Ohio Murder Case Inspired Hit TV Show (July 4, 1954)

This week (June 29-July 5) in crime history – U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty (June 29, 1972); Night of the Long Knives (June 30, 1934); Old West gunfighter Clay Allison was killed (July 1, 1887); NBA star Kobe Bryant was accused of sexual misconduct (July 1, 2003); President James A. Garfield was shot (July 2, 1881); Martha Ann Johnson was arrested for killing her four children (July 3, 1989); Marilyn Sheppard was murdered (July 4, 1954); Black Sox trial began (July 5, 1921); Old West outlaw Bill Doolin escaped from jail (July 5, 1896)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

On July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was beaten to death inside her suburban home in Cleveland, Ohio. Her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, claimed to have fallen asleep in the family’s living room and awakened to find a man with bushy hair fleeing the scene. The authorities, who uncovered the fact that Dr. Sheppard had been having an affair, did not believe his story and charged him with killing his pregnant wife.

Creating a national sensation, the media invaded the courtroom and printed daily stories premised on Sheppard’s guilt. The jurors, who were not sequestered, found Sheppard guilty. Arguing that the circumstances of the trial had unfairly influenced the jury, Sheppard appealed to the Supreme Court and got his conviction overturned in 1966. Yet, despite the fact that Sheppard had no previous criminal record, many still believed that he was responsible for his wife’s murder.

The Sheppard case brought to light the issue of bias within the court system. Jurors are now carefully screened to ensure that they have not already come to a predetermined conclusion about a case in which they are about to hear. In especially high-profile cases, jurors can be sequestered so that they are not exposed to outside media sources. However, most judges simply order jurors not to watch news reports about the case, and rely on them to honor the order.

Sheppard’s case provided the loose inspiration for the hit television show The Fugitive, in which the lead character, Richard Kimble, is falsely accused of killing his wife, escapes from prison, and pursues the one-armed man he claimed to have seen fleeing the murder scene.

In 1998, DNA tests on physical evidence found at Sheppard’s house revealed that there had indeed been another man at the murder scene. Sheppard’s son, who had pursued the case long after his father’s death in order to vindicate his reputation, sued the state for wrongful imprisonment in 2000, but lost.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949. Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following link:

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mayhem-Shocked-California-1849-1949/dp/0764339680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435593749&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Mobster Bugsy Siegel was Shot and Killed (June 20, 1947)

This week (June 15-21) in crime history – Police search the Aruba home of Joran van der Sloot in connection with disappearance of Natalie Holloway (June 15, 205); Kathleen Soliah aka Sara Jane Olsen a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army was arrested (June 16, 1999); Watergate burglars were arrested (June 17, 1972); O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murdering his ex-wife and a friend (June 17, 1994); Controversial radio host Alan Berg was gunned down in his driveway (June 18, 1984); Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed (June 19, 1953); Mobster Bugsy Siegel was shot and killed (June 20, 1947); A KKK lunch mob attacked three civil rights workers in Mississippi (June 21, 1964)  

 

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

 

 

On June 20, 1947, mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, was shot and killed at the Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend Virginia Hill. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through the window killing him instantly.

Siegel’s childhood had been pretty similar to that of other organized crime leaders: Growing up with little money in Brooklyn, he managed to establish himself as a teenage thug. With his pal Meyer Lansky, Siegel terrorized local peddlers and collected protection money. Before long, they had a business that included bootlegging and gambling all over New York City.

By the late 1930s, Siegel had become one of the major players of a highly powerful crime syndicate, which gave him funds to set up a Los Angeles franchise. Bugsy threw himself into the Hollywood scene, making friends with some of the biggest names of the time. His all-night parties at his Beverly Hills mansion became the hot spot in town. He also started up a successful gambling and narcotics operation to keep his bosses back east happy.

In 1945, Siegel had a brilliant idea. Just hours away from Los Angeles sat the sleepy desert town of Las Vegas, Nevada. It had nothing going for it except for a compliant local government and legal gambling. Siegel decided to build the Flamingo Hotel in the middle of the desert. The Flamingo wasn’t immediately profitable and Siegel ended up in an argument with Lucky Luciano over paying back the money used to build it. Around the same time that Siegel was killed in Beverly Hills, Luciano’s men walked into the Flamingo and announced that they were now in charge. Even Siegel probably never imagined the astounding growth and success of Las Vegas in the subsequent years.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

 

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949. Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following link:

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mayhem-Shocked-California-1849-1949/dp/0764339680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434390383&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+thomas+barry&pebp=1434307701409&perid=C85592FA92DC406EBA9F

Mobster Henry Hill was Born (June 11, 1943)

This week (June 8-14) in crime history – James Earl Ray was arrested in London for Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (June 8, 1968); Heidi Fleiss “The Hollywood Madame” was arrested in Los Angeles (June 9, 1993); Bridget Bishop was the first victim hanged in the Salem Witchcraft Trials (June 10, 1692); Mobster Henry Hill was born (June 11, 1943); Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered (June 12, 1994); Civil Rights leader Medger Evers was assassinated (June 12, 1963); Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was convicted of election corruption (June 12, 1975); The Miranda Rights were established (June 13, 1966); Jury began deliberations in the Susan Polk murder trial (June 13, 2006); TWA flight 847 was hijacked by terrorists (June 14, 1985)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

 

 

On June 11, 1943, mobster Henry Hill, whose life of crime was chronicled in the 1986 book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family and the 1990 film Goodfellas, was born in New York City. Hill’s underworld exploits included participating in the headline-making multi-million dollar heist at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at New York City’s JFK International Airport in 1978. It was the largest recorded cash robbery in American history at the time.

Hill, the son of an Italian-American mother and Irish-American electrician father, was attracted from a young age to the flashy lifestyles of the local mobsters in his Brooklyn neighborhood. In the mid-1950s he started working as an errand boy for a mob-operated taxi stand and pizzeria near his home. At age 17 Hill enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He continued his involvement in small-time criminal activities while in the military and was discharged after several years.

Back in New York, Hill, as an associate of the Lucchese organized crime family, participated in a host of illegal pursuits, including truck hijackings, loan sharking and drug dealing. In the 1970s he spent more than four years in prison for an extortion conviction. When he got out, Hill took part in the theft of $5.8 million in cash and jewels from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. Also in the late 1970s, Hill orchestrated a scheme in which members of the Boston College men’s basketball team were bribed to fix games.

In 1980, after being arrested on drug-trafficking charges, Hill, fearing his associates would kill him out of concern he might confess to the authorities, decided to make a deal with the government and become an informant. He went on to testify against a number of his fellow mobsters and helped put dozens of people behind bars. Along with his wife and two children, Hill spent time in the federal witness protection program during the 1980s, but he was eventually kicked out for drug offenses.

While he was in the witness protection program, Hill gave a series of interviews to journalist Nicholas Pileggi, who went on to write a bestselling about Hill. The book was adapted into the critically acclaimed film Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese. As he grew older, Hill never fully reformed his ways and was arrested for numerous charges during the last decade of his life. After suffering from various health issues including heart disease, Hill died at age 69 in a Los Angeles hospital on June 12, 2012.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

 

 

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the critically acclaimed author of six nonfiction books that includes Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949. Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mayhem-Shocked-California-1849-1949/dp/0764339680/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1433779939&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Serial Killer Leonard Lake was Arrested (June 2, 1985)

This week (June 1-7) in crime history – Benedict Arnold was court-martialed (June 1, 1779); Opening statements began in the trial of Scott Peterson (June 1, 2004); Timothy McVeigh was convicted for the Oklahoma City Bombing (June 2, 1997); Serial Killer Leonard Lake was arrested (June 2, 1985); Joran van der Sloot  was arrested for murder in Peru (June 3, 2010); Jonathan Pollard plead guilty to spying for Israel (June 4, 1986); Activist Angela Davis was acquitted of murder and other charges (June 4, 1972); Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot (June 5, 1968); Teenager Melissa Drexler gives birth at her prom then kills the baby (June 6, 1997); Civil Rights activist James Meredith was shot (June 6, 1966); Michael Skakel was convicted of murder (June 7, 2002)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

 

 

On June 2, 1985, Leonard Lake was arrested near San Francisco, California, ending one of the rare cases of serial killers working together. Lake and Charles Ng were responsible for a series of brutal crimes against young women in California and the Pacific Northwest during the mid-1980s. Lake was a former Marine who had served time in Vietnam. Ng, born in Hong Kong, was educated in England, and attended college in California briefly before being caught with automatic weapons that he had stolen from a military base in Hawaii and sent to Leavenworth federal prison. After his release, Ng hooked up with Lake in California and the two began a series of murders.

Ng and Lake shared a love of John Fowles’ The Collector, a book in which the protagonist kidnaps a woman solely to keep her in his possession, like the butterflies he collects as a hobby. Creating “Operation Miranda,” named after a character in the book, Ng and Lake began kidnapping young women and bringing them to a cinderblock bunker in a secluded area south of San Francisco. There, they tried to brainwash the women into becoming their willing sex slaves. They also kidnapped a young couple and their infant son in San Francisco while at their home pretending to be interested in some audiovisual equipment the couple was selling and later killed them.

Lake, who had been arrested in 1985 for his connection to a burglary committed by Ng, ingested a cyanide capsule while in custody, and killed himself. Ng escaped to Canada, where he successfully avoided extradition for almost six years. When he was finally returned to California for trial, he utilized other delaying tactics. By the time he was finally convicted, he had gone through multiple attorneys and judges. It was one of the longest homicide prosecutions in state history. After a four-month trial, the jury convicted Ng and he was sentenced to death in 1999.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

 

 

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949. Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mayhem-Shocked-California-1849-1949/dp/0764339680/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1433174145&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry