228 Fun Facts About True Crime

Which Truman Capote 'non-fiction novel' reconstructs the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas?

In Cold Blood took Capote years of research, with Harper Lee's help; killer Dick Hickock had described the plan as 'a cinch, the perfect score'.

In police work, what does the term 'cold case' refer to?

An unsolved crime no longer under active investigation, typically a violent felony like murder, which carries no statute of limitations, so genealogy testing can revive it.

Which Latin phrase do investigators use for a criminal's characteristic way of committing crimes?

Modus operandi, shortened to M.O., means 'mode of operating' and describes a criminal's habitual way of working.

Which discipline uses insects to aid legal investigations, particularly in estimating time of death?

Forensic entomology is the application of the study of insects and other arthropods to aid legal investigations, most commonly to determine the elapsed time since death.

What is the post-death stiffening of muscles used to estimate time of death called?

Rigor mortis, from Latin for 'stiffness of death,' is a post-mortem phenomenon characterized by the stiffening of the limbs of the corpse due to chemical changes in the muscles after death.

Which branch of psychology serves courts and the criminal justice system?

Forensic psychology applies psychological expertise to legal questions; its practitioners assess competency to stand trial and testify as expert witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings.

What writ forces a jailer to bring a prisoner before a judge and justify the detention?

Habeas corpus, Latin for 'you shall have the body', orders the custodian to produce the prisoner in court so a judge can rule on whether the detention is lawful.

Which specialty examines firearms, ammunition, and the flight of projectiles to help solve crimes?

Forensic ballistics covers firearms, ammunition and projectile behaviour; examiners match the striations a barrel leaves on a bullet to a specific weapon, and the ATF's NIBIN database links cartridge cases across crimes.

Which discipline compares fingerprints, tyre tracks and ballistics in criminal cases?

Criminalistics is the forensic-science discipline that examines physical evidence: fingerprints, footwear and tyre impressions, firearms and toolmarks, trace evidence and controlled substances.

Which profiling method did former Vancouver detective Kim Rossmo develop for serial-offender investigations?

Geographic profiling is a criminal investigative methodology that analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most probable area of offender residence, workplace, or other base of operations.

Which forensic branch recovers and analyzes evidence from computers, networks and phones?

Digital forensics, originally a synonym for computer forensics, recovers and analyses data from any device that stores it, with sub-branches for network and mobile-device forensics.

Jack the Ripper stalked which district of the East End in 1888?

He was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron in the case files.

The name 'Jack the Ripper' came from which letter, widely thought a journalist's hoax?

The separate 'From Hell' letter arrived with half a preserved human kidney.

How many Ripper victims make up the so-called 'canonical' group?

The canonical five — Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly — died between 31 August and 9 November 1888; the police file holds eleven Whitechapel murders in all.

Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted of the 1892 axe murders in which Massachusetts town?

Fall River, Massachusetts: Andrew and Abby Borden were killed on 4 August 1892; Lizzie was acquitted in June 1893 and lived in Fall River until her death in 1927.

Al Capone was finally sent to prison in 1931 for what crime?

Tax evasion, five of 22 counts, got him eleven years; the courts had ruled that even a gangster's illegal income was taxable.

Which 1929 killing of seven rival gang members in Chicago earned Capone the label 'Public Enemy No. 1'?

The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, 14 February 1929, saw seven men linked to Bugs Moran's North Side gang shot in a Clark Street garage; the Chicago Crime Commission named Capone Public Enemy No. 1 in 1930.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed in 1934 in which state?

They died in Louisiana on 23 May 1934, ambushed by a posse led by former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer on a road near Gibsland in Bienville Parish.

Despite their fame for bank robberies, what did Bonnie and Clyde actually prefer to rob?

Corner stores and gas stations were their usual targets; bank jobs were fewer and riskier during the 1932–34 spree across the central United States.

Who was executed in 1936 for the kidnapping and murder of aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby son?

Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German-born carpenter, was electrocuted at Trenton State Prison on 3 April 1936 after ransom gold certificates were traced to him; he protested his innocence to the end.

How old was Charles Lindbergh Jr. when he was taken from his crib in March 1932?

He was 20 months old, born 22 June 1930 and taken on 1 March 1932; his body was found on 12 May 1932 a few miles from the family's Hopewell, New Jersey home.

In 1971 the hijacker known as D. B. Cooper parachuted from a Boeing 727 with how much ransom money?

Cooper collected $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes at Seattle; only $5,800 of the cash ever turned up, found on a Columbia River bank in 1980.

The 1971 hijacker called himself Dan Cooper, so why is he remembered as D. B. Cooper?

A reporter's error: early wire reports confused the hijacker with a Portland suspect named D. B. Cooper, who was quickly cleared, and the wrong initials stuck.

Britain's 1963 Great Train Robbery targeted a Royal Mail train running from Glasgow to which city?

The Glasgow-to-London Euston mail train was stopped at Bridego Bridge in Buckinghamshire by a tampered signal on 8 August 1963; the gang took about £2.6 million.

Which piece of evidence found at the Great Train Robbers' farmhouse hideout led to most of the arrests?

The gang were playing the game with real stolen banknotes; the ringleaders got 30 years each.

How did the thieves gain entry to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in March 1990?

Two men posing as Boston police officers talked their way in, tied up the two guards and left 81 minutes later with 13 works, including Vermeer's The Concert.

Whose only known seascape, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, was stolen from the Gardner Museum?

Rembrandt painted The Storm on the Sea of Galilee in 1633, his only known seascape; Vermeer's The Concert, also taken, is thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting in the world.

What job had Vincenzo Peruggia held at the Louvre before stealing the Mona Lisa in 1911?

Peruggia had worked at the Louvre as a glazier fitting protective glass over paintings; he kept the Mona Lisa for more than two years before trying to sell it in Florence in December 1913.

In which state was Ted Bundy executed in 1989 for murders after his second jail escape?

He typically lured women by feigning injury or posing as an authority figure.

How many murders did the Zodiac Killer claim in his final 1974 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle?

The January 1974 'Exorcist' letter ended 'Me – 37, SFPD – 0'; the attacks police could attribute to him ran from December 1968 to October 1969 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Zodiac's second cryptogram was finally cracked in which year?

The Z340 cipher was cracked in December 2020 by a team of amateur codebreakers; the first, Z408, was solved within a week in 1969 by schoolteacher Donald Harden and his wife Bettye.

Which Beach Boy introduced Charles Manson to the Los Angeles music industry?

Dennis Wilson befriended Manson in 1968 and let the 'Family' live at his Sunset Boulevard home; the Beach Boys recorded Manson's 'Cease to Exist' as 'Never Learn Not to Love' without crediting him.

Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argued that Manson used what Beatles term for the race war he hoped to spark?

'Helter Skelter', a 1968 Beatles song, was the name Manson gave the apocalyptic race war he predicted; Bugliosi's 1974 book on the case took it as its title.

The 1950 Great Brink's Robbery, then the largest in US history, took place in which city?

It stayed unsolved for nearly six years until a gang member turned informer days before the statute of limitations ran out.

The 2015 Hatton Garden burglars bored into the vault with an industrial drill after entering how?

The gang climbed down the lift shaft to the basement over the Easter weekend, drilled through the half-metre vault wall and emptied 73 deposit boxes; the haul was put at up to £14 million.

Which specialist unit of the Met was assigned the Hatton Garden investigation?

The Flying Squad, the Met's robbery unit, led the investigation into what was called the largest burglary in English legal history; the gang were sentenced in March 2016.

Frank Abagnale, subject of Catch Me If You Can, made a cameo in the 2002 film as what?

Abagnale appears as a French police officer among those arresting DiCaprio's character in Montrichard; later investigations found little evidence for most of the impersonations he claimed.

Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the largest known in history, was worth an estimated how much?

Client statements showed about $65 billion of fictitious holdings when Madoff confessed in December 2008; the one-time Nasdaq chairman was turned in by his own sons.

How did the FBI finally identify the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, in 1996?

David Kaczynski read the manifesto after the Washington Post published it in 1995.

The Unabomber lived as a recluse in a cabin without electricity near which Montana town?

Kaczynski's 10-by-12-foot cabin stood in the woods outside Lincoln, Montana, where he was arrested in April 1996; his bombs killed three people and injured 23 between 1978 and 1995.

What did the three men who escaped Alcatraz in June 1962 leave in their beds to fool the guards?

They left papier-mâché dummy heads, topped with real hair from the prison barbershop, on their pillows; Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers paddled off on a raincoat raft, and the FBI concluded in 1979 they probably drowned.

Scotland Yard is named for the street where which force's first headquarters had its public entrance?

The Metropolitan Police, founded in 1829, worked from 4 Whitehall Place with a public entrance on Great Scotland Yard; it moved to the Embankment in 1890 as 'New Scotland Yard'.

The Pinkerton detective agency became famous by claiming to have foiled an 1861 plot to assassinate whom?

Pinkerton claimed to have uncovered the 'Baltimore Plot' against president-elect Abraham Lincoln in February 1861 and smuggled him through the city by night; Allan Pinkerton then ran Union espionage during the Civil War.

Francisca Rojas, believed to be the first person convicted on fingerprint evidence, was from which country?

Argentina then became the first country to file its criminal records by fingerprint alone.

The 1966 Supreme Court case requiring police to warn suspects of their rights was brought against which state?

Miranda v. Arizona: Ernesto Miranda's confession to Phoenix police was ruled inadmissible under the Fifth Amendment, producing the 'Miranda warning' read to suspects.

Whose 1949 conversation with J. Edgar Hoover led to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list?

Wire-service editor William Kinsey Hutchinson of the International News Service asked Hoover for the 'toughest guys' at large; the 1949 article drew so much publicity that the list became official on 14 March 1950.

Interpol, the international police organisation, is headquartered in which French city?

Founded in Vienna in 1923, it moved to Lyon in 1989 and had grown to 196 member states by the mid-2020s.

Which novelist-magistrate founded the Bow Street Runners, London's first professional police force, in 1749?

Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones and magistrate at Bow Street, recruited six men in 1749; his blind half-brother John Fielding built them into a real force.

Who was Al Capone's mentor and predecessor as head of the Chicago bootlegging syndicate?

Torrio retired after North Side gunmen nearly killed him and handed control to Capone.

What was the genre's first dedicated magazine, published in 1924?

True Detective, launched by publisher Bernarr Macfadden in 1924 as True Detective Mysteries, created the market; before World War II some 200 true-crime magazines sold six million copies a month.

Which Scottish writer is regarded by many as 'the dean of the modern true crime genre'?

William Roughead, an Edinburgh lawyer who attended and wrote up the city's murder trials for sixty years, earned that title; Edmund Pearson was the genre's American pioneer.

Who hosts the podcast that reinvestigated the Adnan Syed case in 2014?

Sarah Koenig hosted Serial, developed by This American Life and co-created with producer Julie Snyder; The New York Times bought Serial Productions in 2020.

The first season of the 2014 hit podcast Serial investigated the 1999 killing of which student?

Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County, was strangled in January 1999; her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted in 2000.

Season 2 of the podcast Serial focused on which US Army sergeant held by the Taliban?

Bowe Bergdahl walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009, was held for five years by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network, and was charged with desertion after his 2014 prisoner swap.

Which honour did Serial receive in April 2015 for its long-form storytelling?

Serial won a Peabody Award in April 2015, the first podcast to do so; by February 2015 its first season had been downloaded more than 68 million times.

Making a Murderer's Steven Avery comes from which Wisconsin county?

Manitowoc County, where Avery served 18 years for a 1985 rape he did not commit before being charged in 2005 with murdering photographer Teresa Halbach.

Who directed Making a Murderer?

Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, Columbia film-school graduates, spent ten years filming, shuttling between New York and Wisconsin; Netflix released the series in December 2015.

Steven Avery's nephew, convicted as an accessory in the Halbach murder, is who?

Brendan Dassey, 16 at the time, was convicted in 2007 after a videotaped confession his defence argued was coerced; the series made the interrogation notorious.

The Jinx focuses on which New York real estate heir?

Robert Durst, whose family ran the Durst Organization, was arrested the day before the finale aired in March 2015 and was convicted of murder in 2021.

Which writer's 2000 killing led to Durst's arrest the day before The Jinx finale aired?

Susan Berman, a writer and Durst's longtime friend, was shot at her Beverly Hills home in December 2000; the FBI arrested Durst in New Orleans on 14 March 2015.

Which director made The Jinx and the earlier Durst-inspired film All Good Things?

Andrew Jarecki directed All Good Things (2010), with Ryan Gosling as a Durst-like figure; Durst's admiration for that film led him to sit for the interviews that became The Jinx.

In Texas, whose 2001 death and dismemberment in Galveston is examined in The Jinx?

Morris Black, Durst's elderly neighbour in a Galveston rooming house, was killed and dismembered in 2001; Durst admitted the dismemberment yet was acquitted of murder in 2003, claiming self-defence.

Tiger King's Joe Exotic ran a zoo in which Oklahoma town?

The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park sat off Interstate 35 in Wynnewood, south of Oklahoma City; Exotic feuded with Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa.

How long was Joe Exotic's original 2020 sentence for murder-for-hire and wildlife crimes?

He was convicted of paying a hitman to murder Carole Baskin; the 22-year term was cut to 21 years on resentencing in 2022.

Tiger King's first season was released on Netflix in which month of 2020?

Tiger King dropped on 20 March 2020, days into the first COVID-19 lockdowns; Nielsen estimated 34 million US viewers in its first ten days.

Joseph DeAngelo, arrested in 2018 for the Golden State Killer crimes of 1974 to 1986, had earlier worked as what?

A police officer in Exeter and Auburn, California, DeAngelo was fired in 1979 for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent.

Which technique finally unmasked the Golden State Killer as Joseph DeAngelo in 2018?

Forensic genetic genealogy: investigators uploaded crime-scene DNA to the GEDmatch site, built a family tree from distant relatives' matches and narrowed it to DeAngelo, arrested at 72 on 24 April 2018.

DNA testing in 2001 showed the East Area Rapist and which other offender were the same person?

The Original Night Stalker's Southern California murders were linked by DNA in 2001 to the East Area Rapist's 1970s attacks around Sacramento, producing the combined acronym EAR/ONS.

What does the BTK in Kansas serial killer Dennis Rader's self-chosen nickname stand for?

Bind, torture, kill was Rader's own description of his method in letters to police and the press; he killed at least ten people in Wichita and Park City between 1974 and 1991.

In which year was Dennis Rader arrested after items he mailed to police gave him away?

Rader was arrested on 25 February 2005 after metadata on a floppy disk he sent to a Wichita TV station pointed to his church; he received ten consecutive life sentences.

Rader graduated from Wichita State University in 1979 with a degree in what?

Rader earned a bachelor's degree in administration of justice from Wichita State University in 1979, while working as an installer for the ADT security company.

Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in 1994 by which fellow inmate?

Christopher Scarver, serving life for murder, beat Dahmer and inmate Jesse Anderson to death on 28 November 1994 at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.

Dahmer's first murder, in 1978, took place in which state?

Ohio: Dahmer killed hitchhiker Steven Hicks at his parents' home in Bath Township in June 1978; he did not kill again until 1987.

What were the names of the two clown characters created by the 'Killer Clown' Gacy?

He described Pogo as a 'happy clown' and Patches as 'more serious'.

How many of Gacy's victims were buried in the crawl space of his home?

Four others were discarded in the Des Plaines River.

The disappearance of which Des Plaines teenager led to Gacy's arrest in December 1978?

Robert Piest, 15, vanished from a Des Plaines pharmacy on 11 December 1978 after saying he was meeting Gacy about a job; Gacy was executed on 10 May 1994.

What was H. H. Holmes's real name?

Herman Webster Mudgett, born in New Hampshire in 1861, took the alias H. H. Holmes in Chicago; he was hanged at Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia on 7 May 1896.

Holmes was convicted and executed for murdering which accomplice?

Benjamin Pitezel, his partner in an insurance fraud, was killed in Philadelphia in 1894; Holmes also murdered three of Pitezel's children, Alice, Nellie and Howard.

Holmes's most notorious crimes coincided with which Chicago event of 1893?

The World's Columbian Exposition drew the crowds Holmes preyed on; his nicknames included the Beast of Chicago and the Torture Doctor.

The Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway, was arrested in 2001 leaving his job at which truck factory?

Ridgway was arrested on 30 November 2001 as he left the Kenworth truck plant in Renton, Washington, where he had painted trucks for decades; new DNA testing of 1980s samples linked him.

Gary Ridgway was convicted of murdering how many women?

Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 murders in 2003 and a 49th in 2011; he was spared the death penalty for leading police to missing victims' remains.

What clue proved vital in catching Son of Sam David Berkowitz in 1977?

A parking ticket issued to Berkowitz's Ford Galaxie near the scene of the final shooting in Brooklyn led police to his Yonkers home; he was arrested on 10 August 1977.

Berkowitz initially claimed to take orders from a demon in the form of what?

He later admitted the story was a hoax.

'Son of Sam laws' were designed to prevent criminals from doing what?

Son of Sam laws bar criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, for example by selling their story; New York enacted the first in 1977 after reports of publishers courting Berkowitz.

Aileen Wuornos killed seven male clients along the highways of which state?

Florida executed her in 2002 after more than ten years on death row; Charlize Theron's portrayal won the Oscar.

Ed Gein's crimes came to light in 1957 in which Wisconsin town?

Plainfield, in Waushara County, where Gein's farmhouse of body parts and skin masks was searched in November 1957 after Bernice Worden vanished; he confessed to killing her and Mary Hogan.

What was the occupation of Bernice Worden, whose 1957 disappearance led to Ed Gein's arrest?

A sales slip for antifreeze was her last receipt that morning.

Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, was found dead in 1947 in which Los Angeles neighbourhood?

Her body was found on 15 January 1947 in a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue in Leimert Park, cut in half and drained of blood.

Which director's 2006 film adapted James Ellroy's Black Dahlia novel?

Brian De Palma directed The Black Dahlia (2006), starring Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johansson, from James Ellroy's 1987 novel; Curtis Hanson had filmed Ellroy's L.A. Confidential in 1997.

Elizabeth Short was born in 1924 in which city?

Her family settled in Medford, Massachusetts.

JonBenét Ramsey was killed in 1996 in her family home in which Colorado city?

Boulder: the six-year-old was found dead in the basement of the family's home on 26 December 1996; a Boulder grand jury voted in 1999 to indict her parents, but the district attorney refused to prosecute.

Police initially believed the ransom note in the JonBenét case was written by whom?

Patsy Ramsey: police focused on the mother after handwriting examiners could not rule her out as author of the two-and-a-half-page note, theorising the scene had been staged.

How long did the O. J. Simpson criminal trial run in 1995?

Eight months: opening statements began on 24 January 1995 and the jury acquitted Simpson on 3 October 1995 after deliberating less than four hours.

Who initially led O. J. Simpson's 'Dream Team' before Johnnie Cochran took over?

Robert Shapiro assembled the defence and led it until Johnnie Cochran took over as lead attorney in early 1995; prosecutors included Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden.

Who drove the white Ford Bronco in the televised low-speed chase with O. J. Simpson?

Al Cowlings, Simpson's friend and former teammate, drove the Bronco along the Los Angeles freeways on 17 June 1994 while Simpson sat in the back; the chase ended at Simpson's Brentwood home.

Amanda Knox was tried for the 2007 murder of her roommate in which Italian city?

Perugia, where Knox was an exchange student; Meredith Kercher was killed in their shared flat in November 2007, and Italy's Court of Cassation definitively acquitted Knox in March 2015.

Where did Amanda Knox study linguistics before going to Italy?

Knox, raised in West Seattle, studied linguistics at the University of Washington before a year abroad in Italy at a university for foreign students.

Leopold and Loeb kidnapped and killed which 14-year-old in Chicago in 1924?

Bobby Franks, 14, a distant cousin of Loeb, was lured into a rented car on 21 May 1924 and killed; the pair hoped to prove their intellect with a 'perfect crime'.

Which famous lawyer defended Leopold and Loeb?

Clarence Darrow's twelve-hour closing argument against the death penalty won Leopold and Loeb life plus 99 years instead of hanging; the press called it 'the crime of the century'.

What did police find near the victim's body that helped crack the Leopold and Loeb case?

A pair of eyeglasses dropped near the culvert had an unusual hinge sold to only three Chicago customers, one of them Nathan Leopold.

Sacco and Vanzetti were accused of a 1920 payroll robbery in which Massachusetts town?

South Braintree: paymaster Frederick Parmenter and guard Alessandro Berardelli were shot on 15 April 1920; tried at Dedham, the pair were electrocuted on 23 August 1927.

Which governor proclaimed in 1977 that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly tried?

Governor Michael Dukakis proclaimed 23 August 1977, the 50th anniversary of the executions, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Memorial Day, declaring their trial had been unfair.

Who was the only person convicted in connection with the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK?

Werner was an airport worker involved in the planning.

The reputed mastermind of the Lufthansa heist, James Burke, was an associate of which crime family?

Jimmy 'the Gent' Burke was an associate of the Lucchese family under capo Paul Vario; never charged over the heist, he died in prison in 1996 while serving time for an unrelated murder.

The leader of the 2003 Belgian jewel heist gang rented an office where to gain vault access?

Leonardo Notarbartolo's office gave him access to a vault safe deposit box.

Where did the Antwerp gang allegedly hide a device recording the vault's combination?

By Notarbartolo's account a pinhole camera above the vault door filmed the combination being dialled and sent the footage to a recorder hidden in a fire extinguisher nearby.

Instead of the cash they expected, what did the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbers find at Heathrow?

Three tonnes of gold bullion, about 6,800 bars worth £26 million, were waiting at the Heathrow warehouse on 26 November 1983 to be flown to Hong Kong; the robbers had expected cash.

Which two men were convicted of armed robbery for the Brink's-Mat raid?

Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were jailed for 25 years each in 1984; Kenneth Noye was convicted only of handling the gold, and most of the bullion was never traced.

In which year was Pablo Escobar shot dead on a Medellín rooftop?

Escobar was shot dead on 2 December 1993 by Colombia's Search Bloc on a rooftop in Medellín's Los Olivos neighbourhood, ending a sixteen-month manhunt.

What was the name of the self-built prison where Escobar was housed after surrendering in 1991?

La Catedral, built to Escobar's specifications on a hillside above Envigado, held him from June 1991 until he walked out in July 1992; the no-extradition deal was struck with President César Gaviria.

Escobar's estate, Hacienda Nápoles, has since been transformed into what?

Hacienda Nápoles, near Puerto Triunfo, reopened in 2007 as a theme park with a safari zoo and water park; the hippos Escobar imported bred in the wild nearby.

How did El Chapo escape a Mexican maximum-security prison in 2015?

Through a tunnel into his cell, dug by associates and nearly a mile long; he was recaptured after a shoot-out in January 2016.

In which US prison was El Chapo incarcerated after his 2019 conviction?

ADX Florence, the federal 'supermax' in Colorado, received Guzmán in July 2019 after a Brooklyn jury convicted him and he was sentenced to life plus 30 years.

Whitey Bulger was captured in 2011 in which California city?

Santa Monica: FBI agents arrested Bulger on 22 June 2011 at the Princess Eugenia apartments, where he had lived quietly for years with Catherine Greig; $822,000 in cash was hidden in the walls.

The Winter Hill Gang took its name from a neighbourhood of which Massachusetts city?

Somerville: the gang took its name from the Winter Hill neighbourhood where Howie Winter and his predecessors were based; the FBI said Bulger served as an informant from 1975.

Whitey Bulger was killed in 2018 within hours of arriving at which federal prison?

USP Hazelton in West Virginia: the 89-year-old, in a wheelchair, was beaten to death on 30 October 2018, hours after his transfer; inmate Fotios 'Freddy' Geas, a Mafia hitman, was later charged.

Which underboss's testimony helped convict John Gotti in 1992?

Salvatore 'Sammy the Bull' Gravano, Gotti's underboss, turned government witness in 1991; Gotti was convicted in April 1992 of five murders and racketeering and received life without parole.

Whose December 1985 murder did John Gotti orchestrate to take over the Gambino family?

Paul Castellano was shot outside Sparks Steak House on East 46th Street on 16 December 1985; Gotti took over the Gambino family and became the 'Dapper Don' and later the 'Teflon Don'.

Lucky Luciano is credited with establishing which Mafia governing body in 1931?

The Commission, set up in 1931 after the Castellammarese War, gave the bosses of the main families a board to settle disputes, replacing the 'boss of bosses' title Luciano abolished.

Luciano's sentence was commuted in 1946 on the condition that he be deported to which country?

Italy: Governor Thomas Dewey commuted Luciano's 30-to-50-year sentence in January 1946, citing his alleged wartime help to naval intelligence, and he was deported to Italy the next month.

Ned Kelly's homemade armour was fashioned from what?

The armour was beaten from plough mouldboards, the helmet and body plates weighing about 44 kg; Kelly wore it at the Glenrowan siege in June 1880.

Where was Ned Kelly hanged in November 1880?

Ned Kelly was hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 11 November 1880, aged 25, after a petition said to carry more than 30,000 signatures failed to win a reprieve.

The Moors murderers buried victims on which upland near Manchester?

Saddleworth Moor, in the Pennines east of Manchester, where Brady and Hindley buried victims; Pauline Reade's grave was found there in 1987, over twenty years after the 1966 trial.

Ian Brady, of the Moors murders, was born under what name in Glasgow?

Ian Duncan Stewart, born in Glasgow in January 1938 to an unmarried tea-room waitress, took his stepfather Patrick Brady's surname after his mother moved to Manchester.

The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, was arrested in 1981 in Sheffield for what?

He was convicted of murdering thirteen women and girls.

Sutcliffe was moved from prison to which hospital in 1984 after a schizophrenia diagnosis?

He died in November 2020.

Peter Sutcliffe worked two stints as a gravedigger at a cemetery in which town in the 1960s?

Sutcliffe dug graves at Bingley cemetery in his home town, where he later claimed to have heard a voice from a grave; he had left school at 15 for a series of menial jobs.

Fred and Rose West's home in Gloucester became known by what nickname?

The 'House of Horrors' at 25 Cromwell Street was demolished in 1996; Fred killed himself on remand on 1 January 1995.

Rose West was convicted of how many murders in November 1995?

Rose West was found guilty of ten murders at Winchester Crown Court on 22 November 1995 and given a whole-life order.

About how many patients did the Shipman Inquiry estimate Harold Shipman killed?

About 250: the Shipman Inquiry found he had killed at least 215 patients, most of them elderly women, between 1975 and 1998 while practising in Todmorden and then Hyde.

Who was Shipman's last victim, a former mayoress found dead in June 1998?

Kathleen Grundy, 81, a former mayoress of Hyde, died on 24 June 1998; a crudely forged will leaving Shipman £386,000 prompted her daughter Angela Woodruff to go to the police.

Shipman hanged himself in 2004 while held where?

Shipman hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield on 13 January 2004, the day before his 58th birthday.

Dr Crippen was the first criminal captured with the aid of what technology?

Wireless telegraphy: Captain Kendall of the SS Montrose radioed his suspicions to Scotland Yard, and Inspector Dew crossed on a faster ship to arrest Crippen in Canada; he was hanged at Pentonville in November 1910.

Under what stage name did Crippen's wife Cora perform as a music hall singer?

Cora Crippen performed as Belle Elmore with little success; she was treasurer of the Music Hall Ladies' Guild, whose members' suspicions about her disappearance reached Scotland Yard.

Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the UK, shot David Blakely outside which Hampstead pub?

Ellis shot Blakely outside The Magdala on South Hill Park, Hampstead, on Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955; she was hanged at Holloway on 13 July 1955.

Andrei Chikatilo, the 'Butcher of Rostov', was executed in 1994 by what method?

Chikatilo was executed by a single gunshot to the back of the head in a Novocherkassk prison on 14 February 1994, after his 1992 conviction for 52 murders.

Chikatilo earned a 1970 degree from Rostov University in which subjects?

Chikatilo completed a correspondence degree in Russian literature and philology at Rostov University in 1970 and went on to teach Russian; he had earlier worked as a communications engineer.

Elizabeth Báthory, the 'Blood Countess', belonged to a noble house of which kingdom?

The Báthorys were one of the Kingdom of Hungary's great noble families; Elizabeth, born at Nyírbátor in 1560, was confined in Csejte castle from 1610 after being accused of killing hundreds of girls.

Báthory received the Castle of Csejte as a wedding gift from which husband?

Ferenc Nádasdy, later famed as the 'Black Knight' for fighting the Ottomans, married her on 8 May 1575 and gave her Csejte castle; he died in 1604.

Belle Gunness lured victims to her farm in which Indiana town through personal ads?

Belle Gunness's farm outside La Porte, Indiana, burned in April 1908; at least a dozen bodies, many of suitors who had answered her matrimonial ads, were dug up afterwards, earning her the nickname 'Hell's Belle'.

Belle Gunness was born in 1859 in which country?

Norway: she was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth in Selbu, near Trondheim, and emigrated to the United States in 1881.

Burke and Hare sold their victims' bodies to which Edinburgh anatomist?

Robert Knox, whose popular anatomy lectures needed a steady supply of cadavers, paid around £8 to £10 a body; sixteen murders were committed over about ten months in 1828.

How did William Hare escape prosecution for the Burke and Hare murders?

Hare turned king's evidence, testifying against Burke in exchange for immunity; Burke was hanged in Edinburgh in January 1829 and publicly dissected.

The Bling Ring burglars operated from which California community?

The teenagers attended school in Calabasas, in the hills west of Los Angeles, and stole about $3 million in clothes, jewellery and cash from celebrity homes in 2008–09.

Which celebrity's house did the Bling Ring break into several times?

Paris Hilton's home was burgled several times in 2008 — she rarely locked up — and supplied much of the loot; Sofia Coppola filmed the story in 2013.

Elizabeth Holmes founded which blood-testing company in 2003?

Theranos made Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire in Forbes' 2015 reckoning; she was convicted of fraud in 2022.

Who was Elizabeth Holmes's company COO and secret romantic partner?

Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani, nearly twenty years her senior, ran the company's operations and was her secret partner; the SEC said the pair raised more than $700 million from investors through fraud.

Anna Sorokin, alias Anna Delvey, posed as a wealthy German heiress among the socialites of which city from 2013 to 2017?

New York took her in as 'Anna Delvey', supposedly a German heiress with a trust fund, after she interned for the French fashion magazine Purple.

Patty Hearst was kidnapped in 1974 by which group?

The Symbionese Liberation Army took the Berkeley art-history sophomore; two months later she was photographed holding a rifle in the Hibernia Bank robbery.

Which president commuted Patty Hearst's sentence?

Jimmy Carter commuted her seven-year sentence in February 1979 after 22 months served; Bill Clinton granted a full pardon in January 2001.

Which two attorneys founded the Innocence Project in 1992?

Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld founded the Innocence Project at Cardozo School of Law in 1992; both later handled DNA evidence on O. J. Simpson's defence team.

Which factor did the Innocence Project find in over 70% of wrongful convictions?

Incorrect eyewitness identification played a role in about 70% of the convictions overturned by DNA evidence; the project began as a law clinic at Cardozo School of Law.

Who confessed in 2002 to the 1989 Central Park jogger attack?

Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist and murderer already serving life, confessed in 2002; DNA matched him and the Central Park Five's convictions were vacated in December 2002.

For how much did New York City settle the Central Park Five's lawsuit in 2014?

The city paid about $41 million in 2014, roughly $1 million for each year the five men spent in prison, settling their malicious-prosecution suit.

The West Memphis Three were freed in 2011 after entering what kind of plea?

Alford pleas let the three assert innocence while conceding prosecutors had enough evidence to convict; they were sentenced to time served and released on 19 August 2011.

Which of the West Memphis Three was sentenced to death?

Damien Echols was sentenced to death in 1994, while Baldwin and Misskelley received life; prosecutors claimed the 1993 killings of three boys in West Memphis were a Satanic ritual.

My Favorite Murder is hosted by Karen Kilgariff and which co-host?

Georgia Hardstark, a former Cooking Channel host, and comedian Karen Kilgariff launched My Favorite Murder in January 2016 and popularised the sign-off 'Stay sexy and don't get murdered'.

What is the name of the podcast network launched by the My Favorite Murder hosts in 2018?

Exactly Right, launched in 2018, takes its name from a phrase Kilgariff often says on the show and went on to sign other true-crime and comedy podcasts.

Who were the original co-anchors of Dateline NBC when it debuted in 1992?

Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips anchored from the March 1992 debut; Pauley left in 2003, Phillips in 2007, and Lester Holt took over as anchor in 2011.

Who hosted Dateline's hidden-camera series To Catch a Predator?

Chris Hansen also fronted Dateline's 'Wild Wild Web' segments; the sting format became a meme in its own right.

Which host presented the first Unsolved Mysteries special on NBC in January 1987?

Raymond Burr hosted the first special on 20 January 1987; Karl Malden fronted the next two and Robert Stack the final four before the series proper began in 1988.

Which network revived Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina as host in 2008?

Spike TV revived the show in October 2008 with Dennis Farina hosting re-edited older segments; Netflix later rebooted it without a host in 2020.

Who hosted America's Most Wanted from its 1988 debut on Fox?

John Walsh, whose six-year-old son Adam was abducted and murdered in Florida in 1981, hosted from the 7 February 1988 debut and became a leading victims' rights advocate.

America's Most Wanted moved to which cable network after Fox cancelled it in 2011?

Lifetime picked the show up in December 2011 after Fox ended its 23-year run; it ran there until March 2013.

What was Forensic Files originally called?

It debuted on TLC in 1996 as Medical Detectives and took the Forensic Files name when it moved to Court TV in 2000.

Who narrated the original run of Forensic Files?

Peter Thomas narrated all 400-plus original episodes from 1996 until the series ended in 2011; the 2020 revival, Forensic Files II, brought in Bill Camp.

Don't F**k with Cats follows the online hunt for which Canadian killer?

Luka Magnotta, who had posted videos of killing kittens, murdered Chinese student Jun Lin in Montreal in May 2012 and was arrested in a Berlin internet café.

Which two amateur sleuths start the manhunt in Don't F**k with Cats?

Deanna Thompson, a Las Vegas casino data analyst using the alias 'Baudi Moovan', and John Green of Los Angeles led the Facebook group tracking the kitten-killer.

The Dirty John podcast was created by Wondery and which newspaper?

The Los Angeles Times co-produced Dirty John with Wondery; Times reporter Christopher Goffard hosted it, and the first chapters came out in October 2017.

Ann Rule met Ted Bundy in 1971 while both volunteered where?

They worked overnight shifts together at Seattle's Crisis Clinic suicide hotline in 1971; Rule later wrote The Stranger Beside Me about him.

Ann Rule's Small Sacrifices is about which Oregon child murderer?

Diane Downs shot her three children on an Oregon road in 1983, killing one, and blamed a 'bushy-haired stranger'; Rule wrote over 30 true-crime books.

Michelle McNamara helped coin which criminal's moniker?

McNamara coined 'Golden State Killer' in a 2013 Los Angeles magazine article; her book I'll Be Gone in the Dark appeared posthumously in 2018, two months before DeAngelo's arrest.

Who wrote the introduction to I'll Be Gone in the Dark?

Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl, wrote the introduction; McNamara's widower Patton Oswalt wrote the afterword and helped complete the unfinished book.

The Devil in the White City pairs H. H. Holmes with which World's Fair architect?

Daniel Burnham, director of works for Chicago's 1893 fair, is the book's counterpoint to Holmes; Erik Larson's 2003 account reads like a novel.

Which actor bought the film rights to The Devil in the White City in 2010?

Leonardo DiCaprio bought the rights in 2010 intending to play Holmes, with Martin Scorsese attached to direct; the project stalled for more than a decade.

Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song depicts the execution of whom by the state of Utah?

Gilmore chose the firing squad and was executed on January 17, 1977.

Which forensic pioneer, the 'Sherlock Holmes of Lyon', said 'every contact leaves a trace'?

Edmond Locard founded the world's first police crime laboratory in Lyon in 1910; his exchange principle, that every contact leaves a trace, underpins trace-evidence work.

Alphonse Bertillon is credited with inventing what police staple?

Bertillon standardised the mug shot, pairing full-face and profile photographs, as part of the anthropometric identification system Paris police adopted in the 1880s.

Bertillon's flawed handwriting testimony helped wrongly convict whom?

Alfred Dreyfus: Bertillon's convoluted 'self-forgery' theory about the bordereau was presented at the 1894 court-martial and the 1899 Rennes retrial, and was later demolished by a panel of mathematicians including Henri Poincaré.

Alec Jeffreys invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984 while working where?

Jeffreys was a geneticist at the University of Leicester; his 'eureka moment' came while looking at an X-ray film of DNA fragments on 10 September 1984.

What was Colin Pitchfork's trade when he was arrested in 1987?

Pitchfork was a baker; he was arrested in September 1987 after the first mass DNA screening and sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 January 1988.

How did Pitchfork try to evade the mass DNA screening?

Ian Kelly used a fake passport, then was overheard in a pub.

Luminol reveals trace blood by reacting with which component of hemoglobin?

Iron in the haem group of haemoglobin catalyses luminol's reaction with hydrogen peroxide, producing a blue glow that lasts about 30 seconds.

Who invented the polygraph in 1921?

John Augustus Larson, a Berkeley police officer and medical student, built the first polygraph in 1921 under police chief August Vollmer; Leonarde Keeler later refined it.

Which early lie-detection researcher is better remembered for creating Wonder Woman?

William Moulton Marston, who championed the systolic blood-pressure test for deception, created Wonder Woman in 1941; her Lasso of Truth forces captives to tell the truth.

AMBER Alerts are named after Amber Hagerman, abducted in 1996 in which Texas city?

Amber Hagerman, 9, was snatched while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, in January 1996; 'AMBER' is also a backronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

Crime Stoppers began in 1976 in which US city?

Albuquerque: Detective Greg MacAleese, a former reporter, had a local TV station air a re-enactment of an unsolved gas-station murder in 1976, offering cash for anonymous tips.

The original 'body farm' was founded in 1981 where?

William Bass opened the University of Tennessee's Anthropological Research Facility in Knoxville in 1981 to study how bodies decompose outdoors.

Frances Glessner Lee's dollhouse-scale crime scene dioramas are known as what?

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, built in the 1940s at one inch to the foot, were used at Harvard seminars; eighteen survive at Maryland's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.

Frances Glessner Lee, the 'mother of forensic science', held which US distinction?

She helped found Harvard's Department of Legal Medicine.

Robert Ressler is often credited with coining which term?

'Serial killer' is usually attributed to Ressler in the 1970s, though the German Serienmörder had been used by Berlin detective Ernst Gennat in 1930.

Which notorious killer grew up in the same Chicago neighbourhood as profiler Robert Ressler?

John Wayne Gacy grew up on Chicago's north-west side, as did Ressler, who graduated from Schurz High School in 1955 and later interviewed Gacy in prison.

Netflix's Mindhunter is based on the autobiographical book by which FBI profiler?

John E. Douglas co-wrote Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit with Mark Olshaker in 1995, the year he retired after 25 years in the Bureau.

Which killer, played by Cameron Britton, first helps the agents in Mindhunter season 1?

Edmund Kemper, the 6ft 9in 'Co-ed Killer' serving life in California, is the first killer Holden Ford interviews; the first season is set from 1977 to 1980.

The FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, now the Behavioral Analysis Unit, was launched in which year?

The Behavioral Science Unit opened in 1972, the year the FBI Academy's new campus opened at Quantico, Virginia, and was later renamed the Behavioral Analysis Unit.

The national level of the FBI's CODIS DNA database was implemented in which year?

The National DNA Index System, CODIS's national tier, went live in October 1998; the DNA Identification Act of 1994 had authorised the FBI to run it.

Who was the only suspect police ever named in the Zodiac Killer case?

Arthur Leigh Allen, a former schoolteacher from Vallejo, was the only suspect police publicly named; searched twice, he was never charged and died in 1992, and later DNA tests did not match him.

How many of the Zodiac's seven known victims survived?

Two survived: Michael Mageau, shot at Blue Rock Springs in 1969, and Bryan Hartnell, stabbed at Lake Berryessa; the Zodiac attacked three couples and a cab driver.

Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, died in 2013 while awaiting execution at which prison?

Ramirez died of complications from B-cell lymphoma on 7 June 2013 in a Marin County hospital while held on San Quentin's death row, 24 years after his 1989 death sentence.

Ted Bundy, feigning injury in a sling, asked women to help carry books to what brown or tan car?

A Volkswagen Beetle was the car two Central Washington students described, one on the night Susan Rancourt vanished and another three nights earlier.

The Kray twins' gang, the Firm, was based in which East London district?

Bethnal Green: the twins grew up at 178 Vallance Road and ran the Firm from the district's pubs and clubs; Reggie was born ten minutes before Ronnie in 1933.

In which pub did Ronnie Kray shoot George Cornell dead in 1966?

Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell in The Blind Beggar on Whitechapel Road on 9 March 1966; the twins were jailed for life in 1969.

Who led the 15-strong gang in the 1963 Great Train Robbery?

Bruce Reynolds, an antiques dealer and career thief, planned and led the robbery at Bridego Railway Bridge near Ledburn; he fled to Mexico and was caught in Torquay in 1968.

Ronnie Biggs escaped Wandsworth Prison in 1965 by what means?

Biggs climbed a rope ladder over the Wandsworth wall on 8 July 1965 and dropped onto a waiting furniture van; he lived as a fugitive for 36 years before returning in 2001.

Ronnie Biggs was living in which Australian city when police closed in during 1969?

Melbourne: Biggs, having first settled in Adelaide, rented a house in the suburb of Blackburn North until a 1969 television report exposed him, and he sailed for South America.

What car did the 2002 Beltway snipers travel in?

They travelled in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice with a hole cut in the trunk to shoot through; John Allen Muhammad was 41 and Lee Boyd Malvo 17.

Chris Watts murdered his family in 2018 in which Colorado town?

Frederick, in Weld County north of Denver, where Watts killed his pregnant wife Shanann and daughters Bella and Celeste in August 2018; he was sentenced to five life terms without parole.

Gabby Petito's remains were found in September 2021 in which Wyoming national forest?

Bridger-Teton National Forest: her remains were found near the Spread Creek camping area on 19 September 2021; fiancé Brian Laundrie admitted the killing in a notebook found beside his body.

Which famed lawman at one point led the hunt for the Cleveland Torso Murderer?

Eliot Ness, Cleveland's safety director from 1935, oversaw the hunt for the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, who dismembered at least twelve victims and was never caught.

A 1919 letter attributed to the Axeman of New Orleans promised to spare homes playing what?

Most of the Axeman's victims were Italian immigrants.

The 1912 Villisca axe murders, which killed eight people, took place in which state?

Villisca is in south-west Iowa; Josiah and Sarah Moore, their four children and two Stillinger sisters were bludgeoned with an axe on the night of 9–10 June 1912, and no one was ever convicted.

John Dillinger was shot by law enforcement in July 1934 outside which Chicago venue?

Dillinger was shot by FBI agents as he left the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue on 22 July 1934, after brothel keeper Ana Cumpănaș, the 'Woman in Red', tipped them off.

Charles Ponzi's scheme was based on buying and redeeming what?

Ponzi claimed to profit by buying international postal reply coupons cheaply abroad and redeeming them for US stamps, promising 50% in 45 days; by 1920 he was simply paying old investors with new money.

Austrian killer Jack Unterweger became a celebrity in what field after his 1990 parole?

Unterweger, feted as a reformed writer, worked as a playwright and journalist for Austrian radio and magazines after his 1990 parole, and within months resumed killing sex workers.

Casey Anthony's daughter Caylee was reported missing in July 2008 after how many days?

Grandmother Cindy Anthony made the 9-1-1 call.

Where were Caylee Anthony's remains found in December 2008?

They were inside a laundry bag with a blanket.

Hae Min Lee's body was discovered in February 1999 in which Baltimore green space?

Leakin Park, in west Baltimore, where her body was found in a shallow grave on 9 February 1999; Adnan Syed's friend Jay Wilds pleaded guilty as an accessory.

Adnan Syed's conviction was vacated in September 2022, then what happened in March 2023?

Maryland's Appellate Court reinstated the conviction on 28 March 2023, ruling that the victim's family had been denied proper notice of the vacatur hearing, and stayed its decision for 60 days.

How large was the lawsuit Steven Avery filed against the county after his 2003 exoneration?

He was arrested for Teresa Halbach's murder while it was pending.

In which Los Angeles-area community did Lyle and Erik Menendez kill their parents in 1989?

The Beverly Hills mansion on North Elm Drive was where José and Kitty Menendez were shot on 20 August 1989; the brothers were convicted in 1996 after two trials.

Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home in 2002 at age 14 in which US state capital?

Salt Lake City: Smart was taken at knifepoint from her bedroom in June 2002; Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee held her for nine months before police found her in Sandy, Utah.

Why did the US Supreme Court overturn osteopath Sam Sheppard's 1954 murder conviction?

In Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966) the Court found the 'carnival atmosphere' of prejudicial publicity had denied him a fair trial; Sheppard was acquitted at a retrial later that year.

How many people died in the Jonestown mass murder-suicide of November 18, 1978?

918 in all: 909 at the Jonestown compound, five at the Port Kaituma airstrip including Congressman Leo Ryan, and four at the Temple's Georgetown headquarters.

Why was Timothy McVeigh pulled over within 90 minutes of the Oklahoma City bombing?

Trooper Charlie Hanger then arrested him for illegal weapons possession before forensic evidence tied him to the attack.

Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002 from her home in which California city?

Modesto: Laci, eight months pregnant, vanished from the couple's Covena Avenue home; her remains and those of unborn son Conner washed up on the shore of San Francisco Bay the following April.

In which Arizona city did Jodi Arias murder ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008?

Alexander was stabbed and shot at his Mesa home in June 2008; Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in 2013 and sentenced to life without parole in 2015.

Which 1920s serial killer and cannibal was nicknamed the Gray Man and the Brooklyn Vampire?

Albert Fish was electrocuted at Sing Sing in January 1936 for the 1928 murder of Grace Budd; he confessed to two other child killings and was suspected of more.

Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, convicted of killing his family in 1970, was stationed at which base?

Fort Bragg, North Carolina: his pregnant wife Colette and daughters Kimberley and Kristen were killed in their Castle Drive quarters in February 1970; MacDonald blamed four intruders and was convicted in 1979.