On this date in 1985 in his apartment in Cincinnati, Ohio, a gay man, David Self, 25, was brutally strangled, stabbed, and mutilated by a heterosexual white man, Robert J. Van Hook, 25, (Date of Birth: January 14, 1960), who picked up Mr. Self at a gay bar, the Subway Bar, under the guise of sex. Typical of overkill in gay hate crime homicides, after strangling Mr. Self (who was in the vulernable position of performing oral sex on Van Hook) Van Hook took a knife from Mr. Self's kitchen, then stabbed Mr. Self in the head and multiple times in the neck nearly decapitating him. Van Hook then cut open Mr. Self's abdomen, stabbed him multiple times in the liver and heart and left a bottle, its cap, the murder weapon, and a cigarette butt in Mr. Self's abdominal cavity before stealing several items from his victim's apartment. Van Hook also smeared his bloody fingerprints in an attempt to destroy evidence. Robert Van Hook—who fled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he was arrested in April 1985 and where he confessed to the anti-gay slaying—was convicted by a three-judge panel of capital murder and aggravated robbery for killing and then robbing Mr. Self. Van Hook was later sentenced to death. Following his sentence, VanHook (Inmate Number: A186347) was incarcerated at the Ohio State Penitentiary on August 16, 1985. On April 18, 2006, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the guilty finding stating, "We reverse the judgment of the district court and remand on the ground that Van Hook's constitutional rights were infringed when Cincinnati police started an interrogation anew with Van Hook after he had requested legal counsel in clear violation of Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981). The police bungled an otherwise strong case. As a result of this violation, Van Hook's subsequent incriminating statements and confession should have been suppressed." The appeals court also said in its ruling: "We reverse the judgment of the district court and remand with instructions that Van Hook be released from state custody if not retried by the State of Ohio within 180 days of the final federal court judgment in this case." The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled that Van Hook's counsel was ineffective. However, Van Hook was not released from custody. Instead, on July 31, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review Van Hook's case. Then, on November 9, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an earlier decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had found Robert J. Van Hook, 49, had ineffective trial counsel. The Supreme Court also reinstated the death penalty against him. On October 4, 2011, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower court’s ruling upholding the death penalty for Robert Van Hook, 51, after the judges rejected Van Hook's claims that: (a) prosecutors violated his rights by not providing psychological reports which indicated he may have been motivated by so-called "homophobic panic" which he hoped would support his claim that he was temporarily insane at the time he killed Mr. Self; (b) prosecutors should not have admitted into evidence the victim-impact statements in which Mr. Self's mother and an arresting police officer urged the imposition of the death penalty and that the prosecution committed misconduct by referring to Van Hook’s criminal history or capacity for future dangerousness during the penalty phase; and (c) he had ineffective counsel at trial. So-called "homophobic panic," "homosexual panic," or "gay panic" has never been deemed a mental illness or mental disease by any group of mental health experts including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. Additionally, before he killed Mr. Self, Van Hook had previously lured gay men into secluded settings and robbed them many times during and after his teenage years; and, he even did this after he killed Mr. Self, according to court documents.

In Omaha, Nebraska, on this date in 2007, Ethiopian-born grocery owner of Bob's Food Mart at 16th and Fort streets, Kassahun Geshime (spelled in some news reports as Goshime) was tied up inside his store and robbed by two white males. There was an explosion and fire, but Mr. Geshime managed to get out of the building before the explosion. Omaha Police say that the armed robbery, assault and arson was a hate crime. Apparently racial slurs were written on Mr. Geshime's home and business weeks before the robbery, assault, and arson. Mr. Geshime owned the store for just four months prior to the robbery and arson. His store had to be demolished, and he and his family decided to relocate to Atlanta because, following the hate crime, Mr. Geshime's wife no longer felt safe in Omaha.

In West Hills, California, on this date in 2008, a flammable object was thrown at the Jewish Community Center. Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. No injuries or damages were reported.

On this date in 2009 in Mountainhome, Pennsylvania, a white man, Ian Seagraves, 17, of Cresco, was arraigned as an adult before Mountainhome Magisterial District Judge John Whitesell, for the gay hate-crime-robbery-murder of Michael Scott Goucher, 21, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Goucher disappeared on February 3, 2009, and his body was found in a wooded area off Snow Hill Road in Price Township southeast of Scranton, on February 11, 2009. Typical of "overkill", a common feature of hate crime homicides, Mr. Goucher was stabbed some 45 to 50 times, including in his neck. Seagraves—whose MySpace nickname is "Throat Stabba"—and Shawn Nicholas Freemore, 19, a white man from Price Township, both stand accused of luring Mr. Goucher—who was a two-year Army veteran—under the guise of meeting Freemore for sex, and then murdering and robbing him. Neither Seagraves nor Freemore were charged with a hate crime. Both were charged with murder, aggravated assault, robbery, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and conspiracy. Freemore has a criminal history including burglary, retail theft, and drug paraphernalia possession, and he told police that he and Seagraves were "tripping" on drugs when they conceived of the plan to kill Michael Goucher.

In 2009 on this date at the Walk In The Woods Motel in Woodford, Vermont, Donald R. Odell, 45, of Woodford, allegedly assaulted a black man, Derek Okundaye, 38, also of Woodford, in the head and body with a crowbar after an argument in which Odell is accused of yelling a racial slur at Mr. Okundaye. The Rutland Herald reported that police expected Odell to be arraigned out of the Bennington District Court on aggravated assault and hate-crime charges on February 19, 2009.

In a courtroom in Franconia Township, Pennsylvania, on this date in 2011, a white man, Shane Patrick Stewart, 18, of Franconia, admitted to charges of ethnic intimidation (a hate crime), terroristic threats, and criminal mischief for his role in spray-painting swastikas, the word "Jew," and ethnic slurs on the home and cars of a Jewish family in his neighborhood on February 4, 2011. Three other teenagers were also arrested for their alleged roles in the anti-Semitic hate crime, including Colin Andrew Ford, 18, of Lower Salford Township, Pennsylvania, a 17-year-old unnamed female, and a 15-year-old unnamed female. Two females, who were charged with minor juvenile offenses, were allegedly with Stewart and Ford at the time. Stewart was tried in juvenile court and was found to be delinquent. Had Shane Stewart been tried in adult court, he would have faced a maximum sentence of up to seven to fourteen years in jail. Instead, in March, 2011, Montgomery County Juvenile Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy ordered Shane P. Stewart spend an unspecified time in confinement at a secure juvenile detention facility (estimated to be about 90 days). Once he earns his release from that facility, he will be assigned to a Jobs Corps facility where he will be taught a trade and return every night to a dormitory-like facility. In late July, 2011, Colin A. Ford pleaded guilty to his felony charge of terroristic threats. Montgomery County President Judge Richard J. Hodgson postponed Ford's sentencing until the probation office provided him with a report on Ford’s background. Ford could have received up to seven years in prison. Instead, on November 10, 2011, Ford, 19, was sentenced to 10 days to 23 months in the county jail, to be followed by three years' probation and 200 hours of community service. He was also ordered to undergo counseling. In addition, Judge Hodgson allowed Ford to serve the minimum sentence over the course of five consecutive weekends. It is not uncommon for residents of predominently white towns to be charged with hate crimes (regardless of the bias motivation for the hate crime) or to be involved in bias-motivated violence; and, as of the 2000 U.S. Census, Franconia Township was 96.57% White, 0.86% Black or African-American, 0.08% Native American, 1.71% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.30% from other races, 0.47% from two or more races, and 0.89% Hispanic or Latino of any race. Also as of the 2000 U.S. Census, Lower Salford was 90.6% White, 2.9% Black or African-American, 0.1% Native American, 4.4% Asian, 1.3% from two or more races, and 2.6% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

On this date in 2011 in Middle Island, New York (Suffolk County), an elderly man was attacked in what police believe may have been a hate crime. The victim and his wife were walking into the Wal-Mart store on Middle Country Road when a white man driving a silver, late model, quad cab Chevy Silverado pulled up and yelled profanities at them. Once at the Wal-Mart, the same man rammed his shopping cart into the victim’s left side, then pushed and grabbed the man before fleeing. No press reports indicated why the police believe the attack on the man might be a hate crime. If you have any information about this incident, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS, or text SCPD and your message to CRIMES.