unseen police crime scene investigation part 2 (+18)

 

warning

this rare unseen crime scene investigation photos is bloody, graphic content is not for minors or underage

please note before continue watching this is (nsfw) it's not for sensitive or weak-hearted people.

you have been warned (+18)

Double exposure: the Buck Ruxton case and the triumph of forensic reconstruction

On September 14, 1935, Dr. Buck Ruxton, in a jealous rage, murdered his wife Isabella, in their house in Lancashire, England. He also killed Mary Rogerson, a nursemaid who probably witnessed the attack on her mistress.

Dr. Ruxton dismembered his victims, tried to destroy their fingerprints, birthmarks, and other features, and then scattered the remains.

When police recovered the jumbled body parts, the case became known as the "Jigsaw Murders." Circumstantial evidence implicated Ruxton, but prosecutors needed to make a precise identification of the victims.

Using photonegative portraits of Mrs. Ruxton and Mary Rogerson to aid in the reconstruction, forensic pathologists John Glaister Jr. and James Couper Brash sorted and reassembled the body parts.

The team of pathologists, dentists, entomologists, and other specialists worked together to make the bodies of the victims—and perpetrator—visible and identifiable.

At the same time, the figure of the forensic expert—Dr. Glaister especially—became visible in court and the press.

Celebrated as a landmark of forensic science, the Ruxton case fostered public faith in scientific crime investigation.

Body of Ida Johnson found dead in a bedroom, October 1, 1915

Perspectometric framing of Monsieur Falla, murdered in his sleep, in the corridor of his apartment at 160 Rue du Temple in Paris on August 27, 1905.

While his legs are still raised due to rigor mortis, the fabric around his neck would seem to indicate death by strangulation.

Madame Debeinche was found lying dead on the floor of her apartment on 9 rue Chalgrin, on May 8, 1903. “The brownish color of the hands and feet correspond to a putrefaction of the body… 

How long ago was the crime committed?”, wonders Philippe Charlier, before judging that it’s possible that such a scene was the result of a struggle with violent blows.

Valentine Botelin, following her autopsy on September 14, 1904.

After her head and hair were cleaned, the police were able to observe three projectiles from a firearm on the woman’s temple and left cheek.

On May 31, 1905, in the middle of the night, King of Spain Alphonse XIII and President of France Émile Loubet fell victims to an attempted bombing at the colonnade of the Louvre, while they were passing by car.

“The royal processionwas driving on L’avenue de l’Opéra, which was very brightly lit. Just as they were turning at the corner of Rue de Rohan and Rue de Rivoli, a detonation went off like a shot from a cannon; a yellow flame shone to the left of the King’s car.

A horse was lifted off the ground, then fell – heavily, dead, disemboweled. Another horse bolted and ran into the masses of onlookers along the sidewalks of rue de Rivoli.

A dreadful panic overtook the crowd who fled into a frenzy. Cries of pain resounded,” narrated the Petit Journal dated June 11, 1905.

Although the two heads of state made it out without a scratch, twenty people were injured and one horse was killed.

This crime dating from September 5, 1910 was committed using vitriol, in the bedroom of 23 Passage de Thionville.

The bed, the sheets and the floor are covered in blood and the fabric was partially burned by acid. “No cadaver.

Did the victim have the time to flee and get treated at a hospital?

Unless the body had already been taken to the morgue,” reflects Philippe Charlier.

On August 9, 1913, an elderly woman was found lying face down at 31 Rue des Rosiers in Saint-Ouen.

The birds seen in their cages in the background seem to have been the only witnesses to the crime.

Murder victim Clémentine Pichon on her autopsy table.

On November 30, 1897, Xavier-Ange Carrara, a 34 year-old mushroom farmer from Kremlin-Bicêtre, killed Augustin Lamarre, a collection clerk and then burned the body.

After being declared guilty, the man would be executed on June 18, 1898, at Place de la Roquette in Paris.

Anatole Deibler, considered to be the best French executioner at the time would take on the task and make the most of it by keeping a button featuring a horse’s head from the jacket of the condemned killer.

Jules Jacques Schoenën, age 6, lived with his parents at 7 rue Caillé before being murdered by a 16-year-old on February 25, 1881.

He was found with his hands tied, his jacket pierced and his shirt stained with dried blood. This case is one of the first that were photographed.

A man whose identity the police was unable to be identified.

He was discovered tied and bound in the Lac Daumesnil in the Bois de Vincennes in November 1912.

Photos courtesy of the Prefecture of Police of Paris.

An anthropometric record of Raoul Villain – assassin of Jean Jaurès.

The man was acquitted in 1919.

His record is characteristic of the criminological system that Bertillon put in place.

This includes fingerprinting, precise measurements and some of the assassin’s biographical data.

In December 1978, police investigators obtained a search warrant for Gacy’s suburban Chicago home and discovered a total of 29 bodies on the property, 26 of which were in a crawl space underneath the house and the other three of which were found in the backyard.

Corpse Found in Bryant Park

May 5, 1937: That’s Stanley Mannex, a 47-year-old Turkish immigrant, in the ivy.

His body turned up early that morning behind the New York Public Library.

Madame Veuve Bol was murdered in 1904 with her body being pictured as part of the first crime scenes images ever

The assassination of Madame Lecomte at 74 Rue de Martys

The murder of Madame Veuve Bol, in Paris, 1904

Elizabeth Short, dubbed the Black Dahlia by the tabloid press, was 22 years old when her mutilated body was found staged some six inches from the sidewalk of an empty lot in LA’s sprouting Leimert Park neighborhood on Jan. 15, 1947.

The 1947 Black Dahlia case remains one of the best-known unsolved murder cases in America. The victim, dubbed "The Black Dahlia" by the media, was a 22-year-old would-be actress named Elizabeth Short whose mutilated body (the corpse was cut in half) was found in Los Angeles by a mother out for a walk with her young child. There was no blood found at the scene. The woman who found her initially thought she'd stumbled across a store mannequin.

In all, almost 200 people have been suspected in Short's murder. A number of men and women even confessed to leaving her body in the vacant lot where she was found. Investigators have never been able to pinpoint the killer.

New York Daily Mirror front page article,

August 6, 1962

A policeman points to an empty Nembutal bottle on Marilyn's night stand, next to where she was found dead.

Marilyn's room

dead Marilyn in her bed

the toe tag morgue photo of Marilyn Monroe.

On the evening of August 4, 1962, American actress Marilyn Monroe died at age 36 of a barbiturate overdose inside her home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Her body was discovered before dawn the following morning, on August 5.

Monroe had been one of the most popular Hollywood stars during the 1950s and early 1960s, and was a top-billed actress for the preceding decade. Her films had grossed $200 million by the time of her death.

Monroe had suffered from mental illness and substance abuse, and she had not completed a film since The Misfits, released on February 1, 1961, which was a box-office disappointment.

Monroe had spent 1961 preoccupied with her various health problems, and in April 1962 had begun filming Something's Got to Give for 20th Century Fox, but the studio fired her in early June.

Fox publicly blamed Monroe for the production's problems, and in the weeks preceding her death she had attempted to repair her public image by giving several interviews to high-profile publications.

She also began negotiations with Fox on being re-hired for Something's Got to Give and for starring roles in other productions.

Among some of the oddities surrounding Marilyn's death are some facts about the drugs she supposedly took and the reaction those drugs have inside the body.

Head coroner Dr. Theodore Curphey would corroborate Noguchi's story that Marilyn died from a drug overdose of Nembutal and chloral hydrate.

He estimated that Marilyn had taken at least 50 pills at once, in spite of the fact that there was no water around! Another curiosity was with the type of drugs Marilyn had supposedly ingested. Nembutal capsules, when digested, leave a yellow discoloration on the lining of the intestine

But there was no such discoloration noted in Marilyn's autopsy.

In fact, no partially digested capsules even existed in her digestive tract.

Seems like on top of everything else, the autopsy was botched! Also, the "official" death certificate listed the cause of death as "probable suicide" with the word "probable" inscribed in pencil.

Lizzie Borden Took an Axe, Gave Her Mother 40

The Chilling Axe Murders of Lizzie Borden’s Parents

On August 4, 1892, the quiet town of Fall River, Massachusetts, became the scene of one of the most infamous and gruesome murders in American history.

The deaths of Andrew and Abby Borden, savagely killed in their family home, shocked the nation. Even more unsettling was the arrest and trial of Lizzie Borden, the youngest daughter, who was ultimately acquitted.

Today, the case remains one of the biggest mysteries in true crime lore, leaving questions unanswered over a century later.

The jurors in the Borden trial consisted of all men

Despite the overwhelming gravity of the murders, police struggled to identify a definitive suspect. Lizzie’s behavior during the initial investigation raised eyebrows.

Oddly calm for someone who had just encountered such heinous violence, her stories shifted under questioning. She claimed to have been in the barn during the murders, but no physical evidence supported this.

A search of the home uncovered a hatchet with a broken handle in the basement. Authorities suspected it could have been the murder weapon, but no blood was found on it.

That Day

The Borden household was known to have tensions simmering beneath its surface. Abby Borden, Lizzie's stepmother, was not on good terms with Lizzie and her older sister, Emma.

The sisters disliked Abby, believing she had married their father, Andrew Borden, for his considerable wealth. By the summer of 1892, property disputes and what is said to be a reduction of Lizzie and her sister’s inheritance had driven a wedge so deep that the sisters avoided interacting with their parents.

Abby Borden's body as it was found on the floor next to the bed

Abby Borden's body as it was found on the floor next to the bed

Andrew Borden's body as it was found on the couch. He had come home to take a nap.

Forensic evidence including the skulls of both Andrew and Abby Borden as well as the axe that was believed to have been used in the murders.

Around 9 a.m. on the morning of August 4, Abby Borden went upstairs to their guest room to tidy up.

This is where she met her end. According to forensic evidence, Abby was struck on the side of the head with a hatchet, causing her to fall face down on the floor.

Her assailant then delivered 17 ferocious blows to the back of her head. The scene was horrific, with blood pooling around Abby’s lifeless body in the guest room—a gruesome sight that would later haunt Fall River law enforcement.

Andrew Borden, a wealthy but notoriously frugal man, returned home around 10:30 a.m.

After being unable to unlock the front door on his own, the maid, Bridget Sullivan, assisted him. Bridget testified that shortly after Andrew entered the house, she overheard laughing from the upstairs where Abby’s body lay.

Not long after, Andrew settled on the living room couch for a nap. Minutes later, he, too, was butchered.

He sustained 10 to 11 blows to his head and face, one of which split his eye in two—a sign that he was likely asleep when the attack began.

Blood spattered the walls around him, creating a macabre scene in the sitting room.

It was Lizzie who would call out to Bridget. At approximately 11 a.m., she shouted, “Maggie, come quick! Father’s dead!” It was only after neighbors and police arrived that Abby’s body was discovered upstairs.

John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered at least thirty-three young men and boys between 1972 and 1978 in Norwood Park Township, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

He became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his public performances as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes.

John Wayne Gacy's Clown Suits

Gacy committed all of his known murders inside his ranch-style house. Typically, he would lure a victim to his home and dupe them into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick.

He would then rape and torture his captive before killing his victim by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his home, and three were buried elsewhere on his property; four were discarded in the Des Plaines River.

Gacy had previously been convicted in 1968 of the sodomy of a teenage boy in Waterloo, Iowa, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but served eighteen months.

He murdered his first victim in 1972, had murdered twice more by the end of 1975, and murdered at least thirty victims after his divorce from his second wife in 1976.

The investigation into the disappearance of Des Plaines teenager Robert Piest led to Gacy's arrest on December 21, 1978.

Gacy's conviction for thirty-three murders (by one individual) then covered the most homicides in United States legal history. Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980.

He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

Investigators carry the remains of a body found beneath the garage floor of John Wayne Gacy, the "Killer Clown," Dec. 22, 1978.

For six years, Gacy kidnapped, raped, and murdered upwards of 30 boys under the guise of a performing clown named "Pogo." When he was finally caught, 29 bodies were found under his house.

On the morning of May 9, 1994, Gacy was transferred to Stateville Correctional Center to be executed.

That afternoon, he was allowed a private picnic on the prison grounds with his family.

For his last meal, Gacy ordered a bucket of KFC, french fries, a dozen fried shrimp, fresh strawberries and a Diet Coke.

That evening, he received the last rites from a Catholic priest before being escorted to the Stateville execution chamber.

John Gacy crime scene

In the hours leading up to Gacy's execution, a crowd estimated at over 1,000 gathered outside the correctional center; a vocal majority were in favor of the execution, although a small number of anti-death penalty protesters were present.

Some of those in favor of the execution wore T-shirts hearkening to Gacy's previous community services as a clown and bearing satirical slogans such as "No tears for the clown".

john wayne gacy crime scene

At 12:40 a.m., the procedure to administer the lethal injection began, although the chemicals used in the execution solidified unexpectedly, clogging the IV tube.

The execution team replaced the clogged tube and the execution resumed. The entire procedure took 18 minutes.

Anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the prison officials' inexperience at conducting an execution.

This error apparently led to Illinois' adopting an alternative method of lethal injection.

One prosecutor at Gacy's trial, William Kunkle, said, "He got a much easier death than any of his victims."

Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (/rəˈmɪərɛz/; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), better known as Richard Ramirez, was an American serial killer, sex offender and burglar whose killing spree occurred in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area in the state of California.

From April 1984 to August 1985, Ramirez murdered at least fifteen people during various break-ins, with his crimes usually taking place after dark, leading to him being dubbed the Night Stalker, the Walk-In Killer, and the Valley Intruder.

As far as authorities know, he was 24 the first time he took a life. June 2021 marks 37 years since Ramirez's first murder — or, least, the first one that earned him a conviction.

Before his 26th birthday, he would kill at least 13 more people and commit at least 11 sexual assaults, in a wave of seemingly random attacks that terrified residents of Southern California in the summer of 1985.

Richard Ramirez

A bloodstained wall is all that's left behind in a scene from one of Richard Ramirez's crimes.

Dubbed the "Night Stalker," Ramirez terrorized Los Angeles in the 1980s, claiming the lives of 13 people.

His crimes were deemed so cruel and callous that they earned him a whopping 19 death penalties.

A shoe print

Both Hernandez and the abducted children described their attacker as tall and light-skinned with brown-stained teeth, a pungent odor and a Member's Only-style jacket.

In late spring 1985, Carrillo learned of another shoe print that might link the murders to the child abductions.

A child was taken from the Montebello area and assaulted at a nearby construction site. The cement at the site was still wet, and the print was extremely similar to the one found at the Zazzara home.

Two more Avia prints were found at the Sun Valley crime scene.

At this point, police released a composite drawing of the suspect.

He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 and died while awaiting execution in 2013.

Frankie Yale murder scene

Philip Gnolfo - Genna's gang gunman

Independent Chicago bookie, Robert Plummer in his trunk.

Alfred Rosenberg corpse (hanged) - 16.10.1946

Scalise, Anselmi and Guinta bodys

Members of the Ralph Sheldon gang after Frankie MacEarlane and Joe Saltis had nished with them

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven members of the North Side Gang were trapped in a garage, lined up against the wall, and shot to death by members of Al Capone's rival gang during a power struggle for control of Chicago. 1929.

Frank Capone Killed by the police

The bodies of two gangsters killed in the Touly Gang Shoot Out in Chicago, Illinois

Roger Touhy Death photo

Hymie Weiss

The body of Earl "Hymie" Weiss, leader of Chicago's North Side Gang. He was killed when Al Capone's men opened fire with a submachine gun on him and his associates while they were visiting a courthouse where an ally of his was on trial. 1926.

The murder scene of Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer, a powerful New York gangster in the 1920s and '30s who was ultimately killed in Newark, New jersey by an assassin hired by the Mafia Commission. The Commission had denied Schultz's request to murder the prosecutor that was targeting him. When he disobeyed and attempted the murder anyway, the Commission had him killed. 1935.

The dead body of Homer Van Meter, an associate of John Dillinger and a notorious bank robber, who was killed after fleeing police in St. Paul, Minn. 1934.

The body of Brooklyn mobster Frankie Yale. He was killed by unidentified rival gangsters following a car chase through the streets of New York. 1928.

The dead body of Al Capone associate Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe, who was shot through the head by mafia hitmen hired by a Chicago mob boss whose plans Gioe had unknowingly interfered with. 1954.

The burnt body of gangster Irving Feinstein, who was set on fire by Murder Inc. killers Harry Strauss and Martin Goldstein and left exposed in a lot in New York City. 1938.

The dead body of Joseph Rosen, a candy shop owner who was killed by Murder Inc. leader Louis "Lepke" Buchalter in his own store in Brooklyn. 1936.

The body of mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who was killed by an unknown assailant who shot him through a window with an M1 Carbine while he was staying at an associate's house in Beverly Hills. 1947.

Close-up of a corpse's battered and bloodied face. Angres, France. 1912.

Joe colosimo

Roger Touhy murder scene

LeRoy Luscomb is arrested for first-degree murder, accused of killing his wife with a deer rifle, on April 20, 1943

Police officers check robbery suspect David Perlman after he was beaten for resisting arrest on Nov. 4, 1953.

Police investigators observe the crime scene where Richard Peg Leg Lonergan was shot down by Al Capone at the Adonis Social Club, on Dec. 28, 1925.

A mystery witness using a disguise and an assumed name testifies against the Mafia on Dec. 2, 1969.

jfk death body in the morgue

Harvey Oswald jfk assassinator

Sharon Tate

Body of hooker killed by serial killer Joel Rifkin and placed inside an oil drum is investigated by police. 1992.

Mafia boss Paul Castellano lies dead after being killed in front of Sparks Steakhouse at 46th Street and Third Avenue. 1985.

police stand beside body of William mcguinness 1957

Crime scene rope stretched across the intersection of Hester and Mulberry Streets in Little Italy, blocking off Umberto's Clam House, where reputed mobster Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo was killed. 1972.

George Silva, 19, lies on the steps of a rooming house, dead after inhaling heroin. 1954.

Police examine the murder scene of infamous mafioso Albert Anastasia, gunned down in the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel. 1957.

Forensic detectives take the fingerprints of murdered store owner Joseph Gallichio, as he lies on the roof beside his cage of racing pigeons. 12 East 106th Street. 1941.

Murder victim and gangster David Beadle, also known as "David the Beetle," in front of Spot Beer Tavern in Manhattan. 1939.

Bullet holes line the back of the stage at the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated. 1965.

A crowd gathers around the body of John Masseria, Joe "The Boss" Masseria's brother, as police arrive at the murder scene on 19th Street. 1937.

Mafia kingpin Joe Masseria holds the ace of spades, "the death card," in his hand following his 1931 murder on the orders of infamous gangster "Lucky" Luciano in a Coney Island restaurant.

The brown 1968 Buick Skylark, belonging to Robert Violante, parked in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, New York City, where Violante and Stacy Moskowitz were shot by American serial killer, David Berkowitz (a.k.a. "Son of Sam"). Moskowitz died after the shooting, while Violante was partially blinded. 1977.

The scene of John Price's murder. Out of camera range, John's skin has been hung over a door and his head was cooking in a soup pot on the stove for when his children arrived home so the killer could traumatize them even further by serving them their dad for dinner:

Newspaper photographer Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee, examines a body stuffed into a trunk and deposited on a patch of waste ground in New York. Circa 1945.

The dead body of Andrew Borden, father of Lizzie Borden, in his house in Fall River, Mass. 1892.

Weegee photographs a human head at the scene of a murder. Circa 1945.

An investigator photographing bones at the old Dahmer house

Bundy crime scene photos

What was left of the UpStairs Lounge after the fire

The Boy in the Box, still in situ at the dumpsite chosen for his body

Starr Faithfull as she was found on the beach that day

The room where Virginia Rappe died

Grady "Lobster Boy" Stiles at the scene of his murder

Viola Liuzzo at the scene of her murder

Monster of Florence victims

Edward Evans, as the police found him trussed up for disposal

Gary Hinman's house after the murder, showing Manson graffiti

body being removed from DeFeo house

the upstairs bedroom in the DeFeo house

Charles Schmid exhuming Alleen Rowe's skull

Evelyn Foster's burned car

Sunday Morning Slasher crime scene, Ann Arbor, MI

Marilyn Sheppard in situ at the scene of her murder

Kenyon Clutter's death scene

Herb Clutter's death scene

Bonnie Clutter's death scene

Nancy Clutter's death scene

the Lawson family murders crime scene

the room in the Oslo Plaza Hotel where a woman was found shot in the head with all the labels removed from her clothes, no ID of any sort in her belongings, and no missing persons report matching her description

Atlanta Child Murders victim -- as all Atlanta streets had long since been cleared of children, the killer was forced to fall back on killing very young men like this one

the "Sumter County Does" in situ at the place where they were murdered, clearly identifiable but never identified

This is one of the crime scene photos from the attack on Sue White by Gerald Arthur Lee on 11/05/06 in Cherokee County, GA. Apparently, she's also known as "Verna White".

Workers at a boat stall dig for the victims of serial killer "Candy Man" Dean Corll on Aug. 9, 1973.

The skull lying in the wheelbarrow, pictured here, was identified as Dean Corll's 10th victim, Randell Lee Harvey, who vanished from the streets of Houston on March 11, 1971.

Over two and a half years, Corll and his 17-year-old accomplice kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed upwards of 28 young men and boys.

Pictured is one of the eight nurses murdered by serial killer Richard Speck as she is taken away on a gurney, July 1966.

Speck's mass murder spree lasted one night when he broke into a community hospital and killed every student nurse there he could get his hands on. When asked why he'd done it, he merely remarked: "It just wasn't their night."

Police assess the scene of one of Ted Bundy's many crimes.

Police assess the scene of one of Ted Bundy's many crimes.

This is one of the crime scene photos from the attack on Sue White by Gerald Arthur Lee on 11/05/06 in Cherokee County, GA. Apparently, she's also known as "Verna White".

Cleveland Torso Murderer

Detectives and Coroner S. Gerber examine the bones of two victims of the "Cleveland Torso Murderer," otherwise known as the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury," Aug. 16, 1938, in Cleveland, Ohio.

For four years starting in 1934, the Cleveland Torso Murderer killed, dismembered, and castrated 12 different victims. The killer was never identified.

Ed Gein

A chair taken from the home of Ed Gein. The base is upholstered in human skin, a detail that later helped inspire The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Jeffrey Dahmer Crime Scene Photos

A police photo from the home of Jeffrey Dhamer, showing a freezer full of human heads.

For over a decade, Dahmer lured young men to his home where he drugged, raped, and dismembered them. Many of them he then dissolved in a vat of acid he kept in his apartment. He also severed parts of his victims to eat or freeze.

The Zodiac Killer

A photo from the scene of one of the Zodiac Killer's grisly murders.

Throughout the 1960s and '70s, a still-unidentified murderer terrorized Northern California. The Zodiac Killer, taunted police with coded letters and threats while confessing to the murders of various people, including this 1969 murder of taxi driver Paul Stine.

Wojciech Frykowski

Abigail Folger

Marilyn Monroe lying dead in her bed with a detective pointing to prescription bottles.

CRIME SCENE, 1952. The body of Arnold Schuster (1928-1952), who was shot to death in Brooklyn by members of the Gambino crime family after he assisted in the capture of bank robber Willie Sutton, 1952.

BENJAMIN 'BUGSY' SIEGEL (1906-1947).

American mobster.

Siegel's body lies slain by gunfire on a couch in the house of girlfriend Virginia Hill, Beverly Hills, California, 20 June 1947.

man was shot to the head by mafia

Antonio Pemear was killed in his own home in New York City

bloodied couple lying dead in bed was titled ‘Double Homicide, taken in New York’ and taken in June 1915

Robert Green and Jacob Jagendorf fell during a bungled robbery attempt in 1915

The identity of the Zodiac Killer, who haunted Northern California from the late 1960s to the early ’70s leaving behind a trail of lifeless bodies, is still unknown.

This bizarre case involved a series of letters sent to three California newspapers. In many of the missives, an anonymous perpetrator confessed to the murders. Even more chilling, however, were the threats he made saying that if his letters were not published, he would go on a murderous rampage.

The letters, which continued through 1974, are not all believed to have been written by the same man. Police suspect that there may have been several copycats in the high-profile case. The unknown man who came to be known as the Zodiac Killer confessed to 37 murders. However, police can only verify seven attacks, five of them resulting in death. These are certainly the most famous murders in the 20th century United States.

Ed Gein under arrest.

When investigators searched the farm, what they found was a literal house of horrors. From the collection of body parts, they were able to determine that 15 women had fallen victim to the Plainfield Ghoul.

Gein was incarcerated for life in a state mental facility without the possibility of release. He died of cancer in 1984.

Ed Gein crime scene

Ed Gein is one of the most notorious criminals in U.S. history. Known as “the Butcher of Plainfield,” he murdered two women—Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan—and robbed graves to use the body parts of women to make household items and clothing.

This image of Ed Gein murder victim Bernice Worden appeared in the Monday, November 18, 1957 edition of The Milwaukee Journal.

It shows Worden pictured in her Plainfield hardware store in 1956. The photo originally appeared in the Plainfield Sun.

Some also suspect Gein killed his brother, who died in mysterious circumstances during a fire. The death, however, was ruled an accident.

Ed Gein at the Waushara county Jail in Wautoma on November 18, 1957.

Ed Gein came to the attention of police in 1957, when Worden, a hardware store owner, went missing after last being seen with Gein.

human bones and skin products

When law enforcement officials visited his farm, they found Worden’s body hanging by her feet in a shed. She had been fatally shot, eviscerated, and decapitated.

Her head was in a box. During the search authorities also discovered the head of Mary Hogan, a tavern operator who had disappeared in 1954.

Ed Gein was followed by a guard as he was taken from the Waushara County Jail in Wautoma on November 18, 1957.

Gein inspired the movies Psycho (1960), Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Ed Gein covered his face as authorities prepared to take him to his farm.

Gein admitted to killing the two women but pled not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ed Gein under arrest.

In late 1957 he was deemed unfit for trial—he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic—and was subsequently confined in various psychiatric institutions.

November 19, 1957 edition of The Milwaukee Journal shows Gein being arraigned before County Judge Boyd Clark in Wautoma.

In 1968, however, after it was determined that he could participate in his own defense, Gein was put on trial. He was found guilty of killing Worden—reportedly due to financial reasons, prosecutors only tried one murder—but then was deemed insane at the time of the crime.

Ed Gein in a Wautoma court room for a sanity hearing in 1974. He was denied release.

A Waushara county sheriff's deputy led Ed Gein from the courthouse in Wautoma after he was recommitted to the central state hospital in 1968.

Ed Gein as he left a sanity hearing in Wautoma in 1968.

Ed Gein in court for a sanity hearing in Wautoma in 1968.

Ed Gein in court for a sanity hearing in Wautoma in 1968.

Ed Gein was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1957 slaying of a Plainfield widow and recommitted to the central state hospital. This photo is from 1968.

Ed Gein at a hearing in Wautoma in January 1968.

Ed Gein was escorted by Waushara County Sheriff Virgil Batterman as he arrived for a sanity hearing in Wautoma in 1968.

The July 26, 1984 edition of the Milwaukee Journal carried a story about the death of Ed Gein.

A story in the November 22, 1957 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel focused on Gein's mental instability.

The November 21, 1957 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel carried a story about a second Gein slaying.

The November 21, 1957 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel carried Gein news stories almost exclusively.

The November 19, 1957 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel details the gruesome scene on the Gein farm.

The November 18, 1957 edition of The Milwaukee Journal focused on discoveries around the Gein property.

The front page of the November 18, 1957 edition of The Milwaukee Journal is devoted to stories covering the grim findings surrounding the Ed Gein murders in Plainfield, Wisconsin.

Gein remained in a mental hospital until his death in 1984.

the end of part 2......

to be continued with part 3