Infamous Examples Of People Who Got Away With Murder

Jordan Claes
A silhouette of a person with their hands up and another pointing a gun at them.
Unsplash | Maxim Hopman

The legal system is far from perfect. Every single day, millions of new victims throw themselves at the mercy of the court, only to have their cries for justice thwarted and thrown back in their faces.

In very rare examples, there are even those who have managed to get away with society's most heinous crime — the taking of human lives. Have a look below and check out these infamous examples of real people who got away with murder.

David Miscavige

David Miscavige is the Leader of the Church of Scientology, as well as the prime suspect in his wife's mysterious disappearance. Shelly Miscavige hasn't been seen in public since 2005 and many, including reformed Scientologist/actress Leah Remini, believe that she's dead.

After Remini found the courage to leave the church, she explored Shelly's whereabouts in an episode of her A&E series Scientology and the Aftermath. Multiple police reports were filed, including one put forward by Remini herself, but to this day nobody can explain the High Priestess of Scientology's sudden and inexplicable absence from the public eye.

Issei Sagawa

A police car with its lights on pictured behind a string of yellow caution tape.
Unsplash | Campbell Jensen

Known as "Kobe Cannibal," Sagawa was a student at France's prestigious Paris-Sorbonne University. After inviting his fellow classmate, Renée Hartevelt, over to his apartment to study, Sagawa fatally shot Hartevelt in the neck and proceeded to cannibalize her corpse — reports showed that he also committed necrophilia.

While attempting to dispose of Hartevelt's remains, Sagawa was caught and arrested by French police. He was held in a French mental hospital for four years before being extradited back to his native Japan. French authorities had no interest in helping Japanese police prosecute Sagawa, so due to a technicality, he was set free having never served a day's prison sentence for his crimes.

Caitlyn Jenner

Caitlyn Jenner drinking a can of beer.
instagram | @caitlynjenner

While it's true that Caitlyn didn't technically murder anyone, she was involved in a fatal car crash that left one person dead. Many were left scratching their heads as to why Caitlyn wasn't charged with vehicular manslaughter, or even a misdemeanor traffic violation for that matter. According to police, an investigation was undertaken and they found no evidence to support the notion that Jenner's driving was criminally negligent.

"A traffic accident, however devastating and heartbreaking when a life is lost, is not necessarily a criminal matter," Jenner's lawyer argued.

OJ Simpson

OJ Simpson wearing a denim blue shirt, looking left and right.
Giphy

The trial of OJ Simpson was hands down the most publicized court hearing of the decade and, arguably, of all time. All the evidence seemingly pointed to OJ's guilt, but thanks to some incredibly clever legal maneuvering on the part of attorneys Johnnie Cochrane and Robert Kardashian, OJ was acquitted on what many believed to have been a technicality. To add insult to injury, OJ wrote a book years later about the murder of his then-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, titled If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.

h/t: Reddit