Edward O. Heinrich, private detective
On October 11, 1923, three men blow up the mail car of a Southern Pacific train carrying passengers through southern Oregon in a botched robbery attempt. Just as the train entered a tunnel, two armed men jumped the engineer. A third man appeared with a bomb that the thieves intended to use to open the mail car. However, the explosives were too powerful and the entire mail car was blown to bits, killing the clerk inside. In the ensuing chaos, the train robbers shot the train's engineer, fireman, and brakeman, and then fled. They left behind the detonator and some clothes, but bloodhounds were unable to track them.
Oct. 10, 2013 Associated Press
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison for corruption, after a series of scandals destroyed his political career and helped steer a crisis-laden city even deeper into trouble.
Kilpatrick, who served as mayor from 2002 until fall 2008, fattened his bank account by tens of thousands of dollars, traveled the country in private planes and even strong-armed his campaign fundraiser for stacks of cash hidden in her bra, according to evidence at trial.
"I'm ready to go so the city can move on," Kilpatrick told the judge. "The people here are suffering, they're hurting. A great deal of that hurt I accept responsibility for."
In March, Kilpatrick, 43, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, fraud, extortion and tax crimes. The government called it the "Kilpatrick enterprise," a years-long scheme to shake down contractors and reward allies. He was doomed by his own text messages, which revealed efforts to fix deals for a pal, Bobby Ferguson, an excavator who got millions of dollars in city work through the water department. Read More
Oct. 10, 2013 Huffington Post
NEW YORK — Another NYPD officer has come out of the shadows to admit he was riding with the motorcycle road-rage mob that attacked a Manhattan dad — and he works for the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, DNAinfo New York has learned.
The officer, a five-year veteran assigned to the IAB's command center, quietly came forward a few days ago — to the shock of his supervisors, sources said.
The IAB is responsible for monitoring wrongdoing by fellow officers and is currently investigating those involved in the same SUV attack the IAB officer was allegedly a part of. It wasn't immediately clear whether he was personally involved in that investigation.
The revelation comes the same week as NYPD Detective Wojciech Braszczok, an undercover officer in the Intelligence Division, was arraigned on felony assault, gang assault and riot charges for being involved in the Sept. 29 chase and attack on 33-year-old Alexian Lien. Read More
Joseph Harris
On October 8, 1991, former U.S. postal worker Joseph Harris shoots two former co-workers to death at the post office in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The night before, Harris had killed his former supervisor, Carol Ott, with a three-foot samurai sword, and shot her fiancé, Cornelius Kasten, in their home. After a four-hour standoff with police at the post office, Harris was arrested.
Oct. 9, 2013 Good Morning America
The $1 million Norman Rockwell painting stolen from a New York City warehouse testifies to the enduring popularity of the American artist. It became the 42rd Norman Rockwell piece to be put on a list of missing artworks.
The painting, "Sport," depicts a man fishing in the rain and was the cover of the April 29, 1939 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It was auctioned at Sothebys on May 22 for more than $1 million. The name of the buyer was not released.
The painting, which was signed by Rockwell, was reported missing at 7 p.m. on Sept. 13 from WelPak, a storage company located in Queens, N.Y. The company declined to comment, but said it is "cooperating with the NYPD in the investigation."
Rockwell's paintings have been popular with thieves as well as collectors. The Art Loss Register had 41 other stolen Rockwells on its list before adding "Sport" to its database. Read More
Roger Touhy
On October 9, 1942, notorious Chicago area bootlegger Roger "The Terrible" Touhy escapes from Statesville Prison by climbing the guard's tower. Touhy, who had been framed for kidnapping by his bootlegging rivals, was serving a 99-year sentence for a crime he did not commit.
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
