Centenaries - whole and half

[Ginger]

100 years ago - 1917 May 24 - Dr. Arthur Warren Waite, a dentist, is put to death in a New York electric chair. The year previous, he'd murdered his wife's parents for profit.

Oh, yes! I'd just been reading about him not so long ago. He was a real piece of work: http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/waite-arthur-warren.htm If he'd shown some patience, he'd more than likely have gotten away with it.

[sdreid]

100 years ago - 1917 May 24 - Dr. Arthur Warren Waite, a dentist, is put to death in a New York electric chair. The year previous, he'd murdered his wife's parents for profit.

50 years ago - 1967 May 24 - In Ireland, the body of Maria Donenech is found and it's presumed that she had been murdered by her boyfriend, Patrick D'Arcy. The suspect fled to the U. S. and committed suicide in Florida before he could be questioned. Maria's mother vanished in New York shortly before D'Arcy was discovered in Miami and it is assumed that he'd killed her as well, although her remains were never located.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1967 May 20 - In South Carolina, Annie Dedmond is strangled and left in the middle of a highway. Roger Dedmond, her husband, was convicted of the crime but it was later determined that Annie was the first victim of serial killer Lee Roy Martin. Mr. Dedmond was released from prison and Martin was incarcerated. Martin was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate during 1979.

[GUT]

Certainly one of the most scurvy sports crimes of all time, up there with the decision to take back Jim Thorpe's gold medals for being an apparent professional athlete when he was in the Olympics - but at least they were eventually restored to Thorpe's descendants.

It was supposed to say Greatest, but greasy fits.

[Mayerling]

50 years ago, the greasy crime of all time.

Muhammad Ali, stripped of his World Title and the world denied what should have been his greatest years in the ring.

Certainly one of the most scurvy sports crimes of all time, up there with the decision to take back Jim Thorpe's gold medals for being an apparent professional athlete when he was in the Olympics - but at least they were eventually restored to Thorpe's descendants.

[Mayerling]

Mayerling- It was William Davison doing the death warrant sleight of hand not William Brewster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Davison_(diplomat)

You are correct, and properly have corrected me, that Davison did it (possibly for the most patriotic of motives), but somehow Brewster is connected (as a secretary to Davison?) in the latter's career. I did read that several decades ago.

Jeff.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1967 May 1 - Fourteen-year-old Nikki Benedict is stabbed to death on a Southern California dirt trail. Nikki's murder is unsolved and some think she could have been an early victim of the Zodiac Killer.

[GUT]

50 years ago, the greasy crime of all time.

Muhammad Ali, stripped of his World Title and the world denied what should have been his greatest years in the ring.

[Penhalion]

Mayerling- It was William Davison doing the death warrant sleight of hand not William Brewster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Davison_(diplomat)

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1867 April 26 - The English woman who will become known as Mary Ann Cotton murders her stepdaughter Elizabeth Robinson, 8, with arsenic. She was one of about 21 the murderess dispatched over a 15 year period. The serial killer murdered several husbands, her children, additional stepchildren, a sister-in-law and a lover. Mary Ann went to the gallows in 1873.

[GUT]

I'm looking forward to the drama series about this case, "Dark Angel", which is coming to PBS, and will star Jane Froggett, formerly of "Downton Abbey."

The summary I read on the case suggested that Cotton murdered for personal or practical reasons, mostly to avoid having to be tied down by husbands or children. Perhaps she had been born too soon.

I think that's right about her motive.

And I'm hoping we get the series here.

[Pcdunn]

"Dark Angel"

150 years ago - 1867 April 21 - The English woman who will become known as Mary Ann Cotton murders her stepson James Robinson, 6, with arsenic. He was one of about 21 the murderess dispatched over a 15 year period. The serial killer murdered several husbands, her children, additional stepchildren, a sister-in-law and a lover. Mary Ann went to the gallows in 1873.

I'm looking forward to the drama series about this case, "Dark Angel", which is coming to PBS, and will star Jane Froggett, formerly of "Downton Abbey."

The summary I read on the case suggested that Cotton murdered for personal or practical reasons, mostly to avoid having to be tied down by husbands or children. Perhaps she had been born too soon.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1967 April 24 - In New Jersey, Darlene Polizzi, 19, vanishes from the apartment she shares with her husband. She has not been found and some believe she could have been slain by an acquaintance who some think might be a serial killer. The man was never charged and the case is still unsolved.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1867 April 21 - The English woman who will become known as Mary Ann Cotton murders her stepson James Robinson, 6, with arsenic. He was one of about 21 the murderess dispatched over a 15 year period. The serial killer murdered several husbands, her children, additional stepchildren, a sister-in-law and a lover. Mary Ann went to the gallows in 1873.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1967 April 19 - Coby van der Voort is beaten and stabbed to death by her sometime lover Hans van Zon. The woman was one of the serial killer's five known victims. He was convicted and sent to a Dutch prison for life but was released in 1986 and died in 1998.