May 10, 1994 — John Wayne Gacy is executed for murder

John Wayne Gacy was a serial rapist and murderer who lived in Chicago, Illinois. He is known to have raped and murdered at least 33 young men – 26 of whom he buried under his house. Most infamously, he often dressed as a character of his own invention, Pogo the Clown, in order to lure children into his clutches.

Gacy was arrested for his murders on December 20, 1978, and confessed two days later – in fact, he confessed to more murders than there was evidence to confirm. He attempted to plead insanity, but failed to convince the court. On March 13, 1980, he was found guilty of 33 counts of murder and sentenced to death. His execution by lethal injection took place in 1994, after years of appeals failed to overturn his convictions.

May 10, 1941 — Rudolf Hess crashes in Scotland

To this day, there is no clear explanation of his motives, but the facts in the case are these: on May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess – the third most powerful man in Nazi Germany behind Hitler and Goring, flew a plane to Scotland, where he crash landed and was taken into custody. He had come on a mission of peace, trying to secure an end to hostilities between Germany and the United Kingdom.

However, his offer was quickly disavowed by the German government, and Hess stripped of al authority. He spent the rest of the war as a p.o.w., and stood trial alongside the other surviving Nazis at Nuremberg.

It seems that he had experienced some sort of guilt-motivated nervous breakdown, causing him to undertake his quixotic mission. It remains an open question whether his guilt was about the war by itself, or also about the Holocaust.

Rudolf Hess - Bf 110D Werk Nr 3869 - Wreckage - Bonnyton Moor.jpg
By Ian Dunster – Imperial War Museum – picture scanned by me Ian Dunster 17:37, 22 January 2006 (UTC) from the The Flight Of Rudolf Hess article in the December 1986 issue of Aeroplane Monthly and credited to IWM., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Air Crash Museum — The Dead Milkmen