SPRINGFIELD, OR — Before Charles Stuart in 1989, and before Susan Smith in 1994, Diane Downs made national headlines by claiming that an unknown assailant had violently attacked her and her family, causing outrage and making national headlines.
The Downs incident occurred on May 19, 1983, when the 27-year-old mother insisted that she and her three children had been shot by a stranger on a deserted road in Springfield, Oregon... or so they thought.