Caroline Mary Luard was in many ways the quintessential society woman of the late Victorian era. She had been born into a wealthy family, and in 1875 married Charles Edward Luard, a professional soldier who had retired in 1887 with the rank of Major-General in the Royal Engineers. The couple was spending their later years … More Caroline Mary Luard: The Seal Chart Murder
In February of 1945, a horrific murder in a sleepy English village would prompt furtive whispers about witchcraft, black magic, and occult sacrifices. Charles Walton was a 74-year-old farm laborer who had called the little town of Lower Quinton home for his entire life. He lived in a modest cottage with his niece, Edith Walton, … More Charles Walton: The Pitchfork Murder
Wonnangatta Station was a lonely cattle ranch in a remote valley of the Victorian Alps in Australia, overseen by a widower named James “Jim” Barclay. Finding the need for the services of a cook and handyman in the latter part of 1917, James hired a man by the name of John Bamford, who had been … More The Wonnangatta Station Murders
The Wallace case has been called “the classic English whodunnit,” and though the details seem tailor-made for fiction, they were all frustratingly real. At the heart of the mystery stood fifty-two-year-old insurance agent and chess enthusiast William Herbert Wallace, who lived at 29 Wolverton Street, Anfield, Liverpool, with his wife of seventeen years, Julia. The … More The “Impossible” Murder: The Wallace Case
In the autumn of 1944, a privileged young person with dreams of Hollywood stardom would find her hopes brought to an abrupt end by a brutal and apparently random murder. Georgette Bauerdorf was born into a wealthy family, the daughter of a New York City oil tycoon. Both she and her sister Connie were given … More Georgette Bauerdorf
It was around seven p.m. on the evening of November 30th, 1948. A couple strolling along Somerton beach near Adelaide, South Australia noticed a man in a suit sitting with his back propped against the seawall. As they watched, the man extended his arm and then dropped it limply. About a half-hour later, another couple … More The Somerton Man: Finally Identified?
On March 8th, 1921, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the body of a young boy, aged between five and seven years old, was fished out of a pond near the O’Laughlin Stone Company, by a worker named John Brlich. The child had been killed by a blow to the head with a blunt object, and seemed to … More Little Lord Fauntleroy
Eliška “Elsie” Paroubek was a pretty, slightly-built, five-year-old girl with long, curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and prominent dimples. She was the seventh child of Bohemian (now Czech) immigrants, František and Karolína Vojáčková, who had come to the United States in the waning years of the nineteenth century. Her family lived on Albany Avenue in … More Elsie Paroubek
Joseph B. Elwell was an exceedingly wealthy and well-connected man, best known as a champion bridge player who had penned several popular books on the game. He was something of a gambler, had made most of his money on the stock market, and owned several cars and a yacht, a mansion in Palm Beach, as … More Joseph B. Elwell: The Locked Room Murder
In the early years of the twentieth century, in the racially-charged atmosphere of Atlanta, Georgia, bodies began to stack up in the black community, and though law enforcement and the press were initially slow to embrace the idea that a single perpetrator might be responsible for the majority of the crimes, eventually so many unsolved … More America’s Forgotten Serial Killer: The Atlanta Ripper
Crime Immemorial 