A True and Bizarre Tale (Or So I have Been Told)
For those who have served on jury this one is something to think about. Just when you think you have heard everything!!
Do you like to read a good murder mystery? Not even Law and Order would attempt to capture this mess. This is an unbelievable twist of fate!!!!
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, (AAFS) President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus, and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide.
He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
The room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun! The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr. 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 the murder charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant, and both said that they thought the shotgun was not 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 Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, assuming the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. 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.
Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window.
The son, Ronald Opus, had actually murdered himself. So the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from Associated Press
The Lord works in mysterious ways
10 Answers
Well I don't care if it is true or not, it was interesting, entertaining and worthy of my vote. 
Snopes.com is the place to check out these bizarre stories and it seems the good professor made it all up - (no fun at all!) 
Following JoyceM's lead:
Suicide = suicida, autodestrucción, suicidio (interesting Spanish has three equivalents)
Safety net = la red de seguridad 
Sorry to rain on your parade but read the authoritative myth/fact analysis at snopes.com. They research and report the facts and fiction on urban legends.
The Karma of the son ,Ronald Opus, is bad . Firstly his intent to murder his mother
will be against him ,as will his desire to take his own life .The mother and father
are free of guilt as they had no desire to actually harm anyone. I doubt that
the human realms will be open to poor Ronald again for eons.
Wow that was truly weird! I had grasped all of the information/facts until it came to teh twist I still cant get my head around it well only just lol!
I could see how the son would have been responsible for the murder of his mother in that he loaded the gun with intent but it seems strange that he was killed by his own bullet 
One final point on a practical note you could potentially accidentlay fire a gun it has been done in England when a girl accidentally shot her brother and on another ocaasion when tragically also a father accidentally shot his child with a gun. However, I do not believe that a person could accidentally load a gun.! A person would have to know what they were doing to load a gun successfully.
With respect to the law of unintended consequences they might not know or being able to forsee the consequences of their actions but they must, unless they are a young child or person with learning difficulties, be able to understand that someone could potentially be killed as an indirect consequence of their initial action.
This is an amazing story, and I'm glad you shared it.
However, it didn't help me learn a bit of Spanish, which is the reason I come to this site. It may have been helpful to some Spanish-speaking people who are practicing their English comprehension, however.
So, in the spirit of vocabulary building, I will offer a murder mystery vocabulary word in English and Spanish and invite others to do the same...
shot gun: escopeta
Oh my God, I'm speechless.
Thanks to all those who participated. As far as I am aware, these are the correct answers.
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116 years
2) Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador
3) From which animal do we get cat gut? Sheep and Horses
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of? Squirrel fur
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animals? Dogs
7) What was King George VI's first name? Albert
8) What colour is a purple finch? Crimson
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New Zealand
10) What is the colour of the black box in a commercial airplane? Orange (of course!)
I believe Izanoni got the most correct answers, well done Izzi. It certainly beat my score hands down, hehe.
Very bizarre Eddy! I wonder if it's true, was it published on April Fool's Day of last year? 
If it is true, it's very sad for the parents, knowing that the father unwittingly fired the gun that accidentally killed his own son...
