Major Crimes and True Crime

SUIC!DE OR MURDER? THE CURIOUS CASE OF RONALD OPUS On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to comm!t suic!de. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which k!lled him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned. "Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "A person, who sets out to comm!t suic!de and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as comm!tting suic!de." That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would n...