Members of the Bridge, an exclusive golf club on the East End of Long Island to which members pay a $975,000 fee to join, have put together money to support the defense of Anthony Oddone, a 25-year-old club caddie who was charged with murdering Andrew Reister, a 40-year-old corrections officer who moonlighted as a bouncer at Publick House, a bar in Southampton, at the bar last month. Interesting, you ask. Is it because he is suspected of being unfairly accused? Not exactly. Quoth the Times:

According to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, Mr. Oddone placed Mr. Reister in a chokehold after Mr. Reister told him to stop dancing on a table. Mr. Oddone kept the chokehold even after Mr. Reister passed out, and did not let go even as four of Mr. Oddone’s friends and three bouncers tried to pry him loose — even dragging Mr. Oddone across the floor by his feet, prosecutors said.

According to Robert Rubin, the former commodities trader who founded the club, it's because even though Oddone strangled a stranger in the middle of a crowded bar, he always seemed like a "nice kid," albeit one with an arrest record who also bore a startling resemblance to the villain from Terminator 2. “He caddied for me twice,” Rubin said. They knew him well, you see.

In Shadows of 19th Hole, Murder in the Hamptons [NYT]