True Crime On This Day September 26th

September 26th

On September 26th, throughout true crime history, there have been French serial killers, an Oktoberfest bombing, and carnival disappearances.

1978

For the April 22^nd murder of flower delivery woman Muriel Hatchell, Frank James Coppola was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Hattchell had been tied up with Venetian blind cords and then had her head repeatedly slammed into the floor.

Coppola and the group he was with fled the scene with just over $3,000 (USD) in cash and a few pieces of jewellery. Coppola was executed in the electric chair on August 10^th 1982.

1979

In Montmercy, Auxerre, France, 16-year-old Martine Renault vanished under mysterious circumstances. She suffered from learning difficulties and was staying in a foster home at the time.

Her disappearance was linked to other disappearances of similar girls in the region, including the disappearance of the Lemoine sisters in 1978.

In 2000, bus driver Émile Louis confessed to the murder of the Lemoine sisters and the murders of the other girls but retracted his confession a few months later.

Even so, Louis led them to the shallow graves of two other girls. In 2004 he was sentenced to life in prison for all seven murders despite most of the bodies never having been found. He died in 2013.

1980

In Munich, West Germany, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Oktoberfest festival, killing 12 people, and injuring over 200 more. Right wing extremist and geology student Gundolf Köhler had created the improvised device but it had exploded prematurely, killing him in the blast.

By that point, it had been the deadliest attack in Germany since the 1972 Munich Massacre. A 2014 investigation that included testimonies from over 1,000 witnesses and survivors concluded in 2020.

For years there had been rumours that Köhler had not acted alone and the 2014 investigation concluded that the hypothesis of an accomplice could not be ruled out.

1981

In Oklahoma City, 13-year-old’s Charlotte June Kinsey and Cinda Leann Pallett vanished without a trace. They were last seen at the Oklahoma State Fairground.

Kinsey called her home that afternoon to tell her family that she and Pallett were helping an unidentified man unload stuffed animals for the carnival but they were never seen or heard of again.

In 1985, a cross country truck driver was charged with murder and kidnapping as he had been witnessed talking to the girls the day they disappeared. He also had a history of sexual violence towards young females.

Despite hairs found in his truck that may have belonged to the girls, the judge in the trial threw the case out because he found no evidence the girls had been confined. The disappearance of Charlotte and Cinda remains unsolved and an active cold case in the State of Oklahoma.

1982

In Seattle, Washington State, just one day after the body of 19-year-old Gisele A. Lovvorn was discovered, Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer, claimed his next victim.

16-year-old Linda Jane Rule was abducted from the Seals Motel on Aurora Avenue, before being raped and murdered. Her body was found on the campus of Northwest Hospital on January 31^st 1983. Ridgway was convicted of 48 murders but is suspected of at least 71.