TUESDAY
DAILYORANGE.COM hi
37° |
lo
january 15, 2013
26°
t h e i n de pe n de n t s t u de n t n e w spa pe r of s y r acuse , n e w yor k
INSIDENEWS
INSIDEOPINION
Under construction Renovations to Newhouse II
will begin this semester and are expected to be completed by fall 2014. Page 3
Spread the word SA should not use social
media as the sole platform for communicating with students. Page 5
INSIDEPULP
INSIDESPORTS
On the rise Syracuse University writing
Working it out Jim Boeheim is hopeful James
professor George Saunders is making national headlines for his new book. Page 11
Southerland’s eligibility issues can be resolved so the foward can return to the court. Page 20
Truth be told By Kristin Ross
W
Ginocchetti was arrested and pled guilty to second-degree murder. The judge changed the ruling to first-degree manslaughter, and Ginocchetti received a 15-year prison sentence. But questions still remained: Why did he do
“In an interrogation room with two police officers as his witnesses, as he began to explain what had gone wrong between him and his mother, Tim came out as gay for the first time in his life.”
Mark Obbie
WRITES IN “GOD’S NOBODIES: MISGUIDED FAITH AND MURDER IN THE LIFE OF ONE AMERICAN FAMILY”
it? What provoked this 21-year-old to commit such a terrible crime? Journalist Mark Obbie strives to answer these questions and more in his new book about the case, “God’s Nobodies: Misguided Faith and Murder in the Life of One American Family,” in just the first few pages. He writes: “In an interrogation room with two police officers as his witnesses, as he began to explain what had gone wrong between him and his mother, Tim came out as gay for the first time in his life.” Given what little information was available during the hushed lawsuit, due to respecting the wishes of the family, most media outlets previously did not touch on Ginocchetti’s personal life before Obbie’s book was published in December 2012. Obbie, a former professor of magazine
SEE GOD’S NOBODIES PAGE 14
O’Hare proves artist Gary Clark Jr. is bringing blues back. See dailyorange.com
By Meredith Newman
ASST. FEATURE EDITOR
journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications during the time of the court case, became consumed in the need to answer the question of “why?”. In the summer of 2008, Obbie began collecting documentation and conducting interviews. An early piece of his work on the case was published in the July 2010 edition of O, The Oprah Magazine. But Obbie did not stop reporting when the magazine story came out. In fact, he was far from done. “I got some of my best stuff, the most revealing details, after that story, which is why I pursued this as a book,” Obbie said. He created what he considers his best journalistic work to date in authoring “God’s Nobodies,” which is an e-book published through Amazon and available for the Kindle. The book details the Ginocchettis’ family life, events leading up to the night of the murder and the aftermath that tore the family apart. The elements presented in this book had never been presented to the public before — elements that Obbie claimed became his mission to tell the world about. “I was on a mission to report it, and then I was on a mission to get published, and now I’m on a mission to let people know it exists and to talk about it,” Obbie said. A short summary of “God’s Nobodies” reveals that Ginocchetti grew up in a community of faith that he later considered a cult. The minister of the Apostolic Christian Church, Brother Frank, dictated the lives of his congregation, making them feel worthless and ultimately unworthy of God’s love, while he himself believed he had a higher connection to God. When his firefighter father was killed in a burning house when Ginocchetti was 17, his mother refused to go to therapy or take Tim. Instead, she and her son went to Brother Frank for spiritual healing. After that, Ginocchetti’s mother became the controlling force of her son’s life. He
Blues-rock revival Pop culture columnist James
Flu shots at SU hit record high
Journalist chronicles events that drove 2006 SU student to commit murder
hen Tim Ginocchetti was in seventh grade, he made local headlines for achieving a mathematical feat his teacher thought was impossible. When he entered his senior year at Syracuse University in 2006, he made headlines again — for murdering his mother.
ONLINE
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Syracuse University Health Services provided flu shots to 212 students Monday, a record-high for the center and a substantial increase from the average of 20-30 a month. The increase in the number of students getting flu shots is in line with national and state trends. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared the state to be in a public health emergency Saturday because of the current flu season. Flu cases have increased nationwide, said Kathy Van Vechten, a Health Services nurse practitioner. “When I asked kids why they were here today for a flu shot, they said their parents told them to or that they heard about the increase in flu cases on the news,” she said. The flu shot clinics opened in November and continued into December, Van Vetchen said. Health Services equipped themselves for the increase, she added, once the mayor of Boston declared the city to be in a state of emergency. Cuomo’s executive order enables pharmacists to vaccinate patients between six months and 18 years of age. In
SEE FLU PAGE 6
212 The amount of students that were administered flu shots Monday compared to the average of 20-30 a month.
illustration by micah benson | art director