It was three days after Christmas, 1956. Two teenage sisters, Barbara and Patricia Grimes, who were fifteen and thirteen years old, respectively, left their home in the McKinley Park neighborhood of Chicago at around seven-thirty p.m. to head down to the Brighton Theater about a mile and a half away. Both girls were huge Elvis … More The Grimes Sisters
Mid-summer of 1954 would be marked by the brutal murder of a pregnant woman and an ensuing trial that rivaled the media circus surrounding the arrest of Lizzie Borden in the previous century, and the crimes of the Manson Family at the end of the following decade. It was the evening of July 3rd, the … More Marilyn Reese-Sheppard
Elizabeth Figg, a twenty-one-year-old prostitute from Cheshire who also went by the name of Ann Phillips, was found dead on a towpath on the banks of the River Thames in London by patrol officers early on the morning of June 17th, 1959. Elizabeth had been strangled to death. Her clothes were torn open to reveal … More Jack the Stripper: The Hammersmith Nude Murders
Late October, 1957, and twenty-four-year-old Rosemarie Nitribitt was living the high life in postwar Germany. Despite her humble origins—she had spent most of her childhood and teenage years in foster homes and juvenile correctional facilities—she had eventually clawed her way to wealth and notoriety, establishing herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid call girls … More Rosemarie Nitribitt
Olive May Bennett was around forty-five years old, a Scottish woman who made her living as a nurse. Though the first half of her life had reportedly been rather dull and uneventful, by the time 1954 rolled around, it appeared that Olive had decided to let her hair down and have a little fun. She … More Olive May Bennett: The Tombstone Murder
The Walker Family The last few days of 1959 would be tragically notable for the shocking massacre of an entire family that recalled the infamous slaughter at the Clutter farm in Kansas only a little more than a month before. In fact, recent developments may point to a connection between the case that inspired Truman … More Three Family Massacres
In the early 1950s, a vicious murder in Australia would grab country-wide headlines, mainly due to the random brutality of the killing, and the well-liked and beautiful young victim. To this day, the murder is the oldest cold case in Queensland, and is often cited as the crime that robbed the sleepy town of Brisbane … More Betty Shanks
It was Sunday, May 17th, 1953, and seventeen-year-old Kyllikki Saari had been attending a prayer meeting in the town of Isojoki, Finland, not far from her home. After the meeting was over, Kyllikki got on her bicycle and pedaled off down the road. She was seen by a man on a maintenance crew less than … More Kyllikki Saari
It was the afternoon of December 30th, 1957, and seventeen-year-old Ann Noblett had been at a dance class in the town of Harpenden, in Hertfordshire, England. After the class ended, she boarded the Green Line bus that would carry her back to her home in Marshalls Heath. Witnesses saw her get off the bus at … More Ann Noblett: The Deep Freeze Murder
In late February of 1957, in the woods near Fox Chase, Philadelphia, a young man out checking his illegal muskrat traps came across a horrific find stuffed inside a large cardboard box. Not wanting to alert the police to his own unlawful behavior, however, he decided to leave well enough alone. A few days later, … More The Boy in the Box
Crime Immemorial 