Unforgotten Casebook — One case. Every angle. One place.One case. Every angle. One place.
Explore books, movies, podcasts, news coverage, and court records—organized by true crime case and real-life story, together in one place.
Explore the case libraryTHE CASE LIBRARY
9 of 236 cases
More media formats first · Book-only cases last in each section
U.S. cases, plus the Bernardo–Homolka case in Canada.
1972–1978
John Wayne Gacy murdered 33 boys and young men in Illinois. The disappearance of Robert Piest in 1978 led investigators to Gacy’s home, where many victims had been buried beneath the house. His respectable public persona contrasted with the crimes uncovered during the search.
1890s
H. H. Holmes used fraud and deception while committing murders in the 1890s, including the killing of Benjamin Pitezel. Investigators also traced the deaths of Pitezel’s children to him. Sensational stories about a Chicago “murder castle” often mix documented crimes with disputed or exaggerated claims.
1966
Richard Speck attacked a Chicago townhouse occupied by student nurses in 1966, killing eight women. Corazon Amurao survived by hiding beneath a bed and later identified him. Her testimony and the investigation brought the case to trial and national attention.
2004–2007
Kathleen Savio’s 2004 bathtub death was initially treated as an accident. Investigators reexamined it after Stacy Peterson, the next wife of former officer Drew Peterson, disappeared in 2007. Drew was convicted of Kathleen’s murder; Stacy’s disappearance is a separate, unresolved case.
1986–1989
Paula Sims reported that masked kidnappers had taken two of her infant daughters in separate incidents in 1986 and 1989. Both children were found dead. The investigation led to her conviction in Heather’s death and later admissions concerning both daughters.
2009
Sheri Coleman and her sons Garett and Gavin were strangled in their Illinois home in 2009. Her husband Chris, a ministry security employee, had reported threatening messages. Investigators concluded the threats were staged, and he was convicted of all three murders.
1988
Laurie Dann entered an elementary school in Winnetka, Illinois, in 1988 and opened fire, killing eight-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounding other children. The shooting was part of a day of violence that also involved fires and poisoned food. Dann later died by suicide, leaving investigators and families to reconstruct the warning signs and attacks.
1917–1938
Young women painting luminous watch and instrument dials ingested radium while following workplace instructions. Severe illness led workers to challenge employers who disputed responsibility. Their struggles became an important chapter in occupational health and workers’ access to compensation. The film uses fictionalized characters inspired by that history.
1955
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was abducted and murdered while visiting Mississippi. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted that the public confront what had happened to him and became an advocate for justice. Her memoir and the film Till center a family’s loss and its place in civil rights history.
BEYOND THE HEADLINE