True Crime On This Day June 7th

June 7th

On June 7th in true crime, assassination, wrongful conviction, cold case murder, bloody shooting in California, and nuclear site attack.

1978

In Clearwater, Florida, the body of James Hendrickson was discovered in the boot of his vehicle. Hendrickson had been stabbed to death by a suspect who was in the process of moving the body when the vehicle suffered engine issues.

The vehicle was abandoned only one block away from Hendrickson’s residence. As of 2022, the murder remains unsolved and is an active cold case in the State of Florida.

1979

In San Bernardino County, California, the body of 15 to 30-year-old female was discovered on the edge of a vineyard. She was nude apart from green socks and leather boots.

She had been beaten and strangled to death just a few days before. The identity of the female remains a mystery and she has become known as the Rancho Cucamonga Jane Doe.

1980

In Orange County, California, officer Donald F. Reed was shot and killed during a bloody shooting. Reed and three other officers arrested John ‘Gordon Mink’ George Brown on a warrant at a local bar on Garden Grove Boulevard.

When they were leading him out, Brown wrestled himself free and pulled a hidden gun from his pocket. He shot Reed dead and wounded two other officers.

Brown was sentenced to death in two separate trials. On July 7^th 2019, Brown died of natural causes while on death row.

1981

Over the skies of Iraq, the Israeli Air Force entered Iraqi airspace and destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor.

Eight F-16 jet fighters and six F-15s from the Etzion Airbase in Israel carried out a 90 second bombardment that destroyed the site and killed ten Iraqis and one Frenchman.

Despite protests and condemnation from the international community, Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin defended the attack, claiming “there will never be another Holocaust.”

One of the pilots in the attack was Ilan Ramon, who would later become Israel’s first astronaut.

1982

In Lisbon, Portugal, 40-year-old Turkish administrative attache, Erkut Akbay, was assassinated as he returned home for lunch.

He was sitting in his car next to his wife, 39-year-old Nadide Akbay, when an unidentified gunman pulled up beside them and shot them both in the head. Erkut died instantly.

Nadide was rushed to hospital where she spent eight months in a coma before succumbing to her injury on January 11^th 1983.

The Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claimed responsibility for the attack but no one has ever been charged.

1983

In Springfield, Oregon, 19-year-old convenience store clerk Raymond Oliver was murdered execution style from close range.

On June 24^th, Chris Boots and Eric Procter were arrested for the crime, but three days later were released without charge.

Then in 1986, Washington State Patrol crime lab forensic scientist Charles Vaughan declared that a gunpowder flake linked both men to the crime. They were rearrested and both convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1994, a tip to police led them to the real killer. Richard Ricky Kuppens had confessed to the murder shortly before he committed suicide a few weeks earlier.

His accomplices admitted that Boots and Procter had nothing to do with the crime and they were released one month later as free men.

In 1997, a scientist examined the flake that was used to convict Boots and Procter and confirmed it could not be determined if it was a gunpowder flake at all.

However, the FBI refused to admit they had made a mistake. Both Boots and Procter filed a lawsuit against Charles Vaughan but the judge threw out the case, citing a lack of evidence and Vaughan escaped consequences.

Boots and Procter were awarded $2million (USD) in 1998 as way of compensation. Despite two more cases where Vaughan made errors which caused a case to be thrown out or proved wrong, he still works as a forensic scientist to this day.

Check out the Mega List of True Crime Podcasts