Most intriguing unsolved non-JtR serial killer cases

[sdreid]

There are several cases that police claim are "solved" without a conviction but that leave me unconvinced like Charlie Chop-off.

You also have cases that sound intriguing like Jack the Strangler where information is so sketchy that you have to wonder if the murders could be unrelated or even apocryphal.

[sdreid]

If it was strictly up to the vote of the masses, I think there's little doubt that Zodiac would be first runner-up to JtR.

[dougie]

Stan,
I remember talking to you ages ago now about the "Gatton" affair,And if I recall correctly I think you said you wrote an article about it at some time,maybe I asked you this before,if I did sorry for repeating myself.....but did you ever come to a conclusion as to who you thought most likely to have been the culprit? To me, the Thomas day solution ,which on the face of it seems the most likely answer,appears a bit too convenient for me,and I think might be a bit exaggerated by the author....I might be wrong...but I feel Mcneill might have been a "better" option,though dont ask me why...just a feeling.
regards

[sdreid]

Hi Dougie,

Regarding Gatton, that article was about the ten most wanted criminals in the last two decades of the nineteenth century (JtR being another of course) so it was a fairly brief overview of the case. I didn't really posit any theories although I mentioned at the end that, due to the scale, the belief was that there was more than one perpetrator involved.

[dougie]

Oh ok,....a family affair perhaps?Iknow its been put forward that the father might have had a hand in it.Funny how certain cases get a "grip" on one,this case plus the wallace one...and thanks to you the 3-x murders have now become part of my own "private madness"....tks for replying
regards

[sdreid]

Hi Dougie,

The family business does look a little suspicious, I admit, but haven't really formed a strong opinion on this one. I probably need to study up on some of the newer theories.

[DarkPassenger]

It's been 1 year, 17 months, 13 days since the UK last had an active serial killer. Any other SK cases since have been, for example with Tobin, catch-ups. Where are they all? Last time the UK had a year off from serial murder was 1959, and even then Jack the Stripper was said to have killed a victim then.

[sdreid]

Hi Dark,

I expect they are there like an undiagnosed case of worms. Many serial killers aren't recognized for years after they start.

[DarkPassenger]

True, and by my calculations there are about 4 active in the country at any time - and since the murder and violent crime levels are at their lowest in decades...

Where are they?

[Uncle Jack]

The Interstate 45 Murders have always intrigued me.

http://www.geocities.com/verbal_plainfield/activecases/i45victims.html

[sdreid]

Hi Uncle Jack,

Yes, that is another creepy one. If I remember correctly, the 20/20 TV news magazine program did an episode on this case some years ago. Last I heard, Robert Abel has pretty much been taken out of the frame.

[sdreid]

I watched The Boston Strangler: The Untold Story last night and I'd just judge it as acceptable although likely more accurate than the Curtis film. It takes the attitude that DeSalvo was innocent of the murders which is probably correct in my view. He's basically portrayed as the dupe of a thinly disguised "Nassar type" character. One of the detectives in the film says that the case is bigger than JtR. I don't agree with that.

[sdreid]

Interesting, to me at least, that in the early 1960s, we had the simultaneous sensations of The Boston Strangler here and Jack the Stripper in England. I wonder if each might have been following the other's case - a sort of battling serial killers thing???

[Dan Norder]

One of the detectives in the film says that the case is bigger than JtR. I don't agree with that.

To me that's like when that guy from Green Day claimed his band was bigger than the Beatles... Only someone both clueless and egotistical could even try to make a claim like that and not expect to be laughed at.

[sdreid]

#10 would be the Alphabet Murders.

I watched the film The Alphabet Killer about this case last night and cannot recommend it. That said, I would have rented it no matter what anyone said just to check for myself.