True Crime On This Day September 17th

Last Updated on February 17, 2023 by Ben Oakley

September 17th

On this day, throughout history, there are missing persons, murders, assassinations, and mystery disappearances. Those born on September 17th are Virgos.

1978

In Los Angeles, the body of a 45 to 65-year-old white female was found in an alleyway just of South Broadway. She had died the night before in an apparent attack.

The woman was known to have slept rough in the area for quite some time before she was killed. The identity of the woman remains a mystery and her death remains unsolved.

1979

In Arkansas, criminal and future serial killer Donald Eugene Harding escaped jail by sawing his way out.

After his escape, he went on to kill at least six people and took part in numerous robberies and other crimes before his eventual recapture in 1980. Harding was executed in the gas chamber in Arizona on April 6^th 1992.

1980

In Asunción, Paraguay, former President of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, was assassinated by a seven-man hit squad. Debayle had succeeded his older brother in office and was the final member of the Somoza family to act as president.

After an insurrection carried out by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1979, Debayle fled to Paraguay. The assassination had been planned for six months prior to the attack.

The attack came during an ambush on Debayle’s car. The vehicle was attacked by RPG’s and a flurry of gunfire. Six of the seven assassins escaped. One assassin, Hugo Irurzún, was caught, convicted of the murder, and subsequently executed.

1981

In Olympia, Washington, Mitchell Rupe held up a bank in the city with the intention of robbing it but ended up killing two employees of the bank.

Twila Capron and Candace Hemmig were shot dead at point blank range before Rupe made off with a little over $4,000 (USD). He was arrested the same day and subsequently sentenced to death in 1983. At the time and until 1996, hanging was the method of execution in the State of Washington.

Because Rupe was overly obese, it was deemed he was too heavy to hang, which meant he would have been decapitated. He was resentenced to life in prison in 2000 but died of natural causes in 2006.

1982

In Paris, France, a large car bomb exploded near Lycée Carnot school, and wounded 51 people. The Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (FARL) claimed responsibility for the attack in retaliation for anti-Israeli terrorism.

The attack happened on the eve of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and a few months after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

1983

At the Ramada Inn on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, California, housekeeping staff opened the door and found the body of 19-year-old Tiffany Frizzell face up on the bed.

Frizzell had left her home in Indianola, Washington, and travelled to Long Beach, to attend Brooks College. She had been raped and strangled to death with a ligature by Martin James Kipp.

He was arrested in 1984 and subsequently sentenced to death for Frizzell’s murder and the murder of 19-year-old Antaya Yvette Howard, who was killed in December of the same year.

2004

In Tottenham, London, 46-year-old Kevin Molloy was stabbed to death by David Gonzalez, who had already claimed a victim two days earlier.

Two hours later, Gonzalez broke into a home in Highgate where he stabbed to death an elderly couple in their bed. He was caught covered in blood outside Tottenham Tube Station.

He was found to be insane and incarcerated at Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital. Gonzalez killed himself in 2007 by using the sides of a broken CD case.