Skeptomania - Paranormal / UFOs, etc.

enigma · Deputy Dawg

At least 40 young men who drowned may have died by far more sinister means — serial killings at the hands of a national gang that revels in murdering young men and leaving smiley-face markings at the scene, a team of retired New York City police detectives and criminal justice investigators said Monday.

They believe the victims, including University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins and Fordham University student Patrick McNeill, didn't accidentally drown but were actually killed by members of the so-called "Smiley Face Gang," KSTP News in St. Paul reported.

A smiley-face symbol was found painted at some of the drowning locations — in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa, they told the station.

"They're telling you here that they're into evil, they're very happy as most serial killers are," retired NYPD Det. Kevin Gannon said to KSTP. "They're content with their work and what they're doing and the fact that they're thwarting the police."

Jenkins' body was discovered in the Mississippi River about four months after he disappeared in 2003. To police, his death looked like an accidental fall after a night of drinking.

McNeill drowned in New York City in 1997, also after bar-hopping.

The task force that formed to solve the crimes believes a national crime network has killed at least 40 men — mostly white college students and 20-somethings, often with high grades and impressive athletic records — in about 10 different states.

The team investigated 89 separate cases dating back a decade and said it had connected 40 of them through a variety of evidence — including matching sets of gang graffiti.

It was Jenkins' death, however, that tipped off police. His body was found encased in ice in the Mississippi, his hands folded across his chest in an odd pose that was inconsistent with a chance drowning.

Gannon and another NYPD detective, Anthony Duarte — along with the other investigators — believe a gang of killers has been trolling interstates from New York to Wisconsin, staging the drownings.

The FBI and local authorities don't agree with the theory that all the drownings are linked and the work of a gang.

But families of the victims have long believed their loved ones' deaths were suspicious.

"The people that murdered Chris have murdered before him and they've also murdered people after him, Jan Jenkins said on "Good Morning America." "Those people are still at large."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352960,00.html

Yaish · Intel Chief

I'm not so sure there is a vast, nationwide conspiracy taking out college boys.

The smiley face is a universal symbol, one found all over. It's used daily in posts here on this board. Does that mean one of us is the killer?

Yes, the deaths all have something in common, because they are only looking at deaths that have something in common, the victims ages and causes of death.

Maybe, but I don't think a serial killer or killers are likely.

wrmd · :::::::::

I don't know, but that isn't the typical looking smiley face you'd usually see spray painted on a bus shelter. It seems more likely that it's coming from a small group of disgruntled optimists.

TheMadHobbit · Subway Tolkien

Hmmmmm - where's Gren been? Razz

Yaish · Intel Chief