This day in history: American singer and actor Meat Loaf (Michael Lee Aday) died on this day in 2022 at the age of 74. He is one of the best selling music artists in history. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy—Bat Out of Hell (1977), Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993), and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006)—has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. The first album stayed on the charts for over nine years, as of 2016 still sold an estimated 200,000 copies annually, and is on the list of bestselling albums.
Also on this day in history: Singer Ozzy Osbourn bit the head off a bat while performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa on this day in 1982. A fan threw the bat on stage and Ozzy, thinking that it wasn't real, bit its head off. He had to get rabies shots after this.
This day in history: On this day in 1937, 30-year-old farm wife Elsie Nollen of Dennison, Iowa, backed the family car up to a window and piped deadly monoxide gas into a room, killing her six children and herself.
The children raged in age from two years to 11 years. The husband, Albert Nollen, and two friends, found the bodies.
Nollen left a suicide letter starting: "I'm doing this because I see the family is not going to be raised up right." Nollen was overwhelmed with jealousy and marital unhappiness.
Albert Nollen found the bodies when he returned to his home Sunday morning after a quarrel with his wife and an all-night "spree". He found her letter in the mailbox.
Also on this day in 1919 in Kimberly, Ohio, Mary Stravisar killed her seven children and herself. "The family was living in destitute circumstances and her husband Tony had left them in May that year to search for work, but hadn't been heard of since. Stravisar and her children, who were aged 6 weeks to 10 years, were aided by the local authorities, which eventually decided to take the children to the Athens County Home. The 35-year-old was greatly worried about this and on the day the children were to be removed she tied them to their beds, sprinkled the room with coal oil and set it on fire, burning or asphyxiating all of them." Source
A familicide is a type of murder or murder-suicide in which an individual, usually a man, kills multiple close family members in quick succession, most often children, spouses, siblings, or parents. In half the cases, the killer lastly kills themselves in a murder-suicide. If only the parents are killed, the case may also be referred to as a parricide. Where all members of a family are killed, the crime may be referred to as family annihilation.
