-
ADD TIME NEWS
- MOBILE APPS
- NEWSLETTERS
Top 10 Unsolved Crimes
John Walsh founded America's Most Wanted after police failed to nab the person who killed his son, Adam. But on Dec. 16, police revealed the killer's identity and officially closed the case. TIME looks at more than a century's worth of other mysterious cases.
"I like killing people because it is so much fun."
So began one of the many encrypted letters sent to San Francisco newspapers by the man who called himself the Zodiac. For most of 1969, a serial killer terrorized Bay Area residents, killing five and possibly more. It started on Dec. 20, 1968, when a couple was shot to death while sitting in a car on a lover's lane. The killer would strike several more times over the next 10 months, shooting a couple in a public park, trussing up and stabbing yet another man and woman near a peaceful lake, and shooting a cabdriver in the head.
What made the case so fascinating, though, was the way he toyed with police and reporters. He called in several of the murders and began to send coded letters to newspapers, using a cross within a circle as his symbol. At one point, he mailed in a piece of bloodied shirt to prove he was who he claimed to be. Another time, he threatened to shoot up a school bus full of children. The investigation went on for years. Several suspects were considered and questioned, but to no avail. The Zodiac was never caught. The story continues to terrorize people to this day (see David Fincher's masterful 2007 film).
View the full list for "Top 10 Unsolved Crimes"Latest Lists
Most Popular »
- Asian Carp in the Great Lakes? This Means War!
- Are the Bible's Stories True? Archaeology's Evidence
- Spain's Troubled Economy: Why Europe Is Worried
- Who Were the First Americans?
- A Wedding in the Town of Al-Qaeda
- Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention
- Venezuela: Opponents Hope to Strike Out Chávez
- Book Excerpt: Anatomy of an Iraq War Crime
- U.S. Troops Prepare to Test Obama's Afghan War Plan
- U.S.-China Friction: Why Neither Side Can Afford a Split
- Asian Carp in the Great Lakes? This Means War!
- Spain's Troubled Economy: Why Europe Is Worried
- Are the Bible's Stories True? Archaeology's Evidence
- Obesity in Kids: Three Lifestyle Changes that Help
- How to Build Your Own Bedbug Detector
- U.S. Troops Prepare to Test Obama's Afghan War Plan
- The Problem with Football: How to Make It Safer
- Gift Giving on Facebook Gets Real
- Experts: 40% of Cancers Are Preventable
- A Tree Carving in California: Ancient Astronomers?











RSS