True Crime On This Day June 28th

Last Updated on September 26, 2022 by Ben Oakley

June 28th

On June 28th in true crime, massacre, missing person, murder mystery, assassination, murder in Baltimore, serial killer in England.

1978

The 1978 Blackfriars Massacre was an Irish Mob and Italian American Mafia mass shooting that happened in the Blackfriars Pub, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jack Kelly, a Boston investigative reporter and TV anchorman for Channel 7 was killed along with four known criminals.

Although the case was never officially solved, the event was linked to infamous mobster; James ‘Whitey’ Bulger.

1979

In Anacortes, Washington, 18-year-old native American Debra L. Otis vanished. She had last been seen with her boyfriend on Pass Island at Deception Pass.

It is known for being a wooded and rocky area near water. The investigation did not last long and most suspected that she had eloped but she was never found again.

Some recent investigators suspect that she may have been the victim of foul play. As of 2022, no trace of her has ever been found.

1980

In Radford City County, Virginia, 18-year-old Gina Renee Hall disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The Radford College freshman had been out partying with friends when one of her friends, Stephen Epperly, suggested they go to a cabin party at Claytor Lake.

According to Epperly, when they arrived at the cabin, there was no-one else there, so they went swimming instead. Afterwards, Epperly claimed that Gina drove him home in her sister’s car and he went to bed. She was never seen again.

Gina’s sister’s car was found shortly after at the end of a wooden railroad trestle in Pulaski County. Investigators found a blood-stained towel and her shoes.

Two weeks later, the rest of her clothes were found in a bloodied bundle. Investigators claimed that there was too much blood to assume that Gina had survived an assault and so a murder investigation began.

Despite claiming his innocence, Epperly was charged with first degree murder, convicted, and sentenced to life. No trace of Gina’s body has ever been found.

1981

In Iran, philosopher, cleric, and politician Mohammad Hossein Beheshti was assassinated in the Hafte tir bombing.

A bomb exploded during a party conference and Beheshti was killed instantly, along with other ministers and officials. People’s Mujahedin of Iran member, Mohammad Reza Kolahi, had been responsible for the attack.

A commemoration ceremony is organised each year on the day of Beheshti’s assassination.

Beheshti was considered to have been the primary architect of Iran’s post-revolution constitution, as well as the administrative structure of the Islamic Republic.

1982

In Baltimore, 10-year-old biracial child Adam Faulkner was beaten to death by then 17-year-old Roger Stump. Stump had left a bar in the evening and walked with the boy down to near a river where he hit him over the head with a brick.

He later claimed that he was messing around with the boy and had inadvertently killed him. Stump tied Faulkner’s body to a bicycle, weighed it down with bricks, and put him in the water of the river, where he was found the next day.

The case went unsolved until 1997 when Stump was arrested and charged with first degree murder, after he confessed to a girlfriend.

He was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison, the maximum penalty available to the judge.

1983

In Hyde, England, Harold Shipman, AKA; Doctor Death, ended the life of 77-year-old Moira Ashton Fox. It was one of two victims in 1983, along with the death of 90-year-old Percy Ward, in January.

Shipman was convicted of 215 murders but linked with 250. He killed himself in prison before his sentencing could begin.

With 215 convictions of murder to his name, he is the most notorious serial killer by the number of convicted murders in history.

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