This day in history: The Virginia Tech Shooting happened on this day (April 16) in 2007
The J&R Party Hall Shooting (Columbus, Ohio) happened on this day in 2017.
The Columbiana Centre Shooting (South Carolina) happened on this day in 2022.
Actually, many bad things happened in April. Columbine happened in April, as did Waco, the Oklahoma City Bombing, Fort Hood, the Palm Sunday Massacre, the Boston Marathon bombing and many more. See https://www.shaylaraquel.com/blog/thekillingseason
"In some circles, April is known as the start of a wave of disturbing events. Many criminologists and terrorism experts recognize a seasonality of violence, a cluster of attacks that begin in April. A ‘killing season’." Source
Did you know: If you were unlucky enough to be born in April, you are 12% more likely to die of cardiovascular disease.
This Day in History: On this day in 2000, Robert Wayne Harris walked into a Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving, Texas where he was fired from only days earlier, so that he could exact vengeance.
He forced manager Dennis Lee, 48, assistant manager Augustin Villasenor, 36, and cashier Rhoda Wheeler, 46, into the office. Harris had Wheeler open the safe, then forced her and the two others onto the floor and shot them. He also slit Lee's throat. When three other employees arrived, Harris forced them onto the floor in the lobby and shot them. Benjamin Villasenor, 32, and Roberto Jimenez, 15, were killed. The other victim survived but was left with permanent disabilities. All of the victims were shot once in the back of the head.
Harris just got out of prison a year earlier after serving an 8 year sentence. On November 29 of that year, Harris abducted and fatally shot 37-year-old Sandra Scott. He later said he killed her after suspecting her of stealing money from him. Harris was initially questioned about Scott's disappearance, but was not charged.
While he was on death row, Harris's lawyers claimed he was mentally disabled and thus ineligible for execution. However, experts for both the state and the defense agreed Harris was not mentally disabled.
Harris was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit on September 12, 2012.
This Day in History: Thaddeus Lewingdon was born on this day in 1936. He, along with his brother Gary Lewingdon, were American serial killers who committed a series of ten murders in different Ohio counties from December 1977 to December 1978 while committing robbery. As a murder weapon, the criminals used .22 caliber pistols, due to which they received the nickname The .22 Caliber Killers. In 1979, both brothers were sentenced to several terms of life imprisonment.
The Lewingdon brothers chose strangers as their targets, away from their homes. The killings were particularly cruel; ten to seventeen shots fired at each victim. The murder spree began on December 10, 1977, when the brothers attacked 38-year-old Joyce Vermillion and 33-year-old Karen Dodrill at a bar in Newark, during which they robbed and shot at them. No witnesses were present at the crime scene, and Dodrill died afterwards, on her 34th birthday.
On February 13, 1978, the brothers broke into the property of an entrepreneur, 52-year-old Robert McCann, who owned a nightclub in Franklin County. During the robbery, they shot McCann, his 77-year-old mother Dorothy and his girlfriend, 26-year-old Christine Hardman, with several shots to the heads. On April 8, 1978, the killers arrived in the city of Granville, Licking County, where they attacked 77-year-old Jenkins Jones, shooting him and his four dogs before stealing money and valuables from the house. The Lewingdons' next victim was a priest, 35-year-old Gerald Fields, who was killed on April 30 in Fairfield County.
On May 22, 1978, the brothers committed a double murder. In northeast Columbus, where 47-year-old Jerry Martin, vice president and general manager of "Perma-stone", lived. Before stealing all valuables, the brothers shot Martin and his wife Martha through the window screen, after which they left the crime scene without leaving any clues for the investigators. In the course of a forensic ballistic examination of the bullets pulled from the bodies and casings found on the scene, it was established at the end of May 1978 that all the victims were killed with the same pistol. It was also found that another .22 caliber pistol was used in the spouses' murder, which established that there were two criminals present.
In the fall of 1978, a conflict occurred between the two brothers, with Thaddeus refusing to participate in further joint criminal activities. As a result, Gary, having financial difficulties for the upcoming Christmas Day, attacked 56-year-old Joseph Ennik on December 4, 1978, robbing and subsequently killing him. On December 8, while trying to pay off Ennik's stolen credit card, Gary Lewingdon was arrested by the store security service and was taken to the police station. During the interrogation, he began to cooperate with the investigation and confessed to the crimes, on the basis of which Thaddeus was arrested on December 11, 1978. Three days later, both brothers were charged with murder.
Today in History: English serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, aka Yorkshire Ripper, was arrested on this day in 1981. He was responsible for 13 confirmed deaths and a few other injuries. His was one of the largest and most expensive manhunts in British history and the West Yorkshire Police were criticized for their failure to catch Sutcliffe despite having interviewed him nine times in the course of their five-year investigation.
It is often used as an excuse that the police couldn't catch Sutcliffe quicker because they lacked the technology that law enforcement now has. However, even today, a staggering number of violent crimes go unsolved. "According to the most recent FBI 'Crime in the United States' report, only 45 percent of violent crimes lead to arrest and prosecution. That is, less than half of violent crimes result in what is known as a 'clearance' of the crime. Property crime clearances are much worse. Only 17 percent of burglaries, arsons, and car thefts are 'cleared.'" Source
Perhaps the low clearance rates in violent crime is due the fact that other crimes are more lucrative, especially where asset forfeiture is involved.
There have been quite a few bad men dubbed "Ripper" since the original Jack the Ripper in 1888. There's the Russian Rostov Ripper who killed 52 people between 1978 and 1990. Joel the Ripper (Joel Rifkin) killed 17 people. Then there's the Blackout Ripper who killed 4 women in 1942. Between 2001 and 2008 we had the Hollywood Ripper in Southern California. Greece had the Athens Ripper between 1992 and 1995. Michigan had the Ypsilanti Ripper (Co-ed Killer) between 1967 and 1969. Texas had the Dallas Ripper in the early 90's. Long Island, NY had the Craigslist Ripper recently who may have killed up to 17 women. The Atlanta Ripper terrorized Atlanta in the early 1900's and was never caught.
This day in history: American businessman and former White House aide John P. Wheeler III died under mysterious circumstances on December 30, 2010.
Wheeler was seen on security camera on December 28, 2010, exiting an Amtrak train, and later, on the afternoon of December 30, 2010 in Wilmington, Delaware. On December 31, his body was seen by a landfill worker as it fell onto a trash heap in the Cherry Island Landfill. Police ruled his death a homicide and claimed that "all the stops made Friday (December 31) by the garbage truck before it arrived at the landfill involved large commercial disposal bins in Newark (Delaware), several miles from Wheeler's home."
Wheeler's neighbor of seven months, Ron Roark, said that he had met Wheeler only once and rarely saw him. Roark claimed that, in the days prior to Wheeler's death, he (Roark) and his family heard, from outside the Wheeler residence, a loud television within the home that was constantly on, though no one appeared to be home.
According to The Washington Post, Wheeler was sighted on December 29 at the New Castle County courthouse parking garage, disoriented and wearing only one shoe, as the other was ripped. While he attempted to gain access to the parking garage on foot, Wheeler claimed that he wanted to warm up before paying a parking fee. (Police later determined that his car was actually in a different parking garage at the train station.) Wheeler explained to the parking garage attendant that his briefcase had been stolen and assured her he was not intoxicated. It is also claimed that, on December 29, Wheeler asked a pharmacist in New Castle for a ride to Wilmington and "looked upset." The pharmacist offered to call a cab for Wheeler, at which point Wheeler left the store.
On December 30, Wheeler was sighted wandering about various office buildings, including Mitre and DuPont locations, where he refused offers of assistance from several individuals. On January 28, 2011, the Delaware state medical examiner's office reported Wheeler's cause of death as assault and "blunt force trauma" without elaboration.
December 30 is also the day of the unsolved Setagaya family murder. The Setagaya family murder refers to the unsolved murders of the Miyazawa family in Setagaya ward of Tokyo, Japan, on 30 December 2000.
Mikio Miyazawa, Yasuko Miyazawa, Niina Miyazawa and Rei Miyazawa were murdered during a home invasion at night by an unknown assailant who then remained in the Miyazawas' house for several hours before disappearing. Japanese police launched a massive investigation that uncovered the killer's DNA and many specific clues about their identity, but the perpetrator has never been identified.
The media frenzy and long investigation of the Setagaya murders became a cause célèbre to abolish statute of limitations in Japan, which was removed in 2010. The investigation into the murders is among the largest in Japanese history, involving over 246,044 investigators who have collected over 12,545 pieces of evidence.
Apparently, the murderer remained inside the house for 2 to 10 hours, using the family computer, drinking 4 bottles of barley tea, melon, and 4 ice creams from their refrigerator, using their toilet without flushing, treating his injuries using first aid kits and other sanitary products, and taking a nap on a sofa in the second floor living room. Drawers and papers were ransacked (with some being dumped in the bath and toilet) and some money was taken (although more was left behind). Surprisingly, the killer left 10 items behind on the family sofa (knife, muffler, hip bag, sweater, jacket, hat, gloves, shoes, and two handkerchiefs.).
Oddly, trace amounts of sand were also found inside the hip bag that the killer left at the scene, which after analysis was determined to come from the Nevada desert, more exactly the area of Edwards Air Force Base in California.
December 30 also marks the strange death of Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin was a man who insinuated himself inside the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, and in time was able to gain some power and influence, which many did not like. While seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, others viewed him as a charlatan. At first they tried to poison him. It is said that Rasputin was fed poisoned cakes and wines and that Rasputin gorged down enough cyanide to kill an elephant. But no amount of poison would hurt him. Instead, Rasputin kept asking for more.
When that didn't work they shot him in the heart. When his killers went to dispose of his body, “With a sudden violent effort Rasputin leapt to his feet, foaming at the mouth.” They then took more shots. That didn't work, until someone shot him in the head. However, one of the conspirators saw Rasputin move, even after the shot to the skull. So they then wrapped his body in linen and threw him over the bridge into the water. He was also found mutilated.
December 25th is known for many things, but did you know that is also known for the very first Ovariotomy 1701.
December 25th is also the day that a temple to the sun god Sol Invictus was dedicated in Rome by Emperor Aurelian in 274 AD.
December 25th is also the day that England adopted the Julian calendar in 597 AD.
December 25th is also the day that Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in the year 800.
December 25th is also the day that Hungary became a country in 1000 AD.
December 25th is also the day that William the Conqueror was crowned King of England in 1066.
December 25th is also the day of the Great Christmas Flood disasters in 1717 in Holland, Germany and Scandinavia.
December 25th is also the day that Washington crossed the Delaware in 1776.
December 25th is also the day of the Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy in 1826.
The KKK was formed at Christmas time in Pulaski TN in 1865.
December 25th is also the day that Confederate soldiers were pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1868.
December 25th is also the day of the Taeyongak Hotel fire in Seoul Korea in 1971 killing 166 people.
December 25th is also the day that Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Soviet Union in 1991.
December 25th is also the day that Dean Martin died in 1996.
December 25th is also the day the killing of JonBenet Ramsey in 1996.
December 25th is also the day of the Christmas massacres in Uganda in 2008. The massacres were the fifth deadliest act of terrorism in world history.
December 25th is also the day of the Covina Massacre. Covina is a suburb of LA, where recently divorced Bruce Pardo, dressed as Santa showed up at his ex-wife's home and shot 25 people, after which he killed himself.
December 25th is also the day of the Carnation Massacre in 2007 in Carnation, Washington where Michele Anderson and her boyfriend Joseph McEnroe drove to her parent’s home and killed 6 members of her family.
December 25th is also the day of the Lawson Family Massacre which happened on this day in 1929 in Germanton NC when Charlie Lawson murdered his wife and six of his seven children.
December 25th is also the day that Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was executed alongside his wide Elena in 1989
December 25th is also the day that a gingerbread monolith appeared in San Francisco in 2020.
This day in history: Edmund Ironside, King of England, was stabbed while sitting on the toilet, by an assassin hiding underneath on this day in 1016.
Sitting on the toilet leaves one vulnerable, so it makes sense that in the past, some have used this private time to kill the inhabitants of "the throne." One of the first of such assassinations is recorded in the Bible at Judges chapter 3 when Ehud kills King Eglon while he was sitting on the chamber.*
On November 4 1035, Jaromír, Duke of Bohemia, was stabbed with a spear from under a toilet seat while defecating.
Godfrey the Hunchback, Duke of Lower Lorraine (an area roughly coinciding with the Netherlands and Belgium) was murdered in 1069 when staying in the Dutch city of Vlaardingen. Supposedly, the assassin made sure which of the latrines, which were built and drained on the outer side of the wall, according to medieval building style, belonged to the duke's sleeping room, and took a position underneath. Some sources say that a sword was used for the assassination; others mention a sharp iron weapon, which could have been a sword but also a spear or a dagger, but a spear seems to be the most practical choice. After being stabbed in the bottom it took him several days to die. The assassination was ordered by Dirk V Count of Holland and his ally Robrecht the Frisian, Count of Flanders.
Godfrey IV, Duke of Lower Lorraine, was assassinated by a spear in Vlaardingen (Netherlands) while "answering the call of nature" in 1076.
On August 4, 1306, Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, was murdered with a spear while sitting in the garderobe (castle toilet). His assassin was never identified.
Japanese ruler Uesugi Kenshin was allegedly assassinated while using a toilet in 1578.
Historian Ioan P. Culianu was shot dead while on the toilet in the third-floor men's room of Swift Hall on the campus of the University of Chicago on 21 May 1991, in a possibly politically-motivated assassination. His killer has never been caught.
*The Hebrew for the location of the private meeting is ba-aliyat ha-meqerah, translated as cooling roof chamber, which was likely a bathroom given that the servants believed Eglon was relieving himself (v24). Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you", drew his sword, and stabbed the king in his abdomen. The Hebrew word for abdomen (beten), is the same word that is used for the womb of a woman. After Ehud stabbed the king, the end of Judges 3:22 reads in Hebrew wa-yese ha-paršedonah usually translated as “and the dirt came out,” a phrase of uncertain meaning as it is only used once in the Hebrew Bible. “Dirt” could be translated as feces.
Today in History: The Burger Chef murders happened on this day at a Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana in 1978. Four young employees went missing in what was initially thought to be a petty theft of cash from the restaurant safe. By Saturday morning it became a clear case of robbery-kidnapping, and by Sunday, when their bodies were discovered in the woods 20 miles away, it became a a case of murder. Despite thousands of hours of police investigation, as well as Burger Chef offering a reward of $25,000 to anyone who could capture the murderers or provide information about their whereabouts, the attackers were never prosecuted, and the case remains officially unsolved.
1978 was also the year we had the Blackfriars Massacre where an unsolved Irish Mob and/or Italian-American Mafia massacre occurred in the Blackfriars Pub in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Four criminals were killed, allegedly over the sale of cocaine.
1978 was also the year that the Clinton Avenue Five went missing. The Clinton Avenue Five are five young men who disappeared in Newark, New Jersey. The name is derived from the street where they were last seen. The case eventually went cold.
1978 was also the year of the deliberately set Holiday Inn fire. The 1978 Holiday Inn Fire broke out at the Holiday Inn-Northwest which was located at 1525 West Ridge Road in the Town of Greece, near Rochester, New York, and killed ten people. Seven of the fatalities were Canadian. The case remains unsolved as well.
1978 was also the year of the Marseille bar massacre, which refers to the mass murder of ten people in the Bar du Téléphone in Marseille, France, on 3 October 1978. Three armed gunmen entered the bar and shot everyone present in the head, with the sole survivor being the owner's wife Nicole Léoni, who was in another room. This was believed to be part of a gang war, and it remains unsolved to this day.
1978 was also the year of the Sirloin Stockade murders. Armed with a handgun, Roger Dale Stafford and his wife and brother went to rob the restaurant and ended up killing six employees execution style. Roger Dale Stafford was suspected of 34 murders and was executed on Death Row in 1995.
1978 was also the year of the Jonestown mass suicide.
This Day in History: The Amityville murders trial began on this day in 1975. In the previous year, Ronald DeFeo Jr. walked into his home at 112 Ocean Avenue and shot his parents and four siblings while they were sleeping, which was a strange aspect of the case since the rifle DeFeo used didn’t have a silencer. There was no struggle, and neighbors didn’t hear any gunshots. DeFeo’s attorneys argued that he had been driven to murder by voices in the house telling him to do it.
Ronald DeFeo Jr. died earlier this year on March 12, 2021. He was 69 years old. There is no official cause of death at this time.
Another family, the Lutzes, bought the house soon after but ended up abandoning the home and all their belongings one night after a month of alleged paranormal activity. The 1977 Jay Anson book The Amityville Horror was based on this time in the house, and with a blockbuster film to follow (There are a total of 21 Amityville Horror related movies).
The book has led to controversy and lawsuits over its truthfulness. Defeo's attorney, William Weber eventually admitted that the entire haunting story was invented over several bottles of wine with the Lutzes so they can make money off the incident. Parapsychologist Dr. Stephen Kaplan was asked to investigate the house. Kaplan doubted the claims made, and his reading of The Amityville Horror confirmed his doubts. This led to his writing The Amityville Horror Conspiracy, co-authored by his wife, Roxanne.
Five years ago, the Amityville house went on the market for $850,000. If you check the address on google maps, the house is blurred out on street view. The original address for the Amityville house was 112 Ocean Avenue, but was changed to 108 to deter tourists.
This Day in History: The Groovy Murders happened on this day in 1967. A young Connecticut socialite, Linda Fitzgerald, left the life she knew to hang out in New York's East Village, a place that drew many artists, musicians, students and hippies. While there, she hooked up with one of the most well-known hippies in the area, James “Groovy” Hutchinson. On the morning of Oct. 8, 1967, a janitor who stumbled home to his hippie flophouse, found the room occupied by Groovy Hutchinson and Linda Fitzgerald. They were naked and dead, their heads bashed in with bricks. Fitzpatrick had also been sexually assaulted.
Newspapers all over the country carried an Associated Press story two days later that included this sensational tidbit: "Police said it was a wild interracial LSD party that climaxed in the bludgeon slayings of the two young people." Newsweek magazine ran a headline entitled: "Trouble In Hippieland." A national debate was sparked as to why good kids leave their homes and families to join the hippie and drug counter-culture.
Several years later two drifters were arrested for the murders. A motive was never discovered. For many it marked the end of the Summer of Love. For others, the hippie ideal ended with the Manson Family murders two years later.
The Groovy Murders shook New York and is still regarded as one of the most infamous moments in the city's history, alongside, the murders of Malcolm X, John Lennon and Catherine “Kitty” Genovese...and the Son of Sam killings.
