The Most Infamous Crime Committed in Every State

Albuquerque’s worst mass slaying occurred in 1996, when 28-year-old Shane Harrison shot and killed three employees of a Hollywood Video store in a botched robbery attempt. He then kidnapped and executed the grandparents of one of the victims. Harrison was convicted and sentenced to 258 years in prison for the murder of the grandparents, but the jury failed to come to a verdict on the other three killings.

New York has seen no shortage of horrific crimes over the years, but this one, though it involves no murders, stands out: For nearly three decades, Bernine Madoff ran the most elaborate Ponzi schemes in the nation’s history. All told, he swindled some $20 billion from clients, who included Steven Spielberg, actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and former New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon. Madoff died in prison at age 82 while serving a 150-year sentence for his crimes. The Department of Justice set up a fund to compensate victims, and last year, announced that it had distributed more than $4 billion to those who’d been cheated by Madoff.

The holidays are a time of joy and celebration, but Christmas Day in Germanton, North Carolina, turned tragic when tobacco farmer Charlie Lawson murdered his wife and six of his seven children. (One son, 16-year-old Arthur, escaped with his life because he’d been sent on an errand.) Lawson killed himself, leaving unanswered his motive for the horrific slayings. After the murder, Lawson’s brother turned the murder house into a tourist attraction, displaying the raisin cake wife Marie had baked for Christmas dinner.

North Dakota was the site of a horrific familicide in 1920. Jacob Wolf and his family, plus the son of a neighbor who did chores for the family, were found either shot or bludgeoned to death on their Turtle Lake farm. Angered over an alleged attack on his cow by the Wolf family dog, neighbor Henry Lake admitted to killing the family. But he did leave an eight-month-old baby alive in her crib, explaining, “The reason I did not kill the baby was, I believe, because I did not go into the room in which the baby lay.” He died in prison.

Three young women – Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus, ages 21, 16, and 14, respectively, at the time – accepted a ride from Ariel Castro. He then lured them to his home, where for years he imprisoned and sexually assaulted them, with Berry giving birth to a daughter. The women escaped when Berry broke through a fence and called 911. Castro was taken into custody, but hanged himself in his cell. His house of horrors was soon demolished.