Murders You Haven't Heard Of
- Tammy Lee
- 7 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Most people reading this will have heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Manson Murders, Jack the Ripper, etc. But many cases slip under the public radar, just as terrifying and tragic; here are five murders you haven't heard of.
1 – Li Yijiang
Yijiang had committed his first murder at 14 years old. At 25, he was living in Beijing and had arranged a meet-up with some people at a local club. Instead of dancing the night away, four of the men took Yijiang and brutally raped him.
He made it home and, once there, he started planning his revenge.
Over the next 6 months, he lured every one of his rapists to isolated areas before killing them; his modus operandi was removing their genitalia while they were still alive. He also murdered two other people.
It didn’t take long for Yijiang to be caught, and in August 2003, he happily confessed to the murders. He was executed by firing squad.
2 - Jemma Lilley and Trudi Lenon
Lilley was obsessed with serial killers.
As a child, she would pretend to be one while playing, and at 15, she wrote a fictional novel about David Berkowitz.
In 2016, Lilley, now 25, met Trudi Lenon. It soon became more than friendship, with the two of them indulging heavily in BDSM and submissive roles. A few months later, their relationship took a dark turn, and they discussed killing someone together.
Lilley and Lenon invited Aaron Pajich to Lilley’s house; Aaron was 18 years old and had learning disabilities. He entered the house and, as soon as his back was turned, they stabbed him to death. They murdered him purely for their own pleasure.
When they were caught, they blamed each other, but both of them were sentenced to life in prison.
3 – The Lake Bodom Murders
Near Helsinki is a beautiful place called Lake Bodom. On 5th June 1960, a group of four teenagers, Maila Irmeli Björklund (15), Anja Tuulikki Mäki (15), Nils Gustafsson and Seppo Boisman (18) went camping next to the lake – but not all of them returned.
During the night, three of the campers were viciously murdered in their tents, and Nils was left for dead. The murder weapon was never found, although some involved in the investigation believed a scythe was used. This led to a theory amongst some conspiracists that the Grim Reaper himself had killed the teenagers. Nils was accused and went to trial, but he was acquitted of all charges.
The case remains unsolved.
4 - Charlie Brandt
In 1971, Brandt shot his pregnant mother dead before turning the gun on his father and sister (who both survived). He was only 13 years old at the time and had no apparent motive.
He was placed in a juvenile centre where psychiatrists could not figure out why Brandt had attempted to annihilate his own family; he was only there for a year before being released without criminal charges.
By 1978, he was free and living in Florida. In 1989, he murdered a homeless woman; he attempted to decapitate her, and he removed her heart.
In 2004, Brandt was living with his wife when a warning came in about Hurricane Ivan. Their niece offered to put them up until it was safe to return home. After no one had heard from the family for a while, a friend went to check up on them. Brandt had hanged himself in the garage, his body already decomposing. His wife had been stabbed 7 times in the chest and lay dead in the living room. The niece had been decapitated and disembowelled, her head removed and placed next to her. It is strongly believed that he had killed many more people.
5 - Beverly Jarosz
In Ohio, in 1964, 16-year-old Beverly received a gift-wrapped box that had been left outside her back door with a note ‘To Bev’. It contained a silver bracelet and ring, but no indication of who it was from. The house phone would ring up to 12 times a day, but when answered, no one was there. Beverly’s father saw someone looking up at her bedroom window; he gave chase but couldn’t catch them.
Beverly wrote a lot of poems about death and told her sister Carol Someone will want to publish these when I’m dead’. She became convinced that she was going to be murdered. Beverly thought of nothing else, leading to paranoia; doors and windows were locked, curtains kept shut, and she slept with a knife next to her.
Just a few months later, Beverly's father found her lying face down in her bedroom. She was naked from the waist down, had been stabbed 40 times, and strangled with a rope. The case was never solved.
I genuinely hope that, one day, the case of Beverly will be solved. As always, please do let me know what you think in the comments. Take care, and I will see you next time.
Hi! I spend a lot of time writing for the website, and I basically exist on caffeine and anxiety - if anybody would like to encourage this habit, please feel free to buy me a coffee!
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