Historical Deaths You Shouldn't Google
Mary Kelly
Police photography was in its infancy when the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper murdered and mutilated women in the East End of London in the summer and autumn of 1888. Incredibly, one Ripper crime scene photo survives.
On November 9, 1888, the butchered remains of Mary Jane Kelly were discovered in her locked room at Miller's Court. Kelly's face remained unrecognizable - her lover could only identify the body based on the eyes.
In August 1969, model and actress Sharon Tate was looking forward to the upcoming birth of her first child. Her husband, the director Roman Polanski, was out of town, and friends were staying with Tate at her Benedict Canyon home.
In the early morning hours of August 9, members of the Manson Family broke into the home, intending to slay all the occupants. Though Tate begged for the life of her unborn child, the assailants remained unmoved and repeatedly stabbed her. The crime photograph displays the scene as the police found it.
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In the wake of the September 11th attacks, Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, relocated to India as the newspaper's South Asia Bureau Chief. In January 2002, the 38-year-old Pearl was abducted by terrorists while in Pakistan.
On February 1, 2002, his captors beheaded him before cutting up his body and burying the pieces outside of Karachi. A few weeks later, a video of Pearl's final moments was released.
Elizabeth Short was one of many young women who came to Los Angeles with dreams of stardom. But those dreams abruptly ended in January 1947, when someone took her life. Her body was drained of its blood, cut in half, mutilated, and deposited in plain view in a Los Angeles park.
The crime scene photograph depicts Short's remains where they were discovered in the grass. The case remains unsolved.
Hollywood has seen plenty of tragedies. One of the most horrific fates was that of bombshell Jayne Mansfield. Following a performance at a supper club in Mississippi on June 29, 1967, Mansfield, her lawyer, and three of her children were driven home in the middle of the night. The driver apparently did not see the tractor-trailer in front of him slow down for a truck spraying for mosquitoes, and the car slammed into the semi.
Rumors swirled that Mansfield had been decapitated, though that proved untrue. Mansfield perished along with her lawyer and driver, but all three children survived.
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John Torrington
John Torrington was only 20 years old when he joined Sir John Franklin on his ill-fated voyage to chart the Northwest Passage in 1845. The expedition got bogged down by ice in arctic Canada, resulting in the ends of all 129 men, including Torrington.
Torrington's icy grave was discovered in 1984, and the ice had preserved his remains in chillingly perfect detail. An autopsy revealed Torrington suffered many ailments, including lead poisoning. The detailed photograph of Torrington's mummified cadaver is not for the faint-hearted.
Nedā Āghā-Soltān
In the wake of the Iranian presidential election in June 2009, protests erupted across Tehran. Protestors claimed the re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not legitimate. Their anger with Iranian politics may have sparked the so-called Green Movement, but the pro-government Basij violently suppressed the protests.
Days after the election, Nedā Āghā-Soltān, a 26-year-old woman, and her music teacher attended the protests. As they stood on the street, seemingly far from the fray, Āghā-Soltān was shot in the chest. As bystanders rushed to help, others captured the horror of the moment on their phones - "I'm burning," she repeated.
The video of her passing was uploaded online and shared around the world, transforming her into a martyr and symbol of the Green Movement.
Mob boss Carmine "The Cigar" Galante ran one of New York's most infamous crime families for years. But his ambition to gain more power paved the way for his downfall.
On July 12, 1979, Galante was having a quiet lunch with associates on the patio of an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn when assassins stormed in and shot him. The photograph shows a cigar still perched between his lips.
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The Borden murders remain one of the great unsolved crimes of the 19th century. On August 4, 1892, both Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were found in their home in Fall River, MA - they had been hacked with a hatchet.
Surviving crime scene photographs depict their remains: Andrew was discovered on a sofa, while Abby was found face-down on the floor of an upstairs room. Though their daughter Lizzie was put on trial for the acts, she was acquitted in 1893 and passed in 1927. Many continue to suspect Borden as responsible.
Sam Hose
Sam Hose (born Tom Wilkes) was one of the thousands of African Americans lynched in the Jim Crow era across the United States. Born and raised in Georgia, Hose was accused of slaying his boss with an ax - probably in self-defense - in 1899. After his arrest, a mob took matters into their own hands: they abducted Hose, tormented him, hanged him, and burned him.
Hose's organs were then cut out, and according to historian Leon Litwack, "The crowd fought over these souvenirs" and sold them. While toned-down sketches were made of the lynching, a photograph shows Hose's remains.
Writer and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois said it was Sam Hose's murder that spurred him into action as a young activist.
Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini first assumed power in 1922. During his more than two decades leading Italy, Mussolini transformed the country into a totalitarian state, eventually forming the Axis alliance with Nazi Germany and imperial Japan.
In April 1945, as Allied troops pushed into Italy, Mussolini attempted to flee the country with his mistress, Clara Petacci. They were soon apprehended and slain. Their remains were then taken to a public square in Milan, where crowds desecrated them and strung them up for display.
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Grigori Rasputin
The so-called "Mad Monk" of Russia, Grigori Rasputin courted controversy when he became one of the most influential people at the imperial court. But he soon learned that the higher a person's rise, the more dramatic the fall.
Frustrated by what they considered his undue, dangerous influence, members of the court ended Rasputin on December 30, 1916. According to legend, the murderers shot him only after tainted wine and cakes failed to bring the royal down - but poison wasn't mentioned in his autopsy. Either way, Rasputin's body was unceremoniously dumped into the Neva River, before being fished out days later. The photograph of his cadaver offers a grim look at a violent end.
Swaggering young bank robbers and lovers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow captured the imagination of Depression-era America as they completed heist after heist. But the law finally caught up with them on May 23, 1934.
In rural Louisiana, the police ambushed the pair in their car, spraying the outlaws with a barrage of bullets. In the photograph of the scene, Parker is visible in the front seat of the pockmarked car.
In 2004, director Theo van Gogh - artist Vincent van Gogh's great-grandnephew - premiered a new documentary, Submission, produced alongside Dutch politician and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The short film critiqued conservative Islam's view of women.
The provocative film generated plenty of controversy after its release. On November 2, 2004, van Gogh was heading to work in Amsterdam when 26-year-old alleged terrorist Mohammed Bouyeri took his life on the street. The act sent shock waves across Holland and ignited fierce debates.
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The Princess Of Lamballe
The French Revolution attacked the nobility of the Old Order - literally. During the massacres of September 1792, political prisoners, clergy members, and nobles across France were slain. One of them was the Princesse de Lamballe, a close friend of Queen Marie Antoinette.
On September 3, 1792, she was allegedly torn apart after standing before a tribunal. It was a particularly gruesome moment in a revolution that only got bloodier. Though there were no photographs in the 18th century, drawings and prints survive of the princess's fate.
