10 Forgotten 1990s Crimes That Were Terrifying
10 Shocking 1990s Crimes Nobody Talked About
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re discussing appalling crimes of the 90s that flew under the radar.
Disappearance of Traci Pittman Kegley (1998)
Just two weeks after her divorce was finalized, and one day before starting a new job, Traci Kegley seemingly vanished into thin air. She and her two-year-old daughter had been living with her parents since separating from her husband a few months earlier. On the evening of April 26, 1998, Kegley and her daughter hopped into the car to run to a gas station in Wetumpka, Alabama. But they never came home. The next morning, a passerby found Kegley’s car on the side of the road. The engine was idling and the windows were cracked, and Kegley’s daughter was still inside, unharmed. Although police believe Kegley was murdered, her body has never been found, and her disappearance remains a mystery.
“The Satanic Verses” Murder (1991)
Writer Salman Rushdie is best known for his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses,” which features the prophet Muhammad and other figures from Islam as characters. Many Muslims found the book highly offensive, and in 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran called for the death of Rushdie and his publishers. Rushdie survives to this day despite multiple attempts on his life, but the Japanese translator of his book, Hitoshi Igarashi, wasn’t so lucky. Igarashi was a scholar of Arabic and Persian literature, and on July 12, 1991, his body was found in his office at the University of Tsukuba with multiple stab wounds. His killer was never found. Rushdie’s Italian and Turkish translators and Norwegian publisher were also attacked, but all survived.
Disappearance of Suzanne Lyall (1998)
This case got surprisingly little national attention when it happened, though it’s become more famous in the years since. On March 2, 1998, Albany college student Suzanne Lyall left her job at a computer store at 9 p.m. She took a bus back to campus, got off at a stop not far from her dorm, and vanished. No one has seen her since. The strangest part of the case is that Lyall’s debit card was used to withdraw cash from two different ATMs the following day, but supposedly only she and her boyfriend knew the PIN number. The boyfriend has long been a person of interest in Lyall’s disappearance, despite having an alibi. Today, investigators still have no idea what happened to Suzanne.
Murder of Stanley Edwards (1997)
This is certainly one of the more disturbing cases to come out of the 90s. Eighteen-year-old Todd Rizzo and thirteen-year-old Stanley Edwards lived in the same quiet neighborhood in Waterbury, Connecticut. Rizzo was known to have an unhealthy obsession with serial killers, especially Jeffrey Dahmer, and had once said that one of his goals in life was to kill someone. On the evening of September 30, 1997, Rizzo stopped Stanley Edwards as Stanley rode his bike past Rizzo’s house. He invited Stanley to come into his backyard to look for snakes. Once they were back there, Rizzo bludgeoned Stanley to death with a sledgehammer. He later told police he did it “for no good reason,” and that it was just an “urge.”
Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (1996)
You might have heard about this case if you lived in France or Ireland. Toscan du Plantier was a TV producer from Paris who owned a cottage in County Cork, Ireland. She went there alone in late December 1996, planning to return home by Christmas. On the morning of December 23, a neighbor found her body outside. She was wearing only pajamas and boots, and had severe injuries all over her head and face. A local man with a history of violence was strongly suspected but never charged. Irish police were later criticized for botching the investigation, and Ireland refused France’s request to extradite the suspect. A French court convicted him in absentia, but he remained a free man until he died in 2024.
Murder of Ebony Simpson (1992)
On August 19, 1992, Andrew Garforth committed a horrific crime of opportunity. Nine-year-old Ebony Simpson was walking home from the school bus stop in Bargo, Australia when Garforth grabbed her. He threw her in the trunk of his car and drove to a wildlife sanctuary just a few miles away. There, he tied up Ebony, assaulted her, and tossed her into a dam while she was still alive. She drowned, and her body was found two days later. Garforth, who had a rap sheet a mile long, was arrested and immediately confessed, and it was later revealed that he had actually joined in the search party before Ebony was found. Australia doesn’t have the death penalty, so Garforth is serving life in prison.
Disappearance of Angela Hammond (1991)
It sounds like something out of a horror movie. Twenty-year-old Angie Hammond dropped off her fiancé at his house in Clinton, Missouri at around 10 p.m. on April 4, 1991. About an hour later, she called him from a payphone downtown. While they were talking, Hammond noticed a suspicious looking truck driving around the block. She then told her fiancé that the truck had stopped and a man was coming toward her. Her fiancé heard her scream, and then she was gone. No trace of her was ever found, but a ransom note sent to a different family might be a clue. Police now believe that Hammond was abducted by mistake, and that her kidnapper thought she was the daughter of a criminal informant.
Murders of Leanne Oliver & Patricia Leedie (1995)
They locked up this killer once before, but they should have kept him there. On October 29, 1995, on a beach in Queensland, Australia, Paul Osborne assaulted ten-year-old Leanne and nine-year-old Patricia and beat them to death. Osborne had been drinking heavily and taking illicit substances at a barbecue earlier that day, and later told the cops that he didn’t know why he did it. Ten years earlier, he’d been convicted of assaulting and trying to strangle an 18-year-old woman, and had spent less than four years in prison. That punishment was clearly far too lenient.
The Pizza Killers (1997)
Late in the evening on April 19, 1997, Tony's Pizza and Pasta in New Jersey got a call for a delivery order for two cheese pizzas. Driver Jeremy Giordano hopped in his car to deliver the pizzas, but owner Georgio Gallara had a bad feeling about the call, so he decided to tag along. When they arrived at the address, it turned out to be an abandoned house in a remote area. Eighteen-year-old Thomas Koskovich and seventeen-year-old Jayson Vreeland were waiting for them. When Gallara rolled down his window, the two boys pulled out guns and unloaded on the men. During interrogation, they said they just wanted to see what it felt like to kill somebody.
The I-95 Killer (1994)
Despite murdering six people in just eight months, this serial killer got surprisingly little national attention – probably because all of his victims were gay men. Gary Ray Bowles left home at a young age to escape his stepfather’s abuse. He drifted around the country for years, doing sex work to get by. He spent a few years in prison for assaulting his girlfriend, and eventually ended up in Daytona Beach, where he began his killing spree in March 1994. Bowles made his way up Interstate 95, picking up men in bars, beating them, and strangling them. He was caught just six days after his last murder, and it didn’t take him long to confess.
Which of these crimes shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
