An Almanac of Infamy

On this day in 1988, Roch Thériault, leader of a cult known as the Ant Hill Kids, murdered one of his followers by performing "surgery" on her intestines. Thériault, who was obsessed with anatomy and medicine but had no medical training, sliced open the abdomen of cult member Solange Boilard and ripped out a piece of her intestines with his bare hands. He then had another cult member, Gabrielle Lavallée, stitch her up with a needle and thread. All of this was done to Boilard without any anesthesia and she also had a plastic tube filled with molasses and olive oil stuck up her rectum to act as an enema. Another tube was shoved down her throat and cult members were instructed to blow into it. All of this was done because Boilard had complained of an upset stomach and Roch Thériault saw himself as a healer. After Solange Boilard died from her injuries, Roch Thériault, claiming that he could resurrect her, proceeded to drill a hole in her head in which he and other male cult m

Neil LaFave On this day in 1971, Wisconsin game warden Neil LaFave failed to show up for his own birthday party. His absence prompted his wife Peggy to notify the police, who found his truck in a remote swampy area along with a pool of blood and two .22-caliber shells. His headless body was found in a shallow grave. When authorities found his head, they saw that it had two bullet wounds caused by a .22 shotgun. While serving as a game warden for Wisconsin's Sensiba Wildlife Area, Neil LaFave had earned a reputation for being tough on poachers. Every poacher that he had ever arrested was questioned and anyone who didn't have a solid alibi was asked to take a polygraph test. Only one person refused, 21-year-old Brian Hussong. LaFave had arrested Hussong for poaching multiple times. After authorities obtained a warrant for a wiretap of Hussong's phones, they overheard a conversation between Brian Hussong and his grandmother Agnes, in which she assured Brian that his guns

Fatty Arbuckle, Virginia Rappe On this day in 1921, silent-film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was arrested for the rape and murder of aspiring actress Virginia Rappe. He was later acquitted, after three separate trials, but his career and reputation were irreparably damaged. Roscoe Arbuckle was born in 1887 in the town of Smith Center, Kansas. When he was two years old, his family moved to Santa Ana, California. His mother encouraged him to perform and by age eight he was singing on stage with the Frank Bacon Company. When he was twelve, his mother passed away, and his father, who never believed that Roscoe was actually his child, refused to support him. Roscoe started working odd jobs at a local hotel and was encouraged to compete in a talent show by a customer who had heard him sing. He won the competition and began his career in vaudeville which then led to starring roles in silent films. After appearing in Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops comedies, Roscoe Arbuckle for

On this day in 1977, Gerald Gallego met Charlene Williams at a poker club in Sacramento, California. Their meeting would spark a two-year run of sexual assault and murder until their capture in 1980. The killer couple was responsible for at least 10 deaths, that authorities know of. Charlene Adell Williams was born in 1956 in Stockton, California. By all accounts, she was a shy and intelligent child who was brought up by a very loving family. However, she began to experiment with drugs and alcohol in her teens and had two failed marriages by the time she met the 10-years-older Gerald Gallego, who had quite a different upbringing. His father had the distinction of being the first man executed in Mississippi's gas chamber, for murdering a cop during a prison escape. His mother was a sex worker. By the age of 13, Gallego had committed a sexual assault on a six-year-old girl. He had racked up 23 arrests for various crimes, including robbery, by the time he met Charlene. Despite th

It's been two years since Jesse Leopold was last seen alive. The 23-year-old left work at a meat processing plant in Jewell, Iowa, and a few days later his car was found in Ledges State Park with the keys still in the ignition. Rumors began to fly that Jesse had committed suicide in the park but his father is adamant that his son met with foul play. "There was no suicide in the park," says Jerry Leopold, "because a body surely would`ve turned up by now." Jerry Leopold believes that investigators have been dismissive of possible leads in his son's case because they've come from sources that authorities have deemed as less than credible. This has led him to start a Facebook page, "Finding Jesse Leopold" , that now has 9,000 followers. Jerry hopes that awareness will pressure authorities to act in his son's case and in the meantime, the Leopold family is raising money to hire a private investigator. A "Justice For Jesse" rally is pl