On December 22, 1978, John Wayne Gacy confesses to murdering over two dozen boys and young men and burying their bodies under his suburban Chicago home. In March 1980, Gacy was convicted of 33 sex-related murders, committed between 1972 and 1978, and given the death penalty. At the time, he was the worst serial killer in modern American history. George Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, overtook Gacy in November 2003, when he admitted to murdering 48 women in the Pacific Northwest.

Gacy was born in Chicago on March 17, 1942. Outwardly, he appeared to have a relatively normal middle-class upbringing; however, by some accounts, Gacy had an abusive alcoholic father and also experienced health issues in his youth. In 1964, Gacy married and moved with his wife to Iowa, where he managed his father-in-law’s Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. The couple had two children. However, Gacy’s wife divorced him after he was charged with sexually assaulting one of his male employees in 1968. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released due to good behavior after serving only a fraction of his sentence.

Gacy moved back to Chicago, where he started a contracting company and remarried. However, the seemingly respectable businessman, who became involved in local politics and once had his photograph taken with then-first lady Rosalynn Carter, was leading a double life as a sexual predator. He committed his first murder in 1972. Gacy’s victims included male prostitutes as well as teenagers who worked for his company. Typically, he lured his victims back to his home and tricked them into being handcuffed or having a rope tied around their necks. Afterward, he’d knock them out with chloroform and then rape, torture and murder them. As he was a well-known community figure, Gacy sometimes dressed up as a clown to entertain children.

He came under suspicion in December 1978 when authorities investigating the disappearance of Robert Piest discovered that the teen was last seen with Gacy. After learning of Gacy’s sex-crime conviction in Iowa, police searched his Norwood Park home. They noticed a strong stench coming from a crawl space but at first thought it was from a damaged sewage pipe. Several items, including a store receipt, were later found at Gacy’s home that linked him to Piest and other young men who’d been reported missing. After Gacy confessed, investigators recovered 29 corpses buried on his property, as well as four more that he’d dumped in nearby rivers when he ran out of room at home. After his conviction, Gacy spent 14 years on Death Row, during which time he made paintings of clowns and other figures that sold for thousands of dollars. On May 10, 1994, having exhausted all his appeals, the 52-year-old Gacy, who the media dubbed the Killer Clown, was put to death by legal injection at Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois.

On December 21, 1975, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez aka Carlos the Jackal led a six-person team in an attack of the meeting of OPEC leaders; they took more than 60 hostages and killed three: an Austrian policeman, an Iraqi OPEC employee and a member of the Libyan delegation. Carlos demanded that the Austrian authorities read a communiqué about the Palestinian cause on Austrian radio and television networks every two hours. To avoid the threatened execution of a hostage every 15 minutes, the Austrian government agreed and the communiqué was broadcast as requested.

Sánchez is widely regarded as one of the most famous political terrorist of his era. When he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970, he was given the code name “Carlos” because of his South American roots. After several bungled bombings, Sánchez achieved notoriety for the 1975 raid on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, which killed three people. This was followed by a string of attacks against Western targets. For many years he was among the most wanted international fugitives. Carlos was dubbed “The Jackal” by The Guardian after one of its correspondents reportedly spotted the 1971 novel The Day of the Jackal near some of the fugitive’s belongings.

In 1994, Carlos was scheduled to undergo a minor testicular operation in a hospital in Sudan. Two days after the operation, Sudanese officials told him that he needed to be moved to a villa for protection from an assassination attempt and would be given personal bodyguards. One night later, the bodyguards went into his room while he slept, tranquilized and tied him, and took him from the villa. On August 14, 1994, Sudan transferred him to French agents, who flew him to Paris for trial. He was charged with the 1975 murders. The trial began on December 12, 1997 and for his part, Sánchez denied the 1975 killings, saying they were orchestrated by Mossad, the Israeli secret service, and condemning Israel as a terrorist nation. During the trial he said, “When one wages war for 30 years, there is a lot of blood spilled – mine and others. But we never killed anyone for money, but for a cause – the liberation of Palestine.” He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison along with two others.

On December 17, 1968, Barbara Jane Mackle, a student at Emory College and the 20-year-old daughter of millionaire real-estate developer is kidnapped from the Rodeway Inn in Decatur, Georgia. Mackle was sick with the flu, and her mother had driven to the Atlanta area to take care of her daughter and then drive her daughter back to the family home in Florida for the Christmas break. A stranger, Gary Steven Krist, knocked on the door claiming to be with the police, and told Mackle that a friend Stewart Hunt Woodward had been in a traffic accident.

Once inside, Krist and his accomplice, Ruth Eisemann-Schier, disguised as a man, chloroformed, bound and gagged Mackle’s mother and forced Barbara Jane at gunpoint into the back of their waiting car, informing her that she was being kidnapped. They drove her to a remote area near South Berkeley Lake Road near Duluth and buried Mackle in a shallow trench inside of a fiberglass-reinforced box. The box was outfitted with an air pump, a battery-powered lamp, water laced with sedatives, and food. Two plastic pipes provided Mackle with outside air. Krist and Eisemann-Schier demanded and received a $500,000 ransom from Barbara Jane’s father. The first attempt at a ransom drop was disrupted, when two policemen drove by. The kidnappers fled on foot and the FBI found their car, abandoned. Inside the car, the authorities found, not only documents giving Krist’s and Eisemann-Schier’s names and former addresses, they also found a photograph of Barbara Jane Mackle in the box holding a sign that read “Kidnapped.”

The second ransom drop was successful. On December 20th, Krist called and gave to a switchboard operator of the FBI vague directions to Mackle’s burial place. The FBI set up their base in Lawrence, and more than 100 agents spread out through the area in an attempt to find her, digging the ground with their hands and anything they could find to use. Mackle was rescued alive and unharmed. She had spent more than three days underground. Krist was soon arrested off the coast of Florida in a speedboat bought with part of the ransom money. Eisemann-Schier was arrested 79 days later. She was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, paroled after serving four years. Krist was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1969 but was released on parole after 10 years. Krist received a pardon to allow him to attend medical school. He practiced medicine in Indiana before his license was revoked in 2003 for lying about disciplinary action received during his residency. In March 2006, Krist was arrested on a sailboat off the coast of Alabama for smuggling drugs and was sentenced to five years in prison but released in November, 2010. After the ordeal, Mackle wrote a book about her experience: 83 Hours ‘Til Dawn, published in 1971.

Edward Green was the 32 year old postmaster of Malden, Massachusetts. He is commonly believed to have committed the first (non-war related) armed bank robbery in American history. Green had a bad drinking habit and was heavily in debt, when on December 15, 1863, he robbed the local bank. At noon he entered the bank to get change and discovered that there was only one clerk on duty, the bank president’s 17 year old son Frank Converse. Immediately formulating a plan as to how he could end his money worries. Green returned home, grabbed his gun and went back to the bank, where he still found Converse alone. He lifted his pistol and pointed it at the teenagers head and fired at point blank range, killing Converse outright. Green then went to the bank vault and helped himself to $5000 in cash.

The case went unsolved for some time and no one suspected the postmaster next door. But then in January 1864 town folk noticed that Green had begun to pay off his debts and they wondered where the money had come from. He was arrested on February 7, 1864, and when questioned by police broke down and confessed to the robbery and murder. On April 13, 1866, he was executed at Middlesex County Jail. America’s first armed bank robber also became America’s first armed bank robber to be hanged.

Mary, Queen of Scots was born on December 8, 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, Scotland, to James V, King of Scots and Mary of Guise. She was one of the most fascinating and controversial monarchs of 16th century Europe and at the one time, she claimed the crowns of four nations – Scotland, France, England and Ireland. Her physical beauty and kind heart were acknowledged even by her enemies. Yet she lacked the political skills to rule successfully in Scotland. Her second marriage was unpopular and ended in murder and scandal; her third was even less popular and ended in forced abdication in favor of her infant son. She fled to England in 1568, hoping for the help of her cousin, Elizabeth I. Her presence was dangerous for the English queen, who feared Catholic plotting on Mary’s behalf. The two queens never met and Mary remained imprisoned for the next nineteen years. She was executed in 1587, at the age of forty-four. By orders of the English government, all of her possessions were burned. In 1603, upon Elizabeth’s death, Mary’s son James became king of England.

Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was born on December 7, 1545 at Temple Newsam, Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Through his parents he had claims to both the Scottish and English thrones. He was the king consort of Scotland from 1565 until his murder at Kirk O’ Field in 1567. He was the second but eldest surviving son of Matthew Stuart, 4th Earl of Lennox, and his wife, Lady Margaret Douglas. Darnley’s maternal grandparents were Archibald Douglas, sixth Earl of Angus and Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England, and widow of James IV, King of Scots. He was a first cousin to and the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was the father of James I of England (James VI of Scotland), who succeeded Elizabeth I of England.

King Henry VI of England was the only child of Henry V and Catherine of Valois, born on December 6, 1421. He married Margaret of Anjou in 1445; the union produced one son, Edward, who was killed in battle one day before Henry’s execution. Henry came to the throne as an infant after the early death of his father; in name, he was king of both England and France, but a protector ruled each realm. He was educated by Richard Beauchamp beginning in 1428. The whole of Henry’s reign was involved with retaining both of his crowns and in the end, he held neither.

Hostilities in France continued, but momentum swung to the French with the appearance of Joan of Arc in 1428. The seventeen year old was instrumental in rescuing the French Dauphin Charles in 1429; he was crowned at Reims as Charles VII, and she was burned at the stake as a heretic. English losses in Brittany (1449), Normandy (1450) and Gascony (1453) led to the conclusion of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453. Henry lost his claim to all French soil except for Calais.

The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry’s reign. In 1453, Henry had an attack of the hereditary mental illness that plagued the French house of Valois; Richard, Duke of York, was made protector of the realm during the illness. His wife Margaret, a rather headstrong woman, alienated Richard upon Henry’s recovery and Richard responded by attacking and defeating the queen’s forces at St. Albans in 1455. Richard captured the king in 1460 and forced him to acknowledge Richard as heir to the crown. Henry escaped, joined the Lancastrian forces and attacked at Towton in March 1461, only to be defeated by the York’s. Richard’s son, Edward IV, was proclaimed king; Margaret and Henry were exiled to Scotland. They were captured in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1470. Henry was briefly restored to power in September 1470. Edward, Prince of Wales, died after his final victory at Tewkesbury on May 20, 1471 and Henry returned to the Tower. The last Lancastrian king was murdered the following day.

On December 5, 1873, Bridget Landregan is found beaten and strangled to death in the Boston suburb of Dorchester. According to witnesses, a man in black clothes and a flowing cape attempted to sexually assault the dead girl before running away. In 1874, a man fitting the same description clubbed another young girl, Mary Sullivan, to death. His third victim, Mary Tynan, was bludgeoned in her bed in 1875. Although she survived for a year after the attack, she was never able to identify her attacker. Residents of Boston were shocked to learn that the killer had been among them all along. Thomas Piper, the sexton at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, was known for his flowing black cape, but because he was friendly with the parishioners, nobody suspected his involvement. When five-year-old Mabel Young was found dead in the church’s belfry in the summer of 1876, and witnesses stated they saw Piper with the young girl the day of her murder, he then became the prime suspect. Piper, who was dubbed “The Boston Belfry Murderer,” confessed to the four killings after his arrest. He was convicted and sentenced to death, and was hanged in 1876.

Danny “Dapper Dan” Hogan was a charismatic Irish mob boss in Saint Paul, Minnesota during Prohibition. Due to his close relationships with the officers of the deeply corrupt St. Paul Police Department, Hogan was able to act as a go between. Known as the “Smiling Peacemaker” to local police officials, Police Chief John “The Big Fellow” O’Connor of Saint Paul allowed criminals and fugitives to operate in the city as long as they checked in with police, paid a small bribe and promised not to kill, kidnap, or rob within city limits. Around 1909, he permanently settled in Saint Paul, and turned to organizing major crimes from the sanctuary of the city. He became so closely connected to Saint Paul’s political machine that the police not only feared him, but actively protected his associates. Hogan was described by the Justice Department as “one of the most resourceful and keenest criminals” in the nation. He acted as an “ambassador” for Chief O’Connor and the visiting mobsters. Hogan himself owned the Green Lantern saloon on Wabasha Street in Saint Paul, which was also an illegal gambling casino, and became a speakeasy during Prohibition. Hogan was involved in planning armed robberies in the towns surrounding the Twin Cities, and also in money laundering in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area.

On December 4, 1928, Hogan got behind the wheel of his Paige coupe and turned on the ignition. A bomb located beneath the floorboards detonated and blew off his right leg. He slipped into a coma at the hospital and died nine hours after the blast. He was given a funeral worthy of Prohibition-era Chicago and was buried in Calvary Cemetery. Hogan’s death was especially notable because it was one of the first instances of death by a car bomb. The most likely culprits in his assassination were rival mob figures. Although the murder is still considered unsolved, recently declassified FBI files reveal that the most likely person responsible was Harry Sawyer, Hogan’s underboss. According to the FBI files, Sawyer felt that Hogan had cheated him out of his cut from a nearby casino.

On December 3, 1989, five-year-old Melissa Brannen disappears without a trace from a Christmas party in Fairfax, Virginia. After interviewing everyone who had been at the party, investigators determined that Caleb Hughes had left the party at roughly the same time that Brannen was discovered missing. When detectives visited Hughes’ home at 1 a.m., they found him washing his clothes, shoes, and belt. Although Hughes denied having any contact with the little girl, the detectives began an exhaustive search of his home and car. To collect hairs and fibers, forensic experts carefully ran tape across all of the surfaces in Hughes’ house and car. Every tiny bit of evidence caught on the tape was cataloged and taken to a scraping room, where they were then examined under a microscope. In addition, Hughes’ clothing was systematically combed for foreign fibers and hairs. Two of the fibers found in the passenger seat of Hughes’ car matched the rabbit-fur coat that Brannen’s mother had been wearing at the party. Since it was possible that the two fibers had innocently landed there, though, police needed additional evidence. Although Brannen had been wearing a blue sweater when she disappeared and police located more than 50 blue fibers in the car, direct forensic comparisons were impossible to make, since the young girl and her clothing were still missing. However, investigators learned that Melissa’s sweater was part of a Sesame Street outfit made only by JC Penney, and they were able to obtain an identical sample outfit from the manufacturer. A detailed examination proved that the blue fibers in Hughes’ car matched those from the Sesame Street outfit. After one of the most highly publicized trials ever held in Fairfax, Commonwealth’s prosecutors convinced a jury that Hughes had abducted Melissa with intent to defile her. Although police believe Hughes killed Melissa, they had no evidence to file a murder charge. Hughes was convicted of abduction with intent to defile on March 8, 1991, and sentenced to 50 years in prison but Melissa Brannen’s body has never been found.