[link from nude morgue dude] A convenience store clerk was so stunned to see a completely naked man walk into the Big Apple store in Portland, Maine, at 4am during a snowstorm that he didn't notice the 3ft (1m) double-edged sword that he was carrying. Michael L. Hicks, 29, came into the store on 22 March and walked to a beer cooler without saying a word. The clerk asked Hicks to leave, whereupon he raised the double-edged sword and pointed it at the clerk's chest, saying: "I'm thirsty." , according to police Lt.Nelson Bartley. The clerk raised his hands and backed away. As he called the police, Hicks left the store without taking anything. He walked a few blocks before being spotted by the police. He was arrested without a struggle. Police told him to keep away from the Big Apple store, whether he had clothes on or not. [AP] 24 Mar 1997. FT. The Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 2.4.00 SWORDSMAN ARRESTED A Sunshine Coast man, dressed only in red boxer shorts and wielding a samurai sword was arrested at Caloundra early yesterday. Police said the man, 21, was wandering outside a nightclub. Council security operators tracked him on security cameras and contacted police. When police arrived, the man ran off but was caught in bushland. He was bailed to appear in court on April 17 on a weapons charge Tuesday 8 September 1998 Crowd antics abysmal, say police By ANDREA CARSON Police yesterday described as abysmal the behavior of a crowd of 2000 who watched a two-hour stand-off with a sword-wielding man on Sunday. The stand-off with the 41-year-old man, believed to have a psychiatric disorder, began at 6.30pm on the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets. ``(The onlookers) were treating it as a bit of a joke, when our concerns were for their safety and the safety of our members in case the man did something silly,'' said Superintendent Tony Warren of the Melbourne Police Division. Some people yelled out: ``Use the sword, we're getting bored.'' ``They were attempting to stir him up with stupid comments that can only inflame the situation,'' Mr Warren said. ``I have no doubt some people thought it was a bit like street theatre (but) ... if he had decided to become violent towards the crowd, we would have had great difficulty protecting them.'' Members of the Special Operations Group subdued the man with capsicum spray and scare guns. He was taken to hospital. Ten spectators were affected by the spray despite police efforts to make them stand clear. Three were taken to hospital. Copyright (c) David Syme & Co 1999. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. Man stops traffic to battle demons By SARAH DOLAN 24jul99 A MAN who stopped city traffic for two hours while swinging an antique sword had been on the run from "demons" for five days. Bruce Eggett MacDonald, 42, wanted to do battle in public so people would know what happened to him. He was yesterday given a 12-month good behavior bond for disrupting traffic on the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets on September 6 last year. He pleaded guilty in the County Court to causing a public nuisance and possessing a regulated weapon. Judge John Hassett said he accepted that Mr MacDonald believed if he remained in a private place, he would die and simply disappear. "While in public, although he could not stop an attack by demons, at least the battle would be seen and someone would know what happened to him," he said. Mr MacDonald was a paranoid schizophrenic who had suffered a relapse. Judge Hassett released him without conviction, saying his prognosis was good as long as he continued his treatment. [not all incidents are quite as amusing...] Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 07:18:50 EST Subject: Naked swordsman attacks Breaking News on AOL 28/11/99 A naked man with a sword today attacked at least eight people in a church in Thornton Heath, Surrey, police said. Police said a small number of people were "seriously injured." The attacker was restrained by members of the public before police arrived. Injured have been taken to the Mayday hospital in Croydon, south London. Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 12:02:25 EST Subject: South London Sword attack, fuller story NAKED SWORDSMAN RUNS AMOK IN PACKED CHURCH By PA News Reporters AOL News 28/11/99 Ten people were injured today - one critically - when a naked man armed with a sword went on the rampage during a packed church service. Some of the victims suffered horrific stab wounds as the man lashed out indiscriminately at people's heads and faces. Others were injured in a stampede for safety by hundreds of worshippers at St Andrew's Roman Catholic Church in Thornton Heath, Surrey. An off-duty police officer, who had been singing a psalm, ripped out an organ pipe and struck the man over the head with it. A 35-year-old local man was later overpowered by churchgoers and arrested by police. Horrified paramedics followed a trail of blood to find the most seriously injured man slumped on a pavement two streets away. He had run from the church pouring blood after having his jaw and neck deeply slashed and his finger and thumb chopped off. The attacker burst through doors at the back of the church, lashing out with what one witness described as a 3ft samurai sword". Some worshippers put their own lives in danger to leap on him and restrain him until police arrived a few minutes later. Children attending Sunday School in the neighbouring church hall narrowly missed becoming caught up in the mayhem - they were preparing to come back into the church as the man began his rampage. The service was being conducted by Canon John Lennon, 78 - who carried on saying Mass after the drama. He said: "The men in the church managed to grab the naked man and get him down on the floor. Armed officers came very quickly and he was taken away. "I was told that a man had his hand cut clean off outside the church. He was probably late for the service and was waiting in the hall. "Two ladies inside the church were very badly slashed. "There were about 400 people at the service, and 100 children were luckily in the hall next to the church at the time. "They were preparing to come back into the church at the time of the attack. "I was halfway through when it happened and I was determined to finish Mass. "After the police came I went to the side altar and got on with saying Mass to a much smaller congregation. "I thought I had seen everything over the years but nothing as awful as this. There was such awful panic, people were so terrified." Detective Inspector Kim Jones, at the scene, said police were called at around 10.30am. Ten people were injured and taken to various hospitals, he said. "They are mainly slash and stab wounds and lacerations. "There is one person who has injuries we think are life-threatening at this time. He has serious hand and face injuries. "Five men and five women have been injured. Most of them are elderly." Mr Jones applauded the congregation and the off-duty police officer for overpowering the man. "Obviously they were very brave in attacking a man who was attacking them with a sword. "Most people are shocked as it is an elderly-type congregation. It is absolutely shocking. The alleged attacker was treated for minor injuries at Bromley hospital then taken to a South London police station, Scotland Yard said. Consultant Kambiz Hashemi said the badly injured man, believed to be in his 30s, was in a stable condition at Mayday Hospital, Croydon, south London, with five surgeons working on his injuries. Attempts were being made to sew his thumb and index finger back on after another churchgoer handed them to a paramedic. Mr Hashemi said the naked attacker dashed into the church indiscriminately slashing at the heads of the congregation. "They were all sitting down and he was just cutting at their heads and faces. "There would have been a lot of blood and people were hurt dashing for safety. "A man was cut so badly that what I believe was a Samurai sword slashed right through his jaw into his neck." Six of the injured were hurt in the attack itself and another four as they fled from the church, a spokeswoman from the Mayday Hospital said. Of the other five hurt during the attack, two men aged 66 and 68 were being treated for stab wounds to the shoulder, and three men, aged 36, 73 and 74 for minor injuries. Four women, aged between 60 and 75, were also treated after hurting themselves while escaping. A worshipper described how the swordsman slashed and injured her husband. Marie Parcou, 66, from Thornton Heath, said she had pulled her retired railway worker husband Jules, 73, to the floor to stop the attacker "slicing his head off". Visibly shaken, she told how parishioners were slipping on blood on the church floor as they dashed to safety. The attacker was waving the sword with his right hand and indiscriminately slashing victims. "I was just standing next to my husband, Jules, and all of a sudden the man repeatedly cut him with his sword. "My husband was spouting blood and I had to pull him to the ground before the maniac chopped his head off." She guided her 73-year-old husband out of the church before ordering a taxi to take him to hospital with injuries to his neck and shoulder. "I don't really know what happened to everybody else but everyone was screaming and it was like something out of a horror movie." "I cannot believe that this happened in a church. You're not safe anywhere these days." She said the man was silent as he carried out the attack. "He just walked up and began attacking anyone in his way." Charles Ssuna, a local businessman who attends Mass every week, was at the front of the church when the attack happened. He said: "The church was full to capacity. We were in the middle of the Mass toward the end of the Creed so we were all standing up. A boy came running forward for his safety and we turned to see what was happening. "I saw the man completely naked with a long sword. It was gold and metal." He saw one man who had his mouth slashed up to his cheek by the sword. Nurse Nanette Frederiksson was taking children's liturgy in the church hall when the connecting doors were "flung open" by people fleeing the attacker. She said: "It was a mass of stampeding people rushing through the doors in hysteria. I picked up some of the children, one of my own and two others, and went rushing out of the church hall. "I ran round to Father John McGrory's house and saw an elderly lady badly injured across her face. "Her family was with her. I went inside his house and there was already a lady in there who had been slashed on her back. "I'm a nurse and I offered to help tend to any of the injured. "I live round the corner and went to get towels. I came back and applied pressure to the lacerations on the woman's face." Keith Ford, chief executive at Mayday Hospital, said one person was being operated on and two others were expected to go to theatre later. Three more people were in the minor treatment room though it was not known if they would have to go into theatre later. He said three more people had been admitted with injuries sustained while trying to escape from the man. One had a broken leg and the others were suffering from a sprained ankle and back, and other lesser injuries. Local MP Malcolm Wicks said he was "shocked and horrified" by the attack. The Croydon North MP said: "It's church I know well, in the heart of our community, a well-attended church. "I'm terribly shocked by it." The Labour MP added: "Our thoughts are with the injured and with their family and friends and with the parishioners who were involved." Mr Wicks, who has represented the area for seven years, said that he had visited the church only a few months ago after some new stained glass was put in. He said: "It's predominantly a residential area, and I think the whole community will be shocked by it." A spokesman for the church said the evening Mass would go ahead as scheduled at 5.30, however it would be held at a Salvation Army hall nearby. Inspector Jonathan Porter, of South Norwood, confirmed that the off-duty police officer who intervened was Pc Tom Tracey. He said: "He has been through a lot today and it would be unfair to say what took place. The whole matter is under investigation and it would not be appropriate to talk about what happened outside that. "He is fine and he's not injured but it is a traumatic incident for anyone to take in." Mr Ford said later that Mayday Hospital had received 10 casualties after the sword attack. Three were still in the operating theatre - the most serious was a 55-year-old man with severe injuries to the face and hand. The other two, a man and a woman in their late 60s had shoulder injuries. Three women in their mid 70s were admitted to various wards, one with a cut to the head, one a broken hip and one a back injury. One 36-year-old man was transferred to St George's hospital in Tooting for possible plastic surgery after suffering a forearm and tendon injury. Three people have been discharged. One man in his 70s had a neck and finger injury, one woman in her 70s had a wrist fracture, and one woman in her 60s grazed her leg. Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 14:30:52 EDT Subject: Update on naked swordsman A naked man wielding a Samurai sword tried to kill members of a church congregation because he believed they were demons, the Old Bailey has heard. Unemployed Eden Strang, 26, left eleven churchgoers, including an elderly nun, seriously injured after attacking them with the sword and a knife. Strang denied seven charges of attempted murder and six charges of assault. He was only overcome after the Sunday morning worshippers tackled him with a crucifix and an organ pipe at St Andrew's Roman Catholic Church in Thornton Heath, south London, said Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting. Strang had gone to the church near his home in Brook Road at 10.30am on November 28 last year, believing the congregation was made up of demons who had taken on human forms. Mr Hilliard told the jury the facts of the case were not in dispute, but they would have to decide whether to accept medical evidence that he was insane. If they decided he was insane they would have to return verdicts of not guilty through insanity, and this would allow the judge to ensure he was treated in such a way as to protect the public, he said. (c) Copyright Ananova Ltd 2000, all rights reserved. Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 13:51:29 +0000 Subject: Samurai attacker ruled insane Evening Standard - 2 June 2000 Samurai attacker ruled insane by Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent The naked samurai swordsman who attacked a south London church congregation was today ordered to be detained in a secure hospital. An Old Bailey jury found him not guilty through insanity of 13 charges relating to a sword attack on churchgoers in London. The Recorder of London Judge Michael Hyam ordered that Strang be taken to a hospital specified by the Home Secretary and detained. Paranoid schizophrenic Eden Strang believed his computer was the biblical Ark of the Covenant and his direct link to God, the jury heard. He was obsessed with producing faultless results from his computer because he thought such success would open the Seven Seals to him, as foretold in the Book of Revelations, and save him and his family from the Apocalypse. "You cannot get much madder than he was," said consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph. Strang, 26, pleads not guilty by reason of insanity to seven counts of attempted murder, three of grievous bodily harm and three of actual bodily harm in the attack on St Andrew's Catholic Church Thornton Heath last November. Today psychiatrist Dr Jonathan Vince said: "Strang is a highly intelligent man and many of his mental facilities remain well preserved considering the severity of his mental illness." He was able to appear relatively normal. "Work colleagues had a sense he was not quite right and withdrawn but he was able to carry on going to work and people did not realise how ill he was - until by the end it was all consuming and he was in another world." Dr Vince added: "He believed that all his neighbours were devil worshippers or witches who were capable of entering his household at night and raping his wife, his child and himself." Strang also believed other people knew what he was thinking. The court has heard how Strang heard "voices from God" telling him to go to the church and fight devil worshippers. He slashed through the congregation leaving 11 people needing serious hospital treatment. Paul Chilton, 50, was so severely injured he still needs constant nursing. Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2000 08:18:19 -0700 Subject: Man in Court Over Nude Church Sword Attack LONDON (Reuters) - The trial of a man accused of attacking members of a church congregation in south London with a Samurai sword was resuming at the Old Bailey on Friday. Eleven people were seriously injured on November 28 when a naked man slashed them with a sword and a knife at St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church near his home in Thornton Heath. Eden Strang, 26, denies seven charges of attempted murder and six charges of assault. The prosecuting lawyer, Nicholas Hilliard, told the London court on Thursday that worshippers overcame the unemployed computer operator after tackling him with a crucifix and an organ pipe. The court heard that Strang believed the congregation was composed of demons who had taken on human forms. Hilliard told the jury the facts of the case were not disputed but they must decide whether to accept medical evidence that Strang was insane at the time of the alleged incident. Yahoo! News Crimes and Trials Headlines Wednesday July 14 01:50 PM EDT Sword-Wielding Attacker Charged with Murder HASTINGS, Neb. (APBNews.com) -- A jilted boyfriend took a 4-foot sword to the trailer where his ex-girlfriend was staying, and in a surprise attack hacked away at her male companion before forcing her to watch him shoot the bleeding man to death, police said. Christopher Scott Decker, 24, of nearby Clay Center, was charged Monday with first-degree murder and second-degree assault in connection with the brutal, Saturday morning attack. Decker is also charged with using a sword and a firearm to commit the crimes. "In my years here," Adams County Attorney Donna Fegler Daiss told APBNews.com today, "I've never seen anything like this." 20 sword wounds, five bullet holes The victim, 46-year-old Kenneth Skidmore, was found dead from his wounds in the bedroom of the trailer. The ex-girlfriend, 19-year-old Sonya Ballard, received a single wound from the sword near her left ear; she was released from a local hospital Sunday after receiving 22 stitches. Daiss said today that the two victims were talking in the bedroom when the suspect barged in and, after exchanging a few words, began his attack. "He had over 20 wounds in total," Daiss said of the male victim. Made her watch execution When he was finished with the sword, Decker dragged his fleeing ex-girlfriend back into the bedroom and forced her to watch as he shot his male victim to death with a gun found on the premises, Daiss said. On top of multiple sword wounds, Daiss said, Skidmore was shot five times. At that point, Ballard -- who after three years of living with Decker had moved out of his home days before -- fled and had neighbors call the police. A third person who was elsewhere in the trailer when Decker arrived went unharmed, Daiss said. "After the shooting stopped, the suspect drove directly to the Police Department, where he turned himself in," Daiss said. Sword practice by suspect? Commenting on reports that the suspect -- who stands 6 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 300 pounds -- was seen by neighbors in recent weeks practicing with the sword in his yard, Daiss said that investigators are in the process of interviewing possible witnesses to this activity in Clay Center, a small town just east of Hastings. Decker is slated for a pretrial hearing on July 30. He is being held without bond in Adams County. By Pete Brush, an APBNews.com national correspondent. Copyright © 1996-1999 APB Multimedia, Inc.. All Rights Reserved. Yahoo! Headlines The Daily Record Monday October 4, 10:40 PM Sword Attacker Jailed For 5 Years A MAN was jailed for five years yesterday for assaulting two policemen with a home-made sword. Peter Bradley, 38, of Germiston, Glasgow tried to strike the constables with the 2ft weapon while high on a cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills. Both officers managed to escape serious injury. Copyright © 1999 The Daily Record. All rights reserved. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Daily Record Yahoo! News New York Headlines Saturday October 16 11:57 AM EDT Police investigate sword attack on Long Island Suffolk county detectives are investigating a a sword attack this morning in Lake Ronkonkoma. As police tell it, a woman arrived home to find her husband in bed with another woman -- whom she attacked with the sword. 32-year old Delores Andrews of Huntington suffered a pair of sliced off finger tips as she apparently attempted to defend herself from the onslaught. Police say 43-year old Euadne Legrottaglie chased Andrews out of the house naked and bleeding. The fingertips were reattached. It was not clear what the husband was doing during all this. The wife is charged with assault. Copyright © 1996-1999 WCBS Radio. All rights reserved.