The conspiratorial, or creative, side of the human brain immediately begins to think that maybe July 9th is a day for killers to be born; however, the facts regarding killers being born on July 9th are contradictory to the thought process that would like to believe the conspiracy. The fact is that the Center for Disease Control lists the national average of births in the U.S. at just under 11,000 births a day, or approximately 450 births every hour. Is it weird that so many high profile cases involving killers and accused killers born on July 9thhave graced the media?

On the night of February 22, 1946, a young couple in Texarkana, Texas, was attacked by a gun-wielding masked assailant while parked on the town’s lovers’ lane. The young man, Jimmy Hollis, was severely beaten with the butt of a pistol, cracking his skull in three places. Jimmy’s young date, Mary Larey, who attempted to run from the attacker, was beaten and sexually assaulted. Jimmy Hollis and Mary Larey would survive the late-night attack to recount their horrific story to local sheriff W.H. Presley. The following day, the Texarkana Daily News reported the attack that would herald the beginning of a string of attacks that would leave five people dead and three people injured. The horrifying attacks, perpetrated by a man wearing a white cloth bag with eyeholes as a mask, occurred over a 10-week time period and would stop as quickly as they started. The attacks in Texarkana, although a brief entry in unsolved serial-killer history, became known as the Moonlight Murders. The problem? There was not a full moon during any of the attacks or murders. So why does the moon get blamed for increases in violent crime in America?

On the night of December 31, 1884, Mollie Smith, a resident of Austin, Texas, was awakened by an intruder, dragged into the backyard of her residence on West Pecan Street, and savagely murdered with an axe. The following day, the prominent Austin newspaper Austin Statesman ran the following headline: “A Fearful Midnight Murder.”