An Almanac of Infamy

Annie and James Richardson On this day in 1989, James Joseph Richardson was released from a Florida prison after serving 21 years for the murders of his seven children, for which he was wrongfully convicted. His ordeal started on the afternoon of October 25, 1967. While Richardson and his wife Annie were working as fruit pickers in Arcadia, Florida, their neighbor, Betsy Reese, came over to heat up a pot of rice and beans that Annie had prepared the night before for the children's lunch. After the four oldest Richardson students returned to school they began to fall ill, foaming at the mouth and exhibiting other disturbing symptoms. When a teacher arrived at the Richardson house to check on the younger children, she found that they had fallen ill as well. All seven children were rushed to the hospital. By the time James and Annie Richardson were made aware of the situation, six of their children had already passed away. After Joseph H. Minoughan of the Arcadia Police Departme...

On this day in 1984, the body of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton was found in a wooded area of Rosedale, Maryland, not far from her home. She had been raped and beaten to death with a rock. Police received witness reports of a suspicious man in the area of the crime scene and soon after released a sketch on the local news and in the local newspapers. Two weeks later, an anonymous caller identified the man in the sketches as 23-year-old ex-marine Kirk Bloodsworth. Police discovered that Bloodsworth had been in Baltimore (not too far from Rosedale) and also learned that he had told his friends that he had done something that would destroy his marriage. With very little evidence but the phone call and his friends' anecdote, Bloodsworth was convicted of Dawn Hamilton's murder. During his 1985 trial, the prosecution presented five witnesses who claimed to have seen Bloodsworth with Hamilton. Two of these witnesses, however, could not identify Bloodsworth in a lineup and had only iden...

On this day in 1914, Joe Hill was sentenced to death in Salt Lake City Utah for the January 10, 1914, murders of John G. Morrison and his son Arling in their grocery store. Hill had immigrated to the United States from Sweden in 1879. In 1910, he joined the International Workers of the World (IWW), popularly known as the Wobblies. The group was successful in organizing mistreated and exploited workers in the mining, logging, and shipping industries and rejected the capitalist system. They encouraged their members to express themselves in song and Joe Hill soon became one of their leading singers and songwriters. He coined the phrase "pie in the sky" for his song "The Preacher and the Slave" and also wrote the union anthems "The Tramp", "There is Power in a Union", "The Rebel Girl", and "Casey Jones—the Union Scab". By 1914, Hill was one of the most famous Wobblies in the United States and this notoriety may have led to his...

Hello, good readers! I'm back from vacation and it's time to catch up on the major cases that are captivating the nation, starting with the Golden State Killer. While GSK suspect Joseph James DeAngelo's lawyers continue to fight in court to suppress evidence from being brought into trial, police all over California are reviewing old cold cases. In Tulare County , where the "Visalia Ransacker" operated in the 1970s, police are focusing on the 1975 slaying of College of the Sequoias journalism professor Claude Snelling. Snelling was shot while trying to save his 16-year-old daughter from a masked abductor. Police have long suspected that the "Visalia Ransacker" was involved in the homicide and while the burglaries cannot be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations, officials plan to bring the Snelling case before the Tulare County District Attorney to see if a 13th murder charge can be made against DeAngelo. Another possible charge could be brought a...