Major Crimes and True Crime

China executed two milk producers on Tuesday for selling more than three million pounds of contaminated milk products in connection with a food-safety scandal that killed six infants, shocking the country last year   In 2008, a Chinese milk company intentionally tainted baby formula powder so they could pass quality control tests. At least six infants died and hundreds of thousands more got sick. This is milk producer and trader Geng Jinping begging for forgiveness during his trial. He was executed in 2009. Nineteen others have been jailed in connection with the case, which involved deliberately contaminating milk with melamine, a chemical used in manufacturing plastics and fertilisers. It resulted in product recalls around the world and caused outrage in China, particularly when details of a cover-up emerged. Parents were furious to learn that dairy farmers and middlemen had deliberately added melamine to boost the apparent protein levels of milk so that it...

Photograph of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring very shortly before they were murdered by followers of Charles Manson. Sharon Tate, the American actress and model was tragically killed by the Manson Family on August 9, 1969. She married the Polish-French director Roman Polanski in 1968, and was expecting their first child in 1969. On August 9, 1969, she and four of her friends were brutally murdered by members of the Manson Family, a cult led by Charles Manson, who believed he was starting a race war. The murders shocked the nation and the world, and became one of the most infamous crimes of the 20th century. Sharon Tate, an up-and-coming actress and the wife of film director Roman Polanski, was pregnant at the time of her death. Jay Sebring, a renowned hairstylist in Hollywood, was a close friend of both Tate and Polanski. The photo is often cited in discussions about the Manson Family murders because it captures a moment of normalcy and happiness in the lives of Tate and Sebring,...

He’s Peter Nielsen. Pretty happy looking dude, eh? He was only 36 when he was murdered. He was stabbed in the stomach and heart several times. That too, right in front of his home, with his wife and little children present. Now, what exactly had happened, you ask? Nielsen was an air traffic controller for Skyguide in Zurich. On the fateful night of the 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision accident [1] , where two aeroplanes collided into each other mid-air, Nielsen was the  only  air traffic controller handling the airspace, two workstations at the same time. It was past midnight, he was stressed out, but most importantly, the radars were being delayed and not working properly. Because of this, he did not notice how close the two planes (Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and DHL Flight 611) were before it was too late. Less than a minute before the accident, he realised the danger and contacted Flight 2937, instructing the pilot to descend to avoid a collision. ...

One case that still haunts me is the strange story of the “Eight Day Bride.” In 1947, Christina Kettlewell’s body was found in a shallow stream near the Severn River, while the cottage where she was staying burned down during her honeymoon. The case uncovered a tangled story of a secret marriage, life insurance, a possible love triangle, emotional distress, and even attempts to end her life. Christina had vanished from her family home for two weeks before secretly marrying Jack Kettlewell, a war veteran. Photo: Christina and Jack (top), Ronald Barry (bottom) Christina’s family was suspicious of Jack’s close friend, Ronald Barry, who joined them on the honeymoon. Barry was a ballroom dancer and owned the cottage where the couple stayed. Investigators found that Barry had strange financial ties to the couple—he was even listed as a beneficiary on their life insurance. Christina had written letters that showed signs of emotional struggle. But in the end, the exact cause of her...

Dennis Nilsen butchered 15 young men in 1978. Most of his victims were homosexual or homeless men whom he would pick up in bars across London or on the streets. After inviting the victim into his home, Nilsen would further lure him with food and alcohol before killing him through strangulation. Once they were dead, Nilsen dismembered their bodies by dissecting them in his house. At first, he buried their remains in his garden, but once he moved, other tactics were put in place- He boiled the heads of his victims in a large cooking pot to dispose of their brain… The remainder of the body was cut and stored in plastic bin bags. When the smell of their rotting corpses became stronger, Nilsen stupidly attempted to flush their limbs down the toilet and drains. This caused a large blockage in the pipes. You think that's dumb… Nilsen then actually complained to a waste company about the blockage! He asked for it to be resolved because he and his neighbours could not handle the stenc...

What is the most deceptive image that you’ve ever seen? This is Ted Bundy. He was a serial rapist and murderer. This is Jeffery Dahmer. He was a cannibal, serial killer and rapist. This is John Wayne Gacy. He was a serial killer. This is Gary Ridgway. Also know as the Green River Killer, he was a serial killer. This is Harold Shipman, also known as Dr. Death. He is to be believed as one of the most prolific killers in modern history. And this is Hitler. We all know who he was and what he did. To me, pictures like these speak volumes. They are so deceptive, but at the same time not. It shows that even the most horrible of humans are still humans and they do human things. A good quote to live by and to teach others is “Monsters don’t always look like monsters; after all, Lucifer is the most beautiful of angels.” It’s a quote my grandfather taught me growing up and it’s always stuck with me just because someone smiles at you or does something nice, it doesn’t mean they can’t be evil as we...

Kirk himself stated that it was only after he suffered a stroke in 1996 at the age of 80, that he finally become faithful to his wife of sixty years! There are, however, a lot of dark and twisted stories floating around regarding Kirk Douglas. Stories that go well beyond a mere life of hedonistic debauchery, as he portrays it, but are down right evil. Kirk Douglas raped Natalie Wood when she was just a teenager. He invited her to his hotel room, at a point in time where he was an incredibly powerful star at the box office, a true money making machine, fav of the public and darling of the press… he was also a very sexually aggressive man, a man who could not accept the word no. He made his way through dozens of starlets, impregnating many and forcing them to undergo abortions. One of them was Natalie Wood, when she was just sixteen… and she wasn’t just raped, she was in fact attacked so brutally she had to see a doctor because of the internal damage and it almost cost her her care...

One recurring story involves the actress Natalie Wood. In 1955, when Kirk Douglas and Natalie Wood was 16, he reportedly sexually assaulted her. Natalie confided in her sister, Lana Wood, who has since talked about the story. First during Douglas’ life and then again, in greater detail, after his passing. According to Lana Wood, the attack on her sister Natalie was so gruesome and brutal that it left her permanently scarred. It resulted in a lifelong habit of heavy barbituate use in order to cope with the trauma… in 1949, Kirk Douglas was interviewed in the case of a missing woman, the young actress Jean Spangler. In her purse, which was found after her disappearence, she carried a note: “Kirk: Can't wait any longer, Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away.” Kirk Douglas called the police and said he didn’t know the girl, and that he had been in Palm Springs at the time of her disappearance. But it is rather odd — they recently strred in a film...

This boy is a young teenager named John Joseph McCabe. John lived in Tewksbury, MA with his parents and two sisters. In 1969, he was a 15-year-old high school student. On the evening of September 26th of that year, John had innocently gone to a community center in town to attend a dance that was being held for local teenagers. However, John did not return home after the dance. His parents spent a terrifying and frantic night looking for him, but could not find him. The next morning, three boys were cutting through a vacant field in Lowell, a mill town which neighbored John’s hometown of Tewksbury. In the field, they stumbled upon John’s body. He had been gagged and hogtied, and his cause of death had been strangulation from the rope that was used to tie him. Of course, police launched a full-scale investigation to find the murderers. They spoke with many kids, teenagers, neighbors and others in the community to see if somebody might be able to point them in the di...

In 1981, 20-year-old Cynthia Anderson vanished from her workplace (law firm) in Ohio. A year before she vanished, someone had painted “I LOVE YOU, CINDY—BY GW” on a wall opposite her workplace. The message remained on the wall for six months before being erased. However, the GW creep rewrote it. Cynthia started receiving anonymous calls, even at the office, and she started having nightmares. Her boss suggested keeping the office doors locked all the time. Cynthia also had a buzzer installed on her desk. Sadly, nothing worked in her favor. At noon on Aug 4, 1981, Cynthia’s boss arrived at the office to find the lights on. He smelled nail polish odor, suggesting Cynthia must have been there. Cynthia vanished without leaving a note, which she used to do earlier. Her car was still in the parking, but her purse and keys were gone. Among the most unsettling details is the suggestion that the office doors were locked from the inside when the boss arrived, there were no signs of struggle, and…...

The last picture of Bonnie and Clyde kissing hours before they would die in a shootout with police, 1934 Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were two criminals who were active in the Barrow Gang during the Great Depression. They were famous for robbing banks, though they usually robbed smaller targets such as funeral homes or small stores. The pair became a media sensation at the time for their romantic relationship while being on the run from the authorities.  The pair first met on January 5th, 1930. Clyde had previous trouble with the law for stealing cars. The pair would rob different establishments for money. During their time on the run, they killed 13 people, most of them being police officers. They spent over 2 years on the run before the were shot and killed by police in an ambush in Louisiana. It is known that while Bonnie took part in the crimes, it is theorised that she may not have killed anyone. Bonnie is though to have a psychological condition called Hybristophil...

Noir Crime: The Mad Killer Of Suffolk County A lone plate sat on the counter top at Bailey’s Restaurant in Westhampton Beach. There was a fried egg that lay untouched on the plate. Beyond the table, the cash register door was opened and all the cash was gone. A customer cautiously called out for the proprietors and got no answer. It was still hot in the early morning hours of August 9, 1959 in Westhampton Beach and the weary customer had decided to stop at the new establishment for a cup of coffee. Bailey’s had been open for only six weeks. The customer later told police he had been wanting to try the coffee there. He also reported that as soon as he entered the restaurant, he felt that something was wrong. But he continued to call out. Thinking the restaurant staff was most likely busy in the back area, he peered through the door marked “Employees Only” and noticed that the rest room door was ajar and something was lying on the floor. As his eyes adjusted to the dim ...

In 1946 in Kent, the strangled body of a 46-year-old former telephonist known as Dagmar Peters was found by the side of the road. In the same year, not far along the south coast, in Bournemouth, a hunt was launched for a handsome pilot by the name of Neville Heath, suspected of a foul murder in London. And in Eastbourne, another southern coastal town, Dr John Bodkin Adams, a suspected serial killer, was about to "ease the passing" of another wealthy patient with an injection of morphine. And in that same year, George Orwell wrote an article for Tribune in which he considered just what murder tells us about society. The essay, prompted by a casual killing carried out by an American army deserter, Karl Hulten, and a teenage waitress, Elizabeth Jones, was called "Decline of the English Murder". Nearly 70 years later, those 1946 cases are being examined in full forensic detail. Are murders a mirror of the society we live in? How much, for instance, can we really learn f...

Known as " Lost Girl " this series of pictures is taken from a small  video clip  of the same name. It shows a woman walking down a road, who then looks at the camera in a close-up shot, which reveals the extent of her injuries on her face. For years, her identity was unknown, however, historians have been able to put a name to this woman's face, as well as  her story . Her name was Lore Bauer. Born in Kollerschlag, Austria 1921. She was assigned to the Prague anti-aircraft department in late 1944 as a technical assistant, or Helferin. R*ped and beaten by  Czech Partisans , Lore was caught fleeing the Red Army into West Czechoslovakia, which had just been declared a demarcated American military zone. Lore survived the Allied internment camp system, and then went on to build a new life, working for an airline company after the war. She died in 94', at the age of 73... The film footage was taken on May 8, 45', near Plzeň, along the old Prague Highw...

Discovered by chance 94 years on: Bodies of 21 German soldiers in perfectly-preserved First World War trenches Stunned workers were meant to be digging a new road but journeyed instead into a dim and grim past They were meant to be digging a new road but journeyed instead into a dim and grim past. Stunned workers stumbled upon an underground shelter – and inside were the bodies of 21 German soldiers killed in the First World War. Many were found in the position they died when an Allied shell hit their tunnel and caused it to cave in 94 years ago. A large number of personal possessions – preserved by the lack of air and light – were also found in the 300ft tunnel near the small town of Carspach in the Alsace region of France. Michael Landolt, the archaeologist leading the dig, said: “Everything collapsed in seconds and is just the way it was at the time. Here, as in Pompeii, we found the bodies as they were at the moment of their death. “Some of the men were found in sitting p...

On the morning of January 15, 1947, a mother taking her child for a walk in a Los Angeles neighborhood stumbled upon a gruesome sight: the body of a young naked woman sliced clean in half at the waist. The body was just a few feet from the sidewalk and posed in such a way that the mother reportedly thought it was a mannequin at first glance. Despite the extensive mutilation and cuts on the body, there wasn’t a drop of blood at the scene, indicating that the young woman had been killed elsewhere.... Read story  The ensuing investigation was led by the L.A. Police Department. The FBI was asked to help, and it quickly identified the body—just 56 minutes, in fact, after getting blurred fingerprints via “Soundphoto” (a primitive fax machine used by news services) from Los Angeles. The young woman turned out to be a 22-year-old Hollywood hopeful named Elizabeth Short—later dubbed the “Black Dahlia” by the press for her rumored penchant for sheer black clothes and for ...