Births

Lisa Montgomery

1930John Straffen – was a British serial killer who was the longest-serving prisoner in British history. After killing two young girls in the summer of 1951, he was found unfit to plead at trial and committed to Broadmoor Hospital. During a brief escape in 1952, he killed again. This time, Straffen was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Reprieved because of his mental state, he had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Straffen remained in prison until his death after 55 years, 3 months, and 26 days of incarceration.  Straffen’s father, John Straffen Sr, was a soldier in the British Army. The younger Straffen was the third child in the family; his older sister was regarded as a “high-grade mental defective” who died in 1952. Straffen was born at Bordon Camp in Hampshire, where his father was then based. When Straffen was two years old, his father was posted abroad and the family spent six years in India. Returning to the United Kingdom in March 1938, Straffen’s father took a discharge from the Army and the family settled in Bath, Somerset.  In October 1938, Straffen was referred to a child guidance clinic for stealing and truancy. In June 1939, he first came before a juvenile court for stealing a purse from a girl and was given two years probation. Straffen’s probation officer found that he did not understand the difference between right and wrong, or the meaning of probation. The family was living in crowded lodgings at the time, and Straffen’s mother had no time to help, so the probation officer took the boy to a psychiatrist. As a result, Straffen was certified as a mental defective under the Mental Deficiency Act 1927. A report was compiled on Straffen in 1940 which assessed his I.Q. as 58 and placed his mental age at six.  From June 1940, the local council sent Straffen to a residential school for mentally defective children, St Joseph’s School in Sambourne, Warwickshire. Two years later, he moved to Besford Court, a senior school. Straffen was observed as a solitary boy who took correction very badly. At age 14, he was suspected of strangling two geese. At age 16, the school authorities undertook a review which found his I.Q. was 64 and his mental age was nine years six months, recommending his discharge.  Straffen returned home to Bath in March 1946, where the Medical Officer of Health examined him and found he still warranted certification under the Mental Deficiency Act. After several short-term jobs, he found a place as a machinist in a clothing factory. Early in 1947, Straffen began to enter unoccupied homes and steal small items to hide them; he never took them home or gave the items to others.

1955William Patrick Fyfe – is a convicted Canadian serial killer. He is known for his crimes in the Montreal area of Quebec, where he was found guilty of murdering five women. However, Fyfe claims to have killed four others. His first alleged victim was killed in 1979 when he was just 24 years old.  Fyfe was raised by an aunt and moved from Western Canada to Montreal in 1958. As an adult, he worked as a handyman, earning him the nickname “The Killer Handyman”. His victims included women of various ages, and the crimes spanned from 1979 to 1999.  The breakthrough in the case came when DNA evidence led to charges against Fyfe for the murders. He was arrested on December 22, 1999, by the Ontario Provincial Police while returning to his pick-up truck after eating at a Husky Truck Stop. Fyfe confessed to only a portion of the crimes he was suspected of committing, leaving the exact number of his victims unknown.  His preliminary hearing began on November 6, 2000, with Jean Lecours as the crown prosecutor heading up the case against Fyfe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and is currently serving his sentence in a psychiatric hospital in Saskatchewan. Fyfe admitted to the murders of four additional victims only after being incarcerated. He is also suspected by Montreal Police of being the serial rapist commonly known as “The Plumber”, who was responsible for a string of violent rapes during the 1980s in downtown Montreal.

1958Shirley Winters – An American arsonist, murderer, and suspected serial killer who was responsible for up to ten deaths was convicted of manslaughter for 2 murders and sentenced to a maximum of 45 years, however, due to a plea bargain she cannot be tried for any other murders she may have been involved in

1958Nancy Laura Spungen – was an American woman who became a prominent figure in the punk rock scene of the 1970s. She was the girlfriend of English musician Sid Vicious, the bass player of the Sex Pistols. Raised in a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Spungen was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 15.  After being expelled from college, she moved to London in December 1976, at the height of the punk rock movement. Her relationship with Vicious was marked by bouts of domestic violence and drug abuse. The press soon labeled Spungen “Nauseating Nancy” for her outrageous and frequently antisocial behavior.  In October 1978, Spungen was found dead in the bathroom of the couple’s room at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, with a single stab wound to the abdomen. Vicious was charged with her murder, but died of a drug overdose while on bail in February 1979 before the case went to trial. Various authors and filmmakers have speculated about Vicious’s role in Spungen’s death and the possibility that Spungen was killed by a drug dealer who frequently visited their room.

1964Michael William Lenz – He was convicted of the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a person while being a prisoner confined in a state or local correctional facility.  Lenz was serving a 29-year sentence at the Augusta Correctional Center for Burglary and Weapon Possession. On January 16, 2000, he murdered his fellow inmate, Brent Henry Parker, who was a convicted murderer serving a 50-year sentence for the 1985 murder of “Jimmy” Jenkins in Winchester.  The murder took place during a meeting of the Ironwood Kindred, a group practicing the Asatru religion, a faith based on the worship of Nordic Gods. Lenz and another inmate, Jeffrey Remington, stabbed Brent Parker, resulting in his death from 68 stab wounds. Both Lenz and Remington were sentenced to death after separate trials. Remington committed suicide while incarcerated in 2004.  Lenz testified that he killed Parker for religious reasons. Parker had been opposed to Lenz forming the Ironwood Kindred. Lenz stated that the reason that he attacked Parker the way that he did was because Parker had threatened to kill him twice before and that the fight broke out mutually.  Lenz was executed on July 27, 2006, at 9:07 p.m. by lethal injection in the Greensville Correctional Center at Jarratt, Virginia.

1966Terrance “Terry” Williams – He is a prisoner who was sentenced to death for a murder committed at the age of 18. He was also convicted and sentenced to 27 years for a third-degree murder he committed six months earlier.  In January 1984, when Williams was 17 years old, he stabbed to death Herbert Hamilton, a 50-year-old resident of West Philadelphia. Williams lured Hamilton to bed, then stabbed him over 20 times and beat him with a baseball bat. He then doused Hamilton’s body with kerosene and unsuccessfully attempted to set fire to it.  Six months later, Williams, then 18, and Marc Draper convinced Amos Norwood to go to a cemetery, where they beat him to death with a tire iron and then hid the body behind some tombstones. Williams later returned and set the body on fire. Williams took Norwood’s car, along with cash and credit cards he stole from the body, and drove to Atlantic City with Draper and Ronald Rucker.  Williams was scheduled to be executed on October 3, 2012; however, a Philadelphia judge, Teresa Sarmina, granted a stay of execution. His death sentence was overturned on June 9, 2016, by the U.S. Supreme Court via Williams v. Pennsylvania, and he was resentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

1967John Raymond Travers – is an Australian criminal known for his involvement in the horrific murder of Anita Cobby in New South Wales in 1986. He was sentenced to life imprisonment along with four others in his gang for this crime.  Travers was the oldest of eight children and was raised in Mount Druitt, a suburb of Blacktown in Sydney, which had a high rate of unemployment at the time. His early life was marked by trouble. He was caught using marijuana at the age of 13 and by 14, he was an alcoholic. He had a reputation for extreme violence and often carried a knife. His criminal activities during his teenage years were frequently reprimanded by local police and courts.  Travers was expelled from high school during Year 10 for being continually disruptive to other students. Beyond schooling, he held very few jobs and preferred to claim unemployment benefits as a source of income. His parents had little or no control over him, and his father left the household in 1981, leaving Travers as the head of the family.  Travers was also known to display cruelty to animals from an early age, a common trait of serial killers. He was known to have had sexual intercourse with animals he had stolen before slitting their throats. Travers has a distinctive teardrop tattoo under his left eye.  His life took a dark turn when he, along with his gang, abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered Anita Cobby. The crime received widespread media coverage and led to an impassioned local and national campaign to reinstate the death penalty for the worst of Australian offenders. Travers was considered the ringleader of the gang responsible for the murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, never to be released, on June 16, 1987.

1968Lisa Montgomery – She was a convicted murderer who committed a horrific crime in 2004. Montgomery attacked and killed a 23-year-old pregnant woman, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant. She then cut the unborn child from the womb of the woman. The child survived and was given to its father.  Montgomery lived a tortured life, from the day she was born in a small Washington town till the day she became the first woman in 67 years to be executed by the U.S. government. Her lawyers argued that after a lifetime of abuse, which they characterized as torture, she was too mentally ill to be executed and deserved mercy. However, in the tiny town of Skidmore, Missouri, where the crime was committed, there was little sympathy for that argument. Many there believed the final moments of Bobbie Jo Stinnett were so horrific, the death sentence was warranted.  Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2007 and was the only female inmate on federal death row in the US. She received a lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, after a last-minute stay of execution was lifted by the US Supreme Court. She was executed on January 13, 2021. Montgomery’s lawyer, Kelley Henry, said that everyone who had participated in the execution “should feel shame”. “The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman,” she said in a statement. “Lisa Montgomery’s execution was far from justice.”

1968Luigi Chiatti – born Antonio Rossi on February 27, 1968, in Narni, Italy, is known as “The Monster of Foligno”. His mother, Marisa Rossi, a young maid, was unable to provide for him and abandoned him shortly after his birth. He spent his early years in an orphanage near Narni until he was adopted at the age of six by the physician Ermanno Chiatti and his consort Giacoma Ponti, residents of Foligno. His name was officially changed to Luigi Chiatti on June 13, 1975.  Chiatti’s criminal activities began in 1992. On the afternoon of October 4, 1992, four-year-old Simone Allegretti disappeared in the countryside between Foligno and Bevagna. His lifeless body was found two days later. A note claiming the murder and providing precise details on the location of the body and the clothing was found in a telephone booth in front of the railway station in the center of Foligno. The note also asserted the murderer’s willingness to strike again.  On August 7, 1993, the body of 13-year-old Lorenzo Paolucci was found shortly after the crime, only 30 feet from the villa inhabited by Chiatti. The tracks led straight to the house where Luigi Chiatti was subsequently captured. He almost immediately confessed to the murder, also admitting to the murder of Simone Allegretti.  On December 1, 1994, the trial against Luigi Chiatti, accused of the murder of Simone Allegretti and Lorenzo Paolucci, began. On December 28 of the same year, he was sentenced to two life sentences, which were later commuted to 30 years imprisonment.

1971Demetrius Lott Simms – was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 4-year-old Monique Miller. The crime occurred on June 1, 1991, three days after his birthday. The method of murder was a brutal beating with a tree branch. The case took place in Harris County, Texas, USA.  Simms’ attorneys claimed mental retardation under Atkins, leading to a series of IQ tests and assessments. His IQ scores varied, with results above 70 in some tests and as low as 63 in others. In 2006, Dr. Denkowski administered a series of tests and concluded that Simms was mentally retarded in accordance with the criteria applicable in Texas criminal proceedings. He found deficits in five adaptive behavior assessments: communication, community use, functional academics, health and safety, and social.  In light of Dr. Denkowski’s expert examination, and despite other IQ scores above 70, the Harris County District Attorney re-evaluated its opposition to Mr. Simms’ Atkins claim. On December 20, 2006, the Harris County District Attorney filed Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusion of Law saying that Demetrius Lott Simms is mentally retarded and therefore exempt from execution.  On February 28, 2007, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision, officially commuting Mr. Simms’ death sentence to life in prison.

1976Petr Zelenka – is a Czech serial killer. He worked as a nurse in a hospital in Havlíčkův Brod, located 100 kilometers southeast of Prague. Between May and December 2006, he murdered seven patients by lethal injection and attempted to kill 10 others.  Zelenka used a hidden vial of heparin, a blood-thinning drug that causes internal bleeding when administered in large doses, to carry out his crimes. His lawyer has been quoted as saying that Zelenka may have killed on an impulse to “test” doctors in Havlíčkův Brod, in the belief they were not good enough to discover the truth.  In February 2008, Zelenka was convicted of killing seven patients and attempting to kill 10 others. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

1990Rachel Marie Wade – is an American woman who was convicted of murder in the second degree in the 2009 murder of Sarah Ludemann. She was a former waitress at Applebee’s and is currently incarcerated at the Florida Women’s Reception Center.  Wade and Ludemann were romantic rivals, competing for the affection of Wade’s ex-boyfriend, Josh Camacho. Their rivalry quickly turned violent, with both women harassing each other. Wade claimed that Ludemann would show up at the Applebee’s where she worked to taunt her.  On the evening of April 14, 2009, Wade was alone in her apartment waiting for Camacho, who was watching movies with Ludemann. Wade heard a car honk and Ludemann yelled, “Stay away from my man!” Frightened, Wade called an old boyfriend, Javier, who told her to come over to his house. She took a steak knife from a kitchen drawer and went to Javier’s house.  Later that night, Wade approached Camacho’s house. When Ludemann saw Wade at Javier’s house, she decided to confront her. Wade testified that Ludemann stormed out of her car with her fists flailing. Fearing for her life, Wade stabbed Ludemann in the shoulder and chest, one blow puncturing her heart.  Wade was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. On December 28, 2009, she was sentenced to 27 years in state prison.

 

Deaths

Francisco Laureana

1975Francisco Laureana – born in 1954 in Corrientes, Argentina, was a young Argentine who was killed by the Buenos Aires police. He was believed to be a rapist and serial killer known as “The Satyr of San Isidro”. Over a period of six months, from 1974 to 1975, he raped women, of whom he murdered 13. He killed most of his victims on Wednesdays and Thursdays near 6:00 P.M. Laureana, 22 at the time, had been an intern in a Catholic school in the city of Corrientes in northern Argentina. The police claimed that Laureana had fled Corrientes because he had raped and hanged a nun from the stairs of the school. In July 1974, he moved to the city of San Isidro (in the north of Greater Buenos Aires), where he worked as an artisan selling hoops, bracelets, and necklaces. He married a woman who had three children.  Almost every Wednesday and Thursday, at about 6 o’clock in the evening, a woman or girl disappeared in the city. Their bodies were found shortly afterward in vacant lots, with signs of having been raped and killed savagely. Some victims were strangled and others were shot with a .32 caliber revolver. The victims were mainly women who sunbathed in nearby villas or who waited at bus stops. The “satyr” always stole something from his victims, such as rings, bracelets, chains, etc., which he kept as trophies in a boot at home. Sometimes he would return to the crime scene weeks later to relive the experience.  On Thursday, February 27, 1975, an eight-year-old girl saw Francisco Laureana and thought he looked like the serial killer. After telling her mother, the woman pretended to call her husband but notified the authorities. Laureana passed by, smiled, and continued on. The police found him a few blocks away and because his characteristics were similar to the identikit’s, they approached the suspect, asking him to accompany them for an interrogation. Laureana was killed in a shootout with the police.

2018M. Jaishankar –  also known as “Psycho Shankar”, was a notorious criminal from India. He was born in 1977 in Kanniyanpatti, Tamil Nadu, India. Jaishankar was infamous for a series of rapes and murders that occurred between 2008 and 2011. It is believed that he was involved in about 30 cases of rape, murder, and robbery across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. At the time of his death, he had been accused of murdering at least 19 women.  Jaishankar’s criminal activities began around 2008. His first reported crime occurred on July 3, 2009, when he attempted to rape and murder a 45-year-old woman named P. Shyamala in Perandahalli. By August 2009, he had raped and murdered 12 women and raped another six. He was known to carry a black handbag with him, which contained a machete. He used this weapon to kill anyone who resisted him. His victims were often sex workers near dhabas (roadside restaurants) on highways, whom he would kidnap, rape, and then brutally murder. He also targeted women in farmhouses in rural areas.  Jaishankar was first arrested in 2009 after he raped and murdered a 39-year-old police constable named M. Jayamani. He was subsequently charged with the murder of 50-year-old K. Thangammal Ponnaya in Namakkal. However, due to insufficient evidence resulting from lapses in the investigation, he was acquitted of this charge in 2014. By the time of his arrest, he had been charged with 13 separate counts of rape and murder in Tiruppur, Salem, and Dharmapuri.  While in custody, Jaishankar revealed that he enjoyed torturing women before he raped and killed them. He was imprisoned in Bangalore, where he was diagnosed as mentally ill. He committed suicide following an unsuccessful prison escape attempt in February 2018. His life and crimes were the subject of a 2017 Kannada movie titled “Psycho Shankara”, which focused on his victims and their family members during his murder spree.

 

Events

The Exxon Valdez

1977 – The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards receives a suspended sentence for heroin possession in Canada

1982 – Wayne Williams is found guilty of murdering 2 of 28 blacks in Atlanta, he is believed to be responsible for at least 24 of the Atlanta murders between 1979 – 81 but this has not been proven

1990 – Exxon Corporation & Exxon Shipping are indicted on 5 criminal counts spanning from the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska

1991 – Soul singer James Brown is paroled from prison after serving 2 years of a 6-year sentence for weapon and drug-related convictions

1997 – Helen Folasade known professionally as singer Sade is arrested in Jamaica for disobeying a police officer

1998 – The FBI arrests top 10 most wanted suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati

1998 – New England Patriots running back David Lee Meggett is arrested in Toronto on sexual assault charges

2019 – The first gun control legislation in 25 years is passed by the US House of Representatives, with new federal background checks

 

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