True Crime On This Day November 14th

November 14th

On November 14th in true crime, a cold case murder, assassination, serial killers, more murder, and all-star John Doe.

1978

Gambino crime family member Edward ‘Danny’ Grillo was murdered by his own mob associates. The Roy DeMeo Crew killed Grillo as he had fallen into massive debt with them.

They arranged his death to look like a suicide, but it is alleged that he was dismembered and discarded at an infamous dump site used by the DeMeo crew.

1979

In Pointe-Claire, Montreal, just one month after his previous kill, serial killer William Patrick Fyfe, AKA: The Killer Handyman brutally raped and murdered 26-year-old Nicole Raymond.

It would be another 20 years before Fyfe was captured. He was arrested on December 22^nd 1999 after a single fingerprint linked him to at least nine murders, although it is suspected he may have killed at least 25 people.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital in Saskatchewan where he remains today.

1980

In Denver, Colorado, 50-year-old Robert Jackson was shot dead at the Vickers gas station while filling up his vehicle. For some unknown reason, he got into an argument with an unidentified man.

The man left the argument to get a gun from his own vehicle. When he returned, he shot Jackson multiple times before leaving the scene at high speed.

Jackson was rushed to hospital where he died four days later. Investigators could find no motive in the attack and struggled to find any leads. The identity of the shooter remains a mystery and the case remains unsolved.

1981

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassinated 40-year-old Reverend Robert Jonathan Bradford.

Bradford was a Methodist Minister, Vanguard Unionist, and Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for the Belfast South constituency. He was shot and killed in a community centre in Finaghy, while hosting a political surgery.

29-year-old Protestant caretaker, Kenneth Campbell, was also killed in the attack. The IRA claimed responsibility, but no one was ever charged with the murders. It was one of many assassinations carried out in Northern Ireland throughout the early 1980s.

1982

In Houston, Texas, on November 14th, the partial skeletal remains of an unidentified white male in his twenties were discovered.

They were found in a vacant lot by a passer-by who noticed something unusual sticking out from the ground. The remains were found with white Converse Chuck Taylor All Star tennis shoes and two long dark socks. 

His hands were not discovered but there is a DNA profile available to match him to missing persons cases. However, he has never been identified.

An autopsy confirmed he had been killed but there is minimal information surrounding how he had died. His case remains unsolved.

1983

In Pittsylvania County, Virginia, 22-year-old convenience store worker Betty Jean Barker was shot dead during a robbery. Her death began an eight-day crime spree undertaken by Johnny Watkins, who would end up killing another store worker on the 22^nd before his arrest.

Watkins entered the Pittsylvania County store and requested cigarettes, then when Barker had opened the cash register, he shot her twice in the chest.

He escaped with less than $90 (USD). He was arrested shortly after the murder on the 22^nd and subsequently sentenced to death. Watkins was executed in the electric chair on March 3^rd 1994.

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