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1980: Smuggled in a Book Spine: the Hillside Strangler Plot to Fake a Copycat Killing

On September 19, 1980, Veronica Compton attempted to strangle a 26-year-old woman at a motel in Bellingham, Washington. The attack was part of a plot to convince authorities that imprisoned Hillside Strangler Kenneth Bianchi was innocent—and that the real killer remained at large.

Bianchi had supplied Compton with a semen-filled condom concealed in the spine of a book. She was to plant its contents at the scene of a staged rape and murder, creating false evidence to cast doubt on his guilt. But the woman survived, and the scheme unravelled.

Compton was convicted of first-degree attempted murder in March 1981. She remained imprisoned until 2003.

Close-up of worn book spine titled Modern English Drama

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Arizona Attempted Murder Escape Murder Prison Serial Killer Trial USA Washington

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1934: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping: Bruno Hauptmann Arrested Two Years After America’s Crime of the Century

In March 1932, twenty month old Charles Lindbergh Jr, son of aviator Charles Lindbergh, was taken from his nursery in Hopewell, New Jersey, via a homemade ladder left beneath the window. A ransom of 50,000 dollars in gold certificates was paid, but the child’s body was found in nearby woods weeks later.

On September 19, 1934, police arrested Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German born carpenter, after one of the marked gold certificates surfaced at a petrol station and was traced back to him. Searchers found thousands of dollars of the ransom money hidden in his garage, and timber from the ladder was matched to a board missing from his attic floor.

Hauptmann was tried at Flemington, New Jersey, convicted of murder, and executed in the electric chair at Trenton State Prison in April 1936.

Hauptmann maintained his innocence to the end, reportedly refusing an offer to commute his sentence in exchange for a confession, and went to his death still denying any role in the kidnapping.

Charles A. Lindbergh , American Aviator. Famous American Aviator, Charles A. Lindbergh and wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh at North Beach Airport ,Queens, NYC on June 8, 1931. HISTORIC PHOTO © PICTUREMAKERS LLC | ID 60332383 © Picturemakersllc | Dreamstime.com

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Execution Kidnapping Murder New Jersey Trial USA

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1692: Pressed to Death: the Only Person in America Executed by Stone for Refusing to Plead

Giles Corey, an 81 year old farmer in Salem, Massachusetts, refused to enter a plea when charged with witchcraft during the hysteria of 1692. By standing mute he prevented a trial from proceeding under the law of the time, which instead prescribed peine forte et dure: the accused was stretched on the ground and heavy stones piled onto his chest to force a plea.

Corey endured the ordeal for two days without submitting. Sheriff’s men reportedly used a stick to push his tongue back into his mouth when it protruded under the weight. His last words are said to have been a simple demand for more weight: “more weight”.

By refusing to plead, Corey ensured he was never convicted, which meant his property could not be seized by the colony, an outcome believed to be his deliberate motive in choosing this brutal death over a trial. He remains the only person in American history known to have been executed by pressing.

Peine forte et dure - Punishment for refusing to plead in court. — Peine forte et dure – Punishment for refusing to plead in court.

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Colonial History Execution Massachusetts Salem Trial USA Witchcraft

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1975: The Hunt Ends: Patty Hearst, Newspaper Heiress Turned Fugitive, Captured by the FBI

Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, was abducted from her Berkeley apartment in February 1974 by the self-styled Symbionese Liberation Army, a small but violent radical cell. Within weeks the group released tapes in which she renounced her family and adopted the nom de guerre Tania, and in April 1974 she was photographed wielding a rifle during the SLA’s armed robbery of a Hibernia Bank branch in San Francisco.

For nineteen months Hearst remained with her captors turned comrades as the group moved between safe houses, evading one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. She was finally arrested in San Francisco on September 18, 1975, and later stood trial for bank robbery, where her defence argued she had been brainwashed and coerced.

Convicted despite that defence, Hearst was sentenced to prison, but her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter and she was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton in 2001.

Patty Hearst hideout, Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco

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California Kidnapping Political Crime Robbery San Francisco Trial USA

1980: Smuggled in a Book Spine: the Hillside Strangler Plot to Fake a Copycat Killing

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1934: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping: Bruno Hauptmann Arrested Two Years After America’s Crime of the Century

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1692: Pressed to Death: the Only Person in America Executed by Stone for Refusing to Plead

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1975: The Hunt Ends: Patty Hearst, Newspaper Heiress Turned Fugitive, Captured by the FBI

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