Alleged Georgetown murderer starves himself

Albrecht Muth, who allegedly murdered his wife Viola Drath, will not stand trial until this December. Muth has subjected himself to starvation and is in dire medical condition. Muth, who now weighs only 104 lbs., is being held at United Medical Center and is at risk of heart failure.

Muth was originally arrested in early August, 2011, shortly after Drath’s strangled and beaten body was discovered in the bathroom of the couple’s home. He first stated that his wife died after accidentally falling down the stairs, but, when it became obvious that Drath’s death was the result of a homicide, Muth changed his story. Muth blamed the real cause of his wife’s death on Iranian assassins.

Muth is an incredibly eccentric German national, known for regularly impersonating an Iraqi general, an international spy, and a European noble. During initial court proceedings, Muth chose to present himself in his Iraqi general uniform. Muth’s first psychiatric evaluation found him unable to stand trial, but, upon further examination, a judge ruled that Muth would go to court.

Since that day, Muth has eaten as little as possible, leaving prosecutors extremely frustrated with his attempt to control the course of court proceedings. “He’s trying to manipulate the court system,”Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn L. Kirschner told the Post.

Muth and Drath were married for 22 years and lived in Georgetown. Some members of the Georgetown community even took notice of the strange man walking the streets, who apparently thought he was an Iraqi general.

The two were an odd couple, and close friends attested to the strangeness that Muth’s and Drath’s marriage took on in recent years.

Muriel Bowser will run in the 2014 mayoral election

On Saturday morning, Muriel Bowser, a Democrat and Ward 4 Councilmember, announced her intention to run in the next D.C. mayoral election. Should Bowser win the Democratic primary, which will be held on Apr. 1, 2014, she would virtually be guaranteed a victory in the election, as no Republican candidate has ever won a popular election for mayor in the District’s history.

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Well, what do you know—Foxhall residents have a few reasons hate the 2010 Campus Plan, too!

At last night’s mayoral candidate debate, an audience member from Foxhall, an affluent neighborhood north of both the University and Burleith, asked the three candidates what they thought of a few elements of the 2010 Campus Plan—specifically, its plans to “build a 30-foot roof over Yates [Editor's note: they mean Kehoe], which already towers above the forest behind Georgetown,” erect an 83-foot smokestack over its power plant, and build a service road on an “already fragile embankment.”

So, what do D.C. mayoral candidates think (and know) about Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan?

We’ll start with former TV news reporter Leo Alexander‘s answer, which was ludicrous. He began by laying out his in-touch-with-the-community creds, telling the audience that he’d actually attended a meeting about Georgetown University, where he “heard all about Georgetown and its students and all the nuisances they’ve caused returning home from bars and parties at night.” Cheap shot, Leo. Then his answer got weird.

“Georgetown University is not going anywhere. They can threaten all they want,” he concluded. “They may say, ‘If you don’t let us do whatever we want, we’re packing up,’ but they’re not going anywhere.” As a final note, he added that he wanted Georgetown to build more on-campus housing and establish a board that enlists the opinions of neighbors.

Umm … what? We’re kind of curious to know what gave Alexander the idea that (1) the oldest university in the city, which has invested its image, millions of dollars, and hundreds of jobs in three major D.C. campuses has ever threatened to leave D.C. (and go where? Rosslyn?) if the city doesn’t allow it to build a minor service road for its food delivery trucks and buses, and (2) that neighbors would be real broken up if Georgetown did leave, and need reassurance that Georgetown is here to stay.

We’re just wondering. Because Alexander’s ridiculous musings about the 2010 Campus Plan have officially made him the awardee of Vox‘s Craziest Theories About Georgetown title—usurping it from Stephen R. Brown, who thinks that a cabal of Georgetown Jesuits are planning to build an entirely new hospital facility in Burleith (and who takes secret photos of students from bushes).

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D.C. is voting for a new mayor Tuesday, and it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve been thinking about for the past two weeks (shameless self-promotion alert). Here are a couple of things to chew on before the polls open:

1. The Washington Post’s endorsement: I’m not offering my own opinion, but the Post is a good paper. Of course, their editorial board has been a little loco lately, what with their Lieberman endorsement and all, and they also once endorsed Marion Barry. Lesson: draw your own opinions. But, hey, the Post is a good paper. Just saying.

2. A Washington Post op-ed running today (Monday) about how and why they endorse candidates. You may use this to illuminate your reading of the previous piece.

Also, for propriety’s sake, I should let you know I worked for Washington Post-Newsweek Interactive this summer. Still, it is a good paper. Despite me.

Posted by Mike Stewart, Feature Editor

Get down with Brown!

This needs no explanation.

Posted by Mike Stewart, Features Editor

The Washington City Paper’s Loose Lips column this week published a sweet photo of Washington’s former mayor Marion Barry sporting a trademark brimmed hat in what appears to be his own little patch of Ward 8.

Despite Barry’s dapper appearance, the column goes on to note that the seventy-year-old fixture
of Washington politics is quickly fading as a significant force in the city’s Democratic party. As the columnist notes: “His [Barry's] public pat-on-the-back will do little to bring voters out for his chosen candidate. There is no Barry machine to get busloads of senior citizens rolling to the polls for Fenty or Cropp. The once-powerful operator has now been relegated to the role of symbolic political helper.”

It seems that city council Chair Linda Cropp was banking on Barry’s endorsement in the mayor’s race. Her staff is peppered with former Barry appointees and her own husband was once an aide to the crack mayor.

Now, however, Barry is leaning toward the favorite in the race: Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty. We’ll see what favors Fenty throws in turn toward Ward 8 if he is selected to be the Democratic contender (and hence the de facto mayor in this Democractic city) in the Sept. 12 primary.

Posted by Chris Stanton, News Editor