11 Dorothy Stang Murdered In Brazil
American-born nun Dorothy Stang spent decades in Pará, Brazil, teaching poor farmers how to harvest forest products without clearing the land and defending them from ranchers and loggers who wanted their plots. Her efforts to preserve the Amazon rainforest and protect peasant land rights put her in direct conflict with powerful local landowners who repeatedly threatened her life.
On February 12, 2005, two gunmen hired by a rancher confronted the 73-year-old on a jungle path near Anapu and shot her six times. Brazilian courts later convicted the gunmen and sentenced ranchers Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura and Regivaldo Galvão to 30-year prison terms for ordering her assassination.
12 Arthur Shawcross Released To Kill
American serial killer Arthur Shawcross first went to prison in New York in 1972 after he raped and murdered 10-year-old Jack Blake and 8-year-old Karen Ann Hill, but he served only about 12 years of a 25-year sentence before his 1987 release for what officials called good behavior.
After getting out, he moved to the Rochester area and began killing again, targeting women he met on the streets. Between 1988 and 1989, he murdered 11 women, and investigators later linked him to a twelfth victim as well. Police finally arrested Shawcross in January 1990, and a court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the series of post-release murders.
13 Belle Gunness Burns Murder Farm
In the early hours of April 28, 1908, a fire tore through Belle Gunness’s farmhouse near La Porte, Indiana, and firefighters found the burned bodies of three children and a headless woman that authorities initially identified as Gunness. As investigators dug under her hog pen, they uncovered multiple dismembered human remains in burlap sacks, revealing that Gunness had been luring wealthy suitors to the farm, taking their money, and murdering them.
Police charged her former farmhand and lover, Ray Lamphere, with arson and the murders of Belle and her children, but a jury convicted him only of arson, and he died of tuberculosis about a year into his sentence. Before his death, Lamphere allegedly claimed that Gunness had set the fire herself and fled, and later inquiries never conclusively proved that the headless corpse was hers, leaving her ultimate fate a mystery.
14 Vincent Chin Baseball Bat Killing
In 1982, a Chinese American draftsman named Vincent Chin went to a Detroit strip club to celebrate his upcoming wedding. That night, a Chrysler auto plant supervisor named Ronald Ebens and his laid-off stepson Michael Nitz, who were angry over Japanese car imports and assuming Chin was Japanese, chased him down to a nearby McDonald’s parking lot. There, Nitz held Chin while Ebens beat his head with a baseball bat until his skull cracked; Chin died four days later in a Detroit hospital.
The men pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received only probation and fines, a sentence that sparked national outrage and helped galvanize Asian American civil rights activism.
15 David Burke And Flight 1771
In 1987, a disgruntled former USAir employee named David Burke boarded Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 from Los Angeles to San Francisco with a stolen revolver and confronted his former supervisor, Ray Thomson, in midflight.
He shot Thomson, prompting a flight attendant to warn the cockpit that they had a problem; when the pilot asked what kind of problem, Burke shot the attendant and replied, “I’m the problem.” He then forced his way into the cockpit, shot both pilots, and sent the plane into a near-vertical dive. The plane crashed near Cayucos, California, killing all 43 people on board.
16 Colonel Sanders Gas Station Shootout
In the late 1920s, Harland “Colonel” Sanders managed a Shell gas station in Nashville, where he feuded with rival Standard Oil station owner Matt Stewart for repeatedly painting over his roadside sign. One day Sanders and two Shell district managers confronted Stewart at the sign, and Stewart opened fire, killing manager Robert Gibson in a burst of gunshots. Sanders grabbed Gibson’s gun and, along with the surviving manager, H. D. Shelburne, shot back and wounded Stewart.
All three men were arrested, but Sanders and Shelburne were cleared, while Stewart was convicted of Gibson’s murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
17 Robert Ledru Sleepwalking Murder Confession
In the late 1880s, Chief Inspector Robert Ledru arrived in Le Havre in France to investigate a beachside shooting of Paris shopkeeper André Monet, who had been found dead on the sand with a single bullet through his body. Examining the scene, Ledru noticed footprints that matched his own and later compared the recovered bullet to his German-made revolver, finding that one round had been fired and the markings matched.
Concluding that he had killed Monet while sleepwalking, he reported to his superiors in Paris and demanded to be arrested so he could not harm anyone again. Authorities eventually accepted his explanation, confined him under guard for the rest of his life, and even witnessed him firing a pistol loaded with blanks at a guard while apparently asleep.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
18 Johan And Cornelis De Witt
In 1672, during the Dutch Republic’s so-called disaster year, Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, effectively the prime minister, and his brother Cornelis became hated targets of Orangist fury after military defeats and political unrest. On August 20 in The Hague, Cornelis was about to leave for exile on trumped-up treason charges when Johan came to the jail to help him, and members of the civic militia dragged both men outside and killed them.
The mob stripped and mutilated their corpses, hung them on a public gibbet near the Gevangenpoort, and by several accounts roasted and ate parts of their bodies. The killers were never prosecuted.
19 Leslie Mahaffy Murder
On the night of June 14–15, 1991, 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy missed curfew after attending a wake for a friend in Burlington, Ontario, and found herself locked out of her house, forced to seek help at a nearby plaza. When she returned, she crossed paths with Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo, who was out looking into backyards for a victim; he lured her to his car, blindfolded her, and drove her to the Port Dalhousie home he shared with Karla Homolka.
Over the next day the pair videotaped themselves sexually assaulting and abusing Leslie before killing her and dismembering her body, which they encased in concrete blocks and dumped in Lake Gibson, where her remains were found on June 29, 1991. Bernardo later received a life sentence for two first-degree murders and aggravated sexual assaults, while Homolka pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a 12-year sentence.
20 Vietnam Fragging Of US Officers
During the Vietnam War, U.S. investigators looked into more than 800 cases in which enlisted soldiers tried to kill or actually killed their superior officers. The military coined the term “fragging” for these attacks because soldiers often used fragmentation grenades, which were hard to trace and could be made to look like combat accidents.
From 1969 to 1972 alone, documented and suspected fragging incidents with explosives in Vietnam totaled around 900, with dozens of deaths and many more injuries.
RE: Fact #21 (Grant Amato Camgirl Family Murders) – “My family has been blaming me for months for ruining their lives, stealing, and not following the rules of the home, so I might as well be blamed for this too.”
What a disgusting response to the question of whether or not he felt remorse
It seems like a lot of people around us daily only reveal their true selves when things get really serious. That basic lack of empathy is a big giveaway for a sociopath.
You know, I don’t think there are “a lot of sociopaths” out there. Also, a lack of empathy isn’t as straightforward as it seems. In tough situations, most people tend to be a bit selfish and focused on getting by, which can come across as a lack of empathy.
RE: Fact #20 (Vietnam Fragging Of US Officers) – That whole situation really messed things up for the military. It was confusing for anyone who understood it to figure out why we were even there. Plus, you were forced to go, while rich kids and scholars could just sit it out. On top of that, there was foot rot, awful gear, and dangerous weather.
RE: Fact #12 (Arthur Shawcross Released To Kill) – I don’t get how people who murder and rape children can even be considered for parole. Seriously, when would you ever want someone like that back out in the world? I get it for drug users, dealers, burglars, or even gang members who regret their actions and get clean; they might deserve another shot at rejoining society. But who decided that someone who raped and murdered two kids with zero remorse should ever be free again? This guy already had a criminal record. Maybe I’m being too tough, but to me, someone like that seems impossible to reform, and even with a plea deal, they shouldn’t be eligible for parole.
RE: Fact #27 (Theo Van Gogh Amsterdam Murder) – “and Jews.” I thought it was funny how that was tacked on at the end, like it was an afterthought.
RE: Fact #31 (Iqbal Masih Carpet Industry Murder) – Seriously, why isn’t this being made into a movie? If they do it right, it could totally be the next City of God.
It could end with a bunch of WalMart shoppers freaking out because Pakistani carpet prices went up and demanding something be done about it.
I was thinking the same thing! His story really needs to be shared. It might even be tough to get people to believe it’s all real, you know? What a guy!
Yeah, it totally deserves it, but making a movie about it would just be too profitable to pass up. Plus, what kind of ending would be better than seeing the 10-year-old rebel we all end up loving get murdered at 13?
RE: Fact #28 (DC Snipers Muhammad And Malvo) – So this is the guy who tried to off his wife and made up a serial killer to cover his tracks with random attacks, right?
The judge said no to that evidence because they didn’t think a connection was proven.
RE: Fact #47 (Michael Jace Kills Wife April) – That’s some intense method acting.
RE: Fact #26 (William MacDonald Walking Corpse Case) – From what I’ve seen, police tend to go for the easiest path. If saying the killer is dead means less work, that’s what they’ll do. And if it’s easier to get an innocent person to admit to something, they’ll do that too.
RE: Fact #24 (Fausta Constantine And Crispus Tragedy) – There’s some uncertainty about why Constantine really had Crispus and Fausta killed. It might be true they had an affair, and maybe her death was delayed because she was pregnant with Constantine’s child. But there are also less dramatic ideas out there. Constantine had all the records wiped, and the most well-known story about what happened was written a long time after.
So, another thought is that maybe Fausta cooked up some crazy story about Crispus just to get Constantine to kill him off. That way, one of her own kids would be next in line to take over. If Constantine ever figured that out, he probably would have had her executed too. This whole situation is really weird, and I don’t think we’ll ever really know the full story.
RE: Fact #23 (Clarence Elkins Finds Real Killer) – Turns out the real killer, a convicted sex offender who lived right next door to the victim, actually asked a cop once why they hadn’t nabbed him for the murder already, this was found out after the original guy was released.
The prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh seems to be the real c*nt in this whole thing. Even after all the proof, her reasoning was she wasn’t interested in revisiting the case.
She should have lost her license to practice law.
RE: Fact #37 (Duffys Cut Fifty Seven Dead) – You should check out how they built the C and O Canal. A lot of Irish and Chinese workers died during construction. A spinoff series like “Hell on Wheels” would be cool, since this happened before railroads were around.
RE: Fact #43 (Dorothea Puente Boardinghouse Serial Killer) – Having a hobby is a good idea for everyone.
If they ever make a movie about this, I can totally see her saying that line as the opening for a trailer, right before things get creepy. Imagine a sweet, grandma-looking lady talking about her lawn or gardening to a neighbor, saying, “Everyone should have a hobby.” Then BAM! Inception sound. Cut to that same sweet grandmother dragging a body down a dark hallway toward the front door, which is open to the lawn.
RE: Fact #40 (Shana Grice Fined Then Murdered) – This reminds me of a bunch of similar cases in Japan where the police weren’t very competent. There’s a particularly infamous one called the Okegawa Stalking Murder of Shiori Ino.
Basically, a guy named Kazuhito Komatsu, with some help, murdered a 21-year-old named Shiori Ino. The police actually ignored her pleas for help before she was killed, and then they smeared her name afterward. It wasn’t until a journalist named Kiyoshi Shimizu looked into it that they actually caught the people involved. Komatsu managed to get away and then took his own life up in Hokkaido.
It seems like people generally think crime isn’t really a thing in Japan, and they actually think a conviction rate of over 95% is a positive sign.
RE: Fact #4 (Linda Darby 35 Year Fugitive) – Wondering how they tracked her down would be cool.
So, the Pulaski police captain, John Dickey, mentioned that Indiana investigators reached out to them about this person, Darby. Cops from both states teamed up to figure out who she was and arrest her.
This happened not too long after Indiana started a new unit to catch fugitives who’ve escaped, bailed on programs, or disappeared while on parole. This new unit came about because of a new law passed by the Indiana General Assembly.
Since the unit got going, they’ve already nabbed two other fugitives, but there are still about 300 Indiana fugitives out there.
From what I gather, the Pulaski police knew her because she was a familiar face in their town, apparently cleaning houses and babysitting. Captain Dickey even said he’s known her for about 16 years and described her as a “real good citizen.”
Yeah, if you wanna stay out of trouble, it’s best to keep things quiet.
RE: Fact #39 (Oscar Romero Shot At Altar) – If you thought his assassination was bad, and it definitely was, you should check out the School of the Americas.
RE: Fact #41 (Henry Lee Lucas First Murder) – Whoa, that’s heavy. When Lucas was 10, his brother accidentally stabbed him in the left eye during a fight. His mom didn’t get it checked out for four days, and then the eye got infected and had to be replaced with a glass one. Lucas got picked on for the glass eye, and he later said that feeling rejected by everyone was why he ended up hating people.
RE: Fact #3 (Terry Jo Duperrault Raft Ordeal) – It is a pretty wild story! So, a family of five rented a boat from Florida to the Bahamas. The captain was on board too, along with his wife, making it seven people total. Turns out, it was the captain’s sixth wife.
The captain, with five others on the boat, apparently decided it was the ideal moment to murder his wife for insurance money. He killed her, and the family probably saw it all. He then killed the father, mother, and at least one of the other two kids, and scuttled the boat to cover his tracks. He took the youngest child with him, but the kid sadly drowned by the time anyone found them. The captain claimed he discovered them like that.
The last child managed to get onto a small raft and escape. The captain couldn’t go back to finish the job because his dinghy was drifting away. That poor girl was adrift for four days with no food or water before she was rescued.
The captain got caught a few days later and spun a fake story, but it didn’t hold up. Apparently, he might have done something similar before to another ex-wife and her mom. Facing the music, he ended up taking his own life with a razor blade.
RE: Fact #47 (Michael Jace Kills Wife April) – Funny how on a show about the LAPD’s abuse, corruption, and crimes, his character managed to stay out of trouble for the most part.
RE: Fact #24 (Fausta Constantine And Crispus Tragedy) – He turned down her advances. Then she accused him of making them. It’s a classic move.
RE: Fact #42 (Chante Mallard Windshield Murder Case) – Was a movie made based on this? I remember that being the story in a movie.
So, there was this episode of CSI where a drunk guy hit someone, went home, and waited for the guy to die to cover it up. Turns out, the guy he hit had actually left a suicide note and was planning to jump into traffic. Even so, the drunk guy still got charged with murder because he didn’t take the guy to the hospital.
Yeah, I think that was in season two. The driver was a lawyer who was drunk and just started at a new company. He got rid of the body by dissolving it with strong lye, maybe in a park or somewhere like that. It’s kind of cool because the actor who played Sylar from Heroes was in it, and he’s now Spock in Star Trek.
RE: Fact #23 (Clarence Elkins Finds Real Killer) – Clarence Elkins appealed his conviction again because of new DNA evidence. It’s wild that the court decided that since a jury convicted him before DNA testing, they would have convicted him even if the DNA didn’t match.
How can a judge overlook such clear proof of innocence and keep an innocent guy locked up? That reasoning just doesn’t hold up, and it shouldn’t even be a factor when you have evidence like that. The justice system can be so messed up sometimes
RE: Fact #48 (Anthony Stockelman Katies Revenge Tattoo) – He’s fortunate he only got that. I’ve always heard that guys in prison for crimes against kids tend to have a rougher time.
RE: Fact #5 (Tucker State Prison Torture Murders) – Robert Redford made a movie called Brubaker that was based on Tucker State Prison.
RE: Fact #11 (Dorothy Stang Murdered In Brazil) – She wasn’t teaching people how to harvest; she was part of a big, influential political group focused on protecting the rights of harvesters, which has been happening for ages. The way rubber is extracted today is based on a production model from the 1800s. Dorothy Stang’s murder was a huge deal because of the international attention it got. Sadly, it’s pretty common for powerful economic groups to murder political activists in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil has the third-highest murder rate for environmental defenders globally, with cases like Chico Mendes, Marçal de Souza, Xicão Xukuru, and others.
RE: Fact #37 (Duffys Cut Fifty Seven Dead) – They found it 30 feet down, but it’s too close to an Amtrak track to dig it up. Makes sense they wouldn’t allow it – who wants a disaster, right?
RE: Fact #41 (Henry Lee Lucas First Murder) – This woman sounds like she was pretty awful. It’s almost understandable how Lucas might have spent years thinking about killing her, and then how much of a relief it probably felt to finally go through with it. Like a huge weight off his shoulders, you know? And at the same time, committing something so serious and forbidden probably gave him a huge adrenaline rush. It’s hard to even imagine all the emotions he must have been going through. It seems like it became a bit of an addiction for him.
That’s why I’m hesitant to push my mom down the stairs. Once you start down that path, you’ve got to see it all the way through.
RE: Fact #22 (Patty Cannon Reverse Underground Railroad) – Wow, so in 1829, four Black individuals, three of them kids, were found buried on land Patty Cannon owned in Delaware. A farmer plowing the fields found them. Patty Cannon was actually indicted for four murders back in April 1829 by a grand jury. It sounds like the victims were: an infant female, a male child, an adult male, and a Black boy, with specific dates mentioned for when they went missing. The Attorney General of Delaware signed the indictments. A witness named Cyrus James said he saw Cannon take a severely injured Black child out with her in her apron, and the child never came back. Cyrus James himself was bought as a slave by Cannon when he was just seven, grew up with her, and even helped with her crimes, sometimes luring free Black people into working with him. Cannon apparently admitted to almost two dozen murders of Black people she’d kidnapped, and she passed away in prison before her trial. She died in her Georgetown, Delaware cell on May 11, 1829, and they think she was somewhere between sixty and seventy years old. She’s almost like the opposite of Harriet Tubman.
RE: Fact #42 (Chante Mallard Windshield Murder Case) – I remember this happening. The news reported that he was still alive when she got home and begged for help, but she just walked inside and ignored him. Maybe she was too high to deal with it.
She let her friends know what was up.
And to top it all off, her boyfriend was there too, and they got high and had sex in the kitchen right by the garage. This whole thing was a massive story back when I was in DFW. Oh, and her name is pretty funny too.
RE: Fact #19 (Leslie Mahaffy Murder) – That teddy bear thing really hit me hard. I’m done reading for now.
RE: Fact #32 (Don King Two Killings Pardoned) – There are 2 that we know of.
RE: Fact #28 (DC Snipers Muhammad And Malvo) – Back when I was in high school near Annapolis, they’d never close schools. Instead, they told us to walk in a zigzag pattern to make us harder targets. Seriously, they announced this daily on the morning announcements.
At the time, they didn’t know who was responsible or what vehicle they were using. They suspected it was a white work van because one was spotted near every shooting. So, they spent weeks pulling over and searching plain white work vans.
RE: Fact #17 (Robert Ledru Sleepwalking Murder Confession) – Can you believe it? It turns out I was the one all along!
RE: Fact #8 (Duane Dog Chapman Murder Conviction) – Yeah, it’s not surprising. If you’ve ever seen his show, the whole family acts pretty shady themselves, just like the folks they catch.
Yeah, they really are. Super sketchy and trashy. And they even pulled their kids into it and their daughter was on meth. What a bunch of utter pieces of sh*t.
They seem like a cool family. The dog was cool, and his wife’s big t*ts were cool too. What’s the issue?
Seriously, what did they expect? They told their little daughter, who’s like 90 lbs, to block a hallway and physically stop a grown man who was skipping bail. And when he shoved her down, the dad freaked out because the guy “laid hands on his daughter.” What did they think was gonna happen? That the guy would see a small girl and just give up? “Oh no, a tiny person is in my way, I guess I’ll have to turn back!”
RE: Fact #14 (Vincent Chin Baseball Bat Killing) – It’s so frustrating when people are racist but can’t even do it the right way. This story really gets my blood boiling; I wish I could go back and fix this whole mess.
RE: Fact #45 (Tina Isa Recorded Honor Killing) – I don’t get it. If they don’t want their kids to become Westernized, why move to the West in the first place?
Seriously? You want all our money and belongings but don’t want to engage with our culture. Funny thing, that’s what a country is all about. Go back where you came from, xenophobe.
Maria told the judge that her daughter was disrespectful and rebellious, and that they shouldn’t have to pay with their lives for what she did. The idea that she deserved to die for adapting to western culture is almost speechless.
I can’t get over them blaming the daughter for her own murder. They don’t take any responsibility for murdering her and actually think they’re in the right. It’s absolutely disgusting. If you re-read the end of the quote, they’re saying they’re being killed because of their daughter’s disrespect.
That was good enough for Moses: “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.”
RE: Fact #9 (Ku Klux Klan Kills Hinds) – While listening to the audiobook of Grant by Ron Chernow, I realized this wasn’t even close to the worst things that happened back then. You should really look into what was happening in Memphis and New Orleans in 1866 – no arrests or convictions were made.
By the way, Chernow’s biographies are incredible. He’s written three on American politics: Alexander Hamilton, Washington: A Life, and Grant. The parallels between Grant and Washington are pretty striking. They’re definitely not the same person, but it’s really something how close they both came to being minor historical figures instead of ending up on our money.
RE: Fact #22 (Patty Cannon Reverse Underground Railroad) – This sounds like a movie Quentin Tarantino would totally make.
RE: Fact #34 (Muzzammil Hassan Beheads Aasiya Hassan) – So he claimed self-defense. Guess she must have turned into a werewolf or something, and we’re just not buying it.
Arabs tend to be really hairy, which could make them look like werewolves. (And just so you know, I’m Arab, so it’s cool for me to joke about my own people.)
Seriously, how could a beheading ever be considered self-defense? Like, “Oh no, she has a gun, so I’ll just chop her head off in one go!”
RE: Fact #39 (Oscar Romero Shot At Altar) – Ruben Blades has a really popular song in Spanish about him.
RE: Fact #49 (Mel Ignatow Photos After Acquittal) – So, an autopsy showed Ignatow died from an accidental fall that cut his head or arm, and he bled out. His neighbor also said Ignatow was a sick, elderly guy who was alone and trying to get help when he seemed to fall to his death. The neighbor even heard him all night crying out for Jesus to take him because he was in so much pain. Makes me feel a bit better knowing that.
RE: Fact #30 (Andrew Kehoe Bath School Massacre) – So, back in the spring of 1927, Kehoe spent a lot of time setting up wires and stashing dynamite in the basement of that school, which had about 250 students and was around 10 miles northeast of Lansing. The school folks let him do it because he was known for being really cheap, and they figured he was just doing handy work himself to save them money on hiring an electrician. Kinda makes you shiver when you think about how that went down for them later.
RE: Fact #34 (Muzzammil Hassan Beheads Aasiya Hassan) – Yeah, it seems like she might have played into some negative stereotypes about Muslims.
RE: Fact #7 (Maury Davis Kills Jo Ella) – Insanity pleas are really uncommon and need a lot of professional evaluations before they’re even considered, even back in 1975. So, this guy was likely truly out of his mind.
Reading through what was shared, he sounded genuinely crazy when he was arrested.
Since he got out, he’s been involved in the community, been open about his past actions, helped other people who’ve been released from prison, and seems truly sorry for what he did.
Maybe some people think he’s the Devil because he doesn’t agree with the modern theology, but “I did bad things when I was young and now I’m trying to fix them” is a story as old as time. I don’t get why he’s considered worse than others who’ve done awful stuff, weren’t punished enough, and then went into ministry.
Basically, it’s tough for the son, but I don’t see how this situation is any different from anyone else who’s done something bad and moved on with their lives.
If you want people who commit murder to just vanish forever and never do anything again, that’s called the “Death Penalty.” Otherwise, some people will get out of prison after killing someone, and some of them will go on to be successful.
It’s wild how the take on prison can flip like that – one minute it’s about rehabilitation, the next it’s “make ’em rot.”
RE: Fact #38 (Haikou Shopkeeper Testicle Killing) – So, I’m genuinely curious, medically speaking, how does that actually happen?
I’m thinking the same thing. I bet he had some other issue going on. Like a weak heart, or maybe he can’t handle pain or stress very well.
Seriously though, can too much pain actually kill someone?
Yeah, pretty much. When you’re in really bad pain, your heart and nervous system go into emergency mode.
RE: Fact #10 (Ronald Shanabarger Kills Baby Tyler) – That’s insane, like Game of Thrones!
It’s kinda like that story about Medea from Greek myths. She killed her kids to get back at her husband.
RE: Fact #5 (Tucker State Prison Torture Murders) – They’re only embarrassed because they got caught, not because of the brutality Murton exposed. It’s pretty disgusting.
I’m not sure I get this part. It was a new administration, so why would they be embarrassed? They could have easily made the old governor the scapegoat they deserved, right?
RE: Fact #1 (Christina Johansdotter Suicide By Proxy) – Seriously, that’s the worst life cheat code I’ve ever encountered.
RE: Fact #17 (Robert Ledru Sleepwalking Murder Confession) – I’m not finding any French sources when I search for this on Google. So, I’d take it with a grain of salt.
That’s a huge amount of “grain,” like enough to fill the Grand Canyon.
RE: Fact #25 (Joseph Smith Treason Jail Killing) – It’s pretty funny that he got caught scamming people by saying he could find gold on their land just by looking into a hat. That’s exactly how he used to “translate” the Book of Mormon, by peering into a hat. And this happened after he swore he wouldn’t con people with that gold trick anymore.
RE: Fact #15 (David Burke And Flight 1771) – Whoa, sounds like that plane went down super fast, almost at the speed of sound, like 770 mph! It must have just fallen apart instantly. The impact was apparently so intense, it was like experiencing 5,000 times the force of gravity.
RE: Fact #20 (Vietnam Fragging Of US Officers) – When I was little, my family visited some friends’ house. The kids played together while the adults chatted and had some drinks. I was old enough to realize that if I was close enough to hear their conversations, I could learn some really interesting stuff once the drinks started flowing.
My dad was my hero. He was so smart and strong, always calm, loving, and supportive. He was a Vietnam vet who enlisted right after high school. He even signed up for a second tour to keep his younger brother from being drafted. But he never, ever talked about his time in the war. He had medals, but he kept them hidden and wouldn’t explain how he earned them.
That night, though, I overheard him telling a story about this exact topic. He was talking about an officer who would enforce rules about shining boots, even in a jungle. This guy would write people up for tiny things in a war zone. I’ll never forget hearing my dad laugh as he described how someone eventually got fed up and put C4 in the officer’s tent.
I was totally shocked and yelled, “They killed him?!” My dad had finally shared a bit of his real, raw experience, and it immediately made him realize he was right to shield us kids from these things. We never talked about it again, and I never heard another Vietnam story from him.
My dad finally shared a bit about his true experiences, and it confirmed he was right to keep those things from his sheltered kids. It’ll probably never happen for similar reasons, but some of the stories you hear if you can get Vietnam vets to open up about the rapes are something else.
That’s messed up. Fragging your superiors is one thing, but raping them? Fu*k.
RE: Fact #2 (Ricky Ray Rector ) – So, apparently, the guy went off because his friend couldn’t afford the $3 cover to get into the nightclub. Rector freaked out and pulled a .38 caliber pistol from his waistband. This piece of sh*t was messed up in the head even before he attempted to end his own life.
RE: Fact #25 (Joseph Smith Treason Jail Killing) – It’s really disappointing that Joe managed to fool my whole family.
RE: Fact #45 (Tina Isa Recorded Honor Killing) – As a former Muslim, I’ve experienced similar things. My parents have told me I’m going to hell and threatened to kick me out multiple times. However, they’ve never actually hurt me or my siblings. Now that they know I’m an atheist, instead of hurting me, they pray that I’ll find God again. That’s the difference between truly crazy people and normal people. My mom saw this article and said, “These people aren’t Muslims; they just claim to be. It’s a sin to kill. This isn’t part of Islam, it’s from their own warped culture and traditions.”
Just a heads-up, that’s a classic example of the “No true Scotsman” fallacy.
RE: Fact #8 (Duane Dog Chapman Murder Conviction) – So he got convicted of first-degree murder because he didn’t report a murder that someone else did. It’s definitely not okay to keep that kind of information from the police, but he wasn’t the one who actually committed the killing.
RE: Fact #37 (Duffys Cut Fifty Seven Dead) – My dad worked for the Northern Pacific and then the Union Pacific for 35 years total. He used to say, “under every railroad tie lies a Chinaman.” He meant that the railroads were really dangerous and lots of workers died and were just buried under the tracks. Back then, if you demanded your paycheck, especially if you were Chinese, Irish, or Black, it could easily be a death sentence.
RE: Fact #14 (Vincent Chin Baseball Bat Killing) – And they hardly got any prison time at all.
Yeah, I remember hearing something like this on NPR. The judge said something about them not being terrible people, which I found pretty gross.
They got three years probation and a $3,000 fine, so no jail time at all.
The Judge said, “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail. You don’t make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal.”
RE: Fact #11 (Dorothy Stang Murdered In Brazil) – It’s really sad how greed and oppression can win out over the good work so many people are trying to do.
RE: Fact #30 (Andrew Kehoe Bath School Massacre) – Back in 1856 in Florence, Alabama, there was a schoolmaster who had a pet sparrow he really loved. He warned his students that if anyone harmed it, he’d kill them. Well, one of the boys accidentally stepped on the bird and killed it. The boy was scared to go back to school because of the master’s threats, but the master told him to come anyway. So, he did. After class, the master took the boy into a private room and strangled him. When the boy’s father found out, he grabbed his gun and went and shot the schoolmaster.
RE: Fact #35 (Robert Opel Oscar Streaker Murder) – Seriously, we’ve always been this way as a nation.
RE: Fact #6 (Curtis And Catherine Jones Shooting) – So, Nicole Speights, the person who was killed, wasn’t a bad guy. She was their dad’s girlfriend and, from what everyone says, had nothing to do with the abuse. The person accused of abusing Curtis and Catherine was actually another family member who lived with them.
Anyway, kids as young as 12 and 13 definitely shouldn’t be in adult jail. I really think the system totally messed up for them.
RE: Fact #43 (Dorothea Puente Boardinghouse Serial Killer) – Haha, front yard? Makes sense she got busted then. That’s what the backyard’s for, right? Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard.
RE: Fact #29 (Bela Kiss Pickled Drum Corpses) – That mustache really sets the tone, doesn’t it?
Back then, that style of mustache was super in vogue in places like Austria and Hungary.
That style of mustache was super popular back in the day, pretty much everywhere. You can totally call him out for the 24 murders, but his facial hair is fair game. Honestly, his ‘stache looks amazing, like, incredibly cool.
RE: Fact #21 (Grant Amato Camgirl Family Murders) – No matter how many times you mess up, you’ll never be more of a loser than this dude.
RE: Fact #13 (Belle Gunness Burns Murder Farm) – I did a really in-depth research project on her. You can actually get copies of the coroner’s reports for all the victims found at the local museum.
She used to cut off the arms and legs at the elbows and knees and bury them shallowly in the pig pen, under a shed, and in other spots on the property. The victims’ heads were removed and placed in the groin area.
She lured people in from Chicago using newspaper ads. She was originally from Norway and fell in love with a man there. When she got pregnant and told him, he and a friend kicked and beat her until she miscarried. She then emigrated to Chicago and performed back-alley abortions until she got married and moved to La Porte. After that, it was husband after husband. She killed all the children in a fire.
There’s strong evidence suggesting she didn’t die in the fire, but no one’s sure where she went. I think that was around 1908. Not long after, there was a murderer in California with a similar modus operandi, but that’s not much to go on. Officially, she died in the fire. However, the remains in her bed belonged to a younger woman who was already dead when the fire started. Like the children, they burned to ash without reacting to the flames – dead before they burned.
She was seriously messed up, truly terrifying. A few years ago, a dog belonging to the family currently living on the property found some kind of prosthetic that’s thought to have belonged to one of her victims. A little kid was playing with it! Gross.
The tricky thing with Belle was that her methods weren’t consistent; her murders were opportunistic. She’d use heavy objects to strike their skulls, and at least once, she stabbed someone with a hairpin. Some of the skeletons found weren’t complete either. She buried them where pigs could easily get to them, and it’s been assumed the pigs ate parts of the corpses. Some bones showed signs of being moved multiple times, suggesting they might have been uncovered and reburied or something similar.
RE: Fact #4 (Linda Darby 35 Year Fugitive) – So, in Hammond, Indiana, this woman named Linda Darby was spending all her husband Charles’s money on herself. She even faked having cancer to get more cash from him! When Charles found out and exposed her in the local newspaper, she got super embarrassed and decided to get revenge. She poisoned him, then shot him, and then burned his body back in 1970.
I always thought she killed an abusive husband and was just living a quiet life after, but turns out that wasn’t the case at all.
RE: Fact #19 (Leslie Mahaffy Murder) – According to Wikipedia, unless other sources say something different, she got home at 2 AM and found both doors locked. She used a payphone to call a friend and asked if she could crash there, but the friend said no. So, she told the friend she’d go back home to wake up her mom. The info doesn’t suggest she was locked out as a punishment.
Just a heads-up, the Scarborough rapist, who turned out to be Paul Bernardo, was active at night during this period. It’s hard to imagine any parent would leave their teenage daughter outside the house late at night when a known rapist was around.
RE: Fact #40 (Shana Grice Fined Then Murdered) – This reminds me of a situation in Canada where a woman called the police several times about her ex-boyfriend. They didn’t take her seriously, and sadly, she was eventually murdered by him. I feel that police department is just as responsible for her death as the department in this case.
RE: Fact #12 (Arthur Shawcross Released To Kill) – Seriously, how does someone who’s admitted to and been convicted of being a child rapist and murderer end up with a girlfriend?
RE: Fact #27 (Theo Van Gogh Amsterdam Murder) – If you call us violent, we’ll kill you.
RE: Fact #38 (Haikou Shopkeeper Testicle Killing) – This kind of reads differently when you think about it this way.
RE: Fact #49 (Mel Ignatow Photos After Acquittal) – Seriously, how does someone forget to bring photos of them torturing someone to death?
RE: Fact #14 (Vincent Chin Baseball Bat Killing) – Back in the seventies, I remember watching an interview on PBS, maybe McNeill/Lehrer. There were spokespeople from all the big American car companies. This was when Japanese cars were really starting to catch on in the US – the smaller, more fuel-efficient ones that were better quality and cheaper. They asked the execs if their companies were planning to make similar cars to compete. The questioner was practically laughed out of the room. The execs all said Americans would always prefer big, gas-guzzling cars and didn’t really care about quality or cost.
It wasn’t the Japanese that almost sunk the American auto industry; it was the arrogance and overconfidence of the American car companies themselves that nearly did them in.
What really gets me is their remark on quality. Sure, you can argue that Americans don’t care about cost and want gigantic cars, but quality? Who the hell wants an unreliable car? It took them 30 years and bankruptcy to realize they need to improve quality, and they still haven’t caught up with the Japanese manufacturers.
Nobody really *wants* a car that’s going to break down, but people will often go for a flashy “status symbol” car instead of a more dependable, less showy one.
Think about it – people are still buying those huge, gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs like crazy, even these days.
RE: Fact #50 (Florida School For Boys Graves) – It reminds me of all the Residential Schools in Canada. There are lots of mass graves that haven’t been found yet, and even some that are known but the government won’t allow researchers to dig up.
It’s really scary and upsetting when things like this happen.
It’s wild how many Canadians I’ve heard from who didn’t know about Residential Schools or the genocide committed against First Nations. I really hope everyone takes the time to learn about it. It would help explain a lot about why First Nations communities are struggling today.
Wait, Canada? I thought that was a place where stuff like that just didn’t happen!
RE: Fact #43 (Dorothea Puente Boardinghouse Serial Killer) – This is pretty interesting. One of the people involved was my wife’s estranged great aunt.
RE: Fact #42 (Chante Mallard Windshield Murder Case) – This totally reminds me of my old R.E. teacher. She actually hit a student with her car by accident. Instead of calling for help, she just started praying. The student ended up being okay and it was kind of his fault, but he still broke his leg.
The student was okay, so her prayers worked?
RE: Fact #18 (Johan And Cornelis De Witt) – This sounds incredibly brutal, with the mob tearing the brothers apart and then selling pieces of their bodies. It’s wild that the new ruler apparently didn’t punish those responsible.
RE: Fact #18 (Johan And Cornelis De Witt) – I’m a big fan of Hannibal’s liver and fava beans, especially with a good glass of Chianti.
So, the funny thing is, that line was actually a way to show Hannibal wasn’t on his medication. Turns out, all those foods he was eating can mess *big time* with the antipsychotics they had back then.
RE: Fact #43 (Dorothea Puente Boardinghouse Serial Killer) – My aunt was one of the victims. My dad told me the police think she was drugged and buried while still alive. There were signs in her grave that she tried to dig her way out when she woke up. It’s pretty fu*ked up.
RE: Fact #6 (Curtis And Catherine Jones Shooting) – The Florida Department of Children and Families is a total nightmare, it’s no secret. Honestly, the DCF workers were pretty lucky they didn’t get involved with them more.
It’s pretty messed up that governments can apparently find money for corporate handouts but can’t properly fund and staff child protective services. Keeping the next generation safe should be a top priority for everyone.
Kids don’t really chip in a ton of cash for reelection campaigns.
RE: Fact #10 (Ronald Shanabarger Kills Baby Tyler) – Hey, if any lawyers are still scratching their heads about why people might not be too fond of them, this article has a pretty clear example. I totally get that it’s a lawyer’s job to put up the strongest defense they can for their client. That makes sense. But…
The defense team basically suggested that the mom, Parsons, planned the whole thing and confessed just to get her hands on a $100,000 life insurance policy on her baby.
Yeah, “Parsons” is the mother of the baby who was killed. They actually tried to blame her for it. I usually try to give lawyers the benefit of the doubt, but this just feels way over the line to me.
That seems like a really high policy for a baby.
Yeah, this used to be a pretty common thing, a bit different from regular life insurance. It would pay out either when the person died or when the kid hit 18. It was a way people saved up money for their kids.
Is it common for people to get life insurance for a baby?
RE: Fact #5 (Tucker State Prison Torture Murders) – This, and that terrible boys home in Florida, really show how cruel and corrupt this country can be.