20 Spine-Chilling Murders That Will Creep You Out

Weeks following the 9/11 attacks, several news outlets and senators in the USA received letters laced with anthrax spores. Five people were killed and 17 were injured. According to the FBI, the ensuing investigation became “one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement.” The prime suspect in the case was a scientist named Bruce Edwards Ivins who worked in U.S. government's biodefense labs. He committed suicide with an overdose of acetaminophen in 2008. So the case still remains open.

In 2007, Robert Pickton was convicted for a string of murders. He mainly targeted prostitutes in Canada. Though he is serving prison time for 6 murders, he once confided to an undercover police officer that he had killed 49. He said he wanted to make it 50, but got sloppy and was caught. He owned a pig farm and investigators found that he had probably fed to his pigs the bodies of several women. There was also evidence that he mixed the human flesh with pork, and canned it before selling it to the public.

In 1981, 36-year-old Glenna Sharp was renting a cabin with her five of her children in Keddie, California. When her 14-year-old daughter returned to the cabin one morning after a sleepover, she found her mother, her brother and one of his friends were bludgeoned to death with a hammer and bound with medical tape. One of her sister, Tina Sharp, was missing, while her two other siblings were sleeping in the next room. The remains of the Tina were found 3 years later. The case still remains unsolved.

James Patterson Smith had a violent history. In his 40s, he started dating 17-year-old Kelly Anne Bates. Over the period of 4 weeks, Smith gouged her eyes, scalded her skin, partially scalped her, mutilated and killed her. The pathologist in charge of the case described her injuries as the worst he had ever seen. Smith was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1997.

In 1977, the camp counselor at Camp Scott in Mayes County, Oklahoma woke up to a gruesome scene at the farthest tent from the camp. Three girls between the ages of 8 to 10 were dragged from their tents, raped, beaten, strangled and stuffed back into their sleeping tents. Gene Leroy Hart, an escaped convict who grew up near the camp was charged and acquitted. Although there was DNA evidence found on the bags in 2007, it was too deteriorated to be tested. The case still remains unsolved.

In 1874, the whole of Stelzriede family residing in the small town of Saxtown was murdered overnight. When their neighbor hadn’t seen them in a while, he went to investigate and found that his neighbor’s little boy had been brutally murdered with an ax. Inside, he found the boy's father, mother, grandfather, brother, and sister all killed with an ax, some with their throats slit. These murders deeply affected the town as the murderer was never caught and people grew suspicious of everyone in the town.

In 1981 6-year-old named Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a Sears store and 16 days later his severed head was found 120 miles from his family home. Seven years later, while his son’s killer was still unknown, John Walsh began to host America’s Most Wanted. He was a hotelier earlier, but after his son’s death, he devoted himself to criminal justice and more than 1200 criminals were captured thanks to AMW. In 2008, the Florida Police identified his son’s killer as Otis Toole, a serial killer who died in prison in 1996 while serving life for other crimes.

In 1974, two men robbing a Hi-Fi store in Odgen, Utah held captive and tormented five individuals. Only two of the captives survived. Among the sadism levied on the captives were the following: Violence included a pen being kicked into an ear and the brutal rape of a teenage girl who was later shot in the head. Corrosive drain cleaner was also forcefully given to the hostages causing horrific burns to their mouths and throats. Not only were they forced to drink drain cleaner but their mouths were then taped shut so they couldn’t spit it out or vomit it up. One of the victims, Orren Walker, was shot several times, strangled and had a pen kicked into his ear but still survived.

A Spanish woman named Enriqueta Martí turned to prostitution after divorcing her husband. During the day, she would dress up in rags and beg on the streets of Barcelona. She used poor children to pass off as her own in an effort to appeal to potential donors. When night fell, she prostituted the children or murdered them in order to use their remains for her “potions” because she was also a witch doctor. She was arrested in 1912 and died a year later at the hands of her prison mates.

Micajah Harpe and Wiley Harpe are the earliest documented serial killers in the USA. In the 1700s, the body count they left behind had every wilderness traveler on edge. They were kicked out of a pirate gang for being too brutal. They killed men, women, and children by disemboweling them and filling their cavity with rocks. They threw many victims off the cliffs. One of them even killed his own daughter for crying too loud. They murdered close to 50 people.