🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 30 Apr 2001 14:27:09 -0700, "Harry"
<hmagnan@NOpacbellSPAM.net> wrote:

>What a buch of BS. I'll credit the writer with being very creative, and very disingenuous. All in all, a good bit of urban legend. And why is it urban legend?
>
>First, California does not have mandatory trigger locks or a mandatory storage law. In fact, the governor of California put a moratorium on all new gun laws when he was elected. That moratoruim hasn't been lifted. 
>
>Second, there is no record of this incident in any paper in California, including the Merced Sun-Star. http://www.mercedsun-star.com

You need to bone up on your search skills, Harry.  I would guess that
the parents of Ashley and John would prefer not to think of their
children being murdered as urban legend.

Still, it's shocking to see how quickly these things are forgotten.


From the Los Angeles Times:

Man Shot After Stabbing Children With Pitchfork  
 Thursday, August 24, 2000  Home Edition  
 ID: 0000079447 Part A Section 
 Byline: From Associated Press  236 words 
  
 A man broke into a home and fatally stabbed two children with a
pitchfork Wednesday before being shot and killed by authorities, the
Merced Sheriff's Department said.  


From the Fresno Bee:


HEROINE IN DEATH

, Published on December 31, 2000, Page 10, Article 1 of 23 found, 190
words.
Together in a family snapshot, sister Ashley Danielle Carpenter, 9,
and her brother, John William Carpenter, 7, were rarely apart in life.
Now, in death, they are buried side by side in a single casket, next
to their grandparents at a small cemetery on the side of a hill in
Mariposa. The children were killed Aug. 23 when a stranger entered
their rural Merced home and attacked them with a spading fork. The
attacker, Jonathon David Bruce, 27, later was fatally shot by police.
The children's parent 

CARPENTER KIDS RESTING TOGETHER THEIR FATHER SAYS: 'I KNOW WITHOUT A
SHADOW OF A DOUBT WHERE MY CHILDREN ARE TODAY.'

Kimi Yoshino THE FRESNO BEE, Published on August 31, 2000, Page A1,
Article 15 of 23 found, 962 words.
Some were friends, some strangers, but the crowd that gathered
Wednesday shared a common grief over the death of two innocent
children who were slain in their home by a pitchfork-wielding
man."They reached out with their little fingers and touched the heart
of an entire world," the Rev. John Hilton said.Ashley and John William
Carpenter, ages 9 and 7, respectively, were buried Wednesday, one week
after Jonathon David Bruce -- a man suspected of being under the
influence of drugs -- broke into th 

CHILDREN'S WOUNDS DETAILED MERCED STABBING VICTIMS ARE EXAMINED OVER
FAMILY PROTEST.

Kimi Yoshino THE FRESNO BEE, Published on August 29, 2000, Page A1,
Article 16 of 23 found, 715 words.
More than 100 stab wounds covered 9-year-old Ashley Carpenter's body:
one leg, both arms, her torso, head, neck and face. Her brother John
William, 8, suffered more than 40.The autopsy performed Monday over
the objections of the siblings' family revealed a brutality even more
shocking than last week's news that two Merced children were attacked
by a pitchfork-wielding man at their rural home."This was one of the
most difficult deaths I've ever had to deal with," Merced County
Sheriff-Coroner Tom 

MERCED POLICE ARREST SUSPECT IN FATAL SHOOTING MAN SUSPECTED OF
KILLING HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW TURNS HIMSELF IN TO AUTHORITIES.

Jennifer M. Fitzenberger THE FRESNO BEE, Published on August 28, 2000,
Page B1, Article 17 of 23 found, 407 words.
A man police say gunned down his brother-in-law turned himself in
Sunday night after being at large for several hours, police said.Jerry
Wayne Shue, 36, fatally shot James Covert in the upper torso with a
rifle after waking him at his home early Sunday morning, Merced Police
Cmdr. Tom Martin said.Covert, 44, died at Memorial Medical Center in
Modesto shortly after the 5 a.m. shooting. Covert's wife and a
teen-ager were in the home at the time of the incident, Martin
said.Sunday's homicide comes 

AND NOW, THE HEALING BEGINS WHILE MERCED FAMILY FIGHTS AUTOPSIES ON
THE PITCHFORK VICTIMS, A PASTOR PREPARES TO PREACH.

Louis Galvan and Pablo Lopez THE FRESNO BEE, Published on August 27,
2000, Page A1, Article 18 of 23 found, 878 words.
Though born with different personalities, slain siblings Ashley and
John William Carpenter were best friends -- you never saw one without
the other, relatives said.They will soon be buried together in the
same casket.The siblings' parents, John and Tephanie Carpenter,
decided to bury their children Wednesday at Mariposa Cemetery, the
Rev. John Hilton said Saturday.But before that happens, a more
difficult decision must be made by Merced County Sheriff-Coroner Tom
Sawyer. He must decide whether t 

NO EASY ANSWERS GUN ADVOCATES SAY FEAR OF LIABILITY KEEPS PARENTS FROM
TEACHING SURVIVAL SKILLS.

Kimi Yoshino THE FRESNO BEE, Published on August 26, 2000, Page A1,
Article 19 of 23 found, 641 words.
The first thing Jessica Carpenter asked for was a gun.When the
14-year-old girl ran to a nearby house to escape the
pitchfork-wielding man attacking her siblings, she didn't ask her
neighbor to call 9-1-1. She begged him to grab his rifle and "take
care of this guy."By the time Merced County sheriff's deputies arrived
at her home in rural Merced, her 7-year-old brother, John William, was
dead. So was her younger sister, Ashley Danielle, 9.On Friday, the
children's great-uncle, the Rev. John Hilt 

NO EASY ANSWERS JOHN CARPENTER DEALS WITH HIS FAMILY'S TRAGIC LOSS
WITHOUT ANGER AND WITH HEALING WORDS OF LOVE.

Kimi Yoshino and George Hostetter THE FRESNO BEE, Published on August
26, 2000, Page A1, Article 20 of 23 found, 1973 words.
Late Thursday night, John Carpenter peeked into the darkened living
room of the home on the outskirts of this central Valley city where he
and his family are staying temporarily.On the floor were Carpenter's
surviving children plus some of their close friends. The place looked
like a wall-to-wall sea of pillows, blankets and girls. After some 36
hours of unimaginable horror and anguish, Carpenter and his family
finally had a moment of peace."They were in there, all of them sound
asleep, arm-in-a 

SISTERS TELL OF TERROR ATTACK SHATTERS SENSE OF SAFETY

George Hostetter and Lesli A. Maxwell THE FRESNO BEE, Published on
August 25, 2000, Page A1, Article 21 of 23 found, 656 words.
Could it happen to me and my family?That is the fearful question many
residents in this Central Valley city are asking after an intruder
broke into a home just outside Merced Wednesday morning and stabbed to
death two children with a pitchfork.Jonathon David Bruce killed Ashley
Danielle Carpenter, 9, and John William Carpenter, 7, after forcing
his way into their home while their parents were gone. Unemployed and
a known user of illegal drugs, the 27-year-old Bruce was shot and
killed by Merced 

SISTERS TELL OF TERROR ASHLEY CARPENTER, 9, SAVED HER TWO SIBLINGS BY
GIVING HER OWN LIFE.

George Hostetter and Lesli A. Maxwell THE FRESNO BEE, Published on
August 25, 2000, Page A1, Article 22 of 23 found, 1826 words.
In a horrific struggle between good and evil, a 9-year-old girl
pleaded with a naked intruder who invaded her family's rural home and
terrorized her siblings with a pitchfork.Ashley Carpenter was
screaming, "Stop it, don't hurt my sister" when the attacker, Jonathon
David Bruce, turned the weapon on her. Bruce pinned Ashley's small
body to the wall and stabbed her to death as she fell to the floor,
begging for her life.Bruce also killed Ashley's 7-year-old brother,
John William, as he lay sleepi 

PITCHFORK ATTACKER KILLS KIDS MAN BREAKS INTO A RURAL MERCED HOME AND
STABS TWO YOUNGSTERS TO DEATH IN THEIR BEDS.

BEE NEWS SERVICES, Published on August 24, 2000, Page A1, Article 23
of 23 found, 677 words.
Merced County sheriff's officials said they had no clue late Wednesday
about the identity of a man shot and killed by deputies after he broke
into a home and fatally stabbed two children with a
pitchfork."Somebody's in my house that I don't know; they're stabbing
my brother and sister with a pitchfork," 14-year-old Jessica Lynne
Carpenter cried to an emergency dispatcher just moments after escaping
the attack with her two sisters. "I don't know who it is. I just woke
up and he was in the house."