True Crime On This Day December 7th

December 7th

On December 7th in true crime, murder, assassination, missing bodies, Doctor Death, and a murder blamed on Halloween 2.

1978

In the United Kingdom, Harold Shipman, AKA: Doctor Death, killed 73-year-old, Harold Bramwell. He was one of four victims in 1978 and one of a suspected 250 victims.

Harold Shipman would be convicted of 215 murders making him the most prolific serial killer in history by the number of convictions.

1979

In Istanbul, Turkey, sociologist, writer, and columnist Cavit Orhan Tütengil was assassinated at a bus stop in the city. Four assassins sprayed bullets into the bus stop and then left a sign that said ‘Anti Terör Birliği’ (translated as the Anti-Terror Unit).

The murder remains unsolved, but it was suggested he was killed due to his own opinion pieces in the leftist newspaper Cumhuriyet.

1980

In Newhall, California, an unidentified man aged between 16 and 25-years old was shot five times, once in the head and four times in the chest. His body was found the next day in the Angeles National Forest.

Due to the head wound, his facial features were unrecognisable. The killer and the identity of the victim have remained a mystery ever since.

1981

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 32-year-old Ronald Sidney Shelley disappeared from his residence in Memorial Drive. Investigators arrived at the home when he was reported missing and discovered drops of blood inside.

Shelley had also left behind his boots and prescription glasses, and his vehicle was parked outside. Investigators concluded he had been murdered inside the property and his body removed.

Despite evidence of murder, no body has ever been found. His case remains unsolved.

1982

In California, drug addict and petty criminal Richard Delmer Boyer entered the home of an elderly couple and murdered them when they refused to give him money.

He stabbed the man 24 times, and his wife 19 times. He was later arrested following a tip-off from the couple’s son. The first trial ended in a hung jury but his second trial caught the attention of the entire country.

A defence pharmacologist testified that Boyer had suffered a drug-induced flashback to the horror film, Halloween 2, which featured a scene with an elderly couple.

It was the first time in US legal history that a commercial motion picture had been submitted as evidence at a murder trial. Boyer was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to death.

1983

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, 29-year-old Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician Edgar Samuel David Graham was assassinated.

He was shot in the head by an IRA gunman while chatting to a colleague near the library of the Queen’s University Belfast. Two men were later convicted of withholding evidence but no one has ever been convicted of Graham’s murder.

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