True Crime On This Day January 14th

January 14th

On January 14th in true crime, Archibald Hall, arson in Texas, family murders in Indiana, cold case murder, massacre and missing person.

1978

In England, Archibald Hall, AKA: The Monster Butler, killed his child molesting half-brother, Donald Hall. Donald had been asking too many questions regarding Hall’s newfound wealth and so Archibald used to chloroform to knock him out then drowned him in the bath.

The next day, Archibald and his accomplice Kitto drove to Glasgow, Scotland, in an effort to dispose of the body as they had before.

On the 16^th January, Archibald was arrested when his number plate was checked by police, and it showed that it belonged to another car.

In November 1978, Archibald was sentenced to life imprisonment. Kitto was sentenced to 15 years.

1979

In Texas, 28-year-old Jerry Lee Hogue was captured after killing his wife in an arson attack at their home the day before.

His wife, 27-year-old Jayne Markham along with three other people, including the Markham’s 8-year-old son, had been restrained by Hogue before he poured gasoline all over the house and set it alight.

The three others managed to escape but Markham’s body was later found with her hands and feet tied with electrical cables. Hogue was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

He was executed by lethal injection in Texas on March 11^th 1998.

1980

In Vandenburgh County, Indiana, Donald Ray Wallace Jr., robbed the home of Ralph Hendricks, while Hendricks was out for the night.

Wallace then became greedy and decided to break into the house next door. He found the Gilligan family inside. Patrick Gilligan, his wife Teresa and their two children aged four and five, were tied up and shot in the head, killing them all instantly.

Wallace then robbed the property of guns, collectables, and other belongings, all of which were traced, leading to Wallace’s arrest. Initially, Wallace was found incompetent to stand trial and remained in a psychiatric hospital for two years before his trial.

He was later convicted and sentenced to death for the four murders. He was executed by lethal injection in Indiana on March 10^th 2005.

1981

In Sacramento, California, 17-year-old Sacramento High School student Mary London disappeared after she failed to show up for an after-school class.

Mary was a developmentally disabled student who was reported missing by her family the same afternoon. The next morning, her body was discovered near San Juan Road and Airport Road, with multiple stab wounds.

The motive behind the murder remained a mystery and the case went cold until 39 years later. In 2020, investigators used new investigative genetic genealogy and updated DNA testing to link a man Vernon Parker to Mary’s murder.

For Mary’s family, the discovery came too late as Parker had died aged 18-years-old, one year after Mary’s murder.

The circumstances of his own death are unknown, and it remains unclear whether he was a student at the same school. No picture of him exists.

1982

In Hidalgo, Mexico, the Tula Massacre left 13 people dead. Near the municipality of Atotonilco de Tula, the bodies of 13 Colombian men were found in a drainage canal.

All of them had been tortured and mutilated before their deaths. Some had been decapitated and their heads placed in plastic bags.

The dead men were said to be part of a band of criminals that Arturo Durazo Moreno, the then Mexico City Police chief, released from secret jails on occasion to carry out bank robberies.

It was claimed that Moreno decided to keep the proceeds from the robberies himself and have the men killed instead. Despite the connection, no charges have ever been made and the murders remain unsolved.

1983

In Alameda, California, 25-year-old Robert John Yandell disappeared and was never seen again. Yandell is known to have a tattoo on his left forearm, black hair and brown eyes.

Few details are available in his case and there are no dental, fingerprint, or DNA records available for him.

Despite being virtually impossible to link him to a John Doe, his case remains unsolved, and his disappearance a mystery.

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