Carl Switzer as Alfalfa in the Our Gang Serial
On January 21, 1959, Carl Dean Switzer, the actor who as a child played "Alfalfa" in the Our Gang comedy film series, dies at age 31 in a fight, allegedly about money, in a Mission Hills, California, home. Alfalfa, the freckle-faced boy with a warbling singing voice and a cowlick protruding from the top of his head, was Switzer's best-known role.
Julia Bulette
On the morning of January 20, 1867, Julia Bulette's partially nude body was found by her maid in her bedroom of her Virginia City brothel. She had been strangled and bludgeoned to death, and robbed of her valuable jewel collection, clothing, and furs. Julia Bulette was an English-born American prostitute and madam in Virginia City, Nevada. After her violent death, she was described as proprietor of the most elegant and prosperous brothel in the City and various films and books took inspiration of her real or purported biography.
Dennis Rader aka The BTK Strangler
On January 15, 1974, the BTK Strangler struck for the first time, when he murdered four members of the Otero family. Six more victims, all female, followed, the last one in 1991. Throughout the 1970s, the BTK killer, or BTK strangler, as he was also known, sent letters to the media in which he claimed knowledge of the crimes.
Marion Barry
On January 18, 1990, Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested and charged with drug possession and the use of crack cocaine. Barry was caught at the Vista International Hotel in downtown Washington smoking the substance on camera with Rahsheeda Moore, a woman who had agreed to set up Barry in exchange for a reduced sentence in an earlier drug conviction.
Newspaper account of the heist
On January 17, 1950, a team of eleven thieves, in a precisely timed and choreographed strike, steals more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. The Great Brinks Robbery, as it quickly became known, was the almost perfect crime. Ironically, only days before the statute of limitations were set to expire on the crime, the culprits were finally caught.
Albert Fish aka the Moon Maniac
On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish the infamous “Moon Maniac” is executed at Sing Sing prison in New York. Fish was one of America's most notorious and disturbed killers. Authorities believe that Fish killed as many as 10 children and then ate their remains. Fish went to the electric chair with great anticipation, telling guards, "It will be the supreme thrill, the only one I haven't tried."
Elizabeth Short aka the Black Dahlia
On the morning of January 15, 1947 Betty Bersinger and her three year old daughter were out for an early morning stroll when they came across the bisected torso of a naked woman in a vacant lot in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. When police examined the remains of the woman they noted that the face had been slashed and the mouth cut on each side, so that it resembled a grin.
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
