Nothing stirs the dark side of the public imagination like an unsolved murder. The cold, brutal details are unspeakably horrifying. Even worse, despite the best efforts of police, detectives, and forensic scientists, some crimes simply remain unsolved. What are some of the most infamous unsolved murders out there?

Murders That Still Have Not Been Solved

The Whitechapel Unsolved Murders

This series of crimes is better known by their famous perpetrator, Jack The Ripper. In 1888, he terrorized London’s East End and brutally murdered five women. The local police had no clued, and never caught the notorious throat slasher.

Jimmy Hoffa

On July 30th, 1975 Jimmy Hoffa disappeared and was never seen again. He was the influential President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Two weeks before he vanished, federal investigators had discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars was missing from their coffers. The feds started investigating Mafia bosses Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone and Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano.

The day of the disappearance, the three men met. After his disappearance, the police had a motive, and they had their suspects, but no evidence. No one has ever found Jimmy Hoffa’s body.

Tupak Shakur

An iconic American rapper, Tupac Shakur was gunned down at the height of his career. Tupac’s murder remains unsolved to this day. On September 13, 1996, while he was in Las Vegas, Nevada, he was shot in a drive-by shooting. He died six days later. At the time of his murder, an intense feud was going on between East Coast and West Coast rappers. Some conspiracy theorists say he faked his death and is still alive today.

Many also blamed the East Coast/ West Coast rivalry that was going on in hip-hop. Six months after the murder of Tupac, Christopher Wallace, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or Biggie, was also murdered in Los Angeles. Many considered him of the greatest rappers of all time, and his murder case is still open.

Jon Benet Ramsey

The murder of this tiny beauty queen rocked the U.S., and it remains one of our most enduring unsolved murders. Jon Benet Ramsey was found murdered in her Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996. She was only six years old. At first, she was reported missing, and a ransom note was found demanding $118,000. The police found her later in the basement of the home. There are several mysterious facts about the case.

• Her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, declined a second interview with detectives.
• Jon Benet Ramsey’s skull was fractured.
• Boulder police suspected the parents, but later issue an apology saying there is no evidence.
• Police arrested John Mark Karr in Thailand in connection with the case but dropped it when there was no DNA evidence to connect him with the case.
• Patsy Ramsey died of Ovarian Cancer in 2006.
• In 2016, CBS aired a documentary which pinned the crime on Jon Benet’s brother, Burke Ramsey. He filed a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit.
• Forensic psychiatrist Steven Pitt, who was a consultant on the case, was found shot dead outside his office in 2018.

Zodiac Murders

The Zodiac Killer was a mysterious serial killer who terrorized Northern California beginning in 1969. He taunted police with bizarre, cryptic clues that were ciphers they had to figure out. He sent the first one to the offices of the San Francisco Examiner.

The Zodiac Killer murdered at least five people and may have been responsible for 30 more. It is one of the most notorious string of unsolved murders in the country. However, he left two survivors who were able to describe to the police.

Fascinatingly, today forensic scientists are using genealogy to help crack the 50-year-old case. The Vallejo Police Department is sending the envelopes from his letters for DNA analysis. They can then create a family tree from available online databases on genealogy websites. There is a chance there is enough total DNA to create a profile on the killer and possibly solve the cold case.

Natalie Wood

One of Hollywood’s darkest and most enduring unsolved murders, the death of Natalie Wood continues to fascinate fans. The actress and her husband, Robert Wagner, were on their yacht off Catalina Island in 1981. Authorities found her dead, floating in the water about a mile from the boat, the following morning.

Although the death was ruled a drowning, there is speculation that it was a murder. In 2011, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department changed her death certificate and reopened the case. The cause of death was “drowning” and then changed to “drowning and other undetermined factors.” There is a 12-part podcast called “Fatal Voyage” that looks into this, and also the fact that her husband was named a “person of interest.”

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