Births

Lee Roy Martin

1937 – Lee Roy Martin – also known as “The Gaffney Strangler”, was a notorious American serial killer. Born on April 25, 1937, Martin lived in Gaffney, South Carolina. He was employed at a textile mill in Cherokee County and led a seemingly normal life with his wife and three children. However, beneath this facade, Martin harbored a dark side. Between 1967 and 1968, he murdered four people, two women and two girls. His crimes sent shockwaves through the community and earned him the chilling moniker of “The Gaffney Strangler”. Martin’s reign of terror came to an end when he was arrested on February 27, 1968. He died on May 31, 1972. His life serves as a grim reminder of the capacity for evil that can lurk beneath the surface of ordinary lives.

1970 – Preston Carter – An American thief who broke into the home of Tensia & Thomas Jackson Jr intending to rob them, unfortunately, they disturbed him, so he shot them both to death in front of their 3-year-old daughter who was found next to their bodies covered in her parent’s blood.  Once convicted, he was sentenced to death and I can only hope and pray that it causes a lot of pain and suffering.

Deaths

Valerie Solanas

1822 – Samuel Green – was a notorious serial killer and robber from the United States. He was one of the first individuals to be referred to as a “public enemy” in the U.S., marking him as a dangerous criminal at large. Green was born in Meredith, New Hampshire in 1796. His parents believed him to be possessed by a demon due to his frequent habit of skipping school, which resulted in severe punishments. As a teenager, he apprenticed as a blacksmith and was punished for stealing and destroying the blacksmith’s garden. In retaliation, Green committed several acts of cruelty and destruction, including throwing the family dog down a well, contaminating the water, and slashing the neck of the family pig. After several failed attempts to discipline him, his family sent him to live with a family friend, Albert Dunne, in New Hampton, New Hampshire. Green’s criminal career began when he met another youth named William Ash. They were mentored by a traveling salesman named Franklin Loomis, who taught them how to forge bank notes and burglarize homes of the rich, businesses, and banks. Green’s crimes spanned from 1817 to 1821, across multiple states in the United States and Canada. His criminal activities included robberies, murders, and even an attempted murder of Albert Dunne. Green’s reign of terror ended when he was executed by hanging on April 25, 1822. His life and crimes left a significant mark on the history of crime in the United States.

1988 – Valerie Solanas – was an American radical feminist activist and writer, whose notoriety stemmed from her incendiary manifesto, “SCUM” (Society for Cutting Up Men), and her infamous attempt to assassinate pop art icon Andy Warhol. Despite the controversy surrounding her, Solanas remains a significant figure in feminist history for her scathing critiques of patriarchy and her bold vision for a woman-centered society. Born in Ventnor City, New Jersey, in 1936, Solanas’s childhood was marked by poverty, family dysfunction, and abuse. She experienced mental health struggles and dropped out of high school, later earning a psychology degree from the University of Maryland. After graduating, she moved to San Francisco and Berkeley, immersing herself in the burgeoning feminist and countercultural movements of the 1960s. In 1967, Solanas self-published her most famous work, the “SCUM Manifesto.” This scathing and often violent polemic called for the abolition of men and the creation of a lesbian-separatist utopia. While considered extreme by many, the manifesto challenged male dominance and sparked important conversations about gender roles and societal structures. In 1968, Solanas shot and wounded Andy Warhol in his Factory studio. She claimed the act was motivated by frustration over Warhol’s refusal to produce her play, “Up Your Ass.” Solanas was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. Released in 1971, Solanas continued to write and advocate for radical feminist causes until she died in 1988. Though often vilified, her contributions to feminist discourse remain undeniable. The “SCUM Manifesto,” despite its harsh tone, paved the way for more nuanced discussions about gender, power, and social change. Solanas’s complex and controversial legacy continues to provoke debate and interpretation. She is remembered as a troubled figure who pushed the boundaries of feminist thought and challenged societal norms with her unflinching and provocative ideas.

2001 – Mose Young Jr – was born on December 25, 1955. He was a resident of Missouri and was involved in a legal case that drew significant attention due to concerns about racial disparity and incompetent counsel. Young was sentenced to death in a trial where the prosecutor used all his peremptory challenges to exclude African-Americans from the jury. His trial lawyer, who was battling alcoholism, was unprepared for the case. This lawyer was later disbarred. Despite his circumstances, Young was known to be a good father to his two sons, one of whom had special needs. In prison, he served as a mediator between African-American and white prisoners and was credited with preventing more deaths than he was convicted of causing. Young’s case became a part of the national debate over the death penalty, highlighting issues of racial bias and incompetent counsel. He was executed on April 25, 2001.

2010 – Antonio Izquierdo – along with his brother Emilio, were involved in a tragic event known as the Puerto Hurraco massacre. This event took place on August 26, 1990, in Puerto Hurraco, a village in Benquerencia de la Serena, municipality in the Province of Badajoz, Spain. The brothers fired at people in the streets with two shotguns, killing nine and causing serious injuries to 12 others. The victims included two girls aged 13 and 14. The attack seemed to be targeted at the Cabanillas family, their neighbors in Puerto Hurraco. The feud between the Izquierdo and Cabanillas families originated from a boundary dispute in 1967. There was also a history of unrequited love between Amadeo Cabanillas and Luciana Izquierdo. Amadeo Cabanillas was murdered by Jerónimo Izquierdo, the oldest of the Izquierdo brothers, who served a 14-year sentence for this crime. In 1984, the mother of the Izquierdo brothers, Isabel Izquierdo Caballero, died in a fire in her house. The Izquierdo family blamed Antonio Cabanillas, brother of Amadeo, for being the author of the crime. Jerónimo Izquierdo tried to kill Antonio with a knife, seriously injuring him, although he managed to survive. As a result, Jerónimo Izquierdo entered the psychiatric hospital on August 8, 1986, and died nine days later. On the day of the massacre, Antonio and Emilio Izquierdo, aged 56 and 52 respectively, said goodbye to their sisters, Ángela and Luciana Izquierdo in their house in Monterrubio de la Serena, assuring that “We are going to hunt turtledoves”. Dressed as hunters and armed with 12 gauge shotguns, they hid at nightfall in an alley in town and then came out and shot cartridges against numerous members of the Cabanillas family who were there. After the massacre, Antonio and Emilio fled to the mountains, where they were arrested the next morning. They were each sentenced to 684 years in prison. Emilio Izquierdo died of a heart attack in the prison of Badajoz in 2006. Antonio Izquierdo died in prison at the age of 74.

2012 – Thomas Arnold Kemp – was born on June 2, 1948. He is known for his criminal activities and his time in the US Army. Kemp served in the US Army during the late 1960s. However, he deserted the army between 1968 and 1969. After his military service, Kemp had a run-in with the law and was convicted of robbery in Butte County Superior Court on October 27, 1978. On July 11, 1992, Kemp and an accomplice, Jeffrey Logan, kidnapped Hector Juarez, a 25-year-old male, outside a fast-food restaurant. They robbed Juarez at gunpoint, withdrew money using his ATM card, and then drove him to Silverbell Mine. There, they forced Juarez to disrobe and shot him twice in the head. Kemp’s trial commenced on June 2, 1993. On June 7, 1993, the jury returned guilty verdicts to charges of First Degree Murder, Armed Robbery, and Kidnapping. On July 9, 1993, Kemp was sentenced to death for the First Degree Murder charge and 42 years for the other two charges. Kemp was executed at the state prison in Florence, Arizona, on April 25, 2012, for the murder of Hector Juarez. His last words were “I regret nothing”.

2015 – Zoltan Ember – also known as “The Szentkirályszabadja Monster”, was a Hungarian serial killer. Born in 1962 in Szentkirályszabadja, Hungary, Ember lived in poor conditions during his childhood and suffered abuse from his father and stepfather, István Véghelyi. After completing elementary school, Ember worked as a butcher before moving on to construction work. He had a criminal record, having been prosecuted 11 times and imprisoned five times for various crimes. In the late 1980s, he was convicted of attempted murder for trying to kill his Russian girlfriend, Ludmilla, during an argument and was sentenced to three years in prison. Ember’s criminal activities escalated to murder in 1991 when he killed Véghelyi, his stepfather, in revenge for the suffering he endured during his childhood. In 1999, he strangled his brother István during a dispute over the sale of their jointly owned house. In the early 2000s, Ember began targeting elderly residents of Szentkirályszabadja, believing they had significant amounts of cash in their homes. He murdered four elderly people between 1991 and 2004. Ember was apprehended in March 2004. He was convicted of these crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ember died in prison in 2015, having hanged himself. His life and crimes left a lasting impact on the community of Szentkirályszabadja.

Events

Carol Hatley

1792 – The guillotine is first used in France – executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier

1988 – John Demjanjuk (Ivan the Terrible) is sentenced to death in Jerusalem

1990 – Hong Kong actress Carina Lau is abducted by Triad members

1994 – Mexican businessman Angel Losada is kidnapped

2013 – Carol Hatley is sentenced to 22 years for murdering and dismembering her mother

2018 – Danish inventor Peter Madsen is found guilty of killing and desecrating the body of journalist Kim Wall and sentenced to life in prison

2018 – Indian religious leader Asaram Bapu is sentenced to life for raping a 16-year-old girl