The Fritzl case came to public attention in April 2008, when Elisabeth Fritzl and two of the three children living with her emerged from their basement prison in Amstetten, Austria. She had spent the last 24 years in a hidden basement "compound," locked up by her own father, Josef Fritzl. The horrors that she had to endure were both physically and psychologically scarring: her father raped her, impregnated her, and forced her to give birth to their incestuous children all inside that small space, while her mother lived in the upper sections of the home, believing her daughter was missing.

There is no doubt that Elisabeth would have remained there for the rest of her life, if her eldest daughter, Kerstin, had not gotten sick. In 2008, Elisabeth managed to convince her father (who was also Kerstin's father) to take the girl to the hospital. There, doctors wanted more information on the girl's medical history and made public pleas for her mother to come forward. Amazingly, Josef let Elisabeth out of the basement for the first time since she was 18 (she was now 42) and took her to see Kerstin and speak with the doctors. The police intervened, and everything unraveled from there. 

The cellar space where Elisabeth lived was sealed in by concrete in 2013, although the rest of the building still stands. Elisabeth and her children are living somewhere in Austria and undergoing therapy. Amazingly, Josef only received a prison sentence of 15 years, despite being found guilty of multiple charges, including murder, rape, enslavement, and incest. 

Elisabeth spent the first months of her imprisonment chained to the walls of her family home. Her father, Josef, first chained her arms to the metal bedposts in one of the rooms that became her living version of Hades. He then moved the chains so that they were around her waist. After a time (she believes it was either six or nine months), he removed all of the chains because they were getting in the way of his sexual activity with his daughter. 

Josef Fritzl didn't just rape his daughter, Elisabeth, repeatedly over the 24 years that he kept her imprisoned in his basement; he also made her reenact scenes from pornographic movies. Although explicit details have not been released (for good reason) it is safe to assume that was very degrading. Josef reportedly brought a television, VCR, and handfuls of pornographic VHS tapes into the basement, where he would make Elisabeth watch them with him and then act them out. 

Josef Fritzl began molesting his daughter Elisabeth when she was 11 years old. Elisabeth had six other siblings - four sisters and two brothers. It is unknown whether they were also subjected to Josef's abuse. 

When she was 15, Elisabeth completed her standard education in Austria and prepared to become a waitress. She ran away from home in 1983, staying at the home of a friend, ostensibly to get away from her father. Three weeks later, the police found her and brought her back home. Little else is known about her early years, as most news stories focus on the atrocities that came later. 

As if the rapes, forced pornography reenactments, pregnancies, and basement imprisonment weren't enough, Josef Fritzl also physically abused his daughter, Elisabeth. He kicked her and punched her with his fists, causing physical injuries, not to mention psychological scars. He also threatened her, saying "If you do not do as I say, your treatment will get worse and you will not escape from the cellar anyway." 

In 1996, Elisabeth Fritzl gave birth to her fifth and sixth children. They were twins, one of whom died three days after he was born. (The living twin, Alexander, was snuck outside and later adopted by Josef and his wife after being declared "abandoned.") Apparently the twin who passed away had trouble breathing and required medical attention. Josef, the father of the boy, refused to remove him from the basement, and later incinerated the unnamed child's body. 

When Elisabeth angered Josef, he would punish his daughter by cutting off the lights in the basement. He would also stop delivering food, forcing her and her children (fathered by him, of course) to starve at times. He also psychologically tortured the children by showing them pictures of other kids (possibly their siblings, three of whom lived with him and his wife, Rosemarie) playing outside in the sun. The three kids living in the basement never saw the sun, as the space had no windows. 

It goes without saying that the horrific nightmare of Elisabeth's imprisonment in her father's basement was made much worse by the fact that he repeatedly raped her. After she bore his children (three of whom stayed with her in the basement), he raped her in front of them. According to Elisabeth's testimony, Josef would visit every three days or so, bringing food and other necessities. During these visits, he would force himself on her. 

Elisabeth Fritzl was only 18 when her father, Josef, lured her into the basement. He claimed that he needed her to help him carry a door downstairs - the door, in fact, was the last remaining piece of the dungeon. Fritzl then knocked his daughter out with a rag dipped in ether. 

Unbeknownst to anyone else in the family, Josef had spent several years building a small section of the basement into a dungeon-like lair for his daughter. He got a permit for some of the space, and it was even inspected and approved by Austrian officials! The excavated space had several rooms that were connected by very narrow hallways. He even added a small bathroom, as well as a refrigerator, a hot plate, and a bed. The space was not temperature-controlled, and there were only two ways to access it, both hidden in Josef's workshop, which itself was behind a series of five locked doors. 

During her time in captivity, Elisabeth Fritzl gave birth to seven children, six of whom lived. After her release, a DNA test proved that her father, Josef, was indeed the father of all six of them. Three of the children - Kerstin, Stefan, and Felix - grew up in the basement prison with their mother. The other three - Lisa, Monica, and Alexander - were adopted by Rosemarie (Elisabeth's mother) and Josef. Josef brought them in, claiming that the children were Elisabeth's and he had discovered them abandoned on their property. He forced Elisabeth to write notes stating she couldn't care for each of them because of the cult she belonged to.  Rosemarie believed him. 

Over the 24 years that Elisabeth was trapped in her father's basement, he impregnated her eight times. The first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. In all, she gave birth to seven of Josef's children. The second-to-last pregnancy consisted of twins, one of which did not survive very long after birth. There is nothing more horrible than being forced to live in a dungeon-like atmosphere while giving birth to children brought about by an incestuous situation.

In March 2013, then-30-year-old Joanna Dennehy went on a crime spree that rocked the people of England and left several men either dead or injured, making her one of the most infamous female serial killers in British history. When she was finally apprehended for the Peterborough ditch murders, law enforcement learned that Dennehy was driven by a "sadistic lust," which was noted by the judge who later sentenced her for her crimes.

In fact, Dennehy was determined to be so "cruel, calculating, and selfish," killing seemingly without motive, she was given a sentence that British courts reserve for only the most vicious and dangerous offenders, making it unlikely that she'll ever be able to brutally attack another unsuspecting man.

After she viciously attacked dog walkers John Rogers and Robin Bereza, Joanna Dennehy, who was wanted for the killings in Peterborough, was arrested and taken to a Hereford police station to be charged with three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. However, the young woman didn't appear to be the least bit upset by her situation, and instead she laughed and flirted with officers as she was being booked into jail.

When asked if she was suicidal, Dennehy responded that she felt "cheery," and she repeatedly smiled and played with her hair, indicating she was a deeply disturbed individual who felt no remorse for her crimes.

Long before she committed her first known murder, the stabbing death of Lukasz Slaboszewski, Joanna Dennehy told multiple people she had spent time in prison for killing her abusive father. However, her father was very much alive, and there is no evidence to support Dennehy's claims of abuse. In fact, she came from a relatively happy and stable family, but a dark side began to emerge when she started drinking heavily and using drugs as a teenager.

At the age of 15, Dennehy moved in with her 20-year-old boyfriend, and the couple had two children. However, their relationship ended, and the father of her daughters got custody of the girls after accusing Dennehy of behaving violently.

After murdering Lukasz Slaboszewski, Joanna Dennehy placed the young man's body in a trash can, and the killer was so proud of the murder she had committed, she showed the 31-year-old's corpse to a teenage girl. She was also unable to stop herself from boasting after she killed her roommate John Chapman, so she called one of her friends and sang lyrics from "Oops... I Did It Again," a song by Britney Spears.

Allegedly, Dennehy also danced after seeing television coverage of the murders, indicating she clearly got some pleasure and joy from her brutal and depraved crimes.

Over the course of 10 days in March 2013, 30-year-old Joanna Dennehy viciously stabbed three men to death, murdering her first victim, 31-year-old Lukasz Slaboszewski on March 19, 2013. Slaboszeski, who was originally from Poland, was Dennehy's roommate, and they shared a house in the city of Peterborough, England. 10 days after killing Slaboszewski, Dennehy stabbed another one of her roommates, John Chapman, 56, to death, and hours after taking the life of her second victim, she murdered her landlord, 48-year-old Kevin Lee. 

After killing each man, Dennehy dumped his body in a ditch not far from her home in Peterborough, but she didn't get rid of her victims' corpses by herself.

After disposing of the lifeless bodies of John Chapman and Kevin Lee, Joanna Dennehy and Gary Richards drove to Hereford, a town 140 miles from Peterborough, in search of people to attack, with Dennehy telling Richards, "I want my fun".

On April 2, 2013, Dennehy, with the help of Richards, attempted to murder two men, Robin Bereza and John Rogers, who were simply out walking their dogs. She stabbed Bereza once in the shoulder and once in the chest, and 10 minutes later she attacked Rogers, stabbing him 40 times and puncturing both of his lungs.

In order to get her victims into vulnerable situations that would make it easier for her to kill them, Joanna Dennehy used sex to lure men to their deaths. In the case of Lukasz Slaboszewski, her Polish roommate, he believed Dennehy was his girlfriend, and she used the closeness of this relationship to convince him to meet her at an empty house that belonged to her landlord. Shortly after he entered the home, Dennehy blindfolded Slaboszewski and stabbed him to death.

In addition to the professional relationship she had with her landlord, Kevin Lee, Dennehy was also regularly having sex with the married father. So, she was able to get him to meet her at the same property where she had killed Slaboszewski. After murdering Lee, she returned home and stabbed her roommate John Chapman six times, killing the middle-aged man.

Before killing Kevin Lee, her landlord and the man who gave her a job helping him tend to his rental properties, she convinced him to put on a black sequin dress. Then, after killing him, with the help of her accomplices, she dumped his corpse in a ditch, positioning his body in a sexually explicit manner undoubtedly designed to further degrade and humiliate the deceased husband and father. 

However, after murdering Lee and her roommates, John Chapman and Lukasz Slaboszewski, Dennehy had no intention of stopping her crime spree, and with the help of Gary Richards, her 7'3" friend and accomplice, she continued her reign of terror.

Although they didn't help her actually stab her victims to death, two men, Gary "Stretch" Richards and Leslie Layton, assisted Joanna Dennehy by disposing of her victims' bodies, dumping their corpses in ditches for her. Richards, who was more than seven feet tall, and Layton later claimed they didn't want to help Dennehy get rid of the bodies of the three men, but they agreed to assist her because they were afraid of the 30-year-old woman.

In the years before she committed the crimes that made her one of Britain's most notorious women, Joanna Dennehy displayed signs that she was an extremely troubled young woman. From the time she was a teenager, Dennehy had been a heavy drinker and drug user, and she had grisly scars all over her body caused by cuts she had inflicted on herself with razor blades.

She also worked as a prostitute or stole to get money to pay for drugs and alcohol, and she was arrested for theft in February 2012. Following her arrest, 29-year-old Dennehy was admitted to a hospital for psychiatric treatment, and she was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anti-social disorder. However, she didn't receive the medication or therapy she needed to stop her from going on to commit violent and deadly crimes.

On November 18, 2013, Joanna Dennehy pleaded guilty to murdering Lukasz Slaboszewski, John Chapman, and Kevin Lee, and the following year on February 28, 2014, she was sentenced to life in prison for her crimes. The judge who gave the confessed murderer a life sentence declared her to be "a cruel, calculating, selfish, and manipulative serial killer." Meanwhile, Dennehy proved him right, laughing and smiling as he addressed her and the court.

Only two other women have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Britain: Myra Hindley, who tortured and murdered multiple children with her boyfriend in the 1960s, and Rosemary West (pictured here), who was convicted of helping her husband murder several young women from 1971 to 1987.

Gary M. Heidnik wasn't exactly a serial killer, although he was responsible for the deaths of two woman he had kidnapped and held in his basement. Heidnik was born in Eastlake, Ohio, in 1943, and his checkered past included dropping out of high school, a short stint in the army, spending some time in jail, and even working as a psychiatric nurse - despite his own diagnosis of mental illness.

However, all of this pales in comparison to his later deeds, which landed him on death row in Pennsylvania. Heidnik kidnapped six women and held them in his basement lair in a horrifying torture dungeon that later provided the inspiration for Buffalo Bill from The Silences of the Lambs. Gary M Heidnik may not have had a high body count, fortunately, but he certainly committed some horrific acts. 

During his stint in the US Army, Gary Heidnik was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. Symptoms of this disorder include showing emotional detachment and coldness, not having any close friends or family members, and always choosing solitary activities over group ones. While Heidnik's later proclivities certainly make sense if he did have this disorder, several friends who were in the army with him claimed that he faked the diagnosis in order to be discharged with a disability pension. 

After his discharge from the army, Gary Heidnik took advantage of his medical training and began a career as a psychiatric nurse - despite his own diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder. Heidnik obtained his LPN (licensed practical nurse) status, and worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, but he only lasted a few months on the job before being fired for being rude and abusive to patients.

Gary Heidnik dropped out of high school in ninth grade. He joined the army, possibly inspired by the two years that he'd spent at Staunton Military Academy in Virginia. Heidnik spent 13 months in the US Army, receiving medical training and transferring to a post in Landstuhl, West Germany at the 46th Army Surgical Hospital. However, in April 1962, he began complaining that he suffered from severe headaches and other medical ailments. He was transferred to an army hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he received an honorable discharge. 

Throughout their short marriage, Gary Heidnik repeatedly beat and tortured his wife, Betty. She claimed that he forced her to watch while he had sex with other women. He also regularly beat Betty with his fists, despite the fact that she was pregnant with his child. She didn't want to leave him, as she had just arrived in the United States from the Philippines, but one of their neighbors finally convinced to escape for her own good. 

Gary Heidnik was arrested for his crimes on March 24, 1987, when one of his victims, Josephina Rivera, convinced him to let her go and visit her family. Of course, she walked away and called 911. The book The Silence of the Lambs was published in 1988 and turned into an award-winning movie three years later. The basement pit where Heidnik kept his victims inspired the creepy movie version where Buffalo Bill held the senator's daughter, warning her that "it puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." 

Deborah Dudley died in Heidnik's basement on March 19, 1987. Heidnik decided to torture her by forcing her into the hole in his basement floor. He ran water into the hole, and then electrocuted her by holding a hot hot wire to the chains attached to her wrists. She died instantly. He made Josefina Rivera, another of his captives, sign a document stating that she helped kill Dudley, then took her with him when he dumped Dudley's body in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The other three women that he was holding at the time stayed behind in the basement. 

Gary Heidnik not only raped the women that he held in his basement, but he also tortured them with electric shocks. The women spent a majority of their time in chains. The chains were either attached to the basement pipes, or loosened when the women were in the hole dug into Heidnik's basement. No matter what, the chains were around their wrists at all times. Heidnik would take a loosened live wire and hold one end to the metal chains, sending volts of electricity through his victims' bodies. He also tortured them by sticking a screwdriver into their ears. He played incredibly loud music 24/7 to drown out the sound of their screams.

Despite all of his previous activities, Gary Heidnik's terrible career was only beginning. He kept six women in his basement, chained to pipes and trapped at the bottom of a hole that he dug into the soil beneath his Philadelphia house.

The women were all captured at different times, and one (his first victim, Josefina Rivera) helped him obtain several others. Rivera was a prostitute; his second victim, Sandra Lindsay, was mentally disabled; and Lisa Thomas was a 19-year-old single mother who thought she was accepting a ride from a kind stranger. All three were captured by Heidnik in 1986. The other three, all picked up in 1987, were Deborah Dudley, Jacqueline Askins, and Agnes Adams.

Four of the six women survived their stint in Heidnik's basement, where they were tortured and raped repeatedly. 

Gary Heidnik's first victim died, he claims, by accident. Sandra Lindsay upset him because she wasn't eating the bread that he had given her fast enough, so he suspended her from his basement ceiling by her arms, supposedly not realizing he was slowly suffocating her.

Heidnik took her dead body upstairs and dismantled it with a chainsaw before cooking her remains. Josefina Rivera (whom he trusted enough to let wander throughout the house) remembered going upstairs and seeing Lindsay's head floating in a boiling pot of water on the stove. Heidnik claimed that he cooked her body, eating some of it himself before feeding the rest to his victims. However authorities did not find any proof that Lindsay's body was cooked. Instead they believe he dismembered her in order to scatter her body parts in various locations. 

Gary Heidnik wound up having three biological children with three different women. The first, a son named Jesse John Disto, was the product of his marriage with Betty Disto (later Betty Heidnik). Their marriage didn't last long - less than a year - as she reportedly left him when she came home one day and found him in bed with another woman. His other children, Gary, Jr. and Maxine Davidson, were the product of later relationships. The latter child's mother was an illiterate and mentally disabled woman named Anjeanette Davidson. Heidnik raped her, and their child grew up in foster care. 

The systematic segregation that took place in South Africa during apartheid has left a lasting imprint on the nation as a whole. It's a country with complicated race relationships that stretch back years, and even centuries. The rise of gangs in South Africa can be traced to the Group Areas Act of 1950, which displaced black people from their homes and expelled them to designated regions. Forced into overcrowded areas, the population was driven to in-fighting and eventually splintered into gangs. Membership is on the rise in South Africa; in 2013, police estimated that there were 100,000 gang members in the Western Cape province.

This list explores some of the more notorious gangs in the country. South African gangs have carved out spaces in a nation that continues to struggle with its grim legacy. For marginalized groups, this life of crime is often one of the few options available.

Perhaps the most infamous criminal organization in South Africa is the Numbers Gang. It was founded in the late 1800s, when two men fought against inhumane conditions in the mine they were working in. 

Today, the organization is particularly pervasive in the South African prison system, where The Numbers Gang is divided into three tiers: 26s, 27s, and 28s. The lowest rung, the 26s, specialize in robbery and smuggling goods into the prison, while the 27s are the blood component - to join them, you must stab a guard or warden. The 28s, the top of the line, are violent sexual offenders who must assault another male inmate in order to join up.

According to some sources, being a part of the Numbers Gang is near compulsory if one wishes to successfully navigate, and survive, the South African prison system.

The Junky Funky Kids - also known as the JFKs - are no joke. Centering their activity in the Lavender Hill neighborhood of Cape Town, the JFKs are a serious drug-running enterprise that frequently issues "shoot at sight" orders on any rivals coming onto their turf.

The JFKs are also known for their legendarily brutal initiation process. New members have to strip and run through a gauntlet of two rows of existing gang members, all of whom hold clubs, leather belts, and wooden planks. As the new recruits run through, they are beaten bloody by the older members, proving their toughness and value to the gang.

The Firm was formed in the early 1990s as a who's who of local gang members in Cape Town. By joining forces and concentrating their power, the organization quickly became a major player in underworld activities.

The Firm is known most for running the drug trade in Mandrax (a type of Quaalude popular in South Africa), as well as operating shebeens, speakeasy-style bars that operate without licenses. The Firm has also been known to dabble in more white-collar crimes like tax fraud, for which their founder Colin Stanfield was convicted and imprisoned.

One of the oldest gangs in Cape Town, the Mongrels are known for their drug running and shebeen operations. They don't take kindly to rivals and are quick to pull the trigger on anyone infringing on their turf. The Mongrels account for a large percentage of the city's gang-related homicides.

The Mongrels start training their soldiers at a young age, sometimes as young as 12. They're also an outfit that's not scared to cut off an enemy's face and give to their mother.

Founded in the Chestnut Place, Belhar area of Cape Town, the Sexy Boys are known most for their drug running and ruthless racketeering (taxi drivers have to pay a "tax" to even drive through the neighborhood). Despite their more lighthearted name, the Sexy Boys have a reputation for brutality and murder. 

Though the gang saw much of their leadership sent to prison in the early 2000s, they still flourish as an active criminal enterprise.

Apartheid led directly to the creation of the Americans. The gang's name references how members relate more to black Americans than they do black Africans, being relegated to the fringes of society via forced segregation.

Members wear red, white, and blue, and their arms display tattoos reading "U.S.A." or bear imagery of Uncle Sam. The Americans are the largest gang in Cape Town, and have seized control of the meth trade, often to violent ends. 

Once you join up with the Americans, you take a serious, solemn oath: you are told that from that day forward you must be prepared to die at any given moment.

After the Americans, the Hard Livings are considered to be the second biggest gang in Cape Town. The gang was founded in 1971 by twin brothers Rashied and Rashaad Staggie in the Manenberg neighborhood, and as their criminal enterprise grew, so did tensions with their neighboring rivals. Things came to a head in 1996 when Rashied Staggie was publicly set on fire by a vigilante group.

Though the death of Staggie was a hit to the gang's leadership, they remained active in the drug trade and have been known to ally with the Sicilian mafia and the Chinese triads, taking their criminal activity to an international level.

Across the world, as many as 30 million people are currently being held in bondage, moved from location to location as victims in the lucrative global human trafficking trade. Even the United States isn’t immune to human trafficking. As many as 17,500 sex slaves and indentured servants are moved into the US each year. California is home to three of the FBI’s most notorious sex trafficking areas - San Francisco, L.A., and San Diego - while Texas’s Dallas-Ft. Worth region is home to 15% of the total calls sent to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

The average cost of one of these slaves is a mere $90. 80% of these victims are forced into a sexually exploitative situation. Horrifyingly, the average age of a person forced into the sex trade is 12 to 14 years old. 

Human trafficking is a blight on the face of humanity. It destroys the lives of thousands of people, even as it pads the pockets of criminals with as much as $32 billion each year. When someone manages to escape the world of human trafficking, it’s a miracle, and when these survivors summon the courage to tell their stories, it’s nothing short of inspiring.

The following are human trafficking and sex slave stories from the brave people who lived through the torture and made it to the other side. 

Names have been changed to protect those victims who fear reprisal.

Until the age of 20, Phalla lived a relatively normal life in Cambodia. After her father died, with no one to support her family, she was forced to move in with her grandmother.

About two months after she’d arrived, her grandmother drove her into a nearby city, Kampong Som, and sold her to a brothel. Phalla didn't realize this until several days after she’d arrived. At the brothel, she was locked in a room and raped several times a day. This was was her reality for the next several months, being sold from one brothel to another. 

Then, she met a man who helped her back to her native Cambodia. It seemed like a new lease on life, but she was soon put to work in a karaoke bar, and her employers sold her to foreign tourists for days at a time. When she tried to leave, she was beaten. It took several more months before she was able to gain her captor’s confidence, escape, and turn herself over to authorities.

In the first three months of 2017, the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported 2,000 calls related to trafficking in Texas alone. Forced into the world of prostitution at age 14, Erica says that human trafficking is shockingly common near the border. "You would never know how many guys are out picking up girls. Girls you might just see walking on the sidewalks, a 14-year-old girl can be out prostituting and you would not know that.”

Though she says she had several interactions with El Paso police, no one ever asked her if she was a victim. These days, Erica is working to correct that institutional problem. If police were more sympathetic to certain “offenders,” authorities could shine a light on human trafficking in the Texas area.

Loreta was born to two alcoholic parents, and they were incapable of taking care of her and her 13 brothers and sisters. At a young age, she and her siblings were shipped off to Lithuanian state homes across the country. She lost track of her family.

Soon after she arrived at the state home, Loreta was visited by a man who called himself her godfather. He began visiting her repeatedly. The other kids told her she was lucky, and she felt that way too, until her “godfather” raped her at the age of 13. At 15, she was sent to live with him against her will.

After her 16th birthday, Loreta was courted by a madam named Dana, who befriended the teen with promises of fun before ultimately luring Loreta and six of her friends into a life of forced prostitution. For two years, Loreta lived with Dana before the madam sold her to a pimp in Ravenna, Italy.

In Italy, she was forced to have sex with clients in the public restrooms within a 15 minute window. It wasn’t until she happened to have a client that spoke Lithuanian that Loreta dared beg for help. Fortunately, the john had a change of heart and took Loreta and some of her friends to the Italian police. They helped get her some documentation and return back home.

The only surviving member of her family in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, Sabine was more than happy to accept an offer working for a wealthy American family. Upon her arrival, the girl was imprisoned and forced to work around the clock. She slept on the kitchen floor. 

It took six months before Sabine was allowed one hour off each Sunday to go to church. While there, one of her fellow parishioners caught wind of her situation and helped her escape. At first, Sabine’s ordeal had left her traumatized. She was afraid to leave her new apartment after 4 pm. She was too afraid to go anywhere in the city alone, and she was even terrified to use a gift card. 

A few months later, Sabine found her courage. She’s now able to travel on her own, and she's learning English as she slowly works to rebuild her life.

In 1984, Alma left her hometown of Manila to move to Olongapo City, because her brother offered to pay for her education. Unfortunately, when she arrived, her brother confessed that he was simply hoping to use her to hook a “rich American” from the nearby military base who might help support Alma’s family.

Alma refused, and instead was forced to take a job as a waitress. There, the bar owner allowed US military and other visitors to pay a “bar-fine” in order to have sex with the establishment's waitresses. At first, Alma was offended at the thought, but the bar owner threatened to fire her if she didn’t let the men rape her. For fear that her children might go hungry, Alma agreed, taking her first step down a path of forced prostitution. She was in bondage for three years until she was able to escape.

Over the course of 16 years, Mari was in a relationship with a man who fathered her four children. He was abusive in every way: verbally, physically, and sexually. At some point, the man started forcing Mari to have sex with other men in order to make some extra cash. Along the way, he recruited another girl - a woman named Janice - to join his prostitution ring.

If not for a fateful traffic stop, both women might still be in the monster’s thrall. When they were pulled over, a particularly observant officer noticed that the man had both Mari and Janice’s IDs in his wallet. This prompted the officer to ask to speak to each of them privately. At that point, Mari was able to get some help and free herself of her captor.

When a man came to Kevin’s door selling magazines, he was dismayed to find that Kevin was out of a job and suffering from financial troubles. He immediately offered Kevin a traveling sales job on the spot, promising a regular salary and a signing bonus.

The signing bonus never showed up, but that was the least of Kevin’s problems. On the job, the rest of the “sales team” were constantly miserable, but they worried about leaving because the management team - who all boasted about their arrest records - would beat them severely. Kevin personally witnessed several such events himself.

In addition, the managers refused to pay any money to their people unless they met their daily quota. The team was forced to work grueling 16 hour days and reimburse the “company” for any hotel or gas costs they accrued. What’s more, when they were paid, several employees were paid in drugs instead of money.

When Kevin tried to leave, he was threatened with death. His managers subsequently confiscated his ID. When Kevin ultimately failed to make enough sales, he was abandoned on the side of the road with no ID. Kevin was able to contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), and they helped him put his life back together. 

Born in a small village in Ghana, Natalia’s parents struggled to make the money they needed to send their daughter to school. So, when an offer came along and offered to see their daughter educated in the United States, Natalia’s family were happy to send her overseas.

Upon her arrival, Natalia was immediately imprisoned. Over the course of the next six years, she was repeatedly abused, both physically and sexually. She was forced to work 18 hour days cooking and cleaning for her “host” parents and their three children. Not only did the family not enroll Natalia in school, they refused to even allow her outside.

Fortunately, one day Natalia was able to slip out of the house and a neighbor called the authorities.

One survivor of human trafficking, who calls herself Kendall, told authorities that her parents only had her in order to sell her to an international sex trafficker. Her life began with sexual abuse, says the survivor, and she claims she was molested even before she could even walk. 

Kendall explained that the man, who she referred to only as “the man who owned me,” said that she wasn’t allowed to use the word “trafficking.” Kendall was told that, “I was made for that [sexual slavery], and trafficking is when girls who aren’t made for that get kidnapped or sold into it.”

Cristopher grew up in the Philippines, dreaming of moving to the United States. When a job recruiter told him that he’d found a job for Cristopher working at a hotel in the Appalachians, Cristopher happily paid $5,000 for the opportunity to travel to the US and live his dream.

When he arrived, he was told the job didn’t exist. Instead, he was bused to a Gulf State against his will. The journey lasted three days, during which time Cristopher had no money for food or water. Once at his destination, he was forced to work 18 hour days cleaning hotels for a pittance.

He was monitored constantly and regularly threatened with deportation.

America has a deep and pervasive history of racism. A blight that has persisted for centuries, it continues to seep into the justice system in both blatant and insidious ways. You don't have to look very far to see the disparity between how whites and minorities are treated in the criminal justice system - it seems almost daily there is a new outrageous case that defies belief. 

Racial profiling, a tactic still employed by authorities to this day, is not only an unfair and discriminatory practice, but it's resulted in many killers (particularly serial killers, who are overwhelmingly white) being able to slip below the radar for sometimes decades at a time. It's like the old cliche of the neighbor saying about the mass murderer next door, "He seemed so normal" - white men tend to go unchecked for longer periods of time. This list explores some of these killers who were able to elude authorities for far too long, likely due to the color of their skin, or that of their victims. Let's take a look at horrific crimes people almost got away with thanks to white privilege.

Charles Albright was considered by those who knew him to be a Renaissance man. He spoke fluent French and Spanish, was a masterful painter and pianist, and an avid fan of literature, able to freely recite Keats from memory. Underneath his cultured exterior, however, the Dallas native hid a terrible, murderous secret. 

Albright - aka "The Eyeball Killer" - was arrested in 1991 and charged with the murders of three women. The victims, all prostitutes from low-income neighborhoods, had been shot to death before having their eyeballs removed. Albright kept the eyes as trophies for his crimes, which he would later claim stemmed from a hatred of his mother, who was also a prostitute.

Though he was ultimately caught and convicted after witnesses came forward, friends and lawyers of Albright's claimed the real murderer was Axton Schindler, a lowly truck driver who lived in a rental property Albright owned. Schindler was of course innocent, they just couldn't believe this white, well-to-do man could be responsible for such awful crimes. 

Dennis Rader, better known as the "BTK Killer" - an acronym for his modus operandi of bind, torture, kill - took 10 lives over the course of a nearly 30-year run between 1974 and 1991. His first killings were among his most infamous: the murder of four members of the Otero family, who were brutally tortured, sexually assaulted, and strangled to death in 1974 when Rader broke into their home. He wouldn't be caught until 30 years later, after he sent multiple letters to media outlets bragging about the crime that were easily traced. 

Prior to his arrest and conviction in 2005 - for which he is currently serving 10 life sentences - Rader was, on the surface, a typical white, suburban family man. A father of two, a Boy Scout leader, and an active member of his church, Rader actually worked for the city as a compliance officer. At this job he was frequently reported for strange and cruel behavior, more than once killing people's dogs he deemed "strays." Undoubtedly, Rader's middle-class white status protected him for far too long, especially when he displayed signs - as a city government employee, no less - of psychopathic behavior.

H.H. Holmes is known as one of America's earliest serial killers. A wealthy business owner, Holmes preyed on migrant workers during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. He had turned his home into a sort of murder castle that contained air-tight chambers where he would suffocate or gas his victims, whom he had brought in under the guise of running a boarding house. He also built several trap doors and chutes in the house, which were used to drop the bodies to a kiln in the basement, where they were burned and destroyed. He created an efficient killing factory that claimed an unknown number of victims (though some believe it to be a number near 200). 

He was eventually apprehended and hanged in May of 1896 in Philadelphia, PA, for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. A white man of considerable affluence, no one thought to check on Holmes when dozens of poor, migrant workers were disappearing - often being last seen in his company. Had he not confessed - a self-serving, gloating exercise - it's likely no one would have ever known about the extent of his evil deeds.

Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most well-known serial killers in American history, his crimes so sensational that they made international headlines. Dahmer killed 17 males between 1978 and 1991, often dismembering his victims and keeping them for sexual and cannibalistic purposes. He was eventually captured in 1991 (he was killed in prison in 1994) but months before that he had a run-in with the police that should have raised more red flags than it did.

On May 27, 1991, neighbors called the police after seeing a naked and bleeding boy run from Dahmer's apartment. After interviewing Dahmer, the police accepted the story that he and the boy were lovers, and that he was just drunk and upset. They inexplicably returned the boy to the apartment where he would be murdered later that night. The Laotion  boy, who was hysterical and bleeding from the anus, was 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, and after him, Dahmer would claim four more victims.

The officers faced mere suspensions, even amidst public outcries of racism and homophobia in the Milwaukee Police Department. 

Serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin had a simple motivation for his murderous spree: he was a vehement racist. Franklin claimed 18 lives during a reign of terror that went on for over a decade. A rabid white supremacist, Franklin loathed blacks, Jews, and other minorities, and consumed with hatred, he frequently sought blood. 

Starting in 1977, Franklin robbed, murdered, and assaulted several Jewish and African American people. He was questioned in a few of the killings and even confessed to one, but was ultimately acquitted or let go by police. In 1980, Franklin shot and killed Darrell Lane, 14, and Dante Evans Brown, 13, in Cincinnati, OH. He laid under a railroad trestle waiting to murder the first black person he saw. As the victims were two young black men, the crime went under-investigated, and Franklin wouldn't be convicted for the crimes for 17 years. 

It would be many years, in fact, before Franklin faced any sort of justice. He was finally executed in Missouri in 2013 for another murder conviction. In that particular crime, he had killed a Jewish man outside of a St. Louis synagogue - a sniper-style execution he carried out in the name of the purity of white race.

When it comes to murderers, Ted Bundy is probably the most famous killer of all time. He raped and murdered at least 36 women in several states - though some suspect that number is over 100 - and he is undoubtedly one of the most infamous criminals of the 20th century.

Bundy was a handsome, somewhat charming guy who used his non-threatening nature to lure his victims and avoid police.  His girlfriend once noticed he kept a meat cleaver in the glove box of his VW bug, and ironically, he really enjoyed working for a suicide prevention hotline. He also volunteered for a young republicans organization, which earned him a recommendation from Washington's governor when he applied to law school. 

It took a decade for Bundy to be convicted (after, mind you, two successful escapes from custody) and face any consequences for his brutal crimes. A good looking, white law student and Republican, it isn't hard to connect the dots on how he was able to roam freely in '70s America. 

Gary Leon Ridgway, also known as the "Green River Killer," is one of the most prolific serial murderers of all time. Killing at least 49 women in the state of Washington - though he admitted to as many as 80 - Ridgway's murderous rampage lasted for nearly 20 years before he was finally apprehended in 2001. 

Ridgway was considered to be a man of weak intelligence - a rare quality for such a successful killer. He painted trucks for a living - a job he kept for 30 years - and was married three times. He was also a religious fanatic, often going door-to-door and reading from the Bible.

 How exactly did a man with a penchant for picking up runaways and prostitutes, raping them, then strangling them before dumping them in the Green River elude authorities for so long? He was actually picked up in connection to one of his murders in 1984 and took a polygraph, which he failed, but was still let go. A religious, soft spoken white man, who could ever imagine him being a brutal, sadistic killer? 

Despite the fact that he was a convicted rapist and kidnapper, Todd Kohlhepp was allowed to walk free and get a career as a real estate agent. Despite a judge in that case saying he was violent and calculated, he prosecutors dropped the sexual assault charge if Kohlhepp agreed to plead guilty to kidnapping. According to several news organizations, he was registered as a sex offender with the state. 

For 13 years, he killed seven people and kept a woman chained by a dog collar on his property. He was arrested in 2016 and confessed.

Neighbors said he seemed like a normal guy. Kohlhepp purposefully hid his sex offender status from his friends and neighbors, which stemmed from a 1987 kidnapping case. He was a registered felon. He bragged to his only surviving captive - Kala Brown - that he was a skilled killer who had taken the lives of at least 100 people. He also bragged about how he would never get caught. 

From 1984 to 1988, Robert Berdella, who was known as an eccentric business owner and collector of rare and bizarre artifacts, took the lives of at least six young men and boys. However, before killing his victims, Berdella subjected these men and teenagers to terrifying and shocking acts of torture, even holding them captive for several weeks and raping and abusing them on a daily basis. He was the kind of killer who kept humans as torture pets for exceedingly long periods of time, slowly torturing them for months at a time.

Berdella's secret life as a sadistic killer was finally uncovered when one of his victims escaped from the shop owner's Kansas City home, wearing nothing but a dog collar around his neck. The people of Missouri's largest metropolis were horrified to learn of the brutal crimes that had been taking place in their community for years, causing Berdella to be dubbed "The Butcher of Kansas City" for his depraved acts.

When he was a teenager, Robert Berdella watched a film version of The Collector, a book by author John Fowles about a man who abducts a woman and imprisons her in his basement. Berdella claimed the film had a huge impact on him, and it served as inspiration for his crimes. In The Collector, a man named Frederick Clegg uses chloroform to kidnap Miranda, an art student he had become obsessed with, and he keeps her captive in his cellar in hopes that she will grow to love him over time.

The similarities between Fowles’s novel and Berdella’s crimes are undeniable; however, the book is obviously not to blame for the acts of torture and murder the killer carried out as an adult.

Robert Berdella’s first known victim was 19-year-old Jerry Howell, the son of one of the other seller’s at the flea market and a young man who was reportedly involved in prostitution. On July 4, 1984, 35-year-old Berdella picked the teenager up in his car, claiming he was taking Howell to a dance, but the 19 year old was never seen alive again by his family and friends. While Berdella met Howell through his store, a number of the killer’s other victims were sex workers he had befriended.

Berdella, who claimed he wanted to help men who were involved with prostitution, developed relationships with a number of sex workers he met in downtown Kansas City. However, according to people who knew Berdella’s victims, not all of the men he killed were gay or involved in prostitution.

After Jerry Howell disappeared, his father Gerald, who was also a merchant at the same flea market that housed Bob’s Bizarre Bazaar, suspected Robert Berdella had murdered his son. In fact, Mr. Howell reported his fears to law enforcement, claiming the middle-aged man was the last person to be seen with the teenager before he went missing.

Consequently, Berdella was put under police surveillance, but the authorities were unable to uncover any evidence to charge him with a crime or prevent him from committing future murders.

When he was 20 years old, Robert Berdella dropped out of art school and devoted most of his time to working as a chef at various restaurants in Kansas City. He also bought a home in the city in 1969, and he started filling it with oddities and antiquities that he purchased or acquired by trading artifacts with other like-minded collectors. However, his collection began to take over his three-story home, so Berdella got a booth at Kansas City’s Westport Flea Market in 1970.

The shop, which he called Bob’s Bizarre Bazaar, sold a range of unusual items, including drug paraphernalia, shrunken heads, and books on the occult. It also introduced him to a number of different people, including some of his future victims.

While he killed some of his victims by suffocating them with a plastic bag or strangling them to death with a ligature, others died as a result of asphyxiation caused by the gags Robert Berdella had forced into their mouths. After his victims died, Berdella would use a chainsaw to cut up their corpses, and he would wrap these body parts in plastic bags and put them in his garbage can for trash collection.

Afraid the sanitation workers would discover these grisly packages, Berdella watched from his window to make sure the garbage men didn’t become suspicious about the contents of his trash can. Because of the way he disposed of the corpses, most of the victims’ remains were never recovered.

Robert Berdella appeared to delight in inflicting pain on his victims, many of whom had considered him a friend, and he bound their wrists with rope and used leashes and dog collars to restrain the young men. Berdella subjected his victims to painful electric shocks that he administered using a 7,700 transformer, and he also applied caustic chemicals, such as bleach, to their eyes, causing them excruciating pain and temporary blindness.

To prevent his prisoners from screaming, he placed gags in their mouths, but Berdella also injected drain cleaner into their vocal cords to stop them from being able to cry out. However, perhaps the most disturbing act of torture was his practice of sodomizing his victims with his fist, causing such severe damage that he punctured the anal cavities of the young men.

While he was attending art school, Robert Berdella began using drugs and drinking heavily, and he eventually started selling narcotics, including marijuana, amphetamines, and LSD. Berdella was arrested twice during his second year of college for crimes related to drugs, once for selling amphetamines to an undercover cop and another time for possession of LSD and marijuana.  

Berdella was given a five-year suspended sentence for his crimes, but it did little to curb his criminal appetite or stop him from experimenting with drugs.

Robert Berdella approached his appalling torture as if he were a scientist conducting experiments, logging details about the sadistic acts, including when they were administered and how his victims reacted. He also injected the men with sedatives to keep them compliant and gave them antibiotics to stave off infection, so he noted down these doses as if he were a nurse or doctor attending to patients.

In some instances, he kept these young men in his home for weeks, subjecting them to unspeakable horrors multiple times a day. In addition to the written logs of his crimes, Berdella took lots of Polaroid pictures of his battered and bleeding victims, often shirtless or nude and with collars around their necks, gags in their mouths, and restraints around their wrists.

Like the main character in The Collector, Robert Berdella used drugs to incapacitate his victims, guaranteeing they would be easier for him to control. Typically, Berdella would invite someone back to his home, often by offering them a meal, drugs, or a place to stay, and then he would serve the unsuspecting men food or drinks laced with powerful sedatives.

Once the men were unconscious and unable to defend themselves, Berdella would move his victims to the basement or a spare bedroom where he would subject them to unspeakable acts of sadistic torture.

After graduating from high school, Robert Berdella attended the Kansas City Art Institute; initially, he wanted to become an art professor, but he turned his attention to culinary arts and studied to become a chef. While he was in college, Berdella incorporated animal cruelty into his art, even decapitating a live duck and dancing around with its corpse as part of a performance piece.

It’s not uncommon for people who become serial killers to treat animals cruelly and sadistically before they go on to harm and murder human victims, indicating there were signs that Berdella was dangerous from a relatively young age.

It's chilling to think about harming someone you once loved. But these married men who killed their mistresses did just that, all to avoid getting caught in a lie. For some, the reveal that their girlfriends were pregnant was enough to drive them to kill. For others, cold-blooded murder was their twisted solution to the problem of living a double life. The particulars of their cases may be different, but their stories are linked by desperation and brutality.

These husbands who killed their mistresses might seem like the stuff of horror movies. But as their sordid tales prove, they are all too real. From the soccer player who fed his mistress to his dogs to the man who murdered his lover with a hammer, their grisly crimes are represented here.

Bruno Fernandes de Souza, a married Brazilian soccer player, murdered his former mistress, Eliza Samudio. De Souza had met her at a sex party, and Samudio ended up pregnant. He urged Samudio to have an abortion, but she refused, and gave birth to a baby boy in February 2010.

De Souza became enraged when Samudio took him to court for child support, so he abducted her. With the help of his wife, his cousin, and his then-mistress, he tortured Samudio for six days in front of his young son. Then, the soccer player strangled her to death, dismembered her corpse, and fed some of her remains to his dogs.

He was convicted of killing Samudio, but he was released from jail in February 2017 on a legal technicality after serving less than seven years of his 22 year sentence.

In June 2007, 36-year-old Rosario DiGirolamo got into an argument with his mistress and the mother of his young son, Amy Giordano. Giordano wanted her married lover to choose her or his wife. DiGirolamo responded by striking the 27-year-old in the head with a hammer, killing her instantly. He then dismembered Giordano's body and, with the help of a friend, dumped her remains in a pond in Staten Island, NY.

DiGirolamo was convicted of the young woman's murder, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In June 2014, 27-year-old Marine Christopher Lee murdered his mistress, 19-year-old Erin Corwin. She was his neighbor, and the wife of a Marine herself. After strangling Corwin, Lee threw her body down a mine shaft. Investigators learned Lee murdered Corwin because she was pregnant with his child, and he was afraid his wife would prevent him from seeing his 6-year-old daughter if she found out about the affair.

Lee later tried to claim that he murdered Corwin because she confessed to molesting his young daughter, but no evidence was presented to corroborate this allegation. In November 2016, Lee was convicted of the murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

In March 2011, 30-year-old David Adam Rapoport, a married veterinarian, discovered that his mistress, Jennifer Lindsay Snyder, was pregnant with his child. He responded by shooting her three times, killing the 27-year-old the day before she was scheduled to have her first ultrasound appointment. Reportedly, Rapoport didn't want his wife to find out about his affair. Snyder had been one of the veterinary technicians at the clinic where he worked.

Rapoport pleaded guilty to killing Snyder and her child, and was given two consecutive life sentences.

Chancy Jones was a married ex-police officer in Memphis, TN. He had an affair with a woman named Phyllis Malone, who said she became pregnant. Malone refused to abort their baby, and threatened to tell Jones's wife about their affair. Jones shot Malone three times, killing her on September 8, 2008.

The day after committing the murder, Jones reported to work, and was questioned about the killing. Eventually, Jones admitted to shooting Malone, and in June 2010 he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 24 years in prison. An autopsy revealed that Malone had not been pregnant.

In June 2016, a wealthy Chinese factory owner named Peng murdered his mistress of three years, Ah Fang. According to Peng, he killed the young woman because she had threatened his wife and children, and had insulted him after he refused to purchase a home for her brother. Peng hit his mistress in the head with a rock multiple times, and then he choked her to death.

After killing Ah Fang, Peng tried to commit suicide by drowning himself in the ocean. But he changed his mind, and went to a police station to confess to the murder.

Richmond Phillips, a married police officer in Washington, D.C., had a child with his former mistress, Wynetta Wright. Instead of agreeing to pay child support, Phillips murdered the 20-year-old woman and his infant daughter, Jaylin, in June 2011. He shot Wright, and killed his 11-month old daughter by leaving her in a hot car.

Phillips was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in March 2013, and he was given two life sentences plus 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

When 27-year-old Deneisha Smith discovered her boyfriend, Rolanso Lexune, was a married man with four children, she ended their relationship. However, 32-year-old Lexune refused to let Smith go. He showed up at the Brooklyn cell phone store where she worked, and punched and slapped her repeatedly. Smith took out a restraining against her former boyfriend. That angered Lexune, and he went back to his former girlfriend's workplace and strangled her to death.

Lexune was arrested in October 2016. When officers arrived at his house, he reportedly stabbed himself in the stomach with a knife. Lexune survived, and has been charged with second-degree murder.

In May 2011, Devin Bickham Sr. - a married former Chicago police officer - convinced his son, Devin Bickham Jr., to kill his mistress. He didn't want to follow through on his promise to marry 29-year-old Chevron Alexander. Bickham Sr. paid his son and another young man to shoot Alexander instead.

In 2014, Bickham Sr. and his son were convicted of first-degree murder. The older man received 95 years in prison for the killing, while his son was sentenced to 50 years for his role in Alexander's death.

When Gregory Nelson Jr.'s wife found out that his mistress, Susana Cisneros, was pregnant with his child in March 2011, she threatened to leave him. In response, Nelson stabbed Cisneros repeatedly, killing her and her unborn baby with a knife from the Chipotle where the two had worked together. Cisneros had been two weeks away from giving birth.

Nelson fled Virginia after the murder, but he was eventually arrested in Florida and confessed to the killings. He was convicted of first-degree murder, and in February 2013 he was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.

The 1932 kidnapping and death of the then almost-two-year-old Charles "Charlie" Lindbergh was the stuff of tragic melodrama. The case of what happened to the Lindbergh baby drew worldwide attention. After all, aviator Charles Lindbergh, Sr. was the most famous man in the world, having been the first person to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic. Everyone loved handsome and daring "Lucky Lindy," and the world rejoiced when he married the lovely Anne Morrow and produced the adorably blond and chubby "Baby Lindy." But on a cold March night in 1932, the child was mysteriously taken from his crib. Within just a few hours, the Hopewell, New Jersey crime scene was hopelessly contaminated, muddying the evidence forever, and further clouding the strange circumstances discovered by case investigators.

Eventually, a German immigrant named Bruno Richard Hauptmann was tried and convicted of Baby Lindy's kidnapping and murder. He was executed for his alleged crimes on April 3, 1936. However, due to the mysterious circumstances of the kidnapping, the many legitimate suspects in the case, and doubts surrounding Hauptmann's guilt, we may never know what really happened to little Charles Jr. We can all keep guessing, though, pulling together the random and eerie fragments of the strange circumstances surrounding the Linbergh baby's disappearance.

One of the more eerie Lindbergh baby circumstances concerns the fate of Lindbergh household servants. Police suspected that what happened to the Lindbergh baby was an inside job. Until the sole official suspect, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was arrested, authorities rigorously and repeatedly questioned members of the Lindbergh household staff.

Chief among these was Violet Sharp, a woman who was in the employ of Anne Lindbergh's parents as a house maid. Since Anne, Charles, and their baby were not only frequent visitors to the Morrow home, but were also actually living there while their new home was built, Sharp was regularly pressed into the service of caring for the Lindbergh baby. Indeed, Sharp was one of only a very few who knew that the family would remain at the new home prior to the baby's disappearance. And this is why she was at the top of the police suspect list.

Sharp was called in for questioning twice, and neither was a pleasant experience. Aside from the fact that she was initially a candidate for suspicion, the New Jersey State Police were under enormous pressure to solve the crime and return the child. This was Lucky Lindy's baby, and the entire world was watching. The department's reputation was on the line. Under the circumstances, their questioning could be brutal.

Sharp did not help her case by lying to the police about her whereabouts on the night in question. And when the baby's remains were discovered and she was questioned again, she became agitated and very upset. Soon the police called her in yet again for questioning. But she was found dead, having taken cyanide.

The Lindbergh's butler, Oliver Whateley, who was one of the five people present the night of the kidnapping, was also repeatedly questioned by the police. He died, very suddenly, of peritonitis, the following year.

Another side of Charles Lindbergh's personality and interests that remained hidden during his halcyon years of aviation heroism had to do with his enthusiasm for eugenics - or, the use of biology and breeding to produce a purportedly "superior" human race. Clearly, Lindbergh considered himself in possession of just such superlative genes. He was even an early supporter of Adolph Hitler's eugenics program. Later in life, Lindbergh pursued German women with the express purpose of uniting his own genes with those of a similar background. He fathered several children this way, along with the family he had with his wife, Anne.

So, how does his interest in eugenics connect with Lindbergh's possible involvement in his first son's disappearance? Some supporting evidence is found in the baby's medical records. At 20 months, little Charlie had trouble standing on his own, and some of his toes overlapped. Such was the worry over his health and possible diagnosis of rickets, that the little boy was given large, daily doses of Vitamin D and napped under a sun lamp. To his father's mind, such conditions pointed to inferior genetics.

Additionally, Anne Lindbergh's sister, Elisabeth Morrow, suffered from mental illness for much of her life. While Lindbergh was aware of Elisabeth's condition, and it may have served as another strike against the genetics of the woman he had chosen to have a family with, Elisabeth herself is still considered a suspect in what happened to the Lindbergh baby.

Author Noel Behn cites evidence that Elisabeth was resentful of her sister's marriage to the famed aviator and had once hidden baby Charlie in a "trash closet." There was apparently enough concern over Elisabeth's treatment of the baby that the parents forbade her to have any contact with their son. This presented a challenge because the Lindbergh family was living at the Morrow home while their house was being built. Indeed, little Charles was born at his maternal grandparents' home in 1930. So, Elisabeth had ample opportunity, at least initially, to make mischief and express her resentment towards her sister and the child.

Focus on the homemade ladder used in the kidnapping began the night of the Lindbergh baby's disappearance. Though crudely made, it was quickly evident that its creator possessed carpentry and mechanical skills since the ladder was designed to expand as needed and retract into an easily carried compact piece. First checked for finger prints, then compared with the scuffs on the window sill outside the nursery, the wood used to construct the ladder was an important clue for authorities. A Forest Service expert named Arthur Koehler was summoned to inspect the materials. 

Koehler disassembled the ladder and inspected each piece of wood, every chisel mark and nail hole. He concluded that several distinct types of wood had been sourced to build the ladder, including one wood that was designed for use in indoor construction. He traveled to wood factories and processing centers to make comparisons, as well as comparing wood sources at the homes of the Lindberghs, their family, and friends. Koehler's meticulous efforts would prove useful later on in the case.

When Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested due to his possession of numbered bank notes from the ransom, Koehler had a new source to compare with his findings. High in Hauptmann's home attic he discovered a plank of wood that was a perfect match to a plank used to construct the kidnapper's ladder. Not all experts agree that this was evidence of Hauptmann's guilt, claiming that the wood in question was purposefully planted in the attic to implicate Hauptmann.

Though they seem more a torture device than a training tool to the eyes and minds of people today, thumb guards were commonly used in the early twentieth century to discourage young children from sucking their thumbs. Young Charlie Lindbergh was among those children who were put to bed each night with metal guards placed over their thumbs. The guards were attached to strong string or metal chains, which were secured to a crib rail, one on each side. Placed thusly, a child could move about, to a point, but was physically unable to bring either thumb to the mouth.

Most accounts about the evening of March 1, 1932 make no mention of Charlie's thumb guards. But it was not insignificant when, nearly one month later, his nanny, Betty Gow, discovered a thumb guard exactly like Charlie's, crushed in the driveway leading away from the Lindbergh home. The discovery location was somewhat problematic for Lindbergh and the police, as their investigation already concluded that footprints in the grass and mud, along with pieces of the ladder, marked the kidnapper's path - on foot - in precisely the opposite direction from the location of the thumb guard. Questions concerning the contradictory evidence were never addressed and remains one of the more strange aspects of the Lindbergh baby disappearance.

At the time of his son's kidnapping, Charles Lindbergh was considered the most famous man in the world, the premier aviator and a hero to people around the globe. It is not a stretch to say that the general public considered him above reproach. His friends and family also respected him, but they were privy to other aspects of his personality that were not so positive.

For example, Lindbergh enjoyed playing practical jokes. Sometimes these took the form of gentle teasing, but often his jokes bore a tinge of cruelty, unnecessarily frightening the recipient. Chief among his targets was his wife, Anne. The equally famous female aviator, Amelia Earhart, personally witnessed and was offended when she saw Lindbergh publicly trickle water all over his wife's silk dress, knowing it would be ruined.

When baby Charlie was discovered missing from his crib late on the windy evening of March 1, 1932, the baby's nanny, Betty Gow, was the first to approach Lindbergh and ask if he had taken the baby. According to her handwritten statement, Gow claimed she suspected Lindbergh of yet another of his practical jokes, since she knew he had taken the baby and hidden him before.

Authors Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen Monier discovered further details in their research. Apparently, Lindbergh had hidden the child in a closet only two months previous to his March 1 disappearance. Once the baby was hidden, he sent his wife and the household into a panic by telling them the boy had been kidnapped.

Very early in the investigation, Charles Lindbergh encouraged communication between himself, the police, and the kidnappers. A series of handwritten letters and messages published in newspapers were the result, with the kidnapper demanding $50,000 in cash for the safe return of the child.

The author of the letters remains disputed to this day, since the man eventually arrested, tried, and convicted of the crime was fluent in German, but the letters suggest the writer might have been a non-German posing as a German. 

During the first weeks of communication between the parties, Lindbergh and the police demanded a token of proof that the kidnapper indeed had the child. When the seventh letter arrived, the sleeper Charlie was wearing the night of his disappearance came with it. It appeared freshly laundered, which gave rise to more eerie suspicion, but the Lindberghs identified the sleeper as belonging to their missing son.

Other items of Charlie's clothing were found on May 12, 1932, when his decomposing little body was accidentally discovered in a ditch a mere four miles from his home. He was found still wearing his white undershirt, by then heavily stained.

Initially, the New Jersey State Police believed the kidnapping had to be an inside job. For example, how would the kidnapper know the exact location of the baby's room? The Lindbergh's home was new; parts of it were still under construction when the kidnapping occurred. The family had not even officially moved in, at that point spending only weekends there.

But the kidnapping happened on a Tuesday evening. Who else but someone on the inside would know that the family remained after the weekend due to the baby's bad cold? According to Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the only people who knew the change in plans were her own parents and one of her parents' house maids who often cared for the baby. The only other people who knew the family's whereabouts that evening were little Charlie's nanny and the Lindbergh butler, who were in the house.

Further, State Police immediately noted that the baby's nursery had been wiped clean of fingerprints, even those that should have been present, including those of the baby and his parents. As the case evolved over the next few days, police and other investigators determined that Charles Lindbergh was maintaining control of the investigation and may have ordered the cleaning of the crime scene. 

In addition to being a skilled and innovative aviator in her own right, Anne Morrow Lindbergh also authored a number of memoirs associated with aviation, family life, and the lives of women in the 20th century. In the 1930s, she published two volumes dealing with the pioneering aviation experiences she shared with her husband. Written around the same time, but not published until decades later, was a memoir and letter collection titled Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead.  

Included in that volume were the author's heart-wrenching thoughts on the kidnapping and loss of her first child. Six months pregnant on the evening Charlie disappeared, the terror and pain she expresses is palpable. In the memoir, she writes poignantly of the moment investigators discovered the baby's body and how some of his blonde curls "and fluff" remained. She did not record any suspicions of who had taken her son, but wrote achingly of her fear that she would forget the details of his face and how it felt when she held him in her arms.

Anne and Charles Lindbergh went on to have five more children together, though they did not remain in the house where they lost their first born. Several years after the tragedy, concerned over the media frenzy that still enveloped them, the family relocated to Europe for a time.

Americans living today have likely heard of the famous Gulf War General Norman "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf.  But there was an earlier, also famous Norman Schwarzkopf, and he was the father of the Army General. He made his name and claim to fame during the Lindbergh kidnapping trial, at the time styled as the "Trial of the Century."

Norman, Sr. was the first superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, and thus played a large role in the investigation, arrest, and subsequent trial of illegal immigrant, Bruno Richard Hauptmann.

The police superintendent expressed concern over the handling of the investigation. Lindbergh wanted to work with the state police, but was not interested in help from the Federal or even local level. Additionally, Schwarzkopf claimed that Lindbergh was difficult to work with, wanting to control the entire case and act on his own. The lack of cooperation only further muddied an already corrupted crime scene and investigation.

Kidnapping was not at all uncommon during the Great Depression. Both children and adults of famous, wealthy families were spirited away by those hoping for a big ransom pay off. Generally, kidnapping was the act of those involved with organized crime. Handled in a swift, professional manner, victims were kept safe and returned safely when the ransom was paid. Among the many strange Lindbergh baby disappearance facts was that this, the most famous kidnapping case of all, ended so tragically.

Little Charles Lindbergh, Jr. was the most famous baby in the world. His father was known to be a millionaire many times over in an age when precious few could make such a claim. Even his mother was an heiress, her family settling millions on her at the time of her marriage. Everyone knew about the Lindbergh baby. He and his parents were superstars. 

So when the child went missing, one of the first suggestions Lindbergh made to the police was to consider contacting famed gangster Al Capone and ask for his advice. Capone, at the time imprisoned for tax evasion, offered his full assistance, but on one condition: his release from prison. Since the courts and law enforcement were not about to let that happen, the Lindbergh case had to continue on without Capone's sage advice.

There are plenty of movies or TV shows about cops who had insane undercover operations to bust all sorts of criminals - and while these tales seem too crazy to be true, some are real. There are plenty of real-life examples of cops going deep undercover in the pursuit of justice.

Sometimes in order to crack the case, law enforcement officials have to put themselves in some serious danger and investigate from the inside. For undercover cops, revealing their true identity could not only cost them their job but possibly their life. Cops who went deep undercover have taken down drug lords, hate groups, and even busted animal fighting rings. These crazy stories from undercover cops are true and often had huge impacts for all those involved. Cops who had insane undercover operations were often left shattered, isolated, and alone, rather than rewarded.

After having already spent 24 years with the Orange County Sheriff's Office and other agencies, Robert Killian took on the challenge of his life when he accepted an assignment with the intelligence division to go undercover to investigate white supremacist bikers in central Florida. Killian, who calls himself "Doc," donned leathers and jewelry and rode his Harley to bars frequented by the Outlaws motorcycle gang and the 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade, the Aryan Nation's motorcycle gang.

Slowly, over the course of seven years, Killian ingratiated himself with the gangs and built relationships with August Kreis, the head of an Aryan Nations splinter faction called Christian Identity, who offered him membership. He was worried that his cover might not hold, but became extremely concerned when he learned the Aryan Nation's deputy director was a police officer.

Killian eventually amassed enough evidence to bring down six key members of the Outlaws and the 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade and force the resignation of the racist cop. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to leave the biker life behind just because the job was done and Killian lost his wife, his family, and his career in law enforcement.

When the target of an undercover ATF operation started asking around for a hitman to take out the informant that helped put him behind bars, the agency realized they had no other option but to insert one of their own undercover agents into the overcrowded prison to pose as said hitman. "Lenny," an ATF agent with experience as an undercover operative, volunteered to do time in the prison as a convicted criminal in order to stop the convicted drug dealer from contacting someone else to pull of the hit.

Though the operation was "meticulously" planned, Lenny admitted he "didn't think this through" as he was being strip-searched for admittance to prison, where not even the guards would know he was secretly an ATF agent. And, despite things going wrong - a storm caused the surveillance system to black out making Lenny vulnerable - word got around to the drug dealer that Lenny was a hitman who made good on his promises and he received the contract to take out the informant.

News of the informant's (faked) death was inserted into a newspaper that was sent to the jail and Lenny got the admission of guilt he needed from the drug dealer, who said on tape: "I love you, man. I owe you my life." The drug dealer got a murder solicitation charge added to his drug charges and Lenny retired from undercover work.

Undercover operatives can't just look the part of an outlaw; they often have to engage in the practices of the criminal organizations they are trying to infiltrate in order to gain entry. Unfortunately, that holds true of both human operatives and, in some cases, animal operatives, as well.

In 2008, Missouri Highway State Patrol officers Terry Mills and Jeff Heath were working with the FBI to infiltrate dogfighting rings with ties to "domestic terror groups." The duo continued investigating the ring under their own agency, with the help of the Humane Society of Missouri. The realized to gain entry to that world, they would have to become active participants themselves. The pair bought, trained, and fought their own dogs, while wearing audio and video recording equipment, in order to gain admittance to the secretive, savage world of dogfighting.

Thanks to their lengthy - and bloody - investigation, a multi-agency task force raided dogfighting and breeding operations in eight states, resulting in the arrest of 26 dogfighters and the seizure of more than 500 pit bulls. The officers said putting dogs in fights was a decision that required "grave discussion," but they knew their mission was just when Tim Rickey, the head of the Humane Society of Missouri's animal cruelty task force, gave them his support. "For me, it was about doing the right thing," said Rickey.

For 14 years, Neil Woods haunted the alleyways of Northampton, England - hair bedraggled, stomach sunken in, shoulders slumped, face sweaty - looking to score heroin. He was great at his job because of his propensity to "sponge" up the mannerisms and language of junkies. Woods "loved the art of deception" and thrived on the danger and estimates that his work resulted in upwards of 1,000 years of jail time for the drug addicts and dealers he busted.

The job took a toll on Woods, however, and not just because he had to leave his wife and children behind for long stretches of time and live in the grimy underworld; he began to feel guilty about busting people who were vulnerable, hopeless drug addicts. He was diagnosed with a form of PTSD called "moral damage" brought on by memories of the pain and anguish of those he arrested. "It's about having done bad things. And I have done really bad things," Woods told The Guardian.

Woods left his job and now acts as an advocate for drug legalization as the UK chair of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Woods argues that “drug policy should be about reducing not drug use, but drug harm," a stance that has branded him as a traitor amongst his former brothers and sisters on the force.

Sitting behind a desk was not what William Queen wanted to do in law enforcement, so he accepted one undercover operation after another, infiltrating the Aryan Nation, the KKK, and other groups before landing the gig that made him famous: outlaw biker with the San Fernando Valley Mongols. For two years, he hung out in seedy bars, rode stolen motorcycles, and got into fights with competing biker gangs, eventually becoming a "full-patched" member and rising to the level of chapter vice president.

Queen claims to have abstained from doing drugs while pretending to be a Mongol and describes in his book Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang the various ways that he got away with not doing them, but he admits to reveling in being "as mean and as violent" as he wanted to be, "the baddest of the bad."

Queen's investigation resulted in the arrests of scores of bikers and the convictions of 53 gang members and earned him the Medal of Honor, as well as celebrity within law enforcement circles and a movie deal. But, if he had to do it all over again, Queen said he would pass because of the danger to his family and the fact that the Mongols are "bigger and ever" than ever thanks to his book.

Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski was a meticulous, evasive hitman believed to have killed as many as 200 men, mostly for prominent Mafia crime families. Surprisingly, he earned his nickname not for his cold-blooded demeanor, but for his tendency to freeze his victims to obscure their time of death.

Despite knowing that Kuklinski was a hired killer with an insane body count, none of the federal agencies tracking his movements could gather any definitive evidence of his crimes until they inserted an undercover operative in his midst. Enter Dominick Polifrone, a New Jersey cop with as much ice in his veins as his target.

Over the course of 18 months, Polifrone posed as a hardened criminal to earn Kuklinski's trust. The pair met in out-of-the-way places to talk shop and Kuklinski eventually gave up enough information about his crimes - in particular, his use of a cyanide-laced hamburger to kill a gang member - for Prolifrone, the New Jersey attorney general and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to take him down.

Some police offers are natural actors destined to work undercover, while others are "one-offs" that just happen to be the right fit for a particular assignment. Such was the case with "Lizzie James" (an alias), a policewoman for London's Metropolitan Police who went undercover as a murderer and sexual deviant to try to lure a murder suspect into exposing himself.

The full details of James's immersion into her undercover role have not been revealed. However, Paul Britton, the forensic psychologist who briefed her, said that it was essential to her cover story as a perverted murderer that she be able to describe "fantasies involving group sex and simulated rape."

The case against the intended target fell apart and was thrown out of court and James, suffering from psychological problems, weight gain, and loss of sex drive, quit the force. She later sued the Metro Police and received the equivalent of $250,000 in damages.

One of the biggest struggles for undercover police officers is keeping their real lives and their undercover lives separate. When drugs are added to the equation, the lines begin to blur, as they did for Robert Carroll, who went undercover for the secretive Sigma unit of the Greater Manchester Police force as a junkie named "Lee Taylor."

Unlike many undercover cops who manage to fake their drug use, Carroll partook of heroin to excess, smoking the drug every day while undercover, and became a junkie for real. A year after joining Sigma, Carroll reached out to the drugs charity Lifeline for help and tried to wean himself off of drugs and took time off from the force to deal with his depression.

Though he told his supervisors and his police officer wife that he was cured, his boss had him tailed and discovered that he was still meeting with one of the drug dealers he had been investigating while undercover to score. A raid of the drug dealer's home found police-issue items that Carroll had traded for drugs, including his own baton. Carroll was jailed for 14 months for misconduct in public office.

One of the most successful and prolific undercover FBI Special Agents of all time is Joaquin "Jack" Garcia. While other undercover operatives tend to lay low and draw as little attention to themselves as possible, Garcia used his massive 6-foot 4-inch, 300-pound frame to muscle his way into the ranks of several different crime families and into the circles of corrupt cops, often overlapping his investigations with numerous identities.

For more than two years, Garcia posed as "Jack Falcone," an associate to the Gambino crime family of La Cosa Nostra in New York City. His investigation resulted in the conviction of 32 gangsters, including several key members of the family. Concurrently, Garcia posed as a different New York-based mobster and concluded a three-year FBI sting in Florida that brought down four dirty cops.

During the same time frames as his New York and Florida operations, Garcia participated in two separate undercover operations in Atlantic City that targeted corrupt politicians and a Boston sting targeting corrupt cops. According to a veteran law enforcement official who worked with him, Garcia is "the best undercover agent the Bureau has ever had."

While undercover, Garcia posed as a jewel thief mobster who also sold drugs. He played his part so well members of the gamed Gambino crime family took him in and made him a top member in their administration. In 2008, he released an autobiography which was adapted into a film that as of April 2017 has not been released. 

To curb a wave of truck hijackings in New York City that averaged five a day, the FBI transferred Joseph D. Pistone to the city and set him up with a fake identity as a small-time jewel thief named "Donnie Brasco." For five years, Pistone hung around locations frequented by the Bonanno crime family believed to be behind the hijackings, making himself known but keeping a low profile so as to not raise suspicion.

Eventually, Pistone met Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero, a "foot soldier" for the family with 26 kills under his belt. The two became friends, with Ruggiero vouching for Pistone at risk of his own life. Ordered to commit murders himself, Pistone had to come up with scenarios to avoid killing anyone and even had the FBI stage a fake killing.

When the family fractured and Pistone was ordered to kill rival leader Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato, the FBI pulled the plug on the operation and attempted, unsuccessfully, to arrest Indelicato. Pistone's investigation resulted in the arrest and conviction of over 100 mobsters and effectively destroyed the Bonanno family, which responded by putting a $500,000 bounty on his head. Pistone is still in hiding with his family. His story was famously documented in the 1997 Mike Newell movie Donnie Brasco starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino.

The legendary medieval bandit Peter Niers would go down in history as one of Germany's most reviled criminals, raping and pillaging his way through 16th-century Europe. An alleged murderer of over 500 people, his escapades managed to cover just about every dark theme imaginable: theft, murder, infanticide, black magic, even cannibalism.

A master of disguise with a penchant for escape, the serial killer Niers was rumored to have received the gift of invisibility from the Devil himself, terrorizing an unsuspecting landscape for 15 long years and eventually becoming a folkloric figure. During a time when confessions and torture went hand in hand, his gripping capture led to some hair-raising admissions of fetal murder and one of the most grisly executions in history.

In the birthplace of punishments like the breaking wheel and the rack, "going medieval" on ne'er-do-wells was the law of the land, a reality never more clear than in the 1581 execution of Europe's greatest bogeyman.

The unholy career of Peter Niers would finally come to an end in 1581 when he stopped to lodge at The Bells in Neumarkt. According to a ballad, by this time, Niers was a person of considerable notoriety, as his description had been circulating throughout the territory for nine years. Trying to lay low, Niers rested for a few days until he finally went out to wash up in the public bath house. Thinking no one was hip to his location, Niers gave the innkeeper his personal bag for safekeeping, claiming it was particularly valuable. But as he lay soaking, whisperings began to erupt around him - people had noticed who he was. Other guests began to talk amongst themselves: Could that be the Peter Niers? Exhausted from his recent exploits, Niers was oblivious to their chatter until it was too late.

Immediately, two locals slipped out of the bath house and went to discover where he was lodging. Locating the inn, they informed the manager that he was housing a serious fugitive with a gnarly reputation who was, at that very moment, languishing in a nearby bath. Fearing the worst, the innkeeper pulled out the small leather satchel belonging to Niers and opened it, never imagining what he might find. Inside were the tiny cut-off hands and dried hearts of fetuses violently removed from their mothers' womb. Instantly recognizing these grim items to be the work of black magic, the townspeople moved quickly on Niers, sending eight strong men to apprehend him. In retrospect, it was believed the only reason they were able to successfully do so was because the powerful Niers was separated from his magical bag.

Seeing no alternative, Niers admitted to his identity and many more murders. 

The torture and execution of Peter Niers gave new definition to the phrase "going medieval on someone," as he languished in agony for three grueling days. It was September 1581, and many people had come out to watch the suffering of this long-feared criminal. And boy, were they in for a treat.

According to a popular ballad written about the execution, on the first day, strips of his flesh were systematically ripped from his body while hot oil was poured into the open wounds. On the second day, the bottoms of his feet were smeared with grease and then held above burning coals, essentially roasting him alive. And on the third day, he was dragged through the streets and strapped to the infamous breaking wheel, where his body received 42 bone-breaking blows. When this did not kill him, the executioner quartered him by sawing his limbs from his body.

Why such a brutal execution? As it turned out, Peter Niers had been a very busy guy since his first capture, finally admitting to the death of an alleged 544 people. If true, that would make him one of the most prolific serial killers in history. Considering these were the brutal days of an eye for an eye (or an arm, or a leg, or a head), his punishment hardly seemed extreme.

As a 16th-century German citizen living in the shadow of such a terrifying figure, it was probably easier to believe Peter Niers was in league with Satan than to believe he was committing such atrocities without justification. But a more contemporary analysis suggests the rumor of his transformations likely sprang from the stories of his ever-changing appearance. As a master of disguise, he frequently altered his clothing and features, sometimes masquerading as a soldier, a businessman, or even a leper.

A warrant issued in 1579 on Niers stated there were some things about him that did not change, however: he always carried a great deal of money, two loaded pistols, and a great sword. Those who had actually glimpsed the chameleon described him as "rather old," with two crooked fingers and a long scar on his chin. 

Due to his mercurial persona and dastardly deeds, Peter Niers was well-documented in folktales and songs from the period, becoming an urban legend of sorts. Between the years 1577 and 1582, an author named Johann Wick followed the criminal career of Niers and generated three different booklets illustrating his activities. People wrote ballads about his amazing escape, and various stories detailed his cannibalism and love of black magic. These depictions of Niers fleshed out his ghostly exploits and gave rise to his legendary status.

Not a lot is known about the initial capture of Peter Niers in 1577. Even historical accounts on the subject are spotty at best, but what is known serves as the springboard to a most horrific tale of depravity and violence. For 11 long years, Niers and his unruly gang terrorized medieval Europe until they were apprehended in Gersbach, Germany. Tortured into submission by authorities, Niers copped to 75 murders, including the deaths of many local women. But just when it seemed he was doomed to rough justice, Niers cleverly escaped his confines and disappeared into the night, only to reappear in a much ghastlier form.

As is often the case with folks who raise the bar on evil deeds, Peter Niers began to assume legendary status after escaping his torturers the first time. Not only had he admitted to being a straight-up serial killer, he had now managed to dissolve like a vapor into the medieval countryside where rounding up a criminal was easier said than done. 

It was during this godless tour that Niers gathered his mates and supposedly took up arms with a force an even greater than himself - the Devil. Meeting in Pfalzburg, the men bonded with Satan, where he not only offered his blessing and his financial support to their diabolical plans, but endowed Niers with considerable supernatural powers. It was believed Niers developed the ability to shape-shift, taking on the physical form of something inanimate like a log or a stone, and later learned to assume any animal form at will. But these tremendous skills came with a steep price: he needed a constant supply of baby fetuses.

Various Germanic legends and contemporary authors specifically mentioned these practices as being a form of powerful black magic used by Niers to render himself invisible. It was also believed he used the flesh and fat of infants to make magic candles that, when lit, would allow him to silently break into homes at night without waking the owners. 

Arguably the most popular and horrific of all medieval tortures, the device known as the breaking wheel was actually even worse than its name. Typically made from a wooden wagon wheel large enough to hold a person, the breaking wheel had radial spokes that could work in a variety of ways. Sometimes the condemned were lashed to the wheel while their limbs were beaten with a club or iron cudgel. Other times, they were laid out spread eagle on the top of the wheel, where they could be beaten and then properly displayed afterwards.

The French were particularly creative, placing the culprit on a revolving wheel with their limbs stretched out along the spokes. A large hammer then came down periodically to smash the person's appendages between the gaps. This would go on until the person's arms and legs were broken enough to intertwine through the spokes or until the crowd screamed for coups de grâce. At that point, the torturer would deliver a few "merciful" blows to the person's chest or abdomen, which brought about a quicker death. Otherwise, the poor soul could last days on the wheel, during which time his eyes would be pecked out by ravens. If that wasn't kind enough, some privileged victims might be strangled after just a few blows, or before they even began.

While there were accounts of the 14th-century murderer Bona Dies surviving on the wheel for four days after suffering such a punishment, most victims soon died from shock or dehydration.

Being a medieval bandit, otherwise known as a highwayman, required a nimble body and a dastardly mind. In those days, roads leading out of towns often meandered through dense woods and mountains, all of which held many excellent hiding places for covert bandits looking to hijack a carriage or murder a band of unsuspecting travelers.

Niers was one of the leaders of such a gang, who lingered in the spaces outside the city, lying in wait for anyone deemed worthy of raiding. This dark network of criminals roamed the countryside, always changing composition, gathering together for larger "jobs" or splintering off into smaller factions for more targeted endeavors. Historians believe Niers and his gang first began their criminal operation in Alsace, France, eventually gathering 24 men and moving on to other nearby cities in search of things to steal and sell. Like pirates of the land, they made their way through many different landscapes, all the while leaving a bloody trail of despair. 

People often wonder why medieval confessions were so prolific, and the answer is pretty straightforward - torture. Historically used for purposes of interrogation, it was once believed such practices were the only way to extract truthful admissions. Originating from the Latin word tortura meaning "to twist," the process often involved a brutal manipulation of the limbs or the turning of screws and ligatures. In the eyes of the Church, this allowed torture to occur without much blood, which likely made the whole event a bit more justifiable... and palatable. But unfortunately, this vicious form of persuasion also "twisted" the truth, as the victims would say or do anything just to make it stop. As a result, many medieval confessions feel wildly over exaggerated - or just plain made up.

When thinking about the life of Peter Niers, it seems highly possible his confessions were simply the result of sheer agony. Nonetheless, he was likely a very, very bad man and a serial predator who was probably criminally insane. 

Peter Niers was born in 15th-century Germany at the height of medieval Europe, when serfdom, fear, and poverty were the chief products. As a peasant, life offered mostly oppression and enforced taxes no one could really afford. The poor had no recourse against the nobility and were often denied the traditional right to visit the woods, streams, and natural areas of their own land. In Alsace, where Peter Niers got his start, the malcontents who faced this treatment adopted a symbol of revolt called the Bundschuh, a wooden shoe worn by peasants. There were constant outbreaks of insurrection, all of which were swiftly stifled by the established authority.

The revolution of 1525, which exemplified the rural uprising of the period, created a general resentment towards the wealthy and likely shaped the upbringing of Peter Niers. He grew up Protestant - the most renounced religion of the time - and was likely forced to grapple with his own identity and beliefs on a regular basis. With the help of zero education and a great degree of fear, Niers found power, prestige, and wealth in the dark underworld he created.

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (also known as the Rostov Ripper, the Forest Strip Killer, the Butcher of Rostov, and the Red Ripper) was a serial killer active in the former Soviet Union who killed 56 people between 1978 and 1990. He is one of several well-known Soviet serial killers, and inspired the Chessboard Killer. His 12-year killing spree was one of the longest in history.

Upon his final arrest, Chikatilo confessed to his crimes, showing little remorse for his victims. In fact, he seemed proud of his crimes. As he put it while on the stand, "I was like a crazed wolf. I just turned into a beast, into a wild animal."

Chikatilo was born in the Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) in 1936. He was sentenced to death in 1992, and killed in a death chamber by a single gunshot wound in 1994. 

After finishing high school, Chikatilo attended college at Rostov University via correspondence courses. He had first tried to get into Moscow State University, but despite his good high school grades, he was not admitted, possibly because of his father's blemished military record.

After finally completing his degree from Rostov and spending three years in the Soviet military, where he worked as a border guard in Central Asia and then for the KGB, Chikatilo went to work as a teacher.

His first molestation victim was a 15-year-old girl whom he locked in his classroom. He was fired from that teaching job - as well as a few others - for the same reasons. He eventually gave up teaching and began working as a supply clerk for a company in Rostov, a job that gave him plenty of opportunities to travel around the country.

As with most serial killers, the murders committed by Andrei Chikatilo followed a pattern - all the victims were stabbed and slashed in very gruesome ways. Some had their eyes gouged out, while others were disemboweled. All of the bodies were found in isolated areas, usually the wooded outskirts of town, within a decent walking distance of bus and train stations. Also, only a half-hearted attempt was made to bury or hide the bodies. These were all Chikatilo's "calling cards" that made it easy for law enforcement to connect the deaths. 

Serial killer Alexander Pichushkin needed someone to look up to and he chose a fellow murderer, Andrei Chikatilo. Pichushkin's goal was to out-kill Chikatilo and he did. Chikatilo killed 56 people, a mix of men, women, and children, while Pichushkin claimed a body count of 61 - only 3 short of his goal of killing as many people as there are squares on a chessboard. 

Another serial murderer, the Granny Ripper - Tamara Samsonova - admitted to a friend that she was obsessed with Chikatilo. Samsonova was convicted of killing 11 victims, all people who lodged in her apartment building. She apparently used a hacksaw to cut up their bodies before burying them, and may have eaten parts of them as well. 

Witnesses claimed to have last seen Olga Stalmachenok walking off of a bus with a middle-aged man. He was "innocently" leading her by the hand, and the two looked like your typical father and daughter, except that she was actually on her way to her parents' house, and he was a serial killer. Chikatilo led Stalmachenok to the isolated farming area of Novoshakhtinsk, where he killed her. He stabbed her over 50 times, disemboweled her, and ripped open her chest before abandoning her body where it lay. She was his ninth victim. 

Andrei Chikatilo's official body count stands at 56, according to his confession. Although most of his early victims were young girls, he was not overly discerning at the end, and killed young boys and a number of women as well. He was charged with 53 deaths - 18 women, 14 girls, and 21 boys. His oldest victim was 29-year-old Tatyana Petrosyan, while his youngest was seven-year-old Igor Gudkov. 

Every serial killer starts off with a first victim that usually sets the tone for the rest of the murders that follow. In the case of Andrei Chikatilo, that first victim was Yelena Zakotnova. She was only nine years old when Chikatilo managed to lure her into his house. There, he tried to rape her but failed, so he began to stab her in the abdomen. As he did so, he ejaculated onto her body. After this, he strangled her to death and then tossed her body into the Grushevka River. Chikatilo only became more gruesome and violent after this. 

Larisa Tkachenko was a 17-year-old student when she was approached by Andrei Chikatilo at a bus stop. She became his second victim. He talked her into going with him to a secluded area for some quiet time talking and drinking alcohol. However, once the two reached a forested area near the Don River, Chikatilo attempted to rape Tkachenko. He was physically unable to follow through with his plans, so he beat her to death with his fists, strangled her, stuffed mud into her mouth, and then mutilated her dead body with a stick and his teeth. In the process, he bit off one of her nipples. Then, rather than bury her body, he covered her with leaves and the pages of newspapers he was carrying on him at the time. 

Andrei Chikatilo's trial began in April 1992. Throughout the trial, he tried several times to be found innocent on the grounds of insanity, but every evaluation that he went through found him to be completely sane. Chikatilo spent his time in the courtroom locked in a special iron cage, both for his own protection and to keep everyone else in the room safe. He was found guilty and sentenced to both death and 86 years in prison on October 15, 1992. 

Lyubov Biryuk, Andrei Chikatilo's third victim, was only 13 years old. She was walking home past a secluded bus station when he attacked her, dragging her into a heavily wooded area along the path. There he ripped off her clothing and proceeded to stab her to death. She was stabbed at least 22 times in her neck, head, chest, and pelvic area. The coroner found wounds in her eye sockets as well, proof that Chikatilo had gouged out her eyes. Apparently, the first stab wounds - those to her neck - were done from the back. Chikatilo didn't waste any time in killing her once he had her alone. 

Many jokes have been made about people purchasing things that fit the category of a "serial killer kit." Andrei Chikatilo actually had one. When he was finally stopped by Detective Alexander Sanosovsky in September 1984, Chikatilo had a briefcase filled with his killing tools, including a knife, rope, Vaseline, and a towel.

Tattoos have long served as important badges of honor for criminal enterprises. By inking your body you are making a permanent commitment to your organization, signifying a blood oath - you are in this for life. While many gangs and criminal groups have employed the use of tattoos for decades, it's a relatively new phenomenon for the brutal Mexican drug cartels, and the pictures of these cartel tattoos show they're bigger and badder than ever.

The reason groups like the Zetas and the Sinaloa are now marking their members is an economic one. By covering their employees in facial and other highly visible tattoos, they are effectively making them unhirable anywhere else, and in turn, dependent on their organization. Some of these photos of cartel tattoos will show you just how intense tattooing can get. This list illustrates some of the tattoos that adorn Mexican cartel and gang members, along with the meanings the lie behind them. 

Though a product of Eastern philosophy, the symbol of the Yin and the Yang has become a popular tattoo for gang and cartel members in Central America. While traditionally the Chinese symbol is meant to depict balance between opposing forces, these criminal organization have begun something of a rebranding campaign.

The Yin and the Yang, as it is used now among among cartel members, is meant to symbolize they have transcended the traditional idea of the balance between good and evil, by means of brutal violence and murder.

The three dots tattoo is fairly common among gang members, and it doesn't belong to one organization or cartel in particular. Commonly seen in prison - as it's a pretty easy tattoo to do with homemade instruments - the three dots are typically placed in a highly visible area (like the hand, or around the eye) to send a clear message. The design is meant to convey "my crazy life," or mi vida loca, indicating the person who has it operates outside the law.

The three dots tattoo has also been known to represent a protective purpose, symbolizing the Holy Trinity of the Catholic Church: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

For members of the Mexican drug cartels, the grim reaper-like image of Santa Muerta - whose mysterious roots are said to track back to Aztec culture, as well as Catholicism and Voodoo - offers a measure of protection. Santa Muerta is believed by some to be the queen of the underworld or a saint of the dead, and some have speculated she has a cult-like following among the cartels. The belief is by honoring Santa Muerta, and in turn, the dead, one buys themselves more time on this Earth even though they've committed evil deeds.

The teardrop tattoo is fairly well known in popular culture. The simple, dark blue tears under the eye are often meant to represent the deaths of people close to the person who wears them. For the gangs and cartels of Mexico, however, this tribute can take on a more sinister form, sometimes signifying the murders the wearer has committed. 

Among the tattoos worn by Mexican gang and cartel members, the number 18 pops up quite a bit. The significance of the tattoo is that it represents the 18th Street Gang, also known as Barrio 18, an gang that - like its rival MS-13 - traffics in drugs throughout North and Central America. Quickly becoming a force in the criminal world, Barrio 18 is believed to have strong ties to the Sinaloa cartel.

Many cartel and gang members have begun placing skull or cross iconography between their eyes, creating a truly menacing image. It's a highly visible tattoo designed to indicate its wearer has committed murder. Unlike, say, the familiar teardrop tattoo, the skull or cross signifies a person with a high body count.

Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known as MS-13, is one of the largest, most notorious street gangs in the world. Though it originated in Los Angeles, the gang has deep ties to Mexico's Los Zetas cartel, and since the 1990s and 2000s, it has become a major player in the North American drug trade.

For members of Mara Salvatrucha, marking yourself with the gangs initials is a rite of passage, with many opting to get inked in bold letters on the neck or face. 

Getting a tattoo of a clown or a joker may seem like a harmless thing to do. The image of clowns implies a gregarious, fun loving nature - it's the mark of someone who likes to have a good time. Let's be real, usually this cartoon-like imagery is downright creepy looking, and that would seem to fit in with the cartels' reason for using it. 

In the world of Mexican gangs and drug cartels, a tattoo of a clown or joker-like figure means you are an individual without fear, and are willing to escalate violence to brutal, bloody heights.

While Mexican drug cartels tend to be extremely violent and engage in illegal activities, some of them are also very religious. Catholic beliefs are strongly held through these organizations. Along with Christian iconography like the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, the rosary tattoo is very popular and meant to represent protection by a higher power. These tattoos are sometimes placed around vital organs - you can never be too safe in such a bloody line of work. 

If you're trying to send a message through your tattoos, a picture of the devil himself is worth 1,000 words. By placing an image of a recognizably satanic figure on one's person, they're telling the world exactly how they are going to behave. In other words, you've got a real devil on your hands. 

In the world of the Mexican gangs and drug cartels, the image of the devil is frequently used by MS-13, as it replicates one of their commonly used gang symbols: the extension of the index and pinky fingers to simulate devil horns. 

Sometimes when life's problems pile up, it's nice to imagine starting all over again. For some people, getting a fresh start at life is so important they will do just about anything to make it happen - including fake their own death. While it seems crazy, people who faked their own death to avoid their problems - be it impending criminal charges, souring relationships, or piling bills - really do exist. 

These cases of bizarre staged death are surprising, strange, and sometimes pretty funny. But before you start planning your own escape, take a real close look at these criminals who faked their death. While some are more creative than others, in the end they all got caught. 

Ari Squire wanted to start over - specifically he wanted to start over as Justin Newman. In 2008, the Illinois man hatched a scheme to murder the real Newman - a friend of his - and assume his identity, all while making it appear as if Squire was the one who was actually dead. He swapped clothes and wallets with Newman, and bought a brown wig and blue contacts to look like him. He then lured him to his house, killed him, and lit his body on fire in Squire's garage, staging it to look like a freak accident.

Authorities originally believed the badly burned body they found was Squire, and so did his family. In reality, Squire fled to Missouri assuming his new identity. But Newman's mother reported him missing, and police ran tests on the burned body's teeth. It wasn't Squire, it was Newman. Police tracked the real Squire down, but before they could arrest him he killed himself. 

In 1929, Tiller Ruminer went to police officers in Stone County, Arkansas with a crazy story. Ruminer told police she and her boyfriend Connie Franklin were captured by a group of men while they were going to get a marriage license. She said the men murdered Franklin, mutilated and burned his body, and then raped her. She identified five men as her attackers, and they were quickly arrested. 

So that's why it was alarming when people reported seeing Franklin around town looking for work. As a murder trial pressed on, authorities eventually identified Franklin and made him testify. Despite this, Ruminer maintained her boyfriend had been murdered. 

It turned out Franklin schemed his own death as an attempt to start over. But this wasn't the first time he'd tried this trick. His real name was Marion Franklin Rogers, a father of four who had escaped a mental hospital. The five men accused of murder were cleared on all charges. 

Before John Stonehouse tried to fake his own death, he was known as a Labour Party secretary in the British Parliament. He felt he was trapped in an unhappy marriage and wanted to run off with his lover and secretary, Sheila Buckley. In 1974, he went to a beach in Miami and disappeared. Presumed to have drowned, he basically got away with faking his own death. He moved to Australia with Buckley to set up a new life, and used a fake name set up a bank account. 

Things went wrong when another British man disappeared at the same time. The same year Stonehouse faked his own death, Richard John Bingham, otherwise known as Lord Lucan, went missing as well. His wife was attacked, their nanny was murdered, and he was nowhere to be found. His wife said Bingham had attacked her, and a manhunt began. Back in Australia, a teller at Stonehouse's bank started becoming suspicious of him, and suspected he might be Lord Lucan. Police arrested him believing he was Lucan, but quickly determined he was Stonehouse. He was charged with fraud, theft, conspiracy to defraud, and causing a false police investigation. 

Instead of telling her church community that she just wasn't into them anymore, Florida woman Alison Matera decided to tell them she had cancer. In 2007, she pretended to be sick for a year, checking in with the members of her church periodically to give them updates on her health. When she stopped going to church altogether, she told her friends she had checked into a hospice. She posed as a nurse when she called the pastor to inform him of her death.

Alison just couldn't stay away from her funeral, though. She showed up pretending to be a sister and was immediately recognized. Members of the church were obviously hurt and extremely confused, and filed a report with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Ken Kesey, author of the classic novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, faked his own death in 1965. Kesey - a recreational drug user - was arrested for marijuana possession twice. The more paranoid he got, the more he worried about these arrests. To avoid going to jail, he parked his car near the ocean in Encino, CA, and left a suicide note. His friends helped smuggle him over the border to Mexico, where he stayed for a few months. The FBI, however, didn't believe he had really killed himself and continued searching for him.

He returned to the United States less than a year later, and was sent to jail for five months.

In 1930, Alfred Rouse found himself in a bit of trouble. Facing mounting child support payments for his various illegitimate children, Rouse decided to fake his own death. He murdered a hitchhiker he met while driving down the road, put the dead body in his car, and lit it on fire. As he was escaping, he was spotted by two witnesses. 

After he was arrested, he tried to claim that the car had burst into flames because the hitchhiker was smoking a cigar near gasoline cans. The jury didn't buy it and he was hanged in 1931. The identity of the hitchhiker was never officially determined, but some believe the man was James Brick. Brick, who lived near where Rouse torched his car, was known to be hitchhiking in the area at the time. His family said he disappeared shortly before the incident, and are trying to get DNA testing done to definitely prove whether it's him. 

Salem, MA, resident Michael R. Rosen was a serial forger, but apparently he wasn't very good at it. He was wanted for credit card fraud and larceny charges, and to get out of his legal battles, he decided to forge his own death certificate which he submitted to multiple agencies including the courts.

The death certificate he turned in was rife with misspellings and he used incorrect medical jargon as his alleged cause of death. It was even missing the raised seal typically found on official documents, but it still almost managed to pass for a real death certificate. Rosen's probation officer had doubts and eventually proved the certificate had been forged. They found him at his mom's house, and slapped a few more charges on him.

British couple Alfredo and Sophie Sanchez found themselves in a lot of trouble in 2004. They had mounting debts they couldn't get under control, and were desperate for a way out. Then, in 2005, they figured out a way to solve their problems. Sanchez, a designer for music retailer HMV, would fake his own death to receive nearly $1 million in insurance payouts.

Sophie called HMV and told them that her husband had died while in South America. She said his body was cremated and offered his death certificate as proof. The company believed her, and all was going according to plan until one of Alfredo's friends tried using his employee discount card at HMV. When the company said Alfredo had died, the friend was surprised. This triggered an investigation by police, who found Alfredo's fingerprints on his death certificate. Both Sophie and Alfredo - who had relocated to Australia - were arrested.

Marcus Schrenker was a respected Indianapolis money manager who seemed to be living the dream. He had a beautiful $4 million home, had a wife and three kids, and he owned a private plane. But that was all a facade. Behind the scenes Schrenker's life was nothing but a huge mess. 

He was deep in debt, cheating on his wife, and was accused of committing securities fraud. When the state moved to revoke his securities license in 2009, Schrenker hatched a plan to leave his problems behind. He boarded his plane, flew over rural Alabama, and jumped out with a parachute, crashing the plane and allowing him to land safely below. But he made it seem as if he disappeared in the wreckage somehow. He hid out in campgrounds across Alabama and Florida while police searched for him.

Investigators found travel books in the wreckage with the pages for Florida and Alabama torn out, so they had a pretty good idea of where he might be hiding. When they found him, he was suffering from self-inflicted wounds. Apparently, the fake death turned into a very real suicide attempt.

In 2008, Frank Umbrello decided the only way to get out of trouble was to fake his own death. The Canadian man made more than $20,000 through credit card and eBay scams, and when he felt authorities closing in on him, he pretended to commit suicide.  He sent a fake fax to police claiming his body had been discovered, apparently having committed suicide after the death of his mother.

It didn't work. Police found Umbrello alive and well just a few hours after receiving the fax. He was charged for the fraud and sentenced to 18 months in jail. 

Strip malls are a mundane part of suburban life, often filled with generic and uninspiring restaurants and shops. However, sometimes the banal can become brutal when these malls are transformed into battlefields or hunting grounds by criminals intent upon harming others. From a Houston lawyer who went on a shooting spree while decorated in Nazi paraphernalia to a serial killer who dumped the bodies of seven of his victims behind a nondescript shopping center in Connecticut, strip malls and shopping centers have attracted some incredibly depraved and dangerous criminals intent on robbery, rape, and murder.

On February 2, 2008, a man pretending to be a deliver driver entered a Lane Bryant outlet store in a strip mall in Tinley Park, Illinois, and forced all six of the shop's employees into a single room at gunpoint. While he initially intended to rob the clothing store, the situation turned deadly before he was able to get any money from the register: he shot all six of the women with a.40 caliber pistol, leaving only one survivor, a woman who pretended she was dead to avoid being killed.

After firing multiple shots into several women, the mass murderer fled the store, but the surviving witness was able to help the authorities create a sketch of the killer. Sadly, the person responsible for murdering five women in cold blood and severely injuring another has never been found, despite thousands of tips provided by the public.

In 2007, the skeletal remains of three women were found behind a strip mall in New Britain, Connecticut, and eight years later in April 2015, four more victims were discovered nearby, leading the police to suspect the area had been the dumping ground of a serial killer. Officials identified one of the victims as 33-year-old Nilsa Arizmendi, and they realized William Devin Howell, 45, had already been convicted of her murder, causing him to become the prime suspect in the other killings.

In September 2015, Howell (who was in prison at the time for Arizmendi's killing) was charged with six additional counts of murder. According to Howell's cellmate, the 45-year-old convicted killer confessed to taking the lives of seven people in 2003 in Connecticut, and he claimed to have kept one woman captive for two weeks in a his van which he referred to as the "murder mobile."  

Howell is currently in a Connecticut prison awaiting trial for murdering six women.

On January 15, 2017, officials arrived at a Vancouver strip mall after learning several of the shopping center's businesses were engulfed in flames. After extinguishing the fire, law enforcement discovered the body of 47-year-old Amy Hooser in the debris, and the authorities later determined the convenience store employee had died from blunt force trauma and smoke inhalation. Shortly after finding Hooser's corpse, the police arrested 21-year-old Mitchell Heng for murder as well as robbery and arson after he was identified from surveillance images.

According to officials, Heng confessed to robbing the Oasis Food Mart where Hooser worked, stealing $80 and a carton of cigarettes either before or after he attacked the 47-year-old woman. Then he set fire to the store to cover his crimes, ending Hooser's life and destroying four businesses.

On January 20, 2017, Heng's bail was set at $2 million as he awaited trial for murder, arson, and robbery.

On the evening of January 2, 2015, 24-year-old Jerry Howard attacked 54-year-old Kathy Shines as she was collecting aluminum cans from the dumpsters behind a Las Vegas, Nevada, strip mall. Howard stabbed Shines several times with a knife before throwing her bloody body into a dumpster and covering her with trash. Incredibly, Shines survived the vicious attack and was able to crawl out of the dumpster, but she succumbed to her injuries and was discovered near where Howard had first attacked her.

After Shines's corpse was discovered, officials reviewed surveillance footage taken by security cameras located in the alley behind the strip mall, and they found the entire attack had been captured on tape. After releasing images from the video to the public, Howard's father contacted the police to implicate his son.

Howard was charged with murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, and robbery, and on November 21, 2016, he was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes.

On December 6, 1991, officials arrived at a strip mall in Austin, Texas, to put out a fire; however, after extinguishing the flames, the authorities found the bodies of four teenage girls in a I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! store. The girls, ranging in age from 13 to 17, had all been forced to remove their clothes, and at least one of them had been raped. The killer or killers had used the teenagers' own clothing to tie them up before shooting each girl in the head. Then, the murderer or murderers stacked three of the girls' corpses on top of each other before setting the fire and fleeing the scene.

Eight years later, in 1989, four men were arrested for the murders, but only Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott were tried for the killings. Springsteen and Scott allegedly admitted to murdering Amy Ayers, sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, and Eliza Thomas, and they were convicted of the killings, However, a DNA sample recovered from Ayers was tested in 2009: it didn't match either of the men, so Springsteen and Scott were both released from prison, leaving the "Yogurt Shop Murders" unsolved.

On the morning of June 12, 2006, shortly after 72-year-old Eddie Politelli arrived at the Stevenson Ranch, California, pizzeria where he worked as a cook, a man forced Politelli into the alley behind the strip mall where the restaurant was located. Moments later, the owner of the pizzeria, Anthony Sposato, entered the business in time to overhear Politelli pleading with the attacker not to hurt him. Alarmed, Sposato exited the restaurant and went around to the alley, only to discover his elderly employee trying to flee from his attacker.

When Politelli tried to run away, the man started hacking the pizza chef with an 18-inch machete. After killing the 72-year-old man, the murderer fled the scene in a gray Dodge Magnum. While Sposato, the owner of the pizzeria, was able to provide law enforcement with a description for the killer and his vehicle, the person responsible for Politelli's brutal death has never been identified.

In April and May of 1992, an unidentified man, described as a white male in his mid-20s to mid-30s, visited shops located in strip malls off of I-70 in Indiana and Missouri, shooting and killing three female store clerks and one man. Then the same killer traveled to Wichita, Kansas, where he murdered two more women who were working at strip malls near I-35 in May 1992. In total, he murdered five brunette women and one dark-haired man, and officials suspect he may have thought his lone male victim, Michael McCown, was female because of his long hair.

An eyewitness who saw the suspected killer leaving the scene of one of his crimes helped create a composite sketch of the person officials believe is responsible for killing five women and one man. However, the murderer has never been identified, and because he didn't sexually assault his victims and only netted a small amount of cash from his crimes, the police are unsure what caused him to commit the six killings in 1992.

On September 26, 2016, 46-year-old Houston lawyer Nathan DeSai donned a Nazi uniformed, armed himself with two guns and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition, and drove to a strip mall. Then he started shooting at people who were visiting the shopping center, ultimately wounding nine victims.

Thankfully, police quickly arrived upon the scene, and after exchanging shots with DeSai for nearly 30 minutes, officials killed the 46-year-old attorney, putting an end to the brutal rampage. Incredibly, none of the people shot by DeSai died from their injuries, leaving the shooter the only casualty of the disturbing event. Following DeSai's death, people close to the middle-aged man theorized that the shooting spree was caused by mental health issues, financial challenges, and professional problems.

On January 12, 2012, police arrested Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, a 23-year-old former Marine, on suspicious of stabbing a homeless man to death behind a strip mall in Orange County, California, after they saw the Iraq vet running from the scene of the crime. After apprehending Ocampo, law enforcement tied him to several other murders, including the stabbing deaths of three other homeless men, as well as a woman and her son.

The police uncovered evidence that Ocampo intended to kill additional people, and he had actually been stalking multiple potential victims at the time of his arrest. While incarcerated, he confessed to his crimes, telling investigators he stabbed homeless people to death as a way of cleaning up his community.

While he was in prison awaiting trial for multiple counts of murder, Ocampo died on November 28, 2013, at the age of 25, after intentionally drinking a toxic cleaning product.

Who doesn't love high speed car chases? Admit it, when whatever daytime television program you're watching is interrupted by local news reporting some criminal eluding authorities down the interstate, you don't exactly look away. Crazy things always seem to happen on live television - and police chases are no exception. There's an element of danger to high speed chases - which are almost always caught on video - that is uniquely fascinating: you know it's going to end badly, it's just question of how violent and destructive it's going to get.

This list explores some of the craziest, most wild police pursuits caught on tape. From escaped mental patients, to magicians, to nudists, it turns out all sorts of people are the type to run from Johnny Law when in a pinch. Let's take a look at some of the most unhinged and entertaining high speed chases.

In June of 1994, O.J. Simpson and his accomplice Al Cowlings led the Los Angeles Police Department on what is maybe the most famous car chase of all time. Simpson was planning to turn himself into authorities after being charged with the murder of his ex-wife, but he had a change of heart and decided to make a break for Mexico. As he and Cowlings fled in the now infamous white Ford Bronco, authorities were tipped off, and what followed was a chase across several LA freeways in a sensational event broadcast live all over the world. 

Luckily, no one was hurt and the chase came to peaceful resolution at Simpsons's home in Brentwood, CA, where he (reluctantly) turned himself into authorities. 

In February 1998, a Shawnee County, KS, teen led authorities on an insane high speed pursuit that regularly got up to speeds of 150 mph. The 15-year-old - who smoothly maneuvered in and out of oncoming traffic like a Formula One driver - barreled away from police officers in a 240 horsepower BMW. Officers in pursuit, however, also had high-speed vehicles - cruisers with Corvette engines, a fortuitous break - and were able to keep up with the teen as he dodged spike strips, and almost forced to squad cars into a head-on collision. 

Unfortunately for this young thief, the engine on the stolen German vehicles eventually crapped out and authorities were able to make an arrest.

An 18-wheeler on the run represents a unique challenge for police officers. Such a massive vehicle requires a coordinated effort to corral, and as seen in the video above taken in Moab, UT, it is no easy task - especially when the driver is unstable. 

A fleet of police cars attempt stop the mentally anguished man in 2002, who makes it clear he'd rather die than be taken alive. Police officers attempt to shoot out the truck's air lines and incapacitate the vehicle to no avail before the driver ultimately loses control and smashes into an off-road fence. Though the disturbed man makes a request for suicide-by-cop, he is eventually taken peacefully to a nearby hospital.

In August 2001, a cornered Denton, TX, man tried to elude police in a rather unconventional way. As the video above shows, authorities stopped the man in question in a drug store parking lot, and for whatever reason they left their cruiser unattended. The man took that opportunity to hop in and steal the cruiser. This is a pretty tough maneuver to execute successfully, and this bold car thief didn't end up making it too far, with police catching up to him shortly thereafter. Points for thinking outside the box, though.

David Arroyo had a really bad day. The Tyler, TX, man went to a hearing in family court in April 2006, and - bitter from his recent divorce and child support obligations - decided to open fire on his estranged wife, Maribel Estrada, right there in the courtroom. Estrada was killed, along with Mark Wilson - a Good Samaritan with a concealed carry permit who attempted to take down Arroyo. Shielded by a bullet proof vest, Arroyo was able to flee the scene where he then led authorities on a high speed chase.

After a brief pursuit, Arroyo pulled over and began firing at authorities, who took the enraged man down with a fatal shot to the head, ending his bloody rampage.

Everyone is looking to get noticed in Hollywood, and this enterprising alleged magician certainly found a way to create a spectacle when he led LAPD on a slow speed chase in 2005. In the above video, a man in a colorful cape can be seen performing stunts and hanging out the window of his vehicle as a flock of police cars trail behind him. His magic runs out, however, when he decides to inexplicably pull over for a cup of coffee, leaving his vanishing act incomplete. 

In September 2011, a 23-year-old man took Queensland, Australia authorities on a wild ride when he stole a bright yellow Porsche and bolted down the M1. A fugitive thought to be connected to several burglaries, the young man had been doing well at outpacing the cops in his newly acquired sports car - until he hit a guardrail, screwed up one of his front tires, and had to change vehicles.

In a pinch, the car thief had to settle for the inferior Nissan Navara as his next ride. This modest Japanese vehicle's lack of horsepower eventually led to the cops tracking him down, where he finally surrendered but not without a fight. 

In some ways, a motorcycle is an ideal vessel for eluding authorities - it's compact, agile nature allows one to dart in and out of traffic with ease, and slip through narrow corridors that would prove impenetrable for a full-size car. In the above video, a Texas biker used all the strengths of his bike to evade authorities in an insanely long chase that went through six different cities, finally ending at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. At certain points of the pursuit, the bike hit speeds of 100 MPH, and at one point he nearly bumped an officer giving chase on his own motorcycle. Give this guy some credit, it's a pretty well-executed getaway attempt.

In 2001, a teenage car thief took off from an electronics store in Indianapolis, IN and led authorities on a high speed chase through a quiet, residential neighborhood. In an attempt to avoid spike strips, the young bandit loses control of the vehicle while careening at dangerous speeds, and after hitting a patch of green grass, the driver finds himself crashed into a retention pond.

Not willing to admit defeat and surrender, this driver attempts an even more slippery getaway and begins to swim away from police on the scene. Michael Phelps, he is not, however, and he is quickly apprehended. 

Hong Il Kim took off in his Toyota 4-Runner on Valentine's Day 1996, and began recklessly driving through Orange County, CA, cutting off motorists and running through red lights. When a suspicious police officer attempted to pull Kim over, he led authorities on a 30-mile high speed chase that soon drew the attention of local news cameras. Once Kim was finally cornered in a strip mall parking lot, he began revving his engine and ramming his car into police cruisers. He was greeted with a hale of bullets, which killed him on live television. The shooting went down as a controversial judgment call, and though Kim's family brought a wrongful death suit against authorities, their claim was ultimately unsuccessful. 

On January 6, 1994, Nancy Kerrigan stepped off the ice after a long figure skating practice at the US National Figure Skating Championship; she won a Bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics and she planned to make it to the podium again in 1994. Tonya Harding also skated at the 1992 Olympics, but she finished fourth, and, likely, it stuck in her craw. As Kerrigan walked away from the rink, an assailant hit her just above the right knee with a tactical baton. He was trying break her leg, and he failed. The ensuing Olympic scandal made both women infamous, but even though you've likely heard their names over and over, there are still plenty of things you didn't know about Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.

Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard Shawn Eckardt planned the attack; they hired Shane Stant to attack Kerrigan and Derrick Smith as the getaway driver. Harding denied having any prior knowledge of the attack but later pled guilty to hindering the prosecution because she did not immediately come forward with pertinent information. If you've ever wondered about all the gritty details of what happened in the Tonya Harding scandal, you've come to the right place.

During the investigation, police uncovered a seemingly incriminating piece of evidence which had the potential to corroborate Jeff Gillooly’s claim that Harding helped plan the attack. He said Harding made calls to the Tony Kent Arena (Kerrigan's main practice space in Massachusetts) and asked about Kerrigan's practice schedule. Investigators later found a note with the name of the arena written on it. In ESPN Films' 30 for 30: The Price of Gold documentary, Harding said, “They tested the handwriting and it was not mine.” Immediately after, Norman Frink, who was a Multnomah County deputy district attorney at the time, said, “We had the handwriting tested and it was identified as her handwriting.” Talk about getting caught in a lie.

Harding didn’t fit the ice-princess mold, but what’s shocking is how offensive her unorthodox artistic choices came across to some in her quest for gold. She explains, 

“There was one year that I had like a bright pink color [costume] that I made myself. I mean, it was really pretty. One of the judges came up to me afterward and said, ‘You know what, if you ever wear anything like that again at a U.S. Championships, you will never do another one.’ And I told them where to go. I said, ‘Well, you know what, if you can come up with five thousand dollars for a costume for me, then I won’t have to make it, but until then, stay out of my face.’”

At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, Nancy Kerrigan claimed the silver medal and Ukrainian figure skater Oksana Baiul won the gold. This came as a surprise to many and, to some, felt political. “Honestly, I’m not so sure that she wasn’t blamed for all of the attention that this whole thing was getting, which she had absolutely nothing to do with and, I don’t know, but it was a travesty,” Kerrigan’s coach Mary Scotvold said. 

When it came time to compete at the Olympics, Harding sort of fell apart. It makes sense that the pressure and frenzy surrounding the games might have gotten to her, but what’s weird is that she barely made it in time to compete in the long program finals. The announcers called her name and she was nowhere to be found. She was seconds away from being disqualified. When she did show up, she interrupted her program to go over to the judges to explain that she was having an issue with her lace on her right skate, and she’d had issues like that before. They let her leave to make an equipment change, but many were apparently suspicious that she just wanted to start over.

Leading up to Games, the Olympic Committee had to decide if they would let Harding compete on behalf of the United States after she admitted in a press conference that she failed to report what she knew. That seems like reason enough to let her go, right? Not quite, since she hadn’t yet been charged with a crime and, had she been kicked out, she would have fought. Harding explained,

“The Association said ‘We don’t want you to be on the Olympic team. We’re going to take you off the Olympic team,’ because I’d been implicated in this whole scandal. So I then said, ‘Ok, you know what, with my attorney, I’m going to sue you for 10 million dollars because I earned the right to skate on that Olympic team. I did not do this. I was not involved.’” 

Harding had a rough upbringing, as things were very tight financially. As Portland TV reporter Ann Schatz describes,

“There was poverty in this young girl’s world that we need to understand because it’s part of this story. She skated a lot of times without food in her stomach. She skated not really understanding if that next lesson was going to come or not because she didn’t know if she could pay for it.”

Not to mention, Harding had troubled relationships with her mother LaVona Golden and ex-husband Gillooly. “We got married for all the wrong reasons,” Harding said of her ex. “I had to get away from my mother and I fell for somebody who was a few years older who had a job, but he hit me, but she hit me, but they love me.” Harding later claimed Gillooly never abused her.

In the end, Harding pled guilty to hindering the prosecution. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and had to pay $160,000 in fines. As for skating consequences, her 1994 US National Championship win was revoked and she was banned for life from the US Figure Skating Association, which effectively killed her career. With skating out of the picture, she turned to boxing. Before her 2004 fight with Amy Johnson (in which she was knocked out), she spoke of hoping to benefit from her bad-girl reputation. 

Add Shawn Eckardt, Harding's bodyguard at the time, to the list of especially dumb people involved in this scheme. He couldn't keep his mouth shut about his involvement and told his mother, father, and others. It appears that trait runs in the family, because Eckardt’s father also blabbed and, in doing so, he contributed to his son getting caught. A woman sent a letter linking Harding and Gillooly to the attack to KOIN, a Portland television station, after hearing about it from Eckardt’s father. Police soon interviewed Eckardt, and he started talking when he realized the penalties he faced.

For obvious reasons, Kerrigan did not want to skate with Harding at Team USA's Olympic practice session, but per tradition, each country hits the ice together, so the Olympics Committee didn’t make an exception. Kerrigan made a very specific outfit choice for her uncomfortable, dramatic reunion with Harding. As Kerrigan’s husband and agent Jerry Solomon describes, “Here was this absurd situation that never should have taken place, but there was some irony in that Nancy wore the dress that she had been attacked in just simply to make a statement, saying, ‘You are not going to take this away from me. You’re going to have to bring more than a couple of thugs and a bad plan to take me out of the Olympics.’”  

Of course, those responsible for the attack deserved and needed to be caught and held responsible, but it’s unbelievable how easy they made it. Shane Stant, for example, stayed at a hotel in Detroit under his own name. Mark Lund, founder of International Figure Skating magazine, perhaps described that mistake best: “Could they be any more stupid? Were you asking to get caught? Because you were going to get caught.” 

It's not too hard to imagine how one person could disappear without a trace, but it seems far less likely that an entire group of people could disappear from the face of the planet. These normal, happy families that went missing or were found murdered left behind dozens of unanswered questions. In some cases, the discovery of the family's bodies put an end to hopes that they might be seen again alive. In other cases where whole families disappeared, it's not clear whether they were murdered at all, or died in an accident, or even purposefully left to start new lives somewhere else.

You may hug your loved ones a little tighter tonight after reading about these entire families that vanished, leaving nothing but questions behind.

The McStays lived in Fallbrook, CA, where Joseph and Summer raised their two sons. In 2010, the family drove off in their Isuzu Trooper and would never be heard from again.

It was unclear where exactly the family was heading. Police found that that “What documents do children need for traveling to Mexico?” was one of the last searched terms in the family’s online history. Surveillance footage also seemed to indicate that the McStays had crossed the US/Mexico border, although it was too grainy to ever actually confirm. In 2013, it would be confirmed that they never made it to Mexico.

The remains of the McStay family were found near Victorville, CA. Attention soon turned toward Joseph's former business partner, Chase Merritt. Cell phone records indicated that Joseph had tried to call Chase the day of the disappearance, but he didn’t answer. Merritt had also written checks under Joseph’s name in the days following the vanishing. Merritt has yet to be taken to court.

Alan and Terry Westerfield, 6 and 11 years old at the time of their disappearance, were two average kids in 1964 North Carolina. They loved riding bikes and going to the movies. One day, the boys’ stepfather dropped them off at the movie theater, but when he went back to pick them up, they were nowhere to be found.

Nothing has ever been found from the Westerfields. Search efforts were hampered in the first couple of days due to a hurricane, and it is presumed the boys are dead. Numerous conflicting reports also made it difficult to pinpoint any suspects. Some people believe the stepfather murdered the boys and that they never reached the theater. However, some employees said they saw the boys there, while others said they never saw them that day. With no firm evidence either way, this case remains unsolved.

The Jamison family (husband and wife, Bobby and Sherilyn, and their daughter, Madyson) lived a peaceful life in Eufaula, Oklahoma. The town is home to just over 500 people, and when the Jamisons went missing, over 100 people engaged in the search.

The family’s truck was found alongside the road, but there didn’t appear to be signs of a struggle. Wallets and cell phones were found inside as well as the family dog, Maizy. (Maizy was fine and ended up finding another home). Nothing was found until four years later when human remains were discovered. It would take another year for those remains to be confirmed to be the Jamisons.

Numerous theories have come up over the years although nothing has ever been substantiated. Some people in the town believed Bobby and Sherilyn were involved in a crystal meth deal gone wrong. The Red Oak Mountain region of Oklahoma is a central hub for meth production. The Jamisons had also recently had a run-in with a white supremacist they kicked out of their home. Not only that, but Bobby Jamison had an ongoing feud with his father (who had mafia ties) and had taken out a restraining order against him.

Perhaps the strangest theory came from the local pastor. Apparently, the family had gone to him prior to the disappearance concerned about spirits entering their home. Bobby even asked the pastor for bullets capable of shooting spirits. Although it was thought to be a joke at the time, many people in the town (including Sherilyn's mother) firmly believe the Jamisons had gotten caught up with some kind of religious cult.

Sol Salomon immigrated to the United States from Israel with his family. They moved to Northridge, CA, where they raised their two children. Salomon ran a small business and due to some savvy real estate investments, he and his family lived quite comfortably. They lived in Northridge for 10 years until their disappearance.

The family owned a few exotic cars and had quite a bit of money. However, when police examined their home after the disappearance, nothing was stolen and it did not appear to be a robbery. The only potential clue was some blood splatter in one room, and a piece of carpeting that had suspiciously been removed and covered up. Sol and his wife, Elaine, had no criminal background. Later, the family’s passports would be discovered on the side of the highway.

Suspects have arisen over the years. Some theories point to the Israeli mafia being involved, though relatives deny that the Salomons had any mafia ties. At one point, the police suspected Harvey Rader, a business associate of Salomon’s, but ultimately, nothing could be proven.

Neighbors described Simon Kadwill as a bit of an oddball. He would frequently claim the local utility company was trying to send electromagnetic waves into his home. He was also the leader of his own cult called the Truth Fellowship, and he had written a sort of Bible for the group entitled Servers of the Divine Plan. He lived in his home with his girlfriend, Chantelle McDougall, and their daughter, Leela. A family friend, Tony Popic, also lived on the property.

One day, Simon’s family got into a car, drove off, and never came back home. The only clue was a note left on the door that said “Gone to Brazil.” Authorities checked all the flight records and determined that the group had never gotten on a flight to Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. Police still aren’t sure if Simon murdered his family or if they are perhaps living off the grid somewhere.

Grant, Arnna, and Jane Beaumont were 4, 7, and 9 respectively at the time of their mysterious disappearance. By all accounts, these kids had a fairly normal life. They lived with their parents in the suburbs, and they were within walking distance of a popular beach. One day, the kids went to hang out at the beach and were supposed to return home at 2 pm. Sadly, they never did.

The investigation had several false starts. A postman said he saw the kids walking away from the beach at 3 pm, although the exact time may not have been correct. A witness said that she saw the children playing with "a lean, blond man in a blue bathing suit." (Arnna had mentioned to her parents previously that Jane had a new boyfriend at the beach, but they dismissed it at the time.) The children were also seen buying snacks using a £1 bill, though their parents hadn't given them one, so it's presumed someone else gave the children the money. 

The children are not believed to have drowned because all of their belongings disappeared along with them.

Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that the parents received letters a couple years after the children vanished. The letters claimed to be from the children's captor, arranging a time and place he would turn over the children. However, when the children's parents arrived at the designated meeting place, no one was there, and it was later discovered that the letters were a hoax.

To this day, no one knows what happened to the Beaumont children.

The four members of the Cowden family went on a Labor Day camping trip in 1974, like so many other people do every year. There was Richard and Belinda, the father and mother, as well as their five-year old son, David, and five-month old daughter, Melissa. During the course of their trip, they were supposed to have dinner one night at Belinda’s mother’s house, who lived relatively close to the campsite. When they didn’t show up, Belinda’s mother got worried.

She went out to the campsite to see if they were still getting ready. When she arrived, the campsite was deserted. What was even stranger was that the campsite looked perfectly serene. Nothing was missing, and there didn’t appear to have been a struggle of any kind. However, it was clear the entire family had left abruptly, some wearing only swimsuits. They also left behind their truck. Police conducted a massive search for the Cowdens, but it wouldn’t be until seven months later that the bodies were found.

The remains of the Cowden family were discovered in a cave not too far away from their campsite. Although several theories were brought up as to what happened, nothing could ever be proven definitively. It remains a mystery to this day.

Kenneth and Barbara Martin left their Oregon house on December 7, 1958, with their three daughters: Virginia, Susan, and Barbie. They planned on going out to the country for a little bit to collect some holiday greenery use for Christmas decorations. They would never return home.

The family was officially declared missing when Kenneth didn’t show up for work. An investigation went underway. It was clear that the Martins never returned home from their trip because nothing in the house was disturbed. Three months after the family vanished, the bodies of Susan and Virginia were found in the river. The remaining bodies were never discovered.

Several theories have come up about what happened. It has been theorized that Kenneth lost control of the vehicle and drove into the river. However, the car was also never found, so that seems unlikely. Two individuals were arrested the day after the disappearance for car theft. While police initially thought the two cases could be connected, nothing tangible ever came to light linking them.

For 23 years, Ronnie Hyde was living a secret life. A youth pastor and counselor in Jacksonville Beach, FL, Hyde appeared to be a normal guy who loved his community. Except underneath it all was a vicious killer who murdered and dismembered a teen boy in the early '90s.

Investigators arrested Hyde in March 2017 for the murder of Fred Laster. The 16-year-old boy left his home in 1994 and was never seen or heard from again. But his family never gave up searching for him. Then, finally, in 2015, there was a break in the case. DNA evidence pinned the crime on Hyde, though Laster's family said they knew all along. 

FBI Special Agent Charles Spencer said during a press conference that authorities believe Hyde used his position as a youth pastor and a counselor to victimize children. According to the FBI, Hyde was once a person of interest in a previous child exploitation investigation, but he was never arrested. Despite this, Hyde remained, until recently, a licensed mental health counselor at Crosswater Community Church in Nocatee, FL. 

Family members of Laster said Hyde treated the teen strangely. Right before his disappearance, they said Laster and Hyde were hanging out around 5 am. In 2016, Hyde posted a cryptic Facebook message about "two dead friends" he wish he could bring back to life. Laster's cousins believe one of those friends was referring to Laster. When he was arrested in 2017, Hyde had 12 different pieces of child pornography in his house. 

In 2014, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children published information about the torso found near Jacksonville. One of Laster's family members stumbled across the site and wondered: Could this be Fred?

For 20 years, the family had no idea what happened to him, though they had their suspicions. Hyde had acted inappropriately toward their brother before – one sister recalled waking up and seeing Hyde standing nude over Laster's sleeping body at a sleepover – and others recalled Hyde owning various hunting knives. 

They contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement about the torso, submitted a DNA sample, and Laster was positively ID'd. Now the only thing to do was find his killer. Because of previous behavior, family members suspected Hyde was behind the killing, but they had to prove it. Investigators got a DNA sample out of Hyde's trash can and matched it to DNA found on the flannel shirt left at the crime scene. It was a match.

The last time the Laster family saw 16-year-old Fred Laster was in 1994. His family remembered seeing him with Hyde – a family friend and youth pastor at a nearby church – and then never hearing from him again. On the night of June 4, 1994, a woman was walking her dog near a gas station off Interstate 10, which runs through Columbia County, FL. She stumbled across a blood-splattered dumpster, a bloody flannel shirt, two knives, and fragments of bone and hair. 

And when she looked inside, she found a torso. 

Despite being sent to a lab in Jacksonville, police were never able to determine the identity of the body. They also couldn't figure out who was the killer. That is, until 2014.

Investigators began digging behind Hyde's home in March 2017 to see whether the rest of Laster's body was there. Police hypothesize that the night of Laster's death, the two were at Hyde's Jacksonville Beach home.

Hyde murdered Laster, chopping him up, and wrapping him in a bathmat from Hyde's father's house before putting him in the car and driving him to the gas station. Before throwing the body behind the gas station, he washed the torso, investigators said. 

In April 2017, Hyde entered a not guilty plea. 

When a young woman was found staggering down an unpaved road in Malabar, Florida, in 1985, bound, pale, and nearly naked, the passerby who rescued her could barely believe her horrifying story of kidnapping, rape, and sadistic bloodletting. When law enforcement confirmed the veracity of her story, John Brennan Crutchley's neighbors and coworkers were shocked to learn that a criminal who was eventually dubbed the "Vampire Rapist" had been living and working next to them for years.

Eventually, officials discovered evidence that caused them to believe Crutchley had murdered a number of women over the course of several years, but they were never able to find enough evidence to charge him with a single killing. Consequently, the Vampire Rapist was released from prison after a disturbingly short time, giving him the opportunity to continue his sadistic crimes of rape, torture, and possibly even murder.

After he raped the young woman, John Brennan Crutchley used medical tubing and needles to drain blood from the teenager's veins into a container. As he took the blood from the woman's body, Crutchley told her he was a vampire and he was going to drink her blood.

Over the course of more than 20 hours, Crutchley alternated between raping the teenager and draining her blood, leaving her incredibly weak and traumatized. Medical experts later determined Crutchley had removed nearly half of the young woman's blood, leaving her very close to death.

After repeatedly raping the young woman and draining approximately 45% of her blood, John Brennan Crutchley left his captive locked in a bathroom while he went to work. Despite being near death, the teenager was able to summon the strength to push the bathroom window open and climb outside.

Wrapped only in a towel and with handcuffs around her wrists and ankles, a passing motorist discovered the young woman staggering down the road not far from Crutchley's home. After showing her rescuer the house where she'd been raped and held captive for nearly an entire day, the young woman was taken to the hospital for urgent medical attention.

On November 21, 1985, John Brennan Crutchley's wife and young son were visiting family in Maryland for Thanksgiving, leaving the 39-year-old husband and father with the house all to himself. While driving near his home, Crutchley picked up a hitchhiker and offered to take the 19-year-old California woman to the nearby city of Melbourne, but not before stopping at his house.

Once in his driveway, instead of running into his home to pick up the notebook he claimed he needed for work, Crutchley tied a ligature around the teenager's neck, choked her into unconsciousness, and dragged her into his house. Then, he removed all of the young woman's clothing and strapped her to the counter in his kitchen.

When the young woman regained consciousness, she discovered John Brennan Crutchley had tied her to the top of the kitchen island in his family home, and he'd also set up lights and a video camera. Crutchley used the video camera and lights to film himself as he brutally raped the teenager, presumably so that he could watch the footage later to relive the horrifying sexual assault.

However, the young woman didn't realize that in addition to raping her, Crutchley intended to document himself subjecting her to even more disturbing and horrifying acts straight out of a horror movie.

Born on October 1, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, John Brennan Crutchley did not have an easy childhood. According to Crutchley, his mother was distraught over the loss of her eldest child, Donna. Donna had died during surgery the year before John was born, and his mother had hoped to have another daughter to replace the child she'd lost. Consequently, she wished John had been born a girl.

When John was born, she was disappointed by his sex, but according to Crutchley, it didn't stop his mother from dressing him as a girl for the first six years of his life. In addition to being forced to wear a dress, Crutchley also claimed his parents subjected him to severe child abuse, which included beating him until he lost consciousness and burning his fingers.

Following the allegations made against John Brennan Crutchley by the young woman he abducted and raped, police searched his home, and they discovered the video camera he'd used to document his crimes. However, when law enforcement reviewed the tape in the camera, they found Crutchley had erased the footage he'd taken of himself raping the teenager and drawing her blood.

The search also uncovered the 19-year-old's ID card, as well as identification belonging to a number of other women, and multiple locks of hair and several necklaces, leading the authorities to suspect they were trophies Crutchley had kept from other crimes he'd committed against other victims. When they searched the engineer's office, they found a number of sexually explicit photographs of a woman tied up and gagged, and some of the images depicted Crutchley choking the woman with his hands.

Despite his troubled upbringing, John Brennan Crutchley was extremely intelligent and he excelled at school, particularly in math and science. After graduating from high school, Crutchley earned a degree in physics at Defiance College in Ohio and married his first wife in 1969. Then he got a master's degree in engineering from George Washington University, but he and his wife divorced shortly after he finished school.

Over the next several years, Crutchley got remarried and worked as an engineer at several different companies all over the United States. In 1983, Crutchley moved to Malabar, Florida, with his wife and young son, and he got a job at the Harris Corporation as a NASA contractor. Due to the nature of his work, Crutchley had top-secret security clearance at the Pentagon that gave him access to classified documents.

In addition to the ID cards, hair, photos, and necklaces the police found in John Brennan Crutchley's home and office, they discovered a box of index cards the middle-aged husband and father had used to keep track of his various sexual partners. One of the cards referenced Deborah Fitzjohn, Crutchley's former girlfriend who disappeared in 1978 while they were both living in Washington, D.C. Several months later, her naked body was found in the woods, and while Crutchley was the only suspect in her murder, DC authorities were never able to gather enough evidence to charge him with a crime.

Florida officials also linked one of the ID cards found in Crutchley's house with a hitchhiker who went missing in 1985 but has never been found. Plus, they discovered that during the time Crutchley was living in Florida, a number of skeletal remains belonging to unidentified women were found within miles of his home, and after he was incarcerated, these ghastly discoveries ceased.

According to Crutchley's cell mate, the Vampire Rapist admitted to killing several women, including his ex-girlfriend, but law enforcement officials weren't able to collect enough evidence to charge him with any murders. After Crutchley was convicted of kidnapping and sexual battery, Robert Ressler, a renowned criminal profiler, testified that while there was nothing concrete to prove that the admitted rapist was a serial killer, he exhibited the traits of someone who had murdered several people.

After John Brennan Crutchley's wife learned that her husband had been arrested and charged with kidnapping, sexual battery, aggravated battery, and possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, she wasn't exceptionally upset by what her husband had been accused of doing while she and her young son were out of town for Thanksgiving.

When asked about the serious accusations made again her husband, Mrs. Crutchley said he was "a kinky sort of guy," but she refused to believe he was guilty of the charges against him. Eventually, Crutchley pleaded guilty to rape and kidnapping, so his wife was no longer able to deny the charges made him. However, instead of admitting that her husband had subjected his young victim to horrifying and depraved acts, Mrs. Crutchley claimed he had committed "a gentle rape, devoid of any overt brutality."

After escaping from John Brennan Crutchley's home, the 19-year-old received the medical treatment she desperately needed, and a hematologist later stated the teenager would have died of blood loss within 12 hours if she hadn't been able to get help. Once law enforcement learned about the horrific rape and torture the teenager had been subjected to, they got a warrant to search Crutchley's home, and they uncovered enough evidence to corroborate her story and place him under arrest.

However, the young woman had been so traumatized by the terrifying ordeal, she didn't want to press charges against the man who had kidnapped her, raped her repeatedly, and drained nearly half of the blood from her body. Eventually, a rape counselor was able to convince the teenager to press charges, telling the young woman that convicting Crutchley would prevent him from being able to harm additional victims.