More on the Witnesses Against Gerald Amirault
Just as Yr Ed hoped [Weird Central, 8-7-01], the original accusations of the “victims” of convicted day-care “pervert” Gerald Amirault did get publicly examined. Pulitzer Prize-winner Dorothy Rabinowitz, in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, looked through the case records and wondered how in the world the 3 “victims,” now aged around 21, are so certain of what they experienced when they were never anywhere near able to keep a story straight back then (and of course it was only the age-4 accusations that sent Amirault and his colleagues to prison). Rabinowitz found (1) The witnesses as adults made new accusations, never mentioned during the lengthy investigation and trial; (2) Gerald had made one of this week’s witnesses eat a frog that went quack-quack, and Amirault’s mother had stuck a knife inside him as a boy; (3) Another of this week’s witnesses, described by the trial judge as the worst example of interrogators’ indefatigable badgering, adamantly denied abuse over and over and over, under all kinds of victim-friendly circumstances, until one spark of agreement emerged, at which point she was converted to a strong gov’t witness. How to attribute the witnesses’ age-21 certainty: years and years of therapy, at which their every unhappiness was attributed to eating that quack-quacking frog. The parole board’s 5-0 decision to release Amirault is now awaiting approval by Massachusetts’s acting Gov. Jane Swift. [Wall Street Journal, 8-8-01] [paid archive only]
Pravda Says: We Can Grow a Penis on an Arm
Russia has a renowned reconstructive-surgery hospital that draws doctors from around the world, but Pravda yesterday did not name that particular hospital, referring only to the “Russian clinical hospital for children” when it reported that a 16-yr-old boy whose penis had been medically amputated had actually grown the shaft of a new penis on his arm after 10 months’ work by doctors. They stitched onto the arm a 12cm empty latex cylinder; inserted a “solution” daily to help skin grow around it; finally removed it and inserted a urethra-type device; and installed it; and the boy is reported to be improving. [Well, Yr Ed doesn’t really like Pravda stories, but you can check it out yourself, including the “photo.”] [Pravda, 8-10-01]
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Patients Sue Pennsylvania Chiropractor-Pervert
Three female patients filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Easton, Pa., against James Morell for having given them indecent assaults during exams, with the lawsuits coming 2 months after he had been convicted of the crimes. Earlier, Morell had been unrepentant, calling the women “trailer trash” and one of them “the town slut.” Just before sentencing (he got 18 mos. to 6 yrs), he had softened only slightly, saying, well, he was sorry he kissed one woman and sorry he didn’t explain his chiropractic technique to another in such a way that she would not have interpreted it as sexual. [Easton Express-Times, 8-9-01]
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The Key to Not Falling for Good-Looking Transsexuals
Yr Ed supposes that many men have a good time in the company of transsexuals and transvestites who happen to make good-looking women, but there are always the disappointed ones who go ballistic when they find out the lady they’re with is really a Y [chromosome]. In a Reuters story yesterday from Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2 important facts emerged: (1) Bangkok trannies’ (“Ladyboys”’) silicone implants hardened in Scotland’s cold weather (and had to be massaged back into shape), and (2) the way to spot a Ladyboy in a crowd is to look at the feet, because men’s feet are nearly always wider than women’s, and so far the notion of foot-narrowing surgery has escaped the notice of the TS community. So far. [Reuters, 8-8-01]
Below the Fold for Thursday
Kevin Erwin [see Backstage.169 and News of the Weird .704, which will be out on Sunday] took the stand in Canton, Ohio, to deny the sexual assault charges, that in fact he and his girlfriend were playing consensual S ‘n’ M (he had a signed contract!) and that she had merely failed to use the “safe” words, which were “pepper” for slow down and “tomato” for stop. [Akron Beacon Journal, 8-8-01]
"Sexually Delinquent" Readers Should Avoid Michigan
It’s a crime in Michigan to be a “sexually delinquent person,” which should be alarming to some News of the Weird readers in, or traveling through, the upper Midwest. On closer inspection, though, based on the arrest of Jeffery Scott Prielipp, 32, on Friday (based on 2 alleged flasher episodes), the statute is just a sort of a habitual-offender provision for certain people with long sexual rap sheets. The statute is a paragon of flexibility: Based on, for example, the severity of the previous convictions, the sentences can range from 1 day to life. [Ann Arbor News, 8-7-01]
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Update on Previous Sextremes Items: Dr. Dye Acquitted
Yr Ed, being a responsible journalist, knows that when News of the Weird has cast aspersions on someone’s behavior, and that person is subsequently found not guilty by a jury, he must report that fact at approximately the same prominence as the original story. Thus, it should be noted that the doctor who had told police that he had brought 100 women to climax on his examination table during his 30 yrs as a family practitioner (later reduced on the witness stand to 4 climaxes) [Sextremes, 7-23-01] was in fact acquitted of all charges. Dr. Richard Dye of Half Moon Bay, Calif., said he would reopen his clinic, to squeals of delight from the segment of the community that believes he is a good doctor; the only jurors who spoke to the press afterward said, well, they had reasonable doubt about the gov’t’s case but that they sure wouldn’t let their own mothers go to him. [San Francisco Chronicle, 7-26-01]
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...And the Amirault "Victims" Go Public to Keep Him Locked Up
Yr Ed has ranted on the police, social workers, and parents who witch-hunted during the 1980s and early 1990s on cult sexual abuse cases and mentioned with satisfaction that a parole board in Massachusetts has recommended that the last incarcerated “perp” of the era, daycare owner Gerald Amirault, be released after 15 yrs in the Big House [Backstage.170]. Now come 3 “victims,” currently around age 21, who spoke at a press conference on Thursday about how wretched their lives have been in the ensuing 17 yrs since Amirault tortured them. The publicity was designed to pressure acting Gov. Jane Swift to disregard the parole board’s recommendation. Yr Ed has a solution to the dilemma: Look at the 3 “victims’” testimony (if they testified) or interview notes (if they didn’t, and if they will waive privacy) so as to distinguish (a) how articulate they are as adults from (b) the fantastical claims they made at age 5 or 6 that were the claims responsible for sending Gerald Amirault to prison. [Boston Herald, 8-3-01]
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Retired Clown Arrested in Michigan
The recently-retired Quacky the Clown (Jacob L. Tarner, 53) was arrested a few days ago and charged with molesting a 10-yr-old girl last year in his vehicle, which was barely on the Michigan side of the Indiana state line. In Michigan, he faces life in prison; in his home state of Indiana, he could have gotten 45 yrs. [South Bend Tribune, 8-3-01]
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2001, Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
