posted 03-06-2000 08:05 PM            

"On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun
wound to the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note
indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which
killed him instantly. Neither the shooter or the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to
protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to commit suicide because of this."

"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism
might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have
changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused
the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands."

"The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were
arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his
wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus."

"When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted
with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it
was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her - therefore, the
killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded."

"The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks
prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the
propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his
mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus".

There was an exquisite twist. "Further investigation revealed that the son [Ronald Opus] had become increasingly despondent
over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This lead him to jump off the ten storey building on March 23,
only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth storey window."

posted 03-07-2000 04:55 PM            

Excellent flick, BTW.