Posted on 01/07/2011 7:09:54 AM PST by Gondring
APROMINENT Philadelphia crime sleuth is speculating that the region's high-profile murder mystery - the shocking discovery of ex-Pentagon official John "Jack" Wheeler III in a Wilmington landfill - might not be a murder at all.
William Fleisher, an ex-cop who co-founded Philadelphia's murder-solving Vidocq Society, said that the discovery of eyewitnesses and surveillance video of a disoriented Wheeler before he died suggests that the 66-year-old man had suffered a head or brain injury.
And that apparent disorientation, Fleisher speculated, could have caused Wheeler to voluntarily crawl into a trash Dumpster - either seeking shelter, as happens sometimes among the homeless, or perhaps looking for his reportedly lost papers.
[...]
Fleisher's speculation came as police in Newark, Del., who are leading the investigation, conceded that they have no suspects. And another downtown Wilmington worker came forward with a disturbing account of Wheeler's wanderings before his death.
An unnamed Wilmington deli owner told Fox News that Wheeler entered the eatery at 8 a.m. Dec. 30 and had "super bloodshot eyes" as well as dirty cuffs and seemed homeless, but lucid.
[...]
But, Fleisher emphasized, the new evidence about Wheeler's disorientation suggests that he may not have been murdered at all. He noted that violent movement of the Dumpsters [sic] could have caused injuries to Wheeler or his corpse, which might appear consistent with murder.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
ping
His movements were interesting. He left his car at garage and went to New Castle. Was he in his disoriented condition before exiting train? Before entering it in DC?
Easy for me to make this claim now, but I honestly had this same thought cross my mind after seeing the confused Wheeler video the other day...
There’s a couple of strange things about this case, as y’all know of course.
I got a theory and I’ll throw it out there.
First, there IS a video of Wheeler walking up to a parking garage attendant. Fox has shown this video and I watched it carefully.
As I see it, Wheeler looked drunk. Everything about his actions, his wobbly walk, shoe in his hand, he looked like a drunk. I daresay he probably looked drunk to the garage parking attendant, whose hand is seen in the video, not much else.
I understand that there’ve been other reports of folks claiming to have seen Wheeler in the two days leading up to his death. The one about the pharmacy guy saying Wheeler had bloodshot eyes, well a guy with a bad hangover would have bloodshot eyes. As for the other reports, I dunno, get a mystery thing like this and people suddenly remember seeing Rocky and Bullwinkle walking down the street.
According to the linked report TWO videos have surfaced proving other person’s claims of sighting Wheeler. I only know of one video and it’s been played on Fox quite a bit. This is the first time I’ve heard anything about TWO videos.
I’m going with Occam’s Razor on this one.
All this talk about Wheeler walking around disoriented is a bit misleading. I watched that video and you know videos are blurry and such but Wheeler looked DRUNK to me. I’m also thinking that maybe that’s why the parking attendant didn’t report Wheeler to the police as is speculated in the article. Drunks are not unusual, particularly to parking garage attendants who must see all types coming to retrieve their cars after holiday parties and such. A person behaving very “disoriented” as if from a stroke, well come on, strokes are strange but odds are a stroke would have eventually felled Wheeler. People don’t normally go walking around after a stroke but hey, I know, weird things happen. I still think Wheeler was drunk on that video.
I’m thinking the media/investigators are right now calling Wheeler “disoriented” because of that old saw about not talking bad about the dead. They’ll be time enough to call him drunk and hey, you think somebody made some blood tests on his dead body? It’s not like I’m hearing “Blood tests on Wheeler’s body reveal NO trace of drugs or alcohol”. Just this thing about being disoriented repeated in the news when my lying eyes see someone quite inebriated.
Couple more things, then I’ll shut up.
Odd that his WIFE didn’t report him missing, you think? She was supposedly out of the country but don’t husbands and wives talk to each other when apart? I know they might be estranged but that’s not been reported.
Also, the police were real quick to report Wheeler’s death as a homicide. SOMETHING about his body, maybe a slashed neck or a bullet in his head, led to that very quick conclusion. Which is why I don’t buy this guy in the article’s assertion that Wheeler died by natural causes. The police would not have called this a homicide so quick if it was unclear how Wheeler died. the guy quoted in this article is looking for some publicity.
Keep and eye on that parking attendant. This happened in a gang-infested area of Wilmington. The last person known to have seen someone alive is always suspect. So far as the police know the parking attendant was the last to see Wheeler alive. She’s probably seen all kind of drunks and maybe she called up some of her buds to tell them there’s a pigeon just ripe for the pickings out wondering around looking for his car.
I could be wrong. But looking for the easiest and most likely scenario first I think Wheeler was wandering around inebriated, was seen by some homies who saw an easy mark, they mugged him, it got violent as happens with these things, Wheeler had to be subdued with a gunshot and his body was thrown in a dumpster with pickup times known. Remember had a sharp trash guy not spotted Wheeler’s body tumbling from a trash truck God knows if anyone would have ever found the man’s body.
My second theory concerns Wheeler’s wife. If I’m right and Wheeler was drunk, he likely had a party with SOMEBODY. Somebody who’s not speaking out.
but I’ll shut up now.
I did, too, and was told I was disrespecting a great man for suggesting such a possibility. It irritates me that some FReepers have jumped on the bandwagon of defining things as “correct” or not based on politics.
In other words, we have FReepers (and other conservatives) who instituting a new Political Correctness.
Odd times...but then again, the term Political Correctness has been around as long as this great nation and has had many definitions.
The last place he was known to be seen alive was at the Nemours building, right in downtown Wilmington, a few (<8) hours before he would have been in the dumpster.
In fact the attendant stated he DID NOT seem drunk, rather to be suffering from some sort of dementia.
He had nothing left to steal, and was unable to defend against a shakedown, so no point to kill him.
A viable scenarios is that a drunk got rolled, the muggers killed him (either on purpose or by mistake), and then dumped the body.
Head or brain injury.... changed to —it may not have been a murder after all....without credible autopsy all I see is blind speculation. And possible cover up. Given the nature of the place he worked in —and the nature of his work I suspect we will never find out. Kinda like that Park where the Clintons’ buddy was found.
A PROMINENT Philadelphia crime sleuth is speculating that the region's high-profile murder mystery - the shocking discovery of ex-Pentagon official John "Jack" Wheeler III in a Wilmington landfill - might not be a murder at all.
"The last place he was known to be seen alive was at the Nemours building, right in downtown Wilmington, a few (<8) hours before he would have been in the dumpster."
well come on, strokes are strange but odds are a stroke would have eventually felled Wheeler.
Strokes are strange, strange in deed.
My wife had a stroke and was almost normal for seven days, not discovered until an MRI showed blood on the brain.... .of coarse she rapidly deteriorated in later days.
We were sitting on the lawn, she (wife) reached over and pulled a small weed from the grass, when she sit up she said she had a strange feeling in her head, and suddenly was desperately sick to her stomach. Neither of us with medical knowledge had any idea what had just occurred.
Long story short, my wife required brain surgery, Dr implanted a Shunt in her scull to drain Spinal Fluid into her stomach. That was fourteen yrs. ago, she is now in the kitchen making Spaghetti for dinner tonight, doing great.
She is one of the more fortunate one’s.
My point is exactly that it’s all speculation without the medical examiner information, the means of movement (rapidly moving several miles without his auto at least thrice), the cell phone info, etc.
As for it being a hit, it would be pretty odd to murder someone over several days, wouldn’t it? Possible, yes...but likely?
And the police never said it was murder. Never. It was ruled a homicide. Why? We don’t know.
That was my first thought. Could be it didn't go off as easily as Vince Foster's did.
But how would they have killed him? Was he shot or stabbed? He could have been beaten to death I suppose. But it seems that the first two possibilities would have shown up on his body.
I don't know where you got your medical training, but review your CVA notes.
Odd that his WIFE didn’t report him missing, you think? She was supposedly out of the country but don’t husbands and wives talk to each other when apart? I know they might be estranged but that’s not been reported.
Some perfectly content husbands and wives do not talk for days or weeks. In fact, even months, in the case of those doing field work.
And as for him being drunk over several days, do you think all of the character references are in on the conspiracy? Yes, he kept saying he wasn't drunk, but that doesn't mean he was. Plus, multiple people had close contact with him without reporting alcohol on breath.
Also, the police were real quick to report Wheeler’s death as a homicide. SOMETHING about his body, maybe a slashed neck or a bullet in his head, led to that very quick conclusion. Which is why I don’t buy this guy in the article’s assertion that Wheeler died by natural causes.
I believe that is likely....but heck, let's say he was despondent and climbed into the dumpster and cut his throat? (Check shoe soles for paint that matches the Dumpster) It would look at first like someone had slashed his throat and thrown him in, if he's in trash that absorbs blood and the knife was lost. (No, I don't think that's what happened, but I'm just pointing out how later findings can overturn an earlier supposition.)
The police would not have called this a homicide so quick if it was unclear how Wheeler died. the guy quoted in this article is looking for some publicity.
How about the idea that a homeless guy in a dumpster would get tagged an accident, but based on the guy's identity, it didn't seem likely that he'd climb into a dumpster (even Dumpster brand!) and get accidentally crushed--therefore, they assumed homicide, even with no blatant evidence like a gunshot...?
Sometimes, the simplest answer to the question is the right answer to the question.
The shame of it all is that quite a few people saw him before he found the dumpster and yet nobody helped him.
So okay, I believe I heard that the parking garage attendant said he did NOT seem drunk, but rather disoriented.
Like I said, I watched the tape and I thought he looked drunk. I’m 60 years old, been around. This parking garage attendant, first I’m kind of suspicious of her involvement in this thing and second, her medical degree is what?
And as speculated in the article, why didn’t she notify someone if he seemed disoriented. My argument is that Wheeler was drunk, the attendant’s probably seen it all, but under questioning suddenly she says Wheeler seemed demented.
Demented? The guy has a job, travels to DC from Delaware regularly. You don’t just wake up one day, take off your shoe and carry it around in your hand, suddenly demented.
But hey, she said what she said. Again, where’s the blood test results? I’ve yet to read any assertion that Wheeler’s blood had no drugs or alcohol present.
That parking attendant....I’m casting jaundiced eye upon.
Thanks for that input.
Hey, this could be part of Wheeler’s story.
What are the percentages? A stroke bad enough to have him walking around for DAYS, as alleged witness reports reveal....I just don’t think so. A stroke bad enough for that would have him falling down as I consider.
But it’s a mystery and we speculate.
Help me out here. Isn’t a homicide when someone kills someone else?
How is this different from murder?
Could be a manslaughter type of thing?
I’m not trying to be argumentative, just trying to figure it out.
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