Wired News has an interesting update on the Hans Reiser murder case. Specifically, regarding Sean Sturgeon, a former acquaintance of Hans Reiser who Nina Reiser had once dated. What was the interesting part? Apparently, Sean Sturgeon had confessed to killing eight people, although none are related to the Reiser hearing. Interesting excerpt from the Wired article:
Sturgeon’s answers in the 40-minute interview were frequently evasive, and he declined to answer specific questions about the alleged killings. “I have offered to be judged for my crimes,” he said at one point. “I take responsibility for what I have done.”
Nonetheless, he vigorously denied killing Nina Reiser. “I’ve never been a threat to Nina Reiser,” Sturgeon said. “I will take a lie-detector test. I will take whatever passes for truth serum these days.” He also indicated that the evidence pointed to Hans Reiser’s guilt. “I will not take credit for what another has done,” he said. “Let Hans take a lie-detector test about Nina.”
It’s unclear when Sturgeon made the confession — he would say only, “I have cooperated since day one.” Asked why he had confessed at all, he responded with this question: “In a murder case, if somebody has killed, who is a witness, is it relevant? Yes or no?”
When this reporter responded that it was relevant, Sturgeon said, “Then you have the answer to your question.”
CrimeBlog.US has done excellent research on this case and it’s showcased very well in this post. Recommended reading for those interested in this interesting case.
May 7th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
What’s astonishing about all this
is that the major Bay Area news
media have sat on the story for several
days with no comment.
A reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle
told me that they won’t comment on a story
from alternative media (Wired.com).
Media need to be nudged to get this story
opened up and thoroughly investigated.
May 7th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Yep, Fred. For me, it is of interest to know more about this case because the future of one of my favourite filesystems can be affected by the outcome.
I guess the “mainstream media” has no idea who Hans Reiser is. To them, this might just be another “geek in trouble” type of story.
May 7th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
ermmm . in open source, if a project went off, there will be another project taking in. Dont worry bout your ReiserFS, u can always opt for other fs
May 7th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
interesting topic. indeed.
May 7th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
kucau, that’s true of course. In fact patches for Reiser4 have kept coming in for the -mm patchset.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
It’s possible that the mainstream media have been asked to sit on the story by the police if they feel someone elses life might be in danger or something. Or, it might complicate the case if news got out … which it now has.
Anyway, it’s a pretty weird case!