
Oct 12 1969
According to rumor, Paul is dead. However, the Beatle somehow persists in making several public appearances for years.
Oct 12 1969
Police capture Charles Manson at Barker Ranch, inside Death Valley National Park. Charlie is arrested for arson, after burning a maintenance vehicle blocking his favorite dune buggy route. One of his followers, Susan Atkins, is arrested the following day and spills the beans about the Tate/LaBianca murderers. Manson has not left prison since.
Oct 12 1978
Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious stabs girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death in room 100 of New York’s Chelsea Hotel. Because Sid remembers nothing about the crime, theories include robbery and an abortive suicide pact. Vicious dies of an ugly heroin overdose shortly before his trial.
Oct 12 1997
Folk singer John Denver dies when his newest toy, a homebuilt Long-EZ single-seat airplane, crashes into the ocean near Monterey, California. Unfortunately, the person who constructed the plane opted to locate the fuel tank selector valve behind the pilot’s left shoulder. In order for Denver to reach back and switch tanks, he had to let go of the flight controls. At which point, the aircraft plunged 500 feet into the Pacific Ocean. Divers later recover most of the body, but not the head. Denver is ultimately identified by his fingerprints.
Oct 12 2000
Two al Qaeda agents pull alongside the USS Cole in a fiberglass boat disguised as a tender at the harbor in Aden, Yemen. Then the boat explodes, ripping a 40-foot hole along the port side of the destroyer’s hull, killing 17 sailors and wounding 39 others.