Centenaries - whole and half

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 August 10 - In Oklahoma, James French goes to the electric chair for the murder of his cellmate, Eddie Shelton. At the time of the murder, French was serving a life term for killing a motorist who'd picked him up hitchhiking in 1958.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 August 9 - Dorothy McKenzie, 45, leaves her Toms River, New Jersey home on a summer evening to pick up her husband from work and is not seen alive again. The following morning, she is found in her car, dead from two gunshot wounds. Some suspect a serial killer might be the culprit and the case is still unsolved.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 August 7 - During the robbery of a New Jersey service station, attendant Ronald Sandlin is abducted. The 18-year-old was then taken to a wooded area where he was shot and killed. Reginald McKnight and Charles Holland were eventually convicted of the murder.

[GUT]

50 years ago - 1966 August 6 - In Texas, Kenneth McDuff and Roy Green kill Robert Brand and Mark Dunman. They then proceed to rape and murder Brand's 16-year-old girlfriend Edna Sullivan. Both men were sent to prison but were released after relatively short terms. McDuff then became a serial killer, murdering at least six additional people. He was rearrested in 1992 and executed in 1998.

That's short, only six years on Death Row.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 August 6 - In Texas, Kenneth McDuff and Roy Green kill Robert Brand and Mark Dunman. They then proceed to rape and murder Brand's 16-year-old girlfriend Edna Sullivan. Both men were sent to prison but were released after relatively short terms. McDuff then became a serial killer, murdering at least six additional people. He was rearrested in 1992 and executed in 1998.

[Mayerling]

100 years ago - 1916 August 3 - After being convicted of treason and stripped of his knighthood, Roger Casement is hanged in London. He'd been found guilty of soliciting Germany with the intent of gaining aid for an Irish rebellion.

A controvertial treason trial - while there certainly was proof of his working with the Wilhelmine Empire in World War I, while an honored British subject, Casement viewed himself as a patriotic Irishman seeking aid for his country seeking independence. the government of Britain (afraid that the humanitarian actions of Casement in the Congo Cruelties Scandal, and in South America, would gain Casement popular support to reduce the sentence to life imprisonment) decided on a dirty scheme involving Casement's secret personal life.

Casement was a male pederast, and he had apparently kept a personal record of his history of personal activities. There is some real question about whether the documents the government circulated in clubs and upper crust social events were the actual papers, known as the "Black Diaries". Whatever their actual origins, they did the trick. Despite the fact that some major figures came to defend Casement (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle claimed Casement was insane when he made his deal with the Germans - ironically Casement resented this argument because he felt he acted responsibly as an Irish patriot), there was no real groundswell of support for saving the life of the man, so he was executed. The last time a similar action occurred was in 1618, when Sir Walter Raleigh returned from a fruitless and tragic attempt to found a successful and rich trading colony in South America, and King James I had a death sentence on Raleigh for treason that was held in abeyance for nearly fifteen years put into affect.

Jeff

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1916 August 3 - After being convicted of treason and stripped of his knighthood, Roger Casement is hanged in London. He'd been found guilty of soliciting Germany with the intent of gaining aid for an Irish rebellion.

[sdreid]

Thanks for the links Paul.

[Paul O'Henry]

It's the first shooting of this type I can think of on a college campus. There was a mass shooting at a German elementary school in 1913.

Hello,

Beside several sources in the internet in german I've spotted this

in english: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_school_shooting

The New York Times had an article about the shooting 103 years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_school_shooting

Kind regards

Paul

[Mayerling]

50 years ago.

Hard to believe.

The New York Times had an article today about the 50th Anniversary. They have put up a marker on the campus in honor of the victims' (including the unborn baby of Ms Wilson, who survived herself). The last person whose death was connected to the murders died in 2002, from kidney failure due to the wounds.

Jeff

[sdreid]

I'd have thought it was the first of these campus attacks, or maybe that's just the first I was aware of.

It's the first shooting of this type I can think of on a college campus. There was a mass shooting at a German elementary school in 1913.

[GUT]

Yes, I remember it being covered on TV-live I believe.

I'd have thought it was the first of these campus attacks, or maybe that's just the first I was aware of.

[sdreid]

50 years ago.

Hard to believe.

Yes, I remember it being covered on TV-live I believe.

[GUT]

50 years ago - 1966 August 1 - Charles Whitman kills his wife and mother in their homes then moves on up to the upper deck of the tower at the University of Texas in Austin where he sets himself up in a sniper's nest. He then proceeds to shoot dozens of people, killing an additional 14. After about 90 minutes, four men are able to get up the tower and a policeman guns down Whitman. A man who died many years later is often listed as the seventeenth murder victim since the wound he suffered is believed to have contributed to his premature death.

50 years ago.

Hard to believe.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 August 1 - Charles Whitman kills his wife and mother in their homes then moves on up to the upper deck of the tower at the University of Texas in Austin where he sets himself up in a sniper's nest. He then proceeds to shoot dozens of people, killing an additional 14. After about 90 minutes, four men are able to get up the tower and a policeman guns down Whitman. A man who died many years later is often listed as the seventeenth murder victim since the wound he suffered is believed to have contributed to his premature death.