True Crime On This Day August 1st

August 1st

On August 1st in true crime, actor’s murder, serial killer, mystery disappearance, cold case murder, unsolved crimes, and more.

1978

In La Vergne, Tennessee, the body of an unidentified 30 to 40-year-old white male was discovered by police officers who were checking out a fire at Poole Knobs Campground.

The man had been shot dead and burned in the fire, but it was suspected he was murdered in a different location.

The case became known as the Rutherford Counties 1978 John Doe. The identity of the man and the suspect remain a mystery to this day.

1979

In St. Charles County, Missouri, 12-year-old Tammy Rose Surdam went missing. She had last been seen at a ‘Youth in Need’ shelter in St. Charles but no one immediately raised any alarms because she was known to regularly run away from her family.

It took over a year before her family finally filed a missing person’s report. As of 2022, what happened to Tammy Surdam remains a mystery, but it is suspected she was met with foul play.

1980

In El Paso, Texas, 34-year-old Maria De Lourdes Pahl, disappeared after an argument with her husband. She was last seen walking away from the residence to get a bus to the grocery store.

Pahl was said to have been a good mother to her five children and had no reason to voluntarily leave. At the time, the investigation simply listed her as a missing person but in 2000 the case was reopened as a murder investigation.

Shortly after, they excavated the Pahl family home but found no evidence of any remains. No trace of Pahl has ever been found but investigators now believe that she had been the victim of foul play.

1981

In Warsaw, Poland, Abu Daoud, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) terrorist who was the mastermind behind the Munich Massacre in 1972, was shot five times at close range.

He was sitting in the coffee shop of the Victoria Hotel when he was attacked by a lone gunman. Despite his wounds, he chased the assassin out the front entrance before collapsing.

Daoud survived the attack and lived for another 30 years until his death in 2010, aged 72-years-old.

He later claimed the assassin was a Palestinian double agent recruited by the Mossad, but no one has ever been charged with the attack.

1982

In Washington State, 31-year-old Marcia Faye Chapman was abducted shortly after leaving her home near South 188^th Street. She was brutally murdered by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer.

Her body was found in the Green River two weeks later on August 15^th. Ridgway was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison in 2003 after entering a plea bargain to plead guilty to 48 charges of murder.

Though, he claimed more murders and is linked to at least 71 in total. He remains one of the most notorious serial killers in the United States.

1983

In Knightsbridge, London, British actor Peter Arne was murdered in his own home. A few hours earlier, he had attended a costume-fitting for the BBC’s Doctor Who series.

When he returned home, neighbours reported commotion coming from his residence. Police entered the property and found Arne dead inside.

He had been beaten to death with a stool and a log from his fireplace. The prime suspect was former Italian schoolteacherGiuseppe Perusi who was living rough in the area and was being supplied with food by Arne. Four days later, Perusi’s body was found in the River Thames.

Investigators believed he had killed himself out of guilt for having killed Arne. The motive for the killing remains a mystery but the case has long been considered closed.

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