Michael Thomas Barry's blog

Sal Mineo

by Michael Thomas Barry

On February 12, 1976, actor Sal Mineo is stabbed to death in Hollywood, California. Mineo was parking his car behind his apartment when neighbors heard his cries for help. Some described a white man with brown hair fleeing the scene. By the time they reached Mineo, he was almost dead from a deep wound to his chest. He died minutes later.

Burke & Hare

by Michael Thomas Barry

On February 11, 1828, Abigail Simpson is murdered by William Burke and William Hare in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Burke and Hare murders (also known as the West Port murders) were a series of murders committed in Scotland over a period of about ten months in 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 16 victims to Doctor Robert Knox as dissection material for his well-attended anatomy lectures.

Mike Tyson

by Michael Thomas Barry

On February 10, 1992, former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is found guilty of raping 18-year-old beauty-pageant contestant Desiree Washington. The following month, Tyson was given a 10-year prison sentence, with four years suspended.

Adolph Coors III

by Michael Thomas Barry

On February 9, 1960, Adolph Coors disappears while driving to work from his Morrison, Colorado, home. The grandson of the Coors' founder and chairman of the Golden Colorado Brewing Company was kidnapped and held for ransom before being shot to death.

Gas Chamber

by Michael Thomas Barry

On February 8, 1924, the first execution by lethal gas in American history is carried out in Carson City, Nevada. The executed man was Tong Lee, a member of a Chinese gang who was convicted of murdering a rival gang member.

by Michael Thomas Barry

On February 7, 1968, Bernard Josephs returns to his house in Bromley, England, and finds his wife Claire lying under their bed, her throat slashed and severed to the spine. Defensive wounds to her hands appeared to be caused by a serrated knife. No weapon was found at the house, and police had no other clues to go on.

Dalton Gang wanted poster

by Michael Thomas Barry

On February 6, 1891, members of the Dalton Gang commit their first train robbery in California. Bob, Emmett, and Grat Dalton were only three of Lewis and Adeleine Dalton's 10 sons. The brothers grew up on a succession of Oklahoma and Kansas homesteads during the post-Civil War period, when the region was awash in violence lingering from the war and notorious outlaw bands like the James-Younger Gang.