Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos Abducts her First Victim

On November 30, 1989, Richard Mallory, a storeowner in Palm Harbor, Florida, is last seen taking a ride with Aileen Wuornos. The following day, his car was found abandoned in a remote area of Ormond Beach. Nearly two weeks later, his body turned up in a Daytona Beach junkyard with three bullets in his chest. Mallory's murder was the first of seven committed by Aileen Wuornos over the next year. Perhaps because she was one of the few women killers to gain widespread fame and notoriety, she was inaccurately dubbed "America's first female serial killer." Her case was heavily publicized through television talk show appearances and a documentary, The Selling of a Serial Killer.

Wuornos’ parents split before she was born and her father, who had been arrested for child molesting, killed himself while awaiting trial in a mental institution. When her mother abandoned her at a young age, Aileen was sent to live with grandparents. She was kicked out of their home when she got pregnant at age 14. From 1974 to 1976, Wuornos operated under several aliases and amassed an arrest record for offenses including drunken driving, assault, and armed robbery. In 1986, she became romantically and criminally involved with a woman named Tyria Moore. In late 1989, Wuornos began her infamous killing spree. Five months after Richard Mallory was killed, David Spears was found dead, shot six times with a .22 caliber gun in the woods near Tampa. At around the same time, another male body turned up nearby that appeared to have been killed with the same type of gun. Three additional men met the same demise during the summer of 1990. When the seventh victim was found in November, the media was alerted to the possibility of a serial killer. After receiving several tips, detectives caught Wuornos in a seedy biker bar in January 1991. With Moore assisting police, Wuornos confessed to the killings but claimed that they had all been done in self-defense. When a jury found Wuornos guilty on January 27, 1992 and was sentenced to death. She was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

 

Michael Thomas Barry’s true crime book, Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949, can be purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links:

 

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First Live Radio Broadcast of a Royal Wedding - 1934

On November 29, 1934, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark marries Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Mary of Teck. Their nuptials at Westminster Abbey are the first live radio broadcast of a royal wedding. The Duke of Kent was killed on 25 August 1942, in a plane in Scotland, while on active service with the Royal Air Force. After her husband's death, the Duchess of Kent continued to be an active member of the British Royal Family, carrying out a wide-range of royal and official engagements. She died on August 27, 1968 at Kensington Palace from a brain tumor and was buried at the Royal Burial Ground in Frogmore.  

Michael Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Royal Tombs: A Guide to the Lives & Burial Places of British Monarchs. The book can be purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links – 

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Convicted Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer is Beaten to Death - 1994

On November 28, 1994, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is beaten to death by a fellow inmate while performing cleaning duty in a bathroom at the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium in Portage, Wisconsin.

During a 13-year period, Dahmer, who lived primarily in the Midwest, murdered at least 17 men. Most of these men were young, gay African Americans who Dahmer lured back to his home, promising to pay them money to pose nude for photographs. Dahmer would then drug and strangle them to death, generally mutilating, and occasionally cannibalizing, their bodies. Dahmer was finally arrested on July 22, 1991, and entered a plea of guilty but insane in 15 of the 17 murders he confessed to committing. In February 1992, the jury found him sane in each murder, and he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences. Two years later, Dahmer was killed at the age of 34 by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, who also fatally beat the third man on their work detail, inmate Jesse Anderson. Scarver's motive in killing the two men is not entirely clear; however, in his subsequent criminal trial he maintained that God told him to kill Dahmer and the other inmate. Scarver, already serving a life term for murder, was sentenced to additional life terms and transferred to a federal prison.  

Michael Thomas Barry’s true crime book, Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949, can be purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links  - 

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British Political Activist Ross McWhirter is Killed by IRA Terrorists - 1975

On November 27, 1975, Ross McWhirter was assassinated by two IRA terrorists.

He was shot outside of his home in north London. His killers Harry Duggan and Hugh Doherty, both of whom were members of what became known as the Balcombe Street Gang were captured and charged with his and nine other murders. They were sentenced to life imprisonment but freed in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. McWhirter was a sports journalist who helped co-found the Guinness Book of Records. In the early 1960s, he became a Conservative Party activist. In 1975, McWhirter co-founded the ultra right wing political organization National Association for Freedom. The organization initiated legal challenges against the trade union movement in the United Kingdom. He also advocated restrictions on the Irish community in Britain such as making it compulsory for all Irish people in Great Britain to register with the local police and to provide signed photographs of themselves when renting flats or booking into hotels and hostels. In doing so, McWhirter recognized that he could then be a target himself. In addition, McWhirter offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to a conviction for several recent high-profile bombings in England that were publicly claimed by the IRA. This was considered a 'bounty' by the IRA, a view that led directly to his assassination on November 27, 1975. 

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949, buy the book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links –

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The Brink's-MAT Heist - 1983

On November 26, 1983, six robbers break into the Brink's-MAT warehouse at Heathrow Airport, London and steal millions in gold, diamonds and cash.

At the time, it was described as "the crime of the century.” The robbers gained entry to the warehouse from security guard Anthony Black, who was in on the heist. Once inside, they poured gasoline over staff and threatened them with a lit match if they did not reveal the combination numbers of the vault. The robbers thought they were going to steal £3 million in cash. However, when they arrived, they found three tones of gold bullion and stole £26 million worth of gold, diamonds, and cash.  

In December, one of the robbers, Micky McAvoy, was arrested after security guard insider Black, his brother-in-law, gave his name to investigating officers. Scotland Yard quickly discovered the family connection and Black confessed to aiding and abetting the robbers, providing them with a key to the main door, and details of security at the facility. McAvoy was eventually found guilty and sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment for armed robbery, and Black was sentenced to six years. Before his conviction, McAvoy had entrusted part of his share to associates Brian Perry, George Francis, and Kenneth Noye. The gold was melted down and recast for sale. However, the sudden movements of large amounts of money came to the notice of the Treasury Department, who informed law enforcement of the unusual activity. Noye was placed under police surveillance. In January 1985 he killed an undercover police officer but at the resulting trial, a jury found him not guilty on the grounds of self-defense. In 1986, he was found guilty of conspiracy with regards to the Brink's-MAT heist, fined £700,000 and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He served seven years before being released in 1994. Attempts by McAvoy to strike a deal to give back his share of the money in exchange for a reduction in his sentence failed. In January 1995, the British High Court ordered McAvoy to pay £27,488,299, making him responsible for the entire sum of the heist. In 2000, he was released from prison. Most of the stolen gold has never been recovered and the other four robbers were never convicted.  

Order Michael Thomas Barry’s true crime book, Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949, from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links – 

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Alleged Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is shot & killed - 1963

On November 24, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy is shot to death by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Police Department.

 

 

On November 22, President Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in an open-car motorcade through the streets of downtown Dallas. Less than an hour after the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald killed a policeman who questioned him on the street. Thirty minutes after that, he was arrested in a movie theater by police. Oswald was formally arraigned on November 23 for the murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit. On November 24, Oswald was brought to the basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his way to a more secure county jail. A crowd of police and press with live television cameras rolling gathered to witness his departure. As Oswald came into the room, Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and fatally wounded him with a single shot from a concealed .38 revolver. Ruby, who was immediately detained, claimed that rage at Kennedy's murder was the motive for his action. Some called him a hero, but he was nonetheless charged with first-degree murder. Jack Ruby operated strip clubs in Dallas and had minor connections to organized crime. He also had a relationship with a number of Dallas policemen, which amounted to various favors in exchange for leniency in their monitoring of his establishments. He features prominently in Kennedy-assassination theories, and many believe he killed Oswald to keep him from revealing a larger conspiracy. In his trial, Ruby denied the allegation and pleaded innocent on the grounds that his great grief over Kennedy's murder had caused him to suffer "psychomotor epilepsy" and shoot Oswald unconsciously. The jury found him guilty of the "murder with malice" of Oswald and sentenced him to death. In October 1966, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the decision on the grounds of improper admission of testimony and the fact that Ruby could not have received a fair trial in Dallas at the time. In January 1967, while awaiting a new trial, Ruby died of lung cancer in a Dallas hospital. The official Warren Commission report of 1964 concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part of a larger conspiracy, either domestic or international, to assassinate President Kennedy. Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in a preliminary report that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime. The committee's findings, as with those of the Warren Commission, continue to be widely disputed. 

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Lord Louis Mountbatten is assassinated - 1979

On November 23, 1979, Thomas McMahon, a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is sentenced to life imprisonment for preparing and planting the bomb that killed Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others.

 

 

On August 27, 1979, Lord Mountbatten was killed when McMahon and other IRA terrorists detonated a 50-pound bomb hidden on his fishing vessel Shadow V. Mountbatten, a World War II hero, elder statesman, and second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, was spending the day with his family in Donegal Bay off Ireland's northwest coast when the bomb exploded. Three others were killed in the attack, including Mountbatten's 14-year-old grandson, Nicholas. Later that day, an IRA bombing attack on land killed 18 British paratroopers in County Down, Northern Ireland. The assassination of Mountbatten was the first blow struck against the British royal family by the IRA during its long terrorist campaign to drive the British out of Northern Ireland and unite it with the Republic of Ireland to the south. The attack hardened the hearts of many Britons against the IRA and convinced Margaret Thatcher's government to take a hard-line stance against the terrorist organization. The IRA immediately claimed responsibility for the Mountbatten attack, saying it detonated the bomb by remote control from the coast. It also took responsibility for the same-day bombing attack against British troops in County Down, which claimed 18 lives. IRA member Thomas McMahon was later arrested and convicted for his role in the Mountbatten bombing. He was a leader of the IRA's notorious South Armagh Brigade, which killed more than 100 British soldiers. He was one of the first IRA members to be sent to Libya to study detonators and timing devices and was an expert in explosives. Authorities believe the Mountbatten assassination was the work of many people, but McMahon was the only individual convicted. Sentenced to life in prison, he was released in 1998, along with other IRA and Unionist terrorists, under a controversial provision of the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland's peace deal. McMahon claimed he had turned his back on the IRA and was becoming a carpenter. 

Michael Barry is the author of Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949 and Great Britains Royal Tombs: A Guide to the Lives & Burial Places of British Monarchs these books can be purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links -

Murder & Mayhem -

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Great Britain's Royal Tombs -

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Princess Royal Victoria Adelaide is born - 1840

Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa was born on November 21, 1840 at Buckingham Palace and was the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She was created Princess Royal of the United Kingdom in 1841. She became German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Fredrick III in 1858. After her husband's death in 1888, she became widely known as Empress Frederick. Their eldest child Wilhelm II was the last emperor of Germany and launched the country into World War One. Empress Victoria was diagnosed with inoperable breast cancer in 1899 and by the autumn of 1900, the cancer spread to her spine and after much suffering, she died at Castle Friedrichshof on August 5, 1901, less than seven months after the death of her mother, Queen Victoria.

 

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Murder & Mayhem is named a FINALIST in the 2012 USA Book News Awards

November 16, 2012 - Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949 was named a finalist in the 2012 USA Book News Book Awards - True Crime category.

http://www.usabooknews.com/2013usabestbookawards/2012usabestbookawards.html

Princess Elizabeth Weds Philip Mountbatten - 1947

On this date in 1947, Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) marries Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey.

Mountbatten is a distant cousin of Elizabeth’s and was prince of Greece and Denmark who renounced his titles in order to marry the English princess. The celebrations surrounding the wedding of the popular princess lifted the spirits of the people of Britain, who were enduring economic difficulties in the aftermath of World War II. Princess Elizabeth, heir to the British throne, was 21 years old at the time of the wedding and Mountbatten, age 26, had fought as a British naval officer during World War II and was made the duke of Edinburgh on the eve of his wedding to Elizabeth. On February 6, 1952, the death of King George VI sent Elizabeth to the throne, and Philip ended his naval career to concentrate on his new duties as consort of the British monarch. Elizabeth and Philip eventually had four children--Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.

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Queen Mary I of England is Born - 1516

Queen Mary I of England was born on November 17, 1516, at the Palace of Placentia in London.

 

She was the only living child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. During Mary's childhood, as the daughter of the King of England her value as a potential marriage partner for the ruler of another realm was high. Mary was promised in marriage to the dauphin, son of Francis I of France, and later to the emperor Charles V. A 1527 treaty promised Mary to Francis I or to his second son. Soon after that treaty, however, Henry VIII began the long process of divorcing Mary's mother, his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. With the divorce of her parents, Mary was declared illegitimate, and her half-sister Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, successor to Catherine of Aragon as wife of Henry VIII, was declared Princess instead. Mary refused to acknowledge this change in her status. Mary was then kept from seeing her mother from 1531 on; Catherine of Aragon died in 1536. After Anne Boleyn was disgraced, charged with being unfaithful and executed, Mary finally capitulated and signed a paper accepting that her parents' marriage was unlawful. Henry VIII then restored her to the succession. Mary, like her mother, was a devout and committed Roman Catholic. She refused to accept Henry's religious innovations. During the reign of Mary's half-brother, Edward VI, when even more Protestant reforms were implemented, Mary held fast to her Roman Catholic faith. On Edward's death, Protestant supporters briefly put Lady Jane Grey on the throne. But Mary's supporters removed Jane, and Mary became Queen of England, the first woman to rule England with full coronation as Queen in her own right. Queen Mary's attempts to restore Catholicism and Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain (July 25, 1554) were unpopular. Mary supported harsher and harsher persecution of the Protestants, eventually burning more than 300 Protestants at the stake as heretics over a four year period, earning her the nickname "Bloody Mary." Two or three times, Queen Mary believed herself pregnant, but each pregnancy proved to be false. Philip's absences from England grew more frequent and longer. Mary's always-frail health finally failed her and she died in 1558. Some attribute her death to influenza, some to stomach cancer which was misinterpreted by Mary as pregnancy. She was buried at Westminster Abbey. Mary named no heir to succeed her, so her half-sister Elizabeth became Queen, named by Henry VIII as next in succession after Mary. 

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Nell Gwyn mistress of Charles II died (1687) & Prince Charles is born (1948)

On November 14, 1687, Nell Gwyn mistress of King Charles II of Britain dies in London.

 

She became a legend, the only royal mistress in English history to provoke popular affection. She was one of many (there were 13 in all during his lifetime), but she was the least greedy of them all. When he lay dying he begged his heir, the Duke of York, "not to let poor Nellie starve.” In her early teens, Nell Gwyn was engaged to sell oranges at the King's Theatre. Her natural wit and complete lack of self-consciousness caught the eye of the actor Charles Hart and others, and Dryden wrote plays to exploit her talents as a comic actress. She became Charles Hart's mistress; she called him Charles the First, and was then passed to Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, whom she dubbed Charles the Second, and later the King, calling him her Charles the Third. Barbara Palmer had been King Charles' mistress for many years when he became enamoured of Nell. The rivalry between his mistresses made the King's life difficult at times. He had 13 children by these women and agreed to support the children he believed were his. Nell was not greedy and grasping like her rivals, but did receive a house near Pall Mall. Towards the end of 1669 Nell withdrew from the stage because she was pregnant. The child was a boy: however her other son, born two years later, died. Unlike Charles' other mistresses, Nell never received a title herself, but by using clever tactics she obtained a title for her son. When Charles died in 1685 Nell's creditors descended upon her, she never did starve, but was in grave danger of being sent to a Debtors prison. She appealed to King James and to his credit; he settled her immediate debts and gave her a pension. Nell survived Charles by only two years and was only in her thirties when she died from a stroke on November 14, 1687 at Pall Mall House.  

Charles, Prince of Wales was born on November 14, 1948 in Buckingham Place.

 

He is the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II. He is the longest-serving heir apparent in British history. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles served a tour of duty with the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. His 1981 wedding to Diana Spencer produced two sons, William and Harry. The couple divorced in 1996 after Diana publicly accused Charles of having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, and Charles admitted adultery on television. Diana died in a car crash in 1997. In 2005, after a lengthy continued association, the Prince married Camilla.

King Edward III of England is born - 1312

King Edward III of England was born on November 13, 1312 at Windsor Castle.

 

He was the son of King Edward II and Isabella of France. He reigned as king of England from 1327 until his death in 1377 and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward III went on to transform the England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. His reign saw vital developments in legislation and government, and in particular the evolution of the English parliament, as well as the ravages of the Black Death. He remains one of only five monarchs to have ruled England for more than fifty years. 

Edward was crowned at the age of fifteen, following the deposition of his father. When he was only seventeen years old, Edward III led a coup against the de facto ruler of the country, his mother's consort Roger Mortimer, and began his personal reign. After a successful campaign in Scotland in 1333, he declared himself rightful heir to the French throne in 1337, starting what would become known as the Hundred Years’ War. Following some initial setbacks, the war went exceptionally well for England; the victories of Crecy and Poitiers led to the highly favorable Treaty of Bretigny. Edward's later years, however, were marked by international failure and domestic strife, largely as a result of his inactivity and bad health. He died on June 21, 1377 at Sheen Palace from a stroke and was buried at Westminster Abbey. He was succeeded to the throne by his ten year old grandson Richard II, son of the Black Prince, who had died in 1376.  

Michael Thomas Barry’s newest book – Great Britain’s Royal Tombs: A Guide to the Lives & Burial Places of British Monarchs can be purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links – 

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Grace Kelly is Born - 1929

Actress Grace Kelly was born on November 12, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

After embarking on an acting career in 1950, Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions as well as in more than forty episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s. In October 1953, with the release of Mogambo, she became a movie star, a status confirmed in 1954 with a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination as well as leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, for which she won the Oscar for best actress in 1955. On April 18, 1956, Kelly married prince Rainier III of Monaco. Kelly then retired from acting at to enter upon her duties in Monaco. She and Prince Rainier had three children. Kelly died on September 14, 1982 after suffering a stroke she lost control of her automobile and crashed. Her daughter, Princess Stephanie, was in the car with her, and survived the accident. 

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Fade to Black Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950 the book can be purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links–

 

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King George II of Britain is born - 1683

King George II of Britain is born on November 10, 1683 in Hanover, Germany.

 

He was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. In 1701, his grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, became second-in-line to the British throne. After her death, and that of Queen Anne, in 1714, his father George I, Elector of Hanover, inherited the British throne. In the first years of his father's reign as king, young George was associated with opposition politicians, until they re-joined the governing party in 1720. He ascended to throne of Britain upon the death of his father George I on June 11, 1727 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey in October 1727. As king George II exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by Parliament. As elector, he spent 12 summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy. He had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, Fredrick, who supported the parliamentary opposition. During the War of Austrian Succession, George II participated at the battle of Dettingen (1743), and thus became the last British monarch to lead an army in battle. In 1745, supporters of the Catholic claimant to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart (The Old Pretender), led by James's son Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie), attempted and failed to depose George in the last of the Jacobite rebellions. After Prince Frederick died unexpectedly in 1751, George's grandson, George III, became heir and ultimately king. For two centuries after his death on October 25, 1760, history tended to view George II with disdain, concentrating on his mistresses, short temper, and boorishness. Since then, some scholars have re-assessed his legacy and conclude that he held and exercised influence in foreign policy and military appointments.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Royal Tombs: A Guide to the Lives & Burial Places of British Monarchs it can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble through the following links –

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Edward VII is Born - 1841

On this date in 1841, Edward VII King of Great Britain was born.

 

Edward was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and before his accession to the throne, served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. The Edwardian era, which covered his reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society. He married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, and together they would have three sons (including the future George V) and three daughters. Edward ascended to the throne upon the death of his mother on January 22, 1901 and was crowned on August 9, 1902 at Westminster Abbey. He died on May 6, 1910, after a series of heart attacks and was interred within St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.  

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Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) Invades England - 1746

On this date in 1745 Charles Edward Stuart invaded England with an army of 5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden (April 16, 1746).

 

Born on December 31, 1720 and commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender, he was the second Jacobite pretender to the throne of Great Britain. This claim was as the eldest son of James Francis Edward Stuart, himself the son of King James II. Charles is perhaps best known as the instigator of the unsuccessful Jacobite Uprising of 1745, in which he led an insurrection to restore an absolute monarchy in Britain, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Culloden that effectively ended the Jacobite cause. Charles's flight from Scotland after the uprising has rendered him a romantic figure of heroic failure in later representations. In 1759 he was involved in a French plan to invade the British Isles which was abandoned following British naval victories. He died on January 31, 1788 and is buried at St. Peters Basilica in Rome, Italy.   

Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March is born - 1391

Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March and 7th Earl of Ulster was born on this date in 1391. In 1398 Edmund succeeded his father not only as earl of March and Ulster but as heir presumptive to the childless Richard II. In 1399 after the usurpation of the throne by the Lancastrian Henry IV, Mortimer was imprisoned, although allowed to inherit his estates. On the accession of Henry V in 1413, he was released and served Henry in the French wars. He refused to stand for plots of supporters to raise him to the throne. In 1422, after Henry V's death, Mortimer became a member of the regency council for the young Henry VI. In 1424 he took the post of lieutenant of Ireland, where his death in 1425 by plague ended the male line of the Mortimers. His heiress was his sister Anne, whose son by Richard, Earl of Cambridge, was Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of the soon to be released - Great Britains Royal Tombs: A Guide to the Lives & Burial Places of British Monarchs it can be purchased at Amazon through the following link:

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Henry VI is Crowned King of England - 1429

On this date in 1429, Henry VI is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

 

Henry VI was the only child of Henry V and Catherine of Valois, born on December 6, 1421. He married Margaret of Anjou in 1445; the union produced one son, Edward, who was killed in battle one day before Henry's execution. Henry came to the throne as an infant after the early death of his father; in name, he was king of both England and France, but a protector ruled each realm. He was educated by Richard Beauchamp beginning in 1428. The whole of Henry's reign was involved with retaining both of his crowns - in the end, he held neither. Hostilities in France continued, but momentum swung to the French with the appearance of Joan of Arc in 1428. The seventeen year old was instrumental in rescuing the French Dauphin Charles in 1429; he was crowned at Reims as Charles VII, and she was burned at the stake as a heretic. English losses in Brittany (1449), Normandy (1450) and Gascony (1453) led to the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War in 1453. Henry lost his claim to all French soil except for Calais. The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry's reign. In 1453, Henry had an attack of the hereditary mental illness that plagued the French house of Valois; Richard, Duke of York, was made protector of the realm during the illness. His wife Margaret, a rather headstrong woman, alienated Richard upon Henry's recovery and Richard responded by attacking and defeating the queen's forces at St. Albans in 1455. Richard captured the king in 1460 and forced him to acknowledge Richard as heir to the crown. Henry escaped, joined the Lancastrian forces and attacked at Towton in March 1461, only to be defeated by the York’s. Richard's son, Edward IV, was proclaimed king; Margaret and Henry were exiled to Scotland. They were captured in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1470. Henry was briefly restored to power in September 1470. Edward, Prince of Wales, died after his final victory at Tewkesbury on May 20, 1471 and Henry returned to the Tower. The last Lancastrian king was murdered the following day.

Pre-order my newest book  - Great Britain's Royal Tombs: A Guide to the Lives & Burial Places of British Monarch from Amazon through the following link -

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Fort Hood Shooting Rampage Kills 13 and Wounds 32 - 2009

On this date in 2009, army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan kills 13 people and wounds 32 in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

Early in the afternoon of November 5, Major Hasan, armed with two pistols, allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”) and then opened fire at a crowd inside a Fort Hood processing center where soldiers who were about to be deployed overseas or were returning from deployment received medical screenings. The massacre, which left 12 service members and one Department of Defense employee dead, lasted approximately 10 minutes before Hasan was shot by civilian police and taken into custody.

 

The Virginia-born Hasan, the son of Palestinian immigrants, entered active military duty following his 1995 graduation from Virginia Tech University. In 2003, he completed his psychiatry training at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and went on to work at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., treating soldiers returning from war with post-traumatic stress disorder. In May 2009, he was promoted to the rank of major in the Army, and that July, was transferred to Fort Hood. 

 

The motivation for the massacre remains unclear. At the time of the shootings, Hasan was facing deployment to a combat zone in Afghanistan or Iraq, about which he apparently had voiced reluctance. Several years prior to the attack, Hasan told relatives he wanted to leave the Army, where he believed he was harassed for being a Muslim. In the aftermath of the shootings, reviews by the Pentagon and a U.S. Senate panel found Hasan’s superiors had continued to promote him despite the fact that concerns had been raised over his behavior, which suggested he had become a radical and potentially violent Islamic extremist. Among other things, he reportedly publicly defended Osama bin Laden and said America’s war on terror was really a war against Islam. Prior to the Fort Hood rampage, government authorities reportedly also learned Hasan had repeated communication with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric and proponent of violent jihad against America; however, this information about Hasan was apparently not reported to the Army. Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of shots fired at him by police attempting to stop his rampage, remains in a Texas jail awaiting trial.

Notorious Gambler Arnold Rothstein is murdered - 1928

On this date in 1928, notorious gambler Arnold Rothstein is shot and killed during a poker game at the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan.

 

After finding Rothstein bleeding profusely at the service entrance of the hotel, police followed his trail of blood back to a suite where a group of men were playing cards. Reportedly, Rothstein had nothing good in his final hand. From an early age, Rothstein had a talent for playing numbers. As a teenager, he built a small fortune gambling in craps and poker games, and by age 20 he owned and operated his own casino. Rothstein became a legendary figure in New York because of his unparalleled winning streak in bets and card games. However, it is believed that he usually won by fixing the events. The most famous instance of this was in 1919 when the World Series was fixed. Abe Attell, a friend and employee of Rothstein, paid some of the key players on the Chicago White Sox to throw the games. When the scandal was uncovered, Rothstein fiercely denied any involvement to a grand jury and escaped indictment. In private, however, Rothstein never denied his role, preferring to enjoy the outlaw image. In the 1920's, Rothstein began purchasing nightclubs, racehorses, and brothels. He had such a formidable presence in the criminal underworld that he was reportedly once paid half a million dollars to mediate a gang war. As Rothstein's fortune grew to an estimated $50 million, he became a high-level loan shark, liberally padding the pockets of police and judges to evade the law. He is fabled to have carried around $200,000 in pocket money at all times. Rothstein's luck finally ran out in 1928 when he encountered an unprecedented losing streak. At a poker game in September, Rothstein lost $320,000 and then refused to pay on the grounds that the game had been rigged. Two months later, he was invited to play what would be his final poker game. Asked who had shot him before dying, Rothstein reportedly put his finger to his lips, keeping the gangsters' code of silence.

Black Bart robs his last stagecoach - 1883

On this date in 1883, notorious bandit Black Bart robs his last stagecoach.

 

He was born Charles E. Boles around 1830 in New York. As a young man, he abandoned his family for the gold fields of California, but failed to strike it rich as a miner and turned to a life of crime. By the mid-1850s, stagecoaches and Wells Fargo wagons transported much of the huge output of gold from California. Often traveling in isolated areas, the Wells Fargo wagons and stagecoaches quickly became favorite targets for bandits; over the course of about 15 years, the company lost more than $415,000 in gold to outlaw robbers. It is believed that Boles committed his first stagecoach robbery in July 1875. Wearing a flour sack over his head with holes cut for his eyes and a fancy gentleman's black derby, he intercepted a stage near the California mining city of Copperopolis. When guards spotted gun barrels sticking out of nearby bushes, they handed over their strong box to Boles. He cracked open the box with an axe and escaped on foot with the gold, though his "gang" of camouflaged gunmen stayed behind. When the guards returned to pick up the box, they discovered that the "rifle barrels" were just sticks tied to branches. During the course of his criminal career he never shot anyone nor robbed a single stage passenger; he gained fame for his daring style and the occasional short poems he left behind, signed by "Black Bart, the Po-8." Wells Fargo, however, was not amused and the company ordered its private police force to capture the bandit, dead or alive and after several years of searching Wells Fargo detectives finally located Boles in San Francisco. Arrested and tried, Boles pleaded guilty and received a sentence of six years in San Quentin prison. He served just over four years. After his release from prison in 1888, Boles disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.

South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is Assassinated - 1963

On this date in 1963, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother are captured and killed by a group of soldiers.

 

The death of Diem caused celebration among many people in South Vietnam, but also leads to political chaos in the nation. The United States subsequently became more heavily involved in Vietnam as it tried to stabilize the South Vietnamese government and beat back the communist rebels that were becoming an increasingly powerful threat. While the United States publicly disclaimed any knowledge of or participation in the planning of the coup that overthrew Diem, it was later revealed that American officials met with the generals who organized the plot and gave them encouragement to go through with their plans. Quite simply, Diem was perceived as an impediment to the accomplishment of U.S. goals in Southeast Asia. His increasingly dictatorial rule only succeeded in alienating most of the South Vietnamese people, and his brutal repression of protests led by Buddhist monks during the summer of 1963 convinced many American officials that the time had come for Diem to go. Three weeks later, an assassin shot President Kennedy. By then, the United States was more heavily involved in the South Vietnamese quagmire than ever. Its participation in the overthrow of the Diem regime signaled a growing impatience with South Vietnamese management of the war. From this point on, the United States moved step by step to become more directly and heavily involved in the fight against the communist rebels.

Legendary Old West Lawman Bill Tilghman is murdered - 1924

On this date in 1924, legendary lawman, William Tilghman is murdered.

 

Known to both friends and enemies as "Uncle Billy," Tilghman was one of the most honest and effective lawmen of his day. Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1854, Tilghman moved west when he was only 16 years old. Once there, he flirted with a life of crime after falling in with a crowd of disreputable young men who stole horses from Indians. After several narrow escapes with angry Indians, Tilghman decided that rustling was too dangerous and settled in Dodge City, Kansas, where he briefly served as a deputy marshal before opening a saloon. He was arrested twice for alleged train robbery and rustling, but the charges did not stick. Despite this shaky start, Tilghman gradually built a reputation as an honest and respectable young man in Dodge City. He became the deputy sheriff of Ford County, Kansas, and later, the marshal of Dodge City. Tilghman was one of the first men into the territory when Oklahoma opened to settlement in 1889, and he became a deputy U.S. marshal for the region in 1891.

In the late 19th century, lawlessness still plagued Oklahoma, and Tilghman helped restore order by capturing some of the most notorious bandits of the day. Over the years, Tilghman earned a well-deserved reputation for treating even the worst criminals fairly and protecting the rights of the unjustly accused. Any man in Tilghman's custody knew he was safe from angry vigilante mobs, because Tilghman had little tolerance for those who took the law into their own hands. In 1898, a wild mob lynched two young Indians who were falsely accused of raping and murdering a white woman. Tilghman arrested and secured prison terms for eight of the mob leaders and captured the real rapist-murderer. In 1924, after serving a term as an Oklahoma state legislator, making a movie about his frontier days, and serving as the police chief of Oklahoma City, Tilghman might well have been expected to quietly retire. However, the old lawman was unable to hang up his gun, and he accepted a job as city marshal in Cromwell, Oklahoma.

On November 1, 1924, Tilghman was shot by Wiley Lynn, a corrupt Prohibition Agent. Lynn and Tilghman had had numerous verbal confrontations because Lynn repeatedly released prisoners who were arrested by Tilghman. The incident began on Halloween night, when Tilghman and several other citizens were having coffee at a local café. Shots were heard outside, and Tilghman drew his handgun and went outside. In the street stood a drunken Wiley Lynn, with a gun in his hand. Tilghman tried to disarm Lynn but a scuffle broke and Lynn’s gun discharged striking the lawman. Tilghman slumped forward and died. Lynn then fled the scene. Wiley Lynn was eventually acquitted of murder after several witnesses to the shooting, allegedly intimidated, failed to appear. Despite his acquittal, Lynn was dismissed from the Prohibition unit. Years later, in a shootout with another police officer, Lynn was killed.