10 Times Criminals Died Before They Could Face Justice
These criminals paid the ultimate price before they could pay their debt to society. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at criminals who died before facing punishment from the legal system or before a formal sentence was finalized.
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00:00 The internet is going bonkers with this one.
00:02 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at criminals who died before facing punishment
00:06 from the legal system or before a formal sentence was finalized. We're including
00:11 criminals who were set to be executed but ultimately left the building through a different exit.
00:16 Technically, all of these criminals faced some form of justice, just not what the system had in mind.
00:22 That's part of the story here. There's so many weird sort of connections.
00:27 Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Taking over the Juarez cartel, Amado Carrillo Fuentes became one of the
00:32 most infamous and elusive drug lords of his generation. He literally flew over the DEA's
00:38 radar, moving drugs via jets. Earning the nickname "Lord of the Skies," Carrillo's reign came crashing
00:45 down in July 1997. He was the king of narco political law enforcement corruption in Mexico.
00:51 There was a time when Amado was moving drugs in old commercial airliners. Moving it by the
00:57 ton. You know, 10 tons of coke. Pure Colombian coke. The 40-year-old kingpin checked into a small
01:03 Mexican clinic for liposuction, as well as plastic surgery to drastically alter his face.
01:09 It's believed that Carrillo wanted to change his appearance to evade authorities.
01:13 This, ironically, proved to be Carrillo's undoing. After eight hours of surgery,
01:18 Carrillo died in his hospital bed, apparently due to complications. DEA Administrator Thomas A.
01:24 Constantine found some satisfaction in Carrillo's death, saying, quote, "There is a special place
01:30 in hell for those like him." After the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a drug war in the true
01:35 sense of narco traffickers fighting each other emerged. Showman Banerjee. Behind the bowties,
01:41 collars, and SNL sketches, Chippendales houses a dark story laced with money, fire, and murder
01:47 for hire. Showman Steve Banerjee founded Chippendales, trailblazing the idea of male
01:52 dancers taking it off. Banerjee was intimidated by competition, plotting to burn down rival club
01:58 Moody's Disco. He also had a bone to pick with business partner and choreographer Nick D'Onoia,
02:12 ordering his assassination. In addition to having D'Onoia killed, Banerjee conspired to take out
02:17 three other former Chippendales employees before being apprehended. Shortly after accepting a plea
02:22 bargain of 26 years, Banerjee was found dead in his cell with a bed sheet piece around his neck.
02:28 Chippendales and its assets went to Banerjee's wife, who sold the brand for $2.5 million.
02:33 Steve Banerjee had immigrated to the United States to fulfill his dreams of success.
02:42 Bela Kis. Bela Kis stands out since the whereabouts of his body are unknown.
02:53 Considering that he was born in the late 19th century and disappeared in 1916 though,
02:58 it's safe to say he went to the grave without confronting justice. Claiming no less than 24
03:04 lives, 23 being women, this Hungarian serial killer was known for pickling victims,
03:09 encapsulating them in metal drums. When the bodies were discovered, Kis was away at war.
03:15 The military was alerted about Kis, who was tracked down to a Serbian hospital.
03:19 Before he could be apprehended, Kis flew the coop. Kis was supposedly spotted a few times
03:25 afterward, the most recent alleged sighting being in 1932 in New York.
03:29 Whether or not this was Kis, justice remained a step behind.
03:35 On paper, Philip Markov had a bright future ahead of him,
03:38 attending Boston University School of Medicine and engaged to a fellow medical volunteer.
03:43 "This was by all accounts an all-American boy, good-looking guy. Friends say he was very normal,
03:49 went to parties in college, the kind of guy that would be walking around the campus."
03:53 Markov's desktop painted another portrait. The medical student was linked to three robberies,
03:58 one of which ended in murder. The three victims had all posted ads on Craigslist,
04:03 which Markov allegedly responded to.
04:05 "I think Philip Markov gave in to his demons. He completely gave in to his dark side."
04:11 Dubbed the Craigslist Killer, Markov insisted that he was innocent,
04:15 although his actions while incarcerated suggested otherwise.
04:18 "I would say this was overwhelmingly the most damning amount of physical evidence
04:22 I have ever found on a case."
04:24 After multiple attempts to take his own life, Markov's body was discovered in his cell.
04:29 At the time of his demise, Markov was facing charges of armed robbery and first-degree murder,
04:33 among others. His death occurred almost exactly one year after he was supposed to get married.
04:39 "Had this case gone to trial, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that we would have convicted
04:44 him of murder in the first degree and he would be spending the rest of his natural life in prison."
04:48 Alva Campbell
04:49 Committing multiple crimes across various countries, Alva Campbell was convicted of
04:54 murdering a man at a Cleveland bar in 1972. He was paroled after two decades,
04:59 but he returned to court in 1997, facing armed robbery charges. Faking being paralyzed, Campbell
05:05 leapt from his wheelchair, carjacked teenager Charles Diles, killed him, and was eventually
05:10 caught again. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien described Campbell as, quote,
05:15 "the poster child for the death penalty."
05:17 "He was tried and convicted and sentenced to die. That was 20 years ago. And that's another reason,
05:23 Abe Bonowitz says, a sentence of death in prison makes more sense than execution."
05:29 While Campbell was scheduled to be executed in 2017,
05:32 the medical team struggled to find a vein to inject the lethal dose.
05:36 "They spent a lot of time with that ultraviolet light and tourniquets on his arms and
05:41 they tried, you know, but it wasn't there."
05:46 The execution was postponed to 2019, although it was believed that Campbell wouldn't live
05:50 that long due to his deteriorating health. These suspicions were correct.
05:54 Campbell died from terminal conditions in March 2018.
05:58 Doyle Hamm Doyle Hamm was sentenced to death
06:02 after murdering motel clerk Patrick Cunningham in 1987. Like Alva Campbell, though, Hamm's health
06:07 declined faster than the wheels of the justice system. In addition to being diagnosed with
06:12 lymphatic cancer in 2014, Hamm lived with hepatitis C. The medical staff spent over
06:18 two hours trying to locate a suitable vein, missing the execution deadline.
06:22 "It was a time issue that because of the lateness of the hour,
06:26 they recommended that we not continue."
06:31 You could say that Hamm cheated death, but the effects of the failed execution reportedly left
06:35 him as, quote, "a shadow of himself." Although Hamm pursued legal action as a
06:40 second execution was pursued, the cancer ultimately claimed his life in 2021.
06:45 While he dodged the death chamber, Hamm arguably traded one grim fate for an even slower,
06:50 more painful end. Debra Jean Palfrey
06:53 "The D.C. madam, a woman who powerful men feared for what she knew about them."
06:58 Coming from a legal background, Debra Jean Palfrey was driven to start her own escort business.
07:03 This led to a 1992 conviction, with Palfrey spending one and a half years behind bars.
07:09 She went on to create another escort agency, Pamela Martin and Associates, in Washington, D.C.
07:14 "You could drive down the streets of Washington and look at every building on your left and your
07:18 right, and in each and every one of those buildings, we had clients."
07:22 Nicknamed "The D.C. Madam," Martin amassed a list of prominent clients,
07:26 including Louisiana Senator David Vitter. Although Martin claimed that her business was legit,
07:32 she was convicted of money laundering, racketeering, and using the mail illegally.
07:36 Facing between six to 55 years, Martin's body was found in a storage shed with multiple notes
07:42 left behind in her bedroom. "I'm not gonna let these people get away with it."
07:46 Although her death sparked plenty of online conspiracy theories,
07:49 Martin had sworn she would never return to prison, and the autopsy backed this up.
07:54 "Police said they did not suspect foul play."
07:57 Josef Mengele
07:59 Nazi Germany produced numerous monsters, so the fact that Josef Mengele was dubbed
08:03 "the angel of death" is saying something. In addition to conducting fatal experiments at
08:08 Auschwitz, Mengele played a role in selecting who entered the gas chambers and would release
08:13 the poison himself. When World War II ended, Mengele fled from Argentina to Paraguay to
08:18 Brazil as West Germany and Israel attempted to track him down. "The Auschwitz-Birkenau doctor
08:24 is wanted for mass murder and also for performing unspeakably cruel medical experiments."
08:30 Yet even Nazi hunters like Simon Wiesenthal were unable to bring Mengele to trial.
08:34 While Mengele was never captured, he did get his comeuppance.
08:38 After enduring a stroke while swimming in Brazil, Mengele drowned in 1979. Mengele had adopted a
08:44 new name, but the authorities would connect his remains to the "angel of death" six years later.
08:49 Jeffrey Epstein
08:51 The downfall of Jeffrey Epstein is among the most notorious and surreal true crime stories
08:56 of the past century - or any century. It's hard to say what's more shocking - how many famous
09:02 names were linked to Epstein or the fact that he only served 13 months when initially convicted in
09:07 2008. "That so-called sweetheart deal drew blistering criticisms from victims who said
09:13 they were never consulted." However, we can all agree that the most bizarre chapter came in 2019
09:18 when Epstein was arrested again for sex trafficking. Just over a month later, it was determined that
09:24 Epstein hanged himself in his cell. "The DOJ says there were numerous and serious failures by the
09:29 correctional staff, including failing to ensure that Epstein was assigned a cellmate." Countless
09:34 conspiracy theories followed in place of what undoubtedly would have been a trial for the ages.
09:39 "I'm sure many people wanted him dead. He had a lot of information on a lot of people,
09:43 a lot of blackmail videos and pictures." Epstein didn't get his day in court,
09:48 but his partner Ghislaine Maxwell did, being sentenced to two decades in federal prison.
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10:07 Lee Harvey Oswald. Another conspiracy theory magnet, Lee Harvey Oswald would go down in infamy
10:15 as the man who shot President Kennedy. "We do know this, that day marked the end of an era.
10:21 The end, as a grieving Mrs. Kennedy suggested, of Camelot." Surprisingly, Oswald initially wasn't
10:28 arrested for Kennedy's assassination, but for the killing of Officer J.D. Tippett, who he shot after
10:33 fleeing from the book depository. It didn't take long for the authorities to link Oswald to
10:37 Kennedy's murder. "Any effort to explain what happened in Dallas must explain Lee Harvey Oswald.
10:43 And Lee Harvey Oswald is a mystery wrapped up in an enigma, hidden behind a riddle." With the
10:50 nation grieving, many felt that justice couldn't be served soon enough. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby
10:56 took matters into his own hands, fatally shooting Oswald two days later during a police escort.
11:02 Rudy wanted to spare Jackie Kennedy, quote, "the discomfiture of coming back to trial." Although
11:07 Rudy's conviction and death sentence were overturned, a pulmonary embolism claimed his
11:11 life before he could receive a new trial. "When Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald,
11:16 there went our ability to question the one man who pulled the trigger."
11:20 Which of these crime stories shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments.
11:24 "Well, this Epstein case is probably the most blatant example of a public murder,
11:31 of a crucial witness I've ever seen in my entire life, or anybody's ever seen."
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