One file for each year of the 1970s: the most documented and most cited case on record for that year.
Credit: English WikipediaEditorial useSourceWestdale Mall parking lot, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old Cedar Rapids, Iowa high school senior, was stabbed to death in her family's car in a mall parking lot on December 19, 1979. The case went cold for nearly 39 years until familial DNA analysis and genealogy database matching identified Jerry Lynn Burns, who was arrested in 2018 and convicted of first-degree murder in 2020.
Credit: AP Wirephoto (1978) via dyatlovpass.comEditorial useSourceMarysville, Yuba County, California
Four members of a Yuba County, California basketball team for people with disabilities were found dead in the Sierra Nevada mountains months after a February 1978 disappearance, and the fifth, Gary Mathias, has never been found.
Image recordPublic domainSourceBuffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas
José "Joe" Campos Torres, a 23-year-old Mexican-American Army veteran, was beaten by Houston Police Department officers after his arrest on May 5, 1977, and his body was found three days later in Buffalo Bayou. Two officers received only probation and a $1 fine at the state level, sparking outrage and the 1978 Moody Park Riot; three officers were later convicted federally of civil rights violations.
Credit: Hans Jørn Storgaard AndersenCC BY-SA 3.0SourceCopenhagen, Denmark
A Danish far-left cell known as the Blekingegade Gang carried out a string of armed robberies between 1972 and 1988 to fund the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, fatally shooting a rookie Copenhagen police officer during its final heist before members were arrested, tried, and convicted in 1989–1991.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons (1970 photograph)Public domainSourceDhaka Central Jail, Dhaka, Bangladesh
On 3 November 1975, four senior Bangladeshi political leaders held at Dhaka Central Jail were shot and bayoneted to death by army officers acting under the post-coup government of President Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad.
Credit: English WikipediaEditorial useSourceSandy Row, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Ann Ogilby, a 31-year-old Protestant single mother, was abducted and beaten to death on 24 July 1974 by members of the Sandy Row women's Ulster Defence Association (UDA) unit in Belfast, in a punishment killing following a paramilitary "kangaroo court." Eleven people were convicted in February 1975.
Credit: California Department of CorrectionsPublic domainSourceSan Francisco, California, United States
Between October 1973 and April 1974, a group calling itself the "Death Angels" killed at least fifteen white people and wounded eight others in racially motivated attacks across San Francisco, prompting a controversial police manhunt known as Operation Zebra and the eventual conviction of four men.
Catford, South East London
A 26-year-old man was found strangled after a fire at his Catford lodgings in 1972; three teenagers were wrongly convicted and later exonerated, and the killing remains unsolved.
Credit: Keystone picturesPublic domainSourceSheraton Hotel, Cairo, Egypt
On 28 November 1971, Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Tal was shot dead outside the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, by members of the Black September Organization. Four men were apprehended by Egyptian authorities but were released without prosecution.
Credit: Gerald EnglandCC BY-SA 2.0SourceHyde, Greater Manchester, England
Harold Shipman, a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester, was convicted in January 2000 of murdering 15 patients, including former mayoress Kathleen Grundy, using lethal doses of diamorphine. A subsequent public inquiry concluded he had killed at least 218 patients over roughly 27 years, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history.
