John Lennon
Former Beatle John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his apartment building in New York City on December 8, 1980. After committing the murder, Chapman waited calmly outside, reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye.
Charles Brooks Jr.
On December 7, 1982, the first execution by lethal injection takes place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. On December 14, 1976, Charles Brooks Jr., went to a used car lot and asked to test drive a car. The mechanic, David Gregory, accompanied him in the car. After Brooks picked up his accomplice Woody Loudres, they put the mechanic in the trunk of the car and Brooks and Loudres drove to a motel. There the mechanic was bound to a chair with coat hangers, gagged with tape and then shot once in the head.
Reno Bros. Gang
On December 6, 1868, a guard, who had been shot by brothers Frank, William, and Simeon Reno during a train robbery in May, dies of his wounds. His death so infuriated the public that a group of vigilantes yanked the three brothers from their Indiana jail cell five days later and hanged them. Although the Reno gang had a short reign of criminal terror, they are credited with pulling off the first train robbery in American history and are believed to be the inspiration for criminal copycats like Jesse James and others.
Warren Avenue Baptist Church - Boston
On December 5, 1873, Bridget Landregan is found beaten and strangled to death in the Boston suburb of Dorchester. According to witnesses, a man in black clothes and a flowing cape attempted to sexually assault the dead girl before running away.
Danny "Dapper Dan" Hogan
Danny "Dapper Dan" Hogan was a charismatic Irish mob boss in St. Paul, Minnesota during Prohibition. Due to his close relationships with the officers of the deeply corrupt St. Paul Police Department, Hogan was able to act as a go between. Known as the "Smiling Peacemaker" to local police officials, Police Chief John "The Big Fellow" O'Connor of Saint Paul allowed criminals and fugitives to operate in the city as long as they checked in with police, paid a small bribe and promised not to kill, kidnap, or rob within city limits.
Melissa Brannen
On December 3, 1989, five-year-old Melissa Brannen disappears without a trace from a Christmas party in Fairfax, Virginia. After interviewing everyone who had been at the party, investigators determined that Caleb Hughes had left the party at roughly the same time that Brannen was discovered missing. When detectives visited Hughes' home at 1 a.m., they found him washing his clothes, shoes, and belt.
William Kennedy Smith
On December 2, 1991, opening testimony begins in the highly publicized rape trial of William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Smith, then a 30-year-old medical student at Georgetown University, was accused of sexually assaulting a 29-year-old Florida woman in the early hours of March 30, 1991, at the Kennedy family’s Palm Beach compound.
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
