Centenaries - whole and half

[sdreid]

100 year ago - 1913 May 12 - While awaiting trial, serial child killer Enriqueta Marti, 45, is beaten to death by fellow inmates in a Barcelona prison. It is suspected that she murdered more than 10 little children. Her practice was to kidnap small children off the street who would then be victimized in her pedophile brothel. When the little ones became used up, diseased or too old to be attractive to her child molester clientèle, she would then kill them and, usually, render their remains for ingredients in one of the witch potions that she sold. One little girl who was rescued told of how she had been forced to eat another child who had been slain by Marti.

[DVV]

Hi Stan
I didn't know her and just read on wiki.
Indeed, she certainly killed many more children.
Perhaps hundreds.
She's a devil.

[sdreid]

I can't think of any worse.

[DVV]

Neither can I. Incredible.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1913 May 13 - In Tennessee, Cindy Curtis is shot and killed on the porch of a store by Homer Bowles. He claimed that the shooting was an accident but suspicion was that he'd killed the widow so that her nephew could inherit her land. Bowles was found guilty and sent to prison.

[Mayerling]

A Tragedy of "Alt Wien"

It was not a homicide case, but it did lead to a massive scandal, and the deaths of the man responsible and thousands of others. And it happened 100 years ago.

In May 1913 Austrian military intelligent agents had been informed by their opposite numbers in Berlin that two packages addressed to one "Herr Nizetas" had been examined when they were returned to the German capital, and contained 6,000 Kronen, but also the addresses of two known Russian agents. It was apparently some sort of pay-off. The packages were remailed to Vienna, and two intelligent agents assigned to the post office to watch for the unknown "Herr Nizetas".

On May 24th, when both operatives momentarily were unable to watch, "Herr Nizetas" showed up and claimed the packages, and left.
The operatives ran out and saw a cab with license A 3313 drive around the corner. They went back inside to see if the postal clerk could describe Nizetas. He said that Nizetas was well dressed but kept his gray hat down so the clerk could not see his face. The operatives went outside and found (unexpectedly) the cab with license A 3313 back. They questioned the driver, who again was unable to give a good description because the man had kept his grey hat down. Inside the cab was a small sheath, like the cover of a small letter opener-knife. It was swooped up by the operatives.
The cab driver took the operatives to a cafe, where he dropped off the fare. But the fare did not use the cafe. However, one of the workers saw the man take a second cab, and yell the destination out as the "Hotel Klomser".

An elegant Viennese hostelry, the operatives went there and spoke to the desk manager. He had been too busy to recall any strangers coming in, but he showed them the register. Looking at the businessmen, travellers, and visitors who signed, the operatives noticed one name: Col. Alfred Redl. Redl was the head of Austiran-Hungarian military intelligence, and had recently been assigned to a crack military group station in Prague. However, as he was frequently needed in Vienna, Redl used the Klomser as his address.

At first one of the operatives suggested asking Redl's help in the matter, but his associate seemed to be faster in thinking of the situation. He asked the desk manager if Redl entered in the last half hour. He had. Was he wearing a hat. The manager thought, and said he believed Redl was wearing a grey hat.

The operatives gave the small sheath to the manager, and asked him to show it to anyone he knew who came into the hotel in the last half hour, including Col. Redl. They positioned themselves in the lobby and watched. Eventually Redl came down in his uniform, and the manager asked him if he had dropped the knife sheath. Redl looked at it, smiled, and said he had thought he lost it. According to Frederic Morton, in hois book "Thunder at Twilight" Redl suddenly realized after saying that and reaching for the sheath that he had blundered.

That night Redl was visited by several officers. He made a confession regarding his being the paid mole for the Russian military for nearly a decade. After making his confession, Redl was given a pistol and the officers left. Redl's suicide was announced the next day due to overwork.
However, rumors about the real cause came out, and Redl's treason became known.

Redl was a homosexual, and when the Russians got this information they pressured him into his initial betrayals of military secrets - eventually paying him as well. Although (in an attempt to minimize the damage) the Austrian army said that small changes were needed to prevent Russian advantages from Redl's information, in fact Austria was badly beaten by Russian troops in 1914, 1915, and 1916, showing that the information was far more damaging than it was let on. Germany had to constantly pull Austria's army out of the resulting series of defeats.

Redl's story was turned into a film back in the 1980s, and a play on Broadway by John Osbourne, "A Patriot For Me" was put on in the 1960s with Maximillian Schell as Redl.

Jeff

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1963 May 26 - In Quebec, serial killer Léopold Dion lures Pierre Marquis, 13, to a secluded spot, supposedly to photograph him. Instead, Dion tries to molest the boy and strangles him when he resists the attack. The day after this murder, Dion was arrested and eventually sentenced to hang but this was later commuted to life in prison. In 1972, the killer was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate named Normand Champagne.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1963 May 26 - A teenage girl named Celina Salvana is fastened to a cross and slain in an act of human sacrifice. She was a member of a Mexican cult headed by Magdalena Solis, The High Blood Priestess, and her brother Eleazor. The sect was originated by two brothers, Santos and Cayetano Hernandez, as way to scam locals but it was turned into a true cult when it was taken over by the Solis siblings. Over a period of months, several other local villagers were likewise sacrificed. A young witness and four policemen were also killed during the investigation as were the two Hernandez brothers. Eventually, Magdalena and Eleazor Solis were arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1963 May 30 - In a New York City hotel room, Zenovia Clegg, 62, is strangled with her scarf by Charles Terry who had just turned 33. Zenovia had invited her young killer to the room with the intent of having sexual relations with him but something had gone horribly wrong. Terry, who was a convicted rapist, was found guilty of Clegg's murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair but this was eventually commuted to life in prison. In 1981, Terry died from lung cancer while incarcerated at Attica. He was a strong suspect in the very similar earlier slaying of a Brunswick, Maine woman named Shirley Coolen. Terry has also be mentioned as a person of interest in the core murders of the Boston Strangler.

[Mayerling]

50 years ago - 1963 May 26 - A teenage girl named Celina Salvana is fastened to a cross and slain in an act of human sacrifice. She was a member of a Mexican cult headed by Magdalena Solis, The High Blood Priestess, and her brother Eleazor. The sect was originated by two brothers, Santos and Cayetano Hernandez, as way to scam locals but it was turned into a true cult when it was taken over by the Solis siblings. Over a period of months, several other local villagers were likewise sacrificed. A young witness and four policemen were also killed during the investigation as were the two Hernandez brothers. Eventually, Magdalena and Eleazor Solis were arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Hi Stan,

Given all the resulting murders (including four policemen who were investigating) I'm surprised that Magdalena and Eleazor Solis were not executed. Did Mexico do away with capital punishment?

Jeff

[sdreid]

Hi Jeff:

I think Mexico still had capital punishment on the books but it was under some sort of moratorium and wasn't being used. It is totally banned now I believe.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1963 May 31 - Mexican police, aided by the military, raid the site of the Solis Cult. Three policeman and one cult member are killed in the shootout. Another cultist, who'd been killed in an internal squabble, was discovered as well. Authorities also found the hacked up remains of another policeman named Luis Martinez and a witness named Sebastian Gurrero, 14, who'd come to the area to investigate the human sacrifice of a teenage girl. The heart had been removed from the policeman's body. Over a period of months, several local people had been sacrificed by the cult that also practiced corpse mutilation and blood drinking. The leaders, Magdalena Solis, The High Priestess of Blood, and her brother were eventually arrested and given 30 year prison terms.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1963 June 4 - High school sweethearts, Robert Domingos, 18, and Linda Edwards, 17, are shot and killed on a California beach. The murders are still unsolved but some people have listed these as possibly the first slayings by the unknown Zodiac Killer.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1963 June 12 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is gunned down while getting out of his car in front of his Mississippi home. There were two trials that ended hung juries but in a third proceeding, that occurred in 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was finally convicted of the murder and given life without parole. He died incarcerated in 2001.

[DVV]

Byron De La Beckwith

Too nice a name for him.