Wikihow finds themselves in the hottest of hot waters – scalding, some may say – as they have been officially sued for publishing an article that authorities believe may have aided an attempted murder.
The suspect who goes by the name David, for all intents and purposes, is a dunce that appears to be incapable of any pre-planned malice. So when he announced to the world that his plan came from a wikihow article, none were surprised.
The article provided step by step instructions on how to commit a murder and how to play it cool afterwards.
The first step was to pick a target. The article does assume that you had merely stumbled onto it by sheer accident rather than the more likely scenario that their viewer already had a target in mind. Regardless, the article went on to describe means on how to pick a target. For instance; pick someone with no living family and seemingly no or few friends. This is to give yourself more time between committing the murder and the murder being discovered.
The second step was to track their target’s movements. The article strongly suggested discretion. Unfortunately, this was lacking in our would-be murderer as whenever he found his path blocked he would screech at his obstacles that he was attempting to follow his victim. Even using the actual word ‘victim’.
What comes third is to pick a date. Simple enough. Best not to circle your calendar five times in a red marker and write ‘Murder Day’ on it, though. Can be incriminating. Article really should have specified that.
Here’s where the article really does make some wild assumptions. “Find a roof and place your sniper rifle in a prime position”, the article reads. ‘Place your sniper rifle’. Well, okay then. A sniper rifle which according to you, I already have. Fine, then.
Where most wikihow articles are intensely detailed even in places where no details were really necessary, this one just says “Assume a new identity”, and links to another wikihow article.
Though it appears that David has no real case of substance against Wikihow, one must question how and why they came to the decision to publish an article whose sole intent was to commit a crime. Truly abysmal and not at all doctored.
The Ipe Collection 