Journey back to one of history's darkest decades as we examine shocking murders and mysterious deaths that continue to baffle investigators to this day. From high-profile celebrity cases to lesser-known but equally disturbing crimes, these unsolved mysteries have left an indelible mark on criminal history.
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00:00It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine. Salt and pepper and heavy D up in the limousine.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most notorious crimes committed from 1990 to 1999 that have yet to be conclusively answered.
00:16We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.
00:24Number 10, Penny Bell.
00:25The murder of Penny Bell earlier this summer made national news headlines. Now three months on, the motive for her death remains a mystery.
00:35By all accounts, she was a woman who had everything. A happy family life with her husband and two children, a large, comfortable home in Buckinghamshire, and a successful business career running the employment agency she had helped to set up.
00:47The day before her June 1991 murder, Bell, a partner at Kilburn-based employment agency Coverstaff Limited, was described by those around her as acting relatively normal.
00:57But Bell's seemingly unremarkable behavior was belied by inconsistencies. She told builders renovating her kitchen that she was late for an appointment, but it remains unclear as to who she was meant to be meeting with.
01:08Penny was a vivacious woman. She laughed a lot. She had a great sense of humor. She had a lot of personality, and she was very open, outgoing, gregarious. Far more so than myself, perhaps.
01:20I miss every aspect of our life together. The only way I can describe it is that she was the other half of my personal jigsaw.
01:26Furthermore, the excessively violent nature of her death was, according to authorities, in line with a crime of passion. That is, as hypothesized by Bell's daughter Lauren, quote, someone who wanted her but couldn't have her.
01:38While former Bell family neighbor John Richmond has claimed that he knows the identity of Penny's killer, police interviews with him were fruitless.
01:46Oh, I was really looking forward to that. I'd be glad those builders are finished.
01:50Oh, dear, amazing, isn't it? Don't touch that, Lauren. There's lots of money in there.
01:55So, what sort of day did you have today?
01:57On the previous Monday, June the 3rd, Penny had withdrawn £8,500 from her bank. She'd never before taken out such a large amount of cash.
02:06Number 9. Fat Pat
02:07Coming to prominence as part of the Houston-based rap collective The Screwed Up Click.
02:16Patrick Fat Pat Hawkins was yet another heartbreaking admission into the 27 Club.
02:21In February of 1998, Hawkins traveled to a promoter's apartment in order to collect the payment he was owed for performing a concert.
02:37After finding that the promoter wasn't home, Hawkins left, under the impression that he would return later.
02:43Tragically, Hawkins was shot dead just outside the apartment. Hawkins' debut album, Ghetto Dreams, was released the following month, cementing his legacy as a respected and influential figure in the Houston hip-hop scene.
02:55No one was ever charged with killing Fat Pat, and leads to who would have wanted to do so have long since gone cold.
03:01Cause it's a throwaway, it's that fat pat, where them haters at, where them haters at. Man!
03:07Cause I love it, man!
03:10Number 8. Big L
03:11Ayo, you better flee hops, or get your head flown three blocks.
03:16L, keep rapping, so it's pumping like V-box.
03:18Beloved by critics and hip-hop fans alike for his deft wordplay, Big L, born Lamont Coleman, was arguably cut down in his prime.
03:26Four years after the release of Lifestyles of Dapour and Dangerous, the only studio album Coleman released during his lifetime, he was killed in a drive-by shooting in Harlem.
03:36His passing was widely mourned, with his peers going so far as to speculate that he could have become one of the greatest rappers of all time had he not died aged just 24.
03:51While Coleman's childhood friend Gerard Woodley was initially arrested for his murder, a lack of concrete evidence resulted in Woodley being set free.
03:58Woodley himself was fatally shot in 2016.
04:01Let me get to the point real quick, when your pockets are thick, mad chicks be all the brothers.
04:06Number 7. Joe Cole
04:08We've always shared things. It's like I've done a lot of new things, and it's like I have no one to call up and say,
04:14Hey, hey Joe, guess what happened here? And he would do the same thing with me.
04:18I mean, it's like a part of your heart was just taken and pulled out.
04:21The son of 70s TV star Dennis, Joe Cole was a roadie associated with punk rock legend Henry Rollins.
04:28Rollins is perhaps best known for fronting the California hardcore band Black Flag.
04:32The two were close friends and roommates, but that came to a disturbing end in December of 1991.
04:38Within one second, you are going from the 90 millionth trip to the grocery store home to two guns in your face.
04:48And, you know, your reality changes very abruptly.
04:52On December 19th, Cole and Rollins were accosted by armed robbers outside of their Venice Beach residence.
04:58The assailants ordered the two to enter the house and retrieve as much cash as they could find.
05:02While Rollins managed to escape, Cole was shot point blank in the face, and the robbers were never conclusively identified.
05:08You get in your little rituals when you live in a community.
05:12You go, you know, wash days Friday, chicken on Sunday, all that.
05:16And for a predator, for a robber, this is what they go on.
05:20They need habit.
05:23Number six, the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre.
05:26At about 8.30 in the morning on February 10th, 1990, Las Cruces police were dispatched to Las Cruces Bowl,
05:32where the four children and three adults were found shot execution style.
05:36Five ultimately died from their injuries, including the three children.
05:40One of New Mexico's deadliest ever mass shootings also stands as one of its most confounding.
05:45Decades after it occurred, no one appears to be any closer to understanding what exactly happened in Las Cruces on February 10th, 1990.
05:53On that day, an unknown number of perpetrators burgled the Las Cruces bowling alley at 1201 East Amador Avenue.
05:59After 30 years of searching for answers, one man who lost three family members in the shooting says he's frustrated.
06:05But still has hope that they will find those responsible.
06:09In my heart, I'm hoping it will.
06:1330 years is a long time, man, and there's not very many cold cases that get solved after that.
06:19After stealing as much as $5,000 from the alley safe, the gunmen shot their seven hostages and burned the building down.
06:25Although police attempted to intercept the attackers, along with help surveilling the area from a number of federal agencies,
06:32no one was apprehended, and local authorities are still investigating the case as of 2025.
06:37And the case remains unsolved.
06:39Las Cruces, Dona Ana County Crime Stoppers continues to offer a cash reward of $25,000 for information that helps solve this crime.
06:47Number 5.
06:48Juvenal Javier Ramana and Ciprian Entamiera
06:51Perhaps the single most crucial moment of the Rwandan Civil War, this political assassination ushered in the devastating Rwandan genocide,
06:59which saw nearly 800,000 Tutsis systematically killed.
07:02Javier Ramana was then Rwanda's president, and at the time of his assassination, was accompanied by Burundian president Entamiera.
07:09On April 6, 1994, Javier Ramana's Dassault Falcon 50 was hit by two surface-to-air missiles, exploding upon impact with the surface and killing everyone on board.
07:19A declassified U.S. State Department report from the day after the assassination asserted that, quote,
07:24rogue Hutu elements of the military, possibly the elite presidential guard, were responsible for shooting down the plane.
07:30However, that characterization has been disputed, with others suggesting that the Tutsi-backed Rwandan Patriotic Front was responsible.
07:37Number 4.
07:38JonBenet Ramsey
07:39If you could say something to JonBenet now.
07:49She knew she was loved.
07:51I told her every day I love her, and I still do with my kids when I talk to them.
07:57As a father, I'm just sorry I didn't protect her.
08:00Born in 1990 to businessman Jon Ramsey and beauty pageant winner Patsy,
08:04JonBenet was just six years old when her lifeless body was discovered on Christmas Day.
08:09The circumstances leading up to JonBenet's disappearance are just as shrouded in mystery.
08:13Earlier that morning, a rambling, long-winded ransom note had been discovered by Patsy on the stairs of the family home.
08:19And as I came to the bottom of the stairs, there were three pages neatly laid across one of the runs of the stairway.
08:27I turned around to start to see what it was and realized after I read the first couple of lines.
08:38It was a ransom note.
08:39The ransom note demanded the strangely specific amount of $118,000 for JonBenet's safe return.
08:45This note has proven to be the most puzzling part of her murder,
08:49with forensic experts torn as to whether or not Patsy or an outsider wrote it.
08:53Although DNA evidence suggests that no one in the Ramsey household was involved in JonBenet's death,
08:58authorities are no closer to determining who ultimately took her life.
09:02I'm appalled that anyone would think that Jon or I would be involved in such a hideous, heinous crime.
09:16But let me assure you that I did not kill JonBenet.
09:21I did not have anything to do with it.
09:24Number 3. The Notorious B.I.G.
09:26It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine.
09:30Salt and pepper and heavy D up in the limousine.
09:32Routinely acclaimed as one of the greatest rappers who ever lived.
09:36You may be surprised to learn that Christopher Biggie Wallace was only 24 years old
09:40at the time of his murder in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California.
09:44In the April issue of The Source magazine on newsstands now,
09:47Biggie Smalls talks about his fondness for L.A.
09:50He says, quote,
09:51We used to ball out in Cali in the days. We still going out there.
09:55But the first thing people are going to think about is that situation,
09:58which has been blown up too much more than it was.
10:01They done made a personal beef between me and Tupac and Death Row into a coastal beef.
10:06At a quarter to one in the morning, while on his way to an after-party in the Hollywood Hills,
10:10the 1997 Chevrolet Suburban that Wallace was traveling in was fired upon by an unknown assailant.
10:16The rapper was struck by four bullets, the fourth of which proved to be the fatal shot,
10:20having penetrated several of his vital organs.
10:22Since then, relevant authorities have been unable to make any arrests.
10:26And despite numerous theories, Wallace's murder remains unsolved.
10:30Residents of his home neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant remembered his work today.
10:35I liked his music because he never, like, lied about his lyrics.
10:38He always came, you know, spoke from his heart.
10:41You know, he just kept it real.
10:43He represented the real world.
10:44The stuff he talked about, it happened in the real world, you know.
10:49Maybe not as much as he said it, but it really happened, you know.
10:52Number 2.
10:53Tupac Shakur
10:54Just six months prior to the Notorious B.I.G.'s murder,
11:03his arch-rival and one-time friend Shakur was assassinated in Las Vegas, Nevada.
11:08While on his way to perform at a charity concert, the rapper was also killed in a drive-by,
11:13while his associate Marion Suge Knight sustained critical injuries but ultimately survived.
11:17A 2002 Los Angeles Times story by journalist Chuck Phillips reported that, quote,
11:31the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating
11:35of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier.
11:38However, as Phillips points out, alleged shooter Orlando Anderson was killed just two years later
11:43in an unrelated shooting.
11:45In 2023, Anderson's uncle Dwayne Davis was arrested and charged with Shakur's murder.
11:51Davis' trial is currently set for 2026.
11:54Well, it has been a long time coming, 27 years, as you said, and as you mentioned,
11:59Davis has been very vocal.
12:01He wrote a book.
12:02He's done several interviews, especially in recent years, about his connection to the death.
12:07I can tell you that hearing was so quick.
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12:26Number 1.
12:27Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman
12:29He was visibly upset as he greeted other mourners, including Howard Weitzman,
12:33the attorney who was representing him until yesterday.
12:36The service for Nicole Simpson was private, invited guests only, many of them entertainment
12:41and sports figures.
12:42Also present was Simpson's new attorney, Robert Shapiro, who earlier announced that he would
12:47ask for a second autopsy on Mrs. Simpson and Ron Goldman, but refused to say why.
12:51Chances are you've heard of this one.
12:53After all, it's perhaps the most infamous unsolved crime of all time.
12:57Brown was the ex-wife of former NFL running back and media personality O.J. Simpson.
13:03Goldman, a casual acquaintance of Brown's, had met her just six weeks before their double
13:07murder.
13:08On the evening of June 12, 1994, Goldman drove to Brown's condo to drop off a pair of sunglasses
13:13that she had left behind at Mezzaluna, the restaurant at which Goldman worked.
13:17Shortly thereafter, Brown and Goldman were found stabbed to death in the condo building's
13:22walkway.
13:22Although Simpson was deemed the primary suspect, he was controversially acquitted and eventually
13:27died in 2024, aged 76.
13:31It was very complicated, very confusing, and at the same time, so, so sad.
13:38I was really emotional.
13:40We didn't know if it was true when we heard the news, and then we turned on the TV and
13:45it was confirmed that he had actually passed away.
13:48How for you?
13:49Oh, I was so sad for the children.
13:51Which unsolved crime shocked you the most?
13:53Are there any we missed?
13:54Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
13:57We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson,
14:01not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of Penal Code Section 187A, a felony upon Ronald
14:07Lyle Goldman, a human being, as charged in count two of the information.