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 * Self-Defense? Or Something More Sinister? **

The small town of Spring Creek was shocked by its first killing in 30 years. The violence apparently spawned from a year long feud between a Mike Vallone and a Jake Smith. Vallone had been at odds with Jake ever since Jake had moved next to him. Smith moved to Spring Creek after narrowly avoiding a fraud conviction. He was an embezzler who swindled countless veterans out of their pensions. This would naturally make him an enemy of Mike, who had retired to Spring Creek after serving 20 years in the Army. Mike’s valor during the Tet Offensive[1] earned him a Silver Star and a crippled left arm filled with shrapnel.

The police were called to Jakes house after his neighbors heard two gunshots. They found Jake, clutching a pistol, standing in his living room. At his feet, dead, lay Vallone who also had a pistol in hand. On the wall behind Smith was a bullet hole. Jake explained how Vallone had showed up at his door, demanded to talk to him, but after being let in, pulled out a gun and shot at him. Smith claims to have then pulled out his own gun and shot Vallone in self-defense.

The autopsy confirmed that Mike had died from a gunshot wound. The investigators swept the room for casings, but found none. However, they determined that the pistol in Mike’s hand was his own legal Colt manufactured M1911. It had an empty chamber (which holds a single cartridge) and seven cartridges in the magazine. Jake’s weapon (a .38 caliber revolver) was also legally purchased and registered.

[1] The Tet Offensive was a widespread attack launched by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.

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