Ted Bundy, Jim Jones, Patty Hearst, all some of the biggest crime names of the 1970s, but they're just the criminals who were caught. Some of the worst criminals from that era don't even have famous names. Years later, their crimes remain unsolved. Today, we're looking at 10 of the creepiest unsolved murders of the 1970s.

We don't know who committed these crimes. And worse, we don't know why. It's even scarier when you look at all the details. Some of these crimes are so gruesome and so puzzling. You just know it had to be personal. None of today's cases are lacking for clues or suspects. But all we can say for sure is that one person who did know the killer's name is the person who wound up dead.

Hey, all you weirdos.

Welcome to the podcast Original Crime Countdown. I'm Ash and I'm Aleena. Every week will highlight 10 fascinating stories of history's most engaging and unsettling crimes, all picked by the past research gods. Today's topic is going to be unsolved murders of the 70s.

Ash, you belong in the 70s.

I'm so excited for this countdown. You have no idea. Yeah. This is your time to shine. This is your decade. Like I'm barefoot. I forgot my flower crown. I should've brought it. You really should. I would have been fully prepared to be a hippie for this fully in character.

The 70s were awesome.

Yeah, there was. There was David Bowie. Fleetwood Mac. There was.

I mean, Rocky Horror Picture Show you. All the horror movies of the 70s. All your favorites. All of them. And they all had that like gritty, nasty 70s vibe. Well, the 70s did have like a crazy amount of insane murders. And people are always like, why did the 70s why were the 70s the time of crazy murders? Well, nothing like there was no DNA evidence or anything like that. Yeah.

And I think it was like the early criminal profiling and criminal psychology. Yeah. The term serial killer hadn't even been coined at that point.

I mean, you could just send your five year old down to the store, like on their bike and you're a little bit black, right?

I think it was just easy. There was hitchhiking. No, I think you said earlier that you could just leave your toupee at a crime scene and the investigators would be like, it's fine. Yeah. They just be like, this. Is this fine? That's totally fine.

But I think it was just like victims were aplenty because people were out. Kids were out. It was just a lot less.

It was carefree misery, which apparently we shouldn't. Summer love. Well, we're going to discuss it all.

The cool part of the show is Aleena has five topics and so do I, but neither of us knows which five the other one has.

Let's start the countdown. Ten. I'll get us started with number 10. The murder of Jeanette Dipalma in Springfield Township, New Jersey, Jeanette left her home on August 7th, 1972, and her remains were found atop a cliff six weeks later on September 19th. That's bad. That's a bad outcome.

Real bad. Yeah. Well, a lot of rumors flew around the town. Mainly that she was killed as part of a ritual sacrifice and that there was a police cover up of the facts involved as well.

I feel like whenever, like nature is involved in a crime scene, the police are like must be a ritual sacrifice. They're like they're relief's here.

No, it's Satanists, like no one hike's, if any. But if this is hiking happening, it's the devil. I mean, I agree, but I mean. Yeah. Well, residents do claim that Jeannette's body was surrounded by a cult like objects, not just leaves. So it's not just like hiking boot prints. Not a cult leader. No. But also dead animals. So that's definitely a cult. That's like opposite's. No way. Yeah, it's a very different picture there.

Prince Charming is just not coming. No.

Well, according to Janette's close friends, she was a religious girl, but not necessarily by choice. So her parents kind of like supposedly forced her to go to church, which like I feel like every kid was literally just going to say, oh, I forgot to mention her body was found on top of a pentagram.

Oh. So that was also very cold day. That's pretty cold to me. Well, no arrests were ever made in this case. That's no good. That's probably why it's unsolved.

I mean, yeah, I mean, I could add to it. But in the late 1990s, weird New Jersey revived interest in this cold case. They reported alleged incompetence by the Springfield Police Department.

The 70s were kind of known for that. Yeah, a high level person.

It was kind of like the tag line of the 70s, alleged incompetence in the 70s as recent as twenty nineteen.

A Union County judge rejected a DNA request to test the clothes of Jeanette.

Why? Like, why would you not want to catch the killer? I was the judge, just like, why would we want to close this?

Why would we solve a cold case? All of a case. That's weird. It doesn't make any sense. Science.

Am I right? That's weird. Right. It did prompt retired private investigator Ed Salsano to file a lawsuit to test the clothes.

Good. Get it done.

Well, hopefully it gets done, but unsolved case. Let's do it.

Nine. At number nine is the death of New York party girl turned Hollywood actress Christa Helm. Crystal was stabbed and bludgeoned outside of her agent's home in West Hollywood on February 12th, 1977.

Oh, she had a child. Oh, that's sad.

She was a mother and she had left her child with a good friend because she was going off to, you know, pursue her dreams of becoming a Hollywood actress.

Well, there you go. There you have it. You wanted a better her life and her child's life. So she was like. Stay right here. We'll get it done. That's going to make this even sadder. Thank you. I know we just started off by kicking you right in the gut. Stuart Duncan was one of the first wealthy New York patron of the arts. She met who opened doors for her. She was named Bachelor End of the month by Cosmopolitan.

Oh, OK. That's an honor. No big deal. NBT now, she was known for her romances with high profile men. And it was also alleges that she kept a sex diary, complete with a rating system to which I say, get a girl. I mean, I'm here for that. Yeah, you got. You got to keep track of that. You don't want to make the same mistake twice. Yeah. You can't go in thinking like that was a 10, right.

No. That was a two. That was how they early to. Right here. Good for you. Now, initially, detectives thought that Christa's murder might have been connected to Sal Mineo, who was an actor who costarred with none other than James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. He had been beaten to death a year earlier.

Oh, that's strange. A lot of strange occurrences. Yeah. Now, according to Christa's then roommate, Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Walnuts on the Fali Wall.

Sounds great. Yes.

A great big took some tapes out of Christa's room when he was sent to watch over the roommate for a few days after she was, you know, just to make sure she was OK after Christmas made matter. Right.

The diary and the tapes gone so poorly, walnuts took them. And Paulie Walnuts. I don't know, Mr. Walnuts. Show me the tape. Paulie Walnuts is involved in some way that they say.

And that's dirty. It's dirty.

Eight. Well, number eight on our list of unsolved murders of the 1970s is Bob Crane, an actor known for his role in the television show Hogan's Heroes on June 20 ninth, 1978. Bob's co-star Victoria and Barry found Bob bludgeoned to death with an electrical cord around his neck in his apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is a bonkers case.

I've read about this one before me, dad. Crime scene is so gruesome. Yeah, crazy. I would not want to see pictures of it now. No, thank you. There was no forced entry into the apartment which started the mystery because that's weird in and of itself. Yeah. Because you're like, OK. They either know the person or they left their door unlocked, which is no good either way.

Well, Bob had a reputation for his amateur pornography collection. OK. OK. His obsession with sex is what might have killed him as he was doing a different sort of on camera work behind closed doors.

Spicy Spice is so hot, so spicy. The fact that he started showing nude photos of women he had slept with got him into trouble on the set of Disney Studios Wolf.

Probably not the best place to show nude pictures of anybody.

No, not at all. Don't do that.

The executives found out that he was doing this and it got into publications like The National Enquirer.

Cool, Bob. Not cool. His love for erotica films led to a friendship with John Henry Carpenter, a sales manager for Sony. John had flown out to visit Bob in Scottsdale that week, and they allegedly had an argument on shady arguments lead to murder sometimes.

That's all to say it. I've just said sometimes it happens. I'm not saying a correlation. I'm just saying it. It's there, you know? And you just never know. Well, police suspected John, and they searched his rental car. They found blood that matched the type of Bob. But DNA testing was inconclusive. And he was acquitted.

Seven. At number seven this week, The Lady of the Dunes one July 26, 1974. A woman's body was found in the race Point Dunes in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She was nearly decapitated and her hands were amputated, possibly to prevent identification. I keep giving the Massachusetts woman that I love it.

I know you really do. Thank you. Park house research gods. They know where it's. I'm going to leave them a Boston cream pie on their altar again and see if I get another message, too. So that's how you've been getting them? I just let out my secret. I'm sorry, Joe Hill the off. He's an author and he's also the son of Stephen King.

Casual, no big deal. Casuals namedrop. My dad's just Stephen King. He really thinks and I remember seeing this circulating everywhere. He thinks that the lady in the dunes might have actually been an extra on the set of jaws. So I've heard that before. Yeah, because they were filming near the murder site. Isn't that so creepy to think about when you watch that movie now?

And if you see the photo in, like the mockup of the murder victim, they do look a lot alike.

Really? I've never I've never looked. It's kind of great. It's Cam. It's one of those things. It's like super compelling. Right. But then not compelling at all. Oh, yes. Like, it's just two brunettes. But like, they all look alike. Definitely look alike. It's one of those things. Yeah.

But what makes it compelling is that in the part of Jaws that this extras and she's wearing a blue bandana on her head and she's wearing jeans.

OK, well, they found a blue bandanna and jeans with the body. Did they really?

Yep. So that makes it a little more compelling.

I mean, I'm willing to think that the spawn of Stephen King might be on to something. I think he can be No. One. I think he'd be no good. So in 1981, investigators learned that a woman who resembled the victim was seen with Whitey Bulger.

Well, there's your answer.

And this was around the time that this woman probably died. Yeah.

So I'm gonna go ahead and assume a little bit here. Whitey has a nasty habit of often his ladies.

So I don't know. Does not go.

It does. That might have been that might be solved. It's not as far as they're concerned. And one other thing that Bulger kind of had like a pension for was removing his victim's teeth.

Oh, yeah. He he'd, like, dabbled in orthodontia, you know, dentistry. Yeah.

You know Whitey Bulger, right? Didi's. Right.

So the lady of the dunes teeth had also been removed.

I feel like he was a little bit ahead of his time doing that because, like frantic Sensex. Okay, Whitey, what did you know what, Whitey.

Yeah. He's gone now. So that's good.

I think my dad did it. I think we actually did solved a crime right here. Right. Well, take it off the list itself at the Gods. Park House Research Guides. But despite her body being zoomed in 1980, 2000 and 2013, her identity still remains a mystery.

That's so sad. So she has not been laid to rest? No, she is not rested in peace at all. Yeah. That's really sad.

Six. Also on our list of unsolved murders of the 1970s. At number six is the easy street murders. Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were stabbed to death on January 10th, 1977, in their home on Easy Street, which was in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Better name would perhaps be difficult street. Difficult street would definitely be a lot better. Maybe Nightmare Street. Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah. Nightmare on Easy Street. Yeah, definitely not. They should rename that street. They should.

Well, there's a lot of sad parts about this. This whole thing says all things pretty sad. One of the saddest parts is that Susan, 16 month old son, was in the home when this all happened.

This all went down while her baby was inside. No, that bums me out whenever that happened. I mean it. But murder bums me. A murder is a bummer. But whenever there's like a child that was there for it, especially a 16 month old, they're Neverwhere, right. You know what's going on. You might not remember the details, but. But that's gonna be traumatizing later. Got to do something later.

Luckily, the baby was unharmed, thank God. Right. Yeah, well, Armstrong was sexually assaulted and stabbed. Bartlet heard all of this going on like she's hearing her friend get attacked. And she's probably like, what the hell? So she goes out to help her friend and she ends up getting stabbed after she goes to help her. What a good friend. I know, right? Getting stabbed for your friend. I know. Seriously, that's sad.

And then, like I mentioned the baby earlier, his name was Gregory Gregory.

I know a little baby Greg.

Well, his cries alerted the neighborhood that something was going down because obviously this is like a super stressful scene. Like he's freaking out.

Yeah. So, you know, that'll just that that fact will just haunt me forever. So I appreciate that.

I know it's really sad, but I mean, luckily, he was crying because that's when police went to the home. Good for Gregory. But obviously, the killer already escaped because it's unsolved. Mm hmm.

Well, police focused heavily on a reporter slash journalist who was asleep in a house, asleep.

Quote, unquote, because I was going to say, should we really focus on the person that was unconscious? Search is like, I was sleeping. I was sleeping, just getting some sleep. Well, he really wasn't. If there were food insecure, obviously, he claimed to be asleep in the house next door when these murders happened. He had been a suspect in another disappearance of an American tourist in 1975. Huh. Coincidental. But you know what?

He was sleeping there, too. Oh, snap. I'm just tired. I've made that up just to spice it up a little bit everywhere.

But he was cleared of that crime.

Maybe because he was sleeping. I don't really know. No, just kidding. It was DNA testing. Good old DNA. It finally came around. We love DNA. The Director of Public Prosecutions will also consider granting an indemnity from prosecution for anyone who can help solve this case.

Oh, snap. Yeah. So hopefully it gets solved. I'm hoping that sounds pretty good. It does. The park has research, gods have traumatized me with Greggory traumatized. Thanks a lot for that. Thank you.

This is pretty intense so far. It's intense because we also solved a crime. If you remember what we did like, but we're just doing a casual recording here and we just sort we did police work. We have five more. We might solve some more crimes here. Let's get em ready for it. Let's solve another crime. Let's do this.

Five. All right. Let's jump back in with number five. Number five. Harvey and Ginnette crew. On June 22nd, 1970, the New Zealand home of farmers Harvey and Ginnette crew was found empty except for their 18 month old daughter sitting in her crib and multiple bloodstains around the home.

Both Jeanette and Harvey's bodies were found months later in the white Choteau River.

Both had been shot once in the head with a 22 rifle.

Oh, my God. That's horrific. I really don't love all these toddlers. Why are these lone babies being like, why are you throwing me all these lone survivor toddlers?

Come on, PA, cast God.

So there is one huge question in this case. Not only who did this, who done it, but who fed their 18 month old daughter, Rachelle. No.

In this completely bloodstained home five days before her parents bodies were found, what she was cared for, like Fed maybe has been created.

Some sources said, like up to like 40, 48 hours prior to finding her.

That makes me feel like somebody who knew them did it, right? Yeah, because it's like you don't have.

You can't be that good of a person to just, like, walk into a house and, like, shoot two people. No, that's that's intense. So it can't be I don't feel like it's some random person that was just like, you know what, I have a heart and I'm right. Take care of this 18 month old.

Also, it confuses me that they, like, didn't take the baby because they obviously cared for the baby. So it's like, why did you take them? I'm glad they didn't. Yeah. I mean, good thing. But I mean, there are some suspects that came about that maybe this makes sense about Hermia. So there was another farmer.

His name is Arthur Allen Thomas. He was convicted twice for these murders and got life in prison. OK. But it's unsolved, so that will happen. Well, Thomas received a royal pardon after it was revealed that police just faked evidence to four. They put somebody else's to pay the crime. They just threw somebody else's weave onto that couch and were like, well, they did it. Yeah, it was Arthur Allen Thomas and the police officers who framed the evidence were not charged.

How? Yeah. But does he Remagen, he says they were found to have faked evidence to get this guy in jail for the rest of his life. Not even a slight slap on the now. They were probably just like, don't do that. Why would you guys do that? And like Gray's prank, but don't do it again. Super funny. Hilarious. Won't be funny a second time. No.

Now, detectives found proof that both the bodies of Harvey Anjanette had been weighted down by an axle. And they said that this was because whoever killed them was trying to obviously keep them hidden. Right. Yes.

That's also to me, that feels like very morbid.

I was going to say that organized crime or somebody who is at least professional, did Whitey Bolger to this one, to Whitey Bulger, just like flitted over to New Zealand, rather, who if he would like fed that baby, though, now, now, now, now.

Very wiry man that we can say it because we're from Massachusetts. We know, right? I've been to South. We all know Whitey personally in Massachusetts. So we know he would not fit all distantly related to him.

So senior police officers and Crown lawyers became super paranoid and they were so concerned that their backroom conversations were going to be monitored by the commission that they called on security intelligence service to help them for backup. I mean, I kind of don't blame because they got it was just so high profile. This case got crazy. Weird, right? I also read an interview with Rashelle, the 18 month old. It's not her as an 18 month old, but it's her, as you say, she grew up in.

She's actually pissed because she said the police for a while focused on her grandfather, Len. And because he was the one who initially came on the scene and found them. Right. And I think he left and came back. Which you're not supposed to do. Only like left her and went and got help and came back and got her afterwards. So police were like, that's weird. She thinks they botched the investigation because they dissed on the wrong people.

And now he's out there somewhere, obviously. Well, that would make sense. Like I said, because she was she was fed. So I think it was a relative. I'm saying I think we just solved not saying who it was, but I'm saying it's probably blood related. Yeah. Hundred percent. I'm just say solved. Onto the next two. Solved. I need to go.

For number four, for unsolved murders of the 70s, Jorgy Markoff. It's the number four spot. A celebrated Bulgarian writer and author was assassinated in 1978 while waiting for the bus. What's crazy, right? That's not good. Even crazier, the Bulgarian government is a main suspect. Well, I mean, I think we can move this one to the SOB's list as well.

I think we're like, we're really on a roll here. We got it. Well, the reason that they're a suspect is because Markoff defected to the West and wrote during an era of communist suppression and dissent is not really tolerated over there. Yeah, I'm going to go with salt. We got it. So get this one out. Well, so we standing there at the bus stop, you know, waiting for his bus. Yeah. As one does.

As one does.

And he feels a sting in his right thigh and this person walks by with an umbrella.

And just like mutters an apology underneath their breath. So. Oh, sorry. I just, like, shoved my umbrella into your leg. It's just like. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Bye bye. Bye. See you later. I also heard should have been like a trench coat with, like, top hat. I do too. And like, sunglasses. Yeah.

Maybe some sunglasses. Although like it might have been raining. So like, would it be sunny. Yeah. But maybe they're just trying to like be cool and a fake must try to be like Corey Hart. Wear sunglasses at night. Oh okay. I like it.

Well WFI Umbrella injected a small metal pellet filled with rice in Reisen is no joke.

That's gonna kill ya. Is gonna get you.

Well Markoff actually didn't die right away, which is kind of insane. What happened?

He was rushed to the hospital obviously, and he died a few days later because Reisen mimics symptoms and appears to be in hospital investigations. A natural disease?

Well, a little. You only need like a little tiny. You think like a grain of rice, of salt, incised bit of rice and like, literally kill an adult. Is that why it's called Reisen? Because it's like rice. No, it's like salt. Salt. Well, whatever. Is that why it's called Reisen? Because it's like salt. Well, you know, like grains. So I thought like a grain of salt, whatever.

I'm leaving. Well, so they didn't realize right away like what this was. And then scientists didn't experiment where they injected a pig with rice and poison. That's not nice. Not nice at all.

The pig was fine for a little bit, but then he died because they injected him with poison. Oh, no. Yeah. And that's when the autopsy showed the same symptoms as Markoff. So they kind of figured it out. Connect your own science connection.

Your own intelligence agents knew that Reisen had been the subject of decades of research into the chemical warfare laboratories of the Soviet Union.

Chemical warfare is terrifying. One hundred Tera Fi.

Like, I'm not interested.

I'm not about real busy that I don't want to do that. So multiple journalistic investigations incriminated a Bulgarian foreign agent. Are you ready for his name? When I'm ready. It's a pub. It used to be a pub around here. Oh. Piccadilly. Piccadilly. Do you remember the Piccadilly pie? I do. That's adorable. Well, not this guy. Piccadilly didn't do it. Well, he denied the charges. So I do.

He's like, my name's Piccadilly. He's like, I own a pub over in the South Shore. Oh, I'm busy. Get me out of this old mess. I'm frying up some fries today. No, your name's Piccadilly. You don't do stuff like that.

Well, that's why it's on the unsolved list to. Three. Number three this week is the Durham's Valentine's Day murder. We love a Valentine's Day murder. Do we?

We do. Sounds good, doesn't. On a rainy night in 1971, 19 year old Jesse McBain and his fiancee, Patricia Mann, attended a Valentine's Day dance at a hospital in Durham, North Carolina. Afterwards, they headed for a secluded area and were never seen again, because that's why you shouldn't go to secluded areas. You're never seen again. Most you're never seen alive again.

No, no. So on February 25th, that's when their bodies were found and they were found. And the really scary way, OK. Their bodies were found together. They were covered in leaves. They were miles from where they had parked their car. Huh.

Now their hands were tied behind their backs with super thick ropes. And then those they were tied to a tree. Are you serious?

And then the rope was not at around their necks. Oh, my God. And this is what this is like. Gruesome. So, yeah, there was evidence of torture here because there was strangled marks on their necks. And it looked like investigators said it looked like the rope had been tightened and then loosened several times. So they had probably, like, choked them out. Right. Release them, tighten it, loosen it, tighten it, loosen as is that like a Garah?

Or is that different? No, that's a little different. OK. It's just torture. Straight up torture. There were also deep marks in the mud when they said that they're like legs and feet were thrashing around during the torture. And so they could tell that it was just along.

Can you imagine having to investigate the scene and, like, know that that would be rough? No, thanks. This was a rough one. A prominent suspect was a doctor at a nearby hospital, and this doctor repeatedly refused to cooperate with authorities. Now he's still a person of interest and still alive. Are you serious? They have not. He is still a person of interest today. And not only that, his DNA has been requested and he refused.

Can't they get like a search warrant for this? They probably don't have enough evidence. If you refuse to give it over your DNA, you're 100 percent guilty. But they can't even. They can't go on it. Unfortunately, no. Can you refuse? Give me it. They should. But he's guilty. I would write that into law.

He would be a good politician. Right. DNA testing obviously wasn't available in the 70s.

But now it could be like the key to solving this case. Right.

And to not have this guy's DNA is like someone in his family that thinks he did it. Should, like, give their DNA. Somebody go on 23 and me. What's Golden State killer this. Let's do right now. Let's solve another one. Right. So the location of their alleged abduction and then where the bodies were brought to meant that multiple police departments were involved in this. And unfortunately, during the time of the murder, they didn't really share information with each other.

I think we've seen this in other murders that police seem to be very hesitant to share murder jurisdiction. They would want to to solve the murder. But it's like a pride thing. And you know what it's like police in the 70s especially, it was like, hey, where are we going to do.

Really?

Me and my handlebar mustache guys are going to solve this. You guys can. Yeah. You guys take your full beards and we'll take our handlebar mustache. We're going to win. So get out.

Here's who gets a turf war here. Yeah. They didn't want to do it. Now, there's not enough evidence for prosecution of the suspect that they think could be doing this and could have done this. But DNA right now is the key, right? So they're saying that the DNA is the thing that's going to get this person caught. I want them to get the DNA because this is awful.

I mean, this is horrific and literally tortured. It's like you. And they were brought so far away when they were initially. Who did?

Well, then you have to wonder, whoever did that probably did something like it again. So that could potentially solve some other. Exactly. Let's connect. Let's do this. Let's just give us investigator badges and we'll fix this. I like this. It's perfect. We've got it. We're on to the top to the final two final. I know what number two is, obviously, but I don't know what number one is and I don't know what number two is.

Oh, my God. Do you want me to tell you?

I do, but I'm a little scared because it's already been pretty crazy. It's been bleak. All right. Research God's what you get. It's about to get bleaker.

To. Number two, the Burger Chef murders during closing time on November 17th, 1978, four employees of a Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana, went missing.

That's a bad shift. A real rough shift, one might say.

Well, the bodies were found two days later and over 20 miles away.

That's weird. There's no weird habits real way. And it's like what happened here?

Well, at first it looked like a robbery, of course, because the money safe was open and five hundred and eighty one dollars in cash was missed. That one guy get that extra single note? Well, that was all missing, but the money in the watches were found on the body. So like anybody that had money in their wallet, it was found with them. And that's where the watches were there.

So it sounds like robbery was kind of like a pitstop murder. It wasn't like no one, but it was on the list.

And it was definitely that I was on the to do list. Right. So the four employees were found in a neighboring county, not in the store.

Like I said before, it's theorized that one of the victims died of asphyxiation from choking on his own blood.

That is a really bad way to go.

It doesn't take a while to I mean, yeah, it isn't like that's fucked up. That made me want to clear my throat.

Yeah. His death is the most curious. Out of the four of them. So he died. The worst death, it seems like. And it feels like there's four of them. They were carried so far away. It's like there had to have been more than one person who did this.

And it makes me feel like maybe they knew this person. I don't know how to get four people in the same car.

Like, I feel like it could have been like strangers, but it had to be more than one person. I can't see more people. I mean, I shouldn't say that it happened before, but only happened. It seems unlikely that one person is going to control four people. But that's true.

Well, like I said, one of them, it seems like they died the worst death, but two were shot and one was stabbed twice with a hunting knife and the handle was broken off and missing from that knife.

And that was that sounds like really aggressive. Supergrass, a hunting knife. A lot of anger behind that. Right. I'm like, what happened at this Burger Chef restaurant? What happened in your life? I don't understand. And bring you here.

Well, the jackets in the process of two of the victims were still at the restaurant. So that took out the police's initial theory that they had taken the money and just gone for a joyride.

Yeah. This wasn't about money. Not at all. Yeah, that's. I don't have a badge, and that's pretty clear to me.

Yeah, well, I think we should get badges after this because we're solving murders. And also it seems like the police aren't really doing their job here. Well, yeah. 70S police were just hanging out. It's a theme on this countdown and it's happened in a number two because the police made a ton of crucial errors from the beginning of shot when the morning crew came to start work the next day. Get this, the police let them clean the restaurant.

Yeah, just clean up the crime scene. Why not? Can you just do me a favor? Wipe up your co-workers blood over there really quick? It's fine.

I would be great because then we don't have to call. What's that? The crime scene. No, we don't need after Marfin can. It's fine. It'll be fine. Police in the 70s. It's cool. What a trip. What a trip. And then they messed up the second crime scene, too. Oh, good. That had potential to provide DNA evidence, obviously, but that was no longer available to match to the DNA at the restaurant.

So it was like it wasn't kind of worked out.

Investigators compromised that one as well because some of them drove through areas that should have been sealed off. I feel like police in the 70s might have just been like a bunch of toddlers on each other's shoulders in trench coats. Right. Like, I feel like that is what is the reality. And they were just like you. It was actually toddlers disguised as they were all just real psyched to be there, just running around, driving cop cars, his through crime scene.

That's absurd. It doesn't make any sense. In addition, the officer, the one who later admitted, quote, we screwed it up from the beginning. You don't say you don't say dude. He accidentally took two pieces of identification from a body home with him in his coat pocket. And he didn't realize that he had taken these until a few weeks after the murders.

All right. Who among us hasn't brought critical pieces of evidence home in our pockets and not realized it for weeks?

I mean, if it's happened to me once or twice said I'm not done. I didn't want to admit. Yeah. I mean, I can't fault him for that. Now, it don't feel so alone. Yeah, that's totally.

One. And that brings us to the craziest one on the list. The Lascelle Street murders on December 1st, 1971. Three men were found dead in a house on the ASOL Street in Indianapolis. Their hands and feet were bound with their throats cut. It remains one of the area's most notorious unsolved crimes. I could see why. So two of the victims had quit their jobs. They had been working for a man named Ted. You lend to start their own company.

But when they left, they took some of Uhlans clients, his equipment and some money. That's never a good idea. It wasn't one of those, like super, super, just like wasn't a clean break. There was no handshake at the end. Nothing. Yulan had taken out a one hundred and fifty thousand dollar life insurance policy on the man.

Oh, casual. So immediately investigators were like, you don't like a prime suspect. You know, you did. I always say life insurance policies will just always get you. I've never taken one out. Yeah. It's just like when you do that and then somebody dies, it's like, welp, they went away forever. Sorry to my significant other.

But like you just better say about I'm alive. You just better be good bye. So the police captain thought Yulan hired a hitman.

That would make sense. Yeah. Because he was like, there's no way this guy did it because he has a rock solid alibi that put him in southern Indiana at the time of the murders.

OK. So he didn't do it himself, so he didn't do it himself. And I think the fact that it was like such a rock solid alibi, he's one who wasn't even in the area.

It's definitely hired someone. So one of the victims was thought to be involved with the ex-wife of a man named Carol Horton. OK. So the ex was seen crying outside of the crime scene. Oh. Which to me, I'm like I think you can confirm that there was physical enough.

Yeah, 100 percent CEIBS if you did it before. Now you do.

I think that tells you so. Cut to 1992. OK. Freelance journalist Carol Shults launched her own investigation.

So she befriended Carol Horton. Carolyn Carol, our Biff's.

So she's doing this because Carol thinks that this was a jealous rage, that this was a murder purely from passion. Totally killed out of jealous rage. So she's trying to find out the truth. So she's going in there basically undercover. She's being a fake friend. She's being a fake friend. Like, for a good reason. Exactly. So Schultz worked with a police detective to go after Horton. Horton ended up being indicted and spent about a month in jail in 1996.

This was 25 years after the murders. That's a long time.

And also the year you were born. I mean, haloes of crazy stuff going on here of the ash year of the ash.

So in court, though, the detective admitted to telling Shults to lie to Horten and say his fingerprints were found at the scene. So they were trying to tie about evidence. Yeah, they're trying to trap him. So they're going to be like they're doing the whole like, well, your friend ratted on you. Instead, they're being like, well, we found your fingerprints. They're like, how are you going to explain that? He's like, well, shit.

Now I can't.

Real weird because I wasn't there. Yes, I was there. So Schultz also revealed that she had negotiated a book and movie contract and had been offered up to one million dollars for her story. And her book points to Hawtin as the killer.

So I'm like, did you just do this because you wanted your book deal? Seems like yeah. Seems like a conflict of interest coming from a good play. It's not it's not looking shady at all. No, it's fine.

And that's number one on our list of craziest unsolved crimes of this 1970s.

I was a great countdown. That was bonkers. Bonkers. That was. You know what? I think number one was a pretty good number one. I think it was. I think that I'm just going to say I agree with it. Yeah, I think that was pretty good. All those Boston cream pies, did you also say they did?

But what I always say, I want to make you want to one up the gods.

I want to get just struck down. No, it is. But I'll keep giving the pies so it's fun. So I think one thing, one crime might have been left off here. What crime?

There was a whole crime spree in 1971, beginning in 1971. The freeway, phantom murders. Oh, I think I've heard of this a little. It was six black girls ages 10 to 18, and they were found murdered and discarded along highways in D.C.. OK.

That definitely kind of made number one up. And they were all snatched right off the street. And many of them were sexually assaulted. Some of them were washed clean.

Oh, that always creeps. Now they're all about their clothing were changed. Like it was just really weird. And that's still unsolved. Still unsolved. In the names of those victims were Carol Spinks, who was 10 years old. Darlene Johnson, who is 16 years old. Brenda Fay Crockett, who was 10 years old and gone.

Nina Moesha Yates, 12 years old. Brenda Woodard, 18 years old. And Diane Williams, 17 years old. So they were still unsolved. Super young. Yeah. And they have no leads on that one. We need to look into Vasso just saying we solved many cases here. Let's solve that. One of the ones we solved. We'll just bump that into the spot.

Boom. Wow. This was crazy, though.

Intense. Wall, as always, thanks for listening. We'll be back next week with another great episode.

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Crime Countdown was created by Max Cutler and his Sparkasse studio's original. It is executive produced by Max Cutler Sound designed by Kristen Acevedo, produced by Jon Cohen, Jonathan Ratliff and Kristen Acevedo. Crime Countdown stars Ash Kelly and Aleena Erhart.