Riverdale County Court Wisconsin USA, Thursday October 3rd, 2013.
Astounding, astonishing, amazing - just some of the superlatives uttered, printed and captured on camera this afternoon in reaction to a decision made by Riverdale County Circuit Judge Emily McPherson to dismiss the case against Greg Jaskowiak, 58, dubbed the "Blackmailer who never was" by regional and national press organisations. The case is becoming a national and international Cause célèbre.
The case against Jaskowiak came into being following the tragic suicide of 43 year old Silvia Mary Hammond, in Riverdale, Wisconsin on Christmas Eve, 2012. Detectives who interviewed friends and family of the deceased began to become aware of a sudden change which had taken place in the behaviour of Mrs Hammond in the weeks leading up to the holiday period. She became withdrawn, moody and started drinking alcohol to excess. This behaviour was out of character and those close to her were very worried by these developments. They firmly believed that her state of mind had resulted directly in her self administered demise.
Then detectives made a startling find. Hidden among her possessions, trapped between the pages of one of her books, was an envelope, addressed to Mrs Hammond using her home address. Inside the envelope was a folded piece of paper, which when unfolded revealed five words "I KNOW YOUR LITTLE SECRET". From this point on, the police investigation became a hunt for a potential blackmailer. A blackmailer who may have indirectly caused the death of Silvia Mary Hammond.
Then the police had tremendous amount of luck. Analysis of the envelope and its postmark revealed that the letter had been mailed at a Post Office in a small town some 200 miles west of Riverdale on the 12th December 2012, at 3.15pm. Interrogation of footage from CCTV cameras, which had been installed in the Post Office only months before, revealed that only four people had purchased stamps and posted mail within the identified timeline. As it turned out, all four were locals and known to staff at the Post Office and were therefore very easy to trace. One customer in particular drew the attention of investigating officers. It could clearly be seen that he had posted a small bundle of envelopes. Envelopes which even on the grainy footage looked very much like the one sent to Mrs Hammond.
Before approaching any of the four potential suspects, on-line searches were carried out to try and discover any links between the individuals and Mrs Hammond. In addition, other records were searched with the same aim. No connections were found.
Acting on a hunch, and with the CCTV footage in mind, they decided that their first call would be to Greg Jaskowiak, who lived alone in an old converted farmhouse four miles out of town. Armed with a search warrant, a team of six officers made a dawn raid on the remote property. Detectives were astonished when the first thing Jaskowiak said to them was "Is this about the Hammond woman?" He told them that he had read about her death in his weekly newspaper. They were convinced that they had captured their blackmailer. However, they were to be further astounded when, following a full search of the dwelling, they found what was thought, at that time, to be the ultimate incriminating evidence. In a neat pile, beside the computer printer were 50 sheets of printer paper, on each one of which had been printed the five words "I KNOW YOUR LITTLE SECRET" The paper, the font and the placement of the letters on the paper were all an exact match to the letter sent to Mrs Hammond on the 12th December.
Jaskowiak was arrested and taken away for questioning. Evidence from the house was bagged and confiscated for analysis and to be used as exhibits in the subsequent trial.
Following his arrest, a very strange thing happened. The local press got hold of the story and details of the blackmail note were somehow leaked. Following publication of some of the facts, detectives working on the case received a number of calls from other police forces across the country. They had all worked on cases where people had either attempted to, or had actually taken their lives after receiving similar anonymous letters. They also heard from others who had received the letters and approached the police in anticipation of being blackmailed.
Jaskowiak had an explanation. For the past eight years, every month, he had dispatched 50 similar envelopes, containing the same message, to random people all over the states. Every envelope was personally addressed. At first he had simply taken random names and addresses from phone books. More recently, he had searched for names and addresses randomly on-line, through social media and other sites. He did not know any of the people to whom he sent the message. He made no request for money or favours, and so argued that no crime had taken place. For the charge of blackmail to stick, there must be a threat of menaces, or a request of some sort made. His only motive for acting in the way he had, was to receive a psychological thrill as he anticipated how the missives would be received and acted upon at their destination.
At his trial, he stated "We all have some guilty little secret. Something which we would not want others to know. For some of us, it is something relatively trivial. For others, they would be mortified if they were found out. People cheating on their husbands or wives. People cheating on their employers, their taxes, their country". Later in his testimony, he continued: "I did us all a favour. How many people, as a direct result of receiving one of my 'Conscience Prompters' stopped stealing from work, stopped cheating on their partners, stopped beating their kids? Fear of being caught, fear of being found out, that is what motivates people. It's the only motivator". "All I did, was plant a seed".
In a dramatic turn of events late this afternoon, following extensive legal advice, for technical reasons, the trial was halted, the jury were dismissed and all charges were dropped. Mr Jaskowiak is expected to make a full statement tomorrow, Friday. The controversy surrounding this case looks likely to be around for a very long time to come
PA
Thursday, October 03, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Slugs, specifically bred to eat only weeds, wiped out in bizarre accident
Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England - Wednesday 21st August.
For the last thirty years, Charlie Carr, 54, who operates from a converted barn just above the small, but relatively well known town of Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, has been working towards solving a perennial problem which has plagued generations of gardeners and commercial farmers the world over. Working in partnership with scientists from the University of Leeds in a project jointly funded by a host of "Green" and organic gardening organisations, his team were preparing to announce a breakthrough which could have transformed our relationship with the common slug forever.
His vision was to provide protection for those crops, plants and flowers which are susceptible to slug attacks leading to decimation and loss. This was to be achieved without the use of chemicals or poisons and without the wholesale destruction of the gastropod molluscs. On the contrary, the slug was about to become the farmers' friend and his work would have led to slugs becoming welcome in every garden in the land.
His vision was to provide protection for those crops, plants and flowers which are susceptible to slug attacks leading to decimation and loss. This was to be achieved without the use of chemicals or poisons and without the wholesale destruction of the gastropod molluscs. On the contrary, the slug was about to become the farmers' friend and his work would have led to slugs becoming welcome in every garden in the land.
Through years and years of selective breeding, with many false dawns and setbacks, Dr. Carr and his team had finally produced a breed of super slugs which were genetically programmed to be attracted only to common weeds such as the Dandelion (Taraxacum) and Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) as a food source and to find selected cultivated plants and crops unappealing. In August 2009, a batch of 88 individual slugs, with the batch number R84-27, finally all demonstrated the characteristics for which they had been bred. Extensive trials immediately began in a bid to replicate the behaviour in other batches before any announcements could be made. No longer would we be planting vegetables such as cabbage using the four for us and "one for the slugs" ratios.
The team successfully bred further batches. The next step was to try and cross breed the super slugs with common slugs in a way that retained the new traits so that these could be passed on through future generations and spread geographically. Finally, early in 2013 they were able to demonstrate that they had achieved this aim and were able to produce super slug/common slug offspring which retained the genetic propensity intended, and to do so consistently. They were ready to publish their results to the world. In May 2013, a three day conference was organised to disseminate the findings to experts in the field prior to wider publication. A press conference was due to take place two weeks after the conference for this purpose.
However, whilst Dr. Carr was attending the conference in Leeds, some 20 miles away, his elderly mother, Mavis, who was staying with him temporarily whilst her flat was decorated, decided that she would help about the place by doing some weeding in his absence. Searching for gardening tools, she entered the part of the converted barn serving as the research facility. As she moved further into the area, she observed row upon row of trays filled with plants which were obviously part of her son's research (she wasn't really sure exactly what his work encompassed). However, to her horror, she also noticed that they had been overrun by a super-abundance of black, slimy slugs. Thinking that she ought to try and save the plants before they were eaten by the infestation, she took the next bus to Mytholmroyd, a small village some four miles away, and purchased two very large containers of slug pellets.
When Dr. Carr returned from Leeds, his mother informed him, with pride, what she had encountered in the research facility, but told him not to worry, most of the plants were still alive and that she was sure she had managed to kill each and every slug. The reality was that all of his breeding stock had been wiped out and all that he was left with were his research papers and the knowledge that he had achieved his goal, even if he was not going to be able to replicate it, because all his subjects were dead. The project had cost more than £2.5million over its lifetime. It is thought that the research has since been taken over by another expert in the field, Jean Pilkington, although a wall of secrecy prevents this being made public.
PA
The team successfully bred further batches. The next step was to try and cross breed the super slugs with common slugs in a way that retained the new traits so that these could be passed on through future generations and spread geographically. Finally, early in 2013 they were able to demonstrate that they had achieved this aim and were able to produce super slug/common slug offspring which retained the genetic propensity intended, and to do so consistently. They were ready to publish their results to the world. In May 2013, a three day conference was organised to disseminate the findings to experts in the field prior to wider publication. A press conference was due to take place two weeks after the conference for this purpose.
However, whilst Dr. Carr was attending the conference in Leeds, some 20 miles away, his elderly mother, Mavis, who was staying with him temporarily whilst her flat was decorated, decided that she would help about the place by doing some weeding in his absence. Searching for gardening tools, she entered the part of the converted barn serving as the research facility. As she moved further into the area, she observed row upon row of trays filled with plants which were obviously part of her son's research (she wasn't really sure exactly what his work encompassed). However, to her horror, she also noticed that they had been overrun by a super-abundance of black, slimy slugs. Thinking that she ought to try and save the plants before they were eaten by the infestation, she took the next bus to Mytholmroyd, a small village some four miles away, and purchased two very large containers of slug pellets.
When Dr. Carr returned from Leeds, his mother informed him, with pride, what she had encountered in the research facility, but told him not to worry, most of the plants were still alive and that she was sure she had managed to kill each and every slug. The reality was that all of his breeding stock had been wiped out and all that he was left with were his research papers and the knowledge that he had achieved his goal, even if he was not going to be able to replicate it, because all his subjects were dead. The project had cost more than £2.5million over its lifetime. It is thought that the research has since been taken over by another expert in the field, Jean Pilkington, although a wall of secrecy prevents this being made public.
PA
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
Man "protects" neighbour's Solar Panels with SPF 50 in the most bizzare neighbour dispute ever
Birmingham, England - Tuesday 4th June - In February 2012, the Harrison family of Small Heath, Birmingham, England, had photovoltaic Solar Panels installed on the roof of their neat Bungalow (a one storey house) in the city suburb, in order to capture the sun's rays and turn them into electricity in a bid to save money on their energy bills. They were not alone. A Government scheme in place at the time guaranteed that any surplus energy produced could be sold directly to the energy companies at a rate fixed for twenty five years and there was a rush by many householders to install panels before certain cut-off dates.
For the first three months, the Harrisons' were very happy with their panels. They could see, from a meter provided by the installers, that the panels were producing the four kilowatts of energy promised by the company. However, when readings were taken in July, one of the sunniest months of the year, they demonstrated that the panels were producing hardly any electricity at all.
Carl Harrison called the installers and asked them to look at the system. The Solar Panel company were completely baffled. They spent a whole day carrying out tests on the transformers, the converters, all of the internal and external wiring and the meters. They could not find any faults. A representative of the manufacturers of the equipment was flown over from Germany, at great expense, to try and get to the bottom of the problem. Thousands of panels were being produced every day and exported all over the world, so a potential problem with panels, or the related equipment, had the potential to cost the firm millions. Again, no solution could be found.
A date was fixed for the panels to be removed and taken back to the manufacturers for more detailed testing in laboratory conditions. However, in the early hours of the morning one day in late July, Carl Harrison, who was having difficulty sleeping, was disturbed by a noise from outside of the house. As he went to investigate, he was about to do what several teams of workmen, boffins and scientists were unable to do - discover the cause of the solar hardware's inability to produce electricity as they were designed to do.
He found his neighbour, Jack Donnelly perched on the top of a pair of step-ladders, in his slippers and dressing gown, smearing sun cream on the panels with the aid of a soft mop. The aim was clear. The factor 50 sun cream "protected" the panels from the rays of the sun. The same rays which produced the electricity for which the panels had been acquired. Because the product was "Non-greasy", it was impossible to spot the coat of protection or know that it was there. This was the second time the neighbour had "topped up" the coat.
The two men had been involved in neighbour disputes for the previous five years, starting with an argument over a Leylandii hedge grown by Mr. Donnelly, which blocked out light from Mr. Harrison's garden. Mr. Donnelly had been ordered to trim, or remove the hedge by a Court Order. The two men had had several arguments since, culminating in the present action.
Mr. Donnelly was found guilty of criminal damage on Friday 31st May and is awaiting sentencing, subject to reports from previous related convictions.
PA
Carl Harrison called the installers and asked them to look at the system. The Solar Panel company were completely baffled. They spent a whole day carrying out tests on the transformers, the converters, all of the internal and external wiring and the meters. They could not find any faults. A representative of the manufacturers of the equipment was flown over from Germany, at great expense, to try and get to the bottom of the problem. Thousands of panels were being produced every day and exported all over the world, so a potential problem with panels, or the related equipment, had the potential to cost the firm millions. Again, no solution could be found.
A date was fixed for the panels to be removed and taken back to the manufacturers for more detailed testing in laboratory conditions. However, in the early hours of the morning one day in late July, Carl Harrison, who was having difficulty sleeping, was disturbed by a noise from outside of the house. As he went to investigate, he was about to do what several teams of workmen, boffins and scientists were unable to do - discover the cause of the solar hardware's inability to produce electricity as they were designed to do.
He found his neighbour, Jack Donnelly perched on the top of a pair of step-ladders, in his slippers and dressing gown, smearing sun cream on the panels with the aid of a soft mop. The aim was clear. The factor 50 sun cream "protected" the panels from the rays of the sun. The same rays which produced the electricity for which the panels had been acquired. Because the product was "Non-greasy", it was impossible to spot the coat of protection or know that it was there. This was the second time the neighbour had "topped up" the coat.
The two men had been involved in neighbour disputes for the previous five years, starting with an argument over a Leylandii hedge grown by Mr. Donnelly, which blocked out light from Mr. Harrison's garden. Mr. Donnelly had been ordered to trim, or remove the hedge by a Court Order. The two men had had several arguments since, culminating in the present action.
Mr. Donnelly was found guilty of criminal damage on Friday 31st May and is awaiting sentencing, subject to reports from previous related convictions.
PA
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
"Sailing By" violinist sails off into the sunset after 50 years.
London, Tuesday 28th May - Colin Crabbe, First Violinist with the Alan Perry/William Gardner Orchestra, will hang up his bow this Friday night having performed the same orchestral piece daily for almost exactly 50 years; an incredible feat and one for which he will be recognised in the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Technically, his retirement begins on Saturday morning (1st June), as the piece, Sailing By is performed daily at 00:48hrs every morning in preparation for the reading of the Shipping Forecast beloved of BBC Radio Four listeners both at home and abroad.
Contrary to popular belief, Sailing By is performed live daily by a 24 piece orchestra and this has been the case since 1963 following an agreement between the BBC and the Musicians Union which successfully campaigned to "Keep Music Live" within the Corporation. Although the agreement has come under fire several times over the years in times of austerity, it has survived many changes of management and the different regimes which have been in place in the last half century. Staunch Radio Four listeners have also played a role in keeping the music live, once (in 1982) circulating and submitting a petition which attracted over 80,000 signatures of disgruntled "Sailing By" fans when the BBC announced that it wanted to start using a pre-recorded version.
Colin was 25 years old when he was first contracted to play the piece in 1963 with the newly formed orchestra. "It's been like a second family to me ever since. There have been lots of comings and goings. People have died, retired, left to have families, or just moved on to other things. I am the only surviving member of the original orchestra". Colin has been blessed with very good health, although he has performed over the years with: a broken ankle; raging tooth ache (twice); following minor operations and after the birth of his twins in 1972.
He has made other sacrifices too, which includes never having taken a holiday outside of travelling distance of the BBC studios where the daily performance takes place. In 1969 his new bride watched from the gallery whilst her groom played his part in the piece before they departed to celebrate their 24 hour honeymoon.
Sailing By was written by Ronald Binge in 1963. In 2008, a researcher from the BBC calculated that the whole of Sailing By is only heard approximately 25% of the time as the live performance is faded in and out dependant on the finishing time of the preceding programme, which does not always run to time. Jarvis Cocker chose Sailing By as one of his Desert Island Discs in April 2005.
PA
Contrary to popular belief, Sailing By is performed live daily by a 24 piece orchestra and this has been the case since 1963 following an agreement between the BBC and the Musicians Union which successfully campaigned to "Keep Music Live" within the Corporation. Although the agreement has come under fire several times over the years in times of austerity, it has survived many changes of management and the different regimes which have been in place in the last half century. Staunch Radio Four listeners have also played a role in keeping the music live, once (in 1982) circulating and submitting a petition which attracted over 80,000 signatures of disgruntled "Sailing By" fans when the BBC announced that it wanted to start using a pre-recorded version.
Colin was 25 years old when he was first contracted to play the piece in 1963 with the newly formed orchestra. "It's been like a second family to me ever since. There have been lots of comings and goings. People have died, retired, left to have families, or just moved on to other things. I am the only surviving member of the original orchestra". Colin has been blessed with very good health, although he has performed over the years with: a broken ankle; raging tooth ache (twice); following minor operations and after the birth of his twins in 1972.
He has made other sacrifices too, which includes never having taken a holiday outside of travelling distance of the BBC studios where the daily performance takes place. In 1969 his new bride watched from the gallery whilst her groom played his part in the piece before they departed to celebrate their 24 hour honeymoon.
Sailing By was written by Ronald Binge in 1963. In 2008, a researcher from the BBC calculated that the whole of Sailing By is only heard approximately 25% of the time as the live performance is faded in and out dependant on the finishing time of the preceding programme, which does not always run to time. Jarvis Cocker chose Sailing By as one of his Desert Island Discs in April 2005.
PA
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