The Candyman Serial Killer on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: Serial killer Dean Corll began the abduction and murder of schoolboys from locations in The Heights, a neighborhood in Houston, Texas on this day in 1970. Although Corll had killed an 18-year-old college student, hitchhiker Jeffrey Konen, on September 25, Corll and his accomplice, David Brooks, began the killings when Brooks lured two 14-year-olds, James Eugene Glass and Danny Michael Yates, to their deaths from an evangelical rally at a neighborhood church. Six more boys, ranging in age from 13 to 17, would disappear in 1971, and Corll would murder seven boys and two men in 1972. Seven more children would vanish in 1973 before Corll's murder by Brooks on August 8 of that year. In all, 27 bodies would be found on Corll's property, including those of Glass and Yates; in response to criticism of the Houston Police Department for failing to notice the disappearances of children in the Heights, the police chief noted that it had received 5,200 reports of children running away from home over a two-year period, and 214 from The Heights in 1971.

Corll was known as the Candy Man and the Pied Piper, because he and his family had previously owned and operated a candy factory in Houston Heights, and he had been known to give free candy to local children.

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The Luby's Shooting on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Luby's shooting, also known as the Luby's massacre, took place on this day in 1991, at a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. The killer, George Hennard, drove his pickup truck through the front window of the restaurant. He quickly shot and killed 23 people, and wounded 27 others. He had a brief shootout with police, refused their orders to surrender, and fatally shot himself. At the time, the shooting was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history.

Suzanna Hupp was in that restaurant that day with her parents. She reached in her purse for her gun, but then realized her gun was 100 yards away in her vehicle because Texas law at the time demanded it. (She had feared that if she was caught carrying it she might lose her chiropractor's license.) Hupp testified across the country in support of concealed handgun laws, and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996.

About a dozen years or so I remember watching her testimony in congress, and it was one of the most powerful statements in defense of gun rights. Watching her speak changed my mind on guns. (You also get to see a young Chuck Schumer).

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The Last Execution for Armed Robbery on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The last execution of an American for armed robbery, without homicide, took place on this day in 1962 in Huntsville, Texas as an African-American man, 20-year-old Herbert Lemuel Bradley of Dallas, was put to death in the electric chair. Bradley, who had shot an elderly grocer six times in the robbery, told reporters before he died, "I have no complaints. A man has to die sometime, but I don't think this has been fair," noting that he shared the prison with convicts serving terms of 5 to 25 years for armed robbery. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had upheld the death sentence on February 28, noting that the victim was still in the hospital more than a year after being shot four times in the stomach during a gunfight.

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An 1897 UFO Incident on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: A funeral was being planned for an alien on this day (April 20) in 1897. A few days earlier,  a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas, resulting in the death of the extraterrestrial pilot according to a contemporary newspaper account.

An article written by S.E. Haydon and published in the Dallas Morning News on April 19, 1897, described the crash two days earlier of "the airship which has been sailing through the country." The craft suddenly appeared over Aurora at about 6 a.m. local time on April 17, 1897. It was "much nearer the earth than ever before", and "evidently some of the machinery was out of order". The ship subsequently "collided with the tower of Judge Proctor's windmill and went to pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres". The pilot, presumed to be the sole occupant, was killed. Examination of his remains indicated that "he was not an inhabitant of this world." T.J. Weems, from nearby Fort Worth, whom Haydon described as "the United States signal service officer at this place and an authority on astronomy," opined that the pilot was "a native of the planet Mars." A funeral was planned for the alien on April 20. Papers found on his body after the crash contained writings "in some unknown hieroglyphics," which, according to Haydon, appeared to record the pilot's travels. Haydon noted that the ship was made of "an unknown metal"

The alien was supposedly buried at the Aurora Cemetery nearby. Reportedly, some wreckage from the crash was dumped into a well under the windmill, and some was buried with the pilot. A Texas Historical Commission marker posted outside of the Aurora Cemetery mentions the UFO incident, characterizing it as a "legend".

A brief Time magazine article on the Aurora incident, published in 1979, noted that Haydon's "tale ... was generally ridiculed at the time, and most citizens of Aurora still scoff". The article quoted 86-year-old Aurora resident Etta Pegues, who said that Haydon "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora ... The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying. ... Why, the judge never even had a windmill."

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The McKinney Quadruple Murder on This Day in History

This Day in History: The McKinney quadruple murder happened on this day in.

The McKinney quadruple murder, also called the Truett Street massacre, was when four people were gunned down in a house in McKinney, Texas on March 12, 2004. The incident received notable national coverage on the July 22, 2006, episode of America's Most Wanted, leading to the capture of a suspect. 

On March 12, 2004, Eddie Williams, Javier Cortez, and Raul Cortez entered the home of Rosa Barbosa (46), a clerk at a local McKinney check-cashing business. Javier Cortez allegedly had been watching Barbosa and believed she took cash home from the business daily. When the men couldn't find any money in the home, they forced Barbosa to give them the key and alarm code to the check cashing business. One of the men then shot and killed Barbosa.

Before the shooters had left, Barbosa's nephew Mark Barbosa (25) entered the home with friends Matt Self (17) and Austin York (18). The three burglars forced Mark Barbosa, Self, and York into a bedroom and shot them before fleeing the scene. Shortly following the botched robbery, Robert Barbosa - Mark Barbosa's brother and a resident in the house - entered the residence to find the four victims. Self was still alive and was rushed to the hospital. He died the following day.

The killings were also the subject of an episode of the Investigation Discovery channel documentary Nightmare Next Door.  The episode first aired in January 2011.

You can watch that episode here.

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The Deadliest Hurricane on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: The great Galveston Hurricane occurred on this day in 1900, killing 8000 people. As one person noted: "Not a single building on the island was left undamaged. It was the stupidest place in the world to build a city. The highest point on the island was 8.7 feet above sea level." 

The book Isaac's Storm dealt with this hurricane in a very readable way.

There were some heartbreaking stories in the book: 

"At St. Mary’s Orphans Asylum, 10 nuns lashed themselves to 93 small children as the water seeped up to their second-story refuge. Finally it swallowed them, drowning all except three boys who scrambled free and swam away."

and

"Convinced the storm would ebb, Cline stayed with his family in their two-story house. Before it toppled, his two oldest girls leaped out with an uncle, and Cline and his youngest daughter followed shortly after. But his pregnant wife was pulled under and drowned. Hours later, according to Larson, the surviving relatives were floating on an unhinged door, when the family retriever saw them and swam aboard. The dog sniffed each person, seemed to realize that Cline’s wife was gone, and plunged back in the water, apparently to find her. The retriever was never seen again."

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The "Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight"

This Day in History: The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight was a famous gun fight that occurred on this day (April 14) in 1881, on El Paso Street, in El Paso, Texas. Witnesses generally agreed that the incident lasted no more than five seconds after the first gunshot, though a few would insist it was at least ten seconds. Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire accounted for three of the four fatalities with his two .44 caliber Smith & Wesson revolvers.

On April 14, 1881, a group of about 75 heavily armed Mexicans moved into El Paso, Texas looking for two missing vaqueros named Sanchez and Juarique, who had been searching for 30 head of cattle stolen from Mexico. The corpses of the two missing men were located near a ranch of a suspected cattle rustler. The bodies were brought to town and two Americans were charged with the murders. 

Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire, a noted gunfighter, had only started as town marshal on April 11. He was present at the proceedings in town. While eating supper, Marshal Stoudenmire heard a shot and jumped up from his dining chair at the Globe Restaurant, pulled out his pistols, and ran out into the street. While running, Stoudenmire fired wildly, killing Ochoa, an innocent Mexican bystander who was running for cover. As the first shot was heard, a man named John Hale jumped behind a thick adobe pillar. When he peered out from behind the pillar, Stoudenmire fired and struck Hale between the eyes, killing him instantly.

A man named Campbell stepped from cover with his pistol drawn, saw Hale lying dead, and yelled to Stoudenmire that this was not his fight. However, a Constable Krempkau, mistakenly believed that Campbell had shot him, then fired his pistol twice at Campbell before losing consciousness from loss of blood. Krempkau's first bullet struck Campbell's gun and broke his right wrist, while the second hit him in the foot. Campbell screamed in pain and scooped up his gun from the ground with his left hand. Stoudenmire whirled away from Hale and instantly fired at Campbell, who dropped his gun again, grabbed his stomach and collapsed onto the ground. Stoudenmire walked slowly toward Campbell and glared at him. In agony, Campbell yelled, "You big son of a bitch! You murdered me!" Stoudenmire said nothing. Both Campbell and Krempkau died within minutes.

After just a few seconds, four men lay dead or dying. Three Texas Rangers were standing nearby, but did not take part, saying later that they felt Stoudenmire had the situation well in hand.

Three days after the gunfight, James Manning, a friend of Hale and Campbell, convinced former deputy Bill Johnson to assassinate Stoudenmire. Stoudenmire had publicly humiliated Johnson days before. Late at night of April 17, an intoxicated Johnson was hiding behind a pillar of bricks, but his wobbly legs gave in and he fell backward, squeezing the double triggers of his double barreled shotgun into the air and narrowly missing Stoudenmire. Stoudenmire immediately fired his pistols and sent a volley of eight bullets at Johnson, shooting off his testicles. Johnson bled to death quickly.

See also: Buffalo Bill & the American Wild West, 200 Books on DVDrom
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