Births
George Atzerodt
1835 – George Atzerodt – the story begins in 1835, in Dörna, Prussia (now part of Germany). At just eight years old, he immigrated with his family to the United States, settling in Maryland. He grew up learning German as his primary language and eventually opened his own carriage repair business in Port Tobacco. Despite living in the US for most of his life, fluency in English eluded him, creating a lingering barrier. As the Civil War unfolded, Atzerodt harbored sympathies for the Confederacy. This alignment led him to assist Confederate agents, including John Surratt, in crossing the Potomac River. Through these connections, he met John Wilkes Booth, the infamous figure behind the plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Initially, Booth proposed kidnapping Lincoln and holding him ransom for Confederate prisoners. Atzerodt supposedly agreed to this plan. However, the scheme soon morphed into a deadly assassination plot. While conflicting accounts exist, Atzerodt was allegedly tasked with eliminating Vice President Andrew Johnson. On the fateful night of April 14, 1865, Atzerodt found himself consumed by indecision and ultimately failed to carry out his assigned assassination. Whether due to moral qualms, fear, or logistical hurdles, his inaction left Johnson unharmed. However, the assassination of Lincoln by Booth sent shockwaves through the nation. Authorities quickly launched a manhunt, and Atzerodt, along with other suspected conspirators, was apprehended. Facing military tribunals, Atzerodt maintained his innocence, claiming limited involvement and blaming Booth for manipulating him. Despite his pleas, he was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to death. On July 7, 1865, at the young age of 30, George Atzerodt was hanged alongside three other conspirators. Atzerodt’s role in the Lincoln assassination plot remains shrouded in some ambiguity. His motivations, level of understanding, and exact actions continue to be debated by historians. While his ultimate decision not to kill Johnson spared a life, his involvement in the conspiracy and its tragic consequences cemented his place in American history.
1939 – Bobby Jack Fowler – was an American rapist and suspected serial murderer. He was active in the United States and Canada from 1973 to 1995. Born to Selva “Mutt” Fowler and Oma Lee (Hathaway) Fowler, he was their second-born son. Fowler married Theresa Patton on March 6, 1959, and they had five children: Johnny, Janey, Pam, Loretta, and Randell. They divorced on May 17, 1971. Fowler was a transient construction worker who traveled extensively across North America. He had an extensive criminal record, including attempted murder, sexual assault, and firearms offenses. In 1969, he was charged with murdering a man and woman in Texas but was only convicted of discharging a firearm within city limits. He was known to have committed several violent crimes and was a suspect or person of interest in at least 16 murders in British Columbia and Oregon dating as far back as 1969. Fowler died in prison of lung cancer during a 16-year sentence following a conviction for rape, kidnapping, and attempted rape in Newport, Oregon, in 1996 (for an attack that took place in 1995).
1948 – David Junior Brown – was a man who was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1980. The victims were Shelly Diane Chalflinch, 26, and her daughter, Christine, 9. The method of murder was reported as stabbing with a knife more than 100 times. At trial, Brown’s lawyers attacked the weaknesses in the State’s evidence relating to the police investigation and the time of death. Fourteen years after Brown was sentenced to death, the State disclosed that the prosecutor had hidden evidence of innocence from defense counsel; a witness had seen the victims alive at a time that made it virtually impossible for Brown to have committed the crime. Despite this, the federal courts ruled that Brown could not meet the standard for entitlement to habeas relief. David Junior Brown was executed by lethal injection shortly after 2 am local time on 19 November 1999, in Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina.
1963 – Carlette Elizabeth Parker – is an American woman who was sentenced to death in North Carolina in 1999. She was convicted for the kidnapping and murder of an 86-year-old woman. Parker’s defense attorney pointed to her difficult childhood, marked by weekly sexual assaults over several years. Despite this, the jury opted for a death sentence instead of life in prison. Parker is one of about 50 women currently on U.S. death row. She has expressed her early setbacks and traumatic childhood experiences through her poem “Don’t Judge Me”.
Deaths
Omar Mateen
1878 – Hendrik Jut – was a notorious figure from The Hague, Netherlands. He gained infamy as a murderer in the 19th century. Jut committed two murders, partly to finance his marriage to Christina Goedvolk. After the crimes, the couple fled but eventually returned to the Netherlands where they were imprisoned. Jut died relatively soon after his imprisonment. His wife, Christina, served her twelve-year sentence and upon release, she changed her surname to “De Graaf”, her mother’s maiden name, and worked as a maid. She remarried but faced difficulties until she died in 1926. Jut’s notoriety has made him a part of Dutch folk culture. A carnival “strength tester” game called the “Kop van Jut” (Head of Jut), where a large mallet is used to hit a block, causing a bell to ring if the blow is powerful enough, is said to be named after him. In the Dutch language, the expression “de kop van jut zijn” (being the head of jut) means ‘being the scapegoat’. Interestingly, Jut’s head was preserved in a jar and was long on display in an anatomical museum attached to Groningen University. However, it was discarded when the bottle started leaking. A cast of his head still exists.
1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson – was the ex-wife of American football player O. J. Simpson. She was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and moved to the United States with her family when she was young. She met Simpson in 1977 when she was working as a waitress at a nightclub in Los Angeles. They were married in 1985 and had two children together. In 1992, they divorced. Two years later, on June 12, 1994, Brown and her friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her Brentwood, California home. Simpson was arrested and charged with their murders, but he was acquitted in a highly publicized trial in 1995. In 1997, a civil jury found Simpson liable for the deaths of Brown and Goldman. Brown’s life and death have been the subject of much public attention, and her story has been told in numerous books, articles, and documentaries. Her murder remains unsolved. It is important to note that Brown was a victim of domestic violence and that her story is an important reminder of the dangers of domestic abuse. If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please seek help from a domestic violence hotline or organization.
1994 – Ronald Goldman – was an American restaurant waiter and a friend of Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of the American football player O. J. Simpson. Goldman was born on July 2, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was six years old, and he was raised by his father, Frederic Goldman. He attended high school at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He was a student at Illinois State University for one semester, where he planned to major in psychology. After his family relocated to Southern California, Goldman discontinued his studies and followed his family. He worked as an employment headhunter, and tennis instructor, and had a string of waiter jobs. He also occasionally worked as a model. Not long before his death, he had earned an Emergency Medical Technician’s license, but he did not pursue that career. Instead, Goldman told friends that he wanted to open a bar or restaurant in the Brentwood area. He was murdered, along with Nicole Brown Simpson, at her home in Los Angeles, California, on June 12, 1994. O. J. Simpson was acquitted of their killings in 1995 but found liable for both deaths in a 1997 civil lawsuit.
1998 – Paul Michael Stephani – was an American serial killer, also known as the Weepy-Voiced Killer. This nickname was due to a series of telephone calls he made to police, anonymously reporting his crimes in a remorseful and high-pitched voice. Stephani was born in Austin, Minnesota, and was the last of ten children born into a Catholic family. His mother remarried when he was three years old, giving him a stepfather who was known to beat his stepchildren. He was married to Beverly Lider and fathered a daughter with her, but the couple soon divorced. He held down several jobs but was fired from a janitor position at Malberg Manufacturing Company in 1977. His criminal activities spanned from 1980 to 1982, during which he killed three women in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. His victims included Karen Potack, Kimberly Compton, Kathleen Greening, and Barbara Simons. He was known for his signature of calling 911 after killing his victims and disguising his voice. Stephani was apprehended in 1982 and was convicted on 2 counts of attempted murder and 3 counts of murder. He was sentenced to 58 years in prison. He died in Oak Park Heights Prison, Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, U.S. on June 12, 1998.
2000 – Sandro Rosa Do Nascimento – was born on July 7, 1978, and passed away on June 12, 2000. He was a Brazilian individual who is most known for the Bus 174 hostage crisis in Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On June 12, 2000, the 21-year-old Nascimento, freshly escaped from prison, boarded a public bus to rob the passengers. However, the incident escalated into a hostage situation, which was broadcast live by most Brazilian national television channels. The police were called, and the event became a significant real-time Brazilian story as every camera in the country was trained on the bus, its passengers, and its surrounding police officers. The police were criticized for their handling of the situation, as they seemed unprepared and indecisive. Nascimento’s actions during the crisis were erratic and unpredictable. He made various demands, including for Uzis and grenades, and set deadlines at which point he threatened to execute hostages. The Bus 174 incident is considered a tragic event in Brazilian history and has been the subject of various documentaries and analyses. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Nascimento’s life and actions have contributed to discussions about crime, poverty, and police response in Brazil.
2012 – Henry Hill – was an American mobster associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980. Born in New York City to Henry Hill Sr., an Irish-American electrician, and Carmela Costa, an Italian immigrant of Sicilian descent, Hill grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Brooklyn. From an early age, he admired the local mobsters who socialized across the street from his home, including Paul Vario, a caporegime in the Lucchese crime family. In 1955, at the age of 11, Hill began running errands for patrons of Vario’s storefront shoeshine, pizzeria, and cabstand. He first met the notorious hijacker and Lucchese family associate James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke in 1956. Hill’s life took a dramatic turn in 1980 when he was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant. His testimony against his former Mafia associates resulted in 50 convictions, including those of caporegime Paul Vario and fellow associate James Burke on multiple charges. Following his cooperation with the FBI, Hill entered the Witness Protection Program but was removed from the program in 1987. His life story was documented in the true crime book “Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family” by Nicholas Pileggi, which was subsequently adapted by Martin Scorsese into the critically acclaimed 1990 film “Goodfellas”, in which Hill was portrayed by Ray Liotta.
2013 – Elroy Chester – was an American serial killer who was born on June 14, 1969, and lived until June 12, 2013. He was a native of Jefferson County, Texas. His life took a dark turn when he became involved in a series of burglaries and fatal shootings that occurred in Port Arthur, Texas, between 1997 and 1998. These crimes resulted in the deaths of five people, all of whom Chester admitted to killing. The victims were John Henry Sepeda, who was 78 years old when he was killed on September 20, 1997; Etta Mae Stallings, who was 87 years old when she was killed on November 15, 1997; Cheryl DeLeon, who was 40 years old when she was killed on November 20, 1997; Albert Bolden Jr., who was 35 years old when he was killed on December 21, 1997; and Willie Ryman III, who was 38 years old when he was killed on February 6, 1998. Chester was eventually convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Willie Ryman III and the assault of Ryman’s two nieces. The jury took only 11 and a half minutes to agree on a death sentence for Chester. Despite scoring below 70 on IQ tests and being previously placed in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Mentally Retarded Offenders Program, the Texas court system ruled that Chester was legally competent to be executed. Chester was executed by lethal injection on June 12, 2013.
2016 – Omar Mateen – was born on November 16, 1986, in New Hyde Park, New York, U.S. to Afghan parents. He moved to Florida as a child, where he displayed an interest in violence and had behavioral problems in school. As an adult, he drifted through various jobs and a failed marriage before eventually becoming a security guard. Mateen is known for perpetrating the Orlando nightclub shooting on June 12, 2016. He murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida before he was killed in a shootout with the local police. It was the deadliest shooting by a single shooter in United States history until the Las Vegas Strip shooting on October 1, 2017. Before the shooting, he had been investigated for connections to terrorism by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2013 and 2014. During that period, he was placed on the Terrorist Screening Database but was subsequently removed. In a call to 9-1-1 during the shooting, Mateen identified himself as “Mujahideen”, “Islamic Soldier”, and “Soldier of God”; and pledged his allegiance multiple times to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at the time was the leader of the militant jihadist group ISIL. He said the shooting was “triggered” by an airstrike in Iraq that killed Abu Wahib, an ISIL commander, six weeks before.
Events
Rayshard Brooks
1885 – A roof collapsed during a murder trial in France, killing 30
1931 – Al Capone is indicted on 5,000 counts of prohibition & perjury
1963 – Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by KKK member Byron De La Beckwith
1964 – Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison
1978 – David Berkowitz is sentenced to 365 years in prison for 6 killings
1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson & Ronald Goldman are murdered outside the Simpson home in Los Angeles. Her estranged husband, OJ Simpson is later charged with the murders but acquitted by a jury
2000 – Sandro Rosa Do Nascimento takes hostages while robbing bus #174 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, the highly publicized standoff becomes a media circus and ends with 2 deaths
2016 – 49 civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The gunman Omar Mateen is killed in a gunfight with police.
2018 – French photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, at the Centre of Nobel Prize committee scandal charged with rape in Sweden
2020 – African American Rayshard Brooks is shot dead in a drive-thru car park in Atlanta leading to further protests at police violence and the resignation of the City’s police chief