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Hans Reiser Interview on ABC's 20/20

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the murder-makes-linux-mainstream dept.

baegucb_18706 noted that ABCs 20/20 has a lengthy article on the saga of the Hans Reiser murder trial. I'm not sure if this article provided any information that you might not have known if you read the earlier wired interview, but it's still a really strange story.

16 of 482 comments (clear)

  1. She's in Russia by FunkyELF · · Score: 4, Interesting

    She hated him. She staged it and went back to Russia. Aren't their kids over there now? Go interrogate her parents...she can't be too far from them.

    1. Re:She's in Russia by porkThreeWays · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The direct physical evidence against Reiser is limited, but police have built a detailed circumstantial case. In this day and age I didn't know you could take a murder to trial purely on circumstance. I'll admit it's extremely weird, but do they actually think they can convict him beyond a reasonable doubt in this day and age with no direct evidence? It almost seems irresponsible to try otherwise. No body. No DNA. No weapons of any sort found. Basically they have more evidence for Jimmy Hoffa's murder than they do this one. Heck, good luck proving she was actually murdered!
      --
      If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
    2. Re:She's in Russia by imsabbel · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Of course she also removed his car-seat, and put that "how to dispose a body" book into his stuff, too...

      --
      HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
    3. Re:She's in Russia by Xiph1980 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You might want to watch this TED-talk about statistics before you say something like that:
      Peter Donnelly: How juries are fooled by statistics

      --
      Manuals are your last resort only
    4. Re:She's in Russia by budgenator · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There are four countries that border the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Russia; you can almost drive a car to Russia. The last little bit is by boat plane or snowmobile. A Japonese compnay has offered to dig a tunnel between Russia and the US for half-price. It would be very cool to travel from New York to England by rail the long way!

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    5. Re:She's in Russia by Edmund+Blackadder · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The article also says he was walking around with 9000 cash in his pocket and he was running some kind of business out of Russia. He also has a commercial lawyer not a court appointed one. I am sure the police will find out exactly what his finances are, but thus far he does not seem destitute at all.

      Sorry, but I do not believe the living out of his car story one bit. People that do that do it as a last resort. Nobody lives in their car and walks around with 9000k in their pockets and runs a business. Being homeless is very very dangerous.

      Also, if he had to tear out his seat because he was living in his car he would be able to tell the cops where and when he threw the seat out and they would be able to find it in a dumpster somewhere.

  2. Re:Good way to screw up your life Reiser by FunkyELF · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Alan Turing murdered himself (or perhaps he was poisoned).

    Is he known as a murderer or the father of computer science?...I forget.

  3. Soo... by DustyShadow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So Reiser's best friend had sex with Reiser's wife, confessed to the cops that he is a serial killer, but conveniently says he didn't kill Nina...and yet the cops don't arrest him. Sounds like we got the smart ones on that force.

    1. Re:Soo... by Martin+Blank · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Police frequently focus on more than one subject at a time. There have also been cases where they will stop public focus on one suspect while monitoring him for changes in behavior. This doesn't mean that they've ruled out whomever they're publicly talking about, but if the pressure is removed from one that is deemed more likely, then that person may slip up. Details of ongoing investigations are often not public records, so we won't know until after any trial is finished.

      --
      You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
  4. Re:No body by Ossifer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The problem for the prosecution is that in the absence of any real evidence suggesting murder (pool of blood, scene of an altercation, etc.), any conceivable theory by the defense trumps a murder story.

    The cops/prosecution decided Reiser must be guilty since he's really weird, despite no real evidence that a crime was committed at all. Having followed the case locally (from across the bay), I and many others were surprised the case even passed basic plausibility by the judge holding the preliminary hearing.

    The reality is, in fact, that she may very well be alive and well in Russia...

  5. Re:He couldn't get a hotel room? by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For several years prior to his wife's disappearance, he's been very strapped for money. He basically bankrupted himself to keep paying the russian programmers who were working on the reiser4 file system. His wife or friend may or may not have been involved in his money problems.

  6. Re:suicide is murder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You own yourself. You don't own other people.

    That is highly dependent on culture - In many cultures, you don't own yourself, the land or community owns you. If you suicide, you're stealing from the community you exist to serve.

  7. Re:Reiser Must Die! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Your angry ranting leads me to believe you're one of:
    1. A troll - in which case, a very bad one, as you've had to post many times to maintain this thread;
    2. An abuse victim - in which case, unable to bring your tormentor to justice, you take out your anger on a man you only know from press reports;
    3. An abuser - so ashamed of yourself and in such denial that you're condemning your fellow abusers to death to assuage guilt. Like a gay Republican, except that there's nothing wrong with being gay.

    Whichever it is, I'm happy to have had the chance to serve on a jury; I had the opportunity to diplomatically convince my fellow jurors to ignore the preconceived rantings of one prejudiced hick in our group and instead look at the evidence for the crime under consideration. Indeed, this hick happened to conclude guilty as I did - the difference was that I came to the conclusion based on what was presented to me throughout the case and after hours of discussion with my fellow jurors; this dolt had come to the decision by first recess on day one.
  8. Re:No body by kithrup · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Evidence has to be disclosed to the defense. Not to the media. The defense should (by this time) know all the evidence, and all the witnesses, that the prosecution is going to present (and vice-versa).

    That does not mean that we, the public, already know all that evidence.

    You can argue against what they've presented in support of their case so far -- I even said that it was refutable -- but that doesn't mean it's not evidence of a crime. It's just not strong evidence.

  9. Contradictions abound by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One defense is that Hans was taken by a woman looking to get out of Russia and move to America. Look! She divorced him as soon as she got her papers!

    Another defense is that she moved back to Russia to get away from him.

    Then there's the Russian gangster defense.

    Don't forget the serial murder freind defense.

    --
    Infuriate left and right
  10. Re:Is that pic caption right? by FPCat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But wouldn't revealing that violate attorney/client privilege?