8 Creepiest True Crime Stories

[Music] number eight aurora massacre on july 20th 2012 about a half hour into the midnight premiere of the dark knight rises at the century 16 movie theater in aurora colorado a man dressed in tactical clothing rose from the front row set off tear gas grenades and fired 76 shots into the audience using numerous assault weapons of the 400 people inside the theater 12 were killed and 70 were injured 58 of them by gunfire and 12 others in the scramble to escape police rushed to the scene and within minutes arrested the assailant who was wearing a load-bearing vest a gas mask a ballistic helmet and bullet-resistant leggings beneath all the gear the shooter's hair was dyed bright red and he reportedly referred to himself as the joker his real name is james holmes and is calm and disconnected demeanor during his arrest just added to the bizarre aspects of his crime police found his apartment booby-trapped with explosive devices including 30 homemade hand grenades wired to a control box in the kitchen in 2015 prosecutors turned down holmes offer to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty he was found guilty of 24 counts of first-degree murder 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of possessing illegal explosives his family pleaded for him to be spared from the death penalty claiming that holmes is severely mentally ill jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision regarding the death penalty resulting in 12 life sentences without parole for homes in 2018 william h reed one of the court-appointed psychiatrists who spoke with holmes at length about his crimes wrote a book about his experience interacting with a criminal called a dark knight in aurora inside james holmes and the colorado theater shootings in an interview with the associated press he admitted that the book's conclusion about the inner workings of the murderer's mind might disappoint readers stating the answer and this really is the answer but it's not very satisfying lies in an unimaginably detailed and complex confluence that we just can't replicate because we can't see all of it a big part of it is it's hidden in holmes's mind and he can't see it either number seven identity fraud from beyond the grave in february 1992 a patient who called himself thomas hughes had a heart attack and passed away at danbury hospital in connecticut hospital staff soon discovered that all the identifying information the man gave them was false leading them and detectives around the country on a seemingly endless search to determine his real identity weeks before his death the patient had checked into an allentown pennsylvania hospital as thomas white he was later connected to hospitals in rhode island california and elsewhere where he provided various names and stories including that he was a persian gulf hero and one of the world's 40 stained glass artisans who were trained at the vatican the morning call reported in addition to using false names the mysterious patient gave fake social security numbers addresses and employers he stayed at each hospital for several days before sneaking out in the middle of the night knowing the bill would never reach him before he died the man made several phone calls to attorneys with apparent plans to sue for injuries no family members immediately came forward to identify the man who mental health experts theorized might have been homeless perhaps checking into hospitals using fake identities to get free shelter and meals they also entertained the possibility that he had a mental illness that caused him to constantly seek medical care for real or imagined ailments when the case aired on unsolved mysteries in 1993 viewers recognized the patient as thomas patrick white it's believed that he suffered from munchausen syndrome a condition that causes a healthy person to constantly seek medical treatments by deliberately causing or exaggerating their symptoms number 6. luna park ghost train fire one night in june 1979 the ghost train roller coaster at the luna park amusement park in new south wales australia erupted into flames killing six young boys and one father officials ultimately classified the fire as accidental despite numerous eyewitness accounts from park visitors who overheard a suspicious leather and denim-clad group of teenage boys talking about using kerosene and matches at around the same time smoke began pouring from the ride one bystander less doubt immediately went to the police and gave a statement which he claimed in a recent abc interview that he was pressured to recant speaking publicly for the first time since the incident nearly 42 years ago he said i heard one of them say i spread the kerosene out and i lit it with a match another one said you're a fool for doing it they started running towards the exit another park visitor named tina shakeshaft claims that the police pressured her to deviate from her statement which was very similar to doubts she refused and they eventually relented but shakeshaft was never summoned to testify at a judicial inquiry and was among 26 witnesses described as taking the inquiry no further a search for the criminals was abruptly called off the following evening the news broadcast claimed that the police found no suspicious circumstances even though by then they had received eyewitness accounts of the adolescents and their discussion about using an accelerant to light the ghost train on fire even the park superintendent allen chapel had told of reprimanding a group of youths matching the description of the suspects earlier that evening and the ride's operator recalled seeing them enter the queue minutes before the fire broke out but these stories have allegedly fallen on deaf ears and the suspects were never found after barely being searched for the disturbing event is the subject of a new abc documentary called exposed the ghost train fire just finally giving overlooked witnesses a chance to speak out about what they saw and heard but their decision to open up comes at a cost dowd shake shaft and others describe living in fear constantly looking over their shoulders and wondering if the criminals will ever catch up to them for daring to break their silence why do you think this incident has been kept so hush-hush let me know your thoughts in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already number five the disappearance of margie jelovsic margie jelostic was a young widow managing a tavern in gary indiana when she met a high-ranking motorcycle gang member named randy mad yeager in 1996. the two hit it off and unbeknownst to maggie at first jaeger had an extensive criminal record furthermore he and several other members of the outlaws chicago gang were under federal investigation for a laundry list of additional crimes including racketeering drug dealing and murder margie's behavior changed in concerning ways as her relationship with jaeger progressed she distanced herself from family and when jager and 17 other suspects were indicted for their crimes she became even more devoted to him instead of fleeing from the obvious red flags right in front of her margie stood by her man even after he went on the run from the law she became paranoid that she was under surveillance constantly feared that the authorities would catch up diego several months later margie vanished leaving behind her car luggage personal effects and the inhaler that she relied on for treating her asthma the woman's family suspected that jaeger had kidnapped margie but law enforcement was not so quick to assume that her disappearance was voluntary the u.s marshals service finally caught up with the pair in 2014 after tracking them down in mexico where they had apparently been living for 17 years jaeger was taken into custody but maggie unfortunately died after leading authorities on a high-speed chase and crashing the vehicle she was driving number four a clever con man psychological manipulation is arguably one of the most overlooked but dangerous weapons criminals sometimes use to pull off their dirty deeds this was certainly the case when a con man named terry tilly was convinced of swindling three generations of a wealthy aristocratic french family out of their five million dollar fortune starting as far back as the 1990s tilly convinced 11 members of the dev dreams family that they were targets of a sinister masonic plot that only he could save them from with his alleged high-ranking connections as a secret agent and a descendant of astro-hungarian nobility after programming his victims with collective paranoia tilly helped himself to their money properties jewels and artwork to this day nobody knows what became of the money or valuables the brainwashed victims became increasingly withdrawn over time eventually barricading themselves inside their ancestral home which french authorities seized in 2007 after they stopped paying their taxes from there the group went from one suburban home to another living in anonymity and remaining sequestered from the outside world fearing for their lives they eventually relocated to the uk at tilly's urging at one point when a family member doubted tilly's authenticity he was accused of being involved in a network of evil and subsequently banished tilly also turned the group against another relative christine whom he beat humiliated and threatened in an attempt to acquire a key he believed she had to a secret family fortune which didn't actually exist christine fled back to france in 2009 and reported the bizarre events to authorities tilly was arrested but it took the rest of the family several months of deprogramming with the help of a cult expert to realize the gravity of the man's actions against them from there they focused on rebuilding their lives from scratch and regaining some semblance of normalcy while tilly was shipped off to prison to serve a 10-year well-deserved sentence for his crimes number three forgotten identity following strange disappearance imagine waking up on a roadside in an unfamiliar place and having no idea where you are that's what happened to a man named pierre in 1992 when he woke up in a california ditch and couldn't think of anyone to call for help from a pay phone all he had with him was a blue duffel bag and the only clue to his possible identity was a boston library card for someone named pierre april the man's only memories were of san diego located 400 miles north of where he regained consciousness and his recollection was foggy at best with just 17 in his pocket the confused wanderer hitchhiked to san diego hoping to regain his memory but when he got there he did not recognize his surroundings a bus driver took him to a homeless shelter an exhaustive test led experts to believe his amnesia was genuine and trauma induced although they admitted it's highly unusual for someone to suffer from the condition as long as pierre had bits and pieces of his memory returned over time including visions of a woman named carol who he believed was a former co-worker but composite drawings initially failed to yield any fruitful connections finally upon seeing the case on unsolved mysteries a former co-worker named carol called the show's telecenter and identified the man as a canadian citizen named pierre april as his library card had indicated pierre's family said that he was missing for at least five months before they learned of his whereabouts thankfully after reuniting with his loved ones and looking at photos and other things from the past pierre's memory returned but the details surrounding his disappearance remain largely unknown to this day so what do you think happened to pierre number two a likable killer bernie td was a well-liked community member with a reputation for being friendly helpful and down to earth it was with this manipulative charm that the texas mortician found an unlikely companion in a woman named marjorie nugent when he helped arrange her husband's funeral in 1990 the two soon became inseparable despite the wealthy widow being over 40 years his senior bernie disinherited nugent's only son rod from her will the following year and became the sole inheritor of her 10 million estate as well as her power of attorney in 1996 after nine months of not being able to reach his mother rod traveled to the area and had her declared as missing upon entering her home rod discovered his mother's dead body in a freezer she'd been shot to death bernie admitted to killing nugent and storing her body in a freezer when he was brought in for questioning the year after she disappeared he claimed nugent was controlling and emotionally abusive and that he murdered her in a disassociative state resulting from childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his uncle the argument initially didn't work and in 1999 bernie was sentenced to life in prison but he was released on ten thousand dollars bail in 2014. based on his claims of murdering nugent in an abuse-induced dissociative state two years later an unconvinced jury re-sentenced bernie to 99 years to life throughout his various trials and sentencings several community members spoke highly of bernie's character describing him as likable and generous despite the allegations against him and the overwhelming evidence that he was guilty number one russian sex slave in recent years rumors have circulated on social media claiming that in 2014 a russian hairdresser named olga zajac overpowered a man who attempted to burglarize her business and steal her earnings this happened in the town of mesh chosk located 155 miles from moscow the story alleges that jay-zack beat the intruder named victor stripped him naked tied him to a radiator force fed viagra to him and kept him as a sex slave for three days zajac supposedly took mercy on victor after sexually assaulting him for three days and released him on the condition that he would not report her to law enforcement but he broke his promise and went to the police who arrested him for burglary and charged zajac with kidnapping and sexual assault those who had the presence of mind to fact check these claims found it difficult to determine whether or not the story was true due to the scarcity of reliable information available about the alleged ordeal the website weird world wire looked into the matter and learned that the story supposedly appeared in a local paper and then went viral after being picked up by foreign media but that this kind of thing happens all the time in russia and nobody really cared in the end of the day the site was no more successful than anyone else in its attempt to verify the story which also has not been disproven thanks for watching if you'd like to learn more about creepy and bizarre crimes then definitely let me know in the comments below and then be sure to subscribe i'll see you next time

Channel: World List

Views: 791,829

Keywords: world list, creepiest true crime stories, creepiest, scariest, true, crime, stories, crime stories, true crime, creepiest stories, scary stories, creepy stories, true crime stories, creepy true crime, true crime stories solved, true crimes solved

Id: kjvuDtKDBII

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 24 2021