Halloween is ALMOST here, FINALLY. I can safely say that I am absolutely apart of that group that waits all year for the -ber months (September, October, November, December) as they are clearly the best months. To get into the spooky mood of October, I love watching Disney Halloween movies (Hocus Pocus, anyone?) grabbing every single seasonal candle I can get my hands on, and watching true crime documentaries.
Nothing gives me the creeps more than unsolved crimes quite honestly, especially the ones that came incredibly close to a conclusion only to have something freaky happen, like all the evidence was lost, or a key witness died. Here are some of the creepiest crimes I could find (read these in the dark to get extra spooky points).
*WARNING* Graphic descriptions of the crimes
1. The Black Dahlia
The Black Dahlia, or Elizabeth Short, was discovered brutally murdered on January 15th, 1947. She was found on a suburban lawn in Los Angeles, her body cut in half and an eerie grimace cut into her face. The precision and care taken to Short's body left many suspecting this the job of a medical professional.
The days leading up to Short's murder were hazy, and stories were conflicted about it. Some evidence showed up in the form of magazine clippings spelling out sentences to clues about the Black Dahlia, but nothing provincial ever came of the note, as DNA technology was not developed enough at this time. A few male suspects popped up that Elizabeth had been seen with shortly before her untimely death, but no hard evidence ever convicted anyone of this ghastly crime.
2. JonBenet Ramsey
JonBenet Ramsey was a six-year-old pageant queen who was found murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado the day after Christmas 1996. A crucial part of JonBenet's story is the fact that a ransom note for JonBenet was found by her mother Patsy, which has been the subject of much speculation as to whether or not Patsy wrote the note, or more importantly, whether or not Patsy was responsible for her own daughter's demise. The theories behind this murder are innumerable, and there are still documentaries being published about it, proving that people still crave an answer to this little girl's untimely death.
3. Ice Box Murders
On June 23rd, 1965, police entered the house of 79-year-old Edwina and 89-year-old Fred Rogers, after several unanswered calls to the residency. What they found inside were the decapitated heads of the couple inside a drawer in the refrigerator, with their bodies butchered into slices of meat laid out orderly on the shelves.
It was discovered that someone had beaten Fred and shot Edwina before turning their bodies into what the police had seen inside the refrigerator. Grotesquely, their sex organs had been throw outside of the house, with other organs and body parts missing, never to be found.
The house was void of blood, except for a few drops that led to their son, Charles's room. However, Charles had been missing without a trace or lead from any of the neighbors and was declared dead in 1975.
4. The Kingsbury Run Murders (The Torso Murders)
Over the course of four years beginning in 1934, 13 people were brutally murdered in Cleveland, Ohio. An area of intense poverty and many make-shift homes, Kingsbury Run was an incredibly depraved part of Cleveland during the Great Depression. In September of 1934, a man discovered several body parts of a woman near this area. Known as "The Lady of the Lake," she would end up to be known also as the first victim of the Kingsbury Run Murders.
These murders were especially heinous, with all of the victims being decapitated, many while they were still alive. The victims were usually found with either the upper torso or the lower half of the body like the first woman found. No suspect for these killings was ever convicted, with one of them hanging himself in the sheriff's custody before he could be taken to trial. No official police records of this case remain.
5. The Cyanide Tylenol Scandal
In Chicago in late 1982, several bottles of extra strength Tylenol-brand pills laced with potassium cyanide killed over five people within days, three of which were in the same family on the same day. Mass hysteria ensued, with over 1,200 cases called in of potential cyanide poisoning after the news had been let out about the first few fatal cases.
Tylenol pulled more than 31 million bottles off the shelves, and when all was said and done, lost over $100 million, not to mention the tremendous damage done to the brand itself. Many believe this was a white collar crime, with a member of a competing corporation having planted the deadly pills in order to destroy the company, but no true proof of this was ever found legitimate. This case was the catalyst for the implication of tamper-proof seals to avoid a scandal like this from ever happening again.
