'I'm glad John Lennon is dead': Mel Gibson facing fresh outrage over rant claims

The Beatles icon was not the only target of Gibson’s attacks, according to claims by top screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.

Controversial Hollywood star Mel Gibson faced fresh outrage yesterday over claims he saidJohn Lennon deserved to die.
The astonishing allegation was made by top screenwriter Joe Eszterhas in a leaked nine-page letter to the Braveheart actor.
Eszterhas, best known for the Sharon Stone hit Basic Instinct, wrote the script for Gibson’s planned film about biblical Jewish hero Judah Maccabee.
But after his screenplay was rejected by Warner Brothers studio this week, he launched a string of attacks on Gibson, who he says sabotaged the project.
He alleges Gibson once ranted about the murdered ex-Beatle: “I’m glad he’s dead. He deserved to be shot.”
Gibson, 56, allegedly added: “He was f*****g messianic. Listen to the songs! Imagine. I hate that f*****g song,”

The music icon, who was shot dead outside his New York apartment by a demented fan in 1980, was not the only target of Gibson’s attacks, Eszterhas says.
In the letter, the screenwriter, 67, wrote that the star “hates Jews”, called the Holocaust “horses**t”.
Eszterhas – who is Jewish – also claimed Gibson only pitched The Maccabees to “deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism”.
During an arrest for drink-driving in 2006, the Oscar-winner reportedly launched an outspoken attack on Jews, saying they were “responsible for all the wars in the world”.
Eszterhas also said Gibson referred to Jews as “oven-dodgers” and “Jewboys” and said the only reason he was making the film was “to convert the Jews to Christianity”.
The letter also says: “It seemed that most times when we discussed someone, you asked ‘He’s a Hebe (Jew) isn’t he?’ You said most ‘gatekeepers’ of American companies were ‘Hebes’ who ‘controlled their bosses’.”

Read More:

2 Year Old Aliyah beaten then bled to death

Two-year-old Aliyah Johnson suffered a blow to her belly that was so forceful her liver ruptured, causing her to bleed to death.

Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov, after performing an autopsy on Aliyah, determined she died as a result of blunt force abdominal trauma and acute internal blood loss. 

The pathologist spent almost three hours at the Forensic Science Centre, St James carefully examining the body of the young girl, who died on Easter Sunday, to determine the cause of her death. There was no sign of sexual abuse.

Blood, urine and tissue samples have been taken for further tests including toxicology.

Police reported, at about 7.45 pm on Sunday, they received a report by staff at the Siparia District Health Facility that an unresponsive two-year-old child had been brought to the hospital, bearing marks of violence about her body, and bleeding from her vagina.

Since then, two relatives who were said to be with baby Aliyah when she suffered her injuries at a house along Maria David Trace, Siparia, have been detained at separate police stations.

One of the suspects, a woman, told police that she last saw Aliyah alive on Sunday evening when a male relative took the girl for a bath.

However, it had also been reported that the teenager had told relatives that the girl had fallen off her bed.

With the results of the autopsy at hand, police investigators have informed Newsday that they intend to officially classify the death as a murder and would be approaching the Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard SC, in the near future, possibly as early as today.

It was said that statements were expected to be taken from the two relatives in custody late yesterday as well as from baby Aliyah’s aunt Marisa Johnson. However, up to press time it could not be confirmed if the statements had been recorded.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, following the autopsy, a very emotional Marisa Johnson said her family was still in terrible shock over the loss of baby Aliyah and that her father had taken the news the hardest, and was forced to visit his doctor repeatedly this week.

She said she was pleased so far with the work of the police investigators and she was hoping for a “proper outcome” now that the autopsy had been completed.

“According to the findings, Aliyah’s abdomen had been hit, causing her liver to rupture, which in turn caused her to bleed out through her private parts. Thankfully, there were no findings of sexual assault. The report also shows that she had several marks of violence on her skin,” Johnson said.

“Dr Alexandrov said that most likely she was beaten and the marks were a result of the acts of violence. Right now, we simply want justice for this atrocity. The person who did this must be put away,” Johnson said.

Johnson, a mother of four, explained that contrary to various media reports, baby Aliyah was not the result of an unwanted pregnancy, and she was very loved and appreciated by her mother.

“I don’t understand how this information is circulating. It is completely false. Her mother wanted that child so badly. In fact it was I who offered to take the baby from her when we found out she was having a girl, because at the time I had three sons, she was just a teen and I desperately wanted a daughter. But she said no. She was very excited to be a mom and she loved that child with all her heart,” Johnson recalled.

Funeral arrangements are expected to be made today, with the services most likely taking place on Saturday morning.

last 4 Pictures by Ian Alleyne

George Zimmerman appears in court on Trayvon Martin murder charge

George Zimmerman stands with his attorney Mark O'Mara as he enters the room to make his first appearance in front of a judge at the Seminole County Correctional Facility. Photograph: Gary W Green

George Zimmerman has made his first appearance in court, less than 24 hours he was arrested and charged with the murder of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

Zimmerman appeared before Judge Mark Herr in a short hearing at the Seminole County jail in Sanford.

His arraignment was set for 29 May, when his formal plea of not guilty will be entered. There was no application for bail during Thursday's hearing. It is likely that his attorney will apply for a bond hearing before the arraignment.

Speaking before the hearing, attorney Mark O'Mara said Zimmerman, 28, was planning to plead not guilty. His client, O'Mara said, had "been through a lot" since he shot and killed Martin, 17, during a confrontation in a gated community in Sanford on 26 February.

Special prosecutor Angela Corey ended 44 days of uncertainty on Wednesday when she announced that Zimmerman would be charged with second-degree murder, an offence that carries a sentence from 25 years to life in prison.

Zimmerman was not arrested at the time because police believed his claims of self-defence, enraging Martin's family and sparking six weeks of mass protests in central Florida and elsewhere.

"I would like to get him out. I need to get him out to assist me in going over all the evidence and preparing our defence," said O'Mara, who met his new client for the first time on Wednesday evening.

"He is stressed. He's tired. He's been through a lot with the way this case has been handled to date. I'm just hoping that his mental health stays well and that we can move forward in getting this case figured out."

Zimmerman has been held in protective custody since his arrest on Thursday, with his brother Robert declaring that the family was disappointed by the severity of the charge.

"They [prosecutors] have thrown the book at him," Robert Zimmerman told CNN. "I would have hoped the more courageous decision would be to say we're not prosecuting, and here's why. Our brother could have been dead, our brother had to save his life by taking a life.

"The incident has been weighing on my brother in a way I couldn't possibly describe. As a family we're devastated. We are a strong family and we have been living a somewhat altered reality for some time."

"I trust that the system, the judge, the prosecutor and I will be able to, should the need arise, to get ourselves a fair and impartial jury to hear the case," he said.

Some legal analysts believe it might be difficult for state attorney Corey to make a murder charge stick against a defence under Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, which allows for the use of deadly force if a citizen perceives his life to be in danger.

Zimmerman has claimed he was under attack from Martin, who was unarmed, and fired in self-defence.

"The only hurdle I see is a stand-your-ground motion to dismiss that will have to be made," Kenneth Nunn, a senior professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, told the Guardian.

"The burden is on the defendant to show stand your ground applies, but the standard is only a preponderance of the evidence. If Zimmerman shows that then it is dismissed and Ms Corey's case goes away at that point. The prosecutor should be able to overcome that – but it's going to be a very difficult case."

Prof Nunn said he believed Corey might also have had a possible plea bargain, or a jury's "propensity to compromise" in mind when she decided to file a murder charge.

"Going in high and settling for manslaughter would be preferable to a manslaughter charge then settling for something like a gun charge," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, said she believed that the shooting was "an accident".

"One of things I still believe in is a person should apologise when they're remorseful for what they've done," she told NBC's Today show.

"I believe it was an accident. I believe it just got out of control and he couldn't turn the clock back."

Frederica Wilson, the Miami congresswoman whose constituency includes Martin's home, said that Thursday's court hearing for Zimmerman was an important first step for the family following their protracted battle to have him arrested.

"I am thankful that the wheels of justice will continue to turn. This is just the beginning and we have a long process ahead of us," she said.

"The evidence influenced [Corey] to charge him but the outcry helped bring the case to justice. This case would never have been brought without that outcry. It was a case that almost slipped through the system without the public ever knowing about it."

News Article sourced from: guardian.co.uk

Looter Jailed For 11 Years Over Riots Blaze

Gordon Thompson has been sentenced to 11-and-a-half years in prison for setting fire to the Reeves furniture store in Croydon during the London riots.

Thompson, 34, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for arson, being reckless as to whether life was endangered and burglary.

He was part of a mob which had rampaged through Croydon town centre, looting Iceland and House of Fraser, before turning his attention to family-run House of Reeves.

The blaze was so fierce that buildings on the other side of the street and tramlines in the road caught alight.

The business had begun trading on the site in 1867, and became such a part of the South London area that the road was named after the store.

Thompson boasted about starting the fire

Initially Thompson stole a laptop from inside the shop, then borrowed a cigarette lighter from another rioter and stepped inside what had been a display window, and set light to a sofa.

As the flames spread he boasted to a passer-by: "It was me. I did that. I burned Reeves Corner."

The inferno lit up the South London skyline, attracting the attention of the Skycopter which beamed live pictures which were seen around the world.

It became one of the defining images of the riots.

And the flames were so intense they leapt across the road and threatened nearby flats.

Members of the Reeves family were at the Old Bailey to see Thompson sentenced.

Outside the court Maurice Reeves, the owner of the furniture shop, said it was a "fair judgement".

"It has to be a deterrent," he said.

Earlier, his son Trevor told Sky News: "He (Thompson) just seems to be a person who's got caught up with the riots and has done something really stupid.

"I can't possibly imagine what goes through someone's mind to make them do that, especially as you're local and probably know what the place is, and what the place means to people.

"It's beyond my comprehension."

During the inferno, Monika Konczyk was inside a nearby flats. She had only moved to London from Poland three weeks earlier.

She saw Thompson start the fire, but told Sky News she did not think that within minutes she would need to flee for her life.

"I never thought I'd need to jump from the window because the fire was coming, never," she said.

But with a policeman inside her flat and others on the ground waiting to catch her, she was eventually persuaded to jump.

The moment was captured by a photographer and it became one of the iconic pictures of the summer riots.

The image led to the shy supermarket worker became famous for a few days; friends and family in Poland contacting her to make sure was safe.

Now she just hopes that the jailing of Thompson will be the end of the story.

"I'm very scared, I'm very nervous. Sometimes I'm upset and I'm thinking I only want to forget everything that's happened to me," she said.

She refused to carry on living in the flat because of the memories, but it did not make her leave England.

She said such incidents could happen all over the world.

What remained of the Reeves building was demolished within a few weeks of the inferno, and the site remains empty.

There were no plans to rebuild it until the economy improves. Instead the Reeves business continues in a smaller building across the road.

And the history lives on in photographs on the fencing which surrounds the vacant site.

There are pictures showing the Reeves store at the start of the 20th century as well as pictures of it ablaze on August 8, 2011.

video