The Most Infamous Crime Committed in Every State

Although Timothy McVeigh earned a Bronze Star from the Army for his service in the Persian Gulf, he later became disillusioned with the country. He took his revenge in the form of a bomb planted near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The explosion left 168 people dead, including 19 young children. McVeigh was executed in 2001 for his act of domestic terrorism.

Mary Jane Longo and her three children were reported missing from their Ohio home. Soon after, the body of four-year-old Zachary Longo was found floating off the Oregon coast. The bodies of Mary Jane and two more of her children were later discovered in or near the water. Mary Jane’s husband, Christian Longo, remained missing and was almost immediately put on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. Captured in Mexico using an alias, Longo said he committed the murders to escape mounting debt and the pressures of family life. Sentenced to death, Longo was the subject of a movie, “True Story,” starring James Franco. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison without possibility of parole in 2022.

Led by legendary coach Joe Paterno, Penn State rose to the heights of college football. But one the team’s coach, Jerry Sandusky, had been abusing young boys for years under the guise of helping them through his charity organization. He was charged with 45 counts of abuse in 2012 and is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence in a Pennsylvania prison. He always maintained his innocence, saying he only showered with the young boys. Shaken by the scandal, Paterno died in 2012.

The youngest serial killer in history, Craig Price stabbed two women and two young girls to death when he was between the ages of 13 and 15 – supposedly in belated reaction to racial slurs hurled at him when he was a child. Tried and convicted as a minor, he would have been eligible for release at age 21. However, he got involved in violent prison fights which extended his term. Scheduled for release in 2022, Price stabbed another inmate with a homemade knife in 2017 and was sentenced to another 25 years for the attack.

Susan Smith strapped her two toddler sons into their car seats in her Mazda and pushed the car into a lake, where the two boys died. She later claimed the children had been abducted by a “strange man” but her story unraveled, and Smith was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. She is eligible for parole in 2024. Her only explanation was that she wasn’t in her right mind at the time and didn’t plan the murders.