Births

Alaska P. Davidson

1810John Caldwell Colt –  He was the brother of Samuel Colt, the founder of Colt’s Manufacturing Company. John Caldwell Colt had a diverse career, working as an American fur trader, bookkeeper, and law clerk. He also served briefly as a U.S. Marine but forged a letter to get himself discharged after three months.  Colt became an authority on double-entry bookkeeping and published a textbook on the subject. This textbook had 45 editions and remained in continuous publication until 13 years after his death.  In 1842, Colt was convicted of the murder of a printer named Samuel Adams, to whom Colt owed money for the publication of his bookkeeping textbook. Colt killed Adams with a hatchet the previous year in what he claimed was self-defense, but he had afterward concealed the crime by disposing of the body. When the body was discovered, Colt was the first suspect. The trial became a sensation in the New York news because of his family name, the manner of disposal of the corpse, and Colt’s somewhat arrogant demeanor in the courtroom.  Colt was found guilty and sentenced to hang but killed himself on the morning of his execution. Conspiracy theories circulated about the suicide, with some holding that Colt had in fact escaped from prison and staged a body to look like his own. One publication alleged that a family member smuggled the knife used in the suicide into his cell. Others stated that Colt was living in California with his wife, Caroline. None of these allegations were ever proven.  John Caldwell Colt died on November 18, 1842. His life and crimes had a significant cultural impact, with Edgar Allan Poe possibly basing the short story “The Oblong Box” partly on the murder of Adams, and Herman Melville alluding to the case in his short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener”.

1868Alaska P. Davidson – She was the first female special agent in the FBI. Davidson had a diverse background, with only three years of public schooling and no university education. Despite this, she became a well-known equestrian who won awards in her teenage years and enjoyed riding bicycles.  Davidson was put in charge of the New York and Ohio plant in 1890, which was unusual at the time as few women were running factories. Her management of the plant has been described as “quite an achievement.” She married Ephraim B. McCrum, a close friend of her brother, Warren Doud, on November 8, 1893. They had one child, Esther, who unfortunately died in 1902 from pneumonia. After her divorce from McCrum in 1900, she married James B. Davidson in 1905.  On October 11, 1922, at age 54, Davidson was hired by director William J. Burns to work at the Bureau of Investigation (the former name of the FBI) as a special investigator. She was the first female special agent and was trained in New York City before being assigned to the Washington, D.C. field office. Her starting salary was $7 a day plus $4 when traveling.  However, her career at the FBI was short-lived. In 1924, newly-appointed Director J. Edgar Hoover asked her to resign. It wasn’t until 1972, shortly after Hoover’s death and the passing of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, that women once again joined the forces of the FBI.  Alaska P. Davidson passed away on July 16, 1934, at the age of 66. Her pioneering role in law enforcement paved the way for future generations of women in the FBI.

1933Jesse Walter Bishop – He was one of four children, and his parents separated when he was 5, resulting in him moving in with his father in East Los Angeles, California. According to Bishop, his father beat him twice a year regardless of whether he had done anything wrong or not. At age 15, Bishop joined a street gang and committed his first armed robbery in Southern California. Two years later, he joined the Air Force as a paratrooper. He served in the Korean War where he sustained injuries and was decorated for his actions.  Bishop developed a drug habit and was caught in possession of heroin, resulting in him being dishonorably discharged. He spent two years at the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, before returning to life as a civilian. He then led a life of crime which was mostly full of drug offenses and robberies.  In 1962, Bishop served time in a California state prison for robbery and spent five years behind bars. He was paroled in 1967 but continued his life of crime, abusing heroin, and committing robberies. In 1970, he returned to prison once again. He successfully escaped from prison in 1972 but was caught shortly afterward and returned. In 1976, he won parole to Los Angeles, however, according to prison records, he continued to abuse heroin and commit crimes. In 1977, he committed an armed robbery and became a wanted fugitive.  On December 20, 1977, Bishop walked into the El Morocco casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. Armed with a .38-caliber revolver, he held up the female cashier and demanded all of the money. Two men witnessed the robbery and attempted to intervene. Employee Larry Thompson, and another casino customer, David Ballard, tried to stop him. Bishop shot Thompson in the stomach and Ballard in the back as he tried to flee.  Bishop was convicted of the murder of David Ballard. He was executed in 1979 by the State of Nevada in the gas chamber at the age of 46. He became the first person to be executed in Nevada since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated, and the third person to be executed in the United States since 1976, after Gary Gilmore and John Arthur Spenkelink. He was also the last person in Nevada to be executed in the gas chamber. Executions thereafter have been carried out by lethal injection.

1946Edward Eugene Harper –  He is an American former fugitive who was wanted for sex crimes against children. Harper was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on November 29, 2008. After 15 years on the run, he was captured in Wyoming by the FBI on July 23, 2009.  Harper was born to Nell Trimue Harper, a Baptist from Forrest City, Arkansas. He has at least three sisters and has been married twice, with two children. Harper had little formal education and reportedly subscribed to the Sovereign Citizen Movement ideology. He claimed to be a member of the Montana Freemen, although authorities have never been able to confirm his affiliation with the group. Harper was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder by a behavioral psychologist in Mississippi, shortly after his 1994 arrest. The disorder is characterized by a desire for social isolation, social anxiety, and odd behavior. Harper is described as a survivalist, who has lived outside of modern society.  From the fall of 1993 to March 1994, Harper molested two girls in Hernando, Mississippi. In 1993, Harper, who was forty-eight years old, lived with his eighteen-year-old wife, Debra Busby, in a trailer park in DeSoto County, Mississippi. According to the FBI Special Agent, Harper and his then-19-year-old wife began to look after one of his victims, a three-year-old girl, whose homeless mother could not take care of her. Sexual abuse by Harper and his wife Debra began within a month. The second victim was an eight-year-old girl who lived in the neighborhood. Harper threatened his wife and victims with violence if they ever told anyone of the abuse. In March 1994, after the girls told their parents about the sexual abuse, police obtained a search warrant. When Harper’s trailer home was raided, he had already fled.  After the raid, a highway officer in Utah performed a routine traffic stop and pulled over Harper and his wife. When the officer ran his name, the warrant came to his attention. Harper was arrested and extradited back to Mississippi. Harper was indicted on April 27, 1994, and released on a $20,000 bond, but he failed to appear for a court hearing and his bond was revoked. A state warrant was issued for his arrest on October 31, 1994, in DeSoto County, Mississippi. Subsequently, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Harper by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, after he was charged with violation of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on February 5, 1999.

1948Akiyoshi Umekawa – was a Japanese mass murderer born on March 1, 1948, in Otake, Hiroshima Prefecture. He had a great love for hardboiled fiction and was known to be a voracious reader. His life took a dark turn when, at the age of 15, he committed his first murder on December 16, 1963. Despite his criminal history, Japanese juvenile law allowed him to possess firearms.  Umekawa’s crimes escalated on January 26, 1979, when he shot and killed two employees and two policemen in a Mitsubishi Bank in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka. During this incident, he took 40 hostages and subjected them to a drawn-out regime of terror. He stripped women of their clothes, forcing them to form a human shield around him, and regularly threatened all the hostages with a shotgun. He refused to negotiate with the police, and his actions resulted in multiple injuries among the hostages.  The standoff lasted for 42 hours, during which time Umekawa and the hostages barely slept. The situation was finally resolved when the Osaka armed police, one of the predecessors of the Special Assault Teams, managed to infiltrate the building and fatally shot Umekawa on January 28, 1979. This marked the first case in the history of Japanese Police Tactical Units.  Umekawa’s crimes had a significant impact on Japanese society and culture. His life and actions inspired various forms of media, including films and music. Despite his notorious reputation, Umekawa remains a rare example of a criminal who was shot dead by Japanese police.

1949Donald Eugene Harding – He was an American serial robber and spree killer who committed at least six murders between December 1979 and January 1980. Harding was executed on April 6, 1992, by the state of Arizona in the gas chamber for two murders he committed there. His execution was particularly noteworthy and controversial due to the fact that his death in the gas chamber took eleven minutes and was reportedly gruesome. This led to a movement to provide Arizona death row inmates with a choice between the gas chamber and lethal injection.  Harding was born in a small, rural Arkansas community called Goodrich. By the time a physician arrived to assist with the birth, Harding was struggling for air; this resulted in Harding incurring organic brain syndrome. He also suffered from neonatal jaundice. Harding’s father was an alcoholic who abandoned Harding, his older brother Darryl, and their mother Maycle. When Harding was a toddler, he was admitted to the Child Guidance Clinic in Little Rock, Arkansas, where a doctor treating him wrote in a report that his mother was “very immature and narcissistic” and unfit to care for her sons.  When Harding’s mother remarried to a man named Fred Brown who contracted tuberculosis, the family relocated to a sanatorium, where Harding alleged that nurses and staff regularly beat and mistreated him. One specific allegation involved a nurse dunking Harding’s face in a toilet after he wet his bed. The family stayed at the sanatorium for approximately 2 years before leaving, after which Harding moved repeatedly between living with his mother and his grandparents. Ultimately, he settled with his mother in an impoverished area of North Little Rock. Harding witnessed Brown beating his mother; while he was in school, he struggled with behavioral issues, including defiance and truancy. A doctor reported in February 1960, shortly before Harding turned 11, that Harding displayed suicidal tendencies when he was 9 years old, slashing his wrists and leaving a suicide note in which he threatened to “jump in a river.” That same doctor noted that while Harding’s brother Darryl displayed none of the problematic behaviors Harding did, Donald Harding had “expressed the desire to kill and choke people.”  From December 1979 to January 1980, Harding committed a series of robberies and murders. He was sentenced to die for the 1980 murders of two businessmen, Robert Wise of Mesa and Martin Concannon of Tucson, who were robbed, hogtied, beaten, and shot in a Tucson hotel. Harding was executed by asphyxiation gas in Arizona on April 6, 1992.

1950Daniel Joe Hittle – He was adopted at an early age by Henry and Margaret Hittle, a couple who later moved to a small farm in Motley, Minnesota. Friends and acquaintances described him as a quiet, polite man who could not stand being teased and became violent when drunk. His ex-wives and girlfriends reported that he was often physically and verbally abusive to both them and their children and would often torture and kill stray animals.  On April 4, 1973, Hittle, angry that his adoptive parents’ dog had supposedly scratched his truck, started arguing with his stepmother, Margaret. During the scuffle, she allegedly said that he did not dare to shoot her, only for Hittle to retrieve his shotgun and immediately do so. While attempting to reach for his own firearm, Henry was also shot and killed on the spot. Hittle was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder, and a $15,000 bond was placed. He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and received two concurrent 30-year sentences, to be served at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater.  In November 1989, Hittle was involved in a feud with Mary Goss, described in court testimony as his drug dealer. One day, after an argument with his wife, he drove away from his home carrying a 20-gauge shotgun in his pickup truck. When Garland police officer Gerald Walker, 48, stopped Hittle for speeding, Hittle shot him in the chest at close range. He then proceeded to Goss’s home, kicked in the door, and opened fire, killing Goss, 39, Richard Cook Jr., 36, and Raymond Gregg, 19. After reloading, he shot Goss’s 4-year-old daughter, Christy Condon, then he drove back home. Christy died in a hospital two days later. Unknown to Hittle, Officer Walker had radioed the license plate number of his truck, and police were looking for him. They spotted him near his home and gave chase. After Hittle ran his truck off the road and wrecked it, he began shooting at his pursuers. He surrendered when he ran out of ammunition. After refusing orders to show his hands, Hittle was twice engaged by a police dog. Hittle then complied with police orders and was arrested. Convicted of Walker’s murder, Hittle was not tried for the other four murders.  Daniel Joe Hittle, 50, was executed by lethal injection on December 6, 2000, in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a police officer.

1954Chen Shuizong – was a local resident of Xiamen, Fujian province, China, born on March 1, 1954. He is known for a mass murder-suicide attack that occurred on a bus in Xiamen on June 7, 2013. A bus operating for the Xiamen BRT caught fire and exploded on an elevated lane near the Jinshan stop, resulting in 47 deaths and 34 injuries.  The fire broke out in the rear end of the bus and once it had spread to the fuel tank, the bus exploded. The fire was extinguished twenty minutes after the bus caught fire during the evening rush hour. Despite the bus running on diesel, investigators found traces of gasoline in the fire. This, and the fact that the oil tank and tires were intact in the wreckage, led investigators to believe the fire may have been deliberately lit. The Ministry of Public Security stated that the fire is being treated as “a serious criminal case”.  On June 8, police identified the suspect as Chen Shuizong. According to a suicide note found in his home, Chen was unhappy with his life and had decided to light a fire to vent his anger. Family members, speaking to reporters and posting on social media, indicated that Chen was quite angry with police officials who refused to correct an error in his identity documents and was denied social security benefits.

1956William Richard Stevens – was involved in a notorious murder-for-hire case. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife, 45-year-old Sandra Jean Stevens, and her mother, 75-year-old Myrtle Wilson, which occurred in 1997. Stevens was found guilty of hiring 18-year-old Corey Milliken to murder the two women. The motive behind these heinous crimes remains unclear. He was sentenced to death in 1999.

1958Jeffery Allen Barney – He was convicted for the rape and murder of Ruby Mae Longsworth, a 54-year-old minister’s wife, in her Pasadena, Texas home on November 24, 1981. Barney, who had an extensive juvenile record, had been released from jail for auto theft shortly before the murder. He was befriended by Pasadena minister, John Longsworth, who helped him find a job after his release.  Barney admitted to the brutality of his crime, fired his lawyer, and refused to authorize any appeals. His conviction and death sentence were upheld during a state appeal guaranteed by law. He was executed by lethal injection in Texas on April 16, 1986. Before his execution, Barney expressed remorse for his actions, stating, “I’m sorry for what I done, and I deserve it, and I hope Jesus forgives me.” He was described as calm and in a good mood in the hours leading up to his execution.

1959Anthony Braden Bryan – An American murderer who kidnapped a 60-year-old night watchman and then murdered him by hitting him with the butt of a weapon before shooting him in the face

1962John Clayton Smith – In 1995, Smith and Brandie Kearnes began a romantic relationship. Kearnes resided with her mother, Yvonne Kurz, and her stepfather, Wayne Hoewing. However, the relationship ended in 1997, and a month later, Smith made a fateful decision.  Smith entered Kearnes’ home through the basement door, removed his shoes, and quietly ascended the stairs. He proceeded to Kearnes’ bedroom and launched a brutal knife attack. The struggle continued into the living room and kitchen, where Kearnes was stabbed eight times. As she lay on the brink of death, she scrawled “It was Joh_” on the kitchen floor in her own blood.  Smith then turned his attention to Wayne Hoewing’s bedroom. Awoken by the commotion, Hoewing was attacked and stabbed by Smith. Kurz, also roused by the noise, attempted to intervene but was cut on the forearm by Smith and fled to the bathroom.  Kearnes suffered eight stab wounds to her neck, chest, abdomen, arm, and thigh. Hoewing was stabbed eleven times in the chest, arms, leg, hand, and hip, ultimately succumbing to blood loss. Smith chose to waive his appeals.

1963Jeffery Henry Caldwell – He was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, for the murders of his father, mother, and sister. The tragic incident occurred in July 1988 when Caldwell’s brother, Henry Caldwell III, went to check on his parents at their home in southwest Dallas after neighbors reported not seeing them for several days. He discovered the bodies of his father, Henry, 47; his mother, Gwendolyn, 46; and his sister, Kimberly, 19, in the motor home parked in the driveway. All three had been stabbed to death and beaten on the head with a hammer and another unknown blunt instrument.  Caldwell was arrested the next day and gave a voluntary statement to the police. He claimed that during an argument with his father over money, all three family members accidentally fell onto his knife. Prior to this incident, Caldwell had an arrest record going back seven years and had been to prison twice in the previous five years. He served 15 months of a 3-year sentence for burglary and 1½ years of an 8-year sentence for robbery. He had been on parole for less than four months when he killed his family. His last statement was to extend his love to his family members and relatives for all of the love and support they had given him.

1967Pervis Tyrone Payne – is known for his involvement in a significant legal case in the United States. He was the defendant in a trial prosecuted in Tennessee, which resulted in his conviction for the attempted rape and murder of Charisse Christopher and her two-year-old daughter, Lacie Jo, on June 27, 1987.  According to the criminal conviction, Payne attempted to rape Charisse Christopher and ended up murdering her and her daughter. The incident led to a trial that culminated in the Supreme Court case Payne v. Tennessee. This case held that testimony in the form of a victim impact statement is admissible during the sentencing phase of a trial and, in death penalty cases, does not violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment.  Payne’s case is notable for its impact on the legal system, particularly regarding the admissibility of victim impact statements during sentencing. Despite the serious nature of his crimes, his case has contributed to shaping the legal landscape in the United States. As of 2020, Payne had been on death row for 32 years. His execution was scheduled for December 2020. However, in November 2021 his death penalty was vacated due to his perceived intellectual disability, he is now continuing a two life sentence ruling.

1969James Douglas Andrews – is a convicted criminal from the United States. He was born on March 1, 1969. On July 23, 1990, he committed a crime involving rape, robbery, and murder in Muscogee County, Georgia, USA. The victim of this heinous crime was Viola Hick. Andrews was sentenced to death for his crimes on October 16, 1992. His case is notable for its severity and the impact it had on the community.

1969Lawrence Colwell Jr – is a convicted criminal from the United States. He was found guilty of robbing and murdering 76-year-old Frank Rosenstock, a New York resident who was visiting Las Vegas. Rosenstock was tricked into going to his hotel room at the Tropicana Hotel by Colwell’s girlfriend Merillee Paul, who was pretending to be a prostitute. Once in his room, Rosenstock was robbed and strangled to death with a belt. Colwell was allowed to represent himself in court, although standby counsel was appointed for him. He pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder and one count of robbery of a victim 65 years of age or older. After his plea, Colwell requested that the penalty hearing be conducted as soon as possible. Colwell has a troubled history that includes a long criminal record and reports of delusional, anti-social behavior since he was a boy. He was facing execution for the thrill killing of an elderly tourist in Las Vegas.

1970Alexander Nikolayevich Spesivtsev – is a notorious Russian serial killer. He is also known as The Novokuznetsk Monster and The Siberian Ripper. His crimes spanned from 1991 to 1996 in Novokuznetsk, a city in Kemerovo Oblast, RSFSR, Soviet Union.  Spesivtsev, with the assistance of his mother Lyudmila, targeted street children and young women across Novokuznetsk by luring them into their apartment. There, the victims would be tortured and killed and sometimes cannibalized. Despite only being convicted for 5 murders, Spesivtsev confessed to 20 murders that he was accused of by police, and based on evidence is believed to have committed over 80 killings as early as 1991.  Spesivtsev was born and raised in an apartment on Pionerskiy Prospekt in central Novokuznetsk. He was underweight at birth but survived, although he was frequently ill afterward. During childhood, Spesivtsev was considered unsocial, did not have friends, and was bullied while at school. His mother Lyudmila Spesivtseva worked at a nearby school and the prosecutor’s office and was very affectionate towards her son. His father was an abusive alcoholic who abandoned the family. Spesivtsev and his mother held a strong, but unusual, relationship, as Lyudmila would regularly show her son photographs of corpses from books about criminal cases at a very young age, and the two shared a bed until Alexander was 12.  Growing up, Spesivtsev showed increasing sadistic tendencies, and in 1988, met his first girlfriend. Arguments led to her breaking up with him, which Spesivstev did not accept. He kidnapped her and tortured her for a month in his apartment until she died of sepsis. For this, at the age of 18, Spesivstev was assigned to the Oryol Special Psychiatric Hospital. Though in official databases, he was, at the time, still listed as undergoing treatment, in 1991, he was discharged. Once out, he began associating with transients and beggars and developed a deep-seated hatred of street children, whom he viewed as a byproduct of Russia’s emerging democracy.

 

Deaths

John “Jack” McCall

1877John “Jack” McCall – also known as “Crooked Nose” or “Broken Nose Jack”, was a notorious figure in the Old West. He was born in 1852 or 1853 in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Not much is known about his early life, but it is believed that he was raised in Kentucky with three sisters and eventually drifted west to become a buffalo hunter. By 1876, he was living in a gold mining camp outside Deadwood, under the alias “Bill Sutherland”.  McCall is most infamous for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok, a legend of the Old West. On August 2, 1876, McCall shot Hickok from behind as he played poker at Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. The murder was reportedly out of insult, as Hickok had offered McCall money to buy breakfast and advised him not to play again until he could cover his losses after McCall had lost several hands of poker the previous day.  After the murder, McCall was apprehended and put on trial the next day in an impromptu court called to order by local miners and businessmen. In his defense, McCall claimed that his actions were in retribution for Hickok having previously killed his brother in Abilene, Kansas. However, this claim was later found to be false as McCall did not have a brother. Despite the dubious nature of his defense, McCall was found not guilty after two hours.  However, this was not the end for McCall. He was later retried in a federal court, as the first trial was deemed illegal because Deadwood was in Indian Territory and did not have any legal courts. In the second trial, McCall was found guilty and was executed by hanging on March 1, 1877. His story serves as a grim reminder of the lawlessness of the Old West.

1993Joseph Christopher – also known as the “.22-Caliber Killer” and the “Midtown Slasher”, was an infamous American serial killer. He was born on July 26, 1955, in Buffalo, New York. His mother was a registered nurse, and his father was a maintenance worker with the city’s Sanitation Department. He had two older sisters and one younger sister. His father, an outdoorsman and hunter, taught Joseph how to shoot and handle weapons at a young age.  Christopher’s murder spree began on September 22, 1980, when he killed three black men and one boy in the space of 36 hours with a .22 caliber sawed-off Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic rifle concealed in a brown paper bag. These murders led to the media epithet of the .22-caliber Killer. A 14-year-old boy, Glenn Dunn, was the first victim, shot outside a supermarket in Buffalo on September 22. Harold Green, 32, was shot the next day while dining at a fast food restaurant in Cheektowaga. That same evening in Buffalo, 30-year-old Emmanuel Thomas was shot while crossing the street to his home, only 7 blocks away from Glenn Dunn’s murder.  Christopher was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and reached out for assistance after noticing his mental health slipping in 1978. He tried to admit himself to the Buffalo Psychiatric Center in September 1980. The Psychiatric Center staff told him he was not a danger to himself or others and so could not be admitted. This was a common practice at a time when such centers were being downsized. Instead, the center officials recommended counseling therapy. Fourteen days after he left the center, the killings began.  Christopher was apprehended in January 1981 and was found guilty of murdering at least twelve African American men and boys and wounding numerous others over a five-month span between 1980 and 1981. He died on March 1, 1993, in the Attica Correctional Facility, New York.

1996Ferdinand Gamper – known as “The Monster of Merano”, was a serial killer in South Tyrol, Italy. He was born on September 12, 1957, in Merano, South Tyrol, Italy, and died on March 1, 1996. He was born into a family devoted to pastoralism, and his childhood and adolescence were characterized by poverty and work in the fields. Many described him as a shy person, with a tendency to isolate himself, while others portrayed him as a mentally ill man. As a child, he was sexually abused by his father, and perhaps for this reason, he was unable to have a normal approach towards women.  Gamper spent many years working as a pastor in Switzerland, then returned home, finding employment in a hayloft in Riffian. With a criminal record for contempt, resistance of a public official, and public intoxication, he began to develop anti-Italian feelings from an early age, so much so that he joined Ein Tyrol, a secessionist terrorist group, that claimed the annexation of South Tyrol to Austria. Moreover, Gamper did not even know the Italian language. Two events marked the collapse of his already-disturbed psyche: the 1989 suicide of his younger brother Richard, and then the death of his father.  He killed six people in Merano in 1996, before he died. The first of the murders he committed took place on February 8, 1996, in Merano, where, with a gunshot to the back of the head, he killed 61-year-old Hans-Otto Detmering, an official for the Deutsche Bundesbank, and his Italian mistress, 50-year-old Clorinda Cecchetti: both were killed while walking along the Passer stream. On February 14, in the Merano area of Sinigo, a 58-year-old farmer, Umberto Marchioro, was shot in the head near his home. The weapon turned out to be the same one used in the murder of the two lovers; the method of execution was identical. On February 27, in the center of Merano, 36-year-old accountant Paolo Vecchiolini was killed while walking with his girlfriend. The method and weapon used for the murder were the same as the previous ones. Despite the shocking attack, the girlfriend managed to provide the investigators with a facial composite, which described a tall, blonde man in overalls, carrying a rucksack.

1996Antonio G. James – was an American murderer. He was tried and executed in Louisiana for the murder of Henry Silver. James claimed to have not been the murderer in the event and held that conviction to his death. This case is notable not for any unusual or intrinsic aspect, but for being one of the few such cases that ever comes to the attention of the general public.  James had amassed a very extensive juvenile and criminal record by the time he was tried for the murder of Silver. The post-sentence investigation report prepared for the sentencing court listed 37 juvenile incidents. James was ordered confined to the Louisiana Training Institute at age 14. In 1973, he was convicted of attempted armed robbery and sentenced to serve three years at the state penitentiary. During this period of confinement, he was convicted of attempted simple escape. He was released in 1975. In 1978, he was charged with aggravated rape, but the charge was later refused by the prosecution. James was convicted of the January 23, 1979, first-degree murder of Alvin Adams and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was convicted of the January 26, 1979, armed robbery of Robert Hooten and was sentenced to 99 years for this offense, the maximum under Louisiana law.  On January 1, 1979, James approached 70-year-old Henry Silver as the latter was getting out of his car in his neighborhood in New Orleans. James placed a gun to Silver’s head and demanded his money. When Silver shouted for help, James placed the gun under Silver’s right ear, cocked the hammer, and fired a shot into Silver’s head. James then rifled through Silver’s pockets and removed his wallet containing $35. He drove away in a nearby waiting car. Silver died a few hours later at Charity Hospital. James was arrested on January 26, 1979, when he bungled another armed robbery attempt and was shot with his own gun. He was indicted for first-degree murder. According to James’s testimony, he was not alone during either of these two robberies and had not held onto the gun. He claimed that the other two men fired the shots at these men while he just stood there.

2001Duilio Pessoto – born in 1945, was a mass murderer from Jundiaí, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was known for a tragic event that took place on March 1, 2001. Reportedly angered by a friendly joke about his sexuality, Pessoto embarked on a killing spree that resulted in the deaths of four people before he took his own life.  Pessoto left his rural home armed with two revolvers. His victims included Laerte Pessoto, 50; Felipe Keller, 57; Benedito Lino da Silva, 56, and Antônio Segala, 58. The method of murder was shooting. The incident began when Pessoto shot his first victim on a nearby road as the man drove by. He then killed two more men at a bar. Pessoto then drove further down the road, pulled the car over, and shot his fourth victim and himself on the street.  Locals said that Pessoto was angry because somebody had made a joke suggesting that he was gay. Pessoto was single and apparently lived alone. This tragic event shocked the community and is a grim reminder of the devastating effects of intolerance and bullying.

2005Stephen Anthony Mobley – was a convicted murderer executed by the State of Georgia for the 1991 killing of John C. Collins, a 25-year-old college student working nights as a Domino’s pizza store manager.  Mobley had a troubled past. According to relatives, he had been a “difficult” child who had a history of lying, cheating, stealing, vandalizing, setting fires, and being cruel to animals. School records showed further evidence of lying, stealing, destruction of property, use of profanity to teachers, assaults on other students, and expulsions. More serious offenses followed in Mobley’s adolescence and by his mid-twenties, he had served prison sentences for forgery and began a series of armed robberies. A number of social workers and psychologists had evaluated Mobley during his youth for possible learning disability or organic brain disorder, and despite finding him “manipulative, self-centered and impulsive,” found no evidence of either.  On February 17, 1991, North Georgia College student John C. Collins was working as the night manager of the Domino’s pizza delivery store near Gainesville, Georgia. Mobley robbed the store shortly after midnight and shot Collins in the back of the head. The Domino’s robbery was the start of an approximately three-week period in which Mobley committed armed robberies of dry-cleaning shops and restaurants. On March 13, 1991, Mobley was interviewed by investigators from the Hall County Sheriff’s Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Mobley made a voluntary oral confession to Collins’s murder and dictated a written confession. He made further statements on March 14 and 15, including the statement: “The guy I was robbing turned around and looked at me. I said ‘don’t look at me, face the wall.’ I pointed the gun up in his direction and turned my head away and fired.”  On February 16, 1994, Mobley was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder based on five separate underlying felonies, and guilty of those five underlying felonies (armed robbery, three counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime.) Mobley, who was 25 years old when he committed the crimes, was sentenced to death after one day of deliberation on February 21, 1994.  On appeal, Mobley’s attorneys advanced a novel argument that Mobley was genetically predisposed to seeking violent solutions to conflict. The case was described by Nature Reviews Neuroscience as “perhaps the most widely cited case in which defense lawyers used genetic factors in the defence of their client”. The strength of the evidence against Mobley was such that his attorneys concluded early on that his conviction was certain and focused on attempting to identify mitigating evidence. “Traditional” mitigating evidence was, however, absent in Mobley’s case: he was economically privileged and had no history of physical or sexual abuse.

Events

Oklahoma City bombing

1847 – Michigan formally abolishes capital punishment

1932 – Charles Augustus Lindbergh III is kidnapped

1978 – Charlie Chaplin’s coffin & remains are stolen from a Swiss cemetery in an extortion plot

1983 – Spree killer Louis Hastings killed 6 of the 22 Alaskan village residents where he lived

1993 – Authorities near Waco, Texas negotiate (unsuccessfully) with Branch Davidians

2004 – Terry Nichols is convicted of state murder charges and being an accomplice to the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh

2014 – 29 people are killed and 130 are injured by a group of knife-wielding terrorists at Kunming railway station, China

2016 – Two Guatemalan military officers are convicted of sexual slavery during the country’s civil war, it becomes the first-ever prosecution of sexual slavery during an armed conflict

2021 – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is sentenced to three years for trying to bribe a judge

 

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