Stolen valor made Eric Frein kill a PA Trooper
Two and a half years ago, Eric Frein, a Cold War reenactor, murdered a Pennsylvania State trooper, Cpl. Bryon Dickson II. Trooper Alex Douglass was seriously injured in the attack. Frein was found guilty in a recent trial and during the sentencing part of the trial, Frein’s father takes the blame for his son’s actions, according to PennLive;
Eric Frein grew up listening to his dad’s war stories.
His father, Eugene Michael Frein, told him he was a tank commander in Vietnam.
And a sniper.
And that he was in many firefights with the Viet Cong.
And for all of his life, Eric Frein listened to the man he emulated.
But the defense is arguing there was a big problem with his father’s tales.
None of them were true.
“He was raised in a household filled with false stories about a hero who was not a hero,” Eric Frein’s attorney, Michael Weinstein, told the court today. Frein’s father exposed him to these exaggerations of his military service in what Weinstein said amounts to “self-aggrandized, narcissistic behavior.”
But it wasn’t only these made up war stories – which likely inspired his becoming a re-enactor – that had an influence on Eric Frein. It was also his father’s theories about the police having too much power and the government taking away too many rights, the defense argued, that all added up to Frein shooting two state troopers – one of them fatally.
“I failed Eric as a father,” the elder Frein said from the witness stand.
So, apparently, that’s all it takes – stolen valor causes murder.
Thanks to Thom for the link.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Ah the old pretend PTSD by proxy defense. Dear daddy should join him in his cell.
‘Dear Daddy’ sounds like he’s quite the guy, who set a fine example for his son as he was growing up.
In addition to what Jonn posted above, this was also taken from the linked article:
‘[…]
Eugene Michael Frein holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and biochemistry and is retired from the biotechnology industry where he produced vaccines and enzymes, he said. He is also retired from the Army National Guard, where he served for 28 years and achieved the rank of major.
He said he never advocated violence against anyone, and he would have stopped his son if he knew what he was planning.
But the defense pointed out he still told his son these false tales of combat injuries and fireworks reminding him of bombs and children he saw killed in Vietnam.
[…].’
So yeah, throwing ‘Dear Daddy’ into the same cell as Junior might not be a bad idea after all.
28 years in the ARNG and he only made it to MAJ ? Whadid he do pop hot for sniffin’ enzymes ?
Not hunting or fishing buddies with the full timers.
Might have been prior enlisted. Not sure about NG, but command positions in the MC reserves are few, and often require extensive travel. My last commute was 300 miles each way, I did that for 5 years. That was as a CWO. I finally packed it in and retired as it just wasn’t worth it. Maybe someone with NG experience could shine some light on that. So, there might be reasons other than his paperwork/performance. I’d think a PHD would look good on a promotion board, and I’d take anything the punks defense attorney say with a grain of salt. But again, we don’t have the whole story on pops (and I’m not defending him). We do know sonny boy is a POS cop killer.
Not ANG, but I was in garrison and in the field with ANG and USA-R types for training and, on occasion “embedded” with ANG MP’s when they could not get any medical support for rifle/pistol range evolutions. (The other Corpsman and I got warm feelings but no pay. Annually. 🙂 ) Their politics have the same Active Duty/Reservist flavor but it gets an added heartburn from Army Reserve/Army National Guard interplay. And since there is a STATE factor involved, some states are more and others less conducive to career aspirations (training & manpower budgets, etc.). The corrosive effects of this we/they, us/them BS was very much worse than the Marine Corps/Navy and Regular/Reserve/I&I crap in the 4MARDIV. If they didn’t have a garrison to field ratio exactly the inverse of ours (roughly 5:1) I might have felt sorry for them…
He failed him as a father? No….he failed as a HUMAN BEING!!
Cocksucker.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
You beat me to it on this one.
Bring it back around for a low pass on ‘Daddy’, too.
Lyin’ daddy….
Cocksucker.
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Direct hit.
Shack, Shack!
“Theories about the police having too much power and the government taking away too many rights” Seems to me, that opinion would be extremely easy to back up, but you don’t see me shooting up the authorities.
Fuck Both of them.
With:
(and I’ll let you guys add the obligatory pineapple, rusty sharp objects wrapped in various things. )
Cold War re-enactor? Sitting in a frozen landscape with some winter gear training for battles that didn’t happen is now a “thing” for re-enactors?
I don’t really understand the appeal of re-enactments to begin with, but I could sort of understand why some folks might be interested in doing if for historical conflicts where armies actually fired at each other like the Civil War which apparently pre-occupies even an old friend of mine. Who never actually served in any branch but considers himself something of a soldier because he pretends to be one from the civil war some weekends….seems kind of douchey to me.
Who knew cold war re-enacting would gain some traction? Must be some really fucking bored people out there.
Now he’ll learn about man love re-enacting as he serves as a cabana boy for the Aryans.
VOV: I have no clue why one would be a “Cold War Re-enactor.”
However, I do re-enacting on a small scale locally – 1830’s-1860’s fur-trade/early-Texas settler. Why most of the re-enactors of my acquaintance spend so much time and money doing this is to bring history alive to those who attend the re-enactments. It is a way of giving those who come to our events a feel for what had to happen for them to have the place, the freedoms, and the life they have today.
YMMV, but in the weirdo circles of which I am a member, this is the motivation we have.
The Cold War re-enactor baffles me, but I do like watching Civil War re-enactments.
Have you ever seen the East German seductresses? Damn straight I’d go for Cold war re-enactor. Sure beats standing next to a period-faithful re-enactor such as Graybeard who, after a few days, smells like horseshit and looks like Cookie on Wagon Train. (No offense, Graybeard.)
2/17 – how can I take offense at the truth?
You could definitely tell who the honeypots were in Bangor back in the early 80’s.
They were the ones UNDER 300 lbs., who had all of their teeth.
Yes, I can’t see how sitting in front of an R-390, copying morse code and pounding a mill for eight hours a shift would be considered exciting. Or trying to find some shade at Yuma Proving Ground while a couple of GS-12’s worked the equipment in the air conditioned van. The drinking in downtown Chitose was fun.
He is a soldier, he stayed at a Holiday Inn LOL
I say put Daddy in the same cell with sonny boy and let them both be the blue plate special at the manmeat deli! Fuck you both Ass Hamsters!!!
“Cold war re-enactor? Wait, what? I was in the Army national guard from 1983-89 and folded a bunch of tents, cleaned rifles, ran floor buffers and filled out a bunch of 2404’s on jeeps so am I qualified?
If you learned duck-and-cover, you’re qualified.
Wait… His father’s rousing tales of (stolen) valor inspired this dip to become “a cold war re-enactor” but not enough inspiration to may go and enlist for real? Maybe perform a few of his own acts of daring do, instead of playing make-believe? I mean, it’s not like we actually have a war going on right now or anything, right?
So a shitbag begat a shitbag…
The only Cold War re-enacting I know of is the ’86-’87 rotations I did at NTC.
This murderous coward need to be put down ASAP.
I was thinking of winter REFORGER. I don’t want to re-enact it, I have pics from it.
Jan-Feb 85 REFORGER?
BTDT with 1/12 INF of the 4th ID.
I deployed with 1/12. Not Refer-orgy, much later.
There is a Cold War Victory Medal (sort of). There was a lot more shooting than you might think:
http://www.americancoldwarvets.org/cold-war-casualties
The only parts of the Cold War I would like to reenact involve gallons of quality German beer and a few late nights in Sachsenhausen. Although at my age running from the Polizei is out of the question.
86-87 NTC rotations – BTDT with 1/12 INF, 4th ID also.
And 88, 90, and 91 rotations with 1st Bde, 4th ID.
Cold war re-enacting, you have got to be phucking pulling my 3rd leg !!!
I spent from 77-80 based in the UK praying the Soviets stayed on their side of the Fulda Gap and thank God they did
I didn’t relish the idea of a tab-v hangar being my crematorium.
SMH….we have Revolutionary War reenacting here in NJ, that I get especially around Xmas time with the Delaware crossing Battle of Trenton/Princeton and the Morristown encampment and in PA at Valley Forge…but cold war that’s totally ridiculous !, do they have fake ICBM silos and thousands of T-64 & T-72’s staring at a force of under manned NATO troops and look out posts and miserable weather for (surreal) realism ????
“….we have Revolutionary War reenacting here in NJ,…”
I’ve done CW reenacting around Savannah, GA where they have Revolutionary War reenactments as well (Ditto with other places such as Charleston SC) but for the life of me I CANNOT picture just how or what one would do in reenacting The Cold War.
Well, Dad’s moment of truth came. I kind of feel for him. That’s a sad thing to say, “I failed…as a father.” If he wanted to emulate his father’s bullshit tales, he could have joined the military or become a volunteer fireman or something. It doesn’t follow that he shot two state troopers, one fatally, because daddy was a bullshitter. And that business about too-much police and gov’t power? Hell, we talk about that all the time around here yet none of us goes out and shoots people. For my money, the defense atty was just being an asshole.
Agreed. No father is perfect, and no father can be held responsible for all of their adult children’s actions. Some offspring simply choose to do evil, regardless of their parents influence.
That said, if this guy was lying to his son for years . . . well, he’s an a-hole. But not IMO as big an a-hole as the murdering bastard’s attorney.
This is so fucked up on so many levels I can’t even begin to get a handle-hold on the 360 degree all-around fuckery, so I won’t even try…
I hope his sphincter stuffing cell mate is the living embodiment of the Albino from the show Banshee. Fuck both of these assholes!
ROFLMFAO!!!!
So if he was so inspired, why didn’t he just join the military himself?
I’m taking a stab that he gave it a try but wasn’t accepted, which is pretty bad considering how desperate we were for troops pre-2010ish.
Desperate? Why didn’t someone tell me? I coulda gone back in?
No, this guy is a useless skin tag on his father’s backside, if he’s blaming a bunch of tall tales from “What I Did In The War” for making him shoot two cops and kill one of them. Totally bogus, ma-a-an.
actually I think the title should be “There I Was blah blah blah blah Buuck! Naked !”
That is pretty specific Ex.
Simple, just hop in your time machine and go back to about 2005ish, they’ll accept anyone.
In fact, in 2005 they were accepting 42/43 year olds with waivers to join because they were so desperate. You were about 32 in 2005 though, right?
I worked recruiting in 2005. Essentially a body temperature above 95 degrees was acceptable. The Army approved over 500 felony waivers that year. Couldn’t have a gun but could join the Army? Baffles me to thus day. Not just simple felonies either… arson, murder that kind of stuff. No HS diploma? No problem.
They were clawing field grade officers out of retirement. E6 and below got out three years ago? C’mon back at full pay grade. It was madness.
No asthma since age 12 though.
The other take-away from this bogus “defense” (code for lawer BS) is that becoming a re-enactor contributes to police murders. Which is bunk, since there are literally over about hundred thousand military re-enactors in just the US and the UK who have never shot any cops.
“…Frein’s attorney, Michael Weinstein, told the court…” Is this the same Mikey Whiner that is so mad at G-d that he is crusading for COMPLETE separation of “church from state?”
I bet they even recited their ABC’s phonetically as well!
They learned to clean the head and polish the bright work.
Knock off the assgrabbery, and if not, they were going to look really silly with my boot sticking out of their ass.
Incoming anything always receives return fire, be it Snowballs or insults.
Although done with much humor, what Dave wrote is true for many of us. We try to teach males to protect the soft but not to be soft, to strive for excellence whether a factory sweeper or factory owner, to treat others fairly, to bow to no one, and to tip the ugly waitresses a little more than the good looking ones, just because.
The whole incident was devastating to PSP. I retired in 2015 although I wasn’t sent to the search, I have several friends that were. My heart goes out to those kids that will never see their father again. And to another Trooper who will never get to finish his career because of his injuries. Unfortunately it’s cheaper to give him life.
“Unfortunately it’s cheaper to give him life.”
That’s true thanks to the expense of all the appeals, I’m all for them welding his cell door shut right after they throw away the key.
Yes the appeals. Special treatment. It all costs taxpayers money and it hard to find a governor that will throw the switch.
Maybe they could extradite him to Arkansas in the next few days?
This is sad on so many fronts I don’t even know where to begin. So I won’t
This just in: ‘Police ambush killer Eric Frein won’t take stand in bid to spare life’ http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/04/25/police-ambush-killer-eric-frein-wont-take-stand-in-bid-to-spare-life.html ‘MILFORD, Pa. – The gunman who ambushed two Pennsylvania State Police troopers at their barracks in 2014 decided Tuesday he won’t take the stand to try to persuade jurors to spare his life. Eric Frein said he won’t testify at the penalty phase of his capital murder trial, and the defense rested its case. His lawyers later said outside court they did not want to expose Frein to cross-examination, fearing he might try to “rationalize” the deadly ambush. Prosecutors will call rebuttal witnesses Tuesday afternoon. The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Wednesday on whether to sentence Frein to death or to life in prison without parole. Earlier in the day, his sister Tiffany Frein, told jurors Eric was her “protector” against their abusive parents, the Morning Call reported. “Eric understood me. He was the only one,” she told jurors. “He made me feel like someone actually loved me. I don’t have a family. I never really did. Eric was my home.” Her father, Mike Frein, who earned a doctorate and worked on vaccines, previously acknowledged to the jury he had a drinking problem more than a decade ago. The defense, trying to prove a mitigating circumstance the jury could weigh in its deliberations, has sought to portray Mike Frein as a domineering, angry but highly accomplished figure whom Eric Frein looked up to and tried to emulate. Mike Frein, who logged 28 years in the military and retired as a major, admitted to jurors Monday he lied to his family for years about seeing combat in Vietnam and about being a sniper. Eric, meanwhile, was a military re-enactor and college dropout who lived with his parents into his 30s. Mike Frein also told the jury he had shared his political views with his son, calling the government too big and railing against abusive police. His son, in a letter he wrote to his parents while on the run, advocated revolution as a way to restore lost liberties. Frein’s decision to avoid… Read more »
We can hope the jury gives him the death penalty.
We can hope.
So both of them are POSs. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Maybe the judge can sentence both of them at the same time….
Michael Weinstein? Is that little Mikey Weinstein?
So the Stolen Valor guy is a drunk that abused his kids? Shocked I am, completely shocked. I guess he could blame it all on all the baby killing he did in the ‘Nam.
Here’s someone worthy of google fame on TAH.
Yeah it is always cute when shitty parents threaten to have the police come arrest the kids because of the behavior that the parents taught them. Makes the kids afraid of the police early and see them as a feared enemy. /s
Post, Post, Fake Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Sure, I can believe that.