My Prime of youth is but a frost of cares;

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain;

My crop of corn is but a field of tares;

And all my good is but vain hope of gain:

The day is past, and yet I saw no sun;

And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard, and it was not told;

My fruit is fall’n, and yet my leaves are green;

My youth is spent, and yet I am not old;

I saw the world, and yet I was not seen:

My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun;

And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death, and found it in my womb;

I looked for life, and saw it was a shade;

I trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb;

And now I die, and now I was but made:

My glass is full, and now my glass is run;

And now I live, and now my life is done.

This poem was written by Chidiock Tichborne. Tichborne was executed on September 20, 1586 because he was a conspirator in the plot to kill Queen Elizabeth.  He wrote this poem to his wife, Agnes, on September 19, 1586, the night before we was executed.  He was only twenty-eight years old at the time.  (http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/144.html)

When I first read this poem, I put myself in Tichborne's place.  I looked back on my life and I asked myself, "What if I were to die tomorow?"  Would I have any regrets?  Would I feel as though I hadn't served a purpose? I think these are the questions that the poem proposes to its reader.  Tichborne continually states that his life has just begun and now it's ending: "And now I live, and now my life is done."  This possibly signifies that he has a new value for life and would have lived it more fully if he had the chance to.  This is a sentiment of many people who discover that their days are limited.  They suddenly treasure every breathe of air they take and enjoy life more fully.  Tichborne says that he has seen the world but has not been seen.  This line conveys that Tichborne feels as though he has not left  much of an impact upon the world.  He has not left his mark on the world: He will not be remembered.  I think this is what most people dread to think of when they die because we usually want to leave behind something of value to the world when we part.  I hope I don't feel the same way as Tichborne when I die.

Bill Davidson had stopped the then 18-year-old Howard in Jackson County because his headlight was broken. Little did he know that that was the least of the problem.

The vehicle was actually stolen so Howard fired a shot into 43-year-old Davidson's neck in cold blood. Howard finally died by lethal injection for his crime aged 32.

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Yes, the word count is creeping back up! Hallelujah! One of the better parts of this revision has been the discovery of whole sections of material that is just fine. Really, in all honesty and modesty, there are parts of my book that I got right on the first try.

I'm also enjoying the critique work on Critters. I'm doing much more editing than submitting, but it's a great way to see classic writer mistakes to remind yourself to avoid them. I'm also hoping to make a few friends if I can discover some talented folks. I'm seeing a lot of clever ideas, but poor execution, so hopefully my comments will help those folks polish their craft.

Wow, that sounded incredibly condescending, didn't it? But, we can get honesty now from each other or we can get honesty later from agents and editors, right?

Thanks again to my Chapter One readers!

Baby: Sleeping less and eating more, just like her daddy!

Far from being a British DJ, this Ms Cox was a highway robber who was rampant in the 18th century.

She hanged for her crimes at Tyburn in 1744.

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Unlike Salem Witch Trial victim Giles Corey, today’s subject was truly abusive by all accounts. His name was Alan Mair and it was his violent temper that landed him in a whole heap of trouble north of the border. For this man in the twilight of his life had committed murder.

What a Mair

Mair shared his home with common-law wife Mary Fletcher who was a year older than him at 85. But unlike Mair, Fletcher was poorly – unable to walk very well or stand up straight, Fletcher was pretty much dependent on Mair for everything. And it turned out he had come to hate her and often wished her dead.

And that fatal wish came true soon enough. Or maybe it wasn’t a moment too soon for our long-suffering victim.

Witnesses were to come forward later and state that he would often starve Fletcher and keep food under lock and key, according to National Library of Scotland, which has reproduced salacious reports written at the time of the case.

Things came to a head when the accused apparently beat Fletcher bloody. A witness saw her in her bruised state having heard the commotion and found her and the bed bloodied. Naturally the police were called, but it was too late. The case had morphed from one of GBH to murder and the prime suspect was Mair himself.

Perish the thought

He was found guilty of murder and sent down to await the date when his penalty would be carried out. But that didn't stop him trying to take control of his end date. Mair went on a hunger strike, but eventually caved in. And when the word came through that his appeal had been rejected, he steeled himself for the inevitable.

The old man was hanged in Stirling apparently following a few brief struggles as he swung to his death.

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robert de niro/al paccino/curtis "50cent" jackson/carla cugino/john leguizamo/donnie wahlberg--dir. jon avnet

"Some people respect the badge, everybody respect the gun" ...Cand pe afis sta scris asta, alaturi de Pacino si De Niro, te astepti automat la "Heat" sau ceva in genul. Nope! S-a mizat prea mult pe numele astea doua, pe publicitatea facuta si mai ales pe trailer. Tot ce e comercial si atrage in filmul asta se afla acolo, in trailer.Restul se afla in film. Filmul nu straluceste dar nici nu e rau asa cum vorbeste lumea. Ba chiar daca nu ar fi fost cu Pacino/De Niro, lumea ar fi zis ca e chiar bun. dar cand asteptarile sunt la superlativ, primejdia esecului e infinit mai mare. Acum povestea: la un moment dat un justitiar incepe sa omoare la rand tot felul de raufacatori care au reusit initial sa fie achitati de justitie. Ei bine, asta nu-i iarta, si crimele sunt atat de bine executate, aproape perfecte incat se pune problema ca ar fi chiar cineva din interiorul politiei. Adica, ori Pacino ori De Niro. Cine o fi, o sa vedeti singuri daca aveti curiozitatea. Zic doar sa nu va luati dupa trendul general de a zice ca e o porcarie inainte de al vedea. Pt ca sigur n-o sa mai aveti aceeasi impresie. Dar nici sa va asteptati la minuni, doar ca sunt numele alea pe afis. E doar un film peste medie despre poltisti si criminali in serie. Ce scrie pe afis s-a vrut strict din ratiuni de marketing. Ca sa mearga lumea sa-l vada . Si a reusit. Pt ca daca ar fi sa parafrazez, "some people will like the movie, but everybody respect the NAMES"             VIEW TRAILER

If successful selling is taking a conversation to a logical conclusion, a mutual exchange between buyer and seller.  So leaving a detailed message just leads to back to back monologues that deter conversation.

When you leave a detailed message, you allow the receiving parties to come to conclusions with out the benefit of a direct and genuine interaction.  The goal then is to use a message that compels the recipient to call back and get engaged, as opposed to making decisions about you or your product in a vacuum.

I use a method that gets me as much as 6 return calls for every 10 voice mails I leave.  It is a straight forward method that is very clearly described in the following article, Five Proven Ways to Get More Appointments Part 2 of 5: Voice Mail.

Beyond the technique what you need is the right attitude, you have to project a sense of confidence that encourags the recipient to act on the curiousity created by the voice mail technique outlined in the above artcle.  Avoid sounding like a sales person, don't say "please call me back at you earliest convenience"; sound confident, authoritative, and clear.  When you are not sure, examine and minimize rather than adding more in. 

Voice mail is part of business, it is not going away, so the questions is how you use it to your advantage rather than worrying about it.

Trevor Stevens

“I have spent the past 23 years designing processes (12 years), designing departments (7 years) and designing businesses (4 years).  If you don't mind I will recount how that progression occurred.  Initially I worked on determining the root cause of process performance problems (nice alliteration) and designing solutions.  The effort was typically directed to one department.  As the projects grew so did the breadth of the processes.  It did not take long until I was working on processes that spanned departments which definitely increased the complexity.  I did have great success and eventually was asked to step into the CIO role at La-Z-Boy (LZB).  In that role I redesigned the IT department for the LZB division (3 years) and then created an entirely new IT department to service the all 14 divisions at LZB (4 years) plus the corporate office.  Though my title was CIO my actual role was IT Department designer, leader and manager.

As a Vice President I did have control over those areas reporting directly to me and so I could design them to work the way I wished them to.  But that meant the rest of the organization was out there going in other directions.  IT, HR and Finance are all support functions and as members of those organizations we see just how dysfunctional businesses are because we are asked to participate in all of their projects.  If you know anything about IT you will be aware of the challenge made to every CIO - Align IT with the business.  Problem is "the business" is not aligned with itself and therefore there isn't just one thing IT can align to.  (I contend that there really is not something called “the business” but instead a collection of departments that share a common business name.)  

So it became apparent that businesses needed a way to have all of the parts working together.  I saw first hand what happens when a CEO believes that if you let each department go off and try to optimize itself then you will have an optimized whole.  It simply does not work that way.  Optimizing all the parts does not optimize the whole.  After leaving LZB four years ago I started documenting the design of the entire business to show relationships and how the parts needed to work together.  It actually shows how to align the parts of a company - the holy grail of business.

You have some process work in your course.  If you are a process designer you know that processes are invisible until each activity/component is documented.  Documenting processes is actually documenting process designs.  It is only when the entire process is visible that you can determine if a change is warranted and what the impact of that change will be.  By documenting the process before making changes you minimize risks of unintended results.  Also by documenting the process you can determine whether the process needs to be changed in order to achieve certain performance goals or if it is a matter of execution.  Poor process performance is the result of either a poor design or the poor execution of the design.  Until you document the process you can not know where the problem exists.  More than 80% of the time it is design-related.

Now reread the last paragraph and substitute the word ‘process’ with the word ‘business’.  The principles are exactly the same.  Most executives (people in your class) do not understand that businesses have designs.  They know products have designs and some will know processes have designs but few if any will know that the business has an actual design.  And because they do not know designs exist in businesses they do not look at the design when they are having performance issues.  They look at their employees (remember performance = design + execution) and if you can not see the design you go after execution.  This is why so many projects in companies have such a low ROI and management is frustrated with their investments.  They are not resolving the root cause.

I know this is a roundabout way of getting to one suggestion I would have with your course.  And that is context.  Context provides the appropriate background for any area of study.  One pet peeve of mine is when people judge actions taken decades ago and use today's mores as the backdrop.  Without knowing what was going on in the past those judging do not have the right context to understand the actions that were taken.  Without understanding the entire business your students may not fully grasp Operations.  I do see that you speak about business and process design and I want to encourage you to show how things are connected, not separated.  It really is not 'business and operations' any more that it was 'the business and IT'.  All of it is the business because "Everything is connected to everything".

There is a particular sequence that leads up to the performance requirements for Operations.

Ø      Capstone. 

o       Strategic information such as the determination of the performance goals for the company.  What are the revenue goals and profit goals?  They drive everything. 

o       In addition you have to understand the competitive environment.  Without knowing the competitive environment you are making plans in a vacuum.  Returning to the idea of context, the competitive environment provides the context for designing the business for success. 

Ø      Market Model.

o       Markets, customer segments, product groups, products and Value Propositions.

o       Determine whether your Market Model can deliver on your revenue goals.  If not you have to make adjustments to the Market Model design.  You may increase your markets, sell to new customers, develop new products or redesign existing products.  You may acquire an existing company which will broaden your Market Model.

o       Part of the work in documenting the Market Model is determining customer expectations.  This is critical because Market Model requirements are input into Operations (Process Model).

Ø      Process Model. 

o       The Process Model contains all of the processes that the business performs.  What I am referring to may be slightly different than how you think about it.  Selling is a process.  Marketing is a process.  Assembling components is a process.  Making components is a process.  There are processes that focus on Creating Demand for a company's products and services.  There are processes created in order to Fulfill Demand for those products and services.  I expect that in your course you equate Operations with Fulfill Demand processes.  If I am correct in that assumption I would suggest that in the future you consider all processes as part of Operations.  That is why Lean concepts work on the shop floor and in the office as well. 

o       The point I wish to make here is that the performance requirements for processes is not arbitrary.  The market place will determine what is an acceptable price or acceptable lead time both of which are determined by the Process design (Operations).  The market gives Operations the minimum requirements in order to be competitive.

I will stop here.  I have probably worn out my welcome by now.  You should know there are two more Models that are part of a business design:  Organizational Model and Systems Model.  If you wish to have an overview of them I would be glad to share it with you.

Everything I have written comes from my business partner and me.  I can not direct you to a different source because we are the sources for these ideas.  This is just the tip of our ice berg.  I have much, much more I could discuss. 

Let me know if you wish any clarification on the ideas I have presented.  I will be glad to respond.”

Janka Boissevain, Gideon Boissevain and cousin Louis Boissevain were three family members who were literally wiped out in one fell swoop for daring to resist Nazi control during World War II.

Far from right

Bizarrely some sources state that their parents had initially been seduced by the right-wing messages and had gone as far as to join the Dutch Fascist Party, which had been led by the likes of Anton Mussert, and that the couple had promptly quit the party after the full terrors of what that party’s politics entailed began to unfold...

But in actual fact, Janka and Gideon’s mum was the fabled Adrienne Minette Boissevain-van Lennep (aka Mies), who was a key insurgent within the resistance movement. She had always held strong opinions and had been an active member of the feminist movement earlier in life, but it was her whole family’s anti-Nazi work during the war that was to land them in hot water.

Dutch courage

After all, what was the family meant to do; sit back and watch while friends were swiped and annihilated just for being Jewish?

Naturally the family couldn’t stand idly by, and in a covert operation, the Boissevain brothers joined a group of Dutch resistance fighters, who’d do anything to subvert the Fascists’ activities during the Second World War.

Mies and her husband actually went on to harbour Jews in a bid to help them break for freedom from their oppressors.

Busted

But the Nazis were onto them and the brothers, cousin Louis and matriarch Mies herself were sharply apprehended for their resistance work in August 1942 in a Nazi haul that comprised 70 resistance members. Some were executed, others sent to concentration camps.

Indeed, her husband Jan was shipped off to various concentration camps and he ended his days in Buchenwald where he died. Mies, on the other hand, was carted off to other concentration camps where she was posted to work in hospitals. Luckily she lived through the dark years to see freedom.

However, her sons and her nephew met a more immediate and untimely end. Just two months after they’d been apprehended, the Nazis wiped the boys out: Janka aged 23, Gideon aged 22 and Louis aged 21, alongside 17 other members of the resistance were shot en masse.

Also on this day

1 October 1957 – Jacques Fesch
1 October 1912 – Sargent Philp

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sp_settriggerorder [@triggername = ] 'triggername'
, [@order = ] 'value'
, [@stmttype = ] 'statement_type'

Argument

[@triggername = ] 'triggername'

Is the name of the trigger whose order will be set or changed. triggername is sysname. If the name does not correspond to a trigger or if the name corresponds to an INSTEAD OF trigger, the procedure will return an error.

[@order = ] 'value'

Is the setting for the new trigger order. value is varchar(10) and it can be any of the following values.

Important The First and Last triggers must be two different triggers.

[@stmttype = ] 'statement_type'

Specifies which SQL statement fires the trigger. statement_type is varchar(10) and can be INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE. A trigger can be designated as the First or Last trigger for a statement type only after that trigger has been defined as a trigger for that statement type. For example, trigger TR1 can be designated First for INSERT on table T1 if TR1 is defined as an INSERT trigger. SQL Server will return an error if TR1, which has been defined only as an INSERT trigger, is set as a First (or Last) trigger for an UPDATE statement. For more information, see the Remarks section.

A plethora of screaming voices pierce my ears; the heavy weight of ignominy pulls at my stomach; the gleam of the blade shines in my eyes. The scene is inhumanity manifested in a 1790s French guillotine execution— my own.

I was awaken this morning by the voice of shouting soldiers. It was still dark, but their attentive attitude worked as a catalyst for my sleepy mind. ‘Are we being invaded by the Prussians? Was Marie Antoinette out loose, dangerous?’ A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, eventually centering on one as they grabbed me, and told me I had been charged with conspiring to murder Maximilien Robespierre: What had I done?

The trial was swift because no evidence was required. These days, it seems as though mass paranoia has swept through our streets. Everyone is afraid of everyone else, and everyone else is trying to ruin the revolution.

Not three hours from my trial and not six from my rude awakening, I stand before an audience cheering for my death. I feel my executioner’s hand on my shoulder, placed as if to mollify me. He mumbles something incoherent.

My mind is blank. Could this be apathy? Acceptance? Probably both. ‘Surely the afterlife will be safer than this hellhole,’ I think to myself. ‘Where has humanity’s empathy gone?’

The blade drops. The voices stop. Finally.

Dennis Muldowney was executed on this day in 1952 for the murder of a Cold-War countess.

Marine steward, Muldowney was jailed and sentenced to death for killing Polish Countess Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, who was known for her forays into espionage.

The infamous World War II spy was a key player, passing secrets to the Brits while serving in Germany, Hungary and France. After the war, she came across Ian Fleming and they embarked on a year-long affair.

That's why she is said to have been the basis for Fleming's character Vesper Lynd in his first James Bond novel, ‘Casino Royale’, written in 1953 and played by Eva Green in the consequent Bond movie of the same name, as well as Ursula Andress in the spoof version of 1967.

Muldowney was similarly drawn to her and eventually became obsessed, which drove him to stab the 44-year-old to death on 15 June 1952.

He was hanged for his crime at Pentonville prison, aged 41.

Also on this day

30 September 1902 – John McDonald

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Friday October 10^th 6.30pm for a 7.00 start

Western Districts Rugby F.C., Memorial Park, Sylvan Rd, Toowong

Last year, the UN called for a universal moratorium on executions. Still, hundreds of people across the world are on death row facing the ultimate violation of their human rights - some for nonviolent crimes such as drug offences. Join AACP and our speakers as we examine these issues.

Speakers

Stephen Keim, SC

Patron of Australians Against Capital Punishment

Dr Alex Wodak

President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation

Tony Trimingham, OAM

Established the Damien Trimingham Foundation following the death of his son from an overdose

Dr Denis Bartrum

Ipswich Hospital Emergency Department

Lee & Christine Rush

Parents of a young Australian on Death Row in Bali

Cost for 3 course meal: $45 per head

RSVP by Monday October 6th to Don on 0405 721 617 or email Don.Sinnamon@gmail.com

Flyer below -

aacp-dinner-oct-10

]]> http://paranormalfieldinvestigators.wordpress.com/?p=21 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:33:00 +0000 paranormalfieldinvestigators http://paranormalfieldinvestigators.el.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/the-old-adelaide-gaol-is-it-really-haunted/ SIX YEARS OF OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION AT THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL - THE HISTORY

PART 1

A BRIEF HISTORY

Adelaide Gaol started its life in 1841 and continued in service until it was finally closed in 1988. The Gaol was built in stages with additions being built onto it until 1847. It was questioned at the time as to why such an expensive gaol was needed, especially in a State that was a free colony not a penal. In fact the building of the gaol nearly bankrupted South Australia at the time, and questions were asked. However it soon proved its worth, and started to fill up fairly rapidly.

An old aerial view of the gaol

Over it's 147 years of service, an estimated 300,000 men and women have passed through its doors and 45 prisoners were executed on the premises, where they remain to this day. One of the more famous being Elizabeth Woolcock, hung in 1873 and the only woman to have been hung in South Australia. She was found guilty of poisoning her husband with arsenic. However, he was already a sick man and was being treated by several different doctors all of whom would have had small traces of arsenic in their medication. A retrial was held recently and the same evidence was presented, at which poor Elizabeth was found not guilty. Ironically she had tried to commit suicide a year earlier by hanging herself, but the attempt failed. Some people feel she should not be there now, and still leave flowers on her grave.

Between 1840 and 1964 one woman and 44 men were hung at Adelaide Gaol in 4 separate areas. Portable gallows were used for 20 of these people; a further 21 were hung in the New Building and four in the hanging tower. All of these people are still buried at the gaol and their graves can still be visited along the walkways.

Graves at the Adelaide Gaol.  The prisoners were only given initials, prisoner number and date of hanging which, were painted onto the wall, to be remembered by.  They were not put in sanctified ground as it was seen as punishment for eternity.

BUT WHAT OF THE HAUNTINGS?

Stories have been coming out of the gaol for many years now. We had reports of staff working in the office on their own, who would hear footsteps crossing the upper floor when nobody was there and sounds of furniture moving around. Of another volunteer, who upon leaving the office to deal with the public in the shop, would return to find her paperwork strewn across the floor, even after she started placing mugs of coffee on them. At one point she told it to stop as it was scaring her, and it didn't happen again. This behaviour was maybe in keeping with the first Governor Ashton, who was known to have a sense of humour. He used to live upstairs and eventually died up there due to weight complications as he was a very large man. In fact he was so large that when they found him, rigamortous had set in,and they had to lower him out of a window with ropes as they couldn't fit him through the doors. Not a very dignified ending.

Then there were stories of a lady dressed in white. In fact one school group, after a sleepover, approached staff the next day and asked where the mannequin had gone from one of the yards as it had been there the night before. They were informed there had been no mannequin in that yard, but they insisted they had seen a lady dressed in white just standing there. The only lady on record that ever wore a white dress in the Gaol, had been Elizabeth Woolcock at her execution. Was she still haunting the place?

'A' Wing

But the stories that interested us the most were the ones that were coming out of 'A' Wing where 21 of the hangings had taken place. It was regularly reported that a guard would be seen at the top of the old metal staircase. In fact records show that even when the gaol was working, prisoners and guards alike often found it uncomfortable in that block made requests to be moved. I interviewed a guard who used to work there and he informed me that a couple of the guards refused to do night duty in that block as they could hear somebody patrolling the gantreys, when they were sitting in their office. Finally the Gaol was closed and the Adelaide Council were called in to clear it out. We tracked down a couple of the workers and found that after a few days they refused to go back into to the Gaol, 'A' Wing in particular. They were hearing footsteps, doors slamming and they were getting increasingly more uncomfortable. Eventually they had to bring contractors in to complete the clean up. And what about the electrician who was up a step ladder adding some party lights ready for people who had hired the block for an upcoming celebration. If you can imagine yourself at the top of the stepladder and you glance up through the bars to the second floor, only to find a face smiling back at you through those bars. The problem was … it WAS only a face, there was no body. He ended up back at the office and told them that if they want lights… they can **@&(@ do it themselves!! He was determined he wasn't going back in there again. There was also the work experience student whose first job was to go into 'A' Wing and put up the new government No Smoking signs. It wasn't long before he too, ended up back at the office shaking. He said he had seen a guard come out of the top offices and run down one of the gantries and into a cell before disappearing. He was told that if he wanted to work there, he had to get used to the guard as he was part of the Gaol.

Top of staircase where old Office is and where the Guard is witnessed.

And the list of stories went on. So 6 years ago we were invited to come in and officially start investigating the Old Adelaide Gaol. We thank management for this and for the trust they gave us right from the start. Eventually we went on to become volunteers at the gaol ended up taking some of the Ghost Tours for them.

Over the 6 years we were investigating, our ghost tours went from 1 hr and expanded gradually into over 2-3 hrs. This is because we accumulated so much new material the more we investigated. There is probably too much to put here, but when we release the website we will have expanded versions there.

I will also give a condensed version with photos in Part 2.

Forget an errant bale of straw at a bakery in Pudding Lane, our French friend thought it would be a great idea to claim he'd sparked the conflagration.

Death wish

Of course we're not sure why Hubert would want to admit it. Some say he was simple and thought it'd be a good idea at the time. Others reckoned on a more sinister reason – that he was coerced into a confession by the government to appease the baying bank of livid Londoners. After all, people had lost their loved ones, their houses and their livelihoods and they needed someone to blame.

Cue Frenchman Hubert who set about further unleashing the angry mob's ire. But his story was ridiculously flaky and more importantly irrelevant. The source of the fire had already been identified and he hadn't even been in the country at the time.

Nevertheless, he was strung up by gaolers at Tyburn. When his body was cut down, it had been destined for medical research. But, immersed in hatred, the lynch mob launched in on the lifeless corpse and pulled it to little pieces.

Also on this day

28 September 2005 – Alan Matheney
28 September 1949 – William Jones

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He’d been banged up for GBH and obviously had vengeance on his mind. The wife beater came up for parole and had been on an eight-hour short release from Pendleton Correctional Facility, where he had been incarcerated for beating up Lisa Bianco.

In that time, he sought his ex-wife out again and beat Bianco to death with a shotgun in front of his daughters and other witnesses.

The 55-year-old was given the lethal injection for the cold-blooded murder in 2005.

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His was a particularly heinous crime because he raped and killed his own step-daughter, who was just 12 at the time. After he’d assaulted her, McGinn had taken the blunt end of an axe to her head and bludgeoned her to death, leaving her with fatal head injuries, as well as a fractured skull.

Poignantly, the child, whose name was Stephanie Flannery, had been left in his care while her mother had gone on a trip. The mother was never to see her child again.

Something fishy

Damning evidence linked McGinn to the crime, not least blood found in his car and on an axe found under the front seat. Indeed the child’s hair was also matted in with the congealed blood.

Despite trying to pass this off as debris from his fishing trips, the remains were obviously human. Indeed in the run-up to McGinn’s execution, George W Bush granted him two stays until DNA tests could be carried out.

However, rather than underpinning his claims of innocence, the tests proved the blood matched the dead child’s DNA. But it was his semen and pubic hairs that unequivocally linked him to the dead body, according to the Texas Execution Information Center.

It was similar evidence on a 19-year-old’s body that was to link him another corpse, but he was never tried for the murder of Christi Jo Eggers merely because he was already on death row.
Needless to say, no further appeals were granted and he was executed by lethal injection, aged 43 at Huntsville in Texas.

Also on this day

27 September 2005 – Herman Dale Ashworth

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According to the coroner's office, 40-year-old Baker looked like he'd been in a road or airplane accident. Why? Apparently Baker had tried it on with him after they'd been drinking in a bar.

Ashworth had freaked and beaten him to a pulp by kicking him and using his fists plus a board.
Ashworth's then girlfriend helped send him down by testifying against him that he'd admitted the crime. The 32-year-old was injected with lethal drugs in Ohio. His final words were: 'a life for a life, let it be done and justice will be served'.

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Tuesday's last-minute stay of execution for murder convict Troy Anthony Davis has left the victim's family disheartened but still hopeful justice will be served.

"It hurt, honestly," said Mark Allen MacPhail Jr. "It's a big disappointment."

I can understand why they'd want it to be over after all this but don't they even want to make sure it's the right guy before they fry him?

The thirst for revenge - on anybody, doesn't matter who - is the reason the law was developed as an objective force rather than a nemesis. The hopelessly misguided (or deliberately obstructionist and vindictive) movement to make the families of crime victims "part of the process" has injected an element of revenge into our judicial process that is poisoning criminal law. It is less and less about justice than it is about getting back at somebody for a wound.

Frontier justice is attractive in the movies but only because they're NOT REAL. In the actual world, it's the next thing to vigilantism and shouldn't be encouraged.