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The Beast, coda: Trial of the Beast
Feature Story
[Published in The Blue Paper newspaper on October 4, 2013.]
The Beast, coda: Trial of the Beast
This is a sequel to the three-part story:
The story up to now: Five years ago this week, a 3-year old girl was attacked (Facing the Beast) with a tree saw on William Street by a troubled eccentric neighbor (Face of the Beast). Fortuitously, a passing bicyclist disrupted the assault, and the attacker entered “the system” (Caged Beast).
When we last looked in on Christopher Cornelius Farrell he had been shipped back to Key West from the South Florida Evaluation & Treatment Center on the mainland. He’d been declared competent to stand trial, and his trial had been scheduled for just after his 50th birthday, during the week of May 27, 2013. Did I mention he had dismissed his public defenders and was preparing to defend himself? Seriously? Yep.
I had been off the Rock during the “can we go to trial?” hearing so I had not witnessed it (the only hearing I missed over the 5 years). I’m told that Judge Wayne Miller tried hard to talk him out of defending himself, but to no avail. Nevertheless, he (more…)
The Beast, part 3: Caged Beast
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on August 30, 2012.]
The Beast, part 3: Caged Beast
In my last two columns ( “Facing the Beast“ and “Face of the Beast“) we witnessed Christopher Cornelius Farrell’s foiled attempt to decapitate his 3-year-old neighbor, and learned how he’d tormented the community for years. But what happened after the Key West police arrested him at gunpoint on October 1, 2008?
I attended the arraignment of Farrell three weeks later, in Courtroom D of the brand new Freeman Justice Center – one of the first arraignments held there. Farrell sat among six or seven other prisoners, the only one in black and white striped (“crazy person!”) scrubs. (more…)
The Beast, part 2: Face of the Beast
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on August 16, 2012.]
The Beast, part 2: Face of the Beast
In my last column (“Facing the Beast”) I related my encounter with Christopher Cornelius Farrell, as he was attempting to cut off the head of a three year old girl on a William Street sidewalk. But who is this guy?
I can find no record of when Farrell first showed up in Key West. But by the early 1990s — in his late 20s — he was ensconced in the two story building at the corner of William and Southard Streets diagonally across from the big Albury house (now being restored after the death of the last Albury, Bonnie). Farrell seems to have always been unemployed – nobody seems to know how he could afford the place.
In the summer of 1993 Farrell went to court on a Trespassing charge and was adjudicated guilty, (more…)
The Beast, part 1: Facing the Beast
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on August 2, 2012.]
The Beast, part 1: Facing the Beast
I recently caught a YouTube video of new Spider-Man Andrew Garfield’s Comic-Con speech, where he described how Spidey shaped his life. How Spidey inspired him to do good. I too was a young Spider-Man fan. Perhaps Spidey had influenced me as well a few years ago when fate placed me in the right place at the right time.
I’d left the gym after a vigorous workout and was warming-down on my bike-ride home. Nice ride through the cemetery (before the “locked gates” brouhaha) and then down Southard. As I passed William Street I heard a girlie-squeal to my right. (more…)