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Great Unsolved Crimes or Events

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You are posting too many too fast for me to take time to read them all and also for any discussion to take place on any of them. Now I'm just skimming through and reading one or two each day.

 

Edit: Well, maybe other people are keeping up, but I can't.

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Truth is stranger than Fiction:

 

1975 a man was riding down a street in Bermuda on a moped, as those Bermudans are apt to do. He was killed when a taxi suddenly ran into him. The year before that man's brother was killed when he was riding the same moped down the street and he was hit by the same taxi driver who was carrying the same customer

 

Henry Ziegland of Honey Grove, Texas, walked out on his girlfriend one day in 1893. Her brother did his "heroic" duty and shot Ziegland. Ziegland, however, was barely injured by the bullet, which only grazed his face before embedding itself in the trunk of a tree in front of which Ziegland was standing. The brother, thinking himself avenged, ended his own life with the same weapon.

 

Twenty years later, in 1913, Ziegland decided to remove the tree from his property. Unable to perform the task manually, he decided to use dynamite. In the explosion, the bullet, which had originally been intended for Ziegland, became dislodged with such a catapulting jolt that it was shot violently into Ziegland's head, killing him at last

 

In 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to cover the coronation of Ellizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he found found some items that, by their identification, belonged to a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin - a basketball star with the famed Harlem Globetrotters - was a good friend of Kupcinet's. But the story has yet another twist. Just two days later, and before he could tell Hannin of his lucky discovery, Kupcinet received a letter from Hannin. In the letter, Hannin told Kucinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie - with Kupcinet's name on it!

 

In the 19th century, the famous horror writer, Egdar Allan Poe, wrote a book called 'The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'.

 

It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they decided to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker.

 

Some years later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days.

 

Eventually the three senior members of the crew, killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was Richard Parker.

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I find the Wow signal and the bloop/sounds to be most interesting. Both are, to my knowledge anyway, confirmed to have actually happened and none have been given an explantion yet.

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"I realize how much her family must miss her, but I love her, and I have her," the letter read. "I just can't let her go"

 

Says the supposed kidnapper of Nyleen Kay Marshall in a letter to Nyleen's parents...

 

Marshall was abducted June 25, 1983, in Montana's scenic Helena National Forest when she was 4 years old.

 

Investigators believe she was taken after straying from a family picnic.

 

The family was sent a 3 page letter from the Madison , WI area describing a bit of the kidnappers background, and how they came to find and keep the child. The letter claimed Marshall had been all over the country on trips with the man who took her. It also included this: "I give her medicine from the bathroom every morning. It is actually a spoonful of my semen. It doesn't affect her physically. I have NEVER "molested" her in any other way.

 

Nyleen is still missing to this day.

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The Flatwoods Monster

 

Just before dark on September 12, 1952, at Flatwoods, WV, some young school boys saw a fiery UFO streak across the sky and apparently land on a nearby hilltop. Rushing to the site, and gathering a few others along the way, they saw a pulsating red light, encountered a nauseating mist, and turned a flashlight on a pair of shining eyes, revealing a huge creature. As it hissed and glided at them, the group panicked and fled. The next day investigators discovered skid marks and an oil-like substance that presumably came from the UFO.

 

This would be a hell of a sight to have witnessed.

 

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Anthonette Cayedito

 

Cayedito was last seen inside her family's residence. Her sister said she was pulled into a car by a man claiming to be her Uncle Joe. Her uncle has been questioned and is not a suspect.

 

Anthonette was 9 years old when, in the middle of the night, she disappeared from her home in New Mexico. A little over a year later, 911 received a call from her saying her name and stating that she was in Alberquerque but the call was cut short by a man screaming, “Who told you you could use the phone?. The call was untraceable but at least we know that Anthonette was alive at that time and not murdered immediately.

 

Another unsubstantiated (yet likely) sighting was a few years later when a girl, 14-15 years old at the time, was spotted in a diner with an unkempt couple. The little girl kept dropping her silverware on the floor and when the waitress leaned down to pick it up, the girl would squeeze her arm. After this couple left, the waitress found a note hidden under the girl’s plate saying, “Help me! Call police!”

 

She would be 30 now, and her case remains cold.

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Many people have heard of the Betty and Barney Hill case, the 1st widely reported UFO abduction case.

 

It fits the same M.O. as many other abductions.....They remember seeing a craft as they drove in a desolete road...time is missing....weeks later vivid dreams start to haunt them. Under hypnosis they start to recall the abduction and the experiments they underwent.

 

A few days later, Betty again starts having strange dreams. Webb’s report goes to NICAP. He notes that he was very impressed with the testimony, after initially being very skeptical. About this time, another strange event occurred. Some earrings that Betty had lost that night during the events, had turned up.

 

Betty Hill: “They took my blue earings. And about six weeks later, Barney and I were up in the mountains, thinking if we could find the spot, where we had... been stopped, we could remember what happened, and since we went and came home, right there in the kitchen, a pile of leaves, and in the pile of leaves were my blue earrings.” – From the previously cited taped interview

 

Betty asked the aliens where they were from. In reply, the beings showed her a holographic projection of a map (this predates the hologram too, by the way, or at least public knowledge of it). Under hypnosis, she drew a map of what she was shown:

http://www.paranormalnews.com/images/starmap_betty.gif

 

Astronomers at Ohio State University had a computer put them in their exact position out beyond the double star system of Zeta Reticuli 1 and Zeta Reticuli 2--220 trillion miles, 37 light years from earth, looking toward our sun. The computer duplicated with virtually no variation, the map of Betty Hill.

 

Many of the stars, and their colors, weren’t known at the time Betty drew the map. This made identifying the stars almost impossible in ’64. It wouldn’t be till years later, when Marjorie Fish, a school teacher and amateur astronomer, would see the match for it…in the double star system of Zeti-Reticuli.

 

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Amy Lynn Bradley went missing during a Caribbean cruise. She has never been found. Amy, her parents, and her brother were vacationing on the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas. At 5:30am on March 24, 1998, Amy's brother, Bradley, left his sister sitting on the outdoor balcony after a night of drinking and dancing and entered his cabin. Amy's father woke up and saw her sleeping on the balcony. Amy was seen a short time later by other passengers riding in the ship's elevator with a member of the ship's band, Blue Orchid, known by the alias "Yellow." The ship was en route to Curaçao, Antilles at the time Amy was last seen. The ship docked in Curaçao shortly after Amy was discovered missing. Amy's family begged the captain to not let anyone leave the ship til they could search. The captain refused to do this, but promised to empty the ship and have the crew search for Amy. Extensive searches on the ship and at sea produced no signs of Amy's whereabouts.

 

Police investigated and discarded many theories regarding Amy's disappearance. It is unlikely that she fell overboard and drowned, given that she was a trained lifeguard and the ship was close to shore at the time of her disappearance. It is also considered unlikely that Amy voluntarily disappeared to start a new life. She had recently graduated from college and was anticipating starting a new job when she returned to her home in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

 

There were possible sightings of Amy in Curaçao in 1998 and 1999. Two Canadian tourists reported seeing a woman resembling Amy on a beach in Curaçao in 1998. The woman's tattoos were identical to Amy's. In 1999 an American sailor reported that he went to a brothel on Curaçao and was approached by a young woman. She told him her name was Amy Bradley and asked for his help. At this point, two men in the bar escorted her upstairs. Unfortunately, by the time the witness reported this to police several months later, the brothel had burned down.

 

An image of her that was emailed to her parents was shown on the Dr. Phil show, and it suggests that she was sold into sexual slavery.

 

There is a $250,000 reward for information leading to Amy's return.

 

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More military cover ups:

 

On the morning of March 4, 1998, a search party went in search of National Guard Captain Gordon Hess. His company commander had ordered the men to scour the base in Fort Knox, Kentucky; Hess had gone missing the previous evening.

 

They found the man, lying at the bottom of the ravine, dead. When he was rolled over his face was purple; rigor mortis had set in. The four men that found him did not see the knife that was later to appear in crime scene photos. All they saw was a 38-year-old man with more than 20 stab wounds.

 

The autopsy was performed the following day by Doctor Peter W. Schilke1. He found:

 

6 stab wounds to the neck

2 stab wounds which pierced the heart

1 that sliced the liver

4 that pierced the lung

26 Stab wounds all told.

 

Dr. Shilke pronounced the death a Suicide. His reasoning was:

 

Hess's money was still in his wallet.

The wounds to the neck were superficial

The wounds to the chest were hesitation wounds2.

There were no defensive wounds, the wounds normally found to the forearms and hands that indicate a person is fighting for their life.

The handling of the crime scene was less than exemplary. Within two days Army Command had ordered the area buried in two tons of dirt, along with any contradictory evidence. According to the Army, this was done to contain the biohazard of blood and viscera that Hess's unfortunate demise had left.

 

The Army dumped two tons of dirt on the crime scene of an open investigation. One that had already been contaminated by several groups of Army Personnel.

 

The family was not entirely convinced of the Army's appraisal of the situation, and a second autopsy was performed by Dr. Sung-ook Baik. He ruled that Hess's death was a homicide.

 

Since the two autopsies performed, the family of the deceased has contracted an independent investigation into the death of Captain Hess.

 

Summary of Findings By Independent Review

The knife wounds to the heart and lungs are fatal wounds. It is unlikely Hess could have continued in his efforts after he had made even one. He would have been incapacitated.

 

Hess, an EMT, would not have needed to stab himself so many times to take his own life.

Two of the knife wounds land in the same area, which is inconsistent with suicide.

The knife wounds are inconsistent with hesitation wounds.

 

The knife that was entered into evidence by the Army as the method of death had no blood on it.

The knife found at the scene had a 2 1/2 inch non-locking blade, while some of Hess's stab wounds are 3 inches deep and perforated bone.

 

 

USA USA!!

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LaVena Johnson was a Private First Class in the United States Army. She was found dead July 19, 2005

 

The autopsy report and photographs revealed Johnson had a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, burns from a corrosive chemical on her genitals, and a gunshot that seemed inconsistent with suicide. Several reporters have suspected that the chemical burns were to destroy DNA evidence of a rape

 

Johnson's death was officially ruled a suicide by the Department of Defense. However, her father became suspicious when he saw her body in the funeral home and decided to investigate. The Army initially refused to release information, but did so under the Freedom of Information Act after Representative William Lacy Clay, Jr. raised questions about it at the congressional hearings over Pat Tillman's death.

 

The Military still recognizes her death as a suicide, but it is being looked into.

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A man is found after his car crashed into trees on Interstate 10, rescuers who pulled his body from the wreckage said he had strands of duct tape hanging from his hands and ankles. His nipples had been cut off, part of his left pinkie was missing and there was a large surgical wound on his chest.

 

The crash, which resulted in lethal head injuries, had earlier been ruled a suicide by the medical examiner’s office and Air Force OSI (Office of Special Investigations) agents.

 

Fortunately for the colonel's widow, Tracy Shue, a grand jury panel in Kendall County, Texas - the scene of the mysterious death - refused to roll over for arrogant District Attorney Bruce Curry...

 

Some widows would just take the SGLI (Serviceman's Group Life Insurance) pay out, cash in any other policies, and go away. Not Tracy Shue. She believes her husband was, at the very least, "abducted on his way to work" at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, brutally tortured, and then died in a desperate attempt to drive back home, where he feared his wife was in mortal danger.

 

Shue had been the recipient of a series of threatening anonymous notes stating that the colonel would be killed so his ex-wife could cash in two $500,000 life insurance policies she held on her former spouse.

 

Tracy Shue, herself a retired Air Force officer, wants to know why there was significant traumatic injuries to the right side of her husband's head, when it was the driver's side door on the left that impacted with the trees

 

"They try to make out he killed himself because driving back, he failed to call me on the cell phone he had with him. How could he use a cell phone while bleeding profusely, in incredible pain, and likely fighting to stay conscious to keep the car on the road?

 

"I am incredulous that the medical examiner's report could claim that Col. Shue killed himself in the absence of any possible intervention by persons unknown.

 

"It is a matter of great concern to me that the unsubstantiated conclusions of this report were based on the so-called evidence presented. I'm amazed at the amount of possible credible evidence that was available but not collected by the medical examiner. Why not?

 

Dr. Haley pointed out the report says blood was smeared on duct tape found wrapped around Col. Shue's wrists.

 

"Why wasn't a DNA test done on that blood to determine if it belonged to anyone else whom might have been present?" she asked.

 

Dr. Haley also was appalled that apparently no test was done to determine the source of two gray hairs found stuck to duct tape wound around the top of the colonel's combat boots. He was wearing his fatigue uniform - BDU's - on his way to work.

 

"The report says blood was found under the fingernails of the deceased, but no mention is made whether or not any DNA tests were conducted to see if that blood matched Col. Shue or someone else! The presence of blood from any other individual would strongly indicate that the deceased was a victim of violence and trauma, not suicide."

 

The case remains open.

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THE DISAPPEARACE OF JOHNNY GOSCH

 

A witness saw Johnny Gosch being photographed on his way home from school, by a man, two weeks before the kidnapping. She reported it to police,with a license number, however, taking photos are not a crime. The police threw away the license number and no report was filed. Two weeks later Johnny was gone.

 

On September 5, 1982, Johnny Gosch was abducted while doing his Sunday morning paper route, for the Des Moines Register. This day began a 23 year search for Johnny, and the truth. Johnny's abduction was not by chance. Evidence indicates Johnny's picture was shown to several people the night before, as the child they would abduct in the morning

 

In 1989, Paul Bonacci provided his attorney, John DeCamp, with information indicating he had participated in the abduction of a Des Moines, Iowa paper boy. This paper boy was Johnny Gosch. Bonacci's testimony provided a great deal of information about Johnny and his case, however local authorities refuse to interview him, questioning his credibility.

 

According to numerous reports by Paul Bonacci, Michael LaVey (son of Anton LaVey), and Johnny Gosch himself, Johnny was taken by a highly organized, very corporate global pedophile/pornography ring. Evidence links this same porno/pedophile ring to the 80's 'congressional call boy scandal', money laundering, drug running, illegal arms deals and more.Like so many others, before and since, Johnny was subjected to severe trauma and torture of a satanic and sexual nature, in order to intentionally destroy the conscious personality.... brainwashing.

 

This intentional application of trauma is a systematic procedure used to control these victims, in order to use them in sexual slavery, pornography and more.In February 1999, in Federal Court testimony in Omaha Nebraska, Noreen Gosch testified that Johnny Gosch came to see her in 1997, providing information about his experience, asking for his mother's help and pleading for her to not reveal his visit. Johnny is now 36 years old. After years of suffering tremendous torture and pain at the hands of his captors, being used and abused, he and several others escaped. They have been living in hiding under new identities... they fear for their lives

 

Johnny himself supposedly came to see his mother in March 1997. At this time he confirmed all that Paul Bonacci had told her of the case and asked for her helping bringing justice. He shared the names of people who were responsible. Finally after all these many years, Noreen knows the "WHO, HOW AND WHY" of her son's kidnapping. She vowed to her son she would do something about this and set about in a plan to bring the entire story out. It took a few months to organize this and develop a plan, which would be successful. She realized that she must keep her promise to her son and not reveal that he had been to her home. He had begged her not to share that unless it was absolutely necessary.

 

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The photo was taken in the early 1980's not long after her son was kidnapped. This photo appeared on a Russian Pedophile Website around Thanksgiving 2007 and sent to his mother a short time later

 

The Des Moines Police Department has officially confirmed that the photos found are not of Johnny Gosch. They were apparently taken in the late 70's and the boys were identified through an unrelated investigation. It was either a sick prank by someone or a publicity stunt by Noreen Gosch

 

Prior to his final supposed escape Johnny supposedly escaped briefly once before:

Johnny broke free of his captors, rand down the street, and shouted, "My name is John David Gosch. Please help me lady!" to a passerby, but he was whisked away before anything could be done. A dollar bill was found that said "I am alive. Johnny Gosch." It was determined to be Johnny's handwriting. A man who was, as a boy, a victim of child pornography said that Johnny was a victim of the same group, and offered some information to prove it (such as that Johnny stuttered, and that he had taken yoga, which were bits about Johnny that weren't released to the public).

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WHERE IS DOROTHY?

 

Dorothy and Jules Forstein were married in 1941; they had two children from Jules' previous marriage (his wife had died in childbirth), and in 1943 another child was born (the oldest child was 12 and the middle child was around 2 at that time). Jules was a magistrate; the couple was well-liked in the community (a Philadelphia suburb).

 

That idyllic life was shattered on January 25, 1945. Dorothy left the children with neighbors and went out to do some shopping. She reportedly joked with the butcher and chatted with friends as she went about her errands. Later though, her neighbor saw her return home and thought that someone was with her, or walking behind her, as she made her way through the late evening shadows to her front door. It was getting dark and the neighbor, Maria Townley, admitted that she didn’t look too close.

 

Just as Dorothy was entering her three-story brick home, the stranger (or whomever it might have been that Mrs. Townley saw) jumped out of the darkness at her. He began beating her with his fists and some sort of blunt instrument. Dorothy fell to the ground and was pounded into unconsciousness. As she tumbled into the house though, her arm dislodged the hall telephone. In those days of live operators, the voice on the other end of the line heard the commotion and quickly summoned the police. The attacker fled at the sound of approaching sirens.

 

Police officers arrived moments later and found a battered Dorothy on the floor of the hallway. She had suffered a broken jaw, a shattered nose, a fractured shoulder and a brain concussion. She was rushed to the hospital and when she awakened, she could only weakly explain that “someone jumped out at me. I couldn’t see who it was. He just hit me and hit me,” she said.

 

Investigators labeled the attack an attempted murder and Captain James A. Kelly of the Philadelphia Homicide Division began trying to put the pieces together. He concluded that it could have only been someone trying to kill Dorothy since no money, jewelry or anything else had been taken from the Forstein home. J

 

Then, in 1950, Jules called his wife to tell him he was going to a political banquet. Dorothy seemed in good spirits. She said, "Don't forget to miss me!" before she hung up. When he returned home later that evening, his wife was gone. The eldest daughter was away from home, but the two younger children were found huddled together in a bedroom. None of Dorothy's personal belongings were missing and the front door was locked.

 

The older of the two children at home that night (she would have been around 9 years old at that time) said she woke up and went to her mother's room. She saw a man coming up the stairs. She saw her mother lying on the carpet, face down. The man picked up her mother and told the little girl to go back to bed, that her Mommy was sick. She descibed her mother, who was wearing a red nightgown and red slippers, and the stranger, who was wearing a brown cap and a brown jacket with "something stuck in his shirt." He took the mother downstairs and out the door.

 

Nothing was disturbed in the house and there weren't any fingerprints.

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CRunte.jpg

 

Catherine Runte had an emotional and physical fight with husband on May 22, 1979, during which he said Catherine scratched him, kicked him in the jaw and then slashed his hand with kitchen knife. She left the house on foot and has not been seen or heard from since.

 

The husband claimed Catherine Runte had mental problems and was afraid of being hospitalized. He told police she walked out of the house, taking only a purse containing credit cards and a small amount of cash, and leaving her car behind. He reported her missing three days later after his own search for her was fruitless A private investigator he hired was also unable to learn what happened to her.

 

Runte lived in the Spinnaker Cove subdivison in Palatine. Relatives said at the time that she had been looking forward to her mother's upcoming second marriage and had life-long friends in the area. Her coworkers said she seemed happy with her part-time job as an Interior designer for a Barrington firm.

 

Eight months before she disappeared, a man and woman armed with pistols forced their way Into her home and handcuffed her to a beam in the basement. For several hours they ransacked the house and took more than $5,000 worth of jewelry and furnishings. Runte's stepdaughter, one of two who lived at home, found her when she returned home from high school. Police are uncertain if the the home invasion has any relation to her disappearance.

Several months after Catherine Runte disappeared, a telephone company serviceman discovered a wire tap on her mother's home phone In Carpentersville. No one knows who placed the wiretap or whether it could be related.

None of the credit cards Mrs Runte had with her has been used. Area cab companies told police she was not picked up the night she disappeared.

 

Her family told police that Mrs. Runte had argued previously with her husband during their six years of marriage and that she left for periods of a couple of hours "to cool off." On one occasion, she was gone for several days but informed her family of her whereabouts.

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WHO AM I???

 

Dunbar was last seen on August 23, 1912. He was with his parents and younger brother on a fishing trip at Swayze Lake near Opelousas, Louisiana at the time. When his family went to the cabins for lunch at noon, Robert apparently wandered away. He has never been heard from again. An extensive search of the area turned up no indication of his whereabouts. Seachers did find a set of bare footprints leading out of the swamps to the railroad trestle, and there were reports of a strange man lurking in the area, so it was decided Dunbar must have been abducted.

In April 1913, eight months after Dunbar's disappearance, William Cantwell Walters, was arrested and charged with his kidnapping. Walters, an itinerant handyman, was found in Mississippi with a child closely matching Dunbar's description. Walters stated the boy was named Bruce Anderson and his servant, Julia Anderson, had given him the child as a traveling companion. Bruce was believed to be the illegitimate son of Julie and Walters's brother. Bruce refused to answer to the name Bobby Dunbar, and initially he claimed he did not know Dunbar's mother. Julia identified the child as her son, but a court-appointed arbiter decided the boy was Dunbar.

 

Walters was convicted of kidnapping, but the conviction was overturned on a technicality two years later and he was released. He was not retried. Walters always maintained his innocence. Julia went on to marry and have eight other children, who grew up being told they had a brother who was taken from them. The child who was with him was given to Dunbar's family and grew up as Dunbar. He gave at least one media interview as an adult, claiming to recall the details of his kidnapping, but family members state he was reportedly uncertain as to his true identity for his entire life. He had four children and was buried under the name Robert Dunbar after his death.

 

In 2004, authorities announced that DNA testing had proved the child found with Walters was not Dunbar. Dunbar's granddaughter began to research the case in 1999 and became suspicious as to whether or not her grandfather was really Robert Dunbar. Dunbar's son, Robert Dunbar Jr., provided a DNA sample, which was compared with Dunbar Sr.'s brother. Testing proved Dunbar Jr. and his supposed uncle were not related. The identity of the child who was identified as Bobby Dunbar is unknown; he has not been proven to be Bruce Anderson or anyone else.

 

With the results of the DNA testing, Dunbar was again classified as a missing child. It is possible that he fell off the railroad trestle and died, but his fate remains a mystery. His case is no longer being investigated by law enforcement due to the passage of time.

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A Wife in Circleville, Ohio starts receiving anonymous poison-pen letters, accusing her of having an affair.

 

- One night her husband receives a phone call, apparently from the sender of the letters. He grabs his gun and heads out in his car to see this person, whom he apparently knows. He is later found dead in his vehicle, the gun having discharged one shot.

 

- Letters continue to arrive. Wife who works as a bus-driver finds a booby trap along her route, a sign with her daughters name on it, rigged to fire a revolver when moved.

 

- The gun is traced to belong to an ex-brother-in-law. He is dragged in, made to copy the letters and subsequently arrested and hailed. This is despite him having an alibi for the time of the bomb planting.

 

- Hundred of letters continue to arrive while the brother-in-law is in jail, in solitary. The local police maintain it is still him, somehow smuggling letters out of jail. Handwriting experts maintain none of the letters are his.

 

- It turns out the wife is having the affair spoken of in the letters, although she maintains it started after the letters.

 

- the sheriff/chief of police -what ever you want to call it for that town--admitted having an affair the murdered mans wife shortly after his death. amazingly no one ever did dna evidence on figure prints on those letters.

 

- the letters have finally stopped and the cops still have no idea who killed the husband.

 

*cover up * cough *cover up*

 

 

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Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; The Frankford Slasher

 

 

The Frankford Avenue area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the scene of a dreadful series of murders from 1985 until 1990. Before this saga was finished eight women would be brutally slain and despite a conviction in one case, the man that became known in the press as the "Frankford Slasher" would escape justice and disappear.

 

The slayings began when 52-year-old Helen Parent was found murdered along Frankford Avenue on August 28, 1985. Parent had been stabbed nineteen times and her abdomen sliced wide open. When her body was discovered she was nude except for her blouse, which was pushed up to reveal her breasts.

 

All was quiet until January 3, 1986, when Anna Carroll, 68, was killed inside her home. Carroll was stabbed six times and slashed Ripper-styple from her genital area to her breastbone. The killer emerged again to kill on Christmas night, stabbing 74-year-old Susan Olzef to death in her Philly apartment.

 

Victim number four was found stuffed underneath a Frankford Avenue fruit stand on January 8, 1987. Her name was Jeanne Durkin, 28, and she was found naked from the waist down, her body punctured by 74 seperate stab wounds. At this point a task force was formed but was no closer to a solution in the homicides when yet another woman was mutilated on November 11, 1988. Marge Waughn, 66, was found in an apartment building entryway and had been stabbed to 29 times. A bartender reported that she had seen Vaughn the previous night with a white male, middle-aged, with glasses and a obvious limp.

 

On the evening of January 19, 1989, 30-year-old Theresa Sciortino was slain in her apartment. She was nude except for socks and had been stabbed 25 times. Sciortino had also been seen with amiddle-aged white male just before her death. On April 28, 1990 a police officer happened upon the body of Carol Dowd, 45, along Frankford Avenue. Dowd had died form 26 stab wounds and a vicious slash of her abdomen. On the day of her murder she had been in the company of an unknown middle-aged white man.

 

Sketches of the man seen with the last three victims were remarkably similar to one another. It seemed as if the investigators had the face of the killer, they only had to put a name to that face and they would have their man.

 

A white middl aged male:

 

Frankford_Slasher.jpg

 

Which made it seem odd that when an arrest was made in Dowd's murder it turned out to be a 39-year-old black man named Leonard Christopher. There was a break in the case after the seventh (or eighth, if you count Jones) slaying. Carol Dowd, a 46-year-old woman with a history of mental illness, was found stabbed 36 times behind Newman's Seafood early in the morning of April 28, 1990.

 

The next morning, detectives questioned a Newman's employee named Leonard Christopher, who volunteered an odd piece of information: He knew one of the Frankford Slasher's previous victims. He also said he was with his girlfriend in his apartment the night of Dowd's murder, and both had seen a stocky white man lurking around the seafood store.

 

Christopher's girlfriend denied being with him that night. Two eyewitnesses, both prostitutes, placed Christopher at the scene of the crime, with a large utility knife tucked in his belt, right around the time of the murders. To make matters worse, Jaesa Phang, Christopher's former boss at Newman's, testified that he had told her, "Maybe I killed her." Then, a moment later, recanted. He was arrested a day later.

 

No solid evidence ever linked Christopher with Dowd's killing but he was convicted anyway and sentenced in December of 1990 to life in prison. Meanwhile, after Christopher had been safely incarcerated, the Frankford Slasher had apparently struck again, killing Michelle Martin, 30. She was found in her apartment, nude except for a blouse pushed up over her breasts and had been stabbed 23 times. She was last seen with a middle-aged white male in a Frankford Avenue bar.

 

After the Martin homicide the Frankford Slasher seems to have moved on. Leonard Christopher continues to proclaim his innocence but remains jailed for the murder of Carol Dowd and remains a suspect in at least some of the other seven slayings. No matter if Christopher is truly guilty of killing Dowd or not, it seems obvious that Philadelphia's Frankford Slasher has to this point eluded justice.

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Nine year old Walter Collins went missing from Los Angeles on March 10, 1928.[18] His disappearance received nationwide attention and the Los Angeles Police Department followed up on hundreds of leads without success.[7] The police faced negative publicity and increasing public pressure to solve the case,[19] until five months after Walter's disappearance,[7] when a boy claiming to be Walter was found in DeKalb, Illinois. Letters and photographs were exchanged before Walter's mother, Christine Collins, paid for the boy to be brought to Los Angeles. A public reunion was organized by the police, who hoped to negate the bad publicity they had received for their inability to solve this case and others. They also hoped the uplifting human interest story would deflect attention from a series of corruption scandals that had sullied the department's reputation. At the reunion, Christine Collins claimed that the boy was not Walter. She was told by the officer in charge of the case, police Captain J.J Jones, to take the boy home to "try him out for a couple of weeks," and Collins agreed.[19]

 

Three weeks later, Christine Collins returned to see Captain Jones and persisted in her claim that the boy was not Walter. Even though she was armed with dental records proving her case, Jones had Collins committed to the psychiatric ward at Los Angeles County Hospital under a "Code 12" internment—a term used to jail or commit someone who was deemed difficult or an inconvenience. During Collins' incarceration, Jones questioned the boy,[7] who admitted to being 12-year-old Arthur Hutchins Jr., a runaway from Illinois, but who was originally from Iowa.[20][21] A drifter at a roadside café in Illinois had told Hutchins of his resemblance to the missing Walter, so Hutchins came up with the plan to impersonate him. His motive was to get to Hollywood so he could meet his favorite actor, Tom Mix.[19] Collins was released ten days after Hutchins admitted that he was not her son,[22] and filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.

 

Collins went on to win a lawsuit against Jones and was awarded $10,800, which Jones never paid.[7] Five years after Northcott's execution, one of the boys that Northcott allegedly killed was found alive and well. As Walter Collins' body had not been found, Christine Collins still hoped that Walter had survived. She continued to search for him for the rest of her life, but she died without ever knowing her son's fate

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Johnny Lee Wilson was never a troublemaker in school. He had no history of violence. But according to mental disability professionals in Missouri, Johnny Lee Wilson functions at the lowest one percentile of the U.S. population. Wilson’s mental retardation was the principal reason he spent nine years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Wilson hugs his mother after being pardoned by Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan and release from prison on Sept. 29th 1995.

 

In April 1986, the body of Pauline Martz was found inside her burned home in Aurora, Missouri. She had been beaten, bound and gagged; her home was ransacked. Town resident Gary Wall told authorities that Wilson had told him he knew about the crime. Five days later, local police arrested Wilson and began to interrogate him.

 

 

Aurora police only focused on Wilson despite credible information from sources pointing to other suspects. Local school officials said Wall was a “deceptive liar.” An eyewitness saw someone other than Wilson enter the Martz home. Leads were provided by Joplin, Missouri, authorities that a career criminal named Chris Brownfield was known to have tied up and robbed elderly women in the past.

 

After waiving his right to have an attorney present, his interrogation lasted for more than eight hours. Wilson vigorously denied that he had any connection to the crime at first, but with investigators repeatedly asking leading questions and threatening Wilson with harsh reprisals “if he didn’t tell the truth,” Wilson began to wither.

 

At first, authorities were able to get Wilson to say that he and two other men were involved in the crime; then, interrogators used leading questions to get Wilson to admit he acted alone. With a documented IQ of 76, Wilson was no match for authorities, who received the confession they sought. When the police tried to get details of the crime from Wilson, he was only able to give information that they knew was inaccurate.

 

Wilson initially entered an Alford Plea — claiming no guilt but acknowledging the state has enough evidence to convict him — at his trial in 1987. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, Wilson continued to maintain his innocence. In 1988, convicted murderer Brownfield told authorities at a Kansas prison that he had murdered Martz. Despite this fact and others, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld Wilson’s sentence, ruling that Wilson knew what he was doing when he entered his plea.

 

According to documents sent to Governor Carnahan’s office in 1993 by Wilson’s attorney, David Everson, people with mental retardation like Johnny Wilson “see and comprehend the world differently than people with average intelligence. They are often excessively trusting and easily manipulated. They also will try excessively hard to agree with or seek to please others in an effort to be accepted — a trait called ‘acquiescence.’” Wilson’s disability made him an easy target for investigators seeking to solve a murder.

 

It was at this point that Wilson’s attorney and current chairman of the Midwestern Innocence Project, David Everson, turned to the Missouri Governor’s Office. Documentation highlighting Wilson’s mental capacity, the leading and descriptive questioning of authorities during Wilson’s interrogation and the failure of local authorities to pursue other leads in the case were provided to Governor Carnahan’s Office in 1993. Two years later, on September 29, 1995, Governor Carnahan pardoned Johnny Lee Wilson.

 

Martz murder remains unsolved.

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Never heard of the Frankford Slasher before. Pretty Gruesome.

 

Gary Heidnick's house of horror was happening in philly at the same time so that took alot of press as that had slavery, rape, cannibalism etc all mixed in.

 

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Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain (born 11 June 1980 in Mount Isa, Queensland) was a nine-week-old Australian baby who disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip to Ayers Rock (Uluru) with her family.

 

Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo. An initial inquest, highly critical of the police investigation, supported this assertion. The findings of the inquest were broadcast live on television — a first in Australia. Subsequently, after a further investigation and second inquest, Azaria's mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was tried and convicted of her murder, on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Azaria's father, Michael Chamberlain, was convicted as an accessory after the fact and given a suspended sentence.

 

On the night of 17 August, Lindy Chamberlain raised the alarm that a dingo had just been seen leaving the family tent and that Azaria, who had been sleeping in her bassinette, was missing. Three hundred people formed a human chain during the night and searched the sand dunes near the campsite, but Azaria was never found.

 

One week later, a tourist from the state of Victoria, Wally Goodwin, discovered Azaria's heavily blood-stained jumpsuit, singlet, booties and nappy near a dingo lair. Goodwin was later to state that when he found the clothing, he did not touch it, but called a police officer. The officer immediately handled the jumpsuit, pulling out the singlet and booties that were still inside it. When Goodwin expressed concern that the evidence should not be handled, the officer put the booties and singlet back into the jumpsuit and contacted a superior officer.

 

The media focus for the trial was extraordinarily intense and sensational. The Chamberlains made several unsuccessful appeals, including the final High Court appeal. After all legal options had been exhausted, the chance discovery of a piece of Azaria's clothing in an area full of dingo lairs led to Lindy Chamberlain's release from prison, on "compassionate grounds." She was later exonerated of all charges. While the case is officially unsolved, the report of a dingo attack is generally accepted. Recent deadly dingo attacks in other areas of Australia have strengthened the case for the dingo theory.

 

The Crown alleged that Lindy Chamberlain had cut Azaria's throat in the front seat of the family car, hiding the baby's body in a large camera case. She then, according to the proposed reconstruction of the crime, rejoined the group of campers around a campfire and fed one of her sons a can of baked beans, before going to the tent and raising the cry that a dingo had taken the baby. It was alleged that at a later time, while other people from the campsite were searching, she disposed of the body.[4]

 

The key evidence supporting this allegation was the jumpsuit, as well as a highly contentious forensic report claiming to have found evidence of foetal haemoglobin in stains on the front seat of the Chamberlains' 1977 Torana hatchback. Foetal haemoglobin is present in infants six months and younger, and Azaria Chamberlain was nine weeks old at the time of her disappearance.[5]

 

Lindy was questioned about the garments that the baby was wearing. She claimed that the baby was wearing a jacket over the jumpsuit, but the jacket was not present when the garments were found. She was questioned about the fact that the baby's singlet, which was inside the jumpsuit, was inside out. She insisted that she never put a singlet on her babies inside out and that she was most particular about this. This statement conflicted with the state of the garments when they were collected as evidence.[6] The garments had been arranged by the investigating officer for a photograph.

 

In her defence, eyewitness evidence was presented of dingoes having been seen in the area on the evening of 17 August 1980. All witnesses claimed to believe the Chamberlains' story. One witness, a nurse, also reported having heard a baby's cry after the time when the prosecution alleged Azaria had been murdered

 

Engineer Les Harris, who had conducted dingo research for over a decade, said that, contrary to Cameron's findings, a dingo's carnassial teeth can shear through material as tough as motor vehicle seat belts. He also cited an example of a captive female dingo removing a bundle of meat from its wrapping paper and leaving the paper intact.[7] His evidence was rejected, however.

 

Evidence to the effect that a dingo was strong enough to carry a kangaroo was also ignored. Also ignored was the removal of a three-year-old girl by a dingo from the back seat of a tourist's motor vehicle at the camping area just weeks before, an event witnessed by the parents.

 

An Aboriginal man gave evidence that his wife had tracked the dingo and found places where it had put the baby down, leaving the imprint of the baby's clothing in the soil. This evidence was discounted, because the man spoke on behalf of his wife, but in the first person, according to Aboriginal custom.

 

The defence's case was rejected by the jury. Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour. Michael Chamberlain was found guilty as an accessory to the murder, and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

 

The final resolution of the case was triggered by a chance discovery. In early 1986, English tourist David Brett fell to his death from Uluru (known as Ayers Rock at the time) during an evening climb. Because of the vast size of the rock and the scrubby nature of the surrounding terrain, it was eight days before Brett's remains were discovered, lying below the bluff where he had lost his footing, in an area full of dingo lairs. As police searched the area, looking for missing bones that might have been carried off by dingoes, they discovered a small item of clothing. It was quickly identified as the crucial missing piece of evidence from the Chamberlain case—Azaria's missing matinée jacket.

 

The NT Chief Minister ordered Lindy's immediate release, and the case was reopened. On 15 September 1988, the NT Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned all convictions against Lindy and Michael Chamberlain.[10] The exoneration was based on a rejection of the two key points of the prosecution's case—particularly the alleged foetal haemoglobin evidence—and of bias and invalid assumptions made during the initial trial.

 

In 1995 a third inquest into the death by Coroner John Lowndes delivered an open finding, leaving the case officially unsolved.

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It was on the night of March 23rd 1897 that the Nashville community of Paradise Ridge was shocked by the news of the death of the Ade family.

 

It was around 10 o'clock that night; that Justice Simpson was getting a drink of water, when he noticed the glow of fire about half a mile away toward the Ade house. Riding over he found the house already collapsing from the flames, and the smokehouse and other outbuildings burning. He began working throwing meat from the smokehouse, and called for someone to come help him thinking the family was somewhere in the yard. When no one answered, he stopped and went to look for someone. It was then he found the bodies in the house. He then rode around and notified nearby neighbors and soon a crowd gathered.

 

Authorities were notified, and the next morning they arrived to make an investigation. Dead were Jacob Ade, age 60, his wife Pauline, age 50, daughter Lizze- 20, son Henry -13 and Rosa Moirer- age 10 who was the daughter of nearby neighbor Henry Moirer.

 

Sheriff John D. Sharp and Deputy Sheriff Alex Bartheil investigated the scene the next day. Quickly it was determined that the family had been murdered. This was deduced in part because of the condition of the body of Rosa Moirer. She was not as badly burned as the others and it was speculated that she escaped while the family was being killed, and was then caught, murdered, and her body thrown into the already burning house. She was found with her arm thrown up over her head, the hand missing and a portion of the skull gone. Probably the same blow that split her skull cut off her hand.

 

If robbery had been the motive then the culprits were not rewarded as an oyster can containing a large amount of money was found later, where the bedroom closet once stood. It was found out later that Mr. Ade had drawn out $300 from the Fourth National Bank in Nashville, which was to be loaned to a neighbor. This was thought to be the money found.

 

If the motive were not robbery, then it would be hard to find a reason, as the Ade's were a well-liked family in the community. The only animosity, which might have existed, between him and anyone living in the area would have resulted from the charge he made against Ed Anderson for stealing hogs. Mr. Anderson upon hearing of the suspicions against him quickly turned himself into the sheriff with a willingness to be investigated and a plausible story as to his whereabouts at the time of the murders.

 

It was also said that Mr. Ade kept large amounts of meat stored, which could not be accounted for. This was thought also to be a reason for the crime. Investigators pieced together the way the murders occurred. The family was all gathered together in the parlor. The murdered entered the room and struck Mr. Ade who was sitting in front of the fireplace. The others seeing this attempted to escape through the window and were either met by another assailant outside who drove them back in or struck down by the first man with a heavy object before they could escape. This was about 8 o'clock and by the time the murders had been discovered the house had been burning for about an hour and a half.

 

The grounds were searched but due to a rainstorm that night, they were not able to find any tracks. A cistern was pumped out hoping to find some kind of evidence, but this also was met with failure. Rumors abounded as to who the murderer or murders may have been, but no one was ever convicted of the crime, and soon the conversations among the neighbors changed to different subjects. As the years passed by the memory of that awful night faded away. Now all that stands to remind us of the fate of the Ade family is a lone tombstone, which sits alone in a small field near where the house of Jacob Ade once stood.

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Bible John is the nickname of an unidentified serial killer who is thought to have operated in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 1960s. Three murders were attributed to him, but it is not clear that they were the work of the same person. All three of the missing women had been menstruating at the time of their disappearance.[1]

On 23 February 1968, the body of 25-year-old Patricia Docker was found in a Glasgow doorway. She had been strangled. The previous night she had been out dancing at a nearby club, the Majestic Ballroom in Hope Street, Glasgow.

 

On 15 August 1969, Jemima McDonald, 32, went for a night out at the Barrowland Ballroom. The next day she was found in an old building, strangled with her own stockings. Witnesses said they had seen her leaving the club at midnight with a tall, slim young man with red hair.

 

On 31st October 1969, 29-year-old Helen Puttock was found murdered. She had been to the Barrowland Ballroom the night before with her sister Jean and had met two men called John. One said he was from Castlemilk; the other did not disclose where he was from. After being in their company for well over an hour, they left to head home. Castlemilk John headed to George Square to get a bus, while Helen, Jean and the other John got into a taxi. They crossed the city to the Scotstoun area where Jean got out. The taxi then continued to Earl Street in Scotstoun where Helen lived.

 

This was the last sighting of Helen alive. Her body was found in the early morning by a man walking his dog. The poor woman had been strangled and was menstruating; her handbag was missing.

 

The suspect was described by Helen's sister Jean as being a well-dressed young man — tall, slim and with redish/fair hair — and described as being polite, well-dressed and well-spoken. She said the stranger had given his name as "John" and that he had frequently quoted from the Bible. He was reported to have said: “I don’t drink at Hogmanay, I pray,” and to have referred to Moses and his father’s belief that dancehalls were “dens of iniquity”.[1]

 

The last possible sighting of Bible John was of a well-dressed young man in a disheveled state with possible scratch marks on his face, getting off a bus at Grey Street at Sauchiehall Street around 1.30am. He was last seen heading towards the public ferry to cross over the River Clyde to the south side of the city. He dissapeared into the night, never to be seen again.

 

The police made a determined effort to hunt for the killer, now nicknamed "Bible John", but although a number of suspects were questioned, no arrests were ever made, and no further victims have been attributed to him. All three victims had been strangled and were menstrating. Their handbags we also missing.

 

In 1996, police exhumed the body of John Irvine McInnes, the cousin of one of the original suspects, from a Lanarkshire graveyard. McInnes, who had served in the Scots Guards, had committed suicide aged 41 in 1981. Police ran a DNA test and compared it with semen found on Helen Puttock's tights and announced it to be non conclusive.

 

Lord Mackay, then the Lord Advocate, said there was not enough evidence to link the murders with McInnes.

 

On 12 December 2004, police announced they were to DNA test a number of men in a further attempt to solve the case. This followed the discovery of an 80% match to a DNA sample taken at the site of a minor crime two years earlier.

 

New developments

The 4 May 2007 conviction of Peter Tobin for the similar murder of student Angelika Kluk has led to public speculation that he is Bible John. There are similarities between Tobin's police mugshot from that era and the photofit artist's impression of Bible John, and Tobin moved away from Glasgow in 1969, the same year as the killings officially ended.[2] Police are not commenting upon any similarities, but say that any surviving forensic evidence will be rechecked.[3]

 

Tobin, 61, was convicted in 2008 of the murder of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, who went missing in 1991.[4] Her remains were found at a house in Margate, Kent, where Tobin once lived. Essex Police had been investigating the disappearance of another missing girl, Dinah McNicol, also missing for 16 years. On 16 November 2007, a second body was discovered under the patio of the Margate home, which was later confirmed to be McNicol's. [5]

 

In an interview with a police psychiatrist, Tobin admitted that he had killed up to 48 other women. When questioned about this, he replied "Prove it".[6]

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This isn't unsolved, but its too wacky not to mention:

 

The body of a British Columbia teenager will be returned to her hometown of Fernie on Tuesday following her death in a bizarre shooting in Montana over the weekend.

 

Lorena Mocko, 16, was one of two people killed at a house party early Saturday in Eureka, Mont.

 

Friends and family told the local Missoulian newspaper that Mocko was struck by a bullet from a local teenager as he committed suicide. Jacob Randal Lee, 19, also died.

 

The bullet reportedly went through Lee's head, striking Mocko in the chest.

 

"It was just a total freak thing," Jeri Mitchell, a friend of the Mocko family in Fernie told the Missoulian.

 

'Wrong place at the wrong time'

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WAS RULDOLPH HESS MURDERED in prison at age 93? or was it suicide? or was it really Hess' double?

 

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German) (26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany, acting as Adolf Hitler's Deputy in the Nazi Party. On the eve of war with the Soviet Union, he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom, but instead his plane crashed and Hess was arrested. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life in prison at Spandau Prison, where he died in 1987.

 

Hess was considered to be the most mentally unstable of all the defendants. He would be seen talking to himself in court, counting on his fingers, laughing for no obvious reason. Such behaviour was a source of great annoyance to Göring, who made clear his desire to be seated apart from him. The request was denied.

 

Following the release in 1966 of Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer, Hess was the sole remaining inmate of Spandau Prison, partly at the insistence of the Soviets. Guards reportedly said he degenerated mentally and lost most of his memory

 

Wolf Rudiger Hess and Hess' Nuremberg lawyer Alfred Seidl claim that Hess was murdered by two MI 6 agents in the garden of Spandau prison. They point out that the prisoner was in very bad medical condition, even unable to do up his shoes because of arthritis in his fingers and needed regular help by his male nurse. So, they say, Hess could technically never have strangled himself. Also, his suicidal note was forged, they allege. [20] They point at the second autopsy which the family had insisted on, carried out by Munich forensic pathologists. In this autopsy, several errors of the British military's autopsy report were corrected, and the Munich doctors said that the marks around Hess' neck didn't look like those found in a usual suicide by strangulation. However, Professor Dr. Wolfgang Spann [21], who was in charge of the second autopsy publicly stated that "we can't prove a third hand participated in the death of Rudolf Hess".[22] Therefore, medical evidence for the murder theory is thin.

 

The motive for the murder, the authors say, was the pending release of Hess from Spandau prison. Soviet resistance to a release ceased after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. The British feared, so the theory alleges, that Hess could tell details about his negotiations about peace with them in 1941, which would damage the credibility of Churchill's policy of no peace with the Nazis without unconditional surrender.

 

Prisoner at Spandau a Double?

According to Dr. Hugh Thomas' book "The Murder of Rudolph Hess" (1979) there is strong physical and circumstantial evidence to suggest that the prisoner tried at Nuremberg and incarcerated in Spandau as Rudolph Hess was actually a double who was willingly impersonating him. Dr. Thomas examined the prisoner in 1973 as a physician of the British Army attached to Spandau prison and writes that the man had no chest wounds whatsoever. The real Hess was shot through the left lung and suffered massive injuries to his chest in World War I. This finding appeared to be confirmed when the prisoner's body was given two separate autopsies after his death in 1987 neither of which reported finding chest wounds.

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billy_the_kid-large.jpg

BrushyBillRoberts.jpg

Ollie Partridge "Brushy Bill" Roberts married Lou (Ballard) Isaac, daughter of Jesse & Samantha (Oglesby) Stanbery) (Ballard). Brushy Bill claimed to have been the infamous Billy the Kid. History records that Billy the Kid was born William H. Bonney in New York City in 1859. Billy became a cattle thief and a murderer, known to have killed 21 men, including Sheriff William Brady for which he received a death sentence. Billy the Kid fought against rich ranchers in the Lincoln County Cattle War. In 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked Billy down in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico where he supposedly shot and killed him during an ambush, collecting a $500 reward.

 

In 1950, at the age of 91, Brushy Bill Roberts came forward and publically claimed to be Billy the Kid, hoping to receive a full pardon before his death. Sources say that he had earlier sought forgiveness from God and had become a Christian. Brushy Bill claimed that in 1881 during Sheriff Garrett's ambush, his friend Billy Barlow had been shot and killed, and his body was being passed off as Billy the Kid's. Billy the Kid skipped town and Barlow's body was buried the next day in a simple grave.

 

Evidence for Brushy Bill Roberts as Billy the Kid

Brushy Bill’s knowledge of the Lincoln County War and the life of Billy the Kid was too extensive to have all been read. Several of the things he knew were known to only a few people at the time, including historians. For example, he knew that Colonel Dudley's soldiers that entered Lincoln on July 19, 1878 were black, he knew all the details of how the Kid had to pay his lawyer for his services in his trial, he knew that Billy the Kid wrote a letter to Gov. Wallace proclaiming his innocence in the murder of James Carlyle, and he knew exactly how the McSween house was set up before it was burned.

In 1949, Morrison took Brushy Bill to the old Lincoln County courthouse, which also once served as the Murphy-Dolan-Riley store. In the building, Brushy described how the building looked during the Kid's incarceration there to a T. Every little detail of how the building looked in 1881, Brushy knew. He said how when he killed Bell, one of his guards, the bullet first hit the wall and then ricocheted into Bell's side, which is true.

In Brushy's possessions, he had a very old scarf that he claimed to have gotten from Deluvina Maxwell after he was captured at Stinking Springs and brought to Fort Sumner. He said he gave Deluvina the tintype of himself and she gave him the scarf. This really did happen, but only posse member Jim East knew of it and he only spoke of it in a letter he wrote to fellow lawman Charlie Siringo.

Brushy said that when he went to trial, his first indictment was for the murder of Buckshot Roberts and he was represented by Ira Leonard. He also said that Leonard was able to get the case thrown out. This is true, but very, very few researchers knew of this back during the time Brushy made his claim.

Severo Gallegos, Jose Montoya, and Martile Able, all surviving friends of Billy the Kid, met with Brushy Bill separately. Brushy talked with them all about events from his past as Billy the Kid and all three signed affidavits attesting to the fact that Billy the Kid and Brushy Bill were one and the same.

Bill and Sam Jones, also surviving friends of Billy the Kid, also met with Brushy Bill. Although they did not sign affidavits in support of Brushy, due to the fact that they wanted to avoid any publicity that would bring, they did tell Morrison they believe him to be the Kid.

Jessie Evans, or Joe Hines as he was later known, confirmed to Morrison that Brushy Bill was the Kid.

Bob Young, a native of Round Rock, Texas, visited Hamilton, Texas in 1930 and first met Brushy Bill. The two became friends and Brushy informed Young that he would like to accompany him on his return to Round Rock. When the time came for Young to return home, Brushy regretfully said he couldn’t accompany him, since his wife was sick. Still, Brushy asked Young to look up an old friend of his, Jimmy McDaniels (a former member of the Jessie Evans Gang and veteran of the Lincoln County War), who also lived in Round Rock. Brushy went on to tell Young that when he found McDaniels, to simply tell him ‘’the Kid says hello.’’ When Young returned to Round Rock, he met with McDaniels and delivered Brushy’s message. Upon hearing this, the old man looked as if he had been badly frightened.

One day in the 1940s, Brushy was walking down a street in Hico. Also walking down the street was a five year old boy and his mother. When the boy ran into the street and was almost hit by a car, the mother yelled out her son's name, Billy, loudly. Witnesses said that Brushy whirled around and reached for an imaginary pistol. After Brushy realized his name wasn't being called, he hurried away. Although this is not technically evidence in support of Brushy’s claim, and in no way connects him directly to Billy the Kid, it does indicate he was a man used to danger.

One day in 1945, Brushy was walking down a Hico street. An old lawman named Henry Anthony and his sons were also on the street and when Anthony saw Brushy, he jumped up and yelled at Brushy, calling him Billy Bonney, and told him to throw up his hands. When his sons calmed him down, Anthony said that Brushy was the Kid. He swore for the rest of his life that Brushy was the Kid.

In 1990, the famous tintype of Billy the Kid, a purported photo of the Kid at age 12, a photo of Brushy at age 14, and a photo of Brushy at age 90 were analyzed in the Acton-Bovik photo study. The study used the most advanced photo comparison equipment around as well as the best scientists. The photo purported to be a 12 year old Billy the Kid was determined to not be him. The photo of 14 year old Brushy was close match to the tintype. The photo of Brushy at age 90 had a 93% match to the famous tintype. The missing seven percent can be explained due to age and dental work, so said Dr. Bovik and Dr. Acton.

Brushy Bill had each and every scar Billy was said to have (and more).

Evidence against Brushy Bill Roberts as Billy the Kid

Sheriff Pat Garrett said he killed Billy the Kid, and Dep. John Poe, Dep. Thomas McKinney, and the vast majority of everyone else who claimed to have seen the body of the man Garrett killed agreed to this.

No contemporary account carries any mention of the gunfight that Brushy claimed transpired between himself and Garrett, Poe, and McKinney after Barlow was killed.

There exists no evidence, other than the word of Brushy Bill, that Billy Barlow, the man Brushy said Garrett really killed, ever existed.

When retelling his story, Brushy did make several historical errors. Although a good portion of these dealt with events and facts that were questionable in the first place and therefore dubious (i.e Brushy saying he was present at Tunstall‘s funeral when it is very possible the real Billy the Kid was or Brushy saying that it was Fred Waite who was shot by Billy Mathews during the Brady assassination, not Jim French, when contemporary sources differ as to who the wounded Regulator was), there were some that were definitely wrong. For example, Brushy said that John Selman fought on the McSween side in the Lincoln County War. However, Selman did not fight for either side and didn’t even arrive in Lincoln until after the final battle of the war.

Brushy claimed that throughout 1871-1874, he left the care of Catherine McCarty a few times to visit his biological father, James Roberts, in Texas, and ended up staying with him a total of two years. However, there exists no contemporary evidence that the real Billy the Kid ever left the care of Catherine McCarty, especially for so long a time period.

Brushy also claimed that after he fled Silver City in 1875 up until fall 1877, he basically traveled over the entire West (Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Oregon), making a living as a bronc rider. However, although documentation of Billy the Kid’s life during this period is sparse, the documentation that does exist seems to indicate he spent this time in Arizona operating as a horse and saddle thief.

In 1988, physicist and amateur photo expert Thomas Kyle underwent a photo comparison study between the tintype photo of Billy and a photo of Brushy taken at his meeting with Gov. Mabry. Although he used his own methods and his home Apple Macintosh II computer, he announced that in his opinion, the two photos were of two different people.

Brushy Bill had a well-known association with J. Frank Dalton, a proven false Jesse James claimant. Although this is technically not evidence against Brushy’s own claim, it does cast a serious shadow of doubt on his own credibility.

False evidence against Brushy Bill Roberts

It has been claimed that Brushy Bill was illiterate, and therefore could not have been Billy the Kid. In truth, Brushy was completely literate. He had several diaries when Morrison found him, he wrote several letters to Morrison and other people, and he had thought for a time to write his autobiography, but later decided not to, fearing the press he might get. Jim Tully, a good friend of Brushy's, signed an affidavit that Brushy was completely literate. Bob Young, Alton Thorton, W. F. Hafer, Jimmy Ramage, Ablo Norman, Tom Turner, and L. L. Gamble, all surviving friends of Brushy, said he was either literate, or not sure, but none of them said he was illiterate. The theory that he was illiterate sprang from a quote C. L. Sonnichsen wrote in his book, that Roberts was "not a literate man." However, Sonnichsen later said he wished he never wrote that because he meant that Brushy wasn't the type of person who would sit around all day reading history books. He meant to say he was not a literary man.

It has also been claimed that Brushy could not speak Spanish, whereas Billy the Kid could. However, when Morrison took Brushy to visit with Severo Gallegos, Brushy spoke with Severo's Mexican neighbor, Josephine Sanchez, in perfect Spanish. Jim Tully signed an affidavit that he could speak Spanish as well as a native. Bob Young, Alton Thorton, W. F. Hafer, Jimmy Ramage, Ablo Norman, Tom Turner, and L. L. Gamble also said Brushy was fluent in Spanish. The reason people think he was non-fluent in Spanish is because a myth started that Jarvis Garrett (or Oscar Garrett or Arcadio Brady, depending on which version of the myth you heard) asked Brushy a question in Spanish at the meeting with Gov. Mabry, to which Brushy couldn't respond. This is false. Not one person who was at the meeting ever mentioned this happening.

Another false piece of evidence used against Brushy was that he was left-handed, and the Kid right-handed. In fact, both the Kid and Brushy were ambidextrous. According to people who knew them, both Brushy and the Kid could write and shoot just as well with either hand.

Unanswered questions regarding Brushy Bill Roberts

When Morrison first met Brushy, he was going by the name of Oliver L. Roberts. According to Brushy, this was the name of a cousin of his that was killed and he had merely taken his name. Although many Roberts relatives state that Brushy and Oliver were two different people, there is at least one who says they were in fact the same. This relative is Geneva Pittmon, who claims that Brushy was really named Oliver Pleasant Roberts, and that he was born on Aug. 26, 1879 in eastern Texas. Through census records, it is easy to track the life of this Oliver P. Roberts. Was Brushy Bill really Oliver P. Roberts? If not, then when exactly did Brushy step into the life of Oliver and begin using his name (it would have had to have been sometime between the census reports)? Also if not, why would Geneva Pittmon say they were? If he was really Oliver P., then how did Brushy come by so much knowledge of Billy the Kid, when he would have been far too young to have even participated in the Lincoln County War? Why did he change his middle initial from P. to L.? Why did many Roberts family members say Brushy was not Oliver P.? How did Brushy do the things he said he did after fleeing Fort Sumner (almost all of which have been proven either through official documentation, objects Brushy had in his possession, or by personal recollections of others who shared in his experiences), when the census records for Oliver P. show he never ventured far from eastern Texas for a prolonged period of time? And, finally, if Brushy was really Oliver P., then what happened to the real William Henry Roberts?

If Brushy was not Billy the Kid, why did he not go along with the traditional origin of Billy the Kid (that he was born on Nov. 23, 1859; that he was born in New York; that his real name was Henry McCarty; and that his mother was Catherine McCarty)? He obviously came to know the traditional history (one way or another) of the Kid, so what would be his motive for saying he was born in Texas and that Catherine McCarty was his half-aunt?

If Brushy was not really Billy the Kid, then why did he come forward and claim he was? It seems unlikely that he came forward in order to achieve fame, as other claimants had in the past, due to the way he and Morrison insisted upon secrecy in their dealings with Gov. Mabry. Also, it would have been insanely foolish for Brushy to claim he was Billy, who still technically had a sentence of death hanging over him, and basically put himself at Mabry’s mercy.

And, finally, to end on the same note that C. L. Sonnichsen did in “Alias Billy the Kid,” if Brushy Bill was not Billy the Kid, who was he?

In conclusion, I would just like to state that I hope I have accomplished my goal of providing all the facts as they are and checking my own biasness. Now you can examine the facts, and make of them what you will.

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