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Romeo & Juliet Is Timeless

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Commodore%20Skahill/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2003-03-2011.mp3

Twenty years ago, Connecticut was held in thrall by the murder conspiracy trial of Karin Aparo in connection with the murder of Karin's mother Joyce. 

Working at the Hartford Courant then, I fielded a lot phone calls and letters about the case. People didn't have the Internet on which to vent. The conspiracy and accessory case turned on whether Karin had recruited her boyfriend Dennis Coleman to commit the murder or whether Coleman had come up with that idea on his own.
 
But underlying the reaction to the case was a kind of hysteria about teenaged sex and passion. The young couple's physical relationship was heavily covered at trial, and the whole thing made me think about Romeo and Juliet. 
 
In both stories, we are told what we already know: that the early taste of passion is a highly combustible fuel. In its grip, young people go into wild skids. 
 
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.

Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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