Thursday, December 5, 2013

Timeline 1950 To 1959

Timeline 1950s: 1950 To 1959 --- ===
1960s: 1960 to 1969 ---
1970s :1970-1979 ---
Timeline 1980 To 1989 ---
Timeline 1990 To 2008 ---

.Timeline Start

*Reference
http://www.timripley.co.uk/terrorism/terrorism2.htm
Terrorism in the United States

1950s




Year 1950


Mass murder in 1950

A
  • Anderson Bridge massacre  massacre of Hindu passengers on the Anderson Bridge on 12 February 1950. On 12 February, most of the Hindu passengers travelling on this train route were murdered. All the cases followed a pattern. The assailants would board the trains from either side either at Bhairab Bazar Junction or Ashuganj, just before the train departed. They would lock the doors of the compartment from inside. When the train was completely on the bridge, the train would stop. The assailants would pick out the Hindus one by one, force them out of the compartment, slit their throats and throw their corpses into the river.[1] According to Tathagata Roy, it was a carefully planned massacre. The train crew and the guard were involved in it. Prabhas Chandra Lahiri has held Aziz Ahmed, the Chief Secretary of East Bengal and Abdul Majid, the District Magistrate of Rajshahi responsible for this massacre.[2]

N

  • Namyangju massacre The Namyangju massacre (Korean: 남양주 민간인학살[1][2] Hanja: 南楊州民間人虐殺[1][2] Namyangju civilian massacre[1][2]) was a mass killing conducted by South Korean police and local militia forces between October 1950 and early 1951 in Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do district of South Korea. More than 460 people were summarily executed, including at least 23 children under the age of 10.[4][1][2] After the victory of the Second Battle of Seoul, South Korean authorities arrested and summarily executed several individuals along with their families on suspicion of sympathizing with North Korea.[5] During the massacre, South Korean Police conducted Goyang Geumjeong Cave Massacre in Goyang near Namyangju.[6] The killings in Namyangju coincided with a similar massacre committed in nearby Goyang.[7]

S

    Seoul National University Hospital massacre The Seoul National University Hospital massacre (Korean: 서울대학교 부속병원 학살 사건 Hanja: 서울國立大學校附属病院虐殺事件) was a massacre committed by the North Korean Army on 28 June 1950 of 700 to 900 doctors, nurses, inpatient civilians and wounded soldiers at the Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul district of South Korea.[1][2][3] During the First Battle of Seoul, the North Korean Army wiped out one platoon which guarded Seoul National University Hospital on 28 June 1950.[1][2] They massacred medical personnel, inpatients and wounded soldiers.[1][2] The North Korean Army shot or buried the people alive.[1][2] The victims amounted to 900.[1][2] According to South Korean Ministry of National Defense, the victims included 100 South Korean wounded soldiers.[2]
  • Sinchon Massacre

November 1  Puerto Rican nationalists attack Blair House in Washington DC, United States, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate US president Harry S Truman. One Secret Service agent and one terrorist killed. 

1950–51 Baghdad bombings series of bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad, Iraq, between April 1950 and June 1951. There is a controversy around the true identity and objective of the culprits behind the bombings, and the issue remains unresolved.
LocationBaghdadKingdom of Iraq
DateApril 1950 - June 1951
TargetIraqi Jews
Attack type
Bombings
Deaths3-4 Iraqi Jews killed
Non-fatal injuries
dozens wounded
Perpetrators
Alleged:
Two activists in the Iraqi Zionist underground were found guilty by an Iraqi court for a number of the bombings, and were sentenced to death. Another was sentenced to life imprisonment and seventeen more were given long prison sentences.[2] The allegations against Israeli agents had "wide consensus" amongst Iraqi Jews in Israel.[3][4][5][6][7] Many of the Iraqi Jews in Israel who lived in poor conditions blamed their ills and misfortunes on the Israeli Zionist emissaries or Iraqi Zionist underground movement.[8] The theory that "certain Jews" carried out the attacks "in order to focus the attention of the Israel Government on the plight of the Jews" was viewed as "more plausible than most" by the British Foreign Office.[9][10][11][7][4] Telegrams between the Mossad agents in Baghdad and their superiors in Tel Aviv give the impression that neither group knew who was responsible for the attack.[10]
Israeli involvement has been consistently denied by the Israeli government, including by a Mossad-led internal inquiry,[12] even following the 2005 admission of the Lavon affair.[13][14][15][16][17]
Those who assign responsibility for the bombings to an Israeli or Iraqi Zionist underground movement suggest the motive was to encourage Iraqi Jews to immigrate to Israel,[14][18][19] as part of the ongoing Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. Those historians who have raised questions regarding the guilt of the convicted Iraqi Zionist agents with respect to the bombings note that by 13 January 1951, nearly 86,000 Jews had already registered to immigrate, and 23,000 had already left for Israel,[7] that the British who were closely monitoring the Jewish street did not even mention the bombs of April and June 1950, nor were they mentioned in the Iraqi trials, meaning these were minor events.[7] They have raised other possible culprits such as a nationalist Iraqi Christian army officer, [20] and those who have raised doubt regarding Israeli involvement claimed that it is highly unlikely the Israelis would have taken such measures to accelerate the Jewish evacuation given that they were already struggling to cope with the existing level of Jewish immigration.[21] 

Year 1951 

July 20  King Abdullah of Jordan assassinated by Arab extremist in Jerusalem, Jordan, while entering the Mosque of Omar to pray. The assassin and four others are hanged for their part in the murder.

1951: A wave of hate related terrorist attacks occurred in Florida. African-Americans were dragged and beaten to death, with 11 race-related bombings, the dynamiting of synagogues, and a Jewish School in Miami and explosives found outside of Catholic Churches in Miami.[11][12]

September 11 1951Pakistani prime minister Lisquat Ali Khan shot dead while addressing public meeting in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by Afghan fanatic. 

October 6 

Sir Henry Gurney, British High Commissioner in Malaya, killed after his motorcade was ambushed by Communist guerillas. Thirteen British soldiers escorting Sir Henry were also killed in the attack. This leads to major shake up of British counter-insurgency operations against the Communists.

Year 1952

Jan 1, 1952 - Seven armed Arab terrorists attacked and killed a nineteen year-old Jewish girl in her home, in the neighborhood of Beit Yisrael, in Jerusalem. mfa arab terrorist attacks


Year 1953

Apr 14, 1953 - Terrorists tried for the first time to infiltrate Israel by sea, but were unsuccessful. One of the boats was intercepted and the other boat escaped. mfa arab terrorist attacks

June 7, 1953 - A youngster was killed and three others were wounded, in shooting attacks on residential areas in southern Jerusalem. mfa arab terrorist attacks

June 9, 1953 - Terrorists attacked a farming community near Lod, and killed one of the residents. The terrorists threw hand grenades and sprayed gunfire in all directions. On the same night, another group of terrorists attacked a house in the town of Hadera. This occurred a day after Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, with UN mediation, in which Jordan undertook to prevent terrorists from crossing into Israel from Jordanian territory. mfa arab terrorist attacks

June 10, 1953 - Terrorists infiltrating from Jordan destroyed a house in the farming village of Mishmar Ayalon. mfa arab terrorist attacks

June 11, 1953 - Terrorists attacked a young couple in their home in Kfar Hess, and shot them to death. mfa arab terrorist attacks

Sept 2, 1953 - Terrorists infiltrated from Jordan, and reached the neighborhood of Katamon, in the heart of Jerusalem. They threw hand grenades in all directions. Miraculously, no one was hurt. mfa arab terrorist attacks

Year 1954 

March 1 

Five US congressmen were wounded when Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the Capitol Building, Washington DC, United States. All four of the terrorists were arrested after firing twenty five rounds. 

March 17 

Bus passengers killed when Palestinian terrorists cross into the Negev desert, Israel, and ambush the vehicle.    Terrorists ambushed a bus traveling from Eilat to Tel Aviv, and opened fire at short range when the bus reached the area of Maale Akrabim in the northern Negev. In the initial ambush, the terrorists killed the driver and wounded most of the passengers. The terrorists then boarded the bus, and shot each passenger, one by one. Eleven passengers were murdered. Survivors recounted how the murderers spat on the bodies and abused them. The terrorists could clearly be traced back to the Jordanian border, some 20 km from the site of the terrorist attack. mfa arab terrorist attacks


Year 1955


K



Jan 2, 1955 - Terrorists killed two hikers in the Judean Desert.

Mar 24, 1955 - Terrorists threw hand grenades and opened fire on a crowd at a wedding in the farming community of Patish, in the Negev. A young woman was killed, and eighteen people were wounded in the attack.

April 1 

Greek Cypriot EOKA terrorist campaign for independence begins with a series of bomb explosions around British controlled Cyprus.

Kashmir Princess was a chartered Lockheed L-749A Constellation aircraft owned by Air India. On 11 April 1955, it was damaged in midair by a bomb explosion and crashed into the South China Sea while en route from Bombay, India, and Hong Kong to Jakarta, Indonesia.[1] Sixteen of those on board were killed, while three survived.[2]The target of the assassination was the Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai.[3 Investigators believed that the explosion had been caused by a time bomb placed aboard the aircraft by a Kuomintang secret agent who was attempting to assassinate Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, who had been scheduled to board the plane to attend the conference but had changed his travel plans at the last minute.[2]


August 20

Several dozen French civilians killed in the Philipevelle area of Algiers, Algeria, by FLN guerrillas. French security forces stage retaliatory attacks on Algerian civilians.

Beit Hanan attack August 29, 1955, a Palestinian Fedayeen squad carried out a shooting attack in Israel near the village Beit Hanan. Four Israeli civilians were killed in the attack and 10 additional people were injured.

October 17 

Five French soldiers and eight civilians killed in shooting attacks by Arab nationalist guerillas in Algeria. 

Year 1956



  • Mass murder in 1956


  • Terrorist incidents in 1956 (all against Israeli jews) 


    • 1956 Eilat bus ambush on an Egged bus traveling from Tel-Aviv to Eilat on August 16, 1956. The Israeli civilian bus was ambushed by a Fedayeen squad on August 16, 1956. Four passengers were killed and three were injured. escorted by an IDF military vehicle, was attacked by gunfire as it passed Be'er Menucha. Three Israeli soldiers and a female civilian were killed. In addition, three civilian passengers were injured.[1]
    • Ein Ofarim killings 12 September 1956, a Palestinian Fedayeen squad infiltrated into Israel from Jordan. The militants reached the Ein Ofarim facility near the village Hatzeva where they stabbed to death 3 Druze guardsmen . 13 Israeli paratroopers participated in the counterattack codenamed Operation Shoshana in which they attacked the fortified Arendall station. During the operation 16 Jordanian soldiers were killed. IDF casualties in the operation included one dead soldier and 12 wounded soldiers. The police station was destroyed.

    N


    R



    February 29 

    New Greek Cypriot EOKA bombing campaign starts against British rule on Cyprus leading to destruction of British Hermes aircraft at Nicosia airport on 3 March and a Dakota on 27 April. Violence continues for four years until Cyprus is granted independence by Britain.

    Apr 7, 1956 - A resident of Ashkelon was killed in her home, when terrorists threw three hand grenades into her house.
    Two members of Kibbutz Givat Chaim were killed, when terrorists opened fire on their car, on the road from Plugot Junction to Mishmar Hanegev.
    There were further hand grenade and shooting attacks on homes and cars, in areas such as Nitzanim and Ketziot. One person was killed and three others wounded. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    The Shafrir synagogue shooting attack was an attack carried out by Palestinian terrorists on April 11, 1956. Two Palestinian militants who infiltrated to Israel from Jordan opened fire on a synagogue full of children and teenagers, in the farming community of Kfar Chabad (Shafrir), killing three children and a youth worker and injuring five, three of them seriously.[1]

    Apr 29, 1956 - Egyptians killed Roi Rotenberg, 21 years of age, from Nahal Oz.  mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Sept 12, 1956 - Terrorists killed three Druze guards at Ein Ofarim, in the Arava region. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Ramat Rachel shooting attack The Ramat Rachel shooting attack was a shooting attack carried out by Jordanian Legion soldiers, on September 23, 1956, who opened fire across the Israel/Jordan border on a group of Israeli archaeologists working inside Israeli sovereign territory near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. Four Jewish archaeologists were killed in the event and 16 others were wounded.

    Sept 24, 1956 - Terrorists killed a girl in the fields of the farming community of Aminadav, near Jerusalem.


    October 3 

    Wife of a British soldier shot on Cyprus while shopping by Greek Cypriot EOKA terrorists.

    Oct 4, 1956 - Five Israeli workers were killed in Sdom mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Thursday, 4 October 1956.  Negev desert road ambush  terrorist attack which occurred on squad of 10 armed Palestinian Fedayeen militants infiltrated Israel from Jordan. In broad daylight, the militants swooped down on two jeeps on the Sodom–Beer Sheva road  attacking the first vehicle with machine gun fire, killing all four of the passengers in the car.  Only one person, an American engineer who was driving the second car, managed to escape the incident Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency refers to the armed cross-border conflict, which peaked between 1949 and 1956, involving Israel and Palestinian militants, Emerging from among the Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their villages as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War,[2] in the mid-1950s the fedayeen began mounting cross-border operations into Israel from Syria, Egypt and Jordan

    Oct 9, 1956 - Two workers were killed in an orchard of the youth village, Neve Hadassah, in the Sharon region. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Nov 8, 1956 - Terrorists opened fire on a train, attacked cars and blew up wells, in the North and Center of Israel. Six Israelis were wounded. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Year 1957

    Feb 18, 1957 - Two civilians were killed by terrorist landmines, next to Nir Yitzhak, on the southern border of the Gaza Strip. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Mar 8, 1957 - A shepherd from Kibbutz Beit Govrin was killed by terrorists in a field near the Kibbutz. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Apr 16, 1957 - Terrorists infiltrated from Jordan, and killed two guards at Kibbutz Mesilot. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    May 20, 1957 - A terrorist opened fire on a truck in the Arava region, killing a worker. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    May 29, 1957 - A tractor driver was killed and two others wounded, when the vehicle struck a landmine, next to Kibbutz Kisufim. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    June 23, 1957 - Israelis were wounded by landmines, close to the Gaza Strip. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Aug 23, 1957 - Two guards of the Israeli Mekorot water company were killed near Kibbutz Beit Govrin. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    September 27 

    Political prisoners being flown from Santa Cruz to La Paz, Bolivia, take over the aircraft and force it to fly to Argentina, where they are granted political asylum. 

    December 12 

    Irish Republican Army attack British Army barracks at Armagh, Northern Ireland, but are repulsed after gun battle with guards.

    Dec 21, 1957 - A member of Kibbutz Gadot was killed in the Kibbutz fields. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Year 1958 

    Feb 11, 1958 - Terrorists killed a resident of Moshav Yanov who was on his way to Kfar Yona, in the Sharon area. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    February 24  Argentine motor racing champion Juan Manuel Fangio is kidnapped from a hotel lobby in Havana, Cuba, by terrorists of the Twenty Sixth of July Movement to stop him taking part in a race and to embarrass the Cuban government.  Twenty-Sixth of July Movement was the name given to the guerrilla campaign led by Fidel Castro, which overthrew the Batista government of Cuba on January 1, 1959.

    Apr 5, 1958 - Terrorists lying in ambush shot and killed two people near Tel Lachish. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    Apr 22, 1958 - Jordanian soldiers shot and killed two fishermen near Aqaba. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    May 26, 1958 - Four Israeli police officers were killed in a Jordanian attack on Mt. Scopus, in Jerusalem. mfa arab terrorist attacks

    June 27  Thirty US Marines kidnapped by Castro's Communist guerillas on Cuba, near the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay. All are eventually released unharmed.

    October 12, 1958: Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple of Atlanta, Georgia. The acts were carried out by white supremacists.

    November 1  Cuban airliner hijacked by the Twenty Sixth of July Movement and forced to attempt night landing in remote airfield in Cuba. The aircraft crashes killing seventeen of the twenty people

    December 1, 1958 95 killed Our Lady of the Angels School fire A fire broke out at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois, shortly before classes were to be dismissed for the day. The fire originated in the basement of the school near the foot of a stairway.  Ignition took place in a cardboard trash barrel located a few feet from the northeast stairwell. The fire smoldered undetected for approximately 20 minutes,  The elementary school was operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and had an enrollment of approximately 1600 students. A total of 92 pupils and 3 nuns ultimately died when smoke, heat, fire, and toxic gasses cut off their normal means of escape through corridors and stairways. Many more were injured when they jumped from second-floor windows which, because the building had a raised basement, were nearly as high as a third floor would be on level ground. The cause of the fire was never officially determined. In 1962, a boy who was a student at Our Lady of the Angels at the time of the fire, confessed to setting the blaze. At the time of the fire, he was 10 years old and in fifth grade. A family court judge later concluded the evidence was insufficient to substantiate the confession. Officially, the cause of the fire remains unknown. Arsonist Alan Norcutt claimed he had accidentally started the fire at Our Lady of the Angels, but he was never charged with the crime in juvenile court.on board.

    Year 1959



    Pages in category "Mass murder in 1959"
    National Airlines Flight 967 - suspected bombing in flight
    Jan 23, 1959 - A shepherd from Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan was killed in Israel

    Feb 1, 1959 - Three civilians were killed by a terrorist landmine near Moshav Zavdiel in Israel

    Hola massacre March 3, 1959 The Hola Massacre is an event that took place during the Mau Mau Uprising against British colonial rule at a colonial detention camp in Hola, Kenya.


    Hola massacre March 3, 1959 The Hola Massacre is an event that took place during the Mau Mau Uprising against British colonial rule at a colonial detention camp in Hola, Kenya.[1] On the awful morning of March 3, 1959, the detainees at Hola were divided into three groups. The first was sent to the kitchen. The second, of which I was a member, was sent to the dispensary for treatment. The third, comprising 88 young and reasonably healthy men, was taken for a work assignment. Each man was given a spade, a basin and a hoe, and then ordered to dig the soil. We had refused all along to perform this task, and the young men refused on that morning as well, just as the authorities knew they would. "Broken down into groups of five, the men were whipped and beaten up, whipped and whipped, until at least 11 of them died. None among the survivors escaped permanent injury "Inside the dispensary, we heard the most agonising and ghastly screams coming from these men. We had all heard screaming before, at Mariira and Mackinnon Road, at Manyani and Sayusi, at Athi River and Kajiado, at every concentration camp in Kenya. But never for as long, and with such awful intensity, as on that morning at Hola." We could not fight, yet we wanted to rise up and stop the slaughter, all of it deliberately being carried out on the bodies of defenceless men, as part of the colonial government’s 'rehabilitation' policy; the murders were committed on the orders of 'civilised' men, the representatives of the British Crown in Kenya.

    Apr 15, 1959 - A guard was killed at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel.

    Apr 27, 1959 - Two hikers were shot at close range and killed near Massada.

    August 6, 1959, Roseburg Oregon Dynamite Truck Explosion Accidental (?) detonation of 6.5 tons (13,000 lbs.) of explosives on August 7, 1959.  The blast blew a hole in the ground approximately 52 feet wide and 20 feet deep. George Rutherford of Chehalis, Washington drove a Pacific Powder Company truck loaded with 2 tons of dynamite and 4.5 tons of nitro carbo nitrate into downtown Roseburg.  After scheduling his first delivery for the following morning, Rutherford parked the truck in front of the Garretsen Building Supply Company, near the corner of Oak and Pine Streets, and retired for the night at the Umpqua Hotel.  During the night, the Garretsen building caught fire.  Alarms were sounded across the downtown shortly after 1:00 A.M., and within minutes firemen arrived on the scene to put out the blaze.  Unfortunately, the explosive-laden truck remained unnoticed by both onlookers and firemen alike until just moments before it detonated. The explosion and the ensuing fire destroyed all of the buildings within an 8-block area and did heavy damage to structures throughout the surrounding 30 blocks.  (Oregon Historical Society

    Sept 6, 1959 - Bedouin terrorists killed a paratroop reconnaissance officer near Nitzana. Israel

    Sept 8, 1959 - Bedouins opened fire on an army bivouac in the Negev, killing an IDF officer, Captain Yair Peled. Israel

    September 15, 1959. 1959 Texas Poe Elementary School Suitcase Dynamite Bombing Poe Elementary School bombing was a school bombing that occurred in Houston, Texas, United States on September 15, 1959. Six people, including the perpetrator and his own son, were killed. Paul Harold Orgeron, age 49, a tile-setter and ex-convict, had recently moved from Altus, Oklahoma to southern Houston, Texas with his seven-year-old son, Dusty Paul. According to Orgeron's ex-wife, Hazel, they divorced twice due to spousal abuse. Orgeron briefly rented at a nearby boarding house using the pseudonym Bob Silver. The landlord later said the father and son were quiet and had not caused any trouble. Orgeron attempted to enroll his son in second grade at Edgar Allan Poe Elementary School but was denied since he lacked birth and health certificates for his son. He left the school office claiming he would return the next day with the documents.  Minutes after leaving the school office, around 10:00 am, Orgeron and his son approached a teacher, Patricia Johnston, on the school playground, who had been gathering her second graders for their return to the classroom. Orgeron, carrying a brown suitcase, gave her two pieces of paper to read....When the Principal and the Custodian arrived, Orgeron ignored Doty's instructions to leave the school grounds. Then Orgeron detonated the suitcase which contained perhaps six sticks of dynamite. The explosion claimed six lives, including both Orgeron and his son; two students; custodian Montgomery and a teacher, Jennie Kolter. Of the eighteen injured, principal Doty suffered a broken leg, and two 7-year-olds each lost a leg.

    Nantou shooting The Nantou shooting was a mass murder that occurred in Nantou City, Taiwan on September 21, 1959, when 29-year-old army captain Li Hsing-ju killed ten people and wounded four others, before committing suicide. 10 killed 4 wounded 1959 Nantou Taiwan Army Captain Scorned Lover Mass Shooting Apparent domestic-motivated incident. The Nantou shooting was a mass murder that occurred in Nantou City, Taiwan on September 21, 1959, when 29-year-old army captain Li Hsing-ju killed ten people and wounded four others, before committing suicide. Li had fallen in love with 19-year-old Lu Mu-sheng, who rejected his advances and became engaged with her neighbour Yu Chuang Sheng, while he was stationed on the Quemoy islands. When Li returned home Lu introduced him to another girl, proposing that he should marry her instead. Lu Mu-sheng and Yu Chuang Sheng were about to get married on the day of the shooting. In the early hours of September 21, at approximately 2 a.m., Li broke into the house of Lu Mu-sheng and her family, carrying with him ***two rifles***[like a terrorist?]. He fatally shot Lu's father, her 10-year-old sister, her two brothers, aged 14 and 6 years, as well as her 30-year-old fiance with a semi-automatic rifle, and then dragged her outside and critically wounded her with shots to the chest and leg. Li also fired at two neighbours who came to investigate, killing one and wounding the other, and subsequently entered a second-storey apartment 50 yards away, where the girl Miss Lu had introduced him to lived together with her family. There he killed the girl's parents, her brother, and one of her sisters, and wounded herself and another sister of hers. When police arrived at the scene and asked him to surrender, Li committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. (had nothing to do with communists, at least at the surface)

    Oct 3, 1959 - A shepherd from Kibbutz Heftziba was killed near Kibbutz Yad Hana.


    November 9, 1959 Subic Bay, Philippines Arson Fire in the pump room of USS MIDWAY. Arson is blamed for the incident.

    November 16, 1959 National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C,[1] was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft that disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16, 1959. All 42 onboard were presumed killed in the accident. Bomb explosion in mid-air was suspected but not proven. the Clearfield, Pennsylvania, Progress speculated in its Nov. 17, 1959, edition that the aircraft may have been brought down by a bomb: "Was there an explosion aboard the National Airlines DC-7B liner that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico Monday with 42 persons aboard? If there was, did it come before or after the crash? Members of the party hunting in the shark-infested waters for bodies believe there was an explosion. But they don't agree on when it occurred. Lt. James L. Sigman, executive officer of the Coast Guard air detachment at New Orleans, said the wreckage was spread over a comparatively small area of two to three miles. This indicated to him that the explosion took place after the plane hit the water. But two Air Force fliers who spent four hours over the scene said because the wreckage was so scattered it seemed to them the plane exploded in the air." One passenger, William Taylor, had boarded the flight using a ticket issued to Robert Vernon Spears, a convicted criminal working at the time as a naturopath. The theory arose that Spears, who had befriended Taylor in prison, tricked Taylor into boarding the flight with a piece of luggage containing a bomb. When the aircraft was destroyed, authorities would assume that Spears had himself been a victim and his wife would be able to collect on his life insurance. However, Taylor chose to purchase his own life insurance at the airport before departure; when his ex-wife applied to collect, the deception was discovered. Spears disappeared after the accident but was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona with Taylor's car. He was charged with unlawful possession of an automobile but due to lack of evidence was never charged in the alleged bombing of Flight 967. Spears died in Baylor Medical Center, Dallas on May 2, 1969 of coronary thrombosis.[2] There was absolutely no evidence of any connection between Spears and the accident.

    December 19, 1959, Walker family murders The Walker family murders is an unsolved murder of two parents and two children which took place on December 19, 1959, in Osprey, Florida. Authorities believe that 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived at the family's farm home around 4pm on Saturday, December 19, 1959, and was raped and shot by intruders.[1] Her husband Cliff, 25, then arrived, and was shot to death. Their three-year-old son Jimmie was also shot, and Debbie, a month shy of her second birthday, was shot and drowned in a bathtub.[2][3] News stories at the time noted that there were gifts around the Christmas tree.[4] Physical evidence left at the scene included a bloody cowboy boot, a cellophane strip from a Kools Cigarette wrapper, and a fingerprint on the bathtub faucet handle.[5]  A serial killer named Emmett Monroe Spencer subsequently confessed to the murders, but the confession was discredited by Sarasota County Sheriff Ross Boyer, who labeled Spencer a pathological liar.[6]

    1960s: 1960 to 1969 ---

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