Pagan
10-19-2006, 01:02 PM
GAL-PAL GUMBO
October 19, 2006 -- A New Orleans man, who won national attention for his refusal to leave before Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city, committed suicide there this week - after savagely butchering and cooking the girlfriend who gave him shelter during the storm.
Zachery Bowen left a suicide note before he jumped off the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel on Tuesday night - and that led police to the gruesome apartment, above a voodoo shop, that he shared with Adrian "Addie" Hall.
In the kitchen, they found Hall's charred head in a pot on the stove, her legs and feet baked in the oven and the rest of her body in a trash bag in the refrigerator, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported yesterday.
Bowen's note claimed he killed Hall on Oct. 5 by strangling her in the bathroom.
But as recently as Sunday, Bowen was "all jolly, talking about the trip he was going to take" to Cozumel, Mexico, or some other resort island, according to a customer at a New Orleans bar where he worked, the newspaper said.
It was a bizarre twist for the couple who said they fell in love on the night that Katrina struck and Hall allowed Bowen to share her apartment and wait out the storm.
Bowen and Hall, in their mid-20s, won post-Katrina national media attention after they refused orders to leave the devastated city.
"The best thing we can do is get our area going again," Bowen was quoted as saying.
In one widely reported account, Hall ensured that police would regularly patrol their neighborhood by flashing her bare breasts at passing police cars.
Bowen, originally from Los Angeles, was hired at the same bar where Hall worked, because he was good looking and "eye candy for the ladies," according to the owner.
But the couple went into a downward spiral, particularly after Hall, who was also a bartender, found out Bowen was cheating on her.
After settling in a new apartment Oct. 1, they had a bitter argument over whose name would appear on the lease, their landlord, Leo Watermeier, told the Times-Picayune.
"I'm totally messed up now. She's trying to kick me out of our apartment," Watermeier quoted him as saying Oct. 5.
Hall was never seen again.
On Tuesday night, Bowen's final moments were caught on surveillance cameras.
They showed him walking back and forth to the ledge of an upper floor of the hotel before he took the fatal plunge. His body was found on the roof of a parking garage, with his five-page suicide note in his pocket.
October 19, 2006 -- A New Orleans man, who won national attention for his refusal to leave before Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city, committed suicide there this week - after savagely butchering and cooking the girlfriend who gave him shelter during the storm.
Zachery Bowen left a suicide note before he jumped off the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel on Tuesday night - and that led police to the gruesome apartment, above a voodoo shop, that he shared with Adrian "Addie" Hall.
In the kitchen, they found Hall's charred head in a pot on the stove, her legs and feet baked in the oven and the rest of her body in a trash bag in the refrigerator, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported yesterday.
Bowen's note claimed he killed Hall on Oct. 5 by strangling her in the bathroom.
But as recently as Sunday, Bowen was "all jolly, talking about the trip he was going to take" to Cozumel, Mexico, or some other resort island, according to a customer at a New Orleans bar where he worked, the newspaper said.
It was a bizarre twist for the couple who said they fell in love on the night that Katrina struck and Hall allowed Bowen to share her apartment and wait out the storm.
Bowen and Hall, in their mid-20s, won post-Katrina national media attention after they refused orders to leave the devastated city.
"The best thing we can do is get our area going again," Bowen was quoted as saying.
In one widely reported account, Hall ensured that police would regularly patrol their neighborhood by flashing her bare breasts at passing police cars.
Bowen, originally from Los Angeles, was hired at the same bar where Hall worked, because he was good looking and "eye candy for the ladies," according to the owner.
But the couple went into a downward spiral, particularly after Hall, who was also a bartender, found out Bowen was cheating on her.
After settling in a new apartment Oct. 1, they had a bitter argument over whose name would appear on the lease, their landlord, Leo Watermeier, told the Times-Picayune.
"I'm totally messed up now. She's trying to kick me out of our apartment," Watermeier quoted him as saying Oct. 5.
Hall was never seen again.
On Tuesday night, Bowen's final moments were caught on surveillance cameras.
They showed him walking back and forth to the ledge of an upper floor of the hotel before he took the fatal plunge. His body was found on the roof of a parking garage, with his five-page suicide note in his pocket.