Texas inmate set to die for hate crimes in 9/11's wake

"I cannot tell you that I am an innocent man. I am not asking you to feel sorry for me, and I won't hide the truth," Mark Anthony Stroman said from Texas death row at the Polunsky Correctional Unit in Livingston. "I am a human being and made a terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger, and believe me, I am paying for it every single minute of the day."
The 41-year-old prisoner is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for a murder he once said was fueled by "patriotism," but which the state argued was motivated by pure hatred.
The admitted white supremacist was convicted in the deadly shooting of an Indian man, part of a killing spree that began just after the September 11 terror attacks. His target: those he believed were of Middle Eastern background, in revenge and retaliation for the worst domestic terror incident in U.S. history.
A Pakistani man was also murdered and a Bangladeshi man was seriously wounded in separate attacks.
The Supreme Court denied a stay of execution last month. Stroman's supporters are urging the governor and the state Board of Pardons and Parole to grant clemency.
Stroman says he was sitting at home, watching the 9/11 attacks unfold on television. He claims his sister was in the top floors of the World Trade Center's North Tower when it and the adjacent South Tower collapsed from the deliberate crash of jetliners into the building. That claim was never substantiated during his felony murder trial and was not raised by his current appellate attorney as a reason for his subsequent acts.
In a recent posting on his prison blog, Stroman says the terror attacks sparked something inside him. "Let's just say that I could not think clearly anymore and I am sorry to say I made innocent people pay for my rage, anger, grief and loss," he wrote.
Citing his own statements to fellow inmates, a federal appeals court, in denying his claims, concluded that Stroman believed that the U.S. government "hadn't done their job, so he was going to do it for them" by retaliating.
The man told his lawyers he once belonged to the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang, and has a long criminal history of burglary, armed robbery and theft.
Just days after the horrifying incidents in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania a decade ago, prosecutors said, Stroman began carefully plotting what he believed was revenge. He was on bail at the time for previous crimes.
On September 15, he shot Waqar Hasan in the head while the man was grilling hamburgers in his convenience store. The 46-year-old Pakistani native had moved to the Dallas area only that year to start a new life with his family.
Six days later, Stroman shot Raisuddin Bhuiyan in the face while he manned the counter at a gas station. He survived but was left blind in one eye.
Then, on October 4, Stroman attempted to rob the Mesquite gas station operated by Vasudev Patel. Surveillance tapes showed the suspect waving a .44-caliber chrome-plated pistol at the clerk and demanding, "Open the register or I'll kill you." The 49-year-old Patel tried to reach for his gun hidden under the counter, but Stroman shot the unarmed man in the chest. The killer left without taking any cash. He was arrested the next day.
Patel was a Hindu, not Muslim, Arab or Middle Eastern.
It was for that crime that Stroman was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death. During the sentencing phase, he made an obscene hand gesture to Hasan's relatives.
Although he now claims remorse for his actions, a year after the killings, Stroman was in a different mood. Writing on his blog, he said, "This was not a crime of hate but an act of Passion and Patriotism, an act of country and commitment, an act of retribution and recompense. The was not done during Peace time but at War time. I, Mark Anthony Stroman, felt a need to exact some measure of equality and fairness for the thousands of victims of September 11th, 2001, for the United States of America and its people, The People of this Great Country. GOD BLESS AMERICA."
One of Stroman's biggest supporters is the man who survived his ordeal and testified against the defendant. Rais Bhuiyan is a devout Muslim who came to the United States to pursue his education. A decade ago, he was about to be married and was working an extra job.
He says a large "angry" man wearing a bandana, sunglasses and a baseball cap approached him in the store and asked, "Where are you from?" Confused, Bhuiyan asked, "Excuse me?" Immediately afterward, he remembered being shot, "the sensation of a million bees stinging my face, and then heard an explosion."
Bhuiyan believes that his attacker does not deserve to die and has created a website, worldwithouthate.org, to urge Texas to spare Stroman's life.
"In order to live in a better and peaceful world, we need to break the cycle of hate and violence. I believe forgiveness is the best policy, which helps to break this cycle," he said, calling himself a victim of a hate crime. "I forgave Mark Stroman many years ago. I believe he was ignorant and not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Otherwise he wouldn't have done what he did."
Bhuiyan traveled this month to Paris to urge the European Parliament to step in and file a formal request for Texas to commute Stroman's sentence to life in prison.
European leaders, as well as the United Nations, had condemned the July 7 execution of a Mexican national on Texas death row. Humberto Leal Garcia Jr. had been denied access to his consulate upon arrest in 1994, which his supporters said was a violation of an international treaty that deserved a new hearing into Leal's capital conviction.
Bhuiyan is also working with Amnesty International and Stroman's attorneys to at least delay the lethal injection. The Bangladeshi man cites his Muslim faith, saying he has received the blessing of the dead men's families. And he wants to meet his attacker on death row before it is too late.
"His attorney gave him the message that one of your victims is running this campaign to save your life," he said. "He was reduced to tears. He couldn't believe one of his victims would come forward and try to save his life."
Stroman says his biggest regret is that he would leave his four children behind and says that being a capital inmate is a "nightmare come to life." Prisoner No. 999-409 also claims to be a changed man.
"I am sorry to say I made innocent people pay for my rage, anger, grief and loss," he said. "I have destroyed my victims' families as well as my own. Out of pure anger and stupidity I did some things to some men from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. And now I sit on death row awaiting execution. And by no means am I proud of what I have done."
Lawyer Lydia Brandt says her client was "in a paranoid, delusional state" at the time of the murders and "shot these individuals believing they were Arab, enemies of the United States." She offered expert mental health evidence in support of this claim.
The state sees it differently, noting that the six children of the men Stroman murdered in cold blood will grow up without their father. The victims also left their wives as widows. Officials cite testimony by fellow inmates of Stroman's continuing dangerousness and his unrepentant racist views, both pre- and post-conviction.
Barring a last-minute intervention, Stroman will die for his crimes.

 

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Defendant in Tucker slaying admits fight with a rival gang member

alleged Sureno gang member who told a California Highway Patrol investigator he fatally shot Vallejo musician Dewey Tucker on Interstate Highway 80 in 2010 also admitted fighting a rival gang member who was found stabbed to death in a Santa Rosa schoolyard in January.
Raul Vega, 19, who is charged with both murders, said he and Juan Carlos Angel-Esparza, 20, fought at the Kawana Springs elementary school on Jan. 8, Santa Rosa police detective Bryan Reynolds testified Friday at a preliminary hearing in Sonoma County Superior Court.

On Thursday, CHP violent crimes detective William Harm testified Vega admitted he shot Tucker from the passenger seat of a stolen Honda as Tucker drove by in a white Nissan on westbound I-80 near the Carquinez Bridge on Jan. 12, 2010.

Vega and three co-defendants went to the Vallejo apartment complex where Tucker lived looking for a rival gang member, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office.

When Tucker drove quickly past the defendants in his Nissan, Vega and 20-year-old Javier Juan Carreon-Lopez pursued him in the stolen Honda, believing he was the rival gang member, Harm testified.

The other defendants, Hector Barragan and Christopher Mancinas, both 29, followed the Honda in a separate vehicle, Harm testified.

Vega said he turned sideways in the passenger seat of a stolen Honda, pointed the gun at the door of Tucker's white Nissan in the next lane and fired three to five times, Harm said.

Vega said he had both hands on the gun and pulled the trigger with two fingers, Harm said.
Tucker was shot in the head. His Nissan collided with the concrete center median, then with the right guardrail on westbound Interstate 80 near Hercules.

Harm said Vega told him he learned the next day that he had mistakenly shot Tucker, whom neither he nor his co-defendants knew.

Tucker, 24, who played bass for Lauryn Hill and Bobby Brown, was on his way to a music session that night, according to testimony during the hearing.

Reynolds testified today that Vega reluctantly admitted on Jan. 10 that he fought Angel-Esparza at the school south of Santa Rosa.

Vega claimed Angel-Esparza, an alleged rival gang member from the Varrio Sureno Locos set of the Sureno gang, confronted him about his gang affiliation, Reynolds said.

Vega said he identified himself as a member of the Angelino Heights sect, "and the fight was on," Reynolds said.

Vega claimed Angel-Esparza withdrew two knives during the fistfight, Reynolds testified. Vega said during a struggle for one knife, the blade broke off, Reynolds testified.

The blade was found near Angel-Esparza's body and the other knife was found on a rooftop at the school, Reynolds said.

Angel-Esparza was found in an outdoor hallway with a stab wound in the upper left chest and two in the right abdomen. He died at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Reynolds said Vega told him he was defending himself and that he burned his clothing in his back yard after the fight.

A man who lived a block from Vega identified Raul Vega as the person fighting with Angel-Esparza, Santa Rosa police detective Andrew Riled testified Friday afternoon.

The hearing continues Monday morning.

 

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Gardai want to quiz psycho killer Eric 'Lucky' Wilson over a spate of unsolved murders here, which they believe he carried out as a 'freelance' assassin.

Gardai are looking for the gangland's most prolific hitman, suspected of at least ten murders -- including eight in Ireland.

Gardai want to quiz psycho killer Eric 'Lucky' Wilson over a spate of unsolved murders here, which they believe he carried out as a 'freelance' assassin.

Wilson was convicted of blasting 24-year-old British criminal Daniel Smith to death in a packed Spanish bar and now faces a potential 25-year jail term, the Herald can reveal.

The victim was shot a number of times in a row over a woman.

Wilson (27), who has been on the run from gardai since 2006, could then be be extradited back to Ireland.

They also want to charge him over a major firearms seizure in Co Carlow that year and also a serious assault in Co Laois in 2004.

A senior source explained: "Eric Wilson is the most prolific gun-for-hire in the history of Irish organised crime. He is completely ruthless, psychotic and had a solid reputation of always getting his man."

Detectives from the NBCI travelled to Spain earlier this year to question him about these killings, but Wilson refused to meet them when they arrived at the jail he was in.

The hitman, from Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, is suspected of working for a number of Ireland's most dangerous drugs gangs and regularly travelling back and forward from Spain's Costa-Del-Sol to Ireland with a false passport before his arrest in Fuengirola last June.

These gangs include the northside crews that were led by slain crime lords Martin 'Marlo' Hyland and Eamon 'The Don' Dunne as well as notorious hood Paul 'Burger' Walsh's drugs gang.

Wilson has also worked for the godfather of Irish crime Christy Kinahan, and 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's mob.

However he has always been closest to the current 'Mr Big' of Irish crime -- a shadowy major league criminal who is aged in his 50s and has made millions of euro by importing illegal cigarettes into Ireland.

Feud

Sources say that 'Mr Big' has been a "mentor and financial backer" of Wilson since the hitman was only a child but has "left him to hang out to dry" because of the reckless murder in Spain of Daniel Smith which 'Mr Big' considered "highly stupid", according to sources.

'Mr Big', who has major Provo credentials, cannot be named for legal reasons but he was in involved in a bitter feud with the Real IRA last summer which led to two murders and a number of shooting incidents.

This feud has now eased and 'Mr Big' spends most of his time in Spain where he was regularly spotted in 'Lucky' Wilson's company before he was locked up last June.

Sources have confirmed that Wilson is the chief suspect for two gang murders in Co Louth in 2006 and 2007 -- that of Paul Reay and Roy Coddington.

Drug dealer Reay was shot dead in November 2006 on the orders of Finglas gang boss Hyland -- himself shot dead later that year.

The 26-year-old father-of- three was hit three times in the chest after the car he was travelling in was waved down by a gunman posing as a road worker just outside Drogheda, Co Louth.

Gardai believe Reay was targeted because his killers thought he tipped off detectives about a major drugs haul seized near Athboy, Co Meath, in 2005.

Drug dealer Coddington (36) was shot twice in the face and once in the chest at Mornington beach, Co Meath in March 2007.

Sources also suspect that Wilson was involved in the abduction, torture and murder of criminals David 'Babyface' Lindsay and Alan 'Whacker' Napper, who disappeared without trace almost three years ago.

Gardai believe the unfortunate duo were murdered in a house in Co Down on the orders of the notorious drugs trafficker, nicknamed 'The Panda' by the media, after they threatened to kidnap his mother.

Sources say that once Lindsay and Napper were tortured and shot, their bodies were cut up and dumped in the Irish Sea.

Gardai have also been investigating Wilson's links to the murder of King Ratt gang enforcer Anthony Cannon (26) who was gunned down in Ballyfermot in July 2009 on the orders of the 'Fat' Freddie gang.

Gruesome

Another Ballyfermot murder linked to Wilson is that of Martin Kenny (22) who was shot dead as he slept beside his girlfriend in May 2005.

Sources have also confirmed that gardai have investigated if Wilson was responsible for shooting dead gangland figure Andrew 'Madser' Glennon (30) in Blanchardstown just a fortnight before Kenny's murder.

Another gruesome murder that Wilson is suspected of is that of north inner city hood Christopher Gilroy (36) who disappeared without trace in Spain in February 2009.

Wilson is also suspected of involvement in shooting a man dead in the Crumlin area over a decade ago when he was just a teenager. This victim is understood to have given a female cousin of Wilson's a beating.

And a very close associate of Wilson is a feared gangster from the south inner city who is the chief suspect for abducting and murdering 19-year-old Romanian girl Marioara Rostas in January 2008.

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Four Russian neo-Nazis were handed life sentences yesterday for the murder of 27 youths in a 2007-2008 spree that shocked Moscow and led to tougher hate crime laws.

The court also convicted several of the 13 gang members of terrorism for plotting a suburban Moscow train station bombing that was uncovered in time by the police.

The court handed 10- to 23-year prison terms to eight members of the group while one person received a suspended sentence for cooperating with the investigation.

The Nationalist-Socialist Society was a legally registered organisation when it began its hunt on young ethnic minorities who arrived in the Russian capital from southern Muslim republics and the Central Asian states.

Russian media reports said at least one of the attacks was videotaped then distributed on Russian nationalist websites.

An outcry from human rights groups over these and similar attacks prompted the Kremlin to call for a review of Russian nationalist groups’ links to hate crime.

The Kremlin had initially provided informal backing to some of these organisations as part of its drive to improve young people’s interest in politics.

The Nationalist-Socialist Society was formally banned in February 2010 and several similar groups have since been forced to disband.

But they maintain a strong presence on Russian social media networks and often manage to bring out large numbers of supporters for protests outside foreign embassy in times of diplomatic tensions with the West.

Monday’s hearing received national media attention and saw the group walk into court chanting neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic slogans and repeatedly jeering the judge from the dock.

One member of the gang wore a black t-shirt with a skull and bones while others wore surgical masks to hide their identities. Several had shaved heads.

Presiding judge Nikolai Tkachuk quickly read through the 250 page verdict before delivering his sentence and calling gang leader Lev Molotkov “an extraordinary danger to Russian society”.

The father of one of the defendants broke down in tears after the verdict while the group chanted in unison: “Our conscience stands above the law.”

The neo-Nazi leader had pleaded not guilty.

“We plan to appeal,” defence attorney Maria Malakhovskayasaid.

“This ruling was simply not objective.”

Her client — a 21-year old unemployed man identified as one of the senior gang members — received 20 years behind bars.

A recent spike in ethnic violence prompted the Russian authorities to crack down on neo-Nazi groups and ban some organisations that had operated in the open for years.

The rise in ethnic tension in Moscow and other major cities spilled over in December when a massive riot broke out near the Kremlin following the murder of a nationalist supporter of a Moscow football club by a Muslim suspect.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later raised eyebrows by visiting the grave of the slain football fan in the company of several nationalist organisations that took part in December’s rioting.

But both he and President Dmitry Medvedev have identified racism as one of the country’s more pressing social concerns and chaired various meetings designed to address Russian xenophobia.

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Eddie Laurel posed for group pictures with the North Side Gangsters and posted them on his MySpace page.

The 17-year-old has been visited in jail more than a dozen times by people who have admitted to Wichita police they belong to the so-called NSG street gang.

Friday, jurors in his first-degree murder trial heard about the teenager's gang ties, and how life works on Wichita's most dangerous streets, which prosecutors say led to last summer's shooting death of a 13-year-old boy.

Miguel Angel Andrade Martinez didn't belong to a gang. But he may have died because of the ignorance of Wichita's gang members.

Prosecutors say Laurel, then 16, wanted to impress others in the North Side Gangsters — also known as NSGs — by seeking retribution for a fight involving one of its top members. But Laurel went to the wrong house, the state says, helping spray the door with the 10 bullets that hit Miguel as he went to answer a knock around 6 a.m. on June 20.

Police Detective Chad Beard has spent most of the last decade collecting intelligence on street gangs in Wichita, which he told the jury now count some 3,000 documented members.

"Wichita is smaller, but we have many of the problems of larger cities," Beard told the jury.

The names adopted by gangs may apply to Wichita but actually have roots in larger urban areas, Beard said.

The North Side Gangsters do hang out in north Wichita, Beard said, but they are modeled after a group with the same name that evolved from a prison gang from northern California. The NSGs are known to wear red and have tattoos that include "14" — signifying "N" as the 14th letter of the alphabet.

Locally, the NSGs are a small set that broke off from another Wichita gang, the Vato Loco Boys, around 1999, Beard said. The Vato Loco Boys are an offshoot of the Folk Nation, a Chicago-based network of street gangs.

Each gang has a kind of unwritten hierarchy, Beard said, with those calling themselves "OGs" — for "original gangsters" — at the top.

Daniel Betancourt identified himself as an OG in the North Side Gangsters to police as early as 2006, Beard said. Brothers Eli and Alejandro Betancourt had been associated with the Vato Loco Boys.

Witnesses have said Laurel, Eli Betancourt and Alejandro Betancourt went to Miguel's house because they thought someone who lived there was involved in a fight the previous month with Daniel Betancourt. But the man they were looking for didn't live there.

Eli and Alejandro Betancourt were both convicted of murder in trials earlier this year.

Beard said it's not unusual for gang members to talk about their life to police, just as they post pictures of themselves in gang dress and use gang signs on Internet social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

"They like to tell us about what they do and their gang lifestyle because it's their way of representing their gangs," Beard testified. "But they don't want to tell us about the bad stuff they do."

Those include burglaries, vandalism, drug running, drive-by shootings and murder.

Young kids join gangs for various reasons, Beard said, including to have social contacts or to follow family members into the lifestyle.

It's also not unusual in Wichita for gangs that would be vicious rivals in other cities to be friends here because it's a smaller town.

"You'll find people of the same family in rival gangs," Beard said. "You'll find guys who grew up next to each other who are in rival gangs, but since they've known each other all their lives, they'll be friends. That can also be dangerous."

Prosecutors C.J. Rieg and Trinity Muth say Laurel wanted to become a member of the NSGs and figured he could solidify his gang affiliation by shooting a man who had hurt Daniel Betancourt. Instead, witnesses say, Laurel went to Miguel's house in the 2400 block of North Jackson.

Laurel's lawyer, John Sullivan, filed notice in court files saying his client contends he was in Haven at the time of the shooting.

A man who was in the car with Laurel before and after the shooting said he was taken to a house at 24th Street and Park Place. Beard said Wichita police recognize that house as a known hangout for NSG members.

There are two ways a youth can join a gang, Beard testified. They are "blessed in" on the word of a senior member, such as an OG. Or they can be "jumped in" by getting beaten up by a circle of gang members.

Last November, after being arrested and charged with murder, Laurel told a Sedgwick County sheriff's deputy he had been "blessed in" to the NSGs while he was in the Juvenile Detention Facility.

The trial continues Monday before Judge Ben Burgess.

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Daughter Elisabeth, a year younger than Rebekah Brooks and almost as tough, is understood to have fulminated at her handling of the scandal, telling friends that Mrs Brooks had ‘f*****’ the company

Daughter Elisabeth, a year younger than Rebekah Brooks and almost as tough, is understood to have fulminated at her handling of the scandal, telling friends that Mrs Brooks had ‘f*****’ the company. And last month when Murdoch’s young and glamorous third wife Wendi failed to turn up at his summer party at London’s Kensington Gardens, friends murmured darkly that it was ‘because Rebekah will be there’.

But then observers believe Rebekah Brooks’s remarkably swift rise in the company was due not so much to her talents as a journalist but to her single-minded ruthlessness and her dazzling, feline ability to charm. ‘Rebekah schmoozes in one direction only — up,’ says one of her oldest acquaintances. ‘I don’t know anyone who is better at love-bombing, when it matters. I wouldn’t think Rupert stood a chance.’


 Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch have a very close relationship, leading to even Murdoch's wife Wendi avoiding functions that she attends

She and Murdoch went for swims together, they sailed together. When a surprised colleague asked: ‘Who sails?’ she replied simply: ‘The Murdochs.’ She talked to Murdoch every day. When he walked into a room at a business or social gathering, she was at his side.

‘It’s always been obvious that he feels like a father figure to her,’ says one of his circle. At social functions she was his ‘part nurse, part protector,’ says one of the circle. ‘On one occasion, I even heard her asking him: “Have you taken your pills, Rupert?”’

‘She watches over him and makes sure he is comfortable with whoever he’s talking to; making sure his glass is filled. Rupert’s not young any more, and it was clear that the older he got the more he relied on her. She made herself indispensable.’

But then, being indispensable was her speciality — during her years as editor of the News of the World and The Sun, she made herself indispensable to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, in turn. She went to their parties and they certainly made sure they went to hers.

No one could say that Rebekah Brooks did not live up to a reputation which, frankly, scared even powerful men — not to mention the staff who remember her, as an editor, demanding they do ‘whatever it takes’ to bring in exclusive stories.


Former friends: In 2008, Rebekah Brooks and Elisabeth Murdoch remained friends, pictured here at a lunch for women in business at 10 Downing Street

And how she loved the high-level friendships: chatting with Prince Charles; slipping into the royal box at Wimbledon last month; arriving at Glastonbury by helicopter. But most of all, said one close figure, ‘she loved to feel that she was feared’. Rebekah herself sometimes felt her life was surreal. There is certainly a sense of unreality in her Who’s Who entry.

While she lists being educated at the Sorbonne, in fact she merely took a short course there — not a degree — while working for an architecture magazine in Paris after her A-levels. When she returned from Paris, she got a job as a secretary in the features department of the Post, Eddy Shah’s short-lived tabloid.

Her next job was on the News of the World, also as a secretary. Just 20 at the time, she soon caught editor Piers Morgan’s attention and was promoted to features writer. The high-octane approach of the sharp-eyed girl with tumbling, Rapunzel red hair had also caught Rupert Murdoch’s eye, and at the age of 29 she was made deputy editor of the Sun.


Elisabeth Murdoch, far left, invited Brooks, third from left and then editor of NotW, to join her on her hen night

The following year she was dismayed to be passed over when the editorship changed hands, but in 2000 Murdoch gave her the editorship of the News of the World.

And finally, in 2003, she got the job she really wanted — editorship of The Sun. For the staff it was the start of much shouting and stress.

At the time she was married to EastEnders hard-man, actor Ross Kemp, and there was a curious episode when the couple apparently had a fight and she was arrested.  When Murdoch heard she was in police cells, he arranged for a designer suit to be taken to her so that when she emerged in the morning, she would be looking her best for the inevitable cameras. That night he took her out to dinner.

He elevated her to chief executive in 2009, the year that she and Kemp were divorced. The same year she married former jockey and racing trainer Charlie Brooks.

Lewis Carroll’s fictional Alice woke up just before the queen’s command ‘Off with her head!’ could be carried out. Rebekah Brooks had no such lucky escape.

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RUPERT Murdoch was last night planning to ditch his longest-serving lieutenant as the News of the World scandal threatened to contaminate his US empire.

Les Hinton, who has worked for the magnate for more than 50 years and is one of his most senior executives across the Atlantic, could become the most senior casualty of the crisis.

It is thought that it would deflect blame from James Murdoch, who runs NI’s parent company News Corp’s European operations, and also current NI chief exec Rebekah Brook.

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A company source is reported to have said: “Les will be sacrificed to save James and Rebekah. It happened on Les’s watch.”

Mr Hinton, 67, ran NI for 10 years until December 2007 and he twice told a parliamentary committee that there was no evidence suggesting that phone hacking had gone beyond a lone reporter.

In September 2009, he told the committee: “There was never any evidence delivered to me that suggested that the conduct of Clive Goodman spread beyond him.”

Murdoch will be desperate to stop the scandal reaching his companies in the US, where most of his business is based.

His biographer, Michael Woolf, claims the tycoon is considering selling News International altogether now the scandal appears to be hitting The Sunday Times and The Sun.

Mr Woolf, who wrote The Man Who Owns the News, said: “The whole world changed for News Corporation last week. Up until then they thought, ‘OK, we can manage this. It doesn’t compromise our business, we don’t lose any money, no one named Murdoch is at risk’. Last week that suddenly changed.

“The bulk of this company is concentrated in the US, and the bulk of its revenues do not come from newspapers.”

But Nicholas Grant, chief executive of Mediatrack Research, dismissed the idea. “That’s the last thing they will do,” he said.

“Without News International, particularly the quality titles that it includes, Mr Murdoch loses considerable credibility.

“Big newspapers give credibility, give access, give influence, give position, open doors, in a way that other titles don’t.”

Meanwhile, lawyers who have already filed a complaint alleging “rampant nepotism and failed corporate governance” on behalf of News Corp shareholders in America have used the hacking scandal to boost their case.

They claim that News Corp’s board failed to exercise proper action since news of hacking first surfaced, adding: “It is inconceivable that Murdoch and his fellow board members would not have been aware of the illicit practices.”

The shareholders claim: “The fact that the board has been so passive despite years of misconduct is a testament to how lacking in independence its members are from the Murdoch family. This has led to a ‘Murdoch discount’ in the marketplace.”

BSkyB shares were down almost 5% last night – closing at £7.16 on the London Stock Exchange.

Just a week ago, the company’s shares were being bought for as much as £8.50 – meaning BskyB has seen £2.3billion wiped off its value.

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Spanish woman facing murder charges asks boyfriend to help her

Estibaliz Carranza, a dual Spanish-Mexican citizen accused of dismembering her ex-husband and a former boyfriend in Austria, is asking her current boyfriend not to abandon her and to take custody of the baby she is carrying, the Austrian press reported on Thursday.
Carranza sent several letters from prison to her 47-year-old boyfriend, identified only as Roland R., asking for his help, the weekly News said.
"Please, don't abandon me; don't think that I'm a monster; please think of our child, who I am carrying under my heart," the accused double-murderer said in a letter published by the magazine along with an interview with her boyfriend.
Carranza, who is nine weeks' pregnant and awaiting trial in Vienna, assures her boyfriend that the killings were committed by "a disease" and not by her.
The woman had been undergoing psychological treatment and took medications for insomnia and panic attacks, Roland R., an Austrian who knew both victims, told the magazine.
There was nothing unusual, however, about Carranza, who was "the best person in the universe," Roland R. said, adding that he had found "complete happiness" with her and wanted to get married after learning she was pregnant.
"I am out of sorts, I don't know what to think or what I feel," Roland R. told News.
The letters are "small explanations for the fathomless," the man said, adding that his world came crashing down when he heard that "Esti," as he refers to his girlfriend, had murdered two men.
The 32-year-old Carranza revealed in her letters that she planned to write an autobiography with a happy ending, enjoying a good family life in a few years once they found a doctor who knew "what's inside my head" so she could gain her freedom little by little.
Carranza is suspected of having killed her German husband in 2008 and her Austrian ex-boyfriend last November.
The victims' bodies, which were dismembered, packed in plastic bags and covered with concrete, were found by construction workers on June 6 in the basement of the Vienna building where Carranza, who was born in Mexico, ran an ice cream shop.

 

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stepson of celebrity gangster Dave Courtney was executed this morning in a suspected hit over drug debts

.
Genson Courtney, 23, was ambushed as he got into his car outside his girlfriend's home.

A gunman blasted him in the head and shoulder before escaping on foot.

Genson was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3.43am.

Cops suspect a major drug baron owed thousands of pounds by Genson ordered his killing just before 11pm last night in Greenwich, South East London.

Villains

His stepdad "Dodgy" Dave Courtney, who brought him up as his own son, and his singer mum Jenny were said to be devastated.

Debt collector and former actor Courtney has written a number of books about his underworld exploits in which he claims to have been shot, stabbed and had his nose bitten off.

He organised the funerals of East End gang bosses Ronnie and Reggie Kray and boasts he was the inspiration for Vinnie Jones's debt-collecting hardman in movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Courtney is a central figure in a loose collection of villains who refer to themselves as The Firm and revels in his image as a hardman.

The colourful self-proclaimed gangster lives in a house in Plumstead, South London, called Camelot. It is decorated with Union Jack flags and a large painted depiction of himself as a knight with a large knuckle duster.

Police are now braced for a wave of "tit-for-tat" shootings by Courtney's cronies hell-bent on revenge.

The Met's Operation Trident are investigating last night's shooting.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Gower said : "At this early stage it is believed a male suspect may have run from the scene in the direction of Christchurch Way, SE10, shortly after the shooting.

"I am appealing to anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious to contact the police.

"I would like to reassure anyone concerned about contacting the police that Trident has great expertise in protecting witnesses and there are a huge variety of measures that can be put in place to protect you."

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One shot after gang fight outside SoDo nightclub

confrontation between gang members at a SoDo nightclub turned violent early Sunday, with a man shot twice and a suspect on the loose.

Seattle Police spokesperson Renee Witt says that officers were called to the club on the 1900 block of 1st Avenue South just after midnight after the shooting was reported. They arrived to find a 21-year-old man outside the club with gunshot wounds to his left elbow and left knee, and a number of known gang members loitering outside the club.

Piecing together what happened from the few witnesses who would speak, investigators learned that the incident started when rival gang members confronted each other outside the club, which was hosting an under-21 event. Witt said as the arguments escalated, a fight broke out. One man started to run off away from the fight, going north on 1st, when another man pulled out a gun and started shooting at him.

The man was hit twice, but was able to run back to the front of the club, Witt said. Meanwhile, the shooter took off running east on Holgate. He was not caught.

The victim was taken to Harborview for treatment. His wounds are considered non-life threatening.

Witt said that Gang Unit Detectives were able to confirm from gang members at the scene that the incident simply occurred due to a “mutual dislike of each other.”

 

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