A stark raving mad Englishman was shot to death by police yesterday on the grounds of Guildford Cathedral, the very church where, in 1976, actors dressed as police pretended to shoot Gregory Peck in the penultimate scene of Richard Donner's The Omen.
According to The Daily Mirror, the man had been terrorizing people in one of the shopping districts of the town of Guildford, some 30 miles outside of London, when police intervened and the man bolted off. They followed him to the church, where he refused to surrender and was gunned down. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Daily Mail is reporting the unconfirmed rumor that the man was committing "suicide by cop", as messages he left behind to friends would indicate he was going to kill himself. And he picked quite the place to do it. Guildford Cathedral was, of course, the very same church at which Damien Thorn threw his infamous Satanic hissyfit, and was also nearly sacrificed by his ill-fated foster daddy. It was also the spot where Father Brennan was impaled by an errant church spire.
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I wanted to take time out today to acknowledge the explosion of interest that has occurred here at the VoH in recent days, thanks to the celebrated/infamous "Cyber-Horror Elite" Top 50. Thanks to one of our contributors, Brad Miska, the list can now be found on Bloody-Disgusting, the web's most popular horror news site. Thanks, Brad! It has also been featured at FangoriaOnline, where blogger Brian Matus has posted his own detailed response. Cinematical has also jumped on the "CBE" bandwagon. As a result, on Saturday I set a new traffic record here for the VoH, which was nearly triple the previous record. Then, on Sunday, I broke that record.
I'd like to bid a horrific welcome to all my new readers from over the past few days. Stick around, I'm just getting warmed up!