1924: Cop killer attempts prison escape, caught and executed
Philip Hartman knew he needed to pay for his crime and that he would have to pay the ultimate price. “Fight the case? No, I am guilty of the charges. I made my mistake. I am sorry,” the 24-year-old Hartman told reporters after he was arrested for murder and bank robbery. After robbing the Abbottstown State Bank on October 14, 1924, Hartman had shot Private Francis Haley of the Pennsylvania State Police shortly thereafter. Haley had died almost instantly on the highway where he had fallen from his motorcycle, becoming the 11th state trooper to die in the line of duty. Following an intensive two-day manhunt, Hartman surrendered to police in Reading and was returned to the Adams County Jail to await his trial. Hartman spoke to reporters, “In broken phrases, like a man repenting a wrong deed, struggling in Read more…
King Richard III's skeleton found under a parking lot
King Richard III’s skeleton was found under a Leicester, England, parking lot. When I read this story the first time, I was amazed. For all the importance placed on royalty in England, how could this happen with an English king? I mean, how do you misplace a king? The skeleton was discovered in August 2012 when the ground was excavated in a city council parking lot. The bones were taken to the University of Leicester where they underwent DNA testing to confirm that they matched that of members of the Royal Family. With the confirmation, the bones will be reinterred in the Leicester Cathedral. The bones were carbon dated to between 1455 and 1540 and were from a man in his late 20s or early 30s. The skeleton also had 10 injuries with two that were potentially fatal. Richard III Read more…
Real-life Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein found
Ten years ago researchers found bodies off the coast of Scotland that were dated to be about 3,000 years old. At first what interested the researchers was that some of the bodies were mummified, which marked the oldest mummification of corpses outside of Egypt. Then they noticed that the bones looked odd. For instance, the male skeleton had arthritis in its neck vertebrae but nowhere else on the spine. Also, the lower jaw had all its teeth, but there were none in the upper jaw. So researchers tested the bones and found out that the skeleton was made up of the torso and limbs of one man, the skull and neck of another, and the lower jaw from a third, possibly a woman. Likewise, a woman’s skeleton was similarly composed of the bones of three different people. The lower jaw, Read more…
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