True Crime On This Day November 13th

November 13th

On November 13th in true crime, a booby-trap bombing, machete murder, bribery, serial killer, and robbery in Denver.

1978

John Wayne Gacy claimed his twenty-ninth victim, 20-year-old James Mazzara, who had been reported missing.

His body was discovered in the Des Plaines River on December 28^th, after Gacy’s arrest. Mazzara still had his own underwear lodged down his throat which had caused him to suffocate.

Gacy later told police that he had started to dispose of the bodies in the river because he ran out of room in the crawlspace under his home. He also claimed that he had experienced back problems due to digging so many graves.

1979

In County Armagh, Northern Ireland, 18-year-old British soldier Paul Fryer was killed in a bomb explosion.

The bomb had been secretly attached to a telegraph pole and was triggered when Fryer came close to it while on foot patrol. The IRA later claimed responsibility for his murder.

1980

In Chesterfield County, Virginia, 22-year-old drug dealer and police informant Patricia D. Cubbage was stabbed 184 times with a machete.

She had been abducted from her home by Edward B. Fitzgerald and an accomplice, Daniel Johnson. They took her to a wooded area, where she was raped, tortured, and ultimately hacked to death, including having a tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses) design carved into her back.

Johnson testified against Fitzgerald and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Fitzgerald was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair on July 23^rd 1992.

1981

In Washington, National Security Advisor Richard Allen accepted a $1,000 (USD) payment from the Japanese women’s magazine Shufunotomo, in return for arranging an interview with Nancy Reagan.

In January 1982, Allen confirmed the story to be true but claimed he had stepped in to accept the money on behalf of Nancy to avoid embarrassment and then forgot the money was still in his safe.

The FBI later cleared everyone involved but the Justice Department began their own investigation when the story was leaked to the press.

A classified source later confirmed that Allen and his Potomac Associates partners had solicited bribes from Japanese corporations under the guise of ‘consulting fees’. Allen was forced to resign on January 4^th 1982.

1982

In Denver, Colorado, in the early hours of the morning, police were called to Joe’s Liquor Store on reports of a robbery. When they arrived, they found 40-year-old owner Savino Joseph Nuanes dead on the floor.

He had been beaten and shot dead. Nuanes was well known in the community but despite a large investigation, the robbery and his murder remain unsolved. It was the second unsolved murder in just two days in Denver.

1983

In Washington State, the partial skeletal remains of 19-year-old Mary Bridgett Meehan were found in a remote location. She had disappeared from the Western Six Motel in September of 1982.

Bridgett had been abducted, raped, and murdered by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer, one of the United States’ most prolific killers.

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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