# Bizarre, Unsolved or Otherwise Infamous True Crime Cases From Your State / Country
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 13, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890 "2020-02-13T18:45:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/61 "2020-02-16T05:18:19Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> I read that book, and Investigation Discovery recently did a program about it. I didn’t know he had died; what a tragic story.
>
> It gets worse.
>
> He was adopted by a second family after he got out of prison, who were inspired to do so after the mother read the book, and they were probably worse than his bio parents! He also changed to his wife’s name when he got married; they divorced shortly before he died.
>
> [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73337868/lawrence-j\_-swartz](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73337868/lawrence-j_-swartz)
Oops, not bio parents; his first adoptive parents!
---
### Author:  [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/62 "2020-02-16T14:40:10Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> I read that book, and Investigation Discovery recently did a program about it. I didn’t know he had died; what a tragic story.
>
> It gets worse.
>
> He was adopted by a second family after he got out of prison, who were inspired to do so after the mother read the book, and they were probably worse than his bio parents! He also changed to his wife’s name when he got married; they divorced shortly before he died.
>
> [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73337868/lawrence-j\_-swartz](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73337868/lawrence-j_-swartz)
His adoptive brother was later convicted of murdering a man over a jug of quarters. The brother was the initial suspect in the murder of their adoptive parents but was in a psychiatric hospital miles away at the time.
[BROTHER OF KILLER CHARGED IN NEW SLAYING](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/07/11/brother-of-killer-charged-in-new-slaying/2fb37a82-dcf5-4ddd-abc9-03f5a16835da/)
> [@](#):
>
> ANNAPOLIS, JULY 10 – The brother of a man convicted of killing his parents six years ago was charged with murder today in the stabbing of a 57-year-old Annapolis man, Anne Arundel County police said.
>
> Michael David Swartz, 24, whose younger brother, Larry, is serving a 12-year prison sentence for the grisly and highly publicized deaths of their adoptive parents, was arrested at an Annapolis hotel late Monday after he telephoned police with details about the slaying that evening of Robert Austin Bell, police said.
>
> Bell, described by neighbors as a freelance repairer of air conditioners and motors, apparently was killed during an attempted robbery, said Officer V. Richard Molloy, a police spokesman. Molloy said that Swartz and two other area men had gone to Bell’s home to steal a large jar of quarters Bell kept in his bedroom. The jar was missing when investigators arrived.
>
> …
>
> Officials involved in investigating the 1984 stabbing and ax murders of Swartz’s parents, Robert and Kathryn Swartz, said they were saddened by the news of his arrest. Initially, Michael Swartz was a suspect in his parents’ violent deaths because he had been in trouble as a youth and his parents had kicked him out of their house and gone to court to have him made a ward of the state, said Circuit Judge Warren Duckett, who was Anne Arundel’s state’s attorney at the time.
>
> Duckett said Larry Swartz tried to blame the murders on his brother by repeatedly telling investigators of Michael’s stormy relationship with their parents. Michael was cleared when detectives determined he was at a state pyschiatric hospital at the time of the slayings. Larry Swartz was charged and pleaded guilty to the crimes.
---
### Author:  [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/63 "2020-02-16T14:57:41Z")
I worked with this guy at an ISP about 4 years before he disappeared and we often chatted at work. [https://ncmissingpersons.org/jonathan-betts/](https://ncmissingpersons.org/jonathan-betts/)
---
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/64 "2020-02-16T15:58:46Z")
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> Regarding where I’m from, I can’t really think of any prominent unsolved cases…Florida people tend to do their weird shit all out in the open.
[Jennifer Kesse is still missing.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Jennifer_Kesse)
---
### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/65 "2020-02-16T17:37:37Z")
My home state of Indiana brings us one of the original torture-murders, that of [Sylvia Likens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sylvia_Likens) in 1965.
In 1992, Indiana became infamous again with the torture-murder of [Shanda Sharer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer), a 12 year old girl who lived about 15 minutes from me. We went to the same junior high school, though different years, and I knew a few of the girls on the periphery of the murder, and had met the mastermind, Melinda Loveless, once, as we had a mutual friend or two.
My current state, Kentucky, gives us [Mel Ignatow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Ignatow), who brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend, Brenda Sue Schaefer, after sexually torturing her. He was acquitted of the crime, and was a free man until the missing evidence turned up that proved him guilty. He was brought before a grand jury and, knowing he couldn’t be tried or punished due to “double jeopardy” laws, confessed to torturing her, raping her, and killing her while a female friend took pictures. He was subsequently convicted of perjury. From his wiki:
> [@](#):
>
> Ignatow served five years of an eight-year sentence for perjury. The state later prosecuted him on perjury charges for testimony he gave in a case against Schaefer’s employer for threatening to kill Ignatow if he did not reveal where Schaefer was. He was sentenced to nine years for that perjury charge. Ignatow was released from prison for the second time in December 2006. He returned to Louisville, living in a home four miles from the house where he murdered Schaefer.
---
### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/66 "2020-02-16T17:54:45Z")
Missed the edit window.
This one doesn’t qualify in terms of what the OP is looking for, but we have a friend of the family currently on Death Row for murdering a police officer in 1997. The officer arrived at the scene of a domestic dispute, and Vince Stopher rushed the officer, wrestled the cop’s gun away from him, and shot the officer in the face. When Vince was arrested, he allegedly said to the other cops (something along the lines of) “I hope that cop fucking dies.”
Vince was 24 at the time of the incident. Same age as me at the time. He’s been on Death Row ever since. 20+ years.
---
### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/67 "2020-02-16T18:59:00Z")
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> My home state of Indiana brings us one of the original torture-murders, that of [Sylvia Likens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sylvia_Likens) in 1965.
:eek:
I am without words. ☹
---
### Author:  [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/68 "2020-02-16T19:10:46Z")
In my little county, in Indiana, was the serial killer nurse. My mom worked with him.
> **[Orville Lynn Majors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orville_Lynn_Majors)**
>
> Orville Lynn Majors (April 24, 1961 – September 24, 2017) was a licensed practical nurse and serial killer who was convicted of murdering his patients in Clinton, Indiana. Though he was tried for only seven murders and convicted of six, he was believed to have caused additional deaths between 1993 and 1995, when he was employed by the hospital at which the deaths occurred and for which he was investigated. It was reported that he murdered patients who he claimed were demanding, whiny, or dispr...
---
### Author:  [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/69 "2020-02-16T20:38:35Z")
Around here the Big Easy has a rich history of infamous crimes. My personal favorite is the Axe Man murders from 1911-12. Lots of evidence, lots of bodies, not a lot of closure.
> **[Axeman of New Orleans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axeman_of_New_Orleans)**
>
> The Axeman of New Orleans was an unidentified American serial killer active in New Orleans, Louisiana, and surrounding communities, including Gretna, from May 1918 to October 1919. Press reports during the height of public panic about the killings mentioned similar murders as early as 1911, but recent researchers have called these reports into question. The Axeman was never identified, and the murders remain unsolved. He mainly targeted Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans. This leaves the
---
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/70 "2020-02-16T22:06:54Z")
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> My current state, Kentucky, gives us [Mel Ignatow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Ignatow), who brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend, Brenda Sue Schaefer, after sexually torturing her. He was acquitted of the crime, and was a free man until the missing evidence turned up that proved him guilty. He was brought before a grand jury and, knowing he couldn’t be tried or punished due to “double jeopardy” laws, confessed to torturing her, raping her, and killing her while a female friend took pictures. He was subsequently convicted of perjury. From his wiki:
And the ironic thing about that is that he tortured her over a glass-topped coffee table, and died because he tripped and fell into one, and bled to death while trying to crawl to the phone.
---
### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/71 "2020-02-16T22:09:06Z")
Never let it be said that karma isn’t a bitch.
---
### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/72 "2020-02-17T02:56:21Z")
In 1880s Austin, the [Servant Girl Annihilator](https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/capital-murder/) brutally murdered seven women and one man over the course of a year, splitting their heads open with an axe. Interestingly, O. Henry was a resident of Austin at the time and coined the term “Servant Girl Annihilator.”
More recently, in 1991 four teenagers were murdered in a [yogurt shop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Austin_yogurt_shop_murders)in a case that has never been solved. A terrible crime, and the subsequent conviction of two suspects in 1999 was overturned over alleged coerced confessions and the discovery of male DNA at the scene that did not match either suspect.
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/73 "2020-02-17T03:33:32Z")
> [@Topologist](#):
>
> The [Gilgo Beach murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_serial_killer) (what they’re generally known as on Long Island).
>
> While searching for Shannan Gilbert, who disappeared in the area in 2010, 10 bodies were found (separately, not in a group) dumped in a marshy area off Ocean Parkway on the South Shore of the Island. Gilbert’s body was found later. None of these murders has yet been solved, but speculation of course is that it’s the result of one or more serial killers. (Gilbert’s death isn’t thought to be linked to the others and may have been at least partially an accident, drowning after tripping in the marsh, but she seemed to have been fleeing from … what?)
>
> Still a mystery, still being investigated, and still popping up in the local news from time to time.
Since you nabbed that one, which was the first to come to my mind, I’ll go with [Judge Crater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Force_Crater). Unsolved disappearance, foul play suspected, about 90 years ago.
---
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/74 "2020-02-17T03:45:09Z")
> [@rbroome](#):
>
> Around here the Big Easy has a rich history of infamous crimes. My personal favorite is the Axe Man murders from 1911-12. Lots of evidence, lots of bodies, not a lot of closure.
>
> [Axeman of New Orleans - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axeman_of_New_Orleans)
I read this book a while back, and the author believes that the Villisca axe murderer did that one as well. That he possibly committed a mass murder in GERMANY a decade later was a bit of a stretch (juuuuust a bit…) but he did make some interesting links between that one and many others.
> **[The Man from the Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer: James,...](https://www.amazon.com/Man-Train-Discovering-Americas-Elusive/dp/1476796262)**
>
> The Man from the Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer \[James, Bill, James, Rachel McCarthy\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Man from the Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer
---
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/75 "2020-02-17T03:49:30Z")
I have not heard this elsewhere, or seen it online (and there may be some very good reasons for this) but I used to work with a woman whose husband was in the Texas National Guard in 2003, and they were the main crew who searched the debris field after the crash of the Columbia. They were looking for 7 bodies, and in fact found 9; IIRC, those two “extra” bodies turned out to be the work of a serial killer in the region, and one of those people had not even been reported missing at the time. :eek:
Her husband found “something”, if you will, but out of respect for the victim, I will not say who or what it was. Everyone who does something like that has to get counseling, but in his case, he continued it after the required sessions were completed.
---
### Author:  [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/76 "2020-02-17T16:34:23Z")
The area I grew up in is probably best known for holding one of the first Child Sex Abuse Witch Hunts:
[https://www.historylink.org/File/7065](https://www.historylink.org/File/7065)
I knew one of the accused couples and they pretty much lost everything. Ended up receiving a large settlement years later.
---
### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/77 "2020-02-17T19:41:10Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> :eek:
>
> I am without words. ☹
The abuse Likens suffers inspired the creepy as fuck song [“Basement”](https://youtu.be/ufB4tWsOtAs) by the Pain Teens
---
### Author:  [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/78 "2020-02-17T19:55:52Z")
Not exactly in the spirit of my own thread, since I’m not 100% sure on \*where \*this happened, but it’s interesting none-the-less, as it technically involves family.
My dad has a cousin who came home to discover his wife cheating on him. He proceeded to then murder both her and the guy she was cheating on him with. Since most of my family is in Wisconsin, I’m guessing that’s where this happened, but can’t say for sure. I do know it was before I was born in '88.
Just weird to think I’m related to a murderer.
---
### Author:  [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/79 "2020-02-17T20:06:28Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> :eek:
>
> I am without words. ☹
This is horrifying. Like, without the sexual components it’s comparable to A Child Called It. With them…holy shit. That poor, poor girl. I’m horrified.
---
### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2020, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/80 "2020-02-18T00:00:03Z")
Not completely unsolved so much as only partially solved: [serial killer Robert Breest](https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-unsolved-case-file-luella-blakeslee/13969474) of New Hampshire.
The linked article is rather sketchy but it is my recollection that he was suspected of a number of murders for which he was never charged.
He was suspected of killing my math teacher’s girlfriend, whose murder was unsolved when I was in high school (I don’t know if they ever positively identified the killer) and my mother was fascinated by Breest. She even took me to court to watch his trial one day!
My mother had a theory that my math teacher was a closeted gay and so deliberately sought out self-destructive women to date, so he’d have an excuse to break up with them. Further (according to her theory), this strategy was so effective that he actually managed to date a woman who got herself offed by a serial killer - thus freeing up the teacher to grieve eternally and never have to date a woman again. :rolleyes:
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890.md?page=3)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890.md?page=5)