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Centenaries - whole and half

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  • Originally posted by sdreid View Post
    100 years ago - 1911 January 24 - The head caretaker at Lancaster Castle in England, William Bingham, dies after a sudden illness. His daughter, Annie, had also passed away mysteriously in the previous November. Later this year, more of his children, Margaret and James, will also succumb. This finally aroused suspicions and arsenic was found in the remains of the last three to die. If Annie was slain, it was apparently by some other means. Daughter and sister of the victims, Edith Bingham was charged with murder but was found not guilty. In 1914, she was sent to an asylum where she died in 1945. Officially, the case is unsolved.
    Hi Stan.

    I heard of the case (there is a brief account in THE MURDERER'S WHO'S WHO) but I wonder if anyone has written an account.

    Jeff

    Comment


    • Hi Jeff:

      I don't know of a book on the case which seems somewhat of an omission. The best account I've found is the entry in The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Brian Lane and Wilfred Gregg. There are some slight disagreements about William's date of death but I went with their listing.
      This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

      Stan Reid

      Comment


      • Challenger.

        Hi Stan,

        I know that it is not a centenary or even a half but I felt that I must mention that a quarter of a century ago today, on the 28th Jan. 1986, the Space Shuttle "Challenger" met with the disaster that we all watched on our TV screens and in which all seven crew perished. I can't get my head round it been 25 years! I can still see the whole dreadful spectacle unfolding before my eyes as if it had only happened say maybe a year or two ago. RIP

        Best Wishes,
        Zodiac.
        And thus I clothe my naked villainy
        With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ;
        And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

        Comment


        • Thanks Zodiac. Yes, I remember that well. I had no plans to watch the blast-off but just happened to get up right before and turned on TV which was on CNN from the day before. When I saw there were about 20 seconds to the launch, I thought I'd go ahead and view it. I remember thinking, "That thing just blew up!", and wondering why the commentator seemed oblivious to the fact. Sitting there, I kept hoping to see the Shuttle come out of the cloud but sadly that didn't happen.
          This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

          Stan Reid

          Comment


          • I was home sick the day of the Challenger disaster, and also on the day of the first World Trade Center attack (the garage bombing) in the early 1990s.
            In the first incident I called my supervisor, Bob, to tell him that the Challenger blew up. I never have forgotten that moment - that crowd at first thought the destruction of the shuttle was part of the show. It included the parents of one of the crew (Christa McAuliffe)? Then the announcement that the shuttle had blown up.

            Somehow I am glad that photos of the crew (when the remains were found) never got published. The photos of Mary Kelly are grim enough, as are the autopsy pictures of JFK.

            Jeff

            Comment


            • 50 years ago - 1961 February 9 - The body of nine-year-old Carol Ann Dudley is discovered along a Virginia snow trail. It was believed that her parents, Irene and Kenneth Dudley had been transporting her remains in their car for several days. They had left a trail of dead children over the past. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley sometimes withheld food from their offspring as punishment in addition to other brutal treatment and neglect. They were thought to be responsible for the deaths of at least six of their children and were confined in a mental facility.
              Last edited by sdreid; 02-07-2011, 02:20 PM.
              This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

              Stan Reid

              Comment


              • 50 years ago - 1961 February 22 - Visiting New York City, four-year-old Edith Kiecorius disappears while out playing with friends. After four days of searching, her beaten and raped nude remains are found in a squalid sleeping room that had been rented by a man named Fred J. Thompson. When he was taken in, police were forced to protect him from a raging mob. He eventually was sent to an insane asylum for the killing.
                This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                Stan Reid

                Comment


                • 50 years ago - 1961 March 3 - While robbing an antique shop in England, Edwin Albert Bush stabs Mrs. Elsie Batten to death. He was the first criminal to be arrested as a result of the new Identikit system. Bush was convicted of murder and hanged.
                  This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                  Stan Reid

                  Comment


                  • 450 years ago - 1561 March 6 - In Rome, Cardinal Carlo Carafa is executed by strangulation. He'd been arrested and tried for murder and other things on order of Pope Pius IV. Carafa had been accused of massacring some Spanish soldiers who were recuperating in a hospital at one time. Six years after the execution, Pope Pius V declared the sentence to be unjust.
                    This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                    Stan Reid

                    Comment


                    • 100 years ago - 1911 March 14 - On a Chicago street corner, Black Hand assassin, Shotgun Man murders three men. In days at the same location, he will shot and kill another man. His final tally was near 15. By month's end, Shotgun Man will disappear, never to be captured or identified. Word on the street was that he'd amassed enough money from his hits to return to his native Sicily and live out his days in comfortable retirement.
                      This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                      Stan Reid

                      Comment


                      • 50 years ago - 1961 March 24 - A wealthy diamond merchant named Baron Dieter von Shauroth is murdered with two shots in the head. His bodyguard, Marthinus Rossouw was found guilty in a South African court and hanged.
                        This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                        Stan Reid

                        Comment


                        • 100 years ago - 1911 March 25 - In the Ukraine, Andrei Yushchinsky, 13, is slain. His mutilated remains were found in a cave near a brick plant soon after. A Jewish man named Menahem Beilis was charged with the murder. He was almost certainly innocent and was found not guilty. Popular speculation is that Andrei was killed by Vera Cheberyak, a woman who was engaged in some criminal enterprise, to keep him from going to the police in that regard. She had two little children who also died mysteriously soon after, possibly by poison and for the same reason. Vera was executed by the Cheka in 1919 for choosing the wrong side in the Russian Civil War, not for any of her criminal activities. The murder is officially unsolved.

                          Note: The Old Style Calendar was still being used in the region at the time and there the date was March 12 but that was March 25 in most of the rest of the world and on our current calendar.
                          This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                          Stan Reid

                          Comment


                          • Hi Stan,

                            His name was Mendel Beilis - there have been several books on the case, most notably BLOOD LIBEL. That Beilis was not convicted despite the force of the Romanoff Government to achieve a conviction was a real victory - or it just showed how weak that autocratic government was on the brink of the Great War that destroyed it.

                            Jeff

                            Comment


                            • Yes Jeff, at least the jury was apparently honest in making their decision.
                              This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                              Stan Reid

                              Comment


                              • 50 years ago - 1961 March 29 - Near Chesterfield, England, George Stobbs is found brutally slain in his car. This crime was called the Carbon Copy Murder because it was virtually identical to another that had occurred the previous year. The two victims were homosexuals and a man named Michael Copeland was convicted of both slayings as well as another in Germany. A witness being investigated died under mysterious circumstances as well. Copeland was sentenced to death but that was eventually reduced to life in prison.
                                This my opinion and to the best of my knowledge, that is, if I'm not joking.

                                Stan Reid

                                Comment

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