Grab The Edge of Your Seat: The 20 Most Horrifying Murders of All Time

There is nothing quite as mysterious as an unresolved murder case, although, unfortunately, we can see many such cases worldwide. In a few of these instances, the individuals responsible for the murders have been tracked down, imprisoned, and sentenced. Whereas other cases have not been closed, and they may never be.

These are the most notorious murders that shocked the world.

The blood-curdling story of Dennis Nilsen

Let us start with a bloodcurdling story from the mid-1970s. Dennis Andrew Nilsen, a Scottish necrophile and serial murderer, was responsible for the deaths of at least twelve young men in the city of London between the years 1978 and 1983. He would go to London clubs and pick up young men whom he would later take home and murder by strangling them!

Sometimes, he would store the corpses for weeks or even months. During that time, he would converse with them and engage in inappropriate activity before burning them or flushing parts of their bodies down the toilet. He would also wash and clothe the bodies. It was not until “the residual portions of the corpse he had attempted to flush away got lodged in a drain from outside his home” that he was caught. According to a forensic psychologist who collaborated with Dennis Nilsen, he had “abnormal sexual development” as a youngster, which led to his engaging in necrophilia as an adult.

The murder of Dorothy Stratten, a rising Hollywood actress 

Dorothy Stratten was 18 and worked at a Dairy Queen when she met Paul Snider. He told her she’d be a celebrity with nice words. Snider convinced Stratten to move to Los Angeles to participate in Playboy’s 25th Anniversary Great Playmate Hunt. Snider kidnapped her to make money. Stratten played Miss August 1979 in Playboy, then starred in Buck Rogers, Fantasy Island, and Galaxina. Stratten climbed Hollywood’s ranks quickly. Press called her “one of the few new decade goddesses.” Audrey Hepburn even co-starred with Stratten! And while shooting in New York, she fell in love with Peter Bogdanovich.

Snider employed a private spy to follow Stratten. She told her husband she loved Bogdanovich and wanted a divorce when she returned home. Snider hardly spoke in her presence. Once Stratten quit, his friends said he became interested in weapons and hunting. He purchased a 12-gauge shotgun, attended a few shooting classes, and whispered that Playboy didn’t run naked photographs of killed women. Stratten visited Snider on August 14, 1980, to discuss a divorce estate settlement. Snider would move when they were alone. Snider killed Stratten with a 12-gauge shotgun, and then he shot himself. Stratten was once a rising Hollywood actress, but now she’s known for her murder.

Diane Downs – one of the most notorious killers

After being found guilty of murdering her three children, Diane Downs became one of the city’s most notorious killers. In 1983, Diane Downs fatally shot all three of her children before taking them to the hospital. Her son was paralyzed from the waist down, one of her daughters passed away while being taken to the hospital, and the other daughter suffered a stroke.

Diane said a “weird guy” had tried to steal her car and then opened fire on everyone else in the parking lot. However, the authorities ultimately obtained access to her private journal. They read the entry that “detailed her infatuation with a married guy who did not want kids.” As a direct consequence of this, she was taken into custody. She was given a life sentence with a minimum of fifty years in prison. Downs gave birth to a girl 10 days after being sentenced, and she called her baby Amy Elizabeth. Later on, the kid was given a new name by her adoptive parents: Rebecca Babcock.

Sharon Tate: murdered while she was pregnant

Hollywood has been terrified by the Manson Family’s murder of Sharon Tate while she was eight months pregnant for decades. Tate was at home on August 8, 1969, with Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Jay Sebring. Her spouse, Roman Polanski, was filming in another country. The couple rented a magnificent house in Los Angeles, which became the murder site. Charles Manson’s followers were told to kill everyone in the house “as gruesomely as you can.” First, they killed 18-year-old Steven Parent, who’d been visiting the estate’s caretaker. In the main chamber, four people were shackled. Sebring said that Tate, who was eight months pregnant then, was being harassed badly. She was shot in the chest, kicked in the face, then stabbed multiple times until she died.

Folger and Frykowski broke free from their shackles and fled. The effort to escape was unsuccessful. The killers pursued them and ruthlessly stabbed them countless times. Tate begged her captors to release her unborn child, but The Manson Family was unconcerned. They slashed her and scribbled “Pig” on the door in her blood. Manson set fire to the house. Manson sought retaliation against Terry Melcher, who had rejected a recording contract. All of that night’s attacks and Manson were discovered by the end of the year. They were hanged or sentenced to life in prison. All parole applications were refused.