By his own testimony, John Ditullio is a hateful neo-Nazi who despised his next-door neighbors in New Port Richey, Fla. — a white woman with an African-American friend and a son who was openly gay.
But when the son was murdered and the mother attacked in 2006, Ditullio denied involvement.
And though he earned a hung jury in his first trial, his retrial was scheduled for November 2010.
For each day of the trial, a makeup artist was hired — paid for by the government at $135 a day — to cover up Ditullio’s swastika neck tattoo and crude-phrase cheek tattoo so as to keep jurors from being unfairly prejudiced.
Nonetheless, Ditullio was convicted in December and sentenced to death.
What’s
in a
name,
anyway?
Suspected of stealing scraps of copper in Riverside, Ohio — Jesus Christ Superstar Oloff, 33.
Arrested for sex abuse against a 6-year-old boy in Oklahoma City — Lucifer Hawkins, 30.
Sought as a suspect in a convenience store killing in Largo, Fla., and an example of the highly revealing “Three First Names” theory of criminal liability, Mr. Larry Joe Jerry.
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa Fla. 33679 or go to www.newsoftheweird.com.)