FBI Poster seeking information about missing civil rights actiivists
On June 21, 1964, civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney are killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob near Meridian, Mississippi. The three young men were working to register black voters in Mississippi, thus inspiring the anger of the local Klan. The deaths of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), caused a national outrage.
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel
On June 20, 1947, mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel is murdered at the home of his mistress Virginia Hill in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through a side window, killing him instantly.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. They had both been convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets. Both had also refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths in the electric chair. The Rosenberg’s were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime and their case remains controversial to this day.
Alan Berg
On June 18, 1984, talk radio personality Alan Berg, the self-described "man you love to hate," is gunned down and killed in the driveway of his home in Denver, Colorado. The 50-year-old radio host, whose show on the station KOA gained a strong following in the early 1980s, stirred up controversy with his outspoken personality, abrasive approach and liberal views. He had already been the target of a steady stream of death threats.
The Watergate Complex
On June 17, 1972, five burglars are arrested in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington, D.C. James McCord, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, and Eugenio Martinez were apprehended in the early morning after a security guard at the Watergate noticed that several doors leading from the stairwell to various hallways had been taped to prevent them from locking.
Natalie Holloway
On June 15, 2005, more than two weeks after Natalee Holloway vanished while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, police search the home of 17-year-old Joran Van der Sloot, one of the last known people to see the young woman alive. Although Van der Sloot would emerge as a prime suspect in the case, he was never charged. Holloway’s disappearance generated massive media attention in the United States; however, her body never has been found, and in 2012 she was declared legally dead.
TWA Flight 847
On June 14, 1985, TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome is hijacked by terrorists who immediately demand to know the identity of ''those with Jewish-sounding names." Two of the Lebanese terrorists, armed with grenades and a 9-mm. pistol, then forced the plane to land in Beirut, Lebanon.
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
