Browsing: Crime

A Brief History On May 4, 1946, the US Marine Corps was called to assault and secure an island, this time in San Francisco Bay!  Why would Marines assault an American island?  Because that island was Alcatraz, home to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, built to house the worst federal criminals, and those ultra-bad guys were in the middle of a violent riot. Digging Deeper The riot started as an escape attempt by convicts who overpowered a guard and managed to steal guns and gas grenades.  Prisoners jammed a lock while trying different keys, ruining their escape.  Then the convicts took more…

A Brief History On May 3, 2023, a 13 year old Serbian schoolboy opened fire at an elementary school in Belgrade, Serbia, killing nine students and a security guard.  An additional six people were wounded.  Incredibly, due to Serbian law, the shooter was not criminally prosecuted due to his age! Digging Deeper The teenaged shooter used his father’s legally owned pistols in the event, firing 57 shots during the attack. Although not charged criminally, the shooter did wind up under psychiatric care.  His parents, in a scenario eerily similar to a recent case in the US, found themselves in legal…

A Brief History On April 30, 2008, Russian scientists confirmed that the skeletal remains found near the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as Sverdlovsk, in the Ural District of Russia, were indeed the remains of Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters, possibly Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, the son and daughter of the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II and his wife, Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Digging Deeper Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in 1917, due to ongoing political unrest and the disastrous conduct of World War I.  The Czar and Czarina were executed in 1918, along with their…

A Brief History On April 29, 1967, heavyweight boxing champ, Muhammad Ali, was stripped of his crown when he refused induction into the US military.  He later was vindicated and regained his championship belt in the ring, and today we look at some sports champions that were stripped of their honors. Digging Deeper One of the saddest and most famous cases was Olympic champ Jim Thorpe, stripped of his Gold Medals won at the 1912 Olympics in the Decathlon and Pentathlon because he had once played semi-pro baseball. In 1982, his honors were posthumously returned. Performance enhancing drugs have cost…

A Brief History On April 26, 1942, the Benxihu Colliery an iron and coal mine in Liaoning, China, was the scene of a horrific accident resulting in the deaths of 1,549 miners, the highest death toll of any mining disaster ever. Digging Deeper Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931 and began to exploit the natural resources and the people of the region.  Using Chinese as slave labor, the Japanese military did not provide adequate food, clothing, medical care, and sanitation for the workers. In miserable conditions, a huge coal dust explosion took place on April 26, 1942, triggering a massive…