- 7 weeks ago
When justice fails, lives crumble. Join us as we examine the most haunting mysteries and miscarriages of justice that forever altered innocent people's existence. Our countdown includes wrongfully accused individuals whose reputations were shattered, families torn apart by false allegations, and unsolved cases that left permanent scars. Which case do you find most disturbing? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00The joke is on you. Ha, ha.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most unsettling mysteries that upended regular people's lives.
00:12I was afraid when I saw the men on the road.
00:17Men in the road?
00:21I never been so afraid in my life.
00:25Number 10. The Murder of Adam Walsh.
00:28He is the co-founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a project that grew from unimaginable loss.
00:36In 1981, six-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted and murdered, a tragedy that devastated his father, John Walsh.
00:43The loss shattered John's sense of identity, and he and his wife endured overwhelming grief and a strained marriage.
00:50John was consumed by guilt, blaming himself for not protecting his young boy.
00:54And for a time, he struggled with depression.
00:56It is still so hard to hear that detail, as you recount it all these years later.
01:02I know that this launched you into your life's work.
01:06But the tragedy also transformed him.
01:09Determined to prevent other families from suffering the same fate,
01:12John helped create the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and later hosted America's Most Wanted.
01:18Despite John's mission, Adam's death left a permanent wound.
01:21And many questions still surround his murder.
01:24Serial killer Otis Toole copped to the crime, but he later recanted his confession, and many doubt his involvement.
01:31And Reve and I have had some very, very rough and rocky times.
01:36But you always never lost focus of who the real victim was.
01:42You never lost focus.
01:44You never didn't drive this train, Reve.
01:46If you had anything to do with this, any part in this...
01:54I did not plant that bomb in Centennial Park, and I made the mistake of assuming you knew that.
02:04Security guard Richard Jewell was working at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics when he discovered a suspicious backpack.
02:12Jewell helped evacuate the area before the backpack exploded, saving many lives in the process.
02:19While he was initially hailed a hero, Jewell's life took a devastating turn when the FBI, under pressure to find the culprit, called Jewell a person of interest.
02:28The paper says the Bureau has them dead to rights.
02:31Where I come from, when the government says someone's guilty, it's how you know they're innocent.
02:36The press instantly pounced, and Jewell endured weeks of surveillance, public ridicule, and the total collapse of his reputation.
02:43His career prospects were destroyed, professional relationships ruined, and his health suffered from the stress.
02:49The ordeal became a textbook example of trial by media, and the case itself was finally closed in 2005, when domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph pled guilty to the bombing.
03:01Can you categorically say that you did not do this?
03:03I did not do it.
03:04Categorically?
03:05Yes.
03:06Why are they questioning you?
03:08It's just part of the process.
03:11Number eight, the murder of Meredith Kircher.
03:15Finally, you have her own name for herself, Foxy Noxy.
03:20It was a perfect headline, really, and a perfect name.
03:25I mean, it was a feeding frenzy for everyone, basically.
03:27I mean, you were getting front pages.
03:29I don't think I've ever had so many front pages.
03:32When you hear the name Amanda Knox, you might still think, murderer.
03:36Back in 2007, Knox, who was studying abroad in Italy, was arrested for the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kircher.
03:43Despite little physical evidence, Knox became the focus of intense media scrutiny, painted alternately as a cold-blooded murderer and a promiscuous vixen.
03:52We already had good pictures of Meredith.
03:55She was a terribly attractive woman.
03:59And now we've got Amanda Knox involved as well.
04:02Pretty blonde girl, 20-something.
04:04It had that sexual intrigue, girl-on-girl crime, if you like.
04:10She spent nearly four years in prison before her conviction was overturned, only to face seemingly endless retrials and appeals, which continued to wreck her reputation, and left her with lasting trauma.
04:22Knox's name was permanently cleared when Ivorian migrant Rudy Gaudet was convicted of Kircher's murder.
04:28However, she wasn't officially acquitted until 2015, and public opinion on Knox remains divided, signaling the lasting damage that the case has had.
04:38I think people love monsters.
04:43And so when they get the chance, they want to see them.
04:46It's 20 years since we first heard those chilling words, the dingo's got my baby.
04:56What followed, of course, was one of those compelling stories that come along only once in a lifetime.
05:01Lindy Chamberlain was camping near Uluru in Australia when her nine-week-old daughter Azaria disappeared.
05:08Lindy claimed that a dingo had taken her baby, but both the police and the public doubted her story.
05:14Not only did they doubt it, they mocked it, and Lindy became a cultural laughingstock.
05:18Maybe the dingo ate your baby.
05:24What?
05:25The dingo ate your baby.
05:28After a highly publicized trial in 1982, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, despite a significant lack of evidence.
05:37Luckily, about four years later, new evidence was uncovered.
05:41Azaria's clothing was found near a dingo den, supporting Lindy's seemingly outrageous account.
05:47The same account that she was mercilessly mocked for.
05:51Lindy's conviction was overturned in 1988, and the case remains one of Australia's most infamous miscarriages of justice.
05:58Let me ask you face-to-face what every Australian would ask you.
06:02Did you kill Azaria?
06:03No way.
06:06I love that little girl.
06:08Number six, the death of Ryan Stallings.
06:11They were very polite yet suspicious.
06:14They would not allow us to see Ryan alone.
06:17There would have to be at least two nurses or a doctor present.
06:21You know, we were never allowed to be on his bedside alone.
06:24You know, that bothered me, but I still didn't understand, because I wasn't looking at it the way they were, I guess.
06:29Three-month-old Ryan Stallings of Missouri was hospitalized after falling ill, and tests revealed that his blood contained high levels of ethylene glycol, the main ingredient in antifreeze.
06:41Suspicion fell on his mother Patricia, and when Ryan tragically passed away on September 7th, 1989, Patricia was charged with his murder.
06:49Despite her continued insistence that she was innocent, Patricia was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
06:55I tried to get Patty up there, and all I got from the judge was, no, absolutely not.
07:03I'm not going to let a baby kill her up there.
07:07And I said, this lady did not kill this baby.
07:10However, further investigation revealed that Ryan actually had a rare genetic disorder called MMA, which mimics antifreeze poisoning in lab tests.
07:20It was this condition, not foul play, that killed Ryan.
07:24Patricia's conviction was overturned, but the damage was already done.
07:27She had endured the trauma of losing her baby, being wrongfully imprisoned, and living under intense public suspicion.
07:35I cannot see how they can live with themselves, knowing that they sent an innocent woman to jail the rest of her life for something that she didn't do.
07:46If Ryan would have been correctly diagnosed with MMA, none of this would have happened.
07:54Number 5. The Circleville Letters.
07:56For the past 18 years, residents in and around Circleville, Ohio, have received literally thousands of bizarre letters and postcards.
08:05They represent an insidious campaign of character assassination, which some believe has left one man dead and another unfairly imprisoned.
08:14Beginning in 1976, residents of Circleville, Ohio, began receiving anonymous letters exposing the likes of affairs, corruption, and deep personal secrets.
08:24The bizarre campaign shattered reputations, destroyed numerous marriages, and spread deep paranoia and mistrust throughout the small community.
08:33The writer especially targeted at school bus driver Mary Gillespie, accusing her of an affair with the school superintendent, and blaming her for her husband's death.
08:42In addition to allegations of an affair, the letter carried an ominous threat.
08:47The harassment eventually escalated to threatening signs along her bus route, and even a booby-trapped gun that was intended to kill her.
09:07To this day, the true identity of the letter writer remains unproven, leaving Circleville with a lingering sense of mistrust, and one of America's most unsettling unsolved mysteries.
09:18So many questions remain in this most bizarre case.
09:23Who did write the Circleville letters?
09:26Number 4.
09:27The Central Park Jogger case.
09:29And the word we got back from the hospital was that she was in extremely critical condition, and good possibility that she would die.
09:38By the late 80s, New York was in a horrible state, and on the night of April 19, 1989, a woman named Tricia Miley was attacked and sexually assaulted while jogging through Central Park.
09:50Desperately looking for scapegoats, police used coercive interrogations to extract false confessions from a group of five black and Latino teenagers, who became known as the Central Park Five.
10:01We had to go back out and start getting more of the kids that were involved in the attack.
10:08That included Yusuf Salam, Corey Weiss, and Antron McRae.
10:12But by the evening of the 20th, we had all five in custody.
10:18The case became a national media frenzy, fueling racial tensions and betraying the boys as violent criminals, all while the real culprit remained a mystery.
10:27The boys spent between seven and 13 years in prison, losing crucial years of their youth and freedom.
10:33It wasn't until 2002 that repeat offender Matthias Reyes confessed to the crime, and the five were finally exonerated.
10:41We got justice for a woman who was used and thrown away like garbage.
10:44Those boys did that.
10:47We helped make sure they got what they deserved.
10:51And I'll be damned if I'm going to lose a wink of sleep over it.
10:54Number 3.
10:56Betty and Barney Hill.
10:57But now that they've driven down the road, several miles, and they look up, and it's still there.
11:05Fear starts to settle in.
11:07Now for something a little different.
11:09Back in 1961, Betty and Barney Hill claimed to have been abducted by aliens while driving in rural New Hampshire.
11:17While Betty publicly embraced the story by giving talks and pursuing further UFO research,
11:22Barney, who was already dealing with racial prejudice, felt deep stress from the scrutiny.
11:27They followed us for approximately 30 miles.
11:30And then in an area called Indian Head, it left the top of the mountain, came out over the highway, and stopped.
11:40Many skeptics dismissed the couple as delusional or publicity-seeking, and the intense public criticism significantly damaged their personal credibility.
11:53Barney's health quickly declined, and he died from a stroke in 1969 at just 46, with friends and family believing the stress played a significant role.
12:03Despite the negative effects, the Hill's story remains one of the most famous in ufology.
12:09She puts her hand on the door.
12:11She's going to run into the woods to hide, but she's intercepted, and she loses consciousness.
12:20The next thing Betty remembers is the alien beings escorting her through the woods and onto the spacecraft.
12:28Number 2. The Salem Witch Trials.
12:30Did you ever see anyone with the devil?
12:38No, I did not.
12:39Witches, black magic, it doesn't get creepier than this.
12:43The infamous trials began when several young girls in Massachusetts claimed to be possessed, and accused others in their community of practicing witchcraft.
12:52Mass hysteria spread, leading to flawed trials based on spectral evidence and coerced confessions.
12:58I am no witch!
13:00You're all burned in hell!
13:02Over 200 people were accused, and 19 were executed, while others died in jail under deplorable conditions.
13:10Families were torn apart, reputations were destroyed, and property was confiscated.
13:15It was a deep mystery at the time, but there was never really a mystery.
13:19The accusations were completely made up, and often motivated by personal grudges.
13:24It also didn't take long for the trials to be deemed a farce, and the convictions were annulled by 1711.
13:30From the Putnam's perspective, and from the Paris' perspective, this is a great thing.
13:35Because not only do they get to eliminate their enemies by accusing them of witches and potentially killing them,
13:40but they also create a kind of hysteria that brings people closer to their fundamentalist viewpoint.
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14:02Number 1. The West Memphis Three.
14:05I think the cops just can't find who done it, and they gotta put it on somebody.
14:11Perhaps the most infamous miscarriage of justice in modern American history belongs to the West Memphis Three,
14:18who were accused of murdering three boys in 1993.
14:21The prosecution relied primarily on coerced confessions, and the satanic panic atmosphere of the era.
14:27The so-called confession of Jesse Miskelley was also riddled with inconsistencies,
14:32and physical evidence tying the boys to the crime was virtually non-existent.
14:36I want to tell the whole world my son's innocent, because I know he is innocent.
14:43I know where he was, and I know he's innocent.
14:47And I want to tell the world, and I want the world to know.
14:51Regardless, they spent 18 years incarcerated,
14:54enduring isolation, stigma, and deteriorating mental health.
14:58But by 2011, the conflicting evidence was just too much to ignore,
15:03including new forensic evidence that pointed to another perpetrator,
15:06and they were released on an Alford plea.
15:09But Freedom didn't erase the damage that was caused,
15:12and the murder of these three boys remains unsolved.
15:16I want to publicly thank Jason, too,
15:18just to let him know that I do acknowledge what he did,
15:21that he did want to keep fighting.
15:22He didn't want to take this deal in the beginning.
15:24And I recognize and acknowledge that he did do it almost entirely for me.
15:37What do you make of these stories?
15:39Let us know in the comments below.
15:41Did you ever see Giles Corey with the devil?
15:46Giles Corey with the devil.
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