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You know what - before we start reading about perfect crimes that failed literally at the last moment due to the slightest accident or because the criminals didn't take something into account, let's do one very important thing, as it seems to me: let's make a reservation.
'Perfect crimes' undoubtedly exist, but they aren't on this list. Do you know why? Because a truly perfect crime is one that neither we nor the police know about. Ideally, even the victim shouldn't know about the fact of the crime - if it was, let's say, a theft. Otherwise, it would be as perfect a crime as the Patriots' 2007 season was perfect. The same one with only one defeat. In the Super Bowl. Okay, now let's read on.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Ariel Castro gained international attention for abducting, brutalizing and keeping three girls in his house for over 11 years. This was before he forgot the door unlocked *one* time when he left the house, and Amanda Berry was finally able to run out and use a strangers phone to dial 911.
That's quite a bad enough story, and I could have easily stopped there and still had one of the most disturbing posts on this submission... but the investigation also found that his *next door neighbor* had abducted a girl back in the early '90s, and he still had her remains buried in his basement. He might have *never* been caught, and that girl would have still been a Missing Person cold case, if Amanda Berry was never able to make that phone call.
Sergio Bicerra 1 year ago
Never underestimate evil. When you learn about people being liars, unfaithful, agresive, etc don't be surprised or upset, as people like Ariel Castro still remain with us. Let's be alert.
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Alethea Fletcher 1 year ago
Well this opened a whole rabbit hole for me. I knew about Castro...had no idea about what he was charged with, and the fact that he was found hanged in his cell...and had absolutely no idea about his neighbour. What an evil amount of hell all those women were subjected to. So many lives ruined and taken.
Charlotte A. 1 year ago
Good thing she didn't go to the next door neighbour for help, I guess...
SheamusFanFrom1987 1 year ago
Castro hanged himself one month into his sentence. Obviously took the easy way out...>:-(
The Darkest Timeline 1 year ago
Didn’t mind taking captives but couldn’t be one himself. Human trash. Anyone still think “all lives matter”?
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John O'Donnell 1 year ago
Is there some special zoning in that city? If you're a psychopath, live here!
madbakes 1 year ago
As a Clevelander, it's not terribly surprising. The east side and lower west side can be quite rough, and Cleveland Police are inept, like under Dept of Justice supervision for over a decade.
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Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
I read the book by the first woman he abducted, who was with him the longest. (Michelle Knight I think) It's one of the worst things I've ever heard about. He was truly a psychopath. Those poor women suffered so much. :(
DelvianBlue 1 year ago
I live in the Cleveland area and probably drove down his street a few times before anyone knew, and the things he did to those girls was beyond disturbing. The youngest was only 12-13. It's hard to believe anyone could treat a child the way he did.
TomCat 1 year ago
From the West side and saw those missing persons posters for YEARS. The fact that the east side was so dilapidated made the city complicit in this crime.
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#2
The United California Bank robbery of 1972. The six perpetrators had rented a vacation home to use as a base and cleaned it top to bottom before leaving.
Except they forgot to start the dishwasher before they left, and police were able to match all of their fingerprints off the dirty dishes.
Jane No Dough 1 year ago
Good thing it wasn't an AirBnB, all that loot would of gone to cleaning fees!
Aroace tiger (she/they/he) 1 year ago
According to a quick Google search 1850!
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#3
Joseph James DeAngelo - otherwise known as the Golden State Killer, the East Area Rapist, and the Visalia Ransacker.
The guy was a one-man crime wave. In a 12-year period, he committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes and 120 burglaries. As the East Area Rapist, he would often select his targets months in advance, conduct extensive reconnaissance, learning the routines of the occupants, and sometimes break in in advance of his attack to plant his weapons and ligatures, and he would make threatening/hang-up calls in advance to create a sense of fear. I won’t go into details about his attacks, but he had a whole routine and everything that he would go through. And even though the sketches of him were near enough accurate, and the criminal profile of him was dead on accurate (for example, they correctly identified the attacker as working or having worked in law enforcement and the military, and JJD was a police officer at the time of his crime spree), they never even came close to finding him. When he was arrested, it was the first time he had ever come to the attention of the police. He didn’t even have any DNA on file for them to match when that became a thing. That was how good he was at staying off the radar.
The reason he got caught? Genealogical testing. You know those test kits that people get from services such as 23andMe, and Ancestry? Well, the police ran the DNA samples through a database used by those services and identified his relatives. They eventually found someone closely related enough to him that they could identify him. So he hadn’t even submitted his DNA for testing - one of his relatives did.
The guy must’ve been so f*****g shocked when the police showed up at his door.
JK 1 year ago
Not really, that just sat arpund and waited until technology had progressed and then bulk tested cold case dna with ones on file. They didn't even attempt to look for him specifically, it was a literal fluke. Laziest police work ever.
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Lesbiancats 1 year ago
I FREAKING LOVE ANCESTRY CASE SOLVES!!! ITS SO COOL I LOVE IT I COULD TALK FOR HOURS ON THS
Dane 1 year ago
This is the case Michelle McNamara (wife of Patton Oswalt) worked on for years, passing just before he was arrested. The story is on HBO.
David 1 year ago
and now the courts are debating if that is even legal without a court order, because their uploading of the DNA to these companies violate their terms and conditions, as well as federal privacy laws for DNA testing. The Courts so far have ruled in favor of privacy against law enforcement
Nicky Shrimps 1 year ago
He was not shocked as he was a police officer before he was fired for theft. He knew he would be caught one day, and all who worked on these cases knew whoever he was, he was current or former police.
Big Chungus 1 year ago
The story of this is incredible. Read the book "Unmasked" by the cold case investigator Paul Holes. His work is what made this possible.
Bryn 1 year ago (edited)
No they're not. They're not a great company. They sell data and give false positives..
Load More Replies...One of the so-called 'Murphy’s Laws' says “If everything is going well for you, it means you haven’t taken something into account.” And indeed, sometimes literally the smallest mistake by one of the performers of a brilliant plan, or some tiny grain of sand in an impeccable mechanism, leads to complete confusion. And then the 'domino effect' starts and literally everything collapses.
#4
Robert Durst.
He was caught while being interviewed for an HBO series, to which he initially agreed on to clear his name. Went to bathroom and mumbled to microphone (which he thought was off) "What the hell did I do? Kill all of them of course."
This was later presented to the court as evidence.
You can still watch it on HBO.
INGI 1 year ago
If you're curious (because god forbid a BP "editor" write a complete story... The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
Little Wonder 1 year ago
You know BP doesn't write these though right? They're scraped from reddit.
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Jessica Shookhoff 1 year ago
When the documentary gets to that part and you hear him saying those things, it's an indescribable sensation. The hairs on my neck and arms just stood straight up.
Linden 1 year ago
Yes, one of the creepiest tv moments. That and him talking about his mother's death.
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Stephanie Barr 1 year ago
The rationale on his first acquittal to me was suspect. They found parts of him but not his head and the jury seemed to think it might not be Black. Like Black might still be alive somewhere without his body.
Stephanie Barr 1 year ago
He also shouldn't be called a "perfect" crime guy. This guy was sloppy as heck. Nuts, too.
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#5
The Indiana fertility specialist who was using his own sperm to fertilize the eggs of his patients in the 1980s.
He was part of the “Quiverfull” cult and fathered a confirmed 94 children in his home area, but it’s estimated there could be over 200 half-siblings.
He was found out decades later when one of his patient’s children took a DNA test and found seven half-siblings matches.
He absolutely would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for those meddling kids.
Clown fish 1 year ago
It really was. Imagine the fear of meeting someone and hoping they ain't your half sibling!
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Skywitness 1 year ago
I hope he's forced to pay back child support for everyone of them. He's truly a vile man.
the_avenging_knight (her/she) 1 year ago (edited)
This is obviously super messed up, but that last line made by spit out my coffee.
Awesome At Being Autistic 1 year ago
Himself, and his self alone, just like on every other day of the year.
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Riley Quinn 1 year ago
I'd read an article about the “Quiverfull” cult that I found deeply disturbing, years before reading about this disgusting prick.
#6
That one dude who robbed a bank by hiring a bunch of people from Craigslist to show up wearing the same outfit he was and wait outside he would’ve gotten away but a homeless man saw him do a practice run the day before and after the robbery told the police
Zaphod 1 year ago
Me too, but eye-witness testimony is among the least reliable evidence. "Some 75% of the wrongful convictions for rape and murder were based on eyewitness testimony."-Science.org
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I'm.Just.A.Girl 1 year ago (edited)
So this happened like 5 miles from where I grew up. I looked it up after reading this.. the guy escaped via a "getaway inner tube" and was picked up by a boat of accomplices on the Skykomish River. **Edit: Also, he was caught after he went on a wildly outrageous shopping spree. After years of meticulous planning to pull it off, you would think he would know not to blow it all.
BarBeeGirl 1 year ago
If it’s the one I’m thinking of, they all dressed like construction workers and he escaped on a small boat
Synsepalum 1 year ago
Meh, rob banks. They deserve it. They rob us routinely. Just don't hurt anyone.
NetworkMan 1 year ago
He put out fake ads looking for help on a clean-up project, a cash-in-hand kind of gig, and told everyone to meet outside of the bank. Everyone was dressed the same, and were wearing goggles and face masks as per the 'required PPE'. He then blended into the crowd of 15-20 people and robbed the bank, when the witness description came in and described their appearance, the police arrived to find 20 other people, all dressed the same as the culprit. He then ditched his disguise, and escaped on an inflatable tube up a creek, using a pulley system he had installed earlier. The homeless man saw him being suspicious earlier in the week, and made a note of the licence plate of his vehicle.
Nina 1 year ago
A guy hired people to dress like him to confuse the police when he robbed a bank. A homeless person saw the guy do a test-run of the robbery the day before and could point him out.
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In fact, it's impossible to predict absolutely everything, and even if you have a plan A, plan B, plan C, and so on, completely unforeseen circumstances can still happen that your plan does not take into account. For example, the disposition of the Allied troops at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 was a weighty volume, prescribing many options for action on seemingly any movement of Napoleon Bonaparte's troops. As you probably know, that battle ended in one of the most brilliant victories of the French emperor... Simply because the plan is one thing, but the reality is something completely different.
#7
Wolfgang Beltracchi, he made millions with forged paintings he painted all himself. He was ultimately caught because he once accidentally used paint that contained a very slight amount of a substance that wasn't used in the days of the "original" painter
DennyS (denzoren) 1 year ago
Reminds me of the Sherlock episode with the fake painting (I don't wanna do any spoilers incase someone hasn't seen it).
Helena 1 year ago
Maybe an unpopular take, but I preferred the Elementary version of the stories.
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Penny Fan 1 year ago
See to me, I'm not sure that's a crime? If someone can reproduce a famous painter's style so well the only thing that gives them away is a smidge of modern paint, then they're clearly crazy talented. The art world is pretty pretentious and over-hyped any way. Decaying shark corpse anyone?
Zaphod 1 year ago
I see your shark corpse and raise you a banana duct-taped to wall.
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Der Kommissar 1 year ago
If this story piques your interest in fake art, watch Made You Look, a documentary.
Dave Morris 1 year ago
This just shows how up its own a*** the art world is. If its a good painting, buy it never mind who did it. So serves the buyers right really.
#8
Harold Shipman, seemingly a normal GP, turns out to be a prolific serial killer with maybe up to 250 victims over his career. Only discovered when a hospital worker was concerned about the number of cremation forms they had to process for his elderly patients, so very close to going undetected.
LizzieR1985 1 year ago
I was reading about him yesterday (20 years since his sui cide) his first known victim was killed in 1975! Should have been caught years before.
Donkey boi 1 year ago
The failure of the original investigation was put down to 'inexperienced officers'. It was actually a Taxi driver that later alerted the police stating that a number of the seemingly healthy elderly people that he had driven to the hospital had died while under Shipman's "care", prompting a new investigation that (combined with his last victim's will leaving him money, leading the daughter to contact the police) led to his arrest.
Olly Wright 1 year ago
Wrong, he was caught after he very stupidly forged one of his victims will, giving all her money to him.
Danielle 1 year ago
General Practitioner, I think the US equivalent is like a family doctor or something?
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Michael None 1 year ago
There's a lesson to be learned here. Whenever you are given more work than before make sure to complain a lot about it. You could be saving a life.
Big Chungus 1 year ago
Listen to the book Twelve from hell, his story is the first of many many crazy crime stories
#9
The serial arsonist that caused like 90% of LA counties fire. He worked for the fire dept. one of his fires were ruled as an accidental electrical fire and he insisted it wasn't
Lydsylou (she/her) 1 year ago
I heard about a guy who did this and was writing a book about a fireman who started fires. He was known as the best fireman in the state because he was so good at finding the place where the fire first started. Another piece of evidence against him was that the arson rates went up dramatically when he joined the fire service
Jessica Shookhoff 1 year ago
John Leonard Orr. Not just an arsonist but also a murderer. One of the first big fires set in a building with people inside ended up killing a toddler and his grandmother. As the father was watching the fire consume the building in horror John Orr stood next to him and coldly observed his grief and pain. An absolute horror of a human being.
Jennifer Gray 1 year ago
It's sometimes true...I don't know why you're downvoted, here's an up.
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Lydsylou (she/her) 1 year ago
He started a fire and his colleagues thought it was an electrical fire. He was caught because they got suspicious when he insisted it wasn't
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“People are still not perfect, so even after the perfect implementation of some brilliant plan, one of the accomplices, or maybe the performer themselves, can spill the beans or boast,” says Valery Bolgan, a historian and editor-in-chief of the Intent news agency from Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. “World history actually knows many similar cases.”
“This, by the way, is largely due to the fact that the implementation of some complex plan requires maximum nervous tension, and when everything ends successfully, the person, of course, relaxes - and in this state of relaxation they can make mistakes. Each of which may turn out to be critical. There are many books and studies describing in detail how this mechanism works," Valery summarizes.
#10
That Australian kid who hacked the FBI and put his photos on their website. He scrubbed the metadata from the photo so it wouldn’t show the gps location, then he accidentally uploaded the original with that information still on it.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
One can be both careless and clever. I'm half-way there myself, come to think of it.
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Bobby 1 year ago (edited)
The website, not any kind of classified fbi database. Still impressive, but not nearly as difficult as the post implies
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Birgit Sommer 1 year ago
Who cares that he clicked on the wrong picture, just the fact that he was able to hack the damn FBI is just....wow.
The Doom Song 1 year ago
Are we talking about the same "kid" who hacked one of the major banks and fles the country with like 6 billion dollars?
The Doom Song 1 year ago
He fled the country and now he's disappeared completely. I reckon he's in Guantamo
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#11
Knightsbridge Robbery. The boss of the gang cut himself while breaking into the lock boxes and -in the dark- found out too late, there was blood all around the place, too much to clean up.
He nevertheless managed to get away with $60M and hide somewhere in South America, but at some point decided to go back to England to retrieve his Ferrari, being arrested in the process.
Jellybean the Jellyfish(they/them) 1 year ago
Dam. He was like, "Wow! I got $60M! But wait... I forgot my ferrari! Oh no! The horror! I totally can't just buy another one. I need to go back to England where I could get caught. Yippee!"
MontanaMariner 1 year ago
You don't know Ferraris, some are well over $60mil.
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Bored something 1 year ago
With that much money he could have paid someone to go get it for him.
#12
The Antwerp Diamond Heist, the perfect heist-of-the-century where an Italian gang stole 100 million in gems.
While leaving Antwerp, they disposed of the disguises and the tools used, but one member of the gang was too lazy to burn everything as instructed.
Among the rubbish, the police found envelopes of the Antwerp Diamond Centre and a receipt for a sandwich bought at a store close to the Centre.
They recovered video footage of the sandwich store and busted the mastermind of the heist, who didn't give up his mates (but some were later identified). Some of the stolen diamonds are still unaccounted for.
Austin L 1 year ago (edited)
One of them also went back to the diamond place after the heist because he thought it would be less suspicious but that was after they found the dumped evidence (barely off a main road BTW) and were waiting for him. Of course they didn't recover those diamond so maybe that was all part of the plan? They only got like 5 years for it.
Melody Invisibilia 1 year ago
Gotta give him credit for defending his mates, at the very least.
Well, this collection is full of stories, both sad and funny - about how any, even the most well-developed plan misfired, and the criminal minds that developed it ended up behind bars. On the other hand, this is good for three reasons. Firstly, and this is the main thing - because it is disgraceful for anyone to break the law.
Secondly, because this is an extra reminder, even to the most entitled of us, that humans are still imperfect. And thirdly, because it provides us with at least three dozen thrilling detective stories here. So now please feel free to scroll this list to its very end and maybe add some stories you know or remember from world history in the comments below.
#13
The real answer is that there are many perfect crimes, in the sense that no one is ever arrested for having committed them. In 1969 Ted Conrad walked out of a bank in Cleveland with $215,000 in cash (equivalent to $1,700,000 in 2021) and was never caught. He lived his life as a free person in Boston before confessing to his family just before he died.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
I wish mine would -- for anything!
Load More Replies... Birgit Sommer 1 year ago
See, this is why I can't take cops serious when they say "You won't get away with this! We will get you one day! No crime goes unpunished". Ya right. More than not.
Zaach 1 year ago
The perfect crime was committed from 1872 to 1873; someone forged penny telegraph stamps - no one is sure how they made money on this. Worse yet, the stamps were supposed to be destroyed but were diverted to the philatelists which soon discovered the forgeries but this diversion was the second perfect crime. https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/the-mysterious-victorian-stamp-forgery/
#14
Loeb and Leopold. 2 high IQ teenagers in Chicago in the 1920s committed a murder just because they thought they were too clever to be caught. One of them lost a lens from his glasses where they dropped the body. Very rare RX that led the police right to them.
StPaul9 1 year ago
After planning the murder for seven months, they proceeded to commit several textbook mistakes that made it extremely easy to find them. Such clues include Leopold leaving his unique eyeglasses by the body, chucking the chisel they'd used as the murder weapon out the car window in front of a witness, cleaning the evidence at one of their houses with no cover story, having no solid alibi beyond phone calls, blatantly attempting to frame a classmate when the police came knocking, and even pulling a Sarcastic Confession to the detectives. After seven months of planning the crime, the killers were arrested within two weeks.
for ducks sake 1 year ago
I think their crime is discussed in the book Chicago, the same book that inspired the musical.
#15
The Friday night bank robber was the most prolific bank robber in US history. I believe he had a masters degree in something analytical like math. Was a martial arts instructor. He figured out there’s a time of the year in the northeast where it would be dark out just before the banks closed. He used motorcycles to drive through the woods to these banks and rode it back thru the woods to a u haul truck he had waiting and would put the bike into the truck and drive away calmly.
He did this for a long time kind of like the robbers in the movie point break, he would stop for the rest of the year which had the police really guessing. They couldn’t figure out patterns for a long time.
Years later the police started to catch on with his idea of doing it on Friday nights in the northeast, and from video knew he was probably into martial arts. But that doesn’t exactly narrow it down.
Dumb luck, some random kids stumbled upon his buried cache of things like a gun, gloves, mask, cash etc in the woods. They turn it over to the cops and that’s how they ended up finding out who he was.
The fbi gave him some deal where he worked with them and banks on telling them how to prevent bank robberies.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
Oh, this guy was in a book I read, a collection of true crime stories or something. He was really interesting actually.
Stannous Flouride 1 year ago
He sounds like he was doing it just because he could and for the thrills, not so much the money.
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Bob Brooce 1 year ago
Ah. yes. The old always on Fridays in the northeast strategy, because the FBI could never figure out such a complex pattern.
#16
I work in downtown Chicago. Last year, one guy robbed the Fifth Third Bank across the street. He escaped into the Ogilvie Transportation Center and disappeared into the night despite it being so crowded and busy. Got away with the money and everything. Until 3 weeks later, when a woman recognized him as having flirted with her RIGHT BEFORE he robbed the bank and had given her his PHONE NUMBER.. she handed that over to the authorities and he was successfully caught. Bro he was SO CLOSE to getting away with it..
Phoenix 1 year ago
This is one of those times that multitasking was not a good idea. Get the money, THEN get the girl.
Griffy 1 year ago (edited)
The name Fifth Third bank just makes me giggle a bit. Weird name for a bank. In case anyone is wondering about the bank name, Wikipedia quotes "The name "Fifth Third" is derived from the names of the bank's two predecessor companies, Third National Bank and Fifth National Bank, which merged in 1909. "
#17
The Dunbar Armored robbery: the largest cash heist in US history
A 6 man inside job to rob an armoured cash depot.
They set up a house party as an alibi, used the keys to get into the cafeteria, and waited in there until all employees came in on break, then ambushed and subdued them without firing a shot or raising an alarm.
They then loaded the money bags (with over $18 million) into a u haul, destroyed the cctv tapes and returned to the party.
Then they sat on the money for 6 months before hiring a crooked lawyer to set up a real estate money laundering scheme to avoid suspicion.
2 years after the robbery, one of the men paid a real estate broker with a stack of money still wrapped in the original currency strap. The broker immediately reported it to the Police. After being arrested, he cracked under interrogation, confessed to the robbery, and ratted out his partners
Edit: All the men have since finished their prison sentences, and most of the money was never found, so there’s a chance they still won in the end
DennyS (denzoren) 1 year ago
It's so funny to know they were smart enough to sit on it for 6 months but not to avoid using the money with the oringial strap.
Clown fish 1 year ago
Some people did this in England at the place where they burn old money. I can't remember how they got found out
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michael reid 1 year ago
If I robbed a huge amount of cash I would simply keep my normal job and use the cash for absolutely everything I buy so that my wages basically went untouched. I'd buy designer clothes, top of the range electrical goods, you name it. Not all at once obviously. So I'd have loads of cool stuff AND thousands of pounds a month saving up. I'm 36 I'm probably gonna earn a million quid before I retire. You only need to do it once and set for life.
#18
The Oklahoma City bombing museum is fascinating and talks about how they were at a dead end essentially, but Timothy McVeigh screwed up just one time and used his real name instead of alias when ordering Chinese food one night and left the receipt in the hotel room where they were able to see a mismatch between the ordered name and hotel reservation name.
Austin L 1 year ago
I live in OKC area and I thought he rented the truck with his own name and they eventually traced a serial number from part of one of the axles of the truck to him.
Synsepalum 1 year ago
Also, McVeigh was in police custody for driving a car without a license plate shortly after, very shortly after the bombing. The cops already had the culprit in their hands and didn't know it for a spell.
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Jane Doe 1 year ago
I thought Eminem, then “wait, Michael Phelps?” Oops, sorry, fellas.
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Kristian Bala Killed a man and got away with it...... Only to write a fictional book going into detail of what he did and sales of said book went up after he was convicted.
DennyS (denzoren) 1 year ago
That seems very egotistic to say the least...I wonder if he got the money from the sales.
Freddy M. (He/Him) 1 year ago
Not sure in this case, but I believe in the case of OJ he wrote a book about the case, and the family of the victim were able to sue him and get legal rights to the book
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Zaphod 1 year ago
OJ called his book, "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer". The title would have been accurate if he left the "if" off.
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Joshua David 1 year ago (edited)
Some killers want people to know what they've done, because telling it is a chance to relive the crime again. Most likely he was a narcissist?? It appears that he didn't want anyone else take the credit.
Jennifer Mathison 1 year ago
There is a terrible movie of this (called either Dark crimes or True Crimes) starring Jim Carrey.
Hey! 1 year ago
This reminds me of a wife who wrote a book, something like How I Killed My Husband, and wrote every detail, self-published, and people reading the book put 2 and 2 together. She was brought to justice. BTW, it might be the other way around (i.e. the husband killed the wife); I can't remember. What I do remember is that the self-publishing company was boycotted for printing such books.
#20
The Unabomber was the target of what is still the most expensive criminal investigation of all time, and they still had absolutely *nothing* on him. They were looking in the wrong part of the country, for a totally different profile of person, and the few leads they were actually working on were red herrings.
He got his manifesto published, and used the phrase "eat your cake and still have it" rather than the more commonly-known version. His brother David just so happened to read that manifesto and remember how Ted used that phrase. David decides, on a lark, to go through some of the stuff Ted had left at their mom's house and finds an early draft of the manifesto. David, after much soul-searching, decides to report this to the FBI and they almost throw the lead out before deciding to actually investigate it.
Anything at all in that chain doesn't happen, Ted uses a different phrase, David doesn't read the manifesto or doesn't bother investigating Ted's old stuff, or Ted doesn't leave the draft in Mom's house, or David doesn't tell the FBI, or the FBI toss the lead entirely, and The Unabomber probably stays active to this day.
DennyS (denzoren) 1 year ago
I always remember the scene in the bar from Good Will Hunting when I hear about this.
Jessica Shookhoff 1 year ago
No, it wasn't David. It was his wife. She remembered Ted's unusual writing style from a Christmas card he had sent them. She had to talk her husband into actually reading the manifesto. She's the real hero of the story.
Holly Marley 1 year ago
So frustrating that her help is so often ignored.
Load More Replies... don'tcensorstupidstuff 1 year ago
im pretty sure he died in his cell last year. wasn't he friends with timothy mcveigh?
James Frail 1 year ago
Yes, suicide. But he had been transferred from the supermax in Colorado to a facility in South Carolina, I think. He had cancer of some sort, hence the transfer. But given the living in a shack in Montana, he probably would have died earlier from the cancer.
Load More Replies... MontanaMariner 1 year ago (edited)
He hid in the woods not far from here, outside Lincoln, MT. I remember when they brought his cabin through town when they removed it.
Anne35383 1 year ago
Honestly, I always think how hard it must have been to turn in your own brother. But to do it anyways because it is saving lives...
Marcellus II 1 year ago
I really would have zero qualms, any relative or friend, in a case like this. He killed 3 and disfigured another dozen. Not sure where the doubt would lie — “none of my friends work for airlines or universities so it’s fine”?!
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Lila Allen 1 year ago
This is literally why the FBI recommended publishing the manifesto. They knew that someone would recognize the peculiar phrases and writing style.
Mjskywalk 1 year ago
This is the case that makes me think that the FBI can’t find its left butt cheek without the right butt cheek telling them where it is.
The Darkest Timeline 1 year ago (edited)
Because? What evidence did they miss that made it so obvious?
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#21
Someone robbed a bank a few minutes from my house and fled on a bicycle. He was in and out quickly enough that cops weren't on the scene until he had ditched the bike in the neighborhood. He had concealed his identity enough during the robbery that all the police had to go on is "a male riding a bicycle carrying a parcel in the vicinity of this neighborhood." He had made it to a truck he had parked in the neighborhood without being noticed by anyone. The police had little idea what to look for and by all measure he had made the perfect getaway. All he had to do was drive home. While attempting to leave the neighborhood in his truck he saw a police vehicle making a patrol, and in a panic he drove his truck straight into a utility pole. The patrolling officer saw this, went to check on him and found the stolen money in his truck.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
If I've learned anything by watching reality cop-type shows on TV, it's that low level criminals will almost always give themselves away. There are officers at airports who do nothing but people watch to identify who might be doing something suspicious. Here's a hint - if you've got cocaine in your suitcase or shoved up your bum don't avoid eye contact or act like you're doing something wrong. It's going to give you away 100% of the time!
#22
Salim Kara, who single-handedly stole 2.3 million in coins, one by one. He kept a low profile for 13 years, but blew it by buying a 1 million dollar house in the early 90s.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
I hope he didn't try to buy the house with all those coins he stole, even I would have picked up that it seemed a bit dodgy
Marcellus II 1 year ago
Respect for the effort… to steal $1M coins in 13y you must steal, every single day, 200+ $1 coins or more if smaller change. Surely he was recognisable for his heavily-reinforced trouser pockets!?
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EDWIN FAWCETT 1 year ago (edited)
Strange no mention of this on his Wikipedia page. I think you have the wrong guy
Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago
Why doesn't the Wikipedia article about this guy mention any of this?
#23
Susan Smith, the one who drowned her kids in her car. She claimed it was a carjacking by a black man. No weapon or witnesses. The cops had nothing but her word. It was a simple traffic light that got her. She claimed that her light was red and there were no other cars at the light. That couldn’t be true with a controlled signal. If there was no cross traffic, her light would not have been red.
Erik Naumann 1 year ago
Few things p**s me off more than when a criminal tries to pass off their crimes by saying "there was this black guy".
Java Addict 1 year ago
I know people say this all the time but I knew watching her first press conference that she'd done it. I remember saying out loud 'she killed them' and getting a lot of dirty looks, but unfortunately I was right.
shankShaw deReemer 1 year ago
She's up for parole soon. That B better not ever get out, I say.
Ur_Fav_Lazy_Panda🫶 1 year ago
It’s “always” black men🙄 it’s ok if they did do it, but I watch mur!der docs all the time and the suspects don’t know the persons face bc they had a mask on. “ I can feel in my soul that it was a black male.” That’s so aggravating (as a white person) to see them blame it on people of color, especially if they truly didn’t do it. I also saw a (fictional) show about a kidnapped girl and her bf was of color. Some in the show thought it was her bf. Normally, spouses/s.o. Are first on the suspect list, but it’s different if it’s bc they look different. (Not different in a bad way). TLDR: most people are racist and blame it on people of color when they are perfectly innocent.
Guess Undheit 1 year ago
Her first parole date is November 2024. Look up her "now" pictures. Her eyes are completely empty, like there's no one inside.
Susan Bosse 1 year ago
I knew she'd done it as soon as I heard the news stories. It didn't add up from the get go.
#24
Nuke Bizzle stole $700,000 in fradulent EDD claims, then released a song about it when someone saw the music video and tipped off the police in which he showed the actual documents here is the mirror of the video
Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 year ago
To save you googling as I did… The EDD manages claims for Unemployment Insurance (UI) and State Disability Insurance (SDI) programs for the State of California
DelvianBlue 1 year ago (edited)
Not to be that person, but commas are your friend. It took me two or three reads to work out that sentence.
Jenny Hornig 1 year ago
In Germany a guy made a Song about how he robs the state of the unemploymentmoney because he doesn't want to work but because he's a drug dealer he could still live his Luxury lifestyle.... They found 10000 cash and 2 kilos cocaine in his apartment
#25
Charles Schmid. He murdered a teen girl for fun and got away with it, so he murdered some more. He murdered this teen girl and her little sister, who was only 13. He enlisted his best friend (I can't remember his name) to help him bury the bodies. I think they were buried for about 2 weeks before his friend cracked and told the police on him. I think Charles would have been caught sooner or later anyways, he was on his way to becoming a serial killer.
iseefractals 1 year ago
Depends on who you ask actually. Broadly speaking a serial killer is someone who kills 3 or more people, with a "cool down" period of at least 1 month between killings. Some agencies put the threshold at 4 people, while some will drop it down to two in pursuit of triggering certain sentencing guidelines. While he most likely would have evolved into the designation of "serial killer" as it stands, this is more in line with a "spree killer" "someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders in a short time, often in multiple locations. There are different opinions about what durations of time a killing spree may take place in". Legal definitions are what are relevant here.
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Lady Gypsy Rain 1 year ago (edited)
He was on his way? Just how many teens does one have to murder to be classified a serial killer? I mean, I think 3 adults is equal to a serial killer. Do murderers get some kind of special math when the victims are under the age of 20?
shankShaw deReemer 1 year ago
There's a great short story based on this guy and what he did. It's called "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" By Joyce Carol Oates. There's also a movie, but the title escapes me.
#26
Al Capone was doing all the crimes… And it’s the tax evasion that got him.
Clown fish 1 year ago
Yes and no. It was kind of the only thing they had concrete evidence so any crime lock up is better than none
David Paterson 1 year ago
There was a TV program recently that claims that this is totally false. A cryptologist who worked during the first world war then broke the military grade codes that Capone used and grabbed his entire organisation. The cryptologist appeared in court and it was absolutely clear that she had all the organisational details. But the FBI decided to prosecute Capone for tax evasion instead and the cryptologist got no recognition for her efforts.
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BlueBlazer999 1 year ago
You legally have to report on your taxes any illegally gained money. A law specifically written for people like Al Capone.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
When you're indicted for embezzlement, fraud, counterfeiting, or any other income-producing crime, it is routine for the IRS to check whether you reported that illegal income on your tax return.
Load More Replies... Miranda Veracruz de la Joya Cardenal 1 year ago
Side note, I live in Chicago and this person is glamorized. It's sickening when you realize he was a violent criminal and a murderer.
Zaphod 1 year ago
They both supplied things some people want. I understand selling booze, but I don't get why hatred sells.
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Mary Kelly 1 year ago
well this is how they get you...income from illegal sources must be declared and taxed in the u.s.
#27
I worked in the federal prison system.
Met a Man in his mid 30's who was serving time for a series of bank robberies. His arrest was a complete surprise in his area. Model citizen. Married, young kids. Volunteered and gave generously to his kid's school.
His bank robberies were intricately planned and well timed.
One of his underlings decided to open up his own bank robbing business. He wasn't as smart and ratted out our man when he was caught, as part of his plea deal.
Graham Berry 1 year ago
This is why most secret conspiracy theories don't work. Everyone has to be competent and preferably smart. just one idiot in the lot of people that are conspiring and the secret is out.
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#28
Probably the DC snipers. They couldn't convince the police to talk to them because they were swamped with fake callers, so the snipers told them to look into a murder in another state. This started the chain of events to them being found out, but before that the police had NOTHING. Nothing. The public was absolutely terrified and the police had no clue who was responsible. The You're Wrong About podcast did a fantastic job telling this story.
Erik Naumann 1 year ago (edited)
That was a wild time. Gas stations were hanging tarps off of the canopies over the pumps so they couldn't get a bead on you. Where they didn't, people would pace back and forth as they pumped the gas. I was at a gas station on the night of one of the shootings - I got to my friend's house 30 minutes later and the news said another person got shot at the station across the street from that one. Eish.
Jessica Shookhoff 1 year ago
Yes, absolutely. I lived in the area where a couple of the shootings took place. I didn't drive at the time and had to walk everywhere while heavily pregnant. The whole experience was just so crazy!
Load More Replies... Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
That was a scary time for everyone who lives here. I remember they told us to walk in a zig zag pattern when we were in parking lots so it would be harder to shoot us. Which resulted in a lot of people in public places who looked like they had completely lost their minds. :) No idea if that actually works or not, but there were a lot of theories being thrown around.
Lesbiancats 1 year ago
The story is so wild for me. They started on the other side of the COUNTRY!!! And slowly made their way to D.C A FBI agent was k!lled too I believe. Crime Junkie, another podcast, did this story too, and interviewed one of the FBI Agents involved in it.
FABULOUS1 1 year ago (edited)
its because he was searching for his wife who was in hiding with their kids thats why they moved across states.
Load More Replies... Lady Gypsy Rain 1 year ago
I remember this time vividly. I was a traveling coverage supervisor for a chain of gas stations that now only exists in TX. At the time, though, I was doing coverage in stations directly within their crime spree zone. Absolutely terrifying.
Mary Kelly 1 year ago
living in dc at the time...terrrifying going from your car to house and back every night...
nottheactualphoto 1 year ago
I live in the DC area. The company I worked for at the time had a fleet of... white vans, of course.
Load More Replies... #29
In 1995, Mark Winger of Springfield, IL wanted to kill his wife Donnah (iirc so he could carry on an affair), and the perfect scenario came. A week before her death, Roger Harrington was her shuttle driver on the way home from the St Louis airport, and he reportedly spoke about always getting high and having orgies. In turn, the Winger’s complained to the shuttle company. Then, Mark calls the police claiming that he shot Roger after he caught him attacking Donnah. Despite the contradiction of Roger being shot in a way that Mark did not claim happened, the case was shut, and Mark was viewed as a hero for killing the man who killed his wife. However, in his infinite wisdom, Mark wouldn’t stop asking the police about the case, despite it being ruled as closed. Also, he tried to sue the shuttle company for Roger’s alleged action, to which the company started their own investigation which showed that the events couldn’t have gone the way Mark described. The final nail came when his affair partner came forward to the police and described their affair, which led to further re-examination of evidence that showed it was staged. Mark was later tried and convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life without parole. In another derp moment from Mark, he was later given an extra 35 years for trying to solicit the murder of his affair partner and his rich friend who refused to bail him out from behind bars. The main piece of evidence being a 19 page handwritten plan for how he wanted the murders to be carried out.
Natalie Kelsey 1 year ago
Doesn't seem to fit the rest of the "nearly perfect crimes". This guy was just dumb and blew it.
Ottoman 1 year ago
I just looked this up (because I was curious about how he got the shuttle driver on scene), and am now laughing at the fact that Mark Winger was a nuclear power plant technician in Sprinfield. D'oh! (Also, he apparently invited the shuttle driver over.)
Parmeisan 1 year ago
Thanks Otto, man (seriously though, thanks bc I was curious about the same thing but probably wouldn't have looked it up)
Load More Replies... Parmeisan 1 year ago
Seriously, that would have been a heck of a lot easier. And if it's stigma you're worried about, well, I hate to break the news about how people view murderers....
Load More Replies... Linden 1 year ago
This skipped a bit of information, that Donnah was murdered. "Mark Winger called 911, saying that he had shot Harrington to death after Harrington killed Donnah with a hammer in their home" "Donnah's upsetting ride with Harrington inspired Winger to plan to kill her with the hammer and then to shoot Harrington, using the fabricated story of an attack by Harrington as a cover."
IDK_Something 1 year ago
There's quite a few possible reasons why they mistyped that. English is a very confusing language for a lot of people. By all means, teach other people, but there's no need to be a cuntbucket about it.
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#30
Willie Sutton was one of the greatest bank robbers and never hurt anyone. He was caught when his car broke down and he bought a sandwich and was recognized.
Zaphod 1 year ago
When asked by a reporter about why he stole from banks, answered: “Because that's where the money is.”
Miss Tinker 1 year ago
I don't agree with this. I've never been the victim of a bank robbery but I can only imagine it would be a traumatic experience. Just because you haven't been shot or physically injured n some way doesn't mean you haven't been hurt. The emotional/psychological injuries would be significant. No such thing as a 'victimless' crime, in my opinion.
Stannous Flouride 1 year ago
Reporter: "Mr Sutton, why do you keep robbing banks?" Sutton: "Because that's where the money is."
#31
Guy fawkes
Man wanted to boom boom British Parliament House during a party/celebration (to maximize targets).
For this plot, he included somebody who had a relative attending the party. This man told his relative “yo fam we gonna blow this s**t sky high. Don’t come to school”.
This lead to authorities foiling the plot.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Looks like Guy Fawkes also invented gangsta style speech patterns centuries earlier than generally believed
JK 1 year ago
Guy Fawkes was a scapegoat, he wasn't even CLOSE to being the mastermind behind the plan.
PFD 1 year ago
If I recall correctly he was the munitions expert (using expertise gained fighting for the Spanish against the Dutch, I think). Not the planner but not a scapegoat either.
Load More Replies... John O'Donnell 1 year ago
An anonymous letter was sent to Lord Monteagle who was having dinner with guests. He forwarded the letter to the King, via a few other lords, when he was back in London on 1st November.
Aileen Grist 1 year ago
He tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the King's speech. That way they could return a Roman Catholic king - none of the MPs were RC as fit wasn't allowed
#32
I knew a guy who got into selling [substances] on the dark web. He had this setup where he’d buy the [substances] and package them in his room, ship them through USPS, and collect money through cryptocurrency. He made a lot of money, went on for a while without being caught, they even found fictionalized accounts he wrote about how he was able to do this, including driving 50 miles to make drops. He was caught when an employee noticed he was handling large numbers of small envelopes while wearing latex gloves and reported it. He probably would have gotten away with it if he’d worn winter gloves over the latex.
I_imagine_even_worse_w***s 1 year ago
This sounds very like that kid in Germany 🇩🇪 who was caught because he kept using his local post office and post box. They did a documentary on him and while doing it and still doing time he started another drug selling business online!!! There's a tv series on netflix based on it. "How fo sell drugs online" I think its called.
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago
Probably would've gotten away with it in the Covid era. People wear gloves all the time
meow point1 1 year ago
You've talked about a whole slew of atrocities on this list, but can't say "drugs" or "narcotics"?!
#33
There's the story of Daniel Rigmaiden. He was a scam artist who defrauded the government out of hundreds of thousands in tax money. He was eventually caught, but was so confident that his methods of avoiding capture were thorough that he thought law enforcement had to have been "cheating" in some way, abusing power. When caught, he turned whistleblower. This kid was *smart*. Per documentary IMDB - he evades the FBI for months. Once captured, He uses his time, then in prison, to investigate. His obsessive search for the truth leads to a groundbreaking discovery: law enforcement used a secret technology called a Stingray to intercept his phone calls and personal information, as well as those of millions of unsuspecting Americans. He takes his discovery public, and the revelation not only carries implications for his case, but also for the fate of the Fourth Amendment. The stingrays are cell site simulators" or "IMSI catchers," invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the area into transmitting their locations and identifying information. When used to track a suspect's cell phone, they also gather information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to be nearby, as a law enforcement can literally drive down any block with one turned on, having it connect to every single mobile device as it moves down the street. Mobile cell towers, essentially gathering your information without your knowledge.
Joshua 1 year ago
The conclusion is the government can spy on you and there ain't nothing you can do about it.
Load More Replies... Strawberry Pizza 1 year ago
Isn't the Stingray thing what Commissioner Kelly did in Brooklyn 99?
#34
North Hollywood robbers would've gotten in and out if they hadn't walked in as a cop car was passing. They were well outfitted and already had a few robberies under their belt.
Rob D 1 year ago (edited)
This is how it started, and was necessary. ...at this point though police militarization is from two sandbox wars worth of surplus being practically given away to these redneck sheriffs. Those robbers proved the need to carry 40 cal. Not have an armored personnel carrier.
Load More Replies... #35
The only Indian robbery youll read this in thread. F****r robbed a bank in the 90s toke the bag full of cash . The bank was situated near a playground ,buried the cash in the ground. Sat every f*****g day in the ground to see the police investigation. When the heat got away. He took the bag. But did a mistake, he bought a jeep , all in cash, the dealer reported this to the police.
Phoenix 1 year ago
I don't know where this happened but in my state (USA) any cash transaction over $10,000 is required to be reported to the State's Dept of Revenue and the IRS.
#36
Israel Keyes is almost certainly the smartest serial killer that has been caught. He studied past serial killers and how they were caught and so:
> Keyes targeted random people all across the United States to avoid detection with months of planning before he committed a particular crime. He specifically went for campgrounds and isolated locations. He claimed to only use guns when he had to and preferred strangulation.
> Keyes planned murders long ahead of time and took extraordinary action to avoid detection. Unlike most serial killers, he did not have a victim profile, saying he chose a victim randomly. On his murder trips, he kept his mobile phone turned off and paid for items with cash. He had no connection to any of his known victims. For the Currier murders, Keyes flew to Chicago, where he rented a car to drive 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) to Vermont. He then used the "murder kit" he had hidden two years earlier to perform the murders.
He was only caught because he kidnapped a girl and tried to get ransom money from her parents and law enforcement tracked him down via withdrawals from her bank account and the car he was seen abducting her in on security cameras. The FBI does not even know how many people he killed so who knows how long he could've kept it up if he had chosen to continue his usual killings.
G R 1 year ago
That's a myth that Israel created himself. He really wasn't that smart, just a very good self publicist.
G R 1 year ago
And he likely only killed the people whose murders he was linked to. The idea that he's got a string of unknown murders is again yet more self-PR.
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Pyla 1 year ago
We'll never know for sure, because he kiiilled himself in custody. There was a story out of PNW where two women were hiking near Granite Falls area and shot. Hikers found them on the trail leaning against each other. It went unsolved forever and is attributed to this monster. He was an animal abuser and an all around miscreant.
#37
The guy who created the Silk Road gave himself away by initially introducing the Silk Road to the world from an email address that would ultimately lead investigators right to him.
Astro 1 year ago
“The Silk Road was an online black market where buyers and sellers of illegal or unethical items could transact anonymously. Utilizing privacy techniques such as the Tor network and cryptocurrency transactions, people were able to transact in drugs, hacked passwords, illegal data, and other contraband.“
Load More Replies... #38
John George Haigh, killed upto six people between 1944 and 1949, by either clubbing or shooting his victims, and then disposed of their bodies by dissolving them in concentrated sulphuric acid. He would then fraudulently sell their assets, properties etc. and pocket the cash. His workshop contained no drainage, so he simply poured the remains on a pile of rubble. His last victim, an elderly victim disappeared, and two days later, he accompanied the victim's friend to the police station, where police discovered his history of fraud. At his workshop, the police found papers concerning his earlier victims, and dry cleaning, jewellery tickets for his last victim. A pathologist examining the human remains found parts of a pelvis, gall stones and dentures on the rubble. Haigh then claimed he had killed his last victim, destroying the body in acid, and completely misunderstanding the legal term of corpus delicti, claimed that he could not be charged as there was no body to determine a crime had taken place. The man went to the gallows. Edit; Haigh came from a particularly devout Plymouth Brethren background, and frequently had vampiric dreams of being offered blood to drink. In his police interview, he tried to plead insanity, in the hope that he would be sent to Broadmoor (asylum prison), but of course that fell through. A draft dodger, Haigh spent much of WW2 in prison, for crimes related to fraud and embezzlement. In jail, he experimented dissolving dead mice in sulphuric acid, stolen from the prison workshop. People he killed: The McSwann family - The senior McSwann was his employer. He murdered the son, then claimed that he had fled to Scotland to escape being called up for the army. As the war was coming to an end, the McSwann's wondered why their son wasn't coming home, so in luring Mr McSwann into his basement flat workshop, bludgeoned him to death, then sat him up in a chair, before luring Mrs. McSwann and doing likewise. The Henderson Couple - Mr. Henderson, a formed army medic and private doctor. Haigh befriended this couple, whom had just moved into the area. At a housewarming party, in which Haigh played piano, he stole Henderson's service revolver, which he used to shoot the Henderson's with some time later. After murdering the Henderson's, he stopped at a cafe and had a brunch of poached eggs on toast and tea, before finishing off the job. Mrs Durand-Deacon. A wealthy long-time resident widow that resided in the Onslow Court Hotel in Kensington, London where Haigh also resided. In all of these murders, he would strip the bodies and possessions of jewels, fur coats etc. and take life insurance and conveyancing papers with him, which he would cash in on. He also claimed to have drank a pint of blood from his victims, but that is likely his insanity plea.
Noodle Panda 1 year ago
Theres a film about him, titled 'A is for Acid', with Martin Clunes as Haigh. I think he killed his own parents, too
What do you think ?
Michael Largey 1 year ago
The really perfect crime is one nobody realizes has been committed. Murder that looks like natural causes. Theft covered up by a fake replica. Fraud where the victim never realizes they've been taken. Passing undetectable counterfeit money. How many times is this sort of perfect crime committed each year? By definition, no one knows.
Enlee Jones 1 year ago
Dennis Rader aka BTK was caught after he asked the police if they would be able to trace a computer disk. The police said no, of course, and promptly traced it to his church. Rader was shocked, shocked!, that the police had lied to him. He thought they had a good rapport going.
Julie S 1 year ago
Disappointed to not see The Great Train robbers on the list. In 1963 a gang of 15 men robbed a royal mail train, stealing £2.61 million (£58 million nowadays). They holed up in a farm and some of them thought it would be fun to play monopoly with the real money they stole. Even though they cleaned the farmhouse they forgot to clean their fingerprints off the monopoly game.
Auntriarch 1 year ago
A man from my town murdered his wife because he didn't want to pay for divorce. He maintained his innocence, but he was convicted anyway. A couple of years into his sentence, his dozy girlfriend suggested he take a lie detector test to prove his innocence. It said he was lying, and he promptly confessed. Which was a good thing because he also told where he had buried the body. His girlfriend went off him after that.
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
In France, we had Landru, who murdered a number of women during WW1. He dated rich single women, took them to his country house, killed them and burned their bodies in his wood stove. He was finally caught and one of the things that got him convicted was that he always bought two train tickets to his country place, but only one of them was a return ticket. Waste not, want not.
Lesbiancats 1 year ago
I would like to add the Gilgo Beach 4 killer to this list. Rex Heuermann, he was caught because he kept looking up updates on the case, which made police suspicious, they then found burner phones linked to him that lined up with polices timeline of the crimes.
DforDory 1 year ago
I once knew I guy from the neighborhood I used to live in, he was a bit troubled and not the sharpest knife in the kitchen. He was in a drug smuggling gang -his job was to just live in and watch out for the house where they kept the stash but he decided to order there pizza from a food delivery app UNDER HIS OWN NAME from HIS OWN PHONE! Guess who got caught.🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
K. LNU 1 year ago (edited)
Not a perfect crime, but I was reading about Chozen Terrell-Hannah (of MI) who was charged with four counts of armed robbery – his unique sneakers gave him away. An anonymous tipster pointed FBI agents to his TikToks and matched the Nike sneakers with red spots on them to the shoes worn by an armed robber who’d held up four stores from December to February, from TikTok videos he posted of himself dancing in said shoes.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
The really perfect crime is one nobody realizes has been committed. Murder that looks like natural causes. Theft covered up by a fake replica. Fraud where the victim never realizes they've been taken. Passing undetectable counterfeit money. How many times is this sort of perfect crime committed each year? By definition, no one knows.
Enlee Jones 1 year ago
Dennis Rader aka BTK was caught after he asked the police if they would be able to trace a computer disk. The police said no, of course, and promptly traced it to his church. Rader was shocked, shocked!, that the police had lied to him. He thought they had a good rapport going.
Julie S 1 year ago
Disappointed to not see The Great Train robbers on the list. In 1963 a gang of 15 men robbed a royal mail train, stealing £2.61 million (£58 million nowadays). They holed up in a farm and some of them thought it would be fun to play monopoly with the real money they stole. Even though they cleaned the farmhouse they forgot to clean their fingerprints off the monopoly game.
Auntriarch 1 year ago
A man from my town murdered his wife because he didn't want to pay for divorce. He maintained his innocence, but he was convicted anyway. A couple of years into his sentence, his dozy girlfriend suggested he take a lie detector test to prove his innocence. It said he was lying, and he promptly confessed. Which was a good thing because he also told where he had buried the body. His girlfriend went off him after that.
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
In France, we had Landru, who murdered a number of women during WW1. He dated rich single women, took them to his country house, killed them and burned their bodies in his wood stove. He was finally caught and one of the things that got him convicted was that he always bought two train tickets to his country place, but only one of them was a return ticket. Waste not, want not.
Lesbiancats 1 year ago
I would like to add the Gilgo Beach 4 killer to this list. Rex Heuermann, he was caught because he kept looking up updates on the case, which made police suspicious, they then found burner phones linked to him that lined up with polices timeline of the crimes.
DforDory 1 year ago
I once knew I guy from the neighborhood I used to live in, he was a bit troubled and not the sharpest knife in the kitchen. He was in a drug smuggling gang -his job was to just live in and watch out for the house where they kept the stash but he decided to order there pizza from a food delivery app UNDER HIS OWN NAME from HIS OWN PHONE! Guess who got caught.🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
K. LNU 1 year ago (edited)
Not a perfect crime, but I was reading about Chozen Terrell-Hannah (of MI) who was charged with four counts of armed robbery – his unique sneakers gave him away. An anonymous tipster pointed FBI agents to his TikToks and matched the Nike sneakers with red spots on them to the shoes worn by an armed robber who’d held up four stores from December to February, from TikTok videos he posted of himself dancing in said shoes.
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