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The year index

1951–1959 · 8 years on file

The 1950s

  • SOLVED ×6
  • COLD ×1
  • UNSOLVED ×1
Every case from the 1950s

One file for each year of the 1950s: the most documented and most cited case on record for that year.

  1. 1959
  2. 1958
  3. 1957
  4. 1956
  5. 1955
  6. 1954
  7. 1952
  8. 1951
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1959
Credit: Petr Bartolomey / Wikimedia CommonsCC BY-SA 2.0Source
COLD

Dyatlov Pass incident

Dyatlov Pass, Ural Mountains, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

Nine experienced Soviet ski hikers led by Igor Dyatlov died in the northern Ural Mountains on 1 or 2 February 1959 after cutting their way out of their tent and fleeing into a snowstorm inadequately dressed for the cold; Russian authorities reopened the case in 2019 and announced in 2020 that an avalanche was the most likely cause, though the deaths remain widely described as unexplained and some researchers dispute that conclusion.

1958
Credit: JGKleinPublic domainSource
SOLVED

Killing of Johnny Stompanato

730 North Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills, California

On April 4, 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane fatally stabbed Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of her mother, actress Lana Turner, at Turner's rented Beverly Hills home during a violent argument. A coroner's inquest ruled the killing a justifiable homicide and Crane was exonerated, though the case remains subject to enduring conspiracy theories.

1957
SOLVED

Yanaka Five-Storied Pagoda Double-Suicide Arson Case

Yanaka Cemetery, Taitō, Tokyo, Japan

In the early hours of July 6, 1957, a historic five-storied wooden pagoda in Yanaka Cemetery, Tokyo, burned to the ground. Two charred bodies were found among the ruins, believed to be a seamstress and her married lover who died in an apparent murder-suicide by arson to atone for their affair.

1956
Credit: NacentaeonsCC BY-SA 4.0Source
UNSOLVED

Killing of the Ormesher Sisters

Asmall Lane, Ormskirk, Lancashire, England

Sisters Margaret and Mary Ormesher were beaten to death in their Ormskirk, Lancashire home on 5 May 1956 after Mary walked home alone carrying the week's shop takings. Despite fingerprinting every adult male in the town, the case remains unsolved.

1955
SOLVED

Killing of David Blakely

The Magdala, South Hill Park, Hampstead, London

Racing driver David Blakely was shot dead outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead, London, on 10 April 1955; his partner Ruth Ellis was convicted of murder and hanged, the last woman executed in the United Kingdom, and in July 2026 she was granted a posthumous conditional pardon replacing the death sentence with life imprisonment.

1954
SOLVED

Murder of Honorah Rieper

Victoria Park, Christchurch, New Zealand

Honorah Rieper was bludgeoned to death in Victoria Park, Christchurch, on 22 June 1954 by her teenage daughter Pauline Parker and Parker's friend Juliet Hulme, who feared being separated from one another.

1952
Credit: SLR JesterCC BY 2.0Source
SOLVED

Knowsley Hall shootings

Knowsley Hall, Merseyside, England

On the evening of 9 October 1952, 19-year-old trainee footman Harold Winstanley shot his employer Lady Derby and three colleagues at Knowsley Hall, Merseyside, killing butler William Stallard and under-butler Douglas Stuart. He was found guilty but insane and committed to Broadmoor Hospital.

1951
Credit: Cecil Beaton / Imperial War MuseumPublic domainSource
SOLVED

Assassination of Abdullah I of Jordan

Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem

King Abdullah I of Jordan was fatally shot at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on 20 July 1951 by a 21-year-old Palestinian gunman, who was killed at the scene by the king's bodyguards. Ten men were later accused of plotting the killing, eight stood trial, and six were sentenced.