Michael Thomas Barry's blog

Nancy Kerrigan

by Michael Thomas Barry

On January 6, 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked after a practice session at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. The attack came just one day before the U.S. National Championships and one month before the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in which Kerrigan was a gold medal favorite.

Jock and Margaret Yablonski

by Michael Thomas Barry

On January 5, 1970, the bodies of dissident union leader Joseph "Jock" Yablonski, his wife, and daughter are discovered in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania farmhouse. The family had been dead for nearly a week, killed on New Years’ Eve by killers hired by the United Mine Workers (UMW) union leadership.

Albert DeSalvo

by Michael Thomas Barry

On January 4, 1964, Mary Sullivan is raped and strangled to death in her Boston apartment. The killer left a card reading "Happy New Year" leaning against her foot. Sullivan would turn out to be the last woman killed by the notorious Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, who had terrorized the city between 1962 and 1964, raping and killing 13 women.

Manuel Noriega

by Michael Thomas Barry

On January 3, 1990, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega surrenders to U.S. forces after holing up for 10 days at the Vatican embassy in Panama City. He is arrested and charged with drug trafficking and flown to Miami the following day. Noriega, who was born in Panama in 1938, was a loyal soldier to General Omar Torrijos, who seized power in a 1968 coup.

Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper

by Michael Thomas Barry

The Yorkshire Ripper is finally caught by British police on January 2, 1981, ending one of the largest manhunts in British history. For five years, investigators had pursued every lead in an effort to stop the serial killer who terrorized Northern England, but the end came out of pure luck.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar movie poster

by Michael Thomas Barry

On the evening of January 1, 1973, Roseann Quinn, a 27-year-old New Yorker, visits Tweed's Bar on the Upper West Side and is picked up by her soon-to-be killer. The incident inspires the cautionary novel and subsequent movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar.

Ibrahim Shkupolli & entrance to Sello mall

by Michael Thomas Barry

The Sello mall shooting occurred on the morning of December 31, 2009 in Espoo, Finland. The shooting was believed to have been started after Ibrahim Shkupolli, the gunman, found that his ex-girlfriend had a lover at the grocery store where she worked. Shkupolli first killed her in her apartment before heading to the mall. The shooting began when the gunman entered the Prisma supermarket and began firing with a handgun.