A bloody ax, fingerprints, an obvious motive, testimony of witnesses - sometimes it's not enough for the murderer to end up behind bars. We know of cases where degenerates left the courtroom as free as birds. Here are some particularly shocking ones.
Usually murderers had one goal:to defraud the judiciary, thus avoiding punishment. The task may be difficult, but as history shows, quite possible. It was enough only to convince the public opinion. Here are four proofs that justice has not always been blind ...
Girl with an ax
On August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby were murdered at their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Abby was the first to die. While cleaning the living room, the woman received nineteen blows to the head with an ax.
Two hours later, a similar fate befell her husband. The sleeping man was dealt eleven blows with the same tool. Half of his skull was severed and one of the blows split the eye in two .
This is what Andrew Borden looked like when investigators found him. Could the daughter massacre her own father like this? (source:public domain).
Lizzie Borden, 32, was accused of the murders, and she was the only reason to kill her father and stepmother . The evidence clearly pointed to her. An ax was found in the basement of the house, and Lizzie burned one of her dresses shortly after the murders, which she allegedly stained with red paint. Although she was the first to discover the body, her behavior showed no signs of shock or nervousness. In her testimony, she often provided contradictory information and repeatedly changed versions of events.
The motive was clear. The seventy-year-old bequeathed half of his enormous fortune to his wife. This met with stiff opposition from Lizzie and her sister Emma. The women feared losing their property. On the day of the murder, Andrew was going to rewrite his wife the rest of the belongings and leave only a modest pension to unemployed daughters. He did not make it ...
The article was inspired by the CBS series "Dark Secrets of Celebrities".
As Emma was out of town that day, it became clear to the police that the murderer was Lizzie. The woman was arrested. However, she did not plead guilty. Her trial became legendary and became a part of American folklore forever. Even in children's poems the woman is still called "the girl with the ax" .
Half of America lived in the murder trial, and the public immediately sentenced her. Everyone was shocked when the jury acquitted the woman due to insufficient evidence.
America lived through the Lizzy process. Could an apparently normal woman commit such a terrible crime? The jury couldn't believe it either… (source:public domain).
Lizzie Borden was free, but all her relatives moved away from her. She died alone in 1927. Her sister visited her only once. The women talked for a short while. About what? It is not known. However, Emma committed suicide a few days later . Apparently, in the last conversation Lizzie told about what really happened at their home on 92 Second Street in Fall River ...
A ballad about Lodz Janosik
Menachem Bornsztajn was the king of the criminal world of pre-war Łódź. Some called him "Janosik from Bałuty", others called him "the Jewish Robin Hood". His life and deeds have passed into local legend and the poor people of Baluc were singing songs about him. He was best known as "The Blind Max."
In pre-war Łódź, there was one king of thieves - Menachem Bornsztajn, Ślepy Maks. He was the most respected by the people of the streets of Łódź. The photo shows a scene from the life of the city from the 1930s (source:public domain).
It was said that he had lost an eye in the fight, and in his apartment there was a mannequin wearing a jacket with bells attached to it. This prop was to be used by young criminals to improve their thieving profession, under the watchful eye of the Blind Max.
With time, Bornsztajn almost became a folk hero. It was said in the streets that he took the rich and helped the poor. In addition to the romantic legend, however, there was a dark face of the "king of thieves." Bornsztajn was also a murderer who, thanks to his cleverness and connections, deftly avoided punishment ...
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On September 19, 1929, two heads of local gangs clashed in front of the "Kokolewole" brasserie in Łódź . Pimp and usurer Srul Kalma Balberman decided to prove to the Blind Maks that he was the most dangerous criminal in Lodz. As soon as Bornsztajn received a punch in the face, he immediately drew his revolver and fired at the enemy several times. He was quickly arrested while escaping.
The press is crazy about the Polish Al Capone. In reports from the trial, he was presented as the king of the Łódź underworld.
On January 16, 1930, the trial that followed the entire life of Łódź at that time. Mainly local criminals testified as witnesses, who, fearing for their own lives, lied in favor of the Blind Max. Nobody had the courage to testify against him.
The court believed that in self-defense it is possible to fire several shots in the back, even when the victim is already dead in a pool of blood. So there was an acquittal. Menachem Bornsztajn, after leaving the court, immediately went to the editorial office of the local newspaper to personally thank the journalists for presenting the Blind Max as one of the noblest citizens of Łódź during the trial ...
The article was inspired by the CBS series "Dark Secrets of Celebrities".
The fall of a football legend
In the 1970s, O.J. Simpson was one of America's greatest footballers. It seemed that trophies, fame and wealth had made him forget about his infamous youth. Even as a teenager, Orenthal James Simpson faced numerous conflicts with the law . His sports success was supposed to free him from the clutches of a criminal life. In 1994, it turned out that he hadn't pulled out…
That year, his ex-wife Nicole Brown was found dead outside her house . Next to her was the body of a waiter from a nearby restaurant. The murderer stabbed the victims over twenty blows with a knife.
The first suspicions fell on the woman's ex-husband. The man did not appear at the interrogations, gave evasive answers and was unable to explain to the policemen what he was doing on the day of the murder. An arrest warrant was issued but O.J. Simpson refused to get caught…
Is this a man capable of murder? The jury did not want to believe it (author:Alan Light, license:CC BY 2.0).
A dozen or so police cars and a few helicopters set off to chase him. Hundreds of journalists reported live the escape of the former athlete . The police did not give up and soon a million Americans in front of the televisions witnessed the capture of the football legend.
Most of the evidence spoke against Simpson. His lawyers went out of their way to challenge them. The policemen were accused of racism and pathologists to commit more than forty mistakes at autopsy. A glove found with blood from both the victims and Simpson did not fit the athlete's hand. However, traces of blood on his clothes, fingerprints at the scene of the crime, and fragments of cloth from his car seemed to make him guilty. The process, which lasted over a year, divided America . For "whites" he was a murderer, "blacks" saw him as a scapegoat.
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The jury, made up mostly of African Americans, did not agree with the prosecution. For them, O.J. he was just a victim of a plot by a racist police who fabricated the evidence on purpose. When the words were uttered: we recognize the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, as innocent of the murder ..., the footballer was as happy as a child. At the same time, half of America rubbed her eyes in amazement.
O.J. Simpson did not learn the lessons of his life. In 2008 he was convicted of robbery and kidnapping . He is currently serving a thirty-three-year prison sentence. Nevertheless, his act continues to arouse emotions, and the life of a celebrity-murderer becomes the canvas for episodes of TV series!
The article was inspired by the CBS series "Dark Secrets of Celebrities".
Killing face of an angel
There was everything in this story. Sex, drugs, crime and a beautiful murderer . The four-year trial in Peruga, Italy, caught the attention of viewers around the world. American Amanda Knox, who came to sunny Italy as part of an exchange student, and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were accused of murdering twenty-one-year-old British Meredith Kercher. Their acquaintance, a petty thief, Rudy Guede, also sat in the dock.
The crime took place in 2007. But no one knows what really happened that night. Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini theorized that during a sexual orgy, Kercher was gang raped and murdered after she refused to participate in the threesome. Soon after, the police discovered the body of a British woman in the apartment she and Amanda were renting. The victim was naked and had a cut throat. Police arrested the American woman and her Italian boyfriend.
It would seem that studying in beautiful Perugia is a dream come true. However, not for Meredith Kercher (by Fabio Tiberi, license:CC BY-SA 3.0).
Everything testified to the guilt of the accused. DNA samples and bloodstains found on the knife and clasp from Meredith's bra proved Amanda and Raffaele's guilt . The girls' neighbor testified that on the night of the murder she saw the silhouettes of two runaway people similar to this couple.
Based on this evidence, the court sentenced Amanda Knox for assault and murder to twenty-six years in prison. Sollecito heard the sentence a year less. Two years later there was an appeal. The re-investigation showed that dozens of mistakes were made while securing the evidence. A few were acquitted, but they did not enjoy their freedom for too long…
All indications are that this American, together with her boyfriend, killed her British roommate. However, some media portrayed her as an innocent victim of the Italian justice system ... The photo captures the moment when Amanda Knox was leaving the prison in Perugia (author:Scott335, license:CC BY-SA 3.0).
In 2014, the court's judgment was revoked. The American woman became a murderer again, and the sentence was increased by two and a half years. It was then that Amanda's parents hired a company to improve the media images of their daughter . The money spent on this purpose brought the intended effect - on March 27, 2015, the accused were finally acquitted of all the charges they were charged with. Rudy Guede was sentenced to sixteen years.
Not everyone believed that Knox was just a victim of the Italian judiciary. The media has loudly speculated that Amanda actually has two angelic faces. She could be both an angel-faced girl and a merciless angel of death ...
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Not all murderers were responsible for their crimes. Instead of being imprisoned or on a noose, they became celebrities of their time. And if they were celebrities before? Then their fame was reaching its zenith! The cruel deeds they committed made them become a legend - the bloodier, the more popular ...