"Family Feud," "The Dating Game," and "Bullseye."
These killers might have felt invincible, but their moment in the spotlight put all
eyes on them.
When a woman's body was found dumped in a creek in quiet, rural Bradford County, Pennsylvania,
it wasn't exactly the kind of thing residents of the area were accustomed to.
Local man Matthew Haverly, who was interviewed by news station WNEP, said as much before
segueing into a bizarre theory of what might have occurred.
"I think it was kind of a hit, and something happened."
He continued describing what he thought happened and the reason why the body would be there.
"Something went bad, and this is like a rural area, so they just wanted to plant the body
somewhere else besides wherever the hell they were from."
He didn't go so far as to speculate as to who "they" might be — perhaps because he
knew that the as-yet unidentified victim was his mother, and that he himself was her killer.
Under questioning by the police, Matthew admitted that he and his 60-year-old mother, Patricia
Haverly, had gotten into a fight the day before but he had blacked out after.
Police allege he hit her in the head before wrapping her body in a tarp and dumping it
in the creek.
While it seemed an open-and-shut case, it was later reported that a forensic pathologist
had been unable to definitively point to the head injury as Patricia Haverly's cause of
death.
Ultimately, Matthew Haverly pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges
related to the crime and received a prison sentence of three to 14 years.
In June 2011, a horrible fate befell 27-year-old Lauren Giddings, who had recently graduated
from Mercer Law School in Macon, Georgia.
Just days after the young woman went missing, police found her torso, and only her torso,
in a dumpster outside a residence hall at the school.
At the moment the grisly discovery was being divulged to the news media, a local television
station was interviewing another recent Mercer grad, Giddings' neighbor, Stephen McDaniel.
McDaniel was offering up info as to when she was last seen and what type of neighbor she
was when the interviewer told him that police had found a body — a revelation that prompted
the man to excuse himself to sit on the ground, staring into space, which was captured by
the TV cameras.
Police quickly became interested in McDaniel, but a long, grueling night of interrogation
failed to elicit a confession.
As it turned out, though, further evidence uncovered by the cops while he sat in jail
— which included a hacksaw used in Giddings' dismemberment — pointed them to McDaniel
as their sole suspect.
In 2014, he pleaded guilty to Giddings' murder, and he's currently serving a life sentence
with possible parole.
On August 14, 2018, Colorado oil field worker Chris Watts gave an interview to a local television
station to give an update on the police investigation into the disappearance of his pregnant wife,
Shanann Watts, and two young daughters, whom he had reported missing the day before.
His demeanor was calm, his statements matter-of-fact, as he expressed his hope for his family's
safety — but by the next day, he would be in police custody, where he confessed to killing
all three of them.
"You did the hard part.
All you have left is to tell us where they're at."
Their investigation had uncovered an extended recent separation and text messages indicating
that the marriage was ending, and not happily; Shanann had, in fact, suggested that Chris
might never see his kids again.
Physical evidence, including Shanann's cell phone hidden between some couch cushions and
her untouched purse, clued police into the fact that she had not gone anywhere voluntarily.
Presented with their suspicions, it didn't take Chris long to crack.
He had strangled his wife, smothered his children one after the other, and dumped them in the
oil field where he worked.
In November 2018, Watts was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in prison, with
no possibility for parole.
When 20-year-old Jody Meyers of Mannum, Australia, went missing in 2015, her fiance Neil Archer
took part in an interview with the local television station pleading for her safe return with
his mother, Margaret Archer, by his side.
Meyers and Neil had a young son together, whose well-being Margaret invoked while tearfully
imploring Meyers to return home.
"Her son needs her.
He needs his mom."
It was a stunning performance, considering that at the time it was given, Margaret knew
exactly where Meyers was: buried underneath freshly poured concrete in her shed, having
been killed by Neil.
Neil Archer had killed Meyers when he feared that her family was trying to drive them apart.
In addition to playing for the cameras, Margaret Archer had helped her son to cover up the
crime in numerous ways — sending text messages to Meyers' family from her phone, disposing
of said phone after that was done, and purchasing the concrete and tools, with Meyers' stolen
bank card, used to conceal her body.
In 2017, Neil Archer was convicted of murder and sentenced to at least 22 years in prison;
for her role in the crime, Margaret Archer was sentenced in 2018 to six and-a-half years.
Gerard Baden-Clay of Queensland, Australia, choked back tears as he told local TV crews
of his anxiety over the disappearance of his wife, Allison Baden-Clay, in 2012; at the
time, she had been missing for a few days.
"We really trust that the police are doing everything they can to find my wife."
Indeed, they were.
In 2014, investigators had been immediately, deeply suspicious of Gerard, due to inconsistencies
in his story and uncharacteristically affectionate text messages that he'd sent his wife since
he'd recently ended an affair, and the marriage was troubled.
Also, he had ragged scratches down his right cheek, which he claimed he'd given himself
shaving.
More scratches, all over his body, were uncovered during a doctor's examination, and 10 days
after her disappearance Allison's body was found in a creek miles away from the family
home.
Largely on the strength of Baden-Clay's injuries, he was convicted of her murder in 2014.
In 2015, the charge was downgraded to manslaughter, as a judge ruled that the jury had not been
allowed to consider the possibility that Baden-Clay had accidentally killed his wife; the following
year, the High Court found this scenario to be purely hypothetical and reinstated the
murder conviction.
In the '60s and '70s, before digital records, offender databases, and instantaneous background
checks, it was much easier for convicted criminals to distance themselves from their sordid pasts.
Take, for example, Rodney Alcala, who served 34 months in prison for sexually assaulting
an 8-year-old girl in 1968.
Despite having registered as a sex offender, Alcala was able to gain employment as a typesetter
with the Los Angeles Times in 1977 — and in 1978, he appeared as a contestant on the
classic game show "The Dating Game," where he was selected for a date with the lovely
bachelorette.
"I'm called the banana, and I look really good."
That woman, Cheryl Bradshaw, eventually declined her date with Alcala, simply because he gave
her bad vibes.
Her intuition proved to be dead-on.
By the time of his appearance on the show, Alcala had already committed several of the
crimes he would later be convicted of — the murders of six women and an underage girl,
between 1971 and 1979.
Alcala, who would become infamous as the "Dating Game Killer," was arrested and charged for
the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1980.
His conviction and death sentence were overturned on a technicality.
Alcala was re-convicted in 1986, only for that conviction to be similarly overturned
in 2001.
Finally, in 2003, DNA evidence proved to be Alcala's undoing.
Investigators were able to tie him to a number of unsolved murders using DNA obtained from
him in prison, and in 2010, he was sent to death row for the final time.
He died while awaiting execution in 2021, and authorities ultimately estimated he may
have been responsible for up to 130 murders.
It took an extraordinary amount of luck and happenstance to put serial killer John Cooper
behind bars for murder.
The Welshman served 16 years between 1998 and 2014 for armed robbery and burglary, but
investigators had long sought to link him to two other crimes: the 1985 double murder
of siblings Helen and Richard Thomas, who were shot to death in their home, and the
1989 killing of married couple Peter and Gwenda Dixon, who had been robbed and shot in broad
daylight while on vacation in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
With very little to connect Cooper to the crimes, he might have evaded punishment forever
— if not for an appearance on a TV game show in between the two incidents.
In an interview with Wales Online, Detective Steve Wilkins explained that a police sketch
made at the time of the Dixons' murder had not been matched up to any suspects at the
time.
But when Wilkins got hold of the case in 2005, he happened to hear through word-of-mouth
that Cooper had appeared on the game show "Bullseye," a darts competition, in 1989.
After reviewing footage of the appearance, he found that Cooper indeed closely resembled
the police sketch, which led him to look more closely into Cooper as a potential suspect.
Not long afterward, investigators recovered a pair of Cooper's shorts, which yielded a
microscopic trace of blood — enough to make a DNA match for Peter Dixon.
Cooper was tried and convicted of murder in 2011 and received a life sentence.
During the time he served as a compliance officer in Park City, Kansas, Dennis Rader
had occasion to be interviewed by local television station KSN about a series of incidents involving
out-of-control dogs in the area.
In the 2001 interview, he appeared authoritative and professional, and he was known to be a
strict and by-the-book compliance officer.
It has been speculated that his position satiated his deep need for control — because in the
decade that he had been employed by Park City, Rader had not killed, and before then, he
had killed many.
Rader was the infamous "BTK Killer," which stood for "Bind, Torture, Kill," which should
tell you all you need to know about his methods.
A few years after his TV appearance, he would begin taunting the press and the police with
clues as to his identity, apparently for his own amusement.
It was these clues that diligent detectives used to single out Rader as a possible suspect.
DNA evidence collected from Rader's daughter confirmed their suspicions, and in 2005, he
was arrested and charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder.
He pleaded guilty and was handed 10 consecutive life sentences.
When the Bliefnicks of Quincy, Illinois, appeared on the long-running game show "Family Feud"
in January 2020, they presented themselves as quite the typical American family.
Bow-tied, outwardly goofy Dad Timothy Bliefnick helped the family to victory with a cheeky
— if somewhat messed-up — answer to one question:
"What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding?
Honey, I love you but "said 'I do.'"
This elicited a predictably shocked response from host Steve Harvey.
Timothy quickly offered the caveat that he loved his wife, joking,
"I'm going to get in trouble for that, aren't I?"
And he would indeed get into big trouble after the broadcast, for a crime that made his silly
response seem a heck of a lot like ominous foreshadowing.
Timothy was indicted in March 2023 in the slaying of his wife Rebecca Bliefnick, who
had been shot several times in her home.
The pair were estranged and had recently filed restraining orders against each other.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment but was convicted two months later on charges
of first-degree murder and home invasion.
He is awaiting sentencing, set for August 11, and could face up to 45 years in prison,
with the prosecution also likely arguing for a life sentence.