# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/141 "2010-01-14T20:58:17Z")
For some reason this case really niggles away making me wonder what actually happened: > **[Disappearance of Tara Calico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Calico)** > > Tara Leigh Calico (born February 28, 1969) is an American woman who disappeared near her home in Belen, New Mexico, on September 20, 1988. She is widely believed to have been kidnapped. In July 1989, a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young woman and boy, gagged and seemingly bound, was televised to the public after it was found in a convenience store parking lot in Port St. Joe, Florida. Family friends thought the woman resembled Calico and contacted her mother, who then met with investigato The polaroid photo is utterly chilling, and then there’s the sheriff who says he knows what happened but won’t tell anyone. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/142 "2010-01-14T21:41:49Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > I don’t want to start a political debate, but I want to know why Bush decided to invade Iraq. Everyone thinks they know, but nobody REALLY does. It wasn’t just to loot oil. It wasn’t just to placate our blood lust. It wasn’t to try to “finish what his daddy started”. It wasn’t because of any ties to the 9/11 hijackers. I have never been satisfied with any explanation for exactly what he (and presumably his close advisers) wanted from the war. This isn’t a mystery to me at all, but I agree it wasn’t “just” one simple reason. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/143 "2010-01-15T00:38:08Z")
Who stole my Redline BMX in 1976 or if not that then the Beaumont Children murders. ---
**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 15, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/144 "2010-01-15T00:59:33Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > OK, sticking only with actual crimes, I’d have to say the murder of [Sir Harry Oakes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Harry_Oakes). The investigation was so obviously bungled, you have to wonder if it was mere incompetence or massive cover-up. Yes, that one is intriguing. From what I have read those Amercian detectives were on the take as well (at least later on). ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/145 "2010-01-15T01:06:54Z")
Didn’t Karr kill JonBenet? He confessed to it and his handwritting matched the randsom note pretty clearly, just because he didnt leave any DNA doesnt mean he didnt do it My vote goes to RFK, a sound recording shows more shots were fired then reported. As well as the entry points and the fact the one of his body gaurds owned a .22 and told police that he sold it before the weapon months before the murder even though that was found out to be a lie. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/146 "2010-01-15T01:17:47Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > The polaroid photo is utterly chilling Interesting. The girl in that photo doesn’t appear (to my eyes) to be under any duress whatsoever. There is nothing in her eyes that says to me “I can’t get free.” Her eyes say to me “Hurry up and take the damned picture so I can get up.” ---
**Author:** ![jsquire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@jsquire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsquire)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/147 "2010-01-16T18:14:24Z")
The 2001 terrorist attacks. Not the ones that always get talked about, but the ones that really put people over the edge of fear – the anthrax mailings. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/148 "2010-01-18T01:26:46Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > Already mentioned, but the Zodiac killer, the Tylenol killer and the Mary Celeste are three cases that always struck me as ‘organically’ unsolved, as opposed to cases made more mysterious by police bungling, high visibility/paranoid obsessives (JonBenet/JFK) or well-heeled, sociopathic perps (OJ/Lizzy Borden). I like this taxonomy of unsolved crimes: the organically unsolved, the bungled, the “obvious suspect obsessively rejected” and the “obvious suspect can’t be convicted”. Not that the categories are mutually exclusive; I think the JonBenet case is a combination of bungling and obsession. To the organically unsolved you can add the Jill Dando case, now that the only named suspect has been acquitted on retrial. And Philadelphia’s “Boy in the Box” murder. Dando and the Mary Celeste would be my top choices for finding out what happened. To the “obvious suspect rejected/no real mystery” list add another Philadelphia stinker, Mumia Abu-Jamal. The man’s own brother witnessed the killing, and no matter how many well-heeled and prominent people (who could protect him from the Evil Po-Lice) rally to the cause, he has never uttered one peep in his defense; what does that tell you? Oh, and OJ: I don’t doubt he carried out the killings unassisted. What I’d like to know is who helped him clean up and dispose of evidence afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/149 "2010-01-18T01:38:07Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > To the “obvious suspect rejected/no real mystery” list add another Philadelphia stinker, Mumia Abu-Jamal. The man’s own brother witnessed the killing, and no matter how many well-heeled and prominent people (who could protect him from the Evil Po-Lice) rally to the cause, he has never uttered one peep in his defense; what does that tell you? . Not just that, but according to a liberal, anti-death penalty, prisoners’ rights volunteer (who became a friend of Mumia’s, visiting him in prison several times) Abu-Jamal actually admitted to the killing in a candid moment between them. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/150 "2010-01-18T21:14:40Z")
Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who\_put\_Bella\_in\_the\_Wych\_Elm%3F](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_put_Bella_in_the_Wych_Elm%3F) The skeletonized remains of a woman are found crammed into a tree- questioning graffitti appears and continues from 1943 until the present. ---
**Author:** ![smaje1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@smaje1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaje1)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/151 "2010-01-18T22:38:42Z")
> [@Sidney Evgeni Jordan](#): > > If I can have a second choice, I would say the murders of [the Rafay family](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/25/48hours/main711556.shtml) - [probably](http://www.rafayburnsappeal.com/) another wrongful conviction. Whoa! I’d never even heard of this case, and it happened right around my neck of the woods. Creeeeepy. I’d vote to find out who the real Zodiac killer was (is?). Jerks like him make me scared to park in a deserted field and make out with my husband in the backseat of a car. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/152 "2010-01-18T23:52:12Z")
The hanging of Roberto Calvi. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/153 "2010-01-19T08:27:53Z")
> [@Sidney Evgeni Jordan](#): > > If I can have a second choice, I would say the murders of [the Rafay family](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/25/48hours/main711556.shtml) - [probably](http://www.rafayburnsappeal.com/) another wrongful conviction. > [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > When I watched the 48 Hours episode (I think it was a 2 hour special) about the case, there was not much doubt in my mind that those two were absolutely guilty… > > I dont want to spend hours pouring over a website, but do you have something fairly concise that I could read that casts doubt on their guilt? > > I promise I would read it with an open mind. There was absolutely no question of their guilt. The jury found the evidence to be “overwhelming”. From the local newspaper [http://www.seattlepi.com/local/175213\_burnsrafay27.html](http://www.seattlepi.com/local/175213_burnsrafay27.html) > [@](#): > > During the past few months, jurors saw the men discuss the slayings on videotape as part of a 1995 undercover operation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. > In the footage, Rafay said he “just didn’t have the nerve” to help Burns bludgeon his family with a baseball bat, so he stood around, then “yanked out a VCR” in an effort to make the crime look like a robbery. > Burns said killing his best friend’s family was “more nerve-wracking than we expected” but left him “a lot happier than if it didn’t happen.” > Both men laughed as Burns recounted that Rafay’s sister “was standing up and walking around” as he was attacking her. The only evidence the defense could come up with pointing away from the boys (who had told others of their desire to kill the family) was a single hair in the house that didn’t match anybody’s. That’s all. After a 6-month trial, the jury took only 3 and 1/2 days to convict. They had some of the best, highly respected criminal defense attorneys in the business, one of whom I’m personally familiar with and respect to no end. The website proclaiming their innocence is simply their appeal campaign, hence the name rafayburnsappeal . com. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/154 "2010-01-19T08:48:56Z")
The Hwaseong murders - 10 women were raped and killed from 86-91. They were all found strangled with their panties around their necks, all within a 2km radius. Their genitals were mutilated and some of them were stabbed violently in the chest multiple times, others with cigarette butts stuffed into their vaginas. Out of the 10, one was believed to be a copycat (they found a hair in the victim’s vagina that was later traced to a local) but the remaining 9 were never solved. It was terrifying for people back then because the killer would strike just as everyone thought he’d stopped/gone away. Since there have been no further killings after 1991 it’s possible he is actually dead this time, from an illness or an accident or who knows what. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/155 "2013-02-02T21:49:35Z")
My friend Devan was found dead in her car a couple weeks ago. It looks like it could be an overdose, but very fishy right now. ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/156 "2013-02-02T22:51:33Z")
Sorry about your friend. It doesn’t sound like it’s a cold case, though, so maybe information can still come to light. Zombie thread, but like many others who posted originally, I would like to know who really killed JonBenet Ramsey. If I could have some freebies, I’d like to know who Jack the Ripper really was, and I’d also like to know what the heck happened to Kyron Horman. Would also like for it to be revealed who killed Caylee Anthony, even though it wouldn’t make a difference because I’m 99.9% sure it was her mother, who has already been acquitted. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/157 "2013-02-02T22:59:45Z")
The guy who caused my grandmother’s wreck many years ago. Her death caused reverberations throughout my family 51 years later. Her death has led to suicide, child molestation, mental and physical abuse of kids, rape, murder, broken families, etc. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/158 "2013-02-02T23:46:18Z")
[Laurie Bambenek](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembenek). Did she actually kill her husband’s ex-wife, for which she was convicted, sent to jail from which she escaped, got re-captured, then eventually pled no contest in exchange for a time-served sentence? Or was it, as many people think, a conspiracy involving her husband and the Milwaukee Police Department, against which Bambenek had a federal sex-discrimination suit? Many people maintain she got a raw deal, and even the judge who presided over her second hearing said the investigation had egregious errors, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/159 "2013-02-04T21:43:23Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Black Dahlia…some of the theories are so twisted\*, I’d really like to know what really happened… > > I’m not sure whether I’d be more disappointed if the real answer was as twisted as the theories, or simple and straightforward. > > - I’m thinking particularly of Steve Hodel’s…er…‘evidence’, for want of a better word, that his father did it. FWIW, Hodel is back in the news. > **[Dog Could Help Solve Black Dahlia Case](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-dahlia-murder-case_n_2615347)** > > Dog Could Help Solve Black Dahlia Case I read about half of his book when it came out and then lost interest in it. Regarding the question in the OP, I’ve been interested in the Zodiac Killer for 10-15 years, so I would probably choose that. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101/160 "2013-02-04T21:55:59Z")
I don’t think we know the whole story of the MLK, Jr. assassination. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-one-crime-would-you-like-the-true-answer-to/524101.md?page=9)