I am a total true crime junkie. Often times when I can’t sleep at night I go to Google and start researching true crime cases from all over the country. When one of my friends told me the name of the “small town” he’s from I lost my mind. Why? I knew all about his small town because of a girl who was murdered by her uncle there in September of 1999. So for all the other crazy people out there who also identify as true crime junkies, this one is for you.
- Ted Bundy
Everybody has been talking about Ted Bundy since the series “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” was released on Netflix last month. Ted Bundy murdered at least 30 victims across seven states in the 1970s. During this time, Bundy managed to escape from jail twice to continue killing. As a law student, Bundy chose to defend himself at his murder trials in 1979. The most bizarre part of Ted Bundy’s story though is how “normal” he was. He wasn’t what most people would picture a serial killer to be. He was a young, intelligent, good looking guy who many women continued to be swoon for even after he went on trial for murder.
- JonBenét Ramsey
JonBenét Ramsey was a six-year-old beauty pageant queen who lived with her parents, Patsy and John, and her older brother, Burke, in Boulder Colorado. She was reported missing when her parents found an unusually long ransom note which was later identified as being written in the house. The 911 call was also unusual for a number of reasons, including a third unidentified voice being heard, in addition to Patsy and John, even though both parents have said numerous times that their son Burke was asleep at the time. JonBenét was later found dead in the basement of the Ramsey home by her father, John. Though we still do not know for sure who is responsible for the death of JonBenét Ramsey, there are many theories including one saying her brother Burke is responsible.
If you want to know more about the case, CBS released “The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey” in 2016 which follows a group of investigators as they reinvestigate the case. They rebuilt the entire Ramsey home exactly as it was on the night JonBenét went missing and break down everything about the case including the ransom note, the 911 call, the cause of death, how JonBenét was found and the odd actions of the Ramsey family after the death.
- Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper killed 5-6 women in the East End of London in between August and November of 1888 and his true identity still remains unknown. All but one of his victims were prostitutes and even though violence against prostitutes was common at the time, it is believed that the murders were all done by the same person. Although we don’t know much about who Jack the Ripper was, many believe that he or she was either a doctor. All of the victims were mutilated in a way which showed some knowledge of human anatomy. He got his most popular name, “Jack the Ripper,” from a note he wrote to the Central News Agency of London which he signed “Yours truly Jack the Ripper.”
- BTK
BTK stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill” and is the nickname the serial killer gave himself as it’s what he did to his victims. He is believed to have committed at least ten murders in Witchita, Kansas between 1974 and 1991.
After his killing spree, he remained silent for many years until sending a letter to the Wichita Eagle in March 2004, detailing an unsolved murder from 1986 with photos of the victim’s body and her driver’s license. He then continued to send letters to the media and police before he was caught in February 2005 when he sent a floppy disk to Ken Landwehr, a Wichita homicide detective. The floppy disk was tracked back to a computer at Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita which was logged into an account under the name of “Dennis.” The man logged in was Dennis Rader, the former council president of the church who is now known as BTK. Rader was living a relatively normal life as a husband, father, respected church official and Cub Scout leader, all while keeping his second identity, being BTK, a secret.
These are four of the cases I find most interesting so I hope you have fun staying up all night, researching these cases and more.