Not Knowing Kills Me

It’s been said that when you die, God answers all your lifelong questions.

As much as I would like to know the meaning of life and how to solve world hunger, the questions that have haunted me are not as existential. What would really give me peace is to know the truth behind some of the biggest true crime stories.

June 13th, 1994

A woman and a man are found dead outside a Brentwood, California home. Former professional football player OJ Simpson is accused of fatally stabbing both his former wife as well as Ronald Goldman. The trial lasted for upwards of 8 months, becoming the longest trial in US history, resulting in OJ being found not guilty on all criminal charges.

I wasn’t born until years after the trial, and all my knowledge of it comes from the Netflix documentary where Ross from ‘friends’ plays a Kardashian, but I can’t say confidently that I agree with the court's ruling. What really happened that night? Did OJ do it?

June 14, 1962

The first victim of thirteen is claimed by Boston Strangler. Early in the 1960’s, single women between the ages of 19 and 85 were sexually assaulted, strangled, and murdered in the Boston area. Women started buying tear gas, new locks and deadbolts for their doors, even guard dogs for protection. This went on for two years, until a stranger entered a young woman's home posing as a detective. He tied the victim to her bed, assaulted her, the left suddenly, saying "I'm sorry". The woman's description of her attacker led police to identify the assailant as DeSalvo. After he was charged with the assault, he gave a detailed confession of his activities as the Boston Strangler. He even gave accurate details of a past crime scene, that the victim herself got wrong.

Still, Boston police never believed one person to be the killer of all thirteen victims. Although Desalvo was able to give extremely in depth details from all thirteen crimes, he often got important details wrong, like the cause of death for some of the women. In 2013 DNA provided a ‘near perfect match’ connecting Desalvo to one of the murders, but doubt still lingers.

February 27, 1933

An arson attack that killed 12 million, indirectly. Just weeks after Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, Germany’s parliament goes up in flames. The attack was labeled a communist attempt to overthrow the government, which gave Hitler an excuse to seize absolute power in Germany. Once he gained total power, he and the Nazi party used it in there attempt to exterminate the Jewish race. Thus began the Holocaust.

Marinus Van der Lubbe, an unemployed 24-year-old with Communist sympathies, was charged and beheaded for the attack, but many believe that Van der Lubbe was used as a pawn. To this day, the person truly responsible for the arson attack still remains a mystery. A popular theory is that Hitler himself started the fire to seize power. That's the theory I believe, but I would really like to know the whole truth of that night.

February 19, 2013

A young woman's body is found inside a water tank on the roof of the hotel. Although deemed an ‘accidental drowning’ by medical examiners, the case is still widely speculated. January 26, 2013, Elisa Lam checked into the Cecil Hotel, a hotel known for strange deaths. At the age of 21, Elisa decided to stay at the hotel, nicknamed 'The Hotel Hell', while touring California. She goes missing, and is found 19 days later by the hotel’s maintenance worker after complaints of water pressure.

There are many theories surrounding the death of Elisa Lam. One is that a hotel resident killed her and the hotel covered it up. Or maybe, Elisa was being possessed by one of the guests who died while at the hotel.

My favorite is that she was being used by the Canadian government as a bio-weapon to spread tuberculosis. Mere days after Elisa’s death, a new strain of tuberculosis began to spread in LA. Conveniently, the university Lam went to was also leading in tuberculosis research at the time. Oh, also the name of the test for tuberculosis is LAM ELISA. Peculiar. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about this case. I just want to know!

There is an infinite amount of interesting true crime stories that will never be solved. That still won’t top me from hoping for the day where just a few of my questions are answered.

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