True Crime On This Day April 23rd

April 23rd

On April 23rd in true crime, mob assassination, Southall Riots, murder, execution in Alabama, the Mary Cobb murder.

1978

In New York, mob boss Salvatore ‘Sammy G’ Gingello was killed in a car bomb explosion near to the Stillson St. restaurant, Ben’s Cafe Society.

Gingello was the underboss of the Russotti era of the Rochester crime family in New York City.  The Rochesters were considered part of the American Cosa Nostra, known more commonly as the Mafia.

1979

In London, the Southall Riots broke out between Anti-Nazi League demonstrators, National Front, and riot police.

The riots became infamous for the death of New Zealand teacher Clement Blair Peach, who was a campaigner and activist against the far right, specifically the National Front. Peach was hit on the head by one of the riot police and died in hospital the next day.

The afternoon of the riots saw 2,876 police officers, some on horseback, deal with 3,000 protesters. 345 people were arrested, with 97 officers sustaining injury.

25 members of the public were also injured. The Southall riots were the largest in England until the Brixton Race Riots of 1981.

1980

In Los Angeles, Damian Garcia was stabbed to death during a protest. Garcia was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).

Three days earlier he had been in Texas with two other revolutionaries. They had climbed to the top of the Alamo, tore down the Texas flag and raised a red flag in its place.

It was an attempt to make public the oppression against Mexicans throughout the Southwest. On April 23^rd, a confrontation between the RCP, community youths and the LAPD, resulted in his death.

Ever since his death, some people have suspected he had been stabbed by undercover police agents. His murder remains unsolved.

1981

In Atlanta, Georgia, 21-year-old Jimmy Ray Payne was strangled to death by Wayne Williams. Williams was a suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders, and Payne was one of two murders that he was found guilty of.

Despite investigators attributing many of the Atlanta Child Murder victims to Wayne Williams, he was only convicted on two of the adult murders.

In 2019, Atlanta police reopened all the Atlanta murder cases so that they could re-test the evidence available and begin a new investigation.

Investigators still believe that Williams was responsible for most of the murders but there are some that remain unsolved.

1982

In Cocoa Beach, Florida, 27-year-old Mary Sue Cobb was found dead in her home by her husband Marc Cobb. She had been brutally raped, stabbed, and strangled to death.

She had been left with a butcher’s knife protruding from her chest. A day later, 24-year-old Juan Ramos, who was an acquaintance of the victim, was arrested. Despite no evidence linking Ramos to Cobb’s murder, he was convicted of first-degree murder.

A judge overruled a life sentence recommended by the jury and sentenced Ramos to death. At a retrial in 1987, Ramos was acquitted when it was discovered that the original trial had been conducted in an unfair manner. He was released a free man. Cobb’s murder has never been solved.

1983

In Nashville, Tennessee, 34-year-old Linda Carol Taylor disappeared after a day out with friends. They dropped her off at an apartment at 2120 Belmont Boulevard before heading off to the local bars to drink.

When they returned to pick her up, the owner of the apartment claimed that Taylor had left and refused to let them inside. Taylor never turned up to work the next day and was never seen again.

Despite the owner of the apartment being a suspect in her disappearance at one point, no trace of Taylor has ever been found. Her case remains open and unsolved.

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