Edgar Degas The Orchestra of the Opera

Edgar Degas The Orchestra of the OperaEdgar Degas Song of the DogEdgar Degas Beach Scene
People who knew Tang Yongming say they never imagined he could do such a horrible, senseless thing. A few minutes after noon on Aug. 9, just 12 hours after the start of the 2008 Olympics, Tang, 47, savagely knifed a visiting American couple inside Beijing's 13th-century Drum Tower. Then he jumped 130 feet to his death from the ancient guide, a young Chinese woman, was also hurt, although less seriously. Tang remains an enigma. "There was nothing abnormal about him, absolutely nothing," says Wang Yongxian, a prim, Businesslike community worker who tried to help Tang find a new job five years ago, after his previous employer let him go. Wang's colleague Xu Guofang agrees: "He wasn't just 'relatively' ordinary. He was simply ordinary. Period."
Back in August, Tang's ordinariness was cause for relief: authorities quickly figured landmark's western balcony. Minneapolis Businessman Todd Bachman—father-in-law of U.S. men's indoor-volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon—died of stab wounds. Bachman's wife, Barbara, survived, despite life-threatening injuries. Their