Brogan Rafferty, the 17-year-old who worked under master manipulator Richard Beasley, was found guilty of aggravated murder on October 30th for his role in a recent Craigslist scam that resulted in three murders and one attempted murder. With Beasley's guidance, Rafferty lured four different victims using a fake Craigslist job offer for a farmhand position in Noble County in southeast Ohio. Although his attorneys argued that he was coerced by Beasley and feared for his life, the jurors found that he acted on his own free will and convicted him of murder (Palmer).
Beasley and Rafferty murdered three men, including Ralph Geiger of Akron, David Pauley of Norfolk, Virginia, and Timothy Kern of Massillon, all of whom were specifically selected as targets because they were older, single, unemployed, and had backgrounds that allow their disappearances to go undiscerned for longer than normal. Rafferty testified that he was unaware of what was going on when the first murder occurred and that he thought that Beasley only intended to rob Geiger. Rafferty's defense attorney John Alexander said Rafferty "had no idea any of this was going on." After the murder, Beasley reminded Rafferty that he knew where his mother and sister lived, and Rafferty remained part of the scam in order to protect himself and his family (Fox News).
The fourth intended victim, Scott Davis of South Carolina, managed to escape from Beasley and Rafferty and testified as the prosecution's star witness against them in trial. According to Davis' story, he sold his business and moved to Canton to be closer to his family, where he answered a Craigslist ad calling for a farmhand. He met Rafferty and Beasley for breakfast and then followed them to a nonexistent cattle farm. Beasley led him into a wooded area to look at farm equipment, and when he turned around, he found Beasley pointing a gun at his head. He managed to push Beasley's arm away and was shot in the arm.
Craigslist is an internet-based classifieds forum. ... Craigslist is available in most major metropolitan areas. ... Currently there are over five hundred cities, in which craigslist serves worldwide (Saxena). ... How does craigslist stack up against the competition? ... Craigslist is also an excellent source of finding upcoming events in a particular area. ...
" The first thing that caught my eye in Rafferty's " The Old Timer's Game" is his plethora of adjectives. ... Here is another example of Rafferty's superior use of adjectives. ... Clearly, Rafferty has mastered the use of adjectives in writing. ... In fact in some passages Rafferty refers directly to us (readers) starting sentences with "you". ... Rafferty is also a master in the use of short-powerful sentences. ...
Mary Maloney is now on trial for the convicted murder of her husband Patrick Maloney. ... According to CBC news, second degree murder is a deliberate killing carried out without planning that does not fall under any of the categories of first degree murder. ... This crime was "mens reas" which means there was no harm intended until she got furious and hit Patrick at the back of the head with a lamb leg instantly killing him. ... While the police came in to try and solve the murder case, Mary offered the police officers the cooked leg of lamb that she made after killing her husband...
I tore the truck completely apart and put it all on craigslist hoping that someone would want some of it since I did not have have full coverage on my insurance so I knew I wouldn't get any money from the insurance company. ... I looked through craigslist and the bulletin boards for about two weeks. ... Not only could I have been easily killed but I keep thinking what if someone would have been coming up the hill in the other lane, I could have hit another car potentially killing someone. ...
Murder is defined as the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. ... First degree murder in most states is defined as a unlawful killing that is Willing and premeditated. ... The first type of 2nd degree murder is an intentional killing that is neither planned nor premeditated. ... During the time that he conducted those murders he even passed a polygraph test in 1984 and continued his killing spree. ... Mass murder is defined as murdering many people usually simultaneously or in certain situations killing many people over a short period of time. ...
It seems that the life of a convicted murder takes precedence over the life that they stole from an innocent victim(s) and Reiman seems to agree when he states, "That execution should be avoided because of how terrible it is to the one executed.... The court ruling made it possible for convicted killers to be released back into society. ... He somehow managed to be released in 1989 and went back to doing what he does best, raping and killing. ... I was shocked when I read Paul Cassell's article and he reported that, "of the roughly 52,000 state prison inmates serving time for mu...
Murder is wrong, plain and simple. ... Coincidentally, that is the definition of murder. ... It can then be said that the death penalty is the most overlooked form of government hypocrisy; we would murder people who in return murder people, to show that murder is wrong. ... Although the killing of the convicted may provide some comfort to the victim's family, it will not bring the victim back to life. ... Murder by a citizen will have consequences, yet a government-approved murder is not only acceptable, but enforceable. ...
An execution is a violent public spectacle of official homicide, and one that endorses killing to solve social problems - the worst possible example to set for the citizenry. ... Of all those convicted on a charge of criminal homicide, only two percent, about one in fifty, are eventually sentences to death. ... Many Americans feel that the act of murder can only be justified with the loss of the life of the murderer. ... For this very reason, murder is abhorrent, and any policy of state-authorized killings is immoral. ... Of those, 23 convicts were executed; others spent deca...
The police recaptured Wein in 1976 and convicted him of first-degree murder and several sexual offenses. ... In Georgia, out of 164 convicted murderers, eight committed murder again within seven years. ... Between 1965 and 1974, out of 11,404 people released after being convicted of homicide, 34 people were returned during the first year for willfully killing again. ... Of the 52,000 criminals serving time in 1984, 810 of them had previously been convicted of murder. ... If every convicted murderer proceeded to be executed after each initial killing, thousands of innocent lives would be ...
