True Crime On This Day May 8th

May 8th

On May 8th in true crime, murder, serial killers, mystery disappearance, the Vampire of Bytom, unsolved crimes, and cold cases.

1978

In Italy, the body of Italian Premier Aldo Moro was found in a red Renault 4. He had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades on March 16^th 1978.Five bodyguards were killed at the time.

Moro had been murdered by the Red Brigades as a way to undermine the Italian state and pave the way for a Marxist revolution.

1979

After only a few hours deliberating, a jury found Richard Trenton Chase, AKA: The Vampire of Sacramento guilty of six counts of murder.

Chase killed six people over a one-month period from December 29^th 1977 to January 27^th 1978. He became known as the Vampire of Sacramento because he drank the blood of his victims, engaged in necrophilia, and ate some of their remains.

Chase was given the death penalty by gas chamber at San Quentin Prison but committed suicide on December 26^th 1980.

1980

In Burton, Michigan, police patrolman Russell Allen Herrick was shot dead after responding to an alarm at a store on Davidson Road.

Along with his partner, they approached the store but Herrick was shot in the back by a high-powered rifle. His partner was also shot twice but would go on to survive the attack.

After a large manhunt, the two suspects were caught and later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

1981

In New York, 19-year-old Tammy Mahoney disappeared without a trace. She was last seen hitchhiking near the Glenwood Shopping Center, and investigators later believed she had been picked up by a group of men headed towards Oneida Indian Nation Territory.

She was reported missing by her boyfriend three days later on May 11^th. The delay in reporting was down to the fact that Tammy was known to hitchhike to work along the same route and would occasionally disappear for days at a time.

Investigators concluded that Tammy had been gangraped and murdered at a party inside a trailer on the Oneida Indian Nation Territory.

They had received numerous anonymous tips about what happened, with one even claiming her body was inside a building that had burned down on May 11^th. Despite a search of the building, no trace of Tammy was found.

Investigators have since put together a list of witnesses and suspects but because the alleged murder had taken place on Indian Nation property, they cannot file any charges until a body is recovered.

Tammy’s disappearance and the circumstances of her alleged murder remain unsolved.

1982

In Poland, 17-year-old Bogusława Ludyga was beaten to death with an axe and dismembered by Jaochim Knychala, AKA: The Vampire of Bytom.

He killed five women over a five-year period, with Ludyga being his final victim. Knychala would kill all of his victims with an axe, butchering and dismembering their bodies after he killed them.

It is claimed that he was killing using the same methods as serial killers who had already been caught but it remains unclear who he was supposed to have copied.

However, Knychala’s crimes are listed as some of the worst among Polish serial killers. He was sentenced to death in 1985 and was hung three days before Halloween.

1983

In Maple Valley, Washington, six days after her disappearance, the body of 21-year-old Carol Ann Christensen was discovered. She had disappeared after her day shift as a waitress at the Barn Door Tavern.

Her body was found with raw sausage around her, a wine bottle in her hand, and two cleaned fish across her chest, believed by some to symbolize the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ.

She had been strangled to death by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer. Ridgway 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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