[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S9131]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          NATURAL BORN KILLERS

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, today's Boston Herald contains a shocking 
front-page story--a story that should send shivers down the spines of 
all Americans, especially those who have criticized my call to the 
entertainment industry to exercise good citizenship when it comes to 
producing films that celebrate mindless violence.
  That is the headline: ``We're `Natural Born Killers.''' There was a 
movie called ``Natural Born Killers.'' This is a story, the prosecutor 
says, where the suspects bragged about the slaying saying, ``We're 
natural born killers.''
  ``We're `Natural Born Killers,''' the headline blares, referring to 
the critically acclaimed Oliver Stone film.
  This is what happened. The Boston Herald story begins, and I quote:

       As they changed out of their bloody clothes, the men who 
     plunged a knife into an elderly Avon man 27 times bragged 
     they were ``natural born killers,'' a Norfolk County 
     prosecutor said yesterday.
       ``Haven't you ever seen `natural born killers' before?,'' 
     18-year-old suspect Patrick T. Morse allegedly bragged to a 
     girl after the gruesome slaying.

  According to the Norfolk County prosecutor, ``This is one of the most 
vicious premeditated murders I have ever seen.'' And Massachusetts 
State Police Trooper Brian Howe said ``My understanding was that they 
were drawing a comparison between the characters in the movie and 
themselves.''
  Of course, no movie caused this brutal killing in Massachusetts. We 
are all responsible for our own actions, period. But, at the same time, 
those in the entertainment industry who deny that cultural messages can 
bore deep into the hearts and minds of our young people are deceiving 
themselves. If the Boston Herald story is true, and if these are the 
kinds of role models that Hollywood is content to promote, then perhaps 
some serious soul-searching is in order in the corporate suits of the 
entertainment industry.
  Let me just indicate again that is the headline. It is not Bob Dole's 
headline. It is the headline this morning in the Boston Herald about 
how these young murderers bragged about attacking an old man and 
stabbing the person 27 times. In fact, it goes into graphic detail 
about the knife that was so bloody that they had to ask for a new 
knife.
  Something is wrong in America with the entertainment industry, and 
maybe it is high time they took a look at themselves and put profit 
behind common decency.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the article from the 
Boston Herald be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                     We're ``Natural Born Killers''

       As they changed out of their bloody clothes, the men who 
     plunged a knife into an elderly Avon man 27 times bragged 
     that they were ``Natural Born Killers,'' a Norfolk County 
     prosecutor said yesterday.
       ``Haven't you ever seen `Natural Born Killers' before?'' 
     suspect Patrick T. Morse allegedly bragged to a girl after 
     the gruesome slaying of 65-year-old Philip Meskinis.
       Chilling details of the trio's murderous attack and their 
     fascination with the murder spree depicted in the motion 
     picture ``Natural Born Killers'' were revealed yesterday when 
     Morse, 18, and Leonard Stanley, 20, were arraigned on murder 
     charges and held without bail.
       Police are scouring the Brockton area for a third suspect, 
     Michael F. Freeman, a 20-year-old fugitive and former convict 
     who allegedly wielded the knife that slashed Meskinis' throat 
     early Friday morning and punctured his body with 27 stab 
     wounds.
       ``I've been doing violent felonies for 20 years,'' Norfolk 
     County prosecutor Gerald Pudolsky said after the arraignment. 
     ``This is one of the most vicious, premeditated murders I've 
     seen.''
       After an intensive investigation that led to Morse's arrest 
     about 36 hours after the grisly murder, and Stanley's 
     surrender shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday, police learned in 
     interviews with Morse and the trio's associates that the men 
     and their female friends ``on occasion'' watched ``Natural 
     Born Killers'' after one person bought the movie, said State 
     Police Trooper Brian L. Howe.
       ``My understanding was they were drawing a comparison 
     between the characters in the movie and themselves,'' Howe 
     said.
       In Stoughton District Court yesterday, Morse and Stanley 
     sat expressionless as Pudolsky recited the threesome's 
     alleged vile deeds.
       ``I think the only thing they're sorry about is they got 
     caught,'' Howe said after the arraignment.
       The trio allegedly started plotting the slaying at a 
     coffee-ship in Avon after Freeman--whose handicapped mother 
     once dated the disabled victim--told Morse and Stanley that 
     Meskinis had money and guns
      stashed inside in his School Street home, Pudolsky said.
       At 5 p.m. Thursday, the trio went to a girlfriend's house 
     in Avon where they discussed ``pulling an armed invasion at 
     Mr. Meskinis' house,'' Pudolsky said.
       Armed with at least two, maybe three knives, the suspects 
     left the girl's house in Morse's Chevrolet Cavalier at about 
     1:30 a.m.
       ``Mr. Freeman knew he was going to kill the victim and the 
     other two went along 100 percent,'' Pudolsky said in an 
     interview.
       As Meskinis lay asleep in his bed, the men invaded his home 
     and Freeman launched the bloody assault, jamming a knife 
     repeatedly into the helpless man's body.
       ``So much blood was coming from Mr. Meskinis' body that Mr. 
     Freeman actually lost the grip on the knife,'' Pudolsky said.
       Freeman yelled to Morse for another knife and Morse 
     complied, passing a Buck knife, Pudolsky said. The blows were 
     so forceful that Freeman allegedly broke Meskinis' wrist and 
     clavicle during the relentless hacking.
       Stanley was ``ready, willing and able'' to assist in the 
     bloody siege--although his attorney and relatives insisted 
     yesterday that he was not in the bedroom during the murder.
       The suspects stole a shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle, 
     stashing them first in the woods, and later inside the 
     girlfriend's house.
       Police recovered two knives, two victim's guns and bags of 
     bloodied clothing ditched in a dumpster behind a Brockton 
     convenience store.
       The trio returned to the woman's home where three other 
     female friends were staying that night, police said. They 
     stripped their bloodied clothing, and worried that they had 
     left behind fingerprints, Morse and Freeman brazenly returned 
     to the murder scene at abut 5 a.m. to remove evidence from 
     ashtrays and door knobs, police said.
       As Morse and Freeman sat down at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast, 
     Stanley said he was not hungry.
       But Stanley, using a glass of water, gurgled the liquid in 
     his mouth to imitate ``the death chortle of Mr. Meskinis as 
     his throat was being slashed,'' Pudolsky said.
     

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