Enigma of the 1920’s
Murder has been committed since the beginning of time. However, solving those murders may not always occur. If asked about famous crimes, people will discuss H.H. Holmes, the Black Dahlia or even Jack the Ripper. It is the unsolved crimes of the 1920’s and the unusual killing of two people, that caused fear in the citizens.
One such murder was the Axeman Murder. In the axeman murder, It has been said that this unknown person was new to the area. The location where the murders occurred was in New Orleans, Louisiana. The only thing they knew was that the person’s choice of weapon was an ax. This is why they named the killer, the Axeman of New Orleans (Ferranti).
The murder committed by the Axeman of New Orleans, had the
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This murder occurred in October 6, 1921, in Madison, New Jersey. This murderer only did harm to one victim and one only.
Twelve year old Janet Lawrence was discovered in the kluxen woods by local people. The people were shocked when they discovered her wounds. “Janet Lawrence had been stabbed 25 times, and her throat had been slashed.” not only that but she was found with vine around her body. (Unsolved).
Police were very puzzled but determined to find who killed this innocent little girl. The police knew that Janet always went to the woods because it was her routine. While investigating, they managed to find a suspect. This suspect was a fourteen year old, Francis Kluxen, who was said to be hunting nearby the area she was killed in. They did not have any evidence to prove that he did it. They had other suspect that they arrested but released because of lack of evidence. A year went by and they rearrested Francis Kluxen for the murder of Janet Lawrence. This time the case went to court and Francis talked about where he was when the murder occurred. The police was looked down upon because they had no evidence to officially prove that he did it. The Kluxen woods murder has been left unsolved since 1921
Police say that she has been raped and stabbed. About a year later on November 30, 1985, the police brought in an 18 year old boy named Christopher Abernathy for an interrogation. An acquaintance of him named, Allan Dennis told the police
The Mystery Behind Jack the Ripper Murder. The unlawful premeditated killing of one human by another. Jack the Ripper is a serial killer phenomenon that has stunned everyone since his first attack. With a target of prostitutes and an obsession of eating organs, he has amazed everyone with the reasoning for his job. It was hard for the police to catch him in his act.
On May 2, 1998 there was a murder and robbery at a Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant in Pensacola, Florida. Cynthia Harrison was an assistant manager and was scheduled to work with Timothy Hurst at eight that morning. When other workers showed up at 10:30 they found the door locked. Tonya Crenshaw, another assistant manager, found the safe unlocked and open with money missing. A delivery driver found Harrison’s dead
The murder of Kitty Genovese took place on March 13th, 1964 outside of her apartment building in New York. She was attacked three separate times by Winston Moseley, the perpetrator. This particular murder got headline news due to the witnesses of the murder and what was done to intervene. The New York Times were a huge part of the headlines due to their original article written about the murder, which was said to be fabricated for attention purposes. The article claimed that 37-38 people were eye witnesses to the murder during the three different attacks, but no one decided to report the crime to the police which definitely raised some eyebrows.
On Sunday, November 13, 1842 a double murder occurred at Smith Farm in Old Fields, Long Island. The victims, Alexander Smith and and Rebecca Smith, were a wealthy, well- respected married couple who ran Smith farm. George Weeks, the Smiths farmhand, was reporting for work the monday after the murder and heard the dog barking from the work-shed by the Smiths house. George Weeks then became suspicious since the dog was usually inside with Mr. Smith. George then looked in the house and saw that the east room window was broken and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were lying on the floor covered in blood.
The first murder involved a 17-year-old male and his 16-year-old girlfriend who were shot dead near their car at a secluded location on Lake Herman port. The police could not establish the motive of these initial killings or a suspect to the murders. The second incident involved the shootings of a woman aged 22 and her boyfriend who was aged 19 who were sitting in a car that was parked in a remote location similar to the first incident. A man with a flashlight who fired several shots at them attacked the two killing the man and seriously wounding the woman. After the shooting, a man called the police, gave the location of the crime, and claimed responsibility for the attack and the previous attack.
Police began the investigation by searching for witnesses at the last known location of Sarah Hansen, the local store where she had been attempting to rent a movie to watch later that evening with her boyfriend. By canvassing the last known whereabouts of the missing person, it was discovered that Mr. Woodall was at the same location around the time that Sarah went missing. Two hours into the search for the missing teenager, police officers discovered a 500-foot trail of blood that led from Mr. Woodall’s van to the semi-frozen lake where Sarah Hansen’s body was found (Supreme Court of Kentucky, 2001). When law enforcement officials began to question his whereabouts on the night of Hansen’s murder, Mr. Woodall told several conflicting versions of where he was and what had taken place that evening. After this, law enforcement discovered several other pieces of evidence that linked Mr. Woodall to the murder and rape of Miss Hansen.
FBI, Oct. 2006, archive.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2006/october/dahlia_102006. Accessed 15 February 2018. “The Chilling Mystery of the Black Dahlia.” Youtube, uploaded by Buzzfeed, 1 April 2016, www.youtu.be/_gM6NG2PN4Q. Accessed 27 Feburary. Nolasco, Stephanie.
When a murder occurs, it usually is not clear exactly who did it. The murderer may be a normal person, and nobody has any idea they’re guilty. Or maybe they had committed crimes before. No matter who they are, it never is easy to find the criminal. But eventually, evidence will point to somebody, and then the person who did it is forced to confess.
On December 23, 1981, Thomas Sophonow, a Canadian man, was wrongfully accused of murder. 16 year old Barbara Stoppel was ruthlessly killed at the washroom of her workplace. Unfortunately, eyewitnesses mistakenly chose Mr. Sophonow as being the murderer. Eye witnesses stated that a man, whose appearance was very similar to that of Thomas Sophonow, locked the door and made his way to the back of the shop where he was presumed to have strangled Barbara Stoppel to death. Furthermore, while Thomas Sophonow was in custody, he showed an undercover officer a door locking technique.
In 1917, a woman named Elizabeth Huntley decapitated her own daughter. When her case was brought to trial, doctors and professionals wrote it off as depression. Friends and family described that Huntley was a joyful woman until the air raids happened in London. She had nervous breakdowns during the air raids and even more so when her children screamed and cried. Before her doctor got her out of London and away from her children, she had already murdered her child.
At the turn of the 19th century, the rates for pregnancy out of wedlock rose dramatically, along with the decline of social and sexual control over the younger generation. Born in 1820, Rogers may have already been another statistic to the rising sexual culture. The women she referred to as mother, may in fact have been her grandmother. New York was the city in which she and her sixty-two-year-old mother ran a boarding house until her death. New York had become a prime example of the dangers of cultural practices that called for change in the mid-1800s.
In 1892, a young woman named Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father and stepmother (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 2). This accusation was influenced by the lack of evidence at the scene of the crime. There appeared to be no murder weapon, very few witnesses, and the house did not show any signs of an intruder (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 5). Once the scene was investigated, it was determined that the cause of death for both victims was multiple blows to the head by an axe. Two axes were found in the home, and neither had a speck of blood (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 14).
For over 20 years, millions of Americans have been following the twisted and unsolved murder of six-year old beauty contestant JonBenet Ramsey. Christmas of 1996 brought terror to Boulder, Colorado as the world watched the crime scene unfold as Little Miss Colorado was found strangled in the basement of her family’s home. Pieces from the brutal murder such as a lengthy ransom note are unheard of, leaving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shocked. Two decades later, the case remains a mystery due to police mishap, mishandled evidence, and an abundance of conspiracy theories. Suspicions have ranged from her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, to the outrageous, Santa Claus.
The night of September 30, 1988, the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper committed not one, but two murders. These two stand out among the other five for both their intensity and the impossible time frame that their murders were achieved in. At one a.m. Elizabeth Strider was found dead, then not an hour later and not more than a mile away, Catherine Eddowes body was discovered as well (Whitechapel Jack, The Double Event) Catherine Eddowes and Elizabeth Stride were not friends, they did not know each other and they didn’t even frequent the same alleyways.