10 Notorious Murders That You Were Almost Totally Wrong About All This Time

History is full of horrible crimes, though they might not be quite what you think. Several notorious murders have been misconstrued by the public, either to sensationalize the story or because the details of the events are murky. Even if you're a true crime buff who can rattle off obscure facts about prolific serial killers and terrifying murderers, you probably got these cases wrong.

This list focuses on the serial killers whose stories aren't what you've been told. For instance, Lizzie Borden might not have been all bad - she likely had a sensitive side at odds with her supposed axing of her family. As for Charles Manson, some people believe he never told his followers to commit murder at all.

You might think that you know the details of these notorious murders, but emerging details and misconceptions mean there's still more to learn about these famous crimes. Read on for more information on the killers you got all wrong.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are two of the most notorious criminals in American history. The pair met in Texas in 1930 and began a romantic relationship/crime spree that ended only four years later when they were killed in a police ambush. They mostly stole cars and robbed stores and a few banks, but they killed at least thirteen people, according to the FBI.

Bonnie and Clyde went down in history as cold-blooded outlaws, but in reality, they were much softer than that. Bonnie never actually killed anyone - she just loaded the bullets into the guns that Clyde would use later. When Clyde did kill people, it was only because he and the Barrow gang were cornered and he didn't want to go back to prison. Whenever it was possible, Clyde would take a hostage, make a getaway, and then release the person once they were safely away from the police. Sometimes he would even give the hostage money to get back home.

The most famous photos of Bonnie and Clyde, smoking cigars and posing with guns, were taken by the couple as jokes. Newspapers reprinted the photos, which contributed to their images as dangerous killers.

You know the story: Charles Manson convinced his followers, known as The Family, to go on a two-day killing spree from August 9-10, 1969. He told them it was their duty to start a race war that he called "Helter Skelter," and that when it was over, he and his Family would emerge to take over the world. The Family murdered seven people over the course of those two days, which the police dubbed the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Manson collected followers by targeting troubled young women and "feeding them a cocktail of LSD, alcohol, and spiritual aphorisms." When it came time to begin Helter Skelter, the girls were ready to do anything Charlie said. Even though Manson was convicted of first-degree murder along with Family members Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Tex Watson, he was never present during the actual murders. Charlie didn't need to get his hands dirty because he had devoted followers who would do anything for him.

It's pretty likely, though, that Charlie never even told his Family to kill anyone. Taking cues from Dale Carnegie's book How To Win Friends And Influence People, which he picked up during a prison stint in 1957, Charlie became an expert in manipulation. He could talk about ideas in such a way that the other person would think they had thought of it first. According to the podcast You Must Remember This, Charlie would "say just enough to get people to solve problems for him, without actually telling them to do anything." Manson became one of the most notorious murderers in history, all through the power of mind control.

On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death by Winston Moseley outside of her apartment in Queens. The crime was horrific, but it became notorious because of the headline in The New York Times on March 27: "37 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call The Police." This led psychologists to popularize the concept of "The Bystander Effect."

The newspaper reported that Kitty's neighbors, not wanting to get involved, did nothing to help her while she was being attacked. Kitty's family believed that she died alone, but her brother Bill decided to investigate further.

He released a documentary in 2016 about Kitty's murder called The Witness. In it, he learns new information that completely changes the circumstances of that night. After being stabbed, Kitty retreated to the back of her apartment building and out of sight, leading many neighbors to think she had just been having a quarrel with her boyfriend. Several neighbors actually did call the police and were told that the crime had already been reported. The most striking difference is that one of Kitty's female friends who lived in the building went downstairs to hold her while they waited for police to arrive, even though the killer may have still been lurking.

Lizzie Borden was acquitted for the murder of her father and stepmother, but it's widely believed that she was 100% guilty. On August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts, Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were brutally murdered with a hatchet. Lizzie discovered her father's body and woke the maid, Bridget Sullivan, who had been sleeping upstairs. The body of Abby Borden was found in an upstairs bedroom.

Lizzie immediately became the only suspect. During her trial, Lizzie was portrayed as an emotionless monster who had a terrible relationship with her parents. Andrew Borden supposedly favored his wife over his daughters and refused to let them spend money on anything. He even refused to install indoor plumbing in his home. Investigators believed that Lizzie murdered them so that she and her sister Emma could inherit their father's money and finally have independence.

The jury didn't think there was enough evidence to convict, but Lizzie lived out the rest of her life in notoriety anyway. She never left Fall River and died there in 1927. In 2012, the notes collected by the Borden family lawyer, Andrew Jackson Jennings, were donated to the Fall River Historical Society. The notes contradicted the theory that Andrew Borden was uncaring and cold. Jennings wrote that during conversations with Andrew, he talked about how much he loved receiving letters from his daughters. Lizzie herself also wrote letters while she was imprisoned during the trial that show "a sensitive, grieving side of her."

If Lizzie had such a loving relationship with her father, it's hard to imagine her killing him in one of the most gruesome murders in history.

Natalie Wood, best known for her roles in West Side Story and Rebel Without A Cause, drowned off the coast of Catalina Island in 1981. She was spending the weekend on a yacht with her husband, Robert Wagner, and her co-star Christopher Walken. At 1:30 A.M. on November 29, the captain sent out a distress call. It seemed that Natalie had left the yacht in a small dinghy and was now missing. Her body was found in the water six hours later.

Natalie had a life-long fear of drowning. Because of this, her friends and family insisted that she would not have left on her own in the middle of the night, but foul play could never be proven. The public suspected Robert Wagner, but he was never charged with anything.

On November 17, 2011, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department announced that they were reopening the case after getting new information. Marilyn Wayne had been on a boat less than 50 yards away from Wagner's yacht on the night of Natalie's death. She reported hearing a woman calling out for help. She said she called the harbor patrol and got no answer, so she called the sheriff's office and was told a helicopter was on its way. Help never arrived.

The yacht's captain, Dennis Davern, also reported that Wood and Wagner had gotten into a drunken argument about her friendship with Walken in the hours leading up to her death, but still, no charges have been brought against Robert Wagner.

Thelma Todd's death may only be familiar to the die-hard true crime fans. Her death was ruled "accidental with possible suicidal tendencies," but it's possible that authorities got it all wrong.

Thelma was an actress known for Marx brothers comedies and Laurel and Hardy films. By 1934, she had become a business owner with her boyfriend Roland West and his wife, Jewel Carmen. The trio opened a restaurant called Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe, and to make things even more awkward, all three lived above it.

On the morning of December 16, 1935, Thelma's maid discovered her body in the garage, slumped over the wheel of her running car. It appeared that she had been locked out of her apartment the night before, and after starting her car to warm up, she fell asleep and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

But the facts didn't add up. Thelma was dressed in a party outfit that she had worn to the Trocadero on Saturday night, but multiple people claimed they saw her on Sunday. Why was she found in the same outfit from Saturday night if she had survived through the day on Sunday? Other witnesses at the crime scene reported that she seemed to have a broken nose, bruises, a chipped tooth, and broken ribs, but surviving crime scene photos just show her slumped over with no visible signs of injury.

There was no shortage of people who may have wanted to harm Thelma: her love triangle/business partners Roland West and Jewel Carmen; Todd's own ex-husband, Pat DiCicco, whom she fought with on Saturday night; or her other rumored boyfriend, the mobster Lucky Luciano. Still, there wasn't enough evidence to bring murder charges against anyone.

From June 1962 through January 1964, the Boston area was terrorized by a killer known as the Boston Strangler. At least thirteen women were strangled in their homes during that time. The victims varied in age and race with no apparent connection between them. It seemed as though police were dealing with multiple copycat killers rather than one man working alone.

Everything changed when Albert DeSalvo was arrested for breaking into a woman's home and sexually assaulting her. He began confessing to numerous crimes; first, to various robberies, then to a series of rapes, and finally to being the Boston Strangler. He seemed to know a striking amount of detail about the crime scenes, but there was a chance he'd merely gotten the details from the real killer.

Due to flawed interrogation tactics, it was impossible to know if DeSalvo was telling the truth. He may have confessed to crimes he didn't commit in order to get a book deal, hoping that the proceeds would take care of his wife and children. There was no evidence linking him to the Boston Strangler murders, but he was eventually convicted for earlier crimes and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2013, DNA evidence finally linked Albert DeSalvo to the Boston Strangler's last victim, Mary Sullivan. It's still unclear if he murdered all thirteen women or if he was only after the fame and fortune that would come from being the notorious Boston Strangler.

It can be argued that every theory about the murder of JonBenét Ramsey is totally wrong. Her body was found in the basement of her home on Christmas Day 1996 after an apparent botched kidnapping attempt. Investigators uncovered many flaws in this intruder theory but have never been able to figure out what really happened to JonBenét.

DNA evidence cleared the Ramsey family in 2008, though suspicions still linger about their connection to the murder. The ransom note found at the crime scene was later found to have been written on a notepad from their own home. The kidnappers demanded $118,000 in exchange for JonBenét's return, which was exactly the amount that her father received as a bonus that year.

The recent series The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey investigated the theory that JonBenét's older brother, Burke, was involved in her death as well, or at least knew more that he was telling police. Her parents had said they'd put their daughter to bed immediately after returning from a Christmas party, but autopsy results showed that she'd eaten pineapple shortly before her death. Crime scene photos showed a bowl of pineapple at the kitchen table. In footage recorded during police questioning, Burke was asked to identify the contents of the bowl and he paused before saying, "Oh." Did he give something away in that moment or is this just another theory that can never be proven?

The murder of Elizabeth Short, known as The Black Dahlia, is one of the most gruesome unsolved murders in history. Shocking crime scene photos show her dismembered body as it was discovered in Leimert Park in the early hours of January 15, 1947. Her murder became part of pop culture because it seemed uniquely horrific, but according to the Hollywood & Crime podcast, more than a dozen other women died in similar ways in the Los Angeles area during the 1940s.

Ora Murray was found strangled and mutilated in 1943; her case was known as The White Gardenia murder because a gardenia wrapped in tinsel was found crushed beneath her body. Virgie Lee Griffin and Lillian Johnson were murdered and mutilated by Otto Stephen Wilson at two different hotels on November 15, 1944. Wilson was caught that afternoon and suspected of killing other women in the area, but he was executed in 1946 and could not have committed the Black Dahlia murder. Perhaps whoever did kill Elizabeth Short is connected to one of these other forgotten women.

Marilyn Sheppard was brutally murdered on July 4, 1954, in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, had fallen asleep downstairs and woke to the sound of his wife's screams from their bedroom. Sheppard claimed that he ran into the room and was knocked unconscious by a "bushy-haired man." When he woke up and discovered that his wife was dead, he chased after the intruder, only to be knocked out a second time.

Police were suspicious. The family's young son, Chip, had slept through his mother's attack down the hall. The family dog, who usually barked at intruders, was not heard by the neighbors. Marilyn was pregnant at the time of her death, and investigators soon discovered that Sam Sheppard had been having affairs for years, giving him a possible motive for getting rid of his wife. He was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison.

But the story doesn't end there. In 1959, another suspect emerged: Richard Eberling. He was a window washer who worked for the Sheppard family and apparently had a thing for Marilyn Sheppard. Eberling was arrested after one of his clients suspected him of robbery, and one of Marilyn's rings was found in his possession. Sheppard got a re-trial in 1966, but his lawyer, F. Lee Bailey (who also represented the Boston Strangler and O.J. Simpson), chose not to pursue Eberling as a suspect.

In 1998, DNA evidence exonerated Sam Sheppard, suggesting that police may have been wrong about the mysterious bushy-haired man and it could have been Richard Eberling all along.