Centenaries - whole and half

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 March 31 - Vernice and Victor Bowen, who are married, are gunned down at a San Diego yacht club by William A. A. Tahl. Victor was Mr. Tahl's employer. The double murderer then proceeded to rape another woman and threaten to kill her child before fleeing to Texas where he murdered another man later this month. Tahl was then apprehended and incarcerated.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 April 1 - In their Palm Springs home, former Hollywood film star Tom Neal shoots his wife Gale in the back of the head with a .45 caliber hand gun. The actor claimed the killing was the accidental result of a struggle for the gun between Gale and himself. Prosecutors sought the death penalty in the case but wound up only getting a conviction for involuntary manslaughter. Neal served just six years in prison then worked briefly as a landscaper and died in 1972 from heart disease.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1915 April 4 - The body of seven-year-old Margaret Ellen Nally is found in the waiting room of a London railway station. She had been so brutally raped that her vagina had actually been torn open. Her death was the result of suffocation caused when her handkerchief was jammed down her throat. A rather nondescript man had been seen at the station earlier in the day offering sweets to children. This man was never found and the murder remains unsolved.

50 years ago - 1965 April 4 - In rural Michigan, the bodies of Mary Clark, Delores Young and Diane Carter are found together. All were victims of serial killer Clarence Walker. He was later captured and sent to prison for another crime in different state.

[Mayerling]

100 years ago - 1915 April 4 - The body of seven-year-old Margaret Ellen Nally is found in the waiting room of a London railway station. She had been so brutally raped that her vagina had actually been torn open. Her death was the result of suffocation caused when her handkerchief was jammed down her throat. A rather nondescript man had been seen at the station earlier in the day offering sweets to children. This man was never found and the murder remains unsolved.

The previous year Willie Starchfield had been found dead in a London railway station. His father John Starchfield had been charged and tried for the murder but the case against him collapsed in court and he was acquitted. John Starchfield (who had won a Carnegie pension-award for stopping a madman named Stephen Titus who had shot and killed as woman, while getting wounded in the action, a number of years before) died about three years after the trial (as a result of the wounds he got subdoing Titus). Starchfield always felt some friend or relative of Titus was responsible for the murder of Willie. Starchfield and his wife had been separated or divorced when Willie was killed, but the police (having bungled the case against Starchfield) briefly arrested Mrs. Starchfield for the killing - only to release her soon after. The Starchfield murder was never solved. Most commentators think that John Starchfield may still have been his son's murderer. But perhaps Willie was murdered by the same person who killed this young girl, Margaret Ellen Nally - although in her case there seems a definite sexual cause in the homicide.

Jeff

[sdreid]

Interesting Jeff. I hadn't thought about a possible connection but it can't be discounted.

[sdreid]

200 year ago - 1815 April 6 - In England's Dartmoor Prison, American prisoners of war are fired on by enraged guards. The event, that became known as the Dartmoor massacre, left at least seven Americans dead and about 60 wounded. Tempers flared when the inmates, who were upset with delays in their repatriation after the end of the War of 1812, became unruly and began pelting their guards with rocks. The guards then overreacted in retaliation. There was an investigation but no one was ever punished for the shootings.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1865 April 9 - Bushranger John Fuller, aka Daniel "Mad" Morgan, is shot and killed by Australian police while I the process of a robbery. Over a four month period in the previous year, Fuller had murdered at least three men, two of whom were policemen.

[GUT]

150 years ago - 1865 April 9 - Bushranger John Fuller, aka Daniel "Mad" Morgan, is shot and killed by Australian police while I the process of a robbery. Over a four month period in the previous year, Fuller had murdered at least three men, two of whom were policemen.

Thanks Stan we had a few Bushrangers. It is tempting to be sorry for some of them.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 April 11 - In his Minnesota home, Dennis Jurgens, 3, dies from a perforated bowel. The little boy was found to be half starved with many physical injuries including bite marks to his genitals. After more than a 20 year delay, Dennis' stepmother, Lois Jurgens, was charged with his murder and convicted. After serving only eight years, Mrs. Jurgens was released on good behavior and died in 2013. There have been some who also suspected that she might have been responsible for the deaths of her husband and her mother-in-law.

[GUT]

150 years ago - 1865 April 9 - Bushranger John Fuller, aka Daniel "Mad" Morgan, is shot and killed by Australian police while I the process of a robbery. Over a four month period in the previous year, Fuller had murdered at least three men, two of whom were policemen.

Just found this

[Mayerling]

Just found this

[ATTACH]16742[/ATTACH]

Wasn't there a movie with Dennis Hopper about Morgan?

[sdreid]

Wasn't there a movie with Dennis Hopper about Morgan?

I believe so Jeff although I haven't seen it.

[GUT]

Wasn't there a movie with Dennis Hopper about Morgan?

1976 Mad Dog Morgan.

[Mayerling]

1976 Mad Dog Morgan.

Thanks GUT and Stan.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1865 April 14 - President Abraham Lincoln is shot in DC by John Wilkes Booth. He died early the next morning. Booth went on the run and was later hunted down and killed by U.S. Army troops. Several of Booth's associates were eventually convicted and four were hanged.

50 years ago - 1965 April 14 - Richard Hickock and Perry Smith are hanged in Kansas for the 1959 massacre of the Clutter family.