Gruesome Unsolved Murders - Shocking Crimes Never Solved E-Book

Nick Culver

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 187

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Over thirty macabre cases of bizarre and harrowing crimes which were never solved. The cases under scrutiny include: The Alphabet Murders, Jill Dando, the Hollywood murder of Christa Helm, The Frankford Slasher, The Hill Ax Murders of Ardenwald, The Lake Bodom Murders and many more famous criminal cases of murder which have never been solved by crime agencies.

Leseprobe

Gruesome Unsolved Murders - Shocking Crimes Never Solved

© Copyright 2023 Nick Culver

ContentsTerror at Lake BodomJonBenét RamseyDenver StranglerJill DandoPittsburg Serial KillerHalloweenMonster of the MangonesStranger On a TrainConnecticut River Valley KillerThe Rubble KillingsThe Bloody Murder of Christina HelmThe Hinterkaifeck CaseParkway MurdersVillisca Axe SlayerTexas Killing FieldsBeverly Hills ShooterThe Elusive StranglerCecil Hotel MysteryThe Bone CollectorThames Torso MurdersSanta Rosa KillerJenny MaxwellRedhead KillerJohn Bodkin AdamsFrankford Slasher The Ice Cream BlondeUnlucky Number 76Folk HorrorLover's LaneCastration MurdersTexarkanaHill Ax MurdersOakland County KillerAlphabet MurdersTERROR AT LAKE BODOM Early in June 1960, at Bodom Lake in Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland, four teenagers were out camping. There were two girls named Maila Björklund and Anja Mäki (both 15) and their boyfriends Seppo Boisman and Nils Gustafsson - who were both eighteen. Something very strange and very harrowing was about to befall them. That morning, June 5, a swimmer chanced upon the tent of the teenagers. It was shredded and covered in blood. There were two teenagers on top of the tent and two inside. They had clearly suffered horrific injuries - blunt force trauma and in three cases stabbing. Three were dead but Nils Gustafsson had somehow survived despite broken facial bones. Seppo Boisman's death was especially brutal and there were indications that the killer had continued to stab him even after he was dead. Some boys later told the police that they'd seen a man with blond hair running away from the scene of the murders that morning. By the time the police arrived the victims had been dead for about six hours. The police investigation at the crime scene was something of a shambles as the murder site was not locked down and police officers and even curious onlookers had trampled all over the site - potentially destroying important evidence. Keys to the motorcycles belonging to the teenagers were stolen by the killer but none of the actual motorcycles were missing - which was slightly puzzling. The assailant had clearly attacked the teenagers from outside the tent using not just a knife but also some sort of blunt heavy object. The shoes belonging to the sole survivor Nils Gustafsson were found some distance from the tent - which possibly seemed to indicate the killer had borrowed them or moved them. This was another curious detail. Gustafsson, who had a fractured jaw, couldn't tell the police much about the person who had attacked them. He said the killer was dressed in black and had red bloodshot eyes. All the police really had to go on was that they were probably looking for a man with blond hair - which obviously didn't narrow things down very much. Gustafsson told the police that he been attacked first and then the killer must have presumed he was dead and moved onto the others. Gustafsson said he couldn't remember much about the attack - which was understandable given that he'd suffered a concussion. However, as we shall see, his story was to come under great scrutiny many years later. As for suspects in this case in the wake of the murders, well, there were certainly one or two candidates. Karl Valdemar Gyllström, who ran a kiosk in the immediate area, was definitely someone who the police looked at. Gyllström was a violent and choleric man who was infamous for his dislike of campers. He had been known to throw rocks at campers and destroy tents in the past. But was he capable of a ghastly murder like this? The police didn't seem to think so and never treated him as a serious suspect. Gyllström had once claimed he killed a neighbour but then recanted this confession. It was hard to know what he was capable of or if he was telling the truth about anything. In 1969, Gyllström drowned himself in the lake. Those he think he might have murdered the teens cite this as suspicious. Did he kill himself because he was fearful of being caught and spending the rest of his life in prison? The most suspicious thing about Gyllström is that neighbours later noted that they'd seen him dropping stuff down a well. Was he disposing of the murder weapons? Another (retrospective) suspect is Pentti Soininen, a criminal who claimed while in prison that he had committed the murders. He had actually lived near the lake in 1960 where the attack took place. The main problem with this theory though is that Soininen was only fourteen years-old in 1960. Would a fourteen year-old really be capable of killing two strong eighteen year-old males? It isn't impossible but it does seem unlikely that someone that young was responsible for these deaths. Another suspect in this case is Hans Assmann - who is alleged to have been a KGB spy. Assmann lived quite close to Lake Bodom. What really makes Assmann a suspect more than anything is the fact that shortly after the murders he turned up in a Helsinki hospital covered in blood and dirt and rambling incoherently. The problem with the theory that Hans Assmann was the killer is that he seemed to have an alibi which proved he was in Germany when the murders took place. As a result of this the police never took him seriously as a potential suspect and did not pursue any investigation against him. Assmann did HAVE blond hair - which matched the description of the man seen in the area after the murders. Assmann also got his hair cut a day or so after the deaths - which may or may not have been significant. Assmann was a reclusive figure by all accounts and not an awful lot was known about him. Given that he was apparently a KGB spy it probably isn't a surprise that he was rather shadowy and mysterious! Sadly, the blood on his clothes at the hospital was never tested to see if it matched the victims. Assmann remains a strong suspect in the eyes of many who have followed this case though because he is suspected of other Finnish homicide cases. The trail consequently went cold at this point when it came to the person responsible for these deaths. It seemed to be another unsolved crime case. In 2004 it looked like that might change though when, many years after the slaughter at the lake, someone was finally arrested and charged with the murders. And who was that person? Well, it was none other than Nils Gustafsson - the sole survivor of the Lake Bodom murders. The police claimed that they had always suspected Gustafsson of killing his friends that night and now believed they had enough evidence to prove it. As you can imagine, this must have come as a nasty surprise for Nils Gustafsson to be tried for murder 44 years after the alleged crimes took place. By now he was no longer a teenager but a bespectacled middle aged man who worked as a bus driver. The prosecution felt they had a good case against Gustafsson because forensic evidence on the shoes he was wearing the morning of the murders found that there was blood from his three friends on them but none of his own blood. The general theory proposed by the police and prosecution is that Gustafsson had a falling out with his friend Seppo Boisman and was maybe banished from the tent or group. A fight ensued (during which Gustafsson picked up the facial injuries and mild concussion) and Gustafsson extracted revenge by killing Seppo Boisman by attacking him with a knife and blunt object. Nils Gustafsson then, according to the prosecution, killed the two girls so there would be no witnesses and then lay down with the victims waiting to be found so that he could pretend he had been attacked by an unknown killer too. One detail too highlighted by the prosecution is that Maila Björklund, Gustafsson's girlfriend, had more stab wounds than the other victims and was also undressed from the waist down. Their theory was that Gustafsson snapped in a rage of jealousy which was connected to his girlfriend. The most salient argument of the prosecution was that the lack of his own blood on Gustafsson's shoes indicated that he was the only person who could have done this murder and that his own injuries must have happened at a different time to the victims. They believe he took items from the camp to make it look like a robbery and then went back to the tent with bare feet and lay down alongside the victims waiting to be found. They believe he may also have self-inflicted some of his facial and head injuries to make his ruse look more realistic. Gustafsson's defence argued that if he had got into a fight with Seppo Boisman and suffered a fractured jaw, a concussion, and broken bones, then how would he have been capable of murdering them all and then going on a jaunt to hide the shoes and evidence? Gustafsson was eventually acquitted of all charges at the trial. What helped him greatly was the passage of time. It was judged that it was impossible to establish all facts in a case that happened over 40 years ago. It was also felt that the prosecution failed to convince the court of a plausible motive for why Gustafsson should go crazy and kill his girlfriend and two friends. So it seems that the Lake Bodom murders are destined to remain a mystery and go unsolved. It could be that Gustafsson or one of the other suspects was the killer but we simply don't know. They might all be completely innocent. Gustafsson's defence team argued at the trial that the murders were probably done by more than one person in the form of strangers who attacked the camping teenagers. The real truth remains uncertain. JONBENÉT RAMSEY JonBenét Ramsey was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia. JonBenét was the daughter of businessman John Bennett Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey. Patsy competed in beauty pageants when she was younger and had moulded JonBenét into a child beauty pageant queen. Child beauty pageants are considered rather odd and even distasteful by many. It often involves dressing up little kids as if they are adults. JonBenét also had a nine year-old brother named Burke. In the early hours of December 26, 1996, the Ramseys noticed that their daughter seemed to be missing. They then allege to have found a ransom note at the bottom of the stairs left by an apparent kidnapper. The ransom note read as follows - 'Mr. Ramsey, Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We do respect your bussiness [sic] but not the country that it serves. At this time we have your daughter in our posession [sic]. She is safe and unharmed and if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter. You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank. When you get home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 am tomorrow to instruct you on delivery. The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence a [sic] earlier delivery pick-up of your daughter. Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them. Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as Police, F.B.I., etc., will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies. You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, she dies. You can try to deceive us but be warned that we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics. You stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to out smart [sic] us. Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back. You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities. Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours. It is up to you now John! Victory!'Despite the instructions in the ransom note not to involve the police, the Ramseys immediately called them. The police arrived at the house around 6am but their handling of the immediate crime scene left something to be desired. Friends and family were allowed to wander around (potentially destroying forensic evidence) and the parents were not formally interviewed individually straight away. In cases this like this the first thing the police have to do is to investigate the family and relatives and friends of the family to make sure they were not involved in the crime. That evidently wasn't done as soon as it could have been. Early in the afternoon the police asked the parents to check to see if anything was amiss in the house. Incredibly, none of the police officers had yet to check the basement. John Bennett Ramsey went down there himself - where he found the dead body of JonBenét. JonBenét Ramsey had been strangled and her skull was fractured. Her mouth was covered in duct tape and her wrists and neck were bound. John Bennett Ramsey carried the dead body of his daughter upstairs - thus further contaminating the crime scene. There was no evidence of rape but JonBenét Ramsey HAD suffered some form of sexual assault. It was established that her private parts and upper legs had been wiped clean by the killer. It turned out that the ransom note had been written on stationary which belonged to the Ramseys. This alleged intruder have even used a pen from the house. This was a pretty odd detail. If you have just broken into a house and murdered a child would you really stick around in the house and calmly take the time to write a three page ransom note? And why was the killer writing a ransom note for a dead child left in the house? The ransom note was pretty bizarre with curious details like the mention of John Bennett Ramsey's business. Any why was a kidnapper telling the parents to be 'rested'? The ransom note was deemed highly suspicious by those who have studied this case. However, the handwriting of the Bennet family was studied by the police and there was no clear proof that any of them had written it - though such a possibility remains. There are basically two theories in this case. Theory number one is that someone in the Ramsey family killed JonBenét - whether by intent or accident - and they then tried to cover it up. Theory number two is that an intruder broke into the house while they were asleep and murdered JonBenét. Both of these theories, as we shall see, have evidence supporting them and evidence contradicting them. It's safe to say that the murder of JonBenét Ramsey is puzzling to say the least. Regarding the theory that someone in the family killed JonBenét, well, there were certainly some crumbs for those inclined to lean towards this theory. Some of the police detectives noted that John Bennett Ramsey seemed strangely unemotional given the circumstances - which struck them as odd. It could be that he was simply in shock although detectives also noted that both parents seemed curiously disinterested in the ransom note and its stipulations. They seemed to completely forget about it. If you really did find your child missing one morning and then discover a ransom note with instructions and deadlines, well, you might think that one would be a lot more inclined to worry about the details of the note than the Ramseys were that day. There are essentially three possibilities for the theory that the family were involved. The first theory is that the father was sexually abusing JonBenét and killed her to ensure her silence. Maybe it was an accident and the mother helped cover it up. These are the sorts of theories which have flourished around this dreadful case. The parents probably didn't help their case at the time either by refusing to take a police lie detector test. This was presumably done of the advice of their legal advisor.  The second theory is that the mother Patsy killed JonBenét. The main problem with this theory is motive. Why on earth would a mother kill her six year-old daughter? The family housekeeper believed that Patsy had killed JonBenét and went public about this. It's safe to say that a cloud of suspicion dogged the parents in the aftermath of this tragedy and never really went away. It should be noted though that no DNA evidence conclusively proved either parent was involved and they were never formally charged with anything. A popular theory in this case is that JonBenét's brother Burke killed her by accident and then the parents made it look like a murder to protect their son. A baseball bat belonging to Burke was found in the house but Burke's father told the police Burke didn't have a baseball bat. Pineapple was found in JonBenét's stomach and Burke was eating a bowl of pineapple the night before. Burke has always vehemently denied any blame for his sister's death and taken legal action against those who suggest otherwise. The reason why the pineapple comes up in theories about this case is that the night before her disappearance the parents said they took JonBenét from their car asleep and put her straight to bed. The family had been out to eat but they did not eat pineapple. It is therefore presumed by some that they were lying about JonBenét going straight to bed because she MUST have eaten some pineapple in the house. If they lied about this what else were they lying about? As for the intruder theory, the police did later establish that a handprint and unknown DNA was found in the house. Forensics indicate that two unknown people could have been in the house that night but - frustratingly - they've never been identified on any DNA database. In fact later DNA advances led the police to officially state the parents were innocent and the intruder theory was most likely true. One weird detail though is that neighbours said they heard screams coming from the Ramsey house that tragic night but the Ramsey parents claimed they didn't hear anything. That was definitely another odd and strange detail. If there were screams as the neighbours claim then the Ramseys must surely have heard them as they were much closer what with them being in the ACTUAL house. It seems that the intruder, if this theory is correct, must have abducted JonBenét and taken her to the basement. Weirdly though the police didn't find much evidence of a break in and the ransom note (which was found by Patsy) remains rather puzzling and suspicious. John Bennett Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey were formally cleared as suspects by the police in 2008. Patsy did not live to see this though as she died of cancer in 2006. DNA from JonBenét indicated that an unknown person had been there that night. To this day people online still venture forth with theories that one of the parents killed JonBenét but - officially at least - they were cleared. There have been many suspects in this case but thus far they've had alibis or proved to be red herrings. The police have interviewed around 600 people but no one has been charged or convicted for JonBenét's death.What makes this case especially perplexing is the DNA evidence - which is contradictory, disputed, and in many cases redacted. Private investigators who have studied this case tend to believe in the intruder theory. They think it would have been possible for someone to get into the house through the basement. The Ramsey house was carpeted too so this would have lessened the noise made by footsteps. Others though continue to dispute this theory. There are, for example, many claims that handwriting experts judged Patsy to have been the author of the strange ransom note. The murder of JonBenét Ramsey remains an ongoing investigation but it appears that the real truth has yet to be found. The identity of her killer (or killers?) remains to be officially verified. DENVER STRANGLERThe Denver Strangler was an unidentified serial killer operating in Denver, Colorado from 1894 to 1903. The Strangler killed three prostitutes but no one was ever convicted of the crimes. The first murder involved a French prostitute named Lena Tapper. She was strangled to death in her bed. Another French prostitute, Marie Contassoit, was the next victim. Marie was also found strangled in her bed. She had been throttled with a cord so tightly that deep marks were left on her skin. Money was missing from the home - which obviously suggested there was a financial motive for this murder. The next victim was a 24 year-old Japanese immigrant named Kiku Oyama - who was also found strangled in her bed. Once again there was evidence that drawers and rooms had been rifled through - which again suggested a financial motive. The Strangler is suspected of two other murders. Julia Voght, a clairvoyant, was found dead in her rooms having been strangled. Voght had apparently contacted the authorities and said that with the use of her 'powers' she had formed a picture of who the Strangler was. The Strangler was cleary someone who believed in mediums because he killed Voght to silence her! When they found her body some suspenders had been stuffed in her mouth. That wasn't the end of the Strangler's activities though. Several years later a woman named Mabel Brown was found dead. She had been (you guessed it) strangled and she had some suspenders stuffed in her mouth - exactly like Julia Voght. The Strangler is suspected of other murders that took time around this place but the evidence for that is difficult to verify. The main suspect in this case was Richard Demady. Richard Demady was a Frenchman who had lived with the first victim Lena Tapper. The police were fairly certain that they had a good case against Demady but this optimism proved to be misplaced because he was found not guilty at the subsequent trial. Two French criminals named Victor Monchereaux and Alphonse Lemaire attracted the attention of the police when they both accused one another of being the Strangler! While these two men had circumstantial evidence against them (in that they knew the French community surrounding the first two victims and were both dangerous men) the police never charged them with anything in the end and didn't really believe their stories. As a consequence of this the true identity of The Denver Strangler remains a mystery. JILL DANDOIn the 1990s, Jill Dando was one of the most recognisable and famous faces in Britain thanks to her duties as a newsreader for the BBC. Many more people watched 'traditional' television back then than they do today (in our information overload streaming web obsessed age) and so Jill Dando was very famous indeed. Dando also hosted Crimewatch (a show which highlights unsolved crimes and appeals for fresh information to catch criminals) and the travel show Holiday. Dando had been on Masterchef, The Royal Variety Performance, Blankety Blank, Countdown, Antiques Roadshow, children's television, breakfast television, Noel's House Party, and Points of View. She had also been part of the BBC's election night coverage in 1992 and 1997. Jill Dando was literally all over the place. She was one of the most high profile television presenters in the country and everyone knew who she was. Dando was the BBC's Golden Girl.