# Which ONE Crime Would You Like The True Answer To? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 8, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101 "2010-01-08T00:25:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/41 "2010-01-08T03:55:47Z")
Geli Raubal ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/42 "2010-01-08T04:26:52Z")
Nobody, not a soul yet, has said 9/11? Not one? OK, we’re all sane people and we pretty much knew how it went down (although if you spread the tentacles out far enough, you’ll get into the juicy questions, ie “How much did Bush _really_ know?”), and this board is relatively free of “Truthers”, but they are out there, surely we can’t have had the good fortune of banning all of them? FWIW, I don’t really care, I’ll happily swallow the Kool-Aid on this, even go as far as to agree with the MSM on how much Bush knew. Really, I don’t care. But I know plenty do, which is why I’m surprised it wasn’t brought up. My personal inquiries were all covered in the OP. Including my first thought, which was shot down in the final paragraph. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/43 "2010-01-08T04:38:22Z")
If this were a real offer, I’d have to pick some recent unsolved murder in the hope of bringing a criminal to justice. But for purely theoretical knowledge, I’d go with Jack the Ripper. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/44 "2010-01-08T04:40:55Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I don’t understand why Jack the Ripper is so famous. Someone killed some fairly small number of prostitutes? Who would have ever imagined such a thing could happen? > > There are many, many more serial killers than have been more grisly than that and even some much worse before him that aren’t nearly as famous and it continues to this day. I am not sure why there is such fascination with those particular killings as opposed to so many others. It’s not a competition. The killer with the highest bodycount isn’t the most interesting case. The Ripper murders are interesting because they happened at a fascinating time and place in history and they made a large impact. In many ways, that particular crime was the beginning of modern criminology. It drew attention to the conditions of the London poor, and it undoubtedly helped to push through reforms in that society which reverberated through the entire British Empire for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/45 "2010-01-08T04:46:33Z")
In case anyone is interested, the motherlode of Jack the Ripper information is here: [http://www.casebook.org/](http://www.casebook.org/) Warning: if you’re interested in the case and you haven’t seen this site, you’re going to be pretty busy for quite a while. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/46 "2010-01-08T05:21:26Z")
Simply because it is local, the [Claremont Killings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_serial_murders). ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/47 "2010-01-08T06:00:45Z")
[The Grimes Sisters Murders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimes_sisters) This isn’t famous beyond Chicago, but since the North Side’s long unsolved Peterson/Schuessler Murders were fairly recently resolved, it’d be nice to see the big unsolved murder case from the South Side put to rest as well. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/48 "2010-01-08T06:07:02Z")
I’d go purely personal. A friend of mine was mugged and murdered a few years ago, right in front of his own home. Killed for $20 and a cheap watch. I’d like to know who did it and why they had to kill him so pointlessly. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/49 "2010-01-08T06:44:54Z")
I’d like to know who stole the cookies from the cookie jar! ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/50 "2010-01-08T07:43:57Z")
JonBenet Ramsey, for sure. And for a more local case, the [Jacob Wetterling](http://wcco.com/crime/jacob.wetterling.anniversary.2.1251104.html) disappearance. Yeah, that’s more than one. You wanna make somethin’ of it? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/51 "2010-01-08T08:47:30Z")
Am I the only one who suspects that the actual reason would be dissatisfying? I think we think about the crimes way more than the criminals actually did, in most cases. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/52 "2010-01-08T09:01:56Z")
Not a crime, but I’d like to know what really happened to Amelia Earhart. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/53 "2010-01-08T09:46:55Z")
I’d like to take the ‘unknown’ out of ‘murder by person or persons unknown’ that’s on my Grandmother’s death certificate. She was beaten to death. As for famous stories, I would like to know what actually happened to Madelaine McCann, partly to get it out of the newspapers. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/54 "2010-01-08T10:53:34Z")
The “little gregory” murder case. “The body of four-year-old Gregory Villemin was found tied up and drowned in the Vologne River, in the Vosges Mountains in eastern France, in October 1984. The following day, a letter arrived at the home of his parents - who had been receiving anonymous hate mail - claiming responsibility for the murder, and calling it “revenge.” Gregory’s killing sparked a 17-year legal saga that transfixed France but the case was wrapped up in 2001 without identifying either the murderer or the sender of the mysterious letters.” “A cousin of the child’s father, Bernard Laroche, was charged a month after the murder, based on evidence given by a teenaged sister-in-law. He was released after she withdrew her claims, only to be shot dead in March 1985 by Jean-Marie Villemin, who spent two and a half years in prison for the crime. The poison-pen letters did not stop with Laroche’s death.” [http://www.news24.com/Content/World/News/1073/29823db6fbd9454d934350c73f9aa30b/22-10-2009-03-27/DNA\_revives\_murder\_mystery](http://www.news24.com/Content/World/News/1073/29823db6fbd9454d934350c73f9aa30b/22-10-2009-03-27/DNA_revives_murder_mystery) All very mysterious and complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/55 "2010-01-08T13:58:39Z")
[The Mad Gasser of Mattoon.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Gasser_of_Mattoon) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/56 "2010-01-08T14:14:45Z")
[Diane Downs](http://www.dianedowns.com/) & [Alice Crimmins](http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/family/crimmins/1.html). Either they were guilty and punished, or they suffered the worst ordeal any mother could–being unfairly convicted and locked up for killing their children when they were innocent. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/57 "2010-01-08T14:48:43Z")
I would love to know the truth about [Spring Heeled Jack.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack) I have been fascinated with him since i was a wee lad. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/58 "2010-01-08T15:21:14Z")
I want to know who killed Firefly before it even finished its 13 episode run. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/59 "2010-01-08T15:40:34Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Just like we know [DB Cooper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Cooper) died after parachuting out of the plane? This one. I personally would like to believe he got off scot-free and lived happily ever after. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/60 "2010-01-08T15:44:01Z")
“The Princes in the Tower.” I’d like to see Richard III exonerated. I firmly believe that it was done on Henry VII’s behalf, with his mother most likely being the brains of the outfit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101.md?page=4)