Births

Josef Fritzl

1863 – Martha Needle – was an infamous Australian woman whose life was marred by scandal, betrayal, and ultimately, murder. Born in Portland, Victoria, she grew up in a relatively ordinary family but would later become a central figure in one of the most sensational criminal cases of her time. Martha’s early life appeared unremarkable, and she married her first husband, Henry Needle, at a young age. However, tragedy struck when Henry died unexpectedly, leaving Martha a widow with three children. Undeterred, she remarried, this time to a man named Louis Juncken. The couple faced financial difficulties, and rumors of Martha’s extravagant spending began to circulate. The turning point in Martha Needle’s life occurred with the sudden deaths of several family members, all linked to life insurance policies she had taken out on their lives. Suspicion surrounded her, especially when it was revealed that she had been having an affair with a fellow named John Henry Davies. The deaths of her husband Louis and three of her children under suspicious circumstances brought Martha under intense scrutiny. In 1894, Martha Needle faced trial for the murders of her husband and children. The courtroom drama captivated the public, revealing a web of lies, deceit, and greed. The prosecution argued that Martha had poisoned her family to collect insurance money and live a life of luxury with Davies. Martha Needle was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Her case remains one of the most notorious in Australian criminal history, with Martha Needle eternally remembered as a symbol of treachery and maternal betrayal. The tale of Martha Needle serves as a cautionary reminder of the dark depths to which human nature can descend under the influence of greed and deceit.

1935 – Josef Fritzl – He gained notoriety for committing one of the most shocking and heinous crimes in recent history. Fritzl’s story came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth Fritzl, his daughter, was rescued after being held captive in a concealed dungeon beneath their family home for 24 years. Fritzl married his wife, Rosemarie, in 1956, and together they had seven children. In 1978, Josef began constructing a hidden basement in their house in Amstetten. In August 1984, he lured 18-year-old Elisabeth into the cellar, where he imprisoned her and subjected her to years of physical and psychological abuse. Throughout her captivity, Elisabeth gave birth to seven children, three of whom were raised by Josef and Rosemarie above ground, while the other three were confined with Elisabeth in the dungeon. One child died shortly after birth and was incinerated by Josef. The shocking case was uncovered in 2008 when one of Elisabeth’s daughters fell seriously ill, prompting Josef to allow her to be taken to the hospital. Suspicion arose due to the girl’s critical condition and her lack of medical history. Authorities were alerted, leading to the eventual discovery of the underground prison and the horrifying truth about Josef Fritzl’s crimes. In March 2009, Josef Fritzl stood trial for charges including rape, incest, false imprisonment, and murder. He pleaded guilty to most of the charges but denied murder. In March 2009, he was found guilty of all charges, including the murder of one of the infant children who died in captivity. Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. The Fritzl case is a chilling example of long-term captivity and abuse within a family, and it garnered international attention for its brutality and the endurance of the victims. Josef Fritzl’s actions are widely condemned as one of the most shocking and horrifying criminal acts in recent history.

1953 – Bernard Giles – stands as an American convicted serial killer and rapist, having perpetrated the murders of five girls and women in Titusville, Florida, in late 1973. Following his arrest in December of that same year, Giles openly admitted his guilt and subsequently received multiple life imprisonment terms in 1974. His victims were predominantly young girls, many of whom hitchhiked, and their lifeless bodies were discovered, some subjected to sexual assault, in orange groves or wooded areas within Brevard County. Among the tragic accounts was the disappearance of Nancy Gerry, 18, on September 26, 1973, whose fully clothed body was later found shot in the head in a palmetto thicket on December 10, 1973. Paula Darlene Hamric, 22, went missing on November 17, 1973, and her nude body, strangled with bound hands, was discovered eight days later. Carolyn Jan Bennett, 17, vanished on November 15, 1973, and her skeletal remains were found on Christmas Day, having suffered a fatal gunshot to the head. Sharon Mary Wilmer, 14, disappeared on November 5, 1973, and was later found strangled, clad only in a St. Christopher’s necklace, with her shirt and sweater located near her remains. Krista Jean Melton, 14, reported missing on November 14, 1973, was found fully clothed with a gunshot wound to the head on January 31, 1974. On December 10, 1973, Giles lured two underage hitchhikers into his car, leading them to the woodlands outside Titusville, where he attempted to attack them. The victims valiantly resisted, prompting Giles to draw his gun in an attempt to shoot them. However, his pistol malfunctioned and misfired, allowing the girls to escape. They promptly reported the incident to the police, providing detailed descriptions of their assailant, including his name, which they had glimpsed in a book while in his car. The following day, Giles was arrested, and a thorough examination of his car revealed incriminating evidence. His 22-caliber pistol, used in the attempted assault, was seized, leading to charges of assault and attempted rape. After Giles’ apprehension, he became a suspect in the disappearances of more than 11 girls reported missing since August 1973, as well as in several other murder cases. However, by January of the following year, most of the missing girls were located, and Giles was no longer implicated in those cases.

1953 – Stephen Paddock – An American mass murderer who was the perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting from his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel. He opened fire on a crowd of people on the Las Vegas strip who were attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival, within an hour, he had fired 1000 bullets and killed 60 people, with injuries from the shooting and the ensuing panic totaling 867, an hour later it was all over and Paddock was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

1956 – Mario Albo Lara – is a convicted murderer and serial rapist who was sentenced to death in Florida for the killings of Grisel Fumero and Olga Elviro in 1981. He was also awaiting trial on charges of robbery and sexual battery of Fumero’s sister, who was expected to testify against him. He shot Fumero four times and stabbed Elviro three times in his brother’s apartment, where he had gone to confront them about his pending trial. He was arrested after the police found the bodies of both women. He appealed his conviction and sentence, claiming ineffective counsel, but his appeals were denied. He also filed a motion for a new sentencing hearing, arguing that he deserved mercy because of his brutal treatment by his father, his bizarre behavior, and his prior hospitalization for mental illness, but the trial judge denied his motion as well. He is currently on death row at the Florida State Prison.

1956 – Clarence Curtis Jordan – was a notorious criminal who was executed by the state of Texas in 1978 for the murder of Joe L. Williams, a 40-year-old man who was shot in the head on April 9, 1956. Jordan confessed to the crime and claimed that he had robbed and killed Williams because he had a gun and threatened him. He was sentenced to death on September 12, 1978, despite the efforts of his lawyers to appeal his case.

1957 – Stressla Lynn Johnson – is a convicted murderer who was sentenced to death in Oregon for killing two women in 1987. He was also convicted of rape and sexual abuse of one of the victims. He appealed his convictions and sentences, but the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed them in 1992. He later changed his name to Ira Roscoe Sheppard and was granted a new trial in 2011. He is currently serving a life sentence without parole at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Johnson met his first victim, Beverly Wilder, through a mutual friend who told him that she was attractive and sexually interested in him. He visited Wilder at her apartment several times and sexually assaulted her on October 8, 1987. He strangled Wilder with a telephone cord on October 9, 1987, after she returned from visiting a friend with her son. His second victim, Bobbie Jean Johnson, was not related to him and lived in the same apartment complex as Wilder. He met Johnson through Demetrious Johnson, who saw him walking with Wilder and her son to a nearby market on October 8, 1987. He visited Johnson at her apartment on October 10, 1987, and sexually assaulted her while she was asleep. He strangled Johnson with a telephone cord on October 11, 1987, after she woke up and tried to fight him off.

1957 –  Connie Ray Israel – He had a difficult upbringing in a poor and abusive family, and dropped out of school in the ninth grade. He worked various jobs as a truck driver and a laborer and was involved in drug dealing and theft. He was married twice and had four children. On December 27, 1991, he committed a heinous crime when he killed Esther Hagans, a 77-year-old woman who lived alone in her house. He broke into her bedroom through a window, beat her with a screwdriver, raped her, and then strangled her with a rope. He left behind his fingerprints and semen at the crime scene and also stole some of her jewelry and cash. He was arrested the next day after his accomplice, Maryann Pittman, confessed to the murder and implicated him. She said that he had paid her $500 to help him rob Hagans’ house. She also said that he had told her that he had “hit the lottery” after selling some cocaine to another man. Israel pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon in exchange for a life sentence without parole. He was sentenced to death on May 28, 1999, by Judge Kim C. Hammond of the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. His appeal for clemency was denied by Governor Jeb Bush in 2002. His execution date has not been set yet. Israel is currently incarcerated at the Florida State Prison at Raiford. He has maintained his innocence throughout his trial and appeals. He has also filed several petitions for post-conviction relief on various grounds, such as ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, new evidence of alibi, or mistake of fact or law. However, none of these petitions have been granted so far.

1960 – Richard Wayne Jones – is an American man who was executed by lethal injection in Texas on August 22, 2000. He was convicted of the murder of Tammy Livingston, a woman who was abducted and stabbed to death in 1986. Jones claimed that he did not kill Livingston, but that he was coerced by the police and his girlfriend to confess to the crime. He also alleged that his sister and her boyfriend were involved in the murder and that he tried to protect them from prosecution. However, his claims were not supported by any evidence or witnesses, and he maintained his innocence until the end. Jones was born in 1960 in Texas. He grew up in a poor family and had a troubled childhood. He dropped out of school at an early age and worked as a truck driver and a mechanic. He met his girlfriend, Yelena Comalander, when she was 16 years old and pregnant with his child. They moved to Fort Worth, where they lived in a trailer park. Jones had a history of drug abuse and violence. On February 19, 1986, Tammy Livingston was abducted from her home by an unknown assailant. She was last seen alive when she left for work at a bank. Her body was found later that day by firefighters who were putting out a grass fire in a field near her house. She had been stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest, causing her death. The police arrested Jones on February 20, 1986, after Comalander confessed to them that she had received some of Livingston’s cheques from him. She said that they had used her credit cards to buy drugs for her addiction. She also implicated Jones as the abductor of Livingston based on an eyewitness description given by another woman who saw him take her away. Jones denied killing Livingston and said that he had obtained her car and belongings from another man named Walter Sellers, who he claimed was responsible for the murder. He said that Sellers sold him the cheques and credit cards to fund Comalander’s drug habit. He also said that he did not know anything about the abduction or the murder until Comalander told him about it. Jones was interrogated for 12 hours without food or sleep by the police, who threatened him with execution if he did not confess or implicate others. They also showed him photos of Livingston’s body and asked him if he recognized it. They took him on a tour of locations associated with the crime scene without letting him talk to anyone else. After being held for more than two weeks without trial, Jones finally gave a statement admitting to killing Livingston on August 21, 1986. He said that he did it because she owed money to Sellers and because Comalander wanted revenge for being pregnant with another man’s child. Jones’s trial began on July 1, 1987. The prosecution presented evidence linking Jones to the crime scene through blood samples from his jeans, fingerprints from Livingston’s car, and eyewitness testimony from Comalander and another woman who saw him take Livingston away. The defense argued that Jones’s confession was coerced by the police during their interrogation session, which violated his constitutional rights against self-incrimination and due process of law. They also challenged the reliability of Comalander’s testimony as she had been under pressure from the police during their questioning. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Jones guilty of capital murder on July 18, 1987. The judge sentenced him to death on July 19, 1987. Jones appealed his conviction several times but all his appeals were rejected by higher courts. He also filed several motions for clemency but none were granted by Governor George W Bush or President Bill Clinton. On August 22, 2000, Jones became one of more than two dozen people executed in Texas that year. His execution method was lethal injection and his last words were reportedly “I love you” to his girlfriend Comalander. Richard Wayne Jones’s case has been controversial since it began because of allegations of police misconduct during his interrogation session. Amnesty International has opposed his execution regardless of his guilt or innocence but has also expressed concern about some aspects of his case that are consistent with his claims.

1965 – Jay Wesley Neill – A United States Veteran who was discharged in 1984 after disclosing to his superiors that he was homosexual, soon after his financial troubles began. In December 1987 he went into the First Bank of Chatanooga with the intention of robbery, three tellers were told to lie on the floor at which point he stabbed each of them a total of 75 times and one of them was six months pregnant, he then attempted to decapitate one of them, four customers came in and he moved them to the vault where he shot them, one died, the other three survived.

1965 – Timothy Shaun Stemple – Stemple was having an affair and arranged with his lover’s nephew to help murder his wife, she was beaten so badly that she had fractures to her arms, ribs, pelvis, vertebrae & skull. They had beaten her over the head well over 30 times, Stemple then attempted to crush the head with a pickup truck, and the two men then left, amazingly she was not dead and was able to drag herself to a more visible location, unfortunately, the men returned and drove the truck directly at her at approximately 60mph, killing her.

1967 – Ernest Whitfield – After visiting his friend’s house and asking all three inhabitants to lend him money which they all refused to do, he got angry and tried to steal from them, a scuffle ensued and Whitfield was forcefully removed from the house, after being thrown out he screamed: “I am going to kill all three of you bitches”. He returned to the house later attacking each of them with a knife, Claretha Reynolds took the most damage and died later.

1969 – Tracie Andrews – Andrews, who is now called Jenna Stephens Goldsworthy, hit the headlines in December 1996 when she told authorities that she and her fiance Lee Harvey had been victims of a road rage attack. After investigation, it was found that Andrews had murdered her fiance after a fierce row, stabbing him 40+ times.  She was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 14 years and was released in 2011.

1974 – Alexander Pichuskin – the chilling moniker of the “Chessboard Killer” and “Bitsa Park Maniac,” stalked the shadows of Moscow between 1992 and 2006, leaving a trail of at least 48, possibly as many as 60, shattered lives in his wake. Born in the Soviet capital in 1974, a seemingly ordinary childhood masked the turmoil within. A broken home at six, bullying at school, and a head injury at 13 etched early cracks in his psyche. Despite an unremarkable career as a carpenter and cashier, darkness festered beneath the surface. Luring victims, primarily the vulnerable and forgotten, into the depths of Bitsa Park, Pichushkin wielded the hammer and knife-like instruments of a twisted symphony, each blow silencing a life and carving another initial onto a macabre chessboard he kept, fixated on filling its 64 squares with the names of the fallen. Driven by a chilling hunger for notoriety, fueled by alcohol and drugs, Pichushkin embraced his monstrousness, claiming no remorse, even finding twisted pleasure in his deeds. In 2006, his arrogance tripped him up, his gruesome boasts to a fellow worker led to his capture. Convicted in 2007 of 49 murders and three attempted murders, Pichushkin now occupies a Siberian cell, his twisted game forever frozen in the annals of infamy, a haunting reminder of the abyss that can lurk in the human heart. His case, forever intertwined with that of another Russian monster, Andrei Chikatilo, stands as a stark testament to the darkness that can consume men, a chilling cautionary tale etched in blood and bone.

1981 – Eric Harris – Harris was one of two perpetrators along with Dylan Klebold who carried out the Columbine School shooting in 1999 which ended with the deaths of thirteen people and twenty-four injured. Unfortunately, the Columbine shooting became a blueprint for future mass murders, it also brought gun control measures into the news once again

1981 – Rennie Pratt – An American woman who was dating lawyer 36-year-old Michael E. Porcella when on April 10th, 2009, they had a furious row at which point Pratt shot Porcella, she claimed it was an accident, however, she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and given a sentence of up to 21 years.

1982 – Michael James Perry – was a notorious American spree killer who was executed by lethal injection in 2010 for the murders of three people in Texas in 2001. He was born on April 9, 1982, in Houston, Texas, and had a troubled childhood marked by abuse, neglect, and mental health issues. He was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder at various ages. He dropped out of school and ran away from home several times. He also had a history of drug abuse and theft. Perry met Jason Aaron Burkett, another troubled youth who shared his violent tendencies, when they were both sent to Boys Town, a reform school for troubled boys in Nebraska. They became close friends and committed several crimes together, including robbery, assault, and burglary. In October 2001, they decided to go on a killing spree in Texas after stealing a car from a gas station. They drove around the state shooting at random people and stealing their belongings. On October 24, 2001, they stopped at a house where Sandra Stotler lived with her two sons. Perry shot Sandra Stotler in the head as she was sitting on the porch. Burkett then entered the house and shot Sandra’s husband Adam Stotler twice in the chest as he was sleeping on the couch. He also shot Sandra’s son Jeremy Richardson twice in the head as he was sleeping in his bed upstairs. Perry claimed that he did not know that there were any children inside the house when he shot Sandra Stotler. The next day, Perry and Burkett were arrested after they crashed their car into a police station in San Angelo. They confessed to their crimes and were charged with capital murder for killing Sandra Stotler and her sons. They also admitted to killing two other people: Charles Richardson Jr., who was killed by Burkett while trying to rob them earlier that day; and Lisa Stolter-Balloun’s mother Mary Ann Balloun, who was killed by Perry while he was trying to obtain Xanax with a fake prescription. Perry’s trial began on September 25, 2003. He pleaded guilty to all charges but claimed that his confession was coerced by the police under torture techniques such as sleep deprivation and isolation. He also claimed that he had alibis for some of the killings that contradicted the prosecution’s evidence. However, his claims were rejected by the jury after hearing testimony from witnesses who saw him shoot or stab his victims. On July 1, 2010, Perry was executed by lethal injection at Huntsville State Prison in Texas. He became the first person to be executed in Texas since 2006 when Governor Rick Perry suspended executions due to legal challenges over lethal injection drugs. His execution sparked controversy over the use of lethal injection as a method of execution due to its potential for causing pain and suffering to inmates.

1989 – Christopher Frank Pittman – At the age of 12 Pittman was a troubled child who had threatened to take his own life, and ran away from home, doctors prescribed him mild anti-depressants. On the 28th of November 2001, things came to a head when Pittman was on his way home from school when he had an argument and tried to choke a pupil, later on, that night he got into trouble with his grandfather when he disobeyed him by leaving his room, his grandfather paddled him for this. After this when everyone in the house was sleeping, Pittman went into his grandparent’s room and shot them with a shotgun that he’d been taught how to use. The case garnered national attention due to his young age at the time of the crime and his defense that the medication Zoloft had influenced his actions. He received a sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Pittman claimed that he felt no remorse for the shooting and that he was unable to distinguish right from wrong when he committed the murders. His lawyer argued that he was not criminally responsible for the killings because his prescribed use of Zoloft temporarily impaired his ability to discern right from wrong.

Deaths

Tristan van der Vlis

1867 – John Mapp – was an English murderer who confessed to the brutal killing and rape of Catherine Lewis, a young girl from Longden, Shropshire. He was born in London and worked as a laborer before being transported to Australia for assaulting an old woman in 1859. He returned to England in 1866 and found employment as a farm laborer at Longden Wood. On December 22, 1867, he met Catherine Lewis at the Longden chapel and persuaded her to go with him to his home. There, he stabbed her repeatedly with a knife and cut her throat with a razor blade. He then buried her body under some straw and left some of his clothes near the crime scene. The next day, he was arrested after one of his co-workers found the bloodstained clothes and alerted the police. He made a confession to the murder, but some historians have questioned his guilt and suggested that he may have been involved in other killings that occurred in Shropshire around that time. He was tried at Shrewsbury Assizes on April 9, 1868, and sentenced to death by hanging

1932 – Erv A. Kelley – was a former lawman and bounty hunter who became famous for his pursuit of the notorious outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd. Born on September 11, 1886, in Denton, Texas, he grew up in Oklahoma and served as a deputy sheriff in several counties before joining the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in 1919. Known for his bravery, skill, and determination in fighting crime and corruption, Kelley formed a posse of six Oklahoma lawmen in 1932 to ambush Floyd and his partner George Birdwell near Bixby, Oklahoma. The outlaws had been hiding in a farmhouse owned by Ellis Echols, who had turned them in earlier for drinking moonshine. Kelley took a stand in a chicken house and ordered the car that Floyd was expected to visit to halt. He fired his machine gun at the car but missed. Floyd and Birdwell, wearing bulletproof vests, steel helmets, and steel shoes, escaped. They shot Kelley four times and left him mortally wounded. Kelley died on April 9, 1932, at the age of 45 and was buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Checotah, Oklahoma. He is remembered as one of the heroes who tried to clean up the remnants of the Wild West. His name has been honored by several places in Oklahoma, such as the Erv A. Kelley Memorial Highway and the Erv A. Kelley Memorial Park.

2000 – Kenneth Tornes – was born in 1934 and grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. He joined the fire department in 1962 and became an arson investigator. He was known for his physical fitness, his love of cartoons and The Terminator, and his violent mood swings. He married Glenda Washington in 1970, but they divorced in 1995 after years of domestic abuse. On April 24, 1996, he shot his wife at their home and then drove to the fire station, where he killed four of his supervisors with an assault rifle: Captain Stan Adams, District Chief Dwight Craft, Captain Merideth Moree, and District Chief Rick Robbins. He wounded two other firefighters before fleeing the scene. He was chased by the police for about 10 miles until he reached a shopping mall parking lot, where he exchanged gunfire with an officer named James Smith. Smith hit Tornes in the left eye with a bullet that damaged his optic nerve. Tornes was arrested and taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove the bullet from his eye. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on April 3, 1998. He appealed his sentence several times, but it was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2000. On April 9, 2000, he died of a blood clot caused by a pre-existing heart condition while serving his sentence at the Mississippi State Penitentiary’s hospital unit.

2002 – Edward L. Lutes Jr – born in 1959, was a police officer from Seaside Heights, New Jersey. He joined the Seaside Heights Police Department in 1986 and served in various roles such as patrolman, detective, and sergeant. Known for his meticulousness, efficiency, and physical fitness, he also had a reputation for being strict and aggressive with criminals. However, on April 9, 2002, he went on a shooting spree, killing five people at random: Dominick Galliano, Gail Galliano, Christopher Galliano, Gary Williams, and Tina Williams. He also wounded his boss, Michael Mastronardy, who was the chief of police at the time. The motive for the shooting remains unclear, with some sources suggesting a long-standing feud with some of his neighbors over criminal mischief cases, while others speculate mental illness or personal problems. The following day, Lutes was found dead in his car in front of a house in Barnegat Township, with a handgun and an MP5 submachine gun found in the car. The incident shocked the community and sparked public outrage. The victims’ families sued Seaside Heights and its former police chief for negligence and wrongful death, receiving $5.7 million in settlements from the townships involved. This tragic story serves as a reminder of the devastating consequences when a person loses their grip on reality.

2006 – Casper Kruger – Kruger was a South African thief and serial killer who had been arrested on a hijacking charge at Pinetown, what the police didn’t know (they were waiting on fingerprint results) was that Kruger was one of South Africa’s most wanted serial killers. Before the report from the prints came back, Kruger attempted to escape by holding four police officers and several others hostage at Pinetown police station, it did not end well for Kruger who was shot in the mouth by a sniper and killed instantly

2011 – Tristan van der Vlis – was a Dutch man who committed one of the deadliest mass shootings in the Netherlands’ history on April 9, 2011. He killed six people and wounded 17 others at the Ridderhof mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, before shooting himself. He was 25 years old at the time of his death.  According to various sources, van der Vlis had a history of psychological and psychiatric problems, including paranoid schizophrenia. He had been hospitalized several times for attempting suicide and had an obsession with guns since his childhood. He was a member of a shooting association and owned three firearms. He also left a note in his car stating that he had planted explosives in three other malls in the city, which were later evacuated.  Van der Vlis’ motive for the attack remains unclear, but some speculate that he wanted to punish God by killing “his creatures”. He also chose to attack on his 30th birthday, which coincided with the birthday of Eric Harris, one of the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.  Van der Vlis’ attack shocked and saddened the Dutch people and the world. It was described as a “senseless act of violence” by Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Queen Beatrix expressed her “speechless grief” over the tragedy. The victims included three elderly men and three elderly women, as well as a poet and journalist from Syria who had fled from an assassination attempt. Among them was Van der Vlis’ mother, who survived but suffered serious injuries.  Van der Vlis’ case is still under investigation by the Dutch authorities. His family has not made any public statements since his death. His name has become synonymous with mass murder in the Netherlands and beyond.

2013 – Rickey Lynn Lewis – was a convicted murderer and rapist who was executed by lethal injection in Texas in 2013. He was responsible for killing George Newman, a 45-year-old man, and raping his fiancée, Connie Hilton, in their home in 1990. He also shot and killed one of their dogs during the attack. He claimed that he did not kill Newman and that he only raped Hilton to save her life, but the evidence against him was overwhelming. He had a history of criminal offenses since he was a child, including burglary, assault, and escape. He was arrested three days after the crime and sentenced to death in 1991. He appealed his conviction several times, but his appeals were unsuccessful. He maintained his innocence until the end and said he was sorry for what happened to Hilton. He died without revealing the identities of the other two intruders who were involved in the murder.

2014 – Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas – was a Mexican national who escaped from prison in Mexico while serving a murder sentence and was executed by lethal injection in Texas for killing a former university professor and attacking his wife in 1997. He claimed that he had an intellectual disability that made his death sentence unconstitutional, but the Texas courts rejected his appeal.  Hernandez-Llanas was born in Mexico City and moved to the United States with his family when he was young. He dropped out of school and became involved in drug trafficking and violence. He was arrested in 1989 for the murder of a rival gang member and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He escaped from a Mexican prison in 1997 by hiding inside a truck that crossed the border into Texas.  On October 14, 1997, Hernandez-Llanas lured Glen Lich, a former Baylor University history professor who had hired him to help with renovations at his ranch near Kerrville, Texas, away from his house by telling him that there was a problem with a generator. He then repeatedly clubbed him with a piece of steel rebar, killing him instantly. Armed with a knife, he entered the house and attacked Lich’s wife, who survived and testified against him. He also had been linked to another rape and stabbing.  Hernandez-Llanas was arrested on October 16, 1997, after Lich’s body was discovered. He pleaded guilty to Lich’s murder and was sentenced to death by lethal injection on February 20, 2000. His appeals were exhausted by the time he was executed on April 9, 2014, at the age of 44. He asked for forgiveness from the victim’s family and said he was at peace before he died. Hernandez-Llanas’ execution sparked controversy and criticism from human rights groups and governments around the world. Amnesty International said that his execution violated international law and due process standards. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that Mexican nationals awaiting execution in the United States were not properly informed of their consular rights when arrested. The Mexican government condemned his execution as “a grave injustice”.

Events

Martin “Mart” Duggan

1888 – Martin “Mart” Duggan, considered at the time to be one of the most feared gunmen of the Old West, was shot from behind

1936 – Nancy Titterton was found in her bathtub raped and murdered – her killer was caught due to a single horsehair left on her bed

1973 – Otto Kerner, the former Governor of Illinois is convicted for his role in an illegal racetrack scheme

1992 – Manuel Noriega is found guilty of drug racketeering charges

2011 – A gunman murders 5 people in a shopping mall in the Netherlands

2013 – 13 people are killed and 3 are injured when a shooting spree takes place in Velika Ivanca, Serbia

2014 – The Franklin Regional High School stabbing takes place in Murrysville, Pennsylvania