True Crime On This Day December 10th

December 10th

On December 10th in true crime, a bombing, car fire victims, murder, mystery bodies, serial killers, and cold cases.

1978

In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, at 04:45 in the morning, an unidentified man was shot dead. He was buried in a shallow grave in a potter’s field that backed onto a creek.

Three days later, the waters had unearthed the body and it was found by two young boys. We know the time of death so closely because the victim’s watch had stopped at exactly 04:45, when he had been shot six times.

As of 2022, the identity of the man and the suspect remain a mystery. It is an active cold case in the State of Pennsylvania.

1979

In Dallas, Texas, fugitive, criminal and serial killer Donald Eugene Harding shot dead Stanton Winston Blanton during a robbery. Harding had escaped from an Arkansas jail on September 17^th 1978.

While on the run he killed at least six people and carried out numerous robberies in multiple states. He was caught again in 1980, charged, convicted and sentenced to death for his crimes.

Harding was executed in the gas chamber in Arizona on April 6^th 1992.

1980

In Houston, Texas, the body of a young black female was found lying face down on the ground near a railroad track, under the I-45 freeway.

The body was reported by workers who were putting up a new outdoor billboard advertisement, when they noticed a leg sticking out from under a discarded mattress. A coroner confirmed that she had been murdered. Her identity has remained a mystery ever since.

It is suspected that she did not come from the area and her body may have been discarded via the railroad or the freeway.

1981

Near Phoenix, Arizona, 60-year-old Harold Pratt and his 55-year-old wife Betty were robbed and shot in the back of the head. They had been camping out in the Arizona desert when they were killed.

Their bodies were left in the open for wildlife to find but they were discovered by other campers shortly after. They were the first victims of serial killer Robert Wayne Danielson, AKA: The Desert Killer.

Back in 1970, he had been convicted of manslaughter in the death of Thomas Davis. He was paroled in early 1981 and went on to kill seven people from 1981 to 1982.

Most of his victims were killed in a similar fashion while out camping, or he would leave their bodies in the desert. Danielson was arrested in 1984 while working with a travelling carnival.

He was sentenced to life in the first trial in Oregon in 1985. During the second trial in California in 1986, his mother, Mary Ann Bishop, attempted to pass her him a loaded gun as he was being led through the Mendocino Courthouse.

She was convicted of attempting to aid in her son’s escape and sentenced to three years in prison. Danielson was sentenced to death in California but hung himself in his cell on September 7^th 1995. He was the 11^th inmate to have killed himself in his cell since 1978.

1982

In Thornton, New Hampshire, a burning car was discovered at the bottom of an embankment on Route 175. Emergency vehicles arrived and helped extinguish the intense fire.

When the smoke had cleared, the bodies of Janet Dow and her 18-year-old son Stephen Dow, were discovered inside.

An initial investigation showed that the fire had been a result of a vehicle accident, but the case was opened in 1993 when evidence of foul play emerged. The murders remain unsolved and are part of an active cold case investigation.

1983

In Woolwich, London, a bomb exploded at the Royal Artillery Barracks, injuring five people. The bomb had detonated inside a guard room. It left a five-metre-deep crater and caused damage to the building.

The attack happened when a Christmas party was underway at a nearby mess hall.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Scottish National Liberation Army (SNLA) but a later investigation showed the IRA had been responsible. No one has ever been convicted of the attack.

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