08 May 2008

We have pointy sticks!

Here's a cautionary tale for all of us – a true story, from Amesbury, Massachusetts :

In 1953, Melvin and Lorraine Clark became active in a new pastime in Amesbury – wife swapping. A group would get together, throw their house keys in a bowl, and then each choose a key and go with its owner for the evening.

On the night of April 10, 1954, Melvin came home early and found Lorraine in bed with another man. They quarreled. The quarrel ended when Lorraine stabbed Melvin with a knitting needle then shot him twice.

When she realized that she had killed Melvin, she wrapped his body in chicken wire to make a small parcel, then drove it to the Merrimack River, tied weights to it and dumped it from a bridge. Assuming that the motion of the tidal river would carry the corpse out to sea, Lorraine pretended to friends and neighbors that Melvin had left after a major quarrel. She backed up this story by suing Melvin for divorce on grounds of cruelty.

But on June 2, Melvin's badly decomposed body was found in the marshlands by a bird watcher. When questioned by police, Lorraine confessed. She was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
I wonder if she knit a lot in prison ... ;)

10 comments:

  1. I am so disappointed I didn't find anything lurid from my own hometown on that website!!

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  2. Wow, we really are armed and dangerous!

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  3. Probably don't have pointy sticks in prison. I need to show that to my family. When I tell them it's not a good idea to annoy the woman with the pointy sticks, they usually laugh.

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  4. The only reason some people of my acquaintance are still alive is that you aren't allowed to knit in prison!

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  5. Great story - partners of knitters, be afr5aid - be very afraid!!

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  6. So on that theme, I wonder, why does TSA allow metal and wooden knitting needles on but not 3oz of any liquid.

    Of course, Oz has it more logically I guess...

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  7. They don't let you knit in prison. Can't go giving pointy sticks to people with poor impulse control. When I administer tests, I have to keep track of every pencil, and God help us if one goes missing.

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  8. The problem is, that DH wouldn't be scared by that article. He knows that I couldn't be seperated from my needles for 20 to life. It would be the end of me.

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