Oct. 3, 2013 LA Times
For two years, the FBI tracked the elusive founder of Silk Road, an Internet site that peddled heroin, ecstasy and every known type of prescription medication.
The manhunt ended with the arrest of an unlikely suspect: Ross William Ulbricht, a 29-year-old former physics student from San Francisco.
Prosecutors on Wednesday described Ulbricht as a criminal mastermind who built an illegal drug empire that they estimated had $1.2 billion in sales over the last three years, earning him $80 million. Silk Road was the drug world's equivalent of EBay, acting as a matchmaker between dealers and buyers worldwide.
Authorities allege that the wrongdoing went far beyond narcotics. The site was also a marketplace for firearms, ammunition and computer hacking services. And Ulbricht was accused in separate complaints of paying for the attempted murders of two business associates who he believed had crossed him.
The arrest underscores the extensive use of the Internet by criminals who frequently mimic the legitimate business models of Internet retailers. Thousands of drug dealers advertised on Silk Road, and dispatched their products via U.S. mail. The site took a slice of each sale using the Bitcoin online currency. Read More
Amanda Knox
On October 3, 2011, an Italian appeals court overturns the murder conviction of Amanda Knox, an American exchange student who two years earlier was found guilty in the 2007 murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
Oct. 2, 2013 ABC News
The wife of a motorcyclist who was hit by an SUV during a melee involving 20 to 30 bikers said her husband is paralyzed from the waist down and may never walk again.
Dayana Mejia told ABC News today that her husband was struck by a Range Rover, setting off a confrontation between the driver and motorcyclists taking part in a group ride in New York City on Sunday.
The SUV driver fled the scene of an initial fender bender after feeling intimidated, police said. The group of motorcyclists chased him and then bashed in the windows of the Range Rover, dragged him out into the street, and beat him up while his wife and 2-year-old child watched from the SUV, police said.
Two of the motorcyclists involved in the confrontation are in custody, one of whom has been charged, according to New York police officials. Read More
On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts fatally shoots five female students and wounds five more at the West Nickel Mines Amish School in Nickels Mines, Pennsylvania. Roberts, a 32-year-old milk truck driver from a nearby town, entered the one-room schoolhouse at around 10:30 a.m. armed with an arsenal of weapons. He forced all of the boys and several women with infants to leave and made the 11 remaining girl’s line up against the blackboard.
Oct. 1, 2013 Denver Post
GOLDEN — Nearly one year after 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway disappeared on her way to school, Austin Sigg pleaded guilty on Tuesday in her kidnapping, murder and dismemberment.
A judge accepted the plea, which was entered against the advice of Sigg's attorneys. The plea on just the first-degree murder charge will send him to prison for life with the possibility of parole after 40 years.
A two-day sentencing hearing has been scheduled to start on Nov. 18. Prosecutors said they would argue for consecutive sentences for some charges.
Sigg, 18, pleaded guilty to 15 counts less than 72 hours before opening statements were scheduled to begin in his murder trial.
Sigg stood in dress clothes, with his left thumb in his pocket. Several members of Jessica's family, as well as members of Sigg's family, wore purple — Jessica's favorite color. Read More
On October 1, 1946, twelve high-ranking Nazis are sentenced to death by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg. Among those condemned to death by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior.
Jack the Ripper
On the early morning hours of September 30, 1888, serial killer Jack the Ripper claimed two victims in one night, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. Jack the Ripper is the name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the Whitechapel district of London in 1888.
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
