True Crime On This Day September 2nd

Last Updated on September 16, 2022 by Ben Oakley

September 2nd

On September 2nd, in true crime, we have serial killers, a cop killer, and the murder of an exotic film actress.

1979

The body of 20-year-old Barbara Leach was discovered in an alleyway near the centre of Bradford, England. Leach was the 12^th victim of Peter Sutcliffe; The Yorkshire Ripper.

Sutcliffe was caught a year later and charged with the murders of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven more. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 30 years.

1980

In California, late in the night, near the El Toro Marine Air Base, the body of 19-year-old Marine Robert Loggins was discovered in a trash bag. He had been bound and strangled to death.

He had last been seen alive by fellow Marines on the Pacific Coast Highway, just ten days earlier. He had been picked up and murdered by serial killer Randy Steven Kraft, AKA: The Scorecard Killer.

Upon his arrest, the investigation discovered photographs of Loggins in Kraft’s living room. They depicted Loggins in various pornographic poses.

It has long remained unclear if Loggins was dead or drugged in the photos. Kraft was captured in 1983 and was convicted of 16 murders but it is suggested he may have been responsible for 67 killings during his campaign of terror.

1981

In Miami, Florida, Robert Lester Patton shot dead police officer Nathaniel Broom, after he was stopped for driving a stolen car in the wrong direction down a one-way street.

At first, Patton eloped on foot and went into an alleyway where he waited for Broom to approach him. When Broom entered the alley, he was shot dead. Patton then stole another car at gunpoint and fled the scene.

He was arrested the same day and later convicted of the murder. Patton was sentenced to death but died of natural causes on January 6^th 2014.

1982

In South Carolina, despite being in jail for eight murders, serial killer Donald ‘Pee Wee’ Henry Gaskins, committed another. While incarcerated in the high security block at the South Carolina Correctional Institution, Gaskins killed a death row inmate named Rudolph Tyner.

Gaskins claimed he was hired to commit the murder by Tony Cimo, the son of Tyner’s robbery victims. He was later convicted of Tyner’s murder, bringing the total to nine.

Gaskins then claimed he had killed a total of 110 people but it has never been proven and most see it as a ruse for infamy. There was a suspicion that he just wished to be known as the serial killer with the highest body count, and to make his mark on true crime history.

He claimed to have picked up his victims on the new American highway systems and killed for pleasure, potentially once every six weeks at his peak. He was known to have tortured and mutilated his victims while keeping them alive as long as he could.

Gaskins was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair, in South Carolina, on September 6^th 1991.

1983

In Istanbul, Turkey, erotic film actress Feriha ‘Feri’ Cansel was strangled to death by her fiancé. The Turkish-Cypriot actress was known for the rising wave of mild erotic films masquerading as comedy, in the country.

Cansel was raised in the United Kingdom and began her career as a stage stripper. She appeared in over 130 films during her career and was killed aged 39-years-old. Her fiancé was arrested shortly after and convicted of her murder.