Major Crimes and True Crime

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...

A Scuba-Diving YouTuber Just Solved A 21-Year-Old Cold Case After Finding Human Remains In A Tennessee River On April 3, 2000, 17-year-old Jeremy Bechtel called his dad from a party and said he was staying the night, then asked for a ride home the next morning. But when Jeremy’s dad arrived, his son was nowhere to be found, as was Jeremy’s friend Erin. Friends told Jeremy’s dad that the two left together in Erin’s car the night before and never came back. For years, rumors swirled about their disappearance. Some said they ran away to Florida, while others said it was a drug deal gone bad. One person even said he saw them in the back of a truck with blood coming out of it. Police followed all these leads and more, but never turned up anything that might help them solve the case. But last November, a scuba diving YouTuber who works as an amateur investigator on missing persons cases took up the cause — and within days, found the teens’ submerged car in a local river.... Read story  G...

June 7th: The Springfield Three Go Missing (1992) How do you solve a case when there is no evidence? On June 7th 1992 three women seemingly disappeared without a trace and, in their wake, left nothing for police to work with. A case that remains unsolved to this day. The Springfield Three refers to an unsolved missing persons case that began on June 7, 1992, when friends Suzanne "Suzie" Streeter and Stacy McCall, and Streeter's mother, Sherrill Levitt, went missing from Levitt's home in Springfield, Missouri, United States. All of their personal belongings, including cars and purses, were left behind. There were no signs of a struggle except a broken porch light globe; there was also a message on the answering machine that police believe might have provided a clue about the disappearances, but it was inadvertently erased. In 1997, Robert Craig Cox, a convicted kidnapper and robber, claimed that he knew the women had been murdered and that their bodies would never be r...

Joseph Scorney - Gangland Slaying The cement covered barrel with the remains of Joseph Scorney, found in 1982. He turned down wanting to be an associate in Roy DeMeo's crew because he didn't want to be a gangster and this was his demise.  Allegedly Vito Arena and Richie DiNome had stuffed Scorney's body into a fifty-gallon oil barrel and filled it with cement and rolled it off a pier in Center Moriches, New York. In 1985 Arena was sentenced to eighteen years for the murder of Scorney. Courtesy of Nate Miller. The cement covered barrel with the remains of Joseph Scorney, found in 1982. He turned down wanting to be On September 28, 1978 Joseph Scorney was murdered, although the motives never became clear to the participants in the murder, or later on to the defense team when Arena was questioned at the 1985 Mafia Commission Trial. Arena and Richard stuffed Scorney's body into a fifty-gallon oil barrel and filled it with cement and rolled it off a pier in Center Mor...

This building may look like nothing but it has a dark history Back in the early 90’s it was owned by a man named Michael Benneman Sams. It was in this workshop that he held at least one of victims, keeping them trapped in wheelie bins while he attempt to extort money from their family and friends. His first victim was Julie Dart, a sex worker from Leeds. She was murdered by Sams after she was forced to write ransom letters after trying to escape. Her body was found dumped in a field in Lincolnshire. His second victim was Stephanie Slater who was an estate agent. She was held hostage in a wheelie bin inside this building and was told if she tried to escape she would be electrocuted. She was released after her manager paid the ransom. He was arrested after his first wife recognised a recording of his voice on the the TV show Crimewatch. He’s currently still in prison with no release date Make money online: Paying sites and apps for making cash

Michelle Maenza (November 28, 1961 - November 26, 1973) Michelle passed away just two days before her 12th birthday. She went missing in Rochester, New York, after she had left her home and headed towards a local shopping center, in order to retrieve her mother's purse which had been left there. Sadly, her body was discovered two days later in a ditch in the nearby town of Macedon. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. One child who knew Michelle said that she had seen a vehicle speeding around the corner of the road leading away from the plaza that Michelle had been walking to, and that she thought she saw Michelle sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle. However, the girl did not get a good look at the driver. It has long been believed that Michelle was killed by the same person who also murdered two other young girls in the Rochester area during the early 1970s. The three cases are known as the "Alphabet Murders", due to the fact that all thre...

Tina Michelle Fontaine Tina age 15 was raised primarily by her great aunt and uncle after her father, Eugene Fontaine, was diagnosed with Cancer. Eugene was later beaten to death in 2011. Tina's aunt and uncle describe her as a good kid who generally stayed out of trouble until the beginning of 2014 when she began to visit her biological mother, Valentina Duck, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The two had started to rebuild their relationship following Eugene's death.Valetina had a known history of drinking and working in the sex trade. However, Tina received permission from her social worker to continue visits. Tina really began to withdraw from her caregivers once she was asked to prepare a victim's impact statement about her father's murder. In June of 2014, Tina's aunt gave her $50 dollars and a calling card in case she wanted to return home early, and sent her off on her last visit to Winnipeg. When her aunt and uncle didn't hear from her, they called social service...

The Disturbing Story of Richard Kuklinski, the Hitman Better Known as "Iceman" Richard Kuklinski died a miserable death - the notorious mob killer was left to suffer in prison until his passing in 2006 due to Kawasaki disease. His wife, in a final act of cruelty, placed a "Do Not Resuscitate" order on him, denying him a chance of survival and leaving him to die alone after wishing him dead. Here are more facts about the notorious killer. The Life of Richard "Iceman" Kuklinski, A Mafia Hitman Richard Kuklinski, known as the Iceman, was one of the most ruthless hitmen that ever worked for organized crime. Using a variety of weapons including chainsaws, poison, and even bombs attached to toy cars, he is responsible for numerous murders over several decades. He would kill business partners and steal their money, and he would kill anyone willing to pay his fee, which was in the tens of thousands of dollars. After killing his victims, he would freeze them f...

Last known photos of Sharon Tate taken by her friends Jay Sebring and Wojciech Frykowski days before they were murdered by the Manson Family, 1969. The fleeting hot summer of 69’ was upon them as Sharon Tate, The enchanting figure whose allure left an indelible mark on Hollywood and and friends bask in heat as seen through these intimate glimpses before their tragic and untimely murders by members of the Manson Family.  Of all the notorious celebrity deaths, suicides, and murders that have occurred throughout the annals of Hollywood history, none was as bizarre and gruesome as the murders that occurred on a warm night during the summer of 1969 in Benedict Canyon, a hilly suburb of L.A.  A young, pregnant Sharon Tate and 4 of her houseguests were brutally stabbed and/or shot to death for simply no reason other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Even decades after this horrific crime, the mere mention of the murderer's name, Charles Manson, brings blood curdling ch...

Tourist ‘raped and murdered by her friend’ on Goa trip Danielle McLaughlin, 28, was attacked in an isolated area after she had asked Vikat Bhagat, a man she had known since last year, to take her to a nightclub  A tourist whose naked and battered body was found dumped in a field near an Indian beach was raped and murdered by a friend, according to police in Goa. Danielle McLaughlin, 28, was attacked by Vikat Bhagat, 24, who confessed to the crime while being interrogated yesterday afternoon, Inspector Uttam Desai said. Police said Vikat Bhagat had confessed to the The man has been charged with murder.  Details that he provided on where her clothes were hidden and how he had injured Ms McLaughlin’s head and face matched police findings, Mr Desai said. “He claimed he was totally drunk and does not remember much after the murder,” the inspector added.  Ms McLaughlin, who had dual British and Irish citizenship, was from Buncrana, Co Donegal. She had studied at Liverpool John ...

Richard Trenton Chase, a.k.a. the Vampire of Sacramento Richard Chase believed that the Nazis were turning his blood into powder by poison they had planted below his soap dish. This made him paranoid that he would run out of blood. He would shoot his victims, have sex with the dead body, and then bathe in the resulting pool of blood. Of the number of small children he killed, he ate their internal organs and drank their blood. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to the gas chamber. On 26th December 1980. However last, he was found to have commit suicide in prison Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was an American serial killer, cannibal, and necrophile who killed six people in the span of a month in 1977 and 1978 in Sacramento, California. He was nicknamed The Vampire of Sacramento because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains. On December 29, 1977, Chase killed his first known victim in a drive-by shooting. The victim, Ambrose Griffi...

The Candy Man and The Houston Mass Murder's Dean Arnold Corll (December 24, 1939 – August 8, 1973) known as the "Candy Man" or the "Pied Piper" due to having worked in a sweet shop, often giving out free sweets to children and allowing teenagers to hangout at the shop where he had a pool table. Between 1970 and 1973, Corll is known to have killed a minimum of 28 victims. All of his victims were males aged 13 to 20, the majority of whom were in their mid-teens. Most victims were abducted from Houston Heights, which was then a low-income neighborhood northwest of downtown Houston. With most abductions, he was assisted by one or both of his teenaged accomplices: Elmer Wayne Henley, and David Owen Brooks whom he would pay $200 per boy.  Several victims were friends of the two. Corll's victims were usually lured into either one of the two vehicles he owned. This enticement was typically an offer of a party and the victim would be driven to his house. At Corll...

The Bloody Benders Were a family of serial killers who lived and operated in Labette County, Kansas from 1871 to 1873. The family consisted of John Bender; his wife, Elvira Bender; son, John, Jr.; and daughter, Kate. The family would sit guests at the head of a table in front of a larger curtain. Once settled a family member would emerge from behind the curtain and kill the unsuspecting guest with a hammer. The body would then drop through a trap door to the basement. It is believed they murdered at least 12 travellers. In October 1870, five families of spiritualists homesteaded in and around the township of Osage in northwestern Labette County, approximately 7 mi (11 km) northeast of where Cherryvale was established seven months later. One of the families was John Bender Sr. and John Bender Jr., who registered 160 acres (65 ha) of land located adjacent to the Great Osage Trail, which was then the only open road for traveling farther west. After a cabin, a barn with a corral, and a wel...

The Forgotten Cannibal Karl Denke (February 12, 1860 – February 22, 1924) was a Prussian serial killer and cannibal who killed and cannibalized dozens of homeless vagrants and travelers from 1903-1924. He is credited with killing at least 40 people. Born in Münsterberg, Silesia, which is what was once known as the Kingdom of Prussia, coming from a wealthy family that worked as farmers. As a child, Denke proved to be difficult for his parents to raise; at the age of twelve, he even ran away from home. When he graduated from elementary school, he started an apprenticeship under a gardener, and then started life on his own at the age of 25.  Soon after, his father died. His brother took over the family farm while Karl was given money to buy some land. Being an unsuccessful farmer, he sold the land and bought a house in town (on present Stawowa Street). However recession forced him to sell again this property. He was finally left with a little apartment on first floor and a small shed ...

The French Ripper Joseph Vacher was a French serial killer known as "The French Ripper" owing to comparisons to the infamous Jack the Ripper murderer of London, England, in 1888 Born in 1869, Joseph was the fifteenth child of illiterate peasants. He spent much of his childhood in a strict Catholic school where he was taught to fear and obey God. In 1892 a 23 year old Vacher would join the army and become infatuated with a with a young servant girl called Louise.  Louise did not reciprocate the soldiers affection and openly mocked his proposal. Vacher did not take this well, returning with a pistol he shot the servant girl four times and attempted suicide, neither of these attempts were successful though and Vacher would be forever paralyzed on one side of his face.  Following this incident Vacher was placed into a mental institution though was deemed to be cured within a year of entering. He would start his killing spree not long after, his first victim being murdered in 1894...

Timeline of serial killer John Wayne Gacy's life, case. Photographs from John Wayne Gacy’s home. Gacy killed 33 teenagers and young men. Of those, 26 were stashed in the crawlspace under his home. John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys in Norwood Park Township, Illinois, near Chicago. He became known as the Killer Clown due to his public performances as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", personas he had devised, prior to the discovery of his crimes. Gacy committed all of his murders inside his ranch-style house in Norwood Park Township. Typically, he would lure a victim to his home and dupe them into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick. He would then rape and torture his captive before killing them by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his ...

How Donald 'Pee Wee' Gaskins Terrorized 1970s South Carolina Donald Henry Gaskins was the most prolific serial killer in South Carolina history. Once his brutality was unleashed, he knew no boundaries, torturing, killing, cannibalizing victims, both male and female. In his taped memoirs for the book, Final Truth by author Wilton Earl, Gaskins said, 'I have walked the same path as God, by taking lives and making others afraid, I became God's equal. Through killing others, I became my own master. Through my own power I come to my own redemption.. He was given several nicknames some such as Pee Wee and the Meanest Man In America. He was given the name pee wee because kids at school would call him that and also got picked on a lot. He had a pretty messed up childhood, his stepfather beat him and his four half-siblings regularly. Here is the full story Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins Jr. (born Donald Henry Parrott Jr.; March 13, 1933 – September 6, 1991) was an Amer...

The Internet’s First Serial Killer In the early 80s, John “J.R.” Robinson, worked hard to maintain the appearance of a family man. A father to four, J.R. became a Scout Leader, baseball coach, Sunday school teacher and a board member for a local charity. It was around this time, however, that J.R. also joined an S&M cult called The International Council of Masters, where he participated by luring victims to the cult’s gatherings for sex and torture. In 1984, J.R. hired 19-year-old Paula Godfrey as a sales rep for a shell company he created. After she told her family she was being sent for “job training”, she was never heard from again. In 1985, J.R. lured Lisa Stasi and her 4-month-old daughter from a women’s shelter in Kansas City with the promise of a job. After a few days, J.R. contacted his brother and sister-in-law who were looking to adopt and told them there was a baby available whose mother had committed suicide. After paying J.R. $5,500, they were given Lisa’s baby, Tiffan...

Burke and Hare: Murderers at the Service of Science Ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your seats, and enjoy the real story of Burke and Hare in five acts Act 1: A Cry in the Night October, 1828. It is another night at the Hare’s lodging house, located in Tanner’s Close, Edinburgh. Except that this very night everything will change at the capital, who will be taken aback by the headlines some days later William Burke and William Hare, tenant and owner respectively of the lodging house, are killing Marjorie Campbell Docherty, using the technique known as “burking” in their honor: one of them sits on the victim’s chest, while the other suffocates him (or her) with his hand. It leaves no signs of a violent death, and it allows them to live confortably enough to not work But this night, neighbours could hear Mary Campbell’s cry for help: “Murder!”, and became suspicious. The other tenants at the lodging house, the Grays, had the chance to look under Burke’s bed the next day, where they found...

America's First Serial Killers and Many More Deadly Historic Figures Micajah “Big” Harpe and Wiley “Little” Harpe terrorize the western frontier for years killing men, women, and children without discretion. Considered to be America's first recorded serial killers. Earning the dubious distinction of being the United States’ first documented serial killers, Micajah “Big” Harpe and Wiley “Little” Harpe were murderous outlaws who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi in the late 1700s. Often referred to as the Harpe Brothers, they were cousins who often passed themselves off as brothers. Their fathers were Scottish immigrants who had settled in Orange County, North Carolina. Micajah Harpe was born to John Harpe and his wife, while Wiley Harpe, actually named Joshua, was born to John’s brother, William, and his wife. Soon after the arrival of the Harpes in America, they changed the spelling of their original name from “Harpe” to “Harp.” Growing up near each oth...