Murders, Attempted Murders and Homicides

Subterms

    Latest story

    138 Shares36 Views

    Human Torso Found in Suitcase in the East River Near Manhattan

    by

    A New York City ferry captain saw the luggage and called the Police Department’s Harbor Unit. The authorities have not identified the remains.A New York City ferry captain on Wednesday discovered a suitcase drifting in the East River that turned out to have a human torso inside, according to an internal police report.The captain, who was aboard the vessel Susan B. Anthony, saw the luggage floating in the water late Wednesday afternoon near Governors Island, a largely recreational area just off the southern tip of Manhattan, according to the report.Unable to fish it out of the river, the captain called the Police Department’s Harbor Unit for help, the report said. Officers from the unit pulled the suitcase from the water at around 5:30 p.m. and, after seeing what was inside, brought it to Pier 16 on the East Side of Manhattan, about a quarter-mile south of the Brooklyn Bridge, the police said.The authorities have not been able to identify the remains. A spokeswoman for the city medical examiner said the office would perform an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of the person’s death.Reached on Thursday, the ferry captain declined to comment.The discovery of body parts in New York City’s waters is uncommon, but not unheard-of. A human head was found in Jamaica Bay in Queens last May. Then, in August, other human remains began to wash up on the shore of Brooklyn Bridge Park, just steps from its early-20th-century carousel. Over the course of several weeks, officers found a human skull, leg fragments, vertebrae and two feet inside a pair of construction boots, according to another internal police report.News reports of such discoveries date back more than a century. In 1900, the body of a longshoreman was found floating in the East River just below East Ninth Street in Manhattan, according to an Oct. 1 article published that year in The Evening World, a turn-of-the-century newspaper.In another case, authorities in 1967 pulled a man’s body from the Hudson River, according to a New York Daily News article from Aug. 19 of that year. The police later identified the man as 62-year-old Joseph Robert Juliano, who had Mafia ties. More

    More stories

    • 163 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Man Gets 100 Years in Prison for His Role in 2020 Shooting Spree

      by

      The rampage on Thanksgiving Day killed one person and injured several others in Nevada and Arizona.A Texas man has been sentenced to at least 100 years in prison for his part in a two-state shooting spree on Thanksgiving Day in 2020 that killed one person and wounded several others across Nevada and Arizona.The rampage began in the early hours of Nov. 26, 2020, when the man, Christopher McDonnell, 32, and two others started opening fire from their moving car at motorists outside Las Vegas in what prosecutors called a “mobile mass shooting.” Roughly 10 hours after it began, the spree ended when the car crashed along a highway near Bouse, Ariz., after a shootout with the police.On Friday, Mr. McDonnell, of Tyler, Texas, listened in a courtroom in Clark County, Nev., before his sentencing as victims and their relatives described how the eruption of random shootings that day had upended their lives.“I struggle every day,” said Kevin Mendiola, whose 22-year-old son, Kevin Mendiola Jr., was shot and killed during the spree outside a 7-Eleven in Henderson, Nev., about 15 miles southeast of Las Vegas.Mr. McDonnell pleaded guilty but mentally ill to nearly two dozen felony charges in October, including first-degree murder and multiple counts of firing a weapon at an occupied vehicle. All of the charges were filed in Nevada, and he does not face any in Arizona.At the hearing on Friday, Mr. McDonnell, his face tattooed to resemble a skull, read from a brief statement: “I take full responsibility for my own wrongdoings, and I appreciate the courts for administering justice.” Mr. McDonnell’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      The Menendez Brothers Are a Test for Society and the Courts

      by

      Recently, a Los Angeles judge delayed a hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez in their bid to be resentenced for the murder of their parents 35 years ago. Renewed interest in the brothers’ case, fueled by Netflix’s recent docudrama series and documentary on the brothers, has drawn celebrity advocates to call for their release, alongside an army of TikTok accounts. Unfortunately for the brothers, social advocacy rarely corresponds to judicial change.The Menendez brothers shot and killed their parents in August of 1989, when Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21. For months, the murders went unsolved, and the police believed that perhaps the parents had been victims of a mafia hit. During that time, the brothers went on a spending spree, buying cars, private tennis lessons, even a restaurant. When the truth finally emerged, the world was shocked. How could two young men born into privilege squander not only their futures but also quite possibly their lives?There was a televised trial, the men sobbing on the stand, detailing years of abuse at the hands of their father. Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, coercion, violence. And their mother — where was she in all of this? Drinking away the woes of her family, failing in her sacred duty to protect her children.The trial ended in hung juries, and Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial. So the men were tried again in 1995, and this time it was not televised. Judge Weisberg seemed to say enough with the shenanigans and less of this messy talk of abuse. He barred much of the evidence of the sexual perversions of Lyle and Erik’s father, Jose Menendez. The trial ended in convictions for each brother, and sentences of life without parole.I was in college and then graduate school as the fate of the Menendez brothers played out. Their lurid travails were a sort of background static for the orderly world in which I lived, attending classes, struggling with rent and groceries. What did rich kids have to be so upset over?Like so many people, I now understand more of how abuse and trauma play out in a person’s life. I understand that a male victim of abuse feels the pain no less than a woman, a child even more so. What I question is whether judges have absorbed this new understanding of abuse, and whether a court today would reach a different verdict.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      Police Have Luigi Mangione’s Notebook Describing Rationale for UHC CEO Killing

      by

      “It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,” said a sentence in a spiral notebook belonging to the man charged with murdering Brian Thompson.Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with killing Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthCare at a company investors’ day, was found with a notebook that detailed plans for the shooting, according to two law enforcement officials.The notebook described going to a conference and killing an executive, the officials said.“What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,” was one passage written in the notebook, the officials said.The shooting occurred early Dec. 4 as Mr. Thompson arrived early at a Hilton hotel on West 54th Street to prepare for the UnitedHealthcare investors’ meeting.Mr. Mangione, 26, was captured Monday after a tip from an employee at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., who was alerted by a customer who recognized him. Mr. Mangione, who faces a murder charge and has been denied bail, is fighting extradition to New York, which starts a process that could take weeks. “He is contesting it,” his lawyer, Thomas Dickey, said on Tuesday.The suspect was found with a ghost gun, a suppressor and false identification cards similar to those believed to have been used by the killer, officials said. In addition to the false identification cards, he was carrying identification with his real name.The authorities also found a 262-word handwritten note with him, which begins by appearing to take responsibility for the murder. The note, which officials described as a manifesto, also mentioned the existence of a notebook.The suspect saw the killing as a “symbolic takedown,” according to a New York Police Department internal report that detailed parts of a three-page manifesto found with him at the time of his arrest. The report added that the suspect “likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices” and expressed concern that others might see him as a “martyr and an example to follow.”The recovery of the notebook was first reported by CNN.This is a developing story and will be updated. More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Georgia Man Charged With 1985 Murders of Couple in Church

      by

      Erik Sparre was arrested earlier this week, more than two decades after Dennis Perry was wrongly sent to prison for the crime.Nearly 40 years after Harold and Thelma Swain were shot to death in a small church in Camden County, Ga., and after a man was wrongly sent to prison for two decades over the crime, the authorities arrested another man who they believe murdered the Swains.The man, Erik Kristensen Sparre, 61, of Waynesville, Ga., was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault in the 1985 deaths of the Swains, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced on Monday.Dennis Perry, who is now 62, was convicted of two counts of homicide in 2003 but he was released in 2020 after his conviction was overturned, in part because reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution cast doubt on an alibi that Mr. Sparre had used when he was investigated after the killings.Mr. Sparre was arrested in Waynesville, about 90 miles south of Savannah, at a store near his home without incident, according to the Bureau of Investigation. He was booked into the Camden County Jail. The Bureau of Investigation declined to comment further.After a Bible study session in 1985, Harold Swain, 66, and Thelma Swain, 63, a married couple, were killed in the vestibule of the Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Waverly, Ga., about 14 miles southeast of Waynesville.Investigators contacted Mr. Perry after receiving a tip, learned that he had been working hundreds of miles away in the Atlanta area around the time of the killings, and cleared him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Reaction to C.E.O. Killing Exposes Frustrations With Health System

      by

      The killing of the UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson has mesmerized a deeply polarized nation that shares a collective frustration over dealings with health insurance companies.On social media, some people have cheered for the gunman and expressed little remorse over the death of Mr. Thompson, 50, a father of two boys from Maple Grove, Minn., with some painting him as the villain in a national health care crisis.And now that the identity of the suspect, Luigi Mangione, 26, has been revealed and more photos of him have emerged, he is being defended or even applauded in some circles. That adulation reflects public anger over health care, said Nsikan Akpan, managing editor for Think Global Health, a publication that explores health issues at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The UHC killing and the social media response stem from people feeling helpless over health coverage and income inequality,” he said. The topic is so often ignored by American public officials, he said, that voters have stopped listing it as a top priority.“A targeted killing won’t solve those problems, and neither will condoning it,” he added.Experts who reviewed the flood of social media posts expressing support for Mr. Mangione said that while it can be difficult to assess the provenance of posts, none have the telltale signs of an “influence campaign” by a foreign entity.“People are legitimately actually pissed off at the health care industry, and there is some kind of support for vigilante justice,” said Tim Weninger, a computer science professor at Notre Dame and expert in social media and artificial intelligence. “It’s organic.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Protests in Kenya Demand Action Over a Spate of Brutal Murders of Women

      by

      Almost 100 women have been killed in the span of three months, the police say. Rights groups want President William Ruto to declare femicide a national crisis.A university student was murdered, and her body dumped in a field. A long-distance Olympic runner died after she was severely burned in a gasoline attack. And a mother, her daughter and her niece were tortured and then killed, their mutilated bodies disposed of in different locations.A series of brutal murders in Kenya in recent months, documented by the police and human rights groups, has stunned a nation where anger over violence against women and girls has prompted nationwide protests. Calls are intensifying for the authorities to do more to stop the killings.The police say that 97 women were murdered from August to October this year, a staggering toll even in Kenya, where femicide has long been endemic. In July, sacks containing the body parts of women believed to have been murdered by a serial killer were discovered in a dump in the capital, Nairobi.On Tuesday, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Nairobi, demanding that the government take action to stop the killings. Smaller protests also took place in other towns and cities across the country, human rights groups said.In Nairobi, police tear-gassed demonstrators who had been chanting, “Stop killing women” and, “Women have rights, too.” At least three activists, including the executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, were detained, according to a statement by several rights groups.The outpouring of rage reflected the helplessness felt by many women in Kenya, and the desire to get justice for those who have been killed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Luigi Mangione, Suspect in CEO Killing, Withdrew From a Life of Privilege and Promise

      by

      The suspect, Luigi Mangione, was an Ivy League tech graduate from a prominent Maryland family who in recent months had suffered physical and psychic pain.Luigi Mangione, the online version of him, was an Ivy League tech enthusiast who flaunted his tanned, chiseled looks in beach photos and party pictures with blue-blazered frat buddies.He was the valedictorian of a prestigious Baltimore prep school who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Pennsylvania and served as a head counselor at a pre-college program at Stanford University.With his credentials and connections, he could have ended up one day as an entrepreneur or the chief executive of one of his family’s thriving businesses. Instead, investigators suspect, he took a different path.The police now believe that Mr. Mangione, 26, is the masked gunman who calmly took out a pistol equipped with a silencer on a Midtown Manhattan street last week and assassinated Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare. He was arrested in Altoona, Pa., on Monday after an employee at a McDonald’s recognized him and called the police. Officers said they found him with fake identification, a weapon similar to the one seen in video of the killing, and a manifesto decrying the health care industry.Mr. Mangione, who faces a variety of charges related to the gun and fake ID, has not been charged in connection with the killing. But the authorities have said that he is a “person of interest” in the killing, and in the hours since his apprehension his baffling journey from star student to murder suspect has begun to come into focus.Mr. Mangione was in regular contact with friends and family until about six months ago when he suddenly and inexplicably stopped communicating with them. He had been suffering the effects of a painful back injury, friends said, but then went dark, prompting anxious inquiries from relatives to his friends: Had anyone heard from him?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      How Photographs Led Police to Person of Interest in UnitedHealthcare CEO Killing

      by

      In the end, it was the simple act of distributing photos — not sophisticated facial recognition technology — that led the police to a man they are calling a “person of interest” in the fatal shooting of a health care executive in Midtown Manhattan last week.After the shooting of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, last Wednesday, the New York Police Department began releasing a steady drip of images. The photos, taken together, appeared to show a young man with light skin and dark features. One photo — crucially — showed his entire face.Even as the police recovered what they called an “enormous amount” of forensic evidence and video, it was that specific photo that led to the arrest of a man on Monday morning about 300 miles from New York City, according to Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives.Just after 9 a.m. on Monday, in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., an employee spotted a man who looked like the person in the photos, and then called the police, who detained the man for questioning.The man, whom the police identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, of Maryland, was carrying a gun, a silencer and some kind of manifesto, the police said.Chief Kenny said that it was hard to credit the break in the case to any one moment or piece of evidence, but that if he had to, “it would be the release of that photograph to the media.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More