Hans Reiser Interview on ABC's 20/20

baegucb_18706 noted that ABCs 20/20 has a lengthy article on the saga of the Hans Reiser murder trial. I'm not sure if this article provided any information that you might not have known if you read the earlier wired interview, but it's still a really strange story.

I see!

[gowen (141411)]

Interviewing Hans Reiser about the Hans Resier murder, eh? Clever.
How about interviewing Harry Buttle about that known terrorist Harry Tuttle?

Re:

[doom (14564)]

gowen wrote:

Interviewing Hans Reiser about the Hans Resier murder, eh? Clever.

Actually, that's what they've got here that's new. Previously we haven't had Hans Reiser's side of the story, just the case the police were making against him in the media. And I have to say, it's nice to see a story that more-or-less takes Reiser's side on this, everyone else seems anxious to convict him before the trial... including "Wired", slashdot, etc.

By the way: How would you feel if you were on a jury and found out

Re:I see!

[liquidpele (663430)]

Hans should use the perfect defense!

Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, Reiser's attorney would certainly want you to believe that his client is innocent. And they make a good case. Hell, I almost felt pity myself! But, ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!

Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, [approaches and softens] does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.

Whoosh!

[A nonymous Coward (7548)]

Hint: check the spellings ... carefully ... very carefully ...

Re:I see!

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr. (142215)]

Anyway, I'm typing this up on a machine running Reiser FS

Any of your files gone missing?

She's in Russia

[FunkyELF (609131)]

She hated him. She staged it and went back to Russia. Aren't their kids over there now? Go interrogate her parents...she can't be too far from them.

Re:She's in Russia

[imsabbel (611519)]

Of course she also removed his car-seat, and put that "how to dispose a body" book into his stuff, too...

Re:She's in Russia

[Serge_Tomiko (1178965)]

1) As the article says, he was living out of his car. Strange, but not unheard of - especially for someone who likely has few friends and is of limited financial means. 2) He didn't have a book on how to dispose a body, he had a book on murder investigations. As he was the target of one and didn't have a lot of money, this seems pretty reasonable. I'd probably do the same thing.

Re:

[imsabbel (611519)]

Well, the thing is, everything hints to the fact that the seat had to be disposed because of the gore that couldnt be cleaned.
Its been a while since i have read up on the case, so i might be wrong, but IIRC, he claimed that he "spilled something" on it, and it had to be removed.

Re:She's in Russia

[porkThreeWays (895269)]

The direct physical evidence against Reiser is limited, but police have built a detailed circumstantial case.

In this day and age I didn't know you could take a murder to trial purely on circumstance. I'll admit it's extremely weird, but do they actually think they can convict him beyond a reasonable doubt in this day and age with no direct evidence? It almost seems irresponsible to try otherwise. No body. No DNA. No weapons of any sort found. Basically they have more evidence for Jimmy Hoffa's murder than they do this one. Heck, good luck proving she was actually murdered!

Re:She's in Russia

[liquidpele (663430)]

They've convicted someone recently with only a shit-load of circumstantial evidence
Scott Peterson [wikipedia.org]

However, bear in mind that a huge percentage of people in jail (later freed due to dna testing clearing them) got there because of a witness who mis-identified them. The reality is that eye-witnesses are typically more unreliable than lots of circumstantial evidence, although juries do not usually see it that way.

Re:She's in Russia

[DustyShadow (691635)]

At least they had a body in the Peterson case.

Re:She's in Russia

[liquidpele (663430)]

True. Imho, Reiser won't get convicted unless they find some physical evidence because from the facts currently presented to us no reasonable person would say he's guilty without any reasonable doubt. The chances of her being in Russia are just plain reasonable. However, as we all know unreasonable people end up on juries an unreasonable percentage of the time, so if they decide Reiser is probably guilty because he's weird as all hell, then he'll be F'd.

Re:

[yoprst (944706)]

The chances of her being in Russia are just plain reasonable
People don't fly anonymously, do they? Isn't it easy to check if she's left the country?

Lovely sig, by the way

Re:She's in Russia

[budgenator (254554)]

She was a translator for a Russian "Dating Service" or one of it's clients, seems a few "seasoned" freinds could be pretty easy fot her to aquire along the way. As likely as not a few parasitic "seasoned" freinds would be hard to avoid around that business.

Contradictions abound

[A nonymous Coward (7548)]

One defense is that Hans was taken by a woman looking to get out of Russia and move to America. Look! She divorced him as soon as she got her papers!

Another defense is that she moved back to Russia to get away from him.

Then there's the Russian gangster defense.

Don't forget the serial murder freind defense.

Re:

[Xiph1980 (944189)]

You might want to watch this TED-talk about statistics before you say something like that:
Peter Donnelly: How juries are fooled by statistics [ted.com]

Is that pic caption right?

[bl8n8r (649187)]

"Hans Reiser, left, and his attorney, William Dubois"

I think the pic caption is wrong - isn't that Hans on the right side?

Re:Is that pic caption right?

[should_be_linear (779431)]

I think the pic caption is wrong - isn't that Hans on the right side?

Who knows, only Reiser certainly knows for sure. Mysteries just keep adding up in this strange story.

Re:Is that pic caption right?

[ickoonite (639305)]

Who knows, only Reiser certainly knows for sure.

One would presume that the lawyer has a reasonable idea which one he is as well...

:P

Re:Is that pic caption right?

[mickwd (196449)]

Wow, he's a smart one, this Hans Reiser.

A simple switch when his lawyer isn't paying attention, and his lawyer spends the rest of his life in jail....... .....while Hans gets paid all the money he paid him in fees.

That's just cunning.

Renaissance man, indeed.

[bryanp (160522)]

Reiser, whose work kept him overseas in Russia for months at a time, wanted more children and did not want Nina returning to work as a doctor.

"I ran the business and I expected my wife to take care of the kids," he said.

Wow. Wotta guy. Let's see, I want to marry an intelligent, highly educated doctor and then turn her into a brood mare who stays in the kitchen making cookies. Yeah, that'll work.

Re:Renaissance man, indeed.

[Plutonite (999141)]

Bullshit. She seems to be one hell of a bitch, obviously married him only for the money and the oh-so-prized citizenship.

"She divorced me the day she became a citizen. I don't know whether it was the exact day but same month"

And from TFA she also was cleaning out his money. He introduced her to his best friend, to take care of her while he was away, but this highly intelligent, educated doctor you speak of let the man introduce her to drugs and fuck her while reiser wasn't there. Sounds like some Russian skank who wanted to escape being a translator for a dating service in KGB land. And beautiful? She looks barely average.

As for your blood-mare comment, I'm sure the governments of Sweden and similar nations who pay women to stay at home and care for their children several YEARS have something to say to you. I have the utmost respect for stay-at-home moms who are helping to build solid families for this country.. definitely more than your favorite juknie/ho "doctor".

Reiser could've had so much better for a wife, no matter how "weird" he is. Reiser also doesn't have the nicest of friends, unfortunately. Kind of tough when you're best friend is a homosexual serial killer who wanted to sleep with you then decided to give it to your Russian wife when you said no. Jesus fucking Christ, Hans, are there no other people in the world to make friends with?

Re:Renaissance man, indeed.

[kv9 (697238)]

Kind of tough when you're best friend is a homosexual serial killer who wanted to sleep with you then decided to give it to your Russian wife when you said no. Jesus fucking Christ, Hans, are there no other people in the world to make friends with?

this story is so badass (especially if he killed her, manages not to get convicted then kills his buddy by bashing his head in with an oversized dildo) that Tarantino should consider it for one of his next movies.

Re:Renaissance man, indeed.

[bryanp (160522)]

Actually I was insulting a man who marries a woman and tries to force her to stay home with the kids when that wasn't what she wanted to do. But then you might have know that if you'd RTFA.

I have no problems with one parent staying home. I know several people who do that. Two families I'm thinking of the wife is the breadwinner and the husband is the stay-at-home dad.

OT: two job familes bad?

[doom (14564)]

Partly for that reason. In my opinion, it's rare for a maladjusted child to come from a home where the father works, and the mother cares for the children, but it's common for maladjusted children to be latch key kids with both parents working 2 jobs.

Do you have stats to back that up, or are you living your life based on what you've seen on television?

Re:

[G Fab (1142219)]

Pal, it's cool that most women want a family and are willing to sacrifice for it, but it's up to the chick to do that on her own.

This is the opposite case, where the woman wanted to have a nice profession herself, obviously worked her ass off to earn one, and then was forced out to serve her lord husband's interest.

Note: your girl might change her mind. PEople get married young, hoping to have kids, and the girl will do ANYTHING for that family ideal. A few years of college can make her more interested in

Re:Renaissance man, indeed.

[mingot (665080)]

But, hey, you can insult women who want to devote their lives to their children all you like. And I could call you a feminazi supporter. But I won't, because I'd like to think I'm above that.

Is there a name for this sort of statement? You know, the "I'd call you x, but I'm above that sort of thing".

No body

[hey (83763)]

In a reasonable system there is no way somebody can be convicted of murder without a body.

Re:

[schnikies79 (788746)]

No, that would just make an unreasonable system where anyone with the skill to properly dispose or hide the body would never be found guilty.

Re:No body

[Ossifer (703813)]

The problem for the prosecution is that in the absence of any real evidence suggesting murder (pool of blood, scene of an altercation, etc.), any conceivable theory by the defense trumps a murder story.

The cops/prosecution decided Reiser must be guilty since he's really weird, despite no real evidence that a crime was committed at all. Having followed the case locally (from across the bay), I and many others were surprised the case even passed basic plausibility by the judge holding the preliminary hearing.

The reality is, in fact, that she may very well be alive and well in Russia...

Re:

[kithrup (778358)]

Evidence has to be disclosed to the defense. Not to the media. The defense should (by this time) know all the evidence, and all the witnesses, that the prosecution is going to present (and vice-versa).

That does not mean that we, the public, already know all that evidence.

You can argue against what they've presented in support of their case so far -- I even said that it was refutable -- but that doesn't mean it's not evidence of a crime. It's just not strong evidence.

Re:No body

[risk one (1013529)]

Indeed, people without a body have enough to worry about without being convicted of all sorts of crimes.

Simple discrimination against being unable to manifest on the corporeal plane, that's what it is.

(I have nothing of value to add to this discussion)

Soo...

[DustyShadow (691635)]

So Reiser's best friend had sex with Reiser's wife, confessed to the cops that he is a serial killer, but conveniently says he didn't kill Nina...and yet the cops don't arrest him. Sounds like we got the smart ones on that force.

Re:Soo...

[Martin Blank (154261)]

Police frequently focus on more than one subject at a time. There have also been cases where they will stop public focus on one suspect while monitoring him for changes in behavior. This doesn't mean that they've ruled out whomever they're publicly talking about, but if the pressure is removed from one that is deemed more likely, then that person may slip up. Details of ongoing investigations are often not public records, so we won't know until after any trial is finished.

What is going on?

[realdodgeman (1113225)]

What the hell happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? Yes he is an insane motherfucker, yes he bought books about murder trails, but that still doesn't prove anything.

Also, knowing that he is a programmer, he doesn't think like must people do. That makes him look crazy. But it still doesn't prove anything.

The US legal system seems more and more broken, and if he is sentenced to jail without further evidence, it just proves to me what I thought all along.

I am not saying that he is innocent, but I am saying he should be treated like he is until he is proven guilty!

Re:

[FunkyELF (609131)]

Alan Turing murdered himself (or perhaps he was poisoned).

Is he known as a murderer or the father of computer science?...I forget.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Suicide, while deplorable...

Freedom is based on ownership of your own body and mind. You get to define what your life means to you, and no-one else. To state that suicide is deplorable is to deny an immediate consequence of the most basic principle of freedom.

Suicide is usually distressing for family and friends. It is sometimes the result of mental illness. But it is not "deplorable".

Re:Good way to screw up your life Reiser

[tjstork (137384)]

Wow, what selfish family and friends is all I can say

Selfish that you want people that you love to live? Selfish for a son to ask his father not to blow himself away but to try and find a job so he can see him grow up? Selfish for a daughter that needs her mother, a husband who needs his wife?

Those are some lazy, worthless relationships, you advocate. The best of human bonds are unbreakable... what you have, is pure Walmart family.

Re:Good way to screw up your life Reiser

[Mr2001 (90979)]

Selfish that you want people that you love to live?

Yes, actually, it is selfish to expect someone else to live in suffering so that you don't have to feel the pain of their loss.

Re:Good way to screw up your life Reiser

[phaunt (1079975)]

If Einstein murdered his wife, he would be a murderer, not a genius.

He would have been both a murderer and a genius. Maybe you meant he would have been remembered today as a murderer only, but I very much doubt that.

Re:Good way to screw up your life Reiser

[witte (681163)]

Your example reminds me of Einstein's pal, Fritz Haber.

He drove his wife Carla Immerwahr nuts by demanding she be a housewife (like Reiser) while she a chemistry researcher with ambitions, and it was not a happy marriage.
She committed suicide, coincidentally right after Haber introduced gas warfare in WW1 and killed 5000+ allied soldiers at the first front line trial in Ypres.
(Look it up on wikipedia, it's a colorful story.)

Interesting detail : Fritz Haber received a nobel prize for the "Haber" process for production of ammonia.
He also invented zyklon B.

Irony : Haber was of jewish origin.

Re:He couldn't get a hotel room?

[Wonko the Sane (25252)]

For several years prior to his wife's disappearance, he's been very strapped for money. He basically bankrupted himself to keep paying the russian programmers who were working on the reiser4 file system. His wife or friend may or may not have been involved in his money problems.

Re:He couldn't get a hotel room?

[JWSmythe (446288)]

I've carried large sums of cash and my passport. Does that make me a murderer on the run?

    It's completely circumstantial evidence.

    But, if you put enough pieces together, circumstantial evidence can be damning in front of a jury, regardless if the truth is there or not.

    From what I've seen, there are several ways it could have gone.

    1) He killed her (the presumption of law enforcement)
    2) Her new boyfriend, the drug and kinky sex fiend, killed her.
    3) She's a sex slave, living in a crack house somewhere in the less friendly neighborhoods of any major US city.
    4) She left town, and is living somewhere else in America or Canada.
    5) She left the country, possibly for Russia.

    As someone else said, they don't believe she could be in Russia. Any country with enough land and population, provides a place for anyone to hide comfortably, even in plain site. She could be working as a doctor, using her own name, with enough clients to be very comfortable, and still no one would notice.

    I don't know all the facts, just the ones that have been presented in the media and in interviews. I'm not following closely though. I just know, none of us have all the evidence at our disposal, so none of us can make really educated opinions on it.

    For all we know, it was some one-off killing, where some random lunatic saw a crying woman in a parking lot, killed her, drove her 1000 miles away, and buried her in a shallow grave. Heck, we've all done that once or twice. (j/k)

Re:

[Eternauta3k (680157)]

Finally, the most convenient way to put money in the hands of a Russian programmer is electronically.

Well, it's the best way, but some russians are kinda ass-backwards when it comes to that.

Re:Death Penalty!

[Martin Blank (154261)]

This kind of thought is the reason that we have the system that we do. Just because someone is a complete and utter dick doesn't mean that they're guilty of murder. Controlling? Probably. Abusive? Perhaps. But there are a lot of controlling, abusive dicks that don't murder their wives. There's evidence against him, but it has to go through a court first. I was saying this to others in the Scott Peterson case, too, and it's important that it not just be a formality.

Re:

[Ant P. (974313)]

I don't know what fascist dictatorship you live under, but in my part of the world it's "innocent until proven guilty".

ANY evidence you'd like to talk about?

[SanityInAnarchy (655584)]

Let me assemble your "evidence" here:

Reiser was a very controlling husband who dominated his wife.

He trashed her career so he could work on his, would disappear for months at a time in Russia, and then, by other witnesses, often screamed at her over the phone.

remove the passenger seat.

$9000 in cash

That is the evidence. Now, here is where your speculation starts -- and by "speculation", I mean "making shit up":

I've had to live in my car, but I've never been in a situation where I felt like I needed to remove the passenger seat.

I've never had to live in my car, so you must never have had to, either, right?

Just because you never had to remove the passenger seat doesn't mean it's impossible for anyone to, or that the only reason you could possibly ever have is to clean blood from it.

Even in the USA, Reiser could have rented a room for like $200-$300 a month, an apartment for $500-$600

So what?

There are any number of reasons you might be living in your car. Money is only one, perhaps the only you can think of. Or perhaps he needed the money for something else.

the most convenient way to put money in the hands of a Russian programmer is electronically.

The most convenient way to put money in anyone's hands is electronically, yet US people write checks all the time. Why should Russian programmers be any different?

And now we move to the exercise in creative writing...

Reiser killed Nina in the car, and cleaned it out thoroughly, which explains why it was wet, except for the seat she was sitting in, which had to be removed. The seat is probably with the body, most likely. The $9000 in cash and passport were to allow him to leave the country and go to Russia, and the reason he ran from the cops, to begin with, is that he knew that he did it.

And you just made all of that up.

Go look up the definition for "reasonable doubt". We send people away when there is no other reasonable explanation for the evidence.

Well, fuck you. I've had a wet car, I've removed the seat from a car, I've had friends run from the cops (stupid thing to do, but still, doesn't make them guilty), and I have carried more cash than I should. And I've never killed anyone.

Maybe he did kill her, but nobody knows. Because nobody knows, and because we're in America, he should walk.

Unfortunately, because we're in America, you also have committed no crime by being an ignorant hate-spewing fucktard.

Re:Doctor and translator?

[Cassini2 (956052)]

Translators get paid in foreign dollars. Doctors are civil service positions in Russia, so they get paid poorly. A Doctor could moonlight as a translator in Russia, and make more money from translating than from saving people ...

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Your angry ranting leads me to believe you're one of:

1. A troll - in which case, a very bad one, as you've had to post many times to maintain this thread;
2. An abuse victim - in which case, unable to bring your tormentor to justice, you take out your anger on a man you only know from press reports;
3. An abuser - so ashamed of yourself and in such denial that you're condemning your fellow abusers to death to assuage guilt. Like a gay Republican, except that there's nothing wrong with being gay.

Whichever it is, I'm h