Love Stories Nobody Should Romanticize
History has produced plenty of disastrous relationships, but some couples went far beyond making each other miserable—some made everyone else miserable. These couples joined together to commit heinous crimes, sometimes continuing for years before anyone even caught on. Come with us as we revisit some of history’s worst unions.
1. Fred and Rose West
Fred and Rose West turned their home at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, England, into a horror show. It was the center of crimes involving torture and murder during the 1970s and 1980s. Investigators eventually connected Fred to at least 12 lost lives, with Rose participating in many of them. Their own daughter was murdered in ‘87 and buried beneath the patio after years of abuse.
2. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
Between July 1963 and October 1965, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley abducted and murdered five children around England. Hindley was the one who helped lure victims into her car before the pair took off with them. Their crimes only unraveled after Hindley's brother-in-law saw Brady murder 17-year-old Edward Evans in 1965 and contacted police.
3. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka became two of Canada's most notorious criminals in the ‘90s. Homolka not only helped Bernardo drug and assault her 15-year-old sister in 1990 (who died during the attack), but the couple also kidnapped teenagers Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. It’s not like they were remorseful, either; they got married on June 29, 1991, the same day Mahaffy's remains were found.
4. Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck
Raymond Fernandez was already using lonely-hearts ads to deceive women when he found Martha Beck in 1947. However, instead of objecting to the scheme, Beck joined him, often posing as his sister while they targeted women for money. The duo eventually became connected to several killings, and their crimes only ended in 1949. They were executed together in 1951.
5. Gerald and Charlene Gallego
Gerald and Charlene Gallego cruised the western United States looking for young women between 1978 and 1980. Charlene sometimes helped lure victims into their van, after which the captives were subjected to horrific acts before their lives were taken. The Gallegos have ten confirmed victims linked to them, and police finally arrested both in 1980.
6. David and Catherine Birnie
For several terrifying weeks in 1986, David and Catherine Birnie abducted women around Perth and took them back to their home. Four women were murdered, while a fifth intended victim escaped and alerted police. They were convicted, and each got four life sentences.
7. Alton Coleman and Debra Brown
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown traveled across the Midwest during a seven-week spree in the summer of 1984. The nightmarish stretch included everything from murder and kidnapping to assault and robbery. Authorities ultimately connected Coleman to eight killings across six states, while Brown was convicted for her own acts. Their run ended in 1984, when police found the couple sitting in a park.
Raghavendra V. Konkathi on Unsplash
8. Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier
Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier formed what prosecutors described as a criminal partnership after Fourniret left prison in 1987. Olivier assisted Fourniret in trapping several girls and young women, and by the time Fourniret was arrested in 2003, their crimes had stretched across France and Belgium for roughly 16 years. They both got life sentences, but Fourniret had no ordinary possibility of release.
9. Marc Dutroux and Michelle Martin
Belgian criminal Marc Dutroux abducted a series of girls in 1995 and 1996, imprisoning some of them in his basement. His wife, Michelle Martin, knew that eight-year-olds Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo were being held there, but they still starved to death while Dutroux was jailed for another offense. Martin was later convicted for her role, while two other girls were found alive in Dutroux's basement after his 1996 arrest.
10. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
Despite all the movies and books about them, let’s not forget that the real Barrow Gang's life on the road involved armed robberies, kidnappings, stolen cars, and multiple deaths. After Clyde was paroled in 1932, he reunited with Bonnie and kept on committing crimes, with the pair remaining fugitives during a massive manhunt. Officers ambushed and killed them in 1934.
11. Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood
At first, Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood’s relationship seemed normal. They met while working at a nursing home and became lovers in 1986. But it only took a year before elderly residents began dying, and prosecutors eventually accused the women of suffocating vulnerable patients. Graham was convicted in 1989 of five counts of first-degree murder, which earned her life in prison without the possibility of parole. Wood testified against her, and she got 20 to 40 years.
12. Alvin and Judith Neelley
Alvin and Judith Neelley's 1982 crimes involved a lot of terrible things: abduction, torture, shooting, and murder. In September of that year, 13-year-old Lisa Ann Millican was kidnapped and held for several days before they took her life, while another couple was attacked the following month. Police arrested Judith on October 9, with Alvin taken into custody shortly afterward.
13. Michael and Suzan Carson
After Michael and Suzan Carson were finally caught, they claimed that they were fighting supposed witches. However, their beliefs resulted in three deaths between 1981 and 1983. Their first known victim was stabbed 13 times, another was shot, and a third was stabbed and shot. They were captured in 1983 and ultimately sentenced to a combined total of 75 years to life in prison each.
14. James Marlow and Cynthia Coffman
James Marlow and Cynthia Coffman's relationship became linked to a string of kidnappings in California during 1986. They were convicted together in the kidnapping, robbery, assault, and murder of 20-year-old Corinna Novis, while Coffman was separately convicted in connection with another killing. They were both sentenced to death in 1989, with Coffman becoming the first woman sentenced to death in California after the state reinstated capital punishment in 1977.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Wikimedia
15. Benjamin and Erika Sifrit
A chance meeting during Memorial Day weekend in Maryland ended horribly for tourists Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley in 2002. Benjamin and Erika Sifrit invited the pair back to their condo, where Ford and Crutchley were killed. Police then caught them burglarizing a restaurant six days later, after which they were taken in. Benjamin was sentenced to 38 years, and Erika got the harsher punishment of life plus 20 years.
16. John and Sarah Makin
John and Sarah Makin operated as “baby farmers” in Sydney during the early 1890s, accepting infants from desperate mothers in exchange for payments. But when police started digging around their old residences in 1892, they discovered the remains of numerous infants, eventually totaling 15. Both were convicted in 1893 and sentenced to death, though Sarah’s sentence was later commuted to life behind bars.
Unknown photographer on Wikimedia
17. Frederick and Maria Manning
Frederick and Maria Manning's marriage ended up producing one of Victorian Britain's most sensational cases. In 1849, Maria invited her wealthy lover Patrick O'Connor to the couple's London home, where he was killed and buried beneath the floor. Police caught them, and both were convicted before being publicly hanged in 1849.
18. Ray and Faye Copeland
Ray and Faye Copeland looked like your run-of-the-mill farming couple, but investigators eventually discovered the bodies of five farmworkers connected to their property. The killings occurred between 1986 and 1989 while Ray was running a scheme in which workers helped him fraudulently purchase cattle before disappearing. Both were convicted, making them, at the time, the oldest American couple to receive death sentences.
Photo by Mr. Kjetil Ree. on Wikimedia
19. John and Elvira Bender
From roughly 1871 to 1873, John Bender Sr. and his wife Elvira operated the Bender family inn near Kansas. It was hardly a place to rest your head, though. Travelers were often struck with a hammer and dropped through a trapdoor before their bodies were eventually buried around the property. At least 11 victims were discovered, but the entire Bender family fled before authorities could arrest them. Their fate is still unknown.
John Towner James (author), Kan-Okla Publishing Company (Wichita, KS), publisher. on Wikimedia
20. Marie-Madeleine de Brinvilliers and Godin de Sainte-Croix
During the 1660s, French aristocrat Marie-Madeleine de Brinvilliers and her lover Godin de Sainte-Croix became entangled in a poisoning scheme that targeted members of her own family. Brinvilliers poisoned her father in 1666, then her two brothers in 1670. Evidence only surfaced after Sainte-Croix died in 1672 and authorities found poisons along with letters from his mistress. Brinvilliers fled France but was captured in 1676, when he was convicted and beheaded.
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