Centenaries - whole and half

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 March 21 - Nancy Savino, 4, dies mysteriously after checking into New Jersey's Riverdell Hospital for a routine appendectomy. In 1976, an Argentine doctor named Mario Jascalevich was charged with killing Nancy and several other patients by injecting them with curare. The doctor, however, was acquitted at trial and returned to his native country where he died in 1984. Today, the cases remain officially unsolved.

[Mayerling]

50 years ago - 1966 March 21 - Nancy Savino, 4, dies mysteriously after checking into New Jersey's Riverdell Hospital for a routine appendectomy. In 1976, an Argentine doctor named Mario Jascalevich was charged with killing Nancy and several other patients by injecting them with curare. The doctor, however, was acquitted at trial and returned to his native country where he died in 1984. Today, the cases remain officially unsolved.

If I'm not mistaken the doctor was believed to have used some very obscure poison on the victims, and this was why he was acquitted - the jury just could not grasp the nature of the poison nor accept the difficulties of acquiring it.

Jeff

[GUT]

50 years ago - 1966 March 21 - Nancy Savino, 4, dies mysteriously after checking into New Jersey's Riverdell Hospital for a routine appendectomy. In 1976, an Argentine doctor named Mario Jascalevich was charged with killing Nancy and several other patients by injecting them with curare. The doctor, however, was acquitted at trial and returned to his native country where he died in 1984. Today, the cases remain officially unsolved.

So did it take 10 years to nab him, or where there murders in between and he was charged relatively soon after the last one.

[sdreid]

I think that was an issue Jeff.

So did it take 10 years to nab him, or where there murders in between and he was charged relatively soon after the last one.

GUT-The last murder he was charged with occurred in late 1966 so I guess it took them nearly 10 years to put two and two together.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1916 March 24 - While traveling by train through Oklahoma with a prisoner, Sheriff Jacob Giles is shot in the head and killed by Ida Hadley, the wife of the man in custody. Paul Hadley had previously killed a woman named Anna Johnson. Mrs. Hadley was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1916 March 26 - In Leavenworth Penitentiary, Robert Stroud stabs guard Andrew Turner to death. Stroud was incarcerated because he'd killed a man in Alaska he claimed had attacked and refused to pay one of his prostitutes. The prisoner was sentenced to death for the murder of the guard but this was eventually reduced to life in prison. Stroud later gained a measure of fame as "The Birdman of Alcatraz". He spent the last 54 years of his life in prison and died in 1963.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1916 April 1 - A German firing squad in Brussels executes Gabrielle Petit. She had been convicted of aiding British Intelligence.

[Mayerling]

100 years ago - 1916 April 1 - A German firing squad in Brussels executes Gabrielle Petit. She had been convicted of aiding British Intelligence.

Not as well known outside of Belgium as Edith Cavell.

Jeff

[GUT]

100 years ago - 1916 April 1 - A German firing squad in Brussels executes Gabrielle Petit. She had been convicted of aiding British Intelligence.

Not as well known outside of Belgium as Edith Cavell.

Jeff

I must say I hadn't heard of her, however Mrs Gut knew a bit and filled me in.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 April 4 - In her Cincinnati apartment, Lois Dant is raped and strangled to death. A man named Posteal Laskey was later convicted of another one of seven other similar attacks and given a life sentence. The murders ceased with his removal.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1866 April 7 - James Stack is hanged in New Zealand for the hammer murders of Mary Finnegan and three of her sons. Her forth son was away in the military and escaped the carnage. Mrs. Finnegan was the mother of Stack's deceased wife but no motive was ever determined.

150 years ago - 1866 April 7 - On a farm just outside of Philadelphia, Anton Probst lures 8 people, one by one, into the barn then axes and slashes them to death. The killer was hired help there and the victims were Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Dearing, four of their children and a relative of the Dearings who was visiting at time as well as a young fellow farmhand. One son of the couple was away with his grandparents and escaped the massacre. Probst's motive was robbery and he will be hanged in early June.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 April 9 - At 12:45 AM, Mary Pierce is last seen leaving her job at Frank's Place in Monmouth, IL. A few days later, her beaten body was found in a hog shed behind the tavern. Pierce is believed to probably be the first murder victim of Richard Speck.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 April 10 - Hotel night clerk, Mozelle Spencer, 78, is shot and killed. The victim was one of several Virginia murders perpetrated by brothers William and Thomas Penn over a six week period. Both men eventually got long prison terms. The victims were robbed but the haul seemed too minor to be much of a motive.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1866 April 11 - Sarah Millson is relaxing with a fellow servant in the home of her London employer when she hears a knock at the door. She immediately jumps to her feet and exclaims, "That's for me!" and leaves. After a long absence, the fellow employee decides to check on the maid and finds her beaten to death in the entryway. Several suspects had solid alibis and the murder was never solved.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1916 April 12 - In France, Andree-Anne Babelay disappears after going to meet Henri Landru. She is believed to be the seventh of his, at least, 11 vicims. His scheme was to seduce lonely older women then murder them after gaining access to their insurance and funds. Landru went to the guillotine in 1922.