On March 12, 2003, 15 year-old Elizabeth Smart was found alive, nine months after being abducted from her family’s home. Her alleged kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell, a drifter who the Smarts had briefly employed at their house, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, were charged with the kidnapping, as well as burglary and sexual assault. In the middle of the night on June 5, 2002, Elizabeth was taken at knifepoint from her bedroom in her parents’ house in Salt Lake City. Her captor had broken into the house undetected after cutting open the screen of an open window. Elizabeth’s younger sister, Mary Katherine, with whom she shared her bedroom, was the only witness to the kidnapping. Mary Katherine did not inform her parents until two hours after the incident, frightened that the man might return for her if she called out to alert them. She was initially unable to identify her sister’s attacker. Elizabeth was taken to a crude campsite in the woods just three miles from her family’s home, close enough that she could actually hear the voices of searchers calling for her in the days following her abduction. There, it is alleged that Mitchell, who called himself Emmanuel and professed to be a prophet with his own Mormon sect, sexually assaulted the teenager.

After two months, Smart, who was forced to wear disguises was taken to Salt Lake City and appeared in public, but was not recognized. From there, Mitchell and Barzee took Smart to San Diego, where they lived at a series of campsites. Finally, the group returned to the Salt Lake City area and several people recognized Elizabeth. They reported their sightings to police, who immediately followed up on the lead and pulled over a car carrying Mitchell, Barzee and Smart. Most of the early police investigation into Elizabeth’s disappearance had focused on another suspect, Richard Ricci, who had also once worked as a handyman in the Smart home. Serving time in prison for a parole violation during the investigation, Ricci denied having any involvement in the kidnapping. The trail grew cold after Ricci died in prison of a brain hemorrhage on August 30. Finally in early February 2003, Mary Katherine Smart told her parents she believed another former worker at the Smart home, who called himself Emmanuel, might be Elizabeth’s captor and the Smarts relayed the information to authorities. On February 3, believing that the police were not taking Mary Katherine’s tip seriously, the Smart family called their own press conference to release a sketch of Emmanuel. Several days later, a man contacted police to inform them that Emmanuel was his disturbed stepfather, Brian David Mitchell, and that he believed him to indeed be capable of kidnapping. In the days before finding Elizabeth, the Smarts continued to criticize police for failing to devote enough energy to following up on the lead.

When found, Elizabeth initially denied to police that she was in fact the missing girl. Undeterred, police took her and her captors in separate cars to the Salt Lake City Police Department, where she was reunited with her family. On March 18, 2003, after Mitchell and Barzee were formally charged, Mitchell’s attorney announced that his client considered taking Elizabeth a call from God. It has since been reported that Mitchell believed Smart was his wife and that the young girl may have suffered from Stockholm syndrome during the nine-month ordeal, answering questions as to why she did not try to escape even though it seemed she had been presented with several opportunities. Police later discovered that Mitchell had also attempted to kidnap Smart’s cousin several weeks after taking Elizabeth and added that crime to the list of charges against him. Mitchell was declared mentally unfit to stand trial in July 2005 and December 2006; Barzee, who filed for divorce from Mitchell in December 2004, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for her role in the kidnapping in November 2009. On May 25, 2011, after being ruled competent to stand trial in March 2010 and convicted that December, Mitchell was sentenced to life in federal prison.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.michaelthomasbarry.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On March 10, 1969, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, King was fatally wounded by a sniper’s bullet while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Motel Lorraine. That evening, a rifle was found on the sidewalk beside a rooming house one block from the Lorraine Motel.

Over the next several weeks, the rifle, eyewitness reports, and fingerprints on the weapon all implicated a single suspect: escaped convict James Earl Ray. A two-bit criminal, Ray escaped a Missouri prison in April 1967 while serving a sentence for robbery. In May 1968, a massive manhunt for Ray began. The FBI eventually determined that he had obtained a Canadian passport under a false identity, which at the time was relatively easy. On June 8, Scotland Yard investigators arrested Ray at a London airport. Ray was trying to fly to Belgium, with the eventual goal, he later admitted, of reaching Rhodesia. Extradited to the U.S., Ray stood before a Memphis judge in March 1969 and pled guilty to King’s murder in order to avoid the electric chair. Three days later, he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming that he was innocent of King’s assassination and had been set up as a patsy in a larger conspiracy. He claimed that in 1967 a mysterious man named “Raoul” had approached him and recruited him into a gunrunning enterprise. On April 4, 1968, however, he realized that he was to be the fall guy for the King assassination and fled for Canada. Ray’s motion was denied, as were his dozens of other requests for a trial over the next 29 years.

Over the years, the assassination has been reexamined by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the Shelby County, Tennessee, district attorney’s office, and three times by the U.S. Justice Department. All of these investigations have ended with the same conclusion: James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King. The House committee acknowledged that a low-level conspiracy might have existed, involving one or more accomplices to Ray, but uncovered no evidence to definitively prove this theory. In addition to the mountain of evidence against him, such as his fingerprints on the murder weapon and admitted presence at the rooming house on April 4, Ray had a definite motive in assassinating King: hatred. According to his family and friends, he was an outspoken racist who told them of his intent to kill Martin Luther King. He died in 1998.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On March 6, 1951, the espionage trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg began in New York. The couple was accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. The Rosenberg’s, and co-defendant, Morton Sobell, were defended by the father and son team of Emanuel and Alexander Bloch. The prosecution included Roy Cohn, best known for his association with Senator Joseph McCarthy. David Greenglass was a machinist at Los Alamos, where America developed the atomic bomb. Julius Rosenberg, his brother-in-law, was a member of the American Communist Party and was fired from his government job during the Red Scare. According to Greenglass, Rosenberg asked him to pass highly confidential instructions on making atomic weapons to the Soviet Union. These materials were transferred to the Russians by Harry Gold, an acquaintance of Greenglass. The Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb in September 1949 based on information Greenglass and other spies. The only direct evidence of the Rosenberg’s involvement was the confession of Greenglass. The left-wing community believed that the Rosenberg’s were prosecuted because of their membership in the Communist Party. The trial lasted nearly a month, finally ending on April 4 with convictions for all the defendants. The Rosenberg’s were sentenced to death, while Sobell received a thirty-year sentence. Greenglass received fifteen years for his cooperation. Reportedly, the Rosenberg’s were offered a deal in which their death sentences would be commuted in return for an admission of their guilt. They refused and were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison on June 19, 1953.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

If you have on-demand TV check out my appearance on Investigation Discovery Channel’s Deadly Women season 7, Brutal Brides episode 19. Where I discuss the infamous 1899 Orange County murder case involving Katie Cook.

www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/deadly-women/videos/brutal-bride.htm

On March 5, 1969, a warrant was issued in Dade County, Florida for the arrest of Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors. Morrison was charged with a single felony count and three misdemeanors for his stage antics at a Miami concert a few days earlier. When Morrison first got word of the charges for lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent exposure, profanity, and drunkenness, he thought it was a practical joke. But he soon learned that Miami authorities were entirely serious. In fact, they later added an additional charge, simulated oral copulation on guitarist Robbie Krieger during the concert. The trial did not begin until September 1970, when the prosecution brought out witnesses who claimed to be shocked at the scene they had witnessed at the concert. However, virtually every witness was somehow connected to the police or the district attorney’s office. There was some question as to whether he had actually exposed himself on stage. But there was little doubt that he was very drunk. Morrison turned down a plea bargain arrangement where the band would play a free concert in Miami. This turned out to be a mistake as he was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison and a $500 fine. Morrison died in Paris before he could serve the sentence. In December 2010, Morrison received a posthumous pardon by the state of Florida, thanks in part to the efforts of outgoing governor Charlie Crist, who cited lingering doubts about the singer’s actions.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On March 4, 1944, mobster Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, was executed at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Lepke was the leader of the country’s largest crime syndicate dubbed “Murder, Inc.” throughout the 1930s. His downfall came when several members of his notorious killing squad turned states witness for the government. Buchwalter began his criminal career robbing pushcarts as a teenager. When he met Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro while trying to rob the same pushcart, the two quickly became a formidable team. With Shapiro’s brute strength, the two established an extortion business, forcing pushcart owners to pay for protection. He and Shapiro then joined Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen’s Lower East Side gang and turned their attention to bigger enterprises. They took over control of the garment unions and forced kickback payments from both the members and the employers. In the 1920s, they added liquor bootlegging and gambling and later began importing heroin and other narcotics.

He assembled a large team of hired killers to enforce his control. At one time, this team may have included as many as 250 hit men. Buchwalter also began to coordinate operations with the other mob bosses around the nation. With Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Dutch Schultz, he virtually controlled organized crime throughout the country. In 1933 he started Murder, Inc. which was authorized to kill anyone (approved by the syndicate) for a profit.

His downfall started on September 13, 1936, when men acting on his orders, gunned down Joseph Rosen, a Brooklyn candy store owner. Although no proof exists that Rosen was cooperating with District Attorney Thomas Dewey, Buchalter nevertheless believed it to be true. Then on November 8, 1936, he and Shapiro were convicted of violating federal anti-trust laws. While out on bail, both Buchalter and Shapiro disappeared. On November 13, both men were sentenced while absent to two years in federal prison. On December 1, 1937, the fugitive Buchalter was indicted in federal court on conspiracy to smuggle heroin into the United States. On April 14, 1938, Shapiro surrendered to authorities in New York. However, Buchalter remained a fugitive.

Over the next two years, an extensive manhunt was conducted in both the United States and Europe. On July 29, 1939, Thomas Dewey requested that the City of New York offer a $25,000 reward for Buchalter’s capture, citing a string of unsolved gangland murders. On August 24, 1939, Buchalter surrendered to FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover in New York City. After his conviction on the federal narcotics trafficking charges, federal authorities turned him over to New York State for trial on labor extortion charges. On April 5, 1940, he was sentenced to 30 years to life in state prison on those charges. On May 9, 1941, Buchalter was arraigned in New York state court on the 1936 Rosen murder along with three other murders. After only four hours of deliberation the jury found him guilty of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. He was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on March 4, 1944.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On March 1, 1692, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, are charged with practicing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Later that same day, Tituba, possibly under coercion, confessed to the crime, encouraging the authorities to seek out more Salem witches. Trouble in the Puritan community began the month before, when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece, respectively, of the Reverend Samuel Parris, began experiencing fits and other mysterious maladies.

A doctor concluded that the children were suffering from the effects of witchcraft, and the young girls corroborated the doctor’s diagnosis. With encouragement from a number of adults in the community, the girls, who were soon joined by other “afflicted” Salem residents, accused a widening circle of local residents of witchcraft, mostly middle-aged women but also several men and even one four-year-old child. During the next few months, more than 150 women and men from Salem Village and the surrounding areas were accused of satanic practices. In June 1692, a special court was convened in Salem under Chief Justice William Stoughton to judge the accused. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop, who was found guilty and executed on June 10. Thirteen more women and four men followed her to the gallows, and one man, Giles Corey, was executed by crushing. Most of those tried were condemned on the basis of the witnesses’ behavior during the actual proceedings, characterized by fits and hallucinations that were argued to be caused by the defendants on trial. In October 1692, Governor William Phipps of Massachusetts ordered the court dissolved and replaced with the Superior Court of Judicature, which forbade the type of sensational testimony allowed in the earlier trials. Executions ceased, and the Superior Court eventually released all those awaiting trial and pardoned those sentenced to death. The Salem witch trials, which resulted in the executions of 19 innocent women and men, had effectively ended.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On February 28, 1993, Federal agents raid the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco, Texas, prompting a gun battle in which four agents and six cult members are killed. They were attempting to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, on information that the religious sect was stockpiling weapons. A nearly two-month standoff ensued after the unsuccessful raid.

The roots of the confrontation between the federal government and the Branch Davidians went back 10 years before the Waco siege. In 1983, a young man named Vernon Howell showed up at the Mt. Carmel headquarters of the sect. Lois Roden and her son, George, were competing for leadership of the commune at the time. Lois had an affair with Howell, but died shortly thereafter. George Roden attempted to take charge of Mt. Carmel, but Howell challenged his leadership, claiming that he was the Lamb from Revelation, and that his children would be descended from God. Soon, Howell started his own harem, declaring himself the only one allowed to have wives. Reportedly his many wives included girls as young as 12. Howell changed his name to David Koresh in 1990. Not long after, he began filling the cult member’s heads with apocalyptic warnings and insisting that they arm themselves. In 1992, a deliveryman accidentally dropped a package and saw that it was filled with grenades. It was against this background that the federal government obtained a warrant for Koresh’s arrest. To Koresh, the failed raid served as proof that he really was being persecuted. When federal agents moved in to end the siege on April 19 with tear gas, a fire broke out. Koresh and about two dozen others shot themselves to death or were shot before the fire engulfed the entire compound. Others died in the fire or the rubble of collapsing buildings, bringing the death toll to 80. Ultimately, eight cult members were convicted of charges ranging from manslaughter to weapons violations.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On February 27, 1991, pornographer Artie Mitchell is shot to death by his brother Jim at his Marin County California, home. When police responding to a 911 call by Artie’s girlfriend arrived at the house they found Jim wandering aimlessly outside carrying a .22 rifle. Artie had been shot multiple times in the chest and head and was already dead. The Mitchell brothers were ground breaking pioneers in the adult film business and also owned several popular strip clubs in San Francisco. They produced some of the most successful porn films of the 1970s that included Behind the Green Door (1972), starring Marilyn Chambers. Despite their success and lavish lifestyle, the brothers were constantly fighting. Jim Mitchell claimed that his brother’s death resulted from one of these altercations. However, the prosecution argued that the murder was not from passion but had been premeditated. At the trial, prosecutors sought to introduce an animated video that reconstructed the murder. This video showed Jim shooting Artie with a final shot to the head. The defense attorneys vehemently objected to this evidence, maintaining that it was impossible to know which shots came at what time. Despite this major problem with the re-creation, the judge admitted the video. Although the video was shown to the jury, the defense attacked the prosecution’s forensic experts and forced them to admit that pure speculation was at the heart of the video presentation. In the end, the jury convicted Jim Mitchell of manslaughter, instead of first degree murder. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On February 26, 1993, a bomb explodes in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people died and 1,000 were injured by the powerful blast, which also caused the evacuation of thousands of people from the Twin Towers. Investigators at the bomb scene found a section of a van frame that had been at the center of the blast. The van’s vehicle identification number was still visible, leading detectives to the Ryder Rental Agency in Jersey City, New Jersey. Their records indicated that Mohammed Salameh had rented the van and reported it stolen on February 25. Salameh was already in the FBI’s database as a potential terrorist, so agents knew that they had probably found their man. Salameh compounded his mistake by insisting that Ryder return his $400 deposit. When he returned to collect it, the FBI arrested him. A search of his home and records led to two other suspects.

Meanwhile, the owner of a storage facility in Jersey City came forward to say that he had seen four men loading a Ryder van on February 25. When this storage space was checked, they found enough chemicals, including very unstable nitroglycerin, to make another massive bomb. Investigators also found videotapes with instructions on bomb making that led to the arrest of a fourth suspect. Other evidence showed that one of the terrorists had bought hydrogen tanks from AGL Welding Supply in New Jersey. In the wreckage under the World Trade Center, three tanks marked “AGL Welding” were found. In addition, the terrorists had sent a letter to the New York Times claiming responsibility for the blast. Portions of this letter were found on a computer desk taken from a suspect’s office. Finally, DNA analysis of saliva on the envelope matched that of the suspect. The wealth of evidence resulted in easy convictions, and each of the men were sentenced to over 200 years in prison.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.