xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx

Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.

Prominent Columbia, S.C., surgeon Harry J. Metropol, appearing before a state legislative committee in April to argue that doctors shouldn’t have to pay so much money in malpractice awards and insurance premiums, minimized the harm suffered by a woman (not Metropol’s patient) who lost both breasts because of an error in cancer diagnosis. “She did not lose her life,” Metropol said, sunnily, “and with plastic surgery, she’ll have breast reconstruction better than she did before. It won’t be National Geographic, hanging to her knees. It’ll be nice, firm breasts.”

Gerard Lancop, 58, was sentenced to nearly two years in prison for stalking a woman in connection with his psychiatrist-described fetish for women’s coats (police found 236 in his home) (Windsor, Ontario, January).

Thomas William Hodgson pleaded guilty to harassing schoolgirls by either repeatedly stopping them on the street or leaving notes for them, offering to buy their cardigan sweaters, which he admitted he had a thing for (Christchurch, New Zealand, March).

News of the Weird reported in 2001 on the staffing problem of British circus knife-thrower Jayde Hanson, after his assistant walked off the job after being nearly hit in the foot, which would have been her third injury that season (which was the number of injuries an ex-girlfriend had suffered as Hanson’s assistant before she walked off in 2000). In April 2003, Hanson was performing with his new girlfriend, Yana Rodianova, 22, on Britain’s ITV program “This Morning,” showing off his world-record form as a speed knife-thrower, but one of the knives hit Rodianova on the head, drawing blood before the live cameras.
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd

NEWS OF THE WEIRD