The .22 Caliber Killers on This Day in History

 

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.

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David Parker Ray, the Toy Box Killer, On This Day in History

 

Today in History: The "Toy Box Killer" David Parker Ray was born on this day (November 6) in 1939. He was called the “Toy Box Killer” because of his soundproofed truck trailer that he converted into a torture chamber which he referred to as his “toy box.” Once in his truck, Ray subjected his female victims to horrific torture. It is believed that he may have killed 60 people this way. 

The "Toy Box" was actually quite expensive to set up. "To create his trailer, Ray allegedly spent upwards of $100,000 on torture devices and tools. Reportedly, Ray constructed elaborate contraptions to confine his victims, such as a fur-lined coffin and a makeshift pillory. He also crafted devices to electrocute his victims and others to hold them in place. In addition to medical instruments and sex toys, Ray’s box contained elaborate locks and pulleys to prevent his captives from escaping." Source

Ray appears to have had his daughter, Glenda Jean Ray, and Dennis Roy Yancy help him in his crimes. This makes one wonder why so many killers have three names: Gary Leon Ridgway, John Wayne Gacy, Paul John Knowles, Henry Lee Lucas, James Earl Ray, John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman, Jared Lee Loughner, Wade Michael Page, James Eagan Holmes, Herman Webster Mudgett (Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes), James Francis Ray, Carl Eugene Watts, John Arthur Ackroyd, Stephen Wayne Anderson, William Dale Archerd, John Eric Armstrong, Arthur Gary Bishop, Oscar Ray Bolin, Gary Ray Bowles, Charles Anthony Boyd, Robert Eugene Brashers, Michael Bear Carson, Alfred Leonard Cline, Jessie Lee Cooks, Andrew David Edwards, Bobby Jack Fowler, William Clyde Gibson, David Alan Gore, Ricky Lee Green, Anna Marie Hahn, Dewayne Lee Harris, Bobby Joe Long, Lee Boyd Malvo, John Allen Muhammed, Gordon Stewart Northcott, Andrey Romanovich Chikatilo etc.

Another thing to ponder is why are so many serial killers born in November? A recent study found 26 serial killers were born in November, compared with an average of nine for other months. Derrick Bird, the Cumbria Killer was born on November, as was Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Belle Gunness, Dennie Nilsen (the British Jeffrey Dahmer), Kristen Gilbert (the Angel of Death), Charles Starkweather, Carl Eugene Watts and Rosemary West.

Did you know: Most serial killers were born in the 1940s and 1950s.

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The Taco Bell Strangler on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Henry Louis Wallace, also known as "The Taco Bell Strangler" was born on this day in 1965. Wallace is an American serial killer who killed ten women in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the early 1990's and is awaiting execution at Central Prison in Raleigh. 

Wallace earned the name "The Taco Bell Strangler" because he worked as a Taco Bell manager, and even killed some of his co-workers there.

North Carolina has produced a number of killers over the years, such as Jeffrey Robert MacDonald, aka The Green Beret Killer, a United States Army captain (Fort Bragg) who was convicted in August 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970 while serving as an Army Special Forces physician. Joe McGinniss wrote the book "Fatal Vision" about this case. MacDonald remains incarcerated in the Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution.

Gary Michael Hilton known as The National Forest Serial Killer, is an American serial killer responsible for four known homicides between 2007 and 2008 committed in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. On February 22, 2011, he was officially sentenced to death for the crime and sent off to Florida's death row.

Frederick Robert Klenner Jr. was a mass murderer who killed several victims between 1984 and 1985. Police spotted him in Greensboro in June 1985, but they never got a chance to arrest and charge him for his crimes. He detonated an explosive inside his vehicle, killing himself as well has his girlfriend, Susie Lynch, and her two sons. His other victims were identified as Lynch's family members. 

Scott Wilson Williams is a convicted serial killer who lived in Monroe, North Carolina. He has been convicted for the murders of three women that took place over a period of nine years. He has also been convicted of crimes against two additional women who were not killed. Williams is imprisoned at Alexander Correctional Institution.

As of 2018, there were 141 people on death row in North Carolina (North Carolina has the sixth largest death row in the USA)...a few end up dying of natural causes while awaiting execution. There have been nine people in North Carolina sentenced to death who turned out to be innocent.

North Carolina is far from being the worse place for serial murder. "Within the US, there is one state in particular which seems to be the serial killer capital of the world: California. With over 120 serial killers to its name, equaling a total of around 1600 serial killing-related deaths, the Golden State has been the hunting grounds of some of the most brutal and terrifying criminals in US history." Source

Florida and Texas take second and third place. Alaska has the most serial killers per capita.

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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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