True Crime On This Day August 27th

August 27th

On August 27th in true crime, assassination in Canada, cold case in Texas, motorcycle murders, hotel bombing, mystery body.

1978

In Fort Worth, Texas, Fort Worth Bandidos leader Johnny Ray Lightsey was shot six times as he rode his Harley Davidson along West Lancaster Avenue and South Henderson Street, he died shortly after in hospital.

The same night, two members of the rival gang Banshees were shot, with one being killed. Police investigated whether the shootings were the start of a gang war, but any connection was eventually ruled out and no culprit was found.

1979

In Ireland, the Admiral of the Fleet, and second cousin to Queen Elizabeth II, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was assassinated by the Provisional IRA.

Lord Mountbatten was a Royal Navy Officer who acted as the Supreme Allied Commander during World War Two, he was also the last Viceroy of India. At one point during his extensive career, he was chairman of the NATO Military Committee.

Mountbatten, his grandson and two others, were killed by a bomb that had been hidden inside his fishing boat, which was moored at Mullaghmore, County Sligo.

It was the second attempt by the IRA to kill him, after a failed sniper attempt a year earlier.

1980

In Stateline, Nevada, the Harvey’s Resort Hotel Bombing took place after an attempt to disarm the bomb failed.

The previous day, a large bomb with 1,000 pounds (450kg) of dynamite inside a large, booby-trapped device had been planted at the hotel.

Attempts to disarm the bomb failed and bomb experts decided to use C-4 explosives to detonate it. They had failed to realise that dynamite had been placed under the lid of the bomb and it caused the entire device to explode with such force that it destroyed the casino and much of the hotel.

The FBI later claimed it was one of the largest bombs they had ever seen. Shortly after, John Birges Sr. was arrested for making the bomb.

He had planted it to extort money from the casino. He was sentenced to life in prison but died in 1996 of natural causes.

1981

In Fremont County, Colorado, the body of an unidentified man was found in the Fremont campground. He was found wearing a tee shirt, Hart, Schaffner and Marx Slacks, nylon shorts and socks.

No one has ever come forward to claim they know of a person of similar build or age who had disappeared in the region.

The circumstances surrounding his death and the man’s identity has long remained a mystery. Investigators have long suspected foul play.

1982

In Ottawa, Canada, Colonel Atilla Altikat, the Turkish military attaché to the Turkish Embassy, was assassinated. He was killed on his way to work at 9am.

When his car stopped for a red light, another vehicle pulled up alongside him, and a passenger got out and fired nine shots through the window, killing him instantly.

The Armenian militant group ASALA claimed responsibility for the attack, but no one has ever been arrested. As such, the assassination remains unsolved.

1983

In Farmers Branch, Dallas, Texas, 37-year-old police officer Lowell Clayton Tribble was shot and killed while in his patrol car.

He was shot in an ambush as he drove slowly though an apartment complex, when a man opened fire on him. Despite a large investigation at the time, Tribble’s murder went cold.

In 2007, the case was reopened by cold case investigators from the DA’s office and Farmers Branch police. Three years later, in 2010, they arrested 63-year-old Gary Wayne Pettigrew, as he was leaving hospital after a heart attack.

He was charged with first degree murder. In 2011, the charges were dropped due to information that led to new suspects. As of 2022, the murder remains unsolved and no-one else has been arrested.

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