If you could solve any non-JTR mystery which would it be?

[Mayerling]

Is love really "all" we need?

Don't you know. What the world needs now is "Love...Sweet Love". It's the only thing that there's just too little of....

Jeff

[Harry D]

Blonde Dolly

Any reason why this one is special to you? I've never heard of it before.

[Harry D]

I tend to see the crowd as an obstacle to abduction. One scream, and the villain is undone.

Not if the person gained her trust and lured her away. I wouldn't be surprised if she had been taken by a neighbour on her way back home.

[Ginger]

Not if the person gained her trust and lured her away. I wouldn't be surprised if she had been taken by a neighbour on her way back home.

The girl was painfully shy, though, especially around men. She was too shy to have a casual conversation with her best friend's father, even. She'd have been a difficult one to lure.

Whatever went wrong for her had to have started, at least, in that 2/3 of a block walk home down her own street, in sight of her own front yard, if not her house. I do know that the police talked to all of the neighbors, at least.

[Ginger]

One more that has always bothered me is the disappearance of little Melvin Horst, in 1928. http://charleyproject.org/case/melvin-charles-horst has a good summary of the case. He was playing a little distance away from his house with friends, when his mother called him for dinner. He got at least as far as the front yard, because the toy that he'd had with him was found in the yard (some sources say on the front step, even). His friends weren't looking that way, and saw nothing.

It sounds pretty much exactly like the handiwork of Albert Fish (toddler disappears in the blink of an eye), who was actively abducting and murdering children at the time, except that so far as I know Fish was nowhere near Ohio then (I'd love to be proven wrong).

[sdreid]

Any reason why this one is special to you? I've never heard of it before.

Illicit sex-unsolved murder-possible high government corruption and/or espionage

[John G]

The Julia Wallace case. The great Americsn crime writer, Raymond Chandler, called it "the impossible murder because Wallace couldn't have done it and neither could anyone else."

Jointly with that case, the Beaumont Children disappearance.

Next in line would be the Trenny Gibson disappearance.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Could we put Francis Coles on the list?

[Herlock Sholmes]

Who killed the Borden’s?

[AmericanSherlock]

Who killed the Borden’s?

Herlock, are you unconvinced it was Lizzie?

[AmericanSherlock]

I remember when it happened. Her father was Senator Charles Percy. About the time it happened (the late 1960s) Senator Percy was preparing to campaign for the Presidential nomination. This ended that plan.

Jeff.

Many hinted it could have been the stepmother who claimed she briefly saw the fleeing intruder who flashed a light in her eyes before discovering the body which was totally unsubstantiated by evidence.

One interesting aspect of this case was even though they had a dog, the dog did not bark at all during the crime. However, when the police came, the dog barked like mad. So, you can't blame them for focusing on an inside job theory.

Of course, the killer could have been an outsider, but someone who knew Valerie, the dog, the layout of the home etc. William Thoresen, a troubled local who was murdered by his wife in 1970 and purported to have killed many people, has been a prime suspect.

My intuition tells me it was an outsider, but I don't think the family can evade suspicion entirely. They seemed to not want to follow up on the case as well which raised some eyebrows.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Herlock, are you unconvinced it was Lizzie?

I always felt that it must have been but I’ve only read 3 or 4 books on the case and it was quite a while ago. Wasn’t there one book claiming that the killer was a cousin?

Is there an equivalent of the Philip Sugden book about the Borden case? The ‘must have?’

[Mayerling]

Many hinted it could have been the stepmother who claimed she briefly saw the fleeing intruder who flashed a light in her eyes before discovering the body which was totally unsubstantiated by evidence.

One interesting aspect of this case was even though they had a dog, the dog did not bark at all during the crime. However, when the police came, the dog barked like mad. So, you can't blame them for focusing on an inside job theory.

Of course, the killer could have been an outsider, but someone who knew Valerie, the dog, the layout of the home etc. William Thoresen, a troubled local who was murdered by his wife in 1970 and purported to have killed many people, has been a prime suspect.

My intuition tells me it was an outsider, but I don't think the family can evade suspicion entirely. They seemed to not want to follow up on the case as well which raised some eyebrows.

It and the murder of the daughter of Chicago based television talk show host Irv Kupinet happened around that time, and since prominent Illinois people were involved I always link the two crimes together (not that I suspect one killer for both, but it just is a mental issue with me about linking them by state, general period, and that victims are both daughters of well-known figures).

Jeff

[RodCrosby]

The "impossible" Wallace Case...

Done that. Solved. Check.

Who was "Shakespeare"?

Done that. Solved. Check.


Ask me another...

[Pcdunn]

I always felt that it must have been but I’ve only read 3 or 4 books on the case and it was quite a while ago. Wasn’t there one book claiming that the killer was a cousin?

Is there an equivalent of the Philip Sugden book about the Borden case? The ‘must have?’

I don't know what is the best non-fiction book on the Borden case, Herlock, but did put together a bibliography for you.

https://bookriot.com/2017/09/14/new-books-lizzie-borden/

Novel -- "See What I Have Done" by Sarah Schmidt
Novel -- "The Borden Dispatches" series by Cherie Priest, "Maplecroft" is newest
Novel -- "The Murderer's Maid: A Lizzie Borden Novel"by Erika Mailman
Novel -- " The Secrets of Lizzie Borden" by Brandy Purchase

Nonfiction -- "The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century" by Sarah Miller. (2017)

Nonfiction -- "The History and Haunting of Lizzie Borden" by Rebecca F. Pittman (2016)

Nonfiction -- " The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America's Most Famous Murder Case" edited by Charles Rivers (2015)

Nonfiction -- "Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter" by Arnold R. Brown (1991) -- one of the first modern books on this topic, I think.