Top Ten Unsolved Murders

Every year a large number of murders go unsolved but some gain such infamy that they remain in the public mind for many years to come. This is a list of the ten most famous murders in modern history. The only rule followed was that there had to be a body for the murder to be on this list.

10. Oscar Romero
Oscar Romero was a prominent Catholic priest and Archbishop in El Salvador in the 1960s and 1970s. He witnessed many human rights violations and he began to speak out on behalf of the poor and the victims of El Salvador's long and bloody civil war. After speaking out against U.S. military support for the government of El Salvador, and calling for soldiers to disobey orders that harmed civil rights, Archbishop Romero was shot to death while celebrating Mass at a small chapel near his cathedral. It is believed that his assassins were members of Salvadoran death squads, including two graduates of the School of the Americas. No one, however has been charged with the crime.

9. Olof Palme
Palme was a Swedish politician and prime minister (1982 - 1986). The nuclear accident in 1979 at Three Mile Island in the United States had a great impact in Sweden and Palme contributed to a referendum (passed in 1980) to remove all nuclear reactors in Sweden. After being elected prime minister again in 1982, Palme tried to reinstate socialist economic policies in Sweden and he continued to be an outspoken on matters of European security. He was shot and killed while walking home with his wife after a visit to a cinema. The motive and the identity of the killer remain a mystery.

8. The Boy In The Box
An unidentified Caucasian male, who was probably aged 4 to 6 years, whose nude body, wrapped in a flannel blanket, was found lying face up inside a large cardboard box just a few feet from the edge of Susquehanna Road in 1957. The body was dry and clean. The boy's arms were carefully folded across his stomach. The finger and toenails had been recently trimmed short and neat. His hair had been recently cut very close to the head in a rather hurried and crude manner, maybe in an effort to confuse the authorities by delibrately concealing the child's identity. Little clumps of cut hair clung to his entire body suggesting that someone had groomed him while he was unclothed, probably shortly before or immediately before his death. There were many bruises all over the child's body, particularly on the head and face. All of the bruises appear to have been inflicted at the same time. Despite recent DNA investigations his identity and that of his killer(s) remains unknown.

7. Jack The Stripper
Jack the Stripper was the nickname given to an unknown serial killer responsible for what came to be known as the London "nude murders" between 1964 and 1965. His victimology was similar to Jack The Ripper's. He murdered six to eight prostitutes whose bodies were discovered nude around London or dumped in the River Thames. Like the Jack The Ripper killings, the Stripper's reign of terror seemed to cease on it's own, and there were few solid clues for the police to investigate. Though his identity remains unknown, crime writer Donald Rumbelow notes that the killer could have been a young man who committed suicide in south London. The suspect was a security guard on the Heron Trading estate in Acton whose rounds included a paint shop where one of the bodies was thought to have been hidden after the crime. Though there was never any hard evidence to link him to the crimes, his family found his suicide inexplicable and his suicide note said only "unable to take the strain any longer". No one knows for sure, however and the case remains unsolved.

6. The Axeman Of New Orleans
Joseph Maggio, who was a grocer, and his wife, both of Italian desent, were murdered while they were asleep in their apartment above the Maggio grocery Store on May 23rd 1918. Upon investigation police discovered that a panel in the rear door had been chiseled out, providing a way in for the killer. The murder weapon, an Axe, was found in the apartment, still covered in Maggio's blood. Nothing in the apartment had been stolen, including jewelery and money that were nearby and in plain sight. The only clue was discovered was a message written in chalk near the victims home. It read "Mrs. Joseph Maggio will sit up tonight. Just write Mrs. Toney". Nearly one month later another murder was committed. Another grocer named Louis Bossumer lived behind his store with Annie Harriet Lowe his commom-law wife. He was discovered by neighbors one morning in a pool of blood. The Axeman murdered a total of eight people before the killings stopped. There was no evidence to link the only suspect, Joseph Mumfri, to the crimes. The identity of the Axeman remains a mystery to this day.

5. Jon Benet Ramsey
Jon Benet Ramsey was a six-year-old girl known for her participation in beauty pageants in the United States. She was found murdered in her parent's basement eight hours after she was reported missing. The case is notable both in it's longevity and in the media interest it has generated in the United States. After several Grand Jury hearings the case is still unsolved. Forensic investigators extracted enough material from a mixed blood sample found on Jon Benet's under ware to establish a DNA profile in Decenber 2003. The DNA belongs to a unknown Caucasian male. The DNA was submitted to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database containing more than 1.6 million DNA profiles, mainly from convicted felons. The sample has yet to find a match in the database although it continues to be checked for partial matches on a weekly basis. Jon Benet's killer remains at large.

4. The Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short (born 29 July 1924) was a 22-year-old American woman who was the victim of a much publicized and gruesome publicized murder. She was nicknamed The Black Dahlia. Elizabeth Short was found cut in half and severely mutilated on 15 January 1947in Leimart Park in Los Angeles. The murder, which remains unsolved has been the source of widespread speculation as well as several books and film adaptions. Sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage, as well as the horrible nature of the crime, focused intense public interest on the case. Over 500 people, mostly men but a few women, have confessed to the crime. The police don't believe any of them. As the case continues to command public attention, many more people have been proposed as Short's killer much like London's Jack The Ripper. To date her killer's identity remains a mystery.

3. Andrew and Abby Bordon
On a Thursday morning, August 4th 1862, Andrew Bordon left home in Falls River Massachusetts to conduct business, leaving in the house, besides his wife, his daughter Lizzie and Irish maid named Bridget Sullivan. Upon his return he settled down for a nap on his sofa in the living room. About 11:15 AM, Lizzie said she discovered her Father dead. He had been struck repeatedly in the head with a sharp object. His wife's body was found upstairs even more brutally mutilated. After the Medical Examiner's examination it was determined that her death had proceeded her husbands by an hour or so. It was found that Lizzie had tried to purchase prussic acid (a poison) on August 3rd, and a few days later she was alleged to have burned a dress in a stove. Sullivan, who was also suspected, later that evening reportedly left the house carrying unexamined parcel. No weapon was found, although an axe found in the basement was suspected. Lizzy was arrested and tried for both murders in June 1893 but was acquitted given the circumstantial evidence. She was ostracized nonetheless from then on by the people of her hometown, where she lived until her death in 1927. No one else has ever been charged and the crime remains officially unsolved.

2. The Zodiac
The Zodiac mystery is one of the greatest unsolved crimes in the history of serial killers. It is second only to Jack The Ripper. Even though police investigated over 2500 potential suspects, the case was never officially solved. There were a few suspects that stood out but forensics technology was not advanced enough at the time to nail any one of them conclusively. Between Decenber 1968 and October 1969 The Zodiac is known to have at least five known victims in Benica, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco. Four men and three women between 16 and 29 were targeted. Others have also been suspected to be Zodiac victims but there has thus far been no conclusive to link them to the killer. Not only do the authorities not know the identity of the Zodiac, they have no idea as to his number of victims. The case remains mysterious today as it was in the 1960s and has stumped investigators for years. It remains unsolved.

1. Jack The Ripper.
Traditionally, Jack The Ripper is considered to have killed five women, all London prostitutes, during 1888. He is known as the first modern serial killer. The Ripper generally killed by strangling his victims, then laying them down and mutilating them sometimes by cutting the arteries in their throats. This was followed by various processes of mutilation, during which various body parts were removed and kept. It has been over a 120years and Jack's identity has never been proven and there isn't even a leading suspect.