From MSN...Top 10 unsolved crimes

Whitechapel
Everyone knows who murdered five (maybe more) prostitutes during 1888 in London's Whitechapel district: Jack the Ripper. The mystery is his real identity

Black Dahlia
The 1947 slaying of 22-year-old aspiring starlet Elizabeth Short, dubbed the Black Dahlia for her dark hair and wardrobe, unfolded like a film noir.

Marilyn Sheppard
Cleveland neurosurgeon Dr. Sam Sheppard was charged with the July 1954 murder of his 31-year-old pregnant wife, Marilyn, while their 7-year-old son slept in the next room.

The Zodiac Killings
Creepiness incarnate, the Bay Area's Zodiac Killer shot to death two teens in December 1968 who had parked on a rural road to make out.

D.B. Cooper
On Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, D.B. Cooper, the passenger in seat 18E on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 from Portland, Ore., to Seattle, threatened to blow up the plane unless he received $200,000 cash

Jimmy Hoffa
Deposed Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa vanished in July 1975 from a Detroit restaurant

Ciudad Juaréz
This past July in Juaréz, Mexico, authorities found the body of Alma Brisa Molina Baca, a 34-year-old factory worker who had been raped and strangled

Gardner Museum
Art historians have been cringing since St. Patrick's Day, 1990, when two men stole 13 paintings worth an estimated $300 million from Boston's Gardner Museum

Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls
A drive-by shooter killed 25-year-old rapper Tupac Shakur in September 1996, in Las Vegas

JonBenét Ramsey
A murder made in tabloid heaven: Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey, daughter of a wealthy Boulder, Colo., executive and his socially ambitious wife, was found dead in the basement of the family home after Christmas, 1996

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6124626?GT1=5936

Read the book written by Steve Hodel, a former homicide officer in Hollywood, CA.

AFTER HIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN, he was able to uncover insurmountable proof that his father is the killer of Black Dahlia. His father was a major suspect in the case from day 1 and had been interrogated. Steve has been able to obtain numerous files regarding the proof required that his father killed Elizabeth Short.

Interesting read, although goes on too much in "detective" detail at times.

I am leaning to the fact that he may have found the killer. How sad it was his father.

I saw a documentary on that...from what was presented in the show, it does seem he is correct in thinking his father was the killer.

I also saw a documentary on that case, it seemed there was some inconsistant accounts. A handwriting analysis, which the author claimed were indeed his fathers handwriting on the notes written to police from the killer, were proven inconclusively to be that of his father. I know there are methods to discount or prove any theory, but I feel, despite the lack of physical evidence, circumstantial evidence definately points to the mans father. He was evidently a bad man, having sex with his daughter and allowing his friends to do the same.


In the Jack the Ripper case the most recent and interesting claim of 'SOLVED' is from Patricia Cornwell who claims that the artist Walter Sickert was indeed Jack the Ripper. She bases this on examination of his paintings, some of which were violent depictions of naked women, and also on DNA sample she says to have gotten from one of the Ripper letters and matched with Sickerts. I believe it is a letter written by Sickert that she removed the sample from for comparison. The DNA test found the samples to be a match, so she proclaimed Walter Sickert the killer, however, there is no evidence to support that this Ripper letter was in fact from the killer. Not all the letters sent to the press and police were considered actual Ripper correspondance. Only a handful were deemed as coming from the killer. There are several very good suspects for the Ripper murders, but Walter Sickert isn't quite as high on the list as evidence collected by Patricia Cornwell suggests. She may indeed be right, but there are more suspects, including a man named Aaron Kosminski who was clinically insane and roaming the streets of Whitechapel during the time of the killings. A fellow Jew identified him as Jack the Ripper, but would not testify fearing the backlash against the Jewish people of the area. Serial killers don't just stop killing for no reason. This man, it is believed, was found out and had a police escort everywhere he went for the remainder of his life. Interesting note: The police were out in force in Whitechapel, patroling to ensure safety amoungst the citizens. ONly a few weeks after the final known murder the patrols abruptly stopped, even though there had been longer gaps between the murders than this. It seems that Scotland Yard did infact have there man and made sure he never perpetuated the crimes again. Aaron Kosminski is just as viable a suspect as Walter Sickert.

Unsolved crimes are such an enduring thing to look at in our society, and while 120 year old crimes like the Whitechapel Murders will never be completely solved, the theories we come up with are intruiging. Scotland Yard no longer works on the case, it is closed as no witnesses or the killer would be alive today.

I can't believe that Tupac Shakur made the list and Chandra Levy didn't.

Oh, I just saw this on my homepage the other day and didn't have time to check it out. The list is interesting. I am surprised, too, about the inclusion of Tupac as opposed to some others that could or should have been on there. I suppose that was probably more for attention-grabbing value or to draw in a diverse reading audience. I saw the 48 hrs special on the Black Dahila case, it was very interesting and actually kind of scary to see how long the list of suspects originally was.

There are so many unsolved cases that I think it would be very debatable to say which should make the top 10, just in this forum (for example) alone. I wish there was a tv network that covered cold cases in more depth, rather than just occasional specials or other one-time shows. There are so many online databases now that they could pull from for information.

englishleigh said:

I can't believe that Tupac Shakur made the list and Chandra Levy didn't.

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Although the Chandra case remains technically "unsloved", I think it didnt make the list because there isnt much "mystery" as to who was involved.

This top ten list is just some writer (or writer's) opinion. Like previous posters said, there are just too many cases and what is in the top ten is just personal opinion. I think all of us who post here have our own top ten list. While all cold cases bother us, some bother us more than others, some stay with us and haunt us more. You can tell just by who starts and posts on certain threads. Being a big popular news story doesn't nessesarily put a case in my top ten.

I agree, there are enough cold cases and enough data available now that a tv show that would spotlight one of these cases a week would be such a great idea. Why do they have fictional cold case shows when there are thousands of real cold cases out there that could maybe be solved if they were brought to the public's attention!!??

Gary Condit was involved in the Chandra Levy case. A couple of months ago, the police were looking for a man who threw parties for Congressmen. I haven't heard anything since. Does anyone know any more?
When thinking who stood to gain when the WTC was attacked, I come up with Gary Condit. He was the main news story that morning. And then a plane flew into one of the towers. Now he can sue publications that destroyed his career and win. I'm not saying the WTC had anything to do with Gary Condit. Of course not. But that was pretty much the end of his infamy.
I still say he murdered or had murdered Chandra Levy.
Kathy C

I read the Steve Hodel book and he proved to me that his father was the killer. Mr. Hodel and I exchanged emails a few times about the Karyn Kupcinet case in 1963. James Ellroy asked him to look into it, but he couldn't get the file from the LA Sheriff's Dept. He felt it was too far-fetched that his father or his father's accomplice murdered her. I had to agree.

Kathy C

Kathy, I think you are right in your assumptions on Condit being involved in the Levy murder. Now, can it be proven? I dunno, but I think it will forever be assumed he was involved.

miles_draken said:

Interesting note: The police were out in force in Whitechapel, patroling to ensure safety amoungst the citizens. ONly a few weeks after the final known murder the patrols abruptly stopped, even though there had been longer gaps between the murders than this. It seems that Scotland Yard did infact have there man and made sure he never perpetuated the crimes again. Aaron Kosminski is just as viable a suspect as Walter Sickert.

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Scotland Yard stopped their patrols abruptly precisely because Aaron Kosminski was put away in the loony bin, who was most likely Jack the Ripper.

Walter Sickert is an absurd suspect.

englishleigh said:

I can't believe that Tupac Shakur made the list and Chandra Levy didn't.

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Timex said:

Although the Chandra case remains technically "unsloved", I think it didnt make the list because there isnt much "mystery" as to who was involved.

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Timex said:

Kathy, I think you are right in your assumptions on Condit being involved in the Levy murder. Now, can it be proven? I dunno, but I think it will forever be assumed he was involved.

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Interesting to note, that while most who followed this case assumed Chandra Levy's murderer was politician Gary Condit, he indeed was never charged or even officially named as a suspect.

In March 2009, Washington D.C. investigators arrested a 27 yr. old illegal immigrant from El Salvador named Ingmar A. Guandique, whom had previously been convicted of assaulting two other women in the same park where Chandra's remains were found.

The trial date is set for January 27, 2010.

p7byrd said:

Scotland Yard stopped their patrols abruptly precisely because Aaron Kosminski was put away in the loony bin, who was most likely Jack the Ripper.

Walter Sickert is an absurd suspect.

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Aaron Kosminski's family put him away because he tried to attack his sister with a knife.

I don't think Walter Sickert was ever a viable suspect.

I believe by "Top 10" they mean the most well known/notorious/biggest unsolved cases in history. Although, I don't know how well known that museum robbery is but I think they included it because it's different from your average murder/missing person. There are some very bizarre and shocking cases (Keddie murders, Oklahoma girl scouts) but they would never be on a list like this, because they aren't huge cases. Most of the cases listed have had books, TV specials, and even movies made about them.

I admire Patricia Cornwell's fiction books, but I think she was way off the mark with Walter Sickert as a suspect.

Timex said:

I saw a documentary on that...from what was presented in the show, it does seem he is correct in thinking his father was the killer.

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If you weren't than I apologize if you were I think you must have misunderstood. His son, Sam Reese has tried for years to prove his father's innocence and believes he has. DNA blood testing did not match Dr Sam but did match the gardner, Richard Eberling, who is in prison (unless he has been released in the last few years or died). From the moment it happened the Police refused to believe anyone but Dr Sam killed his wife. The police didn't even notice she appeared to have been raped. He was tried and convicted by the press. My mother died believing in his innocence and so will I. I met him when I was a child, after his conviction was overturned. He died because he allowed medical testing to be done on him. He wasn't perfect but he wasn't a killer.................. The police will NEVER admit they made a mistake and neither will the press.

DR SAM WAS INNOCENT!

I've read every book ever written about the Sheppard case and I'm convinced of Dr. Sheppard's innocence. Speaking of doctors, I was surprised not to see the Jeff McDonald case on the list.

Stella said:

I've read every book ever written about the Sheppard case and I'm convinced of Dr. Sheppard's innocence. Speaking of doctors, I was surprised not to see the Jeff McDonald case on the list.

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Yes. That was surprising. I thought that The Original Nightstalker should have made the list, too (I think there is a possible medical or hospital association with him).

Ambercat said:

Yes. That was surprising. I thought that The Original Nightstalker should have made the list, too (I think there is a possible medical or hospital association with him).

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I agree. I believe Dr Sam had so much intrigue that they included him. I just wish they would admit he was an innocent man.