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.
The brutal slaying of an Australian who was attending college in the U.S. on a baseball scholarship has shattered two towns on opposite sides of the globe. Three teens have been arrested charged as adults for the crime.
DUNCAN, Okla. -- With a motive that's both chilling and simple - to break up the boredom of an Oklahoma summer - three teenagers randomly targeted an Australian collegiate baseball player who was attending school in the U.S. and killed him for fun, prosecutors said Tuesday as they charged two of the boys with murder.
Prosecutor Jason Hicks called the boys "thugs" as he described how Christopher Lane, 22, of Melbourne, was shot once in the back and died along a tree-lined road on Duncan's well-to-do north side. He said the three teens, from the grittier part of town, chose Lane at random and that one of the boys "thinks it's all a joke."
Hicks charged Chancey Allen Luna, 16, and James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, of Duncan, with first-degree murder. Under Oklahoma law they will be tried as adults. Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, of Duncan, was charged with using a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and with accessory to first-degree murder after the fact. He is considered a youthful offender but will be tried in adult court.
Jones wept in the courtroom after he tried to speak about the incident but was cut off by the judge who said it wasn't the time to sort out the facts of the case. Jones faces anywhere from two years to life in prison if convicted on the counts he faces. Read More
Aug. 21, 2013 New York Times
DECATUR, Ga. — A school clerk here on Tuesday stalled a man dressed in black who had sneaked into an elementary school with an AK-47, giving the police time to arrive before he could make his way into classrooms packed with 800 children.
The man, who the police said was Michael B. Hill, 20, and lived near the school, the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, was in a car that the police said they suspected carried some type of explosives along with other weapons.
He most likely followed someone into the secure school, according to an account by police and school officials.
Once inside, he made his way to the main office, said Cedric Alexander, chief of the DeKalb County Police Department. He demanded that someone call a local television station. Antoinette Tuff, a clerk, made the call. Read More
The West Memphis Three - Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley
On August 19, 2011, three men, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the murders of three boys in Arkansas, are released from prison in a special legal deal allowing them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to convict them.
Artists rendering of the Montana Vigilante hanging of Cyrus Skinner
On August 18, 1853, Cyrus Skinner, who would later be hanged by the Montana vigilantes, ends his first stay in the California state prison at San Quentin. Skinner was typical of the thieves and killers who terrorized the gold fields of Montana in the early 1860s. Born in Ohio in 1829, Skinner began robbing people as a teenager. He immigrated to California in 1850 and was promptly arrested for burglary. He served two years in San Quentin prison before being released on this day in 1853.
Aug. 17, 2013 Associated Press
BOSTON — Longtime Boston Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy said Saturday he could not describe his "disgust and remorse" over allegations his son fatally stabbed his girlfriend a day after being released from custody for allegedly assaulting her.
In a statement released through his Twitter account, Remy said he and his wife are "heartbroken" over the death of Jennifer Martel on Thursday night, allegedly at the hands of his son, Jared.
"Words cannot describe my wife's and my grief," Jerry Remy wrote. "Son or not, I am at loss for words articulating my disgust and remorse over this senseless and tragic act." Read More
William Bonney aka Billy the Kid
On August 17, 1877, Billy the Kid shoots an Arizona blacksmith who dies the next day. He would be the infamous outlaw's first victim. Just how many men Billy the Kid killed is uncertain. Billy himself reportedly once claimed he had killed 21 men-"one for every year of my life."
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
