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

20th century unsolved serial killer of most interest

  • Cincinnnati Streetcar Killer 1904-10

    Votes: 5 1.8%
  • New Orleans Axeman 1918-19

    Votes: 11 3.9%
  • Cleveland Torso Slayer 1934-38

    Votes: 16 5.7%
  • Texarkana Phantom 1946

    Votes: 7 2.5%
  • Boston Strangler 1962-64

    Votes: 7 2.5%
  • Jack the Stripper 1963-65

    Votes: 7 2.5%
  • Bible John 1968-69

    Votes: 7 2.5%
  • Zodiac 1968-69

    Votes: 126 44.8%
  • Babysitter 1976-77

    Votes: 11 3.9%
  • Original Night Stalker 1979-85

    Votes: 63 22.4%
  • Another please explain

    Votes: 21 7.5%

  • Total voters
    281

STANDREID

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Who are you most intrigued by regarding unsolved serial killers of the Twentieth Century?
 
Tough to pick. But I went with the Axeman of New Orleans.
 
That's a big one PATX and coming up on its centennial too.
 
I voted for the Zodiac. I would love for LE to figure out who he is.
 
Yep Jen - that's the most popular choice as I expected. It will be interesting to see who comes in second.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Another factor is how you define serial killer.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
I just added the third vote for 'other'. My choice is Richard Biegenwald of New Jersey. My reason 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...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.
 
Hmm, it looks like the three most recent are also the three that generate the most interest.
 
And, the two with no votes are among the oldest 4.
 
All but 3 are in my lifetime or maybe all but 2 if you count the 1950 Cleveland murder.:what:
 

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