A Mass Shooting in Utah on This Day in History

 

This day in history: On this day in 2023, a familicide occurred in Enoch, Utah, when eight members of a single family, consisting of three adults and five children, were fatally shot in their home in a mass shooting. Authorities identified one of the adults, 42-year-old Michael Haight, as the perpetrator. Haight had been investigated by the Enoch Police Department for domestic abuse allegations in 2020. Two weeks prior to the killings, his wife had commenced divorce proceedings.

Police went to the family residence to conduct a welfare check at 4:00 p.m. on January 4 and found eight family members deceased from gunshot wounds. They were identified as 42-year-old Michael Haight, his wife Tausha Haight, 40; her mother Gail Earl, 78; and five children, a 17-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl, a 7-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old boy. The welfare check had been requested by a family friend after Tausha had missed an appointment earlier that afternoon.

The authorities determined that the perpetrator was Michael Haight, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after fatally shooting his family members. Haight had been investigated by the Enoch Police Department for domestic abuse due to accusations made by his eldest daughter Macie in 2020. Macie reportedly told police that her father had "become assaultive" over the three previous years, that he had choked her, that she was afraid his attacks would worsen, and "very afraid that he was going to ... kill her". Michael told the investigating officer that his daughter, 14 at the time, was "mouthy". He told the investigating officer that he had surveyed his wife's phone and tablet to assure himself she hadn't spoken about the family in a negative way to anyone. Tausha Haight told the officer that she didn't believe filing charges was necessary and that she expected Michael would take this as a "wake-up call". The officer told Tausha there "was no indication that there would be any violent behavior on Michael's part". Asked about the domestic violence allegations after the killings, the County Attorney's office said it had found "insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges". Tausha had commenced divorce proceedings against Michael two weeks prior to the shooting. Days before the shooting, Tausha had reportedly told her family that Michael had removed all guns from the family home.

An obituary of unknown origin praised Haight as a loving father. It was removed after the glowing description of a caring, loving, active member of the community and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sparked outrage.

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The Cleveland Torso Murders on This Day in History

 

This day in history: One of the first of the Cleveland Torso Murders, Edward Anthony Andrassy, was killed on this day in 1935. The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, in the 1930s. The killings were characterized by the dismemberment of thirteen known victims and the disposal of their remains in the impoverished neighborhood of Kingsbury Run. Most victims came from an area east of Kingsbury Run called "The Roaring Third" or "Hobo Jungle", known for its bars, gambling dens, brothels, and vagrants. Despite an investigation of the murders, which at one time was led by famed lawman Eliot Ness, then Cleveland's Public Safety Director, the murderer was never apprehended.

The official number of murders attributed to the Cleveland Torso Murderer is twelve, although recent research has shown there could have been as many as twenty or more. The twelve known victims were killed between 1935 and 1938.

Authorities interrogated around 9,100 people during the investigation to find the Torso Murderer. The case became the biggest police investigation in Cleveland history.

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The Ypsilanti Ripper on This Day in History

This day in history: The seventh and last of the "Co-ed Murders" took place on this day in 1969. The Michigan Murders were a series of highly publicized killings of young women committed between 1967 and 1969 in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area of Southeastern Michigan by an individual known as the Ypsilanti Ripper, the Michigan Murderer, and the Co-Ed Killer. All of the victims were young female students in southeastern Michigan. In 1967 and 1968, two students at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) had been killed in a similar fashion. From March 20, 1969, two girls and three college students were killed. Karen Sue Beineman, like three of the others killed, had been an EMU student in Ypsilanti. On August 1, another EMU student, a 22-year-old Canadian, would be arrested and charged with Beineman's murder. Though suspected by police in the other murders, he would only be tried and convicted for Beineman's killing and would be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Investigation Discovery channel has broadcast an episode focusing upon the Michigan Murders. This episode, A New Kind of Monster, was first broadcast December 10, 2013 as part of the series A Crime to Remember.

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The Gateway Arch on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, was dedicated on this day in 1968.

Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible building. Some sources consider it the tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States and officially dedicated to "the American people", the Arch, commonly referred to as "The Gateway to the West", is a National Historic Landmark in Gateway Arch National Park and has become an internationally recognized symbol of St. Louis, as well as a popular tourist destination.

However, before you go visit, keep in mind that St. Louis is now one the most dangerous cities in the world. 

In 2014, St. Louis was ranked as the 19th most dangerous city in the world by the Mexican aid organization CCSP-JP (El Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Publica y la Justicia Penal).

As of 2017, St. Louis is ranked as the most dangerous city in America. There were 66 homicides per 100,000 residents. This rate is more than 10 times the national homicide rate.

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Mexican Crime on This Day in History

 

This day in history: On this day in 2012, forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40. 

The US State Department has recently issued the following travel advisory: "Violent crime – such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery – is widespread and common in Mexico. The U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in many areas of Mexico, as travel by U.S. government employees to certain areas is prohibited or restricted. In many states, local emergency services are limited outside the state capital or major cities."

Mexico is the 13th most dangerous place in the world to visit. The top 10 most dangerous places in the world are: El Salvador, Jamaica, Lesotho, Honduras, Belize, Venezuela, Saint Vincent And The Grenadines, South Africa, Saint Kitts And Nevis and Nigeria.

The safest places in the world are: Iceland, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Singapore and Japan.

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Mass Murders on this Day in History

 

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.

'April is the cruelest month' - TS Eliot

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The Copenhagen Hypnosis Murders on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Copenhagen hypnosis murders happened on this day in 1951. The Copenhagen hypnosis murders were a double-murder case in connection with a failed bank robbery that happened in Denmark on 29 March 1951. After extensive police, psychiatric and psychological investigations and the ensuing trial proceedings, two people were convicted of the murders: Palle Hardrup and Bjørn Schouw Nielsen. It was the view of the trial court, in a decision that the Danish Supreme Court affirmed, that Schouw Nielsen had hypnotized the 28-year-old Hardrup to carry out the robbery and the murders. When Hardrup committed the robbery, he shot one of the bank's cashiers and then the branch manager. Hardrup then fled by bicycle to a nearby street and entered a building. Several eyewitnesses went in after him, and the police were directed to the stairwell where Hardrup had tried to hide. Hardrup quickly surrendered to the police without resistance.

After the robbery, the police department began to suspect that Nielsen might have used hypnosis to manipulate Hardrup to commit the bank robbery and the related murders. The theory was corroborated by forty witness statements from prisoners and guards at Horsens State Prison: these statements suggested that Hardrup was already under Nielsen's mental control in prison. The guards and prisoners reported that Nielsen manipulated Hardrup like a puppet and that he was able to make Hardrup behave as if he were in a trance. Hardrup had also told several fellow inmates that Nielsen hypnotized him regularly.

After an extensive set of legal proceedings that ended eventually in 1955, Palle Hardrup was sentenced to be imprisoned indefinitely at the Institution of Herstedvester. The Danish Supreme Court upheld Bjørn Schouw Nielsen's sentence to life imprisonment, and declined to reopen the case. At the time of the Supreme Court's decision, the Danish Medico-Legal Council had stated that they were unable either to confirm or dispute the theory that you can hypnotize someone into committing a crime. However, in December 1956, after a thorough examination of the case file, the Council issued its final public statement on the case, finding that there had been a significant mental disorder in Hardrup's state of mind - the influence of another person, which in these circumstances involved hypnosis. A few years later, the subcommittee of the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights reopened the case for special consideration. In 1960, the subcommittee found that Nielsen had been properly convicted by the Danish judiciary. This decision was further upheld by the Human Rights Court in 1961. Both Nielsen and Hardrup were released, independently, in 1967. Bjørn Schouw Nielsen committed suicide with potassium cyanide in 1974. Palle Hardrup died in 2012.

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The Riverview Murders on This Day in History

On this day in 2018, in Riverview, Florida, 29-year-old Ronnie Oneal III fatally shot his girlfriend, 33-year-old Kenyatta Barron, and hacked their 9-year-old daughter, Ron'Niveya Oneal, to death with an axe. He stabbed their 8-year-old son Ronnie Oneal IV, who survived and told detectives "My father shot my mother" before being escorted to a local hospital.

During the trial in which he defended himself, Oneal stated: “Do I look like I’m insane to you? And if I don’t look insane, and if I’m able to represent myself in trial, you have to ask yourself why would a man kill his own children who he loved?”

Voices shouted out from the courtroom, “Because you’re evil.”

Oneal was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated child abuse, one count of arson, and one count of resisting a law enforcement officer. On July 23, 2021, he was given three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 90 years.

Ronnie Oneal Cross Examines His Own Son at Trial

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The McKinney Quadruple Murder on This Day in History

This Day in History: The McKinney quadruple murder happened on this day in.

The McKinney quadruple murder, also called the Truett Street massacre, was when four people were gunned down in a house in McKinney, Texas on March 12, 2004. The incident received notable national coverage on the July 22, 2006, episode of America's Most Wanted, leading to the capture of a suspect. 

On March 12, 2004, Eddie Williams, Javier Cortez, and Raul Cortez entered the home of Rosa Barbosa (46), a clerk at a local McKinney check-cashing business. Javier Cortez allegedly had been watching Barbosa and believed she took cash home from the business daily. When the men couldn't find any money in the home, they forced Barbosa to give them the key and alarm code to the check cashing business. One of the men then shot and killed Barbosa.

Before the shooters had left, Barbosa's nephew Mark Barbosa (25) entered the home with friends Matt Self (17) and Austin York (18). The three burglars forced Mark Barbosa, Self, and York into a bedroom and shot them before fleeing the scene. Shortly following the botched robbery, Robert Barbosa - Mark Barbosa's brother and a resident in the house - entered the residence to find the four victims. Self was still alive and was rushed to the hospital. He died the following day.

The killings were also the subject of an episode of the Investigation Discovery channel documentary Nightmare Next Door.  The episode first aired in January 2011.

You can watch that episode here.

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The McStay Family Murders on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The McStay family murders occurred on this day in 2010, after the family disappeared from their home in Fallbrook, California, United States; their bodies were found in the desert near Victorville, California, on November 13, 2013. Their disappearance was widely reported by the national news media.

In 2010, Joseph McStay (age 40) and his wife Summer (age 43) lived in Fallbrook, California, with their sons Gianni (age 4) and Joseph Jr. (age 3). Joseph owned and operated Earth Inspired Products, a company that built decorative fountains, and Summer was a licensed real estate agent.

On November 5, 2014, detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department arrested Charles "Chase" Merritt, Joseph McStay's business partner. 

According to the arrest warrant affidavits filed in the case, autopsies concluded that all four victims had been beaten to death with a blunt object. Investigators believed the murder weapon was a 3-pound sledgehammer, which was found in the grave containing the remains of Summer and her son. Investigators testified they believed the victims were tortured before they were killed.

Prosecutors allege that Merritt had a gambling problem and killed the McStay family for financial gain. They said that he wrote checks totaling more than $21,000 on Joseph's business account in the days after the family was killed and then went on a gambling spree at nearby casinos, where he lost thousands of dollars. Merritt's trial was delayed as he had repeatedly fired his attorneys or attempted to represent himself. By February 2016, he had gone through five attorneys.

On June 10, 2019, a jury found Merritt guilty of murdering the McStay family. He was sentenced to death on January 21, 2020.

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The McCulkin Murders On This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The McCulkin Murders happened on this day (January 16) in 1974. The McCulkin murders were the murders of Barbara McCulkin (34) and her two daughters, Vicki (13) and Leanne (11), in Queensland, Australia.

Their bodies were never located.

The victims disappeared from their home in Highgate Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. The daughters had been across the street attending a neighbour’s 10th birthday party, returning around 10:30 pm. Their mother had remained at home relaxing and drinking in the company of two men who had arrived in a distinctive coupe.

The McCulkins were reported missing by their estranged husband/father two days later. Investigations revealed an orange 2-door Valiant Charger had been seen in the driveway. Further, the family cats were locked inside, the beds had not been slept in, and the lights and other electrical items remained on. The overall police response was slow and ineffective and the case quickly turned cold.

On 2 April 1980, Vincent O'Dempsey, the owner of the Charger and a criminal acquaintance of the husband, and Garry Dubois, were charged with their abduction and murder. The case, however, fell apart due to insufficient evidence.

After a tipoff to Crime Stoppers, in October 2014, the pair were finally charged again based on information that the victims had been tied up, driven to bushland, raped, strangled, and buried. On 28 November 2016, Dubois (then aged 69) was found guilty of the murders. On 26 May 2017, O'Dempsey (then aged 78) was also found guilty of murder. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment on 1 June 2017.

The next day, Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath announced that the state government would re-open the coronial inquest into the March 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go fire. Another related case was the 23 February 1973 firebombing of Torino’s Nightclub, an insurance scam organised by Dubois on O’Dempsey’s orders. Justice Peter Applegarth said "it was clear Barbara McCulkin knew enough about each of the pair's roles in the nightclub bombings at the time for them to want to silence her."

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The Hawaii Xerox Murders on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The infamous Zerox Murders occurred on this day in 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Service technician Byran Koji Uyesugi shot at eight people; wounding seven fatally (six co-workers and his supervisor). This was the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii. "Uyegusi surrendered in the mountains around Honolulu five hours later, and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity – claiming that he felt like an outcast at work, and that he was scared that his co-workers were conspiring to have him fired. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and is now held at a facility in Mississippi, due to inadequate accommodations for a prisoner in isolation at Halawa Correctional Facility. The Xerox building was abandoned after the shooting, and was not used until 2004, when producers of the television series Lost built a sound stage there to film indoor scenes."~Megan Shute 

Hawaii also had a serial killer. The Kauai serial killer is an unidentified serial killer and rapist who murdered two women and injured another on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, between April and August of 2000. Despite a composite sketch of the perpetrator and the availability of his DNA, he was never caught, and the murders remain unsolved.

Then there was also the Morgan's Corner murder. This crime was committed by two escaped convicts James Majors and John Palakiko in Nuuanu Valley on the outskirts of Honolulu when they burglarized the home of Therese Wilder on March 11, 1948. They left her bound and gagged, which caused her to suffocate. The two were almost sentenced to death by the court, but were given a stay of execution and sentenced to prison instead. After the incident Morgan's Corner (a bend on Nuuanu Pali Drive) gained a reputation for being haunted.

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The Lake Bodom Murders on This Day in History

 This Day in History: The Lake Bodom murders occurred in Finland on this day (June 5) in 1960. The Lake Bodom murders is one of the most infamous unsolved homicide cases in Finnish criminal history. On 5 June 1960, at Bodom Lake, 15-year-old girls Maila Björklund and Anja Mäki and 18-year-old man Seppo Boisman were killed by stabbing and blunt-force trauma to their heads, while sleeping inside a tent. The fourth youth, Nils Gustafsson, then 18 years old, was found outside the tent with broken facial bones and stab wounds. Despite extensive investigations, the perpetrator was never identified and various theories on the killer's identity have been presented over the years. Gustafsson was unexpectedly arrested on suspicion of committing the murders in 2004, but he was found not guilty the following year.

"No further suspect has been named, no further evidence has been found, and the Lake Bodom Murders remain Finland’s most horrifying and longest unsolved crime." Source

"Another mysterious element to the Lake Bodom murders comes from a peculiar funeral photograph. During his initial questioning, Nils Gustafsson was put under hypnosis and asked to retrace the events in as much detail as possible. Having recalled what his alleged attacker looked like, he dictated the description to an artist who created a composite sketch of the man. Later, during one of the Bodom victims’ funeral, someone took a picture that showed a man greatly resembling the composite. The identity of this mysterious man remains unknown." Source

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Three Unsolved Killings on This Day in History

 

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.

Or so the legend goes.

True Horror Stories that Happened on This Day in History

 

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This Day in History: On top of being Halloween, many bad things have happened on October 31. In the town of Frederica, Delaware, on October 31, 2005, a 42-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree near a busy road. People drove by for hours thinking it was a Halloween decoration. 

In 2012 a 9-year-old girl in a black and white costume was shot outside a western Pennsylvania home during a Halloween party by a relative who thought she was a skunk. 

On Long Island in 2014 neighbors saw a man drag a headless body out on his apartment front lawn. The man kicked the head across the street in what people saw as a Halloween prank. Derek Ward, 35, had beheaded his mom with a knife, and later threw himself in front of a Rail Road train.

On October 31, 1990, teenager William Anthony Odem from Charlotte accidentally hung himself when staging a gallows scene in the basement of his "haunted house."

On, October 31, 1977 one-year-old Nima Louise Carter went missing from her cradle. Since all the windows and doors in her room were locked shut, it is believed her abductor was hiding out in the closet in her Lawton OK home. Her body was found a month later in an old refrigerator in an abandoned house.

In the morning of October 31, "a Manhattan couple named Ronald Sisman and Elizabeth Platzman were murdered in their apartment, which was located near Greenwich Village. The couple was severely beaten before being shot in the head, execution-style, and the apartment was completely ransacked. Sisman was rumored to be involved in drugs, so authorities initially believed that to be the motive for the killings. However, the case took a bizarre turn when a prison informant claimed that one of his fellow inmates had somehow predicted the crime weeks before it actually happened. That inmate turned out to be none other than the notorious 'Son of Sam' killer, David Berkowitz."~Robin Warder

On Halloween in 1979, Debra Jackson was found in a concrete culvert near Interstate 35, just outside of Georgetown, Texas. She had been sexually assaulted before she was strangled to death. She was informally known as "Orange Socks" as she went unidentified for nearly 40 years before being identified via a DNA match with her surviving sister in 2019. Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to killing her.

In 1982, Marvin Brandland and his wife, Ethel, a Fort Dodge couple were handing out candy when they were confronted with a man wearing a pillow case with holes cut out for eyes. The hooded man pulled out a gun and said, “Trick-or-treat. Give me your money or I’ll shoot.” Marvin was shot and died later in the hospital.

On the morning of October 31, 2004, a housekeeper at the Hilton Resort and Marina in Key West, Florida found a dead baby in the garbage bin of the ladies’ room in the lobby. The infant girl still had the umbilical cord and placenta attached to her body.

21-year-old University of Minnesota student vanished after visiting a downtown Minneapolis bar on Halloween night in 2002. His body was discovered four months later in the Mississippi River still wearing his Halloween costume. This was initially declared a suicide, but it was later reclassified as a homicide linked to the Smiley Face Killers.

In 1957 Peter Fabiano was shot while answering the door to his Los Angeles home on Halloween night. Read more here

The Liske Family in Ohio was found murdered in their home on October 31 2010. Read more here

"On October 31, 2011, a pretty young zombie left her house in Armstrong, British Columbia, looking forward to a night of fun. The zombie was Taylor Van Diest, an 18-year-old student, and she was planning to meet up with her friend to go trick-or-treating. She never made the rendezvous, but before she went missing, she sent her friend a chilling text message saying that she thought someone was following her. It was the last anybody heard from her." Source

Preacher John White killed his fiancee's daughter on Halloween night 2012 so that he can have sex with her corpse. Read more here

Los Angeles teen Shirley Ledford got into a stranger's van on October 21 1979. Her body was discovered the next morning on a front lawn by a jogger. Read more here

9-year-old Lisa Ann French from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, was brutally murdered and sexually assaulted by her neighbor, Gerald Miles Turner Jr. (later nicknamed "The Halloween Killer"), on Halloween night 1973, while she was Trick-or-Treating alone. Read more here

Also, Fascism started on October 31. On October 31, 1922, the Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini was elected to power. 

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True Crime Queen, Ann Rule, on This Day in History

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This Day in History: The Queen of True Crime, Ann Rule, was born on this day in 1931. In the early 1970's Rule worked alongside Ted Bundy at a Suicide Hotline (crisis call center), and even though she was ten years older and a mother, they had a friendship for quite a few years. She turned this relationship into a best-selling book about Ted Bundy called The Stranger Beside Me. This book would come to be a landmark book in the True Crime genre alongside books such as Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood; and the best-selling true crime book of all time, Helter Skelter, by the lead Manson family prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry.

Another popular book by Rule was the 1987 work, Small Sacrifices, which tells the story of Diane Downs, an Oregon woman who in May 1983 murdered her daughter and attempted to murder her other two children. The book was filmed for television in 1989, with Farrah Fawcett in an Emmy-nominated and Peabody-cited performance.

In 2006, Associated Content stated that since 2000, the genre of writing that was growing the fastest was true crime. The majority of readers of true crime books are women. Other true crime authors of note are M. William Phelps (Murder in the Heartland), Joe McGinniss (Fatal Vision), Erik Larson (The Devil in the White City), Jack Olsen (Son, A Psychopath and His Victims), Gregg Olsen (Starvation Heights), Jon Krakauer (Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith) and Joseph Wambaugh (The Blooding).

Ann Rule passed away in 2015, but before she died she was terrorized by her sons. "Bestselling true crime author Ann Rule was bilked out of more than $100,000 by two of her sons, one of whom demanded money while she 'cowered in her wheelchair,' authorities said. Michael Rule, 51, has been charged with theft in the first degree and forgery, for allegedly writing himself $103,628 in checks from his mother's bank account, according to charging documents. Andrew Rule, 54, was accused of coercing his mother into giving him $23,327 and was charged with first-degree theft." Source

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