During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run" began targeting drifters and residents of Cleveland's shanty towns. The murders were especially gruesome because the killer not only beheaded and dismembered at least a dozen people, but he also often split their torsos down the middle. Accordingly, authorities believed the criminal to be a current or former butcher or anatomy specialist. Two separate arrests were made, but one was released due to insufficient evidence. The other claimed his confession had been forced and later killed himself – though fellow inmates may have been responsible. This case is most famous because Elliot Ness was Public Safety Director at the time, and legend tells that he knew the killer's identity but lacked necessary evidence to arrest.
Texarkana Moonlight Murders
In 1946, a series of murders in and around Texarkana sent the Texas town into a panic. In February that year, the "Phantom Killer" started attacking couples at dusk on the weekend, beginning with Jimmy Hollis and Mary Larey, who both survived. The next attack, just 4 weeks later, took the lives of both Richard Griffin and Polly Ann Moorer, while another couple, Paul Martin and Betty Jo Booker, met the same fate 3 weeks later. In response, residents armed themselves, police increased patrols, businesses closed early, and the Texas Rangers investigated. After the "phantom" attacked Katie Starks and killed her husband Virgil, the murders stopped – but would live on by inspiring the film, (1976).
Boy in the Box
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On February 25, 1957, a trapper in the Fox Chase area of Philadelphia, PA stumbled upon a blanket-covered body stuffed into a cardboard box. Although he kept silent to avoid having his traps confiscated, a passing college student later reported the body. The naked victim was 4 to 6 years old with signs of severe malnourishment, a lifetime of beatings, and recently shorn hair. Further searches unearthed a child's cap, scarf, and handkerchief, while media attention brought forth several confessions. Most strikingly, one woman claimed her abusive mother had purchased, tortured, and accidentally murdered the boy before dumping his body. In 2016, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children added his facial reconstruction to their database, but, to this day, the identity and death of "America's Unknown Child" remains a mystery.
Keddie Murders in Cabin 28
In 1981, Glenna "Sue" Sharp was staying with her 5 children in cabin #28 in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Keddie, California. Between the evening of April 11 and the morning of April 12, an unknown individual used a claw hammer to brutally slaughter Sue, her 15-year-old son John, and his 17-year-old friend Dana Wingate. The eldest Sharp daughter had slept over next door and discovered the bodies in the morning, though her 12-year-old sister Tina had disappeared. Miraculously, her youngest brother and his friend had slept through the attack, with only a door keeping them safe. No arrests were ever made, though Tina's skull was unearthed years later near Feather Falls, and the cabin itself was destroyed in 2004.
Long Island Serial Killer
The man alternately known as the "Gilgo Beach Killer" or "Craigslist Ripper" killed 10 to 16 people associated with prostitution over 2 decades. His crimes were discovered in 2010 when 24-year-old escort Shannan Gilbert went missing in Oak Beach. Although she was found months later, having drowned in a nearby swamp, a related search unearthed a woman's remains in a burlap sack along Ocean Parkway, with several more found soon thereafter. By April 2011, many more had been found at dump sites near Long Island, Gilgo Beach, and Oak Beach, with one murder dating back to 1996. Police believed the killer to be a 20 to 40-year-old white male familiar with the area and with law enforcement, but he was never caught and remains at large, haunting the Long Island area with the legacy of his terrible crimes and the possible victims that have yet to be found.
