Centenaries - whole and half

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1960 September 6 - In Hollywood, Margaret Briggs is slain by Henry Adolph Busch and she is the third woman he's murdered this year. The victims were much older women, 53-72, who had been friendly with Busch who is in his 20s. Mr. Busch is probably the most prominent killer who some said began murdering after seeing the movie Psycho. He was executed in 1962.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1960 September 12 - The first of Adolph Coors III's scattered remains are discovered. As heir to the brewing company, he had been the object of a massive search since he was kidnapped between his Colorado home and work in February. A ransom note demanding $500,000 was sent to his wife but no further contacts from the abductor were forthcoming. Coors was almost certainly dead before the correspondence was issued. Joseph Corbett Jr. was eventually convicted of the crime and sent to prison. In 1978, he was paroled and committed suicide in 2009.

[The Grave Maurice]

Stan,

I don't think I've told you lately how much I appreciate your historical vignettes. I had no idea that there was a murder associated with the Coors family, but now I'll go off and read up on it. I do remember though, in my youth, slipping across the border to sample their wares. At the time, Coors was, IMO, the only drinkable American beer.

[sdreid]

Thanks Maurice! Corbett was actually arrested in Canada and sent back here for trial.

[sdreid]

450 years ago - 1560 September 16 - Arnaud du Tilh is hanged in France for impersonating Martin Guerre and committing adultery with his wife. Guerre had vanished many years previous. As far as could be determined, there was no murder connected with the case, in fact, the long absent Guerre actually showed up during the trial.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1960 September 21 - Francisco Molina del Rio, a pro-Castro Cuban, shoots and kills 9-year-old Magdalena Urdaneto in a shootout with an anti-Castro group at a New York restaurant. He was sentenced to 20 years to life. In 1963, he and three other Castro followers being held here were exchanged for 21 Americans who were confined in Cuba.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1960 September 23 - Racketeer Jimmy Squillante vanishes and is presumed murdered in New York. According to informer Joe Valachi, he was shot in the head and put in the trunk of his car which was then run through a junkyard crusher and shipped off to a blast furnace. Underworld operatives feared that he was about to turn State's Evidence since he was under indictment. No arrest was ever made. Valachi also said that Squillante was responsible for the deaths of brothers Frank and Joe Scalise in separate incidents.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1960 September 26 - In Spokane, Blanche Boggs is murdered by serial killer Hugh Bion Morse. He was convicted of another slaying in Minnesota during 1961 and sentenced to life in prison where he died in 2003.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1910 October 1 - A massive bomb goes off in the Los Angeles Times building killing 21 and injuring more than 100. Eventually, a left-wing terrorist named James McNamara was arrested for the murders and pled guilty. He was given a term of life in prison and died there in 1941.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1910 October 15 - Former World Middleweight Boxing Champion, Stanley Ketchel is gunned down in Missouri by Walter Dipley aka Walter Kurtz. The dispute was over the affections of a woman. Dipley was sentenced to life for the killing but was paroled in 1934.

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50 years ago - 1960 October 15 - Charles Corliss kills Kimberly Starkenburg in Montana. He was sent to prison but was released in 1985 and murdered another woman in 1990. For that, he got a 74 year term in a Washington penitentiary.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1960 October 24 - Clarence Leon Raby is killed in Tennessee while trying to escape from custody. He was being held on suspicion of two murders, one in July and another in August. A fourth person died during the whole affair when deputies gunned down a man in a case of mistaken identity.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1910 October 25 - Mary Hackney is found murdered in Ohio. Although she was discovered at home, her crushed skull was the trademark of the Cincinnati Streetcar Killer. She also suffered a slashed throat which the slayer had added in his later attacks. Mary will be the last of five murder victims in the series that began in 1904. During 1913, agents for the Burns Detective Agency found a note in the home of a streetcar conductor that referred to "the act of December 31", the date of the penultimate slaying. This man had been sent to an insane asylum but no direct evidence was ever found to tie him to the crimes. The case was never solved.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1960 October 28 - Late in the evening, 12-year-old Brenda Nash is abducted near her home in Heston, England. She was found raped and strangled several weeks later. While in prison for an unrelated sexual assault charge, Arthur Albert Jones confessed the murder to a fellow inmate. He got a life term for the slaying.

[Mayerling]

100 years ago - 1910 October 1 - A massive bomb goes off in the Los Angeles Times building killing 21 and injuring more than 100. Eventually, a left-wing terrorist named James McNamara was arrested for the murders and pled guilty. He was given a term of life in prison and died there in 1941.

It was more complicated than just that. The L.A. Times was the property and mouthpiece of General Harrison Gray Otis of California, who was a total reactionary, and hated unions. Otis was furious at the death of his employees and used the Burns Detective Agency to hunt down the killers. As he suspected it was tied to a Union run by the McNamara Brothers (James did the bombing with the approval of his older brother). But initially it was considerd that Burns was planting evidence against the McNamaras to frame them.

Samuel Gompers and other labor leaders hired Clarence Darrow to defend the McNamaras. He was doing fairly well, but gradually found that public opinion was heavily on the side of General Otis. Darrow made one of the great errors of his career - he bribed a juror. Otis (through Burns) learned of this, and waited.

The McNamaras decided to confess, and when that happened whatever labor union support they had vanished. They both got heavy prison terms. Darrow now faced his jury tampering charge. He wanted to defend himself, but instead was convinced to use the famous West Coast lawyer Earl Rogers.
Rogers managed to split the charges against Darrow into jury tampering and bribery. He won the first case. But Darrow was jealous of the abilities of the man and fired him. Otis was waiting for just this (he knew that Rogers would make a mince meat pie out of almost any evidence, whereas Darrow was better with orating on a point of philosophy). Representing himself on the bribery charge, Darrow was found guilty. Otis offered him a humiliating way out. If he admitted the charge, he would not be sent to prison - but could never practice law in California again!. Darrow accepted this. The taint of the bribery charge he admitted to never quite left him (although not discussed much in plays or movies like COMPULSION or INHERIT THE WIND).
Rogers watched bemusedly from the sidelines and continued his successful career. His daughter Adela Rogers St. John was a screen writer and Hollywood chronicler, who always despised Darrow as a self-promiting lawyer who was not one bit as good as her father.

[sdreid]

Thanks for that addition Jeff. I try to condense these to the minimum although I did mention Burns over on that other site. Yes, Burns as well as Pinkerton were well known for their anti-union activity. Burns went on to head the FBI but left under a cloud due to some of the Harding related scandals thus paving the way for Director Hoover. Some of Pinkerton's files, including fingerprints I believe, were added to the records of the FBI's precursor the BOI that was formed in something like 1908. Rivals Burns and Pinkerton have now merged into one agency.