Killer Book of True Crime by Tom Philbin and Michael Philbin

Another book by Tom Philbin and Michael Philbin.

The Killer Book of True Crime by Tom Philbin and Michael Philbin

This book covers everything from Homicide, Rape and Mass Murder to the more mundane crimes like car theft and arson. I found the whole thing very informative and very interesting. (Having always been interested in Criminal Justice, this book was right up my alley. I think I will go buy the book for myself!)

I wanted to cover some interesting things I found in the book:

The Brinks Job

The Brinks Job was one of the best planned and best executed bank robberies of all time. On January 17, 1950, seven armed thieves in Boston made off with $1,218,211.29 in cash and $1,557,183.83 in checks, money orders, and other securities. The Job took seventeen minutes and the FBI spent $29 million investigating it.

The mastermind of the group who concocted the whole thing was Anthony "Fats" Pino. It took eighteen months to plan out and they made twenty-seven trips to the Brinks building complex and made copies of keys from the lock cylinders. They took the cylinders, made a key, then returned the cylinders before they were missed.

When they entered the building on January 17th, they got to the counting room easily due to the fact that they had keys and had on chauffeurs uniforms and bizarre masks so they could not be easily identified. In fact, it would be 5 years and 361 days before they were caught.

One of the robbers, "Specs" O'Keefe had entrusted his $90,000 of his share to a fellow thief and when he asked for it back, the other man wouldn't give it to him. O'Keefe threatened to go to the cops if he wasn't paid. Pino and others reacted by hiring Elmer "Trigger" Burke, a New York hitman, to "clip" O'Keefe. He was unsuccessful and O'Keefe went to the authorities. They were all arrested only 5 days before the statute of limitations would have expired. All they had to do was wait 5 more days.

We have already covered Serial Killers in my previous posting. But they are nonetheless extremely interesting.

Mass Murderers

The difference between Mass Murderers and Serial Killers is that mass murderers kill several people (sometimes large crowds) at one time. Serial Killers kill 3 or more people over the course of a year or more.
Some infamous Mass Murderers are:

-Ronald DeFoe Jr. who murdered his entire family in their sleep on the early morning of November 13, 1974. The real Amityville Horror had taken place. He shot his entire family: his mother, his father, his two brothers and his two sisters. They were all found in the same position: lying face down in there beds, faces in the pillows.

-Howard Unruh was a soldier in WWII who after being discharged return to his home town of Camden, New Jersey. He had a shooting gallery in his basement that he used quite often and practiced regularly with several knives he had. On September 6, 1946 something finally broke inside him and while walking the streets of Camden, he randomly shot to death anyone who was around. He killed 13 people in a matter of minutes.

-On July 21, 1984, James Oliver Huberty walked into a McDonalds near the Mexican border on Interstate Highway 5 in San Ysidro, California. He was carrying an Uzi, a shotgun and a pistol, the weapons in plain sight. Then he began shooting at anything that moved: children, men and women, and didn't stop until SWAT picked him off over an hour later. The final toll was twenty-one dead, including Huberty, and thirty adults and children injured.

-On July 14, 1966 in Chicago in a place called Jeffrey Manor, eight nurses were found killed in their apartment. At 6 in the morning Mrs. Freda Windmiller heard what she thought was screaming. She got dressed to investigate. Meanwhile Robert Hall, walking his dog, heard the screams and rushed to where they were coming from.

When Hall and Windmiller got there, they saw a young, dark skinned woman crouching on a ledge outside of a second story window, screaming for help and speaking in half broken english. They were afraid that she would jump and convinced her to go back through the window through the house.

When the officers arrived on the scene, they discovered eight young nurses in the apartment, all stabbed several times. The girl had escaped being killed by hiding under the bed until the killer left, then she waited for hours to make sure he had gone and then climbed out onto the ledge and started screaming.

Their names are:

Pamela Wilkening, twenty years old, stabbed in the left breast but then finally strangled by a bed sheet.

Mary Ann Jordan, twenty years old, stabbed three times in the neck, breast and eye.

Suzanne Farris, twenty-one years old, stabbed eighteen times in the back, neck and chin. She was also sexually assaulted.

Nina Schmele, twenty-four years old, stabbed in the neck and then strangled.

Valentina Pasion, twenty-three years old, stabbed in the neck.

Merlita Gargullo, twenty-two years old, stabbed and strangled.

Patricia Matusek, who was twenty years old. (Its not said how she died, but I figure she was stabbed as well.

Gloria Davy, who was twenty-three years old. The killer paid special attention to her.

The book also covers criminal investigation, rape, terrorism, theft, death row, prison, stalking, female killers, arson and much more. It's a great read if this is what your interested in, but still very informative if your just looking for a specific topic. I will be buying this book for myself as soon as I get money and can buy it.

Again, anything by the Philbin brothers is a great read. Recommend it. :)