True Crime On This Day July 2nd

Last Updated on September 27, 2022 by Ben Oakley

July 2nd

On July 2nd in true crime, cruise ship mutiny, train station bombing, unidentified victim, serial killers, murder, and unsolved crimes.

1978

Venture Cruise Lines had just taken over ownership of the S.S. America and oversold tickets for a two-day cruise to nowhere as a celebration.

Unfortunately, the ship was not ready, and the passengers suffered immeasurably. Faulty plumbing flooded the cabins and soaked beds and mattresses.

Toilets also didn’t flush. Cockroach and rat infestations were rife along with piles of rubbish adorning the outer and inner decks.

Having had enough already, just a few hours after departure, dozens of passengers charged the captains deck and forced the ship to return to New York and over 900 passengers were rescued and offloaded.

The following days saw over $2.5million (USD) in claims from the passengers and the ship was impounded due to non-payment of debts. A later inspection gave the ship just 6 points out of 100.

1979

In New York, serial killer Joseph J. Fischer walked into a police station and told officers that he had stabbed his wife to death and left her body in the bedroom of their trailer.

After police found the body, Fischer confessed to killing more than 20 people across various States from 1978 to 1979. He had previously served a life sentence for the murder of a 16-year-old boy in 1953.

He was paroled in June 1978 and went on a murder rampage that investigators claimed may have included more than 40 victims.

Fischer was convicted of the death of his wife and sentenced to life while investigators looked at the rest of the claims. The investigation ended in December 1991 when Fischer died of natural causes in prison.

1980

In Anchorage, Alaska, 24-year-old Roxane Easland was reported missing by a friend. She had told the friend that she was meeting a man in downtown Anchorage a few days before but she never identified who the man was.

In the two weeks prior to her disappearance, she had been staying at the Budget Motel with her boyfriend. As the years passed by, investigators linked her disappearance to serial killer Robert C. Hansen who later confessed to murdering her.

Despite his confession, no trace of Easland was ever found. Hansen kidnapped, raped, and murdered at least 17 women in Alaska from 1971 to 1983.

He was arrested in 1983 and sentenced to 461 years in prison. He died of natural causes in prison in 2014.

1981

In Cardiff, Wales, 15-year-old Karen Price disappeared under suspicious circumstances. She had run away from a local children’s home and was never seen alive again.

On December 7^th 1989, construction workers unearthed a rolled-up carpet while landscaping behind a property in Cardiff. When the carpet was unrolled, they discovered the skeletal remains of a young female.

Entomologists studied insect eggs around the discovery site which concluded the girl had been dead for around a decade but identifying her was difficult.

A clay facial reconstruction was made, and Price’s parents recognised her on the news immediately. DNA later confirmed it was the body of Karen Price.

She had become involved in prostitution and investigators learned that two men acted as her pimps. Shortly after the discovery, Alan Charlton and Idris Ali were arrested and charged with Price’s murder.

Ali was convicted of manslaughter and released three years later in 1994. Charlton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, where he remains to this day.

1982

In Oslo, Norway, a homemade bomb exploded in a locker at Oslo Central Train Station, killing one person and injuring 11 more.

Eight days later, a second bomb was discovered in the ticket hall of the station, but it had failed to detonate. One month later, an unnamed 18-year-old man from Oslo was arrested on weapon’s charges.

His fingerprints matched the remnants of the bomb, and he was charged with the attack.

He later admitted the bombing, claiming he wished to extort the Norwegian State Railways for money. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

1983

In Ford County, Illinois, the mutilated body of an unidentified Hispanic man between the ages of 20 to 25-years-old was discovered in a field.

He had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. He is one of five unidentified victims of serial killer Larry William Eyler, AKA: The Highway Killer.

Eyler confessed to the murders of 21 teenage boys and young men between 1982 and 1984. He was captured on August 21^st 1984 and sentenced to death.

He later died of AIDS-related complications on death row in 1994, taking his remaining secrets to the grave.

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