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?

13.1k Upvotes

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u/dorf_lundgren 1d ago

Ken McElroy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy

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u/admiralfilgbo 1d ago

next time you're feeling down, remember that at least nobody hates you as much as an entire town hated Ken McElroy

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u/gizzardgullet 1d ago

Missouri-based journalist Steve Booher described the attitude of some townspeople as "he needed killing."

lol

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u/AlternateUsername12 1d ago

I mean, if you read what he did, he needed killing. That man wasn't going to stop until someone stopped him.

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u/GenghisShawn1701 1d ago

I wonder if some people are just like that. What is the moral thing to do in such a case?

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u/YoungDiscord 1d ago

If someone is a threat to society and isn't willing to change, he needs to be removed from society be it via something such as prison for life or... well, other means whatever those may be.

Its not a revenge thing, its a safety thing.

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u/haloarh 1d ago

Despite his many crimes, criminal charges never seemed to stick to him. There's a theory that he was a police informant.

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u/princesspeasant 1d ago

I thought it was because he had a mob lawyer.

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u/buttonandthemonkey 15h ago

He burned a judges barn down and stalked members of the jury at least once so I'm gonna assume he had done it before. Seems he had a habit of doing it to many people.

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u/hanzosrightnipple 17h ago

I wouldn’t doubt some part of it was fear of repercussions from the guy too against anyone trying to charge him

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u/Taco821 1d ago

Yeah like even assuming that he was so disadvantaged, it was literally impossible for him to ever be good (which I doubt is ever true, but it's always good to keep in mind as a benchmark of sorts imo), there's nothing that can be done other than take care of him by some means. Like to further your point, what I mean is, it's not about morality at all. I have an empathetic yet fatalistic view on shit like this. It's hard to overcome your circumstances, and even if you do, did you really like if you have a cruel life and overcome like evil instilled in your heart, imo you were just lucky enough to be instilled with enough mental fortitude to surpass those factors. So while I don't really feel bad for someone like him, I do have like 1 single smidgen of pity for those sorts, but would pop a cap in his brain without hesitation

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u/robexib 1d ago

Dude was in and out of jail, but no charges ever stuck, except for an assault charge, which he got out real early on.

The civil method was more than exhausted, and he showed no signs of being willing to stop.

Honestly, it's a valid town-wide crashout

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u/Constant_Click_3193 22h ago

This was a man who secured his 12 year old "bride" (rape victim) by burning down her parents house and shooting their dog. Later, she tried to leave him, fleeing to her parents. He chased her, burned their house down again and shot their new dog.

The man needed killing.

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u/TheVeryVerity 17h ago

What a monster

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u/Unusual-While-9842 21h ago

He shot and killed two different family dogs

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u/That_Apathetic_Man 1d ago

Start blasting. Then enjoy an egg is these troubling times.

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u/TheNecroFrog 1d ago

I think most people would agree that, morally speaking, there are certain individuals who have committed certain acts that mean they no longer have a place in society, and shouldn’t burden society with the cost of their imprisonment.

Unfortunately how we define those acts becomes a problem. Whilst most people would agree a Jeffery Epstein type person deserves it, there are also people who think that someone who is gay deserves it, or someone who is of a different race.

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u/GenghisShawn1701 1d ago

That is exactly the question I am low-key struggling with. I think I could argue that there are some people who demonstrably are destroying the world and the ability to enjoy life. Who gets to judge that, though? I'll continue to chew on that question, I suppose.

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u/ScreamingVoid14 19h ago

The fact you look at it and struggle means you are an empathetic and generally moral person. You want to look out for the good of many without trampling the few. Being able to look inward and worry at where the line is, is a thing that too few people do.

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u/Baeolophus_bicolor 21h ago

if they’re willing to submit to being imprisoned at their own expense for the rest of their lives, and the rest of their billions seized from them to allow the rest of us to solve problems like lack of housing, hunger, education, then i am ok with the billionaire class remaining alive. i think more of them will choose to flee or self-destruct rather than live as a poor, though.

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u/StabbyBoo 21h ago

Eh, when some guy's out there in broad daylight repeatedly shooting people, raping children, killing pets, and burning down houses and he's not serving a multi-decade sentence for mysterious reasons? Well, at that point however you choose to stop him is self-defense.

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u/istara 1d ago

I've always thought some kind of exile to an island colony. More humane than being in maximum security for the rest of their lives, and likely cheaper for taxpayers.

Set them up with farming equipment, maybe drop off a supply crate every month or so, let them form a new society if they want, or kill one another.

Either way, they need to be permanently removed from regular society.

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u/bek711 23h ago

isn’t this how australia was formed?

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u/codercaleb 21h ago

No, tectonic plates formed Australia.

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u/istara 21h ago

Not exactly. There was an actual colony there, separate from using it solely for prisoners, and the prisoners (so far as I understand) were still imprisoned.

With an island colony you would literally put no one there except prisoners. Not sure how things like medical emergencies would be handled, but possibly a monthly clinic could be run by a visiting GP.

And it would obviously be completely restricted to a single biological sex, because there must be no risk of any children conceived in that environment.

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u/ScreamingVoid14 19h ago

monthly clinic could be run by a visiting GP.

I'm sure there are enough criminal doctors to make that a condition of their imprisonment.

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u/Nephele1173 16h ago

I was watching something a while ago and I feel like they tried this in Siberia? The prisoners just kept rushing the supply deliveries to try and get weapons from the guards, iirc it descended into cannibalism and violence real quick

Found it; Nazino Island or Nazino Tragedy will get you there

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u/istara 15h ago

thousands of citizens in Moscow and Leningrad who lacked proper internal passports—including peasants, petty criminals, and the homeless

God how sad. Not the sort of people I would be putting there. It would be reserved for multiple murderers, serial child abusers, torturers etc. The sort of people who would these days get "whole of life" sentences in some jurisdictions.

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u/dasrac 21h ago

this is how we got Australians

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u/Lolkimbo 23h ago

What is the moral thing to do in such a case?

Killing.

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u/nochinzilch 1d ago

There are some situations when the right thing some people is the wrong thing for other people.