Amber Hagerman

Amber Rene Hagerman was just nine-years-old when she was abducted and murdered.
Amber was riding her bike close to her grandparent�s home in Arlington, Texas on
January 13, 1996, when she was snatched. Amber and her brother Ricky were riding
around the block when they went a little further to an abandoned grocery store
parking lot to ride on a ramp there that children often enjoyed riding on. Amber�s
brother became worried that they were riding further than their mother had said to
go, so he told Amber he was returning home. Ricky started back home and Amber
stayed for one more ride on the ramp. When Ricky got home the family asked about
Amber and when he said that she had stayed a little longer the family sent him back
to bring her home. Ricky returned, however, he could not find his sister. Jimmie
Whitson, grandfather to Amber and Ricky jumped into his truck and went to find her
himself. At the parking lot, Jimmie found a police car and pulled up next to it
where the officer told him that a man close by had heard screaming and looked to
see another man carrying a young girl into his pickup truck. The man who lived
close by had called 911 summoning the police officer, but when the officer arrived
at the scene, all he found was a bicycle that Amber had been riding.

Amber�s family would appear on television pleading for her life and her safe
return. Police believed that it was a stranger abduction that took place because
the opportunity arose for the abductor. No witnesses were found other than the man
who called 911 at the time of the abduction. Sadly, just four days after her
abduction, Amber�s body was found naked in a creek bed near an apartment complex.
Her throat had been cut. After finding Amber�s body, the police released a profile
of who they believed the killer to be; however, this did not aid in capturing him.

While Amber�s killer has yet to be caught her legacy remains. The abduction and
murder of Amber Hagerman led to the development of today�s Amber alert system.

Andrew and Abby Borden

Andrew and Abby Borden are names that are perhaps not as well known as that of
their suspected murderer, daughter, Lizzie Borden. Andrew and Abby were parents to
Lizzie Borden and on August 4, 1892 they were both found brutally murdered in their
home. When the day began, Andrew Borden left home to go to work, leaving his wife,
their daughter Lizzie and their Irish maid, Bridget Sullivan at the house. After
coming home from work early the same morning he lay on the sofa to take a nap but
he would never awaken. According to Lizzie, she came into the living room to find
her father dead on the sofa having suffered severe blunt force trauma to the head.
Upstairs Lizzie also found her stepmother dead and mutilated much more than her
father�s body. A later examination by the coroner would find that Abby Borden had
been killed almost an hour before her husband died.

Suspicion of the deaths fell on to Lizzie, the couple�s daughter after it was found
that on August 3 she had tried to purchase poison. Additional suspicion fell when
it was discovered that Lizzie had burned a dress in a stove in the home. Lizzie was
not the only suspect in the murder though; Bridget Sullivan and Lizzie�s Uncle John
were also under suspicion. Lizzie Borden would eventually get arrested and tried
for the murders but she was acquitted due to circumstantial evidence in June of
1893. Despite being acquitted of the murder charges, Lizzie would continue to be
treated as an outcast for the rest of her life in Fall River, Massachusetts where
she lived until her death in 1927.

The Axeman of New Orleans

The axeman of New Orleans is a serial killer who was known for being active
throughout New Orleans, Louisiana from May 1918 to October 1919. The victims of the
axeman were killed with an ax that was, in some cases, also used to break down the
door of the home. While there were some ideas as to who the axeman could be, there
was no evidence strong enough to convict anyone of the crime. Unlike many other
serial killers, the axeman appeared to attack completely at random and with
complete disregard for his victims and not all of those victims died as a result of
their wounds. So random were his attacks that victims of the axeman included a
pregnant woman and a young infant killed in its mother�s arms. The axeman continued
to taunt the city with his crimes and even wrote letters to local newspapers in
which he claimed to be a demon from Hell. The axeman seemed to enjoy the power that
he held over others more than anything else and in one famous incident he wrote a
letter to a local newspaper stating that he would strike again at fifteen minutes
after midnight on March 19; however, any location where a jazz band was playing
would be spared. Jazz music abounded that night and there were no killings. There
are twelve identified victims of the axeman of New Orleans.

There were many speculations as to who the axeman could have been, one such
speculation indicated that perhaps the mafia was involved with the killings;
however, the later crimes which included the murdering of the young infant were not
characteristic of such a murderer. There was also rumor that a man named Joseph
Momfre was responsible for the crimes and was eventually murdered by the widow of
one of his victims; however, there is little evidence to indicate that this is
actually true.

Betsy Aardsma

Betsy Aardsma was a 22-year-old English major from Michigan attending Pennsylvania
State University in State College, Pennsylvania. On November 28, 1969, Betsy was in
the library researching for a paper when she was stabbed once through the heart. It
is believed that Betsy was stabbed sometime between 4:45 pm and 4:55 pm. A minute
after her stabbing Betsy fell to the floor and two men shouted to the desk clerk at
the library that someone had better �help that girl� before running out of the
library. The two men were never identified nor captured. First aid was administered
to Betsy including mouth to mouth. By 5:19 pm Betsy had been taken to the Ritenour
Health Center (the on-campus hospital) where she was pronounced dead. At the time
of her stabbing Betsy had been wearing a red dress and no one really knew how
serious the wound had been. The single knife wound however, had pierced her heart �
a fact which would not be uncovered until she was examined at the hospital. It was
thought by those administering CPR that Betsy had suffered from a seizure since
evidence of the stabbing was not particularly visible.

The case of the murder of Betsy Aardsma has never been solved over the past forty-
eight years. The Pennsylvania State Police are still seeking information in the
unsolved murder.

The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia is a nickname used to refer to Elizabeth Short, born in 1924 and
murdered in 1947. The body of Short was discovered in Leimert Park in Los Angeles
on January 15, 1947. The case of the Black Dahlia has been publicized in book and
film form, most significantly for the sheer gruesome nature of the crime. The body
of Short was discovered mutilated with a cut across her waist that was so deep that
it sliced her in half. Short had been completely drained of blood, she was nude and
the corners of her mouth had been slashed up to her ears. The nude body appeared to
have been posed with her hands above her head and her elbows bent at right angles.
The cause of death is stated to have been blood loss from the cuts to her face
combined with shock that resulted from a concussion she received before her death.

There have been a handful of suspects in the case of the Black Dahlia; however, no
one has yet to be convicted of the crime and as time passes it is increasingly
unlikely that anyone will pay for the crime. The killer of Short is suspected to
have contacted the newspapers on numerous occasions when he felt that the coverage
of the murder was tapering off and once even mailed an envelope containing personal
possessions of Short to prove his involvement in the case. The envelope also
contained a small address book with the name �Mark Hansen� on the cover, the last
individual known to have seen Elizabeth Short alive. Due to the sheer
sensationalism of the case, over the years many people came forward claiming to
have plaid a role in the death of Short; however, no one has ever been convicted of
the crime.

Bob Crane

Bob Crane is most commonly known for his role as Colonel Robert E. Hogan in the
sitcom Hogan�s Heroes, but he is also known for the mysterious circumstances
surrounding his death. Crane was living in the Winfield Place Apartments in
Scottsdale, Arizona in June of 1978. During this time he was acting at the Windmill
Dinner Theater in his play Beginner�s Luck. On June 29th however, luck was not on
Crane�s side and his co-star, Victoria Ann Berry discovered his body in his
Winfield Place Apartment. Berry was supposed to be meeting Crane for lunch but when
he didn�t show up for the meeting she went to his apartment in search of him.

When Bob Crane was found he had an electrical cord tied around his neck and had
been bludgeoned to death. Investigators never did find the weapon that had been
used to bludgeon him, but they suspect that it had been a camera tripod. A friend
of Crane�s, John Henry Carpenter fell under suspicion at the time; however, since
DNA testing did not exist at the time and insufficient evidence was present, no
charges were filed against him. According to reports though, Carpenter had called
Crane�s apartment multiple times and when he showed up there he was not surprised
that the police were on the scene. This made investigators suspicious and they had
Carpenters car impounded. Inside the car, the police found blood which matched Bob
Crane�s blood type but with no DNA testing at the time it was not possible to
determine whether it was Crane�s blood or not. No one was charged with the murder.

In 1990 Maricopa County reopened the murder case and were able to retest the blood
samples retrieved from Carpenter�s car. The DNA testing was inconclusive, but a
detective on the case found a picture of what he believed to be brain tissue in the
car. The detectives on the case hoped that this would be enough to indict Carpenter
for Crane�s murder and in June of 1992 Carpenter was arrested and charged with
murder. An Arizona judge ruled that despite the evidence being lost, there was
enough evidence to try Carpenter. Carpenter was eventually found not guilty and
maintained his innocence until his death in 1998. With Carpenter cleared, Bob
Crane�s death remains unsolved.

The Boy in the Box

The boy in the box is the name used to refer to a murder victim who was discovered
on February 25, 1957, in a cardboard box. The body of the boy indicated that he was
approximately 4- to 6-years-old at the time of his murder. Evidence shows that the
young boy was murdered and left in the box in the Fox Chase section of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The boy�s body had been wrapped in a plaid blanket and
placed in the box and left abandoned. The boy was discovered once by a muskrat
trapper checking on his traps and a second time by a college student who spotted a
rabbit in the area, neither reported the incident immediately. The day after his
discovery though, the college student finally reported the incident.

While much attention was given to the case after it was reported and the boys face
was posted all over the news and in the media, no one was ever charged with
involvement in the case. There have been a few theories revolving around potential
explanations for the young boy�s murder. The first theory states that the young boy
had been killed while in a foster home close to the scene; however, this was later
ruled out as police interviewed the man who ran the home. The second theory states
that the young boy was sold by his parents into a home that was extremely abusive,
the daughter of the woman who was accused of the abuse came forward with the story;
however, the accuser had a severe history of mental illness.

While no progress has been made in identifying the boy or his killer, mitochondrial
DNA has been extracted from the boy�s tooth and is being run through the
mitochondrial DNA database in an attempt to locate his identity.

Georgette Bauerdorf

Georgette Bauerdorf was just 20-years-old at the time of her murder and was well-
known as the heiress to an oil fortune. At the time of her murder, Georgette was
living in West Hollywood, California and her father, stepmother and sister were all
living in New York City. Georgette was known to have spent time volunteering as a
junior hostess in a Hollywood canteen where she often was seen dancing with
enlisted men. According to accounts from friends, Georgette had a serviceman
boyfriend who lived in El Paso. Authorities later revealed this man to be Private
Jerome M. Brown from Chicago, Illinois. The day before she was killed, Georgette
purchased an airline ticket to go to El Paso.

The night before she was killed, Georgette left work at the canteen and went home.
During the same day, she had met up with her father�s secretary for lunch and a
shopping trip. The secretary, Mrs. Rose Gilbert, had said that Georgette was not
distressed and in fact was in quite high spirits during their meeting. That same
night however, Georgette is believed to have been attacked by a man who was lying
in wait. According to police, the assailant had unscrewed the light bulb in the
light outside Georgette�s apartment, his fingerprints were later found on the light
bulb.

Georgette�s body was found face down in the bathtub and while her jewelry and other
valuables were not taken, cash was stolen from her purse. Oddly enough however, a
visible roll of $2 bills and a number of sterling silver pieces were not taken even
though they were visible. Georgette�s sister�s car was also missing from the
property and was later found in Los Angeles after it had run out of gas. According
to the coroner, Georgette had put up a fight against her attacker and had bruises
all over her body. Ultimately, Georgette was strangled and had a piece of towel put
down her throat. A number of servicemen were questioned in Georgette�s murder but
no one was ever found guilty.

The Grimes Sisters

Barbara and Patricia Grimes were sisters who lived in Chicago, Illinois until their
disappearance on December 28, 1956. The girls aged 15 and 13 respectively left
their home to go and watch Love Me Tender (an Elvis Presley movie) at a local movie
theater. The girls arrived at the theater and were seen in line for popcorn at
around 9:30 pm. The movie ended at 11 pm and the girls still had not returned home
by 2:15 am. The girl�s mother called the police and began one of the biggest
missing person�s hunts in the history of Illinois state. The search was so big that
even Elvis Presley himself issued a statement asking the girls to go home.

On January 22, 1957, however, the girls� naked bodies were discovered by a
construction worker named Leonard Prescott. The girls were found next to German
Church Road. Much speculation took place by police and medical examiners as to when
the girls died and what it was that killed them. The Chicago police crime lab
confirmed that Barbara had been molested before she was killed.

Multiple suspects were interviewed and various eyewitness reports were made in the
case, but none were found guilty and no reports (with the exception of the 9:30 pm
sighting of the girls) were ever substantiated.

The Hall-Mills Murder

On September 17, 1922, the bodies of Reverend Edward Wheeler Hall (41) and Eleanor
Mills (34) were found in an apple orchard in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mills had
been shot three times and had her throat slashed. Hall had been shot once in the
head. Both of the victims were covered with explicit love letters that they had
written to each other and the Reverend also had his calling card placed on his
feet. The murder suggests that the illicit affair between the two lovers had been
discovered. The crime scene was improperly treated and the police work was shoddy
at best. No autopsies were performed on either body. Four years after the murders a
reporter found the calling card that had been sitting against Hall�s feet and had
it tested for fingerprints. The prints matched those of Hall�s brother-in-law. As a
result of this finding, Hall�s wife Frances, her brothers William and Henry and
their cousin Henry were all named as suspects in the murder case. The trial would
take a month and deliberation would go on for six hours before they were all
acquitted of the charges against them. No one has ever been held accountable for
the murders.

Jack the Ripper

No list of unsolved murders would be complete without mention of Jack the Ripper �
perhaps the single most infamous unsolved murder case in history to date. Ripper is
known for his activity in the impoverished areas of the Whitechapel district in
London in 1888. The victims of Jack the Ripper were most typically female
prostitutes who had their throats slit before having their abdomens completely
mutilated. It was widely speculated over the years that Jack the Ripper had some
type of anatomy experience whether that of a butcher or a doctor because of the
removal of specific organs from his victims. There are five well known Ripper
victims: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and
Mary Jane Kelly. There were later murders in the Whitechapel area that some believe
were attributed to Jack the Ripper; however, they differed from the five recognized
victims of the Ripper.

Over the years there have been many speculations as to the identity of Jack the
Ripper, but no speculation have ever been proven without a reasonable doubt and as
time progresses the chance of ever discovering the true identity of the famed
Ripper, is even more unlikely. Some of the suspected culprits for the murders
include local physicians, doctors, slaughterhouse workers, butchers and anyone else
who had access to surgical materials and knowledge.

Jack the Stripper

Upon reading the name �Jack the Stripper� many mistakenly believe that it is a
typographical error of �Jack the Ripper;� however, the two cases are two different
cases altogether. The Jack the Stripper cases are also referred to as the
Hammersmith murders or the Hammersmith nudes cases, and the London nude murders.
Just like Jack the Ripper, Jack the Stripper was known for targeting prostitutes.
He is believed to have killed six, but possibly eight prostitutes between the years
of 1964 and 1965. The bodies of his victims were found dumped in London�s River
Thames and throughout London.

As with the case of Jack the Ripper, the case of Jack the Stripper had little
evidence to point toward a suspect for the murders other than the presence of paint
from a motor manufacturing plant that turned up on a number of the bodies. While
there was no actual arrest in the case there have been many suspects. The most
likely suspect in the murder cases was a Scottish security guard named Mungo
Ireland. Ireland was tied to the case through his position as a security guard at a
factory where the flecks of paint found on the bodies were traced to. Unfortunately
for the case, Ireland committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning shortly after
the flecks of paint were traced back to the factory where he worked. The most
significant piece of evidence that pointed to Ireland�s involvement in the cases
was the suicide note that he left for his wife stating �I can�t stick it any
longer� in addition to stating �To save you and the police looking for me I�ll be
in the garage.� While this note could indicate an involvement in the cases, other
evidence points to Ireland being out of town when one of the Stripper murders took
place and that it could not have been his doing. Other suspects have been fingered
in the case; however, none have been convicted.

JonBen�t Ramsey

Jonbenet RamseyThe case of JonBen�t Ramsey (pictured left � photo credit

Biography.com) is a much more recent case which involved the murder of a child
beauty pageant contestant who was killed in her home in Boulder, Colorado in 1996.
At the time of her death, JonBen�t Ramsey was six-years-old and her body was
discovered in the basement of her home eight hours after her parents reported her
missing. JonBen�t had been struck on the head and strangled. The most common theory
in her murder was that her parents and brother had played a role in her death;
however, DNA evidence found on JonBen�t�s clothes indicated that they were not
involved. In July of 2008, both of JonBen�t�s parents would be cleared in the
investigation of her death.

In December of 2003, DNA from blood found on JonBen�t Ramsey�s clothes was
collected and a DNA profile was created. The profile was placed into CODIS (the
FBI�S Combined DNA Index System) to maintain a record of its profile. To date,
there have been no matches to the DNA profile found on JonBen�t Ramsey�s clothing.
It was found that in the months preceding JonBen�t Ramsey�s death, there were more
than 100 burglaries in the area. In 2006, a former schoolteacher, John Mark Karr,
confessed to being with JonBen�t at the time of her death; however, his DNA profile
did not match that of JonBen�t and no charges were filed against Karr for
involvement in the case. The mystery of JonBen�t Ramsey�s death remains unsolved.

Julia Wallace

Julia Wallace was wife of William Herbert Wallace. Julia was found murdered on
Tuesday, January 20, 1931. The same year as Julia�s murder, William was convicted
of the crime but his conviction would later be overturned by the Court of Criminal
Appeal. The case itself would go down in history for two reasons, firstly it was
the first case in British legal history in which an appeal had been granted after
evidence had been re-examined, and secondly because it is noted as an unbeatable
case.

The night before Julia�s murder her husband was at the Liverpool Chess Club playing
a game when he was handed a message. The message had been taken down over the
telephone 25 minutes before William had arrived to play his scheduled game. The
message demanded that William go to 25 Menlove Gardens East, Liverpool at 7:30 pm
on Tuesday, January 20. The intent of this meeting was to discuss insurance with
R.M. Qualtrough. The following evening, William followed the instructions on the
note and headed to the address. When he arrived close to the destination William
found that there was no East Menlove Gardens. William asked many people, including
a patrolling police officer and a newsagent to direct him to the address but no one
was able to assist him in his search. William even tried calling 25 Menlove Gardens
West but no avail. William searched the area for forty-five minutes before he
returned home. When he reached his home William ran into his next door neighbors
who were leaving for the evening. William met them in the alley and informed them
that he was unable to get into his home through either the front or the back
entrance. As his neighbors stood watching, William once again tried the back door
only to get inside and find his wife beaten to death in the living room.

Two weeks later, William was arrested for the crime but based on re-examination of
the evidence in an appeal; William was cleared of the murder. No one was ever held
responsible for Julia�s death.

Julie Ward

Julie Ward (28) was a wildlife photographer who was murdered while on a solo
photography safari at the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya. Her body was found
burned and dismembered a week after she went missing. Kenyan officials stated that
Julie must have been struck by lightning and eaten by lions; however, her father
was not willing to accept that explanation and continued to dig for answers.
Julie�s father continued to push for answers until it was revealed that the
coroner�s report on his daughter�s body had been altered. The report revealed that
instead of having gnawed marks on her bones, his daughter�s bones had been cut by a
sharp blade indicating that she had been murdered. Julie�s father, John, spent more
than �2 million seeking answers to his daughter�s death and has visited Kenya over
100 times in an effort to find more answers.

To date, there have been two trials concerning the murder of Julie Ward. The first
of the two trials was held in 1992 when two park rangers were tried for murder;
however, they were both acquitted. A second trial was held in 1998 and the head
park warden was tried for the crime; however, he too was acquitted of the crime.
John believes that the Kenyan government has played a significant role in covering
up his daughter�s death in an attempt to prevent it from impacting the tourist
industry. Despite many investigations, the case of Julie Ward�s murder has never
been solved.

The Lake Bodom Murders

On June 5, 1960, three teenagers were murdered at Lake Bodom in Finland. Early in
the morning of June 5, 1960, four teenagers had been camping on the lake�s shores
when sometime between 4 and 6 am an unknown suspect or number of suspects attacked
all four of them with a knife and a blunt object. Three of the four perished in
this multiple homicide while one of the teens survived, Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson.
Gustafsson continued on with his life until 2004 when he became the subject of the
investigation into the murders. Gustafsson was charged with the murders but in
October 2005 the district court found him not guilty. Two of the three victims were
just 15 at the time of their death and the third was 18 as was Gustafsson.
Gustafsson suffered a concussion, jaw and facial fractures as well as many bruises.

After the Lake Bodom murders there were a number of suspects including Pauli Luoma,
a runaway from a local work department. Luoma was later cleared of the murders
after his alibi was confirmed. Pentti Soininen was also a suspect for the crime.
Soininen was convicted of a number of violent crimes as well as property crimes,
allegedly admitted to committing the murders while in prison. There was an amount
of skepticism about Soininen�s guilt but the truth would never be known since he
hanged himself at a prisoner transport station in 1969. Valdemar Gyllstrom was
another prime suspect in the Lake Bodom murders. Gyllstrom was a kiosk keeper from
Oittaa and was known for his aggressive behavior and had apparently confessed to
the murders before his death as a result of drowning in Lake Bodom in 1969. No
evidence was found to indicate Gyllstrom in the murders although his wife did admit
to his alibi for the crime being a lie since her husband had threatened to kill her
if she told the truth about his absence the night of the murders. None of the
suspects in the multiple murder case were ever convicted and the case remains
unsolved.

Lynne Harper
Lynne Harper was a 12-year-old girl who disappeared on June 9, 1959, from RCAF
Station Clinton in Clinton, Ontario. Two days after her disappearance Lynne�s body
was recovered on a farm. It was discovered that Lynne had been raped and strangled
with her blouse.

Lynne was born on August 31, 1946, in New Brunswick and was known by many as a
headstrong and socially active child spending much of her time in Girl Guides,
bible class and Sunday school. At the time of her disappearance, Lynne was
attending Air Vice Marshal Hugh Campbell School in Clinton, Ontario. One of Lynne�s
classmates, Steven Truscott who was in her shared 7/8th grade class was one of the
last to see Lynne on the day of her disappearance. Truscott gave Lynne a ride on
his bicycle crossbar. According to Truscott, when he was questioned in court about
his interaction with Lynne, he left Lynne at the intersection of Highway 8 and
County Road. The court Crown contended that Truscott had raped and murdered Lynne
and left her where her body had later been recovered. Truscott asserted that he had
turned to see Lynne getting into a car just after he had left her at the
intersection.

Truscott was taken into custody on June 12 and on June 13 he was charged with the
murder of Lynne. His trial began on September 16 and on September 30 he was found
guilty. Truscott made an appeal on January 21 which was dismissed. Another appeal
was made, this time to the Supreme Court of Canada and was denied on February 24.
While Truscott received a death sentence for his conviction, he received a
commutation of his sentence and he was paroled on October 21, 1969. Revived
interest in the Lynne Harper case came about in 2000 when a television interview
renewed interest in the case. Attempts were made to recover damning DNA evidence
from Lynne�s exhumed body; however, no such evidence was recovered. While Truscott
was never declared to be innocent, the court ruled that there was no way to convict
him of the crime without a reasonable doubt. Lynne�s family still believes that
Truscott was responsible for their daughter�s death.

Marilyn Reese Sheppard

Marilyn Reese Sheppard was murdered on July 4, 1954, in her home in Bay Village,
Ohio. Marilyn was pregnant at the time of her murder. Marilyn�s husband, Sam,
claimed that his wife had been killed by a man with bushy hair who had also
attacked him and rendered him unconscious twice. While this attack took place
Marilyn and Sam�s son slept without awaking in his bedroom located just down the
hallway. In the fall of 1954, Sam was tried for the murder of his wife. The trial
received much press publicity and was frequently compared to a carnival for the
amount of attention and press coverage it received. The media was convinced that
Sam had murdered his wife and so was the jury. Sam was found guilty and went on to
serve ten years in prison before he was granted a writ of habeas corpus on July 15,
1964. It was found that Sheppard had been denied due process in his trial and he
was released from prison. A new trial for Sam begun with his arraignment on
September 8, 1966. Sam pleaded not guilty and on November 16th of the same year a
not guilty verdict was reached.

Sam would be the inspiration for the film �The Fugitive� and would go on to a
career as a professional wrestler. During this brief wrestling career, Sam went by
the name �The Killer.� Many people believe that Sam really did kill his wife, but
whether he did or not the case of the murder of Marilyn Reese Sheppard remains
unsolved.

Mary Meyer

Mary Meyer was a Washington, D.C. socialite and a known close friend of President
John F. Kennedy. On October 12, 1964, Mary Meyer was shot to death when going for a
walk. A nearby mechanic who heard the gunshots is said to have seen an unidentified
man standing over Mary�s body. According to the mechanic, the man was black and
wore a light jacket, dark slacks and a dark cap. Mary had been shot in the heart
and in the back of the head; both bullets were fired at extremely close range.

Shortly after the shooting, an African American man named Raymond Crump was
arrested near the scene of the crime. Although Crump had no gun on him and had
never been linked to owning a gun, he was tried for the crime of murder. On July
29, 1965, Crump would be acquitted of all charges. The murder of Mary Meyer remains
unsolved.

Mary Rogers

Mary Rogers was commonly referred to as the �Beautiful Cigar Girl.� Mary was born
in 1820 and her body was recovered on July 28, 1841 in the Hudson River in Hoboken,
New Jersey. During her life, Mary Rogers worked in a New York City tobacco shop
owned by John Anderson. Mary was well paid since her beauty commonly invited more
customers into the shop. Mary was well-known and liked by most clients of the shop
and was known to pass flirting glances their way once in a while. On October 5,
1838, Mary went missing from her home according to a New York Sun article. Mary�s
mother, Phoebe Rogers told the New York Sun that she had found a suicide note from
her daughter that was deemed by the coroner to be proof of her determination to
commit suicide. On October 6th, the Times and Commercial Intelligence newspaper
reported that the disappearance was not actually a disappearance at all, rather,
Mary had gone to Brooklyn to visit a friend. When Mary returned to work many
believed that her disappearance had not been a hoax rather a publicity stunt by the
owner of the tobacco shop to get more business.

On July 25, 1841, Mary would go missing in a way. Mary told her fianc�, Daniel
Payne that she was going to visit family on July 25th; however, three days later
her body was recovered from the Hudson River in Hoboken. As beautiful and well
loved as Mary had been her death caused quite the stir in local newspapers as well
as nationally. What was released of the case indicated that Mary had been the
subject of foul play being either murdered or dumped in the river and left for dead
after abortionist Madame Restell had attempted to conduct a procedure on her.
Months after the recovery of Mary�s body her fianc� would commit suicide by poison.

No one really knows what happened to Mary, many believe that she had been the
victim of gang violence. One woman, Frederica Loss also came forward and told that
Mary had certainly died after a failed abortion attempt by Restell. The case would
never be solved however when press coverage switched gears a couple of months later
Samuel Adams was murdered by John C Colt. Although her murder was never solved,
Mary Rogers was fictionalized in the Edgar Allan Poe story �The Mystery of Marie
Roget.�

The Murder of Thelma Todd

Thelma Todd, also known as Thelma Alice Todd and �Hot Toddy,� was an actress on the
Hollywood scene in the late 1920�s and early 1930�s. Thelma lived in an apartment
above the caf� that she ran on the Roosevelt Highway, the Sidewalk Caf�. Just
uphill from the caf�, Thelma had a garage. On December 15, 1935, Thelma was found
dead inside this garage, behind the steering wheel of her Packard convertible. At
the time, there were some who believed that she had committed suicide or
accidentally killed herself while warming up her car in the garage; however, signs
of foul play came to light. Thelma had blood on her mouth and there were traces of
blood on the car as well as a smudged hand print on the car door. Thelma�s blood
alcohol level was too high to have allowed her to climb the 300 uphill steps to the
garage in her high heel shoes. Despite these findings however, the death of Thelma
was ultimately ruled a suicide after the hearing of evidence that she was depressed
and occasionally spoke of suicide. The facts still seem to indicate that there was
foul play involved in her death though, but unfortunately for Thelma, no one will
ever know what really happened in that garage.

Olof Palme

Olof Palme was the prime minister of Sweden from October 14, 1969 to October 8,
1976. During his time as prime minister of Sweden, Palme had many strong opinions
in regard to a number of highly volatile issues including the world powers involved
in the Cold War, particularly for the role of the United States in the Vietnam War
which put a number of nuclear weapons throughout Europe, something which Palme did
not agree with at all. Palme�s criticism of the role of America in the Vietnam War
cause strained relationships between Sweden and the United States and it is because
of this tension that many believe that the eventual assassination was a result of
his opinions.

Palme spent much of his role as prime minister without a security detail, believing
that he was not in any danger; however, just before midnight on February 28, 1986,
Palme and his wife were returning from the movie theater when they were fired on by
an assassin. While Palme�s wife survived her gunshot wound, Palme was not so lucky
and died upon his arrival to the hospital. One man, a local thief and drug addict,
was arrested for the crime and convicted; however, his conviction was later
overturned leaving the crime unsolved. Many people believe that due to his strong
opinions on the Cold War during his role as prime minister, that Palme was
assassinated by members of the American CIA or perhaps the Russian KGB, but no
proof has ever been discovered to support either theory.

More recently records from a German interrogation indicate that the assassination
was carried out by a Yugoslavian UDBA operative who currently lives in Croatia;
however, to date there has been little to come of this discovery.

Oscar Romero

Born �scar Arnulfo Romero y Gald�mez, Oscar Romero was recognized for his position
as bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador. Oscar Romero was born in
August of 1917 and went on to become the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador after
Luis Chavez. On March 24, 1980 Oscar was assassinated during a mass he was
conducting at the hospital La Divina Providencia. The assassination of Romero
immediately followed a sermon he had given the preceding day demanding that
soldiers of El Salvador must stop repressing citizens and refusing them basic human
rights as they were being instructed to do by the government. Romero instructed the
soldiers to be men of God and follow the higher ruling of God himself. A 1993
report by the United Nations supports the theory that the assassination of Romero
was carried out by a squad of men trained and funded by the United States, charging
Roberto D�Aubuisson, a former Major. One of the men who is identified to have been
an active member of the death squad involved in the assassination, �lvaro Rafael
Saravia, was found liable in 2004 for aiding, conspiring and participating in the
assassination and was ordered to pay a fine of $10 million.

During the funeral of Romero, a smoke grenade was activated and multiple rifle
shots heard across the square, somewhere between 30 and 50 individuals were killed
and a number of others were wounded during the display. Even as the body of Romero
was being laid to rest, the gunfire continued to ring out.

There is no concrete evidence to point to those responsible for the acts that
killed Romero or those who were killed during his funeral, no one has officially
been charged with the assassination while Saravia was charged with taking part in
the assassination plan.
Peter Ivers

Peter Ivers was another big name in American entertainment whose death remains a
mystery. Known for his position as an American musician, Ivers was the host of the
New Wave Theater. In a strange similarity to the Bob Crane murder mystery, Ivers
was also found bludgeoned to death in his Los Angeles apartment. Ivers was killed
in his bed in his apartment which was located in a seedy part of LA. Ivers�
murderer was never identified but the case is still open. In 2008 a book called �In
Heaven Everything is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of
the New Wave Theatre� was published by Josh Frank and Charlie Buckholtz. Upon
researching for the book new evidence was unearthed in the case forcing the LAPD to
reopen their investigation. Upon his death, hundreds of Ivers friends had flocked
to his apartment to mourn and in doing so they compromised much of the evidence
that had possibly been in the apartment. This is just one reason that is given for
the unsolved status of Ivers death, other believe that the laundry list of friends
and acquaintances that Ivers had also contributed to the inability to solve his
death.

A number of theories abound about the potential cause for Peter Iver�s murder. Some
say that Ivers was killed as the result of a botched robbery. Others believed that
Ivers was killed by one of the hecklers in the audience of the New Wave Theater.
Unfortunately, none of these theories came to fruition and the murder of Peter
Ivers remains unsolved.

Rashawn Brazell

The murder of Rashawn Brazell has gone down in history as one of the most horrific
murder cases in New York State. Nineteen-year-old Rashawn disappeared from his
Bushwick, Brooklyn home in February of 2005. Rashawn had been scheduled to meet his
accountant on the morning of February 14, 2005, before heading out to meet his
mother for lunch in Manhattan. That morning around 7:30 am an unknown male rang the
buzzer for Rashawn and the two walked to Gates Avenue Station together. According
to eyewitnesses, the two exited the subway at Nostrand Avenue station in Bedford,
Stuyvesant. This is the last time that Rashawn would be seen alive. Four days
later, two bags of body parts were found on the tracks at the subway station
according to the New York Post. The fingerprints of the victim were identified as
being Rashawn�s. No other information has been recovered about the identity of the
unknown male who accompanied Rashawn to the subway station and no breaks have been
made in the case to date. Rashawn�s case has been profiled on America�s Most Wanted
a total of five times on the television as well as three times on the radio, yet no
new leads have been generated that can help to solve the murder of Rashawn.

Robert Wone

Robert Eric Wone was living in Washington, D.C. at the time of his murder. Wone was
32 and living in Oakton, Virginia where he commuted to Washington, D.C. to work as
a lawyer. On the night of his murder, Wone had been staying with some friends who
lived just a mile from his office in D.C. At the time of his attack in August,
2006, the townhouse where Wone was staying was not empty at the time of his attack.
Also inside the home at the time of the attack were Victor Zaborsky, Joseph Prince
and Dylan Ward. According to police, on the night of his death, Wone was
restrained, incapacitated and sexually assaulted before he was stabbed to death.

Police spoke with the three men who lived in the home and found their calm behavior
to be quite suspect. Although the men did call an ambulance, they were not seen as
being distraught or eager to help the paramedics once they arrived. The men became
suspects in the murder, although many suspected their involvement due to their
homosexuality and the fact that Wone had been sexually interfered with prior to his
death. Ultimately police found the crime scene to have been tampered with which led
to more delay in the investigation. The three roommates would eventually be tried
for obstruction however; all three were found not guilty. Wone�s wife would later
file a civil lawsuit for wrongful death against the three men which would be
settled for an undisclosed amount on August 3, 2011.

The murder of Robert Wone was never solved; however, it has become quite a popular
case in Washington, D.C. particularly due to the involvement of the gay community.

Rose Harsent

The murder of Rose Harsent is more often referred to as the Peasenhall Murder. Rose
Harsent was a servant girl at a central home in Peasenhall, Suffolk, England. On
the night of May 31, 1902, at approximately midnight and during a thunderstorm,
Rose was murdered. Rose was found stabbed to death and and she was six months
pregnant at the time of her death. At first the police called to the scene believed
it was a suicide but their investigation soon turned up other theories. Local
Methodist preacher William Gardiner was believed to have been having an affair with
Rose in 1901 and was also alleged to be the father of her unborn child. At the time
of the murder, Gardiner had a wife and six children and lived just down the street
from the home where Rose worked as a servant. Police arrested Gardiner twice as a
suspect in Rose�s murder, once in 1902 and once in 1903, however, both trials
resulted with a hung jury and the trial was acquitted. Very few people in the case
history of English law have ever been tried for murder with the result being no
verdict at all. In 1941, Gardiner died without ever being convicted of Rose�s
murder. Some believe that Gardiner was innocent after all and it was his jealous
wife who murdered Rose, but no one was ever formally convicted of the crime.

Suzanne Jovin

Suzanne Jovin was a 21-year-old senior at Yale University at the time of her murder
in 1998. Jovin was found stabbed to death off campus and the investigation into her
death has yet to yield a valid suspect. Jovin was a German born American student
who volunteered as a tutor, sang in chorus and worked in the Davenport dining hall
on campus.

On the night of her murder, Jovin was headed to the Yale police communications
center on the old Yale campus. She decided to walk there to return keys to a car
that she had borrowed. At approximately 9:22 pm, Jovin ran into a classmate, Peter
Stein who was out getting a breath of air. Stein noted that Jovin had not mentioned
plans for the rest of the evening other than to say that she was very tired and
looked forward to going to bed when she got home. Stein noticed that Jovin was
holding a sheet of paper in her hand but said that she did not look agitated or
nervous. It is believed that after this encounter, Jovin returned the keys to the
car that she had borrowed and she was last seen between 9:25 and 9:30 pm. At the
time of her last sighting, Jovin was walking northeast on College Street.

At 9:55 pm someone called 911 and reported seeing a woman bleeding around 2 miles
from where Jovin was last seen alive. Four minutes after the call, the police
arrived on the scene and found Jovin who had been stabbed 17 times in the back of
the head and neck. Jovin also had her throat slit. There were no signs of robbery;
however, Jovin had left her wallet back in her room. At 10:26 pm Jovin was
pronounced dead at Yale New Haven Hospital.

Investigators in Jovin�s murder found DNA under Jovin�s fingernails of her left
hand, Jovin�s fingerprints along with an unknown person�s partial palm print on a
soda bottle close to where her body was found and the tip of the knife used to kill
Jovin. Observers noted a brown van that had been parked adjacent to where Jovin�s
body was found, a man running the opposite direction to where Jovin�s body was
found and the mention of an unknown �someone� by Jovin in an email sent shortly
before her death. While Jovin�s thesis advisor was once believed to have played a
role in her death, he was never found guilty and her murder remains an unsolved
crime.

The Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer goes down in history as the second most notorious unsolved serial
murder plague under Jack the Ripper. More than 2,500 suspects were interviewed in
connection to the Zodiac Killer case and yet not one of them was held accountable
and the cases were never solved. The Zodiac Killer is known to have murdered at
least five victims in Benicia, Lake Berryessa, Vallejo and San Francisco between
December of 1968 and October of 1969. The targets of the Zodiac Killer�s attacks
were both men and women between the ages of 16 and 29. In total, known victims of
the Zodiac Killer include four men and three women, five of which were murdered. It
is very possible that there were other victims of the Zodiac Killer that were never
identified due to a lack of evidence linking them to him or the other victims. The
Zodiac Killer himself claimed to have taken the lives of 37 people in total. The
case of the Zodiac Killer was never solved and although there were a few �good�
suspects at the time, there simply was no way of tying any one of them to the
murders conclusively due to poor forensic technology. The Zodiac utilized letters
and newspaper coverage to taunt local authorities, included in these letters were
four cryptograms, only one of which was every solved definitively. It was through
his letters that the Zodiac Killer got his nickname.

Over time, many people have come forward with their own theories about who the
Zodiac Killer is, some of whom claim it is their friend or even their father.
Unfortunately, studies of evidence and items belonging to these people have yet to
prove any conclusive connection to the Zodiac Killer.

The Horror of the Unsolved Murder

Regardless of when the crime occurred or who the victim was, there is no such thing
as a victimless murder. With every single crime that involves the loss of life,
there are a handful of lives at minimum that will never be the same again. The
crimes listed above detail only a small sampling of the world�s most recognized
unsolved murders and unfortunately the number of cases on this list continues to
grow. While our methods of solving crime have certainly advanced since the time of
Jack the Ripper, they have still not managed to advance enough to be able to track
down killers like JonBen�t Ramsey�s. It is the hope of many that someday we will be
able to track the committers of these heinous crimes down through mandatory DNA
samples; however the possible infringement of human rights makes this a
questionable practice. So what can be done to help find out who is guilty of many
of these unsolved murders? Unfortunately, there is nothing more that can be done at
this time other than keeping these cases alive until a new method of processing
evidence surfaces or until new evidence arises to help keep society a much safer
place to reside.