1974: Ted Bundy Confessed to Her Killing, but Proof Took 51 Years

Laura Ann Aime left a Halloween party in Lehi, Utah, on this day in 1974 and never made it home. Hikers found her body on the banks of a river in American Fork Canyon almost a month later, on Thanksgiving Day.

At the time, Ted Bundy was living nearby in Salt Lake City, studying law at the University of Utah, while already murdering women across the region. Before his 1989 execution in Florida, he confessed to killing her, but refused to give any detail, so investigators would not close the file on his word alone.

It took new DNA testing, decades later, to formally confirm his guilt, finally closing the case 51 years after Laura disappeared.

Exhibit with the Volkswagen of serial killer Ted Bundy. Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, USA - December 18 2025: The Volkswagen of serial killer Ted Bundy in an exhibit the Alcatraz East Crime Museum | ID 426074004 © Raisamacouze | Dreamstime.com
ID 426074004 © Raisamacouze | Dreamstime.com

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1968: Ben-Hur Star Ramon Novarro Tortured to Death Over a Fortune That Never Existed

Ramon Novarro had been one of Hollywood’s biggest stars of the silent era, hailed as the screen’s first Latin American leading man after his role in Ben-Hur made him a household name. By 1968 his career had faded, but two brothers, Paul and Tom Ferguson, had heard a rumour that he kept a fortune hidden somewhere in his Laurel Canyon home. The younger of the two got Novarro’s phone number from a former guest, called offering sexual services, and the pair talked their way inside.

When Novarro could not produce the money, because none existed, the brothers beat him for hours trying to force him to reveal where it was hidden. He died on 30 October 1968, choking on his own blood after the prolonged assault; the men left with just $20 taken from his bathrobe pocket. Both were convicted and served only a few years before being paroled in the mid-1970s.

Paul Ferguson denied responsibility for decades, but in a 1998 interview he finally admitted to killing Novarro.

Portrait of Ramon Novarro in 1925
Portrait of Ramon Novarro in 1925

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2018: Whitey Bulger: Boston’s Most Wanted Mob Boss Beaten to Death Within Hours of a New Prison Transfer

James “Whitey” Bulger ran Boston’s underworld for decades while secretly informing for the FBI, a betrayal that let his gang operate almost untouched. He vanished in 1994 after a tip-off from his own handler, spent sixteen years as a fugitive second only to Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s most wanted list, and was finally captured in California in 2011. Convicted in 2013 of racketeering and involvement in eleven murders, he was handed two life sentences.

Five years later, the 89 year old and wheelchair bound Bulger was abruptly transferred to a high security prison in West Virginia, his medical status quietly downgraded just weeks earlier. He arrived on 29 October 2018. Within hours, on this day in 2018, he was found beaten to death in his cell, attacked with a sock wrapped padlock and a shiv so savagely a law enforcement official called him unrecognisable.

Mafia hitman Fotios Geas was later identified as the man behind the killing and in 2024 was sentenced to 25 years for voluntary manslaughter. A relative of one of Bulger’s own victims summed up the reaction of many: “He died the way I hoped he always was going to die.”

James Joseph Bulger Jr portrait photograph 1953
James Joseph Bulger Jr portrait photograph 1953

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1901: The Anarchist Who Shot a President: Leon Czolgosz Electrocuted for Killing William McKinley

Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot President William McKinley at point-blank range during a public reception at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, on 6 September 1901. McKinley initially seemed to be recovering from his wounds, giving doctors and the public hope, but he died eight days later.

Czolgosz was swiftly tried and convicted of the killing. He was electrocuted on this day in 1901, one of the clearest and most public reckonings in the history of presidential assassinations in the United States.

Leon Czolgosz mug shot portrait: 1901
Leon Czolgosz mug shot portrait: 1901

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