News Of The Weird-437

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

In September, based on the complaint of only one letter-writer (and that man later said he was more being provocative than complaining), the band director of C.D. Hylton High School in Prince William County, Va., dropped from his playlist the popular Charlie Daniels Band song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” because it centers on Satan. Daniels, interviewed by The Washington Post, was appalled: “I am a Christian, and I don’t write pro-devil songs.”

Sidney Hale, 31, was arrested in Bluefield, Va., in November after enlisting a female friend to help him to, as he put it, sharpen his reflexes in case an intruder broke into his trailer home. The woman was to knock at the front door, and Hale was then to quickly grab his handgun. (A third person was to gauge Hale’s reaction time.) According to a sheriff’s detective, she knocked, and Hale grabbed the gun. However, it accidentally fired a slug through the door into the woman’s back (but she is fine following surgery).

In December in Lake Worth, Fla., a 16-year-old boy found a .45-caliber bullet, began eagerly pounding it with a hammer and screwdriver, and shot himself in the stomach. (He was treated and released at a hospital.)

Also in November, in Sun City, Calif., an 84-year-old man put a gun to his head after a quarrel with his wife and killed himself. However, according to sheriff’s deputies, the woman, 71, standing about 8 feet away, was also killed when the bullet passed through him and into her forehead.
(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