The most mysterious murders of all time

Nothing tops Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel Murders, with the simultaneous Torso killings, in which a cut-up body was deposited even in the construction of the new Scotland Yard building.

OP, I’m utterly fascinated by Villisca and Hinterkaifeck. Both are creepy, horrific, and confusing.

DNA has taken all of the fun out of unsolved murders, we used to have a lot when I was young.

Now they are prosecuting 80+ year old people for crimes that happened before I was born.

Most murders do not involve DNA though

The Cleveland Torso Murderer

Vince Foster

Freeper troll at r6

Jon Benet is my #1

R4 They seem to here in the UK, drive by shootings are rare. Most killers want to get their rocks off, but even a hair can suffice as proof.

Don't point at me!

r9, shootings (whether drive by or not) are way more common in the US. Something like 70-75% of homicides are committed with a firearm here

O n the morning of Friday, December 15, 2017, Barry Sherman, multi-billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical company Apotex and well-known philanthropist, was discovered in the basement of his 12,000-square-foot home in Toronto, in a seated position, legs outstretched, the right leg crossed neatly over the left, his back to the lap pool. He was wearing his glasses, perched undisturbed on his nose. His bomber-style jacket was pulled slightly off his shoulders and down, which held his arms at his sides. Beside him, Honey, his wife of forty-seven years, known as the “queen” of Toronto’s Jewish community, was in a similar position, the light coat she wore also pulled off her shoulders, holding her hands at her sides. They were both VSA, paramedic and police code for “vital signs absent.” A quick estimate by the paramedics suggested the couple had been dead for at least a day if not more.

This case is very creepy because of how their bodies were posed by the indoor pool. The killer/killers also spent a lot of time in the house after he killed them.

^I still believe there was definitely cop involvement in the Sherman murders.

This is a lesser-known case that happened in Portland, OR, exactly one year to the day before the Villisca, Iowa axe murders. A weird coincidence for sure. The Lava Lake Murders (which also occurred in Oregon) are very creepy, as are the Keddie Cabin murders in California—pure nightmare fuel.

Also, this case. I saw a segment about it on a true crime documentary series a few years ago and found it extremely bizarre. An elderly couple in Georgia were murdered in their home; the husband's headless body was found in the garage, and the wife's body was discovered sunken in the nearby lake with cinder blocks. The husband's head has never been found.

R13- Would love to know your thoughts on this case.

The Springfield three. Just bizarre. Three women just vanish in the middle of the night leaving all their belongings behind.

Also,, Asha Degree,. I want to see this case solved.

[quote]The Springfield three.

Already discussed ad nauseam on the Datalounge. What are you going to bring next, the Dyatlov pass case?

I just finished a book about the New Orleans Axeman. It was good.

The Servant Girl Annihilator, a serial killer in 1880s Austin, TX

Bible John : Bible John is an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Servant Girl Annihilator is so morbidly hilarious just because of the name (didn't Mark Twain invent it?).

^^^Sorry, it was O. Henry, not Twain.

Another especially nightmarish one that occurred in Oregon in the '70s. Ominous and especially horrific given that two of the victims were children, one an infant. Ann Rule wrote about it in one of her books. The Pacific Northwest seems to be a hotbed for murder.

It doesn't take Agatha Christie to work out that this one is no mystery: they ALL either took part or formed a cheerleading squad as it happened. The town population was only 342.

[quote]The vigilante murder of Ken McElroy - Ken McElroy was known as "the town bully” in Skidmore, Missouri, where he was charged with many crimes (sexual assault, arson, assault, burglary, attempted murder, etc.) but never convicted. He was shot multiple times in broad daylight on the town's main street with as many as 60 witnesses, yet no one called an ambulance, confessed, or implicated anyone else.

R25- I read about book about that case. I read the entire book in one night because I couldn't put it down. They have never spoken one word about who shot Ken. After his much welcomed death the house that his wife and children were living in mysteriously burned to the ground.

Skidmore is a creepy little town. It's also where Branson Perry disappeared and Bobbie Jo Stinnett was murdered.

27 posts and no one mentioned me yet?

Honest, I was only trying to help.

You do believe me, don't you ?

Read OP's original article, R28.

I'll give you a basket full of hugs! ☠️

JonBenet, probably. Most of the detectives involved do not think her parents committed it.

The Watcher House is terrifying.

💋 And I'll give you a basket full of kisses, r31.

R34-🤗

R33 that was a hoax based on buyer’s regret. They bought too much house and needed out of the loan.

Was anyone actually killed in the Watcher case?

R15 is one that creeps me out. I listened to a podcast about it years ago. They said the Police Chief handling the case has publicly stated he knows who did it but needs more evidence to make an arrest.

Jack the Ripper is fascinating, not just due to the crimes but also because of everything going on in the area at the time, plus society at large. I have a great book just called The Facts which goes into so much of this stuff, it was really interesting.

Zodiac is similarly interesting due to the history of the time.

I think Muriel should close this thread immediately.

The Zodiac owns this thread.

The disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little...

and the murder of the woman, who took her job and sat at her desk, about a year later - Diane Sheilds.

The murder of Diane Shields and the connection to Mary Shotwell Little's disappearance...

and the refusal of law enforcement to make any connection between the two crimes

Hinterkaifeck is DL catnip. The most infamous murder mystery in German history.

Robert Wone

The brutal murders of my dear wife and son.

My top three are Maura Murray, the Springfield Three and Austin Yogurt Shop

R2- I'm not really into true crime at all, yet those two cases really are unusually disturbing.

The 1978 burger chef murders in Indiana and the complete bungling of the investigation.

Don't forget about the Dyatlov murders.

The truly mysterious ones are those we haven’t found out about.

Tracy Jo Shine!!!

My fucking career.

My goddam fucking career.

Oh shut up you little homosexual boy r53 !

[quote] Already discussed ad nauseam on the Datalounge.

People who write “the Datalounge” get an automatic kick in THE cunt.

....

True, R55. If the "L" in "DataLounge" isn't capitalized, the word is unrecognizable.

[quote]💋 And I'll give you a basket full of kisses, [R31].

Anything but a basket of deplorables.

R48

Besides the fact that neither have been solved, there is evidence that the murderers in each crime stayed in the home before and (Hinterkaifeck) after the murders.

That’s creepy.

Read about Tracy Jo Shine. It’ll freak your shit.

The Dardeen family murders really creep me out. Someone decides to go to a trailer in rural Illinois and just butcher the entire family. The killer then melts away into the night. I think he's still out there. Tommy Lynn Sells confessed to the murders but he was a pathological liar. The authorities pretended to belive him because they're morally bankrupt and wanted to close the case. Do any older DLers remember seeing this massacre in the news?

The Jeffrey Epstein one.

The Dardeens put their trailer up for sale and wanted to move because crime had risen in that area. Before they could leave someone snuck in and beat the little boy and his mother to death with a baseball bat. Ruby Dardeen was almost full term and during the attack gave birth to a baby girl who was also killed. Keith Dardeen was found days later in a field where he had been shot and castrated.

Jodi Huisentruit, news anchor who was kidnapped and never seen again.

An eaten baby is an unfound baby.

The Miyazawa family murders in Tokyo in 2000. An entire family, parents and two children, slaughtered by a home intruder. Even though there's a good amount of evidence (including the killer's DNA) they still have no clue who's done it. It was covered on several podcasts but there's a relatively recent one, "Faceless", that goes deeper into the details and follows the evidence, even to the Andrews AFB in California, since some of the sand found among the evidence came from there (!)

Snowtown murders

R66 This is the one where the murderer left his poop in the toilet, right?

R64 Has to be one of the great mysteries of Iowa. I think she had dirt on someone and they weren’t having it. Just my opinion. Just a crazy story when you think about it: a twenty something TV news anchor in a town of 30k going missing and never seen again. It makes absolutely no sense why this hasn’t been solved. As an Iowan, I’ll say I think someone in Mason knows what happened and is drowning themselves in Balck Velvet trying to forget it.

Her friend John Vancise was a suspect. Last I heard he had dementia so he's not talking.

Yeah, that was bizarre, R68. Why in the world wouldn't he flush the toilet? Maybe it was a way of showing contempt for the victims or maybe he wasn't in his right mind.

Aaron Hernandez

The Bricca family murders 1966 Cincinnati. Father, mother and 4 year old daughter viciously stabbed in a quiet, house upon house subdivision on rainy Sunday night. The father's wallet was taken and never found. The murderer rumored to be the beautiful young mother's lover, a local pet vet. No one was ever charged. The other main suspect a popular local children's tv show host who rode a loud motorcycle.

Nothing mysterious about R67. Every detail is known.

The unsolved grisly Bricca family murders from 1966. It’s been possibly linked to a serial killer, organised crime, an affair gone wrong, and DL-fave Satanism.

R73 - missed your post, agreed, it’s an interesting and juicy unsolved case. I’m surprised it hasn’t received more attention over the years.

R76 it happened a few blocks from where I grew up in Cincy. They went to the same church, St. Al's. The wife was raped, the husband was bound and gagged, and the little girl apparently tried to hide under her bed from the killer, who found her and speared her. The angle with the child's show host was that had he left her alive, she would have known him. The 2 family dogs who barked at the simplest knock on the door, were apparently drugged (The theory about the Vet who had the drugs to do that). A local author, J.T. Townsend wrote the comprehensive book about it, but obviously he had to stop short of naming the likely killer. The main suspect lawyered up, and shut up, after initial questioning without an attorney.

The answer to most of these is negroes. That is why they remain "unsolved". Another case of marxists not being able go handle reality.

R77 small world, I also grew up in Green Township and went to a nearby parish to yours. What a surprize, Catholics on the West Side, lol. We even took our dog to that evil vet clinic on Glenway, and I wonder If the vet was still there at that time? I didn’t know about the murders until I was much older though, so it’s an interesting lens for me to see that area in a different light. I just looked up the house on Zillow. They sale history shows slight reductions from the listing prices. Probably the murder house discount. It’s a cute 1950’s house at an affordable price. ;-) I’ll have to read that book.

R79, R77 here. So cool to find another West Sider. We are much maligned! Do you know who I meant by the local tv host? I think that house on Greenway has for sale a few different times in the last 15 years. JT Townsend has/had a FB page, where there was spirited discussion about the murders.

Did anyone hear that audio of an old woman claiming someone was in her house and you hear her being murdered? They use it for operator training. There’s people are still fighting over whether it’s real or not, even tracking down the house and possible victim.

I see R78 got lost on his way to a possum cookout. Or a cousin fucking orgy.

R68, yes, that's the one. That's how they got the DNA. The snag is that the use of DNA in the Japanese criminal system is severely restricted due to privacy concerns. The thing they know is that the perp's ancestry is part East Asian (they think Korean) and part Mediterranean (Italian?)

Oetzi

[quote] Jack the Ripper is fascinating, not just due to the crimes but also because of everything going on in the area at the time, plus society at large. I have a great book just called The Facts which goes into so much of this stuff, it was really interesting.

Aaron Kosminski is pretty much accepted as the strongest suspect at this point.

R80 - I don’t know the tv host theory. Who is it? Not the ‘Uncle’? I checked out the JT Townsend site, and he’s published three books about local murders….all on Kindle Unlimited too. It will make for some good reading about Cincy.

True, we are maligned, but I’ve made my peace with being a West Sider, the good and bad. I’ve not lived there in years, but it will always be who I am, and much of my family is still there. I remember all kinds of random West Side things: the Gay 90’s in Cheviot, going to the Cheyenne Social Club at Western Bowl for ribs, and even Steve Chabot before the combover campaigning for city council at the St Jude’s Festival in the mid-80s, lol.

R86, R80 - Skipper Ryle. He was a friend of the Vet, they'd go motorcycle riding, and he had a thing for Mrs. Bricca. They all hung out at Tiny Cove, Gay 90's up and down Harrison Avenue. The West Side looks like a 3rd World Country now. Depressing!

The murders of Nicole Simpson and that wonderful boy, Ron. Still a mystery.

r81, do you have any more info on that? I've never heard of that.

Seems like it would be interesting at least.

Judge Joseph Crater.

Disappeared on a summer evening back in 1930, never to be found or heard from again. The wife also did some hinky shit after his disappearance, but no one has ever been charged, nor has any suspect ever been named.

Oi! What about me?

R78

Yes. Yes. Negroes killed an isolated farm family in 1920s Germany.

ETA: assuming that r78 is being serious - I can’t tell anymore around here.

The mysterious death of actor Paul Benedict ('Mr Bentley' on 'The Jeffersons').

On December 1, 2008 the actor was found dead in his home on Martha's Vineyard. Authroities quickly dismissed it as him dying in his sleep from a 'brain hemorrhage' , and closed the case to the press. No questions asked.

However, many residents (including one of my best friends) heard very differently from the town police, who didn't want to 'scare the public' away during the touristy Christmas season ("Christmas in Edgartown", "Christmas in Vineyard Haven" are two very popular attractions in the winter).

Seems that Benedict did die of a brain hemorrhage, but he was found beaten to death in his bedroom - beaten beyond recognition and found naked on the floor. Friends who knew him also said many of his valuables were missing (though it didn't appear to be a break-in or a burglary). Friends also confirmed that Benedict, 70, used to meet different younger men at restaurants and gay bars on the mainland (usually in Provincetown), and invite them over 'for the weekend' at his luxury home in Gay Head. Everything pointed to him having a 'guest' for the weekend and the hook-up went wrong - very wrong. To this day, the murder remains a mystery.

[quote]To this day, the murder remains a mystery.

Because it wasn't a murder. A town gossip who was not at the scene, didn't examine the body nor sign off on the death certificate, is hardly a reliable source for how a body was found.

There would be no reason for police officers to risk their careers and freedom by falsifying documents, pictures, and demanding the coroner do the same, to say someone died one way when it was a murder. To not scare away tourists? Please.

1. No one said they were 'falsifying documents' - they told the press he died of a brain hemorrhage (which he did) but never went into detail of what caused it.

2. The Gay Head community is very small - you can't keep a secret from those residents. It wasn't a 'town gossip': the truth leaked out within days.

3. Tourism is the #1 business on the island. The last thing they would want to get out is that there was a gruesome murder (of a semi-famous celebrity) in this sleepy, safe little town that doesn't give out more than a traffic ticket once every five years. The community is not going to want details of this murder to get out. Best to think he 'died in his sleep'.

The Cleveland Torso Murders. Pretty gruesome -

[quote]The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, in the 1930s. The killings were characterized by the dismemberment of twelve known victims and the disposal of their remains in the impoverished neighborhood of Kingsbury Run. Most victims came from an area east of Kingsbury Run called "The Roaring Third" or "Hobo Jungle", known for its bars, gambling dens, brothels, and vagrants. Despite an investigation of the murders, which at one time was led by famed lawman Eliot Ness, then Cleveland's Public Safety Director, the murderer was never apprehended.

[quote]1. No one said they were 'falsifying documents' - they told the press he died of a brain hemorrhage (which he did) but never went into detail of what caused it.

So whoever signed off on his death certificate was fine with not mentioning he was actually physically beat to death?

Um, ok.

The murders of my beloved son Dodi and his special friend, Diana, Princess of Wales.

I'm looking at you, Phil the Greek.

This. Its a strange case and has never been solved.

The PA who disappeared 17 years ago and has never been found

r101 that was allegedly connected to the Jerry Sandusky case. The case was still in its early stages and Gricar was working it.

R101 He refused to file charges against Sandusky because he said there was a lack of evidence. But Gricars hard drive was removed from his laptop and was unrecoverable. That would make this case even weirder were it to be tied to the Penn St sandal.

Barbara Colby

Marilyn Monroe

This one is absolutely horrifying.

Stalker. Kidnapped her in hospital parking lot while friends were waiting inside. Saw the car take off. Family kept getting phone calls taunting them asking “Can Dorothy come to the phone?” He knew everything about her day after day. What she was wearing, etc.

Did you make up that list’s order, OP?

R98 That would be correct. He died of a brain hemorhhage, which he did.

Marina Habe. Possible Manson victim.

On the same spirit as R109, The Murders of Doreen Gaul and James Sharp

R110 - I think she was the Jane Doe found, the girl from Canada. Reev Whitson? Near where Marina Habe was found.

The disappearance and eventual murder of Frauke Liebs is mysterious and very creepy. There is a thread on it here, but in quick summary, a girl disappears after a night out in a bar watching the World Cup, and over the week before her body is found she is regularly contacting her boyfriend and family with weird messages.

The shit and piss murders in Kansas

[Quote] JonBenet, probably. Most of the detectives involved do not think her parents committed it.

That case is doomed thanks to Border's police. In more recent studies on her clothes, they found 2 different samples of the same (contact) DNA from an unknown Male.

But because of the way the police handled the evidence and their stubborn focus on Patsy, no district attorney would be able to prove, without reasonable doubt, that this man or anyone else killed is the murderer. Even now the original investigators said the contact DNA is irrelevant.

It's touch DNA likely from the factory where the clothing was made.

Hinterkaifeck is TERRIFYING.

Someone was living in the house! For months!

I first heard about the murders in the Lights Out podcast and I thought it was a ghost story. The maid kept hearing noises in the house and the family thought she was crazy.

Then she got the fuck out of there. And then they started hearing the noises. Then they ended up dead in the barn.

Jeeeesus. It’s such a scary story,

What makes the Hinterkaifeck murders so scary is the theory that it may have been the same guy who killed the family in Villisca, Iowa. There's a book called "the Man on the Train" that claims one guy did tons of murders of individual families across the US in the early decades of the 20th century. They were each locally notorious,but no one tied them all together. repeatedly the family members were killed with an axe, and there was almost one teenagegirl involved who was the only one sexually molested before she was killed. The authors think it was a German-American immigrant who may have returned to Bavaria in 1922 to commit the Hinterkaifeck murders.

Valerie Percy, the Illinois Senator's daughter stabbed to death in the family's Lake Shore mansion in 1966 during her father's first Senate campaign. Her twin sister later on to marry another US Senator, Jay Rockefeller.

The weird thing about this murder was not only her family extremely wealthy and well known, but the police have theorized whoever did it was just a home invader whom Valerie happened upon who killed her to shut her up. They don't think anyone was in the house for any particular reason, but someone had just decided to break into the mansion and look around, and Valerie unfortunately surprised him.

They never caught him.

Marilyn Monroe

Here are three big ones!

The Fort Worth Missing Trio who disappeared at the mall just before Christmas. This case is something else and would love to know what happened. Anyone have any theories????

Hey cunt R101, article says SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE. As in, paywalled. Doubt there are many Pennsyltuckians here.

Who killed Marilyn Monroe

Strange that the Dorothy Jane Scott killer stopped the taunting calls when her father answered the phone and had always called when Dorothy's mother was alone. That makes me think that it was someone close to the family and maybe more acquainted with the father and knew where the father was most of the time. When Dad answered, the killer was caught off guard and maybe thought Dad could id his voice?

Is R78 being facetious? If not, what a fucking moron.

R124, I just read the Wikipedia page about Scott. What could she have done back then? Stalking didn't become a crime in California until 1990.

The Princes in the Tower of London

JonBenet was killed by her father. And only her father. He sexually abused her, gaslighted Patsy and has managed to keep Burke from revealing that he saw John awake that night.

JonBenet was killed by her father. And only her father. He sexually abused her, gaslighted Patsy and has managed to keep Burke from revealing that he saw John awake that night.

Dorothy Jane Scott said that she thought she recognized the voice but couldn’t place it. That story is beyond terrifying. The dude was leaving dead birds on her car. She took self-defense lessons right before he got her in her car in a hospital parking lot while her friends waited. They saw the car speed off in front of them and the car was then found deserted on fire. Her body was found years later under some dog bones across from a restaurant. The poor son. The stalker spoke to Dorothy on the phone and knew what she was wearing and why she was at the hospital - she accompanied a co-worker who was bitten by a spider with another co-worker. I always questioned the friends. Their stories were a bit all over the place. The taunting phones are the thing of nightmares.

This is a brilliant piece done on Dorothy Jane Scott.

Let’s not forget the infamous Scarface actress who was never seen again. Try solving THIS one.

Jon Benet’s murder still unsolved. So tragic

Dorothy Kilgallen.

Nancy Reagan -- murdered by cum inhalation

Jeff Epstein.

Aaron Hernandez

R45 I have just watched the new documentary called Who killed Robert Wone. I still don’t know what to believe, the man who had the spare key and access to sedative drugs? And then perhaps the 2 out of 3 of the men in the house helped clean it up? I just don’t know.

Anyone remember this one? Unsolved Mysteries covered it. Codes. FBI. Hitman. Photo calls to wife. Everyone who looked into it was found dead by suicide.

I love that Skidmore, MO murder of the town bully by the townspeople who all clammed up and didn't talk to the cops.

R120 all of those stories are horrific, but the Diane Augat one is especially scary. I read about that one years ago and it was almost bad enough to keep me up at night. So many strange and sordid details—her clothing and toiletries being found in a convenience store freezer, the ominous phone calls from the "Starlight" (possibly a strip club), and her fucking severed finger being found on the road! It's so awful.

The Black Dahlia murder. Despite numerous books claiming to have "solved" the murder none of them really has. There was one called "Daddy Was The Black Dahlia Killer" where some woman claimed her father killed Elizabeth Short. It was a crock of shit. And there's the guy who claimed his father, who was a doctor, killed her. He offered up as proof two photos he found in his father's possessions; he said both were of Elizabeth Short. But anyone with decent eyes could see the photos were definitely NOT of Short. The case remains open. The murder is still unsolved.

Not necessarily mysterious (seems possible the girlfriend may have orchestrated this), but very gruesome and scary—a man, his young daughter, and friend/employee at their moving company went missing while on a job. A moving truck on the company's lot was found riddled with bullet holes, and pieces of human scalp on the windshield. Horrendous.

R142, George Hoddel was the most likely culprit. The body was even dumped on his own street.

His ex-wife’s street.

R132, I actually think that one has been solved. He was a fellow actor who has dating her and I believe had mob connections. One of the gossip sites did a deep dive on it

The unsolved death of the troubled and beautiful socialite flapper Starr Faithfull. She had a love of cruises and would spend her nights on the docks at their bon voyage parties. They found her bruised body washed ashore on a Long Island beach, days after she was last seen being escorted off a ship.

Butterfield 8 was based on the sordid life of Starr Faithfull.

Wow. Going into a deep dive on Starr Faithfull now - I’ve never heard of her before your post.