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Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping
Charles Lindbergh became an American hero in 1927 after he completed the first solo, non-stop, transatlantic flight.On March 1, 1932, Lindbergh's maid discovered his infant son Charles had been taken from his crib. Lindbergh found a ransom note nearby and quickly alerted authorities. After a series of bizarre exchanges with the kidnappers, including 13 ransom notes, the Lindberghs paid $50,000 to an unnamed individual in May 1932. This individual provided the family with a note that said the child could be found on a boat off Martha's Vineyard. Police raced to the harbor, but the child and the boat were nowhere in sight.

The next day, the child's body was found by accident and identified. An autopsy showed the child had been dead for 2 months, indicating that he was killed immediately after he was taken.



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The Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short was living in L.A. following the death of her fiancé, Matthew Gordon. An aspiring actress, Short mentioned an upcoming film audition in her last letter. On January 9, 1947, Robert Manley drove her to the Biltmore Hotel, where she disappeared a few hours later. Her body, which was severely mutilated with her face slashed open from the corners of her mouth to her ears, was discovered on January 15.   

The investigation yielded many suspects, including 60 bogus confessions. The media nicknamed Short as "The Black Dahlia," based on her black hair and the mystery of the crime. Besides Manley, one of the prime suspects was Mark Hansen, a nightclub owner who had housed Short and was linked to some personal information sent to the newspapers.

 Investigators believe the killer had a medical background.

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The Zodiac Killer 
The elusive Zodiac Killer claimed to have taken 37 lives, but detectives only consider five to officially be his doing. After killings in December of 1968 and July of 1969, the killer sent three letters to San Francisco newspapers with pieces of a 408-symbol cryptogram. The cryptogram was solved, but it didn't offer clues as to the Zodiac Killer's identity. The letters and cryptograms continued  as did the murders. Police estimate that the killings stopped in 1969.

Much suspicion was cast on Arthur Leigh Allen, a sex offender caught with bloody knives in his car the same day as a Zodiac murder. Despite three search warrants on Allen, he was never charged as his DNA tests, handwriting analysis and fingerprints have never offered a match.


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Jack the Ripper 
 In 1888, a killer attacked prostitutes in London's Whitechapel district. There were five known victims, with others subject to debate. One of the perpetrator's bizarre trademarks, besides the grisly nature of his crimes, was that he would kill in areas with public access -- with streets, doorways, and stable entrances being examples. This made it easier to get caught, but more frustrating for those trying to apprehend him.  

Police didn't have the technology that they do now, so they relied on volunteers to watch for ominous characters on the street. While clues were scarce, one killing featured a cloth that was left below some anti-Semitic graffiti, whose creator is unknown. It seems that the case of Jack the Ripper will never be solved, but he does offer historians a glimpse into the early days of how the media covered fearsome killers.   




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Madeleine McCann
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann occurred on the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2007, in Praia da Luz, a resort in the Algarve region of Portugal. Madeleine, from the UK, was on holiday there with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, her twin siblings, and a group of seven family friends and their five children, when she went missing from her parents' holiday apartment nine days before her fourth birthday.

Over the years unconfirmed sightings of Madeleine were reported around the world. The McCanns continued the investigation using private detectives. Mrs McCann, who recently returned to Portugal, said their family, including twins Sean and Amelie, now eight, had found a "new normality" since Madeleine's disappearance.She encouraged anybody with any information to contact police.