Murders: High Profile
Return to home
The A-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (1997) by
Harold Schechter
The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (2000) by Michael Newton
969
Dec 10, Nicephorus II Phocas, Byzantine co-Emperor
(963-69), was murdered.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1034 Apr 11, Romanus III Argyrus,
Byzantine emperor (1028-34), was assassinated by his wife.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1480 Apr 18, Lucretia Borgia
(d.1519), murderess, was born. Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, was
the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, and the sister and political pawn of
Cesare Borgia. She was also considered a patroness of the arts.
(HN, 4/18/98)(WUD, 1994, p.171)
1531 Apr 5, Richard Roose was
boiled to death for trying to poison an archbishop.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1792 Mar 16, The popular Swedish
King Gustavus III was murdered by Count Ankarstrom at an opera. It
became the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1796 Mary Lamb (31) killed her
mother with a carving knife. England deemed her a lunatic and released
into the custody of her brother Charles. In 1806 they published “Tales
From Shakespeare.” In 2005 Susan Tyler Hitchcock authored “Mad Mary
Lamb.”
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.W6)
1829 Jan 28, William Burke,
murderer, body snatcher, was executed in Edinburgh.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1836 Apr 10, Helen Jewett, a
prostitute in a Thomas St. bordello in Manhattan, was murdered. Her
boyfriend, Richard P. Robinson (17), a clerk for a local merchant, was
tried for the murder but acquitted. In 1998 Patricia Cline Cohen
published “The Murder of Helen Jewett,” an account of the story.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.W6)
c1850 Jan 30, Charles Steingraff
(50), a bachelor farmhand, was hanged in Ohio for the murder of a deaf
and blind, 12-year-old girl. An estimated 25,000 spectators watched the
execution.
(ON, 10/02, p.3)
1869 Apr 12, Henri-Desire Landru
(Bluebeard), French sex murderer, was born.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1878 Sep, Herbert Hayden, a
prominent Connecticut minister, used arsenic to murder Mary Stannard, a
young servant girl that he thought he had made pregnant. The reverend,
who was tried 1st for physical assault and later for murder was
acquitted. In 1880 he produced an exculpatory account of the case. In
1999 Virginia A. McConell authored “Arsenic Under the Elms: Murder in
Victorian New Haven.”
(WSJ, 6/24/05, p.W9)(http://tinyurl.com/amrk5)
1888 Aug 6, Martha Turner was
murdered by an unknown assailant, believed to be Jack the Ripper, in
London, England. Between August and November 506 women were murdered in
London’s Whitechapel district. In 1994 Philip Sugden authored “The
Complete History of Jack the Ripper.”
(HN, 8/6/98)(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.W8)
1888 Aug 31, Mary Ann Nicholls, a
42-year-old prostitute, was found murdered in London's East End. She is
generally regarded as the first of at least five murder victims of
"Jack the Ripper." [see Aug 6]
(AP, 8/31/99)(YN, 8/31/99)
1890 Aug 6, Convicted murderer
William Kemmler became the 1st person to be executed in the electric
chair. He was put to death at Auburn State Prison in New York for
murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. In 2003 Jill Jonnes
authored "Empires of Light," and account of how Edison, Tesla and
Westinghouse brought electric power to public use. In 2003 Mark Essig
authored "Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death."
(AP, 8/6/97)(HN, 8/6/98)(MC, 8/6/02)(WSJ, 8/19/03,
p.D5)(Econ, 9/20/03, p.81)
1896 May 7, Dr. Henry Howard
Holmes (b.1860), serial killer, was hanged to death in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmantown, New
Hampshire, to a devout Methodist family, Holmes spent much of his
childhood torturing animals. He later graduated from the University of
Michigan with a medical degree. Holmes financed his education with a
series of insurance scams whereby he requested coverage for nonexistent
people and then presented corpses as the insured. In 1886, Holmes moved
to Chicago to work as a pharmacist. A few months later, he killed the
elderly owner of the store but told everyone that the man had left him
in charge. With a new series of cons, Holmes raised enough money to
build a giant, elaborate home across from the store. The home, which
Holmes called "The Castle," had secret passageways, fake walls, and
trapdoors. Young women in the area, along with tourists who had come to
see the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and had rented out rooms in
Holmes' castle, suddenly began disappearing. Medical schools purchased
many human skeletons from Dr. Holmes during this period but never asked
how he obtained the anatomy specimens. Holmes was finally caught after
attempting to use another corpse, his assistant Benjamin Pitezel, in an
insurance scam. He confessed, saying, "I was born with the devil in me.
I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet
can help the inspiration to sing." Reportedly, authorities discovered
the remains of over 200 victims on his property.
(www.thecrimeweb.com/hhholmes.htm)
1905 Dec 30, Governor Frank
Steunenberg of Idaho was killed by an assassin's bomb. The former Gov.
of Idaho, was blown up by a booby-trapped gate in front of his home in
Caldwell, Idaho. Three Western Federation of Miners leaders in
Colorado, Charles Moyer, George Pettibone and William Haywood, were
“legally kidnapped” to Idaho and put on trial for the murder. The event
and surrounding circumstances were described by J. Anthony Lukas in his
1997 book: “Big Trouble.”
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)(HN, 12/30/98)
1906 Feb 23, Johann Hoch, US
murderer, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1908 Apr, Hootch Simpson, a saloon
keeper in Skidoo, Ca. (Death Valley), shot and killed Joe Arnold, the
town banker. Simpson was hung and buried the next morning, but was dug
up and re-hung for a newspaper reporter.
(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.C5)
1908 Belle Gunness (48),
reportedly died in a fire at her farm in Laporte, Indiana. Many locals
believed Gunness, dubbed Lady Bluebeard, staged her death and had
killed at least 25 people before the fire.
(AP, 4/27/08)
1913 Apr 26, Mary Phagan (13) was
killed at an Atlanta pencil factory. She had stopped to pick up her
check on her way to Peachtree Street to see a Confederate Memorial Day
Parade. Leo Frank (29), a Jewish factory manager, was falsely accused
of raping and murdering the young working-class girl. Georgia Gov. John
M. Slaton later commuted Frank’s sentence to life, but a vigilante
crowd dragged him out of prison and lynched him on Aug 17. In 1968
Leonard Dinnerstein authored “The Leo Frank Case.” The story is covered
in the 1997 novel "The Old Religion" by David Mamet. In 1998 the
musical "Parade" was produced based on the Frank lynching.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.6)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)(WSJ,
6/9/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.W8)
1918 Dec 14, Sidonio Pais, prince
of Portugal, was murdered.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1921 May 27, Caryl Chessman,
kidnapper who got death penalty in 1960, was born.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1922 Sep 16, Rev. Edward Wheeler
Hall and his mistress, choir member Eleanor Mills, were found shot to
death in a New Jersey apple orchard. Hall’s wife and her 2 brothers
were indicted for the murder, but they were acquitted at trial. In 1964
William Kunstler authored “The Minister and the Choir Singer, “ an
account of the double murder and trial.
(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)
1924 Feb 8, The gas chamber was
used for the first time to execute a murderer. Major D.A. Turner of the
US Medical Corps used hydrocyanic gas on an alleged Chinese Tong member
named Gee Jon at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, Nev.
(HN, 2/8/98)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.E4)(AP, 2/8/99)
1924 May 21, Bobby Franks (14) was
murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. (19) and
Richard Loeb (18), two rich college kids of the University of Chicago.
The meticulously planned crime might never have been solved had
Leopold's unique eyeglasses not been found near Franks' body. They were
defended by Clarence Darrow, who pleaded his clients guilty in order to
keep the case from a jury. Richard Loeb was a cousin of Bobby Franks.
The sensational two-month trial generated an outcry in favor of
execution, but Judge John Caverly sentenced the two to life
imprisonment. Loeb was killed in a prison fight in 1936. Leopold, with
the support of Prosecutor Crowe, was released from prison in 1958 and
died of a heart attack in 1971. In 1956 Meyer Levin authored
“Compulsion,” an account of the case. A play dramatizing the case was
written in 1995 by John Logan. In 2008 Simon Baatz authored “For the
Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago.”
(AP, 5/21/97)(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-12)(AP,
5/21/97)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W8)
1926 Oct 11, Walter Swanson,
Michael Petrovich and John Duane were murdered. Clarence "Buck" Kelly
was hanged at San Quentin Prison for the murders on May 12, 1928.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)
1927 In California Harry Hill shot
and killed state Sen. Charles W. Lyon of Los Angeles inside the state
capitol building, for engaging in a relationship with Marybelle
Wallace. Hill, a Sacramento lobbyist, then shot and killed himself.
Wallace was Hill’s mistress and an employee of Sen. Lyon.
(SSFC, 10/27/02, p.A16)
1929 In Nagyrev, Hungary, some 40
men were poisoned by their wives or daughters-in-law with arsenic laced
duck soup, tea and wine. 6 local women were sentenced to die, but only
2 were executed. The midwife ringleader, who extracted the arsenic from
flypaper, committed suicide. The 2003 Hungarian film “Hiccup” was based
on the poisonings.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A1)
1932 Jan 8, Joseph Kahahawai (21)
was kidnapped and killed by a vigilante group following an alleged gang
rape. Thalia Massie, her husband, mother, and 2 other suspects were
convicted of manslaughter in the Kahahawai murder, but their sentences
were commuted to one hour in the custody of Territorial Gov. Lawrence
Judd. They then sailed to SF to avoid a new trial. In 2005 David E.
Stannard authored “Honor Killing: How the Famous Masie Affair
Transformed Hawaii.”
(SFC, 5/28/05, p.E1)
1932 Mar 1, Charles Lindbergh Jr.
(20 months), the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped
from his nursery at the family home near Hopewell, (Princeton) N.J. A
handwritten note left at the scene demanded a $50,000 ransom. Under
relentless public scrutiny, the Lindberghs complied with the ransom
demands, but on May 12, the child’s remains were found two miles from
their home. German immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested and
convicted for the crime amid a frenzy of biased media coverage.
Hauptmann maintained his innocence until his execution in 1936. In 1961
George Waller authored “Kidnap,” an account of the kidnapping and trial.
(TMC, 1994, p.1932)(AP, 3/1/98)(HN, 3/1/98)(HNPD,
3/1/99)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)
1934 Mar 3, John Dillinger broke
out of jail using a wooden pistol.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1934 Apr 1, Bonnie and Clyde
killed 2 police officers near Grapevine, Texas.
(OTD)(ON, 7/02, p.2)
1934 May 23, Bonnie Parker and
Clyde Barrow were shot some 4 dozen times early in the morning in a
police ambush by Texas Rangers as they were driving a stolen Ford
Deluxe along a road in Bienville Parish, near Sailes, La. This ended
the most spectacular manhunt seen in America up to that time. The pair
had spent the previous 2 years killing and robbing banks in the
Midwest. Bonnie Parker was 19 and Clyde Barrow was 21 when they met in
Dallas in 1930. By the time the Barrow gang's crime spree ended four
years later, Bonnie, Clyde, Clyde's brother Buck and Buck's wife had
terrorized the Southwest and Midwest and were believed to have
committed 13 murders. In 1997 Clyde’s bullet-ridden shirt was auctioned
off to a Nevada casino for $85,000. His largest theft was estimated at
$4,000. In 1979 Ted Hinton and Larry Grove authored “Ambush: The Real
Story of Bonnie and Clyde.”
(SFC, 4/3/97, p.A13)(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A13)(AP,
5/23/97)(HNPD, 5/29/99)(HN, 5/23/02)(ON, 7/02, p.3)
1935 Feb 13, A jury in Flemington,
N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder
in the kidnap-death of the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh.
Hauptmann was later executed.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1936 Aug 14, Rainey Bethea was
hanged in the last US public execution.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1939 Jan 16, Albert Fish, mass
murderer, was executed.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1939 Jul 13, Howard Long was
hanged at the New Hampshire State Prison for the sex-killing of
10-year-old Mark Neville Jensen of Alton.
(http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/ABOLISH/aug97/0184.html)
1941 Dec 6, Richard Speck, mass
murderer (killed 8 student nurses in 1966), was born.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1942 Mar 17, John Wayne Gacy,
serial killer (32 boys), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1947 Jan 15, A grisly,
still-unsolved murder case came to light in Los Angeles as the
mutilated remains of 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short,
known as the "Black Dahlia" for the dark outfits she wore, were found
dumped in a vacant lot. Her body was severed at the waist, drained of
blood and fully posed in a vacant lot. The Black Dahlia murder case
remained unsolved even though 500 hundred men confessed to the murder.
In 1977 John Gregory Dunne authored "True Confessions," a novel based
on the case. In 1987 James Ellroy authored "The Black Dahlia." In 2003
Steve Hodel authored "Black Dahlia Avenger," in which he held that the
killer was Dr. George Hodel, his own father.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.3)(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.C16)(AP,
1/15/01)(NW, 4/21/03, p.59)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D1)(SFC, 4/16/04, p.B7)
1948 Jul 3, Kidnapper Caryl
Chessman was sentenced to death.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1948 Dec 18, Janet Fay was
hammered to death by Honeymoon Killers.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1949 Sep 6, Howard Unruh (28)
killed 13 neighbors in 12 minutes in Camden, New Jersey.
(www.fact-index.com/h/ho/howard_unruh.html)
1954 Jul 4, Marilyn Sheppard (31
and pregnant) was killed at her home near Cleveland and her husband,
Dr. Sam Sheppard (d.1970), was later accused, tried and jailed for the
murder. Sam was released from jail in 1964. His story inspired the TV
series "The Fugitive" and a film in 1993. DNA evidence in 1997
indicated a third person was involved. Cleveland’s chief prosecutor
ruled in 1998 that the DNA samples were too old. A civil trial in
Cleveland in 2000 rejected the claim of Sam Reese Sheppard that his
father was innocent.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A6)(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A3)(SFC, 3/6/98,
p.A3)(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A2)
1954 Dec 21, Dr. Sam Sheppard, an
osteopathic surgeon, was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife,
Marilyn, and was sentenced to life in prison. Sheppard spent 10 years
in prison before the Supreme Court overturned the verdict; he was
acquitted at retrial in 1966 and died four years later. [see Jul 4]
(AP, 12/21/04)
1955 Apr 28, Stephanie Bryan (14)
failed to return home from school at Willard Jr. High in Berkeley, Ca.
She was allegedly kidnapped by Burton Abbott, a married accounting
student at Cal. Abbott was convicted and executed at San Quentin in
1957 just minutes before Gov. Knight called for a stay. In 1995 Keith
Walker authored “A Trail of Corn,” covering the case. [see Jul 20]
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)(SSFC, 5/2/04, p.A2)
1955 Jul 13, Ruth Ellis, last
English woman (murderess), was executed by hanging.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1955 Jul 20, The body of Stephanie
Bryan was found in Trinity County, Ca., where Burton Abbott owned a
fishing cabin. Burton W. "Bud" Abbott, an ex-GI, was later convicted
and executed for her murder. The story is covered in the 1997 book:
"Shallow Grave in Trinity County" by Harry Farrell. [see Apr 28]
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.D5)(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)
1957 Mar 15, Burton Abbot was
executed for the 1955 abduction and killing of 14-year-old Stephanie
Bryan.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C17)
1959 Feb 20, Joel Rifkind, NY
serial killer, was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1959 Jun 25, Charles Starkweather,
spree murderer, was executed.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1960 May 17, Connecticut executed
Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky in the electric chair for a series of murders
and robberies.
(http://capitaldefenseweekly.com/chair.htm)
1961 Feb 16, Wilbert Ridieu (19)
robbed the Lake Charles, La., Gulf National Bank. He walked out with
$14,000 and 3 hostages, 2 of whom he shot and left for dead. Rideau
stabbed to death Julia Ferguson on a rural Louisiana road following the
bank robbery. He confessed and was sentenced to death 3 times. Rideau
escaped death in the 1970s when the death penalty was outlawed. In 2003
his case was still in court. While in prison Rideau became a
self-educated writer and elevated the prison magazine, the Angolite, to
national acclaim. In 2005 Rideau was set free for time served after a
racially mixed jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
(NW, 1/13/03, p.52)(AP, 1/16/05)(SFC, 1/17/05, p.A5)
1963 Mar 6, Jimmy Lee Smith and
Gregory Powell abducted 2 Los Angeles police officers from a Hollywood
street, drove them to an onion field in Bakersfield and shot officer
Ian Campbell to death. Officer Karl Hettinger managed to escape. Smith
served 19 years for his role in the case before he was paroled. In 1973
Joseph Wambaugh authored “The Onion Field,” a novel based on the
murder. The novel was turned into a film in 1979.
(SFC, 6/28/05, p.B8)
1963 Mar 16, Phung Vuong, murderer
(FBI Most Wanted List), was born in Saigon, Vietnam.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1963 Jul, Serial killers
Myra Hindley (d.2002) and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the Moors
Murderers), began abducting, molesting and killing children in Britain.
The pair were caught in Oct, 1965.
(AP, 11/16/02)
1964 Mar 13, Some 38 residents of
a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens failed to respond
to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she was being stabbed to death.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1965 Apr 14, Perry E. Smith and
Robert E. Hickok, US murderers (In Cold Blood), were hanged.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1964 Jun 21, Three young civil
rights workers, Andrew Goodman 20, Michael Schwerner 24, and James
Chaney 21, disappeared near Meridian, Mississippi. Their car was found
burning late in the day. Forty days later their bodies were found
buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Miss. Eight Klansman went
to prison on federal conspiracy charges but none served more than 6
years, and murder charges were never filed. The event inspired the 1988
film Mississippi Burning. In 2005 Edgar Ray Killen (80) was arrested in
Philadelphia, Miss., and convicted of manslaughter in the 1964
abduction and killing of 3 voter-registration volunteers.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 6/21/97)(HN,
6/21/01)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A1)
1965 Oct, In Britain child
serial killers Myra Hindley (d.2002) and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the
Moors Murderers), were caught. [see 1966]
(AP, 11/16/02)
1966 Jul 14, In Chicago Richard
Speck murdered 8 student nurses in a Chicago dormitory. He made a
videotape in prison and admitted to the killings. Gloria Davy, Patricia
Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann
Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Paison; all nursing
students at the South Chicago Community Hospital; were raped then
strangled or stabbed to death by Richard Speck. One survivor,
Cora Amurao, identified Richard Speck, and he was put in jail. He
was serving consecutive sentences of 50 to 150 years and died of a
heart attack in 1991 at age 49. The video shows him having sex and
snorting cocaine in prison.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(TMC, 1994, p.1966)(AP,
7/14/97)(MC, 7/14/02)
1966 Aug 1, Charles Joseph Whitman
(25), architectural engineering student and ex-Marine, shot and killed
15 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned down by
police. His mother and wife were the first victims before he climbed to
the tower at the Univ. of Texas in Austen and shot 14 people dead and
wounded 31. The 1997 film "The Delicate Art of the Rifle" by the
Cambrai Liberation Collective of North Carolina was a reimaging of the
attack at the Austin Campus.
(AP, 8/1/97)(SFC,10/18/97, p.E1)(SFC,11/19/97,
p.A3)(MC, 8/1/02)
1966 Oct 30, The Zodiac killer
murdered a female college student in Riverside. In 1985 Robert
Graysmith authored "Zodiac" in which he identified the killer with the
pseudonym of "Robert Starr," and later identified him as Arthur Leigh
Allen (d.1992), a convicted child molester from Vallejo. Graysmith
authored "Zodiac Unmasked" in 2002. In 2009 Deborah Perez (47) asserted
that her father, Santa Ana resident Guy Ward Hendrickson (d.1983), was
the Zodiac killer and that she had accompanied him on some of the
killings.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M6)(SFC,
4/30/09, p.A9)
1966 Myra Hindley (d.2002)
and her boyfriend, Ian Brady (the Moors Murderers), were sentenced to
life in prison for the murders of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and
17-year-old Edward Evans. Brady was also found guilty of killing John
Kilbride, 12, and Hindley for sheltering her lover after that murder.
The pair confessed in 1987 to murdering Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith
Bennett, 12. The serial killings from July 1963 to October 1965
horrified Britain. In 1997 a 13-foot high painting titled “Myra” by
Marcus Harvey was displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts. It was
created from children’s handprints and based on a mug shot of Myra.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.E5)(AP, 11/16/02)
1967 Jan 18, Albert DeSalvo, who
claimed to be the "Boston Strangler," was convicted in Cambridge,
Mass., of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. Sentenced to life,
DeSalvo was killed by a fellow inmate in 1973. DeSalvo had confessed to
being the Boston Strangler and killing 13 women. He was never convicted
of murder. A portrait of him with police interviews was made in 1996
for TV show Biography. In 1999 DNA evidence was sought to confirm
DeSalvo's claims.
(SFC, 6/6/96, E9)(AP, 1/18/98)(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A4)
1967 Jun 5, Murderer Richard Speck
was sentenced to death in electric chair for murder of nurses.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1968 Linda Harmon (14) was raped,
beaten and stabbed to death in SF. In 2003 DNA evidence identified
William Speer (61), a convicted sexual predator, as the murderer.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A13)
1969 Mar 3, Sirhan Sirhan
testified in a court in Los Angeles that he killed Robert Kennedy.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1969 Aug 8, Actress Sharon Tate
(26) and four other people were brutally murdered in her Beverly Hills
home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his disciples were
later convicted of the crime. The best writing on the Manson murders
was by Joan Didion in "The White Album."
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN,
8/9/98)(SFEC, 9/19/99, BR p.6)
1969 Aug 10, Leno and Rosemary
LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles
Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people
were found slain.
(AP, 8/10/97)
1969 Aug 31, Andrew Phillip
Cunanan, serial killer, was born. His victims included fashion designer
Gianni Versache.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1969 Sep, Susan Nason (8) of
Foster City, Ca., was bludgeoned to death. Her body was found 2 months
later near Crystal Springs. In Dec 1989 Nason's neighbor and
schoolmate, Eileen Franklin-Lipsker, told police that she suddenly
remembered seeing her father batter her friend and hide the body. In
1990 George Franklin was convicted in the first case to use
recovered-memory testimony. Franklin was released after 6 1/2 years
when a federal judge ruled a mistrial. DNA evidence showed Franklin was
not responsible.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1969 Dec 31, In Clarksville, Pa.,
Joseph Yablonski was murdered with his wife and daughter. Yablonski had
lost an election for the presidency of the United Mine Workers 3 weeks
earlier. [see Jan 5, 1970]
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1970 Jan 5, Joseph A. Yablonski,
an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine
Workers, was found murdered with his wife and daughter at their
Clarksville, Pa., home. Nine people were later charged in the killing
including UMW Pres. W.A. Boyle.
(AP, 1/5/98)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1970 Oct 19, John Linley Frazier
murdered Dr. Victor Ohta, his wife, 2 children and secretary in Santa
Cruz, Ca. He was convicted in Nov. 1970, and sentenced to life in
prison.
(SFC, 1/27/05,
p.B7)(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/frazier.htm)
1971 Jan 25, Charles Manson and
three female followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and
conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress
Sharon Tate.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1971 Feb 20, Shalanda Burt, US
murderess, was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1971 Apr 19, Charles Manson and 3
accomplices were sentenced to death for the Sharon Tate murders.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/manson/23.html)
1971 May 18, Vampire rapist Wayne
Boden’s last victim was found.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1971 May 26, Juan Corona (b.1934)
was arrested for 25 murders. The farm labor contractor from Yuba City
Ca., had killed and mutilated 25 farm workers. He was convicted to life
in prison.
(SFEC, 5/4/97,
p.B12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Corona)
1971 Aug 28, Nathan Leopold, US
kidnapper, murderer of Bobby Franks (1924), died.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1971 Oct 30, Mack Ray Edwards,
California serial killer, hanged himself while on death row. He
admitted to 6 sexually motivated murders in the 1950s and 1960s and
later told a jailer that the number was closer to 20.
(SSFC, 10/12/08,
p.B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Ray_Edwards)
1971 Nov 27, Eric Menendez,
accused with his brother of killing their parents (1989), was born in
New Jersey.
(www.biography.com/notorious/crimefiles.do?catId=259455&action=view&profileId=259645)
1971 John Linley Frazier, hippie
revolutionary, was convicted of killing 5 people in Santa Cruz and was
sentenced to death.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1972 Dec 25, Lois Petrie was raped
and killed in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles. In 2003 Adolph
Theodore Laudenburg (77) was arrested for the murder based on DNA
evidence. He was suspected in a total of 6 murders between 1972 and
1975, 3 in LA and 3 in SF.
(SFC, 9/9/03, p.A13)
1972-73 Edmund Kemper III (b.1948) murdered 6 female
college students and chopped up their bodies in the Santa Cruz, Ca.,
area. In 1964, at age 15, he had shot and killed his grandparents. He
killed his mother and a friend of hers in Santa Cruz on Easter weekend,
1973, and soon surrendered. He was sentenced to life in prison at
Vacaville, Ca.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/kemper/edmund_1.html)
1972-1994 Russian Andrei Chikatilo convicted and
executed in 1994 for killing and mutilating 52 women and children in
Russia over a 12-year period.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1973 Feb 5, Juan Corona was
sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms for 25 murders.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1973 Aug 19, In Santa Cruz, Ca.,
Herbert Mullin (b.1947) was declared guilty of first-degree murder in
the cases of Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis, because they were
premeditated, while for the other eight murders he was found guilty of
second-degree murder because they were more impulsive. His story was
alter told by Donald T. Lunde and Jefferson Morgan in “The Die Song: A
Journey in the Mind of a Mass Murderer.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Mullin)
1973 The 6 members of the Alday
family were killed on their farm during a robbery in southwest Georgia.
In 2003 Carl Isaacs (49) was executed for his role in the killings.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A7)
1974 Jan 15, In Wichita, Kansas, 4
members of the Otero family were found murdered. Their murder was later
associated with the BTK serial killer. In 2005 Dennis Rader pleaded
guilty to 10-counts of 1st degree murder for killings from 1974-1991.
(SSFC, 2/27/05,
p.A3)(www.kansas.com/214/story/16542.html)
1974 Feb 1, Lynda Ann Healy, 1st
Bundy murder victim, was abducted in Seattle.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6664381)
1974 Mar 12, Bundy victim
Donna Manson (b.1954) disappeared from Evergreen State College in
Olympia, Wa.
(www.doenetwork.org/cases/565dfwa.html)
1974 Apr 17, Ted Bundy victim
Susan Rancourt disappeared from CWU, Ellensburg, WA.
(www.real-crime.co.uk/Murder1/VICKR.HTML#Rancourt,%20Susan)
1974 May 6, Bundy victim Roberta
Parks disappeared from OSU, Corvallis, Ore.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6664391)
1974 Jun 11, Georgann Hawkins,
Bundy victim, disappeared from UW, in Seattle, Wash.
(www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hawkins_georgeann.html)
1974 Jul 14, Bundy victims Janice
Ott and Denise Naslund disappeared at Lake Sammamish, WA.
(http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/horror/drlarry/bundy3.htm)
1974 Oct 2, Nancy Wilcox, believed
to have been a victim of the serial killer Ted Bundy (d.1989),
disappeared in Salt Lake City, Utah.
(www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/wilcox_nancy.html)
1974 Oct 28, Missionaries Mark
Fischer (19) of Milwaukee, Wis., and Gary Darley (20) of Simi Valley,
Calif., disappeared in Austin, Texas. Their bodies were never found.
Robert Elmer Kleasen, taxidermist, was convicted for their murder and
sentenced to death in 1975, but was released after 2 years due to a
faulty search warrant. He moved to Britain and in 2001 was convicted
again based on DNA evidence, but died in 2003 while awaiting possible
extradition.
(AP, 4/21/03)
1974 Oct 31, Suspected Bundy
victim Laura Aime disappeared in Utah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1974 Nov 8, Debi Kent
disappeared in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was later identified as
another victim of Theodore “Ted” Bundy (1946-1989), the Green River
Murderer, who would be officially convicted of killing 36 women and
executed on January 24, 1989, in Florida.
(www.crimelibrary.com/bundy/attack.htm)
1974 Nov 24, Susan Murphy,
3-months pregnant, was killed in her Oakland home on her 19th birthday.
In 2002 DNA evidence identified and arrested Ellis Lorenzo Lockett for
the murder.
(SFC, 7/19/02, p.A23)
1974 Dec 1, L.A. Skid Row slasher
killed 1st of 8 victims.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1975 Mar 15, Ted Bundy victim
Julie Cunningham disappeared from Vail, Colo.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1975 Apr 6, Bundy victim Denise
Oliverson disappeared from Grand Junction, Colo.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1975 Apr 11, John Dadian (67), cab
driver, was shot and killed by Brandy Giggey (16) during a robbery
attempt on Ocean Beach, SF.
(SFCM, 11/10/02, p.13)
1975 May 6, Bundy victim Lynette
Culver disappeared from Pocatello, Idaho.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1975 Jul 1, Shelley Robertson, a
Bundy victim, disappeared in Colorado. Her body was found on August
21,1975, in a mine in Berthoud Pass, Colorado.
(www.crimenews2000.com/memorial/00052902pg8.htm)
1975 Jul 4, Nancy Baird (23), a
Bundy victim, disappeared from a convenience store where she worked in
Layton, Utah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1975 Sep 29, Peter Sutcliffe, who
became known as the Yorkshire Ripper, killed his 1st victim.
(www.essortment.com/all/petersutcliffe_rnyb.htm)
1975 Sep 30, In Rome Donatella
Colasanti (17) was found bloodied and battered, but alive in the boot
of a car. Beside her was the dead body of her friend Rosaria Lopez
(20). Both had undergone hours of torture before Lopez was finally
drowned in a bath. Colasanti had escaped the same fate only by playing
dead. Andrea Ghira was found guilty in the "Circeo Massacre," named for
the town near Rome where two girls were held captive for 36 hours and
then left wrapped in plastic in a car trunk, where one girl died. He
was convicted in absentia for the slaying. In 2005 his body was found
in a cemetery in a Spanish enclave in Morocco, where he was buried in
1994.
(AP,
10/29/05)(http://rome.wantedineurope.com/articles/complete_articles.php?id_art=559)
1975 Oct, Deborah Gardner (23) was
stabbed (22 times) to death in Tonga by Dennis Priven (24), a fellow
Peace Corps volunteer. In 2004 Philip Weiss authored “American Taboo: A
Murder in the Peace Corps.”
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.M2)
1975 Dec, The bodies of Tourists
Connie Jo Bronzich (29) and Laurent Armand Carriere were found badly
burned in a field outside Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2003 Charles Sobhraj
(59) was ordered to stand trial for their murder. Police said he had
killed as many as 20 people. In 2004 he was convicted in Nepal and
sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 11/21/03,
p.D1)(www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1175776.htm)
1975 Thailand issued a warrant for
the arrest of Charles Sobhraj on charges of drugging and killing six
women, all wearing bikinis, on a beach at Pattaya. Sobhraj is also
accused of killing more than 20 young Western backpackers across Asia,
usually by drugging their food or drink, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sobhraj, serving 20 years in India, escaped from prison in the
mid-1980s, but was caught and returned to jail until 1997. In 2003
French national Sobhraj was arrested from a casino in Kathmandu on
charges that he traveled to the Himalayan nation on a fake passport 32
years ago. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison for
murdering an American backpacker in 1975.
(Reuters, 12/19/07)
1976 Feb 15, In Los Angeles
Elizabeth McKeown (67) was beaten, raped and strangled. A young
homicide detective found her body 3 days later in a car trunk. In 2009
John Floyd Thomas Jr. (72), an insurance claims adjuster, was arrested
based on DNA evidence. A series of attacks stopped in 1978, the year
Thomas went to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman.
(AP, 5/1/09)
1976-1977 David Berkowitz, aka "Son of Sam," killed
six people and wounded seven others in New York City. Serving six
consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1977 Aug 10, Postal employee David
Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, N.Y., accused of being the "Son of
Sam" gunman responsible for six slayings and seven woundings. Berkowitz
was sentenced to six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences.
(AP, 8/10/07)
1977 Aug 15, Police in Cape
Girardeau, Mo., found Mary Parsh (58) and her daughter, Brenda (27),
lying nude side by side on a bed at home, their hands tied behind their
backs. Each had been shot in the head. In 2007 Timothy Krajcir (63), a
graduate from Southern Illinois with a degree in law enforcement,
confessed to their rape and murder and at least 4 more.
(AP, 12/12/07)
1977 Sep, In Philadelphia Helen
“Holly” Maddux, a Bryn Mawr College graduate from Tyler, Texas, was
murdered and stuffed into a steamer trunk for 18 months until her body
was discovered. Ira Einhorn, “hippie guru” was arrested for the murder
in 1979 but released on bail. He fled to hide in France. Fred Maddux,
Holly's father, committed suicide in 1988. Einhorn was convicted in
absentia in 1993. In June,1997, he was arrested in France. A French
court ruled against extradition and released Einhorn. Einhorn was
arrested in 1998 under a new extradition warrant. The events were
broadcast as a TV crime story in 1999 titled "The Hunt for the Unicorn
Killer." In 1999 The French Supreme Court ruled that Einhorn should be
returned to the US. In 1999 a civil suit ordered Einhorn to pay $907
million to the Maddux family. Einhorn was extradited to the US in 2001.
he was convicted of murder Oct 17, 2002.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.A2)(SFC,12/5/97, p.A17)(SFC,
9/22/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)(SFC, 5/28/99,
p.D3)(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A8)(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A14)(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A7)
1977 Dec 30, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), serial killer, escaped from jail in Colorado. His absence
was not noticed until the next day. He was re-captured in Florida on
February 15, 1978, after 3 more murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1979 Jul 23, Ted Bundy was
convicted of 2 Florida slayings. In 1980 he was convicted of the murder
and rape of Kimberly Leach (12). Bundy eventually confessed to more
than 30 killings and was executed in 1989.
(AP,
1/13/04)(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/bundy/14.html)
1977-1993 In Missouri a serial killer committed at
least 12 murders during this period. In 2004 Kansas City police used
DNA technology to charge Lorenzo Gilyard with 12 murders.
(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A1)
1978 Oct 12, Nancy Spungen
(b.1958), girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found dead
on the bathroom floor of their NYC hotel room.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Spungen)
1978 Jan 15, Lisa Levy and
Margaret Bowman, two students at Florida State University in
Tallahassee, were murdered in their sorority house. Theodore Bundy
(1946-1989) was later convicted of the crime, and executed.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1978 Feb 9, Kimberly Leach (12)
was killed by Ted Bundy in Lake City, Fla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Leach)
1978 Feb 15, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), American escaped serial killed, was recaptured in
Pensacola, Fla. Bundy eventually confessed to 29 murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1978 May 11, Carol Schmal (23) and
Lawrence Lionberg (29) were murdered in Chicago. Four men were arrested
for rape and murder and 2 of the men were sentenced to death. In 1999
Kenny Adams, Willie Rainge, Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams were
released after a journalism class proved their innocence. The men then
filed a suit and settled with Cook County for $36 million.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A3)
1978 Jul 23, Franklin Bradshow was
killed in SLC, Utah. His daughter, Frances B. Schreuder (d.2004), had
persuaded her son to kill her wealthy father due to "his stinginess."
Schreuder was convicted in 1983.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.B6)
1978 Sep 6, Bulgarian defector
Georgi Markov, living in London, was stabbed in the leg by a man
carrying an umbrella; Markov died four days later, an apparent victim
of the Bulgarian secret police.
(AP, 9/7/08)
1978 Sep 11, Kippi Vaught and
Rhonda Scheffler (17) were kidnapped from a shopping mall in
Sacramento. Their bodies were found 2 days later east of town. Gerald
Gallego (b.1946) and accomplice Charlene Williams (24) began a rape and
murder spree that left 9 women and one young man dead. Williams served
17 years in prison. Gallego was sentenced to death but was still alive
with appeals.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/gallego.htm)(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A17)
1978 Sep 11, Georgi Markov, a
Bulgarian defector, died at a British hospital four days after being
stabbed by a man wielding a poisoned umbrella tip. British
investigative reporter Peter Earle (d.1997 at 71) revealed that Markov
was jabbed by an East German agent with a poison tipped umbrella on
Waterloo Bridge. The original report stated that Markov died of a heart
attack. In 1993 Danish authorities charged a Dane of Italian origin,
Francesco Guillino, with killing Markov. Guillino, who reportedly had
worked for the Bulgarian secret services since 1972, denied any
wrongdoing and eventually was freed. In 2005 journalist Hristo Hristov
authored “Kill Vagabond,” in which he presented new evidence confirming
that the hit was planned and carried out by Bulgaria's communist-era
secret service.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)(AP, 9/11/98)(AP, 6/16/05)(SFC,
6/17/05, p.W5)
1978 In Italy Maurizio Minghella
was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing 4 women. In
1995 he was given partial liberty and prosecutors say he killed 4
prostitutes. In 2002 his trial continued in Turin.
(AP, 1/3/03)
1978-1983 Scottish-born Dennis Nilsen (b.1945),
British serial killer, murdered 15 men during this period. In 1983
Nilsen was sentenced to life in prison after admitting the murders.
(AP,
1/13/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Nilsen)
1978-1992 Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men and boys,
most in Milwaukee, during this period. He was convicted and sentenced
to 16 consecutive life terms and was killed in prison in 1994.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1979 Jan 12, Kenneth Bianchi, LA's
Hillside Strangler, was arrested in Bellingham, Wa. He and his cousin
Angelo Buono (d.2002 at 67) sexually assaulted and murdered as man as
13 young women (12-28) in 1977-1978, and dumping their bodies on
LA-area hillsides. Bianchi testified against Buono to escape the death
penalty. Buono was convicted on 9 of 10 murder counts and was sentenced
to life in prison
(SSFC, 9/22/02, p.A7)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A17)
1979 Jun 24, Brenda Lynn Judd (13)
and Sandra Colley (14) were kidnapped in Reno by Gerald Gallego (33)
and Charlene Williams. The bodies of Judd (14) and Colley (13) were
found in Dec 1999 in Lassen Ct., Ca., near the Nevada state line.
Gallego died in 2002 at age 56.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)(SFC,
7/20/02, p.A15)
1979 Jul 24, A Miami jury
convicted Theodore Bundy of first-degree murder in the slayings of
Florida State University sorority sisters Margaret Bowman and Lisa
Levy.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1979 Aug 14, In northern Wisconsin
Rob Pfiel (27) was killed by a shotgun blast to the back of his head. 2
months earlier Rusk County sheriff’s deputies killed his 3 dogs because
they had gotten loose. Rusk County DA Robert Rogers (d.1984), his wife
Cherie Barnard, and 3 brothers were later accused of plotting to kill
Pfiel, who had threatened to get even. In 2005 police arrested 2 of the
Rogers brothers for Pfiel’s murder as well as Barnard.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.B1)(SFC, 10/17/05, p.A1)
1980 Mar 10, "Scarsdale Diet"
author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death in Purchase, N.Y. Jean
Harris (56) shot and killed her unfaithful lover, cardiologist Herman
Tarnover, co-author of “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet” in
Purchase N.Y. She was granted clemency by Gov. Mario Cuomo after she
served 12 years of a 15 year sentence. Harris was released in January
1993.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/10/00)
1980 Mar 11, Marilyn McIntyre (18)
was beaten, stabbed and strangled to death at her home in Columbus,
Wis. In 2009 Curtis Forbes, a friend of her husband, was charged with
1st degree murder based on DNA evidence.
(SFC, 3/31/09,
p.A6)(www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/11251061.html)
1980 Mar 12, A Chicago jury found
John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. The next
day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in 1994.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1980 Apr 5, Sister Margaret Ann
Pahl (71) was stabbed about 30 times and strangled to death. Her body
was found in the chapel of Mercy Hospital, Toledo, Ohio. In 2004 Rev.
Gerald Robinson (63) was arrested for the murder.
(SFC, 4/24/04, p.A2)
1980 Dec 4, In El Salvador the
bodies of four American nuns slain two days earlier were unearthed.
Colonel Edgardo Casanova was the military commander of the area at the
time. Five [four] national guardsmen were later convicted of murder and
sentenced in May 1984 to 30 years in prison. In 1998 the guardsmen
admitted that they were acting on orders from above. In 1993 a UN Truth
Commission report concluded that Colonel Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova,
director of the National Guard and brother of Edgardo, and Gen’l. Jose
Guillermo Garcia, the minister of defense, had organized an official
cover-up. Both men were granted residence in the US. 3 of the 5
convicted guardsmen were released in 1998 due to prison overcrowding.
In 1999 families of the victims filed suit against Casanova and Garcia
who were living in Florida. In 2000 a federal jury cleared the 2
retired generals.
(AP, 12/4/97)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)(SFC, 4/23/98,
p.A16)(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A10) (SFC, 7/23/98, p.C2)(SFC, 5/13/99,
p.C3)(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A3)
1980 Dec 8, John Lennon, musician
and one of the Beatles, was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman
outside his New York City apartment building. Chapman was a
schizophrenic with the delusion that he himself was John. In 1984 Prof.
Jonathan M. Wiener wrote a book on Lennon and later got the FBI to
surrender its secret files on Lennon.
(Beat. For., 1995, p. 74)(SFC, 9/25/97, p.A2)(AP,
12/8/97)
1980-1990 Herbert Baumeister (1947-1996), an
Indianapolis businessman, killed 16 men, most of them gay, and dumped
them in the woods behind his home and along rural roads in Indiana and
Ohio. Baumeister committed suicide in Canada at age 49.
(www.mayhem.net/Crime/morg9804.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Baumeister)
1981 Jan 2, "Yorkshire Ripper"
Peter Sutcliffe (b.1946), murderer of 13 women, was arrested on a
traffic violation. On Jan 4 he declared he was the ripper and charges
were filed on Jan 6. Stuart Kind (d.2003), a leading forensic
biologist, helped British police crack the "Yorkshire Ripper" serial
murder case. Sutcliffe was convicted on May 22 on 13 counts of murder
and sentenced to life in prison. In 2003 Michael Bilton authored
“Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sutcliffe)(AP,
4/30/03)
1981 Feb 24, A jury in White
Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of second-degree murder in
the fatal shooting of “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman Tarnower.
(AP, 2/24/01)
1981 Mar 3, In Los Angeles, Ca.,
Stanley "Tookie" Williams (1953-2005) was convicted in the 1979 killing
of 4 people and sentenced to death. The co-founder of the Crips street
gang (1971), who denied the murders, took up writing for children while
in prison and created the Internet Project for Street Peace. In 2000 a
member of the Swiss parliament nominated him for the 2001 Nobel Peace
Prize. A TV film on Williams, "Redemption," was scheduled to air in
2004. In 2005 he received a “President’s Call to Service Award.”
Williams was executed Dec 13, 2005.
(www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/williams1003.htm)(SFC, 2/13/04,
p.A25)(SFC, 8/6/05, p.A2)
1981 Mar 20, Jean Harris, former
girls’ school headmistress, was sentenced in White Plains, New York, to
15 years to life in prison for slaying “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr.
Herman Tarnower. Harris ended up serving almost 12 years.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1981 Apr 23, Stacy Benjamin (19)
and Patty Geddling (23) were murdered in Redwood City, Ca., under
drug-related circumstances. Beardslee had killed a woman in Missouri in
Dec, 1969. In 2003 A federal appeals court upheld the conviction
of Donald Beardslee of San Mateo. Psychiatric evidence later showed
that Beardslee suffered from brain damage due to an accident in 1964.
His execution was set for Jan 19, 2004.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A4)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.B4)(SSFC,
1/16/05, p.A1)
1981 Apr 29, Truck driver Peter
Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the "Yorkshire Ripper,"
the killer of 13 women in northern England during a five-year period.
He convicted and was sentenced to serve a minimum of 30 years.
(AP, 4/29/00)(AP, 1/13/04)
1981 Jun 13, Tom Snyder
interviewed Charles Manson on "Tomorrow."
(www.serialkillercalendar.com/briefcharlesmansonbio.html)
1981 Jul 1, The "Wonderland
Murders" took place at 4763 Wonderland in the Hollywood Hills. Ronald
Launius, William Deverell, Barbara Richardson and Joy Miller were
murdered. The killings were said to have occurred in retaliation for a
drug robbery 2 nights earlier. Federal prosecutors unveiled in
indictment in 2000 against Eddie Nash, a former nightclub owner,
Gregory DeWitt Diles, his bodyguard, and porn star John Curtis Holmes.
Holmes died in 1988 of an AIDS-related illness. In 2003 the film
"Wonderland" starred Val Kilmer as Holmes.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.B5)(ST, 10/17/03, p.22H)
1981 Aug 27, Rene Soto clubbed to
death Anselmo Covarrubias in LA County. Maria Suarez (21), a battered
"sex slave" to Covarrubias and witness to the murder, was convicted of
first-degree murder and sent to prison. In 2002 Gov. Davis rejected a
recommended parole for Suarez. In 2003 Gov. Davis issued a parole.
Suarez was released in 2004.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A20)(SFC, 6/22/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
4/6/03, p.A12)(SFC, 5/26/04, p.A1)
1981 Nov 3, In Milpitas, Ca.,
Anthony Jacques Broussard, a high school student (16), strangled and
killed Marcy Conrad, his girl friend (14), dumped her body on a river
bank and gave tours to his friends, who never reported the crime. The
1986 film "River's Edge" was later made based on the murder.
1981 Nov 30, Porn star John Holmes
was arrested on fugitive charges.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1981 Dec 9, Porn star John Holmes
was charged in the Los Angeles Laurel Canyon murders. He was later
released.
(MC, 12/9/01)(ST, 10/17/03, p.22H)
1982 Feb 27, Wayne B. Williams was
found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were
found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1982-1998 Gary Ridgway killed a number of women in
the northwest US. He later pleaded guilty to killing 48 women in the
Seattle-area "Green River" killings and was sentenced to life in prison
without parole.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1983 Jun 4, In Chino Hills, Ca.,
Douglas and Peggy Ryen and their 10-year old daughter, Jessica, were
killed in the master bedroom of their home. Christopher Hughes (11), a
neighbor, was also killed. Joshua Ryen (8) survived despite serious
wounds. Kevin Cooper, who escaped from Chino prison on June 2, was
arrested 47 days later and was convicted for the murders in 1985 and
faced execution. Cooper claimed he was innocent and called for DNA
testing of the evidence in 2000. In 2003 an execution date of Feb 10,
2004, was set for Cooper. Cooper won a last minute reprieve on Feb 9
pending a re-examination of the case.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B3)(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A21)(SFC,
2/11/04, p.A4)
1983 Sep 25, Leslie Michelle
English (2) was raped and murdered in Griffin, Georgia. Her uncle,
Eddie Albert Crawford was convicted of the murder and sentenced to
death. After 20 years on death row Crawford was executed July 19, 2004.
(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A4)
1983 Oct, In Australia Edwina
Boyle disappeared from her Melbourne suburb home. Her husband Frederick
William Boyle (35) of Carrum Downs, dismembered her, and hid her body
in a 44-gallon drum. In 2006 his son-in-law opened the drum a found her
remains. A post-mortem showed she died of a bullet wound to the head.
In 2008 Boyle was convicted of murder.
(AFP, 1/31/08)(Reuters, 2/9/08)
1983 Nov 26, Angela Bugay of
Antioch, Ca., 5-years-old, was found in a shallow grave in Concord, Ca.
She had been kidnapped a week earlier. Larry Graham, who dated Angela’s
mother, was later arrested as a suspect and prosecutors in 1995
received a court order to draw his blood for DNA evidence. In 1996
police matched the DNA of Graham, with samples recovered from the
girl’s body and arrested him on charges of murder. Use of the DNA
evidence was cleared in 1998. Graham was convicted Aug 20, 2002, and
sentenced to death Oct 22.
(SFC, 4/26/96, p.A-19)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A19)(SFC,
3/18/99, p.A19)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/02, p.A15)(SFC, 10/23/02,
p.A16)
1984 Jul 18, James Huberty opened
fire at a McDonald's fast-food restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif.,
killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.
(AP, 7/18/97)(MC, 7/18/02)
1984 Jul 24, In American Fort,
Utah, Ron and Dan Lafferty stabbed to death their sister-in-law, Brenda
Lafferty, and her daughter Erica, aged 15 months. In 2003 Jon Krakauer
authored "Under the Banner of Heaven," an account of the murder and the
Mormon background of the Laffertys.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.W15)
1984 Jul 26, Ed Gein (78),
mass murderer (movie "Psycho" based on him), died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1984 Delores Dye was murdered in a
New Orleans supermarket parking lot. Curtis Kyles was tried 5 times for
her murder and walked free in 1997. In 2005 Jed Horned authored “Desire
Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans.”
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B4)
1984 Michael Ross, former
life-insurance salesman, was arrested in Connecticut. He had strangled
at least 6 girls and young women. He later pleaded guilty to 2 killings
in 1985 and was convicted of 4 killings in 1987. He was sentenced to
death in 1997 and signed a letter in 1998 to be executed. Ross was
executed May 13, 2005.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.A6)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.31)(SSFC,
1/30/05, p.A10)(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A4)
1985 Aug 31, Richard Ramirez,
later convicted of California's "Night Stalker" killings, was captured
by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1985 Sep 22, The body of Betty
Stuart (22) was found at Aquatic Park in Berkeley, Ca. In 2008
prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in
prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
He had been arrested in 1986 and was already serving a 63 year sentence
for the rape and murder of 3 other women. In 2008 McKnight, a former
sailor, was convicted on an additional 5 counts of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)(SFC, 9/18/08, p.B2)
1985 Sep 29, The body of Diane
Stone (17) was found near an elementary school in Oakland, Ca. In 2008
prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in
prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1985 Oct 8, The body of Talita
Dixon (13) was found on a trail in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland,
Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54),
already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for
her murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1985 Dec 9, The body of Monique
Davis (18) was found behind a business in Richmond, Ca. In 2008
prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in
prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1985 Dec 16, Reputed
organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New
York City restaurant.
(AP, 12/16/97)
1985 Dec 24, The body of Beverly
Bryant (24) was found at an elementary school in Oakland, Ca. In 2008
prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in
prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
1986 Aug 20, Mail carrier Patrick
Sherrill of Edmond, Ok., shot 14 fellow workers dead.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1986 Sep 16, In Wichita, Kansas,
Vicki Wegerle (28), homemaker and mother of 2, was found strangled in
her home. Her murder became the 8th and last associated with the BTK
serial killer.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)
1986 Sep, In Ohio University of
Akron students Dawn McCreery (20) and Wendy Offredo (21) were sexually
assaulted and killed. Richard Cooey (19) and a co-defendant (17) were
convicted for the sexual assaults and slayings. The co-defendant was
sentenced to life in prison because of his age. Cooey was executed in
2008.
(AP, 10/14/08)
1986 Dec 15, Army cook Ronald A.
Gray raped and killed Army Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay of Fayetteville.
She was shot four times with a .22-caliber pistol that Gray confessed
to stealing. She suffered blunt force trauma over much of her body.
Gray (42) was convicted in connection with a spree of four murders and
eight rapes in the Fayetteville, NC, area between April 1986 and
January 1987 while he was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was convicted at
Fort Bragg in April 1988 and unanimously sentenced to death.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1986 Dec 17, Richard Kuklinsky, a
Mafia hitman known as the Iceman, was arrested in New Jersey. He was
found guilty of all charges May 25, 1988. Anthony Bruno later authored
“The Iceman.”
(www.crimelibrary.com)
1986 In California 5 women were
murdered in the Central Valley along I-5. In 2008 Roger Reese Kibbe
(68) was charged with the 5 murders along with a 1977 murder of a woman
from Walnut Creek. He was already serving a life sentence for the
murder of a West Sacramento prostitute, whose body was found in 1987.
(SSFC, 3/9/08, p.B3)
1986-1987 Joseph Martin Danks stabbed to death 6
Korean immigrants in Los Angeles. He was convicted and sentenced to
life in prison. In 1990 he strangled his cellmate, Walter Holt (67).
Danks was sentenced to death in 1993 and the decision was upheld by the
state Supreme Court in 2004.
(SFC, 2/4/04, p.A19)
1987 Jul 27, In Warwick, RI, Craig
Price (13) crept across his neighbor's yard, broke into a little brown
house on Inez Avenue and stabbed Rebecca Spencer 58 times. She was a
27-year-old mother of two. On Sep 1, 1989, he butchered Joan Heaton
(39) with kitchen knives she had bought earlier that day. The bodies of
her daughters, Jennifer 10, and Melissa 8, were found in pools of
blood, pieces of knives broken off in their bones; Jennifer had been
stabbed 62 times. Price was scheduled to be released in 1994 but was
sentenced to 15 years, seven to serve and eight suspended, following
contempt charges and belligerent statements. Fights in prison added
more time to his sentence. As of 2007 Price's scheduled release date
was February 2022. He will be 48.
(AP,
12/16/07)(www.projo.com/extra/2004/craigprice/content/timeline.htm)
1987 Dec 28, The bodies of 14
relatives of R. Gene Simmons were found at his home near Dover, Ark.,
following a shooting spree by Simmons in Russellville that claimed two
other lives. Simmons was later executed.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1987 William Thompson (61), a San
Diego newspaper publisher, was found dead with 55 stab wounds. In 2005
DNA evidence linked prison inmate Stanley Clayton to the murder.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.B3)
1987-1998 Chester D. Turner, a pizza delivery man,
raped and strangled at least 10 women in South Los Angeles. In 2004 DNA
Turner (39) was charged with 10 murders based on DNA evidence.
(AP, 10/27/04)
1987-2001 In France Michel Fourniret, dubbed the
"Ogre of the Ardennes", admitted in his 2008 trial to murdering, raping
and kidnapping seven young girls and women during this period. His
wife, Monique Olivier, was accused of helping him trap victims. Both
were convicted and faced life in jail.
(AFP, 5/26/08)
1988 Feb 16, Richard Wade Farley
gunned down 7 people at ESL Corp. during an office rampage in
Sunnyvale, Calif. Farley was later convicted of murder and sentenced to
death.
(AP, 2/16/98)(SFC, 10/27/04, p.B1)
1988 Mar 25, In New York
City's so-called "preppie murder case," Robert E. Chambers Jr. pleaded
guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old
Jennifer Levin. Chambers was convicted of the killing after what he
described as a session of rough sex. Chambers received a sentence of
five to 15 years in prison. He walked out of the Auburn Correctional
Facility in Auburn, N.Y, Feb, 2003, after serving a full 15-year
maximum sentence for the 1986 Central Park killing.
(AP, 3/24/98)(Internet)
1988 May 20, 30-year-old Laurie
Dann walked into a Winnetka, Ill., elementary school classroom, where
she shot to death 8-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounded several other
children. After wounding a young man at his home, Dann took her own
life.
(AP, 5/20/98)
1989 Jan 24, Confessed serial
killer Theodore Bundy (42) was put to death in Florida's electric chair
for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1989 Mar 23, Joel Steinberg was
sentenced to 25 years for killing his adopted daughter.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1989 Apr 10, In Ohio Jeffrey
Lundgren (b.1950), a self-proclaimed prophet, led his cult in planning
and executing murders of the Avery family in order to bring about a
prophecy he interpreted from the Old Testament. Lundgren was convicted
of five counts of murder and executed on October 24, 2006 at the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Lundgren)
1989 Apr 14, Former winery worker
Ramon Salcido killed 6 relatives, including his wife and daughters, and
a co-worker in Sonoma County. He was tried and convicted in Oct. 1990
by Judge Littrell (d.1997) and sentenced to death. In 1997 Salcedo was
still on death row with his case in the appeal process.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.E2)(AP, 4/14/99)
1989 Apr 20, Ramon Salcido, a
California winery worker later convicted of killing six relatives and a
co-worker, was deported from Mexico to the U.S.
(AP, 4/20/99)
1989 Aug 20, Entertainment
executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were murdered in their
Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion. Eric and Lyle Menendez stood accused of
murdering their parents. In their first trial the jury deadlocked, but
in 1996 they were convicted of first-degree murder. They based their
defense on a history of parental abuse.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-15)(WSJ, 3/21/96, p.A-1)
1989 Dec 6, 14 women were shot to
death at the University of Montreal's school of engineering by Marc
Lepine, who then took his own life.
(AP, 12/6/97)(MC, 12/6/01)
1990 Jan, In Oregon Keith Hunter
Jesperson began his career as a serial killer with the sexual assault
and murder of Taunja Bennett. He went on to murder 8 women. In 2002
Jack Olsen (d.2002) authored “I: The Creation of a Serial Killer.”
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.M2)
1990 Mar 8, NYC's Zodiac killer
shoot his 1st victim, Mario Orosco.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1990 May 31, NYC's Zodiac killer
shot a 3rd victim, Joseph Ponce.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1990 Aug 26, The bodies of two
slain college students were found in their off-campus apartment in
Gainesville, Florida; three more bodies were discovered in the days
that followed, setting off a wave of panic.
(AP, 8/26/00)
1990 James Michael Wilcox was
murdered in Texas. Robert Smith (22), with an IQ estimated at 63, was
convicted and sentenced to death. In 2004 Gov. Rick Perry commuted the
death sentence due to a 2002 Supreme Court decision barring the
execution of developmentally disabled inmates.
(SFC, 3/13/04, p.A2)
1991 Mar 22, High school
instructor Pamela Smart, accused of manipulating her student-lover into
killing her husband, was convicted in Exeter, New Hampshire, of
murder-conspiracy.
(AP, 3/22/01)
1991 Jul 22, Police in Milwaukee
arrested serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer, who was later murdered in
prison. He was murdered while in prison in 1994.
(AP, 7/22/97)(SFC, 5/29/96, A4)
1991 Aug 10, Nine Buddhists were
found slain at their temple outside Phoenix, Arizona. Two teen-agers
were later arrested; one pleaded guilty to murder, the other was
convicted of murder.
(AP, 8/10/01)
1991 Dec 5, Richard Speck, who
murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 died of a heart attack
in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(AP, 7/14/97)(AP, 12/5/97)
1991 Dec 19, Donna Ann Morrow was
murdered in Menlo Park, Ca., following an argument with her husband,
Joseph Morrow, who fled the country. Her body was found in 2003 in the
Santa Cruz Mountains on property that had been owned by Joseph Morrow.
Police tracked Morrow to Manila, where he was arrested.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A14)
1991 Jennifer Soto (19), a Taco
Bell manager, was killed during a robbery attempt in Dallas. LaRoyce
Lathair Smith (19) was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for her
murder. In 2004 his sentence was overturned by the US Supreme Court
because jurors did not consider his learning disability and other
evidence. Smith’s IQ was reported to be 78.
(SFC, 11/16/04, p.A4)
1991 In Margate, Scotland, Vicky
Hamilton (15) was last seen. In 2007 her skeleton was discovered at a
house where handyman Peter Tobin used to live. Her remains were found
during a search for another missing teenager, Dinah McNicol (18) from
the county of Essex, eastern England, who was last seen returning from
a 1991 music festival. The remains of McNicol were found a few days
after the Hamilton find. Tobin (61) was charged with the murders.
(AP, 11/16/07)(AFP, 11/17/07)
1992 Jan 13, US serial killer
Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane in fifteen of the seventeen
murders he confessed to committing.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1992 Jan 24, The state of Arkansas
executed convicted cop-killer Rickey Ray Rector after Gov. Bill Clinton
refused to intervene.
(AP, 1/24/02)
1992 Jan 27, Aileen Wuornos, a
Florida prostitute, was convicted of slaying the first of seven men
she'd admitted killing, claiming self-defense.
(AP, 1/27/02)
1992 Feb 15, A Milwaukee jury
found that Jeffrey Dahmer was sane when he killed and mutilated 15 men
and boys.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(AP, 2/15/02)
1992 Feb 17, Serial killer Jeffrey
Dahmer was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison. He was beaten to
death in prison in November 1994.
(AP, 2/17/98)
1992 Mar 11, Manuel De Dios Unanue
(48), US anti-drug journalist, was murdered.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1992 Mar 30, Walter Mickens Jr.
robbed, attempted sodomy, and stabbed Timothy Hall (17) 143 times in
Newport News, Va. Mickens was convicted of murder in 1993 and was
executed in 2002.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A3)(SFC, 6/13/02, p.A5)
1992 Apr 9, Barbara Muszalski
disappeared from her Livermore, Ca., goat ranch. Her slashed body was
found 2 days later at the SF airport parking garage. Benjamin Pedro
Gonzales, who had stayed at the ranch for odd jobs, was arrested in San
Diego for the murder. He was also accused of the murder of a Los
Angeles college student and a New York stripper.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A15,19)
1992 Apr 21, Robert Alton Harris
became the first person executed at San Quentin by the state of
California in 25 years as he was put to death in the gas chamber for
the 1978 murder of two San Diego teen-age boys. Harris left some art
that was later put on sale at Expressions Art Gallery in Oakland.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C17)(AP, 4/21/97)(SFC, 2/6/99,
p.A13)
1992 Sep 2, Nine-year Michael
Nguyen was murdered in San Francisco. Two men were later found guilty
of murdering the boy for profit based on insurance claims.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A13)
1992 Oct 9, In Alabama Jack
Trawick abducted and killed college student Stephanie Gach (21) in
Birmingham. Trawick (62), a serial murderer, was executed in 2009.
(SFC, 6/12/09,
p.A6)(www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/09/jun09.htm)
1992 Dec 1, In Mineola, N.Y., Amy
Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting and
seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco. Fisher was released in 1999
after serving 7 years.
(AP, 12/1/97)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A9)
1992 Dorthy Harris (41) and Louis
Oates (63) were shot to death at their oil company office in Palestine,
Texas. Kelsey Patterson, a paranoid schizophrenic, was arrested
and convicted of the murder. Patterson was executed May 18, 2004.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A7)
1992-1993 Australian Ivan Milat killed seven young
backpackers in the nation's worst serial killing. He was convicted and
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1993 Jan 5, The state of
Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd, an admitted child sex killer,
in America's first legal hanging since 1965.
(AP, 1/5/98)
1993 Jan 8, In Palatine, a suburb
of Chicago, 7 people were shot to death at a fried chicken restaurant.
In 2002 Juan Luna and James Degorski were arrested and confessed to the
killings. “They just did it to do something big.”
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A9)
1993 Jun, Volunteers picking up
litter in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Ca., discovered a suitcase
containing the remains of a woman later identified as Stephanie Jensen
(31). Police used DNA to identify her in 2004 and in 2005 arrested her
boyfriend Kirk Bennett (54) in Idaho.
(SFC, 7/12/05, p.B8)
1993 Jul 7, Mia Zapata (27), a
rising punk-rock star, was last seen alive in Seattle. In 2003 Jesus C.
Mezquia was arrested in Florida on DNA evidence.
(SSFC, 1/12/03, p.A6)
1993 Aug 3, James Jordan, the
father of basketball star Michael Jordan, was found dead in a South
Carolina creek, 11 days after he was slain; his remains were not
identified until Aug. 13.
(AP, 8/3/98)
1993 Aug 26, Landlady Dorothea
Puente was convicted in Monterey, Calif., of murdering three of her
boardinghouse tenants; she was later sentenced to life without parole.
(AP, 8/26/98)
1993 Nov 24 Two 11-year-old boys,
Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, were convicted of the February murder
of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool, England. Shortly after the
trial, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, the Lord Chief Justice, ordered that
the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years behind bars. Thompson
and Venables were released on a “life license” in June 2001, after
serving eight years of their life sentence. An injunction remained in
force following their release, so that details of their new identities
and locations could not be published.
(AP,
11/24/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger)
1993 Dec 1, US Navy Ensign George
Smith shot and killed his ex-fiancée and a friend and then
himself. In Oct. he had passed a Navy screening test to gauge his
psychological fitness for nuclear submarine duty.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A2)
1993 Little Rock, Ark., hit a
record 76 murders for the year.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.F6)
1993 In Canada Karla Homolka
pleaded guilty in the sex slayings of two southern Ontario teenagers
Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. She was sentenced to 12 years in
prison and was set for release in 2005. Her husband Paul Bernardo,
eventually convicted of raping 13 Ontario women or girls, committed
many of the assaults during the first three years of his relationship
with Homolka.
(AP, 6/3/05)
1994 Feb 15, Andrei Tsjikatilo,
[Rostov Ripper], Russian mass murderer, was executed.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1994 May 9, Mass murderer Joel
Rifkind was found guilty in NY.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1994 May 10, The state of Illinois
executed convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy (52) for the murders
of 33 young men and boys. He was executed at Stateville Correctional
Center near Joliet. A search for more bodies was continued in 1998.
Gacy left behind some clown art that was auctioned and purchased for
$20,000 by Joe Roth, who burned all of it.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A2)(SFC, 2/6/99,
p.A13)
1994 May 11, Arkansas put to death
two convicted murderers; it was the first time a state executed two
people on the same day since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to
restore the death penalty in 1976.
(AP, 5/11/99)
1994 Jul 22, O.J. Simpson pleaded
innocent to the slaying of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald
Goldman.
(AP, 7/22/99)
1994 Jul 29, Abortion opponent
Paul Hill (40) shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton (69) and
Britton's bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic
in Pensacola, Fla. Hill was later convicted and sentenced to death.
Hill was executed Sep 3, 2003.
(AP, 7/29/99)(SFC, 9/2/03, p.A7)
1994 Aug 22, DNA testing linked OJ
Simpson to the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1994 Nov 1, In Cherry Hill, Pa.,
Len Jenoff and Paul Daniels clubbed to death Carol Neulander (52), the
wife of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander (53), under a contract from Rabbi
Neulander. Neulander stood trial in 2001 in New Jersey and was
convicted of murder Nov 20, 2002.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A6)
1994 Nov 2, A jury in Pensacola,
Fla., convicted Paul Hill of murder for the July 29 shotgun slayings of
an abortion provider and his bodyguard; Hill was sentenced to death. He
became the first person to be executed for killing an abortion provider
when he was killed by electrocution on September 3, 2003 at the age of
49 at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida.
(AP,
11/2/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jennings_Hill)
1994 Dec 30, John Salvi opened
fire at two abortion clinics in suburban Boston and killed 2 clinic
receptionists, Lee Ann Nichols and Shannon Lowney. He committed suicide
in prison on Nov 29, 1996. His conviction was voided in 1997 because he
died before his appeal was heard.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A1,15)(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A3)(AP,
12/30/99)
1994-1995 South African Moses Sithole raped and
strangled 38 women in the Johannesburg area. He was sentenced in 1997
to more than 2,400 years in jail.
(AP,
1/13/04)(http://members.skcentral.com/html/articles.php?cat_id=13)
1995 Jan 1,
Briton Fred West hanged himself in his London prison while awaiting
trial in the murders of a dozen girls and women. The victims included
his wife's 16-year-old daughter and 8-year-old stepdaughter and several
young runaways.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1995 Jan 20, Bruno Jordan, suit
salesman and brother a drug enforcement officer, was shot dead in El
Paso. In 2002 Charles Bowden authored “Down By the River,” an account
of the murder and narcotics traffickers.
(NW, 1/13/03, p.61)
1995 Feb 17, Colin Ferguson was
convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail
Road shootings. He was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in
prison.
(AP, 2/17/00)
1995 Mar 22, Convicted Long Island
Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in prison for
killing six people.
(AP, 3/22/00)
1995 Mar 31, Mexican-American
singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus
Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club. Yolanda Saldivar was
convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/31/00)
1995 Jul 22, In San Luis Obispo,
15-year-old Elyse Pahler was murdered by 3 teenagers of the death metal
band called Hatred patterned after the group "Slayer." Her body was not
found for 8 months until revealed by Joseph Fiorella (16), who received
a 26 year to life sentence in 1997 as part of a plea bargain. Royce
Casey (18) and Jacob Delashmutt still faced trial as adults. Death
metal was a sub-genre of heavy metal that featured explicit lyrics
dealing with murder, torture and occult practices.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A15)
1995 Sep 11, In Florida Jimmy Ryce
(9) was kidnapped, raped and murdered. In 1998 Juan Carlos Chavez, a
Cuban ranch hand was convicted. His defense was that he was framed by
his bosses into a confession for fear of being deported. The defense
held that Edward Sheinhaus, the son of Chavez’s bosses, was the killer.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A4)
1995 Oct, In Kewanee, Ill., Scott
English killed Jami Pollock (3) as she and her mother slept. Tabitha
Pollock, the mother, was later convicted of 1st degree murder for not
preventing the murder and sentenced to 36 years in prison. In 2002 the
state Supreme Court overturned the sentence. English was sentenced to
life in prison.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.J3)
1995 Dec 5, Stanley Keith Runcorn
(73), a professor in geophysics, was killed by Paul Bradford Cain (26),
a kickboxer, at the Hotel San Diego. Cain was convicted in 1997 of
first-degree murder.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A20)
1995 Dec 7, US paratrooper James
N. Burmeister (21) shot and killed Jackie Burden and Michael James. He
was convicted on Feb 27, 1997 of 1st degree murder and conspiracy in
the hate crime and faced the death penalty. The jury deadlocked 11 to 1
in favor of death so the judge sentenced him to 2 consecutive life
terms in prison. He will have to serve at least 50 years before
becoming eligible for parole. Malcolm Wright, a fellow soldier, was
also charged in the murders and convicted on May 2, 1997.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)
1995 Dec 20, Three teenagers were
found shot through the head on a remote logging road in Lane County,
Oregon. One was a 15-year old girl, who was also raped. Later Jonathon
Wayne Susbauer, 22, and Conan Wayne Hale, 20, were arrested.
Authorities taped a confession by Hale while he confessed to a Roman
Catholic priest. Catholic leaders in Portland have requested that the
tape be destroyed.
(SFC, 5/11/96, p.A-3)
1996 Feb 16, In Vista, San Diego
County Joshua Jenkins, 15, stabbed his parents and grandparents to
death. The next day he axed his sister. In 1997 he was sentenced to 116
years in prison.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.A22)
1996 Mar 13, Thomas Hamilton
killed 16 kindergarten children, a teacher and himself in a classroom
in Dunblane, Scotland.
(WSJ, 3/14/96, p.A-1)(AP, 3/13/01)(MC, 3/13/02)
1996 Mar 18, Rejecting an insanity
defense, a jury in Dedham, Mass., convicted John C. Salvi III of
murdering two women in a pair of attacks at two Boston-area abortion
clinics in December 1994. Salvi later committed suicide in his cell.
(AP, 3/18/01)
1996 Apr 30, In Fort Myers,
Florida, members of a teen militia called the Lords of Chaos slew
high-school band director Mark Schwebes. They had begun a crime spree
on Apr 13 with acts of arson and vandalism. Arrested were Kevin
Foster,18, Derek Shields, 18, Peter Magnotti, 17, Christopher Black,
18, Christopher Burnett, 17, and Thomas Tarrone, 16.
1996 May 3,
Gregory Clepper was charged with killing 12 women on the South side of
Chicago in a string of slayings that began in 1991.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-10)
1996 Jun 1, The bodies of Julianne
Williams (24) and Laura Winans (26) were found in Shenandoah National
Park, a week after they were last seen alive. Their hands were bound
and their throats were slashed. On Apr 10, 2002 Darrel David Rice (34)
of Maryland was indicted for the murders along with hate charges.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A15)
1996 Aug 5, A jury in San Jose,
Calif., recommended the death penalty for Richard Allen Davis,
convicted of kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
(WSJ, 8/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/97)
1996 Aug 15, Frederick Davidson, a
graduate student at San Diego State University, shot and killed three
engineering professors; he was later sentenced to three life terms in
prison.
(AP, 8/15/97)
1996 Aug 28, In Poland Agnieszka
Kotlarska, fashion model, was knifed and killed by a thief outside her
home.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.A14)
1996 Dec 3, In Mexico Fernando
Balderas, lawyer-journalist, and his wife Yolanda Figueroa and 3
children were beaten to death. The couple had reported exposes on drugs
and corruption in the government. Balderas published the magazine
Fourth Power. Alejandro Perez, the family chauffeur, later confessed to
participating in the killings with 2 others because Balderas had raped
the gardener’s wife and attempted to rape his wife. Balderas had helped
his wife write “The Boss of the Gulf,” about drug cartel leader Juan
Garcia Abrego.
(SFC, 12/7/96, p.A10)(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B4)
1996 Dec 26, In Boulder, Colorado,
6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the
basement of her family home 8 hours after the mother discovered a
ransom note demanding $118,000. To date, the slaying remains unsolved.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 12/26/97)
1996 Eric Nesbitt (21), an airman
at Langley AFB, was shot and killed after he was abducted and forced to
withdraw money from an ATM machine by Daryl R. Atkins and another man.
Atkins scored 59 on an IQ test in 1998, below the Virginia cut-off of
70 for retardation. In 2002 the US Supreme Court ruled that it was
unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. In 2004 Atkins
scored 74 and faced another trial.
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A9)
1997 Jan 3, In NY in Centereach,
Long Island, William Sodders (21) shot and killed, James Halverson, a
firefighter out on a jog, in a random murder. Sodders was later turned
in to police by his father after admitting to him the murder. Sodders
was said to be influenced by the film “Natural Born Killers.” Halverson
left a wife pregnant with twins and a 4-year-old daughter.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A7)
1997 Jan 5, In Rwanda a mother and
father and 7 children were murdered. The mother had testified against
the former mayor of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu, for the murder of some
2,000 villagers.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 7, Serial killer Henry
Louis Wallace was convicted in Charlotte, N.C., of raping and murdering
9 women over a 20 month period.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 16, Enis Cosby (27), son
of Bill Cosby, was murdered in Los Angeles while changing a tire in an
apparent roadside robbery. A Ukrainian émigré teenager,
Mikail Markhasev, was picked up and charged for the murder in March.
Eli Zakaria and girlfriend Sara Peters were in a car with Markhasev.
Markhasev was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Markhasev
admitted his guilt in 2001 and made a public apology.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.E4)(WSJ, 3/14/97, p.A1)(SFC,
3/15/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/16/98)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/12/98,
p.A1)(WSJ, 2/12/00, p.A1)
1997 Feb 19, Larry Singleton
murdered Roxanne Hayes, a prostitute, in Tampa, Fla. He had served 8
years of a 14-year sentence for the 1978 rape and maiming of
15-year-old Mary Vincent in Ca. A trial in Dec ended in a mistrial and
another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998 but died of
cancer in a prison hospital in 2001.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A3)(SFC, 4/15/98, p.A3)(SFC,
1/1/02, p.A13)
1997 Mar 9, In Los Angeles black
Gangsta rapper Christopher G. Wallace (24), The Notorious B.I.G. or aka
Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. He had been
accused of being involved in a 1994 robbery in which Tupac Shakur was
shot and robbed of $40,000. In 1999 Amir Muhammad, aka Harry Billups,
was named as the suspected gunman. Muhammad was suspected to have been
hired by former LAPD officer David A. Mack. In 2005 a judge declared a
mistrial when large numbers of LAPD documents were found that hadn’t
been turned over to the court.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A8)(AP, 3/9/98)(SFC, 12/9/99,
p.A11)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A3)
1997 Mar 12, Authorities in Los
Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev as a suspect in the shooting death of
Bill Cosby's son, Ennis, almost two months earlier. Markhasev, who
later admitted his guilt, is serving a life sentence without
possibility of parole.
(AP, 3/12/02)
1997 Apr 21, Police in Franklin,
N.J., arrested 2 teen-agers they say lured two pizza deliverymen to an
abandoned house before opening fire, killing both men. Thomas Koskovich
and Jayson Vreeland were convicted in 1999 of murdering Jeremy Giordano
and Giorgio Gallara. Koskovich was sentenced to death, but had the
sentence overturned by the New Jersey Supreme Court, and faced a second
sentencing trial; Vreeland was sentenced to life. [see Apr 19]
(AP, 4/21/02)
1997 May 27, In Kobe, Japan,
11-year-old Jun Hase was beheaded by a killer who left the note: “So,
this is the beginning of the game. I desperately want to see people
die. Nothing makes me more excited than killing.” [see Jun 28]
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 May 30, Child molester
Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of raping and
strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994 murder inspired
"Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex
offenders move in. Timmendequas was later sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/30/98)
1997 Sep 2, In Miami Beach,
Florida US postal worker, Jesus Antonio Tamayo (64) shot and critically
injured his former wife, Manuela Acosta (62) and a friend and then
killed himself.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 1, Michael Carneal (14),
opened fire on a prayer circle and killed 3 classmates and wounded five
during a shooting spree at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky. In
1998 he pleaded guilty but mentally ill in a plea agreement and was
given a life prison term with no parole for 25 years.
(SFC, 12/3/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 10/6/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/1/98)
1997 Dec 2, In California Vanessa
Lei Samson (22) was abducted while walking to work in Pleasanton. Her
body was later found off Highway 88 in Alpine Ct. Michelle Michaud and
her boyfriend, James A. Daveggio, were later picked up by police. The
couple had a van converted into a “murder and abduction chamber.” The
couple were arrested on a kidnap and rape charge for a separate attack
on a Reno college student in Sep. and faced charges for raping 12 and
13-year old girls in Sacramento. Michaud confessed to Samson’s murder.
The pair were charged in 1998 for the kidnapping and murder of Samson.
In 2001 Robert Scott authored “Rope Burns,” an account of the case.
Daveggio and Michaud went on trial in 2002.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A21)(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A18)(SFC,
1/21/02, p.B1)
1997 Dec 4, In Santa Claus, Ga.,
Jerry Scott Heidler (20) was arrested for the murder of a couple and
their two children and the kidnapping of three foster children.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 9, In Texas Michael Lee
Lockhart was put to death by lethal injection for the 1988 murder of a
Beaumont police officer. He was also wanted by Florida and Indiana
where in 1987 he killed a 14-year old girl and 16 year-old girl. He was
the 37th to be executed by Texas this year.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 9, In Virginia Michael
Charles Satche (29) was put to death for the rape and murder of a
woman. It was the state’s 8th execution this year.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 12, Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez, the international terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," went
on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French investigators and a
Lebanese national. He was convicted and began serving a life prison
sentence.
(AP, 12/12/98)
1997 Dec 30, In Algeria marauders
slit the throats of 34 people in Ain Boucif. Later reports raised the
number killed near the city of Relizane to over 400 for this first day
of Ramadan. The single deadliest massacre in Algeria's insurgency began
in four mountain villages as armed men killed 412 men, women and
children in an attack that lasted from dusk until dawn.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A8)(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A8)(AP, 12/30/98)
1998 Jan 4, Nirmal Singh Gill (65)
was found beaten and bleeding in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in
Surrey near Vancouver. He soon died. 5 young men linked to a white
supremacist group, White Power, were later jailed on charges of
murder.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)
1998 Feb 3, In Texas Karla Faye
Tucker (38) was executed by lethal injection with sodium thiopental for
the 1983 pickax slaying of 2 people during a break-in in 1983. She was
the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.R4)(AP, 2/3/99)
1998 Mar 10, In Alabama a teenager
killed his parents with an ax and a sledgehammer. Jeffery Franklin (17)
also wounded 3 siblings and led police on a “wild car chase” before
being captured.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 11, In Los Angeles Efren
Saldivar, a respiratory care therapist, claimed to have killed as many
as 50 terminally ill patients from 1989 to 1997 at the Glendale
Adventist medical Center. He later recanted his confession. Exhumations
to verify the claims began Apr 30. In 2001 Saldivar was arrested for
the murder of 6 patients whose remains indicated that they were
murdered. In 2002 Saldivar pleaded guilty to murdering 6 patients. In
2002 Saldivar was sentenced to 6 life terms in prison plus 15 years to
life for attempted murder.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.C7)(SFC,
1/10/01, p.A5)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A7)(USAT, 4/18/02, p.3A)
1998 Mar 21, In Germany Christina
Nytsch (11) was found raped and murdered in woods 8 miles from her home
in Struecklingen. In April Police began collecting saliva from 18,000
local men to test for a DNA match. Police found a match and arrested a
suspect in Elisabethfehn in May, 1998. The man, a father of 3 children,
confessed to another rape of an 11-year-old girl in Jan, 1996.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A18)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A24)
1998 May 10, In Clearfield, Pa.,
Kimberly Jo Dotts (15) was hanged to death by teenagers who planned to
run away to Florida. Seven young people 14-24 were arrested for murder
and the trial of Jessica Holtmeyer (16) and Aaron Straw (19) began in
1999. Holtmeyer was convicted Jan 28.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/29/99, p.A6)
1998 May 21, In Springfield, Ore.,
Kipland Kinkel (15) killed 1 classmate and wounded 19 more at Thurston
High School. His parents, William (59) and Faith (57) were found shot
dead at home. A 2nd student died the next day. Kipland had been
expelled from school the previous day for bringing a gun to school.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 24, In Jonesboro, Ark., 2
boys, Mitchell Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11), opened fire on a
group of schoolchildren and killed four girls and one teacher and
wounded 11 others. The older boy was angry at a girl who had broken up
with him. Golden had stolen 7 guns from his grandfather. The boys were
remanded to the Division of Youth Services until their 18th birthdays.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/26/98, p.A1)(SFC,
8/12/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun, In England Dr. Harold F.
Shipman came under suspicion of murder when former Preston Mayor
Kathleen Grundy (81) was found dead and toxicologists later found that
she'd been given a large dose of heroin. Her revised will arrived at a
law firm on the same day with her $640,000 estate willed to Shipman. 14
other female patients were also suspected to have been murdered by
Shipman. Shipman was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 15 life
sentences. In 2001 Shipman was suspected of having injected hundreds of
elderly women with diamorphine over his 24-year career. In 2002 an
investigation reported that Shipman had killed at least 215 people over
23 years.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.C8)(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A1)(SFC,
7/20/02, p.A8)
1998 Aug 5, Marie Noe of
Philadelphia (69), was arrested and charged with murdering 8 of the 10
children by suffocation over a 19 year period beginning in 1949. Noe
later received 20 years' probation.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A3)(AP, 8/5/99)
1998 Aug 11, Mitchell Johnson
(14), one of the shooters in the March 24 Jonesboro, Ark., schoolyard
massacre, pleaded guilty to murder and battery. He and Andrew Golden
(12) were both convicted. The boys were detained by Arkansas juvenile
authorities until they turned 18, then transferred to federal custody.
Federal authorities released the two when they turned 21. In 2008 a US
District Judge sentenced Johnson (24) to 4 more years in prison for
possession of a 9mm pistol, a Federal violation of his parole. Charges
remained pending on the possession of marijuana and a stolen credit
card.
(AP,
8/11/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Golden)
1998 Sep 7, In Colorado 6 people
were found shot to death at 3 locations in Aurora. Two teenagers killed
5 people and then one of the teens killed the other.
(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A3)(SFC, 9/9/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 29, In Dalton, Mich.,
Seth Stephen Privacky (18) and Steven Wallace (18) shot a killed
Privacky’s father (50), mother (49), grandfather (78), brother (19) and
brother’s girlfriend, April A. Boss (19). Seth Privacky pleaded no
contest to the charges and was sentenced to life in prison in late May,
1999. Privacky confessed that he committed the murders because his
father had threatened to kick him out of the house.
(www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/dec/12-02-98/news/news10.html)(SFC,
12/1/98, p.A4)
1998 Dec 10, In Detroit Andrzej
Olbrot (52), a Wayne State Univ. engineering Prof., was shot and killed
while administering final exams. A 48-year-old graduate student turned
himself in the next day.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D6)(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A2)
1998/99 Dec 30-Jan 1, Some 500 people were massacred
in eastern Congo during the 3 day New Year holiday. The killings were
by soldiers aligned with rebels led by Tutsi, but the victims were not
Hutu.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
1999 Feb 15, In California Carole
Sund (42), Julie Sund (15) and Silvina Pelosso were last seen at the
Cedar Lodge motel in Portal. The trio were visiting the area from
Eureka. Carole Sund's wallet and credit cards were found in Modesto on
Feb 19. The FBI acknowledged Feb 21 that the disappearance was being
treated as a kidnapping and a $250,000 reward was offered. Their rented
Pontiac was found burned near Long Barn in Tuolemne County on Mar 18
and 2 burned bodies were found in the trunk.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 16, Testimony began in
the Jasper, Texas trial of John William King, charged with murder in
the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later convicted
and sentenced to death.
(AP, 2/16/00)
1999 May 3, A jury in Orange
County declared that Charles Ng should die by lethal injection for the
murder of 6 men, 3 women, and 2 baby boys during the 1980s.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 22, Joie Ruth Armstrong
(26), naturalist for the Yosemite Institute, was found murdered in
Yosemite National Park. Cary Stayner (38), a motel maintenance man, was
sought in relation to the murder. Staynor was arrested and admitted to
the February murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso.
Stayner pleaded guilty in 2000 to federal murder charges.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A1)(USAT, 7/26/99, p.1A)(SFC,
9/14/00, p.A10)
1999 Jul 26, Cary Stayner, a motel
handyman, described in detail for an off-camera jailhouse interview
with San Francisco TV station KBWB how he’d killed a naturalist and
three Yosemite sightseers.
(AP, 7/26/00)
1999 Jul 29, In Atlanta Mark O.
Barton (44) shot and killed 9 people in 2 day-trading offices in the
Buckhead district of Atlanta. He wounded another 13 before shooting
himself to death. Police also found the dead bodies of his wife Leigh
Ann Barton (27) and 2 children, Matthew (11) and Elizabeth Mychelle (7)
in suburban Stockbridge. Barton had been a suspect in the 1993 murders
of his first wife and mother-in-law.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/29/00)
1999 Aug 10, In Granada Hills, Los
Angeles County, Buford Oneal Furrow (37) opened fire at a Jewish day
camp center and wounded 1 adult, a teenager and 3 children. Buford also
shot and killed postal worker Joseph Ileto.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A1)(SFC,
8/12/99, p.A17)
1999 Dec 3, In Monaco billionaire
banker Edmund Safra (67), founder of the Republic National Bank of New
York, was suffocated to death in a fire set by intruders at his home in
Monte Carlo. His American nurse, Ted Maher (41), was jealous of other
servants and later admitted that he had set the fire and fabricated the
intruder story to gain attention.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 30, In Tampa, Fla.,
Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva, an employee at the Radisson Bay Harbor Inn,
shot and killed 4 co-workers and a motorist as he tempted to steal a
car before police arrested him.
(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/00)
1999 The FBI helped launch the 1st
Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) to support federal, state
and local law-enforcement agencies. By 2005 there were 6 such labs.
(Econ, 3/12/05, TQ p.32)
2000 Jan 19, Michael Skakel, a
nephew of Robert F. Kennedy, was charged with bludgeoning to death
15-year-old Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1975, when he
was also 15.
(AP, 1/19/01)
2000 Feb 14, In Colorado 2 teens,
Nicholas Kunselman (15) and Stephanie Hart (16), from Columbine High
School were shot and killed in a sandwich shop near the school, which
was still reeling from the April 1999 massacre.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/01)
2000 Mar 20, In Texas Robert Wayne
Harris (28) shot 5 people to death and critically injured one person at
the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. Harris was arrested the next day. He
had recently been fired for exposing himself to 2 women at the
business. Harris was sentenced to death on Sep 29.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A4)(SFC,
9/30/00, p.A2)
2000 Apr 12, Detroit police
arrested John Eric Armstrong (26), a suspected serial killer. Armstrong
was reported to be responsible for killing some 20 prostitutes since
1992, when he served in the US Navy aboard the Nimitz.
(SFC, 4/14/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 19, In Arizona Richard
Glassel killed 2 women and injured 4 others in a retirement community
in Peoria.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 19, In Tennessee Robert
Glen Coe, convicted for the 1979 murder and rape of Cary Ann Medlin
(8), was executed by injection. This was the state’s first execution in
40 years.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A5)(SFC,
4/20/00, p.A4)
2000 Apr 28, In Pennsylvania
Richard Baumhammers (34) shot and killed 5 people in a racially
motivated shooting spree in McKees Rocks. He was sentenced to death in
2001.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A3)(BS, 5/12/01, p.3A)
2000 May 24, Two gunmen killed 5
workers in a Wendy’s restaurant in the Queens borough of NYC. John
Taylor (36) and Craig Godineaux (31) were arrested 2 days later. Taylor
was sentenced to death in 2002.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A2)(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A2)(WSJ,
11/27/02, p.A1)
2000 Jun 2, In Olathe, Kansas,
John Edward Robinson was arrested on sexual assault charges. 2 female
bodies were found on his property in La Cygne, Kansas, the next day and
3 more 2 days later in 55-gallon drums in a storage locker in Missouri.
3 of the women were identified as Beverly Bonner (49), who disappeared
in 1994, Suzette Marie Trouten (28), and Izabela Lewicka (22). Another
6 missing women were linked to Robinson. In July Robinson was charged
in connection with the death of Lisa Stasi, who disappeared in 1985. In
2003 Robinson pleaded guilty to another 5 murders in Missouri.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A10)(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A9)(SFC,
7/29/00, p.A7)(ST, 10/17/03, p.A7)
2000 Jun 21, In San Leandro, Ca.,
Stuart Alexander (39), owner of the Santo Linguisa sausage factory,
shot and killed 3 government meat inspectors, Jean Hillery (56), Tom
Quadros (52), and Bill Shaline (57). In 2004 Alexander was convicted of
3 counts of 1st-degree murder. In 2005 Alexander was sentenced to death.
(SFC, 6/22/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A6)(SFC,
10/20/04, p.B1)(SFC, 2/16/05, p.B5)
2000 Jul 1, Lucie Blackman (21), a
British citizen working in Tokyo, became the 8th Western woman to
disappear in the last 5 years. In 2001 police found her remains encased
in concrete near the residence of Joji Obara, a wealthy businessman and
prime suspect. Obara was formally accused Apr 6, 2001. Some 4,800 tapes
were found that linked Obara to some 400 rapes over 25 years.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A13)(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A11)(SSFC,
2/11/01, p.C2)(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A7)
2000 Aug 1, Glenn and Justin
Helzer murdered Anette and Ivan Stineman in Concord, Ca. In 2004 Justin
Helzer was convicted for 5 murders. A jury gave Glen Helzer received 5
death sentences on Dec 17, 2004. The brothers were formally sentenced
to death Mar 11, 2005.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.B1)(SFC, 6/17/04, p.B1)(SFC,
12/18/04, p.B1)
2000 Aug 2, Glenn Taylor Helzer
murdered Selina Bishop (22) in Concord. [see Aug 1,3]
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.B1)
2000 Aug 3, In Woodacre, Marin
Ct., Ca., Jennifer Villarin (45) and James Gamble (54) were murdered in
the early morning. Villarin was the former wife of blues guitarist
Elvin Bishop. Bishop’s daughter, Selina (22), was missing and police
later arrested her boyfriend Glenn Taylor Helzer, along with Helzer’s
brother and roommate Dawn Godman (26) in Concord. Body parts were
discovered Aug 7 on the banks of the Mokelumne River and linked to
Helzer, as was the disappearance of an elderly couple, the Stinemans
from Concord. The body parts were soon identified as the remains of
Ivan and Annette Stineman and Selina Bishop. In 2004 Glenn Helzer (33)
pleaded guilty to 18 counts. [see Aug 1,2]
(SFC, 8/4/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/5/00, p.A15)(SFC, 8/9/00,
p.A1)(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A1,6)(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A22)(SSFC, 2/07/04, p.A23)
2000 Sep 6, Michael Swango, a
former doctor suspected in a string of poisoning deaths, pleaded guilty
to killing three patients in a Long Island, N.Y., hospital, and was
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(AP, 9/6/01)
2000 Dec 22, In Germany 3 American
teenagers were convicted of murder for the Feb 27 deaths of 2 people,
killed from rocks thrown from a freeway overpass.
(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 24, Susan Berman (55),
writer and Las Vegas mobster’s daughter, was found slain in her Los
Angeles home. She authored “Easy Street” in 1981.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A1,14)
2001 Feb 23, David Edward Attias
(18), a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, rammed his Saab into a crowd in
Isla Vista and killed 4 students, Nicholas Shaw Bourdakis (20),
Christopher Edward Divis (20), Ruth Dasha Golda Levy (20) and Elie
Israel (27). A 5th victim, Albert Arthur Levy (27), was severely
battered. Attias was charged with murder the next day. Attias was
convicted on 2nd degree murder in 2002 and jurors found him insane.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A13)(SFC,
6/13/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A17)
2001 Mar 5, Charles Andrew
Williams (15), a freshman at Santana High School in Santee, Ca., a San
Diego suburb, shot and killed 2 students and wounded 13 others.
Williams was sentenced 50 years to life in prison on Aug 15, 2002.
(SFC, 3/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/16/02, p.A3)
2001 Apr 28, A young girl’s
decapitated body was found near an intersection in Kansas City, Mo. In
2005 she was identified as Erica Michelle Marie Green. Her mother and
stepfather were charged with murder.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A7)
2001 Apr 30, Chandra Levy (24), an
intern from Modesto, Ca., was last seen at a health club near her
apartment in Washington, D.C. On July 5 the aunt of Chandra Levy
reported that her niece told her of a relationship with US Rep. Gary
Condit before she disappeared. Levy’s remains were found May 22, 2002,
in Rock Creek Park, Washington DC.
(SFC, 5/18/01, p.A3)(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A1)(AP,
4/30/02)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)
2001 Aug 20, Near Sacramento, Ca.,
Nikolay Soltys (27), a Ukrainian immigrant, stabbed to death his
pregnant wife and 4 other relatives including 2 young cousins. He fled
the area with his 3-year-old son. The body of Sergey Soltys (3) was
found the next day in a blood-soaked carton in Placer County. Soltys
was caught in his mother’s backyard near Sacramento Aug 30. Soltys
committed suicide Feb 13, 2002.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/22/01, p.A1)(SFC,
8/31/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A17)
2001 Aug 30, In Iowa Leticia
Aguilar (31) was found dead with her 5 children at her home in Sioux
City. A 7th victim, Ronal Fish (58) was also found. Adam Matthew Moss
(24) was arrested the next day and charged in the murders. Moss pleaded
guilty on Sep 25 and was sentenced to 7 consecutive life terms.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A4)(SFC, 9/26/01, p.C12)
2001 Aug 30, Nikolay Soltys was
captured hiding under a desk in his mother's back yard in Citrus
Heights, Calif., after a ten-day nationwide manhunt for the Ukrainian
immigrant accused of butchering six relatives. Soltys committed suicide
in his jail cell in February. [see Aug 20]
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/30/02)
2001 Sep 10, In Switzerland nurse
Roger Andermatt (32) was reported to have confessed to killing of 27
elderly and ailing patients over a 6-year period (1995-2001). In 2005
he was sentenced to life in prison for killing 22 elderly nursing home
residents.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.C4)(AP, 1/28/05)
2001 Sep, Derrick Todd Lee began a
series of murders in Louisiana that continued to Mar, 2003. He was
arrested in 2003 and linked to the murder of 6 women.
(USAT, 1/16/04, p.1D)
2001 Nov 30, Gary Leon Ridgway
(b.1949) was arrested in connection with 4 of 7 Green River serial
killings in Washington state. Four murders were linked to him through
DNA and three through paint he used at his job. In 2003 he pleaded
guilty to 48 counts of aggravated murder, although the estimates ran
much higher. On December 18, 2003, King County Superior Court Judge
Richard Jones sentenced Ridgway to 48 life sentences with no
possibility of parole and one life sentence, to be served consecutively.
(AP,
11/30/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway#Victims)
2001 Dec 6, In Indiana Robert L.
Wissman, an employee of the Nu-Wood Decorative Millwork plant on the
edge of Goshen killed manager Greg Oswald, wounded 6 others, and then
killed himself. A love triangle was later aid to be the cause.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A3)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A7)
2001 Dec 10, In Philadelphia a
gunman opened fire outside the Great Valley Shopping Center in East
Whiteland Township and killed 2 people. A 3rd was wounded.
(SFC, 12/11/01, p.A9)
2001 Dec 19-24, Christian Michael
Longo (27) killed his wife and 3 children. The bodies of Mary Jane
Longo and 2-year-old daughter were found in an inlet along the central
Oregon coast a week after the bodies of 2 other Longo children were
found. Longo was arrested in Mexico Jan 13. Longo was convicted and
sentenced to death Apr 16, 2003.
(SFC, 12/31/01, p.A9)(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A3)(SFC,
4/17/03, p.A10)
2001 Dec 28, Lawrence Singleton
(74), rapist, died at a Florida prison hospital where he was awaiting
execution for a 1997 murder. Singleton had raped Mary Vincent (15) in
1978 and chopped off her forearms. He was paroled in 1987.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A1)
2001 In South Carolina Christopher
Pittman (12) killed his grandparents with a shotgun and then torched
their rural home. He later blame the anti-depressant zoloft for his
actions. In 2005 he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in
prison.
(SFC, 2/16/05, p.A4)
2002 Jan 6, Christa Worthington
(46), fashion writer, was found dead at her home in Truro on Cape Cod,
Mass. Her 2-year-old daughter was next to her, covered in blood but
unharmed. In 2005 DNA evidence identified Christopher Mccowen, a local
trash collector, as the murderer.
(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A5)
2002 Feb 5, In Canada a police
raid on the farmstead of Robert and David Pickton in Port Coquitlan,
BC, turned up evidence of 2 missing women. Since 1984 at least 50
prostitutes had vanished from the streets of Vancouver. Robert Pickton
was arrested Feb 22. In 2003 the murder charges against Pickton rose to
22.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A20)(SFC,
12/16/03, p.A14)
2002 Mar 12, In Houston a jury
found Andrea Pia Yates (37) guilty of capital murder for drowning her 5
children. On Mar 15 she was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 15, Jackson Carr (6) was
killed and buried by his older sister (15) and brother (10) in
Lewisville, Texas. His body was found the next day.
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 19, In California a 5th
body was found in New Melones Lake near Sonora. Meyer Muscatel (58), a
Sherman Oaks contractor, was found last October. A Russian crime gang
was suspected.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A3)
2002 May 23, In Great Falls,
Montana, Nathaniel Bar-Jonah (45), accused of butchering a 10-year-old
boy and feeding his remains to unsuspecting neighbors, was sentenced to
130 years in prison without parole.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 20, The US Supreme Court
ruled that the constitution bans the death penalty for mentally
retarded convicted killers.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 15, In Stanton, Ca.,
Samantha Runnion (5) was kidnapped. Her body was found the next day in
Riverside county. On July 19 police arrested Alejandro Avila (27),
previously acquitted for child molestation. In 2005 Avila was convicted
of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault. On May 16 a jury called for
the death penalty. He was sentenced to death on July 22.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A2)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A1)(SFC,
4/29/05, p.A4)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.B8)(SFC, 7/23/05, p.B7)
2002 Jul 25, Cassandra Williamson
(6) vanished from a suburban St. Louis home; her body was found hours
later at an abandoned glass factory. Johnny Johnson (24), an
acquaintance of Cassandra's father who had spent the night at the house
was later indicted for murder.
(SFC, 7/27/02, p.A3)(AP, 7/26/03)
2002 Aug 4, Holly Wells and
Jessica Chapman vanished while walking near their homes in Soham, 12
miles northeast of Cambridge, England. [see Aug 16] On August 17, 2002
a game warden found their partially burned bodies in a six-foot-deep
ditch close to the RAF Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk.
(AP,
8/9/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Huntley)
2002 Aug 16, In Soham,
Cambridgeshire, England, police arrested two people on suspicion of
murdering a pair of 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells (b. 10-4-1991) and
Jessica Chapman (b. 9-1-1991), who vanished from a rural village on
August 4th. On December 17, 2003 Ian Huntley (28), a caretaker at the
local secondary school, was convicted by two eleven-to-one majority
jury verdicts, and on that day began serving two concurrent life
sentences. On September 29, 2005, the High Court announced that Huntley
must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years, a minimum
term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by
which time he will be 68 years old. His girlfriend Maxine Carr (25), a
classroom assistant, was charged with attempting to pervert the course
of justice. She was given three-and-a-half years for conspiring to
pervert the course of justice but cleared of two counts of assisting an
offender. She was freed and electronically tagged within 30 days,
because she had already spent 16 months in jail.
(AP,
8/17/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_murders)
2002 Aug 24, In Oregon City, Ore.,
the FBI uncovered human remains in an outbuilding behind the house of
Ward Weaver III, a suspect in the case of two missing girls who lived
across the street. Authorities recovered the remains of Ashley Pond
(12) and Miranda Gaddis (13). In 2004 Weaver pleaded guilty to
aggravated murder and no contest to other charges of sexual abuse. A
plea bargain allowed him to avoid the death penalty and he was
sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
(AP,
8/24/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Weaver_III)
2002 Sep 6, A jury in Pensacola,
Fla., convicted 13- and 14-year-old brothers of murdering their
sleeping father with a baseball bat in an unusual case in which an
adult friend was acquitted of the crime under a different prosecution
theory. The judge threw out the convictions and ordered mediation; Alex
and Derek King later pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. Alex was
sentenced to seven years and Derek to eight years.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2002 Sep 23, Hong Im Ballenger, a
beauty shop manager in Baton Rouge, La., was shot to death. Her murder
was later attributed to John Allen Muhammed, the Washington area sniper.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 23, Rachel Burkheimer
(18) of Marysville, Wa., was shot to death by her boyfriend John
Anderson. On Oct 5 Matthew Durham led police to her body. 8 people were
later arrested for her murder. In 2004 Yusef Jihad, head of a gang
involved in the killing, was convicted of 1st degree murder. Anderson
was convicted of aggravated 1st degree murder on May 19, 2004. In 2004
Tony Williams (22) was sentenced to 9 years in prison and Maurice Rivas
(20) to 26 years.
(ST, 4/6/04, p.B5)(ST, 5/20/04, p.B1)(ST, 7/29/04,
p.B1)
2002 Oct 22, In Aspen Hill,
Maryland, Conrad Everton Johnson (35), a bus driver, was shot in the
chest and died during surgery. The shooting was suspected to be related
to the serial sniper who already killed nine people this month. This
was the 13th and final attack linked by authorities to the
Washington-area sniper attacks.
(AP, 10/22/02)(SFC, 10/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 24, John Allen Muhammad
(41), an Army veteran who recently converted to Islam, and John Lee
Malvo (17) were arrested near Frederick, Maryland, in connection with
the sniper shootings that left 10 dead and 3 wounded.
(AP, 10/24/02)(SFC, 10/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 23, At Loughborough,
England, 4 people were charged with murdering Adam Morrell (14), whose
body parts were found scattered around the town. The suspects included
three men and a girl. On December 17, 2002 the following sentences were
handed down: Matthew Welsh (19), the dominant figure in a gang, was
sentenced to at least 20 years in prison. His girl friend Sarah Morris
(17), was found guilty of deliberately assaulting the youngster but
cleared of his murder. Nathan Barnett (27) was ordered to be detained
indefinitely in secure accommodation under the Mental Health Act after
he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished
responsibility. Daniel Biggs (19) was cleared of murder and inflicting
grievous bodily harm, but sentenced to two and a half years in custody
for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
(AP,
11/23/02)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3255720.stm)
2002 Dec 21, In Oregon the bodies
of Renee Morris (31), Bryant (10), Alexis (8), and Jonathan (4), were
found by hunters in Tillamook State Forest. Edward Morris (37) was
arrested Jan 4.
(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A7)
2003 Apr 12, Phoenix police
arrested Corey Morris (24) in connection with the deaths of at least 5
prostitutes.
(SFC, 4/14/03, p.A9)
2003 May 9, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Biswanath Halder (62), a camouflage-clad gunman, fired hundreds of
rounds as he roamed the halls of the Case Western Univ. Weatherhead
School of management, killing Norman Wallace (30), of Youngstown and
wounding others. He was arrested after a 7-hour standoff. Halder was
later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 5/11/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/08)
2003 May 26, FBI and state police
issued fugitive and murder warrants for Derrick Todd Lee, a prime
suspect in the killings of 5 women in south Louisiana. Lee was arrested
May 27 in Atlanta. Georgia.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A3)(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 Jun 11, Patrick James Dennehy
(21), a Baylor Univ. basketball player, disappeared in Waco, Texas, and
was feared to have been killed by team mates. Carlton Dotson (21) later
confessed to the slaying and was arrested in Maryland on Jul 21.
Dennehy's body was found Jul 25. In 2005 Dotson was sentenced to 35
years in prison.
(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.A25)(SFC, 7/22/03, p.A1)(SSFC,
7/27/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/16/05, p.B5)
2004 Jul 19, Lori Hacking (27) of
Salt Lake City, Utah, went missing. Her husband Mark (28) said she
failed to return from a jog. She was reportedly five weeks pregnant.
Police found her husband Mark Hacking running naked around a motel not
far from his home the next day. He was put into a psychiatric hospital
after police found him. Police arrested hacking on Aug 2 and filed 1st
degree murder charges on Aug 9. In 2005 Mark Hacking pleaded guilty to
her murder.
(SFC, 8/2/04, p.A3)(SFC, 8/3/04, p.A2)(SFC, 8/10/04,
p.A4)(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A5)
2003 Nov 5, In Seattle, Wa., Gary
Leon Ridgeway pleaded guilty 48 consecutive times for the Green River
murders that began in 1982. On Dec 18 he was sentenced to 48
consecutive life terms and ordered to pay $480,000.
(SFC, 11/6/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 4, Federal prosecutor
Jonathan Luna was attacked after leaving his office in Baltimore around
midnight. His body was found 6 hours later, stabbed 36 times apparently
in a furious fight for his life before drowning in a Pennsylvania creek.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 15, Charles Cullen (43),
a former nurse, was charged with murder after telling prosecutors that
he killed 30-40 severely ill patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
since 1987 by injecting them with drugs. In 2004 Cullen pleaded guilty
to 16 murders in New Jersey.
(SFC, 12/16/03, p.A4)(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A3)(WSJ,
4/30/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/20/04, p.A3)
2003 Dec 18, Lee Boyd Malvo (18)
was convicted in Virginia for his role in the 2002 sniper shootings.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A3)
2004 Mar 12, In Fresno, Ca.,
Marcus Wesson (57) was arrested on suspicion of killing 9 family
members, aged 1-24. He lived a bizarre life of polygamy and incest,
even fathering two of his victims with his own daughters. In 2005
Wesson was convicted on 9 counts of murder.
(AP, 3/14/04)(SSFC, 3/14/04, p.A1)(SFC, 6/18/05,
p.B7)
2004 Jun 13, Robert Lees, former
screenwriter, was decapitated at his Hollywood home. Keven Lee Graff
(27) was later charged with Lees’ murder and that of a neighbor.
(SFC, 7/29/04, p.B3)
2004 Oct 1, The Utah state medical
examiner's office used dental records to identify Lori Hacking's
remains about six hours after they were discovered in a landfill.
(AP, 10/2/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A2)
2004 Geoffrey Abbott authored "The
Executioner Always Chops Twice," a collection of vignettes of badly
executed deaths over the centuries.
(WSJ, 4/9/04, p.W6)
2005 Jan 8, Richard P. Rodriguez
(29) stabbed to death Angela M. Smith (51) in Tucson, Az. Rodriguez was
found dead of a gunshot wound the next day in Blythe, Ca., near the
Arizona border. He had grown up in the evangelical sex cult “Children
of God” also known as the Family. Smith, a member of the cult, was
involved in his upbringing.. The cult was later linked to the San Diego
based Family Care Foundation.
(SFC, 1/11/05, p.B8)(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 25, Kansas police
arrested Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker at his suburban home
in Park City. They believe he is the notorious BTK (bind, torture,
kill) serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s. He
resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Mar 1, In Geneva, Switz.,
Edouard Stern, French financier and former Lazard banker, was found
dead in his home. Swiss police later arrested Cecile Brossard (36), his
French lover, who allegedly confessed to the sex-related killing of
banker Edouard Stern.
(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/16/05)(WSJ, 4/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 31, It was reported that
Shirin Gul (39), an Afghan housewife, stood accused with her lover and
son (18) of murdering 27 men over the last 4 years in order to sell
their cars across the border in Pakistan.
(SFC, 3/31/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 9, Sarah Michelle Lunde
(13) was last seen in Ruskin, Fla. Her body was found April 16 at an
abandoned fish camp about a half mile from her home. David Onstott
(36), a sex offender who once dated the girl’s mother, was arrested
April 12. Onstott confessed and was charged with 1st degree murder on
April 17.
(SSFC, 4/17/05, p.A13)
2005 May 10, In Riverside County,
Ca., David McGowan (44) killed his wife, mother and 3 children, a boy
(14) and 2 girls (8 and 10), while they slept. He then killed himself
at their home in Garner Valley.
(SFC, 5/12/05, p.A5)
2005 David Buss, Univ. of Texas
psychology professor, authored “The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is
Designed to Kill.” Buss held that the male mind developed adaptations
for killing because the trait provided an evolutionary edge for leaving
more descendants.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.B1)
2005 John Emsley authored “The
Elements of Murder,” a history of the use of poison as a murder weapon.
(WSJ, 6/24/05, p.W9)
2005 Stacy Horn authored “The
Restless Sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad.” She noted that
NYC had 8894 unsolved murders dating back to 1985.
(SSFC, 7/10/05, p.E6)
2006 Apr 14, In Oklahoma Kevin Ray
Underwood (26) was arrested after investigators found the body of Jamie
Rose Bolin (10), missing since April 12, in a bedroom closet in his
apartment. The girl's unclothed body was inside a large plastic tub.
Police said she was killed as part of the neighbor's elaborate plan to
eat human flesh. On February 29 2008, a jury found him guilty of first
degree murder after deliberating for twenty-three minutes. This quick
verdict was attributed to the showing of Underwood's videotaped
confession. On Thursday, April 3, 2008, McClain County District Judge
Candace Blalock approved a recommended death sentence.
(AP,
4/16/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ray_Underwood)
2006 Jun 1, A German court jailed
Sabine Hilschenz (40) for 15 years for killing eight of her newborn
babies in the worst case of infanticide in the country's criminal
history. She had buried them in flower pots and a fish tank at her
parents’ home.
(AFP, 6/1/06)(SFC, 4/8/08, p.A3)
2006 Sep 22, Yvan Keller (46),
arrested a week earlier in France’s eastern city of Mulhouse in
connection with a robbery, hanged himself while in custody. Mr. Keller
admitted to killing dozens of elderly women who lived alone, all within
40 miles of Mulhouse, in the border region straddling France,
Switzerland and Germany, starting in 1989.
(www.newagebd.com/2006/sep/27/inat.html)
2006 Nov 1, Adrienne Shelly
(b.1966), actress and director, was found by her husband hanging by a
bed sheet in their Manhattan apartment in an apparent suicide. In 2008
Diego Pillco (20), an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, pleaded guilty to
manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Shelly)(SFC,
3/14/08, p.A4)
2007 Oct 28, A Moscow court
sentenced Alexander Pichushkin, convicted of 48 murders, to life
imprisonment, ending one of Russia's worst serial killer cases.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2007 Nov 7, In southern Finland at
least 7 people were killed and 11 wounded after an 18-year-old man
opened fire at a high school.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Dec 9, A Canadian jury in
British Columbia convicted Robert 'Willie' Pickton (58), a pig
farmer, of murdering six women, handing him an automatic life sentence
but finding that the killings were not planned. Pickton still faced 20
more murder charges for the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes
and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood. On Dec 11 Pickton
was sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole for 25 years.
(AP, 12/9/07)(Reuters, 12/12/07)
2008 Apr 24, In England police in
Leeds found Damien Oldfield (33) stabbed to death. Anthony Morley (36)
attacked Damien Oldfield (33) during a night the pair spent together at
Morley's home. Morley slit Oldfield's throat as he lay in his bed,
stabbed him repeatedly and cooked some of his flesh. On Oct 20 Morley
was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)(http://tinyurl.com/6nw7hx)
2008 Jun 12, In Minnesota Katricia
Daniels (36) and her son, Robert Shepard (10), were found murdered.
Daniels was stabbed and cut more than 100 times and her son had a
television smashed over his head. On June 18 Stafon Edward Thompson
(17) and Brian Lee Flowers (16), both of Minneapolis, were charged as
adults with first-degree murder.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 25, Brooke Bennett of
Braintree, Vermont, disappeared and was found dead on July 2. Federal
prosecutors later charged Michael Jacques (42) with drugging, sexually
assaulting and killing his 12-year-old niece. Prosecutors also said
that he coerced another girl into aiding his plot by claiming to be
part of a child-sex club that sometimes selected girls for
"termination."
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Dec 31, SF ended the year
with 98 homicides. In Milwaukee, Wisc., the total number of homicides
dropped 32%, from 105 in 2007 to 71 in 2008, the lowest number since
1985. Detroit had 344 slayings, a 13% drop from the 396 in 2007;
Philadelphia's 332 killings were a 15% drop from the 392 in 2007; and
the 234 homicides in Baltimore were 17% less than the 392 the year
before. Cleveland recorded 102 homicides in 2008, down from a 13-year
high of 134 in 2007. Homicides in New York rose 5.2%, to 522 from 496
the year before. Slayings in Los Angeles were down to 376 in 2008
compared to 400 the prior year. Preliminary data in Chicago showed 508
homicides were reported in 2008, the first time the city had more than
500 murders since 2003 and about 15% more than the 442 homicides
reported in 2007. Washington, D.C., ended 2008 with 186 homicides, up
from 181 in 2007.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.1)(AP, 1/3/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Murders
End of file