True Crime On This Day October 9th

October 9th

On October 9th, in true crime, the Bahcelievler Massacre, the bodies of Leakin Park, serial killers, and an assassination.

1978

The Bahcelievler Massacre in Ankara, Turkey, saw seven university students, assassinated by ultra-nationalists. The students were members of the Worker’s Party of Turkey.

The assailants, who were well armed, attacked the students in their apartment and killed them with ease. Two of the students were taken away by car and executed nearby.

1979

In Leakin Park, Baltimore, Maryland, the body of 25-year-old Lester Williams was found. Investigators suspected foul play as Williams was one of many bodies found in the park.

Between 1946 and 2018, at least 79 bodies have been found in the park and almost all of them had been murdered. Most murders in Leakin Park have been solved but there are many that remain a mystery to this day.

1980

In Portland, Oregon, 29-year-old hospital worker Cherie Ayers was raped and murdered in her own home. Her fiancé found her body two days later, she had been beaten and stabbed to death.

Ayers was a former classmate of Randall Woodfield, AKA: The I-5 Killer, who was suspected of murdering her but his blood type did not match the semen found. However, between 1979 and 1981, Woodfield killed at least 12 people.

He was initially convicted of two murders and sentenced to 165 years in prison. As DNA technology evolved, so did the amount of crimes that were linked to him. In 2005, using new DNA technology, it was confirmed that Ayers was Woodfield’s first victim. Ever since, investigators have linked Woodfield to at least 44 murders.

1981

In Frankston, Melbourne, Australia, 55-year-old Joy Summers was heading out to the shops when she went missing. Her nude body was found six weeks later in a field by a man collecting firewood.

She had disappeared on the same stretch of road as 59-year-old Allison Rooke on May 30^th 1980. Rooke’s nude body was found five weeks later in a shallow grave.

Their murders were treated as one investigation until links were made with the murders of four women in Tynong North, Victoria, which occurred during 1980. The prime suspect in the case was Harold Janman, who was known to offer women lifts in the same areas.

He was never charged due to a lack of evidence and maintained his innocence all the way until his death in August 2020. The murders became known as the Tynong North and Frankston Murders and remain unsolved to this day.

1982

In Rome, Italy, on October 10th, the Great Synagogue of Rome was attacked by armed Palestinian terrorists. Just before noon, as crowds of families with children began leaving the synagogue, the well-dressed attackers walked up to the back entrance and threw grenades into the building and into the crowd.

Then they opened fire with sub-machine guns. A two-year-old child was killed in the attack and 37 people were seriously wounded.

No one came forward to claim responsibility but one of the attackers was later identified as Osama Abdel al-Zomar, who was an alleged member of the Abu Nidal Organization, a militant Palestinian group. He managed to escape to Libya, where he is said to remain to this day.

1983

In St. Augustine, Florida, William Darrell LindseyAKA: Crazy Bill, claimed his first of at least seven victims. After a drinking session at a bar known as the Tradewinds Lounge, he drove Lisa Foley to a local beach where an argument after sex ended in murder.

Foley’s murder wouldn’t be solved until 14 years later when Lindsey confessed to the killing. He was known to have used prostitutes regularly and found solace in the cocaine drug culture of Northeast Florida.

Lindsey was able to continue killing for so long by floating through society unnoticed in a world of sex and drugs. He was arrested on suspicion of murder on December 29^th 1996 and subsequently sentenced to 30 years in prison after bargaining his way out of a death penalty.

Despite confessing to seven murders, some investigators believe he may be linked to a possible 20.