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| Eric Kranz, was acquitted on charges of poisoning his roommates |
New York student Eric Kranz a 24-year-old Parasitolity student at McGill's MacDonald College Campus was charged with doing something so unusual that it earned a wikipedia page.
Kranz feuded with his roomies over a $16 debt and supposedly threatened them in anger.
Keith Fern, David Fisk, William Butler and Richard Davis all fell sick on February 11 with a mystery ailment.
Dr. John Harrold quickly figured the boys were infected with the ascaris sum pig parasite, which can grow into a seven inch worm. It damages lungs and liver in pigs but its effect on humans is unknown.
Davis and Butler came close to death, according to Dr. Harrold. Another roommate John Purdon of Quebec City was out curling and didn't ingest anything nasty.
The doctor said that the boys would have ingested like 400,000 larvae. It was the first time the parasite had ever been found in humans.
Kranz took off for a few days on Valentine's Day and media leaped on the story, insinuating that Kranz was fleeing after poisoning his roommates. Kranz soon returned to face charges.
His lawyer Gabriel Lapointe persuaded the court that there was insufficient proof that Kranz had poisoned anybody. So he was never found guilty of poisoning these guys.
During the trial one roommate reported that Kranz had slogans on his wall reading Revolution now" and "The Police are Pigs."
School Dean Dr. George Dion said that "there is obviously a twisted mentality behind this thing."No word on what happened to any of these people. They would all be aged about 66 to 70.