News Of The Weird-60

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

(NOTE: Chuck Shepherd needs to revisit the roots of “weird” and engage in two more weeks of reflection. Before he left, he picked out some golden oldies to tide you over.)

In January, Fort Worth, Texas, murder defendant Robert William Greer Jr. agreed to plead guilty to a 1988 killing provided that the judge kept him in the local jail for two more weeks before sending him to the penitentiary – – so that he could be assured of seeing the Super Bowl on TV. (Greer thought TV privileges in prison were less certain.) Greer was excited about the prospects that his favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings, would go all the way. Two days after his guilty plea, the Atlanta Falcons beat the Vikings to knock them out of the playoffs, but the guilty plea stood.

As of May 1999, the city-supported Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavik was closing in on its goal of housing at least one sample penis from every mammal native to Iceland. Only “man” and one species of whale were missing, and curator Sigurdur Hjartarson had solved the first problem with a letter from an 83-year-old former Lothario promising his organ upon his death (in an erect state if doctors can act quickly enough). Some whale species, though, have only the tips displayed because the entire organs are too long (10 feet) or too heavy (over 100 pounds).
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or  [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd

NEWS OF THE WEIRD