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The Rayleigh bath chair murder was a 1943 incident of patricide in which a disabled man was killed in Rayleigh, Essex, England. An anti-tank grenade had been rigged to his hooded wheelchair, a conveyance known as a bath chair. [1] The victim, Archibald Brown, was known to be abusive to his family. Eric, 19 at the time, confessed to the murder of his 47-year-old father and claimed such abuse as his motive. The son was declared insane at trial and incarcerated until 1975. [2]
At 1:45 pm on Friday 23 July 1943 nurse Doris Irene Mitchell went to the air-raid shelter where Brown's bath chair was kept. She found that the door was locked from the inside and upon returning with Mrs Brown they met Eric Brown, then aged 19, coming out. Eric was irritated and evasive. Both women took the wheeled chair to the house and helped Archibald to get in. Brown was dressed in pyjamas and a dressing gown and was covered with a plaid travelling rug. Mitchell took Archibald Brown out of the house. After walking for about a mile, Brown had shifted his weight apparently while feeling for a cigarette in his pocket. Mitchell, having stopped to light the cigarette returned to the back of the chair and pushed it forward. Within half a dozen paces there was a violent explosion. [1] Mitchell sustained leg injuries and as far as she could see Brown and his bath chair had completely disappeared. The police found portions of the body at the side of the road and in nearby trees and gardens. [2]
Enemy action was soon ruled out as the cause of the explosion. Experts found the cause to be a British Hawkins grenade – a type of anti-tank mine that is detonated when an acid-filled glass ampoule is broken. The device had been placed under the bath chair's cushion. A formal murder investigation was begun. Doris Brown was interviewed at length at Rayleigh police station. It emerged that although Archibald Brown had been disabled and unable to walk, his will power was undiminished: he harshly ruled his wife and elder son. His wife was not allowed to visit her mother in nearby Rochford and Archibald Brown would constantly ring a bell to get his wife's attention, even if he perceived that a single flower was out of place in a vase. Eric Brown was constantly beaten and humiliated. Doris Brown stated that her husband had increasingly appeared to take a dislike to her. Eric, too, had noticed the deterioration in Archibald's behaviour, but he had taken a liking to his new nurse and their walks together. [1]
The blame fell on Eric Brown. He had previously attended lectures on the same mine used in the murder, and, having joined the British Army some years previously, had access to a weapons store in Spilsby. Eventually Eric Brown gave a confession in which he blamed his actions on Archibald Brown's abusive attitude to both him and his mother. On 21 September 1943 he was committed to trial at the Essex Assizes. The trial started on 4 November; Eric Brown was tried at the Shire Hall, Chelmsford and declared insane. He was released in 1975. [1]
Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester and cannibal who committed at least three child murders between July 1924 and June 1928. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and the Boogey Man. Fish was a suspect in at least ten murders during his lifetime, although he only confessed to three murders that police were able to trace to a known homicide. He also confessed to stabbing at least two other people.
Murder, Inc. was an organized crime group active from 1929 to 1941 that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate – a closely connected criminal organization that included Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, and other criminal organizations in New York City and elsewhere. Murder, Inc. was composed of Jewish and Italian-American gangsters, and members were mainly recruited from poor and working-class Jewish and Italian neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was initially headed by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia.
Anti-tank warfare originated during World War I from the desire to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks. After the Allies deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire introduced the first anti-tank weapons. The first developed anti-tank weapon was a scaled-up bolt-action rifle, the Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr, that fired a 13.2 mm cartridge with a solid bullet that could penetrate the thin armor used by tanks at that time and destroy the engine or ricochet inside, killing occupants. Because tanks represent an enemy's strong force projection on land, military strategists have incorporated anti-tank warfare into the doctrine of nearly every combat service since. The most predominant anti-tank weapons at the start of World War II in 1939 included the tank-mounted gun, anti-tank guns and anti-tank grenades used by the infantry, and ground-attack aircraft.
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Jürgen Stroop was a German SS commander during the Nazi era, who served as SS and Police Leader in occupied Poland and Greece from 1942-1943 and 1943-1944 He was a SS-General from 1942-1945. He led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and wrote the Stroop Report, a twelve-page account of the operation annexed with many original documents and pictures. Following the defeat of Germany, Stroop was prosecuted during the Dachau Trials and convicted of murdering nine U.S. prisoners of war. After his extradition to Poland, Stroop was tried, convicted, and executed for crimes against humanity.
The following lists events that happened during 1985 in South Africa.
The following lists events that happened during 1986 in South Africa.
The following lists events that happened during 1987 in South Africa.
The murder of Danielle Jones was an English child murder case involving a 15-year-old schoolgirl who disappeared from East Tilbury, Essex, England. There was a large and exhaustive search to find Jones' body and it was considered one of the biggest cases Essex Police had to deal with at the time. Despite the police's best efforts, her body was never found.
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