Forensic science has evolved by leaps and bounds in the past couple of centuries. What began as hearsay and finger-pointing has evolved into a complex tapestry of evidence gathered from DNA, audio and video footage, data-mining, and intricate physical sciences. One type of the latter that has proven useful time and again is forensic dentistry. Although one facet of bite mark analysis has fallen out of favor in general forensic use and polarized the legal community, other facets such as dental DNA fingerprinting, forensic age estimation from teeth, and post-mortem victim identification from teeth have proven critically useful in cases.

Teeth are handy tools for forensic scientists because enamel- the shiny, white layer covering the tooth- is the hardest substance in the human body, harder even than bone. While criminals may go to great lengths to dismember and destroy bodies, teeth are often the body’s last holdout, and therefore tend to leave valuable evidence behind. It’s no surprise that teeth have helped criminal investigators and prosecutors ascertain the truth again and again. And sometimes, they’ve hindered the process, as well. Here are ten cases where, for better or worse, human teeth have made all the difference in criminal cases.

10 Aggrippina and Lollia Paulina’s Golden Teeth

The case of Lollia Paulina is commonly referred to as the first use of forensic dentistry to identify a body. Some even claim it’s the first use of forensic science in general. Either way, human teeth played a big role in its resolution. The short version is this:

Roman noblewoman Agrippina the Younger sought to marry the emperor Claudius but had a rival in fellow noble Lollia Paulina. Agrippina won their contest and married the emperor but was not forgiving of Lollia. Agrippina had Lollia accused of sorcery, convicted, exiled, her property seized, and even ordered Lollia to commit suicide. As proof of the suicide, a guard brought Lollia’s severed head back to Agrippina, but its features had been distorted and marred by the death, dismemberment, and travel. To identify the body, Agrippina was forced to rely on forensic dentistry. She knew Lollia had previously had her rotten teeth partially replaced with gold. Agrippina’s suspicions were confirmed by opening the head’s mouth. This act is the alleged first use of teeth to identify a body.

9 Reverend George Burroughs

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 are a dark and twisted reflection of early American justice. Similarly, they include a dark and twisted use of teeth in criminal prosecution. Among many other innocents, Reverend George Burroughs was accused of witchcraft and cavorting with the devil. His accusers, in reality just personal enemies with grudges, brought forth many pieces of alleged evidence against Burroughs.

One was a bite mark on a young victim that he was said to have made in a fiendish attack. His teeth were compared against the victim’s arm visually, and this was enough to have Burroughs convicted and hanged. He would later be posthumously exonerated, but his trial marked the first time in the (eventual) U.S. that bite evidence was used to help ‘solve’ a case.

8 Jesse Timmendequas and Megan’s Law

Today, every state in the U.S. benefits from Megan’s Law (which is one federal law and many state laws), making sex offender information, including names, faces, and addresses, available to the public. As its name implies, the law stems back to one case involving a young girl named Megan Kanka.

Megan was raped and murdered by her neighbor, a man named Jesse Timmendequas. Luckily, Timmendequas was caught and put on trial. One of the key pieces of evidence that helped convict him (and there were many) was a bite mark that Megan had left on Timmendequas’s hand as she bravely fought back. Again, teeth played a role in creating our modern system of child protection legislation.

7 Thomas Maupin’s Dentures

In 2001, a young woman (left anonymous) was walking down an empty stretch of road in Memphis, Tennessee, when she was assaulted. An unknown man stabbed her, raped her, and fled. Luckily, the woman survived, reported the crime, and the police collected evidence at the scene. Sadly, the man went unidentified.

That is, until ten years later. One strange piece of evidence collected at the scene was a pair of dentures. For whatever reason, they had initially been overlooked, but when reexamined all those years later, it turns out that they belonged to the attacker. The attacker had written his name inside the dentures. This allowed police to find the attacker, Thomas Maupin, and convict him of his crime. Though it took frustratingly long, at least the (fake) teeth came through.

6 Fredrik Fasting Torgersen

The case of Norwegian man Fredrik Fasting Torgersen is one of the more controversial cases in modern history. It serves as a stark reminder that bite mark analysis can sometimes be a flawed and misleading piece of evidence.

Torgersen was convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl in 1958, despite very little evidence that linked him to the victim, established motive, or placed him at the crime scene. Perhaps the single biggest piece of evidence for the defense was from a so-called expert witness who claimed that a bite mark found on the breast of the victim “with full certainty pointed to Torgersen as the murderer.”

The bite mark, and the use of bite marks in general, has been called into question in the years since. Torgersen was sentenced to life in prison based on almost nothing but a possibly inconclusive bite mark. Luckily, he was released after 16 years. Still, many members of the Norwegian community, including several high-profile scientists and lawyers, have protested the case’s apparent miscarriage of justice in the 60 years since.

5 Bundy’s Big Bite

Ted Bundy, the charismatic killer, is one of the most famous serial killers in history. Bundy confessed to murdering 30 people during the 1970s. He also admitted to kidnapping and raping many more victims. Bundy was clever and left little evidence behind for investigators to use against him.

The case against Bundy took years to build, and his trial took years more. Although we’ve already discussed the relative inconclusiveness of bite mark analysis, it proved crucial in helping to put Bundy away. During one of Bundy’s more daring sprees, he attacked several sorority members, leaving a deep bite on the left buttock of one of the women. Forensic odontologists Richard Souviron and Lowell Levine made casts of Bundy’s teeth and matched them to the victim’s bite mark, helping seal the case against the monstrous Bundy and end his reign of terror.

4 Sharon Carr’s Cheetos Teeth

In early 2001, a woman called 911 when she heard the sounds of an intruder in her house. The woman was alone with her two kids and worried for their safety. After the intruder spent some time in the home, they noticed that it was occupied and fled through an open window. When police arrived, they confirmed that the intruder was gone, though they had left behind evidence.

Evidence included a water bottle and an empty bag of Cheetos. Police believe the intruder left the items behind as they fled through the window. While searching the property, police found the intruder, Sharon Carr, hiding in nearby bushes. Police were able to confirm Carr was the intruder because of the fresh Cheetos dust covering her teeth. Another win for tooth-based evidence. A small, weird win, but a win nonetheless.

3 Ray Krone Overturned

The 1992 conviction of Ray Krone for murder and subsequent labeling as the Snaggletooth Killer is one of the most famous examples of mishandling of evidence, wrongful conviction, and unreliability of bite mark analysis as evidence.

Like Fredrik Fasting Torgersen, there was little evidence against Krone, aside from an expert witness who claimed that Krone’s bite pattern matched bites found on the victim’s body. Unlike Torgersen, Krone was at least lucky enough to be exonerated through DNA evidence, which also identified the real killer: a repeat sexual offender named Kenneth Phillips. Krone has since worked with the Innocence Project and campaigned against the death penalty, in part because newly available DNA evidence is necessary to rule out potentially incorrect convictions, just as it did for him.

2 John Wayne Gacy

Like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy is one of the most famous serial killers in history, remembered for both the brutality and scope of his crimes, as well as the clown persona he adopted, which altogether earned him the moniker of Killer Clown. Gacy killed at least 33 young men, many of them raped and tortured.

The trouble was in finding the bodies of Gacy’s many victims and then positively identifying them. Police recovered twenty-six victims from the crawlspace of Gacy’s home. Dental records provided twenty-three of their identities. In the many years since multiple other victims of Gacy’s have been found, most in the Des Plaines River, and many of them have been identified via dental DNA.

1 Josef Mengele Identified

Josef Mengele is one of the evilest human beings in history. Thanks to his teeth, we can rest assured of his death. As a high-ranking officer of the Nazi SS, Mengele led a program of inhumane medical experimentation on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp, earning him the nickname the Angel of Death. When it became clear that he, alongside his fellow Nazis and allied fascists, had lost the war they had begun, Mengele fled to Argentina to begin a new life in hiding.

He continued his life on the run, fleeing to Paraguay, then Brazil, always assuming new identities, until 1979, when he suffered a stroke while swimming and drowned. After decades of searching for the missing monster, Mengele was finally found, though only as a corpse under a different name. It was up to Brazilian and American dentists to prove his true identity. Comparing x-rays taken of the corpse’s skull to those taken by a Brazilian dentist who had treated Mengele in the years before his death, American dental scientist Lowell J. Levine was able to say that the remains “may now be identified as Josef Mengele with an absolute certainty.” Teeth were what finally proved the Angel of Death was no more.

One does not have to be a great person to do great things. Some of the most famous things in the world got their start by people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some of these people were the victims of crimes. Others instigated the wrongdoings. Either way, once the troubled settled, the following 10 people went on to shape the world.

Top 10 Secrets Of Iconic Hollywood Sounds

10 The Travels of Marco Polo

Physically confined, Marco Polo’s only freedom was in his mind. He could recall plenty of adventures. In 1269, Polo traveled across Asia. Twenty-four years later, he finally returned to his native Venice. Before he arrived, Venice declared war on neighboring Genoa. Barred from entering the city, Polo and his crew assaulted Geneon authorities.

In prison for the attack Marco Polo passed the time by telling his cellmate, Rustichello of Pisa, of his exploits in China. Rustichello wrote down the tales that eventually became the travelogue, “The Travels of Marco Polo.” To entertain themselves, Polo and Rustichello made some facts up. A bestseller immediately upon release, audiences were exposed to Asian cultural norms for the first time, like paper money and pasta. Additionally, the learned of mysterious lands inhabited by cannibals, unicorns, and people with dog shaped heads.

Polo’s detailed account of Kubla Khan’s stately pleasure-dome have inspired people for centuries, even outside of pool party attendees,. Artists, like the equally talented Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Olivia Newton John, based works on Polo’s exploits. Christopher Columbus’ heavily dogeared copy was a motivating factor for his historic 1492 voyage.^[1]

9 Mars Candies

By most measures, Frank Mars was a failure. Forrest Mars was a success. Yet, Frank was the one bailing his son out of jail that night in Chicago.

Frank did not live a life as sweet as the candy that eventually bore his name. He got into chocolatiering out of necessity. Immobile due to childhood polio, Frank made deserts with his mother. That early interest in confectionary arts fostered a lifelong passion for candy. In the early 1900’s, he strained his marriage to Ethel Kissack by marketing the candy Mar-O-Bar. The struggling entrepreneur lost two businesses and a marriage. Divorcee Ethel moved her and their son, Forrest, to Canada.

Forrest Mars, contrarily, was a too zealous salesman. After studying business at Berkeley and Yale, he made thousands advertising for Camel cigarettes. One assignment was to guerilla market in Chicago. Forrest went overboard and plastered ads on light posts around town. The police arrested him for vandalism.

With his last remaining four hundred dollars, Frank bailed out his estranged son. The encounter rekindled their relationship. While drinking milk shakes, Forrest suggested his father add malt to his chocolate. Named after the cream used in nougat, the candy bar was dubbed “Milky Way.” Milky Way was the first in a constellation of notable candy bars produced by the company. Mars additionally makes Three Musketeers, Snickers, and M&M’s.^[2]

8 Griffith Observatory

Griffith J. Griffith, the man so nice they named him twice. However, not nice enough that he did not try to kill his wife.

The oilman turned benefactor gifted generations of Angelenos acres of open space in his namesake Griffith Park. His good will abruptly ended in 1903. While vacationing in Santa Monica, Griffith told his wife, Mary Agnes Christina Mesmer, “get your prayer book and kneel down…. I’m going to shoot you.” This was no idle threat. Paranoid from alcoholic delusions convinced Griffith his wife had conspired with the Pope to poison him. Miraculously, Mesmer survived a gunshot to the eye at point-blank range. Fleeing her abusive husband, she leapt from the third-story window. An awning underneath conveniently broke her fall. She crawled to safety through the broken glass of a nearby window. Mesmer clung to life. Griffith went back to drinking.

Claiming “alcoholic insanity,” Griffith’s charges were reduced to assault with a deadly weapon. He spent two years in prison. To rebuild his reputation, Griffith tried to donate more landmarks to Los Angeles. The city initially rejected his 1912 offer of $100,000 to construct Griffith observatory. Upon his death in 1919, Griffith willed the city the necessary funds.

Despite initial reluctance, Hollywood has certainly embraced the observatory since its 1935 inception. A complete list of movies and TV shows that have incorporated the building in some capacity would take forever to recount. Notable appearances include the location where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator first arrives, the entrance to Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and the levitation scene in La La Land. No movie cemented the Observatory in popular consciousness more than Rebel Without a Cause, where multiple crucial plot points took place.^[3]

7 The Periodic Table of Elements

There’s a reason his title was King Augustus the Strong, and not Augustus the Smart. In 1701, the Polish monarch was tricked by small time con-artist Johann Friedrich Böttger. Böttger signature trick as a magician was pulling out two silver coins, which then disappeared and reappeared as a single gold piece. Augustus the Strong took this as proof that Böttger had mastered the art of alchemy. To preserve the scientific breakthrough, Augustus jailed the magician until he revealed his secrets.

Of course, Böttger was caught in a lie. Angered that he was bamboozled, Augustus the Strong threatened to execute Böttger. To spare his life, Böttger made up a new lie. European leaders had long wanted to end China’s monopoly on porcelain. Böttger claimed he knew how to make it. Luckily for Böttger, he teamed up with Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus, one of the few European scientists researching porcelain. Walter von Tschirnhaus pioneered a special oven that could melt porcelain down. The duo discovered it was comprised of kaolin clay and feldspar rock. Instead of securing his freedom, Böttger’s insight was so valuable he was placed under even stricter security.

The ability to manufacture porcelain immediately reshaped the European and Chinese trade balance. However, the true consequences of the demand became evident only decades later. Feldspar mines opened around the continent. One of them, Sweden’s Ytterby mine, had unique geologic deposits that produced distinct pigments, a sure sign of lanthanides.

Samples chemist Johan Gadolin isolated seven elements from Ytterby now bearing the name of the Swedish village. The unearthed elements filled key missing gaps Dmitri Mendeleev needed to finalize the periodic table.^[4]

6 Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Auntie Anne’s history is as twisted as their trademark pretzels. The mall food court staple was established to offer financial and spiritual support following heartbreak. The titular Anne was the Amish born Anne Beiler. In her mid-20’s, Beiler’s infant daughter, Angela, died in a farm accident. In 1975, a runaway tractor struck the 19-month old. Both parents were thrown into a deep depression. Their marriage dissolved and Anne openly contemplated suicide.

She thought she could find relief in the advice of a local pastor. He actually made her problems much worse. Instead of counseling Anne, the pastor began an abusive six-year coercive relationship with her that was marred by violence and rape. Multiple women in the area, including Beiler’s sisters, reported he had raped them too. Beiler spearheaded successful efforts to expel him from the community.

Beiler’s husband, Jonas, realized he should build a support network to help traumatized woman get psychological help. In 1988, to supplement their income while Jonas ran his free clinic, Anne opened a concession stand. Initially offering a variety of products, the public soon turned their soft pretzels into a nationwide hit.^[5]

10 Beloved Pop Culture Icons With Hateful Histories

5 Hip Hop

A literal divine spark formed Hip Hop. Record setting heatwaves, routinely above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, cooked New York City in a crucible. Blasting air conditioners strained the electrical grid. When two lightning strikes flooded the system on July 13, 1977, the surge was too strong. The city was plunged into darkness.

The numbers from the ensuing chaos are absurd. For 25 hours, the city was thrown into a blackout. It was quickly illuminated by rioters’ flames. Arsonist set 1,037 fires that night. In total, $300 million was lost in damages. 3,776 people were taken into custody in the largest mass arrest in the city’s history.

Groundbreaking musician DJ Grandmaster Caz contends that the subsequent looting was the driving force behind early hip hop mass adoption. A new crop of DJs got their hands on expensive sound equipment that they otherwise could not afford. Dozens of poorer potential rappers first experimented on stolen mixers. Stereo systems were in such demand that night that DJ Disco Wiz and his partner Grandmaster Caz pulled guns on people trying to rob them. Crazy Eddie’s electronics chain stationed eight men on the roof to shoot at any potential thieves. The blackout did not create the genre. Kool Herc had already hosted his legendary block parties prior to the power failure. It merely exploded it. The resulting bounty democratized the sound throughout all five burroughs and eventually, the world.^[6]

4 The MPAA Ratings

William Desmond Taylor’s salacious life is prime for a movie. It would definitely be rated R. On February 1, 1922, blood spewed from one of Hollywood’s most famous directors’ corpse. All police knew for certain was that Taylor was murdered. Nothing else about the case made sense.

Witnesses gave conflicting reports. Some saw a man leave after hearing an explosion. Others claimed actress and, Taylor’s girlfriend Mabel Norman, fled the scene. Taylor had tried to get Norman to quit her cocaine use. Theorists speculate drug runners retaliated against Taylor for costing them a prime customer. Another suspect, Charlotte Shelby, was reportedly angered over 49-year-old Taylor’s affair with her teenage daughter, Mary Miles Minter. The bullet found in Taylor’s neck was similar to ones Shelby owned. Complicating the case was the fact that Paramount studio head, Charles Leyton, planted a woman’s lingerie at the scene to hide Taylor’s bisexualty. However, the person with the most motive to kill Taylor did not even know he was alive.

Two days after the murder, Taylor’s secret life was exposed. Born William Cunningham Deanne-Tanner, Taylor had earlier married Ethel May Harrison. Not making enough prospecting in the Yukon, Taylor abandoned his wife and daughter. The first time Harrison saw her ex-husband since his October 23, 1908 disappearance was as a cameo in a 1919 movie. Just like Deanne-Tanner did in life, the person responsible for his murder vanished. No suspect was ever identified.

In the wake of actor-related scandals, Taylor’s murder finally forced movie studios to protect their image. The Hays Code was the first attempt to control morality. Adopted by the chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Will Hays, in 1930, almost every film in the Golden Age of Hollywood was impacted in some form. Classic movies like Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, or Night of the Hunter were significantly rewritten before production. By the 1960’s, active subversion made the program obsolete. It was subsequently replaced with the MPAA rating system.^[7]

3 The Tour De France

In the good old days, you could beat up the president and only spend two weeks in jail. If people in 1899 were as sensitive about assaulting world leaders as they are now, we never would have gotten the Tour De France.

The triggering event for Comte Jules-Albert de Dion’s very real crime of attacking President Emile Loubet was the fraudulent charges against Alfred Dreyfuss. The soldier was the victim of an anti-Jewish conspiracy. He was framed for treason after manufactured evidence alleged he sold German officers military secrets.

The controversial case deeply divided the French elite. Comte de Dion was convinced of Dreyfus’ guilt. The newly elected President Loubet was less assured Dreyfus was a spy. At Paris’ Auteuil Racetrack, a group of protestors ambushed President Loubet. One of them struck him with their cane. Comte de Dion battered a policeman with his cane until it broke in half. The press widely condemned the mob. Le Velo, one of France’s largest sports papers, personally criticized De Dion’s behavior. He retaliated by forming his own opposing paper, L’Auto-Velo. Because Le Velo was affiliated with bike races, De Dion wanted to make an even bigger cycling tournament. That spiteful venture eventually morphed into the Tour De France.^[8]

2 Superman

Jerry Siegel lost his hero, so he made a new one. In 1932, his father, Mitchell Siegel, was assaulted. A Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, Mitchell started a small secondhand clothing store. Around 8’oclock at night, three men attempted to rob the enterprise. They fired two shots at Mitchell. Luckily, both missed the shop owner, but it was still lethal. The fright caused by the shooting prompted a fatal heart attack.

One year later, Jerry Siegel sketched the first Superman adventure. It appropriately depicts the Man of Steel rescuing a shopkeeper from muggers. Other elements of the comic book character echo Siegel’s own tragic backstory. Both lost their father at a young age. The first power ever featured was invulnerability to bullets.

In a curious coincidence, a letter appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after Mitchell Siegel passed. The author of the letter rejected the newspaper’s call for vigilante justice. He wrote that the average person did not need a protector to enact justice. The letter was written by a man with the ironic name, L. Luther.^[9]

1 Kentucky Fried Chicken

Colonel Sanders is fictional. Harland Sanders was real. The genteel poultry magnate dressed in a bespoke white suit is a caricature, an abstraction. The actual Harland Sanders was a vengeful short-tempered man. The only thing the company got right is that he sure loved fried chicken.

Residents referred to North Corbin, Kentucky as “Hell’s Half-Acre.” Bootleggers ran the city through intimidation. One of the few legitimate operations was a Shell gas station where Sanders served food. Local rival, Matt Stewart, ran his own chain of restaurants. To get a leg up on the competition, Stewart painted his own slogan over Sanders’ billboards. Sanders could not tolerate such flagrant disrespect. Fittingly, Sanders was no chicken.

Gun-toting Sanders drove to confront Stewart. Two accompanying Shell officials, Robert Gibson and H.D. Shelburne, waited in the wings. Upon arrival, Stewart shot Gibson in the chest. Sanders picked a revolver off the dying man. Both he and Shelburne fired back. Shelburne’s shot hit Stewart’s thigh, Sander’s his shoulder. Both men were cleared off all charges. With his main adversary serving an 18-year sentence in prison, Sanders was free to invest in a stand-alone restaurant. Sanders’ name went on to become synonymous with one of the most successful companies in history. Not a breast-beater, Stewart never felt any guilt for killing Gibson. Gibson’s family responded by paying a deputy two years later to assassinate Stewart in jail.^[10]

10 Bizarre Foreign Versions Of American Fast Food

When Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off in court in 2022, it seemed like the world was watching. Live video feeds captured every second. Blogs and YouTube channels dissected each day’s proceedings. Viewers watched thousands of hours online. No one wanted to miss a salacious moment. However, trial journalism has a winding history that began ages before Johnny and Amber. In fact, today’s frenzied court coverage all links back to one case: the 1935 trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the man convicted of kidnapping Charles Lindbergh’s baby.

Media coverage was overwhelming in that trial. Journalists from hundreds of news outlets descended on the courthouse. Photographers climbed over tables, and flashbulbs exploded in witnesses’ faces during testimony. The coverage was so intense that the American Bar Association banned cameras from courtrooms. For four decades, the ban mostly stayed in place. But as time passed, judges slowly began to re-grant access. In 1991, federal courts started allowing cameras in civil trials. Months later, Court TV was formed and immediately began wall-to-wall coverage.

Today, almost every state allows cameras in court with varying rules. Ever since, television viewers have flocked to watch real-life courtroom drama. And here are ten of the most-followed TV trials ever.

Related: Top 10 People Found Guilty At Trial Due To Surprise Evidence

10 Ted Bundy

Serial killer Ted Bundy’s 1979 trial was the first one televised nationwide. A month before he took the stand to face murder accusations in Tallahassee, the Florida Supreme Court decided to allow journalists to film trials in the state. So when Bundy went on the stand, the courtroom was filled with more than 250 reporters from across the world.

The murderer was handsome and charismatic, and news agencies couldn’t get enough.

Bundy’s outward charm may have hidden his horrific and murderous desires, but it also made for great TV. Shocked at the scene inside his courtroom, Judge Edward Cowart likened the cameras to “a space center.” Bundy was eventually found guilty of the two murders with which he was charged and later sentenced to death. Along the way, millions of people tuned in to watch the case. Today, experts point to Bundy’s public spectacle as the birth of salacious true crime news coverage.^[1]

9 The Menendez Brothers

Lyle and Erik Menendez were attractive, athletic, and rich. So when they were accused of murdering their parents in 1989, the brothers quickly rose to infamy. Detectives said the pair shot their wealthy parents and then spent their money before being arrested. The boys countered with claims that they had been victims of sexual abuse. The story resembled a soap opera, and television producers pounced.

When the case first went to trial in 1993, Court TV cameras showed it all. Jurors were deadlocked during deliberations, and the judge declared a mistrial. Both sides prepared for a second showdown. Court TV was happy to air that one, too, after the network gained three million subscribers during the first trial. The public was so invested in the spectacle that the LA District Attorney’s Office was getting dozens of calls every day from viewers with ideas on how to prosecute the brothers.

By the time Lyle and Erik were convicted at the second trial in 1996, millions of people followed along. Court TV’s ratings win encouraged other networks to air trial content. Fortunately for producers, the perfect case was right there for the airing…^[2]

8 O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson had it all: The former college football sensation and pro football star was a successful actor with a big bank account and a beautiful family. So when he was accused of murdering his ex-wife in 1994, his fall from grace shocked the world. His bizarre slow-speed police pursuit was broadcast live on TV and set the tone for the public’s fascination. When he went on trial in 1995, attention quickly trumped the Menendez case, and Simpson became the biggest media spectacle ever.

When the jury declared him not guilty of murder, more than 150 million Americans—almost 60% of the country—watched on TV. Telecom companies nationwide recorded a 50% drop in phone use during the verdict. Water companies saw usage decline as viewers delayed bathroom breaks to watch. After the trial ended, CNN and Court TV saw viewer declines for non-O.J. content.

Concern over the fall in ratings pushed news outlets to cover more trials. O.J.’s public interest never waned. Two decades later, nearly 14 million people watched the ex-football star’s parole hearing following a nine-year prison sentence for armed robbery.^[3]

7 Adolf Eichmann

While Ted Bundy’s 1979 murder rap kicked off the true crime craze in America, it wasn’t the world’s first televised trial. That dark distinction belongs to war criminal Adolf Eichmann. In his military life, Eichmann was responsible for transporting millions of Jews to Holocaust death camps during World War II. After the war, he escaped to Argentina and went into hiding. Fleeing kept him from consequences at the Nuremberg Trials after the war. Eichmann’s luck didn’t last forever, though.

In 1960, Israeli special agents tracked him down in South America. A year later, he went on trial for war crimes related to the genocide. Israeli courts allowed the entire trial to be televised, becoming the world’s first courtroom TV event. Millions of people tuned in to watch the shocking testimony of Holocaust survivors. The broadcast proved extremely significant: it was the first time much of the world learned about what happened in the concentration camps. Eichmann was found guilty of war crimes and executed by hanging in 1962.^[4]

6 William Kennedy Smith

William Kennedy Smith was a medical student in 1991 when he visited Florida with his uncle. At a bar one night, he met a woman named Patricia Bowman. The two went back to William’s place. Once there, something went wrong, and Bowman accused him of assault and rape. Smith wasn’t just any medical student, though. He was John F. Kennedy’s nephew. And the uncle with whom he’d been traveling was Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. So when Smith went on trial later that year, Court TV was ready.

The network covered every moment of the trial and saw its ratings surge. Every night, non-24-hour entertainment news shows like Inside Edition aired key moments from the testimony. Media interest was so intense that tabloid shows took unethical steps for access. One prosecution witness admitted she was paid $40,000 to take part in two TV interviews on A Current Affair.

As for Smith, he was acquitted of the charges against him. Journalists offered the acquittal as a victory for having television cameras in court since the coverage allowed millions of Americans to see the justice system at work.^[5]

5 Jeffrey Dahmer

Like Ted Bundy more than a decade earlier, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer drew a macabre following once his crimes came to light. When Dahmer was charged with 15 murders and ordered to stand trial in 1992, 24-hour news channels were relatively new. When looking to fill time around the clock, networks jumped at the opportunity to cover Dahmer’s shocking exploits. In Milwaukee, where many of his murders took place, interest was particularly high.

But Dahmer’s violent acts proved a bit too disturbing even for tabloid TV coverage. Court TV aired the trial on a 20-second delay as producers rushed to edit out grisly testimony about the victims’ remains. Other networks weren’t able to sanitize their footage as quickly. The disgusting content didn’t damage viewership, though. When the jury’s guilty verdict came back, more than 60 news organizations aired it around the world. Dahmer was sentenced to 957 years in prison for the murders. Two years later, he was killed by another inmate.^[6]

4 Rodney King

The 1992 trial of four Los Angeles police officers over the brutal beating of Rodney King didn’t garner as much of a worldwide following as some on this list. But no trial in American history has had as violent an aftermath as this one. It started in 1991 when King was attacked by several LAPD officers after a pursuit. A witness secretly recorded a video of the beating. When it aired on news networks, people nationwide were outraged over King’s treatment at the hands of the cops.

Four officers were ultimately charged with assault and excessive use of force. Tensions were so high that their 1992 trial had to be moved to nearby Ventura County. Courtroom coverage proved lucrative for networks, with viewers in southern California especially interested. That was nothing compared to what happened after the verdict, though.

When the officers were acquitted of the assault charges, frustrated Angelenos erupted. Five days of rioting throughout the city resulted in more than $1 billion in property damage, 63 deaths, and more than 2,300 injuries. With the horrified nation looking on, President George H.W. Bush had to send in the National Guard to restore order.^[7]

3 Casey Anthony

It’s impossible to hear Casey Anthony’s name without thinking of Nancy Grace. A former prosecutor, Grace was a popular TV commentator on HLN when Casey’s two-year-old daughter Caylee was found dead in Florida in December 2008. On her primetime show, Grace seized on the case. She famously called Casey “Tot Mom” on air and obsessively analyzed evidence. The TV host slammed Casey for allegedly misleading police about Caylee’s last-known whereabouts. After pictures of the mom partying after her daughter’s death were uncovered, Grace erupted.

As Casey’s trial began in 2011, HLN went into overdrive. Grace’s fanatical coverage paid off for the network. HLN viewership nearly doubled during the six-week trial. On the day of the verdict, 5.2 million people tuned in live—the channel’s highest ratings ever. When the jury unexpectedly announced Casey’s acquittal, audiences watched as Grace memorably fumed, “the devil is dancing tonight,” and “Caylee’s death has gone unavenged!”^[8]

8 Jodi Arias

Police suspected Jodi Arias of murder after her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander was brutally stabbed to death in 2008. It took more than five years for the legal process to run its course, though. During that time, sordid details about the former couple’s life made it one of the first true crime stories to go viral online. The case was complicated, and Arias’s first two trials ended in hung juries. She eventually admitted to killing Alexander but claimed it had been in self-defense.

In court, prosecutors presented evidence that Arias took pictures of her ex as he was bleeding to death. Just as she did with Casey Anthony, Nancy Grace hammered home shocking details about Arias’s love life and mindset for the entire 19-week trial. HLN’s viewership skyrocketed on the day Arias was sentenced to life in prison following a guilty verdict in May 2013. Her lawyers were shocked by the “circus-like atmosphere” of the television coverage at the trial. They filed an appeal, arguing the court failed to protect their client from the relentless media coverage. Thus far, her conviction has been upheld.^[9]

1 Lindsay Lohan

Former child star Lindsay Lohan’s 2010 trial didn’t cover the same level of crime as the rest on this list. In her case, the Parent Trap star was called in front of a judge after two drunk driving arrests and multiple probation violations. But the Hollywood star was an emotional wreck in court. Viewers watched as Lohan sobbed uncontrollably while addressing the judge. The media frenzy increased after cameras picked up a profane message subtly painted on her fingernails.

In the end, Lohan’s sentence was relatively minor. The judge ordered her to spend 90 days in jail and another 90 days in rehab. Her story drew a new kind of attention, though: TMZ streamed the July 2010 verdict live online and drew nearly 2.5 million website hits. With that threshold crossed, online virality quickly began to usurp must-see TV. But no matter the broadcast technology, the public’s interest in scandal has never slowed. From Hauptmann to Heard, viewers are as interested in high-pressure trials today as they’ve ever been.^[10]

Think gangsters are godless? Think again! Whether to ease a troubled conscience, secure a place in heaven, or guard against one’s rivals and police, patron saints and deities are common in crime. Some are borrowed from mainstream religions, history, or folklore, while others are entirely new. They also range from good to evil, or at least to darkly amoral. Here are the world’s top ten – from the least to the most fear-inducing. 

10. Nino de Atocha

The Holy Infant of Atocha, a Spanish baby saint, is traditionally depicted with a basket of bread to feed convicts. As the patron saint of prisoners, he’s popular with drug traffickers such as Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellín cartel, who had altars in safe houses and visited a shrine while in Spain. El Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzman also pays tribute; he was wearing an amulet of the saint when he was arrested in 2019.

The Holy Infant is especially popular with hauchicoleros (gasoline thieves) in Mexico. Hence he’s often depicted holding not a basket but a gas can. In this guise he bears the name Santo Nino Huachicolero. 

According to the Catholic Church, gangsters use images of the saint (or pseudo-saint really) to gain the support of the public. But in this case it’s probably the half-price gas that ultimately wins them over.

9. Saint Jude

As one of the Twelve Apostles, Saint Jude is the only “narco saint” recognized by the Catholic Church. He’s also known as San Judas Tadeo (Saint Jude Thaddeus). Traditionally he’s the last choice to pray to for help, just in case prayers to Jude get to Judas Iscariot instead, the apostle who betrayed Jesus Christ.

Being the last resort in the way, he’s the patron of hopeless lost causes – first choice for criminals, prisoners, “youth on the edge”, and fugitive drug lords like Benjamin Arellano Felix. In fact, so popular is Saint Jude with the criminal underworld that police stake out his center of worship, the San Hipolito church in central Mexico City. Once a month, thousands of devotees, including some of the best known gangsters, descend on the church and the boulevards around it, giving undercover cops with long distance lenses the chance to update their photos.

The saint, who wears a green robe with a flame on his head, is credited with all sorts of “miracles”, including keeping fugitives, thieves, and drug runners out of jail. According to the priest at San Hipolito, however, criminals misunderstand. “The saints will not help you to do bad things or carry out illegal activities,” he told Vice in 2016. On the contrary, Saint Jude is also popular with police.

8. Amaterasu

Sun goddess Amaterasu is the principal deity of Japanese mythology – daughter of the creators Izanami and Izanagi. Ruling over the Takama no Hara (“High Celestial Plain”), Amaterasu (whose name means “shining in Heaven”), is chief of the kami, or spirits, and worshiped throughout Japan. She’s also revered by the yakuza, who honor her with rituals of worship, as well as the initiation of new members. In one famous legend, Amaterasu retreats from the world to a cave, bringing disasters to heaven and earth.

Different specializations of the yakuza may worship other patron deities. For example, one of the two main branches, tekiya (merchants, originally of medicines), honors Shinno the god of medicine, while the other main branch, bakuto (gamblers), honors Hachiman the god of war. All yakuza, however, honor Amaterasu and the Emperor of Japan.

An important ritual in which she features is the Sakazuki, or “Cup Exchange”. Held in strict secrecy at a time and place not revealed to participants until moments before, the ceremony centers on an altar beneath three scrolls – each representing a god. Amaterasu is on the right, the Emperor on the left and Shinno in the middle.

7. Jesus Malverde

In Mexico, Jesús Malverde is the mythical hero of the poor and downtrodden. He’s basically the Mexican Robin Hood, complete with thick black mustache and neckerchief. Mal verde in Spanish means “bad green”, a name the folkloric bandit earned hiding in shrubs wearing green camouflage to jump out and rob passers-by. Typically, his victims would be wealthy and the spoils would be shared among the poor. Hence Malverde’s other names, the Generous Bandit and the Angel of the Poor.

He’s also thought to have been a real person, at least by those who revere him. According to legend, Malverde’s real name was Jesús Juarez Mazo. Said to have lived between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was (allegedly) hanged by the government on May 3, 1909.

Today, he belongs to a tradition of “narco saints”, prayed to by drug traffickers like El Chapo who see in Malverde an image of themselves – especially in his home state of Sinaloa. There, a roadside shrine to the saint has become a popular place of worship. His image appears throughout Mexico, though, on figurines, candles, key chains, t-shirts, and so on.

6. Guan Yu

The legendary general Guan Yu was a real historical figure, a loyal duke of the warlord Liu Bei. He’s also a character in the Chinese literary classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Also known as Guan Gong and Emperor Guan, he’s become an important deity in Hong Kong with shrines all over the city. He even features in Hong Kong popular culture, including the Young and Dangerous film series.

Statues of Guan Yu typically show him with a halberd in his right hand. But if you see one with the halberd in his left, it may belong to a triad–at least according to rumor.

While Guan Yu is worshiped by all sorts of people, from businessmen and policemen to simple private citizens, triads revere him as the embodiment of their most cherished values: humanity; honesty; obedience; wisdom; loyalty; and faith. He’s also a reminder of their strict moral code.

5. Saint Michael

Mafiosi are known for displays of religious devotion, with altars often found at their hideouts. The Catholic Church, however, to which this devotion is directed, has remained largely silent on the issue. Only recently have popes openly condemned mafiosi. Pope John Paul II was the first, to which they responded by bombing several churches. Then, in 2014, Pope Francis officially excommunicated associates of the mafia for occupational “adoration of evil.” But it hasn’t stopped them.

The ‘Ndrangheta mafia of Calabria, for instance, has two patron saints: the sword-wielding archangel Saint Michael and the maternal Madonna di Polsi (“Our Lady of Polsi”, commemorating a local apparition of the Virgin Mary). ‘Ndrangheta leaders from all over Italy and the world actually used to gather at the Madonna’s famous sanctuary in Calabria.

Although different ranks in the ‘Ndrangheta’s complex hierarchical structure are each associated with a different saint, it’s to Saint Michael and the Madonna that members swear allegiance. The initiation ritual, or “baptism”, involves cutting a finger and dropping blood on a prayer card of Saint Michael or the Madonna, which is then burned and the ashes applied to the cut. Hence in 2007 when a bitter blood feud culminated in the murder of six young people outside a restaurant, investigators found prayer cards and a statue of Saint Michael, as well as images of “Our Lady” in the back.

4. Maximon

Seeing some depictions of Maximón, aka San Simón, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was Jesús Malverde; he often has the same mustachio’d “cowboy-cum-gangster aesthetic”. But this wish-granting saint is a Mayan god, belief in whom dates back to pre-conquest Guatemala. He’s also a bit of a trickster; in one legend, fishermen asked him to keep their wives faithful and Maximón slept with each one.

Although Maximón’s devotees are mostly Catholic (hence his association with San [Saint] Simón), the Church tends to see him as the devil and worship of him as witchcraft. It’s easy to see why. In one prayer for protection, he’s conjured “in the name of Satan, Luzbel, and Lucifer.”

His priests are chain-smoking drunks, often practicing in private homes surrounded by bottles of Quetzalteca rum. But there’s also the Temple of San Símon at San Andres Itzapa, a town in the Guatemalan highlands. This is Maximón’s mecca, a blue and white temple shrouded in incense. Pilgrims come from all over Central America to pour rum on Maximón’s effigy and tobacco on its lap before praying for some tangible help – a new house, perhaps, or protection from jail. Alternatively, they might ask the witches outside to place a curse on their enemies.

3. Bawon Samdi

In Haitian Vodou, Bawon Samdi (aka Baron Samedi) is in charge of the largest family of lwa (spirits), the Gede, who represent death and fertility. He therefore has unparalleled knowledge of the land of the dead. Whenever he leaves for the land of the living, he wears dark colored glasses that allow him to keep an eye on that realm. He’s also depicted wearing purple and black top hat and tails and carrying a long, black, skull-handled cane.

Bawon is a trickster god, ridiculing the living with his careless and offensive behavior. He smokes heavily, swears, is “lewd and licentious”, likes to eat black goats and roosters, and drinks intoxicants such as black coffee, vodka, and gin. He also srinks kleren, a type of rum he makes himself with 21 hot peppers and which no other lwa can handle. Worship traditionally takes place from October 31st until November 2nd. This is Haiti’s Festival of the Dead or Fet Gede, during which death and sexuality are celebrated with songs, drumming, dancing, prayers, and possessions by the lwa. Bawon Samdi and his wife Granny Brijit are the guests of honor.

It’s easy to see why Bawon appeals to criminals. In 2021, Wilson Joseph – leader of the 400 Mawozo gang) – actually dressed up as him, invoking the spirit to threaten politicians and police in a publicly recorded video. Haitian dictator François Duvalier also channeled Bawon Samdi. Like many gods, he appears in various guises, one of which is even more crime-specific: Baron Kriminel, the “Saint of all Criminals”, is called upon to intervene in worldly criminal justice. It’s said that when he appears, he forces people to question what’s truly right and wrong – beyond the law – and who is truly innocent.

2. Korofo

The Nigerian gang Black Axe, notorious for its email scams, is more vicious than many people realize. In addition to sharing templates (or “formats”) for scams on secret message boards, members (known as Axemen) share photos of their mutilated victims. They call these unfortunates mugu or maye, meaning “idiots.”

At home, Black Axe is seen as a cult. Not only does it selectively recruit young men with few legitimate prospects, it also has an occult-style initiation ritual featuring savage beatings, symbolic rebirth, and an oath of loyalty to the gang. This is where Korofo comes in, invoked in words like “may Korofo squeeze life out of you if you ever betray the movement” – the “movement” being the Neo-Black Movement (NBM) from which Black Axe emerged.

Often abbreviated to “Krf” or “Kf” online, Korofo is fairly nondescript for a god. It’s not clear what he looks like or even what he does, aside from snuffing out life – possibly because he’s only a few decades old. He, or rather it, appears to have been mistakenly deified in the 80s. According to the NBM’s own research, Korofo wasn’t originally a god at all but an aja ile (“underground cult”). The traditional Yoruba incantation that mentions his name says: “Korofo is the one which consulted the oracle about Olodumare [God] and declared that it’s death would never be held of.” Black Axe simply substituted its own name for Olodumare’s, henceforth venerating Korofo as protector.

1. Santa Muerte

Unlike the other “narco saints”, Santa Muerte is not thought to have been a real person. In fact, she’s the embodiment of death. Also known as Holy Death, she’s portrayed as a skeleton in a white gown, carrying a scythe and globe – “a cross between the Grim Reaper and the Virgin of Guadalupe”. Her devotees aren’t all criminals, but criminals tend to be devotees – appeasing her with offerings of tequila, cigarettes, cash, jewelry, and corpses. Although she’s often worshiped side-by-side with Malverde, only to her are human lives offered. One common practice among Mexican gangsters is to leave severed heads at her shrines. They also pray to her before undertaking hit jobs.

And the cult of Santa Muerte has been spreading. Authorities in the US have recorded a number of Santa Muerte killings, as well as bumper stickers, tattoos, altars, and cash bands adorned with images of the saint. In Las Vegas, there’s a whole sanctuary complete with life-sized effigies. 

Since 2000, when her popularity took off, Santa Muerte has accrued upwards of 12 million followers. This makes the cult one of the fastest growing new religions in the world. And while the Catholic Church has officially condemned her worship, calling it “blasphemous and satanic”, they’re reluctant to deal with it further – probably out of concern that many prefer her to the pope and would rather leave the Church than Santa Muerte.