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Federal Kidnapping Act
Following the historic Lindbergh kidnapping (the abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh's toddler son), the United States Congress passed a federal kidnapping statute—known as the Federal Kidnapping Act, (a)(1) (popularly known as the Lindbergh Law, or Little Lindbergh Law)—which was intended to let federal authorities step in and pursue kidnappers once they had crossed state lines with their victim. The act became law in 1932. In 1934, the act was amended to provide exception for parents who abduct their own minor children and made a death sentence possible in cases where the victim was not released unharmed. The theory behind the Lindbergh Law was that federal law enforcement intervention was necessary because state and local law enforcement officers could not effectively pursue kidnappers across state lines. Since federal law enforcement, such as FBI agents and U.S. Marshals, have national law enforcement authority, Congress believed they could do a much more effective ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crimes And Criminal Procedure
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Cane and Conoghan (editors), ''The New Oxford Companion to Law'', Oxford University Press, 2008 (), p. 263Google Books). though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a category created by law; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law. One proposed definition is that a crime or offence (or criminal offence) is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state ("a public wrong"). Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law. The notion that acts such as murder, rape, and theft are to be prohibited exists worldwide. What precisely is a criminal offence is defined by the criminal law of eac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caryl Chessman
Caryl Whittier Chessman (May 27, 1921 – May 2, 1960) was a convicted robber, kidnapper and serial rapist who was sentenced to death for a series of crimes committed in January 1948 in the Los Angeles area. Chessman was charged with 17 counts and convicted under a loosely interpreted "Little Lindbergh law" – later repealed, but not retroactively – that defined kidnapping as a capital offense under certain circumstances. His case attracted worldwide attention, and helped propel the movement to end the use of capital punishment in the state of California. While in prison, Chessman was considered vexatious, with one judge writing in 1957, " hessman isplaying a game with the courts, stalling for time while the facts of the case grow cold." Chessman wrote four books, including his 1954 memoir ''Cell 2455, Death Row''. The book was adapted for the screen in 1955 and stars William Campbell as a character modelled after Chessman. He was executed in California's gas chamber in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Harry Feguer
Victor Harry Feguer (1935 – March 15, 1963) was a convicted murderer and the last federal inmate executed in the United States before the moratorium on the death penalty following ''Furman v. Georgia'', and the last person put to death in the state of Iowa. While the media did not pay much attention to Feguer or his execution at the time, Timothy McVeigh's execution sparked renewed media interest in him. Background Feguer was a drifter, native to the state of Michigan. In the summer of 1960, Feguer arrived in Dubuque, Iowa, renting a room at a decrepit boarding house. Soon after arriving, Feguer began phoning physicians alphabetically from the local Yellow Pages and found Dr. Edward Bartels. Feguer claimed that a woman needed medical attention. When Dr. Bartels arrived, Feguer kidnapped and killed him in Illinois. Bartels' body was found in a cornfield there with a single gunshot to the head. A few days later, Feguer was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, after trying to sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Hill (serial Killer)
Walter Hill (February 7, 1935 – May 2, 1997) was an American serial killer who killed five people between 1952 and 1977. He was convicted of capital murder, sentenced to death, and executed at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama in 1997. Early life Hill claimed to be a native of Jamaica, but court records indicate that he was born in Midway, Alabama. He was born on February 7, 1935. Murders In 1952, 17 year old Hill, beat a man named Sam Atmore to death with a board in Adamsville, Alabama. He pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Hill was sent to Atmore State Prison Farm. Shortly before he was transferred, Hill escaped from jail, but was quickly recaptured. In 1954, Hill was one of 20 inmates who escaped from Atmore Prison Farm during a prison baseball game. The men cut their way through a fence directly under Henry Sawyers, a tower guard who had fallen asleep. Sawyers admitted that he fell asleep and was immediately fired. Severa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George And Michael Krull
George Krull (c.1921–1957) and Michael Krull (c.1925–1957) were brothers from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania who were executed by the United States Federal Government on August 21, 1957. They were the only people ever executed in Georgia on a federal death warrant. Early life The Krull brothers both had lengthy criminal records dating back to when they were youths. Trial and execution On April 14, 1955, the Krull brothers kidnapped 53-year-old businesswoman Sunie Jones in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The two took her across state lines to Georgia, specifically Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. During the kidnapping, the Krull brothers beat Jones and raped her five times at knifepoint. She was beaten badly enough that she had to be hospitalized. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Cook (criminal)
William Edward Cook Jr. (December 23, 1928 – December 12, 1952) was an American spree killer and mass murderer who murdered six people, including a family of five, on a 22-day rampage between Missouri and California in 1950–51. Early life William Edward Cook Jr. was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1928, and had ten siblings. When he was five years old, his mother Laura May Cook (née Hinkle) died unexpectedly at the family home. He and his young sister Betty were the first to discover her body. A subsequent coroner's investigation headed by W. G. Hogan ruled cerebral hemorrhage as the cause of death, and noted that she had "apparently been in good health an hour before her body was found." Her obituary does not mention William Cook Sr.—her husband at the time—and William Cook Jr.'s father; no reason is given for this omission. Soon after, William Cook Sr. relocated the children to an abandoned mine, eventually leaving them to fend for themselves with a few supplies. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miran Edgar Thompson
Miran Edgar Thompson (December 16, 1917 – December 3, 1948) was an inmate of Alcatraz whose participation in an attempted escape on May 2, 1946, led to his execution in the gas chamber of San Quentin. At the time of the Battle of Alcatraz, Thompson was serving life plus 99 years for murder of Texan police officer Detective Lemuel Dodd Savage, 52. He also pulled armed robberies in New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. He had notoriously bad luck when getting caught, but extremely good luck at escaping from jail. He had been arrested eight times and held in small jails, and had escaped every time. Thompson had a record of eight escapes from custody by the time he was transferred to Alcatraz in October 1945. Detective Savage was shot and killed while transporting Thompson and Elbert Day to jail. Savage had arrested the two when he found them burglarizing a store. He searched the two suspects before transporting, but missed a handgun hidden in Thompson's pants. During the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarence Carnes
Clarence Victor Carnes (January 14, 1927 – October 3, 1988), known as The Choctaw Kid, was a Choctaw man best known as the youngest inmate incarcerated at Alcatraz and for his participation in the bloody escape attempt known as the "Battle of Alcatraz". Early life Clarence Carnes was born in Daisy, Oklahoma, the oldest of five children. He was raised in poverty, and his criminal activities began as a child, stealing candy bars from his school. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the age of 16 for the murder of a garage attendant during an attempted hold-up. In early 1945, he escaped from the Granite Reformatory with a number of other prisoners, but was recaptured and sentenced to an additional 99 years for kidnapping a man, Jack Nance, while he was on the run. He was recaptured in April 1945 and sent to Leavenworth, but made another attempt to escape while in the custody of the United States Marshals Service and was transferred to Alcatraz along with an additional 5-y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Henry Seadlund
John Henry Seadlund (July 27, 1910 – July 14, 1938) was a 27-year-old woodsman, executed by the United States federal government in Illinois for kidnapping. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called him "the nation’s cruelest criminal" and the "most cold-blooded, ruthless and atrocious killer" he'd ever encountered. Early life Seadlund was born in Wisconsin, and his family moved to Ironton, Minnesota when he was a baby. As a child, he played on his school's hockey team and was an avid hunter who often hunted more animals than was legally allowed. Seadlund graduated from Crosby-Ironton High School in 1928. Following his graduation, Seadlund worked in local iron mines, particularly blacksmith shops and machine shops under the supervision of his father, a mechanic. went to work in the iron mines. He seemed to be satisfied until he was laid off due to the Great Depression. In July 1929, Seadlund left home and worked various odd jobs in Chicago. Seadlund returned home on September 25 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Alcatraz
The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2 to 4, 1946, was the result of an escape attempt at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary by armed convicts. Two Federal Bureau of Prisons officers—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed (Miller by one of the inmates who attempted escape, Joseph Cretzer, and Stites by friendly fire) along with three of the perpetrators. Fourteen other officers and one uninvolved convict were also injured. Two of the perpetrators were executed in 1948 for their roles. Alcatraz Alcatraz was a maximum high-security federal prison located on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco bay. It operated from 1934 to 1963 and had a reputation for being impossible to escape from. As a result, it housed some of the most notorious and high-profile prisoners, in particular ones who had a history of escape attempts. Convicts The escape attempt was planned by Bernard Coy. Three other convicts were involved in the main plan, Marvin Hubbard, Joseph Cretzer and C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Shockley
Samuel Richard Shockley, Jr. (January 12, 1909 – December 3, 1948) was an inmate at Alcatraz prison, who was executed for his participation in the Alcatraz uprising or Battle of Alcatraz in 1946. Background Sam Shockley was born in Cerro Gordo, Caney Township, Little River County, Arkansas. His father, Richard Shockley, was a sharecropper who married three times and had eight children. As a newborn baby, Sam survived an accident when his 9-year-old sister, Myrtle, was looking after the other children while their parents worked on the land; with baby Sam on her arm, she came too close to the fireplace and her dress caught fire. She ran out of the house and collapsed, throwing the baby clear, and both lay outside for six hours. Both were burned, and Sam had fallen hard. Sam's mother, Annyer Eugenia, Richard's second wife, died when Sam was 7 years old. Sam started running away from home after his stepmother, Sally Barton, died of malaria in 1920. When he was 12, his father ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Gooch (criminal)
Arthur Gooch (January 4, 1909 – June 19, 1936) was an American criminal, who is notable for being the only person executed under the Federal Kidnapping Act who did not kill the victim(s). Gooch was the only person sentenced to death and executed by the federal government of the United States for a kidnapping in which the victim(s) were not killed. Gooch and another man, Ambrose Nix, kidnapped police officers R.N. Baker and H.R. Marks in Texas on November 26, 1934, and released them in Oklahoma. Baker was badly injured after being shoved into a glass case, which then broke during the kidnapping. This made the crime a capital offense since the victims had not been released unharmed. Nix was killed while resisting arrest on December 23, 1934. Although the electric chair was the only method of execution in Oklahoma at this time, Gooch was executed by hanging. Like Gooch, another federal inmate James Alderman, executed in Florida on August 17, 1929, was also hanged, despite the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
