- 4 hours ago
They thought they were smarter than everyone else, but these killers made shockingly stupid mistakes. Join us as we explore the fatal errors that brought notorious murderers to justice. From sending maps with traceable IP addresses to forgetting about CCTV cameras, these criminals proved that evil doesn't equal intelligence. What slip-up do you think was the most ridiculous?
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00:00Clearly not that familiar with computer technology.
00:02He handed the police a golden opportunity.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 30 of the most egregious mistakes
00:09that finally put an end to famous serial killers.
00:12Once again, it was a traffic violation that brought him down.
00:17Sending a Map, Maury Travis.
00:19Expedia provides detectives with a list of all the computers that had recently logged on to the website
00:24and searched for maps with the coordinates in question.
00:28In the early 2000s, St. Louis police were desperate for leads on a series of murders
00:33until Maury Travis made a fatal digital error.
00:36Seeking to taunt authorities, he sent an anonymous letter to the post-dispatch
00:40containing a map to a victim's location.
00:42However, Travis didn't realize that the map was unique,
00:45as he had downloaded it directly from Expedia.com.
00:48The FBI contacted the company, and they traced the IP address of the user who had accessed that specific map.
00:54This digital breadcrumb led police right to the doorstep of Maury Travis.
00:58Where they uncovered a house of horrors.
01:01Travis thought he was being clever by taunting the police,
01:03but a simple computer printout provided the exact electronic trail needed to end his spree.
01:08Hours later, UUNet comes back with the name Maury Travis
01:12and an address just outside St. Louis.
01:16Dumping a body.
01:17Wayne Williams.
01:22Atlanta was paralyzed by fear between 1979 and 1981 as nearly 30 children and young adults were murdered.
01:29They became known as the Atlanta Child Murders, and they were nationwide news.
01:34Investigators theorized that the killer was dumping bodies into rivers, so they staked out local bridges.
01:39On May 22, 1981, an officer heard a loud splash beneath the James Jackson Parkway Bridge.
01:46Wayne Bertram Williams.
01:49Do you know why we pulled you over, Mr. Williams?
01:52I guess it must be about all those boys.
01:55Moments later, Wayne Williams' station wagon was spotted driving away.
01:59Police pulled him over, and though he wasn't immediately arrested,
02:02the body of Nathaniel Cater surfaced downstream just days later.
02:06The timing was impossible to ignore.
02:08Fibers from Williams' car and home were later matched to at least two victims,
02:12including Cater, securing his conviction and sending him to prison.
02:16March 30th, Larry Rogers went missing.
02:19He was found a week later strangled.
02:21On his body, we found carpet fibers and dog hair.
02:25We're taking fiber samples from your home right now and hair samples from Sheba.
02:29Anything you want to tell us?
02:30Shoplifting Salmon.
02:32Charles Ng.
02:32That strain of kleptomania that had run through his childhood didn't disappear in adulthood.
02:39And indeed, it was Ng's kleptomania that in the end saw him caught and brought to justice.
02:46Leonard Lake and Charles Ng committed horrific crimes in a California bunker.
02:50But it wasn't the police who brought him down.
02:52It was a fish.
02:53After fleeing to Canada in 1985, Ng entered a Calgary department store and attempted to shoplift a simple tin of
02:59salmon.
03:00When a security guard confronted him, a scuffle ensued and Ng shot the guard in the hand.
03:05This escalated the charge significantly, leading to an immediate arrest.
03:09While in custody for the shoplifting and assault, authorities checked his fingerprints
03:13and were shocked to discover that he was on the FBI's most wanted list.
03:17Ng had successfully escaped across international borders after murdering at least 11 people,
03:22only to be undone because he refused to pay for a cheap lunch.
03:26It's almost poetic in its stupidity.
03:28Ng is sentenced to death, but he's now on death row in St. Quentin.
03:34When, if ever that ever happens, is anybody's guess.
03:38But that's where he is.
03:41But at least he's locked away.
03:43Killing a co-worker, Alexander Pichushkin.
03:46Pichushkin is the most dangerous serial killer in Russian history.
03:50He murdered for the joy of killing.
03:54His victims, friends, colleagues, casual acquaintances.
03:59Chessboard killer Alexander Pichushkin had a unique M.O.
04:02He aimed to fill every square on a 64-square board with a victim.
04:06He was incredibly careful, targeting isolated individuals around Moscow's pizza park.
04:11However, his final victim, Marina Moskalyova, took a precaution he didn't anticipate.
04:17Having personally known the killer through work,
04:19she left a note for her son stating that she was meeting Alexander and even included his phone number.
04:24When her body was found just a few days later, police read the note and went straight to Pichushkin.
04:29Confronted with this evidence and metro surveillance footage showing them together,
04:33his defense crumbled.
04:34He had relied on his victims disappearing without a trace.
04:37But if you're going to do that, maybe don't target the very people you work with.
04:41Marina Moskalyova, Pichushkin's last victim.
04:46The murderer shows the officers where he killed his acquaintance.
04:52Pichushkin knew that Moskalyova had informed her son about the meeting with him
04:55and that he would therefore be targeted by the investigators.
05:00But the inner urge was too strong.
05:02Killing on CCTV, Stephen Griffiths.
05:05When he scanned the CCTV, he saw this, what must have been a horrific sight.
05:11Some killers are careful, while others are shockingly arrogant.
05:14Stephen Griffiths, the self-styled crossbow cannibal,
05:17murdered three women in England throughout 2009 and 2010.
05:21His downfall came when he brought victim Suzanne Blamires back to his apartment complex.
05:26Griffiths seemingly forgot, or simply didn't care,
05:28that the building was equipped with a monitored CCTV system.
05:31The security cameras clearly recorded Griffiths attacking Blamires in the hallway
05:36and dragging her body into his flat.
05:38Later, the footage even captured him raising a drink to the lens in a mocking toast.
05:42The building's caretaker reviewed the tapes the next morning after getting reports of a
05:46disturbance and called the police.
05:47Needless to say, Griffiths was arrested, his final murder serving as a climactic broadcast.
05:53Nothing could prepare anyone for the brutal actions that followed.
05:58There's a struggle between them.
05:59He drags her along the floor and shoots the crossbow bolt through her head
06:04and then drags her back into that flat.
06:06Reporting on his own crimes.
06:09Vlado Toneski.
06:10Journalists often fight for exclusive scoops, but Vlado Toneski took it entirely too far.
06:15Toneski was a Macedonian crime reporter who wrote incredibly detailed articles
06:19about the murders of elderly women in Kichevo.
06:21His stories were so vivid that police became suspicious.
06:24For example, he included specific details that had never been released to the public,
06:29such as the exact type of telephone wire used to bind the victims.
06:33When police questioned how he knew these unreleased facts, he didn't really have an answer.
06:38Even worse, investigators also noticed that all of the victims were cleaning ladies,
06:43the exact same profession as Toneski's own mother, with whom he had a notoriously strained relationship.
06:48DNA tests eventually matched him to the victims and he was taken in, undone by his own reporting.
06:54Betraying an accomplice, H.H. Holmes.
06:57Benjamin and his family was told that a body would be substituted for Benjamin's body
07:02and it would look like Benjamin died.
07:04Holmes arranged to meet Peitzel in the Philadelphia Patent Office on September 2, 1894.
07:11What ended up happening is Holmes actually murdered Benjamin Peitzel.
07:16He did not substitute a body.
07:17This American killer is infamous for his Chicago murder castle,
07:21a story which is either wildly exaggerated or outright false.
07:25But he was a killer and it was a financial scam that actually ruined him.
07:29After fleeing Chicago, Holmes hatched a plan to fake his associate Benjamin Peitzel's death
07:33for an insurance payout.
07:35Instead, Holmes actually murdered Peitzel.
07:37The mistake came when Holmes tried to cheat another career criminal, Marion Hedgepeth,
07:42who had helped arrange the plan.
07:44Holmes promised Hedgepeth $500 for a legal referral but never paid him.
07:48Angry at being stiffed, Hedgepeth wrote a letter to the police from prison,
07:52exposing the whole scam and Holmes' involvement in Peitzel's death.
07:55This tip-off led Pinkerton agents straight to Holmes,
07:58and his web of murder was quickly unraveled.
08:01This is Holmes' confession.
08:03Only one difficulty presented itself.
08:05It was necessary for me to kill him, speaking of Benjamin Peitzel,
08:10in such a manner that no struggle or movement of his body should occur.
08:15Putting the hazards on, Robert Ben Rhodes.
08:18On the 1st of April, 1990, Arizona State Trooper Michael Miller pulled to the side of Interstate
08:2610 in Casa Grande to inspect a parked truck.
08:30When he peered through the windows of the cab, he couldn't believe what he saw.
08:35Truck stop killer Robert Ben Rhodes used his 18-wheeler as a mobile killing chamber to murder
08:40people across the country.
08:41He was a terrifyingly efficient predator, suspected of killing more than 50 people.
08:45Yet he was caught because of a minor traffic decision.
08:48In 1990, an Arizona State Trooper noticed a semi-truck parked on the highway shoulder
08:53with its hazard lights flashing.
08:54Thinking that the driver was in distress, the trooper pulled over to help.
08:58But when he opened the cab, he found a handcuffed woman screaming for help.
09:02Rhodes had essentially invited the police to his active crime scene by leaving his flashers on,
09:07mistakenly thinking it would act as a do-not-disturb sign.
09:10You just can't script that kind of irony.
09:12Michael didn't know it yet, but he'd apprehended a cold-blooded serial killer, Robert Ben Rhodes.
09:20Leaving probation papers, Gary Ray Bowles.
09:22To say that it's not hard to kill somebody.
09:26You can kill somebody pretty easy if you have the mind set for it.
09:31The I-95 killer targeted men along the interstate highway in 1994, murdering at least six.
09:37After killing his first victim in Daytona Beach, Gary Ray Bowles made a clumsy error that immediately destroyed his anonymity.
09:44In his haste to leave the scene, Bowles left behind his own probation documents.
09:49The papers were found at the site of the murder, with his name and information clearly printed on them.
09:54So, almost immediately, police knew exactly who they were looking for.
09:58While Bowles managed to evade capture for a few more months and kill several more people,
10:03his identity was known from the very start, and it eventually caught up with him.
10:07He was finally caught in November 1994, and executed nearly 25 years later on August 22, 2019.
10:14His last meal, he requested three cheeseburgers, french fries, and bacon.
10:20He did not have any family visits, and he was not visited by a spiritual advisor.
10:25Releasing a victim, Bobby Joe Long.
10:27It is one of the most extraordinary facts of his case that he chose to let a victim go, and
10:35as he did so, he knew he was actually signing his own death warrant.
10:39Perhaps the most catastrophic mistake a serial killer can make is letting a witness go.
10:44In November 1984, Bobby Joe Long abducted 17-year-old Lisa McVeigh in Florida.
10:49He held her captive for 26 hours, but McVeigh thought quickly.
10:53She feigned empathy for Long and convinced him that she wouldn't tell anyone if he let her go.
10:58Amazingly, he actually believed this and dropped her off at a local intersection.
11:03Naturally, McVeigh had no intention of keeping this a secret.
11:06In fact, she actively worked to build a case against Long, leaving fingerprints in his bathroom and memorizing nearby landmarks.
11:13After being released, she took the police straight too long, solving the murders of at least 10 women.
11:18He was taken down by the one victim he thought he could trust.
11:22Lisa's testimony was effectively the break in the case.
11:26At that point, no one knew or even suspected that Bobby Joe Long had indeed killed a number of women
11:33in the Tampa area.
11:35Subletting his apartment, John Christie.
11:37Okay, just dump it here.
11:40Really smells bad in here.
11:42Soon got it cleaned up.
11:43This British serial killer has to be one of the dumbest murderers ever.
11:47Christie killed at least 8 people inside his Notting Hill flat, then hid their bodies in various spots around the
11:52house.
11:53And then this guy, knowing full well that there were human corpses inside the walls, illegally subletted his flat to
11:59an unsuspecting couple.
12:00The landlord found the couple living there instead of Christie and kicked them out,
12:03then allowed another tenant to use Christie's vacant kitchen while he found another permanent renter.
12:08This tenant, Beresford Brown, was installing a radio when he found a hidden alcove in the kitchen.
12:13Inside the alcove were three corpses, and the rest is history.
12:17You're Christie.
12:18John Reginald Christie.
12:23I shall have to take you into custody.
12:26Come along.
12:27Involving the brother-in-law, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
12:30Described by the trial judge as, quote,
12:35Ian Brady and Myra Hindley murdered five people in the early 1960s.
12:39These are known as the Moore's Murders, as the couple would dump their bodies on Saddleworth Moore.
12:44And then, they decided to involve Hindley's brother-in-law, David Smith.
12:48Brady had become close to Smith and saw him as a potential accomplice.
12:52So he invited Smith to witness the murder of Edward Evans.
12:55Horrified, but pretending to go along,
12:57Smith helped move Evans' body to a spare bedroom and promised to return in the morning so they could take
13:02it to the Moore.
13:03Instead, he contacted the police, who quickly found Evans' body.
13:07Keeping a burial plot map.
13:08Robert Hansen.
13:09Bob.
13:11We found this at your house.
13:12Can you tell me what it is?
13:14I haven't seen this.
13:15What is this?
13:16It's a flight chart.
13:18I'm sure you've seen hundreds of them.
13:19Right.
13:19And what are all these little markings on it?
13:21These X's.
13:22Those are places where I hunt.
13:23Bob, why is this one and this one where these two girls' bodies were found and these two?
13:29This butcher was known for abducting victims and then releasing them into the Alaskan bush,
13:34where he would hunt them for sport.
13:35It's believed that he killed up to 37 people in this manner.
13:39In June of 1983, potential victim Cindy Paulson escaped from Hansen and contacted the police.
13:45While they didn't believe her story at first,
13:47owing to Hansen's upstanding reputation and meek personality,
13:50they eventually obtained a search warrant.
13:52Inside his house was a trove of evidence,
13:55including jewelry and, most importantly, a map with 37 little X marks.
14:00These marks corresponded perfectly with where bodies had previously been found.
14:04Confronted with the evidence,
14:05Hansen quickly folded and spent the rest of his life in prison.
14:09You're saying, no way, those are just places where I hunted.
14:12Oh, I believe they were, Bob.
14:14Places where you've hunted.
14:15Yep.
14:16Fleeing an Accident.
14:17Eileen Wuornos.
14:18I-I'm gonna call an ambulance.
14:20No, see, that's okay.
14:21She goes, we don't have any insurance.
14:23Oh, we'd just rather, you know, deal with this ourselves.
14:26The rare female serial killer, Eileen Wuornos murdered a total of seven men,
14:30but her spree did not last long owing to some very sloppy mistakes.
14:34The worst of all occurred on July 4th, 1990,
14:37when Wuornos and her girlfriend, Tyra Moore,
14:40got into an accident while driving her victim's car.
14:42They quickly fled the scene,
14:44prompting an eyewitness to describe their physical details to the police.
14:47They also combed the car for fingerprints.
14:49As Wuornos had a criminal record in Florida,
14:52her prints were already in the system,
14:53and police quickly got a match with it.
14:56Wuornos was placed inside the vehicle belonging to a missing man.
14:59It proved to be her downfall,
15:01and she was arrested six months later.
15:03Let's go, Selby, now.
15:04No, no, I want to drive.
15:07Selby.
15:08The car will lose to a dead man, hurry.
15:10Robbing a supermarket.
15:11Danny Rowling.
15:12The wheels of justice may turn slow, but they do turn.
15:16You don't ask of justice, it asks of you.
15:19Known as the Gainesville Ripper,
15:21Danny Rowling murdered a total of eight people,
15:23although he's known primarily for the Gainesville killings of August 1990,
15:27and he was ultimately arrested not for the murders,
15:30but for robbing a local supermarket.
15:32In fact, Rowling had a long history of committing robberies,
15:35with the habit going back to his teenage years.
15:37And when he was arrested,
15:39investigators found various guns and tools in his possession.
15:42While Rowling was in jail for the robbery,
15:44investigators successfully matched tools and items found at the Gainesville crime scenes
15:49to the tools in his possession,
15:50and the collected DNA matched his own.
15:53And with that,
15:53a bungled robbery took down one of Florida's most notorious killers.
15:57His appetite couldn't be sated until such time as he began to commit the murders.
16:05Withdrawing a victim's money with her own card, Israel Keyes.
16:09Back when I was smart, I would let them come to me.
16:14On February 2nd, 2012,
16:16Israel Keyes killed his final victim, 18-year-old Samantha Koenig.
16:20Keyes staged Koenig's body to make it look like she was alive,
16:23and made a ransom photo, demanding $30,000 from her family.
16:27The money was paid, and Keyes, not needing it anymore,
16:30disposed of Koenig's body in a lake.
16:32But the money had been deposited into Koenig's account,
16:35and Keyes used her card to withdraw the money at numerous ATMs throughout the southwestern U.S.
16:40This was obviously suspicious,
16:41as Koenig had been the victim of a kidnapping and was now missing.
16:45Police used ATM security footage to identify Keyes' vehicle,
16:48and it was eventually found and pulled over.
16:51Inside the vehicle was Koenig's card, and Keyes was arrested.
16:54He talked about the rush that he got out of it,
16:57the adrenaline, and kind of the high from doing it,
17:00and I think, unfortunately, I think he enjoyed what he was doing.
17:04Abandoning a stolen car, Richard Ramirez.
17:07Fortunately for us, there was a young man that lived in the neighborhood
17:11that was working on a bike.
17:14He saw a car drive up, driving kind of slow looking around,
17:18and he thought it was funny, and then he saw it leave again.
17:20Most serial killers get caught eventually,
17:23and a surprising amount go down thanks to abandoned vehicles.
17:26In the mid-1980s, the Night Stalker was using a stolen orange Toyota to drive around Los Angeles,
17:31and on the night of August 24, 1985,
17:34he sped away from a prospective house after being caught prowling.
17:37The house's occupant, James Romero, took note of the car and reported it to the police.
17:42This car was later found abandoned in Koreatown,
17:44and police were able to lift a fingerprint from the mirror.
17:47It was matched to one Richard Ramirez,
17:49who had a long rap sheet stemming from other crimes.
17:52He was later found and arrested, bringing down the infamous Night Stalker of L.A.
17:56He says, San Francisco came up with the name Richard Ramirez.
18:02If we had a name,
18:04we could match that
18:05to that single print
18:08off the rearview mirror of that car used down in Orange County.
18:12Offering someone a job
18:14John Wayne Gacy
18:15Who are they?
18:18Cops.
18:19Cops? Why?
18:21I'm a very important man.
18:23Despite being one of the most famous and prolific serial killers in American history,
18:27John Wayne Gacy went down thanks to a bizarrely ordinary, almost anticlimactic mistake.
18:32On the night of December 11, 1978,
18:35Gacy was in Neeson Pharmacy talking to the owner about remodeling the store.
18:38There, he met his final victim, Robert Piest, and offered him a job at his construction business.
18:43Later that night, Piest told his mother that he was going to meet, quote,
18:47some contractor.
18:48When he failed to return, Piest's mother filed a missing persons report.
18:52During the investigation, the store's owner claimed that this contractor was John Wayne Gacy.
18:57Police then received a search warrant for Gacy's house,
19:00where they ultimately found his victims buried in the crawlspace.
19:03John, I'm sorry to disturb you, but that hideous stench coming from under your house is getting worse.
19:08It's moisture buildup in my crawlspace. I'm taking care of it, I promise.
19:11Writing a letter to his victim's mother, Albert Fish.
19:14My dear Mrs. Bud.
19:18What's it saying, Edward?
19:19As it dates back to the 1920s, no one really knows how many people Albert Fish killed,
19:25his body count ranging from as low as three to as high as 100.
19:28Either way, his spree ended when he wrote a sick and taunting letter to the mother of his victim,
19:33Grace Budd.
19:34Budd gave this letter to the police, and they saw that the envelope was stamped with an emblem
19:38representing the New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association.
19:41There, they found a janitor who took some stationery back to his boarding house,
19:45but had left it there after moving out.
19:47They went to the boarding house, found Fish,
19:50and apprehended him after he attacked them with a razor.
19:52Is it about those silly letters?
19:56Yes, that's part of it.
19:58Let's take a drive and we'll have a little chat.
20:01Keeping Polaroids and body parts in the apartment.
20:03Jeffrey Dahmer.
20:04I gotta say, that smell is worse than ever.
20:08Is it?
20:13Well, you know, I had that meat that went bad.
20:16And that little freezer I got.
20:18There's probably nothing a serial killer fears more than letting a prospective victim escape their grasp.
20:24After 17 kills, that's exactly what brought down Jeffrey Dahmer.
20:28On July 22, 1991, Dahmer took Tracy Edwards back to his apartment, intending to kill him.
20:34However, Edwards overpowered Dahmer and escaped before flagging down two police officers.
20:39They escorted Edwards back to the apartment and looked around, entering Dahmer's bedroom.
20:44There, one of the officers opened a drawer and found numerous Polaroids depicting Dahmer's victims.
20:49They quickly cuffed Dahmer and soon discovered some grisly remains in the fridge.
20:53Dahmer was quick to give up and later waived his right to a lawyer, readily and openly admitting his heinous
20:59crimes.
21:00For what I did, I should be dead.
21:02Parking Ticket
21:02David Berkowitz
21:03One of the scariest modus operandi of serial killers is when they select victims randomly, as did David Berkowitz, a
21:10.k.a. the Son of Sam.
21:11Beginning his deadly spree in 1975, Berkowitz took the lives of six people and injured 11.
21:18Spreading panic across the city that never sleeps.
21:21In 1977, Cecilia Davis was walking near one of Berkowitz's crime scenes when she spotted a man next to a
21:27car.
21:28Something told her to run, so she did, hearing shots as she sprinted away.
21:33Davis eventually told the police about the incident and that the vehicle the man was using had a parking ticket.
21:38After checking the details, the cops found Berkowitz, discovered weapons in his car, and arrested him.
21:43And sure enough, there were four summonsers given out.
21:46One of them to a David Berkowitz.
21:48In 1978, he was sentenced to 25 years to life for each murder.
21:53Missing License Plate
21:54Joel Rifkin
21:55In 1994, Joel Rifkin was found guilty of nine counts of murder and sentenced to 203 years in jail.
22:03Yet it's believed he may have slain up to 17 victims during his four-year reign of terror in New
22:08York.
22:08If it wasn't for one error in 1993, Rifkin may never have been caught.
22:13When the police attempted to pull him over for a missing rear license plate,
22:16Rifkin panicked and sped off with the cops in hot pursuit.
22:19He just kept driving, and that's when I initiated the pursuit.
22:24However, after over 20 minutes of reckless driving, the serial killer crashed his truck into a pole, allowing the officers
22:30to arrest him.
22:32Yet, as they approached the truck, there was a strong odor.
22:35That's when I noticed stench.
22:37When the cops looked under a sheet, they discovered one of Rifkin's victims.
22:41False License Plate
22:43Peter Sutcliffe
22:44Between 1975 and 1980, the north of England was in a state of fear.
22:49A criminal known as the Yorkshire Ripper had taken the lives of 13 people, a figure that was suspected to
22:55be much higher later, and badly injured several others.
22:58Yet the police had no leads.
23:00In 1981, Peter Sutcliffe was arrested after the police noticed him in a car with an escort.
23:06And while he indeed had a license plate, it was a false one.
23:09And discovered that the number plates did not tally with the vehicle.
23:15That rang alarm bells.
23:17The cops quickly realized Sutcliffe matched the Yorkshire Ripper's description.
23:20One officer discovered weapons dumped where Sutcliffe was arrested, and a knife hidden in the toilet at the police station.
23:27After intense interviewing, Sutcliffe confessed.
23:30Sutcliffe knew he was caught.
23:32And it was then he said, I know what you're leading up to.
23:35It's me, I'm the Ripper.
23:37He was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years, which was later changed to a whole life tariff.
23:42Sutcliffe passed away in jail in 2020.
23:45The serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, has died in hospital at the age of 74.
23:51Scratch marks.
23:52Earl Nelson.
23:53After sustaining a head injury as a child, Earl Nelson, a.k.a. the Dark Strangler or the Gorilla Man,
23:59began showcasing more and more erratic behavior.
24:02Eventually, it led to him becoming one of the U.S.'s most prolific serial killers.
24:06In just over a year, Nelson took the lives of up to 29 people throughout many states, including Washington, California,
24:14Oregon, and Missouri, and eventually ended up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
24:18After more slayings, a search was underway for someone matching Nelson's description.
24:22With all this going on, he visited a barber.
24:25However, the worker noticed blood and scratch marks on Nelson, and they told the cops.
24:31Eventually, Nelson was discovered and arrested.
24:33In 1928, Nelson was executed for his crimes.
24:37Public indecency.
24:39Arthur Shawcross.
24:40In 1987, Arthur Shawcross, later known as the Genesee River Killer, was released from jail for taking the lives of
24:47two children.
24:48By the following year, he began terrorizing citizens in Rochester, New York.
24:53Shawcross took the lives of around 12 people until 1990.
24:56At that time, the police had discovered one of his victims, and a helicopter was checking out the area in
25:02the belief the killer would return to the scene.
25:04They spotted Shawcross on a nearby bridge, seemingly relieving himself in one form or another.
25:10As the helicopter flew by, he closed the passenger door.
25:14After running his vehicle license plate and discovering his morbid history, the cops arrested Shawcross, who admitted his guilt.
25:21He was sentenced to 250 years in jail before passing away in 2008.
25:25I know something inside me is weird.
25:29Forged Will
25:30Harold Shipman
25:31After the Shipman inquiry concluded in 2005, it was discovered that Harold Shipman might be one of the most prolific
25:38killers in history, with upwards of 250 victims.
25:42Later known as Dr. Death, Shipman was a general practitioner around Manchester, England.
25:47He befriended older patients, getting them to leave money to him in their wills, then giving them fatal amounts of
25:53morphine.
25:53But, when solicitor Angela Woodruff was told that her mother's will had left everything to Shipman, she got suspicious.
26:00She was absolutely astonished, because if you look at the actual will, it's so amateur.
26:04An investigation led to the police realizing the doctor's typewriter was used to write the will, as well as his
26:10fingerprint being on the letter.
26:11In an interview, he suggested that Mrs. Grundy used to borrow the typewriter.
26:17In 2000, Shipman received life imprisonment before taking his own life in 2004.
26:23It would have been Harold Shipman's 58th birthday tomorrow.
26:26The former GP thought responsible for more than 200 murders.
26:30Plumbing Issues
26:31Dennis Nielsen
26:32Between 1978 and 1983, Dennis Nielsen lured up to 15 victims to his residences in London, England, taking their lives
26:40and then living with the remains for a while.
26:43But, by 1983, a plumber was examining a drainpipe that various residents had complained about.
26:49The worker found a strange substance coating them.
26:52He discovered that what was blocking the toilets was actually human flesh.
26:56After an investigation, it was discovered to be human remains, and it led to Nielsen.
27:01On the 9th of February, blocked drains would lead to his discovery and arrest.
27:07When the police got there and searched the property, they found more remains scattered about.
27:11Nielsen had disposed of evidence either by a bonfire or flushing it in the toilet, leading to his downfall.
27:17He was sentenced to life imprisonment for six murders and one attempt.
27:21In 2018, Nielsen passed away in jail.
27:24Nielsen was totally, matter-of-fact, quite cold.
27:29There was no remorse.
27:30There was no indication of any remorse.
27:33Erratic Driving
27:34Randy Kraft
27:35In 1983, California Highway Patrol officers noticed a car driving erratically on the freeway.
27:41Understandably suspecting this was a DUI, they pulled the car over.
27:45California Highway Patrol pulled over Randy Kraft for driving erratically.
27:50As one cop spoke to the driver outside the vehicle to give him a sobriety test, the other
27:55checked the passenger, who remained sitting.
27:58However, they discovered he was tied up and wasn't alive.
28:01By pure happenstance, these officers uncovered the identity of the notorious scorecard killer,
28:07Randy Kraft.
28:08By 1989, Kraft was found guilty of taking the lives of 16 men, receiving an execution sentence.
28:15However, it's speculated he might have slain up to 67 people.
28:19At the time of writing, Kraft was still on death row.
28:23And that's where he is still, 73 years old, at the infamous San Quentin Prison in San Francisco.
28:30Stolen Car
28:31Ted Bundy
28:32In early 1978, Florida was experiencing a series of brutal attacks and slayings within
28:38a short amount of time.
28:39And it all ended when Officer David Lee realized a car that had been reported stolen was in
28:44front of him.
28:44A man was spotted in his VW bug, acting suspiciously.
28:48While the thief attempted to escape by running away, Lee tackled and arrested him.
28:53It was soon discovered Lee had brought Ted Bundy to justice, who had escaped custody
28:57multiple times and committed horrific crimes.
29:00Ted Bundy was in custody again, but his capture would spell just the beginning of an extraordinary
29:0611-year circus.
29:08After a series of trials for his crimes, Bundy was sentenced to capital punishment.
29:12While he confessed to killing 30 people and was confirmed to have taken 20 lives, there's
29:17speculation the true number could be much, much higher.
29:20In 1989, Bundy's sentence was carried out.
29:23While he confessed to many crimes, investigators say he recanted many statements and couldn't
29:29be trusted to tell the truth.
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29:47Floppy disk, Dennis Rader
29:48Between 1974 and 1991, several people perished around Kansas at the hands of BTK, a self-given
29:56nickname by the monster who taunted the media and police in his messages.
30:00But then, he vanished.
30:02Yet, by 2004, BTK began sending detailed letters to the newspaper The Wichita Eagle.
30:08Looking to receive more of his writings, the police convinced BTK that he couldn't be traced
30:13if he sent a floppy disk containing the documents.
30:15However, he could, and he fell for the bait.
30:18Specialists discovered evidence on the disk linking it to a church and its council president,
30:23Dennis Rader.
30:23In 2005, Rader pled guilty to 10 counts of murder and was sentenced to 175 years in jail.
30:31What do you make of these mistakes?
30:33Let us know in the comments.
30:38Let us know in the comments.
30:40Let us know in the comments.
30:41We'll see you in the comments.
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