Decapitated body found near Evanston school

Chicago Tribune ^ | 14 sept 2010

[rellimpank]

Evanston police were called out to a field near a middle school after a man walking his dog this morning discovered a decapitated body there.

Police have pushed the media back from the area after discovering what appears to be an explosive device near the body, WGN-Ch. 9 reported about 8:40 a.m. Some residents were being evacuated from their homes. The Cook County sheriff's bomb squad was on the scene.

[Lurker]

Same chemistry involved in that kid who blew up outside an Oklahoma football game, IIRC.

Yep.

[RadiationRomeo]

My take on this is that a kid was going to set off a bomb near his school. Later he could show everyone the hole or just enjoy everyone talking about it.
He was bent over his bomb getting everything ready when it went off prematurely. That explains the missing head.
Young kids can create bombs, I did years ago. My best friend and I made all kinds of explosives, even pipe bombs back in the ‘70s. We also make contact explosives. Somehow we survived all this and became engineers.

[smokingfrog]

Suicide bombers’ heads almost always decapitate when the explosives are strapped around the chest —

[r9etb]

I’m going out on a limb and guessing it was some guy who decided to commit suicide by blowing his head off with a pipe bomb.

[MinuteGal]

"Drug or thug?"

Evanston is a suburban municipality directly north of Chicago. It sits on Lake Michigan. I remember as a kid going to Evanston's beach and marvelling at all the north shore mansions there. It was known as a millionaires' community.

Today, it's economically diverse, with most of the old millionaire families moved on. Evanston is about 63% white, 23% black and 6% or 7% Hispanic. It has lots of public housing and about 6% of families are below the poverty level.

For decades, Evanston has been the home of the "north shore limousine liberals." Because of its left-leaning politics, it's sometimes known as the "Peoples' Republic of Evanston". In 2004 it went 82% Kerry and 17% Bush. In 2008 it went 87% for Obama.

Drug or thug? Well, now it looks like the guy blew HIMSELF up. It really didn't have the earmarks of the thuggish street slaughter going on in Mayor Daley's precincts.

Evanston is the home of Northwestern University. It has a large campus where nuts with bombs strapped to themselves may have loony ideas. This is about the only stab-in-the-dark idea that comes to my mind at the moment with absolutely zero details to base anything concrete on.

Leni

[r9etb]

5:15 a.m. is pretty early time to be walking the dog, I wonder if the adult was looking for the site of the explosion.

I'm generally out running with the dog by then....

[null and void]

How the heck do you do that?

When the chef in the restaurant wonders where his waiter is, what is Edgar Bug's response?

"I gave him a break!" After Edgar Bug grabs the two plates of perogis and moves off-screen, you see the waiter in question folded in half and stuffed onto a shelf!

[brytlea]

Maybe but if he works he probably has to walk his dog early. And yuck, not what I’d want to find early in the morning. Or any time.

[brytlea]

Darn, I wish I could remember the name of the woman who had that list.

[IYAS9YAS]

What’s that up the road, a head?

What's this thing called, Love?

[penelopesire]

Thanks for all the info. Perhaps this is another Gore/Globull Warming inspired eco-nut.

[Ratman83]

With the possibility of a second device I think of two scenarios

1. Terrorist planting bombs were kids will find them, but he makes a mistake and blows himself up.

2. Somebody else planted the devices and this guy found one and it blew up when he opened it.

Not good either way.

[mlizzy]

Thanks for the info. We’re about 40 minutes away from this area. And we are out walking our dogs at 5:45 every morning on our way to Mass. Not a discovery I would ever want to make. Glad it wasn’t the middle school kids that saw this ...

[null and void]

Where there any islamic bombing targets in walking distance?

I thought pretty much every square inch of the planetary surface was a viable islamic bombing target.

These days it's mostly the non islamic parts that get bombed, but should they -God forbid!- succeed in taking over the world and killing or converting its entire population to islam, they will fall upon each other for 'not being islamic enough'.

Murder in the name of their pig-god is all they really know, the only thing they are good at, and the only thing for which they have any real enthusiasm.

[SF_Redux]

” These idiots in Illinois wouldn’t know the difference between gunpowder and baking powder.”

yes they would, after sniffing up their nose for an hour they would figure it out

[Fundamentally Fair]

Drug or thug?

...or (prayer) rug?

[rarestia]

gunpowder up the nose? Dear God that would be painful!

[Paladin2]

The amazing part is that ALL of one’s direct ancestors managed to survive to at least the age of procreation. What are the odds of that?

[ravingnutter]

My best friend and I made all kinds of explosives, even pipe bombs back in the ‘70s.

My boyfriend's best friend in high school used to make bombs back in the 70's, we'd blow stuff up in a field. He also had a bad habit of pocketing everyone's lighters, so I teased him about being a "pyro-cleptic" ; )

[Godwin1]

Evanston is a suburb that sits north of Chicago city right on the city line. The locale of the body is about eight blocks north of the line with Chicago. A prosperous, mostly quiet town of about 70,00,but with more diversity,more poverty and more crime than other tony North Shore suburbs. Home to Northwestern University. The Chicago EL train serves Evanston, a blessing because it brings easy, rapid access to downtown Chicago, a sometime curse as it can also carry thugs from Chicago looking for easy burglary or mugging targets.