The New York Times has been the recipient of 106 Pulitzer Prizes as one of the most historic newspapers in the country, but the paper's weekend piece about Port St. Lucie's alleged teenaged hammer murderer, Tyler Hadley, was a little strange.
The story -- which ran in the "A" section of Saturday's Times -- references Hadley's history of weed smoking before the alleged murders, making for a Reefer Madness moment that's just downright puzzling.
For half of the story, the Times approached the subject matter of its headline -- "City Is Stunned at Teenager's Arrest in Parents' Deaths" -- but somehow got into an investigation on Hadley smokin' the reefer.
As you may recall, police have said that Hadley, 17, made an invitation for a party at his parents' place on Facebook, then allegedly killed them with a 22-inch-framing hammer, followed by Hadley throwing a 60-person party at the house all night with his parents' corpses on the floor in the other room.
After those initial reports, a friend -- the same friend who had turned Hadley in to the cops after he allegedly showed him the bodies of his parents -- had come out and told reporters that Hadley had taken some ecstasy pills that night.
That led the Pulp's counterpart at our sister paper to the south, Miami New Times, to question if ecstasy was really to blame in Hadley's alleged crimes.
Now, the Gray Lady asks if weed had something to do with it.
The Times says at Hadley's house party, "teenagers and young adults smoked marijuana and drank beer and liquor" and proceeded to talk about Hadley's strange behavior throughout the night.
Then, the Times drops this:
Mr. Hadley's parents were forcing him to go to outpatient drug
rehabilitation, [a neighbor] said, but he continued to smoke marijuana.
He seemed aggravated about it, but nothing more, she said.
The paper talked to Hadley's attorney, who says the boy has a long history of mental illness, then gets back to the weed thing:
Teenagers and young adults here complain of having little or nothing to
do, and marijuana, prescription drugs and parties often fill the void,
they and their parents say. It is not for nothing, these residents
smirk, that their city is sometimes known as "Pot St. Lucie" and "Port
St. Lousy."
Weed could have been a factor in Hadley's alleged crimes, according to anti-marijuana propaganda, but according to reality, this one looks like it just came out of left field.
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