Murderous Hoosiers
Murder, it's a haunting topic. Over 24,500 Murders occurred, in the United States, in 2020 alone.
Historic Murders
Fall Creek Massacre
In 1824, nine Indians were murdered by white men. Two men, three women, two boys, and two girls—of uncertain tribal origin were slaughtered by seven white settlers. It was the first documented case in which white Americans were convicted, sentenced to capital punishment, and executed for the murder of Native Americans under U.S. law. Of the seven white men who participated in the crime, six were captured. The other white man, Thomas Harper, was never apprehended. Four of the men were charged with murder and the other two testified for the prosecution. The four accused men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.
Historic Murders
1936; The Gonzalez Family Murder
In July 1936, an Indiana man by the name of Celestino Gonzalez took his family out for a beach day on an incredibly hot 107-degree day. Once the family had returned home for the evening and everyone else had gone to bed, Gonzalez waited to make sure they were soundly asleep before beginning his rampage. Seven-year-old Jose awoke when he heard the scuffle from the first two murders, and ran to his mother's room, panicking. Gonzalez then moved into the next room, where his other three sons - Phillip, 8, Tino, 11, and Genaro, 13 - slept. In Spanish, he scrawled out several notes before settling on one that read, in part: "...I have decided to quit this house of Gonzalez. With pain in my heart, I give death to all my sons." He confronted the man in the locker room of the facility before shooting him four times in the chest. The village of Indiana Harbor was stunned.
Spiritual Murders
Satan's Carnival
The carnival, a place typically known for its subpar food, mediocre rides, and more often than not, it's looked forward to by those who are in small towns. As excitement isn't truly prominent anywhere else. In the end, it's quite uneventful, as it comes to town, gets the public's hopes up, and leaves to be looked forward to for months to come. But come 1991, something that wasn't crumbs was left behind by the staff. The burnt corpse of a man named William Ault was found in rural DeKalb, he was killed by two of his fellow carnival workers. He had been targeted after discovering his co-worker's involvement with Satan's Disciples. When he decided that he would become a member himself, four of the members (Jimmie Penick, Mark Goodwin, as well as Mark, and Keith Lawrence) decided they wouldn't allow him within the cult. So he pressed against this by blackmailing the two men with information on a prior murder they committed on an 18-year-old earlier that year. They lured Ault into his death by requesting that he follows them to a secluded area for his initiation ritual, where he must lay down on the floor. This was all a ruse though, as he was tied up and gagged by Keith Lawrence. The initial injury was a stab wound the shape of an inverted cross, but he wasn't quite dead yet, as the men asked if he was ready to pass. Upon getting a response of 'yes,' they slit his throat and then removed his hands and head with the intention to burn them. After the murder, they stole the money from Ault's person and used it to purchase a meal at the nearby Arby's.
Spiritual Murders
"Jesus Please Take These Kids"
Sometimes everything that can go awry does. This is one of those cases. King Edward Bell had lost his job and found himself unable to pay his bills. Not to mention, his wife divorced him after 11 years together, leaving him for a 51-year-old man with the money he simply couldn't spare. As if this hadn't been enough, she couldn't leave Edward alone as she called him several times to taunt the man about her relationship and newfound income. He may have gotten custody over his children, but it didn't mean much when he didn't have the time to find a babysitter, let alone the money. He never really had that to spare. Eating and sleeping were at the back of this man's mind, but something that was always with him was religion. Edward took his kids to the Holy Angels Catholic Church and had several products regarding Christianity. A neighbor remarked that he, "wanted to pray all the time." His faith fled when he seemed to have needed it most, as Edward spent the entirety of his Friday night leafing through images of his crumbling family. Perhaps seeing how far he had fallen was his snapping point, as hours later the very same man abandoned all his morals. It was on August 21st, 1981, that Edward carried his children down to the basement, shooting all but one of them twice aside from his 6-year-old son of the same name who had been cursed with 3 bullets. One more than the other children. Edward wasn't quite done though, as he took chalk and scrawled "Jesus please take these kids" in chalk above the bunk bed which had been stained with blood by now. He made his way upstairs and wrote a suicide note which showcased his current mental state. “I just came back from the basement. I thought I heard my loving children saying Dad-Dad, I’m cold, but they were dead, they died instantly. Tina died the fastest. Kingston, Boogie, Kina refused to die, so I reloaded the gun with shaking hands, telling them, please, don’t suffer. I will help you die faster … I keep hearing children in the basement saying Dad-Dad, come here, I’m cold, Dad-Dad. I’ve kissed them again and talk to them (their spirit lived, they’re in heaven) … The children’s voice is now getting louder down in the basement. They won’t want me up here, and them down there, for I know they’re just babies.” A little after 5:00 am he had left his home, and decided to attempt to murder his ex-wife's boyfriend; Clarence Barnett. Though, his several bullets only ended up critically wounding the man. Following this, he drove to the aforementioned ex-wife's home, shooting and killing Bertha Bell, as well as her 5-year-old mother who chased after her daughter. When police came to the Kirby home, he didn't bother running away, instead, he requested that they, "Kill me! Kill me! Go ahead and kill me!" He was simply arrested at first, on the account of his six murders, which earned him 160 years in prison.
Spiritual Murders
Sylvia Likens
The notion of The Cinderella Story is quite the trope, but Sylvia Likens suffered through the punishment of this fairytale without the promise of a prince at the end. From a young age she hadn't had it easy, she didn't have a mother, and her father was always working. Though, a string of jobs left him with little time to care for the two of his kids who hadn't left the nest yet; Sylvia and Jenny. A mutual friend introduced the man to Gertrude, who went by an alias at the time with the last name Wright, and offered to watch over the children for a mere 20$ a week. The first account of abuse was in July of 1965, where the girls' father forgot to pay Gutrude for her service, and was late to pick the two up. As a result she took them upstairs and slapped them both, lecturing, "I took care of you two b--ches for a week for nothing." The money was sent with them the very next day. Sylvia wasn't simply murdered, but she was tortured for the months leading up to the murder itself. There are a few points that make this crime more disturbing than most abuse tales that simply go a bit too far on one occasion or another. For starters, it wasn't a sole abuser inflicting harm on Sylvia, but instead harming Sylvia was displayed as an activity to pass the time from Gertrude Baniszewski. The children, some were neighbors, and some were as young as 10, would often torture Sylvia as a form of entertainment, doing so before dinner and treating it as casually as watching a TV show. At least a dozen children participated in these acts, but none of them felt as if it was heinous enough to alert their own parents. A few other notable points being that... Other adults would come over to Baniszewski house, and later reported of taking note of her battered appearance, but not a single one alerted authorities, or even asked the girl if she was safe. Because of the lack of assistance from other adults, both children kept quiet while in public. Jenny later explained that she never thought it would do anything, or if it did the situation would simply get worse. The possibility of being helped by the police or child services never even crossed the sisters mind. Gertrude had two items she used on the children who misbehaved, one was a wooden paddle, and the other was a thick belt from an ex-husband. Sometimes, this wasn't quite enough though. Sometimes the babysitter's children would step in to carry out the punishments. One of the worst incidents recorded was when she was instructed to shove an empty Coke bottle in her vagina. After these beatings, she was forced into a scalding hot bath in order to 'cleanse her sins.' On October 26th, 1965 the police were eventually called to the residence on East New York Street but it was far too late. Sylvia was dead on the mattress, and it was clear from both a marking on her hand as well as a witnesses account that she was attacked by a gang of boys. On her stomach was etched the message "I am a prostitute," and the girls body was claimed by burns, bruises, and boils. A few of the following being quite old. She had even been branded by a metal object.
Heinous Murders
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown launched a horrific two-month crime spree in 1984 that included up to eight murders, more than a dozen rapes, three kidnappings, and 14 armed robberies.
Heinous Murders
William Clyde Gibson III
On Aug. 15, 2014, Gibson was condemned to die for the murder of Stephanie Kirk, whose body was buried in his New Albany, Ind., backyard. It was the second death penalty for Gibson, who also was condemned for the murder of family friend Christine Whitis. Kirk's body was found in April 2012, just days after police found Whitis' mutilated body in his garage. Both Kirk, 35, and Whitis, 75, were sexually assaulted after they were killed, police said.
Heinous Murders
The KKK Leader (D.C. Stephenson)
Back in the 1920s, D.C. Stephenson was the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1925, he was accused of abducting, raping, and killing a young woman.
Crazy Killing Hoosiers
Belle Gunness
Gunness married her first husband shortly after moving to America, but he died under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind a sizable life insurance policy. Following her husband's death, Gunness committed arson a number of times to collect insurance payouts, and she used her ill-gotten fortune to buy a farm near La Porte, IN. Shortly after settling in Indiana, Gunness married again, but her new husband didn't live very long after their wedding, nor did his daughter, his brother, or many of the other people who spent any time at the farm. Following the death of her second husband, Gunness began placing ads in local newspapers, advertising herself as a wealthy widow in search of a new beau. Many men came to visit Gunness, but very few of them ever left, until April 28, 1908, when a fire burned her home to the ground, leaving behind the bodies of three children and a headless woman. A further search of the farm found the remains of several men, presumably the suitors Gunness killed in order to steal their money. The authorities were never able to determine if the woman's body found in the burned-down house was actually Gunness, leaving many to suspect she murdered her children and faked her own death to start her life over again with a new identity.
Crazy Killing Hoosiers
Herb Baumeister
In June 1996, the skeletal remains of a number of young men from Indiana's gay community were found on the grounds of the 18-acre estate Herb Baumeister shared with his wife and children in the affluent Indianapolis suburb of Westfield. Shortly after this grisly discovery, Baumeister, 49, committed suicide in Canada. Baumeister was accused of murdering at least 11 young men whom he met while visiting gay clubs in Indianapolis. Because he killed himself, he was never formally charged.
Crazy Killing Hoosiers
The I-70 Killer
Thirty years after six people were fatally shot in a string of killings along the I-70 corridor, the person responsible for the murders remains a mystery. The spring of 1992 is when all h*ll broke loose for six families and their respective police departments. The "I-70 Killer," as he's been coined, is a man authorities believe went on a shooting spree that spanned across three Midwest states in a matter of 29 days. Apart from one male victim whom police believe was mistaken for a woman, the remaining five victims were female — and their murders shared similarities too striking to miss. The victims were all white store clerks working in small businesses along I-70. Each was in their mid-20s to mid-30s with long brown hair. And all were killed "execution style" — shot in the back of the head — with the same gun: an Erma Werke Model ET22 pistol.
Passerby
Larry Eyler
Larry Eyler, also known as the "Interstate Killer," had passed through Indiana on his spree of 20 killings. The male stopped along U.S. 41 to pick up William Lewis, who was found in the October of 1983 by a hunter in a nearby field. The identity of his remains was unknown for 40 years, the corpse being formally known as the "Jasper County John Doe." He had been reported as missing by family members who never stopped looking for him, and eventually they got their answer. He was hitchhiking near Vincennes in November of 1982, when he had been murdered by Larry. The killer identified the male upon seeing his face, but he hadn't been able to recall as much as his name. Let alone any other details.
Passerby
David Maust
Abdandoned as a toddler to a mental institution, David Maust would later be known for his 5 victims, ranging from the ages of 13-19. Though, he had targeted several more men, reaching over a dozen in that regard. Each of his targets were killed the same way, they were stabbed, tied up, beat, and then strangled. He is still spoken of in the Northwest region of Indiana, even over a decade after his suicide in the Lake County Jail.
Passerby
H. H. Holmes
Known for the novel written about him which was shown at the 1895 World's Fair, "Devil in the White City" depicts the true-crime event that was H. H. Holmes killings. He primarily made his mark in Chicago, with kills reaching the 200 mark, but that wasn't all there was to the case. Holmes was described as a handsome young doctor, who went under the alias Herman Webster Mudgett, striking his victims in his "murder castle," from 1886 to his capture in 1894. His murder in Indianapolis took place during his short stay in a cottage on Julian Avenue. Here he killed the son of the man who constructed his castle, he had already got the man's father as well as Howard Pitezel's two daughter's while in Toronto Canada, but sources claimed that the last member of the Pitzel family was in Indianapolis. Who was only recognized by the address he passed in, which was his own home. Howard has been burnt in the chimney to a point beyond recognition, leaving nothing but his bones behind.