I. M. Esperto
2nd Mar 2003, 19:47
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/special_packages/phillycom_front_dn/5275764.htm
Back to Home > Philadelphia Daily News > Sunday, Mar 02, 2003
Phillycom Front Teases
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Posted on Thu, Feb. 27, 2003
Alonzo Spellman: The brutal trip down
A tale about the man, his illness and a terrifying flight that landed him in
jail.
By Mark Kram
[email protected]
Patricia Beck / Detroit Free Press
Alonzo Spellman appears in Oakland County (Mich.) court in November 2001,
less than a month after the Lions released him
They were on their way back to Philadelphia from a vacation in Michigan last
July. Karen Weaver, husband Steve and their two small sons had just settled
into their seats aboard their Delta connection in Cincinnati when Karen
became aware of a small scraping sound. She wondered to herself: "What could
that possibly be?"
The noise appeared to be coming from behind her, so she positioned herself
in such a way that allowed her to see between the seatbacks. It was then
that she caught a narrow glimpse of him: this very large man in the act of
stroking his beard with a comb - up one side, then the other, again and
again and again. And he was talking to himself in a low yet agitated voice,
switching from subject to subject in what Weaver would later remember as "a
stream of gibberish." The young woman arched an eyebrow.
The jet sat on the runway for close to an hour, during which the passenger
only grew louder and began straying off on scary tangents - including Osama
bin Laden and the possibility that a bomb had been planted on board. Weaver
says now that she should have alerted a flight attendant at this point, that
perhaps he could have been removed while the plane was still on the ground.
But before she knew it they were up in the air, so she focused her attention
on her 3 1/2-year-old son, engaging him in heightened conversation in an
effort to drown out the chatter behind them. When the passenger began
spewing not just odd nonsense but vulgar invective, Weaver finally summoned
a flight attendant, who approached the man and politely asked him to behave.
Weaver would later remember he assaulted her with a "verbal rampage."
He just would not stop.
And Weaver became increasingly annoyed. Her hands trembled with anger.
She then stood up at her seat, whirled around and looked the passenger hard
in the face. "Excuse me," she said evenly. "Would you mind not using such
profanity? I am traveling with two young children, and this is really out of
hand. Could you please try?"
Seated behind Weaver in Row 21 on Delta Flight 2038 that evening was Alonzo
Spellman, the former NFL defensive lineman then in the unrelenting grip of
bipolar disorder. He was chaperoned ......................................
edited because the parser dropped part of the url ....
Back to Home > Philadelphia Daily News > Sunday, Mar 02, 2003
Phillycom Front Teases
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Posted on Thu, Feb. 27, 2003
Alonzo Spellman: The brutal trip down
A tale about the man, his illness and a terrifying flight that landed him in
jail.
By Mark Kram
[email protected]
Patricia Beck / Detroit Free Press
Alonzo Spellman appears in Oakland County (Mich.) court in November 2001,
less than a month after the Lions released him
They were on their way back to Philadelphia from a vacation in Michigan last
July. Karen Weaver, husband Steve and their two small sons had just settled
into their seats aboard their Delta connection in Cincinnati when Karen
became aware of a small scraping sound. She wondered to herself: "What could
that possibly be?"
The noise appeared to be coming from behind her, so she positioned herself
in such a way that allowed her to see between the seatbacks. It was then
that she caught a narrow glimpse of him: this very large man in the act of
stroking his beard with a comb - up one side, then the other, again and
again and again. And he was talking to himself in a low yet agitated voice,
switching from subject to subject in what Weaver would later remember as "a
stream of gibberish." The young woman arched an eyebrow.
The jet sat on the runway for close to an hour, during which the passenger
only grew louder and began straying off on scary tangents - including Osama
bin Laden and the possibility that a bomb had been planted on board. Weaver
says now that she should have alerted a flight attendant at this point, that
perhaps he could have been removed while the plane was still on the ground.
But before she knew it they were up in the air, so she focused her attention
on her 3 1/2-year-old son, engaging him in heightened conversation in an
effort to drown out the chatter behind them. When the passenger began
spewing not just odd nonsense but vulgar invective, Weaver finally summoned
a flight attendant, who approached the man and politely asked him to behave.
Weaver would later remember he assaulted her with a "verbal rampage."
He just would not stop.
And Weaver became increasingly annoyed. Her hands trembled with anger.
She then stood up at her seat, whirled around and looked the passenger hard
in the face. "Excuse me," she said evenly. "Would you mind not using such
profanity? I am traveling with two young children, and this is really out of
hand. Could you please try?"
Seated behind Weaver in Row 21 on Delta Flight 2038 that evening was Alonzo
Spellman, the former NFL defensive lineman then in the unrelenting grip of
bipolar disorder. He was chaperoned ......................................
edited because the parser dropped part of the url ....