Unsolved
1930–1979 · New York City
Judge Crater
On 6 August 1930 a New York judge left a Midtown chophouse and was never seen again. The 'missingest man in America' and the Tammany scandal around him.
Era
Depression, war and after (1930–1951)
13 cases from 1930–1951.
13 cases8 solved3 unsolved1930–1949
Unsolved
Convicted
1931 · Illinois
Al Capone tax evasion trial
Chicago could never convict Al Capone of murder. In 1931 the Treasury got him with a lawyer's letter, a bookkeeper's ledger and his own grocery bills.
Disputed verdict
1931 · United Kingdom
William Herbert Wallace
A phone message sent a Liverpool insurance man to an address that did not exist. He came home to find his wife dead, and was sentenced to hang.
Killed before trial
1931–1935 · Florida
Ma Barker
Hoover called her the brains of a murderous gang. A robber who knew her said she couldn't plan breakfast. Kate Barker and the shootout at Lake Weir.
Killed before trial
1932–1934 · Louisiana
Bonnie and Clyde
Two years, at least nine dead lawmen and a posse waiting in the Louisiana pines: the real Barrow gang, from Eastham prison farm to the ambush at Gibsland.
Executed
1932–1936 · New Jersey
Lindbergh baby kidnapping
A ladder, a misspelled note and $50,000 in gold certificates: how the Lindbergh baby case ended in the electric chair, and why doubts still linger.
Killed before trial
1933–1934 · Chicago
John Dillinger
Out of prison in May 1933, dead by July 1934: Midwest bank raids, a jailbreak with a gun that may have been wood, and a summer night at the Biograph.
Disputed verdict
1933–1938 · Missouri
Kansas City Massacre
Thirty seconds outside Union Station in June 1933 left four lawmen and their prisoner dead. The FBI blamed Pretty Boy Floyd. Historians are still arguing.
Convicted
1933 · Texas
Machine Gun Kelly and the Urschel kidnapping
Blindfolded for nine days, an Oklahoma oilman counted the planes overhead. His memory led the FBI to a Texas farm and put Machine Gun Kelly away for life.
Unsolved
1934 · Belgium
Ghent Altarpiece theft
In April 1934 a panel of van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece was stolen and held to ransom. The man who seemed to know where it was died before he could say.
Convicted
1937–1947 · Netherlands
Han van Meegeren
Arrested in 1945 for selling a Vermeer to Göring, a Dutch painter saved himself by proving he had painted it. Then he had to prove he had faked the rest.
Executed
1942–1946 · France
Marcel Petiot
In occupied Paris a doctor sold a secret route to safety for 25,000 francs a head. In March 1944 smoke from his chimney showed where his clients had gone.
Unsolved
1947–1949 · California
Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short, 22, was murdered in Los Angeles in January 1947. Hundreds confessed, dozens were suspected, and no one was ever charged.