Births
Randall Wayne Hafdahl Sr
1924 – William MacDonald – In June of 1961, the lifeless form of a young man was discovered in a public bathhouse, brutally stabbed over thirty times with the additional grotesque act of having his genitals hacked off. This bathhouse, known as a popular meeting place for the homosexual community, became the unsettling scene for a series of similar atrocities. As the investigation unfolded, two more victims were found under chillingly analogous circumstances in other public bathhouses, each bearing the gruesome signature of over thirty stab wounds and the removal of their genitalia. The community was gripped with fear as the assailant continued to evade justice. The police were led to a small shop by reports of a foul odor emanating from the premises. Unable to locate the owner, William MacDonald, authorities decided to forcibly enter the establishment. The source of the putrid smell was initially elusive until the discovery of a half-naked man beneath the floorboards, sharing the same horrifying fate as the previous victims—stabbed repeatedly, with his genitals severed. However, to their surprise, the body did not belong to William MacDonald. In their pursuit of justice, the police disseminated images of MacDonald, hoping for a breakthrough. This breakthrough came when two observant porters at a Melbourne train station recognized MacDonald from the circulated images. MacDonald was apprehended by the police and subsequently confessed to the four heinous murders. His admission led to a life sentence, bringing an end to a series of gruesome crimes that had terrorized the community.
1924 – Archibald Hall – was a Scottish serial killer and thief who was also known as the Killer Butler or the Monster Butler. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1924 and died in prison in 2002. Hall’s criminal career began in his early teens when he was convicted of theft. He later went on to commit a series of burglaries and assaults. In 1977, Hall was hired as a butler for a wealthy couple in London. Shortly after, he murdered the wife and stole a large amount of jewelry. Hall was eventually arrested and convicted of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison in 2002.
1947 – John Norman Collins – also known as the “Co-Ed Killer”, “The Michigan Murderer”, and “The Ypsilanti Ripper”, was born on June 17, 1947, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He was a student at Eastern Michigan University and was studying to be a teacher. Collins was convicted for a series of highly publicized killings of young women committed between 1967 and 1969 in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area of Southeastern Michigan. The victims were young women between the ages of 13 and 21 who were abducted, raped, beaten, and murdered—typically by stabbing or strangulation—with their bodies occasionally mutilated after death before being discarded within a 15-mile radius of Washtenaw County. He was arrested on July 30, 1969, a week after the final murder. On August 19, 1970, Collins was unanimously found guilty of the first-degree murder of Karen Sue Beineman. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and is currently incarcerated at G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility. Although Collins was only tried and convicted for one murder, investigators believe he was responsible for all seven murders linked to the same perpetrator. Despite this, Collins has never admitted to any of the crimes.
1953 – Randall Wayne Hafdahl Sr – He is known for a tragic event that took place in November 1985. On this day, Hafdahl, then 32, was driving a car that swerved off a highway and into the backyard of a private residence. According to his trial testimony, Hafdahl was under the influence of alcohol and hallucinogenic mushrooms. James D. Mitchell Jr., a 42-year-old Amarillo police officer, witnessed the accident and stopped to investigate. When Mitchell saw Hafdahl running away, he pursued him. Hafdahl, who was armed with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, shot and killed Mitchell. Hafdahl later turned himself in. During his trial, Hafdahl admitted to shooting Mitchell but claimed he did not know Mitchell was a police officer. He stated that he only realized Mitchell was a policeman as he was falling to the ground. However, the prosecution presented substantial evidence that Mitchell was visually identifiable as a policeman and had verbally identified himself as such. Hafdahl was convicted of the murder of a police officer, a capital offense under Texas law. He was executed by lethal injection on January 31, 2002, in Huntsville, Texas.
1954 – Daniel Lee Siebert – was an American serial killer who was on Alabama’s death row. He was born in Mattoon, Illinois, U.S. He was also known as “The Southside Slayer”. Siebert was convicted of three murders and confessed to at least five. During questioning, he indicated that he was responsible for at least 12 deaths. His crimes spanned from 1979 to 1986 across multiple states including Alabama, California, Nevada, and New Jersey. His first known killing took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, for which he was convicted of manslaughter. In 1985, he was charged with the murders of two women in Los Angeles, California. In 1986, he murdered a student at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Talladega, Alabama, and her two children. He was also charged with the murder of Linda Odum, a waitress he had been dating. Siebert was apprehended in 1986 and spent the next six months on the run. He was finally arrested in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. He was convicted in the capital cases involving the student and her children. His execution date was set for October 25, 2007, for these murders. Siebert died on April 22, 2008, in Holman Prison near Atmore of complications from cancer.
1962 – Robert L. Leach Jr – was involved in a criminal case in Tennessee. He was convicted of two counts of premeditated murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated rape, and one count of especially aggravated robbery. The felony murder convictions were merged into the premeditated murder convictions. The crimes involved two victims, Sarah McBride and Jean Poteet. The jury found three aggravating circumstances in the murder of Sarah McBride: Leach had previously been convicted of one or more violent felonies; the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death; and the murder was knowingly committed by Leach while committing or attempting to commit robbery or aggravated rape. In the case of Jean Poteet, the jury found the same three aggravating circumstances and an additional circumstance that the victim was seventy years of age or older or was particularly vulnerable due to a significant handicap or significant disability, physical or mental. The trial court sentenced Leach to death for the murder convictions and to consecutive sentences of twenty-five years for the especially aggravated robbery and aggravated rape convictions.
1969 – Melissa Marvin – is known for her involvement in a tragic drunk-driving accident that occurred on April 6, 1999, in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. The accident resulted in the death of four teenage girls: Megan Blong, Amanda Geiger, Angie McGrady, and Shana Lawler, all of whom were 17 years old at the time. Marvin, who was 29 years old at the time of the accident, was charged with drunken driving and other offenses. She was later sentenced to 15 years in prison for each fatality, to be served consecutively. The victims’ families started a nonprofit organization called “The Precious Gems Memorial” in honor of the girls. The organization works with communities to raise public awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving.
1969 – Granville Riddle – He is known for his involvement in a murder case that took place on October 9, 1988. On that day, Riddle and a friend, Brad Bybee, drove to the home of Ronnie Hood Bennett, a 39-year-old man living in Amarillo, Texas. Riddle entered Bennett’s home and struck him on the head at least 15 times with a tire iron, leading to Bennett’s death. Riddle claimed that Bennett had made sexual advances towards him, and when he refused, Bennett allegedly grabbed him. According to Riddle, this led him to hit Bennett with the tire iron. After realizing that Bennett was dead, Riddle tried to make the home look burglarized. Bybee testified that Riddle called him into the home, pointed to a few items piled on the floor, and informed him that the items were theirs to keep. Riddle was arrested in November 1988. He had been paroled four months before the murder after serving two months of a seven-year sentence for burglary. While awaiting trial, Riddle escaped from jail but was arrested three days later after burglarizing another house. Once in prison, he again attempted to escape. Riddle was executed by lethal injection in Texas on January 30, 2003. His final words were: “I would just . . . (speaking in French). I love all of you. I love you Lundy, Levi, my dad. I have no grudges against anyone or any of the things that have gone wrong. I would like to say to the world, I have always been a nice person. I have never been mean-hearted or cruel. I wish everybody well.”
1969 – Javier Suarez Medina – was a Mexican national who moved to Texas at the age of three. At the age of 19, he was convicted for the murder of Lawrence Rudy Cadena, an undercover police officer in Dallas. Suarez admitted to the crime but stated that he was unaware that the victim was a police officer. His case became controversial as the Mexican authorities argued that Suarez’s rights were violated because he was not informed of his entitlement to legal assistance from the Mexican consulate. This issue strained relations between the United States and Mexico. Despite appeals from various quarters, including Mexican President Vicente Fox, Suarez was executed in Texas on August 14, 2002. The case of Javier Suarez Medina highlighted issues regarding the rights of foreign nationals under the Vienna Convention and the application of the death penalty.
1980 – Robert Lee Woodard – is a convicted criminal from Illinois, USA. He was received into the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on June 20, 2001, at the age of 21. On February 12, 2000, when he was 19 years old, Woodard attempted to rob a convenience store in Houston. When the owners of the store, a couple from India, were unable to open the cash register fast enough, Woodard shot and killed them. He then took lottery scratch-off tickets and left the store. Once outside, he took the vehicle of a customer and fled the scene. Woodard was later sentenced to death for his crimes. He had no prior prison record before this incident.
Deaths
Joseph William Kappen
1904 – Michael G. Schiller – was a prisoner at the Ohio State Penitentiary in the early 20th century. He is known for his unique story of surviving his execution, not once, but twice. On June 17, 1904, Schiller was the thirteenth man to be electrocuted by the state of Ohio. What sets Schiller apart from other executed prisoners is that he came back to life, twice, after his execution. This event is considered one of the most miraculous executions in American history. Despite the significance of his story, Michael G. Schiller’s name does not appear on any “Top 10” listicle, nor in Wikipedia, or even on the Death Penalty Information Center’s 10,000-page website. His absence from the history of executed criminals is as baffling as his executions.
1904 – Harvey Logan – also known as Kid Curry, was an American outlaw and gunman who was part of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s infamous Wild Bunch gang during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in 1867 in Richland Township, Tama County, Iowa, Logan’s life took a turn after his mother died in 1876. He and his brothers moved to Dodson, Missouri to live with their aunt Lee Logan. He made his living breaking horses on the Cross L ranch, near Rising Star, Texas. It was here that he met and befriended a man named “Flat Nose” George Curry, from whom he took his new last name. Despite being less well-known than his fellow gang members, Logan has since been referred to as “the wildest of the Wild Bunch”, having reputedly killed at least nine law enforcement officers in five shootings and another two men in other instances. He was involved in numerous shootouts with police and civilians and participated in several bank and train robberies with various gangs during his outlaw days. Logan died on June 17, 1904, in Parachute, Colorado, United States. His cause of death was suicide by gunshot.
1933 – Frank Nash – was an American bank robber, born on February 6, 1887, in Birdseye, Indiana. He has been referred to as “the most successful bank robber in U.S. history.” Nash spent part of his childhood in Paragould, Arkansas, where he worked in his father’s hotels. He also served in the U.S. Army from 1904 to 1907. Despite his criminal record, Nash was widely considered friendly, likable, and charming. His nickname, “Jelly” (shortened from “Jellybean”), began during his childhood, due to his poise and his well-groomed appearance. He is most noted for his violent death in the Kansas City Massacre.
1939 – Eugen Weidmann – was a German criminal and serial killer who was executed by guillotine in France in June 1939. This marked the last public execution in France. Weidmann was born in Frankfurt am Main to the family of an export businessman and went to school there. He was sent to live with his grandparents at the outbreak of World War I, during which time he started stealing. Later in his twenties, he served five years in Saarbrücken jail for robbery. During his time in jail, Weidmann met two men who would later become his partners in crime: Roger Million and Jean Blanc. After their release from jail, they decided to work together to kidnap rich tourists visiting France and steal their money. They rented a villa in Saint-Cloud near Paris for this purpose. Their criminal activities escalated to murder. Their victims included Jean De Koven, a 22-year-old New York City dancer visiting her aunt in Paris, Joseph Couffy, a chauffeur, Janine Keller, a private nurse, and Roger LeBlond, a theatrical producer. Weidmann was apprehended on 8 December 1937.
1990 – Joseph William Kappen – also known as the Saturday Night Strangler, was a Welsh serial killer born on 30 October 1941 in Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, UK. His parents’ marriage broke up when he was young and he was raised by his stepfather. He began attracting police attention for petty offenses at age 12. In 1964, Kappen married Christine Powell and they had a daughter and a son. The marriage was marked by Kappen’s physical abuse and rape. Kappen committed the rape and murder of three teenage girls in Llandarcy and Tonmawr, near his hometown of Port Talbot, in 1973. He is also suspected of committing a fourth murder in February 1976. All his confirmed victims were 16-year-old girls whom he lured into his car on Saturday evenings. Kappen died of lung cancer in 1990. He is notable for being the first person ever to be posthumously identified as a serial killer via familial DNA profiling. He was also the first documented serial killer in Welsh history.
2004 – Steven Howard Oken – was born on January 22, 1962, and passed away on June 17, 2004. He was an American spree killer who committed a series of crimes in November 1987. Oken was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His life took a dark turn when he raped and murdered three women in Maryland and Maine. His victims were Dawn Marie Garvin, 25, Patricia Antoinette Hirt, 43, and Lori Elizabeth Ward, 25. He was arrested in Maine on November 17, 1987. Oken was convicted and sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Lori Ward. He was then returned to Maryland where he faced separate prosecutions for the other two murders. In 1991, Oken was found guilty and sentenced to death for the killing of Dawn Garvin. Following his conviction for Garvin’s murder, Oken pleaded guilty to killing Patricia Hirt and received an additional life sentence. Despite appeals for clemency, Oken was executed by lethal injection at the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore on June 17, 2004. His last meal was a chicken patty, with potatoes and gravy, green beans, marble cake, milk, and fruit punch – the regular prison meal that day. In his personal life, Oken was adopted by a Jewish family and graduated from Randallstown High School in 1980. He had a history of substance abuse, stealing drugs from his adoptive father’s pharmacy and drinking heavily.
2004 – Ma Jiajue – was born on May 4, 1981, in Binyang, Nanning, Guangxi, China. He was a biochemistry major at Yunnan University in Kunming. Ma came from a remote farming village in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China. He was the son of Ma Jianfu and Li Fengying and had an older brother and two sisters. He attended Binzhou Middle School for junior high school, where he was a top student and Binyang Middle School for high school. In September 2000, after passing his gaokao, Ma enrolled in Yunnan University as a biochemistry student. In his final year of university, between February 13 and 15 2004, Ma used a hammer to kill his four roommates, who were fellow students at Yunnan University. The roommates died due to blunt-force trauma. Ma said that he killed them because his roommates, who came from wealthier families, had accused him of cheating in a card game, and had bullied him regarding his plans for the Lunar New Year holiday. On February 23, following the holiday break, the roommates’ bodies were discovered in a dormitory closet. Ma fled following the murders and was on the run for 21 days. Police offered a 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) reward for information that would result in his apprehension. On March 15, he was captured in Sanya, in South China’s Hainan Province, 900 kilometers southeast of the crime scene. The Intermediate People’s Court of Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan Province sentenced Ma Jiajue to death on April 24. The Yunnan Provincial Higher People’s Court did an automatic review of the verdict and upheld it. On June 17, 2004, Ma Jiajue was executed.
2008 – Terry Lyn Short – was born on August 22, 1960, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He was sentenced to death in 1997 for the murder of Ken Yamamoto in January 1995. Ken Yamamoto, a Japanese student, was living in an apartment in Oklahoma City that was located directly above the flat where Brenda Gardner, her sister Tammy Gardner, and the latter’s two young children lived. Terry Short was Brenda Gardner’s boyfriend until they broke up in late December 1994. In the early hours of January 8, 2005, a fire broke out in the Gardners’ apartment. Brenda and Tammy Gardner escaped with the children, but the fire spread to the flat above where Ken Yamamoto was sleeping. He was taken to hospital with burns to 95 percent of his body. He died a few hours later. Terry Short was charged with throwing a firebomb through the patio door of the Gardners’ apartment, causing the fire that killed Ken Yamamoto. He was also charged with five counts of attempted murder – of the two Gardner sisters, the children, and Robert Hines, who was visiting their flat at the time. Terry Short died on June 17, 2008, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He was executed by lethal injection at the age of 47.
2008 – Tsutomu Miyazaki – was a notorious Japanese serial killer and necrophile who gained infamy for his heinous crimes committed in the late 1980s. Born in Itsukaichi, Japan, Miyazaki grew up in a troubled family environment. His father was reportedly abusive, and Miyazaki himself exhibited strange behavior from a young age. Miyazaki graduated from Meiji University with a degree in economics but struggled to find stable employment. In the late 1980s, he began a horrifying spree of crimes that would shock the nation. Between 1988 and 1989, Miyazaki abducted and murdered four young girls, all between the ages of 4 and 7. He subjected his victims to sexual assault, mutilation, and in some cases, cannibalism. The brutality of Miyazaki’s crimes horrified the Japanese public, and he earned the moniker “The Otaku Murderer” due to his obsessive interest in anime, horror films, and collecting graphic materials. His actions fueled public anxiety and led to increased scrutiny of the otaku subculture in Japan. In 1989, Miyazaki was apprehended after attempting to abduct another young girl. During his arrest, police discovered a trove of evidence, including photographs and videos documenting his gruesome acts. In 1990, he was convicted of multiple charges, including kidnapping, murder, and corpse mutilation. Tsutomu Miyazaki’s trial and subsequent legal proceedings were highly publicized, and he showed little remorse for his actions. In 2008, after spending nearly two decades on death row, Miyazaki was executed by hanging at the Tokyo Detention House. His crimes continue to be remembered as some of the most shocking and disturbing in Japanese criminal history
2012 – Rodney King – was an African American man whose life became emblematic of racial tensions and police brutality in the United States. Born in Sacramento, California, King grew up in a challenging environment marked by poverty and a troubled family life. Despite facing adversity, he developed a reputation as a skilled and passionate handyman. King’s life took a tragic turn on March 3, 1991, when he became the victim of a brutal beating by four Los Angeles Police Department officers after a high-speed car chase. The incident was captured on amateur video by a bystander, George Holliday, and the footage quickly gained widespread attention. The video showed the officers repeatedly striking King with batons and kicking him, leading to severe injuries, including skull fractures and broken bones. The subsequent trial of the four officers, known as the Rodney King trial, garnered significant media coverage and heightened racial tensions across the country. In April 1992, the trial concluded with the acquittal of three officers and a hung jury on one charge for the fourth officer. The verdict sparked outrage and frustration, leading to widespread protests and civil unrest in Los Angeles. The riots, known as the 1992 Los Angeles riots, resulted in widespread violence, looting, and arson. Over 50 people lost their lives, and thousands were injured during the chaos. In an infamous moment during the unrest, King made a public plea for peace, famously stating, “Can we all get along?” In the aftermath of the trial, the federal government pursued civil rights charges against the officers. In 1993, two of the officers were found guilty, while the other two were acquitted. Rodney King himself received a settlement of $3.8 million in a civil lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. Despite the financial settlement, King struggled with personal challenges, including legal issues and substance abuse. He became a symbol of the complex and often troubled relationship between law enforcement and minority communities in the United States. Rodney King’s life ended tragically on June 17, 2012, when he was found dead in his swimming pool in Rialto, California. His death was ruled as an accidental drowning, with alcohol and drug use as contributing factors. Rodney King’s legacy remains a powerful reminder of the ongoing need to address issues of racial injustice and police brutality in society.
2014 – Marcus A. Wellons – He was convicted in 1993 for the rape and murder of India Roberts, a 15-year-old girl who was his neighbor in a suburb north of Atlanta. The crime occurred on August 31, 1989, shortly after the girl had left for school. Wellons’ case gained significant attention due to the circumstances surrounding his execution. He was executed on June 17, 2014, becoming the first inmate put to death in the U.S. since a botched execution in Oklahoma in April of that year. His execution was carried out by lethal injection and was reported to have gone smoothly with no noticeable complications. Despite appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, Wellons was denied clemency. His execution marked a significant event in the ongoing debate about the death penalty and the methods used to carry it out.
Events
Stella Nickell
1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II forcing him to retreat from Wallachia
1933 – Kansas City massacre: 1 FBI agent, 4 cops & 1 gangster are killed by a mob
1953 – The US Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas stays executions of spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg scheduled for the next day, their 14th anniversary
1972 – 5 men are arrested after trying to bug the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex, Washington
1984 – Diane Downs is convicted of killing her child and attempting to murder two others, she receives a sentence of life plus 50 years
1988 – Stella Nickel was sentenced to 90 years+ in the nation’s first trial involving death by product tampering
1991 – The body of 12th US President, Zachary Taylor, is exhumed to test how he died, rumors had persisted since his death in 1850 of arsenic poisoning – no evidence was found
1994 – OJ Simpson doesn’t turn himself in on murder charges, LA police chase his Ford Bronco for 90 minutes before he eventually gives up
2015 – 9 people are shot and killed inside Emanuel Ame church in Charleston, South Carolina by a 21-year-old gunman
2017 – Actor & comedian Bill Cosby’s trial for aggravated assault is declared a mistrial after jurors couldn’t reach a verdict
2019 – The Mayor of Phoenix, Arizona Kate Gallego apologizes for local police threatening to shoot an African American family after their 4-year-old shoplifted a doll
2020 – Former police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta is charged with his murder & aggravated assault
2020 – Actor Danny Masterson is charged with raping 3 women
