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These shocking true crime cases took turns no one saw coming! Join us as we explore mind-bending cases where the truth was stranger than fiction. From BTK's digital blunder to Chris Watts' televised deception, these cases feature jaw-dropping plot twists that changed everything. Which case surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00This would turn out to be a notorious, surreal case with a twist no Hollywood writer could have come up with.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 20 major true crime cases that contain some type of plot twist
00:14that dramatically changed the direction of the story.
00:17It would be very simple to confuse the diagnosis of MMA with multiple poisonings because the symptoms are very similar.
00:26BTK catches himself.
00:27And of course we responded by running an ad in the paper which he asked us to do,
00:31basically telling him we can't trace a floppy disk, which we knew of course was inaccurate.
00:37For decades, Wichita, Kansas lived in fear of a phantom.
00:41The so-called BTK killer struck at random, murdering at least 10 people between 1974 and 1991 for vanishing off the face of the earth.
00:49But then, in 2005, the case now considered cold, investigators received a floppy disk from BTK himself,
00:56who arrogantly asked if it could be traced.
00:58They lied and said,
01:00No, definitely not.
01:01It could.
01:02The metadata embedded within the disk led police straight to Dennis Rader,
01:06a church president and family man who was living in plain sight.
01:10The revelation stunned the country.
01:12The killer everyone feared wasn't a monster in the shadows,
01:15but an everyday family man obsessed with control, undone by a piece of outdated tech.
01:20I need to ask you how do you like it.
01:24Because I was trying to catch you.
01:27Ryan Waller's bizarre interrogation.
01:29So they put him in the back of a police car while they investigated.
01:33Now fire dispatch records indicate a fire unit was sent,
01:36but only to determine the female victim was deceased.
01:40Mr. Waller says his son sat in the back of a police car with a hole in his face for up to six hours.
01:45When police found Ryan Waller with his dead girlfriend in 2006,
01:49he was dazed, confused, and covered in blood.
01:52Detectives naturally assumed that he was the killer and dragged him in for questioning.
01:56Police interrogated Ryan for hours, but found his behavior frustrating.
02:00He was mumbling, giving nonsensical answers, seemed on the verge of passing out,
02:04and at times wasn't even aware that Heather was dead.
02:07Police initially believed it was drugs, or Ryan acting deceptively to cover his guilt.
02:11In reality, Ryan had been shot in the head, twice.
02:14He and Heather were attacked by two intruders,
02:17and Ryan survived the shooting with severe brain damage.
02:19It was a home invasion, not a domestic murder, and they were speaking with the survivor.
02:24Now we've listed him as a victim.
02:26I don't know if anybody knew what happened at that point in time.
02:29Now I'm not going to make any assumptions.
02:30There's a number of scenarios that could have happened.
02:33Pamela Smart manipulates a student.
02:34Now, 25 years after her infamous 1990 crime,
02:39Pam Smart says prison is worse than she could have imagined.
02:43She looked like the perfect small-town wife.
02:45Pretty, polished, and heartbroken when her husband Greg was found dead in their New Hampshire condo.
02:50But investigators soon learned that her grief was a performance.
02:54The truth unraveled fast.
02:55Pamela had seduced her 15-year-old student, Billy Flynn,
02:59and convinced him and his friends to kill Greg so they could be together.
03:02It was a high school love affair turned deadly.
03:04The twist flipped the victim narrative on its head,
03:07showing that poor Pamela Smart wasn't mourning.
03:09She was manipulating.
03:11Her case became one of America's first televised trials,
03:14and became a pop culture sensation,
03:15with countless retellings in the form of books, movies, and TV shows.
03:20You ever have any social contact with her?
03:23What do you mean, social?
03:24I mean, did you ever go to the soda fountain for a malt?
03:28She's my teacher.
03:29You're saying you wouldn't?
03:33The Casey Anthony verdict.
03:34It was certainly confusing.
03:36I mean, we have a child who's been missing for a month,
03:38but then we have a mother that essentially everything she's told us at this point has been a lie.
03:43When two-year-old Kaylee Anthony vanished,
03:45her mother Casey spun lie after lie about babysitters, fake jobs, even imaginary people.
03:51Investigators found Kaylee's remains near the family home,
03:53and the nation watched in complete horror as Casey's bizarre and problematic behavior made headlines.
03:59The evidence against Casey seemed overwhelming, both physically and psychologically,
04:04and everyone expected a swift conviction.
04:06But then, in a stunning verdict, the jury declared her not guilty of murder.
04:10The courtroom audibly gasped, and the twist left America divided.
04:14Was justice served or denied?
04:16Despite everything, Casey literally walked free as protesters called her a baby killer.
04:20Do I necessarily agree with this verdict?
04:23No, I don't.
04:24I believe it is much more likely than not that this woman was partially, at least, responsible,
04:30either alone or in concert with others, for the death of that beloved child.
04:35Discovering the Manson cult.
04:36Charlie was always preaching that the karma was turning, you know?
04:41And it was Blackie's turn to be on top.
04:44But why?
04:45I don't know why, man.
04:46That's just what the dude said.
04:48In 1969, Hollywood's glittering hills became a living nightmare.
04:52After Sharon Tate and six others were slaughtered in their own homes,
04:56the murders viciously brutal, and the crime scenes grotesque.
05:00But the real horror came when police discovered the mastermind, Charles Manson,
05:04a failed musician turned local cult leader.
05:06As the case unfolded, a bizarre story began to emerge.
05:10Manson never held the knife himself,
05:12but used charisma and LSD-fueled delusion to command his family of followers to kill,
05:17believing that the murders would ignite a race war and bring about the apocalypse.
05:21The weird twist redefined evil itself.
05:24And if we saw this in a movie, we call it way too far-fetched and silly.
05:28To Manson, Helter Skelter meant the black man rising up and destroying the entire white race.
05:35That is with the exception of Charles Manson and his chosen followers.
05:38Robert Durst confesses off camera.
05:40I am going to go use the restroom, which is right here.
05:46Or maybe this is the bathroom.
05:48Yeah, that's...
05:49You're right.
05:50This is the bathroom.
05:51For decades, millionaire heir Robert Durst danced around suspicion,
05:55long accused of killing his wife, a friend, and a neighbor.
05:58Then came HBO's seminal The Jinx.
06:01Throughout the documentary, Durst appeared calm, evasive, and maybe even innocent.
06:05But during the final episode, he went to the bathroom, still wearing his microphone.
06:09Off camera, he famously muttered to himself,
06:12What the hell did I do?
06:13Killed them all, of course.
06:14To some, this was a hypothetical, a misunderstanding.
06:18To others, it was a chilling confession.
06:20Whatever it was, it was enough for police to look deeper into his story,
06:24and they uncovered enough evidence to convict him for the murder of Susan Berman.
06:27If it wasn't for the filmmakers, this case might never have been solved.
06:30What the hell did I do?
06:39Killed them all, of course.
06:44The deaths under Charles Cullen.
06:46Did you get the sense at Somerset, for example,
06:48that any of your colleagues, any of the nurses, any of the doctors knew what was going on?
06:53No, I mean, until, you know, the day I was fired, I mean, nobody gave me any indication that anybody was suspicious.
07:04Over a period of 16 years, Charles Cullen worked as a nurse at various New Jersey and Pennsylvania medical centers,
07:10and for years, patients under his watch were dying.
07:13Of course, this was not surprising, as his patients were often old or seriously ill,
07:18so their deaths were not investigated.
07:19To pretty much everyone, the deaths were completely natural, only they weren't.
07:24In 2003, the Somerset Medical Center finally caught on that something was wrong and contacted investigators.
07:31They uncovered a horrifying truth.
07:33Cullen had murdered his patients with a cocktail of drugs and framed their deaths as natural causes.
07:38It's unclear how many people Cullen killed, but some believe it could be as high as 400.
07:42I would be very surprised, as would pretty much everyone I've spoken to with any knowledge of this case,
07:49if it was not in the hundreds, multiple hundreds.
07:52Sherry Rasmussen and the Killer Cop
07:54It's definitely, pound for pound, one of the greatest true crime stories of all time.
08:00When nurse Sherry Rasmussen was murdered in 1986, police assumed it was a burglary gone wrong,
08:05but her husband's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Lazarus, kept lurking in the background, literally.
08:10You see, Lazarus was an LAPD officer, and she was working just down the hall from the Homicide Division studying Rasmussen's case.
08:17The case went cold for two decades, until DNA technology became advanced enough to catch up.
08:22Detectives ran a new test in the mid-2000s, and the results matched Lazarus.
08:27The twist stunned everyone, as the killer had been a cop, hiding behind her badge for years.
08:32Evidence also strongly suggests that Lazarus had tampered with the evidence while it was in police custody,
08:37successfully masking her involvement in Rasmussen's murder.
08:40By all appearance, is a model cop, yet Stephanie Lazarus now faces murder charges.
08:46Prosecutors say that almost 25 years ago, she beat and shot the wife of an ex-boyfriend, and that DNA evidence proves it.
08:53The camera in the washing machine.
08:55Travis Alexander, 44 seconds later, probably still sitting or seated in the shower,
09:02right hand on the camera to shoot the picture, accidentally or inadvertently, which is what everyone believes,
09:07That leaves her left hand free. Could she have had the knife in her hand at that moment?
09:12When Travis Alexander was found dead in his Arizona home, having been attacked in the shower, suspicion quickly turned to his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias.
09:20Arias admitted to killing Alexander, but claimed self-defense.
09:24But then detectives combing the house made a shocking discovery.
09:27A digital camera placed in the washing machine.
09:29Against all odds, the memory card was salvaged, and on it were photos of Alexander in the shower.
09:34The pictures were taken by Arias, and were particularly graphic, showcasing the bloody aftermath of the attack.
09:40The twist was photographic proof of guilt.
09:43The crime literally documented for all to see.
09:45Arias' self-defense claim completely fell apart, and she was sentenced to life in prison.
09:49He steps halfway out, soaking wet, picks her up, and body slams her, boom, on the tile floor.
09:57But Vinny, she said during testimony that her head was facing that way, but if you're gonna body slam somebody, look which way the head's facing.
10:05That's another reason why her story doesn't make sense.
10:08Chris Watts.
10:08Throw anything out there, like, I hope that she's somewhere safe right now, and with the kids.
10:16But, I mean, because she's just taken off, I don't know, but if somebody has her and they're not safe, like, I want them back now.
10:23When Shannon Watts and her two children went missing, devoted husband Chris Watts appeared on the news, pleading for their return.
10:29But for many, his behavior on the TV seemed off.
10:32He didn't seem especially distraught, and it seemed like he was hiding something.
10:36Investigators agreed, and noticed that his story didn't add up.
10:39He was brought in for questioning, and after failing a polygraph, Watts broke down and confessed.
10:44He told police that he had strangled his wife and smothered their daughters, before hiding their bodies at his remote job site.
10:50Behind the friendly face on TV was something hollow.
10:53A man who destroyed everything he'd ever built, revealing the truth, that evil can wear a family man's smile.
10:59They're gone. There's no brick in the back.
11:03Where are they?
11:05Peter Porco's bizarre morning.
11:06Apparently, sometime after the attack, Peter regained consciousness and started to go about his morning tasks.
11:13When court clerk Peter Porco woke up on November 15th, 2004, he immediately began going about his routine, just as he did every morning.
11:21He went to the bathroom, packed his lunch, loaded the dishwasher, and went to get the newspaper.
11:25But soon, he began to feel faint, collapsed in the hallway, and died.
11:30When police arrived later, they found a grisly scene, with Peter leaving a massive trail of blood everywhere he went.
11:36You see, earlier that morning, both Peter and his wife Joan had been bludgeoned with an axe by their son, Christopher, who attacked them as they slept.
11:44Peter somehow survived his horrific injuries, and went about his daily routine, all while bleeding profusely from his grotesque head wounds.
11:50The autopsy revealed his paleocortex underneath was intact.
11:57This controls his primal instincts and second nature habits.
12:00Brian Wells and the Inheritance Plot
12:02The man told police that the bomb had been strapped to his body and that he was forced to rob the bank.
12:09In 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Wells of Erie, Pennsylvania, walked into a local PNC bank with a bomb strapped around his neck.
12:16He took $8,700 in cash and fled.
12:20Moments later, with police surrounding a cross-legged Wells, the device detonated.
12:24Police later traced the dead bank robber to a complex conspiracy.
12:28Wells had delivered a pizza to a remote location, and was taken in by Marjorie Deal Armstrong,
12:32who wished to earn enough money to hire a hitman to murder her father for the inheritance.
12:36She and accomplices fit Wells with the bomb collar, and had him rob the bank, hoping to get $250,000.
12:43Deal Armstrong was arrested after the bizarre plot was uncovered, and she died in prison in 2017.
12:48There is nothing normal about Marjorie Deal Armstrong.
12:52She's mentally ill, but she's also smart and cunning.
12:56Able to get the men in her life, even the one who said she broke his heart, to do anything for her.
13:02Arresting Timothy McVeigh
13:04Less than 90 minutes after the blast, about 75 miles north of Oklahoma City,
13:10State Trooper Charlie Hanger stops a 1977 Mercury Marquis for not having a license plate.
13:17On the morning of April 19th, 1995, a bomb exploded under the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City,
13:23killing a known 167 people, and injuring hundreds more.
13:27But the man responsible wasn't caught through a complex intelligence networks.
13:31He was caught by a small-town highway patrol officer.
13:34Just 90 minutes after the bombing, McVeigh was pulled over by Oklahoma State Trooper,
13:38Charlie Hanger, for driving without a license plate, and he was arrested for carrying an unregistered gun.
13:43At the time, Hanger had no idea that he had just arrested the most wanted man in America.
13:47The FBI identified McVeigh two days later, and found that he was in the Noble County Jail.
13:52They took him into federal custody, and the rest is history.
13:55Hanger arrests McVeigh for carrying a concealed weapon, never imagining that his prisoner is the Oklahoma City bomber.
14:03Samantha Koenig is already dead.
14:05The police interrogation is in Anchorage, Alaska, where Keyes was being held for the murder of 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig.
14:13Seen here putting her hands up the very moment amassed Keyes pulls a gun on her.
14:17After 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig vanished from her Anchorage coffee stand,
14:22her abductor took a ransom photo showing her alive and holding a newspaper.
14:26Hope briefly returned for Koenig's family, and a ransom was paid for her safe return.
14:30Unfortunately, that hope was only a false hope.
14:33The image was staged.
14:34Samantha was already dead.
14:36Her killer, Israel Keyes, had murdered her days earlier,
14:39then propped up her body and posed it for the photo to make it look like proof of life.
14:43The twist was monstrous.
14:45It wasn't just about money, but power.
14:47If it was any consolation to Koenig's father,
14:49the ransom money was instrumental in capturing Keyes, and he was arrested in March 2012.
14:54Telling police he killed her, then left to take a cruise out of New Orleans before asking her family for ransom.
15:00The Theranos scandal.
15:02You have a new idea?
15:04You don't listen to a single person who tells you that you can't do it.
15:08With her black turtlenecks, fake deep voice, and Steve Jobs-style vision,
15:12Elizabeth Holmes promised to revolutionize medicine.
15:15Her company, Theranos, claimed to test hundreds of diseases with just a drop of blood,
15:20a miracle of modern science that would have revolutionized the practice of blood testing forever.
15:25Investors, politicians, and the media called her the next tech genius.
15:29But the story came crashing down with a shocking twist.
15:32None of it worked.
15:32The machines gave false results, and Holmes had faked the data all along to sell machines.
15:37The empire she built on innovation was actually built on nothing but lies.
15:41Theranos collapsed, and Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
15:45Tonight, the epic rise and downfall of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has come to an end.
15:50The former CEO reported to a federal prison today for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
15:57The Golden State Killer is finally caught.
15:59He was committing the crimes during the time he was employed as a peace officer,
16:02and obviously we'll be looking into whether it was actually on the job.
16:05For decades, the Golden State Killer haunted California,
16:08breaking into homes, assaulting women, and murdering couples, and then vanishing into the night.
16:13By 1986, when he suddenly and mysteriously stopped, he had amassed a body count of at least 13.
16:19All were considered cold cases, but in 2018, technology finally caught up.
16:24Investigators uploaded crime scene DNA into a public genealogy site
16:28and identified the killer as Joseph James D'Angelo.
16:31The twist?
16:32He was a former police officer, and he was on active duty during a bulk of his crime spree.
16:37The man sworn to protect had been the predator all along.
16:40After over 40 years of terror, science and persistence revealed the face behind the mask,
16:45and that face had been wearing a badge.
16:48D'Angelo was arrested in Sacramento overnight.
16:51It's believed the crimes were being committed while D'Angelo was a police officer
16:55at two California police departments.
16:57Investigators say discarded DNA evidence led to the capture.
17:01The Dear Zachary case.
17:03Really a good storyteller.
17:04He was completely selfless.
17:06Animated.
17:06Kind.
17:07Jubilant.
17:07Caring.
17:08Devilish.
17:09Laid back.
17:09Very approachable.
17:10Can I say things that are not, like, completely flattering and wonderful?
17:13When filmmaker Kirk Kenney set out to document the life of his murdered best friend, Andrew Bagby,
17:18he wanted to make a beautiful memento for Andrew's unborn son, Zachary.
17:22But Kenney couldn't predict that he was actually documenting one of the most horrifying true crimes
17:27in recent memory, and in real time, too.
17:29During filming, Zachary's mother, Shirley Turner, took her own life,
17:33and the life of young Zachary by jumping into the ocean.
17:35The twist upended the documentary, and turned it into something no one expected.
17:40A memorial, not a memento.
17:42What began as a love letter became a eulogy,
17:45and Dear Zachary became notorious as one of the saddest documentaries ever made.
17:49Your grandma and grandpa went back to England, and spread your ashes with your dad's.
17:53They went back to St. Louis, and spread your ashes with your dad's.
17:57Patricia and Ryan Stallings.
17:59July 9th, 1989, St. Louis, Missouri.
18:02A young mother rushed her critically ill son to Cardinal Glennon Hospital.
18:06When baby Ryan Stallings suddenly fell ill in 1989,
18:10doctors discovered that his blood contained antifreeze poisoning.
18:13Unfortunately, Ryan didn't make it, and his mother, Patricia, was arrested for his murder.
18:18She insisted she was innocent, but the evidence seemed clear.
18:21After her case appeared on Unsolved Mysteries,
18:23a push was made to test Ryan's blood more thoroughly,
18:25and he was found to be suffering from a rare disease called methylmalonic acidemia.
18:30The thing is, MMA mimics the results of antifreeze poisoning and blood tests.
18:34Patricia hadn't poisoned her son.
18:36His body had simply mimicked the signs of it.
18:38The major twist was earth-shattering, and it was enough to free Patricia from prison.
18:42She later received a substantial reward for her troubles.
18:45Unfortunately, we can't undo the suffering that the Stallings have endured
18:49during this entire ordeal.
18:51And I apologize to them, both personally and for the state of Missouri.
18:57Frédéric Bourdain and the missing boy.
18:59She didn't even wait a second or two seconds.
19:02She jumped on me.
19:03She jumped on me.
19:04She took me in her arms, and she said,
19:07Nicholas, oh, and you were afraid I wouldn't recognize you.
19:10I would remember that nose.
19:12In 1997, a missing Texas teenager named Nicholas Barkley was miraculously found in Spain,
19:18noticeably older and thinner, but alive.
19:20But those weren't the only changes.
19:22The boy suddenly had a French accent.
19:24His eyes were an entirely different color, brown instead of blue.
19:27His story made absolutely no sense.
19:29Despite these curious changes, his family rejoiced in his survival and accepted him without question.
19:35Of course, the major twist revealed what everyone was already thinking.
19:38This wasn't Nicholas at all, but Frédéric Bourdain, a 23-year-old French con artist
19:43who was known for impersonating children in order to find family.
19:46It's pretty sad when you think about it.
19:48Bourdain served six years in prison, and unfortunately, the real Nicholas Barkley has never been found.
19:53I could go to the U.S., go to school there, live with that family, and just being someone,
20:00and don't have never again to worry about being identified.
20:05I saw the opportunity.
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20:24O.J. Simpson is found not guilty.
20:26It makes no sense.
20:28It doesn't fit.
20:29If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
20:32The United States basically stopped for the trial of the century.
20:35Former NFL star O.J. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman,
20:42and for many, the trial was considered a foregone conclusion.
20:45The evidence against Simpson was simply too overwhelming, including his blood and glove at the scene,
20:50the victim's blood in his truck, and his DNA matching him to the crime.
20:54But DNA was a new and somewhat misunderstood thing at the time,
20:57and America was in the midst of enormous racial tensions.
21:00For these reasons, and probably many more, Simpson was found not guilty.
21:04The shocking twist echoed across America, causing intense outrage,
21:08and changing how the country viewed its own justice system.
21:11We the jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant,
21:14Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder,
21:17in violation of Penal Code Section 187A,
21:21a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson,
21:23a human being, as charged in Count 1 of the information.
21:26Did you see these twists coming?
21:27Let us know in the comments below.
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