< fowards removed > This item comes from a column in the Shooting Times magazine. I've made slight modifications to the column in order to comply with Microsoft's desire that we keep things clean on the networks. What I've done is replace some words with "(obscenity)." The rest of the article is as it appears in the magazine. ========== Shooting Times magazine, August 1993, page 21. For Your Information by Jerry Constantino Usually, dumb crooks are saved for the end. This one, however, is exceptional. I promise you, you'll never see another story like it. According to the report by Mike Royko, Ms. Curtescine Lloyd, a middle-aged nurse, who lives with her elderly aunt in rural Mississippi, was awakened one night by what she thought was the sound of her aunt going to the bathroom. It actually was a man who stepped into her bedroom, pushed her down and said, "(Obscenity), you'd better not turn on the light. You holler, you're dead. You better not breathe loud." He told her that he was going to rob and sexually assault her. His phraseology, of course, was different. Then he took off most of his clothing and jumped into bed. According to court records, Ms. Lloyd took preventative action: "I got it," she said. "I grabbed it, I gave it a yank. And when I yanked it, I twisted, all at the same time." Any guesses as to what Ms. Lloyd grabbed? "He hit me with his right hand, a hard blow beside the head," she said, "and when he hit me I grabbed hold of his scrotum with my left hand and I was twisting the opposite way. He started to yell and when he fell to the floor he hit me a couple of more licks, but they were light licks. He was weakening some then." Still hanging on, Ms. Lloyd was dragged into the hallway. "He was trying to get out, and I'm hanging on to him; he was throwing me from one side of the hall to the other. I was afraid if I let him go, he was going to kill me. "I was determined I was not going to turn it loose. So we were going down the hallway, falling from one side to the other, and when we got to the living room, we both fell. He brought me down right in front of the couch and he leaned me back, pleading with me. "He says, 'You've got me, you've got me, please, you've got me!' "I said, 'I know (obscenity) well I got you.' "He said, 'Please, please, you're killing me, you're killing me....I can't do nothing. Call the police, call the police.' "I said, 'Do you think I'm stupid enough to turn you loose and call the police?' "He said, 'Well, what am I gonna do?' "'You're gonna get the (obscenity) out of my house,' I said. "He said, 'How can I get out of your house if you won't let me go? How can I get out? I can't get out?' "I said, 'Break out, you-(obscenity), you broke in, didn't you?' And I was still holding him. "He said, 'Oh, you've got me suffering, lady, you've got me suffering.' "I said, 'Have you thought about how you were going to have me suffering?' "'Well, I can't do nothing now,' he said." Still twisting and squeezing, Ms. Lloyd dragged him to the front door which had two locks. She told the man to unbolt them. He had a hard time with the locks because he kept collapsing to the floor and Ms. Lloyd kept hauling him back to his feet. She did have a very good handle. Finally, the doors were unlocked and he screamed, "I'm out, I'm out!" "No, damn it," said Ms. Lloyd, "I'm taking your (obscenity) to the end of the porch. And when I turn you loose, I'm going to get my gun and I'm going to blow your (obscenity) brains out, you nasty, stinking, low-down dirty piece of (obscenity) you. "And when I said that, I gave it a twist, and I turned him loose. And he took a couple of steps and fell off the porch, grabbed his private parts, and made a couple of jumps across the back of my aunt's car. "I ran into my aunt's room, got her pistol from underneath the nightstand, ran back to the screen door, and fired two shots down the hill the way I saw him go. And then I ran back in the house and dialed 911." When the police came, they examined the evidence...the man's pants left in the bedroom. they found his name in the pants pocket and tracked him down, at home, in considerable pain. At the trial, as one attorney put it, "the jury was out 10 minutes. Long enough for two of them to go to the bathroom." The man was sentenced to 25 years in prison, where I assume he hopes the guys in his cell block don't giggle too much. As for Ms. Lloyd, she says she has been contacted about the possibility of making a movie out of the story. Oscar possibilities? ==========