True Crime On This Day January 25th

Last Updated on September 20, 2022 by Ben Oakley

January 25th

On January 25th in true crime, Mark Chopper Read, assassination, bank siege at Silverton Bank, ritual murders, cop killer.

1978

Infamous Australian criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read made a brazen attempt to snatch County Court Judge Martin. It was in order to release his then friend, Jimmy Loughnan, from a prison in Victoria.

He walked into the court room when the judge was in session and threatened him with a gun before being disarmed. Read’s life was made into a 2000 film with Eric Bana called Chopper.

1979

In Guatemala, economist and politician, Alberto Fuentes Mohr, was assassinated in his car on the way home from Congress, by an unknown gunman.

Mohr was one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party. He was killed at a time when the country was under the repressive military government of General Romeo Lucas, who remained in power until a 1982 coup.

1980

In Pretoria, South Africa, members of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) unit entered the Silverton Bank and held the customers hostage.

They had been on their way to carry out an unknown mission when police confronted them, so they took over the bank before they could be caught. A shoot-out began that lasted all day between the MK unit and the Pretorian Police.

By the end of the day, two civilians and all three MK members had been killed. The event became known as the Silverton Bank Siege.

1981

In Toa Payoh, Singapore, the nude body of nine-year-old Agnes Ng Siew Heok was found in a bag next to the lift of a block of flats. It was the same block where a medium, Adrian Lim, had been performing noisy rituals in the middle of the night.

Heok had been raped, tortured, and smothered to death. On February 7^th, ten-year-old Ghazali bin Marzuki was found dead nearby.

After hearing the medium was up on a rape charge, investigators entered the apartment through a door covered in occult symbols.

Lim lived with his wife Tan Mui Choo, and a girlfriend, Hoe Kah Hong. Upon entering the property, investigators found bloodstains on the carpet which the trio denied was human blood. They were all arrested and the apartment was sealed off.

Investigators uncovered years of violence and abuse. Lim was a self-styled medium who had tricked numerous women into believing he had supernatural powers.

His victims offered money and sexual services in return for cures, beauty, fortune, and love. Choo and Hong were two of his victims, who became his loyal assistants and slaves. Lim dominated both of them with beatings, rapes, and lies.

When the rape charge materialised against Lim, he decided to derail the investigation by killing children. Both murder victims were kidnapped and then ritually killed as blood sacrifices to the Hindu goddess Kali.

Lim and his two slaves kidnapped Heok then drugged her. Heok suffered sexual abuse and torture before being smothered to death.

They then drank her blood and smeared it over a picture of Kali. A similar fate befell Marzuki.

All three were charged with the murders of the two children. A long and infamous trial began which ended on May 25^th 1983.

Crowds of people gathered outside the courthouse to hear that all three had been found guilty of murder and were sentenced to be hanged. On November 25^th 1988, the trio were executed by hanging.

1982

In Chicago, Illinois, on January 25th, Police Patrolman and Korean War veteran Edgar Allen Clay Jr., died of injuries he had received in an attack almost three weeks earlier.

While taking down reports of a student being robbed on January 7^th, at Hyde Park Career Academy, the victim pointed out the suspect, 15-year-old Joel Ford, in the hallway. Clay stopped Ford to search him but Ford resisted and fought with him.

Clay was forced to the ground where his kneecap was broken. Nearby teachers managed to restrain Ford until additional officers arrived. Inside his backpack they found a loaded .22 calibre revolver.

Shortly after being discharged from hospital, Clay developed a blood clot as a result of the injury. On the 25^th, he was found by his mother unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom.

He was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Ford was charged as an adult with armed robbery, armed violence, unlawful use of weapon, resisting arrest, and aggravated battery.

However, after being presented with the evidence, the assistant state attorney at the time dismissed all the charges against Ford.

A dismissed case means that a lawsuit is closed with no finding of guilt and no conviction for the defendant in a criminal case by a court of law.

Even though the defendant was not convicted, a dismissed case does not prove that the defendant is factually innocent for the crime for which he or she was arrested.

1983

In Laughlin, Clark County, Nevada. The skeletal remains of a 35 to 40-year-old white man were discovered in a shallow grave.

The site was covered with large rocks in open desert, south of Highway 163. He had been shot and killed at anytime from between 1981 and late 1982. Despite a DNA profile available, the victim has never been identified.

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