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‘It’s been a cheerful day for video game crime news. First was the teenage father who sawed a former friend’s neck down to the trachea over some Xbox Live name-calling. Now an Iowa boy says he killed and attempted to rape his mother after she took away Call of Duty.
‘That’s according to the 911 call 14-year-old Noah Crooks of Osage, Iowa placed on March 24, 2012, the night he shot his mother 20 times. Crooks shot her with the .22 rifle he was given as an 11-year-old. The 911 tape was played in court this week as his trial began. His mother, Gretchen Crooks, had confiscated his video game about three hours before she was shot to death, an act believed to spark the fit of rage that led to her killing. It was the first homicide reported in that town since 1898.
‘The defense opened its case on Friday with testimony from Noah Crooks’ friends, one of whom played Call of Duty with him online. The testimony is meant to establish some type of rapid change in Crooks’ behavior. Despite constant references to an attention deficit disorder and the rambling 911 call in which he appears divorced from reality, he did say, “I feel crazy and I know I’m not.”‘ — Kotaku
‘When William Crooks got a text message in which his son confessed “I killed Mom,” he thought it was a joke. “Ok,” Crooks replied. “Just throw her in the grove. We’ll take care of her later.” This according to testimony Crooks, 41, gave in Wright County District Court in Clarion, Iowa Friday night. The full message Noah sent the night of March 24 read “Dad this is Noah. I killed Mom accidentally. I regret it. Come home now please.”
‘William was away from the family’s rural home at the time. Mitchell County Deputy Jeff Huftalin later called the older Crooks and told him there had been an accident. There was no history of domestic abuse or criminal records associated with any Crooks family members. William said his wife was the disciplinarian of the family, which led to some fights between his wife and son. “They’d have their issues but then the next minute they’d play games together,” he said. “Noah once told me he wanted to kill his mother, but I didn’t take it seriously. On a few occasions he said that he wished she was dead and in a ditch. I guess I didn’t take it as a threat at the time.” He testified that Noah had been on medication for A.D.D. since he was 8 years old, and had occasional outbursts in class and on the school bus. His troubles became more physical in fifth grade. “He would pull all of the hair off his head, his eyebrows, his eyelashes, and he’d pull the hair off his legs,” William said. “His arms too. Anywhere that he had hair, he pulled it out.'” He said Noah became more violent in recent years, breaking windows and using a knife to stab the wooden pillars, couch cushions, and doors in the family’s home. He said the violent outbursts came out of the blue and were not planned, adding that often Noah could not remember why he had acted out, but always atoned for his actions.’ — Daily Mail
‘The defense in the Noah Crooks trial began Friday afternoon by calling to the stand three school friends of the 14-year-old Osage teen accused of shooting his mother to death in March 2012. A 14-year-old boy from Osage said he played the video game, Call of Duty, with Crooks over the Internet. He testified that in 2012 Crooks would become aggressive and violent, occasionally stabbing classmates with pencils. The boy said the incidents would happen once or twice every few weeks and then not happen again for days or even months. Crooks threatened to kill other students and his mother, he testified. A 14-year-old girl, also of Osage, said she and Crooks became friends in the seventh grade. She remembered her friend talking about suicide last year. In March 2012 his behavior changed, she said. “He got angry quicker,” she testified. “In P.E. he’d get mad at things he wouldn’t usually get mad about.”’ — WFCCourier
‘On May 3, 2013 the defense in the Noah Crooks murder trial began calling witnesses, and it doesn’t look like things are off to a positive start for the young man. The tragic death of his mother was gruesome, but the details being shared by multiple sources paint a picture of a deeply troubled teen who may continue to be a danger to society. It seems as though the defense is painting the teen as someone who is too mentally ill to plan the rape and murder of his own mother. The state of Iowa is aiming to convict him of first degree murder, among other charges. The details that have come out in recent days are startling, such as the 911 call placed by the frantic teen:
‘“Something came over me and I’m serious. I’m 13 years old and I killed my mom with my .22. I’m not joking at all. She’s dead. I’m scared. I killed my mom with my .22. I don’t know why I did it. I am so ashamed right now.” [He repeated that several times in the course of the 10-minute conversation.] “OK. This is Noah. OK. I don’t want you to contact the news or do anything like that. I feel crazy and I know I’m not. I think I have some form of ADD. I tried to rape her. I tried to rape her but I couldn’t do it.” [He rambled on for several minutes as the dispatcher contacted deputies and dispatched an ambulance.] “Tell them my weapon is empty. I just wish it was a dream so I could wake up and I could kiss her and hug her. I need to get help. I don’t know why I did it. I’ve never thought about doing it before. Something just got in my head and I don’t know why.” [He said his mother made homemade doughnuts for him that night and he couldn’t believe he killed her after she did that for him. He continued talking about playing the video game, Call of Duty. He told the dispatcher his mother took away the game because he got some bad grades.] “Something just came over me. I’m going to have to move away. I’m never going to be able to get a good job now. I should have never played Call of Duty.” [He spent several more minutes talking about how he would never be able to marry his eighth-grade girlfriend or get into a good college.] “That goes down the drain now. I’m going to have to move. I am going to go to jail. I tried rape my own mom. Who tries to rape their own mom? My life is down the drain now.” [The dispatcher told him deputies were on the way.] “They’re not going to shoot me or (expletive deleted) me, are they?”’ — ksee24.com
‘Demonic 13 yr old Red Headed Child Murders his Mom after an Attempted Rape!’
‘Teen Kills Mom Over Call of Duty | The World Is Going Crazy’
’13-Year-Old Boy Shot His Mother Dead After Trying To Rape Her!’
‘After more than 18 hours of deliberations, a Wright County jury found Noah Crooks guilty Monday afternoon of second-degree murder and not guilty of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in the March 2012 shooting death of his mother, Gretchen. “Their deliberation shows they put a lot of time, a lot of effort into this. And it wasn’t an easy decision for them to reach. We thank them so much for the time they put into this because it couldn’t be easy,” Mitchell County Attorney Mark Walk said.
‘“If I was speculating I would say it’s a compromise verdict. My best guess is that there were probably some people who wanted not guilty by reason of insanity, others who wanted first-degree. The compromise was probably, here again speculating which I shouldn’t do, we’ll come down to second-degree if you’ll come off not guilty by reason of insanity. I could be completely wrong but that’s my thought.”
‘Crooks showed no emotion as the verdict was announced shortly before 2 p.m. Monday. He will remain in a juvenile facility at either Waterloo or Eldora until his 18th birthday. Then at 18, or shortly before that, he will come back before this same court. They will make a determination of whether he should be discharged at that time or whether he should be sentenced at that time; whether he should be supervised at that time. The problem is no one knows what’s going to happen when he turns 18.’ — wcfCourier.com
Apr 20, 2018: ‘The Iowa Supreme Court has denied the appeal of the sentence given an Osage teen for killing his mom. The original judge sentenced him to an indeterminate prison term not to exceed fifty years without any mandatory minimum sentence. Crooks appealed the sentence saying he should not have tried as a youthful offender in adult court and the sentence given him was unconstitutional. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled trying Crooks as a juvenile offender allowed for time to assess his prospect for rehabilitation, and says the sentence given to him was based on the information in the assessment, and was not unconstitutional.
‘The ruling did address the issue of Crooks’ age. The ruling says the decision to waive jurisdiction over a child for prosecution as a youthful offender “does not automatically subject the child to adult criminal sanctions. Instead, the youthful offender provisions allow the courts to wait until the child is nearly eighteen-and to see whether the rehabilitative services provided in the juvenile system have been effective-before determining how to proceed.”’ — Radio Iowa
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p.s. Hey. ** feellikeanumba, Hi! My pleasure. Film criticism, interesting. Do you write in Russian? I guess I’m wondering if your criticism is readable to an only English speaker like me. That’s great. I’m big film buff, as you can probably tell, as well as filmmaker, so that’s of real interest. Anyway, yes, if you feel writing fiction, you certainly have the gift. I love Gaddis, but I don’t think I’ve read all the way through his novels, except for the short ones: ‘Carpenter’s Gothic’ and ‘Agape, Agape’. I just like to get the heady rush from his writing mostly, I guess. I like Lish’s work. And, as I’m sure you know, he’s an amazing editor. A bunch of favorite fiction writers of mine (Garielle Lutz, Diane Williams, Sam Lypsite, etc.) studied with him. Yes, very sad about Barth. When I was high school, all the most interesting young people, including me, were reading him incessantly. He was really a big deal back then. It’s so good to talk with you. ** _Black_Acrylic, I haven’t been drunk in a million years, and I don’t miss it one little bit. And of course about the latest PT. All thanks to you! ** Misanthrope, Hi. It sounds like you guys will work that out. These are still early days. Lots to learn. Well, I don’t know the nuances, but it sure seems like you and/or Alex needs to tell Bruce that you’re a couple and that he needs to back way the fuck off or else. I hate guys like that. Yuck. ** James Bennett, Hi. It’s amazing to me to that so many great writers were diehard alcoholics. It’s hard to imagine how they juggled the drunkenness and the high level writing output, but they did. Granted that some of their talents went into descent at a certain point. I’m afraid of that Capote series. I’m a bit allergic to biopics, etc. in general. I can’t think of a really good fictionalisation on ‘film’ of a writer’s life off the top of my head, but there surely must be one or some. Do you know of any? What you wrote resonates with me completely. I think about that issue all the time. I think very sculpturally and 3 dimensionally about my writing for that very reason. And about Zac’s and my films too. So encouragement in that direction from me. Hm, this probably isn’t the space to go into that Blanchot quote in a full way ‘cos I’d have lots to say. On the most basic level, I guess it’s about paying close attention to the balance/relationship between presentation and subject and not letting the latter have inordinate power or something? But there’s a lot to say. Does that quote speak to you and your work at all? ** Allegra, I love ‘The Forbidden Room’. In fact I saw part of it being filmed. The Pompidou museum here used to do this yearly festival called Nouveau Festival, and they’d invite artists to present projects and things, and one year Maddin’s ‘presentation’ was that he filmed part of ‘TFR’ in the museum, and you could go stand there and watch for as long as you wanted. It was cool. I will, about ‘LLB’. Interesting: what are you doing on the archeological dig? Speaking of aligned tastes, and I may have mentioned his before, but when I was a kid I wanted to be an archaeologist for a while. And my parents arranged for me to go to Peru one summer and work on a dig there that a rich Peruvian friend of my dad’s was bankrolling. But it was kind of a fiasco because the people doing the dig were not interested in some kid helping them, so they made me just sit and watch and do nothing. And seeing how extremely non-eventful archeological digging is cured of my desire to do that. It was a long, long summer. That is very interesting about your master’s thesis. Wow. That’s very cool. I want to read it! Amazing, fun. Thank you letting me know. Happy day, xo, me. ** Steve, There’s much talk here in France about young people shifting away not only from alcohol but drugs too. At the same time, they say there’s a huge upswing in cocaine use, so I don’t know those things reconcile. Same here: I tell people I don’t really drink alcohol, and they immediately assume it’s because I had a problem with it rather than that I just don’t like alcohol’s effect. Everyone, A couple of things from Steve today. First, he ‘wrote about queer films at the New Directors/New Films festival’ here, and, second, here’s his PEOPLE’S JOKER review, Curious to see ‘People’s Joker’. I suppose it’ll get over here. Very best of luck with The Wire, obviously. Did you propose something specific to them? ** Justin, Hi, J. Aw, thanks, man. That’s so nice to hear. Maryse! She’s so great. Everyone, Justin shares a video/Zoom talk/interview thing I did a couple of years ago with the wonderful writer Maryse Meijer about ‘I Wished’ if anyone wants to see it. Here. Yeah, before I started doing the blog, I think a lot of people assumed I’m some kind of scary weirdo, ha ha. And, well, I’m sure some still do. Thanks, Justin. Great weekend’s kickstart to you. ** Harper, Hi, Harper. Yeah, that does seem to be the case. Alcohol just dulls me, so it’s like the opposite. Me too: I was okay with weed in my early teens, but then I had two huge LSD freak outs, and, after the second one, weed brought them back and made totally paranoid, so I haven’t touched it since. But I have a really good friends who are very good artists of different stripes who smoke weed from morning to bedtime. Mystery to me as well. I don’t know if I know what novels were written on weed. ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ is proof positive that the combo can pay off. I’m guessing a lot of the more experimental work of the late 60s was written when high. I’ve never been able to write while high, or, well, not write well at least. I would write something on LSD that I thought in the moment was a profound masterpiece, and then I’d look at it afterwards and it would be, like, a single sentence — ‘The world is orange’ — or something. Do tell about the concert tonight. I hope it’s really fruitful. ** Darby🧫, Oops, I hope your roommate gets away with that infraction. I don’t mind your questions at all, au contraire. Mm, I’m a workaholic too, I guess obviously, and I don’t really know how I do that and not overload. I think I just gradually found the balance over time. And I don’t worry about working too much, maybe that’s part of it. If I want to recuse and work, I do, and if I get too zonked, I stop and go hang out with friends or something. I doubt that helps. That Medium thing sounds like a real accomplishment to me. Wow. I just ate what I always eat, which was fine but no big. Tomorrow I’m having pizza at my favorite pizza place. Until then, the usual. Potato pancakes are god or at least in god’s right hand. ** Uday, Hi. New Orleans, nice. I’ve only driven through it once. How are the presentations going? How do you tell if a presentation is going well? Does the audience applaud and yell ‘whoop’ and things like that? No, your tone in the question was masterful, I guess. It didn’t intimidate me at all. Enjoy N.O. Are you there for the weekend? Will you see the sights? ** Matt N., Hey. No, the sound mixing is finished. We’re waiting to do the special effects, which are minimal and mostly reparative, but it’s necessary. Then a last little work on the color, and we’ll be finished! Yeah, I guess it is important to give the director power in that instance. I write the texts for a French theater director Gisele Vienne, and sometimes I’ll give her a text that’s supposed to be comedic, for instance, and she’ll have it performed like it’s some deathly gloomy text, and I just have to go, ‘Uh … well, it’s your work’. Obviously your own film sounds extremely intriguing. So nice, under $1000 budget. Getting rid of the money raising hell erases, like, 80% of the hell of making films. Anyway, sounds exciting. Costa-like! Very, very nice. Is the documentary you’re talking about ‘Body Without Soul’ about prostitutes in Prague? There’s also one on the same subject called ‘Not Angels But Angels’, but I haven’t seen that one. If you meant ‘BWS’, yeah, I totally agree. Very uninterestingly perverse. Very good way to put it. ** Right. I thought I would restore and kind of update the post up there from ages back for no particular reason or, rather, for a reason I’ve forgotten. See you tomorrow.
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