Michael Thomas Barry's blog

John Hickley Jr.

by Michael Thomas Barry

On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr. shoots President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. The president had just completed an address to the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. Hinckley was armed with a .22 revolver with exploding bullets and was only ten feet away from Reagan when he began shooting.

George Peter Metesky aka the Mad Bomber

by Michael Thomas Barry

On March 29, 1951, a homemade device explodes at Grand Central Station in New York City, startling commuters but injuring no one. In the next few months, five more bombs were found at landmark sites around New York, including the public library. Authorities realized that this new wave of terrorist acts was the work of the Mad Bomber.

by Michael Thomas Barry

The case of William Fish was the first recorded official use of dogs by police to capture a murderer. On March 28, 1876 seven-yearold Emily Agnes Holland went missing from Birley Street, Blackburn, after telling friends at St. Alban’s School that she had met a nice man and was going to run some errands for him. She was never seen alive again. 

by Michael Thomas Barry

On March 27, 1911, the British Court of Appeals upholds the death penalty conviction of Stinie Morrison. Leon Beron was born in Poland but his family left to settle in London. In 1894 he bought nine ramshackle houses in Stepnsey in the East End. He rented them out for ten shillings a week and lived off the rental income. He was a man of habit each day he would have a meal at a local restaurant. He dressed smartly, a large gold watch and chain dangled from his waist coat.

Robert Stroud aka The Bird Man of Alcatraz

by Michael Thomas Barry

Robert Stroud better known as the Birdman of Alcatraz was in prison for the killing of F.K. Van Dahmer in Juneau, Alaska when he committed his second murder. On March 26, 1916 he stabbed to death prison guard Andrew Turner in front of 1,200 witnesses in the mess hall after Turner criticized Stroud for a minor rule infraction. Stroud was tried and sentenced to die on May 27^th but, after three trials and four years, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, after his mother appealed to President Woodrow Wilson.

The Scottsboro 9 with attorney Samuel Liebowitz

by Michael Thomas Barry

On March 25, 1932, The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in the case of Powell v. Alabama. The case arose out of the infamous Scottsboro case, where 9 young black men were arrested and accused of raping two white women on train in Alabama. The boys were fortunate to barely escape a lynch mob, but were railroaded into convictions and death sentences.

Class photo of Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden

by Michael Thomas Barry

On March 24, 1998, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shoot their classmates and teachers in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Golden, the younger of the two boys, asked to be excused from his class, pulled a fire alarm and then ran to join Johnson in a wooded area 100 yards away from the school's gym. As the students streamed out of the building, Johnson and Golden opened fire and killed four students and a teacher.