Palm Sunday massacre (homicide)

Last updated

Palm Sunday massacre
USA New York City location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location1080 Liberty Avenue
East New York, Brooklyn, New York, U.S. [1]
Coordinates 40°40′42″N73°52′10″W / 40.678203°N 73.869449°W / 40.678203; -73.869449
DateApril 15, 1984;40 years ago (1984-04-15)
Attack type
 Mass shooting, mass murder, home invasion
WeaponsTwo handguns (.22-caliber pistol, .38-caliber revolver) [2]
Deaths10
Injured0
PerpetratorChristopher Thomas
Convictions First degree manslaughter (10 counts)
Second degree criminal possession of a weapon

The Palm Sunday massacre was a mass shooting in Brooklyn, New York, that resulted in the deaths of ten people: two women, two teenage girls, and six children. There was one survivor, an infant girl. [3]

Contents

Murders

All of the victims were shot, with a total of 19 bullets fired from two handguns at close range, most in the head, and were found in relaxed poses sitting in couches and chairs, suggesting that they had been taken by surprise. There were no signs of drugs or robbery at the home. [4] [5]

In 1985, Christopher Thomas was convicted on ten counts of manslaughter, but was cleared of murder charges. The jury had convicted him of intentional murder, but the charges were reduced due to "extreme emotional disturbance" and Thomas being high on drugs. Prosecutors said the motive was jealousy, [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] claiming Thomas suspected his wife of having an affair with the home's owner, a convicted cocaine dealer named Enrique Bermudez. Thomas's wife testified her husband was "enraged" over finding her at the Bermudez residence without him and set fire to his and her shared residence when she told him she was leaving him. Bermudez claimed Thomas had once asked Bermudez to have sex with Thomas's wife, but Bermudez declined.

Other witnesses testified they had seen Thomas “looking bizarre” in or near the residence earlier on the day of the murders. Bermudez confirmed this, saying Thomas had visited him that morning asking for drugs and cash. When Bermudez asked about some $9,000 Thomas already owed him, Thomas reportedly promised a surprise. [11]

Thomas was sentenced to from 83 to 250 years, but due to state law was expected to spend no more than 50 years in prison. [12] He ended up serving just over 32 years before being released in 2018, having served two thirds of the maximum fifty years allowed by New York State. [13]

The sole survivor, an infant girl, was raised by her grandmother. Joanne Jaffe, at the time a "beat cop" and by 2014 the highest ranking female officer in the New York City Police Department, was assigned to the infant girl, and stayed in contact with her as she grew up. The girl lived with Jaffe starting at age 14. In 2014, after the death of the girl's grandmother, Jaffe adopted her at the age of 31. [14]

List of victims

Realease from prison

In January of 2018, the mass killer was paroled from prison, after being locked up for nearly 34 years. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponce massacre</span> 1937 police shooting in Puerto Rico

The Ponce massacre was an event that took place on Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, when a peaceful civilian march turned into a police shooting in which 17 civilians and two policemen were killed, and more than 200 civilians wounded. None of the civilians were armed and most of the dead were reportedly shot in their backs. The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and to protest the U.S. government's imprisonment of the Party's leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, on sedition charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation</span> Highest court in Mexico

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is the Mexican institution serving as the country's federal high court and the spearhead organisation for the judiciary of the Mexican Federal Government. It consists of eleven magistrates, known as ministers of the court, one of whom is designated the court's president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. John Cemetery (Queens)</span> Catholic cemetery in Queens, New York City

St. John Cemetery is an official Catholic burial ground located in Middle Village in Queens, a borough of New York City. Although it is mainly located in Middle Village, the southern edge of the cemetery runs along Cooper Avenue in Glendale. It is one of nine official Catholic burial grounds in the New York Metropolitan Area. St. John, along with St. Charles/Resurrection Cemeteries in East Farmingdale, Long Island, is among the largest cemeteries in New York State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LVI Legislature of the Mexican Congress</span>

The LVI Legislature of the Congress of the Union of Mexico met from 1994 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulises Francisco Espaillat</span> Dominican politician and activist (1823–1878)

Ulises Francisco Espaillat Quiñones was a 19th-century Dominican Republic liberal politician and author. He served as president of the Dominican Republic from April 29, 1876, to October 5, 1876. Espaillat Province is named after him.

The International Latin Music Hall of Fame (ILMHF) was an annual event established in 1999 and held in New York City to honor artists who have largely contributed to the Latin music genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar López Rivera</span> Puerto Rican activist

Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican activist and militant who was a member and suspected leader of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), a clandestine paramilitary organization devoted to Puerto Rican independence that carried out more than 130 bomb attacks in the United States between 1974 and 1983. López Rivera was tried by the United States government for seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms, and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property.

<i>Marisol</i> (Mexican TV series) 1996 Mexican TV series or program

Marisol is a Mexican telenovela produced by Juan Osorio for Televisa in 1996. Telenovela is a remake of the 1977 Mexican telenovela Marcha nupcial. Famous and beloved Enrique Álvarez Félix died after he finished his work in Marisol.

<i>13 Roses</i> 2007 Spanish film

13 Roses is a 2007 Spanish-Italian film directed by Emilio Martínez Lázaro. It stars Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Verónica Sánchez and Marta Etura. The plot, based on a true story, follows the tragic fate of Las Trece Rosas, fighting for their ideals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Alberto Torres (Puerto Rican nationalist)</span> Puerto Rican nationalist

Carlos Alberto Torres is a militant Puerto Rican nationalist. He was convicted and sentenced to 78 years in a U.S. federal prison for seditious conspiracy, conspiring to use force against the lawful authority of the United States. He served 30 years and was released on parole on July 26, 2010.

Carmen Hilda Valentín Pérez is a former member of the FALN, an armed clandestine group which fought for Puerto Rican independence from the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. She was arrested and charged in 1980 for seditious conspiracy and other charges and was sentenced on February 18, 1981, to 90 years imprisonment. She was incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison and released early from prison after President Bill Clinton extended a clemency offer to her on September 7, 1999.

Milagros was a Peruvian telenovela produced and broadcast by América Televisión in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life imprisonment in Spain</span>

Life imprisonment in Spain was introduced by the Ley Orgánica 1/2015 in March 2015, effective from 1 July 2015. The sentence can be revised, so it is officially called "revisable permanent imprisonment".

Calle nueva was a Spanish TV soap opera which was aired in Televisión Española between 1997 and 2000.

Mi segunda madre is a Mexican telenovela produced by Juan Osorio for Televisa and broadcast by Canal de las Estrellas in 1989. It starred María Sorté, Enrique Novi and Daniela Castro as protagonists, with Fernando Ciangherotti and Alejandra Maldonado and Cynthia Klitbo as antagonists.

Miss Peru 2014 was the 61st edition of the Miss Peru pageant, held at the Parque de la Amistad in Lima, Peru, on April 12, 2014.

Events in the year 1971 in Mexico.

CantoMundo is an American literary organization founded in 2009 to support Latino poets and poetry. It hosts an annual poetry workshop dedicated to the creation, documentation, and critical analysis of Latinx poetry.

La Invasora is a Venezuelan telenovela developed by Iris Dubs and produced by Radio Caracas Television in 2003.

This is the list of members elected in the 2017 Constituent National Assembly of Venezuela following the 30 July 2017 elections. The first session of the assembly began on 4 August 2017 in the Oval Room of the Palacio Federal Legislativo. The Democratic Unity Roundtable—the opposition to the incumbent ruling party—also boycotted the election claiming that the Constituent Assembly was "a trick to keep [the incumbent ruling party] in power." Since the opposition did not participate in the election, the incumbent Great Patriotic Pole, dominated by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, won almost all seats in the assembly by default.

References

  1. ↑ "The Courtroom Sketches of Ida Libby Dengrove - Palm Sunday Massacre". University of Virginia Law School Archives. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Man Convicted of Manslaughter In Slayings of 10 Women and Children". AP News. July 19, 1985.
  3. ↑ "10 IN BROOKLYN ARE FOUND SLAIN INSIDE A HOUSE". The New York Times. April 16, 1984. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Man Guilty of Manslaughter in Massacre". Los Angeles Times. July 19, 1985. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Man Convicted of Manslaughter In Slayings of 10 Women and Children". AP News. July 19, 1985.
  6. ↑ "DRUG LINK IS SEEN IN SLAYINGS OF 10". New York Times. April 17, 1984. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  7. ↑ "3 KEY CLUES LED TO SUSPECT IN MASS MURDERS". New York Times. June 21, 1984. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  8. ↑ "DEFENDANT IN THE KILLING OF 10 IS GUILTY OF REDUCED CHARGE". New York Times. July 20, 1985. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Killer In Massacre Convicted". tribunedigital-sunsentinel. Archived from the original on April 16, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  10. ↑ "MASS SLAYINGS AND TOLL: MCDONALD'S CASE BIGGEST". The New York Times. April 25, 1987. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Man Convicted of Manslaughter In Slayings of 10 Women and Children". AP News. July 19, 1985.
  12. ↑ "'Palm Sunday Massacre' Triggerman Could Be Out in 50 Years". Associated Press . Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  13. ↑ Goldstein, Joseph (March 30, 2018). "Man Who Killed 10 People in 1984 'Palm Sunday Massacre' Is Released From Prison". The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  14. ↑ "The Toddler Who Survived, and the Cop Who Became Her Mom". The New York Times. April 13, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  15. ↑ ""Palm Sunday Massacre" killer Christopher Thomas freed after 34 years in prison - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. March 31, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.