# What's the oldest "cold case" ever solved? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 17, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577 "2019-11-17T15:33:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/21 "2019-11-18T02:05:22Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Years ago they found the bodies of the two princes killed by Richard under the stairway in the Tower. Cite for this? Wikipedia says “Although after his death Richard III was accused of having Edward and his brother killed, notably by More and in Shakespeare’s play, the facts surrounding their disappearance remain unknown.” ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/22 "2019-11-18T02:39:54Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Cite for this? Wikipedia says “Although after his death Richard III was accused of having Edward and his brother killed, notably by More and in Shakespeare’s play, the facts surrounding their disappearance remain unknown.” [several sets of bones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_in_the_Tower#Bodies) that could be the bones of the two princes have been located, including one set found under the staircase to the White Tower chapel in the 1670s, but there’s no definitive proof. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/23 "2019-11-18T02:41:45Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Years ago they found the bodies of the two princes killed by Richard under the stairway in the Tower. Looks like they were reexhumed in 1933 and found to contain human and animal bones, and nothing has been done since (e.g. DNA). ---
**Author:** ![KellyCriterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@KellyCriterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyCriterion)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/24 "2019-11-18T02:52:56Z")
Prob not the oldest ever solved cold case, but two police officers were shot and killed in 1957. [Gerald Mason](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Mason) was convicted for it in 2003. As he was getting arrested, he said to the arresting officers “You’re here for that?”. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/25 "2019-11-18T03:13:06Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > There’s much older evidence of murder, such as[this one from 33,000 years ago](https://www.livescience.com/65849-paleolithic-man-murdered.html), but of course we don’t know the identity of either the victim or his killer, other than that he was left-handed. Murder and body dump, [430,000 years ago](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/05/27/worlds-oldest-cold-case-430000-year-old-murder/#762c97786c72) (most likely by a right-handed assailant). ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/26 "2019-11-18T03:37:37Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I’m not sure adultery would be the applicable offense. As [Uncle Cecil noted](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1331/update/) when he weighed in, Jefferson’s wife Martha died before the affair apparently began. Does it count if it broke [anti-miscegenation laws?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/27 "2019-11-18T04:10:16Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Does it count if it broke [anti-miscegenation laws?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws) Not applicable to non-marital sex between enslaved women and their male owners in Jefferson’s Virginia, AFAICT. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/28 "2019-11-18T10:18:01Z")
Not the oldest but interesting none the less - what about the i[dentification of the bodies of the Russian royal family](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dna-analysis-confirms-authenticity-remains-attributed-romanovs-180969674/) by DNA evidence (supplied by the Duke of Edinburgh, amongst others). Obviously the rumours had always been that they’d been murdered and buried, but it wasn’t until they positively identified the bones that they could be certain. It also cleared up that whole ‘Anastasia survived’ nonsense as well. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577/29 "2019-11-18T15:39:02Z")
[Reinhold Hanning](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40122610) was convicted in 2016 of complicity in 170,000 WWII-era murders , but died before he could serve his 5-year sentence. He was an SS guard at Auschwitz, and at the time of his conviction said he was “very, very sorry”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-cold-case-ever-solved/843577.md?page=1)