1982: A Death Row Killer for Hire: Bomb in the Radio Speaker

Serial killer Donald Gaskins, already condemned to die at Central Correctional Institution, murdered fellow death row inmate Rudolph Tyner using a homemade bomb built from C4 plastic explosive concealed inside a device disguised as a portable radio speaker. The device was passed to Tyner and detonated, killing him instantly.

Gaskins carried out the killing as a paid hit, hired for 2,000 dollars by Tony Cimo, the son of a couple Tyner had murdered years earlier. Cimo wanted revenge on his parents' killer and used Gaskins, already notorious as one of South Carolina's most prolific murderers, to get it from inside the prison itself.

Mobster planting a time bomb in a car engine compartment
Mobster planting a time bomb in a car engine compartment

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1990: Her Fifth Victim Found

Aileen Wuornos had already established a deadly pattern along Florida's highways, targeting men she encountered while working as a sex worker and hitchhiking around the state. Her fifth known victim was a 56-year-old retired police chief. After disappearing, his body was found on September 12 in an isolated area of Marion County. He had been shot seven times in the head and torso with Wuornos's .22-calibre revolver.

By this stage, Wuornos's killings had moved well beyond the disputed circumstances surrounding her first victim, Richard Mallory, whose death she maintained had been in self-defence. This latest killing formed part of an escalating pattern that would claim one more victim before police arrested her in January 1991, bringing to an end one of America's most notorious female serial killing sprees.

Prisoner handcuffed during lethal injection with syringe and vial
Prisoner handcuffed during lethal injection with syringe and vial

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1944: The Acid Bath Murderer: John Haigh Dissolves His Former Boss in a Barrel of Sulphuric Acid

John Haigh, a convicted fraudster, murdered his former employer William 'Mac' McSwan and dissolved his body in a barrel of sulphuric acid. Haigh later claimed the killing was driven by a compulsion he called blood lust, but McSwan had money and property, and the murder looks less like madness than a calculated escalation of Haigh's earlier fraud schemes.

Tellingly, whatever 'compulsion' Haigh described did not resurface until the cash from the McSwan killing had run out, suggesting the acid barrel was less about bloodlust and more about a ruthless, practical solution to funding his lifestyle.

Portrait of john george haigh - acid bath murderer. Public Domain.
Portrait of john george haigh - acid bath murderer. Public Domain.

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2005: The Granny Killer Found Hanging in His Cell

John Wayne Glover, 72, was found hanging from a shower rail in his cell at Lithgow prison in New South Wales. He had been serving life without parole for the murder of six elderly women on Sydney's North Shore between 1989 and 1990. The mayor of Mosman described his death as the end of a terrible era.

No evidence has ever surfaced that Glover killed before 1989, when he was 56 and had already been married for 20 years with children; his wife had no idea of the violence in his past. He only admitted to the murders once confronted with the police evidence against him.

Glover denied responsibility for other crimes in which he was a prime suspect. Years after his conviction, he admitted he never worried about who his victims were or why he killed them; he said he wanted to stop but could not, and simply returned to his normal life after each murder.

Prison Cell
Prison Cell

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On This Day in True Crime History

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