Centenaries - whole and half

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150 years ago - 1862 January 14 - Rebecca Law hacks her husband, Samuel, to death with a billhook then proceeds cutting him to pieces. She then batters her baby son, Alfred, with a hammer, killing him as well. Only her six-year-old son was able to survive the rampage. Mrs. Law was found not guilty by reason of insanity an sent to an English mad house.

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100 years ago - 1912 January 21 - Mr. and Mrs. Felix Broussard, along with their three children, are murdered in their beds at Lake Charles, Louisiana. The killer left behind an enigmatic note saying, "When He Maketh the Inquisition for Blood, He forgetteth not the cry of the humble-human five." These slayings in addition to those of a woman and her three children two days previous are believed to be the work of a killer who was, at the time, due to the victims, being called the Mulatto Ax Murderer. A woman who was the only known victim to see the killer and survive said that he was a sole male and it was believed that he was black.

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100 years ago - 1912 January 26 - At Buenos Aires, Arturo Laurona, 13, is found murdered in an abandoned house. It was later determined that he'd been murdered by Argentine serial killer Cayetano Santos Godino who was himself only 15 at the time. Godino was finally captured and incarcerated at the end of the year but not before more child slayings. He died while still confined in 1944 by what were given as natural causes. Persist rumors, however, claim that he was beaten to death by a mob of other prisoners, according to one account, because he'd killed the pet cat of a fellow inmate.

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100 years ago - 1912 January 29 - Albert Wolter is executed in New York for murder. He had lured Ruth Wheeler to his Manhattan residence with the promise of a secretarial. Instead, he raped and strangled the poor woman then cremated her in his fireplace.

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50 years ago - 1962 February 12 - In the Sahara, French troops find the remains of aviator Bill Lancaster. He had vanished in 1933 while trying to set the speed record for the flight from England to South Africa. The year before the attempt, he'd been tried for the murder of Haden Clarke, a friend of his wife, in Florida. Lancaster was acquitted in those proceedings and the case remains officially unsolved.

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50 years ago - 1962 March 1 - A retired jeweler named Samuel Resnick dies in the desert outside of Phoenix. Mr. Resnick had actually hired R.E. Jackson to kill him because he was suffering horrible pain from incurable cancer. The law still considered this sort of thing murder and Jackson was sent to prison.

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100 years ago - 1912 March 7 - In Argentina, Cayetano Santos Godino, 15, sets fire to the dress of little 5-year-old Reyna Vainicoff causing her death. This is not the first child slain by the serial killer nor will it be his last. At the end of the year, he was finally captured and incarcerated. In 1944, he reportedly died in prison from natural causes but persistent rumors claim that he was actually beaten to death by a mob of prisoners after he killed the pet cat of a fellow inmate.

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150 years ago - 1862 March 8 - Serial killer Martin Dumollard is beheaded on the guillotine in France. He is believed to have murdered between 10 and 40 servant girls by blunt force trauma to the head. The victims were then buried on his property or, in the winter when the ground was frozen, thrown into a nearby river. A motive of robbery was posited but the girls didn't really have much to take. Marie Dumollard, his wife, was convicted of complicity and sentenced to life at hard labor.

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100 years ago - 1912 March 14 - In Virginia, Floyd Allen and his clan don't like his assault and battery conviction and open fire in the courtroom. They kill five people. In 1913, Floyd and his son Claude were executed for the murders.

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50 years ago - 1962 March 23 - In Cook County IL, Vincent Ciucci is executed in the electric chair. Mr. Ciucci murdered his wife and three children in 1953 after she learned that he'd impregnated a mistress.

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50 years ago - 1962 March 29 - Murderer George Thompson is hanged in South Africa. In 1961, he had killed Dillie Scholtz as she was leaving for work then burning her body.

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50 years ago - 1962 March 31 - Australian serial killer William MacDonald repeatedly stabs Frank McLean but is interrupted by an approaching family. McLean was still alive but, while the family was off looking for a policeman, the murderer returned and finished the job. He then, as in the past, severed the victim's genitalia and took them away. After one more slaying MacDonald was captured and sent to prison with a recommendation that he never be released.

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50 years ago - 1962 April 4 - In an English prison, James Hanratty is hanged for the murder of Michael Gregsten. This so-called A6 Lay-By Case is still something of a matter of controversy today.

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100 years ago - 1912 April 11 - In the San Antonio night, all five members of the William Burton family are slain in their sleep. This is another in the series of murders that some contemporary media are calling the Mulatto Axe Murders. In another Texas town two nights later, the killer will slaughter three more but these will be his last fatal attack. In August, the maniac will make a final attempt but will only succeed in injuring his targets. A woman who survive that assault said that the criminal appeared to be a single black male. Whoever the serial killer was, he was not heard from again and the case remains unsolved to the day.

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100 years ago - 1912 April 18 - In England, Frederick Seddon is hanged for the murder of Eliza Burrows.