Cold Cases of the 1930s
8 documented cases in which the crime or disappearance took place between 1930 and 1939. 6 are recorded as unsolved.
- Unsolved 6 (75%)
- Solved or convicted 1 (12%)
- Closed without conviction 1 (12%)
By type
All 8 cases
Amelia Earhart
Pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished over the Pacific Ocean during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. She was declared legally dead in 1939.
Cleveland Torso Murders
At least 12 people were killed, decapitated and dismembered in and around Cleveland's Kingsbury Run between September 1935 and August 1938. Only two victims were positively identified and no one was ever convicted.
Thelma Todd
Film actress Thelma Todd, 29, was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in her car inside a Pacific Palisades garage on December 16, 1935.
Charles Lindbergh Jr.
The infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family estate in Hopewell, New Jersey. A ransom was paid but the baby's body was found two months later.
Paul Bern
MGM producer Paul Bern, 42, was found dead of a gunshot wound at his Beverly Hills home on September 5, 1932, two months after marrying actress Jean Harlow. A note was found and a coroner's jury ruled the death a suicide.
Starr Faithfull
Starr Faithfull, 25, was found dead on the beach at Long Beach, New York, on June 8, 1931, three days after leaving her family's Manhattan apartment. An autopsy found she had drowned and had bruises and a sedative in her system.
Judge Joseph Force Crater
New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater, 41, vanished on the evening of August 6, 1930, after dining with two companions at a restaurant on West 45th Street in Manhattan.
Mary Agnes Moroney
Two-year-old Mary Agnes Moroney was taken from her family's South Side Chicago apartment on May 15, 1930 by a woman using the name Julia Otis and was never returned.