Ninjas?

Sensational crime lede du jour:

The murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings, parents of 17, were made more bizarre by the ninja garb worn by the killers. Now Rick Outzen reports that these ninjas might have struck before. [Daily Beast]

The author mentions "ninja garb" several times and speculates that a ninja crime wave is sweeping the Florida panhandle. But he doesn't explain what he means by the "bizarre dress of [the] executioners as Japanese ninja warriors."

I'm going to assume he means black ski masks and black clothes. What else would you wear to a home invasion?

I'd take notice if the assassins used swords or throwing stars, but according to media reports they used guns.

Comments

[barstoolcadaver]

Gotta sex up the news. Plain old home invasion/robbery/killing is so everyday yawn apparently. Ratings people! Ratings!

[Flaffer]

Oh, the gun-toting ninjas of the Tokugawa Dynasty....HEY!

[parse]

Apparently, one of the alleged killers was a martial arts instructor. Maybe they were actually wearing the black outfits associated with ninjas. According to a fascinating account on Wikipedia: The stereotypical ninja who wears easily identifiable black outfits (shinobi shozoku) comes from the kabuki theater. Prop handlers dress in black to move props around the stage. The audience sees the prop handlers but pretend they are invisible. Building on suspension of disbelief, ninja characters came to be portrayed in the theatre as wearing similar all-black suits. This made the audience unable to tell a ninja character from the prop handlers until the ninja character distinguished himself from the other stagehands with a scripted attack or assassination.

[The Phantom]

A year and a half ago, there was news of Ninja Burglaries in Staten Island, NY.

By illegal alien Albanian ninjas.

I'd tell you more about it, but then I'd have to kill you.

[Mad Hatter]

They probably learned their illegal ninja moves from the government.

Napolean D.

[Alon Levy]

Wait, Staten Island actually exists? Weird.

[The Phantom]

It needs to exist. It serves as my land bridge when I drive from Brooklyn to NJ / Philly

And Staten Island also has a Tibetan Museum, which is pretty cool

[parse]

Thanks for posting the Staten Island link, Phantom. That was interesting, and I've always loved the Advance.

[jeff]

If I were robbin' and killin', I would wear a distinctive outfit. Wouldn't you?

[The Phantom]

It is amazing that the Staten Island still exists - it is the only remaining " one borough " NYC newspaper. There used to be a number of them.

Long may they run, though newspapers are a tough business these days

[The Phantom]

that the " Staten Island Advance " still exists

[Astley Putcher]

It is always best to be prepared for ninjas!

[Mark]

That's a horrible crime. i hope they caught these "ninjas"!