The Skeleton Key Chronicles is your source for creepy content, true crime, haunted history, customs & lore, missing persons and oddities.
On this day back in 1936 the headline of The Cincinnati Enquirer proclaimed 'Hicks Condemned to Death.' Justice was swift as it would take a jury less than 15 minutes to convict Heber L. "Jimmie" Hicks. So what did he do? Hicks was the mastermind behind a murder that became to be known locally as…
Luka Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Newman on July 25, 1982 in Scarborough, Ontario. A new breed of psychopath, Magnotta shared the heinous acts he perpetrated on the internet. The web was the perfect platform for him, after all, he was obsessed with his looks and referred to himself as a "plastic surgery addict." He…
Meet Anna Marie Hahn, widely known as “Arsenic Annie.” This Cincinnati area serial killer who was the first woman sentenced to die in Ohio's electric chair after murdering at least 5 men. Anna was born into a large Bavarian family back in 1906 and was the youngest of 12 siblings. When she was 18, she…
Continue reading ➞ ARSENIC ANNIE: CINCINNATI’S CUT-THROAT CARETAKER
VICTIM OF HAMMER WIELDER INCHICAGO HOTEL WAS A QUEEN CITY WOMAN Police Searching For a Cincinnati ManWho, Relatives Declare, Had Jilted Her. Umbrella Leads To Identiflcation of Mrs. Kraft's BodyJohn Koetters, Her Friend, Missing WHERE IS HE? John B. Koettertt, 30 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall, from 180 to 200 pounds In weight,…
The murder of Louise Bergen back in 1958 was one of the most talked about crimes of its time here in the Cincinnati area. When three young hunters came across the charred remains of a body at Cowan Lake it set into motion a chain of events that would captivate the city for years to…
Continue reading ➞ KILLER SEAMSTRESS: THE MURDER OF LOUISE BERGEN
Herman Webster Mudgett, more commonly known as H.H. Holmes was a notorious swindler, serial killer and designer of the infamous 'Murder Castle. A three story monstrosity built to accommodate guests during the 1893 World's Fair. It was a labyrinth-like structure which covered the entire block at 63rd & Wallace in Chicago. Over 100 legendary rooms…
Continue reading ➞ H.H. HOLMES AND THE DAY LITTLE HOWIE MET HIS MAKER
I heard about yesterday's discovery of convicted killer Spencer Brasure's dead body in his prison cell at San Quentin so I took a look into the case. "Savage, barbarous, merciless and cruel" is how Judge James P. Cloninger described the 1996 murder of Anthony Guest. He went on to say that "Spencer Brasure displays a…
Serial killers who utilize the art of persuasion are nothing new, but there is one killer in the annals of history whom I believe took this art to a whole new level. His name was Johann "Jack" Unterweger. Jack was born in 1951 to a Viennese barmaid mother and an American GI father he never…
Continue reading ➞ JACK UNTERWEGER: THE SILVER TONGUED DEVIL
August 9th 1969, the city of Los Angeles and surrounding areas were gripped by fear as news agencies reported the gruesome murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in the elite area of Benedict Canyon. Citizens never imagined that it would be just a matter of time before two more brutal murders would…
Tonight will mark 50 years since members of the Manson family arrived at the Benedict Canyon rental home of actress Sharon Tate and husband, film director Roman Polanski. Sharon was 8 1/2 months pregnant and had several guests in her home that night while Polanski was out of the country shooting a film. It was…
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