TOP TEN UNIDENTIFIED SERIAL KILLERS

Article BY BRYAN BURR - Art by NICHOLAS RAIMO

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#10: The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders

Were a series of at least seven unsolved homicides involving female hitchhikers that took place in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa of the North Bay area of California in 1972 and 1973. All of the victims were found nude in rural areas near steep embankments and/or in creek beds near roads.

VICTIMS: Maureen Sterling, Yvonne Weber, Kim Wendy Allen, Lori Lee Kursa, Carolyn Davis, Theresa Walsh.

Unidentified remains: On July 6 1979 skeletal remains were discovered in a ravine off Calistoga Road.

POSSIBLE VICTIMS: Lisa Smith, Jeannette Kamahele, Rosa Vasquez, Yovonne Quilantang, Angela Thomas, Nancy Patricia Gidley, Nancy Feusi, Laura A. O'Dell, Brenda Kaye Merchant.

SUSPECTS: The Zodiac Killer, Arthur Leigh Allen, Ted Bundy and a unidentified 41 year old junior college creative writing male instructor.

 

#9: The Oakland County Child Killer (OCCK)

Was an unidentified serial killer responsible for the murders of four or more children, two girls and two boys, in Oakland County, Michigan, United States in 1976 and 1977.

VICTIMS: Mark Stebbins, Jill Robinson, kristine Mihelich, Timothy King.

SUSPECTED VICTIMS: Cynthia Cadieux

SUSPECTS:Allen(no last name is given),Archibald Edward Sloan, Chris Busch, James Vincent Gunnels, John Wayne Gacy, Theodore Lamborgine.

 

#8: JACK THE STRIPPER

Was the nickname given to an unknown serial killer responsible for what came to be known as the London "nude murders" between 1964 and 1965 (also known as the "Hammersmith Apollo murders" or "Hammersmith nudes" case).His victimology and nickname is similar to Jack the Ripper's. He murdered six — possibly eight —prostitutes, whose nude bodies were discovered around London or dumped in the River Thames. The victim count is ambiguous because two of the murders attributed to him did not fit his modus operandi.

VICTIMS: Hannah Tailford, Irene Lockwood, Helen Barthelemy, Mary Flemming, Frances Brown, Bridget O'Hara

POSSIBLE VICTIMS: Elizabeth Figg, Gwynneth Rees

SUSPECTS: UNKNOWN

 

#7: HIGHWAY OF TEARS MURDERS:

The Highway of Tears murders is a series of unsolved murders and disappearances of young women along the 800 km (500 mi) section of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada from 1969 until 2011.Official sources list the number of victims at 18, but aboriginal leaders estimate the number could be as high as 43.

VICTIMS: Gloria Moody, Micheline Pare, Gale Waley, Pamela Darlington, Monica Ignas, Colleen Macmillen, Monica Jack, Maureen Mosie, Shelly-Ann Bascu, Alberta Williams, Delphine Nikal, Ramona Wilson, Roxanne Thiara, Alishia Germaine, Lana Derrick, Nicole Hoar, Tamara Chipman, Aielah Saric Auger, Madison Scott, Loren Donn Leslie.

SUSPECTS: NONE

#6 Monster of Florence
The Monster of Florence, also known as Il Mostro, is an epithet commonly used for the perpetrator, or perpetrators, of 16 murders, nearly all of couples, that took place between 1968 and 1985 in the province of Florence, Italy. The same gun and pattern were used in all the murders.

Four local men – Stefano Mele, Pietro Pacciani, Mario Vanni, and Giancarlo Lotti – were arrested, charged, and convicted of the crime at different times. However, these convictions have been criticized and ridiculed in the media; critics suggest that the real killer or killers have never been identified. Several other suspects were arrested and held in captivity at various times, but they were later released when subsequent murders using the same weapon and methods cast doubt on the guilt of the suspects held in captivity.

The English author Magdalen Nabb wrote the 1996 novel The Monster of Florence based on her extensive research and documents from the actual case. Although the book is a work of fiction, Nabb states that the investigation in the novel was real and the presentation as fiction was a protective measure. In their 2008 non-fiction book The Monster of Florence, Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi suggested the same perpetrator as Nabb had identified: Antonio Vinci (the nephew and son of two Sardinian brothers each suspected of being the Monster) is a likely candidate for being the real killer. Vinci denied this in a Dateline NBC interview with Stone Phillips.

VICTIMS: Antoni Lo Bianco, Barbara Locci, Pasquale Gentilcore, Stefania Pettini, Giovanni Foggi, Carmela Di Nuccio, Stephano Baldi, Susanna Cambi, Paolo Mainardi, Antonella Migliorini, Horst Willhelm Meyer, Jens Uwe Rusch, Claudio Stefanacci, Pia Gilda Rontini, Jean Michel Kraveichvili, Nadine Mauriot.

SUSPECTS: no real suspects

 

#5: JACK THE RIPPER

Jack the Ripper is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story. Within the crime case files as well as journalistic accounts the killer was known as "the Whitechapel Murderer" as well as "Leather Apron".

Attacks ascribed to the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumors that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and letters from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard. The "From Hell" letter, received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, included half of a preserved human kidney, supposedly from one of the victims. Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".

Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper. An investigation into a series of brutal killings in Whitechapel up to 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888, but the legend of Jack the Ripper solidified. As the murders were never solved, the legends surrounding them became a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudo history. The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are now over one hundred theories about the Ripper's identity, and the murders have inspired multiple works of fiction.

VICTIMS: Emma Elizabeth Smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly, Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie.

SUSPECTS: Montague John Druitt, Seweryn Kłosowski alias George Chapman, Aaron Kosminski, Michael Ostrog, John Pinzer, James Thomas Sadler, Francis Tumblety, William Henry Bury, Thomas Neill Cream, Thomas Hayne Cutbush, Frederick Bailey Deeming, Carl Feigenbaum, Robert Donston stephenson, Joseph Barnett, Lewis Carroll, David Cohen, William Withey Gull, George Hutchinson, James Kelly, James Maybrick, Alexander Pedachenko, Walter Sickert, Joseph Silver, James Kenneth Stephen, Francis Thompson, Prince Albert Victor, Sir John Williams.

 

#4: THE FAMILY MURDERS

The Family was the name given to a close-knit group of Adelaide men involved in the kidnapping, drugging, sexual abuse and, at times, torture of young men and teenaged boys in Adelaide, the capital city of the state of South Australia, and surrounding areas throughout the 1970s and into the mid 1980s. The existence of the group came to the attention of the public following the murder of five teenagers between 1979 and 1983.The high profile occupations of some of the suspects led to claims of an alleged high society conspiracy. The term stems from an interview a police detective gave on 60 Minutes, claiming the police were taking some action "...to break up the happy family."

VICTIMS: Alan Barnes, Neil Muir, Peter Stogneff, Mark Langley, Richard Kelvin.

Suspects: Bevan Spencer Von Einem there are also 3 unnamed suspects.

 

#3: Cleveland Torso Murderer

The Cleveland Torso Murderer (also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) was an unidentified serial killer who killed and dismembered at least 12 victims in the Cleveland area in the 1930s.

Victims: John Doe, Edward Andrassy, Florence Genevieve Polillo, John Doe 2, John Doe 3, John Doe 4, Jane Doe 5, Jane Doe6, John Doe 7, Jane Doe 8, Jane Doe 9, John Doe 10.

SUSPECTS: Frank Dolezal, Dr.Francis Sweeney

 

#2: THE BLACK DHALIA

"The Black Dahlia" was a nickname given to Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – c. January 15, 1947), an American woman who was the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. Short acquired the moniker posthumously by newspapers in the habit of nicknaming crimes they found particularly lurid. Short was found mutilated, her body sliced in half at the waist, on January 15, 1947, in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Short's unsolved murder has been the source of widespread speculation, leading to many suspects, along with several books and film adaptations of the story. Short's murder is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history.

VICTIM: Elizabeth Short

SUSPECTS: Carl Balsiger, C. Welsh, Sergeant “Chuck” (name unknown) , John D. Wade, Joe Scalis, James Nimmo, Maurice Clement, A Chicago police officer, Salvador Torres Vera, Dr George Hodel, Marvin Margolis, Glenn Wolf, Michael Anthony Otero, George Bacos, Francis Campbell, "Queer Woman Surgeon", Dr. Adam Fairall, Strip Club Owner, Dr. Paul DeGaston, Dr. A. E. Brix, Dr. M. M. Schwartz, Dr. Artnur McGinnis Faught, Dr Patrick S. O’Reilly, Mark Hansen Jacob Fisk, Walter Bayley, Norman Chandler, Leslie Dillon, Joseph Dumais, Mark Hansen, George Hodel, George Knowlton, Robert Manley, Patrick O'Reilly, Jack Anderson Wilson, Woody Guthrie, Orson Welles

 

#1: Villisca Axe Murders

The Villisca Axe Murders occurred during the night of June 9–10, 1912 in the southwestern Iowa town of Villisca. The six members of the Moore family and two house guests were found bludgeoned in the Moore residence. All eight victims, including six children, had severe head wounds from an axe. A lengthy investigation yielded several suspects, one of which was tried twice and acquitted. The crime remains unsolved.

VICTIMS: Josiah Moore, Sarah Moore, Herman Moore, Katherine Moore, Boyd Moore, Paul Moore, Ina Stillinger, Lena Stillinger
SUSPECTS: Andrew Sawyer, Reverend George Kelly, Frank Jones, William Mansfield, Henry Lee Moore (no relations), Sam Moyer.