Shooter arrested in Orlando office rampage 1
Woman killed for selling rock salt as dope 2
Lazy police let a serial killer run free 3
By Steve Huff in assault, bizarre
Friday, Oct. 24 2008 @ 1:15PM

***FINAL UPDATE***

Ashley made it all up. She's confessed. From KDKA.com: "Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker."

Ashley Todd will face charges.

ANOTHER UPDATE, 1:15 p.m. ET

I changed the post time on this entry to put it at the top of the blog's main page because this information is interesting, if nothing else. This is the Xanga journal Ashley Todd kept up until February, 2006: xanga.com/ISeeTallPplRabbitDb8r.

It seems that while keeping that journal, Todd was a chain-smoking metal head who was, admittedly, really enjoying what must have been her first year in college, majoring in -- what else? -- poli sci.

Then there's this: KnowBS.org.

It's a site Todd began with others. According to one post there, she was supposed to be the "content manager." She posted the URL in her profile at Cross-X.com, a forum for "debate on the Web." Ashley Todd posted there as "thelilwhiterabbit." She had more than 650 posts to her credit as of this morning.

As for Ashley Todd being part of a start-up web site about politics called "Know B.S.," well... I don't really need to point out the irony there, do I?

**UPDATE**

In an interview on MSNBC, Pittsburgh reporter Jerome L. Sherman just stated that Ashley Todd also told police that she'd been sexually assaulted. Here's Sherman's article in the Post-Gazette. Money quote from the article: "Yesterday, [Todd] said the man sexually assaulted her, a detail that police said she didn't mention in the initial report."

Curiouser and curiouser.

Original Post

bvictim.jpgIt's probably a good idea to make a little list of some of the more important aspects of the story about the alleged assault on McCain campaign volunteer Ashley Todd. The following isn't intended to be comprehensive. It is intended to support my contention that Todd's story is a big, steaming pile of b.s.

-- Speaking on-air to MSNBC's Contessa Brewer, police spokesperson Diane Richard said that police asked Ashley Todd to take a lie detector test. Todd did so. Richard would not reveal the results. Richard also said that details of Todd's story have changed in her talks with police.

-- According to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (linked below), the student from College Station, TX said her attacker "sat on her chest, pinning both her hands down with his knees and used what she believed was a dull knife with a roughly 5-inch blade to carve the B." A very carefully-rendered but somehow backwards B, to boot.

-- Todd didn't report the crime immediately. She went to a friend's residence, one mile from the scene of her alleged mugging. I can't figure out what universe you have to come from for this aspect of the story to make any sense at all.

-- That friend says Ashley Todd "went to an unknown hospital on her own" some time after midnight. Emphasis added.

-- A police Commander named Larry Ross told Pittsburgh reporters that Todd didn't make any reference whatsoever to her McCain bumper sticker when she first made a report to the police. Ross said, "I don't know how she came to the conclusion that he noticed the sticker."

-- People working at businesses close to the scene, according to the Post-Gazette, "were unaware of the attack."

Blogging for Salon.com, Alex Koppelman uncovered some additional interesting details about Ashley Todd. Alex writes, "This isn't the first time this year that Todd has claimed to be involved in an election-related incident. Earlier this month, she posted to YouTube a video she shot of a janitor at New York's Queens College. In it, she says, "this janitor took down all of my signs... and tore them apart... I am really perturbed. He closed off the bathrooms and is making it very hostile." The janitor shown in the video just happens to be a tall, well-built black male. Much like Todd's alleged attacker in Pittsburgh.

So far, I've only read one statement from a good source that lends anything resembling credibility to Ashley Todd's story. It was in the article published by the Post-Gazette: "[Police Cmdr Larry Ross] said the description of the robber as a 6-foot 4-inch, 200-pound black man is similar to that of a man who robbed a Liberty Avenue bank in recent weeks." That's it. And that's not much, is it?

The other shoe on this story hasn't hit the floor yet, but I hear it whooshing through the air. The next big question to answer: will Ashley Todd eventually be arrested for filing a false report?

I wouldn't be surprised, but you just never know.

What this young woman needs is help. She has a problem, and it's about to become unmanageable for her. I almost feel sorry for Ashley Todd. Almost.

Also on True Crime Report:

"Insanity and Politics: McCain Supporter Attacked in Pittsburgh."
"Will Ashley Todd's Story Implode Tomorrow?"

[Post-Gazette.com via the execrable TMZ.]