True Crime On This Day June 8th

Last Updated on September 24, 2022 by Ben Oakley

June 8th

On June 8th in true crime, The Racist Killer, murder in Texas, cold case mystery in Canada, unsolved disappearance, strip club murder.

1978

In Harris County, Texas, Rudy Ramos Esquivel shot dead 28-year-old undercover police officer Timothy Hearn. Hearn had attempted to arrest Esquivel and two women for the possession of heroin outside a restaurant.

Esquivel had previously been sentenced to 99 years in prison for his participation in a gang rape in 1953. For the murder of the officer, Esquivel was sentenced to death and subsequently executed in June 1986.

1979

In Manitoba, Canada, 85-year-old James Gordon Nevin went missing on the Manitoba and Saskatchewan Border. Nevin left his home and began driving from his home in Ontario to Manitoba for a two-week vacation.

A few days later, his white and maroon Dodge Coronet was found in a ditch on the border. Investigators confirmed that the vehicle had been at the location since June 8^th but there was no sign of Nevin.

Despite extensive searches by land and by air, no trace of Nevin was ever found. Investigators have long suspected foul play.

1980

In Cincinnati, Ohio, 14-year-old Darrell Lane and his cousin 13-year-old Evans Brown were shot dead by Joseph Paul Franklin, AKA: The Racist Killer.

Franklin had been waiting on an overpass with the sole intention of shooting a racially mixed couple. When he could not find a couple matching the description he wanted, he decided to kill the two boys instead.

Over the years Franklin had covered himself in racist tattoos and it was not long until the FBI discovered he had been visiting blood-banks.

They put out a nationwide alert and a Florida-based blood-bank worker recognised the tattoos and phoned it in. It led to him being caught by the FBI in September 1980.

He killed between seven and 22 people from the late 1970s to 1980. He was sentenced to death for some of the murders and subsequently executed by lethal injection in November of 2013.

1981

In Canton, Michigan, 15-year-old Kim Marie Larrow disappeared under suspicious circumstances. She had last been seen at an ice cream shop where her friend worked.

Larrow had made plans to meet her friend at Haggerty Field in Hines Park, the same night, but she never arrived. She had recently moved out of her father’s home and into her mother’s residence and wasn’t reported missing until almost a week later.

Her mother refused to cooperate with the investigation into her daughter’s disappearance but there has been no reason given as to why.

Larrow was known to have used drugs and had been a frequent runaway, but never went away for more than a week at a time.

A cold case investigation in 2018, led to convicted murderer Arthur Ream, who was a possible suspect in four other disappearances of girls the same age. Ream was convicted of the murder of 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki in 1986 and sentenced to life in prison.

Despite claims he is a serial killer, no trace of any other victims have been found. Larrow’s disappearance remains unsolved.

1982

In Dade County, Florida, strip club dancer Joyce Marlow was drowned to death. She had last been seen leaving the club with Burley Gilliam who drove to Twin Lakes where he raped her and drowned her in the shallow waters.

That same evening, fisherman Sandy Burroughs was fishing on the lake and he heard a scream. When he went to investigate, he saw a nervous Gilliam frantically attempting to drive out of the sand.

When Burroughs returned the next day, the same area was blocked off due to Marlow’s body being found. Burroughs then identified Gilliam as the killer, who claimed that Marlow had accidentally drowned.

Despite an insanity plea, Gilliam was sentenced to death on February 1^st 1985 and died of natural causes on death row in 2008.

1983

In King County, Washington, 20-year-old prostitute Constance Elizabeth Naon disappeared. She was last heard from by her boyfriend saying she was picking up her check at her job and would see him in twenty minutes but she never returned.

Her remains were discovered in a vacant lot in October 1983, just south of Sea-Tac Airport. She had been murdered by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer, one of the United States’ most prolific killers.

Ridgway considered killing prostitutes a career and believed he was doing the police a favour by killing them. He believed prostitutes were an infestation and a sickly disease which he had to cure.

Though not all of his victims were prostitutes, a large proportion were. He was arrested in 2001, convicted of 48 murders, and sentenced to life in 2003.

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