True Crime On This Day January 19th

Last Updated on September 20, 2022 by Ben Oakley

January 19th

On January 19th in true crime, the Watergate scandal release, Mr. untouchable crime boss, mystery disappearance, triple murder, and a mass murderer.

1978

American crime boss Leroy Nicky Barnes, AKA: Mr Untouchable, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for drug-related charges. In 1972, Barnes had formed an organised crime group known as The Council with six other African American men.

By 1977, Barnes had partnered with the Italian American Mafia and ran an international drug smuggling business. He went on to become an FBI informant and was released in August 1998.

1979

After being sentenced to two and a half to eight years in prison for his part in the Watergate scandal, former Attorney General of the United States John Newton Mitchell was released on parole.

He had been found guilty in 1975 of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Mitchell had served 19 months of his sentence at a Federal Prison Camp.

Mitchell died of natural causes on November 9^th 1988. He collapsed from a heart attack on the streets of Washington, D.C. He was later buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery.

1980

In New South Wales, Australia, 28-year-old Barbara Gibson disappeared without a trace. Gibson had moved to Sydney from Wangi Wangi, just two weeks before and said that she was going flat-hunting with a friend.

She was last seen by her aunt in Sydney on this day in 1980. Gibson has packed a bag with the intention of staying with her parents for a few days back in Wangi Wangi but she never arrived. She was reported missing four days later.

Despite being a regular hitchhiker, no trace of Gibson has ever been found. Investigators have long suspected that Gibson had been a victim of foul play.

1981

In Broward County, Florida, the bodies of Al Doranz and Caesar Di Russo were found in Kristine Walters’ apartment.

They had been shot dead three days earlier by Thomas Dewey Pope during a drug deal that had gone wrong. Walters then checked into a hotel where Pope kept her docile with drugs. Pope later told a friend that he would have to kill Walters to eradicate any potential witness to the crime.

On the 18^th January, Pope drove Walters to a canal where he shot her six times with exploding ammunition, before dragging her body to the water and drowning her.

Her body was found floating in the canal, two days later. Pope was arrested just a few days after and subsequently sentenced to death. In a 2014 appeal, the death sentence was affirmed.

1982

Back on June 22^nd 1980, in Daingerfield, Texas, the Daingerfield Church Shooting took place. 46-year-old former high school teacher Alvin Lee King III entered the First Baptist Church armed with multiple weapons.

He had a semi-automatic XM16E1-type derivative, an M1 carbine, and two revolvers. He opened fire on church goers and ended up killing five people and injuring another 10. He killed out of revenge for the church declining his request to appear as a witness in the trial for the rape of his own daughter.

King shot himself but survived to be charged with the massacre. During the trial, he killed himself in his prison cell, on this day in 1982.

1983

In Kingston, Ontario, 37-year-old David Manuel Hannah was reported missing after failing to show up for work two weeks earlier. He worked as a prison guard at the Millhaven Maximum Security Penitentiary.

On January 4^th, he finished his shift and withdrew $100 from his account at the Federal Employees Credit Union, it was to be the last time he was ever seen, dead or alive.

His apartment, where he lived alone, was found undisturbed and all of his belongings were present.

He has not accessed any of his bank accounts since being reported missing, and his car, a 1969 blue Oldsmobile Delta 88, has never been located.

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