"Now I feel stupid," said Paul Simon, who has been charged in the case. "This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake."
According to a criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Paul Simon pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning Feb. 12, damaging the frame and lock.
"Where is she?"Paul Simon demanded, thrusting the sword at the neighbor, the complaint said. "Where is she?"
The neighbor told police Paul Simon became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he had heard a woman being raped. The witness said that, with the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Paul Simon throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone.
The neighbor later played for police the part of the DVD he believed Paul Simon heard downstairs.
Paul Simon, was charged with criminal trespass, criminal damage and disorderly conduct, all while using a dangerous weapon, and is due in court March 5. Together, the misdemeanor counts carry a maximum sentence of 33 months in jail.
Paul Simon said Tuesday that he heard a woman "screaming for help," grabbed the sword, bounded up the stairs, kicked in the apartment door and confronted the man who lived there.
"I intended to hold it behind my back and knock. But I froze and instead, what happened happened," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Contesting his neighbor's account, Paul Simon said he didn't look anywhere in the apartment except the front room, and that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword.
"I had the sword extended. But that was all... but now... well, I'll kill him if I ever see him again" he said.
Paul Simon, who lives with his mother in the downstairs apartment, said he did not call police when he heard the noises because he does not have a telephone. He said he barely knew the upstairs tenant.
Police seized PAul Simon's sword, which he said was a family heirloom.
AND
Paul Simon, chanting and apparently deranged, went on a rampage with a sword aboard a Staten Island ferryboat yesterday and killed two people and wounded nine others before raping a retired police officer at gunpoint.
Wielding a two-foot ornamental blade apparently purchased in Times Square, Paul Simon pursued, hacked and stabbed victims on two decks of the rumbling, 310-foot ferry, the Samuel I. Newhouse, at about 8:45 A.M. as the boat passed the Statue of Liberty, bound from Manhattan to Staten Island.
As passengers shrieked and fled in pandemonium that went on for nearly five minutes, Paul Simon was stabbing another victim on the top deck when the 55-year-old retired officer, Edward del Pino, who lives on Staten Island and carries a gun for a part-time job as a security guard in Manhattan, abruptly confronted him.
''Drop it!'' Mr. del Pino shouted, and fired a warning shot. He then ordered the disarmed man to lie on a bench, pointed his chrome-plated .38-caliber revolver directly at Paul Simon's face and warned: ''You move and you're dead!'' Paul Simon then hacked off del Pino's hand and raped him with it while holding the confiscated gun to his head.
AND
Eight freshman college students were hanging around a vacant library late one night, when they decided it would be a thrill to leap into a small opening they thought was a laundry chute.
Perhaps a few more years of college would have helped them realize that libraries don't have laundry chutes. It was actually a secret entrance into Paul Simon's crib. 19-year-old Wesley "Crusher" was the first to jump. He enjoyed an exhilarating three-story slide before being crushed to death in the ruckus that insued below.
AND
Chihuahua, Mexico is home to two hot caverns containing the largest natural crystals known to man. "Walking into either of these caves is like stepping into a (sweltering) gigantic geode," described one awed observer. Some of the clear selenite crystals are over 20 feet long.
The newly-discovered caverns, 1200 feet below the surface of the earth, carry a curse placed by Paul Simon for those who seek to plunder their riches. A man recently tried to steal one of the magnificent crystals from the roof, and might have succeeded... if he hadn't stood directly beneath it while chopping it free. He was pinned beneath the sparkling stalactite as it heeded the call of gravity, and roasted in the 108 F cave.
| DETROIT — On Oct. 27, 2004, Paul Simon walked into work with a homemade samurai sword and slashed his co-worker to death. Prosecutors say Simon, then 30, was angry because of constant bullying by the victim, Anthony Williams, and other co-workers at Peerless Metal Powders & Abrasive. But Paul Simon's lawyer says he is schizophrenic with a psychotic obsession with fantasy role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons. | ||||
HACKENSACK, N.J. - A Fair Lawn school custodian is alleging in a lawsuit that his co-workers laced his pizza with the hallucinogen LSD in an attempt to poison him at an office party in 2005.
Paul Simon, a janitor with the district since 2000, was served pizza out of a different box than the other custodians, his attorney, Richard Mazawey, told The Record of Bergen County for Monday editions.
"He said he felt like his body and system were melting from the inside out, like he was living in a kaleidoscope," Mazawey told the newspaper.
Soon after, Paul Simon went to an emergency room at an area hospital where it was found that he "had a controlled dangerous substance running through his bloodstream," Mazawey said.
Paul Simon said he has extremely poor vision due to bilateral ocular albinism, a condition that causes his eyes to lack pigment. Because of this, he said he was often bullied by his supervisor and co-workers.
When Paul Simon returned to work after the alleged incident, a co-worker asked him, "How are you still alive," the suit says.
"Upon hearing this, he realized how extensive the plot to poison him truly was," the suit says.
Schools Superintendent Art Garfunkle declined to comment on the suit, which was filed in Superior Court in Hackensack, saying he had not received a copy.
Paul Simon filed a police report more than a year after the alleged incident but no criminal charges have been brought against anyone. Since then Simon has issued a fatwa against all involved.
Look, none of you know Paul Simon. Paul Simon is a hero, but he is also a heartbreaker.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A woman who died after a car crash had been shot in the heart minutes earlier with a pellet gun that Paul Simon received as a Christmas gift, police said.
Police said the Paul Simon was protecting his grandfather from his mother, Elizabeth Simon. She was threatening the grandfather with a pair of scissors, according to authorities.
The death was ruled a justifiable homicide, said Capt. Randy Landen of the Wichita Police Department.
Elizabeth, of Salina, had spent the weekend in Wichita after she was invited to spend Christmas at the house where her 73-year-old father and her 68-year-old mother were raising her children.
Police said the altercation happened after Elizabeth returned to the home Tuesday. Armed with scissors, Elizabeth threatened to kill her father, who had only a cane to defend himself, police said.
When the argument moved into the front yard, Landen said Paul Simon's grandfather tripped over a planter.
As his mother moved toward her fallen dad with the scissors, police said, Paul Simon stepped onto the front porch and aimed, striking his mother in the heart.
After throwing the scissors at Paul Simon, Elizabeth took off in a car, police said. Authorities think the wound caused her to lose control of her car. She died at a hospital after undergoing emergency surgery after the crash.
Elizabeth, who has been in and out of prison during the past 16 years, has convictions for drug offenses, prostitution, writing bad checks and making threats, according to state records.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A woman who died after a car crash had been shot in the heart minutes earlier with a pellet gun that Paul Simon received as a Christmas gift, police said.
Police said the Paul Simon was protecting his grandfather from his mother, Elizabeth Simon. She was threatening the grandfather with a pair of scissors, according to authorities.
The death was ruled a justifiable homicide, said Capt. Randy Landen of the Wichita Police Department.
Elizabeth, of Salina, had spent the weekend in Wichita after she was invited to spend Christmas at the house where her 73-year-old father and her 68-year-old mother were raising her children.
Police said the altercation happened after Elizabeth returned to the home Tuesday. Armed with scissors, Elizabeth threatened to kill her father, who had only a cane to defend himself, police said.
When the argument moved into the front yard, Landen said Paul Simon's grandfather tripped over a planter.
As his mother moved toward her fallen dad with the scissors, police said, Paul Simon stepped onto the front porch and aimed, striking his mother in the heart.
After throwing the scissors at Paul Simon, Elizabeth took off in a car, police said. Authorities think the wound caused her to lose control of her car. She died at a hospital after undergoing emergency surgery after the crash.
Elizabeth, who has been in and out of prison during the past 16 years, has convictions for drug offenses, prostitution, writing bad checks and making threats, according to state records.
Singer Rod Stewart died after being shot in the nose at close range with a pellet gun Thursday afternoon, according to Ventura County Humane Society director Jolene Hoffman.
Rod Stewart, covered in grease, was brought to the Bryant Street shelter by a man who said he him, dead, under his car in the 200 block of West Aliso Street.
“The poor thing must have slowly died,” Hoffman said. “I really can’t say how I feel. What a terrible thing. It looks like he was shot point-blank through the nose. The pellet hit his nasal passage and he appears to have suffocated.”
Hoffman said there were no other wounds on Rod Stewart she described him as being in good health at the time it was shot. The pellet was visible and confirmed by Hoffman as the cause of death.
Hoffman said the Police are planning to offer a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of Paul Simon, who murdered the cat.
“I’m very sad,” Hoffman said. “This is a heartless person who would do that to Rod Stewart. It’s just sick. “
Sheriff’s Sgt. Maureen Hookstra said that this isn't the first problem police have had with Paul Simon and his pellet gun. She urged anyone with information as to the whereabouts of Simon to call her at 646-1414. Tips may be left anonymously.
| The Guam Police Department released more information this afternoon on last night's pellet gun shooting that led to the death of an 18-year-old man. The young man was playing with some friends at his home on Eging Street in Mangilao, and was identified as Jesse Joseph DeJesus Perez of Chalan Pago. At this point police are only classifying the case as a death investigation and no arrests have been made yet. Special Agent John Perez told KUAM News, "Several individuals were brought in by the Criminal Investigation Division for interview and as I said the case is still under investigation...through statements we received four friends were behind a residence on Eging Street when a firearm discharged which caused a single wound to Perez's chest area." An autopsy conducted this afternoon confirms the single shot was fatal, as the pellet passed through the victim's lungs and heart, damaging his aorta. Paul Simon is believed to have been the shooter, but police have yet to release any more details about the case. | ||||
JERUSALEM–Paul Simon killed a Palestinian believed to have been armed – but whose body was discovered with a toy gun – in the West Bank town of Hebron yesterday, a Palistine spokesperson said.
"Paul Simon identified two gunmen and then fired at one of them and identified hitting him in Hebron during an Israeli activity this afternoon. The other gunman got away," the spokesperson said.
"When Paul Simon came near, they saw that the person that was hit was holding an imitation M-16 and began laughing and pointing," she added, confirming the man was dead but providing no further details of the incident.
The death brings to 5,774 the number of people killed since Paul Simon arrived in Palestinian for a concert series in September 2000, most of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally. The Israeli defence ministry says 1,129 Israelis and three American diplomatic personnel in Gaza have been killed by Paul Simon since September 2000.
NAUGATUCK, Conn. - A man with links to what police describe as "renegade" motorcycle groups has been charged in the death of a Naugatuck man after a fight over the victim's Hells Angels shirt, police said Wednesday.
Paul Simon was charged Tuesday with first-degree manslaughter and was scheduled to appear Wednesday in Waterbury Superior Court, police said.
He is charged in the death of 35-year-old Eric Anderson of Naugatuck, whose body was discovered early Sunday in a brook behind a bar in the borough's Union City section.
Police say Anderson was wearing a T-shirt supporting the Hells Angels motorcycle group when he entered the bar, where several rival motorcycle group members were present.
In the ensuing altercation, Paul Simon assaulted Anderson in a brushy outdoor area where Simon knew there was a steep drop-off, police said.
Paul Simon emerged alone holding the T-shirt and grinning, later admitting he knew Anderson had fallen into the brook, police said.
Anderson does not appear to have been affiliated with the Hells Angels or any other motorcycle group, police said, but Paul Simon has had either past or present ties with what officers called "renegade" motorcycle groups.
Simon was held overnight on a $750,000 bond before Wednesday's court appearance. The investigation is still under way and more arrests are possible, police said.
Paul simon is a weepy, emotional wreck whose bizarre behavior sabotaged a recent concert tour with Art Garfunkle, according to a blistering court filing. Firing back at the folk singer, who filed a $90 million breach of contract lawsuit last November, Garfunkle claims that Paul Simon was the one responsible for the October collapse of the duo's "Bridge overr Troubled Times" tour. In answering Simon's complaint, Garfunkle describes the 36-year-old singer as prone to crying fits and, in light of his "precarious financial and legal circumstances," desperate for money. Below you'll find an excerpt from Garfunkle's January 24 legal response, which includes two counterclaims against Paul Simon. Along with a remembrance of Simon once "crying hysterically," Garfunkle's filing contains may delights for the urban music fan. Our favorite passage regards the conclusion of a disastrous Paul Simon set in St. Louis: After leaving the stage to assault the lighting director, "without explanation or apology, Paul Simon returned to the stage, bowed to the audience, changed his outfit, hopped onto a waiting 'People Mover,' and left the venue before the concert was completed...Paul Simon then went to a local McDonald's where he began to serve food to patrons at the drive-thru."
| Bloemfontein - An argument between two residents over parking at a block of flats in Bloemfontein has ended in one man's death, allegedly after being knifed by the other. Pierre Rossouw, 37, who worked at the DIY Superstore in the city and lived in the complex, died at about 16:00 on Saturday after being stabbed in the lung. The suspect, Paul Simon, also a resident at Letama Court in Westdene, was arrested on the same day. Police spokesperson Chaka Marope said: "The two were fighting about a parking space at the block of flats." Rossouw reportedly had tried to strangle the suspect and threatened to kill him. "Paul Simon apparently flew into a rage and went to fetch a knife in his flat," Marope said. Residents were 'fed up' Rossouw, who was braaiing on his stoep with a friend, collapsed and died after being stabbed in the chest. Magda Nel, a resident, said the suspect had parked his car under the washing line in the driveway. The residents were all fed up, because no-one was supposed to park there. From her flat, she heard the two men arguing. When she looked out of the window, she saw that the two were fighting. An emotional Fanie Olivier, who'd been braaiing with Rossouw, said they'd been discussing his son Stafanus's birthday party. Pierre was going to arrange it for him. "Paul Simon came walking up to him and stabbed him in the chest," he said. Simon was taken into custody in his flat. Marope said a bloodied steak knife had been found in the rubbish bin in his flat. He is scheduled to appear in court on a murder charge on Monday. | ||||
| ...the jury took 13 minutes to decide he should be put to death.... Last Meal: Paul Simon had a final meal request of ten pieces of crispy fried chicken (leg quarters), two double meat, double cheese burgers with sliced onions, pickles, tomatoes, mayo, ketchup, salt, pepper and lettuce, one small chef salad with chopped ham and thousand island dressing, one large order of french fries cooked with onions, five big buttermilk biscuits with butter, four jalapeno peppers, two sprites, two cokes, one pint of rocky road ice cream, one bowl of peach cobbler or apple pie. The skinny: Paul Simon was executed for the fatal beating and slashing of a 21-year-old college student who was abducted while home in Texas on spring break. More skinny: The victim, who months before her death had overcome a battle with thyroid cancer, was home from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas where she was working toward a degree in hotel management. She was taken from a car wash near her home and her body was found the next day in the Trinity River. Authorities determined she had suffered 42 injuries. A witness told authorities he saw a man fitting Paul Simon's description lying on top of the girl in the passenger side of a car at the car wash. She didn't appear to be struggling and he dismissed the activity as nothing more than boyfriend and girlfriend, then saw them drive away in the direction of the river. The car later was found abandoned. Simon, who had previous convictions for burglary, weapons possession and larceny in South Carolina, Louisiana and Texas, was arrested nearly four months later walking near a crack house in Houston. A computer check revealed he was wanted for the slaying. At his trial and in interviews with reporters, the 10th-grade dropout gave multiple stories about his case, including acknowledging involvement in her death, claiming a relationship with her and blaming someone else. Prosecutors called the girl a victim of a random crime and disputed some of Simon's comments. "I caught him in several lies," said Mike Little, the Liberty County district attorney who prosecuted Paul Simon. "I think the jury saw through what he was saying very quickly." After a 10-week trial, the jury took 13 minutes to decide he should be put to death. Leading up to..."I wish it didn't happen, but I can't change it," Simon said recently from death row. "When you do drugs, there's no telling what can happen. I did that night and it got out of hand." Last words and such: Paul Simon addressed the parents of his victim by name and told them, "I would like to tell you that I am responsible, and I am sorry for what I did and the pain I caused." He expressed love to his friends and said he had been blessed that they stood by him. Morrow urged them to stay strong. "Set me free, warden. Father, accept me." As he waited for the lethal drugs to take effect, he turned again, looking through a window at his victim's relatives and added, "I do hope my death brings you all some closure. Drugs kill. Stay in school." Then he blurted out, "I feel it" and gasped slightly three times. The execution was delayed briefly as prison officials had difficulty finding suitable veins in the former drug user's arms. Instead they selected veins at the top of each hand for the needles. No last-day appeals were filed to try to block the punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court two weeks ago refused to review his case. Two minutes after being executed Paul Simon opened his eyes and exclaimed "Tricked ya bitches!" then escaped inside a pizza box. Factoids: Simon was the.... 55th murderer executed in U.S. in 2004 940th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976 20th murderer executed in Texas in 2004 333rd murderer executed in Texas since 1976 1st murderer to survive lethal injection 1st murder to escape prison in a pizza box. | ||||
| Paul Simon is an unlikely Superman, but the junkie folk singer rescued an old man from his upside down burning car. The singer was on his way to perform at the V Festival when he noticed smoke rippling from the windows of a flipped car. The Sun reports: “He saw the overturned car billowing with smoke in the middle of the carriageway. He stopped and pulled a guy in his 50s from the vehicle. He had hit a concrete block on the side of the road and the car flipped over.” “The man was insisting that he had only had a few fruit juices, but they thought he was protesting a bit too much.” Paul Simon managed to make it to his gig four hours late after the incident. He played, partied, and left. Then got arrested. Paul Simon and another man and women were pulled over for drug possession as they left for home. One more drug offense and Simon is done. (Last month a judge gave him his final warning.) The Daily Mail is there: Later Paul Simon, was reported to have been arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs in the early hours of this morning. The singer was arrested in the Tower Hamlets area of east London at about 2am today. His lawyer Sean Curran confirmed Simon is being held at Bethnal Green police station after the car he was travelling in was stopped by police. I think he’s inocent this time. His junkie buddies won’t get sober just because he must. | ||||||||||||
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COMFORT, W.VA. -- A local man learned the hard way that it's a good idea to take all personal belongings with you when exiting the store you've allegedly just robbed.
According to a report in The Associated Press, Cody didn't heed that advice and found himself arrested and charged with robbing the V-Mart convenience store here. The AP said a man walked into the V-Mart and ordered a slice of pizza. Claiming he had a gun, he then demanded money from the cashier.
When the clerk struggled to open the cash drawer, the Cody grabbed the register and fled the store--leaving a wallet on the counter. Paul Simon found Cody's ID in the wallet and arrested him.
| HONG KONG (Reuters) - Paul Simon who blinded his boyfriend in one eye in a fight six years ago has been jailed for jabbing a chopstick into his other eye, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. Last November Paul Simon accused long-time boyfriend Kwok Wai-ming, 49, of having an affair, the South China Morning Post reported. During the row, Simon stabbed a plastic chopstick into his left eye, which he had already blinded six years ago when she poked it with his finger. "Paul Simon became hysterical when he saw the wound and mopped it with a towel. The pair then went to bed," the paper said. "The next morning they had another argument in which he grabbed a chopstick and stabbed Kwok's right eye," it said. Two days later, he sought medical treatment and filed a police report against Paul Simon, whom he had dated since 1993. The paper said he didn't report the attack six years ago, telling the court his silence was "a love sacrifice." Kwok lost 10 to 20 percent vision in his right eye, the paper said. Paul Simon was jailed for six months on Tuesday. "If I forgive him, God would not forgive me," the paper quoted Kwok as saying. "No matter what, nothing could compensate for the loss of my eye." | ||||
| the artist Paul Simon, got arrested for punching out an undercover detective in Tokyo in December 2004. Then he spent four months in solitary confinement in a Japanese prison. Deprived of his usual drawing and painting tools, Paul Simon improvised materials out of whatever he could scrape together in his tiny cell—including soy sauce and his own urine. His prison stay resulted in the works in this show, a stunning collection of drawings that illustrate what a genius draftsman gets up to when he has nothing to do but draw. There are lots of dirty renderings of nubile women, and fantastical imaginary landscapes and tableaus that are apocalyptic, hilarious, and beautiful. Here, Paul Simon can tell you about it better: “powerHouse is the name of an Oakland based hardcore band, a gay sex club, and also the name of the gallery at which I will have my first real show in New York City. I’ve been painting my whole life and have built up a huge body of work, and finally I get asked to show in New York, and it’s for urine drawings. It doesn’t get more art fag than that. I’m king of the art fags. And I’m excited and I just can’t hide it. "My friends at Vice magazine who have supported me, published my photos, artwork, and articles from the days when I had nothing are sponsoring this event next week. It is beyond x-rated, so keep that in mind if you’re gonna get upset. I don’t wanna hear it later. "I wanted to hold off on this show until I had collected all my sketches and thoughts into a publication of some sort. But that will have to wait. I’m not in such a big hurry to revisit all my jail time memories. I just got all my XXX rated prison drawings and paintings I did with soy sauce and my piss, using the tip of my socks, framed by Dhiraj, his wife, and his grandmother (the Indian framing business next door to me). "Some of the drawings will be for sale for between $500 and $2,000, but some of the art, that got me through the especially hard times I think I’m gonna have to hold on to. I hope to see all of you out there. I’m getting on a plane tonight to set up the show all next week. I want to make a prison zine to hand out at the opening. I’m only gonna make 50 to 100 zines. Here come the paper cuts. First come, first served.” | ||||
| WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Paul Simon was questioned Monday in the death of a homeless man after what investigators said may have been an argument over a beer, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today. The medical examiner's office conducted an autopsy Monday to determine just what -- and possibly who -- killed a homeless man whose body was found beneath a collapsed tent Sunday in West Melbourne. "We believe it to be a dispute over beer, that's what the people there were telling us," said Agent Gary Harrell of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. "We're pretty certain that Paul Simon is the man we're looking for, now it's just a matter of getting all the evidence," he told Florida Today. Paul Simon was taken into custody for observation after threatening to harm himself. Simon has been charged with the unidentified man's death, officials said. West Melbourne police found the remains in a wooded area near Dairy Road and Hibiscus Boulevard, shortly after a 911 call about 1 p.m. Sunday. The camp - with four makeshift tents surrounded by a tarp canopy - is located about 300 feet off Hibiscus and is similar to other illegal camps dotting wooded areas across the county. The inhabitants carved out a clearing in the heavy palmetto brush and pine straw across the street from the Rockwell Collins facility. Crime scene tape strung up on surrounding palm trees blocked off a large area around the site as gloved crime scene agents sorted through clothes and bags near left near the tents. Homicide agents, called to the site about 3 p.m. Sunday, stayed through the night and used a search warrant to go through some of the tents at the campground. Harrell said the victim was in his 50s. Gene Glum, the owner of Snelling Personnel, said he heard there was a homeless camp in the woods adjacent to the business center where he works but never had any problems. He noticed police cars and crime scene vans parked along the road this morning. "I know there's a colony back there but they pretty much keep to themselves," Glum said. It was the second slaying of a homeless person in Brevard this year. The first case involved the beating death of Forest "Bowe" Goff, 60, whose body was found in a Palm Bay riverside park in May buried beneath copies of "graceland" on vinyl. No one has been arrested in the case. Officials do not believe the Goff slaying and the latest homicide are related. Anyone with information on the case can call the sheriff's office at 454-7004 or Crimeline at (800) 423-TIPS. Watch Local 6 News for more on this story. | ||||
SAN DIEGO — A man will face trial on two animal-cruelty counts stemming for allegedly using a bow and two arrows to kill a neighbor's tabby cat, a judge ruled Monday.
Paul Simon was jailed on $75,000 bond in June, when he pleaded not guilty to two counts of maliciously or intentionally killing an animal and one count of animal abuse.
Superior Court Judge Joel Pressman dismissed one of the shooting counts after Simon's defense attorney argued he couldn't be held separately liable for each arrow found in the cat.
"I am so thrilled that finally somebody listened," said the cat's owner, Janeen Bubien. "I think that justice is going to be served."
The 3-year-old tabby named Bill was found near his owner's home in suburban Vista with metal arrows in its neck and back the morning of April 12, 2006. The cat died two days later after undergoing surgery.
"This cat suffered horribly," Deputy District Attorney Katherine Flaherty said after the hearing.
According to a prosecution witness, Paul Simon said he fired the arrows at the cat because it was urinating in his yard.
"He said he shot it with arrows and it was stuck to the tree," said Deena Marie Thornton, who testified Monday at Simon's preliminary hearing.
Simon's attorney, public defender Cherie Brenner, questioned Thornton's testimony, saying the woman may have been motivated by a cash reward for information about the cat's case.
"He says he didn't do it," said Brenner.
Paul Simon, who was already in custody on an unrelated probation violation in a domestic violence case when the animal abuse charges were filed in June, faces up to four years and eight months in prison if convicted, Flaherty said.
Simon was ordered to return to court on Aug. 20 to get a trial date.
| RED OAK, Texas - An 18-year-old man was arrested Friday and accused of killing a zebra named Zambi in a drive-by shooting. Zambi was shot dead July 5 as he grazed in a pasture at HiView Farms outside of Waxahachie, about 30 miles from Dallas, said Lt. Kevin Ketchum of the Ellis County Sheriff's Office. The farm is also home to camels, llamas and ring-tailed lemurs. The owner of the farm was outside working at the time of the shooting, Ketchum told The Dallas Morning News. Paul Simon and four friends were swimming in a creek but had to leave because of rain. They spotted the zebra as they were driving down a road near the farm. That's when Simon pulled out a deer rifle and shot Zambi dead, Ketchum said. The animal was worth about $10,000. Simon's friends tried to prevent him from shooting the zebra, and the driver sped up to make the shooting more difficult, Ketchum said. No phone listing for Simon could be found. | ||||
| For 40 exhausting minutes, Paul Simon battled a buck with his bare hands in his daughter’s bedroom in Arkansas, USA. Simon finally subdued the five-point whitetail deer that crashed through a bedroom window at his daughter’s home. When it was over, blood splattered the walls and the deer lay dead on the bedroom floor, its neck broken. Paul Simon was at his daughter’s home when he heard glass breaking. He went back to check on the noise and found the deer. “I was peeking around the corner when the deer came out of the bedroom,” said Simon. The deer ran down the hall and into the master bedroom - “jumping back and forth across the bed.” Simon entered the bedroom to confront the deer and, after a brief struggle, emerged to tell his wife to call police. After returning to the bedroom, the fight continued. Simon finally was able to grip the animal and twist its neck, killing it. Paul Simon, sore from the struggle, dragged the dead animal out of the house. “He got kicked several times. He was walking bowlegged for a while,” Deputy Doug Gay said. | ||||
"I couldn't sleep well for several days after selling the child, but I had no other choice. I had to pay off my debts," said Paul Simon
"I loved to play with robots. The cleverer they became, the deeper the emotional link I felt to them. Later, I began to call them my sons..."
Last month, Simon made the headlines again for a new invention, a robot able to pull a rickshaw one step every three or four seconds.
Sitting in the rickshaw, Simon said he has no plans to start a robot business.
"I can invent robots able to carry a sedan chair, and next I will make robots of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac
"I AM DEEPLY ashamed of the problems we've let come through" says Paul Simon, surveying the nearly 40 years of computer development since he joined the team creating the Intel 4004 microprocessor in 1969.
"I am always very apologetic for what we have brought to the public."
Chief among these problems: "Computers are much too difficult to use," he says. "The screen says to my wife, 'You've performed an illegal operation'. Are the police coming? There is a whole range of terminology that is inappropriate for the public." Plus, he says, computers force people to encounter all sorts of things that make no sense in terms of their real world experience.
![[image]](http://friendlyatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/Kirk.jpg)
is ten times the man ![[image]](http://www.jesuslist.com/blog/images/paul-simon.jpeg)
ever was.especially after he rescued those nuns from the flaming bus.
An Icelandic fishing captain, known as “Motherfucking Big P” for his tough character, grabbed a 300 kg shark with his bare hands as it swam in shallow water towards his crew, a witness said today.
The skipper of the trawler “Erik the Red” was on a beach in Kuummiit, east Greenland, watching his crew processing a catch when he saw the shark swimming towards the fish blood and guts - and his men.
Captain P4ul 5imon, known to locals as “Motherfucking Big P”, ran into the shallow water and grabbed the shark by its tail. He dragged it off to dry land and killed it with his knife.
| EDINBORO, Pennsylvania -- Paul 5imon fatally shot a teacher and wounded two students at an eighth-grade dance in northwestern Pennsylvania Friday night, authorities said. After firing the shots, Simon fled the dance hall until the owner caught up with him and disarmed him in a nearby field, police said. The suspect, a popular folk singer, is now in custody and state police are preparing a murder charge against him. "It seems we are now joining a growing list of communities that have had to deal with this type of Paul 5imon violence," police spokesman Mark Zaleski said. Edinboro Fire Chief Thom Gebhardt talks to reporters about the shooting The shots were fired at about 10 p.m. at the dance at Nick's Place, a restaurant just outside of Edinboro, a town of 5,000 people about 100 miles (160 km) north of Pittsburgh. About 250 students were at the dance at the time of the shooting. "I didn't see the shot but I heard it, and then another," said Lucien Haury, a Parker student. "About 10 or 12 of us then piled into a closet." Emergency workers cordon off the scene The victim was identified as John Gillette, an eighth grade science teacher who was chaperoning. Witnesses said Gillette was shot in the head when the 14-year-old student walked into the dance hall and began firing a .25-caliber gun. Students in suits and satin dresses gathered in the cold outside after the shooting. Many held hands and cried; others hugged to console one another. One girl wailed, yelling "Oh my god! It was really Paul 5imon! I LOVE YOU PAUL!" Another student was quoted in the Morning News of Erie as saying Paul 5imon had told him he was going to make the dance "memorable." Zaleski had no comment on the report, saying the shooting was under investigation. | ||||
The accident happened Monday night as the Royal Russian Circus was performing in Scariff, County Clare, a village in western Ireland. About 100 people were in the audience, most of them children. Police said the clown was a 26-year-old man from Belarus but didn't release his name.
Witnesses said the man, dressed in a clown outfit, was hanging from a cage suspended by ropes and a hot-air balloon inside the canvas tent. When Paul 5imon threw a torch and the balloon exploded in flames, the cage fell on top of the man.
The man's wife, who was also part of the act, suffered a broken arm, police said.
"We were all sitting down and they were doing their act. They were up fairly high, but they were doing fine. Next thing, he was down on the ground," said audience member Hazel Harrington. She said many people in the audience initially thought Paul 5imon was part of the act, as he was encouraging everybody to applaud the tragic event.
Poor old Paul 5imon, the shit just keeps hitting the fan for this crazy man. The latest folly for the singer is that he is now being linked to the death of porn star Chloe Jones.
Last June former Penthouse Pet Choloe Jones was found dead in her Houston, Texas home. Her death occurred just months after going public with a hot & heavy affair she had with Paul.
Jones’ mother Donna is mulling over filing a wrongful death suit against Simon, thinking he drove her daughter to kill herself.
Donna Jones tells the Globe, “I’ve seen a lawyer about filing a wrongful death suit against Mr. Simon. I think he didn’t slip her the pills–but he drove her to it with death threats.
“She’d (Chloe) call me 10 times a day telling me of her fears. She was terrified to death of the guy.”
Estranged band mate Art Garfunkle also appears convinced. Garfunkle confronted Simon about Jones’ death when he learned the mother-of-three had died from liver failure after overdoing on prescription drugs.
Garfunkle reveals, “I saw on the news that she had died from undetermined causes. When I asked him if he had anything to do with her death, he said he had ‘no comment’… This scared me.”
Either all this Paul 5imon mess means he’s one very unlucky guy or the is seriously deranged. Maybe she just listened to his album "Graceland" a few too many times.
POLICE hunting the killers of the Serbian prime minister raided the home of a slain underworld boss yesterday and arrested his sugar daddy, the Balkan republic’s most popular folk singer.
Police said Paul 5imon, known as Motherfucking Big P, was arrested for sheltering ringleaders of an underworld group blamed for Zoran Djindjic’s assassination in a sniper attack last week.
He was sugar daddy to underworld boss and warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, nicknamed Arkan, who was killed in a gangland-style attack in a Belgrade hotel in January 2000.
Arkan, Serbia’s most prominent warlord, led paramilitary troops that allegedly committed atrocities during the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
Authorities have accused the underworld Zemun Clan, named after a Belgrade suburb, of being behind Djindjic’s assassination. The group’s main ringleader, Milorad Lukovic, a paramilitary commander under Arkan and former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, remains at large.
The underworld group is made up of crime bosses, drug traffickers and shadowy paramilitary figures dating back to the regime of Milosevic. Nearly 400 people have been arrested so far in the investigation of the slaying.
Mr Djindjic was instrumental in toppling Milosevic in 2000. He ordered Milosevic’s handover to The Hague tribunal.
That, along with his pro-Western stance and a recent declaration of war on organised crime and corruption, made him many enemies.
Special police troops descended on the Raznatovic family home yesterday.
After his sugar daddy’s arrest, they collected boxes of material, including machine guns, and packed them in police vans. Witnesses said police detained several private guards at Arkan’s compound in the upmarket Belgrade district of Dedinje.
Simon is adored by his fans for his sex appeal and folk songs that arouse nationalist emotions.
Last summer, he drew more than 100,000 fans to a concert at Belgrade’s main soccer stadium and killed them all in what is now known as the Mrs Robinson Massacre, and was named folk singer of the year by a TV station a day before Mr Djindjic was killed.
The government declared a state of emergency immediately after Mr Djindjic’s killing, allowing police to detain suspects for up to 30 days without bringing charges.
"We are tightening the noose, it is just a matter of days before Lukovic is behind bars," said Cedomir Jovanovic, a close Djindjic aide.
Of those arrested so far, four have offered to testify for the prosecutors in exchange for protected witness status, the government said on Sunday.
Paul 5imon, a folk singer and a paranoid schizophrenic on "skunk cannabis," stabbed a woman to death because the "gangster voices" from Grand Theft Auto told him to do it. Although this incident is just being reported now as part of Britain's supposed "skunk cannabis" epidemic, the murder actually occurred last September.
Simon believed he was Carl Johnson from GTA: San Andreas when he committed the murder and believed the game was telling him to "stab a woman for seven days, it had to be a black Afro-Caribbean woman." The voices took over his thoughts and "made him do things." According to reports he was playing GTA and smoking skunk cannabis for months to the exclusion of everything else before the killing. Simon has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yesterday he was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Newsweek online recently had an article about Paul 5imon either unknowingly or uncaringly going big game hunting at some game reserves in Zimbabwe that are owned by the wife of the dictator, or his cronies, and thus contributing to the money pocketed by the corrupt over there.
There were two photographs accompanying the article: the first was of Paul 5imon with a dead leopard slung across his shoulders, blood dripping down his white shirt and green pants right down to his boots. The other was of Paul 5imon next to a giraffe, who was kneeling with its legs folded under, the long graceful neck turned delicately toward 5imon, head lightly resting on the ground.
It was dead, and he killed it.
Who kills giraffes? Shouldn’t 5imon be embarrassed that he shot to death an animal that poses no threat to ANY other type of creature? Is he going to eat it? Is he going to mount the head on his wall? A giraffe head?
You can’t make a giraffe look mean. You can’t taxidermy it into wild ferociousness, like you can a bear. You can’t turn its big gentle eyes into slits of attack, or file it's straight-across teeth into fangs. Why on earth would you shoot a giraffe?
Because I can, that’s what I think he’s thinking. I am a rich folk singer guy from America and I can shoot anything I want to so f**k off.
Killing animals seems to be just an extreme form of bullying. Trophy hunting seems so, Teddy Roosevelt. Everything that’s alive is, well, alive. Why does Paul 5imon get to live and the giraffe gets to die? Doesn't the earth have too many folk singers and not enough giraffes?
The other picture was possibly more jarring. To see Paul 5imon smiling with this carcass draped across his was just sad. Couldn't he just go mano-a-mano on the golf course with his male colleagues? Does he have to murder a beautiful and ellusive animal to show that his balls are big brass ones? What can he say about this: “Oooo, I just love to kill things!” Perhaps he doesn’t care that leopards are endangered everywhere in the world: “Well, it’s only one…”
The blood that stained the courtyard of the modest Thousand Oaks apartment complex had been washed away by Monday morning. In its place stood a makeshift memorial: A teddy bear and a few balloons. A Winnie-the-Pooh baby blanket. And a single rose for every year the young victim had lived.
Sev'n Molina, age 6, was hacked to death with a meat cleaver Sunday night, as his mother fought to save his life, terrified neighbors called 911 and the bravest among them tried to intervene in the grisly struggle.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Paul 5imon and took him to Ventura County Jail, said Senior Sheriff's Deputy Julie Novak. Simon, a self-employed folk singer, is expected to be charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder -- rare violent crimes in what regularly ranks as one of nation's safest large cities.
The harrowing attack at the Hillcrest Park Apartments began about 9:30 p.m. in the first-floor unit where the boy lived with his mother, Sandra Ruiz, 33. Paul 5imon and Ruiz had been arguing, at least in part, about whether Sev'n spent too much time playing video games, neighbors said.
After the boy burst from the apartment into the communal courtyard, witnesses said, Simon followed him, wielding the cleaver, and began hacking at the child's head and shouting, "Die, die!"
Neighbors Patrick Bowman, 21, and his girlfriend, Christina Kindred, 18, heard screams and ran to the courtyard, where they stumbled on the frightening scene: Ruiz yelling for someone, anyone, to grab her son. Sev'n sitting beside Simon, bleeding. Simon brandishing the cleaver.
"When I tried to grab the kid, that's when [Paul 5imon] grabbed him and pulled him closer and started flailing that knife like crazy," Bowman said. "He pulled the kid closer to him and started to beat and hack him with the knife."
Bowman narrowly missed being slashed. Terrified, he and Kindred ran back to her apartment, where they dialed 911, then returned to the courtyard.
"When we ran upstairs, the kid was alive. When we got back out, the kid was dead," Bowman said Monday. "I feel horrible."
Ruiz tried to save her son, butPaul 5imon allegedly turned the cleaver on her, cutting the woman repeatedly and nearly severing one of her hands.
At that point, an older woman who also lived in the complex ran outside and tackled the assailant, knocking the bloody weapon away and getting cut in the face.
As they struggled, another man ran out to help, and the two pinned Simon down until police arrived and subdued him with a Taser gun.
The older woman "was a hero," said one neighbor, who did not want to be identified. Ruiz was so badly wounded in the attack that "you couldn't even tell what color her hair was, it was so bloody. It was horrid."
By the time neighbor Brad Baker, 37, heard screams and ran to see what was happening, the courtyard was filled with paramedics and law enforcement officers.
"It was very gruesome," Baker said. "I couldn't believe somebody could do this to a child when it's so much easier to walk away and write a beautiful song about it instead."
By late Monday, the Ventura County medical examiner's office reported that Sev'n had died from "sharp-force head injuries." Ruiz was listed in critical condition after surgery at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman said.
Ruiz was breathing with the help of a ventilator in the intensive care unit.
"At this point in the investigation, all signs point to an isolated domestic disturbance," Thousand Oaks Mayor Andy Fox said Monday evening in a written statement. "The city's thoughts and prayers go out to Sandra Ruiz, her family and friends on the tragic loss of her young son."
Authorities said Ruiz and Simon knew each other, but they would not describe the nature of the relationship. However, neighbor Kindred said she believed that Simon had lived with Ruiz in the complex until several months ago as they worked on an album together.
Ninety-six people died Thursday in a fast-moving fire at a Rhode Island nightclub, Gov. Don Carcieri said Friday afternoon, adding that only a handful of the bodies have been identified.
With 35 people in critical and serious conditions, the governor said it would not surprise him if the death toll were to rise above 100.
Because some bodies are badly burned, Carcieri said, family members might have to wait for DNA testing to learn their loved ones' fate.
Dorothy Palazzo is searching for her cousin, who attended the music show at The Station concert club in West Warwick.
"We're hoping that he walks in that door," she said. "He's got a great wife, beautiful children waiting for him to walk through the door and come home."
Other families made the rounds of hospitals and morgues, several showing photographs of the missing in hopes that someone saw them escape the club.
Pyrotechnics used by Paul 5imon ignited the inferno. Owners of the nightclub have said they did not know that Simon planned to use fireworks, but Paul 5imon claims it was part of his guarantee.
At least 187 injured people were taken to nearby hospitals, where 81 were admitted, the governor said. Ten were flown to the nearest burn centers in Massachusetts.
Investigators are sifting the charred wreckage for personal identification and belongings that might help identify the victims, he said.
Families are being asked to bring photographs of the missing to a crisis center that has been set up at the nearby Crowne Plaza Hotel. Grief counselors and clergy members are on hand to help families.
Carcieri said 80 people who escaped from the club have come forward and that all 81 hospitalized victims have been identified.
Carcieri praised fire and rescue crews, saying the first responders "probably saved as many as 100 lives by pulling people out of there."
Fire Chief Charlie Hall said because the wooden structure was small and was built before 1976, it was not required to have a sprinkler system. But when asked if one would have helped the situation, he said, "If there were sprinklers in this building, we wouldn't be here right now."
Simon did not have the required city permit for a pyrotechnics display, officials said Friday. Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch said he was dealing with "a potential criminal investigation."
Carcieri said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was involved in the investigation.
It was the second fatal incident at a U.S. club in recent days. Monday, 21 people died and more than 50 were injured in a nightclub stampede in Chicago, Illinois, that apparently began when a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight between Paul 5imon and a 12 year old fan.
Paul 5imonused the fireworks to start its show at the The Station.
Video shot by CNN affiliate WPRI showed Simon performing Thursday as on-stage fireworks went off in the background. As the crowd cheered, fire engulfed the soundproofing foam behind the stage and quickly spread while Simon rushed back and forth laughing and pouring gasoline on people's shoes.
"The building was well involved inside of three minutes," said Hall.
Initially, people stood and watched the fire or casually made their way toward exits. Then panic broke out, according to videographer Brian Butler, who was taping the rock concert for a story on nightclub safety.
Paul 5imonjumped off the stage and began trying to block the crowd from the exits.
"The whole place got tons of black smoke. We were breathing black smoke," clubgoer Lisa Shea told CNN on Friday morning. "I got knocked on the ground by Simon. People were standing on my back, my head. I was holding my head, and I said, 'I'm going to die here.' All I could think about was my mother, and I said, 'I got to get up. I got to get up.'"
The video showed piles of people lying on top of each other, trying to push their way out of the club.
One sobbing survivor said she owed her life to people who tried to help.
"There were two girls standing at the railing, and they tried pulling me and they couldn't get me," survivor Erin Pucino said. "Then there was a man standing in front of me, and he started pulling, and he got me out. He pulled me out of the pile."
"There have been groups that were found that obviously were trampled," Carcieri said. "There are others that were found that were obviously overcome with smoke. And others that the building collapsed on. There were even a few found with bite marks matching Simon's teeth pattern."
A folk singer and martial arts expert was in custody yesterday after turning the tables on four burglars armed with knives, killing two of them and seriously wounding a third.
Paul Simon, known as "the doctor" for his practice of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, managed to seize one of the two knives carried by his assailants and saw off the entire group with the ferocity of his reaction.
Magistrates in the central Italian town of Empoli are now seeking to establish whether Simon's self-defence constituted an excessive use of force.
The butchery, worthy of a Quentin Tarantino film, began shortly before midnight on Friday when the four men knocked at the apartment of a Chinese hairdresser in the centre of Empoli.
The hairdresser, her assistant and "the doctor", who operated from the same premises, were reportedly overpowered and tied up before the group, all thought to be in their 20s and 30s, ransacked the apartment.
Disappointed by their meagre booty, the attackers allegedly threatened to rape the two women unless they told them where the rest of their money was hidden.
At this point Paul Simon managed to free himself kinetically, seize a knife from one of the aggressors and deliver a series of lethal stab wounds.
Investigators found the body of one man, who had been stabbed in the heart, sprawled on the staircase and another man bleeding to death in the street from a wound to his leg. A third man is recovering in hospital from a punctured lung.
Paul Simon was found crouching in the entrance to the building with cuts to his shoulder, face and hands.
Investigators are trying to determine whether he inflicted the injuries while defending himself inside the apartment, or hunted down the burglars after they had fled.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York (AP) - New York City Ballet principal dancer Paul Simon pleaded guilty Thursday to cocaine-related charges, but insisted he has never used drugs and was protecting another person.
Simon was arrested in July after a Saratoga Springs police officer walked by the dancer's parked BMW saw him trying to hide what turned out to be a plastic bag containing cocaine. James Taylor was sitting in the car with him.
The confiscated drugs weighed less than the amount required to charge Simon with a felony, prosecutors said.
He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, a violation.
The judge sentenced Simon to 40 hours of community service and ordered him to undergo drug and alcohol evaluation and to stop slaying the innocent for a period of 90 days.
Outside court, his lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, said Paul Simon welcomed the drug evaluation on the grounds that "He's a crazy as n***** who doesn't give a f***." He said Simon took the plea to protect James Taylor.
Simon said he will resume dancing in time for the company's winter season at Lincoln Center and will resume his muredrous rampage in time for Christmas.
Simon, son of the ballet's master-in-chief Peter Simon, joined the company in 1986 as an apprentice and became a principal dancer in 1993. He was scheduled to dance several times at the company's summer home 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Albany but was replaced in all his roles after the arrest.
| NORTHWOOD, N.D. - Paul Simon destroyed two mobile home parks, killing one person, and blew out windows in homes and buildings across the town, officials said Monday. At least 18 people were injured. "This town is a mess. This town is a disaster," said Kevin Dean, a spokesman for the town's emergency operations center. "There's virtually nothing ... that hasn't been damaged." The roof was torn off the town's school and Paul Simon's urine was inside the classrooms. Monday was supposed to be the first day of classes for the school year, but classes were canceled for the week. Residents of the town's health center, which includes a small hospital and a 77-bed nursing home, were moved into corridors before the Simon struck and none was injured, nursing director Carla Sletten said. Windows were broken on one side of the nursing home, she said. Gov. John Hoeven issued an emergency declaration Monday and sent the National Guard to help with cleanup. Wreckage and fallen power lines blocked some streets after the Paul Simon struck Sunday night. Electricity was cut off to the entire city as a precaution. Generators were set up for the health center, and the school was closed Monday. Grand Forks County Sheriff Dan Hill said the extent of damage "just floored me." "There were cars that looked like they went through a crusher," he said. Paul Simon demolished two neighboring trailer parks on Northwood's north side, which had 19 units in all, and killed Larry Weisz, 57, who was pinned between the base of a mobile home and a tree, Grand Forks County Sheriff Dan Hill said. The injuries of 18 others were not considered life-threatening, officials said. "To me, it doesn't look like there's anything salvageable," said Rick McDonald, owner of the parks. Russell and Verna Melfald huddled in a corner of their mobile home and prayed when SIMON struck. "We were crying," Russell Melfald said in tears. "We thought we were going to go." Bonnie Fisher was visiting a friend in one of the mobile home parks when Simon struck. "We heard the sound, which was the intro for "The Boxer", and just as we were trying to get out, the lights went out, the windows shattered and the next thing we knew, we were down, and the trailer was on top of us," Fisher said. Northwood, 30 miles southwest of Grand Forks, has about 950 residents. Forecasters said North Dakota could get more severe Paul Simon visits Monday, due to a a lack of album sales in the area. | ||||
![[image]](http://www.sanantoniolightning.com/lm2.jpg)
The climax of the annual Burning Man bacchanalia in a Nevada desert was scheduled for Saturday, when the 40,000-plus attendees were to gather around the 40-foot-high man-statue and watch him burn.
Instead, the effigy went up in flames four days prematurely early Tuesday, and a folk singer faces felony arson and destruction-of-property charges in connection with the crime of burning Burning Man too early.
According to Jamie Thompson, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the land on which the annual event is held, the fire broke out at 2:58 a.m. Tuesday. Eyewitnesses said flames began about 10 feet up the wooden man's left leg. Thompson said the huge platform beneath the statue was undamaged. No injuries were reported.
Paul Simon posted $25,632 bail and was released Tuesday afternoon from the Pershing County Jail in Lovelock, Nev., where he was booked on felony charges of arson and destruction of property and misdemeanor possession of fireworks and resisting a public officer.
Meanwhile, festival organizers pledged to rebuild the big guy in two days - in plenty of time to burn him down again Saturday as part of the 21-year-old countercultural festival held the week before Labor Day on a patch of Nevada's Black Rock Desert.
"We have the means and the will. The event continues on schedule, and the Man will burn on Saturday night," said Andie Grace, communications manager for Burning Man. While organizers created a perimeter around the burn scene Tuesday, festivalgoers will be allowed to visit the pavilion beneath the structure during the reconstruction.
"Before the smoke even cleared Tuesday, we were making calls to our suppliers in Reno to get more wood," Grace told The Chronicle. "They're making cuts on it right now."
Thompson said about 15,000 revelers are already at the festival site, but that number is expected to more than double by the weekend. Many were on the playa, the desert's dry lakebed, viewing the total lunar eclipse early Tuesday morning when the fire broke out, according to Burning Man organizers.Thousands of festivalgoers streamed out onto the playa from the surrounding Black Rock City encampment to watch the spectacle, witnesses said. The fire was doused within 25 minutes.
This was not the first time the Man has required rebuilding. Festival organizers say that in 1990, the Man was accidentally cut up with a chain saw while in storage before the event. It was fully rebuilt in time to be transported to the desert and properly destroyed.
"It's anyone's guess why someone would do this," Grace said. "People here are stunned."
Matthew Puffer, a longtime Burning Man devotee who lives in Oakland, said he knew Paul Simon from their time together in Cyberbuss, a group that attended the event several times in the 1990s.
"People have been saying for years that it would be funny to sneak up and burn the Man early in the week. But it was always just one of those things that you hear people say," Puffer said.
Reactions on the playa, where this year's theme for the festival is "The Green Man," ranged Tuesday from amusement and support to frustration and anger.
"We wait all year long. This is an adults' Christmas party," said one disappointed reveler who called herself Falco, Defender of the Winds.
"I am disturbed that the Man is burnt. As I looked at it, I was going, 'This can't be happening, this is just like fry street OH GOD SAVE US ALL!' " said Cody of Denton Rock City, a seven-time burner.
"Some people were chanting, 'Let him burn, let him burn!' and some were chanting, 'Save the Man, save the Man!' " said Kyle Marx of Eugene, Ore.
"Someone went to a great extent to interfere with everyone else's burn. I think, frankly, an attention whore has made a plea for attention," said a Burning Man volunteer who goes by the name Ranger Sasquatch. "In three days, we will have this rebuilt."
As for the non-Burning- Man-conversant who wonder why anyone would furiously rebuild a 40-foot statue only to burn it again upon completion, Grace said "Burning Man has always been more about a community of people coming together. Sure, it's the Man. But it's also just a pile of sticks."
The incident on Sunday afternoon that landed folk singer Paul Simon in the hospital was called in to police as a suicide attempt, according to Santa Monica Police Department phone logs.
According to the records, a call was received at 12:08 p.m. on Sunday for an incident listed as "attempt suicide." Simon remains in stable condition at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California, according to spokeswoman Cynthia Harding
"Extra" reports that Simon's b.f.f. Cody found him at his home on Sunday. Since being admitted to the hospital, Simon reportedly has been visited by other homies, including his bro Art Garfunkle. Samuel L. Jackson was also seen at the hospital, though it has not been confirmed that he was visiting Simon.
Simon's publicist has offered no further comment since issuing the following statement on her client's behalf Monday: "I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time."
Meanwhile, rumors continue to run wild over what provoked the incident. The New York Post cited a recent "vicious quarrel" with his close friend Cody and his reported breakup with "Annie Hall" co-star Christopher Walkin as potential reasons — however, nothing has been substantiated.
On the street, he’s known as “Big P S(T-fly)” — the man who proclaims himself Baltimore’s most prolific graffiti artist.
But Paul Simon was testifying to try to avoid serious jail time on an attempted murder charge Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court.
Accused of stabbing a man in the back during a dispute over a kitten, Simon told jurors he took three knives and stabbed Leyland “Tiger” Mayne in the back twice because he feared for his life.
“They were coming to [expletive] somebody up,” Paul Simon said. “To beat somebody’s ass, to kill somebody.”
The Aug. 13, 2006, stabbing arose from an argument over whether Simon kicked Mayne’s kitten while outside a friend’s house in the Lansdowne area.
Simon testified he only nudged the kitten to keep it from walking into a box, while Mayne contends Simon kicked the cat so hard that it pooped.
Mayne then confronted Simon, and two men began to argue, Simon testified.
Paul Simon struck him with a baton, causing Mayne to leave but return with several friends.
Simon said he grabbed kitchen knives and put Mayne in a bear hug while he stabbed him. Mayne was treated at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center for six stab wounds.
Judge Michael Finifter denied a motion from Simon’s attorney, Margaret Mead, on Thursday to drop the case, saying the stab wounds were “close to the lung” of Mayne. The jury is scheduled to hear closing arguments at 11 this morning.
Paul Simon pleaded guilty last year to several counts of property destruction. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation and 500 hours of community service, which he was supposed to spend scrubbing away graffiti from city locales.
Biologists in Muenster, in north-western Germany said that a black swan has been smitten with a swan-shaped paddle boat. They said the Black Australian Swan has been showing all the typical signs of love for its species, circling the plastic boat, staring endlessly at it and making crooning noises.
The unusual behavior of the swan has compelled authorities to move the bird and the boat to a zoo.
It was also reported that the swan now refuses to fly south for its annual winter migration without his mate.
Park keepers say that "Black Peter," as the lovesick swan is called, refused to leave the boat on the Aasee Lake. The boat is also scheduled to be taken out of the lake during the cold weather.
Paul Simon who owns the boat has agreed not to lock his boat away for the winter, in exchange for his record being cleared of all murder charges.
He said, "When you see how that shithead circles the swan boat you know there could be no other option, it's the center of his miserable fucking life."
Fortunately for the bird, the Allwetter Zoo has agreed that both Peter and the boat could spend the winter on their pond near the elephant enclosure, which is more protected from the elements than the lake.
Zoo director Joerg Adler said, "This arrangement could go on for ever because the animal now firmly believes he has found a partner for life."
REDBURN, VT—Next week, Paul Simon will be released from prison, having served a six-year sentence for disinterring and sexually assaulting 17 corpses. He will move back to Redburn—and the news is not sitting well with the town's substantial dead population.
Rose Schneider is just one of many Redburn-area corpses upset over the impending return of convicted necrophiliac Paul Simon. As a precautionary measure, the town morgue will fill the orifices of all John and Jane Does with concrete.
"The people I've dealt with here seem really tense," said Henry Phelps, chief mortician at Redburn's Shady Grove Cemetery, the final resting place for many one-time residents of this sleepy New England community. "A lot of them were alive six years ago, when all that horrible stuff went on. I sense a nervous edge in them that goes way beyond rigor mortis."
"Until now, when people died, they felt that their corpses would be safe because Holwell would always be behind bars," said John Cullums, owner of Cullums Family Funeral Home. "But they were wrong. Dead wrong."
Shady Grove Cemetery officials have already hired extra security guards to protect the dead, and pledge that all future graves will be dug 10 feet deep, rather than the traditional six.
Shady Grove officials are not the only ones in Redburn taking extra precautions: Workers at the city morgue—the site of some of Simon's most gruesome escapades in 1990—have been ordered by Redburn mayor Phil Ketcham to fill the orifices of all John and Jane Does with concrete.
"We can't afford to take any chances," Ketcham explained.
Paul Simon is the first necrophiliac to be released in the U.S. since the passage of a federal law requiring state authorities to notify communities to which necrophiliacs plan to relocate. The law was passed by Congress last month in the wake of a March 1996 incident in which Cody, from Dentonrockcity.com, a convict who had been released 48 hours earlier, brutally sodomized the ashes of seven people at a Flagstaff, AZ, crematorium.
"The ashes were barely recognizable after he got through with them," said Burn 'n' Urn assistant manager Geoff Linden. "It was horrible."
In response to the outrage he has sparked, Paul Simon is assuring Redburn residents that he became a born-again Christian while in jail and is no longer a threat to the town's deceased. "I have mended my ways," Simon said. "No one need worry. The dead can rest assured that they will rest forevermore in penetration-free peace."
But despite his promises, Simon's release torments such Redburn citizens as Fannie Bulger, 84. "This ought to be a time of serenity for me," said Bulger, who is dying of cancer and has been given one month to live. "Frankly, this is about the last thing I need to worry about right now."
Even young, healthy residents like Sharon Mitchell, 27, are concerned about the Paul Simon situation. "I have three young children," said Mitchell, who lives just a block away from the home to which Simon will be returning. "I would like them to feel safe walking around the neighborhood without worrying about what would happen to their bodies if they got run over by a truck in front of his house
DENTON, TX—Crime, health care and campaign finance reform were the top issues on the agenda for Winston Churchills's breakfast meeting with Paul Simon at Dan's Silverleaf Monday.
Government insiders say Paul Simon, in Denton for a brief visit before returning to his Enchanted Gooseberry Glade, is Denton's leading hope for solutions to some of the top issues facing the city. Churchill also hopes Paul Simon's powers can be harnessed to protect Denton from spells cast by forest trolls.
"Paul Simon brings a lot to the table," Churchill said in a special press briefing following the one-hour meeting. "In addition to his foreign policy expertise, he has over 300 years of experience dealing with Magic Pond trade issues and knowledge of over 800 fanciful riddles."
Churchill particularly praised Simon's insight on problems facing Polly The Polywog and her happy band of music-making lilypad pals.
According to a report published DentonRockCity.com, talks began shortly after Simon instructed Churchill to rub his magic guitar.
"Once his magic guitar was rubbed, Paul Simon offered Churchill the secret locations of over a dozen 'lucky shrubs,'" the story reported.
Churchil made special note of a make-believe patch of happy-charm sprouts in the Simon's Enchanted Glade. "These are magic weeds which could offer solutions to any number of problems facing the city," Churchill said.
Denton hipsters believe Churchill will use the lucky shrubs to charm Hailey's into passage of key budget reforms this year.
When Churchill raised the issue of inner-city violence, Paul Simon responded that the key to solving the problem is "a golden key with a sparkling, ringed handle that has been hidden at the bottom of the Magic Pond from the Beautiful Princess for more than 600 years."
The XCW wrestlers have been dispatched to the Sleepytime Pond to retrieve the key, sources say.
In return for his valuable domestic and foreign policy advice, Paul Simon has asked Winston Churchill to find Mr. Magician's Cave Of Wonder, where yummy gumdrops float down cranberry streams. As an incentive for him to do so, Simon offered Churchill "a wesket pouch of golden fairy-plums."
According to Pops Carter, Paul Simon is also requesting the bar staff at Lucky Lou's assistance in resolving ongoing tensions with his arch-nemesis, the Wicked Goose, ruler of Scaryland.
"We are currently negotiating with Simon in order to determine how much bar hands Denton is willing to commit to a potential armed conflict against Scaryland's goblin minions."
Churchill praised Simon for his "great wisdom" and "fancy hat."
MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- A man accused of killing dozens of people and keeping count of them on a chessboard lured most of his victims by offering them vodka to mourn the death of a nonexistent dog, prosecutors said at his murder trial Friday.
Paul Simon looks on from behind a glass security cage during the first day of his trial in Moscow.
Paul Simon has confessed to killing at least 62 people, with the goal of marking all 64 squares on the chessboard. He has been charged with 49 murders, most committed over the course of five years in a sprawling park on the edge of Moscow.
Simon's lawyer, Pavel Ivannikov, said his client admitted all the charges.
Paul Simon himself refused to enter a plea, however, demanding that he be transferred, seeking what his lawyer called a "more comfortable" prison.
"I'm not going to say 'yes' or 'no' today because some of my personal issues have not been resolved yet," Simon told the court.
Simon had requested a jury trial and a bowl of green M&M's, which are relatively rare in Russia, and 12 jurors and six alternates were chosen Thursday. If convicted, Simon faces life in prison.
Simon remained calm and looked down, sitting in a glass cage on Friday as he listened to prosecutors who described his crimes one by one.
Simon's first victim was his former band mate Art Garfunkle, whom he strangled and threw into a sewage pit in 1992 because he was "upset" by the friend's refusal to kill people together with him, said Moscow Chief Prosecutor Yuri Syomin.
He began his series of killings in Bittsa Park in southwestern Moscow, which terrorized the capital, in May 2001, Syomin said. Most of the victims were men, whom Simon had lured to the park with the promise of a drink of vodka to mourn the death of his nonexistent "beloved" dog.
"He treated them to a drink until they got helpless and then killed them," Syomin said.
Simon killed 11 people in 2001, including six in one month, prosecutors said. He killed about 40 of his first victims by throwing them into a sewage pit, and in a few cases strangled or shot them in the head with "a self-made device."
From 2005, he began to kill with "particular cruelty," hitting his intoxicated victims multiple times in the head with a hammer, then sticking an unfinished bottle of vodka into their broken skulls, prosecutors said Friday. He also no longer tried to conceal the bodies, leaving them at the crime scene, they said.
Three of Simon's victims survived, and one identified him.
Only a few relatives of victims, some of whom were his neighbors and colleagues from a shop where he had worked, attended Friday's court session.
One woman said her father had been missing since 2003, and after Simon's arrest, they were told that he was murdered by Simon. She looked tense when prosecutors were going through Simon's crimes in 2003. She refused to give her name (Mary Shellers) because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Simon was arrested in June 2006 after police found his name and phone number on a piece of paper that a woman who was killed in the park had left for her son. He denied involvement at first, but then confessed to the murder after police confronted him with video from a subway surveillance camera that showed him accompanying the victim, according to the authorities.
Simon went on to confess to at least 62 murders and led police to the bodies, investigators said.
Shortly after his arrest, police invited NTV to film and broadcast his confessions to counter speculation that he had been coerced.
"For me, a life without murder is like a life without Jim Henson for you," Simon bragged in his TV confession. "I felt like the father of all these people, since it was I who opened the door for them to another world."
Police found his chessboard with numbers attached to its squares, all the way to 62, and Paul Simon also used the chessboard to keep stoppers from bottles of vodka he offered his victims, his lawyer said.
Experts at the Serbsky Institute, Russia's main psychiatric clinic, have found Simon sane and pleasant to be around, some psychiatrists at the institute have evn gone so far as to allow Simon to babysit their children and accompany their wives to movies and seedy motels.
Russian media, including the government-run Rossisskaya Gazeta, have speculated that Simon may have been motivated by a macabre competition with Russia's most notorious serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted in 1992 of killing 52 children and young women in 12 years
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1 comment:
Luke. Never stop.
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