Man allegedly decapitated landlord with samurai sword over rent dispute
A man allegedly used a samurai sword to decapitate his Connecticut roommate — a nationally known bridge player — and has refused to talk with investigators about the crime, claiming he is a sovereign citizen, according to a report.
Jerry David Thompson, 42, of Hartford, had recently moved into a vacant bedroom in the Asylum Avenue home of Victor King, 64, a Travelers insurance company retiree and professional bridge player, the Hartford Courant reported.
Thompson threatened his landlord with the sword after the two men had a dispute about the suspect not paying the rent, according to the arrest warrant cited by the news outlet.
A day before he was beheaded Sunday, King reported to police that Thompson had waved the blade at him, the Courant reported.
When King’s friends could not reach him Sunday, they alerted authorities. Police and firefighters later forced their way into the house and discovered the grisly, bloody scene.
Police tracked Thompson down and pulled him over in the city’s North End, but he refused to say anything to investigators – but just scribbled on a piece of paper, “paper in glove compart in Jeep is all you need,” according to the report.
In the vehicle’s glove compartment, cops found paperwork suggesting that he considered himself a sovereign citizen and not subject to the law.
Thompson, who has previous convictions for assault and robbery, was arraigned Tuesday in Superior Court, where he also remained mum and was ordered held on $2 million bail.
King worked in IT at Travelers for more than 20 years, retiring in 2018 to focus on playing bridge, the news outlet reported.
“He was very good at it. Very good at teaching others to play it. Just a kind and gentle person whose first love was bridge,” the victim’s cousin Jim Banks told the Courant.
Paul Linxwiler, executive editor of the Bridge Bulletin, a publication of the American Contract Bridge League, described King a Grand Life Master, “which is our highest rank.”
To achieve that rank, one must have at least 10,000 master points, Linxwiler said, which means “you have to play a lot…and you have to be good, too.”
King had accumulated 15,298.55 master points, said the ACBL’s Patsy Edwards. In 2016, he won a national championship.
Banks called his cousin “one of the good guys — one that would never hurt a soul. One that would always reach out and help others. He was pleasant as can be. Always seemed to be happy. He was just a joy to be around.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/29/connecticut-man-allegedly-decapitated-landlord-with-samurai-sword/
Photo Credit: Hartford Police Department