On this day, Aug. 20, in 1978, five teenage boys were herded into an abandoned building in Newark, N.J., and burned to death in a dispute over missing marijuana.
Alvin Turner, 16, Melvin Pittman, 17, Randy Johnson, 16, Ernest Taylor, 17, and Michael McDowell, 16, were last seen that night on a busy street after playing basketball.
The case stumped police for years.
The boys were considered missing persons for 30 years until an inmate named Philander Hampton confessed — the memory was “wearing me down,” he said.
Hampton said he and his cousin ordered the boys into a closet, nailed it shut, poured gasoline on the floor and set it ablaze.
Police had never made the connection of the fire to the disappearances.
Hampton pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years. His cousin was acquitted at trial.
— Scott McCabe
