These unsolved prison murders will leave you scratching your head. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re exploring our picks for the most infamous times people who were arrested or sentenced to jail were seemingly murdered suspiciously.
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00:00Examination of his skull in 1910 showed it had been cloven with some hard instrument,
00:06possibly a knife or an axe. It's virtually certain that Henry VI was murdered to get him out of the way.
00:12Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're exploring the most infamous times people who were arrested
00:17or sentenced to jail were seemingly murdered suspiciously. We'll examine incidents where the
00:21case is formally unsolved, and those where severe doubts about the official cause exist.
00:27DeSalvo was stabbed to death in prison. No one was ever convicted in his death.
00:33Tanisha Chappelle
00:34Family, friends, and supporters of Tanisha Chappelle gathered with one goal
00:40to call for answers in the 23-year-old's death.
00:43Stop killing us!
00:45In 2021, Chappelle was pulled over in Brownstown, Indiana on suspicion of theft.
00:51After briefly trying to escape, she was charged on multiple counts. Unable to afford bail,
00:56Chappelle had to remain in the small local jail until her trial. During that time,
01:01as the only black woman in her unit, she was racially abused by other inmates.
01:06About two months after her arrest, Chappelle complained about feeling unwell and began
01:10vomiting. However, the staff didn't take her pleas seriously as her condition rapidly deteriorated.
01:16Chappelle tells jail staff I need to go to the hospital six times and that she needs help
01:2114 times.
01:22Eventually, they called for an ambulance. However, shortly after arriving at the hospital,
01:27she passed away. The autopsy showed she died from
01:31toxicity from an unknown substance, with many believing inmates poisoned her.
01:35Her family is still looking for answers.
01:38Jackson County Jail and any other participants in my sister's death must face charges.
01:44The Duluth Tragedy
01:45Lynchings weren't about justice or even revenge. They were about fear and control.
01:50James Sullivan claimed six black circus workers visiting Duluth,
01:53Minnesota had attacked him and assaulted his partner Irene Tuscan. However,
01:57a doctor couldn't find evidence of the attack on her. Regardless,
02:01the police arrested the accused men. With rumors and a media storm engulfing the white community,
02:07a mob of up to 10,000 men went to the jail. They forced their way in and took the suspects.
02:12No power to do anything against this mob.
02:17The unhinged group convicted Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGee and brutally
02:22killed them. Yet no one from the mob was convicted for the murders. Max Mason,
02:27one of the suspects, was sentenced to 30 years for the supposed assault on Tuscan.
02:31In 2020, he was pardoned posthumously, a first for Minnesota.
02:36We will never know the destinies and legacies that these men would have
02:39chosen for themselves had they been allowed to make that choice.
02:42Gunvor Galtung Hovik
02:44While working as a Norwegian nurse during World War II,
02:47Hovik fell in love with Vladimir Koslov, a Russian prisoner of war. This led to her
02:52working for the Norwegian embassy in Moscow, Russia. However, the KGB saw the opportunity
02:58to threaten the well-being of Koslov and force Hovik to spy for them. She did for over 27 years,
03:04even upon returning to her home country to work at the foreign ministry.
03:07In 1977, Hovik was exposed by KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky and was arrested.
03:14She immediately confessed. However, before she went to trial, Hovik passed away.
03:19According to Norwegian sources, it was reportedly due to a cardiac event.
03:24Yet others speculate something more sinister and mysterious was involved.
03:28Lee Bradley Brown
03:30Five News understands that a British man who died in custody in Dubai was beaten so badly
03:35by police there he couldn't stand up. While on vacation in Dubai in 2011,
03:40Lee was arrested after apparently getting very violent with a hotel housekeeper.
03:45After visiting the prosecutor's office, Lee returned badly beaten. Dubai officials first
03:50claimed his cellmates did it, then said the Englishman did it to himself.
03:54British officials tried to visit him but were turned away. He was never released.
03:58They stated they had CCTV footage that in theory could have proven their claims,
04:03but none was released or given to the UK authorities.
04:06Lee's condition deteriorated and he passed away six days after his arrest.
04:11UAE's post-mortem examination concluded he had died from choking on vomit.
04:15However, the UK found no evidence of this during their investigation.
04:20During an inquest in 2022, there were reports that the Dubai guards bragged about attacking Lee,
04:26which was denied by officials.
04:28According to local newspaper reports, Dubai police claim Lee had no bruises
04:32or marks that would suggest he'd been assaulted.
04:34Fernando Albán
04:36Wrapped in Venezuela's red, blue and yellow flag,
04:39the coffin of Fernando Albán rests in the capital, Caracas.
04:42In 2018, Albán, of the Justice First opposition party in Venezuela,
04:47was arrested for an unknown reason. He was taken to the Bolivarian
04:50intelligence service headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela. Within days,
04:54officials claimed he had purposely jumped from the building, ending his life.
05:00Officials stated he was initially arrested for conspiracy to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro.
05:05Albán was among at least two dozen people
05:07arrested in connection with the incident involving two drones.
05:10Rumors and conflicting evidence suggested
05:13that Albán had already died before he was thrown from the building.
05:16In addition to the economic and social tragedy that the vast majority of Venezuelans are going
05:21through, look at where we are now, mourning a colleague who was thrown from the 10th floor
05:26of the police building.
05:27In 2021, the attorney general admitted the victim hadn't taken his own life.
05:32Two officers were leniently sentenced. However, Albán's family claimed neither
05:37were charged with his intentional murder, only neglect, and were barely imprisoned.
05:42The family did, however, win a lawsuit against the cartel of the Sons.
05:47Alexei Navalny
05:48Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest and most energetic critic
05:52dropped dead suddenly at a penal colony in Siberia.
05:56For years, Navalny had been one of the most prominent opponents of Vladimir Putin's reign
06:01in Russia, which had seemingly resulted in several stints in jail. In 2020,
06:06he was hospitalized from a nerve agent and, upon his recovery, blamed Putin.
06:10In 2021, after going back to Russia from Germany following treatment,
06:14Navalny was arrested for apparently violating parole.
06:17Over the years, he was sentenced to prison for various periods on several charges.
06:22This is the fifth criminal trial where he's been found guilty,
06:25all of which are seen as attempts to silence one of Putin's most vocal political opponents.
06:30In 2023, Navalny seemingly vanished,
06:33only to turn up in a corrective colony in the Arctic Circle three weeks later.
06:37In early 2024, it was announced that Navalny had died.
06:41The cause is unclear, with officials notably suggesting a blood clot or sudden death syndrome.
06:47However, these are disputed.
06:49Navalny's wife, Yulia, in Munich, called for President Putin to be punished.
06:55We should come together and fight against this evil, she said.
07:00Otto Warmbier
07:01He was a promising young student at an elite American university who was arrested in North Korea.
07:06A student at the University of Virginia,
07:08Warmbier went to North Korea for a New Year's trip in 2015.
07:12In early 2016, as he was gearing up to leave at the airport,
07:15Warmbier was arrested on charges of stealing a propaganda poster.
07:19The allegations for which this individual was arrested and imprisoned
07:23would not give rise to arrest or imprisonment in the United States,
07:26or in just about any other country in the world.
07:28His sentence was, quote,
07:3015 years of hard labor.
07:32The next year, North Korea released Warmbier following negotiations with the U.S.
07:37However, he was in a vegetative state they claimed was triggered by botulism and a sleeping pill.
07:42U.S. specialists didn't see any evidence of the former,
07:45and didn't know what exactly caused his condition.
07:48Shortly after his return to America,
07:50Warmbier passed away at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
07:54The last video his family has of Warmbier as a free man
07:58shows their bright, adventurous son playing with children in North Korea
08:02days before he was arrested.
08:04Henry VI of England
08:06A man so feeble-minded and vacuous,
08:09he allows a wound to open in his country that takes half a century to heal.
08:14Due to his ineffective leadership and declining mental health,
08:17Henry played a key role in the War of the Roses,
08:20where the Lancasters and Tudors battled for the English throne against the Yorks.
08:24In 1461, he was deposed by York's Edward IV,
08:28but regained power briefly in 1470 before losing it again the following year.
08:32At this point, Henry was a prisoner in the Tower of London.
08:36One biased account claimed, quote,
08:38melancholy was the cause of death.
08:40However, there were rumors something more nefarious had occurred,
08:44that Edward was responsible for Henry's murder.
08:46In 1910, they dug up Henry's body,
08:49with the evidence confirming his end was brutal.
08:52Examination of his skull in 1910 showed it had been cloven
08:56with some hard instrument, possibly a knife or an axe.
09:00It's virtually certain that Henry VI was murdered to get him out of the way.
09:04Thor Christensen
09:06Thor Christensen terrified a town.
09:08No conscience whatsoever.
09:09Zero.
09:10Having moved to the U.S. from Denmark as a child,
09:13Christensen's life took a turn in 1976.
09:16That year, he began picking up young women hitchhikers in California,
09:20ending the lives of four.
09:22Each of his victims looked similar,
09:24so he was called the hitchhiker slayer or the lookalike murderer.
09:27However, in 1979, he met his match when an injured Lydia Preston escaped.
09:32When she saw Christensen in a bar two months later,
09:35she called the police, leading to his arrest.
09:38In 1980, he was found guilty in two trials for the four slayings
09:42and one attempted murder, receiving life imprisonment.
09:45This guy thinks what he did was all right.
09:47Not even a full year into his sentence,
09:49Christensen was fatally stabbed by an unidentified inmate.
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10:09Albert DeSalvo
10:10In the early 60s, Boston was in fear.
10:13They were young and old, black and white.
10:16As the number of victims grew, police became more and more frustrated.
10:19Not only was an assaulter known as the green man running rampant,
10:23but there was also the Boston Strangler serial killer, who took 13 lives.
10:27However, an inmate claimed Albert DeSalvo confessed to the slayings
10:31after being arrested for the assaults.
10:33While there was no physical evidence, DeSalvo admitted his guilt to the authorities.
10:38The grisly headline-grabbing crimes had some comparing the Boston Strangler
10:43to Jack the Rips.
10:44In 1967, he received life imprisonment.
10:47In 1973, DeSalvo was fatally stabbed while in prison.
10:51Inmate Robert Wilson was tried for the murder,
10:54but it ended in a hung jury, leaving the case unsolved.
10:58Due to retracting his confession, there were doubts about DeSalvo's guilt.
11:02However, in 2013, his DNA was found on Boston Strangler victim Mary Ann Sullivan.
11:08She is regarded as the 11th of his victims.
11:12Other family members of other potential victims of DeSalvo have called on police
11:19to try to resolve their cases in a similar fashion.
11:23What's the most famous case of a suspect being killed before they face trial?
11:26Let us know below.
11:28Ruby, a well-known police character,
11:30burst from the crowd of newsmen and policemen
11:32and fired a single bullet at point-blank range into Oswald.