>>> April 4, 2002
Killer appetite

It seemed like an act of great passion. David Norington, a 38-year-old Chicago resident, had killed his roommate, but the method showed he really meant it. The roommate, 51-year-old Ollie Hale, had been bludgeoned—first with an ashtray, then pliers. A hammer came out next, followed by a fire extinguisher and a dumbbell. Finally Norington stuck a knife in Hale for good measure. Must have been quite a dispute.
In fact, the killing came about not over a woman or some irreconcilable political difference, but because Hale took too much of a chicken dinner that the two had intended to split between them.

With the carnage behind him, Norington called 911 to report the deed, implicating himself. No stranger to the law, Norington had already served seven of a 15-year sentence for a second-degree murder conviction in 1990. Reports don’t specify what was on the menu in that case. :

—Scott Saxon