Major Crimes and True Crime

Meet Mary Pearcey, The 19th-Century Murderess Who May Have Actually Been ‘Jack The Ripper Two years after Jack the Ripper murdered and mutilated five women in London, Mary Pearcey was found guilty of an eerily similar slaying. These magnificent structures are composed of enormous stones that our modern technology cannot move or arrange properly.  Though the identity of Jack the Ripper has never been uncovered, some believe that a woman was actually behind the heinous crimes. Even back in 1888, British Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline suggested that a woman might have committed the murders — especially after he heard a few chilling witness reports.⁠ ⁠ Hours after the last female victim was butchered, some witnesses swore that they had seen her, leading Abberline to believe that the killer might have worn the victim's clothes to escape the crime scene without attracting attention. But Abberline wasn't the only one to suspect that a woman was responsible for the grisly killing ...

The tragic story of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett Notorious child serial killer Myra Hindley smiles over what is believed to be the grave of Keith Bennett, 12, who was snatched off the street and murdered by Hindley and her accomplice Ian Brady. The above photo was taken by Brady on Saddleworth Moor, England, in 1964. In partnership with Brady, Hindley committed the rapes and murders of five small children. Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law tipped off the police about her crimes. Hindleypleadedd not guilty to all of the murders. She was found guilty of three murders and was jailed for life. She was never release  and died in prison in 2002. The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England.  The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans—aged between 10 and 17, at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The ...

From thawing corpses with a hairdryer to leaking nitrogen-capsule coffins: How a TV repairman made thousands freezing bodies for immortality... with disastrous consequences On a roasting day in California, a former television repairman named Bob Nelson drove his truck into the desert to perform a bizarre funeral ritual. He had left behind four human corpses, crammed into a metal cylinder and stored in a Los Angeles crypt. For months, Nelson had attempted to preserve them in dry ice and liquid nitrogen but his attempts had failed. He was now going to abandon the bodies in the crypt.  But first, to salve his conscience, Nelson staged a private ceremony of farewell in the desert He muttered a few words — less in prayer than apology –— and headed back to Los Angeles. Though he was brought up in a Mafia family, Bob Nelson was not a serial killer and these corpses were not evidence of murder. Quite the opposite: the year was 1970 and this was the latest setback in the crackpot quest for ...

When Jim Carrey once attempted to stay in Room 217 of Colorado's  When Jim Carrey once attempted to stay in Room 217 of Colorado's Stanley Hotel, he only lasted three hours before fleeing. The room's legacy of horror began in 1974, when novelist Stephen King was inspired to write "The Shining" after a nightmarish stay there. To this day, visitors say that the Stanley and especially Room 217 are just as haunted as "The Shining" would have you believe.  Step inside the haunting halls of the Shining hotel and discover the real-life horror — In October 1974, ascendant horror writer Stephen King and his wife spent a night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, at the foot of the Rockies. With the winter barrage of snow and cold looming, the hotel was about to close for the season, leaving King and his wife as its sole guests. After King ate in a grand yet empty dining room — with the chairs up on every table except his own — and walked through the seem...

Victim’s daughter persuaded serial killer to admit slaying 5 other women Serial killer Richard Cottingham is talking. My grandma was a serial killer’s victim. Richard Cottingham claimed responsible for two more Rockland deaths, adding to his total close to 100 The 75-year-old, who claims he is responsible for close to 100 killings and became known as the "Torso Killer" and the "Times Square Killer" for mainly targeting prostitutes, is talking to victims' families and an author who specializes in serial killers about how he murdered additional women, including at least two in Rockland. Lorraine McGraw, a 26-year-old mother, was killed by Cottingham in 1970, prosecutors say. McGraw's granddaughter, Sonia Ruiz McGraw of Queens, said Cottingham had promised to detail her grandmother's death and how he knew her. But Rockland law enforcement officials say facts do not support his other claim. Goodarzi was found dead alongside another unidentified wom...

Inside The Mysterious Disappearance Of Brandon Lawson, Who Vanished From A Highway In Texas "My truck ran out of gas. There's one car here. The guy's chasing [inaudible] to the woods. Please hurry!" When Brandon Lawson ran out of gas on rural Route 277 outside of Bronte, Texas just after midnight on August 9, 2013, nobody was worried at first. His brother set out to bring him a can of gas, and his girlfriend went to bed, assuming he would be back on the road soon. Instead, Lawson simply vanished into thin air. In a bizarre call with 911 just beforehand, he told the operator he was in the middle of the field and that he had "run into" someone or something. And when his brother arrived with the gas, Lawson was nowhere to be found, even though he told his brother over the phone that he could see him. But Brandon Lawson himself was never seen again. Find out more about his chilling disappearance: After Brandon Lawson ran out of gas in the dead of night on rural ...

The Twisted Saga Of Michael Peterson, Kathleen Peterson, And The Real Story Behind ‘The Staircase’ In 2003, Michael Peterson was convicted of killing his wife Kathleen by beating her with a fire poker and throwing her down their back staircase — despite the police never finding the murder weapon nor any evidence of a concrete motive. But investigators soon learned that the Petersons were deep in debt and that Michael was unhappy with the way his work as a writer had stalled while his wife's career as a business executive had soared. And when prosecutors learned that Michael had exchanged emails with a male sex worker, they argued that Kathleen must have discovered the messages and confronted him about it, causing him to fly into a fit of rage, beat her about the back of the head, and leave her to die at the bottom of the stairs. But six years after Michael's conviction, a shocking new analysis showed that Kathleen Peterson had traces of feathers, wood, and cedar needles in her ...

Miriam Rodríguez Dedicated Her Life To Finding Her Daughter’s Killers — And Then Was Murdered Herself Miriam Rodríguez spent years tracking down her daughter's killers, one by one, until she was murdered on Mother's Day in 2017 "I don't care if they kill me. I died the day they killed my daughter. I want to end this. I'm going to take out the people who hurt my daughter and they can do whatever they want to me." In January 2014, Miriam Rodríguez's 20-year-old daughter Karen was kidnapped and murdered by a Mexican cartel — and Rodríguez spent the rest of her life tracking down her daughter's kidnappers, one by one. Rodríguez changed her appearance, staked out cartel members' homes, befriended their relatives for information on them, and spent hours scrolling through social media for clues — and sometimes pursued her daughter's kidnappers on foot herself with a pistol, holding them until the police arrived. Go inside the story of Miriam Rodríguez...

Disturbing interview with 13-year-old Derek Rosa after he stabbed his mother, Irina Garcia, to death in October 2023. He took this selfie after killing his mother, you can see the blood on his hand.   Rosa is being charged as an adult and is being held without bond while he awaits trial. According to police, he inflicted over 40 stab wounds before he called an online friend and sent the friend three photos, including two of his mother and a selfie of himself.  Upon arrival at the apartment, officers discovered Garcia deceased in her bedroom, next to a crib containing her unharmed newborn. Derek was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, which means his case will be heard in the adult criminal court system. WATCH THE DISTURBING VIDEO FOOTAGE HERE  In the hours leading up to the tragic incident, Derek Rosa was captured on a doorbell camera video walking in and out of his Hialeah apartment unit. The footage also revealed a conversation between Rosa and his ...

On January 31, 1982, a 29-year-old New York medical student named Kathleen McCormack mysteriously vanished without a trace. Her husband, Robert Durst, initially told investigators that he put her on a train at a Westchester County station so she could go back to Manhattan, and then spoke to her on a payphone after she arrived in the city. But his story would later change.⁠ ⁠ McCormack's family soon grew certain that Durst was behind her disappearance, especially since he had allegedly abused her during their marriage. But despite the suspicions surrounding Durst, this multimillionaire real estate heir wasn't charged in connection with the case. However, 18 years later, Durst's close friend Susan Berman was found murdered "execution-style" in Beverly Hills. And just a year after that, Durst's neighbor Morris Black was found dismembered in Texas. Before long, authorities began to suspect that Durst had killed both Berman and Black to cover his tracks so that his...

The Twisted Life Of Clark Rockefeller, The Elite Con Man Who Got Away With Murder For Nearly 30 Years Beginning in 1978, Christian Gerhartsreiter took on numerous identities as he conned and killed his way into America's upper crust — then passed himself off as a distant relative of the Rockefeller family for 16 years. "Everything in this man's life was a lie." For more than 15 years, a German con man from a small town in Bavaria lived among New England's blue-blood elites as "Clark Rockefeller," a distant relative of the famous oil dynasty. In 1996, Rockefeller married a Harvard M.B.A. named Sandra Boss and secretly lived off of her salary while he insisted that they file their tax returns separately in order to keep his true identity a secret. But by 2007, Boss had become suspicious and hired a private investigator to look into her husband. The investigator discovered that there was no record of Rockefeller ever existing before the two of them met in N...

On 11 August, 2000, 7-year–old Midsi Sanchez was walking from school to her home in Vellejo, California Girl, 8, Escapes From Abductor On 11 August, 2000, 7-year–old Midsi Sanchez was walking from school to her home in Vellejo, California, with her brother. Midsi’s brother was a slow walker so was a bit behind her when she was grabbed by a man and thrown into his car. The man handcuffed Midsi to the gear stick of the car and covered her with a blanket. He drove around with her inside the car for the next two days, giving her nothing to eat or drink except for wine and beer. The man parked his car in an industrial area of Santa Clara, around 70 miles away from where he had kidnapped her. When he got out of the car, he left the keys behind. Midsi jumped into action and grabbed the keys and attempted each key to unlock her handcuffs. Thankfully, she was successful and managed to free herself and climb out of the car window. The man realised what she was doing and chased her. She ran onto ...