Danny Rolling
On August 28, 1990, the bodies of Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada are discovered at the Gatorwood Apartments, near the campus of the University of Florida. Their murders came two days after the discovery that three young female students had been killed and mutilated in two separate locations near the campus.
Lord Louis Mountbatten
On August 27, 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten is killed when Irish Republican Army terrorists who detonate a bomb hidden on his fishing vessel Shadow V. Mountbatten, a war 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.
Robert Chambers
On August 26, 1986, Jennifer Levin is found dead in New York City’s Central Park less than two hours after she was seen leaving a bar on the city’s Upper East Side with Robert Chambers. The tall, handsome Chambers was soon arrested and charged with murder. The tabloid media dubbed Chambers, who had attended Manhattan private schools, the “Preppy Killer.” The case shocked the city and raised questions about underage drinking, drug use and casual sex among New York’s privileged youth.
Bill Doolin
On August 24, 1896, outlaw Bill Doolin is killed by a posse at Lawson, Oklahoma. Born in Arkansas in 1858, William Doolin traveled west in 1881, finding work in Oklahoma at the ranch of Oscar D. Halsell. Halsell took a liking to the young Doolin and taught him to read and write, and eventually made him a foreman on the ranch. Doolin worked for several other ranchers in the next decade and he was widely considered trustworthy and capable.
Mark David Chapman
On August 24, 1981, Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life for the murder of John Lennon. On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot and killed the 40-year-old singer, songwriter and peace activist, outside Lennon’s New York City apartment building, the Dakota, where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono and their young son Sean.
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
On August 23, 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder. On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his guard. The murderers, who were described as two Italian men, escaped with more than $15,000.
Michael Collins
On August 22, 1922, Irish revolutionary and Sinn Fein politician Michael Collins is assassinated in an ambush in west County Cork, Ireland. In the early part of the century, Collins joined Sinn Fein, an Irish political party dedicated to achieving independence for all Ireland. From its inception, the party became the unofficial political wing of militant Irish groups in their struggle to throw off British rule.
On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the city’s firefighters. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick O’Connor, the facts—or a lack of them—didn’t add up. Justice on Fire is OConnor’s detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters’ deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Also available from Amazon
