Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Mass murder on the 5:33...

Carolyn McCarthy waited for husband Denis and son Kevin to get home from the city. They were on the 5:33 to Mineola, the train that took them home every night from Penn Station but this ride would be different. This was the ride from hell...

Colin Ferguson would board the train between Penn Station and Mineola, casually pull out a gun and fire off round after round indiscriminately until 6 passengers lay dying and 19 wounded. The madness wouldn't end until the Jamaica born Ferguson was subdued by 3 Garden City men until authorities could apprehend him at the Merillon Avenue station of the Long Island Railroad...

Attorneys William Kunstler and Ronald Kuby attempted to defend Ferguson using mental illness caused by an oppressive and racist society as the cause of the gunman's insanity but he insisted on defending himself...

The madness continued in court as Ferguson would question witness after witness who would identify him as the killer while Ferguson would argue that a mysterious black man with the same residential address committed the crimes. He later argued that a white man committed the crimes...

Ferguson was convicted of murder in the death of 6 passengers and additional charges for the 19 wounded during the mass murder brought his sentence to 6 consecutive life terms without parole. At the sentencing on February 17, 1995, the presiding judge called Ferguson a "selfish, self-righteous coward"...

The aftermath of the December 7, 1993 massacre follows in my commentary...

1796) John Adams is elected as our 2nd president...

1836) Martin Van Buren is elected our 8th president...

1842) The New York Philharmonic gives its 1st concert...

1941) Japan attacks Pearl Harbor which results in the U.S. entering into WWII (some 2,400 Americans are killed with 200 wounded. Much of our Pacific fleet is destroyed along with more than 200 planes)...

1946) A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta claims 119 (it's America's worst hotel fire disaster with hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff killed in the blaze)...

1963) Instant replay is born during CBS-TV coverage of the Army-Navy game as Lindsay Nelson says: "This is not live ladies and gentlemen. Army did not score again."...

1964) Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys suffers a nervous breakdown on a flight from L.A. to Houston (Wilson stops touring with the group)...

1966) Nancy Sinatra joins her daddy, Frank on the CBS-TV special, "Frank Sinatra: A Man & His Music Part II"...

1968) Eric Burdon announces the break-up of the Animals (set for December 22) after a concert (Burdon plans on moving to California to become an actor)...

1972) Apollo 17 is launched on the last U.S. mission to the moon...

1982) Convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. becomes the 1st prisoner in the U.S. to be executed by injection at a prison in Huntsville, Texas...

1987) Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev sets foot on American soil for the 1st time. He arrives for a Washington summit with President Reagan...

1988) An estimated 25,000 are killed in a major earthquake in northern Armenia (the quake registers 6.9 on the Richter Scale)...

1990) Ted Turner and Jane Fonda announce their engagement...

1993) 6 dead, 19 wounded on the LIRR (feature story)...

Happy Birthday To...

1915) Eli Wallach...

1932) Ellen Burstyn...

1940) Ex-Bruin great and Hockey Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers...

1947) Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench...

1956) Ex-Celtic great and Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird...

Commentary...

In the aftermath of the slaughter by Colin Ferguson on the LIRR, the death penalty was reinstated in New York State...

Carolyn McCarthy who lost husband Denis on the 5:33 to Mineola and whose son Kevin was severely injured ran on a gun control platform and was elected as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives where she still presides over the 4th Congressional District of New York. She still resides in Mineola...

The 5:33PM train still runs on the LIRR. It was never taken out of service...

Thanks for your continued support by becoming regular readers of this blog...Mel