Between 1971 and 1973‚ a spree of murders haunted the town of Rochester‚ New York. All three victims were girls aged 10-11. All three girls had been raped prior to being strangled and then dumped near a freeway. The peculiar thing about this case was the fact that all three victims’ first and last names begin with the same letter. That’s not all‚ their bodies were all found in towns that began with the same letter too. Was this just a coincidence or was this something that the murderer had planned? An intense investigation was launched and over 800 suspects were interviewed but no one was ever charged for the crimes and the case remains unsolved to this day. In this article‚ we will explore the “Alphabet Murders”‚ the victims‚ and the cast of characters that were suspected of committing these horrible acts.  The victims‚ Carmen Colón (L)‚ Wanda Walkowicz(M) and Michelle Maenza (R) from a police handout The First Victim: Carmen Colón Ten-year-old Carmen Colon was the first victim of the Alphabet Murders. On the evening of November 16‚ 1971‚ she was sent on an errand by her grandmother to pick up a prescription from the local pharmacy which was just one and a half blocks from her home.  When she got to the pharmacy around 4:30 pm‚ the pharmacist told her that the medication was not ready. Carmen then went outside to wait for the prescription to be filled. Witnesses then claim they saw the girl enter a car that was parked at the curb. She never returned the prescription and she never returned home. Carmen Colón‚ 1971. The first victim About an hour after she was seen leaving the pharmacy‚ Carmen was next seen running away from a reversing car on the shoulder of Interstate 490. She was naked from the waist down and flailing her arms trying to get someone’s attention. It was rush hour and it is estimated that over 100 vehicles passed the scene before one of the witnesses saw her being led back to the vehicle by a man. Of all the people who saw Carmen that day‚ not one of them stopped to help her.  Two days later‚ Carmen’s body was found in a gully near I-490 outside the town of Churchville. Her pants were found close to where she was seen running along the highway. Her autopsy showed that she had been raped before she was strangled to death. She also had a fractured skull‚ a broken vertebrae‚ and her body was covered in fingernail scratches.  The murder of Carmen Colón was reported in the Times Union and the Democrat and Chronicle newspapers. A combined reward of $2‚500 was offered for any information on the killer. The neighborhood pitched in and eventually‚ the reward money climbed to $6‚000. The Rochester Outdoor Advertising Company gave free use of five of their billboards for one month to post a picture of Carmen and a headline: Do You Know Who Killed Carmen Colón?  The billboards gave police many new leads but nothing substantial. Despite the hard work of law enforcement and the local community‚ no one was ever arrested for the murder.  The Murder of Wanda Walkowicz Over a year had passed since the murder of Carmen Colón. The news surrounding it had largely died down. On the evening of April 2‚ 1973‚ Wanda Walkowicz was sent to the market by her mother to pick up some groceries. She then started walking alone down Conkey Avenue. When Wanda failed to return home after several hours‚ her mother called the police and a search was launched that involved over fifty detectives.  Wanda’s body was discovered the next day by a police officer at the bottom of a hill next to State Route 104 in the town of Webster. The damage to her body suggested that she was thrown from a moving vehicle. The autopsy report brought back bad memories of Carmen Colón when it was discovered that Wanda had been raped and then strangled to death. The police also found white cat fur on the body even though Wanda’s family didn’t own a pet with white fur.  Eyewitnesses called the hotline established for the case and told police that they had seen Wanda struggling to carry a bag of groceries before talking to someone inside of a brown or tan colored car. Another witness said they saw a girl matching Wanda’s description being forced into a tan-colored vehicle.  The police refused to believe that the murders of Carmen Colón and Wanda Walkowicz were connected and the investigation hit a dead end. In the fall of that year‚ after a local television station aired a reconstruction of Wanda’s murder and investigation‚ police received over 200 calls. However‚ despite the renewed interest in the case‚ the police still had no new leads.  Michelle Maenza: The Final Victim Just seven months later‚ 11-year-old Michelle Maenza was reported missing when she didn’t come home from school. Michelle was last seen by her classmates walking towards a shopping center. Another witness said that they saw Michelle in the passenger seat of a brown or tan vehicle driving along Ackerman Street around 3:30 pm. Around 4:30 pm‚ a girl matching Michelle’s description was seen sitting in a car at a fast food restaurant‚ in Panorama Plaza in Penfield.  Around 5:30 that evening‚ a man remembered seeing a car with a flat tire on the side of the road. He stopped to see if the driver needed help. When he rolled down his window to ask if they needed the help‚ the driver pushed Michelle behind him and stepped in front of his license plate to obscure it from view. The expression on the driver’s face made the good Samaritan feel like his help was not wanted and drove off.  A newspaper article about Maenza’s disappearance Maenza’s body was discovered two days later‚ face down in a ditch along a rural road in the town of Macedon‚ about 15 miles from her home in Rochester. Her autopsy revealed that she had been raped and strangled to death‚ just like the others. There were also strands of white cat hair on her clothes. An examination of her stomach contents revealed traces of a hamburger and onions eaten one hour before her murder‚ proving that she had been at the fast food restaurant. Similarities After the death of Michelle Maenza‚ police could no longer ignore the fact that all three murders share too many similarities to be a coincidence.  Carmen Colón’s body was found outside the town of Churville.  Wanda Walkowicz was found in the town of Webster. Michelle Maenza was found in Macedon. All three girls were from poor Catholic families who had been bullied at school. They had all been raped and strangled to death before being dumped near a road. Police eventually questioned over 800 possible suspects. A couple of them were very strong contenders but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge them with a crime. Miguel Colón Miguel Colón was Carmen’s paternal uncle. He had become close to her mother after she and her husband divorced. On the date of Carmen’s murder‚ he could not prove where he was and no one could be located to corroborate his claims. His car also matched the description of the brown or tan vehicle that witnesses saw. Despite strong evidence pointing at him‚ it was all circumstantial and he was dropped as a suspect. Dennis Termini Dennis Termini‚ also known as the “Garage Rapist” is known to have committed a minimum of fourteen rapes of teenage girls between 1971 and 1973. He also owned a beige vehicle similar to the vehicle observed by several witnesses.  In an unrelated case in 1974‚ Termini attempted to abduct a teenage girl and was pursued by the police. The chase ended with Termini taking his own life. An examination of Termini’s vehicle revealed traces of white cat fur. Kenneth Bianchi Kenneth Bianchi worked as an ice cream vendor in Rochester during the times of the murders and worked close to where the first two bodies were found. In 1976 he moved to Los Angeles where he became the notorious Hillside Strangler. Along with his cousin‚ Angelo Buono‚ they killed 10 girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 28. Despite living in Rochester at the time of the murders and having driven a vehicle matching the description of the one witnesses saw‚ Bianchi was never formally charged in connection to the Alphabet murders. He continues to staunchly deny any involvement in the case.  Kenneth Bianchi‚ who was later arrested for the Hillside murders California Murders In 2011‚ a cold case was reopened that involved a string of four murders from 1977 to 1994 leading to the arrest of Joseph Naso. He was charged with murdering four prostitutes whose first and last names began with the same letter. Was this just all a big coincidence? After all‚ Naso was from New York and had lived in Rochester during the 70s. Police tested Naso’s DNA and compared it to the semen found on the body of Wanda Walkowicz – but it wasn’t a match. Conclusion Was it all a coincidence that these victims’ names all started with the same letter or was this a pattern in someone’s sick game? Fifty years later the Alphabet Murders remain unsolved and with so many of the suspects already dead‚ it will probably never be known who committed the murders. References Double Initial Murders: Michelle Maenza https://web.archive.org/web/20200803183343/https://www.whec.com/news/double-initial-murders-the-final-victim/5247570/ Alphabet Murders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_murders New York Newspapers. (November 19‚ 1971). “Reward for Missing Child’s Slayer Now $2‚500.” Democrat and Chronicle‚ Page 43. https://www.newspapers.com/article/democrat-and-chronicle-19-nov-1971-carme/10329128/The post Alphabet Murders: The Cold Cases that Shocked Rochester first appeared on History Defined.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) suggested over the weekend that he would be open to returning to serve in the U.S. government in some capacity if former President Donald Trump wins back the White House this fall. McCarthy made the remarks during a Sunday interview with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation” after talking about the Republicans’ majority in the House continuing to shrink after several members announced that they were resigning. “Do you have plans to return to government potentially in a Trump administration?” Brennan asked. “Look‚ I have always said I will serve whichever way if I’m the best person for the job‚” McCarthy responded. “But I think people worried about whether they get a job in the next administration is the wrong place to be. You first have to have the election. I think you should be going out to the American public and showing them‚ yes‚ with President Trump get elected‚ we would have a secure border.” “We’d have a stronger economy‚” he continued. “We wouldn’t be evacuating five embassies. We wouldn’t have war around the world. We would be much stronger and the future would be much brighter.” Brennan‚ an avowed leftist‚ repeatedly interrupted and claimed that McCarthy’s statements were “counterfactuals.” “I don’t think so‚” McCarthy fired back. “I served with both presidents. That’s exactly the situation today. We have evacuated five embassies under President Biden. We’ve had high inflation under President Biden. We have a wide-open border. We have people who are on the terrorist watch list‚ more people in one month of February getting across our border than the entire time when President Trump was in office.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP WATCH:

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said over the weekend that the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who have evaded capture and made it into the U.S. homeland keep him up at night and that the situation is a “national security threat.” Owens made the remarks during a Sunday interview with CBS News’ “Face The Nation” while talking about how Mexican drug cartels effectively set the rules of engagement on the southern border. “They dictate what the flow is going to look like‚ and we respond to it‚” he said. “Then we try and get out in front of it and deny them the ability to use these areas‚ especially ones that we think are going to be dangerous for us and for the migrants. But at the end of the day‚ there’s over 1‚900 miles of border with Mexico. Now‚ when you talk about 20‚000 border patrol agents‚ that sounds like a lot. But when you multiply that by 24 hours a day‚ seven days a week‚ across the entirety of the year‚ that number starts to dwindle very fast. And that’s exactly what they’ll do. The tactic is‚ they’ll push groups across knowing that we’re going to respond from a humanitarian perspective and make sure that they’re safe. And while we’re tied up and occupied doing this‚ what are they doing a couple miles down the road?” He said that the entry of unknown foreign nationals into the U.S. is the top thing that keeps border officials up at night. “We’re closing in on a million entries this fiscal year alone‚” he said. “That number is a large number‚ but what’s keeping me up at night is the 140‚000 known gotaways.” “That is a national security threat‚” he said. “Border security is a big piece of national security. And if we don’t know who is coming into our country and we don’t know what their intent is‚ that is a threat. And they’re exploiting a vulnerability that’s on our border right now.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP WATCH:

When Michelle Avila and Antonio Moreno were planning their nuptials‚ Michelle’s father’s health began to decline rapidly‚ so the hospital that admitted him threw them a spur-of-the-moment wedding to ensure he didn’t miss her big day.  The bride and groom were scheduled to say “I do” on May 31st. But Jose Antonio Avila went into UMC Health System in Lubbock‚ Texas‚ on Feb. 22. Originally‚ he was admitted with norovirus. But soon after‚ he developed interstitial lung disease. “We knew he was about to start this new medication that was kind of 50-50‚” Antonio told GMA. “And so I just asked her‚ ‘Why wait?'” Michelle knew her dad’s final wish was to watch her walk down the aisle‚ so she knew they needed to move the wedding date up. It was Antonio who suggested they have the wedding at the hospital.  “He just looked at me [and asked]‚ ‘Do you think we should get married at the hospital with Dad there?’ and I said‚ ‘I was thinking it the day before. I just didn’t want to feel like I was pressuring him‚'” Michelle shared.  The couple went to the hospital and asked staff members if it was possible to have their wedding inside the building. They didn’t need much. They only hoped to stand by his bedside and read their vows.  On March 7‚ Sheena Helm‚ a nurse in the medical intensive care unit‚ heard about Michelle and Antonio’s request. So‚ she took it upon herself to take charge.  “I emailed our CEO of UMC [Health System]‚ Mark Funderburk‚ and within 15 minutes‚ he replied back to me in a huge group chain email with people in the administration I’ve never even heard of‚” she said. “And throughout that night — I didn’t get much sleep — I received multiple‚ multiple emails‚ so I’m assuming administration didn’t get much sleep either‚ and by the next day‚ 2 p.m.‚ we had a full-blown wedding.” YouTube Bride’s Father Passed Away Five Days After Her Wedding The big day ended up being more than the couple could have hoped for. While they were imagining the bedside vows‚ the hospital‚ a team of volunteers‚ and a wedding-planning business called Eventfully Yours created the day of their dreams.  On March 8‚ Michelle Avila and Antonio Moreno arrived at the hospital to find the hallways of the ICU lined with artificial sunflowers and red roses. Eventfully Yours also donated trellises‚ balloons‚ and other decorations. A hospital photographer captured the day on film‚ and a secretary’s brother-in-law sang and played the guitar.  “We thought it was just gonna be‚ like‚ a small thing‚ and that turned into this whole thing‚” said Antonio. “And I thought‚ it’s bittersweet‚ and it was perfect‚ regardless of what happened.”  Michelle said the wedding and everyone’s help meant “the world” to her father. He spent that night and the next morning thanking doctors and nurses for letting him “have that moment with family.”  YouTube Jose took a turn for the worse shortly after‚ and Michelle was able to spend his last days by his bedside. He died five days after her wedding at the age of 65.  “He was just like‚ ‘I feel God answered every wish that I could ask for — and for that‚ I’m eternally grateful for everyone‚ every single person on that day‚'” she told the publication. “It was just blessing after blessing after blessing‚ and it was very honestly something like out of a movie.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Hospital Plans Spur-of-the-Moment Wedding So Dying Man Can Watch His Daughter Say “I Do” appeared first on InspireMore.

'Failed to address several important concerns'

Tilghman broke out of Blair County Prison Dec 3‚ 2023

'...I will not in good conscience waste resources tearing down a fellow Democrat'

The race for the second-largest prosecutor's office in the nation just got closer after more than 10‚000 mail-in ballots were suddenly found just days before the important primary in Chicago. The progressive "Democratic insider" candidate for the Cook County state's attorney position has closed the gap with his competitor – who has received significant money from Republicans. The Chicago Board of Elections added an additional 10‚659 additional mail-in ballots after they were "mistakenly left out" after votes were due by March 19. Max Bever – director of public information for the Chicago Board of Elections – told WBBM-TV‚ "In adding up the total number of Vote By Mail ballots the Board had received back so far‚ I mistakenly left out additional ballots that had been received back via USPS the evening of Monday‚ March 18."Bever claimed‚ "I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out numbers this week as quickly as I could. I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused the voters of Chicago. I will share updated numbers only when they are accurate and verified."As of Sunday afternoon‚ Eileen O’Neill Burke leads Clayton Harris III by a slim margin of 4‚771. "On Friday‚ thanks to the counting of mail ballots from Chicago voters‚ Harris whittled O’Neill Burke's lead‚ with a net gain of 1‚366 votes‚" according to the Chicago Sun-Times.Harris is seen as the more progressive candidate in the Democratic primary.Harris said on the campaign trail‚ "Being a black man. I’ve been pulled over before for no reason. We can have safe communities without being racially profiled."Harris has notched endorsements from labor unions‚ progressive leaders‚ and the Cook County Democratic Party.Harris is a professor and former prosecutor.O’Neill Burke categorized Harris as a "Democratic insider." Meanwhile‚ Burke is seen as the Democratic candidate who will be tougher on crime. O’Neill Burke said in January‚ "We have people in business leaving every day because of crime; make no mistake about it‚ the economic viability of Chicago is on the ballot this year."O’Neill Burke said tackling "smash-and-grab" robberies was a top priority. O’Neill Burke is a former Cook County prosecutor‚ defense attorney‚ and appellate court judge.O’Neill Burke received donations from Republicans. The Associated Press reported‚ "When it comes to fundraising‚ O’Neill Burke is ahead‚ with roughly double the amount of Harris‚ just under $2 million compared to roughly $750‚000. Her sum includes money from top Republican donors."The two candidates are competing to replace Kim Foxx – the current Cook County state attorney who declined to seek re-election after two terms. Foxx is most known for her handling of Jussie Smollett staging a racist‚ homophobic attack hoax against himself. Whoever wins the Democratic primary is expected to cruise to an easy victory in November. Also running for Cook County state's Attorney are Republican former Chicago Alderman Bob Fioretti and Libertarian Party candidate Andrew Charles Kopinski.After the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office‚ the Cook County State Attorney's Office is the second-largest prosecutor’s office in the country with more than 3‚000 employees.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

In Mommie Dearest‚ Christina Crawford claimed that her mother was a sadistic abuser — but those closest to Joan Crawford disagreed. The post “No More Wire Hangers”: Inside The Tumultuous Relationship Between Joan And Christina Crawford appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Over the centuries‚ hundreds of cases of spontaneous human combustion have been reported around the world. But is it actually possible? The post Is Spontaneous Human Combustion Real? The Science Behind This Baffling Phenomenon appeared first on All That's Interesting.