True Crime On This Day May 22nd

Last Updated on September 23, 2022 by Ben Oakley

May 22nd

On May 22nd in true crime, crime boss death, bomb attack in Chile, cold case in Illinois, murder, cannibal killer, and Gary Ridgway.

1978

In New York, the boss of the Colombo crime family, Joseph Anthony Colombo Sr. died of a heart attack brought on by a previous assassination attempt.

The Colombo family were one of the Five Families of the American Mafia in New York City. On June 28^th 1971, Colombo Sr. was shot three times, with one of the shots being to the head.

Remarkably, Colombo survived but was left paralysed from the attack. His assailant, Joe Gallo had been murdered in retaliation on April 7^th 1972.

1979

In Cook County, Illinois, 28-year-old Catherine Runte vanished after walking away from an argument with her husband. It was another three days before her husband reported her missing.

He had waited before reporting it because he had tried to find her himself, claiming that she was suffering from mental health issues.

He also hired a private investigator who could not find any evidence of what happened to her. Months after her disappearance, a telephone company discovered a wiretap on her mother’s home phone but found no evidence as to who placed it there.

As of 2022, Runte’s disappearance remains a mystery and no sign of her has ever been found.

1980

In Valparaíso, Chile, a large bomb exploded outside a PDI (Investigations Police of Chile) headquarters, injuring one civilian.

The attack had been carried out by the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), a Chilean far-left political organization and former urban guerrilla organisation who were advocates for Communism and Guevarism.

They carried out numerous attacks in the early 1980s during the Armed Resistance in Chile which lasted from 1973 to 1990.

1981

In Atlanta, Georgia, 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater was strangled to death by Wayne Williams. Williams was a suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders, and Payne was one of two murders that he was found guilty of.

Despite investigators attributing many of the Atlanta Child Murder victims to Wayne Williams, he was only convicted on two of the adult murders.

1982

In Johvi, Estonia, 75-year-old Belarusian pensioner Ivan Sivitsky was stabbed to death in his garden cottage sauna by Estonian cannibal and serial killer Johannes-Andreas Hanni.

After brutally stabbing him to death, Hanni cut off Sivitsky’s penis with the intention of using it as a dildo on himself.

It remains unclear what happened to the man’s genitals after that but it is suggested that Hanni fried and ate it, as he did with a previous victim.

Hanni murdered three people in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1982. His wife, Pille Hanni, was an accomplice in the murders.

He was arrested on October 2^nd 1982 and killed himself a month later before he could go to trial. Pille Hanni spent 12 years in prison on charges of being an accessory to murder.

1983

In King County, Washington, 18-year-old Martina Authorlee disappeared after last being seen on Pacific Highway South. She had been picked up, raped, and killed by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer.

Martina’s skeletal remains were found in the woods off Highway 410 on November 14^th 1984. Ridgway is one of the United States’ most prolific killers.

He was arrested in 2001, convicted of 48 murders, and sentenced to life in 2003. His true victim count is believed to be much higher.

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