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Hans Reiser Interview from Prison
JLester writes "Wired Magazine has an interview this month with Hans Reiser (of the ReiserFS journaling file system for Linux) from prison. It contains more details about the murder case against him. Some of the questions still go unanswered though."
Isn't it weird how his gothy best friend who has had some kind of twisted sexual relationship with his wife is an admitted mass-murderer?
I'm just saying.
The story about Hans Reiser gets weirder every time I read about it. It's like you're reading some surrealistic novel, or maybe a plot by Grisham.
... ?)
For one, there is the question whether he is being framed (by a former friend, russian mafia,
Also there is the problem of (suspected) murder, but no body has been found. So, all evidence will be circumstantial and therefore open to lots of discussion/interpretation. "The brothers Karamazov" by Dostojevski has some very nice examples of how wide apart such interpretations can be (without the reader being able to tell which interpretation is true). Probably someone could write an interesting novel based on this story as well. It's getting so weird, you just can't make such stuff up.
It could become an interesting case to follow, so I'm hoping groklaw might pay some attention to it (if such hearings are even public - I don't have much clue about the US judicial system, but it seems unlikely).
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
From what I've read, he doesn't come off as very innocent. I read the article in the paper magazine last weekend, and he just seems like a really weird guy. Despite the fact that they picked this interviewer because they thought he would understand Reiser, because he is a misunderstood geek, he still came off as quite a weird guy. The whole part about playing battlefield vietnam with his 6 year old so he could "become a man" was just kind of weird, and really made me question his values. Not that I'm against kids playing violent games, but his whole reasoning behind it was just kind of creepy.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
You are quite possibly the only person on Slashdot (Or at least, the only person who posts under their real name) who has a personal connection to Hans & Nina Reiser. You shouldn't be too surprised that the vast majority of posters arn't going to take it as seriously.
I must say, the article describes some very damning evidence: "Police search the CRX and find that the front passenger seat has recently been removed. The floor is soaked, as if it had been washed. There are heavy-duty garbage bags, cloth towels, masking tape, and two books: Masterpieces of Murder and Homicide. Police also find another drop of blood and match it to Nina." This is after the police have (surreptitiously) followed Hans to the car and observed him moving it to a different location. What other explanation could there be for this than that Hans did indeed murder Nina, especially since (as far as I can tell from the article) Hans has offered no other explanation for the state of the car? Some of the rest of his interview sounds pretty creepy and paranoid too. For example, Hans says: "Male geeks, such as myself, are one of America's most hated cultural minorities," he writes. "Unlike racial hatred, it is considered socially acceptable to indulge in such hatred." This is obviously completely ridiculous. He then proceeds to use this as an excuse for a lot of strange behavior, such as wanting to "teach the culture of manhood to little boys, with all of its inherent opposition to wallowing in wimpiness" (talking about playing hours and hours of Battlefield Vietnam with his six year old son). None of that is evidence of murder of course, but it does make Hans seem unstable and paranoid and his explanations suspect. All in all it seems likely to me that Hans did indeed murder Nina. Of course in theory I suppose it's possible that he's the victim of some extremely elaborate setup (which I fully expect many people who watch too much CSI to claim), but in reality I think that's an very unlikely option. Having said that, this is just what I currently personally believe. If I was a juror I would vote "not guilty" on this evidence. I'm a big believer in "proven beyond all reasonable doubt." As long as there isn't even any evidence that Nina is actually dead, let alone hard evidence that Hans did it, I would have give him the benefit of the doubt, even though personally I find it more likely that he did it than not. To let off a murderer would be very bad, but in my opinion it would be much worse to wrongly convict an innocent man.
There's also the 3 guys that were accused, when they were teenagers, of killing three eight year-old boys, and were placed in jail (one on death row). The evidence is absolute crap, and the "investigation" into the murders was bumbled and shoddy. The key evidence against the "leader" was that he wore black a lot and liked to read about Wicca and other "satanic" and "demonic" things... like heavy metal music. Oh no!
HBO has played two documentaries on this case (Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2) and they are enraging. Granted you're seeing edited information, but if you can, I'd really recommned seeing these two DVDs. Amazon is selling them DVD 1 and DVD 2
There's also a web site dedicate to the cause of helping the guys (Known as The West Memphis Three) get a fair trial and have real evidence shown (which there doesn't seem to be any of). Visit wm3.org for details.
I've been fascinated with this case for 10+ years and check out the wm3 site a few times a year to see what's new with the case. It's an absolute tragedy that three children were killed, and it's another tragedy that three other lives (teenagers) were destroyed as well if in fact they are innocent, as it would seem they may be.
First of all, do you believe everything that is written by a sensationalist magazine like Wired? While they have been fairly neutral about the whole affair, they do tend to write their pieces with a bit of a flair, just as you have pointed out. And being a bit sensationalist. By going on and on about how she may be a mail order bride or not is besides the point.
I know Hans in a very deep and personal way, so this isn't based on the story but rather from personal experience and first hand knowledge of both working with Hans and spending huge amounts of time with his father (who I actually know much better, to be honest). Hans' father, Ramon, was throughally against the marriage from the get go and even said so before the nuptials. He warned that there was nothing good that would come from the marriage and suggested that Hans leave before it ever got started. It is too bad that Hans didn't listen to this bit of parental advise.
Your quote here did trigger some thought I had, however, about how Nina really had one huge goal in mind when she met Hans: To get American citizenship. And she decided to do that on her back . Seriously, with her medical training and a strong desire to get the big prize, it seems very reasonable that she deliberately timed the nuptials and her first night with Hans at her peak fertility so she could become pregnant.
The photos of Hans that have been sent around the internet since his arrest don't do him justice. He is the ultimate geek's geek, as much as you would expect if you would be involved with designing core elements of the Linux kernel. And he knows how to put on a show but also avoids conformity, particularly when it comes to dressing the part of being a hardcore geek.
As far as if he really did the murder or not, I don't really know. It certainly isn't as easy of a case to prove as OJ Simpson's case, and it appears as though Hans did some real stupid things right after the disappearance of Nina. That he did piss off some Russian businessmen while running his team in Moscow is certain as well, and Nina didn't help out in smoothing things over... in fact tended to add to the problems. His "friend" also was involved in some financial manipulations that actually got far worse than is publicized.
The truly unfortunate part right now is that Hans will never get to see his kids again... or his parents be able to see their grandchildren. That last part is particularly galling because although they are recognized as native-born Americans by the U.S. Government, Russia is claiming Russian citizenship for the two kids and refusing to return them to America. Regardless of who did what, these two kids are the ultimate victims of being denied the ability to see either parent, extended family, or even being able to grow up in the land of their birth. And the State of California is directly to blame on this point, where allowing the kids to leave the USA was even against state law and established child custody guidelines... not to mention that the oldest child is a material witness on behalf of the defense. His leaving the USA could perhaps even be considered tampering with the evidence, and certainly by itself is grounds for an appeal of any guilty verdict.
As for the question about the car.... it seems weird and will to a jury, but what did he do "wrong"? There is nothing he did there that was illegal, and nothing found in or on the car can reasonably be used to demonstrate guilt other than through a very loose "circumstantial evidence". Not even the blood found supposedly in the carpet of the car in trace amounts that seems to match Nina's DNA. That just means she was in the car sometime in the past, and that point is not in dispute. There are photos of her next to the car.