Random 'Unsolved Mysteries' Helped Close The Books On These Chilling Cases (12 items)

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  (#1) The Stockton Arsonist

  The story of the Stockton Arsonist begins innocently enough: In 1989, a man named Joseph Villa and his son were walking down a highway in Stockton, CA, after their car broke down. On their way to a payphone, the son discovered a discarded camouflage jacket with a videotape tucked inside. Curious about the tape's contents, Villa's son took it to watch later.

  At home, Villa and his son watched an unsettling home video of a house on fire. A narrator spoke about Satanism from behind the camera, but he made little sense. Police were baffled by the tape and couldn't determine where the fire occurred, although TV commercials that appeared later on the tape indicated it was filmed in 1988, one year before Villa and his son discovered the mysterious video.

  In 1990, Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode about the fire and immediately received calls from viewers. The house was actually located in Redwood City, CA, about 80 miles west of Stockton. Police were even able to meet with the fire chief who responded to the incident - he had also happened to videotape the fire himself. The investigation led to the arrest of two teenage boys. Both were tried as minors, with one going to juvenile detention and the other to a mental hospital.
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  (#10) The Location Of Cult Leader Tony Alamo

  People already knew who Tony Alamo was when he was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in May of 1991. Alamo and his wife, Susan, founded a church in 1969 that soon became a religious cult in rural Arkansas. Alamo took his followers' wages and advocated for cruel punishment of children. When Susan passed in 1982, he became even more erratic, interring Susan in a heart-shaped tomb and demanding followers hold 24-hour vigils in anticipation of her resurrection.

  By the late 1980s, Alamo's compound had transformed into a sweatshop, with followers making expensive denim jackets that Alamo sold for hundreds and even thousands of dollars. His followers were never paid. Alamo eventually fled in 1989 after the Department of Labor investigated conditions at the compound.

  Viewers called in with tips on Alamo as soon as Unsolved Mysteries aired the episode covering his actions. Thanks to viewers, police captured Alamo several weeks later, and he was sentenced to six years in prison for tax evasion. Nearly a decade later, Alamo was charged with multiple counts of child molestation in relation to his cult and received a life sentence. He perished in prison in 2017.
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  (#6) The Disappearances Connected To Robert Weeks

  Robert Weeks was a suspect in the disappearances of his wife, business partner, and two girlfriends, all of whom vanished between 1968 and 1986. Not until the 1986 disappearance of Weeks's girlfriend Carol Ann Riley did the police noticed a disturbing pattern.

  Carol Ann Riley was supposed to go on a date with Weeks the night she vanished, and she was planning to break up with him during their outing. Five years prior, Weeks's girlfriend Cynthia Jabour also went missing the night she planned to break up with Weeks. Both women's cars were found in hotel parking lots days after they disappeared.

  A similar story unfolded with Weeks's wife, Patricia, who vanished without a trace three weeks after filing for divorce in 1968. Her abandoned car was also found in a parking lot. Even Weeks's business partner, Jim Shaw, disappeared in 1971 after he accused Weeks of embezzlement. Robert Weeks fled town in 1986 after being questioned by police regarding the disappearance of Carol Ann Riley.

  Robert Weeks was taken into custody the day after Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode about him in May 1987. Weeks's new girlfriend watched the episode and realized she had no choice but to contact the authorities. Weeks was eventually sentenced to life in prison for the slayings of Patricia Weeks and Cynthia Jabour, though he was never convicted for the disappearances of Riley and Shaw. Weeks perished in prison in 1996 without ever disclosing where he disposed of the remains.
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  (#9) The Disappearance Of Alberta Elaine

  A doctor reassured Joseph Schambier that all was well after his wife, Garnet, gave birth to their daughter, Alberta Elaine, at their home in Pittsburgh, PA, on June 16, 1939. However, Garnet passed just hours later due to undiagnosed complications from the delivery.

  Her end was both tragic and strange. She had told her husband that he should leave Alberta Elaine with family friend Alice Miller should anything happen to her. When Schambier enlisted in the army two years later, he left Alberta Elaine with Alice Miller before being deployed. When he returned to the US in 1943, Miller had vanished, and Alberta Elaine had been given up for adoption. Because the adoption was sealed, Schambier was unable to track down his daughter.

  In 1989, Unsolved Mysteries featured the story of Alberta Elaine, and one viewer quickly began researching the case. The viewer discovered that Alberta Elaine had perished in a blast when she was 18 - her husband had rigged their car with dynamite, ending them both. While Schambier grieved the loss of his daughter, he said he was grateful to finally have closure after nearly 50 years.
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  (#3) Georgia Tann's Missing Children

  Georgia Tann was responsible for more than 5,000 child abductions that occurred between 1924 and 1950. Tann's Tennessee Children's Home Society was actually a front for a black-market adoption ring, wherein she sold children - ranging in age from infants to teenagers - to the wealthy.

  Tann kept up a facade of being a strong advocate for child welfare, even advising Eleanor Roosevelt. At the same time, she sold children to Golden Age celebrities like Joan Crawford. When Tann was finally exposed, less than 10% of the children she took were reunited with their birth parents. Tann perished shortly after her operation was exposed, and she never paid for her actions.

  Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode about the children of Georgia Tann in 1989, resulting in some people being reunited with their birth families after appearing on or watching the broadcast. The episode allowed Tann's children, now adults, to locate their biological parents after being taken decades earlier.
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  (#7) The Mysterious Case Of Gabby's Bones

  Newel Sessions called the police in 1992 claiming he had found a trunk containing a human skeleton. The trunk belonged to a friend of Sessions's only known as “Gabby,” who had been storing the trunk at Sessions's home since 1986. Gabby was equally as surprised as Sessions about the trunk's contents and cooperated with police in their investigation.

  Gabby claimed he had bought the trunk in the early 1970s but had been unable to open it. At the time, the authorities could only determine the skeleton belonged to a middle-aged man, who could have perished as early as 1908. They also discovered a bullet lodged in the skull behind the left eye, indicating foul play.

  When Unsolved Mysteries aired their episode on Gabby's bones in 1993, no one came forward with new information. Not until 2017, when a woman named Shelley contacted authorities after seeing a rerun of the episode, was the case finally solved. Shelley claimed the remains belonged to her grandfather, Joseph J. Mulvaney, who had possibly been slain by Gabby in 1960. Gabby, whose real name was John David Morris, was in fact the son of Mulvaney's wife, and Shelley indicated that her grandmother may have also been involved in Mulvaney's demise. Morris was not tried, as he had taken his own life years earlier. Mulvaney was given a proper military burial on March 29, 2019.

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