The 1960s was obviously an extremely turbulent decade, and during the course of the struggle for civil rights in the United States in particular, violence was a fairly common occurrence. The death of Paul Guihard, however, is notable for being the only known case of a journalist murdered during the resistance to the civil rights … More Paul Guihard

It was somewhat late on the night of Friday, August 26th, 1960 when thirty-eight-year-old single mother and office clerk Dorothy Coon set out on an unknown errand from the home in Des Moines, Iowa that she shared with her two teenaged children. Nancy, nineteen, and Dennis, seventeen, had both already gone to bed when their … More Dorothy Coon

In November of 1969, a terrifyingly random attack on a Pennsylvania graduate student would leave a community reeling, and police scrambling to unlock a motive in a crime that would come to be known as “the murder in the stacks.” Twenty-two-year-old Betsy Aardsma was originally from the Michigan town of Holland, and after graduating with … More Betsy Aardsma: Murder in the Stacks

Early 1968 would see the first in a series of three related murders committed by an as-yet-unidentified serial killer. In February of that year, in the working-class East End of Glasgow, Scotland, a twenty-five-year-old nurse named Patricia Docker left her four-year-old child in the care of a baby-sitter and went out on the town. She … More The Bible John Murders

In the summer of 1966, in Paterson, New Jersey, a triple homicide at a local restaurant would ignite a firestorm of controversy, ultimately leading to a groundswell of pop-culture support, allegations of wrongful conviction, and a big-budget Hollywood film. It was about two-thirty a.m. on the morning of June 17th, 1966. Fifty-one-year-old James Oliver, part … More The Lafayette Bar & Grill Murders

Twenty-one-year-old Mima McKim-Hill worked for the Capricornia Regional Electricity Board in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, and on March 9th, 1967, she got into a company car with her boss, Isobel Hare, for the more than sixty-mile drive to Gladstone. Mima’s friend and colleague, Shirley Eldridge, was actually supposed to be the one accompanying Isobel that day, … More Mima McKim-Hill

A few days before Christmas of 1961, in Liverpool, England, the appalling murder of a young woman in her own home stirred up lurid speculations about fake medical doctors, leather-jacketed strangers, and violent pagan cults. Maureen Dutton was twenty-seven years old, and resided on Thingwall Road in the Liverpool suburb of Knotty Ash with her … More Maureen Ann Dutton: The Knotty Ash Murder

As autumn descended in England, on the evening of September 7th, 1963, forty-three-year-old pub landlord George Wilson was sitting in his establishment—which was also his residence—with his wife Betty, their two children, their dog Blackie, and three other individuals: pub regular Mr. Smith, and a couple named Arthur and Irene Ash, who were learning how … More George Wilson: The Pretty Windows Murder