Scott McCabe

Published: Mon, May 6, 2013

On this day, May 7, in 1896, Dr. H.H. Holmes, the mass murderer who tortured and killed dozens of guests inside his Chicago hotel, was executed by hanging. Holmes admitted to 27 murders, but the total count could be more than 100, many during the 1893 World's Fair. Holmes built a block-long...

Scott McCabe

Published: Sun, May 5, 2013

On this day, May 6, in 1502, Sir James Tyrrell was beheaded after supposedly confessing to the murders of the Princes in the Tower. In 1483, the princes, Edward V of England and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, were sent to live in the Tower of London, a royal residence at...

Scott McCabe

Published: Sat, May 4, 2013

On this day, May 5, in 1932, police in D.C. arrested Gaston B. Means, the so-called Conman of the Century, after he persuaded a wealthy Washington heiress to give him $100,000 to help track down Charles Lindbergh's kidnapped child. Means was a former FBI agent who worked both sides of the law....

Scott McCabe

Updated: Tue, Apr 30, 2013

Janeth Ann Rowe disappeared on a cold, rainy day. The 50-year-old widow had been laid off from her job at Mobil eight months earlier and had taken a job at a Washington consulting company. She had was living with her daughter, Lisa Rowe, and her daughter's boyfriend on the 12000 block of Alton...

Scott McCabe

Published: Tue, Apr 30, 2013

On this day, May 1, in 1961, a passenger committed the first airline hijacking inside the United States. Antulio Ramirez Ortiz, 34, bought his ticket under the name Elpirata Cofrisi, a reference to a notorious pirate Roberto Cofresi. He used a steak knife and gun to force the Miami-to-Key West...

Scott McCabe

Published: Sun, Apr 28, 2013

On this day, April 29, in 1992, Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his New Jersey home by a former company security consultant. Arthur Seale, an ex-cop who was laid off by Exxon, and his wife snatched 57-year-old Reso from his driveway and shot him in the arm. They stuffed...

Scott McCabe

Published: Sat, Apr 27, 2013

On this day, April 28, in 1977, Christopher Boyce was convicted for selling secrets to the Russians in a case made into the movie "The Falcon and the Snowman," starring Timothy Hudson and Sean Pean. Boyce's father, a ex-FBI agent, got him a job at a California company that operated America's...