With its iconic red roofs, Victorian architecture, and breathtaking California coastline, the Hotel del Coronado looks like something out of a dream. But behind its glamorous history lies a mystery that has haunted the legendary resort for more than a century. In November 1892, a young woman named Kate Morgan…
She was once the pride of the Atlantic, carrying celebrities, aristocrats, and wealthy travelers across the ocean in extraordinary luxury. But the RMS Queen Mary has a darker history that has helped make her one of America's most famous supposedly haunted destinations. Launched in 1936, the legendary ocean liner later…
Behind the imposing stone walls of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lies a history of isolation, punishment, and some of the most controversial ideas in American prison reform. Opened in 1829, Eastern State was designed around a radical concept: prisoners would live in solitary confinement, separated from one another…
With its towering stone walls, Gothic architecture, and decades of heartbreaking institutional history, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia, has become one of America's most famous supposedly haunted locations. Opened in the 19th century, the institution was designed to care for people experiencing mental illness. But overcrowding, inadequate…
Behind the elegant balconies and historic architecture of New Orleans' French Quarter lies a mansion with one of the darkest histories in the city. In 1834, a fire at the home of socialite Delphine LaLaurie exposed evidence of horrific abuse and torture inflicted on enslaved people held in the house.…
“Lizzie Borden took an axe…” The chilling rhyme has echoed through American history for generations, but behind the familiar words is a real double murder that remains one of the country's most infamous mysteries. On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found brutally murdered inside their home in…
On the night of June 9, 1912, a quiet Iowa town became the scene of one of America's most horrifying unsolved murders. Eight people, including six children, were brutally killed inside the Moore family home in Villisca. The victims had been struck with an axe, and the person responsible vanished…
In downtown Los Angeles stands a hotel with a history so disturbing that it has become one of the most infamous locations in true crime history. The Cecil Hotel has been associated with mysterious deaths, suicides, violent crimes, and unsettling stories that have fueled its reputation for decades. But perhaps…
On August 9, 1969, one of Hollywood's most infamous murder cases unfolded at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles. The home was rented by actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski, and that night, members of Charles Manson's cult carried out a series of brutal murders that shocked the world.…
In March 1999, Cynthia Vigil was abducted in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and taken to a remote trailer in Elephant Butte equipped with a horrific torture chamber. Through unbelievable bravery and presence of mind, she managed to seize a split-second opportunity, grab a key while her captor was distracted, and flee…
Ronald Clark O’Bryan, dubbed the “Candy Man,” was a Texas father and former optician who became infamous after poisoning his 8-year-old son, Timothy, with cyanide-laced Halloween candy in 1974. O’Bryan gave poisoned Pixy Stix to his son and four other children while trick-or-treating; Timothy died after ingesting the candy, while…
In October 1976, Jane Carson-Sandler became one of the earliest targeted survivors of the East Area Rapist—the violent predator who would later be exposed as the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo. When a masked intruder broke into her home with a butcher knife while she was with her three-year-old…
Delia Balmer survived an axe attack by serial killer John Sweeney , the "Scalphunter", but her hardest fight was against a system that refused to listen. Before John Sweeney made headlines as the dismemberment killer responsible for the murders of Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields, Delia Balmer handed law enforcement…
In 1992, 19-year-old Jennifer Asbenson faced a night of unthinkable horror when she accepted a ride in Palm Springs, California, from a man who would turn out to be serial killer Andrew Urdiales. Ambushed, bound, and locked inside the trunk of a moving car, Jennifer knew her survival depended on…
In 1977, college students Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman set out on a cross-country bicycle trip that ended in a nightmare at Cline Falls State Park, Oregon. While sleeping in their tent, an unidentified attacker ran over them with a pickup truck and brutalized them with an axe. Both women…
In 1994, Alison Botha was abducted outside her home in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, by Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger. After a horrific attack, Alison was left for dead in an isolated area. But somehow, she was still alive. Alone and catastrophically injured, Alison made a decision: if she…
Holly Dunn was the only known survivor of Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, the serial killer who became known as the Railroad Killer. In 1997, 20-year-old Holly and her boyfriend, Christopher Maier, were attacked near railroad tracks in Lexington, Kentucky. Christopher was murdered. Holly was beaten, sexually assaulted, and left for dead,…
On January 15, 1978, serial killer Ted Bundy entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, murdered Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, and brutally attacked Kathy Kleiner Rubin and Karen Chandler. Kathy survived but Ted Bundy was far from the first thing she had survived. This week on…
In 1974, 21-year-old pharmacy student Rhonda Stapley accepted a ride from a polite law student named Ted. What followed was a nightmare in Big Cottonwood Canyon and an extraordinary escape into a roaring mountain river. In this episode of When Killers Get Caught, host Brittany Ransom deconstructs the "charming genius"…
At just 17 years old, Lisa McVey was kidnapped by one of America's most dangerous serial killers. But instead of giving in to fear, she did something extraordinary, she observed, she remembered, and she survived. In this episode of When Killers Get Caught, Brittany Ransom tells the incredible true story…
"How many lives could have been saved if the warning signs had been connected sooner?" In the mid-1980s, a wave of unprecedented terror gripped Southern California. Windows were nailed shut, lights were on throughout the night, and ordinary communities found themselves at the mercy of a predatory phantom. The media…
When ballroom icon Dorian Corey died in 1993, friends packing her closet made a horrifying discovery: a mummified body hidden inside a vintage trunk. For 25 years, a secret had been sitting just feet from where she slept. Who was the man in the dark? This week on When Killers…
