Thelma Todd
On December 15, 1935, comedic actress Thelma Todd is found dead. Todd was a popular actress of the late 1920s and early 1930s and was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1905. Appearing in over 40 movies between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films such as Monkey Business and Horse Feathers.
Edward Green
Edward Green was the 32 year old postmaster of Malden, Massachusetts. He is commonly believed to have committed the first (non-war related) armed bank robbery in American history. Green had a bad drinking habit and was heavily in debt, when on December 15, 1863, he robbed the local bank.
Artists rendering of Charley Ross
On December 14, 1874, a botched burglary attempt at the home of wealthy New Yorker Holmes Van Brunt leads to the possible perpetrators of notorious child kidnapping. On July 1, 1874, Charley (then four years old) and his older brother Walter Lewis (aged five) were playing in the front yard of their family's home in Germantown, a well-to-do section of Philadelphia. A horse-drawn carriage pulled up and they were approached by two men who offered the boys candy and fireworks if they would take a ride with them.
Clerkenwell Bombing
On December 13, 1867, Irish terrorist, Michael Barrett plants a bomb at Clerkenwell Prison in London in an attempt to free fellow Irish political prisoners. The bombing killed 12 bystanders and severely injured many more. Barrett had positioned the bomb in a wheelbarrow outside the external wall of of the jail in the belief that it would bring down the prison wall and allow the prisoners to escape.
Leona Helmsley
On December 12, 1989, Leona Helmsley, the "Queen of Mean," is sentenced to four-year in prison, 750 hours of community service, and a $7.1 million tax fraud fine for tax evasion. For many, Helmsley became the object of disgust and revulsion when she quipped that "only the little people pay taxes." Leona's husband, Harry, was one of the world's wealthiest real estate moguls.
Bernie Madoff
On December 11, 2008, Bernard Madoff is arrested at his New York City apartment and charged with masterminding a long-running Ponzi scheme later estimated to involve around $65 billion, making it one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history.
Frank Sinatra Jr.
On December 10, 1963, Frank Sinatra Jr., (who was kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, California, two days earlier) is allowed to talk to his father. He was abducted at gunpoint from his hotel room at Harrah's Casino on December 8, 1963 and taken to Canoga Park, an area of Southern California's San Fernando Valley. After the brief conversation between father and son, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $240,000.
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
