Ugly World: One
Welcome to UGLY WORLD, where I will discuss real life horror. I’ll discuss all the latest news on mortuary mishaps, bizarre crimes, serial killers, cannibal killers, necrophilia and more. I’ll explore the relationship between film and crime. Some people say there is no connection between film and real-life violence. That’s bullshit, and this column deals with films that influence crime.
Take HBO’s The Sopranos, recently two actors from the show made news. One character who played the gay lover of a mobster committed suicide. Lillo Brancato, who plays a low-level criminal executed by Tony Soprano’s crew, was recently convicted in a case involving the murder of a police officer. Brancato, a drug addict, broke into a home with his friend looking for drugs. An off-duty police officer caught them and Brancato’s accomplice shot the police officer to death after the officer shot them both. Brancato was facing life imprisonment for murder, but was convicted of a lesser crime, and faces 15 years in prison.
Weird news item of the month — A mentally ill Texas death row inmate gouged out one of his eyes several years ago. Recently, he removed his other eyeball and ate it. Auto-cannibalism. Like the Stephen King story Survivor Type about a doctor stranded on an island who eats himself. Authorities believe the death row inmate might be mentally ill. What a brilliant deduction. Had he gouged out and eaten his eyeball the day of his execution, the eye would have been his last meal. I wonder what the eyeball tastes like. What happens when you bite down on it? Does it explode, or does it melt in your mouth like fine chocolate? There’s only one way to find out- readers, please try this at home and let me know how it works out.
Do video games lead to violence? Personally, I don’t care if they do or not. No one plays a video game and then decides to kill. But there is a clear relationship between video games and violence. A 17-year-old man shot his parents, killing his mother, all over his supposed video game addiction. His parents refused to let him play a video game known as Halo 3. He would play the game up to 18 hours a day, and his lawyer claims he is ‘addicted’ to video games. Unable to play Halo 3, the kid took his father’s handgun and shot his parents. The son told his parents to close their eyes because he had a present for them. The present? Getting shot. Not exactly what they were expecting. When the young man fled the crime scene, he took his copy of Halo 3 with him. I’m sure if there were no video game the kid would have found another reason to kill his parents. Maybe his parents would have taken away his country records, forcing him into withdrawal, causing him to kill. Or maybe he would have found inspiration from that notoriously violent and sadistic book, The Bible.
