Hello, happy to see you all!

Sweat Economy has really been ramping up their efforts but the price charts begs to differ (obviously by the BTC flash crash). Of course this could mean that SWEAT is heavily undervalued and that we might see a huge swing to upside! (Not Financial Advice).2/4

(As always, DYOR)

Here Are Some Tips and Tricks.

(By a Sweater Like You 😉) (DYOR on Everything)

Earning SWEAT

Everyday you are given the opportunity to walk 5,000 steps to go to your Claim section. You must claim these every 30 days. (Per the Voted Selection) to avoid your Hard Earned Sweats from disappearing into nothingness. Make sure to use the Gas-free option to make sure you aren't exposed to the one SWEAT fee, 😄

What is NEAR? Why do you need it?

NEAR is the coin of Near Protocol and it is used as gas for every transaction that you use.
You need NEAR to perform almost everything in the app!
The SWEAT Team gave you .1 NEAR for free within the Learn and Earn section.
Although that may not be the case anymore.
When claiming things such as ,Claimable Sweat, Claiming Sweat Earned From Jars, Sending, etc. You will use NEAR!

What are Prize Draws?

Prize Draws are made by the SWEAT Team to give you a chance to win major prizes!
They range from .5 SWEAT to 100 SWEAT.
My region (USA) Only lets you have access to prizes which only takes .5-20 sweat. Mostly all of them are .05 to 1 SWEAT.
Remember, participating in these prize draws is a lottery. Winning is not guaranteed! At all! Personally I have never won a prize draw! So this is from experience.

Sending SWEAT. Why is there a fee in SWEAT?

When you send to let's say, a family member, a friend, an exchange, etc, you will be met with a fee.
What is this fee?
This fee was taken from community feedback.
The fees are as follows, 1.5% + One Sweat Base Fee.
Here's an example:
You send 20,000 SWEAT. The SWEAT fee incurred is, 301 SWEAT ~ $2.78 + NEAR fees.
Is there a way to circumvent the fees if you are not happy with them? Also if you are trading?
There Is A Way (DYOR using these wallets)
Sweat wallet isn't the only wallet based on NEAR.
There are other wallets that you can use which includes,
My Near Wallet, HERE wallet, Meteora Wallet.
I would personally suggest HERE wallet as they give you a chance to get gas-free transactions! (DYOR)
Here Wallet is available via the Google Play store and the app store.

How do I use Here Wallet?

To use HERE wallet, you are going to need your Private Key.

What is a Private Key?

The private key is kind of like a password to access your sweat wallet. If you give out this secret key. You will be in trouble and your assets can be stolen and sent to a different address. So make sure to save those keys in a safe place!!!!

How To Get The Private Key

To grab the private key, you arr44e going to have to enter the SWEAT wallet and go to your profile picture on the top right. Once you click that go down and click
View Private Key (advanced)
Clicking that reveals your private key.
Click (Copy Private Key)
Then go to HERE wallet and click import account.
Then scroll and find the "private key" option within it.
After, paste the private key and click, Find My Account.
Wait a few seconds.
This way you can send and even use DAPPS so you can explore the Blockchain. 🎉 🙌
The gas fees are only .0001 NEAR. ~$0.000705
AMAZING 🤩 Right? 💯
THEN THERE'S EVEN MORE!
In the Here Wallet app you can swap!.
Why use this Swap? 🔎
Sweat Economy uses a swap interface which uses the orderly network. People within the community had problems and their funds are stuck on the orderly network. Meaning they have to go through and connect their wallets and such.
Go to Here Wallet and go to the bottom and click swap.

How to Sell Your Sweat

You might be asking that question.
Here's what to do!
Firstly you need an exchange which supports SWEAT.
Here's a few to name which work!
Bitvavo! (Seen the announcement? 😊) BingX, Kucoin, MEXC, Bybit.
Now, Sign Up for an account and go click deposit. Find SWEAT and click (NEAR Protocol) NOT ETH!.
Then, copy the deposit address and open up HERE Wallet.
Click send and paste the deposit address, then choose SWEAT, choose the amount you want to send. I would suggest a minimum of 350 SWEAT.
After, go to the exchange and sell the SWEAT for USDT. Click sell and go through the process of selling your sweat for money you can use!

ANOTHER Tip!

Within those Exchanges you can also BUY sweat!
Did you see the top up option in Sweat Wallet and you see options like Moon pay. You might not be satisfied with the fees. Just go to the exchange and link your payment option. And you can buy USDT which you can swap for SWEAT or NEAR. Then you can withdraw. (DYOR)
Wow!

Well, what about JARS?

Sweat takes a commission of .25 SWEAT. Everytime you open a jar. Make sure to save your sweats and choose the 12% option only!
Put everything in one jar. So you don't incur excessive fees.
Also don't claim your sweat earned from jars every day because you will lose 1 sweat automatically. Which you lose on profitability.
Well! This is my little guide! Happy Sweating and I am just looking out for you guys!
Happy Sweating! The_Cryptographer

This is the list that I wrote for Oklahoma's execution roster since the nationwide reinstatement of capital punishment in the late 1970s. Something that should be mentioned is that given the nature of many death penalty related crimes, many of the descriptions contain very disturbing details. Please read at your own risk.
Florida's list is next, and I'll post my list for Texas once I've completed it. With Texas, I've currently finished 464 entries out of the 587 cases to date. That will probably take 7 or 8 posts for it all to be released, so I'll probably do two posts a day with Texas to avoid spamming the sub. At the end of this year, I'll repost the states that have conducted further executions with the updated information.
As with Missouri and Virginia, Reddit's maximum character count limitations forced me to divide Oklahoma's list into two separate parts. Here is the link to part 2.
The currently 124 executed offenders, cases 1 to 62:
1. Charles Coleman (~1950s-1990, lethal injection): A month after he was released on parole in 1979, Coleman broke into a house. While sacking it for any valuables, the homeowner’s brother and sister in law, 68 year old John and 62 year old Roxie Seward, walked in on him and were both shot dead. Coleman stole Roxie’s purse, several packets of frozen meat, and the homeowner’s watch during the burglary, and was arrested shortly afterwards. However, Coleman managed to escape custody, and went on a rampage that involved several burglaries, auto thefts, slitting the throat of a policeman in a failed murder attempt, the shooting death of 49 year old Russell Lewis Jr. in a carjacking, and the abduction of a deputy. The kidnapped deputy was rescued following an armed standoff with other police officers. Coleman had an extensive history of animal cruelty, armed robberies, assaults, and carrying concealed weapons convictions dating back to when he was 11 years old. He was also heavily suspected in the murder of his teenage girlfriend’s father, but was acquitted by the courts despite the prosecution’s strong belief in his guilt.
2. Robyn Parks (1977-1992, lethal injection): During a gas station robbery, Parks shot and killed Abdullah Ibrahim, a 24 year old Bangladeshi immigrant that worked as the attendant. According to Parks, he murdered Ibrahim for catching him using a stolen credit card.
3. Olan Randle (1980-1992, lethal injection): Randle invaded a home and shot the occupants, 41 year old Robert Swinford, Sinford's fiance 42 year old Averil Bourque, and Bourque's friend 38 year old Julia Lovejoy, dead. He took a pocket knife and several watches from the victims.
4. Thomas Grasso (~1970s(?)-1995, lethal injection): While living in Oklahoma, Grasso strangled 87 year old Hilda Johnson, the best friend of his girlfriend's grandmother, to death with her Christmas lights. He took $8 from her purse, several coins that added up to $4, and a television set that he sold for $125. Grasso then moved to New York, and strangled 81 year old Leslie Holtz for his social security check. The trialing arrangements caused some controversy, as the New York governors at the time were anti death penalty, and tried to prevent Grasso's extradition in favor of giving him a life sentence in their jurisdiction. Grasso had several previous convictions for theft and was fired multiple times for stealing from his jobs.
5. Roger Stafford (~1974(?)-1995, lethal injection): Stafford was condemned for killing at least 9 people in two separate robbery incidents with his brother and ex wife, though his ex wife claimed that he was involved with as many as 34 murders nationwide. The first convicted incident was when he and the ex wife carjacked and fatally shot a couple, 38 year old Melvin and 31 year old Linda Lorenz, and their son, 12 year old Richard. A few weeks after the Lorenz murders, Stafford stormed a restaurant and gunned down 6 employees, 56 year old Isaac Freeman, 43 year old Louis Zacarias, 17 year old Anthony Tew, 17 year old David Lindsey, 16 year old David Salsman, and 15 year old Terri Horst. One of Stafford's additional attributed victims was 20 year old Jimmy Berry, who was killed in the hold up of an Alabaman McDonalds, but he wasn't charged by the state due to his death sentences in Oklahoma.
6. Robert Brecheen (1983-1995, lethal injection): Breechen was involved in a feud over money with 59 year old Mary Stubbs and her husband. In an attempt to take what he perceived was owed to him, Breechen carried out a night time burglary of their home. While rummaging through the house, Breechen stumbled upon old Marie in her living room and shot her to death. The gunshots and screams awoke her husband, and he chased him away with his own gun.
7. Benjamin Brewer (1978-1996, lethal injection): Brewer raped his neighbor, 20 year old Karen Stapleton, in her home and stabbed her to death
8. Steven Hatch (1979-1996, lethal injection): Hatch and another assailant, Glen Ake, forced themselves inside the home that Richard Dougass, a 43 year old reverend, shared with his wife, 36 year old Marilyn, and their two children, 16 year old Brooks and 12 year old Lesile. The pair tied up the family and raped Lesile in front of her parents and brother. All four family members were shot, and Hatch and Ake ran off with $43 and the parents’ wedding rings. Richard and Marilyn were both killed in the shootings, while their children survived the attack. Ake was also initially condemned for the attack, but his sentence was overturned and resentenced to life following mental health concerns, and passed away from undisclosed natural causes in 2011.
9. Scott Carpenter (1994-1997, lethal injection): In a convenience store robbery, Carpenter stabbed the owner, 56 year old A. J. Kelley, in the neck, and hid the body in the minnow room. He filled his truck with $37 worth of gas from the pumps and drove away from the scene. His execution caused some controversy, as it was reported that Carpenter gasped and spasmed for 11 minutes after being injected.
10. Michael Long (1997-1998, lethal injection): Enraged that his coworker, 24 year old Sheryl Graber, refused him sex and started screaming for help, he stabbed her over 31 times. Long also shot and killed her son, 5 year old Andrew, for being a witness.
11. Stephen Wood (1992-1998, lethal injection): While heavily intoxicated, Wood stabbed two other homeless men, 46 year old Charles Stephen and 34 year old Charles Von Johnson, dozens of times each. He was given a life sentence for both of their murders. During his incarceration, Robert Brigden, a 59 year old former minister that was serving a 40 year sentence for molesting several girls between the ages of 4-14 in his congregation, moved into his unit after refusing to go into protective custody. Woods killed Brigden in a stabbing attack, and his sentence was escalated to death by the courts for it.
12. Tuan Anh Nguyen (~1982-1998, lethal injection): By all accounts, Nguyen was jealously possessive over his wife, 21 year old Donna. During one of their arguments over his behavior, he stabbed Donna, her 6 year old nephew Joseph White, and her 3 year old niece Amanda White, in their home and left the bodies to be found by the children’s parents. He fled to Arizona, groomed a 14 year old girl into an illicit “relationship”, and impregnated her. After he convinced her to move in with him, Nguyen physically and sexually abused the girl until she fled and went to the local police for help. Nguyen was then deported back to Oklahoma to face trial for Donna and the White children’s slayings, and was sentenced to death for them.
13. John Duvall (1986-1998, lethal injection): During a fight with his wife, 30 year old Donna, Duvall stabbed and suffocated her to death with a pillow.
14. John Castro Sr. (1983-1999, lethal injection): Castro carjacked Beulah Cox, a 31 year old Oklahoma State University student, after she picked him up hitchhiking and shot her to death. A few months later, Castro held up a restaurant with an empty pistol, and attacked the manger, 29 year old Rhonda Pappan, after forcing her to open the register. During their struggle, Pappan was fatally stabbed, and he took off with her purse. During his mid teens, Castro was allegedly molested by his mother. Castro's attorneys made the argument that his glimpses of Cox's buttocks reminded him of his mother's reported abuse, and he was triggered into attacking her for it.
15. Sean Sellers (1985-1999, lethal injection): In 1985, a then 15 year old Sellers tried to buy beer from a convenience store, but the clerk, 32 year old Robert Bower, denied him due to being underaged at the time. Sellers gunned him down in a fit of rage. A year later, Sellers shot and killed his mother, 32 year old Vonda Bellofatto, and stepfather, 43 year old Paul, in their sleep. Due to being 16 at the time of his conviction, Sellers remains the youngest condemned offender to have his sentence carried out in the post Furman era. He also attracted national media attention for claiming that his crimes were the result of demonic possession.
16. Scotty Moore (1983-1999, lethal injection): Moore was fired from a motel for undisclosed reasons. In retaliation, Moore and a cousin (whom he was dating at the time), assaulted the motel, and gunned down the desk clerk, 42 year old Alex Fernandez. According to court documents, the pair took a total of $97 in the robbery.
17. Norman Newsted (1984-1999, lethal injection): Newsted tricked Lawrence Buckley, a 26 year old cab driver, into picking him up. He shot Buckley dead and took his wallet. In an attempt to cover his tracks, Newsted placed the body inside the cab, and drove it into a creek near a local church. Despite his best efforts, Buckley’s cab and remains were discovered a day later by the church’s pastor.
18. Cornel Cooks (1982-1999, lethal injection): Cooks and his accomplice broke into the home of 87 year old Jennie Ridling. She was gagged, raped, and suffocated to death with gauze wrappings. According to autopsy reports, the pair abused her for over 2 hours. They then sacked the house for any valuables and left with her checkbook.
19. Bobby Ross (1983-1999, lethal injection): While robbing an inn, Ross fatally shot a police officer, 30 year old Steve Mahan, that tried to intervene.
20. Malcolm Johnson (~1970s(?)-2000, lethal injection): Johnson invaded the apartment of 76 year old Ura Thompson and sexually assaulted her. Thompson either died from having her chest compounded during the abuse or was suffocated by Johnson’s hands covering her nose. He seized several possessions such as furs, typewriters, purse, watch, rings, and a hand mirror, which were discovered by police in his residence during an unrelated investigation of a firearms possession charge. Johnson had an extensive criminal history, which included several convictions of rape, armed robberies, and burglaries. The case attracted controversy when it was discovered that the lead chemist in the investigation misconducted several of her other cases, and forged some of the evidence used in the trial. Despite the other overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Johnson’s supporters took the opportunity to push a narrative of his innocence.
21. Gary Walker (~1960s-2000, lethal injection): Walker abducted, raped, and murdered at least 5 women, 36 year old Margaret Lydick, 35 year old Jane Hilburn, 32 year old Janet Jewell, 25 year old Valerie Shaw-Hartzell, and 24 year old DeRonda Roy, and non fatally assaulted several other women and teenage girls. The victims were mostly strangled to death with their bras and panties. Some of them were forced to withdraw hundreds of dollars from ATMs before they were killed. He also strangled a man, 63 year old Eddie Cash, with an electrical cord while robbing his home. Walker had dozens of previous convictions for burglary, carjacking, drug possession, and carrying concealed weapons. Some of his earliest arrests occurred when he was a teenager.
22. Michael Roberts (~1988-2000, lethal injection): A career burglar, Roberts was condemned for murder of 80 year old Lula Brooks. She was raped and her throat was slit by an intruder in her home. Roberts' death sentence and execution has been contested, as he was convicted on his later recounted testimony alone. He claimed that the investigators tricked him into confessing with the promise of a plea deal that was allegedly withheld from him.
23. Kelly Rogers (1990-2000, lethal injection): Rogers’ girlfriend lured 21 year old Karen Lauffenburger into her apartment with a fake pizza order. They accosted her when she arrived with the delivery. After the couple forced Lauffenburger to hand to over the $40 she earned from the night's pizza deliveries and withdraw $175 from an ATM, Rogers raped and stabbed her to death. The body was left in Lauffenburger’s apartment and was found by her boyfriend.
24. Ronald Boyd (1986-2000, lethal injection): During a robbery spree of several gas stations and supermarkets, Boyd engaged in a shootout with the responding officers. A Master Patrolman, 32 year old Richard Riggs, was killed in the exchange.
25. Charles Foster (~1980s(?)-2000, lethal injection): Foster suspected a grocery store owner, 74 year old Claude Wiley, of making sexual advances at his wife. He arranged for her to entice Wiley to their home with an order. When he arrived with the delivery, Foster stabbed and bludgeoned him to death with a baseball bat. He a history of convictions involving threats and violence, though my sources didn’t disclose any specific details.
26. James Robedeaux (1978-2000, lethal injection): In 1978, Robedeaux strangled his first wife, 30 year old Linda, and plead guilty to a second degree murder charges. He was released after serving 6 out of a 25 year sentence despite an escape attempt. In the following year, he began a relationship with 37 year old Nancy McKinney while he married a different woman. During an argument, Robedeaux beat McKinney to death, dismembered her body with a saw and machete, and scattered the remains across the state. While being investigated for McKinney's murder, he was arrested for choking and beating his estranged second wife. The cases were incidental and kept separate by the courts.
27. Roger Berget (~1985-2000, lethal injection): Berget carjacked and abducted 33 year old Rick Patterson with an accomplice, and shot him dead. He also admitted to the beating death of a roommate, 40 year old James Meadows, on the behalf of the man's wife. As a trivial side note, Berget's brother Rodney was executed in 2018 by the state of South Dakota for killing a prison guard [for more information, please see Rodney Berget's entry under the South Dakota section of my states with less then 10 executions post].
28. William Bryson (1988-2000, lethal injection): To collect a $300,000 life insurance policy, Marilyn Plantz recruited her boyfriend Byrson and his friend to kill her husband, 33 year old James. Byrson and his friend ambushed Plantz in his house as he was coming home from work and beat him to death with a baseball bat. With the intentions of staging an accident, Marilyn ordered the pair to burn the body in the couple's pickup truck.
29. Gregg Braun (1989-2000, lethal injection): Across several states, Braun shot and killed 4 women, 48 year old Geraldine Valdez, 31 year old Gwendolyn Miller, 28 year old Mary Rains, 27 year old Barbara Kochendorfer, and one man, 54 year old Pete Spurrier, while robbing stores.
30. George Wallace (~1970s-2000, lethal injection): Known as "the Mad Paddler" due to his habit of spanking abducted preteen and teenage boys with a wooden paddle, Wallace kidnapped his victims by posing as a police officer. After duping his targets into thinking that they were being arrested, Wallace restrained them with handcuffs and leg chains. The captives were then sexually abused and shot or stabbed to death. His crimes were exposed when an 18 year old man he abducted escaped from him despite being shot and stabbed numerous times. By his own admission, Wallace murdered 18 year old Thomas Reed, 15 year old William Domer, 14 year old Mark McLaughlin, 14 year old Jeffrey Foster, and 12 year old Alonzo Cade.
31. Eddie Trice (1987-2001, lethal injection): Trice snuck into the home of 84 year old Ernestine Jones and raped her. After he beat Jones to death with numbchucks, he terrorized and extorted her cognitively disabled son of $500 with threats of killing him if he told anyone of the murder. The son was also assaulted with a hammer, and he received injuries to his right eye, right cheekbone, and his right forearm.
32. Wanda Allen (~1981-2001, lethal injection): In 1981, Allen got into a fight with her live in girlfriend, 21 year old Dedra Pettus, and shot her dead. Despite giving a bungled story about her being accidentally killed in a shootout with Pettus’ ex boyfriend to the investigators, Allen managed to secure a 4 year sentence for manslaughter after pleading guilty to a plea deal, and was released after serving two years. While incarcerated, she started dating a fellow inmate, 29 year old Gloria Leathers, and continued their relationship outside of prison. The couple’s relationship was marred with extreme domestic violence on Allen’s end. In one incident, Allen struck Leathers with a rake. In 1989, while they were arguing in front of a shopping center, Allen shot and killed Leathers. Leathers herself also had history of violence, and had a conviction for stabbing a woman to death. Allen and her defense team tried to use Leathers’ previous convictions to make a self defense argument, but that was shot down by the courts.
33. Floyd Medlock (1990-2001, lethal injection): 7 year old Katherine Busch went to visit her family's old apartment, which Medlock was residing in, by herself. Busch knocked on the door and Medlock let her inside after she begged for food. He then choked and sexually assaulted the girl, dunked her head in a toilet bowl, and stabbed her to death. The body was hidden in a nearby dumpster. Busch's grandmothers were staunch pro capital punishment and anti death penalty activists respectively, and their public feud over Medlock's sentence and execution attracted some media attention. Medlock also had an extensive criminal history despite being only 19 at the time of Busch's murder, and was previously arrested several times for indecent exposure, arson, armed robbery, and marijuana possession.
34. Dion Smallwood (1992-2001, lethal injection): Smallwood walked into the home of his ex girlfriend's adoptive stepmother, 68 year old Lois Frederick, without invitation. He had a tumultuous and often violent relationship with her adopted stepdaughter that she strongly opposed, and they broke up under her pressure. After an argument, Smallwood knocked Frederick unconscious with a croquet mallet, locked her in a car, and burned her alive in it.
35. Mark Fowler (1985-2001, lethal injection): To get back at his ex employers for firing him, Fowler and his partner, Billy Fox, stormed a supermarket that he used to work out. The pair rounded up 3 employees, Chumpon Chaowasin, a 44 year old Thai immigrant, 33 year old Rick Cast, and 27 year old John Barrier, at gun point. Their hostages were shot, clubbed, and stabbed to death, and they took over $2,7000 in cash and checks.
36. Billy Fox (1985-2001, lethal injection): Fox assisted the above mentioned Mark Fowler in robbing a supermarket and murdering 3 of its employees
37. Loyd Lafevers (1985-2001, lethal injection): Lafevers and his accomplice, Randall Cannon, kidnapped 84 year old Addie Hawley from her home. She was raped, trapped in the trunk of a car, and burned alive in it. Although she was rescued, Hawley died from her injuries 6 hours later. The pair stole Hawley's wedding ring and Lafevers gifted it to a stripper. As Hawley's nephew was a Colorado state senator, her murder gained some attention from media outlets.
38. Dorsie Jones Jr. (1979-2001, lethal injection): While drinking at a bar, a barmaid chastised Jones for carrying an unconcealed gun. He shot at her in a fit of rage, but missed and injured his female companion instead. Jones then turned his attention to the other patrons and fired on them. 48 year old Stanley Buck Sr. was killed in front of his 19 year old son, who was also wounded in the shooting.
39. Robert Clayton (~1980s-2001, lethal injection): Clayton attacked 19 year old Rhonda Timmons while she was sunbathing near her apartment. She was raped, stabbed, kicked in the head, and strangled to death with her swimming suit. Her husband found Timmons' body laying next to their infant daughter, who was left unharmed. Clayton had a previous rape conviction in Tennessee and a robbery conviction in Texas.
40. Ronald Fluke (1997-2001, lethal injection): Out of despair that his gambling addiction drove his family to near poverty, Fluke shot and killed his wife, 44 year old Ginger, and their daughters, 13 year old Kathryn and 11 year old Susanne, while they were sleeping in their bedrooms. He initially attacked Ginger with a hatchet, but turned to shooting when she fought back.
41. Marilyn Plantz (1988-2001, lethal injection): The married girlfriend of William Bryson. As mentioned under Bryson's entry, Plantz arranged for him and his friend to kill her husband James to collect his life insurance policy.
42. Terrance James (1983-2001, lethal injection): While awaiting trial for a theft of government property charge, James and two accomplices strangled a fellow inmate, 25 year old Mark Berry, with wire out of their suspicions of him being a snitch. They then hung the body in an attempt to make it look like a suicide. Berry was another party in the theft of government property case, and James and his accomplices believed that it was his testimony that got them arrested.
43. Vincent Johnson (1991-2001, lethal injection): Johnson gunned down 44 year old Shirley Mooneyham in her home. The prosecution believed that Mooneyham's boyfriend arranged the killing to collect a life insurance policy, but he was acquitted at trial.
44. Jerald Harjo (~1980s-2001, lethal injection): Harjo snuck into the bedroom of 64 year old Ruth Porter, raped her, and suffocated her with a pillowcase. He then snatched Porter's car keys and drove off with her van. His past criminal history was extensive, and was in prison numerous times for burglary and autotheft.
45. Jack Walker (1988-2001, lethal injection): Disgruntled with the custody dispute over their then 3 month old son, Walker stabbed his ex girlfriend, 17 year old Shelly Ellison, and her uncle, 30 year old Donald, 32 and 11 times with an ice pick during a confrontation at their home.
46. Alvie Hale Jr. (1983-2001, lethal injection): Hale kidnapped 24 year old William Perry to extort a $350,000 ransom from his banking family. When the negotiations failed, Perry was shot dead, and Hale buried the body on his father's property.
47. Lois Smith (1982-2001, lethal injection): Smith, her son, and a female accomplice abducted her son's ex girlfriend, 21 year old Cindy Baillee, from an airport out of fear her testifying of his involvement in the drug trade. Baillee was taken to Smith's ex husband's house, and stabbed in the throat by her ex boyfriend while driving to their destination. Inside the home, she was taunted by Smith with a gun, and was shot 7 times in the chest and 2 times in the back of the head. While her son was reloading the gun, Smith jumped on and crushed Bailee's throat.
48. Sahib Lateef Al-Mosawi (1992-2001, lethal injection): Following a dispute over their newborn son's name, Al-Mosawi's estranged wife, 26 year old Inaam Al-Nashi, fled to the apartment of her uncle, 45 year old Mohammed. Al-Mosaw attacked the pair in the apartment and stabbed them to death. Inaam's sister was also stabbed, but she managed to escape with her life. The couple and their families were refugees from Iraq that were displaced by the First Persian Gulf War, and they fled into the United States.
49. John Romano (1985-2002, lethal injection): Romano and his accomplice David Woodruff robbed and murdered two of their acquaintances. One of the victims, 63 year old Lloyd Thompson, was attacked in his apartment. Thompson was held down by the pair while they stabbed him 22 times and served his spinal cord. The other victim, 52 year old Roger Sarfaty, was tied up, beaten, stabbed 5 times, and strangled to death in a jewelry store he owned. In the robberies, Romano and Woodruff stole several pieces of jewelry from Sarfaty, and took most of Thompson’s quarter collection.
50. David Woodruff (1985-2002, lethal injection): As mentioned under John Romano's entry, Woodruff took part in the robbery murders of Lloyd Thompson and Roger Sarfaty.
51. Randall Cannon (1985-2002, lethal injection): Cannon assisted Loyd Lafevers in abducting, sexually assaulting, and burning Addie Hawley alive in her car. Although he was acquitted of molesting Hawley, Cannon was still condemned for his part in the kidnapping and murder.
52. Earl Frederick Sr. (~1989-2002, lethal injection): Frederick beat Bradford Beck, a 41 year old veteran that was crippled during his service in the Vietnam war, to death in his home after befriending him. He ransacked the house and dumped Beck's body in a field. A second murder, the robbery and shooting death of a Texan man, 77 year old Shirley Fox, was also tied to him. However, authorities in Texas withheld from prosecuting Fredrick due to his death penalty trial and conviction in Oklahoma. Both Fox and Beck had physical disabilities, which led prosecutors to the conclusion that Frederick intentionally selected and depredated on disabled men.
53. Jerry McCracken (~1980s(?)-2002, lethal injection): McCracken and his accomplice shot up a bar, killed 3 patrons and the bartender, and made off with $350. The victims that lost their lives were 41 year old Carol McDaniels, 37 year old Timothy Sheets, 34 year old Steven Sheets, and 27 year old Tyrrell Boyd. Months before the mass shooting, McCracken was paroled after serving time for stabbing 3 people in a bar fight.
54. Jay Neill (1984-2002, lethal injection): During a bank robbery, Neill disemboweled and nearly decapitated 3 tellers, 42 year old Kay Bruno, 25 year old Joyce Mullenix, and 19 year old Jerri Bowles. A group of 4 customers, consisting of 33 year old Ralph Zeller, a married couple, and their 14 month old daughter, unwittingly walked in on him, and he herded them into a backroom to be shot. Zeller was killed, the couple were wounded, and Neill left the daughter unharmed due to running out of bullets. Neill's boyfriend was given a life sentence for the robbery and murders, despite not being directly involved.
55. Ernest Carter Jr. (~1989-2002, lethal injection): After being fired from an autoshop, Carter robbed it with an accomplice, and fatally shot a security guard, 35 year old Eugene Manowski. The pair stole the shop's tow truck, and later tried to burn it with Carter's girlfriend to destroy any traces of the crime. Carter was also previously accused of burning a friend to death in the previous year, but the charges were dismissed.
56. Daniel Revilla (1987-2003, lethal injection): While babysitting his girlfriend's son, 13 month old Mark Gomez, in their home, Revilla broke the boy’s ribs in a beating and scalded him with boiling water. When he brought the boy to a hospital, Revilla gave a story that he accidentally hit Gomez’s head with a door handle, which was quickly seen through by the staff. According to the accounts of his girlfriend and her family, Revilla was violently abusive to Gomez, and they recounted incidents of him trapping the boy in a kitchen drawer, dunking him in cold water, folding him into a pull up bed, and hanging him by his ankles with duct tape.
57. Bobby Fields (~1990s-2003, lethal injection): Fields shot and killed 77 year old Louise Schem while burglarizing her home. She had tried to shot him with her .25 calibre pistol, but he wrestled the gun away from her, and gunned her down with it. His intentions was to steal Schem's television set to sell for cocaine, but left empty handed after losing his nerves with the struggle and murder. According to court documents, Fields had a previous robbery and assault conviction, and several arrests for drug possession.
58. Walanzo Robinson (1989-2003, lethal injection): A member of the Gangster Bloods street gang, Robinson shot and killed 26 year old Dennis Hill, an affiliate of a rival gang, in a turf war over drug sales.
59. John Hooker (~1971-2003, lethal injection): As a teenager in 1971, Hooker attended a party at a friend's house, and got into an argument. In a fit of anger, he fatally shot 18 year old Alta Lang, and wounded two other partygoers. Due to the witnesses refusing to cooperate with the investigation and being unable to prove any calculated intentions, Hooker was given a manslaughter conviction, and released a few years later. After he was paroled, Hooker started dating Sylvia Stokes, and fathered several children with her. Their troubled relationship lasted for 8 years, and ended when Stokes filed a protection order against him. In retaliation, Hooker lured Stokes and her mother, 53 year old Durcilla Morgan, into his apartment and stabbed them both to death.
60. Scot Hain (~1980s-2003, lethal injection): Hain carjacked and abducted a couple, 27 year old Michael Houghton and 22 year old Laura Sanders. After taking $565 and some bags of clothing, he forced them into the trunk of their car at gunpoint, and burned them alive in it. He had several previous arrests for robbery, and was involved with a number of rapes and attempted kidnappings months before the Houghton and Sanders' murders.
61. Don Hawkins Jr. (1985-2003, lethal injection): Hawkins kidnapped 29 year old Linda Ann Thompson and her two daughters, aged 4 years old and 18 months old, from a mall. Although his original intentions were to ransom off Thompson and her children, Hawkins gang raped the captive woman with his cousin and his girlfriend's teenage nephew, and drowned her in a lake. Thompson's children were spared and simply left with a babysitter. Hawkins and his accomplice then went on a nation wide rampage with his accomplice that involved the abductions and rapes of several grown women and teenage girls, hanging 31 year old David Coupez of Colorado in his home while robbing him, and countless other robberies.
62. Larry Jackson (~1984-2003, lethal injection): In 1984, Jackson shot and killed his girlfriend, 19 year old Freda Washington. He accepted a plea deal that dumbed down the charges to second degree murder, and was given a 30 year sentence for it. During his incarceration, Jackson started a relationship with 29 year old Wendy Cade. Despite her promises of marriage after his release, Cade left him for another man, and they got engaged. When Jackson was assigned to a prison work crew, he snuck out and went to confront Cade. Reportedly, the two had bought alchool, cocaine, and cigerates together and had sex in Cade's apartment. However, they got into an argument, and he slashed Cade's throat and stabbed her 31 times with box cutters. Jackson then left with her jewelry, watch, and the keys to her jeep.

My wallet and hand sanitiser got stolen on 5 May, about a week ago. My wallet mainly contains my Ez-link card and money. It is a Hello Kitty one, with a rabbit keychain attached to its front zipper. The hand sanitiser was a small Guardian strawberry one but without the pink colour holder. It took place at Jelutung Harbour Park, Sembawang, around 3.30pm - 4pm.
I had suspected two people because when I was at the basketball court, some distance away (but still can see them), they two were at my bag. I did not approach them to question them since from where I was I could not see whether they were actually taking somthing from my bag(and I truly regret choosing doing so + there were quite a number of red flags). I had made a police report on the same day. As of today, the IO seems to still be investigating the case. From 5 May to 7 May, the police was asking me for my Ez-link card CAN ID, I found it on 7 May after calling the Translink hotline. Afterwards on 9 May, the IO messaged me asking for details of the suspects, the missing belongings and what I was wearing. No updates for now.
While I understand that the SPF should not be wasting so much resources and time on a mere wallet and a hand sanitiser, those items have sentimental attachment to me. I am really worried over this incident. I am wondering how long does it usually take for the police to find stolen items.
So if any of you all had ever your stolen items found or returned, please let me know how long had it took. Thank you.

Hi All - a useful article in FT from Claer Barrett. Here link for those who can get through pay fire wall What I wish I’d known before my smartphone was snatched https://on.ft.com/3Uvht4w , but here are some quotes and a paraphrasing of advice from it and comments section, given how prevalent phone theft is in London as we see from the frequent posts here.
“Police are dealing with the highest level of “theft from the person” offences recorded in two decades, according to the latest official figures for England and Wales.”
“London is the epicentre for phone theft. Many people never report this crime, but based on Metropolitan Police data from those who have, a phone is stolen every 10 minutes in the city. There was a 33 per cent increase in reported mobile phone theft from the person in the year to January 2024, and over one-third of offences took place in Westminster.”
“Women are only marginally more likely to be victims of phone theft according to ONS crime survey and police data. However, the data does not drill down into the different methods criminals use, and many crimes of this nature go unreported.”
“Sales thinks large increases in the past year have occurred as more gangs realise phone theft is a “lucrative revenue stream”. As he says, it requires less effort and violence than drug dealing, with a lower likelihood of getting caught, and lower penalties if you do. The amount of money gangs can make is potentially much higher — especially if they can use your phone to crack your digital life open.”
Paraphrasing…. How do you reduce financial loss/risk of money? Improve your cyber hygiene.. * Make sure you have set security features on your phone - they don’t come with highest security set as default. Eg - enable stolen device protection setting, reducing time before screen locks, need for (preferably different) screen PIN to change some settings. Check advice for your phone from manufacturer on advanced security settings as phones differ. Minimise what can be accessed when screen is locked. * Try not to use your PIN visibly where you may be watched/recorded on CCTV * Don’t use same PIN across multiple apps/your phone * Don’t store multiple cards in your phone wallet * Likewise, consider if you need ALL your financial apps on your phone - can some be left on tablet at home that never leaves house? * Consider Face ID for some apps, or use longer passwords/PINs * If you do have your phone stolen manage to lock/disable your account, and get a new phone, then be VERY careful about subsequent phishing and call attempts to get access to your cloud accounts which may sound very convincing as they know more of your data, where you shop/ bank etc * ^EDIT - this no longer works^{^} iPhone - set up automation via shortcut app that will make it Lock Screen when settings are opened: https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/automatically-lock-iphone-app-opened/#

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is scarce, decentralized, and global digital money that cannot be censored.

• Transactions once confirmed generally cannot be reversed
• Less than 21 million Bitcoin will exist
• Bitcoin is highly divisible to allow for micro-transactions (up to 13 decimal places in a payment channel)
• Bitcoin is an open, collaborative project that no company or government controls belonging to the people
• Bitcoin is more than just money, but a secure timestamping ledger, payment rail, and smart contract platform

Please read the Whitepaper for an general overview of bitcoin as designed
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Quick Advice

• Do not invest in Bitcoin until you do basic research, paid off all high interest debt, and have a emergency savings account of a stable fiat currency.
• If investing do not expect to get rich quickly. You should expect to wait at least 1-2 years before taking profits. Bitcoin is currently very volatile. In the interim spend and replace Bitcoin because it's a useful currency.
• Beginners should avoid all mining and day trading until at least very familiar with Bitcoin. Mining is very professional (You cannot efficiently mine with your computer and need to buy special ASIC machines) and most people lose money day trading.
• Never store your Bitcoins on an exchange or web wallet. Buy your bitcoins and withdraw it to your personal wallet where you actually own them instead of IOUs. Services like webull, and Revoult should be avoided because you cannot withdraw or use Bitcoin.
• Make sure you make a backup of your wallet (software holding keys to your BTC) and preferably keep it offline and physical and private. Typically 12 to 24 words you write down on paper or metal. This onetime backup will restore all your keys, addresses, and Bitcoins on a new wallet if you lose your old wallet.
• Beginners should avoid altcoins, tokens, and ICOs at least initially until they learn about Bitcoin. Most of these are scams and you should be familiar with the basics first. Bitcoin is referred to as BTC or XBT.

Common Questions

What happens when all the Bitcoin are mined; how will miners be paid?
This will happen when we all are dead near the year 2140.
Total block reward = Inflation (coinbase reward) + transaction fees
Where there is a slow transition as inflation drops in a controlled supply where more and more of the total reward is made up of transaction fees
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply
After 2140 all of the reward for miners to secure the network will be transaction fees but sending bitcoin will still be inexpensive because most transactions will occur on other layers like lightning and in aggregate settle onchain .
Also keep in mind that if hashrate drops too low we can simply wait for more confirmations onchain to increase the level of security and this doesn't effect the end user much because if they use a lightning wallet once its setup they still get instant confirmations.

Some foundational Principles of security

If you don't own much value in Bitcoin these principles are not for you. There is no one solution and most people have different risk profiles and make multiple trade offs in a risk vs convenience spectrum.

1. Never store your bitcoins in a web wallet or exchange . You own 0 bitcoins if you do not control your private keys.
2. Do not trust strangers on the Internet to help you setup your personal wallet. This is someone you must do yourself or have a personal friend or family member help you with in real life where they cannot see your backup seed.
3. Buy your hardware wallet directly from the producer or amazon site under the producers name. Verify the integrity of the hardware wallet if you are extra paranoid :

http://doc.satoshilabs.com/trezor-faq/threats.html#reflashing-the-trezor-with-evil-firmware
https://digitalbitbox.com/faq
https://coldcard.com/docs/ultra-quick
https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/5712308134809-What-are-the-best-practices-when-setting-up-Jade-
First update the firmware of your HW wallet before using
4) Never brag about your wealth to others
5) Never invest in any investment scheme or get greedy thinking you can quickly increase the amount of Bitcoin you have with daytrading
6) Consider more secure means of backing up your 12 or 24 BIP39 backups in case of floods or fire - https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/
7) Setup your hardware wallet , transfer a small amount of btc to it, wipe it clean , and restore it to give you confidence that the backup was done right and give you experience in the recovery process.
8) Keep your Mnemonic 12 or 24 word seed secret and private and show to no one. Never use premade 12-24 word backups , you create new keys and backups upon setup.
9) The most secure , "active" wallet would be a hardware wallet integrated with a full node. HW wallet + electrum personal server and electrum is the popular way to do this
10) Use a passphrase with the hardware wallet (most the security concerns with HW wallets are solved with a passphrase.) keep the passphrase written down a separate from your seed words
https://wiki.trezor.io/Passphrase
https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/5131416184601-What-is-a-passphrase
https://coldcardwallet.com/docs/passphrase
https://shiftcrypto.support/help/en-us/21-optional-passphrase
Make sure the passphrase is also written down somewhere private so you do not forget it! Do not keep the passphrase in the same location as your 12-24 seed backup words. Passphrases should include random words and not words found in lyrics or literature or personal details related to your life.
Here is a good strategy for most people with hardware wallets -
Location 1 12 to 24 seed words preferably on metal
https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/
Location 2 same 12 to 24 seed words preferably offsite
Location 3 5-7 word passphrase unlocking your real wallet preferably offsite
Location your head pin for HW wallet and passphrase. If you don't use your passphrase at least once a month than its better to have 2 written copies stored on paper or metal as backups and kept separate than each other and seed words
Thus you have both the passphrase and seed word backup in 2 locations and can lose either one and if someone finds your seed words or passphrase alone they can only see your decoy wallet at most and under duress(torture) you can hand over one of your seed word backups or enter in your pin instead of passphrase and give the attacker your decoy wallet alone.
Every 6 months check to see if your backup seed words or passphrase written on paper or metal is disturbed or removed.(these need to be stored separately!) It is best to hide them in such a manner if you can tell if someone has tampered with them or found them so you are aware if either your seed words or passphrase becomes compromised.

Recommended Wallets

Best wallets for securing small amounts of BTC
Blue wallet Android and IOS and OSX
https://bluewallet.io/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9mq1a8bLbQ
electrum For Windows, OSX, Linux and Android
https://electrum.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4EhZg5QslI
Blockstream Green For Windows, OSX, Linux, IOS and Android
https://blockstream.com/green/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DesN85bWmGA
Best wallets for securing small amounts of BTC and sending lightning transactions
Breez LN wallet for Android and IOS
https://breez.technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_4b-y4T8bY
Or Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtMXsJxx1X0
Other Lightning wallets - http://lightningnetworkstores.com/wallets
Lightning wallets are not intended for long term storage where you never open them for many months. They are intended for spending wallets that you regularly use.
Securing Larger amounts of Bitcoin
Trezor Safe 3 = ~79 USD https://trezor.io/trezor-safe-3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRI4VTHiuI
Trezor Model T = ~219 USD https://trezor.io/trezor-model-t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3BIo5Ac_n4
Blockstream Jade = $65 https://blockstream.com/jade/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLFmd98mKNw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_9Dtcc1nlY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2VsgoFh78o
Cold Card Hardware wallet = $148 mk4 https://store.coinkite.com/store/coldcard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kocEpndQcsg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8dBNrlwJ0k
Digital Bitbox 02 = 124 USD https://shiftcrypto.ch/bitbox02/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdP_7LgZw7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7nRq2OEhiw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D4FgJo3j64
Seedsigner ~80 dollars per-assembled
https://seedsigner.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZqlIkJf0mA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c5SR8v8l1M
Best Advanced Bitcoin Wallet= Sparrow
Pros= Great privacy and security
Cons= UX is for more experienced users, takes ~week to sync and requires ~7GB minimum disk space if pruned. Only available in desktop so typically should be used with a hardware wallet
https://sparrowwallet.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLi8p9aTlBQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSHyKTigNQY

Further Resources

https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html
https://www.lopp.net/lightning-information.html
https://10hoursofbitcoin.com/
https://bitcoin-resources.com
https://www.bitcoin101.club
https://21lessons.com
https://bitcoiner.guide

Common types of Scams to avoid

"Helping" Hand A thief will contact you privately by DM or email, or get listed in a directory as a "Professional Blockchain Expert" and help you setup a Bitcoin wallet , an exchange account, and buy Bitcoin but will end up stealing it later. One of their favorite wallets to use is Blockchain.com online web wallet(You should avoid using this wallet regardless for other reasons) where they can remotely help you. They will either ask for your 12 backup seed words or when you are logged in create another backdoor recovery to take over your wallet without you knowing. When setting up a wallet it is important that you do this yourself and never reveal any passwords , pins , passphrases, of backup seed words to anyone. Do not allow some stranger to remotely help you setup your wallet or account. If you need help in person and trust a family member or friend this is fine but have them walk away/turn their head when you create a password , and write down your backup seed words and never reveal this information to others. Use your own personal computer or cellphone and not theirs to create your account. After you have verified the backup words with the wallet software they can than help you further. Never allow them to see or copy your exchange or email passwords or backup authy/authenticator key as well. Do not keep your passwords in plaintext digital spreadsheets or word/text documents. Use a password manager like keepass/lastpass or at minimum keep a book of your passwords that is secure and privately written down outside the computer. This scam can also manifest itself after you have had your BTC stolen by a friendly "hacker" claiming they can recover your BTC for a modest fee, which is practically never the case.
Unfortunate Events Professional Beggars will create many posts or hundreds of DMs under various fake (shill) identities to solicit sympathy and ask for a Bitcoin donations because they were scammed or had some unfortunate crisis.
Advanced Fee Fraud- This is one of the most common forms of fraud, and is popular even outside the cryptocurrency ecosystem. With cryptocurrency it often takes to form of these variations:
a) The con artist will claim they have a large amount of Bitcoin "stuck" in an exchange because of legal reasons or some other excuse and need your assistance to withdraw the Bitcoin. They offer you their username and password to log into their account and claim that you can even keep a large reward and than send them the difference of Bitcoins to their personal wallet. When you login to withdraw the Bitcoin you will notice a high withdraw fee or deposit that needs to be made for verification before you are allowed to withdraw the Bitcoin that cannot be subtracted from the balance. Since the fee is much less than your expected reward and the exchange looks legitimate despite being one you are unfamiliar with you pay the fee and than realize that the exchange is a fake one that will never allow you to withdraw the Bitcoin.
b) You are trying to sell something online and someone offers you a pre-payment in fiat with a payment service, a cashiers check, or a regular check and than "accidentally" overpays and asks for a refund to be sent to them in Bitcoin or by other methods. You are confident you receive the money because you deposit the check and it appears to clear and shows up in your bank account or digitally shows in your paypal account or other platform and so you are happy to send them the difference in over payment. One key aspect is international money transfers, gift card payments, or Bitcoin are typically non-reversible while most other payments are reversible and this can occur at almost anytime in the future. The check or payment can be involved in fraud or be fake and the payment platform or bank will reverse the deposit(possibly leaving you with a negative balance) and you will be legally liable to reimburse the bank. You will than be left with having to reimburse the bank and be out of Bitcoin and the product you sold the scammer.
c) A company offers you an investment or mining opportunity and to gain your trust is even willing to send you some Bitcoin up front to gain your confidence. Problem is the Bitcoin is frozen in their platform , a watch only wallet, represented in a fake blockchain explorer, or you did not wait for a confirmation to insure that you can use it and you invest in them not knowing that the Bitcoin they sent you is unusable. Common scam here is saying that you can connect your blockchain.com wallet to their "mining server" to mine for free and than require you to pay a fee to withdraw BTC that is watch only because they setup your account for you.
d) A contest or free giveaway usually promoted by a celebrity(typically a fake account on twitter) offers you free Bitcoin or cryptocurrency if you make a small bitcoin deposit up front to enter. The grifter will take your BTC and run.
e) A company solicits to hire you for assistance in buying Bitcoin for them at various ATMs or with your account and offers a salary for this service. They will never pay you or send checks that will eventually bounce as fiat currency lacks transaction finality that bitcoin has.
f) Someone offers you a large amount of Bitcoin as a gift or to pay for a good or service by giving you words to import or a private key to import into a wallet instead of sending Bitcoin to an address you provided them from a wallet you setup independent of them. You open up the wallet and they claim that in order to unlock the full amount you need to buy more bitcoin and add it to the wallet or send to them when in reality the amount of bitcoin you imported is a small amount or unspendable.
Investment Opportunity- These take the form of a company that allows you to make an investment and has promised guaranteed returns due to them trading cryptocurrency, mining cryptocurrency, fx or binary option trading, or any other investment enterprise such as real estate. Some will simply take your Bitcoin and run and others are ponzi schemes which will slowly payout rewards to their platform that you can never withdraw or make payouts but these never add up to your total investment.
Two quickest warning signs that an investment scheme is extremely likely to be a scam is they promise guaranteed returns , and their promised returns exceed 10% per year.
Altcoins, ICOs, Security tokens 99% of these are pointless projects or scams which make dishonest marketing claims that most people don't have the technical ability to evaluate. Even projects that have the best of intentions fail because the incentives are all misaligned for an exit when you give 100% funding upfront without regulation, contract with preconditions, and invested from unqualified credulous investors. Sticking to projects that are 100% proof of work with no premine or instamine from the start is a way to filter through most of these projects but in the end you should do your due diligence and learn about the project before investing. This applies to Bitcoin as well. People should be free to invest in whatever project they wish but one should do so with an understanding in what they are investing in.

IIn the final weeks of her life, Mica Miller was hopeful. Her closest friends recall a woman who was finally finding her voice – and planning a future without her allegedly abusive husband. None of them saw any indication that she was planning to end her life.
Certainly none of them had any idea her body would turn up miles away from home in a remote pond at the Lumber River State Park in North Carolina.
Yet, according to North Carolina investigators and medical examiners, that’s exactly what happened. On Monday (May 6, 2024), North Carolina medical examiner Dr. Richard Johnson officially released the cause and manner of death in connection with the high-profile alleged suicide of the beautiful pastor’s wife from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Saturday April 27, 2024.
According to Johnson’s findings, 30-year old Mica Miller died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The following day (Tuesday, May 7, 2024), the Robeson County, N.C. sheriff’s office officially ruled Miller’s death a suicide– and cleared her husband, pastor John-Paul “JP” Miller, as a suspect.
Those declarations shocked Mica’s friends and family – especially in light of everything she had shared with them about her separation from the embattled pastor (including the divorce papers served on him less than 48 hours before she died).
Our media outlet spoke with several close friends of Miller in an effort to gain insights into her final days, weeks and months among us …
Mica Acacia Francis says she met her husband – known as ‘PJP’ to his growing congregation – when she was just ten years old. At the time, the 25-year-old father of multiple children was married to his first wife, Alison Williams, who bore a striking resemblance to Mica.
The divorce of Alison and John Paul Miller was finalized on October 29, 2015 and he married Mica in 2017 when she was 23 years old. Mica – who was raised in the church – immediately took on the role of pastor’s wife at Solid Rock at Market Common. The couple’s smiling faces featured prominently on the church’s now-defunct website, offering a warm welcome to its new members.
According to the website, Mica became more active in the day-to-day activities of the church in 2020 – “joyfully” singing on the praise team and creating all the graphics for the church (and for her husband’s popular Sunday sermons). From the outside looking in, their marriage was perfect – but according to her friends, things were not as they appeared.
Mica’s close friends indicated the marriage began deteriorating about two years ago, but most of them were unaware of how bad things had gotten until the fall of 2023. Around this time, JP purportedly read an “apology” letter to church board members explaining that the couple had separated – and admitting that he had been exchanging text messages with the daughter of a couple who were members of the church. JP is also said to have informed the board that he and Mica had agreed they could “see other people” while they were separated – a claim more than a few of the board members questioned.
Several longtime friends of the couple who belonged to the church began feeling uncomfortable with the seemingly strange new messaging and tone of his weekly sermons. As a result, they opted to seek a new church to call home. When Mica realized her friends no longer belonged to the church, she began opening up to them.
According to multiple friends, what the young wife claimed she was experiencing at the hands of her husband was horrific. According to them, Mica was – as court documents supplied by her family attested to – a woman afraid for her life.
Mica was a devout Christian. She cherished the faith and the fellowship she found within her church. Friends say she endured years of abuse at the hands of her husband silently – afraid that if she spoke the truth to those closest to her, it would affect their relationships with God. While those who are not devout followers of Christ may struggle to understand her hesitancy, those who are say Mica was ultimately striving to protect the one thing which brought her the most peace during the times she struggled most … her faith.
When she realized she now had fellowship outside of the church in which she was raised, she knew it was time to seek the guidance of those she trusted and loved the most.
Friends say Mica told them her husband – the same husband who preached regularly about the dangers of pornographic addictions – was himself addicted to sex. They say he required her to have sex with him 3-5 times a day. At night, when she refused to comply, they claim he kept her awake by blaring loud music in her ears and throwing water on her as she drifted off to sleep – a form of torture utilized in interrogation techniques.
When Mica couldn’t meet his demands, according to her friends, he allegedly began forcing her to take testosterone shots to increase her sex drive. He also allegedly began engaging in other methods of sexual gratification – methods which dehumanized Mica. Several of these methods – which can only be described as humiliating to his reserved wife – allegedly involved animals, homeless men and sex toys.
While Mica’s decision to privately share such awful details of her marriage shocked her friends – they also said in retrospect that it made sense given how he treated her.
“I mean, when we were there, and of course we were in the inner circle and we saw a lot and everything,” said Allicia Young, a friend of Mica’s and former member of the church. “I mean the way he would talk to her in front of people. I mean, he would talk down to her and the light would just go out of her face and everything – and we didn’t know exactly how deep the abuse ran because we only saw what was in front of us.”
Mica had been preparing to leave her husband, but given the alleged abuse she had endured – and a failed previous attempt in September of 2023 – she was carefully documenting evidence for her attorney. Friends say the evidence included proof of misuse of church funds, affairs involving JP and other women and other illicit activities. Given a recently uncovered incident report filed on March 13, 2024 with the Myrtle Beach Police Department (MBPD) – which alleged the illegal transfer of funds from the church’s “Dare2Care Mission” to Miller’s personal account – it is possible she had ample ammunition.
But something happened before Mica Miller could do anything with the information she told friends she had gathered. On February 8, 2024, her husband had her admitted involuntarily to the Waccamaw Center for Mental Health. Upon her release on February 10, 2024, staff at the facility informed her that her husband had taken her purse and her car keys. When Mica returned to where she had last left her car, it was gone, she told friends.
According to Mica’s friends, JP left her at the facility with no identification, no wallet and no car.
In a police report filed a little over a week later, Mica told a responding officer that JP had “fraudulently initiated her involuntary hospitalization” – and stolen her vehicle.
She added that JP had known her since she was ten years old and “groomed” her while she worked for him prior to their marriage.
John Paul had an entirely different narrative for the officer. According to him, his wife suffered “from mental health disorders” which caused her to become reckless and spend large amounts of money. He claimed he had taken possession of the vehicle to ensure she didn’t sell it during her most recent episode. He also told the officer they were not legally separated. As the couple was still legally married and the vehicle was considered marital property, the officer found no way to establish that a criminal offense had been committed. Accordingly, no charges were filed.
Shortly thereafter, Mica moved in with a friend and her father helped her get a new car so she was able to drive herself to work. Eventually she managed to get her identification back from her estranged husband, but the problems didn’t end there.
A trail of incident reports documented an ongoing campaign of harassment and stalking — corroborating what Mica’s closest friends say they witnessed in her final months.
One of her closest friends recalled a haunting conversation with Mica in the midst of her final attempt to escape her marriage.
“My husband’s gonna try to find me,” Mica said during the late-night call, according to her friend. “He’s gonna say I killed myself – telling the whole church, every sermon, every opportunity he gets, to tell the church that I have a mental illness.”
“You know, he’s threatened me with the gun before … and he told me I will never leave him,” Mica continued, according to her friend. “He’s never gonna let me go. There’s no way he said it to me. He said there’s nowhere you can go that I can’t find you.”
At this point, her heartbroken friend choked up as she recalled their conversation …
“She said ‘I’m scared,'” the friend recalled. “She said, ‘I’m genuinely scared.'”
“I think I know too much,” Mica told her friend. “And that’s why he wants to keep me quiet. That’s why he wants to shut me up.”
The multiple police reports Mica filed in the final months of her life lend credence to her growing fear of her estranged husband – which, in addition to being discussed in our interviews with her friends, was documented in a court filing by her family members days after her death.
According to a report from WPDE TV-15 (ABC – Florence/ Myrtle Beach), on March 11, 2024 Mica got a flat tire on her Honda Accord not long after leaving Springmaid Pier just off of South Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. As she pulled out of the parking lot, she heard a pop and noticed metal protruding from her tire. It was the second time she had found a razor blade in her tire that week. A Myrtle Beach police officer helping her change the tire told her the metal was a tire deflation device that could be purchased online.
As Mica headed to a Honda dealership to get it repaired, she stopped at a gas station – at which point friends say John Paul pulled into the pump next to her and attempted to speak with her. Mica recalled asking her husband to leave – stating she did not wish to speak with him.
While mechanics were repairing her tire, they found something even more concerning – a tracking device hidden on the vehicle. The Horry County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) responded to the dealership to file a report and while the officer was there, Mica received a call from an unknown number.
It was John Paul …
The officer filing the report told JP his wife did not want any further contact with him and that if he proceeded then warrants might be written up. The pastor acknowledged the warning – but did not appear to heed it.
Mica filed another report with police after discovering another tracking device on her car on March 26, 2024.
According to her friends, after taking all of Mica’s electronics during her involuntary commitment in February, her husband had secured the logins to all of her emails and social media accounts. On April 8, 2024, she filed an incident report. with Myrtle Beach Police alleging he had used her Facebook login to post a nude photo of her using an anonymous account – tagging her old profile which she no longer had access to.
According to Mica, the nude photo was one she had sent him six months earlier. When the responding officer reviewed the image, he concluded that since the nipple was blurred it did not meet the standard for nudity.
Since the post was anonymous, there was no way to prove JP was the one who posted the photo – although Mica affirmed he was the only person to whom she sent this specific nude photo.
On April 15, 2024, Mica discovered another tracker on her vehicle and filed yet another incident report. In response to this complaint, an officer advised her that because the couple were still married the vehicle was considered community property – and no crime had been committed.
Mica filed for legal separation the next day. As previously reported, John Paul Miller was served with these divorce papers on April 25, 2024 — just two days before Mica’s death.
Mica’s calls for help went unanswered – over and over again. On repeated occasions, police officers found no cause for charges, cited civil laws relating to marital property, or indicated there was no way to prove her husband had committed any crimes. No investigations appear to have been conducted – leaving her with no option but to file for separation.
Count on this media outlet to continue its investigation into the allegations against JP Miller – and to continue our deep dive into the circumstances which led to Mica Miller’s death.
In fact, next week I will join our Andy Fancher in retracing Mica Miler’s steps as she made her way from Myrtle Beach to the Lumber River State Park on that fateful Saturday afternoon.
Source: Jenn Wood is FITSNews’ incomparable research director. She’s also the producer of the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts and leading expert on all things Murdaugh/ South Carolina justice. A former private investigator with a criminal justice degree, evildoers beware, Jenn Wood is far from your average journalist! A deep dive researcher with a passion for truth and a heart for victims, this mom of two is pretty much a superhero in FITSNews country. Did we mention she’s married to a rocket scientist? (Lucky guy!) Got a story idea or a tip for Jenn? Email her at [jenn@fitsnews.com](mailto:jenn@fitsnews.com).

Many of you know this story but there are some new members among us who don't. Around this time last year, my wallet was completely drained and all of the avatars that I collected were stolen from me. During the next few months the community really came through and helped me get back most of the stolen pieces. I received every single stolen avatar back into my wallet with the exception of ONE.
This last avatar was The Hands #12
It came to my attention that a user contacted the thief privately and purchased The Hands 12 from them at a discounted rate. At first I believed that the user was sold the avatar with no clue it was stolen, however it became clear he purchased it at a lower price precisely BECAUSE it was stolen. When offering to pay his costs for the piece he rejected me with plans to sell it to others.
The downside of The Hands 12 is that it is marked as a stolen avatar on OpenSea. This means that the avatar cannot be purchased, traded, or sold on that site. I personally filed a police report and provided it to OpenSea (OS) to place this mark on the stolen avatars.
However there are always alternative pathways to trade avatars even if they are locked on OpenSea. Users can make trades outside of OS platform and can transfer avatars through reddit directly. They can also sell these marked avatars on Magiceden and other websites as well.
The unfortunate part of all of this is that inexperienced users can mistakenly purchase stolen avatars without any knowledge of its history. This can be a common occurrence as most of my stolen avatars were returned to me when users purchased them without any knowledge of their status. I am always thankful for the users who contacted me to return these avatars after finding out the details behind these sales.
Unfortunately, it appears this has happened again with the last of the stolen avatars: The Hands #12.
The information I am writing below is the account of the user who purchased The Hands 12, he gave me permission to include his user handle in this story.
u/Sire_Diego states that he purchased the avatar from u/Lauv-25 , the user who has been holding onto the stolen avatar. Per this users statements, Lauv did not disclose that the avatar was stolen, he did not give any indication that it was marked on OpenSea. He sold it to Sire at the highest bid.
How did Sire find out the history of The Hands 12? He posted a mash on our forum - avatar traders reddit page. Members let him know pretty quickly about the history of the avatar.
Sire states he is a new member, he does not have experience with blockchain and with reddit avatars. He paid a high price because of this and purchased a stolen avatar from a user who wanted to take advantage of the limited experience.
It appeared as though The Hands 12 was even further away now that it has been trading through backdoor means to other users. However, on my previous posts, community members told me to be patient. With time, The Hands 12 would return to my wallet one day.
I followed that advice. And now I am happy to say that day has come.
Sire contacted me and explained what happened. We were able to make an agreement and trade to return The Hands 12 to my vault. I did have to pay for this avatar again but the offer helped recoup the money lost from his purchase and at the same time it helped bring this avatar back home.
It's been about a year since all my avatars were stolen. And now all have been returned. The Hands 12 is no longer marked on OpenSea as a stolen avatar. It can be traded, sold, and purchased like any other.
Let this be a valuable lesson to users about the dangers of the blockchain. As echoed in the past - IT IS THE WILD WEST OUT THERE. Protect yourself and do research before making purchases. Use OpenSea and validate information carefully.
Although this story ended on a somewhat positive note, the sacrifices were great. These sacrifices were not just on my end, but also on other members who purchased these stolen avatars without any knowledge of their history. And for that I must take full responsibility.
Our actions affect not only us, but also, the people around us.
Be vigilant and thorough with your purchases. Protect your wallets, do not sign any unknown contracts. Talk to moderators and established members if you have questions. This community does a great job taking care of their own.
To end this, I wanted to thank you all for the unending support and encouragement, this story has finally come full circle.
Hopefully the story of The Hands 12 will keep living on as a valuable lesson to those that come across it.
Stay safe out there,
-Ice
References:
Purchase of the stolen Hands 12
Original Thread of Stolen Avatars
The Hands #12 OpenSea Link

Well here we go again. You need money. So the same story begins. You are such a liar and a scammer and your minions are even dumber than you are. You say you told E you don't talk about him, but here you are on live airing all your dirty laundry. And that shit is dirty. We all know your sorry ass isn't going anywhere. You could never survive on your own. You would have to get a job and that's never going to happen because YOU could not pass a drug test. You say E needs rehab, bitch you need it more. Always playing the victim. Everything that is happening to you, is all on you. You so deserve it. I often wonder how pissed off all of E's customers will be when he gets shut down? All because of you. You for sure won't be leaving your hell hole. I'm sure they will be looking for you. You want from everybody but do nothing for anyone but yourself. Put your fucking phone down. That's your problem. You blast your brothers addiction all over the internet, get your mother fired from her job, lie about your wallet getting stolen. Every word that comes out of your mouth is a lie. You wouldn't know the truth if it slapped you in the face. You drive without a license high as a kite. This list could go on and on. But you know where you really fucked up? You and your ass kicker Melissa messed with someone's child. Big mistake. HUGE MISTAKE!! YOU and MELISSA will pay deeply for this. And you're going to have the biggest group of real women, over 7000 of us, watching you get what you deserve. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I can tell you, I will love it!! And it's going to happen, sooner than you think. But us Mom's, will die for our children. Any person with half a brain, which you dont even have that, know, YOU DON'T MESS WITH OUR KIDS. Strap up buttercup, your life is over.
Yours truly, Reddit Rat

What is the Chubby Club lifetime digital membership?

• It is our exclusive loyalty program presenting a limited collection of 8,888 unique digital assets that offer an array of incredible benefits including lifelong complimentary dining, priority reservations, access to private events, and lifetime discounts.

Which restaurants are currently participating in the program?

• You may redeem your benefits at ANY of our restaurants (currently over 15 locations and over 20 more expected to open by 2024). As our presence continues to expand across North America, we invite you to explore our ever-growing list of locations. For the most up-to-date information about our Chubby Cattle locations, kindly refer to our website: https://chubbygroup.com/.

How do I join?

• Our memberships will be released in rounds, once per quarter to align with the rapid expansion of our North American locations. Purchasing a membership is now easily accessible to all. The process is simple – all you need is an email and credit card. To start, just click "Purchase Now"under your desired tier. You may find tutorial videos in our discord community.
• Please note: When available inventory is depleted each round, the retail value of SILVER and GOLD tiers will also incrementally increase. Moreover, as our business continues to grow, we will be enhancing the benefits to each tier and the value of each membership will naturally appreciate over time. Don’t miss the opportunity to secure today’s pricing for a lifetime!

Is the price listed a one-time fee or annual charge?

• It is a one-time fee that you pay upfront for a lifetime of free benefits. It is NOT a credit for future meals.

Where do I find my membership/How do wallets work?

• Your digital assets are held in wallets (digital or hardware).
• We receive many inquiries on wallets, so hopefully this can help answer your question:
• When you sign up with Email, we will automatically set-up an account to receive your new membership. This should be visible immediately after a successful purchase. You may view, transfer, or freely use your benefits directly through our website.
• If you signed up through a different provider, then please follow instructions to link accounts during purchase and registration (involves a browser extension or scanning QR code).
• Please note: You cannot link your wallet to OpenSea. If you want to view your membership on your OpenSea account, you must import that wallet into a supported platform such as MetaMask or Coinbase. You will need proof of ownership (generally this will be a private key or phrases). You may also elect to TRANSFER your assets to a different platform by copy-pasting public addresses (the long string of numbers). You will need to buy ETH to pay for the transaction fees.
• Learn how to stay safe on the blockchain: https://www.moonpay.com/learn/cryptocurrency/crypto-security-basics
• Ensuring your safety online is of utmost importance. BE CAUTIOUS OF SCAMMERS posing as our official accounts. DO NOT ACCEPT random DM’s until you verify the source of the account.

How do I redeem my membership at the restaurant?

• To begin enjoying the benefits of your membership, please make sure to register it to an account on our website after you securely stored it in a wallet. IMPORTANT: When you first register your memmbership to your Chubby Club account, you must accurately provide all your personal information (ID, DOB, Email, Phone). THIS CANNOT BE CHANGED. During each visit, there are two methods of redeeming your benefits: you may kindly present it to our server (through the website), who will then scan the QR code- OR you can simply tell us the information you provided during registration so that it matches the data in our system for quick identification. Rest assured, we maintain the utmost confidentiality and security of your personal information.

How often can I redeem my benefits?

• Redemption frequency is based upon the type of benefit included with each tier:
• SILVER:

(a) Priority reservation - Lifetime
(b) FREE 1st round of drinks/cocktails AND 1 dessert or appetizer per table- Once per day
(c) Access to private events - Lifetime

• GOLD:

(a) All of the above
(b) 1 FREE wagyu platter per table - Once per day
(c) 2 COMPLIMENTARY tasting menus - Once per visit, Two times total per year
(d) 10% DISCOUNT on entire bill for group - Once per day

• BLACK:

(a) All of the above
(b) UNLIMITED lifetime tasting menu - Once per visit
(c) 20% DISCOUNT on entire bill for group - Once per day
(d) BLACK card holders with a party of two is calculated as 50% discount on total bill (BLACK card holders eat for free)

• Note: The complimentary tasting menu benefit CANNOT be combined with any other benefits (e.g. you cannot also get a 10% discount on the total bill). A GOLD annual tasting credit may be used with a REFERRAL tasting reward (obtained through referring a friend).

What do you mean by "free dish"/What is PVV?

• Each unique asset in our collection is truly one-of-a-kind, featuring 1-3 adorable cartoon characters (random) that represent a complimentary serving of a dish. With every visit, members can redeem this special offering. We encourage you to take a look at our collection to see the creative examples other holders have minted. Some have received a delightful single tomato, while others have enjoyed indulgent sushi and wagyu platters!
• Every card has a specific value (Per Visit Value) assigned to it. This number is randomly generated and cannot be changed. PVV ranges from $3-$15 for silver and $15-$30 for gold. The value on your card represents the flat discount you receive on every bill. In the event that your character dishes are unavailable at a particular location, you may choose your PVV discount instead.
• PVV does not apply to Black cards.

How long is my NFT valid for? Will my NFT expire?

• As long as you remain an NFT holder, the benefits are for a lifetime. No, it will never expire.

Can I upgrade my tier?

• Regrettably, once you have purchased your chosen tier, it becomes immutable and cannot be modified in any manner. If you wish to explore other options or trade your membership, we suggest visiting OpenSea or engaging with our vibrant discord community to connect with other members.

How do I get my hands on the BLACK CARD?

• The BLACK card is an exclusive edition, limited to only 88 units. When you purchase a SILVER or GOLD card, you will receive a notification if you’ve won the prestigious BLACK card. This unique opportunity is the sole method of obtaining the BLACK card, aside from acquiring it on the resale market.

Can I purchase one on OpenSea or sell mine if I no longer want it?

• It's important to exercise caution when purchasing from the resale market due to the presence of scammers and imposters. While we are diligently working to report and eliminate such individuals, it is crucial that you practice safe online behavior during such transactions.
• To ensure the authenticity of your membership, please verify that it belongs to our exclusive collection by visiting our official page on OpenSea. This will confirm that you are acquiring a legitimate asset from us.
• Additionally, if you ever decide to part ways with your membership, you have the option to sell it at your discretion.

How much can I expect to spend at your locations?

• Prices per person vary significantly depending on location.
• Please see an example of our hot pot menu here: https://chubbygroup.com/project/chubby-cattle-las-vegas/
• Please see an example of our tasting menu here (only available at certain locations): https://nikux.com/tomahawk-tasting-menu/
• For more accurate pricing information, please locate your local restaurant and see the menu here: https://chubbygroup.com/

How does the tasting menus benefit work?

• To clarify on this benefit, each tasting menu has a two-person minimum. For instance, GOLD and BLACK holders may visit a location such as our Michelin restaurant, Niku X to enjoy their portion of the tasting menu free of charge. You may only redeem one portion per visit, at a maximum of two portions per year. For the premium Tomahawk menu (two servings), a credit redemption will be calculated as a 50% discount (for two people).
• At some locations, there are special Chubby Club tasting menus where you may choose to dine yourself.
• If you acquired a free tasting menu reward through the referral program, you may redeem this alongside your benefit.
• Tasting menu credits are reset yearly based on your PURCHASE date.
• Please refer to our redemption rules for limitations: https://chubbyclub.com/terms
• Please note that tasting menu offerings and prices can vary significantly based on the location. To obtain detailed information, we recommend referring to our official menus or reaching out to your local restaurant directly. For All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) locations, you have the privilege of redeeming the benefits for the highest tier of items available on the menu. Since our menus are subject to regular updates and changes, we understand it can be a bit confusing. To find all the answers you're seeking, we encourage you to join our helpful Discord community. There, you'll get the latest information and assistance from our knowledgeable members.

Are there any limits to the amount of guests I can bring?/Free first round benefit?

• There is no limit for the amount of guests you can bring. Our benefits include a complimentary first round of drinks (alcoholic drinks included) for every guest and a choice of dessert or appetizer for the table. Feel free to invite your friends and family to enjoy the celebration with us.

How do I make priority reservations?

• For a seamless experience, we invite you to join our exclusive Discord community and you will gain access to our private concierge, which handles reservations for ALL our locations. Additionally, as a valued Chubby Club member, you'll be the first to receive updates on private events (such as grand openings) and exciting giveaways that we periodically organize for our community.
• You must first verify through our automated system under #holder-verify, then you may find the #reservations channel under "MEMBERS ONLY". If you are experiencing problems, please open a general support ticket.
• Please remember- in order to accommodate your request, we kindly ask for at least a 24hrs notice.

I'm having other technical issues regarding my wallet/I got scammed.

• Our Discord server is highly active and ready to assist you. If you have any concerns or questions, simply submit a support ticket, and our dedicated team will be there to address and resolve your issue as quickly as possible. Additionally, you’ll find a warm and welcoming community in our chat, where you can freely ask questions and interact with friendly members. Don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here to help!

**If you got hacked and had your membership stolen, please follow these steps:

1. Notify us immediately through support ticket on Discord. We will have to manually deactivate the benefits of the stolen asset.
2. Keep an eye on the stolen asset, if they are listed on OpenSea, promptly contact their support and notify them that the listing contains stolen property; it will be frozen from sale.
3. Pay gas + admin fees for the minting and issuing of your replacement membership.

Is being an NFT holder the same thing as membership?

• No, some of our locations offer memberships for a fixed annual cost which is not the same as being an NFT holder. For more information on the membership perks and advantages, kindly consult your local restaurant. They will be delighted to share all the details and assist you in making the most of your dining experience.

How do my benefits work at All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) locations?

• Since drinks and all food are covered under our special AYCE price, SILVER NFT holders are able to enjoy up to $15 off their total bill while GOLD receive up to a $30 discount+ 10% off the bill (exact amounts are determined by the total value of your unique set of cartoon dishes).

Ready to become a lifetime member?
Join the Chubby Club today!
^{Disclaimer: Not affiliated with Chubby Cattle or any of its subsidiaries.}

Thank you to Space paladin for the canvas and u/Acceptable_Egg5560 for proofreading and critique
Content warning; flattery
[Next]
Memory transcript: Maarchal , MESEA Astronomers. Date: [Standard Farsul calendar ] July 13th, 3665
EEECH EEECH EEECH
I turn over on my side, haphazardly reaching for the alarm. My paw crashes into it, knocking it on the ground.
CRASH
“Sigh.” I sit up and rub my eyes open, through my bedroom window I can see the sun just barely creeping over the horizon. Painting the winter sky in a cacophony of reds and purples. It was beautiful, any other day I would appreciate it. But I was too fatigued to enjoy the sight.
The fucking overtime is killing me. Still better than being in this hellhole.
I turn over and dangle my legs over the side of my bed. Looking at the object of my frustration, there vibrating on the ground was my alarm clock, I reached down and picked it up.
Thoo thoo thoo
Great, just great, the fucking whistle was dented. I’m going to have to repair it today or risk waking up late tomorrow. Just my FUCKING LUCK.
“Sigh.” Breath in, breath out, push it down. This anger is pointless, don't feel it.
I get up and head downstairs, alarm in hand. I make my way to the kitchen and take out some plant/meal worm protein kibble. It tastes like shit, but it's cheap and fast to eat. Downing it with a lukewarm glass of sink water I make my way out into my front yard and get into my auto, putting my clock on the passenger seat. I start the hydrocarbon engine and back out of my driveway. The sun was much higher in the sky now, parting the reds and purples for yellow and a blue sky.
I turn and make my way toward main street. What little traffic we had would be dead at this time of day. I turn onto a dirt road and up to the station, a small data processing nodule.
MASEA Sonar and LIDAR telescope survey.
I park and exit my auto, only to turn back and put my alarm in a more hidden place. Right near the pedals. Out of sight of the windows and thus away from any thieves.
Can never be too careful.
I make my way inside. “Hey Maarchal , getting in early again?” Germi asked me.
I nod. ”Hi Germi, can we just please skip the soliloquies today? I had a rough morning.”
“It's still morning, and you never want to talk. I don't think it's healthy but whatever, it's not my Curnts I'm leaving to poachers.”
He turns and punches in my ID code and buzzes me in, simultaneously clocking me in as well. I look down and shuffle my way in. But before I make it all the way in he stops me.
“Oh by the way, they hired a new guy. Said he’d be here around or after lunch. Might want to know so you can make an impression.”
I close my eyes and a growl begins to boil in my throat, before I force it down and turn to the chatty guard.
“I’ll be happier if you mind your own fucking business and do your job. I don't need you to be playing matchmaker again.” He took on a despondent look and shifted in his seat.
“I’m not trying to play matchmaker, I’m playing playdate. I think you need to get a friend, not a boyfriend necessarily. Although I’d be happy if you did. I just don't think you should be married to your job, it's not healthy!!!”
Before I realized it, anger perforated my insides. I growled deeply and launched myself at the wired fence between us. The chubby guard recoiled in his post. “I don't want you trying to interfere with my life!!! I am HAPPY!!! I don't need you or anyone else judging me for how I live!!!”
I turned away and stormed off to my office. Lousy son of a whore, he probably dropped out of high-school. What does he know of happiness? I am at the top of my field and it is not easy like his job.
I calm myself down and walk calmly to my office. There were other farsul in the hallway chatting.
​
Lousy time wasters, get to your office and analyze your data!!! I screamed internally. Knowing what little use it was trying to get them to be productive. As proven when I first started out here and nearly turned my voice ragged from the useless endeavor.
​
I pull up my chair and begin typing. The Light Gathering High orbit Telescope Apparatus or better now as the LiGHTA. Was sending out flashes in the direction of the ice giant Curbosa, the second largest planet in the system. Rich with moons, this had been its project for a number of years. My job was to analyze the data and make a useful model with it to better understand orbital mechanics.
I type in the command to print its data.
Using the white paper with the black spots that represented the light that made its way back to the telescope I began my work. The largest black spot was Curbosa, made up of around five hundred pixels. While the largest moon was around 10. Taking the next printed paper I compared them. Figuring out how each spot moved in comparison to the others.
“Hmm, that's… odd.” One Black spot, barely noticeable, was practically standing still compared to the rest. Even compared to Curbosa as the planet moved. As though it was not orbiting anything at all.
I grabbed the next paper, and the spot was gone. Weird, must have been something bright outside the solar system. A new variable star perhaps? I’ll have to send a request to other observatories to monitor that stretch of sky.
But for now I resumed my work. Calculating, measuring, drawing diagrams. It was all monotonous and time consuming work, but it had to be done by hand. By the time I was finished processing the five second interval of data collection it was almost lunch.
I went to grab my bag of kibble rations I keep in my office, before realizing I could use this time to have my alarm whistle repaired and get takeout as well.
On my way out of the office Germi was giving me a look of abject pity. Fuck that, I’d rather have the avoidance or indifference of everyone else rather then that useless emotion.
I get in my auto and start the engine. I look at the passenger seat and notice my clock is missing, I quickly check around me to no avail. I put my head on the wheel and groan.
“Well, I already started the engine. Might as well get some actual food.” I press down on what I thought would be the brake pedal. Only to feel a surge of pain on my foot. I recoil and look down at the pedals. My clock was there, with a bit of blue on its side.
Oh, that's right… I left it there so it wouldn't be stolen. I lift my foot up and look at the damage, a decently sized cut but nothing worth addressing.
I reach down and grab the offending clock and toss it back into the passenger seat and make my way out of the parking lot. All the while my foot stings from the cut.
​
**\*
Dingaling
I make my way into the old clock shop, the shelves are filled with old and broken clocks and other knickknacks. There's a distinct taste of dust and mildew perforating the old building. Making my way through the maze of dilapidated appliances I find the front desk. A rather young farsul is standing behind it, screwing into the back of an old rust covered whistle alarm clock. I put my clock on the desk and waited for him to respond.
He glances up at me and then back to the object of his attention. Barely giving me any mind. “Excuse me.” I say to get his attention, to no avail. “EXCUSE ME!!!” I yell and slam my hand onto the desk.
“Just a sec, let me finish thiiiisssss and done.” He then takes the back off the old rusted clock and sets it to the side.
“Alrighty, what could I do for you this day Ma'am?”
I pointed to my clock and began. ”The whistle on my clock got dented, I need you to replace or fix it.” He walked over and grabbed my clock, Inspecting all of it in depth except the whistle. Taking on a look of annoyance at the piece of metal and plastic. Shaking his head with his ears held back, he placed it back on the counter.
“I’m afraid I can't repair this, it's mass produced designed to fail shit made of sheet aluminum. Here, I can get you an old brass clock that you could hit with a hammer and the hammer would break before a dent forms.” He was wagging his tail and bent down to presumably grab a said clock.
“I don't want a new clock, I just want you to fix mine. Is there any way you can?” I inquired, becoming more and more annoyed with this guy. He stood up and placed a brass clock on the counter about the same size as mine.
He put his hand behind his head and scratched at his ears. “Well yeah, but it'd probably cost more than just to buy a new one. That's what these are designed to do, break easily but be a pain to repair. I’d have to saw off the whistle and weld a new one on. It would probably cost … fifty eight dollars.”
I was appalled, that was nearly three times how much I paid for it. He then gestures to the brass clock. “But this costs around thirty two dollars, but will probably outlive you.”
Breathing deeply, I reached in my wallet and pulled out the money for the new (old) clock. “Thank you for your business!!!” He said as I turned to leave, I didn't so much as turn to acknowledge him. As I left the store I saw him toss my old clock into a scrap metal bin.
​
**\*
​
“Hello, what would you like to order?” The waiter asked, looking over the menu I contemplated my answer.
“I’d like the mersh meat pie, with a side of fried fleat fruit to go.”
He nodded and went to tell the chef. The restaurant was rather busy, I managed to see some of my colleagues getting lunch together and having a rowdy conversation in the back. With what looked like a centerpiece of a roasted mersh carcass in the center. Haphazardly consumed and cut up between them.
​
DINGALING
​
Looking over to my side I saw someone enter the establishment. He looked around at the crowded venue, seeing almost every seat taken. He then looked over at me. “Excuse me ma'am, might I trouble you to share this table?” I motioned my hand to the empty seat across from me and he took it. He was a rather tall Farsul, with a deep gray coat interrupted by patches of white on his front and sides of his muzzle. He was wearing a deep green cloak and sported leather shoes.
He clearly wasn't a local if he was cold enough for clothing. I sat in silence across from him. He folded his hands together and looked this way and that before settling on me. “So, what's your name?”
“Maarchal ”
“That's a pretty name, what do you do here?”
“I work at the observatory.”
He started to relax his posture. Leaning into his seat “really? That's cool, what do you do there?”
I gave him a distracted look, “that's classified.”
His features softened. “Not much for conversation, yeah?”
I shake my head “conversations are a waste of time. I have more important things to do.”
He smirks and leans back “Right, like sitting in silence waiting for comfort food. C’mon humor me!”
I roll my eyes “fine, tell you what if you can make me laugh i’ll “humor” you.”
He sits up with a stupidly cute smile and wagging tail. “Alright, so there are six pups at a party, and a bag with six freenkern fruit, each one is given one, but the bag still has a freenkern in it. How can that be?”
“Sigh I don't know, how can it be?”
His smile gets bigger somehow. “You just give the bag to the last pup!”
…
…
“Snicker That is ah, that is really dummmhh, heh.”
“AH HA, You laughed!!!” He said while pointing a digit at me and with a big stupid grin on his face.
“No , I chuckled at best, that's not a laugh!”
He wagged his finger at me. “Yes it is, now you have to talk with me!”
I reluctantly threw my paws in the air, ”fine, fine, I’ll try to engage. Just for the wait.”
He pumped his hand and went right at it. “So you're an astronomer, what made you want to be one?”
I turned to give him my full attention, “well, my family has always been big on scholarly type vocations. Both my parents are archeologists, my older brother is a chemist and my younger sister is apprenticeshipping with my parents. I chose the stars as my field of study, as I always loved space stories as a pup.”
He gave me the side eye, “so it's as simple as barky spaceships was your favorite show?”
A smirk threatened to overtake my features. “No, no, I liked to watch documentaries of the stars and read space operas as a teen. Still do, or er did.” I slightly reached into myself from the memories of shame.
He seemed to notice my regret at admitting the bit of info about operas, as he seemed to try to steer me away from the topic. “ What? Documentaries? Those aren't stories!!!”
“Uh, yeah they are! Isn't the history of how the universe formed not the most epic story of all? Every speck of light has a story to tell, every asteroid has secrets to uncover!!!” My voice was beginning to raise, so I began to rain in my outburst.
“Wow, you really like space that much? Such passion is inspiring!!! And a little cute. “ He rested his head on his hand and looked at me with a type of reverence and admiration that made me feel warm inside.
I smiled back, “Yeah, there's just… so much to uncover…” I reached into myself, the shame had been growing with this attention and expelling of my passion in the most unprofessional manner.
He seemed to recognize my turmoil as his face began to match my dour mood. “Uh, hehe, um. Oh those fellows seem to be having a good time. You know them?”
I put my head in my hands, as he just pointed to my “colleagues”. Who had begun to pop off bones of the mersh carcass and cracked them open to suck the marrow out. “Uhh unfortunately, they work with me at the observatory. Bunch of rowdy pups in adult pelts.”
He looked over and seemed confused by my abject contempt for the manner they conducted themselves in.”... Is there a reason you take offense at their mirth?”
“We’re scientists, we should conduct ourselves as absolutely serious as possible. Instead they treat their job as a game.” I flippantly threw my hand in their direction.
He looked at me with confusion. “I don't think they treat it like a game… I just think they like having fun, so what if they don't act all prim and proper a hundred percent of the time?”
I rub my muzzle, “it's just, we do serious work, they need to be serious as well.”
He smiled at me “yeah, whatever you say”.
I rub my arms, he continues to look at me with mirth. His default joy was infectious, as I struggled to keep my tail still.
“Here you go ma’am, that'll be twelve dollars.” The waiter said as he handed me my takeout. I reached into my wallet but found I was short around six dollars.
I shouldn't have let that clock smith up sale me.
“I’m so sorry, I seem to be short. Let me go to my auto to see if I have enough for the meal.
I got out of the building but before I could open my auto the Farsul I was speaking to rushed out with my takeout. “Uh, here, I paid for you.”
I smiled as I took the meal, ”really? All for a gal you spoke with for all of ten minutes?”
He rubs the back of his head and looks at the ground “heh heh yeah, just wanted to repay you for the pleasure of your company.”
I smirk and enter my auto, “well I hope you enjoyed it, as I doubt we’ll meet again soon.” I start the engine and wave goodbye to the Farsul as I leave the parking lot. Who returned the favor.
​
**\*
​
I exit my auto and make my way to the entrance , Germi seemed all too happy to see me again. “Well someone seems to have had a pleasant launch break.” I don't give him the time of day as I wait for him to buzz me in.
I make my way to my office and go about devouring my food. The meat pie was a delectable pastry filled with rich meat and the fried fleat fruit skin was crispy but the fatty flesh inside was all hot and gooey, with a pleasant texture and a hint of a tangy flavor. Much better than my kibble. I ate so fast that it was all gone in a matter of minutes. I relaxed into my seat as the pleasant feeling of a full stomach washes over me.
“You really needed that huh?”
I opened my eyes and turned to my open doorway, the Farsul from the restaurant was standing in it. With his green cloak taken off and draped over his right shoulder.
Embarrassment threatened to swallow me whole. “Wh- what are you doing here?”
​
He shrugs “I'm the new guy. Wanted to get lunch before I came into work.”
I put my head in my hands, unable to reconcile who I acted so unprofessional with.” I-I only humored you because I thought you were just passing through… I have a reputation here!!!”
He smiles and leans on the side of the door frame. “Yeah, I figured after the fellows at the bar mentioned how I survived without getting burned by the “Vermscoorn”. That's you right?”
I nodded. “ I um , I have an anger problem. “
“Coulda fooled me. Anyways, I look forward to working with you. Oh by the way, names Ponthyt.”
He exits my office door frame and I turn and sink my head onto my desk. Annoyed by my tail wagging, displaying a joy that I wished wasn't there.
[Next]

To start- I’ve never posted my own thread on Reddit, but I feel it’s necessary due to how much this particular thread has helped me. I’d like to try and provide the same now.
For nearly 3 years I was in a a demanding, toxic, and overly taxing work environment (both to my mental and physical heath). I loved my team members but my direct supervisor was very critical. I honestly liked her as a person separate from work, but as a leader not so much. The job itself was too demanding and everyday was a work emergency. If I didn’t have an update for each task everyday, I was off track (because again, EVERYTHING was an “emergency” and high priority even though nothing I worked on was life or death. It was just imposed this way.)
I work in engineering and always had impossible deadlines, had to work odd hours to reach unrealistic expectations and because I worked with my time zone plus others. I always received critical feedback and rarely any recognition. Any work I got done I always had more. One time my work was stolen right in front of me. I Started my day with 10 tasks then ended the day with 15 more. Had insufficient training for any new tasks yet was held wayyy overly accountable for mistakes when I am new to any tasks- this fostered a huge fear of mistakes and perfectionism (therefore fueled my anxiety)
What did this job do to ME? Well , here’s a list:
1) I had started therapy shortly after starting this job
2) I had to go on emergency medical leave due to anxiety and panic attacks on the daily (my Apple Watch literally recorded a time my heart rate went up almost 40BPM at RESTING RATE because I was in a meeting getting belittled
3) Gained weight, so much stress eating I didn’t even realize
4) Loss interest in so many activities I used to enjoy just because my work was always in my head. No, it’s not that easy to just separate work and personal when you know stress is just going to be right around the corner
5) Had too many nightmares
6) Quality of sleep was terrible, I’m constantly not wanting to sleep early because I know what’s waiting for me the next day, but at the same time I developed insomnia because I keep waking up in fear that I did something wrong
7) Developed huge anxiety and perfectionism
8) Developed a habit of stress shopping and impulse purchasing to make myself feel better (I honestly did not realize this habit until my wallet felt it and I couldn’t take another large purchase)
9) Developed stress acne (I’ve never really had trouble with acne even as a teenager. The only times I really developed a lot was during finals in college, so constant acne was a big tell)
10) Developed overall DEPRESSION
I recently , FINALLY got another job that was in my field and a little higher paying. The difference is night and day. It is so much more laid back, people are not stressed, there is amazing work life balance, and actual training. I’m a little traumatized from those years and am waiting for the other shoe to drop but so far it seems much better.
There were so many times I almost just quit but finances wouldn’t allow me. It’s not as easy to say “hey if you don’t like your situation then just change it!” Because that’s not how life works. I’ve applied to probably a thousand jobs in the last couple years. I’ve had a few interviews and even almost got out much earlier but it was always something (someone hired internally, position cancelled, I would need to be onsite far away that the drive and pay cut wouldn’t be worth the risk)
I came here to share my story in hopes of helping someone out there with some hope as this thread has validated my experience more times than I can thank. Patience was the worst, pushing through was the worst, but I promise that it doesn’t end there.
I will say one good thing about this terrible experience though- it toughened me up and helped my fear of confrontation. I had to become more assertive to survive. It’s not ideal obviously but I’m trying to see the little positive that came out. They say you learn through hardships.
For everyone out there feeling stuck, I wholeheartedly feel for you. Please- when the opportunity finally does arise, take the risk. What’s the alternative? I was too afraid the new place will be just as toxic but how much worse can it get? At least I know I could handle the toxicity now at the very least. But taking that leap opens up the possibility of a much much better environment, and once that comes it will be a large breath of the finest corporate quality air lol.
Wishing anyone who is stuck now the best.

When I have thought of politics in India, I always wondered why isn’t the Radical Left ( I mean CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML)) such a marking force in Indian Politics as it is in Europe. Even in the days of the freedom struggle, it was Gandhi (A comparatively right wing politician) who mobilized the masses not the left whereas in Europe it was exactly the opposite.
Lenin, Stalin and other major leaders of the Russian Revolution, except Trotsky were from the Proletariat class.
Even in the Spartacist Uprising in Germany of the 1920’s it was the left who united the working men of Germany to revolt. If such is the case then why isn’t the left in India such a weak force.
Well, Though I have said that the left is doing nothing, I have to say that they have done some deeds in the past. Say for the Naxalite Uprising of the 1970’s. Though the movement have slowly drifted away from the correct path-- women commanders like Shobha Mandi facing sexual exploitation, and the movement funding itself by selling drugs in cities-- but still it has done immense developmental work, which is said by the very own Government of India’s Ministry of Panchayati raj with whom they are still fighting. What they did was that they strictly enforced the minimum wages which in the maze of corruption of doing anything in India is , a thing that no mainstream political organization in India is doing or could do.
But the problem with this sort of movement is that they fail to mobilize the masses. The Naxal Militants are mainly of urban upper class background, and they fail to recruit the rural youth in their army. This sort of behavior is a symbol of elitism. Even in the early days of the Uprising, Students of prestigious universities were at the forefront of the revolt, not the ones whose condition was so bad that sacrificing their lives seemed to be the only option left.
But if you seriously think about it Rural India is not a good place for your pocket. Rural India still depends on agriculture which in India is an occupation that is heavily reliant on rainfall which is very unpredictable. Yet my observation of the proletariat class in the cities as well as that in the villages gives me a weird conclusion that doesn’t quite align with Marxian doctrine-- The Proletariat of the cities are more rebellious in comparison to that of the villages in spite of the fact that the Proletariat of the villages have a worse of condition.
If you go deep in Bakura and Birbhum districts of West Bengal, you would see people there in spite of all the drought they are facing they don’t blame anyone. This thing happened with my father, he went to see the local tribal dance somewhere in Purulia. There he left his wallet. When he came back to retrieve it, expecting it to be stolen, he found that it was kept safely in the pradhan’s office. The Pradhan said that someone found it and gave it to him. Had such a thing happened in Kolkata then the wallet would have gone forever.
My guess about this situation is that in rural areas people are more closely tied to religion. In fact if you go to any rural area in India then you would see that there are several Jatras being performed. And the main themes of those Jatras are of the epics, Ramayon and Mohabharot, and of the deeds of Krishno(Bhagavad Gita). After being subjected to so much and so heavy Spiritual/Philosophical content in such an easy and story-like fashion, it won't take you a detective to know that Spirituality has become their language.
The reason that the Hindu Right has managed to come to power is not because the poor of India are not educated(Which is actually a hypocrisy of the left) but rather because of our(Lefties) inability and ignorance to speak and learn their language while the Hindu Right, being versed in their language caught their attention. And with that attention they are now defaming Hinduism as a whole, like ISIS has defamed Islam. Even Vivekananda, whom these right-wingers adore, never promoted violence. He said that India needs to conquer the world, but not with swords and spears or guns and bombs, but with its philosophy which has great depth than that of the west. For example, the questions on existence, that the west started to ask in the mid 20th century was the questions that Indian Philosopher asked in days before rome existed.
Marx is a great Philosopher but he is a materialist and though he had shown sympathies for India and the Indian condition, he never came to India and through his lens of materialism failed to understand India.
He was a European and though a social scientist is meant to be unbiased, certain biases still remain. And India is such a country that if an outsider doesn't regularly stays here he won’t be able to understand the condition of this place. I think that this is the place where Marx failed.
The Indian Communist’s strict rigidity on Marx and Marx only meant that they were working with an analysis which was wrong from the beginning. They didn’t even try to reinterpret our books on philosophy and our scriptures in terms of Socialism because they labeled it as something ‘Hindutva’.
Though socialism is a primarily a western ideal, it is relevant everywhere. But it needs to be reinterpreted and engrained in local traditions for the world to go red.
The Indian communist’s failure is that they are mainly led by upper middle class people and artists who are educated in western thoughts (though I am not saying that it is not necessary) and are ignorant of their culture hence are Xenophilic and Patriamphobic (Afraid/ negligent of one's own culture) a combination not good for leading the masses who are not educated in western thought.
Thus as we see, the only way to combat the hindu right is to integrate the ideas of socialism with that of the indian philosophy and to preach it in the language of spirituality. This means in India socialism would be defined by the combination of what happens outside the mind (The Material) and what happens inside the mind (The Spiritual or as said in the west The psychological) and the interaction between these two forces that result in the current world order and how to break the chains of capital and wage only to liberate the man that being restricted to express himself by the threat that if he express then he will starve. Then there would be a world where art is celebrated and everyone is an artist expressing his inner self.

When I have thought of politics in India, I always wondered why isn’t the Radical Left ( I mean CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML)) such a marking force in Indian Politics as it is in Europe. Even in the days of the freedom struggle, it was Gandhi (A comparatively right wing politician) who mobilized the masses not the left whereas in Europe it was exactly the opposite.
Lenin, Stalin and other major leaders of the Russian Revolution, except Trotsky were from the Proletariat class.
Even in the Spartacist Uprising in Germany of the 1920’s it was the left who united the working men of Germany to revolt. If such is the case then why isn’t the left in India such a weak force.
Well, Though I have said that the left is doing nothing, I have to say that they have done some deeds in the past. Say for the Naxalite Uprising of the 1970’s. Though the movement have slowly drifted away from the correct path-- women commanders like Shobha Mandi facing sexual exploitation, and the movement funding itself by selling drugs in cities-- but still it has done immense developmental work, which is said by the very own Government of India’s Ministry of Panchayati raj with whom they are still fighting. What they did was that they strictly enforced the minimum wages which in the maze of corruption of doing anything in India is , a thing that no mainstream political organization in India is doing or could do.
But the problem with this sort of movement is that they fail to mobilize the masses. The Naxal Militants are mainly of urban upper class background, and they fail to recruit the rural youth in their army. This sort of behavior is a symbol of elitism. Even in the early days of the Uprising, Students of prestigious universities were at the forefront of the revolt, not the ones whose condition was so bad that sacrificing their lives seemed to be the only option left.
But if you seriously think about it Rural India is not a good place for your pocket. Rural India still depends on agriculture which in India is an occupation that is heavily reliant on rainfall which is very unpredictable. Yet my observation of the proletariat class in the cities as well as that in the villages gives me a weird conclusion that doesn’t quite align with Marxian doctrine-- The Proletariat of the cities are more rebellious in comparison to that of the villages in spite of the fact that the Proletariat of the villages have a worse of condition.
If you go deep in Bakura and Birbhum districts of West Bengal, you would see people there in spite of all the drought they are facing they don’t blame anyone. This thing happened with my father, he went to see the local tribal dance somewhere in Purulia. There he left his wallet. When he came back to retrieve it, expecting it to be stolen, he found that it was kept safely in the pradhan’s office. The Pradhan said that someone found it and gave it to him. Had such a thing happened in Kolkata then the wallet would have gone forever.
My guess about this situation is that in rural areas people are more closely tied to religion. In fact if you go to any rural area in India then you would see that there are several Jatras being performed. And the main themes of those Jatras are of the epics, Ramayon and Mohabharot, and of the deeds of Krishno(Bhagavad Gita). After being subjected to so much and so heavy Spiritual/Philosophical content in such an easy and story-like fashion, it won't take you a detective to know that Spirituality has become their language.
The reason that the Hindu Right has managed to come to power is not because the poor of India are Idiots(Which is actually a hypocrisy of the left) but rather because of our(Lefties) inability and ignorance to speak and learn their language while the Hindu Right, being versed in their language caught their attention. And with that attention they are now defaming Hinduism as a whole, like ISIS has defamed Islam. Even Vivekananda, whom these morons adore, never promoted violence. He said that India needs to conquer the world, but not with swords and spears or guns and bombs, but with its philosophy which has great depth than that of the west.For example, the questions on existence, that the west started to ask in the mid 20th century was the questions that Indian Philosopher asked in days before rome existed.
Marx is a great Philosopher but he is a materialist and though he had shown sympathies for India and the Indian condition, he never came to India and through his lens of materialism failed to understand India.
He was a European and though a social scientist is meant to be unbiased, certain biases still remain. And India is such a country that if an outsider doesn't regularly stays here he won’t be able to understand the condition of this place. I think that this is the place where Marx failed.
The Indian Communist’s strict rigidity on Marx and Marx only meant that they were working with an analysis which was wrong from the beginning. They didn’t even try to reinterpret our books on philosophy and our scriptures in terms of Socialism because they labeled it as something ‘Hindutva’.
Though socialism is a primarily a western ideal, it is relevant everywhere. But it needs to be reinterpreted and engrained in local traditions for the world to go red.
The Indian communist’s failure is that they are mainly led by upper middle class people and artists who are educated in western thoughts (though I am not saying that it is not necessary) and are ignorant of their culture hence are Xenophilic and Patriamphobic (Afraid/ negligent of one's own culture) a combination not good for leading the masses who are not educated in western thought.
Thus as we see, the only way to combat the hindu right is to integrate the ideas of socialism with that of the indian philosophy and to preach it in the language of spirituality. This means in India socialism would be defined by the combination of what happens outside the mind (The Material) and what happens inside the mind (The Spiritual or as said in the west The psychological) and the interaction between these two forces that result in the current world order and how to break the chains of capital and wage only to liberate the man that being restricted to express himself by the threat that if he express then he will starve. Then there would be a world where art is celebrated and everyone is an artist expressing his inner self.

Hello everyone you and librarians have been very kind to me when I need to vent, I appreciate it, the city I work for is dealing with a lot of social issues like homelessness, mental health, and drug abuse, and my branch is the downtown one.
my other posts help paint the picture (ranged from what I consider most to least extreme):
Accumulation of many stories
Stalker behavior™
Is it disability or are you on drugs?
Read the dam signs
The library closes we dont live here
my 2nd year here has just come to it's end so this and the next will be my worst stories:
30 minutes before closing a man around my age (mid to late 20s) came in, at first normal conversation at first checking on his card to make sure he'd be able to log into a computer and looking for a specific book we likely don't have because it sounds higher education and public libraries don't carry university textbooks both things he seemed to understand.
1 slightly weird thing when I handed him back his card he didn't seem to acknowledge it or recognize it was his for a second I assumed he was distracted with something on his mind and reminded him to take his card back.
less than 10 minutes later he's bringing something up to our security guard briefly and something in the tone feels off only recognizable if it's slow and you're trying to pay attention to it like me.
security is confused and concerned coming back to the desk but can't explain anything before this guy is up front again with tone, patience, and speech pattern completely changed and one of the most frustrating 1/2 an hour of my life begins.
This guy is very clearly mentally unwell and I dont take that lightly when I say it but he went from fairly average patron to speaking in circles in a matter of minutes the chef's complaints are:
1 noone is helping him with the computer (never asked anyone whose job it is to do that) 2 he can't find a book (already explained that it's a large branch fairly certain he has not even seen the collection yet) 3 while he was in the washroom someone went through his bag (there are signs everywhere saying bring the dam thing in with you people are semi-regularly stolen from on this site) 4 where all talking about him behind his back and he's going to sue for disability discrimination.
he goes through these four in a rapid section a frustrating time as we can't focus on one thing long enough to solve a dam thing "we can look at the cameras to see if someone went through your bag *why dont you do your job and show me how to use the computer* " sure I can take a look" *your discriminating against my disability (bunch of legal jargon bs)* "what was the name of the book you where looking for?" *those signs shouldn't be out here its the library's responsibility if I'm stolen from*
this nonsense goes on for far to long before the legal stuff and threatening to sue actually become the focal point and I can finally leave the desk to the coworker there and security and get the librarian and manager for the night from her office.
I'm sure my exasperated look and rushed explanation were quite the look nearing 8 pm in the middle of the week on an otherwise lovely late August day.
we get back and there is now a 5th item on the long set rambling his phone is missing and hes been over a huge branch at this point checking the washroom has produced nothing calling and checking all the shelving has been done nothing.
he wants none of us to leave until it is found and brags about being rich and that he'd pay us, which is not happening, we've all worked 8 hours, and it's getting exhausting just being around him.
before leaving he's checking through his bag and a few weird clues to the situation come up despite the rambling has some education and legal knowledge a book about chemistry, a small backpack no other clothes, and somewhat expensive things like a nice wallet, Nintendo Switch, a medication bottle and is wearing clean clothes these are signs he has a place to sleep at night, store items, and access to some money.
the medication bottle has no cap and just tape over the opening and Meany pills are lose in the bottom of the backpack, he just shakes it like he can't comprehend tape won't keep it all together (and is probably the source of some of it missing and leaves.
only around 10 minutes late to get out, to my knowledge has been back to the branch if there are people out there supposed to be caring for him I hope they are with him now because places that aren't us (free public service meant for everyone) won't put up with it.

Here is the list that I wrote for Georgia's post Furman execution roster for my death penalty project. Like with the previous posts, the dates aren't a precise duration of time spent on death row, but rather an approximation of their earliest known criminal activities to their executions. Many of the crimes discussed in this post are also extremely horrific, and thus please read at your own risk.
As I finished finials yesterday, the remaining states, Missouri, Virginia, Florida, and Oklahoma might be released on a quicker pace. I'm planning on doing Missouri next, but it might be split into at least two separate parts due to the currently 98 executions that have taken place.
The currently executed 77 inmates:
1. John Smith (1974-1983, electric chair): Smith and his wife decided to kill her ex husband, 38 year old Ronald Atkins, and his 29 year old wife Juanita, when they learned that the daughter she had in their former marriage were beneficiaries of the Atkins' life insurance policy. The couple and another accomplice lured the Atkins' to their home with a promise of selling them a television set, and shot them both dead.
2. Ivon Stanley (1976-1984, electric chair): Stanley and an accomplice abducted Clifford Floyd, a 46 year old insurance agent, after they lured him into the accomplice's apartment. Floyd was dragged into a forest, beaten with a hammer, and tied to a tree. He was then shot and buried alive in a shallow grave. Floyd succumbed to a combination of blood loss and suffocation and a total of $234 was stolen from him in the attack.
3. Alpha Stephens (~1961-1984, electric chair): In 1973, Stephens shot dead 57 year old Louise Mercer while robbing a grocery store her brother owned. A year later, Stephens abducted Roy Asbell, a 49 year old minister, from his home with a gun he stole from Asbell's son. Asbell tried bribing his captor with hundreds of dollars in cash for his life, but Stephens simply snatched the money away, dragged Asbell to a barn, and shot him in the head. He had a significant rap sheet that included several armed robberies, prison breakouts, auto thefts, kidnappings, and burglaries, and was first arrested at the age of 16.
4. Roosevelt Green Jr. (1976-1985, electric chair): During a robbery of a convenience store, Green kidnapped the clerk, 18 year old Teresa Allen, stole $466 from the cash register, and drove away with his loot and hostage in her car. He then raped Allen, shot her to death, and dumped her body on a dirt road.
5. Van Solomon (1979-1985, electric chair): Solomon and his accomplice Brandon Jones gunned down 29 year old Roger Tackett while robbing a Tenneco store he managed. Ironically, Solomon himself was shot by an assailant robbing his grocery store some years before the murder.
6. John Young (1974-1985, electric chair): Young attacked 6 elderly men and women with bottles, lamps, fireplace pokers, and vases in their homes, across a single neighborhood. 3 of the victims, 85 year old Coleman Brice, his 83 year old wife Gladys, and 83 year old Katie Davis, were beaten to death in the assaults. Several variables such as jewelry and watches were taken as well.
7. Jerome Bowden (1976-1986, electric chair): Bowden and an accomplice stabbed 55 year old Kathryn Stryker to death and gravely wounded her bedridden mother, 76 year old Wessie Jenkins while burglarizing their home. Several items, such a wig, a pellet gun, some jewelry, and a television set was stolen in the intrusion. The television set was sold by Bowden to one of his acquaintances. Jenkins initially survived the attack, but died from complications relating to their injuries after Bowden was indicted for her daughter's murder.
8. Joseph Mulligan (1974-1987, electric chair): As part of a scheme to collect an insurance policy, Mulligan shot his sister's estranged husband, 30 year old Patrick Doe and Doe's girlfriend, 25 year old Marion Miller, while they were driving to a party. Doe was a captain in the United States Army at the time of his death.

1. Richard Tucker Jr. (~1963-1987, electric chair): In 1963, Tucker stabbed his aunt, 61 year old Annie Armstrong, 14 times with scissors while burglarizing her home. He was released from incarceration in 1978. 6 months after being let out of prison, Tucker abducted 50 year old Edna Sandefur from a hospital parking lot while she was visiting her ill mother, and drove her to a remote warehouse. He robbed and raped Sandefur, and then beat her to death with an iron pipe. Tucker also had previous convictions of burglary and attempted rape.

10. William Tucker (1977-1987, electric chair): Tucker abducted 19 year old Kathleen Parry, a pregnant clerk, while he was robbing a convenience store she was working at. He forced Parry at knifepoint to withdraw money from the cash register, and dragged her into his car. When they drove to a chapel, Tucker stabbed her to death.
11. William Mitchell (1974-1987, electric chair): Mitchell accosted 50 year old Willard Williams while he was walking down a street and mugged him of $4. He then forced Williams to lay down and shot him execution style. In the following day, he held 34 year old Peggy Carr and her 14 year old son Christopher at gunpoint while they were opening their family owned store. Despite Peggy giving him $160, he made rape threats against her and forced the pair into a freezer. Both mother and son were shot several times and left for dead by Mitchell. Christopher died at the scene, while his mother survived her injuries.
12. Timothy McCorquodale (1974-1987, electric chair): McCorquodale and his entourage accused Donna Dixon, a 17 year old runaway, of stealing money from him and giving it to a black pimp that he thought she was having a relationship with. He bombarded Dixon with racist insults and sexual advances as he and his accomplices kidnapped her from a club. After she was taken to McCorquodale’s apartment, Dixon was bound, and repeatedly beaten and raped. They tortured her by cutting her breasts with razor blades, burned her body with cigarette butts and candle wax, and she was violated with a bottle. The abuse ended when McCorquodale broke her arms and legs, and strangled her to death with a clothesline. On death row, McCorquodale escaped with three other inmates, including Troy Gregg of the 1976 Furman vs Gregg infamy. After the group took refuge at a biker bar, McCorquodale beat Gregg to death in a fight with the help of a Outlaws Motorcycle gang member. Days after Gregg's murder, McCorquodale and the other surviving fugitives were recaptured hiding out at an Outlaws Biker's home.
13. James Messer Jr. (1979-1988, electric chair) To get back at his estranged wife for leaving him with their children, Messer kidnapped her niece, 8 year old Rhonda Tanner, while he was picking her up from school. He raped and severely beat Tanner in a forest and stabbed her to death.
14. Henry Willis III (1976-1989, electric chair): Willis and his accomplices abducted a policeman, 29 year old James Giddens, that was dispatched to stop their robbery of a food market. They took the captive officer near a lake, where he tried to escape by jumping into it. Willis and one of his partners shot Giddens dead while he was trying to swim to safety.
15. Warren McCleskey (1978-1991, electric chair): McCleskey robbed a jewelry store at gunpoint, and fired on the responding officers. One of the officers, 30 year old Frank Schlatt was killed in the shooting.
16. Thomas Stevens (1977-1993, electric chair): Stevens and Christopher Burger abducted a fellow soldier, 20 year old Roger Honeycutt, who was also working as a cab driver, when he picked them up from the enlisted men's club on Fort Stewart. Honeycutt was tied up with a cord, robbed of $20, and sodomized repeatedly by both of his captors. The pair then locked Honeycutt in the trunk of the cab, and drove it into a pond as they jumped out. Being unable to escape, Honeycutt drowned as his car sank into the pond's depths.
17. Christopher Burger (1977-1993, electric chair): As mentioned under Thomas Stevens' section, Burger assisted in the robbery, abduction, rape, and murder of Roger Honeycutt.
18. William Hance (1977-1994, electric chair): Hance, a former Marine that transferred himself to the Army, abducted at least 3 women, 32 year old Irene Thirkield, 24 year old Karen Hickman, and 21 year old Gail Jackson. Thrikield and Jackson were black prostitutes and Hickman was a white Marine servicewoman that was stationed in the same base as Hance. They were all raped and beaten to death with jack handles and tire irons. In a misguided attempt to throw off the police and attract media attention, Hance staged a convoluted hoax involving a race war between a gang of white vigilantes and a gang of black counter vigilantes. He tried to pretend that his victims were murdered from retaliatory killings between the two groups. Hance was also suspected in the murder of another woman in Indiana, but was never charged of it.
19. Nicholas Ingram (1983-1995, electric chair): Ingram broke into the home of 55 year old J.C. Sawyer and his wife Mary. He forced them to hand over $60 and their car keys at gunpoint, tied the couple together to a tree, and shot both of them. J.C. was killed, while Mary survived their ordeal. Ingram then stole their car and fled to California. While a fugitive hiding out in California, he committed another carjacking, and ran off to Nebraska, where he was detained for a DUI and deported back to Georgia to face trial. Due to being a British national, Ingram's execution sparked outrage in the United Kingdom.
20. Darrell Devier (1979-1995, electric chair): Devier lured 12 year old Mary Stoner into his car while she was walking home from school. He raped her in a forest, made an attempt to strangle her during their struggle, and crushed Stoner's head with a rock. Months before the murder, Devier was accused of raping a 13 year old girl, but the charges against him were dismissed from the lack of sufficient evidence.
21. Larry Lonchar (1986-1996, electric chair): During a dispute over gambling debts, Lonchar confronted his bookkeeper, 54 year old Wayne Smith, at his condo while pretending to be a FBI agent. In the altercation, he bound Wayne and his 24 year old son Steven with handcuffs, and shot and stabbed them to death. Wayne's girlfriend, 45 year old Margaret Sweat, called 911, and was also shot and stabbed to death while she was on the phone with the dispatcher. Another one of Wayne's sons was attacked in the incident, but he managed to survive his injuries.
22. Ellis Felker (1977-1996, electric chair): Evelyn Ludlam, a 19 year old cocktail waitress for the Holiday Inn, was lured into Flelker's clutches when he promised her work at his leather store. For religious reasons, Ludlam was disaffected with her job, and wanted a new line of work. Felker raped and strangled Ludlam to death and sexually mutilated her body. After he murdered Ludlem, Felker dumped her remains in a creek. He was registered sex offender with a sodomy conviction at the time of Ludlam's death.
23. David Cargill (1985-1998, electric chair): Cargill and his brother stormed a gas station, and forced a couple, 41 year old Danny and 29 year old Cheryl Williams, to lie on the floor. Cheryl was a clerk for the station, and Danny stopped by to help her close down after he put their sons to bed. The brothers shot the couple execution style, and stole a total of $482.79 from the register. They were also involved with several carjackings.
24. Terry Mincey (1982-2001, lethal injection): Mincey and his accomplices robbed a convenience store at gunpoint, and forced the clerk, 38 year old Paulette Riggs to empty the cash register into their bag. They shot her dead, and took 2 teenage siblings hostage that were present in the store. Coincidentally, a firefighter pulled up to the scene to refill his truck, and Mincey shot and wounded him. The siblings took the opportunity to escape and fled into a nearby field.
25. Jose High (1976-2001, lethal injection): High and his accomplices abducted 11 year old Bonnie Bulloch and his stepfather, 27 year old Henry Philips, from a gas station they were operating, after emptying the cash register. The robbers forced the pair into their car, reportedly taunted the captives about their intentions to kill them, and drove to a remote forest. They then shot Bulloch dead and wounded Philips.
26. Fred Gilreath Jr. (1979-2001, lethal injection): Gilreath's wife, 28 year old Linda, moved out of their home to escape their disintegrating marriage. When Linda returned with her father, 57 year old Gerrit Van Leeuwen, to pack up her belongings, Gilreath shot them both dead.
27. Byron Parker (1984-2001, lethal injection): Parker enticed 11 year old Christie Griffith into his car after she missed her taxi that was supposed to take her to her older brother's high school graduation. He bound Griffith to a tree, and raped and strangled her death, while his two year old son was waiting for him in their car.
28. Ronald Spivey (~1961-2002, lethal injection): While playing pool at a bar, Spivey got into a fight with 32 year old Charles McCook over money he perceived to have won, and shot him to death. A day later, he robbed a bank and took hostages. He fatally shot Bill Watson, a 40 year old off duty police officer that tried to stop him, and injured the manager, 21 year old Welton Allen. Allen tried fleeing to a nearby restaurant, and Spivey following him into it in pursuit. He fired on the establishment in an attempt to kill him, but missed and wounded an employee caught in the crossfire. Spivey then kidnapped a waitress and forced her to drive him to Alabama. She was rescued unharmed by local authorities when they pulled over and captured Spivey. A search of the stolen car found that Spivey stole a total of $360 in his robberies. His previous convictions include several counts of forgery, armed robbery, and auto theft.
29. Tracy Housel (1984-2002, lethal injection) Housel was a sexual predator and thief that victimized men and women alike between the ages of 18-45. He worked as a interstate truck driver, and picked up victims that he befriended from stops all across the country. They were driven to isolated locations, where Housel would bind, rob, and sodomize them. His killing methods were diverse and circumstantial, but Housel mostly used strangulations, beatings, and stabbings in the attacks. Housel was convicted in the deaths of Troy Smith (age unknown) and 44 year old Jean Drew, and is suspected in and/or confessed to 15 other murders. He was also responsible for several non fatal assaults and robberies. Like Nicholas Ingram, Housel's death sentence and execution sparked outrage in the United Kingdom due to him being a British national.
30. Wallace Fugate III (1991-2002, lethal injection): Fugate forced himself inside the home of his ex wife, 39 year old Pattie. He pistol whipped Pattie dozens of times and shot her dead in front of their 15 year old son. Unrelated to the case, but that son was beaten to death in the same house by his friends a year after Fugate's conviction.
31. William Putman (1980-2002, lethal injection): Purtman shot and killed 49 year old William Hodges on the side of a highway. Hours later, he snuck up on a married couple, 28 year old Kate Back and 22 year old David Hardin, sleeping at a rest stop in their car with their children (which included a 9 year old daughter, a 7 year old son, and an 11 month old daughter) and 14 year old niece. He shot David dead and tried to abduct Kate. When she resisted and screamed for her husband, Purtman shot her as well and fled the scene.
32. Larry Moon (1984-2003, lethal injection): According to prosecutors, Moon ambushed 34 year old Ricky Callahan while the later was walking to a pharmacy to buy headache medicine for his wife. Callahan was shot in the head during the attack and had $60 taken from his wallet. Moon was also suspected in the shooting deaths of Jimmy Hutcheson (age unknown) and Thomas DeJose (age unknown), several robberies, and the abduction and sexual assault of a female impersonator. The prosecution failed to convict him for the murder of DeJose on the grounds of self defense and the murder of Butcheson on the lack of sufficient evidence. His conviction for Callahan's murder is contested, as Moon and his supporters claim that a late hitman confessed to the killing.
33. Carl Isaacs (~1960s-2003, lethal injection): Isaacs, with the help of two of his brothers and a cellmate, escaped from the Maryland State prison, and fatally shot 19 year old Richard Miller when he tried to stop them from stealing a car. The group drove by a Georgia gas pump in the hopes of refilling their getaway car. However, the pump was empty, and decided to burglarize a nearby trailer belonging to the Alday family (which consisted of brothers, 62 year old Ned and 57 year old Aubrey, Ned's sons, 35 year old Jerry and 32 year old Chester, and Jerry's 26 year old wife Mary) while they were gone. When the family returned home, Isaacs and his accomplices held the entire family at gun point, gang-raped Mary several times, and shot them all dead. Isaacs had a very troubled history, and committed several burglaries and robberies as a teenager.
34. James Brown (~1968-2003, lethal injection): Brown went on a date with Brenda Watson, a 21 year old stripper. After they were drinking and partying together at a bar, Brown tied up Watson with nylon stockings, and raped and asphyxiated her by shoving panties down her throat. He had a long history involving violence towards women. One of his previous convictions involved an incident of him breaking into a woman’s home, and (non fatally) stabbing and sexually assaulting her. Brown also had a warrant at the time of Watson’s murder for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and sexual assault charges when he lured another woman by posing as an artist in need of a model.
35. Robert Hicks (~1970s-2004, lethal injection): Hicks laid his eyes on 28 year old Joni Rivers while she was talking to her boyfriend using a grocery store payphone. He chased down Rivers when she tried to flee from him and nearly decapitated her in a frenzied stabbing attack. Rivers' shoes, shorts, and ring were taken and found in Hicks' car. Hicks was released from prison months earlier after serving a half of a 15 year sentence for sexually abusing a 16 year old girl.
36. Eddie Crawford (1983-2004, lethal injection): Crawford tried spending the night with one of his estranged wife's sisters after a drinking binge, but she ejected him from her home. Out of anger, he abducted Leslie English, her 2 year old daughter, from the girl's bedroom, and then raped and strangled her to death.
37. Timothy Carr (1992-2005, lethal injection): Carr and his girlfriend attended a party with 17 year old Keith Young. The couple decided that they wanted to rob the boy, and they lured him into a forest with the help of two other teenagers. Carr slit Young's throat, and then proceeded to beat him to death with a baseball bat. He and his accomplices stole a $125 paycheck and Young's car in the robbery.
38. Stephen Mobley (1991-2005, lethal injection): Mobley shot and killed 25 year old John Collins while robbing a Domino's Pizza restaurant he was managing. He had also held up 6 other restaurants and dry-cleaning shops at gunpoint in his month long crime spree.
39. Robert Conklin (~1981-2005, lethal injection): Conklin stabbed his boyfriend, 28 year old George Crooks, in the ear with a screwdriver in their apartment, and dismembered his body. In an attempt to get rid of the remains, he stuffed them in a garbage disposal in their kitchen and a nearby dumpster. At the time of Crooks' murder, Conklin was on parole from a 6 year sentence for armed robbery.
40. John Hightower (1987-2007, lethal injection): While under the influence of cocaine, Hightower shot his wife, 41 year old Dorothy, and his stepdaughters, 22 year old Sandra and 19 year old Evelyn Reaves, to death in their sleep.
41. William Lynd (1988-2008, lethal injection): Lynd got into an argument with his girlfriend, 26 year old Ginger Moore, over a planned vacation and shot her to death. While on the run in Ohio, he tried to hijack a car, and shot the driver, 42 year old Leslie Sharkey, in the process. Sharkey managed to crawl to safety, and notified the authorities of the attack. She died of her injuries a few days after the shooting.
42. Curtis Osborne (1990-2008, lethal injection): Osborne, a career drug dealer, shot his girlfriend's brother, 29 year old Arthur Jones, and Jones' girlfriend, 28 year old Linda Seaborne, dead in argument over money gained from a motorcycle sale. His death sentence was controversial, as Osborne claimed that his attorney denied him a plea bargain for a racist agenda.
43. Jack Alderman (1975-2008, lethal injection): In an attempt to collect a life insurance policy, Alderman beat his wife, 20 year old Barbara, to death with a wench.
44. Robert Newland (1986-2009, lethal injection): Newland went to the apartment of his girlfriend, 27 year old Carol Beatty, after a drinking binge, and tried to kiss her. When she rejected and slapped him, Newland stabbed and disemboweled her alive. Just before she succumbed to her injuries, Beatty used her own blood to identify Newland as her attacker to the first responders.
45. William Mize (1994-2009, lethal injection): Mize was a leader of a white supremacist gang called the National Vastilian Aryan Party, in which 34 year old Eddie Tucker had filed to join. When Tucker disobeyed his orders to burn down a "crack house" as part of an initiation ritual, Mize lured him into a forest and shot him dead.
46. Mark McClain (1994-2009, lethal injection): McClain robbed a Domino pizza parlor after ordering a pizza. He shot the manger, 28 year old Kevin Brown, dead and stole $130 from the register.
47. Melbert Ford Jr. (1986-2010, lethal injection): Ford had a very specific fantasy about robbing, abducting and then murdering his ex girlfriend, 30 year old Martha Matich, after forcing her beg for mercy. He decided to make his fantasies into a reality, and stormed the grocery store she worked at with the help of an accomplice he hired. Ford shot Matich and her niece, 11 year old Lisa Chapman, dead, and stole $579 from the register.
48. Brandon Rhode (1998-2010, lethal injection): Rhode and his accomplice Daniel Lucas broke into a house, and encountered the residents, 37 year old Steven Moss, and his two children, 15 year old Kristin and 11 year old Bryan. Bryan was home alone when the intruders arrived, and tried to fight them off with a baseball bat. Lucas and Rhodes quickly subdued the boy and shot him to death. Kristen and Steven were also shot dead when they returned home. Their bodies were discovered by Gerri, Steven's wife and the children's mother. The pair were career burglars, and previously targeted the Moss home weeks before the massacre.
49. Emmanuel Hammond (~1983-2011, lethal injection): Hammond, his girlfriend, and her cousin spotted 27 year old Julia Love broken down on the side of the road. They dragged her into their car after she declined their offer for a ride. Love was tied up, forced to withdraw $140 from an ATM, and raped. The attackers partially strangled Love and shot her to death in a remote forest. In exchange for having all charges dropped, Hammond's girlfriend agreed to testify against him and her cousin. He tried to hire a fellow inmate to permanently silence her testimony, but was foiled by prison officials. Hammond had numerous previous convictions, but my sources didn't disclose details.
50. Roy Blankenship (1978-2011, lethal injection): Blankenship climbed into a home of 78 year old Sara Bowen after breaking her window. He raped and beat Bowen, and penetrated her with a bottle. She succumbed to a heart attack from the stress of the assault.
51. Andrew DeYoung (1993-2011, lethal injection): Wanting to use their life insurance policies to start his dream business, DeYoung stabbed his parents, 42 year old Gary and 41 year old Kathryn, and his sister, 14 year old Sarah, to death, and unsuccessfully ordered his accomplice to kill his 16 year old brother Nathan. Nathan escaped through a window and went to a neighbor for help.
52. Troy Davis (1988-2011, lethal injection): Davis was sentenced to death for a crime spree involving several robberies, the non fatal shooting of a teenager, and the beating of a homeless man, Troy Young (age unknown). Larry MacPhail, a 27 year old police officer and security guard, was shot and killed when he intervened in an attempt to protect Young. Davis' execution was controversial, as he managed to amass a popular following that believed in his innocence during his time on death row. He previously plead guilty for a carrying concealed weapons charge, and Davis paid a $250 fine as part of a plea agreement to avoid prison time.
53. Andrew Cook (1995-2003, lethal injection): On a random whim, Cook walked up to a couple, 22 year old Grant Hendrickson and 19 year old Michele Cartagena, parked near a lake, and shot them both to death in their car.
54. Marcus Wellons (1989-2014, lethal injection): Wellons took an obsessive sexual interest in his neighbor, 15 year old India Roberts, and began to stalk and harass the girl in an attempt to groom her into a "relationship." At one point, he even pressured his girlfriend's 14 year old son to date her. His illicit pursuit of Roberts alarmed his girlfriend and she tried evicting him from their apartment. With his relationship in shambles, Wellons' behavior escalated beyond the breaking point. After he ransacked his now ex girlfriend's apartment and poured bleach on her clothes, Wellons ambushed and abducted Roberts while she was walking to school. He raped and strangled her to death with a telephone cord.
55. Robert Holsey (~1990s-2014, lethal injection): Holsey shot and killed Will Robinson, a 26 year old Sheriff's Deputy, during a robbery of a convenience store. At the time of the shooting, he was on parole for an armed robbery conviction.
56. Andrew Brannan (~1980s-2015, lethal injection): In 1998, Branner was pulled over for speeding by Kyle Dinkheller, a 22 year old deputy. While Dinkheller was trying to file a citation, Branner became belligerent, pulled an M1 carbine out of his truck, and opened fire. Dinkheller was killed in the shootout, but he managed to wound Branner in his return fire. Branner was a Vietnam combat veteran, and he tried to use PTSD as a defense for the fatal shooting of Dinkheller and previous domestic abuse charges from his ex wife.
57. Warren Hill Jr. (~1985-2015, lethal injection): Hill was given a life sentence when he shot and killed his girlfriend, 18 year old Myra Wright. His sentence escalated to death a few years later when he fatally beat his cellmate, 34 year old Joseph Handspike, with a nailed board. At the time of his own murder, Handspike was also serving a life sentence for shooting and killing a restaurant manager during a robbery.
58. Kelly Gissendaner (1997-2015, lethal injection): Out of a desire to leave their marriage and to collect a life insurance policy, Gissendan assisted her boyfriend in abducting her husband, 30 year old Douglas, from their home. Her boyfriend stabbed Douglas to death, and she set their car on fire to destroy his body. The couple were also charged with attempting to intimidate witnesses during the murder trial.
59.Marcus Johnson (1994-2015, lethal injection): After Johnson picked up 35 year old Angela Sizemore from a bar, he sexually assaulted her with a knife. Sizemore was stabbed 41 times in the attack, and her throat was cut. Her body was found in her car by a man walking his dog hours after the murder.
60. Brian Terrell (~1992-2015, lethal injection): Terrell forged up to $8,000 in checks using 70 year old John Watson's name. Watson, who was seeking a relationship with Terrell's mother, tried to make a deal that he wouldn't pursue any charges if the money was returned to him. According to prosecutors, Terrell broke into Watson's home, and beat and fatally shot him to avoid repaying the money. His execution caused controversy, as the defense attorneys claimed that the footprints at the scene were smaller then his feet, and that he was condemned only by what they perceived to be misused testimony from his cousin (that testified against him in exchange for a plea deal) and a neighbor (who allegedly claimed that they saw "someone else walk out of the home"). Those arguments were shut down by the courts, but embraced by anti death penalty activist groups and outlets. Regardless of his guilt or lack thereof, strong evidence points to him perpetrating similar armed robberies of other homes, and was on parole at the time of Watson's murder.
61. Brandon Jones (1979-2016, lethal injection): Jones was an accomplice to the above mentioned Van Solomon, and participated in the robbery that killed Roger Tackett.
62. Travis Hittson (1993-2016, lethal injection): Hittson, who was serving on the U.S.S. Forrestal, was convinced by a crewmate to kill Conway Utterbeck, a 20 year old fellow sailor, for the thrill of killing. When they were off duty, Hittson and his accomplice walked into the home of Herbeck's parents, and found Herbeck sleeping on the couch. Before they shot him to death, the pair bludgeoned Herbeck with a baseball bat. To prevent the body's identification, they chopped off his hands, feet, and head with a hacksaw, and dumped his dismembered remains in two separate burial sites across a 300 mile radius.
63. Joshua Bishop (1994-2016, lethal injection): Bishop and another man accosted 44 year old Leverett Morrison at a bar, and demand to have the keys to his jeep. When Morrison refused, the pair beat him to death. Bishop also orchestrated the beating death of 36 year old Ricky Wills for having intercourse with his prostitute mother. The prosecution declined to charge Bishop for Willis' murder, as they wanted to use it as evidence to help secure his death sentence for Morrison's slaying.
64. Kenneth Fults (1996-2016, lethal injection): Fults forced his way inside the home of 19 year old Cathy Bonds. He bound, gagged, and blindfolded Bonds with duct tape, and made an attempt to smother her with a pillow. When that failed, Fults shot Bonds in the head, stole her keys, and drove away with her car.
65. Daniel Lucas (1998-2016, lethal injection): Lucas was the accomplice to the above mentioned Brandon Rhode, and he assisted him in murdering Steven Moss and his children in their home.
66. John Conner (1982-2016, lethal injection): In a drunken rage, Connor beat his friend, 29 year old James White, to death with a whisky bottle and a stick while visiting him in his home. The two had gotten in fight when White refused to take Connor to a liquor store.
67. Gregory Lawler (1997-2016, lethal injection): Lawler and his girlfriend were walking home intoxicated after drinking heavily at a bar, and got into a fight. A witness called the police, and officers, 28 year old John Sowa and 38 year old Patricia Cocciolone, were sent to the scene. They carried Lawler's girlfriend to their car, and drove her to the couple's apartment. Lawler was allowed to walk home unescorted. When he arrived, Lawler grabbed an AR-15, and fired on the officers. Sowa was killed, while Cocciolone survived with crippling injuries and called for backup. The other officers besieged Lawler in his apartment, and he surrendered after a 44 minute standoff.
68. Steven Spears (2001-2016, lethal injection): Spears suspected that his girlfriend, 34 year old Sherri Holland, was cheating on him. He reacted to his suspicions by wrapping Holland's head with duct tape and suffocating her with a plastic bag in her home.
69. William Sallie (1989-2016, lethal injection): Sallie's ex wife, 19 year old Robin Moore, divorced him for his physical abuse and moved back to her family (consisting of her parents, 49 year old John and Linda (age unknown), and her siblings, 17 year old April and 10 year old Justin). He was able to acquire visitation rights to their 2 year old son from the courts, and used that pretext to attack the family. Sallie charged into the Moore family home, shot and killed John, wounded Linda and bound her to Justin with handcuffs, and kidnapped Robin and April. The sisters were both kept captive and sexually assaulted together in a trailer, but they were spared and released after a few hours.
70. J. Ledford Jr. (1992-2017, lethal injection): Ledford was welcomed inside a home by the wife of his neighbor, 73 year old Harry Johnston Jr.. He tied up the couple at knifepoint, stole an undisclosed amount of money and guns, kidnapped Johnston, and drove away with him in his truck. Johnston's body was later found near an abandoned building. He was half decapitated, had a knife embedded in his back, and covered with several minor stab wounds.
71. Carlton Gary (~1964-2018, lethal injection): Gary raped and murdered at least 8 mostly elderly women between 40-89 years old. Almost all of his victims were killed in their homes, but his youngest, 40 year old Marion Fisher of New York, was abducted while walking out of a bar. They were all strangled to death with nylon stockings, which is why Gary was given the “Stocking Slayer" epithet by the media. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including positive DNA tests, testimonies from surviving victims, fingerprints found on crime scenes, and semen samples, Gary still has a vocal following trying to proclaim his innocence. He had an extensive criminal history, which started with several arson, assault, and robbery charges as a teenager.
72. Robert Butts Jr. (1996-2018, lethal injection): Butts and his accomplice Marion Wilson carjacked Donovan Parks, a 24 year old off duty correctional officer, after he agreed to give them a ride home from Walmart. They forced Parks to exit the car and the shot him in the head execution style. Both Butts and Wilson were part of a Latin Kings set, and are believed to have killed Parks to gain more prestige from their gang. Butt's previous convictions include charges of shoplifting and burglary.
73. Scotty Morrow (1999-2019, lethal injection): Angry that his ex girlfriend, 26 year old Barbara Young, broke up with him for his abusive behavior, Morrow shot her, and her friend, 21 year old Tonya Wood, dead in their home. A third woman, 18 year old Latoyna Horn, was injured in the shooting. Young's two children, a 5 year old son and an 8 month old daughter, witnessed the killings, but were unharmed.
74. Marion Wilson Jr. (1999-2019, lethal injection): Wilson assisted Robert Butts, a fellow Latin King gangster, in the carjacking and shooting murder of officer Donovan Parks. He had a lengthy and very violent criminal history, which included the non fatal shootings of a Mexican migrant worker and a drug dealer during robberies, unprovoked assaults on a classmate and a youth worker, and an arson attack on an apartment complex. His friends noted that Wilson had a penchant for animal cruelty, and they reported seeing him shooting dogs on random whims.
75. Ray Cromartie (1994-2019, lethal injection): While robbing a grocery store, Cromartie and his accomplice shot two clerks, 50 year old Richard Slysz and Daniel Wilson (age unknown). Slysz died at the scene and Wilson survived with crippling injuries.
76. Donnie Lance (~1990s-2020, lethal injection): Lance broke down the door of his ex wife's, 39 year old Sandra, and fatally shot her boyfriend, 33 year old Dwight Wood Jr.. He then used the butt of his gun to club Sandra to death. According to court documents, Lance subjected Sandra to extreme abuse during their marriage, and reportedly kidnapped and tortured her with beatings, strangulations, and electrocutions on numerous occasions.
77. Willie Pye (~1985-2024, lethal injection): Pye's ex girlfriend, 21 year old Alicia Yarbrough, had a child with another man that he believed was his. Despite his suspicions, Yarbrough and their boyfriend pushed Pye out of the child’s life. In retaliation, Pye and two accomplice’s broke into Yarbrough’s ex boyfriend’s home to rob it, but found her alone with her infant. They abducted and robbed Yarbrough of her jewelry at gunpoint, raped her for several hours in a motel room, and shot her a total of 3 times in the head. Due to reports of him allegedly being cognitively disabled, Pye’s execution sparked some controversy. He was previously convicted of burglary.

• Inability to stop thinking about another person • Craving contact at all times • Intense, possessive jealousy • Controlling thoughts or behaviors • Extreme obsessive worries about the other person’s safety • Disregarding and overstepping personal boundaries • Hypersensitivity to negative feedback or lack of attention • Refusing To Accept Rejection • Monitoring the other person’s communications, whereabouts, and behavior 

I know this sounds crazy, but I think I just witnessed my own death. I’m still nauseous and trembling with fear after my ordeal, and with three hours of train journey before I get home, the ability to share my experience with the online community is the only thing keeping me from throwing up. I shall do my upmost to recall today’s events as accurately as possible for you, and to report my frame of mind as things happened, as I’m aware there may be a psychological aspect to all this.
​
Before I begin, I want to make it clear that I am quite sane and not prone to hallucinations or other irrational behaviour. That said, I have been known to lose my temper from time to time, even with my wife. These bouts of rage started when I was put into foster care as a teenager, and my tantrums may even have been justified at that time. But now I’m approaching middle-age, I find I’m being triggered by more trivial issues, such as inefficient processes at the firm, or my daughters playing music too loudly on their phones. Anyway, on with the story…
​
The old lady had joined the train back at Exeter St Davids, and parked herself next to me without asking permission, which I had accepted at the time because the carriage was crowded. But since Bristol Temple Meads, the number of passengers had thinned out considerably, and I felt incensed that she hadn’t yet done the honorable thing and moved to a different seat. Beneath her thick coat, her wrists were adorned with elaborate bangles, that jingled every time she moved her knitting needles. At that time, I hadn’t yet faced her directly, for fear of initiating small talk. But from my side-vision, I observed her face and neck were wrinkled in the extreme. I could have moved seats myself of course, but I was already set up for work. Besides, to move would be to admit defeat.
​
So in the typical fashion of a frustrated Englishman, I merely sighed and stared out of my window. Outside, a blizzard raged on and snow was settling around the railway tracks. With a bump, the train reduced speed to a slow crawl. I watched the large snowflakes swirl about in the wind, blocking out the pale afternoon sun. The numbing clouds of whiteness gave me a splitting headache, that wasn’t helped by the overpowering smell of lavender perfume.
​
I tried to focus on my PowerPoint slides, but the words began to blur on the screen. I removed my glasses and massaged my temples with my finger tips. Perhaps my wife Margaret was right. I had been working too hard lately. But who else was going to steer the company through the merger, if not me? Simple Stanley? That asshole Abrahams? Perish the thought. No, the role required strength, and I never minded confrontation. That was (I considered) my superpower, and although colleagues often complained about my aggressive attitude, I could always claim in my defense to the board that I was merely passionate about my work.
​
Overhead, a vintage-style GWR poster showed a group of wholesome children visiting a sunny Devon seaside resort. They reminded me of my own daughters, before they had discovered TikTok and boys. I seethed inwardly. It was easy for Margaret to criticise me for not spending enough time with the kids. Since the girls started school, Margaret has had all the time in the world.
​
The old lady accidentally knocked my elbow with her knitting needle for the third time in as many minutes, and I slammed my laptop shut. I opened my briefcase and considered downing the can of lager that I’d been saving for the return journey from Paddington. But it was too early, even for me. So I read through my copy of the Financial Times, whilst trying hard to ignore the constant click-clacking of her grey metal needles. In an act of petty revenge, I ruffled the large yellow sheets of my newspaper near the lady’s face, and spread my elbows wide over our shared arm rest.
​
“You’d think they’d provide us with more room in first class, wouldn’t you?” she said.
​
“Yes. Perhaps one of us should move?” I muttered through gritted teeth.
​
The lady ignored me and held up a garish half-knitted scarf. “It’s for my grandson.”
​
“I’m sure he’ll love it” I replied sarcastically.
​
“Do you have children?” she asked.
​
“Two girls, ten and twelve” I replied, with an efficiency bordering on rudeness.
​
“Daughters, what a blessing! You must be looking forward to getting back to them?”
​
“To be honest, they’re usually asleep by the time I get home.”
​
“Then it is no wonder you are sad” said the lady, and she placed her hand on mine.
​
“Do you mind?” I said, as I yanked my hand away. Suddenly, my phone rang.
​
“Aren’t you going to answer that?” enquired the lady.
​
“No it’s just my wife” I shrugged. “She knows better than to call me on the train.” The phone kept ringing. Finally, I put it on silent-mode and locked it away in my briefcase.
​
Much to my annoyance, the old lady leaned across and gazed out of my window. “Looks bad out there” she said. “Reminds me of the snows we used to get in Romania."
​
“Listen, I don’t mean to be rude. But my time is valuable, and I really do need to work.”
​
“Ah yes, time is a slippery thing” she ventured, before resuming her knitting. “Your job must be very important, to keep you away from your family?”
​
“Yes it is!” I barked. “And so is this presentation. So please just… stop talking.” Suddenly, something scratched me on the wrist. “Hey, watch it with that damn needle!"
​
“Oh dear I am sorry” she muttered. “How clumsy of me.” I inspected my arm and was horrified to see she had actually drawn blood. She tried to help me roll up my shirt sleeve to tend to the wound, but I pushed her aside. “Perhaps I should move seats?” she said. I glared, and she promptly moved away.
​
I mopped my bloody scar with a tissue, and looked up in alarm. Despite all the empty rows in the carriage, she had chosen a seat that was directly facing me. As I rested back in my chair, she hummed (in Romanian) the words to an odd little folk song. The whole episode had been exhausting, and I soon felt an overwhelming urge to take a nap. As my eyelids became heavy, I thought I saw the old lady give a sickening grin. Then as I drifted off, I noticed (through blurred vision) that some of her yellowish teeth were pointed, and there was blood on her fingernail.
​
When I awoke, the train was stationary and the carriage was empty. With horror, I realised my laptop was missing from the tray. I looked under the seat and checked all the overhead compartments. My briefcase was missing too, along with my phone (which was inside it). The old lady hadn’t seemed like the thieving type, but what other explanation could there be? I felt inside my jacket pocket. Miraculously, my wallet was still there. Even more surprising, the cash and bank cards were untouched. I dashed to the next carriage, but it was empty too. “Guards?! Is there anyone about? I need to report a robbery.” I walked the length of the train, but there was nobody on board.
​
Finally, I stepped out onto the platform. It was Westbury, a quaint rural station I knew well. Margaret had been a student at the local college, and I used to meet her under the station clock when we had first started dating.
​
The train’s engines were still running, even though the driver’s cabin was empty. I made a mental note to make a complaint to GWR on the grounds of poor health and safety. I began to pass everything systematically though my mind (as my work had trained me to do) and concluded that the train must have been ordered to wait while the line ahead was cleared of snow.
​
Overhead lights flickered on above the deserted platform. I surmised that the unusually dark skies had triggered them to come on automatically, and yet the station clock said it was still only two in the afternoon. I wondered whether there was a solar eclipse going on above the rolling black clouds that I hadn’t heard about. As a matter of habit, I reached inside my jacket pocket for my phone, and it took me a few seconds to remember it had been stolen. There weren’t any pay phones around either, so I couldn’t even call the office to tell them I’d be late for the meeting.
​
I walked out of the station, but the concourse was deserted too. Furthermore, Westbury was one of those funny little stations that (for some unfathomable reason) was located several miles from the town it was actually supposed to serve. I didn’t care much for standing alone in the cold, and neither did I fancy walking along the gloomy country road into town. The snow turned to sleet, and I decided that I’d be better off waiting on the train, where at least it was warm.
​
But as I walked back into the station, I heard the roar of an engine as my train was pulling away. I shouted and ran alongside the platform edge, banging my fists on the doors, but to no avail. The train disappeared around a bend and the station was eerily silent, apart from the pitter patter of rain.
​
I tried the door of the waiting room and the toilets (male and female) but they were all locked. “Ridiculous” I muttered as I curled up on a bench. Suddenly I heard a loud bang, followed by the smash of glass. On the opposite platform, some yob (high on drugs it seemed) was kicking and screaming at a vending machine. He had his back to me, and wore a plain black hoody. “Hey you, stop that!” I called out. But the lad didn’t react. He just kept yelling obscenities and headbutting the glass. I dashed over the footbridge that separated the two platforms, but by the time I got to the other side, the lad had disappeared. The vending machine glass was shattered and smeared in blood. At that point, I clearly recall that I shuddered from a vague sense of Déjà vu.
​
“Can you come out?” I called timidly. “I won’t tell you off. I just want to check you’re okay.” The sky had turned pitch black. I checked the station clock again and was alarmed to see that it was five already. I wondered whether something had gone wrong with my own time faculty. It’s odd, but ever since leaving the train, I had been in doubt about my place in the universe. And what about Margaret? She’d be out of her mind with worry if I didn’t call soon. I thought about her plight, and how sweet she really was, in spite of everything.
​
An automated message rang out over the loudspeakers. “The next train at platform two is the five thirteen departure to Plymouth.” I was elated to hear another voice (albeit robotic) and looked around for the information screen. I walked on. The far edge of the platform was unlit and lined with dense fir trees that bended and rustled in the wind. Any moment, I feared that the yob might leap out from the bushes and mug me (or worse). When I finally reached a screen, it confirmed a train home to Plymouth was indeed due within minutes.
​
I leaned against a green GWR shelter, a sturdy Victorian construction of wrought iron, designed to stand the test of time. Empty beer cans rolled about the entrance, and old newspapers fluttered about in the breeze. Suddenly, there was a low groan from within. I considered waiting elsewhere. But what if the lad was inside bleeding to death? I had never considered myself a first-class human, but I wasn’t a monster either. My hands trembled as I peeked inside. The floor was littered with polystyrene takeaway boxes, and the place stank of stale urine.
​
“Care for a wee dram?” said a gnarled voice. I squinted my eyes at a moldy white blanket in the corner. The old tramp was about sixty, and in a bad way. He gulped down some Whiskey and wiped a trail of spittle from the bottle.
​
“No thanks” I said politely. He was heavily bearded, and the parts of his face that were still visible were covered in scabs. He crawled out to join me. “I wonder, have you seen a young lad in a hoody?” I asked.
​
“I ain't seen no one all night” he muttered.
​
“Are you sure? He smashed up the vending machine back there. You must have heard?”
​
The tramp grimaced. “Pay no mind to him. He’ll survive, you can be assured of that.
​
“Oh. So you do know him?” I said. “Well you can tell that little thug from me, that he’s lucky I don’t report him to the transport police.”
​
“Don’t be too harsh on the lad” said the tramp. “He’s had a tough upbringing.” The old man took a crumpled rollup from behind his ear. “You’re married” he said, as he admired my wedding ring.
​
“Yes, for my sins” I joked awkwardly. “How about you?”
​
“I was. And reckon I got a couple of kids somewhere. But aint seen ‘em for a while.”
​
“I’m sorry to hear that. I have young daughters, so I know how hard that must be.”
​
“Can I see them?” he croaked. He gazed up at me with bloodshot eyes that were vaguely familiar. He reminded me of my great uncle George, the black sheep of the family, who had sadly passed away from alcohol poisoning a few years before. Or maybe it was just a look that all ageing alcoholics adopt, once they have been exposed to the elements for a certain period of time. “Please friend. Just a peek, if you will?”
​
I removed my wallet from my jacket pocket, but naturally hesitated. For all I knew, his demand to see a photo might be part of some elaborate identity scam. Or God forbid, his wish to see children could be part of a more sinister desire. But he didn't strike me as that sort. In truth, I felt he was more like an old comrade, who had fallen on hard times. In the distance, a train engine roared, and headlights pierced the darkness.
​
“Please, we haven’t got much time” begged the tramp.
​
I opened my wallet and handed him a polaroid photo of the girls. The tramp wiped a tear away and promptly handed it back to me. I cleaned some of his gunk away from the photo and put it safely away in my wallet. “You’re a lucky man” said the tramp. “And I have enjoyed our little chat. But this is where we get off.” With that, the poor man stumbled forwards and jumped onto the railway tracks.
​
I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. An impending sense of dread, like one is supposed to feel immediately before a heart attack. I closed my eyes as the train rumbled past. But when it finally ground to a halt, there was no blood on the tracks, and no body either. I was pale with shock, and shivering from head to toe.
​
A guard stepped out onto the platform. “All aboard” he called cheerfully. My legs wobbled and I found it difficult to move. I felt sick, as if part of me had died.
​
“Are you alright sir?” said the guard. “You look as though you’ve seen a ghost!”
​
I smiled weakly in appreciation of a friendly face. “I just need to sit down” I said.
​
The packed carriage buzzed with noisy commuters, eager to get home. I found an aisle seat next to a rotund businessman who bent over backwards to make space. “Sorry to be a pain” I said to him. “But would it be possible to borrow your phone? I need to make an urgent call to my wife.” The businessman looked me up and down.
​
“What’s wrong with yours?” he replied, gesturing to my phone, which was sticking up out of the tiny pocket on the front of my jacket. I gave a bewildered smile. The phone must have been there the whole time. But it’s so odd, I never use that pocket. And how come I didn't notice the weight of the phone until then? The businessman clearly thought I was mad. He sighed and returned to his newspaper.
​
I listened intently to a voicemail message from Margaret, and promptly burst into tears. She had asked how my big presentation had gone, and urged me to hurry home as she was making stew for dinner.

I am complaining about this heap of garbage for months now and I think I finally put an end to it.
It is working now. I am now getting the results many people got with this machine. I know the problems and my journey is at an end. SO for anyone facing problems with this printer: it is not your fault. The printer has several extreme design flaws. Heres how I got it running, finally:
When I got the printer the first prints were amazing(by my standards at the time, now I know they are merely fine). The examples worked great and the machine was doing good. This honeymoon phase ended with my first serious project: a playmobil like pirat ship for my kid with a cool skull island for christmas. Yes thats half a year ago. I fought with this piece of crap for half a year.
On small prints I got decent results but my first big print was an absolute disaster. I had no bed adhesion whatsoever. So I researched it and found that the auto z-offset was always wrong. And after a good Kilogram of test prints I also was sure that I had to calibrate it anew for each print, since the value that worked before wasnt working anymore. So that was my new workflow: calibrate with multiple test prints, print one part, start over again. I tried setting that M420 code, I tried playing with the first layer height... nothing. I also had to monitor the start of each print because the spool holder is such a failure of a design. It is positioned in a way that when the printhead is on top and comes down it unwinds the spool and in more cases then not knots it tightly around the spool holder. Also something was wrong with the feeding tube because it got constantly pushed into the filament sensor. I had to fix that multiple times. I couldnt be mad at the thing trying to stab itself though. That's only natural.
I was ready to live with that, but then the true problems started. An even bigger print revealed that the auto leveling didnt do a good job. I had adhesion issues on the outer parts on the left and on the right things got torn up because it was to close. Since this waste of scrap metal has a closed source, most likely stolen, firmware I couldnt even check what the auto leveling was doing, or if it was doing something at all. Through reddit I found a link to some videos explaining how I could level the bed. I bought a radial caliper, printed an attachment, using the new A1 mini I bought out of frustration. A real printer that works amazingly by the way. I then replaced the bed spacer with silicone ones that allowed me to level the bed if the warping wasnt to big. It wasnt. I leveld the bed until no point was more than 0.02mm from the other. I was realy proud of myself. Things worked better now, so the auto leveling is real shit. But the z-offset was still wrong. I was ready to live with that.
But then I came to the idea of using a bigger nozzle. It was not easy to find some as, of course, anycubic uses some non standard nozzles. They are basic nozzles by the way, anycubic just cuts a piece so if you use a standard one it will invariably destroy your bed because its to long. Anyway, I used anycubic high flow pla and though, if they promote 500mm/s printing I should be able to print at 100mm/s with a 0.8mm nozzle. Woudnt work. 0.6mm, wouldnt work. Why? Because there was not enough filament coming out. Only at low speeds of 50mm/s the prints were fine. So I knew, that my printer wouldnt do the 500mm/s even with a 0.4mm nozzle. And I now had a large scale printer that wouldnt take a bigger nozzle. Great. What a shitshow. This thing is terribly loud and each minute that this giant print bed runs at 60°C has a real impact on my wallet, but no, theres no way to speed it up.
But at least I was getting mediocre results and could fill a big buildplate.
Then the adhesion issues came back. I was devastatet. One day everything was working fine, the next I was back to square one. I had now printed at least 5 Kilograms of PLA with the A1 mini with nearly no failed prints. Thats about what the K2m had wasted in its half year lifetime on calibration alone.
I updated the firmware, which seemed to work, but only shortly. And then it happened. I decided to reset everything and give it another go with the auto calibration. But the calibration would fail. I decided to sit beside it checking what was up. I had noticed that the feeding tube was pushed near the filament sensor again, what I hadnt noticed is that this tube is barely long enough for the printhead to go all he way to the z-offset sensor button. Beeing stuck like that the head wouldnt reach it.
Could that mean that this silly plastic tube even when it sits correctly could put enough stress on the printhead to move it on its axis? Well, ladies and gentlemen. It looks like it. So today I replaced the spool holder with a top mounted one and got rid of the tube alltogether. I disabled the filament sensor, that never worked anyway because the problem is never an empty filament. Then I started the auto calibration. And lo and behold. A perfect first layer on a test print. I tried a bigger print and again perfect. Not only did the first layer only have minor marks, it also held tight while printing and popped right off after cooling.
I tamed the beast. I am finally at peace. I will never ever buy anything from anycubic again. But this hunk of metal finally does something useful and by god it will do its duty until it falls apart! Or until I get annoyed by how loud it is... or until I remember how much each hour of that thing printing costs... or until I decide to test the bigger nozzle again, because: "Who knows?" and get dissapointed again.
Or... Is anyone interested in a K2m? It's practically new! Barely used(for anything useful) and just a little bit cried on. Anyone? Tears wipe away easily anyway!
​

What is Campus Safety at CWRU like?
Case Western Reserve University is an urban school nestled in the University Circle, a square mile of Cultural, Academic and Health Institutions. Cutting through campus is Euclid Avenue, one of the main streets in Cleveland that houses University Hospital, as well as the Cleveland Clinic, so like in any city, you need to be careful. Of course Cleveland has its bad areas-- there are areas not far from campus that I would consider very urban and less safe, but it is like that in any urban school
The University Circle includes:
University Hospitals Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Institute of Art Cleveland Institute of Music Cleveland Orchestra Little Italy Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland Botanical Gardens
As far as safety goes, you will be very safe so long as you’re in the UC neighborhood.
Case provides a number of safety measures:
Personal Safety:
At Case Western Reserve University, they offer a number of important crime-prevention measures, such as:
Safe Ride 6, an after-hours door to door on campus shuttle service from 6pm to 3am;
Walking escorts 6, who will escort you safely to your destination at any time of day;
On-campus shuttles 2, which take you around campus and to nearby neighborhoods for free;
Emergency Blue Light Phones allows you to contact Campus Police
Rave Guardian App allows you to be notified of campus security issues and other features
Dorm Security:
The Residential Communities are defined by the Office of Residence Life. During the daytime hours, a resident of one building in a residential community can use their student ID to enter the other buildings in their community. Community access is shut off during the night time hours. This allows all of the residents in a community to interact with their peers and use the different building amenities, such as game tables, within their cluster of buildings.
case.edu

First-Year Buildings University Housing Case Western Reserve University 5

The Residential Communities below are defined by the Office of Residence Life. During the daytime hours, a resident of one building in a residential c...
Theft Prevension Tips:
Cellphone :
Don’t talk on the cellphone while walking, especially at night… And, keep those headphones off while walking alone, especially at night. You are oblivious to everything around you w. those headphones, blasting away
Electronics :
Don’t leave personal items (phones, laptops) unattended in public spaces, even in your dorm.
Document serial numbers of your electronics and take photos of your valuables.
Bikes

• Secure your bicycle using a U-Lock. Cable locks can be cut easier than you think. A good-quality U-Lock is often unbreakable or requires a lot of time and effort to break. (Undergraduate students get a free U-Lock when they register 1 their bikes with Case Western Reserve police.)
• Secure your frame and wheels. U-Locks can also be used to secure both your bicycle frame and wheels. If you cannot secure your wheels using a U-Lock, consider using a secondary cable.
• Always secure your bike to a bike rack. Other objects may be easier to manipulate to free your bicycle.
• Register your bicycle with Case Western Reserve police. By registering your bicycle, it makes stolen bicycles harder to sell and easier to recover. Members of the Case Western Reserve community should register their bikes—for free—with CWRU police 2. Individuals also can register with their local police department.
• Keep a photograph and serial number for your bicycle. This includes the registration number, if registered with your local police. This information will come in handy when reporting a stolen bicycle.

From a student:
Most crimes, seem to be bike theft even if they are bolted and locked. Bikes have been stolen from racks in front of the Library, as well as dorms and even inside the dorm storage rooms. more people call, the more they know they are accountable to do something about it.
Case police # 216 368 3333. Make sure your kids have this # in their cell phones.
University Circle Police # 216 368 2222,
Safe ride: 216 368 3000.
Also, North of 116th Street, the area turns really bad, as well as the area behind the baseball field, near the North Residential Village (NRV). There is one of those elevated police patrol towers near the NRV. Use this site to keep abreast of the crime via the Crime Log 25. Click on Crime log and then the month, and you will see al the crimes reported. I would also advise not to leave your laptop or cell phone unattended, even in common rooms. One kid had his laptop stolen in the common room of a dorm, while he napped right next to it. Also, tell your kids to not buzz kids in that look like they don’t belong. They’ll soon recognize who belongs and who doesn’t. Report any suspicious wanderers in dorms. I’ve seen kids, around the ages of 14-18 biking around campus who are looking for opportunities to rip you off. I’ve also seen kids leaving their cellphones in the dining hall on the tables to reserve their seats. Not too smart.
Also, tell your kids not to talk on the cellphone while walking, especially at night. Cellphone robbery is big. And, keep those headphones off while walking alone, especially at night. You are oblivious to everything around you w. those headphones, blasting away. And lastly, if someone comes up to you and says, give me your cellphone or wallet or whatever, tell your kids to give it up. it’s not worth the potential dire consequences.