Free Republic

[There are no graphic images in the article proper. They are accessed through a slide show only.]The photographs are graphic and detailed, showing the fingers or toes of aborted fetuses whose entire frames are no bigger than a cellphone. Since the mid-1990s, they have appeared all over the country — carried as posters by protesters, handed out with pamphlets or, in some cases, mounted like billboards on the sides of trucks. Like many others, I often wondered about the source of these images. Who took the pictures? Where did the fetuses come from? I had a chance to find some...

A southwest Missouri man was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, and investigators believe the homicide is connected to the slayings of her father and stepmother. Josh Reyes, 23, of Springfield, was being held without bond Sunday, said Laclede County Jailer Tracy Lawson. Reyes was charged Saturday with the first-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree burglary in the death of Zachary Bryan Porter, 25, of Elkland. Lawson said he didn't know whether Reyes had an attorney. Springfield television station KSPR reported that Reyes's ex-girlfriend and their two children watched as Porter was gunned...

A rural community of about 2,300 residents near the Massachusetts border is reeling in the wake of the random, grisly murder of a woman and the maiming of her 11-year-old daughter — allegedly at the hands of four teenagers. Prosecutors said the teenagers picked the home at random in the early hours of Sunday morning because it was isolated from the main road, and they intended to kill whomever was inside. Kimberly Cates, a 42-year-old nurse, was slain in her bed. Her daughter, Jaime, is recovering from surgery at Children’s Hospital in Boston. She is expected to survive. The news...

Al Shabaab extremists shoot 69-year-old after finding Bibles on him at checkpoint. NAIROBI, Kenya, September 18 (CDN) - The faith journey of a long-time underground Christian in Somalia ended in tragedy this week when Islamic militants controlling a security checkpoint killed him after finding Bibles in his possession. Militants from the Muslim extremist al Shabaab killed 69-year-old Omar Khalafe on Tuesday (Sept. 15) at a checkpoint they controlled 10 kilometers from Merca, a Christian source told Compass. A port city on the Indian Ocean 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Mogadishu, Merca is the main city of the Lower Shabele region....

A “soccer mom” from Pennsylvania who was thrust into the national gun-rights debate after taking a loaded pistol to youth sports events was killed by her husband in a shooting witnessed online by her video chat partner. Scott Hain used his own gun to fire several shots into his wife, Meleanie, 30, while her video chat was active and perhaps as she washed dishes in their kitchen, police said. Mr Hain, 33, later killed himself in an upstairs bedroom. Mrs Hain’s loaded pistol — with a bullet ready in the chamber — was in a backpack hanging from the front...

Unidentified assailants kidnapped and killed the top official of the border town of Palomas, across from New Mexico, on Thursday. Town Mayor Estanislao Garcia Santelis had long complained about the drug traffickers and migrant smugglers active around Palomas. Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in northern Chihuahua state, said Garcia Santelis' bullet-riddled body was found near a burned-out pickup truck and bore signs of torture. Palomas made headlines in 2008 when its police chief sought asylum in the U.S. after his deputies abandoned him and he received death threats. The Mexican army subsequently took over law enforcement in...

Jamie Foxx signs on for ‘Zebra Murders’November 14th, 2007 - 2:48 am ICT by admin The pic is based on Prentice Earl Sanders and Bennett Cohen’s 2006 book by the same name. Matt Carnahan writing the screenplay for the bigscreen. The plot revolves around a series of racially motivated serial killings — black on white — that took place in San Francisco in 1973 and 1974. Foxx will be playing the role of real-life cop Sanders, who was one of two black police detectives who led the team that cracked the case, reports Variety. The movie will also tell how...

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 An abortionist's plea: Let the violence of abortion lead us to embrace it all the more Second Trimester Abortion Provision: Breaking the Silence and Changing the Discourse This piece was written in the hope that the more we talked openly about the reality of second-trimester abortion, the more accepted all abortion would become. If the author's prediction is true -- that the more we know about how gruesome and violent second-trimester abortions are, and the more we know about the rather prosaic reasons they're committed, the more likely we are to embrace the practice -- well,...

DECATUR, AL -- Decatur police have arrested one suspect in a Sept. 11 gang-style shooting at Funland Park and are searching for a second suspect who is considered to be armed and dangerous. Jose Luis Gonzalez, 19, was arrested Tuesday at the B&B Trailer Court on Modaus Road and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of second degree assault, shooting into an occupied vehicle and shooting into an occupied vehicle. He's being held in the Morgan County Jail on bonds totaling $400,000. Police are still searching for Samuel Trejo Carbajal, 19, of Elkmont....

MONT VERNON, N.H. - A devout Mormon on the verge of becoming a church missionary helped lead a group of machete-toting teens accused of butchering a nurse in her bed and slashing her 11-year-old daughter’s throat in what officials say was a sadistic pact to attack at random. Police said Christopher Gribble, 19 - a handyman and member of the Church of Latter-day Saints - allegedly slashed to death 42-year-old Kimberly Lynn Cates in a brutal bloodbath that left sixth-grader Jaime Cates bleeding in her family’s front yard Sunday morning after attempting to run for help. Authorities allege a cold-blooded...

MONT VERNON, N.H. -- The four teenagers accused of breaking into a home here and using a machete and a knife to butcher a mother and her 11-year-old daughter allegedly chose their victims by chance. "They picked the house at random because it was in an isolated area," prosecutor N. William Delker said today during the teens' arraignments in Milford District Court. "Before they entered the home, all four defendants were aware that the intent was to kill the occupants." The violent whim allegedly took the teens to the home of Kim Cates, who lived in one of four houses...

Bantu woman shot after wife of militant confirmed she had Bibles. NAIROBI, Kenya, October 1 (CDN) — Islamic militants in Somalia this week killed a woman who led an underground Christian movement in the war-torn country. Sources told Compass that a leader of Islamic extremist al Shabaab militia in Lower Juba identified only as Sheikh Arbow shot to death 46-year-old Mariam Muhina Hussein at 2 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 28) in Marerey village after discovering she had six Bibles. Marerey is eight kilometers (five miles) from Jilib, part of the neighboring Middle Juba region. Local sources said that on Sunday...

Chicago’s vitriolic West Side Catholic leader and one time Obama spiritual mentor Father Michael Pfleger is known by some as the “white” Jeremiah Wright. Pfleger, who has called Louis Farrakhan a “great man” and Rev. Wright “one of the greatest Biblical scholars this nation has,” earlier this year thundered about the hypocrisy of fighting a war in Iraq “when we have innocent children dying on the streets right here at home.” At home, meaning Chicago. In 2008 for example, America lost 314 fighting men and women in Iraq while 509 unfortunate citizens were murdered in Chicago. The case this year...

So Glenn Beck on Fox News recently (September 29, 2009) showed a graphic murder. This is the sort of thing that would get a video pulled from youtube almost immediately, but for some reason Fox deemed it important enough to put on the Glenn Beck show. Now I've seen the ugly side of mankind. But to be honest this is something that one has to mentally prepare for. It should not be the sort of thing that should get pushed in your face. I mean the only warning Beck gives is to tell 'children to leave the room' before showing...

Question from the bottom of page 2: Most proponents of the right to die would agree with your ideas about euthanasia. But you lose them when you suggest that it's OK to kill a baby before it's 28 days old, because until that time, it is not self-aware and "doesn't have the same right to life as others." Answer: I wrote that in 1995. I have changed my position. Now I believe you should look at every individual case.

The conservative's in this country are lowering the discourse in politics today...according to Pelosi and the left. Of course this fails to explain the lowering of discourse by Rep. Grayson who told everyone from the floor of the house that Republicans want people to "Die quickly." Hell, the very same person who demanded the house censure a man whose only crime was yelling during a Presidents speech, and apologized for the outburst, now defends Grayson...confirming her hypocrite status (like we needed another confirmation). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says there's no reason for Rep. Alan Grayson to apologize for his...

Note: Photo included. STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WJBK) - A man faced a judge in Sterling Heights on Tuesday, charged with murdering his wife. FOX 2 spoke to those close to the victim, who say domestic violence should not be taken lightly. As friends and family remember the life of a 25-year-old woman in Sterling Heights that was stabbed to death in her own home, her own husband was charged with her murder. 22-year-old Mohammed Chowdhury was charged Tuesday afternoon with his wife's murder. He called 9-1-1 on Monday, saying a group broke into the apartment and killed his wife. Police...

Forget Lions and Tigers The Latest in Big Game thelastcrusade.org Somalia (MNN) ― Somalia's Muslim militants are hunting down converts to Christianity. According to Voice of the Martyrs Canada, Al-Shabaab members have murdered 14 believers since July 15. Compass Direct News reports the September 15 shooting death of 69-year-old Omar Khalafe, an underground Christian who had Bibles in his possession.On the day of his death, Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia. At a checkpoint controlled by al Shabaab--a rebel group linked with al Qaeda which has taken over large...

Marta Torres was afraid of her husband, so much so that she moved from her home in Fort Myers to hide out with a friend in Ocala. But Elliott Torres found her, Marta told Ocala police on Aug. 23 when she stopped at the police department to alert them that she might be in danger.On Tuesday, police say, Elliott Torres confronted his estranged wife at her workplace in northeast Ocala, shot her to death and then turned the gun on himself.According to investigators, Marta was working at Davis Supply, Inc, 2300 N.E. 8th Road, when Elliott Torres approached her in...

DID JEWISH FEDERATION SUSPECT BELIEVE HE WAS A 'JIHADI'? Jail phone calls, claims of jihad at issue as trial approaches" by Levi Pulkkinen SNIPPET: "The jail calls, Haq's attorneys contend, show Haq making "nonsense claims that he wanted to be a martyr, that he was a jihadi, and that his parents should be proud of him."" SNIPPET: "In a search of Haq's homes in the Tri-Cities, Seattle police recovered a prayer written by Haq four days before the shooting. In it, Haq apparently complained that supporters of Israel had hijacked American foreign policy and expressed concerns that American-made weapons were...

With the death of Manson follower Susan Atkins, the man who prosecuted her for first-degree murder said Friday that one of his lasting images was that of a "heartless, bloodthirsty robot." Vincent Bugliosi, however, said that image has become more ambiguous with the passage of time. Atkins, who died Friday, played a central role in the 1969 slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and others in a two-night rampage in the Los Angeles area. She later said she killed Tate even as the woman pleaded for mercy. It's possible it will never be known exactly what happened inside the home...

The United States military said Sunday that American and Iraqi troops had arrested a suspect in the murders of at least 13 members of the Iraqi national tae kwon do team in 2006, in a possible resolution of a case that was among the more vexing crimes at the height of Iraq’s sectarian warfare. The team and its coaches were traveling from Baghdad to Jordan in May 2006 to attend a training camp and try to get visas to the United States for a tournament in Las Vegas. All 15 people, and the two sport utility vehicles they were in,...

The echoes from her stepfather’s death were haunting. Around midnight on New Year’s Day 1994, Scott S. Douglas jumped off the Tappan Zee Bridge hours after his wife, Anne Scripps Douglas, the heiress to a newspaper fortune, was found bludgeoned in her upstairs bedroom with head injuries from which she would die six days later. Mr. Douglas’s 1982 BMW was abandoned on the bridge, its engine still running, so the police searched the Hudson River. The decomposed body did not turn up for three months. On Thursday, his stepdaughter, Anne Morell Petrillo, 38, was believed to have leaped off the...

A teenager faces murder charges for asking her brother to "murk" a manShanovia Mack is used to getting what she wants, so when an older man said he wasn't interested in dating the teen, she decided it was payback time, the victim's family believe. Now Mack, 16, faces murder charges in connection with the shooting death of 23-year-old Vladimir Valcourt, who was gunned down in front of his Palm Beach home two weeks ago. Police had already arrested the man who pulled the trigger, Mack's brother, but were directed to Mack after investigators were told by sources she planned the...

On Facebook last week, an enraged "friend" who shall remain nameless lashed out wildly in her status report against Raymond Clark III, the man accused of murdering Yale University student Annie Le earlier this month. My pal evidently wanted all of her Facebook friends to know that she wanted Clark executed now, right away, for the heinous crime for which he has been charged. Never mind that Clark hasn’t yet been tried, much less convicted; never mind that he’s not yet been convicted, never mind sentenced. Never mind that my “friend” lives 3,000 miles away from Connecticut and wouldn’t know...

A "violent struggle" that took place during the slayings of five members of a central Illinois family may have left the suspect or suspects injured, authorities said Saturday as they sought the public's help. "There is a possibility that the person or persons responsible may be injured themselves," Logan County Sheriff Steven Nichols said in a statement Saturday. "I am asking the public to look at everyone they know ... or may encounter that have recent injuries especially to their arms, head and upper body." Police have declined to say whether they are seeking one or more suspects in the...

Suspected drug hitmen burst into a Mexican radio station and shot dead a journalist in front of his colleagues in the latest brazen attack on the media, authorities and a Mexican newspaper said on Thursday. Gunmen shot Norberto Miranda, 44, several times in the rural town of Nuevo Casas Grandes in Chihuahua state near the U.S. border on Wednesday night. "His body was found full of bullets in the radio's offices," said a spokesman for the Chihuahua attorney general's office. The newspaper El Diario said Miranda, who was well-known locally, had recently reported on growing drug violence in the remote...

Editor's note: The following column is not appropriate reading material for children. It is not for squeamish adults. It contains graphic details of a heinous crime. In the news business, you've got to have a strong stomach. It's like being a cop. You get to see the darkest side of a dark world. And what you see, hear and read is often unforgettable – and not in a good way. The case of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising continues to haunt me since I first wrote about it 10 years ago – before anyone else in the national press. The details of...

The FBI is investigating the hanging of 51 year old census worker, Robert Sparkman. Sparkman was found hanging in a remote wooded area of west Kentucky in Clay County with the word “FED” scrawled on his chest. I was reading about this case this morning and of course, the thought came to mind that “right winged” extremists would be blamed for this event. I mean, geez, there is so much hatred for those who oppose the take over of America and “fundamentally transforming” America into a European style Socialist country that, of course, when a dead fed is found that,...

MANCHESTER, Ky. (AP) - When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drawing on years of experience warned: "Be careful." The 51-year-old Sparkman was found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery and had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment. "Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that...

BEASON, Ill. - A central Illinois sheriff says autopsies on five members of a family found slain in their home revealed that none of the victims had been shot. At a news conference this morning, Logan County Sheriff Steven Nichols wouldn't discuss the cause of death further. On Tuesday, Nichols had said authorities discovered the bodies at the family's ranch-style house after responding to a 911 call about possible shots fired.

Donald Peterson can still remember the day more than 30 years ago when his St. Paul neighborhood became the scene of a murder mystery. "I haven't thought about that in a long, long, time," he says. "Nobody ever found the guy who did it." In May 1977, 30-year-old Mark Shemukenas was found dead in his apartment. His body had been mutilated. And according to news reports from that time, he had been sexually assaulted and castrated. "It was very brutal and very bloody, several instruments were used," says Sgt. Anita Muldoon with the St. Paul Police Department. But the case...

Canton Township (WWJ) -- New details emerged Wednesday about Detroit police homicide investigator Ed Williams II, who shot and killed his wife--also a Detroit police officer--before fatally turning the gun on himself. Williams, who killed his wife Patricia outside the Canton Township Public Library Tuesday morning, was featured on TV crime-drama show "The First 48", which follows the footsteps of police detectives and airs on the A&E cable network.

Irene Vilar worries that her self-described "abortion addiction" will be misunderstood, twisted by the pro-life movement to deny women the right to choose. Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions... Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions in 16 years. Pro-choice, she hopes her shocking story will spark a national discussion on abortion, one that won't compromise a woman's right to reproductive freedom. As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar -- a literary agent and editor --- says she has already sensed...

Dear Activist, We are pleased to announce that the Virginia Pro-Choice Coalition will be introducing a bill in early 2010 that will create a pro-choice, pro-prevention license plate! A portion of the revenue from these plates will go directly to Planned Parenthood’s prevention and education services. Your opinion counts! Follow the survey link below to tell us which of the following phrases you would most like to see on the pro-choice plate - and would most likely purchase! Or – create your own! Please take 30 seconds to respond, and this time next year you could see one of these...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Police in Haiti have detained a man wanted for questioning in the slaying of his wife and their five children in Florida. An Associated Press reporter saw Mesac Damas in custody at a police station near the Port-au-Prince airport Monday afternoon. Two officers confirmed it was him. They spoke on condition of anonymity because his capture had not been publicly announced.

FARMVILLE, Va. (AP) — A California man who rapped about murder in songs posted on his MySpace page was arrested Saturday by investigators who suspect him of killing four people in a central Virginia college town. Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., was taken into custody at Richmond International Airport, where authorities believe he tried to catch a flight back to California. Officers found McCroskey asleep in the baggage claim area, Farmville police Capt. Wade Stimpson said. McCroskey is being held in Farmville, where he faces charges of first-degree murder, grand larceny of an automobile and...

New Details Emerge About Clark's PersonalityRaymond Clark is spending his first full day in a high-security prison, refusing to talk to cops about the crime for which he stands accused: the killing of Yale grad student Annie Le. But a picture of Clark is emerging as an overbearing "control freak" who was upset with Le's handling of the mice in the lab where they both worked. Clark's co-workers at a Yale University laboratory told police that Clark would have confrontations with scientists and viewed the lab as his territory, a source told The Associated Press, leading police to question if...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - As police charged a Yale animal lab technician with murdering a graduate student who worked in his building, a portrait began to emerge Thursday of an unpleasant stickler for the rules who often clashed with researchers and considered the mice cages his personal fiefdom.

The Yale lab technician busted yesterday in the murder of brilliant grad student Annie Le may have had help hiding her body -- and there could be another arrest, it was reported last night. Cops are interrogating another employee who works in the lab where Raymond Clark allegedly killed Le, sources told Hartford TV station WTIC/Fox61. It was not known who that employee might be. Clark's fiancée, sister and brother-in-law all work at the lab. The bombshell report came after Clark, 24, was arrested yesterday, hours after a State Police lab confirmed that DNA samples taken from him matched evidence...

Cairo - SNIPPET: "He said that a man repeatedly stabbed local shopkeeper George Abdu, 63, in the abdomen and the neck, killing him, then fled on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The archbishop said that the killer drove 4 kilometres to the village of Bamahai and repeatedly stabbed a cobbler, who suffered wounds to the head and lung. The suspect then drove to another nearby village, Mit Afifi, and stabbed a third Christian man, Hani Barsum, in the neck. Barsum and the cobbler were hospitalized, Stefanos said.... Wednesday's attacks resembled a string of attacks in April 2006 in Alexandria that led to...

Yale grad student Annie Le's accused killer has been tossed into solitary confinement in a Connecticut jail, where he has been somber and silent, an official told the Daily News Thursday. Raymond Clark 3rd is being held in the private unit at the New Haven Community Correctional Center for his own protection. "He is in solitary confinement for his own safety because of the nature of his crime," Lt. John Bernard told the News. "We don't know who is out there maybe waiting to take action against him." In his first few hours behind bars, the 24-year-old Clark has looked...

Ray Clark Was Charged Today In The Murder of Annie Le, Who Was Set to Be Married Last WeekendConflicting images of accused murderer Raymond Clark III are emerging in the wake of his arrest in the strangulation of Yale grad Annie Le. There is the Ray Clark his high school friends remember: competive baseball player who was respectful of authority, volunteered to help the homeless and raised money for cancer stricken patients. He was also a member of the Asian Awareness Club. Others, mostly those from more recent days, saw a darker side of the 24-year-old Clark: withdrawn, officious at...

The handsome Yale lab technician Raymond Clark quizzed by cops in connection with the grisly slaying of brilliant grad student Annie Le allegedly forced an ex-girlfriend to have sex with him, according to a new report. The New Haven Independent reports on its Web site today that Clark dated the woman, who has not been identified, about six years ago when they were both in high school. According to a 2003 police report obtained by the newspaper earlier this week, she told police he forced her to have sex with him and he “confronted” her -- when against his wishes...

San Bernadino News Release at the link.

Along with the defensive wounds and the flunked lie detector test, investigators looking into the murder of Yale student Annie Le focused on a lab technician named Raymond Clark because of e-mails about the care of laboratory mice. In the e-mails, Clark is said to criticize Le for not adhering to the protocols for tending the mice kept in the basement as part of her lab's ongoing experiments. Le is said to have responded in a conciliatory tone, promising to keep to the protocols. Investigators wonder if Clark was not satisfied, if resentment suddenly flared to rage, if as crazy...

<p>NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The fiancee of a Yale University animal research technician says on her MySpace page that she's not perfect, but cautioned people not to judge her.</p> <p>"Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect and I don't live to be, but before you start pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean!!" writes Jennifer Hromadka, the 23-year-old woman engaged to Raymond Clark III.</p>

OPEN LETTER TO THE MEDIA The premeditated murder of James Pouillon of Owosso, Michigan, a disabled pro-life activist, father of two and grandfather, affectionately known by locals as the peaceful "sign guy," is being mourned by the nation's pro-life community. Pouillon was gunned down across the street from the Owosso High School while holding a photograph of a baby with the word "LIFE." County officials have accused 33-year-old Harlan Drake of shooting Pouillon several times because he was "offended by the manner of Mr. Pouillon's message." Leading pro-life advocates are questioning the lack of a concerned response from key abortion...

Connecticut police are searching the apartment of a Yale University animal research technician, who was named late Tuesday night as a person of interest in the murder of a 24-year-old grad student. Raymond Clark was taken into custody by police Tuesday night after police served a warrant on his home and his body.

"If" by chance, the lady who admitted on todays ACORN video to setting up and then killing her husband, If she really did kill and then get off on an abuse defense .. Can they retry the case? What about the double jeopardy law? Just curious. Thanks