True Crime On This Day August 20th

August 20th

On August 20th in true crime, wedding shop massacre, Amsterdam murder, cannibal killer, serial killer, missing persons, murder.

1978

The Clinton Avenue Five

In New Jersey, The Clinton Avenue Five vanished without a trace. Five young men disappeared in Newark and their bodies were never found.

Clinton Avenue was the name of the road where they were last seen together. The case went cold for 30 years until November 2008.

The 16 to 17-year-old victims were Melvin Pittman, Ernest Taylor, Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson, and Michael McDowell.

While in police custody on an unrelated charge, Philander Hampton confessed to the murders saying he had help from his cousin, Lee Anthony Evans.

They had lured the boys to an old residence his cousin owned with the promise of employment but really he was angry at them for stealing marijuana from his home.

The boys were forced into a third-floor closet at gunpoint and locked in. Evans then set the house on fire with gallons of gasoline.

All five boys died but authorities never found any human remains at the site and to this day, they remain undiscovered.

1979

In Poughkeepsie, New York, Albert Fentress raped, tortured, killed and cannibalised 18-year-old high school student Paul Masters. Fentress was arrested shortly after and charged with the crime.

In 1980, a court found him not guilty by reason of insanity and he was confined to a mental hospital. With further accusations of child molestation and more trials, Fentress remains in a psychiatric hospital

1980

In England, 47-year-old civil servant Marguerite Walls was brutally murdered by Peter Sutcliffe, AKA: The Yorkshire Ripper.

Walls had worked late for her job at the Department of Education and Science office in Pudsey, as she was about to go on holiday for 10 days. On the walk home, she was spotted by Sutcliffe who left his car and hit her on the back of the head with a hammer.

He then put rope around her neck and dragged her into a nearby garden where he strangled her to death.

Walls’ body was found the next day by two gardeners and was initially not connected to the Ripper because Sutcliffe had used a different method of murder.

Sutcliffe confessed to her murder in 1981. As the murders escalated from 1977 until 1980, over 350 detectives from three counties had been involved at some point. The Ripper murders had cost the British taxpayer over £4million (GBP) throughout the investigation.

Sutcliffe was convicted of killing 13 people and the attempted murder of seven others over a period of five years.

He later claimed the voice of God had sent him on a mission to kill sex workers. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, where he remains to this day.

1981

In Taylorville, Illinois, at approximately 5am, 19-year-old Dottie Diane Rhodes was shot in the face and died instantly from her wound.

She had last been seen with her sister in the Victory Tavern in Pana, drinking and watching a live band. One of the members of the band was David Lee Pauley who was known to Rhodes.

He arranged to pick her up after the gig and take her for an early breakfast. He then had sex with her and killed her.

He was arrested shortly after and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Pauley maintained his innocence and no motive has ever been given for the murder.

1982

Wedding shop massacre

In Chicago, Illinois, schoolteacher Carl Robert Brown went on a rampage in a welding shop that left eight people dead and another three wounded.

A day earlier, he had a heated argument with an employee of Bob Moore’s Welding & Machine Service Inc. regarding a $20 (USD) repair bill, claiming the work was not to a good standard. He shouted aloud that he would come back and kill everyone.

On the morning of the 20^th, he went to a gun store and purchased two shotguns and a semi-automatic rifle. Shortly before 11am, he entered the welding store through a side door and carried out the attack.

The eight dead and three wounded were all employees of the store. A few moments later, an employee at a nearby metal shop, Mark Kram, was told of the massacre.

Along with another member of the public, they followed Brown before shooting him dead. No charges were filed against Kram.

1983

Amsterdam murder

In Amsterdam, Netherlands, 15-year-old black boy Kerwin Duinmeijer was stabbed outside of a café. He had been attacked with apparently racist motives by 16-year-old skinhead Nico Bodemeijer.

After he was stabbed, Kerwin attempted to get a taxi to take him to hospital, but the taxi drivers told him to wait for an ambulance.

A photographer took a photo of Kerwin as he lay dying on the Dam Square surrounded by onlookers. An ambulance arrived 20 minutes later, and Kerwin was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.

Nico was arrested and convicted of the murder, but the judge claimed there was no evidence to confirm it was racially motivated.

He was released in 1988 and was involved in various other crimes until his death by suicide in January 2012.

The taxi drivers could not take him to the hospital because they were not legally allowed to transport seriously injured passengers. The law remains the same.

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