Bonnie and Clyde were Killed in Police Shootout (May 23, 1934)

This week (May 18-24) in crime history – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished (May 18, 1926); Irish playwright Oscar Wilde was released from prison (May 19, 1897); Mary Kay Letourneau married her victim (May 20, 2005); Bobbie Franks was abducted by Leopold and Loeb (May 21, 1924); Amy Fisher was arrested for shooting her lover’s wife (May 21, 1992); Serial killer Wayne Williams was questioned by police in regards to a rash of child killings in Atlanta (May 22, 1981); Chandra Levey’s remains were found (May 22, 2002); Bonnie and Clyde were killed in police shootout (May 23, 1934); Captain Kidd was executed (May 23, 1701); Former Nazi Adolf Eichmann was captured in Argentina (May 23, 1960)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

 

 

On May 23, 1934, infamous outlaw fugitives Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were killed in a police ambush near Sailes, Louisiana. A contingent of officers from Texas and Louisiana set up along the highway, waiting for the duo to appear, and then unloaded a two-minute fusillade of 167 bullets at their car, killing the criminal couple. Bonnie Parker was 19 years old when she met Clyde Barrow while visiting her husband in a Texas jail. Barrow, serving time for burglary, obviously made quite an impression on Parker, because she smuggled a gun, taped to her thigh, into prison to help him escape. He was eventually caught in Ohio and brought back to prison. When a personal appeal from his mother to the Texas governor earned his release in 1932, he vowed never to return.

Bonnie and Clyde teamed up shortly thereafter. After Bonnie was caught stealing a car, she had to spend three months in prison, while Clyde went on a robbery spree. He then killed a sheriff and deputy at a barn dance in Oklahoma. In the fall of 1932, the pair spent their time carrying out small-time robberies throughout Texas and Oklahoma. At one such robbery, they picked up W. D. Jones, a gas station attendant, who joined their team for the next 18 months. Buck Barrow, Clyde’s brother who was recently pardoned by the new Texas governor, Ma Ferguson, also joined the gang.

For some reason, the media latched onto Bonnie and Clyde. The pair loved the attention, posing for snapshots with their arsenal of weapons. In early 1934, they barely escaped a trap in Missouri, killing two lawmen in the ensuing shootout. Buck and his wife, Blanche, were shot and captured, but Buck died from his wounds. Texas Ranger Frank Hamer finally caught up with Bonnie and Clyde in May, after tracking them for more than three months. Today, Bonnie and Clyde are remembered as charming Robin Hood type characters which are far from the truth, mostly due to the sympathetic personalities portrayed in the 1967 classic movie Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, as well as other farfetched portrayals.

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=1431969765&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

LAPD Raided the Hideout of the Symbionese Liberation Army - May 17, 1974

This week (May 11-17) in crime history – Marie Besnards’ husbands body was exhumed in connection to her serial poisoning case (May 11, 1949); Trial of former Nazi Klaus Barbie began (May 11, 1987); Body of the Lindbergh baby was found (May 12, 1932); Pope John Paul II was shot (May 13, 1981); Three-year-old June Devaney was kidnapped from a Blackburn, England hospital (May 14, 1948); Patricia Columbo and Frank Deluca were arrested for the brutal killing of her family in Elk Grove, Illinois (May 15, 1976: Celebrity private detective Anthony Pellicano was found guilty of various crimes (May 15, 2008); Norma Jean Armistead kidnapped another baby (May 16, 1975); LAPD raids hideout of the Symbionese Liberation Army (May 17, 1974)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

On May 17, 1974, Los Angeles police surround a home in Compton, California, where the leaders of the terrorist group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army were hiding out. The SLA had kidnapped Patricia Hearst, the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, months earlier, earning headlines across the country. Police found the house in Compton when a local mother reported that her kids had seen a bunch of people playing with an arsenal of automatic weapons in the living room of the home.

The LAPD’s 500-man siege on the Compton home was only the latest event in a short, but exceedingly bizarre, episode. The SLA was a small group of violent radicals who quickly made their way to national prominence, far out of proportion to their actual influence. They began by killing Oakland’s superintendent of schools in late 1973 but really burst into society’s consciousness when they kidnapped Hearst the following February.

Months later, the SLA released a tape on which Hearst said that she was changing her name to Tania and joining the SLA. Shortly thereafter, a surveillance camera in a bank caught Hearst carrying a machine gun during an SLA robbery. In another incident, SLA member General Teko was caught trying to shoplift from a sporting goods store, but escaped when Hearst sprayed the front of the building with machine gun fire. Although law enforcement officials began talking about the SLA as if they were a well-established paramilitary terrorist organization, the SLA had only a handful of members, most of who were disaffected middle class youths.

On May 17, Los Angeles police shot an estimated 1,200 rounds of ammunition into the tiny Compton home as six SLA members shot back. Teargas containers thrown into the hideout started a fire, but the SLA refused to surrender. Autopsy results showed that they continued to fire back even as smoke and flames were searing their lungs; they clearly chose suicide and martyrdom over jail. The raid left six SLA members dead, including leader Donald DeFreeze, also known as Cinque. Patty Hearst was not inside the home at the time. She was not found until September 1975.

Patty Hearst was put on trial for armed robbery and convicted, despite her claim that she had been coerced, through repeated rape, isolation, and brainwashing, into joining the SLA. Prosecutors believed that she actually orchestrated her own kidnapping because of her prior involvement with one of the SLA members. Despite any real proof of this theory, she was convicted and sent to prison. President Carter commuted Hearst’s sentence after she had served almost two years and she was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001.

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 include 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=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Former Italian Prime Minster Aldo Moro was Assassinated - May 9, 1978

This week (May 4-10) in crime history – The Haymarket Riot (May 4, 1886); The remains of navy veteran William McGuire were found in a suit case near Virginia Beach (May 5, 2004); Ohio kidnap victims were rescued from the home of Ariel Castro (May 6, 2013); Old West hangman George Maledon died (May 6, 1911); Serial killer H.H. Holmes was executed (May 7, 1896); Edward Munch’s “The Scream” was recovered after it was stolen in Oslo (May 7, 1994): Stella Nickell was convicted of murdering her husband by tampering with capsules of Excedrin (May 8, 1988); Andrew Cunanan continued his cross country killing spree (May 9, 1997); Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was assassinated (May 9, 1978); Captain Blood stole the crown jewels (May 9, 1671); J. Edgar Hoover was named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (May 10, 1924)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

On May 9, 1978, the body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was found, riddled by bullets, in the back of a car in the center of historic Rome. He was kidnapped by Red Brigade terrorists on March 16 after a bloody shoot-out near his suburban home. The Italian government refused to negotiate with the extreme left-wing group. Moro was a five-time prime minister of Italy and considered a front-runner for the presidency of Italy in elections due in December.

Aldo Moro was regarded by many as Italy’s most capable post-World War II politician. A centrist leader of the Christian Democratic Party and promoted cooperation between Italy’s disparate political parties. When he formed his first cabinet in 1963, he included some Socialists, who were thus participating in the Italian government for the first time in 16 years. Moro last served as prime minister in 1976, and in October 1976 became president of the Christian Democrats.

On March 11, 1978, he helped end a government crisis when he worked out a parliamentary coalition between the Communist Party and the dominant Christian Democrats. Just five days later, Mr. Moro’s car was attacked by a dozen armed Red Brigade terrorists. His five guards were killed, and Moro was abducted and taken to a secret location. On March 18, the Red Brigade issued a communique claiming responsibility for the kidnapping.

The Red Brigade, established in 1970 by Renato Curcio, employed bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and bank robberies as a means of promoting communist revolution in Italy. The Italian Communist Party, which supported democracy and participated in Parliament, condemned the terrorist organization. Curcio and 12 other Red Brigade members were on trial in Turin when Moro was kidnapped, and legal proceedings were only briefly halted after his abduction.

The Italian government declined to negotiate with the kidnappers, claiming that such an action would undermine the state and throw Italy into chaos. Some critics accused the Christian Democrats of yielding to pressure from the Communist Party, whose leaders were even more strongly opposed to a dialogue with the Red Brigade. Police and the army arrested hundreds of suspected terrorists.

On March 19 and April 4, letters apparently written by Moro were delivered pleading with the government to negotiate. The government attempted secret talks, but on April 15 the Red Brigade rejected these negotiations and announced that Moro had been found guilty in the people’s trial and sentenced to death. Threats to execute him led nowhere, and on April 24 the terrorists demanded the release of 13 Red Brigade members held in Turin in exchange for Moro’s life. On May 9, his body was found on Via Caetani, near the headquarters of the Christian Democrats and Communist Party. According to a wish expressed by Moro during his abduction, no Italian politicians were invited to his funeral. During the next decade, many Red Brigade leaders and members were arrested, and the organization was greatly weakened.

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=1430754232&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Madeleine McCann Vanished in Portugal - May 3, 2007

This week (April 27-May 3) in crime history – Andrew Cunanan began cross country killing spree (April 27, 1997); Jaycee Dugard’s kidnappers plead guilty (April 28, 2011); Mutiny on the HMS Bounty (April 28, 1789); Martin Bryant began killing spree in Australia (April 28, 1996); Deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was executed (April 28, 1945); Police officers in the Rodney King beating trial were found innocent (April 29, 1992); First Federal prison for women opened in West Virginia (April 30. 1927); Tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed during match in Germany (April 30, 1993); Former NBA star Jayson Williams was indicted for the shooting death of Costas Christofi (May 1, 2002); Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces in Pakistan (May 2, 2011); Kidnapped Exxon executive Sidney Reso died in storage vault in New Jersey (May 3, 1992); Four year-old toddler Madeline McCann disappeared while on vacation with her parents in Portugal (May 3, 2007)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On the evening of May 3, 2007, four-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished while on vacation with her parents at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, a tourist village along Portugal’s Algarve coast. Gerry and Kate McCann went with friends to the Ocean Club’s tapas bar, leaving a sleeping Madeleine and her brother and sister in the family’s ground-floor apartment, located near the tapas bar. The McCanns and their friends agreed to check on the children every half hour. At around 10:00 p.m., Kate McCann went to the apartment and discovered Madeleine was missing. Portuguese police initially believed the little girl had wandered off and would be quickly found. As a result, they failed to promptly distribute a description of the missing child or search cars crossing the Portugal-Spain border, less than two hours from Praia da Luz. McCann’s disappearance generated widespread media coverage in Europe and beyond. English soccer star David Beckham made a televised plea for her safe return, and author J.K. Rowling reportedly donated millions to help find the little girl. Gerry and Kate McCann, observant Catholics, also had an audience in Rome with Pope Benedict, who blessed a photo of Madeleine.

On September 7, 2007, Portuguese officials named Gerry and Kate McCann, both of whom are physicians, as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance. Soon after, authorities leaked word that Madeleine’s DNA had been discovered in the trunk of the car her parents rented in Portugal almost a month after she vanished. There was speculation that the McCanns, in order to enjoy an evening out, had given their children sedatives and that Madeleine had a fatal reaction to the dosage she received. Afterward, the McCanns faked her abduction and hid her body for weeks before transferring it to the trunk of their rental car. Gerry and Kate McCann labeled this theory ridiculous, particularly given the fact that they were under intense media scrutiny and constantly followed by reporters. The local Portuguese police chief later admitted that the DNA tests were inconclusive.

In July 2008, Gerry and Kate McCann were formally cleared by Portuguese officials of any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance. A third person who had been considered the case’s only other formal suspect, a British man living in Portugal, was cleared as well. Additionally, Portugal’s attorney general said there was insufficient evidence for police to continue their investigation. The McCanns hired private detectives to keep looking for their daughter and have made publicity tours throughout Europe and the U.S. to raise awareness about her plight.

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=1430151069&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

The Sacco and Vanzetti Case - April 15, 1920

This week (April 13-19) in crime history – Serial killer Christopher Wilder shot himself to death to avoid capture (April 13, 1984); Old West outlaw Butch Cassidy was born (April 13, 1866); President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater (April 14, 1865); The Sacco and Vanzetti Case (April 15, 1920); Boston Marathon bombing (April 15, 2013); Nancy Titterton’s murder shocked New York City (April 17, 1936); Suicide bomber destroyed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut (April 18, 1983); The Central Park Jogger Case (April 19, 1989)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

On April 15, 1920, a paymaster and a security guard were killed during a mid-afternoon armed robbery of a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Out of this crime grew one of the most infamous trials in American history and a landmark case in forensic crime detection. Both Fred Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli were shot several times as they attempted to move the payroll boxes of their New England shoe company. The two armed thieves, identified by witnesses as “Italian-looking,” fled and their abandoned car was found in the woods several days later. Through evidence found in the car, police suspected that a man named Mike Boda was involved. However, Boda fled to Italy.

Police did manage to catch Boda’s colleagues, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were each carrying loaded weapons at the time of their arrest. Sacco had a .32 caliber handgun, the same type as was used to kill the security guards and bullets from the same manufacturer as those recovered from the shooting. Vanzetti was identified as a participant in a previous robbery attempt of a different shoe company.

Sacco and Vanzetti were anarchists, believing that social justice would come only through the destruction of governments. In the early 1920s, mainstream America developed a fear of communism and radical politics that resulted in an anti-communist and immigrant hysteria. Sacco and Vanzetti, recognizing the uphill battle ahead, tried to put this fear to their advantage by drumming up support from the left wing with claims that the prosecution was politically motivated. Millions of dollars were raised for their defense by the radical left around the world. The American embassy in Paris was bombed in response to the Sacco-Vanzetti case; a second bomb intended for the embassy in Lisbon was intercepted. The well-funded defense put up a good fight, bringing forth nearly 100 witnesses to testify on the defendants’ behalf. Ultimately, eyewitness identification wasn’t the crucial issue; rather, it was the ballistics tests on the murder weapon. Prosecution experts, with rather primitive instruments, testified that Sacco’s gun was the murder weapon. Defense experts claimed just the opposite. In the end, on July 14, 1921, Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty; they were sentenced to death.

However, the ballistics issue refused to go away as Sacco and Vanzetti waited on death row. In addition, a jailhouse confession by another criminal fueled the controversy. In 1927, Massachusetts Governor A. T. Fuller ordered another inquiry to advise him on the clemency request of the two anarchists. In the meantime, there had been many scientific advances in the field of forensics. The comparison microscope was now available for new ballistics tests and proved beyond a doubt that Sacco’s gun was indeed the murder weapon. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in August 1927, but even the new evidence didn’t completely quell the controversy. In October 1961, and again in March 1983, new investigations were conducted into the matter, but both revealed that Sacco’s revolver was indeed the one that fired the bullet and killed the security guards. On August 23, 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had not received a fair trial.

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 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=1428936153&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Madame LaLaurie's Torture Chamber was Discovered - April 10, 1834

This week (April 6-12) in crime history – Sam Sheppard died (April 6, 1970); Oscar Wilde was arrested (April 6, 1895); Rwandan genocide began (April 7, 1994); Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty (April 8, 2005); Billy the Kid was convicted of murder (April 9, 1881); Chicago 8 pleaded not guilty (April 9, 1969); Delphine LaLaurie’s torture chamber discovered (April 10, 1834); Emiliano Zapata was assassinated (April 10, 1919); Galileo was convicted of heresy (April 12, 1633).

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week -

On April 10, 1834, a fire at the LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana, led to the discovery of a torture chamber where slaves are routinely brutalized by Delphine LaLaurie. Rescuers found a 70-year-old black woman trapped in the kitchen during the fire because she was chained up while Madame LaLaurie was busy saving her furniture. The woman later revealed that she had set the fire in an attempt to escape LaLaurie’s torture. She led authorities up to the attic, where seven slaves were tied with spiked iron collars.

After Delphine LaLaurie married her third husband, Louis LaLaurie, and moved into his estate on Royal Street, she immediately took control of the large number of slaves used as servants. LaLaurie was a well-known sadist, but the mistreatment of slaves by the wealthy and socially connected was not a matter for the police at the time. However, in 1833, Delphine chased a small slave girl with a whip until the girl fell off the roof of the house and died. LaLaurie tried to cover up the incident, but police found the body hidden in a well. Authorities decided to fine LaLaurie and force the sale of the other slaves on the estate. LaLaurie foiled this plan by secretly arranging for her relatives and friends to buy the slaves. She then snuck them back into the mansion, where she continued to torture them until the night of the fire in April 1834.

Apparently her Southern neighbors had some standards when it came to the treatment of slaves, because a mob gathered in protest after learning about LaLaurie’s torture chamber. She and her husband fled by boat, leaving the butler (who had also participated in the torture) to face the wrath of the crowd. Although charges were never filed against LaLaurie, her reputation in upper-class society was destroyed. It is believed that she died in Paris in December 1842. Recently, actress Kathy Bates appeared as Madame LaLaurie in FX’s American Horror Story: Coven.

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

Michael Thomas Barry is the 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=1428331643&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

First Female Judge in U.S. History Died - April 2, 1902

This week (March 3- April 5) in crime history – President Ronald Reagan was shot (March 30, 1981); Acquittal in the Manhattan Well Mystery case (April 1, 1800); Mob boss John Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering (April 2, 1992); Esther Morris the first female judge in U.S. history died (April 2, 1902); Outlaw Jesse James was murdered (April 3, 1882); Bruno Hauptmann was executed (April 3, 1936); Unabomber was arrested (April 3, 1996); Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated (April 4, 1968); Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to death for spying (April 5, 1951)

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On April 2, 1902, Esther Morris, the first woman judge in American history, died in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Although she is widely celebrated as a hero of the early suffragist movement, Morris was hardly a radical advocate for women’s rights. She spent the first 55 years of her life living quietly in New York state and Illinois. In 1869, she moved to Wyoming Territory with her second husband, who had opened a saloon in the gold mining camp of South Pass City.

That same year, a territorial representative from South Pass City introduced a bill giving women the right to vote and hold public office. Eager to promote territory and to attract more women settlers, the all-male territorial legislature approved the bill, making Wyoming the first territory or state in American history to enfranchise women. One of the strongest backers of the new law was the territorial governor, John Campbell. Eager to take more actions to further women’s political power, in early 1870 Campbell began to search for women qualified and willing to be appointed as justices of the peace. Morris became Campbell’s first and only successful appointment.

Hailed by American suffragists as the first female judge in the world, Morris does not appear to have been a dedicated activist for women’s rights. Appointed to serve out the term of a man who had resigned, Morris only worked for nine months as a justice of the peace. During that time she competently handled over two dozen cases. After she retired from the post in November 1870, however, Morris never again sought public office. When later asked about the issue of women’s suffrage, Morris replied that women would do well to leave the matter in the hands of men. Like many women of the time, Morris supported women’s rights, but she believed a gradual approach would prove most successful.

Despite her reluctance to be revered as an activist, Morris has often been celebrated as an important symbol of women’s rights. Nearly two decades after she died in 1902, a witness claimed that Morris had pushed for the introduction of the original bill granting women the vote in 1869, though other evidence contradicts this claim. Nonetheless, as the “first woman judge,” Morris has continued to be a symbol of the long battle for women’s rights in America. Bronze statues at the U.S. Capitol and in Cheyenne honor her memory.

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 Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949. Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com for more information. His books 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=1427742908&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry