Australian coroner agrees on 1980 case '...the dingo's got my baby'
Settling a notorious 1980 case that split the nation and led to a mistaken murder conviction, an Australian coroner ruled Tuesday that a dingo took a baby from a campsite in the Outback, just as her mother said from the beginning.
The eyes of Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and her ex-husband, Michael Chamberlain, welled with tears as the findings of the fourth inquest into the disappearance of their 9-week-old daughter, Azaria, were announced in court. Lindy Chamberlain served more than three years in prison for the baby's death, but was later cleared and has always maintained that a wild dog took her.
"We're relieved and delighted to come to the end of this saga," a tearful but smiling Chamberlain-Creighton told reporters outside the court in the northern city of Darwin.
Azaria disappeared from a campsite near Ayers Rock, the red monolith in the Australian desert now known by its Aboriginal name Uluru. The case became famous internationally through the 1988 movie "A Cry in the Dark."
Many Australians initially did not believe that a dingo was strong enough to take away the baby. Public opinion swayed harshly against the couple; some even spat on Chamberlain-Creighton and howled like dingoes outside her house.
No similar dingo attack had been documented at the time, but in recent years the wild dogs have been blamed for three fatal attacks on children. Few doubt the couple's story today, but the latest inquest – which the family had fought to get – made it official that Azaria was killed in a dingo attack.
"No longer will Australia be able to say that dingoes are not dangerous and only attack if provoked," Chamberlain-Creighton said before leaving the court with her ex-husband and their three surviving children to collect Azaria's death certificate.
"We live in a beautiful country, but it is dangerous and we would ask all Australians to beware of this and take appropriate precautions," Chamberlain-Creighton said.
Coroner Elizabeth Morris said she "satisfied that the evidence is sufficiently adequate, clear, cogent and exact and that the evidence excludes all other reasonable possibilities" than that the baby was taken by one or more dingoes.
The findings mirror those of the first coroner's inquest in 1981, which found that a dingo took Azaria. But that inquest found that somebody had later interfered with Azaria's clothing, which was later found relatively unscathed in the desert.
A second coroner's inquest ended with Chamberlain-Creighton being charged with murder and Michael Chamberlain being charged with being an accessory after the fact. Chamberlain-Creighton, accused of slashing her daughter's throat with nail scissors and making it look like a dingo attack, was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor.
She was released in 1986 after evidence was found that backed up her version of events: the baby's jacket, found near a dingo den, which helped explain the condition of the rest of the baby's clothing. A Royal Commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, debunked much of the forensic evidence used at trial and her conviction was overturned.
A third inquest could not determine the cause of death.
The fourth inquest heard new evidence of dingo attacks, including three fatal attacks on children since the third inquest.
Morris noted that dingo experts disagree on whether a dingo could have removed the clothing so neatly and without causing more damage.
"It would have been very difficult for a dingo to have removed Azaria from her clothing without causing more damage than what was observed on it, however it would have been possible for it to have done so," she said.
"I think it is likely that a dingo would have left the clothing more scattered, but it might not have done so," she added.
Michael Chamberlain had threatened to go the Northern Territory Supreme Court to force another inquest if Morris had not agreed to reopen the case. Another coroner had rejected his application in 2004 for a fourth inquest to challenge the 1995 open finding of the third.
"This has been a terrifying battle, bitter at times, but now some healing and a chance to put our daughter's spirit to rest," Chamberlain told reporters.
He said his quest for a death certificate that acknowledged his daughter had been killed by a dingo had seemed to be a "mission impossible."
"This battle to get to the legal truth about what caused Azaria's death has taken too long," Chamberlain said.
"However, I am here to tell you that you can get justice even when you think that all is lost. But truth must be on your side." - THP
The Dingo's Got My Baby
Heart of Stone: My Quest for Justice for Azaria
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Possible UFO landing in California 1983
We were traveling north to San Francisco. Coming down the grapevine from LA we encountered pea soup fog but kept going slow because of drinking a lot of coffee, wanting to get to San Rafael on Thursday before Grateful Dead Halloween shows (Marin County civic center). Just about every other vehicle had pulled off because of dense fog.
We finally came out of the fog and I was remarking how the sky was so clear, stars bright like in the desert when Janis asked "what are the weird colors off in the distance?". I was just joking, playing with stereo and stated it was a flying saucer. It looked like it had landed on little landing feet West, SW, some distance away in fields. Well, I joked it was a UFO and maybe only less than a second later, as if it knew what we were discussing, Janis started going "don't look now it's right behind us!!!!!" it was following (pacing) just behind to the left of my car, then pulled right up alongside, (Janis going 'I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK!!), started doing every most outrageous seemingly impossible flying stunts you can imagine, including circular flips, just showing off all the stuff it could do, for over 5 minutes. It had a day-glow green color that emanated from it like fibers of light, more bright near what I assume was the metallic object.
It was as close as a lane and a half, or 30 feet the whole time, just off the ground barely, so close it made all the hairs on my body stand straight out, like from static electricity. We were going "oh, sh*t" and stuff like that when it took off like a slingshot, disappearing in horizon to left of very straight road goes all the way north. Well, we were discussing it at length, saying I never imagined one like that could truly be until we saw it like 30 feet away. I think it was about the size of one and a half Lincoln continentals, round, saucer shaped, domed, we both think it may have had some portholes. We were wondering how on earth it could do somersaults and stuff like that, when it came back, a little more higher, flying (facing from underneath sort of) us from directly ahead for a minute or so, we were going "whoa..." again, when I think something came on or opened underneath it, only time it made any noise, and started the bright spotlight on my car, which had of all things, a bumper sticker that said : "STARSHIP" on the front (for rock band Jefferson Starship). Well, it made a noise like a hatch opened, then the white light started, with a vzzzzzzzzzzz sound that got louder until it was as bright or brighter than sunlight, like a spotlight on my car, pacing ahead (little higher this time, yes) until it got to it's full brightness and loudness, by then going VVVVVAAZZZZZZZZZ, when I seized the opportunity to tell her to wave at it as a friendly gesture, as now it had given me a feeling of inner peace, knowing there must be life elsewhere, then it made a Kkuh sound, and the buzzing noise subsided at the same time the light dimmed, I think I heard a hatch close, then it repeated the taking off like a slingshot again, just to left of road, then took off in the horizon, a little more left (didn't need a road).
Well, we were feeling a bit too overcome to stop at the windmill truck stop as we came up on it, but called ok, time out, and pulled it off in the rest area just past windmill a ways. We were feeling a bit weirded-out, when some French guy I swear looked kike Marcelle Truffaut or something right out of the movie close encounters, just like the saucer, comes running up frantically waving his arms, hollering something about a "phenomena fantastique!!!!!", just gave him a weird look, like, yeah, we saw something like that back there. Yes, I think it was Thursday morn' way early then, just before Halloween of '83, so we kept going north, starting to feel a bit haggard. Going back after visiting friends in Mendocino, we tried to tell where we first saw it, just past the fog, well south of the air base, and realized there was nothing there for maybe over a hundred miles or more except some cattle, they were making colored lights of all colors for some cattle?? Well, I shrugged it off as just an 'ornry cattle saucer' but looked up much researching over the years to this day to see who else may have seen that saucer, far as I could tell, just her and I and this French guy maybe and maybe 2 or 3 trucks headed south maybe saw it zipping by, don't know. Janis, being a bit of an artist, drew a picture of it with the words "genuine ufo" underneath. I didn't need to have made any photography anyways, as I have a DVD where it is called one of what are known as the "Guardian Saucers" in Vancouver, Canada, I think, where it had all the multi-colors from underneath, yeah, made my skin feel like it wanted crawl when I first saw the video, yeah, like it was just like something we saw, for real. She won't discuss it anymore because she said she had some bad dreams about it. Had some strange dreams myself, except more friendly, and peaceful, seeing all these drawings and video stories about grey extraterrestrials with enlarged heads and large black eyes that stare into a void or something. Now I have a friend Susan, who tried at first to keep changing the subject, but with my ongoing research, she's been saying "Malcolm if I saw something like that I think I would be so SCARED" to which I replied yeah?, I guess if you think it would make you so scared it would, if you think it would make you have bad dreams it would, and yes, as in my case, if you think it would give you a feeling of inner peace, probably WOULD. I know, I had always studied astronomy since I was a youngster so interested in it my family bought me a telescope. I joined the San Francisco amateur astronomers, had always had a more Saganistic approach towards the subject, even though many friends had pointed out "things in the distance" or had even related their own encounters, just thought, sure, sure, bah. Now I wonder, what would Carl Sagan himself had thought if one of those came up and did a lot of aerial acrobatics from like 30 feet away, it's unmistakable. Your welcome to forward my sighting to carlsagan.com, etc., get tired of relating it or finding WHERE to. Still have an intense interest in cosmology, even more now although I think many cosmologists views would have or will change after seeing a thing like that from only 30 feet. Some friends may feel my Star Trek stories are more real in their view, I really have nothing to prove and don't care if they like astrophysics, x-files or Rael. I know I had the SETI screensaver for some time. I'd just like to find out if anyone shared our sightings that night other than us, I'd appreciate if you could in exchange for my story email it back to me so I don't have to keep going over it, I will have my official story reported and on file now, special thanks.
Thanks to UFO Evidence.org and the witness Malcolm Barker.
WWW.WORLDUFOPHOTOS.ORG
UFOs Over California: A True History of Extraterrestrial Encounters in the Golden State (Schiffer Books)
Need to Know: UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence
The Uncensored Truth About UFOs: Plus Bonus Chapters on Hostile UFOs!
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Hitchhiker writing book about 'The Kindness of America' shot by stranger in drive-by shooting
A West Virginia man is recovering and another man is in jail after what authorities described as a random shooting on Saturday night near Glasgow, MT. Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier said that on Saturday night, Raymond Dolin, 39, was sitting on the side of Highway 2 a few miles west of Glasgow and waiting for a ride when a man drove up in a maroon pickup, shot him and drove off shortly before 6 p.m.
Dolin, from West Virginia, is hitchhiking across the country and writing a memoir called "The Kindness of America," Meier said. He was able to flag down a passer-by for help and is now recovering at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow. Authorities from several counties, the Montana Highway Patrol, the Bureau of Land Management and Fort Peck tribal officials began a large manhunt for the driver of the pickup.
They learned the man had asked for directions from a nearby resident before heading east. Tribal officers spotted the pickup in Poplar and Roosevelt County Sheriff's deputies were able to track it Culbertson, where they arrested the driver, 52-year-old Charles Lloyd Danielson III, of Washington, in connection with the shooting about four hours after it happened.
Meier said there doesn't appear to be any connection between Dolin and Danielson. "It’s totally random," he said. "These two gentlemen did not know each other. They’d never seen each other and we don't know of a motive. We don’t know why this happened." Danielson is being held at the Roosevelt County Detention Center on suspicion of felony assault with a weapon and driving under the influence. - billingsgazette
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Alcatraz Escape Mystery Remains After 50 Years
It’s 50 years since what could have been the only successful escape from Alcatraz - and the three fugitives remain wanted men.
Brothers John and Clarence Anglin and fellow prisoner Frank Morris pulled off the great escape on June 11, 1962, and to this day remain wanted by authorities as their bodies have never been found.
The Anglins' two younger sisters, Marie Widner and Mearl Taylor, visited the former prison on Monday to commemorate the anniversary of their siblings' daring getaway.
I’ve always believed they made it and I haven’t changed my mind about that.
Marie, 76, said: "I’ve always believed they made it and I haven’t changed my mind about that."
Before the prison closed in March 1963, 36 inmates attempted to escape, but only the Anglin brothers and Morris managed to remain elusive to the authorities.
The trio were all serving sentences for bank robbery, but it was the Anglins' history of previous escapes coupled with a failed attempt to sneak Clarence out of federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas that got them sent to Alcatraz in 1960 and 1961.
Their sister Mearl said: "Just because they did this mischievous stuff growing up, they were not bad boys. They never caused no problems with the family.
"They just got out and did this mischievous stuff until it got to the bank robbery and that's when they really got into trouble. I’m proud of them."
The men’s infamous escape has been made into a book and the 1979 Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz, in which he played the character of Morris.
The US Marshals Service took over the manhunt from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1978.
US Marshal Michael Dyke inherited the case in 2003 and while it remains unknown for certain whether they survived the treacherous bay crossing from the rock to San Francisco, he gets tips every couple of months about reported sightings of the trio.
He said the most convincing clues have included that the Anglin’s mother for several years received flowers without a card and that the brothers attended her 1973 funeral disguised in women’s clothes despite a swarm of FBI agents.
If the Anglins or Morris were ever tracked down Marshal Dyke said that he would still arrest them, but added: "I'd have to compliment them because it was very meticulous what they did, how they escaped from here."
The warrants on them will expire when each man passes his 100th birthday.
They reportedly spent months using spoons and forks to dig holes in the crumbling masonry surrounding the air vents in their cells, eventually piercing the six and a half inch (16.5cm) thick walls, before squeezing out through roof vents.
In preparation for the escape they also produced a raft and life vests out of more than 50 cotton raincoats that inmates were assigned.
They made mannequin heads out of paper paint and hair acquired from the prison’s barbers, which they left in their beds when they worked on the raft and on the night of their getaway.
Replicas of the dummy heads still lie in their former cells, which are popular stops with the more than a million tourists who visit Alcatraz Island every year.
Alcatraz Island is located in the San Francisco Bay, approximately 1.5 miles (2.4km) from the shore of San Francisco and was a federal prison from 1933 until 1963 for "desperate or irredeemable individuals". - sky
Escape from Alcatraz
Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years
Letters from Alcatraz
