Kirkwood, MO: City Council Meeting Massacre

A gunman named Charles Lee Thornton walked into a city council planning meeting in Kirkwood, Missouri tonight and opened fire. At least six people were dead by the time the shooting was done, as was the gunman.

Among the wounded taken to a local medical facility were two councilmen and Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda.

Kirkwood police opened fire on Thornton, killing him.

Thornton apparently had a long-lived beef against the city of Kirkwood. He'd even once filed a restraining order against the city, which was denied.

In an article published just today, first amendment scholar David L. Hudson Jr. referenced an ongoing beef between Mr. Thornton and the council and related legal actions. Hudson wrote:

A federal judge in Missouri has rejected the First Amendment claims of a man removed from Kirkwood City Council meetings for “repetitive, personal, virulent attacks” against council members.

Charles Lee Thornton had sued the city of Kirkwood after he was arrested twice (and later convicted) for disorderly conduct at two council meetings in 2006.

Thornton spoke more than once at council meetings about what he felt was harassment from the city, ignoring whatever was on the agenda at the time. According to Hudson, Thornton once began his address to the council by saying, "Jackass, jackass, jackass..."

Kirkwood City Council minutes posted online from a meeting held in February of 2007 give a weirdly muted account of one of Mr. Thornton's visits to the council chambers: "Cookie Thornton, 351 Attucks, delivered a subpoena and made remarks."

A column from an August 29, 2003 edition of the Webster-Kirkwood Times provided another portrait of Thornton's strange behavior:

Cookie Thornton refuses to obey certain laws out of a belief that they are discriminatory [...] He shows up at each Kirkwood city council meeting and uses disruptive street theatre tactics to voice his displeasure. A lot of his anger is apparently directed at Ken Yost, the head of Kirkwood's department of public works, whose job it is to enforce Kirkwood ordinances.

I don't particularly like such stories. But I have to agree with the editors that persistent disruption of public meetings, violations of the law and threats of lawsuits make news...

Thornton would name Yost in an unsuccessful suit he filed in 2005.

Ken Yost was among those targeted by the man called "Cookie" at tonight's fateful council meeting.

According to the archives of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thornton even had minor political ambitions of his own at one point. A list of "Candidates seeking Mayoral seats, spots as trustees, aldermen," and "council members" published on February 14, 1994 listed "Charles "Cookie" Thornton, 351 Attucks Street" as a candidate for one of the three seats then open on the Kirkwood City Council.

This entry will be updated.

Sources:

• Link 1;
• Link 2;
• Link 3.
• Thanks to Crime Scene KC for linking this post. Crime Scene KC also links a brief, poignant blog post by a Kirkwood native.
• Another article in the Webster-Kirkwood Times from May, 2006: "Police Drag Resident From Council Meeting." A quote:

  Years of contentious behavior by Kirkwood resident Charles "Cookie" Thornton came to a head on Thursday, May 18, when two Kirkwood police officers dragged him out of the Kirkwood City Council chambers in handcuffs...

• Another thank you goes to the St. Louis Riverfront Times and Annie Zaleski for linking this post here.

Alleged Identity Thief Esther Reed Arrested in Chicago

(This post was originally published on February 4, 2008, at 8:55 a.m. ET. The post time and date have been changed to place it at the top of the blog index page. This was done to point out a brief update to the entry and an important note in bold, at the bottom of the post.)

Esther Reed was arrested on Sunday in Tinley Park, Illinois, near Chicago. I blogged about Reed almost a year ago, in this entry: "Spies, Or Chameleons?"

Reed allegedly assumed as many as 5 fake identities after she seemed to vanish in 1999. Using those personas she managed to gain entrance to some of the country's most prestigious universities -- even though Reed herself was a high school dropout. The search for Reed became national news when she made the mistake of assuming the identity of another missing woman, Brooke Henson. Henson also vanished in 1999, from Traveler's Rest, South Carolina.

Reed was confronted by police at a hotel in Tinley Park. She claimed her name was Jennifer Meyers, and produced a drivers license to prove it.

The cops didn't buy it. Reed was arrested. She's now awaiting extradition to South Carolina on charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with her alleged use of Brooke Henson's identity.

UPDATE, 2/07/08: My report on an unusual twist in the way Reed was discovered can be read here:

"Hunt for a Killer Nabs Alleged Ivy League Fraudster."

Recommend it if you like it.

IMPORTANT NOTE

If you believe you had contact with Esther Elizabeth Reed between 1999 and February 1, 2008, please e-mail me via this form. You must be prepared to give me your real name and perhaps speak by phone.

Here are some of her known aliases:

• Natalie Fisher
• Natalie Bowman
• Brooke Henson
• Jenimarie Myers

Reed lived in and around Cambridge, MA, New York City, and possibly more than one location in California. She may have traveled to Florida and Iowa.

Theresa Parker Disappearance: Sam Parker Arrested

Sam Parker, long a person of interest in the March 21, 2007 disappearance of his wife, 911 dispatcher Theresa Parker, has been arrested in Walker County, Georgia.

The Parkers had domestic issues prior to Theresa's disappearance, and police had been called to the Parker residence after disputes got out of hand in 2002 and 2004. After Theresa vanished it became obvious that Sam was the focus of police attention. Suspicions about the Lafayette GA police sergeant grew more intense when he was fired from his job after his wife vanished. Parker had been keeping explosives in his locker at the police station.

Sam Parker's family stood by him when the press attention on his wife's disappearance became intense. One of his siblings even blogged about the case from time to time. On March 26, 5 days after Theresa was last heard from, Sam Parker's sister (not linking her blog at this time) posted a cut & paste of a news article about the disappearance and addressed her readers, writing, "This is not a joke. This is my brother's wife [...] She has simply vanished. We don't know why she is gone...but it is devistating. You see posters with photos and captions that ask for you to help find someone. It's just another face, just another person who is missing. This one hits home. This is my sister-in-law. This is someone I love."

Parker's sister gave a naturally sympathetic portrait of her brother. In a post made in January, 2006, she related a heart-to-heart she'd had with him around Christmas, 2005, where Parker addressed issues he seemed to know he had. Parker sounded penitent, to hear his sister tell the story, and ready to start over. His sister explained some of what Sam Parker had been through:

He has carried too much baggage. The weight has often been more than he could bear [...] We clung together and faced these trials as a family. [My brother] just handled it differently. He kept his anger inside. He let hate build a nest in his heart. He was not in control and he couldn't accept that. Alcohol didn't take away the pain, it seemed to intensify it and add to the problem...

Later in the post, Parker's sister wrote hopefully about the change she felt she saw in the man: "Since October 1996 I have asked God to take away the self-destructive person that moved inside [my brother's] body. Finally, finally...Christmas 2005 the answer came. It slipped in quietly and provided peace in a war-torn heart. It gave strength to fight a battle and win a war to a weakened soldier..."

It is hard to read what Sam Parker's sister has written and not feel great sympathy for her and his family in general. Posts made in the blog after Theresa's disappearance in general indicated nothing but faith in Parker's innocence and dismay that he was a suspect.

Though Theresa Parker's remains have not been found, Sam Parker has been charged with one count of murder.

(Thanks to Eyes for Lies for the heads-up about this case.)

Blotter-y

It's a fact -- writing for a living naturally robs this blog a little of my attention. I can't apologize for that -- I can actually be practical from time to time, and it's only practical to let paying work be a priority over blogging for the heck of it.

I did realize that I still do a lot of web-surfing geared towards finding new material, and that a lot of that new material would be most appropriate here, so I've decided to do an ad-hoc series of entries where I just hit on crimes that I've read about in the news. It may be a random list, it may have a theme -- I'll decide as I go along.

JUNIOR'S GOT A GUN

Cockeysville, MD -- At one point, Nick Browning was apparently working on becoming an Eagle Scout. Now he's being held as an adult for the murders of his mother Tamara, father John, and little brothers Gregory and Benjamin. Police in Maryland say the 15-year-old Browning 'had a disagreement' with his attorney father that ended in Nick killing everyone with Daddy's handgun. Nick then ditched the gun in some bushes and went to hang out with his friends. He returned to the house a day later and behaved as if he'd just discovered the murders. Nick Browning is in the Baltimore County Detention Center, juvenile section.

Loganville, GA -- Darryl and Cherri Spearman were found beaten to death in their home in Loganville on Friday. By Saturday police had charged Joshua Spearman, 18, with their murders. The Walton County Sheriff said his department had been called to the Spearman home in the past for domestic violence, when Josh was still a juvenile. I've received an e-mail from a long-time reader indicating that Josh may have had a bizarre online presence, but I haven't been able to prove to myself yet that the sites in question were created by the same Joshua Spearman. Any tips about this part of the story with links are welcome.

UPDATE: This appears to be Josh Spearman's MySpace profile:

http://www.myspace.com/chaotic_daydreamer;

And his MySpace blog:

http://blog.myspace.com/chaotic_daydreamer.

There are too many scary things in Spearman's blog to really fit in this part of this blog entry, so a quote from his May 6, 2007 post about his "top 3 people" will have to do:

With out my parents i would not exist. I wouldn't know the joy of living. The ability to give life is an amazing gift and with out that gift no one would be able to do anything because none of us would be here. My parents have taught me so much that with out there teachings i wouldn't be able to function. They taught me how to speak, how to tie my shoes... everything. All the basics of human life and i think that counts for something. Ok, it count for a whole lot of something.

Next would be Hitler. Although he did some pretty messed up stuff his motives were noble In his mind he was trying to help his country and rebuild the greatness that Germany once had. Also with out the cruel experiments the Nazis performed we wouldn't have many of the scientific breakthroughs(like the great improvement on curing aids and things like that) we have today. Also with out them we wouldn't even have a space program. So Hitler has done some messed up stuff yes, but with out him we wouldn't have some of the great advances we do today...

In case Spearman's MySpace Blog in particular goes bye-bye, I've made a mirror that can be seen here:

http://mirror.huffsblog.com/chaotic_daydreamer.htm.

THE LANE BRYANT MURDERS

Tinley Park, IL -- A gunman killed 5 women in a Lane Bryant clothing store in Tinley Park, near Chicago, on Saturday morning. Police believe the murders were the result of a robbery gone bad. The suspect is still at large and was said to be a black man of medium height, heavyset, wearing a black waist-length winter coat and dark clothing. Only one victim's name has been released -- 33-year-old Carrie Hudek Chiuso, a social worker at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

ARREST IN GALVESTON BABY MURDER

GALVESTON, TX -- I've received a lot of e-mails asking if I'd cover the story of the horrific death of Baby Alijah, and I have to be frank -- I can't always deal with crimes like this. Travis Mullis, a perfect candidate for Useless Waste of Skin of the Year™ if there ever was one, apparently stomped his infant son's brains out and left the child in a carseat near the seaside in Galveston. Mullis turned himself into police on Saturday in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately the route from where Mullis is now to burning in the fiery pits of hell isn't a straight one (unless Bubba gets to shankin' post-haste), so we may have to tolerate the idea that he's breathing our air for a little while longer.

THE TWO ETERNALLY MISSING GIRLS

ARUBA -- You can comment in an open thread about the new developments (if that is what they truly are) in the Natalee Holloway disappearance by clicking the link on the left. A Dutch journalist is supposed to air what he says is former suspect Joran van der Sloot's confession detailing what happened to Natalee tonight on Dutch TV. The same special will be broadcast by ABC tomorrow night here in the U.S.

PORTUGAL -- In an interview to be broadcast in Portugal on Sunday, the head of the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria (PJ) Alipio Ribeiro, has said that the PJ's decision to make the parents of Madeleine McCann official suspects in her disappearance was too hasty. This comes at a time when Kate and Gerry McCann's attorneys are pushing to have the couples' status as "arguidos" officially lifted.

*****

More quick hits on crimes in the news may be added to this entry as developments warrant.