Births

Salvatore” Sammy The Bull” Gravano

1888 – Alfred Leonard Cline – gained notoriety as an alleged American serial killer, earning the chilling moniker “The Buttermilk Bluebeard.” Operating in the shadows, Cline is believed to be responsible for the murders of at least 9 people. Although he faced charges of murder, the legal proceedings took a surprising turn. In court, Cline was found guilty of forgery, resulting in a sentence of 125 years.  The details surrounding Cline’s dark exploits remain shrouded in mystery, and his criminal activities cast a sinister shadow on the pages of true crime history. The enigma of Alfred Leonard Cline adds a haunting chapter to the annals of notorious figures from the early 20th century.

1937 – Betty Lou Beets – was born Betty Lou Dunevant on March 12, 1937, in Roxboro, North Carolina. She had a challenging upbringing, losing her hearing at the age of three due to measles. She claimed to have been sexually abused by her father and several people close to her from the age of five. When she was 12 years old, her mother was institutionalized, leaving her to take care of her younger siblings.  Betty married her first husband, Robert Franklin Branson, at the age of 15. She had a total of six marriages, two of which were to the same man, Billy York Lane. She shot Lane twice in the back in 1970 but was acquitted after Lane admitted he had threatened her life first. The two remarried, only to divorce again a month later. She later tried to run over her third husband, Ronnie C. Threlkold, with her car in 1978. Both men survived and testified at her murder trial.  On August 6, 1983, Beets reported her fifth husband, Jimmy Don Beets, missing from their home near Cedar Creek Lake in Henderson County, Texas. Her son, Robert Branson, later testified that Betty Lou Beets had said that she intended to kill her husband, and told her son to leave the house. On returning to the house two hours later, he found Jimmy Don Beets dead with two gunshot wounds.  Betty Lou Beets was convicted of the shooting death of her fifth husband, Jimmy Don Beets, and was sentenced to death on October 14, 1985. She was executed by lethal injection on February 24, 2000, at the age of 62, in the Huntsville Unit, Texas.

1945 – Salvatore “Sammy The Bull” Gravano – He is an American former mobster who became the underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano played a major role in prosecuting John Gotti, the crime family’s boss, by agreeing to testify as a government witness against him and other mobsters in a deal in which he confessed to involvement in 19 murders.  Originally an associate for the Colombo crime family, and later for the Brooklyn faction of the Gambino family, Gravano was part of the group that conspired to murder Gambino boss Paul Castellano in 1985. Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano’s murder, along with John Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Frank DeCicco, and Joseph Armone. Soon after Castellano’s murder, Gotti elevated Gravano to become an official captain after Salvatore “Toddo” Aurelio stepped down, a position Gravano held until 1987 when he became consigliere. In 1988 he became underboss, a position he held at the time he became a government witness.  In 1991, Gravano agreed to turn state’s evidence and testify for the prosecution against Gotti after hearing the boss making several disparaging and untrue remarks about Gravano on a wiretap that implicated them both in several murders. At the time, Gravano was the highest-ranking member of the Five Families to break his blood oath and cooperate with the government. As a result of his testimonies, Gotti and Frank Locascio were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 1992.  In 1994, a federal judge sentenced Gravano to five years in prison; however, since Gravano had already served four years, the sentence amounted to less than one year. He was released early and entered the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program in Colorado, but left the program in 1995 after 8 months and went to Arizona with family.  In February 2000, Gravano and nearly 40 other ring members—including his ex-wife Debra, daughter Karen, and son Gerard—were arrested on federal and state drug charges. In 2001, Gravano and his son, Gerard, were indicted on mirror charges with the federal government. In 2002 Gravano was sentenced in New York to twenty years in prison. He was released in 2017, with federal parole slapped on him for the rest of his life.  In addition to his criminal activities, Gravano started his own YouTube channel with a podcast titled “Our Things” in December 2020.

1956 – Nathaniel Robert Code Jr – also known as “Junior”, “The Cedar Grove Killer”, “Shreveport Serial Killer”, and “Nathaniel The Terrible”, was born on March 12, 1956, in Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S. He is an American serial killer, stalker, and rapist who committed at least eight murders in the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, between 1984 and 1987.  His parents divorced only six months after his birth, and he was raised by his great-aunt Josephine Code, and grandfather William T. Code. As a child, Code, who was nicknamed Junior, was noted for his tendencies to stop in the middle of a sentence and stare blankly for a while before continuing. He was alleged to have set fire to animals during his adolescence. After failing ninth grade, Code dropped out of high school. He began living with his uncle Johnny Boyd shortly after. In 1971, Code was shot four times by Boyd after an argument. Code was able to run four blocks down where he collapsed on the street, and soon after, two patrolmen found him. Code told officers that Boyd, whom he knew as “Uncle Joe”, had done it. Boyd was later arrested.  In July 1975, Code was charged with aggravated rape and burglary in connection with the assault of a 20-year-old woman on June 30. He pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated rape in November 1975 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. While incarcerated, his birth mother died. Code was released on good behavior in January 1984 and began work at Fitzgerald’s Contractors, but after a 1985 incident where he attacked a co-worker over a radio station dispute, Code was fired. On February 3, 1986, he married 27-year-old Vera Code.  During the night of August 31, 1984, Code entered the home of 25-year-old Debra Ann Ford by pulling open a screen on the bathroom window. After a confrontation in the living room, Code bound Ford’s hands and placed a gag on her mouth, then stabbed her multiple times and slit her throat, Ford died as a result of her injuries. Code then fled through the front door. Her body was lying face-down on a sofa. At the time, investigators described the case as “a regular whodunnit”. With minimal evidence to pinpoint the perpetrator, a reward of $1,000 was put forward for information leading to an arrest. Code remained elusive.  In the early hours of July 19, 1985, Code committed a mass murder on 72nd Street on Cedar Grove; he killed Vivian Chaney, 34, Billy Joe Harris, 28, Carlitha Culbert, 15, and Jerry Culbert, 25, with what was described as extreme brutality.  He was sentenced to death in 1990 for four of these killings and has been awaiting execution ever since. He is currently incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary.

1957 – Wayne Tompkins – In 1983, Wayne Tompkins shared a residence with Barbara Wallace and her 15-year-old daughter, Lisa Lea DeCarr. Tompkins, assisting Wallace’s mother in their move, went home several times that day to fetch newspapers for packing. Upon his return, he claimed that Lisa had run away and doubted her return. Tragically, in 1984, Lisa’s decomposed body was discovered buried beneath the residence, revealing she had been strangled. Fast forward two years, Tompkins, now incarcerated on unrelated rape charges, confessed to a fellow inmate, describing how he had strangled Lisa with her bathrobe sash when she resisted his sexual advances. A friend of the victim corroborated the chilling account, revealing she had visited the residence on the day of Lisa’s disappearance, witnessing Tompkins atop the struggling and screaming victim. The grim details exposed a horrifying truth about Tompkins’ actions, leaving a community haunted by the tragedy of Lisa Lea DeCarr. Tompkins was executed on February 11, 2009.

1959 – Carlton Leach – is an English author, occasional actor, and a former criminal. A fan of West Ham United F.C., he became involved in the Inter City Firm, a gang of hooligans who followed the East London club. Leach was the original model for the cover of the Strength Thru Oi! album in 1981.  In the late 1980s, Leach’s fearsome reputation landed him a job as a bouncer in East London clubs, where he met Tony Tucker, a big dealer of the drug ecstasy at nightclubs and dance clubs. As a result of his friendship with Tony, he was also drawn into illegal activities. He and his fellow bouncers provided security at the clubs and also served as bodyguards for those peddling illicit drugs. He went with the flow and started doing big deals at big raves. His wages rose from £50 a night to £300. He and Tony became close friends and both were drawn even more deeply into the world of drug dealing.  One day their friendship ended abruptly when Tony Tucker and his fellow drug dealers Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe were shot to death in December 1995 in a Range Rover on a farm track in Rettendon. The case became famous as ‘Rettendon triple murders’. The murders left Carlton a changed man. The fearsome and tough man turned into a terrified person as he thought that he would be the next one to be murdered. It served as a wake-up call for him and made him realize that he had his parents and a family. Even five years after the murders, he stayed paranoid. He didn’t trust anyone and kept himself away from people.  After ten years as a hardcore hooligan, Carlton Leach decided to leave behind football violence, his bouncer’s job, and drug dealing. He left Canning Town, where he was born and brought up, and moved to Southend. In 2003, he wrote a memoir about his criminal life titled ‘Muscle’. In 2007, the film ‘Rise of the Footsoldier’ was made based on the book, starring Ricci Harnett as Carlton. In 2015, Carlton worked with Ricci Harnett to make another film about his life, titled ‘Reign of the General’, but when they lost a legal battle over the copyright following which the film was taken over by the makers of ‘Rise of the Footsoldier’ and released.  Today, Carlton hopes to use his experiences in the underworld activities to help turn others away from a life of crime. In 2021, Carlton decided to release what he called his last (autobiographical) book. Co-authored with Jason Allday, the book was titled, ‘The Final Say’. It went to number 1 on Amazon’s best-seller list within 24 hours of release. It has been said that the book is, “more than Essex and the same old…” as it covers Carlton’s life from childhood until now; including references and contributions from his family and friends.

1962 – Billy Lee Oatney Jr – also known as “Junior”, is an American convicted murderer. He was first convicted of the murder of Susi Larsen in 1998 and served decades behind bars. However, his conviction was overturned in 2015, leading to a new trial.  Oatney was accused of raping and suffocating 34-year-old Susi Larsen of Lake Oswego in the mid-90s just before her wedding. The case was revived nearly 30 years later at the Washington County courthouse due to Oatney’s successful appeal. He had spent 17 years of his prison stay appealing his murder conviction and death row sentence.  Before the murder case, Oatney had a history of violence. While serving in the U.S. Navy, he was stationed in Japan where he was arrested and convicted for attempted murder and assault after stabbing another Navy man and slitting his throat. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the attack in Japan, but he was released after just 13 years and settled in Portland.  The second trial of Oatney got underway in January 2023, almost eight years after the appellate decision. In February 2023, Oatney was found guilty once again and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

1963 – Christine Laverne Falling – is an American criminal who pleaded guilty in 1982 to the murders of three children she was babysitting between 1980 and 1982. She also admitted to three other murders for which she was not prosecuted.  Falling was the youngest child in an unusual family; her father, Thomas, was 65 years old at the time of her birth, while her mother Ann was, at the age of 16, still a minor. The family was below the poverty line, and Christine did not receive the necessary early childhood support. Because of this, she was considered mentally challenged; she also suffered from epilepsy. When her parents could no longer afford to support her, and also because of ongoing arguments between them, Christine spent some of her childhood and youth in various orphanages. She began killing small animals, especially domestic cats, at an early age. To test their “nine lives”, as she later justified her actions, she often caused the animals to fall from heights.  In September 1977, the 14-year-old Christine’s parents forced her to marry a 20-year-old man, but the marriage, marked by almost daily quarrels and altercations, ended in divorce after only six weeks. After that, she had multiple hypochondriac-like episodes. In the next two years, she was to be hospitalized 50 times, but doctors were unable to find any treatable conditions. She suffered from hallucinations, complained of “red dots” that appeared before her eyes, and menstrual bleeding at irregular levels. At the age of 16, she was diagnosed as incapacitated by medical instructions. To make money, Falling began working as a babysitter for neighbors and friends.  On February 25, 1980, 2-year-old Cassidy Johnson was sent to a doctor’s office in Blountstown, Florida. She was diagnosed with encephalitis, and on February 28, Cassidy died. An autopsy listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the skull. Falling, who had been babysitting for Johnson, said that Johnson had “passed out” and fallen out of her crib. The attending physician did not believe Falling and recommended in a note to the police to investigate her. However, this note was lost, and the case was closed. Shortly after Johnson’s death, Falling moved to Lakeland, Florida. Two months later, in early summer 1980, 4-year-old Jeffrey Davis died while under Falling’s supervision. The autopsy pointed to myocarditis, a heart condition that is rarely fatal, as the cause of death. Three days later, his funeral took place, and Falling was asked to oversee Jeffrey’s cousin, 2-year-old Joseph Spring. He died a few hours later, and doctors diagnosed a viral infection. Doctors also noted that the virus may have caused the death of Jeffrey as well.  In July 1981, Falling left Lakeland and returned to her hometown of Perry in Northern Florida. She was found guilty of three murders on December 3, 1982, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for at least twenty-five years. She is currently imprisoned at Lowell Correctional Institution, Ocala, Florida.

1964 – Mark James Asay – entered infamy as an American spree killer whose heinous acts unfolded in the late 1980s. His crimes were marked by a racially motivated attack that claimed the lives of two individuals. Asay’s disturbing legacy is etched in the annals of true crime, portraying a man whose actions were driven by hatred.  In the late 1980s, Asay committed a series of murders that shocked the nation. His racially motivated attack left two men dead, staining his name in the dark history of criminal acts. The details of his spree and the motivations behind his actions underscore the disturbing nature of hate-fueled violence.  Mark James Asay’s life story serves as a chilling reminder of the devastating impact of prejudice and violence. The repercussions of his crimes resonate as a somber chapter in the chronicles of true crime, reflecting the darkest corners of human behavior.

1973 – James Lee Henderson – An American thief who was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, he was arrested when he called the police to report a friend’s car had been stolen!

1986 – Rebecca Anne Olenchock – is a woman who was found guilty of a tragic crime. She was accused of killing her mother, Kimberly Olenchock. The incident occurred in a homeless camp in Bristol Township. It was reported that Rebecca Olenchock beat her mother and then set her on fire. The fire was discovered by a woman walking her dog behind a shopping center. Firefighters arrived at the scene to find a makeshift homeless shelter ablaze and Kimberly Olenchock on fire. Despite their efforts, Kimberly Olenchock was declared dead shortly after being taken to a nearby hospital.  Rebecca Olenchock was arrested in Bristol, Tennessee, and was extradited to face charges. She was charged with first-degree murder. It was believed that Rebecca poured kerosene on the corner of her mother’s bed and then lit it and other items on fire. This tragic event reportedly occurred after disagreements between mother and daughter. Rebecca Olenchock was 24 years old at the time of the incident.

Deaths

Joseph Petrosino

1909 – Joseph Petrosino – born Giuseppe Petrosino on August 30, 1860, in Padula, Campania, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, was an Italian-born New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer who was a pioneer in the fight against organized crime. He was the first Italian language speaker in the NYPD’s history. Despite being only 5 feet 3 inches tall, he had to get a waiver of the department’s minimum height requirement.  Petrosino was known for his hard work and toughness. Fluent in several Italian dialects, he was able to solve crimes in the Italian community that other officers could not. His ability to fight crime was so effective that his superiors would call out, “Send for the Dago!” whenever a serious crime took place in the Italian community.  Petrosino was tragically killed on March 12, 1909, in Palermo, Sicily, Kingdom of Italy, while waiting to meet an informant who was supposed to give him information about the Mafia. He was gunned down with four shots. His death marked the end of the career of the Italian American who had made it his mission to fight and eradicate organized crime in the United States.  Petrosino’s legacy lives on today, with crime-fighting techniques that he pioneered still being practiced by law enforcement agencies. The Sons of Italy lodge in New York’s Little Italy is officially known as Lt. Joseph Petrosino Lodge #285, honoring his name and badge number.

1975 – Olga Hepnarova – was a Czechoslovak rampage killer. She was born in Prague to Czech parents. Her father was a bank clerk and her mother was a dentist. Hepnarová was an average child, but later developed psychiatric problems, which manifested in an inability to communicate with people. In 1964 she attempted suicide by overdosing on her medication. She spent a year in a psychiatric ward at a hospital in Opařany, where she was beaten and abused after an attempted escape. She was declared “neither homosexual, nor heterosexual” by the specialists, and no mental illness was diagnosed.  Hepnarová later worked at various jobs but was usually fired shortly after being hired, including when she was trained as a bookbinder in Prague and then worked in Cheb for a year before returning to Prague. She ended up working as a truck driver. Gradually she lost contact with her family, especially her father and older sister. She bought a cabin that she had brought to the village of Oleško, from where she commuted to work. She later sold the cabin and bought a Trabant car with the money she had received.  On 10 July 1973, Hepnarová killed eight people with a truck in Prague. She was convicted and sentenced to death and was executed in 1975, the last woman executed in Czechoslovakia. Hepnarová began planning the truck attack about six months in advance. She believed all people were trying to hurt her. She said that she had been beaten up on the street for no reason, and no one helped her. She refused to become an unknown suicide and wanted to be remembered. Her original plans included the derailment of an express train or the detonation of an explosive in a room full of people, but she decided that these were too technically demanding and instead decided on a mass shooting: she planned to obtain an automatic firearm and fire on people on Wenceslas Square. However, she ended up using a truck to carry out her attack.

2001 – Henry Lee Lucas – also known as The Confession Killer, was an American convicted murderer. Lucas was born in Blacksburg, Virginia, the youngest of nine children. His father, a double amputee, earned a living by selling pencils, while his mother worked as a prostitute and would often force Lucas to watch her with clients.  Lucas had a troubled childhood, marked by abuse and neglect. At the age of 10, he lost an eye due to an infection following a fight. He dropped out of school in the sixth grade and ran away from home, drifting around Virginia. Lucas claimed to have committed his first murder in 1951 when he strangled 17-year-old Laura Burnsley, who had refused his sexual advances. However, he later retracted this claim.  In 1954, Lucas was convicted on over a dozen counts of burglary in and around Richmond, Virginia, and was sentenced to four years in prison. He escaped in 1957, was recaptured three days later, and was subsequently released on September 2, 1959.  Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy as a serial killer after he confessed to around 600 other murders after his conviction while in prison to the Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials. Many unsolved cases were closed based on the confessions and officially attributed the murders to Lucas; he was considered the most prolific serial killer in history.  However, an investigation showed that many of the murders Lucas confessed to were impossible for him to have committed. Lucas’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998. Lucas himself recanted the confessions as a hoax. Lucas’s case caused a re-evaluation of police techniques and greater awareness of the possibility of false confessions. Lucas died of congestive heart failure in 2001.

2002 – Tracy Lee Housel – was born on May 7th, 1958 in King Edwards VII Memorial Hospital, Paget, Bermuda. His parents, William Franklin Housel and Lula Mae Elkins Housel, lived in Bermuda at the time of his birth. His mother was only fourteen years old when she married Tracy’s father, Bill, who was forty-three.  During two months in early 1985, Tracy Housel committed a series of violent crimes across the United States. He killed a man in Texas, stabbed a man in Iowa, and sodomized a woman in New Jersey. His crime spree culminated in the murder of Jeanne Drew in Gwinnett County, Georgia, for which he received a death sentence.  Housel was sentenced to death in February 1986 for the murder of Jeanne Drew in April 1985. He spent over 16 years on death row and was executed in Georgia on March 12, 2002. His case drew international attention as he was a British national. His life and crimes have been the subject of extensive study and discussion regarding the death penalty and legal concerns in the United States.

2005 – Terry Michael Ratzmann – was an American mass murderer who killed seven members of his Church congregation, the Living Church of God (LCG), before committing suicide in Brookfield, Wisconsin in 2005.  Ratzmann was born in New Berlin, Wisconsin. He was a computer technician by profession. He was known to suffer from bouts of depression and was reportedly infuriated by a sermon the minister had given two weeks earlier.  On March 12, 2005, Ratzmann had left the Sheraton Hotel building 20 minutes earlier. He then returned carrying a 9mm Beretta handgun and fired 22 rounds into the Living Church of God congregation, killing the minister and six others, including the minister’s son. Four others, including the minister’s wife, were wounded, one critically. Ratzmann shot and killed himself midway through the second of the three magazines he had brought with him.  The incident focused national attention on the teachings and legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong, the Worldwide Church of God, and LCG’s leader Roderick C. Meredith. The police investigated religious issues as potential motives for the shooting, though no official conclusion has been reached. The victims included Pastor Randy Gregory, 50; James Gregory, 16; Harold Diekmeier, 72; Gloria Critari, 55; Bart Oliver, 15; Richard Reeves, 58; and Gerald Miller, 44.  During the police search of the house that Ratzmann shared with his mother and sister, a .22 rifle, ammunition, and three computers were taken away. The March 13 autopsy revealed that Ratzmann was suffering from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis as well as a mild congenital heart abnormality, and was missing part of three fingers on his left hand, the result of a much earlier injury.

2013 – Steven Ray Thacker – was a convicted murderer who went on a killing spree across three states in the United States from December 23, 1999, to January 2, 2000.  Thacker’s first victim was 25-year-old Laci Dawn Hill in Bixby, Oklahoma. He met Hill at her home under the pretense of wanting to buy a pool table she had advertised for sale. When his attempt to rob her failed, Thacker kidnapped Hill, took her to a rural cabin, and raped her. He initially attempted to strangle Hill but eventually stabbed her in the chest and neck.  Thacker then fled to Missouri, where he killed his second victim, Forrest Boyd, on New Year’s Day 2000. Thacker had broken into Boyd’s home and was startled by Boyd’s return, leading to Thacker stabbing the restaurant supervisor to death. Thacker stole Boyd’s car and drove to Tennessee, where the vehicle broke down. After getting a tow to a service station in Dyersburg, Tennessee, Thacker stabbed service station owner Ray Patterson to death after Patterson discovered that the credit card Thacker used to pay for the tow was stolen.  Thacker was sentenced to death for the murders of Hill and Patterson. He received life without parole for pleading guilty to killing Boyd. He was executed via lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on March 12, 2013. Before his execution, Thacker asked for forgiveness from his victims’ families.

2021 – Ronald DeFeo Jr – was born on September 26, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. He was an American mass murderer who was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters in Amityville, New York. The case inspired the book and film versions of The Amityville Horror.  Around 6:30 p.m. on November 13, 1974, DeFeo, who was then 23, entered Henry’s Bar in Amityville, Long Island, New York, and declared: “You got to help me! I think my mother and father are shot!” DeFeo and a small group of people went to 112 Ocean Avenue, which was located near the bar, and found that DeFeo’s parents were dead inside the house. One of the group, DeFeo’s friend Joe Yeswit, made an emergency call to the Suffolk County Police Department, who searched the house and found that six members of the family were dead in their beds.  The victims were Ronald Jr.’s parents: Ronald DeFeo Sr. (43) and Louise DeFeo (née Brigante, 43); and his four siblings: Dawn (18), Allison (13), Marc (12), and John (9). All of the victims had been shot with a .35 caliber lever action Marlin 336C rifle around 3:00 a.m. of that day. The children had all been killed by single shots, while the DeFeo parents had each received two shots. Physical evidence suggests that Louise DeFeo and her daughter Allison were awake at the time of their deaths. According to Suffolk County Police, the victims were all found lying face down in bed.  DeFeo was taken to the local police station for his protection after suggesting to police officers at the scene of the crime that the killings had been carried out by a mob hitman, Louis Falini. However, an interview at the station soon exposed serious inconsistencies in his version of events. The following day, he confessed to carrying out the killings himself; and Falini, the alleged hitman, had an alibi proving he was out of state at the time of the killings. DeFeo told detectives: “Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. It went so fast”. He admitted that he had taken a bath and redressed, and detailed where he had discarded crucial evidence such as blood-stained clothes, the Marlin rifle, and cartridges before going to work as usual.  Sentenced to six sentences of 25 years to life, DeFeo died in prison on March 12, 2021.

Events

John Wayne Gacy

1868 – Henry O’Farrell was the first person to attempt a political assassination in Australia when he attempted to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and Queen Victoria’s fourth child

1964 – Jimmy Hoffa is sentenced to 8 years

1969 – 120 cannabis joints are found at George & Patti Harrison’s home

1974 – Ted Bundy victim Donna Manson disappears from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, her body would never be found

1975 – Olga Hepnarova becomes the last woman to be executed in Czechoslovakia

1978 – Pauline Robbin Burgett was murdered

1980 – A jury finds the serial killer and killer clown John Wayne Gacy guilty of murdering 33 men in Chicago

2003 – Elizabeth Smart is found after having been missing for nine months

2009 – Bernard “Bernie” Madoff pleads guilty

2019 – Dozens are charged in the US College admission scandal by US prosecutors, including actresses Lori Loughlin & Felicity Huffmann

2019 – K-pop & Big Bang singer Seungri is arrested for procuring prostitutes, he retires so that he may fight the charges in South Korea