On this day in 1957, “Mad Bomber” George Metesky confessed to planting over 30 explosives around New York City. Guest hosted by Sam Dingman from Family Ghosts.

On this day in 1793, the 38-year-old former King of France, Louis XVI, was executed by guillotine in Paris.

On this day in 1981, 52 American hostages were released from Iran after being held captive for 444 days.

On this day in 1919, gangster Arnold Rothstein held a high stakes dice game in a New York City apartment.

On this day in 1967, Albert DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison for armed robbery and the sexual assault of four women. DeSalvo is most notorious, however, for confessing to the brutal Boston Strangler murders.

On this day in 1977, 36-year-old Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad. He was the first person executed by the state after capital punishment was reinstated in the U.S.

On this day in 1935, the FBI killed outlaw Ma Barker, and her son Fred, in a 4-hour shootout.

On this day in 1976, 45-year-old Sara Jane Moore was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

On this day in 1975, 17-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle was abducted from her home in the village of Highley, England.

On this day in 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted from a supermarket parking lot in Arlington, Texas, and murdered.

On this day in 1995, 34-year-old Qubilah Shabazz was arrested for plotting to assassinate Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. She was allegedly seeking revenge for the 1965 assassination of her father, Malcolm X.

On this day in 1965, 15-year-olds Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt were murdered on the sand dunes off Wanda Beach, in south Sydney, Australia.

On this day in 1983, New York mobster Roy DeMeo was shot seven times and left dead in the trunk of his own car.

On this day in 1905, a calvary of armed Russian soldiers fired into a crowd of peaceful protestors outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

On this day in 1937, the mutilated body of 19-year-old Pamela Werner was found outside the walls of old Peking, China.

On this day in 1973, 23-year-old Mark Essex shot 19 people in New Orleans, Louisiana—many of them police officers.

On this day in 1994, Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted after a practice session in Detroit, Michigan.

On this day in 1996, Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash was assassinated by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency.

On this day in 1990, Charles Stuart, a Boston man suspected of killing his pregnant wife, committed suicide by jumping off the Tobin Bridge into the piercing cold of the Mystic River.

On this day in 1980, Joy Adamson, famed Austrian wildlife conservationist, was found dead by her assistant.

On this day in 1800, the body of 22-year-old Elma Sands was discovered in the Manhattan Well.

On this day in 1934, Alcatraz Island began its formal transformation from a benign military brig into one of the most notorious federal prisons in the country.

On this day in 1964, 27-year-old Peter Egan, his 24-year-old wife Barbara Egan, and his 19-year-old brother Gerald Egan were murdered at a rest stop.

On this day in the year 2000, the Miyazawa family was slaughtered inside their home in the Setagaya Ward of Tokyo. Despite a large collection of available evidence, the murders have not been solved.

On this day in 1888, 7-year-old John Gill was found murdered about 200 miles north of London.