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Title: One of Bernhard Goetz's muggers kills self on anniversary of subway shoot
Source:
NY Post
URL Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ ... ug_dead_rKrhwXIbt3lWeYJSf2mLHM
Published: Dec 23, 2011
Author: Josh Saul
Post Date: 2011-12-23 14:14:57 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 328
Comments: 8
Exactly 27 years to the day after Bernhard Goetz — famous in New York lore as the “Subway Vigilante’’ — shot four young men he thought were threatening him on a train, one of them killed himself by swallowing prescription pills in a low-rent Bronx motel, authorities said. James Ramseur, 45, was found dead of an apparent overdose at 11:30 a.m. yesterday at the Paradise Hotel at 2990 Boston Road, law-enforcement sources said last night. He was in bed and fully clothed. Ramseur had gotten out of prison only 17 months ago, after serving 25 years upstate for raping a young woman on a Bronx rooftop. The shooting took place on Dec. 22, 1984, when Ramseur, 18, and neighborhood pals Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen and Troy Canty, all 19, were riding a downtown No. 2 train. As it approached Chambers Street, they encountered Goetz, an electronics specialist. What ensued is in dispute. Goetz told authorities the intimidating youths demanded $5 from him. The teens insisted they were only panhandling. Goetz fired five shots from his Smith & Wesson, hitting all of them. Ramseur was wounded in the arm. Many residents of the city, which was then undergoing an unprecedented era of street crime, hailed him as a hero. But since the four youths were black, others called him a racist. He was convicted of illegally possessing a loaded firearm, but cleared of the more serious charges — four counts of attempted murder. Cabey, who was paralyzed when Goetz shot him at close range, won a $43 million lawsuit. Goetz declared bankruptcy and hasn’t paid a dime. Cabey, by far the most seriously injured, still is confined to a wheelchair and functions with the intellect of an 8-year-old. Allen was convicted of robbery in 1991 and released from prison four years later. Canty racked up a string of petty offenses and once served 18 months in a residential drug- treatment program. Poster Comment: He finally did something positive with his life- he ended it.
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#3. To: X-15 (#0)
This is turning out to be a pretty good day after all! Goetz understandably panicked and turned rabbit until his nerves finally forced him to surrender. The truth is they had no clue who he was and had he simply ditched the gun and gone about this business while whistling the theme to The Andy Griffith show as he used alternate transportation they'd have never found him. Hell, he provided the evidence used to bring him to trial. He was the most nerdy, meek looking dude in the five boroughs. If he got contact lenses and wore a beret he could have ridden the same subway with any potential witnesses! HAH! And in the unlikely event that the did place him at the scene he could have claimed that he disarmed the closest assailant and shot them all with the assailant's own gun. After all, the nig...I mean, African American yewts could not have testified against him unless they at the very least admitted that they were there and trying to bum money. A jury would have found an alternate version of events quite plausible and then they could have exonerated him on the gun charge, too!
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