There’s an astonishing number of unsolved murders from the 1980s and it’s very striking how varied these cases are. Mobsters, members of cults, victims of homophobia, and racist homicides. Some of the stories are truly sinister so let’s investigate.
The People’s Temple and a cult defector
In 1980, Jeannie Mills, her husband Al, and daughter Daphne, were murdered in cold blood. A year before, Jeannie had authored a damning expose of the notorious cult, the People’s Temple. The book, Six Years With God, detailed how cult leader Jim Jones had subjected members to beatings, humiliation, and brainwashing. This followed the 1978 mass suicide and murder of People’s Temple members, including Jones, at a settlement in Guyana dubbed “Jonestown”.
Jeannie had already left back in 1974 after her daughter Linda was beaten seventy times by Jones with a paddle. This was a high profile departure as Jeannie had headed up the cult’s communications department. Now she set up an organisation to rescue and rehabilitate People’s Temple members. Threats of being dismembered or murdered led the Mills family to seek police protection. But by 1980 – with Jones dead – Jeannie decided to live back in the community, openly and without round-the-clock protection.
They were found kneeling, as if executed. It was clear that People’s Temple members had not forgiven Jeannie for turning on their hero, Jones. These murders remain unsolved.
Murder of Dian Fossey – Lone Woman of the Forest
The life story of Dian Fossey (first name spelt correctly for the record) was dramatised in the Signourney Weaver movie, Gorillas in the Mist. In the 1980s, she was heroised as a champion of gorillas, ensuring the protection of the species and promoting conservation. But since then, her methods have come under some scrutiny and may have contributed to her grisly end at her mountaintop lair in Rwanda.
For example, Fossey arranged for the kidnapping and torture of local poachers. In one incident, a poacher was spread-eagled on the floor and his genitals were lashed with nettles. There’s no doubt that these criminals were trading in baby gorillas and shooting their parents. Fossey was clearly deeply angered by the sight of her beloved gorillas slain in the forests. Her methods, to counteract this, were described by Fossey and her supporters as “active conservation”. But Fossey’s disdain for local Africans looks very colonial in retrospect.
At Christmas in 1985, Dian Fossey was discovered knifed to death. To this day her murder remains unsolved.
The Assassination of Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme
I can still remember listening to the radio on 28 February 1986 when the news broke that the Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, had been shot dead on a street in Stockholm. Nowadays, few Europeans – let alone Americans – could name the Prime Minister of Sweden. But Palme was a larger than life character in the 1970s and 1980s.
He made many enemies by condemning both western and Soviet imperialism, criticising the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal and the rule of General Franco in Spain, apartheid in South Africa, the Vietnam War, and – most controversially – he praised the Communist takeover of Cuba by Fidel Castro. It was initially suspected that he may have been assassinated by the Ustasha, a Croatian terrorist organisation that had threatened to kill him. But this theory was dismissed very quickly.
As late as 2020, Swedish police announced that a graphic designer, Stig Engström, was viewed as the main suspect, though he had committed suicide in 2000, so could not stand trial. In early reporting, he was referred to as “The Skandia Man” as he had encountered Palme after leaving work at the Skandia Insurance Company. He was initially viewed as a witness to the crime, before being revealed as the likely assassin.
However, Engström was a persistent self-publicist who wanted to be closely associated with the events that fateful night. He had no motive for the crime and did not own a gun. Subsequent investigations by the Swedish authorities pointed to the apartheid era South African intelligence services. Yet to this day, the identity of his killer remains unknown.
Among the unsolved murders of the 1980s, this tops the list. A head of state, gunned down, and to this day – we don’t know who pulled the trigger.
