True Crime On This Day September 14th

Last Updated on September 16, 2022 by Ben Oakley

September 14th

On this day, throughout history, there are missing persons, murders, assassinations, and mystery disappearances. Those born on September 14th are Virgos.

In India, Hindi Diwas is celebrated on this day to commemorate the adoption of Hindi in the Devanagari script as one of the official languages of the nation.

1978

In Forsyth County, North Carolina, 22-year-old Ronald Kevin ‘Byrd’ Ross vanished without a trace. Ross told his sister that he was going to leave town for a bit but never returned.

An investigation and subsequent rumours suggested that Ross had been met with foul play. His disappearance remains a mystery and no trace of him has ever been found.

1979

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, 30-year-old prison officer and Protestant George Foster was shot dead. He had been standing outside Buffs Social Club on Century Street when he was killed by gunmen.

His death was one of many carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who later claimed responsibility for his murder.

1980

In Atlanta, Georgia, 10-year-old Darron Glass disappeared without a trace. He had last been seen at his home with his foster mother and three other children. His biological parents were already deceased before he disappeared. Glass is long suspected to have been a victim of the Atlanta Child Murders.

They were a series of murders committed in Atlanta from July 1979 to May 1981 and included the deaths of at least 28 children and adults.

Despite 23-year-old Wayne Williams being charged in 1981 with two of the adult murders and linked to some of the child murders, no solid evidence linked Williams to the Glass disappearance.

Over 40 years later, no trace of Glass has ever been found.

1981

In County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on September 14th, 25-year-old father-of-two and Reserve Constable John Proctor was gunned down by the IRA in the car park of the Mid Ulster Hospital.

He had visited his wife who had just given birth to a baby boy and was waving to her from outside the ward window when he was attacked.

Just hours prior to his death, he had been a pallbearer at the funeral of a UDR soldier friend who had also been gunned down.

30 years later, Seamus Martin Kearney was arrested for the murder. In November 2013, he was jailed for life, despite maintaining his innocence.

1982

In Beirut, Lebanon, President of Lebanon and Lebanese Maronite militia commander, Bachir Pierre Gemayel, was assassinated in a large explosion.

He was addressing fellow members of the Kataeb Party when the bomb was remotely detonated. It killed Gemayel along with 26 other politicians. Due to the scale of the explosion, he wasn’t identified until five hours later, when a Mossad agent found his body in a church where the dead were being collected.

He could only be identified due to his wedding ring and two letters in his pocket. Conspiracy theorists later claimed that he had survived the attack.

Member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Maronite Christian, Habib Shartouni, was later arrested for the assassination. He was imprisoned for eight years until Syrian troops took over Lebanon at the end of the war and freed him on October 13^th 1990.

Gemayel’s death caused the Sabra and Shatila Massacre a few days later that left between 460 and 3,500 people dead.

1983

In Chicago, Illinois, the bodies of Alanzia Dixon and Margaret Williams were found in a gold 1977 Oldsmobile located at 7144 South Prairie Avenue.

Both women had been shot dead and robbed of their belongings. Later that day, Tony Foster was arrested and charged with murder and armed robbery. He had entered the vehicle, robbed them at gunpoint, then shot them in the back of the heads to hide any witnesses.

Foster was later sentenced to life in prison for the murders and an additional 30 years for armed robbery.