Last Updated on September 16, 2022 by Ben Oakley
October 25th
On October 25th, in true crime, Operation Urgent Fury, arson attack, American Football murder, and macabre discoveries.
1978
In Manchester, New Hampshire, smoke inhalation from a large fire killed 53-year-old Pauline Miller and 51-year-old Ray Blanchette. The Manchester Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal confirmed that the fire was caused by an arson attack.
The perpetrator has never been found. The deaths of Miller and Blanchette have never been solved. As of 2020, the murders are an active cold case in the State of New Hampshire.
1979
In Polk County, Texas, Johnny Paul Penry raped and then stabbed to death 22-year-old Pamela Moseley Carpenter who was the sister of American Football player Mark Moseley.
Penry was arrested shortly after and his trial was well-publicised due to the sports star connection. In 1980, Penry was sentenced to death. In 2008, the sentence was commuted to life in prison due to Penry being mentally disabled.
1980
In Houston, Texas, 38-year-old Robert Edward Howard was shot dead outside of a nightclub. He had been killed by hired hitman James Emery ‘Skipp’ Paster. Howard’s ex-wife and her boyfriend had hired Paster to kill Howard.
They were later caught and sentenced to life in prison. Paster received $1,000 (USD) for the murder and was arrested in 1983. He was convicted of the Howard murder and two more murders towards the end of 1980.
Along with accomplices, they raped and killed 27-year-old Diana Trevino Oliver in November and 18-year-old Cynthia Johnson in December. Paster was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in Texas on September 20th 1989.
1981
In Orlando, Florida, the decomposing body of an unidentified white man between the ages of 40 to 50, was discovered. He had been found by locals in a wooded area near the intersection of Old Winter Garden Road and Cottage Hill Road.
Evidence found at the scene suggested he may have been a homeless person and had died under suspicious circumstances. He had been dead for at least two months and was unrecognisable. He has never been identified and his case remains unsolved.
1982
In Dakota County, Minnesota, 27-year-old William Bruce Squire Jr. disappeared under suspicious circumstances. He was last seen leaving driving away from his residence in Hastings and on his way to meet a friend.
No one knows what happened to him after that but investigators have long suspected foul play. No trace of him or his 1972 Pontiac Catalina have ever been found. His case remains open and unsolved.
1983
In Grenada, six days after revolutionary, and leader of the New Jewel Movement, Maurice Rupert Bishop, was executed, the United States in coalition with six Caribbean nations, invaded the country. The invasion began at dawn and was codenamed Operation Urgent Fury.
The purpose of the invasion was to remove the newly appointed establishment of the Revolutionary Military Council with Hudson Austin as Chairman.
The US sent in a force of 7,300 personnel along with assistance from Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua, Dominica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent. President Ronald Reagan had reacted due to a formal appeal for help from the Caribbean nations and the Governor-General of Grenada Paul Scoon.
Reagan also acted due to concerns regarding approximately 600 US medical students who were on the island. Four days later, the Revolutionary Military Council had been toppled, the former Government was restored, and Cuban military presence was removed.
The United States suffered 19 deaths with 116 wounded. 45 Grenadians were also killed along with 358 wounded. An estimated 25 to 60 civilians were killed when the US Air Force bombed a psychiatric hospital in error.
The date of the invasion is now a national holiday in Grenada known as Thanksgiving Day. The country has remained a democratic nation ever since.
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