In 1929, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred. It was the result of the culmination of a gang war between known rivals Al “Scarface” Capone and George “Bugs” Moran. The events creating the massacre involved four men from Capone’s side entering the headquarters of Moran in Chicago. While there, Capone’s men lined up seven of Moran’s henchmen, shot and killed them all.

Moran was a career criminal in charge of the North Side gang in Chicago. This took place during the 1920s. He was at war with Capone over the control of the smuggling and trafficking that took place in the city. They both escaped several attempted murders by each other. When a $50,000 bounty was placed on Capone, he ordered Moran’s gang to be destroyed. It was Capone’s plan to take out Moran’s best men, in order to obtain control over the Chicago area.

On February 14, Capone sent four of his men dressed as police officers into Moran’s domain. Moran saw the police entering his establishment and waited outside thinking it was a raid. However, Capone’s men were killing his best men. Capone was never arrested for this crime and his men were never identified. However, this shoot out caused Moran to lose control of his territory and Capone was later sent to jail in 1931.

John Wayne Gacy was executed almost two decades ago for the torture, rape, and murder of over 30 young boys and men in the 1970s. Recently, two lawyers say they unearthed evidence that he did not act alone in the slayings. The two lawyers are partners in a Chicago law practice. After re-examining the circumstances surrounding the disappearances of a few of the victims, they determined from their investigation that Gacy must have had at least three accomplices. Today, they presented their findings to a Cook County Sheriff as well as a lead investigator and a former prosecutor.

The Sheriff’s office plans to follow up on the information from the lawyer’s, and if they find it to be valid, attempt to location the accomplices if they are still alive.  One reason the Sheriff is so willing to look into the case again is that there are still many loose ends years after Gacy’s execution. Seven victims were found that have yet to be identified, one was just identified in the last year when his mother came forward.

For further information on these recent developments go here:

here

Today, a Montgomery county judge sentenced Brittany Norwood to life without parole for the brutal murder of her Lululemon, an upscale yoga store co-worked Jayna Murray. Norwood was convicted in November of first-degree murder. At the sentencing, Norwood made a public apology to the family and friends of Murray. It was her first public statement since her arrest in March of 2011, one week after the murder. The judge was unaffected by Norwood’s remorse, he told her her crime “exemplified the worst of human nature.”

Her defense attorneys argued that she was capable of being rehabilitated and deserved an eventual chance at freedom. The judge did not agree. The prosecutors claimed that Norwood attacked Murray with at least five separate weapons, inflicting over 300 distinct wounds on her body.

Some of Murray’s family and friends also spoke at the sentencing, showing pictures of Murray as a child, and talking about how different their lives were without her in it, and the far-reaching effect of Norwood’s brutal violence. The Bethesda community was terrorized following the crime due to Norwoods original story which was that two men broke in and assaulted Murray and herself. Soon, forensic evidence began to reveal that her story had many holes and eventually pointed to her as the killer.

For more information, go here here

64 years ago today, January 30^th, Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu in New Delhi. He was known for being both a political and a social leader of the Indian independence movement.

He was born in 1869, to an Indian official and very religious mother. She exposed her son to a morally rigorous Indian religion, Jainism, which advocated nonviolence. He took an opportunity to study law in England in 1888 and shortly following he accepted a one-year contract in South Africa in 1893. This opened his eyes to racism and South African laws that restricted the rights of Indians. In this instance, he decided he needed to fight for justice and defend his rights as an Indian man. After the contract expired, he remained in South Africa and began a campaign against the legislation that denied Indians the right to vote. It was here that he formed the Natal Indian Congress and organized his first mass civil disobedience, called satyagraha. He was able to negotiate a compromise with the South African government after seven years.

Gandhi then returned to India in 1914 and began to live out his life spiritually.  He first supported Britain during the First World War; however, he launched a new satyagraha in response to the mandatory order that required all Indians to be drafted into the military. In 1920, he became known as the leader to the Indian movement for independence. When he reorganized the Indian National Congress, he created a boycott of all British goods. This was a problem once violence occurred and the satyahraha was called off. He was then arrested in 1922, found guilty of sedition, and imprisoned.

He was released in 1924 and began protesting against the Hindu-Muslim violence by leading an extended fast. He returned to his position in national politics in 1928 and launched a protest against the British salt tax in 1930. His most famous campaign included the march to the Arabian Sea, where people made their own salt from evaporating sea water. However, he was once again arrested with about 60,000 others.

He led another fast while in prison against the British government’s treatment of the “untouchables”– Indians in the lowest tier of the caste system, who were the impoverished and degraded.  However, in 1934 he left the Indian Congress Party to aid in India’s poor population.

Shortly following, World War II broke out. Gandhi got back into politics and asked for Indian cooperation with the British war effort, but in exchange for independence. The request was denied and the wish was to divide India into Hindu and Muslim groups. Gandhi chose to launch “Quit India”, a movement in 1942 that wanted complete British withdrawal. He was again imprisoned in 1944.

After 1945, a new government was put into place in Britain. Gandhi hoped for a unified India. During the war, the Muslim League grew in influence, and they disagreed with this unification. Following discussion, two separate states were created, India and Pakistan. This separation occurred on August 15, 1947. Soon bloody violence broke out between the Muslims and Hindus of India. Only a year later, he was fatally shot by a Hindu extremist while on a visit to a troubled area in New Delhi. He has been known as Mahatma or “the great soul” and has influenced many great characters, one in particular being Martin Luther King Jr.

The 4^th amendment states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” This text explains briefly about the necessary probable cause to obtain a warrant to validate the search. The Supreme Court has since debated on specific issues that may arise and ruled accordingly. The rulings are then used to debate future issues that may seem grey. In this case, a GPS tracking device was placed on a car in order to obtain information leading to a conviction.

A GPS tracking device can be used to monitor a person’s movements 24 hours a day, for extended periods of time. This information can be useful for convictions. The question is does this violate someone’s constitutional rights? The Supreme Court released their ruling yesterday to answer this question. Upon a unanimous decision, the court ruled that placing a GPS tracking device onto a car requires a warrant. Although all votes were unanimous, they were split upon their reasoning behind the choice.

This new ruling has reversed the cocaine-trafficking conviction of a nightclub owner in Washington, DC. Police attached a GPS tracking device to the car of Antoine Jones, back in 2005, while it was parked in a public parking lot. On the conspiracy to distribute cocaine, documentation of the traveling was used against him to win the conviction.

Justice Antonin Scalia stated that this is a physical intrusion by the government “for the purpose of obtaining information constitutes a search” explains his opinion on the ruling. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor also agree with this view of the ruling. On the other hand, the four other Justices, believe that the expectation of privacy was violated by the placing of a GPS tracking device. In each opinion, the outcome is the same, but the reasoning behind their choices are different.

This will change the use of GPS tracking devices for future cases. In order for the police to attach a GPS tracking device, they will be required to obtain a warrant. This will require probable cause, which is a reasonable belief by a third party person that a crime could be committed. A warrant is obtained by providing probable cause to a judge and getting them to sign off on the search you want to perform.

A search is a very grey area to discuss. There are two important factors pertaining to a search. First is an expectation of privacy. Do you expect privacy in your own vehicle? Of course you do. The second is that society is willing to protect that privacy. Do you expect privacy on public transportation? Well if society isn’t willing to protect that privacy then you don’t have a search. For example, if you are in your own vehicle you expect privacy and society is willing to protect that privacy, therefore a warrant is required to search your vehicle. However, if you are a passenger in someone else’s car, you might expect privacy but society isn’t willing to protect that privacy. Therefore, it is not considered a search and no warrant is required. This leads back to the discussion of the two viewpoints on the GPS decision. All nine justices agree that the placing of a tracking device is considered a search and will require a warrant. The only difference is the basis of the choice. Five justices agree that it’s an intrusion by the government to obtain such information, and is considered a search for that purpose. However, the other four justices agree that it’s actually a violation of your expectation to privacy by placing the tracking device and is also then considered a search.

Either way, a search warrant will now be required place a tracking device onto a vehicle. Once more instances of GPS tracking rise to the Supreme Court, exceptions will arise just as with other vehicle searches. But for now, the current ruling will stand.

 Colton Harris-Moore captured the attention of the public eye when he began his spree of burglaries and police chases in 2008.  Branded as the “Barefoot Bandit” Harris-Moore was known for leaving behind his calling card of bare-footprints at his victims’ establishments. Growing up in an abusive household, he started his unlawful career in his youth, stealing food for survival.  Immortalized in news stories Colton Harris-Moore was portrayed as a skilled, brilliant, evasive burglar able to outsmart the police at most every turn.  Stealing and crash landing five planes, stealing numerous cars, and sleeping in airplane hangers and portable toilets Colton Harris-Moore was able to avoid capture for nearly two years. However, Harris-Moore was apprehended in July 2010 in the Bahamas after a highly publicized plane crash and boat chase which ended his elusive run as the “Barefoot Bandit.”  He was recently sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for a list of charges that included boat, car, plane and firearm theft. Fox reportedly purchased the rights to his story for a future motion picture production at an estimated $1.3 million, which Harris-Moore submitted in a federal hearing to pay off some of the damage he inflicted in his two-year crime spree. The story of Colton Harris-Moore seems eerily familiar with many parallels to the story of Frank W. Abagnale and his notorious criminal activity in the 1960’s.

This Sunday, just before midnight, a man named Emmanuel Dugger was on his way home in Northeast Washington, DC when he saw something wrapped in a brown-and-red-striped towel on his neighbor’s stoop. Dugger said that since it was not moving, he thought it may have been a doll. He was unsure, so he went inside his house and got his fathers’ help.  The two men discovered that wrapped in the towel was a small baby girl, apparently less than a week old. She was naked, unconscious, and bleeding from both the nose and the mouth. The house where the infant was dropped off belonged to a schoolteacher who had children of his own.

The Dugger’s took the small baby inside their home and tried to warm her up as they called 911. DC Fire and Emergency Medical services personnel as well as police arrived soon. They took the baby to Children’s National Medical Center. At 2:21 a.m. on Monday, the unidentified infant was pronounced dead.

On Monday the DC Police reported that they are investigating the circumstances of the death of the baby and await autopsy results for further information.  A homicide supervisor with the metro police said they would like to speak to the parents of the child.

Police also said that because of the safe haven law enacted by the district in 2009, the mother could have dropped the infant off within the first seven days if she realized she couldn’t care for the infant. The safe haven law allows parents of unwanted babies who are less than one week old to be dropped off at police stations, fire stations, or hospitals. Unless the child has been abused, the parents do not risk prosecution by dropping their baby off.  For more information on safe haven laws, go here.  

For more information about the DC case, go here.

On January 17^th, 1950, in Boston, Massachusetts, 11 men stole more than $2 million dollars from a Brinks Armored Car depot.  The men believed to have committed the perfect crime and were not caught until January 1956, just days before the statue of limitations for the theft would have expired. The men planned for 18 months to determine when the most money could be stolen from the car. Anthony “Fats” Pino was given the title of the robbery’s mastermind. He was able to steal the plans to the depot’s alarm system and return them before anyone noticed. Dressed similarly to the Brinks employees, the men entered the depot with copies of the keys and tied up many of the surprised employees. 14 canvas bags were filled with more than $2.7 million dollars, which was the largest robbery in history up until that time. Since barely any clues were discovered at the scene and no one was hurt during the time of the robbery, the men created the perfect getaway. They promised to stay out of trouble and not touch the money for 6 years in order to have the statue of limitations run out. However, one man changed their fate. Joseph “Specs” O’Keefe was sentenced to prison for another burglary. While in prison, he threatened to expose his accomplices if they didn’t provide him with his share of the money. To silence O’Keefe, the group sent a hit man to kill him in prison. However, the hit man was caught before he was able to complete the task and a wounded O’Keefe then made a deal with the FBI to testify against the other robbers.  8 of the 11 men were caught, convicted and given life sentences; however, two died before they could go to trial. Only a small portion of the money was recovered, and it is believed to be hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

 For more on the story, go here.

Diane Schuler was both drunk and high. Her blood alcohol content—the amount of alcohol in her bloodstream, and therefore affecting her at the time of the collision—was found to be .19 percent, equal to about ten shots of hard liquor, and still more alcohol was found in her stomach, not yet digested. Enough THC—a chemical found in marijuana—was also found to suggest she used the drug less than an hour before her death. Further inspection of the wreckage of the minivan also revealed a broken vodka bottle.

The dangers of alcohol use when combined with driving are obviously well-known, and have been very thoroughly researched. Studies have been conducted to find toxicological methods of determining whether someone was impaired by alcohol while driving. This means we know that a certain amount of alcohol in the system—particularly the blood—impairs a person’s ability to drive safely. The effect on driving ability of other drugs, including marijuana, is less well known and less thoroughly studied. Whether someone was impaired by drugs before death often requires more than just a report showing its presence in the body, or even how much was present. Thus the presence of marijuana in Diane Schuler’s system says more about her lifestyle than her state during the crash, while the amount of alcohol most easily explains why she drove for over a mile the wrong way on a highway.

Friends and family were shocked at the findings, saying they had no idea she had a drinking problem. She appeared to be a devoted mother, which only highlights the tragedy that her 2-year-old daughter was killed in the crash. Mothers everywhere questioned the state of mind of a woman who would get behind the wheel so heavily intoxicated when children were in the back seat.

A documentary about Diane Schuler was made last year, including interviews with those close to her and a forensic psychologist, exploring the outwardly successful life that came to such a tragic end.

For more on the story, go here or here. For more on toxicology, check out the Museum’s Crime Library.

Drew Peterson was a police sergeant in Illinois for 30 years, but is now suspected of killing two of his wives. His first two marriages ended in mere divorce, although suggestions have been made of abuse in at least one of those relationships, but his third marriage ended in both divorce and death, when Savio was found dead in a bathtub. At the time Stacy Peterson—Drew’s soon-to-be fourth wife—alibi’d  him and Savio’s death was ruled an accident. It was his marriage to Stacy that eventually landed him under suspicion, when her disappearance in 2007 prompted a reexamination of Savio’s death. Exhumation and autopsy of her body revealed a homicidal manner of death that was staged to look like an accident.

In 2009 Peterson was indicted for first degree murder for deliberately drowning Kathleen Savio. After his arrest his bail was set at $20 million, a sum he was unable to cover, and he remains in jail.

Peterson objects to the Lifetime movie, and has attempted to stop it from being released. He maintains his innocence in Kathleen’s death and Stacy’s disappearance, going so far as to demand an apology from the police for declaring Stacy missing and presumed dead. His trial has been delayed due to hearings regarding evidence admissibility, particularly hearsay evidence in Stacy’s disappearance.

For more on the story, go here.

When I began my forensic science training and education many years ago, one topic was voiced again and again: Britain’s Forensic Science Services was to be admired, modeled, and respected.  The agency’s quality of work was something to strive for as the FSS has led the world in crime scene management and techniques for thirty years.  For example, led by Sir Alec Jeffreys, the FSS pioneered DNA profiling.  I’ve often dreamed of what it would be like to work for them.  Unfortunately, that dream has recently been dashed for many people around the world.  In December of 2010, the British government decided to disband the service, opting to contract out to private labs.  They claimed that the upkeep for this public sector service was creating a monthly loss of £2 million, and that private labs were more cost effective and time efficient.  Three of the initial seven labs that once served England and Wales have already been closed since 2009, with a loss of about 750 forensic personnel.

What started the public versus private sector forensic laboratories debate was a document called the McFarland Review.  This 2002 formal review of the FSS was used to analyze the following points: The role that the FSS plays in the criminal justice system, the need to deliver high quality and cost-effective forensic science services, and the future organizational status of the FSS.  The Review formally suggested to the British government that the FSS should be turned into a government-run private sector business with the ultimate goal of contracting out to private businesses altogether.

Those of us with any involvement in police services and forensic science understand the gravity of evidentiary support in criminal cases.  Many agencies throughout the United States have had to deal with massive backlogs due to lack of funds and personnel.  Slowly, many agencies are clearing their way through the evidence, often with a joint effort between public and private forensic labs.  Now imagine this same scenario for the FSS.  Former FSS scientist Peter Gill said the following about the situation in Britain: “I have moved to Oslo, Norway where I am a professor of forensic genetics.  I moved because the position in the UK is so dire.  I worked there until three years ago. I left because I could not see a future. As far as I am concerned there is not much to save. It is five years too late. A lot of good scientists have already left because they see absolutely no future in the UK.”

Meanwhile, the other side of the debate says that the closure of the FSS is necessary.  The claim is that the FSS does have its own faults that cannot be overlooked.  Aside from the cost and upkeep of labs and personnel, the agency does not necessarily offer everything the criminal justice system needs.  For example, some say that the FSS is not growing along with the changing times.  It is said that they have failed mainly in the areas of digital forensics, which is a rapidly developing field.

Unless the situation changes, the full closure of Britain’s FSS is expected to be complete by March of 2012.  Roughly 1,600 forensic personnel will either be unemployed, or their talents lost to another agency.

 For more on this issue, go here or here.

In many minds, however, the question remains: was Heirens truly guilty? He was convicted, he even confessed, but accusations of coercion and faulty evidence muddy the waters. The forensic evidence included a bloody fingerprint at the home of another murder, believed to be a burglary gone wrong, and handwriting analyses of a message written in lipstick and a ransom note found at the Degnan home. For both types of evidence, however, different experts–and even different statements by each expert–seemed to disagree about whether they led to Heirens.

The courts and the newspapers of the time all found Heirens guilty without question. The media at the time condemned him from the beginning, and investigators seemed determined to prove them right, apparently drugging teenaged Heirens with sodium pentathol without his consent. Whether he actually confessed during his drugged interrogation is still in question, as the transcript cannot be found.

Heirens was a student at University of Chicago with a record of burglary–one of the few aspects of the case not in question is his history of sneaking into homes and stealing money and personal items. His arrest occurred during one such outing.

Looking into the case now is difficult at best–the reliability of newspaper accounts at the time is extremely questionable, and accounts of the investigation itself appear to be inconsistent. Recent accounts of the case tend to come from authors who feel strongly about the case, leading to conflicting accounts convinced of either his guilt or innocence. Heirens himself still claims innocence, saying he confessed out of fear of capital punishment, and hopes to one day go free.

For a more detailed account of the case and the evidence, go here.

Since Friday morning 52 fires have been linked, mostly set in vehicles. Many of them spread to homes, endangering countless lives and causing millions in property damage. No more fires fitting the profile have been set since Monday, however, when Harry Burkhart, a man police hope was acting alone, was detained.

The investigation is still underway, so Burkhart has not yet been charged with the majority of the fires, but he and his van are both consistent with witness descriptions connecting them to the fires. For more on the story, go here.

            On May 1^st, 2010, twenty four year old prostitute Shannan Gilbert went missing after a meeting with one of her clients.  On December 13^th, 2011, her skeletal remains were finally discovered by police in Long Island, New York.  Shannan’s disappearance started a massive search that resulted in the discovery of ten other homicide victims found in Oak Beach.  Only five of the ten victims have been officially identified.  Of the ten victims, eight were women, one was a man, and one was only a toddler.  It is believed that the adult victims were prostitutes, and the toddler was proven through DNA to be the child of one of those female victims.  The male victim was found wearing female clothing, so it is believed that he was also involved in the sex industry.  Deemed the largest homicide investigation in Long Island, New York’s history, the murders span fifteen years and several miles of Oak Beach.  Local authorities believe that these murders were at the hands of a lone serial killer.

            While Shannan Gilbert’s death has not been proven to be at the hands of the killer, it is believed that she died while getting stuck in the thick marsh along the beach.  She was apparently running away from someone shortly after a sexual encounter, possibly the serial killer.  The other female victims found were also in their twenties, and appeared to be strangled and dismembered, with their bodies and body parts wrapped in burlap sacks.  Initially it was believed that two killers were involved, along with theories that the killer had law enforcement knowledge.  Rumors surfaced that two NYPD officers were being considered as suspects, but this information is being denied by NYPD officials.

            The family of one victim, named Melissa Barthelemy, received frightening phone calls from a man using Melissa’s cell phone shortly after she went missing.  In what totaled seven phone calls altogether, the man would speak to Melissa’s sister Amanda, describing what he did to Melissa, and what he was going to do to Amanda next.  Melissa was found a year and a half later after the last phone call.  These taunting and evil phone calls have led Jim Clemente, a former FBI criminal profiler, to believe that the murderer takes pleasure in hurting his victims.  Clemente states “That gives me an idea that he is a sadist.  That would be reflected in his relationships and jobs.  He is the one who laughs when a cat gets run over or a kid falls off his bike.  He likes the suffering of others, and he really likes it when he can cause it or witness it.”

            A profile of the serial killer has been developed by the police agencies, and it is quoted by the New York Times as the following: “He is most likely a white male in his mid-20s to mid-40s. He is married or has a girlfriend. He is well educated and well spoken. He is financially secure, has a job and owns an expensive car or truck. He may have sought treatment at a hospital for poison ivy infection. As part of his job or interests, he has access to, or a stockpile of, burlap sacks.”  There is a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the Long Island serial killer, the largest in the history of the Suffolk County authorities.

For more on this story, go here.

The identities of the deceased have yet to be released, and investigators are still working on finding out what motivated this nightmarish turn during an apparently friendly family gathering. The shooting—which involved only adults—occurred right after presents were opened Christmas day.

For more on this story, go here.

Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the arrest of Richard Kuklinski, a New Jersey contract killer known as the Ice Man. If you believe the extensive interviews he gave after his arrest, Kuklinski was responsible for hundreds of deaths before he was caught in 1986, all while keeping his wife and three children oblivious to his other life.

The name “Ice Man” came from his method of concealing the actual time of death of his victims from law enforcement by freezing the bodies long-term in an industrial freezer, then thawing and dumping them so they looked like they’d been killed recently. His deceit of law enforcement didn’t stop there—Kuklinski escaped the notice of law enforcement for many years by varying his techniques. His use of different weapons, of different MOs, made his victims hard to connect to each other, and made it hard for a pattern to emerge.

Eventually it was Kuklinski’s pride in his own methods that ensured his conviction, when he bragged to an undercover ATF agent about using cyanide to carry out some of his contracts. Those conversations were recorded.

Once investigators decided they had enough evidence to make an arrest, they set up a police road block near Kuklinski’s home, and arrested him on numerous charges, including five murders. That was 25 years ago today. In 2006, twenty years after his arrest, Kuklinski died of natural causes.

Kuklinski was interviewed extensively after being caught, and openly discussed not only his crimes, but his feelings (or rather, his lack thereof) about killing and his upbringing. He was severely abused as a child, and has said he regrets never killing his own father for that abuse. Many of the killings he confessed to were unverified, so his claims should be taken with a grain of salt, but watching the interviews shows a lack of emotion during detailed discussions of murder that simply can’t be faked.

Hours of these interviews can be viewed online, and multiple documentaries were made from them. Some of those interviews are available here and here.

Any one statistic—such as the decrease in actual executions from 2010’s 46 to this year’s 43—may mean little, but the statistics reported by the Death Penalty Information Center show a decrease across the board. Illinois’ abolition means the number of states with the death penalty has decreased, and the number of death sentences handed out dropped below 100 for the first time since 1976. Longer term statistics show significant drops since 2000 as well, and opinion polls suggest these trends reflect an overall drop in public support for capital punishment.

Bear in mind that this decrease in support may say little about America’s feelings about capital punishment as a theory. Some of the loss in support is likely due to the cost of the death penalty, some due to a lack of confidence in the courts to apply it fairly and spare the innocent. Some prefer the alternative sentence of life without parole, deeming it sufficient to keep murderers off the streets.

Whatever the reasoning, discussion of the death penalty tends to reveal strong opinions for one side or another. Discussions center on anything from political reasoning to religious beliefs, with social theories or financial considerations quoted by either side—these theories haven’t changed significantly. The statistics described here simply suggest an overall shift in the balance of these opinions that parallels the decrease in instances where capital punishment is actually applied.

For the complete report from the Death Penalty Information Center, go here.

On the night of December 22^nd 1978, a grisly discovery was made in the crawl space of the Chicago home of John Wayne Gacy.  Twenty nine bodies in all were excavated from the property of the “Killer Clown,” with four others found discarded at a nearby river.  Gacy admitted to raping and murdering local males over a period of about six years, with the most recent victim being killed just ten days prior to Gacy’s arrest.  For his horrific crimes, Gacy was convicted of murder, and finally executed in May of 1994.  The man who once dressed up as a clown for children’s parties, violently took the lives of 33 men and young boys.  While Gacy was ultimately brought to justice, at least eight of his victims had yet to be identified, thus leaving cases unsolved.  Many families and friends of local missing persons in Chicago have been left wondering if their loved one has fallen prey to Gacy’s murderous rampage.  For excavated Victim #19, one such family has finally found their closure.

On October 27^th 1976, nineteen year old William George Bundy was reported missing by his family in the Chicago area.  William never returned home, and his body was never officially found.  According to his family, missing person cases during that time were not aggressively pursued.  Two years later, the Gacy murder case was blown wide open, and given worldwide notoriety.  The Bundy family suspected that William was a victim of Gacy’s, but had no way to identify the body.  DNA technology was not available as it is today, and all dental records had been unfortunately destroyed by William’s dentist.  Once involved in construction, William’s family surmised that he must have had contact with Gacy, who was also a construction worker.

Fueled by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s renewed effort to identify the remaining eight victims in the Gacy murders, William’s sister, Laura, recently supplied her DNA sample to authorities.  Laura had no proof of her brother’s link to the infamous murder case, but she could not shake the feeling that Gacy was involved in William’s disappearance.  Thanks to improvements in DNA technology, genetic testing was able to confirm that Victim #19 was indeed her long missing brother.  William disappeared when Laura was only fifteen, and over thirty years later, she has found the brother she loved and missed.

Currently, there are still seven unidentified victims that were found on John Wayne Gacy’s property.  While William Bundy’s missing persons case can now be closed, Sheriff Tom Dart wants to bring that same closure to other families.  Whether some families have simply moved on, or never thought to link their missing loved one to Gacy, the authorities are asking people to still come forward and provide DNA samples anyway.  In the case of William Bundy, his mother never came forward to provide a DNA sample prior to her death because, as Laura said, she was in denial of that possibility.  Sheriff Dart acknowledges that it is not a comfortable situation to be associated with the infamous Gacy murders, but believes it will ultimately bring closure to friends and families of any missing persons.  More importantly, it will allow people to lay their loved ones to rest, and finally close the chapter on John Wayne Gacy for good.

For more on the story, go here, and stay tuned for news on the Crime Museum’s upcoming exhibit on John Wayne Gacy!

In 2007, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history occurred at Virginia Tech, killing 33 people.  Today, another shooting occurred, resulting in the death of two people.  A campus police officer was shot after stopping a vehicle in the school’s parking lot.  The suspect, described as a white male wearing gray sweatpants, a gray hat with a neon green brim, a maroon hoodie, and a backpack, proceeded to run to another nearby parking lot where another victim was later found.  Police forces immediately responded with caravans of SWAT vehicles, armed officers walking around campus, and police cars patrolling the area.   The campus remains on lockdown as the suspect has not been found.  Students are told to “seek shelter or stay where you are” from alerts sent out by the school.