Centenaries - whole and half

[Mayerling]

50 years ago - 1965 July 14 - Eddie Crimmins Jr., 5, and Alice Marie Crimmins, 4, are reported missing from their Queens, NY residence. Later today, the little girl will be found strangled just a few blocks from her home. In the following week, the remains of her brother will be discovered next to a highway. The siblings' mother, Alice Crimmins will be charged and convicted of murdering Eddie and for manslaughter in the case of Alice Marie. Eventually, the murder conviction was thrown out and the woman was left to serve a relatively short term for the manslaughter conviction. Mrs. Crimmins was paroled in 1977.

The Crimmins Case occurred in Kew Garden Hills, a district between Elechester - Pomonok, Rego Park, and Forest Hills in Queens, N.Y. In 1965 we were living in the Flushing area, having moved there from Pomonok two years earlier. The case is quite vivid to me, because of the proximity of the killings to where I lived from 1954-63 and 1963 to 1965. If I am not mistaken, Eddie Crimmins' body or remains were found very near the then 1964-65 Worlds Fair Grounds in Flushing Meadows Park.

The curious thing about the case is how quickly attention turned on Alice Crimmins. Initially she reported that an intruder entered her apartment through a bedroom window and kidnapped the kids. For a number of days this was believed, but then rumors came out that Alice (who was separated from her husband) had a boyfriend with mob connections. Police attention turned back to her, and led to her arrest for the double murder. It was a tightly fought case (or cases, as there were two trials - the first had some errors in it). After conviction in the second trial, and some years in prison, Alice got released - rumor again had it that her boyfriend used his influence. Eventually she married the boyfriend.

Jeff

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 July 15 - In Nashville, 11-year-old Wanda June Anderson is raped and beaten to death as she babysits for some relatives. Her murder remains unsolved.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 July 20 - Frances Johnson, 58, is abducted from her Florida home and beaten to death. Her killer was Hoyt Cobb who had recently escaped from a prison sentence he was serving for another killing. Cobb was captured the following year and sent back to prison for both fatalities but was paroled in 1989.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1865 July 21 - In a Springfield, MO shootout, Davis Tutt is gunned down by Wild Bill Hickok. Wild Bill was first charged with murder but that was later reduced to manslaughter for which he was acquitted.

[sdreid]

1000 years ago - 1015 July 24 - Boris of Rostov is murdered in what is currently the Ukraine. He was killed to prevent him from succeeding his father as ruler of Kiev. Later in the century, he was declared a saint.

[GUT]

1000 years ago - 1015 July 24 - Boris of Rostov is murdered in what is currently the Ukraine. He was killed to prevent him from succeeding his father as ruler of Kiev. Later in the century, he was declared a saint.

But that's not a centenary that's a millennium .

[sdreid]

But that's not a centenary that's a millennium .

Tough crowd in here

[Ginger]

50 years ago - 1965 July 15 - In Nashville, 11-year-old Wanda June Anderson is raped and beaten to death as she babysits for some relatives. Her murder remains unsolved.

Police haven't given up on this one yet, it seems, at least as of 2012.

http://www.wsmv.com/story/19024068/cold-case-detectives-seek-publics-help-in-grisly-killings

Cold case detectives seek public's help in grisly killings
Posted: Jul 13, 2012 11:22 PM EDT Updated: Jul 27, 2012 11:22 PM EDT
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -

Metro police detectives have nearly 500 unsolved murders they are investigating, which date all the way back to the 1940s.

But three cases in particular continue to haunt cold case detectives. They are the brutal murders of three little girls during a time when most people had never even heard of the term "serial killer."

After all these years, police said, they think they are just one clue away from solving the cases.

It was the 1960s, and the country was at war. Back at home in Nashville, it was a time of peace and love, but it was a far different city than the one we know today. It was a smaller town with a certain innocence still intact.

You couldn't even find a drink unless you headed into Printer's Alley downtown.

But what was about to happen in the capitol city would leave neighbors wondering whose little girl would be next.

"Can you imagine going 40 years not knowing?" said Sgt. Pat Postiglione, with the Metro Police Cold Case Unit.

The three murder mysteries have left generations of Metro detectives scratching their heads, and the investigators still believe they can crack the case.

"Sex is typically the motive," Postiglione said.

The killings began in 1965 with the death of 11-year-old Wanda June Anderson.

"Blunt force trauma to the head," Postiglione said.

She was babysitting her nieces and nephews when someone lured her outside, raped her and beat her to death with a pipe. Police couldn't find the killer.

Then, just six months later, came another horrible crime scene. Another girl was found dead.

"She was found in her bed, and she had been stabbed one time. In the bed with her was her twin sister when she was stabbed," Postiglione said.

Someone killed 14-year-old Reba Kay Green while her family slept inside their north Nashville home on Nassau Street.

"It was really bizarre for someone to come in, and stab her one time, then leave. That was very unusual," Postiglione said.

In 1969, detectives would once again have to tell a family someone killed their daughter.

"Kathy Jones was reported missing on Nov. 29, and her body was found Dec. 2, 1969," Postiglione said.

Twelve-year-old Kathy headed off for the roller rink but never made it there.

"She was found in the alley on Grandview Avenue in a vacant lot with her roller skates still with her," Postiglione said.

Officers found the girl bound, gagged and sexually assaulted.

Police later arrested Edward Adcox, a convicted rapist, who they said bragged to other inmates about killing her, but the case fell apart when he changed his story.

"I was not guilty on the murder. I've never killed anybody in my life. I just can't stand the sight of blood, myself," Adcox said in a Channel 4 News interview at the time.

Police have had suspects in the Green and Anderson murders, too, but never arrested anyone.

Detectives have even explored the idea the same person may have been responsible for all three killings, but all three slayings remain unsolved.

"Hopefully these three will be made at some point," Postiglione said.

Believe it or not, Metro police continues to get leads on these three cold case murders, and Postiglione said his department follows up on every single one of them.

But he is still asking for your help. If you remember anything or have any information, they still ask that you come forward

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 July 25 - In a Brightion, England rented room, James Maidment, 36, is found brutally stabbed to death. Maidment, who was believed to be homosexual, was reportedly seen late on the previous evening in the company of an unidentified younger man. The victim's money was not taken so no motive was ever determined for this still unsolved murder.

[sdreid]

200 years ago - 1815 July 26 - Twenty-three-year-old Elizabeth Fenning is hanged in England for attempted murder. Miss Fenning was a servant in the Turner household and was convicted of poisoning its members with arsenic although all survived. Many, if not most, people today believe she was actually innocent and that a more likely culprit was a member of the Turner family.

[Mayerling]

200 years ago - 1815 July 26 - Twenty-three-year-old Elizabeth Fenning is hanged in England for attempted murder. Miss Fenning was a servant in the Turner household and was convicted of poisoning its members with arsenic although all survived. Many, if not most, people today believe she was actually innocent and that a more likely culprit was a member of the Turner family.

There is an essay by William Roughead on the Fenning case in his collection, "Malice Domestic" ("Miss Fennings Misfortune?; or, The Proof in the Pudding") with an illustration of Eliza in the original edition. Roughead goes through all accounts on the case, and concludes the preponderance of opinion is in favor of Eliza.

I'm not sure but when Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" in 1818 the Fenning controversy was growing in Britain, and she probably was aware of it. In that novel, there is an incident where a servant girl is accused of a murder and hanged for it protesting her innocence (it turns out she is telling the truth). That may have been based on what happened in the Fenning case.

Jeff

[Rosella]

I just feel it was a terrible miscarriage of justice. What makes it even more tragic is that Eliza was her parents' last surviving child. Considering the dangerous substances in the home in those days it could have been an accident.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1865 July 28 - Dr. Edward Pritchard is executed by hanging in Scotland for the poisoning murders of his wife and mother-in-law.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1915 July 30 - Lieutenant Charles Becker, a corrupt New York policeman, goes to the electric chair for his involvement in the shooting murder of Herman Rosenthal. Becker's accomplices had already been executed on earlier dates.

50 years ago - 1965 July 30 - North Carolina coed Suellen Evans, 21, is stabbed in the heart as she takes a shortcut to her dorm room. Before her death, she stated that the man was trying to rape her. An individual with blood on his clothing was seen running from the area but the murder was never solved.

[sdreid]

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