The Backroom

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Junko Furuta was a 17 year old student at Yashio-Minami High School. She was a good student who had high hopes for the future as she was saving for a trip post graduation and had a job lined up. On the night of November 25, 1988, Furuta was on her way home from work when she was kicked off her bike by and unknown teenaged boy. A few seconds later, another teenaged boy appeared and helped her. He offered to walk her home. Unbeknownst to Furuta, both boys (Hiroshi Miyano and Shinji Minato) were friends who planned this out. Miyano lead Furuta to a warehouse, where she was beaten and raped. She was held captive at Misato's home for 40 days. Miyano, Minato and two of their friends, Jō Ogura and Yasushi Watanabe beat, tortured and raped Furuta. Minato's family never reported the crimes as they feared their son and his friends. Furuta succumbed to her injuries on January 4, 1989. Fearing the consequences, the boys wrapped Furuta's body in blankets and placed her in a metal drum, which was then filled with wet concrete. Over the next four months, the boys continued to commit more violent crimes. After being arrested for an unrelated crime, Miyano confessed to killing Furuta and dumping her body after thinking Ogura confessed as well. The four boys were arrested and charged with murder. They all served anywhere from 5 to 20 years in prison. Furuta's family and the public believed the sentences were too light. Once they got out, most of them continued to commit crimes.

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Eric Edgar Cooke was a husband and father of seven children by day, but at night he was a a cold blooded killer, with no reason to kill other than he wanted. As a young adult, Cooke would burglarize and vandalize homes in Perth, Western Australia. Soon enough, his crimes came to haunt him and he was arrested after his finger prints were left on everything at every crime scene. He was sentenced to three years in prison for his crimes. Once he got out, his crimes escalated from robbery to murder. Between 1958 and 1963, Cooke murdered eight unsuspecting people in various ways. None of the victims had and similarities or connections, which led police to believe that multiple people were responsible. Eventually, Cooke was caught and confessed to the murderers. Although he described each murder to the point, two of the eight cases weren't believed to be him, as there were two men already in jail for them, wrongfully. Cooke was hanged in 1964, as the last to be hanged in Western Australia. 

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Between 1968 and 1979, convicted sex offender Rodney Alcala raped and murdered several women across the country, mainly in Los Angeles and New York City. He came up with a front to lure unexpected victims to their deaths. He claimed to be a professional photographer and would take nude photos of women and children (both boys and girls). In 1978, Alcala appeared on an episode of "The Dating Game", a popular show at the time. Although he won the game and a date with the bachelorette, she ultimately rejected the date because he made her uncomfortable. At the time of his game show appearance, he had killed at least three women. 

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This is a revamped version of a previous episode. I will select a few of my older episodes and remake them with better quality than before! 

On April 26, 1986, an explosion erupted the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine when the number four reactor, after a routine test, suddenly dropped power to near zero before overloading. Built up steam blew the 1,000 ton reactor lid through the roof, exposing a 700 mile radius to 400 times more radiation than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Two workers were killed in the initial explosion, while 29 others would die in the days and weeks following, mostly firefighters who were unaware of the exposure. The nearby town of Pripyat was evacuated three days later. The roughly 50,000 residents were told the move was temporary. They never returned. The cleanup efforts were costly and long, with many workers being exposed to high amounts of radiation. After almost a year, a steel sarcophagus was placed over the reactor to contain the radiation. In 2016, a dome like concrete sarcophagus was built over the reactor and old protection that will last 100 years. At the time of the explosion, the Soviet government did everything to conceal the event. Even the manager of the test that lead to the explosion threatened his workers and said that no explosion actually occurred. It wasn't until other European countries noticed the high levels of radiation, when the Soviet Union admitted to the world what had happened. The Soviet government continued to lie to its citizens in the surrounding area of the power plan and said they were fine. Since 1986, over 100,000 deaths are attributed to the explosion. The official death toll remains at 31 according to Soviet records. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone won't be livable for another 24,000 years. the soil, plants, water and animals are highly contaminated, although animals a seemed to adapted to the radiation and appear fine.

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Between July and October 1965, sisters Sylvia and Jenny Likens was placed under the care of Gertrude Baniszewski by their parents who were carnival workers. The Likens' parents planned to come get them that November. The next four months would be hell on earth for the sisters, primarily Sylvia. As an agreement, Likes' father was to pay Gertrude $20 a week, but after two weeks, payments were a day or two late. Gertrude and her daughter Paula began to physically and mentally abuse the Likens Sisters. They shifted most of the abuse to Sylvia. She was burned, scalded, punched, kicked and hit with objects by the pair. It escalated to Gertrude allowing neighborhood kids to join in on the abuse for a fee of five cents. Gertrude would call Sylvia a prostitute and have her kids spread rumors that she was a sinner. Sylvia would suffer for no reason at all. She was malnourished since she was served expired food or denied food completely. She was incontinent and began urinating herself. Her body, littered with lacerations and bruises, grew weak as time went on. Her abusers would rub salt on Sylvia's wounds until she screamed. Jenny had no other option but to sit there and watch with tears in her eyes. In late October, Gertrude used a heated needle to etch and insult into Sylvia's abdomen. On October 26, 1965, Sylvia Likens died from her extensive injuries. Authorities believed Sylvia died eight hours before a call to police was made. Gertrude, her children Paula and John Jr. and two other neighborhood boys were tried together for Sylvia's murder. All five were found guilty with Gertrude and Paula receiving life sentences. The three boys spent two years in a reformatory since they were minors. All five were paroled, changing their identities and living out their days elsewhere. 

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The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church) is a Fundamentalist Mormon denomination that practices Polygamy. The more wives and children a man has, the closer he is to heaven. A woman is groomed to serve their husband and have babies. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has denounced the FLDS and has no affiliation to them. Warren Jeffs assumed the position of "Prophet" of the FLDS in September 2002 after his father, Rulon died. As Prophet and President of the church, he would set people up to be married. In most cases, underaged girls would be forced to marry someone much older and possibly related to them. Warren Jeffs himself had as many as 78 wives. In 2006, he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List after fleeing from charges of arranging marriage between adult followers and underaged girls. He was also charged in Texas with sexual assault of a minor and aggravated sexual assault of a child. He was sentenced to Life in prison plus 20 years. When the FBI and local police search the FLDS ranch in Texas, they were aided by former members of the church. Hard evidence was found in a basement vault that contained marriage certificates and voice recordings of him sexually assaulting minors, one of them being 12 years old. Allegedly, he took 482 victims. 

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From May 1979 to June 1980, William Bonin raped, tortured, and murdered a minimum of 21 boys and young men. He would dispose of their bodies alongside highways around Southern California, hence the name The Freeway Killer. As a child, Bonin was neglected by his parents and sexually abused by his grandfather. During his teen years he discovered that he was gay and would occasionally molest children, After graduation, he enlisted in the US Air Force and served in the Vietnam War. During his time in Vietnam, he raped two fellow soldiers at gun point. He was never charged. After his discharge from the military, Bonin moved to California and began to molest and rape young boys before being caught and sentenced to a mental institution. After 16 months, he was released with the assumption that he would not harm a child again. After being caught for the murders, he was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed via lethal injection on February 23, 1996. He was the first to receive injection in the state of California. 

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During the second week of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich,  11 Israeli coaches and athletes were taken hostage at 4:30 am on September 5, 1972. The perpetrators, Black September, were a Palestinian militant group who were motivated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After taking the Israeli team hostage, Black September demanded that 234 Palestinian prisoners be released from Israeli jails. During the subsequent break in, two members of the Israeli team were shot and killed. During the stand off, West German authorities tried to persuade the attackers. The also tried, and failed, to rescue the hostages. At 10pm, an agreement was made for the perpetrators and hostages to be helicoptered to a nearby airport and sent to Egypt, where the hostages could be held prisoner. This was all a ruse. When the helicopters arrived at the airport, all hell broke lose. Because there was no planning and tactics, the rescue was unsuccessful as there was no communication and the snipers were not actually sniper marksmen. A gunfight was well underway when the lead perpetrator turned and started shooting hostages dead. He then pulled a pin on a grenade and blew the helicopter up, leaving the hostages burnt beyond recognition. In total 17 were killed (11 hostages, 5 Black September members, and 1 police officer). West German police are to blame as they ignored prior warnings from others. 

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On the night of October 9, 2012, 19 year old Lizzi Marriott went missing. The University of New Hampshire student had plans to go over her friend and coworker, Kat McDonough's apartment. McDonough shared the apartment with her boyfriend, Seth Mazzaglia in Dover, New Hampshire. In the days that followed, Kat and Seth were questioned by investigators. Although Kat stopped talking to detectives after 2 hours, Seth went on for 11 hours before admitting that Lizzi had died in the apartment. On Saturday, October 13, Seth was charged with Lizzi's murder. He led investigators to Peirce Island in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he said he dumped Lizzi's body into the Piscataqua River. The Piscataqua River is known for having some of the strongest currents in the country. It was obvious that Kat McDonough was in an abusive relationship. Two friends showed up at the apartment after Lizzi was murdered and stated that Kat was rocking in the fetal position. She helped Seth dispose of the body. Seth Mazzaglia was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 2014. Because she testified against Mazzaglia, Kat McDonough only served three years in prison. To this day, Lizzi Marriott's body has never been found. 

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On the evening of October 6, 1998, two men robbed and tortured 21 year old Matthew Shepard, outside of Laramie, Wyoming. Shepard, who was gay, was left severely injured and bloodied on a barbed wire fence in freezing temperatures. It wasn't until the next morning when Shepard was found by a cyclist. Matthew was clinging to life when he was transferred to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. He died six days later from his injuries. The suspects, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, were originally charged with robbery and attempted murder. The charge was upgraded to first degree murder following Shepard's death. the reasoning for Matthew's murder are debated. The prosecution believed that McKinney and Henderson were motivated by drugs and greed. The Defense argued that Shepard made sexual advances towards McKinney which enraged him. Both McKinney and Henderson were sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murder.