40 Of The Nastiest And Most Gruesome Plot Twists In Infamous True Crime Cases Around The World

Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo were a serial k****r couple from Canada who raped and m******d 3 young girls and raped a 4th one between December 1990 and April 1992 including Karla's little sister Tammy.

Karla Leanne Homolka, the “Barbie” in “The Barbie and Ken Killers.” She was thought of as the victim of Paul Bernado’s abuse, being forced into participating in his rapes and m*****s.

She went to the police to report Paul after a particularly bad beating from him that left her in hospital. She was given a plea deal and her lawyer covered up the tape recordings that showed her willingly participating in the rapes and m*****s. Once this information was let out, it was too late. The plea deal was made, Paul was arrested and is still in prison and she got out and now is working around children in a school.

Shortly after her release she married her LAWYER'S BROTHER. They ended up having 3 children together and live a quiet life although several years ago Karla was volunteering at her children's school but after public outrage she couldn't anymore...

Jasmine Richardson, a 12 year old who helped k**l her parents and younger brother. She was originally thought to be kidnapped by the man who turned out to be her partner in the crimes. (Granted, she is in part a victim herself due to her age)

Three members of the Richardson family were m******d in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada in April 2006. The m*****s were planned and committed by the family's 12-year-old daughter Jasmine Richardson and her 23-year-old boyfriend Jeremy Steinke, now going by the name Jackson May. Richardson and Steinke were each convicted on three counts of first-degree m****r. Richardson, who had turned 13 before being convicted, is thought to be the youngest person in Canada ever convicted of multiple first-degree m****r counts. Her 10-year sentence was completed on May 6, 2016.

Dean Corll preyed upon young men in the Houston area between 1970 to 1973. What ultimately brought him down was not a police investigation, but one of his own henchmen. Corll raped and m******d at least 28 young men with the help of David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley - two teenage henchmen. It's likely Corll would have continued to a*****t men until police finally caught on, but when Corll attacked Rhonda Williams, a 15-year-old friend of Henley's, his spreed ended.

Henley invited Williams back to Corll's house after her alcoholic father attacked her. The two drank and did d***s before going to sleep. After waking up in a s****d stupor, Henley discovered that Corll had tied up Williams and a teen boy Henley had brought for Corll the day before. Henley himself had been tied up, but Corll let him go after Henley agreed to attack Williams. Instead, he shot Corll, ending his life.

He later went to the police detailing Corll's crimes and showing them where they had gotten rid of the bodies.

Christopher Lee Watts m******d his pregnant wife Shanann by strangulation, and their two children Bella and Celeste by suffocation. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave near an oil-storage facility, and dumped his children's bodies into crude oil tanks. Watts initially maintained his innocence in his family's disappearance, but was arrested on August 15, after confessing in an interview with detectives to m*******g Shanann. Months later he also admitted to m*******g his children.

On November 6, 2018, Watts pleaded guilty to multiple counts of first-degree m****r as part of a plea deal when the death penalty (which was later abolished in Colorado in 2020) was removed from sentencing. He was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, three to be served consecutively.

Vamarah Mora Gutierrez, 9; Samantha Mora Gutierrez, 10; and Samia Mora Gutierrez, 13; and Nathaniel Kong, the church leader, are dead, along with the shooter. Nathaniel had welcomed him into the church to live after he was kicked out of his home. So he bit (and k****d) the hand that fed him.

He had a restraining order from his wife and had domestic violence and other charges against him. He had been arrested for a*****t on an officer just a week ago. He was not allowed to own guns but that didn’t stop him.

Also the money didn't exist. It was just an email scam.

In the mid '90s, Stanford graduate Sandra Boss was getting her MBA at Harvard when her sister introduced her to a man named Clark Rockefeller, descendant of the famous business family. He wore custom-made designer clothing, collected expensive art, and had an upscale New York apartment. Boss was charmed, and the two married shortly thereafter.

Boss and Rockefeller spent the next 11 years together. They enjoyed a stable life, thanks in large part to Boss's job as a consultant and personal wealth. The two had a daughter, Reigh Storrow Mills Rockefeller, lovingly referred to as "Snooks," in 2001. Rockefeller was a stay-at-home dad, and didn't hesitate to spend Boss's money to keep up his appearances. His stories, too, became inconsistent. And Boss was often baffled when Rockefeller would suddenly insist, seemingly out of the blue, that they needed to move. Again.

Boss served Rockefeller with divorce papers in 2007. Since her husband was jobless and a complete mystery, Boss was awarded full custody. In 2008, Clark Rockefeller was enjoying one of the three court-approved visitations with his daughter as his ex-wife waited in a Boston hotel room nearby. While walking through Boston Common, Rockefeller disappeared with his daughter.

As investigators attempted to track down Rockefeller, they found more questions than answers. He didn't have a Social Security card, a driver's license, or even a credit card in his own name. When his picture was shown on the news asking for leads, callers gave at least four different identities to go with the man shown on-screen. Investigators were flummoxed.

Then, a friend came forward with what would become crucial evidence: Rockefeller had had a glass of wine at his house the night before, and the glass had not been washed. Police lifted prints off the glass and got a match to one Christian Karl Gerhartstreiter, a German immigrant who had come to the United States almost 30 years earlier.

Gerhartstreiter grew up in a middle-class family in a small town in Germany. He moved to the US as a teenager, where he stayed with a Connecticut family while claiming to be an exchange student at a local h**h school. He later got married and divorced, landing a green card, and moved to Los Angeles under the name of Christopher Chichester. He made himself at home in an upper-class neighborhood, weaving a tale of royal English ancestry and proclaiming himself a TV producer. He lived in the back house of a woman named Didi Sohus. Her son and daughter-in-law, John and Linda Sohus, lived on the property, as well. The two went missing in 1985, and Christopher Chichester disappeared shortly afterwards.

The skeletal remains of the couple were discovered in the backyard of the house in 1994, but by that time, Christopher Chichester had become Christopher Crowe. Crowe worked at (and was fired from) a number of h**h-level jobs on Wall Street, with no degree, no experience, and no Social Security number. As people began to catch wind of his act, and investigators tracked Sohus's missing truck back to him, he disappeared again, later turning up in Sandra Boss's life as Clark Rockefeller.

After a five-day manhunt for him and his kidnapped daughter, Clark Rockefeller had become Chip Smith. But his newest alias didn't last long; the owner of the carriage house he rented called investigators, and Snooks was safely returned to her mother while Christian/Christopher/Clark/Chip was finally taken into custody.

Gerhartstreiter was convicted of kidnapping his daughter as well as the m****r of John Sohus (Linda's body has never been found). He is serving a sentence of 27 years to life in prison.

Usually, criminals aren't apt to tell the police about their crimes. Not Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River K****r. In a weird twist on the typical interrogation story, Ridgway was so excited about being able to revel in the glory of being "accomplished" that he immediately gave the police information about everyone he hurt.

During his confession, while police were trying to pin him for 49 different attacks, Ridgway one-upped them and admitted to ending 80 victims' lives.

Edmund Emil Kemper III is an American serial k****r convicted of m*******g seven women and one girl, between May 1972 and April 1973. Years earlier, at the age of 15, Kemper had m******d his paternal grandparents. Kemper was nicknamed the "Co-ed K****r", as most of his non-familial victims were female college students hitchhiking in the vicinity of Santa Cruz County, California. Most of his m*****s included necrophilia, decapitation, and dismemberment.

Serial k****r Ed Kemper befriended the very police officers investigating his m*****s, and would socialize with them at a bar called the "Jury Room". They called him "Big Ed" and never suspected him. When he initially confessed, they thought he was pulling a prank.

Prosecutors argued that David Camm k****d his family and staged the scene, leaving his wife's shoes neatly lined up on top of her Bronco. Five years later, DNA from a felon who attacks women and steals their shoes was found at the scene.

David Ray Camm is a former trooper of the Indiana State Police (ISP) who spent 13 years in prison after twice being wrongfully convicted of the m*****s of his wife, Kimberly, and his two young children at their home in Georgetown, Indiana, on September 28, 2000. He was released from custody in 2013 after his third trial resulted in an acquittal. Charles Boney is currently serving time for the m*****s of Camm's wife and two children.

The story of Charles Manson, his life, and his "family" is full of more strange twists than an M. Night Shyamalan retrospective, but one of the weirdest twists is the mystery of Bernard Crowe. Before his infamous actions, Manson was in a dispute over drug money with Crowe. Worried about the money and Crowe's affiliation with the Black Panthers, Manson went over to Crowe's apartment and shot him.

Manson thought he took Crowe's life, and when he was arrested for the m*****s of Sharon Tate and the LaBiancas in 1969, he included Crowe as one of his victims. However, Crowe was still alive. He had never gone to the police about the shooting, never told any of his fellow Black Panthers about it, and never retaliated against Manson, leaving the cult leader to believe Crowe was dead.

Susan Atkins - a member of the Mason family - wrote in her book The Myth of Helter Skelter that Manson didn't realize Crowe was alive until he was arrested for a crime unrelated to Manson.

On May 11th 2012, a house in Osmaston, Derby in Derbyshire, England went up in flames. The home belonged to 56-year-old Mick and Mairead Philpott. Five of Mick Philpott’s children died in the fire and another later died in hospital from his burns. The children were all asleep in their rooms upstairs whilst Mick and Mairead were downstairs.

It was confirmed that the fire was started deliberately via petrol being inserted below the letterbox. Mick and Mairead had a press conference in which they appeared to weep for the death of their children however upon further inspection, Mick was feigning sadness and pretending to wipe his tears with a tissue. Suspicion began rising against the Philpotts.

It was soon discovered that Mick and Mairead along with Paul Mosley (45) who the Philpotts were friends with had planned the fire to pin the arson attack on Mick’s ex who wanted custody of his other children (that didn’t live with the Philpotts). Originally the ex was arrested but later released. On May 29th, Mairead and Mick were arrested for the m****r of their children. On November 5th Mosley was arrested. These charges were later lowered to manslaughter. Petrol was discovered on Mick Philpott’s clothing. All three were found guilty. Mick was sentenced to life imprisonment on April 4th with a minimum of 15 years. Mairead and Paul Moslely were sentenced to 17 years.

Early Life and Previous Crimes – Mick Philpott (before the arson attack)

Mick had an extremely inappropriate view of underage/teenage girls and would often groom/abuse them into being in ‘’relationships’’. He attempted to m****r Kim Hill (15) by shooting a crossbow into her groin as he believed her dress was too short and then c*****d her kneecap with a hammer when she paid too much attention to a baby she was looking after more than him. Kim attempted to escape from Mick’s abuse and wrote him a letter saying she was leaving him. He then stabbed her multiple times whilst she was lying in bed. Kim’s mother attempted to help her daughter, Mick then turned on her and began stabbing her. Kim and her mother survived the attack but Kim suffered collapsed lungs and other injuries. Mick was convicted of attempted m****r and sentenced to 7 years however only served three years and two months.

He married Pamela Lomax who he had three children with. He began grooming Heather Kehoe (14) who gave birth to two boys. Mick beat Heather savagely because he wanted a girl instead. Mick taught his sons to engage in violence towards their mother. Mick also caused bodily harm by head-butting a colleague and received a conditional discharge for two years.

Mick then shown interest in Mairead (then 19) and they married in 2003. Mick then met Lisa Willis (16) who became his mistress. In 2010, Mick was cautioned for dragging Mairead outside by her hair and slapping her.

Mairead was released in November 2020 and has since expressed ‘remorse’ for her part in the arson attack.

Linda Laura Hazzard, nicknamed the "Starvation Doctor", was an American quack, swindler and convicted serial k****r noted for her promotion of fasting, pummeling and hours-long enemas as treatments. In 1911, Hazzard was found guilty of manslaughter in the state of Washington and was sentenced to 2 to 20 years of hard labor for k*****g at least 15 people for financial gain at a sanitarium she operated near Seattle in the early 20th century. She was released on parole after only serving two years and later, on the condition that she move to New Zealand, received a full pardon from Governor Ernest Lister in 1916. Hazzard died at 70 after subjecting herself to her treatment methods.

Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK K****r, was cocky - so cocky that he would send taunting messages to the police officers investigating him. Police used one of those messages to trace Rader to his home and arrest him.

Rader acted maliciously over a period of 17 years, taking lengthy breaks between casualties. He was obsessed with being considered the best and scariest criminal and getting credit for his work. He taunted the Wichita Police Department, sending them poems about victims and snapshots of the bodies. He left cereal boxes around town with information that only he could know.

In 2004, The Wichita Eagle wrote an article speculating that the unnamed criminal had either died or been put in jail, since there hadn't been a BTK attack in a decade. Angered by this, Rader began sending the paper letters telling them he was still alive and free. In a message left at a hardware store, he asked whether a message left on a floppy disk could be traced. Investigators said no, and Rader sent a floppy disk with a document saved on it.

Also saved on the disk was the name "Dennis" and a location of where the disk was used - Rader's church. He was arrested, and DNA evidence from the scenes matched Rader. Some believe Rader knew exactly what he was doing and that he wanted to be caught. Others believe he wasn't as smart as he thought he was and ended up telegraphing his final play completely on accident.

In April 2018, the public was shocked when authorities announced they had apprehended a suspect in the Golden State K****r (GSK) case. The criminal terrorized California during the '70s and '80s in a spree of multiple rapes and 12 suspected fatalities, but he abruptly ended his reign of terror in the late '80s, leading to widespread speculation that he died and his identity would never be revealed.
The suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, was identified via complex DNA profiling, though. Investigators compared DNA found at various GSK crime scenes to DNA publicly available via genealogical websites. This led them to a connection via a family member of DeAngelo. 
What makes this twist even more bizarre was that DeAngelo was living a relatively normal life near Sacramento, CA. A retired police officer, he was a regular at a local diner where his only notable trait was being grouchy. It remains unclear why he decided to end his crime spree and resume a normal life. 

Joseph Augustus Zarelli, previously known as the "Boy in the Box", "Boy in a Box" or "America's Unknown Child", was an American 4-year-old male whose nude, malnourished, beaten body was found on the side of Susquehanna Road, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1957. Joseph appeared to have been cleaned and freshly groomed, with a recent haircut and trimmed fingernails, although he had suffered extensive physical attacks prior to his death, with multiple bruises on his body. He was also severely malnourished. His body was covered with scars, some of which were surgical (most notably on his ankle, groin and chin). Authorities believe that the cause of death was homicide by blunt force trauma.

Despite the publicity and sporadic interest throughout the years, the boy's identity remained unknown for over half a century. On November 30, 2022, the Philadelphia Police Department announced that detectives had determined the boy's identity using DNA and genealogical databases. On December 8, 2022, more than 65 years after his body was found, he was publicly identified. Despite the identification, the exact circumstances leading to his death are uncertain and the case is still considered an open homicide investigation.

Ana Julia Quezada She was dating a divorced man who had an 8 year old son. One day, the kid goes missing and the news started interviewing the parents. She would always stand next to the dad crying and begging the kidnapper that, if they're watching, to please give back the kid. Turns out, there was no kidnapping. She'd k****d the kid the very first day of his disappearance and played her part around her boyfriend and the news. People believe she did it out of jealousy and in hopes of convincing her boyfriend to move to her country to get over his kid. Her 4 year old daughter had also died in 1996 in some strange circumstances.

Cruz disappeared while travelling from his grandmother's residence to his cousins', only 100 metres (330 ft) away, and remained missing for twelve days. A search and rescue operation consisting of over 5,000 people, including 3,000 volunteers and 2,000 professionals, was established. It was the largest coordinated search for a missing person in Spanish history.

On 11 March 2018, Cruz's body was found in the boot of a vehicle belonging to Ana Julia Quezada. Quezada had k****d and buried Cruz on a farm owned by his father's family in the town of Rodalquilar, and had dug up and transported the body to her home in La Puebla de Vícar when she was detained by the Civil Guard. She confessed to the crime two days later.

Laci Denise Peterson was an American woman m******d by her husband, Scott Lee Peterson, while eight months pregnant with their first child.

On December 24, 2002, Scott reported Laci missing from their home in Modesto, California. Four months later, Laci's body and the body of her unborn son, whom the couple had planned to name Conner, were discovered on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Scott Peterson was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of m****r. In 2004, Scott was found guilty of the first-degree m****r of Laci and the second-degree m****r of Conner.

The nationwide media coverage produced several tips and possible sightings, one of which was from a woman who identified herself as Scott's girlfriend. On December 30, 2002, Amber Frey informed detectives she had met Scott on November 20, and he said he was single. Additionally, Frey told detectives Scott said on December 9, he was a widower and this Christmas would be his first without his wife. Based on the dates and information Frey provided, detectives now believed Scott began planning to k**l Laci two weeks before Laci's disappearance.

Caylee Marie Anthony was an American toddler who lived in Orlando, Florida, with her mother, Casey Marie Anthony, and her maternal grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony. On July 15, 2008, Caylee was reported missing in a 9-1-1 call made by Cindy, who said she had not seen the child for thirty-one days. According to what Cindy told police dispatchers, Casey had given varied explanations as to Caylee's whereabouts before eventually saying she had not seen her daughter for weeks. Casey later called police and falsely told a dispatcher that Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny on June 9. Casey was charged with first-degree m****r in October 2008 and pleaded not guilty.

On December 11, 2008, Caylee's skeletal remains were found with a blanket inside a laundry bag in a wooded area near the Anthony family residence. Investigative reports and trial testimony varied between duct tape being found near the front and mouth of the skull. The medical examiner listed Caylee's cause of death as "homicide by undetermined means".

The State of Florida sought the death penalty in its case against Casey. Relying largely on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution alleged Casey wished to free herself from parental responsibilities and m******d her daughter by administering chloroform and applying duct tape to her nose and mouth. Casey's defense team, led by Jose Baez, chiefly focused on challenging the prosecution's evidence, calling much of it "fantasy forensics". The defense stated that Caylee had drowned accidentally in the family's swimming pool and that George had disposed of the body.

On July 5, 2011, a jury found Casey not guilty of first-degree m****r, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. With credit for time served, Casey was released on July 17, 2011.

Blood is thicker than water, unless your brother is the Unabomber. Ted Kaczynski, more commonly referred to as the Unabomber, wrote a manifesto that he wanted published by the biggest US media outlets in 1995. In it, he stated that if his demands were not met, he would continue his bombing campaign.

Unfortunately for Kaczynski, his life's work was also his life's undoing. His brother David read the manifesto, recognized his brother's handwriting and turned him into the federal authorities. To hear David tell it, he never planned on reading the manifesto, even after recognizing similarities between the bomber's theories and his brother's letters that were written while he was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Despite Ted's arrest, David had trouble believing his brother was the Unabomber: "I had never seen him violent, not toward me, not toward anyone. I tended to see his anger turned inward."