Andrew Chan (1984 - 2015)

Andrew Chan was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the youngest child of Ken and Helena Chan, both first-generation Cantonese-speaking migrants from China. Chan was one of four children, having a brother and two sisters. Chan’s mother had limited English language skills, and Chan did not speak Cantonese. Chan’s brother Michael translated for him when […]

Myuran Sukumaran (1981 - 2015)

Myuran Sukumaran was born on 17 April 1981 in London. He was the eldest child of Sam and Raji Sukumaran who are of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. Sukumaran had a brother (Chintu) and a sister (Brintha). The family moved to Australia in 1985 and lived in Auburn, a western suburb of Sydney. Sukumaran was educated […]

Andrew Veniamin (1975 - 2004)

Andrew Veniamin was born to Greek Cypriot immigrant parents, and was raised in the Western Melbourne suburb of Sunshine. From a child to his early teens, Veniamin was an altar boy at the Greek Orthodox Church in the neighbouring suburb of Sunshine West, where his funeral would later be held. Veniamin worked at the West Melbourne […]

Carl Williams (1970 - 2010)

Carl Williams (13 October 1970[2] – 19 April 2010) was an Australian convicted murderer and drug trafficker from the state of Victoria. He was the central figure in the Melbourne gangland killings. Williams attended Broadmeadows West Technical School, leaving in Year 11. Williams spent much of his childhood in Western Melbourne with his friends and older […]

Victor Peirce (1958 - 2002)

In 2005, Victor Peirce’s widow, Wendy Peirce gave an interview to Australian media detailing how her husband planned and carried out the 1988 Walsh Street police shootings, a crime for which he was acquitted by jury along with three accomplices after she failed to give truthful evidence in court. Victor Peirce was shot dead in a […]

Bruno Hauptmann (1899 - 1936)

Bruno Hauptmann was born Bruno Richard Hauptmann in Kamenz, near Dresden in what was then the German Empire, the youngest of five children. Neither he nor his family and friends used the name “Bruno,” although prosecutors in the Lindbergh kidnapping trial referred to him by that name. He had three brothers and a sister. At […]

David Herold (1842 - 1865)

David Herold and a group of co-conspirators had originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln, but later planned to kill him, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward in a bid to help the Confederacy’s cause. On the night of April 14, 1865, Herold guided Lewis Powell to Seward’s house. Inside, Powell attempted to […]

Margaret Greville (1863 - 1942)

Born as Margaret Helen Anderson, Margaret Greville was the daughter of William McEwan (1827-1913), a brewery multimillionaire, who later was elected as an M.P. (Member of Parliament). Her mother was Helen Anderson (1835/1836–1906), but she was not married to William when Margaret, their daughter was born. In fact, it was not until 1885, when Margaret […]

Josef Jakobs (1898 - 1941)

Josef Jakobs, who was a German citizen, was born in Luxembourg in 1898. During the First World War, he served in the German infantry, rising to the rank of Leutnant, in the 4th Foot Guards. In June 1940, ten months after the outbreak of the Second World War, Jakobs was drafted into the Wehrmacht as […]

Hymie Weiss (1898 - 1926)

Born Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski in present-day Poland, Hymie Weiss grew up on the North Side of Chicago with his Polish-American family. He was nicknamed “Hymie” and “Hymie the Pole”, later in his career. He was Catholic, despite the “Jewish-sounding” moniker (he carried a rosary and a bible). As a teenager, Weiss became a petty […]

John Geoghan (1935 - 2003)

John Geoghan (/ˈɡeɪɡən/; June 4, 1935 – August 23, 2003) was an American Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused children while he was assigned to parishes in the Boston Archdiocese of Massachusetts. He was reassigned several times to parish posts involving children, including after attempted treatment for pedophilia. The investigation and prosecution of Geoghan was one […]

Antonie Dixon (1968 - 2009)

Antonie Dixon attacked both of his partners, Renee Gunbie and Simonne Butler, with a Samurai sword at Pipiroa on 21 January 2003. Before the sword broke, Gunbie’s left hand was completely severed and both of Butler’s arms were partially severed. After stealing a vehicle and travelling to Auckland, Dixon fatally shot James Te Aute in […]

Ralph Cookerly Wilson, Jr (1918 - 2014)

Hall of Fame Sports Team Owner. From 1960 until his death, he was the proprietor of the Buffalo Bills. Along with Lamar Hunt and other businessmen, Wilson formed what was nicknamed “The Foolish Club”. The group initiated the American Football League in 1960 which went on to merge with the National Football League in 1970, […]

Charles Kemmons Wilson (1913 - 2003)

Businessman. He was the founder of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels. In the 1950s he began the Holiday Inn chain in the Memphis area, which grew into a chain of thousands of hotels. Wilson was viewed as the father of the modern hotel – his hotels were built around the idea of giving travelers […]

Henry Gaylord Wilshire (1861 - 1927)

Businessman and real estate tycoon. He was the man who created famed Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.  Family links:  Parents:  George Wilshire (1816 – 1890)  Clarinda Clemons Wilshire (1825 – 1862)  Spouses:  Mary Mc Reynolds Wilshire (1880 – 1955)*  Hannah Griffith Wilshire (1861 – 1901)*  Children:  Logan Gaylord Wilshire (1906 – 1970)*  Siblings:  George P […]

John North Willys (1873 - 1935)

Willys began his career as a bicycle manufacturer. He then moved from two- wheeled-vehicles to four, and began manufacturing Willys and Overland automobiles at a plant in Toledo, Ohio. He served as U.S. ambassador to Poland from 1930-1032.  Family links:  Parents:  David Smith Willys (1840 – 1897)  Lydia Muncil North Willys (1846 – 1929)  Siblings: […]

Lionel Davidson (1922 - 2009)

Author. A writer of mystery and adventure novels, he was a three-time recipient of the Golden Dagger Award from the Crime Writers Association for “The Night of Wenceslas” (1960), “A Long Way to Shiloh” (1966) and “The Chelsea Murders” (1978). He was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England to Lithuanian-Jewish parents. While a youth, he worked […]

Jay Norwood Darling (1876 - 1962)

Political cartoonist. Experts estimate that J. N. “Ding” Darling drew 15,000 editorial cartoons chronicling the history, trends, thoughts, and politics of the United States for the first half of the twentieth century. He worked for the Sioux City Journal from 1900-1906, and subsequently worked for the Des Moines Register until his retirement 1949, and at […]

Rubén Darío (1867 - 1916)

Poet. Born in Nicaragua, he is the highest figure of the Modernism Movement. Among his best remembered books are “Prosas Profanas,” “Cantos de Vida y Esperanza,” “Epístolas y Poemas,” “Azul,” and “Los Raros.” His real name was Félix Rubén García Sarmiento. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)

Paula Danziger (1944 - 2004)

Author. A former schoolteacher, Danziger was the author of several popular books for children and adolescents. Her best known works are “The Cat Ate My Gymsuit” and the “Amber Brown” series. (bio by: Jennifer M.)

Frederic Dannay (1905 - 1982)

Author. Co-creator with his cousin, Manfred B. Lee, of the very popular detective series, “Ellery Queen.” The detective series was published from 1929 to 1969, it consisted of 35 novels and 7 short stories. The Ellery Queen series was also made into a television series and a long-running radio program.

Samuel Daniel (1970 - 1619)

Poet, Playwright, Historian. A significant literary figure of England’s Renaissance period. His famous sonnet sequence “Delia” (1592) had an influence on the sonnets of William Shakespeare. His other works include the narrative poem “The Complaint of Rosamund” (1592); “The Civil Wars” (1595 to 1609), a verse history of the War of the Roses; the prose […]

Dan Daniel (1890 - 1981)

By 1924, Dan Daniel had settled at the New York Telegram, where he remained for the next forty years. In 1925, he won Best Story of the Year from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for his portrayal of Walter Johnson’s loss in the seventh game of the Washington Senators/Pittsburgh Pirates World Series match-up. In the […]

Ned Dandy (1888 - 1948)

Noted Hollywood Screenwriter. He wrote several popular motion pictures, among them “Mandrake the Magician” (1939), “The Shadow” (1940), and “Laugh Your Blues Away.” (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Helen Margaret Oakley Dance (1913 - 2001)

Music Journalist and Producer. Born into a prosperous family, Helen Margaret Oakley was educated in Toronto and Switzerland. A jazz enthusiast, she was a music journalist contributing to the Chicago Herald Tribune, Down Beat magazine, Tempo, Swing, and Jazz Hot. She organized jazz concerts and produced recording sessions for the Okeh and Master/Variety record labels. […]

Richard Henry Dana (1815 - 1882)

American writer and lawyer, best known in American literature for his book “Two Years Before the Mast”, based on the diary he kept while at sea.  First published in 1841, the book describes the lives of sailors in the ports and he gives close attention to the daily life of the peoples of California: Hispanic, […]

Uri Dan (1935 - 2006)

Author. He wrote many books on Israeli history, including “Blood Libel”, “To the Promised Land”, and “Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait”. For many years he was a New York Post contributor who wrote about Middle Eastern affairs. (bio by: Erik Lander)

Thomas Augustine “T.A.” Daly (1871 - 1948)

Journalist. He wrote articles for various Philadelphia newspapers from 1891 to 1929, when he wrote exclusively for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. He often wrote in humorous Italian dialects. He wrote two books “Little  Polly’s Poems” and “McAroni Ballads”.

Caroline Wells Healey Dall (1822 - 1912)

Writer, Reformer. She was born in Boston, the oldest of eight children. After attending a private girls’ school in that city, she became a Sunday school teacher and ran a nursery. She published essays while a teenager in the “Christian Register” and became involved with the Transcendentalists after hearing lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson. At […]

Brian Daley (1947 - 1996)

Brian Daley was born in Englewood, New Jersey at Englewood Hospital, to Charles and Myra Daley. He has an older brother, David, and younger sister, Myra. He grew up in Rockleigh, New Jersey and graduated from Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan in 1965. He then joined the army and served a year-long […]