18 Vintage Murder Cases You Probably Haven't Heard Of Until Now

What the hell.

We asked the BuzzFeed Community which murder cases from before 1960 fascinate them the most. Here are the terrifying results.

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1. Amelia Dyer's murders, late 1800s

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

No one knows exactly when Dyer, who was born in 1837, started murdering children. She'd get paid to adopt unwanted babies, and then would kill and dispose of them. Her total toll is unknown, but could be as many as 400 bodies. She was executed in 1896.

—Emily Holland, Facebook

2. The Bath School Disaster, 1927

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

On May 18, 1927, Michigan man Andrew Kehoe blew up a local school using explosives he'd gained from World War I surplus. Afterward, he showed up with a rifle, shot the superintendent, a few others, and finally, himself. This was America's first school bombing, and the deadliest school massacre of all time.

—sarahm158

3. The shooting of William Desmond Taylor, 1922

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

Taylor was a film director who was found shot to death in his own home. Though the case is considered to be "unsolved," much evidence points to a former actress named Mary Miles Minter, who starred in some of his films and was supposedly in love with him.

—pikabruce

4. Dr. Oliver Haugh's murders, 1905

Public Domain, Los Angeles Herald

Oliver Haugh was a doctor who murdered his parents and brother in a fire, and was suspected of killing multiple women. He pleaded insanity for his crimes, but when the state of Ohio declared him legally sane, he was electrocuted in 1907.

—lorynnw

5. Cleveland Torso Murders/Kingsbury Run Murders, 1930s

Wikipedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0

Someone killed and dismembered at least 12 people in the 1930s, and the criminal was never found. Body parts were scattered all over Cleveland — the first parts found by kids playing in a field — and only two of the 12 victims were ever identified.

—helen1990t

6. The murder of Patricia Jones, 1960

Fair Use

Sharon Kinne was having an affair with Patricia Jones's husband. When he decided to end their tryst, Sharon called Patricia, saying Mr. Jones was sleeping with Patricia's sister, and that she'd meet her to talk about it. That night, Sharon shot Patricia to death. Sharon was sent to prison, but escaped in 1969 and has been missing ever since.

—Colleen Sweeney, Facebook

7. Jack the Ripper, 1888–1891

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

We've all heard the name, but no one knows the true identity of Jack The Ripper. The murderer mutilated and killed at least five sex workers in London over a three-year period. While we don't know much about who he or she could be, evidence suggests they knew a thing or two about human anatomy.

—michaelas40

8. Hinterkaifeck Farmstead murders, 1922

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain / ThinkStock

One evening in March 1922, six members of the Gruber family, who lived on Hinterkaifeck farm in Germany, were brutally murdered with a mattock. No one knows who committed the crime, and 95 years later, the mystery remains unsolved.

—dyna

9. The murder of Suzanne Degnan, 1946

Fair Use

She was 6 years old when she was kidnapped from her Chicago bedroom, with nothing left behind but a ransom note. Her head was found in a sewer soon after, and other body parts found around her neighborhood. Fingerprints on the ransom note matched a man named William Heirens, who admitted to the crime, but later said he only confessed as part of a plea deal that allowed him to live.

—pepin

10. The murder committed by Jesse Pomeroy, 1874

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

He often mutilated other kids with knives and belts, but in April 1874, when he was 14, he took his beatings too far. He killed a girl named Katie Curran, and threw her body in the basement of his mom's dress shop where it was later found. He was the youngest person ever in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be convicted of first-degree murder.

—jessr42

11. The murder of The Lady of the Lake, 1937

Fair Use, Wikipedia Commons / CC BY 3.0

In December 1937, Washington waitress Hallie Illingworth went missing. Her body surfaced in nearby Lake Crescent three years later, almost perfectly preserved by its freezing waters. It turns out her husband killed her and tried to weigh her down, but her restraints had decayed, allowing her to float to the surface.

—10super3

12. The Boy in the Box, 1957

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Wikipedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Public Domain

The unidentified boy was found in Philadelphia in 1957 in a cardboard box, naked and covered in a blanket. He was a homicide victim and was possibly abused by his parents, as evidenced by the damage to his body. He's estimated to have been 4 or 5 years old at the time of his death.

—sashaf45

13. The murders of the Grimes sisters, 1956

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

Barbara, 15, and Patricia, 13, went to see a movie in Chicago in December 1956, but never came home — launching one of the biggest missing persons cases in Chicago history. Their naked, lifeless bodies were found a month later on the side of a road, presumed to have been thrown out of a car. The case remains unsolved.

—dw10spn67

14. The Parker-Hulme case, 1954

Charmed Productions

These New Zealand girls had a dangerously co-dependent relationship, in which they spent most of their time in a fantasy world they created. When their parents tried to separate them in 1954 by sending Juliet to live in South Africa, the girls murdered Pauline’s mother. The movie Heavenly Creatures is based on their story.

—frenchkiwi

15. The murder of Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia, 1947

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain / Flickr Creative Commons / David Zellaby

In 1947, her body was was found in Los Angeles, mutilated and sliced in half at the waist. Her organs had been pulled out, and she was drained of all blood and posed in a provocative position. There have been many suspects, but the crime is still unsolved.

—sheav4

16. The "Little Lord Fauntleroy" case, 1921

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

The unidentified body of a 5- to 7-year-old boy was found in a pond in Wisconsin in March 1921. He'd been hit with a blunt object, and could've been lying there for months. In 1949, a medical examiner theorized the boy could've been 6-year-old Homer Lemay, who'd disappeared around the same time this boy died.

—jessalynn1985

17. The murder of Robert Franks, 1924

Wikipedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 de

University of Chicago students Leopold and Loeb simply decided they wanted to commit "the perfect crime," because they assumed they could get away with it. They chose Robert Franks, a wealthy 14-year-old who was also Loeb's cousin, to kidnap and murder. Loeb was killed in prison, while Leopold lived until his release, and died in 1971.

—debrad49

18. And Belle Gunness's murders, late 1800s–early 1900s

Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

She'd lure men to her farm, take out life insurance policies on them OR have them bring money so they could "invest in her growing property", kill them, then feed them to her pigs. She also killed most of her boyfriends, her two husbands, and both of her daughters. She was not f**king around.

—katgrace13

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