Most interesting unsolved non-serial killer cases

[sdreid]

Thanks Jack. Yes, I think that Smith is probably the most notorious of all the "not proven" verdicts. I sort of wish we had that option here.

[Jeff Leahy]

Have you followed the Dando case today?

[sdreid]

No, I hadn't until I just now checked. So Mr. George is free then.

Wasn't the Smith case covered in the Ladykillers TV series. It hasn't ever played here in the States to my knowledge.

[Jeff Leahy]

Hi Stan

I'm not certain..but if this website is correct Smith's lover commited suicide inorder to frame Smith for his own murder..

The Dando murder has been on News here all day..

Barry George is not guilty..and on the evidence that would appear the correct verdict..however I think it unlikely the police wll look for another suspect?

I just do not know?

I never buy conspiracy theories..but dismiss george..and what have you got?

Pirate

[sdreid]

We have a similar situation here locally. A man by the name of David Hendricks was convicted of hacking his wife and three children to death. The verdict was later overturned on appeal. He was retried and found not guilty on the second go around. Authorities just announced yesterday that they are not going to reopen the case unless some compelling evidence comes to light that it was someone other than Mr. Hendricks who did it.

[Mayerling]

Hi all,

Actually courtroom "vindication" is frequently meaningless. Donald Hume was found "Not guilty" of the murder of Stanley Setty in 1951, and subsequently sold his confession and description of his "perfect murder" to a tabloid (and subesquently be put into prison for killing a taxi driver in Switzerland). There was a case that Bernard Spilsbury was a government expert on in England, where the defendant (a man with deformed hands, whose name I can't recall) was acquitted, but subsequently broke down and confessed he had strangled the victim. And Spilsbury was also hired as a defense witness (a rarity for him) in the trial of Donald Merritt for the murder of his mother in Scotland in 1926 (the defense claimed it was suicide). Merritt was acquitted of that charge - but three decades later committed suicide when facing trial for the murders of his estranged wife and mother-in-law in England.

Also there have been those who were excused although patently guilty.
In American we have that quartet of "home defenders": Congressman (later General and Minister to Spain) Daniel Sickles - killer at Lafayette Square Park of Washington D.C. District Attorney Philip Barton Key; Small time Tammany politico Daniel MacFarlane - killer of writer - reporter - Union spy Albert Richardson; Photographic giant and "father" of the American motion picture camera (and man who proved a running horse does have all four feet off the ground at times) Eadward Muybridge - who shot his wife's lover in California in 1875; and millionaire playboy, pervert, and general kook, Harry Kendall Thaw - who shot brilliant architect and artist Stanford White over Evelyn Nesbitt Thaw. All four of these gentlemen were acquitted by the so-called "unwritten law" that it's okay to kill an adulterer playing around with your wife, even if you yourself have affairs too (Sickles, Thaw) or were beating the lady and your rival protecting her (Richardson). It helps in retrospect if your unrelated career is colorful (Sickles) or really useful (Muybridge - one of the few men ever tried for murder in the U.S. whose picture is on a postage stamp because of his work in photography!).

By the way, the "unwritten law" works both ways. In 1870 Alexander Crittenden, a prominent socialite and lawyer - member of the Kentucky family - was shot and killed on the San Francisco - Oakland Ferry boat by his disgarded lover Laura Fair. After two trials, despite hundreds of witnesses, she was acquitted because of sympathy regarding how Alexander used her and threw her aside (oddly enough to return to his wife!!). Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner used the Laura Fair case in the plot of their indictment novel of the corruption of the U.S. in the 1870s, THE GILDED AGE.

It also helps if the violent death is reclassified from what it might be under other circumstances. If two people pick up guns and fire at each other in the course of an argument or fight or crime, most of the people who survive are considered criminals. If they are upper-class types "settling matters" between themselves on "the field of honor", it is a duel. Vice President (and would-be President) Aaron Burr shot and killed former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in Weehauken, N.J. in July 1804. Although Burr was indicted for murder by both the states of New York (where the challenge was issued) and New Jersey (where it was carried out) his only legal brush in that period was a questionable treason trial in Virginia in 1807 (and later a lat divorce case in 1836 in New York). No trial for murder for the Vice President and former Senator. In 1806 noted duelist Charles Dickinson of Tennessee was shot and killed by Andrew Jackson in a duel over the honor of Jackson's wife Rachel (Dickinson slurred her publicly). Although political enemies kept throwing Dickinson's death at Jackson as proof of his violent temper, it did not keep him from becoming President in 1828.

On the other hand, it does not help the reputation of the winner if the loser is better remembered, or if the loser was inept. Commodore Stephen Decatur, naval hero of the War against the Tripoli Pirates in 1804-05, and in the War of 1812, was shot and killed in a duel in Maryland in 1820 by Commander James Barron, over Decatur's supposed comments regarding Barron's past performance as a naval officer. Barron did not make friends by killing Decatur: people only recalled that in 1807 he surrendered the U.S.S. Chesapeake (the same one that was later in a War of 1812 battle) to the H.M.S. Leopard, after a few minutes of fighting over the British demand for the return of some so-called British sailors on board. Senator David Broderick of California was shot by Judge David Terry of the California Supreme Court
in a confrontation over Broderick's anti-slavery stand in the U.S. Senate and in California. Broderick died in 1859 and became a northern martyr. Terry
was forced to resign from the California Bench. Years later Terry got into a personal quarrel regarding a lawsuit involving his wife. He blamed the result in the trial on the animosity of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field.
Field was in a restaurant that Terry was in and Terry walked over and at least slapped Field. He may have had a knife as well. Federal Marshall Neagle, Field's bodyguard, shot and killed Terry. The result was the Supreme Court decision IN RE NEAGLE, protecting Federal peace officers from State laws in pursuit of their duties.

Best wishes,

Jeff

[sdreid]

The other big "Not Proven" verdict would probably be the Alfred Monson case.

[Mayerling]

The other big "Not Proven" verdict would probably be the Alfred Monson case.

Hi Stan,

I like the Monson "Ardlamont" Case. It always amazed me that he got away with the murder of Cecil Hambrough, in that there was so much that just was not tidily explained regarding the earlier incident of the boat that sprung a leak and other events. I suspect Monson got away with it because the insurance policies were not made out to him...but it still seems a crazy thing to note but not do a logical stretch with on that jury. They were made out to Mrs. Monson!

Best wishes,

Jeff

[sdreid]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I don't think there's really that much doubt that Monson did it. It would be interesting to know how each of the jurors voted on the first ballot.

[Jeff Leahy]

Was Lizzy Borden aquitted with 'case not proven?'

Interestingly George has stated he is willing to take a lie detector test..it will be interesting to see if he does..

Jeff

[dougie]

We have a similar situation here locally. A man by the name of David Hendricks was convicted of hacking his wife and three children to death. The verdict was later overturned on appeal. He was retried and found not guilty on the second go around. Authorities just announced yesterday that they are not going to reopen the case unless some compelling evidence comes to light that it was someone other than Mr. Hendricks who did it.

When the police make THAT kind of statement,as they have in the barry george case,isnt it plain they are really saying the guilty party has got away with it again? Or am I being cynical? To me circumstancial evidence is enough to convict someone ,if there is enough of it......and of course there is no doubt inadmissable evidence would exist that the police know of ,and we,or the jury never hear of
I just dont believe that,as some suggest ,an entire police force sets out to convict an innocent man,but I guess in some quarters its fashionable to think that.
regards

[sdreid]

Jeff-I think the Lizzie Borden verdict was "not guilty" although, in most cases, that's because the jury believes the charges weren't sufficiently proven rather than because they think the defendant was innocent.

Regarding the "not proven" verdict, I always thought that was a subtle way of punishing the defendant by putting a cloud over their head when you think they were guilty but that this could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

Dougie-I would hope the police are better than that and I can't imagine that sort of conspiracy even being possible except perhaps in a very small community. And yes, I'm pretty sure the police are sending the signal that they think they were right all along.

[dougie]

The Charles Bravo case was an interesting mystery.....perm any 2 from , florence, mrs cox, mr griffiths and james gully ....Although sir william gull said it was suicide,pretty preposterous as drinking antimony must be about the most painful death one could suffer,apart from being fed into a threshing machine.....slowly...bit by bit....limb by limb.....

[sdreid]

Hi Dougie,

I'd say Mrs.Cox but what do I know?!

[Nicola]

1.The OJ Simpson case. For god's sake,I am black and I know the dude was guilty. I don't know what the jury was thinking. Even though he was acquited in a court of law. I'd still like to know who helped him do it.

2.Tupac Shakur was gunned down in front of witnesses,one who was in the car with him yet everyone claims amnesia and blindness. I don't think his murder will ever be solved.

3.Same for Christopher Wallace. All those witnesses and nobody can recall a thing.

4.The Black Dahlia. This case gives me a serious case of the creeps.