10 Unanswered True Crime Mysteries

10 Unanswered True Crime Mysteries

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at our picks for 10 Unanswered True Crime Mysteries.

For this list, we’ll be puzzling over infamous true crime cases in history.

Which of these unanswered mysteries leaves you scratching your head? Let us know in the comments.

#10: Escape From Alcatraz

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was a heavily fortified prison isolated on an island and surrounded by cold water with strong currents. For these reasons, Alcatraz was considered inescapable. But all that changed on the night of June 11, 1962. Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris fooled prison guards with papier-mâché dummy heads and successfully broke out of the prison. The inmates constructed an inflatable raft from their prison-issued raincoats, which they pushed out into the waves, never to be seen again. Although the FBI closed its case in 1979, concluding that the escapees most likely drowned in the freezing waters, no conclusive evidence exists to support that. There have been reported sightings of the men around the world.

#9: Disembodied Feet

In August of 2007, a young girl discovered a sneaker with a full human foot inside on the shore of a beach in British Columbia, Canada. This subsequently led to a series of discoveries of other human feet in shoes on coasts in British Columbia and Washington in the United States. At least 20 feet have been discovered, with the most recent at the time of writing being found on New Year’s Day, 2019. Most of the detached feet have been identified and linked to missing people, leading to speculation that they belonged to people who jumped off a bridge at some point. With investigations still afoot, the exact source of the severed limbs remains a mystery.

#8: The Death of Edgar Allan Poe

Prolific writer and critic Edgar Allan Poe led a remarkable life that came to a mystifying end on October 7, 1849. Ten days prior, Poe embarked on a journey from Richmond, Virginia to New York City, but was later found in Baltimore, Maryland. He was in a state described as “beastly intoxication,” and wearing tattered clothes that didn’t belong to him. Poe was barely coherent and never could explain what exactly had happened to him. Then he died four days later. Several theories for his delirium and subsequent death exist, including severe depression. Another possibility was a form of electoral fraud called cooping, where victims were forcefully given alcohol and made to vote for a particular party.

#7: The Mystery of the Mary Celeste

In November 1872, the Mary Celeste embarked on her most eventful voyage with Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife and daughter, and seven crew members aboard. About a month later, the Mary Celeste was found floating unsteadily on the Atlantic Ocean. None of the occupants were on board, but their personal belongings and the ship’s cargo were fully intact. The ship’s only lifeboat had been taken and the last daily log was dated nine days prior. Although there were no signs of foul play, investigators touted a mutiny by the crew or piracy by other ship crews as possible explanations for the mystery.

#6: The Chicago Tylenol Murders

This case is the reason we now have tamper-resistant pill bottles. In September of 1982, the Chicago metropolitan area was shaken by the deaths of seven people who recently ingested Tylenol pills. An investigation revealed that the pills had been laced with potassium cyanide. The manufacturer Johnson & Johnson stopped further Tylenol production and recalled about 31 million bottles from around the country. Multiple copycat attacks occurred afterwards, resulting in more deaths, but these were largely curbed with the bottle packaging reforms. To this day, no one has ever been charged with orchestrating the tragic poisonings.

#5: The Wall Street Bombing

It was lunchtime on Thursday, September 16, 1920. Businessmen, brokers, messengers, and clerks walked up and down the busy Financial District in Manhattan, New York. A horse-drawn wagon pulled up just across the street from the JP Morgan building and the driver quickly deserted the scene. Shortly after, the carriage blew up into tiny fragments, killing 38 people and injuring several hundred more. Dead set on opening back up for business the next day, crews were hired to clean up the rubble overnight, thereby ruining potentially valuable evidence. Hundreds of people were interviewed in the course of a three-year investigation that yielded little to no useful information, and the case was closed without identifying the bombers.

#4: The Disappearance of the Sodders

The story of the Sodder family and the fire that engulfed their West Virginia home in 1945, is indeed a mysterious one. Around 1:30am that morning on Christmas Eve, Jennie Sodder was awoken by the smell of smoke. She escaped the house with her husband George, and four of their children. Their other five remained upstairs and were initially believed to have burnt to ash along with the house. However, no human remains were found in the ruins, leading the authorities to conclude that they were completely cremated by the fire. Based on certain questionable factors and reported sightings, the remaining members of the Sodder family believed then, and still do, that they never died in the fire.

#3: The Gardner Museum Heist

In the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, several empty frames hang in between the many valuable art pieces. These empty frames also once held valuable artworks, which were stolen on the night of March 18, 1990. At 1:24am that morning, two men dressed in police uniforms entered the museum. They successfully carted away thirteen art pieces valued at over $500 million. With minimal DNA evidence and a host of unreliable witnesses and informants, the FBI’s investigation remains open to this day. The museum set a $10 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the artworks.

#2: The Death of JonBenét Ramsey

On the morning of December 26, 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey found a ransom note on the staircase. The note demanded money in exchange for the return of beauty queen JonBenét. She was then reported missing by her mother, Patsy. Hours later, JonBenét’s body was found in the basement by her father, John. Due to multiple people dropping by the house following the discovery of the ransom note, the crime scene was contaminated, and potential evidence destroyed. The case quickly became a media sensation, and all members of the Ramsey family were considered suspects at some point. Sadly, to this day, the question of who took the innocent JonBenét’s life remains unanswered.

#1: The Murders of Jack the Ripper

It’s a mystery that has confounded the world for well over a century. The reign of terror unleashed on East London by the serial killer infamously known as Jack the Ripper resulted in the deaths of five women - known as the Canonical Five. However, it is speculated that the total number may be as high as eleven. In a move that would go on to inspire other notorious killers, cryptic letters were sent to the police and the media taunting their investigations. Most of the letters proved to be hoaxes, though. The case of Jack the Ripper became a worldwide media frenzy and despite countless theories and possible suspects named, the true identity of the gruesome killer remains unknown.