xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx

Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.

Madison County, Ill., lawyer Gary Peel, 62, who was battling an ex-wife over alimony, filed for bankruptcy to reduce her chances of getting anything, and then when she challenged his filing, he allegedly tried to blackmail her into silence. According to federal charges against him in March, he told his ex-wife that, unless she relented, he would shock her elderly parents by giving them decades-old nude photos of him with the ex-wife’s younger sister. However, Peel perhaps forgot that the sister was allegedly only 16 when the photos were taken, and he has been charged with possessing child pornography.

Waco, Texas, attorney Paula Allen personally agreed to bond in October on behalf of client Rolando Castelan (accused of drug offenses), but when Castelan skipped a court date, she was charged the $5,000. According to prosecutors, Allen, with three men, then picked up Castelan against his will at his wedding in December and detained him, while forcing him to telephone his friends for loans to pay her the $5,000. Eventually, Castelan’s ex-wife (one of the call recipients) helped him escape from Allen and her cohorts, and Allen was charged with kidnapping.

Still More Reasons Not to Smoke, Beyond What the Surgeon General Told You:
–In February, the cigarette of a 46-year-old woman in Parkersburg, W.Va., accidentally set fire to her long hair, and she later died at the West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

–Also in February, Dennis Crouch, 53, who had earlier chased his wife with a knife during an argument in Daytona Beach, Fla., resisted police when they arrived, provoking one officer to fire her Taser, which struck a cigarette lighter in Crouch’s shirt pocket, setting fire to his upper body. (His burns weren’t serious.)
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or [email protected] or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.) NEWS OF THE WEIRD