True Crime On This Day April 4th

April 4th

On April 4th in true crime, murder, the Skid Row Killer, serial killer Bruce Lindahl, Cuban refugee murderer, robbery, and cold cases.

1978

In Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, Timothy George Baldwin robbed and beat to death 85-year-old Mary James Peters who was blind.

He had entered her home with the intention of robbing it but beat Peters to death with inanimate objects such as a stool, telephone, and a small TV set.

Baldwin was arrested shortly afterwards, sentenced to death, and executed in the electric chair in Louisiana on September 10^th 1984.

1979

In Los Angeles, Bobby Joe Maxwell, AKA: The Skid Row Killer, was arrested after having been under surveillance for two months.

There had been a two-month gap in the Skid Row killings and that gap just happened to coincide with a two-month prison sentence that Maxwell had received in late 1978. Armed with this and fingerprints from one of the murders, Maxwell was captured.

He was charged with 10 of 11 murders but convicted of two and later sentenced to two life terms. In prison, he confessed to another inmate that he killed ‘to obtain the souls for Satan.’

1980

In Galveston County, Texas, 22-year-old Suzanne Knuth was abducted, sexually abused, strangled, and buried alive. She had been driving with her husband to a friend’s house when their car had broken down. Her husband went to get help but Knuth decided to walk home.

She was abducted by 37-year-old Chester Lee Wicker who took her to Galveston County Beach, where he attacked her.

Her body was found 18 days later when Wicker led investigators to the location of her burial. Wicker was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in Texas on August 26^th 1986.

1981

In Illinois, serial killer and rapist Bruce Everitt Lindahl was stabbed during a fight with one of his victims and died of his wounds.

Back in 1980, Lindahl was about to go on trial for the kidnapping and rape of 25-year-old Debra Colliander. She suddenly disappeared just before the trial under mysterious circumstances. Despite linking Lindahl to the crime, the trial was thrown out because Colliander was the main witness.

On April 4^th 1981, Lindahl got into a fight with Charles Huber, who he stabbed 28 times. Huber managed to retaliate and stab Lindahl in the thigh.

Both men died of their wounds which meant that Lindahl was never convicted of the murders he was linked to.

He was a suspect in 12 murders and nine rapes, but some investigators believe he may have been involved in the murders of up to 70 girls and women who were killed or disappeared in the same period.

In 1982, the decomposing body of Colliander was found in a remote location. A coroner report showed the cause of death was homicide. The prime suspect remains Lindahl.

1982

In Orlando, Florida, Cuban refugee Pedro Luis Medina robbed and murdered 52-year-old schoolteacher Dorothy James, in her own apartment. She had been gagged and stabbed multiple times, before being left to die.

Four days later, Medina was found asleep in James’ vehicle at a rest area. He was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death for the murder, despite claiming his innocence. He was executed in the electric chair on March 25^th 1997.

During the execution, his head burst into flames which filled the death chamber with smoke. An autopsy later revealed that the current had destroyed Medina’s brain, killing him instantly.

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