Major Crimes and True Crime

A bloody fingerprint elicits a mother’s evil tale in Argentina On this day in 1892, Francesca Rojas’ two young children are killed in their home. When Rojas returned home, she claimed to have seen a man named Velasquez escaping out her open door. Once inside, she found both her six-year-old boy and four-year-old girl stabbed to death. After being arrested and tortured for weeks, Velasquez continued to deny the murder. Eventually, investigators found a bloody fingerprint on a doorknob, and the print matched to Rojas. It is believed, Rojas killed her own children to improve her chance of marrying her boyfriend, who was known to dislike children. Rojas was sentenced to life. Francesca Rojas’ two young children are killed in their home in the small town of Necochea, Argentina. According to Rojas, a man named Velasquez had threatened her when she rejected his sexual advances earlier in the day. Upon returning home later, Rojas claimed to have seen Velasquez escaping out her open door. Once ...

Do you remember the Buckhead crane-sitter? On this day in 2005, a man wanted for killing his girlfriend spends his third day perched on a crane. On May 24th, Carl Edward Roland’s girlfriend was found dead in a pond in Florida. The next day Roland goes to a construction site in Atlanta, where he told a worker he had hurt someone. After more than 56 hours of authorities trying to lure him off the crane, Roland finally agreed to have some water. Once he came close to the police they tasered and captured him. Roland was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. If you lived in Atlanta 10 years ago, you likely remember the three days in May when Buckhead was brought to a standstill by a man sitting on a construction crane. Even if you didn't live in Atlanta, you might have heard of him. The man was Carl Edward Roland, who was at the time wanted by police in connection with the death of his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Gonzalez. The strangled and badly beaten body of Gonzalez, 36...

A mass murderer leaves eight women dead On this day in 1966, Richard speck brutally kills 8 student nurses. Speck was an alcoholic and a petty criminal with over 20 arrests on his record. He had “Born to Raise Hell” tattooed on his forearm on the night of the murder.  On the night before the murder, the drunk Speck broke into the townhouse for student nurses and used his gun to force three nurses into a bedroom, where he found three more women. Using nautical knots, he then tied the women’s hands and feet with strips torn from bedsheets. Later, three more nurses had come home only to be tied up as well. Speck killed them one by one but one nurse escaped and shouted for help. Speck was sentenced to life. On the night of July 14, 1966, eight student nurses are brutally murdered by Richard Speck at their group residence in Chicago, Illinois. Speck threatened the women with both a gun and a knife, tying each of them up while robbing their townhouse. Over the next several hours, Speck s...

A nurse stabs expectant mother to death, steals unborn baby On this day in 1975, a nurse, Norma Jean Armistead stabs expectant mother to death, steals unborn baby. Norma checked herself into a hospital with a newborn that she claimed to given birth at home. Doctors were confused with Norma’s claim until it was revealed that a 28 year old woman had died in her apartment and had a baby cut out of her body. Norma was then convicted for murder and sent to prison for life. Norma Armistead checks herself into Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles, California, with a newborn that she claims to have given birth to at home. Some staff members were already aware that Armistead, a nurse at the hospital, had a pregnancy listed on her medical charts the previous year, but dismissed it as a mistake because they didn’t believe the 44-year-old woman was still capable of getting pregnant. Examining doctors were even more confused when it appeared that Armistead hadn’t actually given birth. The mystery was soo...

A young woman and her married lover kill her family On this day in 1976, Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca are arrested for killing Colombo’s parents and brother. The two killed Columbo’s family to receive the family inheritance, but Patricia was unaware that her parents wrote her off the inheritance years earlier. As of result, both were sentenced 200 to 300 years. Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca are arrested for the brutal slaying of Columbo’s parents and brother in Elk Grove, Illinois. Twenty-year-old Columbo had left her family home two years earlier to live with DeLuca, a 36-year-old married man. The pair later killed Frank, Mary and Michael Columbo in order to receive the family inheritance, unaware that the Columbos had written Patricia out of their wills years earlier. As a 16-year-old, Columbo worked in a suburban coffee shop where she met pharmacist Frank DeLuca, who managed the pharmacy next door. He soon hired her to work in his store and the two began an unusual sexual r...

The True Story of Gianni Versace's Murder On this day in 1997, fashion icon Gianni Versace was murdered. This murder was a string of murders committed by Andrew Cunanan in the spring of 1997. Despite the murderer being recognized in Miami Beach by a fast food employee 4 days prior to the murder of Versace, the police could not come in time to catch him . Versace’s death lead to a nationwide manhunt. Cunanan was not found until days after the murder of Versace, where he was found dead 40 blocks away from Versace’s mansion. Today, there is a lot of speculation as to why Cunanan targeted Versace, as there is no reported evidence that they have met. However, they were both openly gay and were in similar circles. to early risers. It was a beach-cavorting, nightclub-dancing, hedonistic scene ruled by a fashion crowd of models, musicians, actors, and bohemians—so long as said bohemian looked good on Rollerblades wearing a G-string. But within this indolent world there were driven, ambitio...

Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge collapse  On this day in 1988, the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge in Malaysia collapses. The bridge collapsed due to it not being able to support the weight of over 10,000 people.  The bridge was overcrowded because of people celebrating the one of two festivities that were held on that day.  As of result of this collapse, 32 people were killed and over 1,000 people were injured. Today, the bridge still stands and no tragic accident has occurred since. The Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge collapse was a disaster of the Penang Ferry Service which occurred on 31 July 1988, at the Sultan Abdul Halim Ferry Terminal in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia. The collapse caused the deaths of 32 people and injured 1,634 people. It was blamed on overcrowding and the jetty being made out of steel bars that led to the collapse Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik pledged a full and open inquiry to determine its causes, with Chief Mini...

Remembering David Blaine's 44 days in a glass box, which frustrated the British public like no other act of performance art On this day in 2003, magician and illusionist David Blaine begins his endurance stunt called ‘Above the Below.’ In this stunt, Blaine would be locked in a box 30 feet above the bank of the River Thames with no food or nutrients. Blaine survived 44 days in the box with just 4.5 liters of water a day. Occasionally, Blaine would take breaks to use the bathroom. This stunt was a spectacle for many. However, lots of British hated the stunt as they would taunt Blaine by throwing eggs and fruit at his box. People would also bang drums to prevent him from sleeping. As of result of this stunt, Blaine lost 60 lbs, had heart palpitations, blurred vision, and breathing problems. - The clip is of day 14 of the stunt. Today marks 15 years since David Blaine was hoisted above the Thames in a small Perspex box with only water and barely enough room to stand up and lie down. H...

 Edith Thompson: U-turn over rejection of hanged woman’s pardon 1923 Edith Thompson was hanged for murder, and rumors arose that she had aborted while still hanging from the rope. Edith Thompson, 29, was found guilty of murdering Percy Thompson, despite there being little evidence against her and the insistence of the killer - her lover - that she was no part of it. A request made last year was rejected by Justice Secretary Dominic Raab. The pardon is now being looked at again after errors were pointed out. Percy was stabbed in Ilford, east London, on 3 October 1922 by 20-year-old Frederick Bywaters. The Thompsons had been making their way home from the theatre. The case caused a huge sensation as letters written by Edith uncovered during the police investigation revealed an affair between her and the killer. She was executed at Holloway Prison on 9 January 1923 where she had to be carried to the gallows with her arms and ankles bound following days of injections of a powerful seda...

The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson On May 14th, 2008, just before 2 a.m., 19-year-old Brandon Swanson drove his car into a ditch on his way home from a party in Marshall, Minnesota. Unharmed, he decided to call his parents and told them he was near Lynd, since he was unsure of his exact location. His parents Annette and Brian Swanson drove out to find Brandon, while they stayed with him on the phone. Despite his parents intensively searching for him around the area and Brandon signaling them by flashing car lights, they were unable to spot each other. Brandon decided to leave the car and walk towards the lights in the distance which he thought were of a small town of Lynd. They decided that his parents would wait for him at a parking lot of a local bar, but shortly after 2:30 am, 47 minutes into the call, they heard Brandon shout "Oh, shit!", and the connection was lost. At 6:30 am, his parents reported Brandon missing, and later that day a big search began, however, even t...

The Iconic Pinup-Turned-BDSM Model Who Helped Usher In America’s Sexual Revolution Until her sudden disappearance from the spotlight in 1957, pinup icon Bettie Page helped usher in an era of sexual liberation for women in an otherwise judgemental society — and was publicly demonized for it.⁠ However, to those closest to her, Page was "a quiet gal, prim and proper," who lived humbly and sent money home to her family. And though she let loose on camera, Page was known to those in the industry as "a most controlled young woman, quiet and composed. She didn't smoke or drink and didn't much care for those who did." See more of the iconoclastic Bettie Page in 35 titillating photos  Through her titillating photoshoots, Bettie Page showed a pious and restrictive mid-century society how fun and freeing a woman’s sexuality could be. When it comes to pinup models, Bettie Page is one — if not the pioneer of the industry. As these Bettie Page photos show, the historic mo...

Richard Ramirez murdered both men and women and preyed on victims both young and old One of the most terrifying things about Ramirez was that he was willing to kill just about anyone who crossed his path. Unlike some other serial killers who have a “type,” Richard Ramirez murdered both men and women and preyed on victims both young and old. At first, it seemed like Ramirez was only attacking people near Los Angeles, but he soon claimed a couple of victims near San Francisco as well. And since the press dubbed him the “Night Stalker,” it was clear that most of his crimes happened at night — adding yet another scary element. Disturbingly, many of his attacks included a Satanic element as well. In some cases, Ramirez would carve pentagrams into his victims’ bodies. And in other cases, he would force victims to swear their love for Satan. All over California, people went to bed fearing that the Night Stalker would break into their homes while they slept — and perform an unspeakable ritual ...

Woman stabs Craigslist date and then tries to eat his heart  Oct 5, 2017 - An Edmonds, Washington, woman who planned to kill her Craigslist date and rip his heart out was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Tuesday. KCPQ reported that Amy Caroline Brown, 24, said she was planning to become a serial killer. She also claimed she’s a psychopath who’s been tormented by homicidal thoughts since middle school. Brown pleaded guilty last month to attempting to kill a man she met on Craigslist. Court papers obtained by My Edmonds News indicated that Brown stabbed Nicholas Johnson in a motel room on January 29. Brown jumped on top of the victim and said, “I am a serial killer,” before stabbing him in the chest multiple times. The man escaped and retreated to a nearby Walgreens. Upon her arrest, officers discovered a note in Brown’s pocket which said she was a serial killer, planned to eat Johnson’s heart, and that she intended to “strike again,” the local paper also reported. “I decided I wan...

Serial killer in Japan preyed on suicidal women on twitter, kept 240 human bones at his home Twitter serial killer admits befriending victims online after nine dismembered bodies found chopped up in freezers Nov 3, 2017 - A man who allegedly hid nine dismembered bodies in his house in Tokyo’s suburb has confessed to preying on vulnerable people on social media. Police arrested 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi on Tuesday after an investigation into a missing woman’s case led the authorities to his door. The remains of eight women and one man were discovered in cooler boxes stored in the basement. Over the course of the past few days, Shiraishi confessed to killing and dismembering the bodies, telling the authorities he would use several Twitter accounts to seek out women with suicidal tendencies and lure them to the apartment he moved into last August. It was Shiraishi’s social media activity that eventually helped police link him to a 23-year-old woman. Worried about her disappearance, h...

Natasha Ryan's, the missing Australian Girl who hid in a cupboard for five years On the morning of August 31, 1998, 14-year-old Natasha Ryan's mother dropped her off at her high school in Rockhampton, Australia. Then, the teenage girl vanished without a trace. ⁠  For five years after she went missing, Natasha's family feared the worst and even held a memorial service for her, assuming that she was dead. In reality, she had been hiding out at her much older boyfriend's house — less than a mile from her mother's home. During that time, Natasha had moved about the house freely with the curtains drawn, spending her days cooking, reading, sewing, and hiding in a cupboard whenever people came over. She later explained that she stayed in hiding for so long simply because "the lie had become too big."  And she only re-emerged after a serial killer was wrongly charged with her murder —  ⁠Natasha Anne Ryan (born 1984) is an Australian woman from Rockhampton, Queensl...

Feet, Murder, And Necrophilia: The Tale Of 'Shoe Fetish Slayer' Jerry  In 1944, when Jerry Brudos was five years old, he found a woman’s spike-heeled shoe at a junkyard. The shoe wasn’t even part of a matching pair, but Brudos was fascinated by it and brought it home. The discovery sparked his infatuation with women’s shoes and throughout his childhood, Brudos attempted to steal shoes from his teachers and his mother in order to satisfy his growing fetish - one that would grow into a deadly obsession The photos and discover the disturbing story of Mindhunter’s shoe fetish serial killer, Jerry Brudos Jerome Henry "Jerry" Brudos (January 31, 1939 – March 28, 2006) was an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least four women in Oregon between 1968 and 1969.....  Jerry Brudos was born in Webster, South Dakota, as the younger of two sons. His mother had wanted a girl and was very displeased that she had another son instead, and constantly subjected him to ...

Ian Brady: Moors murderer had locked briefcases of his belongings removed from his room hours before his death When serial child killer Ian Brady (1938-2017) died, he left behind two locked briefcases which have still not been opened. Until last year police were unable to do so, and even though a legal amendment had now passed it is a waiting game for the brother of a missing 12-year-old victim. Moors murderer Ian Brady had locked briefcases of his belongings removed from his hospital room hours before his death, an inquest has heard. The serial killer’s briefcases were sealed by security staff and released to his lawyer, according to the psychiatric hospital where he died. The details emerged at an inquest into the 79-year-old’s death, which concluded that he died of natural causes. Brady and his girlfriend Myra Hindley tortured and murdered five children between July 1963 and October 1965. Several of their victims, who were aged between 10 and 17, were sexually assaulted. Three of th...

Leonard Lake: Inside The Torture Dungeon Of A Hippie-Turned-Killer In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains of California during the early 1980s, Leonard Lake was methodically building an underground dungeon. There, he and an accomplice held dozens of people captive, tortured and sexually assaulted them, and eventually, incinerated their bodies. And worst of all, they videotaped everything.  Watch one of Lake’s homemade video tapes and step inside the demented mind of a serial killer Leonard Thomas Lake (October 29, 1945 – June 6, 1985), also known as Leonard Hill and a variety of other aliases, was an American serial killer. During the mid-1980s, he and his accomplice, British Hong Kong-born Charles Ng, raped, tortured and murdered an estimated eleven to twenty-five victims at a remote cabin near Wilseyville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, located 150 miles east of San Francisco. After his 1985 arrest on unrelated charges, Lake swallowed cyanide pills that he h...

Cannibal Nikolai Dzhumagaliev 'Metal Fang escapes asylum' in Kazakhstan Nikolai Dzhumagaliev known as 'Metal Fang' for his unusual false teeth made from white metal, is a Kazakhstan serial killer and cannibal. His very first murder was absolutely brutal! In his own words this is how we described it, "I always loved to hunt, often went hunting, but this was my first time hunting a woman.  Dzhumagaliev killed and cannibalized at least ten people, targeting mainly women in the Almaty area, and is believed to have killed more until his arrest..... Read story He was declared insane and imprisoned in a mental hospital until escaping in 1989, but was recaptured two years later, and is currently serving his sentence. When I went out on the Uzun-agach-Maibulak track, I saw some young peasant woman. She was alone. I felt my heart pound within me and I ran after her. Hearing my footsteps, she turned around, but I caught up with her and put my arm around her neck, dragged her ...

Jeffrey Dahmer, Notorious cannibal necrophile and serial killer who murdered 17 Also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal and the Milwaukee Monster, Dahmer continues to occupy a prominent place in discussions of psychopathy and extremely deviant criminal behavior. Behavior that includes failed and futile attempts at creating human sex slaves by placing acid into the skulls of his then-living victims.  Dahmer's childhood was unremarkable; his father was a chemist and his mother worked as a teletype machine instructor. Though his parents argued frequently and little Jeffrey's family life was fraught with tension, there are no allegations of sexual or physical abuse in Dahmer's background. In elementary school, Dahmer was considered a timid, introverted boy by his teachers, and not considered a problem child. He had a small number of friends, and most other students simply thought of him as shy and reserved. Yet despite the apparent normality of his upbringing, it was clear that Da...

Known as the Granny Killer because he exclusively killed helpless elderly women, Glover would later attempt to end his life numerous times, ultimately succeeded after serving 16 years in prison for his crimes. Before his capture he struck terror into the people of New South Wales, Australia between 1989 and 1990, with police offering a $200,000 reward for his capture. Granny killer is available on AMAZON PRIMER VIDEO Watch now  Psychiatrists claimed that he built up a pile of hostility and aggression from childhood against his mother and then his mother-in-law. She was the lightning conductor and when she died he had to take it out on other people. Glover would beat his victims in alleyways and other secluded public spaces, usually with a hammer to the head.  After this he would strangle them to death with their own pantyhose. Although there was some damage to the genitals of the victims, Glover was impotent due to a medical condition, which likely added to his rage. Unli...

prosecutors to issue a subpoena or obtain a court order or a search warrant from a judge for certain types of information.  It also allows prosecutors to accept information given voluntarily by an Internet company. Even the Department of Justice described the law as "unusually complicated" in a manual for prosecutors published last year.  "Navigating through ECPA requires agents and prosecutors to apply the various classifications devised by ECPA's drafters to the facts of each case before they can figure out the proper procedure for obtaining the information sought," the manual says. The law left unclear whether a simple subpoena could obtain an IP address or if a prosecutor needed an order signed by a judge, said Cindy Cohn, attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It is a civil liberties group based in San Francisco.  Cohn said the lack of clarity meant prosecutors did need a judge's order. But Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the ag...