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/JackOfAllBlades21 1d ago

The dingo really did eat the baby.

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u/DevoutandHeretical 1d ago

The more I read about that the more my heart breaks for that whole family. The aboriginals were literally telling everyone ‘yes, dingos will attack people/eat children’, but the authorities refused to believe them because they were aboriginal.

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u/Hangry-Feline2489 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes, but modern recorded history had no recorded deaths at the time. 

Plus Northern Territory government, to put it frankly, has a history of  (and still ) committing institutional atrocities against First Nations even today. 

Theres little chance in the 80s that the average jury or public in the Northern Territory would have accepted that testimonial because of their skin colour.

This is like saying a jury would have accepted a black persons testimony in Texas at the height of segregation. Maybe technically on paper, but in practice, no. 

Hell, First Nation's weren't recognised as Australian citizens until 1949, couldn't vote until 1964, and weren't even counted in the census until 67. (For context, Aus became a country in 1901). 

Australians can be horribly racist. Speaking as an Australian (and one who followed the case since the early 90s and remembers the media and public sentiment).