Births

Albert Pierrepoint

1905Albert Pierrepoint – grew up in a family deeply rooted in the business of execution. His father, Henry Pierrepoint, and uncle, Thomas, were both executioners. The young Albert initially aspired to be a grocery delivery boy, but the family legacy soon beckoned. Albert Pierrepoint officially entered the world of execution in 1931. His first assignment was the hanging of a murderer named Patrick McDermott. Pierrepoint quickly gained a reputation for efficiency and precision in his work, ultimately becoming the chief executioner for the United Kingdom.  Over his career spanning 25 years, Pierrepoint executed between 450 to 600 people, earning him the title of the most prolific executioner in British history. His methodical approach and swift executions were in stark contrast to the prolonged and often botched hangings of the past.  Beyond his grim profession, Albert Pierrepoint led a dual life. During breaks from executing, he ran a pub in Lancashire, embracing the ordinary life of a publican. This dichotomy, balancing the macabre with the mundane, added a layer of complexity to Pierrepoint’s character.  The landscape of capital punishment changed in the mid-20th century, and Pierrepoint found himself at the center of debates surrounding the morality and efficacy of the death penalty. In 1956, he resigned from his position, expressing doubts about the death penalty’s deterrent effect.  Following his resignation, Albert Pierrepoint distanced himself from the executioner’s role. He wrote an autobiography titled “Executioner: Pierrepoint” in 1974, providing insight into his experiences and thoughts on capital punishment. Pierrepoint passed away on July 10, 1992, leaving behind a legacy that continues to spark discussions on morality, justice, and the human cost of state-sanctioned death.  Albert Pierrepoint’s life, marked by the juxtaposition of his ordinary publican persona and the grim duties of an executioner, remains a fascinating chapter in the annals of criminal justice history.

1930Rolf Harris – initially rose to prominence as a beloved Australian entertainer, artist, and television personality. His early career showcased a diverse range of talents, from music and novelty songs to visual arts. However, his later years were marred by a series of legal troubles that significantly impacted his reputation.  In 2014, Rolf Harris faced a high-profile trial in the United Kingdom, where he was accused of multiple counts of indecent assault. The charges related to incidents that occurred between 1968 and 1986, involving various victims, including minors. The accusations against Harris were part of a wider investigation into historic sexual abuse cases, and the trial garnered considerable media attention.  In June 2014, Rolf Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault, and he was subsequently sentenced to five years and nine months in prison. The verdict shocked the public, as Harris had been a prominent figure in the entertainment industry for decades.  The legal proceedings not only led to his incarceration but also had a profound impact on Rolf Harris’s legacy. The once-celebrated entertainer and artist became synonymous with the scandal and the broader issues of historic sexual abuse within the entertainment industry.  The fallout from the trial resulted in the removal of Harris’s honors, including the rescinding of his Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) titles. His career, once celebrated for its versatility and longevity, was now overshadowed by the legal stain of his convictions.  Rolf Harris’s case added to the ongoing public discourse surrounding the #MeToo movement, prompting reflection on the complexities of separating an individual’s artistic contributions from their personal actions. The legal troubles surrounding Harris continue to shape discussions about accountability, justice, and the impact of such cases on the cultural landscape.

1937Lucien Leger – He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a child in 1964. He was the oldest detainee in France before being released on October 3, 2005, after 41 years of imprisonment, which constitutes one of the longest detentions in Europe. He was nicknamed the Strangler by the press because of the signature “Strangler No. 1” affixed to the bottom of anonymous letters sent to the police. Léger was born into a modest family of seven children, originally from Château-Regnault in the Ardennes department. His father was a metal turner at Renault. He performed his military service in French Algeria and in 1959, he married Solange in Charleville-Mézières, sister of a friend of the regiment. Léger first worked as a storekeeper at Éditions Denoël. His wife was interned several times and Léger became a nursing student at the Villejuif psychiatric hospital.  On May 26, 1964, Luc Taron, born May 9, 1953, disappeared after being scolded by his mother Suzanne Taron for having stolen 15 francs from her. His parents initially believed that he had run away and did not immediately notify the police. On May 27, 1964, around 5 a.m., Jules Beudard, while walking in the woods of Verrières-le-Buisson, in Essonne, before going to the factory, discovered the body of the child, mutilated and strangled, at a place called “Le Salvart”. The same evening of the discovery, at 11:50 pm, the murderer telephoned Europe 1 and indicated where to find a message on the windshield of a car. The handwritten text describing the crime, which announces other kidnappings if an advance ransom is not paid to him, is signed The Strangler no 1. The press reported only the nickname “strangler”, omitting the no 1 which apparently annoyed the murderer: in the following month, fifty-five anonymous letters were sent to the press, the police, the victim’s father, and the Minister of the Interior, claiming to be the perpetrator of the crime as well as announcing others and asking for “50 million” francs. On June 27, 1964, Lucien Léger reported the theft of his 2CV to the Invalides police station. Four days later, he returned to the police station and claimed to have found his vehicle in a parking lot following a phone call from the Strangler. He also reported that the interior of the car was soaked with stains of human blood. On July 2, the fifty-sixth letter signed by the Strangler arrives at the police station. The criminal wrote there that he used the 2CV to abduct a mobster from Pigalle and kill him. Summoned for interrogation on July 4, Lucien Léger was the main suspect, especially as the search of his hotel room uncovered that he kept newspapers relating to the case and a draft novel entitled Diary of an Assassin.

1954David Jay Brown – An American man who had a volatile relationship with both his wife and her family even though they were only married for about 6 months, in 1986, Brown kept 12 people hostage inside a hair salon that his wife owned whilst brandishing a rifle, no one was hurt and Brown got out on bail and went on the run, a year later he would come back and threaten the family into dropping the charges, at some point he had an argument with his now ex-wife’s father and shot him and killed him

1961Ivan Hill – also known as “The 60 Freeway Killer”, was born on March 30, 1961, in Los Angeles, California. He is an American serial killer who raped and murdered at least eight women in Los Angeles between 1986 and 1994. Hill dumped his victims’ corpses along the East-West Highway, known as “California State Route 60”, contributing to his nickname.  Hill grew up in a socially disadvantageous environment with a father who was aggressive towards his wife and children. On Christmas in 1968, Hill’s father shot his mother in the face with a .22 caliber rifle and was sent to prison. Despite the serious injury, Hill’s mother survived and later divorced his father. Ivan ended up acting as a caregiver to his siblings by the time he was 10.  Hill spent his teens in Pomona, attending Pomona High School. During his school years, Ivan was involved in sports, being elected team captain of the school football team. Most of his acquaintances from those years spoke very positively of him. In 1978, a year before graduation, Hill became addicted to drugs and lost interest in studying. Suffering from financial difficulties, Hill began leading a criminal lifestyle in early 1979, committing several thefts.  In January 1979, Hill, along with accomplices, committed several robberies. On January 23, 17-year-old Hill and his accomplice, 18-year-old Venson Myers, robbed a liquor store in Glendora, during which Myers killed Thomas Leavell and seriously injured Keith Hunt. For this crime, Venson Myers was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole. As a minor, Hill was found guilty of complicity in murder, but he received a short sentence due to cooperating in the investigation. During his detention, Hill graduated from high school, receiving his high school diploma. He later studied at one of the local colleges, after which he received parole and was released in the mid-1980s.  After his release, Hill spent a lot of time in the San Gabriel Valley, constantly changing his place of residence. He worked as a day laborer, storekeeper, and forklift driver at various times. In the late 1980s, he was rearrested for theft and convicted. Hill was released again in February 1993.  While serving his 1994 sentence, a blood sample was taken from Hill. He was due to be released in February 2004, but in March 2003, Hill’s DNA test showed his profile corresponded to that of an unidentified serial killer, who had left DNA evidence during attacks on six women in different suburbs of Los Angeles from November 1993 to January 1994. Hill was captured based on DNA profiling nearly a decade after his last murder and was sentenced to death in 2007. Hill, who also participated in a 1979 murder, is one of six men known for committing the “Southside Slayer” murders in South Los Angeles; he committed at least one of those killings, and investigators suspect he has been involved in more.

1963Robert Anthony Murray – On December 6, 1985, at 12:05 a.m., a man named William Murray entered an apartment located at 2331 A Park in St. Louis, Missouri. Inside the apartment were Jeff Jackson, Craig Stewart, Gladys Nutall, and Claudia Hennings. After leaving the apartment, William Murray returned approximately thirty minutes later, accompanied by two other men identified as his brother, Robert Murray, and Jesse Craig.  Upon re-entering, William Murray declared a holdup, instructing everyone to “get on the floor.” Subsequently, Robert Murray and Jesse Craig entered the apartment as part of the announced holdup. During this, Claudia Hennings noticed that Robert Murray was wearing a mask. When she addressed him by name, he removed the mask.  While Robert Murray held a gun on the four victims, William Murray and Jesse Craig searched the apartment. Robert Murray took Ms. Hennings’s purse and Mr. Jackson’s wallet, while William Murray took Ms. Nutall’s purse and Mr. Stewart’s wallet. William Murray then inquired if anyone else was expected at the apartment that night. Mr. Jackson mentioned that another person was due around 3:00 a.m. to provide him with a ride to work. The perpetrators opted to stay and wait.  Towards the end of their wait, William Murray directed Ms. Nutall to go into the kitchen with him, where he sexually assaulted her, while Robert Murray did the same to Ms. Hennings in the living room. Subsequently, after binding and gagging Mr. Jackson and Mr. Stewart, the Murrays brought them into the kitchen, where they were physically assaulted and threatened with a knife to coerce them into surrendering more money.  During this time, Ms. Hennings managed to escape by jumping out of the second-floor window and running for help. She reported hearing gunshots as she fled. Ms. Nutall, upon leaving the apartment, witnessed Robert Murray holding Mr. Stewart up and shooting him in the back. She then went to a nearby grocery store, where she informed a security guard of the horrifying events.  Upon police arrival, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Stewart were found in the kitchen, seemingly deceased from gunshot wounds, a conclusion later confirmed by the autopsy report.  Robert Murray was subsequently arrested on December 7, 1985, and positively identified in a lineup as one of the perpetrators. In a statement to the police, Murray provided information about the crime scene that had not been disclosed to him by the authorities, further implicating him in the heinous acts.

1964John Kennedy Barefield – He was involved in a series of crimes during the mid-1980s. Barefield, along with his brother and another accomplice, was responsible for the abduction, robbery, and rape of Cindy Rounsaville, a 25-year-old Rice University student, on April 21, 1986. When Rounsaville attempted to escape, Barefield shot her twice in the head. His brother received a 45-year prison sentence for his involvement in the crime.  Barefield was the leader of a gang that targeted people in Houston apartment complexes for rape and robbery over six months in 1985-86. He was convicted for the abduction, rape, and murder of Cindy Rounsaville in 1986. Barefield was executed by lethal injection in Texas on March 12, 1997, at the age of 32. His last words were a message to his mother, expressing his love for her. Barefield had a 9th-grade education level. He was named after President John F. Kennedy, having been born four months after the president’s assassination.

1967Stephen Dale Barbee – was a Texas resident who was found guilty of murdering his former girlfriend, Lisa Underwood, and her seven-year-old son, Jayden. The tragic incident occurred in February 2005. Underwood, who was pregnant, and her son were suffocated at their Fort Worth home and later discovered in a shallow grave in Denton County.  Barbee initially admitted to the murders, claiming he was afraid Underwood would reveal to his wife that he was the father of her unborn child. However, he later withdrew his confession, alleging it was forced, and continued to assert his innocence.  In 2006, he was sentenced to death and was executed via lethal injection on November 16, 2022, in Huntsville, Texas. In his last statement, Barbee spoke about his belief in God and expressed his wish that his execution would not be a cause of sorrow for his family and friends.

Deaths

Chester Gillette

 

1836Olga Konstantinovna Briscorn – also known as “The Kursk Saltychikha”, was a prominent figure in Russian history. Born in 1776 into the Mavrogeni family, who were Moldovan boyars, she married Ananiy Gerasimovich Strukov, a wealthy provincial marshal of nobility. After her husband’s death, she moved to St. Petersburg and married Fyodor Maximovich Briscorn, a major official, senator, and diplomat.  In 1817, she bought an estate in the Dmitrievsky district of the Kursk Governorate and established a cloth factory in the village of Prilepy. However, she was infamous for her harsh treatment of her workers, often punishing both adults and minors who worked in her factory. In 1822, local farmers appealed to Emperor Alexander I, leading to an official investigation that lasted 3 years. She was convicted of torturing her serfs via various means, including physical beatings and starvation. She passed away in 1836. Her life serves as a stark reminder of the harsh conditions faced by serfs in historical Russia.

1883Emeline Lucy Meaker – sometimes reported as Lucy Emeline Meaker, was born in June 1838 and died on March 30, 1883. She holds the unfortunate distinction of being the first woman who was legally executed by Vermont.  In 1883, Meaker was convicted of and hanged for the murder of her husband’s niece, Alice, in Duxbury, Vermont. The crime occurred in the spring of 1879 when a child welfare worker approached Meaker and her husband to ask if they would consider taking Mr. Meaker’s eight-year-old niece, Alice, and her brother, Henry, into their home, as the children were living in an overcrowded orphanage. Mr. Meaker was offered a stipend of US$400 to care for Alice, and so he agreed. However, Emeline Meaker was not pleased with the arrangement and beat, starved, and otherwise mistreated Alice.  Meaker decided to kill Alice and ordered her son Almon to get a lethal dose of strychnine from an apothecary. On April 23, 1880, Meaker and Almon seized Alice, placed a sack over the girl’s head, and took her to a remote area outside Waterbury, Vermont, near what is now Little River State Park. When they arrived at a clearing by a stream, Almon handed the poison to his mother and she poured it into a drink which she gave to Alice. While Alice thrashed about in reaction to the strychnine poisoning, Meaker forcibly held her hand over Alice’s mouth to keep the girl from crying out, keeping it there until Alice was dead, and then Almon and his mother buried Alice’s body.  Alice’s disappearance was investigated, and Almon confessed to the local sheriff. At trial, both he and Emeline were sentenced to death; however, Almon’s sentence was commuted by the Vermont Legislature because it was believed that he was dominated by his mother. Almon’s confession was published in the newspaper on the date set for Emeline’s execution. It was reported that Emeline acted violently while in jail, but calmed as her execution date drew nearer.  On March 30, 1883, the morning of her scheduled execution, Meaker ate a large beefsteak, three potatoes, a slice of bread and butter, a piece of meat pie, and a cup of coffee. Then, at her request, she went to view the gallows, remarking that it was not half as bad as she thought it would be. She sent a message to her husband through the sheriff and then ate a lunch consisting of two boiled eggs, two slices of toast, one potato, one doughnut, and a cup of coffee. Over 125 spectators gathered in the prison guardroom at the Vermont State Prison in Windsor County, and it was reported that the sheriff was besieged with requests for passes to witness the hanging. When Meaker was finally led to the gallows and asked (by a slip of paper as she was deaf) if she had anything to say, Emeline said in a low voice, “May God forgive you all for hanging me, an innocent woman.”

1908Chester Ellsworth Gillette – was born on August 9, 1883, in Wickes, Jefferson County, Montana Territory. His parents, Franklin Gillette and Louisa Maria Rice, were financially comfortable but deeply religious, and they eventually renounced material wealth to join The Salvation Army. The family traveled around the West Coast of the United States and to Hawaii during Chester’s adolescence. However, Chester never took to the religious aspects of his upbringing.  He attended Oberlin College’s preparatory school on the generosity of a wealthy uncle but left after two years in 1903. After leaving school, he worked at odd jobs until 1905 when he took a position at another uncle’s skirt factory in Cortland, New York.  At the factory, Gillette met Grace Brown, another employee. They soon began a sexual relationship, with Brown assuming Gillette would marry her. In the spring of 1906, Brown revealed that she was pregnant. She continued to pressure Gillette to marry her, often writing him pleading letters. As the spring and summer of 1906 progressed, others noticed an increasing frequency of Gillette’s raised voice and Brown’s tears at the factory or each other’s homes.  Chester was convicted of murdering Grace Brown on July 11, 1906, at Big Moose Lake, Herkimer County, New York. Grace was pregnant with Chester’s child at the time of her death. Chester was executed in the electric chair at Auburn Prison on March 30, 1908, at the age of 24.  Chester Ellsworth Gillette’s life and the tragic murder case became the basis for the fictional character Clyde Griffiths in Theodore Dreiser’s novel “An American Tragedy”, which was the basis of the 1931 film “An American Tragedy” and the 1951 film “A Place in the Sun”.

1960James W. Rodgers – was born on August 3, 1910, in Lubbock, Texas, USA. He was the eldest of five brothers and six sisters. His education was interrupted during the eighth grade. At the age of twelve, he left his family’s household, where his father forced the children to work. By the age of sixteen, he became involved in a bootlegging operation and was injured in the legs by machine gun fire. Rodgers eventually became involved in armed robbery, spending over twenty years in incarceration at various prisons.  In 1957, Rodgers came from New Mexico to work as a part-time security guard with the Continental Uranium Company at its Rattlesnake uranium mine near La Sal, Utah. Following an altercation on June 19 of that year, James W. Rodgers shot miner Charles Merrifield, who died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head, arm, and torso. The two had been arguing over how to properly grease a scoop shovel. Rodgers drove off in his truck but was quickly apprehended in Colorado and turned over to the Grand County Jail in San Juan County, Utah. He claimed that he had been repeatedly threatened and thought Merrifield was going to “beat him up.” Rodgers said that he “challenged Merrifield with a gun” and shot him when Merrifield attacked him with a large wrench.  Rodgers was arraigned at the San Juan County Courthouse in Monticello, Utah, on June 26, 1957, and was formally charged with murder. Rodgers claimed that he was suffering from syphilis and pleaded “guilty by reason of insanity”. During the trial, Rodgers asserted that he had killed Merrifield in self-defense. However, Merrifield was determined to have been shot by Rodgers’ .38-caliber handgun while at the controls of the large shovel at the mine. Upon being convicted and sentenced to death, Rodgers was given the choice of execution by firing squad or hanging; he chose to be shot.  On the morning of March 30, 1960, Rodgers was driven to the execution site on a clay flat about a mile (1.6 km) from the prison accompanied by San Juan County Sheriff Seth Wright and a prison chaplain. When asked for a final statement, Rodgers continued to insist that he was innocent and said, “I done told you my last request … a bulletproof vest.” He was dressed in denim and offered a coat, to which he replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll be where it’s warm soon.” Rodgers was strapped to a wooden chair inside a 20-foot (6.1 m) canvas enclosure. The firing squad, concealed in a smaller burlap enclosure about 23 feet (7.0 m) away, consisted of five volunteers who were paid $75 each. One of the marksmen was provided with a .30-30 rifle that was loaded with a blank so that none of them would be certain who fired the lethal shots. Rodgers was executed at 6:16 a.m., the time of sunrise.

1975Charles Schmid – also known as the Pied Piper of Tucson, was born on July 8, 1942, in Tucson, Arizona, U.S. He was an American serial killer whose crimes were detailed by journalist Don Moser in an article featured in the March 4, 1966, issue of Life magazine. His criminal career later formed the basis for “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, a short story by Joyce Carol Oates.  Schmid was adopted by Charles and Katharine Schmid, owners and operators of Hillcrest Nursing Home in Tucson, Arizona. He had a difficult relationship with his adoptive father, whom his adoptive mother later divorced. When Schmid tried to meet his birth mother, she angrily told him never to come back. Schmid did poorly in school but was described as good-looking, intelligent, and well-mannered. An accomplished athlete, he excelled at gymnastics and even led his high school to a state championship, but quit the team in his senior year. Just before graduating, Schmid was suspended for stealing tools from the school’s machine shop; he never returned to school. Schmid began living in his own quarters on his parents’ property and received an allowance of $300 a month. His parents left him to run on his own with a new car and a motorcycle.  Schmid was called the “Pied Piper” because he was charismatic and had many friends in Tucson’s teenage community. For a time, the members of his teenage coterie would keep the secrets of his murders. His best friends were John Saunders, Richie Bruns, and Paul Graff, the latter of whom lived with him. He spent much of his time on Tucson’s Speedway Boulevard, picking up girls and drinking with friends, although he tended to be a loner. Schmid was a short man who wore cowboy boots stuffed with newspapers and flattened cans to make him appear taller; he explained to impressionable teenagers his resultant rolling gait was a result of a “crippling fight” with Mafia members. He used lip balm, and pancake makeup and created an artificial mole on his cheek. Schmid also stretched his lower lip with a clothespin to make it resemble Elvis Presley’s.  On the evening of Sunday, May 31, 1964, Schmid—in the presence of his then-girlfriend and an acquaintance—blurted a statement: “I want to kill a girl tonight!” He went on to kill three other teenage girls before being caught by police. He was convicted and sentenced to death, but he survived because the Supreme Court invalidated most death sentences in 1972. Later that year, he escaped from state prison, only to be caught a few days later. He died on March 30, 1975, due to stab wounds.

1981Thor Nis Christiansen – was a Danish-American serial killer and necrophile from Solvang, California. He was born on December 28, 1957, in Denmark and emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was five years old. The family initially settled in Inglewood, California, and then moved to Solvang, where his father ran a restaurant. Christiansen was a good student until his junior year of high school when he began neglecting his schoolwork. He moved out of his parents’ house, dropped out of school, and began working as a gas station attendant.  Christiansen’s modus operandi was to pick up hitchhikers, shoot them in the head with a .22 caliber pistol, and sexually assault them post-mortem. His victims had long, straight hair, wore similar clothing, and had about the same build. Accordingly, the killings in Isla Vista were dubbed the “look-alike” murders. Between November 20, 1976, and April 18, 1979, he committed four murders and attempted to kill another female victim.  His victims included Jacqueline Ann Rook, Mary Anne Sarris, Patricia Marie Laney, and Laura Benjamin. A fifth intended victim, Lydia Preston, escaped with a bullet in her head and later identified him in a Los Angeles bar. Christiansen was apprehended on July 11, 1979. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died on March 30, 1981, due to a stab wound to the chest while in Folsom State Prison, Folsom, California, U.S.

1984Richard Allen Moran – was involved in a landmark case, Godinez v. Moran, in the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was argued on April 21, 1993, and decided on June 24, 1993. The court ruled that if a defendant was competent to stand trial, they were automatically competent to plead guilty, thereby waiving a range of trial rights, including the right to counsel.  On August 2, 1984, Richard Allen Moran entered the Red Pearl Saloon in Carson City, Nevada, and shot the bartender and a customer before robbing the cash register. Nine days later, he shot his ex-wife and then himself, and also unsuccessfully tried to slit his wrists. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder but pleaded not guilty. Two court-ordered psychiatrists concluded that he was competent to stand trial, although both noted he was depressed. The prosecution sought the death penalty. Two months after the psychiatric evaluations, Moran stated to the court that he wished to discharge his attorneys and change his plea to guilty. He also waived his right to counsel. After his trial, he was sentenced to death.  Moran was executed by injection on March 30, 1996, at Nevada State Prison. He was high on drugs and alcohol when he committed the murders. Just two days before his execution, Moran said he was ready to die for the August 1984 murders. He apologized to his victims’ families. Moran had been on Nevada’s death row for 11 years. He spent his last days in a high-security wing at Nevada State Prison, writing letters, having a final visit with his family, and reading books. Moran said he had found inner strength by going back to the Catholic faith.

1998Judy Buenoano – born Judias Anna Lou Welty on April 4, 1943, in Quanah, Texas, was an American serial killer. She was also known by other names such as Judias Goodyear and Judias Morris. Her mother died when she was four, and she was sent along with her younger brother, Robert, to live with her grandparents. After her father remarried, they moved to live with him in Roswell, New Mexico. Buenoano was reportedly abused by her father and stepmother, who starved her and forced her to work as a slave. When she was fourteen, she spent two months in prison for attacking her father, stepmother, and two stepbrothers. Upon being released, she chose to attend reform school where she graduated in 1960. She subsequently became a nursing assistant. She gave birth to Michael, an illegitimate son, the following year.  Buenoano’s first husband was James Goodyear, a sergeant in the United States Air Force. He died on September 16, 1971, in Orlando, Florida. His death was initially believed to be due to natural causes. Two years later, she moved in with Bobby Joe Morris, a resident of Trinidad, Colorado, who died by poison in January 1978. Later that year, she legally changed her name to “Buenoano” (corrupted Spanish for “good year”).  Buenoano was executed for the 1971 murder of her husband James Goodyear. She was also convicted for the 1980 murder of her son, Michael Buenoano, and of the 1983 attempted murder of her boyfriend, John Gentry. Buenoano is also acknowledged to have been responsible for the 1978 death of another boyfriend, Bobby Joe Morris, in Colorado. However, by the time authorities tied Buenoano to Morris, she had already been sentenced to death in the state of Florida. Buenoano is also believed to have been involved in a 1974 murder in Alabama, and in the 1980 death of yet another boyfriend, Gerald Dossett. After her arrest, Dossett’s body was exhumed and analyzed for signs of arsenic poisoning. No charges were laid in that case. Buenoano was the first woman to be executed in Florida since 1848 or electrocuted in the United States since 1976.

1999Robert Excell White – was a man known for his heinous crimes. Born in 1938, he was executed by lethal injection on March 30, 1999, in Huntsville, Texas, 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 arrived at a country store and gas station near Princeton in Collin County, northeast of Dallas. The 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,” and had the men get on the floor, then riddled them with machine gun fire. White and his companions 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 found 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 confessed to the shootings and to stabbing Perryman to death. He said that committing the murders “was like stepping on a fly.” The murder weapon was later found in the Brazos River in Waco. White stated at a court hearing in 1976, “I am the one who killed those people. I ain’t going to ask for forgiveness, because I don’t deserve it.” He expressed a desire to be put to death quickly. His crimes earned him the moniker “Excell the Executioner.”

2004William Dean Wickline – also known as “The Butcher”, was an American career criminal and later serial killer. He was born on March 15, 1952, in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. Wickline grew up in a loving family and was regarded as a good student with a promising career in athletics during his youth. However, his grades fell drastically and he became known as a small-time delinquent. His first arrest came in 1971, at age 19, and until 1984, he would be arrested at least nine more times for charges ranging from burglary and dealing drugs to running a prostitution ring.  Wickline was linked to at least three violent murders committed in West Virginia and Ohio from 1979 to 1982. One of his victims was a 34-year-old construction worker from Columbia, South Carolina, Charles Morgan Marsh, whose body was found decapitated in a hotel room in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Wickline was convicted of killing the latter victims, whose bodies were never found. He was sentenced to death and subsequently executed on March 30, 2004, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. Wickline was known for his violent tendencies and his affinity for knives. He earned his nickname “The Butcher” due to his method of disposing of his victims’ bodies. Despite the gruesome nature of his crimes, the full extent of his violent activities remains unproven.

2004Frances Schreuder – born Frances Berenice Bradshaw on April 6, 1938, in Salt Lake City, was the fourth child of Franklin and Berenice Bradshaw. After finishing high school, she attended Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania but was expelled for stealing from classmates and forging checks. She then moved to New York City, where she met her first husband, a pearl merchant named Vittorio Gentile. They had two sons together, Lorenzo and Marco, who were later named Larry and Marc after the couple’s divorce. Frances also had a daughter, Lavinia, from another marriage to Frederik Schreuder.  Frances led a lavish lifestyle, funded in part by her father, Franklin Bradshaw, who sent her $3000 every month. However, disagreements over money led to a decrease in financial support from her father. In the time leading up to Franklin’s murder, he had asked Frances to consider getting a job and even threatened to cut her out of the will. This monetary issue seemed to be the reason that pushed Frances over the edge.  In the summer of 1977, Frances sent Larry and Marc to work with Franklin and asked them to put amphetamines in their grandfather’s food. There were also plans to kill him by burning down his place of work or putting a toaster in his bath. However, none of these plans came to fruition. So, Frances asked the boys to steal from their grandfather. Once Franklin learned of that, he stopped giving Frances any money. At one point, Frances even hired a hitman to kill her father, but that person never went through with it despite taking money from her.  Then, in the days leading up to the murder, Frances used the money she received from her mother to pay for Marc’s flights. Frances was hysterical when Marc told her the night before the slaying that he didn’t want to kill his grandfather. She said to Marc, “If you don’t do it, don’t come home again.” Previously Frances had convinced Marc to go through with it by saying, “Look, Marc, it is not really killing. It is the right thing to do for us.” He ultimately killed Franklin, and as a result, Frances received her share of the inheritance.  Over the next few years, Frances led the life she always wanted until the authorities caught up to her in March 1982. Frances Schreuder was convicted of first-degree murder in 1983 and spent 13 years in prison. She died on March 30, 2004.

2017Donald Harvey – was an American hospital orderly who became known as a serial killer. He claimed to have murdered 87 people, though official estimates are between 37 and 57 victims. His killing spree took place between 1970 and 1987 during his time as a hospital orderly.  Harvey was born in Hamilton, Ohio, and was the oldest of three children. He was raised in Booneville, Kentucky, where his parents were struggling tobacco farmers. Harvey dropped out of school in the ninth grade but earned a GED through correspondence school in 1968.  He began working in hospitals at the age of 18. His first medical job was as an orderly at the Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky. He later confessed that during the ten months he worked at the hospital, he killed at least a dozen patients.  Harvey claimed to have begun killing to “ease the pain” of patients—mostly cardiac patients—by smothering them with their pillows. However, he gradually grew to enjoy killing and became a self-described “angel of death.” At the time of his death, Harvey was serving 28 life sentences at the Toledo Correctional Institution in Toledo, Ohio, having pled guilty to murder charges to avoid execution.  His victims ranged from middle-aged to elderly and were unusually broad in range, including men and women of various races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. The only thing they had in common was that they were all cardiac patients. The full extent of Harvey’s crimes may never be known since so many were undetected for so long. He did not use any particular modus operandi and used many methods to kill his victims, such as arsenic, cyanide, insulin, suffocation, miscellaneous poisons, morphine, turning off ventilators, administration of fluid tainted with hepatitis B and/or HIV, and insertion of a coat hanger into a catheter, causing an abdominal puncture and subsequent peritonitis.

Events

Manawan Police Academy

1975 – James Rupert kills 11 members of his family on Easter Sunday in Hamilton, Ohio

1981 – The attempted assassination of President of the United States, Ronald Reagan

2006 – UK Terrorism Act becomes law

2009 – 12 gunmen attack the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan

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