Births

John Christie

1899 – John Reginald Halliday Christie – was a notorious English serial killer who gained infamy for his gruesome crimes in London during the 1940s. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Christie’s early life was marked by a troubled childhood and a strained relationship with his parents. He served in the British Army during World War I and later worked various jobs, including as a postman and a police officer. Christie’s criminal activities, however, came to light in the 1940s when he and his wife, Ethel Christie, moved to 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London. It was at this address that he committed a series of heinous murders, predominantly targeting women. Christie lured his victims with the promise of assistance in illegal abortions, taking advantage of the social stigma surrounding the issue at the time. One of his most infamous crimes was the murder of his neighbor, Beryl Evans, and her baby daughter Geraldine in 1949. Christie manipulated evidence to frame Beryl’s husband, Timothy Evans, who was wrongfully executed for the crime. The miscarriage of justice in the Evans case played a significant role in the eventual abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom. The true extent of Christie’s crimes only became apparent in 1953 when the new tenants of 10 Rillington Place discovered multiple bodies hidden in the walls and garden of the house. Christie was arrested and stood trial for multiple murders. During the trial, he confessed to killing several women, including his wife Ethel, but claimed that the murders were consensual sexual acts gone wrong. His defense was largely discredited, and he was found guilty. John Reginald Halliday Christie was executed by hanging on July 15, 1953, at Pentonville Prison in London. His chilling crimes and the injustice suffered by Timothy Evans continue to be subjects of fascination and discussion in the realm of true crime and criminal justice. The case also played a role in reforms to the legal system and the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom.

1936 – Doyle Edward Skillern – He had two siblings: Milton W. Skillern and Mattie Florence Skillern Sparks. He married Lillian Gertrude Bobbitt in 1958 and they had four children: Doyle Jr., Michael, David, and Lisa. He worked as a truck driver for several years before joining the army in 1965. He served in Vietnam and received several medals for his bravery. After returning from the war, he moved to Austin, Texas, and became involved in drug trafficking with Charles Victor Sanne, a California man. On October 23, 1974, he participated in an undercover drug buy operation with Sanne at the Esquire Motel in Beeville, Texas. They agreed to sell Quaaludes to Patrick Randel, an agent with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Randel left $850 in “buy money” at the motel room and went to meet Sanne at another location. Skillern stayed behind with one of the drug dealers and waited for Randel to return. However, Randel never came back. His colleagues noticed that he was missing and issued a search warrant for his car and hotel room. They also found Randel’s service weapon and wedding ring with Skillern in the motel room. The DPS suspected that Skillern had kidnapped or killed Randel and launched a manhunt for him and Sanne. They tracked down their car near San Benito, Texas on October 24, 1974. They arrested Skillern and Sanne after finding $850, Randel’s gun, credit cards, and other personal items in their possession. They also found out that they had killed another man named James E. Smith earlier that day after a dispute over drugs. Skillern confessed to killing Randel during an interrogation. He said that he shot him six times because he thought he was trying to arrest him or rob him. He also said that he did not know who Smith was or why they killed him. Sanne also confessed to killing Smith but claimed that he acted alone. He said that he shot him because Smith threatened him with a knife or a gun. He also said that he did not know who Randel was or why they killed him either. Both men were charged with capital murder of Randel and Smith. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to death by lethal injection on January 16, 1975. They were executed on February 18, 1975, at Huntsville Unit Prison in Huntsville, Texas. Skillern’s last statement before his execution was: “I pray that my family will rejoice and will forgive me.” His wife Lillian died of cancer in 1980. His children Doyle Jr., Michael, David, and Lisa survived him but had different views on his actions. Doyle Jr., Michael, and David supported his father’s innocence claim but Lisa condemned his crimes as evil deeds.

1948 – Robert Allen Litchfield – an American bank robber, was born on April 8, 1948. He became one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in the 1980s. His criminal history, which began in the early 1970s, included armed robbery, kidnapping, and escape attempts. He was part of a gang of bank robbers led by David James Roberts, and they robbed several banks in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Litchfield was known for his charisma and intelligence and often helped plan the heists. In 1977, Litchfield and Roberts were arrested after a shootout with the police in Las Vegas and were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Despite several appeal attempts and escape attempts, Litchfield remained in prison and was transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth in Kansas in 1984. In 1987, he escaped from Leavenworth for the first time in 12 years by disguising himself as a guard and walking out of the front door of the prison. He was recaptured two days later in Colorado Springs. In 1988, he escaped again by bribing a guard with money and drugs to let him out of his cell at night. He was recaptured three days later in Denver. In 1990, he escaped for the third time by forging a letter from his lawyer claiming that he had been granted parole by President George H.W. Bush. He was recaptured four days later in Salt Lake City. In 1991, he escaped for the fourth time by bribing another guard with money and drugs to let him out of his cell at night again. However, he was ambushed by FBI agents who had been tracking him down using wiretaps on his phone calls. In 1992, Litchfield pleaded guilty to all charges against him as part of a plea bargain deal that allowed him to avoid trial or life imprisonment without parole. In 1994, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection for killing one of his accomplices during their escape attempts. Despite appealing his sentence in 1995 and 1996, it was upheld by an appeals court and rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1997, Litchfield executed himself at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute Indiana using a homemade gun that he had smuggled into prison.

1948 – Linda Calvey – is an English woman who has lived a life of crime and tragedy. Born in 1948 in Ilford, Essex, she grew up in a loving family that ran a wig stall on Roman Road Market. She married Mickey Calvey, one of the most notorious gangsters of the East End, when she was only 22 years old. After he died in 1978 during a botched robbery by the police, she became his loyal getaway driver and accomplice, participating in several armed robberies across London. She later married Daniel Reece, another criminal associate of Mickey’s, but he too met his end at the hands of the police in 1990. She then fell in love with Ronnie Cook, who provided her with money after Mickey’s death. However, their relationship turned sour as she became jealous and controlling of him. In 1990, she stabbed him to death in their flat on Roman Road. She was arrested and charged with murder after the police found evidence linking her to the crime scene. She denied any involvement and claimed that Cook killed himself after an argument with her. In 1991, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment at Holloway Prison. She has always maintained her innocence and appealed for new evidence that could prove it. In 2008, she was released on parole after serving more than 18 years behind bars. She has written a book about her life called The Black Widow, which she hopes will clear her name and inspire others to come forward with evidence that could prove her innocence.

1953 – Jessie Lee Wise– was a convicted murderer who killed two people in Missouri in 1999 and was executed by lethal injection. He had a troubled childhood and was involved in drugs and crime. He was sentenced to life in prison for the 1971 slaying of plastering contractor Ralph Gianino but was paroled in 1988. On August 27, 1988, Wise attacked Geraldine McDonald without provocation and beat her to death with a pipe wrench at her apartment. He then stole her car and drove away. He was arrested the next day after a police officer recognized his car from a stolen vehicle report. Wise confessed to the murder and claimed that he acted out of anger and frustration. He also said that he had no remorse for his actions. Wise appealed his conviction and sentence to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, but his appeal was denied. He then petitioned for clemency to the governor of Missouri, but his request was also rejected. On May 26, 1999, Wise became the first person to be executed by lethal injection in Missouri since its reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Eight family members of McDonald’s two victims attended the execution. Wise’s case has been controversial and has raised questions about the morality and effectiveness of capital punishment. Some people have argued that Wise deserved to die for his heinous crime, while others have criticized the state for executing him without giving him a chance to redeem himself or seek treatment for his mental health issues. Wise’s case has also inspired some artists to create songs or poems about him, such as “A Wish for Life” by Jessie Lee Wise himself.

1955 – Robert Dale Rowell – was a man who lived a life of crime and violence. He was born on April 8, 1955, in Houston, Texas, to a teenage mother and an unknown father. He grew up in poverty and was involved in drugs and gangs from an early age. He was arrested several times for theft, burglary, assault, and drug possession. He also served time in prison for robbery and aggravated assault. On May 10, 1993, Rowell went to a crack house in Houston with two other men to buy drugs. There he encountered Raymond Davey Mata, who was also a drug dealer. Rowell shot Mata multiple times in the head and chest, killing him instantly. Rowell then fled the scene with the money that Mata had given him for the drugs. Rowell was arrested later that day by the police after a brief chase. He confessed to the murder and claimed that he acted in self-defense because Mata had threatened him with a gun. However, the evidence against him was overwhelming: he had blood on his clothes and hands, he had left his fingerprints on the gun that he used to kill Mata, and he had no witnesses who could corroborate his story. Rowell was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection. He appealed his conviction several times, but his appeals were all rejected by higher courts. He maintained his innocence until the day of his execution on November 15, 2005. Rowell’s case attracted national attention because it raised questions about the fairness of capital punishment in Texas. Some people argued that Rowell deserved to die because he killed an unarmed man who posed no threat to him. Others argued that Rowell should have been spared because he was mentally ill and suffered from brain damage due to years of drug abuse. Rowell’s execution was carried out without any complications or errors. He died at 6:30 p.m., at the age of 50. His last words were reportedly “I’m sorry” or “I love you”, depending on who you ask. His body was cremated after his death.

Deaths

Bruno Ludke

1763 – Ann Beddingfield – born in England in 1742, married John Beddingfield, a wealthy farmer, at the age of 17 and they had two children. They lived on a large estate near the village of Sternfield. In 1761, Ann started an affair with Richard Ringe, a farmhand, and persuaded him to help her murder her husband by promising him half of the estate. On July 27, 1762, Ringe strangled John Beddingfield while he slept. Ann pretended to be asleep and later claimed she didn’t know what Ringe had done until he told her. The next day, John’s body was found by his mother who alerted the authorities. Ringe confessed and was arrested. Ann also confessed but claimed she loved both men and wanted to be free from her husband’s control. Ann and Ringe were tried for murder at Ipswich Assizes on October 4, 1763. They were both found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging at Rushmore, near Ipswich. Ann was executed on April 8, 1763, while Ringe died on October 10, 1763. Their bodies were burned at the stake after they stopped breathing. Ann Beddingfield’s story is one of the most notorious cases of female murder in English history and she is remembered as a cunning and ruthless woman who betrayed her husband for love and money.

1862 – Antonio Boggia – was a notorious Italian serial killer who lived in the 19th century. He is considered the first serial killer in Italy, as he killed at least four people and dismembered their bodies. He was also known as “Il Mostro di Stretta Bagnera” (The Monster of Bagnera Lane) or “Il Mostro di Milano” (The Monster of Milan) because he operated in these areas of Milan. He was executed by hanging in 1862 after being convicted of murder. He was born in 1799 in Urio, a town on Lake Como, not far from the border with Switzerland. He had his first issues with the law in 1824 for fraudulence and false contracts. He fled to the Kingdom of Sardinia where he was tried for attempted murder. He escaped from prison and returned to Lombardia Veneto province, where he moved to Milan. He worked as a firestoker at the Palazzo Cusani, the seat of the military commander of Austria. He married in 1831 and lived with his wife in Via Nerino, 2. His landlady, Ester Maria Perrocchio, became one of his victims. He committed his first murder in April 1849 by robbing and killing Angelo Ribbone, a laborer who had worked with him before. He hid his body parts in a basement on Stretta Bagnera, near Via Torino. In February 1850, he killed another victim, Ester Maria Perrocchio, by strangling her and burying her body in a niche near his apartment. He forged two fake power of attorney documents to make himself the sole heir of her property. In June 1850, he killed Giovanni Comi, an acquaintance who had tried to kill him with an axe earlier that year. He dismembered his body and threw it into a canal near Via Torino. In August 1850, he killed another victim, Giovanni Serafino Ribbone, who was Angelo’s brother and also worked as a laborer for him. He took his belongings to his aunt’s house in Urio and then killed him by stabbing him several times on Stretta Bagnera. In December 1850, he killed another victim, Ester Maria Perrocchio’s niece, Maria Teresa Perrocchio (not related to him), who was visiting her aunt’s house in Urio. He strangled her and then killed her mother as well by hitting her with an iron bar on Stretta Bagnera. In February 1860, he was arrested after Giovanni Murier reported the disappearance of his mother to Judge Crivelli. The judge discovered Boggia’s involvement in all four murders through testimonies from neighbors and evidence from his apartment and warehouse on Stretta Bagnera.

1869 – George S. Twitchell Jr – was a 19th-century American murderer who killed his mother-in-law, Mary E. Hill, in Philadelphia in 1868. He was accused of beating her with a poker and then throwing her out of a window to make it look like an accident. He was arrested and tried for the crime, along with his wife, Camilla, who was the daughter of the victim. Camilla was acquitted, but George was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. However, on the day of his execution, he committed suicide by drinking prussic acid in his cell. He was born in 1820 and attended college in Connecticut. He married Camilla Hill in 1849 and they had four children. He worked as a farmer and a carpenter before becoming involved in business ventures. He had a history of alcoholism and gambling problems. He claimed that he killed his mother-in-law because she mistreated him and his wife.

1944 – Bruno Ludke – was a German serial killer who lived during the mid-20th century. Born on April 3, 1908, in Köpenick, Germany, Lüdke gained notoriety for his criminal activities, which included multiple murders of women. Lüdke’s early life was marked by hardship and instability. Raised in a troubled family, he faced difficulties that may have contributed to his later criminal behavior. His criminal record began in the 1920s with various offenses, including theft and sexual assault, which ultimately escalated to murder. During the Nazi era, Lüdke became a subject of interest for the authorities. His case was exploited by the Nazi regime to support their eugenic theories and promote their agenda of racial purity. Lüdke, with an intellectual disability, was falsely portrayed as a typical example of a “genetic criminal” in Nazi propaganda. In 1943, Bruno Lüdke was arrested and accused of being a serial killer responsible for numerous murders. His trial was conducted under dubious circumstances, and he was sentenced to death. Lüdke was executed on April 8, 1944, by guillotine.

1947 – George Sitts – An American robber and murderer who murdered Erik Johansson, a liquor store clerk whilst attempting to rob his store, when law enforcement tried to apprehend him he shot and killed Special Agent Tom Matthews of the State Bureau of Investigation and Sheriff Dave Malcolm of Butte County. Eventually, he was captured and on this day in 1947 he was executed in South Dakota

1961 – Walburga Oesterreich – She was a German-born American housewife who gained infamy when her lover murdered her wealthy textile manufacturer husband Fred William Oesterreich on the 22nd of August 1922, what was amazing about this was the fact that she kept her lover, Otto Sanhuber hidden in the attic of her home for approximately 10 years, amazingly the attic was above the bedroom that Walburga shared with her husband

2003 – Don Wilson Hawkins Jr – was a man who was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on April 8, 2003, for the murder of a 29-year-old woman named Linda Ann Thompson in 1985. He was 43 years old at the time of his death. According to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Hawkins and his co-defendant, Dale Shelton, kidnapped Thompson and her two daughters from a parking lot at Shepherd Mall in Oklahoma City. They drove them to Sportsman’s Lake near Seminole, where Hawkins raped and drowned Thompson while Shelton held her underwater. They then took her body to a ravine and covered it with brush. The daughters were released by their babysitter in their neighborhood. Hawkins and Shelton were arrested two months later in California and confessed to the crime. Shelton directed authorities to the location of Thompson’s body. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hawkins’ execution was carried out by the state of Oklahoma using a lethal injection protocol that had been approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. CDT after receiving three doses of pentobarbital. Hawkins’ case was one of the last executions carried out by the state of Oklahoma before it switched to a new method of execution involving nitrogen gas in 2015.

2002 – Saeed Hanaei – was an Iranian serial killer born in 1962 who confessed to the murder of 16 women in Mashhad, Iran, between 2000 and 2001. He had a troubled relationship with his mother, who he claimed physically and emotionally abused him. At the time of his crimes, he was married and had three children. Hanaei worked as a construction worker and served as a volunteer in the Iran-Iraq war. His victims were primarily female prostitutes, drug addicts, and other marginalized individuals in Mashhad, a city considered holy in Shiite Islam. He would lure his victims to his home or find them on the streets and strangle them with their headscarves or other objects. The Iranian press referred to his murders as the “spider killings” because he wrapped some of his victims’ bodies in black cloth or burlap sacks. Hanaei was arrested in July 2001 after his case was taken up by Parliament with the highest provincial authorities. He stated that he killed the women because he saw them as worthless and blamed them for corrupting his neighborhood and making his wife look like a streetwalker. He also claimed that he became addicted to killing and could not sleep at night if he did not kill a woman each day. He believed that killing these women was a religious obligation. His confession was recorded by documentary filmmaker Maziar Bahari, who interviewed him shortly before his execution. The documentary, titled “And Along Came a Spider,” was released in 2002 and received international attention. Hanaei was executed by hanging in 2002. His case sparked controversy and debate among Iranians about the role of religion, morality, justice, and human rights in society. Some saw him as a hero fighting against evil forces, while others condemned him as a monster who violated human dignity.

2017 – Steven Caracappa – was a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) detective who was involved in various illegal activities on behalf of the Mafia. He was one of the “Mafia Cops” who worked with Louis Eppolito, another retired NYPD detective, to commit murders, kidnappings, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, money laundering, and narcotics dealing for the Lucchese and Gambino crime families. Caracappa was born in 1942 in New York City and joined the NYPD in 1969. He worked in the Organized Crime Homicide Unit until he retired on a disability pension in 1992. He then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked as a private investigator and corrections officer at the Las Vegas Women’s Correctional Facility. He was arrested in 2005 along with Eppolito after a long investigation by the FBI and the DEA. Caracappa pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009. He died in prison in 2017 at the age of 74. Eppolito also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009. He died in prison in 2019 at the age of 71. Caracappa’s story is one of the most shocking and notorious examples of how some law enforcement officers betrayed their oath and served the interests of organized crime instead of justice. His actions have had a lasting impact on the public trust and confidence in the police force.

Events

Leaders of the NXIVM cult

1899 – Martha M. Place is executed by electrocution at Sing Sing prison, therefore becoming the first woman to die in the electric chair

1968 – Gangsters Henry Hill & Jimmy Burke commit the Air France robbery, stealing $420,000 from the cargo terminal at New York City’s JFK International Airport

1992 – Robin Fuldauer became the first victim of the Maryland Interstate 70 killer

2006 – The Shedden Massacre takes place in the Province of Ontario

2019 – Actress Allison Mack pleads guilty to sex trafficking charges for her involvement in the sex cult NXIVM