James Robert Baker (1946 - 1997)

James Robert Baker was born in Long Beach, California and raised in what he considered a “stifling, Republican Southern Californian household”. Rebelling against his parents, he became attracted to the fringe elements of society, including beatniks (anyone living as a bohemian, acting rebelliously, or appearing to advocate a revolution in manners), artists and gays. In […]

David Bairstow (1951 - 1998)

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, David Bairstow excelled at school in several sports, and he played football several times for Bradford City, but eventually he settled on cricket, and played his first county match against Gloucestershire in 1970 after taking an A-level at 6am in order to play. He played for Yorkshire throughout his career, and captained […]

Gene Wilder (1933 - 2016)

Gene Wilder Gene Wilder was one of America’s foremost comic actors known by all generations for his performances in such classics as ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ (1971), ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974) and ‘Stir Crazy’ (1980). He studied theater at the University of Iowa, then studied Shakespeare at the Bristol Old Vic Theater School in […]

John King (1909 - 1987)

John King (born Miller McLeod Everson, July 11, 1909 – November 11, 1987) was a singer and film actor renowned for his Westerns particularly the Range Busters series. Everson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Everson travelled the country working a variety of jobs, such as chauffeuring motorcars from Detroit […]

Budd Boetticher (1916 - 2001)

Budd Boetticher was born in Chicago, raised in Evansville in southwest Indiana, and was a star athlete at Ohio State University. After college he traveled to Mexico, where he learned the art of bullfighting. A chance encounter with Rouben Mamoulian landed him his first film job, as technical advisor on Blood and Sand (1941). He […]

Phil Karlson (1908 - 1985)

Phil Karlson (born Philip N. Karlstein; July 2, 1908 – December 12, 1985) was an American film director. Karlson directed 99 River Street, Kansas City Confidential and Hell’s Island all with actor John Payne in the early 1950s. Other films include Rocky (1948), The Texas Rangers (1951), The Phenix City Story (1955), 5 Against the House […]

Johnny Lewis (1983 - 2012)

Johnny Lewis began making television appearances while in his late teens, with guest starring roles in Boston Public (2000), The Guardian (2001), and American Dreams (2002), among others. His debut feature film performance premiered in 2004, in New Line Cinema’s Raise Your Voice, and he followed that up with Miramax Films’ Underclassman in 2005. He […]

Sherry Britton (1918 - 2008)

Sherry Britton (July 28, 1918 – April 1, 2008) was an American burlesque performer of the 1930s and early 1940s. The 5-foot-3-inch (1.60 m) Britton had an 18-inch (46 cm) waist, and was once said to have a “figure to die for.” She got her stage name from a liquor store on a bottle of […]

Diane Arbus (1923 - 1971)

Diane Arbus was born Diane Nemerov to David Nemerov and Gertrude Russek Nemerov, a Jewish couple who lived in New York City and owned Russek’s, a famous Fifth Avenue department store. Because of her family’s wealth, Arbus was insulated from the effects of the Great Depression while growing up in the 1930s. Her father became […]

Doris Angleton (1951 - 1997)

Doris Angleton was the first child born to Randy McGown, a Dow Chemical engineer, and his wife, Ann. She grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, and had one sibling, a younger brother, Steven McGown. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in speech pathology. After graduation, she began a career as a […]

Forrest Anderson (1913 - 1989)

Forrest Anderson (January 30, 1913 – July 20, 1989) was an American politician and judge who served as the 17th governor of Montana from 1969 to 1973. Forrest Anderson was born in Helena, Montana. He was graduated from the University of Montana Law School and the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. He married Margaret […]

Jeff Alm (1968 - 1993)

Jeff Alm (March 31, 1968 – December 14, 1993) was an American football player who played defensive tackle for the Houston Oilers of the National Football League. According to a witness, Jeff Alm and his best friend, Sean P. Lynch, had dinner at a Houston-area steakhouse on December 13, 1993. At 2:45 a.m. Central Standard Time […]

Leonard Lake (1945 - 1985)

Leonard Lake was born in San Francisco, California. His parents separated when he was 6 years old, after which he and his siblings were sent to live with their maternal grandmother. He was reportedly a bright child, but had an obsession with pornography that stemmed from taking nude photos of his sisters, apparently with the […]

Don Lapre (1964 - 2011)

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Don Lapre moved to Phoenix, Arizona with his family when he was a child. He married Sally Redondo in 1988. A high-school dropout, in 1990, Lapre and his wife started a credit repair business called Unknown Concepts. Lapre then began selling a 36-page booklet explaining how to recover a Federal […]

Philip Loeb (1891 - 1955)

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philip Loeb first performed in a high school production of Lady Gregory’s The Workhouse Ward. He served in the Army, then worked as stage manager of The Green Goddess. His stage career gained strength in the early 1920s when he became associated with the newly formed Theatre Guild in New York […]

Mark Linkous (1962 - 2010)

Shortly after graduating from high school in the early 1980s, Mark Linkous moved to New York City, where he co-founded the band Dancing Hoods. The band featured Linkous on guitar and vocals, Bob Bortnick on vocals and guitar, Don Short on drums, and Eric Williams on bass. In 1984, the group released a self-titled EP; […]

Chris Lighty (1968 - 2012)

Chris Lighty got his start in the music industry by carrying vinyl record crates for DJ Red Alert. Then Russell Simmons’ company, Rush Management, hired him. Lighty founded a management company in the early 1990s called Violator; the company is named after the gang he belonged to in the Bronx. Violator was responsible for getting […]

Luis Vigoreaux (1928 - 1983)

Luis Vigoreaux joined Ramón Rivero “Diplo” and José Luis Torregrosa for the radio comedy El Tremendo Hotel. This radio slot enjoyed a large audience for years, and Vigoreaux continued to work as a comedian. Between 1954 and 1955, he joined fellow comedian José Miguel Agrelot in a theater show that took them to many Latin American […]

Hiram Bithorn (1916 - 1951)

Hiram Bithorn played winter ball for his home team Senadores de San Juan. When San Juan manager Juan Torruella resigned only two weeks into the 1938 season, the Senadores chose 22-year-old Bithorn as their new skipper, making him the youngest manager in Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League history. Within three years, Bithorn was pitching at […]

George Seman (1930 - 1966)

George Seman was born in Morann, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania to Susan and Andrew Seman. He had three brothers and four sisters. After high school, he worked in the local coal mines for a short time, before leaving to work in the Chrysler Lynch Road Assembly Plant in Detroit. In 1950, while making a trip back […]

Rodney Pocceschi (1969 - 2003)

Rodney Pocceschi, a Pennsylvania native, was a 1992 graduate of Bloomsburg University, with a degree in criminal science. After college he served with the Bloomsburg University Police Department and the Nescopeck Police Department. He joined the Virginia Beach Police Department on August 2, 1999. In 2001, Rodney Pocceschi received a special commendation for helping with a […]

Oran Pape (1904 - 1936)

Oran Pape was appointed to the newly formed Iowa Highway Patrol (later Iowa State Patrol) in August 1935, one of the first men to become an officer in the Patrol. On April 28, 1936, Pape was patrolling U.S. Highway 61 near Muscatine, Iowa. He noticed a car that had been reported stolen. After pulling the […]

Ed Masterson (1852 - 1878)

Ed Masterson was born in Henryville in Canada East. In the early 1850s, his family moved to the area about Wichita, Kansas. Ed Masterson, as reported by those who knew him, never possessed the characteristic personality of his more famous brother, Bat Masterson, or his other brother James. He was killed by gunfire while trying […]

Walter Auble (1862 - 1908)

Walter Auble (November 26, 1862 – September 9, 1908) was the police chief in Los Angeles, California, on a one-year appointment from November 1905 to 1906. He was born in 1862 in Illinois and was killed in a shooting on September 9, 1908. He was only the third Los Angeles Police Department officer killed in […]

Fred Beell (1876 - 1933)

Fred Beell was born in West Prussia, Province of Prussia. When he was three years old, his family migrated to the United States, settling in Marshfield, Wisconsin. He attended Immanual Lutheran School as a child, and at the age of fourteen he began working at the Upham mill in Marshfield. Beell joined the United States […]

Jacob Chestnut (1940 - 1998)

Jacob Chestnut (April 28, 1940 – July 24, 1998), one of the two United States Capitol Police officers killed in the line of duty on July 24, 1998, was the first African American to lie in honor in the United States Capitol. Chestnut is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His funeral included a speech by […]

Gail Cobb (1950 - 1974)

Gail Cobb, a single mother, gave birth to a son, Damon Demetrius Cobb, on February 26, 1970. Her son’s father, whom Cobb had met in high school, took no responsibility for his son, and Cobb ended up trying to raise him on her own. Cobb’s son is currently serving a life sentence in prison at […]

Leslie Coffelt (1910 - 1950)

Leslie WCoffelt (August 15, 1910 – November 1, 1950) was an officer of the White House Police, who was killed while defending U.S. President Harry S. Truman against an armed attack on November 1, 1950 at Blair House, where the president was living during renovations at the White House. Leslie Coffelt was wounded during the assassination […]

William Buckley (1928 - 1985)

During the Korean War, William Buckley served as a company commander with the 1st Cavalry Division. Next, he returned to Boston University and completed his studies, graduating with a degree in Political Science. It was during this time that Buckley began his first employment with the Central Intelligence Agency, from 1955 to 1957. He was […]

Dan Mitrione (1920 - 1970)

Dan Mitrione was a police officer in Richmond, Indiana, from 1945 to 1947 and joined the FBI in 1959. In 1960, he was assigned to the US State Department’s International Cooperation Administration, going to South American countries to teach “advanced counterinsurgency techniques.” A. J. Langguth, a former New York Times bureau chief in Saigon, claimed […]