Hollandsburg murders anniversary

PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - To many, February 14 is Valentine's Day. But 32 years ago, the Hollandsburg murders took place.

In the small Parke County town of Hollandsburg, four young men were brutally murder.

News reports of what happened that night rocked our community to its core. With shock and dismay, we watched and learned that this was a mass murder committed just to see what it was like to kill people.

We watched in dazed sadness as Walter Cronkite told the rest of the nation of the horror.

"The isolated town of Hollandsburg in western Indiana another series of shootings today. Police say four men entered a mobile home and shot and killed four brothers, ages 14 to 22. The men also wounded the victims' mother. She played dead and survived. Police say the four brothers were robbed of $30 and that the killings quote 'Don't make a whole lot of sense.'"

Back home, friends and neighbors grieved for the family. Good kids gunned down by mass murderers. The mother, Betty Jane Spencer, who survived went on to lead the nation in forming victims' rights groups.

Indiana did not have a death penalty at the time, so they were given life without parole.

Over 30 years later, the events of the Valentine's Day are still hard to image.

Mark Allen's Blog