After over a decade of attacks, John Wayne Gacy confessed to murdering dozens of young men and boys.

After spending over a decade on death row, Seth Penalver was exonerated by a jury for the murders of Butch Casey, Marie Rogers, and Sharon Anderson.

In Northern California, David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were brutally shot to death. They were the first known victims of the infamous Zodiac Killer.

Police arrested well-respected doctor John Bodkin Adams after rumors circulated that he may have been guilty of hundreds of murders over his many years of practice.

23-year-old Phoenix Coldon got in her black SUV and drove away from her parents’ house around 2 or 3 PM. She was never seen again.

Two college students entered the Transylvania University's Special Collections Library in Lexington, Kentucky, and stole an estimated $735,000 worth of books.

Two men worked together to steal over $350 worth of toys from a local Walmart. Their plan worked at first… But the law would catch up to them.

The body of 18-year-old Traci Hammerberg was discovered in a driveway on Maple Road. Her killer would not be identified until decades later.

67-year-old US Colonel George Trofimoff was arrested by German authorities on suspicion of spying for the Soviet Union. While the case against him fell apart shortly after his arrest, he wouldn't be so lucky upon his return to the United States.

21-year-old Creio Chance Bishop attempted to prevent his girlfriend from exotic dancing by setting fire to JB’s Gentleman’s Club in West Virginia where she worked.

In New York City, socialite and heiress Dorothy Arnold told her mother she was heading out to buy an evening dress. When it was time for them to meet at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel later in the afternoon, Dorothy never arrived. And she was never seen again.

Bernie Madoff was one of Wall Street's most respected financiers. But on this day in 2008, he was arrested for swindling some of the planet's richest investors out of $65 billion in the world's largest Ponzi scheme.

A clever crook tricked four bank guards into vacating their cash truck. By the time the guards realized what was happening, the truck carrying 300 million yen was gone.

In her North Carolina home, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Her husband Michael claimed she had fallen, but the evidence told a different story...or so investigators believed.

Headmaster Philip Lawrence was stabbed to death when he intervened during a gang attack on a 13-year-old student.

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a sexual assault case between the Dollar General Corporation and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Harold Perelson, a successful cardiologist, murdered his wife with a hammer while she slept. He then tried to murder his oldest daughter. The site would later be referred to as "The Los Feliz Murder House."

In the U.S., the selling and consumption of alcohol became legal after states ratified the 21st Amendment.

While awaiting his next trial, imprisoned politician "Boss Tweed" was allowed to leave his cell on daily, supervised walks around the city. On this day, he left his cell and didn’t come back.

After the release of the "Pumpkin Papers" a day earlier by Richard Nixon, the entire country had to grapple with evidence that former State Department official Alger Hiss spied for the Soviets.

American abolitionist John Brown, who had served as a leader during the Bleeding Kansas warfare, was hanged for attempting to start a slave rebellion.

After Russian Tsar Alexander I was pronounced dead of a mysterious illness, some believed he faked his death to escape the royal court.

Despite a heavy security detail, the Chairman of Deutsche Bank was killed after an explosive detonated near his car in West Germany.

Notorious U.K. serial killer Rosemary West was born on this day in Devon, England.

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was one of two inmates murdered by Christopher Scarver inside the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.