23 December 2023 , 16:52
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Christmas is meant to be the time of cheer and high spirits.
So when we hear of disturbing crimes being carried out during the festive period it is all the more horrific. From a dad getting stabbed to death in a queue for children to meet Santa to someone yelling 'fire' in a crowded venue leading to a stampede that killed 73, here are some of the most bone-chilling incidents that ruined countless Christmases.
Man dressed as Santa Claus massacres family
A man dressed as Santa Claus knocked on the door of a family home, much to the delight of an eight-year-old girl - but things took a horrifying turn as he shot the young girl before going on to massacre the family.
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Bruce Jeffrey Pardo (far right) smiles and poses with his ex-wife Sylvia in happier times before he killed her and her family (turner / Splash News)The Ortegas were hosting a party for Christmas 2008 in their home in Los Angeles County, California, with other family members when there was a knock at the door. One of the young girls happily cried "Santa Claus! Santa Claus!" upon hearing the knocking and she opened the door to find a man dressed as Santa, complete with an enormous present - which contained a homemade flamethrower.
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Just seconds later, 'Santa' pulled two handguns from his festive trousers and shot the young girl, Katrina Uzefpolsky, in the face.
Picture shows Bruce Jeffrey Pardo (AFP/Getty Images)The gunman was the ex-husband of one of the Ortega daughters. After shooting into the festivities, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo opened up with the flamethrower with the resulting blaze soaring to around 40 to 50 feet high and took 80 firefighters an hour-and-a-half to put it out. The intensity of the fire meant victims had to be identified using dental and medical records.
He later took his own life but left nine members of the Ortega family dead with many more suffering severe injuries.
Man dressed as Santa kidnaps a girl
A family with three young daughters had pulled up at a petrol station when the girls spotted a man dressed as Santa claus.
'Santa' asked three girls to walk over to his motorcycle to see a stuffed toy Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that had been placed in the motorcycle sidecar.
John Michael Barton, 55, was charged with kidnapping (WIS 10)Suddenly the girls' mum realised the motorcycle had been started and she watched in horror as 'Santa' drove off with her daughter in the sidecar. The frantic mum rushed to her husband saying their daughter had been kidnapped.
She waited with the other girls as the desperate dad chased after the motorcyle. Eventually 'Santa' pulled over and the young girl was rescued.
The 55-year-old John Michael Barton, the rogue Santa, was later arrested by police and charged with kidnapping. The terrifying 2006 incident in Columbia shows you can't always trust a Santa.
Man killed in queue to see mall Santa
In a horrific 1971 incident, now known as the Santa Line Slaying, a man was stabbed to death in front of his family.
Many families had come to see Santa Claus at a Higbee's department store in Cleveland, Ohio's Public Square, but an argument erupted in the queue.
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Jack Fitzpatrick accused the family of Tyrone Howard of cutting the line. According to Tyrone's account he had sent his pregnant wife to rest and rejoin the line when he was near the front. Tyrone is the dad of actor Terrence Howard, who also witnessed the incident.
Mr Fitzpatrick wasn't having it and an argument erupted which led to blows. Tyrone was kneed in the groin opening up a previous wound there and in response he stabbed Mr Fitzpatrick repeatedly with a sharp object.
The latter bled out and died in front of shocked people trying to enjoy the festivities. Tyrone was convicted of manslaughter and served 11 years.
Black Friday crush leaves one man dead
In 2008, around 2,000 of people turned up for a Black Friday at a Walmart in Valley Stream, New York.
When the doors opened at 5am, shoppers charged into the store desperate to get a good deal ahead of the Christmas period.
Jdimytai Damour, the 34-year-old Walmart employee who was trampled to death on black (Handout)Jdimytai Damour, of Jamaica, Queens, was knocked to the ground and trampled beneath the feet of the shoppers. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the stricken man.
Police also reported customers grew angry when officials tried closing the store because of the death.
Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages...When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning.' They kept shopping."
Man high on bath salts breaks into house to hang decorations
A young boy came down from his bedroom to find a man sitting on the couch having just hung the Christmas decorations.
Terry Trent, 44, was arrested and charged with burglary after the 2011 incident.
Police reports indicated that 44-year-old Terry Trent did have a pocket knife and was most likely abusing bath saltsPolice said that Trent entered through a back door, made himself comfortable by lighting candles and hung a Christmas wreath on the back garage door. The boy went to get his mum who was next door.
The mum told police that Trent attempted to be polite to her son. He was arrested without incident, but police did find that he was carrying a pocket knife.
"He had said to him, 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'll get my things and go,'" the boy's mother told local paper WOIO at the time.
Horrific stampede kills 73 as families celebrate Christmas
The day before Christmas, 1913, and the families of striking miners had gathered in the Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan.
Each year the people of Calumet, Michigan, commemorate the tragedy (National Park Service)The party was held on the second floor of the building with a steep stairway the only way up. The incident began when someone shouted: "Fire!" among the packed party although there was none.
Attendees panicked and in the ensuing stampede 73 people, including women and children, were killed.
To this day, no one knows who shouted 'Fire' or why. But some historians believe it may have been an anti-union activist hoping to disrupt the party of union strikers.