Major Crimes and True Crime

On February 21, 2023, 17-year-old Brendan J Depa attacked a 57-year-old teacher's aide, Joan Naydich at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida. The incident was triggered by a dispute over a Nintendo Switch, a hand-held gaming device that Depa had brought to class. Joan had earlier asked Depa to put the gaming device away and focus on his schoolwork. He was visibly angered by this and then decided to assault her. Naydich was knocked unconscious and sustained multiple fractures to her face, skull, and shoulder. Depa was quickly arrested and charged with aggravated battery. He is currently awaiting trial as an adult. This is the case of Brendan J Depa, a former student at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida, who brutally assaulted a teacher's aide in February 2023. The attack, which was captured on a school security video and went viral on social media, showed Depa punching and kicking Joan Naydich, a 57-year-old paraprofessiona...

John Philip Walker Lindh was captured during the United States invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. By all accounts, John Walker Lindh had an average childhood. He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1981, and his parents had a strained marriage. At some point, Lindh watched Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" — and became fascinated with Islam. By age 16, Lindh had converted and traveled to Yemen to study Arabic. There, he became disenchanted with the faithlessness that he felt his teachers had. But then in 2001, the 20-year-old discovered the Taliban, which was exactly the kind of group he was looking for. In May of that year, he moved to Afghanistan to fight against the U.S.-backed Afghan Northern Alliance. While in Afghanistan, Lindh trained with al-Qaeda and even met Osama bin Laden at one point. And after 9/11, Lindh went into battle alongside his new comrades. He was captured and Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002 where ...