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Some secrets are too dark to keep... Join us as we count down the most shocking cases of high-profile criminals who confessed their crimes to a romantic partner or spouse before being convicted!
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00:00She really wants to please him, so she completely buys into this murder narrative.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at high-profile criminals who had not yet been convicted when they opened
00:11up to a romantic partner or spouse.
00:13She was naive, impressionable, and he was an interesting figure to her, I think.
00:23Bernie Madoff
00:24It all fell apart for one of Wall Street's most powerful figures when the Great Recession of 2008 prompted investors
00:31to call for $7 billion in redemptions.
00:34It was the largest stock fraud in history.
00:37Unable to meet that demand, Bernie Madoff gathered his wife Ruth and their sons at his Manhattan apartment to confess
00:43to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
00:47Andrew and Mark responded by reporting their father to the feds.
00:50And they turned around immediately and reported their father to the FBI.
00:55Meanwhile, their mother took out $10.5 million.
00:58Questions of her motivation for and the timing of the withdrawal have led some to suspect a conspiracy to bring
01:05down Bernie while protecting his family.
01:07In any case, Ruth completely abandoned her incarcerated husband after Mark's death in 2010.
01:13And we just went home.
01:15And the next morning, the FBI was there.
01:17Peter Sutcliffe
01:18Sutcliffe knew he was caught, and it was then he said, I know what you're leading up to.
01:24It's me, I'm the Ripper.
01:26Sonia Sutcliffe was at home in Bradford, England on January 2nd, 1981, when she learned that her husband, Peter, was
01:33arrested with a sex worker.
01:34At the station, he reportedly told her, quote,
01:37It's me, I'm the Yorkshire Ripper.
01:39I killed all those women.
01:41He confessed, and his only condition was that he be allowed to tell his wife, Sonia, before it became known
01:50to the general public that he was indeed the Yorkshire Ripper.
01:54The lorry driver had been living a double life as a serial killer for five years.
01:58As harshly criticized as police were for missing the signs, Sonia was subject to great public scrutiny and media rumors.
02:06She even sued several outlets for libel.
02:09Peter maintained that he was careful to ensure that his wife knew nothing about his so-called missions.
02:14After they divorced an already shocking 13 years after his confession, Sonia and the incarcerated Peter stayed in touch.
02:22He is, without doubt, one of the most infamous murderers in the UK.
02:26Ted Bundy
02:27It was once believed that Elizabeth Klopfer had figuratively caught the notorious ladies' man, Ted Bundy.
02:33She ultimately helped authorities catch him with multiple reports of suspicion that he was a serial killer.
02:39So I did call King County Police, and I did meet with the detective.
02:44I gave them some pictures of him.
02:47After Bundy's final arrest in Florida in 1978, he opted to call his ex-fiancee in Washington.
02:53He explained to Klopfer that he had dark impulses that her presence helped regulate.
02:59Without explaining what those impulses were, Bundy was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder the following year,
03:05then confessed to dozens more before his execution in 89.
03:09Only when facing almost certain execution, after 11 years on death row, did Bundy finally start to confess.
03:17Meanwhile, Klopfer has periodically come out of hiding to participate in biographical works since her 1981 memoir,
03:24The Phantom Prince, My Life with Ted Bundy.
03:27Never in my dreams did I think he was out stalking women and then eventually abducting and murdering women.
03:33Sammy the Bull Gravano.
03:35The Italian mafia code of Omerta dictates keeping family as far away from business as possible.
03:41But Gambino underboss Sammy the Bull Gravano was ready to break all the rules
03:46after the FBI produced audio recordings of John Gotti plotting against him in 1991.
03:51And I realized that John probably eventually would take me out for no other reason but
03:58he wants one show, one boss of John Gotti.
04:02He don't want anybody to be his equal.
04:05The only person he trusted to craft a plea deal was his wife Deborah,
04:09who supposedly didn't know the full extent of her husband's crimes.
04:12While he confessed to 19 hits to his intermediary,
04:15he did not disclose that her alleged informant brother Nicholas Scabetta was among them.
04:20This later came out during a debriefing.
04:23Deborah nonetheless stayed with Sammy through the divorce and his transition into civilian life,
04:28having aided him in bringing down Gotti.
04:30I think we totaled over 38 convictions.
04:33He arguably led to the demise of organized crime in New York.
04:38Ian Huntley.
04:39Nobody believes that they would ever run away.
04:42That was very close to all their family.
04:44Maxine Carr was just out of prison in 2004
04:47when police had to move her to a different safe house.
04:50Her ex-boyfriend, Ian Huntley, had claimed on tape
04:54that he told her about how he killed two children in Soham, England two years prior.
04:59He reiterated this in another taped confession made shortly before an attempt on his own life in 06.
05:05Carr not only provided the false alibi for which she was convicted,
05:08but allegedly convinced Huntley to destroy evidence.
05:11She'd provided Huntley with an alibi, but she'd lied.
05:15She admitted that, on the night Holly and Jessica were murdered,
05:19she was in Grimsby, 110 miles from Soham.
05:23The case was so high profile that a judge granted Carr anonymity for the rest of her life.
05:28While we may never fully know what became of her,
05:31she evidently knew more about Huntley's horrible deeds than authorities initially thought.
05:36She argued if she'd known of Huntley's murderous actions, she would never have lied to protect him.
05:42Frank Abagnale.
05:43In 1969, flight attendant Paula Parks had stolen the heart of airline pilot Frank Abagnale Jr.
05:50This moved him to confide in her that he was actually not a pilot,
05:54but a skilled con artist who had committed fraud across the United States.
05:58Must have slipped right off your neck.
06:00No.
06:02No.
06:05No.
06:05He was also only 18 years old.
06:09Parks responded by reporting Abagnale to the police,
06:12setting up his ultimate downfall in France.
06:15Multiple reports suggest that he actually just stalked Parks and defrauded her parents.
06:20Either way, romance would mark Abagnale's downfall and eventual redemption.
06:24In 1975, he was doing undercover work for the FBI,
06:28when he fell in love with and confessed to future wife Kellyanne Welbs.
06:32And I truly believe, looking back on it now,
06:35that I truly believe I was able to accomplish all those things because I was just a teenage boy.
06:41Eileen Wuornos.
06:42Tyria Moore was financially dependent on her volatile girlfriend Eileen Wuornos' sex work in Daytona,
06:48Florida, during the late 1980s.
06:50Supposedly, Wuornos confessed to killing a client in 89.
06:54Moore initially dismissed this,
06:56but suspicions of further killings eventually collapsed the relationship
07:00and drove her to cooperate with police almost two years later.
07:03And they said to her,
07:04let's make her a deal.
07:06If you can provide evidence,
07:07if you can help us convict Eileen Wuornos,
07:10then we will give you immunity from prosecution.
07:13A coerced confession during a taped phone call,
07:16as well as Moore's crucial testimony at the trial,
07:19helped secure Wuornos' conviction on six counts of murder.
07:22Why the hell did you do this?
07:24Why did you do this?
07:27Despite this,
07:28one of America's most notorious serial killers
07:31maintained her love for Moore
07:32to the day she was executed in 2002.
07:35She really just wanted to get it over with.
07:37She didn't want to go to trial again.
07:39She didn't want to face Tyria.
07:41Moore has since avoided a public
07:43desperate for her testimony on Wuornos' controversial legacy.
07:47Doug Clark.
07:48Carol Bundy bonded with Doug Clark over dark fantasies
07:52after they met at a Los Angeles bar in 1979.
07:55The following year,
07:57Clark made the fantasies a reality
07:59by sexually assaulting and murdering several people.
08:02He then informed his girlfriend
08:04with the confidence that she would accept his horrific crimes.
08:07And the conversation turns to murder.
08:10Now, you'd think that this would send her running
08:12in the other direction,
08:13but this is somebody who wants to please her man.
08:16She wound up joining him in committing them
08:18with the assurance that he would take full responsibility.
08:22In the end, though,
08:23an overwhelmed Bundy confided in a fellow nurse
08:26after police discovered the body of an ex-boyfriend
08:28she killed by herself.
08:30She started telling co-workers
08:33what she and Clark had been doing together.
08:36She just wouldn't stop talking.
08:39The so-called Sunset Strip killers
08:41spent their respective trials
08:42trying to implicate one another,
08:44but ultimately spent the rest of their lives in prison.
08:46Bundy died in prison on the 9th of December, 2003,
08:52age 61.
08:53Peter Curtin
08:54Police in Dusseldorf were close to solving
08:56a string of murders and sexual assaults in May of 1930.
09:00Peter Curtin thus confessed to his wife Augusta
09:03so that she could claim the reward for aiding in his capture.
09:07She received 4,000 Reichsmarks
09:09for turning him in the next day.
09:10Augusta already saw through her husband's upstanding public image
09:14because of his history of sexual assault and adultery.
09:17Still, there was nothing to suggest to her
09:19that he was the vampire of Dusseldorf
09:22or to the public that he would sacrifice himself
09:24for someone else's financial well-being.
09:27Peter Curtin later confessed to the authorities
09:29and reportedly accepted his execution by guillotine with glee.
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10:06Raymond Fernandez
10:07Martha Beck abandoned her children
10:10to be with Raymond Fernandez in New York
10:12after they met in 1947.
10:14So he admitted to using personal ads
10:17to track down desperate women and steal from them.
10:22He even claims to have killed someone
10:25over a financial dispute.
10:26That did not scare Beck away,
10:28as she joined Fernandez in his exploits
10:30and escalated them to murder.
10:32Their spree supposedly claimed almost 20 lives
10:35by the time it ended with arrest after a year.
10:38Get in a hole of this!
10:39Son of a bitch!
10:40No!
10:41No!
10:45Bec and Fernandez were executed together
10:48on March 8th, 1951.
10:50Since then, American culture has mythologized
10:53the Lonely Hearts Killers
10:54as a representation of what people will admit to
10:57and do for someone they care about.
11:09What are some other shocking confessions
11:11that criminals made to loved ones?
11:13Tell all in the comments below.
11:15Commentart out in the comments below.
11:17Edit Your Filestmakeüm
11:192 Mission
11:19De
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