[Ads-l] Reality Winner

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Jun 11 20:19:01 UTC 2017


Then there’s the middle-name-Wayne theory, for serial killers and other heinous offenders (not assassins, though):

http://www.newsoftheweird.com/wayne.html
http://www.realclearlife.com/news/amount-murderers-murder-suspects-middle-name-wayne-insane/
http://freakonomics.com/2006/09/28/the-next-time-your-daughter-brings-home-a-new-boyfriend-be-sure-to-ask-his-middle-name/

LH (middle name Robert)

> On Jun 11, 2017, at 3:37 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> The topic of names is discussed in the following article.
> 
> Article: Why Do So Many Assassins Have Three Names?
> Author: Brian Palmer
> Date: Jan 9 2011
> 
> http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/01/why_do_so_many_assassins_have_three_names.html
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> It's often assumed that three names are used to identify an infamous
> killer so as to avoid cases of mistaken identity—so other guys named
> Lee Oswald wouldn't have their reputations besmirched, for example.
> But some of the most famous three-named assassins identified
> themselves as such before they committed their crimes.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jun 11, 2017 at 12:56 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
>> On 6/11/2017 11:10 AM, Dave Wilton wrote:
>>> 
>>> Journalists frequently use a person's middle name, especially someone
>>> charged with a crime, to distinguish them from potential others with the
>>> same name. Lee Harvey Oswald, for example, rarely used his middle name. He
>>> was just "Lee Oswald" to those who knew him. It was journalists who made the
>>> middle name iconic. Ditto for James Earl Ray.
>>> 
>>> In Reality Winner's case, however, I don't think potential confusion with
>>> others is an issue, which may be why *more* journalists aren't using her
>>> middle name.
>> 
>> 
>> I'd want quantitative data before accepting that first claim. I can think of
>> many people, accused of crimes similar to Winner's, whose middle names have
>> not been reported prominently: Aldrich Ames, Edward Snowden, Bradley/Chelsea
>> Manning, etc.
>> 
>> Jim Parish
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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