Births

Phillip D. Halford

1947 – Phillip D. Hallford – A sick and disgusting human being who had been sexually abusing his daughter since she was 7 years old became enraged when his daughter grew older and started dating 16-year-old Eddie Shannon, so enraged was Hallford that he shot and killed Shannon and then made his daughter, Shannon’s distraught girlfriend wear a necklace bearing the shell casings used to kill her boyfriend

1959 – Lucious Boyd – is an American convicted murderer, rapist, and suspected serial killer. He is currently on death row in Florida. Boyd was sentenced to death for the 1998 rape and murder of 21-year-old Dawnia Dacosta and is a suspect in at least ten other homicides and disappearances. Boyd’s family owns a funeral home in Fort Lauderdale. Before 1998, Boyd had been married twice and was the father of at least eight children. He had been sued by four separate women for failing to pay child support. Before 1998, Boyd was struggling financially and had to stay at his family’s home in Plantation for periods. In 1996, his father, James C. Boyd, who was the owner of the family funeral home, died. In 1998, Boyd worked as a handyman for Hope Outreach Ministries. According to Boyd’s family, he had an ongoing cocaine problem.  In 1990, Boyd choked his second wife, Julie McCormick, to the point of unconsciousness. McCormick had threatened to leave him for cheating on her. A felony charge of aggravated battery was brought against Boyd but was later reduced to a misdemeanor charge meaning Boyd was only given probation. In 1992, Boyd was accused of raping a girl during a date on her 18th birthday. No charges were filed however because the victim declined to prosecute.  On October 18, 1993, Boyd stabbed Roderick Bullard to death on a Fort Lauderdale street with a kitchen knife during an argument over an automobile. Bullard was the brother of one of Boyd’s girlfriends. Boyd told police that Bullard had hit him and that he “just lost it.” He admitted that Bullard had no weapon and never threatened him. During the trial, Boyd’s defense attorneys turned the tables on Bullard, playing up the fact that he had cocaine in his bloodstream. The jury called Boyd’s actions self-defense and acquitted him of the killing.  Police believe Boyd is responsible for many unsolved murders, the sexual assaults of several women, and the disappearance of 25-year-old Danielle Zacot from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1999. On August 13, 1997, the naked body of 24-year-old Melissa Floyd was found in some high grass near a guardrail on I95 in Palm Beach County.

1960 – Paul Christopher Hildwin – is a man who was wrongfully convicted for a crime he did not commit. In 1986, he was one of two suspects in the murder of a Florida woman named Vronzettie Cox. The other suspect was Cox’s boyfriend, a man named William Haverty. Hildwin was convicted largely because of DNA evidence found at the crime scene, which was later discovered to belong to Haverty and not Hildwin. At the time of the trial, outdated scientific evidence falsely linked this semen and saliva to Hildwin.  Hildwin spent nearly three decades on death row for a crime that he most likely would not have been convicted of if the DNA evidence were available during his 1986 trial. The Florida Supreme Court acknowledged this reality, holding that “the totality of the evidence is of ‘such nature that it would probably produce an acquittal on retrial’ because the newly discovered DNA evidence ‘weakens the case against [the defendant] so as to give rise to a reasonable doubt as to his culpability.’”  Years later, DNA testing of the evidence left over from the trial proved that it belonged to Haverty and not Hildwin, undermining the prosecution’s case to such a degree that the state supreme court determined that a jury probably would not have convicted Hildwin. Yet, while the doubtful conviction against Hildwin was ultimately thrown out, the state now has the option to retry Hildwin, if they choose.  After spending nearly 34 years incarcerated for a murder DNA evidence now shows he did not commit, Paul Hildwin was released from prison.

1963 – William K. Sapp – also known as William Kessler Lilly, was born on March 22, 1962, in Springfield, Ohio. He had one younger brother, and according to Children’s Services, young William had “hostility toward all women he [came] in contact with.” When he was nine, his parents divorced, and he and his brother went to live with his father and stepmother, whom they later claimed physically and mentally abused them. Lilly committed his first crime on March 20, 1980, when he was arrested on charges of animal cruelty. The next year, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he was legally adopted by a man named Al Sapp, which caused Lilly to change his last name to Sapp. In 1988, Sapp married a woman named Karen, and together they moved back to Ohio, settling in Sapp’s hometown of Springfield and having three children.  In 1991, Sapp set fire to a log cabin close in proximity to his father’s home. On August 23, 1992, the bodies of 12-year-old Phree Marrow and 11-year-old Martha Leach were discovered near a pond behind Penn Street. The girls were described as “best friends,” and they were determined to have been killed the previous day when the two were returning to Martha’s home from a bakery.  On July 8, 1995, a couple found the body of 30-year-old Belinda Fay Anderson under their garage in Springfield. Anderson was found to have been killed back in September 1993 after she went missing on her way to her parent’s house.  On February 27, 1996, Sapp was arrested on charges of attempting to kill Una Timmons, who, on February 5, was beaten and stabbed by Sapp after he offered her a ride and smoked cocaine with her. On September 9, he went on trial, pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.  Sapp is an American serial killer and rapist who committed the murders of three women and girls in Springfield, Ohio, in 1992 and 1993, the attempted murder of another, and a possible fourth murder in Florida. Sapp was detained for the murders only in 1996 after already being imprisoned for an earlier rape. He was sentenced to death on October 21, 1999, and is currently awaiting execution at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

1968 – Odell Barnes Jr – He was a construction worker by profession. Barnes was convicted of the 1989 murder of Helen Bass and was executed on March 1, 2000. The murder occurred on November 29, 1989, in Wichita Falls, Texas. Bass, 42, was surprised by Barnes, who had broken into her home while at work, then robbed, beaten, stabbed, and killed by a headshot. She may have also been raped. Barnes’s conviction was based on forensic evidence and witness testimony placing him at the crime scene. His fingerprints were on a bedside lamp that was used to bludgeon Bass, traces of his semen were present at the scene, and two patches of blood on his clothing were confirmed by DNA analysis to have been hers. Prosecution witnesses described seeing Barnes trespassing in Bass’s yard about one hour before she returned from work. When arrested, he had a .32 caliber pistol belonging to Bass. Barnes had a prior record for two robberies. He had been unable to afford his lawyers, and the Wichita County Public Defender’s office was not equipped to handle his case, so two local attorneys were appointed for him. Their budget and preparation were minimal, no defense investigation was conducted, and no forensic tests were ordered by the defense. Barnes was convicted by the jury after three hours of deliberation and sentenced to death shortly after. During Barnes’ appeals process, two new attorneys were appointed to his case by a Federal court. European anti-death penalty activists contributed some $16,000 to his defense fund, and the new lawyers paid for forensic tests out of their pocket. The new defense team uncovered deficiencies in the forensic evidence, serious errors and oversights by the original defense team, and problems with the credibility of prosecution witnesses. Barnes claimed at trial that he had never had sexual contact, consensual or forced, with Bass. DNA testing some years after the trial showed that the semen on her corpse was his. Barnes then claimed that he and Bass had an existing sexual relationship before the crime. Still, on the advice of his original defense team, he did not tell the jury. At trial, the jury heard that a brand new lamp was found with Barnes’ fingerprints. Despite the efforts of his defense team and international human rights groups, Barnes was executed on March 1, 2000. His case attracted international media attention and diplomatic protests from the government of France. He maintained his innocence to the end.

1970 – Charles Douglas Raby – is a convicted criminal who was sentenced to death on June 30, 1994. He was born on March 22, 1970. Raby was convicted for the murder of Edna Mae Franklin, a 72-year-old woman, in Harris County, Texas, USA. The crime took place on October 15, 1992, and involved stabbing with a knife.  Despite confessing to the crime shortly after Franklin’s death, there were inconsistencies in the case. No physical evidence tied Raby to the crime. His case was handled during a time when Houston was experiencing a crime boom, and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office was aggressively pro-death penalty. This context has led some to question the validity of his conviction.  Raby’s case has been the subject of appeals and requests for post-conviction DNA testing, intending to prove his innocence. However, these requests have been denied by the courts. His case continues to be a point of discussion in debates about the death penalty and the justice system.

1972 – Nicolas “Nico” Claux – also known as Nico Claux or the “Vampire of Paris”, was born on March 22, 1972, in Cameroon. He is a convicted French murderer and a self-proclaimed cannibal.  In the fall of 1994, when he was 22 years old, Claux used Minitel, a popular precursor to the internet in France, to meet and arrange a date with 34-year-old Thierry Bissonnier. The meeting took place at Bissonnier’s Paris apartment on October 4 and ended tragically when Claux shot Bissonnier in the head. Bissonnier’s body wasn’t discovered for three days.  When police captured Claux, they searched his apartment and found human bone fragments, teeth, and bags of blood. This gruesome discovery led to his arrest and subsequent conviction.  Claux had a fascination with death from a young age, which eventually led him to work in a morgue at a local hospital. During his time there, he practiced cannibalism by cutting slabs of meat off of cadavers and eating it. He also stole blood bags from the hospital and mixed the liquid with protein powder to drink like a smoothie.  After his release from prison in 2002, Claux turned to painting and writing. He is known for his portraits of serial killers and depictions of crime scenes and murder victims. His artworks have illustrated various true crime and occult books, and he has also published his works.

1978 – Benjamin Nathaniel Smith – was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois. He attended high school at New Trier Township High School. During this time, he accosted a Skokie, Illinois, police officer and pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor battery.  Smith was a member of the neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator and was a devoted disciple of the group’s leader Matthew Hale. Two days after Hale was denied a license to practice law in Illinois, Smith loaded his light blue Ford Taurus with guns and ammunition and went on a three-day, two-state shooting spree, killing two people and wounding nine others.  On the evening of Friday, July 2, Smith shot and wounded nine Orthodox Jews in drive-by shootings in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Smith then shot and killed former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, an African-American, in front of two of his three children, while they were walking outside Byrdsong’s Skokie, Illinois, home. The next day, Smith traveled to Urbana, Springfield, and then Decatur, where he shot and wounded an African-American minister. On Sunday, July 4, Smith traveled to Bloomington, Indiana, where he killed Won-Joon Yoon, a 26-year-old Korean graduate student in Economics at Indiana University, who was on his way to the Korean United Methodist Church.  Smith shot at but missed another nine people. On Sunday, July 4, fleeing the police in a high-speed chase on a southern Illinois highway, Smith shot himself twice in the head and crashed his automobile into a metal post. He then shot himself again, in the heart, this time fatally. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Deaths

Francine Hughes Wilson

1989 – Leon Rutherford King – was a convicted criminal who was executed for the capital murder of Michael Clayton Underwood. The crime took place on April 10, 1978, when King and an accomplice robbed Underwood and his date as they were leaving a nightclub in the Montrose area. The couple was driven to a field where King beat Underwood to death. The woman survived the ordeal.  King was born on May 22, 1944, and was 44 years old at the time of his execution on March 22, 1989. He had an education level up to the 11th grade. Before the murder, King had convictions for burglary, forgery, and drug possession. His lawyers argued that his crimes stemmed from brain damage.  King’s original conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on February 6, 1980, and a retrial was ordered. In May 1980, King was convicted and sentenced to death a second time. That conviction was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and King’s subsequent petition for a writ of certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court. King then sought collateral review of his conviction in the state courts, with no success. His ensuing federal habeas corpus petition was denied by a federal district court in 1986.  King was the third person executed in 1989 and the 107th since the Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976. He was the 30th inmate to be put to death in Texas, which has executed more people than any other state. His last statement before execution was, “I would like to tell Mr. Richard that I appreciate all he has done for me. I love you all. God bless. Goodbye, David.”

1995 – Hernando Williams – was an American convicted murderer who kidnapped, raped, and killed a Chicago woman named Linda Goldstone in 1978. He was executed by the state of Illinois in 1995, becoming the second person to be executed by the state on that date. He was also the second out of the 12 last people to be executed in Illinois before the abolition of the death penalty.  Williams had a troubled childhood and was involved in several crimes before his kidnapping spree. He was out on bail for another kidnapping and rape case when he abducted Goldstone from a parking lot. He held her captive for more than two days, driving around with her in his car and trunk, and sexually assaulting her. He eventually let her go, but followed her to a house where he shot her twice and left her to die.  Williams was arrested at his parents’ home, where he had been washing out his car’s trunk. He confessed to the crime and showed no remorse. He claimed that he had killed Goldstone because she had lied to him about getting on a bus. He also said that he had planned to kill more women after she died.  Williams’ trial lasted for six weeks and featured graphic testimony from Goldstone’s family and friends, as well as medical experts who examined her body. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before finding him guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, robbery and rape. Williams appealed his conviction, but it was upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court.  Williams’ execution date was set for March 22, 1995, despite protests from human rights groups and religious organizations who argued that it violated his constitutional rights. Williams refused to have any last meal or make any final statement before he was put to death by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet. His execution was broadcast live on television and radio stations across Illinois.  Hernando Williams is one of the most notorious criminals in Illinois history and one of the last people to be executed by the state before it abolished capital punishment in 2003. His case has been featured in several books, documentaries, and films, such as The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer.

2000 – James Henry Hampton – was a notorious criminal who committed several heinous crimes. He was involved in murder, kidnapping, and robberies. His most infamous crime occurred on August 3, 1992, when he broke into the residence of Ms. Frances Keaton in Warrenton, Missouri, armed with a sawed-off shotgun. He demanded $30,000 from Ms. Keaton and her fiancé, Mr. Allen Mulholland, believing that Ms. Keaton had the money in a checking account for a real estate transaction. Hampton had learned of the transaction through a real estate agent with whom he had been staying after his release from a federal prison in Illinois. Hampton decided to kidnap Ms. Keaton and threatened to kill her if Mr. Mulholland contacted the police. He left Mr. Mulholland tied up in the house. During their drive, Hampton learned from his police scanner that the authorities were searching for Ms. Keaton. Upon learning this, he decided to kill Ms. Keaton. He took her to a wooded area near the real estate agent’s farm, where he killed her by repeatedly striking her in the head with a hammer. He then buried her and burned all her belongings. Hampton fled the state and was apprehended in New Jersey on December 19, 1992, one day after he was featured on the television show America’s Most Wanted. He was also arrested and convicted of another murder. As he was about to be placed into custody, Hampton shot himself in the head. After serving only four years on death row, James Henry Hampton, a two-time killer who had spent most of his life in prison, was executed. He was the first Missouri inmate put to death by injection that year at the state prison in Potosi, and the 42nd since the death penalty was reinstated in 1989.

2006 – Robert Madrid Salazar Jr – was a man from Texas who was convicted of capital murder and sexual assault. His case involved the tragic death of a 2-year-old girl, Adriana Gomez, in 1997. At the time of the incident, Salazar was 18 years old and was babysitting Adriana while her mother, Raylene Blakeburn, was at work.  On the day of the incident, Adriana began crying and Salazar, unable to calm her down, reacted violently. He beat the child repeatedly on the head, chest, and stomach. After Adriana lost consciousness, Salazar left her in her crib and went out with a friend to buy beer. When Blakeburn returned home from work, she found her daughter unconscious, breathing abnormally, and bleeding from her mouth. Adriana was taken to the hospital but unfortunately, she passed away that evening due to the severity of her injuries.  Salazar initially told the police that he had accidentally pushed Adriana causing her to fall and hit her head on the bathtub. However, a pathologist testified that Adriana’s injuries were inconsistent with being pushed or falling in the bathtub. She had suffered from multiple blunt force trauma wounds, her chest injuries were worse than those seen in any auto accident victim, her eyes were injured from being struck or shaken, and she had also been hit in the face. She also had bruises on her neck and vaginal injuries that were consistent with sexual penetration.  In March 1999, Salazar was convicted of capital murder for the 1997 beating death and sexual assault of Adriana. Having exhausted his initial state and federal habeas claims, Salazar was executed by lethal injection on March 22, 2006, in Huntsville, Texas.

2012 – William Gerald Mitchell – Mitchell visited a convenience store in Biloxi, where Patty Milliken was working, on three separate occasions. Later, Milliken was seen opening the store’s safe to record the day’s earnings and then made a call to her son, informing him that she would be home in about fifteen minutes. She then stepped outside with Mitchell for a smoke break, leaving her personal belongings inside the store and her car in the parking lot. However, she never returned, prompting a call to the police.  Mitchell was later located by the police, but he attempted to escape, leading to a chase and his eventual arrest. A passenger who was with Mitchell during the chase testified that Mitchell had claimed to have “dealt with” Milliken. The following morning, Milliken’s body was discovered under a bridge. She had been subjected to a brutal attack, including physical assault, strangulation, sexual assault, and being run over by a car. The pathologist confirmed that she was still alive when the car ran over her. Traces of Milliken’s hair and blood were found in Mitchell’s car and underneath it.  At the time of the incident, Mitchell had been out on parole for about eleven months, having previously served a life sentence for a murder committed in 1974. In a statement to the police, Mitchell admitted to causing Milliken’s nose to bleed but denied killing her.

2017 – Francine Hughes Wilson – later known as Francine Wilson, was born on August 17, 1947, in Stockbridge, Michigan. She was named after a French musician by her mother. Her father was an abusive alcoholic farmworker. At the age of 16, she left high school to marry James “Mickey” Hughes. They had four children together: Christie, James “Jimmy” Berlin Jr, Nicole, and Dana.  Francine divorced Mickey in 1971, but he moved back in with her after being seriously injured in a car accident. Despite their divorce, Mickey continued to abuse Francine, regularly beating her, destroying furniture, and even killing his daughter’s kitten. Francine felt trapped, fearing that Mickey would make good on his constant threats to kill her if she tried to leave or remove him from the home.  To gain some independence, Francine obtained her GED and enrolled in a secretarial course in 1976. However, the abuse persisted and escalated. On March 9, 1977, after returning from her secretarial course, Francine found Mickey intoxicated and irate. He physically assaulted her, refused to allow her to make food for their children, and forced her to burn her schoolbooks. The police were called but refused to arrest Mickey as he had not assaulted her in front of them.  Later that day, Francine set fire to the bed in which Mickey was sleeping. Mickey was killed and the house was destroyed in the resulting fire. Francine walked into the Ingham County Jail and confessed to her actions, stating that she feared for her life. At trial, she was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity in one of the first cases involving “battered-woman syndrome” as a defense.  Following the trial, Francine’s story became a turning point in the growing movement against domestic violence. It inspired the bestselling book “The Burning Bed,” a TV movie of the same name starring Farah Fawcett and Paul Lemat, a folk song, and a hit for country star Martina McBride (“Independence Day”).  Francine remarried and took the last name of her second husband, Robert Wilson. With Robert’s support, she pursued her dream of becoming a nurse and graduated as the valedictorian of her class. She worked as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) at several nursing homes and even taught a nursing class after retirement.  Francine passed away on March 22, 2017, in Leighton, Alabama, after a bout with pneumonia. She was 69 years old. Despite the notoriety of her case, Francine was remembered by her family as a caring, loving, and happy person with a great sense of humor.

Events

Malcolm Naden

1739 – Dick Turpin is convicted of two counts of horse theft

1935 – Blood tests authorized as evidence in court cases in New York

1979 – Rudy Bladel arrested

1984 – Teachers at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded

1991 – Pamela Smart is found guilty in New Hampshire of manipulating her student lover to kill her husband

1999 – David Parker Ray is arrested

2011 – Lawrence Taylor pleads guilty to misdemeanors of sexual misconduct and is sentenced to 6 years probation

2012 – Australia’s most wanted man, Malcolm Naden, is captured after 7 years on the run in Gloucester, New South Wales

2021 – 10 people are shot dead at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado by a 21-year-old gunman