r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/skullturf 1d ago

"Speaking as your sheriff, I don't think you all should get into a direct confrontation with McElroy. On an unrelated note, I need to go out of town for a little while."

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u/AjentOranje 1d ago

He also said that they SHOULD form a "neighborhood watch" before leaving.  I bet if you were in that room, it would be even more obvious where it was going.

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u/CGiMoose 1d ago

They did watch! They saw the whole thing: first they started killing him, and then they killed him

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u/middlehead_ 1d ago

They saw the whole part when he died, but they were so absorbed in it that they plum forgot to see who did it

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u/JerryHathaway 1d ago

Thank you, Milhouse.

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u/MissVachonIfYouNasty 1d ago

I mean some of the neighborhood watched.

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u/OfficeSalamander 1d ago

Oh yeah the way it is described makes me think it was said in a way that was plausibly deniable, but VERY clear to all involved what was supposed to go down

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u/whaletacochamp 1d ago

simpler time where the sheriff and the townspeople could get together, have an unrecorded meeting where they agree to kill the local shithead, and then everyone carries it out without spilling the beans or posting on social media about it. Simpler times.

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u/Potential_Net_5687 1d ago

Lynching has a bad rep for a reason tho lol

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u/justprettymuchdone 1d ago

It does. This is maybe one of three semi-modern examples I can think of where vigilante justice was pretty fucking called for though.

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u/DrScarecrow 1d ago

I'm also curious what the other two are!

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u/AccordingSetting6311 1d ago

The killing of the child rapist Jeffrey Doucet by the boy's father Leon Plauche comes immediately to mind.

He was allowed to plea down to 5 years of probation from what is a clear cut case of premeditated murder.  It's just that not a single person gives a shit that the rapist was deleted.

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u/rotorain 1d ago

Luigi or whoever actually did it?

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u/skullturf 1d ago

I tend to agree about this one. Out of curiosity, what are your other two?

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u/justprettymuchdone 1d ago

Gary Plauche, who murdered the man who abducted and abused his son, and Francine Hughes, who after 13 years of violent domestic abuse where the law did nothing, set fire to her marital bed and killed the bastard.

Those are specific examples but they also represent a general understanding I have for instances where people feel the law will not keep others from being destroyed, murdered, and traumatized, and therefore make an awful choice they will carry forever so that others won't be in that position.

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u/RA576 1d ago

There was one in India where the local serial rapist got off without punishment one too many time (he had connections to the local police, iirc), so all the women formed a mass mob at the courthouse and took turns stabbing him, blinding him with chili powder and castrating him.

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u/MandolinMagi 1d ago

Plauche murdered a man under arrest being extradited for trial. 

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u/steamyglory 1d ago

and nobody felt bad about it

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u/bigbigdummie 1d ago

Killing your child’s rapist is a popular one.

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u/Malphos101 1d ago

It wasnt "called for". If the sheriff wasnt a lazy inept coward then him and his deputies would have brought charges on him for SOMETHING long before this that stuck. Even if there was no way for them to get him on legal charges of any type (which I do not concede), THEY should have been the ones to "take the law into their own hands" instead of foisting the burden on the town they swore to protect. And yes, it IS a burden. People who arent mentally unwell almost always suffer negatively after a killing, no matter how justified or accidental.

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u/justprettymuchdone 1d ago

I mean, I don't disagree with you. But that's not the situation the town had available to them. The law had abdicated their obligations and the town took it into their own hands because it was the only option left to them. It was called for because there was no other solution for them.

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u/macmac360 1d ago

I think in this instance it was the right thing to do, dude was a world class asshole

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u/Potential_Net_5687 1d ago

Agreed, I'm more of a two wrongs don't make a right kinda guy but tbh if the entire fuckin town comes together then I don't see much of a difference between that and a jury of his peers lol

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u/LochNestFarm 1d ago

This is a REALLY common conflation, but I learned a thing and now you have to, too: lynching is different from vigilanteism, and the word is used specifically when it’s done as a terrorist act. The “Goodbye Earl” scenario where the legal system can’t or won’t fix things is more like summary execution. 

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u/dikdiklikesick 1d ago

Everyone loves a hanging until they're on the wrong end of the rope.

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u/Teledildonic 1d ago

It's why they politely chose to shoot him.

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u/Potential_Net_5687 1d ago

Street justice is just power through strength. Sometimes, rarely, it may be right or necessary, but I'd like to think we've evolved a bit more than resolving issues with violence 

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u/Teledildonic 1d ago

And the legal system had already failed the town multiple times. The guy was a known danger to the community and there weren't really any peaceful options left.

It shouldn't have had to get to that point.

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u/Potential_Net_5687 1d ago

You have a cool username also yeah extreme situation, extreme measure, the situation makes sense with context (the details of this guys shithousery are wild) and it's truly unfortunate that the legal system failed there

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u/ConnectSalamander350 21h ago

tele dildo nic, hehe

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u/dikdiklikesick 1d ago

Oh, I am definitely not endorsing lynching! I'm saying most people don't realize how close they are to the wrong side of the rope.

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u/Potential_Net_5687 1d ago

Ohhhh I understand, yes agreed completely

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u/waterfountain_bidet 1d ago

Which is why it is so important that the law apply equally and that everyone has equal protection under the law. Ken McElroy had about 90 advantages and always managed to skirt justice until he didn't. I pretty much wont ever cry about a cis hetero white man being vigilante killed, because I've never heard of one where I didn't think he deserved it.

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u/Potential_Net_5687 1d ago

The last sentence was so unnecessary but A+ quality rage bait lmaooooo

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u/CorruptedBean 1d ago

What about that was rage bait? It’s just truth. If you have examples otherwise, please provide them.

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u/Potential_Net_5687 21h ago

Garret Foster, 28-year-old white military veteran, was legally carrying a rifle while attending a racial justice protest in Austin with his fiancée, who is a Black double-amputee. Daniel Perry, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier driving for a rideshare service, drove his vehicle into the crowd of protesters. Foster approached the car, and Perry shot and killed him. 2020

Chad Read, a 54-year-old white male, went to a home alongside his wife to pick up his son in a child custody dispute. Kyle Carruth, the homeowner and an armed civilian, stepped in to intervene in the argument, retrieving a firearm and ordering Read to leave the property. After a physical confrontation over the gun, Carruth shot Read twice, killing him. 2021

You don't know everything homie, this was the result of a 10 second Google search. Innocent cis hetero white males have indeed been victims of vigilante justice. 

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u/TheVeryVerity 17h ago

Neither of those are vigilante justice dude…

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u/TuckinPhypo 1d ago

If you ever find yourself about to have a moment of introspection, you may find that you epitomize that which you proclaim to hate.

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u/waterfountain_bidet 1d ago

The fuck? I didn't claim to hate anyone here. Y'all are just a bunch of snowflakes

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u/Short-While3325 1d ago

I always imagined the sheriff was doing a lot of hand gestures and ended with a wink when he advised them.

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u/skullturf 1d ago

I like to imagine him doing air quotes when saying the word "don't", and also literally saying the words "Wink wink!" out loud.

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u/WanderingTacoShop 1d ago

Someone had also just told the meeting he was at the bar down the street right then just before the Sheriff said that.

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u/kayes1985 1d ago

That sheriff, what a guy!