Centenaries - whole and half

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1961 June 5 - Joan Rae Caudle vanishes after leaving an Oregon bar with Richard Lawrence Marquette. Her partial remains will be found in several days. Marquette was sent to prison but was paroled in 1975 and then killed another woman. For that, he was sentenced to life in prison.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1961 June 15 - Richard Kiefer goes to the electric chair for the beating deaths of his wife and little daughter. Kiefer was the only person executed in Indiana between 1951 and 1981.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1911 July 1 - Lena Sharp, 40, is murdered by a savage cut to the throat. She was also mutilated like other prey of the Atlanta Jack the Ripper. Newspapers of the time described all the victims as mulatto females. Lena's daughter was also stabbed by the killer and is believed to be the only person to escape the slayer. She described him as a well-dressed black man. He eventually murdered 13 and was never captured or identified.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1961 July 2 - Near his release date for burglary, Jerry Tharrington is stabbed to death in Missouri State Penitentiary. A sexual assault was also suspected. The slaying is officially unsolved but it is thought to be the first murder by future pedophile serial killer Charles Hatcher. In 1969, Hatcher was released to increase his tally by at least 15. Hatcher was rearrested in 1982 and sent to prison for life even though he had asked for the death penalty. Two years later, he killed himself by hanging.

[Zodiac]

The Battle of the Somme 1st July-18th November 1916.

July 1st 1916. The first day of the battle of the Somme would see the British Army suffer the worst ever one-day combat losses in its entire history, suffering almost 60,000 casualties. Because of the way the British Army was organised at that point in time i.e. a volunteer force including many units, the "Pals" battalions etc. that comprised of all the local menfolk of fighting age from a particular town, city or region, the battle had a profound social impact that has given the battle a lasting cultural legacy in many parts of Britain. The battle and the carnage would go on for another four long months.

Best Wishes,
Zodiac.

[The Grave Maurice]

Interesting, and certainly timely, Zodiac; but I don't quite see the connection between your post and this subset of the "Shades of Whitechapel" thread.

[Zodiac]

Interesting, and certainly timely, Zodiac; but I don't quite see the connection between your post and this subset of the "Shades of Whitechapel" thread.

Sorry Maurice!!! Centenaries whole and half, well 95 years anyway and Stan usually cuts me quite alot of slack with these anniversaries, thanks Stan I agree with you that it may not be quite "Shades of Whitechapel", but I can't think of many examples of mass murder that would surpass it, and British society would be never be quite the same again, never able to quite go back to the kind of society that Jack had stalked.

Anyway, my appologies for my error, but I just felt that I couldn't let the day pass without mention.

Best wishes,
Zodiac.

[The Grave Maurice]

No apologies necessary. Those of us who had folk in that fight (WWI) always appreciate its being remembered. Thanks.

[Zodiac]

Lest we forget.

No apologies necessary. Those of us who had folk in that fight (WWI) always appreciate its being remembered. Thanks.

Thanks Grave Maurice,

I fear that so many of us lost family in what should really have been, in any sane world, truely, "The war to end all wars." And now that, sadly, there are none left who fought through it to tell of their experiences, I feel that it falls to those of us fortunate enough to have known the veterans to keep their memory alive. Thanks again.

Best wishes,
Zodiac.

[sdreid]

That is one of the battles that most Americans don't know much about since we weren't in the war yet. My grand-uncle Leo was in the war and was gassed in France but survived. One of my grandfathers was called to duty but the war ended before he could be inducted and his notice was canceled. That's to only family connection I have to that war. My dad who is 91 was in WWII.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1961 July 3 - Koos and Dillie Scholtz, a married couple, are about to leave their Cape Town, South Africa home. The husband leaves first and makes it to his destination. Dillie does not arrive and a check finds her car still in the garage. After a several day search, her burned body was discovered in a nearby compost heap. A man named George Thompson did odd jobs in the area and had been seen tending a roaring fire on the day Dillie disappeared. He was found guilty of the murder and hanged in 1962.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1961 July 6 - Edwin Bush, 21, is executed in England for the murder of antique shop sales clerk Elsie Batten. He stabbed the 59-year-victim to death so he could steal a dress sword from the business. Bush was the first criminal apprehended using the new Identikit system.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1911 July 11 - The remains of Sadie Holley are found in a gully. The throat of the laundry worker had been slashed. She was believed to be the seventh murder victim in the never solved Atlanta Jack the Ripper Case.

50 years ago - 1961 July 11 - Wielding a pipe, serial killer Hugh Bion Morse invades the Birmingham, Alabama home of Bobbi Ann Landini. He strangles her and then beats her to death. In the end, he was captured and given a double life sentence in prison where he died in 2003.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1861 July 12 - A Nebraska Territory shootout between a group that includes James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok and a band headed by Dave McCanless breaks out. The event was precipitated when McCanless made demands that a debt be paid to him. When the smoke cleared, Mr. McCanless and two of his companions lay dead. Hickok and some of his allies were charged with murder but got off on a self defense claim.

[Mayerling]

That is one of the battles that most Americans don't know much about since we weren't in the war yet. My grand-uncle Leo was in the war and was gassed in France but survived. One of my grandfathers was called to duty but the war ended before he could be inducted and his notice was canceled. That's to only family connection I have to that war. My dad who is 91 was in WWII.

Hi Stan, Maurice, and Zodiac,

Actually I am fully aware of the period when World War I was only a European (and...with Japan...an Asiatic one), prior to our entrance. Even after the Lusitania, we remained out until 1917. Then isolationist sentiment was smashed by Alfred Zimmermann's note of alliance with Mexico.

My grandfather Ben (my mother's dad) was drafted in 1918. I have a few of his photos in a doughboy uniform. He transferred to the Army's Air Corps., and I imagine that had the war lasted into 1919 Grandpa might have been in one of those "flying coffins" on the Western Front. If so, he would have been something of a pioneer of flight. But he was discharged on November 13, 1918 (we have his discharge papers still). I always maintained that Presdent Wilson signed his discharge, telling Secretary of War Newton Baker, "Keep that man away from our Spads!"

Jeff