The Toa Payoh ritual murders took place in Singapore in 1981. On 25 January the body of a nine-year-old girl was found dumped next to the lift of a block of flats in the Toa Payoh district and, two weeks later, a ten-year-old boy was found dead nearby. The children had been killed as blood sacrifices to the Hindu goddess, Kali. The murders were masterminded by Adrian Lim, a self-styled medium, who had tricked scores of women into believing he had supernatural powers. His victims offered their money and bodies in exchange for cures, beauty, and good fortune. Two of the women became his loyal assistants; Tan Mui Choo married him, and Hoe Kah Hong became one of his "holy wives". When the police investigated a rape charge filed by one of Lim's targets, he became furious and decided to kill children to derail the investigations. On each occasion, Hoe lured a child to Lim's flat where he or she was drugged and killed by the trio. The trio were arrested after the police found a trail of blood that led to their flat. The 41-day trial was the second longest to have been held in the courts of Singapore at the time. None of the defendants denied their guilt. Their appointed counsels tried to spare their clients the death sentence by pleading diminished responsibilities, arguing that the accused were mentally ill and could not be entirely held responsible for the killings. The prosecution's expert, however, refuted these testimonies and argued that they were in full control of their mental faculties when they planned and carried out the murders. The judges agreed with the prosecution's case and sentenced the trio to death. The three were hanged on 25 November 1988. The Toa Payoh ritual murders shocked the populace of Singapore, who did not expect such an act to take place in the heartland of their society.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toa_Payoh_ritual_murders
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1258:
Hulagu Khan and the Mongols sacked and burned Baghdad, a cultural and commercial centre of the Islamic world at the time, ending the rule of the Abbasid caliphate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baghdad_%281258%29
1567:
After an explosion destroyed the house in Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, where he was staying, the strangled body of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the King consort of Scotland, was found in a nearby orchard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart%2C_Lord_Darnley
1763:
Britain, France, and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris to end the Seven Years' War, significantly reducing the size of the French colonial empire while at the same time marking the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_%281763%29
1964:
The Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collided with the destroyer HMAS Voyager while both were performing manoeuvres in Jervis Bay in New South Wales, Australia, killing over eighty of Voyager's crew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Melbourne_%28R21%29
1996:
Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in a game of chess, the first ever game won by a chess-playing computer against a reigning International Grandmaster and World Chess Champion under chess tournament conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_%28chess_computer%29
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
reproach (v): 1. To criticize or rebuke someone. 2. To disgrace, or bring shame upon someone http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reproach
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation. --Bertolt Brecht http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht