Crime Immemorial

Marianne Schmidt had moved with her family to Melbourne, Australia from her native Germany back in 1958. By 1965, she was fifteen years old, living in Sydney, and had become inseparable best friends with her fifteen-year-old neighbor Christine Sharrock, who lived next door with her grandparents. It was January, the height of the Australian summer. … More The Wanda Beach Murders and the Disappearance of the Beaumont Children

On Friday, November 7th, a young nun in Baltimore, Maryland would go out to run errands and never return home. Though her ultimate fate would not be revealed until early the following year, the mystery of her disappearance and death would resonate right up to the present day, when she was the subject of the … More Sister Cathy Cesnik: The Keepers Murder

As the autumn of 1982 began to descend, an alarming series of tragedies would begin to unfold in the suburban communities in and around Chicago, Illinois. The aftermath of the incident—which would leave seven people dead and an entire nation terrified and paranoid—would lead to sweeping changes in U.S. law, as well as a significant … More The Chicago Tylenol Murders

Sixteen-year-old Jeanette DePalma, a student at Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield Township, New Jersey, left her home on August 7th, 1972 after telling her mother that she was going to take a train to visit a friend. When Jeanette failed to return home by that evening, her worried mother reported her missing. Jeanette would … More Jeanette DePalma

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

Dr. Mary Stults Sherman was an exceedingly accomplished individual by any definition. Originally from Illinois, she had obtained her medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1941, and subsequently served as assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the university-affiliated Billings Hospital. In 1952, she moved to New Orleans to take up a position as … More Three Possibly CIA-Related Murders

At approximately eight a.m. on the morning of August 28th, 1981, a phone call came in to the offices of the Ripon police in North Yorkshire. “Near Scawton Moor House, you will find a decomposed body among the willow herbs,” said the voice on the line. The officer who had taken the call, PC John … More The Nude in the Nettles

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