Murder of WW2 veteran solved – 56 years after he was shot
The murder of a Second World War veteran has been solved – more than 50 years after he was found shot dead.
Hiram ‘Ross’ Grayam had become a milkman after facing the “horrors of the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of two concentration camps”, Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said.
He was delivering milk in Florida in April 1968 when he failed to return home after work.
Police launched a search and his body and milk truck were spotted from a plane in the Vero Beach area.
When those looking for him arrived at the scene, Mr Grayam was “laying next to the milk truck with bullet wounds, killed execution-style”, Indian River County sheriff Eric Flowers said.
“Despite exhaustive efforts, his killer eluded justice,” the sheriff’s office said.
Decades later, “that fateful night still lingered in the minds of detectives”, with a cold case team looking for leads.
A witness told police she saw Mr Grayam talking to two men who were walking on the side of the road, WPEC-TV reported.
“She said Mr Grayam engaged them in conversation, and announced that he would be back shortly,” Mr Flowers said.
The three men all left in the milk truck, he added.
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“Through determination and the cooperation of witnesses, new leads emerged,” the sheriff’s office said.
Thomas Williams, who died in 2016, had confessed to Mr Grayam’s murder, it emerged.
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As early as 2006, there were rumours that Williams might have been involved in the crime.
He wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper “saying that he had been accused of the murder, but he denied having knowledge of it, that he wasn’t involved in it”, the sheriff said.
The case went cold again.
However, once Williams had died, his ex-wife and a friend of his sister came forward.
Mr Flowers said the witnesses – neither of whom knew each other – told investigators Williams had previously confessed to them that he had killed Mr Grayam.
Both witnesses said they considered Williams to be a threat to them and their families while he was alive, Mr Flowers said. “But the fact that he is now dead gave them the courage to come forward.”
Detectives hope that anyone who knows the identity of the second man seen with Mr Grayam will get in touch.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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