True crime stories often leave us in awe, not only because of the crimes themselves but also due to the eerie coincidences and baffling connections that sometimes emerge. These coincidences, from chance encounters to inexplicable links between perpetrators and victims, make the world of true crime even more fascinating.
1. The Lincoln-Kennedy Connection
One of the most famous historical coincidences involves the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Both presidents were elected 100 years apart, had vice presidents named Johnson, and were succeeded by them. Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theatre; Kennedy was shot while riding in a Lincoln manufactured by Ford. The eerie connections continue with their assassins: Booth and Oswald both have 15 letters in their names and were killed before their trials.
2. The Twin Deaths Of Finland
Two identical twin brothers were involved in eerily similar bicycle accidents—just hours apart. The first twin, a 70-year-old man, was tragically struck and killed by a truck while riding his bicycle on a road near Raahe. In a shocking twist, only two hours later, his twin brother met the same fate on the same road, just a short distance away. Authorities were baffled by the sheer improbability of the events, with local police noting that the second accident happened before news of the first could have even reached him.
3. The Case Of Identical Strangers
In 2000, Houston, Texas, became the eerie setting for one of the most baffling true crime coincidences ever recorded— the deaths of two women with the same name, Mary Morris, just days apart. On October 12, 48-year-old Mary Lou Morris, a beloved wife and mother, was found murdered in her burned-out car, with no apparent motive or suspects. Then, only three days later, 39-year-old Mary McGinnis Morris, a nurse, was also found dead in her vehicle under suspicious circumstances, having reportedly expressed fear for her safety in the days leading up to her death. This led to rampant speculation that a hitman had targeted the wrong Mary first. Despite numerous theories, including a potential case of mistaken identity, both murders remain unsolved.
4. Edgar Allan Poe’s Premonition
Edgar Allan Poe may have unwittingly predicted a real-life tragedy nearly half a century before it happened. In his 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe wrote about a harrowing shipwreck in which four survivors, stranded at sea, were forced to draw lots and ultimately resort to cannibalism to stay alive. The unfortunate victim in Poe’s tale was a cabin boy named Richard Parker. In a chilling twist of fate, in 1884—46 years after Poe’s novel was published—a real-life shipwreck of the yacht Mignonette saw a nearly identical scenario unfold. Among the desperate survivors, a cabin boy named Richard Parker met the same grim fate, sacrificed and eaten to keep the others alive.
5. Peter Alphon and James Hanratty
In 1961, Hanratty was convicted and later executed for the notorious A6 murder, in which Michael Gregsten was shot and his companion, Valerie Storie, was brutally assaulted. However, many believed that Hanratty was innocent and that the actual perpetrator was Peter Alphon, a drifter with a questionable alibi and suspicious behavior following the crime. Alphon even went so far as to confess to the murder multiple times, only to retract his statements later. What makes the case even more bizarre is the strange connection between the two men—both shared a striking physical resemblance. Alphon was initially the prime suspect before attention shifted to Hanratty. DNA evidence in 2002 ultimately confirmed Hanratty’s guilt, but doubts and theories continue to swirl.
6.Nyleen Marshall and Monica Bonilla
In 1983, four-year-old Nyleen Marshall disappeared without a trace while on a family outing in Montana. Despite extensive searches, no solid leads ever surfaced. In a bizarre twist, a school official in Vancouver noticed similarities in a pupil, believing it could be Nyleen. Upon investigation, authorities discovered the girl to be Monica Bonilla, who disappeared in Maryland in 1976 at the age of eight. Both girls had similar facial features, and while Monica was eventually found safe, Nyleen’s fate remains a mystery.
7. The Moped Brothers
One of the most astonishing true crime coincidences took place in Hamilton, Bermuda, involving the tragic deaths of two brothers, Erskine and Neville Ebbin. In July 1974, 17-year-old Neville was riding his moped when he was struck and killed by a taxi. In an eerie twist, precisely one year later, in July 1975, his younger brother Erskine—also 17 at the time—was killed in an almost identical accident. Shockingly, both brothers were riding the same moped on the same street and were hit by what was reported to be the same taxi, driven by the same driver and carrying the same passenger.
8. The Titanic and the Fictional Prediction
In 1898, author Morgan Robertson wrote a novella titled Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, which told the story of an “unsinkable” luxury ocean liner named Titan that tragically collides with an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The eerie similarities don’t end there—the fictional Titan and the real-life Titanic were described as the largest ships of their time, carrying insufficient lifeboats and meeting their demise on cold April nights. Even more unsettling, both ships traveled at similar speeds when they struck the ice. When the Titanic sank in 1912, the parallels between reality and Robertson’s fictional work were so profound that many believed the author had somehow foreseen the disaster.
9. The Hoover Dam Mystery
George Tierney and his son Patrick Tierney found themselves tragically connected by the Hoover Dam in 1976. George, a 39-year-old father, was working at the dam when he drowned in the Colorado River while doing a water survey. Exactly 13 years later, in 1989, his son Patrick—now an adult—was also working at the dam and tragically fell to his death from an intake tower. Both deaths were ruled as accidents, but the eerie symmetry of their fates raised questions and left many wondering if it was simply a coincidence or a strange twist of fate that tied father and son together in such an eerie way.
Sources:
Finnish Twins Joined In Death
3 moments that might convince you Edgar Allan Poe was a time traveler
10 Coincidences and Connections in the World of True Crime
