Strange Murders

In 1916, Grigory Rasputin was shot four times, beaten with steel tools, castrated while still alive and poisoned with enough cyanide to take down 6 grown men all in one evening. During one of these attempts, Rasputin grappled with one of his would be killers, whispering in the man’s ear,”Bad boy.” As his beaten, shot, poisoned and bloody body, wrapped in a carpet and tied tightly with rope, sank beneath the icy crust of Russia’s Neva River, he broke free from his bindings and made the sign of the cross over his body.

The legendary Countess Bathory of Hungary was reportedly drawn to vampire-like tendencies. Luring young, preferably virginal, peasant women from the town below to her stately castle with promises of work and security, the “Bloody Countess” would then ambush the poor girl, bind her and torture her in any manner of macabre ways. In between, she would drain the girls of their blood and bathe in it, reportedly believing that virginal blood had the powers to restore youthful beauty. Countess Bathory was tried in 1609 and found guilty of the murder of several women and was sentenced to life imprisonment in a small room in her own castle. During one of her trials (there had been two) a ledger was discovered which listed, in the Countess’s own handwriting, a list of the names of her victims. They numbered 650. This makes Countess Bathory the most prolific female serial killer in history to this date.

Although steeped in political history thereby relieving his legendary and murderous atrocities as acts of a “political necessity”, Vlad Tepes, also known as “Dracula” used his seat of power to commit untold numbers of horrific and self-satisfying brutality. Considered insane by many today, in the mid 1400’s in Europe, Vlad Tepes proved an exacting revenge upon those who killed his father and brother. Tepes rounded up factions of the boyar class and immediately sentenced them to death by slow and torturous impalement. Dining at a table adorned with food while hundreds writhed alive but impaled through the rectum, Tepes dined on his meal and, reportedly, drank the blood of his victims as they died …watching. Vlad Tepes was killed in battle and his head was displayed by the Turks on a stake in Constantinople as proof that he was, in fact, dead.

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Believed to be the only murder case in history where the murderer was sent to prison based on the testimony of a ”ghost”, the murder mystery of West Virginia’s, Zona Shue is truly unique. After marrying a man whom Zona’s mother referred to as “frightening”, Zona Shue settled into a respectable life, or so she had thought. Only a year into her new marriage, a local delivery boy discovered Zona’s disheveled body lying on the floor of her very own kitchen. Upon his arrival at the scene, the local coroner, Dr. George Knapp, was dismayed to discover Zona’s husband, Edward Shue, cradling his wife’s body in another room where he had taken it, redressed it in Zona’s high collar dress and held it tightly to his weeping breast. Unable to conclude a definitive death from the seemingly distraught man, the coroner defined Zona’s demise as due to incident of “child birth” and left it at that. Zona’s family and friends all heartily disagreed, noting that Edward’s behavior during the funeral was bizarre. Edward remained close to his wife’s body, again cradling it close to his own while Zona’s head and neck were wrapped in a thick scarf. After Zona’s death, Mary, her mother, went to the prosecutor, John Preston’s office. She told him that for several nights in a row, Zona had come to her and told her that Edward had broken her neck and her death was murder. Zona’s body was exhumed and evidence showed that her neck had, in fact, been broken. The case was reopened and Mary’s “ghostly” testimony was allowed thus procuring a life sentence in prison where Edward Shue died in 1900.

On June 5’Th 1986, paramedics arrived at the home of Stella Nickell where they found her husband, Bruce, lying in distress on the floor of their home in Auburn, Washington. Bruce would later die at Harborview Hospital due to what was listed as “emphysema”. On June 11’Th, just after Bruce Nickell’s untimely death, Sue Snow was also discovered at her home with only a minor pulse. Paramedics took Snow to Harborview where she also died later that day. Smelling the faint scent of bitter almonds, a tell-tale sign of cyanide, pathologists determined her death to be due to poisoning. A thorough inspection of the Snow home revealed a bottle of Excedrin which contained traces of cyanide. After being pulled from the shelves by the drug’s manufacturer, Bristol-Myers, an announcement went out to the frightened public. Noticing that she also had bottles of Excedrin with the same lot number attached, Stella Nickell immediately called the police to inform them that her husband, Bruce, had indeed taken some of the medication only minutes before he collapsed. In all, five bottles of cyanide tainted medications were discovered throughout the area and, oddly enough, Stella Nickell herself …had two. After a new test was ordered on the deceased Nickell’s blood, it was determined to be positive for cyanide. Insurance policies emerged as evidence of Stella’s motive, which was money. Stella had planned the murder to look like an accidental death by lacing several bottles, littering them throughout the towns and then claiming her husband’s death as another tragic occurrence amongst the string of others. However, Stella Nickell tripped herself. Detectives realized that she had used the same mortar and pestle to grind the cyanide as she had use for her fish food. The green crystals, mixed with the cyanide traces inspected under microscopic view, led the police back to Nickell when they recalled her many aquariums at home. Stella Nickell is serving a 90 year term for her murderous crimes. Stella, herself, gave the very evidence that convicted her.


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