On January 18, 1985, Ernest and Bonnie Brown were attacked in their home…
The murderer would later be identified as Paul Sargent, son of Robert and Judy Sargent, whose family lived two doors down from the Browns. It was certainly the case that…
…Paul wasn’t a threat outwardly. However, Paul and his family needed something to blame…
Ok, so Paul seems to be doing a bit of…backreading. The thief-part is linked to the burglary, and the kill-part is a reference to what he did to Bonnie Brown. However, he did not plan to kill Mrs. Brown. This happened because he had been surprised by the homeowners while he was robbing the house. If the game taught one to kill, then one might expect a crime that would involve a plan to kill. In addition…
…either Paul was an opportunistic burglar, or, as I think to be the case, he had been a serial burglar. Perhaps all the cats were missing. And there does not appear to have been any other murders. In either case, the motive of his actions is more than clear. But Paul ended up prevaricating about the role played by D&D in his behavior…
He had been heavily involved with D & D. He owned eight D & D books and was a frequent player. He said that D & D teaches you to become a thief and to kill. However, he said he didn't know how much it had affected him.
And did D&D become a catch all! On March 3, 1987, a pipe bomb used to blow up a telephone booth in downtown Hudsonville, Michigan. Then on March 6, 1987, a pipe bomb was used to blow up a ticket stand at Hudsonville High School. There were no injuries in either attack, but fake, terrorist-type notes were found at both crime scenes, and a hoax bomb threat was called in to the high school.
More…
And all pipe bombers aren’t particularly intelligent…
That’s right, leave the evidence exactly where the cops can find it, and that’s certainly the thing to do…
How did these guys ever make it to the 12th grade? I found it rather humorous that the police found cassettes recorded by the band…
…Big Audio Dynamite.
He is probably talking about…
…yes, the cowboy is holding dynamite. And there are consequences of our bad decisions…
They were also expelled from Hudsonville High.
Did a cop really say that? He’s surprised?
I have a hard time understanding how Dungeons & Dragons led to pipe bombs.
Of course he changed his tone! He realized what a stupid thing he just said. Let’s see if he can come up with a better explanation…
High school students pull pranks? Who knew?
On February 11, 1988, Assistant Principal Richard Allen was killed, and two other faculty members…Nancy Blackwelder and Joseph Bloznalis… were injured as they attempted to take two guns from...
…Jason Harless and a friend of his named Jason McCoy. When the police arrived, they opened fire on them as well, though there were no injuries. However, it turned out that McCoy hadn’t fired his gun. Nonetheless, he was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to six years in prison, serving less than two. At the time of the shooting, Jason McCoy was living in the Harless household.
Harless served eight years of a seventeen-year sentence. Now for the blame-game…
The two boys had played D&D endlessly in the months before the shooting.
Even if this were true, I don’t know why it would be related to the shooting. There were plenty of issues with Harless to adequately explain why he did what he did.
Not a particularly good start to life.
Things are looking up!
Things are looking down. Now the mother says something very pathetic…
Mrs. Harless appears to be saying that she would take her abusive, alcoholic ex-husband, back into the home, who would then start hurting his family again, only for him to leave and come back later. But that’s in the past. Now she has moved in with her new boyfriend…Mike Scott. And so, a new life begins! Away with the things of the past!
Just awesome! Mom divorces an alcoholic who beats her, only to let him come and go, leaving a trail of black eyes behind him. Then she starts up a new relationship…with another alcoholic. This had a big impact on Jason, who had been admitted to the Horizon Hospital for his developing mental issues.
Scott’s home! Complete with another alcoholic father-figure and a bar that’s open all night.
It was his mother finally leaving one alcoholic only to find another that was a key element in Jason’s break-down. I won’t comment on the I’m-cured-of-my-alcoholism card that was played. So did Jason find friends at Horizon? Did he find support there?
I made the image particularly large so as to show just how lousy people were to Jason. He found no support. Oh, he left because the money ran out. What happened next?
What this boy became was not his fault. He was failed by all those in his life. Society reaps what society sows. And…we’re at the point of no return.
Well, there’s some hope for a kid who reads medical dictionaries…though possibly only the sections on female anatomy.
Enter Jason McCoy, whose home life was so bad he wanted to move into another home life that was bad…
So, McCoy won the election. I have another child? He came on bike instead of by the stork. Did this woman ever listen to the things that came out of her mouth? Sure, your son can have a close friend. But if your son is in a downward mental spiral, you better make sure that his new best friend is in a downward mental spiral of his own. Then let him move in so the two can spend virtually all their time combining their downward spirals. I love how Mrs. McCoy was forced to sign a legal document thereby giving up her son to the World’s Greatest Mother.
This woman really is something else. With all that’s imploding around her, she receives a call from Principal Richard Allen, and instead of knowing that her son must be in serious trouble again, she asks if there is anything she could help him with. And we learn that McCoy and Harless are feeding off one another. Mrs. McCoy wants her son back? She can’t decide which broken home she wants her son to live in? And by the way, it’s too bad…you signed a legal document. Ah, yes…I can almost hear the explosion that’s coming. Let’s escalate…
Now I must say that so many of the fates that befell young adolescent males that have been covered on this website, some attribute it to D&D, some attribute it to rock music, and some attribute it to both. But in so many instances, the youths in question had easy access to guns. And here? A cop should have known to secure his weapons…but he didn’t.
They later told their mothers they wanted the guns for protection when running away. They wanted to keep from getting hurt by perverts, Mrs. Harless said.
Hey, Mom…we’re running away. And suddenly, we’re worried about sexual abuse at the hands of perverts. Where did this come from, other than…out of the blue? This claim certainly suggests another dark element to the story. But if you have a gun, and you meet a pervert, you can shoot him dead.
He pranced around holding the gun on everybody in the lunchroom.
We know what’s next. Faculty members attempted to take the guns and were shot. Do we really need D&D here? No, we don’t. How the whole situation developed couldn’t be any clearer.
On January 16, 1985, Joseph Vite, a well-respected insurance agent with American Family Insurance, had come home from work, and two gunmen were waiting for him. One shooter, waiting in the living room, fired a bullet that hit Joseph in the elbow. Then the second shooter, hiding in the kitchen, fired a bullet into the victim’s head. He was found by his wife Mary. The two murderers had ransacked the house before Joseph arrived. The killers fled to St. Louis and were apprehended at a motel. Who committed these horrible, cold-blooded murders?
…Danny Dower, Joseph Vite’s foster son, and his friend Eric Nelson.
Yes, Wisconsin is cold, but most people don’t kill family members, even foster family members, to leave. A hatchet was found at the scene but hadn’t been used. Mary said this…
Maybe find out who your kid is hanging around with. So, police were able to trace the stolen car. No one accused Danny Dower and Eric Nelson of being geniuses.
Joseph was killed with a .22 and a .308 rifle, both of which were found in Vite’s stolen car.
…so, they were in a school for…emotionally disturbed youth. That’s a very good reason to know who your emotionally disturbed son is hanging around with.
Perhaps they needed to be in a school for…psychopathic youth. I wouldn’t hold anything against Nelson’s sister. Kids make threats like this all the time and are only acting out. But in a few instances, they follow through on their threats.
Both were found guilty of first-degree murder. Dungeons & Dragons was very prevalent in this case…
We’re just kids? Actually, several of the cases already discussed involved killers who were tried, and sentenced, as adults. And note just how stupid the statement really is. If they won’t execute you, they will sentence you to prison for a very long time. Apparently, they didn’t think of that. Have fun in prison guys.
Ok. This doesn’t make any sense. Players don’t generally make their characters commit suicide. That’s crazy. You develop your characters, you advance them through various levels, getting stronger as you go. And it makes no sense for your character to commit suicide because he lost a battle against a monster or an enemy…it has happened, but serves no purpose, and it only makes sense that if your character has lost a significant number of hit points, you would simply pull the character back from combat, or do a…I’ll-take-as-many-with-me-as-I-can…final attack. This could result in taking hit points from the opponent, and that will help the other characters in your group. Characters will be defeated, but that usually doesn’t mean death, just loss of hit points. It seems highly unlikely that a Dungeon Master would continue the game if characters commit suicide. I’m not sure who knows less about D&D…Nelson and Dower, or the adults involved in the case. And Dungeon Masters often place monsters and enemies in the game that are roughly on the same level as the characters…he doesn’t set out to kill the characters in the game. For example, lower-level characters don’t stand a chance against a Golden Dragon, which has 546 hit points...
The demon named Zariel has 580 hit points…
One must include the Terrasque, which has a whopping 676 hit points…
The number of hit points indicates how strong the monster is. These battles are long, require advanced characters, and a couple of high-level magic users at least. Dungeon Masters are not out to kill characters.
So? He could have gained his knowledge the right way…read the books, and not consult an emotionally disturbed youth, who, apparently, would tell you to start making your characters jump off cliffs. And they only played for two months?
A sensible jury. And I would note it is my speculation that most people chosen to sit on a jury, would know nothing about the game. This would make them the most likely people to be seduced by testimony about D&D. Yet, they are not.
You can blame D&D, or…
…sue for $10 million dollars. That is over $30 million in today’s world…and that is a lot of money.
And…
But could there be another important element to this story?
Dower, 15, said the shooting grew out of allegations that he had sexually molested a 3-year-old niece.
Ah, yes…there’s a motive if I’ve ever heard one. Shut up anyone who was behind the allegations, steal guns and a car, and split…preferably to a place with a warm climate…unless you want to go to Canada…and then? Make it no further than St. Louis. Bummer. Both were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. So much for the Dungeons & Dragons defense.
Again…no one accused Dower of being a particularly bright guy.
I thought you guys said somewhere warm…Canada? Well, prisons are heated these days.
On 6/2/1983, a very disturbing crime was committed. Upon arriving home, gunmen shot John Lampasi and Ruth Lampasi. John was ambushed while he was watching TV and died on scene. Ruth was shot after coming home from a local restaurant. She lay on the floor for two days with a bullet in her skull. She was finally found, taken to the hospital, and she survived. The shooter was quickly identified as…
…Ronald Lampasi, the adopted son of John and Ruth. His brother, Michael Lampasi called his parents, and although his mother answered the phone, it was clear that she needed help. Ronald’s friend…
…David Christianson, who was fifteen years old when the crime was committed, was accused of shooting Ruth, while Ronald shot his stepfather. Ronald was sixteen years old and was a junior at Laguna Hills High School. There isn’t really much to this case. What did Ruth say happened?
Convenient. No one bought this. Lampasi told two stories, one where Christianson was present, and one where Christianson wasn’t present. Christianson himself said that Ronald brought him to the Lampasi house to show him that he actually killed John and Ruth. Christianson was tried for murder and attempted murder but acquitted of all charges by the jury. But Ronald saved the police a considerable amount of time and money. He walked into the Costa Mesa Police Department, and walked up a desk officer…
Yes, simple enough.
Why did he do it? Yes, the Old Bugbear…
So here, the D&D issue came up. And we owe this twaddle to…
…Henry Tuttle, not to be confused with Captain Tuttle. Lampasi had to kill…something…to advance to the next level, this would presumably be a D&D monster, something that was pretty tough, such as one of the undead monsters. Nonetheless, Dungeons & Dragons came up again in Lampasi’s trial in 1985…
And…
They also found…
…that’s silly. If you sign a pact, but Satan doesn’t, then he’s not required to do anything for you…not legally. I suppose you can always sue him.
Given the real reason for the killing, this statement is remarkably stupid. So, it’s D&D that caused Ronald Lampasi to kill his adoptive parents.
Ok, so we have total rejection by his biological parents. That’s not a good start.
Now things are real. A sex offender in the house.
So, we know what kind of household this was…physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the foster parents, piled on top of the rejection by their real parents.
What do Ronald’s sister say?
Six months? The daughters were taken away. All this, and Ronald was allowed to remain with John Lampasi? It is clear that Ronald Lampasi was viciously abused at home.
At the very least, Ronald killed John Lampasi for physically abusing him and for the sexual molestation of his sisters. At the most, he killed his adoptive parents because they nagged him, he didn’t want to do homework, and his parents wouldn’t let them drive the Porsche. But at any rate, D&D was irrelevant.
On March 5, 1991, the bodies of two young boys were discovered in the woods of Wadsworth Homes, Virginia Beach. The boys were…
…Daniel Wayne Geier, nine years old, and Christopher Scot Weaver, seven years old. The trail led to…
…sixteeen-year-old Shawn Novak. The boys were last seen riding their bikes near a grocery store around 5:30. The boys’ bodies had been butchered and hidden under a pile of wet leaves. They were found after a large-scale search had been carried out, including help from the military and the Red Cross. Both boys had their throats slashed.
The focus quickly fell on Novak, but it is worth noting that this was the result of his boasting that he was present when they found the bodies…
With the investigation underway, classmates of 16-year-old Shawn Novak listened intently as he bragged that he had found the bodies. Classmates didn’t think much of it. Novak had often said things and did things to get attention. According to one of his classmates, he had bragged about killing animals in the past and often carried around animal bones.
Now I would say that in the same way that Sean Sellers walked around school with the Satanic Bible, which he in no way understood, and apparently carried vials of blood, so too Novak’s carrying around animal bones is merely a way to get attention. If you can’t get attention in a positive way, such as academics or sports, and you care about it, getting attention is assured if you do things that people think are weird and creepy. In the same way, claiming to have found the bodies…apparently Shawn didn’t read the newspaper…well, it is common for people to claim to have committed a particular murder, and will confess to police, although they were not involved. During the Whitechapel murder investigation, the police had to deal with scores of letters claiming to have been written by Jack the Ripper. Modern investigators have to root through scores of false tips until, hopefully, they find what they’re looking for. It is a way to get attention. Nonetheless, it was a stupid thing to do, and he quite rightly came under suspicion.
Novak could be called…The Strange Kid In the Woods. Local parents did not want their young children playing around in the woods. Not surprisingly, they did anyway.
Local parents had heard stories from their children about a teenage boy who often hung out in the woodland. This unknown youth reportedly drank in the woodland and smoked cigarettes. According to some children, they had seen him spray painting pentagrams on trees and he sometimes even chased the younger children. Most of the time, however, he played with the children, and a lot of them looked at him like something of a big brother, albeit a bit strange.
This is odd in that Shawn is a dark, violent figure at times, and a friendly, likeable figure at others. As far as the smoking goes…sixteen was a standard age at which smoking became legal. And he…though you shouldn’t do this…vandalized trees.
It is worth pointing out that the pentagram, the number 666, the Nazi Swastika, and the initials…KKK, are very common manifestations of graffiti. My take on this is that kids are acting out when they do this.
Then there’s that oldy but goody…
…for a good time call…add a name. Yes, 867-5309 has come to dominate this genre. So the pic on the right is from the TV series…Cheers. For a good time call, Diane Chambers, 867-5309.
Real funny, Carla!
But not all graffiti is pentagrams and swastikas…
…smiley faces and peace signs are some of the most common grafitti. But don’t forget that Kilroy was here. And a true up-and-comer…
…Anarchy…which can be positive (order from chaos), or negative (let anarchy rule). However, as concerns the creepy symbols noted above, young guys like taking symbols that society detests and sticking them right in your face.
Novak was brought down to the police station to be questioned. He told them that Daniel was a Kender, a dwarf-like green creature with pointy ears. Novak was obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, and he had created something of a fantasy life in the woodland. He often hung out with a group of young children in the woodland, and he referred to them all as Kender.
In D&D, Kender were humanoids that were a type of gnome. However, there is a pun here. The boys were Kender, but in German, the boys were…Kinder. I don’t believe that this can be coincidental. But it is clear that those who were critical of D&D, pushed the boundaries in this case.
And…
Two lines now cross…
So, the Kid In the Woods, a mysterious figure, played out Dungeons & Dragon scenarios in the woods. It seems to me that John Cleapor thought rather highly of Shawn.
…if he hadn’t been convicted of the cold-blooded murder of two children, he sounds like a pretty fun guy to be around.
Funny songs? And Robin Hood was a good guy, wasn’t he? Perhaps we’re really dealing with the sheriff of Nottingham. And the story of Robin Hood involves a fantasy world in itself. The burning toads alive is, of course, despicable. But it was the children, and not Shawn, who did this. As one would expect, all of Shawn’s idiosyncrasies would were trotted out…
Early reports about Novak portray an odd youth who turned a dead bird into an ornament on a necklace and wore it to school.
Ah, now I know where Darla got the idea from. This is bizarre behavior, but I would classify it as attention-getting in origin.
Students who know Novak described him as quiet and average but with some strange habits, including talking to himself.
Now, I must make a few comments on this. Talking to oneself is commonly viewed as sign of mental illness. Nothing could be further from the truth. We aren’t talking about someone talking to hallucinations. Sometimes, particularly so with creative people, talking to oneself is what I would describe as…externalizing the thought process. The creative mind races, it goes from one thing to another, one fantasy to another, one idea to another…one image to another. And they get mixed up and jumbled. And this is the way it should be, and thank God, is. Keep things together and on the right track…externalize and control it. This is how stories and fantasies come about…the main images run throughout the jumble. Externalizing the thought process puts everything together and results in something than can touch other people.
Novak was brought down to the police station to be questioned. He told them that Daniel was a Kender, a dwarf-like green creature with pointy ears. Novak was obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, and he had created something of a fantasy life in the woodland. He often hung out with a group of young children in the woodland, and he referred to them all as Kender.
On the afternoon of the murders, Novak was hanging out in the woodland like normal when Daniel and Scot appeared. Novak had played with the boys in the past.
According to Novak, Daniel repeatedly asked him if he could see his knife. He explained that he lifted the knife from his pocket “and I grabbed him by the back of his shirt, and I dragged him back and I stabbed him four times and I slashed him too.”
He continued: “It’s a Buck knife with a bone handle. . . Daniel kept bugging me about wanting to see my knife. . . and Daniel had got out my knife and I freaked out. . . And then Scot began to scream. . . I wasn’t mad. I was really scared because I had cut him from the ear.”
This statement only makes any sense if he were actually insane at the time did this. So, inevitably, the defense went with an insanity plea…
A few other details arose later…
I have my doubts about the knife…a bit of proof that is easy to contrive. This is the only reference to blood-drinking that I’ve seen, although the case involving John Bush, an idiot who believed he was a vampire because he played…
…Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, which is essentially a card game. This was brought up while discussing Novak’s case. Blood-drinking was noted in the Sean Seller’s case, but I doubt that Novak ever drank blood.
Connecting Dungeons and Dragons with mental illness was by and large the product of Robert Showalter, a psychiatrist who worked for the defense…
Showalter said Novak was afflicted with a form of schizophrenia that drove him into the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game where participants pretend they are strange creatures in constant, violent struggle with creatures. Showalter said that Novak became so obsessed with a Hobbit-like character named Kender that he acted out a fantasy plotline as a real-life double murder.
This isn’t consistent in any way with the statements made thus far. The prosecution denied that Novak was insane. They made the following observation…
It was a fantasy with murder that led Novak to give it a try, or so the prosecution said. Ok, this, if true, is a little morbid. However, the reason why there was a book on serial killers is because there are a lot of books on serial killers. Why? Because people think they are fascinating. And note too that this was a library book, so the school didn’t seem to see any harm with the book. Charles Manson has also proved fascinating to many people. As far as idolizing him goes, I have my doubts. Another morbid element is the fact that Novak spoke a lot about the murders at school.
He had a not-so-troubling hobby as well…
How bad can a kid who likes juggling be?
There is a good reason to believe that the only proof, i.e. Novak’s confession, is invalid…
Yes, the kid was interrogated for hours by a veteran homicide detective. Wrung out a confession? And what can you say if the prosecutor is disturbed by a taped interogation?
Four times? In other words, Shawn Novak was railroaded into confessing to a murder he may not have committed. And the whole D&D thing began with friends and was taken up by the police. Doubt remained…
It seems inescapable that Novak was set up for something he didn’t do.
No idea why he did it? Maybe that’s because he didn’t do it.