True Crime On This Day April 18th

April 18th

On April 18th in true crime, serial killer Minghella, Thor Christiansen, assassination, Doctor Death, Tuscaloosa County Jane Doe, embassy bombing.

1978

Italian serial killer Maurizio Minghella killed a prostitute named Anna Pagano. The corpse was found by shepherds, her head had been bashed in and a ballpoint pen was embedded in her anal cavity.

He would kill again on July 8^th, July 18^th, August 22^nd and in November 1978. In separate killing spans, he killed a total of 15 women before his arrest in 2001.

1979

In California, Danish-American serial killer Thor Nis Christiansen picked up hitchhiker Lydia Preston with intentions of killing her and having sex with her corpse.

Christiansen shot Preston in the head but somehow managed to escape, despite suffering severe injuries. She would become instrumental in bringing Christiansen to justice for four murders of young women.

After her recovery, she spotted Christiansen in a bar and immediately reported him to police whereupon he was captured on July 11^th 1979.

He was killed in prison in 1981, after being stabbed in the exercise yard of Folsom State Prison, while serving a life sentence. His own killer has never been found.

1980

In New York, mob advisor Antonio Rocco ‘Tony Bananas’ Caponigro, was assassinated by the American Mafia. He had been a suspect in the assassination of his boss, Angelo Bruno, on March 21^st but it was considered an unsanctioned hit.

The governing body of the American Mafia, known as The Commission, ordered his death. Caponigro’s nude body was discovered in the trunk of a car a few days later.

1981

In Hyde, England, Harold Shipman, AKA; Doctor Death, ended the life of 84-year-old May Slater. It would be his first of two victims in 1981. Shipman was convicted of 215 murders but linked with 250.

He killed himself in prison before his sentencing could begin. With 215 convictions of murder to his name, he is the most notorious serial killer by the amount of convicted murders in history.

1982

In Slaughter Creek, Alabama, the body of a white female in her mid to late thirties was discovered. She had been raped, beaten, and strangled to death just days earlier.

Investigators suspected she had been fishing in the area and was killed at the scene. Her remains were exhumed in 2013 for additional examination and to obtain a DNA sample.

Despite modern advances in DNA technology, she has never been identified and her killer has never been found. She became known as Tuscaloosa County Jane Doe.

1983

In Beirut, Lebanon, a suicide bomber driving a van parked at the main entrance of the United States Embassy, where it exploded. The large explosion destroyed most of the building, killing 63 people, including 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 civilians.

Over 120 more were injured. The victims consisted of embassy and CIA staff members, US soldiers, and one US Marine Security Guard.

The attack was deemed to have been the beginning of Islamist attacks on American targets. It was the deadliest attack on a US diplomatic mission up to that point and came shortly after the United States and other Western countries had intervened in the Lebanese Civil War.

The war lasted fifteen years from 1975 to 1990, at which point, Syria had established complete control of the country.

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