Terry Ratzmann's Homepage.

March 13, 2005 8:58 AM

Terry Ratzmann's Homepage. After reading some accounts of the Wisconsin church shooting, I noted he was into horticulture. A Google search turned up only four entries, one from his church, and three forum posts written by Terry himself about plants, which included his email address at "[e-mail]". I went old school, and formatted an URL in Unix style, trying his email name as a web directory and hit paydirt.
posted by tpoh.org (55 comments total)

That's a scoop
posted by growabrain at 9:03 AM on March 13, 2005

It's pretty chilling that the top of the page reads "Random Acts of Photography"
posted by BigPicnic at 9:05 AM on March 13, 2005

This would be interesting if I had the foggiest idea why Terry Ratzmann is worthy of any attention whatsoever.

This is a world wide web. Not all of us live in Wisconsin.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:08 AM on March 13, 2005

i swear i've been to that website before.
for us non-news-junkies, would it have been that hard to link to some page about the shooting? i, for one, have no idea what it was.
on preview: what fff said.
posted by Silky Slim at 9:10 AM on March 13, 2005

five fresh fish, go to google news and type in his name. It's really not that hard.

Though this post is still not very interesting. It doesn't shed any additional light on what happened. Or am I missing something?
posted by nixerman at 9:11 AM on March 13, 2005

Tpoh doesn't live in Wisconsin, so far as I can tell...

8 dead, 4 wounded as New Berlin man
opens fire in church meeting at Brookfield hotel.
posted by drezdn at 9:12 AM on March 13, 2005

Also, Tragedy puts spotlight on small, obscure church. Apparently the pastor had been talking about how the end times would come within the next 5-10 years. Though the shootings may have been related to problems at Ratzmann's job.
posted by drezdn at 9:14 AM on March 13, 2005

Must be a slow news weekend if this is the best that NewsFilter can do.

Hey NYC, any murders occur there over the last few days? Any at all?
posted by mischief at 9:21 AM on March 13, 2005

go to google news and type in his name. It's really not that hard.

echoing fff, why am i interested in this poor man's website? clearly the man was tormented deeply, apparently by alcoholism and other personal demons. how does that make this site worthy of an fpp? while i'm impressed by this demonstration of your internet capability, i can't help but wonder if perhaps there's a traffic fatality we could all go gawk at?
posted by quonsar at 9:22 AM on March 13, 2005

"Make the Bugs Go Away!"

Here's a gem ("Down Under Holy Day Calendar for year 2001"):

http://my.execpc.com/~traven/Australia/AustraliaLink35.htm

Some of the photo links are malformed. Here' a corrected URL titled " She is facing the west bluff & shall remain un-named until permission is granted." Good thing for her:

http://my.execpc.com/~traven/DevilsLake/DevilsLakeArchives/image02.JPG
posted by 3.2.3 at 9:26 AM on March 13, 2005

i'm going to have to agree with quonsar.

this would be something for the front page of dailyrotten.com. it has kind of made for a depressing sunday morning for me.
posted by nickerbocker at 9:37 AM on March 13, 2005

I am most disappointed that there's no "wallpaper beyond belief."
posted by NickDouglas at 9:41 AM on March 13, 2005

Apparently the pastor had been talking about how the end times would come within the next 5-10 years.

End times? Is that when Dread Cthulhu comes back to snack on man?
http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=353
posted by rough ashlar at 9:41 AM on March 13, 2005

Shit, if this qualifies as a MeFi FPP, then I'm going to have to start posting about the crazy people in my town. Why, just a few weeks ago some schizophrenic claiming to be the son of jesus went nutso and, get this!, kicked in a door at a church!
posted by five fresh fish at 9:45 AM on March 13, 2005

Wake me up when someone hacks his Sidekick.
posted by argybarg at 9:54 AM on March 13, 2005

It's a medical miracle that some of you people can shit at all.

The guy killed eight people less than 24 hours ago. The discovery of his home page seems like interesting front-page fodder to me.
posted by rcade at 10:01 AM on March 13, 2005

In support of tpoh, that's some pretty good detective work. And it offers a chillingly mundane glimpse into the guy's life. It also touches on some interesting issues discussed previously.

On preview, what rcade said.
posted by nyterrant at 10:02 AM on March 13, 2005

Metafilter: go to google news
posted by tommyc at 10:04 AM on March 13, 2005

Random Acts of Photography
AFAICT these are the photos (inclluding some people/personal ones), though the web page linking to them is gone.
posted by Zurishaddai at 10:07 AM on March 13, 2005

Here's a profile of Ratzmann that talks about how he took one of the photographed trips alone.
posted by rcade at 10:07 AM on March 13, 2005

Interesting
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 10:11 AM on March 13, 2005

The title of this photo suggests one of these folks is Ratzmann.

There's not much to be learned about the guy from this site. Reminds me of people who'd come home from vacation and show you their slides until you prayed for the sweet release of death.
posted by rcade at 10:19 AM on March 13, 2005

The quiet guys are killing again. For awhile it was men that were disruptive and aggressive at work.
posted by TimTypeZed at 10:38 AM on March 13, 2005

"The guy killed eight people less than 24 hours ago. "

So?
posted by mischief at 10:55 AM on March 13, 2005

go to google news and type in his name. It's really not that hard.

I don't think we (and by that I mean "I") should have to go do further research because the FFP was lacking in sufficient details. If I should go to google news, then why should I bother reading the post to begin with? Why not just post a link to google news?
posted by Jim Jones at 10:56 AM on March 13, 2005

So?

We can't all have your nose for news, mischief. I will never forget where I was when you broke the news about that van rollover.
posted by rcade at 11:07 AM on March 13, 2005

apparently he learned something from it rcade. your turn.
posted by quonsar at 12:49 PM on March 13, 2005

Kind of a neat coincidence. I never heard of him before but I was on his web site last week or so looking for Wisconsin photos from Devil's Lake.
posted by substrate at 12:58 PM on March 13, 2005

Every few weeks, when a new case of a guy (it's always a guy) who shoots a bunch of people in a restaurant or a shopping center (and finally also in a church, just as George Carlin predicted) hits the airwaves, I always think the same thought:
Feeding people a lot of junk food for a very long time will mess up their chemicals until they start hearing voices. Make sure they have as many available guns as possible all over the place, and what do you expect?
Is that a simplistic way of looking at it?
posted by growabrain at 1:22 PM on March 13, 2005

Hey substrate! I just went to your website. If you kill a bunch of people in the next week I'll have the same neat coincidence!
posted by sexymofo at 1:24 PM on March 13, 2005

Is that a simplistic way of looking at it?

Well, yes! Yes it absolutely is!

Anyway, excuse me, I have a hot date with a Big Mac and a .45.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 1:26 PM on March 13, 2005

rcade: You'll never figure me out, will you...

;-P
posted by mischief at 1:28 PM on March 13, 2005

4 animated gifs on one web page is a cry for help.
posted by a_day_late at 1:29 PM on March 13, 2005

Hey substrate! I just went to your website. If you kill a bunch of people in the next week I'll have the same neat coincidence!

I'll do my best.
posted by substrate at 1:57 PM on March 13, 2005

OMG! There was a robbery, too!

It was a lone male, tall and wearing a mask. He claimed to have a gun but, alas, eight people were not slain in order to make this FPP-worthy.

The criminal is currently anonymous. Otherwise, I'd be sure to dig up his home page and his pretty pictures. You know you want to see them!
posted by five fresh fish at 2:00 PM on March 13, 2005

Damn you, fff, for leading me on that way!
posted by mischief at 2:07 PM on March 13, 2005

The guy killed eight people less than 24 hours ago. The discovery of his home page seems like interesting front-page fodder to me.

Especially the part about carnivorous plants. It's psychologically interesting, and at least as FPP-worthy as that post about animal-wang-shaped dildos.

If you "critics" started trying to be as gawd-awful profound as you want other folks to be the front page would be damn-near EMPTY. So instead of criticising other people's contributions, practice what you preach. (Except for fff, who clearly can't.)
posted by davy at 2:49 PM on March 13, 2005

Oh for god's sake you guys -- don't you all watch the news? What about when something happens in... Iraq -- another place where you DON'T LIVE.

Jeezus...
posted by Kloryne at 3:04 PM on March 13, 2005

(However, all the stuff about the robberies, etc. is damn funny.)
posted by Kloryne at 3:05 PM on March 13, 2005

Are you taking any suggestions on the eight people you'll be killing, substrate?
posted by rcade at 3:25 PM on March 13, 2005

Feeding people a lot of junk food for a very long time will mess up their chemicals until they start hearing voices.

growabrain, you might want to Google the phrase "Twinkie defense" -- you're not the first person to theorize this.
posted by alumshubby at 4:41 PM on March 13, 2005

I made the dire mistake of purchasing an 800g tub of gummi bears on Friday. It is now Sunday. All the gummi bears are gone, and I have a massive headache. Been headachey since the end of Friday, in fact.

I blame it on the sugar and food colourings. And that is why I'm being such a prick in this thread.

It's the Gummi^TM defense. Blame the Bears!
posted by five fresh fish at 5:41 PM on March 13, 2005

It's not the sugar and food coloring; it's all that chewing and jaw strain.
posted by mischief at 5:44 PM on March 13, 2005

I don't get this guy. Suicide, I can see, but taking out a bunch of other people...there must've been some serious snakes in that boy's haid.
posted by alumshubby at 5:56 PM on March 13, 2005

Preach end-times nonsense to the unstable and well, don't act so surprised at the results. I'm sure as he was firing on innocents he knew he was going to that special place in the sky.
posted by skallas at 6:07 PM on March 13, 2005

I agree that this post is psychologically interesting. It's probably not going to give any great insight into what makes him tick, but it's interesting to read anything written or created by someone who just open fired in a church and killed six people.
posted by jennyb at 7:22 PM on March 13, 2005

As interesting as it is, I think I could live my entire life quite happily without reading about a fellow who just opened fire in any location and killed six people.

I know, ain't gonna happen, but man, what if?

No wonder people rely on religion to help them through life. If it weren't for looneys doing ass things like killing six people, what would we need gods for?
posted by five fresh fish at 7:32 PM on March 13, 2005

Now if it had happened up in Canada, we'd have our members of parliment calling out for a ban on carnivorous plants. Because, you know, when a nutjob goes on a shooting spree, you gotta blame the plants.

Canada: nutbars don't kill people, plants kill people.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:35 PM on March 13, 2005

I'll be sure to spiffy up my site before I go on a killing spree. That's just embarrassing.
posted by corpse at 7:36 PM on March 13, 2005

I went old school, and formatted an URL in Unix style, trying his email name as a web directory and hit paydirt.

Just don't try that at Harvard!
posted by kindall at 8:20 PM on March 13, 2005

Shit, if this qualifies as a MeFi FPP, then I'm going to have to start posting about the crazy people in my town.

FFF, this is the top US story on Google news as I write this.

I think this is a vast improvement on the usual sort of link-to-an-AP-article news post.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 6:34 AM on March 14, 2005

Excellent FPP. Thanks for the research.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:51 AM on March 14, 2005

A 2-year-old remained in critical condition Sunday after being shot by his 4-year-old brother, who may not have known the difference between a real and toy gun, police said. He was being treated at Ben Taub Hospital. Ben Taub hospital! Can jew beleive that? Need I remind you that George W is from Texas? Metafilter's very own beth is reputed to reside in Texas as well. I went all old school and looked up Texas in Rand McNally. And guess what? It's THERE! Child Protective Services had never been called to the home before. never been called to the home before!!!! JESUS H. CHRIST PEOPLE - DO THE MATH! THIS IS THE TOP STORY ON GOOGLE NEWS OUT OF HOUSTON AS I WRITE THIS!
posted by quonsar at 8:09 AM on March 14, 2005

Whoa, quonsar, that's hella good detective work you done there! Texas, of all things! Good man, good man.

I took it a little further and dug up a photograph of Taxes.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:32 AM on March 14, 2005

weird, i live right down the road from this guy.
posted by quin at 2:16 PM on March 14, 2005