PLAYING HERTA

Crook falls in Cooks Falls.

You may remember a while back we posted a story about a Los Angeles man who left his dead mum carelessly lying around for a year. Today, on the other side of the U.S., a New York man is in custody for doing exactly the opposite. 69 year-old Roland Alexander carefully stored his dead mother, Herta, in a freezer, so he could continue collecting her Social Security checks.

Eventually a bank employee where Mrs. Alexander did her checking voiced concern that she had been AWOL for more than a year, and police descended upon the Alexander home to find her frozen like a carp, and Roland long gone. New York State police finally caught up with Alexander yesterday in Cooks Falls, about 100 miles northwest of New York City, and took him into custody. Murder charges seem unlikely, because a post thaw autopsy revealed Herta Alexander had died of heart disease, but Roland still faces charges of grand larceny, unlawful disposal of human remains, and forgery.

Authorities should also consider tacking on a heavy fine for running a freezer on high, which is proven to contribute to global warming, especially when you do it for a whole year. And don’t get us started on the fact that he probably didn’t even consider Earth-friendly composting as an option. When oh when will we learn to think green, folks? If not for yourselves, do it for the children.

New York City, Herta Alexander, Roland Alexander

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

September 6

1901—McKinley Fatally Shot

Polish-born anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies September 12, and Czolgosz is later executed.

September 5

1939—U.S. Declares Neutrality in WW II

The Neutrality Acts, which had been passed in the 1930s when the United States considered foreign conflicts undesirable, prompts the nation to declare neutrality in World War II. The policy ended with the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941, which allowed the U.S. to sell, lend or give war materials to allied nations.

September 5

1972—Munich Massacre

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, a paramilitary group calling itself Black September takes members of the Israeli olympic team hostage. Eventually the group, which represents the first glimpse of terrorists for most people in the Western world, kill eleven of the hostages along with one West German police officer during a rescue attempt by West German police that devolves into a firefight. Five of the eight members of Black September are also killed.

September 4

1957—U.S. National Guard Used Against Students

The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, mobilizes the National Guard to prevent nine African-American students known as the Little Rock Nine from enrolling in high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

September 3

1941—Auschwitz Begins Gassing Prisoners

Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps, becomes an extermination camp when it begins using poison gas to kill prisoners en masse. The camp commandant, Rudolf HÃ¶ss, later testifies at the Nuremberg Trials that he believes perhaps 3 million people died at Auschwitz, but the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum revises the figure to about 1 million.