Florida triple murder may have been ritualistic killing – police

[jpak]

Source: Bangor Daily News

A Florida woman and her two adult sons were killed in their Pensacola home in what investigators believe was a ritualistic murder linked to last week’s “blue moon,” police said on Tuesday.

The victims, identified as Voncile Smith, 77, John William Smith, 49, and Richard Thomas Smith, 47, were found dead on Friday, three days after police believe someone the family knew entered the home and killed them as part of a witchcraft ritual.

“The elements of this case are odd, at best,” Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan told a news conference.

“We have a very reclusive family. Obviously we’ve canvassed the neighborhood, spoken to people who’ve lived there for years and years. Neighbors have related to us that they’ve never met members of this family,” he said.

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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2015/08/05/news/nation/florida-triple-murder-may-have-been-ritualistic-killing-police/

[Lunabell]

1. Some reports have called this a wiccan ritual killing.

I hope people aren't stupid enough to think that real wiccans would do this.

[snooper2]

2. depends, were they following the teachings of their holy books?

[Lunabell]

5. Wicca doesn't do any ritual killings.

It is against their beliefs.

[whatthehey]

7. Killing is against Christianity too, but don't tell Roeder, Rudolph, Kopp etc

I have not the slightest clue who killed these folks and why, but to pretend that it's impossible for any given Wiccan to have done so because of some sectarian prohibition in that Gardnerite reconstructed mishmash is just as much an illogical No True Scotsmanism as it is when Christians do it, which is admittedly far more common. It's the same when saner Muslims or their apologists point towards the nicer bits of the Qur'an and say "see, Islam says you shouldn't kill folks!" That has never stopped other Muslims disagreeing and deciding that Islam demands of them to kill folks.

Killing people has never stopped Christians from being genuine Christians, or Muslims being genuine Muslims. In the slim possibility (based on numbers, not some hypothetically assumed moral purity) that these folks were killed by a Wiccan, it won't stop them from being one either.

[u4ic]

8. Exactly

A ritualistic killing doesn't point to anyone who's Wiccan or Pagan. Lots of murderers are ritualistic. The cops are using 15th century superstition with this one. Good grief.

One of the victims was a Homeland Security employee. Someone with an axe to grind perhaps...?

A horrible crime, nonetheless.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. +1000 n/t

[murielm99]

13. They make the same slurs against Jews.

It was just a good excuse to start a pogrom.

Someone may be trying to cover their tracks by making it look like a cult or religious group did it.

I am not Wiccan, but I do know better.

[Lunabell]

15. I'm not wican either

But I know they're just not the killing kind.

[IHateTheGOP]

3. Another bible belt tragedy to add to the bible belt statistics

[cosmicone]

4. Thanks, Obama

How long before Trump declares a war on witchcraft and blames Obama?

[JustAnotherGen]

11. I think ten minutes ago

Either that or he's going to go the -

"Obama hasn't done - hasn't don't ANYTHING for the wiccans and that's why they need me to help them - whatever it is they do."

Because Trump has to have his 'jazz hands' out at all times.

[ck4829]

6. Wait, they were killed three days before this blue moon happened, and they are saying it's linked?

Sounds to me like the only connection here is the one they arbitrarily created.

[u4ic]

9. Any Wiccan ritual would be done either the night before the full moon

(eg if it's 2:45 am on Friday, a ritual would be done Thurs night) or the night of the full moon. You're absolutely right, no correlation. Silly superstitions and assumptions on the cops part. It isn't an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

I bet they don't even know what a Wiccan is, never mind that not all Wiccans practice witchcraft, and that killings are not a part of any ritual.

[IBEWVET]

12. The local news now says

they were killed the night of the blue moon and neighbors noticed papers building up in the driveway and called the law.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Since that definition of a 'blue moon' dates from 1946, the 'ritual' involved in this

would be something someone made up in the past few decades to justify murder to themselves. And I bet it doesn't actually exist as a 'ritual' at all for anyone who actually calls themselves a witch.

The expression "once in a blue moon" has a long history of being used to describe rare events; but it was also used in the Maine Farmers' Almanac to describe the third full moon in a season that has four (normally, a three-month season will only have three full moons).

In 1946, Sky & Telescope magazine published an article that misinterpreted the older definition, defining a Blue Moon as the second full moon in a calendar month. This has become the most recent and perhaps most widely accepted definition of a Blue Moon. And hence, the full moon on July 31 is referred to as a Blue Moon, because it was preceded by the full moon on July 2. By this definition, a Blue Moon occurs roughly once every 2.7 years.

http://www.space.com/30083-blue-moon-full-moon-friday.html

[Marrah_G]

16. This is such bullshit.

It does nothing but promote incorrect and very dangerous views of paganism.

[ck4829]

17. The sheriff has backed off from the claim for almost a week now, funny how that didn't make

national news.