After recently reading about JonBenet Ramsey officially being labelled as a cold case, it got me to thinking. WHY are some unsolved murder mysteries popular and enduring while others are known mostly by crime buffs, even though the lesser known unsolved crimes are often just as mysterious or brutal?
Examples of the enduring cases in no particular order:
Jack The Ripper; Lizzie Borden; Judge Crater; The Black Dahlia; The Lindbergh Kidnapping; the Zodiac case; JonBenet Ramsey; and more recently the McStay Family and Elisa Lam (these last two are especially mysterious and baffling). FYI–I purposely omitted the JFK assassination because I think that one is pretty obvious why we are all curious about it.
Then we have the unsolved crimes most famous with crime buffs rather than the general public:
Lost Charlie Ross; Mayerling; The Hall-Mills case (amazing why this one is not more popular); the Oscar Slater case; the New Orleans Axe-Man; Serge Rubinstein; the Benjamin Nathan case; and the lead masks case, to name only a few.
SO…why do some unsolved crimes endure for many years, when some equally mysterious and baffling crimes are mostly forgotten except by the crime buffs? Also, if you had the opportunity to KNOW what happened, which crimes would you most want to see solved, even at such a late date? I appreciate the thoughts and theories of the SDMB members.
The answer to this and all other similar questions is: because.
Things just happen. There is no explanation for why some things and not others. Really. This kind of question is asked a lot. The straightforward answer is that no one knows why the public takes to some things and ignores similar ones. It’s a much more fascinating mystery than unsolved crimes.
The number one factor here, I think, is media attention at the time of the crime. Some of the famous crimes you mention, like the Ramsey case, happened in our current 24/7 media saturation environment (it didn’t hurt that it happened during the space between Christmas and New Year, always a relatively slow news time). Jack the Ripper, Judge Crater, and the Black Dahlia happened in big cities (and the Dahlia had the Hollywood angle, which guarantees more attention). And then some offenders intentionally sought out media attention: the Zodiac mailed letters to the press, as did Son of Sam (who you also could have mentioned).
On the other hand…the Axe-Man of New Orleans operated during a time when news from smaller cities like New Orleans didn’t always reach the national press. He’s remembered in New Orleans, notso much elsewhere.
So I think the big difference is that some crimes were in our faces from day one, and others people (crime buffs usually) had to search out info on them.
The Lindbergh kidnapping and JFK assassination are not on my list of unsolved crimes (although it’s possible Hauptmann had an accomplice). And the Borden murders are not a real mystery to most people.
At or near the top of my list of crimes I’d like solved are the Ripper killings. There’ve been so many theories and suspects, it’d be nice to know the answer (without workable time travel, I fear it’ll always be a mystery).
I really don’t get the fascination with people who disappear 9like the Judge crater case). Every year, thousands of people vanish-most of them are not celebrities, so not much interest. Years ago, the body of a young woman was found in the sand dunes near Provincetown, MA. She was never identified, and despite years of effort, her body was finally buried-no one ever learned her identity. Most of the time, people who disappear simply die in an area where their bodies are never found.
No big mystery to that.
No. The Hall-Mills Case* had massive media coverage and tons of drama and were covered extensively in the media. Yes, it wasn’t what we would call 24/7, but the case and especially the trial were in the newspapers (all newspapers, and people often bought two or three a day) every day for weeks.
It also had more drama than most of the cases famous today. The photos (and composigraphs) of the pig woman being brought into court literally on her deathbed to testify was sensational.
But in that case, after the trial, everyone moved on. Probably it died out only because nothing more happened and other sensational cases caught the public imagination.
unfortunately, we care more for young pretty white females than others. This is a rule (with some exceptions). Its been lamented about for a few years now, so at least there is some recognition that sensational media attention tends to favor this demographic.
There are other forces at play too, like perpetrators or victims being famous or well known. But if you are an unknown older black guy; pretty much your demise will not be greatly reported.
If it’s a celebrity, prominent wealthy citizen or a person in an important position like Judge Crater that makes the disappearance interesting. The fact that some drifter hasn’t shown up anywhere for a long time goes unnoticed, but as Cecil (or a staff member) noted, a federal judge going AWOL sparks interest. Particularly since nobody has definitively determined what happened to him. Madelyn Murray O’Hair remained interesting in this manner until they finally found her remains.
I might nitpick that the Crater case isn’t an “unsolved crime”, in that nobody is certain there’s a crime involved. It remains possible that Crater just chose to disappear.
BTW, shouldn’t Jimmy Hoffa be added to the “enduring” list? Technically, that isn’t an “unsolved crime” either, but I doubt there’s anybody credible who believes Hoffa wasn’t murdered.
