Today in True Crime

On this day in 1926, mystery novelist Agatha Christie vanished from her home outside London for nearly two weeks; when she was later discovered, she had no recollection of her disappearance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1993, notorious cocaine crime lord Pablo Escobar was fatally shot after a police chase across the rooftops of Bogota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1948, a man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia with no clues to his identity. The investigation into his person would fascinate the world but ultimately prove fruitless. He came to be known by the two words found on a piece of paper in his pocket: “Tamam Shud.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 2001, Gary Ridgway was arrested and thanks to DNA testing, was proven to be the "Green River Killer." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1981, actress Natalie Wood was found dead in the water off the coast of Catalina Island in Southern California. Police initially ruled the death an accident, but have since reopened the case and investigated it as a possible homicide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1720, Anne Bonny and Mary Read were convicted of piracy and sentenced to hang. Before their sentence was carried out, both of them pleaded pregnancy and were not hanged. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1934, Baby Face Nelson, an American bank robber, was killed in a shootout with the FBI. But not before he’d killed more FBI agents than any other criminal in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1983, diamonds, gold, and cash worth £26 million pounds were stolen from a warehouse near Heathrow Airport in London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1960, the activist Mirabal sisters were assassinated, and their deaths were staged to look like a car accident. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1971, D.B. Cooper hijacked a commercial airliner, then disappeared into the night with a $200,000 ransom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1953, Air Force pilot Felix Moncla Jr. and his radar observer, Robert L. Wilson, disappeared on a routine mission over Lake Superior. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1718, Edward Teach, the infamous pirate known as Blackbeard, was killed off the coast of North Carolina during the Battle of Ocracoke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1927, a group of coal miners on strike in the town of Serene, Colorado came head-to-head with state police—6 were killed. The incident became a rallying point for Labor Rights activists across the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1990, Russian authorities arrested serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, better known as the Rostov Ripper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 2017, infamous cult leader Charles Manson dies of heart and respiratory failure due to colon cancer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1978, Jim Jones, the founder of the People’s Temple cult, led a little over 900 followers to drink poisoned Flavor-Aid in a mass suicide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1894, con artist and serial killer H.H. Holmes was arrested in Boston, Massachusetts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1971, 10-year Carmen Colon disappeared in Rochester, New York. She was found dead two days later, setting off a string of alliterative killings known as the Alphabet Murders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 2002, Myra Hindley, co-conspirator in the notorious Moors Murders, died in prison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1966, the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia was sighted in the neighboring town of Salem by contractor Merle Partridge. Merle’s dog was never seen again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot his mother, father, and four siblings while they slept in their New York home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 2017, 59-year-old Randall Toshio Saito walked out of Hawaii State Hospital. He’d been committed there for over 30 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1972, 13-year-old Lori Lee Kursa slipped away from her mother during a shopping trip, and was never seen alive again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1917, 33 members of the National Women’s Party were arrested for picketing in front of the White House. They had been peacefully demanding women’s suffrage for months, but were countered by violence in the infamous “Night of Terror.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1971, 46-year old John List murdered his wife, mother, and three children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1954, 14-year-old Carolyn Wasilewski was murdered. Her body was found the following day with the name “Paul” written in lipstick on her thigh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente Canton, Bolivia on this day in 1908. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1985, a group of militants seized the Palace of Justice in Bogota, Colombia. The bloody conflict left hundreds dead, including eleven of the nation’s twenty-five supreme court judges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested in connection with the Gunpowder Plot, a failed attempt to assassinate King James I. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi was assassinated in Tokyo on this day in 1921. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1883, infamous western outlaw "Black Bart the Poet" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, leaving behind a clue that would eventually lead to his capture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1960, Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial of Regina V. Penguin Books Ltd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 2018, 63-year-old Edmund Zagorski was executed by electrocution in Tennessee for two counts of first-degree murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1977, the body of 15-year-old Judith Lynn Miller was discovered in a flowerbed in the Los Angeles neighborhood of La Crescenta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1959, a popular Dutch sex worker nicknamed “Blonde Dolly” was strangled at her home in The Hague. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alice “Lindy” Chamberlain was convicted of killing her 9-week-old daughter during an Australian camping trip, on this day in 1982. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1919, Congress passes the Volstead Act (National Prohibition Act) which establishes the definition of illegal liquor and the punishments for making it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1921, 15-year-old Harold Jones confesses to the murder of 11-year-old Florence Little one week before his case went to trial. But it wasn’t just Florence he’d killed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1965, teenager Sylvia Likens dies of the injuries inflicted by her foster mother. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1965, notorious St. Louis-area serial killer Maury Travis was born. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who was convicted of killing six women, was born on this day in 1949. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1981, engaged couple Stefano Baldi and Susanna Cambi became the serial killer’s next victims—shot and stabbed to death in the vicinity of Calenzano. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert, Helen and their daughter Joy Sims were bound, gagged, stabbed and shot to death. Found by the couple’s oldest daughter, Jeanie, on this day in 1966. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 2014, former Olympian Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to 5 years in prison for the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1944, a jury of nine men found that Bauerdorf's death was a homicide, and proposed a thorough investigation to apprehend her killer. Sponsored by Jimmy John’s – Order a $3 Little John at JimmyJohns.com or with the Jimmy John’s app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 2002, Jeffrey Hopper is shot in a parking lot in Ashland, Virginia, 83 miles south of Washington. Doctors would remove the bullet two days later, connecting him to other DC Sniper victims. Sponsored by Jimmy John’s – Order a $3 Little John at JimmyJohns.com or with the Jimmy John’s app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Sheppard's trial for the murder of his wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard, begins on this day in 1954. Sponsored by Jimmy John’s – Order a $3 Little John at JimmyJohns.com or with the Jimmy John’s app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1941, “The Denver Spiderman” Theodore Coneys bludgeons Philip Peters to death—the man whose attic he’d secretly been living in for a month. Sponsored by Jimmy John’s – Order a $3 Little John at JimmyJohns.com or with the Jimmy John’s app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A 10-foot-tall “petrified man”—the Cardiff Giant “discovered” on this day in 1869. Sponsored by Jimmy John’s – Order a $3 Little John at JimmyJohns.com or with the Jimmy John’s app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this day in 1793, Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted, and condemned to death the following day. Sponsored by Jimmy John’s – Order a $3 Little John at JimmyJohns.com or with the Jimmy John’s app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices