This case is about a boy named Ronald Opus who intended to quit his life by jumping from the top of a ten story building. He even left a note that indicated his despondency.
On March 23 1944, a medical examiner viewed the body of Ronaldo and concluded that he died from a gunshot wound of the head caused by shotgun.
Gunshot?
Yes.
And no, he didn't shot himself before jumping off the building but was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window that killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been layed across the vast stretch of the 8th floor to protect the window washers and that the decedent would most likely not have been able to complete his intent to commit suicide because of this.
Further investigation led to the discovery that the room on the 9th floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife.
He was threatening her with the shotgun because of an interspousal spat and became so upset that he could not hold the shotgun straight. Therefore, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the pellets went through the window, striking the decedent.
When one intends to kill subject A, but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. The old man was confronted with this conclusion, but both he and his wife were adamant in stating that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded.
It was the longtime habit of the old man to threaten his wife with an unloaded shotgun. He had no intent to murder her; therefore, the killing of the decedent appeared then to be accident.
That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
But furthermore, the investigation turned up a witness that their son was seen loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal accident.
That investigation showed that the mother (the old lady) had cut off her son’s financial support, and her son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that the father would shoot his mother.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Furthermore, investigation revealed that the son became increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to get his mother murdered. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a 9th story window.
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
So yeah Ronald was in both ways responsible for his own death.
Alas, this never happened in reality.
Ronald Opus, a feuding, shotgun-wielding older couple, or an increasingly confused medical examiner trying to get to the bottom of things.
The tale was pitched as a hypothetical, just a story made up to illustrate a point by Don Harper Mills.
Ronald Opus never lived and his death will never die.
What a story....i m confused what to react