True Crime On This Day June 17th

June 17th

On June 17th in true crime, pirate treasure, assassinations, discovery of bodies, robbery, cold case shooting, unsolved homicide.

1978

In Missouri, the bodies of James Hendricks and Kim Mills were discovered. Found 15 miles apart, it was suggested they were shot dead by the same person.

The pair were reportedly seen together before the murders at a truck stop in the same town. It wasn’t until 2017 when they were identified with DNA records.

The Pemiscot County Does, as they became known, remain unsolved and part of an active cold case investigation.

1979

In Cobb County, Georgia, 29-year-old service station manager Roger Tackett was robbed and shot dead by Brandon Astor Jones and Van Roosevelt Solomon.

A police officer in the area heard the gunshots and arrested them shortly after. Both were convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

Solomon was executed on February 20^th 1985. Jones had his death sentence commuted to life in prison in 1989.

A District Court Judge ruled that due to a prosecutor having quoted the Bible to the jury, the death sentence was unfairly imposed.

1980

In Denver, Colorado, 41-year-old Simon Amaro was shot dead in the car park of Richie’s Bar. He had been spending the evening drinking with friends and left the bar after closing time.

He was last seen arguing with unidentified assailants beside his vehicle. At some point during the argument, Amaro was shot dead.

Despite witnesses to the attack, no suspects were ever arrested, and it remains an active cold case in the State of Colorado.

1981

In Denver, Colorado, the body of 54-year-old nurse Agnes Main was discovered in her apartment. Agnes worked in an assisted living facility and her co-workers became concerned when she failed to show up or contact them.

Police went to check on her residence and discovered she had been beaten to death by an unknown assailant. There were signs of a robbery but no witnesses.

No suspect has ever been caught and her murder remains unsolved. It remains an open cold case investigation with the Denver Police Department.

1982

In Rome, Italy, two separate attacks claim the lives of two senior PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) members.

Nazeyh Mayer, who was a leading figure in the PLO’s Rome office, was shot dead outside his home. The second attack killed Kamal Husain, who was deputy director of the same PLO office.

He was killed by a shrapnel bomb placed under the back seat of his car as he drove home.

Their deaths were part of Operation Wrath of God, a covert operation directed by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to assassinate individuals involved in the 1972 Munich massacre, which killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team.

1983

Close to the island of Phu Quoc in Vietnam, American treasure hunters Cork Graham and Richard Knight were arrested for illegally entering the country from Thailand.

Graham had been invited by Knight to join him on the treasure hunting expedition, in an effort to find the buried treasure of 17^th Century pirate Captain Kidd.

Knight claimed he was in possession of a map passed down from his grandfather that showed where Captain Kidd’s treasure was buried. Both men were arrested for being in Vietnam waters while in a speedboat to Phu Quoc.

In November, a court found them guilty and they were each given a $10,000 (USD) fine, and their equipment confiscated.

The families of Knight and Graham could not afford the fines and the pair were imprisoned until 1984 until funds were raised by family and donors.

A diplomat later called the treasure hunt, a fruitless exercise, as no historian could agree on whether Captain Kidd and his ship, the Adventure Galley, had ever sailed in waters near the islands.

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