Forget haunted houses, horror movies and things lurking in the shadows. This Halloween, we’re looking back at real stories that are far more frightening than anything Hollywood could create. From shocking murders and racial terror to wrongful convictions and suspicious deaths, these cases reveal the horrors Black people have faced in America.
Some stories ended in tragedy, others in unanswered questions, but all deserve to be remembered. Consider this a reminder that truth can be far more terrifying than fiction.
The Murder of Emmett Till
In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till traveled from Chicago to visit family in Mississippi. After being accused of offending a white woman in a grocery store, Till was kidnapped from his relatives’ home by two white men, brutally beaten, and murdered, The Root previously told you. His mutilated body was later pulled from the Tallahatchie River.
His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, made the courageous decision to hold an open-casket funeral, allowing the world to witness the horrific violence inflicted on her son. Although his killers were acquitted by an all-white jury, Till’s murder became a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
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Kendall Francois Hides Bodies In Family Home
Between 1996 and 1998, Kendall Francois terrorized Poughkeepsie, New York, murdering eight women, many of whom were sex workers or struggling with addiction, according to The New York Times. The crimes went largely undetected as victims disappeared from the community, and their cases did not initially receive widespread attention.
Francois, who lived with his family, hid the victims’ bodies inside his home. His crimes came to light in September 1998 after a missing woman led police to investigate. He eventually pleaded guilty to eight murders and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He died in prison in 2014.
Christa Pike’s Accomplices
You know the story of Christa Pike, the teenager who shocked the nation after brutally murdering fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer. But how much do you know about the two people who were with her during the incident?
Tadaryl Shipp and Shadolla Peterson weren’t just witnesses to the horrific 1995 killing. They each played a role in what happened in the woods that night, as we previously told you. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, helped lure Slemmer into the woods and participated in the attack. Peterson accompanied them and served as a lookout.
Shipp acknowledged that he was the person who carved the pentagram into Slemmer’s body. But while Pike became the central figure in one of Tennessee’s most notorious murder cases, her accomplices faced very different consequences. Shipp was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, while Peterson cooperated with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and received probation.
Pike is alive following a botched execution attempt on Sept. 30.
The Moore’s Ford Murders
On July 25, 1946, two Black couples – Roger and Dorothy Malcolm, and George and Mae Murray Dorsey – were abducted by a white mob near Moore’s Ford Bridge in Georgia. According to the Zinn Education Project, Roger had been bailed out of jail earlier for the stabbing of his white employer. But little did he know the white farmer who helped free him would become one of the many players who orchestrated his murder.
The couples were shot over 50 times and killed in one of the most notorious racial killings of the postwar South. The murders prompted a federal investigation, but no one was convicted. Their deaths remain a stark reminder that even national attention and federal scrutiny could fail to bring justice to Black families.
DNA Evidence that Freed David Allen Jones
The murders of four women believed to be prostitutes in Los Angeles during the ’90s rocked the local community and sent officials into a years-long investigation to discover the truth. But they convicted the wrong man at first.
For David Allen Jones, freedom came years after a crime he did not commit had already changed the course of his life. Convicted of rape and murder, Jones spent years fighting a system that had failed him, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. DNA evidence eventually excluded him as the perpetrator, leading to his release in 2004. Chester Dewayne Turner was eventually arrested for the murders after a years-long DNA investigation. He was sentenced to death.
Death of Sandra Bland
Sandra Bland was 28 when a routine traffic stop in Prairie View, Texas, escalated into an arrest in July 2015, as we previously reported. Three days later, she was found dead in her jail cell. Authorities ruled her death a suicide, but the circumstances surrounding her arrest and detention sparked widespread outrage.
For many Black Americans, Bland’s death became part of a larger, painful conversation about police encounters, the treatment of Black women and whether people in custody can trust the institutions responsible for protecting them.
Lynching of Willie Vinson
In July 1942, Willie Vinson was lynched in Texarkana, Texas, in retaliation for an alleged rape of a white woman. According to Cold Case Records, a mob abducted him, dragged him through a Black neighborhood, and hanged him at a cotton gin. Although his killing unfolded in public, accountability never followed.
Murder of Jeffrey Dahmer
Between 1978 and 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys, many of them Black or Latino, according to the FBI. His crimes were horrifying and involved cannibalism, but the circumstances surrounding some victims’ deaths forced some to ask why so many warning signs were missed.
After Dahmer’s conviction in 1992, he met his death in 1994 at the hands of a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution. Christopher Scarver beat Dahmer to death and later cited his disgust with Dahmer’s murders as motivation for the killing.
Disappearance of Relisha Rudd
March 1st marks the 2nd anniversary of the disappearance of Relisha Rudd. Dozens of people and children within the community participate in a rememberance celebration of Relisha Rudd is held at the Deanwood Recreation Center in Washington, DC on February 27, 2016.
(Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Relisha Rudd was just eight years old when she disappeared from a Washington, D.C. homeless shelter in 2014, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Her family was experiencing homelessness, and she had been placed in the care of a shelter janitor, Kahlil Tatum. By the time authorities recognized the seriousness of her disappearance, Tatum had killed his wife and later died by suicide.
Relisha has never been found. Her case raises heartbreaking questions about how a child could disappear from a system meant to protect families already living in crisis.
Murder of Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie
In 2012, police in Maryland responded to a disturbing discovery inside the family home of Alexander Kinyua. Investigators found human remains belonging to Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, a 37-year-old Ghanaian national who had been staying with Kinyua’s family while he attended Morgan State University.
According to CBS News, Kinyua, a former Morgan State student, admitted to killing Agyei-Kodie and eating parts of his body, authorities said. In 2013, Kinyua pleaded guilty but was found not criminally responsible by reason of mental illness and committed to a state mental health facility. The case shocked the community and made headlines nationwide.
Rudy Eugene Eats Homeless Man
The same week that police discovered Agyei-Kodie’s remains, another horrifying scene unfolded along a Miami highway. Police encountered Rudy Eugene attacking Ronald Poppo, a 65-year-old homeless man, biting away around 75% of his face, according to The Guardian. Officers shot and killed Eugene after he ignored commands to stop.
Poppo survived the brutal assault but suffered devastating injuries, including the loss of one eye and possible blindness in the other. The attack sparked widespread speculation that Eugene had taken synthetic drugs known as bath salts. However, toxicology tests found marijuana in his system but no evidence of bath salts or other tested drugs, challenging early claims about what fueled the violence.
Death of Kenneka Jenkins
In September 2017, 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins attended a party at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare hotel, as we previously told you. Hours later, she was found dead inside a walk-in freezer. Investigators ruled her death accidental, but questions about the timeline, surveillance footage and the circumstances leading to her discovery fueled public outrage. Online speculation spread rapidly, particularly among Black social media users demanding answers for her family.
The Taco Bell Strangler
The “Taco Bell Strangler” terrorized the streets of South Carolina and North Carolina in the ’90s, we previously told you. Over the span of four years, the killer raped and murdered 11 Black women. Investigators soon connected Henry Louis Wallace to the crimes. Most of the victims were Wallace’s friends and co-workers from the Taco Bell he managed in Charlotte, N.C. He was sentenced to death.
Burning of Black Wall Street
In 1921, a white mob descended on Tulsa’s Greenwood District, one of the most successful Black communities in the country, as we’ve reported. Homes and businesses were looted and burned, residents were killed and thousands were left homeless. The destruction became known as the Tulsa Race Massacre, though generations of Americans were taught little about it. Greenwood represented Black enterprise, independence and possibility.
Death of Tamla Horsford
Tamla Horsford, a 40-year-old Black mother of five, died in November 2018 after falling from the deck of a home in Cumming, Georgia, where she had attended an adults-only sleepover, The Root previously reported. Authorities ruled her death accidental, but questions from her family and inconsistencies perceived by members of the public fueled widespread suspicion.
The Atlanta Child Murders
Between 1979 and 1981, Atlanta was gripped by the disappearances and killings of Black children, teenagers, and young adults. Families searched for answers while fear spread through Black neighborhoods. Wayne Williams was convicted in 1982 of murdering two adults, and authorities attributed additional killings to him, though questions about some cases have persisted. For many families, the tragedy was compounded by the feeling that their children were not protected quickly enough. The Atlanta Child Murders remain a painful chapter in the city’s history, exposing the anguish of families confronting violence and uncertainty.
The Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
When the remains of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were discovered in a Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard in September 2025, a missing-child case became a major criminal investigation, we reported. Singer David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd, was charged in connection with her death and has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors allege that he murdered her, dismembered her body, and left her remains to rot inside his car. The allegations have not been proven at trial
Samuel Little’s Hidden Victims
Samuel Little confessed to killing 93 people across several decades, with investigators confirming dozens of his confessions. Many of his victims were Black women, including women who were poor, experiencing homelessness or otherwise vulnerable. According to the FBI, some deaths had been misclassified or left unresolved, allowing their stories to remain buried for years. Investigators used Little’s confessions and drawings to identify victims and revisit cold cases.
Death of Kendrick Johnson
In January 2013, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was found dead inside a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia. Authorities initially ruled his death accidental, concluding that he became trapped while reaching for a shoe, The Root reported. His family rejected that explanation and pursued additional investigations, including a private autopsy that disputed the original findings. Federal authorities later closed their investigation without bringing criminal charges. Years later, Johnson’s death remains a source of anguish and controversy for his family, who continue to seek answers about what happened to their son.
