Nobody that lived here at the time is still here, except me. I was one of the reporters covering their stories for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The reported twists and turns and passions surrounding the case made it read like it happened today. To make a long story short I was born and raise on Southside. There was a well known drug house directly across the street from me that was one of the distrubution centers for this gang. WebAs of Sunday, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) had reported 53 deadly shootings in the city, and last year at this time there had been 54. Ill be excerpting this story for a ByrdPark.net feature so people can reminisce and/or thank their lucky stars. When I told my uncle I was moving to Richmond 7 years ago, he was really concerned for my safety because of what hed heard. Curious about and fascinated by Richmonds shockingly violent semi-recent history, I thought to look and see where all of this killing was taking place. So instead of doing mental gymnastics to figure out what changed, how to prevent it etc, just end this war. She has also burned her maternal uncle's Bible and set his bed on fire.". While these murder are very tragic, it is street crime. i apologize for the mayhem myself and my associates caused back then. To boot, weve solved 74 percent or 14 of 19 casesof homicides in 2010. It was indeed a scary time, but if you did not buy or sell drugs, you could stay out of their sights. To look at this a little bit, I just pulled the assault numbers for the past 5 years (going back to 2004 as the murder count was close to 100 that year). * Sharon Bottoms custody case was going through the courts In the 90s Richmond was majority black and in the areas mentioned the population was more dense. This drop has given Richmond something previously unseen: the month without any homicides. The year before, in 1993, there were 111. I did not live in Richmond in the 90s. The Richmond Police were able to provide a chart showing the killings per month covering the years 1980-2004. But wasnt nothi g like the Gilpin court massacre I remember that like it was yesterday, how ol boy ran in the house and killed everything moving. Yes, there are still guns and drugs in our neighborhood, but not like that anymore. Came here in 80, left for five years and decided to move back and raise our daughter here. And I especially remember the case of Tamika Jones because we were the same age and I remember how older men were always trying to pick up young girls my age or a little older. Where we now have months with no killings, a Times-Dispatch article that year thought a 10-day span without a homicide was noteworthy. Venable is a major Street in Union Hill that is in need of physical help but it is not a particulary dangerous Street . There were tons of good upstanding law abiding citizens living in all of the areas mentioned in the 80s and 90s. The leaders of the notorious Newtowne gang were locked up in 1992 after killing 13 people in a furious month and a half. She lived there before they tore it down and built the projects. This work identified 158 homicides (PDF) not a perfect data set, but close enough to have a sense of what was going on where in 1994. Sorry John, I see it all, but most of what I see doesnt get reported. To keep creating both my kids were born in Richmond. Jake, you have a tough job, and you see the results of a lot of violence; thank you for what you do. Put in historical perspective, Richmond is having another spike in homicides similar to the smaller ones in the early 1940s and the 1970s, but nothing like the 1990s. And the roots of the tragedies - and where they are concentrated - remain stubbornly similar based on news reports then, and now. There were incidents those months, but either the charges were withdrawn when declared to be self-defense, or the charge was listed as involuntary manslaughter. I would like to further look into which areas of Richmond have seen these amazing drops in violence over the past decades, but the data required isnt readily available. Drug Decriminalization works. Trial inspired career in court. After my parents divorce we moved uptown. Along with being notified when someone is killed in the city period, Id like to know when something happens at random (which does tend to be released quickly) or is unusual. Those hot cinder blocks walls on the inside of her house. NOTE: 2008 shows 36 homicides. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It seems that to be able to say that certain areas once had these incidents but do not any longer would be a useful way of marking the changes in the city. They would collectively be called the Golden Years cases. Is Richmond a safer place now than it was in the 1990s? as a member of the infamous Poison Clan Posse i saw first hand some of the violence that took place back then and i can confirm what you guys are saying. You are soooo right about not being able to shake the images of those times from my head. Local news for the East End of Richmond, Virginia from Union Hill to Fulton, St. Johns to Fairfield. I see victims of gun violence all the time, yet it isnt always reported. At one point during the year, the bodies were dropping fast enough to put the city on target for 182 killings by the end of December. During the past two decades, shes watched homicides gradually decline to a low of 32 in 2008 and then hold steady at about 40 per year until 2016, when the number climbed to 61. (I dont think anyone would be surprised to see a body drop on Venable Street, though). And this story is proof. Super article. The vast majority of the victims that year were young black men, and they were shot to death. We moved to Church Hill in 1999. Thank you for putting this list together. My brother was the 47th homicide victim that year in April, on Lynnhaven Ave. Its a totally different place now. Reed Williams. Last year (2009), with 39 killings, saw no homicides in November the first month since at least 1980 with no killings. More than a dozen of them. * Susan Smith drowning her boys, blaming it on a black car-jacker Great research, and great job, John. Thanks as usual for great reporting. ''The guilty plea was an easy thing for him,'' said Christine Claiborne, a family friend of Thomas'. Id add to Houdons comment the fact that MSM doesnt believe positive news sells enough papers/hits to justify spending much time on it. WebVirginias murder rate was comparatively smaller than the countrys average, which stood at 4.5 murders per 100,000. She had been sexually assaulted with a broomstick so violently, she suffered internal damage to some of her organs. Working at MCV, I saw alot of people the last couple of months that died of either stabbings or gun shots. On the way to a devastating body count of 161, 1994 saw 2 months with over 20 killings, and only one month in the single digits. To add one more macabre item to this horrible year in April, 1994 Timothy Spencer, aka the Southside Strangler for his murderous rampage on the Southside in 1987, was put to death. The two families agreed to have experts compare blood samples from Thomas' baby and Hugh Brown after the baby was born, Esther Brown said. My housemates and I lived across the street from a very active crack house, we saw people dealing guns and drugs from the trunk of a car parked in front of our house, and we heard close gunfire (usually in the alley next to our house)every single night. I live at the corner of Mulberry/Parkwood and would have to agree that there has been insane improvements. I befriended the chef at the Chinese Restaurant on Grace a few months before his untimely, and baffling, death. Im sorry but white people dont have crime? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. According to the Pew Research Center, violent crime rates fell over 50 percent from 1993 to 2015. a national trend towards a decrease in violence, puts out a daily report in Noteworthy Incidents, the RPDs online system doesnt break out Aggravated Assaults from Assaults, your link is to a report about a stabbing in Oregon Hill, Neighborhood Driving Zoo opens this spring, Drug activity on 25th revealed to be long-game covert opp, City releases new traffic control measures, List of streets that might be named after Confederates. The prosecution asserted the gang sold huge quantities of crack in one Richmond neighborhood. WebBrown's 16-page confession, taped the morning after the Aug. 12 slaying, was summarized for the record Thursday in York Circuit Court after he pleaded guilty to Thomas' murder. GRAPH: Murders per 100,000 1980-2009 (Richmond, Virginia), DATA: Murders per 100,000 1980-2009 (Richmond, Virginia). The same stabbing in Oregon Hill or shooting up by Fairfield that doesnt make the news would be played differently were it to go down in Carytown. .please.. You can go to the RTD online archive at http://www.timesdispatch.com/archive/ and search older articles. Prosecutors and defense lawyers were bound by gag order from Judge James Spencer not to discuss the case. About Us She had been strangled with a ligature and ratchet-type device. Increase in firearms blamed by police.". Harold D. Robinson Jr., of the 1500 block of Gunn Street, was found about 3:30 a.m. in the first block of Jefferson Davis Highway, where the highway intersects with Decatur Street, police said. The four did not testify in their defense. Break-ins all the time so businesses didnt stay. Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Zoo Miami in Florida confirmed a Malayan tapir briefly escaped from its enclosure Tuesday before being safely contained about an hour later. Monique Anderson was just 15 when she broke into Mrs. Cookes home. No jobs, dispair, a broke government, easy drugs and a lack of hope and change could put us right back as the murder city. We would learn the horror in the house on Kensington was simply an extreme example of what Monique had been expressing since she was a little girl. Despite this overall trend, Richmond, Virginia. Thanks for taking the time to do this. You have great ammunition for the school year nowgreat summer project! This is where the community blogs (and the police department) make a difference in getting information out to areas. And in the 90s, at least, many, many of the consumers were white. * OJ Simpson chase It was rough, a lot of the city was physically deteriorated, the downtown traffic count on a Saturday morning was about 5 cars per hour and the council was in disarray. Jake Are you saying that the RPD is not reporting murders? The prosecutor, the defense attorney, Moniques mom and others wanted her locked up in a mental hospital instead of prison. The alert detailed two recent murders on Richmonds affluent Southside. That and the spike in 1942 are from annexation of county land/population. Cory Johnson, 24, was convicted of eight counts of murder. Brown had taken Thomas to the woods near Jones Mill Pond along the Colonial Parkway with a bag containing a sheet, a can of charcoal lighter fluid, a cigarette lighter and a 9mm pistol, he told York Investigator J.E. As of July 10, 2010, Richmond has gone 48 days without a homicide the 3rd longest period since at least 1980. About Us Prosecutors alleged they operated a cocaine ring in Richmond and Virginia's eastern Henrico County. I love being a Richmonder. Richardson he feared he would shame his family by having a child out of wedlock with 17-year-old Gwendolyn C. Thomas. McEachin says one program that helped to reduce the rate was Project Exile, launched in 1997, which moved the prosecution of felons caught with guns to federal court, where there was a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. Southsides Johnson/Brown gang, estimated to be responsible for 30 lives over 3 years, were only recently off the streets. Looking back, it was a It would be interesting to compare the street crime to the white collar crime going on at the time- Joel Harris-style corruption for example. WebMan dies of apparent gunshot wound in South Richmond Richmond detectives make two arrests in shooting on East 21st Street Arrest made in Broad Street fatal shooting New The app features breaking news alerts, live video, weather radar, traffic incidents, closings and delays and more. Wake up america. My great-grandmother is from Blackwell. Subscribe I was actually warned by the police to be careful because these guys monitor the police channel and know who is calling the police! This explains ALOT about why my west end friends were so afraid for me moving to the Fan in 1997 and then when I told them Id bought a house in Church Hill in 1998. simply the best news article/reporting to come out of Richmond in a long time. Postal Service stopped mail delivery to Whitcomb Court until ordered back on the rounds by a Federal judge. An article in todays Richmond Times-Dispatch reports event lower numbers for 2008 and 2009 than I was given (36 and 41): Richmond reported 39 homicides for all of 2009, which was higher than 2008s 32 slayings but still low when viewed historically. 3. Newcomers, such as myself, are under no preconceived notions. At that time, the Fulton Hill Hustlers were active in the area as crack and heroin dealers. Not sure if they were flown in from other areas though. Chilling accounts of the killing (PDF) say that Goins had previously discussed doing away with Tamika and her family, shot each of his victims in the head on that gruesome day, and that he shot the pregnant teen nine times. Yes, not all of the non-fatal incidents make the big media. I see way less people out there now. Monique had been breaking into homes randomly or just wandering into them sometimes confronting and/or attacking the homeowners during the months before and after Mrs. Cookes slaying. April 12, 1985: 1: Virginia, USA : Thomas H. But the black-on-black violent crime problem was stark and bluntly reported on 75 years ago: "Why were there 11 times as many homicides committed by Negroes in Richmond last year than by white persons?" If someone shows up shot or stabbed at the hospital, the police are automatically brought in. RISSELL, Joseph Even the locator map of murders back then looked remarkably similar to the ones of today - the same festering pockets of concentrated poverty that continue today. It was rough, to say the least. and got used to hearing gun shots and running away. ''He said no, he had never had sex with her.''. I get that, but in lieu of hard numbers, Im looking at the homicide rate as a proxy for the amount of general violence in the city. WebInteractive chart of the Richmond, Virginia murder rate (i.e. Eric Ernest In the past 366 months, only 3 have passed without a killing, and all 3 have come in the last 8 months. just because people dont die from a shooting doesnt mean its any safer. I was raise uptown South Side. This is a great report, truly, but the reputation Richmond has as being a dangerous place is not undeserved. Tapir briefly escapes enclosure at Florida zoo. Privacy / Use / Copyright / Disclaimer. Thank you very much in advance. There were anomalies a fatal stabbing in a the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant on Grace Street, the murders of 2 elderly women in retirement homes, a body found in the canal by Tredegar Street but overwhelmingly the stories from 1994 are those of young black men found dead or dying on streets like Idlewood Avenue, Hull Street, and Afton Avenue. I post hard data showing that RIchmond is safer than any time in the past 60 years and your response its not a safe enough place to live or visit? Does anyone know the story behind an infant was basically boiled to death? Here is a graphic of the worst 10 in 2009. I am happy to hear that reality is gone. This was surprising to me at initially, that someone being shot or stabbed wouldnt be newsworthy. RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Richmond Police are investigating following a car crash and a shooting that left 1 person dead. At least I know the police are just around the corner and will be at my door in less than 5 minutes if I call (and Ive called before). August 1994 was the worst month in Richmonds history for killings at 25, or almost one every day. There were 9 killings in the Byrd Park/Randolph/Maymount area in 1994, including an early evening double homicide in a store parking lot. I think so and I hope we do not have a murder on that street. There was drug violence across the country but because the news picked and chose what crimes to report on, the world only saw black on black crime and those stereotypes have prevailed to this day. Crack and the early 90s, dems were tha days. Carrie Davis, a 78-year-old woman who lived in the big retirement community on the 1000 block of Grace Street, was one of 2 older women killed inside their apartments that year. Brown, 27, of Mechanicsville, the son of a Richmond preacher, had told police he feared he would shame his family by having a child out of wedlock. Excellent reporting! Advertise With Us The yearly toll stayed over 100 for 10 straight years, hitting 161 in 1994 and 140 in 1997. Any one or two of these incidents might happen in a given year, but that year seemed to see it all (including a triple killing on 31st Street in Sugar Bottom, and twin killings on 30th/O Street and 30th/P Streets less than 24 hours apart). Awesome. Most of the violence of the 90s was tied to the drug trade. The case will proceed next week to a penalty phase. The bad elements were basically forced out through gentrification. George Adrian Before French there were other developers who were investigated by the FBI. But Mrs. Cookes daughter and one of her neighbors fear that theres not enough oversight and control in the mental health system for someone as dangerous as Monique Anderson. Looking back, it was a frightening time to live in the city of Richmond in the early 90s. The modernization and reform of the Richmond police department has been a great benefit to residents. So much of the violence seemed to be related to crack. WebWith a crime rate of 34 per one thousand residents, Richmond has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help Really great job assembling all the data and making sense of it! I really would like to know more info on the murder of Harold David Robertson Jr. My question to Jake is how long have you worked at MCV?? It then gets swung around by the elephant until it lets go. Look at Portugal for an example. My rewards, in 2017, are all related to dancing in and out of the nightmares that dominated Richmonds realities. The RPDs online Crime Incident Information Center and the Richmond-Times Dispatchs online Homicide Report have data for the following years. Im not sure how to really parse this. I didnt move to Rmond until 1996. Everyone wore shower caps (whenever they were shown on the news, they always had on shower caps) and we turned off all the lights to make sure there was enough electricity for the deed. There is a growing area of the East End, encompassing Union Hill, St.Johns, the southern areas of Fairmount and Church Hill North, Fulton, and Montrose where this type of violence has receded since 200607 and is increasingly foreign. Violent crime is down 1 percent led by our homicide rate, which is at a historic low. Too dangerous. Wow, I never knew that this report existed. 4. The sad truth is that if you are middle or upper class, you have almost no chance of being a victim of violent crime. She faces 10 years to life in prison. John Things got so bad that the U.S. I rented a house in Union Hill in 1997, and moved back in 2004 when my husband and I bought our house here. Debbie Davis, an accounts clerk, had been found dead in her apartment on Sept. 19, 1987. I know that its not cool to always inject race into these discussions, but it is an important aspect of why a lot of white Richmonders might not recall 1994 as Richmonds worst year. John, youre too modest. the Murderpedia project stay alive. This is the kind of news MSM wont report either because of lack of time or lack of interest. Im told the judge in the case ordered that any member of the parole board considering Monique for parole must review the crime scene photos before making a decision. By fall, the police were on Full Alert and were setting check points at hot spots across the city. If anyone else wants to follow up, Id be more than glad to publish the results . the number of homicides per 100,000 population) from 1999 to 2018. Richmond was known as The Murder Capital back then. if anybody else has conflicting data lets see it and YOUR bonafides. Additionally, just because stabbing/gunshot/&c. I found that assault numbers seem to be more representative in those instances: http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/4969/clipboard01le.jpg. That years spike in killings did not arrive suddenly. 2. Advertise With Us chimbarozo park was crazy dangerous. 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