While there are records of creatures appearing in court throughout history, animal trials peaked in popularity in Europe between 1400 and 1700.

Between 2000 and 2003, Yang Xinhai brutally murdered 67 people and raped 23 women while traveling through China on a bicycle, earning the nickname "Monster Killer."

Before his arrest in 1999, Javed Iqbal sexually assaulted and strangled 100 boys, then dissolved their remains in a vat of acid.

Before her arrest at the age of 90 in 1928, Baba Anujka sold poisons to unhappy wives living in present-day Serbia, facilitating the murders of between 50 and 150 men.

Though Marilyn Sheppard's husband was initially found guilty of her murder, his conviction was overturned in 1966 and her true killer remains unidentified to this day.

Between 2013 and 2017, Russian con artist Anna Delvey stole an estimated $275,000 by making fake bank statements, cashing bad checks, and borrowing money from acquaintances without paying them back to maintain a lavish lifestyle under a false identity.

The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist took place over several months between 2011 and 2012, when thieves siphoned 3,330 tons of maple syrup from a facility in Quebec.

Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn were accused of perpetrating a "Gone Girl"-esque hoax after Huskins was kidnapped and raped by Matthew Muller in 2015.

Michael Swango was found guilty of murdering four patients in 2000, but investigators suspect that he may have actually had dozens more victims.

In January 1999, Katarzyna Zowada's skin from her torso was found caught in the propeller of a pusher boat on Poland's Vistula River — and it's still unclear who killed her.

In 2018, Ezra McCandless fatally stabbed her ex-boyfriend Alex Woodworth 16 times — likely in an attempt to get back with a different ex.