DOOMED EDMUND FITZGERALD CAPTAIN BORN SAME YEAR AS TITANIC DISASTER

Captain Ernest Michael McSorley, a skilled and seasoned veteran of the Great Lakes, commanded the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald on its final voyage in November 1975.

Born the same year as the 1912 Titanic disaster, McSorley worked his way up the ranks from deckhand to the youngest captain on the Great Lakes - and the Fitzgerald was his tenth command.

The largest iron ore carrier on the Great Lakes carried a 26,000-ton load of taconite pellets from Wisconsin toward Detroit.

Winds with the force of a hurricane battered Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975 - fatally flooding and shifting the Fitzgerald's cargo.

In his final radio message, McSorley was hopeful, saying: "We are holding our own."

Moment later, the Fitzgerald was gone - snapping in two on the lake floor near the mouth of Whitefish Bay. McSorley and his crew of 28 never had a chance. Their bodies were never recovered but the ship's bell was eventually retrieved.

'ACE BAD MAN' JOHN DILLINGER, PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1, GETS HIS

Editor's Note: This is a classic account of the death of notorious gangster John Dillinger, dubbed Public Enemy No. 1, who was ambushed by federal agents on July 22, 1934, outside Chicago's Biograph theater. Dillinger was imprisoned several times and escaped twice. His gang was believed responsible for 24 bank heists during the Great Depression. Dillinger was also accused of gunning down a police officer.

By Jack Lait
International News Service

John Dillinger, ace bad man of the world, got his last night - two slugs through his heart and one through his head. He was tough and he was shrewd, but wasn't as tough and shrewd as the Federals, who never close a case until the end. It took twenty-seven of them to end Dillinger's career, and their strength came out of his weakness - a woman.

Dillinger was put on the spot by a tip-off to the local bureau of the Department of Justice. It was a feminine voice that Melvin H. Purvis, head of the Chicago office, heard. He had waited long for it.

It was Sunday, but Uncle Sam doesn't observe any NRA and works seven days a week.

The voice told him that Dillinger would be at a little third-run movie house, the Biograph, last night - that he went there every night and usually got there about 7:30. It was almost 7:30 then. Purvis sent out a call for all men within reach and hustled all men on hand with him. They waited more than an hour. They knew from the informer that he must come out, turn left, turn again into a dark alley where he parked his Ford-8 coupe.

Purvis himself stood at the main exit. He had men on foot and in parked inconspicuous cars strung on both sides of the alley. He was to give the signal. He had ascertained about when the feature film, Manhattan Melodrama, would end. Tensely eying his wristwatch he stood. Then the crowd that always streams out when the main picture finishes came. Purvis had seen Dillinger when he was brought through from Arizona to Crown Point, Indiana, and his heart pounded as he saw again the face that has been studied by countless millions on the front pages of the world.

Purvis gave the signal. Dillinger did not see him. Public Enemy No. 1 lit a cigarette, strolled a few feet to the alley with the mass of middle-class citizens going in that direction, then wheeled left.

A Federal man, revolver in hand, stepped from behind a telegraph pole at the mouth of the passage. "Hello, John," he said, almost whispered, his voice husky with the intensity of the classic melodrama. Dillinger went with lightning right hand for his gun, a .38 Colt automatic. He drew it from his trousers pocket.

But, from behind, another government agent pressed the muzzle of his service revolver against Dillinger's back and fired twice. Both bullets went through the bandit's heart.

[Photos: Public Domian]

OUT IN LUXURY: JUMBO 'TINY' MANZO, RIDDLED BY BULLETS, STUFFED IN TRUNK OF HIS LINCOLN CONTINENTAL

North Jersey crime figure Albert "Tiny" Manzo was found murdered in the trunk of his car in August 1983. The case was never officially solved, but his death was widely considered a mob-style execution. 

Manzo's 375-pound naked frame was riddled with four bullets. The Paterson, New Jersey, restaurant owner's Lincoln Continental, which was parked outside a supermarket in Hillside, New Jersey. Manzo's arms and legs were bound in plastic, police said. His body was intact.

Some speculation suggested Manzo - who once ran for mayor of Paterson - had been skimming money from a mob-controlled casino on Staten Island along with a Gambino family associate. The case went cold.

WHEN MOSA LINA LOST HER SMILE - AND FOUND HER WAY HOME

Italian art thief Vincenzo Peruggia snatched Leonardo di Vinci's famed Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight in 1911 and hid it for two years in Italy.

The scene above shows officials inspecting the work after its recovery in Florence.

The thief had worked briefly at the famed museum - scene of another spectacular theft of artifacts in October 2025.

Sent to prison, Peruggia was quoted as saying he committed the spectacular crime for patriotic reasons. "I am an Italian and I do not want the picture given back to the Louvre." He later joined the Italian Army.  

Reporting on the theft, the United Press said: "The picture was seen in its place at noon and shortly afterward it was noted that its place was vacant."

[Photo: Public Domain]

NEW EVIDENCE DESTROYS LEGEND OF 'WALKING TALL' SHERIFF BUFORD PUSSER

In a stunning turn of history, prosectors allege legendary Tennessee lawman Buford Pusser killed his wife almost 60 years ago.

If Pusser, who died in a mysterious car crash in 1974, were alive today, there would be probable cause to bring an indictment.

Fresh evidence suggests Pusser, a rural county sherif, staged the crime to look as though he and his wife had been ambushed - a version of events that inspired the hit movie "Walking Tall" about Pusser's one-man war on organized crime.

Modern forensic tests determined Pauline Pusser, who died in 1967, was a victim of domestic violence. 

[Photo: Wikipedia]

IT'S 'GENUINE WEIRDNESS': NO ANSWERS 80 YEARS AFTER DEADLY CHRISTMAS INFERNO

Early on Christmas morning 1945, a suspicious fire destroyed the home of George Sodder, his wife Jennie and nine of their children in Fayetteville, West Virginia. 

The parents and four children escaped. Remains of the other children were never found. Firemen concluded they were dead.

However, strange findings and strong doubt led the parents to conclude their children were still alive - kidnapped perhaps - and they began a search for clues, even erecting a billboard and offering a reward.

The mystery has never been solved.

Journalist Stacy Horn, who reported on the 60th anniversary of the blaze, said: "There is enough genuine weirdness about this whole thing ... that if someday it is learned that the children did not die in the fire, I won't be shocked."

Around 1 a.m. Mrs. Sodder was awoken by a telephone call from a laughing woman she didn't recognize. Later, the children reported a loud noise on the roof.  The flames then followed.

Firemen found no remains. Experts said bone fragments typically survive - even at extreme temperatures - casting doubt on a fire chief's claim that the blaze was hot enough to incinerate the children.

The family's telephone line, which went dead when the fire started, had been cut - not burned. 

A ladder George Sodder kept near the home was missing, leaving him helpless as the flames roared. His trucks wouldn't start when he tried to drive for help. The fire department never arrived until the house was gone.

Witnesses reported seeing the missing Sodder children, including a waitress at a highway restaurant who said she served them breakfast on Christmas morning.

Finally, in 1968, the Sodders received a photograph in the mail of a man resembling their son, Louis, bearing a cryptic message - that led nowhere.

BOMB PLANTED BY HIJACKERS KILLED NEW YORK COP - ON THE OTHER 9/11

Brian J. Murray, 28, a member of the New York City police bomb squad, was killed disarming a device planted in a locker at Grand Central Station by terrorists who proceeded to La Guardia Airport and hijacked a Chicago-bound jetliner to Paris.

The terrorists represented a Croatian nationalist organization. The date was Sept. 11, 1976.

The bomb was taken to a police firing range.

"After setting a cutting instrument on the two wires attached to the device, the officers retreated from the pit for several minutes," Wikipedia said. "When they returned to the pit to continue dismantling the device, it exploded."

Shrapnel slashed Murray's neck. The blast injured three other officers. At Murray's funeral, a priest said from the pulpit: "Brian died because of anger, hatred and violence.”

The terrorists surrendered in Paris and went to prison. Murray left behind a wife and two children.