This day in history: Yeah, I would call that incompetent

March 28, 1934: A botched robbery becomes a gruesome sextuple homicide in a home near Bremerton, Washington. And then, this stranger-than-fiction bit:

After surveying the scene, Sheriff Blankenship left to seek help from the Seattle Police Department in collecting evidence. He assigned a deputy to protect the integrity of the crime scene at the residence.

The deputy did not carry out his assignment. “Instead he charged a crowd of 150 people 25 cents each to walk through the house and view the slaughter. The gawkers scattered gum wrappers and one woman stole the stockings off Anna Flieder’s legs” (Bremerton Sun).

Later that evening, some reporters broke in to the house to photograph the bodies, then borrowed the neighbor’s phone to call in the story.

After Hall, the murderer, was sentenced:

In the death cell, Hall was eating his final meals and studying a library book, Poise and How to Obtain It.

From Erland’s Point murders are committed on March 28, 1934 at HistoryLink

By Marc Carson, Monday March 28, 2011.
Filed under: History