true crime blotter
True Crime Tales for Bored Stinkheads
Last week I had several rather pointed complaints from readers about my most recent column. Not that it was too mean or flippant, or otherwise nasty and bad. Instead, the gripers said it was too long, too analytical and unnecessarily polite and positive. If you felt the same way, I apologize, and promise that for at least the next few weeks, this space will only be filled with things that are short, tart, bracing, vicious and relentlessly negative. And we're going to get back on track with the most tried-and-true antidote to unnecessary wholesomeness and good cheer: a good old fashioned crime blotter, running down all of the best (or worst) street-level mayhem that took place in Hungary last week. If you don't like it, well, all I can say is, go down to Iguana and tell Mo Ortiz to stop bringing me hassle me every time I write something nice and cheerful. And if it isn't zippy and sick enough for you, well, you ought to go get your head checked out.
The week started with a bang, with the brutal murder of a 68-year-old cab driver in Debrecen on Sunday evening. At least that's what the police think. While the cabby's blood-drenched car was found parked in downtown Debrecen, his body was recovered 15 kilometers away. Later in the week the Hajdú-Bihar County Police announced a reward of Ft 500,000 (roughly €2,000) for information leading to the capture of the murderer, who remains at large.
Early Tuesday morning, a 60-year-old man from Jászladány fell to his death at a construction site on the corner of Tétényi út and Csurgói utca in District XI. At least that's what the authorities think; the circumstances of the accident - or whether it was an accident - remain unclear.
Also on Tuesday, an unidentified person called the police to tell them that a man scheduled to be buried in Vas County the following day had been murdered. It turned out that the phone tip was good; police found fresh bloodstains in the man's apartment, and an examination of the almost-buried corpse revealed that the deceased had suffered injuries to his head and body. The police apparently like the man's 46-year-old wife for the crime, as several witnesses say the two had regular and highly drunken quarrels. The wife is denying everything.
A more spectacular case of domestic violence erupted on Wednesday in Sellye (Baranya County), when a 31-year-old man shot his wife in the head while she was riding her bike to work, and then turned the gun on himself, producing a bloody tableaux so lurid I was surprised that even Blikk published it. It later transpired that the woman had told her husband that she wanted a divorce, having recently discovered that he had a seven-year-old son by someone else in addition to the two children she had bore him.
At around 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday evening a man threatened a woman with a knife and relieved her of a bag full of groceries and Ft 25,000 cash in the paprika capital of Kalocsa. The woman shouted for help and the robber fled, but some passersby caught the crook and restrained him until the police arrived.
A 46-year-old woman on bicycle was hit by a car on the road connecting Route 5 with M5 near Kiskunfélegyháza early Thursday morning. The woman broke her arm, but suffered no other serious injuries. After being taken to the hospital, however, she admitted that she had wanted to commit suicide because of a fight she had had with her husband, but said the accident made her change her mind.
An ambulance helicopter crashed and caught fire in Pécs Thursday afternoon on its way back from transporting a patient. The three members of the crew were seriously injured in the accident, which was apparently the fourth ambulance helicopter accident in Hungary in the last two years.
A man was hit and killed by a HÉV commuter train on a stretch of track between Pünkösdfürdő and Aquincum stations late on Thursday evening. The unidentified victim, who was 50 to 70 years old, has both of his legs severed, but apparently died instantly. The police are investigating the circumstances of the accident.
The bodies of two men who had been gunned down were found on the road between Érd and Diósd on early Friday morning. One of the men, presumably the driver, had been shot several time through the car's windshield, while the other victim was found lying next to the vehicle and been shot from behind, probably while attempting to escape his killers. The police said the driver was a "familiar" character from Fehér County, while the other victim was not identified.
Finally, a disgraced gynecologist from Pécs who two years ago was convicted of molesting his patients was finally caught in Kenya, state news agency MTI reported on Friday. József Soponyai was on the lam after getting a sentence of four years and four months in January of 2003 for improperly doping up and fiddling patients in his office at the obstetrics department of Pécs University. The dirty doctor had apparently entered his would-be hideout on a bogus passport, but was sniffed out by the Kenyans, who are currently negotiating his extradition with the Hungarian authorities. While all such fiddlers deserve the harshest punishment the law can offer, Soponyai may deserve even more. When his abused patients went back for their examination results, he would often tell them their exam had been inconclusive, and needed to be repeated. Perhaps when he is done serving his four-and-four, the authorities should do the same, and send him back for four-and-four more.
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