This Day in Crime History: DECEMBER 16, 1989 : A TERRORIST BOMBER BEGINS HIS DEADLY RAMPAGE

Federal Judge Robert Vance is instantly killed by a powerful explosion after opening a package mailed to his housenear Birmingham, Alabama. Two days later, a mail bomb killed Robert Robinson, an attorney in Savannah, Georgia, in his office. Two other bomb packages, sent to the federal courthouse in Atlanta and to the Jacksonville, Florida office of the NAACP, were intercepted before their intended victims opened them.

The FBI immediately assigned a task force to find the terrorist, naming their operation VANPAC (for Vance package bomb). The investigators used nearly every forensic method available: DNA profiles were made from the saliva on the stamps, and both the paint on the boxes and the nails that acted as the bomb’s shrapnel were traced back to the manufacturer. Finally, an FBI agent remembered that Walter LeRoy Moody had been convicted in 1972 for setting off a pipe bomb with a similar design to that of the 1989 bombs. A search of Moody’s home failed to turn up evidence linking him to the VANPAC bombs, but bomb experts compared his 1972 bomb to the VANPAC explosives and determined that there was little doubt that the same man had made them all. Purportedly, Moody was upset by the judicial system.

In June 1991, a federal jury convicted Moody on charges related to the bombings and sentenced him to seven life terms plus 400 years in prison. In 1997, an Alabama judge sentenced Moody to die in the electric chair for Vance’s murder.

Article Details:

December 16, 1989 : A terrorist bomber begins his deadly rampage

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  December 16, 1989 : A terrorist bomber begins his deadly rampage

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/a-terrorist-bomber-begins-his-deadly-rampage

• Access Date

  December 15, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: DECEMBER 15, 1988 : JAMES BROWN BEGINS HIS PRISON SENTENCE

Legendary singer James Brown, also known as the “Godfather of Soul” and the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” becomes inmate number 155413 at the State Park Correctional Institute in South Carolina. Brown had had several run-ins with the law during the summer of 1988 that landed him on probation, but his reckless spree on September 24 resulted in numerous criminal charges, including assault and battery with intent to kill.

On September 24, Brown entered an insurance seminar in Augusta, Georgia, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, and ordered everyone to leave. He then took off in his pickup truck and attempted to outrun police, who chased him into South Carolina and then back into Georgia. Even after police had shot out three of his tires, Brown continued to drive on wheel rims until he ended up in a ditch six miles down the road. After the incident, Brown’s wife, Adrienne, said that he was on medication for jaw surgery and was “not in his right mind.”

Although several police officers claimed that they shot out Brown’s tires because he had tried to run them over, Brown offered a different version of the story. He claimed that while he was in the process of surrendering to a black police officer, a group of white policemen who had just arrived on the scene began smashing the windows of Brown’s truck. Purportedly fearing for his life, Brown then took off as the officers began firing. Brown, who had already been charged with carrying a pistol and PCP possession earlier that year, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison on charges of failing to stop for a police officer and aggravated assault. After his release three years later, he managed to stay out of trouble for a while and even went on tour, which—considering his wild stage antics—was quite an accomplishment for a man well into his 60s. But in 1998, Brown was again charged with drug possession—this time for marijuana—and was required to enter a 90-day drug treatment program. Brown died in December 2006, at the age of 73.

Article Details:

December 15, 1988 : James Brown begins his prison sentence

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  December 15, 1988 : James Brown begins his prison sentence

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-brown-begins-his-prison-sentence

• Access Date

  December 15, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: DECEMBER 14, 1874 : AN UNSATISFACTORY END TO A KIDNAPPING

A botched burglary attempt further clouds one of the earliest kidnap-for-ransom cases. As he was about to go to bed, wealthy New Yorker Holmes Van Brunt heard burglars breaking into his brother’s house next door. After rounding up three other men to help him surprise the intruders, Van Brunt engaged the thieves in a shotgun battle that left the robbers severely wounded. On his deathbed, one of the burglars confessed that he had been responsible for kidnapping Charley Ross. He then promised that the child would be returned alive.

The Charley Ross kidnapping was the year’s biggest story. Two men had snatched the four-year-old son of rich Philadelphia grocer Christian Ross from the front lawn of his house on July 1. On July 4, the kidnappers delivered the first of 23 poorly spelled ransom notes to Ross. Several days later, they asked for $20,000.

After some stalling, Ross agreed to pay the ransom, but no one ever came to pick up the money.

Generating mountains of publicity, the Ross kidnapping became the first widely followed kidnap-for-ransom incident. Over the next 50 years there was a spike in the number of such cases, culminating with the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s son in 1932. Following that high-profile crime, the government’s power over criminal matters was greatly broadened, and the penalties for kidnapping were increased.

Despite the dying criminal’s confession, Charley Ross was never found.

Article Details:

December 14, 1874 : An unsatisfactory end to a kidnapping

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  December 14, 1874 : An unsatisfactory end to a kidnapping

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/an-unsatisfactory-end-to-a-kidnapping

• Access Date

  December 14, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks