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You won't believe how these cases unfolded... Join us as we count down some of the most shocking true crime cases featuring the most unbelievable twists you never saw coming! From wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence to killers hiding in plain sight, these real-life stories will leave your jaw on the floor. Truth truly is stranger than fiction when it comes to these mind-blowing criminal cases!
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00:00She said that, don't worry, like she always say, everything is going to be fine, everything is
00:05going to be perfect. I know it's you. Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at 20 major
00:11true crime cases that contain some type of plot twist that dramatically changed the direction
00:15of the story. Somebody has her and they're not safe, like, I want them back now. BTK catches
00:22himself. And of course, we responded by running an ad in the paper, which he asked us to do,
00:26basically telling him we can't trace a floppy disk, which we knew, of course, was inaccurate.
00:32For decades, Wichita, Kansas lived in fear of a phantom. The so-called BTK killer struck at random,
00:39murdering at least 10 people between 1974 and 1991 for vanishing off the face of the earth. But then,
00:45in 2005, the case now considered cold, investigators received a floppy disk from BTK himself,
00:51who arrogantly asked if it could be traced. They lied and said, no, definitely not. It could.
00:57The metadata embedded within the disk led police straight to Dennis Rader, a church president and
01:02family man who was living in plain sight. The revelation stunned the country. The killer everyone
01:08feared wasn't a monster in the shadows, but an everyday family man obsessed with control,
01:12undone by a piece of outdated tech. Ryan Waller's bizarre interrogation.
01:24So they put him in the back of a police car while they investigated. Now, fire dispatch records indicate
01:30a fire unit was sent, but only to determine the female victim was deceased. Mr. Waller says his son
01:36sat in the back of a police car with a hole in his face for up to six hours. When
01:41police found Ryan
01:42Waller with his dead girlfriend in 2006, he was dazed, confused, and covered in blood. Detectives
01:48naturally assumed that he was the killer and dragged him in for questioning. Police interrogated
01:52Ryan for hours, but found his behavior frustrating. He was mumbling, giving nonsensical answers,
01:58seemed on the verge of passing out, and at times wasn't even aware that Heather was dead.
02:02Police initially believed it was drugs, or Ryan acting deceptively to cover his guilt. In reality,
02:07Ryan had been shot in the head, twice. He and Heather were attacked by two intruders.
02:12And Ryan survived the shooting with severe brain damage. It was a home invasion,
02:16not a domestic murder. And they were speaking with the survivor.
02:19Now, we've listed him as a victim. I don't know if anybody knew what happened at that point in time.
02:24Now, I'm not going to make any assumptions. There's a number of scenarios that could have
02:27happened. Pamela Smart manipulates a student. Now, 25 years after her infamous 1990 crime,
02:34Pam Smart says prison is worse than she could have imagined. She looked like the perfect small-town
02:40wife. Pretty, polished, and heartbroken when her husband, Greg, was found dead in their New
02:44Hampshire condo. But investigators soon learned that her grief was a performance. The truth
02:49unraveled fast. Pamela had seduced her 15-year-old student, Billy Flynn, and convinced him and his
02:55friends to kill Greg so they could be together. It was a high school love affair turned deadly.
02:59The twist flipped the victim narrative on its head, showing that poor Pamela Smart wasn't mourning.
03:04She was manipulating. Her case became one of America's first televised trials and became a
03:09pop culture sensation, with countless retellings in the form of books, movies, and TV shows.
03:15You ever have any social contact with her? What do you mean social? I mean, did you ever go to
03:20this
03:21soda fountain for a malt? She's my teacher. You're saying you wouldn't?
03:28The Casey Anthony Verdict.
03:29It was certainly confusing. I mean, we have a child who's been missing for a month. But then
03:33we have a mother that essentially everything she's told us at this point has been a lie.
03:38When two-year-old Kaylee Anthony vanished, her mother Casey spun lie after lie about babysitters,
03:44fake jobs, even imaginary people. Investigators found Kaylee's remains near the family home,
03:49and the nation watched in complete horror as Casey's bizarre and problematic behavior made headlines.
03:54The evidence against Casey seemed overwhelming, both physically and psychologically, and everyone
03:59expected a swift conviction. But then, in a stunning verdict, the jury declared her not
04:04guilty of murder. The courtroom audibly gasped, and the twist left America divided. Was justice served
04:10or denied? Despite everything, Casey literally walked free as protesters called her a baby killer.
04:15Do I necessarily agree with this verdict? No, I don't. I believe it is much more likely than not
04:21that this woman wasn't partially at least responsible, either alone or in concert with
04:27others, for the death of that beloved child. Discovering the Manson cult.
04:31Charlie was always preaching that the karma was turning, you know?
04:35In 1969, Hollywood's glittering hills became a living nightmare. After Sharon Tate and six others
04:42were slaughtered in their own homes, the murders viciously brutal, and the crime scenes grotesque.
04:47But the real horror came when police discovered the mastermind, Charles Manson, a failed musician
04:53turned local cult leader. As the case unfolded, a bizarre story began to emerge. Manson never held
04:58the knife himself, but used charisma and LSD-fueled delusion to command his family of followers to kill,
05:05believing that the murders would ignite a race war and bring about the apocalypse.
05:08The weird twist redefined evil itself, and if we saw this in a movie, we call it way too far
05:14-fetched
05:15and silly. To Manson, Helter Skelter meant the black man rising up and destroying the entire white
05:20race. That is, with the exception of Charles Manson and his chosen followers.
05:26Robert Durst confesses off-camera.
05:28I am going to go use the restroom, which is right here.
05:34Or maybe this is the bathroom.
05:36Yeah, that's...
05:37You're right, this is the bathroom.
05:38For decades, millionaire heir Robert Durst danced around suspicion, long accused of killing his
05:44wife, a friend, and a neighbor. Then came HBO's seminal, The Jinx. Throughout the documentary,
05:50Durst appeared calm, evasive, and maybe even innocent. But during the final episode, he went
05:55to the bathroom, still wearing his microphone. Off-camera, he famously muttered to himself,
06:00what the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course. To some, this was a hypothetical,
06:04a misunderstanding. To others, it was a chilling confession. Whatever it was, it was enough for
06:09police to look deeper into his story, and they uncovered enough evidence to convict him
06:13for the murder of Susan Berman. If it wasn't for the filmmakers, this case might never have been
06:26solved. The deaths under Charles Cullen. Did you get the sense at Somerset, for example,
06:36that any of your colleagues, any of the nurses, any of the doctors knew what was going on?
06:41No. I mean, until, you know, the day I was fired, I mean, nobody gave me any indication that anybody
06:51was suspicious. Over a period of 16 years, Charles Cullen worked as a nurse at various New Jersey and
06:57Pennsylvania medical centers, and for years, patients under his watch were dying. Of course,
07:02this is not surprising, as his patients were often old or seriously ill, so their deaths were not
07:06investigated. To pretty much everyone, the deaths were completely natural. Only, they weren't. In 2003,
07:13the Somerset Medical Center finally caught on that something was wrong and contacted investigators.
07:18They uncovered a horrifying truth. Cullen had murdered his patients with a cocktail of drugs
07:23and framed their deaths as natural causes. It's unclear how many people Cullen killed,
07:28but some believe it could be as high as 400.
07:30I would be very surprised, as would pretty much everyone I've spoken to with any knowledge of
07:36this case, if it was not in the hundreds, multiple hundreds.
07:40Sherry Rasmussen and the Killer Cop
07:42It's definitely, pound for pound, one of the greatest true crime stories of all time.
07:48When nurse Sherry Rasmussen was murdered in 1986, police assumed it was a burglary gone wrong,
07:53but her husband's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Lazarus, kept lurking in the background. Literally.
07:58You see, Lazarus was an LAPD officer, and she was working just down the hall from the
08:03Homicide Division studying Rasmussen's case. The case went cold for two decades,
08:07until DNA technology became advanced enough to catch up. Detectives ran a new test in the
08:11mid-2000s, and the results matched Lazarus. The twist stunned everyone, as the killer had
08:17been a cop, hiding behind her badge for years. Evidence also strongly suggests that Lazarus had
08:22tampered with the evidence while it was in police custody, successfully masking her involvement
08:27in Rasmussen's murder.
08:28By all appearance is a model cop, yet Stephanie Lazarus now faces murder charges. Prosecutors
08:34say that almost 25 years ago, she beat and shot the wife of an ex-boyfriend, and that DNA evidence
08:40proves it.
08:41The camera in the washing machine.
08:43Travis Alexander, 44 seconds later, probably still sitting or seated in the shower, right hand
08:50on the camera to shoot the picture, accidentally or inadvertently, which is what everyone believes,
08:55that leaves her left hand free. Could she have had the knife in her hand at that moment?
09:00When Travis Alexander was found dead in his Arizona home, having been attacked in the
09:04shower, suspicion quickly turned to his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias. Arias admitted to killing Alexander,
09:10but claimed self-defense. But then detectives combing the house made a shocking discovery.
09:14A digital camera placed in the washing machine. Against all odds, the memory card was salvaged,
09:20and on it were photos of Alexander in the shower. The pictures were taken by Arias,
09:24and were particularly graphic, showcasing the bloody aftermath of the attack. The twist
09:29was photographic proof of guilt. The crime literally documented for all to see. Arias' self-defense
09:34claim completely fell apart, and she was sentenced to life in prison.
09:37He steps halfway out, soaking wet, picks her up, and body slams her, boom, on the tile floor. But
09:45Vinny, she said during testimony that her head was facing that way, but if you're going to body
09:51slam somebody, look which way the head's facing. That's another reason why her story doesn't make
09:55sense. Chris Watts. Throw anything out there, like, I hope that she's somewhere safe right now,
10:01and with the kids. But, I mean, because she had just taken off, I don't know, but if somebody has
10:08her and they're not safe, like, I want them back now. When Shannon Watts and her two children went
10:12missing, devoted husband Chris Watts appeared on the news, pleading for their return. But for many,
10:18his behavior on the TV seemed off. He didn't seem especially distraught, and it seemed like he was
10:23hiding something. Investigators agreed, and noticed that his story didn't add up. He was brought in for
10:28questioning, and after failing a polygraph, Watts broke down and confessed. He told police that he
10:33had strangled his wife and smothered their daughters, before hiding their bodies at his
10:37remote job site. Behind the friendly face on TV was something hollow, a man who destroyed everything
10:42he'd ever built, revealing the truth, that evil can wear a family man's smile.
10:47They're gone. There's no bringing them back.
10:51Where are they?
10:52Peter Porco's Bizarre Morning.
10:54Apparently, sometime after the attack, Peter regained consciousness and started to go about
11:00his morning tasks. When court clerk Peter Porco woke up on November 15th, 2004, he immediately
11:06began going about his routine, just as he did every morning. He went to the bathroom, packed
11:10his lunch, loaded the dishwasher, and went to get the newspaper. But soon, he began to feel
11:15faint, collapsed in the hallway, and died. When police arrived later, they found a grisly scene,
11:20with Peter leaving a massive trail of blood everywhere he went. You see, earlier that
11:25morning, both Peter and his wife Joan had been bludgeoned with an axe by their son, Christopher,
11:30who attacked them as they slept. Peter somehow survived his horrific injuries, and went about
11:34his daily routine, all while bleeding profusely from his grotesque head wounds.
11:38The autopsy revealed his paleocortex underneath was intact. This controls his primal instincts
11:46and second nature habits. Brian Wells and the Inheritance Plot
11:50The man told police that the bomb had been strapped to his body and that he was forced to rob
11:56the bank.
11:57In 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Wells of Erie, Pennsylvania, walked into a local PNC bank with
12:02a bomb strapped around his neck. He took $8,700 in cash and fled. Moments later, with police surrounding
12:09a cross-legged Wells, the device detonated. Police later traced the dead bank robber to a complex
12:14conspiracy. Wells had delivered a pizza to a remote location and was taken in by Marjorie
12:19Deal Armstrong, who wished to earn enough money to hire a hitman to murder her father for the
12:23inheritance. She and accomplices fit Wells with the bomb collar and had him rob the bank,
12:28hoping to get $250,000. Deal Armstrong was arrested after the bizarre plot was uncovered,
12:33and she died in prison in 2017.
12:36There is nothing normal about Marjorie Deal Armstrong. She's mentally ill, but she's also smart
12:42and cunning. Able to get the men in her life? Even the one who said she broke his heart to
12:49do anything
12:49for her. Arresting Timothy McVeigh. Less than 90 minutes after the blast, about 75 miles north of
12:56Oklahoma City, state trooper Charlie Hanger stops a 1977 Mercury Marquis for not having a license plate.
13:04On the morning of April 19th, 1995, a bomb exploded under the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City,
13:11killing a known 167 people and injuring hundreds more. But the man responsible wasn't caught through
13:17a complex intelligence networks. He was caught by a small-town highway patrol officer. Just 90 minutes
13:22after the bombing, McVeigh was pulled over by Oklahoma State trooper Charlie Hanger for driving
13:27without a license plate, and he was arrested for carrying an unregistered gun. At the time,
13:31Hanger had no idea that he had just arrested the most wanted man in America. The FBI identified
13:36McVeigh two days later, and found that he was in the Noble County Jail. They took him into federal
13:40custody, and the rest is history.
13:43Hanger arrests McVeigh for carrying a concealed weapon, never imagining that his prisoner is the
13:49Oklahoma City bomber.
13:51Samantha Koenig is already dead.
13:53The police interrogation is in Anchorage, Alaska, where Keyes was being held for the murder of 18-year-old
13:58barista Samantha Koenig. Seen here putting her hands up the very moment a masked Keyes
14:04pulls a gun on her.
14:05After 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig vanished from her Anchorage coffee stand,
14:10her abductor took a ransom photo showing her alive and holding a newspaper. Hope briefly returned
14:14for Koenig's family, and a ransom was paid for her safe return. Unfortunately, that hope was only a
14:20false hope. The image was staged. Samantha was already dead. Her killer, Israel Keyes, had murdered her
14:26days earlier, then propped up her body and posed it for the photo to make it look like proof of
14:31life. The twist was monstrous. It wasn't just about money, but power. If it was any consolation to
14:36Koenig's father, the ransom money was instrumental in capturing Keyes, and he was arrested in March
14:412012.
14:42Telling police he killed her, then left to take a cruise out of New Orleans before asking her family
14:47for ransom.
14:48The Theranos scandal.
14:49You have a new idea? You don't listen to a single person who tells you that you can't do it.
14:55With her black turtlenecks, fake deep voice, and Steve Jobs-style vision, Elizabeth Holmes promised
15:01to revolutionize medicine. Her company, Theranos, claimed to test hundreds of diseases with just a
15:07drop of blood, a miracle of modern science that would have revolutionized the practice of blood
15:11testing forever. Investors, politicians, and the media called her the next tech genius. But the story
15:17came crashing down with a shocking twist. None of it worked. The machines gave false results,
15:22and Holmes had faked the data all along to sell machines. The empire she built on innovation was
15:27actually built on nothing but lies. Theranos collapsed, and Holmes was sentenced to 11 years
15:32in prison.
15:32Tonight, the epic rise and downfall of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has come to an
15:38end. The former CEO reported to a federal prison today for defrauding investors out of hundreds of
15:43millions of dollars.
15:44The Golden State Killer is finally caught. He was committing the crimes during the time he was
15:49employed as a peace officer, and obviously we'll be looking into whether it was actually on the job.
15:53For decades, the Golden State Killer haunted California, breaking into homes, assaulting women,
15:58and murdering couples, and then vanishing into the night. By 1986, when he suddenly and mysteriously
16:04stopped, he had amassed a body count of at least 13. All were considered cold cases, but in 2018,
16:10technology finally caught up. Investigators uploaded crime scene DNA into a public genealogy site and
16:16identified the killer as Joseph James D'Angelo. The twist? He was a former police officer, and he was
16:22on active duty during a bulk of his crime spree. The man sworn to protect had been the predator all
16:27along. After over 40 years of terror, science and persistence revealed the face behind the mask,
16:33and that face had been wearing a badge.
16:36D'Angelo was arrested in Sacramento overnight. It's believed the crimes were being committed while
16:41D'Angelo was a police officer at two California police departments. Investigators say discarded
16:47DNA evidence led to the capture. The Dear Zachary Case.
16:50Really a good storyteller. He was completely selfless.
16:53Animated. Kind. Jubilant. Caring. Devilish. Played back. Very approachable.
16:58Can I say things that are not like completely flattering and wonderful?
17:01When filmmaker Kirk Kenney set out to document the life of his murdered best friend, Andrew Bagby,
17:06he wanted to make a beautiful memento for Andrew's unborn son, Zachary. But Kenney couldn't predict
17:11that he was actually documenting one of the most horrifying true crimes in recent memory,
17:15and in real time, too. During filming, Zachary's mother, Shirley Turner, took her own life,
17:21and the life of young Zachary by jumping into the ocean. The twist upended the documentary,
17:25and turned it into something no one expected. A memorial, not a memento. What began as a love
17:31letter became a eulogy, and Dear Zachary became notorious as one of the saddest documentaries ever
17:36made.
17:37Your grandma and grandpa went back to England, and spread your ashes with your dad's.
17:41They went back to St. Louis, and spread your ashes with your dad's.
17:45Patricia and Ryan Stallings
17:54When baby Ryan Stallings suddenly fell ill in 1989, Dodgers discovered that his blood contained
17:59antifreeze poisoning. Unfortunately, Ryan didn't make it, and his mother, Patricia,
18:04was arrested for his murder. She insisted she was innocent, but the evidence seemed clear.
18:08After her case appeared on Unsolved Mysteries, a push was made to test Ryan's blood more thoroughly,
18:13and he was found to be suffering from a rare disease called methylmalonic acidemia.
18:18The thing is, MMA mimics the results of antifreeze poisoning in blood tests. Patricia hadn't poisoned
18:23her son, his body had simply mimicked the signs of it. The major twist was earth-shattering,
18:28and it was enough to free Patricia from prison. She later received a substantial reward for her
18:32troubles.
18:33Unfortunately, we can't undo the suffering that the Stallings have endured during this entire ordeal.
18:40And I apologize to them, both personally and for the state of Missouri.
18:45Frédéric Bourdon and the missing boy.
18:47She didn't even wait a second or two seconds. She jumped on me. She jumped on me. She took me
18:53in
18:53her arms, and she said,
19:00In 1997, a missing Texas teenager named Nicholas Barkley was miraculously found in Spain,
19:06noticeably older and thinner, but alive. But those weren't the only changes. The boy suddenly
19:10had a French accent. His eyes were an entirely different color, brown instead of blue. His
19:15story made absolutely no sense. Despite these curious changes, his family rejoiced in his survival,
19:20and accepted him without question. Of course, the major twist revealed what everyone was already
19:25thinking. This wasn't Nicholas at all, but Frédéric Bourdon, a 23-year-old French con artist who was
19:31known for impersonating children in order to find family. It's pretty sad when you think about it.
19:36Bourdon served six years in prison, and unfortunately, the real Nicholas Barkley has never been found.
19:41I could go to the US, go to school there, live with that family, and just being someone,
19:47and don't have never again to worry about being identified. I saw the opportunity.
19:56O.J. Simpson is found not guilty.
19:58It makes no sense. It doesn't fit. If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
20:04The United States basically stopped for the trial of the century. Former NFL star O.J. Simpson was
20:09accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, and for many,
20:14the trial was considered a foregone conclusion. The evidence against Simpson was simply too
20:19overwhelming, including his blood and glove at the scene, the victim's blood in his truck,
20:23and his DNA matching him to the crime. But DNA was a new and somewhat misunderstood thing at the time,
20:29and America was in the midst of enormous racial tensions. For these reasons, and probably many more,
20:34Simpson was found not guilty. The shocking twist echoed across America, causing intense outrage,
20:39and changing how the country viewed its own justice system.
20:42We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson,
20:48not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal code section 187a, a felony upon Nicole
20:54Brown Simpson, a human being, as charged in count one of the information.
20:58Did you see these twists coming? Let us know in the comments below.
21:01Let us know in the comments below.
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