Californian man locked up over hair cutting spree
When police finally came to Michael Howard's home they came across quite a
lot of hair.
They discovered a thin carpet of it covering the floor, huge mounds of it on the
bed, piles of it in the closet, and to capture that perfect hairy moment, photos
of severed ponytails lined up as neatly as bodies in a morgue. Californian police
then deduced they had finally caught up with the notorious "Haircut Bandit".
For three weeks in December of 2001, Howard cruised the streets of Los
Angeles and Long Beach, California, casing bus stops and park benches for
women with ultra-long tresses. Before he was caught, Howard chopped hanks
of hair or entire ponytails from the heads of nine victims, aged 12 to 45.
His attorney, deputy public defender Gregg Hayata, says Howard became
fascinated with hair as a boy and that as an adult, the sound of scissors cutting
hair sexually aroused him.
Police also unearthed reports from friends that Howard had often paid women
as much as $200 to let him cut their hair. They confiscated more than 40 hair
fetish videos depicting people getting haircuts. "There were naked women
getting their hair cut, videos of (Howard) cutting women's hair, some of a
couple who had each cut each other's hair and shaved each other's heads," one
police officer said. "There was a Spanish game show where, if you answered
the question wrong, they would cut your hair." They also seized photos of the
apparently consensual bobbing of a woman's long hair and of a row of about 15
neatly severed ponytails.
On Thursday, Howard entered a surprise guilty plea and was sentenced to eight
years in prison for his hair-raising rampage. Full Story
East St. Louis mayor gets new chance
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - When former Mayor Carl Officer was voted out of office
in 1991, uncollected garbage cluttered the streets and city finances were so bad
that a judge gave away City Hall to settle a lawsuit.
East St. Louis' manufacturing base was already crumbling when Officer was first
elected in 1979, but the population shrank by 25 percent during his tenure. The
city had the highest murder rate in the nation at one point. There was no
money to pay for trash collection or police radios. A judge gave the deed to
City Hall to a plaintiff in a lawsuit because the city couldn't pay a $3.4 million
damage award to the man, who was disabled in a jail beating.
While bills went unpaid, Officer made headlines. He used a City Hall phone to
call a 900-number dating service. One of his bodyguards pulled a machine gun
on a man in a bar who tried to enter a restroom occupied by the mayor.
Many residents rejoiced at the ouster of the brash-talking mayor and his
machine-gun toting bodyguards, who was once pulled over for driving 105 mph
in a Jaguar owned by an imprisoned drug dealer.
Things got better after that in this impoverished city of 30,000 near St. Louis -
but not a lot better. Now voters have apparently decided to give Officer another
chance.
Officer, 51, said he wasn't surprised that voters returned him to the job he held
from 1979 to 1991.
Why? "Because I did a good job," he said. Full Story
Michael Jackson hailed as 'most foolish American'
"King of Pop" Michael Jackson was selected as the "most foolish American" in a
poll out on Friday, ahead of April Fool's Day.
Eighty per cent of those polled said Jackson, who has been in the media
spotlight again since a British television documentary shed new light on his
personal life, was the biggest fool in the country, public relations consultant Jeff
Barge said, who has the survey taken every year.
Boxer Mike Tyson came in a foolish second. Full Story
Iraq Blasts 'Minion' Saudi for Urging Saddam to Go
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan told Saudi
Arabia's foreign minister to "go to hell" on Tuesday after he reiterated a call for
President Saddam Hussein to step down to spare Iraq.
At a news conference, Ramadan issued a blistering response saying: "You
loser, you are too small to talk to the leader of Iraq and those who will be
swept away from the land of the Arab world are people like you. You are a
minion and a lackey."
"You failure, go to hell. All we wish is that you did not have an Arab name or
Arab roots," Ramadan said, referring to Prince Saud. Full Story
U.S. Nuns Go on Trial for Military Break-In
DENVER (Reuters) - With anti-war protesters cheering them on, three Catholic
nuns went on trial on Monday for alleged sabotage and malicious destruction of
property related to a break-in at an unmanned missile silo in northern Colorado.
Dominican Sisters Carolyn Gilbert, Jackie Hudson and Ardeth Platte have said
they broke into the Minuteman III silo on Oct. 6 to "unmask the false religion
and worship of national security."
The trio cut cables and made the sign of the cross with their own blood on the
lid of the silo near Greeley, Colorado. They were in the silo for about an hour
before military police arrived and took them into custody.
If convicted, the women face a jail sentence of up to 30 years and fines of up to
$250,000. Full Story