True Crime On This Day May 29th

May 29th

On May 29th in true crime, multiple assassinations, mystery disappearance, Satanic cult in Illinois, unidentified body, and cold cases.

1978

Former President of the Comoros, Ali Soilih M’tsashiwa, was assassinated outside of his home.

On 13^th May, Soilih’s power was overthrown by a 50-strong mercenary unit that consisted of former French paratroopers hired by exiled former leader Ahmed Abdallah and led by French Colonel Bob Denard.

On the night of the coup, Soilih was found naked in his bed with three nude teenage schoolgirls, all of them high on marijuana watching a pornographic film. Placed under house arrest, Soilih was shot and killed when he attempted to escape.

1979

In Texas, Charles ‘Chuck’ Voyde Harrelson shot dead U.S. District Judge John H. ‘Maximum John’ Wood in the car park of Wood’s townhouse.

Harrelson had been hired by drug dealer Jamiel Chagra who was scheduled to appear in front of the judge in an upcoming trial. Both Harrelson and Chagra were arrested shortly after and convicted of the assassination.

Harrelson was sentenced to life in prison purely based on a recorded conversation with Jimmy Chagra and his brother Joe. Joe Chagra was sentenced to ten years in prison for his part in the crime.

Upon his release in 2003, Jimmy Chagra claimed that Harrelson was innocent but refused to name the real killer. Harrelson died in prison in 2007.

Charles Voyde Harrelson was the father of Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson. The assassination is mentioned in Cormac McCarthy’s book No Country for Old Men which was made into a film that starred Woody Harrelson.

1980

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, American businessman and civil rights executive, Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. was shot as he exited the Marriott Inn.

President Jimmy Carter visited Jordan in hospital and it became the very first news story that new network, CNN, covered. Jordan had been shot by serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, AKA: The Racist Killer.

Franklin was acquitted of the shooting but later went on to make a full confession. He also shot and paralysed magazine publisher and pornographer Larry Flynt in 1978.

Franklin killed between seven and 21 people with the intention of inciting a race war. He was arrested in 1980, sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on November 20^th 2013.

Jordan would later go on to become a close advisor to President Bill Clinton.

1981

In Pinellas Park, Florida, 19-year-old Barbara J Barkley disappeared while working alone at a furniture store.

Her brother went to the store but discovered she was no longer there and there were no signs of a struggle. Her vehicle was found in a car park at a nearby highway.

The rule of thumb in investigating is that when someone goes missing and leaves their vehicle behind, then they are automatically moved from being a missing person case to an endangered missing person case.

Barkley’s boyfriend had been a suspect at one point and seemed indifferent to her disappearance, but no charges have ever been brought against him or anyone else. Her disappearance remains unsolved.

1982

In Cook County, Illinois, restaurant worker Shui Mak disappeared when she was on her way home from the family owned business.

Her disappearance remained a mystery until her mutilated and decomposing corpse was discovered in a shallow grave on a construction site on September 30^th.

She had been abducted and killed by a Satanic cult known as the Ripper Crew or Chicago Rippers.

The members of the cult, who were sometimes referred to as an organised crime unit, were Robin Gecht, Edward Spreitzer, Andrew Kokoraleis and his brother Thomas Kokoraleis.

Between them, they were linked to the disappearances of 18 women in Illinois from 1981 to 1982. All four were arrested at the end of 1982 and convicted of multiple murders.

1983

In South Carolina, the decomposed body of an unidentified black male in his Forties, was discovered on a creek bank next to the South Carolina State Hospital.

His body had been at the site on Colonial Drive and Harden Street for at least 10 days. Due to the decomposition, his features were unrecognisable, and he was found with a fracture on his skull, though it remains unclear if that was the cause of his death.

Despite a large investigation due to the vicinity of the hospital, his identity and the circumstances of his death remain a mystery.

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