Adam John Walsh, age 6,was abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Florida, and later found murdered. In the aftermath of the crime, Adam’s father, John Walsh (below) became a leading victims’ rights activist and host of the long-running television show America’s Most Wanted (Feb. 7, 1988 – present) on Fox.
The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found on May 12, 1932, more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion.
Lindbergh, who became the first worldwide celebrity five years earlier when he flew The Spirit of St. Louisacross the Atlantic, and his wife Anne discovered a ransom note in their 20-month-old child’s empty room on March 1. The kidnapper had used a ladder to climb up to the open second-floor window and had left muddy footprints in the room and in barely legible English, the ransom note demanded $50,000.
The crime captured the attention of the entire nation. The Lindbergh family was inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. Even Al Capone offered his help from prison, though it of course was conditioned on his release. For three days, investigators had found nothing and there was no further word from the kidnappers.
Then, a new letter showed up, this time demanding $70,000.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)
On this day in 1968, U.S.troops in Vietnam destroyed a village consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known as the My-Lai massacre.
Over 500 babies, children, women and men were slaughtered by American soldiers. Many Vietnamese women and girls had been raped. Huts were burned, livestock was killed, food supplies destroyed.
Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only one Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest.
William Laws Calley Jr. will be 76 on June 8.
This U.S. Army photo shows the aftermath of the Mỹ Lai Massacre with mostly women and children lying dead on a road.