Births

Barry Dale Loukaitis

1944 – Robert Joseph Zani – was a serial killer active in the United States. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and his parents divorced when he was still a child. In 1962, at the age of 18, he enrolled in the University of Texas.  Zani’s criminal activities began to escalate in 1967. On July 23, 1967, he used a .357 Ruger to kill his first victim, George Vizard, a student activist and open member of the Communist party, at his convenience store job in Austin, Texas. This was the same store where Zani had previously worked.  In 1974, Zani murdered his mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but her body was never found. His crimes continued into the late 1970s, with multiple robbery victims, many of whom were real estate agents.  Zani was eventually arrested on March 28, 1980. He was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison in Texas in 1981 for his crimes. His conviction was based in part on the cooperation of his Mexican wife, a former prostitute turned witch, who helped him carry out his bizarre scam with cold and deadly precision.  Zani’s life was marked by a series of erratic behaviors and violent acts. His crimes spanned over a decade, and his victims ranged from his own mother to innocent bystanders. Despite his eventual capture and conviction, his story serves as a chilling reminder of the dangers that can lurk in the most unexpected places.

1952 – Dennis Wade Suttles – was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of his estranged girlfriend, Gail Rhodes, in the parking lot of a Taco Bell Restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Suttles and Rhodes began dating in April of 1995. The relationship progressed, and in October 1995, Suttles asked Rhodes to marry him. However, Rhodes’ divorce was not final at that time, so the engagement was delayed. In December 1995, Suttles purchased a house, and he, Rhodes, and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Christina, moved into the house together. At Christmas, Suttles gave Rhodes an engagement ring. However, in February 1996, Rhodes moved out of Suttles’ house after the two argued. Around the time of this argument, Rhodes’ co-workers had noticed deep bruises on her neck that looked like fingerprints. In his testimony, Suttles admitted that during the argument he tried to take the engagement ring from Rhodes’ finger and broke her necklace.  On March 13, 1996, Suttles killed Rhodes in the presence of her daughter and her daughter’s friend in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee. Suttles, already a felon with a history of violent offenses, had been stalking Rhodes for about a month when he confronted her inside the restaurant. Once outside, he put a pocket knife to her throat. She ran. He followed and killed her as her daughter and a crowd of customers watched. Then he climbed in his car and drove away.  Suttles was convicted and sentenced to death. The jury found two aggravating circumstances in support of the death penalty: (1) Suttles was previously convicted of prior violent felonies and (2) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Suttles’ conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Suttles remains on death row in Tennessee.

1958 – Andrea Hicks Jackson –  She is an American woman who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Jacksonville police officer Gary Bevel on May 16, 1983.  Jackson was initially sentenced to death on February 10, 1984, for the murder of Officer Bevel. The officer was shot five times when he tried to arrest her for filing a false report about a vandalized car. Jackson claimed that she killed Bevel because their confrontation caused her to have a flashback to a childhood sexual assault.  However, her death sentence was reversed multiple times. It was first reversed in July 1989 and she was resentenced on February 21, 1992. This sentence was again reversed in 1994, and she was resentenced on December 13, 1995. This sentence was also reversed in 1997.  Finally, on June 16, 2000, Jackson’s sentence was commuted to life in prison. Despite the numerous court proceedings and the repeated jury recommendations for the death penalty, Jackson managed to avoid the death sentence. She is currently serving her life sentence in prison.

1959 – Paul Alfred Brown – is a convicted American criminal known for the murder of 17-year-old Pauline Cowell. The crime took place on March 19, 1986, in Hillsborough County, Florida, USA. Brown was living with Cowell’s mother at the time of the murder, and Cowell had only recently moved from her mother’s to her sister’s home.  On the night of the crime, Barry and Gail Barlow, Cowell’s sister, awoke to the sound of two gunshots. Upon investigating, they found Cowell dead in the Florida room of their home. Tammy Bird, a friend of Cowell’s, had also been shot but survived. The padlock, which secured the room from the outside, was missing and the door was discovered open.  Authorities identified Brown as a possible suspect and began searching for him. Sheriff’s deputies found Brown in the trailer park where his brother lived, hiding behind a shed. A handgun was found in Brown’s pants, which matched the gun used in the shootings of Cowell and Bird.  Upon questioning, Brown indicated that he broke into the Barlow residence to confront Cowell about some lies she was telling. He stated that he did not plot to kill Cowell, but planned on shooting her if she began to scream.  Brown was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Pauline Cowell on March 2, 1987. He was also charged and convicted of armed robbery and attempted murder for the events that took place on the same day. On October 6, 1986, Brown was sentenced to 30 years on each count. His conviction and sentence have been upheld on appeal.

1960 – Darren Dee O’Neall – is an American convicted murderer, serial rapist, suspected serial killer, and former fugitive. He was active from 1982 to 1987 and is currently imprisoned in Whatcom County, Washington. O’Neall was convicted of the violent kidnapping and rape of a 14-year-old girl in Portland, Oregon, after having already been convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Robin Smith in Edgewood, Washington. He is suspected to have killed six women in total.  In his early life, O’Neall was the youngest of his brothers, Michael and Kevin, and had a younger sister named Kristen. His family primarily resided in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His father, Darrell O’Neall, was drafted into the army while raising the family, and as a result, the family moved to numerous cities where he was stationed, including Bad Tölz in Bavaria, Germany, and Fort Polk, Louisiana. This was later attributed to O’Neall’s growing into being a drifter in adulthood.  O’Neall’s high school years were spent in Fort Polk, where he met his future wife, June Hodges. They had a son, Christopher, who was adopted by O’Neall’s parents and raised in Colorado Springs while O’Neall was a fugitive. O’Neall also had a common-law marriage to a woman in Levittown, Pennsylvania, with whom he had his second son Jason, in spite of not being divorced from June.  O’Neall enlisted in the army and was stationed in Bremerhaven, Germany, before being discharged on February 28, 1982. O’Neall was last reported as being back in Colorado Springs before his crime spree began. O’Neall was a passionate reader of western novels by American author Louis L’Amour, having sent letters to the novelist himself that were never received, and he took numerous aliases from L’Amour’s novels. O’Neall would canvas country and western bars during his travels, places reported to have also been his comfort zone when scouting for victims.

1961 – Lawrence Keith Libberton – is a convicted murderer who was sentenced to death on October 25, 1982. His crime was classified as a hate crime and took place on November 16, 1981, in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA. The victim was Juan Maya, a gay man.  On the day of the murder, Juan Maya picked up 14-year-old Marty Norton and made homosexual advances towards him. Norton rebuffed Maya, but suggested that he might find a more hospitable reception in a trailer belonging to Steven James. When Maya followed Norton into the trailer, James, Lawrence Libberton, and Norton took turns beating him.  The three then forced Maya into the back seat of his own car and drove toward Salome, where James’ parents owned some property with an abandoned mine shaft on it. En route, a police officer stopped them but Libberton threatened to kill Maya if he attempted to draw the officer’s attention.  After arriving at the Salome property around dawn, James ordered Maya to step up to the mine shaft. As Maya pleaded for his life, James fired directly at him from a distance of less than 5 feet. Maya charged James and tried to get the gun, so Libberton and Norton began striking Maya with large rocks and a board. After Maya fell to the ground, they fired point-blank at him three more times. Nothing came out of the pistol because the barrel was fouled with debris. They then dragged Maya to the mine shaft and threw him in, dropping rocks and railroad ties on top of him.  Norton pled to several charges as a juvenile and testified against Libberton and James. The proceedings were presided over by Judge Rufus C. Coulter, Jr., and the prosecutor was Myrna Parker. The trial started on June 23, 1982, and the verdict was given on June 30, 1982. The aggravating circumstances were pecuniary gain and the crime being especially heinous, cruel, and depraved. No mitigating circumstances were found.

1963 – Ronald Lee Williams – a convicted murderer who was the leader of the “Miami Boys,” a drug-trafficking ring that ran from Miami to Pensacola. His criminal activities took place on September 20, 1988, in Escambia County, Florida, USA. The victims were Derek Devan Hill, Michael Alfonso Douglass, Michael Anthony McCormack, and Mildred Jean Baker. The methods of murder were stabbing with a knife and shooting.  Williams was sentenced to death on June 21, 1991. His case number was 90-3515 and the sentencing judge was The Honorable Nicolas P. Geeker. His trial attorney was Randall J. Etheridge, Esq. and his attorney for direct appeal was Spiro T. Kypreos, Esq. His attorney for collateral appeals was Joseph McDermott, Esq. – Registry.  The circumstances of the offense were as follows: Williams ordered three of his Miami-based employees – Timothy Robinson, Darrell Frazier (brother of Bruce Frazier), and Michael Coleman – to go to Pensacola to recover money and drugs stolen from McCormick. McCormick and Bruce Frazier met the three men from Miami at a hotel in Pensacola. The five men obtained weapons from McCormick and broke into his neighbor’s apartment looking for the missing goods. When no one would answer his questions, Robinson began stabbing Derek Hill. The victims were then bound, gagged, and interrogated about the whereabouts of the safe. When the victims could not provide the information, they were shot and stabbed, and their bodies were disposed of in a mine shaft.

1972 – Juan J. Ortiz – In 2001, Deborah Clay, 41, entered a romantic relationship with Ortiz. Ortiz, under home confinement, moved into Deborah’s home in March, residing with her and her 15-year-old daughter, Ashley, until May 29. Ortiz returned on June 26 but was asked to move out by July 4. On July 5, Ashley found Ortiz upset, claiming he accidentally shot Deborah’s waterbed while attempting suicide. Ortiz obtained guns from Deborah’s son, Brock, on July 5, but on July 6, claimed he couldn’t return them. That afternoon, witnesses saw Ortiz leave Deborah’s home; shortly after, a fire broke out. Deborah was found decapitated in the burning house. Investigation revealed gunshot wounds. Ortiz, arrested later, admitted to shooting Deborah accidentally, implicating himself in her death.

1973 – Herman Dale Ashworth – He was an American who was executed by the U.S. state of Ohio for committing aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. The victim of his crime was Daniel L. Baker, whom he killed on September 10, 1996.  Ashworth and Baker first met at the Wagon Wheel, a bar in Newark, Ohio. They later went to another bar, and while returning to the Wagon Wheel at around 9 p.m., Ashworth led Baker into an alley where he brutally assaulted him with his fists, feet, and a 6-foot board. Ashworth claimed that Baker had made unwanted sexual advances towards him. After the assault, Ashworth stole $40 and three credit cards from Baker’s wallet and returned to the Wagon Wheel. Later, he took his then-girlfriend, Tanna Brett, to the alley and discovered that Baker was still alive. Ashworth left, saying he would ensure Baker could not identify him, while Brett returned to the alley and found Baker’s body near a metal loading dock door. A deputy coroner later testified that Baker’s injuries were consistent with those caused by a high-speed traffic accident or plane crash. Baker’s body was found at 3:45 a.m. by a couple walking their dog. Thirty minutes later, Ashworth made an anonymous 9-1-1 call to inform the police of the beating. The call was traced, leading to Ashworth’s arrest. At his trial, Ashworth pleaded guilty and waived his right to present mitigating evidence. His defense lawyer did not cross-examine any witnesses. In May 2005, he dismissed his lawyers who were attempting to save his life. On August 31, 2005, Ashworth refused to appear before a hearing of the Ohio Parole Board, which subsequently recommended his execution. Ohio Governor Bob Taft issued a statement on September 23, denying clemency. Ashworth became the fourth Ohio prisoner to voluntarily drop his appeals since capital punishment was reinstated in the state in 1999.  Due to Hurricane Rita, his adoptive parents were unable to visit him before the execution, as they had not planned to witness it. For his last meal, Ashworth ordered two cheeseburgers with lettuce and mayonnaise, French fries with ketchup, and drank one Dr Pepper and one Mountain Dew. It took ten minutes for prison medical technicians to insert the catheter into his arm. In his final statement, he said, “A life for a life, let it be done, and justice will be served.” He was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. EST on September 27, 2005.

1979 – Juan Manuel Alvarez – is known for causing the Glendale train crash on January 26, 2005. This collision involved a passenger train, another passenger train, a freight train, and a car in Glendale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.  Álvarez, a laborer from Compton, California, parked his gasoline-soaked sport-utility vehicle on the tracks and waited for a southbound Metrolink commuter train. As the train approached, he was allegedly unable to move his vehicle from the tracks. He exited the vehicle, apparently abandoning a suicide attempt, and observed the train colliding with his SUV from a safe distance. This caused the train to derail, which then hit a Union Pacific Railroad freight train parked on a siding, as well as a northbound Metrolink train on the third track. The collision resulted in 11 fatalities and nearly 200 injuries.  Álvarez was reportedly suicidal long before the incident occurred and was known to be a methamphetamine addict, prone to delusional behavior. At the time of the train crash, Álvarez, the father of two young children, was experiencing marital difficulties.  He was charged with, and subsequently convicted of, 11 counts of murder with “special circumstances” and one count of arson related to the incident. On June 26, 2008, Álvarez was found guilty of these charges. He was acquitted of the train wrecking charge. On August 20, 2008, he was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences.

1981 – Barry Dale Loukaitis – He is the son of a truck driver and a homemaker. He has two siblings, a brother and a sister. Loukaitis spent the early part of his life in Iowa and Minnesota and moved to Washington in fifth grade.  On February 2, 1996, when he was 15 years old, Loukaitis committed a school shooting at Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake, Washington. Dressed as a Wild West-style gunslinger and wearing a black duster, he was armed with a .30–30 caliber hunting rifle and two handguns that belonged to his father. He carried approximately 78 rounds of ammunition.  Loukaitis entered his algebra classroom during fifth period and opened fire, killing his algebra teacher and two students. Another student was critically wounded. He then held his classmates hostage until a gym coach subdued him. This incident was the deadliest mass shooting at a middle school in U.S. history until it was surpassed by the Westside Middle School shooting in March 1998.  In the year prior to the shooting, the Loukaitis family was dealing with multiple issues. His parents separated in 1995 after his mother discovered her husband was having an affair. His mother, Jo Ann Phillips, was a domineering woman who became increasingly distant and began speaking of suicide. She would frequently imply that her son Barry would also have to kill himself and that the date of the double suicide would be Valentine’s Day of 1996. Barry talked his mother out of doing so, by having her write down her feelings.  Loukaitis was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that people convicted of murder they committed under 18 years of age could not receive automatic life terms without parole and in 2016 the court ruled that the policy also applies retroactively.

Deaths

Wyatt Outlaw

1870 – Wyatt Outlaw – was born in 1820 and was a significant figure in American history. He was the first African-American to serve as Town Commissioner and Constable of the town of Graham, North Carolina. Outlaw was of mixed racial heritage and was possibly the son of a white Alamance County slave owner named Chesley F. Faucett. Sources conflict on whether Outlaw was born a slave or a free person of color.  Outlaw was a community leader in Alamance County. In 1866, he founded or co-founded the Loyal Republican League in Alamance. In 1868, he was among a number of trustees who were deeded land for the establishment of the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Alamance County. Outlaw’s Loyal Republican League was later incorporated into the Union League, a fraternal order connected to the Republican Party.  Outlaw enlisted as “Wright Outlaw” in the 2nd Regiment U. S. Colored Cavalry in 1863. He fought in various engagements in Virginia and was later stationed on the Rio Grande in Texas until he was mustered out in February 1866.  As a prominent Republican in Alamance County, Outlaw was appointed to the Graham Town Council by Governor Holden and soon became one of three constables of the town – all three of whom were African Americans. His activities on behalf of African Americans in Alamance County made him a target of the White Brotherhood and the Constitutional Union Guard, both local branches of the Ku Klux Klan.  On the night of February 26, 1870, a party of unidentified men rode into Graham, dragged Outlaw from his home, and hung him from an elm tree in the courthouse square in Graham. Outlaw’s body bore on the chest a message from the perpetrators: “Beware, ye guilty, both black and white.” His death, along with the assassination of white Republican State Senator John W. Stephens at the Caswell County Courthouse, provoked Governor William Woods Holden to declare martial law in Alamance and Caswell Counties, resulting in the Kirk-Holden War of 1870.

1965 – Jimmie Lee Jackson – was born on December 16, 1938, in Marion, Alabama. He was an African-American civil rights activist and a deacon in the Baptist church. Jackson had tried multiple times to register to vote in Alabama and was denied each time. He was also a laborer and a woodcutter, earning about six dollars each day he worked.  On February 18, 1965, while unarmed and participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his city, he was beaten by troopers and fatally shot by an Alabama state trooper. Jackson died eight days later in the hospital. His death helped inspire the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965, a major event in the civil rights movement that helped gain congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This enabled millions of African Americans to vote again in Alabama and across the Southern United States, regaining participation as citizens in the political system for the first time since the turn of the 20th century.  Jackson’s death was a significant event in the civil rights movement. Speaking at his funeral, Martin Luther King Jr. called Jackson “a martyred hero of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity”. Jackson’s death highlighted the brutality of local law enforcement officials and the systemic discrimination faced by African Americans in the South. His legacy continues to inspire civil rights activists today.

1987 – Audrey Marie Hilley – born Audrey Marie Frazier on June 4, 1933, in Anniston, Alabama, was an American murderer and suspected serial killer. She was also known by the aliases Robbi Hannon and Teri Martin. Hilley was suspected of the death by poisoning of her husband and the attempted murder of her daughter. She spent three years as a fugitive from justice. Her life and crime spree are the subjects of the 1991 telefilm “Wife, Mother, Murderer”. Hilley was born to parents Huey Frazier and Lucille (née Meads). She married Frank Hilley on May 8, 1951, and they had two children, Mike and Carol. Despite Frank’s well-paying job and Marie’s secretarial employment, the couple had little money set aside in savings due to Marie’s excessive spending habits, leading to tension in the marriage. Frank Hilley began suffering from a mysterious illness, as did his son Mike, but Mike’s symptoms abruptly stopped when he moved away to attend a seminary. In 1975, after returning home early due to his illness, Frank found Marie in bed with her boss. He turned to Mike, then an ordained minister living in Atlanta, for advice. In May 1975, Frank visited his doctor complaining of nausea and tenderness in his abdomen, being diagnosed with a viral stomachache. The condition persisted and he was admitted to a hospital, where tests indicated a malfunction of the liver; doctors diagnosed infectious hepatitis. Frank Hilley died early in the morning of May 25, 1975. Three years later, Marie took out a $25,000 life insurance policy on her daughter Carol; a $25,000 accidental death rider took effect in August 1978. Within a few months, Carol began experiencing nausea and was admitted to the emergency room several times. A year after filing the insurance policy on her daughter, Marie gave her an injection that she claimed would alleviate the nausea. In January 1983, Marie was arrested and returned to Alabama. She was sentenced to life in prison for Frank’s murder. In 1987, she escaped. Audrey Marie Hilley died on February 26, 1987.

2000 – Franz Fuchs – born on December 12, 1949, in Gralla, Styria, Austria, was an Austrian domestic terrorist. He was also known as the Austrian Unabomber. Fuchs was responsible for killing four people and injuring 15 others, some seriously, using three improvised explosive devices and 24 mail bombs, which he sent in five waves between 1993 and 1997.  Fuchs targeted people he considered to be foreigners, or organizations and individuals whom he believed were “friendly to foreigners”. His early victims included a priest who helped refugees, a journalist for minorities, and the Mayor of Vienna, who lost a large part of his left hand in one of the explosions.  One of his most notorious attacks occurred on February 5, 1995, when four Romani were killed in Oberwart with a pipe bomb improvised explosive device attached to a sign that read “Romani back to India”. This was the worst racial terror attack in post-war Austria and was Fuchs’s first fatal attack.  Fuchs was apprehended on October 1, 1997. He was convicted of four counts of murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Fuchs died by suicide in Graz-Karlau Prison, Graz, Austria, on February 26, 2000.

2001 – Peter Aguon Maguadog – was born in 1956 in Guam. On February 26, 2001, he fatally shot his estranged wife and another woman at a medical clinic in Guam before being mortally wounded by police. Four others were wounded in the incident.  Maguadog, 44 at the time of the incident, was armed with two handguns as he made his way through the Seventh Day Adventist Clinic, where his wife worked as a nurse. The couple was in the process of divorcing, and a restraining order barred Maguadog from coming within 500 feet of his wife. More than 100 people, including children, were in the building when the gunfire erupted.  Maguadog appeared to have singled out only his wife and had shot the others at random. He died the same day during a shoot-out with the police.  Maguadog, 44 at the time of the incident, was armed with two handguns as he made his way through the Seventh Day Adventist Clinic, where his wife worked as a nurse. The couple was in the process of divorcing, and a restraining order barred Maguadog from coming within 500 feet of his wife. More than 100 people, including children, were in the building when the gunfire erupted.  Maguadog appeared to have singled out only his wife and had shot the others at random. He died the same day during a shoot-out with the police.

2003 – Amos Lee King Jr – was born on August 16, 1954, in Florida, USA. He was executed on February 26, 2003, by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison near Starke, Florida for the murder of Natalie Tillie Brady, a 68-year-old widow who lived alone in a home only 1,500 feet from the Tarpon Springs Community. The murder occurred on March 18, 1977. King Jr. was 48 years old at the time of his execution.

2014 – Michael Anthony Taylor – One morning, 15-year-old Ann Harrison was waiting for her school bus at the end of her driveway when Taylor and Roderick Nunley, who had spent the night indulging in crack cocaine, drove by in a stolen car. One of the men (each claimed it was the other) leapt from the vehicle, seized Ann, and forced her into the car.  They took her to Nunley’s mother’s house, where Ann was taken to the basement and violated. DNA evidence linked Taylor to this horrific act. Subsequently, they compelled her into the trunk of the stolen vehicle, where she was brutally stabbed ten times in her throat and torso by both men using kitchen knives, despite her pleas for mercy. Her lifeless body was left in the trunk of the abandoned car in a nearby neighborhood.  The case remained unsolved for approximately six months until a $10,000 reward prompted a tip-off, leading to the arrest of Taylor and Nunley. Following Taylor’s confession, both men pleaded guilty and received death sentences. Nunley is currently on death row awaiting execution.

2014 – Paul Augustus Howell – a native of Jamaica, was convicted for the 1992 pipe-bombing death of state trooper Jimmy Fulford. Before his execution at Florida State Prison, Howell expressed remorse for his crime. He had learned bomb-making skills in the Army and was a member of the violent Jamaican Posse, notorious for trafficking crack cocaine and guns.  Howell had rigged a microwave oven with a pipe bomb to silence a woman who could tie him to the murder of a South Florida drug dealer. He had hired another man, Lester Watson, to deliver the bomb to the woman. On February 1, 1992, Fulford stopped the car for speeding along Interstate 10 in Jefferson County. After examining the gift-wrapped package, the bomb exploded, killing Fulford instantly.  During his statement, Howell revealed that he had instructed Watson that no matter what, “Don’t let a cop get in the car.” He also shared that he originally planned to place the bomb inside a television set, but another woman, a cousin described in court documents as another potential witness, told him to put it in a microwave because the woman he intended to kill would be using it to heat up a bottle for her baby.  Howell’s execution began at about 6:18 p.m. About two minutes later, Howell closed his eyes. He was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. Howell had visited earlier in the week with his wife and grown daughter at the prison. He asked that they not attend the execution. None of Fulford’s family members attended the execution.

Events

World Trade Center bombing

1773 – The construction of Walnut Street jail is approved by the state of Pennsylvania; it will become the first experiment with the practice of solitary confinement in the United States

1954 – Michigan Republican Ruth Thompson introduces legislation to ban mailing “obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy phonograph (Rock n Roll) records

1984 – Australian serial killer, Christopher Bernard Wilder began his cross-country murder spree before being shot by the police

1993 – World Trade Center bombing

1995 – British Merchant bank, Barings collapses after huge losses

2019 – Catholic Cardinal George Pell is convicted of child sexual abuse in Melbourne, Australia.  As treasurer at the Vatican, he was the highest-ranking church official to be convicted