Law enforcement , forensic science , crime scene probe , just general problem figure out has come a long way since Sherlock Holmes and Sam Spade hung out in alleys ( albeit fictional unity ) trying to figure out whodunit .
But even the sharpest fictional detectives — Shawn Spencer , Harry Bosch , Monk — ca n’t catch all the bend out there . all in ends are an inauspicious part of solving crimes . Some crimes never get solve .
Here are nine illustrious cold cases that are still baffling investigator .
1. The Murder of Biggie Smalls
The suspect , the motives , the possibility behind the drive - by shooting end of iconic knocker Biggie Smalls ( aka theNotorious B.I.G. , or Christopher Wallace ) in Los Angeles in 1997 are almosttoo many to list . Was Death Row Records top executive Suge Knight involved ? Was Biggie ’s murder link up to fellow rapperTupac Shakur’sgunning down just month earlier ? Was it a gang hit ? Were crook cops involved ? Books have been written , documentaries produced ( even late ace ) , and thousands of article have tried to unravel the crime . It remain unresolved .
2. The Gardner Museum Theft
In the former aurora of March 18 , 1990 , two men dressed as police officer tricked their way into theIsabella Stewart Gardner Museumin Boston . In a little less than an 60 minutes and a one-half , they ripped off 13 piece of art — including two Rembrandts , a Manet and five Degas drawings — in what has been described as thesingle large property thieving in the creation , deserving as much as perhaps$1 billion . Thousands of lead later , the artwork is still missing , and the $ 10 million reward persist unclaimed .
3. The Death of a British Spy
A 31 - year - old code breakers who worked for MI6 , theBritish Secret Intelligence Service , was found dead in his London flat in August 2010 . Hisnaked body was padlocked inwardly of a North Face bag . The twist : The key to the lock was inside the bag with him . Gareth Williams ' dying — the British press is call it the " spy in the bag " case — was first decree accidental , though a medical examiner said he was probably killed . The shell is still under probe .
4. The Murder of Bob Crane
fuck as the wise - cracking Col . Hogan from the bizarre late-’60s TV show " Hogan ’s Heroes " — it was a sitcom dress in a prisoner of state of war camp in Nazi Germany during World War II — actor Bob Crane , in veridical life , savor take pictures and videos of himself and his many sexual activity partners in action . When his bludgeoned body , an electric cord around his neck , was found in a Scottsdale , Arizona , flat in 1978 , suspiciousness first centre on a sex - chasing protagonist . The friend finally was charged with the slaying , in 1992 , but acquitted at a trial in 1994 . Thecase remains open .
5. The Identity of Jack the Ripper
No Orcinus orca in history is best lie with than the one who stalk the cruddy streets of London in 1888 , bump off at least five prostitutes in brutal fashion , terrify the city , and sparking an interest in serial killers that has hold out for centuries . Jack the Ripper , as the Whitechapel murderer came to be have it off , sexually abused his victim , mutilated them , even slay internal organs . By various numeration , century have been suspect . None of them were ever charged .
6. The Murder of Elizabeth Short, the ‘Black Dahlia’
The young woman was just 22 . She was pretty , with dark curly hair and green optic , an aspiring actress who count the part . And when she was found alongside a sidewalk in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on a January morning in 1947 , her naked body slice up in two just above the waist , bizarrely drain of blood , put , and the edges of her sass sliced near from lip to auricle , Elizabeth Shortbecame , to the press , the " Black Dahlia . " Many incorrectly profess to the slaying , and the police had many suspects . But no one has ever been charge . Short ’s execution is often considered one of the most famed unresolved murders in American history , as well as one of the oldest unsolved subject in Los Angeles County .
7. The Harry Winston Diamond Heist
Four men , three dressed as women , entered the ritzy Harry Winston jewellery storage in Paris one afternoon in December 2008 and , in around 15 minutes , made off withmore than $ 70 million in pillage . The French - address baddies were part of a crime anchor ring known as the Pink Panthers . Most were caught , but a lot of the bounty never has been recover , includinga huge diamondreportedly blemish on the finger of Lyudmila Putina , Russian president Vladimir Putin ’s ex-wife - married woman .
8. The Murder of Bugsy Siegel
If any gangster ever had it coming , Benjamin " Bugsy " Siegelwas that made military man . On a June evening in 1947 , on a couch in his girlfriend ’s Beverly Hills mansion , the killer who once headed an outfit bonk as " Murder , Incorporated " got his , too , in a grisly assassination that ended his life at 41 . Mob hit ? Revenge by somebody he did wrong ? pre-emptive strike by the lover of one of his shortly - to - be victim ’s wife ? The theories are still flying . The subject , formally , is still receptive .
9. The Identity of the Zodiac Killer
infamous among the notorious , theZodiac Killermurdered at least five mass in Northern California in the later 1960s , and maybe as many as 37 , taunt the police and imperativeness ( and terrorize the area ) with a series of letter and cryptanalytic puzzles that were print in local newspapers . In late 2020 , 51 years after it was sent , one of the killer whale ’s puzzler finally was solve , part of which read , " I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER . " Several law enforcement agencies list the unresolved instance as still open .
