True Crime On This Day July 14th

Last Updated on February 6, 2023 by Ben Oakley

July 14th

On July 14th in true crime, macabre discoveries, chainsaw murder, unsolved homicide, serial killer, and the Belle Glade bodies.

1973

In Port Talbot, Wales, 16-year-old Sandra Newton was separated from her friends after leaving a nightclub. She started to stagger home when she was offered a lift by a passing car.

She had been picked up by Joseph Kappen, who became known as the Saturday Night Strangler. He drove her to a working coal mine where he raped her and strangled her to death.

Two months later, he picked up and killed two more teenage girls. Despite a massive police investigation, he managed to elude justice.

Almost 30 years later, he was identified using familial genetic DNA testing, the first case in the world to use the technique. But Kappen had died of lung cancer in 1990, escaping justice in life.

1978

A neighbour discovered Dr. Brenda Page’s body at her house in Allan Street in Aberdeen, Scotland. She was a University geneticist who had a secret life as a sex worker.

Her killer has never been caught. A cold case unit reopened the investigation in 2015 and it is still active today.

1979

In Kanawa County, West Virginia, 25-year-old Mazie Mae Sigmon Palmer vanished after a night out at the Roaring 20’s Nightclub. She had been seen leaving the club with John Eric ‘Jay’ Farley.

They were driven to the Kings Inn by a friend of theirs named Bill Cotrell. After a few drinks’ downstairs, Palmer said that she was going upstairs to talk to a friend and shortly after, Jay followed her.

From that moment, neither person was seen alive again and no one saw them exit the Kings Inn.

Five years later, Jay’s remains were found at a coal mining company by a security guard. He had been bound and then shot dead by a single bullet.

Palmer has never been found but it is suspected she may have been a victim of foul play. As of 2022, the murder and disappearance remain a mystery.

1980

In Miami, drug smuggler and ATF informant, Larry Nash, was butchered to death with a chainsaw in a South Florida motel. He had been killed on the orders of local drug lord Orlando Cicillias.

No one was arrested for the murder, which was one of many during the Miami Drug Wars of the 1980s. The murder inspired the chainsaw scene in the 1983 film, Scarface.

1981

Near Tuba City, Arizona, Margaret Neuman was shot dead while a passenger in her friend’s car. They were travelling westbound along Highway 160 when a vehicle travelling eastbound opened fire.

Neuman was shot once and died of her injuries before emergency services arrived. Despite an investigation, there seemed to be no motive for the attack and it was suspected to have been completely random.

No suspects have ever been caught and the murder remains unsolved. It is currently an active cold case with the Coconino County Police Department.

1982

In Belle Glade, Florida, the decomposing bodies of three unidentified murder victims were found in a canal on the New Hope Sugar plant. The victims were one female and two males.

They had been gagged and handcuffed before being shot dead. All three bodies were wrapped in clothing, bed linen, and plastic, held together by window cord and fishing lines.

The female victim was between 18 and 25-years-old with poor dental hygiene. She was found wearing a multi-coloured scarf and a Camel brand short sleeve shirt.

The younger male was between 25 and 40-years-old and found wearing a pair of Marc Phillipe brand blue jeans. The older male was between 45 and 55-years-old and had a thick Fu Man Chu moustache.

Investigators believe the trio were killed elsewhere and then dumped in the canal. Their murders and identities remain unsolved.

1983

In Utah, serial killer and sex offender Arthur Gary Bishop claimed his final victim. He abducted 13-year-old Graeme Cunningham from near his home just before Cunningham was due to embark on a camping trip with a friend.

A few days later, Bishop was arrested and confessed to the murders of five young boys. He was sentenced to death for his crimes and executed by lethal injection in Utah on June 10^th 1988.

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