1979
Events that took place in Fairfax County in 1979:
Contents
January
- January 20 – 68-year-old John B. Bell is fatally stabbed during a botched burglary by 18-year-old Douglas L. Simmons at the home of Bell's 82-year-old sister Mary at 2910 Hunter Mill Road in Oakton.[1][2][3]
- January 28 – 42-year-old Christopher Buckingham commits suicide after barricading himself in his Springfield home.[4]
February
- February 6 – Disregarding Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Horan's recommendation that she serve 25 years in prison, Judge Thomas J. Middleton instead sentences Betty M. Holler to life in prison for her role as an intermediary in the January 31, 1978 contract murder of George H. Scarborough.[5][6]
- February 12 – While searching for criminal suspect Kenneth E. King, Fairfax County Police Sergeant Walter D. Blankenship and Arlington County Police Corporal Kenneth Madden fatally shoot 21-year-old Stanley Hughes, who was unarmed and not a criminal suspect, at Hughes' mother's apartment at 3332 Lockheed Boulevard in Alexandria. King had committed suicide in the bedroom of the apartment, and when the police enter, they mistake Hughes for King and shoot him.[7]
March
- March 2 – 30-year-old Sandra L. Proctor is found shot to death in the trunk of a pink Cadillac parked near the Groveton police station in Alexandria.[8]
- March 5 – 36-year-old Winston M. Speaker shoots his 25-year-old estranged wife Beverly three times as she sits in her car outside her apartment at 7141 Groveton Gardens Road in Alexandria, then shoots himself in the head. Winston Speaker dies of his wound at the Mount Vernon Hospital the following day, while Beverly, wounded in the chest, head and side, lingers nearly a week before dying in the same hospital on March 12.[9][10][11]
- March 8 – 14-year-old Deborah L. Anwyll is stabbed to death in her home at 13164 Morning Spring Lane in the Greenbriar subdivision of Chantilly.[12][13]
- March 31 – 46-year-old Adrienne Kent Lamb fatally shoots her 47-year-old husband, retired Fairfax County Police officer Billy, to settle an argument in their home at 3213 Campbell Drive in Alexandria.[14][15]
May
- May 3 – Carroll D. Buracker is promoted to deputy chief of the Fairfax County Police Department, replacing the retiring Kenneth R. Wilson. Harry Sommers is promoted to commander of field operations, replacing Major Richard Lester, who also retired. Former Franconia District Station commander Al Barbee is named as Buracker's replacement as the head of the department's services bureau.[16]
- May 15 – 20-year-old Phillip Hall commits suicide with Fairfax County Police Officer Ray M. Clements' pistol in the psychiatric ward of the Fairfax Hospital. Officer Clements had been assigned to guard Hall, who became violent and snatched Clements' pistol during a struggle.[17]
- May 17 – Fairfax County Public Schools superintendent S. John Davis resigns to become the Virginia state superintendent of schools.[18]
- May 26 – 27-year-old paralegal Margaret E. Goehring is abducted, robbed, sexually assaulted and finally shot to death by William Brown, III in Falls Church.[19][20]
- May 29 – Rupert F. Pearson, Jr., beats up his girlfriend, Lynn Shifflett, at the Berkeley Square Apartments in Vienna, forcing her to admit her dalliance with 26-year-old John T. Lundmark. He forces Shifflett to call Lundmark, who shows up at the apartment and is fatally shot by Pearson. Lundmark is taken to the hospital, where he dies later that morning.[21][22]
June
- June 10 – William Paris fatally shoots 44-year-old Max Walls at his apartment at 6614 Boulevard View in Alexandria.[23]
July
- July 9 – 24-year-old Lucille L. Nett shoots and kills her 6-year-old son Todd, then turns the gun on herself in her home at 3123 Wayne Road in Falls Church.[24]
- July 22 – 62-year-old Robert E. Keating shoots his estranged 56-year-old wife Winifred, then commits suicide in the basement of their former home at 1814 Baldwin Drive in McLean.[25][26]
September
- September 13 – While stumbling home from a party, 16-year-old Lake Braddock sophomore Thomas M. Murphy is run over by at least three cars on Braddock Road and killed.[27][28]
- September 13 – Circuit Court Judge Barnard Jennings appoints Johanna L. Fitzpatrick to a six-year term as a substitute judge for the General District Court.[29]
- September 20 – 36-year-old William Paris is convicted of first-degree murder for shooting 44-year-old Max Walls at his apartment at 6614 Boulevard View in Alexandria on June 10.[30]
November
- November 16 – 25-year-old George Cooper is killed at the construction site of the Glenwood Manor townhouses in Springfield when the unshored 16-foot-deep trench he is helping to lay a sewer pipe in collapses, burying him under three feet of dirt. Despite frantic digging by rescue workers and other construction workers at the site, Cooper is dead by the time he is pulled out of the ground 75 minutes later.[31]
- November 19 – Superintendent of Orange County, Florida, Schools L. Linton Deck, Jr. is named as the new superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools system.[32]
December
- December 29 – Drunken 20-year-old U.S. Army Private Robert K. Yoshida, II and two of his equally drunken friends, Navy enlisted man Charles Lightener, Jr. and Bruce L. Irle, decide that the appropriate way to celebrate the holiday season is to set off ground burst artillery simulators at the homes of a few of their former high school friends. Yoshida and his buddies set off the flashlight-sized fireworks, which simulate both the whistle of an incoming artillery shell as well as its explosion upon landing, at 5117 Coleridge Drive and 5115 Holden Street in Fairfax and at 3447 Launcelot Way in Annandale.[33]
References
- ↑ "Man found Beaten to Death, Sister Injured in Va. Home." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Jan 22 1979. ProQuest. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.
- ↑ "Death of Oakton Man Said due to Stabbing." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Jan 23 1979. ProQuest. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.
- ↑ Jackman, Tom. "DNA Match Solves '79 Killing, but Suspect is Dead, Police Say." The Washington Post Jan 28 2009. ProQuest. Web. 2 Feb. 2017 .
- ↑ "Springfield Man Believed Suicide" Evening Star, 29 Jan. 1979, Two Star HOME FINAL, p. 61. NewsBank. Accessed 5 Jan. 2018.
- ↑ Bercovici, Liza. "Betty Holler Gets Life Term as Leniency Plea is Ignored." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Feb 07 1979. ProQuest. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
- ↑ Zon, Calvin "Court Hands Life Term to Betty Holler." Evening Star, 7 Feb. 1979, Two Star HOME FINAL, p. 59. NewsBank. Accessed 18 Feb. 2018.
- ↑ "Two Bullets Hit Man Killed by Police." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 12. Feb 15 1979. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877-1995). Web. 29 Sep. 2012.
- ↑ Zon, Calvin. "This Year's Four Unsolved Murders." Evening Star, 4 Apr. 1979, Two Star HOME FINAL, p. 66. NewsBank. Accessed 22 Nov. 2017.
- ↑ "Man Who Shot Self Dies; Wife Still Critical." Evening Star, 7 Mar. 1979, Two Star HOME FINAL, p. 64. NewsBank. Accessed 1 Nov. 2018.
- ↑ "Woman Shot By Her Husband Dies In Intensive Care Unit" Evening Star, 13 Mar. 1979, Two Star HOME FINAL, p. 57. NewsBank. Accessed 1 Nov. 2018.
- ↑ "Fairfax Woman Dies of Gunshot Wounds." The Washington Post (1974-Current file), Mar 13 1979, p. 1. ProQuest. Web. 1 Nov. 2018.
- ↑ Knight, Athelia. "Chantilly Girl is found Dead, Apparently a Stabbing Victim." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): B5. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877-1994). Mar 09 1979. Web. 19 Dec. 2011.
- ↑ "Fairfax Police Open Rumor Control Unit After Girls Slaying." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): A13. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877-1994). Mar 17 1979. Web. 19 Dec. 2011.
- ↑ Conway, Sharon. "Two Killed in Alexandria Shootings." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Apr 02 1979. ProQuest. Web. 21 Aug. 2016.
- ↑ "Wife is Charged in Shooting Death of Fairfax Officer." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Apr 18 1979. ProQuest. Web. 21 Aug. 2016.
- ↑ Knight, Athelia. "14-Year Veteran is Named Fairfax Deputy Police Chief." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. May 04 1979. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877-1995). Web. 1 Oct. 2012.
- ↑ Harden, Blaine. "Mental Patient, 20, Takes Guard's Gun and Kills Himself." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 2. May 16 1979. ProQuest. Web. 10 Nov. 2014 .
- ↑ Frankel, Glenn, and Ina Lee Selden. "Davis Gets High Va. Post." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 2. May 19 1979. ProQuest. Web. 26 Aug. 2014.
- ↑ "Arlington Woman Killed by Gunshot, Police Say." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. May 29 1979. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
- ↑ Pichirallo, Joe. "Man Charged in Slaying Last May of Justice Aide." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Feb 14 1980. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2014
- ↑ "Fairfax Man Slain, Suspect is Charged." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. May 30 1979. ProQuest. Web. 24 Aug. 2016.
- ↑ Pearson v. Commonwealth. 275 S.E.2d 893. Supreme Court of Virginia. 6 Mar. 1981. Justia. Justia, n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2016.
- ↑ White, Ronald D. "Jury Convicts Fairfax Man in Murder Case." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Sep 22 1979. ProQuest. Web. 20 Sep. 2014 .
- ↑ "Annandale Mother, Child Found Dead, Apparent Victims of Murder, Suicide." Evening Star, 10 Jul. 1979, Three Star NIGHT FINAL, p. 75. NewsBank. Accessed 27 Jan. 2018. Note: This source misidentifies the location as being on Wayne Drive in Annandale.
- ↑ "Retired Colonel found Fatally Shot." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Jul 23 1979. ProQuest. Web. 26 Jan. 2017.
- ↑ "Attempted Murder, Suicide in McLean." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Jul 26 1979. ProQuest. Web. 26 Jan. 2017.
- ↑ White, Ronald D. "Youth, Ignored by Ambulance, Killed by Cars." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 2. Sep 14 1979. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877-1996). Web. 16 Nov. 2012.
- ↑ "Youth Stumbling on Road Killed by Cars." Evening Star, 14 Sep. 1979, Three Star NIGHT FINAL, p. 61. NewsBank. Accessed 3 Jan. 2018.
- ↑ "First Woman Judge Named to Fairfax Court." Evening Star, 14 Sep. 1979, Three Star NIGHT FINAL, p. 61. NewsBank. Accessed 3 Jan. 2018.
- ↑ White, Ronald D. "Jury Convicts Fairfax Man in Murder Case." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Sep 22 1979. ProQuest. Web. 20 Sep. 2014 .
- ↑ White, Ronald D. "Area Death Fuels Debate on Va. Construction Safety." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 2. Nov 17 1979. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
- ↑ Dougherty, Kerry. "Florida Educator Named by Fairfax to Head Schools." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Nov 20 1979. ProQuest. Web. 26 Aug. 2014.
- ↑ Bauer, Pat. "3 Arrested in Bombings at Fairfax County Homes." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): 1. Jan 03 1980. ProQuest. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
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