Worst thing that happened in your hometown when you were a kid?

[Tobra]

Probably when the F-86 at an airshow at Sacramento Executive Airport crashed into a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor and killed about 2 dozen kids for me.

[nostatic]

PSA flight 182 going down. I was in high school and remember seeing the smoke. My brother worked for PSA and was one of the first employees on-scene.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSA_Flight_182

[LakeCleElum]

Billy Ray had a 327 Chev. engine put in his Austin Healy, missed a curve and killed Paula Gillians older sister!

[dd74]

A Turkish Ambassador was machine gunned to death by two Armenian gunmen in my neighborhood. Ironically, this happened across the street from the hotel where Freddy Prince committed suicide.

[Rick Lee]

A brutal axe murder of a friend of ours in a town of 2700 people.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/betty_gore/1_index.html

We knew every single person in the town and for the two weeks it took to find the perp, everyone was pretty scared. This town was so tight knit in those days that the newspaper didn't bother writing about this case. We all knew what was going on long before the paper was printed each week. There was a movie about this one called "Murder in a Small Town". Brian Denehy was in it. I remember going in the house after the CSI had been there and seeing the parts of the floor they'd removed to determine if the murderer was left or right handed. This case had me pretty shaken up for a long time. A few years later when I got to the middle school, a book I had been assigned had once belonged to the victim. I got quite a chill when I saw her name written on the inside cover.

[bell]

it was pretty scary when i got my liscense in the town i grew up in, for everyone else i mean

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by nostatic

PSA flight 182 going down. I was in high school and remember seeing the smoke. My brother worked for PSA and was one of the first employees on-scene.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSA_Flight_182

good friend of mine's Dad was on that flight. They pulled Jim out of a Freshman Algebra class we were in together, took him to the dean's office to tell him. It was about 20 yards away from the window where I was. I could not imagine what they said to him, but figured it had to be bad judging by his reaction. I can remember his expression very clearly.

I was 8 when the Farrel's thing happened
http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Sabrejet_crash_site.htm

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by nostatic

PSA flight 182 going down. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSA_Flight_182

I lived 1.5 miles from the crash site. I'm on my way to a Doctor appt. at a hospital which was between where I was coming from and my house and I see smoke in the area of my neighborhood. I was concerned since my house was on a canyon and I suspected a BIG canyon fire.

Entered the hospital, people are acting stunned, some listening to portable radios. Got to my Dr.'s office, same situation. My doc called me in his office where he had a radio and I then found out what had happened just minutes before.

The newscaster, obviously shaken, was emotionally begging people to go donate blood. My doc just shook his head and said quietly "no need for that." In a stunned state myself then, I said "huh?" "There won't be any survivors" he said.

When I left the hospital I did not want to go to my house so I drove to a buddy’s in Mission Hills. He was a professional photographer who happened to keep a press pass current and he’d just returned home from the crash site. He’d gotten there along with the first fire trucks, ambulances and police and took many pictures, one of which was a primary shot in Time magazine.

Steve described the carnage he’d seen. Because people don’t like to fly facing aft, the seatbelts cut most of the passengers in half. Body parts were strewn over a wide area, some limbs up in trees and on roof tops. Some of the rescue workers were throwing up as they went through the scene. Many subsequently had long periods of psychiatric counseling to help them deal with the trauma caused by what they had witnessed.

A horribly tragic morning. Unfortunately, of course, my doctor was right.

[nostatic]

The weather was hot - it was a Santa Ana day, and I remember thinking I should have ditched school to go surf. My HS was about 10 miles as the crow flies from the crash. I saw the smoke in the morning and remember thinking, "there shouldn't be smoke coming from that part of town."

My brother never talked about the accident.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by nostatic

The weather was hot - it was a Santa Ana day, and I remember thinking I should have ditched school to go surf. My HS was about 10 miles as the crow flies from the crash. I saw the smoke in the morning and remember thinking, "there shouldn't be smoke coming from that part of town."

My brother never talked about the accident.

It was very hot. I was sure it was a canyon fire. This thread's brought it all back as if it was a week ago; funny how the mind suppresses some things, but never really forgets.

[m21sniper]

Worst thing that happened in your hometown when you were a kid?

Without question, MOVE.

[dd74]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Worst thing that happened in your hometown when you were a kid?

Without question, MOVE.

Aren't those the apartment buildings your old police chief, Willie Williams, who briefly became our chief, fire bombed? He was regarded as a real POS out here.

[Paul_Heery]

Gregore Sambor was the Police Commissioner when the Philadelphia police bombed 6221 Osage Avenue in 1985. The bomb , which contained C-4 and Tovex, was dropped on the row house from a helicopter. It ultimately burned down 62 houses in the neighborhood.

[red-beard]

Mary Beth Tinning was pretty bad (Murdered something like 4 of her babies)

We had the "Roach House" (Schenectady, NY)

And 30 students from my College, several I knew, were on Pan Am Flight 103

[VINMAN]

Growing up in NYC its tough to pick one bad incident!

But the one closest to home would have to be when I was living in Staten Island. A neighborhood girl was missing for about two weeks. She was 7 yrs old and mentaly retarded. People where searching for her all over. My scout troop was part of the search party. My neighborhood had alot of wooded areas. She was found buried in the woods on the grounds of an old mental hospital about 2 1/2 miles from where she lived. Turned out a neighbor that lived a few houses from her had kidnapped her, molested her and killed her.
During the time she was missing, everyones parents had us on lockdown.

[id10t]

The Gainesville Student Murders (Danny Rolling) happened when I was 18...

[Sunroof]

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

RICHARD SPECK

Richard Speck kills seven nurses with a knife and is on the loose in Chicago!!!!!

For a city of millions this one single event was heard on the radio 24-hours a day. With Speck on the loose, the city was collectively terrified! Mayor Daley came on the television to address the citizens and assure them he was going to be caught. Panic ensues...............he could be hiding in YOUR basement!!!!!

Finally, after a massive drag net, Speck is found in a downtown flop house - hotel and is caught.


CHICAGO WHITE SOX WIN PENNANT RACE (1959)

Chicago wins the American League Pennant in a night game in Chicago. So what does Mayor Daley do? He turns on every city Air-Raid Siren at 10 in the evening! Now, i ts 1959 folks and I am ducking under my seat in grade school with th e shades drawn twice a week in anticipation of Russian Bear bombers bombing Chicago!!

A war of the world scenario unfolds as several commit suicide thinking World War III started! My parents panic a bit but then realize the reality of the celebration. Daley apologizes to the city...............................utterly amazing.

Bob
73.5T

[charleskieffner]

bob crane "hogans heros" was murdered in downtown scottsdale(snobbsdale). still unsolved to this day. the classic "WHO DUN IT?"

[TerryBPP]

Bunches of horrible stories but one will always stand out to me.

1. 3 middle school kids (13 yrs old) decide to go camping. At the last minute there neighbor a 21 yr old nerd asked to tag along. They grab there camping equipment and head up the road. The 21 yr old buys them beer and everyone gets drunk, but the 21 yr old. He then goes and grabs a 9mm and executes 2 of the kids and shoots the other one 3 times. The surviving kid play dead until the neighbor leaves then crawls 2 miles to a house for help.

The 21 yr old said that the kids had made fun of him at one time and it was all premeditated. I think he got 10 yrs, should have gotten the chair. I played baseball with one of the deceased the night before.

[legion]

Marilyn Lemak killed her three young children and was found crying in the bathroom wearing her wedding dress with the kid's bodies...

http://www.newsday.com/topic/chi-990306lemak,0,1642584.story?page=2