“Hoffa is a very evil influence on the United States” THE CRIME: James Riddle Hoffa was the vitriolic head of the powerful Teamsters Union in America. He was also in the pay of organized crime. In 1931 Hoffa began organizing a union among workers of a grocer’s. He won his men a 40 per cent… Read More »
All three victims had been strangled and subjected to a sexual assault THE CRIME: The Alphabet Murders began on 16 November 1971 when 11-year-old Carmen Colon disappeared. Her body was found two days later in Churchville, 19 km (12 mi) from where she was last seen. Almost a year and a half passed before the… Read More »
“All the n****rs who change the world die in violence. They don’t die in regular ways” THE CRIME: Born on 16 June 1971, Tupac Amaru Shakur was the son of a Black Panther Party member who was jailed for terrorism while pregnant with him in Brooklyn, New York. He was named after Tupac Amaru, the… Read More »
“My father says these places are dens of iniquity” THE CRIME: In a 20-month period in Glasgow, Scotland an unknown killer, who was given the nickname Bible John because he liked to quote from the Holy Book, murdered three women. The only link between the victims seemed to be a love of dancing. Patricia Docker,… Read More »
Pressly was unconscious and bleeding from a head wound THE CRIME: Born in South Carolina on 28 August 1982, blonde, beautiful Anne Pressly moved with her family to Little Rock, Arkansas when she was in secondary school. She was educated at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee but returned to Little Rock and, in 2004, landed… Read More »
“Killer” Sheppard THE CRIME: Sam Sheppard was a neurosurgeon at Bay View Hospital, a medical establishment he owned with his father and two brothers. Unknown to his wife Marilyn, for 15 months Sheppard had been having an affair with Susan Hayes, 21, a colleague. The Sheppards had been high school sweethearts and had married in… Read More »
“The evidence is entirely devoid of any fact that would justify accusing any man or woman” THE CRIME: Joseph Elwell began his working life as a hardware salesman before his talent for bridge made him rich and famous. His book Elwell on Bridge was the definitive work on the game. He was regarded as a… Read More »
“Dey’ve killt Massa!” THE CRIME: Irish-born Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor escorted numerous film stars, including Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter. By 1922 Taylor was head director at Famous Players-Lasky, a Paramount subsidiary. On the evening of 1 February 1922 Mabel Normand visited Taylor. His butler, Henry Peavey, a black man who spoke for… Read More »
“I suggest the possibility strongly exists this was a monoxide murder!” THE CRIME: Blonde Thelma Todd won the Miss Massachusetts beauty contest in 1925, which led to a call from Hollywood, and Thelma made her film debut in Fascinating Youth in 1926. That led to a highly successful movie career, working as a foil for… Read More »
“I want the cops to chase me some more” THE CRIME: It is unlikely that anyone would now know the name of Elizabeth Short, if not for the appalling circumstances of her death. Born in poverty in Hyde Park, Massachusetts on 29 July 1924, she moved to Santa Barbara where she was noticed because of… Read More »