These killers aimed high. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at confirmed murderers who made an attempt on or claimed the life of a high-profile individual.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 "You know, I thought I was actually doing right.
00:02 This is what God wanted me to do."
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at confirmed murderers who made an attempt
00:09 on or claimed the life of a high-profile individual.
00:12 "People here are understandably shaken tonight.
00:14 Police have secured both the front and the back of the Miglin home."
00:19 Michael Gargiulo, Ashley Ellerin
00:21 After allegedly killing Trisha Picaccio in Illinois, Michael Gargiulo fled to Southern
00:26 California in 1993.
00:27 "Michael Gargiulo went to California to get out of the scrutiny here in Illinois."
00:32 There, the so-called Hollywood Ripper was implicated in the deaths of many more women.
00:38 Among them was 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin.
00:41 She had just started dating actor Ashton Kutcher in 2001, and was planning to go into fashion
00:46 before her slaying drew media attention.
00:48 "It's believed 43-year-old Michael Gargiulo, an air conditioning repairman at the time,
00:53 and the victim's neighbor, murdered her right around the time she got out of the shower."
00:57 It would be another seven years before Gargiulo was apprehended, with help from a survivor.
01:02 Kutcher's testimony helped secure Gargiulo's conviction for the murders of Ellerin and
01:05 Maria Bruno.
01:06 Ellerin may have never gotten to make a name for herself, but she and others have received
01:11 justice.
01:12 Gargiulo is still awaiting extradition to Illinois to stand trial for Picaccio's murder.
01:16 "Now that he is sentenced here, he is expected to be extradited to Illinois."
01:21 Arthur Richard Jackson, Teresa Saldana
01:23 Actress Teresa Saldana built a prolific career going into the 1980s.
01:27 "Now get out of here, go inside, get out, take the baby inside."
01:30 "Come on, go sleep in the garage, you'll see, okay?"
01:33 Her rise was suddenly derailed by the darkest side of notoriety.
01:37 Obsessed fan Arthur Richard Jackson used a private investigator to track down Saldana's
01:42 Hollywood home and stalked her in 1982.
01:44 He ultimately stabbed her with a hunting knife ten times in broad daylight.
01:48 "Are you Teresa Saldana?"
01:51 "Yes."
01:52 "I'm so sorry."
01:54 "Ahhhh!"
01:55 Only one bystander stepped in to save Saldana's life.
01:59 Following Jackson's extradition to the U.K. 14 years later, a trial revealed that he murdered
02:03 someone during a robbery in 1966.
02:06 He died in a psychiatric hospital in 2004, around the time Saldana retired from acting.
02:11 The traumatic incident seriously affected her career, though she was a prominent victims
02:16 advocate for the rest of her life.
02:17 "It's not only frightening, it is insanity to allow someone out who we know is not only
02:25 threatening myself but other people as well and who is patently dangerous."
02:29 Nathan Gale, Dimebag Darryl
02:31 The world of metal was shaken by the death of guitar virtuoso Darryl Abbott, better known
02:36 as Dimebag Darryl.
02:46 He was performing with Damage Plan in Columbus, Ohio when he was fatally shot on stage by
02:50 Nathan Gale.
02:51 The shooter then killed the head of security and two other people, before he was himself
02:55 shot dead by police.
02:57 Gale's motivations for targeting Abbott would never be formally confirmed.
03:00 The former Pantera guitarist was performing with his band, Damage Plan, which included
03:06 his brother at the Al Rosa Villa December 8, 2004, when a gunman rushed the stage and
03:12 shot him several times.
03:14 Some believe he was disgruntled by Pantera's breakup, while others report him claiming
03:18 that the band plagiarized him.
03:20 Gale had supposedly been discharged from the Marines for exhibiting serious mental illness.
03:25 "Well, Nathan Gale was not supposed to have a gun because of his disability, but his mother
03:30 said she bought the gun for him."
03:32 In any case, his combat training and instability resulted in five tragic deaths and the loss
03:37 of a celebrated musician.
03:39 Donald Nielsen, Leslie Whittle Over four years and across England, the Black
03:44 Panther committed a string of burglaries that cost three lives.
03:47 "In 1975, police were engaged in a manhunt for a dangerous suspect known as the Black
03:53 Panther."
03:54 Donald Nielsen's biggest job took three of those years to plan.
03:57 In January of 1975, he abducted Leslie Whittle, 17-year-old heiress to the Transportation
04:03 Empire Whittle Coaches.
04:05 Nielsen bound her with a wire noose in a drainage shaft and demanded £50,000 over the next
04:10 week.
04:11 "The ransom drop seems doomed to fail."
04:13 "By the time I collected the money, and then I got lost on the way to Kidsgrove because
04:19 I'd never been there before, and then I had difficulty in finding the instructions in
04:23 the phone box."
04:24 He also fatally shot security guard Gerald Smith while dropping off instructions.
04:29 Nielsen never received his money, and Whittle was later discovered hanged to death.
04:33 The grisly, highly publicized scene would become one of the most infamous accounts in
04:38 modern British true crime.
04:39 The Black Panther was finally caught within a year and died in prison in 2011.
04:45 Yolanda Saldívar - Selena
04:47 Tejano superstar Selena Quintanilla-Pérez had legions of fans by the 1990s.
04:51 "I could fall in love with you."
05:02 One of the biggest was Yolanda Saldívar, who was president of the official Selena fan
05:07 club and manager of her line of boutiques, until she was fired for embezzlement.
05:11 When the singer confronted her friend in a motel on March 31, 1995, Saldívar shot her
05:17 in the back.
05:18 "But Friday morning, Selena made the fatal mistake of returning there by herself to pick
05:23 up missing bank statements."
05:25 "I think she lured her over there.
05:29 She already had plans.
05:30 I mean, why would she have a gun?"
05:33 Selena was able to identify her killer before succumbing to her injuries.
05:37 This tragedy and the subsequent police standoff sparked a media frenzy that posthumously expanded
05:42 Selena's status.
05:43 Her brief life and death are now considered key events in the history of Latin music.
05:49 As for her one-time biggest fan, she is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.
05:54 "They have made me out to be a monster.
05:57 I just want to say, I did not kill Selena.
06:01 It was an accident, and my conscience is clear."
06:09 Joseph Paul Franklin, Larry Flint, and Vernon Jordan
06:12 Hustler publisher Larry Flint obviously didn't have the same reputation as prominent civil
06:17 rights attorney Vernon Jordan, but both men had Joseph Paul Franklin in common.
06:22 The bluntly dubbed "racist" killer murdered more than 20 people with the vision of inciting
06:27 a race war.
06:28 "And what was your mission?"
06:29 "Well, to try to get a race war started."
06:32 He was ultimately arrested three months after shooting Jordan outside of a hotel in 1980.
06:37 The victim recovered from his injuries two years earlier.
06:40 Flint was less lucky when Franklin shot him and his lawyer outside of a courthouse.
06:44 "Flint and Reeves were rushed into the emergency room at Button Gwinnett Hospital.
06:48 Flint was conscious, but barely."
06:50 Both men survived, but Flint would never walk again.
06:53 Franklin claimed to be motivated by Hustler's depiction of interracial relations.
06:58 For all Flint's controversies, none compared to the moral depravity that led to Franklin's
07:02 execution in 2013.
07:04 "Overnight, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal judge's ruling.
07:08 The execution was for the 1977 murder of a man at a synagogue."
07:12 Rodney Alcala, Ellen Jane Hover
07:15 The public first met photographer Rodney Alcala as a contestant on The Dating Game in 1978.
07:20 "Please welcome Rodney Alcala."
07:22 "Rod, welcome."
07:25 By then, he was already a seasoned felon and a suspected serial killer, who is now believed
07:30 to have claimed up to 130 victims.
07:33 Among them was Ellen Jane Hover, an aspiring orchestra conductor whose father was a major
07:38 entertainment entrepreneur.
07:39 "Her mom called me and said, 'Anita, have you heard from Ellen?'
07:46 And I said, 'No.'
07:48 She said, 'Think hard.
07:50 Nobody can find Ellen.'
07:52 And I didn't think anything of it until it hit the newspapers."
07:55 She was even the goddaughter of Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin.
07:59 Alcala was on his second parole when he traveled from California to New York around the time
08:03 Hover disappeared.
08:05 She had an appointment with a photographer, with Alcala later admitting to knowing her.
08:09 But the Dating Game killer would not plead guilty to her murder until 2012, 32 years
08:15 into his life sentence.
08:16 "It was a surprise that he pled guilty because he had denied every crime he was ever accused
08:24 of."
08:25 Mark David Chapman, John Lennon.
08:27 As one of the world's most celebrated musicians and peace activists, John Lennon surely had
08:32 his opponents.
08:33 "I was probably angered at his phoniness.
08:34 I mean, I wasn't fuming, but I was saying what a fake he was, what a phony he was.
08:35 Then I thought to myself that I was going to kill myself."
08:36 Disturbed fan Mark David Chapman supposedly became disillusioned with the star's wealth
08:52 and religious views as he began frequenting New York City.
08:55 Finally, on December 8, 1980, Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back outside of his
09:00 home.
09:01 "Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the west side of New York City, the most
09:06 famous perhaps of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital,
09:13 dead on arrival."
09:15 The killer has since been vocal about regretting one of the most shocking murders in music
09:19 history.
09:20 However, it was later discovered that he considered killing such other celebrities as Ronald Reagan,
09:25 Johnny Carson, and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
09:28 Chapman's desire for fame may not have been as subconscious as he's claimed.
09:32 More than a dozen parole hearings have ruled that he's still a menace to society.
09:36 "Parole was denied because the board says there's a chance Chapman could commit a crime
09:40 again or that someone might try to kill him."
09:43 Tex Watson, Sharon Tate, and others.
09:46 History emphasizes cult leader Charles Manson for orchestrating several murders to spark
09:50 a race war, but his right-hand man Tex Watson took over those orders.
09:54 "Did you tell Tex Watson what to do?"
09:56 "No.
09:57 Did you tell the women to go with him and do what he said?"
10:01 "Yeah, I told them to go do what Tex said."
10:03 On August 9, 1969, he and three other followers broke into the home of actress Sharon Tate
10:08 and absent filmmaker Roman Polanski.
10:11 The intruders killed the pregnant Tate and her guests, including coffee heiress Abigail
10:15 Folger and celebrity stylist Jay Sebring.
10:17 "Over two nights in August 1969, actress Sharon Tate and six others had been slain
10:24 in one of the century's most infamous crimes."
10:27 The next night, Watson led a larger party to kill grocery magnate Lino LaBianca and
10:31 his wife.
10:32 The masterminds behind these high-profile murders were soon brought to justice, with
10:36 Watson being singled out as Manson's chief enforcer.
10:40 He has since expressed remorse for his terrible crimes and become an ordained minister in
10:44 prison.
10:45 "Charlie Manson's hitman has had a change of heart.
10:49 Tex Watson says he's a born-again Christian."
10:52 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
10:56 about our latest videos.
10:58 You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
11:02 If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
11:08 Andrew Cunanan, Lee Miglin, and Gianni Versace.
11:11 The tragic story of Andrew Cunanan ended with a killing spree between April and July of
11:16 1997.
11:17 "In 1997, Andrew Cunanan sent authorities on a frantic cross-country manhunt as he drove
11:23 state to state, killing four people along the way, ultimately arriving at Gianni Versace's
11:29 doorstep in Miami."
11:31 He trekked the U.S. to murder five people, including two friends and a man he carjacked.
11:36 The biggest and most bewildering targets were Chicago tycoon Lee Miglin and fashion designer
11:41 Gianni Versace.
11:43 Most believe Miglin was killed for his car, while some rumors suggest he had an affair
11:47 with the gigolo Cunanan.
11:48 "Detectives say the evidence suggests the Chicago murder was a crime of opportunity,
11:53 that Cunanan needed Miglin's car and he killed for it."
11:56 The spree ended with Cunanan gunning down Versace outside his Miami mansion, possibly
12:01 in pursuit of fame.
12:02 "It was 8.45 in the morning.
12:04 He was walking home, alone, from the famous South Beach News Café, journalist Maury North."
12:10 "He had just very boldly crossed the street, walked up right behind him, and shot him."
12:15 With the killer taking his own life later that day, his motivations would never be made
12:19 clear.
12:20 All that is certain is that one disturbed individual took five lives, their status aside.
12:26 What are some other major crimes with famous victims?
12:28 Provide some information in the comments.
12:30 "I was telling her to leave.
12:32 And I said, 'It's over, Selena.
12:35 It's over.
12:36 I can't work for you no more.'"
12:38 Did you enjoy this video?
12:40 Check out these other clips from WatchMojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell
12:44 to be notified about our latest videos.
12:46 -
12:52 -