Michael Thomas Barry's blog

Danny "Dapper Dan" Hogan

by Michael Thomas Barry

Danny "Dapper Dan" Hogan  was a charismatic Irish mob boss in St. Paul, Minnesota during Prohibition. Due to his close relationships with the officers of the deeply corrupt St. Paul Police Department, Hogan was able to act as a go between. Known as the "Smiling Peacemaker" to local police officials, Police Chief John "The Big Fellow" O'Connor of Saint Paul allowed criminals and fugitives to operate in the city as long as they checked in with police, paid a small bribe and promised not to kill, kidnap, or rob within city limits.

Melissa Brannen

by Michael Thomas Barry

On December 3, 1989, five-year-old Melissa Brannen disappears without a trace from a Christmas party in Fairfax, Virginia. After interviewing everyone who had been at the party, investigators determined that Caleb Hughes had left the party at roughly the same time that Brannen was discovered missing. When detectives visited Hughes' home at 1 a.m., they found him washing his clothes, shoes, and belt.

William Kennedy Smith

by Michael Thomas Barry

On December 2, 1991, opening testimony begins in the highly publicized rape trial of William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Smith, then a 30-year-old medical student at Georgetown University, was accused of sexually assaulting a 29-year-old Florida woman in the early hours of March 30, 1991, at the Kennedy family’s Palm Beach compound.

Caril Ann Fugate & Charlie Starkweather

by Michael Thomas Barry

In the early morning hours of December 1, 1957, teenage spree killer, Charlie Starkweather and his girl friend, Caril Ann Fugate, murder gas station attendant Robert Colvert for refusing to sell him a stuffed animal on credit. Starkweather returned several times during the night to purchase small items, then finally, brandishing a shotgun, forced Colvert to hand over $100, then drove Colvert to a remote area. After Colvert was injured during a struggle over the gun, Starkweather killed him with a shot to the head.

Aileen Wuornos

by Michael Thomas Barry

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.

Charles Peace at his murder trial in 1879

by Michael Thomas Barry

Charles Frederick Peace was a notorious English burglar and murderer from Sheffield, whose somewhat remarkable life later spawned dozens of novels and films. Peace is mentioned by name in the Sherlock Holmes short story, The Adventure of the Illustrious Client and in Mark Twain’s Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven. Peace's earliest criminal exploit is said to have been stealing an old gentleman's gold watch, and he soon passed to burglary.

Jeffrey Dahmer

by Michael Thomas Barry

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.