Most intriguing unsolved non-JtR serial killer cases

[John Wheat]

What about the Thames Torso Killer?

[C. F. Leon]

My high school library had a copy of Colin Wilson's Casebook of Murder, which I picked up and read at some point, probably because I liked Sherlock Holmes and other older mysteries. After that, I picked up the other true crime books in my local library. (This was back in the '70s, before the current glut of contemporary 'true crime' hack jobs, which seem to spontaniously generate six months after any news item.) I've continued to have an interest of the older unsolved crimes in those books including (rough chronological order):

1 Ratcliffe Highway Murders (1811)
2 Mary Rogers (1841)
3 Charley Ross abduction (1874)
4 Jack the Ripper (1888)- the 'torso murders' were not considered seperate at the time
5 Borden murders (1892)
6 William Desmond Taylor (1922)
7 Lindberg baby kidnapping (1932)
8 Cleveland Torso murders (1930s)
9 Harry Oakes (1943)
10 Black Dahlia murder (1947)
11 Zodiac (late 1960s-70s)

Of course, not all of these are considered (or ever were) serial murders.

[sdreid]

Yes, Cleveland and Zodiac certainly fits the bill.

[Observer]

Hi Stan

Whats the latest regarding Zodiac? I read recently that there's another name in the frame.

[sdreid]

Hi Stan

Whats the latest regarding Zodiac? I read recently that there's another name in the frame.

Then your ahead of me on that although it's not a surprise to me.

[Observer]

I doubt it Stan, when I said read recently I believe the person in question has been in the frame for a while. Richard Joseph Gaikowski, ring a bell?

[sdreid]

Oh ok - I did recently hear of this guy but I haven't really studied up on him much.

[Observer]

Read it all on Zodiackiller .com very good site

[sdreid]

Yes, Zodiac is the other serial killer, in addition JtR, that has a major internet presence.

[RavenDarkendale]

Yes, Zodiac is the other serial killer, in addition JtR, that has a major internet presence.

Probably due to the fact that no one knows who Zodiac is, and the coded messages sent to newspapers. Similar to JtR...

The interesting claim that police had him after the Stine murder and he fooled them into chasing a phantom is interesting.

[RivkahChaya]

However, I do believe it was called the "Ted Case" by some after he gave his actual Christian name to one of the women he tried to "befriend" at Lake Sammamish.

One of his murders was several women, including one or two surviving victims, but three or four dead, at least one of whom was raped, at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. Some of them were strangled, and some were bludgeoned, and this was before DNA, so the police theorized more than one killer. The survivors had been bludgeoned, and had poor memories of the event.

Anyway, it was often referred to as the "Chi Omega massacre."

It happened shortly after Ted Bundy had escaped prison in Colorado, and no one realized he was in Florida. He had never committed a mass murder like that, and usually took his victims home, then dumped the bodies elsewhere, as far as anyone knew.

I have a vague memory of some later murders at a Florida University in the early 1980s, that people thought may have been by the "Chi Omega killer," even though one of the victims was a man-- theory was that he was a witness. They were not Bundy victims, and I don't remember the resolution of that case, if there was one. Google-fu is failing me.

Bundy had groups, if you will-- different groups of dump sites in different states, plus the mass murder in Florida, and they weren't all connected until fairly late in the game. In fact, the bodies were not necessarily found in the order they were killed, so some weren't found until Bundy had long fled the area. Some of the women Bundy confessed to murdering have never been found.

[Mayerling]

,
Bundy had groups, if you will-- different groups of dump sites in different states, plus the mass murder in Florida, and they weren't all connected until fairly late in the game. In fact, the bodies were not necessarily found in the order they were killed, so some weren't found until Bundy had long fled the area. Some of the women Bundy confessed to murdering have never been found.

Hi Rivkah,

You have to remember that Bundy became a rarity - the serial killer who was caught and convicted and had run out of appeals (and was increasingly sweating because he knew his life would soon be stamped out). I recall his final hours, where he tried to blame an interest in pornography for his criminal behavior, and where he was trying to stretch out his final days as far as possible by "revealing" to the authorities the locations of his victims' bodies or remains one at a time so their families could have closure. In a highly satisfactory (if sadistic) way, Bundy learned that the family of dozens of real or potential victims actually fully suspected him of the killings, and looked forward to his actual execution as closure. He was a nervous wreck the final moments of his life. Never has the death penalty seemed so wonderfully successful.

Jeff

[sdreid]

Probably due to the fact that no one knows who Zodiac is, and the coded messages sent to newspapers. Similar to JtR...

The interesting claim that police had him after the Stine murder and he fooled them into chasing a phantom is interesting.

Yes, I think that's where the most prominent suspect sketch came from.

[sdreid]

I have a vague memory of some later murders at a Florida University in the early 1980s, that people thought may have been by the "Chi Omega killer," even though one of the victims was a man-- theory was that he was a witness. They were not Bundy victims, and I don't remember the resolution of that case, if there was one. Google-fu is failing me.

The first that came to my mind was Danny Rolling the Gainesville Ripper but that was 1990.

[sdreid]

There was some considerable controversy when Rolling was allowed to collaborate on a book about himself that was released while he was on death row. I saw it at Barnes & Noble and wouldn't even pick it up - I did the same when I saw Ian Brady's book on the rack.