True Crime On This Day May 9th

May 9th

On May 9th in true crime, assassination, the Unabomber, cold case double murder, prison murder, and the Highway Murderer.

1978

In Italy, political activist Giuseppe ‘Peppino’ Impastato was assassinated by the Italian Mafia. Impastato was an opposer to the Mafia and stood as a candidate in the Cinisi council elections for Proletarian Democracy.

He was murdered by having an explosive device placed underneath his body as he was tied to a local railway line.

1979

The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, exploded a home-made bomb at North-western University in Illinois. A graduate student named John Harris was injured in the attack.

Kaczynski was active from 1978 to his capture in 1996, he would kill three people and injure a further 23. His sole motive was an attempt to start a revolution by attacking people involved with modern technology.

1980

In Norco, California, a shoot-out between five heavily armed bank robbers and deputies of the Riverside County and San Bernardino County sheriffs’ departments, left three people dead.

The Norco Shoot-out, as it became known, also injured 11 people, damaged 30 police cars, one police helicopter and dozens of nearby homes and businesses.

In the mid-afternoon, five men armed with shotguns, a G3 rifle, HK93s, handguns, AR-15s, a sword and explosive devices, robbed the Norco branch of Security Pacific Bank.

When police arrived, the shoot-out turned into a high-speed chase before the suspects escaped into the wooded area of the San Bernardino Mountains.

One had been killed before his escape and another killed himself before he could be caught. The other three were arrested two days later after a huge manhunt. They were convicted of multiple offences and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

1981

In Hernando County, Florida, the bodies of Ricky Merrill and Dori Colyer were found in a burning car. They had been drinking at the Hilltop Lounge in Brooksville, when they left and told friends they would be back shortly.

A couple of hours later, around 2.30am, firefighters were called to what they thought was a bush fire but found the burning vehicle instead.

It was later concluded the pair had burned alive inside the car and were only identified through dental records and jewellery items. Their case remains unsolved.

1982

In Alameda County Jail, California, while awaiting trial, serial killer David Edwin Mason, along with an accomplice, killed another inmate and hung him from the showers to make it look like a suicide.

Mason was on trial for killing four elderly people in 1980. He knew most of his victims and found it easy to access their properties before killing them to not leave any witnesses.

He was arrested in 1982 and convicted of all four murders. Mason was later sentenced to death and executed on August 24^th 1993.

1983

In Cook County, Illinois, the mutilated body of 18-year-old black gay man Jimmy (Jimmie) T. Roberts was found in a creek after having disappeared five nights earlier.

Roberts was a Chicago native who had been stabbed over 30 times and was sexually assaulted during the attack. He was immediately linked to similar victims in the region.

On the same day, in Henderson County, the body of 21-year-old Daniel McNeive was discovered in a field.

McNeive was a street hustler from Indianapolis who had vanished from the streets two days earlier. He had been stabbed 27 times in such a violent manner that his intestines were found outside his body.

Both men were victims of serial killer Larry Eyler, AKA: The Highway Murderer, who was convicted of two murders and positively linked to at least 21, though it is claimed he had killed a total of 24 gay men.

Eyler was arrested on August 21^st, 1984 and sentenced to death on October 3^rd, 1986. He died of AIDS in prison on March 6^th, 1994.

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