Case of most interest besides JtR poll

[Mayerling]

Well, Mary wound up on the chopping block although not specifically for that.

Recall the Monty Python "historical docu-drama", "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots"?

Soldier: "Ayr ye Mary, Queen of Scots?"
Mary: "Aye"
Soldier: "All right boys, get 'er!!"
[Vast noises of men yelling, a woman (actually one of the Python males in a woman's falsetto voice) screaming, and mass mayhem going on. Silence breaks out.]
Soldier: "I think she's dead...."
Mary: [Saucily] "No I'm not!!"
Soldier: "Okay boys!!"
[Again the mayhem of before resumes, if not louder. Again the silence.]
Soldier: "That should do it...."
Mary: "Missed me!!!"
[Mayhem again - ad infinitem.]

[sdreid]

Well, Mary wound up on the chopping block although not specifically for that.

[Mayerling]

If one mentions the Palme Assassination, there are some other cases with political connections worth puzzling over.

KING WILLIAM III of ENGLAND (1689-1701):

We are suspicious of his involvement in two bloody events:

The massacre murder of the De Witt brothers in Holland in 1673
The Glencoe Massacre in Scotland (1692)

William stood to benefit both time (the first when Stadtholder of Holland, whom John De Witt had been keeping from real power). In the second William may have allowed the massacre of a clan by its rivals to occur so that his Scottish policies would not be hurt.

William was also a secret investor in the "privateering" expedition of Captain William Kidd, and followed the piracy / murder trial closely. Valuable evidence needed by Kidd vanished during the trial (passes he needed to prove his legal position) and did not get rediscovered until the 20th Century.

Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (or Edmundberry Godfrey) - murdered in 1678

Godfrey was a magistrate who was taking down the anti-Catholic testimony of a vast Catholic conspiracy against the government of King Charles II from the notorious Titus Oates and similar figures. He vanished, and his body was found, badly beaten and bruised and kicked, transfixed on his own sword, in London. Three men named Green, Berry, and Hill would be executed for the crime, but the evidence was weak against them. Was he killed by Oates and his supporters, or Catholics (King Charles did not believe Oates, and was a secret Catholic), or a personal enemy (the Seventh Earl of Pembroke, who had been tried for manslaughter a year before in front of Godfrey, has been a suggested candidate).

Benjamin Bathurst (1809)

Bathurst disappeared when returning to England on a diplomatic mission, regarding the current relations between Napoleon and Alexander I of Russia (this was before the 1812 invasion of Russia). He disappeared after walking behind a carriage to enter an inn in Germany. His fate is still unknown, though it is likely he was murdered.

Amy Robsard (1560)

The wife of Robert "Robin" Dudley, favorite lover of Queen Elizabeth I of England, she was an invalid at their home at Kenilworth, and one day, after the servants came home, they found she had died from a fall down the main staircase. Dudley was considered a possible husband for the Queen, but the death of Amy (although judged an accident by an inquest) was so suspicious it blasted any chance of that happening. One theory is that Amy (who had cancer) may have dislodged her brittle neck bones trying to walk down the staircase and so died, but the accident or a murder plot (most likely by the ambitious Dudley) have been discussed. Walter Scott's novel KENILWORTH is about the tragedy.

Kirk o'Field Explosion (1567)

It is instructive to compare the sensible behavior of Elizabeth towards Dudley (although she made him Earl of Leicester and a chief advisor) to the idiotic behavior of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary, to ensure her offstpring would reach the English throne with the best claim, married her other cousin, Henry, Lord Darnley, without inquiring about Henry's personality. He was a jealous and ambitious creep. Having assisted in the murder of her secretary and close friend (David Rizzio) in 1566, Mary learned to hate her husband. Add to this her discovering she liked James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and something was bound to blow up. It was Kirk o'Field palace, where Darnley was staying in 1567, and when it blew up his lordship and a servant were found strangled in the garden. Due to some odd writings called "the Casket Letters" (the true provinance of which we are not sure of), suspicion of Darnley's demise has usually fallen on either Mary, or Bothwell or both, but Darnley had made so many enemies among leading Scottish nobles and even with the English that anything is possible here. One thing is certain: nobody really mourned the creep.

Jeff

[sdreid]

There are others there however like Atlas Vampire.

[sdreid]

Yes, I assume that one is #1 in Sweden

[curious4]

Mystery

Apparently I have voted on this - sure I haven't.

Personally I would vote for the murder of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister 27 years ago, no-one has any idea who killed him, although there are some ludicrous suggestions.

Best wishes,
C4

[Garry Wroe]

I too would vote 'Some Other Case.' I'd like to know who killed Liz Stride.

[sdreid]

One of my favorites - especially for the mystery element - is the Bogle Chandler case from 1963

And with the additional mystery of whether they were murders at all.

[sdreid]

I put Mr. Wilson at #463 on my, yet to be completed, top 500 classic unsolved list.

[sdreid]

Thanks for those Bridewell. I don't recall reading about those cases before.

[Bridewell]

I've voted for 'Some Other Case', mainly because I would like to see the following eventually solved:

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Bygones-brutal-murder-GI-bride-Joan-Maschek/story-12179266-detail/story.html

& the 'Pretty Windows' murder of George Wilson, the licensee of the Fox & Grapes in Sneinton Market in 1963.

I would have added the sad case of Colette Aram but mercifully, thanks to a DNA match, that was solved a couple of years ago.

Regards, Bridewell.

[sdreid]

Give it go Ed and see what happens.

[EddieX]

Not old enough to vote yet, but if I were allowed to vote I would have gone with the Julia Wallace case.

[katemills]

Here's my list:

1. Some Other Case: JonBenet Ramsey
2. Zodiac
3. Lizzie Borden

Also, the Lindbergh baby case (I know the case ended in a conviction but there's still an inkling of doubt which has always intrigued me).
Oddly, when I was young, I used to live on Charles Lindbergh Straße when my dad was posted to Wildenrath, Germany.

[sdreid]

As I recall, CNN actually gave some minor coverage to the Pacciani trial.