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Murders Based on Movies


Scream

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I like the movies, but this is weird.

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The movie, Scream, directed by Wes Craven, featured a character wearing an elongated white face mask with hollow eyes and a black cowl, popular among Trick-or-Treaters and for Halloween parties. Aired in 1996, the film satirized a collection of past slasher movies, offering the plot of a teenage girl targeted by a maniacal killer (Ghostface) who must learn her town's secrets to save herself. But even satires can trigger unbalanced minds to mimicry. It's all in the images.

Even as Scream spawned two top-grossing sequels, it also inspired crimes. For three or four years after its release, a number of teenagers were inspired to murder: a boy and his cousin in Los Angeles obsessed with the film murdered his mother by stabbing her 45 times; a man wearing the mask shot and killed a woman in Florida; a boy in France killed his parents while acting as Ghostface; and in England, a pair of boys repeatedly stabbed a third one, claiming the film had prompted them to do it.

Daniel Gill, 14, and Robert Fuller, 15, from North Yorkshire, were found guilty on October 22, 1999 of the attempted murder of Ashley Murray and were sentence to detention in a juvenile facility for six years. They stabbed Murray eighteen times and left him to die, but a day and a half later a man walking his dog found him, and he recovered.

Just before the attack, the boys had watched Scream at the home of a drug dealer, who had shown them occultic items and weapons, and allegedly told them that the gods wanted Murray to die. Their defense was that this influence had blurred the line between fantasy and reality, as well as the line between right and wrong. Drawings of Ghostface and pictures of knives turned up in one boy's schoolbooks, according to the BBC.

But they were friends of Murray's, and even he conceded that the film might have directed their behavior. That was the statement he gave to police. They had lured him to an isolated spot, he said, and then Gill stabbed him repeatedly in the cheek and head. Fuller held him and stabbed his arm. Only when Murray pretended to be dead did they leave, but he was too injured to find his way to a hospital.

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I don't agree at all.

A movie, music, etc. can NOT convince a normal person to murder someone else. There must be an underlying problem with the person to begin with.

I grew up watching slasher films from the time I was 4 and up. I have older brothers who were supposed to be babysitting me, but, instead took it as the perfect opportunity to watch those movies Mom wouldn't let them see! :lol: And I have NEVER caused any type of physical harm to another human being.

Why? Because I was brought up right, taught right from wrong, had all the love that I needed, etc.

If a child is truly influenced by a movie or music then in my opinion, that is a cry for help. Most normal people do realize that a movie is not reality and that things depicted in the movie should not be acted out. If a person does not realize this then obviously they have underlying mental/emotional problems.

Have a nice day! :st

Lorelei

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You're probably right in that...wrong parentship/education is a well known motive for murders and other crimes....

Me? I just had fun a couple times putting on my scream costume and my voice changer, then calling people and standing in their backyard ( i did this by friends, so don't worry :P ), but i never even thought about going further.

Edited by Scream
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When Stanely Kubricks movie A Clockwork Orange was introduced into Britain after a seven year ban there were many copy cat crimes commited in relation to the events shown in the movie. There is sometimes a direct correlation to a movie and a crime. It's as simple as that. It's easy and only half right to say that all (every single violent act you have ever seen or heard through the media hasn't influenced anybody ever) violence in the movies isn't at all responcible for inspiring any crimes whatsoever by anyone ever.

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Of course movies have the ability to influence people, but it's the audiences responsibility to draw the line between thought and action.

I wouldn't take these claims of 'the film made me do it' so seriously, as it seems clear that the involved parties are meerely looking for someone or something to blame for their actions.

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UGH! I'm so sick & tired of people not taking responsibility for their own actions! :angry: No movie, video game nor music can make you kill. If it did, I would have been locked up soooo long ago. I grew up watching all the :gun: Dirty Harry's, Death Wishes & most all other unacceptable, violent movies. :gun: I also grew up listening to groups like :clap: AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc. :clap: So why haven't I killed? Uh, cause I know the difference between right & wrong. I'm not saying I've never dreamed of "getting even", but violence is not an option.

So if you go out & kill someone, you better hope BIG TIME that I'm not on your jury. No sympathies here. :devil:

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UGH! I'm so sick & tired of people not taking responsibility for their own actions! :angry: No movie, video game nor music can make you kill.

i do agree that people need to take repsonsibility for their actions, but I also feel that there are people who just have it in them to kill and that movie or song, book, what have you just triggers something in their mind. But, as Lorelei says

A movie, music, etc. can NOT convince a normal person to murder someone else. There must be an underlying problem with the person to begin with.
So, no NORMAL person would do something like this, but we all know that there are the ones who do not fit the 'normal' category.

I made sure that my daughter understood what was pretend and what was real. We played a game so that she could understand that the characters were just actors acting out parts and I would ask her what other movie the actor was in. She can identify actors by their voice and face, much to my sisers chagrin when she blurts out "he was in.......!".

Edited by glorybebe
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I don't agree at all.

A movie, music, etc. can NOT convince a normal person to murder someone else. There must be an underlying problem with the person to begin with.

I grew up watching slasher films from the time I was 4 and up. I have older brothers who were supposed to be babysitting me, but, instead took it as the perfect opportunity to watch those movies Mom wouldn't let them see! :lol: And I have NEVER caused any type of physical harm to another human being.

Why? Because I was brought up right, taught right from wrong, had all the love that I needed, etc.

If a child is truly influenced by a movie or music then in my opinion, that is a cry for help. Most normal people do realize that a movie is not reality and that things depicted in the movie should not be acted out. If a person does not realize this then obviously they have underlying mental/emotional problems.

Have a nice day! :st

Lorelei

As you disagree, one thing you overlook, those cases were all men; you're a woman.

There haven't been many documented cases, if any, of women serial killers. Sure, there has been a ton of women that kill their own babies, but IMO, that is different than being a serial killer.

Most are white men, too, with one case exception in the Atlanta child murderer case (and even that case may or may not have been Wayne Williams - a black man).

What exactly is normal anyhow? Someone that goes to school, doesn't cut classes? Doesn't drink or smoke? Doesn't eat meat?

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I don't agree at all.

A movie, music, etc. can NOT convince a normal person to murder someone else.

Some years back one of the evening magazine type shows (20/20, Dateline, 60 Minutes) did a study with children who didn't have television in their homes. There were about 10 kids - a mixture of boys and girls. The children played well with each other before being shown 30 minutes of a cartoon about the X-Men. The boys were playing with trucks and varooming around the room, while the girls played quietly with the dolls that were there.

After watching the cartoon for 30 minutes - within 5 minutes of the television being shut off the boys started getting rambunctious - doing chopping motions, kicking at each other and becoming quite attitudinal... The girls did also - only not as loudly.

I think this is a fairly clear indication that what children view can, and does, impact their behavior... Factor in some of the more violent video games and you have a recipe for disaffection. When children are exposed to violence on a regular basis it becomes inured in them... This is not a good thing.

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1893. Norwegian painter, Edvard Munch, paints "The Scream". Munch's

work often included the symbolic portrayal of themes such as misery,

sickness, and death.

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a century goes by wherein some misery, sickness, and death happens...

then...

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February 12th, 1994. The National Gallery's "Scream" painting is

stolen. (Munch had made four versions of the painting.) Three months

later the painting was recovered.

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1996. "Scream," directed by Wes Craven, hits theatres. The plot

features a psychopathic serial killer stalking a group of teens...

just like in the movies! Ha ha ha.. art imitating life imitating art.

I get it. But then life starts imitating the art imitating life

imitating art and things get really interesting if not just a little

confusing. Oh yeah, and the killer wears a mask inspired by Edvard

Munch's now infamous painting.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

1997. Three male teenagers who had repeatedly watched Scream murder

two girls in Salem, Massachusetts.

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1997. "Scream 2" hits theatres. In this sequel to the 1996 film, the

number of suspects only goes down as the body count slowly goes up!

Ha ha ha.. I get it! Just like in real life!

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1999. Patrick was 14 when he put on a "Scream" mask and broke into a

former teacher’s house near Hood Canal. Yelling "Die, b****, die," he

repeatedly stabbed and beat her while her baby slept in another room.

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1999. Thirty-four violent films, including Scream, found in the rooms

of two male college students at Hadlow, Kent, who stabbed a friend to

death, dismembered his body, and then burnt the leftovers.

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1999. Two schoolboys who brutally stabbed a friend and left him for

dead after watching Scream are convicted of attempted murder at Hull.

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1999. With the help of two cousins, a teenager stabbed his mother to

death after watching Scream in Lynwood, California.

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2000. "Scream 3" hits theatres. Because inspiring a monumental string

of barbarous copycat murders really requires a trilogy! Ya dig?

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2000. Three men, one in a "Scream" mask, scaled a balcony and broke

into an apartment in the England Run complex off U.S. 17. One victim

was bound with duct tape. Matthew W. Glenn, 18, resisted his

attackers and was shot in the back.

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2000. A woman and two men, wearing Scream masks, robbed a store in

Lowell, Massachusetts, and shot a man dead.

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2000. Five young men wore Scream masks when they gang raped a 21-

year-old woman in a town near Paris.

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A few weeks later at Lebetain, eastern France, the police arrested a

boy of 15 when his parents were found dead after being repeatedly

stabbed while they slept. In his confession the boy said he had

hallucinations after watching "Scream" and heard voices telling him

to kill his parents.

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November 29th, 2000. An 18-year-old man robbed a convenience store

wearing a "Scream" mask -- and his 17-year-old wife drove the getaway

car. Jessica Powell told police they took the money so they could go

to the movies.

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2001. A 24-year-old Belgian in the town of Gerpinnes with no criminal

record and no history of psychiatric problems dressed himself in a

long black tunic, donned a Scream mask, and stabbed a 15-year-old

schoolgirl 30 times with two enormous kitchen knives.

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2002. Man accused of shooting two men dead in a bar in Pennsylvania

wore a Scream mask.

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March 2002. After two teenage girls at Saint-Vit, eastern France,

tortured a classmate in an abandoned house, the local public

prosecutor said they had admitted watching the film just beforehand.

He claimed that the girls, aged 15 and 13, had been influenced by the

film and carried a knife which "strongly recalled the weapon used in

the horror film."

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April 2nd, 2002. Kevin Skaggs was at the counter of the Oregon Quick

Cash Payday Advance when a man wearing a Scream mask walked in. The

robber indicated that he had a gun and wanted money. Skaggs pulled

his own gun and shot Jeffrey Gordon Duncan in the chest. The

assailant fled and was found dead a few blocks away. "If there is one

good thing that comes out of this," Skaggs said, "it's that people

will know that we are not going to put up with this sort of thing."

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May 2002. A 17-year-old french boy stabs a 15-year-old girl 17 times

after watching "Scream". He had tried unsuccessfully to attack two

other schoolgirls before inviting his final victim to go for a walk

around a football field near their homes.

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October 2002. A masked gunman robbed a North Toledo McDonald’s and

fled with an undisclosed amount of money. Wearing a mask from the

movie Scream and using a voice changer to disguise his voice, the

robber approached the counter and pulled out a gun.

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November 3rd, 2002. A group of about 15 men, all believed to be Asian

and in their early 20's, went on a stabbing rampage in England and

knifed 4 random people. The main offender was wearing a Scream-style

Halloween mask.

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November 23rd, 2002. 24-year-old Jeffrey Ivan Vample of Norristown,

PA, raped, strangled, and robbed 67 year old Alice Hufnagle-Llauman.

She was found half naked and bound with duct tape in her bedroom. A

bloody "Scream" mask, and a calender with the notation on November

23rd reading "My Love, What a Day," were recovered.

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July 31st, 2003. 51-year-old West Roxbury man, James Hayes, decided

to break off his hockey stick, attach a 5-inch knife, grab a Scream

mask, a cloak, and some electrical cord, and drive to his ex-wife's

house after learning she was sleeping with a woman. Once there, he

burst into the bedroom wearing the Scream mask and repeatedly stabbed

his ex-wifes lesbian lover with his makeshift "man-spear".

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October 31st, 2003. A crazed psychotherapist wore a Scream mask and

"ghost" cloak to kill a stranger on Halloween. Heather Stephenson-

Snell, president of an all-women chapter of the Hell's Angels, set

out to murder her love rival Diane Lomax and frame her ex-lover

(former *spam filter* stripper Adrian Sinclair) for the murder. But when

neighbour Bob Wilkie, 43, intervened she shot him dead with a sawn-

off shotgun instead.

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February 2004. At around 5am a man attired in black robe and a Scream

mask, climbed through a dormitory window in Leeds. The burglar locked

himself in the bedroom and held the student at hammer point. He then

demanded mobile phone, credit cards, and relevant pin numbers. The

burglar threatened to return soon and kill the student if he had

given the wrong number. The burglar left, locking the student inside

his room. After much frantic banging on ceilings and floors, the

student succeeded in waking his flatmates who had to bust the door

open and release the poor captive.

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April 10th, 2004. A Hamilton liquor store was held up by an armed man

wearing a green "Scream" mask. He got away on a blue mountain bike

carrying several bottles of spirits.

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August 22nd, 2004. Armed, masked thieves burst into an open Oslo

museum in broad daylight and snatched the Edvard Munch masterpiece

"The Scream". Estimated value of the painting is between $77 million

and $97 million Canadian. The painting has yet to be recovered.

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September 2004. 61-year-old Richard Anthony Carbone shot and killed a

young friend, Daniel Ray Elzie, 19, who had been staying at his

apartment in Rolling Hills in East Bremerton. Carbone heard a noise

at the back of his apartment and was confronted by Elzie wearing a

"scream mask" and carrying what appeared to be a bloody sword.

Carbone shot Elzie in the stomach, continued to drink for a couple of

hours, then called his son to tell him what had happened. By the time

his son arrived, Elzie had bled to death.

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September 29th, 2004, for reasons known only to her, Britney Spears

put on a Scream-style mask for a visit to the local burger joint.

Spears, accompanied by reputed spouse Kevin Federline, little sister

Jamie Lynn, and mom-chauffeur Lynn, finished the evening by lobbing

milkshakes at paparazzi.

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I have heard of video games that can cause people to murder others, but I haven't heard of movies doing that.

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I have heard of video games that can cause people to murder others, but I haven't heard of movies doing that.

Yes, I have heard of movies doing this. Actually it isn't the actual film causing it, but the mental state of the person themselves. I wish I could remember what the mental condition is called, but basically, it is when the person is unable to differentiate between fact and fiction when reading a book or watching a film, it is almost as if they put themselves in the "starring" role and believe everything they see and read and think it is themselves.

There was a case a few years ago, whereby someone jumped in front of a train (they died of course), it turned out they had just left the cinema after watching The Matrix. I guess they could not tell the difference between real and fantasy and really believed they were from The Matrix.

Edited by Lotus Flower
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  • 3 weeks later...

i remember reading about someone making a claw hand exaclty like the one from the a nightmare on elm street series, the man was obssesed with the movies and attacked his friend with the weapon

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There are always going to be idiots. Rather they get these ideas from movies, games or music, they are still idiots to start with. Can you imagine having to jump through the same hoops to rent a video that one has to go through to buy a gun? I don't think that anyone would want to impose such restrictions so, we are just going to have to live with the fact that crazy people do crazy things. All you can do is try to figure out which ones are unstable and keep your powder dry.

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There haven't been many documented cases, if any, of women serial killers.

Actually... I know of at least 50... yes, there are offspring related murders, but, they still count...

As fas as media contributing to the increase of copy-cats and serial killings... I don't hold the media responsible, but there has been an increase of them since the ability to reach the masses has improved.

Think back to 1800's London... Jack the Ripper... at least one of them was a copy-cat based on the limited description in the newspapers.

I agree with those who say the movies, music, images don't make people go out and kill, but they do feed the already skewed brains of the mentally unstable.

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Well, first off I agree with the majority. A song, video, book or whatever wont make any random person kill, the person would have had to have been on the verse anyways. Some do it out of competitiveness or a desire to prove themselves. I heard recently about a group of boys in England dressed in white suits and wearing jockstraps beating a drunken bum to death in an alley.... what a bunch of loons. They had seen A Clockwork Orange to many times (by the way... an awesome movie). With the new Manhunt 2 game coming out and the idea being to murder people as gruesomely as possible, geez I wonder what is next. Its like Grand Theft Auto except you're a serial killer not just a spree shooter and drug enforcer. And I've heard about people chopping each other up with hatchets after listening to Insane Clown Posse and Psychopathic Records. Like Jacob Robida...

I was a very violent person, but I never acted that way because of the media.

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This makes me wonder if blaming movies, music, video games, etc. is going to become the new "Twinkie Defense".

I remember back when this happened in 1978. Even at the age of 14, I thought it was the biggest load of garbage I had ever heard! And to be honest, it's just gotten worse over time! So you see blaming something or someone other than yourself for your actions is nothing new. It's just now most people go into rehab or anger management classes for it. :blink:

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Sorry, people are responsible for ever single minute thing they do. No blaming outside sources EVER!

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  • 4 weeks later...

What a load of crap. I am a horror fanatic, I love reading and studying true crime, and Hell, I want to be a mortician but I haven't murdered yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Sorry, people are responsible for ever single minute thing they do. No blaming outside sources EVER!

Come on! The Killers Mothmen listed at the other page were OBVIOUSLY following a pattern of the movie. A 24-year-old Belgian in the town of Gerpinnes with no criminal

record and no history of psychiatric problems dressed himself in a

long black tunic, donned a Scream mask, and stabbed a 15-year-old

schoolgirl 30 times with two enormous kitchen knives, ripping her left side open. I put in a picture below this post what he used in the killing.

The man had no psychatric problems of any sort! But when the trilogy ended he flew way over the cuckoo's nest, and dressed himself as the killer, acted like the killer, stabbed the girl to death like the killer. In Court, he even stated he was ''playing a role.''

No one will convince me this murder was not based on the movie. Movies can do alot to people! If sad movies can make someone cry, romantic movies can make someone fall in love, it can also let someone kill.

post-55627-1187077569_thumb.jpg

Edited by Scream
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Just because he had no history of mental problems doesn't mean that they weren't there. That just means that no one realized they were there. If he really thought he was the killer in Scream, he obviously had a mental problem.

Movies don't make people kill. They might give someone an idea on how they're going to kill. If someone wants to kill someone, they're going to kill them. That's it. No matter what. The only thing watching Scream is going to do is going to make them put on a ghost mask while they do it. It doesn't make them kill, only gives them an idea on how to make it more interesting than the normal 'bang, you're dead' scenario.

Edited to fix typo.

Edited by Uh-Oh
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While I believe there are copycat murderers, I think for the majority murders wouldn't be done based on movies.

The same could be said for violent video games. And on one good note(I guess you could call it that), I knew a guy who played video games and in the games he'd kill police officers, kill prostitutes and shoot innocent bystanders until they were bloody. He told me one day

"I play these types of games so I don't do it in real life."

So I can't totally say that violent people who watch these movies, wouldn't act out in the same way. People need an outlet and for violent people, violent video games sometimes seem to be that outlet.

But what about violent people who watch murder movies. Where's their outlet? Maybe they don't play video games. So although they may not act out in the same way as portrayed in the movies, they may want to still act out in other ways --ways that are more feasible.

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The same could be said for violent video games. And on one good note(I guess you could call it that), I knew a guy who played video games and in the games he'd kill police officers, kill prostitutes and shoot innocent bystanders until they were bloody. He told me one day

"I play these types of games so I don't do it in real life."

So if he did not play games he would go to the streets and kill officers, prostitutes and innocent bystanders?

Edited by Scream
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So if he did not play games he would go to the streets and kill officers, prostitutes and innocent bystanders?

um.......I knew this guy pretty well; and my answer to your question is......."Yes."

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