True Crime On This Day December 21st

December 21st

On December 21st in true crime, murder in Mississippi, assassination, cold cases, mystery disappearances, and an unidentified body.

1978

In Spain, Basque para-militarist and politician José Miguel Beñaran Ordeñana, was assassinated with a car bomb.

The bombing had been carried out by a group who had received their instructions from the Spanish Navy and Spanish intelligence.

Responsibility for Ordeñana’s assassination was ultimately claimed by the neo-fascist paramilitary organisation Batallón Vasco Español (BVE).

1979

In Hinds County, Mississippi, 21-year-old taxi driver Jerry Miller was murdered by a passenger in his car. Miller was stabbed in the throat and head and died of his wounds a few days later.

Shortly after, 21-year-old Calvin Wilks was arrested and charged with his murder. Based on witness testimony alone, Wilks was convicted and sentenced to life in prison despite maintaining his innocence.

In 1983, two years into his sentence, Wilks overheard fellow inmate Jerry Donnell Graves claim responsibility for the Miller murder. Graves was serving 15 years for armed robbery and was later charged with the murder of Miller. In 1984, Wilks was released from prison.

He received a full pardon in 1992 and almost $180,000 (USD) in compensation for three and a half years of wrongful imprisonment.

1980

In Denver, Colorado, 27-year-old Gwendolyn Harris was stabbed to death by an unidentified attacker. She had last been seen at the Polo Club Lounge, a bar that she was known to have regularly frequented.

Her body was found at the intersection of two roads in the early hours. The circumstances surrounding her death and the identity of her attacker have remained a mystery ever since.

1981

In Saskatchewan, Canada, 23-year-old William John Gill disappeared under suspicious circumstances. He was last seen leaving a residence on Appleby Drive in Saskatoon, after having been out all evening at a nightclub. He had been drinking with his co-worker for most of the night.

Gill vanished without a trace and no sign of him has ever been found. In December 2006, investigators working on the cold case reinterviewed his co-worker and others who were last to see him, suggesting they knew more about the disappearance than they were letting on.

Yet, no charges have been brought against them. Hall’s disappearance still remains unsolved.

1982

In Aberdeen, Washington, three-year-old Tyler Jennings Inman disappeared under suspicious circumstances. He was last seen in his family’s apartment by his mother’s boyfriend who was babysitting Tyler at the time, along with his five-year-old sister.

He claimed he left the apartment for 20 minutes to help pull a boat out of a river, and when he returned, Tyler had vanished. At the time of the disappearance, a severe storm was underway with winds of up to seventy miles per hour.

It was claimed if Tyler had exited the apartment on his own accord, then the storm would have likely killed him. Despite the theory, investigators have long suspected foul play, and his case is officially listed as a non-family abduction. No trace of Tyler has ever been found.

1983

In Yolo County, California, ambulance personnel found an unidentified adult white male in a cabin at 127 5^th Street.

He was unconscious and was rushed to hospital where he died of heart disease. Despite having a DNA profile available, along with fingerprints, he has never been identified and remains a John Doe to this day.

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