True Crime On This Day February 26th

February 26th

On February 26th in true crime, money for nothing, cold cases, death sentence, mystery body, necrophilia, and serial killer duo.

1978

In Franklin County, Ohio, 24-year-old Jed Kaplan was shot dead in his apartment. According to witnesses, there had been a knock at the door and when Kaplan answered it, an unknown assailant shot him.

The murder has remained unsolved ever since. As of 2022, the murder is an active cold case in the State of Ohio.

1979

In Riverside County, California, the decomposing body of an unidentified 25 to 30-year-old man was discovered floating in a deep lake.

It had been the first warm day after a week of rain which may have exposed the remains. The man had died between two to six days earlier.

His remains were unrecognisable but investigators learned that he had died of drowning.

No one knew of anyone who was reported missing in the region and no one came forward to try and identify him. As of 2022, the man’s identity and circumstances of his death remain a mystery.

1980

In Texas, robber and murderer Cesar Roberto Fierro was sentenced to death for the murder of taxi driver Nicolas Castanon on February 27^th 1979.

The murder led to a manhunt that lasted five months. The criminal case against Fierro was controversial because Mexican police had apparently arrested his parents and threatened to torture them unless Fierro confessed.

Fierro was arrested in the Summer of 1979 and charged with the murder. He was sentenced to death on February 26^th 1980. Fierro remained on death row for almost 40 years until December 2019 when his death sentence was commuted to life in prison.

1981

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on his 28^th Birthday, Joey Coyle received an unexpected gift. While driving behind an armoured car, its doors opened, and two bags of money fell out.

Coyle took the bags home and after counting the cash, realised that he was in possession of $1.2million (USD). Over the following six days, Coyle spent and gave away almost $200,000.

He handed $100 bills out to friends, neighbours, and people in the street. He was arrested while trying to board a flight at JFK Airport. Coyle was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.

In 1993, Coyle took his own life after a lifelong drug addiction. His story was made into the 1993 film, Money for Nothing, starring John Cusack.

1982

At cemetery chapel in Naramowice, Poland, polish serial killer and necrophile Edmund Kolanowski dug up the corpse of an unidentified woman and took it home.

There, he mutilated the corpse by cutting off the breasts and genitals. He was also known to have sewn body parts onto a mannequin for sexual purposes.

Kolanowski killed three women and mutilated numerous corpses from 1970 until his arrest on May 16^th 1983. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging on July 28^th 1986.

1983

In Trento, Italy, priest Don Armando Bison was brutally murdered. His body was found the next day with an awl sticking out of his skull and a crucifix attached to it.

An awl is a small, pointed tool normally used for piercing holes in leather. The wound had killed him instantly. He had been murdered by German-Italian serial killing duo, Wolfgang Abel and Marco Furlan.

At each crime scene they left a leaflet, written in Italian, it showed a Nazi Eagle and swastika and each of them had a different slogan. “We are the last of the Nazis” and “Death comes to those who betray the true god” being two of them.

They were responsible for the murders of at least 10 people from 1977 to 1984 in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The pair were caught in 1984 and both sentenced to 30 years each on February 10^th 1987.

Furlan was subsequently released in 2010. Abel was released to house arrest and then finally released to live amongst us in 2016.

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