Whodunnit? The 10 Most Infamous Unsolved Crime Cases of All Time — from Black Dahlia to JonBenét Ramsey

Will there ever be justice?

Some cases are famous because of the details. Some cases are well known because of who is arrested. Some cases are famous because nobody is arrest. The following cases are among the most infamous unsolved cases.

They include crazy tales of crime and those involving celebrities. The cases drew international headlines and plenty of pseudo-sleuths. But, to date, they haven’t been solved and there have been no arrests. 

The cases have been looked at thousands of times over, yet no definitive leads have surfaced. What happened in these 10 famous unsolved cases?

A popular pageant girl during the 1990s, JonBenet Ramsey’s case shook the nation when police couldn’t identify her killer. Police found the beauty queen’s body in her home on Christmas 1996 after her family reported her missing. The family discovered a ransom note requesting $118,000 for JonBenet’s return.

The case drew international attention, given the details and pictures of Ramsey flooded the airwaves. 

Police have never identified a suspect, but many believe that JonBenet’s family, specifically her brother, Burke, but police have never named her family members as suspects.

On Nov. 24, 1971, a man only identified as Dan Cooper or D.B. Cooper hopped on a Flight #305 heading to Seattle. During the flight, Cooper gave a flight stewardess a note stating that he had a bomb in his briefcase and demanded $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills and four parachutes, according to the FBI.

The flight crew agreed to his terms, and once they landed in Seattle, Cooper stayed on the plane as it made its way to Mexico City. During the flight between Seattle and Reno, Cooper jumped out of the aircraft with a parachute and ransom money. Police haven’t been able to trace Cooper since he departed from the flight.

FBI has investigated over 800 suspects but has never made an official arrest.

On Jan. 15, 1947, a mother taking her child for a stroll discovered something horrendous: the naked body of a young woman. The unknown killer left Elizabeth Short’s body, known as the “Black Dahlia,” sliced in half, nude in a grassy area. An aspiring Hollywood actress, the media gave Short the nickname “Black Dahlia” as she was known to dress in all black, according to the FBI. 

Despite the gruesome nature of Short’s body, police did not find any blood at the crime scene, which meant that the killer placed her body there after the murder. Although the FBI considered the search for Short’s killer to be easy, given his precision in dissecting her body, a suspect has never been identified. 

Former president of America’s largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa, went missing in metro Detroit on July 30, 1975. Before his disappearance, Hoffa met with Mafia bosses Anthony Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone, though police never charged them. 

Police believe his criminal activities, which involve mail fraud, bribery and jury tampering, may have played a role in his disappearance and possible murder.

In 2006, authorities excavated a farm that allegedly Hoffa’s body may have been, but didn’t find any evidence.

There are numerous stories about his disappearance including a mob hit and that he is buried under the Meadowlands in New Jersey. 

On Nov. 1, 2006, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko fell ill after drinking tea at a London hotel. Several weeks later, he died in a hospital due to radioactive poisoning. 

Around the time of his death, Litvinenko heavily criticized the KGB and President Vladimir Putin for their alleged involvement in the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. 

The main suspects for the murder include Dmitri Kovtun and Andrei Lugovi, who both met with Litvinenko the day he became ill. Still, police officials have never officially charged them, according to BBC News. 

During the late 1960s, an unknown serial killer deemed the “Zodiac Killer” caused terror amongst residents in the San Francisco Bay Area. Police linked the Zodiac Killer to five murders and two attempted murders between 1968 and 1969 in Northern California, although he could be responsible for additional killings. 

The Zodiac Killer is notoriously known for his police threats through letters he sent to local newspapers between 1969 and 1974. The Zodiac Killer received his nickname given how he coded his letters, which a high school teacher and his wife later deciphered. Police stopped receiving communication from the Zodiac Killer in 1974.

Author Robert Graysmith accused criminal Arthur Leigh Allen of being the Zodiac Killer; however, police believe he has no connections to the murders. Allen passed away in 1992, and there haven’t been any leads on the case since. 

On March 18, 1990, around 1:30 a.m., two men disguised as police officers went into Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The two suspects subdued the security guards and put them in the museum’s basement. 

The two suspects stole 13 pieces of artwork on display at the museum, breaking the glass to retrieve work from famous artists such as Rembrandt and Vermeer. The robbery took over an hour, with the robbers taking artwork that is now valued at $500 million. 

The Gardner Museum offers a $10 million reward for any information leading to the missing artwork’s recovery. Police have not named any suspects for the notorious heist. 

Jack the Ripper is a London serial killer that murdered and mutilated five women during the late 1880s. The unknown killer targeted sex workers in the area, luring them to their deaths. Given his unique way of murdering his victims and his unknown identity, Jack the Ripper is considered one of England’s most infamous killers. 

Similar to the Zodiac Killer, Jack the Ripper allegedly sent police threatening letters, as well as details about his gruesome crimes, according to History. 

Centuries later, London police have yet to identify the killer.

In 1982, a string of deaths relating to poisoning occurred in Chicago. Deemed the Chicago Tylenol Murders, seven victims died after consuming contaminated Tylenol pills. The Tylenol pills, which contain acetaminophen, were laced with potassium cyanide by an unknown suspect.

Despite the tragedies from the Chicago Tylenol Murders, the case led to better packaging for over-the-counter medicine to prevent tampering, according to PBS.

As FrontPageDetectives previously reported, the only arrest ever made in the case came when James W. Lewis, a tax accountant and well-known con artist, tried to extort money from Johnson & Johnson in return for putting a stop to the killings.

Cops couldn't pin Lewis as the mass murderer, but they did send him to prison for 13 years on extortion and other charges.

He was found dead at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 9 at age 76.

Friends and later foes, Tupac “2Pac” Shakur and Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace, mysteriously died under similar circumstances within six months of each other. Both rappers played significant roles in the East Coast vs. West Coast beef during the 1990s, leading to an incident in which someone shot 2Pac, which he blamed on Biggie Smalls.

After watching the Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas, an unidentified suspect fatally shot at 2Pac and Suge Knight, the founder of Death Row Records, at a red light on Sept. 7, 1996. Six days later, 2pac died at the age of 25 at a Las Vegas hospital.

Police in Las Vegas announced an arrest in case, FrontPageDetectives reported.

On Sept. 29, 2023, officials said Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in connection with Tupac's killing. In the past, Davis has been very open about being a witness to the shooting of Tupac and hip hop mogul Knight.

Davis claimed he was one of four occupants in a white Cadillac that drove up to the rapper's car, rolled down its window and shot, hitting the rapper three times.

In March 1997, Biggie Smalls died after an unknown assailant fired multiple gunshots while he was sitting in his vehicle. Earlier that night, Biggie Smalls attended the Soul Train Awards in Los Angeles. Biggie Smalls passed away hours after the shooting at the age of 24.