Births

Theresa Knorr

1912 – John Amery – was a British fascist and Nazi collaborator during World War II. He was the originator of the British Free Corps, a volunteer Waffen-SS unit composed of former British and Dominion prisoners of war. Amery conducted recruitment efforts and made propaganda broadcasts for Germany.  Born in Chelsea, London, John Amery was the elder of two children of British statesman Leo Amery, a member of parliament and later Conservative government minister. His younger brother, Julian, also became an MP and served in a Conservative government. Amery was a difficult child who ran through a succession of private tutors. Like his father, he was sent to Harrow, but left after only a year, being described by his housemaster as “without doubt, the most difficult boy I have ever tried to manage.”  Living in his father’s shadow, he strove to make his way by embarking on a career in film production. Over a period, he set up several independent companies, all of which failed; these endeavors rapidly led to bankruptcy. At the age of 21, Amery married Una Wing, a former prostitute, but was never able to earn enough to keep her for himself. He was constantly appealing to his father for money.  A staunch anti-Communist, he came to embrace the doctrines of Nazi Germany because they were the only alternative to Bolshevism. He left Britain permanently to live in France after being declared bankrupt in 1936. In Paris, he met the French fascist leader Jacques Doriot, with whom he traveled to Austria, Italy, and Germany to witness the effects of fascism in those countries.  Amery remained in France following the German invasion in June 1940. He was captured by Italian Partisans at the end of April 1945 and had been held in British Military Custody since May 1945. He arrived back in the UK on 7 July 1945. He was committed at Bow Street Magistrates Court on 9 July 1945 charged with eight counts of High Treason. He was remanded to Brixton Prison to await his trial at the Old Bailey.  When Amery’s trial opened on 28 November 1945, before Mr. Justice Humphreys, Amery pleaded guilty to eight counts of high treason. Once the judge had satisfied himself that Amery knew the consequences of his actions, he sentenced Amery to death by hanging. The Times newspaper reported that John Amery, who pleaded “Guilty” at the Central Criminal Court, was sentenced to death within eight minutes of entering the dock. Amery, who was 33, was described as a politician. He took the sentence with complete composure. After the sentence had been passed he walked away with bowed head to the cells below the dock.

1938 – Robert Excell White – He was a convicted criminal who was executed for the robbery and murder of four men.  On May 10, 1974, White, then 36, fatally stabbed Roy Perryman, a gun collector, in Waco, Texas, and stole more than two dozen weapons, including a .30-caliber carbine machine gun. He and two companions then drove north. The next morning, they pulled into a country store and gas station near Princeton in Collin County, northeast of Dallas. Store owner Preston Broyles, 73, and customers Gary Coker and Billy St. John, both 18, were ordered inside the store by White. He announced, “I’m not going to leave any witnesses,” had the men get on the floor, and then riddled them with machine gun fire. White and his accomplices took $6 from the cash register and $60 from the victims’ wallets, left the store, and returned to Waco. The victims were soon discovered by other customers. Broyles and Coker were dead, with multiple bullet wounds to their backs. St. John had been shot several times in the chest and died en route to the hospital.  White subsequently fled to Mississippi, where he told a cousin about the killings and turned himself in to the police. He confessed to the shootings and to stabbing Perryman to death. He said that committing the murders “was like stepping on a fly.” 28 guns from Perryman’s collection were found in White’s car. The murder weapon was not among them. White told deputies he tossed it into the Brazos River in Waco. Waco police later found it in the water under a bridge.  White was executed by lethal injection on March 30, 1999, in Huntsville, Texas. He was 61 years old at the time of his execution. He was buried at Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas, USA.

1946 – Theresa Jimmie Knorr – entered the realm of true crime as a figure of malevolence and cruelty. Her life took a dark turn in the 1980s when she committed horrifying acts that would etch her name into infamy.  Knorr’s notoriety stems from the gruesome torture and murder of two of her children, a series of crimes that would shock even the most seasoned investigators. What sets her apart is the calculated nature of her actions. She didn’t act alone; rather, she wove a sinister tapestry of manipulation and deceit, using her other children as pawns to conceal her monstrous deeds.  The details of Knorr’s crimes are as chilling as they are heart-wrenching. The layers of abuse and the extent of her psychological torment of her own family created a narrative that is both disturbing and tragic. As the public became aware of the atrocities committed within the walls of her seemingly ordinary life, Knorr’s name became synonymous with maternal malevolence.  The law eventually caught up with Theresa Jimmie Knorr, and she faced the legal repercussions of her actions. Her case remains a haunting reminder of the capacity for darkness within the seemingly mundane corners of society. Theresa Jimmie Knorr’s biography is a disturbing chapter in the annals of criminal history, exploring the depths of human cruelty and the devastating impact on those closest to her.

1951 – Francisco Arce Montes – is a convicted Spanish serial abuser and murderer. His victims were primarily around the ages of 11 or 12, and his crimes spanned across Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the United States.  Montes had a difficult childhood as the only son of middle-class parents who owned a corner grocery store. During his teenage years, he developed an obsession with personal hygiene, often using a handkerchief to operate doorknobs and light switches. At the age of 20, after exposing himself to a neighbor, he was diagnosed with depression and “progressive schizophrenia”.  In 1981, Montes committed sexual assault against a girl in a youth hostel in the Netherlands. This victim, now an adult, testified against him in a trial in 2005. Montes also served time in a German prison in the mid-1980s for armed rape, leaving a trail of offenses across Europe.  One of his most notorious crimes was the rape and murder of Caroline Dickinson, a 13-year-old Cornish schoolgirl visiting France with her class, on July 18, 1996. This crime took place in a youth hostel in the small Breton town of Pleine-Fougères. Investigations revealed that Montes had been present at many youth hostels across France around the time of similar attacks. However, by the time French police issued a Europe-wide bulletin for Montes, he had already fled to the United States.  The case remained unsolved until Tommy Ontko, an immigration official at Detroit Airport, read a British newspaper article about the fifth anniversary of the unsolved homicide. The article mentioned Montes as a potential suspect, prompting Ontko to conduct an immigration search. He discovered that Montes was in police custody in Miami Beach.  Montes had been arrested in Miami Beach for a lewd and lascivious assault on a female Irish tourist at a youth hostel. The crime was similar to the modus operandi in the Dickinson case, with Montes able to enter the girls’ room without waking the victim or her roommates. DNA samples obtained from Montes matched the semen sample DNA from the youth hostel attack on the Irish student and the Caroline Dickinson murder investigation. Consequently, the State of Florida suspended its charges against Montes to allow for his extradition to France to stand charges for the murder of Dickinson.  The primary evidence against Montes was provided by DNA analysis. A psychologist evaluated Montes during the trial and reported that he displayed an “evident, male pedophile attitude”. Montes’ mother disavowed him during the trial, stating that she would rather “sleep rough” than share a house with him. Montes was sentenced to 30 years in prison on June 14, 2004. His conviction and sentence were upheld on appeal a year later, and he abandoned a subsequent further appeal.

1951 – Alvin Andrew Kelly – was an American serial killer who committed a series of drug-related murders in Longview and Lake Cherokee, Texas from May to June 1984. His victims included two reserve marshals, their infant son, and later his roommate.  Kelly worked as a debt collector for a drug trafficker based in Kilgore, Texas. In late April 1984, he drove to the mobile home of Jerry Glenn Morgan and his wife Brenda, both reserve marshals for the city of Longview, after acquiring information that they were providing information about their illegal activities. An argument ensued, during which Kelly assaulted Jerry Morgan with a gun.  On April 30, Kelly returned to the Morgans’ trailer with Ronnie Lee Wilson and his wife Cynthia. He shot and killed Jerry Morgan, then shot Brenda Morgan in the neck and dragged her to the bedroom. According to Cynthia’s later testimony, Brenda Morgan was still alive and begged her for help. Kelly then took the couple’s 22-month-old son Devin from Cynthia, held him in his arms, and shot him in the head. After killing the child, Kelly returned to the bedroom and shot Brenda again, killing her. He then stole some items from around the house with the help of Wilson and left.  Kelly was apprehended on March 31, 1990. The primary evidence against him was provided by DNA analysis. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the infant’s murder and was executed on October 14, 2008.

1958 – Gregory Lynn Summers – He was convicted of capital murder in 1991 for hiring the murder of three members of his family. The victims were his father, Mandell Eugene Summers, his mother, Helen Summers, and his mentally retarded uncle, Billy Mack Summers. The murders took place on June 11, 1990, and the bodies were discovered by firefighters in a burning house. Summers was accused of offering payment from insurance money and cash in the house for the murders and the arson. He was executed by lethal injection on October 25, 2006, in Huntsville, Texas. His burial is in Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas, USA. He was 48 years old at the time of his death.

1959 – Colin Howell – is a Northern Irish convicted double murderer. He was a respected dentist, Sunday school teacher, and a pillar of the local community in Castlerock, Londonderry in Northern Ireland. However, his life took a dark turn when he committed two murders.  In what appeared to be a suicide pact between two lovers, Howell killed his wife Lesley (née Clarke) and the husband of his lover, Trevor Buchanan (who was an RUC officer). The bodies were found in a fume-filled car in Castlerock on 19 May 1991. The murders and surrounding story were the subject of an ITV drama series The Secret, broadcast in April and May 2016.  After murdering his wife, Howell received a payout of £400,000. He later lost £350,000 in a get-rich-quick scheme that had claimed to find Yamashita’s gold in the Philippines. Howell had been led to believe he would make £20 million; however, he only acquired a few brass ammunition boxes, containing silver coins, worth about £30.  Howell confessed his role in the murders to elders in his church, who urged him to inform the police. He pleaded guilty to the murders on 18 November 2010 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was told he must serve a minimum 21-year jail term. His former lover Hazel (née Elkin, formerly married to Trevor Buchanan, currently married to David Stewart) claimed in court that she acted under duress, but was found guilty of the murders of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan in March 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.

1960 – Jeffrey Timothy Landrigan – a Native American man, was a convicted murderer who was executed in the state of Arizona on October 26, 2010, by lethal injection. He was found guilty of murdering Chester Dean Dyer during an armed burglary. At the time of the murder, Landrigan was a fugitive who had escaped from an Oklahoma prison, where he was serving a 20-year sentence for the 1982 murder of Greg Brown, his best friend. Landrigan was initially sentenced to death in that case, but his conviction was later overturned and he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.  The jury found him guilty of murder and Landrigan himself prevented his defense attorney from presenting any mitigating evidence. The judge who sentenced him to death described Landrigan as “a person who has no scruples and no regard for human life and human beings”. One of the drugs used in executions in the United States was in short supply and had to be imported from abroad. Sodium thiopental is a barbiturate and the first of the three drugs used in the American lethal injection cocktail. His case was notable as thirteen federal judges argued that he should have had a hearing into his claim that he was inadequately represented at his 1990 trial. In 2007, the trial judge said that she would not have passed a death sentence if she had heard the mitigating evidence. However, the US Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, because Jeffrey Landrigan would not have allowed his lawyer to present any mitigating evidence that he might have uncovered.

1961 – Harry L. Butler – was found guilty and received a death sentence for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Leslie “Bay” Fleming, which occurred on March 13, 1997. On the morning of March 14, 1997, Leslie’s sister, Shawna Fleming, discovered Leslie’s body. She had been asphyxiated and stabbed multiple times. Shawna arrived at Leslie’s apartment around 7:15 a.m. and was let in by LaShara Butler, Leslie and Harry’s six-year-old daughter.  During the trial, LaShara testified that on the night of the murder, she had been sleeping in the same room as her mother. Her father, Harry, had picked her up and moved her to her room. She also mentioned seeing her father pin her mother down and hearing her mother scream as if she was in pain.  A neighbor of Leslie’s, Lola Young, testified that she saw Harry hiding in the bushes near Leslie’s apartment in the early hours of March 14, 1997. She also reported seeing a blue car speeding through the complex, stopping to pick up Harry.  Several people who knew Harry testified that he had either stated he killed Leslie or was planning to do so.

1972 – Keydrick Deon Jordan – is known for his involvement in serious criminal activities. He was involved in two separate incidents of murder, rape, and robbery that took place on November 15, 1991, and August 8, 1992. The victims of these crimes were Thelma Reed and Ann Mintner. Both incidents took place in Orange County, Florida, USA.  Jordan was born on March 14, 1972. He was sentenced to life in prison on June 30, 1993, and July 12, 2001, for his crimes. His case was taken to the District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District, and was published on February 8, 1994.  In the case of Ann Mintner, she was killed on August 8, 1992, after being shot six times, causing massive hemorrhages in both the chest and abdominal cavities. The shooting occurred near Lake Davis in Orlando. Mintner was walking around the lake with her friend, Mary Rosensweig, on that particular August morning. When Mintner realized that she was carrying her change purse, she returned to her car to put the purse away. Rosensweig kept walking. When Rosensweig looked back, she saw a black male near Mintner. She heard the black male instruct Mintner to turn over her key. As Mintner ran toward Rosensweig, shots were fired. Mintner fell. She was on the ground as the last shot was fired. There was testimony that four of the six shots entered through Mintner’s back.  A bicycle found at the crime scene contained thirty-five fingerprints. The prints belonged to Jordan and Sam Tory and evidence was presented that the bicycle was owned by Jordan and Tory. The night before the murder, Jordan and Tory had worked on the bicycle at the home of Vicki Meyers. Tory was Meyers’ uncle. Jordan spent the night of August 7, 1992, at Meyers’ home and left early the next morning. He told Meyers that he was going to “rob someone.” When Tory met with Jordan on August 9, 1992, Jordan revealed that he had “popped someone.” Later, when Tory saw his bicycle on television, he called Crime Line and reported Jordan. He received a $1000 reward. On August 11, 1992, Jordan was accompanied to the Orlando Police Department. Jordan initially denied knowledge of the Mintner murder. Later, however, Jordan admitted involvement in the crime. He claimed that Tory was also involved.

1990 – Jean Pierre Orlewicz – also known as JP Orlewicz, is a convicted murderer from Canton, Michigan. He was an 18-year-old high school senior when he was arrested on November 12, 2007, for the murder and decapitation of Daniel Sorensen, a 26-year-old man. The crime took place in the Detroit suburb of Canton, Michigan, on November 7, 2007. Sorensen’s torso was found on the side of a road, his hands and feet had been burned with a blowtorch, and his head was found nearly 15 miles away. He had been stabbed 12 times.  Orlewicz was charged with premeditated murder, felony murder, and mutilation of a corpse. Prosecutors referred to the case as a “thrill” killing due to its gruesomeness and the apparent lack of serious motive. Orlewicz took the stand during his trial and admitted that he killed Sorensen, but insisted that it was in self-defense. He admitted stabbing Sorensen 12 times after an extortion plan went awry and Sorensen threatened his life.  On April 16, 2008, Orlewicz was found guilty of all counts. Due to being charged with first-degree murder, Orlewicz faced mandatory life imprisonment. He was sentenced on May 12, 2008, to life in prison without the possibility of parole and an additional 10 years for mutilation of a corpse. The judge expressed gratitude that Orlewicz was going away for the rest of his life because, in her view, she believed he would have killed again.

Deaths

Steven Brian Pennell

1992 – Steven Brian Pennell – also known as The Route 40 Killer, was born on November 22, 1957, in Glasgow, Delaware, U.S. He is known as Delaware’s only known serial killer in modern history. Pennell was convicted of the murders of two New Castle County, Delaware women and suspected of killing three others. He abducted most of his victims from U.S. Route 40, near Bear.  The first victim was 23-year-old Shirley Anna Ellis, a nurse. On November 29, 1987, she left Wilmington Hospital around 6 PM, where she was assisting an AIDS patient, catching a lift on her way home on Route 40. Her body was later found by the roadside by two boys. She was partially nude, her legs spread out, hands and feet tied with adhesive tape. There were no signs of sexual assault, but she had been seriously abused, with her killer tying a string around her neck and hitting her head with a hammer before she died.  The second victim was 31-year-old Catherine A. DiMauro. On June 28, 1988, about seven months after the first murder, around 11:30 PM, she was seen walking down Route 40. At 6:25 AM, construction workers found her naked body at a construction site. No signs of sexual assault were found. Like Ellis, she was killed by hammer blows and strangulation, but unlike the first murder, DiMauro’s body was covered in blue fibers.  On August 22, 1988, 27-year-old sex worker Margaret Lynn Finner (née Jordan) disappeared. Several witnesses had seen her enter a blue Ford driven by a white male near Route 13. About three months later, her body was found by a hunter near the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal. Her body was so badly decomposed that the exact cause of death could not be determined, although signs of torture were visible on her remains. Finner was identified using dental records.  Pennell was apprehended on November 29, 1988. He was found guilty in the deaths of the first two victims on November 29, 1989, and pleaded no contest to the murder of two others on October 30, 1991. Still maintaining his innocence, he asked for the death penalty so that he could spare his family further agony. Steven Pennell was executed by lethal injection on March 14, 1992. He became the first person to be executed in Delaware since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated.

2000 – Ponchai Wilkerson – also known as Ponchai Kamau, Kamau Wilkerson, and Ponchai “Kamau” Wilkerson, was a convicted murderer executed by lethal injection by the U.S. state of Texas. He was convicted for the 28 November 1990 murder of jeweler Chung Myong Yi.  Wilkerson, of African-American and Thai descent, was born in Houston, Texas. Not much is known about his early childhood; he later grew up in the Fort Bend-Houston area east of Missouri City, Texas, attending public schools in the Fort Bend Independent School District. He graduated from Willowridge High School in 1990.  On 28 November 1990, Wilkerson and Wilton Bethony entered Yi Chung Myong’s jewellery shop Royal Gold Jewellery Store in Houston, Texas. They had been on a crime spree for a month. Wilkerson left briefly twice, pulled a Glock pistol from his jacket upon returning the second time, and fired the gun once without warning at Yi Chung Myong’s temple from a distance of 30 cm (12 inches). During the trial, Wilkerson testified that the murder was not committed in self-defense or accidentally. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence on 12 December 1994. He also appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States, who both denied his appeals.  During Thanksgiving Day, 1998, Wilkerson and six other death row inmates were involved in an attempted prison break. One inmate, Martin Gurule, managed to escape but was shot and drowned soon afterward. Wilkerson and the other six inmates involved all surrendered.  Wilkerson exhausted his final appeal to Judge Jan Krocker in February 2000, a dramatic scene involving community activist Njeri Shakur (member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement and the Allen Parkway Village Residents Council) shouting at Judge Krocker, which led to a contempt charge against Shakur; she served 30 days in the Harris County Jail. Shakur and Deloyd Parker, Jr. (the founder of the S.H.A.P.E. Community Centre) became friends with Ponchai while he was on death row.  On 21 February 2000, Wilkerson and fellow death row inmate Howard Guidry took guard Jeanette Bledsoe hostage at the Terrell Unit (now Allan B. Polunsky Unit) outside Livingston, Texas after Wilkerson opened his cell door’s lock. Members of the National Black United Front and the S.H.A.P.E. Centre demanded that Wilkerson release the hostage. Thirteen hours later, the guard was released unharmed.  On the day of his execution, Wilkerson refused to leave his cell at the Terrell Unit prison near Livingston, Texas. Guards were forced to use Mace-like gas and carry him to and from the death van that took him to the Huntsville Unit. He did not request a last supper or give any instructions on the disposal of his body.

2002 – James Earl Patterson – had a brief encounter with Joyce Aldridge while attending a party with one of her daughters. On the night of October 11, 1987, under the influence of alcohol and cocaine, Patterson broke into Aldridge’s home to rob her to fund his drug habit. Upon finding only a small amount of change in her purse, he was overcome with anger and decided to assault her. To eliminate any witnesses, he decided to end her life. He used a kitchen knife from Aldridge’s home to stab her three times in the abdomen before leaving her for dead. Despite her injuries, Joyce managed to call the police. When she tried to call her son, Patterson returned to the scene, stabbed her an additional 14 times, and then fled. While serving a 25-year sentence for a separate rape charge, the DNA from the Aldridge case, which was over a decade old, was compared against the inmate database. The DNA matched Patterson’s, leading to his confession and guilty plea. He requested the death penalty from the judge. This case marked the first time a “cold hit” DNA match led to an execution.

Events

1912 – Floyd Allen allegedly initiated a courthouse shootout in which 5 people were killed

1931 – A riot breaks out at Joliet prison dining hall leaving three inmates being shot and a fourth inmate killed

1950 – The FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives program begins

1964 – Jack Ruby was convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, he was sentenced to death

1991 – The English Court of Appeals frees the “Birmingham Six” who had been unjustly sentenced in August 1975 to life imprisonment

1994 – Mexican banker & billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu is kidnapped

2013 – 7 people are killed after gunmen storm a bar in Cancun, Mexico

2015 – Robert Durst is arrested

2018 – US students across America commemorate the Florida High school shooting with mass walkouts across the country

2018 – Brazilian human rights politician Marielle Franco is murdered in Rio, prompting mass protests

2021 – Former English police officer Wayne Couzens is charged with the death of Sarah Everard