You've probably heard at least five of them on your favorite true crime podcast
The majority of documentaries involving a missing person or a serial murderer are predominantly Caucasian. However, we Black people regard American history as a criminal tale in and of itself. Unfortunately, we have seen and observed several horrible historical occurrences that give us the same uneasy sensation as the Dahmer or Manson TV series.
We've seen awful lynchings of our innocent Black family members in the past, as well as murders or disappearances that went unexplained because the authorities simply didn't care enough (or might have had something to do with it).
To our amazement, Black serial killers have also tormented the country.
Here are some unforgettable crime stories from our neck of the woods for true crime fans.
Kendrick Johnson's Unknown Death
This incident may go down in history as one of the most bizarre crimes. Kendrick Johnson, 17, was discovered dead inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at the Lowndes High School gymnasium in Valdosta, Georgia, in 2013. According to sources, officials declared his death a freak accident, claiming he suffered "positional asphyxia" after being entangled in the mat. His family, though, insisted on foul play.
A documentary about his death uncovered some shocking circumstances, prompting a second inquiry into his death. First, his autopsy revealed that he died as a result of blunt force trauma to the neck and that his death was deemed a homicide. Second, he was missing a couple of his internal organs. Finally, two of Johnson's classmates, both brothers, were mentioned as people of interest in the investigation but were never prosecuted.
According to NBC News, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk announced a $1 million reward for information on the case after the second investigation was completed.
Emmett Till's lynching
This is a genuine American horror story. Emmett Louis Till was 15 years old when he was abducted and brutally killed. Till, a Chicago native, had traveled to Mississippi to see family in August 1955. He had no concept how dangerous the Delta might be as a young city guy. He was eventually accused of whistling at a white woman at a shop. Carolyn Bryant Donham, the victim, informed her husband and his brother that Till had molested her.
Till was tracked down by the two men, who took him from his bed, tortured and disfigured him, and dumped his body in the river. When his body was discovered, he was scarcely recognizable. Mamie Till-Mobley, his mother, staged an open casket burial, which ignited a fresh surge of support for the Civil Rights Movement and against the senseless violence that racism had bred.
Quawan Charles' alleged lynching
Quawan "Bobby" Charles died at the age of 15. According to ABC News, he was reported missing to the Baldwin Police Department in Louisiana in October 2020. They did not, however, issue an Amber Alert or notify the media of his absence. Instead, he was labeled a fugitive.
Charles was last spotted getting into a car with a woman called Janet Irvin. She admits to picking up Charles without authorization and driving him back to her house. He allegedly fled her home, according to her.
Charles' body was discovered in a sugar cane field less than a mile from her home. Despite the fact that the ditch only had two feet of water, his death was declared a drowning. Images of his disfigured body that emerged on social media suggested a different narrative. Irvin was apprehended more than 100 days after Charles was discovered.
Tamla Horsford's Death Is Disputed
Tamla Horsford was discovered deceased in a friend's backyard three years ago. According to 11Alive News, she was invited to a sleepover party where she had been drinking. According to witnesses, Horsford walked out on the balcony for a smoke. She apparently died after falling over the balcony. The location of her corpse at the murder scene, however, and an independent investigation revealed contradictions in what caused her death.
Investigators thought Horsford had been injured before she fell. Due to the lack of skull fractures and shattered bones, it's unclear if she fell at all. Because Horsford was the only Black woman at the party when she died, many in the cyber world suspected murder, although that has never been verified.
Kenneka Jenkins died
Jenkins, 19, was discovered dead inside a freezer at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, in 2017. Jenkins was at a hotel party with pals when a surveillance camera captured footage of her going alone in the corridor. That's all. She wound herself in the hotel's kitchen freezer, where she was imprisoned.
As observers sought to put together the events leading up to her murder, social media videos of the celebration inundated the internet. Her death was declared an accident due to hypothermia by authorities. Despite the web speculations, authorities did not suspect foul play in Jenkins' death.
Jelani Day's Disappearance and Death
According to NBC News, Jelani Day, an Illinois State graduate student, was discovered dead in the Illinois River. Day was just 25 years old when he went missing on August 24 and was last seen at a dispensary. His automobile was subsequently discovered a mile distant from his corpse. What's inside the car? He was last spotted wearing these clothing.
Day's death was declared a drowning by the county coroner. Day's family stated that he was an ardent swimmer and that he had no suicidal tendencies that would cause him to kill himself. It's unclear how he wound up in the river.
His family has requested a federal inquiry into his death, believing that foul conduct was involved. The FBI offered a $10,000 reward for information.
Millbrook Twins Disappearance
Dannette and Jeanette Millbrook, both 15, have been unaccounted for since March 18, 1990. According to WJBF, their case was reopened in 2013 when a documentary about their abduction went viral. The police first dismissed the case as one of runaways. According to the family, they were last seen at a Pump-N-Shop. Their youngest sister recalls walking with her mother that night to find them.
True crime fans speculate whether they were kidnapped by serial murderer Joseph Patrick Washington, who resided in their area. Their father was also accused of being sexually abusive, and some speculate that he may have abducted them himself. The most irritating aspect of the case was the lack of an investigation to begin with. So, where do you begin?
The family placed two billboards requesting the public to assist them in locating any information on their loved one. A prize of $50,000 has been given for any information.
Church Bombing in Birmingham
The Klu Klux Klan attacked the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. The church was a fixture in the Black community and a driving factor behind the civil rights struggle. A bomb exploded beneath the church steps that morning. Four innocent girls were killed and four church members were severely injured.
Addie Mae (14), Denise McNair (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (11), were all slain. Sarah, Addie's sister, survived but lost her right eye as a result of her injuries.
The FBI launched an inquiry in response to public outcry over the event. According to the National Park Service, despite the discovery of a few suspects, no one was indicted owing to a lack of evidence. However, Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley restarted the investigation, and investigators discovered that the FBI had hidden the evidence. Murderers Robert Chambliss, Thomas Blanton, and Bobby Frank Cherry were found guilty.
Erica 'Precious Doe' Green was murdered
According to CBS News, Green was just three years old when she was cruelly killed. Harrell Johnson, her stepfather, was said to have beaten her for sobbing, urinating on herself, and refusing to eat. Lawanda Driskell, Johnson's cousin, said she overheard him telling Green's mother, Michelle, to grab a hold of her daughter before he "does something bad."
Harrell kicked Erica in the head a week later, killing her. The door was kept shut, and the couple claimed the kid was simply ill. Erica remained in her room for two days. Police subsequently discovered her dead at a Kansas City crossroads. Days later, they discovered her head, which had been severed with a pair of hedge clippers, according to officials. They called the body "Precious Doe" before recognizing it as Green's.
Michelle and Harrell Johnson were found guilty of second-degree criminal murder and endangering the welfare of a child despite having outstanding warrants.
Jeffrey Dahmer's murder
Jeffrey Dahmer was killed by a fellow inmate after a string of heinous atrocities. In 1992, Dahmer was condemned to fifteen life sentences and was spending prison with Christopher Scarver.
This year, Scarver told the New York Post that Dahmer would play with his food, cutting it up into body parts and putting ketchup on them to make them seem bleeding. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he previously informed reporters in the 1990s that he had a kill list of persons he regarded unworthy of life.
Critics believe Scarver was assisted in Dahmer's execution because the cannibal was isolated and without his special guards. Scarver stated that the guards assisted him but did not elaborate.
The Snipers of DC
According to CNN, in 2002, John Allen Muhammad (41) and Lee Boyd Malvo (17) went on a shooting rampage around the DMV. The majority of their shots were directed at people in public settings such as shopping mall parking lots, petrol stations, and school zones. Then one day, at the scene of one of their crimes, they left a clue: a "Death" tarot card with the words "Call me God."
Their motivations were never made apparent. Some speculated that Muhammad sought vengeance after his ex-wife and children abandoned him. Given the raw wound of the 9/11 attacks, some suspected they were associated with Al Qaeda.
The killings began earlier that year and became increasingly regular around October. A total of 17 persons were killed, while another 10 were shot and survived their gunshot wounds. The two were then arrested. In 2009, Muhammad was condemned to death and executed. Malvo is still serving a life sentence, but he has been ordered to be resentenced now that he is an adult, according to WUSA9 News.
The Murder Trial of OJ Simpson
Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, a former NFL star and actor, was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. According to reports, the two were discovered dead outside Nicole's condo.
Simpson's trial occurred at the same time as the Black Los Angeles community rioted over police brutality and racism in the aftermath of Rodney King's terrible beating. People believed O.J. because racial tensions were high. The system was putting everything in place. Due to public pressure, the jury acquitted Simpson of all counts.
Everything was called into doubt, including DNA tests, police intents, and blood, hair follicles, and debris from Simpson's car. Not to add, a glove was discovered on Simpson's property that matched the DNA to himself and the two victims, but Simpson's clever attorneys...uh, demonstrated to the world that it didn't fit and begged the jurors to acquit, which they did.
The event unfolded on primarily live television throughout the world.
Tupac Shakur's assassination
Tupac Shakur's murder is one of the most contentious issues, second only to whether or if he is alive and hiding in Cuba. According to sources, Shakur was in Las Vegas in September 1996. He ran across a mutual nemesis, Orlando Anderson, while wandering through a hotel. Anderson was left battered on the floor after the two squabbled in the foyer.
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the rapper was last seen on security camera footage aggressively walking across the lobby. Two hours later, Shakur was waiting at a red light on Flamingo Road and Koval Lane with his Death Row entourage, Suge Knight alongside him, when a vehicle came up to his BMW and showered fire. He was shot twice in the chest, once in the thigh, and once in the arm. Six days later, he died as a result of his injuries.
Because his shooter was never apprehended, many people began to speculate about who was involved. Given the coast-to-coast rap battle between Pac and Bad Boy Records, many music fans and living room sleuths suspected Sean 'Diddy' Combs of planting a hit on Pac. Others held Suge Knight responsible. Residents of Los Angeles settled for plain ol' gang violence between the Bloods and the Crips. None of these hypotheses have been confirmed to be correct.
The Notorious B.I.G.'s murder
Christopher Wallace nicknamed Biggie Smalls aka The Notorious B.I.G. killed in a manner disturbingly similar to Tupac Shakur, his Hip-Hop rival. Wallace was leaving a party in Los Angeles when he was tragically murdered in a drive-by in March 1997, according to Fox 5 New York. Given that Shakur had died only a year previously, the public assumed that the feud between Death Row and Bad Boy Records had finally erupted.
Authorities were unable to identify Wallace's killer for many years, resulting in yet another cold case. However, following the release of sealed federal data, the conspiracy of Suge Knight being an evil mastermind became justifiable. An FBI agent told The New York Post that the gunman was Amir Muhammad, a Nation of Islam member recruited as a hitman by Knight. Despite the agents' claims, none of this has been formally proven, and the case remains unsolved.
Jogger Case of Central Park
Though the gang of teenagers did not conduct the crime for which they were condemned, this incident will be remembered as a horrifying illustration of racial injustice in the criminal justice system.
Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, and Yusef Salaam were all teenagers when they were jailed in 1989 for raping and assaulting a white lady jogging in Central Park. According to the New York Times, after being harassed and exploited by corrupt New York police, they offered false admissions to crime, which landed them between six and thirteen years in jail. The woman who survived the attack gave no useful information in identifying her perpetrator.
The media vilified them, portraying them as animals, gang members, and horrible criminals. Wise, who was in an adult institution at the time, met the true offender, Matias Reyes, who ultimately confessed to the crime in 2002. At the time, Reyes was a convicted killer and serial rapist.
The five were exonerated and received $41 million in compensation, but the NYPD denied any involvement in the erroneous conviction.
Kalief Browder's death
Browder was charged of small theft in 2010 and sentenced to three years in Rikers Island at the age of 16. He maintained his innocence throughout, and his case was finally withdrawn, and he was released. According to The New Yorker, his experiences in jail led him into a bad mental state.
He was imprisoned for two years in solitary confinement. He remembered cops harassing and abusing him. Surveillance video from the jail showed him being randomly bum rushed by officers and other detainees. He had attempted suicide several times within Rikers Island. He attempted suicide again three months after his discharge and was sent to a mental institution, where he was said to be experiencing paranoia.
Jay Z, Rosie O'Donnell of The View, and Rand Paul were all interested in Browder's case. Browder's mental health was deteriorating as the world learned about the atrocities of the prison system. He committed suicide in 2015. In a court settlement, New York City awarded his estate $3.3 million.
The infamous Chicago Strangler
Over a 27-year period, Black women in Chicago were discovered beaten or strangled to death, and their attacker was never apprehended. Their remains were frequently discovered thrown in buildings, trash, or sometimes mutilated, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
According to statistics, 75 women were strangled to death between 1999 and 2018. Only 24 of the cases have been solved by the police. One of the cases was somewhat recent. A man she said sexually abused her was discovered chained up inside an abandoned structure. A passerby heard her calls for help and summoned the cops to her aid. Joel Cammon was detained and prosecuted, but it's unclear whether he's linked to the string of strangling deaths.
The Murder Accountability Project began following these cases alongside protestors who chastised the Chicago Police Department for failing to apprehend the presumed serial murderer. Families of missing and murdered women have attended many protests, demanding that more action be made to bring their loved ones home.
#BlackPeole #Justice4Kalief #ShutDownRiers #BlackPeopleNeverForget #NeverForget #TrueCrimes
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