In autumn of 2000, within the shady world of Middle Eastern black market antiquities dealers, the details of an utterly bizarre case would begin to come to light. While authorities initially believed they were faced with a violation of the Antiquities Act at best and an outright forgery at worst, it would soon become apparent … More The Persian Princess
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 the spring of 1999, in London, England, a crime occurred that took the nation by storm: the seemingly random assassination of a beloved British celebrity in broad daylight. Media coverage of the murder in the weeks and months afterward rivalled the frenzy following the death of Princess Diana in August of 1997. Thirty-seven-year-old Jill … More Jill Dando
It was a little past two p.m. on the afternoon of November 23rd, 1977, the day before Thanksgiving, and six-year-old Beth Lynn Barr was on her way home from school near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What she couldn’t have known was that earlier that morning, a man had tried to pick up a woman waiting for a … More Beth Lynn Barr
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
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
As the holiday season of 1988 approached, a transgender performer would be savagely murdered in a New York City hotel room in a crime that would be immortalized in an iconic 1990 documentary. Born Thomas Pellagatti in New Jersey, Venus Xtravaganza moved out of her conservative family home in the early 1980s and made her … More Venus Xtravaganza
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
In the summer of 1974, a gruesome find near a beach in the Northeastern United States would mark the beginning of one of Massachusetts’ most compelling mysteries. It was the afternoon of July 26th, and a thirteen-year-old girl was looking for her dog, which had run from a nearby cottage on the Cape Cod National … More The Lady of the Dunes
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
