xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
Ron Landon, 32, was captured by police in Belleville, Ill., in December after he ran through a Lone Oak Farm pasture to avoid arrest for several traffic tickets. Landon tried to hide in a shallow, water-filled ditch, but several horses wandered over to take a closer look at him, drawing officers’ attention to the ditch.
At the January trial of alleged mobster Billy Rinick in Philadelphia, a narcotics agent described how he came to arrest Rinick at the home of his boss Joey Merlino. The agent had tracked Rinick to the upstairs part of Merlino’s house and then, feigning secrecy, playfully whispered to Merlino’s 4-year-old daughter, sitting on a bed, “Where’s Billy?” The girl innocently pointed to the room across the hall, where Rinick was hiding under a bed.
Latest person to believe he had been beaten up in a mugging when actually, as his doctor informed him, he had been shot in the head (with the bullet still there): Keishun Scudder, Paterson, N.J., December.
Latest annual New Year’s Eve death toll in Japan from eating the traditional mochi rice dumplings, which are notoriously difficult to swallow, especially for the elderly: six (with 25 more hospitalized).
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
