Births

Cesar Armando Librado Legorreta

1842David Edgar Herold – led a relatively privileged life. His father held a well-paying position in the Washington Navy Yard, and the family resided in a comfortable home. However, despite these advantages, Herold struggled academically and exhibited rebellious tendencies. He bounced between schools, eventually failing to complete his education. In the tumultuous years leading up to the Civil War, Herold became acquainted with John Wilkes Booth, a prominent actor harboring strong pro-Confederate sympathies. As tensions escalated, Booth hatched a conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln and other key Union figures. While Herold’s exact role remains debated, historians agree he participated in planning and logistical support. On April 14, 1865, Herold accompanied Booth to Ford’s Theatre, where the President was attending a play. Booth fatally shot Lincoln, and the duo fled into the night. Herold played a crucial role in their escape, providing supplies and aiding in Booth’s leg injury sustained during the leap from the theater box. A massive manhunt ensued, fueled by a hefty reward. For twelve days, Herold and Booth remained on the run, hiding in swamps and seeking assistance from sympathizers. Eventually, authorities cornered them in a Virginia barn. While Herold surrendered, Booth was shot and killed. Captured and accused of conspiracy, Herold stood trial alongside other alleged collaborators. Despite a lack of direct evidence linking him to the shooting itself, he was convicted and sentenced to death. On July 7, 1865, at the age of 23, Herold was hanged alongside Mary Surratt, another accused conspirator. David Herold’s involvement in the Lincoln assassination remains shrouded in some ambiguity. While not the physical perpetrator, his participation in the plot and escape cemented his association with the tragedy. Some view him as a misguided youth drawn into a web of radicalism, while others consider him a willing accomplice. Regardless of interpretation, Herold’s fate stands as a stark reminder of the consequences of extremism and the lasting impact of the Lincoln assassination.

1936Ricardo Alberto Barreda – was an Argentine dentist who gained notoriety for a gruesome crime. On 15 November 1992, Barreda committed a heinous act, murdering his wife, Gladys McDonald, along with his two daughters, Cecilia and Adriana Barreda, and his mother-in-law, Elena Arreche. His actions shocked the nation and led to his conviction. Barreda was born in La Plata, Argentina. In 1995, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes.

1940Theodore Rodgers Jr – On February 14, 2001, Theodore Rodgers fatally assaulted his wife, Teresa Henderson. Rodgers, suspecting his wife of infidelity, left his plumbing job that morning to visit the daycare facility operated by Henderson. Upon entering, Henderson’s daughter alerted everyone to Rodgers’ presence. As Rodgers encountered the situation, Henderson’s ex-husband, Willie Bee Odom, hastily exited the facility in partial attire, carrying his shoes and shirt. Rodgers found his wife in the bathroom wearing only a bra and, suspecting infidelity, expressed his disappointment and declared his intention to leave her. Subsequently, he left to complete his plumbing job. Feeling distraught, Rodgers reached out to Verna Fudge, a friend and former romantic partner who also served as a minister. Despite being unable to provide accommodation, Fudge advised him to seek counseling and communicate with his wife. Rodgers then contacted his plumbing partner, discussing marital issues and expressing frustration about his wife’s actions, hinting at extreme measures depending on her version of events. Following this conversation, Rodgers bought a Valentine’s Day card and flowers, returning home before receiving a call from Henderson requesting him to return to the daycare to address their dispute. Upon arrival, Rodgers claimed the lights were off, the television was on, and no children were present. An argument ensued, and Rodgers asserted that Henderson brandished a gun, firing a shot that missed him. A struggle for the firearm ensued, resulting in Henderson being shot. Testimonies from three children present at the daycare contradicted Rodgers’ account, stating that he entered angrily, assaulted Henderson, and retrieved a gun from a back bedroom. The children reported that Rodgers shot Henderson multiple times as she attempted to escape through the front door. After the incident, Rodgers drove around aimlessly before visiting a pool hall where he confided in friends, expressing regret and stating that he believed he was destined for hell. Departing from his usual demeanor, Rodgers called his work partner to bid farewell and confess to killing his wife, followed by a suicide attempt by shooting himself in the head, which he survived.

1950Ryuichi Tsukamoto – is the alias of a Japanese serial killer who, as a teenager, committed three murders across three separate prefectures between 1966 and 1967. Investigators dubbed his case “Metropolitan Designated Case No. 106.” Tsukamoto was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1972, but it is believed that he was paroled in the late 1980s. Ryuichi Tsukamoto was born on June 16, 1950, in Shiogama, Japan. His father was a black American soldier named A. Johnson, stationed at a nearby military base, and his mother was a 16-year-old Japanese girl. Tsukamoto faced health challenges at birth, possibly due to complications related to his underage mother’s pregnancy. The Korean War broke out shortly after his birth, leading to his father’s deployment to Korea, where he was later killed in combat. At age 4, Tsukamoto’s mother married an American soldier in Fukuoka and left him in the care of his grandparents in Sendai. Despite his mixed-race heritage, Tsukamoto was not bullied by his peers; they feared him due to his remarkable physical strength. He distanced himself from others, often skipping school to explore temples or hide under cars. Tsukamoto exhibited violent tendencies at home, damaging furniture and roof tiles when he didn’t get what he wanted. In his second year of junior high school, he was arrested for attempting to steal an air gun from a shop. Sent to a juvenile welfare facility in Sendai, he was ostracized by other teenagers due to his skin color. Despite challenges, Tsukamoto developed a close relationship with a dormitory overseer, whom he saw as a parental figure. Ryuichi Tsukamoto’s life took a dark turn when he became a serial killer during his teenage years. His crimes left a lasting impact on Japan’s criminal history, and his story continues to intrigue and disturb those who delve into it.

1953Louise Harris – an African-American woman, found herself at the center of a tragic case where she was convicted of orchestrating her husband’s murder. Despite the jury initially sentencing her to life in prison, an Alabama judge intervened and imposed the death penalty. The tumultuous marriage with Isaiah Harris, characterized by frequent physical abuse, led Louise to form a connection with Lorenzo McCarter. Seeking solace from the violence, she confided in McCarter about her difficult circumstances. In a distressing turn of events, McCarter, along with Michael Sockwell and Alex Hood, plotted and executed the murder of Isaiah Harris during his commute to work. Facing capital charges, McCarter opted to testify against Louise to secure a more favorable outcome for himself. Louise maintained that she was unaware of the plan to kill her husband. However, Louise’s life had been marked by a series of harrowing experiences, including sexual assault at the age of 11, the sudden death of her older sister when she was 14, the drowning of her younger brother, and the murder of her father, which she discovered personally. Her journey was further marred by severe physical abuse from her first husband, John Wesley Robinson, ongoing mistreatment from her common-law husband Jesse Lee Hall, and the abusive relationship with Isaiah Harris. These cumulative traumas resulted in Louise suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Battered Women’s Syndrome, and Dissociative Disorder. Unfortunately, during her trial, none of this critical evidence detailing her history of abuse and trauma was presented. The co-conspirators, Hood and McCarter, received life sentences without parole, while Sockwell, the person responsible for shooting Harris, was sentenced to death. In October 2004, Louise’s death sentence was overturned, and she now awaits re-sentencing, shedding light on the complex interplay of abuse, trauma, and the legal system.

1958Brian Keith Baldwin – was an African-American man from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America. He was executed in 1999 in Alabama. Many believe that he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced for the 1977 murder of a young white woman in Monroe County of that state. As a teenager, he got into trouble with the law. In March 1977 he was serving time in a juvenile facility in western North Carolina for stealing a car. On March 12, at age 18, he escaped with Edward Dean Horsley, Jr. In March 1977, Naomi Rolon, a 16-year-old white girl, was driving in Hudson, North Carolina across town to visit her father in a hospital. She picked up Baldwin and Horsley, who were hitchhiking. The only evidence against Baldwin in the murder was his confession, which he later retracted. He said that it was coerced by the local police in Wilcox County, Alabama, where he was arrested; they beat and tortured him under interrogation. A 1985 letter by his co-defendant Edward Dean Horsley surfaced in 1996 after Horsley had been executed for first-degree murder in the case. He wrote that he had acted alone in the rape and murder of Naomi Rolon and that Baldwin had not known of her death. Death penalty opponents regard this case as one in which racial bias contributed to the wrongful conviction by an all-white jury of an 18-year-old black man, in a county that was 46% black in population. Further, they believe he was executed despite evidence that he did not commit Rolon’s murder. The appeals process was marked by conflicts of interest, as the presiding judge at Baldwin’s trial also ruled on the appeals, against common practice. Before Baldwin’s execution in 1999, leading political and religious figures petitioned Governor Don Siegelman for clemency on his behalf. Siegelman refused, saying that although he was “deeply troubled by some of the matters raised,” he wrote, “this matter does not rise to a level that warrants clemency”.

1960Ernest Paul McCarver – had a challenging upbringing. When he was two, his parents were sent to prison for burglary, and he and his older brother were temporarily placed in foster care. After their parents were released, they resumed their criminal activities, often involving their sons in their burglaries. Later, Ernest and his brother lived with their impoverished grandmother, who was in poor health. The boys turned to stealing to survive and suffered sexual abuse during this time. Ernest was a sickly child and missed a lot of school. In January 1987, Ernest McCarver was involved in the robbery and murder of Woodrow Hartley, where Hartley was stabbed to death at the restaurant in Concord where he worked, and where McCarver was formerly employed as a dishwasher. McCarver was arrested later on the same day and confessed to the murder. He was tried in April 1988 and was found guilty of both crimes. In 1992, he was sentenced to death. The jury found two aggravating factors, namely that the murder was committed to avoid arrest and during a robbery with a dangerous weapon. They also found 14 mitigating factors, including that McCarver was under the influence of mental or emotional disturbance at the time of the crime, his capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct was impaired, and he has a history of passivity and non-violence. His execution was scheduled for March 2, 2001, but it was stopped by the US Supreme Court less than seven hours before he was due to be lethally injected.

1967Randall B. Knese – is a convicted criminal known for his involvement in a high-profile case in the United States. He was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and attempted forcible rape. The case was affirmed on direct appeal. Following his conviction, Knese sought post-conviction relief, which was denied. The case details reveal a disturbing series of events. On the morning of March 23, 1996, Knese was observed in a state of agitation, half-dressed, screaming, and combative. He was later taken to the hospital, where he waived his Miranda rights and made four statements to the police regarding the murder. He admitted to killing his spouse following a dispute about his drug use. The altercation escalated, leading to a struggle during which Knese strangled and fatally injured his spouse.

1967Jessica Renae Riggins – is an American woman who was sentenced to life in prison in Arizona on April 20, 2009. She was convicted for the murder of her husband, Rusty Riggins, which occurred on August 5, 2007. Riggins was indicted on first-degree murder and related counts arising from the discovery by police of the body of her husband, dead in the master bedroom of his home from a gunshot wound. The evidence at trial demonstrated that Riggins had purchased the murder weapon three days before the shooting, shortly before the couple’s final divorce hearing. Riggins appealed her convictions for first-degree murder and three counts of theft on the grounds that the trial court abused its discretion and deprived her of a fair trial in evidentiary rulings surrounding her self-defense claim as a victim of domestic violence. However, the appeal was unsuccessful and her convictions were affirmed.

1976 –  Alexander Rey Martinez – He had a troubled life and was involved in criminal activities from a young age. In August 1994, he was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing a worker at a pizza restaurant and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. He served approximately one year before being paroled in August 1995. He was back behind bars a month later, on a felony theft conviction. He was paroled again on the attempted murder sentence in July 2001. However, just 23 days later, he committed a heinous crime. On August 12, 2001, Martinez telephoned an escort agency and arranged for a woman named Helen Joyce Oliveros to meet him at his Houston home. When Oliveros arrived, a dispute arose over the agreed payment, which escalated to Martinez assaulting and eventually murdering Oliveros. Martinez was arrested and confessed to the crime. While in custody, he had two tombstones tattooed on his arms, bearing the names of his victims. He was sentenced to death and was executed by lethal injection on June 7, 2005, in Huntsville, Texas.

1977Kevin Foster – The Lords of Chaos was a self-styled teen militia formed on April 13, 1996, in Fort Myers, Florida, United States. It was led by Kevin Donald Foster, who was born Kevin Donald Bates on June 16, 1977. The group gained notoriety for a crime spree that ended on April 30, 1996, with the murder of one of the boys’ teachers, Mark Schwebes, the Riverdale High School’s band director. The group’s activities and the subsequent legal proceedings attracted significant media attention. The Lords of Chaos was disbanded after the arrest and conviction of its members. Kevin Foster was sentenced to death for his role in the murder of Mark Schwebes. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The story of the Lords of Chaos has been the subject of several books and documentaries. The group’s actions and the tragic consequences serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of youth violence and the importance of early intervention and prevention efforts.

1981Justen Grant Hall – was a convicted killer from El Paso, Texas. He was sentenced to death row in 2005 for the strangulation murder of 29-year-old Melanie Ruth Billhartz in 2002. The murder occurred while Hall was out on bond on another murder charge, the fatal shooting of a transgender woman, Arturo Diaz. This killing was classified as a hate crime. Hall was a member of the white supremacist Aryan Circle gang, and investigators stated that prejudice was a motive in the hate crime killing. In October 2002, Hall strangled Billhartz to death with a black electrical cord and then buried her body in the New Mexico desert because he feared she would tell police about a methamphetamine cooking operation at a house in El Paso. Hall maintained his innocence for a time, and his lawyers filed appeals asking for DNA testing on the ligature on Billhartz’s neck. However, in a March 2017 court hearing, Hall confessed to the murders of both Billhartz and Diaz. He was executed by lethal injection on November 6, 2019.

1982Cesar Armando Librado Legorreta – also known as “El Coqueto”, was born in 1982 in Tenango del Valle, Mexico. He is a convicted serial killer who was found guilty of six rapes and murders of women in the Greater Mexico City. Librado Legorreta worked as a driver on Route 2, running from Metro Chapultepec to Tlalnepantla de Baz. He used his job to commit his crimes, often late at night and early in the morning. His victims were women aged between 17 and 34. To gain his victims’ trust, he would simulate a vehicle breakdown and then change the route, rape the girl, and kill her afterward. His first crime was committed on July 14, 2011, and his last two murders were committed on January 8 and 18, 2012. He was initially captured on February 26, 2012, but managed to escape from the facilities of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico. He was recaptured on March 3, 2012. Librado Legorreta was sentenced to 240 years in prison. His case marked the first instance of life imprisonment for rape and femicide in Mexico.

Deaths

George Stinney

1933Haim Arlosoroff – also known as Chaim Arlozorov, was a prominent Socialist Zionist leader during the British Mandate for Palestine, before the establishment of Israel. He was born Vitaly Arlozorov on February 23, 1899, in Romny, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). Arlosoroff’s early life was marked by a strong Jewish identity and an encounter with antisemitism. His family home in Romny was attacked during a violent pogrom in 1905, leading the family to flee to East Prussia and later settle in Königsberg, Germany. He became fluent in German and studied Hebrew with a tutor. During World War I, the family moved to Berlin, where Arlosoroff studied economics at the University of Berlin and obtained a doctorate. He became a key leader of Hapoel Hatzair, a socialist political party, and was appointed editor of “Die Arbeit”, a journal where his writings were first published. In 1924, Arlosoroff moved to Palestine and two years later, he represented Jewish Palestine at the League of Nations conference. He was the head of the political department of the Jewish Agency and was responsible for negotiating the Haavara Agreement, which allowed several thousand Jews to escape from Nazi Germany and flee to Palestine with their property. Tragically, Arlosoroff was assassinated while walking on the beach in Tel Aviv on June 16, 1933. The assassination remains a mystery.

1939Robert Nixon – was an American serial killer born in the small town of Tallulah, Louisiana. His criminal activities included five murders and multiple assaults, most notably the infamous Los Angeles “brick bat murders” of 1937. Nixon’s gruesome method involved using bricks as his weapon of choice. He sexually assaulted and murdered his victims, leaving behind a trail of violence and fear. The Los Angeles police connected him to several similar assaults, including the rape-murder of 20-year-old Rose Valdez and attacks on other women using bricks. After a period in Los Angeles, where he survived through petty theft and faced multiple arrests, Nixon returned to Chicago. There, he committed another brick-killing. On the night of May 27, 1938, he brutally murdered Florence Johnson, the Caucasian wife of a Chicago fireman, by repeatedly striking her head with a brick during a burglary. Nixon was arrested shortly afterward, thanks to bloodstains on his clothes and scratched hands. Nixon’s defense that his accomplice was the actual killer failed, and both were deemed equally responsible for the murder. He was convicted and sentenced to death. On June 16, 1939, Robert Nixon was executed by electrocution at the Cook County Jail in Chicago.

1941Felicitas Sanchez Aguillon – also known as Sánchez Neyra, was born in 1890 in Cerro Azul, Veracruz, Mexico. She was a nurse, midwife, baby farmer, and serial killer, active during the 1930s in Mexico City. Sánchez was born to a mother who was not affectionate towards her. As a child, she habitually poisoned street dogs. During the 1900s, she became a licensed nurse and married Carlos Conde. She had twin daughters with him but didn’t want to take care of them, and suggested to her husband that they give them up for adoption. After the daughters had been adopted, Conde changed his mind, but Sánchez refused to tell him where their daughters were, which led to their divorce in 1910. In Mexico City, she lived in an apartment building located on Salamanca Street, Colonia Roma. She started to attend births and illegally practice abortions. She also began to trade in illegal adoptions. During the 1910s she was arrested twice for practicing illegal adoption and baby farming. She killed the children that she couldn’t sell and the newborns when the abortion failed. She murdered several children, some by poisoning or strangulation. She dismembered the bodies and incinerated them or threw them in the sewer. On April 8, 1941, human remains were discovered near her building. Three days later Sánchez was arrested, along with two accomplices: her second husband Roberto or Alberto Covarrubías, and a plumber, Salvador Martínez, who worked for Sánchez. Sánchez killed herself before she was tried on June 16, 1941. She and her second husband had a third daughter, who was placed in state care after her father was convicted for involvement in the murders. Between 40 and 50 murders were attributed to her. She was also known as “The Ogress of Colonia Roma,” “The Female Ripper of Colonia Roma” and “The Human Crusher of Little Angels”.

1944George Stinney – was born on October 21, 1929, in Pinewood, South Carolina. He lived in a small home with a chicken coop in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina, with his father, George Junius Stinney Sr., mother Aimé Brown Stinney, brother Charles Stinney, and sisters Katherine Stinney and Aimé Stinney Ruffner. His father worked at the town’s sawmill, and the family resided in company housing. On March 23, 1944, the bodies of Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 7, were found in a ditch on the African-American side of Alcolu. George Stinney Jr., at the age of 14, was wrongfully convicted for these murders. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by electric chair in June 1944, thus becoming the youngest American with an exact birth date confirmed to be both sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century. A re-examination of Stinney’s case began in 2004, and several individuals and the Northeastern University School of Law sought a judicial review. Stinney’s murder conviction was vacated in 2014, seventy years after he was executed, with a South Carolina court ruling that he had not received a fair trial, and was thus wrongfully executed.

1987Jimmy C. Wingo – was born on March 14, 1952, in Grubbs, Jackson County, Arkansas. He was a high school dropout and had a criminal record. In December 1982, Wingo, along with fellow inmate Jimmy L. Glass, escaped from the Webster Parish, Louisiana Jail. During their escape, they killed Newt Brown and his wife, Erlene Nealy Brown, at their home on Christmas Eve in Dixie Inn outside Minden. Both Wingo and Glass were soon arrested and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Wingo was executed on June 16, 1987, at the age of 35, in Angola, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. His execution was part of a series of executions that took place in Louisiana during that period.

1987Gerd Wenzinger – also known as “The Havel Ripper”, was a German doctor and suspected serial killer. Born in 1943 in Sankt Blasien, Germany, Wenzinger was the second of three children. From an early age, he had an affinity for music and art, playing the violin, as well as having a keen interest in painting and modeling. After graduating from high school, Wenzinger began studying mathematics and physics but later switched to medicine. In 1978, Wenzinger settled as a general practitioner in Stuttgart. However, his medical career ended abruptly in 1990 when one of his partners secretly filmed video footage of Wenzinger torturing his patients during treatment. This led to him forfeiting his medical license. Wenzinger is suspected to have killed between 2 and at least 17 women in Germany and Brazil between 1991 and 1996. Brazilian media reported that he had tortured around 90 women, mostly prostitutes, killing four of them. In some cases, the deeds were recorded on video. Wenzinger committed suicide in 1997, shortly after his extradition to his home country was approved. He was buried in Salvador on 21 July.

1990Gertrude Baniszewski – also known as Gertrude Wright and “The Torture Mother”, was born on September 19, 1928, in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was the third of six children in a working-class family. At the age of 16, she dropped out of school to marry 18-year-old deputy John Baniszewski, with whom she had four children. The couple stayed together for 10 years before eventually divorcing. Baniszewski is infamously known for the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens, a teenage girl she had taken into her home. The abuse, which lasted for three months, was carried out by Baniszewski, many of her children, and several of their neighborhood friends. The official cause of Likens’ death was a combination of subdural hematoma and shock, complicated by severe malnutrition. The case was described as “the single worst crime perpetuated against an individual in Indiana’s history”. In May 1966, Baniszewski was convicted of first-degree murder. She was initially sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. However, she was resentenced to eighteen years to life and was released on parole in December 1985. Baniszewski passed away on June 16, 1990.

1997David Wayne Stoker – was a carpenter and handyman. He was born on January 25, 1959. He was associated with a rough gang in town that included Carey Todd, Deborah, and Ronnie Thompson. Stoker’s job in the group was that of a gunsmith. Stoker was convicted and condemned for the 1986 murder of a convenience store clerk in Hale Center, a small town just north of Lubbock. The gunman shot the clerk three times and stole $96. The weapon used in the murder was a .22 caliber pistol. Stoker refused two plea offers by District Attorney Terry McEachern, professing until the very end that he was innocent. The sensational trial, which featured several death threats, a second accusation of murder, and the testimony of “Dr. Death”, ended after seven hours of deliberation by the jurors of Hale County. Three days later, Stoker was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He was executed by lethal injection in Texas on June 16, 1997. His last statement was: “I am truly sorry for your loss… but I didn’t kill anyone.”

1999Bruce W. Kilgore – On August 25, 1986, Willie Luckett, an employee at Cristos restaurant in St. Louis, was terminated following a report from co-worker Marilyn Wilkins, who had informed management about his alleged theft of food. Two days later, on August 27, 1986, Luckett, accompanied by his girlfriend Renee Dickerson and Bruce Kilgore, devised a plan to rob Ms. Wilkins. That evening, Kilgore and Luckett, driving a borrowed car, waited for Ms. Wilkins to leave the restaurant. Between 10:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., as Ms. Wilkins exited the restaurant, Kilgore and Luckett approached her. Luckett forced her into their car before she could reach her vehicle. Kilgore drove them to Kinloch, Missouri, a town in north St. Louis County. Throughout the drive, Luckett held Ms. Wilkins’ face down in the back seat, instructing her to remove her rings. When she recognized Luckett’s voice, he removed his stocking mask, threatening her life as she identified him. On August 28, 1986, Kilgore, Luckett, and Luckett’s cousin, Lessie Vance, visited a pawn shop, where they sold two of the five rings taken from Ms. Wilkins during the murder. Kilgore and Luckett divided the proceeds from the ring sales. Later that evening, realizing the proximity of Ms. Wilkins’ body to Luckett’s residence in Kinloch, Luckett, and Kilgore decided to relocate it. The discovery of Ms. Wilkins’ body in Forest Park in St. Louis occurred on August 29, 1986. Ms. Wilkins succumbed to death due to a throat laceration, measuring five and a half inches wide by three and a half inches deep. The triangular-shaped wound severed the jugular veins on both sides of her neck and caused severe damage to the trachea. Additionally, she sustained multiple stab wounds to the neck and back, along with defensive lacerations on her right hand. On September 3, 1986, Kilgore and Luckett were apprehended for the murder of Marilyn Wilkins. During the trial, Renee Dickerson testified that Kilgore had admitted to slitting Ms. Wilkins’ throat.

1999Michael Kent Poland – was born on June 11, 1940, in Washington, Daviess County, Indiana, USA. He is infamously known for his involvement in the 1977 Arizona armored car robbery. On May 24, 1977, Michael and his brother Patrick Gene Poland committed an armed robbery of an armored car along Interstate 17. They impersonated Arizona Highway Patrol Officers, wearing uniforms and driving a car fitted with emergency lights. The two guards of the car, Russell Dempsey and Cecil Newkirk, were murdered during this incident. The Poland brothers stole nearly $300,000 in cash from the armored van. The investigation led to the arrest of the Poland brothers nearly a year after the crime. In 1979, they were sentenced to 100 years in prison on federal kidnapping and robbery charges. Michael Kent Poland was executed on June 16, 1999, in Florence, Pinal County, Arizona, USA.

2011Lee Andrew Taylor – At the age of 16, Taylor faced conviction for his involvement in a 1995 aggravated robbery that led to the tragic death of an elderly man. Serving a life sentence at Telford State Prison in New Boston, Taylor became affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood. In the confines of the prison, a dispute arose involving another inmate, Donta Greene, suspected of stealing property from Daniel Richbourg’s cell. Seeking retribution, Taylor and Richbourg devised a plan. One morning, as inmates were released for breakfast, Taylor strategically approached Greene, delivering a forceful blow before initiating a violent assault. Taylor seized Greene in a headlock and mercilessly stabbed him in the chest using a makeshift prison weapon resembling an ice pick. Throughout the attack, Richbourg brandished his own weapon to deter fellow inmates from attempting to intervene. Unarmed, Greene succumbed to the brutal assault. In the aftermath, Taylor callously shouted at Greene, attributing the violence to his perceived theft. Despite the heinous act, Taylor later asserted a claim of self-defense. Richbourg, an accomplice with a 12-year sentence for burglary, faced additional legal consequences and was convicted in the murder of Greene, receiving a 48-year imprisonment sentence.

2011Eddie Duvall Powell III – was a man from Alabama who was executed by the state for a crime committed in 1995. He was convicted for the rape, robbery, and murder of a 70-year-old woman named Mattie Wesson. The crime took place in the early morning of March 25, 1995, at Wesson’s home in Holt, Tuscaloosa County. Powell was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. at the Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama. His execution took place on June 16, 2011, when he was 41 years old. In his final statement, Powell expressed remorse for the pain he had caused to his family, the victim’s family, and everyone in the state. He stated that he had made peace with himself and God, and hoped that everyone could move on from the situation.

Events

Earle Nelson

1927 – American serial killer & rapist Earle Nelson is apprehended

1944 – George Stinney, a 14-year-old African American boy is wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America

1987 – New York City subway gunman Bernhard Goetz is acquitted on all but gun possession charges after shooting 4 black youths who tried to rob him

1991 – Leslie Mahaffy was killed by Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka

2006 – Russian serial killer Alexander Pichuskin is captured

2016 – British MP Jo Cox is shot and killed outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire

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