Could this happen anywhere other than Texas?

LooseCannon

Enterprise-class aircraft carrier
Staff member
Seriously.  Someone from Europe tell me that this could NEVER happen there.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4968717.html

July 15, 2007, 12:34AM
Murder suspect says he was doing God's work
Cypress man is being held in the June death of flight attendant

By PAIGE HEWITT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A Cypress man charged in the death of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant said Saturday that he was doing God's work when he went to a Montrose-area bar last month, hunting for a gay man to kill.

"I believe I'm Elijah, called by God to be a prophet," said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. " ... I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing."

Interviewed in the Brazoria County Jail Saturday morning, Mangum said he feels no remorse for killing 46-year-old Kenneth Cummings Jr., whom relatives described as a "loving" son who never forgot a holiday and a devoted uncle who had set up college funds for his niece and nephew. He worked at Southwest for 24 years.

Mangum, who described himself as "definitely not a homosexual," said God called on him to "carry out a code of retribution" by killing a gay man because "sexual perversion" is the "worst sin."

Mangum believed Cummings to be gay.

"I planned on sending him to hell," he said.

Cummings disappeared June 4. His charred remains were found June 16, buried on a 50-acre ranch near San Antonio owned by Mangum's 90-year-old grandfather.

Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne would not comment on the case, citing a gag order issued by a judge Saturday afternoon.

The Chronicle was unable to reach Mangum's attorney, Perry Stevens.

Mangum — who claimed he has studied the Bible for "thousands and thousands and thousands of hours" — said God first commanded him to kill during a "visitation," or dream, while he was in prison in 2001. He said his victim must be a man because men "carry the harvest of the sinner."

After six months' planning, Mangum said, he went to E.J.'s, a Montrose-area club, where he met Cummings. After they drank a couple of beers, he said, the two went to Cummings' home in Pearland.

Mangum said he stabbed Cummings with a "6-inch blade."

"It's not that I'm a bad dude," he said, expressing concern that people might view him as "strange." Pausing briefly, he said, "I love God."

When police searched Cummings' home, they found traces of blood that someone had tried to clean up, as well as evidence that a struggle had taken place, according to court documents.

Mangum became a suspect not long after Cummings disappeared, for reasons officials have declined to disclose.

Tim Miller, executive director of Texas Equusearch, which found Cummings' remains, said last month that Mangum had used Cummings' credit cards to buy lighter fluid, a flashlight and hydrogen peroxide while he was en route to dispose of the body outside San Antonio.

When credit card records showed that the cards had been used near San Antonio, investigators ran a property-records search that led them to the ranch owned by a Robert Mangum, Miller said.

Store video also showed that the person using the cards appeared to be Terry Mangum, investigators have said.

Cummings' remains were soon found in a shallow grave.

The Facts, the daily newspaper in Brazoria County, has reported that Mangum told investigators he did not kill Cummings. Mangum first said he killed Cummings, during a jailhouse interview Friday with that paper.

He is being held on $500,000 bail.

paige.hewitt@chron.com
 
Of course people have always been killing in the name of God and continue to everywhere to this day. Don't forget we are currently in the latest evolution of the Crusades. I agree with you that Texas holds something special in terms of criminal insanity however. All kinds of unusual and senseless acts are committed in the Lone Star State all the time.
 
Never heard of the slaughtering of Theo Van Gogh? Or the bombings in Madrid and London?

OK, it didn't go exactly like your story, but it comes from the same extremist views.
 
No, it didn't.

My point is that I don't believe this man *believes* what he is saying.  I believe that he says these things because he knows the result in Texas is going to be that he gets a few months or years in a mental institution, or quite possibly might get off altogether, when in reality according to state law he gets strapped to a gurney (though I don't approve of the practise).  I think it is a blatant attempt at jury manipulation and I think it's going to work.
 
I definitely believe that it could happen elsewhere. The question is whether or not it would succeed anywhere else ;)
 
I knew this sounded familiar to me.

Hence one gains for Christ, and then gains Christ Himself, who most willingly accepts the death of an adversary for the ends of vengeance and then even more willingly offers Himself to a knight for the end of consolation. Christ's knight deals out death in safety, as I said, and suffers death in even greater safety. He benefits himself when he suffers death, and benefits Christ when he deals out death. 'He does not wear a sword without cause; he is God's agent for punishment of evil-doers and for glorification of the good.' [Rom, 13,4 ; 1. Petr., 2,14] Clearly, when he kills an evil-doer, he is not a homicide, but, if you will allow me the term, a malicide, and is plainly Christ's vengeance on those who work evil and the defense Christ provides for Christians. When such a knight is himself killed, we know that he has not simply perished but has won through to the end of this life. The death he inflicts accrues to Christ's profit; the death he receives accrues to his own. The Christian glories in a pagan's death, because Christ is glorified; in the death of a Christian, the King's generosity is confirmed, by revelation of the knight's reward. Moreover, in the first case, the just will be gladdened when they see vengeance done; in the second, 'men will say, if there is indeed a reward for the just, it is God Judging men on earth.' [Ps 57,11] Pagans would not even have to be slaughtered, if there were some other way to prevent them from besetting and oppressing the faithful. But now it is better that they be killed than that the rod of these sinners continue to imperil the lot of the just, preventing the just from reaching out their hands against iniquity.
5. What next? If a Christian is not allowed to strike with the sword, then why did the Saviour's precursor bid knights be content with their earnings, instead of forbidding them knighthood altogether? If on the other hand it is allowed all who are destined by God for such a role and have not professed some higher calling, which is in fact the case, to whom could it be better allowed than those by whose force and power the city of our strength, Sion, is held for our general protection, that the people of justice who keep the truth might enter it safely when those who transgress God's laws have been driven out? Surely, then, let peoples who love war be destroyed, and let those who trouble us be cut off, and let all workers of iniquity, those who strive to carry off the invaluable treasure that the Christian people have stored up in Jerusalem, to profane the holy things and to hold God's sanctuary as their heritage, be scattered from the Lord's city. Let both swords of the faithful stretch out over the necks of their enemies, to destroy any hautiness seeking to set itself up against that knowledge of God which is the faith of Christians, 'so that no one will have to ask, where is their God?' [Ps 113,2]

From: Bernhard of Clairvaux, Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae, 1128-1131, III, 4-5. Copied from
this location (Bible references inserted by yours truly, based on information given here).
 
I'm really interested in the subject of gay rights at this moment. One of my co-workers - a lesbian - just experienced a shattering loss. Her long-time partner (over 20 years together) died suddenly and unexpectedly last night. I'm wondering how the funeral arrangements will go ... if I hear that my friend Terri is having difficulties because she wasn't legally married to her partner, I'm going to freak out on someone.
 
Ohgod.  That can really screw up inheritance issues and the like.  Already in Canada with the new gay marriage laws we have experienced issues with things like gay divorce that were not provided for.
 
Perun said:
I knew this sounded familiar to me.

From: Bernhard of Clairvaux, Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae, 1128-1131, III, 4-5. Copied from
this location (Bible references inserted by yours truly, based on information given here).

This seems to be an extension of Augustine's "Just War" and if you notice it only refers to knights and given that it's from St. Bernard it was during the Crusades... a POLITICAL, not religious, venture..... *sigh*

SinisterMinisterX said:
I'm really interested in the subject of gay rights at this moment. One of my co-workers - a lesbian - just experienced a shattering loss. Her long-time partner (over 20 years together) died suddenly and unexpectedly last night. I'm wondering how the funeral arrangements will go ... if I hear that my friend Terri is having difficulties because she wasn't legally married to her partner, I'm going to freak out on someone.

She will have problems because so far only Masachussettes allows legal homosexual CIVIL (which is what homosexuals are pushing for, civil, not religious, marriage) marriage. All other states are actually banning it, 11 so far the others don't recognize it.
 
Onhell said:
This seems to be an extension of Augustine's "Just War"

He based his ideas on Augustines works.

and if you notice it only refers to knights and given that it's from St. Bernard it was during the Crusades...

It was indeed part of his propaganda for the second Crusade

a POLITICAL, not religious, venture..... *sigh*

You should know that during the Middle Ages, politics and religion (in the sense of the Church) were closely interwined.

I don't see what you are trying to point out. I'm not attacking Christianity. All I'm saying is that what this Texan prat did and thinks is nothing new.
 
Perun said:
You should know that during the Middle Ages, politics and religion (in the sense of the Church) were closely interwined.
Closely interwined yes, one and the same, no... so it is important to mention.
I don't see what you are trying to point out. I'm not attacking Christianity. All I'm saying is that what this Texan prat did and thinks is nothing new.

had you said that earlier I might not have pointed out anything :p, but true enough, nothing new.
 
LooseCannon said:
No, it didn't.

My point is that I don't believe this man *believes* what he is saying.  I believe that he says these things because he knows the result in Texas is going to be that he gets a few months or years in a mental institution, or quite possibly might get off altogether, when in reality according to state law he gets strapped to a gurney (though I don't approve of the practise).  I think it is a blatant attempt at jury manipulation and I think it's going to work.

I'm deeply sorry and ashamed, but even though I think I have a good english I don't understand the terms "blatant" and "gurney", could you please explain to me, in order to understand completely your post?

I'm sorry...  :blush:
 
blatant = obvious.

gurney = the table that people are strapped to for medical procedures, which in the state of Texas, includes death by lethal injection.
 
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