet if the guy had a gun and missed with one of his shots. The person accidentally hit MIGHT have been hit badly enough to kill them, or maybe only grazed. But without some form of self-defense, we see what DID happen: a guy was DEFINITELY axed to death, no might's or maybe's about it.

If the chance of hitting someone with a stray bullet is such an immense danger, why are police allowed to fire guns in self-defense? Is the life of a police officer somehow more valuable than the life of this man?

Once again, guns are not the solution to every social problem we have. However, when a guy is running at me with an axe, that is one situation where I feel a gun is a very, very good solution for my survival.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. They BOTH did.

[Blue to the bone]

22. Why was my joke deleted? I thought it was pretty good. n/t

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Blue to the bone]

19. I can see it now.........

.....a 3 day waiting period before buying an axe in the UK.

[diamond14]

24. WOW...the bush*/blair madness has now led us to this....

seems that 'beheadings' are becoming more popular around the world under the leadership of bush*/blair....beheadings were hardly heard of until the bush*/blair massacres in Iraq/Afganistan began....


unintended consequences of the World-Wide violence from bush*/blair....the message to all countries: don't talk, just KILL...bush* showed everyone: if you don't like what someone else is doing: KILL THEM...the more violent, the better....



coming soon to YOUR neighborhood....

[spunky]

25. That is just crazy. Poor man.

What a dreadful way to die.

I feel really bad for the people who had to witness that too. That's not the kind of image you'll get out of your head easily.

[go west young man]

27. Being from London I can honestly attest that there are

some very evil cool headed killers that exist there. I've always wondered about the stereotype of the "good ole chap Englishman". It's never added up for me. There are plenty of fine nice English fellas just as anywhere else but also there are some real monsters there too. Hard nuts we call em. They would just as soon as kill you as talk to you. This could have been a crime of passion but it could also just as easily have been this poor bloke got murdered by a real nutter over something trivial. I'm pretty sure either way Faux news will be all over it saying this could be terrorist realated.

[daleo]

29. It's a longshot - but I say religious insanity.

Just a hunch based on the "it's complicated" phrase.

[msongs]

30. creationism run amok no doubt.......n/t

[truthpusher]

33. Update: Man held after daylight axe murder

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/PA_NEWPOLICEAxeMon21Axeattack2n?source=

[mainer]

41. "You've had this coming for 20 years"

60 year old victim. 37 year old murderer. What do you want to guess this is a result of childhood sexual abuse by the older man?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. This type of thing has happened in Japan, not with an axe, but

with razor blades.

Usually the perpetrators are calm but mentally ill.

[undergroundpanther]

39. A sociopath

Needs no reason to kill_He does it because it gives him pleasure to kill.The onlt thing holding sociopaths back is being taken OUT of thier games by police and jail. Trial to them is another game to win.
In the sociopaths mind all things they do are right because they have no conceience or love.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

44. I don't think the Sociopath label applies to this man.

If he were a Sociopath, I think he would have been killing more people just for the pleasure of it. From what I've read, it sounds as if this dude had a beef with the guy he killed. He killed him because he felt powerless to stop what he was doing, whatever he was doing, so he decided the only way to stop him after however long it had been going on was to kill him. He shouldn't have done this, but he probably thought this was his only way out. And he doesn't care that he'll probably be in prison for the rest of his life. At least he's not enduring what was happening anymore.
Duckie

[Hershman]

38. Seems more like 1895

And a Sherlock Holmes type of thing (although this time the guy got caught first instead of Holmes chasing him)

[BobbyinPortland]

42. Maybe the "victim" was killed

because he abused the man with the ax, maybe he abused or hurt someone the man loved and for 20 years this man couldn't live with it. I think it will be a completely different story if we find out that the "victim" was some kind of scary monster that probably deserved to have his head chopped off.

As for guns, I'm from the south and we have guns and we know how to use them. I'd never let a child near my gun or really anyone else, but with the way the world is today and the way people just break into houses for nothing more than a DVD player or something insignificant, you bet I'd use my gun without a moments thought.
In the real world it's best to be armed as good or better than those who might do you harm.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

45. Bobby, I think people don't realize that it's not guns that kill people...

It's people who are dumb asses and kill people. When it's accidental, it's lack of gun safety knowledge more than anything else. If those people would have just locked up the gun, after making sure the kids knew what the gun could do, the kid wouldn't have found the gun and shot himself in the face.
Note: I'm sorta from the south too, so I know what you're saying.
Duckie