True Crime On This Day August 8th

Last Updated on September 27, 2022 by Ben Oakley

August 8th

On August 8th in true crime, execution in Virginia, serial killer, The Red Ripper, armed battle, unsolved homicide, murder, and cold cases.

1978

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, MOVE member Delbert Africa climbed out of his basement to surrender to officials.

Seconds later, police officers were caught on camera beating Delbert with a helmet and rifle and then dragging him to a van by his dreadlocks. It became one of the most iconic photographs in the history of Philadelphia.

MOVE was a black liberation group founded in 1972 in Philadelphia by John Africa. Delbert Africa’s surrender was part of the first armed battle between MOVE and the Philadelphia Police Department.

In January 2020, after serving 42 years in prison, Delbert was released.

1979

In Sacramento, California, the skeletal remains of an adult male were discovered south of the American River near Highway 160. Coroners put the date of death just a few months earlier.

He had been found wearing some of his clothes and still had his left shoe. It is suspected that he was met with foul play. The identity of the man and the circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.

1980

In Lopez Island, Washington, 79-year-old Norwegian native Rolf Neslund went missing but was later confirmed to have been murdered by his wife, Nettie Ruth Neslund.

In February 1981, the Puget Sound Pilots Association (PSPA) contacted the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department and reported that they were struggling to contact Rolf, who was receiving $1,200 a month in pension payments from them.

When police began an investigation, Ruth told them he had gone on an extended trip to Norway. But on August 8^th 1980, Ruth had phoned her sisters in a drunken state and claimed that she had killed her husband and was burning his body in the garden.

They didn’t believe her story at the time. In 1983, Ruth was arrested for the murder of her husband and found guilty of pre-meditated murder.

She had apparently shot her husband in the head and burned the body. No remains were ever found. Ruth died of natural causes in 1993, in her prison cell.

1981

In Denver, in the early evening, police officers were called to the 3000 Block of Lawrence Street, after residents had phoned in reports of a dead body within the building.

They discovered the body of 24-year-old Manolito Gutierrez who had been stabbed to death and was lying in a pool of his own blood.

Witnesses heard a commotion, but no one saw what had happened. No suspects have ever been identified and the murder remains unsolved. It is an active cold case with the Denver Police Department.

1982

In Newport, Virginia, on April 22nd 1978, former police officer Frank James Coppola murdered flower delivery woman Muriel Hatchell by repeatedly slamming her head into the floor.

The murder had come during a robbery at Hatchell’s home when Coppola and accomplices pretended to be flower delivery people in order to gain access to the property.

Coppola was arrested shortly after and sentenced to death. He was executed in the electric chair in Virginia, on this day in 1982.

1983

In Rostov, Russia, the body of 13-year-old Irina Dunenkova was found in Aviator’s Park. She was a mentally handicapped student who was brutally murdered by Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, AKA: The Red Ripper, just a couple of weeks earlier.

Dunenkova was the younger sister of Chikatilo’s mistress at the time. Chikatilo was captured in 1990 and found guilty of 52 murders. He was sentenced to death and executed on February 16^th 1994.

Check out the Mega List of True Crime Podcasts