compiled by Patrick H. Moore
Here are ten thumbnail descriptions of an equal number of spectacular crimes that shocked and transfixed the nation. Several of these crimes remain unsolved to this day.
The Black Dahlia — Elizabeth Short
The murder of “The Black Dahlia”, aspiring actress Elizabeth Short created a tabloid sensation. Her dismembered body was discovered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles on January 15, 1947, complete with a Glasgow smile — 3-inch slashes on each side of her face. Her chic dark hair, fair complexion and reputation for wearing a dahlia in her hair triggered her nickname.
The fact that the murdered 22-year-old had a checkered past and a reputation for promiscuity gave the tabloids endless fodder. Her case remains unsolved to this day. Some 200 suspects were interviewed and ultimately released. Crime writer James Ellroy secured his reputation by writing a novel about Ms. Short entitled “The Black Dahlia” which was later made into a movie.
Lizzie Borden Kills Her Parents (Or Does She)
“Lizzie Borden took an axe/And gave her mother forty whacks/And when she saw what she had done/She gave her father forty-one.”
The Lizzie Borden case has mystified and fascinated those interested in crime for over one hundred years. Very few cases in American history have attracted as much attention as the hatchet murders of Andrew J. Borden and his wife, Abby Borden. The bloodiness of the acts in an otherwise respectable late nineteenth century domestic setting is startling. Along with the gruesome nature of the crimes is the unexpected character of the accused, not a hatchet-wielding maniac, but a church-going, Sunday-school-teaching, respectable, spinster-daughter, charged with parricide, the murder of parents, a crime worthy of Classical Greek tragedy.
Texas Mother Andrea Yates Kills Her 5 Children
Andrea Yates (born Andrea Pia Kennedy on July 2, 1964) is a former Houston, Texas resident who killed her five children on June 20, 2001 by drowning them in the bathtub in her house.
She had been suffering for some time with very severe postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. Her case placed the M’Naghten Rules with the Irresistible Impulse Test, a legal test for sanity, under close public scrutiny in the United States. Yates’s 2002 conviction of capital murder and sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years was later overturned on appeal.
On July 26, 2006, a Texas jury found that Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity. She was consequently committed by the court to the North Texas State Hospital, Vernon Campus, a high-security mental health facility in Vernon, Texas, where she received medical treatment and was a roommate of Dena Schlosser, another woman who committed filicide by killing her infant daughter. In January 2007, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.
The Joey Buttafuco Scandal
Amy Fisher became known as the “Long Island Lolita” based on the fact she as only 16 when she had an affair with Joey Buttafuoco, who was 35, in 1991. She became obsessed with Big Joey despite the fact he was married and had two children.
Although he’s denied it to this day, Buttafuoco may have helped Fisher plan the attempted murder of his wife, which culminated in Fisher shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco’s in the head, but failing to kill her.
In the sensational trial that followed, Fisher accepted a plea deal for 15 years in prison in exchange for testifying against Joey, who received 4 months for statutory rape.
Fourteen years later, Mary Jo underwent facial reanimation surgery which was largely successful and gave her back her smile.
Unsolved Murder of JonBenét Ramsey
The first images of JonBenet Ramsey that were broadcast to the world showed a pretty little girl in heavy make-up and flamboyant costumes parading across a stage. At the time, the media described her as “a painted baby, a sexualized toddler beauty queen.”
From the day in 1996 when JonBenet was found dead in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado, the Boulder police and a large proportion of the world’s media believed that her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were responsible for her death.
The case reopened in 2010, but critics cite poor handling of the crime scene as obstructing what remains a mystery regarding the events of that Christmas day. There is talk that the case may once again be reopened.
Richard Speck Slaughters Eight Nurses
At some point in Richard Speck’s troubled lifetime, he arranged for “Born to Raise Hell” to be tattoed on his arm. His life consisted of violence, theft, alcoholism, and spousal abuse, but the awful act that secured his place in the annals of infamy took place on July 14, 1966, when he systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital
Only one nurse, Cora Amurao saved herself by hiding under a bed until 6 a.m.
Speck was found guilty of murder and died of a heart attack in prison. As one of the most press-worthy crimes of the decade, the grim events were used most recently as the backdrop for an episode of Mad Men.
Charles Manson was terrifying. He also had great charisma and founded a “family” of wayward individuals who hailed him as a prophet.
So strong was his ability to twist the minds of his weak-willed followers, that on the night of Aug. 8, 1969, four of them killed everyone at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon (a section of Los Angeles) — including Roman Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, and her unborn child.
Tate was stabbed 16 times. Her blood was used to write “pig” on the house’s front door.
The next night Manson and his decidedly un-merry band of men and women killed Leno LaBianca and his wife. Manson did help bind them before ordering their deaths.
Manson’s murder trial was long and expensive. It spanned nine-and-a-half months and cost an estimated $1 million. He and three of his fellow defendants were ultimately found guilty of first-degree-murder and several other crimes.
Manson was denied parole for the 12th time in April 2012.
The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was one of the most highly publicized crimes of the 20th century. The 20-month-old toddler was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of March 1, 1932. Over two months later, on May 12, 1932, his body was discovered a short distance from the Lindberghs’ home. A medical examination determined that the cause of death was a massive skull fracture.
After an investigation that lasted more than two years, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested and charged with the crime. In a trial that was held from January 2 to February 13, 1935, Hauptmann was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. He was executed by electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936, at 8:44 in the evening. Hauptmann proclaimed his innocence to the end.
Newspaper writer H. L. Mencken called the kidnapping and subsequent trial “the biggest story since the Resurrection”. The crime spurred Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the “Lindbergh Law”, which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime.
The Casey Anthony trial and her ultimate acquittal has fanned the flames of strong emotion and intense hatred.
Lies and misdirection on the part of the then-22 year old Casey led the authorities on a wild-goose chase for five months until her daughter Caylee’s skeletal remains were finally found after five months, setting the stage for perhaps the most incessantly publicized and shocking trial in recent memory.
The media had a field day and legions of “Anthony haters” sprang to life. The prosecution used her young, pretty, party girl image against her in court and seemed to tear apart an aimless defense — or so it seemed.
After all her lies, fabrications and character assassinations, Casey was found not guilty due to evidence deemed mostly circumstantial which, in the jurors minds, did not meet the burden of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” This case will be debated for as long as there are true crime fans.
Pretty much everyone is convinced that former football star and actor O.J. Simpson murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Who can forget watching him fleeing an all-points bulletin in his Ford Bronco with 20 police units units hot on his trail?
His dream team of crack defense attorneys — which consisted of Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, and Robert Kardashian – claimed Simpson was merely a victim of police fraud with regard to contaminated DNA evidence, and quipped famously: “If it [the glove] doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
An estimated 100 million people from all around the world tuned in to watch the jury hand down a verdict of not guilty on October 3, 1995.