The Lipstick killer

Jan 7, 1946: A case of split personality in puzzling Chicago murders.

This man is scary... yikes.

Six-year-old Suzanne Degnan is kidnapped from her home in an affluent Chicago neighborhood. Her father found a note on the floor asking for a $20,000 ransom. Although James Degnan went on the radio to plead for his daughter's safety, the kidnapper never made any contact or further demands. Later, a police search of the neighborhood turned up the girl's body. She had been strangled to death the night of the kidnapping, then dismembered with a hunting knife. Her remains were left in five different sewers and catch basins. At the scene of the attack, the killer had written a message in lipstick on the victim's wall, "For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more, I cannot control myself." The ransom note at the Degnan house was the best clue that investigators had to tracking down the serial killer. The note had indentations from an adjoining page on the pad that led them to a University of Chicago restaurant. But detectives ran into a dead end and didn't receive much help from the college administration. Just as it looked like the lead was dead, a 17-year-old student named William Heirens was arrested after being caught red-handed during a burglary. When police searched his dorm room they found suitcases full of stolen goods, pictures of Hitler and other Nazis, and a letter to Heirens signed "George M." Authorities soon learned that some of the stolen items had come from the victims' homes. However, they couldn't track down Heirens' apparent partner, George. Heirens was given sodium pentathol and interrogated. During questioning under the truth serum, Heirens claimed that George Murman had killed Suzanne Degnan. However, it quickly became evident that George wasn't a real person at all, but an alter ego of Heirens himself. Slowly, investigators pieced together the pathology that drove Heirens. Apparently, he could only find sexual gratification through burglaries. He later found that killing during the burglaries added to the thrill. While doubtful that he was a true schizophrenic, prosecutors decided not to risk losing to an insanity defense and agreed not to seek the death penalty against Heirens. He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Heirens continues to assert his innocence, and there are some who believe he is not guilty of the crimes. sources: http://www.history.com/

Skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked.

Jan 6, 1994: Skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked.

 It shows how cruel people really can be in this world. Olympic skater gets clubbed on the back of the knee and America makes fun of her. lets see how you feel getting hit in the knee, shameful.

Olympic hopeful Nancy Kerrigan is attacked at a Detroit ice rink following a practice session two days before the Olympic trials. A man hit Kerrigan with a club on the back of her knee, causing the figure skater to cry out in pain and bewilderment. When the full story emerged a week later, the nation became caught up in a real-life soap opera. One of Kerrigan's chief rivals for a place on the U.S. Figure Skating Team was Tonya Harding. In mid-December 1993, Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, approached Shawn Eckardt about somehow eliminating Kerrigan from the competition. Eckardt set up a meeting with Derrick Smith and Shane Stant, who agreed to injure Kerrigan for a fee. On December 28, Stant went to Massachusetts, where Kerrigan was practicing. However, he couldn't carry out the attack so he followed her to Detroit, where Smith met him. After hitting Kerrigan, Stant fled the ice rink in Smith's getaway car. With Kerrigan unable to skate, Harding won the championship and a place at the 1994 Olympics. On January 11, Derrick Smith confessed to FBI agents. Three days later, Stant surrendered and also confessed. Harding was questioned on January 18, but denied her involvement. She claimed that she would cut off any connection with Gillooly if he was responsible. The next day, Gillooly was charged with conspiracy to assault Kerrigan. Shortly after, he agreed to a deal in which he implicated Harding.
Harding then came forward, changing her story and admitting that she had learned of Gillooly's role in the attack after the championships but did not inform authorities. Meanwhile, U.S. Olympic officials named Kerrigan and Harding to the team that would compete in Lillehammer, Norway. When the United States Olympic Committee began considering removing Harding from the team, she filed a lawsuit that successfully stopped this action. At the Olympics, the competition between Harding and Kerrigan set ratings records. Harding's performance was a drama in itself. She broke down crying after a lace on her skates broke. Even after being allowed a restart, Harding wasn't able to pull herself together and finished eighth. Kerrigan took home the silver medal, and many thought she deserved the gold. Back in the U.S., Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder the prosecution of Kerrigan's attackers. She was fined $100,000 and sentenced to probation and 500 hours of community service. Other than Gillooly's testimony, there was never any further evidence of Harding's knowledge of the plans before the attack. But Gillooly got revenge on Tonya by sinking to new tabloid depths, selling graphic photos of the couple having sex on their honeymoon. Meanwhile, Harding wasn't above trying to exploit the crime and her notoriety herself. However, an attempted movie career was dead in the water from the beginning. Kerrigan even succumbed to the temptation years later, appearing on a talk show with Harding to promote herself. In 2003, about a year after fighting in a "celebrity boxing" event, Harding made her professional boxing debut. Source: http://www.history.com/

The United Mine Workers Killings

Jan 5, 1970: The United Mine Workers Killings.

I must say I learn something new everyday... Never in my life have I heard of the UMW, its a labor union in North America. They are best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians.

The bodies of dissident union leader Jock Yablonski, his wife, and daughter are discovered in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania, farmhouse by Yablonski's son Kenneth. The family had been dead for nearly a week, killed on New Year's Eve by killers hired by the United Mine Workers (UMW) union leadership. Yablonski's murder eventually brought down the whole union leadership and ended the widespread corruption of the union under UMW President Tony Boyle. Jock Yablonski ran against Boyle in the 1969 election for the leadership of the UMW. He accused Boyle of nepotism and misuse of union funds, while also pushing for greater voting rights for rank-and-file members. On December 9, 1969, Boyle won the election but Yablonski asked the U.S. Labor Department to investigate the election for possible fraud.
At that point, Boyle sought to have Yablonski killed. Paul Gilly and Claude Vealey were hired by a UMW leader, Albert Pass, to carry out the murder. In mid-December, Gilly and Vealey went to Yablonski's house but lost their nerve at the last moment. When they returned two weeks later with Buddy Martin, they shot Yablonski, his wife, Margaret, and 25-year-old daughter, Charlotte. Eventually, an investigation into the murders exposed the conspiracy and nine people were convicted for their involvement, including Tony Boyle, who died in prison.  Fortunately, the scandal prompted serious reform of the UMW union. Source: http://www.history.com/

Boston Strangler strikes again...

Jan 4, 1964: The Boston Strangler strikes again....

I have to say I had no idea about the Boston Strangler until I saw the movie about him played by Tony Curtis, which by the way is one of my second favorite movies. I always wonder why young children that are brought up by voilence have to follow the pattern. It's very sad.

Mary Sullivan is raped and strangled to death in her Boston apartment. The killer left a card reading "Happy New Year" leaning against her foot. Sullivan would turn out to be the last woman killed by the notorious Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, who had terrorized the city between 1962 and 1964, raping and killing 13 women. DeSalvo's serial-killing career was shaped at an early age. His father would bring home prostitutes and have sex with them in front of the family, before brutally beating his wife and children. On one occasion, DeSalvo's father knocked out his mother's teeth and then broke her fingers one by one while she lay unconscious on the floor. DeSalvo himself was sold by his father to work as a farm laborer, along with two of his sisters. In the late 1950s, as a young man, DeSalvo acquired the first of his criminal nicknames. He knocked on the doors of young women, claiming to represent a modeling agency. He told the women that he needed to take their measurements and proceeded to crudely fondle the women as he used his tape measure. His stint as the "Measuring Man" came to an end with his arrest on March 17, 1960, and he spent nearly a year in prison. When DeSalvo was released, his next series of crimes were far worse. For nearly two years, he broke into hundreds of apartments in New England, tied up the women and sexually assaulted them. He always wore green handyman clothes during his assaults and became known as the "Green Man." In 1962, DeSalvo started killing his victims. He strangled Anna Slesers with her own housecoat and tied the ends in a bow, which would become his trademark. Throughout the summer of 1962, DeSalvo raped and killed elderly women in Boston. However, by winter he began attacking younger women, always leaving the rope or cord used to strangle the victim in a bow. Police, who were stymied in their attempts to stop the newly dubbed "Boston Strangler," even brought in a psychic to inspect the clothes of the victims. However, it was DeSalvo himself who enabled the police to close the case. On October 27, 1964, after raping another young woman, he suddenly stopped before killing her. When the victim called police and gave a description of her attacker, police arrested DeSalvo. DeSalvo confessed the murders to his cellmate George Nasser. Nasser told his attorney, F. Lee Bailey, about DeSalvo, and Bailey took on DeSalvo as a client. Under a deal with prosecutors, DeSalvo never was charged or convicted with the Boston Strangler murders, getting a life sentence instead for the Green Man rapes. Still, DeSalvo's life term was short. He was stabbed to death by an unidentified fellow inmate at Walpole State Prison on November 26, 1973. Source: http://www.history.com/

The controversial Stuart case

Jan 3, 1990: The husband did it: The controversial Stuart case.

It's honestly crazy how someone can come up with such lies to cover up a murder. If you are unhappy with your marriage then why not get a divorce? No you had to go and shot your wife who was pregnant with your child. What kinda sick ass are you? Then you go around and blame it on a African American... people like you make me sick. I hope all the pain you caused was worth it, just remember what comes around goes around.

Matthew Stuart meets with Boston prosecutors and tells them that his brother, Charles, was actually the person responsible for murdering Charles's wife, Carol. The killing of Carol Stuart, who was pregnant at the time, on October 23, 1989, had touched off a national outrage when Charles Stuart told authorities that the couple had been robbed and shot by an African-American man while driving through a poor Boston neighborhood. In the summer and fall of 1989, both Boston daily newspapers had been trumpeting a so-called crime explosion. Actually, the screaming headlines had more to do with a desire to sell papers than any actual crime wave, but the public was on edge. Charles Stuart, a fur salesman, used the public mood to his advantage when he planned the murder of his wife. "My wife's been shot! I've been shot!" screamed Stuart into his cell phone as he drove through the Mission Hill area of Boston. Paramedics responding to the call for help found that both Charles and his wife had been shot. Carol was barely hanging on to her life and Charles had a fairly serious wound to the stomach. Immediately, Charles identified an African-American male in a black running suit as the perpetrator. The crime was the biggest story in Boston that day and even led some national newscasts. Across the country, the story was portrayed as an example of what could happen to affluent people traveling through bad neighborhoods. In many papers, liberal policies were attacked and held responsible for the tragedy. Carol Stuart died, and although doctors were able to save her baby temporarily, the child also died days later. Charles Stuart underwent intestinal surgery for 10 hours, but his life was not endangered. The Boston police began to comb the housing projects in Mission Hill. African-American men were strip-searched on the streets on any pretense. Meanwhile, Stuart was showing unusual interest in a young female co-worker, asking that she phone him at the hospital where he was recovering. Detectives, fixated on finding the black perpetrator Stuart had described, didn't bother to find the ample evidence that Stuart was unhappy in his marriage and particularly upset with his wife for not having an abortion. Stuart had discussed both his obsession with the co-worker, and his desire to see his wife dead, with several friends and family members in the months before the murder. In December, Willie Bennett, an African-American ex-con, was arrested after his nephew jokingly bragged that he was responsible. Stuart picked Bennett out of a lineup in which the others were all clean-cut Boston police officers. This was the last straw for Matthew Stuart, who had assisted his brother in carrying out the scheme. Matthew thought he was helping Charles with an insurance scam when he carried a bag away from the murder scene. In it was the gun and the couple's wallets and jewelry. In return for immunity, Matthew testified against his brother.
Charles Stuart found out that Matthew was going to turn him in and immediately fled. The next morning, Charles Stuart drove to the Tobin Bridge over the Mystic River, and jumped to his death. Willie Bennett was released after witnesses told a grand jury that the police had pressured them into identifying him. Sources: http://www.history.com/

Yorkshire Ripper

Jan 2, 1981 The Yorkshire Ripper

I dont have much to say about this blog today. He was a pretty smart guy to throw the police officer off.

The so-called Yorkshire Ripper is finally caught by British police, ending one of the largest manhunts in history. For five years, investigators had pursued every lead in an effort to stop the serial killer who terrorized Northern England, but the end came out of pure happenstance. Peter Sutcliffe was spotted in a stolen car with a prostitute and arrested by Sergeant Robert Ring. Sutcliffe asked to urinate behind a bush before being taken into custody. When Ring later returned to the scene, he found a hammer and knife, the Yorkshire Ripper's weapons of choice, behind the shrubbery. Sutcliffe confessed when confronted with this evidence. Peter Sutcliffe's first victim was Wilma McCann, who was beaten about the head with a hammer and stabbed mulitple times on October 30, 1975. Initially, he focused his attacks almost exclusively on prostitutes, killing seven young women in Northern England between February 1977 and May 1978. Many of the victims were mutilated after they were killed. As part of the manhunt, authorities interviewed more than 250,000 people and searched thousands of homes. Sutcliffe himself was interviewed nine times during the investigation but always convinced detectives that he wasn't involved. In 1979, a tape recording purportedly from the Yorkshire Ripper was sent to the police, who were sidetracked by what later turned out to be a hoax. The public really began to panic when the Yorkshire Ripper stopped going after prostitutes and started targeting college students. When Peter Sutcliffe was finally convicted, after an unsuccessful insanity defense, he had killed 13 women, far more than his namesake, Jack the Ripper. Sutcliffe received a sentence of life in prison. Sources: http://www.history.com/

Mr. Goodbar

Jan 1, 1973: The real-life murder behind Looking for Mr. Goodbar.

It's crazy how meeting someone online is so common now days. It makes you think how far  your willing to go to meet Mr. Right... Granted I dont think in "73" women were looking for hookups online... but there really isn't much difference if your meeting them on the computer or at a bar that person is still consider a stranger... I guess it a chance everyone is willing to take because in the end were all strangers at one point to someone.  We never really know someone like we would like to think we do. I believe there is always that "What if" in the back of our minds telling us we honestly dont know this person. He could be the best bull shitter in the world and would say anything to make us believe. We dont know what that person has done and havent done in their lifetime... I think people tend to be easily trusted. I have to admit trust is a big issue with me. I dont trust anyone and I guess that is why I am still single and alive... enjoy reading the history that has taken place on this day.

"Roseann Quinn, a 27-year-old New Yorker, visits Tweed's Bar on the Upper West Side and is picked up by her soon-to-be killer. The incident inspires the cautionary novel and subsequent movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar. For many, Quinn's murder represented the dark side of the sexual revolution. At Tweed's on New Year's night, Quinn had met John Wayne Wilson, an outwardly charming, but seriously disturbed man who was dealing with problems of sexual identity and orientation. He was homosexual but refused to admit it to himself, leading to violent feelings toward women. At his home later that night, Wilson beat Quinn, stabbed her numerous times, and sexually assaulted her before finally killing her. Before he could stand trial for his brutal crime, Wilson hanged himself in jail in May 1973. In 1975, Judith Rossner wrote the best-selling novel Looking For Mr. Goodbar, which described a similar incident and served as a warning to women about the dangers of anonymous one-night stands. Diane Keaton starred in a popular movie version of the book in 1977." sources: http://www.history.com/