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April 20, 2004
Does this story have legs?
Clayton Cramer (via Glenn Reynolds) has more on the Oklahoma City now-you-see-it-now-you-don't unexplained leg: Q. Now, you have done some examination and testing and work on the leg that you have as P71?Um, at the risk of engaging in paranoia, didn't they run DNA tests before the trial to at least determine the sex of the 169th "victim"? First, the experts said the leg came from a man, and that in any case it made no difference. But later, tests revealed it came from a woman: Jordan said the leg was identified as belonging to a black female after a series of three special DNA and hair fiber tests were completed by FBI analysts. The finding sharply differed from an earlier statement by Jordan's office that there was a 75 percent probability that the limb belonged to a white male.Another example of either sloppy investigation, or manipulation of evidence to support the prosecution's How much else did the prosecution suppress in their effort to keep this case neat and tidy?Dead men tell no tales. (Nor do dead women; read the whole thing.) Anyway, I kept digging through Internet rubble in search of missing leg stories. I found this Denver Post report that the leg was matched to one Airman First Class Lakesha Levy, a black woman who died in the blast. Ah, but the problem with that is that they had already buried Airman Levy with both of "her" legs! So (according to this CNN report) they had to exhume her body, inter the "identified" leg, but now they're still stuck with another unidentified leg: Jordan said that FBI DNA analysis and footprint tests proved the leg belonged to a victim identified as Lakesha Levy, 21, of New Orleans. Levy's body was found on April 27, and through a series of mistakes, a leg was buried with Levy that wasn't hers.One very simple question: what leg are we talking about? Finally, Charles Hill reports a story claiming the video does not exist. I'm stumped. Stumped! Does any analysis so far even have a leg to stand on? UPDATE: I am now having trouble getting the link attributed to CNN to open. Here's another one with the same Levy exhumation thread. [NOTE: The poor quality link above has been replaced with a better one.] MORE HERE on the suffering the exhumation caused Airman Levy's family -- but nothing about the other leg buried with her. I hope it didn't disappear, so I'll keep looking for it. Surely by now it has been "identified." McVeigh's legal motion to attend the exhumation was denied. As recently as 1999, the exhumed leg remained unidentified. Does the story end there? FINAL NOTE: A pretty diligent search has revealed nothing further about the unidentified leg. However, the math has me confused, because the overwhelming majority of media stories still claim that there were 168 victims as opposed to a minority claiming the figure of 169. Must this mean that the leg did not belong to "victim number 169?" I decided to get more specific, so I searched using the exact phrase "169 victims": Only fifteen. Then I tried Oklahoma City and "168 victims" Nine hundred and sixteen! Allowing for the possibility that "victim" is too judgmental a word to apply to an unidentified leg, I searched again using "168 people." 15,500 results! OK, how about "169 people." This yielded a paltry 490 results I couldn't help notice that the older stories (as well as the conspiracy-oriented sites) tend to use the number 169, while the newer, and more official-type stories use 168. wikipedia for example, refers to 168 chairs which are arranged at the official memorial site. Surely the memorial to the victims, with each victim represented by a chair, would not lie, would it? I wanted to know how many chairs there are, so I googled that too, in the same way. First, "168 chairs." 228 results. Finally, "169 chairs." Two results! (A minister (who I think may have been confused by something he'd read elsewhere), and a File not found.) From this data it can fairly be said that the government as well as the vast majority of news sources steadfastly maintain that 168 victims died during the blast. Logically and mathematically, the leg belonging to person number 169 must either be a victim or a perpetrator of the bombing. Can't have it both ways, unless "unidentified" means "does not exist." If that's what "unidentified" means, then count me in as a paranoid conspiracy theorist! UPDATE: Wow, I was so busy writing a long post (above) about Bob Woodward that I failed to notice that Glenn Reynolds linked to this post. Thank you Glenn, and welcome all InstaPundit readers! One more point (albeit a very nit-picky one): The meticulous Justin Case tells me that my logic may be slightly off when I say that the leg must either be a victim or a perpetrator of the bombing, because as he rightly points out, it is scientifically possible that the leg might have been from a medical cadaver, or possibly a body part which some murderer had conveniently happened to drop near the blast. Point taken. But, whether it's a medical cadaver or a crime victim, shouldn't they still be trying to identify it? And what would a medical cadaver be doing in the federal building? Maybe I should accuse Justin of pulling my leg. posted by Eric on 04.20.04 at 03:44 PM
Comments
Been there, counted those. There are 168 chairs. 149 full-sized, for the adults; 19 smaller ones, for the children. CGHill · April 20, 2004 09:33 PM Is it possible that the Leg of Mystery just belongs to one of the other 167 victims? Do you know if any of them were missing legs? Sometimes after this kind of disaster, it can be hard to tell. In order to be identified by genetic evidence, the leg owner's DNA would have to be on file. I don't know if samples were taken from each victim. The records on Lakesha Levy that were used to match the first leg to her might only have only been available due to the fact that she was in the military. Yours truly, Jeffrey Boulier · April 20, 2004 10:25 PM Interesting points all! Yup, still stumped! Charles, it's a true testament to the blogosphere that someone actually went there and counted. Jeffrey, it's a left leg, and according to CNN ** If it had matched, I don't think it would still be called "unidentified." Eric Scheie · April 20, 2004 10:42 PM Congrats on the Instalanche. More congrats on doing some really interesting investigating. Frank J. · April 21, 2004 08:47 AM Thank you Frank! Enjoyed reading about your target practice. I have a PPK too, but now I want a Kel-Tec P3AT. Keep it up! Eric Scheie · April 21, 2004 10:17 AM |
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"I'm stumped. STUMPED."
You MIGHT want to rethink that phrase.
Interesting stuff you got here... I hadn't even heard of all this before!