The unsolved Black Dahlia case

The case of Elizabeth Short

In the morning of January 15, 1947 the Los Angeles dispatch center received a call, reporting an abandoned body. In the middle of suburbs, a woman's naked dead body was found. But that wasn't the only concerning part. The body was cut in half and drained off of blood. There were cuts on her forehead, each side of her mouth were cut and her right breast was also cut off. There was also a game of tic-tac-toe cut into her hip area. There were also rope marks on her neck, arms and legs. So who was this unfortunate woman? Let's break down.

Elizabeth Short was born on July 29, 1924 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Other than her parents separating when she was young, she had a seemingly normal childhood. Elizabeth stayed with her mother in Massachusetts and grew up to be a beautiful young woman. 

Like many teenagers Elizabeth felt as if she didn't belong in a small town. So she moved to her father's place in Vallejo. But Elizabeth was a bit of a rebel and would constantly break rules. So eventually after a very short period of time, her father kicked her out. But she didn't want to go back to her small town. Instead she found a job as a camp cook on the military base. After working there for 9 months she moved to San Diego.

There she met a woman by the name of Dorothy, who worked at an all-night theater. They connected well and Elizabeth told her that she didn't have any place to stay. Dorothy was kind enough to offer her place. 

Elizabeth stayed with Dorothy for a month. While leaving she told Dorothy that someone named 'Red' was picking her up. Later she hopped into a Studebaker Coup and that was the last time Dorothy ever saw her. Few days later Elizabeth's body was found by a local woman. The woman, Miss Bersinger, was on a walk with her daughter and that is when she found the body lying around in the grass on the side of a road and she immediately went to a nearby house and called the police.

Once they made some DNA tests, they were able to identify the body. They contacted her father, Cleo but he really couldn't care less that his young daughter was murdered. Thankfully, when they contacted her mother back in Massachusetts she immediately flew to Los Angeles to identify the body.

Soon Dorothy was also informed. She told the police about the last time she saw Elizabeth and how a man, by the name Red, picked her up in his Studebaker Coup. The police searched for him everywhere and finally found him through a motel. His real name was Robert Manley. He was a sales engineer and lived in South Beach California with his wife. 

Police found that on January 17th, 2 days after Elizabeth's murder, Manley took off to San Francisco with his friend Harry. The police went to Harry's place to find Robert and had to wait 2 days to find them. The police took Robert into custody. They were very confident about this but Robert took 2 polygraph tests but nothing came out of it. The police also searched his car but they found 0 evidence. They had nothing against him.  

A month went by and the cops had no clue. The media pressure started increasing. The media loved the case because a beautiful young woman was murdered which caught a lot of public attention. That's when they gave her the name 'black Dahlia'.

Because of the insane public attention, many started coming forward, claiming to be the murderers of the Black Dahlia. But they had no real evidence that they had actually killed her. But then police also started receiving anonymous letters, whom they believed was the actual murderer because this person was sending the police some of Elizabeth's personal belongings. 

By February, They arrested Red again but still, they had nothing against him. Then they found another suspect. George Hodel who was an infamous Hollywood doctor.  

The police found a tip that Elizabeth was seen around George for a while. When the police dig up his past, he became a very strong suspect. So, allegedly Gorge sexually abused his own daughter but for some reason the charges were dropped against him. There were also other questionable reports against him.

But since he was financially well off, they knew it wouldn't be easy to arrest him. So they decided to bug his house and listen to his day to day conversations. 

In February of 1950, George was speaking on the phone and a woman's scream was heard twice. The cops went to check inside the house but they didn't find anything. After they left George was heard making a phone call and he said something about covering her with a blanket and putting a pillow over her face. Then he was heard saying something along the lines of, "Supposing, I did kill the Black Dahlia, They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she is dead". (George's secretary was found dead from a drug overdose a few days back). Even Gorge's own son believed that he was the one responsible for the murder of Elizabeth and many more.

By April, the cops had enough evidence to arrest him, but by then he had already fled the US. In 2013, they tested the soil of George's home for human remains, and the results were positive. But again, there was nothing the police could do about it.

Then on November 24, 1950 the 27th confessor of the Black Dahlia murder, came forward. But this person was slightly different. A woman by the name of Christine Reynolds confessed to committing the murder. 

According to her statement, Elizabeth and her were lovers. They met at a bar 3 years before Elizabeth's murder and she knew her as "Libby". 4 nights before the murder, Christine went out looking for Elizabeth and found her at a bar with another woman. They got into an argument and shortly after, left the bar in Christine's car. They continued to argue in the car and Christine said that she was so mad that she proceeded to choke Elizabeth. Elizabeth managed to get out of the car and started running. Cristine ran behind her and began to choke her again and eventually stabbed her with a pocket knife that she had. Then she left her body by the street.

The police didn't believe her story until she mentioned one detail that the police spared the public from. Christine said how she cut some of Elizabeth's hair off and then proceeded to insert it in her vaginal region. 

But again her story wasn't fully aligning. So the police sat her down and asked her and she finally broke down and admitted that she was in fact lying. She said that she had a friend in the police department who told her about the intimate details. When the police asked her the reason behind her lies, Christine said how 2 days before Elizabeth's body was discovered, she had woken up with blood all over her. She couldn't remember what had happened the previous night due to heavy drinking. She went to the cops but no one took her seriously. But she really believed that she had killed or at least hurt somebody and the thought of it bugged her for years. So she decided to come forward.

Another strong suspect that the police had, was a serial killer, known as, 'The Cleveland Torso Killer' of Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland there was a series of disturbing murders and the evidence suggested that it was all done by one person. The bodies found there were very similar to the Black Dahlia's (cut in half).  Many believe that she was his last victim. Many also believe that George Short was the actual Cleveland killer.

Regardless, the Black Dahlia case still remains unsolved. 

Witches of Salem

 Witchcraft or mass hysteria?

The infamous Salem trials took place in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 to 1693. These trials were a series of hearings for people accused of witchcraft. People's obsession with witches has been a pressing topic for years now. But was it just that? Or was it something much more sinister. The story reveals the dirty truth of politics and prejudice of the human race.

In the 17th century, there were two Salem's on the north coast of Massachusetts. The Salem village and the town of Salem. The two Salem's had their regular conflicts for political and religious matters. The members of the Salem community were very religious in nature. They strictly followed the Bible and weren't very forgiving towards people who didn't. 

In 1689, Samuel Parris, a local religious man, became the minister of the Salem village. But many were not happy with it as he was not the greatest man of all time. Regardless, his family moved in from Boston and they started living in the assigned ministry home. 

One day Samuel's 11 year old daughter, Betty and his niece, Abigail went missing for a short period of time. Which they probably ran away to escape everything for a moment. But it raised some eyebrows in the conservative community. They returned home safely shortly after but in February of 1692 both of the girls started showing strange symptoms. They had severe fever, they would hide under tables and cry out of some kind of pain and their body would convulse into unhuman positions. The girls claimed to be bitten and pinched on their neck, arms and back. The family tried everything they could to help them but the home remedies and the prayers didn't help. So they decided to call in the town physician and minister. After analyzing the girls, both of them came to the conclusion that the girls were bewitched. This led to one of the largest witch hunts in history. 

The news of the historical diagnosis spread very quickly in the community and with that many other young girls were found with similar symptoms. No one in the community had any logical answers and they were just looking to blame someone.

 Even though the Parris sisters were the first girls to be diagnosed with bewitchment, they weren't the first ones to get arrested. Because they belonged from a wealthy family, they were considered as the "victims". The first person to be arrested for afflicting them was their family servant, Tituba. It was most likely for her ethnic and racial differences. Tituba pleaded with them but because she was a slave, no one listened. The prejudice here was ever so clear. But this was just the beginning.

The same year many other girls were also diagnosed with bewitchment. When asked, one of the girls, Ann blamed two women by the names of Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good. Sarah Osborne was being accused because she wasn't the most religious person in the community and also had some legal dispute with a higher social status family. Then there was Sarah Good and she mostly was being accused because she was underprivileged and relied on her neighbors for support (which led people to believe that other women who were also relying on their neighbors were also practicing witchcraft). Her neighbors as well as her husband accused her of witchcraft. 

On March 1st, the 3 women were interrogated. Both Sarah's denied all allegations, but Tituba admitted to being a Devil's servant. Many believe that it was an attempt to save herself since denying the allegations was clearly not working. Regardless, on July 29, 1692 a total of 5 women were hanged convicted of witchcraft.   

Slowly more women, as well as children started getting accused of witchcraft. 4 other people were accused of witchcraft the same month. Even Sarah Good's 4 year old daughter was also accused. But the upper class people of society also started to get accused. One of the women, Martha Corey, was an active 80 year old member of the church. When her husband stood up for her, he was also convicted of witchcraft. And when refused to enter a plea, he was killed under torture. 

Most of the people who were accused were women (78%). Women who went against the norms and challenged the system. But also people who were slaves, native Americans or of lower economical conditions. Regardless, the last trial was held in the May of 1693. 

The root of these trials was mass hysteria among young women which led people to believe that they were bewitched. For years historians tried to find what was causing it. Recently it was discovered that it may have been caused by a fungus called, Ergot. This fungus is believed to grow on rye and can cause ergotism in creatures. So many believe that this fungus caused mass hysteria and made the victims go manic. And the prejudice in society turned it into witchcraft.

From 1692-1693, more than 200 hundred people were accused and 20 were executed, which included both men and women as well as children. For decades people tried to seek justice for the innocent people who were convicted in the Salem witch trials. In 2001, on the 300th anniversary of the Salem trials, the Massachusetts Legislature passed the act to exonerate the convicts and named each of them innocent.  

The unsolved case of the Wyrick family house

 The girl who saw spirits

This case took place in 1989 in Ellerslie, Georgia. When the Wyrick family moved into the small town. Andrew and Lisa Wyrick thought that it would be a good place to raise their 3 year old daughter Heidi. 

At first things were going good for the young family. Then one day Heidi started having an imaginary friend. According to her parents she would have these long conversations with her imaginary friend. So one day Lisa asked her about who she was talking to and Heidi said that it was this old man named Mr. Gordy. Lisa found it odd that her daughter's imaginary friend was an old man. She also said that they would meet near the swing set and play in her room and the backyard. Also Heidi said that Mr. Gordy had told her that there was money buried in the backyard. 

Regardless, Mr. Gordy seemed to be a constant presence in Heidi's life. When she would go on walks with her mother, she would pretend to hold Mr. Gordy's hand with her one hand. Her parents paid attention to it but they figured it was normal for kids her age to have imaginary friends. So they tried to be supportive towards it.

One day, the doorbell rang. Lisa was in the kitchen so Heidi answered the door. After answering the door she went back to the kitchen and told her mother that there was a man on the door, his name was Con and his t-shirt was soaked in blood because of his injured hand. Lisa was shocked but when she went to check there was no one there. So she called her husband and asked him to search the area. But they couldn't find anyone. 

Some time later, Lisa's sister Joyce moved in next door. So Lisa started telling her about everything that's been going on. Her sister gave her an idea that they should find out about the previous owners of the house and perhaps that would provide them with some information.

So Joyce asked their real estate agent to give them some information on the previous owners. According to the real estate agent, the previous owner of the house  was a woman by the name of Kelly. Then Joyce decided to set up a meeting with her. Kelly told her that before her the house belonged to a real estate investor named James Gordy. But he passed away in 1974. Soon enough Joyce was able to connect the dots. 

Joyce told Lisa about this. Which startled her as well. Regardless, she decided to speak to her daughter about it. But the first thing that came to Heidi's mind was that she wanted to visit James Gordy's grave. Lisa found it odd but took her to the graveyard anyway. After getting there Heidi immediately got out of the car and rushed to Gordy's grave. Which was strange considering the fact that Heidi has never seen his tombstone before and didn't know how to read either. But was somehow able to identify his grave. 

Then Lisa decided to contact Kelly herself. Kelly went to their house and brought some photos with her for Heidi to see. In the photos Heidi pointed to a man and said that's Con. Kelly told them that was her uncle, Lon and that he had passed away from cancer in 1975. She had also mentioned that he had lost one of his arms in a cotton gin accident. 

This is when Heidi's parents started to get concerned. They tried to come up with some sort of solution. In the end they ended up getting Heidi a dog to distract her from everything. But the dog only made things worse. It'd stare at corners and bark at empty spaces. It started creeping out Lisa because the dog was growling and barking at nothing. Soon the dog ran away and was never found. 

But then it wasn't just Heidi who was experiencing these phenomenons The rest of the family started feeling and hearing things too. Doors shutting, chairs moving and so on. Lisa said that at night she would hear voices and she felt as if they were talking about her. But this went on for years.

As the years went by, Heidi's perception changed. She was no longer seeing friendly ghosts but rather they appeared as a "dark figure" to her. She told her parents that every time a faceless dark figure entered her room she would feel the temperature drop and her nervous system rise. 

The intuitive sensations soon turned physical. As Heidi would feel someone pinching her and pulling her hair. One night she woke up with deep scratches on her face. The very next morning Heidi's father Andy, also woke up with scratches on his body and face. They tried to figure out what was going on but couldn't find anything. They were in no financial condition to make a move either. 

In 1994, Lisa and Andy welcomed their new child Jordan. So they figured it would be best to take serious actions about the paranormal activities they were experiencing. That is when they connected with Dr. Roll, a parapsychologist. 

Then Dr. Roll went to visit Heidi at their house with photos of many random people. Mr. Gordy was in one of the photos too. And right away Heidi was able to recognize him. Despite everything, Dr. Roll claimed that Heidi was just hallucinating and nothing was really going on in the house. 

Soon people and the media started finding out about Heidi. The gossip and the attention really affected Heidi's childhood. She continued to see Mr. Gordy till the age of 8. She said that she saw him as more of a guardian angel than a ghost. 

Lisa and Joyce looked deep into it and found out that what Heidi was experiencing probably ran in their blood. They remembered how when they were young, their mother would also see spirits.

Things took a different turn when Heidi's younger sister Joyce, began to see a little girl at the age of 3. Heidi said that she saw her too and she believed that the little girl was a good spirit. After this the family decided to call Dr. Roll again and this time he had a completely different approach to the case. 

He said that Heidi was probably psychic and had a strong sixth sense or ESP like most of the women in their family. Dr. Roll then connected them to a psychic medium who had no prior information on the family. According to her there was a good spirit or a caretaker but there were also 3 other bad spirits. She was also able to sense the presence of a little girl. She validated everything the family was feeling. 

But the family wanted more answers. So they contacted another psychic. This psychic also claimed that there were 3 demonic entities in the house. One of them lived in the living room from the master bedroom and above the bed. There was another one in Heidi's room but there was a good spirit protecting her as well. The family believed it was Mr. Gordy. And the last entity was trying to get settled into Jordan's room. 

In the end the family only had one question. Why? The psychic told them that there was a portal in their home. A portal that acted as a medium between the spirit world and the human world. The fireplace was an active portal. 

So then they decided to call in their pastor and do a cleansing of the house. They thought maybe finally it was over. But unfortunately for them it only got worse. 

One night they heard Heidi screaming from her room. When they went to her room they found her upside down, Hanging in the air. Heidi told her parents that some entity pulled her by her feet and hung her upside down. And that was the last straw for them. 

The Wyrick family finally sold the house and moved away. Later on Heidi went to college and had a family of her own. But she never stopped seeing spirits. Wherever she went, they were always there. Good or evil, it didn't matter. 

The killer Nanny

Murder for pleasure or attention? 

Christine Falling was born on March 12, 1963 in Perry, Florida. Her birth name was Christine Slaughter. Christine's childhood was full of neglect and abuse. When her mother gave birth to her, she was only 16 and her father was 65. Christine also had an older sister, Carol. 

Her father was violent and her mother was neglectful and would just disappear for months. After Christine's birth, her mother had two more sons named, Michael and Earl.  

At the age of 4, Christine, along with her sister Carol were adopted by the Falling family. But it only resulted in more suffering for the girls. They claimed that they were being sexually abused by their adoptive father, Jesse Falling. But the Falling family denied the allegations. 

But soon the sisters were sent to a group foster home in Great Oaks Village in Orlando, Florida. Now Christine had a good time there but her caretakers weren't happy with her. They said that she was a habitual liar and would often break rules for attention. She was also known for her violent behavior. 

As she was considered developmentally disabled, she was bullied a lot by the other kids there. She was also caught stealing and killing animals for pleasure. After a year, both of the sisters were sent back to live with the Fallings again and the abuse continued. But soon they ran away and Christine moved to Blountstown, Florida to live with her biological mother. 

Interestingly enough, at the age of 14 Christine got married to a man who was in his 20's. The marriage was full of abuse and violence. So very soon it ended. After her divorce, this is when she started experiencing hypochondriac episodes. She was hospitalized about 50 times for it. But the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.

From the age of 17, Christine started working as a babysitter in the neighborhood. This is where things started going down. In February of 1980, Christine was babysitting a two year old named Cassidy Johnson. It was a normal evening, but suddenly the 2 year old was rushed to the hospital. Christine told them that Cassidy passed out and fell out of her crib. 

Little Cassidy was diagnosed with encephalitis and she passed away a few days later. According to the autopsy, the cause of death was blood forced trauma into the skull. But no one suspected anything except the physician. They reported it to the police and Cristine was even interrogated but nothing came out of it. They had no evidence. 

That very month, she was babysitting 4 year old Jeffery Davis. The same thing happened to him and all of a sudden little Jeffery stopped breathing. Christine informed 911 but it was too late. According to the autopsy the cause of death was myocarditis. But once again, no one suspected anything.

Few days later, at young Jeffery's funeral, Christine was babysitting his little cousin, Joseph Spring. And yet again, in the middle of her session she called 911 because 2 year old Joseph wasn't waking up. Apparently, he died shortly after reaching the hospital. But even after all this, there weren't any investigations done. They figured it was just a viral infection. 

It only took Christine a month to strike again. Cristine was babysitting 3 year old Kyle Summerlin. And of course the baby was soon rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, the doctors were able to save him and they later diagnosed him with meningitis. After a year, Christine had another failed attempt, with 3 year old Charles and 14 months old Jeffery Heel. They fell sick in her care and were hospitalized but fortunately they survived. After that she decided to move out. 

So Christine decided to move back to her hometown, Perry. There she started working as a nursing assistant for senior citizens. She started taking care of an elderly by the name of William Swindle. And On the very first day of Christine's care, William was found passed out on his kitchen floor. He was rushed to the hospital but it was no use. Because of his poor health and age everyone just assumed that his cause of death was probably natural and no further investigations were done. 

The same month, Christine decided to strike again, when she went to the supermarket with her sister and niece. Her sister left her 8 month old daughter, Jennifer, in Christine's care. She came back and found her daughter dead and Christine, panicking. But the doctors declared that the cause of death was natural. 

A year later, in 1982, Christine was watching 10 weeks old Travis Coleman. Suddenly he was rushed to the hospital but fortunately ended up surviving. After he was sent home, Travis's parents asked Christine to watch him again. And this time Christine was successful at her attempt.

An autopsy was done and there were internal injuries found in young Travis's body which can only be caused by suffocation. But still, no one suspected Christine for a second. Everyone thought she was a "victim of circumstances".

But it all came to an end when the local newspaper, The Tallahassee Democrat, asked Christine for an interview. In that interview she made some questionable remarks. Which raised some eyebrows and finally caught the attention of the police. They brought her in for interrogation and they felt as if she wasn't well. So they admitted her to a psychiatric hospital for assessment and that is where she finally confessed. 

She confessed to killing only 3 children and denied the others. According to her statement, she heard voices telling her to "kill the baby". She listened to the voices and killed the children through pressing pillows or blankets over their faces. She had no particular motives. It seemed as if she was just taking her aggression out on the young children. Many believed that Christine also enjoyed the attention she was receiving.

In 1982, the babysitter from hell was arrested and charged with first degree murder. In December of 1982, Christine pled guilty for the murder of 3 children, but later she also confessed to the murder of the elderly, William Swindle. Although the state didn't seek the death penalty, instead, Christine received 3 concurrent life sentences. In 2017, she applied for parole, but her application was rejected. 

Currently, Christine is imprisoned at the Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Florida. 

The Deadpool Killer

The case of Wade Wilson

Wade Wilson was born on 19th May, 1994. After his birth he was adopted by Candy and Steve Wilson. They tried their best to raise him well and give him a good childhood. But during Wade's teenage years things started to change. He started showing destructive tendencies. But when his family tried to get him professional help, he refused to follow along.

Few years later, things started getting out of hand and they had no other option but to invoke the Florida mental health act. It allows people who are unable to determine their need for treatment, receive emergency mental health services and detention. So Wade was held in for 72 hours. But it was said that this made his situation even worse because of drug use.

During his young adulthood Wade was arrested and charged multiple times for theft and assault. But thanks to his parents, he got away with all of them. Around this time he also got close with biological father. 

In 2019, Wade started dating a woman named Kelly. At first things were good, but then it started going downhill. Wade started abusing drugs. The couple would constantly get into fights. Things quickly escalated when at one point Wade decided to kidnap Kelly.

He threw her into the trunk of her own car then drove to Florida Keys. During this time he sexually and physically abused her. He even broke her foot while trying to shove her inside the trunk. 

Fortunately, at some point Wade met up with another woman and he let Kelly go. He gave her, her keys so she immediately took the car and rushed to the nearby hospital and decided to file a sexual assault case. But the case ended up becoming inactive because according to the police, there was no evidence nor witnesses. 

But regardless, Wade went on to dating other women and abusing them in similar ways. 

During 2019 Wade started dating a woman by the name of Melissa Montanas. So on October 6th they decided to go clubbing and Wade met a man, Jason Shepard. 

By the end of the night, he went to Jason's house with him. They met up with two other women, Christine Melton and Stephanie Johnson. They spent the night together and the next morning he drove the two women home, and after Stephanie had left, for some apparent reason Wade strangled Christine with her own clothes. Then left the crime scene with her car.

Afterwards, Wade decided to go on a spree of assaults. First he went to his partner's workplace and tried to drag her into the car. but when she refused to go, he proceeded to brutally beat her. Then he dragged her upstairs and pinned her against the wall where he started punching her again.

At this point she starts bleeding heavily, so he pauses for a second. Fortunately, it gave Melissa an opportunity to escape. After her escape, Wade just took the car and left. 

After that, he drove to Cape Coral and spotted a woman by the name of Diane Ruiz. He somehow managed to get her inside the car then proceeded to strangle her. Then he tossed her out of the car in an empty parking lot near Sam's Club. But she was still alive so he ran over her multiple times with the car.

At this point Melissa had filed a report against him. So the police started to look for him. They spotted him at a parking lot but when they tried to approach him, he drove away, and they didn't bother to go after him. 

That night he needed a place to stay. So he broke into an empty house and made himself comfortable. He then called his biological father Steven and broke down. He told him that he had done some horrible things and can't take them back. He also mentioned that there were two people gone. He ended the call by saying that he was a killer. At first his father didn't believe him but Wade went into details to convince him. 

But Wade certainly didn't admit his crimes out of guilt. According to Steven, he didn't sound remorseful but rather excited. 

Wade asked his father if he could get him an Uber to get him out of town. That is when his father took his location and sent it to the US Marshals and turned his son in. 

On November 19th, 2019 Wade was finally charged with the premeditated murders of Christine Melton and Dianna Ruiz. 

His trial started on 10th June, 2024. He was being charged with two first degree murders, grand theft, burglary and more. Many witnesses came forward. He decided not to testify and his attorney claimed that he was under heavy substances when he committed the crimes. 

After two hours of  deliberation, 9 out of 12 jurors decided that Wade should be sentenced to death. His sentencing was on August 27th, 2024. But he asked for a new trial and argued that the state did not sufficiently prove that he had possession of Christine's car. 

The media however decided to give the case a different turn. Because of the similar names they started associating Wade with the famous Marvel character Deadpool. Everyone felt as if Wade looked and acted very similar to the famous anti hero character. Many even thought he was attractive which gave him some public support.

Regardless, on August 27th he was sentenced to death. 

 

The real life Invisible Man

The case of Cindy James 

Cindy James was a Canadian nurse. She grew up in Richmond, Canada. Cindy started working as a nurse and at the age of 19 she married a doctor by the name of dr. Roy Makepeace who was 18 years older than her. They weren't on great terms so they did end up separating which Cindy was very happy about. 

This is where things started going downhill for Cindy. When she moved to a new place she started receiving some threatening calls and mails. Someone would call her and just randomly start harassing and threatening her over the phone, saying they were going to kill her. She also received these very interesting mails. 

As the threats got more and more violent, Cindy's mental health got worse. One day she found 3 dead cats hanging from her front porch. She also saw that her front porch lights had been shattered. When she tried to call the police, she couldn't because her phone lines had been cut off.

One night Cindy's friend Agnes went to visit her but she didn't answer the door. So she decided to take a look if Cindy was in the backyard. She went to the backyard and she found Cindy crouched down and there was a black nylon stocking tied around her neck. 

So after calming down, this is what Cindy told Agnes. That night when she went to her garage to find some things, someone grabbed her from the back and started strangling her. But Cindy couldn't see her attacker. However, she did notice that the attacker was wearing a pair of white sneakers. She also stated that Agnes very much saved her life because when Agnes knocked on the door the attacker ran away. Then she went to the backyard to hide. 

After that the threats started getting more violent. Sometimes she would receive threatening mails multiple times a day for a week. Then all of a sudden it would stop, leading her to think that it has finally stopped. But then it would start back again. She made a police complaint but nothing came out of it. The police didn't offer her much help and thought that she was making all this up. 

So Cindy decided to take the matter into her own hands. First she moved to a new place, then she changed her last name. She also decided to hire a private investigator by the name of Ozie Kaban. She told him what's been going on but he had this nagging feeling that she wasn't telling him the full story. Even Cindy's parents agreed with him on that. 

Regardless, Kaban started his investigation. He installed some safety devices to insure her safety. He also installed a two way radio so she can reach him if something happens. One day he heard some noises on the radio so he rushed to her place. He found her down the hallway where she was laying on the floor and there was a knife through her hand. In between the knife and her hand was a note which said "you are a dead B". 

He rushed her to the hospital and luckily she was still alive. Kaban questioned her but the only thing she remembered was a needle being pushed into her arm. 

Now even after all this the police still didn't help. They didn't take fingerprints from any of the evidence. They still believed that Cindy was the one doing all this and they even told her that she needed to come clean with them.

The police decided to set up a 24 hours surveillance watching her house and tracking her phone calls. But naturally when the police were there, there were no threats. They even gave Cindy a polygraph test to check if she was lying but when nothing came out of it they said she was too traumatized to give any proper information.    

But Kaban was determined to find what was happening to Cindy. He even took her to some psychiatrist to try hypnosis and see if she could remember anything about the attacker. But nothing came out of it. But the threats only got worse.

Once Cindy was found near a ditch which was 6 miles away from her house. She was suffering from Hypothermia and had bruises all over her body. Interestingly, she was wearing only 1 men's boot and globe and she had a nylon stocking around her neck. But she had no memory of what had happened to her. 

That night after she was discharged from the hospital, she asked her friend Agnes and her husband Tom to stay over at her place. At night they woke up because some noises were coming from the basement. Tom went ahead to check and found flames coming from the basement. They tried to call the police but the phone lines had been cut again. 

Tom ran to the neighbors house to call 911 and he saw a shadowy figure just staring at the house. And then the man ran away down the street and he couldn't see who it was because it was so dark outside.

Later the fire department arrived and they said something inside the house had started the fire. Because they couldn't find any fingerprints on the windows. And that's how they came to the conclusion that Cindy must have started the fire. Yes. 

At this point Cindy's mental state, very understandably, got worse. She was admitted at a psychiatric ward for 10 weeks. After her release, that is when she finally admitted to her family that she may have known who the attacker was. She didn't say anything before because the attacker had threatened to kill everyone she knew if she had done so. 

So she went to the police and told them that she thought her attacker was her ex husband dr. Roy Makepeace. When the police went to question him he obviously denied and instead said that he had some evidence against Cindy. He stated that she was leaving him death threats on the phone. He even diagnosed her with split personality disorder. But at the psychiatric ward her therapists never diagnosed her with the said disorder. 

 Fortunately or unfortunately for Cindy, it all came to an end on May 25th of 1989. Cindy was reported missing. She was last seen at the local shopping center. The police went to look and they found blood on the drivers' side door of her car. Items from her wallet were scattered around inside her car. 

 Finally after 2 weeks Cindy's body was found in the front yard of an old abandoned house. When her body was found, her hands and feet were both tied and there was a black nylon pantyhose around her neck. According to the autopsy, Cindy had died the day she disappeared. There was an injection mark on her arm along with multiple bruises all over her body. Heavy amount of morphine was also found in her body. 

However, the police still believed that it was Cindy who did all this to herself. According to them, she injected herself with Morphine, then walked a mile from her house, tied her own feet and hands, then somehow managed to strangle herself with the black nylon. But of course there was no evidence to prove their unrealistic theory. 

The police also suspected her ex husband. But again they had no evidence against him. The case still goes unsolved.  

In the end, the case of Cindy James is a very tragic case of a woman who suffered in silence. But the worst part was how the system failed to serve her justice. So much so that she had to pay it with her life.

Son of Sam: The notorious American serial killer

 David Berkowitz's reign of terror

David Richard Berkowitz, AKA Son of Sam was born on June 1st, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. His birth name was Richard David Falco. After his birth his mother abandoned him but he was soon adopted by a couple by the names of Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz who were hardware store retailers. 

Pearl and Nathan really loved David and tried their best to raise him well. Growing up David was a very smart kid but that also made him uninterested in school. He didn't have many friends and always felt like he didn't fit in. So as time was passing, he was slowly becoming a wild child. He would steal things or lit things on fire and try to constantly get away with his bad deeds.

Things really took a turn in David's life when his adoptive mother, Pearl passed away. He was only 14 and really loved Pearl and he felt Pearl was the only one who cared about him and genuinely loved him. After a few years, Nathan ended up marrying another woman and that really made David angry. Things were tough in the household so at the age of 17 he ran away and joined the army, in 1971. He served in  both Fort Knox and South Korea. But he was discharged from the army in 1974.

When he returned to New York, he decided to search for his biological mother. After meeting her he felt even worse than before. He felt as if the motherly figures in his life were always leaving him and maybe he wasn't good enough. Perhaps that's what led to his reign of terrors.

CRIME SPREE:

David began his crime spree in the mid 70's. He committed his first murder on the Christmas eve of 1975. He found 2 young girls, around the ages of 15, walking underneath the Co-op bridge. David was only 22 at the time, he didn't have much direction on how to kill someone, but he knew he wanted to. So he attacked the 2 girls with his hunting knife. He stabbed them as much as he could and then just ran away. Only one of them survived but was hospitalized. She tried to give her attackers' description but it was no use. The police couldn't find any trace of David. 

But David wasn't done there. In July of 1976, he spotted 2 young women in a car of a parking lot. When one of them had opened the car door to leave, David ran towards her and shot her in the chest and she died immediately. When the other woman noticed that, she tried to run away but she got shot in her thighs. David knew he didn't have much time so he left her like that and ran away. She was able to escape but she didn't have much information on the attacker. 

David found his next victims on October 23rd of the same year. A couple, Carl and Rosemary, were sitting in their car near the residential area of Flushing, Queens. All of a sudden they heard a gunshot that smashed the car window and had shot Carl in the head. Rosemary drove as fast as she could. Luckily they both survived despite many injuries. 

Now this is where the police started putting two and two together. They noticed a pattern in these attacks.  They noticed that the shell casings found on the crime scenes were identical. Also The attacker was most likely to target women with long dark hair. Which led to a lot of women in New York changing their hair at that time.

A month later David decided to strike again. He found 2 high school girls walking home from school. Joanne(18) and Donna(16). He asked them for directions and he was in a combat uniform. But then all of a sudden he pulled out a gun and started shooting them. He shot the girls once and fired several more gunshots on Joanne's front porch. However, both of the girls survived. Joanne was shot near her spine which led her to be rendered paraplegic. Donna was shot in the neck and thankfully she was fine. 

In January of 1977, he attacked a newly engaged couple who were just sitting in their car. The man survived but unfortunately the woman had been shot twice and died that night. After this attack the police decided to release their theories to the press. Sketches of the alleged killer started circulating around. The media gave him the name "the 44 caliber killer".

On March 8th, the same year, David attacked a young girl named Virginia. She held up her books to protect herself, but regardless David shot and it pierced through the books and shot her in the head. She died right then and there. Also a few days later, David shot another couple and this time he was able to kill both of them. But interestingly enough, in this crime scene, the police found a handwritten letter from David. In this letter, David not only mocked the police for their inability to catch him but also told them about his desired nickname. He told them that he would very much like to be known as 'Son of  Sam'. 

Few months later in June, David decided to go after another couple, Sal and Judy. He shot them early in the morning in Bayside, Queens. On July 31st, David decided to strike again but in Brooklyn this time. He attacked a man and a woman by the name of Robert and Stacy, in their car. Robert lost one of his eyes and Stacy was shot in the head which led to instant death. 

Now son of Sam was really getting away with it all. But soon things started going downhill for him, when one morning a woman saw him in her neighborhood. She stated that she saw him park his car then get out of his car with an object in his hand. She said that she had a really bad feeling about it so she ran and David tried to shoot her multiple times. But one piece of information she gave to the police was enough for them to find him. She told the police that his car had a parking ticket. So the police did their research and found the owner of the car. 

On 9th August, 1977 David was finally arrested. At his arrest he said "Well you got me". Police found a ton of evidence from his car and house. It only took David 30 minutes to confess all of his crimes. But he said that the motive of his murder was, the neighbor's dog had asked him to commit all the murders. But psychiatrists had confirmed that David was mentally stable and was just looking to use the insanity plea to get away with it all. 

Regardless, in 1978 David pleaded guilty to 6 killings and over 1500 fires. He received 25 years to life for each murder. Still to this day he's one of the most notorious serial killers in America.