- 2 years ago
These are the most infamous crimes in American history. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the worst true crimes that took time to fully process and kept the American population on edge.
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00:00 Everyone got guns, weapons, locks on houses, alarm systems.
00:05 There was a genuine terror in the city.
00:09 - Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:11 And today we're counting down the worst true crimes
00:13 that took time to fully process
00:15 and kept the American population on edge.
00:18 - The Unabomber died while serving
00:20 four consecutive life sentences,
00:22 decades after his reign of terror gripped the nation.
00:26 - The Black Dahlia murder.
00:29 It was the morning of January 15th, 1947,
00:32 when the body of Elizabeth Short was discovered.
00:35 - She was a young woman who left her home
00:38 to come find fame and fortune, maybe, in Los Angeles.
00:42 - The grotesque display of the corpse
00:44 attracted lurid media attention,
00:46 as did the deceased's lack of identity.
00:49 It quickly became known as the Black Dahlia case,
00:52 and it took Los Angeles by storm.
00:54 - It's kind of the archetype or the kind of crime
00:56 that captures the American public's attention.
00:58 - While the media hungrily pounced,
01:00 everyday citizens were left in abject terror,
01:03 and the police were left chasing their own tails.
01:06 They sifted through 60 fake confessions
01:09 and interviewed over 150 people,
01:12 while others traipsed through storm drains
01:14 in a desperate search for clues.
01:16 They came up with nothing substantial,
01:18 ending the media circus with a frustrated shrug.
01:21 To this day, Black Dahlia remains one of the most elusive,
01:25 unsolved crimes in American history.
01:27 - Given the nature of the crime, we want an answer.
01:31 We wanna know why, we wanna know who,
01:34 and until we do, I think there will always be an interest.
01:37 - The Lindbergh kidnapping.
01:39 Even to this day, nearly 100 years on,
01:42 the Lindbergh kidnapping is referenced in pop culture
01:45 and remains synonymous with high-profile crimes.
01:48 - The Lindberghs would experience
01:50 one of the most severe media frenzies in history,
01:53 a story that would capture the attention of a nation.
01:57 And haunt the couple for the rest of their lives.
02:00 - The case itself occurred back in 1932,
02:03 when young Charles Lindbergh Jr.
02:05 was kidnapped from his home and killed.
02:07 The kidnapping earned national attention
02:09 for a variety of reasons,
02:10 including the fame of Lindbergh's father,
02:13 a notable aviator who made
02:14 the first solo transatlantic flight.
02:16 - His newfound fame sends him on speaking tours
02:19 around the world as an aviation icon.
02:22 - The kidnapping quickly became
02:23 the most pronounced media circus of its day,
02:26 with journalist H.L. Mencken even calling it,
02:28 quote, "the biggest story since the resurrection."
02:31 It ended with the conviction and execution
02:33 of a man named Bruno Hauptmann,
02:35 but many people continued to question his guilt.
02:38 - In 1935, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted
02:43 of one count of murder in the first degree.
02:45 The following year, he was executed.
02:47 - The death of Jambonnet Ramsey.
02:49 When it comes to unsolved crimes,
02:52 it doesn't get much more notorious than Jambonnet Ramsey.
02:55 - Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, what do you wanna say
02:57 to the killer of your daughter?
02:59 - We'll find you.
03:00 We will find you.
03:01 I have that as a sole mission for the rest of my life.
03:05 - A child beauty queen,
03:06 Ramsey was discovered by her father
03:08 on the afternoon of December 26th, 1996,
03:12 and it was evident that Ramsey had died from foul play.
03:15 The sensational crime quickly attracted media attention
03:18 and left America completely speechless.
03:21 - A story that is gripping the nation.
03:23 It is the investigation of the murder
03:25 of little Jambonnet Ramsey.
03:26 - Various aspects of the case contributed
03:28 to its macabre allure, including the age of Ramsey,
03:32 her career as a child beauty queen,
03:34 the curious behavior of her family,
03:36 and a bizarre ransom note that was thought
03:38 to have been written by Ramsey's mother.
03:40 - A ransom note is not that long.
03:42 A ransom note says, "I have your child.
03:43 "I want a million dollars.
03:45 "I'll call you later."
03:46 This is two and a half pages long.
03:48 Whoever does that?
03:49 - Others focused on the police investigation,
03:52 arguing that it was incompetently bungled.
03:55 The Boston Strangler.
03:57 Between June 1962 and January 1964,
04:01 the greater Boston area was besieged
04:03 by a wave of violence that left 13 women dead.
04:06 - A crime wave that caused citywide terror.
04:09 - Women would not let the postman
04:11 or the milkman come to the door.
04:13 - Unfortunately, the case is still littered
04:16 with frustrating question marks.
04:18 The killings were attributed to a person known
04:20 as the Boston Strangler,
04:21 and while the public and media believed
04:23 that the Strangler was solely responsible,
04:25 the police were not so sure.
04:27 - The bizarre sequence of murders had everyone baffled.
04:30 - The public was seemingly vindicated
04:32 when a man named Albert DeSalvo confessed to the crimes,
04:35 and his DNA was found at one of the scenes.
04:38 - A DNA match was made for the first time,
04:41 confirming Albert DeSalvo as Sullivan's killer
04:44 with 99.9% certainty.
04:46 - However, many experts believe
04:48 that DeSalvo did not act alone,
04:51 as there have been numerous inconsistencies
04:53 in his detailed confessions.
04:55 The Unabomber.
04:57 Real name Theodore Kaczynski,
04:59 the Unabomber was so named
05:00 after his FBI identifier, Unabom,
05:03 which stood for university and airline bomber.
05:06 - He was the most wanted man in America,
05:08 cold-blooded bomber who killed in Maine.
05:11 He eluded the FBI for 18 years,
05:14 a ghost targeting universities and airlines,
05:17 thus the name, the Unabomber.
05:19 - Between 1978 and 1995,
05:22 Kaczynski sent various letter bombs
05:24 through the federal mail system,
05:26 killing three and injuring a further 23.
05:29 - Local state and federal investigators
05:31 continue to work around the clock
05:32 collecting evidence from the blast.
05:34 The early morning explosion
05:35 severely injured Yale University
05:37 computer scientist David Glirtner.
05:39 - The case quickly became one of the most notorious
05:41 in American history,
05:42 and it left the country in the throes of paranoia.
05:45 The FBI spent extraordinary manpower
05:48 in their effort to find the Unabomber,
05:50 and it became the longest and most expensive manhunt
05:52 in the Bureau's history.
05:54 He was finally captured in 1996,
05:57 but not before capturing more media attention
05:59 by publishing a manifesto in the Washington Post.
06:02 - Washington Post published the 35,000 word manifesto.
06:06 - The Oklahoma City bombing.
06:09 Great tragedy often results in great humanity.
06:12 On April 19th, 1995,
06:15 anti-government extremists Timothy McVeigh
06:17 and Terry Nichols bombed the Alfra P. Murrah
06:19 Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
06:22 - Each year, survivors and families come together
06:24 to remember those lost and commit to making sure
06:26 America knows that terror can be homegrown.
06:29 - The blast came from a truck bomb
06:31 and killed 168 people while injuring 680.
06:36 It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism
06:39 in American history.
06:40 The crime gripped the nation
06:42 and led to an outpouring of relief efforts.
06:44 - The Oklahoma City bombing
06:46 stands as the deadliest domestic terror attack
06:48 in US history.
06:50 168 lives lost.
06:52 - Over 12,000 people helped sift through the rubble.
06:55 9,000 units of blood were donated
06:57 and a flurry of items were sent to Oklahoma,
07:00 requiring the construction of drop-off centers.
07:03 - Rescue workers worked their way through the wreckage
07:05 of the Murrah Federal Building,
07:07 looking for survivors among the close to 200 people
07:10 believed to be still in that rubble.
07:12 - One graphic photo in particular
07:14 left the country speechless
07:15 and it would win the Pulitzer Prize
07:17 for spot news photography.
07:19 The Zodiac Killings.
07:21 There are few murder sprees as notorious as the Zodiacs.
07:25 The still unknown Zodiac Killer terrorized
07:28 Northern California throughout the late '60s,
07:30 killing at least five while taunting the police and media
07:33 with cryptic letters.
07:35 - On July 31st, three Bay Area newspapers
07:38 received three virtually identical handwritten letters
07:41 from someone who claims to be the killer.
07:44 He demands that a cipher, which is included with the letters,
07:47 be published on August 1st,
07:48 or he threatens to kill more victims.
07:50 - The killings received widespread attention
07:52 and continue to captivate the American public.
07:55 One of the Zodiac's cryptograms wasn't solved until 2020,
07:59 when it was decoded by a team of private citizens.
08:02 - And after a little bit of effort,
08:03 we were able to unlock the entire message.
08:05 - But this obsession with the Zodiac
08:07 is certainly nothing new.
08:09 Back in 1969, the first Zodiac cryptogram
08:12 was cracked by married couple Donald and Betty Harden
08:15 after they saw it in various Bay Area newspapers.
08:18 - They believed that the cipher
08:19 would contain the word kill.
08:21 So they looked for pairings of certain symbols
08:23 that could represent two letter Ls,
08:26 and they were successful.
08:27 The message read, "I like killing people
08:29 because it's so much fun."
08:31 - But while this collective public obsession
08:33 has helped solve some cryptic writings,
08:35 it has not helped in identifying the Zodiac himself.
08:39 The Manson Family Murders.
08:41 At the same time that the Zodiac
08:43 was terrorizing Northern California,
08:45 the Manson Family was terrorizing Los Angeles.
08:48 - Charles Manson and his so-called family
08:51 would become the most infamous killers of the 20th century.
08:54 - Throughout the summer of 1969,
08:56 the dangerous cult killed nine people.
08:58 But the most famous of all,
09:00 and the one that continues to captivate the American public,
09:03 were the Tate-Lobyanka murders of August 9th and 10th.
09:06 - Nobody knew who did it.
09:08 Nobody had a clue.
09:10 And Hollywood just went nuts.
09:13 (dramatic music)
09:15 People were buying guard dogs and they were buying guns.
09:20 - Oh, LA panicked.
09:21 - The killings caused enormous ripples
09:23 to reverberate throughout the American consciousness,
09:26 with some arguing that it gave rise to the satanic panic
09:29 and killed '60s counterculture.
09:31 - I mean, it's nightmarish.
09:36 It's nightmarish.
09:37 - These murders were so unbelievably shocking
09:39 that they not only left America speechless,
09:42 they sent it down a very disturbed road
09:44 that was mirrored in the dark pop culture of the '70s.
09:48 O.J. Simpson.
09:49 O.J. Simpson's trial for the murder of his ex-wife,
09:52 Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman
09:54 was one of the biggest crime stories of the modern era.
09:57 - This was the perfect soap opera.
10:00 The O.J. Simpson murder case
10:03 was the first true reality show for the country.
10:08 - What drew people to the story
10:09 wasn't the lurid details of the crime,
10:11 but the celebrity of Simpson.
10:13 He had been an incredibly popular football player,
10:16 starring in iconic commercials
10:17 and breaking records as a running back.
10:19 - In 1973, playing a 14-game season,
10:24 Simpson sprinted for a staggering 2,003 yards.
10:29 - It gave the case notoriety from the outset,
10:32 with 95 million people watching
10:34 the infamous Bronco chase on television.
10:36 - The following months saw an unprecedented media circus,
10:40 with virtually 24/7 coverage in print, radio, and television.
10:45 - There was a forest of satellite trucks,
10:48 satellite dishes, people working in trailers,
10:52 all built so that this trial could go out to the world.
10:56 - One producer at NBC called it, quote,
10:59 "The biggest story they had ever seen."
11:01 And for good reason.
11:03 This thing was quite literally everywhere.
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11:20 The assassination of John F. Kennedy.
11:24 Of course, there's one story
11:26 that eclipses that of OJ Simpson,
11:28 and that is the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
11:30 - He's broken away from his plan
11:32 and gone right up to the fence to shake hands with people.
11:36 This is great for the people
11:37 and makes the eggshells even thinner
11:39 for the Secret Service, whose job it is to guard the man.
11:43 - The reaction to the president's death
11:44 was understandably swift.
11:46 A quarter of a million people passed through the Capitol
11:49 to see Kennedy lying in state.
11:51 Conspiracy theories immediately sprouted
11:53 and continue strong to this day,
11:55 with a majority of Americans believing
11:57 that some kind of secret is involved.
11:59 - But despite all the conspiracy theories,
12:01 there has never been any credible evidence
12:03 to suggest anything other than that Oswald acted alone.
12:07 - Most notable of all, enraged nightclub owner Jack Ruby
12:11 shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald
12:13 as he was being escorted to county jail.
12:15 - Just as we was getting ready to go down,
12:17 I told him, "Lee, if anybody shoots at you,
12:20 I hope they're as good a shot as you are."
12:22 He kind of laughed and he said,
12:23 "Oh, nobody's gonna shoot at me."
12:26 - The shocking event was broadcast on TV,
12:29 and a photo of the shooting won the Pulitzer Prize
12:31 for photography.
12:32 There is simply no public response like it.
12:35 Do you remember hearing about these on the news?
12:38 Let us know in the comments below.
12:40 - It was crazy.
12:41 - Outside the courthouse, it's a circus.
12:46 Inside, a real life drama unfolding.
12:51 (gentle music)
12:54 - And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell
12:56 to be notified about our latest videos.
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