Buzz
While holidays are often seen as enchanting moments that unite families and bring communities together in a shared spirit of celebration, the immense focus on a single day can stir up feelings of exclusion and resentment in those left out. Such high expectations are bound to be unmet at times, and when large groups come together, the chance for conflict increases. Sadly, some horrific events have marred what should have been joyful occasions. Here are ten tragic incidents that took place during holidays, some so appalling they may leave you speechless.
10. The Covina Christmas Massacre
On Christmas Eve in 2008, a horrific tragedy struck at a Christmas party in Covina, California, when a man disguised as Santa Claus killed nine people. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, fueled by bitterness over his recent divorce and the heavy financial burden of spousal support, carried out this appalling act. The divorce, which had dragged on for months and was finalized just a week earlier, had drained Pardo's finances, pushing him toward a violent outburst. His mental health had deteriorated as well.
Pardo meticulously planned his assault on the Christmas gathering hosted by his in-laws, where his ex-wife was present. Dressed in a Santa suit, he arrived armed with a flamethrower mounted on a trolley and four automatic handguns. He killed nine people, including his 8-year-old niece, using either gunfire or the flamethrower, and set the house on fire as partygoers fled in terror. Later that night, Pardo took his own life. His ex-wife and her family, though, suffered a far more painful fate—victims of Pardo's wrathful and violent revenge.
9. The Bombing of Dresden
If you’re familiar with Kurt Vonnegut’s novel ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ you’ve already encountered the nightmarish event of the Dresden bombing. On Valentine’s Day in 1945, over 1,000 planes from the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces launched a devastating attack on the German city, dropping nearly 4,000 pounds of bombs. Casualty numbers vary, primarily due to the influx of war refugees in the city at the time. Conservative estimates place the death toll at 25,000, but some figures soar much higher.
Critics of the attack point out that Dresden held little military value yet possessed immense cultural significance to the German people. Vonnegut, who was a prisoner of war in Dresden during the bombing, recounts his experience of collecting bodies for burial. Eventually, the number of victims became so overwhelming that German soldiers resorted to stacking the bodies and burning them with flamethrowers.
8. The Shanghai Tragedy
On New Year’s Eve in 2014, approximately 300,000 people gathered at Chen Yi Square in Shanghai, China, to witness a light show celebrating the arrival of the New Year. The crowd, gathered along the Huangpu River, was far larger than anticipated, and the absence of adequate crowd control measures left the gathering dangerously unorganized.
Just moments before midnight, chaos erupted in the crowd, triggering a stampede. Thousands of people pushed and trampled over each other, resulting in 36 deaths and 49 injuries. Chinese media coverage was unclear and inconsistent about the cause of the stampede, and to this day, no official explanation has been confirmed, with only vague reports of crowd panic and confusion.
7. The Lawson Family Murders
On Christmas Day, 1929, farmer Charles Lawson brutally murdered his wife and six of his seven children. He began by ambushing two of his daughters on the family’s tobacco farm with a shotgun. Afterward, he went to the porch and killed his wife, Fannie, alerting the rest of the children, who attempted to hide. He hunted them down and killed all of them. His youngest victim was their 4-month-old infant.
After the killings, Lawson arranged the bodies in an eerie manner, crossing their arms and propping their heads up on rocks. He then disappeared into the woods. Within hours, neighbors had gathered on the property, having either discovered the scene or heard about it. A single gunshot was heard from the woods, and soon after, Lawson’s body was found, dead by suicide. The motive behind this horrific spree remains unclear, but rumors circulated among family and friends that Lawson had recently impregnated one of his daughters, one of the victims.
6. The Tool Box Killers
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, infamously known as the Tool Box Killers, were serial murderers notorious for using a variety of household tools to torture and kill their victims, which earned them their chilling moniker. They took their fifth and final victim on Halloween night in 1979.
On that fateful night, they abducted Shirley Lynette Ledford, a young woman standing outside a gas station. They bound her, repeatedly raped her, and subjected her to unspeakable torture using their signature set of tools before ending her life. Afterward, they discarded her body on an arbitrary lawn, simply to see how the media would respond to the peculiar location of the body.
5. The Tangiwai Train Disaster
On Christmas Eve, 1953, a passenger train carrying 285 people sped across a bridge in New Zealand. Unknown to the passengers and crew, a nearby dam had recently burst, sending a massive surge of mud beneath the bridge that weakened its supporting structure. As the train passed over, the weight of the train caused the entire bridge to collapse. Tragically, 151 of the 285 passengers perished in the crash. Rescue efforts continued for days, but 20 passengers were never found, believed to have been swept away by the river.
4. Ronald Sisman and Elizabeth Platzman
On Halloween night in 1981, Ronald Sisman and Elizabeth Platzman, a couple living in New York City, were brutally murdered in their home. The couple was attacked, forced to kneel, and then shot in the head in an execution-style killing. Initially, investigators believed the crime was a robbery that had gone terribly wrong, especially since their home had been ransacked and valuables stolen.
However, authorities had been warned about the murders in advance. While incarcerated, the notorious serial killer David Berkowitz, also known as the 'Son of Sam,' alerted prison officials that the satanic cult he had been involved with was planning to carry out a ritualistic murder that Halloween. Berkowitz provided the exact location of the murder and even described the victims’ home, which matched the couple's residence perfectly.
3. The Cocoanut Grove Fire
The Cocoanut Grove Fire, which occurred in Boston, Massachusetts, remains the deadliest nightclub fire in history, claiming the lives of 492 people. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the popular Cocoanut Grove nightclub was bustling with patrons, many of whom were in town for family visits. This was also the first Thanksgiving after the U.S. entered World War II, and entertainment venues like nightclubs were thriving with people seeking distraction from the ongoing war. The Cocoanut Grove was packed.
The exact cause of the fire was never determined, but it was believed to have originated at the base of an artificial palm tree. Once the fire ignited, it spread rapidly across the ceiling and quickly engulfed the entire club. The fire consumed the nightclub in just five minutes. Many of the side doors and exits had been bolted shut to prevent patrons from skipping out on their bills, leaving only the front door as an escape route. However, the revolving door was rendered useless by the panicked crowd trying to flee, leading to further fatalities. The fire claimed 492 lives. The tragedy, however, led to a sweeping overhaul of fire safety laws and regulations to prevent future disasters of such magnitude.
2. Omaima Nelson
On Thanksgiving Day in 1991, Egyptian model Omaima Nelson took her husband's life, claiming it was in response to an alleged sexual assault earlier that evening. While the motive may have been rooted in revenge, what transpired afterward veered into a horrific tale more akin to a 'demonic cannibal' than a victim seeking justice.
After the supposed assault, Nelson restrained her husband and stabbed him in the chest with scissors. Despite the attack, he survived. In a fit of rage, she then bludgeoned him to death with a clothes iron, striking so forcefully that the iron broke. She proceeded to dismember his body, castrating him and placing his severed head in the freezer. She boiled his hands in a pot to remove his fingerprints. Nelson later confessed to eating parts of his body, but later backpedaled, claiming instead that she had disposed of the pieces in the garbage disposal. When investigators recovered his remains, about 80 pounds of his body were missing.
1. The Carnation Murders
The Carnation Murders are named after the small, rural town of Carnation, Washington, which became infamous due to this horrific crime. On Christmas Eve 2007, Joseph McEnroe and Michele Anderson carried out a chilling massacre, killing Anderson’s entire family. The couple arrived at Anderson’s parents' home, where the family had gathered for the holiday, and waited with guns in hand, ready to strike.
Anderson's parents were the first to arrive, only to be brutally shot and killed. Their bodies were concealed, the entrance was wiped clean, and the scene was reset for the next round. Soon after, Anderson’s brother and his wife arrived with their two children, all of whom were also gunned down without mercy. When asked about her motives, Anderson claimed she had been mistreated by her parents and that her brother owed her money. McEnroe, on the other hand, offered a jumble of incoherent statements in response.
