There is breaking news on the Lefkow murders!

[murielm99]

Investigators early Thursday said a man who shot himself in the head during a traffic stop in Wisconsin had a suicide note claiming responsibility for the slaying of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother last week.

snip

Investigators said the man had a suicide note that included an admission that he shot the judge's family. The note included details in the case that were not released to the public, investigators said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050310lefkow,0,4802433.story?coll=chi-newsbreaking-hed

I heard on WGN radio just a few minutes ago that there will be a press conference in West Allis, Wisconsin at 8:00 a.m. on this matter.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

1. Interesting...

... they are already Baxterizing folks.

[chicagojoe]

3. Baxterizing ???

[BlueEyedSon]

7. The strange and convenient death of J. Clifford Baxter (Enron)

Without anything that can be called a serious investigation, local authorities in a wealthy Houston suburb have whitewashed the death of former Enron vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter, calling it a suicide. Baxter, 43, was found shot to death in his Mercedes Benz in the early hours of Friday morning, January 25, near his home in Sugar Land.

Baxter’s body was discovered inside his Mercedes Benz, which was parked in a turnaround on a street near his home. Officials in Sugar Land moved swiftly to label Baxter’s death a suicide. Local Justice of the Peace Jim Richard initially declared that Baxter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and no further inquiry was required. But within hours he reversed himself, citing the intense public interest in the death, and ordered an autopsy.

Harris County Medical Examiner Joye Carter conducted the autopsy and found the cause of death to be suicide by a “penetrating gunshot to the head.” The weapon was a .38 caliber revolver which was found in Baxter’s car, next to his body.

Neither the perfunctory official probe nor the media coverage has addressed the obvious suspicions aroused by the death of a critically important witness in the investigation into the criminal activities at Enron, the biggest corporate fraud in American history. Baxter quit as vice chairman of the company last May, after reportedly come into conflict with other top executives over the phony accounting gimmicks used to plunder billions of dollars.

More: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/enro-j28.shtml

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. Let us be clear about one aspect of the Baxter case:

That is the use of the Glaser Safety Slug frangible round that caused his death, and the efforts of the coroner's office to obscure, hide and obfuscate the data on it in the autopsy, by calling it "ratshot".

The Glaser Safety Slug may be many things, but it is not ratshot. It is a round designed to kill people by creating the largest wound channel, and subsequently, the most soft tissue damage possible, by using the expenditure of kinetic energy, in vitro, to effectively "explode". For lack of a better term.

If you want to kill someone dead, really dead, and have them stay that way, nothing works like a frangible round. In the world of frangible rounds, the Glaser stands out as one of the best, especially for use in a small, enclosed space. A professional wet-worker would know this.Tools of The Trade and all that. A good workman knows his tools.

But after all, this took place on Enron's turf of turf, Sugarland Tx. Who calls the shots down there? Who could get the coroner's office to alter the autopsy findings? Who benefits from Baxter's eternal silence?

[BlueEyedSon]

9. You probably meant "in vivo" (inside the living organism) not "in vitro"

(in glass).

It was a pretty suspicious suicide.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. You are correct.

I apologize. It is way too early and I am going on way too little sleep. Alas and alack.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. But it happened during a traffic stop?

Is one to assume that there were plenty of witnesses?

[murielm99]

5. This happened about 6 p.m.

At that time of the evening, there should be plenty of witnesses.

But I don't know any more than the article, and the bit I heard on the radio. We will have to wait for the news conference.

[Illinois_Dem]

2. You beat me to it.

I just heard this, too.

[ClintonTyree]

6. Do people usually carry a suicide note around with them?

He certainly didn't have time to write it on the spot, so he must have written it earlier? Then he just drove around until he was pulled over at a traffic stop, pulled the note out, then shot himself.

There are more than a few missing pieces of the puzzle here.

[fabsfour]

11. I was wondering about that too

Unless he was on his way somewhere to commit suicide so he was prepared for that.

He was pulled over for something small like a tail light so he couldn't have really planned to be pulled over.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[reichstag911]

13. He was a lone "nutter," IMHO.

Based on what I've read and heard, and on my own personal experience with the farcical legal system, he was someone who was at least somewhat deranged by a perceived medical malpractice issue from ~12 years ago. He claimed in his pro se filing in Lefkow's court that doctors had disfigured him by treating him with radiation and chemo without his consent. He sued for a billion dollars, his suit was dismissed by Lefkow last July, and his Motion to Reconsider was also summarily dismissed Jan. 25 of this year. That left him a month to research, plan and execute his plan.

I have in the past had dealings with the district and appellate courts here in greater Chicago, and two matters in particular left me feeling enraged by the intransigence, rank incompetence, and/or lack of a forum for a non-wealthy citizen to have his grievances heard. Between the police, prosecutors, and political appointee judges, it's a real witches' brew of the above three negative qualities.

In one of these matters, I wound up filing a pro se appeal on a traffic case necessitated by the incompetence of a freshly minted judge not having a fucking clue what he was doing. How bad was he? My pro se appeal was victorious when the Cook County State's Attorney's office declined to argue it, choosing to submit a Confession of Error to the appellate court instead. My understanding is that a Confession of Error is an extremely rare response from the SA, especially in an appeal filed pro se. As I am neither an attorney, nor did I attend law school, I wonder how often something like that happens.

Even having won this, though, at no point did I feel that anyone genuinely gave a shit about the facts of the case, the right or wrong of it, except for one judge earlier in the process who'd ruled in my favor, a ruling subsequently and inappropriately reversed by the "peer" judge mentioned above. Also, the prosecutor/inquisitor looking to get another notch for their belt might be said to have cared, I guess, though certainly not about my interests.