3 Valentine's murders from history to turn your heart cold
Power, revenge, money, jealousy...these 3 stories will put you in the perfect mood for Valentine's Day!
1. The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
We have to start with the most famous Valentine's murders of them all - the St Valentine's Day Massacre.
On February 14 1929, seven members of Chicago's North Side gang were murdered by rival crooks in the South Side Italian gang, led by Al Capone.
The four attackers cornered their victims in a garage before gunning them all down, making for one of the bloodiest crimes in the history of Valentine's day.
One little-known detail of this bloody event: two of the shooters were disguised as uniformed policemen, and escorted the other men away from the crime scene before the real police showed up, to avoid arousing too much suspicion. We applaud their evil genius...
(WhodunnitDinners night is nothing without a bit of dressing up. It seems Al Capone would agree with us!)
2. The Black Widow Killer
Our next Valentine's murder from history comes from the UK. Like a black widow spider, heartless Dena Thompson tricked men into falling in love with her, before conning them out of money or killing them.
It was the death of her second husband, Julian Webb, which confirmed Thompson's status as a cold and calculating murderer. The Black Widow poisoned Julian on his 31st birthday in June 1994 by cleverly crushing a lethal dose of painkillers into his spicy hot curry - a crime which saw her jailed for life.
Thompson became known as the Black Widow killer because of the way she ensnared and manipulated her three husbands. She played the game of love just to get what she wanted and was even prepared to kill to see it through. With a name like that we think she would be an excellent nemesis for one of our Supergirls in our Murder in the League of Supergirls game: She-Woman or Stiletto or perhaps our very own Black Kitten!
3. And the Oscar goes to...
For our final Valentine's murder we head to South Africa 9 years ago. In one of the most celebrated and brutal Valentine's Day killings, Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius shot his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through the bathroom door on Valentine's Day in 2013.
The disabled sports star, dubbed Bladerunner for his prosthetic legs, claimed he thought she was a burglar who had broken into the couple's Pretoria home.
However, after appealing the initial verdict, he got 3 years behind bars when the South African Supreme Court of Appeals re-ruled on his case.
We know all know that one of the most common motives for murder is a jealous rage. Is that what made him pull the trigger?
We hope your Valentine's night goes with a bang! Why not download our My Deadly Valentine game and play today?