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    Colombian priests hired hitmen to kill themselves

    By LIBARDO CARDONA | Associated Press – Tue, Feb 14, 2012

    BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Rev. Rafael Reatiga asked his parishioners to pray for him and gave the choirmaster a list of songs for his funeral shortly before he was found shot to death together with another Roman Catholic priest, a Colombian prosecutor said Tuesday.

    Authorities initially suspected robbery when Reatiga's body was found along with that of Rev. Richard Piffano, 37, in a car in southern Bogota on Jan. 27, 2011.

    But on Tuesday prosecutor Ana Patricia Larrota said investigators had determined that it was suicide by hitmen in the year-old case: the two priests hired gunmen to kill them after Reatiga discovered he had AIDS.

    The priests gave members of a criminal gang the equivalent of $8,500, said the chief investigator of the prosecutor's office, Maritza Gonzalez, as two of the four alleged assassins appeared before a judge for processing.

    She said the two priests had originally planned to throw themselves off a cliff into a canyon north of Bogota but apparently lacked the nerve.

    In addition to AIDS, Reatiga had syphilis and witness testimony indicated he was a regular visitor to places frequented by gays in central Bogota, Larrota told the judge who processed the two alleged assassins on Tuesday.

    Gildardo Alberto Penate and Isidro Castiblanco were charged with aggravated homicide, said Larrota. Each faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

    Three weeks before their deaths, Reatiga had transferred his possessions to his mother. Piffano withdrew about $3,700 from his bank account on the day of his death, Gonzalez said.

    Investigators said they located the alleged killers based on telephone numbers the priests had called from their cell phones in the days before their deaths. Authorities found the stolen cell phone of one of the priests on a gang member months after the killing.

    Some of the numbers ended up belonging to a criminal band involved in counterfeiting, fraud and arms trafficking, they said. It allegedly supplied the killers, including two who authorities say remain at large.

     
    • Ice
      Ice  •  Corning, New York  •  3 mths ago
      You can hire hitmen to kill themselves?
      • Bike
        Bike 3 mths ago
        In this crazy world, everything is possible, although it was a typo!
      • Real American Patriot
        Real American Patriot 3 mths ago
        More like grammatical error, not typo or spelling error.
      • rudyj
        rudyj 3 mths ago
        Common sense says no, be your own grammar machine.
    • B
      B  •  Bellevue, Washington  •  3 mths ago
      I know, its futile to keep correcting the bad spelling and grammar in yahoo headlines/stories, but the title should of course read: 'them', not 'themselves' (which refers to the hitmen, not the priests). Yahoo makes it sound like the priests have the perfect solution to crime- just hire the criminals to all kill themselves LOL..
      • R
        R 3 mths ago
        It certainly can be taken two ways, the headline. I have seen other stories where this has happened. Would be kind of humorous , were it not for the grim subject.
      • A Yahoo! User 3 mths ago
        "I know that it is futile to keep on correcting the bad spelling and grammar in Yahoo headlines and stories, but the title should read: 'them', not 'themselves' as they had hired hit-men to kill them, and did not kill themselves.

        Alternatively Yahoo makes it sound like the priests have the perfect solution to crime, pay criminals to kill themselves."

        Most amusing.

        Two priests less, which has to be a good result.

        Maybe their 'flock' will pay priests to crucify themselves one day.
      • B.R.
        B.R. 3 mths ago
        Yeah I agree as I was lead to believe from the title they paid hitmen to kill each other and thus be rid of crime in their area. English teacher 12 years.
    • C Money
      C Money  •  Watervliet, New York  •  3 mths ago
      I'd think if someone hired you to willingly kill them you shouldn't be tried for murder.
    • Fed up with political cor ...
      Fed up with political cor ...  •  3 mths ago
      The Bible says nothing about celibacy for priests....... A pope made up that rule.
      • Alicia
        Alicia 3 mths ago
        uhh last time I checked MEN wrote the Bible. Seems to be a small flaw in your logic.
      • blacknock
        blacknock 3 mths ago
        Fed dead head go to bed you've got to be one of the stupidest people on the face of the earth
      • P
        P 3 mths ago
        The scripture does not create celibacy for the priesthood which is a Church made rule... and is distinguished as such... and there is nothing wrong with this rule when you have good and dedicated priests who serve their community. So the comment above is meaningless.
    • Ray
      Ray  •  3 mths ago
      This yahoo headline is the most hilarious I've ever read anywhere! How many hitmen would you have to approach before finding some who would kill themselves!
      • Welcome to the USSA
        Welcome to the USSA 3 mths ago
        LOL...Yahoo writers are illiterate but they're cheap.
      • tstanya
        tstanya 3 mths ago
        Aren't suicide bombers sort of like hitmen? They kill themselves.
      • Just Me, Richard
        Just Me, Richard 3 mths ago
        Tsta -- Only if they get paid to kill themselves.
    • chris
      chris  •  Tampa, Florida  •  3 mths ago
      My wife is slowly killing me, and I didn't have to hire her to do it.........................
      • Rick C
        Rick C 3 mths ago
        That's not true most married men including myself pay for it every day.
      • chris
        chris 3 mths ago
        On second thought.......................
      • Victor
        Victor 3 mths ago
        Contact me, I may be able to help you out of this perdicament
    • George
      George  •  Houston, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      @Simon etc., You must be one of our Jewish brothers, because you appear to very interested in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus said that the Heavenly Father forgives everybody for everything except for blaspheme against the Holy Spirit (although the spirit of His teaching suggests that even that is forgiven). Jesus said that God had given Him authority to judge or forgive sin because He was the Son of Man. So, I guess I'm writing that love and forgiveness for friend and enemy alike is what Jesus in the New Testament taught, which is what Christians agree to follow. It amazes me how Christians refer to the Old Testament more than the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.
    • El Savior
      El Savior  •  New York, New York  •  3 mths ago
      This is one of the weirdest stories I've ever heard!
    • Matt
      Matt  •  St Louis, Missouri  •  3 mths ago
      So even though this is technically suicide, did these guys manage to avoid the whole "eternal damnation" thing with this stunt?
    • SF CA
      SF CA  •  3 mths ago
      And the Catholic Church is outraged over free contraception.
    • Vincent
      Vincent  •  Washington, District of Columbia  •  3 mths ago
      If you believe in God and an afterlife why would you have veneral disease, be afraid of death and know how to hire hitmen?
    • Chief
      Chief  •  3 mths ago
      What the heck?? Is Catholicism the religion of Queers and pedophiles?? What is it about this religion that breeds this horror??
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Erie, Pennsylvania  •  3 mths ago
      Another shinning revelation in the RCC.

      Catholics believe "suicide" is NEVER an option------these men may have been killed by hitmen, but it would still be considered---suicide.

      Sorry Fr.----purgatory----not heaven is your destiny-----for a very long time.
    • Christian
      Christian  •  Southfield, Michigan  •  3 mths ago
      Did anyone else think that this story was about people hiring hitmen to kill "themselves", meaning that the hitmen were hired to commit suicide?
    • Creep
      Creep  •  San Antonio, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      hitmen are killing themselves these days? times must be getting hard!
    • Charles
      Charles  •  Roseland, Louisiana  •  3 mths ago
      .... almost Romeo y Juiletta
    • janet p
      janet p  •  Boston, Massachusetts  •  3 mths ago
      I think they could have shopped around and been killed for less
    • ZELMO
      ZELMO  •  3 mths ago
      Whole lot o bad goin on.
    • Barbarian_Norm
      Barbarian_Norm  •  Fayetteville, North Carolina  •  3 mths ago
      Wow that waiting list to get into Heaven just keeps getting shorter and shorter.
    • Victor
      Victor  •  Knoxville, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      Thats odd, in Central America you can hire hitmen to kill themselves?
      So how far in advance do you have to pay?
      Better yet if you go with the usual 1/2 up front and the remainder after the " job" is done then who the heck do pay?
     Post a comment
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