Browsing: Crime

A Brief History On August 12, 1944, German Nazi troops finished off a massacre of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles, many of them Jewish.  The excuse for this massacre was to put down the Warsaw Uprising and to discourage any further resistance to the occupying forces. Digging Deeper After the Germans took over Poland in 1939 (with the Soviets coming in through Poland’s back door, stabbing their neighbor in the back), the conquered Poles were treated like subhuman slaves.  Finally in 1944, partisan forces rose up and fought back against the Nazi overlords in an attempt to kick the Germans…

A Brief History On August 11, 1934, the Federal Penitentiary located on the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay opened for civilian prisoners.  Despite its exotic-sounding name, Alcatraz was a state-of-the-art maximum security prison designed to hold the toughest, most dangerous prisoners. Digging Deeper Some of the desperadoes held there included: Al “Scarface” Capone; “Doc” Barker; Robert Stroud (aka “The Bird Man of Alcatraz”); “Bumpy“ Johnson (aka “The Godfather of Harlem“); “Whitey” Bulger; Alvin “Creepy” Karpis; and “Machine Gun” Kelly.  Apparently having a nickname was a good way to end up on “The Rock!” Considered to be escape-proof, the…

A Brief History On August 9, 1969, members of the Manson Family, followers of cult leader Charles Manson, murdered actress Sharon Tate, her unborn baby, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and three other people.  Manson would later stand trial for orchestrating the murders but was never found to be insane, though to the layman he certainly appears to be.  Many historical figures seem to be  insane but are never ruled as such by a court or by psychiatric professionals (except maybe after they are dead).  Here we nominate 9 such people for History and Headlines’s loony bin.   Digging Deeper 9. Insane Clown…

A Brief History On August 5th, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home of an apparent drug overdose. No definitive cause of death has ever been determined. Suicide could not be conclusively proven, and there were some indications of foul play, murder, medical negligence or perhaps even a cover-up. Digging Deeper Much has been written about her final days. Although neither the coroner nor the investigators could with certainty say what happened, what is certain is that her death allowed Joe DiMaggio to show to the world his undying devotion and loyalty to her. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio…

A Brief History On August 5, 1305, William Wallace, the Scottish hero known as “Braveheart” in the 1995 movie, was captured by the English and then executed for treason in the gory way “traitors” were put to death at that time. Digging Deeper Wallace was a landowner.  Born in Renfrewshire, Scotland around 1270, he had some noble blood.  When the throne of Scotland was up for grabs in the late 1280s, the King of England, Edward I, stepped in to play kingmaker and selected John Balliol to play his puppet.  King John, Edward’s “yes man,” was considered weak by his fellow Scots and…