Page 7 - Other Facts

A man was killed during a bank robbery when a bomb that was locked around his neck exploded!

In August 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Douglas Wells was killed in a mysterious series of events. Wells was 46 years old and had worked as a pizza delivery man for nearly 30 years. On the night of August 28th, he received a call to meet three of his accomplices.

They had previously decided on a plan to rob a bank. For his part, Wells would pretend that three men had forced him to rob a bank on penalty of detonating the bomb that hung around his neck. Wells was under the impression the bomb would be fake.

That night, he discovered it would be anything but pretend. When he tried to resist, his accomplices threatened him at gunpoint, which is when they fastened the bomb on him.

Wells then attempted to rob the bank, but was caught by police. They failed to promptly call the bomb squad though. The explosive detonated and killed wells just three minutes before the squad finally made it on the scene.

(Source)

Having a swimming pool at home is 100 times more likely to lead to accidental child death than having a gun at home.

Turns out that a swimming pool is more of a death trap than a gun. In 1997 alone, 742 children under the age of 10 drowned in the United States alone. About 75% of those drownings occurred in residential swimming pools.

Recent stats indicate that there are about six million swimming pools in the US, which means that 1 young child drowns annually for every 11,000 pools.

About 175 children under the age of 10 died in 1998 as a result of guns. About two-thirds of those deaths were homicides-not fully preventable accidents. There are an estimated 200 million guns in the United States, meaning one child is killed by guns for every one million guns.

When it comes to guns, regardless of what your position is on the debate, almost everyone agrees that it is wise to keep guns away from children and knows the safety precautions to take when they have both a gun and a young child in their home.

However, people usually don't suspect that pools could be dangerous to young children until it's too late. For more information about kiddy-proofing your pool, check out the source.

(Source)

Scared Straight programs are not only ineffective, they cause substantial increases in criminal relapse

Scared Straight programs were established in the US in the 1970s. The programs involved law enforcement officials taking at-risk youth to prisons to show them what life would be like for them if they were ever to be incarcerated. While these programs are good intentioned, studies over the years have shown that they are ineffective.

One study, done by Anthony Petrosino and the researchers at the Campbell Collaboration, looked at results from nine different Scared Straight programs.They found that the programs actually increased crime by 28% compared to a control group that did not go through the program.

The US Congress reviewed 500 different crime prevention programs and put the Scared Straight program in the "does not work" category.Despite this evidence, these programs continue to be used throughout the US.

(Source)

Norman Mailer helped a convicted murdered get parole. The man commited a murder within weeks of getting out of jail

Norman Mailer was a novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, film maker, actor, and political candidate. He was quite the accomplished man in many fields. In 1980, Mailer spearheaded the successful parole of convicted murderer Jack Abbott.

In 1977, Abbott had read about Mailer's work on The Executioner's Song and wrote to Mailer. He offered to enlighten Mailer about his time behind bars and the conditions he was experiencing. Mailer was impressed and helped to publish In the Belly of the Beast, a book on life in the prison system containing Abbott's letters to Mailer.

Once paroled, Abbott committed a murder in New York City six weeks after his release, stabbing to death 22 year old Richard Adan. As a result, Mailer was subject to criticism for his role. In a 1992 interview with the Buffalo News, he admitted that his involvement was "another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in."

(Source)

The record for longest sniper kill is 1.8 miles and was set last year!

Snipers are trained to shoot accurately from long distances. But can you imagine a bullet being accurate over 1.8 miles? This is the record for longest recorded sniper kill, and it just happened in 2012.

The record belongs to an unknown Australian soldier from Delta Company, Second Command Regiment. The soldier had a GPS confirmed shot of 2,815 meters. It was taken during Operation Slipper during the War in Afghanistan.

The name of the sniper is unknown because it was a multi-shot kill. Two soldiers fired on a Taliban commander, and it is unknown whose shot took him down.

(Source)