True Crime On This Day February 7th

Last Updated on September 20, 2022 by Ben Oakley

February 7th

On February 7th in true crime, neo-Nazi shooting, mob murder, convictions overturned, unsolved homicide, armed robbery, and missing persons.

1978

American neo-Nazi activist and publisher Gerhard Rex Lauck shot and maimed his own brother, Jerry, after a political dispute. Lauck is sometimes referred to as the ‘Farm Belt Fuehrer’ due to his rural roots in Wisconsin.

Lauck was arrested in Denmark in 1995 and deported to Hamburg, Germany, where he was tried and sentenced to four years in prison for the distribution of neo-Nazi material.

Upon his release in 1999, he was deported back to the United States where he continues to distribute neo-Nazi views online.

1979

In New York, the infamous DeMeo Crew murdered cocaine dealer and NYPD informant, Peter Waring. His body was dismembered, sealed in packages, and disposed of by members of the crew.

The motive for the murder was simply because Waring had agreed to be an informant for the NYPD Narcotics Division. The DeMeo crew were subsequently linked with over 100 murders.

1980

In Brooklyn, New York, a fire broke out at a Park Slope townhouse on Sackett Street. 27-year-old Elizabeth Kinsey and her five children were killed in the ferocious fire.

The owner of the building, Hannah Quick, told investigators that she heard three men whispering in the hallway shortly before the fire. A fire marshal later testified that an accelerant had been used.

Despite only circumstantial evidence, Raymond Mora, William Vasquez, and Amaury Villalobos were convicted of arson and six counts of murder. They were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

In 2014, Hannah Quick died of natural causes. Before she died, she told her daughter that she had framed the three men and received a large insurance pay out due to the fire.

In 2015, based on the deathbed confession and new evidence that claimed it was not an arson attack, the three men were exonerated.

It had come too late for Mora, who died in 1989 while serving his sentence. Vasquez and Villalobos were paroled in 2012 and had their convictions overturned.

1981

In Miami-Dade County, Florida, 26-year-old Gary Townsel was stabbed to death while approaching a shoplifter. He was a Correctional Officer for the State of Florida who was working an off-duty job as a plainclothes store detective for J. C. Penney.

During the course of his shift the victim approached a suspected shoplifter who stabbed him multiple times. Townsel died of his injuries shortly after.

Despite multiple witnesses, no suspect has ever been caught and the murder remains unsolved.

1982

In Hampton, Virginia, 45-year-old grocery store owner Howard Kauffman was shot dead during a robbery. Derick Lynn Peterson walked into the office cubicle of the Pantry Pride store and held Kauffman up at gunpoint.

Peterson loaded his bag with thousands of dollars in cheques and cash, before fatally shooting Kauffman once in the chest. Peterson was arrested shortly after and subsequently sentenced to death.

He was executed in the electric chair in Virginia on August 22^nd 1991. He had to be electrocuted twice when a doctor checked his pulse and realised he was still alive.

1983

In Wilmington, Delaware, 23-year-old Army National Guard Veteran Donna Lee Urban stopped her car on the Delaware Memorial Bridge, exited the vehicle and jumped off the bridge into the river below.

Search and rescue units searched for her body throughout the night but no trace of her has ever been found.

Despite being clinically depressed and known to have suicidal tendencies, she remains listed as a missing person due to her remains never having been recovered.

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