June 11th
On This Day
June 11
1981
Essei Sagawa was a Japanese man who was studying at the Sorbonne Academy in Paris. He was born to a wealthly family and traveled to Paris because he was interested in what Sagawa called "western" women and culture.
Renee was a 25 year old
Dutch woman who was also studying at the Sorbonne Academy in Paris,
France. She was tall, beautiful, and intelligent. She spoke three
languages and was working on obtaining a PhD in French literature. During her
studies she crossed paths with Sagawa. Sagawa asked Renee to tutor him in
German, she agreed. Sagawa was small and unattractive; his stature gave Renee a
false sense of security.
On the night of June 11th, Renee went over to Sagawa’s apartment. She sat down at his desk; turning her back to someone she thought she could trust. He then shot her in the back of her neck with a shot gun.z
He passed out after he
shot her, due to the shock of actually pulling the trigger. When he awakened he
began to carry out the rest of his plan.
Renee was tall and
beautiful, a sharp contrast to the small and unsightly man that just took her
life. Sagawa had developed an obsession with the girl, thinking that she could
fill him, if only he consumed her.
Essei undressed her,
violated her corpse, and processed to cut up her body to eat her. Over the next
two days he cooked and ate portions of her body. He attempted to put her
remains in suitcases and dump her body into a lake. He was seen struggling
carrying the cases down to the water, which lead to his arrest.
He was sent back to his
home country of Japan where he did not have to stand trial for his crimes. He
was committed to a mental institution where he checked himself out of in August of
1986. He has been free ever since. Japanese culture was fascinated with Sagawa,
turning him into a celebrity. He has written books and appeared in films and documentaries.
He is still alive and walking around a free man.
Sources
Blanco, J. I. (n.d.).
Retrieved April 16, 2018, from http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sagawa-issei.htm
My Favorite Murder Podcast by Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff
May 2nd
On
This Day
May 2nd
1995
On this day in 1995, Sherry
Kay Jones is at her home in Paris, Texas. Sherry is 40 years old and lives in a
home with her mother, Edith Jones. During the early morning, Sherry and Edith
reportedly hear a dog barking outside. Sherry decided to go investigate; it
probably wasn't much that set the dog off. As she opened the door, Anzel Keon
Jones appeared.
Jones is a 17 year old who
attends North Lamar High, a local high school in Paris. He was the receiver and
running back on the football team and competed in many events on the track
team. He had average grades; he kept them up enough to participate in school
sports. His mother provided a middle class lifestyle for Anzel and his sister.
Jones catches the door as it
swings open, before Sherry can figure out what is happening, he
pushes her back into the house. He puts a knife up to her throat and Sherry and
her mother quickly offer Jones their material belongings. Jones had his choice
between two cars, as well as 125 dollars offered to him in exchange for their
safety. He took the money, but that was not the reason he entered the home.
Sherry and Edith would soon find out the reason for the visit.
Using a kitchen knife, Jones stabbed
Sherry 8 times and slit her throat. Then, he quickly turned his attention to
Edith. He sexually assaulted her, and slit her throat as well. Anzel found
a bottle of nail polish remover in the home, dumped the contents of the bottle
around the house and ignited a flame. He tossed the bottle in the home and
returned back to his house. Upon returning home, he showered and dressed
himself for school. Because he committed the crime in the early morning hours,
his mother had not noticed that he even left the house before school.
In Jones' attempt to destroy
the evidence, he lit a flame that actually ended up drawing attention to the
house promptly after he left. Edith was discovered in enough time that she
survived the attack. Sherry's injuries were too severe and she died on the
scene.
Jones was arrested 10 days
later. The nail polish remover used to light the fire had his fingerprints on
the bottle. On June 3rd 1996, he was convicted of Capital Murder and
sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. He has never given
an explanation for the attack.
April 20th
On This Day
April 20
2009
William Michael Parente, born July 20th
1949, was a New York attorney who began his own practice in 1988. He used his
practice to manage large investments. Over the years he built a 20 million
dollar Ponzi scheme by creating what he called “bridge loans”. He took money
from investments and loaned that money out. When investors asked Parente for
their money back out of their investments, he began writing bad checks. Nearly
half a million dollars worth of bad checks prompted the FBI to open an
investigation into Parente and his Ponzi scheme.
 |
| William Parente |
On April 20th, 2009, William, Betty, and Catherine drove to visit Stephanie
near her college in Baltimore. It wasn’t uncommon for the Parentes to drive down
to visit Stephanie. William, Betty, and Catherine checked into the Sheraton
hotel in Towson. Stephanie would be making the 5 mile drive from her college to the hotel later in the day.
When the family did not check out
during their check out time, the hotel staff entered the Parente’s room.
The female bodies were lying on the bed, while William Parente was lying on the floor of the bathroom. William’s fatal wounds were
clearly self-inflicted with a knife. It was later discovered that Betty was the first to be
killed by her husband, then Catherine, and then Stephanie. Stephanie had most
likely arrived to the hotel room after her mother and sister had already been
murdered. Betty, Catherine and Stephanie were killed by asphyxiation and blunt
force trauma.
While there is
no clear motive for why Parente murdered his wife and two children before
committing suicide, I believe that he did not want his family to know the truth.
Parente would rather kill his family than for them to find out the life they were
living was not due to his hard work, but rather a Ponzi scheme that was
crumbling beneath his feet.
Sources:
Blanco, J. I.
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://murderpedia.org/male.P/p/parente-william.htm
About Me
Hi! I'm a 24 year old Murderino. I have a BS in Psychology from Arizona State University. True crime has always been an interest of mine, I have watched far too many hours of the Investigation Discovery channel and fill my driving time with true crime podcasts. If you have any questions about me, ask me in the comments below!
Blog Kick Off in Murder Season
Hello,
I wanted to create this blog to share my obsession with true crime. I have always found it to be especially sinister when I hear about a crime that happened in previous years on same day that I was hearing about it. Was I alive when this happened? What was I doing while this horrible crime was taking place? The thought of "on this day X number of years ago this horrific event was taking place", leaves a specific feeling that resonates with me through out the day.
I thought I would kick this blog off in April, which has been dubbed "murder season" by mass murder researchers. The mass killings at Columbine High School (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), and Boston Marathon (2013) all took place in April, among many other.
Stay tuned for the very first "On This Day" post. Coming April 20th.
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