This Day In History

Aug 22 1992
FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi fires a rifle shot that kills unarmed Vicki Weaver, at the Ruby Ridge standoff. Horiuchi claimed he was trying to shoot another man in the back. The FBI also killed Weaver's fourteen year old son Sam, and the son's dog.

Aug 22 1995
David Gahan, lead singer of rock group Depeche Mode, was hospitalized after trying to commit suicide by slashing his wrist. Gahan was found in his Hollywood home with a two-inch slit in his wrist.

Aug 22 2001
A star circus performer known as Smiley the Clown was convicted of molesting and sodomizing his teenage assistant. Smiley AKA Christopher Bayer was convicted of third-degree sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a young clown. The boy's father became suspicious that Bayer might clowning around with his son and subsequently installed a hidden camera which captured the clown in the act.

This Day In History

Sep 20 1970
A jury in Miami, Florida finds vocalist Jim Morrison guilty of profanity and indecent exposure for taking his penis out at a Doors concert in Coconut Grove the previous year.

Sep 20 1973
A Beechcraft D-18 charter plane crashes into a tree near Natchitoches, Louisiana, killing singer/songwriter Jim Croce, his lead guitarist, and the entire flight crew.

Sep 20 1986
Officials in Latvia test the structural integrity of a 40-year-old bridge by driving 14 heavy vehicles containing gravel on top of it. A 250-foot span of the bridge collapses, killing ten people.

Sep 20 1989
A jury finds Richard Ramirez ("The Night Stalker") guilty of 43 counts, including 13 murders and assorted incidents of burglary, rape, and sodomy. Ramirez terrorized Southern California during a string of murders, sexual attacks and burglaries. He would scrawl a pentacle in his victim's blood on the wall of each crime scene.

Sep 20 1992
Nine months prior to the infamous Bobbitt incident, a Los Angeleno named Aurelia Macias castrates her husband with a pair of scissors. Macias is found innocent by reason of insanity, and the case never generates much publicity. [It turns out that such deeds are not uncommon in certain third world countries, notably Thailand and the Philippines.]