Most Fascinating Unsolved Serial Killer Cases of the 20th Century Poll [Archive]

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STANDREID

07-11-2012, 09:46 PM

Who are you most intrigued by regarding unsolved serial killers of the Twentieth Century?

PATX

07-11-2012, 10:25 PM

Tough to pick. But I went with the Axeman of New Orleans.

STANDREID

07-12-2012, 06:30 AM

That's a big one PATX and coming up on its centennial too.

JenniferTx

07-12-2012, 11:21 AM

I voted for the Zodiac. I would love for LE to figure out who he is.

STANDREID

07-12-2012, 07:52 PM

Yep Jen - that's the most popular choice as I expected. It will be interesting to see who comes in second.

Bargle

07-12-2012, 08:35 PM

STANDREID

07-12-2012, 09:26 PM

I notice 2 people have voted for someone not on the list. Please, tell us who were thinking of.

Yes please!

I probably had more than 25 cases I could have put on the list but I didn't want a poll where three fourths of the entries were zeros.

Bargle

07-13-2012, 08:36 PM

Excellent group of choices, Stan. I went with Zodiac, but the Cleveland Torso Murderer and EAR/ONS were on my short list.

I notice 2 people have voted for someone not on the list. Please, tell us who were thinking of.

Arghh! Still missed another typo. Should be Please, tell us who you were thinking of.

I'd add 3X, the Petter Killer, The Santa Rosa Hitch-hiker Murders and The Tylenol Poisonings. As you say, Stan, there's a bunch more that could be added.

STANDREID

07-13-2012, 10:25 PM

Another factor is how you define serial killer.

Bargle

07-14-2012, 11:58 AM

Montjoy

07-14-2012, 09:46 PM

Good point. I go by the DOJ (I think) guideline of 2 or more murders, committed as separate events. I know others require 3 or more. I tend to think that anyone who kills a stranger with a sexual aspect to the murder, might be considered a potential serial killer.

Not meaning to split hairs here, but one of the main criteria is that there is a 'cool-down' period between murders. This is to distinguish the 'serial murderer' from the 'spree killer'. I would use as an example the spree killer whose name I forget, but who drove around Illinois and Indiana (maybe Wisconsin too?) and shot a number of people who weren't white (e.g., ex Northwestern U basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong). Ricky's murder was physically distant (hence separate) from the other murders of the evening, and although part of a series, I don't think his killer (who was caught) was considered a serial murderer inasmuch as he was seen as a spree killer.

Bargle

07-15-2012, 09:09 AM

Not hairsplitting at all. I certainly meant that there would be a cool down period between murders. I just didn't think to include it. Thanks for bringing that out.

STANDREID

07-15-2012, 11:18 AM

I believe all of the ten cases I listed are considered serial killers by anyone's definition.

The definition from and National Institute of Justice which is also used by Newton in his Encyclopedia of Serials Killers uses the minimum of two perpetrated as separate events tenet which I basically go by. I only have one problem with it and that is that it doesn't stipulate a minimum time regarding the cooling off period. Without that, it's sort of tough to draw a line between spree and serial killers.

Bargle

07-15-2012, 09:49 PM

I believe all of the ten cases I listed are considered serial killers by anyone's definition.

Agreed.
And we still haven't heard what those 2 other cases are. :waitasec:

STANDREID

07-16-2012, 08:33 AM

Yes, please tell us who.

acmeintuitiveenergy

07-31-2012, 10:33 AM

Jack the Stripper and Zodiac are linked. There were seven Jack the Stripper victims and 7 Zodiac victims.

Jacie Estes

07-31-2012, 12:12 PM

I just added the third vote for 'other'. My choice is Richard Biegenwald of New Jersey. My reason[s] for choosing him are varied. He 'lived' quietly in communities, after having been in prison for shooting to death an Assistant Prosecutor in North Jersey and being released. I say quietly because, even though there were unsolved murders in the neighborhoods he lived in, he was never charged with them.

One of his victims, Betsy Bacon, was a neighbor of ours. She worked in a fast food place in Sea Girt, NJ. About a year later, Biegenwald tried to pick up a young girl walking down the highway, going home after a night of roller skating. The rink was right across the street from where Betsy worked. A girl from Bricktown, NJ, Maria Ciallella, was found buried in Biegenwald's mother's yard in Staten Island, NY. Maria's mother stated that when she went to identify her daughter's jewelry, LE had several conference tables with jewelry laid out in rows on them. She asked the police, 'how many victims are there?'. The response was that LE didn't know.

There was another elderly woman from Point Pleasant Beach, NJ, who he had down some 'chores' for, whose body was found in a trunk in her attic. Also, in PPB, NJ, there was a rooming house fire where several people died, Biegenwald was seen standing watching the fire fighting efforts. Another death, in nearby Bricktown, NJ; an 8 month pregnant woman, who commuted on the same train to work that Beigenwald did, was found in her apartment, murdered with the fetus cut out and dead. There were many unsolved killings of girls/women, in the time Biegenwald was in the area.

After Biegenwald had been in prison for at least a decade, a friend who then wrote for a national music magazine, tried to interview Biegenwald in prison. My friend had connected a lot of dots and wanted to find out if he was, indeed, responsible for all the other deaths and possibly more. All his efforts were stonewalled. He got an 'off the record' comment from LE that Biegenwald may have killed at least 75-100 people.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~batsto/Misc/Crime/Biegenwald/Biegenwald_Murders.html

I am fascinated by this case because of the unknowns. Biegenwald is dead now so there will probably never be answers.

STANDREID

09-04-2012, 08:09 AM

Hmm, it looks like the three most recent are also the three that generate the most interest.

STANDREID

09-11-2012, 09:27 AM

And, the two with no votes are among the oldest 4.

STANDREID

10-07-2012, 06:45 AM

All but 3 are in my lifetime or maybe all but 2 if you count the 1950 Cleveland murder.:what:

STANDREID

11-05-2012, 06:56 AM

I actually remember Strangler, Stripper, Zodiac and Babysitter real time on the news.

wfgodot

11-20-2012, 01:54 PM

Should Brooklyn's current mini-reign of terror continue, and should the case's possible numerical trappings (all addresses in the three slayings include the number '8') maintain its currency, the great tabloid nickname "Crazy 8 Killer" will enter the magical, mysterious, lexicon of the yet-unsolved, 21st century edition.

STANDREID

11-21-2012, 07:19 AM

Yes, that one and the LI killer - whatever they're calling him these days.

legalmania

11-22-2012, 11:26 PM

I'm going with Greg Rogers because I had no idea about this guy until just a few nights ago. This guy is on death row for at least two murders. He's been charged with 5, but says there has been 70. Most jurisdiction dropped their case because they were sure Greg was the perpetrator, he was able to identify parts of the case that only the killer would know, and since he was already sentenced to two deaths there was no use to continue the cases. His brother had no idea he was a killer until he found a body in his family home. After much inner feelings about turning a family member in, because his father said you never turn on family, he couldn't let the demon his brother Greg had inherited become his, so he went to police and lead them to a state to state killing spree by his much loved brother. Greg is up for death in 2012. Now is this a way to keep him alive, I hope not just let him die with his demons.

STANDREID

12-13-2012, 11:00 PM

I believe the ONS murders are now generally thought to run from 1975-86 with most of the activity concentrated in 1979-81.

jennapuppy

12-14-2012, 12:38 AM

Zodiac is the one I chose. He truly fit the description of the "boogey man".
Scary!

STANDREID

12-15-2012, 11:01 PM

My second choice would be Texarkana Phantom and it doesn't have any votes yet.:waitasec:

BOESP

12-23-2012, 09:38 PM

My second choice would be Texarkana Phantom and it doesn't have any votes yet.:waitasec:

Anyone who's seen "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" would definitely vote for this as number one or two!!!

STANDREID

12-23-2012, 11:00 PM

I agree 100%!

STANDREID

12-24-2012, 11:02 PM

Zodiac is the one I chose. He truly fit the description of the "boogey man".
Scary!

And about half agree.

LunaticFringe

12-28-2012, 10:33 PM

Colonial Parkway Killer.

I think I voted for another though. :) Zodiac Killer

nutkin

01-02-2013, 12:56 AM

The Killing Fields murders in League City, TX and others along the I-45 corridor

STANDREID

01-14-2013, 11:02 PM

The Killing Fields murders in League City, TX and others along the I-45 corridor

Is the 2011 film Texas Killing Fields based on or inspired by this case? If so, have you seen it and is it any good?

Dragonfyree

01-17-2013, 03:56 PM

I also voted for Zodiac, but I've always had real problems with the Axman as the more versions you read there seem to be a lot of misinformation, such as previous murders in 1914 or so that never occurred and that the widow of one of the victims killed a man she said was the Axman, which never happened.

During that same time there were axe murders going on between Louisiana and Texas along the railroad where dozens of people were killed. They were mainly mulatto families. Some times 4-5 people, (men, women and children) at a time.

STANDREID

01-17-2013, 07:19 PM

Then you have more ax murders in the Midwest around the same time including Villisca.

Dragonfyree

01-18-2013, 10:24 AM

Then you have more ax murders in the Midwest around the same time including Villisca.

I know there was another mass ax murder either a few days before or after the Villisca murders within a couple hundred miles..

STANDREID

02-14-2013, 11:01 PM

Yes, most of the Midwest ones (even Villisca by some) are blamed on Henry Lee Moore although he was never convicted of killing anyone other than his mother and grandmother. He was actually released from prison in the late 1940s and received a pardon sometime around 1955.

STANDREID

02-25-2013, 07:00 PM

Henry Lee Moore was actually pardoned in 1956, after which, all trace of him was lost. He was born 1874 so we can safely say that he is long gone.

STANDREID

02-25-2013, 11:02 PM

Anyone who's seen "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" would definitely vote for this as number one or two!!!

It's unashamedly low budget but it sets the standard for making a movie about an unsolved serial killer case.

EmmaliLucia

03-01-2013, 08:46 PM

Cleveland Torso Slayer.

Just the fact that not only did he never get caught, only TWO (three if you count possible victims) of his/her TWELVE (fifteen possible) victims were even identified.

STANDREID

03-01-2013, 11:11 PM

Anyone who's seen "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" would definitely vote for this as number one or two!!!

As per The Town That Dreaded Sundown Wiki page, MGM is scheduled to remake this movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Brad Pitt. Several years ago a British director was said to be remaking this film but that project apparently fell through.

iron_angel

03-03-2013, 03:05 PM

I voted others. Although this serial killer was known for his 24+ murders, he had never been charged as he was already on the run. The way he eluded the authority, never to be heard of again always fascinated me. His murders arent unsolved as he is known for them but what is unvolved is his where-abouts after he flew from his country during WW1 and how many more murders he was responsible for and I'm talking about Bela Kiss

If we are talking merely about unsolved murders with an unknown assaillant then I would have to go with the Zodiac as well as the Toronto angel of death from the very early 80's

Tober

03-03-2013, 11:10 PM

Zodiac takes it (so far); he is thrilled.

STANDREID

03-20-2013, 07:27 AM

If he's still living and sees it, I'm sure that's true.

STANDREID

05-01-2013, 07:12 AM

Cleveland Torso Slayer.

Just the fact that not only did he never get caught, only TWO (three if you count possible victims) of his/her TWELVE (fifteen possible) victims were even identified.

I'm with you.