True Crime On This Day December 15th

December 15th

On December 15th in true crime, multiple murder, serial killer captured in Detroit, robbery, murder, cop killers, and cold cases.

1978

Alice Huling and three of her children were shot to death in their beds at their rural home in Minnesota. 11-year-old Billy Huling survived when he played dead under his covers as two shotgun blasts narrowly missed him.

Serial killer Joseph Donald Ture Jr. was later convicted of their murders. He would murder at least six people by shooting or beating them with an axe. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1981.

1979

In Hillside, New Jersey, 44-year-old Hillside police patrolman Anthony Lordi Jr., died of gunshot wounds received the evening before.

Lordi had been working as a uniformed special assignment at a fast-food restaurant when three suspects entered with the intention of robbing it.

Lordi was involved in a struggle with the suspects and was fatally shot. After a State-wide manhunt, the three suspects were caught and each of them sentenced to life in prison.

1980

In Detroit, American serial killer and sex offender Donald Murphy was arrested and charged with six murders of prostitutes in Detroit.

On the evidence available to the jury in his trial, he was convicted of two murders and sentenced to 30 years for each murder.

In the late 1970s and 1980, 18 prostitutes were killed in Detroit. It led investigators to believe that two serial killers had been active in the area at the same time with Murphy.

He was also suspected of killing 22-year-old Diane Burks on June 15^th and 24-year-old Jeanette Woods on April 18^th, along with many others.

1981

In Orange County, California, the bodies of shop manager Packovan Wattanaporn and shop worker Quach Nguyen, were discovered in the storeroom of a small retail store.

Wattanaporn had been strangled to death and Nguyen had died from multiple stab wounds, most received as he was trying to fend off the attacker. The assailant was a former Buddhist monk named Jaturun Siripongs, who killed them during a robbery of the store.

Siripongs was arrested two days later when he tried to use a credit card belonging to Wattanaporn. The Thai-born immigrant was later sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on February 9^th 1999.

1982

In Maryland, Washington, 24-year-old Police Officer Robert K. Best was shot dead while chasing after a car thief. He and his partner were working patrol detail when they noticed the stolen vehicle.

They followed the vehicle to near an apartment block in Suitland where the suspect ran off into the shadows. Best pursued the suspect and rounded a corner where he was shot twice in the back.

The suspect was later wounded by other officers, before taking his own life with a bullet to the head.

1983

In Auburn, Washington, the skull of 16-year-old Kimi-Kai Pitsor was discovered near Mountain View Cemetery. She was last seen in April 1983 getting into a pickup truck in Seattle.

The rest of her remains were discovered in December 1985. She had been murdered by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer. Ridgway considered killing prostitutes a career and believed he was doing the police a favour by killing them.

He believed they were an infestation and a sickly disease which he had to cure. Though not all of his victims were prostitutes, a large proportion were.

Ridgway was arrested in 2001, convicted of 48 murders, and sentenced to life in 2003. His true victim count is believed to be much higher.

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