On this day, July 20, 1984, Alton Coleman and Debra Brown were captured after a six-state killing spree that left eight people dead.

Coleman, a street-savvy con man, had a long criminal record before he met Brown in 1983. Their spree started the following year, on May 29, when they killed a 9-year-old girl. Three weeks later, in Gary, Ind., Coleman and Brown snatched two girls, ages 7 and 9. One girl escaped, but the other was choked to death.