Reiser Murder Case Gets Stranger

Fahrvergnuugen writes "Wired is running a story about how an ex-lover of the missing wife of accused spouse killer Hans Reiser has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case. While Reiser will still stand trial for the murder, this development will undoubtedly complicate things."

hmmmm

[uberjoe (726765)]

Does this mean I don't have to reformat after all?

Re:hmmmm

[Tackhead (54550)]

> Does this mean I don't have to reformat after all?

Nope. Heck, kill -8 is just a floating point exception. It's kill -9 that Hans has to worry about.

On the other hand, the guy making the confession did fsck her...

/does anyone else smell brimstone, or is it just me?

Re:hmmmm

[Penguinisto (415985)]

...true, but did he HUP or NOHUP? If he HUP'd, we're talking serious perversion...

/P

Re:hmmmm

[ez76 (322080)]

If he couldn't be bothered to clean up blood from his car and to get rid of his books on homicide, how the hell can we trust this guy to free memory on the heap?

So ....

[taniwha (70410)]

you're going to OJ for your next FS?

Re:So ....

[Mr2cents (323101)]

OJFS sucks. I constantly encounter error messages like "I don't say I saved your file, but if I stored it, it would be called 'readme.txt'".

Re:So ....

[hey! (33014)]

But it implements the Johnny Cochrane cache management scheme: if it doesn't fit you must commit.

Re:hmmmm

[dsfox (2694)]

You might as well ask if you can trust someone who doesn't cut his hair and clean his eyeglasses to free memory on the heap.

true, in fact

[commodoresloat (172735)]

it just confirms that reiserfs is truly a killer filesystem.

Bad line wrapping!

[Kelson (129150)]

When I saw this story, I skimmed the first line, then got to the second, which read: "Hans Reiser has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case." It was a bit of a jolt. Then I went back and realized that it was referring to his wife's ex-lover, not to Reiser himself.

This is why you don't put a giant 10-word prepositional phrase between a subject and verb, especially if that phrase ends with something that could plausibly by a subject.

Re:Bad line wrapping!

[SpectreHiro (961765)]

Makes it real easy to twist the quote, too.

...accused spouse killer Hans Reiser has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case.

Re: Bad line wrapping!

[Black Parrot (19622)]

This is why you don't put a giant 10-word prepositional phrase between a subject and verb, especially if that phrase ends with something that could plausibly by a subject.

Unless you're writing in German...

Re: Bad line wrapping!

[SpectreHiro (961765)]

Nope, then it'd just be a 1 word prepositional phrase that's 10 words long. ;)

Re:Bad line wrapping!

[solevita (967690)]

I tried reading the summary aloud and the kill count almost went up a notch. Short sentences help readers breath.

Re:Bad line wrapping!

[Iamthefallen (523816)]

When I saw this story, I skimmed the first line, then got to the second, which [...] was a bit of a jolt. Then I went back and realized that it was referring to [...] a giant [...] p [...] e [...] n [...] i [...] s

Summarizing like a Slashdot editor is more fun.

Re:Bad line wrapping!

[timster (32400)]

doesn't a murder case require a body (or parts of it)?

As I understand it, this is mostly a myth, but without a body it can be awfully hard to prove that the victim is dead in the first place. As an example, spouses in abusive relationships often disappear and hide themselves.

just to be clear

[seanadams.com (463190)]

in case you mis-read the summary like I did at first: it was not Hans Reiser who confessed, but Sean Sturgeon, someone his wife previously dated. It is also unclear from TFA when they say "a one-time friend of Reiser's" whether they are talking about Hans or his wife.

Irrespective of whether Hans is really guilty, if this isn't enough to show a reasonable doubt I don't know what is. In light of this, it would seem quite plausible that he was framed.

Interesting tidbit at the end of TFA:According to testimony in preliminary hearings in the case, Nina Reiser had once dated Sturgeon, but broke off their relationship in January 2006 because she was unhappy with his lifestyle and taste for sadomasochism.

Sounds like they're all a bunch of real whackos!

Re:just to be clear

[vandan (151516)]

I've thought he'd been framed from day one. He had some Department of Defense contracts for developing resier4. I wouldn't put it past them ( or the US administration ) to get bitchy over such a contract. Of course this is highly speculative, but what if, say, they asked him to implement something he didn't feel comfortable with? It's not like these guys have a problem with killing or imprisoning innocent people ( think Guantanimo Bay ). This is how they do business.

Re:just to be clear

[harrkev (623093)]

I can just see the defense now:

1) No body, so the prosecution cannot prove that she is even dead.

2) If the IS dead, she recently dated a guy who has confessed to eight killings.

What are the odds that he gets convicted?

Re:just to be clear

[Qzukk (229616)]

Common sense says if Sturgeon is going to spontaneously admit to 8 (possibly 9) murders, he'll probably admit to a 10th if it exists.

It also says that if I wanted to frame some guy who I hate because I failed to steal his wife from him, I'd confess to everything but killing the woman, so that the cops will think exactly what you thought. So far in this case it seems the cops have been easy suckers, so it just might work.

Re:just to be clear

[Qzukk (229616)]

Sure that's a nice alternate theory.

So's the theory that just because a person confessed to a lot of crimes at once, that it somehow must have been the whole of his sins. It's hard to test whether this theory pans out in reality, since whenever a serial rapist or murderer goes on the block, the prosecutors generally try to stick every open case in the book on them in order to clear out their backlog, whether the person actually committed the crime or not. Of those, I wonder how many were murderers who confessed to the murders of the 5 bodies in their basement in hopes of keeping the investigators from finding the other 20 corpses in the lime pit out back?

an obsession or anger on Sturgeon's part

So this Sturgeon guy tries to steal Hans Reiser's wife, tries to seize his company, tries to take his money, and just keeps coming back for more? Yeah, he can't possibly be obsessed or angry, obviously Reiser must have had a "harass me repeatedly" sign taped to his back.

Re:just to be clear

[X0563511 (793323)]

Wow, how delightfully shallow! If we found out that Newton murdered someone we should all drop newtonian physics!

Honestly, whatever he has done on a social level (killing could be considered social interaction) has NOTHING to do with the technical merit/achievements... and we should not abandon his work merely because he (may have) killed his wife.

</bitter>

Reasonable doubt

[iamacat (583406)]

If your wife's ex-lover is a confessed serial killer, the evidence against you has to be pretty damning for you not to create reasonable doubt. Like if he was videotaped by a policeman while committing a murder and later signed a statement that he is a person on the video. It's not a big stretch of imagination that someone who killed 8 times and didn't get caught is capable of some creativity when planting evidence.

Re:Reasonable doubt

[Man On Pink Corner (1089867)]

If your wife's ex-lover is a confessed serial killer, the evidence against you has to be pretty damning for you not to create reasonable doubt.

Well, either that, or she was just into psychos.

Death Yoga

[Sloppy (14984)]

I am shocked -- SHOCKED! -- that the creepy S&M guy who was into "death yoga" and has now admitted to other murders, is suspected of Nina's murder. I mean, that's just silly. I saw the ELER cartoon, and he wasn't in it.

Re:Death Yoga

[Dirtside (91468)]

Death yoga? I didn't read TFA, is Dhalsim involved somehow?

Reiser's attorney speaks out

[L. VeGas (580015)]

"Look law, no Hans."

Re:Reiser's attorney speaks out

[Duhavid (677874)]

Look.

Hans shot first. Case closed.

Hans Reiser has not confessed to killing anybody!

[Omnifarious (11933)]

Change the wording of the article! Yes, it's from the original article. But it's very clearly misleading and needs to be changed.

Reiser and Sturgeon had some serious conflicts too

[mo (2873)]

from: http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_256204954.h tml [cbs5.com]

Apparently Sturgeon was sleeping with Reiser's wife before they finalized the divorce. Also, Reiser accused Sturgeon of trying to steal money from him, and of threatening him. So there's totally motive here for Sturgeon to frame Reiser for the murder.

Re:Reiser and Sturgeon had some serious conflicts

[BoberFett (127537)]

If anything wouldn't it be more that Reiser would have a motive (jealousy) to frame the other guy?

For eight murders?

A real sharp-witted fellow

[spiritraveller (641174)]

It's unclear when Sturgeon made the confession -- he would say only, "I have cooperated since day one." Asked why he had confessed at all, he responded with this question: "In a murder case, if somebody has killed, who is a witness, is it relevant? Yes or no?"

When this reporter responded that it was relevant, Sturgeon said, "Then you have the answer to your question."

Sturgeon added that confessing was one of the most difficult decisions of his life. He also regrets being a source of distraction in the case, joking that he is not so much a red herring as a "red Sturgeon."

Yep... a regular old Hannibal Lechter. Do you think he might have had some sort of grudge against Reiser? Spurned love, and then his friend gets the girl... yathink? Maybe he set it up so that not only does Reiser lose his wife... but then has to defend a murder case for killing her.

From what's been in the press, it seems that all the evidence is circumstantial. A criminal case can be proven by circumstantial evidence, but only when it's enough to exclude all other reasonable conclusions based on the evidence. Looks like this shoots the prosecution right out of the water.

On the other hand, if the prosecution had this confession a long time ago and they are still moving forward, it's possible they have some other evidence that we don't know about yet.

Let's fix the confusing writeup

[ZackSchil (560462)]

"Wired is running a story about how Sean Sturgeon, an ex-lover of Hans Reiser's missing wife, has confessed to having killed 8 people. Hans is currently standing trial for the murder of his wife. Though the confessed murders are unrelated to the current case, this new information is sure to complicate things."

Finally!

[TheChromaticOrb (931032)]

Finally the court will put it to rest. Did Hans shoot first, or was it the other guy?

Oh, wait... wrong movie.

Crazy Soap Opera's

[stox (131684)]

I always wondered where they got some of the crazy idea's for Soap Opera's, I don't wonder anymore. I really feel sorry for poor Hans, assuming he is innocent. This is a nightmare of unimaginable proportions. Even if he "wins", he will probably be bankrupt from paying the attorneys.

Wow, what are the odds?

[HeavensBlade23 (946140)]

If Hans Reiser is guilty, that means Nina Reiser went from dating one killer to another killer... What are the odds of someone just happening to date two murderers?

Re:Wow, what are the odds?

[Opportunist (166417)]

Probably the same of two bombs being on one plane. That's why I never travel without one.

But try to discuss the laws of statistics with the ground personnel dimwits at airports...

Re:Wow, what are the odds?

[marcushnk (90744)]

Probably fairly high, she's likely to be predisposed to be attracted to a particular personality type...

Death Yogi

[delire (809063)]

By confessing to something really horrible you aquire a curious kind of trust in people: if he says that he didn't kill Nina then who would doubt him now that he so flippantly admitted to the killing of 8 others?

This of course can be a strategy in itself, it's a card he's earnt by confessing and can play against Reiser, someone he clearly wants to see lose everything (re 2004 case for attempted seizure of Reiser's business [cbs5.com], Namesys Inc.).

Still alive?

[Skinkie (815924)]

Quote from wikipedia:
It was also revealed that Nina Reiser obtained Russian citizenship for her daughter 2 years before and surreptitiously obtained Russian citizenship for her son two months before she disappeared.

Now how likely would it be that she is somewhere is big Russia :)

Re:Ouch

[Danga (307709)]

So Hans Reiser is a full-blown sociopath? Goddamn. Looks like he may have killed ReiserFS, too.

If you can't even RTFA at least read the summary!

"ex-lover of the missing wife of accused spouse killer Hans Reiser has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case."

It is not Hans Reiser confessing to eight other killings, it is an EX LOVER of the wife who is confessing to eight other killings.

As far as ReiserFS, I don't really care if that dies since I don't use it myself. I am sure it will still be around a while though no matter what happens.

Re:The bus factor of OpenSOurce

[Overly Critical Guy (663429)]

I think you're missing the point, which is that the OSS philosophy that someone will just come along and pick up the project is quite different from reality, as evidenced by the cratering of ReiserFS since this happened. If you're using a product from a business, it's a different story since a business can hire someone experienced enough to replace the previous developer. You're right that a business could pick up the project since the code is out there, but then why isn't that happening with ReiserFS?

I do?

[Rimbo (139781)]

"Apple did go on without Jobs," ...almost into bankruptcy, until they hired him again, and he turned the company into NeXT 2.0.

"MS is going on without Gates at the helm..." ...into the latest, most expensive, least-desirable version of Windows yet, a product that makes ME look enchanting by comparison.

"And HP is getting along fine without Carly." my point; WITH her, they were not getting along so well.

Re:I do?

[Darby (84953)]

.into the latest, most expensive, least-desirable version of Windows yet, a product that makes ME look enchanting by comparison.

Come on Dude, don't be so hard on yourself.

Re:What are the odds?

[Danga (307709)]

Well they did find blood in his vehicle and house. From the article:

"Though no body has been found, Reiser was arrested Oct. 10 after the Oakland Police Department found small drops of blood in his house and in his Honda CRX"

Makes it a little fishy although I am sure I have small drops of blood around my house and in my cars too from small cuts and stuff happening while doing stuff outside. I would hope they need more than that to tie the "murder" to him. I think she just took off somewhere myself, I mean she was cheating on him so I don't think it is too far out of the ballpark.

Re:What are the odds?

[Dogtanian (588974)]

Bear in mind that in forensics, the "drops" of blood can be microscopic. For example, when we hear that XYZ accused had 100 drops of blood on his clothing, it isn't necessarily the massively blood-splattered shirt it might sound like. Now, I don't know how likely it is that we might have drops of blood of such size around our houses/cars as a result of normal activity (which would normally go unnoticed). Still something to consider, though.

Re:What are the odds?

[kestasjk (933987)]

I'd like to hear the "People bleed, it happens" defense used in court. It might work well if you give a menacing look at the jury when you say "it happens".

Re:What are the odds?

[vidarh (309115)]

Lets rephrase that a bit: She was in the middle of a custody battle that she might worry about losing after various allegations of hers didn't seem to stick, and now he is in jail and the children are with her family in Russia and won't be coming back, even though they're wanted to testify in the case.

There's at the very least a chance she stage her own disappearance to get Hans in trouble and went back to Russia and got her kids brought there.

Re:For those of us who don't keep track...

[Dystopian Rebel (714995)]

Don't worry about the facts. Hollywood will pick this story up and turn into "Entertainment".

"Nicholas Cage in... HellReiser!"

Re:Unlikely conincidence..

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

There aren't many people actually capable of comitting a murder, so the fact that Nina Reiser's ex-lover is a self-confessed serial killer strikes me as a far too remarkable coincidence.

It depends upon the motivation, the stakes. I wouldn't kill someone for money. I wouldn't kill them for revenge. I wouldn't kill them because they angered me. On the other hand, say you tried to kill my fiancee: I'd murder you in a heartbeat without batting an eye. Now, even if I escaped official punishment I would pay a high price for that act. Most of us would, but we're all capable of murder, at some level. We have to be, because sometimes ... it's the right thing to do. There a lot of people in the United States that don't understand that anymore, don't accept that human life is valuable but not infinitely so, and that some are worth more than others. We may all have been created equal, but sadly not all end up that way.

You're right in that by far the majority of us won't kill for trivial reasons, although one has to wonder how much of that reluctance is due to the sanctions imposed by society against such behavior, or some intrinsic aversion to killing. Sociopathy, to varying degrees, is more common than one might want to believe, so maybe all that's keeping murder in check is the fear of consequences. I mean, all societies feel the need to impose severe punishment for murder, which leads me to believe that, at the core, we aren't quite as civilized as we think we are.

Besides, O.J. Simpson killed two people in cold blood, and in spite of substantially more incriminating evidence, O.J. managed to get off scott free. O.J. had mountains of money to spend on his Dream Team though.