10 Weirdest Murder Cases of All Time

Top 10 Weirdest Murder Cases of All Time

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Weirdest Murder Cases of All Time.

For this list, we’ll be looking at the most bizarre and unusual slayings in all of history.

What is the strangest murder case you’ve ever heard of? Let us know in the comments.

#10: The Alphabet Murders

In the early ‘70s, three young girls from Rochester, New York met their end in a very peculiar fashion. Not only were they all assaulted before losing their lives, but each of their first and last names began with the same letter. Even stranger, their bodies were discovered in towns that also started with that letter. The first victim, Carmen Colón, went missing on November 16th 1971, only to be found two days later near Churchville. Next, Wanda Walkowicz disappeared on April 2nd 1973 and was discovered the next morning in Webster. The last victim, Michelle Maenza, was last seen on November 26th 1973, and found two days later in Macedon. Despite a long list of possible suspects, the case still remains unsolved.

#9: The I-70 Strangler

Between 1980 and 1991, the bodies of 12 men and boys were found along the Interstate 70 highway. The crimes were attributed to one individual, referred to as the I-70 Strangler, as all 12 victims were killed by strangulation. Most of the victims were last seen in or around gay bars in Indianapolis, leaving with an unidentified man. Police investigation produced a list of possible victims, the most notable of which was Herb Baumeister. In 1996, police found the remains of 11 men on Baumeister’s property, in connection with a seemingly unrelated string of murders. Before he could be arrested, Baumeister took his own life, leaving many to believe - albeit with very low certainty - that he was the I-70 strangler.

#8: The Murder of John Price

The murder of John Price by Katherine Knight is still regarded as one of the most gruesome murders in Australian history. Long after her husband deserted her, Knight struck a romantic relationship with Price and later moved in with him. Having had enough of her violent behavior, Price kicked Knight out of his house, only for her to return on the night of February 29th 2000. While he was asleep, she stabbed him multiple times, severely mutilated his corpse, then cooked parts of his body intending to feed it to his children. After receiving a call from Price’s neighbor, police found Knight in his house and arrested her. She became the first woman in Australia to receive life imprisonment without parole.

#7: The Death of Candace Newmaker

Born Candace Elmore, this young girl was adopted by Jeane Newmaker after being removed from her biological parents due to neglect. Newmaker had a hard time adapting to her new environment, which led Jeane to seek the help of an unlicensed psychologist named Connell Watkins. On April 19th 2000, during what was termed a “rebirthing” session, Candace was covered in pillows and blankets, held down and forced to fight her way out to her adoptive mother. Completely restrained by the weight, the young girl was gradually smothered to her death. As a result, Watkins was convicted of criminal charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Jeane, on the other hand, accepted a plea deal, in exchange for a four-year suspended sentence.

#6: The Jeannette DePalma Case

Jeannette DePalma was last seen alive on August 7th 1972, after telling her parents that she was heading out to a friend’s house. It would take six weeks for her decomposing remains to be found in her small town of Springfield, New Jersey. What made this case particularly disturbing is that her remains were reportedly discovered in the midst of a group of objects that were deemed occultic. Also, no signs of injuries or fractures were found on her body, which led authorities to conclude she had died due to strangulation. In the following weeks, many began speculating that DePalma had been the victim of a Satanic sacrifice. Despite these claims, the question of “who killed Jeannette DePalma?” remains unanswered.

#5: The Crimes of Dennis Nilsen

Born in Scotland in 1945, Dennis Nilsen moved to London as an adult and joined the Metropolitan Police. While living there, Nilsen would lure men to his apartment with the promise of food or shelter before taking their lives. In total, he was responsible for at least 12 deaths, although his actual victim count is believed to be even higher. After killing them, Nilsen would keep the bodies in his home for weeks, often engaging in lewd acts with them before either burning or flushing them down the toilet. He was eventually caught in 1983 after a plumber found human remains in the pipes following complaints about a blocked drainage. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2018.

#4: The Crimes of Tamara Samsonova

Also known as the Granny Ripper, Tamara Samsonova is reported to have committed a series of gruesome murders between 2000 and 2015. Her first alleged victim was her husband who she reported missing in 2000, and who has never been found dead or alive. After her husband’s disappearance, Samsonova began renting out a room in her house and is believed to have murdered several of her tenants. She would then dismember their bodies and dispose of them around her city of St. Petersburg, Russia. Samsonova was arrested in 2015, after the remains of 79-year-old Valentina Ulanova were discovered and traced back to her. She was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial and remanded for life in a psychiatric hospital.

#3: The Black Dahlia Murder

The Black Dahlia case remains one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American history. On January 15th 1947, the body of 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found in the Leimert Park neighborhood by a mother walking her young daughter. Not only had Short been brutally murdered, but her corpse was severely mutilated afterwards. The case quickly gained infamy as newspapers bestowed upon Short the nickname “Black Dahlia” and published sensationalized articles about her. In the aftermath, multiple people came forward claiming responsibility, but were eventually let go due to lack of evidence. Despite a lengthy and extensive police investigation that brought forth more than a hundred suspects, the true identity of Short’s killer is still unknown.

#2: The Cleveland Torso Murders

In the 1930s, the city of Cleveland, Ohio was terrorized by a serial killer on the loose. Over the course of four years, at least 12 people were murdered and dismembered by the culprit, with their remains scattered around the area. The killer seemed to have targeted drifters and people from marginalized communities, making it hard for authorities to even identify some of them. Of the twelve known victims, two were positively identified as Edward Andrassy and Florence Polillo, while a third victim was suspected to be a woman named Rose Wallace. The particularly gruesome killings left law enforcement baffled, and resulted in the largest police investigation in Cleveland history. Regardless, no one has ever been charged with the crimes.

#1: The Murder of Renée Hartevelt

Renée Hartevelt was a Dutch student at the Sorbonne University in Paris. On June 11th 1981, she paid a visit to the apartment of her classmate, Issei Sagawa, where she met a brutal end. Sagawa was a foreign student from Japan, who had developed cannibalistic desires from a young age. Once in his house, Sagawa killed Hartevelt, and then proceeded to consume parts of her body. He was arrested four days later, but declared mentally unfit for trial and deported to his home country, where he was eventually released due to legal loopholes. He quickly capitalized on his notoriety and became a celebrity of sorts, writing books and making public appearances. Sagawa lived as a free man till his death in November 2022.