Monkey Musings Daily Open Discussion #10 1/23 - 6/12/2008

[crazybabyborg]

CBB,  loved the Josh Turner song.  Thank you for sharing it. 
Tot, that's one of my favorite Easter cartoons.  Makes me smile every time. 

Everyone, today is definitely a reminder of what the Hand of God (as Josh Turner says) can do.  Yea! 

Happy Easter! 

Oh, you're more than welcome, LilPuma! I've missed you, and it's great to see you back! I debated between that song and this one, but I thought most people had seen this. It never fails to choke me up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNlykSNHzC4

Happy Easter back at you!

[2NJSons_Mom]

 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/21/torture.slaying.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

updated 3:48 p.m. EDT, Fri March 21, 2008
  Disabled pregnant woman used as target practice
Story Highlights
Investigator: "This is heartbreaking"

Dorothy Dixon was 6 months pregnant and lived in the basement

Housemates tortured Dixon for weeks, and withheld her social security checks

Dixon also had a year-old child, who weighed 15 lbs. at time of mom's death

   
ALTON, Illinois (AP) -- Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor.


Five adults and a 12-year-old child were charged with Dorothy Dixon's murder.

 Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.

They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.

Dixon -- six months pregnant -- died after weeks of abuse. Police have charged two adults, three teenagers and a 12-year-old boy with murder in the case that has repulsed many in this Mississippi River town.

"This is heartbreaking," police Lt. David Hayes said. "It was almost as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering. This woman was almost like living in a prison."

Investigators put much of the blame on Michelle Riley, 35, who they said befriended Dixon but pocketed monthly Social Security checks she got because of her developmental delays.

Dixon saw little, if any, of the money, Hayes said. For months she weathered the torment to keep a roof over her head and that of her year-old son, who weighed just 15 pounds when taken into state custody after his mom's death.

"I've never seen an almost conspiratorial effort by a group of people to continuously torture someone until she finally died, then not really show any remorse," Hayes said. "It was just a slow, torturous, tragic way to die. I highly doubt Dorothy Dixon even knew she was dying."

Riley, 43-year-old Judy Woods and three teenagers, including Riley's 15-year-old daughter, LeShelle McBride, are charged with first-degree murder, aggravated and heinous battery, intentional homicide of an unborn child, and unlawful restraint. Riley's 12-year-old son is charged as a juvenile.

Riley, her daughter, Woods and 16-year-old Benny Wilson have public defenders who did not immediately return messages for comment. An 18-year-old defendant, Michael Elliott, planned to get his own attorney, court records show.

All remain in jail on $1 million bond.

Messages left with a Chicago-area sister of Dixon went unreturned, but neighbors, Hayes and newspaper accounts offer a mosaic of the months leading to Dixon's demise inside the small, white, blue-shuttered house.

Riley and Dixon, police said, had lived in Quincy, a Mississippi River town about 100 miles north of St. Louis, Mo. Quincy is where Riley worked as a coordinator for a regional center that helps the developmentally disabled with housing and other services. Dixon was a client.

For years, an impoverished Riley struggled raising her children. Her use of methamphetamine and cocaine brought drug convictions in 2002 and 2004. But with treatment and housing help from the Quincy YWCA, Riley put her life in order -- so much that in February of last year, the Quincy Herald-Whig did a story on her comeback.

Last summer, Dixon and Riley moved into the $800-a-month, three-bedroom rental in Alton about 15 miles north of St. Louis. From the start, neighbors Chad Hudson and Terri Brandt considered Riley trouble.

"Michelle was evil, vindictive. Manipulative," said Hudson, convinced the teenagers were Riley's powerless minions.

"She was angry, vicious," added Brandt.

Riley considered Dixon her slave, making her rub Riley's feet until Riley fell asleep and forcing her to run naked around the house when she got in trouble, the neighbors said.

"Being in their house was like being in a prison day room," Hudson said. "They just sat around the kitchen table and fought."

There was little question that Riley ruled the roost.

While doing fix-ups on the home last fall, landlord Steve Atkins saw Riley "barking orders" at the children and everyone else. Atkins joked to her whether he needed to call the Army and see if they wanted their drill sergeant back.

"She didn't laugh about it at all," Atkins said. "Obviously, I hit a nerve."

Atkins said Dixon generally kept to herself "but was always nice when she spoke to you." He saw no hints she'd been suffering or tortured.

"I would have never, ever suspected something like this," he said. "It's definitely shocking."

Police said Dixon was allowed out of the house but didn't say under what conditions. Hayes didn't know who the father of Dixon's fetus is.

Hayes said things apparently came to a head Jan. 30, when investigators believe that Woods, during a dispute, beat Dixon on the head with an object Hayes wouldn't identify. The next day Woods found her dead.

Hayes watched the autopsy and found her injuries disturbing. X-rays revealed roughly 30 BBs lodged in her. Deep-tissue burns covered about one-third of her body -- her face, her chest, her arms and feet -- and left her severely dehydrated. Her face and body showed signs of prolonged abuse. Many of her wounds were infected.

None of the injuries, Hayes said, proved singly fatal to Dixon. Her system already was taxed by her unborn baby.

"The autopsy sort of indicates her immune system just shut down," he said. "It was not capable of fending off any more."

In the rental home's basement, Atkins said, he found spots of blood in a shower and tiny smears on the concrete floor, washer and dryer.

"It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame." E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be

[San]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/21/torture.slaying.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

updated 3:48 p.m. EDT, Fri March 21, 2008
  Disabled pregnant woman used as target practice
Story Highlights
Investigator: "This is heartbreaking"

{edited}

"It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame." E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be

OMG this is a disgusting crime.  May they rot in hell for what they did to this poor girl 

[hotping]

CBB or Klaas...Could One of You please change Me from My Easter Outfit...when You have time...TIA 

[klaasend]

Hotping - I'm working off my laptop right now and I don't know if I have your original here.  Maybe CBB has it and will post the link and I can change for you. 

[klaasend]

And this my friends is why I'm wearing a hard hat for the next couple months, LOL    This bobcat is removing the slab in our living room and master bedroom while we live in the back of the house 

Click on the pic to play the short video

[GreatOwl]

Well, good luck Klaas.  I do not envy you at all.  We had a bad enough time last December 21st when Pella installed all new windows in the house.  Wife got to go to work while I had to sit here all day and freeze. 

[GreatOwl]

I just made sure my laptop was operational using "airport."   We are going to drive to a couple of our vacation points this year and we want to take the laptop along to keep in touch with everyone.  I doubt I will try to lug it to Mexico.  I don't think they have in suite internet access at the Sheraton Buganvillas.  Even if they do, I do not really want to try to take a computer through customs.

[MumInOhio]

Hotping - I'm working off my laptop right now and I don't know if I have your original here.  Maybe CBB has it and will post the link and I can change for you. 

It took me forever today to change mine...and I followed Klaas' instructions...I thought! Well I finally worked it out.

Please don't delete my cute Monkey Klaas, I would like to have it back in a while.

Tomorrow...my sig. line!!!!(gave up today!)

[Rob]

Klaas you're too cute!!!

[MumInOhio]

Well, good luck Klaas.  I do not envy you at all.  We had a bad enough time last December 21st when Pella installed all new windows in the house.  Wife got to go to work while I had to sit here all day and freeze. 

Hi GreatOwl...you haven't seen Spring have you? I'm ready to move South!

Klaas...You will have a pile of work ahead of you when they are done...cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning!

[GreatOwl]

Well, good luck Klaas.  I do not envy you at all.  We had a bad enough time last December 21st when Pella installed all new windows in the house.  Wife got to go to work while I had to sit here all day and freeze. 

Hi GreatOwl...you haven't seen Spring have you? I'm ready to move South!

Klaas...You will have a pile of work ahead of you when they are done...cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning!

Well, we are pretty windy today.  This not what I could call spring, yet it is warmer than a month ago.  A little over two weeks and we head for Puerto Vallarta.  Hopefully, spring will have sprung by the time we return.  It has been a long winter.  I am glad we went to Florida in February.  It sure helped.

[LilPuma]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/21/torture.slaying.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

updated 3:48 p.m. EDT, Fri March 21, 2008
  Disabled pregnant woman used as target practice
Story Highlights
Investigator: "This is heartbreaking"

{edited}

"It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame." E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be

OMG this is a disgusting crime.  May they rot in hell for what they did to this poor girl 

Whether it's 5 guys beating a homeless man, anyone harming a child, or something as sick as this, it's particularly hard to not want to go "eye for an eye" with people who do these things.  To just abuse someone (or an animal) who has little if any ability to fight back, just for fun?  How freakin' sick is that?  It really really makes me want to do the same to them.  I do think that's why I starting speaking out for animals (used to volunteer for a shelter until I physically couldn't anymore).  Someone has to fight, and fight hard, for those who can't fight or speak for themselves.  Oh, this is so sick I can't stand it. 

[crazybabyborg]

Hotping - I'm working off my laptop right now and I don't know if I have your original here.  Maybe CBB has it and will post the link and I can change for you. 

Here it is, Klaas! I'm working on Patriotic ones, for Memorial Day maybe and certainly 4th of July, but I don't have Hotping's yet! This is the original Hotping:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c100/crazybabyborgs/Monkeys/monkey3.jpg

Want a sample of what I'm working on? 

      

         

I'll start a thread soon!

[GreatOwl]

Klaas, is there some reason why I am having a problem linking my new av?    I have tried more than a dozen times but it just doesn't recognize the link to photobucket.

[GreatOwl]

Ok, I think I have it now.

[snoopy]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/21/torture.slaying.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

updated 3:48 p.m. EDT, Fri March 21, 2008
  Disabled pregnant woman used as target practice
Story Highlights
Investigator: "This is heartbreaking"

Dorothy Dixon was 6 months pregnant and lived in the basement

Housemates tortured Dixon for weeks, and withheld her social security checks

Dixon also had a year-old child, who weighed 15 lbs. at time of mom's death

   
ALTON, Illinois (AP) -- Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor.


Five adults and a 12-year-old child were charged with Dorothy Dixon's murder.

 Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.

They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.

Dixon -- six months pregnant -- died after weeks of abuse. Police have charged two adults, three teenagers and a 12-year-old boy with murder in the case that has repulsed many in this Mississippi River town.

"This is heartbreaking," police Lt. David Hayes said. "It was almost as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering. This woman was almost like living in a prison."

Investigators put much of the blame on Michelle Riley, 35, who they said befriended Dixon but pocketed monthly Social Security checks she got because of her developmental delays.

Dixon saw little, if any, of the money, Hayes said. For months she weathered the torment to keep a roof over her head and that of her year-old son, who weighed just 15 pounds when taken into state custody after his mom's death.

"I've never seen an almost conspiratorial effort by a group of people to continuously torture someone until she finally died, then not really show any remorse," Hayes said. "It was just a slow, torturous, tragic way to die. I highly doubt Dorothy Dixon even knew she was dying."

Riley, 43-year-old Judy Woods and three teenagers, including Riley's 15-year-old daughter, LeShelle McBride, are charged with first-degree murder, aggravated and heinous battery, intentional homicide of an unborn child, and unlawful restraint. Riley's 12-year-old son is charged as a juvenile.

Riley, her daughter, Woods and 16-year-old Benny Wilson have public defenders who did not immediately return messages for comment. An 18-year-old defendant, Michael Elliott, planned to get his own attorney, court records show.

All remain in jail on $1 million bond.

Messages left with a Chicago-area sister of Dixon went unreturned, but neighbors, Hayes and newspaper accounts offer a mosaic of the months leading to Dixon's demise inside the small, white, blue-shuttered house.

Riley and Dixon, police said, had lived in Quincy, a Mississippi River town about 100 miles north of St. Louis, Mo. Quincy is where Riley worked as a coordinator for a regional center that helps the developmentally disabled with housing and other services. Dixon was a client.

For years, an impoverished Riley struggled raising her children. Her use of methamphetamine and cocaine brought drug convictions in 2002 and 2004. But with treatment and housing help from the Quincy YWCA, Riley put her life in order -- so much that in February of last year, the Quincy Herald-Whig did a story on her comeback.

Last summer, Dixon and Riley moved into the $800-a-month, three-bedroom rental in Alton about 15 miles north of St. Louis. From the start, neighbors Chad Hudson and Terri Brandt considered Riley trouble.

"Michelle was evil, vindictive. Manipulative," said Hudson, convinced the teenagers were Riley's powerless minions.

"She was angry, vicious," added Brandt.

Riley considered Dixon her slave, making her rub Riley's feet until Riley fell asleep and forcing her to run naked around the house when she got in trouble, the neighbors said.

"Being in their house was like being in a prison day room," Hudson said. "They just sat around the kitchen table and fought."

There was little question that Riley ruled the roost.

While doing fix-ups on the home last fall, landlord Steve Atkins saw Riley "barking orders" at the children and everyone else. Atkins joked to her whether he needed to call the Army and see if they wanted their drill sergeant back.

"She didn't laugh about it at all," Atkins said. "Obviously, I hit a nerve."

Atkins said Dixon generally kept to herself "but was always nice when she spoke to you." He saw no hints she'd been suffering or tortured.

"I would have never, ever suspected something like this," he said. "It's definitely shocking."

Police said Dixon was allowed out of the house but didn't say under what conditions. Hayes didn't know who the father of Dixon's fetus is.

Hayes said things apparently came to a head Jan. 30, when investigators believe that Woods, during a dispute, beat Dixon on the head with an object Hayes wouldn't identify. The next day Woods found her dead.

Hayes watched the autopsy and found her injuries disturbing. X-rays revealed roughly 30 BBs lodged in her. Deep-tissue burns covered about one-third of her body -- her face, her chest, her arms and feet -- and left her severely dehydrated. Her face and body showed signs of prolonged abuse. Many of her wounds were infected.

None of the injuries, Hayes said, proved singly fatal to Dixon. Her system already was taxed by her unborn baby.

"The autopsy sort of indicates her immune system just shut down," he said. "It was not capable of fending off any more."

In the rental home's basement, Atkins said, he found spots of blood in a shower and tiny smears on the concrete floor, washer and dryer.

"It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame." E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be

That's one of the most disgusting things I've ever read.  Damn them all.

[snoopy]

And this my friends is why I'm wearing a hard hat for the next couple months, LOL    This bobcat is removing the slab in our living room and master bedroom while we live in the back of the house 

Click on the pic to play the short video

Holy cow Klaas!!  That's crazy!!  I thougt it was wild when I was redoing the walls and floors at our house last fall, but this takes the cake.  I sure don't envy you. lol

                 

[snoopy]

Just wanted to let ya'll know that my daughters wedding photos are ready.  I have a thread in the lounge, but if you'd like to see them please email me at scaredmonkeysnoopy@gmail.com      I have a lot of ya'll email addresses, but not everybodys.  PLease let me know who you are by your SM name so I'll "recognize" you. lol

[klaasend]

DANA PRETZER SHOW - ON NOW!

The Dana Pretzer Show on Scared Monkeys Radio - Listen LIVE TONIGHT at 8PM
Eastern / 7 Central - Guests Include Don Clark and Mike McIntyre
 
This week, Dana welcomes:

Don Clark, retired FBI bureau chief and current Private Investigator
discussing the Bahamian inquest into the death of Daniel Smith

Mike Mcintyre, crime reporter and radio host, discusses high profile cases
in the news and a story about a Canadian woman who has been in jail for 2
years in Mexico without a trial for a crime she says she did not commit.

www.scaredmonkeysradio.com