True Crime On This Day November 1st

November 1st

On November 1st in true crime, a serial killing couple, double murder, cold case, missing persons, and serial killers.

1978

In Dallas County, Texas, Jonathan Bruce Reed raped and strangled to death 26-year-old Wanda Jean Wadle. Reed had entered an apartment rented by Wadle and her room-mate Kimberly Pursley by posing as a maintenance man.

Pursley survived the attack by pretending to be unconscious. Reed was arrested shortly after and sentenced to death. His conviction was reversed in 2009 due to racial discrimination during the jury selection.

1979

In Gregg County, Texas, 19-year-old Teresa Marie Byers disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Byers was the eldest of six siblings who had been split up by social services, some went into foster care and others with extended family.

Byers was older than 18 and was under no such jurisdiction. Some have linked an unidentified body discovered the next day to Byers but investigators ruled it out.

1980

In California, 22-year-old Craig Miller and 21-year-old Mary Elizabeth Sowers were leaving a fraternity party when they were abducted by Gerald Armond Gallego and Charlene Adell Gallego, AKA: The Love Slave Killers. Miller was later forced out of the vehicle and shot dead.

The Gallego’s took Sowers home and used her as a sex slave before shooting her in the back of the head. Fortunately, the Miller and Sowers kidnapping had been witnessed.

Police then tracked them using the Gallego’s number plate and arrested them on November 17^th. Charlene ended up testifying against her husband in a plea deal that only saw her receive a 16-year sentence. Gerald was sentenced in 1983 to death by gas chamber at the notorious San Quentin State Prison.

He died of cancer in a Nevada prison medical centre, in 2002. Between them, they had killed at least 10 people between 1978 and 1980.

1981

In Viña del Mar, Chile, Jaime Ventura Córdova and Rosana Venegas Reyes, were shot dead under the Capuchinos Bridge, Reyes had been brutally raped beforehand.

They had been murdered by serial killer duo Jorge José Sagredo Pizarro and Carlos Alberto Topp Collins. Collectively they were known as the Viña del Mar psychopaths (Psicópatas de Viña del Mar).

Between August 1980 and November 1981, they killed ten people and committed four rapes. They were both arrested on March 8^th 1982 and convicted of all the crimes they had committed.

On January 8^th 1983, they were sentenced to death. On January 29^th 1985, both men were executed by gunshot. Theirs was the last execution before the death penalty was repealed in Chile in 2001.

1982

In Rocky Ford, Colorado, 15-year-old Victoria Sanchez and 15-year-old Yvonne Marie Mestas vanished without a trace. They were last seen leaving their high school and were reported missing shortly after.

No sign of them has ever been found since but their disappearance remains suspicious. The case remains unsolved and is an active cold case in the State of Colorado.

1983

In King County, Washington, 21-year-old Kimberly Lee Nelson disappeared after last being seen sitting a bus stop on Pacific Highway South. She was known to police for loitering and sex work.

She had been picked up and murdered by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer. Ridgway considered killing sex workers a career and believed he was doing the police a favour by killing them. He believed prostitutes were an infestation and a sickly disease which he had to cure.

Though not all of his victims were prostitutes, a large proportion were. 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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