3,576 articles
Waco siege
Waco siege: 51-day 1993 standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidians led by David Koresh at Mount Carmel near Waco, Texas; began with a fatal ATF raid February 28, 1993 and ended in the April 19 compound fire that killed more than 70 people.
Wade Wilson (criminal)
Wade Steven Wilson, the "Deadpool Killer", is a Florida death row inmate sentenced in 2024 for the 2019 murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz in Cape Coral; his mandatory appeal remains pending.
Wah Ching (华青)
Wah Ching (華青), a Chinese American gang founded in 1960s San Francisco Chinatown by foreign-born immigrant youths, evolved from street gang into organized crime, known for the 1977 Golden Dragon massacre and Los Angeles/San Gabriel Valley operations.
Walburga Oesterreich
Walburga "Dolly" Oesterreich (1880-1961), American housewife of the 1922 "lover in the attic" murder case: kept Otto Sanhuber hidden in her attics; both escaped conviction for husband Fred's killing.
Walter McMillian
Walter McMillian ("Johnny D") was a Monroeville, Alabama logger wrongfully convicted of Ronda Morrison's 1986 murder, sentenced to death by judicial override, and exonerated in 1993 after six years on death row.
Walter Stadnick
Walter Stadnick (Wolodumyr Stadnick), nicknamed "Nurget", is a Canadian outlaw biker, former national president of the Hells Angels in Canada and founding member of the Nomads chapter, convicted in 2004 of gangsterism, murder conspiracy and drug conspiracy after Operation Springtime.
Wanda Holloway
Wanda Webb Holloway, the "Texas Cheerleader Mom" or "Pom-Pom Mom," tried in 1991 to hire a hit man via Terry Harper to kill Verna Heath; convicted, overturned on juror ineligibility, 1996 no-contest plea.
War crime
A war crime is a serious violation of international humanitarian law that incurs individual criminal responsibility under international law and invariably occurs in connection with an armed conflict.
War of aggression
War of aggression: use of armed force violating the UN Charter; an international crime (Nuremberg 'crime against peace', Rome Statute article 8 bis, Kampala Amendments 2010, ICC jurisdiction activated 2018) prosecutable only against leaders of states, with limited ICC reach.
Ward Weaver III
Ward Weaver III, Oregon City murderer convicted of killing schoolgirls Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis in 2002; son of death-row killer Ward Weaver Jr.; serving life without parole.
Warrant (law)
Warrant (law): judicial authorization by a judge or magistrate for arrest, search, or seizure. Fourth Amendment requires probable cause, oath, and particularity; shaped by colonial general warrants and writs of assistance, now extended to geofence warrants.
Wartime sexual violence
Wartime sexual violence, or conflict-related sexual violence, is rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, and similar acts committed by force or coercion during armed conflict; prohibited under IHL, prosecutable as war crimes, and documented in Ukraine, DRC, and other conflicts.
Washington and Colorado serial rape cases
The Washington and Colorado serial rape cases, also known as the Marc O'Leary case, were rapes committed by Marc O'Leary in 2008 and from 2009 to 2011.
Water cure (torture)
Water cure (torture): an interrogation torture forcing victims to drink large water quantities or suffocate under poured water; used by U.S. troops in the Philippine-American War 1899-1902 and ruled torture in U.S. courts; distinct from waterboarding and unrelated to hydropathy.
Watts family murders
Watts family murders: 2018 Frederick, Colorado killings by Chris Watts of pregnant wife Shanann and daughters Bella and Celeste; guilty pleas, life without parole, Netflix's American Murder.
Wayne Jenkins
Wayne Earl Jenkins Jr. is a former Baltimore Police sergeant who led the Gun Trace Task Force and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2018 for racketeering.
Wayne Nance
Wayne Nathan Nance, the "Missoula Mauler," was a suspected serial killer in Missoula, Montana, active 1974–1986, linked to at least six killings including Donna Pounds and the Shooks, never tried, and killed in 1986 by intended victim Doug Wells.
Wayne Williams
Wayne Bertram Williams (born 1958, Atlanta) is the convicted murderer serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1982 killings of Jimmy Ray Payne and Nathaniel Cater, linked by law enforcement to most of the 29 Atlanta Child Murders of 1979 to 1981 through hair and fiber evidence.
Wearside Jack
Wearside Jack was John Samuel Humble, the Sunderland hoaxer who sent letters and an 'I'm Jack' tape posing as the Yorkshire Ripper in 1978-1979, diverting the Sutcliffe inquiry, identified by DNA in 2005 and jailed eight years in 2006.
Weev
Weev, Andrew Auernheimer (born 1985), American hacker and troll behind the 2010 AT&T iPad email breach; CFAA conviction vacated in 2014; later Daily Stormer webmaster.
Wende Correctional Facility
Wende Correctional Facility is a maximum-security New York State DOCCS prison for men in Alden, Erie County, opened 1983 on the former Erie County Penitentiary site; it hosts a Regional Medical Unit and Mental Health Service Level 1 care.
West Memphis Three
The West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., were convicted in 1994 of the 1993 West Memphis, Arkansas murders of three eight-year-old boys, released in 2011 via Alford plea after DNA testing excluded them, and continue seeking exoneration.
West Mesa murders
The West Mesa murders are the unsolved killings of 11 women whose skeletal remains were found in makeshift graves on Albuquerque's West Mesa in February 2009.
Westies
The Westies were an Irish-American organized crime gang, also called Coonan's Crew, based in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, active from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s under James Coonan, allied with the Gambino family and dismantled by 1988 federal RICO convictions.
Westley Allan Dodd
Westley Allan Dodd, child molester and serial killer who murdered Cole and Billy Neer and Lee Iseli in 1989, waived his appeal, and was hanged January 5, 1993, the first U.S. hanging since 1965.
Westley Devon Harris
Westley Devon Harris is an American prisoner on Alabama's death row, convicted in 2005 of killing six members of his girlfriend's family in Crenshaw County, Alabama.
Westroads Mall shooting
Westroads Mall shooting: December 5, 2007 mass shooting at the Von Maur store in Omaha, Nebraska; 19-year-old Robert Hawkins killed eight, wounded five with a stolen AK-47, then died by suicide.
Whipping Tom
Whipping Tom, the nickname of an unidentified predator who attacked lone women in London alleys in 1681, recorded in the pamphlet Whipping Tom Brought to Light; a copycat, Thomas Wallis, struck in 1712.
White Heat
White Heat (1949) is Raoul Walsh's Warner Bros. gangster film starring James Cagney as psychopathic, mother-fixated criminal Cody Jarrett, with Edmond O'Brien as an undercover agent. Famous for the gas-tank climax line "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" and AFI's #4 gangster film.
White House Farm murders
White House Farm murders: killings of Nevill and June Bamber, Sheila Caffell, and her twin sons in Essex on 7 August 1985; Jeremy Bamber's 1986 conviction remains contested over silencer evidence.